P7
Community
Coffee drinkers live
longer, according
to two recent
large-scale studies that add
to research indicating coffee
consumption’s association
with better health.
P16
Community
At a sanctuary
in Munich,
German
soldiers have a
chance to gain real-life
experience dealing
with poisonous snakes.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Shawwal 18, 1438 AH
DOHA
33°C—42°C TODAY
LIFESTYLE/HOROSCOPE 11
PUZZLES 12 & 13
Total
recall
COVER
STORY
STAR: Bette Davis.
The guilty pleasure
of reading Hollywood
memoirs. P4-5
2
GULF TIMES Wednesday, July 12, 2017
COMMUNITY
ROUND & ABOUT
PRAYER TIME
Fajr
Shorooq (sunrise)
Zuhr (noon)
Asr (afternoon)
Maghreb (sunset)
Isha (night)
3.23am
4.51am
11.39am
3.04pm
6.29pm
7.59pm
USEFUL NUMBERS
Emergency
999
Worldwide Emergency Number
112
Kahramaa – Electricity and Water
991
Local Directory
180
International Calls Enquires
150
Hamad International Airport
40106666
Labor Department
44508111, 44406537
Mowasalat Taxi
44588888
Qatar Airways
44496000
Hamad Medical Corporation
44392222, 44393333
Qatar General Electricity and
Water Corporation
44845555, 44845464
Primary Health Care Corporation
44593333
44593363
Qatar Assistive Technology
Centre
44594050
Qatar News Agency
44450205
44450333
Q-Post – General Postal
Corporation
44464444
Humanitarian Services Office
(Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies)
Ministry of Interior
40253371, 40253372,
40253369
Ministry of Health
40253370, 40253364
Hamad Medical Corporation
40253368, 40253365
Qatar Airways
40253374
ote Unquote
u
Q
A hero
is somebody who
voluntarily walks
into the unknown.
– Tom Hanks
Community Editor
Kamran Rehmat
e-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: 44466405
Fax: 44350474
Role Models
DIRECTION: Raffi
CAST: Fahadh Faasil, Namitha Promod, Vinayakan, Soubin
Shahir, Sharafuddheen
SYNOPSIS: Role Models is the story of a group of people
who are friends from their campus days. Gautham (Fadhad
Fazil) is the only son of teacher parents – who are also
professors in the same college. They try to estrange Gautham
from his friends as they believe that this friendship spoils
his studies and future life. But later after their college life all
of them have a reunion except Sreya who is in Goa. They go
to Goa and the interesting incidents that follow are plotted
in Role Models. Wild behaviour forces a pair of alcoholics to
enrol in a community service to avoid jail. After a rocky start,
things start to go well until both Danny and Wheeler make big
mistakes.
Guest in London
DIRECTION: Ashwani Dhir
CAST: Kartik Aaryan, Kriti Kharbanda, Paresh Rawal
SYNOPSIS: Two Londoners struggle to live with their
aunt and uncle, who overstay their welcome. More than the
sequel, Guest in London is a copy of 2010 film Atithi Tum Kab
Jaoge? by the same director. Just that this time the action has
shifted from Mumbai to London. You won’t find actors like
Ajay Devgn and Konkona Sensharma in the new film, but
Paresh Rawal, as the nerve-wrecking guest, tries to fill for the
missing big names. One more thing, what seemed like a fine
balance of comedy and slice of life in the original is completely
absent here. In fact, it’s so lame that you would find the
tobacco ads more entertaining than watching Paresh Rawal
farting for at least a hundred times. That’s not all. He sings an
entire song on farting in the film. Now that’s taking things a
bit too far. Yes, Guest in London is painful. Or who knows, you
might be the Superman.
Even if fart and potty jokes are your thing, you need nerves
of steel to sit through Paresh Rawal’s weird Pakistan bashing.
The Mall Cinema (1): SpiderMan: Homecoming (2D) 2:30pm;
Despicable Me 3 (2D) 5pm;
Spider-Man: Homecoming
(2D) 6:30pm; Spider-Man:
Homecoming (2D) 9pm; SpiderMan: Homecoming (2D) 11:15pm.
The Mall Cinema (2): Ninnu Kori
(Telugu) 2pm; The House (2D)
4:30pm; Despicable Me 3 (2D)
6pm; Tisbah Ala Khair (Arabic)
7:30pm; Tisbah Ala Khair (Arabic)
9:30pm; Role Models (Malayalam)
11:30pm.
The Mall Cinema (3): How To
Be A Latin Lover (2D) 2pm; Guest
In London (Hindi) 4pm; Mom
(Hindi) 6:30pm; Mom (Hindi) 9pm;
Inconceivable (2D) 11:30pm.
Landmark Cinema (1):
Despicable Me 3 (2D) 2pm;
Despicable Me 3 (2D) 4pm; Tisbah
Ala Khair (Arabic) 6pm; The
House (2D) 8pm; Tisbah Ala Khair
THEATRES: The Mall, Royal Plaza, Landmark
THEATRES: The Mall, Landmark
Homecoming (2D) 9pm; SpiderMan: Homecoming (2D) 11:30pm.
Royal Plaza Cinema Palace
(2): Ninnu Kori (Telugu) 2:30pm;
Despicable Me 3 (2D) 5pm;
(Arabic) 9:30pm; Inconceivable
Despicable Me 3 (2D) 6:30pm; The
(2D) 11:30pm.
House (2D) 8pm; Tisbah Ala Khair
Landmark Cinema (2): Role
Models (Malayalam) 2pm; Spider- (Arabic) 9:30pm; Inconceivable
Man: Homecoming (2D) 4:30pm; (2D) 11:30pm.
Royal Plaza Cinema Palace
Spider-Man: Homecoming
(3): Mom (Hindi) 2:30pm;
(2D) 6:45pm; Spider-Man:
Homecoming (2D) 9:15pm; Spider- Inconceivable (2D) 5pm; How To
Man: Homecoming (2D) 11:30pm. Be A Latin Lover (2D) 7pm; Role
Models (Malayalam) 9pm; Mom
Landmark Cinema (3): How
(Hindi) 11:30pm.
To Be A Latin Lover (2D) 3pm;
Asian Town Cinema: Role
Despicable Me 3 (2D) 5pm;
Models (Malayalam) 12:30,
Despicable Me 3 (2D) 7pm; Role
1:30, 3:30, 4:30, 6:30, 7:30, 9:30,
Models (Malayalam) 8:30pm;
10:30pm, 12:30 & 1:30am; Mom
Guest In London (Hindi) 11pm.
Royal Plaza Cinema Palace (1): (Hindi) 3, 8:15pm & 1:30am; Guest
In London (Hindi) 12:30, 5:45pm
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2D)
& 10:45pm; Ninnu Kori (Telugu)
2pm; Spider-Man: Homecoming
12:30, 3:30, 6:30, 9:30pm &
(2D) 4:30pm; Tisbah Ala Khair
12:30am.
(Arabic) 7pm; Spider-Man:
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
EVENTS
Ali Baba and 40 Thieves
WHERE: Qatar National Theatre
WHEN: Today
TIME: 4-8pm
The popular children’s play “Ali Baba &
40 Thieves” will be showing at the Qatar
National Theater today at 4pm and 8pm.
Book your tickets now on www.q-tickets.
com or call +974 6697 0975 for more
information. The show will be performed
in English.
W Doha Hotel: Art 29 gallery
WHERE: W Doha Hotel & Residences
WHEN: Until July 25
TIME: 9am-7pm
W Doha Hotel & Residences are hosting
the works of local artist Abdulwahed alMawlawi at the property’s in-house Art 29
gallery. The exhibition commenced on May
25 following Ramadan timings of 9am to
10pm and from June 25th to July 25th will
be open for free public viewing from 9am
to 7pm. The expansive Art 29 space has
been established to spark inspiration and
nurture creativity by providing a platform
to showcase works of both budding and
established artists.
International Conference on Natural
Science
WHERE: Mercure Grand Hotel Doha
WHEN: July 25-26
The International Conference on
Environment and Natural Science,
organised by the International Society for
Engineering Research and Development
will take place on July 25 and 26 at the
Mercure Grand Hotel Doha City Centre
in Doha, Qatar. The conference will
cover areas like Atmospheric Sciences,
Meteorology, Biology, Environmental
Science and Technology, Environmental
Dynamics and many more topics.
Free cholesterol checkups at Aster
WHEN: July 14
WHERE: Aster in Old Al Ghanim,
Industrial Area and Al Khor
TIME: 8am to 11am
Aster Medical Centre is organising a
free cholesterol check-up at their medical
centres situated in Old Al Ghanim (Behind
Al Watan Centre, Bank Street), Industrial
Area (Near foot over bridge and BMW’s
service station) and Al Khor (Near Al Khor
LuLu) on Friday, July 14. The check-up will
be available for all, including families, from
8am to 11am.
3
COMMUNITY
ROUND & ABOUT
Tamim the Glorious
WHERE: W Doha
WHEN: Until Sept 10
TIME: 10am- 10pm
A new exhibition about His Highness the
Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani by
local artist Ahmed bin Majed al-Maadheed
is going on at the W Doha.
Al-Maadheed is the founder of Notion
Media and is a profound, contemporary
Qatari artist who has gained nationwide
and international recognition for his
artworks. He has been involved in many
media related projects such as animations,
TV series, adverts media campaigns and
producing artworks on large frames.
GULF TIMES
Summer Camp
WHEN: Until July 27
WHERE: Wisdom Education Center
TIME: 11am-1pm
Ispeak-ilead is a summer camp public
speaking leadership programme for kids
and teens to personally develop children’s
ability to speak free without fear, speak
effectively without inhibitions.
Pottery workshop
WHEN: Until July 31
WHERE: Arts and Crafts
TIME: 7-9pm
Learn how to handle big-sized vases
and glaze them. Learn the art of modern
pottery. For more details, call 44865201 or
mail [email protected]
Summer Camp at TCA
WHEN: Until August 24
WHERE: TCA
After a successful camp last year, TCA
has planned a more enriched summer camp
this year. Come and register your kids for
Abacus, Vedic Math, Rubic Cube, Robotics,
Fun with Science, Connectivate (knowing
your own inner skills), drawing and
painting, and calligraphy. So what are you
waiting for, grab your seats at the earliest.
For more details, please get in touch with
TCA Qatar at [email protected] or 66523871.
Summer Camp
WHERE: Ain Khaled
WHEN: Until Aug 31
TIME: 8am-1pm
Summertime is just memories waiting
to happen. The Stem Xplorers Summer
Camp is just the place for your kids to make
lifelong memories to cherish.
Our camp will be Stem-based wherein
we will engage the children in Science along
with Lego, some exciting Sports, Nutrition,
Arts, Crafts and Outdoor Field Trips!! Each
week will be a different theme covering an
exciting new Stem project making science
come to life. Call us now on 33996665 or
3120001.
Summer Camp Wakrah
WHERE: Music Lounge, Al Wakrah
WHEN: Until July 31
This is a 1 month packaged summer
camp programme that brings great fun
with learning, creating and exploring.
The camp is designed to bring out a 360
degree development in the talents and skill
level of the students. The camp includes
training in keyboard, guitar, drums, art,
craft, communication skills, zumba, hip
hop, fun with games, movies, competitions,
cultural tour, fun day activities, art
exhibition and fashion show. The camp is
for ages 5-15. Transportation is available
from Doha, Al Wakrah and Mesaieed. For
details, please contact the organisers at
44219897/555 72429 or e-mail them at
[email protected]
#I Am Evo Summer Camp
WHERE: Al Waab and Doha College
West Bay
WHEN: Ongoing
TIME: 8am to 1pm
The #IamEvo Camps are designed to
challenge young athletes to progressively
develop their skills, performance and
confidence. The courses are structured
to meet the needs of all young players, to
have fun, learn new skills and meet new
friends in a safe and friendly environment.
Members have a choice of venue, with
camps held at Doha College Al Waab and
Doha College West Bay. The camps are
open to boys and girls aged 4-16 years and
run from 8 am to 1 pm daily at each site.
Registration Now Open.
Davinci Resolve Training Course
WHEN: July 24-25
TIME: 1pm
The course provides an introduction to
colour grading and the popular grading
software, DaVinci Resolve. It is the
ideal course for editors, digital imaging
technicians, directors of photography,
visual-effects technicians, aspiring
colourists, and anybody with a desire to
explore colour correction.
Camera Kids: Make Your Own Short
Film
WHEN: Aug 6-24
A well-rounded introduction to the
different elements of photography, film and
filmmaking helps young people make their
first one-minute short films. Applicants
must be between 13 and 17 years old.
Qatar Summer Festival
WHEN: Until Sept 5
WHERE: Across Doha
Summer Festival has just been
announced and it will run twice as long
this year. That means more family fun,
entertainment, activities and promotions
across Qatar this summer. The extended
Qatar Summer Festival will run from Eid
al-Fitr to Eid al-Adha. Prepare for more
than 100 activities this time round. Best
of all there will be malls full of shopping
discounts across Doha. Discounts of up
to 50% are offered and anybody spending
more than QR200 at participating outlets
will be entered into a draw to win a stack of
cash or even a luxury car.
Train like a superhero
WHERE: Aspire Zone
WHEN: Ongoing
Train like a superhero at CrossFit Doha!
CrossFit holds a variety of disciplines from
weightlifting to calisthenics to gymnastics.
This will help your kids excel in sports
and retain the healthy and fit lifestyle!
Support your kids’ natural urge for physical
activities and train like a superhero, at
CrossFit Doha’s in demand Kids Classes
today! CrossFit Doha is located at Aspire
Zone Sports City. For more information,
call 44138484.
Salsa Beginners Dance Class
WHERE: B Attitude Spa, West Bay
WHEN: Every Friday
Salsa n Candela offers a variety of dance
classes for adults at Beverly Hills Tower
West Bay B Attitude Spa, such as Salsa
every Friday and other Latin dance during
other days of the week.
Festive time
WHEN: Ongoing
WHERE: Doha Festival City
The entertainment offering has been
designed to ensure there are numerous
opportunities for physical activities, from
the running track which features exercise
stations, the bike trail, through to our
‘first-of-its-kind’ in Qatar, Snow
Dunes theme park. DFC is excited to
welcome first visitors in April and to
celebrate the best leisure facilities, retail
mix and dining options, all with exceptional
service.
Summer Workshop 2017 for kids
WHERE: IAID
WHEN: July- Aug
Summer break is a long-awaited respite
for your kids after months of hitting the
books. This is an opportunity for them to
hone their current skills, pick up a new
hobby, or simply stay active, whether
their interest lies in dance, music or
arts. This summer, get your kids up and
going by enrolling them at IAID! Starting
three years and above, we have courses
to offer this summer such as Ballet Kids,
Strum-A-Long, Bolly Thumka, Music Fun,
ARTmazing & more.
Imperial Threads: Motifs and
Artisans
WHERE: Museum of Islamic Art
WHEN: Until November 4
This exhibition focuses on the exchange
of artistic and material cultures between
the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal
Empires. Highlighting MIA’s masterpiece
carpets, among other artworks, from
Turkey, Iran and India, these objects will
be contextualised within the historical
circumstances of politics and artistic
production of their time, primarily from
the 16th to the 18th centuries.
Compiled by Nausheen Shaikh. E-mail: [email protected], Events and timings subject to change
4
GULF TIMES Wednesday, July 12, 2017
COMMUNITY
COVER STORY
The Hollywood memoir
Idiosyncratic and biased, obfuscatory and boastful, even unctuous and vain, the
Hollywood memoir is not going to portray the past in a clear light. But like Sriracha
on the table, it’s going to bring the heat and make the meal better. So much better
SUAVE: Bette Davis
By Carolyn Kellogg
A
friend and I were
standing on a corner
waiting for the light
to change, talking
about the FX series
Feud. “Isn’t it great,” he said,
“how much it winds up on Joan
Crawford’s side?” Yes, but no, I
started to reply, but before I could
we crossed and the conversation
turned away. I wondered if what
we saw in the show was a kind of
Rorschach test. Who’s the hero:
Joan Crawford or Bette Davis?
Being Team Davis, when I
stumbled across a paperback of
her memoir, The Lonely Life, I
“Bette Davis’ career was at its
nadir when The Lonely Life was
published in 1962. That fall, the
two-time Oscar winner shocked
Hollywood by taking out a want
ad in the trades soliciting acting
work. A few weeks hence and
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
would open, making her once
again a critical and box office
favourite”
bought it, brought it home and
promptly started reading. As The
Los Angeles Times’ book editor,
you might expect me to be reading
Plutarch’s Lives in my spare time
— but Hollywood lives are far
more interesting.
You don’t have Los Angeles
history without Hollywood
history. The entertainment
industry found a new home led in
part by theatre business rascals
slyly getting as far as they could
from Thomas Edison in New
Jersey, who was trying to enforce
his motion picture patents. In
Los Angeles, they found a safe
distance, lovely weather and
light that was particularly suited
to the new medium. You may
know all that: It’s part of the
many terrific, straightforward,
deeply researched histories and
biographies I’ve read.
Memoir is another matter.
Idiosyncratic and biased,
obfuscatory and boastful, even
unctuous and vain, the Hollywood
memoir is not going to portray
the past in a clear light. But like
Sriracha on the table, it’s going to
bring the heat and make the meal
better. So much better.
Davis’ career was at its nadir
when The Lonely Life was
published in 1962. That fall, the
two-time Oscar winner shocked
Hollywood by taking out a want
ad in the trades soliciting acting
work. A few weeks hence and
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
would open, making her once
again a critical and box office
favourite. But this was the dark
before that dawn: The Lonely
Life was written at the close of
10 “black years,” as Davis called
them, at the end of her fourth
marriage, living in all but exile
from Hollywood — written,
in other words, when she had
nothing to lose.
In the book, Davis shines when
telling the story of her youth, of
her single mother’s rule-bending
efforts to make a home for her two
daughters; when she outlines her
own fixation and determination
to be an actress, something her
mother obsessively supported;
and when she takes others to task.
Her targets include the brothers
Warner, method actors and
Hollywood men.
Davis later maintained that
the title The Lonely Life was
meant to refer to theatrical actors
in general, not her personally.
You might believe her. She was
married four times and was
exasperated by her romantic
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
5
COMMUNITY
COVER STORY
BLAST FROM THE PAST: Colleen Moore in 1929 starrer Synthetic Sin.
prospects and her husbands
(particularly the bandleader, the
admirer and the actor) who, when
eclipsed by her professionally, felt
emasculated and betrayed her.
And she always eclipsed them.
Davis won a lead actress Oscar
in 1936 for Dangerous and in
1939 for Jezebel, and while she
was nominated eight additional
times, those two titles alone give
a fairly accurate sense of her
screen persona. As an actress, she
excelled at strong roles, although
she wasn’t always given them at
her home studio, Warner Bros.,
with which she had headlinegrabbing contract disputes. In the
book, she wisely brushes past the
legal details, instead recounting
falling in and out of favour, feeling
slights and making demands.
It’s fascinating to read her
puzzling through and defending
her choices — her work always
came first — particularly because
she had no Hollywood model to
follow. The movie industry had
gone through a major sea change
just before her arrival, shifting
from silent film to sound. That
opened the doors to actors trained
in theatre, like Davis, while
most of the silent cohort, whose
dramatic style was considered
passé packed up and went home.
That’s what happened to
Colleen Moore. She was known
GULF TIMES
as the original film flapper and
was the top box-office draw in
1926; eight years later, her final
film was released. When she’s
remembered now (if not confused
with imitators Clara Bow or
Louise Brooks), it’s for her bob
haircut and electric smile. She
didn’t bother writing a memoir
until 1968; Silent Star is now out
of print.
I found a copy last month at an
estate sale in a rambling, oncegrand house destined to be torn
down. Among the medical books
and photography manuals was a
hardcover edition of Silent Star,
and I saw it was signed. Not by
Moore, though. “To Lilliam,” it
read, to the woman who’d lived
there. “In memory of the days on
So. St. Andrews when you ‘were’
Billie Dove and I was Jean Harlow.”
That — the friendship with its
silver screen echo — was what
lured me in.
When I got home, I ploughed
through Moore’s book.
Lighthearted and anecdotal,
she recalls her Hollywood days
with clarity but seems, with
the distance of the intervening
decades, to no longer be in
their thrall. She begins swiftly
dispensing with the Hollywood
myth that she’d been discovered
by D W Griffith — her contract
was a payoff for a debt owed her
uncle, she writes, joking that even
the press man who cooked up the
lie eventually came to believe it.
She was just one of a bevy of
hopeful starlets, making her first
film in 1917 and struggling to
match Mary Pickford’s innocent
long-haired beauty. After years of
intermittent, moderate success,
she read the flapper novel Flaming
Youth and begged for the part in
the film. Her mother bobbed her
hair to prove to the studio that
Moore was right for the part. Her
look was revolutionary on-screen
— legend has it that audiences
gasped — and her energetic,
modern persona was that of the
new generation. The film rocketed
her to stardom.
Lighthearted
and anecdotal,
Colleen Moore
recalls her
Hollywood
days with
clarity but
seems, with
the distance
of the
intervening
decades, to no
longer be in
their thrall
The work was a whirlwind.
Her marriage to a Hollywood
filmmaker who was a desperate
alcoholic was rocky. Between the
personal anecdotes, Moore (or
a less interesting ghostwriter)
shares stories of the silent
era — others’ love affairs and
heartbreak, the Fatty Arbuckle
scandal, the murder of William
Desmond Taylor. Moore doesn’t
detail her departure from
Hollywood (after a few years, she
found a happy life with a Chicago
businessman) but instead focuses
on an unusual side project that
absorbed her during her transition
to her new life.
She called it the Fairy Castle;
it was a massive, exquisitely
constructed dollhouse that she
took on a national tour to raise
money for charity. There is, yes,
too much ink spilled over the real
jewels in it, the craftsmen who
created it and so on, but without
all that folderol she wouldn’t have
gotten to its library. It contained
an autograph book the size of a
postage stamp actually signed by
Orville Wright, Henry Ford, US
presidents and Albert Einstein.
And also tiny books with original
handwritten stories by 20th
century greats, including Sinclair
Lewis, John Steinbeck, Edna
Ferber and Willa Cather.
In the miniature copy of This
Side of Paradise, F Scott Fitzgerald
wrote, “I was the spark that lit up
Flaming Youth, Colleen Moore
was the torch. What little things
we are to have caused all that
trouble. My author’s name is F
Scott Fitzgerald.”
I was surprised to see Fitzgerald
pop up in the middle of a memoir
by a silent film actress and
delighted to see a playfulness
that was lacking in his later life.
So perhaps I could say that I’m
reading for work. That this was
bookish after all.
But not really. My guilty
reading pleasures this summer
are Hollywood stories. I love the
strange window they provide into
our city; the industry that created
it; and the trials of women who
were determined to create their
own destinies when there was no
path in sight.
These two books are by no
means comprehensive. I could,
and I have, created coherent lists
of early Angeleno entertainer
autobiographies.
But this summer, I’m reading
the serendipitous books on
the shelf for their un-indexed
surprises. And I’m imaging
Fitzgerald poised with a fountain
pen over a book not even an inch
tall, figuring out what to write to
the dynamic actress that he felt in
cahoots with, as if they’d turned
the world upside-down. Picturing
Davis with her unsatisfied ego
pounding in her chest, putting it
all down on paper, thinking noone would ever care for her again,
just before they did.
It’s every writer’s project:
connecting with an invisible
thread. Reaching a reader who
cares. Telling the truth, but on
a slant, in the light particularly
suited to our city, Los Angeles. —
Los Angeles Times/TNS
6
GULF TIMES Wednesday, July 12, 2017
COMMUNITY
Fota members hold reception for distinguished guest from Kerala
Members of Indian expatriate forum Friends of Tiruvalla (Fota) met with Biju Oommen,
Secretary of the Kerala’s Malankara Orthodox Church Laymen’s Association, at the Indian
Cultural Centre recently. Oommen (centre, sitting) was on a visit of Doha and he was
accorded a reception by the members of the forum. Also seen in the picture are Chief
Patron of Fota, Dr K C Chacko of Hamad Medical Corporation, and Fota President Jiji
John. Former Fota presidents Mathew Varghese, Baby Kuriyan and Thomas Kuriyan, and
senior community member Varghese Varghese are also seen. At the meeting Reji K Baby
welcomed the guest.
Karnataka Sangha Qatar organises discussion on Indian GST
Karnataka Sangha Qatar recently organised a discussion meeting on the Goods & Services Tax
(GST) rolled out by the federal government of India on July 1. The meeting was held at the Indian
Cultural Centre.
Girish Puranik, a versatile and renowned professional working as Financial Controller with New
Port Project and also a member of the Special Technical Committee (directly reporting to Qatar’s
Minister for Transport and Communication), gave a lecture through Power Point Presentation.
He said that GST will enhance India’s GDP growth, though the first few quarters might experience
a rough ride as it happens in any migration to the new system. In the Q&A session during the
programme, he answered to the divergent views of the members, allayed the apprehensions on
GST and highlighted the features of GST.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
GULF TIMES
7
COMMUNITY
Coffee drinkers live
longer and have lower risk
of disease, studies find
By Bradley J Fikes
C
offee drinkers live longer,
according to two large-scale
studies released recently that
add to extensive research
indicating coffee consumption is
associated with better health.
The studies examined the health histories
of hundreds of thousands of people who
were tracked over many years. They found
that coffee-drinking reduced the risk of
various diseases among people from several
ethnicities, and this effect was seen in
drinkers of regular or decaffeinated coffee.
And the more coffee consumed, the greater
the benefit.
These are observational studies, not
controlled clinical trials. So while they
demonstrate an association, they don’t
prove cause and effect. But at the least,
researchers said the latest evidence
reinforces a large body of previous reports
indicating there’s no harm from coffee –
and that it might very well benefit people’s
health.
Both of the new studies were published in
the Annals of Internal Medicine. They asked
participants about whether they drank
coffee, and if so, how much. Participants
were also asked about habits that influence
health, such as smoking, exercise and heart
disease.
One study was led by Veronica W
Setiawan of the University of Southern
California. Funded by the National Cancer
Institute, it examined coffee-drinking
habits among more than 180,000 whites,
African-Americans, Latinos, JapaneseAmericans and native Hawaiians. They
were followed for an average of 16 years.
The other was performed by European
scientists from Imperial College London
and the International Agency for Research
on Cancer, led by Marc J Gunter of the
IARC. It examined coffee-drinking
among more than 520,000 adults from 10
European countries.
The study led by Setiawan found those
drinking one cup of coffee daily had
a 12 percent lower risk of death from
heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes,
respiratory and kidney disease. For those
drinking 3 cups a day, the risk reduction
rose to 18 percent.
In previous studies, the great majority of
those examined were white, meaning that
environmental and lifestyle differences
among ethnicities could have confounded the
results. But her study found these benefits to
occur regardless of the ethnicity studied.
The study led by Gunter likewise found
a lower death risk from various ailments,
including digestive, circulatory and liver
disease. The relationship was the same
regardless of country, the study found. It
was funded by the European Commission
The studies make a significant contribution to knowledge about coffee and health, said Peter Adams, professor of the Tumor Initiation and
Maintenance Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute.
These are observational studies, not
controlled clinical trials. So while they
demonstrate an association, they don't
prove cause and effect
Directorate-General for Health and
Consumers and International Agency for
Research on Cancer.
The studies make a significant
contribution to knowledge about coffee and
health, said Peter Adams, professor of the
Tumor Initiation and Maintenance Program
at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical
Discovery Institute.
“It’s good to know that not everything
that gives you a buzz is bad for you,” Adams
said by e-mail.
“These two publications extend the
findings of previous studies indicating the
apparent benefits of coffee drinking,” he
added. “While the data across these and
previous investigations seems consistent
and compelling, to be really convincing it is
important to figure out how it works.
“As the authors note, coffee is a complex
concoction, and caffeine itself does not
seem to be responsible. Coffee does contain
many other candidate molecules, for
example anti-oxidants.”
“However, recent studies have challenged
the view that anti-oxidants are always
beneficial. Oxidants may not cause ageing
as previously thought, and anti-oxidants
can even help cancer cells to survive!”
“So until we figure out how it works,
you can keep drinking coffee and stay
off the expensive anti-oxidants from the
pharmacy,” he said.
Coffee is most renowned for its
stimulant effect, provided by caffeine.
However, individuals respond differently
based on their genetics. Some people
are metabolically fast at breaking down
caffeine, others metabolise it more slowly.
This has health consequences. One of
the few studies that showed some harm in
coffee found that slow metabolisers who
drank four or more cups of regular coffee a
day experience a 36 percent greater risk of
nonfatal heart attacks.
However, fast metabolisers who drank
that much coffee had a lower risk of heart
attacks. The presumptive explanation
is that the noncaffeine components of
coffee exert beneficial effects, and fast
metabolisers clear caffeine quickly enough
to avoid harm from an excessive dose. – The
San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS
8
GULF TIMES Wednesday, July 12, 2017
COMMUNITY
TRA
From Loreto, 3 day-trip adve
Mule wrangler Trudi Angell rides through the high desert of the Sierra de la Giganta near San Javier.
By Brian J Cantwell
C
hances are you’ll be
luckier than I and you’ll
get a warm day when
you visit the ancient
paintings at Baja
California’s La Trinidad Cave.
But I was there in the cool of
January and gritted my teeth as
I dived into the cold river that
meanders through a canyon of
rock the colours of chocolate and
cinnamon.
This is a rite of passage – quite
literally – required to see the
fascinating prehistoric images
at La Trinidad, named for the
three-peaked mountain above the
canyon.
Guide Salvador Castro Drew’s
email the day before was terse and
slightly mysterious: “Meet at the
town arch at 9 tomorrow and bring
your swimsuit.”
That all became clear after a
bumpy, four-wheel-drive
journey across the desert and a
20-minute hike during which
we examined petroglyphs at
trailside.
The river wasn’t wide, but it was
deep enough to require swimming
to reach our destination. Giant
boulders were conveniently placed
to provide privacy as other tourgoers and I changed into our swim
togs.
Splashing out at the far side,
Patricia Berman, visiting from
Corvallis, Ore., announced,
“Whoo! I’ve been known to jump
into mountain lakes, but usually
I’ve been hiking all day and I’m hot
and dusty and it’s 90 degrees out.”
But as we shook like wet dogs
and climbed to the cave site, we
saw that it was worth it.
Rustic Figures
The cave had collapsed some
years earlier, but that didn’t
obscure the rustic figures of
animals, fish and humans in daubs
of black, white and red that festoon
the entry wall.
Salvador, a 53-year-old native of
nearby Mulege, has devoted years
to learning about the paintings
here, offering guided trips to
supplement his family’s ranch
income.
The paintings vary in origin from
1,500 to 7,500 BC, he said. Little is
known about the original artists,
but some were the indigenous
Cochimi people, who fished in the
sea and roamed inland for seeds
and desert fruits.
White paint came from
limestone. Black came from iron.
Red and yellow from desert
plants.
Some images are phenomenally
well preserved, a credit to the dry
climate and remote location. A
red deer head looks as if it might
have been stencilled on the wall
last week. (Online experts credit
the “Trinidad Deer” as the best
prehistoric deer painting in Baja.)
Two fish shapes are next to what
Salvador described, only half in
jest, as “an ancient barbecue fork.”
A shaman figure perpetually
holds his arms to the skies. White
handprints dot the wall as if
kindergartners had been playing
with paint.
Children were given peyote
and encouraged to add to the wall
painting as part of ceremonies,
Salvador said. Some, too young
for peyote, would die. Others, who
had hallucinations, might become
shamans.
Cave of the Serpent
The next day I’m riding with
Ivette Granados Marines, a
43-year-old guide with Sea Kayak
Baja Mexico, a Loreto-based
outfitter, in her friend Erika’s
dusty old Pathfinder, which starts
when you thread the key into the
ignition that hangs by loose wires
from the steering column.
We’re lurching along a rocky
path when I am astounded to see
a tarantula the size of my hand
sedately crossing the track in front
of us.
Nobody else thinks it’s a big
deal.
We’re on our way to see more
cave paintings, this time at “Cueva
La Serpiente,” the Cave of the
Serpent. It’s 35 minutes up the
arroyo from San Javier, a village of
1,000 people in the craggy hills of
the Sierra de la Giganta, 23 uphill
miles from the seaside city of
Loreto.
Ivette has been wanting to check
out the cave as a possible new
excursion for the guide service. I
tag along.
We stop at San Javier, where
Jesuits founded their second
permanent mission in the
Californias in 1699 (the first was
Loreto, two years earlier). Here,
natural springs turn the desert
hills green.
Building materials for the
primitive church came by mule
from Loreto. Out back, the
missionaries planted orchards. An
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
GULF TIMES
9
COMMUNITY
AVEL
entures in Baja’s high desert
The “Trinidad Deer,” known among experts as one of the best-drawn cave-painting deer in Baja California, at La Trinidad
Cave. A fawn is at left and below.
A cyclist crosses the downtown plaza in front of the historical city hall in Loreto,
Baja California Sur. The town grew around a mission that Jesuits founded in
1697.
incredibly gnarled 300-year-old
olive tree still bears fruit, its trunk
twisted like the rubber band that
drives a child’s toy airplane.
Ivette and I follow a path
through orchards to the home of
her friend, Erika Castanon Moreno,
whose four-wheel-drive we need
to borrow. Her small home is of
concrete blocks, with an open-air,
palm-frond-roofed dining area.
There is a chicken coop. Empty.
“They had chickens but a puma
came,” Ivette explains.
Erika’s bright-eyed son,
Esteban, 10, climbs a tree and
plucks tangerines for us to take
on our cave hike. We pile into the
Pathfinder and stop to fill up at
a nearby home where they sell
gasoline from a bucket. Erika’s
husband, Luis, sucks on a plastic
hose to start a siphon.
At the wheel, Erika zigzags
through the village, stopping every
few feet to hang out the window
and hail a friend.
She studied oceanography at a
university, she confides to me.
“I am an oceanographer and now
I live here in the mountains. Lots of
things grow here. The weather is a
little different, and there is mucho
agua – lots of water!”
Erika used to be a kayaking guide
in Loreto.
It is 5 degrees Celsius (or 41
Fahrenheit), the coolest all season,
Erika announces as we head out
of town on a rough road. We soon
splash across the dribbling stream
of Arroyo Santo Domingo.
“In storms the water is this high,”
she indicates, holding a hand to the
car’s roof. Hurricane Odile socked this
area in 2014, she adds. “Everybody
slept in a big room at the school. We
were all friends that night!”
Near the trailhead, we stop
at Rancho Santo Domingo to
meet the straw-hatted rancher,
Humberto Verdugo Garcia, and his
wife, Raquel Morillo Talamantes.
Humberto will be our guide and,
because the cave is on his ranch,
will collect the 100 peso fee set by
the government.
We drive behind him a few
minutes, yielding momentarily to
that tarantula, then rock-hop up a
talus hillside to the cave.
There are fewer paintings here.
Some have been obliterated or
partially hidden by rock fall.
There is a snake image, very
faded. (Another “Cave of the
Serpent,” to the north of this, has
more spectacular snakes with –
inexplicably – deer antlers.)
But here there is a nice image of
a spouting whale. The triangular
whale spouts look like “early
Margarita glasses,” Humberto
jokes.
Back at the ranch, Humberto and
Raquel invite us for coffee under
their palapa.
Mule wrangler Trudi Angell, left, chats about ranch life with Juan Bautista
Romero Drew at his Rancho Viejo.
“It is ranch coffee! With goat
milk!” Ivette whispers to me.
The milk is rich and light yellow.
There’s a tub of coarse sugar. It’s
deliciously reviving.
Humberto tells us that he and
Raquel can also give tourists a
lunch of roast goat, with goat
cheese and other sides. Ivette
suggests she might add it to her
excursion.
We leave with big smiles and lots
of handshakes.
Hardy Inhabitants of Baja
The next day I am on a mule.
I booked a half-day ride near
San Javier with mule wrangler
Trudi Angell, who came here
from California’s Napa Valley
in the 1970s. Now she has dual
citizenship.
For years she ran a kayak guide
service called Paddling South.
These days she runs a string of
mules, with a new business name:
Saddling South.
Trudi’s 27-year-old daughter,
Olivia, and their Weimaraner dogs,
Luna and Hershey, accompany us
on a ride through the high desert
of cactus, mesquite, aromatic
wormwood and desert lavender.
Mules are the hardy work animal
of choice in Baja. Trudi sets her
mules loose to fend for themselves
in the hot summers here because
they are so adept at finding food
and water.
“They’re in the natural-foods
store when they’re out in the
desert!” she quips.
Trudi likes to take visitors
to the small ranches near San
Javier to meet the locals, who are
likewise hardy. (A 2013 photo book,
“The Bare-Toed Vaquero,” from
University of New Mexico Press,
delightfully documents this selfsufficient breed of “rancheros.”)
What Trudi calls the “Goat Cheese
Ride” is one of her most popular
outings, with a stop at Rancho
Viejo.
We stop in to meet the lady of
the ranch, Maria del Rosario de los
Santos de Romero. She just goes by
“Chari.” She shows us a batch of
goat cheese in the works beneath
a shelf weighted with big rocks to
squeeze out the whey.
“This is where they will bring
out the goats for milking and they
give a cheese-making lesson,”
Trudi tells me.
Olivia shows me the ranch’s old
stone-walled corrals and a pen
of bleating baby goats, which are
among the more adorable creatures
on the planet.
We leave the ranch and amble
along old jeep trails on our mules,
Raton, Chino and Dulce, as we gaze
up at the high Mesa San Geronimo.
From its top, Trudi tells me, you
can see both coasts of Baja, which
is 50 miles wide here. We see quail,
a red-tailed hawk and turkey
vultures.
I’ll end the day back in a cozy
hotel at seaside in Loreto. Over a
cold drink I’ll tell strangers how
I’ve fallen in love with the raw
beauty of Baja’s high desert. The
giant spider, they can keep. – The
Seattle Times/TNS
10 GULF TIMES Wednesday, July 12, 2017
COMMUNITY
INFOGRAPHIC
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
GULF TIMES
11
COMMUNITY
LIFESTYLE/HOROSCOPE
Allergens and indoor air quality:
Four steps to a healthier home
W
hen at home,
you’re probably
relaxing, playing
with the kids or
tackling chores.
What you aren’t likely doing is
thinking about the air you’re
breathing. Unfortunately, the
reality is poor indoor air quality
in residential spaces is a major
problem.
While you can’t control the
allergens and pollutants lurking
outside, there are many ways to
take action inside the home to
improve your indoor air quality.
Follow these four steps and breathe
easier at home:
Eliminate dust mites
Dust mites can be prevalent,
especially in bedroom spaces. Wash
all sheets, blankets, pillowcases
and bed covers in hot water that
is at least 130 degrees F. to kill
dust mites and remove allergens.
If bedding can’t be washed in hot
water, put items in the dryer for at
least 15 minutes at a temperature
above 130 degrees F.
To further prevent mites in
sleeping spaces, use dust-proof
or allergen-blocking covers on
mattresses, box springs and pillows.
If you have kids, don’t forget to
wash stuffed animals regularly in
order to sanitise.
Vacuum smarter
One of the easiest things you can
do to improve indoor air quality
is to vacuum thoroughly and
regularly on all levels. However,
traditional vacuums are heavy and
difficult to move to different floors.
Furthermore, they can kick up
more dust into the air than they are
removing. Due to these concerns,
many homeowners are considering
the benefits of central vacuum
systems.
Freshen air wisely
Open windows aren’t always the
ARIES
March 21 — April 19
Someone could call and want to share some troubles with you,
Aries. Your sensitivity and compassion may attract more than one
unhappy person in need of sympathy and advice. While this is
flattering, it could be a bit of a drag as well. You aren’t likely to turn
these people away. Accept this as a natural consequence of being a
good listener. And take care not to let these sad stories get to you.
CANCER
June 21 — July 22
Possible ideas for artistic projects could come to you, Cancer,
though some of them may be vague and not yet ready to manifest.
You may seek to express your spiritual side through artistic activity,
but might not quite have a handle on how to do it. Don’t force it. Find
something else to do and let it sit for a while. You might be surprised
by the final results.
LIBRA
September 23 — October 22
Worries about a relative who lives far away might plague you today,
Libra. The situation isn’t helped by the fact that you may not be able
to reach them by phone or e-mail. You may have to contact mutual
friends who can give you the information you need. Circumstances
probably aren’t all that dire. There’s probably nothing to be overly
concerned about, but you need to hear this. Keep trying.
CAPRICORN
December 22 — January 19
New ideas for increasing your income, particularly if they involve
extra work, could suddenly seem vague and uncertain today,
Capricorn. Doubts and insecurities could sabotage the plans you
were so ready for yesterday. Don’t let this happen. Talk to others and
judge what is and isn’t workable, then concentrate on the former
and move ahead. You don’t want to miss some good opportunities.
best way to bring in fresh air. When
pollen levels are high, the spores
can come into a home and stick to
every surface. On high-allergen
days, refresh air and cool the home
with fans or the air conditioner,
and clean preferably with a central
vacuum to maintain high indoor
air quality. As an additional line of
defence against dust mite debris
and allergens, you should use a
HEPA (high efficiency particulate
air) filter with your central furnace
and air conditioning unit.
Mitigate moisture
Mould thrives in dark, damp
climates, so it’s important to
eliminate places for growth. To
start, be aware of moisture levels
throughout the home. Always
use the bathroom exhaust fan to
inhibit moisture buildup. Fix leaky
faucets as quickly as possible and
stay on top of maintenance for
appliances like the refrigerator and
air conditioner.
Additionally, consider using
a dehumidifier to decrease the
amount of moisture inside the
home. This can be particularly
TAURUS
April 20 — May 20
Uncertainty about money could plague you today, Taurus. You might
have doubts about income now, particularly if you’re self-employed.
Be careful not to make yourself crazy. Your insecurity might cause
the situation to seem even more serious than it really is. Try to be
objective. If there are genuine concerns - and there may not be - find
a way to alleviate them rather than waste energy worrying.
LEO
July 23 — August 22
A close friend or romantic partner may seem in a rather quiet mood,
Leo, and disinclined to communicate with you. You might wonder
if this person is angry with you or if you’ve said or done something
that wasn’t OK. It’s likely that what’s bothering your friend has more
to do with work, family, or money than with you. Just make it clear
that you’re there if needed.
SCORPIO
October 23 — November 21
A check you may have been expecting in the mail may be delayed,
Scorpio, and you might not be able to contact whoever is sending it.
You could worry over whether or not you will get it at all. This could
be a classic case of getting worked up over nothing. The delay won’t
cause any lasting problems, just inconvenience and frustration.
Hang in there. The money will come.
AQUARIUS
January 20 — February 18
Romance may be very much on your mind today, Aquarius, though
not necessarily in a positive way. Doubts and insecurities could take
over your thoughts. Does a current or potential romantic partner
share your feelings? Direct communication with the one in question
could be premature, so it might be best to try to remain objective
and judge the situation accordingly. Meanwhile, take it day by day.
important during rainy seasons or
in basement or cellar spaces, if your
home has them.
©Brandpoint
GEMINI
May 21 — June 20
A love partner may seem too quiet, Gemini. Perhaps you haven’t
heard from your friend for a day or so. If you let it, this could start
your doubts and insecurities, causing you to wonder if this person
still cares or if they’re gone forever. Try to remain objective. Does
your friend have some worries right now? That may be why they’re
out of touch. Worry will only make you feel worse.
VIRGO
August 23 — September 22
The possibility of your pursuing new career opportunities, perhaps
with more pay, might cause doubts and insecurities among family
members, Virgo. They could be afraid that you will have less time for
them. It’s important that you reassure them, as their worries might
escalate if you just let it slide. Make it clear that you’re still there for
them. This might alleviate their doubts and yours.
SAGITTARIUS
November 22 — December 21
You could suddenly experience an overwhelming wave of affection
for someone you’ve just met, Sagittarius, perhaps a potential
romantic partner. Fantasies of the future could waft in and out of
your mind. This should feel wonderful in one sense, yet it could also
bring up all your doubts and insecurities. Does this person feel the
same way? It’s probably a bit premature to worry about that.
PISCES
February 19 — March 20
Brusque words or a lack of cordiality from a friend or colleague
might have you wondering if this person is angry with you, Pisces.
Don’t let your insecurity make you crazy. This person probably just
has problems of their own on their mind. Do your best not to take
any stinging comments seriously. Have a little faith and show a little
compassion.
12 GULF TIMES Wednesday, July 12, 2017
COMMUNITY
Wordsearch
Adam
Pooch Cafe
Bright
BEAM
BLAZE
BRIGHT
DAZZLE
EFFULGENT
GLEAM
GLISTEN
GLITTER
GLOSS
GOLDEN
LAMBENT
LUCENT
RADIANT
ROSY
SHEEN
SHINING
SHINY
SPARKALE
SUNNY
VIVID
Codeword
Puzzles courtesy: Puzzlechoice.com
Every letter of the alphabet is used at least once.
Squares with the same number in have the same letter
in. Work out which number represents which letter.
Garfield
Sudoku
Bound And Gagged
Sudoku is a puzzle based
on a 9x9 grid. The grid is
also divided into nine (3x3)
boxes. You are given a
selection of values and to
complete the puzzle, you
must fill the grid so that
every column, every anone
is repeated.
CARTOONS/PUZZLES
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
COMMUNITY
PUZZLES
Super Cryptic Clues
ACROSS
1. And, as the tide’s about to
turn, get out of the way (5,5)
6. Ran after the man getting on
(4)
10. Porridge and a meat-loaf,
cooked but left unfinished (7)
11. The flowers the little girl stole
off with (7)
12. The plant, dispatch properly
(9)
13. Game to make an enormous
hole to accommodate the
pole (5)
14. Put the question to a
returned Greek (5)
15. So there’s a note for you to
take round (9)
17. Gave to others and did
without oneself (9)
20. Insist on getting out of
entertainment (5)
21. The first part of Sea Serpent
is silly, but it gets better (5)
23. Will try to get at the fellows
trapped inside (9)
25. Joe’s come back with a girl: a
foreign wife (7)
26. Meet fleeing terrorists in a
country abroad (7)
27. A little something to eat with
the girl-friend (4)
28. A community that gives
satisfaction (10)
Colouring
DOWN
1. Stays and sees it’s coming
back (5)
2. The performers found the
lock in the case forced (9)
3. What you feel when the
dentist says ‘A big cavity’?
(4,10)
4. A prominent foreigner got in
the way (7)
5. Indulge the quartet, you
reveal (7)
7. The dope again is put in the
shade (5)
8. A stunner set on reforming a
crook (9)
9. Not twice! (6,8)
14. Spoke to before taking a
swing at? (9)
16. Generally speaking, will have
one conceal a grave error
(2,7)
18. Give one too much and one
gets into a state of confusion
(7)
19. With sun and sand all about,
it’s sweet (7)
22. See this key fits in upsidedown (5)
24. Are off between times, which
is enjoyable (5)
Yesterday’s Solutions
ACROSS: 1 Pedestal 5 Edward
10 Cash in one’s chips 11
Lapwing 12 Address 13
Sergeant 15 Somme 18 Doris
20 Saraband 23 Augment 25
Picasso 26 Cardinal virtues 27
Draper 28 Stammers.
GULF TIMES
DOWN: 1 Pickle 2 Disappear 3
Smiling 4 Along 6 Decides 7
Alice 8 Disaster 9 Decanter
14 Alsatian 16 Minuscule
17 Advanced 19 Sterile 21
Buckram 22 Houses 24 Gerda
25 Pivot.
Answers
Wordsearch
Codeword
13
14 GULF TIMES Wednesday, July 12, 2017
COMMUNITY
CINEMA
Critic Barry Norman,
beguiling and bold
The book 100 Best Films of the Century was
published in 1992.
Barry Norman.
By Gautaman Bhaskaran
O
nce, Thierry Fremaux, the
Cannes Film Festival supremo,
famously remarked that every
movie-goer fancied himself
or herself as a cinema critic,
dashing off their often half-baked thoughts
on Facebook or Twitter or whatever even
before the end credits rolled on. And this is
not just true of Cannes or Venice or Berlin,
but also of many Indian theatres, where so
many viewers turn film critics, punching
their points of pleasure or displeasure on
their mobile phones even as a movie is sailing
from frame to frame. But ask these bragging
critics about a Chidanand Dasgupta or a
Francois Truffaut or a Godard or a Barry
Norman, they would most unashamedly
plead ignorance.
If Norman – who recently died in his sleep,
aged 83, leaving behind his two daughters and
grandchildren, his wife having predeceased
him – was not as widely known as Truffaut or
Godard, it was only because he did not step
behind the camera like the French masters
of the medium, graduating as they did from
being pen-pushers to camera-crankers.
Barry was a journalist, remained a
journalist all his life and went on to become
a legendary film critic. Unlike many, many
young writers today who crave to start
critiquing cinema even before they have
understood the basic grammar of movies,
Norman started as a reporter at the Daily Mail
in England. He did various other journalistic
assignments – as a columnist and as an
editorial writer in a paper as renowned as
The Guardian – before the BBC spotted his
immense talent and hired him as a cinema
presenter.
Norman’s show, Film..., lasted 26 years,
from 1972 to 1998 (the longest in the BBC’s
history) – when every week he spoke about
movies, applauding them or rubbishing them.
As he said in one of his interviews: “It is
impossible to like all films. If someone said I
love movies, he is an idiot, because most films
are not worth loving. Most are worth hating.
Some worth loathing.”
Now how many critics do we know who
have this kind of courage of conviction and
who have the fearless ability to write or say
what they feel ought to be written or said.
I call Barry really, really gutsy, and he was
certainly one of my heroes whose weekly
fix of movies gave me the high all right, and
certainly kick started my dream to become a
film critic. And as Barry did tell me on one of
my first visits to Cannes, “And why not?” –
when I evinced my interest to start analysing
cinema. And this, I realised later, was one of
his pet phrases, something that was also so
positive.
Over the years, Barry and the BBC became
Siamese twins – one could not live without
the other. The television channel did try out a
couple of other presenters like Iain Johnstone
and Tina Brown, but they did not work. The
BBC had to come back to Norman.
I started watching Barry a long time ago.
If he was my television idol, The Guardian’s
cinema critic (later with the Evening
Standard), Derek Malcolm, was my print
hero. Both had a way with words, and in
the most gentlest of manners they could
demolish even a demon. What, then, was
mere celluloid!
Did Norman ever talk about Indian cinema.
Hardly ever I would think – which was unlike
Malcolm, who was a great friend of Satyajit
Ray, Mrinal Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan,
and a great admirer of meaningful Indian
cinema.
However, in Barry’s book of 100 Best Films
of the Century, Ray’s Pather Panchali figures,
the only Indian work. The tome is a delightful
mix. If there is Casablanca, there is also
Citizen Kane. There is The Gold Rush as there
is Gone with the Wind. We have It Happened
One Night as we have The Lady Vanishes,
The Thief of Baghdad, Rashomon, Sunset
Boulevard and Whisky Galore.
Son of Leslie Norman, a respected movie
producer of such classics as The Cruel Sea
and the 1960s TV series like The Saint, The
Persuaders and The Avengers, Barry was
utterly beguiling, extremely knowledgeable,
but was never, never overawed by the
industry’s super weights.
He remained unaffected when Hollywood
actor John Wayne (who made Westerns a
household name) called Norman “liberal
pinko faggot”, because the critic had laughed
when the star had said in one of his press
conferences that America might consider
bombing Moscow. Norman could not care. He
did not let such jibes mar his critical abilities
or his passionate professionalism, and he was
courageous.
On another occasion, Norman told a
colleague that Arnold Schwarzenegger had
no humour and was a “self-satisfied clod”.
Again, after having waited for Madonna at
a Paris hotel for an hour and 40 minutes,
Norman left. He later said that he would have
been rude to her if he had gone ahead with the
interview. A gentleman who would not dream
of being impolite to a lady.
In 1998, Star’s Sky TV offered him a fancy
salary, which Norman could not resist. He
left the BBC – which was angry that he was
quitting and did not even wish him a proper
goodbye. He stayed with Sky till 2001, but
it was not the same Barry. He had lost his
sheen, and one hardly saw him on TV, and
when I ran into him at Cannes, he tried to
make light of his situation. But I could see, he
was not happy. Somehow, it seemed that the
BBC had been like his shadow, without which
Barry could not exist. Not quite.
And it was loss even for the masses, who
waited for his reviews to decide whether they
ought to see a film or not. As Malcolm wrote
in an obit piece: “Time and again, people
said to me after a somewhat sour review: ‘But
Well, Barry Norman liked it, so it should be
alright’....”
And it was so.
z Gautaman Bhaskaran has been
writing on Indian and world cinema for
close to four decades, and may be
e-mailed at [email protected]
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
GULF TIMES
COMMUNITY
SHOWBIZ
Nolan wants to direct
next James Bond film
Director Christopher Nolan
has been in talks with the James
Bond producers over the years and
could be in line to direct the next
film.
Asked if he would ever tackle
a James Bond movie, Nolan told
Playboy magazine: “A Bond
movie, definitely. I’ve spoken to
the producers Barbara Broccoli
and Michael G Wilson over the
years. I deeply love the character
and I’m always excited to see what
they do with it.
“Maybe one day that would
work out. You would have to be
needed, if you know what I mean.
It has to need reinvention; it has
to need you. And they are getting
along very well.”
In 2015, Daniel Craig, who
currently plays the English spy,
was asked if he would be back
again after finishing a difficult
Spectre shoot and he had replied
he would rather “slash his wrists”,
reports femalefirst.co.uk. — IANS
CANDID: Alankrita Shrivastava.
Time to bid goodbye to
censorship: Alankrita
L
ipstick Under My Burkha director Alankrita
Shrivastava says film censorship needs to be
bid a goodbye.
Her debut feature film was caught in
a tussle with the Central Board of Film
Certification (CBFC) which deemed it too ladyoriented to see the light of the day. But when the
makers approached the Film Certification Appellate
Tribunal (FCAT), they got a green signal.
Talking about the issue, Shrivastava said here:
“We are reaching a crisis point. We have to decide, as
citizens of India in 2017, whether we want to claim our
freedom and live in a free and democratic country or do
we want to live with this guardianship.”
“I think time is up on censorship and we need to
bid it a proper and clear goodbye. We need to get
into a process which is much more matter of fact in
certification.” “Censorship is not something new in
India. We have been living with censorship for decades.
Censorship is coming to sharp focus now, because there
are many more independent films being made which
are more international in nature.”
“As a citizen of a free and democratic country, I also
want the freedom to be able to make whatever I like
because I see people from other free countries making
whatever they like.”
Talking about the reality that the film reflects, the
writer-director added: “There are young people in our
country and they are just being who they want to be,
but in hiding. This is what the film is about, they can do
what they want but they can’t do it openly.”
“People are trying to live out their dreams but are
doing secretly. I am hoping that people come to the
theatres and just enjoy the film and they are able to
engage with it. There are so many things said about the
film, but I just think this is a simple, colourful film. I
just want people to enjoy it.”
The film is releasing on July 21. — IANS
Big B’s work kitty spilling into 2019
AMBITIOUS? Amitabh Bachchan.
15
He will turn 75 this year, but there’s no sign
of slowing down as far as work is concerned for
megastar Amitabh Bachchan. He says his work diary
could even spill into 2019, and he wonders if it’s “too
ambitious”.
Big B seemed to have been in a contemplative
mood when he wrote his blog Sunday night.
He wrote: “Idleness invites complacency... Begs it
to be of immense disinterest and lethargic in nature...
Binds you in an embrace that you find difficult to get
out of. It is the fortune of goodness that I begin work
in earnest again by tomorrow... 102 Not Out starts
again and hopefully shall be the end of the film, by the
end of the month or a few days into August.
“And then begins the ABC of KBC... And then
some more projects... And the greater time for Thugs
Of Hindostan... And on and on till most of the end of
2018 and perhaps spilling over into 2019... And then
some more for consideration... And you wonder...
Is it not too ambitious to be thinking so far and
beyond.”
Big B will turn a year older in October. His
experimentation with films continues and his joy to
host Kaun Banega Crorepati seems palpable.
In 102 Not Out, the actor plays onscreen father
to Rishi Kapoor, while in Thugs Of Hindostan, he
features with Aamir Khan for the first time. — IANS
DESIRE: Christopher Nolan.
Yami feels feminism
shouldn’t be restricted
to any industry
Actress Yami Gautam says
feminism needs to be reflected in
“societal structure”, and should
not be “merely restricted to an
industry”.
“Feminism is an ideology that
needs to be reflected in our way
of life and societal structure, not
merely restricted to an industry,”
Yami said.
The Kaabil actress, who is
associated with swimwear brand
Speedo India and joined the
CrossFit Aqua Aerobics instructor
Pooja Arora for Speedo AquaFit
— Underwater, Vertical, Fitness
Training Programme last month in
Mumbai, feels talent trumps good
looks in Bollywood.
Asked how has the definition
of beauty changed in Bollywood,
Yami said: “It is your talent and
consistent hard work on yourself
that matters... That’s what makes
one look attractive, I feel, in terms
of beauty — being natural and easy
is what is essential these days.”
On the film front, Yami was last
seen in Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar
3, which also starred megastar
Amitabh Bachchan.
She is willing to explore that dark
zone again.
“All depends on the quality of
the role. If the role deserves it,
then why not,” the actress added.
— IANS
FIRM: Yami Gautam.
16 GULF TIMES Wednesday, July 12, 2017
COMMUNITY
The snake charmers
of the German army
At a sanctuary in Munich, German soldiers have a chance to gain real-life
experience dealing with one of the less-obvious dangers of military life while
stationed in a foreign land: poisonous snakes. By Klara Weidemann
A German army soldier holds a poisonous snake box at a reptile sanctuary in Munich. The
sanctuary, the only one of its kind in Germany, teaches soldiers how to protect themselves as
well as the animals.
A shield-nosed cobra is another one of the residents of the reptile sanctuary.
“I
f nothing else will
work: load your
P8 and fire,” says
biologist Patrick
Boncourt, as a
threatening hissing sound comes
from several plastic boxes in the
corner of the courtyard.
Together with a group of German
army medics, Boncourt is visiting a
reptile sanctuary in Munich, where,
with the help of sanctuary director
Markus Baur, he’s helping prepare
the soldiers for deployment abroad.
Today they’re learning how to
deal with dangerous reptiles – more
precisely, poisonous snakes.
“People’s lives always come first,”
says Boncourt. But the sanctuary,
the only one of its kind in Germany,
Markus Baur, left, director of Munich’s reptile sanctuary, shows a German army soldier how to interact
with a spectacled cobra.
also teaches soldiers how to protect
animals.
“Our goal is ensure everybody’s
safety,” says Boncourt, adding that
when people know what to look out
for, it’s quite possible to live safely
alongside all sorts of animals.
“We try to make snakes less
scary,” Boncourt says. A rat can be
almost as dangerous as a cobra, he
explains.
The soldiers learn how to
evaluate how dangerous a snake is,
how to calm it, trap it and release
it again.
All six soldiers taking part on
this overcast morning are due to be
deployed to Mali or Afghanistan in
the coming months, where it’s more
than likely that a poisonous snake
could slither into their camps.
Baur carefully opens the lid of
one of the plastic boxes. Over the
past couple of days, the soldiers
have already been practicing with
ties, dolls and non-poisonous
snakes.
Today they are being confronted
with poisonous snakes that live in
Asia and Africa so as to create more
realistic conditions – and nobody is
volunteering to go first.
“The animals have purposefully
not been defanged,” says Boncourt.
Nor have their fangs been milked.
“Nobody told us this before the
training started,” says Christin S,
one of the soldiers, nervously.
As Baur allows two Indian cobras
to slowly glide into the courtyard,
one soldier comments: “The most
important rule is the tree.”
Boncourt nods in agreement:
Stand still, breathe deeply and
don’t move. As long as you don’t
annoy the snake, it won’t attack.
The first soldiers stand still
and let the snakes slide around
their feet. The cold-blooded
animals seem peaceful despite
the temperature being 19 degrees
Celsius.
Then comes the next box,
containing a spectacled cobra. “Oh
God, this animal is disgusting,”
says Daniela S. With visible unease,
she uses a metal pincer to pick the
snake up out of the box.
The 40-year-old has already
been on seven deployments with
the German army. But at her next
station in Mali, she’s fairly sure this
training will come in handy.
“The base there is small, there’s
hardly any trained vets,” she says.
As soon as the cobra touches the
ground, it begins slithering towards
a manhole cover and has already
half disappeared down a hole before
Baur manages to grab it and pull it
back out.
No snake has ever escaped from
the sanctuary, he says reassuringly.
Munich’s famed Englischer
Garten park is right next door to
the sanctuary, and nobody would
be pleased to find a large poisonous
snake disrupting their picnic.
“But if the snake was as calm as
he is now, it would be fine to let him
off in the park,” Baur jokes.
“I have retained a healthy respect
for the animals,” says 25-year-old
Christin S at the end of the session,
adding that she’s no longer afraid
of snakes.
All the participants agree that
there’s a big difference between
simply looking at a snake and
having to touch it. But they feel
well-prepared for the eventuality.
Police officers and firefighters are
regularly trained at the sanctuary
too.
“What lots of people don’t
know is that if you find an animal,
it’s actually the fire brigade that’s
responsible for it,” says Boncourt.
-DPA