One of the notions I wanted to explore in the taxi dialogues was perceptions about Muslims. It’s a tough one to deal with and can come across as being ill informed. However I wanted to give the chance for this topic to surface. There is a shot of a young Hindu driver, Ram Singh asking an old Muslim passenger with a white beard this question. He asks, rather apologetically but also with a hint of curiosity, “If you don’t mind my asking, why does it seem that all terrorists are Muslims?” In fact any taxi drivers removed symbols of their faith after the 1992 – 93 communal riots in Bombay.

So the taxi drivers and passengers both had some prolific comments to make. But they didn’t look at the media or cinema and how it creates images. Post 26/11 there has been enough media bashing in India and Bollywood isn’t critiqued enough by the masses anyways. However Bollywood’s grand daddy Hollywood has surely come under the radar.

Yesterday I came across this gallery about Muslim celebrities in Hollywood. There are some fine men and women featured. But there seems to be an underlying current that their work is or should be directly connected to their faith. I think it may or may not be. In the case of ‘Allah Made me Funny’, it’s perfect to use humor to break down stereotypes and perceptions. The moment you laugh or don’t laugh about something, you either realize your beliefs on something or change your take on it by the simple act of laughing.

I also came across a great event at The Asian Pacific American Institute at NYU. It will be held today, the 25th of September between 6 and 8 pm at Tisch. Dr. Jack Shaheen is having a screening of his documentary, ‘Guilty Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs After 9/11′ followed by a Q and A of his work.
Go to http://www.apa.nyu.edu/ to RSVP. It’s open to the public.

And please keep commenting on the blog itself and not on Facebook

It’s nice to come to a foreign land and find that the taxi drivers speak your language! It’s a good feeling and as a documentary filmmaker I jumped to the chance of doing something with this observation. In 2007 I went out on the streets of Manhattan and interviewed Indian and Pakistani taxi drivers about what they felt about New York, how they came here, 9/11, the War in Iraq and the War on Terror.

I started my prowl with the camera at the famous ‘Punjabi Deli’ on Houston streets where you’ll always see a bunch of taxis parked. This is a huge omen of how good a place is. Similar to when you look into a restaurant or cafe and can judge how good it is by the volume of people dining or waiting outside. ‘Punjabi Deli’ has affordable food and it’s home cooked Indian food. My uncle in Jersey has been known to drive down, pick me up, take me out to a fancy bar for a drink and then head to Punjabi Delhi for food he describes as ‘dil khush kar deta hai’, literally translated to mean ‘makes my heart happy.’

So I’m rambling away from the taxi drivers and point. Eventually I made a short film titled, ‘Street Smarts’ which focuses on racial profiling post 9/11 and my short got selected to the Sikh International Film Festival.
I’m heading out to the venue now and hope some of you can make it. Take a taxi to Asia Society and tell the driver about the film. Who knows maybe he’s in it. Once when I got in a cab and spoke to the driver about my project, he’d seen my taxi film on youtube! Keeping my fingers crossed for some synchronicity in the city this week:)

My first text message for today was from my friend Alci telling me about a cover story in today’s New York Times. Something about Indian women and women only compartments in trains. “Indian Women find New Peace in Rail Commute” talks about how the Indian Government has started ‘women only’ compartments in trains in the big urban cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai as a way of providing more safety to larger numbers of working women who have entered the work force in a country that is patriarchal and gender dictated in many ways.

Now I know that ‘Ladies Specials’ as they are also called have existed for a while in Mumbai local trains and some seats are even reserved for ladies in buses in different cities. When I was in Bombay I would travel by the general compartment, only if I had a male friend along and even then I got glares and stares my way. The one exception was one late night after filming when I got on and started taking pictures with my camera. I ended up making friends with two mothers and their children on their way back from a wedding which is a separate incident all together.

So to be perfectly honest this cover story on the New York Times front page comes as a surprise to me. Yes I admit that many westerners might find this story shocking and news worthy in many ways. Being victimized and asserting their rights is an issue that Indian women face on a daily basis thanks to a legacy which consists of traditions like ‘sati‘, where women would burn themselves along with their dead husbands on the funeral pyre, female infanticide and foeticide, notions of purity and pollution from the caste system that lead to maternity deaths, dowry and even dowry deaths. The fact that Indian women are empowering themselves, becoming financially independent and standing on their own two feet to get to work and earn for their family is a step that is in effect a giant leap across decades of norms and traditions. So yes I think it’s a positive step to ensure ladies have a safe commute to their workplace.
And why not?! It’s what the New York City MTA is trying to enforce through their new anti harassment ad campaign that I saw the other day in the subway. Enough ladies in New York have a hard time in public spaces and this too in a country that championed female empowerment and suffrage half a century before India even became free of the shackles of colonialism.

So I still wonder why the NYT’s put this story on it’s cover today and that too without even mentioning the efforts made by it’s own Mass Transit Authorities to ensure a peaceful commute to ladies. The ‘white man’s burden’ was what the British called their efforts to help educate and empower the masses in India. Under this guise of charity work they enacted a subtle and enslaving colonialization. Talking of the distress and oppression of women in India or Afghanistan can also be the perfect PR war cry to ensure independence to Afghanistan and its women. History has proven that women are often used as pawns in some man’s game of power politics.

Which makes me think of Sameena, a woman who plays by her own rules. She is 23 years old, Muslim and divorced her husband because he would beat her. She stands up for what she believes and wears a burkha most of the time. Except for when she sits in the front seat and drives a taxi in Mumbai. A woman that represents great independence and shatters many stereotypes in one drive. You’ll hear more from her soon.

So it looks like the Taxi Takes on Terror is gaining speed
Wojtek Gwiazda interviewed me for his show, ‘Masala Canada.’

MASALA CANADA is an eclectic mix of stories, conversations and music with a South Asian flavour. Hosted and produced by Wojtek Gwiazda, this weekly radio program deals with everything from art and culture, to economics, politics and everyday life.
They featured three short stories on this weeks show. After my bit there is singer songwriter Shabani Kashyap who I actually met once before. When I was a student at MCRC Jamia my friend Pahuna did her studio based program on Shabani Kashyap. Pahuna had asked me for a favor. So I drove to Shabani’s place, and played chauffeur and picked up the famous singer in my friend’s aunt’s expensive luxury car.
So the road to the ‘Masala Canada’ show has been an interesting one. There are no coincidences.
You can hear the show here or by clicking on the image above.

Recently I was at the SAJA (South Asian Journalists Convention) at the CUNY school of Journalism in New York City.
There was an afternoon plenary session focusing on covering the 26/11 Mumbai attacks with a great panel which consisted of Dan Harris, who covered 26/11 for ABC news; Indira Kannan, the US bureau chief for CNBC – TV18 and CNN- IBN in India and Samanth Subramanian, staff writer with Mint, the Hindustan Times -Wall Street Journal business daily and an alum of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. The Moderator was Kiran Khalid, director of ‘We are Not Free’ and currently at ABC’s Good Morning America.

I decided to share my own ‘take’ and work around the 26/11 terrorist attacks at the plenary and Wojtek must have found something interesting about the project and walked back up to where I was sitting and slipped me his business card. It was a pleasure to be on radio talking to him and getting to talk about my experience of filming and working with the Mumbai taxi drivers on Masala Canada.

MASALA CANADA is heard on shortwave and the Internet throughout India, South Asia and the world. In Canada, it’s heard on the Internet, and on Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 95.
Hope you like the interview. Do spread the word!

It seemed to be business as usual. The business of selling cheap drinks and delicious snacks to one and all in Colaba causeway. And few can do it better than Leopold Cafe, the iconic restaurant and bar in Bombay that throngs with foreigners, office folk, rock and roll teenagers and anyone else who chooses to walk in. I walked right in.

The street oustide Leopold Cafe.

On the 26th of November two young terrorists opened fire on the laid back folk. It was a Wednesday and the place was packed with people taking a mid week respite. When I approached the infamous café I had expected doors or some other form of restriction but was greeted by a man standing next to the streets who sort of smiled and welcomed people in.

In keeping with normality and tradition, I ordered a beer. I looked around in a surreal stupor trying to imagine and visualize the awful panic and stench of terror that must have enveloped Leopold. All I could do was stare and sip. The high ceiling allows a second floor, which is darker, dingier and manages to pack a lot of people who are more than happy to get a seat. I thought of all those people the night of the 26th around 9:30 pm and the person who must have sat on the same seat as me.

I came back to Leopold a second time. And I found myself slipping into the same morbid thoughts amid the din of chattering and clinking of glasses. There was some great art on the walls. One graphic canvas had anti terror slogans, blood, the Gateway of India and other symbols of the attack in November. I started taking pictures of the place around me, maybe as a way of dealing with my being in this space.

There was a helpful man who seemed to work there and it turned out, he was the owner. Farhang Jehani’s father started the Leopold Cafe in 1871 and after his death his son took over. “The attack seemed to last for a few minutes,” he said. After those few minutes he spoke about carrying bodies out of his establishment and staying with his brave staff to wash blood trails off the floors and deal with the police.

Farhang Jehani

At one point he told me he wants to show me something so I followed him to another section of the restaurant. He started shifting furniture around and exposed a part of the black granite floor that had a large crater in it. “This is where the hand grenade fell”, he said. I took a picture, trying to comprehend what the hole in the floor really meant. I recently read about grenades. The United States Army Field manual says, “the effective kill zone has a five meter radius, while the casualty-inducing radius is approximately fifteen meters.” I calculated that I was sitting less than 2 meters from the grenade spot and the streets outside was about 8 meters away.

Farhang had a lot to tell me but a whole lot more to show. He revealed bullet holes in brick walls, shattered glass windows, punctured wooden walls and a hole which looked like it was straight out of the movie ‘Terminator.’ Visuals of the bad cop getting large bullet holes in his body and the molten metal flowing and filling it up filled my mind. The thick metal door that was the way up to the second floor had a two inch scar that had not healed that fast.

As I received the guided tour of the battlefield, I realized that Farhang was showing me these scars like a proud disabled army general shows his medals of bravery. He proudly told me he was not going to fix the walls and floor. Leopold had endured a lot. Leopold had seen much horrors and he was not going to let the World forget but memorialize his beloved family heirloom and stand tall in defiance.

I know many people who have raised their glasses to celebrate many moments in Leopold. Please go ahead and share some of those moments right here. Because in my mind, just as we raise a toast to loved ones, Leopold and it’s scars will always be a memorial and celebration for those who lived life to the fullest.

Being a woman sitting in the front seat with a male taxi driver is something else.

But before I talk about getting into the front seat and driving along with taxi drivers you need to understand and explore the stage itself. The stage is Bombay, a city that merges both diamonds and dirt in one stroke. I discovered this city with my new friends, the drivers. And who better to help you discover a city than a taxi driver, who spends his life navigating the streets.
Coming from New Delhi it felt like quite an accomplishment to be in this very male dominated space and feel respected. A recent study conducted by the National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science at the behest of the Indian home ministry’s Bureau of Police Research & Development showed that 80 percent of women in New Delhi feel unsafe. So of course my mother warned me against any filming at night and even my male friends advised me to get a car to follow us at night.

Well I didn’t hire a taxi to follow me around as you guessed but one of the many things I learnt about Bombay was how women felt safe and could travel late at night without worrying. One taxi driver even went to the extent of telling me that if a woman was walking naked on the streets of this city, no one would even try and touch her. And he took his hand off the steering wheel and pointed his finger straight ahead when he said this. Several drivers made similar comments and after a month and a half I think I shed a lot of my Delhi inflicted influences and came to settle into a very comfortable and commanding position in the front seat with my camera.

I know that several people will think that the power of the camera might have also played a role in demanding that respect and yes it probably did to some extent. But being an Indian woman sitting in the front seat with the male taxi driver, with a camera in my hand, in Bombay will have to be another post.

I’m back in Bombay. The last time I was here was 2 months back researching for ‘The Taxi Takes on Terror’. I prefer Bombay to Mumbai, just like I think I might even prefer Mumbai to Delhi now. Many factors and feelings go into that comment, especially since I’m back in my country after a year and a half of being away. So I’m spending a lot of time socializing with taxi drivers. I recently hung out with Mohammad Sameen. Last time I was here he had dropped me home from Colaba and on the way recounted his experience of being at VT terminal when the terrorists opened fire. He unknowingly drove from one venue of attack to the next and could have encountered bullets at any point. This time when we met, he insisted on buying me a ‘cold drink’, synonymous with a fizzy soda drink in India. We drove around the Nariman point area and he stopped to show me sights as if I was his niece visiting. He pointed out the room at the Oberoi which had seen some serious hostage action. The room was like a big open wound amongst the other curtained windows. I could see workmen working inside under bright lights with cables dangling out the window. I took some shaky footage with my handycam. Zooming into a far away window without a tripod has to be shaky. That same evening I waited patiently while sipping a Café Mocha at a Barista near Regal cinema, looking out expectantly as if for a date. At one point a taxi driver standing next to his shiny black and yellow cab looked straight at me and I thought, this must be Sahdev Singh. I met Sahdev’s brother, Ram Singh on my previous visit and some of his prejudiced comments about Islamic terrorism intrigued me to take his number, which in fact turned out to be his brother Sahdev’s number. On calling I found out that Ram was visiting his village, but that Sahdev was also a taxi driver. So I decided to interview him, which explains why I nodded back at the man next to the taxi, picked up my coffee and walked out. I sat in the front seat with him and we drove around Colaba and The Taj. I told him about my project and asked for his help. But like many other drivers he seemed more concerned about making a living for his family than solving the matter of terrorism. He also was not too kicked about being filmed, a response that you rarely get in India’s Bollywood capital. I might be mistaken, but all the drivers I talk to, the majority of the Hindu drivers, seem complacent while the Muslim taxi drivers want to try to do their bit to remove misconceptions about terrorism and identity. One driver, Haridwar Gupta, even asked if I was Muslim. I had asked him if he thought it was right for the police to arrest 50 muslims only after a blast took place. When I told him I was bought up a Hindu he wanted to know what caste I belonged to. When I tried to explain how I think caste only tends to divide humans, he proudly told me he was a Brahman and that his son had refused to eat even an egg one time when the doctor recommended it for his ill health. So I continue to have conversations in cabs in search of the ideal taxi driver for my project. Someone who has experienced some form of terrorism, is chatty, likes to be filmed and wants to be part of The Taxi Takes. Tomorrow I hope to meet Sushma, a female cabbie who drives the Priyadarshini taxis in Mumbai. The second time we spoke she said she was working and I naturally assumed driving. But it turns out that this smart lady works as a graphic designer too. Maybe she might have some inputs to give for the title stickers I plan to get made for the back window of a Mumbai taxi. My inspiration is the incredible taxis you see on the street strutting around like adorned and embellished elephants at a colorful Indian wedding. The Creative Review team had a similar idea for their April issue cover. On my first trip I met a charismatic and intelligent young taxi driver, Jamid Ali. He had already been on Meter Down and it was thanks to Kabi that I met him. It was on our first meeting itself that I decided to take out my camera and test the concept and my equipment for this project. Here I’ve edited a short clip from the footage I shot with him and his passengers. The second clip I am working on also features Jamid Ali and the focus of the conversations is ‘Jihad.’ Jamid Ali pretty much came up with the questions on his own after I told him what my project was about. He asked his passengers what according to them is the meaning of ‘Jihad’ and if there is a link between terrorism and religion.

Most of March went capturing, downloading, editing and subtitling. The footage I have till now was unplanned, both in terms of the questions being asked and the way in which it was shot by me. However the compliance of the passengers and the audible footage gave me proof that the concept works and that the logistical details can be ironed out. I am inherently intervening in the space between the driver and passenger and then facilitating a dialogue between them. It’s a tricky thing to handle, especially in Mumbai where class distinctions prevent conversation to take place. A driver will rarely ever initiate a conversation and he will only talk if the passenger speaks to him. This premise is turned on its head in this project.

I am currently working on a list of comprehensive questions to be asked by the taxi drivers to their passengers. These questions decide the focus of the conversations and the key issues that will be addressed with regards to Modern terrorism. So I’m all in favor of inputs and feedback. This is my list. Feel free to edit it by posting your comments.

Q1. Have you ever experienced terrorism? What do you think terrorism is?

Q2. Can terrorism be avoided/ prevented?

Q3. After the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai how do you think the:

(1) state (2)media (3) security forces

should have responded?

Q4. If you were a politician what would you have done?

Q5. As ordinary citizens how can we reduce terrorism?

Q6. What kinds of things make a person into a terrorist?

Q7. What can Muslims do to remove misconceptions about Islamic Terrorism?