This story is from March 7, 2011

Laugh like a European

The 16th European Film Festival that opens today invites you to ‘Laugh like a European’ – or ‘Europeans’ , in the pluralistic way of the continent .
Laugh like a European
The 16th European Film Festival that opens today invites you to ‘Laugh like a European’ – or ‘Europeans’ , in the pluralistic way of the continent . In an East-greets-W est gesture of cultural diplomacy , 19 EU member countries have submitted a film each for this touring festival , which will visit other seven Indian cities from March to May this year .
The films include such nominations as Wrong Side Up (about post-Communist life in the Czech Republic ); Ricky Rapper (a Finnish film about a ten-yearold’s drums ); the German piece Beloved Berlin Wall, about love on both sides of the divide ; Made in Hungaria – about the implausible homecoming of a family who give up free America for fraught Hungary , and the Irish prize-winner The Commitments, a screen adaption of Booker winner Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown Trilogy .
All films , save the show-opener , will be screened for free at Alliance Francaise . The curtain-raiser is the provocative British black comedy by Chris Morris , Four Lions, which will be shown at NCPA.
Riffat’s prose
In his eventful career as a broadcasting executive , Faiyaz Riffat wore several hats . He supped with the high and the mighty , and poets and writers lined outside his office to get assignments (he worked in several cities, including scenic Srinagar , balmy Goa and amchi Mumbai ). But that has little to do with his increasing respect among the connoisseurs of Urdu fiction .
Despite being a busy babu, Riffat never allowed the writer-poet in him to die. The latest felicitation came his way when a literary group honoured him in the city . Poets, writers and journalists recalled Riffat’s exemplary passion for reading and his ability to pen powerful prose .
Before he joined broadcasting services in the 1970s, Riffat briefly worked as a journalist with a Delhi-based daily , which shut down a long time ago . During Emergency , its editor-owner Piloo Modi was jailed and some cops hunted Riffat down at his residence in Srinagar . “We are here to arrest you because you worked with Piloo Modi,” said the policemen . “I was just his employee . I didn’t commit any crime ,” replied Riffat . “But your writings show you are a Leftist,” continued the officers . “I was jobless and hungry and hunger doesn’t know left, right or centre ,” he said , disarming the officers .

Wings and a prayer
Rajendra Ovalekar does not need an energy drink to give him wings . A walk in his remote , two-acre-wide butterfly garden has pretty much the same effect. Here , in the perpetual aura of ‘nectar ’ and host plants , Ovalekar finds weekly peace and purpose . Not only does he keep a roll call of the butterflies whom he can identify from a distance of miles , but also learns from them . “Butterflies quietly add to the beauty of nature and do not require any elaborate measures to rear . They even grow on weeds,” says Ovalekar , who seems to be in the perpetual search for nectar—the inexpensive magic potion that attracts butterflies into this quaint backyard off Thane’s busy Ghodbunder Road .
All year round , the garden sees about 105 species of butterflies and many more species of human beings , including botany students and wildlife photographers . The modest bungalow in the middle of this flora , where he is now preparing tea from freshly plucked lemongrass , belongs to his parents . Five years ago , when he began cultivating the garden , “my parents said they would like to stay here” . Today , they tend to observe nature in his absence and “inform me about things like when the activity is highest and so on ,” says Ovalekar , who’s happy that he was able to give his parents the kind of peace amid urban chaos that they always dreamt of.
A professor’s legacy
The legacy of an academic will now live through his books. This is the story of sociologist John Ferreira , who passed away last year , leaving behind more than 3,000 books, several of which are not easy to spot , including Missionaries and the Khasis and Anthropology as a medical science.
Professor Ferreira headed the department of sociology at the University of Mumbai in the early 1980’s . While his talks and writings were popular , few knew of his huge collection of books, which he painstakingly picked up during his varied career stretching from India to Vienna and back .
After his death , Phyllis , his sister , offered the collection to several college libraries , but they cried off, citing lack of space . However , after looking around and with a little help from a few academics , the collection was recently accepted by the Institute of Indian Culture at Mahakali Caves , which is run by the priests of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD ) order . The institute , which is affiliated to the University of Mumbai , takes on PhD students . Fortunately , the noted sociologist’s efforts will not go in vain .
Angry cabbie
Mumbaikars would be lying if they say they don’t prefer the city’s new taxis over the battle-weary Fiats .
Recently , our correspondent ran into a cabbie of one such Fiat who looked on bemusedly after a bevy of beauties rejected his taxi in favour of an Alto. Our rejected cabbie spoke with apparent hurt about the “phoren taxi ” craze . He mentioned a man who with two children and wife preferred to wait at the Marine Drive at around 1 am on a December night than hail the only two Fiats at the stand . As an hour ticked by , the man ventured to our Angry Cabbie saying he wanted to go to Bandra . Our man refused as he had a prior booking .
To cut a long story short , the cabbie said his passengers , who trooped out at around 2.30 am, offered to take the family along to Bandra . At the drop spot , the man held out a note of Rs 100 as baksheesh for the driver , who rejected it. “I told him that I could afford to do charity worth that much ,” he said . Our correspondent made sympathetic noises against the ageist society that was edging out spacious Fiats as well as the mannerless hitch-hiker . But then again , who wouldn’t be a wee bit happier when given the option of zipping a wee bit faster in a newer machine ?
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