:::The Desi Flavor:::

Late blooming a national trend?

More and more urban Indian women are turning to fertility treatments:

Hrishikesh Pai, gynaecologist and infertility specialist at Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai, and Batra Hospital, Delhi, agrees, having seen a 30 per cent annual increase in the number of patients coming for IVF.

There is a realisation now that late motherhood or even infertility is not a stigma. As Imogen Edwards-Jones, who wrote The Stork Club, chronicling her battle to conceive with IVF, said in The Guardian: “Until recently, fertility treatment was barely discussed, like some embarrassing secret that one was incapable of having a baby. Many people on IVF still keep it a secret because they feel they have failed, and to be seen to fail, and to do it so obviously, is not part of our culture. Neither is waiting—today, if you want it, you buy it, but with IVF, you need enormous patience.”

Fighting for Identity

Ethnic Indians in Malaysia demand for a fair share of the nation's wealth:

Malaysian Tamils, descendants of 19th-century indentured labourers from Tamil Nadu, last showed their anger in 1941 when thousands of rubber plantation workers downed their tools in the district of Klang, some 30 km east of the capital Kuala Lumpur, to protest against hardship and low wages.

Now nearly seven decades later, an estimated 20,000 Tamils protested in a big way again on November 25, condemning official discrimination, inhumane treatment and demanding a fair share of the nation’s wealth. “Official discrimination and neglect has severely marginalised us,” says Uthayakumar Ponnusamy, a lawyer and the man behind the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), the organiser of the protest.

BBC turns to Bollywood for CGI series

"BBC is set to launch a £10m animated series featuring musicians Jamelia and Justin Hawkins that has been made in India. Freefonix is being coproduced by the BBC and indie Cinnamon Entertainment, which has effectively outsourced the animation to Trivandrum in Kerala.

The series has been written by Magnus Fiennes, brother of actors Ralph and Joseph, and is set 50 years in the future in the city of Los Bosmos.

It features three exceptional musicians from different sides of the tracks who come together to form a band called Freefonix. Together, they must safeguard the most powerful force in the universe - the 13th note - from the 'forces of evil'. Source - Broadcast Now