SHOOTING UNDER FIRE – is the story where Reinhard Krause, the German head of the Reuters Israeli photo bureau is up against a deadline and facing a moral dilemma. He's looking at a photo that shows the head of the female suicide bomber still perfectly in tact lying on the ground, severed cleanly from her body without a blemish on her face and with no blood to be seen. Does he decide to show this to the world or keep it hidden? "Every picture must tell a story" Reinhard says and it's clear what happened with this frame, but is the world ready for this kind of image? He needs to decide within minutes. Welcome to the everyday difficulties of depicting a story that keeps rolling on with new horrors. This film joins Reinhard during the last few weeks of his 4 year placement in Israel and unveils the people and the pressured process of a news agency producing the photos we see in papers around the world. Reinhard single-handedly revolutionized how photos are taken and reported upon in Israel and is now working with a well-oiled team made up of both Palestinians and Israelis, many of whom still have never met, as freedom of movement is restricted for everyone. Both sides of the war report to the same person. Reinhard's team reports on atrocities most days and each of them has found different ways to cope with the stress of what they are witnessing. Gil, an Israeli photographer breaks down on camera after covering an emotional funeral saying that sometimes he feels like an animal chasing after the shots. Ahmed, a Palestinian who was nearly killed when on the job knows that it's his duty to show the world what is really going on in Gaza and lives and breathes his job. Nir, a young talented photographer in Tel Aviv has learnt to separate the day job and his leisure time and blocks off what he doesn't want to think about. Abed, a resident in the anarchic West Bank town of Nablus has become a spokesman for local journalists even though he's had to endure 90 days of curfew before. All of them won't change their job for love nor money. This film gets behind the world's oldest news agency to show how the news is made and reported on, from the first ambulance text of an accident in Jerusalem to the front page of the papers the next morning. Few of us stop to think how our stories and pictures come to us. With unprecedented access Shooting under Fire shows us the full process, highlighting the staggeringly fast digital technology, the difficult morals that await even the toughest of snappers, and the extreme lives that people lead in a land in war.

Breaking News: Exclusive!

“Media... - They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent...”

The question always seems to be - What is our jurisdiction and who is it that sets the limit for media to report a crime story? Broadcast Journalists from News Channel in India seem to have lost all restraint… as there are no set guidelines. The ‘Breaking News’ phenomenon has clutched the Indian media’s throat and doesn't look likes its going to let go soon enough. My short stint with BBC in Bristol showed me a different side of media… I had to go through 50 pages of offcom regulations and guidelines on what to do and what not to do while reporting crime stories. Once the police take over the crime scene – the media is set off limits and is not allowed to probe or investigate into the matter on its own. It could and would report only what police confirms.

Whereas in India; it’s been the other way around. News channels go ahead and report, investigate and cook up their own analysis behind the facade of social justice. The most ‘happening’ (pun intended) and recent story that’s been manhandled by the media is the Arushi murder case in Delhi... Media played a major role in exposing police in-competency but while doing so, it crossed all boundaries of investigation. Personal detectives were bought on to the scene – Courtesy News channels who conducted a probe into the murder mystery. Was it justified? I really appreciate what NDTV did. - It issued a statement saying it will report only what the police confirms and would not station reporters in front of the crime scene in respect of the privacy of the victim’s family. It’s been a high profile case no doubt, but is high time the Channels understand their role. Being a Broadcast Journalist myself, I understand the circumstances given to which reports are made, nevertheless the Big Bosses need to realize that reporters on field are not experts in reporting crime stories and floating out speculations don’t do good. They just hamper the investigation and unnecessarily pressurize the investigating team and the viewers, derailing and confusing them with the different versions of the same case on different channels.

If, the so called National News Channels claim that their strategy is correct; then who is it that should be held responsible for ‘wrong’ reporting? - For example; in the Jaipur serial blasts case; where one channel claimed that it had exclusive reports of RDX being used in the explosion, the reports that have emerged now say that no RDX was found. Funny? There’s more! Similarly while one channel was showing a video of the cycle being used in the case as genuine, at the same time… another top news channel was reporting as fake. Whom to believe? Its time to stop fooling and drilling people’s minds with ‘Exclusives” and “Breaking News” Its time to showcase News with sincerity and faith; keeping in mind… Our responsibility towards society...

God of Small Things

“God is not a spectator, but a fellow-sufferer … to embrace the bitterness of the strange world he has made. - From Science and Providence.

Does the Sun differentiate between the rich and the poor or the upper caste or the lower, when it emits its life saving energy? Do the ocean waves shy away from touching the feet of Dalits (untouchables as they were once called in the pre independence era of India)?

Nature doesn’t differentiate between the extremes of the world, so doesn’t GOD; the Maker of the Universe. It’s us - Human beings who create these differences and rifts within. Its said that untouchability no longer exists in this part of the world, but is it really so? A deep probe in rural India - would leave the so called mentors of society with lots to think and ponder about. But, there is always a ray of hope, and it comes from non other than our maker himself.

Lord Balaji- the richest Hindu God (with a turn over of more than Rs. 800 crore annually) is going out with his priests to the Dalit colonies, to spend time with his set of underprivileged Dalit children and erase the caste discrimination that they face in this part of the world. Tirumala Tirupati Dewastham (the body which manages the Lord Balaji temple in Tirumala (Andhra Pradesh) – needs to be applauded for thinking of such a novel idea. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has decided to initiate the Dalita Govindam programme, in an effort to propagate the message of “Equality in the Eyes of God” in the Hindu religion.

As part of the programme, the idol of Lord Venkateswara will be taken to a Dalitwada (SC colony) by the temple priests and sacred rituals will be performed there after which, the temple priests will give out Veda Ashirvadam en masse to the residents of the colony and share the Srivari Prasadam with the devotees. To add to this, Lord Venkateswara along with its retinue of priests will spend a night in the Dalitwada among its residents. Until now, the Veda Ashirvadam was given only to the VVIPs who visited the temple for Lord Venkateswara’s darshan, as it’s said...

“When a man takes one step toward God, God takes more steps toward that man than there are sands in the worlds of time.” - The Work of the Chariot

Mona Lisa's Smile Re-veiled

'The lady is smiling because she is hiding a secret from her lover.’

What’s the secret behind Monalisa's smile, everyone asks? Lisa del Giocondo, wife of Florentine businessman Francesco del Giocondo – uncovers a researcher, who apparently has evidence behind the identity of the woman behind Mona Lisa's iconic smile. So what’s the evidence everyone asks? Well, some book-margin notes written by a friend of Leonardo da Vinci while the artist worked on the masterpiece.

So, why am I so interested in this? I spent days...tracing the house of Mona Lisa in Florence, the place where she modeled for Leonardo Da Vinci and also where she was reportedly buried and it was no easy task.

October 2007, Florence, with just a list of places mentioned in history and some deeply buried records obtained from Google search, I set out to discover Sant'Orsola. With no Italian to help, I spent 2 days trying unsuccessfully, to trace the place.

Finally, a broken sign board, hidden behind a shop gave me some direction to where Mona Lisa was supposedly buried.

I couldn’t believe my luck whenI stood at the Convent of Sant'Orsola, where Mona Lisa spent her final years before she died in July 15, 1542. But to my discovery, I found there standing, nothing more than a mall.

After the first milestone, my curiosity grew – it was time to find her birthplace – which, according to many websites was a place just across the famous Ponte Vecchio Bridge. A walk over the bridge was awesome - A sheet of paper in my hand read out the documentary of Leonardo's scholar, Giuseppe Pallanti, which spoke of Mona Lisa being born in a house that once stood in Via Sguazza, a side street of Via Maggio, where Florence's antiques dealers do their trade.

Interestingly, I was in a different world while I walked through the thin lanes of old Florence where, I, at once, spotted the closed down and battered house, where the most talked about, most visited and the most analyzed beauty with the secretive smile was once born.

Was it only me who was experiencing this different feeling? Did it really matter to those, who live in these lanes? To my surprise, most of them were not even interested in Mona Lisa or the great maestro Leonardo, whereas for me, this trip to Florence was a walk through and back in history.

Diamonds are Forever!

Somewhat almond-shaped, almost in its native condition … worth over 600 crores and missing! That’s the Nizam Diamond. One of the largest stones in the world, but little is known about it, except its size, estimated value, and its fortunate owner - the Nizam of Hyderabad, the most powerful ruler and lineal descendant of the former Mogul Viceroy of Golconda. It is believed that the famous diamond-fields popularly known as the Golconda mines were situated in his territory.

Not surprising, that the Nizam's jewellry collection - now in the possession of the government of India is said to be world's best. If one has to believe officials of Christie's - the 177 pieces of diamonds and other jewelery pieces in the collection are worth an amount of over Rs 20,000 crores which was bought out by the government of India for a mere Rs. 218 crores from the Nizam family.

The star attraction of the collection is the world’s fifth largest diamond – the Jacob Diamond... Interestingly, people rarely know about a diamond called the Nizam diamond, which weighs 277 carats and is the biggest of the Nizam’s treasure. But this diamond was not part of the collection that was sold to the Govt. of India. Major Websites dealing with diamonds have specific mention about this particular diamond but have no idea about its whereabouts.

Saifulla- the Cultural Advisor to the Nizam Trust believes that this piece of heritage treasure is still in possession with someone in the family – suggesting a possibility of a hunt to begun soon, but the success and discovery of where it is left, wide and deep to imagination.

A Prince's Ransom

Sixty years ago the richest man in the world deposited £1m in a London account. It's been there ever since, and today it could be worth £80m. But no one can lay a finger on it.

The Nizam of Hyderabad, as he was known, cut a curious figure. A frail, tiny man, and a devout Muslim, known to be notorious for his meanness - he wore the same tattered fez for 35 years, dressed in rumpled cotton pyjamas, and ate all his meals off a tin plate, while sitting on a mat in his bedroom surrounded by overflowing wastepaper baskets. But he was, back then, the richest man on the planet. In 1948, he deposited £1m - in those days, a staggeringly large sum - with the Westminster Bank in London.

The Nazim's family had ruled Hyderabad since the early 18th century, and he was the only maharajah in British India who enjoyed the title Exalted Highness - a reward for his generous £25m contribution to the British exchequer during the first world war. When the Nizam deposited this £1m in London, he was in a tricky political situation. As the Muslim ruler of an Indian territory the size of England and Scotland, he was attracted by the idea of joining the new state of Pakistan. But he faced several obstacles. Most of his 20m subjects were Hindus and his huge landlocked kingdom was thousands of miles away from the new Muslim homeland in the Punjab.

Cultural Advisor to the Nizam Trust in Hyderabad - Saifulla said that while the Nizam dithered, the man to whom he had entrusted the £1m, his finance minister Moin Nawaz Jung, took matters into his own hands. He signed over the money to Pakistan's new high commissioner in London (who rejoiced in the name of Rahimatoola). Appalled, and under pressure from India, the Nizam cabled Westminster Bank and told officials to freeze the account. Soon afterwards, in September 1948, Indian troops marched into Hyderabad and brutally annexed his kingdom.

According to Saifulla - the story would be little more than one of the curious tales from the partition of India - were it not for the fact that, 53 years later, the money is still stuck in a NatWest account in Britain. And as of last week, depending on whom you talk to, the Nizam's missing fortune has grown to between £25m and £80m.Before his death in 1970, the dethroned seventh Nizam's son made attempts to get the money back. In 1957, after several rounds of litigation between the Nizam and the Pakistani government, the case reached the House of Lords. Lord Denning concluded that the account could only be unfrozen with the agreement of all the parties. The only way forward was "intergovernmental negotiations", he averred.

Few people then, however, would have imagined that the bitter adolescent rivalry that characterised the early years of India and Pakistan's relationship would continue well into the next century.The main beneficiary of this surreal dispute, of course, is NatWest, now part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group. The late Nizam's money was initially invested in war bonds, earning interest at 3%. In the 1960s the money was shifted into a fixed-rate deposit account.

Over time most of the partners who had dealt with the account retired.Until India and Pakistan and the Nizam agree, then, to cut a deal, it seems the money will remain lodged interminably inside NatWest's shiny London HQ at Bishopsgate EC2.

Theives Steal Holy Leg

The police of the Chittur district of Andhra Pradesh are hunting for two men who attacked a holy man, cut off his right leg and then made off with it.

80-year-old holy man, Yanadi Kondaiah, claims to have healing powers in the leg, but right now is in a Tirupati City Government hospital trying to recover from his ordeal. The locals in the area believe that the Yanadi could heal any of their spiritual or physical problems with just a touch of his leg.

According to reports – Initially, Kondaiah and his wife earned their daily bread as labourers but some time ago Kondaiah went to Himalayas – he claimed to have got some magical powers in his right leg on his return. The localites also started believing in Mr Kondaiah's future predictions.

A few days ago, the self-proclaimed 'Godman' - who lives in Yagamareddy Kandriga in Ramachandrapuram mandal, 45 kilometres from Tirupati, was approached by two strangers who came to seek his advice over a medical problem. They told him that they had returned to thank him for the help he had rendered to them.

"As the old man had the weakness of drinking, he accepted their invitation to have drinks with them," said Venkatadhiri, a villager, who knew Kondaiah. "They took him to a deserted spot in the outskirts of the village.” And further added that, "After the old man had passed out under the influence of liquor, they cut off his right leg from the knee."

Police reports describe the amputation as something carried out in a very "brutal manner" and that they are still looking for the blessed leg and the men who so cruelly made off with it. It also mentions that the assailants used a sharp hunting knife, and left the old man alone, bleeding to death. The locals found him unconscious and alerted the police, who rushed him to a hospital in Tirupati.

On regaining consciousness, Mr Kondaiah claimed to have no idea as to why he was made a target in such a manner and also did not understand the motive of the miscreants in taking away his leg. Though, the police say that the reason for the attack could be Mr Kondaiah’s leg which he claims to have been bestowed by magical powers.