When India was attacked on 26th November 2008, news anchors and journalists started calling it ‘India’s 9/11.’ This film examines this terminology and the links between 9/11, 26/11 in Mumbai, Iraq, Afghanistan and Modern terror. The conversations between taxi drivers and their passengers in Mumbai taxis delve into these larger issues. A tragic terrorist attack, a lapse in security, the loss of the top Anti Terrorist Squad officials who were investigating the so called ‘Hindu terrorist’ attacks in Malegao lead the people to voice their notions of larger conspiracy theories at a time when the Mainstream media mentions none of this. These are not authoritative voices but perspectives like yours and mine on the events which affect and shape our lives. They are short takes, 140 characters long tweets in taxis, between real people riding in a taxi, in a city that experienced extreme violence, terror and loss.

The current poll on The Taxi Takes has a majority of 50% who say it should not be termed India’s 9/11 and 34% in favor of the Mumbai attacks being termed ‘India’s 9/11. However there are also a small 8 % who are not sure which hence makes this a rather balanced undecided poll.

Watch the film and cast your vote. But more importantly I urge you to listen to the common voices on the streets of the Mumbai Metropolis and gather a sense of where the Mumbai terrorist attack of might figure in the larger scheme of current happenings in the world. Please give your take and comments below.

Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, a former Pakistani lawmaker issued an anti terrorism fatwa in London this Tuesday. It stated that suicide bombing was banned by Islam “without any excuses, any pretexts, or exceptions.” This is a great stand and one that many other organizations have taken before. Even recently after the incident at Fort Hood, The National Coalition of South Asian Organizations released ‘their fatwa.’ The NCSO consists of over twenty organizations who had issued this strong statement after the tragedy in Fort Hood. It is not any different from most of the voices I heard in the Mumbai taxis. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Parsis and Jews traveling through bustling Bombay commented on this unfortunate misconception between Islam and Terror and voiced the same concern as Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri and The Quilliam Foundation.

When will mainstream media truly pay attention to all the voices of dissent? Like I said , a great stand but one which has been stated by the common man for decades. May this fatwa enter the domain of pop culture and be talked about on twitter, blogs, backyards in Alabama, streets of Kabul, Mc Donalds kitchens and headlines of every big publication Worldwide as much as it was talked about in the Mumbai taxis. Inshallah!

I wanted to spread the word about a great film screening today where I will be talking about my own experience of using Web 2.0 strategies for The Taxi Takes on Terror. I will be presenting along with Daniel Bowman-Simon of the People’s Garden project, and Sam Gregory from the human rights group Witness.

10 Tactics for Turning Information Into Action is a film by the Tactical Technology Collective that includes stories from activists around the world who have successfully used digital technologies to change the world. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion. The New York premiere is with their partners, Grassroots Camp.
In addition the Tactical Tech Collective is giving away incredible Toolkits.

When: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 7:00 PM
Where: The Tank Space for Performing and Visual Arts – 45th St. and 9th Ave. New York City
Tickets are $5.00 in advance: http://www.brownpapertickets. com/event/ 96989

The film includes the famous Pink Chadi campaign and post 26/11 Mumbai twitter tactics in India.

‘The Taxi Takes’ traveled to Trinidad and Tobago recently. I had a screening there for some Trinidadians and even ‘Trini’ Indians with the help of multimedia artist Elspeth Duncan. There was another impromptu screening in Brooklyn thanks to Nicole Jaquis whose project Ascetics with Camera will be traveling to the Kumbh Mela in India this year also.

Kavita Ramdya, author of Bollywood Weddings and journalist at News India Times recently interviewed me and has written an article about ‘The Taxi Takes.‘ Feel free to read it on her site or download the pdf from my press page.  A small piece of misinformation is that I was born in New Delhi and not Mumbai. I am pleased that the core concept of having a dialogue in public spaces – taxi cabs and now the Internet is taking place in this manner!

This website will be undergoing some over hauls and is also planning larger screenings in the near future. The media press kit will be available online for download shortly. I am looking into having a screening at a public venue  in NYC for New York taxi drivers of Indian and Pakistani orign. Watch this space for more details!

It’s beyond ironic to think that President Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace prize. This, just as he makes the largest blunder in the history of wars and orders more troops to catapult an ongoing escalation into another decade of suffering. It has been the aggressive policies post 9/11 that have sharpened the dagger of Islamist terrorism in the World. The Iraqis, the Afghanis have already acted like a forest that is being burnt down in search of a target – sometimes a man named Bin Laden and at other times fictitious Weapons of Mass Destruction. To send more troops into Afghanistan at a time when America is still struggling under economic debt is creating more enemies. In fact this time, I think Obama is creating enemies out of his own American citizens who once believed in ‘change’ and now plead for health reform and more jobs rather than America’s 6th war since the end of WW II.

Artists, writers, news anchors, journalists, filmmakers, poets, trapeze artists and anyone else with a voice and body need to have their say and speak out. The cartoon above was published on Little Alex in Wonderland along with the eloquent and incredible Noam Chomsky‘s ‘take’ on ‘War, Peace and Obama’s Nobel.’ Michael Moore, the famous, talented attention grabbing documentary filmmaker wrote a letter to his president. Huffington Post carries this Open letter to President Obama.

Read it and go have a conversation with your Pakistani cab driver in New York. He’ll probably tell you he’s not planning on taking a trip back home this X’mas. Obama’s choices are creating an inferno of problems in Pakistan and the Indian sub continent. And with this surge, it’s only going to get worse I predict. Unfortunately no ‘Change’ for the better.

Pritish Nandy says we should ‘stop jabbering about 26/11.’ To quote him he says,

” Terrorists do not need to celebrate the success of 9/11 or 26/11. We are doing it for them, even as we weep for the victims and tell the world that we are better prepared to face future strikes. Let’s not kid ourselves. Terrorism is the scourge of our times and no Government, no police force is ever adequately equipped to anticipate it. The more we talk about the pain, the horror, the memories of these terrible events, the more the perpetrators celebrate, the more they go down in history as villains or heroes, depending on who is providing the perspective, and to whom.”

You can read his entire post on the Times of India blog.
Well I commented on his blog post but he didn’t approve my comment so I decided to publish it here. This is my Take.

“I completely disagree. We are not jabbering about our fears, mistakes and failures alone. To be silent would be similar to witnessing the holocaust and remaining quiet about it! Yes I agree, the terrorists do feed off headlines. But that’s where insightful journalism plays a role.
Talk, discuss, deliberate about the future, about larger issues which need to be addressed in the World community as far as Modern Terrorism goes. Give your perspective and yes speak out, in fact shout out against such inhumanity I say.
I’m working on such a project. It’s about taxi drivers and passengers in Mumbai taxis talking about 26/11 and related issues. It’s a new media project called ‘The Taxi Takes on Terror’

So Manmohan Singh and Obama will meet soon or are meeting as I write this. I’m hoping that Mr. Prime Minister of India will not be quiet about 26/11. In my mind given that one year would have gone by since the tragic attacks, no Indian citizen should be quiet.

Famous Anti Nazi Slogan translated into Arabic

“We Will Not Be Silent” was the slogan of one of ‘The White Rose Society‘, one of the few anti Nazi societies which existed in Weimer Germany. This slogan was taken up and became the anti war slogan for several organizations like The Artists Against War.I did a presentation about them and was gifted a T-shirt which has that slogan written in Arabic. Read about Raed Jarrar who was stopped from boarding a flight at JFK for wearing the same t-shirt on Democracy Now.

Nope Mr. Nandy, ‘We Will Not Be Silent.’

Newsweek has done a great job at condensing the news and events of this past decade into a short 7 minute film.

Of course US news and its elections take center stage but pertinently enough Terrorism seems to have dominated this decade in more ways then one. Ofcourse some direct associations can be made with each American President and the corresponding World Wars and events also. Ironically Madonna and Britney Spear’s kiss hogs more screen time than the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. A foreboding and predictive way in which the media is already heading towards titillation rather than truthful fact informing. If NDTV made this, would they give Rakhi Sawant’s ‘swayamvar’ more time than the Naxalite problem? Probably yes I say.

The Fort Hood attack and it’s coverage in the US is a scary example of stereo typing and even ignorant reporting. More to come on that.
So will the next ten years have a corresponding increase in headlines on Terror? What’s your prediction?

It’s important to understand Mumbai and what it’s all about. Recently a fantastic fifty reasons were penned down by Kanika Parab & Mansi Poddar on CNNGo about why Mumbai should be considered the greatest city in the World. The list includes six features which play a relevant role in ‘The Taxi Takes on Terror.’

So at number three there is the Famous Ladies Specials which even got press in the New York Times article I posted. Yes it’s good for Indian women to have a hassle free commute.Though I think woman, all around the World have commuting stories of alarm and horror that they could share.

Leopold Cafe, and it’s distinctive charm and toughness is at number 24. I know that people still throng this bar and the 26/11 attack didn’t make any dent in it’s popularity. In fact more people probably go to see the bullet holes and shattered glass now more than ever.

And at number three we have the taxis! The ‘kalee peelee’ or black and yellow cabs which are fun and noisy, old and sacred, tarnished and decorated, sturdy and yet unfortunately slowly leaving the landscape of the city. The Government has passed a law that forbids taxis that are older than 25 years to stay on the streets. So the iconic Fiat taxis are being replaced by zippier Omnis, Santros and Marutis. But you’ll get to see a lot of these soon to be vintage classics on The Taxi Takes. So stay glued:)

The ‘dhobhi ghats’ of Bombay are a historic place where the laundry of Bombay comes to be washed at row upon rows of stone wash pens. A ‘dhobhi’ is a washerman and nearly two hundred ‘dhobhis’ will wash clothes together at any given time. I met two of these ‘dhobhis’ who have been washing clothes in Bombay as part of a profession that has been passed on to them by their grand fathers. At one point when the taxi driver and two washermen were talking in the taxi, I chuckled to myself thinking I really had an incredible slice of the working class! So at number 37 we have the Dhobhi ghats.

Haji Ali , the miraculous floating Dargah comes in at number 43. Built in 1431 by Sayed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari, a rich Muslim merchant it is one of the most recognizable structures off the coast of Southern Mumbai. I have some wonderful footage of the taxi driver Jamid Ali standing near the mosque , by the water’s edge as the sun was setting behind him. He sang a song he had written in dedication to his mother, who died when he was nine. I’ll put a clip of him on his profile page eventually.

The last reason was because there were so many holidays in Mumbai. Due to it’s multi cultural, multi ethnic and secular nature India houses every religion in the World. So at any given time of the year Indians can expect to have a holiday celebrating either a Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Parsi, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain tradition.

The other reasons are also fun, brilliant and definitely worth a read for anyone who has heard of Mumbai but never been there. A great city in a wonderful country. More on Mumbai later.

Today, October 2nd 2009 is the hundred and fortieth birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Today I will place a flower at the feet of his wonderful statue that stands at Union Square in New York City. His legacy and life will influence the World forever. I have always been in awe of him.
Another fact which always astounded me was that at the same time in history there lived a man who managed to compel masses of people towards non violence while another being provoked them towards genocide. Mahatma Gandhi and Hitler were contemporaries. Imagine a movie with a split screen showing the peace and self will involved in non violence (ahimsa) alongside the holocaust, simultaneously in India and Germany. A horrific image that makes my heart beat faster. I wonder what it is that can drive one human being towards peace and humanity and another towards the extreme opposite? But then again, why must I look back in time with a sense of disgust and horror when the World around me still hasn’t yet blown out those demonic fires of terror and violence.

In 1950, the great Jewish physicist, Albert Einstein, a genius and noble being in his own right recorded an interview in his study in Princeton, New Jersey. In this United Nations radio interview he said about Mahatma Gandhi, “Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth. ”

These words ring like a loud Buddhist temple gong reverberating into the air for minutes. These are my favorite words about Gandhiji. They are inscribed in stone at the Gandhi museum in New Delhi. They came to my mind when I spoke to taxi drivers in Bombay. I had earlier thought of calling my project, ‘If Gandhi were a filmmaker.’ I wondered what his insights and documentary recordings would be while driving around the country. What would he make out of this fine Nation of ours that he had strived so hard to keep from partitioning into Pakistan and Hindustan.

Mumbai Taxi drivers said that if the great man had existed in today’s day and age, no one would give him the time of day. Materialistic, superficial people would laugh at his ascetic lifestyle and flimsy loin cloth and no one would heed his call to non violence and ‘satyagraha.’
Taxi drivers cursed the current politicians and literally spit on them as they were driving around. They spoke of how not one politician had it in them to lead a country to Independence from 200 years of British colonialism like Gandhiji yet alone help us get out of the shackles of terrorism that India is facing now. In fact it is the people in power, they said, who have brought on these acts of terror and violence for the common Indian citizen.

I know that Mahatma Gandhi, may his ‘great soul’ rest in peace was a great champion of women’s rights and empowerment. In 1940, reviewing his twenty-five years of work in India concerning women’s role in society, he had said:
“My contribution to the great problem lies in my presenting for acceptance truth and ahimsa (non-violence) in every walk of life, whether for individuals or nations. I have hugged the hope that in this women will be the unquestioned leader and, having thus found her place in human evolution, will shed her inferiority complex.”
“…Woman is the incarnation of ahimsa. Ahimsa means infinite love, which again means infinite capacity for suffering. And who but woman, the mother of man, shows this capacity in the largest measure?… Let her translate that love to the whole of humanity… And she will occupy her proud position by the side of man… She can become the leader in satyagraha..”

I know he would find great solace in the young breed of women taxi drivers who can be seen on the streets of Mumbai nowadays.

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.