Neuroscientists say having a baby shrinks mothers’ brains

Women who are pregnant often report feeling a little fuzzy, a little dim and more forgetful than usual, but medical research has produced mixed data to support the so-called “baby brain” phenomenon. Now a study that used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) confirms that mothers lose brain volume when they’re pregnant, adding to the debate.

The authors of the new study, which was published in Nature Neuroscience, suspect the reductions they’ve detected may be a side-effect of “synaptic pruning,” which also happens to humans at age three and again during adolescence.

‘Sarkar 3’ film review: Amitabh Bachchan is the grace note in this tired soap opera

Ram Gopal Varma has little new to offer in the third part of the ‘Sarkar’ films, but the veteran actor is in fine form.

There is a new Ram Gopal Varma movie in the theatres. A little while ago, that statement used to be welcomed enthusiastically. But given the filmmaker’s free-fall collapse in form, it is now treated with a mixture of trepidation and weariness.

At the outset, this third chapter of Sarkar (2005), one of Varma’s last entirely watchable films, isn’t as egregious as his recent attempts. Some attention has been paid to the storytelling, and some of the camerawork is actually not risible. The bizarrely framed camera angles are kept to a minimum, although there is a repeated point-of-view shot from a character’s ring, leading to futile speculation about a spying device hidden in the precious stone.

Bras with metal hooks, dark pants banned? CBSE dress code for medical test aspirants is ambiguous

It bans metallic objects. But does that justify making an exam-taker take off her bra because it has a metal hook?

“Is it possible for me to hide an electronic device on the tiny metal hook of my underwear. Should women invigilators be aware of this?” This was the question raised by a girl who was forced to take off her bra before appearing for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test – a highly competitive examination for admission to medical and dental colleges for the undergraduate MBBS and BDS courses – in Kerala’s Kannur district, recently.

Farmers in Telangana’s tur belt don’t know whether they should grow the pulse this year

Constant swing in prices of the dal and tardy implementation of the government’s procurement mechanism have made life tough for farmers. 

Husnabad and Kadangal are just 110 km from the cyber city of Hyderabad. In the last week of March, it was a beginning of a long dry spell, with temperatures hovering around the 40-degree Celsius mark. The Kharif season of 2016 had ended. The villages wore a lazy look. Given the perennial water scarcity in the region, most of the fields were dry. Nothing could be cultivated after the autumn harvest except for a few patches where summer paddy was visible, thanks to some irrigation from private bore wells.

Telangana, Andhra Pradesh Reel Under Heatwave, But Petty Politics Takes Centrestage

As the mercury soared to a new 10-year record of 43 degrees Celsius in Hyderabad recently – a heatwave for the third consecutive year — the demand for spicy buttermilk or masala majiga too soared. This product of Heritage, a unit owned by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, notched an all-time high business of nearly 12 lakh sachets being sold by 17 April. It also kicked off a political satire on social media that summer did not take note of bifurcation of state and that it did not differentiate between people of Telangana and Andhra.

Babasaheb Ambedkar's Private Habits Come Alive In This Intimate Portrait

"You have not cared to inquire into my past," BR Ambedkar wrote to his fiancée Sharda Kabir in 1948. "But it will be available to you at any time in the pages of many Marathi magazines." 

Thus, in a terse statement, the towering leader of the untouchables dismissed his private preoccupations, almost like an afterthought, and put a premium on the recorded instances of his biography in the public domain. What we read of him, in the papers and in other sources, Ambedkar seems to be saying, is who he is.

Beauty companies are obsessed with turning Indian men white

For generations, companies have been selling fair skin to young Indian women, promising better marriage and employment prospects. However, over the last few years, men have became a favoured target audience. This followed the realisation that the Indian alpha male, denied a choice in male-specific grooming products, had been using women’s fairness creams all along.

Until the mid-2000s, deodorants and shaving creams were the only grooming products advertised for men. But India’s largest consumer goods companies sensed an opportunity, and launched a slew of fairness products for male consumers.

An Indian politician gifts brides laundry bats to tackle abusive husbands

This minister’s message to Indian women is simple: “If your alcoholic husband is physically abusive, thrash him.”

When one suffering woman asked Madhya Pradesh minister Gopal Bhargava if it was all right to beat up her abusive spouse with a mogri, the wooden bat traditionally used to wash clothes, he took the idea seriously. After all, Bhargava had been receiving numerous such complaints.

The big question: Is yoga for power or fitness, wisdom or devotion?

Today, any understanding of yoga is often obscured by a grand media war to dominate the discourse on yoga.

They say Jesus could walk on water, and turn water into wine. Many have postulated that he was a yogi, with siddha powers. That he must have learned it in a Hindu or Buddhist monastery in India during his missing years. This yoga-of-power is very different from the popular, and sanitised, yoga-for-fitness of the global village, or the yoga-for-devotion of the religious and the spiritual.

WHAT A HUSBAND TOLD HIS WIFE THE NIGHT OF THEIR MARRIAGE?

My wife, everyone has gone home. The music is quiet, the celebration is over. Our wedding was beautiful but it is now in the past. We have finished the wedding/marriage, it is now time to build our marriage.

All that is left now is the two of us… What we will become tomorrow, starts from tonight. Our life is no longer the same.

RECYCLING AGENTS: Waste pickers live, work with pride

A glimpse into the lives of women waste-pickers in Pune.

Suman More, 50, is no stranger to picking herself up and getting on. So, when she fell during a recent Marathon in her city and bruised her hand and ankle she waved away most help, except for cleaning the wound, and continued on,

‘Phillauri’ film review: A mournful ghost gives love lessons to a hysterical groom

Anshai Lal’s debut is an enjoyable but overstretched yarn about the inadvertent wedding between a young man and a ghost from many years ago.

Kanan has the pre-wedding jitters, and all the marijuana in the world cannot cure him of his belief that he is getting married too early.

When Kanan (Suraj Sharma) lands from Canada in Amritsar for his big fat Punjabi wedding (there is no other kind, it seems), he is informed that he is “manglik”: if he weds, great misfortune will befall him. Since superstition always comes with an exit clause, Kanan’s otherwise posh family (his grandmother’s diet consists of many glasses of whisky) makes him marry a tree before his actual wedding. On this tree lives the ghost of Shashi (Anushka Sharma), the latest in a long line of unhappy female spirits who have been unable to transit to the other world because they have unfinished business in this one.

Kanan is understandably spooked by Shashi, beautifully conceptualised by the visual effects team as a shimmering vision in white and gold who leaves a trail of glitter. Rather than warding off trouble, Kanan’s cheat wedding only compounds his misfortune. Does he actually want to marry Anu (Mehreen Pirzada), and has Shashi’s appearance reminded him of the folly of it all?

Anushka Sharma is her customary efficient self, and works better in the comic moments, but the movie’s best scenes belong to Suraj Sharma’s Kanan, whose hysterical voice and stricken visage mark him out as the perfect victim of a haunting.

Anshai Lal’s directorial debut plonks the idea of an inadvertent wedding between a human and a ghost (borrowed from the 2005 animated movie Corpse Bride) between the present and Shashi’s past in the early 1900s in Punjab. Shashi is too obedient to flout her stern brother’s diktats that well-behaved women do not waste their time on poetry and music. She nevertheless falls for folk singer Roop Lal (Diljit Dosanjh), but accepts him only after he starts behaving more like a gentleman than the proto rock star that he is. A similar kind of behaviour change is being attempted in the present, as Anu tries to remind Kanan of his vows.

In another more subtle parallel, Shashi learns that the world still has use for “frying pans” – as the first music records are referred to – when she sees a DJ spins tunes at Kanan’s nuptials.

The present is an altogether more fun place than the past. Shashi and Roop Lal are barely convincing as star-crossed lovers despite being luminously shot by Vishal Sinha in golden yellows and earthy browns. For all their squabbling, Kanan and Anu actually seem like a couple in love (but with caveats).

The idea of a ghost who has been floating around for decades results in a time warp that affects the narrative pacing. This is one wedding that seems to be in no hurry to be conducted, and Kanan and Anu seem to have all the time in world to sort out his haunting. Day turns into night and night into day as the film shifts between now and then. The sense of being trapped in between the hands of the clock leaches into the running time. At 127 minutes, Phillauri doesn’t simply have enough to go on. Lal, working on a screenplay by Anvita Dutt, lets several scenes roll on several indulgent minutes in order to reserve his punch for the twist-laden climax.

The spirit is willing but the flesh is a bit weak. Had the narrative threads been braided together even more tightly, Phillauri could have been an even more enjoyable comedy about the need to make peace with the past. Potentially neurosis-inducing problems (the curbing of ambition and dreams, the belief that elders know best, damaging superstitions) get the kid glove and soft-focus treatment. The fate of Shashi and Roop Lal isn’t as engaging as Kanan’s disenchantment with his fate. The real ghost in Kanan’s bedroom isn’t the vision in white-and-gold from many years ago – it’s his present, and possibly dull future.

In Mughal India, Holi was celebrated with the same exuberance as Eid

There were no barriers of caste, class or religion, and even the poorest of the poor could throw colour at the Emperor.

Hori kheluungii, kah Bismillah.
Naam Nabi ki ratn chaRii,
BuuNd paRi Allah Allah.

I start playing Holi with a Bismillah.
Covered with the light of Prophet’s name,
Showered by blessings of Allah.

When I celebrate Holi, Muslims often tell me that the practice is haram (forbidden), because colour is prohibited in Islam. But the 18th-century Punjabi mystic Bulleh Shah’s words above provide the perfect frame for the subcontinent’s centuries-old syncretic culture, our Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb that is under threat from fundamentalists of both religions.

As it turns out, Islam does not prohibit colour: it’s just that when we perform our ablutions for namaz, water should touch the skin, so there should be no colour at that point. Wash the Holi colours away before praying, I tell the critics. It’s simple. I do it.

Tale of harmony
This fundamentalism is a recent phenomenon. In the past, the influence of the Sufi and Bhakti movements encouraged harmony between the communities.

In Alam Mein Intikhaab Dilli, Maheshwar Dyal writes,

“Holi is an ancient Hindustani festival which is played by every man and woman irrespective of religion and caste. After coming to India, the Muslims also played Holi with gusto, be it the Badshah or the Faqeer."

Basant Panchami would signal the onset of the festivities and people would be carrying squirt guns with colours and smear gulaal (red powder) on each other’s faces. Mustard flowers would be offered in temples and abiir/gulaal would be flying in the air.

Flowers from the Tesu/Palash/Dhaak plants (flame of the forest) would be immersed in earthen water pots. It is believed that Lord Krishna played Holi with Radha using colours made from the red Tesu flower, which blooms during the spring season.

All colours used were natural and plant extracts. There were neither chemicals nor hooliganism.

Holi is one of the most delightful and colourful festivals of India. It is aimed at uniting people by forgetting their complaints and embracing one another.

Early references
In the 13th century, Amir Khusrau (1253–1325) is said to have written many verses in celebration of Holi.

kheluungii holi, Khaaja ghar aaye,
dhan dhan bhaag hamare sajni,
Khaaja aaye aangan mere

I shall play Holi as Khaaja has come home,
blessed is my fortune, o friend,
as Khaaja has come to my courtyard

The Mughal Emperor Akbar encouraged syncretism and tolerance. During his reign, all festivals were celebrated with equal gusto and it was a practice that was followed by all his successors barring Aurangzeb.

In the 16th century, Ibrahim Raskhan (1548-1603) wrote:

Aaj hori re Mohan Hori
Kaal hamare aangan gaari dai aayo, so kori
Ab ke duur baithe maiyya dhing, nikaso kunj bihari

It's Holi, Mohan, its Holi today
Who was it who came yesterday to our courtyard and swore at us
Now you hide behind your mother, far away , Oh come out Kunj Bihari

In Tuzuk e Jahangir, Jahangir (1569 –1627) writes:

Their day is Holi, which in their belief is the last day of the year. This day falls in the month of Isfandarmudh, when the sun is in Pisces. On the eve of this day they light fires in all the lanes and streets. When it is daylight, they spray powder on each other’s heads and faces for one watch and create an amazing uproar. After that, they wash themselves, put their clothes on, and go to gardens and fields. Since it is an established custom of among the Hindus to burn their dead, the lighting of fires on the last night of the year is a metaphor for burning the old year as though it were a corpse.

Much fanfare
Holi would be celebrated on the same scale as Eid in the Red Fort or Qila e Moalla (Exalted Palace). It was called Eid e gulaabi or Aab-e-Pashi (Shower of Colourful Flowers), with everyone joining in.

There would be melas or fairs behind the Red Fort on the banks of the Yamuna. A huge crowd would gather from the fort till Raj Ghat. The dhaf, jhanjaen, nafiri (tambourine, cymbal and trumpet) would be played and nautch girls would dance. Groups of traveling musicians and artists would gather under the Red Fort and display their tricks and talents. The mimics would imitate the Emperor, prince and princesses too and nobody would take offence.

The queens, princesses and noble women would be sitting in their jharokas (overhanging enclosed balcony) and enjoying the entertainment. The Emperor would reward these artistes handsomely.

At night, there would be a grand celebration of Holi in the Red Fort with singing and dancing throughout the night. Famous courtesans from throughout the country would come here. The most popular song would be Bahadur Shah Zafar’s Horiyan. Bands of entertainers would go around Shahjahanabad entertaining the aristocrats and the rich in their Havelis. There would be much good-natured leg-pulling with the slogan “Bura Naa Mano, Holi Hai!”Don’t take it the wrong way,it's Holi.

Children would also go around entertaining elders with their acts. At night there would be mahfils (soirees) in the walled city with the aristocrats, traders and shopkeepers all enjoying themselves.

Emperor joins in
Bahudar Shah Zafar (1775–1862) would join the celebration with great gusto and enthusiasm and mingle with his subjects. He wrote a song for the occasion:

Kyun mope maari rang ki pichkaari
dekh kunwarji du’ngi gaari

(Why have you squirted me with colour?
O Kunwarji I will swear at you)

bhaaj saku’n main kaise moso bhaajo nahin jaat
thaa’ndi ab dekhu’n main baako kaun jo sun mukh aat

(I can’t run, I am unable to run
I am now standing here and want to see who can drench me)

Bahut dinan mein haath lage ho kaise jaane deoon
Aaj main phagwa ta sau Kanha faita pakad kar leoon.

(After many days have I caught you, how can I let you go
I will catch you by your cummerbund and play Holi with you)

shokh rang aisi dheet langar sau khelay kaun ab hori
mukh meedai aur haath marore karke woh barjori

Who can play Holi with such a mischievous Kanha
My face you have coloured and my wrist you have twisted in your playfulness.

Jam-e-Jahanuma, an Urdu newspaper, wrote in 1844 that during the days of the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, special arrangements were made for Holi festivities, and goes on to describe the frolicking and exchange of colour made from the tesu flowers.

Nazeer Akbarabadi (1735–1830) was the "people’s poet" who wrote:

Jab Phagun Rang Jhamakte ho,
Tab dekh bahaare’n Holi ki
Jab Daf Ke Shor Khadke Hon
ab Dekh Baharein Holi Ki
Pariyon Ke Rang Damkte Hon
Tab Dekh Baharein Holi Ki.

When the month of Phagun shines with colour
Then see the celebration of Holi.

Mehjoor Lakhnavi (1798-1818) in his book Nawab Syadat Ali Ki Majlis-e-Holi talks of the sensuous aspect of Holi , with which many can associate today.

Gulzar Khile Hon Pariyon Ke
Aur Majlis Ki Tyari Ho
Kapdon Par Rang Ke Cheeton Se
Khushrang Ajab Gulkari Ho

Roses are blooming on fairies
Preparation is on for a soiree
Clothes are smeared with colour
As bright as painted flowers.

Shah Niaz’s (1742-1834) Holi song has been made immortal by Sufi singer Abida Parveen.

Holi hoye rahi hai Ahmad Jiya ke dwaar
Hazrat Ali ka rang bano hai Hassan Hussain khilaar

Holi is being played at beloved Ahmad’s doorsteps
Hazrat Ali has become the colour and Hasan and Husain are playing.

Lasting tradition
Royal patrons who were mostly secular in those days like Ibrahim Adil Shah and Wajid Ali Shah used to distribute mithai (sweets) and thandai (a drink) to everyone in their kingdom. It was a common and beloved festival of all.

This is the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb that prevailed all over India right till the 19th century. It still does in most of India despite attempts to divide and rule.

The famous poet Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810) wrote on Nawab Asifud Daula playing Holi:

Holi khela Asifud daula Vazir
Rang sohbat se Ajab hain Khurd-o-Pir

Asidud daula plays Holi
Commoners and kings are happy after being drenched with colour.

Munshi Zakaullah (a mid-19th century Delhi intellectual) in his book Tarikh-e-Hindustani, even questions the fact that Holi is a Hindu festival and describes the Holi festivities lasting for days during the Mughal rule. There were no restraints of caste, class or religion and even the poorest of the poor could throw colour on the Emperor.

I don’t think there can be a better ending than Gauhar Jaan singing:

Mere Hazrat ne Madeene mein manaayi Holi.

From identity to economics: How the BJP is changing Indian politics

After tactically using caste arithmetic, the party has also consciously tried to undermine social justice as casteism and secularism as appeasement.

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly election results are not a one-time anomaly. They are repeat of the 2014 Lok Sabha results. In fact, the Bharatiya Janata Party has improved on its performance in 2014. Because the party seems set to stay in Indian politics for a long innings, it is important to reflect on what its politics means and what it is doing or going to do once in power in such an overwhelming manner.

While the BJP has cynically employed the use of religious identity, it has also consciously sought to downplay identity politics or social justice on the basis of caste or community in the last decade, particularly in the last few years. This is clear from the way the party brought a non-Jat politician to lead Haryana and encouraged a counter-mobilisation against the Jat hegemony. It also appointed a non-tribal chief minister Jharkhand and has persisted with one in Chhatisgarh. The party does not even seem to mind a Gujarati hegemony.

Where the party excels at is to package and present itself as rising above caste and community, decrying social justice as casteism, and secularism as appeasement, as Vandita Mishra points out in the Indian Express, after having carefully and “astutely picking a large number of its candidates from the large scatter of non-Yadav OBC [Other Backward Classes] castes, for instance, to add them to its traditional upper caste Brahmin-Thakur mix”, even while making a pronounced bid for backward caste support.

In fact, the success of the party’s political vision is evident from the fact that what appeared earlier as impossible seems to be the new normal now. For example, in a state like Jharkhand, the party brought in fundamental change by amending the land tenancy laws so as to serve the corporate capital and yet there was hardly any effective resistance to the move.

Most of the BJP’s important leaders also happen to be well-honed cadres of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The party seems to have made an effort to ensure that such candidates are given crucial postings, with a view to a more disciplined and ideologically committed leadership for the governments – at the Centre and in the states.

In other words, the BJP has sought to downplay one of the traditional basis of politics – that of social identities – because it hampers growth and expansion of capital.

The 2014 Lok Sabha results and now the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election results have shown how the BJP has created an anti-local, anti-caste, anti-region political ambience by ensuring that a combination of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah become acceptable to people across regions.

The Manifesto of the party for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections began by saying:

“The Party has begun the implementation of aims of social and economic justice through good governance (sushashan) under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi”.

Beyond this point the Manifesto talked in an idiom of class and professions, laying down how the party’s perspective on and vision of development has to reach the youth, poor, business community, women and others.

The party simply does not use the concept of social justice the way other political formations do.

Economic argument
It is in this sense that one can see how the BJP seeks to build a political agenda beyond the social identities. It tries to reach out to all of them through some economic argument or the other.

The party seems to know and understand that gradually it has to be a politics of class, which will allow it to expand because its historical legacy of being a brahmanical political force alienated it for quite some time from the Muslims and Dalits.

In the last three years or so, the party has amply shown how well religion and other social and cultural affiliations can only be used to ensure a very clearly defined rule of corporate capital. However, these affiliations along with that of nation, and other such are only instruments for mobilisation, if at all.

The violence in campuses could be seen as an example of how the party uses the instrument of lumpenism to ensure that voices of dissent can be suppressed by use of collective force.

Social justice is not a term often invoked by the Indian State after 2014. And yet the BJP cannot completely do away with the decades-long practices of positive discrimination in policy making because the move might invite strong counter mobilisation against it. Which is what explains the party’s conscious decision of going slow on its earlier discourse and policy programmes based on social identities. But the so-called slips of tongue on quotas and reservation and demonisation of Dalit activists is a clear indication of what many of the party’s leaders think on these questions.

In days to come, the BJP would rather focus on policy areas that would more proactively bring Dalits and tribals within the fold of the market. The policy decisions of the BJP are aimed at breaking the consensus on the need of taking affirmative action to remove social inequalities among groups.

Social reengineering
The BJP seeks to transform everybody into an individual, concerned only about their own self, while ironically seeking votes from them or expressing outrage in the name of Hinduism. The collective, as noted above, continues to be invoked when needed but only as a mere source of mobilisation to move towards a fragmented/individuated situation.

This thinking, while destroying their social and cultural allegiances, would transform each citizen into somebody who would cease to be concerned about the marginalised, oppressed or discriminated groups and communities. This would also lead to weakening of any opposition to whatever the state would do – from handing over the economy to corporate capital to making education institutions into skilling centres among other things.

​The BJP campaigns in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections mocked the gains that the Other Backward Classes and Dalit political mobilisations have made in these states. The party has routinely sought to underplay that there was any significant historic element of caste based discrimination. In Haryana, for instance, the party has come down heavily on unionisation of workers in the industrial belts of the state.

It has thus sought to delegitimise all movements that claim to represent social or economic justice. Which is why there is hardly any large scale resistance even when, for instance, the Haryana government unabashedly celebrates its foundation year using the symbol of a conch with a chariot embedded in it among other things. The party has thus got away by introducing overtly religious motifs in a secular country. Nor is there any public anger when workers are

The BJP represents a new moment in Indian politics. It understands and knows how to manipulate the social and cultural milieu much better than any other force towards making India fully compatible to the workings of corporate capital and seeking to break down the consensus on community and caste-based concepts of social justice.

If the political forces fail to understand this they would find it difficult to counter the BJP’s winning streak, even in 2019.

How Thousands Of Americans Lost Money To Fake Call-Centres In Mumbai?

By LIKHAVEER

73 people have been arrested in the racket where US citizens were cheated out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It took just two days for J Roy (name changed) to figure out that all was not quite above board at the call centre he had just joined, having had several years' experience in business process outsourcing units or BPOs.

"It just didn't seem right," he told  when he was brought to court on Monday.

Roy is among 73 men and women who have been arrested in a widespread call-centre racket busted in Thane district near Mumbai in which callers, posing as American tax agents, coerced victims in the US into paying up online after telling them that they had defaulted on their taxes. The police suspect that the roots of the racket go back to Ahmedabad and have said it could be much wider than what they have uncovered so far.

On Monday, all the arrested accused were produced before a Thane magistrate. Thirteen have been remanded to further police custody and the rest have been sent to judicial custody.

Murky business
The call centre that Roy worked at was one among more than 10 that have been raided in Thane district over the last week, starting from October 4. He had spent a month there and was due to get his salary this week, but the police swooped in on his centre.

Looking back, Roy said with a smile, he knew that “the American Internal Revenue Service doesn’t call anyone”.

With a script ready for employees that ranged from mildly threatening to downright aggressive, the goings on at these purported call centres were far from right.

The call-centre employees, posing as US Internal Revenue Service agents, would use Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP – voice calls made using a web connection – and would tell their prospective victims that they had failed to pay their full taxes and would have to pay up or face further action. The convinced callers would make an online payment using a credit card.

Several thousand Americans – police are yet to estimate the number of victims – were conned into parting with small and large sums of money. The masterminds of the racket are still at large. The police said that about seven people had put their money into setting up these call centres and operating the racket. However, 73 mostly junior employees have been arrested so far. More than 630 are also under investigation.

The IRS regularly puts out advisories about fake calls such as the ones these centres were making. Despite this, in rented premises, the purported call centres managed to run a lucrative racket, that has fetched around Rs 500 crores in a year, according to reports.

From the script
Most of the callers were young men and women – in their 20s and 30s – who had responded to advertisements and flyers announcing openings at call centres or had heard of them through word-of-mouth. Knowledge of English was generally enough to get the job.

They were then primed with a script based on anticipated responses. Some of the conversations went like this:

Statement: Where are you calling me from?

Answer: I am calling you from the INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE HEADQUARTERS which is located in Washington DC.

Statement: Where was the miscalculation (error) found?

Answer: Well, Mr customer let me make you aware that we are calling you from the investigation departments and not from the audit department and hence we cannot help you to where did you do the mistakes (sic).

Employees were trained in how to sound menacing, and taught to ask questions like, "What is your intention now, would you like to resolve this case or are you looking for a dispute?”

Callers who asked why they had not been sent the paperwork by mail or heard about the problem earlier would be told that attempts had been made to reach them, but to no avail. They would also be told no further paperwork could be sent across as it was lying in the court house.

Those who sought to speak to their accountants would be told this meant the IRS could charge them up to $50,000 as a fine and inform their employers and the media.

An accent trainer, among those arrested last week, helped the callers work on their diction and delivery and develop what the trainer described as a “neutral sounding" accent – something that would presumably not peg them to a specific country.

The scripts also took into possible scenarios where people would not agree to pay up easily and gave instructions on how to tackle those. For instance:

Scenario 1
Answer: I have already paid the IRS

Caller: What we are investigating about is the miscalculation seen in your tax filed which makes us assume your intention was to defraud to IRS and the income tax law (sic).

Scenario 2
Statement: I am not going to make any payment over the phone.

Answer: …I am here to guide you so that you can go ahead and make the payment and resolve the matter outside the court house so we can go ahead and cancel the arrest warrant.”

Scenario 3
Statement: My accountant files my taxes.

Answer: Well Mr Customer, let me make aware that federal government has not allow to hire any third party for your taxes (sic)… the law suit is filed against you. So you are the responsible person for it.”

Tell-tale signs
A relative said his nephew had worked in call centres before this and was trained to simply repeat what they had been taught without thinking too much. “That is how these things usually work,” he said.

For employees, however, there were several tell-tale signs. There were no formal identity badges, no work contract at the time of joining and most significantly, no salary slips. Employees were paid in cash, with salaries starting from Rs 10,000 monthly for about eight hours of work. This was alluring for school dropouts or young people from lower-middle-class families.

"We started to realise something was wrong, but everyone is tempted by money," said the relative of one of the accused. “When a young man has a steady income it is good for him and for the family.”

An employee who worked at one of the raided call centres on a night shift had not met his wife in a month before he was arrested last week. “He said to me, ‘I have to show them I am working hard,” his wife told Scroll.in. “His job was simply to supervise, he did not make calls.”

One of the accused claimed they realised something was wrong only about four or five days before the police raided the centres. Many had been working at the establishments for just a couple of months or a few weeks and were waiting for their salaries.

“Our children are also victims,” said a relative of one of the arrested accused. “They were only employees, doing as they were told.”

Big fish at large
The relative of another employee said: “The police needs to go after the masterminds, not the employees, who were the small fry.”

The police, however, believe that it is unlikely that the employees had no clue what was going on.

The police said that a team has just returned from Ahmedabad, the possible starting point of the operation.

“There are likely to be more [such fraudulent centres],” said Param Bir Singh, Thane commissioner of police.

The raids were conducted over the past week in Thane. Many of the centres were renting out premises in a single building. “It is an industry,” said a senior police official. “We have learnt so much in investigating this case.”

The three First Information Reports registered in the case so far include charges of cheating and cheating by impersonation under the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Information Technology Act, including those related to sending menacing messages.

Police conducted the raids based on tip-offs they received and also found that the call centres had been operating without the requisite permissions.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US is expected to formally contact the Thane police in connection with the scam.

Police estimate that the racket was running for a year, but say that further details will only be gleaned once they nab the main accused in this case. The purported mastermind, believed to have fled the country, is a 23-year-old identified as Sagar Thakkar alias Shaggy, who has no previous criminal record, police said.

Some reports said that some “gang members” were operating from the US, but the police did not comment on this.

Why Are Housewives Undervalued?

By LIKHAVEER ! INNLIVE 

When art and literature turn their lens on the drudgery of housewifery, it can be elevating.

I keep one quivery toe in the workforce only so I don’t have to suffer the ignominies of saying “I’m a housewife” at cocktail parties. Or as film and television critic Aneela Babar once said hilariously, “Arre baba, poora naam batao, ‘Just A Housewife’” The word to describe “a married woman whose main occupation is caring for her family, managing household affairs, and doing housework” is “sometimes offensive” the internet dictionaries warn. I know internet dictionary, I know.

It would not be better, but it would still be something, if the nitty-gritty of housewifery – the cooking, cleaning, stocking, standard caring, elderly and recuperative caring, laundry, planning for celebrations, religious rituals, etc. – was only expected out of those who were indeed mothers or wives. However, even financially independent single women are still expected to facilitate the household – handling a majority of the care of their ailing elderly, managing maintenance and domestic staff with a sharp-suit face on at all times.

A study on the division of labour at home by the Maryland Population Research Center found that “in 2012, single women with no children still did twice as much cooking, cleaning and laundry as single men”, with those women spending 13 minutes on laundry and 31 minutes on cleaning per day. Men did only seven and 17 minutes, respectively. But those are American statistics.

Indian men best these numbers, unsurprisingly. A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a global policy forum, pegs their contribution to housework at an incredible 19 minutes versus the glorious 11 hours spent every day sleeping, eating, watching TV and, in a nod to our national bird, preening! (This is the most anyone spends on getting pretty in the world!) I understand this. I mean who wants to bust a manicure doing the dishes? The grooming however is not to beguile their partners, but because they feel they’re worth it.

There would be no point in telling desi guys that men who share housework have better sex lives when two surveys on Global Sexual Wellbeing by the condom brand Durex tag Indian men as “quickest” on the job (in the sheets, not washing them) and rating themselves quite high on the “exciting” and “satisfaction” charts.

Contributions to the economy
Anecdotally, I would say I have met very few fathers or sons who have chosen to give up thriving careers to be full-time carers for their children or elders. Yet, while these men are held up as precious examples of social evolution (and they are), women who do the caring every day must brace themselves to be constantly reminded, not least by other working women, that their work at home is unproductive and a waste of their intellectual resources.

It may have something to do with the fact that, in general, cheap labour seems to reinforce the idea that domestic work can be done by just about anyone. This line of thinking attributes its value – even for something as potentially complex and determinant as nannies and childcare or nurses and elder care – more to the employer’s ability to increase their earning potential (having been released from the drudgery of the home) rather than in terms of the value received by those cared for. (I suspect the discussion is not encouraged not only because it is difficult to quantify the experience of a hired carer vs a parent – in this case, mother – but also because it is a minefield for women who struggle with expectations, guilt and logistics, social and otherwise, over their decisions to go back to work full time.)

In recent years there have been many attempts to place a monetary value on the work done at home. It is an impossible task of course – itemising the hundreds of components that go into the functioning of a household itself, constantly adjusting values to take into account growing children, location shifts, the financial status of the family, etc. Even after assigning a low estimate for the market value of basic household chores in a report titled Women’s Economic Contribution through Their Unpaid Household Work: The Case of India, researchers valued their contribution at $612.8 billion or 61% of the Gross Domestic Product. Every time I clean the fridge now I make sure I inform my children about my contribution to the economy.

I’m being facetious of course, but even in discussions on how women’s participation can boost GDP, the conversation is about creating more support services to “improve productivity”, implying that these women who run their own homes are currently unproductive.

That the conversation and debate about the value of domestic work is not new is both reassuring and dispiriting. We are making very slow progress whether we Lean In or choose not to have it all.

A complex art
Still, when art and literature turn their lens on the drudgery, it can be elevating. In 1935, the author and illustrator Wanga Gag published Gone is Gone, a gentle telling of a farmer who trades places with his wife for a workday and gets an unequivocal lesson in the value of her work.

Author Ursula K Le Guin likened housekeeping to other complex arts like piano-playing or story-writing, the mastery of which involved skills, choices of method and secrets, some teachable and some only hard-won from repetitive, methodical practice.

There are other examples too, but recently, I have come across two delightful celebrations of housework in art. A series of photographs by artist Sally Gall elevates laundry on the line with a sensuous fluidity. And a gigantic grocery list featuring familiars like paper towels, bananas, Nutella, is immortalised in granite. Called Memorial, the artist David Shrigley in New York acknowledges that memorials are for grander things, “But for most of us, what are the noble deeds of our lives?” What indeed.

I like to think that the idea is not just to acknowledge the contribution of unpaid work at home as something that facilitates the big machine but also to examine our biases towards women who grudgingly or otherwise make the choice (or maybe even more importantly, who didn’t have the choice but) to acquiesce to somewhat traditional roles.

And not just when you’re talking to them at home… but even at cocktail parties.

Five Questions And An Appeal: An Open Letter By Dr Zakir Naik’

By M H AHSSAN ! INNLIVE

'If you’ve decided to target a community,' says the televangelist, 'you’ve to first target the biggest name and the most popular figure of the community.'

Controversial Islamic televangelist Zakir Naik has been under scrutiny for allegedly inspiring militants behind the Dhaka café attack on July 1, though the Bangladesh newspaper which had been quoted as having made the allegation came out with a categorical denial and said “it did not report that any terrorist was inspired by Zakir Naik to kill innocent people.”

The Centre had ordered an investigation into the funding sources for Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation and also warned cable TV operators of penalties if they broadcast his channel, Peace TV, which, incidentally, was also banned by Bangladesh.

It was later reported that the IRF may be listed as an “unlawful organisation” in India, and the Centre was likely to file terror charges against him for allegedly motivating more than 50 people accused in various militant activities including the Dhaka restaurant attack.

Naik and his organisation should be booked under anti-terror law for hate speech, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar was reported to have told the Narendra Modi government.

The IRF had donated Rs 50 lakh to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in 2011, it was revealed on Friday. Officials said this was one of the irregularities ignored by a few Home Affairs Ministry offcials, for which they may be suspended forrenewing the IRF’s foreign funds licence.

On Saturday morning, Naik released what he called “Five Questions and an Appeal: An open letter to Indians” with the broad theme that “if you’ve decided to target a community, you’ve to first target the biggest name and the most popular figure of the community”.

After having thus assumed this mantle of being "the biggest name and the most popular figure of the [Indian Muslim] community", Naik went on to add: “If you can bring down and demonise this figure of the community, the rest becomes a cakewalk. That, I think, is what is happening. It may sound like a conspiracy theory, but I honestly cannot find any other plausible reason.”

"If the government can misuse its authority on a popular figure like me," Naik says in the letter strewn with quotations from the Quran, "average Muslims don’t stand a chance. And we’re talking about 20 crores of them."

But apart from seeking to play the victim card on religious grounds, Naik raises questions that assert the need for due process. "I’m open to any investigation," the letter adds. "Have always been and will always be."

The full text of his letter is given below.

‘Five Questions and an Appeal: An open letter to Indians by Dr Zakir Naik’

It has been over two months since the ghastly terror attack in Dhaka, and over one month since I’ve been asking myself what exactly have I done to become the enemy number one of the media as well as the State and Central Government. For someone who has spent 25 years in promoting peace, spreading greater awareness of Islam and talking about similarities between religions and condemning injustices, the last two months have been a rude shock to me. A shock of immense proportions. I’m not only disappointed in the way things are being conducted but alarmed at where they are heading.

I’m alarmed at the murder of democracy and strangulation of fundamental rights and the precedence it is setting for times to come. I’m also alarmed at how the system, media and the agencies are being used to suit a pre-meditated end result set by none other than our own governments, governments that have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of India, and a Constitution that allows me the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate any religion I follow. Let’s not be gullible enough to assume that there isn’t a deeper agenda behind this vicious campaign. This is not just an attack on me, it’s an attack against Indian Muslims. And it’s an attack against peace, democracy and justice.

‘Those to whom the people said: surely men have gathered against you therefore fear them, but this increased their faith, and they said:Allah is sufficient for us and most excellent is the protector.’ – Al-Qur’an 3:173

From what I understand, IRF and I have been set up for a ban. Never mind the fact that the legal agencies have found no wrongdoing – financial or otherwise. Never mind the lack of evidence (although I am not guilty of any wrong-doing, much less any offence whatsoever). At least this is what is evident from the media stories being ‘planted’ since the past several weeks.

The message is clear: it’s not a question of whether I’ve committed a crime or not. It’s a question of using desperate measures to kill peace and harmony. And a ban is now imminent. It may happen in days or weeks but the writing is clear on the wall. IRF and I have been set up for a ban. Unless of course, better sense prevails and the ban machinery set in motion is stopped. And if that happens, if IRF and I are banned, it will be the biggest jolt to the country’s democracy of recent times. I do not say this just for me but because this ban will set a precedence of unspeakable injustices against the 20 crore Muslims of India. This action will embolden and encourage every fringe element in the country to do as they please. If you thought intolerance increased in the country recently, this action of the government will take it to an all-time high. The Muslim population is already feeling threatened and insecure and I can’t even imagine how they will feel after this action. Muslims are bound to think that today it is Zakir Naik, tomorrow it could be any one of them. But I still can’t stop asking myself – why am I being targeted? Then I realised some time back that if you’ve decided to target a community, you’ve to first target the biggest name and the most popular figure of the community. If you can bring down and demonize this figure of the community, the rest becomes a cakewalk. That, I think, is what is happening. It may sound like a conspiracy theory, but I honestly cannot find any other plausible reason. Right from the beginning of July, I tried staying away from the current controversy. This was not the first time I was being targeted. For years, there have been groups who have opposed me. Instead of retaliating or reacting to them, I’ve felt it best to continue with my work and not pay attention to these detractors. That is what I tried doing even this time. But I soon realized that this time it was different. There was much greater media involvement, and a much deeper government’s involvement. I’m not privy to internal details so I do not know which came first – my opposition groups, the media or the government. But from what it looks like, this is the best concerted effort used against me so far.

‘...They strive in the way of Allah and do not fear the blame of the blamers. That is the favor of Allah, he bestows it upon whom he wills.’ – Al-Qur’an 5:54

I tried answering all the questions and allegations thrown at me. But soon a lot of my own questions started piling up in my mind. Two months into it, they’ve built up and I’m left with no choice but to pose these questions to you, to my fellow citizens. As my legal advisors evaluate things at their end, I write to all of you to tell you what I’ve been feeling for last two months. Let us keep the legalities aside. Though the witch hunt continues, and I know

I’ve not done anything wrong, either in my talks or in my finances, and till date the agencies have not found any wrong doing. But that is for the legal teams to sort out at both the ends. But here is what bothers me. Try asking these questions yourself and see if you can come up with coherent and logical answers to them –

[A] Why now?

I’ve been preaching for 25 years. Not just in India but across the world. What exactly did I do now to earn the tags of ‘terror preacher’, ‘Dr. Terror’ and ‘hate monger’? Of 150 countries where I’m respected and my talks are welcomed, I’m being called a terrorist influencer in my own country. What an irony. Why now, when I’ve been doing the same thing for over 25 years?

[B] Why repeat investigations?

Despite exhaustive investigations, not a single conclusive evidence of wrong doing was reported by any governmental agency. But now investigations are being asked to be repeated and continued. Why? Wasn’t the first investigation exhaustive enough? Did not they cover every aspect of my talks, every topic, every reply? Or is it because they could not find any wrongdoing? Is this a hunt to get something to indict me?

[C] Why renew, then cancel?

Why would the government renew IRF’s FCRA registration and then cancel it? It seems illogical. Is it because the renewal was against the laid down agenda of the government? Why would you suspend FCRA officials? Is it because they did things by the books and acted honestly without any bias or prejudice when they renewed IRF’s registration? Is it because they were not influenced by the political agenda of the MHA?

[D] Is there design to leaking confidential information of the government, solicitor general and the MHA?

Is there a design to leaking selective government documents to the media? The manner in which stories are being ‘planted’ in the media clearly suggests so. The one and only investigation report submitted till now remains inconclusive, but the solicitor general’s ‘judgment’ of banning IRF and I was duly leaked to the media. Why? Is there a ring fencing happening? Is this how IRF will be banned? By creating an atmosphere of ban? Rather than rely on proofs and evidences?

[E] Forced conversions? Really?

Isn’t it a well-known fact that in these modern days and times, average men and women cannot be forced to convert? But while chasing IRF for allegations of forced conversions, why are the agencies ignoring the most basic proof of forced conversions? Where is the converted person and where is his or her statement about how he or she was forcibly converted? Isn’t this person the most basic proof of forced conversion? If yes, why is the entire law enforcement machinery working on hearsay? Why is there no effort to gather the most basic proof that comes from the converted? It would be naïve to presume that the agencies mustn’t have tried. The fact is they tried and they couldn’t get proof of any forced conversion. The fact is, there never was forced conversions.

There are many more questions I have been seeking answers to but can’t find them. I know someone has the answers, but rather than dwelling upon it, I have an appeal to make, an appeal to my fellow countrymen, to all sane and sensible people of this great country. If you find any wrongdoing on my part, punish me by all means. Give me the harshest of punishments if I’ve wronged anyone. I’ve made this offer earlier too and I will repeat it again. I’m open to any investigation. Have always been and will always be.

‘They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah refuses except to perfect his light, although the disbelievers dislike it.’ – Al-Qur’an 9:32

Not only do I take my freedom seriously, I take my responsibilities even more seriously. The country’s democratic fabric is under attack. People are being arrested and put in jail for 7-10 years before being proven innocent by courts. But guilty or not guilty, their lives are ruined, their families are ruined, they remain unemployed, their daughters unmarried. This is what’s happening, and this is what needs to change. People’s lives cannot be played with. If the government can misuse its authority on a popular figure like me, average Muslims don’t stand a chance. And we’re talking about 20 crores of them.

I still have faith in the judiciary and I know that truth will ultimately prevail. But it may come at a huge price if the current actions are not checked now.

To all, my appeal is, do not allow subversion of the constitution. My appeal to the government – be fair in your investigation. Be fair in what you allege. Be truthful with facts. To my fellow citizens - Let no one and nothing dissuade you from speaking the truth. Whatever position you occupy, in authority or in media, or as a citizen of this great country, be truthful and fair. Nothing less, nothing more.

Perhaps if I am driven out of India, Allah will open up doors for me better than I could have ever imagined. Many countries would welcome this humble servant of God with red carpet treatment. But this isn’t only about me. It’s about us. It’s about the morals and values of a great country. What will become of India if we let bigotry and injustice seep into the very fabric of our nation? What will be the fate of our country if it falls into the stranglehold of such vices? The answer is frightening, and one we all wish to avoid. It’s time we do something about it.

In these times, my heart bursts with gratitude to those of you who have stood up for justice and harmony, irrespective of religion or creed. Because I know that like me, you care for this country. You care for core values like justice and tolerance. And that shall make a big difference.

'Isn’t Allah sufficient for his servant? And yet they seek to frighten you with those besides him?' – Al-Qur’an 39:36

To my Muslim brothers and sisters, I have this to say: Do not let trials such as these weaken your resolve, and know that the promise of Allah is true. Remember the faith that resonated among the earlier people, of whom Allah said, “’Those to whom the people said: Surely men have gathered against you, therefore fear them, but this increased their faith, and they said: Allah is sufficient for us and most excellent is the Protector.’ (Al-Qur’an 3:173) Didn’t He give victory to His Messenger (SAAWS) when the polytheists deployed every tactic and exhausted every strategy, trying in vain to suppress the Truth? Aren’t the pages of history overflowing with examples such as these? Allah says, “They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah refuses except to perfect His light, although the disbelievers may dislike it.’ (Al-Qur’an 9:32)

My humble efforts to spread the truth are but a drop in the ocean, and these trials are but a speck of dust compared to what was endured by the people of old. I pray that Allah accepts our efforts and makes us of those about whom He said, ‘...they strive in the way of Allah and do not fear the blame of the blamers. That is the favor of Allah, He bestows it upon whom He wills.’ (Al-Qur’an 5:54)

Whatever the outcome, I am assured that the best efforts to squash our work will only help it rise higher and stronger. For Allah says, ‘They plot and plan, and Allah too plans. And the best of planners is Allah.’ (Al-Qur’an 3:54) Beshaq . Without doubt.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Zakir Naik


Olympic Concerns: Why Calls To Build A Sporting Culture Are Just Another Version Of Jingoistic Nationalism?

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

It is little more than a cruel joke to suggest that India lacks sporting prowess because of the lack of a sporting culture.

We are about to lock up the largely empty medals cupboard for another four years. Small-town women and men will go back to their small towns, though some may manage a well-deserved escape from their generally hard lives through participation in the Olympics.

Will Indian Politicians Ever Stop Using Champion Athletes For Personal Glory?

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

Fights over Sakshi Malik, PV Sindhu and Dipa Karmakar highlight the disturbing mentality of our political class.

It is said that history only remembers the winners. History may well be kind to victors, but there is one section of society which uses them like trending topics on Twitter or Google, shamelessly riding their popularity to draw attention to themselves.

Olympic Concerns: Why Calls To Build A Sporting Culture Are Just Another Version Of Jingoistic Nationalism?

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

It is little more than a cruel joke to suggest that India lacks sporting prowess because of the lack of a sporting culture.

We are about to lock up the largely empty medals cupboard for another four years. Small-town women and men will go back to their small towns, though some may manage a well-deserved escape from their generally hard lives through participation in the Olympics.