Entertainment

Norwegian writer Yun Fossa has received the Nobel Prize for Literature for the year 2023.

The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize, has said that Yun Phosa's innovative (experimental) drama and prose give voice to those who cannot express themselves.

Born in the year 1959, Yun Phosa has so far written more than 40 plays, several novels, essays, children's books. Apart from these, he has also contributed in the field of translation.

Asha Parekh receiving the Dadasaheb Phalke Award just before her 80th birthday is a beautiful gift for her. His 80th birthday is on 2nd October. Whereas this time the National Film Awards ceremony has been fixed on 30 September 2022.

Hindi cinema's likable and highly successful actress Asha Parekh has done many memorable film in her film career. Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai, Tisari Manzil, Love in Tokyo, Do Badan, Upkar, Kanyadaan, On milo sajna, Kati Patang, Samadhi and Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki.

Here Asha Parekh getting this pinnacle award of Indian cinema for the year 2020 is an even bigger thing, because the Indian government has given the Phalke honor to a film actress after 37 years. The last time actress Durga Khote received this honor was for the year 1983, otherwise the Phalke Award has been mostly dominated by men.

While the Phalke Award originated with actress Devika Rani in 1969, when Devika was honored with the award at the 17th National Film Awards in 1970, it was later that men continued to receive the award.

IQRA (A novel)
By Firdaus Azmat Siddiqui

Reviewed by: Dr. Mohammad Aleem

It was a pleasant surprise when one fine day I received a message from the author of this novel through the messenger app that she wanted to send me a copy of her newly published book in Urdu, titled Iqra. I helped her how it could reach me in my remote village in North Bihar, where I have been living for many months at a stretch after a long gap of many decades. Finally, it reached through the Indian Post as it was much easier for a village like mine.

I started reading the book with interest. Female writers always attract me because I think they can offer themselves a better chance to penetrate their utterly mysterious lives.

Iqra is also the name of the main protagonist. It takes through a simple life journey of her, right from childhood to a teenage girl, and then her adult professional life as a teacher in a college.

This story starts in a middle-class family of the early 1970s and comes to the present time. In this whole journey of around 35-40 years, we pass through many events and incidents, mainly encircling around Iqra. How it was difficult to be raised in a conservative Muslim family then where tradition weighed heavily on modernism, and the girl's education was still a difficult choice to pursue in a family of old values.

Finally, she overcomes all hurdles with flying colors due to her grit determination to eke out her path of success.

The interesting part of the novel is her University days when Iqra struggles to get her Ph.D. admission. How so-called intellectual and haughty professors behave is a thing to observe. The moral and intellectual hollowness of this strange teaching community has been torn to shred boldly by the author. The situation was not as worse some forty years ago. But as the moral erosion sharpened, it slipped from good to worse.

The plot of the novel is quite linear and devoid of any dramatic twists and turns. But the author tried her best to keep it engaging due to its natural depiction of life. Characterization and dialogue delivery are good parts of it.

The language is simple but full of spelling errors. Sadly, it happens with Urdu books due to the lack of a professional publishing environment. No Urdu Wala even tries remotely to improve it. They are more than happy and content in their own confined and narrow world.

They feel pleased to see their books in print with their expenses.

It is ironic that a language of more than ten crore Indians cannot ensure a few thousand sales. It shows not only the weaknesses of our writing but the complacency of Urdu practitioners as well. Urdu needs a good publishing environment to move freely we find in English or other developed languages.

I congratulate the author for taking the pain to write this novel. I hope her other endeavors will be more worthy and carry out complexities as this literary genre demands.

I know Khalid Jawed much through personal acquaintances than his writings. I have no inhibition to claim that I had not read his other works earlier because when I devoted myself to English writing, I did not find much time to read Urdu and Hindi books for a long time. It is a kind of personal loss for me. But anyhow, I kept myself abreast with the Urdu writings somehow whenever I found time. And with that kind of effort, I could read this new book.

Khalid Jawed has written many books, mostly fiction. And as a fiction writer myself, I always like to read such new books. But unfortunately, Urdu doesn't produce high-quality works so often.

As I have found through his latest work, which I am discussing here, he writes much more about philosophical traits of life rather than telling simple day-to-day life stories. And in that pursuit, he starts playing more as a philosopher than a natural storyteller. I don't say that writing philosophically is not good, but at the altar of philosophy, if stories get sacrificed their basic features and characteristics of storytelling, then I think it is a loss.

He consciously weaves his stories and characters around bizarre-looking personalities. Such attempts make his writing much more complex and hard to understand for the general readers.

I come from the general category of readers who like to read stories much more for enjoyment and seeking intellectual pleasures rather than delving deep into mysterious minds with unusual eccentricities.

Urdu critics have a common problem. They either praise a literary work so copiously that they don't hesitate to go to the level of hagiography or diminish any writer to a level so low that it affects their moral courage and wisdom.

I found the critic's behavior toward Khalid Jawed egregious in the sense that it looks close to hagiography. One topmost critic claimed about one of his works that even the entire West could not produce such work as Khalid Jawed has produced. Here, I disagree with his views. That book might be of high quality. But to make it great, there is no need to diminish other great works. World literature, especially fiction, is full of worthy books, which could attract major literary awards. And unfortunately, not any Urdu book could reach any major literary awards of the world through its direct entity or translation in English.

Anyway, I came here to discuss his latest novel, One Charge of Dagger in the Water, not for comparison with others.

As the title suggests, it is much about water and the crisis related to it. Innumerable environmentalists have warned about the scarcity of water. Some even said that if the third World War ever happens, it will be over the freshwater. Many cities and towns have started facing this grave problem. Perhaps, Khalid Jawed got inspired by it and thought to present this issue through a novel. And his attempt should be praised.

But in pursuit of doing so, he produced a few eccentric characters, most importantly, the hero and heroine of the novel, whose uncanny and abominable habits look repulsive and degrading in most places. I don't say that only good habits of characters should be written and made inviting, but what can we get through the repulsive characters if they can not inspire others.

The main protagonist is a small builder by profession and always looks eager for such opportunities, where he can grab or buy disputed, unused, and barren lands to construct a commercial building. He even doesn't hesitate in grabbing graveyards if it suits his rough business.

''For many weeks, he was on rounds of the graveyards. Sometimes, in disguise of a worshipper or sometimes to find the grave of his friends or relatives. He wants to create the same kind of hidden mystery as it is in graves.''

He marries late and receives a wife with whom his relationship never looks loving and caring. Both live under the roof of their flat in a housing complex as two strangers. They most dislike and abhor one another. And to show their repulsive behavior against each other, Khalid Jawed writes those things, which I also found distasteful to read.

An observation about women is also quite uneasy and displeasing for a person like me who thinks, though, all women are not pretty, but God made them one of the most beautiful things in the world. Only a gay or misogynist can find men more handsome than women. I don't know about the sexual orientation of the writer, but I could understand only through the lines in this novel.

The story and plot structure of the novel is not complex. It is simple and weaves around a flat dweller of a society apartment, in which residents face scarcity of drinking water. And they face not only hardship but the illness of a grave kind like cholera, which not only makes many lives hell but pushes many of them towards death. Then, the story moves towards the causes and effects as to how it becomes a challenging issue for the people and the whole administrative system.

Finally, I could not read it line by line and page by page as it usually happens with a good book. It might be, some others would find it worthy and pleasurable to read. I wish success to the writer.
......
Reviewer: Dr. Mohammad Aleem, A national award-winning novelist, playwright, scriptwriter & journalist. You can reach with your valuable comments to the writer of this article through his email: drmohammadaleem1@gmail.com

The Modi government at the Center in India will bring a new law to regulate social media and digital content in the next three months. Law Minister of India Ravi Shankar Prasad and Communications Minister of India Prakash Javadekar announced this at a press conference in Delhi.

Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Social media is doing business in India, they have done good business and strengthened the Indian people. But at the same time there have been complaints of irresponsible use of social media for the last several days.

According to the Modi government, over the past few years, there have been many complaints on social media like promoting violence, sharing obscene content, using other country's posts, the government has brought new guidelines to deal with it and in three months it A law will be made for this.

What are the guidelines?

Explaining the guidelines, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Social media is divided into 2 categories, one intermediary and the other signifcant social media intermediary. We will soon issue a notification of the user number for this. ''

"If a complaint is made about the dignity of the users, especially the dignity of women, then the content has to be removed within 24 hours of making the complaint."

He said that the law of significant social media will be implemented in three months.

Apart from this, social media companies will have to make a grievance redressal mechanism and also make the name of the officer handling the complaints public. This officer will register the complaint in 24 hours and resolve it in 15 days.

He said that Significant Social Media will have to appoint Chief Compliance Officer, Nodal Content Person and a Resident Grievance Officer, all of which will be in India. Apart from this, they will also have to issue a report related to the disposal of complaints every month.

Account verification will be necessary

Modi government said, furthermore, to ensure that fake accounts are not created on social media, companies will be required to make the verification process mandatory.

Who has made a post on the social media platform, the company has to give this information on the court's order or the government's asking.

Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "On asking any court or government, they have to tell who started a post. If started from outside India then who started in India. This should be in relation to India's sovereignty, national security, relations with foreign states, rape etc. ''

However, social media companies have often argued that in order to provide such information, they have to break the end to end encryption and save the user's data, which would violate their privacy. End to end encryption means that no third (even company) can hear or read the conversation between two people.

In response to a question related to how the company can provide this information, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "We are not asking to break encryption, we are just asking who started it."

He cited some guidelines of the Supreme Court that these steps are necessary to prevent the spread of pornographic material, rape, gang rape videos. Apart from this, he said that many news reports of social media posts have also come out from outside the country.

Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the purpose of all these rules is to give more power in the hands of the people. Talking in detail on this, he said, "If a significant post is removed, the company will have to give a reason for it."

He said that all these things will be asked by the platforms to create a mechanism.

Ravi Shankar Prasad also gave users data on different social media platforms. According to him, there are 53 crores of WhatsApp in India, 44.8 crores of YouTube, 41 crores of Facebook, 21 crores of Instagram, 1.75 crores of Twitter users.

Also rules for OTT and digital platforms

Modi government will also bring legislation to regulate OTT platform.

India's Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said, "There will be a three-tier mechanism for the OTT platform. OTT platforms and digital media will have to provide information about themselves, and they will have to create a grievance redressal mechanism.

According to Javadekar, the government had earlier met OTT companies and asked them to create a self-regulation but they could not do so.

OTT and digital news platforms will have to provide their details as they work from where the new rules come. Apart from this, a portal will have to be created for redressal of grievances.

Javadekar said that like TV and print, a regulatory body will be created for digital, which can be headed by a retired judge or eminent person.

He said, "Just as an apology is made on TV for making a mistake, the same has to be done for digital."

Apart from this, the content will have to be classified according to age and will have to provide parental lock.

He said that where immediate action is required, a monitoring mechanism will be created at the government level for such cases.

Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput has committed suicide. Additional CP Manoj Kumar of Mumbai Police has confirmed the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput.

The reason for Sushant's suicide has not been revealed yet, but sources in Mumbai Police say that some medicines have been found from his flat, which suggests that he was undergoing treatment for depression for the past few months. So far no suicide note has been found from his room.

DCP Abhishek Trimukhe says that no suspicious items were found from Sushant Singh Rajput's house. We are waiting for the postmortem report.

Sushant's sister and friend have reached Cooper Hospital in Mumbai. Sushant Singh Rajput will be cremated on Monday. At this time, his father and family are waiting to come to Mumbai. Sushant's funeral will be attended by only close people due to the corona virus.

According to reports, when the door of Sushant's room was broken, he was found hanging from the noose in the room. The servant then called the police and informed them.

According to the police, Sushant Singh Rajput had made a noose in his room with a green cloth, hanging from which he committed suicide. His body has been brought to Cooper Hospital, where the autopsy will be done shortly.

As soon as the news of Sushant's death came, the whole Bollywood and his fans came in can. Crowd has gathered outside the society in which Sushant resided in Bandra. Many actors, politicians and fans are paying tribute to Sushant through social media.

His former manager, 28-year-old Disha Salian, committed suicide by jumping from a building in Malad on 8 June.

Bollywood celebs are also shocked to hear the news of Sushant's suicide. Akshay Kumar tweeted, 'I am very shocked and I have nothing to say. I had seen his last film Chhichhore and I told his producer Sajid how much fun I had watching this film. He was a very talented actor '.

Sushant Singh Rajput's ex manager Disha Salian committed suicide a few days ago. Sushant wrote about Disha in his Insta story, 'This is very sad news. My condolences to the family and friends of Disha. May your soul rest in peace '.

Last post written for mother
Sushant's last Instagram post was for his mother. He shared his photo with the mother, writing, "The past blurred with tears blurring, smiling and cherishing a fleeting life, the conversation between the two #mom".

Sushant's post was commented by many of his friends from the industry, including his alleged girlfriend Riya Chakraborty.

Sushant started his career with a show called 'Kis Desh Mein Hai Mera Dil', but he got popularity from Ekta Kapoor's show 'Pavitra Rishta'. After this Sushant entered films. He made his Bollywood debut with 'Kay Po Chhe' and his last film was 'Chhichhore'. He also acted in films like 'Shuddh Desi Romance', 'MS Dhoni: The Untold Story', 'Raabta', 'Kedarnath' and 'Sonchiriya'.

Sushant most discussed was the role of former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in his biopic. It was the first film in Sushant's career, which collected a hundred crores.

Sushant Singh Rajput did his early education at St. Cairns High School, Patna and his further studies at Kulachi Hansraj Model School, Delhi. After this, he completed mechanical engineering from Delhi College of Engineering.

The hit Turkish drama show from TRT, Ertugrul Ghazi, is now available in Urdu, dubbed by PTV | Pakistan Television Limited.

The hit Turkish drama show from TRT, Ertugrul Ghazi, is now available in Urdu, dubbed by PTV | Pakistan Television Limited.

During the coronavirus curfew, Turkish producers had found unique ways to keep filming to bring entertaining TV shows to audiences.

Bollywood's well-known actress Shabana Azmi has been injured in a car accident on the Mumbai-Pune highway. According to news agency PTI, Shabana has been admitted to MGM Hospital in Navi Mumbai.

The accident occurred around 4 pm on Saturday evening near Khalapur, 60 km from Mumbai. Raigarh SP Anil Paraskar says her car collided with the truck. The car has been badly damaged in this accident.

Shabana Azmi was returning to Mumbai when her car collided with the truck. According to the Maharashtra Traffic Police, the incident took place around 4 pm, two kilometers before the Khalapur toll booth. According to police, Shabana suffered injuries near her face, neck and eyes. She was sitting on the seat next to the driver.

Police say Javed Akhtar was in another car from behind and his car was not involved in the collision. Inspector Vishwajit Kaenzade of Khalapur Police Station told Hindustan Times, "Shabana's safari vehicle was driven by her driver and Javed Akhtar's Audi car was from behind. The driver was trying to overtake and while going ahead Shabana's car crashed into the rear of a truck.