Democratic World December 2012

DECEMBER 2012 `25 Issue no. 01 Volume no. 43 An MBD Publication RNI No.: 23870/72

D E M O C R A T I C

W O R L D

MANY FACES, MYRIAD VOICES—A VISION FOR A NEW INDIA

EDIT ORIAL SONICA MALHOTRA KANDHARI | editorial@democraticworld.in

What a year it’s been!

EXACTLY a year ago, Democratic World (or DW) was

EDITOR'S PICK

LOOKING BACK: Award Winning Actor Director Nandita Das, the first Indian to be inducted into the International Women's Forum's hall of fame, talks about theatre, films and motherhood

launched in its English language avatar and in the 12 months since, has grown and expanded in directions that perhaps even we had not expected. When I look back at the year gone by, what comes to mind are the faces of all the people who have appeared in our pages and the inspiring stories and thoughts that they have shared with the readers of DW. In a way, this editorial is also a thank-you note to all those who gave of their time, allowed us to take endless photographs and opened their doors to our writers—especially in the first few issues, when we were still in the process of carving out our niche in the world of publications.

So far, we have tried to keep our selection of stories as ‘democratic’ as possible, widening the meaning of the word to include people from all walks and spheres of life. In the pages of DW, you will find political and business leaders, writers and painters, social workers and sportspeople, lawyers and doctors. We have faithfully taken opposing views on burning issues and stayed true to the vision that voices from every corner of society have a right to be heard. This last year has also been a time of introspection and we are aware that we still have a lot to learn. In forthcoming issues, we are committed to making our content cover a wider range of subjects and delve deeper into their nuances. To do that, we would also need your help and participation; so write in to us, comment on our work and send your suggestions our way.

The year has ended with a few dramatic happenings, both here in India and in the larger world. Bar-

rack Obama has been elected for a historic second term and Ajmal Kasab, one of the terrorists involved in the Mumbai attack, has finally been dealt the death penalty. At the Olympics, India came home with more medals than ever before and Sachin Tendulkar hit his 100th century. Here at DW we always tend to keep our focus on the positive stories which hold out hope for the future. It’s an approach we have consciously adopted because while we know that there is a lot that is wrong with the world around us, we also believe that there are many people who are fighting to bring about a positive change. In 2013, we hope to bring you more stories and interviews with such people.

Before I close, I also want to express my abiding gratitude to my father, the late Mr Ashok Kumar Malhotra; Democratic World is a direct outcome of his vision and efforts and I hope that he is looking down at us with a sense of accomplishment and pride in our efforts.

I wish you all a Happy New Year.

DECEMBER 2012

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

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TOC

NANDITA DAS MEET THE ACTOR, DIRECTOR AND ACTIVIST—AS SHE TALKS ABOUT FILMS, THEATRE AND MOTHERHOOD READ

DIRECTOR'S CUT

| DECEMBER

2 0 12

C O V E R D E S I G N B Y P E T E R S O N PJ

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

MORE ON PAGE 40

12 JAI ARJUN SINGH

COVER STORY

12 | Celebrating a Democratic World

DW looks back on the year gone by, as the many stalwarts reflect on the highs and lows of the year

Please Recycle This Magazine And Remove Inserts Before Recycling

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COPYRIGHT Democratic World is published & printed by M Gulab Singh & Sons (a unit of MBD Group) at Gulab Bhawan 6, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002, India and printed at Perfect Printers Gulab Bhawan 6, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002, India. Democratic World is for private circulation only.

Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of M Gulab Singh & Sons.

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

DECEMBER 2012

38| BOLLYWOOD SINGS A NEW TUNE: The Hindi film industry shows signs of change and a growing maturity

ASHOK MALIK

46| NARENDRA MODI HERE TO STAY: The kudos are slowly piling up for the leader of a ‘Vibrant Gujarat’

43 ISSUE

43 | PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Debating LGBT rights in India REGULARS

34

01 | EDITORIAL 04 | UP-TO-DATE 10 | FOREIGN DESPATCHES 40 | LOOKING BACK 60 | STICKY NOTES

SOCIAL AGENDA

34 | What an E-year it has been

Social media trends have been shifting on a monthly basis, but here’s a look at some which left an impact—good or otherwise GOOD KARMA

WAREHOUSE

BROAD CANVAS

HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE

48 | A STITCH IN TIME

50 | GADGETS & GIZMOS R2Q5 USB HUB will be loved by Star War

56 | A FORCE OF NATURE Artist Subodh

52 | UNIQUE GEOGRAPHY MEETS ANCIENT HISTORY

Sentila Yanger and her team at Tribal Weave are trying to spin a dream for the people of the Northeast

fans. It has four USB ports & it’s a darker version of R2D2

Gupta talks about good art, the clever artist and creative independence

Ancient cities, and modern play-towns, Tunisia has them all in spades DECEMBER 2012

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

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CONTRIBUTORS

is the author of the bestseller Mother Pious Lady: Making Sense of Everyday India. He is a columnist, media critic and social commentator. He is the MD and CEO of Futurebrands, a branding services and advisory company and serves on the boards of ING Vysya Bank and Mumbai Business School.

SANTOSH DESAI

JOHN ELLIOTT is a Delhi-based

British journalist who has been working in South Asia for approximately 20 years now. In the meantime, Elliott has written for Financial Times, Fortune, Economist and The New Statesman.

You can read his blog and follow him at: http://ridingtheelephant. wordpress.com

ASHOK MALIK has been a political journalist for over

20 years. He is now an independent columnist living in New Delhi and writing for a variety of publications, both in India and internationally. His area of focus is India’s political economy and foreign policy and their increasing intersection.

was the Director of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, between May 2007 and May 2011. He was one of the youngest business school directors in India. Under his leadership, the institute was recognised nationally and internationally. Professor Bhandari was selected as one of India’s Top 25 Hottest Young Executives by Business Today in 2008.

VIVEK BHANDARI

JONATHAN POWER

SATYA SARAN is one of the most recognised faces in Indian media—with a presence in print, television and radio. Her longest stint was as the editor of Femina, India’s leading women’s magazine. Saran has written a book on the legendary actor-director, Guru Dutt, called Ten Years With Guru Dutt: Abrar Alvi’s Journey.

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is an author, filmmaker and journalist. Power has been a columnist for the International Herald Tribune for 17 years as a foreign affairs commentator.

He was the first journalist to interview Manmohan Singh after he was made the Prime Minister.

www.democraticworld.com EDITORIAL Managing Editor: Monica Malhotra Kandhari Group Editor: Sonica Malhotra Kandhari Editor: Dr Chander Trikha Deputy Managing Editor: Rohini Banerjee Sub Editor: Manjiri Indurkar

EDITORIAL CO-ORDINATION Mamta Bhatt

DESIGN

is an au­thor of numerous books, including novels, poetry, academic studies and journalistic work. He has won or been shortlisted for major literary awards. His novel, The Thing About Thugs, has just been published by Houghton Mifflin in USA and Canada. Khair was born and educated mostly in Bihar, India. Khair’s The Bus Stopped (2004) was short-listed for the Encore Award.

His honours include the All India Poetry Prize awarded by the Poetry Society and the British Council, and honorary fellowship for creative writing by the Baptist University of Hong Kong.

TABISH KHAIR

TUSHAR KANWAR

a self-confessed gizmo-holic, is Bengaluru-based technology freelancer, who has contributed to leading Indian technology publications for years.

Sr. Creative Director: Jayan K Narayanan Sr. Art Director: Anil VK Associate Art Directors: Atul Deshmukh & Anil T Sr. Visualisers: Manav Sachdev & Shokeen Saifi Visualiser: NV Baiju Sr. Designers: Raj Kishore Verma, Shigil Narayanan Suneesh K & Haridas Balan Designers: Charu Dwivedi, Peterson PJ Midhun Mohan & Pradeep G Nair MARCOM Associate Art Director: Prasanth Ramakrishnan Designer: Rahul Babu STUDIO Chief Photographer: Subhojit Paul Sr. Photographer: Jiten Gandhi

SALES & MARKETING Mayank Khantwal (Manager- Ad Sales), Mamta Bhatt and Arjun Sawhney

PRODUCTION & LOGISTICS Alok Kashyap, General Manager (Production)

OWNER M Gulab Singh & Sons Private Limited

PRINTER SWETA SRIVASTAVA VIKRAM is an award-

Alok Kashyap

winning writer, poet, novelist, author, essayist, educator and blogger. Her musings have been translated into three chapbooks of poetry, two collaborative collections of poetry, a novel and a non-fiction book. Her scribbles have appeared in anthologies and journals across six countries. Srivastava Vikram has won two Pushcart Prize nominations, an International Poetry Award and a Best of the Net nomination.

PUBLISHER

SIDDHARTHA VAIDYANATHAN

is a writer who divides his time between India and the US. He blogs at sidveeblogs. wordpress.com

Alok Kashyap

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Democratic World is a monthly magazine published and printed by M Gulab Singh & Sons Pvt Ltd (a unit of MBD Group). It is published at Gulab Bhawan, 6, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi-110002, India and printed at Perfect Printers, Gulab Bhawan, 6, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi-110002, India. The magazine is edited by Dr Chander Trikha, Gulab Bhawan, 6, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi110002, India. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of M Gulab Singh & Sons Pvt Ltd. Editorial opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of M Gulab Singh & Sons Pvt Ltd and M Gulab Singh & Sons Pvt Ltd does not take responsibility for the advertising content, content obtained from third parties and views expressed by any independent author/contributor. (M Gulab Singh & Sons Pvt Ltd, Gulab Bhawan, 6, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi-110002).

Opinions expressed herein are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect any opinion of M Gulab Singh & Sons Pvt Ltd, Gulab Bhawan, 6, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi-110002, India Tel: 91-1130912345, 30912301.

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DECEMBER 2012

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ROBERT VADRA

“Mango People in a Banana Republic”

QUOTE OF THE YEAR

UPtoDATE India’s biggest Olympic medal haul Six medals make us proud OLYMPICS \\ India’s medal haul in the London 2012

Olympics was the biggest ever in the country’s history.

The event was held between the 27th of July and 12th of August, 2012. The Indian Olympic Association sent the nation’s largest delegation to the Games ever, as a total of 83 athletes—60 men and 23 women—went to compete in 13 events. Men’s field hockey was the only team-based sport in which India had a representation in these Olympics. The country also marked its Olympic return in weightlifting, after the International Weightlifting Federation imposed a two-year suspension for the nation’s athletes in Beijing because of doping scandal. This was India’s most successful Olympics based on the medal standings, with the country win-

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ning a total of 6 medals (2 Silver and 4 Bronze), and doubling the nation’s overall record in Beijing. Two medals each were awarded to the athletes in shooting and wrestling. Wrestler and Olympic bronze medalist Sushil Kumar managed to claim another medal by winning silver in the men’s freestyle wrestling. India also set a historical milestone for the female athletes who won two Olympic medals. Badminton player and world junior champion Saina Nehwal became the first Indian athlete to win an Olympic bronze medal in the women’s singles. Boxer Mary Kom, on the other hand, lost to Great Britain’s Nicola Adams in the semi-final match, but settled for the bronze in the first ever women’s flyweight championship.

06

Medals for India in the London Olympics

up-to-date

FROM AROUND THE WORLD //

Sachin Tendulkar in the Rajya Sabha CRICKET \\ In April 2012, Sachin Tendulkar took the

A year full of scams:Arwind Kejriwal is the man of the moment with numerous implications he has made on many like Ntin Gadkari, Salman Khurshid, Mukesh Ambani and Robert Vadra

Gob-smacked by Scams Government, companies and individuals, all under the scanner SCAMS \\ India

saw its fair share of scams in 2012, the biggest one being the coal allocation scam, or ‘Coalgate’. Coalgate was a political scandal concerning the Indian government’s allocation of the nation’s coal deposits to public sector entities (PSEs) and private companies. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s (CAG) office accused the Centre of allocating coal blocks in an inefficient manner during the period 2004-2009. The CAG Final Report tabled in Parliament put the “windfall gain” to the allocatees at $35.08 billion. In other news, Congress Chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra was caught in a corner.

Allegedly, a series of companies owned by Vadra were buying up acres of land in Haryana and Rajasthan. It was also reported that one of the biggest real estate companies of the country, DLF, was also involved in the land scam. One newspaper reported that Vadra’s company had increased in value nearly 600-fold in the last five years. BJP President, Nitin Gadkari also came under the scanner when his close aides—including his driver and accountant—were shown to have stakes in Purti Power and Sugar Limited, a ghost company.

nation by surprise as he accepted a Rajya Sabha nomination proposed by the President of India. He is the first active sportsperson and cricketer to have been nominated to the Rajya Sabha and he took the oath on June 4, 2012. Allegedly, Tendulkar commented that “cricket comes first,” when reporters asked whether he preferred cricket to Parliament. Tendulkar has been one of the most prolific run scorers in ODIs with 18,426 runs and an aggregate of 15,470 Test runs. He also holds the record for the highest number of centuries in both Test (51) and ODI (49) cricket. On March 16, 2012, Tendulkar scored his 100th international hundred against Bangladesh in a league MASTER match of the BLASTER Asia Cup. In August 2011, Rahul Dravid declared his retirement from ODIs as well as Twenty20 international cricket.

In March 2012, Dravid announced his retirement from all international and first-class cricket. 2012 also saw cricket great VVS Laxman retire from all international formats of the game.

NOBEL PRIZE

Nobel goes to EU: Nobel Prize for peace in 2012 went to the European Union, which raised quite a storm in the social media.

Nobel committee members lauded six decades of reconciliation among former enemies. The decision sounded like a plea to support the endangered institution in a difficult hour.

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up-to-date

\\ FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Rajesh Khanna (left) The country moaned the death of its first super star A K Hangal (below) The veteran actor passed away in August

A Year of Losses Bollywood sheds

tears as stars of yesteryears fade away OBITUARY \\ In

2012, Bollywood became that much poorer as several veterans of the Hindi film industry breathed their last. Some of the bigger names included veteran character artist AK Hangal, actor and wrestler Dara Singh, veteran actress Achla Sachdev, satirist and actor Jaspal Bhatti, and superstar Rajesh Khanna.

Khanna was a Bollywood actor, film producer and politician, who was referred to as the “original superstar” of Indian cinema. He earned these titles following 15 consecutive solo hit films in the 1970s, a record that remains unbroken.

One of the most famous and popular Indian directors, Yash Chopra, also breathed his last in the September of 2012. He was known as the king of romance, a title he earned for his epic romances which he brought to the screen either as producer or director. The action

thriller Deewar was one of his well-known projects and is credited with setting Amitabh Bacchan on the path to life-long fame. The Bollywood music industry was hit as well with the death of Pakistani singer Mehdi Hasan. Hasan was one of the best known ghazal singers of our times. Veteran cinematographer Ashok Mehta, too, breathed his last in Mumbai in August.

Some luminaries in the world of business and art who breathed their last include SK Khaitan, the chairman of the Khaitan Group; T Samuel, the pioneer of Pocket Cartoons in India; eminent writer and president of the Sahitya Akademi, Sunil Gangopadhyay; Urdu poet Muzaffar Razmi; and the White Revolutionary and Milkman of India, Verghese Kurien.

India also mourned the loss of a strong woman, freedom fighter and social

One of the most famous Indian directors, Yash Chopra, also breathed his last in the September, 2012

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activist, Captain Lakshmi Sehgal, who breathed her last in July. India’s first woman photo-journalist, Homai Vyarawalla, also died at the age of 98. She started her career in the 1930s and thereafter received notice at the national level when she photographed many political and national leaders, including Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah and Indira Gandhi. At the onset of World War II, she started working on assignments of the The Illustrated Weekly of India magazine, which published many of her iconic black and white images.

At the end of November, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray breathed his last, stalling all life in Mumbai, signalling the end of an era of an in Maharashtra politics.

On an international level, the world mourned the death of Neil Alden Armstrong, the US astronaut and first man to walk on the moon. Armstrong died at the age of 82. Sally Ride, the first US woman to travel into space, also passed away in July 2012.

up-to-date

FROM AROUND THE WORLD //

&

POLITICS

Arvind Kejriwal’s New Party POLITICS \\ India Against

Corruption (IAC) activist Arvind Kejriwal is slated to launch a new party, which is likely to be different from others in several aspects.

Sources in the IAC said that there will be no president or general secretary in the new party. The

national executive will take all the decisions, which will be coordinated by a national convenor. Despite being the face of the party, Kejriwal will not hold any post, a fact that the IAC activist has declined to comment on. Kerjiwal said, “The new party will

be built on the dreams of the common man.”

Kejriwal who started the IAC movement with senior activist Anna Hazare, parted ways with team Anna this year. Hazare is also slated to launch a new anti-corruption team with Kiran Bedi.

SALT PEPPER AS GIRISH KARNAD TAKES ON VS NAIPAUL, TWITTER BECOMES THE NEW BATTLE GROUND

“Why are folks debating Girish Karnad on Sir Vidia? A billionth of people who have read Sir Vidia haven't heard of Girish Karnad. Period.”

Kanchan Gupta @KanchanGupta | Twitterati

Barack Obama Gets Second Term in the White House

“Girish Karnad is right, Naipaul is tone-deaf,wrote nothing about Indian music in his big books on India.Naipaul is a mean Islamophobe writer” taslima nasreen @taslimanasreen | Author

“Wow. Quite a whiplashing from Girish Karnad that.”

Sidvee @sidvee | Journalist

Barack Obama returns for a second term beating Republican Mitt Romney

ELECTION \\ US

President Barack Obama returned for a second term at the White House after an initially close-run battle against Republican Mitt Romney. Heads of state broadly welcomed Obama’s election to a second term in the White House but urged him to play a leading role in issues such as boosting the economy, solving climate change and improving relations with the Arab world. Speaking at the end of the campaign, Obama looked briefly emotional as he thanked “all those who have lived and breathed the hard work of change”.

Barack Obama’s master stroke was to repeat the demographic strategy of 2008: win over the Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, youth and educated women. Another Obama ace was the ‘get out and vote’ exercise, which disproved the assumption that Democratic voters would be reluctant to turn up. The outreach programme consisting of phone calls, Twitter updates, messages and door-knocking brought out the so-called unenthusiastic Democrats in the swing State of Ohio, for example, which usually decides who becomes the President of the United States.

“Why I am a happy, happy, contented man today. What needed to be said has been said wonderfully” Mihir Sharma @mihirssharma | Journalist

“shots fired! girish karnad speaks at #litlive about naipaul's writing, asks organisers to explain giving lifetime award to putrid racist.”

Supriya Nair @supriyan | Twitterati

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foreign despatches \\ NOTES FROM INDIANS ABROAD

AKASH KAPUR Puducherry AKASH KAPUR left India at

India was infused with a can-do ambition and entrepreneurial spirit” ­I LEFT INDIA I left India when I was seventeen years old and spent two years in boarding school in the US. Then I went to college there and even spent some time in Eastern Europe after that, actually. I travelled to Romania, where I had earned myself a fellowship and from there, back westwards to England for my doctoral studies.

I grew up in Puducherry in the Auroville Ashram. Even as a child I was acutely aware of how different it was from the rest of India. Auroville was an international and cosmopolitan space with a global community of people. It was also, to use a lose term, ‘westernised’. The rest of India was less open to the world in the seventies and the eighties. When I was young, I would often travel to visit my extended and very scattered family at Udaipur, Mumbai and Delhi. At the time, those places were even more diverse and different from what they are today. I knew that my home in Puducherry was more special, especially then.

The decision to leave India at the age of 17 was mostly educationally driven. The schools in Puducherry, especially the schools in Auroville, were exceptional. However, they were very different in their structure – while growing up I was in no rat race to get better grades, as there were no grades awarded to students; it was a holistic educational background. There was an emphasis on liberal arts. Part of my family lived in the US, so my family decided to put me into a boarding school there to give my education a sort of structure.

Even while I was there, I would come back home frequently.

Though I was in a foreign land at the time, India was not too far from my thoughts and I knew that one day I would be back. So

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the age of seventeen. But in 2003, he decided to come back to his motherland. Today, he is a writer based out of Puducherry in the south of India. His non-fiction book, India Becoming: A Portrait of Life in Modern India, was published on March 15th, 2012, by Penguin Riverhead in the US. Kapur, the son of entrepreneur Dilip Kapur of Hidesign fame, has written for The Atlantic, The Economist, Granta, The New York Times, The New Yorker and Outlook, among others. He used to write a fortnightly “Letter from India” column for the International Herald Tribune and the online edition of The New York Times. Kapur received his Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in social anthropology, and a DPhil as a Rhodes Scholar from Nuffield College, Oxford University.

the decision to return was not one taken overnight. What started happening around 2000 or so were a couple of things: India was changing and was becoming a much more open, exciting and dynamic place to be. I do not mean exciting only in terms of the material opportunities, but also intellectually stimulating. There is so much life here. That, combined with the feeling of flatness in the west, particularly the US, prompted me towards the decision. I remember being in the US when the Iraq War broke out.

And I remember thinking to myself that I did not wish to be a part of this imperial decline. The war was the most specific thing that helped me to make this final decision, in a way – why would I live in a country where so much was messed up? I did not think of going anywhere else (so-called ‘first world’ countries) because the point was to come back home.

At that time my family and I were living in New York. We had initial hesitations about coming back to a slower lifestyle because at NYC we were so used to a dynamic social life. We pondered over the choice of staying in a city, say a Bengaluru for instance, but then soon dropped the idea. The intention was to live free under the open skies and have a certain quality of life in India.

Both my wife and I were partly raised in Auroville, so we were inclined towards unlimited and clean space. I grew up on the edge of a forest, walked on unpaved streets and breathed in fresh air every day. We could walk to the beach when we wanted to. If we had to have it, we wanted the older ways. So we thought about

foreign despatches NOTES FROM INDIANS ABROAD //

“When I came back, India was in a much more euphoric state and I was more tuned to its positive aspects. Now, though I see the struggle clearly, I still see the spirit of survival just as well”

coming back to Bengaluru–I find larger Indian cities very challenging.

My book doesn't talk about Auroville or Punducherry, but I do talk of my life and living in the middle of nature, which leads to introspection, inner peace. For better or for worse, there's much less to do in the semiurban and rural spaces. t6There are no urban trappings such as a mall or a hangout spaces and as a result, one feels freer at some level. I think that nature has a calming effect on the human soul.

For a writer, Puducherry was perfect. I am surrounded by people who are very environmentally conscious; they work on the land and pioneer green development in India. In this day and age, Auroville is like an oasis and an inspirational place to stay in.

We were all struggling to come to terms with a new place in the first few months after we came back. Anytime you start something new, it is exciting and yet there is a fear and a struggle to get into the pace. When I came back, India was in a much more euphoric state and I was more tuned to the positive aspects of the country.

Something had changed in the very spirit of the country. India was infused with an energy, a can-do ambition and an entrepreneurial spirit - at least that is how it appeared to me at the time.

As it is now, that euphoric feeling has been bogged down by the realism of staying in a country. But even now, though I see the struggle clearly, I still see the spirit of survival just as well. Today, the honeymoon may be over, but the love has been reinforced.

My book is what you call narrative non-fiction, which is a result of my family's move from New York City to Puducherry.

Some people might call it literary non-fiction, but literary is a big, pretentious word and I would rather not use it. The book is a result of my struggle to understand a country which is complex and confusing. It is an attempt to tell true stories and real-life matters, rather than give policies, arguments or statistics, which ultimately leave much more unsaid.

In NYC I was really close to the commercial side of the writing business, which was not so uplifting or inspiring for me as a writer. When I moved back to India, I initially thought that I would abandon the pen. However, when you are back there is so much happening in your head.

I wanted to understand what was going on, within and outside me. I realised that things were far more complicated than I had thought they would be. Writing and research were tools to engage with my country and understand it; that was the impetus behind the book.

I was very clear from the beginning that when I would write the book, I wanted to understand India through its people and its stories. Partly, it was because I find narratives far more engaging than any other form of writing, and partly because I think what was being written about India were the broadly economic, policy and academic books. Because they are so broad-based, they missed out on the nuances and complexities of the day-to-day living of the country.

There is nothing more complex than a life and when you focus on it, you really get into the ups and downs and the ambivalence of what is going on in the country right now. If you compare a macroeconomic figure like a GDP indicator to a life, the latter has so many layers and thereby can give so much more information than just a figure.

Now I have this information, do I wish to do something more about so-called ‘saving’ Auroville, which has been so pristine all this while? Yes and no. I don't see the book as an implement of activism. And I believe that even in civil life there is always that need to stand up for what is right.

What happens in India (and perhaps all across the world), is that citizens become mini-activists in their backyards by accident. Everyone who I have known has engaged in some level of activism against things that need to be prevented or things that needed to be done.

For example, I have been talking about the garbage problem in the area where I stay. Of how one night my family woke up to the smell of burning rubbish which choked our son and made him ill for the better part of the night.

I spoke up about that issue, not as a writer but as a person who was affected by a problem. The writing comes out of the citizenship, rather than the citizenship coming out of the writing, if you know what I mean.

—As told to Rohini Banerjee

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cover story

CELEBR ATING A DEMOCR ATIC WORLD //

A Democratic World As DW completed a year of publishing in its English avatar, we decided to revisit the personalities who were a part of our journey thus far. These opinionmakers share their views on the state of the Indian democracy and the year gone by As told to: Rohini Banerjee Design by Haridas Balan | Imaging by Peterson PJ

INSIDE Page 14 Soli Sorabjee | Page 16 Muzaffar Ali Page 18 Pundit Birju Maharaj | Page 22 Jatin Das Page 24 Mrinal Pande | Page 26 Naresh Trehan Page 20 Democratic Quotes

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SOLI SORABJEE, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL OF INDIA

“If we allow our democratic

system to function we could get a lot done.”

What a year this was—scams galore. Somewhere in this dismal “scamscape” a sector within the Indian democratic system showed great promise—the judiciary. The way in which it handled matters with clarity, transparency and fairness was heartening for me as I have been a participant of the Indian legal fraternity. My vote for that sector which shows promise goes for the social justice system. A democratic system cannot stress enough on making the legal frame-

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cover story

SOLI SOR ABJEE //

JANUARY 2012 `25 An MBD publication Rni no.: 23870/72

D e m o c r a T i c

w o r l D

BATTLe fOR peAce Debating afSPa:

the army’S roLe in oUr borDerLanDS page 32

Defending Democracy The life & Times

of soli sorabjee Making a case for human dignity

PLUS:

PaGe 14

GOOD KARMA WARehOuse Life in TechnicOLOuR pLATfORM

“Jawaharlal Nehru had an international outlook and was not at all parochial. I also liked his writings a lot, especially The Discovery of India” —Soli Sorabjee

PHOTOS BY SUBHOJIT PAUL

JANUARY 2012 ISSUE Soli Sorabjee: The Conscience Keeper

work stronger and I believe that India will continue to shine in this regard. On a social angle, I saw the government working tirelessly towards the abolition of child malnutrition and that was an encouraging sign. However, the best moment of the year for me happened far away from Indian shores and was Barack Obama's re-election as the President of the USA for his second term.

On the flipside, the political class of the country managed to disappoint in the past year. Not just the voters, but the country watching them. It would, however, be erroneous to believe that the political class is corrupted. Such a sweeping statement not only demoralises people, it also serves no purpose.

There are participants such as Arun Jaitley who show promise. As long as we allow our democratic system to function I believe we could get a lot done.

Alas, stalling Parliament for an entire monsoon session does not allow a lot to get done. Perhaps in 2013, we will see a change.

On a personal front, I am looking forward to completing Voices of Dissent in the following year. The book will highlight dissenting judgments of the Supreme Court which have subsequently been accepted as “correct” by the court, which is conducive to progressive jurisprudence.

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AUGUST 2012 `25 Issue no. 9 Volume no. 42 An MBD Publication RNI No.: 23870/72

D E M O C R A T I C

W O R L D

CYBER PROTEST

NEW AGE NETIZENS AND WEB VOICES PAGE 20

ISSUE

IS GAAR INDIA’S ANSWER TO TAX WOES? PAGE 28

Renaissance Man Meet the Sufi soul, the poet cum painter and filmmaker Muzaffar Ali as he talks of aesthetics and traditions PAGE 12

PLUS:

WAREHOUSE

LOOKING BACK

FOREIGN DESPATCHES

PLATFORM

AUGUST 2012 ISSUE Muzaffar Ali: The Sufi Soul

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cover story MUZ AFFAR ALI //

MUZAFFAR ALI FILMMAKER AND FASHION DESIGNER

“Despite naysayers, many

PHOTOS BY SUBHOJIT PAUL

young politicians have their hearts in the right place.”

Seeing the Indian middle-class rise despite all the economic and democratic battles was one uplifting point of 2012. I see the Indian middle-class as a strange anomaly. They want democracy without practising their democratic right; most of them are not that eager to exercise their universal franchise. Despite all the naysayers, a lot of young politicians have their hearts in the right place. What they choose to do depends on opportunities that they receive. Akhilesh Yadav seems to be going great—he would be an interesting politician to watch out for in 2013.

With the government and civil organisations, India has done better and better as far as the literacy rate is concerned. If you put it under a scanner, no particular sector has done really “well”, but then IT and education has shown promise.

When I think about the future, and in my own areas of interest, I can barely think of anyone exciting to collaborate with. As a filmmaker, I am always looking for interesting people to work with.

But they do not make people like Satyajit Ray anymore. My association with the stalwarts such as him has spoilt me. But the rise of vernacular is uplifting, and the regions of India have produced quite a few interesting writers.

With the year coming to an end, I find myself looking back upon it with mixed emotions. In 2012, though India bypassed calamities, I was deeply disturbed by Sandy, the storm which struck America. In this flat world of ours, we have friends and family scattered all over. A tragedy that strikes anywhere impacts people everywhere. On a personal level, I would say that I am eagerly awaiting a retrospective of my work which would be shown in an international film festival. That would be the high point of the year for me. Revisiting my older film projects would be nostalgic.

“As a filmmaker, I am always looking for interesting people to work with. They do not make people like Satyajit Ray anymore. My association with the stalwarts such as him has spoilt me.”

—Muzaffar Ali DECEMBER 2012

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PANDIT BIRJU MAHARAJ KATHAK MAESTRO

“The political scenario does

not look good but in the field of arts, we are doing well�

When I look at the state that our country is in today, I feel that despite all the slogans against poverty and corruption, nothing really is happening. Much more needs to be done to alleviate the sufferings of the poor in villages and in cities. The money that is stashed in Swiss Banks needs to be brought back to the country.

Though I must admit I don't know much about politics, I am still disappointed by the committees and associations of various institutes. The political scenario does

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PANDIT BIRJU MAHAR A J //

MAY 2012 `25 An MBD Publication RNI No.: 23870/72

D E M O C R A T I C

W O R L D

BUILDING BLOCKS

WILL SINOINDIA TURF WAR SHAKE BRICS’ FOUNDATION? PAGE 28

REEL LIFE

FILMMAKER ANAND PATWARDHAN ON WHAT KEEPS HIM GOING PAGE 42

A maestro of arts, Pandit Birju Maharaj narrates his journey with Kathak thus far... PAGE 14 PLUS:

WAREHOUSE

LOOKING BACK

FOREIGN DESPATCHES

PLATFORM

“Preserve your talent.

Don't ever think it is just for entertainment. It's part of your character.

Rhythm balances your life.”

— Pt Birju Maharaj

PHOTOS BY KHUSHI MISHRA & SUBHOJIT PAUL

MAY 2012 ISSUE Pundit Birju Maharaj: A Living Legend

not look good but the when it comes to the field of arts, I think we are doing well. There are certain Gurus and Ustads who have been doing good work, specially in classical field.

I believe that we need to lay emphasis on our tradition, art and culture. Our inheritance is our strength and we should preserve it and take it forward. If we try to promote things that are not positive or traditional, it leaves a bad impression on our youth. Therefore, traditional institutions should be highlighted for a better and brighter future. The lack of dance departments in major universities of the country is very disheartening. Students come from all over the world on scholarships to learn about Indian tradition through our classical dance forms, but later they do not get enough career opportunities because of lack of good universities to employ them. This is not a pleasant scenario.

However, we are putting all our efforts towards changing the situation. I want to encourage more and more people towards learning the classical dances.

Recently, I have been extremely busy taking workshops all over the world. I have been frequenting countries like USA, Singapore, Bangladesh and South Africa to teach the children Indian traditions through dance.

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Defining Democracy

OF THE PEOPLE,

BY THE PEOPLE JATIN DAS

“Democracy, by definition, is of the people, and their voices, which are frankly not being heard by the government. People running our country are corrupt and have their own ulterior motives in joining politics.”

MUZAFFAR ALI

“My endeavour has been to explore how Indians define democracy and freedom through the genesis of the HinduMuslim divide and what better way to do that than to explore the incidents that took place in 1857?”

SOLI SORABJEE

“A democratic system cannot stress enough on making the legal framework stronger and I believe that India will continue to shine in this regard.”

MRINAL PANDE “In a democratic world, it is the will largely shared and held by the majority of the population that takes a nation or country forward. If you fall into the trap of chasing an icon, then we again become retrograde and we pile all our hopes and desires on one person and expect him or her to fulfill it.”

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DEFINING DEMOCR ACY //

SANJEEV KAPOOR When someone asks me about the one area where democracy completely fails for me, I direct him towards my own home. Jokes apart, in a democracy , it is most important that the common man be as involved in the system, as the politician and it is heartening to see this happening. The‘aam aadami’ is the politician of the future.

VINOD MEHTA

Democracy is in trouble all over the world. Should we abandon it? No! There may be things in it that do not work, but the system in totality is indispensable.

AJIT SINGH The two changes I would like to witness in Indian democracy in my life time would be—the voters be given more information to make intelligent choices.

Second, that raised aspirations of common man be coupled with the ability to fulfill them through education and new opportunities.

NARESH TREHAN

Indian democracy failed in several ways this year. There is a certain amount of bankruptcy in the political scenario today. Is there anyone there who is sitting back thinking about what it is doing to the country?

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OCTOBER 2012 `25 Issue no. 11 Volume no. 42 An MBD Publication RNI No.: 23870/72

D E M O C R A T I C

W O R L D

LOOKING BACK

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY KOM PAGE 26

SOCIAL AGENDA

MEASURE YOUR ONLINE CLOUT WITH THESE TOOLS PAGE 20

Verb al

Strokes

JATIN DAS talks about the intensely personal act of painting Page 12

PLUS:

BROAD CANVAS

GARNISH

WAREHOUSE

FOREIGN DESPATCHES

OCTOBER 2012 ISSUE Jatin Das: A Colourful Personality

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cover story JATIN DA S //

JATIN DAS

ARTIST, SCULPTOR, MURALIST

“We need to focus on all

sectors equally, but education is most important.”

PHOTOS BY SUBHOJIT PAUL

I am an artist and I know nothing about politics. As far as my understanding of things goes, democracy by definition is of the people; it is about the voices of the masses. Truth be told, these voices are not being heard by the government of this country. Most people running our country are corrupt and have their own ulterior motives in joining politics. It won’t be incorrect to say, after seeing the number of scams that have happened in the past few years, that the common man has lost respect for politicians and has become confused about the future of the country.

Everything is money-driven; ethics and values are mere words. When I think about the one particular sector that has shown progress in the past year, I can only think of ‘Money’ (to sum it up in one word).

Commerce hasn’t suffered too much from the vagaries of fortune.

On a completely different note, I thought Anna Hazare—before he went haywire—did show some spark and promise.

We are a nation of billions, and we need to focus on all sectors equally, be they healthcare, education, law or the arts. But most important of them all is education, which is rooted to our country and its ethos. The second important area of focus should be conservation of nature and water. All this is achievable only if we have leaders who are honest, clean, committed and concerned about the people.

When I think about the millions of scams this country has been witnessing I feel let down as a citizen. There was another personal tragedy where the artist in me felt let down. On the 1st of March, 2012, my steel sculpture was broken down in Bhilai, Chattisgarh, without my consent. Such an act is unacceptable. But if there were dark days, there were also celebratory moments. I felt really proud and happy when our sportspeople won medals in the London Olympics.

Those were perhaps the best moments of the year.

“Every country is conducive to art. One can create everywhere. I think people who don’t like staying in India and don’t find working there conducive are mediocre and ordinary people. India is one of the greatest countries of the world. It is a goldmine.”

—Jatin Das DECEMBER 2012

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MRINAL PANDE WRITER & CHAIRPERSON, PRASAR BHARATI

“In a democratic world, I do not really believe that icons take a country forward.”

The past year has been a mixed bag of highs and lows. The education sector has shown a lot of promise, more so in rural and semi-rural areas. Government and civil organisations have worked together seamlessly especially to educate the girls. Unfortunately, one cannot say the same about the health sector. We are seeing it deteriorate over the years. Growing up we visited local civil hospitals, which had good doctors and equipment to handle emergencies. Today

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MRINAL PANDE //

MARCH 2012 `25 An MBD Publication RNI No.: 23870/72

D E M O C R A T I C

W O R L D

Mrinal Pande turns an unclouded gaze onto her many lives as writer, editor and journalist PAGE 12

PICTURE PERFECT

WHY INSTAGRAM IS THE LATEST CRAZE Page 22

MONSTER OR MESSIAH? EXPERTS DEBATE INDIA’S

NUCLEAR POWER POLICY PAGE 28

PLUS

GOOD KARMA

WAREHOUSE

PLATFORM

BROAD CANVAS

“I admired Indira Gandhi because she balanced power, humaneness and a very tricky part of our democracy —and did it excellently.”

—Mrinal Pande

PHOTOS BY SUBHOJIT PAUL

MARCH 2011 ISSUE Mrinal Pande: Her Own Witness

the same health centres are in a far worse condition and people are forced to visit private practitioners. If our healthcare sector had kept up, today those civil hospitals should have been good enough for the rural population.

What really alarms me is the rise of crime and abuse against women, the pressure to dilute section 498A. And instead of being on a decline, the past few years has seen a rise in female infanticide. And you have seen the problems of a skewed gender ratio.

When it comes to a name that stands out for me for the future, I do not really believe that icons take a country forward. In a democratic world, it is the will largely shared by the majority of the population that takes a nation forward. If we fall into the trap of chasing an icon, then we become retrograde and pile all our hopes and desires on one person and expect him or her to fulfill it. Having said that, an idea that has worked well for the country is the Right to Information Act. Coupled with the Panchayati Raj, if the two can be matched together, it will pressurise the total representatives to work everywhere. To me democracy is about transparency and answerability.

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JUNE 2012 `25 Issue no. 7 Volume no. 42 An MBD Publication RNI No.: 23870/72

A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

CAN THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION ACT BRIDGE INDIA’S CLASSROOM DIVIDE?

Page 30

LOOKING BACK

SHAHNAZ HUSAIN RECOUNTS A LIFE LESS ORDINARY

Page 26

NEVER MISSING A BEAT: Cardio-surgeon and founder, Medanta, Dr Naresh Trehan believes good medicine always makes for good business

PLUS: Cover Final.indd 1

GOOD KARMA

WAREHOUSE

HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE

PLATFORM 5/28/2012 11:16:00 AM

JUNE 2012 ISSUE Naresh Trehan: Ace of Hearts

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cover story

NARESH TREHAN //

NARESH TREHAN CARDIAC SURGEON

“We are trying to rewrite the blueprint of medical healthcare in India.”

PHOTOS BY SUBHOJIT PAUL

Indian democracy failed in several ways this year, and the most affected were the bills they passed which should have reached the implementation stage but instead have reached a standstill.

Probably FDI is the one thing that seems to be working, but if you look at the other bills like the Foreign University Bill, nothing has happened to it. There is no atmosphere of accountability. The number of people who were implicated in the various scams, nothing happened to them. They got caught and in a few days you saw that they were back to their work. This arrogance of certain people is going beyond any accountability. There is a certain amount of bankruptcy in the political scenario today. Is there anyone there who is sitting back thinking about what it is doing to the country?

Such is the situation, that when I think about a sector that seems to be growing, I can't think of anything. As we look forward to taking a new turn in 2014, there seems to be a general feeling that the chaos will continue. And I wish there was one person in who I could see the future, one person who had the guts, the honesty, the vision and the ethics required to take this country forward. The names that have emerged in the current times are no good. I have got serious doubts about them.

Nevertheless, I am still a die hard optimist, I still see hope.

What we are doing at the moment is trying to rewrite the blueprint of medical healthcare in India. What we dream of is to end the fragmentation that exists in the society. In terms of healthcare, at least, each individual rich or poor, should get the same treatment. That is not happening at the moment, but we are working towards it. However, I must say what did encourage me this year was that Government tripled the healthcare budget.

This is has given me tremendous hope.

“I told the doctors at Medanta to hang on to the patient's life like they would hang on to their own.”

—Naresh Trehan

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Tom Alter Ela Bhatt

Sunandini Banerjee Muzaffar Ali

Pundit Birju Maharaj Soli Sorabjee

Urvashi Butalia

Sanjeev Kapoor

Words That Matter Responses, comments and—ahem —compliments from those who populated our pages and read our work over the year gone by

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Words That Matter \\ KUDOS

“Good actions always bear good results.

You people are doing a good job and for that I congratulate you – my best wishes are always with you. Often too busy to read other magazines, I have still read yours.”

Ela Bhatt

Founder, SEWA

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“Congratulations on completing a year of DW. I have read some of the stories and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed reading them. You people have an interesting take and I would love to read more.”

Tom Alter Actor

Words That Matter KUDOS //

Muzaffar Ali Film Director

“Democratic World is an in-depth magazine and a very interesting publication. I wish, though, that it was available everywhere.”

“Production without equitable distribution is meaningless. I like reading Democratic World and am glad it is on the stands.”

Soli Sorabjee

Former Attorney General

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Words That Matter \\ KUDOS

“Congratulations for bringing out a lovely magazine.

Be loyal to your core values and understand there are no short-cuts to success.”

Sanjeev Kapoor Master Chef

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“I love the fact that DW puts the focus on lesserknown artists. It was a pleasure talking to the team and the design layout is excellent. Good work!”

Sunandini Banerjee Artist, Illustrator

Words That Matter KUDOS //

Pandit Birju Maharaj Kathak Maestro

“I congratulate you on completing a year of productive work and want you to carry on promoting Indian heritage through art and culture. I wish you luck for the next year and hope it will be as rewarding.”

“Congratulations on the completion of a year. The magazine is wonderful and positive and yet it manages to balance between the negative and positive quite meticulously.”

Urvashi Butalia

Founder, Zubaan Books

DECEMBER 2012

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

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\\ REFLECTING ON THE E-YE AR GONE BY

What an

e-Year It Has Been Social media trends have been shifting on a monthly basis, but here’s a look at some which left an impact—whether good or otherwise

BY TUSHAR KANWAR

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social agenda

REFLECTING ON THE E-YE AR GONE BY //

T

here was a time, not too long ago, when charting out the social media trends that made an impact over the year was easy. Entrenched players took their time to change, and new entrants were few and far between. That time, however, is not now. With the unprecedented pace of disruption and the ground shifting below your feet on a monthly basis, what worked on the social scene in January may no longer be useful as you read this copy right now! Even so, in our yearly wrap-up of what made the news (and notoriety) this year, I try to assess the key trends that have shaped the social agenda in 2012.

The Internet of People: Till recently, you’d use a news portal or a search engine to find your way around the cluttered mass we know as the Internet and find out what’s happening. Today, your Facebook and twitter feeds are where news breaks first, and user generated content – news, videos, photos and opinion – are increasingly driving our daily reading habits.

ILLUSTRATION BY HARIDAS BALAN

Curation is Key: That said, with so much data bombarding our lives throughout the day, the need for curated content – content that has been chosen, either manually or algorithmically, to be worth your time – has grown by leaps and bounds. This year saw names like reddit and Techmeme creep into the mainstream, and they’re here to stay.

Are you Pinterest-ed: One brand that really rode the social wave this year was Pinterest.

The image-sharing network, while being the newest of the big kids on the block, had more clickthroughs than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ combined! Not to mention research that shows significant sales that are driven off the site. Imagine how much traffic that could mean for your brand’s website if you engage fans on the platform.

Kickstart It!: Kickstarter may be the perfect platform to get crowd funded, but more and

more folks are realising that it’s an equally effective way to grab big media attention and make a hard sell for a product before its launch. Plus, projects that are well on their way to being funded get noticed

by VCs and angel investors as well. The moral? Make that pitch video for your Kickstarter funding perfect!

Social becomes Human: If you’re using your brand’s twitter channel to send out robotic sounding messages like “Hi! Please DM us your contact details and we’ll get in touch” for just about every customer interaction, you’re missing the point of being social, not to mention becoming the object of much ridicule on the platform. If anything, your

social presence should be more like people you’d want to spend time with. Case in point: look at the playful banter that Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart engages in on its twitter account, while handling customer queries and complaints.

Mobile First: More and more folks are only accessing social media from their phones.

And with smartphone users globally tipping into the 1 billion figure in 2012, that’s a vast market, one that has to be addressed in a manner that is very different from the days of the desktop. Imagine this – brands can now reach potential buyers at the exact time when they’re out looking for the service or product, with relevant messaging and up-to-

2013 PREDICTIONS As we look to 2013 and beyond, it’s clear that companies embracing social changes will succeed as they create more valuable content, invest more in understanding their customers, and improve their social ROI measurements. Here are some of the significant trends that we think will be increasingly relevant next year.

Social Gamification: Want to rise above the clutter of the everyday social media campaigns? Make a game out of it!

And no, we don’t mean video games.

Gamification, or the application of game theory to other areas of life, is taking off in business and social media, whether it be via their own branded game apps, or rewarding loyal customers with online titles, leaderboards, badges and achievements.

Either way, if you manage to entertain your audience, you earn their attention and more importantly, their time. Just stay away from the gimmicky stuff, though.

Social TV: Sure, TV is already social. Don’t we all discuss the latest episode of the serial we follow with friends, and often tweet about it as

well? But TV is slowly ramping up to assimilate social content within the programming itself, and you’re already seeing signs of that happening in the US. Game shows now allow voting via twitter, and encourage viewers to connect to social networks while they watch to get more information on contestants. Another way comes from a network called Get Glue, which is somewhat like a Foursquare for TV. Participants can "check-in" to their favorite shows (or other forms of media) and collect stickers to tell the world what programmes they love.

Expect Indian TV to experiment with these engagement mechanisms over the next year.

Consumers as Marketers: And since we’re predicting, here’s one that may happen slowly, but we hope takes a big leap in 2013 - traditional marketing giving way to consumers as marketers.

We expect that finely focused targeting (to identify the right influential folks) and rewards for consumers to market your product will see an uptick. Think of it as a shift from a monologue to a dialogue – dramatic, wouldn’t you agree?

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\\ REFLECTING ON THE E-YE AR GONE BY BLOG WATCH

date offers. Plus there’s the brand opportunity with apps as well. Brands that ignore this rapidly growing segment do so at their own peril.

The Social Enterprise: Social media in the enterprise is no longer just implementing a bunch of tools and ensuring your presence on social networks. The social enterprise goes one further, integrating social across all platforms of engagement, be it sales, marketing or service. Think less 'social for social’s sake', and focus more on social media as a business tool to facilitate communication, engagement and loyalty. Large B2B companies spent much of 2012 boarding the social media train, as the acquisitions of social startups by players such as Microsoft and Salesforce indicate.

Wherefore art thou, Google+?: It’s nearing on 18 months for Google+, and the stark reality is that while it has its niche, it just isn’t working. Not with all the resources and engineering at Google’s disposal can the internet giant crack social. Want more evidence? Look back at Google’s previous attempts – Buzz, Wave and Orkut.

Videos Work!: Getting your brand video to go viral may have been the elusive holy grail for most online marketers, but even for those that didnt, online video represented a huge opportunity this year. With broadband and 3G penetration levels rising, customers are no longer shy of engaging with your brand via rich video content.

Combine this with an ever-decreasing barrier of entry for the average person to quickly become a video-sharing ninja, and you’ll notice that in 2012, video quality (picture and sound) and entertainment quality rapidly increased across the board.

Brands like Red Bull crossed the fine line into entertainment channel territory, offering sports, TV, music and lifestyle content, all shared socially and linking back to the company’s website.

Tushar Kanwar, a self-confessed gizmo-holic, is a Bengaluru-based technology freelancer, who's contributed to leading Indian tech publications for years.

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Keep The Change This is beginning to get funny. On one hand, from childhood, they are saying ki 'change is coming change is coming, you must be geared to face the change' etc etc. On the other hand, there are these worst fellows who are saying ki ‘Oh tradition is getting spoilt. We must not let things change!' etc etc. Relax boss, both of you. Let me tell you something. From the childhood till today, we are waiting, but where is the change? After school they said college. Professor replaced teacher. After college they said work.

Boss replaced professor. Then after first job. Worst boss replaced better boss.

And then we even tried changing jobs and all, but… no way. Nothing is changing. First we are looking at our parents and thinking ki, no way I am going to be like that. I am going to change everything around me and remove all the imperfections and make this a better place to live and all that. Home state, mother-tongue (that too if you are migrant means that’s total hatred for the mother-tongue only), religion, caste etc everything we will ridicule when we are young.

First opposition we will put is, total ridicule of the arranged marriage. All the friends will even agree ki it is ‘such a lame concept’ and all that. And yet, when you grow up these matrimony websites are having millions of registered accounts, that too operated by the parents only. Ok leave it, this people are doing out of parents’ compulsion and so not doing it voluntarily. But after this only change will start changing. From the baby days, we are looking for change, but when you go to a new country or a new place, you want to go to a restaurant that serves you homely food in a ‘traditional manner’ it seems. Boss, you only wanted change no? Then take it! While at home, nobody wanted to be a part of the festival ritual. On festival holidays, you will run away to play cricket instead

The Local Tea Party

of staying with the family and then when you are away from home, you are missing home and you want to take part in all the rituals. But best moment of revelation comes when suddenly, from being the most boring dish, curd rice becomes the ‘best dish in the whole world!!!!!’.

Add one more statement like ‘tender coconut is the coolest drink ever!’ and any talk of ‘permanent change’ is a myth. You could have pretended you hated your mother-tongue when you were young and spoken only in English with your family people and all, but suddenly you will be feeling attachment to some guy from your state who has done something proud for the country (like winning Olympics or securing a H1B or securing a train ticket using IRCTC website). Then suddenly 'languagereligion' or 'language-caste' becomes a cool word and you will even put it in all your profile descriptions, along with your favourite traditional food item. Now that’s it. Flood gates are open. To hell with change.

Ladies will start dressing exactly like how their mother was dressing. Best is gents. Hair colour and hair style will change but the amount of hair on head will be just like that on the father. You are thinking you are different because you are more adventurous and left home to work somewhere, but sorry boss, father also did exactly the same thing when he was young. Father went to office without tucking in the shirt and went in Sandals.

We are wearing shoes and tie and all and doing the same. Father used real pens and real files. We are using keyboard and computer files. That’s all. Everything else is the same. Before you realise, this mysterious thing called ‘change’ is nowhere to be seen. And we are sitting and wondering how we are having a culture that is many centuries old. ( Read More: http://thelocalteaparty.com/)

PLATFORM JAI ARJUN SINGH | Author, Blogger

Bollywood sings a new tune The Hindi film industry shows signs of change and a growing maturity

THERE IS A fleeting moment in one

of the finest Hindi films of this year, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar, which almost cries out for subtextual analysis. The title character—once an upbeat army man and athlete proudly serving his country, but now a baaghi driven to a life outside the law—is nearing the end of his personal race. This section of the story is set in 1980, and on a transistor belonging to the policemen pursuing Paan Singh we hear the news about the death of actress Nargis.

Given the film’s larger themes, it is reasonable to wonder if this scene is an allusion to Nargis’s most famous role: does it reflect the end of the Mother India ideal for the film’s embittered protagonist?

If so, it would be in keeping with this film’s subtle, plaintive tone.

Though Paan Singh Tomar is based on a real-life tale that has the resonance of a Shakespearean tragedy, it doesn’t strain self-consciously to be one. There are no grand epiphanies—it stays in the moment, and there is a understatement in scenes that could easily have been over-

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played. Clearly, our modes of storytelling have been changing.

Mainstream Hindi cinema has always been full of stories about the disaffection of the wronged individual with the System, or with the nation state, but such narratives tended to be presented in dramatic terms, accompanied by flashes of over-expository declaiming. Paan Singh Tomar does have scenes such as the one where our hero remarks that apart from the Army everyone in the country is a thief, but they are handled with restraint—not least thanks to Irfan Khan’s brilliantly measured performance.

In fact, the better, more provocative Hindi films of 2012 have shown unusual maturity in dealing with such subjects as patriotism, national integration and the idea of India.

If Dhulia’s film tells the story of an individual and his times, the claustrophobic gloom of Dibakar Banerjee’s Shanghai gives expression to a number of different stories—adding up to a tightly-knit comment on the aspirations and power struggles that brush against each other in a

ABOUT THE WRITER Jai Arjun Singh is a New Delhibased freelance writer-cumjournalist. He has written for Yahoo!

India, Business Standard, The Hindu, The Man, Tehelka, Outlook Traveler, The Sunday Guardian and The Hindustan Times. His book about the making of the cult film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro was published by Harper Collins. He has also edited The Popcorn Essayists: What Movies Do to Writers, an anthology of film-related essays for Tranquebar. He writes a blog called Jabberwock

many-layered society. The film’s protagonists include a lower-class man who fantasises about a job where he might one day get to wear a tie as well as a privileged man in a high-profile job who loosens his own tie every opportunity he gets; such polarities and contrasts can be seen elsewhere in the story too.

In some ways, Shanghai is a “non-Bollywood” film. It has the self-consciously stygian look of a contemporary noir movie—it even makes Mumbai’s busy nightlife seem sinister in a way that has rarely been achieved in our cinema before. (During an interview, the film’s cinematographer Nikos Andritsakis told me that this was how he experienced the city when he first arrived in it.) And it is adapted from a Greek novel, Z, which was about a very specific political context. But Banerjee and his co-writer Urmi Juvekar have done a thoughtful job of fitting it to the contemporary Indian situation—this is a depiction of a world where there is no lasting solution to the hegemony of power, where underprivileged people unwittingly participate in

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their own exploitation, and the rich marginalise the poor while indulging the hubris of turning Mumbai into a glistening “Shanghai”.

Trying to keep your equilibrium, turning your face away from injustice until your conscience no longer lets you...these are repeated motifs in this film, and they are reflected in its ending. The bureaucrat Krishnan (played by Abhay Deol) does something that in a more simple-minded film might result in the summary cleaning up of the political order, but here we see that nothing has really changed. So, is Shanghai a cynical film? Banerjee himself sees it as an ode to individual conscience in a harsh world, while Juvekar told me during a recent conversation that they didn’t want to tie up loose ends and provide the audience any false comfort. No wonder the film, even as it was widely acclaimed, left so many viewers with an uncomfortable, unresolved feeling.

Other major films of the year don’t deal explicitly with “national issues”, but they do reflect an increasing willingness by Bollywood to visit places that are not often charted. The authenticity of the hinterland depiction in Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur has been called into question, but there is no doubting the film’s ability to establish the mood of a very particular setting; while the bulk of the action is in Dhan-

The better, more provocative Hindi films of 2012 have shown maturity in dealing with patriotism, national integration and the Idea of India... showing the aspirations and power struggles that brush against each other in a many-layered society.” bad, there are also two scenes set in Varanasi, revealing—with typical Kashyapian humour—an incongruously sinister side to one of our holiest towns. Meanwhile, Sujoy Ghosh’s fine thriller Kahaani—in which a pregnant woman comes up against a calculating IB officer as she tries to find her missing husband—made excellent, atypical use of Kolkata as a setting, and even provided solid roles to the popular Bengali actors Parambrata Chatterjee and Saswata Chatterjee (as well as a supporting part for the veteran Dhritaman Chatterjee, who was such an arresting presence 40 years ago in Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi).

Bengali characters also featured in cute takes on inter-community relationships in two of the year’s warmest “little” films. In a charming scene in Shoojit Sircar’s Vicky Donor, a Bengali girl hums a few notes of Rabindrasangeet to her Punjabi boyfriend; they are in a car somewhere between Lajpat Nagar and Chittaranjan Park (two south Delhi colonies located near each other in physical space, but traditionally the

bastions of very different communities), and the scene is an important bonding moment in a romance between two people who hail from different universes. And there is an interestingly similar moment near the end of Sameer Sharma’s Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana, where a young Punjabi man serenades his lover with a Bengali song in the presence of his startled family, who can’t even make sense of what they are hearing. The scene feels a bit like cultural stereotyping at first (“Punjabis masculine, Bengalis effeminate”) but the film is clearly on the side of the young lovers, so it works well.

In any case, both Vicky Donor and Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana overturn the conventional tropes of “Punjabiyat” and allow us to see their characters as individuals rather than as representations of groups. And perhaps, in the final analysis, that is the best way to make a film about the many colliding realities of a complex country. Bollywood has certainly succeeded in doing this in the past 12 months. (The opinions expressed in this column are of the author alone)

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looking back \\ NANDITA DA S

FROM THE

DIRECTOR’S CHAIR Nandita Das talks of stories that touch hearts and minds

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looking back NANDITA DA S //

DOSSIER

NAME: Nandita Das PROFESSION: Actor, writer, director, chairperson of Children's Film Society of India BORN: 1969 DIRECTORIAL DEBUT: Firaaq

I

came into acting by default and my human rights background must have influenced my choices in the acting work that I took.

For me, in many ways the trans­ition from actor to director was a natural progression. It was always exciting to watch the rest of the crew work towards shaping a scene. Often, I would get involved with suggestions or just ask questions. Slowly the desire to tell stories the way I wanted to started growing stronger.

I grew up in a creative family (my mother is a writer and father an artist) must have acted as an impetus. My home environment helped shape my ethos, ethics, sensibility and outlook towards life in general.

My father has had a deep influence on me and my choices. Right from the beginning he encouraged me to question everything and gave me the freedom to explore, to follow my heart. He laid a lot of emphasis on core values like honesty, equality and sensitivity. I was reminded so often to question my motivations and my actions that it has almost become a habit to do a reality check in every situation. Today, if I have been able to keep my feet firmly on the ground, my head on my shoulders and my heart in its right place, then it has a lot to do with my upbringing.

I got into films as an actor by default too. I did my Master’s in social work and then went on to work with NGOs. The experience of being exposed to the many realities of life was bound to impact my choices in films both consciously and instinctively. There is no career graph as there is no real strategy or plan to the way my life has unfolded. Social work is what I did much before I got into acting, so for me it was the other way around. Throughout my career I have been instinctively anchored towards projects that I can relate to, that have resonated with my interests, concerns and dilemma. Having said that, there have been films that did not turn

“If I have been able to keep my feet on the ground, my head on my shoulders and my heart in its right place, then it has a lot to do with my upbringing...I have been anchored towards projects I can relate to” out the way I had imagined them to. Despite that, I am happy that at least I made a choice for honest reasons. Whenever I select a project I look for a strong script, a director who can translate that into an interesting cinematic experience, and a role that is layered and believable.

Often, all these things don’t come together as there are many factors involved in film-making. But when they do, it is a fulfilling experience.

Recently, I have finished shooting for a Tamil and a Hindi film. I consciously took projects that did not require more than a week’s commitment, but they were both powerful stories.

Chhoti Productions was conceived by my husband, Subodh (Maskara) and I, to provide an outlet for our creative ideas. Chhoti is the vehicle through which we hope to express ourselves in the Performing Arts.

Our endeavour is to bring quality Performing Arts to audiences in the country and beyond. From the time I have known my husband Subodh, I have seen how comfortable and creative he is when he is narrating

stories or mimicking people. He has a natural flair for performance. But most importantly, his passion and commitment to theatre and his new life of creativity is what gave me the confidence that he would be a great partner on stage. As a producer, I had no doubts at all as he has been an entrepreneur for a long time now. I saw him growing through the workshop experiences with Waman Kendre and Mahesh Dattani. He had been an inherent part of our writing journey as well, and therefore feels close to the script. Every day during our rehearsals and shows of the play, I have seen him getting closer to the character he is playing!

Firaaq is an Urdu word that means both separation and quest. Set in the context of the aftermath of a communal riot in Gujarat, Firaaq is a work of fiction, based on a thousand happenings. It traces the emotional journeys of ‘ordinary people’ — some who were victims, some perpetrators and some who chose to watch silently.

It is through their journeys that we experience the explicit and implicit impact of violence, and the desperate desire for peace. It also had to do with waking up to newspapers with stories full of violence; having conversations about religion and identity and soon finding oneself in a very polarised debate; meeting victims of violence and seeing their vacant helpless eyes; feeling deeply disturbed by the constant ‘them and us’ from all quarters...Firaaq is a reaction to all that and more. On a more optimistic note, during my many travels and interactions, I have sensed a collective desire to understand this complex and violent world we inhabit and a palpable need for peace. I think Firaaq reflects these complex thoughts and touches the hearts and minds of those who watch it.

During the process of writing the script, many stories, comments and events inspired us and at times found their way into the screenplay.

The long gestation period was good

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looking back \\ NANDITA DA S

Super Mom: ‘Women are forced to be great multi-taskers’

Next on the Screen: Are a Tamil and a Hindi film

for the script because it allowed stories to breathe and our characters to grow in a more organic manner, making the script more layered, relevant and interesting.

This is a work of fiction, based on a thousand true stories. There were actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Raghubir Yadav and Deepti Naval who I had thought would be perfect at the scripting stage. There were some who I had wanted to cast, but for different reasons we couldn’t work together. The journey of finding the rest of the cast has also been very exciting. I am also happy to have found extremely talented actors like Sanjay Suri, Shahana Goswami, Nowaz, Tisca Chopra and many others who have given their best to the film. The journey of making Firaaq has been an all-consuming, but also cathartic experience.

At any given point, hundreds of factors need to be dealt with and many simultaneous decisions have to be made. I am really glad that the film got made against all odds. But I have enjoyed every phase of film making, with all its challenges, big and small. And I am grateful to all those who had faith in me and in the story I so wanted to tell.

My last three years have been hectic, as a new mother and the chair-

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person of the Children’s Film Society.

Direction requires a lot more time and focus, and is therefore something that I can look into only once our play, Between The Lines, is over.

Perhaps early next year I will start exploring some of my other ideas.

As the Chairperson of the Children’s Film Society of India, I found my work both daunting and rewarding. It was an opportunity to make a difference, to try out something new and explore yet another area of interest. I tried to make systemic changes that will last beyond my tenure.

Today, children are growing up on a completely different diet and we cannot stop that. But we can certainly provide an alternative. There aren’t too many takers in terms of distribution, as they prefer family entertainers as opposed to films made specifically for children, despite the fact that kids form a huge part of the audience. There is a real dearth of quality content that provides wholesome entertainment to children.

Children form a huge film audience the world over. I wonder why we have not explored this segment enough. In India, economics gets in the way of everything, more so filmmaking. Because of that, people often do not want to take a chance.

However, it is possible to make low

FACT FILE SHE HAS been awarded the Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France for her work

or medium-budget films that are strong in content and form, do not compromise the ideals and are a lot of fun. Unfortunately, our films for children are either preachy and boring, or fluffy and sometimes even violent. The reality shows are putting a lot of pressure on children, which can be very harmful for their emotional growth.

As for motherhood, women are forced to be great multi-taskers, thanks to all the different things they end up doing. We are forced to be good at it! Honestly, juggling roles has been challenging. I will continue to travel the journey of life with multiple interests and concerns, and thankfully without the pressure of proving myself or fearing the consequences. I care deeply about issues concerning women and much of my work, be it acting, writing, directing or speaking, is about advocating these concerns. It is all half a drop in the ocean, but we all need to do our little bit. I have seen that there is always time for what one really wants to do. Whatever is a priority comes to the forefront and the rest takes a back seat. Sometimes other things go on the back burner and resurface later. During Firaaq that was my focus, now it’s Chhoti Productions and, of course, Vihaan, who has made me introspective, other than filling me with a lot of joy.

(As told to Rohini Banerjee)

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A CLOSER LOOK AT HOMOSE XUALIT Y //

issue | a closer look at homosexuality

Pride and Prejudice: The LGBT Debate Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin became the first gay senator in the recently held elections in the United States. She has made history of a sort in a country which has been debated long and hard about giving equal representation to people of an alternative sexuality. In contrast India, which has a long civilisational history, lives in denial of its own past. Homosexuality is not a new concept for the subcontinent—even the Vedas refer to same gender sex BY SANJAY KUMAR

FACT FILE

DELHI HIGH Court

Judgement: An Extract "IN OUR view, Indian

constitutional law does not permit the statutory criminal law to be held captive by the popular misconception of who LGBTs are. It cannot be forgotten that discrimination is the antithesis of equality and that it is the recognition of equality which will foster dignity of every individual."

— Chief Justice A P Shah

A recent book, Same Sex Love, by Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai traces the history of homosexuality in the Indian subcontinent throughout the ages. What they come out with are revealing insights for those who condemn homosexuals in the name of protecting Indian culture and civilisation. The book says, “Our study suggests that at most times and places in pre-nineteenth-century India, love between women and between men, even when disapproved of, was not actively persecuted. As far as we know, no one has ever been executed for homosexuality in India”.

In the Manusmriti there are references to punishments like loss of caste, heavy monetary fines and strokes of the whip for gay and lesbian behavior.

Such references point to the tensions in the norms of compulsory heterosexuality prescribed by Brahmanical thought. Both sexual systems coexisted, despite fluctuations in relative repression and freedom, until British Colonialism, when the destruction of images of homosexual and sexual expression in general became more systematic and blatant.

The last century witnessed major changes in the attitude to homosexuality. Since 1974, homosexuality ceased to be considered abnormal behaviour and its

classification as a mental disorder was removed. It was also decriminalised in different countries. Since then, various countries have enacted anti-discriminatory or equal opportunity laws to protect the rights of gays and lesbians. In 1994, South Africa became the first nation to constitutionally safeguard the rights of lesbians and gays. Canada, France, Luxembourg, Holland, Slovenia, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand also have similar laws. In 1996, the US Supreme Court ordered that no state could pass legislation that discriminated against homosexuals. In India, so far no such progressive changes have taken place and homosexuals remain victims of violence in different forms, supported by the state and society.

However, in a landmark judgment in 2009, the Delhi High Court legalised gay sex among consenting adults, holding that the law making it a criminal offence violates fundamental rights. But despite the Court ruling, not much has changed on the legislative and societal front, though opposition to gay rights is becoming less vocal. To speak in favour of LGBT rights is Danish Sheikh, a homosexual and active promoter of sexual rights. In opposition is BP Singhal, Hindutva ideologue and retired IPS officer.

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\\ A CLOSER LOOK AT HOMOSE XUALIT Y

DANISH SHEIKH Legal Researcher

Danish Sheikh is a legal researcher working at the Alternative Law Forum in Bangalore, on research and advocacy of sexual minorities rights, free speech and copyright law. He graduated with a B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad DANISH SHEIKH // The personal tends to

conflate with the political when it comes to LGBT activism, and one part of this for me is simply being out as a gay man. I find it important to weave my identity into discussions about marginalisation, as I feel the biggest fight that we’re waging is that of invisibility, which can only be countered by putting a personal face on the stories of harassment and abuse.

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalises ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’. These words have been interpreted to include homosexual intercourse by a number of High Court decisions, and thus cast a shadow of criminality on the LGBT community in India. With the Delhi High Court’s Naz Foundation judgment of 2009, Section 377 was read down

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to exclude consensual sexual intercourse between adults, effectively decriminalising homosexuality in India. Soon after this judgment, an appeal was filed in the Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court heard arguments on the matter early this year and has reserved the case for judgment.

Today, even if we have a law which is in our favour, we are yet to receive societal acceptance. Part of it is based on our negative stance towards sexuality, where any expression of sexual desire outside the bounds of heterosexual marriage is frowned upon. The LGBT community simply reflects the furthest extreme from this normative ideal. The existence of alternate gender and sexuality also poses a challenge to dominant ideals of masculinity and patriarchy. More than anything, I believe the discrimination

is based on a lack of information/ interaction with the LGBT community, which allows people to foster prejudices which go unchallenged. Whether it be a higher risk of HIV/AIDS due to lack of access to safe spaces and awareness, economic marginalisation of the hijra community due to the stigma faced by them, or issues of harassment at the workplace, the issues are all tied in to social prejudice.

However, things are slowly changing. And the media has played a very important role in outing homosexuality through their positive coverage, particularly at the time of the Naz Foundation judgment and in reporting on Pride marches in different cities. At the same time, there have been instances like the TV9 Hyderabad broadcast where the channel outed a number of closeted gay men on a prime-time broadcast. In that case, TV9 was censured by the News Broadcasting Standards Authority and asked to pay a fine, along with issuing a public apology. While the media has been vocal, I would say that the larger political parties are mostly silent on the matter.

Recently, Tammy Baldwin became the first gay senator in the US. In India, we’ve had instances of members of the hijra (eunuch) community stand for election and even win.

But when it comes to homosexuality, there is zero visibility in the political sphere. I do believe it is largely a question of time more than anything else. The LGBT movement in India has progressed at a remarkable pace and I don’t think it will be too long before we find an openly homosexual person contesting elections.

The one section of society where getting acceptance won’t be easy is the religious circle. I think the LGBT movement will require some amount of active engagement with religious groups to the extent of finding spaces within religion for accepting difference. These are movements that have progressed with some success in places like South Africa and the United States, where you have religious groups opening up spaces for homosexuality in their midst. In India no such thing has happened yet, but with constant effort and interaction it might become a reality some day.

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A CLOSER LOOK AT HOMOSE XUALIT Y //

Bharatendu Prakash Singhal Former IPS Officer BHARATENDU PRAKASH SINGHAL // Section

377 of the Indian Constitution is nothing but a paper tiger. On paper, it inhibits people from freely becoming homosexuals but it has never been an easy law to implement.

For implementation of any criminal law you need a complainant and a witness—sodomy is being conducted in closed rooms and neither party will complain because it’s a mutual consent matter. Moreover, Sec 377 does not refer to lesbians, because it specifies that penetration has to take place. The major issue is that you can’t even fight the cause properly. In my 35 years in the IPS, I never saw a single case registered under 377 and no case of police harassment.

I am aware of the arguments made in favour of ‘gay rights’. They say that gays feel that their desire, their very existence, is being criminalised. I ask them, what do such people have to say about adultery between consenting adults? Homosexuals have also been transcending the law. How can you differentiate between the violation of one law and another? If you talk of consenting adults, why should gambling be an offence? What’s wrong with sati if a devout wife wants to commit it? The whole question is about social morals.

I say public morality, and not Constitutional morality, because the Constitution so far has not been able to act against the crimes of homosexuality. And if the Constitution is lacking in enforcing public morality then there is something wrong with it. The Constitution prescribes not just fundamental rights but also duties, including preserving your culture. Moreover, you cannot possibly ignore public opinion; and a majority of the people have a problem with homosexual behaviour. In India most people have normal sexual behaviour and by legalising a behaviour which is not popular you are going against the masses.

Do not think that I am unaware of the mentions of homosexual behaviour in our scriptures, but even they have talked about punishments to be given for such practices.

When Manu has prescribed a punishment

ages ago, you can’t play fraud by saying that it’s a Victorian notion.

There was a survey by Wikipedia in 2004 of 44 countries asking if they would like this to be an offence. 83 per cent in India wanted it to be! It is not in the nature of Indians to have homosexual behaviour. Whatever you are seeing is an imposition from the west. Why do you think the noise to decriminalise homosexuality is emerging now?

It’s because the market is open, we are more exposed to the western ways of life and as a result we are getting corrupted.

Don’t get me wrong.

I don’t have any problem with homosexuals. Homosexuality has existed since the beginning of time. But it doesn’t mean it’s a healthy thing. The Center of Disease Control in the US has done a study on how homosexuality breeds diseases. Besides, it’s completely unnatural. We are fighting to preserve nature and those who oppose us want to legalise abnormal behaviour. I feel homosexuality is a crime against humanity.

The talk about police harassment and public persecution is all bogus. I have personally asked people for examples. Though they said there were many cases but the only example they ever had was that of Lucknow in 2001. I will tell you what happened.

When the police raided this place in Lucknow, they were just boys there who were ‘supposed’ to be doing HIV-AIDS awareness work, teaching gay men about the use of condoms, etc. But if you see the recovery memo, it has video cassettes where you can explicitly see sodomy taking place. They were there to promote homosexuality. No condom was found; it was a gay orgy.

Bharatendu Prakash Singhal is a Hindutva ideologue, a retired IPS officer and a former BJP parliamentarian.

He is a vocal critic of homosexuality and a fierce opponent of the decriminalisation of gay sex by the Delhi High Court. He has appealed against the decision in the Supreme Court Homosexuality is best left ignored. Those who want to indulge in unnatural sex can do so in their homes, as has been happening for centuries. We don’t need to cite the instances from the western countries to justify such criminality. We should stick to our culture—one can be liberal and enlightened without recognising homosexuality.

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PLATFORM ASHOK MALIK | Journalist

Narendra Modi Here to Stay The kudos

are slowly piling up for the leader of a ‘Vibrant Gujarat’

ON DECEMBER 20, Narendra Modi is

widely expected to lead the BJP to a third successive election victory in Gujarat. The state’s prodigious economic success in the past decade and the administrative efficiency and transparency of the Modi government, are now impossible to deny.

This has led to a rethinking in diplomatic circles as well.

A few weeks ago, the United Kingdom announced it would resume official contact with the chief minister of Gujarat and that the British high commissioner in India would travel to Gandhinagar to call on Modi. This ended an awkward interval. Following the Gujarat violence of 2002, certain diplomatic missions had seemed to lose the distinction between being neutral observers and participants in domestic political debates. In the case of the British High Commission, for instance, an internal report relating to an assessment of the violence in Gujarat was deliberately leaked to the Indian media. Over three years, from 2002 to 2005, a whole bloc of Western

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countries sought to boycott Modi and refuse him visas, or discourage him from visiting without explicitly denying him a visa. The most egregious case came in March 2005, when the United States cancelled Modi’s visa and refused to allow him to address a conference of the Gujarati diaspora.

That decision by the Americans was actually preceded by vigorous argument. Professional diplomats in both New Delhi and the State Department were opposed to the decision to declare Modi persona non grata. They pointed out there was unlikely to be any charge of an act of commission against him. They were only likely to be accusations of acts of omission, and it would be impossible to prove these were deliberate, if they were recognised as having occurred in the first place. That aside, it was the job of diplomats to engage all sections of political opinion and not exclude one group or the other.

That counsel proved completely correct in the long run. In 2005, however, it was ignored by recent political

Author

Ashok Malik has been a political journalist for over 20 years.

He is now an independent columnist living in New Delhi and writing for a variety of publications, both in India and internationally.

His area of focus is India’s political economy and foreign policy and their increasing intersection

recruits to the South Asia Bureau of the State Department. They also believed that pushing Modi to the ropes would not just destroy his political career but also lead to the newlyelected UPA Government being grateful to Washington, DC. This too was an erroneous assumption. To be fair to him, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh criticised the US for seeking to anticipate the due process of law in India and sought a revocation of the travel ban imposed on Modi.

That aside, the perception of at least one official in the State Department — she was critical to the Modi decision — that a black certificate from Uncle Sam would make the Gujarat politician unpalatable to Indian voters turned out to be nonsense.

Gradually, as Modi altered the discourse in Gujarat and made it even more of an economic powerhouse, the chatter in Chanakyapuri began to change. Previous British high commissioners had hinted at the frustrating nature of the ban on engagement with Modi, even as British companies

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A SHOK MALIK //

The issue goes beyond Modi.

To acquiesce in his judgement and conviction by foreign diplomats rather than the Indian legal system would have been very damaging”

were rushing to solicit business. Aside from some naysayers within the British system itself — particularly MPs bothered about ethnic Pakistani voters in their constituencies — the British were constrained by their association with the European Union, which had adopted a hard line on Gujarat.

The mood turned as it became clear that Modi was here to stay. In January 2011, Japan was the partner country at the Vibrant Gujarat business event and Ron Somers, president of the United States India Business Council, said he hoped the US would be the partner country for Vibrant Gujarat in 2013. It was obvious the US was looking for an appropriate opportunity to pull itself out of a self-created problem. The Australians too upgraded engagement with Mr Modi, as have a few EU countries.

What has helped, of course, is the Special Investigative Team’s report exonerating Modi from any role in the 2002 violence. The fact that multiple police investigations, including one directed and monitored by India’s

Supreme Court, have completely cleared Modi makes it easier for western governments to walk away from a maximalist position. In the coming months one can expect a drawing back from the State Department. One by one, the EU members will also crumble. Many of them already have a strong business relationship with Gujarat. Indeed, in recent years, individual politicians from many countries, including national legislators, have visited Gujarat and promised to work for better relations. Modi has not been without his advocates.

Softer issues like human rights and civil liberties are becoming part of diplomatic discourse, and justifiably so. Even so, a diplomat needs to be a hardnosed animal. He must promote his country’s interests and have the clear-headedness to tell exaggeration from cold fact. This calls for maturity that unfortunately some diplomats of 2002-2005 just did not show. They were keener to appear on the right side of interested busybodies in New Delhi than make a legitimate apprais-

al of the political and social conditions in Gujarat. The issue goes beyond Modi and whether or not he becomes prime minister. To acquiesce in his judgement and conviction by foreign diplomats — rather than the Indian legal system and, more importantly, the Indian people — would have been very damaging for this country’s standing.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was both chief minister as well as home minister when the SingurNandigram violence took place in West Bengal. It was triggered by the brutal CPI(M) cadre and assisted by biased police action. There were enough civil-rights groups who wanted Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, prosecuted for hunting down Maoist insurgents. Their guilt — if any — is for India to sort out.

It is not for a foreign visa officer to arrogate to himself the role of moral ombudsman.

(All views expressed in this column are of the author)

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good karma \\ TRIBAL WE AVE

Mentor FOUNDER’S NAME: Sentila Yanger ABOUT: Sentila Yanger is an Ao-Naga, one of the 16 tribes that constitute Nagaland ORGANISATION: Tribal Weave, founded in 1998

A STITCH IN TIME

Sentila Yanger and her team at Tribal Weave are trying to spin a dream for the people of the Northeast

BY MANJIRI INDURKAR

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good karma TRIBAL WE AVE //

The first time that one heard of Sentila

Yanger was in 2008, when she was honoured with the Padma Shri. The fourth-highest civilian honour in India was bestowed upon her for her untiring efforts to revive the crafts of the Northeast and bring about a change in the lives of the craftspeople living there. Truth be told, even today, many of us do not know who Yanger is or what her organisation—Tribal Weave, which was started in 1989— has been doing for the Northeast.

Most Indian and international fashionistas have an item or two in their closets which have been sourced from the eastern side of the Himalayas. Those who frequent the markets at Paharganj (Delhi) or Fashion Street (Mumbai) will find it hard to believe that the traditional crafts of the Northeast were once fast disappearing. “Now these items are a rage in both the national and international markets and have been so for the past few years,” says a content Yanger.

She has every reason to be pleased—it is because of the hard work put in by her and her team that these accessories, textiles and artefacts, so popular and readily available today, reached the markets. Ironically, these omnipresent popular crafts were not to be seen, even in the Northeast, during the years she was growing up. “One time, I was at my grandmother’s house in Nagaland spending my vacations. Some of her friends dropped by carrying a material. I saw the fabric and yelled ‘jeans’!” Denim, one of the most popular fabrics for young people today, was a rarity in those days. It was thus inevitable that the young Yanger got all excited about it. Yanger’s grandmother gently informed the excited girl that the fabric was not denim, but a more traditional textile dyed with natural indigo. “The fabric stayed with me,” says Yanger.

In the late 1980s, Yanger began to work with an NGO which fought substance abuse in the Northeast. It was then, when she regularly met people who had forgotten their traditional attire, that Yanger was reminded

of the magic fabric that looked like denim.

When she inquired about it, she came faceto-face with a sad reality—people had not even heard of the material. She realised that people had forgotten about their roots and culture. She met others who shared her concerns and they decided to do something - and so was born the idea for Tribal Weave.

Talking to DW, Yanger’s conversation moved across her diverse concerns. At one moment she would talk of fighting substance abuse—a still alarming issue in most parts of India—and in the next, she would talk about dying crafts in the same breath.

While working with families struggling to support an addict, Yanger realised that crafts could be an excellent medium to make communities more self-reliant, and help them move away from addiction.

Yanger started to take steps to rectify the situation. Her first act was to gather weavers under one roof and make them work in an organised fashion. “It was one difficult task,” admits Yanger. After all, the weavers she had gathered together were craftspeople who had quit their craft generations ago.

The few still continuing were doing so on their own, without direction in isolated pockets. Most were unaware of how to promote their craft. In fact, most of the time, the weavers and craftspeople were themselves unaware of the value of the craft.

They started with the women , who were brought under the Tribal Weave umbrella and given more specialised training in an effort to upgrade their skills.

To make exemplary products, they were provided with the fabric, yarn and material required. Then, the finished products were marketed and put up in exhibitions. When the world saw the exquisite accessories, it literally went mad. The first exhibition held

by Tribal Weave was a hit! The demand skyrocketed, and continues to do so.

However, do remember that Yanger was working in the Northeast—a region suffering years of neglect and riven with disputes.

In the thick of the brewing tension and growing anti-India sentiments, how did she manage to convince her people to come out and be a part of the mainstream? “It was an uphill task to organise everything but the ‘anti-India’ sentiment that you speak of was not a concern. Mainland India has got it all wrong. If any anti-India sentiments have been brewing, they are a by-product of the treatment Northeastern people have received in the rest of India. If anyone has been anti, it has been mainland India,” she says. Yanger had no problem in trying to convince the craftspeople to sell their products in the bigger markets.

The movement, if one may call it that, began by working with tribal women, but today men also have become active participants. “I have been able to impact the lives of the people in the region, I think this has been my biggest achievement so far,” says Yanger. And then, as an afterthought, adds that she was rather overwhelmed when she got the Padma Shri. “It was completely out of the blue, but it felt nice to be acknowledged,” she says. The busy woman that she is, she barely has time to sit back and reflect on awards and honours. As we are having this conversation, one can hear the honking of horns from the other end. She informs us that she is headed for another meeting and this was the only time she had been able to squeeze out for the interview. As we get ready to leave, I reflect on the fact that, had it not been for this industrious lady, the wonders of the Northeast would have been lost forever.

So, the next time you flaunt your accessory, whether it’s that cool necklace or the beaded bag, in front of your friends abroad, just remember to thank the fighter. She may not be asking for your appreciation, but she certainly deserves it.

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WARE

HOUSE

Our pick of the boldest, bravest and craziest gadgets. Glance through the Warehouse page and check them out. Happy hunting!

R2Q5 USB HUB $85.40

This is going to be a big hit with all Star Wars fans out there. If you haven’t lived under a rock all your life, hopefully the word R2D2 won’t fall on deaf ears—look up Wikipedia, for Pete’s sake. With the R2Q5—the darker version of R2D2—we have official memorabilia from the epic sci-fi fantasy which you can plug into your PC or laptop. What’s more, it blurts out lines from the movies, apart from providing four USB 2.0 ports on its torso. With the R2Q5 in your arsenal, waste no time and connect your gadgets to the Dark Side.

R2Q5 USB Hub

QUIKPOD In all honesty, the QuikPod is a great tool allowing people to take photographs of themselves without relying on someone’s help

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SANDISK READY CACHE SanDisk has announced a quick instal client SSD caching solution to boost PC performance at `3,759

warehouse

GADGE TS & GIZMOS //

GUN O’CLOCK $30 We’ve all thought of smashing the alarm clock (phone, tablet, etc.) for ruining our sleep. With Bandai’s Gun O’clock, you can channel that early sleep-deprived surge of anger to (literally) shoot at the interrupting clock! The clock has a bullseye on top of its case and a wireless plastic gun with which to hit an infrared beam at the clock. The simplest mode is one in which when the alarm goes off, you wake up, grab the gun and BANG! hit the target and the alarm dies; but the hardest mode expects you to hit the target five times and is, no doubt, a great way to wake up the heaviest sleepers.

HORSEY PRICE NOT YET ANNOUNCED

Who doesn’t like to accessorise the bicycle? But our idea of accessorising may not be as mind-numbingly ridiculous as this socalled horse contraption. Shortlisted for several design awards, Horsey is the brainchild of a Korean designer and is meant for riders who imagine themselves to be equestrians. In the designer’s words, “Horsey is an attachable bicycle ornament/ accessory which makes one’s bicycle look horsey! ”

GOATEESAVER

Good evening, Clarice. If you parade a goatee on your face, you’ll need to buy this. The product’s a GoateeSaver—saver, not shaver, we checked. $20

ACER ASPIRE S7

Acer launches its new Aspire S7 ultrabook flagship shipped with Windows8 and up to five hours of battery life—price not announced DECEMBER 2012

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PHOTOS BY PHOTOS.COM

Desert Retreat: An oasis at Chebika (left) in the Atlas Mountains. The mosaics at the Bardo (below) are relics of an older Roman Africa

Unique Geography Meets Ancient History Ancient cities, medieval markets and modern play-towns, Tunisia has them all in spades

BY LUBNA KHAN

W

here on earth is Tunisia? I learnt to quickly provide a one sentence answer to bemused friends as I prepared for my vacation. In North Africa, tucked between Algeria and Libya, along the southern Mediterranean. Yes, I would reassure them, it’s safe and very tourist-friendly, and no, I do not need to wear a head scarf while I am moving about the country.

I am a history buff—the kind who reads stories of ancient empires and titanic clashes of civilisations. I had day-dreamt of ancient Carthage, the challenger of mighty Rome, and after its defeat, the seat of Roman Africa. I love the sun and the sea, and lazing on a beach-side café. And North African cuisine with its meltingly rich couscous, and bitingly spicy harissa had always intrigued me. I was excited about a country that offered me this fabulous combination. And my mom—my partner in this adventure—was swept up in the excitement too. Tunis was our

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base for the first few days, as we explored the north.

The city itself is a harmonious mix of the old and the new—European style boulevards (Tunisia is a former French colony) with wrought-iron balconies, cafés and pâtisseries lead to the medina (the old walled city) with narrow winding lanes and chaotic markets. It also has a gem of a museum—The Bardo—filled with superb mosaics that adorned the luxurious villas of Roman Africa. The extraordinary collection at the Bardo was just the appetizer for our main course—the Roman ruins at Carthage, Dougga and El Djem. While the huge bath complex at Carthage gives you a glimpse into the lavish Roman lifestyle, you can actually feel

hitchhiker’s guide TUNISIA //

HIKER OF THE MONTH

it come alive as you walk down the streets of Dougga.

The city is one of the best preserved in Roman Africa— with carved temples, marbled baths, villas, marketplaces, a brothel and a 3,500-seat theatre. The hillside location also provides magnificent views of lush olive groves, fields of grain and dense forests. Finally, El Djem’s spectacular 3rd Century amphitheatre brought to mind every gladiator fight I had ever seen on the screen. You can still see the rooms and underground passages where predatory animals were kept before being released towards the waiting fighters, or where the unfortunate participants waited for their turn at a struggle with violent death. It’s also very rewarding to climb up to the upper seating levels and gaze down on the arena as you take in the scale and drama of the building. After stuffing our imagination with stories from the past, we stuffed ourselves with some delicious French-Arabic fusion food at charming Sidi Bou Said.

The chic, clifftop-based medieval village is filled with homes of the very wealthy—including Prince Albert of Monaco—set against the jaw-dropping backdrop of the azure Mediterranean coastline. Its gleaming white walls are a beautiful contrast to the bright blue of the window grills; the entire village is a symphony of blue and white. This is the place where painters like Paul Klee and August Macke were inspired to rethink their notions of light and colour. We spent some very happy hours winding our way through its cobbled streets.

We then shifted our base to the south. This is a landscape that’s filled with mountain oases, rocky outcrops, and at the very bottom, the sand dunes of the Sahara

An addiction to the unusual and the unexpected drives Lubna Khan's choice of travel destinations. Trained as a clinical psychologist, and currently, a communications strategist in an advertising agency, when she’s not exploring the world, she’s exploring the equally rich terrains of people's lives and minds.

Olive Country: (Above) A Bounty of olives in a medina marketplace (below) Selja gorges in southern Tunisia (right) Berber home in Matmata

desert. The indigenous people of Tunisia—the Berbers—have left their own imprint on this landscape with their underground troglodyte dwellings and distinct way of life. One of our most memorable moments was a visit to a Berber home in Matmata and drinking

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hitchhiker’s guide \\ TUNISIA

honeyed mint tea as we admired the weaving skills of the lady of the house. The landscape of the region looks bleak and alien—so much so, that it was chosen as the locale for portions of the Star Wars movies.

On the southwest side of the country lie the Atlas Mountains—an opportunity to enjoy magnificent gorges, canyons and lush oases in the middle of nowhere. A restored wooden train called the Red Lizard, once owned by the last king of Tunisia, takes you through the narrow Selja gorges and some truly breath-taking scenery. You can also take a jeep safari up into the oases of Chebika and Tamerza and enjoy beautiful waterfalls on the way. The contemporary villages are built near the old picturesque settlements, places that were abandoned some decades ago due to catastrophic flooding in the region. And on the southern end lies the endless undulating expanse of the Sahara desert—from barren rock and pebbled ground to giant sand dunes higher than a man’s height. A journey out to the desert on the back of camel is an experience to be savoured. And then, if you are lucky enough to be based in Douz, you can come back to your hotel and relax your aching limbs in steaming mineral pools common in that area. No journey in Tunisia is complete without a trip to the holy city of Kairouan. The 7th century Great Mosque is the oldest in North Africa—and built with a spare yet elegant simplicity that soothes and elevates at the same time.

Another noteworthy building is the Tomb of Sidi Sahab, decorated with intricately carved marble and stunningly coloured and patterned tiles. Tunisia has a rich tradition of moderate Islam, so visitors of all faiths are welcome into the buildings.

Our last stop was Hammamet, the playground of Tunisia, where we spent some time relaxi n g a n d wa s h i n g away the accumulated fatigue of some

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Ancient Bounty: The ruins and some well-preserved buildings in Tunisia hark back to a time rich in history

TUNISIA TIT-BIT

Drama Steps:

Amphitheatre at El Djem

Bright Welcome:

Colourful hammam doors in Hammamet

Stencilled Bowls: Try to bring a bit of the country back home

hectic days. Endless stretches of pristine beaches are surrounded by charming restaurants and cafes where you can while away a lazy afternoon before revving yourself, if you are so inclined, with a variety of water sports. There are also plenty of opportunities to buy Tunisian carpets, metalwork, organic products, very high quality dates and some richly delicious oliveoil. Surprising, endlessly changing and filled with warmth—Tunisia is one place that satisfies both the mind and the soul. Spring and autumn are the best times to visit. That is when the weather is pleasantly sunny, and the foliage lush and cheerful.

BROAD CANVAS Steel on Canvas : Part of the Still Steal Steel series

A Force of Nature

Subodh Gupta talks about good art, the clever artist and creative independence

BY ROHINI BANERJEE

I

t is ominous when an interviewee refuses to answer the first question that is put to him. It is even more so when he in fact retorts, “Do you have anything interesting to talk about at all?” Obviously, we had to start over. A lot has been said and written about Subodh Gupta—an internationally renowned sculptor, painter and contemporary artist, whose works have been shown in most prestigious art galleries around the world.

The positive aspect of a lot of information floating around on the internet is that it makes research easy. The not-so-good aspect is that it makes it harder for journalists to come up with new and fresh things to talk about. For an artist and man like Gupta, this might be boring. In fact, I am being understated. Answering the same questions makes Gupta downright furious.

Though he wishes to avoid the stereotypical label of the jhola toting, bearded artist, Gupta does fall into the volatile creative genius category. Like several members

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of his ilk (and I have had the fortune of meeting a handful), he is quick to lose his patience. However, his temper fizzles out just as quickly as it had risen and after the initial hitch, he opens up about his early life. He goes on to talk about his encounter with Russi Mody, the former Chairman and Managing Director of Tata Steel. The meeting with Mody took Gupta a year to plan and then execute, “When I was in Patna, a friend told me that Mody loved modern and contemporary art. He asked me to get in touch with him and show him some of my pieces.” That simple advice was easier said than done. It took a year-long hunt to find the right man to get to the right man. “I found a

broad canvas SUBODH GUPTA //

ARTIST OF THE MONTH

Tata Steel representative called Kishore Singh. After I pestered him for a long time, he agreed to introduce me to Mody. But it took several trips to Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Jamshedpur to finally get to meet the man. It was worth all the trouble. Mody not only encouraged me, but also bought three of my pieces.

That gave me the freedom to think about possibilities and to eventually move out of Bihar,” Gupta admits.

The money gave Gupta the option to move out of his hometown. However, the question remained— where to? After giving it some thought, Delhi seemed to be the natural choice for the man who was only a young college student at the time. The capital was “right”, he informs us, as it was neither too familiar like the friendly-neighbourhood town of Calcutta nor too “English-speaking” and alien like Bombay (now Mumbai). “Coming from Bihar, there were only two cities that excited me. On my left was Calcutta and on my right was Delhi. People in Delhi spoke in Hindi.

And I did not wish to join the legions of artists coming out of Bengal. I was doing completely different work, why would I wish to mould myself into something that I was not?” he says. He goes on to add, “For people of Bihar, Calcutta is familiar. It feels a lot like home. I wanted to get away from home.” Thus, Gupta arrived in his city of dreams and made it his home for nearly two decades.

Like with many good artists, Gupta’s rags-to-riches story began with a struggle. But far from being daunted by it, the young man from Khagaul in Bihar only found that it fuelled his drive to succeed. So indepen-

Subodh Gupta is a painter, sculptor, photographer, performer and installation artist. The 'most hard-working' artist of our times, he is considered to be a genius by the critics and connoisseurs alike. He is best known for incorporating everyday objects. A popular name in the national and international art circuit, his work has been shown in some of the world's most famous art galleries.

Tumble Upon: A grand installation of steel buckets

dent is he, in fact, that he disdains words like mentorship. “When we were struggling there was no one to help us. Why should we help somebody else today?” he asks. If it sounds like the question has come from a petulant child—have faith. What he means is that at the end of the day, with great struggle come great

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broad canvas \\ SUBODH GUPTA

rewards. And it’s not only about the money or the spellbound audience, but also about the knowledge that all of it was hard earned. As he explains, “There is always that possibility that the people you help, you actually end up hindering. It’s all right to be less known and struggling and finally emerge as an entity with your own unique signature, rather than be helped and then emerge as a photocopy of a muchbeloved senior artist.”

Gupta certainly practices what he preaches. The artist is known to have declined a job offer from the legendary M.F. Husain during his early days of struggle. Urban legend has it that Gupta, who was introduced to Husain by Urdu activist Kamna Prasad, was offered a job by the great artist to assist him in a few odd jobs and work on his art alongside. Gupta, to Prasad’s horror, politely declined the offer. Already impressed with Gupta’s art, Husain later told Prasad that he was “going to follow the boy.”

Today, the artist who is popularly known as the Damien Hirst of India has an artistic style that isintriguing and a bit eccentric. Buckets, tiffin boxes and cow dung - all are grist for his mill. I wanted to know what his technique was, how he gave shape to his ideas and came up with unusual art using many everyday objects. He informs me, “Technique is very important in art, no doubt about it. But the content of art and the subject of art trumps all other concerns such as training and technique. I am a multimedia artist and I use various techniques when I am working, which also includes the computer. I use traditional mediums such as canvas and paint. I perform on stage. What needs to be figured out is which piece of art demands which specific technique. For an artist, ideation is a 24X7 task. A good idea can come at any time. As an artist it is my job to think about an idea. If I am thinking all the time then I am working all the time. However, the process from the mind into material is not a smooth one. A great idea strikes and then there’s this euphoric feeling. The next morning I wake up and think ‘bakwas’. If you think of something for the longest time–us me kuchh bat hogi.”

This ‘24X7 approach’ is something that Gupta is well-known for. Various observers have dubbed him one of the ‘hardest working artists’ in India. While there is great demand for his work these days, Gupta kept up a relentless pace and churned out creations even when buyers were few and far between. All the effort paid off and sales of his work saw a meteoric rise when he was still in his thirties. Obviously, he had struck a chord with the buyers. Gupta is unapolo-

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ECCENTRIC ART

Untitled: Cow dung installation

The Inner View: An installation called 'Everything is inside'

Faith Matters—An installation of several tiffin boxes

getic in his belief that there is such a thing as a “clever artist”. “A clever artist is someone who identifies the right technique and looks within himself for the right idea. How clear you are with your thoughts and how well you execute them visually will ascertain whether you are a clever artist. Whether you are good or bad will happen later. Let’s say I have a fantastic idea and no clue how to execute it. Say, I have executed something brilliant most disastrously, once again it all becomes rubbish. Execution and idea need to go hand in hand.”

And where does the art audience fall into the equation? For Gupta, the viewer, the buyer and the aficionado are all a big part of the process. “Name an artist you know, who is a force to reckon with, and has chosen to remain anonymous. Why would you create anonymously? What is the purpose of art if it is not to be shared? Of course, I know that I will be showcasing my art. But am I creating that for others? The creation bit is all me.”

Naturally, Subodh Gupta is a clever artist—and if you ask art critics and connoisseurs, he is a great one.

So who does he believe to be great? Like most of his interview, there is no quick answer to this question either. But K.G. Subramanyan’s name is dropped ever so often. F.N. Souza, too, is mentioned in the conversation, as is M.F. Husain, the first artist to notice the tour-de-force which was soon to be Subodh Gupta.

STICKY

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SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF INDIA

When winter mood sets in, what one needs the most is a hot cup of tea, a warm blanket and some music.

While we have left the handling of the tea and blanket to you, the music is being arranged by the Symphony Orchestra of India. Formed in 2006, by the National Centre for Performing Arts, this is country's first fully professional symphony orchestra. Various local artists perform in the concert, while you get to hear world class music, they get a big platform to display their talent. The highlight of the concert this year is a special performance by the tabla maestro Zakir Hussain. Taking place in February 2013 at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, Mumbai, this is the place to be!

MUST ATTEND

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LISTEN

THE CRICKET WORLD CUP 2013

India is all set to host the Women's World Cup next year. If the men did it in 2011, the women will bring the cup home in 2013 (fingers crossed). Mumbai will be boiling hot with all the excitement as the matches will be played in the five stadiums of the city. This is the third time that India is hosting the mega tournament, having previously done so in 1978 and 1997. The Indian team's best performance so far has been the 2005 World Cup, where they were the Runners Up. But this time not only is the team better prepared, it also has the home advantage. With a little bit of luck in our favour, the cup will come home next year.