Bollywood and Liberalization Essay

Bollywood as a term has been roughly in vogue for the last four decades and is synonymous to the Hindi film industry of Mumbai, formerly Bombay. But not until recently the term Bollywood has become a global phenomenon with the hay days of the economic liberalization or globalization in India since 1991. But before we delve deep into Bollywood, it is imperative that we should throw light on the economic phenomena of globalization and its socio-cultural impact on India. Towards a definition of globalization: According to the Oxford dictionary, globalization is the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale. From the above definition of the term, it is difficult to draw its influence on a culture and its impact on a global scale. If we take the example of India, which in turn, is the world’s largest democracy and the largest potential market for its ever growing population, it should be borne in mind that Firstly, Globalization implies free trade and mobility of goods, which has flooded the Indian market with innumerable foreign products, Secondly, as the flood gates of foreign business opened to India, it exposed the indigenous business to the crude and highly demanding uneven market competition which resulted in the obliteration of a number of Indian companies. India was primarily a sellers’ market, but due to high population and a considerably huge market in comparison to the European ones with a few indigenous competitors, India turned int o a consumers’ market. According to Brian Longhearst, Globalization is a term that tries to capture the rapid social change that is occurring across a number of dimensions, including economy, politics, communications and culture†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. where socio economic life cannot be firmly located in a particular place with clear boundaries. Hindi films, by the turn of the last decade of the previous century, have been an embodiment of these socio economic shifts. These shifts are in accord with the cultural shift that has been inflicted by the globalized order of things. Spectrum of the Indian market had changed overnight due to the flooding of a host of foreign products in the indigenous markets. If we consider the classical Marxist approach of the relation between an economy and its culture, economy of a state is its base and the culture that thrives there is the superstructure built on that base. So an economic implication on a nation inevitably influences the cultural practice of the societies of that nation who are exposed to that economic base. In P. Joshi’s ‘Bollylite in America’, Bollywood has been meant for a ‘culture industry that remains constitutively international in production and global in consumption.’ Popular for its Hollywood remakes and reformulation of popular Hollywood films, other regional language films (Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Bhojpuri, and Malayalam language) and even old films, the term Bollywood has come to represent both an acknowledgment of the debt the directors and technicians of the Hindi film industry owe to Hollywood for their creative ideas as well as a description which challenges the monopolistic hegemony of Hollywood across the globe. In this regard, Asish Rajadhyaksha presents a very interesting definition of Bollywood which enhances us to understand the industry in a better way than the usual consensus about Bollywood. According to him, Bollywoodization can be best understood as a †¦..diffused cultural conglomeration involving range of distribution and consumption activities. But this definition is prevalent only after it has incorporated the ethics and contradictory forces of globalization like privatization, and liberalization which changed the production and consumption of Mumbai films. The near universal legitimization of the term Bollywood (instead of Hindi cinema, Bombay cinema, Indian popular cinema, etc) is an index of larger social transformations taking place in India. Changes in the Film Industry from 1991 It is imperative to throw light on the media sector of India and its subsequent effect of the liberalization policies. With the arrival of the satellite and international television channels in 1991 in India, the media scenario underwent a radical change in the entertainment arena as well as the financial policies of the same. Hong-Kong based Star TV, a subsidiary of News Corporation, and CNN started broadcasting into India using the ASIAST-1 satellite. This was followed by an unprecedented and dramatic expansion of cable television. The ‘open skies policy’ under the new liberal economy suddenly exposed the Indian audience to a whole new set of cable channels from all around the world as well as from different regions of the country with their own regional languages. Hollywood films, whose views were limited to the availability of VHS cassettes and film halls, were now easily available on Star Movies and others. Therefore, the changes in the media landscape along with po licy initiatives by the state precipitated a number of changes which in turn altered the Hindi film industry in the most dramatic fashion. However, 1998 saw a landmark decision which accredited Bollywood with the status of industry which facilitated the film industry to avail financial support from the government – film industry became eligible for infrastructural and credit supports which was previously available to other industries. In addition to this, the film industry enjoyed reduction in custom duties on cinematographic film, complete exemption on export profits, and tax incentives. Changes in the Exhibition and Promotional System With the policy shifts owing to the liberalization process, single screen theatre halls were started being replaced with the multiplexes, especially in the metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata. With the sophisticated financial policies for films starting from its investment to its exhibition, the film industry became corporatized with a. development of websites for promotional activities of Bollywood films as well as the studios and the big production houses, b. aggressive marketing and promotional activities for film music, which was having a stiff competition with the newly found indie pop songs, c. incessant and aggressive campaigns of the newly released films in radio, television and other forms of media like mobile phones, d. increase in the ticket prices of the films in the multiplexes, e. the stars of the Hindi films started appearing in interviews, television shows and press meetings more than ever before, f. advertisements started endorsing the stars who became regular faces in the satellite television channels. According to Ravi Sundaram, circulation of thousands of various media objects (both old and new) in the forms of print flyers, signage, mobile phones, music cassettes and CDs, created a ‘visual frenzy’ centered around Bollywood. New Challenges for Bollywood It is true that the film industry turned into a new global Bollywood with a lot of economic and financial facilities only after the economic liberalization, but for the same open market policies cinema in India and all across the world started facing stiff challenges from other forms of media, especially television. Bollywood faced enormous pressure in every sense to maintain and attract the audiences to the film theatre from the tele-visual extravaganza. Previously the narratives were surrounded with the poverty stricken community and how a working class hero struggles to defeat the corrupt rich villains. It also accommodated the familial and community ties which proved to be more essential and core to the existence of the individual. But now Bollywood films increasingly began to depict India’s shifting relationship with the world economy through images of a hybrid relation between the national and global – there was interestingly some conscious deletion on thematic gr ounds like ‘jhoparpatti’ (slums) and struggling protagonist in poverty and community feeling more than the feeling of a responsible citizen. The new filmmaker of Bollywood started adopting thematic structures and narrative devices which are in accord with a broader audience who are exposed to international cinema, international sitcoms and a feeling of becoming a new global Indian under the happy charm of globalization – both economically and culturally. These strategies adopted by Bollywood to incorporate expanding audience tastes and desires can be best described as taking global formats equipped with updated visual styles, while localizing, adapting, appropriating, and ‘Indianizing’ theme . In this case, a term becomes central to the point of discussion – Glocalization, which is an amalgamation of globalization and localization. Structures of the newly evolved Bollywood films can be labeled as glocalization. Bollywood and the Glocal The term glocalization was first coined by Robertson in his seminal essay, ‘Glocalization: time-space and homogeneity-heterogeneity.’ In the essay, he rejects and nullifies the binaries between the global and the local, the centre and the periphery, universality and particularism as models to comprehend the phenomena of globalization. Considering these models to be inadequate, Robertson says that glocalization captures the dynamics of the local in the global and the global in the local. The theory of glocalization holds true for a phenomena like Bollywood in the era of globalization. Let us read these characteristics: a. As Robinson theorizes further, he proposes that the theory of glocalization as a way of accounting for both global and local, not as opposites but rather as ‘mutually formative, complementary competitors, feeding off each other as they struggle for influence’. Now, the polarization between the global and the local and the notion that the local undergoes a slow death under the immense pressure of the global orders does not hold true. In Bollywood films after globalization, we see a new sense of Indian nationalism has found its way – more than ground level patriotism of defeating the anti-nationalist villains, nationalism now is more of nostalgia for a motherland that the characters have left behind. Therefore, this patriotic feeling is invested in the Non Residential Indian characters in today’s films. Almost all the films produced today have their protagonists settled abroad, but are Indian to the core, or even if they are Westernized, it often becomes t he point of conflict in the film which finds its resolution in the national values and traditions of the native nation. An important term vehemently used in academics in this regard is ‘Diaspora’, which means the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established homeland. b. The very idea of glocalization has been attacked by many theorists for being apolitical in nature and being without any teeth or resistance to the sinister forces of globalization. The same dictum goes for Bollywood as it is an industry to cater to a wide audience ever more to generate profit. Going by this logic, there has been a deliberation by the Bollywood industry to shift its focus from one kind of target audience to the other kind – the target groups have shifted from the rural and urban lower, lower-middle and middle class to the necessarily urban upper and middleclass with special emphasis on the NRIs. But a simplistic critic of Bollywood will not be sufficient to understand the operatives and the cultural ramifications. Bollywood in the globalized context calls for an overall understanding of the global-local nexus and viewing glocalization as a mode of resistance as well as accommodation. According to many scholars, firstly, the new Bollywood has become a site of reconfiguration of locality and local subjects in the newly evolved cultural dimension under the economic liberalization. Secondly it served as an accounting for the new cultural trends and forms emerging at the intersections of the global and the local. Thirdly, it is also a mode of countering the frequently expressed fear of homogenization which becomes a part and parcel of the global flows of labor, culture or capitals. Lastly, Bollywood has become a recognition of the fact that when new ideas, objects, audio-visuals, spacial dimensions, social crisis, practices and performances are transplanted to another space, they bear the marks of history as well as undergo a process of cultural, political and ideological transcreations. In cinema, with the continuous production of global images of Indian residents, these different images, ideas and meanings attain faith and dependence on the highly varied local space s. Fashion, Location, Music, Choreography and Language – the Global Desi Bollywood Global Fashion, Local Sensibilities Not until the year of economic liberalization, India started being recognized as one of the most important fashion destinations of the world. Dresses were always being designed by the fashion designers for the Bollywood stars, but only recently have clothes become signed artifacts, and Bollywood styles and fashions become themselves separately marketable. Since liberalization, international fashion magazines like Verve, Vogue, and Elle publish Indian editions feature glossy photographs of Bollywood stars and models with various merchandising objects and designer dresses. The newly emerging fashion designers like Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Manish Malhotra, Wendell Rodricks, Ritu Kumar, Ritu Beri and many others had started participating in the most important international fashion shows at Berlin, Venice, New York and Rome became huge names in Bollywood. 1990s, especially the later part of the decade saw a shift in the way film costumes and clothes were being designed and produced. Indian v iewers were no more secluded into Doordarshan anymore, and hence the satellite television network threw a plethora of glitz, glamour and notions of beauty was undergoing a rapid change among the masses. Therefore, filmmakers started believing that emphasis on fashion is imperative in a successful marketing of Bollywood film. According Wilkinson-Weber, who has done extensive investigation into Indian fashion, notes Indian styles in film have themselves been subject to a fashion reinterpretation, contemporary designers have incorporated both their own designs, and designer label clothes from international markets into the looks they create for their actors. It is interesting to note that earlier in Hindi films of the 70s till the late 80s, there used to be a vamp, the ‘fallen’ woman, who would lead an immoral life and was supposed to be a violation of the traditional beliefs of India. These vamps personified the urban and modern tastes of society and ‘the temptations and corruptions of anti-Indianess where being Indian meant identifying with, and committing to, constructions of tradition and virtue. This is the woman who would wear revealing dresses, and almost all the designer dresses with innovative fashion statements including fashion accessories and make ups were invested on this character. But with liberalization the tradition was ‘won’ by the fashion world, we see that there is no necessity of these vamps who would exhibit the fashionable dresses. Instead of the vamps, the new Bollywood heroines became the site of the sensual body to exhibit a host of fashion materials. These materials are not only limited to Western flamboyant designs, but also includes expensive traditional wears like lehngaas and sarees. India embraced the global trends and reinvented its traditional culture with the irresistible waves of globalization and soon Bollywood became more cosmopolitan than the other regional language films. Western clothing was no more a sign of anti-Indianness and was no longer marginalized by the audience. Bollywood Space and its Hybridity Globalization, in other words, is a world economic integration, hastened by global treaties and transnational organizations such as WTO. This economic network has facilitated the functioning of a market-driven and advertiser supported consumption in an unprecedented scale. Immigration facilities, cheap air tickets and facilitation of infrastructural support for Bollywood in foreign lands allowed easy mobility in travel and tourism among the bourgeoning Indian middleclass as well as the Indian film crews. Not only the shooting became easy in foreign locations, it served a two-fold function to satisfy the desires of the two broad ranges of Bollywood audience – the first and the most lucrative film business is done in foreign lands, therefore the NRIs became the prime target for the films so that they can relate themselves with the known landscapes with Indian oneness on the screen; the second, now less important, being the Indian audience whose desire and longing for a picture p erfect and almost an ‘ideal state’ could be fulfilled on the screen with the exotic spaces of desire they can seldom visit. Moreover, the Indian government does not put any major tax on profits generated in foreign currencies which an Indian can bring home. This was a huge advantage for Bollywood for overseas business. The popular location shootings at Kashmir, Ooty and Shimla soon changed to the Swiss Alps, London and New York. In Karan Johar’s multi star-cast film, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum, one might notice that in a single song sequence Shahrukh Khan and Kajol were in Delhi, Switzerland, Cairo, and London. But shifts in cinematic locations have the tendency to create a sense of placelessness, even homelessness and alienation. While audiences recognize the allure of foreign locations, they also feel some loss and dissolution of long-held identities associated with spaces. But although there are these shifts in location, it does not delude its audience as the meanings of narratives remain irreducibly fixed to local meanings with local stories constantly revisited and even reinvented. These foreign locations, whether it is Mahesh Manjrekar’s Kaante, Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna or Kal Ho Na Ho, Rakesh Roshan’s Kaho Na Pyar Hain or Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hain or Don, Bollywood films are always domesticated with Bollywood stars who speak in Hindi in foreign lands or for that matter we can hardly see any native of the foreign land making an entry in the actual story line. The international settings do not confer the fact that the local crisis or the local cultures will find its way in the Bollywood narratives unlike Hollywood. On the contrary, these foreign spaces will be necessarily Indianized and beautiful exotic locations become a part of the world the globalized Indians inhabit. No matter wherever the place might be, Bollywood will be always telling a story about an Indian girl and a boy and an Indian family with their entire traditional ramifications held intact. Bollywood responds to both global and local imperatives by exporting Indianness to exoticized backdrops. Music Hindi cinema is known for its music, not as an integral part of the narrative or the story line, but as a separate entity. According to noted filmmaker, Shyam Benegal: For Indian films, for their very sustenance, songs are very important. But that is because for any kind of Indian entertainment, particularly community entertainment, music and songs were essential features. But songs in an Indian film does not make it a musical. In India film, songs interrupt, sometimes they are part of a story†¦they are interludes. Hindi film songs were dominated by mushaira, ghazal, and qawali traditions with emphasis on Indian Classical Music. Songs were composed in the traditional Indian technique – based on ragas and tunes which were accorded to the Urdu lyric poems and traditional Hindi language. One thing should be noted here is that unlike the West, which thrives on a history of rich visual culture, Indian tradition thrives on an aural culture and therefore songs become an integral part of any representation. Globalized Bollywood adheres to the primacy of song and dance per se, and also to the function of the musical parts within the film as spaces of displaying sexual fantasies and a situation of eroticized communication. But the way in which the Hindi film music is composed now (based on chords rather than ragas as was the case previously) and packaged has undergone a huge change – instead of the classical base, most of the music has shifted to groovy hip-hops and incorporated various for ms of popular and rock arrangements. The reason seems to be very interesting, as Bollywood film music industry faced a big challenge in the 1990s with the advent of the newly found Indie popular music with the likes of bands like Silk Route and Euphoria, and individual stars like Lucky Ali, Kay Kay and a host of talented artists. As mentioned earlier, globalization has made Bollywood more corporatized and aggressive marketing strategies became its key areas to achieve financial success. These independent artists were appropriated by Bollywood – firstly to crush the competition and obliterate the threat of an unprecedented challenge put forward by the indie pop culture, but also to enrich film music with the inputs of these new trends and innovation of a music industry nurtured outside the film world. Language Globalized Bollywood has also witnessed a metamorphosis in the arena of spoken language. Usage of English has become more obvious than Hindi colloquial itself. Since independence the influence of Persian and Urdu was prominent in Hindi films. But globalization turned the spoken language into a hybrid one – a mix of Hindi and English. This trend was even reflected in the titles of the films which released after the 90s. This hybrid language has become the most common trend among the urban youth which has been infested to and by the plethora of glocal culture in satellite television channels which runs 24*7 in every household in India. Madhav Prasad in his essay ‘This thing called Bollywood’ finds out that the nationalist ideology of India was held together historically by a metalanguage which could properly articulate one nationalist sentiment. Prasad argues that in a globalized India, English provides the ideological coordinates of the new world of Bollywood films. According to him, English phrases and proverbs are liberally used to construct a web of discourse which the characters inhabit. Choreography An overlooked arena in Bollywood is the field of choreography. Through the ages, Bollywood choreography has gained considerable amount of sophistication and respect. This has also its influence drawn from the satellite television programs on dance competitions like Boogie Woogie and international and national music videos in channels belonging to a multinational corporation who gained their access in India only after globalization. Choreography in Hindi films, which was taken just as a time pass and was taken in the least serious way by the viewers, suddenly became a spectacle with huge investments and taking highly skilled artists and chorographers as item numbers. Another change that had taken place in globalized Bollywood films is a matter of a far more serious and economic concern – the accompanying dancers in Hindi films used to belong to the groups of junior artists, most of whom were from lower middle-class and slum areas. But suddenly this changed with Subhash Ghaiâ₠¬â„¢s Taal, which introduced the famous dancer Shyamak Davar and his group which replacing the former setting of junior artists as dancers. Accompanying dancers in contemporary Bollywood evolved from junior artists to highly skilled and upper class professional dancers, courtesy to a number of modern dancing schools. This has further evolved to foreign dance troops who come as packages with other facilities when a Bollywood film is shot abroad. Since the early 1990s, there has been an explosion in the number of foreign women dancers who are used as extras for the song and dance sequences in films (Mumbai film industry’s demand for foreign dancers has brought a large number of women from Eastern Europe and Russia). Since 1960, Hindi films’ nationalism through the role of women represented Western women as primarily ‘immoral and sexually accessible to the Indian male’ and as embodiment of unbridled sexuality. The trend is still continuing today and the value judgment of women based on their sexuality and chastity is immensely significant for the audience. Indian viewers recognize the influx of these foreign women into the song and dance sequences and equate their presence with overt sexualization of film choreography. As V.Lal puts it in his essay ‘The Impossibility of the Outsider in Modern Hindi film’, over sexualization of song and dance may create a cultural threat and anxiety, but such tensions are appeased with a logic that the ‘foreign’ backup dancers can be ‘sexy’ but the ‘Indian’ heroines and heroes have to maintain the decorum of modesty and tradition. Globalization has made song sequences a site of absolute and flawless pleasure, but seldom have we talked about the particular class of junior artists, who are perished under the new liberalization aesthetics. However, maintaining the tradition-modernity and sober-obscene construct of the Bollywood notions in accord with its audience has become a conventional practice with the Indian heroines gearing up in both Western and traditional attires and participating in the same choreography with the ‘other’ cultural representations through the white women (both blonde and brunette) who wear revealing dresses and symbolize sexual ecstasy. It is of course a niche created by the globalized Bollywood according to G. Gangoly in his essay ‘Sexuality, Sensuality, and Belonging: Representations of the Anglo-Indian and the Western Women in Hindi Cinema’. It is a curious fact that the integration of MTVization, especially the beach party reality shows like Grind and due to new trends in advertisements with star endorsements has further eased the tension of this stance of traditional sanctity in contemporary Bollywood films. Heroines are more global than ever, sexually more liberated than the previous years and the women characters are gaining more independence in terms of economic and social structure as the space of unfolding of the narrative is mostly New York, London or any other first world city. We see the evolution of super stars like Katrina Kaif, whose very presence reminds us that our women of desire in cinema is an Indian who exhibit and combine the beauties and characteristics of a white woman too. Globalization has embraced Bollywood cinema not to impose the global cultures in the Indian terrain neither to challenge the cultural archetypes, nor to question the nationalist feelings into jeopardy. On the contrary, the national image and the desire of the nation as an emerging global power under the umbrella of the United States is reconfigured and consolidated in a new way. Bollywood through its films have invested a vision of portraying itself to the world as a global superpower, not from the military point of view, but as a highly skilled and updated human resource tank whose representations are manifested through the protagonists and their friends inside, and mostly outside the country. But this is not the only agenda that Bollywood has – the cultural ramifications and re-endorsements of the familial emotions along with the Non-residential Indian community feelings are of prime importance. As Bourden points out, with the changes in media production, consumption, and ex hibition, ‘locality is produced as one’s sense of difference from the global, but the new locality is no longer a spontaneous expression of given, long-held local traditions. Glocalization has helped Bollywood not only to link the spaces far and broad stretching to different continents, but also to invent the localities which are hybrid in nature, but national in culture. An Indian audience in contemporary times aspires to be a global citizen, and Bollywood becomes a key cultural impetus through which global is constructed locally just as the local is constructed globally. 3. OBJECTIVE i. To understand the cultural ramifications of the terms ‘globalization’ and what we understand as ‘Bollywood’ in particular reference to Mumbai (previously Bombay) film industry. ii. To understand the various impacts of globalization on Hindi films not resulting in mutation of the Hindi film cultural but a new coexistence of hybridity. iii. To trace the impact of the new ‘glocal’ or hybrid culture on various aspects of Hindi popular cinema challenged by the ever changing Indian media under globalization. 4. SUMMARY With the new market liberalization policies, Indian media scenario underwent a rapid change in the way it reached to its audience. Waves of change in the Indian media industry penetrated into the Hindi film industry as well. This marked a departure of the Hindi popular cinema from the way it operated in the eighties and deliberately changed the way its ways both as an industry and as a commercial product as well. Hindi popular cinema, preferably termed as Bollywood, under the new global ethics became international in production and global in consumption, at the sometime maintaining and reiterating facets of what we may call Indian culture (mostly limited to the upper caste Hindu North Indian culture). This may be termed as ‘glocalization’ which means global ideas with local stories. The new Bollywood also came with the over-arching presence of the NRIs who gained importance in the new Bollywood of globalization. With the overseas business and opportunity of this certainl y influenced and changed the way in which Hindi popular incorporated locations, songs, choreography and a number merchandizing items starting from fashion, accessories to other commercial products. FAQs: 1. As a term, has Bollywood got anything to do with Hollywood? Bollywood as a term is a mixture of ‘Bombay’, the earlier name of Mumbai and Hollywood. Linking the mainstream Hindi film industry with the name of the world’s biggest film industry not only become a feeling of pride but also a tribute to the artists and technicians of Hollywood for the dexterity of work. 2. If globalization is an economic aspect, why does it influence the cultural aspect as is the case with Bollywood? As already mentioned, if we follow the classical Marxist approach, most of the times the shift in the economic base influences shifts in other aspects of life – i.e. a shift in the base inevitably influences a shift in the superstructure – the structure which is placed above the base. Hence, any cultural aspect is bound to be influenced if the economic base undergoes a shift. Therefore, with the change of the nature of the market, a commercial industry like Bollywood has to respond to the market ethics and hence has to change itself accordingly. 3. What is culture industry? Culture Industry as a term was coined by the Marxists Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer belonging to the Frankfurt School. The original essay is known as Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception†, of the book Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944), where they proposed that the all the representations of popular culture including radio, print television and a part of cinema are produced and reproduced standardized cultural goods just like any other manufactured good coming out of the factory whose only objective is nothing philosophical and eclectic, but generating capital. 4. How is Bollywood considered to be a culture industry? A lot of scholars refer this term to Bollywood because Bollywood is a mainstream commercial industry whose objective is also profit generation, which is more than ever in the era of globalization. 5. Why does Bollywood invest so much on narratives related to NRIs? NRIs, or non-residential Indians have gained primacy in films as characters and as audience primarily to generate a market in the overseas. It has been a trend after globalization because the restrictions and taxes which were there previously in overseas business is eased to great extent and hence the profit generation of the new Bollywood films have been easier than before. 6. Why does Bollywood shifted from the pan-Indian audience to a more specific target group of the urban elites? As India is often been imagined as a developing country, there has been a trend of converting each and every class, whether rural or urban, into ideal consumers. Logic of consumption is best found in the urban areas where products, goods and services of all levels are readily available. Moreover, the logic of development in most of the cases have become the process of expansion of urban areas where the rural population is fast being converted into urban ones. Hence, Bollywood cinema is akin to this development and the new rural-converted-urban populace has started finding meaning in the new Bollywood. Therefore, with the influx of so many products and goods, targeting the urban elite will actually incorporate the fast transforming rural population into the same group. 7. In spite of having a lot of songs, why does a Hindi film never become a musical genre? If we pay attention to the cultural history of India, it will be clear that the India has rich heritage in aural culture, unlike the visual one of the West. hence the cultural rendering of a song or ,music piece in the West is entirely different from that of the Indian subjects. so, in spite of inclusion of a number of songs into films, the film is never been perceived as a musical genre. 8. If India has accepted globalization, why do the Hindi films stick to traditional elements? Globalization has hardly anything to do with modernity or tradition. Rather, if we consider glocalization as a valid point which has a deep effect on the film industry, globalization will inspire us into exploring the new markets and plethora of products has to offer and at the same time clinging on to the roots of tradition (to the extent of discovering and rediscovering them in a new way). So more the NRIs will feature with all the elements of Western culture, more facets of traditional inputs will visible in the image reproduction of Bollywood. 9. In spite of shooting at locations far off from the homeland, the characters of the Hindi films never feel alienated and homeless. Why? Because Hindi films never involve its characters, plots and other elements with the foreign ones. Although the locales are away from home, the ethics, morality and sentiments remain Indian to the core. 10. Why is it so that the Bollywood had been forced to change itself after globalization? With the advent of open market policies, Indian media saw the rise of various television channels including film channels where the audience for the first time could watch all the films just sitting back at home. Bollywood had to turn to newer ways to attract the Indian audience who are suddenly facing the pleasures of the satellite channels, not only in terms of its production quality, but also its marketing policies.

The Blue Sword CHAPTER ONE

She scowled at her glass of orange juice. To think that she had been delighted when she first arrived here – was it only three months ago? – with the prospect of fresh orange juice every day. But she had been eager to be delighted; this was to be her home, and she wanted badly to like it, to be grateful for it – to behave well, to make her brother proud of her and Sir Charles and Lady Amelia pleased with their generosity. Lady Amelia had explained that the orchards only a few days south and west of here were the finest in the country, and many of the oranges she had seen at Home, before she came out here, had probably come from those same orchards. It was hard to believe in orange groves as she looked out the window, across the flat deserty plain beyond the Residency, unbroken by anything more vigorous than a few patches of harsh grass and stunted sand-colored bushes until it disappeared at the feet of the black and copper-brown mountains. But there was fresh orange juice every day. She was the first down to the table every morning, and was gently teased by Lady Amelia and Sir Charles about her healthy young appetite; but it wasn't hunger that drove her out of bed so early. Since her days were empty of purpose, she could not sleep when night came, and by dawn each morning she was more than ready for the maid to enter her room, push back the curtains from the tall windows, and hand her a cup of tea. She was often out of bed when the woman arrived, and dressed, sitting at her window, for her bedroom window faced the same direction as the breakfast room, staring at the mountains. The servants thought kindly of her, as she gave them little extra work; but a lady who rose and dressed herself so early, and without assistance, was certainly a little eccentric. They knew of her impoverished background; that explained a great deal; but she was in a fine house now, and her host and hostess were only too willing to give her anything she might want, as they had no children of their own. She might try a little harder to adapt to so pleasant an existence. She did try. She knew what the thoughts behind the looks the servants gave her were; she had dealt with servants before. But she was adapting to her new life as best as her energetic spirit could. She might have screamed, and hammered on the walls with her fists, or jumped over the low windowsill in her room, clambered to the ground by the ivy trellis (special ivy, bred to withstand the desert heat, carefully watered by Sir Charles' gardener every day), and run off toward the mountains; but she was trying her best to be good. So she was merely first to the breakfast table. Sir Charles and Lady Amelia were all that was kind to her, and she was fond of them after a few weeks in their company. They had, indeed, been far more than kind. When her father died a year ago, Richard, a very junior military adjutant, had laid the difficulty of an unmarried sister and an entailed estate before Sir Charles, and begged for advice. (She heard all this, to her acute embarrassment, from Richard, who wanted to be sure she understood how much she had to be grateful for.) He and his wife had said that they would be happy to offer her a home with them, and Richard, too relieved to think hard about the propriety of such a godsend, had written to her and said, Come out. He had not specifically said, Mind your manners, but she understood that too. She hadn't any choice. She had known, because her father had told her five years ago when her mother died, that she would have no inheritance; what money there was was tied up very strictly for the eldest son. â€Å"Not that Dickie will mistreat you,† their father had said, with the ghost of a smile, â€Å"but I feel that, with your temperament, you had best have as long as possible a warning to resign yourself to it. You'll like being dependent on your brother even less, I fancy, than you like being dependent on me.† He tapped his fingers on his desk. The thought that lay silent between them did not need to be spoken aloud: that it was not likely she would marry. She was proud, and if she had not been, her parents would have been proud for her. And there is little market for penniless bluebloods of no particular beauty – especially when the blueness of the blood is suspected to have been diluted by a questionable great-grandmother on the mother's side. What the questionableness exactly consisted of, Harry was not sure. With the self-centeredness of childhood she had not thought to ask; and later, after she had realized that she did not care for society nor society for her, she had no desire to ask. The shipboard journey east on the Cecilia had been long but uneventful. She had found her sea legs almost at once, and had made friends with a middle-aged lady, also traveling alone, who asked no personal questions, and loaned her novels freely to her young companion, and discussed them with her upon their return. She had let her own mind go numb, and had read the novels, and sat in the sun, and strolled the decks, and not thought about the past or the future. They docked at Stzara without mishap, and she found the earth heaved under her strangely when she first set foot ashore. Richard had been granted a month's leave to meet her and escort her north to her new home. He looked younger than she had expected; he had gone overseas three years ago, and had not been Home again since. He was affectionate to her at their reunion, but wary; they seemed to have little in common any more. I shouldn't be surprised, she thought; it's been a long time since we played together every day, before Dickie was sent off to school. I'm an encumbrance now, and he has his career to think of. But it would be nice to be friends, she thought wistfully. When she pressed him to give her some idea of what she could expect of her new life, he shrugged and said: â€Å"You'll see. The people are like Home, you know. You needn't have much to do with the natives. There are the servants, of course, but they are all right. Don't worry about it.† And he looked at her with so worried a face that she didn't know whether to laugh or to shake him. She said, â€Å"I wish you would tell me what is worrying you.† Variations of this conversation occurred several times during the first days of their journey together. At this point there would be a long silence. Finally, as if he could bear it no more, he burst out: â€Å"You won't be able to go on as you did at home, you know.† â€Å"But what do you mean?† She hadn't thought much about native servants, or her position, yet; and obviously Richard knew her well enough of old to guess that now. She had written him letters, several each year, since he had gone overseas, but he had rarely answered. She had not minded very much, although she had thought occasionally, as when his six hastily scrawled lines at Christmas arrived, that it would have been pleasant if he were a better correspondent; but it hadn't troubled her. It troubled her now, for she felt that she was facing a stranger – a stranger who perhaps knew too much about her and her accustomed way of life. She blinked at him, and tried to rearrange her thoughts. She was excited, but she was frightened too, and Richard was all she had. The memory of their father's funeral, and she the only family member standing beside the minister, and of the small handful of servants and tenants whom she had known all her life and who were far away from her now, was still raw and recent. She didn't want to think about her new life; she wanted time to ease into it gradually. She wanted to pretend that she was a tourist. â€Å"Dickie – Dick, what do you mean?† Richard must have seen the homesick bewilderment on her face. He looked back at her unhappily. â€Å"Oh – er – it's not your house, you know.† â€Å"Of course I know that!† she exclaimed. â€Å"I appreciate what the Greenoughs are doing for you and for me by – by taking me in.† And she added carefully: â€Å"You explained all that to me in your letter.† He nodded. â€Å"Do you think I don't know how to behave myself?† she said at last, goaded, and was rewarded by another long silence while she felt the blood rising in her face. â€Å"It's not that I don't think you know how,† he said at last. She flinched, and he began: â€Å"An – â€Å" â€Å"Harry,† she said firmly. â€Å"It's still Harry.† He looked at her with dismay, and she realized that she was confirming his fears about her, but she wasn't going to yield about that of all things. The realization that she would insist on being called Harry seemed to silence him, because he did not try to reason with her further, but withdrew into his corner seat and stared out the window. She could tell by his voice that he did not want to hurt her, but that he was truly apprehensive. She and Richard had been wild animals together as small children; but when Dickie had been packed off to school, their mother had dragged her into the house, mostly by the ears or the nape of the neck, and begun the long difficult process of reforming her into something resembling a young lady. â€Å"I suppose I should have started years ago,† she told her sulky daughter; â€Å"but you were having such a good time, and I knew Dickie would be sent away soon. I thought it hardly fair that your lessons should start sooner.† This lifted the cloud a little from her daughter's brow, so she added with a smile, â€Å"And, besides, I've always liked riding horses and climbing trees and falling into ponds better myself.† After such an open avowal of sympathy from the enemy, lessons could never be quite awful; on the other hand, they were not perhaps as thorough as they might have been. On particularly beautiful days they often packed a lunch and rode out together, mother and daughter, to inspire themselves – the mother said – with a little fresh air; but the books as often as not stayed in the saddlebags all day. The daughter learned to love books, particularly adventure novels where the hero rode a beautiful horse and ran all the villains through w ith his silver sword, but her embroidery was never above passable; and she only learned to dance after her mother pointed out that such grace and balance as she might learn on the dance floor would doubtless stand her in good stead in the saddle. She learned the housekeeping necessary in an old ramshackle country house well enough to take over the management of theirs successfully during her mother's last illness; and the first horrible months after her mother's death were made easier by the fact that she had something to do. As the first pain of loss wore away, she realized also that she liked being useful. In the shock five years later of her father's death, and with the knowledge that she must leave her home, and leave it in the indifferent hands of a business manager, it had occurred to her to be relieved that the little eastern station at the farthest-flung border of the Homelander empire where Richard had been posted, and where she was about to join him, was as small and isolated as it was. Her mother had escorted her to such small parties and various social occasions as their country neighborhood might offer, and while she knew she had â€Å"conducted herself creditably† she had not enjoyed herself. For one thing, she was simply too big: taller than all the women, taller than most of the men. Harry could get nothing more useful out of her brother about his private misgivings as the small rickety train carried them north. So she began to ask general questions – a tourist's questions – about her new country; and then she had better luck. Richard began visibly to thaw, for he recognized the sincerity of her interest, and told her quite cheerfully that the town at the end of their journey, where Sir Charles and Lady Amelia awaited them, was the only town of any size at all within three days of it. â€Å"There's a wireless station out in the middle of nowhere where the train stops – it exists only for the train to have someplace to stop – and that's all.† The town's name was Istan, after the natives' Ihistan, which was deemed too hard to pronounce. Beyond Istan was a scattering of small depressed cottages in carefully irrigated fields where a tough local tassel-headed grain called korf was grown. Istan had been a small village before the Home landers came, where the farmers and herders and nomads from the surrounding country came to market every fortnight and a few pot-menders and rug-weavers kept shops. The Homelanders used it as an outpost, and expanded it, although the native marketplace remained at its center; and built a fort at the eastern edge of it, which was named the General Leonard Ernest Mundy. Istan had lately become a place of some importance in the governmental network the Homelanders had laid over the country they had conquered eighty years before. It was still an isolated spot, and no one went there who didn't have to; for it was at the edge of the great northern desert of the peninsular continent the Homelanders called Daria. But thirteen years ago the Aeel Mines had been discovered in the Ramid Mountains to the northwest, and in the last eight years the Mines had been officially declared the most profitable discovery on the entire Darian continent, and that was saying a great deal. The profits on oranges alone paid the wages of half the civil servants in the Province. â€Å"The Mines are awful to get to, though; the Ramids are very nasty going. Istan is on the only feasible route to the Mines, and is the last town large enough to re-supply any caravan or company going that way or coming back out again. That's why we got the railroad, finally. Before that we were the only reason anyone would want to come so far, and our attractions are limited. But the Mines are the big thing now. They may even figure out a way to dig a road through the Ramids. I wish them luck.† Istan also remained tactically important, for while south of it the boundary to Homelander territory swung rapidly east, the Homelanders failed to push it back any nearer the mountains of the north and east. The natives, perhaps from learning to cope with the desert to survive at all, had proved to be a tougher breed than their southern cousins. Some of this Harry had read at Home when she had first heard of Richard's posting three years before. But she felt the reality of it now, with the western wind blowing down on her from the rich Aeel Mines, and the odd greenish-bronze tint in the sky, and the brilliant red of the sunsets. She saw the dull brown uniforms of the Homelander soldiers stationed here, with the red stripe vertically drawn over the left breast that indicated they served in the Darian province of the Homelander sovereignty. There were more soldiers, the farther they traveled. â€Å"It's still a sore point that Istan is the eastern frontier; we can't seem to bear the idea that the border doesn't run straight, north to south, because we would like it to. They keep threatening to mount new offensives, but Colonel Dedham – he's in charge of the old Mundy – says that they won't do it. And who wants to own a lot of desert anyway? It's the farmland in the south – and the Mines – that make it worthwhile to be here.† She encouraged him to talk about Her Majesty's Government of the Royal Province of Daria, and if she did not listen as closely as she might to the descriptions of the ranks and duties of the civil servants Richard had the most contact with, she arrived at Istan at last with some small idea of how Homelanders in general were expected to respond to Daria. And she had seen korf with her own eyes, and a band of the wandering tinkers known as dilbadi, and the changing color of the earth underfoot, from the southern red to central brown to northern yellow-grey. She knew a broad-leafed ilpin tree from the blue evergreen torthuk, and when Lady Amelia met her with a corsage of the little rosy-pink pimchie flowers, she greeted them by name. Lady Amelia was a small round woman with big hazel eyes and curly grey hair and the wistful look of the fading beauty. Her husband, Sir Charles, was as tall as Richard and much broader; he must ride sixteen stone, Harry thought dispassionately as she shook his hand. He had a red face and white hair and a magnificent mustache, and if his blue eyes were a little shallow, there were laugh lines generously around them, and his smile was warm. She felt as if they had looked forward to her coming, and she relaxed a little; there was none of the loftiness she was expecting toward a poor relation – someone else's poor relation at that. Sir Charles during the first evening gave her a complete history of Daria, its past, its conquest by the Homelanders, its present, and its likely future, but most of it she was too tired to follow. Lady Amelia's occasional quick comments, when her husband stopped to draw breath, about Harry's present comfort were much more welcome, although she tried no t to show it. But midway through the evening, as Sir Charles was gesturing with his liqueur glass and even Richard was looking a bit glassy-eyed, Lady Amelia caught her new charge's eye for a long moment. A look of patience and affection passed between them; and Harry thought that perhaps all would be well, and she went up to bed in good spirits. For the first few days in Istan she unpacked, and looked around her, and only saw the newness of everything. But the Homelanders of Istan were a small but thriving community, and she was the latest addition to a society which looked forward to, and welcomed, and cross-examined, and talked about, its additions. She had always suffered from a vague restlessness, a longing for adventure that she told herself severely was the result of reading too many novels when she was a small child. As she grew up, and particularly after her mother died, she had learned to ignore that restlessness. She had nearly forgotten about it, till now. She wondered sometimes if her brother felt that impatience of spirit too, if something like it had had anything to do with his ending up at a small Border station, however tactically important, although his prospects, when he graduated from university, had suggested something better. This was one of the many things she did not ask him. Another question she did not ask was if he ever missed Home. She set down her empty orange-juice glass, and sighed. They'd missed the orange groves, coming north from Stzara, where her ship put her ashore. She picked up her fork from its shining white, neatly folded linen napkin, and turned it so that the sunlight that had glittered through her orange juice now caught in tiny star-bursts across its tines. Don't fidget, she told herself. This morning she was to go riding with the two Misses Peterson, Cassie and Elizabeth. They were near her own age, and the admitted beauties of the station; the entire 4th Cavalry, stationed at the General Mundy, were in love with them. But they were also cheerful and open-hearted, and she was fond of them. She had never much cared for beauty, although she was aware that she lacked it and that her position might have been a little easier if she had not. They would return from their ride by midmorning, because the sun would be growing too hot for anyone to brave it for pleasure. She planned to ask Lady Amelia if they might all come back here for lunch. She already knew what the answer would be: â€Å"Why, of course! We are always delighted to see them. I am so pleased, my dear, that you should be so clever as to attach the two most charming girls we have here to be your particular friends.† Harry caught herself playing with her fork again, and laid it down emphatically. This evening there was to be another dance. Richard had promised to escort her; she had to acknowledge that, however little they found to say to one another now, he was very good about escorting her to parties, and dancing with her – which meant that there was at least one man present whom she did not tower over. Her gratitude was not at all dimmed by the suspicion that he was nursing a secret passion for Cassie, nor by the thought, not even a real suspi cion, that he might not want himself made a fool of by his sister's unpopularity. No, his kindness was real; he loved her, she thought, in his silent and anxious way. Perhaps simply being a very junior military adjutant with an unmarried sister suddenly thrust on one's hands inevitably made one a bit of a prig. It never occurred to her to speculate whether any of the young men in their shining regimentals that Dickie painstakingly introduced her to, and who then painstakingly asked her to dance, presented themselves from any motive outside a willingness to do their friend Crewe a favor by standing up with his oversized sister. It would have surprised her very much to learn of her two or three admirers, who so far resisted the prevailing atmosphere of the barracks as to incline to an altar less populated than that of either Miss Peterson. â€Å"But she's just like her brother,† one of them complained to his best friend, who listened with a friend's patience, although he was himself incapable of seeing the charms of any woman other than Beth Peterson. â€Å"So damned polite. Oh, she's nice enough, you know. I don't suppose she actually dislikes me,† he continued, a bit uncertainly. â€Å"But I'm not at all sure she even recognizes me from one day to the next, so it hardly count s.† â€Å"Well,† said the friend good-humoredly, â€Å"Dick remembers you well enough.† The admirer threw a boot at his friend – the one he hadn't polished yet. â€Å"You know what I mean.† â€Å"I know what you mean,† agreed the friend. â€Å"A cold fish.† The admirer looked up from the boot-blacking angrily and the friend held up the extra boot like a shield. â€Å"Dick's stiff with honor. I daresay his sister's like that. You just don't know her well enough yet.† â€Å"Balls, dinner parties,† moaned the admirer. â€Å"You know what they're like; it could take years.† The friend in silent sympathy (thinking of Beth) tossed the boot back, and he began moodily to black it. The object of his affections, had she known of this conversation, would have agreed with him on the subject of balls and dinner parties. In fact, she would have added the rider that she wasn't sure it could be done at all, getting to know someone at any succession of such parties, however prolonged. And the friend was right about Dick Crewe's powerful sense of honor. He knew well enough that at least two of his friends were falling in love with his sister; but it never crossed his mind to say anything about them to her. He could not compromise the privileged knowledge of friendship in such a way. And Dick's sister, oblivious to the fact that she had won herself a place in the station hierarchy, chafed and fidgeted. Lady Amelia arrived at the breakfast table next. They had just settled the question of Cassie and Beth coming to lunch – in almost the precise words anticipated – when the door to Sir Charles' study, across the hall from the breakfast room, opened; and Sir Charles and his secretary, Mr. Mortimer, entered to breakfast. The two women looked at them in surprise; they had the unmistakable air of men who have been awake several hours, working hard on nothing more than a cup or two of the dark heavy local coffee, and who will rush through their meal now to get back to whatever they have been doing. Neither of them looked very happy about their prospects. â€Å"My dear,† said Lady Amelia. â€Å"Whatever is wrong?† Sir Charles ran a hand through his white hair, accepted a plate of eggs with his other hand, and sat down. He shook his head. Philip Mortimer glanced at his employer but said nothing. â€Å"Richard's not here yet,† said Sir Charles, as if his absence explained everything. â€Å"Richard – ?† said Lady Amelia faintly. â€Å"Yes. And Colonel Dedham. I'm sorry, my dear,† he said, a few mouthfuls of eggs seeming to restore him. â€Å"The message came quite out of the blue, in the middle of the night,† he explained through his metaphors as well as his mouthful. â€Å"Jack – Colonel Dedham – has been out, trying to find out what he can, and I told him to come to breakfast and tell us what he's learned. With Richard – that boy knows how to talk to people. Blast them. Blast him. He'll be here in a few hours.† His wife stared at him in complete bewilderment, and his young guest averted her eyes when he looked at her, as it was not her place to stare. He laid down his fork and laughed. â€Å"Melly, your face is a study. Young Harry here is going to be a fine ambassador's wife someday, though: look at that poker face! You really shouldn't look so much like your brother; it makes you too easy to read for those of us who know him. Just now you're thinking: Is the old man gone at last? Humor him till we're sure; if he calms down a bit, perhaps we'll get some sense out of him even now.† Harry grinned back at him, untroubled by his teasing, and he reached across the table, braving candlesticks and an artistically arranged bowl of fruit, to tap her cheek with his fingers. â€Å"A general's wife, on second thought. You'd be wasted on the diplomatic corps; we're all such dry paper-shufflers.† He speared a piece of toast with his fork, and Lady Amelia, whose manners with her own family were as punctilious as if she dined with royalty, looked away. Sir Charles piled marmalade on his toast till it began to ooze off the edges, added one more dollop for good measure, and ate it all in three gulps. â€Å"Melly, I know I've told you about the difficulties we're having in the North, on this side of the mountains with our lot, and on the far side with whatever it is they breed over there – a very queer bunch, from all we can gather – and it's all begun to escalate, this last year, at an alarming speed. Harry, Dick's told you something of this?† She nodded. â€Å"You may or may not know that our real hold over Daria ends just about where this station stands, although technically – on paper – Homeland rule extends right to the foot of those mountains north and east of here – the Ossanders, which run out from the Ramids, and then that far eastern range you see over the sand, where none of us has ever been †¦ those mountains are the only bits of the old kingdom of Damar still under native rule. There used to be quite a lot of fighting along this border – say, forty years ago. Since then their king – oh yes, there's a king – more or less ignores us, and we more or less ignore him. But odd things – call them odd things; Jack will tell you what he thinks they are – still happen on that plain, our no-man's-land. So we have the 4th Cavalry here with us. â€Å"Nothing too odd has happened since the current king took the throne around ten years ago, we think – they don't bother to keep us up to date on such things – but it never does to be careless. Um.† He frowned and, while frowning, ate another piece of toast. â€Å"Everything has been quiet for – oh, at least fifteen years. Nearly as long as I've been here, and that's a long time. Ask Jack, though, for stories of what it was like up and down the northern half of this border before that. He has plenty of them.† He stood up from the table, and went across the room to the row of windows. He lifted the curtain farther back as he looked out across the desert, as if breadth of view might assist clarity of thought. It was obvious his mind was not on the explanation he was giving; and for all his assumed cheerfulness, he was deeply worried. â€Å"Damn! †¦ Excuse me. Where is Jack? I expected he would have at least sent young Richard on ahead before now.† He spoke as if to himself, or perhaps to Philip Mortimer, who made soothing noises, poured a cup of tea, and took it to Sir Charles where he stood squinting into the morning sunlight. â€Å"Trouble?† said Lady Amelia gently. â€Å"More trouble?† Sir Charles dropped the curtain and turned around. â€Å"Yes! More trouble.† He looked down at his hands, realized he was holding a cup of tea in one of them, and took a swallow from it with the air of a man who does what is expected of him. â€Å"There may be war with the North. Jack thinks so. I'm not sure, but – I don't like the rumors. We must secure the passes through the mountains – particularly Ritger's Gap, which gives anybody coming through it almost a direct line to Istan, and then of course to the whole Province. It may only be some tribal uproar – but it could be war, as real as it was eighty years ago. There aren't many of the old Damarians left – the Hillfolk – but we've been forced to have a pretty healthy respect for them. And if King Corlath decides to throw his chances in with the Northerners – â€Å" There was a clatter in the street below. Sir Charles' head snapped around. â€Å"There they are at last,† he said, and bolted for the front door and threw it open himself, under the scandalized eye of the butler who had emerged from his inner sanctum just too late. â€Å"Come in! I've been in high fidgets for the last hour, wondering what's become of you. Have you found out anything that might be of use to us? I have been trying to explain to the ladies what our problem is.† â€Å"Would you care for breakfast?† Lady Amelia asked without haste, and with her usual placid courtesy. â€Å"Charles may be trying to explain, but so far he has not succeeded.† In response to her gesture, a maid laid two more places at the table. With a jingling of spurs the two newcomers entered, apologized for their dirt, and were delighted to accept some breakfast. Richard dropped a perfunctory kiss on his sister's cheek on his way to the eggs and ham. After a few minutes of tea-pouring and butter-passing, while Sir Charles strode up and down the room with barely suppressed impatience, it was Lady Amelia who spoke first. â€Å"We will leave you to your business, which I can see is very important, and we won't pester you with demands for explanations. But would you answer just one question?† Colonel Dedham said, â€Å"Of course, Melly. What is it?† â€Å"What is it that has suddenly thrown you into this turmoil? Some unexpected visitor, I gather, from what Charles said?† Dedham stared at her. â€Å"He didn't tell you – ? Good God. It's Corlath himself. He's coming. He never comes near here, you know – none of the real Hillfolk do if they can help it. At best, if we want badly enough to talk to him, we can catch one of his men as they pass through the foothills northeast of here. Sometimes.† â€Å"You see,† broke in Sir Charles, â€Å"it makes us hope that perhaps he wishes to cooperate with us – not the Northerners. Jack, did you find out anything?† Dedham shrugged. â€Å"Not really. Nothing that we didn't already know – that his coming here is unprecedented, to say the least – and that it is in fact him. Nobody had any better guesses than ours about why, suddenly, he decided to do so.† â€Å"But your guess would be – † prompted Sir Charles. Dedham shrugged again, and looked wry. â€Å"You know already what my guess would be. You just like to hear me making an ass of myself. But I believe in the, um, curious things that happen out there – † he waved the sugar spoon – â€Å"and I believe that Corlath must have had some sort of sign, to go to the length of approaching us.† A silence fell; Harry could see that everyone else in the room was uncomfortable. â€Å"Sign?† she said tentatively. Dedham glanced up with his quick smile. â€Å"You haven't been here long enough to have heard any of the queer stories about the old rulers of Damar?† â€Å"No,† she said. â€Å"Well, they were sorcerers – or so the story goes. Magicians. They could call the lightning down on the heads of their enemies, that sort of thing – useful stuff for founding an empire.† Sir Charles snorted. â€Å"No, you're quite right; all we had was matchlocks and enthusiasm. Even magic wanes, I suppose. But I don't think it's waned quite away yet; there's some still living in those mountains out there. Corlath can trace his bloodlines back to Aerin and Tor, who ruled Damar in its golden age – with or without magic, depending on which version you prefer.† â€Å"If they weren't legends themselves,† put in Sir Charles. â€Å"Yes. But I believe they were real,† said Jack Dedham. â€Å"I even believe they wielded something we prosaic Homelanders would call magic.† Harry stared at him, fascinated, and his smile broadened. â€Å"I'm quite used to being taken for a fool about this. It's doubtless part of the reason why I'm still a colonel, and still at the General Mundy. But there are a number of us old soldiers whose memories go back to the Daria of thirty, forty years ago who say the same thing.† â€Å"Oh, magic,† said Sir Charles disgustedly, but there was a trace of uneasiness in his voice as well. â€Å"Have you ever seen lightning come to heel like a dog?† Dedham through his politeness looked a little stubborn. â€Å"No. I haven't. But it's true enough at least that the men who have gone up against Corlath's father and grandfather were plagued by the most astonishing bad luck. And you know the Queen and Council back Home would give their eyeteeth to push our border back the way we've been saying we would for the last eighty years.† â€Å"Bad luck?† said Lady Amelia. â€Å"I've heard the stories, of course – some of the old ballads are very beautiful. But – what sort of bad luck?† Dedham smiled again. â€Å"I admit it does begin to sound foolish when one tries to explain it. But things like rifles – or matchlocks – misfiring, or blowing up; not just a few, but many – yourself, and your neighbor, and his neighbor. And their neighbors. A cavalry charge just as it reaches full stretch, the horses begin to trip and fall down as if they've forgotten how to gallop – all of them. Men mistake their orders. Supply wagons lose their wheels. Half a company all suddenly get grit in their eyes simultaneously and can't see where they're going – or where to shoot. The sort of little things that always happen, but carried far beyond probability. Men get superstitious about such things, however much they scoff at elves and witches and so on. And it's pretty appalling to see your cavalry crumple up like they're all drunk, while these madmen with nothing but swords and axes and bits of leather armor are coming down on you from every direction – and nobody seems to be firing at them from your side. I assure you I've seen it.† Richard shifted in his chair. â€Å"And Corlath – â€Å" â€Å"Yes, Corlath,† the colonel continued, sounding still as unruffled as when he thanked Lady Amelia for his cup of tea, while Sir Charles' face was getting redder and redder and he whuffled through his mustache. It was hard not to believe Dedham; his voice was too level, and it rang with sincerity. â€Å"They say that in Corlath the old kings have come again. You know he's begun to reunite some of the outlying tribes – the ones that don't seem to owe anyone any particular allegiance, and who live by a sort of equal-handed brigandry on anyone within easy reach.† â€Å"Yes, I know,† said Sir Charles. â€Å"Then you may also have heard some of the other sort of stories they've begun to tell about him. I imagine he can call lightning to heel if he feels like it.† â€Å"This is the man who's coming here today?† said Lady Amelia; and even she now sounded a little startled. â€Å"Yes, Amelia, I'm afraid so.† â€Å"If he's so blasted clever,† muttered Sir Charles, â€Å"what does he want with us?† Dedham laughed. â€Å"Come now, Charles. Don't be sulky. I don't suppose even a magician can make half a million Northerners disappear like raindrops in the ocean. We certainly need him to keep the passes through his mountains closed. And it may be that he has decided that he needs us – to mop up the leaks, perhaps.† Lady Amelia stood up, and Harry reluctantly followed her. â€Å"We will leave you to discuss it. Is there – is there anything I could do, could arrange? I'm afraid I know very little about entertaining native – chieftains. Do you suppose he will want lunch?† She spread her hands and looked around the table. Harry suppressed a smile at the thought of proper little Lady Amelia offering sandwiches, with the crusts neatly trimmed off, and lemonade to this barbarian king. What would he look like? She thought: I've never even seen any of the Freemen, the Hillfolk. All the natives at the station, even the merchants from away, look subdued and †¦ a little wary. â€Å"Oh, bosh,† said Sir Charles. â€Å"I wish I knew what he wanted – lunch or anything else. Part of what makes all this so complicated is that we know the Free Hillfolk have a very complicated code of honor – but we know almost nothing about what it consists of.† â€Å"Almost,† murmured Dedham. â€Å"We could offend them mortally and not even know it. I don't know if Corlath is coming alone, or with a select band of his thousand best men, all armed to the teeth and carrying lightning bolts in their back pockets.† â€Å"Now, Charles,† Dedham said. â€Å"We've invited him here – â€Å" † – because the fort is not built for receiving guests of honor,† Dedham said easily as Sir Charles paused. â€Å"And,† Sir Charles added plaintively, â€Å"it doesn't look quite so warlike here.† Dedham laughed. â€Å"But four o'clock in the morning,† Sir Charles said. â€Å"I think we should be thankful that it occurred to him to give us any warning at all. I don't believe it's the sort of thing he's accustomed to having to think of.† The colonel stood up, and Richard promptly took his place behind him. Sir Charles was still pacing about the room, cup in hand, as the ladies prepared to leave. â€Å"My apologies for spoiling your morning to no purpose,† said Colonel Dedham. â€Å"I daresay he will arrive sometime and we will deal with him, but I don't think you need put yourselves out. His message said merely that he desired an audience with the Homelander District Commissioner – not quite his phrase, but that's the idea – and the general in command of the fort. He'll have to make do with me, though; we don't rate a general. The Hill-kings don't go in much for gold plate and red velvet anyway – I think. I hope this is a business meeting.† â€Å"I hope so too,† murmured Sir Charles to his teacup. â€Å"And – at the moment – we can't do much more than wait and see,† said the colonel. â€Å"Have some more of this excellent tea, Charles. What's in your cup must be quite cold by now.†

Business Globalization-International Conferences on Business and Essay

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Introduction to Sport, Fitness and Coaching Essay Example for Free

Introduction to Sport, Fitness and Coaching Essay In this assignment I will be introducing myself and my motivation for enrolling on module E122. Primarily I will be looking at the differences between sport, recreation and physical activity. I will look at how we can define these categories which I will do by looking at examples of each activity and then explaining which category they fall into, as well as demonstrating how these activities can overlap between categories. Furthermore, I will look specifically into one activity analysing the scientific, economic and management changes that have occurred in recent years and the effects these have had. (on what?) My name is George, I am 24 years old and from being a school leaver until February of this year I was a professional footballer. I started at my hometown club of Norwich City FC spending many years of my youth until the age of 17. I have then been very fortunate to spend 8 years working as a professional and having opportunities to play in Spain for five years and Australia for two. With the current financial climate, football has been unable to avoid the global impact and the levels I find myself playing at are a world away from the Premier league and not financially secure or stable. For these reasons, I have undertaken the decision to embark on a career as a coach and want to work at the highest level I possibly can. I have already had some equally good experiences in coaching being selected to coach the Victorian U13 state football team whilst in Australia, as well as establishing my own elite football development center that is still thriving in Melbourne and supporting around 60 players trying to improve their skills and abilities. I hold my FA level 1, 2 and UEFA B license and have recently completed my FA Module 1 and 2. I am really excited to meet everyone and can’t wait to start this course to hopefully improve my knowledge and understanding of the sport and fitness industry to help me further develop myself within my coaching career. I feel there will be some great benefits to my own personal performance and I will also be able to hold further empathy with the players that I am coaching by gaining new skills in nutrition, muscular and aerobic fitness programs. Defining Sport, Recreation and Physical Activity See more: how to write an introduction paragraph for an essay There are many different views on the definition of sport, recreation and physical activity which can conflict, overlap and provoke much debate. As stated by Green, M. (2008, p10) ‘It should be noted at the outset that the task of providing clear definitions for ‘sport, ‘recreation’, ‘physical activity’ and ‘leisure’ is fraught with problems.† I will look at two different activities and demonstrate which category or multiple categories that they best fall under. The first activity I will be analysing is the national sport of Great Britain, Football. Football is extremely popular in Britain and comes in many different forms from one of the top professional leagues in the world (Barclays Premier League) to thousands who participate in informal recreational match play every week, which is solely for enjoyment as well as those who play to achieve a high level of physical activity. The first category football most certainly falls un der is ‘Sport’. We have 4 divisions of full time professional teams. The 92 football clubs are split between two national governing bodies, twenty teams fall under the governing body of the ‘The FA Premier League’ and a further seventy two clubs under the governing body of ‘The Football League’. If we look at a key fact for defining sport by Green, M. (2008, p13) ‘there will be an agreed-upon set of rules which are normally regulated by an organisation such as a national governing body of sport like the Scottish Football Association or England Netball.’ Using this view point it would clarify that football comes into the category of ‘Sport’. If we look at football in a different context, for example; a group of men aged 20-35 who meet once a week when work and family restrictions allow them, for a game that follows some of the rules of football but enables the players to follow other rules far more loosely or not at all i.e. pitch dimensions, offside rule and score keeping, thus eliminating the compet itive element of the Sport. In this form, football then vicissitudes from being within a â€Å"sport† to being within â€Å"recreation† due to the particular difference that the environment has created. This is shown by Green. M (2008, p13) ‘there is no competitive element, people set their own goals and determine what counts as success or failure.’ Football could also always be considered a â€Å"physical activity† as participating in the activity would guarantee to increase the heart rate of the participant. The second activity I am going to look at is skateboarding. Whilst not an overly popular activity in the UK and considered to be participated by a minority of extreme sports enthusiasts, this contrasts largely in the USA where skateboarding has a far bigger culture and is carried out by millions as a social and recreational activity. Most participants will engage in the activity as a hobby or a pass time, there is no formal structure, rules to follow, governing body to adhere to and the main aim is to have fun and relaxation. I still feel however that the activity of skateboarding can fall into the category of Sport. I draw to this conclusion due to the fac t that there are professional athletes who participate in regular events that come under a national and international governing body. The most prestigious of these would be the annual event called the ‘X Games’, which held its inaugural event in the summer of 1995 (Rhode Island), where participants compete to win medals (Bronze, Silver, Gold) and also achieve prize money dependent on their final position in the standings. The event receives huge amounts of media coverage mostly from American TV network ESPN and therefor looking at skateboarding in this context with its general acceptance by the media, TV broadcasters and newspapers as a sporting activity, Green. M (2008, p13), you would have to conclude that skateboarding is also considered a sport as well as a very popular recreational activity. Football, how has it changed; economically, scientifically and its management Football is not only a huge sport but a humongous industry that is constantly evolving and changing. I would like to look at some of the major changes that have occurred in recent years. Football has changed dramatically from its early inception seen back as far as the 1800’s and possible the biggest changes that we have seen is the economics of the game. If we look at one aspects of the football economy, player’s wages, we may possibly see one of the biggest fluctuations. The first generation of hero’s that received any form of remuneration for playing saw salaries of around seven pounds a week. This was however before the First World War so we have to take into consideration the very different financial climate of the time; it is still a universe away from the sums of money players receive in weekly amounts in the present day, with some players receiving in excess of two hundred thousand per week! This has been common for footballers over the past two decades, the most recent changed that is becoming more and more common place is these wages being unpaid, sometimes for months on end until in extreme cases football clubs are liquidated and go ou t of business. This is not just your local village side but most recently Rangers Fc, arguably the largest club in Scotland went out of business and no longer exists. The worst place at present for unpaid wages is the Spanish football leagues, while the national team is the most successful in the history of the illustrious sport, this hides a very serious fact of the financial meltdown that Spanish football clubs are currently experiencing. â€Å"Last year, 20 m Euros were unpaid in salaries to professional players in Spain and this year that figure has already increased by 10% with 22 million of unpaid salaries – to date!† (spain-football, 2011). Possible the biggest changed in recent years that I have even experienced in my career is the scientific influence in the game. Gone are the days of eating what you like, have a squeeze of an orange at half time and a few laps of the pitch for a warm up. Now clubs spend millions on employing extra members of specialist staff, providing players with all dietary requirements and huge amounts of analysis is carried out on players. We are now far more aware of how certain exercises, vitamins and recovery tactics will improve player’s performance and injury prevention. If we look at an extract from an interview with Everton’s sports scientist Dave Bellows (premier league, 2012) â€Å"Most of the Academies have sports scientists now so the players coming through have been brought up with that ethos and mentality, and they accept it and expect it†. The last area I will look at where we have seen significant change is the management perspective of the sport and the area I want to discuss is the stadium management at professional football matches. Football grounds used to be made up mostly of terracing and fans would be squeezes in dangerous amounts into football grounds. Following the Hillsborough disaster (1989), this is still receiving much media attention; the Home Office ran an enquiry conducted by Lord Justice Taylor. Following the Taylor report it was recommended that all top division clubs were to phase out the old terracing and become all-seater stadiums. This has been followed through and is now law in the UK, I offer the following extract to demonstrate the change, (inbreif, 2012) â€Å"Following from the requirement for all top division stadiums becoming all seater millions of pounds has been spent by every top club in both England and Scotland on developing their grounds. All seater stadiums have become far safer and easier to manage as all spectators are each sold a ticket for a specific seat†. In conclusion, I believe that with the evidence found and stated within this assignment, different activities can be part of more than one category and I have demonstrated key points in helping decide which category activities come into in which context. I have also looked at and given examples of how the sport of football has changed in recent years from an economical, scientific and management perspective and backed up my findings with references from various sources.