Plastic bottles and pizza boxes are not safe anymore

We’ve been doing it for years and now they tell us that it’s not safe. Two separate “discoveries” in the last few weeks have revealed that those hard transparent plastic bottles and containers you use are toxic…and so is cardboard. Those cardboard boxes in which you get your pizzas delivered to your home could well be carcinogenic.

Some types of plastic containers are not safe anymore
The first piece of news was not reported in the Indian media as far as I know but Amit was kind enough to send me the link. The culprit here is the “odorless, tasteless chemical called bisphenol A” which is used in the manufacture of the transparent lightweight bottles.” From what I understand this chemical makes plastic more durable and harder. Well, such bottles/containers are widely used for storing drinking water and for feeding babies and I guess for sundry other things. This is what the article says:

…the US National Toxicology Program, part of the Department of Health and Human Services last week released a draft report on the chemical, saying there was “some concern for neural and behavioral effects in fetuses, infants, and children at current human exposures…”

As a result of this report major corporations in the US like Wal-Mart have pledged to stop the sale of baby bottles made with bisphenol A by next year. Nalgene, which makes these bottles has agreed to replace bottles containing bisphenol A bottles in stores. The Canadian government has taken a harder stand - it is banning the chemical from all baby bottles in the country.

I’ve written about unsafe plastics (of the kind which are not food-grade) but had no idea that even “food grade plastics” could contain dangerous chemicals. Whether the bottles we use in India for storing water contain this chemical or not I don’t know, but apparently most baby bottles have it. And unfortunately newborns and infants are most vulnerable according to the findings. Both the US Toxicology Program and Canadian expert opinion is that there appeared to be “a negligible effect” from bisphenol A on adults.

What harm does bisphenol A do?
The chemical has been linked (in animal studies) to “reproductive problems and possible cancers later in life” and apparently bisphenol A can also “contribute” to obesity if the person has been exposed to it as a fetus. However, what is the exact level of risk of ingesting this chemical? This is what David Ozonoff (professor of environmental health at Boston University School of Public Health) said (to the Boston Globe):

The truthful answer is that nobody knows…and because we don’t know, it’s prudent to avoid something that is avoidable.

I never really trusted plastic, never believed that it was a hundred percent safe…there were too many ifs and buts. In any case, how can anything so damaging to our environment be good for us?

All of us carry around bisphenol A
It’s not just baby bottles however. Hard plastic is used for packaging many products and we all buy them. Plastic is all pervasive. Listen to this:

A recent study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that about 93 percent of the US population had bisphenol A in their body. Infants and young children had higher levels than adults.

There is no chance that any such survey will be undertaken in India…not for another half a century at least! Far more dangerous colours and synthetic chemicals (banned in developed countries) are to be found in foodstuffs and packaging in India…who will care about the newly discovered dangers of bisphenol A?

PIzza boxes contain PFOS
Recent studies have shown Pizza boxes to contain Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) which is a carcinogenic chemical, classified as such by the US Environment Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board in 2006. It has been shown to “affect the liver, neonatal development, the immune system, and hormone levels.”
This chemical will be banned in packaging from October 2008 onwards “under the Stockholm Convention, to which India is also a signatory.” This will be a global ban but countries need to come to an agreement on it and agree to look for alternatives.

Not surprising to know that the European Union, which is always the first in these cases, has already banned PFOS. So has Mexico.

It has been known for some time now that toxic substances are present in pizza boxes. In Italian studies in 2006, chemicals like benzene, phenols and phthalates (known carcinogens) were known to be “probably released from the cardboard boxes.” These substances can migrate into the food, especially if a hot pizza (more than 60°C) is in direct contact with the box.

Well, I’m thinking our parents were wise. They used glass to store everything…from pickles and masalas to milk and water. Well, I use glass as much as possible but not for storing water. Now I’m wondering whether I should.

(The first two photos are mine. The third one, of the dominoes pizza boxes, has been taken from the dominoes (uk) site)

Related Reading: Metals and Toxins in food packaging
What the world is doing to stop plastics from degrading the environment
Check the weight of what you buy
Newsprint is unsafe to pack food in
Chemicals in our food

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An aerial view of Mumbai city

These are some of the photographs I took as we flew over Mumbai last month. The first set some I took from Spicejet, a low cost airline. The windows were awfully dirty and some of the photos are smudged.

The first photograph was taken after we had taken off from Mumbai and you can see that the plane was flying over some sort of railway yard…that is visible in the bottom half of the picture. A goods train, a local subway train as well as a train station can be seen in the lower left hand corner.

The next photograph is slightly clearer and looks like we were flying over some housing colony. The western express highway is visible on the right

This is a better view of the western express highway

I don’t know which slums these are but they appeared as we neared the sea

The next set of photographs were taken when we were landing in Mumbai (a few days later) from Kingfisher Airlines. The windows were cleaner and therefore I managed to get better photographs.

The first one is a little dull…but it is the Thane Belapur industrial belt and that is how it looked…dull brown, almost as if we were looking at the craters on the moon!

This one was taken as we approached Vashi. You can see Vashi bridge on the right of the picture and I have drawn a red arrow to point out Vashi station.

This photograph was taken just a minute after the previous one.

In another minute or so we were over the Eastern Express Highway. The road seen in the photograph is actually a flyover. If you look closely you can see the road below the bridge and the vehicles plying on it.

And then into Mumbai, most probably the eastern suburbs.

On the right hand side of the photo I think is either Vikhroli or Ghatkopar railway station.

The flight path of domestic airlines doesn’t take you over the fancy south mumbai skyline, which is what characterizes Mumbai and is the Mumbai that tourists usually see. I am publishing some south Mumbai pictures too…these photographs were taken at the end of last year.

This first photo shows the skyline of Malabar Hill, an elite area of Mumbai. In the foreground is Marine Drive, a place where people come and spend their evenings watching the sea.

In fact Marine Drive is the most famous and probably the most good looking road of Mumbai. It has been called “Queens Necklace” because of the way it curves…and also because at night when its lighted up it glows like a diamond necklace from the sky. There’s a picture which shows this very well…you can see it here (not my photo).

Recently Marine Drive had a make-over. The following photo was taken while the repair work on the sidewalks and seafront was on. You can see it underway on the right of the photograph.

The photograph below was taken a few months later when the repair work was over. Today Marine Drive has a spanking new look and is the pride of Mumbai city.

And this last photograph is of the famous Mumbai skyline - “Lands End.” The tall buildings are part of Nariman Point, which is Mumbai’s most expensive commercial area. The skyscraper facing you is the Air India building. Further down are the tall buildings of the naval establishment a Cuffe Parade, which is also another very posh area. Cuffe Parade has not just the Naval establishment, but also fancy hotels and fancy residential buildings. Malabar Hill is the only other residential address in Mumbai that is preferred.

Related Viewing: A photo-essay of a traffic signal in Mumbai
A slide show of a sunset in Mumbai
A make-over for Mumbai - photos
A few more Mumbai snapshots plus information on real estate costs in Mumbai
View all posts filed under the category of Photography
View all posts filed under the category of SlideShows
An email forward about the Mumbaikar in a nutshell

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Be careful before you enroll into that foreign course

Import of higher education into India is wonderful in itself because those who cannot afford to go abroad to get their degrees can get them here. However at times the foreign course that the student dreamed of can be a disaster. It fails because the course fails to take into account Indian conditions…in other words the course runs as if it is operating in the country of its origin.

It was quite disturbing to read that a Rs 4-lakh 2-year foreign degree course (offered by ICRI, India’s premier Clinical Research Institute and UK’s Cranfield University, U.K) failed 27 of its 551 students. One of the reasons for the disaster was that the course relied too heavily on the internet. There was a blackboard system on the internet from which the students had to take notes online. But not surprisingly the system never worked properly and could not be fixed either!

Another problem was the thesis. The students did not fare well in their thesis which was compulsory…”the foreign course required a research thesis of 20,000 words, to be completed in the last four months at the workplace.” This thesis accounted for 50 percent of the marks in the second year. Not only were the Indian students unfamiliar with how to write such a thesis, they were additionally disadvantaged as the thesis required them to source research data from corporates. As it says in a Times of India article (could not get the link):

The university did not understand that in India, while doing research, very few companies reveal their data to students and provide R&D facilities to them. Yet, many of the students were judged on the research part of the thesis…

Clearly, Cranfiled university failed to take into account that in India companies are secretive and not student friendly. Was it surprising then that so many students failed? Well, luckily the university is giving them a second chance…

But I cannot help but wonder if these foreign universities have done their own homework. Do they know anything at all about India? They should have known that students from a rural background in particular would find the course very tough, though even students from metros like Mumbai failed the course.

India has come a long way from the time when the government wanted to ban all foreign courses in India (about 10 years ago) as they were under the impression that it was something for the “elite.” Now that they have realised that it’s the middle classes who are gasping for higher education they’ve changed their mind. Not just that. The government has realised that:

…a liberal framework for foreign education providers would save India annually $4bn in foreign exchange. More than a lakh Indian students join foreign varsities to pursue higher studies every year. A number of foreign universities, including those from the US, the UK and Australia, are keen to set up shop in India.

However the government is not involved in monitoring the quality of the courses. There is a bill (the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill, 2007) regulating the entry and the operations of foreign educational institutions (FEIs) in India but it is mostly the fee structure that the government wants to control. The government has not prescribed any minimum standards that the institutes have to follow and the government will hardly care if the course is suited to Indian conditions or not. It’s up to the students to figure it all out.

(Photograph is by me and is a stock photo, not related to the university being written about. The second image is the shot of the article from the Times epaper)

Related Reading: 3 of the world’s top universities are Indian
New rules for those who want to open foreign universities

A song which inspires - a tag

Aikaterine tagged me for a writer’s tag. She said:

Think of THE song that most inspires you to write, whether it gives you an idea for a story, script or just puts you into a better frame of mind AND/OR peek into the lyrics and find a verse that sums up the theme of whatever project it is you’re working on. If possible, post a video of the song to convey to readers the full context of the song and the mood it puts you into. Finally, send the assignment to five other writers to do as well.

A wonderful tag, but the problem was that I could not think of one song. Too many pieces of music inspire to write and put me in the right mood. A lot of this is Indian instrumental (sitar, santoor). Not vocal, just instrumental. I love the violin too. This type of music increases my concentration and focus, makes me go inwards…thereby helping me write.

But if there one song, there’s one which has been an all-time favourite with me…and it does put me in the right frame of mind to write. I wouldn’t say it gives me ideas or inspires me as much as instrumental music does, but it does put me in the mood to write. It always has, ever since I heard it. The song is Time, by Pink Floyd. You can listen to it here.

Time - Pink Floyd

Aikaternie has asked me to tag five other writers…well I am tagging those I know to be writers and if there is someone I have missed it’s only because I don’t know if the person is a writer.

I have also tagged one person who is a cartoonist, and he will have to think of the song which inspires him to create a cartoon. Or perhaps he can make a cartoon of it. So here goes in alphabetical order and remember, don’t be under any pressure to do the tag. It’s absolutely okay if you don’t.

Anshul, Brian, Christine, Rambler, Suburban and Vishesh.

Anyone else who wants to is free to do the tag.

Thanks.

You are eating GM food but you don’t know it

Genetically modified foods may have a noble intention but since when have the means justified the ends? GM foods change the DNA of plants so that they become resistant to pests and thereby increase food production. They also reduce the usage of pesticides… all this to feed the starving millions. That was said tongue in cheek…because we know very well that big corporations are benefiting from the cultivation and sale of GM foods.

It’s terrible that we are tampering with the DNA of organisms, mutating them in labs into something “superior.” That is the stuff of science fiction and horror movies and should remain so! Well, at least until we find out the exact consequences of speeding up nature. There is hardly any data published on the “mid- or long-term toxicological studies with mammals.” If some countries have gone ahead with GM food it looks to me like they are more concerned with the financial health of companies rather than the physical health of people.

GM foods also pose a threat to the environment as an increase in “insect-free” plants could affect the bird population. In fact the possible devastating effects of GM food on our environment and on human beings are far too many for me to elaborate on here…but the information is available extensively on the internet. You can start from here or here.

What is disturbing is that the Indian government has chosen to ignore the risks. An amendment in September 2007 did away with import restrictions on GM foods…and is it surprising then that a few days ago there was news that food items containing genetically modified content were found in imported products in India? This was “discovered” after tests (conducted by Greenpeace) on randomly selected products from Delhi supermarkets revealed that PepsiCo’s Doritos Corn Chips contained “genetically modified Mon 863 and NK 603 variety corn ingredients”. But looks like Greenpeace doesn’t realise that it’s all quite legal. They believe that “…the presence of these products in the supermarket shelves proves that the regulatory system (in India) is in shambles. India seems to have become a dumping ground for genetically modified products that have been rejected due to their risk to health elsewhere…” Well, that may be true…but the bigger truth seems to be that GM foods do not require regulation in India.

There was news some months ago that the Indian government has “exempted” GM food from regulatory approval:

Order regulation will now be restricted only to GM products which can be grown, replicated (eg. Seeds). The notification has tremendous implication for the food processing industry which uses ingredients and additives made of genetically modified corn, maize and soya. Until now, producers and importers had to go through the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), the apex body for clearing all GMOs.

India is expected to regulate GM food…via the new Food Safety and Standard Act (2005-06)…but guess what, this Act may have been passed but it hasn’t yet been ‘Notified.’ What this means is that this new Act is yet to become operational! Well, consumer organisations are already up in arms about the GM food regulation being in limbo but is anybody listening?

In any case, even with the new law in force, GM foods are going to be freely available. All that the new Act will do is enforce labeling. But how many Indians will read the labels?? How many have heard of GM food? How many can make an independent assessment as to whether GM foods are safe?

I think it’s shocking that while there is a world wide controversy surrounding GM food, India has gone full steam ahead with it. Most countries in Europe don’t allow it.

However GM food is freely available in the United States and the US government doesn’t find the need to label foods containing GM content either. The situation in the US is this:

Big monopoly corporations in countries like the US and Canada, who control the food industry and are looking for new markets, are the ones that are pushing for the introduction of GM foods. In the US, 80 per cent of all corn, 90 per cent of soybean and more than 50 per cent of canola is from GM. There is no mechanism to find out approved and unapproved varieties.

And these corporations (who control the food industry in the U.S. and Canada) are looking for new markets. Now that Europe is shutting its doors on them they are turning to underdeveloped countries like India.

Sure, India could benefit if it cultivates GM food on a large-scale. We are not yet self-sufficient in food. In spite of being the world’s second-biggest wheat producer we bought 5.5 million tonnes of wheat in 2006 and 1.8 million tonnes last year. We import 40 percent of our edible oils and now a shortage of rice has compelled the government to regulate rice exports. However, an article by Devinder Sharma (former visiting fellow at Cambridge University) gives an interesting perspective…he says that cultivation of GM food will not remove hunger. But whether it does or not, we cannot think short-term. We have to think of the long-term health of our people.

In the absence of our government looking out for us, we need to do it ourselves. The following products could possibly contain GM content because they might have used imported soy, maize, corn and canola derivatives. So until the labels are on and we are sure, let’s be cautious about buying these foods . Those prone to allergies should avoid them as many GM foods have been shown to cause allergies.

• Infant formula
• Cereals
• Mayonnaise
• Crackers and chips
• Salad dressings
• Soya sauce or even tomato sauce
• Some edible oils
• Some candies
• Ice-cream
• Frozen yoghurt

What is scary is that now India is growing genetically modified vegetables. Brinjal is India’s “first expected GM food crop.” Field trials of GM brinjal started in August 2007 and for all you know the brinjals you are eating may have genetically modified content. There are also indications that the potatoes available in India are genetically modified…but no one knows for sure. And are you ever going to find out? I can’t imagine our government making labelling of potatoes mandatory…they have decided to feed us GM food and we have little choice in the matter.

(Photo credits: Cornfield from Natural News and corn chips from ndtv)

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Iron Man - Movie Review

Iron Man has been released in India at the same time as the rest of the world. Great huh. Well, that’s what the Hollywood biggies do when it comes to action films…they expect them to do well in markets such as India. The movie has made an impact in just one weekend in theatres across U.S and Canada and there is no reason to think that the producers will be disappointed with India.

The movie (directed by Jon Favreau) is a cinematic adaptation of Marvel Comic’s superhero and is just what we wanted to take us away from the now stale (and boring) masked heroes flying around.

This one seems is for real. Iron Man’s super heroism is not in his genes like in the case of Superman or Spiderman. He builds it. Reminds one of another superhero - “The Mask” although the mask has magical powers. The armoured suit that Iron Man dons has no magical powers…it is an engineering feat, a machine that needs to be powered.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is the “billionaire industrialist” and “genius inventor” who builds such a suit machine. It all starts when he is on a trip to Afghanistan to test the weapons made by his company. He is kidnapped and imprisoned in a cave but genius that he is, he manages to escape by building a hi-tech armoured suit powered by a gizmo which gives superhuman strength and does strange things like fly. One is not sure how exactly Tony builds the thingmajig though..but then this isn’t SF. It’s adventure.

The beginning seems a bit slow specially if one expects to find a flying superhero in action from the start. The first half is more about Tony the inventor and Tony the person. I think the director builds up well to the scenes where Tony finally emerges in his superhero suit…to want to save the world.

Enemies lurk everywhere…from the United States Air force and the Security Agencies who want to know what exactly he is up to, people in his own company who want to stop him on his “self-destructive” path and the goons in Afghanistan. It does seem as if the whole world is against him…but then he has Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) his executive assistant. Beautiful and efficient she is someone he seems to be secretly in love with but his philandering ways leave no room for any romance…I think this has been saved for the sequel which is sure to be out.

The acting is superb all round. Robert Downey is brilliant as the unpredictable, emotional genius. Paltrow is good too although I didn’t like the way she looked. Too thin.

The movie is technologically brilliant and even though we are now used to Hollywood finesse, one is impressed. And why not, considering that Iron Man cost $135 million to make.

I think there was some censoring of scenes in India. A bedroom scene just whizzes by and one isn’t even sure what happened! And there are other scenes which must have been cut. The movie is 126 minutes long but our experience at the PVR multiplex was that the movie started around six p.m (or six ten?) and by eight p.m. we were all trooping out of the theatre, after the credits were over. If one takes about 10 minutes for the interval, then at least 15 minutes of the film have been chopped. A pity.

If you love action movies this isn’t one that you can miss. It’s the best.

Related Reading: Khuda Ke Liye Movie Review
More movie reviews of some of the latest movies.

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The internet can make our private lives public but most people don’t care

When I started blogging I was quite sure I wouldn’t be posting anything personal on the internet. What I didn’t bargain for was the comments I made on other blogs. Before I knew it I found myself chattering away on various blogs, inadvertently revealing myself in bits and pieces. Bits and pieces? I think I must have left my biography out there on the internet!

Strangely, I am not as worried as I should be even though I know that it’s not just my blogger friends whom I am talking to but a host of strangers…lurkers?

Well, I am not alone. A survey says that most internet users today (60 percent) are not really concerned about the amount of information they leave online and most of those who do worry (38 percent) do not take serious steps to limit it. Overall, almost 80 percent of internet users don’t try too hard to limit the information they leave online, even if some of them worry about it.

And this tendency (to be more open on the net) is increasing over the years.

This survey was done in the United States about six months ago amongst 1,623 internet users and my feeling is that perhaps users in India would be more cautious…but I think the trend here is clear to see…as time goes by internet users are becoming less cautious about revealing themselves…and newer platforms are springing up everyday which tempt users to do so.

First lets take those who don’t worry about the amount of personal information available about them online - the 60 percent.
Out of this group, 43 percent say they do nothing to limit the amount of personal information available about them online. The other 17 percent say that while they don’t worry, they do “limit” the amount of personal information they give out. This group as a whole “actively uploads content.”

Now lets take those who do worry about the personal information about them available online - the 38 percent.
If we break this group up we get 18 percent who say they worry but don’t do anything to limit the information they give out. Only about 21 percent try to “proactively limit” the amount of personal information they upload.

So overall if we look at internet users, less than a quarter actually try to limit the information they give out on the internet. Well, it follows that very few people would actually monitor their online presence with any regularity…in fact of those who do, only 3 percent say they do it on a regular basis and 22 percent say they do it “every once in a while.” The rest have done it a couple of times, that’s all.

So if this survey is accurate, it means that almost 80 percent of internet users don’t try take any serious steps to “limit” information available about them on the internet. And therefore it’s not surprising that not many of us try to find out how much information is out there about ourselves.

Out of those who did search for their digital footprint (47 percent of internet users), a quarter (21 percent) of the self-searchers were surprised at the amount of information available about them online while 62 percent expected to find what they did. But 13 percent felt surprised that there wasn’t more information available about them online.

However, others are trying to find out something about you! 53 percent of internet users look for information about others…their friends, relatives or romantic interests!

• 9 percent of online adults have checked out someone they are dating. More women than men do this.
• 11 percent have done it to check out prospective employees.
• 19 percent have searched for information about co-workers, professional colleagues or business competitors.
• However a large proportion of those (36 percent) who search for information about others do it to locate someone from their past.

Well, that does give one an eerie feeling doesn’t it…to know that once you put something out there on the net, it is completely out of your control. And it will be available there for years afterwards! A New York Times article says that if these trends are anything to go by “a time will come when nothing that is said online will be treated as embarrassing because we will have become accustomed to everyone disclosing everything.”

No privacy anymore? Sure, strangers may not come up to me and tell me they know what my favourite colour is or what side of the bed I prefer or what I think of when I wake up…but well, they can easily find out. I wonder if that makes you feel as strange as it does me.

Related Reading: Cyber Stalking - the most common cyber crime
Censorship on students using Social Networking sites in India
The Dark side of the Internet
More articles on the Internet

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Summary Posts of the past week

Khuda Ke Liye - Movie Review It has been almost a month since its release in India and the Pakistani film Khuda Ke Liye (In the name of God) isn’t doing too well…However, it’s worth seeing. It’s original. It’s bold. It’s very brave as well as it tackles the relationship between moderate Muslims and the extremists and it’s coming from a deeply religious country like Pakistan. Sure, the film’s production quality could do with improvement and the story could have been less melodramatic and it should not have had the many stereotypical characters that it did. Despite these faults, the movie is…

Are all India’s 8 north-eastern states disturbed areas? Did you find something odd in the above news that the northeastern states have surpassed Jammu and Kashmir in insurgency-related violence and civilian casualties? Well, I did. First, I wondered why one state was compared to seven…or rather eight…

A blogging tag about some favourite things Nova and Suda both tagged me for this meme and well the way the tag is raging round, I guess I better do it before there is no one left to tag. In fact that has already happened I think…so here is my list…

The uniqueness of Goa captured in pictures A lot has been written about Goa and a lot of photos are out there. I thought I would share something different…I also thought I would use this opportunity to bust some myths of Goa…One is that Goa is conservative. As conservative as the rest of India…The Goa of the beachcombers, of the hippies who discovered Baga in the early 70s, of the rave parties, of paedophilia, of decadent hedonism is just a tiny strip of beach between…

Will we ever get used to seeing flesh? The brouhaha stirred up by the bare flesh and athletic dancing of the imported (mostly American) cheerleaders at the IPL matches is over. The politicians demanded that the girls cover up or quit and well, they’ve covered up. Two questions remain. Why so much fuss over the girls’ scanty clothes and relatively little over the fact that these girls were eve-teased and subjected to lewd remarks? And why were the people who made these remarks not hounded out of the stadium by security…

BRT in India - how great concepts can get ruined The skeletons are tumbling out of the closet now that the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) has fallen flat on its face in Delhi and is creating massive traffic jams. The concept is a great one but it has been pushed through in a hurry and implemented badly. The culprits people experts behind BRT are from IIT Delhi….The Delhi government was impressed because they were shown “a list of 80-odd countries where BRT has succeeded.” Surely they should have known that imported ideas need to be tailored to India?

Khuda Ke Liye - Movie Review

It has been almost a month since its release in India and the Pakistani film Khuda Ke Liye (In the name of God) isn’t doing too well – a pity as this is first Pakistani film to be released here after 4 decades. It was a holiday but the theatre was half empty. I could see audiences flocking to see U Me Aur Hum. Well, I guess I was one of them because I saw U Me Aur Hum before Khuda Ke Liye. There are other movies I have seen in the past few weeks (Race and Krazzy 4) and I wondered why I didn’t go for Khuda Ke Liye instead as it beats all of them hands down.

It’s original. It’s bold. It’s very brave as well as it tackles the relationship between moderate Muslims and the extremists and it’s coming from a deeply religious country like Pakistan. Sure, the film’s production quality could do with improvement and the story could have been less melodramatic and it should not have had the many stereotypical characters that it did. Despite these faults, the movie is gripping. There is also a strong and not-so-subtle message in the movie – that Islam isn’t about terrorism. And nor is it about forced marriages.

I think I can understand why people in India are reluctant to see it. They probably feel the movie delivers sermons about Islam (it does) and that the film is depressing. Well, it isn’t all that depressing as the movie ends on a note of hope and the sermonizing is limited. Another reason why the Indian audience has not rushed to see the movie could be because the film lacks Indian stars except for Naseeruddin Shah, and well, he is hardly a box office draw nowadays.

The director, Shoaib Mansoor (first time director) has told a story that’s dramatic enough…enough to please Bollywood lovers. Forbidden love and forced marriages is what it deals with as well as the clash between traditional values and western values…the theme of many of our own movies. There is even plenty of music to keep one entertained…

The story takes place in three locations… in the U.K. (London) where we are introduced to Maryam or Mary (model Iman Ali), who is born and raised there…in Pakistan (Lahore), where two musician brothers, Mansoor (actor Shaan) and Sarmad (Fawad Afzal Khan) live…and the United States (Chicago), where Mansoor goes to study music in the year 2001, the same year the twin towers in New York are attacked.

The movie opens with the independent Mary and her clash with her father over her British boy-friend. The viewer is also taken to Pakistan to familiarise him with the two musician brothers and we are shown how the younger one (Sarmad) gradually falls under the spell of an evil maulvi (cleric). Soon, the elder brother (Mansoor) leaves for the U.S. to study and there meets and falls in love with an American girl…

The tragedy begins to unfold itself almost immediately as Mary’s father tricks her into going to Pakistan and there arranges her marriage with her cousin Samrad. By then Sarmad has completely alienated himself from his family and goes to Afghanistan to take part in military training.

The most moving part of the whole movie is the plight of Mansoor who is wrongly arrested by investigators of the 2001 terror attacks in New York. It is most moving because it is shot well and in great detail. And then there is Shaan’s fabulous acting. In these scenes American investigators have been demonized and there is also a veiled criticism of the westernized modern Pakistani (like Mansoor) who loves America.

Mary’s plight is equally moving but her terror was not portrayed that well.

Overall I didn’t like the ending because the evil doers in the movie are not punished. What was the message in that? That this is reality?

I was really surprised that the director felt that a grown man like Sarmad was not to be held responsible for his actions. It’s not as if Sarmad had been abused in childhood or had undergone any other trauma or was otherwise vulnerable. He is shown as an educated man with a loving family and therefore if he got caught in the terrorist net, he has to take some of the blame at least! Even the other perpetrators - whether the investigators who bungle up where Mansoor is concerned, the maulvi who influences Sarmad, or Mary’s selfish father – are not punished…not by the law.

However there are many things in the movie that make it worth a see. Something that Naseerudin (who plays the good maulvi) says about religion that stayed in my mind. He said that the external manifestations of religion like the way one dressed are not important…it’s the way one lives that is far more important. He said that many evil people don these external garbs (as it’s easy!) that symbolize religious faith but are actually evil people. It is far more difficult to lead a pure life and that is what one must aim for. There are many things that are said by him which is an education for non-Muslims.

If you are interested in the conflict between Islam and the rest of the world, then this movie is worth a see, particularly because it comes from Pakistan, a religious country. For a first-time director I think it’s a wonderful attempt because it is an honest movie.

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