Another Bihari Talent In Bollywood

PATNA: Yet another young and talented Bihari, Manish Tiwary, has made it to Bollywood as a modern genre filmmaker. Manish, 34, son of a famous radiologist of Muzaffarpur Dr Bibhuti Tiwary, has directed his first feature film "Dil Dosti Etc" slated for all-India release on September 28.
"What does an 18-year-old guy in college really want? 'Dil Dosti Etc' is a fresh, unabashed, no-hold-barred look at how young men of today think and choose to live their life," Manish told TOI on phone from Mumbai. The two-hour feature film explores varied nature of friendship, male bonding, voyeurism, sexual perversion and love. "It delves into the lives of a seemingly dysfunctional generation indulging in pleasure which is often construed to be aimless," he said. Manish still fondly recalls his early days spent at Juran Chhapra locality of Muzaffarpur. "I am a Bihari", he proudly says.
After completing schooling from Sainik School, Tilaiya, he went to Hindu College, Delhi, to do his graduation in zoology. "After doing my post-graduation in environmental sciences from JNU, I went abroad to pursue higher studies from various universities like Leicester University (UK), Cambridge (UK), Yale (US) and Tokyo (Japan). I have worked with the United Nations in Rome, Nepal and India. I was also in-charge of the Cine Society during my three-year stay at Cambridge," Manish said, adding that he has already produced and directed two documentaries and five short films which were shown at International film festivals." "This is when I decided to switch over to full-time filmmaking. I took a long sabbatical and came to Delhi to write the script with Pawan Sony, for the film-Dil Dosti Etc," he said. Manish, has also promoted few Bihari artists like Dinesh Kumar who has passed out from Delhi's National School of Drama in the film. Naseeruddin Shah's son Imaad Shah, is the lead actor in the film besides Shreyas Talpade, Smriti Mishra, Nikita Anand and Ishita Sharma. Smriti Mishra plays Vaishali, a sex-worker in Delhi. "The film is set around the lifestyle of students in DU. Through two university hostellers, Apurv, a rich cosmopolitan guy, and Sanjay, an old-fashioned Bihari, the film juxtaposes the new and old in our society," Manish said. The three female leads — a prostitute, a school girl and a rich model — are depicted not only as love interests of heroes but also to have the viewers chart a range of emotions. This film uses a rich ensemble of characters, stories and themes to reflect the mood of urban India, he said.
(source:www.timesofindia.com)

Bihar girl does India proud in London

SHINING EXAMPLE: Gudiya Khatun, a 16-year-old girl from Gaya district of Bihar, who represents India in the UNICEF Global Event in London.

NEW DELHI: When the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) executive director Ann Venemam launched the State of the World's Children 2006 report in London on Wednesday, one of the two children who were with her was Gudiya Khatun, a 14-year-old girl from a remote village of Gaya district in Bihar. She had been invited as a "shining example" to the world of how education empowers individuals to break out of adversity and exclusion, and enables them to play a positive role in their personal and social lives.
Eldest of the six children, Gudiya's biggest battle in life has been to get education. With girls in her impoverished community excluded from a formal education and with her father not earning, she has had to overcome many obstacles in her quest for learning. But a few visits to an informal learning centre supported by UNICEF changed her life.
Gudiya's first hurdle was convincing her mother since her father was away in Mumbai in search of a living. She was expected to earn money and also help her mother in her daily chores. But she knew if she was ever to improve her family's situation, she had to do more than fetch water and work in the fields.
She got herself enrolled at a local education centre of the Mahila Shiksha Kendra run jointly by the Government and UNICEF that takes adolescent girls who have been denied education and gives them intensive instruction for up to nine months to get them into the school system. Gudiya now attends a regular school despite an 8-km walk each day. She has also joined karate classes at the school she know attends, and wants to become a karate instructor after her schooling.

Students study in a graveyard for better scores

Sherghati, Gaya: Students in Sherghati, a town in Bihar's Gaya district, have chosen a graveyard to study, believing that the spirits there will help them to score good marks in their examinations.
Sherghati is located 50 kilometres from the town of Gaya. A majority of the students here say that the peaceful environment of the graveyard motivates them to visit it often, and they add that their concentration levels have improved.
Noor Khan, a student of Standard Eleven, feels that his studying near the graveyard of the Muslim saint, Kamar Ali Sultan, has helped to improve his memory and retention power.
Khan says: "When there are holidays in school and college, we use to come and study here. As and when we come here and study, we grasp things very early, and we get good marks in our examinations. There is divine spirit in the graveyard that helps us in studying and scoring good marks in our exams."
Another student, Munawar Hasan said that his forefathers used to visit this place to study, and he was just following in their footsteps.
“We learn things well and quickly when we sit in the graveyard rather than sitting at any other place," Hasan said.
The Muslim cleric in charge of the graveyard said that the spirit of a saint was helping the students to score well in their examinations.
"Children used to come here and study. There brain works more when they study here without any tutoring," claimed Mohammad Inamul Haque.
(Source:biharandjharkhand.com)