Normal service will resume after that.

Called ‘Alchemy’, the festival will feature a full programme of music, dance, literature, food, debate and fashion.

Events will range from a rare classical concert by celebrated composer A.R. Rahman to the very best UK Bhangra, to an evening of music and chat with the Grewal Family from Channel 4’s hit docu-drama The Family.

It will also have free classical and folk dance workshops, early morning yoga, the Alchemy Market and an immersive installation that recreates the sights and sounds of Southall.

The five-day festival will take over all venues and spaces of Southbank Centre from 7th to 11th April.

Also featured
- Literature and talks
The Alchemy Debates, part of British Council’s UK-India Cultural Connections programme (7/8/10/11 April) explores the foundations and context of Alchemy, opening with the timely discussion India: Global Powerhouse? (7 April). Throughout the festival UK and Indian artists come together to begin the process of creating new collaborative work and share progress with the public on two occasions.

- Free events
A free events programme throughout the Festival will transform The Clore Ballroom, Spirit Level and surrounding areas with a range of events including Daandiya Raas Stick Dancing, The Southall Story: Live featuring performances by Bhangra musician Kuljit Bhamra and Mohindra Kaur Bhamra and an insight into life in Southall with The Southall Storytellers.

- Food
The Alchemy Market in Southbank Centre Square will offer Indian food, hot chai and crafts and The Nation’s Dish will see a guest appearance by celebrity chefs.

On 8 April BBC Radio 1 DJ, Nihal hosts his BBC Asian Network show at Southbank Centre, broadcasting live from The Clore Ballroom. He brings together a panel of artists and decision makers to discuss the ingredients that make Indian culture what it is today, followed by a ‘cook off’ between celebrated chef, Atul Kochar and Sarbjit Grewal, the mother from Channel 4’s The Family.

Tickets from: Southbank Centre: 0871 663 2500
www.southbankcentre.co.uk

“I still retain a bond with the paper and will carry working with them on a freelance basis.”

“In the midst of all this upheaval, the one thing I remain convinced about is my love for news reporting and I intend to keep doing that while experimenting with different media.”

Nitin Swahney is one of the most prolific Indian composers, musicians and producers alive today.

But Monday’s performance at London’s Barbican Centre however, was something new even to me.

I have followed his work for many years as a young ardent follower of his early trip-hop albums, then later to recent shows around London where he has played dubstep inspired jazz sets to crowds of enthusiastic dancers, singing and skanking along.

The concept of the night was an unusually powerful one.

Nitin Sawhney, reincarnated as a composer, played alongside the London Symphony Orchestra delivering one of the most moving performances I have seen at the venue (and not just because the last thing I watched was a ‘Jack n Beanstalk ‘panto. Ahem.)

It was a perfectly-timed 64-min piece to accompany the classic Japanese silent film, ‘Yogoto Ni Yume’.

Filmed in black and white, the story tells of Japan in 1933, at the latter end of the Great Depression, and follows the progananist ‘Omitsu’: a barmaid struggling to bring up her son in poverty, while her partner tries to find a job, leading to ultimately devastating consequences.

The film was projected onto an impressively sized screen, with the orchestra playing live below the projection.

The beauty of the performance was the merging of both mediums together on one stage, with Nitin playing piano alongside the LSO, heightening the emotion of the films content and characters.

“I wanted to really let the orchestra and the score do the talking’ he later said as part of his open Q and A to the audience, “I wanted to get into the musical psychology of what was going on.”

Usually famed for his tabla and sitar accompaniment, to me the show was about representing the range of influences that Asian music and orchestral sounds have in conjunction with one another and the way they in turn can inspire.

The collaboration of the LSO, Japanese cinematography and Nitin’s Asian influence contributed to a multi-dimensional show of emotion through the music.

Though different to anything I have seen before, the performance worked by appealing to the audiences senses,;I know the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up on more than one occasion, despite being unfamiliar with the narrative.

All in all, Nitin Sawhney must be saluted for speaking many languages with music, and appealing to each ear in the full to the brim auditorium.

Also, of course, for putting on a better show that Jack and the Beanstalk. Amazing.

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Kieran Yates is a contributor to DazedDigital.com, RWD and LIVE.
She blogs here and is on Twitter here.

The corporation officially launched its Strategy Review, proposing that the Asian Network cease as a national digital service.

But the station could be replaced by a network of local services, with reduced hours, that will operate on analogue as well as digital licenses.

Director-general Mark Thompson told Channel 4 News last night that the new arrangement would allow the BBC to have a more targeted approach to Asian communities. (video below)

The Review will now go to the BBC Trust for a three-month long consultation period.

But there is a chance to save the Asian Network if enough complaints are made during the 12-week consultation period.

The chairman of the Trustees Sir Michael Lyons told the Media Guardian last night: “If we find that… there’s massive public concern that we need to take account of then we will go back to the director general to rethink the strategy before it’s approved.”

The process for the BBC Trust consultation is explained on this page.

There is more scope for complaints to have an impact through this process since the BBC Trust is actively looking for feedback from people (more advice for people looking to complain is on this blog).

It is also likely the BBC Trust will look at online campaigns on social media websites such as Facebook.

Yesterday the Labour MP Tom Watson amended an Early Day Motion in Parliament, which earlier just mentioned 6Music, to include Asian Network. It has now been signed by 33 MPs including Virendra Sharma and Khalid Mahmood.

It says:

That this House notes with deep concern recent newspaper speculation that the BBC is considering closing its 6 Music and Asian Network radio stations; believes that both radio stations offer outlets for independent and non-mainstream music; further notes that both 6 Music and Asian Network reach out to audiences not otherwise well served by the BBC; congratulates 6 Music and Asian Network for acting as a source of talent for the BBC and other media; recognises that the BBC has a duty to represent and give a platform to minority interests that need a mainstream platform to develop and grow; and calls on the Government to encourage the BBC to continue its support for 6 Music and Asian Network for many years to come.

Supporters of the Asian Network are now circulating a joint letter to be sent to the BBC Trust, protesting against the corporation’s proposed changes.

Channel 4 report

Over the years I have been a constant critic of the BBC Asian Network. The station has been the subject of complaints over its confused music policy, not focusing enough on news and current affairs and not doing enough to develop new talent.

But it’s biggest problem has always been poor management. That is now evident more than ever before, given that its management seem to have failed spectacularly to internally make the case to keep the station.

But BBC Asian Network’s survival is important, and there are several reasons why. Here are some:

1) It would reduce competition
With the buyout of Club Asia radio by Sunrise Radio late last year, closing Asian Network would leave no other real alternative to Sunrise. This is especially the case in London where 40% of British Asians live.

All the main radio stations in London (niche offerings such as Panjab Radio aside) are owned by the Sunrise Group: Sunrise, Kismat and BuzzAsia (the re-branded Club Asia). This would also apply to other parts of the country that are only served by local Asian stations or a feed of Sunrise radio from London.

2) A source of talent for the BBC and rest of the media
Along with the now defunct Asian Programmes Unit, the BBC Asian Network has been a stepping stone for scores of presenters, producers, journalists and actors across the media industry.

It’s arguable that Asian talent would be picked up by other parts of the BBC anyway but so far the rest of the BBC and broadcasting industry has been terrible at spotting and developing new Asian talent. If Asian Network were to shut down there is every possibility that the levels of diversity at the BBC would fall in coming years.

The corporation has an internal target to have at least 12.5% of its workforce from diverse backgrounds.

3) It would create ‘parallel lives’
The BBC Asian Network is, for many Asians across Britain, a gateway into mainstream British culture. The station has gone further than any other Asian radio station in combining mainstream pop culture and news with British Asian culture.

Without that, many Asians would retreat to alternatives that would make them less open to popular culture. That would also raise the prospect of ‘parallel lives’ – where different communities consume different media outlets without much overlap.

4) It would abandon Asian license fee payers
The BBC still does appallingly bad in representing minorities (apart from on soaps) in doing ‘Asian stories’ outside narratives of terrorism and crime. The Asian Network has frequently brought stories to the rest of the media that its mainstream news journalists would be unlikely in covering.

The BBC’s Charter itself states the corporation will aim to:

Represent the different nations, regions and communities to the rest of the UK.
Across the range of its network output, the BBC should portray and celebrate the range of cultures and communities across the UK at national, regional and local level.

That is consistent with the view that it should seek to represent British Asian culture to not only serve that demographic but tie it with popular culture.

5) Remove a vital platform for British Asian culture
The station has not done enough to differentiate itself from commercial competitors, but the same argument could be made of other BBC radio stations such as Radio 1 and Radio 2.

Axing Asian Network would kill off vital media space for a lot of British Asian content and culture (documentaries, fusion music) that does not get represented on commercial alternatives. It is within the BBC’s remit to represent and give a platform to minority interests that need a mainstream platform to develop and grow.

By Friday afternoon, once the Conservative shadow culture minister Ed Vaizey had “welcomed” the leaked report in The Times, it looked like the BBC Asian Network’s fate was sealed.

The draft report has been widely seen as a response by BBC executives to strong pressure by the Conservative party to get the corporation to cut spending.

They ask why, at a time when the commercial sector is reeling from a downturn in the advertising sector, is the BBC not sharing some of the pain.

It’s a fair question. And the result seemed to be a report written by a former Conservative party advisor who would make recommendations that could reflect the party’s thinking.

By leaking the report in advance, BBC executive could judge Tory response and make adjustments if necessary.

Except that Asian Network and 6 Music were caught in the cross-fire, and questions were asked why the expensive and relatively unpopular BBC Three was not facing the chop.

A backlash soon started online. On Facebook a page was created to, ‘Save the BBC Asian Network‘. It has already gathered nearly 9,000 fans.

A Facebook group was also set up by several Asian Network staff, including presenters Bobby Friction and Sonia Deol, titled ‘Keep the BBC Asian Network‘.

On Twitter too, word rapidly spread of Asian Network’s troubles and hundreds of people started using the hashtag #saveAsianNetwork.

The backlash took off when singer Jay Sean tweeted:

I can’t believe that they’re trying to shut down the BBC Asian network. This is crazy we have no mainstream platforms as it is. Messed up.

An Early Day Motion (EDM) in Parliament in support of Asian Network is also being planned but it’s too early to say yet.

It’s unlikely that British Asians are going to take the move without mounting stuff resistance.

The event was held at the House of Commons. Other recepients included the Evening Standard’s Joe Murphy for Parliamentary Journalist of the Year, Ed Balls MP as Minister of the Year, David Cameron MP as Politician of the Year and actor Nitin Ganatra as TV Personality of the Year.

A spokesperson said: “Krishna’s appointment at the New York Fed is testimony to the high regard in which the Financial Times and its leading writers are held by decision-makers around the globe.”

At the NY Fed he will be Executive Vice President and Head of Communications. He will also serve on the Bank’s Management Committee.

AIM Magazine previously interviewed him when he was appointed leader writer at the FT.

As a political correspondent previously, Krishna covered the Blair government, domestic policy and the Iraq crisis.

Before that he wrote for the FT’s Lex column, commenting on financial markets. From 1997-2000 Krishna was the FT’s Bombay Correspondent based in India.

He was also named one of Britain’s most powerful Asians in the British media several years ago.

The corporation is due to announce an overhaul of services next month.

The newspaper reported this morning that BBC director-general Mark Thompson will signal that ‘an era of expansion’ would be over. One of the drastic cuts to be recommended would be shutting down BBC Asian Network entirely.

Other changes to be mooted include a cap on spending on broadcast rights for sports events to around £300 million.

The paper added that:

It will be seen as an attempt to show a potential Tory government that the BBC understands the effect the deep advertising recession has had on commercial rivals and that it does not need outside intervention to get its house in order.

The BBC is already under pressure to decrease its online presence, and the report is said to have made recommendations on that area too.

The Asian Network has come under intense pressure recently to improve its audience ratings and improve value for money. An internal survey last year found the station was the most expensive among all BBC radio stations.

Over at the Guardian, Momtaz Begum-Hossain wrote in the station’s defence:

And how am I going to learn about Asian life? We are sadly not yet living in a time where minority voices, Asian and non-Asian alike, are completely assimilated into the mainstream media. Which of the BBC stations is going to meet that big gap that Love Bollywood fills? And what about the community language programmes?

When I was growing up, our household came to a standstill when there was Bengali programming on the radio. I can’t even turn to the commercial Asian radio stations any more to hear what’s happening in Asian news, sport and entertainment, because last year saw the closure of Club Asia and Zee radio. The Asian Network is my only source of information on these subjects.

More coverage on AIM Magazine soon.

In a new series for BBC Radio 4, producer and presenter Mukti Jain Campion finds out what lies behind their success and the impact they are making in India as well as abroad.
The three part series will be aired between Monday March 1st and Wednesday March 3rd at 11am.
Listen online for 7 days after broadcast

The Scotland based comedy Fags, Mags & Bags has returned to Radio 4 for the third time after picking up awards for its quirky humour and good writing (episode below).

The series is written by and stars Sanjeev Kohli, as newsagent and confectioner Ramesh Majhu.

He is ably assisted by his shop sidekick Dave (Donald Mcleary, co-writer), a forty-something underachiever who shares Ramesh’s love of the art of shopkeeping.

Then there are Ramesh’s sons Sanjay (Omar Raza) and Alok (Susheel Kumar, interviewed on AIM here).

The comedy series was recently nominated for a Sony Radio Academy Comedy award, while the writers won a Writers’ Guild Award.

The first series saw Ramesh et al boldly complete a magazine part-work and cause a near riot selling beef swastikas.

In series two the Majhu family was rocked to its core by the appearance of a much-despised auntie and the shop turned into a temporary shrine to Michael Jackson.

The new series of Fags, Mags & Bags sees Sanjay finding a girlfriend and embracing the arts while the very eco-balance of shop society is thrown into chaos after Ramesh allows Alok to install a slush machine.

Sanjeev Kohli previously appeared in six series of ‘Still Game’, where he played Navid.

Airing weekly: Wed 10th Feb to Wed 17th March at 11.30am, Radio 4.
More on the BBC website

Series 2, episode 1

The 24 hour channel will be available free-to-air at launch and later be added to the View Asia package. We wrote more about the company and the channel earlier here.

Viacom18 Media is a joint venture between US based Viacom and Mumbai’s Network 18 Group.

Titled ‘Where Three Dreams Cross’ – it features over 300 works by 70 artists covering historic and contemporary photography from the subcontinent.

There are also numerous unseen photographs from the Partition Era and the early history of the three countries.

The Whitechapel Gallery in East London, where the exhibition is being held until April, has brough together photographs from private family archives, galleries, individuals and works by leading contemporary artists.

The exhibition is presented in five themes which incorporate historic, modern and contemporary works:

The Streets looks at social documentary and street photography; Iintimate Relationships explores family and group structures within society; Architecture addresses the cultural value of buildings and public spaces; Points of Transition looks at political moments and movements. The Portrait charts the evolution of self-representation through portraiture from 19th century studio portraiture to Pushpamala N’s contemporary self-portraits.

More information is available on their website.

The exhibition is open until 11th April 2010.
Whitechapel Gallery, 77 – 82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX.

For further press information or images please contact:
Rachel Mapplebeck on 020 7522 7880; 07811 456 806 or Email RachelMapplebeck@whitechapelgallery.org
ElizabethFlangan@whitechapelgallery.org

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More on the exhibition here.

The 32 year old writer from north London said: “To be recognised amongst my peers, including beauty editors whose work I have admired for years and to have my work commended by top people in the industry makes me feel very humbled.”

She won the award for an article on skin lightening written for fashion mag Asiana. She has also written for a range of national newspapers and magazine.

Anjana’s first book, The Ultimate Guide to Beauty, was published last year.

Call me nostalgic, but there’s something about the process of producing a magazine that I’ll always love.

When I was editor of Asiana, it was a combination of frantic scrabbling during deadline week while the printers yelled on the phone for pages, culminating in the moment that made it all worth it – the first delivery of magazines smelling of freshly-minted paper containing all our hard work.

Going freelance was a choice not a byword for voluntary redundancy, and since then I’ve managed to travel the world and write for The Guardian, The Sunday Times Travel and The Daily Telegraph. Working in your pyjamas with all of the money and none of the office politics – no regrets.

Unfortunately, all that changed when the media felt the delayed, full-impact of the recession last year. There were scores of redundancies being made across newspapers and the market became flooded with freelancers.

Although the job market seems to have picked up, I’m reluctant to go back into permanent work unless the role is right. Working as an editor or even as a senior writer is challenging as you need to get your content together, liaise with the designers, make sure it’s right after it goes through production – and that’s not even including working alongside the publisher’s advertising agenda and the sales team.

Being a traditionalist who’s very attached to paper, online journalism and blogging had always left me a bit cold.

But while twiddling my thumbs last December, I decided to pass the time by researching for my own wedding, and discovered that there are practically no online Asian wedding sites, at least not any that seem to have been updated since 2007.

From then on I decided to set up my own Asian wedding blog, which brings together news and personal stories, featuring suppliers and ideas on a more real-time basis, as most wedding magazines are quarterly.

Apart from being able to layout and post information almost instantaneously, the thing I love most is that with the online Asian community, there doesn’t seem to be the kind of in-fighting that the magazines are so notorious for.

I’ve recently guest-blogged on a new website called The Asian Wedding, and would be happy to flag up any of the other sites such as The Asian Fashion Blog on my site. Perhaps it’s because we know how fluid and accessible information is online and there’s no point being precious about it.

If recessions teach us anything, it’s that we must learn to change and adapt our ways of working, and while the era of hand-to-mouth might be the case for most of us for a while, I think a positive repercussion has been to introduce me to a medium I have resisted for the past few years.

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Poorna Shetty edits and writes: The Asian Wedding Editor’s Guide
Picture by Neeta Lulla

by Amarat Sehgal
—

I looked at my phone for the fifth time, checking to see if there were any missed calls or messages.
Nothing! And there was zilch for the next 3 hours too.

I knew Danny was in the pub again, I could even name the pub too. He was watching the Chelsea match and as always, he drank far too much.

As it had taken me 20 minutes to super-straighten my hair, I wanted to be outside in the sun with Danny. I had even squeezed into my super, skinny jeans, which made my ass look great. All I wanted to do was see him and go for lunch, as he promised to do so.

Another 30 minutes later, I couldn’t wait any longer so I got into the car and I drove to The Hare & Hound. I recognised his tattooed arms immediately, with a pint in his hands.

I approached him calmly and said “You were supposed to call me 4 hours ago?”

“Hi Babe, I was just about to call you,” he completely ignored what I had said.

He eventually calmed me down and got me a drink.

I was still annoyed, I explained to him that we were meant to have lunch today in Richmond near the river?
Instead he started making funny face’s, it always made my heart melt, he stared into my eyes and said he’ll make it up to me.

The truth was, Danny never did make things up to me but I was still deeply, madly in love with him. It had been over a year for us and he still made my knees weak. I knew deep down I could do much better but . . . but . . .
Dan always knew had to win me over and somehow he would worm his way back into my life.

As my sister was out that evening, I asked Danny to come over to mine later for dinner. He agreed and 9ish sounded good, “you better be there on time,” I insisted.

At 9.15pm, I took another sip of my wine – NO SIGN OF DANNY YET!

I now needed something a little stronger; I got the Jack Daniel’s out and poured a stiff shot with a dash of lemonade. I didn’t call this time, I wanted to think that I could trust him and that he will be here, he better be here ……

The food was done and I was eating on my own, it was 10.30pm now, I decided to give his share to the dog. My dog had had his share for the 2nd time in a week now, she must’ve thought it was Christmas again?

I cried as I took off my make-up and put my nightie on. I took another sip from my fatal drink, as my tears rolled down onto my cheeks. My tears hurt, when your tears hurt, it means you are genuinely hurting, not when you watch a sad film or listen to a sad story but real, hot, painful tears.

Me and my tears went to bed.

At 2am, I got a phone call on my mobile which always slept on the pillow next to mine. It was Danny, saying he had fallen asleep and had lost track of time and that he was on his way to me, like now.

At first I felt happy that he had at least called me but then I remembered the pain he had put me through that evening.

When he eventually came in, he stunk off booze. I told him that I was going to bed but he wanted a cuddle, I got annoyed.

“You liar Danny, your still drunk,” I couldn’t believe that he was still drunk?

He tried to make me laugh and pulled funny faces again but I was angry and to be honest I was tired, tired of carrying on like this. I had no make-up on, my eyes were puffy and I wasn’t in the mood to play about.

I then realised Danny’s hand was bleeding, “What happened?”

After much persuasion he told me the truth.

He stayed in the pub after the Chelsea match, so he had been there all day, which would’ve been around 14-16 hours. He then got into a fight straight after I’d left, he had hit someone and then had to run as the police were called.

The hooligan then decided (after 6 hours), to drink and drive and come and see me.

“Get out Danny,” I wanted him out and I tried pushing the drunk out of my house, he was gobsmacked that I was kicking him out.

“Please babe, don’t do this,” he begged me but I had to get rid of him. I had to get rid of him for good, this was the 3rd time he had forgotten about our dates and it was the millionth time I had seen him drunk.

As I opened the door, he swore at me loudly and made a scene right outside my house, I quickly shut the door. Please God don’t let my neighbours hear him, what will they think? I then realised I was thinking like my mother….not a good thing!

I went upstairs and tried to fall asleep, I checked my phone and deleted Danny’s number. My heart was breaking in a million pieces but I had to do it, my gut feeling was telling me to. I cried as I prayed but I was exhausted from crying.

“Please God, send me someone who can make me smile, laugh and have muscles like Danny but send me someone who cares about me too.”

The next morning, I was awoken to my sister making prontha, (Indian style usually weekend breakfast).

“Aaah lovely,” I thought, and for a second I actually forgot about my night.

I told my little sister what happened and we ended up going to Richmond ourselves for lunch.

After lunch, I thought how lucky I was, if I didn’t have a boyfriend, I had my family and friends to pick me up again. I will get over this and it’s just a matter of time before I do and maybe one day, God will make my wish come true?

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Amarat can be contacted on the.storyteller@hotmail.co.uk.

It will close with the premiere of acclaimed director Sangeeta Datta’s Life Goes On. But the festival opens on 5th with an awards ceremony and lasts until 14th March.

The annual event, which initially just focused on women filmmakers, has now broadened its horizons. This year it will also host an interview with renowned director Shyam Benegal and showcase his latest film Well Done Abba.

The former Bollywood actress Jaya Bachchan, wife of Amitabh Bachchan, will be honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to Indian cinema at the launch.

Organisers say the event will also feature appearances from British-Asian directors and celebrities include Rizwan Ahmed, Shazia Mirza, Hardeep Kohli and Sarmed Mirza, the Glasgow-based film producer nominated for a Scottish Bafta for his debut film An Act of Terror.

Media contact: Sophie or Suzie at tpr media consultants / 020 8347 7020

The former managing director of Sunrise Radio, now its Sales Director, has been short-listed and is now among six candidates fighting to be the Conservative Party’s official candidate neighbouring Hayes. The announcement was made late last week.

Others running against him include Gurmaj Dhillon, a former Treasury official who has advised the Tories on police reform; Lindsey Hall, Westminster councillor and Naman Purewal – Deputy Chairman of Feltham and Heston Conservatives.