Unplugged

JKR, on her website used to announce Fan Site awards every month to the the most popular or informative Harry Potter related websites.

The author writes herself about The HP Alliance on her website, “HP Alliance(as mentioned in Time Magazine!) I am honoured and humbled that Harry’s name has been given to such an extraordinary campaign which really does exemplify the values for which Dumbledore’s Army fought in the books. To Andrew and all the others who work on this inspirational website: the world needs more people like you!”

After checking out the site for myself, I was compelled to share her views myself. It’s quite a unique website. The website compares modern day social issues with those seen in the Wizarding world, and aims at establishing a worldwide internet campaign to resolve most societal crises involving racial or any other forms of discrimination, poverty, basic environmental, health and sex related issues as well as what they call the Muggle Mindset, or our unrelenting tendency of shunning anything out of the ordinary or even slightly devious from the normal.

The website in its About Us states the following as its major issues:

* Genocide, Poverty, AIDS, and Global Warming are ignored by our media and governments the way Voldemort’s return is ignored by the Ministry and Daily Prophet.
* People are still discriminated against based on sexuality, race, class, religion, gender, ethnicity, and religion just as the Wizarding World continues to discriminate against Centaurs, Giants, House Elves, Half-Bloods, Muggle borns, Squibs, and Muggles
* Our governments continue to respond to terror by torturing prisoners (often without trial) just as Sirius Black was tortured by dementors with no trial
* A Muggle Mindset pervades over our culture-a mindset that values being “perfectly normal, thank you very much” over being interesting, original, loving, and creative

Among other interesting features the site has its own line of sweatshop-free, American made HPA T-shirts for women.

The initiatives taken include:
* Rock out with ten awesome Wizard Rock bands to take action against media consolidation in the world!
* Recently the Harry Potter community raised over $6000 to protect well over 1600 women from being raped in Darfur.
*HPA Social Networks

They have a forum to discuss issues that connect their lives with that of Harry Potter, on the books, their myths and fan-dom, and most importantly HP Alliance Chapters, which are basically important issues and social stigmas which according to the Alliance members require the immediate attention of responsible citizens of our planet.

As a Harry Potter worshipper and a major fan of the books, JKR, and my planet Earth, this website came as quite a pleasant surprise. According to me, it is innovations such as these that will be responsible in bringing about a wave of change. Society today is horribly mangled. Mauled by its own discrepancies and dogmas, it will take a diligent and persistent effort on the parts of all those embodying it to establish a better world.

Joanne Kathleen Rowling made an imaginary world out of words and papers. That world of spells, potions, charms, curses, jinxes and hexes is now teaching us how our own world with its missiles, WMDs, atom bombs and crazy radioactive technologies is just about the same as far as problems are concerned. We come across our Grindelwalds and Voldemorts every few decades, so what if they can’t fly without a little help from technology? They can prove to be just as dangerous(and they have). The earth also needs its own Dumbledore’s Army and its own Order of the Phoenix, it needs their sacrifices, and their efforts. We need millions of Harry Potters who can deal with their responsibilty of putting an end to war, to evil, to the Darkest of Arts. We need each other.

Holi is about dry colour, liquid colour, pasty colour, sticky colour, dark colour, light colour, impossible-to-wash-off colour, harmful-to-the-skin colour, and in short, all kinds of colour!

As is the case with most Hindu festivals, Holi also has its origins intricately woven with the threads of mythology. According to most popular beliefs, Holika was the shrewd, and in modern day terms, “vampish” sister of the self proclaimed God, King Hiranyakashipu. The king had a son, Prahalad, who alone out of all his subjects refused to acknowledge him as the Supreme Power and devoted himslef instead to the worship of Lord Vishnu. Infuriated with his son’s disregard of his wishes, he made many futile attempts to get the young Prahalad murdered. Ultimately a plot was hatched to have Holika-who had been gifted with a special shawl that prevented her from suffering any harm from fire- sit in a bonfire, with Prahalad on her lap. Inspite of their plan of having Prahalad perish in the fire while his aunt remained untouched by it, the boy’s incessant chanting of Lord Vishnu’s name reversed their destinies, and the wind blew the shawl onto Prahalad instead, protecting him from the flames while Holika was reduced to ashes.

As it brings along with it such a livewire of cheer, togetherness and activity, Holi has played a very important part in Hindi Cinema. Many Bollywood films have showcased Holi sequences, mostly in the form of immensely enjoyable songs and dances. Also, rarely has it been, that these sequences have not become, if not the highlight, then at least a very popular part of the film.

Some of my most favourite Holi songs date back to the fifties… More