The other shoe has dropped — authorities will close approximately 600 dancing-girl bars in Bombay:

The crackdown was launched last month with the closure of bars in the rest of the state, but a decision has now been taken to include the state capital. The girls dance Bollywood numbers and clients often thrown them money. The government says the bars are a breeding ground for crime and prostitution. [BBC News]

First the casting couch, and now this. How the hell is Shakti Kapoor supposed to get laid in this town?

BBC News: Axe falls on Mumbai dancing bars
Previous posts: Maharashtra shutters dance bars, Casting couch caught on tape, and Updates on the Shakti Kapoor Scandal

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Unicef says that of the 2.2 million HIV+ children in the world, an underwhelming 20,000 receive some form of treatment. The last Democrat to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW wants to change that.

(IANS News) New York: Former US President Bill Clinton’s foundation has tied up with Indian pharmaceutical firm Cipla to provide medicines for 10,000 AIDS-affected children in 10 developing countries, Xinhua reports.

There is a huge need for such initiatives. Last year, half-a-million children died of AIDS.

The agreement with Cipla would enable supply of the AIDS drugs at less than half current market rates, Clinton told reporters Monday. His foundation will give $10 million for treatment of the children.

HIV/AIDS-stricken youngsters could be treated as early as next month; medicine has “already been ordered for children in China, the Dominican Republic, Lesotho, Rwanda, Mozambique and Tanzania”. The former President’s foundation has set a goal of treating 60,000 children by 2006. Continue reading →

For some reason, I end up covering the macabre “random death in India” beat for Sepia Mutiny. Here’s the latest one –

Up to 150 pilgrims drown in India Hundreds of wailing pilgrims have lined the banks of a holy river in central India and prayed for loved ones after more than 150 [previous pilgrims] either drowned or were missing when the gates of a nearby dam were opened. …The [first group of] pilgrims had gathered on the banks of Narmada a day ahead of the new moon, a period which is considered auspicious by Hindus as they feel bathing in the holy river at this time would wash away their sins. …officials at the Narmada Hydroelectric Development Corporation (NHDC), which operates the dam, said they were not aware of the Hindu fair downstream.

And wash away their sins it did.

For Ambaram Kakaria, it was too late. She sobbed as she performed the last rites over her 19-year-old nephew Babulal, who was due to be married soon. “I would have never allowed my nephew to come to this place had I known that I would be losing him forever,” she said. “I was planning to get him married in a couple of weeks.” …”We found the body of a woman with a one-year-old dead child in her arms,” police constable Ram Singh told Reuters.

Actually, I’m nowhere near as callous as this post makes me sound. It’s just a weird frustration where everytime I come across a headline like this, a little voice inside my head says “oh please, don’t say ‘in India’ ” and sure enough, it ends up being ‘in India.’

I suppose when you’ve got a billion people, an underdeveloped economy, a myth / superstition-fueled culture, and a (relatively) well-developed media, this sort of stuff percolates up moreso than, for ex., in China. But man, talk about wanting to bang your head into a wall. Continue reading →

Time Magazine released today its list of the world’s 100 most influential people, which includes Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in its assortment of “Leaders & Revolutionaries.” Bollywood, despite its growing popularity around the world, doesn’t show up anywhere on the list’s crew of “Artists & Entertainers.” Ann Coulter made it there though, which leads one to suspect that the selections are a tad American-centric. After all, the Third Reich hasn’t reemerged yet, so how much influence can Coulter possibly have outside of hard-up American reactionaries? Wipro’s Azim Premji and steel kingpin Lakshmi Mittal are also notably absent from the list’s club of “Builders & Titans,” which includes domestic diva Martha Stewart and rapper Jay-Z.

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