Tag Archives: research assistant

Production work for CBC’s documentary

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It was Nagnathiya today and CBC guys were in Varanasi to start shooting for their documentary called Myths and Might. Mr. Shubhranshu Chowdhary called me to inform about it. I had already helped him in researching for characters. I met them at Veer Bhadra Mishra’s house who organizes this play in Benares. There was huge crowd to see the play, more than 25,000 people. I had already seen the play several times before but this was the first time when I was sitting on a boat. It was fun to watch the play by sitting on a boat. There were lots of VIPs around my boat.

CBC’s camera was amazing, it was a HD camera. I had never seen such a camera like that before. I was with them for the whole play shooting.  After that we went to Dashashwamedh ghat to shoot Aarti which was last work of that day. CBC wanted to shoot Mr. Veer Bhadra Mishra next morning which I always wanted to see. I requested Mr. Chowdhary to let me see Mr. Mishra talking and he said he will call me tomorrow when they start shooting.

I was so excited to see Mr. Mishra’s interview and was waiting for Mr. Chowdharys’s call but he didnt call. Finally I called him and he said that I could not see this interview because of some boundations created by Mr. Mishra. After Mishra’s interview they filmed Raja Babu, one of our characters, for the whole day. After spending two days with Raja Babu they left Benares.

Work with MTV Italy

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My brother was working with MTV Italy as Italian interpreter asked me if I would assist them in Benares and Allahabad. They were making a documentary called Camminando which was joint production of MTV Italy and LA 7 (Channel 7). They were in Lucknow when they contacted me and their next stop was Allahabad where they wanted to shoot Patalpuri temple and Ghats of Allahabad but they did not anyone there. Even they did not know whom they will shoot.

Then they contacted me to choose their characters and schedule appointment with them for interview. I had only 4 days to complete everything for Benares and Allahabad part. I contacted Mr. Shubhranshu Chowdary who was my boss during CBC documentary to ask about if he knew someone in Allahabad. He gave me contact of a journalist in Benares. I contacted him and he gave me contact of another journalist in Allahabad.

I went to Allahabad next day and met him. We visited all the places MTV wanted to shoot, met the people and scheduled appointment for interviews. They wanted to shoot in Patalpuri temple also which was inside the Akbar’s fort and now it was army base camp. We tried to contact army officers but it seemed long process to me and I did not have much time. Finally I left everything on that journalist and returned to Benares because I had to do the same work in Benares also.

They wanted to shoot Sadhus, Babas and Aghoris in Benares. I went to the Kina Ram monastery first, which is head office of Aghor society, but could not get permission because few TV channels had already done shooting there and edited the video with asking them. They added the shots that were not shot inside the monastery. I was told that Aghoris use alcohol during their rituals, eat dead body flesh and do sex with it which I asked them but they said that it is all rumor, there is nothing like it.

So finally when I realized that they would not let me shoot there I talked them for long time asking about their society so that I could get some idea about their society because the things that we know about Aghoris are completely different than reality. They were so helpful, they answered my each and every question but did not permit me to shoot there. I visited few other Aghor monasteries also and everybody had same opinion about Aghor society – nobody eat dead body flesh and do sex with it anymore.

I went to Bhagwan Avdhoot Ram Ashram which is at other side of Ganga and found it very interesting. They have a hospital that has its name in Guinness Book of World Records for treating most number of leprosy patients in the world, a school for street children, a library and a press. They were so nice but they were also considered about letting MTV Italy came and shoot inside monastery. They also knew about what had happened with Kina Ram monastery. I had to talk to lots of people and finally some how I was able to make them agree to let us shoot there.

I went to few other monasteries as well who were willing to be shooted. I went to one monastery that had a lot of Italian Aghoris but they did not know anything. I showed them question sheet but they were not able to answer any of those questions about Aghora even they were living in the same monastery since last 5 years, 7-8 months every year. But they wanted to be shooted anyhow, they were not interesting for me but very interesting for MTV. MTV said that they would be so happy to shoot a Italian Aghori.

MTV wanted to shoot a Aghori character that could eat dead body flesh on camera. It was very hard to find characters like this because Aghoris said that they used to eat it but not anymore. They said it was prohibited about 400 years ago by Baba Kina Ram and if anybody still eats dead body flesh it means he is not real Aghori. They said that motive of Aghor society is to help people and if the continue doing this then nobody will come to them, I believe it. But I knew where I could find these kind of characters, I contacted my few friends near the funeral place and they got me meet to one Aghori who was agree to eat dead body flesh.

That Aghori said that he does a special puja which is called Mahabhog once in a year when he eats dead body flesh and use it during special puja but would do another puja specially for MTV. It was shocking for me to see what people could do just for money. He gave me a list of all the materials that he wanted to use for puja and 2 bottles of whisky was one of them. I asked him where would he find dead body from and his answer was- dont take any tension, I would arrange it.

He said that when somebody dies in any accident, Police gets the body cremated in electric burner. Usually they give the body to Doams, people who work at funeral place, and go back so he could take some part of heirless body. It was most shocking moment of my life to meet a person who was talking about eating dead body flesh. MTV Italy was happy to hear that there was a person agree to eat dead body flesh and they informed their head office about it in Rome but they were forbidden because Rome office said that they will not get permission to show a person eating dead body flesh on air.

Finally MTV Italy reached Benares after completing Allahabad’s part and we started shooting in Benares. We did shooting with all the character including a Baba called Lali Baba. He was very interesting character, had two skulls, wears more than 350 necklaces all the time that weights over 40 KG, does all kind of things that I had never seen before in my life. MTV said that Lali Baba was the best character of the documentary. I was happy to meet him, he was a nice person. We did shooting with Mother Teresa Home also.

Finally they left Benares. They were most unorganized people I had ever worked with. They did not have any schedule, did not know what to do in Benares right before 4 days of coming here, did not know anyone, did not know anything about the characters they wanted to shoot. Later my brother informed me that the whole crew members were arrested in Khajuraho for shooting inside the temples where nobody is allowed carry even a camera. The whole group jumped inside the temple from back wall and got arrested. They were in jail for more than 8 hours. No words to say how unorganized were they.

London Law Researcher studies Coca-Cola in Mehdiganj

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I worked with a Law Researcher from University of London as Assistant and translator. He was interested in legal perspective of Coke issue. He had already lived in India for more than a year therefore he knew a little bit of Hindi but not good enough to interview people. He is president of an NGO called Glocality International that has its office in London and New Delhi. I worked with him for three days in Varanasi.

Tyler was working on some International Law Cases also like he and his friend had sued 7 ministers of China including President and Prime Minister for killing over a million people in Tibet. He said that the case was registered in Spain because no other country was agree to accept a case in their court against Chinese Government .

We interviewed a lot of villagers, Nandlal Master and few government officials including Regional Pollution Control officer, Ground Water Authorities and District Village Committee’s officers. He was very impressed with the way Nandlal and his friends were running movement. Since he had only 3 days and he wanted to interview as much as he could, we spent one night in Lok Samiti’s office to interview Nandlal and his friends.

We had hard time with Regional Pollution Control Officer because he thought that he knew good enough English to talk Tyler therefore never wanted to use me. Tyler had already told him about me but he wanted to talk on his own. Most of the time he did not understand what Tyler was asking about but he was so confident answering. He was trying to hide everything and Tyler always wanted to get as much as he could.

There was a hot talk between Tyler and Officer. Actually Tyler had a voice recorder but he did not ask the officer before using it and finally when he came to know that Tyler was recording everything, they started yelling on us. He was threatening us by taking Police’s name. At last Tyler said that he will sue Pollution Control Department in Supreme Court of India for being corrupt with Coke issue and if Supreme Court finds it true then the Officers will be sent to Jail which made officer more angry.

Finally we came out of office laughing and talking about that creepy officer. It was really funny for me see a PCS officer getting angry on me but could not do anything. District Village Committee Officer was very much interested talking to Tyler. He explained everything he knew about Coke issue and role of Village Committees. He promised us to provide all the documents and support he could. He was first Government officer I had ever met who was really interested talking to people, may be he was interested in talking to a foreigner.

Meeting Lok Samiti to discuss the Coca-Cola issue

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One student from University of California, Santa Barbara came to my guest house to stay for a month. She was doing PhD in Sociology and was interested in globalization and water privatization in India. She was the first one in my life who told that Coca-Cola is a disputed company in India. I knew that there was a Coke plant in Varanasi but never knew that it was disputed. She wanted to meet Mr. Nandlal who was running movement against Coca-Cola in Varanasi. We called him and scheduled an appointment to meet. Krista wanted a translator because Mr. Nandlal Master doesn’t speak English. So she told me to work as her translator. Me, Lane and Krista went together to Mehndiganj where Mr. Nandlal Master lives and Coke is situated.

Nandlal Master had given me an idea of getting to his place but it was so complicated. After reaching Rajatalab, 3 Kms from Mehndiganj, we asked few locals about Nandlal Master and most of the people knew him and his place. By mistake we reached Coke’s plant and I thought to ask Coke’s security guard about Nandlal Master’s place which I realize a big mistake now. He immediately got angry at me as he heard Nandlal Master’s name. He just told me go and ask somewhere else. Finally few locals directed us the right way and we reached Lok Samiti’s office where Nandlal Master lives.

We talked Nandlal Master about the movement which sounded like a huge issue. He told us about a lot of disputed matter about Coca-Cola, Varanasi which I had never heard before. He said that Coke is disputed because of not following industrial hazardous waste act, fight with community, stealing of water, stealing of revenue, low wage to employees, land capturing of village committee etc……………….. It was a shock for me that all these things were going on in my city since past 5 years and I had never heard it before. I asked Nandlal about why people living in city don’t know about it so he replied that Coke buys advertisement from media and that is why media never wants to talk about this issue.

Krista wanted to interview locals about their water problems. Right after the first meeting from Mr. Nandlal Master we started interviewing locals. Krista was the most hard working girl I had ever met in my life. The temperature was terrible those days, about 45 degree Celsius but she never cared about it. I had problems sometimes but she always wanted to meet more and more people. We would meet people in their fields, at home or anywhere on road so usually we had to face the direct sun heat.

We interviewed more than 40 people in 25 days. We interviewed few government officials also like Pollution Control Board officers, Ground Water Authority officers, District Magistrate of Varanasi etc…….. Krista wanted to interview few Coke officials but she was never ever able to find one. We tried hard but never got sucsses. Now I have to transcribe all the audio recordings of interviews that was done in Mehndiganj.