MARCH 2013 `25 Issue no. 16 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
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE
INTRODUCING VETERAN TRAVEL AND FOOD WRITER, MARRYAM RESHII PAGE 40
SWINGING THE VINE
TWO-BITS ABOUT THE LATEST TWITTER APP PAGE 20
Kite
The
Runner PLUS:
WAREHOUSE
A BRIEF CHAT WITH YASHWANT SINHA PAGE 12
ISSUE
GARNISH
FOREIGN DESPATCHES
EDIT ORIAL SONICA MALHOTRA KANDHARI | editorial@democraticworld.co.in
A Backpack of Reforms ALL EYES WERE on Finance Minister P. Chidambaram
INDIA BYTE
YASHWANT SINHA: "When India lend a helping hand to the emerging nation-state of Bangladesh, India’s stocks rose further globally. A nation, I believe deeply, has to be strong and confident in order to emerge"
when he presented the Budget 2013-2014 on February 28, 2013. There have been issues which have been in the foreground in the past year, and the FM and his team had issues that they could take credit for—allowing FDI in retail and civil aviation, and decontrolling fuel prices—albeit these issues were not a part of Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget Agenda. This Budget session started on a stormy note, with the Hyderabad blasts and Home Minister’s remarks about Bharatiya Janata Party disrupting sessions. The month-long session began with a customary address by President Pranab Mukherjee to the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. We hoped that the sessions would prove to be productive over time—after all it carried a heavy legislative agenda, including getting Parliament nod three ordinances, introduction of as many as 16 bills, consideration and passage of 35 Bills. I know that the aam admi was waiting with bated breath for the budget. Being one of the crowd, I hoped that the February Budget would bring some good news for us, the women. Come on Mister Finance Minister, we deserved it—it is after all our month in March when the world celebrates Women’s Day on March 8th. We are the people who buy goods being sold, who hold on tight to the purse strings. It was purely a matter of chance, that the man on our cover in this month, is one of the former Finance Ministers of India, Shree Yashwant Sinha. He is one
of the most high-profile FMs that India can boast of, greatly admired and equally criticised. We spoke less about business and more about matters of the heart. The man of substance left us truly impressed. Read about him on Page 12. Keeping with the matters of business and budget, we have interviewed the father-son duo Rakesh and Rohan Verma of MaymyIndia. We have added a twist to our Looking Back section this month and made our master entrepreneurs look back at the initial days of business. Do let us know what you think about it. Since we are all about celebrating women this month, it gives us great pleasure to introduce a new writer— Marryam Reshii is one of the most familiar names in the gastronomical and travel writing in India, and has been for the past 20 years. She has written for a slew of prestigious Indian and international magazines. As I said, surprise! She will be one of the travel columnists for Hitchhiker’s from this month. I hope that you have a good month, and for the men, celebrate the women that you have in your life. They deserve it!
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TOC
RAKESH AND ROHAN VERMA FATHER AND SON ENTREPRENEUR DUO LOOK BACK AT THE INITIAL DAYS OF MAYMYINDIA
THE PATHFINDERS
| MARCH
2 0 13
C O V E R DE S IGN B Y S A MEER K I SHOR E | P HOTO B Y SUBHOJIT PAUL
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
READ MORE ON PAGE 24
12 VIVEK BHANDARI
COVER STORY
12 | The Kite Runner
Former Finance Minister and BJP politician Yashwant Sinha talks of the world of administrative service, politics, inspirations and mentors
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
MARCH 2013
24 | SOURCES OF THE INDIAN SELF: Excavating India’s political foundations
SIDDHARTHA VAIDYANATHAN
28 | INDIAN CRICKET DOESN‘T OPERATE IN A VACUUM: It is a part of a society that discourages women from excelling in ‘male bastions’’
30 ISSUE
30 | IS SMALL, SIMPLER?
A closer look at the smaller states and do they solve the administrative problem? REGULARS
44
01| EDITORIAL 06 | UP-TO-DATE 10 | FOREIGN DESPATCHES 26 | LOOKING BACK 36 | READING ROOM 48 | STICKY NOTES
GARNISH
44 | Bite-sized China in Tanbdoori India Chef Liu Zhijun brings a bit of his homeland to India GOOD KARMA
WAREHOUSE
SOCIAL AGENDA
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE
34 | THE ‘FARMGURU’ OF INDIA Rikin Gandhi
38 | GADGETS & GIZMOS TESLA MODEL S Why the car is fast, smart
20 | GO AHEAD MAKE A SCENE Is the Twitter
40 | CITY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES A bit of botj
app—Vine—creating the right vibe in the social media scene? Tushar Kanwar explores...
with loads of fun, that’s Valencia for you—Marryam Reshii
of Digital Green is teaching the Indian farmers, the key to a better produce
and green—enough to make your neighbours envious
MARCH 2013
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Democratic World is a monthly magazine published and printed by M Gulab Singh & Sons (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 Delhi-110002, India. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of M Gulab Singh & Sons. Editorial opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of M Gulab Singh & Sons and M Gulab Singh & Sons 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, Gulab Bhawan, 6, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi-110002). For further queries please contact +919873700671
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POPE BENEDICT XVI
“I have come to the certainty that my strengths are no longer suited to an exercise of the Petrine ministry”
THEY SAID IT
UPtoDATE In the Valley: Spectators wait for the final news
Afzal Guru Hanged Guru Labelled as ‘Martyr’ in the Valley HUNG\\ Afzal Guru, 43, was hanged inside the Tihar
Jail on the morning of February 9, 2013, for plotting an attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001. He was buried inside the jail complex in accordance with the jail manual. The death triggered protests across the Valley. Kashmiri separatists reserved a grave for the “burial” of the body of Afzal Guru at the expansive cemetery at Iddgah in downtown Srinagar, just as they have done for the body of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader, Maqbool Bhat. Tucked in a freshly-laid tombstone of cement concrete on Mazare-Shuhada, beside Bhat’s empty grave, a black granite
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epitaph in Afzal’s name was discovered by a group of youngsters. Its inscription in archaic Urdu read: “The martyr of the nation, Mohammad Afzal Guru, Date of Martyrdom: 9th February 2013 Saturday, whose mortal remains are lying in the custody of the Government of India. The nation is awaiting its return.” Bhat was executed in the same prison as Guru for the murder of a police officer and a bank manager on February 11, 1984. Both have been buried on the jail premises. Abdul Ahad, a grave digger, said that not less than 1,000 militants and civilians were buried at the Mazar-e-Shuhada in the past 22 years.
Feb 9 was the date of hanging
up-to-date
FROM AROUND THE WORLD //
ICC Women’s World Cup; Aussies Win CRICKET\\ In this edition of the ICC Women’s Cricket
In Worse Condition? An Agustawestland chopper
After Coalgate, its Choppergate AK Antony denies resignation rumours
World, the Indian team got eliminated as early as the group stages for the first time in eight editions. The team lost to Sri Lanka. Runs overflowed from the opponents’ bats, while the Indian side saw some wayward bowling. When it came to scoring, Indian batswomen functioned at snail’s pace and failed to fire. Barring Thirush Kamini’s hundred in the first game and Harmanpreet Kaur’s knock against England, only Karuna Jain and Poonam Raut managed half-centuries. Reema Malhotra (38) was the highest scorer for India against Sri Lanka. That was the turning point,” said Diana Edulji, former Test cricketer. The tournament which was spread over 18 days in which 24 matches produced outstanding individual and team performances, with Australia crowned champions, and New Zealand captain Suzie Bates named Player of the Tournament.
SCAM\\ The
Choppergate controversy began after Italian agencies arrested Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi for suspected corruption to seal a deal made with Indian officials. A CBI team and defence ministry officials left for Italy to get more information on the alleged kickbacks in the $750 million (`3,600 crore) chopper deal. Playing down reports that he has offered to resign over Choppergate, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said he will do his duty and be present in the Budget Session. Answering questions on whether there were “differences” between the government and the ministry over the scam, he ruled out the allegations. Antony added that the government was acting together in the matter and said that the Centre and his ministry had “nothing to hide”. He assured that “nobody will be spared” if any wrongdoing was found. On the other hand, Britain allegedly will help India in investigations into the alleged AgustaWestland chopper deal controversy, Manmohan Singh said.
THE GLORY CUP
APPOINTED
John Kerry; US Secretary of State John Kerry was ceremonially sworn-in by Vice President Joe Biden as the new US Secretary of State. Kerry took over from outgoing secretary Hillary Clinton in a private ceremony. Mr Kerry was, until then, the Democratic Senator for Massachusetts. MARCH 2013
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up-to-date
\\ FROM AROUND THE WORLD
The Flight Path (left) The trail of smoke left by the meteorite Aftermath (below) Rubbles and broken glass at the site
Meteorite Shoots Across the Russian Sky 400 People Injured in the ‘Fireball Shower’ METEORITE \\ Around 400 people were
injured when a meteorite shot across the sky in central Russia in mid-February sending fireballs crashing to Earth, smashing windows and setting off car alarms. Residents on their way to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt a shockwave, according to a Reuters correspondent in the industrial city 1,500km (950m) east of Moscow. The meteorite raced across the horizon, leaving a long white trail in its wake which could be seen as far as 200km (125m) away in Yekaterinburg. Mobile phones worked only intermittently. Chelyabinsk city authorities said about 400 people sought medical help, mainly for light injuries caused by flying glass. “I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright,” said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg in the Urals
Mountains. “I felt like I was blinded by headlights,” he said. No fatalities were reported but President Vladimir Putin, who was due to host Finance Ministry officials from the Group of 20 nations in Moscow, and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev were informed immediately regarding the incident. A ministry official said the meteor shower may have been connected with an asteroid, the size of an Olympic swimming pool, that was due to pass Earth at a distance of 27,520km (17,100m), but this could not be confirmed. A loud noise, resembling an explosion, rang out at around 9.20am. The shockwave could be felt in apartment buildings in the industrial city’s centre. “I was standing at a bus stop, seeing off my girlfriend,” said Andrei, a resident. “Then there was a flash and I saw a trail of smoke across the sky and felt a shockwave that smashed windows.” A wall was damaged
There was a flash...and felt a shockwave that smashed windows – bystander
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at the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant but there was no environmental threat, a plant spokeswoman said. Such incidents are rare. A meteorite is thought to have devastated an area of more than 2,000sqkm (1,250m) in Siberia in 1908, smashing windows as far as 200km (125m) from the point of impact. The Emergencies Ministry described the events as a “meteor shower in the form of fireballs” and said background radiation levels were normal. It urged residents not to panic. Chelyabinsk city authorities urged people to stay indoors unless they needed to pick up their children from schools and kindergartens. They said a blast had been heard at an altitude of 10,000metres (32,800ft), apparently signalling it occurred when the meteorite entered Earth’s atmosphere. The US space agency NASA has said an asteroid known as 2012 DA14, about 46metres in diameter, would have an encounter with Earth closer than any asteroid since scientists began routinely monitoring them about 15 years ago. Television, weather and communications satellites fly about 500m (800km) higher. The moon is 14 times farther away.
up-to-date
FROM AROUND THE WORLD //
&
SALT PEPPER
NATION
Hyderabad Blast Kills 16 BLASTS\\ Twin bomb
blasts rocked Hyderabad on February 21, 2013, killing at least 16 people and injuring over 100 others. In the first terror strike in the city since 2007, the blasts triggered by Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) tied to two bicycles took place in Dilsukhnagar area,
south of Musi (river) in the southern part of the Andhra Pradesh capital and about 15km from the heart of the city, when the busy commercial area was crowded with people returning home. The first blast took place around 7pm near a tiffin centre opposite Venkatadri theatre
and the second near Konark theatre. Reports state over a kilogram of explosive was used in each bomb. A specific alert warning attack by Pakistan-based terrorist group was allegedly shared by central security agencies with Hyderabad police on Thursday morning, officials said.
FUNNY ONE-LINERS POPUP AS THE POPE CALLS IT QUITS
“Local soothsayer insists ominously#Pope resigns & lightning bolt strikes theVatican...Followed by Italian Helicopter scandal..Comprende?” Dilip Cherian@ DILIPtheCHERIAN | Columnist
Sri Lankan Army faces flak after photographs surface Slain LTTE Chief’s Son Allegedly Murdered
“Since#Pope’s resignation, lightning has hit St Peters, a quake struck south of Rome, and now Etna is erupting.” benwedeman@bencnn | Twitterati
“#Pope Benedict Resigned to Avoid Arrest, Seizure of Church Wealth by Easter” Anonymous 4thEstate @4thAnon | Hackers
A Victim? A file photo of Balachandran Prabhakaran before his death
ALLEGATION \\ A series of photographs showing Balachandran Prabhakaran, son of
Villupillai Prabhakaran, head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), shot and dead were revealed recently leading to allegations that the boy’s death may have been slaughter. The allegations were brought to the fore by Channel 4, one of the leading UK media channels. One of the photos shows the boy sitting in a bunker, alive and unharmed, apparently in the custody of Sri Lankan troops. Another picture which was taken a few hours later shows the boy’s body lying on the ground, his chest pierced by bullets. The images, contained in a new documentary, No Fire Zone, are slated to be screened at the Geneva Human Rights Film Festival during the UN Human Rights Council meeting in March 2013, suggest that the boy of 11 years was captured alive and killed at a later stage.
“Apparently special breakfasts are being served on the 1st March, the day after the #Pope stands down— Ex Benedict.” Barra Best @barrabest | Twitterati
“I just want to point out that Noah was more than 500 years old when he built the ark. #Pope #quitter” Leith McPherson @leithmcp | Twitterati
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foreign despatches \\ NOTES FROM THE DIA SPOR A
RAHUL CHOUDAHA
Are Indian B-schools in a bubble, as US colleges are? ARE INDIAN B-schools in a bubble, as some experts are claiming that American colleges are? Joseph Schumpeter, in a recent article in The Economist entitled The Latest Bubble? argues the American higher education bubble is already beginning to burst. He quotes PayPal cofounder, Peter Thiel, “Higher education fills all the criteria for a bubble: tuition costs are too high, debt loads are too onerous, and there is mounting evidence that the rewards are over-rated.” This claim is also applicable to Indian B-schools. With more than 3,000 such schools in the country, India has three times more B-schools than the US. This difference becomes stark when one considers that the size of the Indian economy is one-tenth of the US economy. The result is poor quality education and an oversupply of MBA graduates which, in turn, increase unemployability and underemployability among graduates. According to economists Karl Case and Robert Shiller, a bubble represents “A situation in which excessive public expectations for future price increases cause prices to be temporarily elevated”. In other words, a bubble simply represents an over-estimation of future expected returns. Based on this simple definition, we can clearly see that Indian B-schools are in a bubble. On the demand side—from students and families—expectations of social prestige and career advancement from an MBA degree are reaching a level of irrational exuberance. Similarly, on the supply side, promoters’ expectations of earning easy money are also blown out of proportion. One of the characteristics of a bubble is “herd behaviour”. This can be seen in the large number of students who continue to aspire to an MBA degree. MBAs are perceived to offer a safe and rewarding career path. This perception, and accompanying herd behaviour, are largely driven by the salary war (read: inflated salaries) among
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New York, USA RAHUL CHOUDAHA A
higher education specialist based out of New York, Dr Choudaha blogs on www. DrEducation.com and specialises in strategic management of higher education, institution building, collaborations and market development. He holds a PhD in higher education from the University of Denver, an MBA from NITIE, Mumbai, and BE from Jabalpur University. He edits a blog, DrEducation. com and writes, speaks and consults on trends related to student mobility, collaborations, quality and policy at the intersection of research, marketing, technology and strategy
B-schools and corresponding media frenzy associated with corporate top pay packages. The social prestige associated with an MBA has also contributed to the demand for MBAs. One crude indicator is the matrimonial classifieds, where an MBA degree is often positioned as a measure of success and achievement. We can also see it when someone says that they have an MBA vs MEd—we are already judging that the person with an MBA is “better” than one with an MEd. These social stereotypes of MBAs as a measure of success have contributed to undue and irrational expectations for people to pursue them. On the supply side, given the appetite for MBA degrees, many entrepreneurs and politicians have seen an opportunity to make easy money. The barriers to entry to start a B-school are quite low, both in terms of financial and regulatory requirements. These barriers are even lower if one ignores the regulatory requirements. In addition, the emergence of new models—especially the one-year MBA and distance learning—have accelerated the supply of MBA programmes, many of which are not recognised by AICTE. The result is too many unrecognised, poor quality MBA programmes in the market. So, what is the way out? One of the ways out seems to be the foreign universities bill which is hanging fire. India must wake up to the need for internationalisation of higher education and put in place a policy framework to address concerns, if it wants to reap the benefits. The foreign universities bill has turned out to be like a car with square wheels. Though the bill is still awaiting approval of the Parliament,
foreign despatches NOTES FROM THE DIA SPOR A //
“According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, while 12.8mn people are added to the labour force annually, vocational training is available to only a miniscule 4.3mn”
it has generated excitement among many institutions in India. There are questions about the bill’s effectiveness and relevance. Also, there are a few foreign institutions, like Lancaster University, which decided not to wait for the bill and have started their campuses in partnership with GD Goenka. This is an example of how a disjointed approach can render a policy irrelevant. It highlights the need for a comprehensive internationalisation policy on higher education which can maximise the relevance and benefits at three primary levels: infusing excellence, encouraging institutional diversity and building capacity. Jane Knight defined internationalisation as the “process of integrating an international, intercultural or global dimension into the purpose, functions or delivery of postsecondary education.” This definition clarifies that internationalisation is a much broader, more comprehensive and flexible concept. It recognises and encourages diverse approaches and accepts that there is no one prescriptive formula for all institutions. The context in India is different, and so, the concept of internationalisation should be adapted to the unique challenges and needs of the country. There is no denying that Indian higher education is struggling to infuse quality at the systemic level. Consider the recent case of the 100 per cent cut-off requirement by the Sri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi, for admission to undergraduate programme. Instances like these question the whole premise that Indian higher education is reforming and expanding access to college courses. In reality, the availability of quality institutions is unable to keep pace with demand. Indian institutions are facing a crisis of confidence where many students are aspiring for the same select institutions. A systematic approach to internationalisation may help bring in global good practices and more high-quality institutions. For example, in just a decade, ISB, Hyderabad, has emerged as an inspiration for many other Indian institutions. It is a hallmark of global practices adoption, covering admissions, teaching, research and governance. In a country where
absolute scores are still considered the only benchmark for admissions, ISB adopted a holistic admissions process on the lines of the best B-schools by integrating personal interviews and essays. This expanded the choice for many talented students. Unfortunately, regulatory structures had tried to restrict the ISB model and its growth. India is slated to become a top ranking talent provider, globally by 2020, provided it brings about quantitative and qualitative changes in its vocational and doctoral studies curricula. As of now, they are poor cousins to the more lucrative course choices for India’s youth. The two extremes of post-secondary education, vocational and doctoral, are facing acute quantitative and qualitative challenges in attracting talent, delivering value and meeting society’s expectations. Vocational education is impaled on the quantitative front by the large gap between demand and supply. According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, while 12.8mn people are added to the labour force annually, vocational training is available to only a miniscule 4.3mn. On the qualitative scale lies the dismal skill development and training scenario. A report by the World Bank notes that over 60 per cent of graduates from the vocational stream in India remain unemployed even three years after graduation. If vocational training is in shambles, not much can be written about the postdoctoral education system either, struggling with the issues of quality and accessibility. According to the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India, universities enrolled nearly 36,000 students in doctoral programmes in 2005-06—a small number for one of the largest education systems in the world enrolling more than 8.5mn students at the undergraduate level. Despite such a small number, concerns for quality have been growing. Challenges faced by vocational and doctoral education systems in India are complex and dynamic, wherein choices are driven by societal and labour market rewards. Competition for scarce resources and jobs is high. As a result, there is a marked preference for career paths with low risk and high employability. Five major changes proposed at societal, policy and institutional levels, will pave the way for better post-secondary education in India. The Indian post-secondary education system needs to recognise the value of institutional diversity. To quote noted higher education researcher Frans van Vught, member of the Group of Policy Advisors to the President of the European Commission, diversity among institutions is expected to “…better serve the needs of the labour market, offer more and better access to a larger student body and allow institutional specialisation by which the effectiveness of the overall higher education system increases.” He adds that institutional diversity offers various career pathways to students and stimulates upward social mobility.
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cover story
THE KITE RUNNER //
Kite
The
Runner Former Finance Minister and BJP politician Yashwant Sinha talks of his journey into the world of administrative services, politics, inspiration and his mentor By Rohini Banerjee
Photographs by Subhojit Paul Design by Sameer Kishore
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cover story
\\ THE KITE RUNNER
ere is a small story. It starts in a place called Kadamkuan in Patna in the 1940s. For those who are from the eastern part of India, they may be familiar with the place. For those unaware, Kadamkuan remains in the living memory because it was home to Jayaprakash Narayan. Jayaprakash Narayan, JP, Jayaprakash or Loknayak—one of the most prominent freedom fighters and social activists—was known by many names. He was to lead a movement in the early 1970s against the Centre’s regime. However, this is not the story of JP. It is of a young lad, also from Kadamkuan, and who was to hold JP in the highest esteem so much so to pave a path according to the elder man’s ideals. The young lad was so enchanted by the movement and the man at its helm that he would, years later, change his career path as a tribute to him. But we get ahead of ourselves. Revert to the Kadamkuan of the 1940s. The area was home to several eminent people who had made their houses with sprawling compounds in the “New Area”, built after the 1934 Bihar Earthquake— one of the worst recorded earthquakes in this country’s history. In New Area, there also lived a large family of seven brothers and four sisters and their parents in a large rented house. The protagonist of our story is the seventh brother and the ninth child of this family. The boy, as it would be clear later, was a late bloomer. Being one of the youngest, he was left to his devices for a long period of time. Till he was seven, no one in the family really worried enough about him to send him to school. His elder siblings home schooled him and he learnt the letters, alphabets and basic arithmetic thanks to his brothers. Probably, when he became too inquisitive or noisy, he is not too sure which of his attributes was to blame, one of his much-elder brothers caught hold of him and took him to the nearest school in the neighbourhood—a walk from his home. Thus, till seven, life was immersed in the
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blur of colours; colours of bright kites and glass marbles. These were the games he would cherish playing with his neighbourhood gang in those sprawling compounds and fields of Kadamkuan. Then, there was a game called “chance”. A mix between “catch me if you can” or “lockand-key”, he was the master of this game, being quick on his feet. Up the walls and over the fields he would tear through, spending his hours. But, it was flying kites which he was obsessed with. So obsessed in fact that one of his recurrent childhood dreams was of him and his friends running after one particularly large bright kite. Confident of his abilities, and an eternal optimist, the lad would manage to catch the string right at the end, beating the rest; all the time. The idyllic childhood games were paused when he was led to Sir Ganesh Dutta Patliputra High English School. The name of the particular institution was longer and grander than its premises. Housed in a disputed building, there was a legal war being waged between the school authorities and the land-lord, who also happened to be the neighbourhood lawyer. One day the legal battle ended, and the boy and his friends hurried to their classes to discover (to their unbridled joy) that desks had being thrown while text books lay strewn on the ground like flotsam. With alacrity students went back to their homes to declare their independence from studies to alarmed parents. That holiday continued for fourth months, after which the school was re-started and re-established on a new premise, a little further ahead, and the kite, marble and chance games were put away for a bit longer. In that school, our protagonist continued his studies. Academics was yet to become a priority (such a contrast to his later life). His elder brothers had taken care of that legacy or burden; call it what you will. Most of them were intuitively good in their studies. There were few regrets or complaints in that family, barring one. None of the excellent academically brilliant brothers had managed to crack the Union Public Service Commission
His book Confessions of a Swadeshi Reformer
“A high-ranking IPS officer was present in my interview panel. He saw my NCC record and asked me why had I placed IPS so low on my rung of priorities. I said, just because I had excelled in the NCC, it did not necessarily mean that I should be condemned to a life of a policeman. I think that statement might have sealed my fate” —Yashwant Sinha Examinations or UPSC—as of then. None of them belonged to the government cadre. However, our young protagonist was least plagued by such worries; now in Class VIII, he had consecutively failed his mathematics examinations (and scored a solid zero twice in a row). He had bigger problems on his mind. And then there was this new emotion that he was feeling increasingly. In a gist, he was starting to feel inadequate. In that New Area of Kadamkuan, where all the eminent people lived, there were also the children of those eminent people. Our protagonist was a friendly chap with friends from all sections and some of them went to “good” schools. They came back with tales of class and home work and a better curricula. It made the boy think that perhaps, he, too, wanted to be in a “good school”. Suddenly Sir Ganesh Dutta Patliputra High English School did not seem adequate. So, the carefree lad who bothered more about kites than kilogram tables, went up to his parents. For the first time, he demanded to be put in a”good” school. In those days admission was an informal affair. The boy’s father—bemused by the change in his youngest son—obliged. He spoke to people and there ended the Patliputra days and a new chapter started in the reputed Patna Collegiate School.
THE PATLIPUTRA BAGGAGE There are few people who can narrate a story well. There are even fewer still, who can do it quickly. Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha is one of the few who blessed with a sharp memory, solid hold over words, and more importantly, a deliciously selfdeprecating, yet confident, sense of humour, which makes him an excellent narrator. He not only tells a story crisply and lucidly, but also, takes his audience into its very fabric. Thus, when he speaks of his seven-year-old self—dreaming of a kite and running after it—you are with him. You can sense his hope and determination.
A bureaucrat-turned-politician, Yashwant Sinha is considered by many as one of the Finance Ministers who transformed the Indian economy. He has been held in high-esteem by his friends, and more importantly, by his foes, as a man of character. His life has been impressive—early on he tasted success as a bureaucrat. Then Sinha took a U-turn to enter Indian politics with a ticket from Janata Dal. He served as a spokesperson for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), served stints as the Foreign and Finance
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\\ THE KITE RUNNER
“I could be a minister if I wanted to be, but you cannot be an IAS officer even if you wanted” —Yashwant Sinha A retort to a former CM of Bihar
Ministers in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. However, Sinha is perhaps best remembered as an administrative officer who held important posts for 24 years upholding Indian concerns in international conferences and in social and political delegations. At the end of the day, the man who sits across me in his political uniform of a crisp kurta-pyjama and a Nehru jacket, is ready with a smile. Being the storyteller, he does not make his life seem less or more than what it was, or is. He swings between being self-deprecating and confident. Sometimes, with a hearty laugh or with a smile that his sevenyear-old self might have flashed, he admits to being
quite an arrogant person. From his stories, however, the BJP member emerges as an intuitive person—in control of his destiny. As he shares his life story, the root cause of his confidence emerges. As a student hailing from a Hindi-medium, neighbourhood school, Sinha struggled to gain the confidence of his new teachers in the reputed Patna Collegiate School. And the label of being a “Hindi-medium student” was one that he carried into his college and Master’s days. Sinha recalls one particular teacher who seemed to take pleasure in pointing out his mistakes. He took to referring Sinha as the “Patliputra Boy”. In those days of strict attendance and roll calls, students
CAREER
TIME LINE Completed his Master's in political science from Patna University
1937 Born in Patna, Bihar, to Late Dhana Devi and Bipin Bihari Saran
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1958
1960 Selected for Indian Administrative Service
Resigned from the Indian Administrative Service and joined active politics
Worked as the Consul General of India from Frankfurt
1971 Served as First Secretary at the Indian Embassy in Bonn in Germany
1973
1980 Served as the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Surface Transport
1984
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THE KITE RUNNER //
were marked FA—fled away—if they were missing from afternoon classes and roll calls. An indisposed Sinha, hoping to be excused from classes, wrote an application for leave one afternoon. He, however, mispelt key words; headache and permission. Not only did his teacher cancel his request, he read out the misspellings before the class. Sinha did not mind the Patliputra Baggage, as he saw it. Instead, he chose to concentrate on his lessons and in a short span he was one of the top students. “Patna Collegiate School produced large numbers of first-division state rankers. When my batch passed out, we were just 11 first-division boys. The usual score was around 25. Though the school did comparatively worse, a Patliputra Student got through one of the most reputed colleges of the region, (Patna College),” Sinha says with a chuckle. In those days, Matriculation was followed by an Intermediate degree, then two years of Bachelor’s and two more years of Master’s. The memory of the consecutive zeros had managed to scar Sinha enough to wipe traces of arithmetic from his life. He happily moved into liberal arts. Little did he know that years later, numbers would be a part of his every day life as the Finance Minister. Also, he knew that he never wished to be a “boxwallah”—a jargon used to describe a corporate guy, derived from the large number of Patna youths who opted to be employed at Metal Box India Limited. On one hand, Sinha was becoming stronger in academics, on the other his parents were getting alarmed, even their sixth son had failed to crack the UPSC tests. So, Sinha was to be their last hope. As a student of history (Bachelor’s) and political science
1988
Became the All-India General Secretary of the Janata Party
THE PUNJAB MAIL “In college, I decided to break my Hindi-medium mold and joined the debate team. The best orator among us was a young man who came from Doon School. There was no way I could beat his skills. Instead, I decided to be the second-best. I joined his team for an Intermediate Debate, a pretty prestigious event, held between top colleges in Patna, namely the Patna Women’s College, Magadh College and some more. I doggedly prepared a five-minute speech. And then rote learnt it while pacing the banks of the Ganga. I went and delivered it without pausing.
Served as the Finance Minister in Prime Minister Chandrasekhar's cabinet
Elected to the Rajya Sabha
1986
(Master’s), a fierce debater, the young man was preparing himself unknowingly for a life under the public glare. The pressure he put himself through, was not for a career. He wanted to be a man of several parts, and shed the Patliputra label. This was like his dream again—chasing a goal, only this time, his rivals were not his neighbourhood boys but young men who came from English-medium schools. “Everyone in the college was a friend. I have some of these old friends in my life still. However, there are a core group of three of us who came from Hindimedium background. One day we decided that we would speak to each other in English and English only. Determined, we dispersed for the day. Next day onwards, we started to avoid each other like plague. If we spotted anyone, we would try to look the other way. For a while, we judiciously continued to avoid each other, till I decided that we couldn’t carry on. My friends and I decided we would converse in English, but occasionally,” he said breaking into a booming laugh.
1989 Became the General Secretary of Janata Dal
1990
Served as the Finance Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee ministry
1996
1998
Became the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party
“Everyone in the college was a friend. I have some of these old friends in my life still. However, there are a core group of three of us who came from Hindi-medium background. One day we decided that we would speak to each other in English and English only. Determined, we dispersed for the day. Next day onwards, we started to avoid each other like plague. If we spotted anyone, we would try to look the other way. For a while, we judiciously continued to avoid each other, till I decided that we couldn't carry on. My friends and I decided we would converse in English, but occasionally” —Yashwant Sinha
Served as the Foreign Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee ministry
2002
Resigned from the post of Vice-President of BJP
2004
2009
Was defeated in the Lok Sabha elections from the Hazaribagh constituency in Bihar
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“After his death, I finally joined active politics as a tribute to him”
—Yashwant Sinha On his life mentor, Jayaprakash Narayan
Friends later informed me that I had earned a nickname—Punjab Mail—one of the few fast trains travelling from Patna in those days for my nonstop rant. Though, I was forewarned, I continued in the same breathless fashion in the main debate. Thankfully, my partner, (Doon student) was an excellent orator. Together we bagged the team cup. I realised that I loved debating.” Due to his relentless pursuing of all debate competitions, he soon became one of the busiest and best debaters of his college. The incident sheds light on yet another impressive attribute laudable in Sinha. Faced with any impediment, he has always managed to see it as a challenge, and turned it around to his advantage. And through it all, he often manifested the energy and rigour of a seven year old pursuing his kite. In college he took up multiple activities; theatre being one. He played Lord Hastings in Richard the Third (“His
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remains were discovered recently, I hope you have heard”, he informs me). He also played Sergius in Arms and the Man. He was one of the active members of the National Cadet Corps from his school days. His participation also earned him a seat at Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. “I took part in the Republic Day parade, I was an NCC cadre. I was on stage acting and debating. If there is a single regret that I have, is rejecting the military academy offer. I was and remain fascinated by the military uniform. I have a tremendous respect for the men and women who go to war for our well-being. I have to make do by reading fiction based around wars,” he says. Even if the Army uniform was not for him, another uniform was waiting. That of a civil servant. He was almost ready for his role having chosen the “right subject” and the “right attitude”. Sinha interjects and states he just had an attitude. Though he was one of
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THE KITE RUNNER //
RAPID FIRE ROUND the top scorers in the civil entrance tests, he scored poorly in the Viva Voce (140 out of 400) something he suspects was due to one of his answers. “A highranking IPS officer was present in my interview panel. He saw my NCC record and asked me why had I placed IPS so low on my list of priorities. I said, just because I had excelled in the NCC, it did not necessarily mean that I should be condemned to a life of a policeman,” he says, laughing. Even if his answer was not smart, his scores were—enough for him to get through the Bihar Cadre of the IAS. Punjab Mail was right on track.
“I COULD BE A MINISTER, BUT YOU CANNOT BE AN IAS OFFICER” First the district training course in Arrah, then as a sub-divisional officer at Giridih and then finally becoming the Deputy Commissioner of the Santhal Paraganas, Sinha rose through the ranks quickly. His stint was marked by difficulties—one of them being the 1967 Bihar Famine. Though the situation was tragic, it brought him a step closer to his childhood hero–Jayaprakash Narayan. “I had grown up hearing stories of the man being tied to a slab of ice, being tortured and yet never giving in. I had grown to idiolise him. During the Bihar Famine, JP was leading the Bihar Relief Committee. In order to help him out, I organised an entertainment programme. We managed to gather a sum of `1 lakh, which I presented to the committee. He acknowledged our effort by agreeing to meet me. Two days before the scheduled meeting, the then CM of Bihar (who shall be unnamed) and his CPI friend visited my office. In those days, government ministers manifested their superiority by behaving badly with bureaucrats. I had heard so many horror tales that I was pretty nervous about the meeting. It turned out to be as bad as I expected. We had a tiff,” he remembers. At the end of the argument, Sinha uttered his “famous last words”—“I could be a minister if I wanted to be, but you cannot be an IAS officer even if you wanted”. “I was nearly suspended. However, the worst bit was that I never got to meet JP,” he recalls. That meeting with JP was to be further postponed, as Sinha would do rounds of top official posts in both Indian and foreign shores before landing up in India in 1974. His stint at the Ministry of Commerce took him all over the world. I was tempted to ask, for a man who battled with the English language for so long, how was it to actually land on shores were it was spoken? “I felt that it was long overdue, my visit to those places,” he says with a laugh. There is a flash of his confidence again. We would have labelled it
Tribute to a Mentor If his world travel shows his confident stride, the mention of JP throws up a softer side of Sinha. He becomes mellow and contemplative. Not joining the Indian Army, and active politics sooner, are the two regrets he harbours. “There were two chances I had to work with JP closely. At the end of 1974, when I was back to India, JP was in the middle of his protests against the Indira Gandhi regime. He offered me a chance to manage the Rajendra Memorial Trust and run the Peace Corps parallel to it. In exchange I would have received a token salary of Rs 500 and a small apartment. My wife and I went to a common friend's house where I wanted to formerly seal the deal. JP's wife, Prabhavatiji, hugged my wife to welcome her to the family. Allegedly, my wife shed a tear. She understood that my and her's lives were to change. JP saw her reaction. He later told me that even if I was ready to quit my comfortable life, my family was not. So, he asked me to wait a bit longer. In 1984, I tried again. Some well-meaning politician friends stopped me. After his death, I finally joined active politics as a tribute to him.” Sinha first joined the Janata Party, then the Janata Dal, and then the Samajwadi Janata Party. Finally luck brought him to the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1993, and he heads its Policy Formulation Action Group (PFAG). A Member of Parliament and former Finance and Foreign Minister of India, he has finally found his place. “Though you have not asked me, but others do. No, I have never regretted quitting the Indian Administrative Services. And yes, this is what I was meant to do.” It seems that the man in question has found his uniform at last. The kite runner has caught his prize yet again.
arrogance, had his journey been easy. However, it was well-earned one. Confidence is key to his being—it is not a matter of how one perceives himself, but how others perceives a confident being. Say, even a nation. “I was in Germany when the Pokhran Tests happened. Overnight, I noticed the world’s perception of us had changed. When India lend a helping hand to the emerging nation-state of Bangladesh, India’s stocks rose further globally. A nation, I believe deeply, has to be strong and confident in order to emerge.”
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\\ GO AHE AD AND MAKE A SCENE
Go Ahead And
Make A Scene An online six second video app is taking the world by storm BY TUSHAR KANWAR
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social agenda
GO AHE AD AND MAKE A SCENE //
S
ix seconds. That’s the sort of time it takes for a luxury sedan to hit 100 kmph, or how long most recruiters look at the average resume before making a ‘fit or no-fit’ decision. Of late though, six seconds has assumed a whole new meaning in the social space courtesy Vine, a new app released by social networking titan Twitter. What Vine does is let people shoot and share six-second looped videos, turning the person on the street into a mini-movie-maker. Sounds like you’ve heard this pitch before? Sure, tonnes of apps have tried to bring mobile video sharing to the mainstream, but where Vine excels–its secret sauce, so to speak–is its simplicity. (Of course, having the backing of Twitter and a direct connection to its hundreds of million active users doesn’t hurt either!) At its core is the idea that sharing a video can be almost as simple as sending out a tweet, and just as Twitter’s 140-character limit forces people to write more efficiently, Vine’s six-second limit challenges you to use visuals that convey (and get to) your point faster. But besides that incredibly simple premise, it’s pretty easy to use as well. Touch the screen to record. Lift your finger to stop. Fill six seconds, write a caption and post immediately, either to Twitter, Facebook, or Vine’s own network. That’s it. Sounds simple enough, right? What’s more interesting is that compared to social video apps that have been around recently, Vine is as easily characterized by what’s not there. For example, there’s no way to edit your video, no Instagramlike filters, not even a playback button to review your video. The focus is frontand-center on the short stop-motion video you shoot. Heck, forget editing your video, you can't even upload a video from your phone’s media gallery, and the final
stitched together video is decidedly lowdefinition to boot! The videos even remind me of the animated GIF files people have been putting up on the Internet for well over a decade now! Yet, in less than a couple of weeks since Twitter launched the Vine app for the iPhone (an Android app is in the works), media houses have used it to report stories, brands have used it to create ads and contests and designers at New York Fashion Week have broadcasted real-time backstage clippings during the show. Celebs like Paul McCartney and Arnold Schwarzenegger are already on it, sharing snippets of their lives. Not to mention the bad press the app has gotten for initial glut of smut uploaded by users, leading Apple to slap it with a 17+ rating. You see, like everything else online, Vine users shared inappropriate videos on the network a.k.a porn. But that’s not the biggest of complaints I have with the service. Basic features, such as the ability to find people to follow, are broken. You can’t change the title or tags of the video once it is posted, or block people who post offensive comments. You can’t save or export content. You can’t use the front facing camera on your iPhone to record the Vine, only the rear camera. And oh yes, the service isn’t available on any other platform other than Apple’s, which cuts out a ton of folks who could be vine-ing today! If you get a feeling it’s a rushed service without all basic features of today’s social networks, that’s not entirely incorrect.
VINE @ BUSINESS Not surprisingly, it’s easy to get hooked onto the service, watching streams of sometimes inane, sometimes remarkable videos that creative minds across the world are dishing out. But is there more
TIPS & TOOLS 1. For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn, is one of Earnest Hemmingway's short stories. Not the title of the story, but the story itself. If Hemmingway could say all he had to in six words, you could certainly do that in 6 seconds. What you need to know is how to 'cut the crap.' When the time is less, choose your content wisely and say what you have to. Only, what you have to. Period. 2. Vine could get you your 'six seconds of fame'. However, that shall only happen if you remember to keep it real and more importantly original. Sourcing other people's videos could land you in the Vine Hall of Shame. 3. Make a plan and stick to it. When treading on new waters, you need to be better prepared. Therefore, it would be best to make a plan and follow it, that will help you navigate better through the new platform, will keep you organised and help you conquer the space faster. 4. Be up-to-date. If you don't keep up with the changing times, you'll be left behind. Keep an eye on what your peers are doing; keep a track of the latest trends. Make notes, brainstorm, pick ideas and implement them. 5. Be Unforgettable: Keep your content fresh and keep it flowing. If your content is not innovative, and more importantly, is not flowing in regularly, people will forget you. And that would be the end of the road for you. So remember to keep it fresh and keep it coming.
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\\ GO AHE AD AND MAKE A SCENE BLOG WATCH
to Vine than cute puppy, cat and baby videos? Is there a professional connection to the service, as businesses grapple with how they can best leverage their 6-seconds-of-fame on this new social network? Absolutely, if the past few weeks are anything to go by. Already, marketers and retailers are pushing out how-to videos of their latest products, showing off the product in action. Restaurateurs and coffee shops are pushing out recipes for the day, promoting their menus and giving their brands a video fillip. Tech startups and media houses are promoting company culture by offering Vines on behindthe-scenes-looks at their offices. So, how can you make Vine work for you? First, bear in mind that it is a new service, so pretty much everyone is learning their way around. Don’t let the hype machinery make your decisions–use the app only if you have a clear purpose of being on the network. Your business must have a clear reason to present videos to the world before your first Vine is posted. Think of Vine as a micro-storytelling app – clearly, you must know what story you are to tell for it to interest the audience and result in commerce. Remember to keep the content original–don’t “vine” clips of movies or material that is subject to copyright–showing other people’s copyrighted works, even for those six seconds, could result in legal action. Once you’re on the platform, plan for it much like any other medium–keep the content fresh, and keep it coming! And as always, keep an eye on what others from your industry are doing on the platform. Know what’s trending on Vine, pay attention and take notes and incorporate the really compelling ideas into your own Vine strategy. Additional Reading: Mashable’s Going Viral Visualized (infographic): http:// on.mash.to/W5UTNo Tushar Kanwar, a self-confessed gizmo-holic, is Bengaluru-based technology freelancer, who has contributed to leading Indian technology publications for years.
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The Girl Who Walked Out... A man who touts himself as a ‘one-man army for social reform’, Dr Rajith Kumar recently delivered a talk at a Trivandrum college to discuss ‘gender equality’. Since it takes 10 minutes for a man to transfer his sperm to a woman and 10 months for a woman to deliver, the professor advised women to remain ‘within their limits’. He added that women shouldn’t jump too much—they could displace their uterus. While such misogynistic BS flies around often, what was spectacular about this talk was one girl who walked out. She didn’t stop even when Dr Rajith made disparaging comments about her. I love her unhesitating stride, the expression of outrage on her face. I see in her a hope that someday it will be considered offensive, even criminal, to express anti-women sentiments, just as it is to express sentiments that are against a religion, race or caste. I remember when I entered Stella Maris, I was pretty naive. The women I met there shook me from my comfort zone. I was judgmental, moralistic even, when I was in school. I read Woman’s Era sincerely and thought feminism was just a lot of screechy women. I was entrenched in a thought system that I couldn’t break out of—because I didn’t have the intellectual backing. College changed all that. It wasn’t just the inspiring literature we studied, but interactions I had with friends. We were in a women’s college that was conventional—I remember the first question during my interview was ‘What’s your favourite book’ and just as I was rambling about Shame (I thought quoting a Rushdie novel would get me a seat), they asked me a second—‘Will you wear sleeveless clothes to college?’ It’s ironic that I found my freedom within these cloisters. While classes were primarily about writers and thinkers who were non-conformists, on the corridors,
Sowmya Rajendran
we were required to be ‘modest’. So we’d read all about patriarchy in Virginia Woolf’s gently mocking, quietly angry style and laugh at that absurd declaration form we all signed. Some would wear sleeveless clothes and cover up when going past problematic professors. These were small, tiny rebellions. But there it was that beautiful idea that our bodies were our own. This particular incident sparked off my nostalgia because something similar happened when we were students—as a part of value education, we were required to attend lectures on religions. I will give this to Stella Maris, we were not gagged. For one on Islam, someone asked the speaker why it was okay for a man to have three wives but not for a woman to have three husbands. The speaker said this was because it was ‘proven’ that women were at a higher risk of getting STDs. I asked the speaker if he knew that lesbians are at the lowest risk for HIV transmission (lower than heterosexuals). He tried convincing us why wearing a purdah was a good idea—by claiming that if two women went past a man, one wearing the purdah and one without it, he’d obviously look at the woman without it. Many asked him why the man couldn’t be blindfolded instead. He had no answers for any of it and ultimately bowed out saying he was out of time. The girl who walked out, Arya, spoke on Asianet later. Simply and sensibly, she answered that even if religions corroborated Dr Rajith, she didn’t see the point in upholding prejudices just because they exist. I only wish her friends had walked out with her. I do hope she awakened in them that anger we have always been taught to tame. (The blog has been edited and modified for print. To read the blog visit http://calamur.org/gargi/)
PLATFORM VIVEK BHANDARI | Political Analyst
Sources of the Indian Self
Excavating India’s Political Foundations WHILE WATCHING Daniel Day-Lewis’
riveting performance as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s biopic Lincoln, many viewers were struck by how effectively the film captures the complexity of debates surrounding the meanings of words like “freedom” and “equality,” terms that are the staple of political contestation in liberal democracies. National constitutions, which delineate the parameters for the functioning of political systems, use words and phrases with connotations and are subject to multiple interpretations and readings. Reflecting on all that must have transpired in those turbulent years of the American Civil War and it’s aftermath in which slavery was outlawed, one cannot but marvel at the complicated ways in which powerful ideas like “freedom,” “equality,” and “justice” acquired the connotations they did, and went on to shape the lives of countless Americans by redrawing the map of race relations. One also realises how distinctly American—in the sense of being a product of the very specific circumstances that shaped the American experience—
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the connotation of these ideas really was in the 1860s. This begs a question: If the American experience is described as a story about “liberty”, what were the foundational ideas that gave shape to India’s “Indian-ness”? At the level of ideas, is there any concept that has come to capture the story of the making of modern India? Of an India understood as an imagined community (to use Benedict Anderson’s evocative phrase) making sense of itself as it traversed the journey from colonial subjugation, to political independence, and one that now nurtures hopes of global ascendency? There are many answers to these questions, this is only to be expected. Ananya Vajpeyi, in a new book entitled Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India, approaches this issue in a refreshing way. She constructs an analysis around a term that served as rallying cry in the days of Indian nationalism and continues to excite the Indian imagination, the idea of swaraj (self rule). This term, which can mean both “rule by the self” and “rule over
ABOUT THE WRITER DR VIVEK BHANDARI is a noted historian and former director of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), a post that he took up after spending 15 years in the US. Today he is a keen observer of a dramatically transforming India
the self”, has always lent itself to a variety of interpretations. Acknowledging that the issue of the raj in swaraj referred to the pursuit of political independence from colonial rule, and therefore the goal of political sovereignty, Vajpeyi chooses instead to focus on the swa (i.e., the “self”) part of the term. Then she asks: What were the different ways in which intellectuals, opposed to colonialism in the early 20th century, imagined conceptions of the Indian “self,” of the swa- in swaraj. In pursuit of the answer, she constructs an analysis in which she assigns concepts that provide the framework for these individuals’ construction of the Indian self. For MK Gandhi, it is ahimsa (non-violence), for BR Ambedkar it is dukha (suffering), for Rabindranath Tagore viraha (longing), for Abanindranath Tagore samvega (aesthetic shock), and for Jawaharlal Nehru both dharma (aspiration) and artha (purpose). Since each of these individuals needed to evolve a conceptual platform from where to launch an intellectual critique of colonialism and western
platform
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modernity, these categories could not, by design, be derived from European ways of thought or western texts, but need to have their moorings in the diverse Indic traditions that populate the Indian landscape. This was the realistic way in which leaders could respond to the predicament they faced, i.e., of articulating a sense of Indian sovereignty that was not derived from the conceptual vocabulary of western modernity. This quest forced them “to swim out into the wide deep waters of the traditions that had once been their own.” (p. xvii) Thus, the “search for the self—the self whose political sovereignty had to be reinstated—took the form of an attempt to recover a line of moral inquiry from a welter of Indian traditions.” (p. xxi). The choices of these five individuals reveal the distinct ways in which the founders of modern Indian political discourses chose to set limits on what constitutes their India, indeed the connotation they accorded to the Indian “self”. It is noteworthy that the preambles of both the Indian and American Constitutions begin with the phrase “we the people”, in acknowledgement of the democratic principle that “the people” are the sovereign power that sustain their respective polities. What Vajpeyi’s analysis does so admirably is to deepen our grasp of how the category of the Indian self, which serves as the basis for what is Indian about
...the idea of swaraj (self-rule)is a term, which can mean both “rule by the self” and “rule over the self”, has always lent itself to a variety of interpretations...” “the people,” came to be imagined by the makers of modern India. Just as American connotations of terms like “freedom” and “equality” are deeply embedded in the American history of slavery, empire, and capitalism, Vajpeyi’s analysis provides us with an approach for grasping the conceptual vocabulary shaped by India’s history of colonialism and nationalism. In many ways, Vajpeyi furthers the analysis of Sunil Khilnani’s The Idea of India by explaining how, despite the ascendency of Nehruvian conceptions of nationalism and socialism in the early years of the Indian republic, other imaginings have continued to serve as the protagonists of India’s epic journey. It is tempting to ask whether the righteousness that the early nationbuilders imagined for the Indian republic is, in fact, reflected in contemporary ground realities. Most would answer this question in the negative, since the country is clearly struggling to resolve a variety of social and institutional pathologies. The ongoing debates about corruption and the position of women in
India, punctuate this mood all too well. As does that fact the Indian state is in war with many of this own people in large swathes of the central Indian tribal heartland over issues of land acquisition, cultural autonomy for adivasis, and the management of natural resources. Clearly, the aspirations for the Indian republic as articulated by the five iconic figures analysed by Vajpeyi are far from being realised. For this reason, it is provocative to place Ananya Vajpeyi’s intellectual history of the idea of India characterised as a Righteous Republic alongside Arundhati Roy’s characterisation of contemporary India as a Broken Republic, the title of her last book. While both books are different in their objectives, style, and content, their conclusions only serve to remind us of how contentiously the different Indian selves—from the Adivasi, Dalit, rural selves on the one hand, to the globalising, liberalising, nationalist selves on the other—continue to shape the destiny of the Indian republic. (The views expressed in this column are of the author alone)
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looking back
PHOTO BY SURESH GOLA
\\ MAPMYINDIA
THE
PATHFINDERS
Father-son duo looks back at the process of pioneering digital maps of 5,79,000 towns and villages, street level maps of over 4,000 cities and 1.8 million kilometres of road network, and how MapmyIndia got to know India, inside out Rakesh Verma: By 2004, we realised digital maps would be a crowded market. We knew the only thing that could differentiate us from the crowd was a brand that people could rely on. Being a product company, we were nothing without a brand. The first step towards making a brand was to take it to consumers. So, we thought of the internet.
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Rohan Verma: I was in my first year of electrical engineering at Stanford University, US, when my father had this idea— web maps. These were early days of the internet. There had been a boom and bust but people hadn’t thought of many ways of making money through the internet. I began benchmarking the different
models around the world for digital maps—companies like MapQuest, YahooMaps and Maporama. At that time, we weren’t really thinking about a consumer focus as opposed to a focus on enterprise clients. We were just excited by the possibilities of what we could do with this business. It took us three months to build the website
looking back MAPMYINDIA //
DOSSIER
NAME: Rakesh Verma PROFESSION: Entreprenuer 2004: Launched the portal, MapmyIndia, in September of the year. The entry was in the internet space 2007: Moved from being a software to a hardware company
NAME: Rohan Verma PROFESSION: Second generation entreprenuer 2007: Passed out of Standford
and load it with our digital maps. We were going to call it Mappls because the enterprise and government community knew us by that name then. But, somehow this didn’t jive. One day over lunch, we came up with the name—MapmyIndia. Rakesh Verma: When we launched the portal in September 2004, it was a hit. In months, we were getting 5,0006,000 unique visitors a day when internet penetration was barely there. Rohan Verma: I think we were lucky. We were in the right place at the right time. There was no company like MapmyIndia in this country. When we launched, we also got press attention. In fact, the media has been our lucky charm because we had a solid product to back it up. Rakesh Verma: We were thrilled to see the traction. The scale of reaching out to more people is what is exciting about the consumer space. As entrepreneurs, we found this connect with people very exhilarating. Looking back, I know we wouldn’t have enjoyed our journey as much if we had only stayed in the enterprise space. My own experience of working with product companies in the US, and on programmes like Project Saturn for GM had shaped my interest in consumer businesses. Along with ideas and products, a consumer business needs money. You cannot survive in a consumer space without sufficient cash in your war chest. Rohan Verma: At Stanford, I took a course on entrepreneurship. We had some great guest faculty, including people from iconic venture capital firms like Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, and David Filo, the co-founder of Yahoo. I’d hang around after classes to talk to them, and MapmyIndia would come up in our conversations. Those discussions led us to think that our company had potential to attract multimillion dollar investments. My father and I worked together on a business plan—he would work on it from India, and I would work in the US. I then presented the business plan to Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Ram Shriram
“My own experience of working with product companies in the US...shaped my interest in consumer businesses. Along with ideas and products, a consumer business needs money. You cannot survive in a consumer space without sufficient cash...”—Rakesh Verma of Sherpalo Ventures (who had invested in Google, Amazon and Zynga). Kleiner Perkins and Ram Shriram invested in us in August 2006. With money in the bank, we could focus on technology. Around this time, the world was moving from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. My father wanted us to upgrade, too. So, I took a quarter off from Stanford to do this. Soon, MapmyIndia became one of the first Web 2.0 technology portals in India. Rakesh Verma: Since then, we have raised $25 million in total, and reached four investors—Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Sherpalo Ventures, Nexus India Capital, and last year, Zenrin Co. As a product company, we needed a lot of upfront investment. Plus, our challenges were greater because we didn’t just create a brand, we created an entire category. We are thought leaders in the mapping and navigation solutions space in India. That was tough, we enjoy the advantages of being first movers and have been able to sustain our market share even when the market was growing. Yet, not everybody agreed with all our decisions. When we brought out our GPS device Navigator in 2007, it was new for India. People wondered why we were doing this. Some of our investors felt we should not have entered this space on our own. Our investors felt we should just supply maps to manufacturers. But, we knew we were going the right way. After its launch, the brand really started building on its own. In 2004, we’d entered the internet space.
In 2007, we were moving from being a software to a hardware company. Rohan Verma: Even though we were a small company, we gave in to the demands of professionals, and went in for television and print advertising campaigns in 2008-09. But what we did well and differently from other players was that when we started selling devices in 2007, we invested in educating the market. We hired 150 sales people on the ground. This built long-lasting value. When people went to buy our product, we had a guy at the retail point. That organically created, and helped perpetuate what the GPS was. This kind of street presence was a conventional FMCG approach but it was unconventional for a company of our size. Investing in a market before it’s even born is what forerunners do. That has had a lasting brand impact— our customers associate these products for us. Rakesh Verma: After the GPS device in 2007, we’ve launched products like mobile maps, navigation systems and tracking devices. We’ve grown over 600 per cent over the past three years. Today, 75 per cent of our revenue comes from consumer business. Rohan Verma: By the time I was finishing up at Stanford in 2007, the company had achieved a lot. Our people had done a great job, yet we had done only half of what we could do with the portal. Going forward, we don’t want to “complexify” our maps but we certainly want to personalise it. Our maps should know you.
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PLATFORM
SIDDHARTHA VAIDYANATHAN | Sports Columnist
Cricket in India doesn’t operate in a vacuum It is part of a society that discourages women from excelling in ‘male bastions’
SIFT THROUGH THE reports from the
recent Women’s World Cup held in India—which Australia won—and words like ‘sexism’, ‘apathy’, ‘discriminatory’ and ‘insult’ pop out. The two-week long tournament, with matches in Mumbai and Cuttack, hardly created a ripple and was the latest illustration of why the women’s game is languishing in the margins. A few points: 1. A week before the start of the tournament, whose schedules were announced three years ago, all matches were moved from Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium to accommodate a Ranji Trophy final and an Irani Trophy match. The games were held in three other stadiums in Mumbai and two venues in Cuttack, which is in the opposite end of the country. 2. Two days before the start of the tournament Diana Edulji, a former Indian captain and one of the pioneers of the women’s game, slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for their disinterest. In an interview to ESPNCricinfo, she said women’s
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cricket was in danger of dying if the current situation persists. 3. Police outnumbered spectators in many of the World Cup matches. An estimated 300 watched the Australia-Pakistan match at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. This despite entry into the stadiums being free. 4. When asked about the poor crowd response, tournament director, Suru Nayak, said the International Cricket Council (ICC) were responsible for promoting the event. “The BCCI has no say in the tournament, it’s the ICC who are organising it,” he told the Times of India. 5. India were eliminated from the tournament within the first week. And along with them went the little bit of interest that remained. Not that the grounds were full even for India games. Reports suggest vast empty spaces even for matches involving the hosts. These are big issues for a global tournament. There is something wrong when organisers allow domestic matches to take precedence over a World Cup. And one senses a deeper
ABOUT THE WRITER Siddhartha Vidyanathan is a writer who divides his time between India and the US. He blogs at sidveeblogs. wordpress.com
malaise when issues as serious as those raised by Edulji come to the fore only before a major event. The average Indian fan approaches women’s cricket in the same way he approaches the Asian Games or the Olympics: make some noise every four years and then forget about it in the intervening period. There are no raging TV debates about women’s cricket, no online wars over team selection. The BCCI has plenty to answer for. Women’s cricket came under the aegis of the board in 2006. Yes, state associations have allowed women players to use training facilities. Yes, there has been a burgeoning of the back-room staff of the women teams. But none of this can make up for the fact that the BCCI has done little to integrate the women’s game into the mainstream. “If there is more support from the BCCI, then standards will rise,” said Clare Connor, the ICC women’s committee chairman. “The passion is there for the game, people just need to know more about women’s cricket probably, and hopefully that support will grow.” The organisers did little to advertise
platform
SIDDHARTHA VIDYANATHAN //
Corporates have to cop some blame too. Advertising and marketing priorities seem so lopsided that even pre-eminent women cricketers like Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami don’t find themselves on hoardings and TV advertisements” the tournament. No signboards and hoardings that screamed at you. No serious promotion of the event. Even women cricket fans in Mumbai—who would have flocked to the grounds for an international match or IPL—didn’t show much interest. A review of the tournament in ESPNCricinfo was critical of the lack of atmosphere in the grounds. There was no music to pep up the games, no regular announcements. The participating country’s national anthems were played only in the final. There were no cheerleaders, no mid-innings entertainment. Back in February 2008, I watched India play Australia in a T20 match in Melbourne. As an opening act before the game, England and Australia played a women’s T20. This was a fine initiative on the part of the Australian board. Not only did it allow the women a chance to compete in front of a big crowd but also gave the fans an incentive to come and watch them. There was entertainment through the game. And the women later spoke of how much of a difference it makes to have a big crowd watching them. The BCCI must follow this lead and
schedule women’s T20 games during the IPL and international T20s. This can be a great way to introduce women’s cricket stars to the average fan. This can also serve as a chance to allow more interaction between the men and women cricketers. It would give young, aspiring women cricketers a chance to learn from some of the leading lights in the men’s game. And vice-versa. Corporates have to cop some blame too. Advertising and marketing priorities seem so lopsided that even pre-eminent women cricketers like Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami don’t find themselves on hoardings and TV ads. Companies need to recognise that these women would serve as an inspiration for others aspiring to take up the game. Popular culture is yet to embrace women’s cricket. There has been no Bend It Like Beckham or Dare to Dream (the story of US women’s soccer) that has seeped into public consciousness. Movies, documentaries and magazines can play their part in spreading the message. The blame game, though, can only go so far. To see a real change in the profile of the women’s game, we need a collective
effort in vitalising the grassroots. Parents need to encourage girls to play with the boys in the neighborhood maidans. They need to push them to attend summer training camps. And they need to be willing to send teenage girls to countries like England to play in clubs and leagues, to hone their skills. Schools and colleges need to have cricket tournaments for girls. Clubs must start women’s-only teams and actively seek out talented players from their respective cities. Women’s cricket in India doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It is part of a larger society that discourages women from excelling in fields that have traditionally been male bastions. It operates in a culture where large number of women cricketers give up the game once they are married. For every Mithali or Jhulan, there are thousands of girls whose parents frown upon them for picking up a bat and ball. Until that equation changes, the blatant disparity between the men’s and women’s game will sadly continue. (The views expressed in this column are of the author alone)
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Issue | A closer look at smaller states
Is Small,
Simpler? In the year 1956 the Centre, under the leadership of the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru, initiated a process of territorial re-demarcation of the country. The State Reorganisation Commission (SRC) was formed to oversee the ‘redrawing’ of the Indian map on linguistic lines. As a result, the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, etc were formed between the years 1956-1960. The current states of Punjab and Haryana were formed in the 1966, while Uttarakhand and Chattisgarh were formed in the year 2000. BY MANJIRI INDURKAR THE DEMAND for a separate state of Telangana is today
TELANGANA
ON 2009, Telangana Rash-
triya Samiti President K. Chandrashekhar Rao started a fast unto death. He demanded the introduction of a Telangana Bill in Parliament. On December 9, 2009, the then Home Minister P. Chidambaram made an announcement where he said the Centre will start a process of forming a separate Telangana, pending the introduction and passage of a separation resolution in the AP Assembly. This led to mass protests...
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more than 50 years old. The state of Andhra Pradesh was formed against the recommendation of the SRC, which wanted to keep the region separate. A pact— Gentleman’s Agreement—was signed in 1956 between Telangana and Andhra leaders. The agreement provided safeguards with the purpose of preventing discrimination against Telangana. The alleged violations of this agreement are cited as one of the reasons for demands of a separate statehood for Telangana. In this battle for statehood, Telangana’s not the only participant. The past decades have seen an increase in the demand to break up existing states—the Hindi Heartland of UP into Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, Awadh Pradesh and Paschim Pradesh. The Vidarbha region of Maharashtra is also demanding for political autonomy. The premise of these demands are being set is ‘administrative viability’. The argument is that smaller states are better governed, and thus are more likely to develop. While the newly-formed Chhattisgarh is performing relatively better, its mother state Madhya Pradesh has not been able to replicate the success story. The failed state of the Northeastern region of the country, after the breakup of Greater Assam into several smaller states,
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also raises questions on the argument of administrative viability. In the past few years, Bihar has seen a dramatic growth; however Jharkhand has failed to do the same. It could be argued that Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand got small parts of their mother states, but Jharkhand constituted a significant part of undivided Bihar, owing to its under performance. But it cannot be ignored that the success of Bihar is a product of strong governance and political will. Now there are Vidharbha, Telangana and Bundelkhand— all demanding political autonomy. That leads us to ponder over Nehru’s decision of dividing states on linguistic lines. Existing small states do not always lead to success stories—so do / can smaller states lead to wholesome development? The available data presents a mixed image, thus it will be safe to say that division alone is not the answer. Is not better to invest the available resources in the making the current infrastructure robust? How viable is the idea of smaller states for India? DW spoke to experts Dr Asha Sarangi, Professor of Political Science at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Professor Ambuja Kumar Tripathy, Professor of Political Science at the Delhi University, for the Issue of the Month.
issue
SMALLER STATES //
ASHA SARANGI
Dr Asha Sarangi is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Political Studies, JNU. Recently, she edited a volume (with Sudha Pai) titled ‘Interrogating Reorganisation of States: Culture, Identity and Politics in India’ published by Routledge India, 2011 DR ASHA SARANGI//The idea of forming
new states and dividing larger ones into smaller entities began in the 1920s. It was only after independence that the idea of states being formed on the lines of linguistic homogeneity and geographical compactness started especially with the formation of States Reorganisation Commission, and prior to that, with the Dar Commission and JVC. But the 14 states formed, were too large. Amalgamated areas which could have been cut into separate, smaller states. Thus, regional imbalances and diversities were not administratively taken care of. And states
began to breed the logic of ‘internal colonialism’ (more prosperous parts asserting their economic and cultural hegemony over the backward ones). A number of protest movements arose due to these internal disequilibrium across regions. In terms of population growth, often it is the idea of ‘size’ that leads to a demand for partition. Importantly, the demand can also be seen as a regional assertion and can be a result of coalition politics, with regional parties leading the drive. Also, partition demand has a lot to do with identity politics, and issues of distributive justice and equality. Backward states often feel discrimi-
nated due to their developmental deficit and believe that a break-up into smaller entities might prove to be advantageous. Break-up also demands attention of the Centre and extra investment of resources. HOWEVER, A division is not simply a question of resource and investment, but accounts for political stability, and to a large extent, warrants administrative efficiency. It has to do with the nature of coalition politics in a region, and its manipulative tactics on the part of the dominant regional party or parties and players. If it is too strong then the Centre often gives in to the demands. Whether or not such divisions bring success cannot be ascertained simply. We can not rely only on GDP figures to indicate growth, as it does not address the issue of regional inequality, structures of poverty and backwardness. Cutting the size of states to manageable administrative units might be a short term answer to manage equitable distribution of wealth. But it will be so only in those cases where developmental parameters are already in place, and a certain degree of political maturity exists. In can occur in states geared towards de-centralisation of power and resources. If there is a need to redraw the map of India, considerations such as equitable distribution of resources, fair share of natural resources for the intra-state uses, transparency and accountability of rule, and inter-state parity should be kept in mind. The present-day politicians need to remind themselves about the democratic agenda of change, and the urgent need to take peoples wishes into account. For instance, in case of Telangana, both Congress and the TDP need to come to terms with the demand for separate statehood for Telangana on some fundamental issues, and not indulge in populist tactics. Partially, I agree with the idea that instead of breaking-up states, perhaps strengthening the current infrastructure and focusing on making the system more robust would be a better option. However, infrastructural growth and development has to be in accordance with egalitarian ethos. Simply corporatising the economy is not an answer for the growth and development of a plural society such as India.
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issue
\\ SMALLER STATES
AMBUJA KUMAR TRIPATHY // The demand
for smaller states is not new, and similar cries have been heard from time-to-time, sometime on basis of ethnicity, and increasingly on basis of a demand for better governance and rapid development. The country has witnessed people’s agitation based on this demand. According to estimates, a rational re-organisation of the federal country into smaller states will give India around 50 states. In mid 1970s, Rasheeduddin Khan had argued for 56 states, on the basis of social and cultural factors. Post-2000, there has been a spate of demands after the formation of three new states; Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand. The Telangana agitation has raised interesting questions about the relationship between state size and better development—does size matter? Are smaller states better governed? Those in favor of smaller states argue that they make for better delivery of public services, accountability, opportunities and access to opportunities. There are no definitive answers. After all, what is the effective size of an administrative unit if it wishes to deliver good governance and citizens’ services? Evidence of performance of small versus larger states is highly mixed, showing clearly that there is little relationship between size and developmental efficacy. As W. Arthur Lewis has noted: any understanding of “the engine of growth” would be a “theory of government, where government would appear to be as much the problem, as the solution”. So, it is the quality of government intervention that really matters. It is debatable whether this is dependent on the size of state. Let us look at the hard data concerning the roles that state governments have played in fostering rates and patterns of economic development. During the Xth Five Year Plan period, Chhattisgarh experienced 9.2 per cent of growth (annual) compared to MP’s 4.3 per cent, Jharkhand saw an 11.1 per cent annual growth compared to Bihar’s 4.7 per cent, and Uttaranchal achieved 8.8 per cent growth compared to UP’s 4.6 per cent. If we take some more estimates, we can see that the BPL population is 32 per cent in Chhattisgarh, 14 per cent in MP, 25per cent in Uttaranchal and 14.4 per cent in UP. Research indicates that the richest states (like Punjab) grew three to four times faster than poorer states (say,
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AMBUJA KUMAR TRIPATHY
Bihar) between 1970 and 2005. The Gini coefficient of per capita consumption is found highest for Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra (0.35 and 0.4 per cent) showing extreme variations intrastate even in the richest states. The mixed record is the testimony to the fact that the size of state and degree of development may not have the direct causal relationship. However, it also must be noted that there is nothing wrong with the core idea of creating new states—but given the plethora of demands a serious case-by-case analysis is to be made. Federal unity or stability is no longer a concern like in the 1950s and 1960s, so demands should not be perceived as threats to federalism. Smaller states are being proposed on the grounds of more pragmatic parameters such as economic growth, development, demographic size and administrative convenience rather than merely on the linguistic or cultural principle. So the underlying basis of numerous demands now could be made subject to rational analysis. Conceptually speaking, in smaller states it is easier for people to be heard, and their development needs are taken care of better. Central policies are easier to implement and monitor. It frees people of the deprivation complex and the feeling of domination by more powerful sections from other regions of the bigger state. Sometimes, such demands have roots in the continuing underdevelopment and neglect of sub-regions within large states, for instance demands for the formation of Vidharbha, Bodoland and Saurashtra. In such cases, we
Ambuja Kumar Tripathy teaches political science at Lakshmibai College (DU). He is also a Fellow at the Developing Countries Research Centre at DU and works on state, development and civil societies. His areas of specialisation are political philosophy and development politics
need to address the basic issues of better governance, economic viability, administrative convenience and greater people’s participation. The groups making demands are to be convinced that the mere creation of smaller states out of the existing bigger ones does not guarantee good governance and faster and inclusive economic development.
good karma \\ DIGITAL GREEN
THE ‘FARMGURU’ OF
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Rikin Gandhi is teaching the farmers of the country the keys to a better produce BY DEBASHISH DUTTA
good karma DIGITAL GREEN //
Dossier NAME: Rikin Gandhi (Founder and CEO) ORGANISATION NAME: Digital Green STARTED IN: 2008 WEBSITE : http://www.digitalgreen.org
A
s part of the Mahindra Rise Project, set out to pick 20 innovators from different fields, the July issue of Tehelka featured Rikin Gandhi, a 30-yearold. The article contains a shot of the geeky, Indian lad, who looks in his teens, while the article begins with a profound thought: “Oddly enough for someone who seems so committed to his task, land held little interest... it was the skies and astronomy that captivated him.” Despite what the writer wished to convey, land and air often hold different meanings
to interpreters. If to someone land represents belonging, air is often where you don’t belong; similarly, air might signify the height of joy, land in that context could mean losing a grip. It could be interesting to note which school of thought Gandhi subscribes to. A postgraduate in aeronautics and astronautics from the MIT (US), and a licensed pilot, Gandhi decided to give up the lofty heights and focused on earth instead. Perhaps, for him, land symbolises stability, as he mentions in an interview, “I have been reading autobiographies of astronauts who see the earth from above with new perspective. They become philosophical; think about the futility of wars and human greed. Many become farmers, teachers and go all the way to reconnect...” Chance brought Gandhi to India, for a Maharashtra biodiesel project. After failing that, he got involved with a Microsoft Research Project in Bengaluru. It was around 2007, and the project looked at emerging markets and scope of technology in smallscale farming systems. A computer science graduate, Gandhi says, “For six months, we were going around exploring possibilities, visiting farmers. We began a partnership with an NGO situated on the outskirts of Bengaluru, Green Foundation, focusing on sustainable agricultural process and biodiversity. Like most NGOs, they were, too, bound by human capacity, finances and were interested to see if technology could add efficiency.” The idea was to start conversations with villagers and educate them about new techniques. Instead of the usual man-to-man demonstrations, the group thought that videos would help. “Initially, we had 20 TV sets, one each for a village, an investment of $20,” Gandhi remembers. The videos were then screened by the research group, in the evenings in schools, panchayat buildings and residences. The idea was not revolutionary nor were the results. “Krishi Darshan had been doing similar stuff for decades and only 10 to 15 per cent of our viewers implemented the techniques,” recalls Gandhi. There was a need to innovate on the existing idea. They experimented by making the process more inclusive. “We realised that localisation was important. People were getting information from different sources, but they did not know who to trust. From there came the idea of democratising the process,” says Gandhi,
“So, we pondered over the question of who should produce the videos—shouldn’t it be the locals?” The group began training members of the partner NGOs and village communities. It worked wonderfully, shooting the 10 to 15 per cent data upto 70 to 75 per cent. The high-frequency screening of videos—once in every two weeks with a mediator available to answer questions—turned out to be affective. “The people who were being featured knew they would become role models for communities, and the people who watched it could identify with the faces.” After the initial success, Gandhi pondered over the viability to implement the project over a larger area. Thus, Digital Green came into being. Funded by the Gates and Forbes Foundations and the Centre, Digital Green works on the same idea, albeit with innovations. Within a short span, it has touched 2,000 villages in seven states and 150,000 farmers. The aim is to further this reach, and by 2015, as part of a collaboration with the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), Digital Green plans to expand to 10,000 villages. Of course, there were initial hiccups. In Jharkhand there were villages surviving without power supply, so from rented TV sets they had to shift to pico projectors. The works of the Digital Green are open to all, easily available on Youtube. Perhaps their most innovative endeavour—the idea of a social network for farmers, Farmbook, their version of Facebook. Farmbook lists complete details of actual farmers registered with them. Then, there is Wondervillage, on the lines of Farmville, the notoriously popular, game. Wondervillage has been worked upon in such a way that it has not only adopted but meliorated the concept of its precursor, changing the virtual world of crops and colonies into a palpably real experience. “You are faced with problems of rural development, that’s where village gurus (actual farmers and members of Farmbook) come to your rescue.” Similar to those astronauts, in whose journals he sought inspiration, Gandhi wishes to continue his voyage by using the same platform and deal with institution building, health and nutrition next. On cards is a plan to tie-up with Vodafone which would enable audio distribution of programme through the mobile network. Truly digital, and green.
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“I was raised by strong women, especially on my mother’s side. I have to write about them”
READING ROOM
— Manil Suri
Author
The City of Devi
Emotional and surprising, quite a page-turner this BY JAISHREE SRINIVASAN
(CONTAINS SPOILERS) Manil
Suri’s The City of Devi is the final installment in a trilogy which began with The Death of Vishnu in 2001. The second book in the series was The Age of Shiva, which although not as acclaimed as the first novel, received good reviews all around. Suri cleverly links the three novels not through narrative but through the theme of the holy trinity in Hinduism. The surprise being that the final novel deals with Devi and not Bramha as being a part of the holy triumvirate. This also seems to be an intelligent contemporary twist given to an old ideology. In marrying the topics of mythology with modern day power scenario in an increasingly insecure world threatened by terrorism and warfare, Suri has come up a complex layered novel that also manages to present an interesting human tale of emotions centered on love for an individual. The story begins in Mumbai that has been nearly annihilated through nuclear bombs in the battle ensuing between rival gangs of Hindu and Muslim fundamentalist factions, fueled by a CIA supported Pakistan army. As the city lies bleeding, the
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denizens are trying to carry on with some modicum of normalcy. Central to the story is Sarita, a devoted and yet modern Hindu wife in search of her missing husband. Her undying hope and relentless quest leads her through markets in search of the last elusive pomegranate which she believes will rescue her marriage, hospitals, even discos using various means of transport. Her husband Karun, a physicist has gone missing and although his whereabouts are unknown, Sarita believes that her willpower, courage and a helping hand from the mother of the universe, Devi would help her succeed in finding him, a mission shared by the second main character in the novel, Ijaz. Jazter, as Ijaz likes to call himself in the third person, is a Muslim with only one religion as he claims himself- having sex with other men. Right at the very beginning, it becomes clear that there’s more to it than Ijaz’s seemingly helpful nature when he offers to assist Sarita in her quest to find Karun. Ijaz, as it turns out, has been in a relationship with Karun for several years before things turned sour
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Manil Suri was born in Mumbai and is a professor of mathematics and affiliate professor of Asian studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is the author of the novels The Death of Vishnu, The Age of Shiva, and Publisher: Bloomsbury India ISBN: 9781408833919 Price: `499 Pages: 400
between them, a fact that pushes Karun towards marrying Sarita. The first half of the novel is rather slow and builds up the story of the relationship between the three protagonists through elaborate descriptions of love-making, both queer and straight, exposing the fundamental reason for Karun’s reluctance to submit himself completely to Sarita. The underlying complexity of Karun’s psyche is not explored fully but the story ambles along to a fairly thrilling second half dominated by the narrative of rival factions playing out their hostilities through destruction of the city of their livelihood. Passions are roused through evoking devotion towards the city’s patron Goddess, Mumba Devi resulting in the city being ravaged by the Hindu chief, Bhim’s men as well as the rival muslim gangs. As the story reaches a final crescendo, emotions are laid bare and many surprises come to the fore. The three characters in keeping with the theme of the holy trinity resolve their complex story of loving and losing through a Bollywood style climax after a crazy odyssey that takes them through the length
“India and Indians have always meant business”
reading room CRITICS & AUTHORS //
— Kshama V. Kaushik
and breadth of the island sometimes on foot, in trains that are being bombed, and even on elephants. Suri reveals his background of being an expert Mathematician by balancing out the equations of violence and love in a city that equally supports traditional beliefs of faith in the
Goddess, just as it presents itself as a modern, heartless haven where people often sell their souls to realise their dreams. In summary, despite being graphic, dramatic and very violent, The City of Devi is a story told rather well in an uniquely satiric and dramatic
style, living up to Suri’s reputation of being one of the most iconoclastic storytellers of our time. Despite the background of a modern day world terrorised by violence with no respite, the novel succeeds in conveying the triumph of love, hope and faith, against all odds.
India Means Business A look at the economic history of India and how it has shaped the way we do business here BY SANGITA THAKUR VARMA MOST WITH an interest in economics are rather put off
by the thought of reading economic history. Given the 15-page bibliography, a casual reader intrigued by the title may well feel tempted to put India Means Business How the Elephant Earned its Stripes back on the bookshelf. But ignore the rather text-bookish package, and the 339 pages in hardback make for an interesting read. Chartered accountant-researchers-authors Kshama V. Kaushik and Kaushik Dutta have done an exemplary job as economic historians setting the context of Indian business. As India opens up to the world, the book becomes a collector’s edition for any company wanting to do business here. It takes on a cultural-commercial journey of discovery of India down the ages and in the process unravels the way Indian business ethos was formed. What we learn in the process is that India has always meant business. The story starts at the beginning of the 18th century when the Indian subcontinent had a flourishing overseas trade. The painstaking research of the authors is obvious but nowhere does it interfere in the narrative to make it a dull piece of history. So we learn about Zaveris of Ahmedabad who still continue in ancestral jewellery trade, Travadis of
Surat and Hiranand Sahu of Patna who were Sahukars or moneylenders. The Elephant called India was trumpeting high. But the advent of the British traders on its shores changed all that. Hundi and arbitrage go back to the 18th century and if it were not were the House of Jagat Seths founded by Hiranand Sahu the British perhaps would not have succeeded in setting up their empire. The conspiracy of Seths led to the Battle of Plassey and the victory of the English. It is such interesting tidbits that make the book interesting. India’s multi-format business has its root in its history as we learn from the book and also that ASSOCHAM, FICCI, CII are but modern and evolved versions of srenis or nigamas of ancient times. The authors’ insights into Indian family business and their knack for survival through the rough and tumble of politics is interesting. Right from the time of the nationalist movement, business families in India have avoided confrontational politics and their “biggest advantage…is their ability to adjust to prevalent political dispensation”. The cynics amongst us may perhaps find this “ability” an euphemism for some harsher adjectives especially in the current scenario where neither are cutting a very ethical picture.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS Kshama V. Kaushik, Chartered Accountant, is a freelance consultant. She is the co-author of Corporate Governance: Myth to Reality. Kaushik Dutta, Chartered Accountant, is a member of CII's National Council on Corporate Governance. A Visiting Professor in IIM Lucknow, he is the co-author of Corporate Governance
Pages: 352 ISBN-10: 0198072619 Publishers: Oxford University Press Price: $54.75
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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!
We are including this car not only because we love cars, but because of the previously unimaginable horizon that this manufacturer has brought close to reality—a car that is ecofriendly without feeling like one. This piece of art on wheels, the “Moonshot” Tesla Model S has been painstakingly in development for years, and was finally unleashed late 2012. Priced around `60 lakh—actually on the lower side considering its impressive stats—this car will fit the standard definition of a sports car for people who love sexy cars (basically everyone), and is powered by batteries to keep the green brigade happy. Not an easy agreement, as most luxury car manufacturers will tell you. We salute Elon Musk for his attempts!
TESLA MODEL S `60,00,000
Tesla Model S
SCANADU SCOUT Scout can measure a bunch of your vital stats by holding it right next to your temple. Check out www.scanadu.com. Price: `10,000
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CHARGECARD A neat little Kickstarter project— ChargeCard—has introduced a small chip that can be carried around which supports the God of modern connector cable–Micro USB.
warehouse
GADGE TS & GIZMOS //
Geeks are a predictable bunch—if you ask them about an ‘ideal life’, it would be a cross of Matrix and James Bond. Geeks' favourite games are probably Quake, Call of Duty, etc. Good news for them, parts of the above fictional worlds are coming to life, powered by Linux. Please wipe up the drool and concentrate, here is a setup that allows an iPad to pair with a gun’s scope to allow a shooter to ‘lock’ on a target (after taking in weather conditions) and fire a shot so awesome that one absolutely cannot miss. As an added benefit, there is always the good feeling of living like an open-source soul, even if it costs one `11,00,000. If any of you would like to own one of these beauties, look at www.tracking-point.com
SONIC SCREWDRIVER `5,000
.338 LAPUA MAGNUM `11,00,000
Some people say that Doctor Who is the James Bond of science fiction, though Mr Bond uses quite a lot of Sci-Fi goodies himself. Looking past that, we would say that the army of fans that the show has garnered, will appreciate that somebody has gone on to prepare the Sonic Screwdriver, which the good Doctor uses for—absolutely anything. Lock-pick kit to tracking a bunch of nasty aliens, the Sonic Screwdriver promises to do anything—that the show’s writers can think of. It will do none of those things in real life, but it is still a good piece of the show memorabilia, and would work for you as a trusted universal remote. Yours for some `5000, plus shipping. Check out www.iwantoneofthose.com
FIREFOX OS; WEB TO THE CORE Firefox OS sounds a lot like Google's Chrome OS, down to the fact that both operating systems are named after their respective browsers.
BLACKBERRY 10 IS HERE It's February and after a long wait Blackberry 10 is finally out there. It is not as closed as an Apple is. Monetarily speaking its cheapest to develop for BB.
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HIKER
PHOTOS BY MARRYAM RESHII
HITCH
Other Face: The City of Arts and Sciences
City of the Arts and Sciences
A bit of both, with loads of fun, that’s Valencia for you
BY MARRYAM RESHII
M
y journey from freezing Madrid, where the weather forecast kept predicting snow, to warm, sunny Valencia took exactly two hours, but it was like going to another country altogether. The skies in Valencia resolutely remained fiercely blue, orange trees lined every street; one end of the city was bound by a beach, along which ran a line of paella restaurants. The old part of the city was crammed with historic squares, churches and clock towers, while the new part was graced with the cutting edge City of Arts and Sciences designed by architect Santiago Calatrava. Add to it the largest historic covered market in the country, the home of not only paella but also the little known tigernut (yes! You read that right!) and also a super potent drink called Agua de Valencia, so famous that it is now branded and sold in bottles to eager tourists. And no, this is not all that Valencia has to offer: it is but a foretaste. I was propping up the bar at Casa Montana. Young Alejandro Garcia Llinares
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was telling me how he and his wife bought an ancient wine cellar in newly fashionable El Cabanyal district and turned it into a smart bar where the accent is on
hitchhiker’s guide VALENCIA //
HIKER OF THE MONTH
the tapas: golden fried potatoes with garlic aioli and fava beans napped in a sauce so addictive I wonder if it has some illegal substance in it. Washing it down is a glass or three of Vermouth taken from the enormous casks that line the little bodega. Once you have spent time in Spain, you will figure out how to ration your intake. Grazing is the name of the game, and the more time you take to do it, and the more places you visit, the better you can be said to have mastered the game. So after exploring the marina with a desi connection, I was ready for paella (the desi connection, for those who care, is because Vijay Mallya found it difficult to dock his outsize yacht in the expansive marina. Authorities are now thinking of widening it before Shri Mallya comes calling again). Paella is a beautiful dish. It contains rice (of the variety known as bomba), and two or more of the following: garlic, garafon beans, broad beans, rabbit, chicken, seafood and saffron. It was traditionally made over a wood fire, but modern living being what it is, that is a thing of the past. The row of paella restaurants that overlook the beach all specialise in seafood paella. La Marcelina is usually acknowledged to be the most popular. What is the main difference between biryani and paella is that a restaurant specialising in the former would have ready prepared all its biryani before the restaurant opened and kept it warm. The idea of cooking each order of biryani a la minute is laughable. In Valencia, each and every restaurant, no matter how tiny, cooks their paella to order. I guess it
There are few who have not heard of Marryam H. Reshii. Reshii is a well-known restaurant critic and gastronomy writer, a relentless traveller, and a woman slightly obsessed with olive oil, Kashmiri recipes, Indian heritage foods, French patisserie and fine chocolate... well, her list is long. A keen photographer, Reshii lives in Delhi with her husband and two children
Catholic Imagery:
(Above) Local handicrafts in Mediterranean colours
Plated Paella: (Above) A must have when in Valencia
helps that the rice needs neither soaking nor washing and the paella pans are wide and shallow so that all liquid evaporates rapidly. Unlike biryani, where every restaurant or household would have a single recipe,
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hitchhiker’s guide \\ VALENCIA
Birth Place: It is said that paella originated in Valencia
Goodness Glass: In-house Vermouth with patate bravas and pinto beans at Casa
Montana
paella really does come in several choices of meats. It is said that the original combination was rabbit and chicken with two types of beans, but lobster, shrimp, mussels, fish and any permutation and combination thereof is completely kosher. It doesn’t even have to be the trademark golden colour: my host, Miguel Angel Perez, Valencian to the core, ordered squid ink paella, so his rice was black. That first day was relaxed, and so Miguel Perez and I drove to the City of Arts and Sciences to walk about in the courtyards of the buildings and admire the curvilinear silhouettes of the science museum and the aquarium, set amid open gardens where the sporty and fitness oriented portion of the population jogged and cycled their way through what were the lungs of the city. Speaking for myself, Calatrava’s vision was so extraordinary that it was like being in a museum. The very next day, amidst buildings that ranged from the 13th to 18th centuries, I felt that I was in an organically developing city that was being used by its inhabitants: the Arts and Sciences spec-
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tacle on the other hand, was a self-conscious spectacle, magnificent nevertheless. The next day was a whirlwind of visiting the iconic Central Market, built entirely of metal, like the Eiffel Tower and eating and drinking my way through a mountain of food and drink. The narrow streets of the old part of the city wound through lanes with a fair proportion of restaurants, bars and cafes. One of the cafes had another desi connection: Café De Las Horas right on Conde de Almodovar. Unabashedly over the top, quirky, colourful and artistic, the pedestrian only walkway is in the heart of the old town, a stone’s throw from the plaza with the Cathedral and the Basilica of the Virgin de los Desamparados, two partners own the Café (it’s actually a bar), one Indian. When I expressed my admiration of the interiors of his bar, Marc Insanally went the extra mile to show me the photographs of ‘before’ and ‘after’ he and his partner did up the shed and made it drop dead glamorous with the kind of back-breaking work that no desi entrepreneur would ever dream of doing. It’s where I sampled my first Agua de Valencia—a blow-away-the-top-of-yourhead cocktail made from vodka, gin, champagne or cava and fresh orange juice. You would think that any drink at all made and/or drunk in Valencia just had to have orange juice or pulp in it, going by the number of orange trees on every street. But you would not have taken into account the smooth, refreshing horchata. Made of tiger nuts—don’t be fooled by the name: their appearance is like shrivelled peanuts—horchata is a filling drink that is touted as a lactose-free alternative to milk. Apparently, you go for an evening walk and visit an horchateria for an ice-cold drink. There’s too much to tell you about Valencia: I plan to visit that city again during the unique Fallas celebrations, so there’ll be more stories yet.
PHOTOS BY RADISSON BLU HOTEL MBD LUDHIANA
GARNISH Chef's Special: Special crab dish in sauce; [below] Chinese Spring Rolls
Bite-sized China in Tandoori India
Chef Liu Zhijun brings a bit of his homeland here BY RADHIKA HASWANI
F
ood brings everyone together, and Chinese cuisine is a favourite for many people. From kids to grown ups, everyone is delighted at the mention of spring rolls, hakka noodles, chilly chicken, Schezwan chicken, prawn curry, American choupsey or chicken dimsum dipped in Schezwan sauce. I couldn't stop myself from fantasising about these dishes during my entire conversation with Chef Liu Zhijun—the Master Chef at Radisson Blu Hotel MBD Ludhiana. Chef Zhijun had read a lot on India and on arriving found it to be exactly like those descriptions that he had in mind. Excited, he started his India journey on January 1, 2013—the perfect day for a new plan, a new experience—an amazing opportunity to explore a land of friendly people and delicious food. One of his plans for his time in India includes introducing the authentic Chinese flavour to Indians, as he feels the so-called Chinese dishes served in this country is
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too spicy and oily—something to suit and please the local palate. “What is made here, is not authentic at all. The Chilly Chicken served in Ludhiana is Punjabi Chilly Chicken, not Chinese,” he feels. But otherwise he is a huge fan of Indian food, among his top favourites are tandoori chicken, tandoori fish and chicken tikka. And Ludhiana serves him the best of the tandoori chicken and chicken tikka—rich in taste and spices and he’s completely loving it. He enjoys making Indian curries and experiments with rice and vegetables to create innovative dishes that are only known to him—even tries to make the Indian tandoori dishes that he loves so much. French
garnish
LIU ZHIJUN //
CHEF OF THE MONTH
crab in XO sauce and chicken with Schezwan sauce are some of his popular dishes at Radisson Blu Hotel MBD Ludhiana. He not only makes his colleagues in India eat authentic Chinese cuisine, but also convinces the vegetarians to eat non-vegetarian dishes once in a while. “You should eat non-veg once or twice a week, non-veg is good” are his exact words. Chef Zhijun has a remarkable and varied 27 years’ experience in the industry and plans to satisfy people with his food both Oriental and Indian. In 1988, he graduated from the HEFEI Academy of Cooking Association and Probation Jinjiang Hotel in Shanghai and was immediately taken on as a Sous Chef at the Sapphire Hotel in China at the age of 18. This marked the beginning for this fun-loving, accommodating, simple Kitchen King. Chef Zhijun has worked in several hotels in China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia—the Marriott Hotel, The Grand Hotel, The Great Wall Hotel, TY Lounge Restaurant, Lemon Cuisine Restaurant and Helnan Palestine Hotel. In 2004, he also studied Food and Beverage Management at the American University of Cairo. Now he finds himself at Radisson Blu Hotel MBD Ludhiana which replicates the popular restaurant concept, R.E.D., present in Radisson Blu MBD hotels (the Noida R.E.D. has been awarded the Times Food Guide Awards four times). in Ludhiana, R.E.D. serves a rich variety of global cuisine and is situated on the banks of the Sutlej—a choice for guests
Chef Liu Zhijun, Master Chef at Radisson Blu Hotel MBD Ludhiana, specialises in Cantonese, Szechwan, Huaiyang, Beijing, Hunan and Asian cuisines. He loves learning regional dishes all around the world and is all set to enjoy a variety of delicious Indian flavours.
The Man: We caught the busy Chef at his kitchen
and locals to indulge in amazingly delicious food and enjoy the tranquility. Chef Zhijun takes time to proudly tell me how happy he felt when his food was praised and appreciated by Egyptian ministers. After all, appreciation is something that makes every effort
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garnish
// LIU ZHIJUN
and hard work, worth it. It was the encouragement that he received from his parents at the age of 12 that motivated him to become a chef. He was so absolutely thrilled when his parents loved the dinner he had prepared for them, that he immediately made a commitment to cooking. He also vividly remembers the first dish he made as a professional chef—prawns with Schezwan sauce—and the praise he was showered with from the guests and his colleagues. When asked to share stories of his childhood and mischief, Chef Liu insisted that as a hard-working boy, he had no such experiences. That mild manner of his has carried through to his adulthood, and Chef Liu has never had a fight or an argument in his life, though he warns that he would resort to one if anyone were to touch his woks. According to him, woks play a major role in Chinese cooking. When not using those woks to produce delicious and mouth-watering dishes for others, he enjoys eating with others as well. Outside the kitchen he keeps himself busy with reading, swimming, surfing the internet and playing basketball. His journey here in India has just begun and he is enjoying every bit of it. The first thing he was successful at was making a lot of new friends. “My colleagues are very friendly, the atmosphere here is good and the management is amazing. They make me feel comfortable and at home.” One thing he really likes about India is the culture and diversity—there is so much to see, feel and observe in India. It has only been six weeks in Ludhiana but he is already in love with the food, people and place. He is excited just at the thought of travelling
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Basic Ingredients: (Above) The egg noodle is a must-have in every Chinese kitchen as are green leafy vegetables that make a salad and a stir fry yummy!
KITCHEN MUST HAVE
Obsessed: The Chef, usually a gentle man, can fight for woks
Desiness: Chef loves an honest Punjabi Chinese... only, don’t call it authentic Chinese
Spice Route: He concentrates on food that is palatable and flavourful
in India and the first name he blurts out is the magical city of Mumbai—tempted to try the sea food there. While here in India he will indulge in local diners with the authentic Chinese cuisine that he intends to introduce, and in return he will get something unforgettable—the flavour of the Indian culture, its people, diversity and hospitality. This, combined with his passion for cooking and emphasis on eating healthy food, will make his dream of becoming one the greatest chef come to life very soon.
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ELYSIUM
LISTEN
ATTEND
INTERNATIONAL YOGA FESTIVAL Yoga is the in-thing today. Everyone knows it. Either one is doing Yoga, or one is pretending to do it. That is why the Yoga International Festival is a must visit for all you Yoga-crazy people. With more than 400 people from over 30 countries, it's grown to become one of the largest yoga gatherings in the world. So what are you waiting for? Pack your bags and head towards Rishikesh. It takes place at the Parmarth Niketan Ashram between 1st and 7th March.
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HEARTTHROB Tegan and Sara, twin sisters of the Canadian indie rock band, known to have contributed to every strata of the music industry, have come out with their best music album yet—Heartthrob. The album brings to life the good old 80s atmosphere capturing the emotional force of romance. After cranking out seven albums, their eight shines as the emblem of their talent and potential. Grab a CD now!