Nehru to Salman: Visiting Delhi's parantha paradise

By Nakshab Khan

New Delhi: If the aroma of hot paranthas draws you while walking down a narrow, crowded lane in Chandni Chowk in Delhi's old quarter, you must have ventured into Paranthe Wali Gali. Some of the shops came up more than 100 years ago, but even today the crispy, spicy and even sweet fare on offer seldom disappoints.

India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter and late prime minister Indira Gandhi have been patrons of the shops that sell paranthas with a variety of fillings -- as their photographs hanging on the shop walls testify.

Down the years, Paranthe Wali Gali has added Bollywood actor Salman Khan to its list of clients.

"Various celebrities have tasted my paranthas," says Rajiv Sharma, the owner of one shop, pointing to the photographs of Nehru and Indira Gandhi eating paranthas there.

There is a lot of talk that the lane is not what it used to be -- there are only four shops selling paranthas now, down from 20 a few decades ago. But despite the dwindled numbers, they promise a taste to remember.

All existing shops are controlled by the same family.

"The speciality of our paranthas is that they are prepared with pure desi ghee (clarified butter) with no onion or garlic. The 26 varieties of paranthas include mix, khurchan (sweet parantha), paneer, badam, banana, gobi, muli, rabdi, carrot and dal (pulses)," Sharma said.

The paranthas are served with aloo-methi, aloo-matar and pumpkin curry, along with mint and banana chutneys.

"Another special thing about the paranthas here is that they are made in a kadhai (wok) full of ghee while elsewhere paranthas are made by putting ghee or butter on the sides," Rajiv Sharma added.

"Our parantha shop was established in 1872 and this is our sixth generation which is running this shop. Earlier in 1984, we used to sell a parantha for 75 paise but now due to rising prices, we have increased the price to Rs.30 per parantha weighing 100 grams," Rajiv Sharma said.

Another parantha shop owner, Gaurav Dikshit, says the name of the gali is enough to attract customers. "Many customers we cater to come here from far off places in Delhi," Dikshit said.

According to Dikshit, business is good in all seasons except summer. He employs eight workers, including cooks, serving staff and a dishwasher.

Naresh, who owns another parantha shop in the gali, told IANS: "Though the gali boasted of about 20 shops a few decades ago, most of the shopkeepers have branched out into different businesses."

None of the shops in the gali has much space but is able to adjust around 25 to 30 customers at any given time.

Media professional Jagriti Kumari said: "The paranthas here are very crispy. I come here whenever I get time."

Sandeepan who is pursuing his MBA from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) came from Katwaria Sarai in south Delhi to check out the food at the famous gali.

"Though I am not very fond of paranthas, I was curious when I heard about the speciality of the gali and decided to check it out," Sandeepan said.

Sandeepan's friend Ashish Sinha, who is an engineer, said: "The paranthas are fine, but I like the banana chutney the most."

Manoranjan Sharma, who is originally from Kolkata and is pursuing his MBA here, said he finds the overall quality of the paranthas good.

"The paranthas here are completely different and I liked the mewa parantha made with dry fruits," he said.

Indian Muslims want jobs, justice, not Iftar parties

MJ Akbar

As was once noted by a garrulous, if not very innovative, politician, India has, just now, a Hindu President, a Muslim Vice-President, a Sikh Prime Minister and a Christian president of the ruling Indian National Congress. I cannot recall Ms Pratibha Patil, or indeed any of her Hindu predecessors, inviting Hindu politicians, diplomats, and an assortment of Delhi’s Hindu A-listers to a splendid Diwali dinner financed by the Government of India. Nor has Mr Manmohan Singh gathered the capital’s elite Sikh brethren for a commemorative repast on Baisakhi, when the Khalsa was born. Ms Sonia Gandhi does not throw Christmas parties for archbishops, bishops, Christian politicians, diplomats and educationists at state expense. Just to be clear: Thank god they don’t.

So why does the Vice-President of India invite the great, as well as the not-so-glorious, Muslims for an Iftar party, as he did on September 7? It needs to be stressed that this is not the Vice-President’s personal decision. His office is merely the conduit for a Government ritual, which is why the state picked up the tab for the evening at Hyderabad House.

As if this was not enough, the Ministry of External Affairs has this year muscled its way into this food-heavy tribute to tokenism. It hosted an Iftar party on September 9. I hope the various Government VIPs, led by Mr SM Krishna and Mr Shashi Tharoor, did not turn up wearing skull caps in order to look holier than thou. It would have made a quaint picture, though.

The reason for such artless public artifice is quite simple. Delhi’s political establishment takes the Iftar guests, mainly bundled from the local chapter of the Indian Muslim elite, for fools. It treats them as saps who need no more than an annual dinner to keep them onside. Perhaps the establishment knows what it is doing. Experience has probably shown that this ‘elite’ is packed with people who use Ramadan as an opportunity for taking something from Government, rather than giving all they can to the poor. The Indian Muslim elite gets taken for a ride because it enjoys the prospect of being an establishment jockey in the race to nowhere.

The state-sponsored syrupy Iftar drama is not unique to the present lot; every administration in memory has staged it, including that of the BJP-heavy NDA. This patronising smear has become so institutionalised on the Delhi calendar that no one dares to query its legitimacy, need or rationale.

Perhaps the most cynical patron of Iftar parties was the late PV Narasimha Rao, who insisted on hosting them even after presiding over the destruction of the Babri Masjid. Maybe he was not the most cynical: Worse surely were the Muslim acolytes who fawned around him, desperately trying to catch his eye to seek some reward for their presence. Rao was good at throwing handouts towards anyone who had the look of a beggar.

The Ministry of External Affairs, to my knowledge, has till date kept itself aloof from the politics of Iftar. But some well-lit spark seems to have finally heard what the rest of Delhi has known for many years: That Ambassadors of Muslim countries in particular, and the non-aligned world in general, have been offered a very cold shoulder, tantamount to indifference, while the mandarins have been running around building strategic relations with the West. Someone got the bright idea that Muslim envoys would start smiling again the moment they received a gilt-edged invitation to an Iftar.

Indian Muslims need jobs and justice, not Iftar parties.

Ambassadors need diplomatic engagement throughout the year, not an early dinner on one evening.

But the behaviour of Muslim elites across the world invites the cynicism of others. The exploitation of Ramadan has now become a deeply-rooted practice among the well-off. If the Islamic brotherhood wants to understand why so many Muslim countries are in such a mess, they only need to examine how their elite have upended the holiest month of the faith, one in which they are meant to turn to Allah and practise the highest values of the Quran — piety, charity, self-denial, sacrifice — and turned it into a month-long tamasha. Id-ul-Fitr, which is the culmination of Ramadan, means the id of fitra, or charity. Self-centred Muslims will surely be astonished to learn that hundreds of verses in the Holy Quran urge charity and kindness towards the underprivileged. There is not a single verse that permits you to cheat your way out of Ramadan. The Quran understands the need to postpone fasting due to travel or ill-health; it does not provide any leeway for hypocrisy.

There are Muslims who escape self-denial by reversing the clock. They turn the evening Iftar into a breakfast, rather than a breaking of the fast, and while away the night till the pre-dawn Sehri, which becomes a virtual dinner. Then they sleep through most of the day, waking up in the afternoon. This is a perversion of the spirit of Ramadan. If all it took to fast was to convert day into night, then we could have fasted through the year.

My friend Arif Mohammed Khan has brought to my notice a hadith, or tradition, in which the Prophet said, “The son of Adam has basic rights on three things: A house to live in, a piece of cloth to cover his body, a loaf of bread and water.” Zakat is a Quranic principle of the faith. It is an Islamic duty to provide for the impoverished. All you have to do is count the millions who are hungry in Muslim countries and societies to understand how far contemporary Muslims have travelled from their ideal. Muslims seek great merit by reciting the Quran during Ramadan, for this is the month in which Allah’s message was sent to our world. They need to spend more time trying to understand what the Quran’s verses mean.

'Israel culling Palestinians for organ harvesting'

The controversy triggered by a Swedish newspaper report about Israel’s harvesting of Palestinian organs has salted the wounds of many Palestinian families haunted by the memories of loved ones who suffered the same fate.

“They claimed they came to arrest him, but in truth they came to murder him, which they did,” Walid Masalmeh, a resident of the small West Bank town of Dura, 10 kilometer west of Al-Khalil (Hebron), said about his relative Bassam.

In 1995, Bassam was killed by the Israeli army at the village of Beit Awwa, located near the former armistice line between the West Bank and what is now Israel.

“But 24 hours later they returned the body with a huge scar running from the chin to the lower abdomen,” Walid remembers.

“They took all the vital organs, including the heart, kidneys, Liver. Then they stuffed the empty cavities with garbage before sewing him up.”

Several other Palestinians gave a similar narrative, recounting how they received the bodies of their murdered relatives, mostly men in their early twenties, with vital organs taken away by the Israeli authorities.

Israeli occupation authorities don’t deny that the bodies of victims were returned to their respective families minus the internal organs, but claim that the organs were disposed of as part of routine autopsy operations.

“I am not a medical doctor, but I do know that an autopsy is performed to establish the cause of death,” says Walid.

“In Bassam’s case, and hundreds of similar cases, the cause of death is known too well since the victims were killed by the Israeli occupation army.”

The Swedish mass circulation Aftonbladet published last month a report accusing Israeli troops of killing Palestinians and then harvesting their organs.

Israeli officials have dismissed the report as anti-Semitic and have been piling up pressures on the Swedish government to condemn it.

Stockholm has so far remained steadfast, insisting it was in no position to interfere with its free media.

I intend to direct a film, says Sonali Kulkarni

By Nakshab Khan

Sonali Kulkarni is one of the actor who has gathered rewards and appreciation and withholds her position only and only because of her acting-skills. She debuted with film “Cheluvi” with Girish Karnad and attracted everyone’s attention. And then there was no looking back for Sonali. “Mukta”, “Gulabari”, “Dr. Ambedkar”, “Mission Kashmir”, “Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya”, “Dil Chaata Hain”, “Via Darjeeling” created her own identity in Bollywood industry without a Godfather. These days she is busy promoting her film “Mohandas”. Recently she was in Noida to promote her film.


Q-What is “Mohandas” all about?


A-“Mohandas” is a film about stolen identity. A man struggles for his identity which is taken away from someone elsewhere. What happens, what he faces, who helps him, will he get back his identity? The movie is all about this. This movie is directed by Mazhar Kamran. He has done a fabulous job. The USP of the film is its story-line and the way it is presented.


Q-Elaborate on your role in the film.
A- I play a TV news channel reporter. I work in Delhi and helps Mohandas to get back his identity.


Q- How was the experience to work with Sushant Singh, Nakul Vaid and Sharbani Mukerjee.
A- I enjoyed a lot. It was a great experience. It was learning and sharing experience.


Q- There are news doing the rounds that you intend to direct a film. Tell us about that.
A- Yes, I desire to direct a film but at this moment my priority is acting.
Q- What are your upcoming films?
A- Mumbai cutting, Shyam Benegal’s ‘Abba Ka Kuan’, ‘Rishtoon ki Mashin’ are few of my upcoming projects.


Q- What is the reason behind back-to-back release of some of your films?


A- Indeed exactly, Love Khichdi and Shadow were back-to-back releases and in both of the films I played a completely different roles. Talking about “Mohandas” gives dimension to my acting capability.

Laxity and touts rule at Delhi passport office

By Nakshab Khan
LAXITY IS not an unusual thing in government offices when it comes to serving the people. Tanvir Ahmad, a 60-year-old Haj aspirant whose Haj application is almost ready is worried that his passport has still not been delivered to him by the Delhi passport office and that the last date for submission for his passport to the Haj office (the entity overseeing those travelling on Haj) is August 31. “I have been visiting the passport office for the fourth consecutive day and getting just promises by the officials that my passport will be delivered in a week,” he said.

Counter number seven, where the Public Relation Officer (PRO) replies to passport queries, has a huge queue with no separate lines for ladies and senior citizens. Here, everyone huddles to get his number in first. And there is only one PRO office to reply to queries from the hundreds of applicants from Delhi and the nine districts of Haryana. Many of the applicants also complained about the rude behaviour of the concerned officials. Though the passport status inquiry of applicants are provided online, in most cases, the applicants have to report to the PRO to know about the actual status of their passport.

When asked about the problems faced by the passport applicants and the fact that there were no separate queues for ladies, the Regional Passport Officer (RPO) lamented the shortage of sufficient manpower and infrastructure. “We don't have enough manpower and infrastructure to create separate lines for ladies and senior citizens on counter number 7,” one of the officers said. “My online passport status shows that the police report is completed but it has not reached here and the authorities here have asked me to fill the police verification form afresh," lamented Soni Choudhary, a fashion technology student from Faridabad in Haryana.

Another applicant, 35-year-old washerman Balbir Singh from Sangam Vihar, who wishes to go to Dubai for a job had a similar story. “For the past 5 months I have been circling the office for my passport. They (officials) have written the wrong address in my passport and I am visiting the officials again and again to get my address rectified in the passport but nothing has happened,” Balbir said. The rude behaviour of the officials is also another problem for applicants. “Sometimes it happens that when we are standing in the long queue, the official concerned leaves their seat in between the work and comes back after a long time,” added Balbir.

Even though the government has opened an online application system for passports, few applicants know about it. Those who want to avoid the hassle of visiting the passport office again and again get trapped in the touts' nexus. Touts have a field day luring passport seekers, promising them hassle-free deliveries of passports by charging double or triple the amount the actual fees paid for the process. This indicates a brewing nexus between the passport officials and the touts.

On condition of anonymity, one of the touts said that they had helped the applicant to get passports without any bureaucratic hassles, though he said that he charged around three times the actual fees paid for passport for this convenience. And he said this was only possible with the help of officials sitting inside the passport office.

I will stick to comedy, says Rajpal Yadav

Nakshab Khan
New Delhi, Aug 13 Rajpal Yadav, known for his antics in films like "Bhootnath", "Mujhse Shaadi Karogi", says he doesn't have any plans to move away from his favourite genre.

"I will stick to comedy as along as I can... I'm not allergic to serious role. But comedy is the need of the hour... it works as a pain reliever and as a stress buster," he said.

"Comedy and comic roles should not be taken for granted as big Bollywood stars like Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar are doing comedy," he added.

Rajpal was in the capital Wednesday to promote his film "Yeh Mera India" with actresses Smilie Suri, Seema Biswas, Sarika Ghatge and Perizad Zorabian.

Releasing Aug 28, the film is directed by N. Chandra. It shows what is Mumbaikars' perception about migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and how majority of the population sees Muslims as terrorists.

"The film is an attempt to explore the real stories behind the headlines flashed on TV channels revolving around violence...," said Chandra.

"Europeans wake up to the fact that Israel probably is the biggest threat to world peace"

Written by Yvonne Ridley

Long gone are the days of Israel being regarded by the West as a plucky little country in danger of being driven into the sea.

And while most Europeans have now woken up to the fact that this man-made Zionist entity is probably the biggest threat to world peace, some of our American friends are still in a deep slumber over the cost of their friendship with Israel.

Of course if they really knew just how much Israel was draining the US Treasury, I think they would start to view Tel Aviv in a different light.

For instance it is one of the smallest countries in the world but it has the fourth largest army, an army that uses its weapons on women and children.

But it also ranked as one of the world's 40 wealthiest countries thanks to huge wads of US taxpayers' money which is thrown at Israel on a regular basis ... it actually works out at $50,000 dollars in aid per head of every Israeli citizen directly and indirectly.

Unbelievable but true: the Bush Administration gives more federal aid to the average Israeli citizen in one year than it gives to the average American citizen.

This expensive affair with consecutive White House administrations can be traced back to 1974 and congressional researchers have discovered that in the 15 years since then a staggering $16.4 billion dollars in US military loans were converted to grants.

Since 1992 the US has also offered an additional $2 billion dollars annually in loan guarantees ... but let's remember every single US loan to Israel is eventually written off by Congress. Now you know why it ranks 36 in the world's top economies.

But the chutzpah of Israel never fails to leave me gasping for breath. In particular I am referring to the proud, and often stated boast that it has never defaulted on a US loan. Well how the hell can you default when your 'Sugar Daddy' writes off the debt?

So all this money goes one way to Israel and there's no interest or payback ... unless you count 9/11 which is a terrible price for any civilian population to pay for its government's foreign policy.

According to Dr. Stephen Zunes, an assistant professor in the influential Department of Politics at the University of San Francisco while other countries receive aid in quarterly installments, aid to Israel since 1982 has been given in a lump sum at the beginning of the fiscal year, leaving the US government to borrow from future revenues.

Israel, he says, even lends some of this money back through US treasury bills and collects the additional interest.

In a recent report, the proessor also points out: "In addition, there is the more than $1.5 billion in private US funds that go to Israel annually in the form of $1 billion in private tax-deductible donations and $500 million in Israeli bonds. The ability of Americans to make what amounts to tax-deductible contributions to a foreign government, made possible through a number of Jewish charities, does not exist with any other country. Nor do these figures include short- and long-term commercial loans from U.S. banks, which have been as high as $1 billion annually in recent years."

Simply put, America gives around one third of its foreign aid budget to Israel even though this tiny state makes up 0.001 per cent of the world's population - put another way, it could disappear inside the Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Israel's citizens are among the wealthiest in the world, on a par just about with most European countries and way ahead of other Middle East citizens including Saudis, Syrians, Jordanians and Egyptians.

And, more importantly, these people are a lot better off than many American tax payers including the 50 million plus US citizens who can not afford basic health care, or the black men in Detroit who have a lower life expectancy than their counterparts in Bangladesh. Let's not forget expectant mums either, some of the infant mortality rates are higher than in latin American countries.

Imagine if the mega bucks thrown at Israel were invested in their own US citizens instead?

Even Israeli politicians are becoming embarrassed at the huge wedge they receive from America, and have been for many years. Why else would Yossi Beilen, deputy foreign minister of Israel and a Knesset member, pose the question: "If our economic situation is better than in many of your countries, how can we go on asking for your charity?"

As I said before, most American tax payers are not aware how much of their tax revenue their government sends to Israel, but let's just go through the figures we have available:

For the fiscal year ending in September 30, 1997, the US has given Israel $6.72 billion dollars: $6.194 billion dollars falls under Israel's foreign aid allotment and $526 million dollars comes from agencies such as the Department of Commerce, the US Information Agency and the Pentagon.

The $6.72 billion dollar figure does not include loan guarantees and annual compound interest totalling $3.122 billion America coughs up on money borrowed to give to Israel.

It does not include the cost to US taxpayers of IRS tax exemptions that donors can claim when they donate money to Israeli charities. This is not chicken feed, by the way, since donors claim approximately $1 billion dollars in Federal tax deductions annually. This ultimately costs other US tax payers $280 million dollars to $390 million dollars.

When grant, loans, interest and tax deductions are added together for the fiscal year ending in September 30, 1997, the American taxpayer's special relationship with Israel cost more than $10 billion greenbacks!

Since 1949 Uncle Sam's indecent affair with Israel has cost a total of $83.205 billion dollars. The interest costs borne by US tax payers on behalf of Israel are $49.937 billion dollars, thus making the total amount of aid given to Israel since 1949 $133.132 billion dollar bills.