Friends, over the last decade Punjab has been much maligned over the drugs issue. The issue has become a huge plank for political campaigns, police bullying, addicts being marginalised, and the system collapsing.
Yet, it needed a good doctor to pin-point the issue and suggest a course of treatment which is stupendous in its simplicity. That is exactly what Dr Dharamvira Dv Gandhi is suggesting: change the way we look at drugs, amend the draconian NDPS Act, 1985, to lay out which are ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ drugs, decriminalise the addict.
He is proposing the amendment in the Winter Session of the Parliament, starting November 17. I really hope the Bill goes through. This is a much needed change on our own ‘war of drugs’ and stands to make political parties accountable for their rhetoric.
I understand, given our mindsets, this could cause a furore but let us discuss, debate, make informed choices, instead of staying apathetic and suddenly turning around and blaming the system. The incidence of drugs is a symptom of systemic collapse. We are the system.
Please read …
Tags: Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, drugs, NDPS Act, Punjab, The Caravan
Friends, my review of Ranbir Singh Sidhu’s novel ‘Deep Singh Blue’. What struck me immensely about the writing was that it is without crutches, the writer creates and inhabits a world within language alone yet it is deeply rooted in the human experience. Kudos! Thank you Omair Ahmad for the opportunity.
‘DSB is a dark bildungsroman – a coming of age novel – about different types of unbelonging: in cultures, in the community, in the family, in relationships, in place and in time. The protagonist is lonely, immensely lonely, but the novel is not about loneliness or about an emotional or cultural pain. Instead, DSB explores the deep angst of being and a human’s relationship with the world.’
Please read …
Tags: America, Deep Singh Blue, Diaspora, Migration, Ranbir Singh Sidhu, Sikh, US
Thanks to DailyO and the publisher Speaking Tiger Books here is my story ‘My Mother’s Breast’ from Jerry Pinto’s the anthology on the accounts of mental health care givers ‘A Book of Light’.
However, do buy the book. It has 12 more such stories. Publishing houses, when graceful and open with subject matter, still need people to buy books. It is a matter of survival. This story is the epilogue to my novel ‘Sepia Leaves’. If you haven’t read it, and like this story, maybe buy and read that one too. Both books are available on Flipkart, Amazon.
Meanwhile, here is the story …
Tags: A Book of Light, cancer, Jerry Pinto, schizophrenia, Speaking Tiger
Here is the short story because the official link is no longer working.
Please find Water Woes
“My mother lived in a world where I was the President of India and married to someone called Vivekta and she was the heiress to a fortune that ran into many crores; Rajiv Gandhi and Giani Zail Singh were paying guests in her father’s home. We, the sane, call this world schizophrenia.”
Lovely Nirupama Dutt has introduced A Book of Light a collection of 13 stories by care givers edited by Jerry Pinto in Hindustan Times.
Please read …
Tags: A Book of Light, Hindustan Times, Jerry Pinto, Nirupama Dutt
Friends and friends of ‘Sepia Leaves’, the most common response that I got from readers who were or had been care givers has been: ‘Thank you. We did not know we had a story.’
Now, Jerry Pinto has gathered many stories of care givers, loved ones of whose are behind the pale and brought out a collection named ‘A Book of Light’. The collection features harrowing yet moving, even empowering, stories—about the terror and majesty of love; the bleakness and unexpected grace of life; the fragility and immense strength of the human mind.
My own story in the collection is called: ‘My Mother’s Breast’. It is the sequel to ‘Sepia Leaves’. This is the story of my mother’s death. I wrote it within days of her passing away in 2007. It has taken this long to find a home. I am very satisfied that it appears in this collection – in solidarity with all of us who battle many demons which are grounded beyond the narrow myopic discourses that rule our society.
Please bless. Please order and share among loved ones.
See more here…
Tags: A Book of Light, Jerry Pinto, madness, My Mother's Breast, Speaking Tree
Friends, drugs are a huge aspect of mental health of the society. When we have a movie on drug addiction, I also see the film as a social act: what does it do to solve the society’s issues? Here is my comment piece on Udta Punjab in The Hindu Business Line.
The movie raises a great question: What is Punjab? Is Punjab a land? Is Punjab a bond? Is Punjab a vision for which Sartaj is willing to let go of his brother, even implicate himself?
The film also compromises a fundamental weapon in the real war on drugs the people are fighting on the ground in Punjab.
Please read…
Tags: Buprenorphine, Oral Substitution Therapy (OST), Phenylephrine, Udta Punjab
Friends, here is my translation of Daljit Ami’s much appreciated review of Udta Punjab. A lot of friends had asked for a translation. All errors in the copy are mine. Please comment on the note itself. Helps us understand your views in context.
Please read …
Tags: Anurag Kashyap, Discus, drugs, Ekta Kapoor, smuggling, Udta Punjab
Friends, Scroll.in has been kind to ask me to elaborate my yesterday’s post. I discuss how the Badals tame Punjab and what they should have done instead of perpetuating denial. The task is still ahead of anyone who wants to come into power in Punjab in the next elections.
Please read …
Tags: ban, CBFC, Prakash Singh Badal, Udta Punjab
Friends, a few weeks ago I had raised the question of Sikh identity in my article on the Gurdwara Amendment Law regarding Sehajdharis in The Caravan Magazine. That went viral. Here is another argument in the context of a slightly older but even more revealing court case.
However, you look at it the Sikh identity is now severely compromised. The only way ahead, and I dread it, are the calls for ‘ghar wapsi’ which the right-wing is raising and what would lead to a split in the community – the way other established monotheistic religions have gone: Islam and Christianity. Ask ourselves, did we ask for this? Look at the Sikh identity question through these two angles.
‘The irony of a Sikh community, known much beyond its numbers for its service and egalitarianism, is that it fights its identity battles in the courts of a secular country and ends up losing in the real sense when it thinks it is winning court battles.’
Please read here …
Tags: court, Gurleen Kaur, identity, Sehajdhari, SGPC, Sikh
