ANI reported that India reported 6,650 new Covid cases, 7,051 recoveries, and 374 deaths in the last 24 hours. This takes the number of active cases to 77,516, the total recoveries to 3,42,15,977, the death toll to 4,79,133, the total number of Omicron cases to 358, while the total vaccination stands at 1,40,31,63,063.

Let’s come back to the present realities. With that, all that I can say: We were better off in those years passed by…when verse and sentiments held sway, with carefree abundance holding out. There was less of violence, hate and divisions and more of togetherness and free flow of the arts and creativity, of words and verse.

Leaving you with Kerala’s celebrated rebel poet Balachandran Chullikad’s verse titled Ghazal:

December 31

In the music hall of the night

Club

Ghulam Ali sings

I’m the singer of lost days …

As the music flows, melting

Urdu with the pangs of separation

Into the soft resonance of Ali’s

voice…

A long pent up melody of grief

breaks open the tremulous

window of the harmonium

Inside, the heart reverberates

with

The tabla of season less years

As Ghulam Ali sings …

*****

Also this verse of the last Mughal Emperor of India, Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775 – 1862), to give us the required hope as we move ahead from 2021:

Ode to Hindustan

Matchless is the soil of Hindustan

In it grow love, compassion, fidelity

As sure as the sun rises from the East

So surges from this land sincerity.

This is the true seed of Hind and from its earth

These fruits have spread across the world, far and wide.

Views are personal

Characters in novels have a home. In some cases, fictional addresses are precise, complete with apartment number, street address and town. 

The address 7 Eccles Street in Dublin refers to the row house of Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce’s 1922 novel, “Ulysses.” The house existed but was demolished in 1967. There is now a hospital on that site.

In his stories, the author Hugh Lofting placed Doctor John Dolittle, who famously spoke with animals, in an English village he named Puddleby-on-the-Marsh.

In some cases, the authors simply give their protagonists a home in mansions and halls such as Manderley (Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca”), the Pemberley country estate (Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”) or a plantation by the name of Tara (Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind”).

Harry Potter lived with the Dursleys, and at Hogwarts

Harry Potter: 4 Privet Drive  

The famous wizard from J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series lived with the Dursleys — his aunt, uncle and cousin –– in the regular, nonmagical “muggle” world.

His room at the Dursleys’ was a small dusty cupboard under the stairs in a nondescript house at 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey.

Another world-famous famous address in the celebrated books is Platform No. 9 3/4 at King’s Cross Station. It is where Harry finds the secret entrance to a magical train station, and the Hogwarts Express, a train that takes him to the iconic Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry — where the young wizard feels really at home. 

Bilbo’s home on the movie set of the “Lord of the Rings” in New Zealand

Bilbo Baggins: Bag End, Bagshot Row

“In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a Hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

That is the opening sentence of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 fantasy novel for children, “The Hobbit.”

Bilbo Baggins’ home is at the very end of Bagshot Row, in Bag End, Hobbiton, in the Shire in Middle-earth.

Phileas Fogg sets out on a journey around the world to win a bet

Phileas Fogg: 7 Savile Row  

The protagonist in Jules Vernes’ 1872 novel, “Around the World in 80 Days,” is an elegant 19th-century English gentleman by the name of Phileas Fogg.

To win a bet with fellow members of the Reform Club, he ventures on an exciting journey that takes him around the world — and he makes it back to London just in time, thanks to time zones and the international date line.

His home address is 7 Savile Row in London. It is described in the novel as a “fashionable address” and “the former home of Sheridan,” who was an actual Irish satirist, politician, playwright, poet and theater owner from the beginning of the 19th century.

Benedict Cumberbatch, left, as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson

Sherlock Holmes: 221B Baker Street  

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Scottish writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published dozens of mystery novels surrounding the tricky cases solved by the world-renowned fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, along with his sidekick and friend, Dr. John Watson.

Also well known by the detective’s fans is his address: 221B Baker Street,  London. Holmes rents the space from Mrs. Hudson, who also serves as his housekeeper.

Though the fictional address is set on a real street, when the stories were written the address numbers on Baker Street did not go as high as 221.

Later, an extension of the street led to a long-running dispute between the building society Abbey National, which was located at 219–229 Baker Street, and the Sherlock Holmes Museum, located between 237 and 241 Baker Street. 

They were both eager to be in charge of answering the mail addressed to Sherlock Holmes.

Meanwhile, Abbey National has changed headquarters and the museum has since obtained the permission to bear the special address — and even has a blue plaque commemorating the famous character’s home.

Hercule Poirot, left, in the 1974 film “Murder on the Orient Express”

Hercule Poirot: 56B, Whitehaven Mansions    

A series of novels by Agatha Christie, the author of books that sold millions of copies worldwide, center on yet another famous fictional detective — a mustachioed, retired Belgian police officer and World War I refugee turned world-famous private detective named Hercule Poirot.

Short, vain and using the help of what he calls his “little grey cells,” Poirot investigates mysteries in some of Christie’s best-loved crime stories, including the 1933 “Murder on the Orient Express.”

He, too, lives in London, at the fictional address of Flat 203 at 56B, Whitehaven Mansions. 

A London Art Deco building called Florin Court served as the real-life location used to reproduce the exterior of Whitehaven Mansions in the “Agatha Christie’s Poirot” TV series.

Tintin and Snowy are off on an adventure again

Tintin: Marlinspike Hall

Tintin is the hero and main protagonist in “The Adventures of Tintin,” a 24-album comic series by Belgian cartoonist Herge. The comics have been translated into more than 100 languages. 

Though the boyish-looking reporter with the blond forelock, his fox terrier, Snowy, and their friend the seafaring Captain Archibald Haddock are best known for their many adventures that take them all over the world, their home is a mansion called Marlinspike Hall (a marlinspike is a tool used by sailors) in Belgium. 

The Mary Poppins books were made into popular films

Mary Poppins: 17 Cherry Tree Lane

In the children’s classic “Mary Poppins,” a magical nanny arrives at the Banks’ family home in London, at Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane.

The Australian-born author P.L. Travers told the adventures of Mary Poppins in a series of eight books. In the 1964 musical film, two songs about the Banks family are actually called Cherry Tree Lane: “No wonder the Nannies are driven insane, We’re living in a madhouse in Cherry Tree Lane.”

Arthur Dent delaying bulldozers from demolishing his home in scene from 2005 film

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha

The story, according to the prologue, “begins with a house.” 

Arthur Dent, an anxious Englishman and the protagonist of the science fiction novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, lived in a house that “stood on a slight rise just on the edge of the village. It stood on its own and looked out over a broad spread of West Country farmland. Not a remarkable house by any means — it was about 30 years old, squattish, squarish, made of brick, and had four windows set in the front of a size and proportion which more or less exactly failed to please the eye.”

One morning, a bulldozer shows up to demolish the house, setting an entire madcap adventure in motion.

In fact, Earth, along with Dent’s house of course, was to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

The fictional sector containing the earth is given as Galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha — another fabulous address for the books.

Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier

Thus, after seven years, the RSS has achieved its objective: religion is centre-stage in our political and social discussions. And religious fervour of the worst sort is now everywhere: the violent, divisive, destructive sort. And because India is a Hindu majority nation and the RSS is a Hindu supremacist ideology, rank majoritarianism once again raises its ugly head and dominates.

The momentum began soon after the victory of the BJP at the Centre in 2014 with a series of mob lynching of Muslims ostensibly in the name of the cow. Once that behaviour was normalised, once the murderers were lauded and garlanded and their actions justified, the groundwork was laid.

Tucked away in between was a far less physically violent act – to redesignate Christmas as “Good Governance Day”. Looking back, perhaps that was a test, a small check to gauge the general response. It did not work so well then, so the idea was shelved. But the seed had been planted.

Attacks on Muslims though have run parallel to increasing Hindu involvement in the government or more correctly, increasing government involvement in Hindu matters.

The religion-secularism maze is not new to India and governance. British colonialism played it to the hilt, setting various fault lines into motion to exploit to their profit and benefit. Ever since, we’ve struggled to find just that particular Indian definition of secularism. But in all our mistakes and mis-steps never have we seen such a blatant, persistent anti-minority majoritarian campaign from a government in power.

The case related to the police registering an FIR against a CPI-ML activist who uploaded vacation pictures with the caption ‘Trip to Sirumalai for shooting practice’, which the police interpreted as preparations to wage war against the State. Justice Swaminathan quashed the FIR against the 62-year-old accused while underscoring that the case was ‘absurd and an abuse of legal process’.

While noting that ‘being funny’ and ‘poking fun at another’ is different, the court stated that “Laugh at what?” is a serious question. The court also explained as to why the question becomes pertinent in the backdrop of regional diversity in India.

“…This is because we have holy cows grazing all over from Varanasi to Vadipatty (the place where the police registered the FIR). One dare not poke fun at them. There is however no single catalogue of holy cows. It varies from person to person and from region to region. A real cow, even if terribly underfed and emaciated, shall be holy in Yogi’s terrain. In West Bengal, Tagore is such an iconic figure that Khushwant Singh learnt the lesson at some cost. Coming to my own Tamil Desh, the all-time iconoclast “Periyar” Shri. E.V. Ramasamy is a super-holy cow. In today’s Kerala, Marx and Lenin are beyond the bounds of criticism or satire. Chhatrapati Shivaji and Veer Savarkar enjoy a similar immunity in Maharashtra. But all over India, there is one ultimate holy cow and that is ‘national security’,” it read.

The judge added: ‘Paper warriors are also entitled to fantasise that they are Swadeshi Che Gueveras….Revolutionaries, whether real or phoney, are not usually credited with any sense of humour (or at least this is the stereotype). For a change, the petitioner tried to be funny. Perhaps it was his maiden attempt at humour.’

Several Amazon workers at two of its facilities in the US staged a pre-Christmas walkout, which is the busiest time of the year, asking for better treatment and higher wages.

Before walking out on Wednesday morning (US time), the workers handed over a petition listing their demands to the management, but didn’t receive a response, reports TechCrunch.

“We have been passed over for raises. We are being overworked, even when there are sufficient people to work here,” a worker at the DLN2 facility in Cicero, Chicago area, said on a livestream.

“We have not received the bonuses we were promised. There are people here who were hired as permanent workers, and then they took their badges away and made them temporary workers. They are staffing this place unsafely, making people work too fast, even though we don’t have to,” the Amazon worker lamented.

A pair of Quidditch leagues announced on Wednesday that they will be changing the name of the ‘real-life’ version of the sport in order to ‘distance’ themselves from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling for her statements about the transgender community.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, the U.S. Quidditch (USQ) and Major League Quidditch (MLQ) organizations announced they will be changing the name of the sport following the controversy.

Both leagues are also creating a survey to vote on a name change.  

‘The leagues are hoping a name change can help them continue to distance themselves from the works of J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter book series, who has increasingly come under scrutiny for her anti-trans positions in recent years,’ the statement read.

The ‘fictional’ sport, featured in Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise, had inspired fans of the books and films to create their own version and organize leagues, minus the flying broomsticks.

Rowling, 56, initially came under fire in June 2020 after she had tweeted about biological sex, which led to backlash from the trans community. That and the subsequent transphobia row has since left her out of the upcoming 20th anniversary Harry Potter special that will air on HBO Max.

Two Quidditch leagues are changing the name of the sport following Harry Potter author JK Rowling tweeted about biological sex, leading to backlash from the trans community

Players from MLQ are seen playing a real-life version of the sport that normally requires the use of broomsticks

The leagues are also changing the name as it is trademarked by the Warner Brothers Studio who produces the Harry Potter film franchise

The fantasy sport was made famous after it was created by Rowling in the book series. The sport has been described as similar to soccer or hockey but with the use of flying broomsticks

The change also comes after the fact that the name of the sport has been trademarked by Warner Brothers Studios, which produces the Harry Potter franchise, and ‘has limited the sport’s expansion, including but not limited to sponsorship and broadcast opportunities.’

‘Our sport has developed a reputation as one of the most progressive sports in the world on gender equality and inclusivity, in part thanks to its gender maximum rule, which stipulates that a team may not have more than four players of the same gender on the field at a time,’ the statement continued. 

‘Both organizations feel it is imperative to live up to this reputation in all aspects of their operations and believe this move is a step in that direction.’ 

Both leagues made a joint statement announcing the name change on Wednesday

The fantasy sport had been adapted for real-life play in 2005 at Middlebury College in Vermont by Xander Marshall and Alex Benepe.

Benepe, who currently works as the Director of Leagues for Sky Zone Sports, supported the decision for the name change.

‘I’m thrilled that USQ and MLQ are moving in this direction,’ Benepe said in the statement.

‘Big changes like this don’t come without risk, but I’ve been a strong advocate for making this move for a long time.

‘The sport needs its own space without limits on its growth potential and changing the name is crucial to achieving that.’

A series of tweets posted by Rowling which had featured her views on transgender people

Officials from both leagues also released their own comments on the name change.

‘For the last year or so, both leagues have been quietly collecting research to prepare for the move and been in extensive discussions with each other and trademark lawyers regarding how we can work together to make the name change as seamless as possible,’ MLQ Commissioner Amanda Dallas said. 

‘I believe quidditch is at a turning point,” USQ Executive Director Mary Kimball also commented. 

‘We can continue the status quo and stay relatively small, or we can make big moves and really propel this sport forward into its next phase. 

‘Renaming the sport opens up so many more revenue opportunities for both organizations, which is crucial to expansion.’

• So much for gratitude: The Harry Potter stars and Hollywood… JK Rowling’s ex-husband is pictured for first time since she…

MLQ and USQ also added that the survey process should take until the end of January in which they will decide the names.

The leagues will keep their original acronyms with the name of the new sport still donning the original ‘Q.’ 

Both companies will also undergo branding developments with MLQ changing the brand’s style and website.

‘For a decade, I’ve watched USQ grow,’ USQ PR Marketing Manager Fabiana Echeverria said. ‘The new name and branding will bring US Quidditch into its next phase while advancing our goal of growing a sport that is supportive and inclusive of everyone.

‘This is an exciting time for the sport and I can’t wait to see where it takes us!’

 The first official poster for the Harry Potter reunion special has been released, featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint

The three protagonists are seen sitting in the set of the Gryffindor common room after they first appeared in Harry Potter The Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001 

Radcliffe had played the title character of Harry Potter with Grint and Watson playing his friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger 

The controversy surrounding Rowling began in June 2020 when she took to Twitter to criticize an opinion piece that used the term ‘people who menstruate’ instead of women.

‘I’m sure there used to be a word for these people,’ she tweeted at the time. ‘Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?’

She then continued with a thread discussing biological sex.

‘If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction,’ she claimed. ‘If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased.

‘I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives.’

Rowling later clarified that she respects ‘every trans person’s rights to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them,’ and went on to say she would march ‘if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans.

‘At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female,’ Rowling said, The Associated Press reported at the time. 

‘I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.’

Then, in September 2020, she faced renewed calls of transphobia after it was revealed the the villain in her latest book, Troubled Blood – written under Rowling’s pseudonym Robert Galbraith – is a male serial killer who dresses as a woman to slay his victims. 

An early review of the 900-page book by The Daily Telegraph – in which the critic states the book’s ‘moral seems to be: never trust a man in a dress’ – sparked immediate backlash online.  

Fans of the franchise have since slammed Rowling for her comments as well as actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Eddie Redmayne have since spoken out.  

In March, Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the beloved film series admitted that he felt he needed to stand up for transgender people following Rowling’s remarks.  

He said that  while he was ‘not an authority’ on the debate, he felt he had a responsibility to speak out in support of the trans community as ‘silence is louder’.

In an interview with Esquire, he said: ‘I am hugely grateful [for] everything that she’s done. I think that she’s extremely talented, and I mean, clearly, her works are genius.’

‘But yeah, I think also you can have huge respect for someone and still disagree with things like that…

‘Sometimes silence is even louder. I felt like I had to because I think it was important to. I mean, I don’t want to talk about all that… Generally, I’m not an authority on the subject. 

‘Just out of kindness, and just respecting people. I think it’s a valuable group that I think needs standing up for.’ 

Rowling has been left out of promotional materials for the upcoming Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts which is set to premiere on HBO Max on January 1, 2022.   

The author however will be featured in archival footage during the special.  

Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Prof Saifuddin Saif has termed the recommendations of the JK Delimitation Commission to add six additional Assembly seats for Jammu and only one seat for Kashmir as a conspiracy hatched by the RSS to change the demography of the region and ultimately install a Hindu Chief Minister in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The entire process of delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir smacks of a conspiracy hatched by the RSS to change the demography of the region and ultimately install a Hindu Chief Minister in Jammu and Kashmir. The RSS seems to have succeeded in making the JK Delimitation Commission propose six additional Assembly seats for Jammu and only one seat for Kashmir. This recommendation of the Commission goes against the most crucial criteria for delimitation, that is population, and the same attitude shows the Commission itself in extremely poor light,” he said in a press note released on Tuesday.

“The census of 2011 shows the population of Kashmir as 69,07,623, Jammu as 53,50,811 and Ladakh as 2,90,492. The official website of the Ministry of Home Affairs has now put forth an absolutely erroneous figure of population whereby the population of Kashmir has declined by almost 16 lakhs. The Home Ministry website states that the valley houses a total population of 5,35,8110 residents, while the Jammu region houses 69,07623 residents followed by Ladakh with 2, 90, 492 residents. While the MHA quotes census 2011 as its source, the census 2011 itself tells a different tale,” Saif said.

“It is now clear that not only does the MHA misquote census in terms of the Kashmir valley’s population, but it also adds up the population of the UT erroneously. The population of Jammu is incorrectly quoted as 69.07 lakhs when it is only 53.50 lakhs, according to the census 2011. These are RSS games for which it has now tasked MHA to do its biddings in the so-called national interest,” he added.

“These blind-men of Hindustan do not seem to be taking any notice of the repercussions of its games at the national and international level. The general run of people of Kashmir wants to show respect to the constitutional relationship between JK and the Union of India. The million-dollar question for the right-thinking people of India is that the RSS is already blunting the process of right-thinking on issues. The least that the RSS and the MHA can do at this stage is to apologize to the nation for its narrow-minded approach to crucial national issues,” Saif said.

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, which kicked off the film arm of the Wizarding World, was released in November 2001 — and the special will commemorate the franchise’s 20th anniversary, reports ‘Variety’.

“Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts”, which will reunite actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, was taped at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London.

It will feature other talent from the movies, including Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Tom Felton, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Mark Williams, Bonnie Wright, Alfred Enoch, Matthew Lewis and Evanna Lynch. Filmmakers David Heyman, Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell and David Yates will also make appearances.

It has become the bestselling series of novels of all time, and later on one of the highest grossing film franchises (behind Star Wars and Marvel because people have no taste, of course). Everyone knows their Hogwarts house. J.K. Rowling’s creation has basically become a personality test for the average Millenial, and even Gen Zers, though we’ll likely be more hesitant to readily admit it.

Nonetheless, there is one aspect of the Harry Potter universe we have seldom talked about. In perhaps the biggest cultural phenomenon of our generation, the actor who played the eponymous character is a Jew.

That’s right, if you didn’t know this by now, Daniel Radcliffe is part of the tribe, and Tuesday marked 20 years since the release of the first installment of the film series–“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”–in which he was cast to play the lead. The rest is history. 

Despite Rowling’s noble attempt to post-canonically signal representation of Jews at Hogwarts, and then having the Goldstein sisters in the “Fantastic Beasts” prequels, nothing will be as powerful as our Jewish Harry.

Daniel Radcliffe has said he is “very proud to be Jewish,” although he is an atheist. 

With the stardom that came with the Harry Potter movies, Radcliffe became one of the most famous people in the world. Out of everyone, it was someone from our teeny tiny ethno-religious nation. And a very proud one. How fucking cool!

Since Harry Potter, the Jewish star has played both the very famous Jew, poet Allen Ginsburg, and a neo-Nazi, while drawing on his Jewish identity for both parts, as he’s discussed in a few interviews.

Clearly, Daniel Radcliffe is more than just Harry Potter. But for many of us, he’ll always be the boy who lived… and the boy who gave young Jews much needed representation.

We’re excited to see Daniel, along with his co-stars, in the upcoming 20-year reunion of Harry Potter, ‘”Return to Hogwarts” coming to HBO Max on January 1.