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| Libya guru: Shashank Joshi |
Scramble for loot in Libya
After 9/11 came George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, supported by Tony Blair. It was followed by the battle for contracts to rebuild the country’s shattered infrastructure.
First you knock it down, then you ask for money to rebuild that which you have knocked down.
Now on the anniversary of 9/11, when the media have been looking back to examine what lessons have been learnt over the past decade — not much, frankly — companies have been positioning themselves for what Shashank Joshi calls a possible “bonanza”.
When the BBC want to talk to a Libya expert, the first person they telephone is probably Shashank. When he went back to his old Cambridge College, Gonville and Caius, to collect his MA, the Master, Sir Christopher Hum, joked publicly that Shashank was popping up everywhere.
Shashank was born in Bombay on October 24, 1985, came to London with his parents when he was three, attended Highgate School and then went up to Cambridge where he switched from economics to politics and got a starred First — that is, an exceptionally good First. From his privileged “set” of rooms, Shashank perhaps drew inspiration from observing Professor Stephen Hawking come and go, for the author of A Brief History of Time was then a Fellow of Caius.
Today, Shashank’s maternal grandfather is following his grandson’s relentless rise and rise from his home in Jamshedpur.
A few days ago when Shashank was on BBC Radio 4 to do a programme reviewing the papers, he was cued in with voices that said: “Now to Shashank Joshi... to Shashank Joshi... to Shashank Joshi...to Shashank Joshi...”
He is meant to be completing his PhD at Harvard on aspects of Indian foreign policy but agrees cheerfully that as Britain’s favourite Libya guru, he is not getting much time.
I ask him about the prospect for Indian companies in Libya. Will there be any crumbs left after France, Britain, the US and Italy pick up the lion’s share of what’s going as an expression of gratitude from the new Libyan government for making possible regime change in Libya?
“The bonanza in Libya is going to lie in reconstruction — I think that’s where the money is,” says Shashank, who thinks there will be something in it for the Indians, too.
“On the issue of, ‘Can they pay for it?’, the answer is absolutely yes,” he responded.
All that is good news for Indians such as construction magnate H.S. Narula, who had to pull his large workforce out of Libya. And good news, too, for the Jaipur Literary Festival that he sponsors.
Poet’s corner
There was a name on the BBC Radio 4 programme, Poetry Please, that rang a bell — Carole Satyamurti.
I looked her up. It said she is a poet and sociologist who lives in London. She won the National Poetry Competition in 1986 and her forthcoming work is a translation from the Mahabharata.
She was obviously an Englishwoman but it was her surname that intrigued me. I asked my younger brother, Sumit, about one of his teachers, the late Prof. Satyamurthy (written slightly differently from Satyamurti), about whom he retained exceedingly fond memories.
Had his teacher ever been married?
Yes, said my brother, Prof. Satyamurthy had been married to a poet.
The name?
“Carole — with an ‘e’.”
It is remarkable how inspirational teachers can make teaching the most noble of professions.
According to my brother, T.V. Satyamurthy, professor of politics at the University of York (UK), was a unique man.
“He was radical and clever and yet modest and humane with an enormous sense of humour,” said Sumit. “I first met him as an undergraduate at York University when he was my supervisor during my early phase. He was strict and set high standards. His criticisms were mingled with deep sensitivity. He was amazingly well-read and published on a range of subjects from politics and history to sociology and culture of both the West and the East.”
He could remember the man as though yesterday: “His critical, stimulating and encouraging response to one’s presentation, interspersed with roars of infectious laughter, lifted the spirit to new heights and the urge to go on exploring. He would sit by his dimly-lit table, ploughing through his books. He would see through the late nights and the early morning with classical Indian and Western music often accompanied by a glass of whisky. He is sadly missed but his thoughts and human touch will live on for many of us.”
My brother still mourns the passing of his tutor. “His daughter wrote a moving letter to me saying that her father deeply valued my friendship and as a token of his affection she felt I would be the most suitable person to be gifted with his scarf which she enclosed in an envelope.”
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| Jolly jag: Jagmohan Mundhra (right) with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan who played the real life battered wife, Kiranjit Ahluwalia (left), in the film Provoked |
In memoriam
Friends of Jagmohan Mundhra, who died in Mumbai last week, aged 62, intend holding a memorial service for him.
It could be either in Los Angeles, where he had his main home; London, where the film director enjoyed working for five years; or Mumbai, where he based himself most recently.
Jag was an extraordinarily nice man, who never let on that he had to struggle with a number of ailments, including periods when he suffered from internal bleeding. It was possible to joke with him about his early period in LA when he first made his name with a clutch of erotic thrillers.
For the Jag meeting, I anticipate a large turnout — especially if bits are shown from such works as Improper Conduct, Sexual Malice, Night Eyes, Tropical Goddess and LA Goddess.
Meanwhile, Mala Sen, author of Bandit Queen, who died in Mumbai in May, is gone but not forgotten. Her friends, led by the playwright, Ash Kotak, convened a lunch meeting in London last week “just so that we can talk about her”.
People so enjoyed the lunch that they forgot to talk about Mala.
“Mala would have approved,” said Ash.
She would also have ordered red wine, gone out from time to time to smoke one of her rolled up cigarettes (smoking inside is no longer allowed) and left the food more or less untouched.
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What honour?
Such cases as that of Shafilea Ahmed are not rare in Britain where some immigrants have often brought their ultra orthodox culture with them.
But have the desis taken his bidding one step too far?
Shafilea’s decomposed remains were discovered in Cumbria in February 2004 after the 17-year-old disappeared from the family home in September 2003.
South Cumbria coroner Ian Smith later recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, saying he believed the teenager was “probably murdered”.
Last week the parents of the suspected “(dis)honour killing” victim, her father Iftikhar, 51, and mother Farzana, 48, of Warrington, Cheshire, were remanded in custody, charged with her murder.
Tittle tattle
When it comes to dealing with top American celebrities, it is the latter who call the shots.
Even a paper as powerful as the Daily Mail billed its interview with Material Girl by its show biz reporter thus: “Baz Bamigboye is granted a rare audience with Madonna.”
Audience?
I thought only the Queen could grant an audience.