Eastenders is planning to spice up the plotline revolving its only Asian / Muslim family with a gay twist.

The BBC soap’s producers said today that the storyline would be a, “traditional love affair, albeit with a modern multicultural twist”.
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The annual Muslim Writers Award takes place this week in London. Nominations for its presitigious journalism prize include writers Ziauddin Sardar, Faisal al Yafai and Kia Abdullah.

Organisers have announced a partnership with publishers group Penguin Group.
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Over the next few weeks & months you can read about a group of young men who decided in the early 1980’s to try and make an impact, and for one night only. You can follow the lives of: The Sultans of Soul.

by Ravi Mangat
Writer

[Earlier chapters: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7]

When Detective Harris saw the Ford Cortina turn around and head back towards the garage, he decided he wasn’t going to follow any longer. After all, there was a particularly good documentary about the life of a cockroach that he wanted to watch and he had already missed it once.

Ramesh was apologising as the guys pulled up outside the garage. He was sure he must have dropped his keys and as his roommate Jagpal was probably out at the disco, then there was nothing to do but go back and re-trace his steps. As the guys stepped out of the car, Jas instantly told them to keep quiet. “Listen”, he said placing a finger to his lips. For a few seconds there was nothing, but then they all heard it at once. There was the sound of music coming from the garage. “I switched everything off. I’m sure of it”.

They walked slowly down the alley running by the side of the garage. They could see that the door had been forced open. “Maybe we should call the police”, whispered Ramesh.
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The Guardian Newspaper has ended the fortnightly column of its sole regular Muslim columnist. Noorjehan Barmania (pictured) started writing for the paper in August 2007 for a special series called ‘This Muslim Life‘, for its G2 supplement.

It was positioned as a light hearted take on a woman “searching for her place in British society”.
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Susheel Kumar is part of an award-winning comedy series that could become the next Goodness Gracious Me. He is also acting in a new theatre production with a decidedly twisted storyline. He talks to AIM magazine about his journey through the industry.

You were recently in the BBC Radio show Fags, Mags and Bags – tell us a bit more

It’s a comedy that was written for Radio 4 and is set in a town just outside Glasgow in a cornershop. It focuses around Ramesh played by Sanjeev Kholi his sidekick Dave and his two sons Alok and Sanjay (Sanjay being the stroppy teenager and Alok, as Ramesh describes him ‘the self appointed Richard Branstons’). It’s not your typical Asian comedy, the humor really transfers well across the board. The show scooped the prize for Best Radio Comedy at the 2008 Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards which was a great achievement.

It features some familiar faces and voices in Scottish comedy as well as a guest spot from Nina Wadia. We’ve got a 3rd series on the way later in the year, so expect more mayhem!
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A BBC scheme to develop a diverse talent pool of journalists ends next week.

The BBC Journalism Talent Pool is designed to speed the recruitment of journalists by finding and assessing talented people from a range of backgrounds in advance of vacancies.
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The critically acclaimed band Asian Dub Foundation have announced their first UK tour in year – with a particular focus on attacking the BNP. (dates & video below)
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The BBC has been criticised for ignoring British Sikhs by an organisation monitoring its output.

The Network of Sikh Organisations says the corporation needed to take “urgent steps” to rectify the problem and ensure it covered all religious communities in Britain fairly.

The group cited two recent instances when Sikhs were excluded from BBC programmes.
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The 2009 Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition was won by Nikesh Shukla (Yam Boy) and Laura Taflinger for their film The Great Identity Swindle, it was announced last week.

“It fuses perfectly the mediums of poetry, cinema, comic books and music resulting in a hilarious study of Asian culture in contemporary Britain. I feel I learnt more about this protagonist’s life in sixty seconds than I do at the end of most Hollywood blockbusters,” said one of the judges.

The one-minute short is part of moti roti’s 60 x 60 project, where established and emerging artists from the South Asian Diaspora – twenty each from Britain, India and Pakistan – present their personal perspective on what ‘home and boundaries’ mean to them.

Writer and producer Farrukh Dhondy (far right) spoke at the launch for the new publishing company Revenge Ink last week in central London. The company is publishing two debut books by its founder, The Armageddon Mandala by Gopal Mukerjee, and Ugly Duckling by Amita Mukerjee.

“Revenge Ink is a small, idealistic publishing house for the post-modern age, when more people are writing than reading (about their lives on the Internet), when they are more eager to turn themselves into characters through their blogs and Facebook pages rather than turn to fiction for just such a specialised art,” said Ms Amita Mukerjee.
www.revengeink.com

Over the next few weeks/months, you can read about a group of young men who decided in the early 1980’s to try and make an impact…and for one night only…you can follow the lives of: The Sultans of Soul.

by Ravi Mangat
Writer

[Earlier chapters: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6]

Ashok had been true to his word and had found an unused lock-up garage that his friend was allowing him to use. It was quite a fair size and although the lighting was quite dim, it was enough for the guys to get by. Raj had just finished setting up the equipment when Ramesh walked in hurriedly and almost tripped over some cabling.

“Hey, what’s the rush?” asked Ashok.

“It was hard to find this place. It’s not exactly what I would call convenient”, Ramesh was almost out of breath.

“It’s free…so it’s convenient”, retorted Ashok. “Have you been running or something?”

“I’ve never been here before and there’s a lot of dodgy looking people out there”.

“And that’s just the women”, Ashok said with a smile. “Relax man…you’re with me now, so it’s cool”.
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The Council of Europe has launched a new campaign to challenge ethnic and race-based discrimination across its member states.

The Strasbourg, France, based organisation is comprised of 47 member countries across Europe and has already launched ad campaigns across various countries.

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After his career was shattered by a massive head injury and memory loss, Irshad Ashraf began a recovery that is coming to fruition this month.
Nominated for next month’s Penguin muslim writers awards for his story The Drowners, his photography exhibition No Pork features abstract depictions of New York.

The Exhibition opens on May 18 in London. A film he made for The South Bank Show, with Melvyn Bragg, transmits in May.
To attend, email: vulvana.williams@irshad.tv.
www.irshad.tv

The BBC’s Tamil service, BBC Tamilosai, has launched a special 10-day morning news programme to cover the increasing interest and flow of news out of the situation in Sri Lanka. It will also concentrate on the Indian General Election.
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BBC Radio has launched a new service combining all its Asian programming across the country as one weekly podcast.

Desi Download is a new weekly service, presented by actor Kulvinder Ghir, which takes snippets from Asian programmes across local BBC Radio stations. It is being billed as a half-hour ‘pick of the week’ featuring community Asian programming.
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The BBC made its widely expected announcement yesterday that Channel 4 commissioner Aaqil Ahmed had been appointed its new head of religion.

He will become the corporation’s first Muslim to occupy the post, and the second appointee ever from a non-Christian background.

The decision is also likely to trigger a crisis at Channel 4, where he was recently appointed head of multicultural programming. There he had a ringfenced budget of £2 million to commission prime-time programming aimed at a diverse audience.
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With India’s 15th General Election currently underway, political anthropologist Dr Mukulika Banerjee of University College London sets out to discover how the country manages to defy apparently insuperable odds to deliver an efficient and effective democratic process that is admired across the world.
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London based Asia House is launching its ‘Festival of Asian Literature’ this month, hosting an array of writers including Ziauddin Sardar, Kenan Malik, Pankaj Mishra and Hardeep Singh Kohli.
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The BBC presenter Anita Rani is planning to go undercover to investigate illegal skin-lightening creams available across the UK.

A special documentary was commissioned to take The One Show presenter across the country to ask why many British Asians and Afro-Caribbeans desire lighter skin, and sometimes embrace illegal products to get the desired effect.

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Over the next few weeks/months, you can read about a group of young men who decided in the early 1980’s to try and make an impact…and for one night only…you can follow the lives of: The Sultans of Soul.

by Ravi Mangat
Writer

[Earlier chapters: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5]

Ramesh had just finished talking to Raj on the telephone. They had been making plans to meet the following day and put some ideas in motion. What exactly they were going to do was still undecided, but meeting up would be a good start. Ashok was also geared up for the first meeting and indeed had showed a surprising surge of urgency about it all. Surprising because when the three of them had first met at the look-alike contest, he was the one that was least interested.

Unfortunately for Ramesh, he didn’t realise he was being followed. As he stepped out of a café, he was immediately confronted by Sanjay. “Have you done it yet?” asked Sanjay. His manner was forthright and it demanded an answer.

“It takes time you know. It’s not easy to un-dump someone”.
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Journalist Deepa Shah has left The Times newspaper after working as commissioning editor on its Body & Soul supplement. She also worked as an editor on its new Weekend section.

Before The Times, Ms shah freelanced as a writer or editor for Look, Woman, at Daily Mirror supplements and on magazines launches for News International and IPC. She was also a senior writer at Closer magazine, a reporter for the Evening Standard, The Sunday Times, The Observer and the Mail among others. She started her career at Eastern Eye where she was eventually News Editor.

In an extended interview with a newspaper, actress and writer Meera Syal has talked about her first marriage and growing up feeling insecure for the first time.

In an interview with the Daily Mail newspaper she said she found it difficult growing up as an Indian girl in a white, working-class mining village. “I felt isolated as a child because I was different. … I stuck out like a sore thumb.”
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Kali theatre is looking for writers of the future. Short or full length – the London based production company is actively looking for scripts by women writers for theatre. Selected writers will receive dramaturgical support to develop their script for Kali’s next festival in 2010.
More info: www.kalitheatre.co.uk

Novelist and poet Zahid Hussain is launching a society to help develop the talent of writers, hoping that one day “Muslim narratives” would become a part of British life. He is setting up Manchester Muslim Writers, open to Muslim and Non-Muslim writers, to foster creative and factual writing including poetry, the novel, screenplay, blogging and journalism.

The author of ‘The Curry Mile’ said: “I always felt there was little provision for talented individuals despite the demand. MMW is therefore being set up to provide pivotal social and technical support to nurture literary talent for the long-term.” MMW will meet monthly at Shakespeare House in South Manchester. Contact: zahid@r-squared.org.uk.

British-Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A. has been named by Time Magazine as among the 100 most influential people in the world. She is joined by the Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman, underlining the big impact impact Slumdog Millionaire has made in the United States.
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