Comments on: The Wicked Within

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:29:20 +0000

In other words Indians are at where the English were in the Witch General times…Thank god for Guru Nanak’s views…

By: Sneha Krishnan

Sneha Krishnan — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:48:14 +0000

Perceptions of witchcraft are almost always misogynistic. In some ways they seem to come from the fact that intelligence and power in a woman are rarely tolerated. Hence a woman who takes a strong stand on anything, is accused of using witchcraft (her own feminine self being too week, in this perception, to stand strong).

By: Vij

Vij — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:37:04 +0000

You don't think that maybe the reporter decided he was going to make his name by slandering the father of a child star whose 15 minutes aren't up yet? After all, the guy lives in a Mumbai slum. What are the odds that he would be media savvy enough to outmaneuver a reporter in a "your word against mine" war?

Maybe, but it doesn't mean it's not true. This sort of thing happens in that part of the world all the time. Extreme poverty forces people to do desperate things. The tape made available to the media is silent, but the one reportedly given to the investigators is in the dialect during negotiations and according to the reporter there is no doubt that the father and uncle were haggling over the purchase price of the daughters.

Maybe I can understand parents selling off their kids so they will have better lives. That's very sad all by itself. What makes this so incomprehensible is that the film producer's gave Rubina a trust fund that was supposed to provide her with support, housing and education.

By: Yoga Fire

Yoga Fire — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:57:37 +0000

You don’t think that maybe the reporter decided he was going to make his name by slandering the father of a child star whose 15 minutes aren’t up yet? After all, the guy lives in a Mumbai slum. What are the odds that he would be media savvy enough to outmaneuver a reporter in a “your word against mine” war?

By: Vij

Vij — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:31:48 +0000

Police: No evidence against dad of Slumdog star

Looks like the police may be engaging in a PR cover-up. On Larry King the other night, the reporter who broke the story alleged that the father approached him and was looking to sell two of his daughters, Rubina and her older sister. So, the reporter didn't go there "to take advantage of the situation", as someone claimed earlier. He was approached. Why must everything be made to sound like a setup?

By: sakshi

sakshi — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:29:25 +0000

Black magic (kala jadu, jadu tona) is a cliche metaphor in hindi for inexplicable influence/charm. It is usually not meant to be taken literally.

Remember the line from 'Jai ho': 'kala kala kajal tera koi kala jadu hai na'.

By: Sameer

Sameer — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:48:59 +0000

I should say they wrongly take actions of the father as a reflection of not the morality of the individual father but the broader Indian culture of 1.2 billion Indians both in the slums and elsewhere. It doesn’t seem to be okay even among the father’s community in the slums and family other than his brothers to sell his daughter.

By: Sameer

Sameer — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:33:33 +0000

“Caste” and being treated badly are not the reasons, if true, that Rubina’s father and uncles tried to sell her to a rich Dubai sheik and his wife. In that tabloid that broke the story they credit a close family friend and neighbor in the same slums for tipping them off of the sale, and we see right here Rubina’s mother fighting for her daughter, and that if true her parents would be publicly shamed. What is striking to me is all these other people living in the same conditions as the father are not excusing him from this act of selling his daughter based on any reason. They are showing that in their Indian culture it is not okay for a father to sell his daughter. That is what too many people commenting on newsites like I mentioned above – not so much the tabloid that broke the story – don’t get, and instead take the actions if true of this father as a reflection of “Indian culture” not of the slums but of 1.2 billion Indians.

By: Conrad Barwa

Conrad Barwa — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:56:50 +0000

NOTW is not a reliable source by any stretch of the imagination. And ” British stereotypes of Indian culture”? What exactly are these pray? And how are they distinguishable from stereotpyes of “Indian culture” seen elsewhere like the US or France? In so far as there is anything “British” about such stereotypes, they revolve around either the specific views of NRIs in the UK or Raj nostalgia.

By: TMY Vigyan

TMY Vigyan — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:46:00 +0000

Changing your religion isn't going to magically make people stop treating you like crap you know?

True that. And changing your religion isn't going to magically make YOU stop treating people like crap either.