“As events unfold, I believe that people everywhere will become convinced of two things about our corporation: First that our operations and technology are in the hands of competent managers who care about their responsibilities and about their fellow men. Second that Union Carbide has substantial strengths, which are helping us now and will add value to the corporation in the years ahead” wrote Mr. Warren M. Anderson, chairman of Union Corporation, in a letter to his shareholders on January 25, 1985, after the gas tragedy at Bhopal.

The visit to the plant of a safety auditor, Mr. Hull. Was followed by another safety surveyor Mr. G.E. Merryman, director, shares, of Agricultural Products. Company, a division of Union Carbide Corporation. He also drew the attention of Carbide’s “competent managers” towards the imminent danger of toxic release. And he was more precise and strong in his recommendations. His report was forwarded to the Bhopal plant by Mr. R. Natarajan of Union Carbide (Eastern), Hong Kong. The letter dated December 9, 1980 asked the Bhopal management with local authorities; need to be discussed between UCC/UCE/UCIL management before proceeding with such plans”. The quarterly status reports filed till October 25 1982 on the subject contained the same answer to this particular recommendation of Mr. Merryman. Copies of the status reports were sent at regular intervals to UCIL, Bombay, and UCE and the UCC, US. Subsequent events adequately prove that no discussions even took place and not even a single member of the management, right from UCIL to UCC to UCE, bothered to look into this vital safety matter.

Carbide, fearing that it might be asked to wind up its Bhopal plant, did not reveal the information. This attitude on its part which was guided by commercial considerations is understandable. But the Government’s inability to detect it cost Bhopal dearly. Apart from the above recommendations, Mr. George Merryman made observations on a number of other issuer in his report.

Commenting on the medical facilities at the plant. he wrote, “Good medical facility. Two knowledgeable doctors, short of equipment. The physicians are confined to planning and first aid work”.

“Compliance with safety procedures is a local issue”, said Union Carbide’s chairman, Mr. Warren M. Anderson, at a news conference called to release a report on the accident at Bhopal. “That plant should not have been operating without procedures being followed”. With this he asserted that the Indian subsidiary bears the legal responsibility for the accident.

The above statement creates the impression that UCC did not have any knowledge about the safety violations at its Bhopal plant. While the responsibility, of course, will have to be shouldered by the Indian management. UCC cannot get rid of it by pleading innocence. How could Mr. Warren Anderson make such a statement when both UCC. And UCE were sent quarterly status reports and they had copies of the reports given by Mr. Hull and Mr. Merrymen. The 1982 report of Mr. Poulson, Mr. Tyson and Mr. Kail also pointed towards deficiencies in the required safety measures.

Unless the UCC and UCE management deny having seen these reports what did they do about them? Since no action was imitated. The only inference that can be drawn is that they chose to suppress the recommendations, particularly the one about preparation of an evacuation plan.

The story does not end here. The UCC management seems to have adopted different approaches to the safety measures adopted for the Bhopal plant and its plant at West Virgina, USA. While it did not react to UCIL’s suggestion that an evacuation plan for Bhopal needed discussions between the three-tier systems of carbide management, it claimed to have a plan of some sorts for the residents of West Virgina, though without any satisfactory method of evacuating the residents.

In a field hearing conducted by Mr. Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the House sub-committee on health and environment of the US Congress, Mr. Warren Anderson and other company executives were questioned along with local government officials and residents of institute, West Virginia, about the emergency planning for area residents in case of any toxic release there.

Mr. H.J. Karawan, manager of the local plant, told the committee that in case of threat of disaster, the plan included a stream whistle to alert residents, telephone calls to the state police and a national weather station and communication by the police with emergency agencies such as hospitals.

Dick James, a union representative told the committee,” A proposed evacuation plan is to put a wet cloth over your face and go crosswind.”

The Kanawha valley, better known as ‘chemical valley’, where one of the two huge carbide complexes producing methyl isocyanides is situated, also had an evacuation plan.

Earl Wolfe, state director of the vocational rehabilitation Center, located next to the chemical facility, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that “We have a good evacuation plan. But with what happened in India, causes all of us concern”. The rehabilitation center practices evacuation drills once a month. And carried out one in real earnest a few years ago when hydrogen chloride leaked from a nearby tank car, reports the journal.

Dick James, a union representative told the committee,” A proposed evacuation plan is to put a wet cloth over your face and go crosswind.”

The Kanawha valley, better known as ‘chemical valley’, where one of the two huge carbide complexes producing methyl isocyanides is situated, also had an evacuation plan.

Following an alleged ‘secretive, high-handed’ decision by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Bhopal’s toxic waste is now heading towards Mumbai.

According to sources, the CPCB is surreptitiously trying to dispose of the pollutants in the premises of a waste management company in Taloja, Navi Mumbai, but the area gram panchayats have come together in stiff opposition against the move.

Nearly 346 tonnes of hazardous waste from the Bhopal gas tragedy site is awaiting disposal for the past 27 years.

According to sources, after being rejected in Pithampur (Madhya Pradesh), Ankleshwar (Gujarat) and Nagpur (Maharashtra), the CPCB has now decided to despatch 10 metric tonnes of the toxic waste to the Mumbai Waste Management Limited in the MIDC area of Taloja.

The waste will be burnt in the company’s compound.

But as soon as the news broke out, the residents of neighbouring villages came together to oppose the move.

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The gram panchayats of Ghot, Nitlas, Siddhi Karvale, Koynavele and Tonder – which are located around the company’s premises – held joint meetings to decide the course of action.

They also took up the matter with the local environment authorities. Environment activists, who have consistently opposed the toxic waste disposal in any location with human population, are angry with the CPCB decision.

‘The waste from Bhopal includes the hazardous halogen nitrate compound and chlorinated organic chain.

‘Burning it could result in poisonous dioxine fumes that can result in cancer and deformities in future generations, besides respiratory and nervous disorders,’ an expert said.

On three previous occasions, the CPCB had tried to dispose of the waste in Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh, Ankleshwar in Gujarat and Nagpur in Maharashtra.

However, environmental activists and local residents have put paid to the CPCB’s attempts, citing the hazards of these toxic substances.

In 2008, while Indore was under curfew following communal riots, the state government had smuggled out 40 tonnes of toxic waste from the Union Carbide factory to an incinerator in Pithampur, 230 km away.

In 2010, after visiting the TSD (treatment, storage and disposal) incinerator facility in Pithampur, Dhar district, environment minister Jairam Ramesh had apologised to the people for the government’s action and termed it ‘wrong’.

In May 2011, Ramesh said the DRDO could ‘easily destroy’ the waste material without posing any threat to the environment.

On July 12 the same year, the Jabalpur High Court had directed 350 tonnes of the waste to be incinerated at a DRDO facility 30 km from Nagpur.

The Vidarbha Environmental Action Group (VEAG) had to move the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court for a ban on the Jabalpur High Court’s decision.

The Nagpur bench stayed the entry of 346 MT of toxic waste from the Union Carbide factory site to Nagpur and directed the state government, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and the petitioners to file an intervention petition at the Jabalpur bench.

The MPCB then refused the toxic waste that was to be brought to the DRDO facility, saying it had not been functional for over two years and was illequipped to destroy the waste.

The poisonous chemical waste is still potent to cause a series of serious, even fatal, ailments.

Bhopal: The observance of the 27th anniversary of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the world’s worst industrial catastrophe, which was marred by violence for the first time in more than last two-and-a-half decades has left the victims and survivors of the disaster bitter. Thereafter, the blame game has started as to who triggered violence leading to injuries to several people including elderly women gas victims and police and district personnel along with a dozen vehicles being torched.

The survivors have blamed the police of unleashing brutality on them in the shape of cane-charging, lobbing of teargas shells and firing in the air to disperse them who were staging a peaceful “Rail Roko” (Train Blockade) on December 3 last. The “Rail Roko” was organized as scheduled last under the banner of five NGOs working for their welfare at six spots in the city from Nishatpura to Berkhedi in deference to their long pending demands of adequate compensation, rehabilitation and proper medical facilities to all the victims’ kin and survivors of the tragedy. In this respect they have been pestering the Madhya Pradesh State Government and the Union Government to submit the correct figures of the dead and the injured in the curative petition pending in the Supreme Court of India. The government snubbed even the findings of the Indian Council of Medical Research, (ICMR), and followed the guidelines of the Union Carbide, the killer pesticide plant from where poisonous gas spewed out, in calculating the death and injuries figures.

The survivors are aghast at the government stance. According to NGOs working for the cause of gas victims, 22,917 people had died till the year 2009; 5,08,437 people became permanently disabled and 33,781 others sustained severe injuries. However, Government records show only 5,295 deaths, 4,902 with permanent disability, 35,455 with temporary disability and 527,894 with minor injuries.

Condemning the violence, the group of five NGOs said that it was precipitated by police action on “peaceful” protestors, announced at a joint Press conference that they will organise a detailed enquiry presided over by a retired judge of the High Court or Supreme Court. The enquiry is expected to help survivors in their attempts to gather evidence and initiate formal proceedings against those responsible for the violence, including the police.

However, the survivors’ groups were on the back-foot as they apologised to the media persons who were hurt, and said they will work towards ensuring that those responsible for the violence against media persons are identified and punished.

At the Press conference the media persons, especially those belonging to electronic media and photojournalists who became victims of mob violence, were up in arms of being put on the mat when they were targeted while covering the “Rail Roko” stir. They complained that their vehicles were burnt down, cameras & OB van damaged apart from being inflicted bodily harms on them when hell broke down after police started dragging elderly women and resorted to cane-charge, tear-gassing and air-firing to clear the rail tracks to resume train traffic on the New Delhi-Chennai and New Delhi-Mumbai route. This infuriated peaceful protesting tens of thousands of gas victims, especially the youth, who vent their ire by indulging in heavy stone-pelting and arson. The police apart from baton charge also retaliated with pelting of stones on the crowd in tit-for-tat fashion which is authenticated by photographs taken during the violence. In the melee that ensued several people including police and district officials were injured. About a dozen vehicles were torched.

Denying that the “Rail Roko” agitation was a “seditious activity” the organizations asked the government what administration was doing when they had informed it about blocking of train traffic more than a month ago. Secondly, they also said: “ Had we been violent we would have created the same scene at all the six places where we blocked the train traffic”.

Replying to a volley of questions Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, (BGIA), said: “We conducted the training so that the agitation remains peaceful and even administration knew about it”.

Calling the Madhya Pradesh Government’s actions vindictive, the organisations laid the blame squarely on the police for the violence that ensued on December 3. “The first act of the police was to snatch away our PA system through which we could have stopped protestors from responding to police brutalities through violence,” said Ms Rasheeda Bee, President, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh. Ms Rasheeda Bee said that she is an eye witness to the police instigating violence and creating a situation for criminal elements to join in.

Ms Rasheeda Bee introduced several women among the over 50 gas victims who were beaten with sticks and left bleeding while protesting peacefully. Even after peace was restored and the agitation called off, a large gang of policemen entered individual homes and shops in Umrao Dulha Bagh area and beat up people, damaged furniture, doors, windows and vehicles.

The representatives of five organizations viz. Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Group for Information & Action and Children Against Dow Carbide, who gave the call for “Rail Roko” agitation, jointly addressed the Press conference.

Angry response

Meanwhile, a 15-year old boy Daoud has been seriously injured in hospital and may lose his hand after it was badly mangled by a rubber bullet fired by police. It happened at Berkhedi, one of six places where the survivors lay down on the tracks to stop trains. The attack on the women drove the younger boys and men to a fury and they began throwing stones at the police, who responded by throwing stones back at them. The police then fired rubber bullets directly into the mass of survivors on the tracks. This is when Daoud’s hand was injured.

Attack on elderly women and men

Among the survivors in this place were several older women, among the Goldman Prize co-winner and co-founder of the Chingari Trust, Ms Rasheeda Bee (55). Police attacked her with cudgels and fists. Her brother in law, coming to her aid, had his leg broken in three places.

Among the other older ladies attacked by police with cudgels were Ms Hazra Bee, a grandmother whose grandchildren suffer serious birth defects, Meena Khatoon with bandages on forehead and nose and swollen face, and Bano Bee (60), whose hand is badly bruised and swollen. In 2006 in Delhi, Ms Bano Bee was knocked unconscious by a police kick to her ribs. In hospital she was threatened being cut open. The 18-year-old Ms Rafat was dragged along the stony ground till her skin was scraped off. Ms Nafisa was also beaten. Like Ms Rasheeda Bee and Ms Bano Bee, Ms Nafisa has twice walked the 500 miles to Delhi to register protest with the Central Government.

Until the police attacked the women the action had been peaceful. Pictures and footage from Berkhedi clearly show the police attacking with cudgels first, after which the situation grew increasingly violent. The protests passed off peacefully at the other five locations.

The organisations appealed to all citizens who had recorded the violence on December 3rd on their cameras and mobiles to send them the evidence for successful prosecution of police officials.

The Chief Minister has gone back on his assurance to initiate an independent and impartial investigation in to the incident of violence. Survivors and their children, including those who were not even present at the scene, are being charged with trumped up offences. Balkrishna Namdeo, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogi Sangharsh Morcha, has been charged with murderous assault and other serious offences without any evidence.

“If the police can present one single photograph, video or any other evidence to substantiate their charges against Namdeo, we will ourselves walk him to the jail,” said Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, (BGIA). The organizations called for immediate withdrawal of false charges on innocent gas victims and their children.

They said that the 14 men who are currently in police custody include those who were arrested while returning home from their workplace and were not present when violence broke out. “The men were stripped to their underpants, and beaten inside the police station where they were detained for well over 40 hours. These young men were not allowed to speak to their parents or lawyer and every right of an accused was violated,” said Ms Rachna Dhingra also from BGIA.

Meanwhile, the organizations opposed the Chief Minister’s recent demand for inclusion of 20 wards of New Bhopal in the gas-affected area. They said the demand did not have any scientific basis and would weaken the gas victim’s case for compensation fr0om Dow Chemical.

It may be recalled here that 40 tones of methyl isocyanate, (MIC – a highly volatile toxic chemical), gas spewed from the pesticide plant – owned by Union Carbide India Limited, (UCIL), a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), USA – in the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984. The gas leak killed 3,000 people instantly and more than 25,000 over the years and inflicting grievous injuries on countless others. Many were deformed for life and many children born with the toxic effect are sick and with congenital malformations. It also affected 100,000 people that night and estimates are that more than 500,000 continue to suffer till date.

हंटरवाली (1935)

राजकुमार केसवानी

यह एक ऐसी फिल्म की दास्तान है जिसमें एक साथ कई दास्ताने हैं. कुछ उस दौर की दास्तानें, कुछ लोगों की दास्तानें और कुछ अदभुत रिश्तों की दास्तानें. मतलब दास्ताने ही दास्ताने, मिल तो लें !.

तो यह बात है 1935 में रिलीज़ हुई वाडिया मूवीटोन, बाम्बे की स्टण्ट फिल्म ‘हंटरवाली’ की. फिल्म के लेखक-निर्माता जमशेद बोमन वाडिया यानि जे.बी.एच.वाडिया, पटकथा और निदेशक छोटे भाई होमी वाडिया, नायिका आगे चलकर होमी की होने वाली पत्नी नाडिया. और सबसे अदभुत नाम – संगीतकार जयदेव, जो इस फिल्म में संगीतकार नहीं बल्कि अभिनेता के तौर पर, वह भी नाडिया के साईड किक चुन्नू के रूप में, मौजूद हैं.

फिल्म में संगीत मास्टर मोहम्मद का और गीत एक विदेशी, जोसेफ डेविड, के लिखे हुए हैं. फिल्म की बात से पहले ज़रा इन गीतों की बानगी देख लें ताकि आपके दिल में कोई शक़-ओ-शुबहा न रह जाए कि ये जोसेफ डेविड ने कैसे गाने लिखे होंगे. तो पहले गीत का मुखड़ा है – हंटरवाली है भली, दुनिया की सुध लेत है. इसके बाद हैं – क्या नील गगन में समा शरद का छाया/ गुज़री वो बातें और वो फसाना बदल गया/ ज़मीनो-आस्मां की चक्की चल रही है / बदी का दौर गुज़रा, अब वक़्त नेकी का आया है. यह गीत-संगीत उस दौर के लिहाज़ से चल रहे ट्रेंड के मुताबिक ही थे और कोई उल्लेखनीय बात नहीं है. मतलब फिल्म चाहे रोमांटिक हो, धार्मिक या फिर स्टंट, गीत-संगीत का, खासकर गीत का, अन्दाज़ एक सा ही था.

यह बात ध्यान रखने योग्य है कि 20वीं शताब्दी के इस दौर में जब ‘हंटरवाली’ के निर्माण की योजना वाडिया बंधु बना रहे थे, उस समय दुनिया भर में दुनिया खुद को नए सिरे से ईजाद करने में लगी हुई थी. देश भर में ब्रिटिश हुकूमत के खिलाफ आज़ादी के आन्दोलन ने ज़ोर पकड़ लिया था. 26 जनवरी 1930 को कांग्रेस ने ‘पूर्ण स्वराज’ सम्बंधी प्रस्ताव पारित कर दिया था. नमक सत्याग्रह और सविनय अवज्ञा आन्दालनों के चलते अंग्रेज़ी सरकार का दमन चक्र तेज़ी सी घूम रहा था. भगत सिंह, राजगुरू और सुखदेव को फांसी हो चुकी थी(23 मार्च 1931). हिन्दुस्तानी अवाम अब खुलकर बर्बर, अत्याचारी हुकूमत से मुक्ति के लिए पूरी तरह उठ खड़ा हुआ था. ठीक इसी दौर में एक ऐसी फिल्म आती है जिसमें एक अत्याचारी वज़ीर के ज़ुल्मो-सितम और उससे निपटने को उठ खड़ी हुई एक औरत की कहानी है. इस कहानी और कहानी को प्राण देने वाली नाडिया के हैरत भरे कारनामों से अवाक लोगों ने जब होश सम्हाला तो हाल में तालियों की गूंज थी और टिकट खिड़की पर खनखनाते सिक्कों की.

फिल्म की कहानी एक ऐसे राजा की है जो अपने ही वज़ीर राणामल (सयानी ‘आतिश’) की कुटिल चालों का शिकार है. राजा कमज़ोर है और वज़ीर उसे एक मोहरे की तरह इस्तेमाल करता है और देश की प्रजा पर अत्याचार करता है. चारों ओर त्राहि-त्राहि मची है मगर कोई ऐसा नहीं है जो इस अन्याय और अत्याचार को चुनौती दे सके.

राजा की एक बेटी है माधुरी (नाडिया). शक्लो-सूरत से एकदम विदेशी बाला – सुनहरे बाल, एकदम खूब गोरा रंग, चेहरे से भारतीय नारी की स्थापित कोमल छवि की बजाय एक दृढ़ प्रतिज्ञता मगर पहनावा भारतीय साड़ी ही है. आदाबो-अन्दाज़ भी भारतीय हैं. यही माधुरी वज़ीर के बड़ते ज़ुल्मो-सितम के विरुद्ध एक दिन उठ खड़ी होती है. उसे इस बात का बखूबी अन्दाज़ है कि सेना सहित हुकूमत की हर चीज़ पर वज़ीर का कब्ज़ा है. वह ताकतवर है. ऐसे में उससे सीधे भिड़ना सम्भव नहीं. सो युक्ति से काम लेना होगा. और युक्ति बनती है – एक औरत दो रूप. पहला रूप है शहज़ादी जिसे दुनिया जानती है और दूसरा रूप है हंटरवाली का, जिसकी असलियत कोई नहीं जानता.

हंटरवाली बहादुर है. हाथ में हंटर है जो ग़रीबो पर अत्याचार करने वालों की खाल खींच लेता है. घोड़े को बिजली सा दौड़ाती है. ‘हे-ए-ए’ करती हुई ऊंची-ऊंची इमारतों पर एक जगह से दूसरी जगह कूद जाती है. सर पर टोपी, पांव में शिकारी जूते, आंखों पर नक़ाब और साड़ी की जगह चुस्त विदेशी निकर और शर्ट.

इस हंटरवाली की खूबी यह है कि जब-जब, जहां-जहां वज़ीर के लोग किसी ग़रीब, किसी मज़लूम पर ज़ुल्म करते हैं, अचानक प्रकट हो जाती है. दस-दस, बीस-बीस हथियारबंद सिपाहियों से अकेले दो-दो हाथ कर लेती है. उन्हें मार भगाती है और बदले में जय-जयकार पाती है.

वज़ीर राणामल हंटरवाली से परेशान है. वह उसे ढूंढकर सख्त सज़ा देना चाहता है मगर वह है कहां ? जैसे अचानक प्रकट होती है वैसे ही अचानक हवा में गुम हो जाती है. किसी को इसका कोई पता-ठिकाना नहीं मालूम.

राजकुमारी माधुरी, जिसके पिता को राणामल ने अगवा करवाया हुआ है, हंटरवाली के बारे में वज़ीर के सामने अनभिज्ञ बनी रहती है. वज़ीर को भी लम्बे समय तक माधुरी पर हंटरवाली होने का सन्देह ही नहीं होता, लेकिन एक दिन हर बात खुलकर सामने आती है. संघर्ष होता है. और जैसा कि फिल्मों में होता है, अछाई की बुराई पर जीत होती है. हंटरवाली की जय होती है और फिल्म ‘द एंड’.

फिल्म के इस ‘द एंड’ के बाद ‘हंटरवाली’ की कहानी खत्म नहीं बल्कि शुरू होती है. इस फिल्म के बाद नाडिया की दर्जनों फिल्में बनीं जिनके नाम ‘जंगल प्रिंसेस’, ‘सर्कस क़्वीन’ और ‘मिस फ्रंटियर मेल’ जैसे थे मगर उसकी पहचान हमेशा सिर्फ ‘हंटरवाली’ की ही रही. नाडिया को आज 75 साल बाद भी उसके असल नाम की बजाय ‘हंटरवाली’ के नाम से ही ज़्यादा याद किया जाता है.

इस नाम का जादू उस दौर में ऐसा चला कि जिन निर्माताओं को नाडिया बतौर हीरोइन न मिल सकी उन्होने ‘हंटरवाली’ के नाम की नकल कर ही काम चलाने की कोशिश की और कुछ लोग इसमें सफल भी हुए. अकेले 1938 में ही इस तरह की ‘चाबुकवाली’ , ‘साईकलवाली’, ‘घूंघटवाली’ नाम से फिल्में बन गईं. नाडिया के साथ भी बाद में ‘बम्बईवाली’ और ‘हंटरवाली की बेटी’ नाम की फिल्में भी बनीं हैं.

इस फिल्म में यूं तो और भी बहुत से कलाकार थे जिनमे बोमन श्राफ, जान कवास, शरीफा और मास्टर मोहम्मद भी थे लेकिन फिल्म पूरी तरह नाडिया के इर्द-गिर्द ही घूमती है. वज़ीर के हाथों सताए गए जसवंत की भूमिका में बोमन श्राफ एक जगह आकर नाडिया के साथ संघर्ष में शामिल हो जाते हैं फिर भी उनकी गिनती बाकी के साथ ही होती है.

आखिर ऐसी क्या बात थी कि वाडिया बंधुओं जैसे चतुर व्यापारियों ने अपने आपको इस क़दर नाडिया पर केन्द्रित कर लिया. इसकी भी एक दिलचस्प कहानी है. नाडिया और वाडिया की कहानी.

7 जनवरी 1908 को आस्ट्रेलिया के शहर पर्थ में जन्मी नाडिया, जिसका असल नाम मेरी ईवांस था, अंग्रेज़ पिता और ग्रीक मां की संतान थी. पिता हर्बर्ट ब्रिटिश सेना में थे. 1912 में उनकी पदस्थापना बम्बई में हो गई. 4 साल की मेरी जब अपने परिवार के साथ यहां आई तो फिर तमाम उम्र को यहीं की होकर रह गए. अलबता वक़्त के साथ एक ज्योतिषी की सलाह से वह मेरी से नाडिया ज़रूर बन गई.

कोई 12-13 बरस की उम्र से बैले डांस सीखने का शौक लगा तो उस दौर की मशहूर मादाम अस्त्रोवा के पास जा पहुंची. उनसे बैले की शिक्षा लेकर देश भर में अलग-अलग समूहों के साथ काम किया और फिर ज़रको सरकस में शामिल हो गई.

इसी जगत में जहां नाडिया अपने करतब दिखाकर वाह-वाही लूट रही थी, वहीं हालीवुड की मार-धाड़ वाली डगलस फैयरबैंक्स की फिल्मों से प्रेरित होकर वाडिया बन्धु फिल्में बना रहे थ. 1934 में योग बना और दोनो साथ-साथ हो गए. बड़े भाई जमशेद के मन नाडिया को लेकर हालीवुड की एक्शन फिल्मों के ‘लेडी वर्शन’ की तमन्ना जाग गई. यह काम इतना आसान न था. नाडिया के पास स्टंट करने का साहस तो भरपूर था मगर बाकी सारी चीज़ें उसके विरुद्ध जाती थीं. एक तो उसका विदेशी रंग-रूप और दूसरे उसकी भाषा.

1935 में ‘हंटरवाली’ से पहले वाडिया ने नाडिया को अपनी दो फिल्मों ‘देश दीपक (1934) और फिर ‘नूर-ए-यमन’ (1934) में छोटी-छोटी भूमिकाए देकर दर्शकों की प्रतिक्रिया देखनी चाही. फिल्म ‘नूर-ए-यमन’ में, जिसमें नाडिया हीरो की दो बहनो में से एक थी, उसे एक संवाद दिया गया – ‘जब दिल न रहा काबू में तो मेरी खता क्या’. शूटिंग के दौरान अनेक कोशिशों के बावजूद उसकी ज़बान से निकलता – ‘जब दिल न रहा काबुल में तो मेरी खता क्या’. अब सवाल यह था कि ऐसी भाषा के साथ काम आगे कैसे बड़े.

देश की जनता ने इस समस्या का समाधान निकालकर वाडिया के सामने पेश कर दिया. दोनो फिल्मों में जब नाडिया के ऐसे दोषपूर्ण उच्चारण, सुनहरे बाल और विदेशी रंग-रूप पर भी तालियां ठोकीं तो वाडिया के लिए भी काम आसान हो गया. बाकी रही बात जोखिम भरे स्टंट करने की तो नाडिया ने सारे स्टंट खुद अंजाम देकर अपने अदम्य साहस का आबूत दे दिया.

इस साहस को इस देश की जनता ने दिल खोलकर सलाम किया. फिल्म तो सुपर हिट हो ही गई लेकिन साथ ही इस फिल्म ने सामाजिक रूप से भी काफी बड़ा असर डाला. यह वो समय था जब औरत को पर्दे की आड़ में छुपाकर रखा जा रहा था. उस समय दस-दस मर्दों पर घूंसे और चाबुक बरसाती और उन पर भारी पड़ती नाडिया. रेलगाड़ी की रफ्तार से तेज़ घोड़ा भगाती नाडिया. यहांवहां छतों पर कूदती-फांदती नाडिया.कसरत करती नाडिया उस दौर में नारी शक्ति की प्रतीक बन गई. उसकी बेखौफ अदाओं से उसका नाम ही पड़ गया – फीयरलेस नाडिया’.

इस दौर में आज़ादी के लिए संघर्षरत महिलाओं को कितना साहस प्रदान किया और कितने अहंकारी पुरुषों की आंखें खुलीं इसका कोई बयान इतिहास में नहीं है लेकिन न जाने क्यों दिल मानता है कि इतिहास की अलिखित सैकड़ों कथाओं में यह एक कथा भी ज़रूर है. आखिर ऐसा कैसे सम्भव है कि जिस समाज में फिल्मों से रहन-सहन, कपड़ा-लता, फैशन-वैशन सब प्रभावित होता हो इस साहसिक सन्देश कोई असर न करे. आखिर नाडिया और नाडिया की तर्ज़ पर बनी उस दौर की फिल्मों की अपार सफलता भी तो यही कहती है.

आखिर में एक बात और. नाडिया के साथ अधिकांश फिल्मों में उसका नायक जान कवास रहा मगर उसका नाम बस नाडिया के साथ ही याद किया जाता है. अकेले जान कवास का नाम महज़ कुछ फिल्मी दीवाने एक टीस के साथ ही लेते हैं.

25 साल बाद ‘हंटरवाली’ के सौ साल पूरे होंगे. तब तक शायद फिल्म की सी.डी.बाकी पुरानी फिल्मों की तरह ही बाज़ार में आ चुकी होगी. उस दिन शायद कोई लिखने वाला यह भी लिखेगा कि – ‘…कमाल है ! कोई सौ साल पहले एक औरत ने ऐसे अदभुत स्टंट कर दिखाए थे जिन्हें आज तक हमारे हीरोज़ दुहरा-दुहरा कर बड़े स्टार और सुपर-स्टार कहलाते हैं जबकि नाडिया की फिल्म को सिर्फ एक स्टंट फिल्म कहा जाता है’.

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rkeswani100@gmail.com

Steve Jobs, the man, who changed the way of life for every single human being on the earth with his inventions, changed his address from this planet to some other planet. He made his departure from here on October October 5,2011, where he had arrived on February 24, 1955.

As a mark of respect ,  we reproduce here produce a  prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005 at Stanford University. (Editor)

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

New Delhi : Aug 23, 2011 Posted at  18.48 IST

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has urged the anti-graft campaign leader Anna Hazare to end his fast. He through his letter has assured of considering the Jan Lok Pal bill, prepared by his team to eradicate the corruption from the system.

Following is the full text of the letter:

“Over the last few days, I have watched with increasing concern the state of your health. Despite the differences between the government and your team, I do not think that anybody is or should be in any doubt about the deep and abiding concern which I and our government share about your health, arising from your continuing fast. I have no hesitation in saying that we need your views and actions in the service of the nation, from a robust physical condition and not in the context of frail or failing health.

“I have maintained that your and our object is identical viz. to reduce significantly, if not eliminate, the scourge of corruption from this country. At worst, our paths and methodologies may differ, though I do believe that even those differences have been exaggerated. The government is committed to passing a constitutionally valid and the best possible Lok Pal legislation with inputs from Civil Society with the broadest possible consensus. We are ready to talk to anybody. However, we will have to keep in mind Parliamentary supremacy and constitutional obligations in matters of legislation. As a government we respect and are responsible to the Will of the Indian People as represented by Parliament.

“As you are aware, the Lok Pal bill is now before a Standing Committee of Parliament. I have made it clear earlier and would like to restate that all options are open before the Standing Committee. Undoubtedly, they would be entitled to consider, in detail and clause by clause, subject to their discretion, not only the Bill introduced by us but the Jan Lokpal Bill and other versions like those prepared by Ms. Aruna Roy. Equally, I do maintain that they are fully entitled to make any changes to the Bill introduced by the Govt. and referred to them. In that view of the matter, the formal non introduction of the Jan Lokpal Bill version by the government is irrelevant and would largely boil down to a semantic debate.

“Nevertheless, in view of the concern repeatedly expressed by your team that the Jan Lokpal Bill version should be before Parliament, but more particularly and more importantly, in view of my deep and abiding concern for your health, our government is prepared to request the Speaker, Lok Sabha to formally refer the Jan Lokpal Bill also to the Standing Committee for their holistic consideration alongwith everything else. Furthermore, if you have any anxieties about time and speed, the Government can formally request the Standing Committee to try, subject to its discretion and the necessity to reflect deeply and spend adequate time on an important Bill, and fast track their deliberations to the extent reasonably feasible.

“I would like to say that this letter and each suggestion herein is actuated solely by the twin considerations of deep and genuine concern about your health and the emergence of a strong and effective Lok Pal Act in accordance with established constitutional precept and practice.

“I do hope that you will consider my suggestions and end your fast to regain full health and vitality.”

New Delhi, Aug. 19. Posted at 11.58 AM  IST : The latest symbol of the national aspiration for a corrupt free India -Anna Hazare , finally came out of Tihar jail in Delhi after 68 hours. He was greeted with cheers of the thousands of his supporters camping outside the jail for the past 3 days.

Anna  was arrested by the police on August 16, when he was to proceed to J.P.Park in New Delhi to sit on a fast unto death. It was  to press his demand for an effective Lok Pal bill in place of a lackluster bill in presented in the Lok Sabha, presented by the Manmohan Singh government.

He went ahead with his fast even when lodged in the jail. The arrest created an uproar in the country and people took to the streets holding rallies and torch light processions to support Anna and condemn the government’s oppressive act.

This forced the arrogant UPA government to retreat. Release orders were issued in a haste within few hours of the arrest but Anna refused to come out. He wanted the permission to fast without unjustified conditions, as were imposed earlier by Delhi Police.

The unprecedented support to the Anna movement in the country had left the decision makers with no option to withdraw their shameful 22 conditions.

Now the Anna fast shall continue at the Ramlila Maidan, the venue denied earlier by the police.

Bhopal, Aug 19. Posted at 08.26 AM  IST :  The inquiry commission set up by the Madhya Pradesh government to investigate the causes and consequences of the Bhopal Gas disaster of 1984, has invited information from the people. The commission has been set up in the wake of the court verdict in the issue last year in June.

The CJM court had convicted the then Union Carbide india Ltd. (UCIL) chairman Keshub Mahindra and six others for causing death by negligence. Each one was awarded a sentence of two years imprisonment. The verdict had come twenty-six years after the world’s worst industrial disaster that killed an estimated 25,000 people in Bhopal.

The unhappy and agitated people over the ‘unjust’ verdict in the case created a worldwide agitation forcing the state and the union government to reconsider its insensitive attitude and do something to save the situation. Hence, the union government of India decided to a) offer a little more compensation to the victims and b) apply before the Supreme Court for the reopening of the case against the killer Union Carbide company. However, the half-hearted attempt of the government of India fell flat in the apex court, which preferred the case to be heard in the Bhopal district court once again.

The state government, on its part, did constitute an inquiry commission to investigate a fresh the entire issue of the disaster. The commission headed by Justice S.L. Kochar  is expected to probe the causes of the tragedy and the role of the then state government and other people vis-a-vis the accused.

The commission would also investigate whether the Carbide plant was issued license as per the rules and whether it had adequate safety arrangements in place to avoid any possible accidents.

The issue of the safe disposal of the chemical waste from the plant was taken care off or not, too is covered under its ambit.

It also is suppose to probe the controversial release of Union Carbide Corporation Chairman Warren Anderson’s arrest and mysterious release within hours in Bhopal on December 7, 1984.

It may be recalled that the first commission constituted to investigate the similar issue, Justice N.K.Singh Commission, was abandoned halfway in 1985. No justified reason was offered by the state government at that time.