Democratic World November 2012

NOVEMBER 2012 `25 Issue no. 12 Volume no. 42 An MBD Publication RNI No.: 23870/72

D E M O C R A T I C W O R L D

REEL LIFE

DIRECTOR RAJAT KAPOOR ON THE COMMERCE OF MOVIE MAKING PAGE 44

SOCIAL AGENDA

DUMP THOSE BOOKS AND TRAVEL EASY WITH E-TOOLS PAGE 20

The Wingman of

Democracy ERUDITE AND ARTICULATE, UNION MINISTER OF CIVIL AVIATION, AJIT SINGH, TALKS ABOUT HIS LIFE, HIS BELIEFS, AND WHAT MAKES HIM TICK

PLUS:

WAREHOUSE

ISSUE

HITCHHIKERS

PLATFORMS

Food Lounge & Bar

EDIT ORIAL SONICA MALHOTRA KANDHARI | editorial@democraticworld.in

Filling the Blank, Finally MY PROFESSIONAL LIFE takes

QUOTE ON POLITICS

AJIT SINGH: “Everyone creates his or her legacy because every life leaves a footprint.

However, I work because I like to. My son too works because that is where his heart lies. A legacy is frankly not a strong motivation to good work”

me across India, and the rest of the world, which is both fortunate (I love travelling), and problematic, because I spend a lot of my precious moments at airport lounges. On one such wait, after devouring dozens of magazines, my thoughts turned to my own, Democratic World.

As I was reminiscing my present days as an Editor of DW, there was a moment of epiphany— though we have successfully covered major sectors of our democratic India—medicare, law, business, art and media—my team and I had never turned the focus on the most prominent one; politics.

This coincidental omission has been made right this month as we feature Mr Ajit Singh, the Union Cabinet Minister, Civil Aviation. Mr Singh is perhaps one of the busiest portfolio holders, given the state of his sector currently. From the moment he stepped into his office, he has been tackling one crisis after the next with admirable astuteness.

Far from complaining, Mr Singh believes it is fulfilling to come to office and face everyday challenges. After all, that is why he took his oath.

Dedicated and articulate, it was a pleasure talking to him about myriad topics which also included his thoughts on ethics and ethos of the political system in India and her democratic world.

As always we have endeavoured to provide a mix of serious and entertaining topics. A chunk of the entertainment, I promise, will be provided through

the deliciously naughty interview that our team had with ad man Prahlad Kakar. Kakar delighted us with his quips. A wonderful man, a creative and crazy genius, he is also deeply focused on his advertisements that have redefined how we look at some of the major brands today. Read his candid confessions in our “Looking Back” section. Also, we have filmmaker Rajat Kapoor in our “Reel Life” section.

Honest to the core, both Kakar and Kapoor are a journalist’s delight.

I hope all of you had a fulfilling Navratri and Duhssehra. Now, the wait begins for one of India’s largest festivals. Advance wishes for all my dear readers, may you have the biggest, brightest and happiest Diwali. We, too, have a treat lined up for you this month, when we turn a year old!

As always keep those letters coming in, and I hope to hear from you soon.

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COVER DESIGN BY SAMEER | PHOTO BY JITEN GANDHI

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

PRAHLAD KAKAR MEET THE ENFANT TERRIBLE KAKAR—A SCUBA-DIVER, ADMAN AND A WANNABE FILMMAKER READ MORE

12 JOHN ELLIOTT

COVER STORY

12 | The Wingman of Democracy

Union Cabinet Minister, Civil Aviation, Ajit Singh on political ethos, democracy, and on what keeps him going

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.

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DEMOCRATIC WORLD

NOVEMBER 2012

24 | HUAWEI RISKS FOR INDIAN DEFENCES: 50 years after the 1962 defeat

SIDDHARTHA VAIDYANATHAN

32 | LESSONS TO BE LEARNT FROM T20 CUP: Some things change so quickly that it’s easy for others to stay just the same

29 ISSUE

29 | HOPE AND DESPERATION

Debating the always tense situation in Northeast REGULARS

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01 | EDITORIAL 06 | UP-TO-DATE 10 | FOREIGN DESPATCHES 26 | LOOKING BACK 36 | READING ROOM 48 | STICKY NOTES

SOCIAL AGENDA

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Dump those books and click the keys to get that perfect getaway GOOD KARMA

WAREHOUSE

REEL LIFE

HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE

34 | SCHOOL CHALEIN HUM Not just a song for

38 | GADGETS & GIZMOS THE PHIBIAN

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40 | THE QUAINT CALL OF ARUSHA

the children of Haji Public School but a celebration

is a must have amphibian truck; a complete wheels on water experience

Actor, director, scriptwriter and producer Rajat Kapoor, on things he flees from

Small and serene, Arusha is a jewel tucked away in Tanzania

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FEEDBACK

www.democraticworld.com EDITORIAL D E M O C R A T I C

OCTOB ER 201 2 `25 Issue no.

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An MBD

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23870/72

LOOKIN G

THERE’S BACK ABOUTSOMETHING MARY KOM

Managing Editor: Monica Malhotra Kandhari Group Editor: Sonica Malhotra Kandhari Editor: Dr Chander Trikha Deputy Managing Editor: Rohini Banerjee Sub Editor: Manjiri Indurkar

PAGE 26

SOCI AG AL

MEASURENDA ONLIN E YOUR E CLOU T WITH TH TOOLS ESE PAGE 20

Verb a l

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JATIN DAS ta the inten lks abou se of paintly personal act ing Page 12 t

PLUS:

BROA

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GARN

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WARE

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FOREIG

N DESP ATCHES

DEAR MADAM YOUR MAGAZINE LEAVES ITS READERS WANTING FOR MORE. THERE IS ONE PROBLEM, HOWEVER, THAT YOU COVER LITTLE OF THE POLITICAL MATTERS OF THE COUNTRY. AN ANALYTICAL PIECE ON THE POLITICS OF THE COUNTRY, A SYSTEMIC ANALYSIS, WOULD ENHANCE THE MAGAZINE FURTHER.

EDITORIAL CO-ORDINATION Mamta Bhatt

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POINT OF VIEW

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DEAR EDITOR,

Last month’s piece on Mary Kom was delightful read. I wish you had dedicated more pages to the lady who made Indians so proud.

And could we have more sports news in the magazine?

Thank you, ADITYA SINHA, INVESTMENT BANKER

WRITE TO US: Democratic World values your feedback. We want to know what you think about the magazine and would love your opinion on issues that you would like us to raise. DW continues to be work in progress and your inputs will make it a truly democratic effort. For additional images, opinion polls and much more visit our facebook page at www.facebook.com/DWzine Send your comments, compliments, complaints or questions about the magazine to editorial@democraticworld.in

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

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Robert Vadra

“Mango People In the Banana Republic”

They Said it

uptodate On the war path: India Against Corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal

India Plagued by Financial Irregularities Robert Vadra, Salman Khurshid under scanner Scams\\ India witnessed a slew of protests against

high-profile politicians and personalities in October 2012. Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi, came under the scanner. It was alleged that Vadra had bought as many as 41 premium apartments from DLF, and subsequently sold most of them at a profit. Apartments were acquired by companies promoted by him, including Sky Light Hospitality, which had dealings with DLF, by paying a minimum booking amount, with the exception of a luxury pad in the picturesque Aralias, for which he paid the entire sum of `11.9 crore upfront. Vadra

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used a part of the `58-crore advance paid by DLF (for purchasing a 3.5 acre plot from him in Gurgaon) for booking these flats. Also, Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) started collecting documents in connection with its probe into alleged financial irregularities in a trust run by Union minister Salman Khurshid. The UP government had directed the EOW to probe into charges of misappropriation of funds by Zakir Hussain Trust run by Khurshid, and wife, Louise. India Against Corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal also offered to present evidence against law minister Salman Khurshid.

`58 crore was received by Vadra from DLF Pvt Ltd

up-to-date

from around the world //

Schumacher announces his retirement Announcement\\ Michael Schumacher announced

The Nobel Laureates: (from left) John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka (medicine), David Wineland (physics) and Brian Kobilka (chemistry)—some of the 2012 Nobel Laureates

2012 Nobel Awards Announced Surprise Peace Award Creates Stir Nobel \\ Two Americans shared 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for deciphering the

communication system that the body uses to sense the outside world, which will aid development of new drugs. The winners were, Dr Robert J. Lefkowitz, professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, and Dr Brian K. Kobilka, a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California. For the Nobel Prize in Physics, American physicist David Wineland, shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Serge Haroche of the Collège de France and École Normale Supérieure in Paris “for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.” British researcher John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan won this year’s Nobel Prize in physiology for discovering that mature, specialised cells of the body can be programmed into stem cells, a discovery that scientists hope to turn into new treatments. Chinese writer Mo Yan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his “hallucinatory realism which merges folk tales, history and the contemporary”. The most controversial award, however, turned out to be this year’s Peace Prize, awarded to to the crisis-torn European Union. It led to a Twitter backlash, though some netizens came to the decision’s defence.

his ‘second’ retirement from racing at the age of 43 years in the Suzuka paddock in Japan. It came as no real shock, considering Schumacher’s seat was given to Lewis Hamilton for season 2013 onwards. That left Schumacher with few alternatives for his future in F1, with Sauber as the primary option. Most F1 fans will link Schumacher with Ferrari before Schumacher and Mercedes, and those who were witness to the dominance at the turn of the millennium know forever, that his greatness is perhaps only surpassed by the late Ayrton Senna.

Several of Schumacher’s fans had seen him retire in 2006. Then he returned to racing in 2010.

When Schumacher read his final fareDiminishing well—and thanked his wife CorinStar? na—he was given a hero’s farewell.

This was clearly a different, more humble, more accessible Schumacher. He even came out with a line about how ‘‘losing can be more instructive’’ than winning.

The Schumacher of the past would never accept defeat, to the point that he was judged to have purposefully knocked Jacques Villeneuve off the track in an effort to win the title in 1997, and had his points erased for that season as punishment.

Oscars

Barfi! chosen as India’s entry to the Oscars Bollywood filmmaker Anurag Basu’s Barfi! was chosen among the 71 films vying for a nomination in the best foreign language film category for the 85th Academy Awards. Barfi! features Ranbir Kapoor in the main role. november 2012

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up-to-date

\\ from around the world

Celebrations (left) The whole team celebrates Final Stroke (below) The final sroke

WI Wins T20 Cup Sees it as a

stepping stone to greater glory cricket \\ West Indies were crowned the

new World Twenty20 champions after a 36-run victory over hosts Sri Lanka in a dramatic final in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The West Indies, restricted to 137-6 after electing to bat, hit back to bowl Sri Lanka out for 101 and silence a sell-out crowd of 35,000 at the Premadasa stadium which also included Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Post match, Mahela Jayawardene (35) announced his decision to step down as the captain of the Sri Lankan T20 team after losing the final match.

“Just one announcement guys, I have had a chat with the selectors and I have decided to step down as a captain of the Sri Lankan T20 team after the end of the tournament,” Jayawardene said in a matter-of-fact manner at the post-match press conference here. He also informed that he will “assess his future as captain” in the ODIs and Tests after Sri

Lanka’s tour of Australia in December 2012.

It was the first world title for the West Indies since the 50-over World Cup triumph under Clive Lloyd in 1979, and handed Sri Lanka their fourth defeat in a major final since 2007. Spinner Sunil Narine grabbed three wickets for nine runs and Sammy took two as the hosts, who had excelled in the field in the first session, undid the good work with irresponsible batting in the second. Skipper Mahela Jayawardene survived two dropped catches to top-score with 33, while tailender Nuwan Kulasekara hit 26 off 13 balls, including three fours and a six in the 16th over of seamer Ravi Rampaul.

Sri Lanka’s unorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis had taken four wickets for 12 runs as the West Indies collapsed once Chris Gayle was removed in the sixth over for only three runs. Marlon Samuels was the only batsman to defy the spot-on Sri Lankan bowling, making 78 off 56 balls with

I have taken this decision so that the selection committee can groom someone younger–Mahela Jayawardene

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the help of six sixes and three boundaries.

The hosts were cruising at 48-1 in the 10th over when the West Indies bounced back by claiming four wickets for 13 runs.

It was a perfect stage set for a perfect final.

The world’s two most loveable cricket countries, both starved of success in recent years, both with scant regard for conventional play, head-to-head in a stadium filled with cheering fans. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa wasn’t going to miss this one—he was in a prime spot at the stadium to witness events unfold from his armchair. But the president, like the majority of the crowd, left disappointed as the home team came up short.

Cricket means a lot in this part of the world, and after hosting a terrific sporting carnival over the past three weeks, it seemed that Sri Lanka was destined to win the trophy to add to its one and only triumph, in the 50-over World Cup way back in 1996. And it started so well, as the West Indies team—after winning the toss and choosing to bat—just could not find the room to score any runs off Sri Lankan bowling attack.

up-to-date

from around the world //

&

Salt pepper

Business

Non-bailable Warrant against Mallya Warrant \\ A Hyderabad

court issued a nonbailable warrant against business tycoon Vijay Mallya and five others in a cheque bounce case.

The 13th metropolitan sessions court issued the warrant against crisishit Kingfisher airlines in a case filed by GMR

Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), which manages the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here. The case was filed in August

by GHIAL after four cheques of `10.3 crore issued by Kingfisher towards user charges bounced.

The court issued the warrant after Mallya failed to appear despite summons issued to him.

The liquor baron reportedly sought exemption from personal appearance as he was abroad.

The respondents in the case include Kingfisher, Mallya and CEO.

World Condemns Taliban’s Attack Teen Activist Flown to UK

As junior gandhi comments on punjab’s substance abuse scale, twitter goes abuzz

“I seriously wonder if RG is himself afflicted by what he sees as the great youth disorder in Punjab.”

Swapan Dasgupta | Journalist

“70% of Punjab r drug addicts :Rahul Gandhi...

What incentive wud u offer them 2 vote 4 Congress? De-addiction or subsidised drugs?”

Jaspal Bhatti | Actor

“Rahul Gandhi’s birthday should be celebrated as ‘Buddhu Poornima’ or National Dumbo Day #YoRahulSoDumb” Gaurav Chopra | Twitterati

A protester holds a poster condemning the attack on teenage Pakistani activist

World \\ There was global outrage over the shooting of a 14-year-old Pakistani activist, working for education and empowerment. Malala Yousufzai, who opposed Taliban restrictions on woman education, was left in a critical condition after gunmen shot her in the head and neck, while she was leaving for school in Mingora, in the Swat area of Pakistan. Two other students, both girls, were also wounded in the attack. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the young girl was ‘pro-West’ and speaking out against them. After the attack, UN chief’s spokesperson Martin Nesirky told press that the UN was ‘deeply moved’ by Yousufzai’s courageous efforts to promote the fundamental right to education. UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, expressed his outrage and strongest condemnation over the shooting. One of the two Taliban militants suspected of attacking a teenage girl activist was detained by the Pakistani military in 2009 but subsequently released, intelligence officials said.

“#YoRahulSoDumb 7 out of 10 youth in Punjab are addicted to drugs. 10 out of 10 UPA leaders are addicted to corruption” Puneet Sharma | Twitterati

“Has Rahul announced a Punjab Drug Distribution System instead of PDS?” Ratty Miller | Twitterati

november 2012

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foreign despatches \\ NOTES FROM THE DIA SPOR A

SWATI KAUSHAL USA

Writers by nature are quite bipolar; we switch on and off, personas” SWATI KAUSHAL: I was born in Delhi. My father had a transferable job, as a result we moved around a lot when I was a child. Looking back it seems that my destiny was somehow connected with the US. My father was posted in Washington DC, at the Embassy, when I was merely three years old. We shifted, for the first time, at that time. We came back, the whole family, when I was in Class III. Since then, and for a long time, I remained in India where I completed my schooling, college and Master’s. Like good Delhi girls I graduated from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women with a degree in economics—one cannot get more Delhi native than that, can they?

My destiny was slowly pulling me towards a corporate career as I got through Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata. The institution proved to be important, as I met my future husband there. PostIIM, like every other management graduate, I moved to a steady corporate job at Nestle—where I started off as a management trainee and worked my way up to being the brand manager.

In 1997, right after my son was born, my husband got this fabulous job offer in the US. I, too, believed that the time was right to make a move. I wished to re-think my career and be a full-time mom to my firstborn. So, we packed our bags and went to the US. I found living there quite a struggle—as a society it was independent. And I was soon juggling to be a full-time mother and a homemaker. Get the credit cards done, get the car up and running, get the groceries in time and be there for your child 24*7—for an Indian, brought up in an pseudo-extended family system, it was hectic! A year later, we gave up. We shifted to India, where my husband continued with his previous corporate job, while I rejoined my old job at Nestle. I continued in Nestle till a better offer came in from Nokia.

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SWATI KAUSHAL is the

author of Drop Dead, A Niki Marwah Mystery. This is Swati’s third book and the first instalment of what promises to be India’s first female detective series, about a Shimla Superintendent of Police, Niki Marwah.

Kaushal already has two bestselling novels, Piece of Cake (Penguin Books India) and A Girl Like Me (Penguin Books India, Sept 2008). Kaushal has featured in The New York Times and Business Standard and been interviewed on US National Radio (NPR), and her articles have appeared in magazines such as Vogue India and Seventeen. Swati is an IIM Calcutta graduate and a former Nokia and Nestle marketing guru. She has a three-year-old daughter and a 15-year-old son, and currently lives in the US

Both of us (husband and I) were deeply entrenched into our corporate lives. However, there was always that nagging feeling that I wished to be there for my son. When both parents maintain fulltime jobs they get to see very little of their child. I realised that as a family we will not be able to sustain the strain of being away all the time. There were some personal events that clinched the deal, and I quit my job. I started to re-think my future, what was that one thing that I loved doing the most. And whether could I pursue it, and give time to my son?

When I used to work at Nokia, we had a small marketing team.

For the longest time, we did not have an ad agency because we had switched. During that time, I had penned quite a bit of the company’s advertising myself. I realised that I liked to write short and snappy lines which spoke their intent immediately. I did not like browsing through 100 pages before I had the faintest clue as to what was being said. There was an epiphanic moment—I knew that I wanted to read stuff that were pragmatic, logical and to-the-point.

More importantly, I knew that I loved writing, so, so much. If no one else would, I will write the language of today, snappy and smooth.

Once we moved back to the US in 2001, it was clear to me that I did not wish to pursue the corporate life anymore. We were settled in Minnesota. That is when I started to work on Piece of Cake. The process was not a piece of cake—pun intended. I knew the corporate sector well. I knew the marriage-obsessed, mom-market of India very well as well. But, there is a gap between knowing something,

foreign despatches NOTES FROM THE DIA SPOR A //

“Showers are tense moments when I am hoping, praying for a fresh idea, that I can elaborate upon.

At Starbucks, I am writing everything down”

and writing, and in convincing readers about the main protagonist, the romance of the book, the arranged marriage and her corporate life.

Fortunately, Piece of Cake became India’s first official chick-lit, a label that I was quite excited about. I have no qualms in admitting that I maintain that fine balance between a metro read and a new-age book. I can make my pages a brisk read, because I love reading simple language myself. However, I cannot compromise on the language, grammar and sentence construction. I love writing for all ages and for all genders, but I realise that a lot of young people read what I write. Therefore, the onus lies on me to maintain balance—my books are pacy, they will never be trashy.

As a mother to a teenaged son and a toddler, I have strict standards of what I wish to put in on paper. Having said that, I try to not think of my readers when I am writing. It is a personal experience for me. I go into a zone where I cease to exist as a mother, wife and a homemaker. The Starbucks outlet near my house opens at 6am sharp. I am there after a shower by 6.10am. I am the shower and write person. So, showers are tense moments when I am hoping, praying for a fresh idea, some epiphany or snippet that I can elaborate upon. For an hour-and-a-half at Starbucks, I am writing things down. Anything and everything. It may be the best idea that I have or the worst. It could be something that I will be trashing immediately after I sit down to write next. I believe that the act of writing things down is important. The day when I manage to pen down around 1,000 words, I celebrate. Days when I write around 500 words, I remain quite kicked. That one per cent inspiration bit happens in that one hour in the morning when I am at Starbucks.

Writers by nature are quite bipolar; we switch off and switch on different personas. And my management training has equipped me to be present in a situation and work according to clients’ needs. I can switch my American accent on and off. Give me 10 days in India and I shall talk to you in an Indian accent. Even when I am writing in the Starbucks cafe, I may be heavily-entrenched in an America reality, but I can switch that off and think like the Swati Kaushal who was born and raised in India.

Having said that, the switching bit has been getting difficult over the years. When I wrote Piece of Cake, I was fresh off the boat, as they say. My Indian reality seemed more immediate, close and tangible. Now, I have been living in the US for 11 years. My home, my roots have changed. India has changed. I have not been a participant in that change. So, to place the story in the Indian context I have to seriously research and talk to several people, before I can even get a starting point.

Before A Girl Like Me, which was for mothers and teenagers, I went back to India a couple of times, spoke to my friends and their children. I was like a fly on the wall, while the teenagers would talk.

I would record conversations. I would listen to the tapes. To create the character of Nikki Marwah, for my latest detective series, Drop Dead, I visited Punita Bharadwaj, who was one of the first few female officers in Himachal Pradesh. Her inputs were cardinal in the character development of Nikki. Punita spoke to me about what it meant to be the woman in a man’s space. How she handled situations using her feminine sensibilities rather than act as one of the boys. I remember that Punita spoke about one particular incident when she reasoned out with an angry mob rather than use force, which would have been the default reaction of anyone who believed in being more masculine. My latest character Nikki is consciously feminine. Yet, she is as tough as nails. She is smart and sassy.

While growing up in the pre-liberalised India, all of us girls had the idea that to be smart and to be taken seriously, we had to be ‘one of the boys’. Today, as a mother to a daughter, I realise that I do not wish my daughter to behave in a certain manner to be taken seriously. She can love high heels as much as she wants, and I believe she can be a rocket scientist if she has any interest in being one. We should consciously try to break the gender stereotypes, those are all passe now.

For the first two books, my husband was my main sounding board. He is a voracious reader. He reads for pleasure. I do trust his judgement. We did have some heated discussions with him even when he was not actually reading the stuff that I had penned.

I use him to bounce off ideas—do you believe that the character that I have just described would do such a thing? From the time I began my mystery series—I wanted to surprise everyone. Also, all these books that I have written before have given some boost to my confidence. Now, I am a little more relaxed. I seek less inputs from writer and reader friends, not because I am cocky but because I feel the responsibility to surprise them. I also share a strong bond with the people on the team—editors and publishers who have worked so closely with me. Now, I am confident enough—as much as a writer can be. —As told to Rohini Banerjee

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The Man of the Moment: Union Cabinet Minister, Civil Aviation, Ajit Singh

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cover story

WINGMAN OF DEMOCR ACY //

The

Wingman of

Democracy A trouble shooter, an avid reader, eternal optimist, a doting grandfather—meet the man set to rescue Indian aviation

By Rohini Banerjee & Anuradha Das Mathur

NOVEMBER 2012

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cover story

\\ WINGMAN OF DEMOCR ACY

here is something magical about Lutyen’s Delhi—in its sheer dignity, beauty and magnitude.

To see all that bathed in the soft afternoon light of a chilly October afternoon is quite a treat. There was scope a plenty to mull its beauty, as the DW team waited in the very heart of Lutyen’s Delhi, in a plush office in the bungalow zone to rectify an ‘irony’… Well, if one could put ‘right’ an irony...

For a magazine titled Democratic World, we have had the fortune of meeting and interviewing experts from myriad sectors. However, rather ironically—we had not quite covered the world of politics—the nerve centre of any democratic system. So, this was our very first encounter with a ‘political leader’ and what a first it was to be. It was a privilege to receive a chance to speak with a stalwart; one of the busiest Cabinet ministers of recent times and a 73-year-old veteran.

He assumed his responsibilities on December 18, 2011, in the midst of several storms plaguing India’s aviation sector. But he has managed to steer his ship out of one crisis after another. There is something about the Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Ajit Singh that assures you, all will be well.

In the past the civil aviation ministry has seen a couple of turbulent years, which did drive some airlines to the brink of bankruptcy and caused heartaches for airport operators. Now, one can finally spot significant steps being taken to overhaul the sector. On October 16, 2012, the ministry announced the abolition of the rather-hefty airport development fee, charged on passengers departing from Delhi and Mumbai. The waiver should start from January 13, 2013. The resultant lower fare is expected to stimulate traffic and enhance the overall viability of the sector.

In September 2012, the ministry also decided to

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permit foreign airlines to invest up to 49 per cent in Indian carriers, a move that should boost longterm investment and lead to a more professional and corporatised sector. In another move, the ministry directed state-owned Airports Authority of India to not levy airport development fees at the two largest airports that it operates—Chennai and Kolkata. Good news for the smaller guns. The civil aviation ministry is also in the last stages of ending the dispute over ground handling by drafting a new policy, which will prompt airlines to withdraw cases against the government. And, there are several greenfield airport projects (Navi Mumbai, Goa Mopa and Kannur) which are being fast-tracked to meet the impending airport capacity crunch.

At the cockpit is the silent captain, Ajit Singh. We know little of the man in the office or his habits.

Unlike media savvy politicians of our times, Singh has let his work do the talking. While remaining in the front line of the battle, he has managed to stay away from the media glare. Punctual to the core (he does get up at 5am every day come summer or winter, a habit he inculcated from his father, the former Prime Minister of India, Chaudhary Charan Singh), he was there to meet us dot on 3pm, as promised.

If his punctuality is impressive, so is his patience.

He sits through an interview with a camera flashing constantly around him. If it disturbs him, we do not get to know. It is only with a shake of his head does he finally dismiss our further request for photographs.

For someone who is not “chatty”, we got a candid, ‘no-fuss’, heartfelt, to-the-point conversation sans drama which was refreshing and genuine.

FROM CORPORATE LIFE TO A POLITICAL CAREER Ajit Singh’s life is steeped in politics. His father, Chaudhary Charan Singh, was the fifth Prime Minister of India, serving between July 28, 1979, and

The Grand Father Singh’s precious time is spent with his two grandkids

“Unlike what people believe about politics, being a dynasty game, my father did not wish me to join politics. I didn’t want to join politics. I never came to India with the aspiration to become a political leader” —Ajit Singh, Minister, Civil Aviation

January 14, 1980. He was a much respected socialist leader, a friend of the farmers, who continued to lead the Lok Dal till his death in 1987, when he was succeeded as party president by his son Ajit Singh. His long association with the causes dear to farming communities in the north of India caused his memorial in New Delhi to be named Kisan Ghat.

Yet, his only son was not “destined” to join politics.

For the longest time, Ajit Singh chose a career path diametrically away from it all. His motivation was to see a world beyond the familiar.

“I did my Bachelor’s from IIT Kharagpur. Like several other members of my peer group, I wished to see the world, receive further education. My basic motivation was to get as much varied exposure as possible. So I went for my Master’s to the Illinois

Demons of Democracy There are two changes that Ajit Singh wishes to witness in Indian democracy during his lifetime—first, voters be given more information to make informed choices. Second, that raised aspirations of the common man are coupled with an ability to fulfill them—through education and new opportunities.

In his own words, “The Indian vote bank, irrespective of their age, is involved in politics. But he is not well informed—not aware of what a budget is or its implications, because the information is withheld from him. In America political leaders have to maintain transparency—every election is preceded by debates and talks.

Leaders have to declare their intentions clearly; this is what I wish to do, this is where my funding will come from, and this is what I stand for. In India, we go around making claims and empty promises, but we do not supply information about how we will deliver on them, Say

in Uttar Pradesh, for the past few elections, political leaders have been promising electricity. But we all know that the state suffers from acute shortages—in fact, there are no power

plants across the state.

Thus an Indian voter is not always clued in on what is going on. This lack of awareness also, to a great measure, stems from the lack of

education. And also from the fact that political parties do not make it their business to inform people—may be because they feel it is not their job. This gap in communication and lack of connectivity between issues and people, is something I would like to see change.

In some aspects the voters’ profile has also changed in India. Today India has a demographic dividend through a league of young hopefuls waiting for their turn in a new world. They are far better informed than their predecessors because of increased internet and mobile penetration. People are accessing technology, however poor he may be.

With this awareness, there is also the aspiration, to do and be better.

The challenge today is to meet all these aspirations through education and by creating opportunities and circumstances where these aspirations can be met in a robust manner.

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CAREER

TIME LINE President, Lok Dal (A)

1986

1987

President, Janata Party

1988

Elected to Rajya Sabha

Institute of Technology, Chicago. I stayed away for 17 years. But every Indian, or in fact every individual who lives away from his country, eventually wants to come back. More so when the children start growing up, and you want to give them the same values that you received growing up. I had strong familial ties and that motivated me to return as well,” says the minister thoughtfully.

He is a man of few, but meaningful words. We

Secretary General, Janata Dal Elected to 9th Lok Sabha

1989

1989 Union Cabinet Minister, Industry

would learn to expect no pat answers from this man shortly into the conversation.

So, did he ‘see the world’ we ask him. “The point was not to visit places but to have as many experiences as possible. I wanted to get exposed to different cultures. I wanted to see different ways of living. But I can’t claim to be well-travelled because the universe is too vast to cover, in fact, I have much left to see in India as well”, he says with a laugh.

And while the son soared, his father even in those years “never put any bit of pressure”. “Not on any of us. We are six siblings. I have five sisters. Three of them are now settled in the US. My father was happy for us to follow our passions and there was an

“They kept goading me to follow in my father’s footsteps.

My foray into politics was an accident” —Ajit Singh Union Cabinet Minister, Civil Aviation

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Re-elected to 10th Lok Sabha (2nd term)

1991

Union Cabinet Minister, Food

1995

1996 Elected to 11th Lok Sabha (3rd term)

open-mindedness in the family that allowed us to explore and experiment’. Ajit Singh travelled to the United States of America in January 1964. Given that there was little common ground then between politics and private enterprise in India, the young Singh had to learn the ways of the private sector from scratch. Without realising though, he picked up some valuable tips for the political trade through his 17 year stint in the US. “Post my Master’s degree, I was in the computer software service industry. While I spent some time in a marketing role as well, I realised my real expertise was software troubleshooting. I cannot programme, but I can find out where it has gone wrong very quickly.”

He laughs unabashedly when we quip that his troubleshooting experience and skills have held him in good stead in his political avatar. “I was involved in what is today known as operations systems problems. We were summoned whenever any operating system went down. It is an intrinsic part of all office operations. I started with IBM. To do the job, one had to be devoted as there were no fixed hours. You had to take responsibility and figure out how to solve the problem at hand. I did not mind at all. Those were early days for computers and to me it was all very exciting. Nowadays becoming a computer programmer, scientist, hardware personnel or a troubleshooter has become passe—there are so many of them around.” He remembers his stint with fondness. What did he find tough to deal with? In his, by now familiar ‘no-fuss’ fashion, he says, “Everything was quite new and fun—the country, the work and life in general. I was a vegetarian—a concept that the west is only now beginning to embrace—but there

Union Cabinet Minister, Agriculture

Elected again to 11th Lok Sabha

1997

2001

1999 Re-elected to 13th Lok Sabha (4th term) President, Rashtriya Lok Dal

was always lots to eat and enjoy even in those times.”

That is because like father, the son, too is a frugal eater who needed little to keep him happy.

Life changed for Ajit Singh in 1986, when his father passed away after a prolonged illness induced by a stroke. “Unlike what people believe about politics being a dynasty game—my father did not wish me to join politics. I didn’t want to join politics. I never came to India with the aspiration to become a political leader. I came here in 1981 and formally joined my father’s party in 1986, after he had suffered a stroke.

At that time, he was in no condition to know of the decision, as he was far too ill. I had taken a sabbatical, which gave me time to be with him. Keeping to the good-old Indian tradition, I was in the hospital the whole day and entertained visitors—most of them my father’s political colleagues such as Karpuri Thakur, Biju Patnaik, Devi Lal and Mulayam Singh.

“They kept goading me to follow in my father’s footsteps. My foray into politics was an accident. Had I not been by my father’s bedside for a prolonged period, perhaps I would have never taken this decision. He never got me in. But I guess I am blessed because I live in the present and always enjoy what I do. In a similar fashion, my son, too, entered politics without ‘consulting’ me. He went on to win from a constituency which the party had not won in the past 30 years.” So much for ‘dynasty politics’.

He does admit that growing up in a political family, at a time when the notion of serving the nation was so embedded in all its leaders, there were several elements that shaped him as a person.

“My father, the way he was, influenced me a lot.

He had to struggle to be where he was. He came

NOVEMBER 2012

2004

Re-elected to 14th Lok Sabha (5th term), Member, Committee on Finance, Member, Committee on Government

“Today, the civil aviation sector is not just about India’s elite. It is a vital sector which contributes to the economic growth of the country. It is a high-pressure job.

One has to deal with all kinds of people (airline owners who happen to be very rich and influential and ordinary travellers). These are difficult times for us because the first thing that people give up during financial hardship is travelling— whether for business or pleasure. We understand our role.

What we will focus on is connectivity.

What we are trying to create here are feeder airports in the Tier-II cities across India.” —Ajit Singh

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from an underprivileged family. Yet, he rose to become the Prime Minister of the country. He was an exceedingly learned man. He was fond of reading. He wrote on several subjects, especially on economics. Growing up, I saw a man who kept busy always and worried about people throughout his political career—though at that time politics was not considered to be a career. I would always see his struggle against all odds. Irrespective of any culture or country, to get the downtrodden their rights, there is always a struggle. I guess I learnt this from him.”

FARMERS VS INDUSTRY; A MATTER OF AVATARS A farmer leader, a successful corporate man, an industry leader; Ajit Singh has worn several hats in his lifetime. Which of these avatars does he feel the most affinity for? “I do not feel a particular affinity to a certain role, not in that sense. I was, of course, inspired by my father, who was truly a farmer leader. When I was here in India I would observe him at work. He was always surrounded by people who travelled miles to meet him. Perhaps because of the way he impacted their lives. I guess, at the end of the day that is where my heart lies.”

Ajit Singh has an instinctive connect with his Indian roots and with the farmers’ cause. But his current role as the Union Minister of Civil Aviation is a change of responsibility and a new challenge. Does it faze him at all?

“It is not only about the present role now, is it? A lot of people ask me how I did all of it—from being a computer software troubleshooter to getting into politics. Now that was an even bigger change. Yes, the present portfolio is an entirely different ballgame. But do remember that I have been an agricultural minister and began my political career as an industry minister.

Doing good work is a challenge, especially in the present environment. Today, the civil aviation sector is not just about India’s elite.

It is a vital sector which contributes to the economic growth of the country. It is a high profile, high-pressure job. One has to deal with all kinds of people (airline owners who happen to be very rich and influential and ordinary travellers). These are difficult

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“We keep in mind the concerns of the common man. That is what we are supposed to do. Does that make me left of centre or right? I can’t say” —Ajit Singh Union Cabinet Minister, Civil Aviation

times for us because the first thing that people give up during financial hardship is travelling—whether for business or pleasure. But we understand our role and the challenge. What we will focus on is connectivity. What we are trying to create here are feeder airports in the Tier-II cities across India. Make it accessible to the common man.” So, is he driven by ideas which are left of centre? “Frankly, I have never seen the division that you talk of.

Civil aviation is important for every citizen.

‘Time is money’ even for a small-time businessman or entrepreneur in India’s Tier-II cities. He cannot afford to waste it.

The ministry keeps in mind the concerns of every common man because that is what we are supposed to do. Does that make me left of centre or right? I can’t say.”

FATHER, SON AND GRANDSON With the entry of Jayant Chaudhary, the party and the country are now seeing the third generation take on the mantle.

Jayant Chaudhary is the General Secretary of the Rashtriya Lok Dal and a Member of Parliament representing Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. Like his grandfather and father, he feels strongly for the cause of the farmers.

He is one of the prime movers on the land acquisition issue and has introduced a Private Member Bill on Land Acquisition in the Lok Sabha. Ajit Singh admits that though politics seems to be “the family’s choice”, it is not a tradition which is passed on with wise words on conduct. “My son’s decision was entirely his own. He was a student at the London School of Economics and then he went into the financial services

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RAPID FIRE ROUND industry. When the time was right, he decided to be in politics. He didn’t ask me.

When I became a politician, my father was in no state to give me advice. He had suffered a stroke and was hospitalised. And when my son took his decision, I placed my faith on him to do what is right.”

“Frankly, the question of legacy never crossed my mind. I have never worried about what I will leave behind”, he says when we ask him what he would like to be remembered for. “Of course I worry about what more I could do and whether I have enough time to do all that I want to. But honestly, at the end of the day, I am satisfied with the way I am. Everyone creates his or her legacy because every life leaves a footprint. However, I work because I like to. My son too works because that is where his heart lies. A legacy is not a strong motivation to good work,” says the minister.

Relaxed, seemingly at peace with himself, Ajit Singh appears to be an exception to most of his ilk. As he answers the questions, we often strain our ears to hear him speak.

He greets difficult questions with a smile and with humour. And it is evident that despite all his avatars, deep down, the champion of the cause of the common man and the capable minister is equally happy (if not at his happiest best) being a doting grandfather. When his two grand daughters come to bid him farewell before an evening jaunt, the Dada breaks into the biggest smile. He introduces them with evident pride, and makes them pose for pictures.

When they leave he turns and asks, “Since you talk so much about parental legacy, here’s a poser for you. You just met my two granddaughters. The elder one has to have non-vegetarian food thrice a day—breakfast, lunch and dinner. No exceptions. The younger one will not accept a single morsel of non-vegetarian food. How do you reckon that happens? What I am trying to say is that at the end of the day, parents do only that much. Each child is an individual with her own habits, personalities and wonderful quirks. That is wonderfully unpredictable about the world and that is comforting as well. I have six grandchildren. Two of them I have around me all the time, four I get to see rarely. Children have an energy that is infectious. Of the two you just met, the

The Minister’s Words Favourite book: I am fond of detective fiction. I have read a lot of Agatha Christie, but the new league of exciting writers from far flung places like Scandinavia, doing great work in the genre, hold my attention more. As I said, I read a lot and there is an eclectic collection on the bedside including Premchand Favourite cuisine: I am vegetarian. My palate may seem limited to some people.

But I am rather fond of Mexican food. Interestingly, I had the best Mexican food in Rome. I love Italian food as well Favourite film: Now and then I see some films. I do not often have the time to watch films. But I have watched a lot more English films, simply because they take less time (laughs) I also watch a lot of debates and news on television. (You go back to work and politics when you are relaxing?) Well, these debates often have very little to do with politics nowadays (laughs) Favourite time of the day: I am a morning person. I have to walk in Lodhi Garden every morning at the crack of dawn whether it is winter or summer. It is a habit that I picked up from my father. I like to listen to the birds and feel the magical morning light. I do not think about the day. This is time when I clear my mind. It is about inner peace Your mantra: My mantra is to do what I believe to be right, without worrying about others—whether they will perceive it in a good light. If my intentions are clear to me and my conscience is clear, then I don’t worry too much about consequences Dream career: I have done many things, so I really don’t have any regrets of not doing something. I live to experience the world. I am equally at home on a charpoy as I am in a five star hotel. Nothing really phases me. Summer does not affect me and neither does winter—it is strange but I believe that I can be home anywhere and in anything I do Role model: I am sure everyone is influenced by several people at the same time. I am an avid reader. I read anything. I have read Jane Austen and I am really fond of the modern day detective fiction. I sort of subscribe to all the major magazines and newspapers that are published here. I study the economic policies of England with the same focus as I listen to a particular farmer’s problem here in India. The universe comes together to teach me

younger one has a mind of her own, while the older is shy and reticent. But they both manage to keep me on my toes.”

There is one question that we had forgotten to ask of the minister. It crossed our mind when we spotted a framed

photograph of him sitting inside a cockpit– does he know how to fly a plane? At the end of the day, it would not really matter if he does not—as we see it, he is captaining his ship (or is it a plane?) for greater glory anyway.

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social agenda

Travel Easy with e-tools Dump those books and click the keys to get that perfect getaway

BY TUSHAR KANWAR

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social agenda E-GUIDES //

ILLUSTRATION BY PHOTOS.COM

F

rom flipping through outrageously priced Lonely Planet guidebooks to asking well-heeled and well-travelled friends for recommendations on where to go and what to do, travel has always had a social component to it. So it’s no surprise a large number of social travel websites—not just the Kayaks and the Tripadvisors—are trying to make the experience of planning and enjoying your vacations and business trips that much more personal, and I have cherry picked the best of the lot for you.

What are you waiting for? The holidays are coming and a new place beckons!

Planning the Trip: Why fall for the marketing hype on a hotel’s website when you can see recommendations from your social circle and their friends? For instance, Gogobot connects with your Facebook account and lets you create travel plans and send out questions about your plans—places to see, things to eat—to your network and even publishes an itinerary on the site for you to share with your friends and family.

There is a neat “passport feature” which not only documents where you’ve been (much like a real passport), but also lets you upload photos and share tips for other travellers about the destinations you’ve visited. On similar lines are Jauntlet–which posts a map with pinpoints of places you’ve been to (it integrates with Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram and twitter to annotate that map as well!) and Dopplr, which lets you privately share your itineraries with friends and associates, and should you wish to, see public itineraries for a sense of what one can do while vacationing at a holiday spot.

Finding Offbeat Stayovers: The principle behind the hugely popular CouchSurfing site is rather simple—if you have a spare room or couch in your home, why not share it with a traveller willing to slum it out for a night. Which, as it turns out, works out rather brilliantly for those on a budget and looking to sample the local flavor of the land. With over 5 million members offering a place to crash for the night in more than 93,000 cities, CouchSurfing makes its money, and helps keep the network safe as well, from its identity verification services, but keeps the search and hosting capabilities of the site free.

The site’s success has seen it expand into tourism services, as a vacationer, you can use it to arrange for bicycle tours, museum visits and volunteering opportunities at your holiday destination and has led the way in the collaborative consumption business model, with later entrants such as Tripping and Airbnb expanding into the vacation rental segment.

Finding Travel Companions: If you’re outgoing and enjoy chatting up with your fellow passengers on a long-haul flight, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has something with you in mind—its Meet & Seat programme allows you to sign in with your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts to see who will be on your flight, view others’ profiles

TIPS & TOOLS Travelling with children? Here are some tips: Have patience: Try to relax and make the travel a fun part of your trip. Take the long ride as an opportunity to spend quality time with your little ones Capture the memories: Buy each child an inexpensive disposable camera so they can take pictures.

Your kids will really feel special when they can snap their own photos.

Bag-O-Fun: Prepare individual bags filled goodies, but don't let your kids look inside until you're on the road.

They'll enjoy having their own personal items and will gladly spend hours with their snacks, games and crafts. Here's a quick list of items you can include in the bag, but get creative and consider each child's personality and hobbies Don't forget to play: Take the time to plan fun and creative games that can be played while you are traveling. Your children will have a blast and the time will fly by.

Vacation scrapbook: Buy an inexpensive journal or notebook and encourage the kids to create a vacation scrapbook.

Show them how to attach photos, tickets stubs, brochures, etc. from the places they visit. By the time the trip is over they'll have a great book of memories to go with the ones they'll always remember

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BLOG WATCH

and chose your seat based on who is sitting where. Planely is a great introduction service for fliers to meet fellow passengers with the goal of making the most of the hours of downtime spent while traveling. The site’s algorithm uses your Facebook or LinkedIn profile to suggests compatible travellers on the same route as you’ve chosen, and is hugely popular with travellers who were heading to large events and wished to forge relationships with folks before arriving. Of course, if you’re really the adventurous sort socially, you can look at Travellution’s list of dream itineraries and even plan a vacation with a complete stranger—handy for those of us who have a bunch of friends who don’t share the same passion for travel that we do.

Finding Great Deals: While big travel websites do a good job in helping you find offers at participating airlines and hotels, plenty of deals exist on airline and hotel twitter and Facebook pages as well. For international travellers, Wanderlisting has a up-to-date list of airlines and hotels, and tops it off by including big travel bloggers and publications as well. Or you could sign on to Facebook and ‘like’ your preferred airline, and watch as the offers roll in from time to time. Either way, there’s always a deal to be had for the determined traveller. And if you’re a last minute traveller, you could check out HotelTonight, an app that enables you to book a room at discounts of up to 70 per cent!

Getting Local Tips: Instead of just typing out a Facebook update about who’s available to meet up in Paris when you’re there next week, you could let sites like Twigmore and Triptrotting search your social networks for friends who have friends in new places, then reach out to those people up for advice from a local’s perspective, or arrange meet-ups when you get there. Unlike traditional travel companies or guides, there’s a certain degree of trust that your friends—or their friends—won’t steer you wrong and get you to see the best of what their city has to offer for travellers.

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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Ghost-da Ka Ghosla The title of Anik Dutta’s Bhooter Bhabishyat, a popular Bengali film of 2012, translates as “Future of the Past”—appropriately enough, begins with juxtapositions between what we think of as old and new, modern and traditional.

The idea that the past and the present are constantly interacting with (or brushing against) each other is central to this tale of the supernatural, also a light commentary on inexorable progress and on modernity’s neglect of old things. The premise is spelled out with delightful economy during the opening credit sequence which involves animated eyes and music in electronic-distortion mode of Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne. The film centres around Ayan, a young director, encountering a genial middle-aged man who narrates a possible script for his next film—a story about a group of ghosts who live in a mansion—where Ayan has come to scout for location. What the audience get to see is a visualisation of the script: we are introduced to an 18th century zamindar, a gora sahib of the East India Company, an actress-singer from the 1940s and a generic buffoon who continues visiting the local fish-market in his spectral state.

The back-stories of these ghosts— originally from different times and socioeconomic strata—facilitate references to environmental and social issues, from global warming to rich youngsters mowing down pavement-dwellers in their SUVs. The destruction of flora, we learn, has left a tree-dwelling ghost as much of a refugee in death as he was in life.

But this lot knows how to live it up, and their jollity emerges in full force during an anachronistic fashion parade.

Entertaining though this set-up is, it also leads to a slack midsection containing a little too much tomfoolery and the sort of ensemble comedy that actors must dread—where they have to stand around in a group, speaking in turn, while

Jai Arjun Singh

those saddled with the task of listening struggle with the appropriate reaction shots. The effect can be like a hurriedly prepared college play. Apart from their ability to teleport and walk through walls, there is little to separate the spirits from regular people: they even use a socialnetworking site called Spookbook to contact other members of the living dead. Their existence is threatened by a mall builder, who we know must be evil, because he (gasp!) quotes Tagore in a dubious, self-serving context. Personally, I failed to understand why the ghosts couldn't just live in the mall like millions of real-world zombies everywhere do. Feeling just as bullied as Mr Khosla cheated of his precious plot of land in Khosla ka Ghosla, the ghosts must perform a subterfuge to foil the builder’s plans. Most of the shenanigans were enjoyable enough.

However, the most interesting bit was that the film was also a homage to a cinematic past. Through it, one could spot a deep love for a medium which can accommodate different modes of storytelling, from the politically-charged cinema of Mrinal Sen (“with handheld cameras and jerky movements”) to the imaginative ghost dance in GGBB to commercial elements that many of us dismiss as vulgar.

Bhooter Bhabishyat affectionately draws on these many modes by incorporating them into its own narrative, which means that it can also be seen as a film about its own conceptualisation and execution. Let’s hypothesise that the real-life director Anik Dutta faced the same financial problem as Ayan, then, the solution was to shoot his film not as a straight (therefore square) ghost story but as a meta-movie that constantly acknowledges its own craziness. If so, it was a terrific idea.

To read the entire post please visit: http://jaiarjun.blogspot.in/ To follow him on twitter: @jaiarjun

PLATFORM JOHN ELLIOTT | Journalist

Huawei risks for Indian defences

50 years after the 1962 defeat

A STREAM of newspaper articles last

month (October) marked the 50th anniversary of China’s 1962 war victory with headlines such as “The war we lost—the lessons we didn’t learn” and “Lessons from 1962—India must never lower its guard”. India’s guard is however still lowered and lessons have not been learned about anticipating an unexpected invasion– not just by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) taking up positions on India’s side of mountainous borders, but more importantly Chinese telecom companies possibly planting leaky and crippling bugs in networks and communications systems.

Just as the defence pundits were revisiting the early 1960s, the US Congress’s intelligence committee issued warnings in Washington that two Chinese telecom companies—Huawei and ZTE—were a threat to America’s national security. The report said the companies could disrupt information networks and send sensitive data secretly back to China. Neither company had cooperated fully with the investigation, and Huawei had “provided evasive, non-responsive, or incomplete

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answers to questions at the heart of the security issues posed”.

Although Huawei understandably suggested this was a protectionist ploy encouraged by American telecom companies to beat off low-cost competitors, the report triggered fresh complaints and renewed inquiries. Other countries are also worried, including Canada, Australia and the UK—and of course India which is clearly vulnerable to these security risks from a country that is its biggest long-term defence threat. Concerns that could one day lead to war include the 50-year old row over the border that China will not resolve, plus disputes over access to river waters and potential differences on sea lanes and other issues.

In 10 years, Huawei has become a leading telecom provider in India, along with ZTE. It has a five-year $2bn investment plan and is the secondbiggest supplier of networks after Ericsson, with a 25 to 30 per cent market share, serving all of the country’s top telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices. It also supplies telecom systems to compa-

ABOUT THE WRITER John Elliott is a Delhi-based British journalist who has been working in South Asia for approximately 20 years now. In the meantime, Elliott has written for the Financial Times, Fortune, Economist and the New Statesman.

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

nies, and has a substantial share of the market for devices such as data cards and phones, plus a large research centre in Bengaluru.

It is not just telecoms where China is gaining a significant hold. Two-way trade currently stands at $60bn, heavily in China’s favour, making it India’s largest trading partner. The target for 2016 is $100bn. Orders for potentially sensitive power plant equipment exceed 44,000MW, triggering protective tariff demands by Indian manufacturers, and there are security concerns about possible Chinese bids on India’s power transmission grid.

There are also growing financial links. China has taken some of the pressure off the heavily indebted Reliance Group run by Anil Ambani. A $1.2bn loan was secured from Chinese banks in January this year to refinance a convertible bond at Reliance Communications. In 2010 Reliance Power ordered $10bn equipment from Shanghai Electric Group financed by Chinese banks, plus $1.9bn for telecoms refinancing.

The government is publicly in denial about the telecom and other possible

platform

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— Write to us at editorial@democraticworld.in

security risks, though the army has expressed some concern, echoing worries earlier in the year when Chinese hackers were reported to have invaded Indian Navy computer systems.

Three years ago, it was discovered that government-owned Bharat Electronics (BEL) was sourcing encryption communications equipment from China for the Indian Air Force.

I have asked various officials and policy pundits about the risks in recent weeks and most duck the issue, offering no solution. Most take the same line as India’s telecom operators—that the products are irresistible because Huawei’s total costs of ownership are 25 to 30 per cent lower than rival companies such Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and Nokia Siemens. India’s telecom imports from China in 2010-11 totalled $6.7bn, ranging from phones and attachments to networks.

India stopped BSNL, a government owned telecom operator, buying Huawei and ZTE equipment in 2009-10 because of security concerns, but then allowed purchases by the private sector companies after Huawai co-operated with testing and certification of equipment, and offered access to sensitive electronic source codes. Speaking last week after the US report was published, India’s telecommunications secretary, R. Chandrashekhar, said the telecommunications department “has no problem” because the two companies were working within Ministry of

... Surely it would be better for India and other countries to ban Chinese high-technology firms from all security and communication sensitive networks and gradually ease them out of as many other areas as possible” Home Affairs guidelines.

Shashi Tharoor, the MP who was previously a foreign affairs minister and a senior United Nations official, told me he was impressed not only about the low costs, but also that Huawei had been more willing than its European rivals to give the government access to the sensitive electronic source codes.

He thought however that the manufacturers might need to be restricted for national security reasons, for example they are excluded from some critical networks and sensitive border states, especially in north-east India.

Supporters point out that the PLA, where Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, used to work, has severed ties with the company (including possible equity stakes). But a company does not have to be tied to the PLA to toe the national line. Under China’s version of capitalism, companies owe primary allegiance to Beijing, whether they are in the private or public sector, so will do the government’s (or the PLA’s) bidding.

It is however hard to know what can be done, especially since European manufacturers source components from other Chinese suppliers that

might be harder to check than Huawei and ZTE. John Gapper, a leading Financial Times columnist, was probably right in a column he wrote last month. The headline was “It is too late for America to eliminate Huawei”, and he noted that “the time to declare telecoms a strategic, protected industry like defence, was 20 years ago; now is the time to make a deal”. He said that such a deal could involve Huawei opening up its very secretive books and ownership pattern by listing on London or New York stock exchanges, and separating its US (and presumably other country) divisions, as America demands for defence equipment manufacturers.

That might be part of the solution, but surely it would be better for India and other countries to ban Chinese high-technology firms from all security and communication sensitive networks and gradually ease them out of as many other areas as possible. The chances of a war with China are remote in the foreseeable future, so India has time, if it starts now, gradually to remove the threat as contracts expire and technologies change. (The views expressed are of the author alone)

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looking back

PHOTO BY HTTP://WWW.PRAHLADKAKAR.COM

\\ PR AHL AD K AK AR

MAD MAN OF THE AD WORLD

An ad-man, a scuba diver and a wannabe filmmaker, Prahlad Kakar is the man who dons many hats

BY MANJIRI INDURKAR

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looking back PR AHL AD K AK AR //

DOSSIER

NAME: Prahlad Kakar PROFESSION: Ad filmmaker BORN: 1950 COMPANY NAME: Genesis Film Production Pvt Ltd

WEBSITE: http://www.prahladkakar. com/

C

reative people, artists, are generally moody, and just a bit loony.

You never know what to expect from them.

Despite this notion of ‘crazy people in showbusiness’, I was not prepared for this one particular encounter with the country’s arguably best ad-man, Prahlad Kakar. There is eccentric and then there is Prahlad Kakar.

Had it not been for a pair of “gorgeous legs” (yes, you read it right), Kakar would have probably been working in a big MNC. Heck! He would have retired by now. After graduating in economics from Fergusson College, Pune, Kakar had got himself a high-paying white-collar job. When he walked into the office, he found the office to be dull. “The women were so busy crunching numbers, they had no time to take care of themselves”.

He had a “scary vision” of spending the rest of his life in the company of the “dull people”, more importantly, dull women, and walked out of the office. On his way out, he found a bunch of lunchers outside an office.

From where he was standing, they looked a bunch of good-looking, fun loving people. He went ahead and chatted with them and came to know that they all worked for an advertising firm.

He liked the people so much, that he decided to give advertising a shot.

So he walked inside the ad office, on a supposed job hunt. This is exactly where he spotted the said legs, which belonged to the beautiful receptionist.

“I told her that I had travelled through Delhi, Mumbai, and the world. Hers were the best pair of legs I had ever seen”. She was so flattered, that the receptionist decided to help the cheeky young man. Kakar got the job—and the rest as they say is history.

Anyone who has seen Kakar speak on the TV shows will know how much he loves to talk. This is a man who is generous with words, so generous in fact that an interview does not have to do much. When I ask him about his one childhood memory which he

“My family sees me having fun everyday. To them, all I have done is hang out with pretty women, and spend a gala time while pretending to work. For all the name I have made for myself, they call it fluke”—Prahlad Kakar still cherishes, he speaks of a AngloIndian teacher, whose classes he looked forward to.

She was his first love. “I would wait for her to ask us to read something from the texts. And the moment she did, I would stand right next to her and start reading from the book, while my eyes would be fixed on her.”

He then goes on to talk about the lavender talc she wore, how he still remembers the fuzzy feeling.

After narrating the story of his first love, he asks me about mine.

I am told that “This cannot happen one way, a conversation can only take place when both individuals share their stories.”

It is evident from the recounted memory that he was quite the brat in his growing-up years. Owing to this behaviour, Kakar had earned quite a reputation by the time he was a teenager. His parents allegedly had little faith in him and always believed he would not do much in life. When he rejected the MNC job and took up advertising, their reaction was, “Only people who do not get respectable jobs, join advertising.”

A harsh response indeed, but that did not stop Kakar. Unfazed by the brickbats, Kakar went on to become the country’s leading ad-man. If you believe that his success has changed his family’s opinion of him, think again. “They see me having fun everyday. To them, all I have been doing all this while is hanging out with pretty women, and having a gala time, while pretending to work. All the name I have made for myself, my family calls it a fluke,” says a laughing Kakar.

His mantra is to have fun while working. “So much fun, that work stops being work. If more and more people start enjoying what they do, the world would become a more conducive and creative place,” he adds.

At the beginning of his career, Kakar had the fortune of working under Shyam Benegal as his assistant director in films such as Ankur, Bhumika and Manthan. One day, Benegal decided go out on a personal errand, and left the whole responsibility of the shoot on Kakar. “I was sh*****g bricks. It was a huge responsibility and I was not sure how to handle it. I was running out of choice and had to do something anyhow. With nervous apprehension, I took charge and completed the job assigned. When we saw the result, it was much better than what I had expected. But had Mr Benegal not pushed me into it, I would have never done it,” he confesses.

He recounts a similar experience of his first ad shoot. Had his boss not literally pushed him into directing an advertisement, he would not have become the man he is today. Despite decades of experience under his belt, he still feels the butterflies of his first shoot when an ad goes on to the floors today. “The moment I stop being nervous, I will know that the work has stopped exciting me. One cannot create something extraordinary without even a hint of nervousness.”

Looking at the advertisements that Kakar has created, one has to agree that the spark was and is in him to create something extraordinary. Yehi Hai Right Choice Baby! or Yeh Dil Maange More are unforgettable lines.

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looking back \\ PR AHL AD K AK AR

Those who grew up in the 1990s will remember the Yeh Dil Maange

More! Pepsi commercial, a tag line which is still not out of fashion

So why is it that we do not have commercials which stay with us for years? “The budgets are getting tighter, and clients are more insecure.

They do not want to risk anything these days. Without risk there is no room for creativity. People do not enjoy watching commercials presently, because the makers are not having enough fun while creating them.”

His life, certainly, seems like a joy ride. When I say so much, pat comes the reply, “It does not seem like a joy ride—it is.”

Each day is a new day for Kakar.

Each day he looks forward to doing something new, meeting new faces and embarking on newer adventures.

One time in Mauritius, one of his friends asked him to come for a scuba dive. Kakar who knew nothing about scuba-diving, refused to go under water, but agreed for a boat ride. When his friend vanished under the sea midway, he got bored sitting alone. So he too jumped right in. “It was uncomfortable. The salty water stung my eyes and I was mostly on the surface of the water. I decided to go again the next day, but this time I was better prepared.” The next time when he hit the water, he stayed inside for full 15 minutes. As he says, “Those 15 minutes changed my life.”

Once during a dive he found a Quran on the sea bed. Five years later, when he founded the scuba-diving institute—Lacadives—he established

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Ad-Mad: Kakar is a passionate ad man on sets, famous for his uncompromising attitude as

far as creativity is concerned

AD GURU HE WON the prestigious IAAFA award in 2000 for his contribution to the field of advertising

The popular commercial Everest

Ka Teekhalal, made by Kakar

it on the only cent per cent Muslim island in Lakshadweep, Kadmat.

Prahlad Kakar, as is evident by now, is a talkative man. And he is flamboyant too. For someone who talks mainly about women, water and work, it is hard to imagine him with a spiritual side. Allegedly, even people who know him cannot imagine it. Apparently, a friend who spotted him “hanging out” at the Isha Foundation Ashram, Coimbatore, yelled, “Hell! The guy doesn’t even believe in God!” Kakar came to meet Jaggi Vasudev, founder of Isha Foundation, by accident. When he did, he enjoyed the Guru’s company so much that he got hooked. When someone asked Jaggi Vasudev, how he got a man like Kakar interested in “the spiritual stuff”, Vasudev said, “Prahlad finally found a guy wilder than him.”

Today, he is as involved with the Yoga Foundation as he is with his company and his scuba-diving institute. It is a mystery how he manages to juggle so many roles, so magnificently. His life, Kakar says, is like a Hitchcock film, except there are no murderers. He lives by one rule: “Time is the only thing which is not infinite, invest it properly,” he says.

Ad film-making, scuba-diving, volunteer work for the yoga foundation—is there anything more that the man wishes to do next?

Of course he does. There are “some wonderful film scripts” written by him, which remains to be made into films, he has not found the “right guy as yet”.

But then, why convince someone else? Why can’t the best ad man do it himself, especially since he began his career as an assistant director to one of the most prominent directors of India? Kakar confesses that someone needs to push him into it. He can’t make films, as he is too nervous.

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s Prahlad Kakar for you—hard to define, and harder to predict.

As we get ready to wrap-up, he reminds me of the golden rule of communication—it happens two ways. As I dodge his questions, he sighs, and manages to leave me with a “relationship advice”. Like it or not, that’s how Kakar is—the enfant terrible, unpredictable and talented.

issue

closer look at Northe a st //

issue | a closer look at the Northeast

Hope and Desperation

Northeast India has been an enigma for the nation. An area which has more than 2,000km of international border but is connected with India by a narrow 20km-wide corridor, the region’s tenuous geographical link makes it politically and economically volatile.

On the other hand, the international border makes the area a playground of international politics, and what some analysts describe as “Great Game East” By Sanjay Kumar

factfile

Northeast India

comprises seven states or Seven Sisters—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.

One of the most ethnically and linguistically-diverse regions in Asia, each state has its distinct culture and tradition. It is home to more than 166 separate tribes, and multiple mutinies. The earliest separatist movement in India started within the region with the Nagas

The porous border between India and Bangladesh makes it simple for people from the neighbouring country make an easy entry. According to analyses, the continuous migration has altered the demography of several districts. Others deny this claim. They stress that the mobility between the states, and within the region, has been a part of history. They point out that it was but recently that Bangladesh became a separate, geographical entity. The issue of illegal migration is one of the contentious topics in Assam. It sparked a violent students’ movement in 1980s, which ended with the Assam Accord in 1985. The issue of illegal migration led to the birth of United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) in 1979—a separatist movement which demanded a separate country for the Assamese.

Though the ULFA movement has died down, the demand for state cleansing remains potent in Assam.

The state also has different tribes and groups who want their separate territories—a Bodoland is one such movement which has led to bloodshed. The Centre may have created the Bodo Autonomous Council, an autonomous region for the Bodos, but the problem is far from being solved. That points out how the pressure on land has made the indigenous tribe insecured in their area.

Though in the collective mind, the conflict and largescale violence in western Assam was always between Bodos and Bangladeshi migrants, the ground reality indicates a spillover of politics of dominance. The Bodos want a complete political dominance in the autonomous region.

One of the main reasons behind the continuing insurgencies is economic backwardness. Realising this, the Centre formulated a “Look East Policy” in 1990s to connect the Northeast with Southeast Asian countries and bring in economic reforms within the landlocked eastern frontier. The process has been slow, but it is yielding results. The Centre’s economic packages, coupled with the gradual decline in violence, has given a new hope. Nagaland, once a nervecentre of violence, is registering economic progress. Similarly, Mizoram, has been showing signs of change.

In Bertil Lintner’s Great Game East, he states that the “Great Game” being played out at the eastern fringes of Indian between India and China is reminiscent of the battle between Great Britain and Russia for Central Asia supremacy. To discuss the Northeastern problem, DW got Lintner and Colonel Anil Bhat, a defence and strategic affairs analyst to speak on the Northeast issue.

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issue \\ closer look at Northe a st

Colonel Anil Bhat Editor, WordSword Features

Colonel Bhat's focus areas are problems related to insurgencies within the nation. Col Bhat is a syndicated columnist contributing articles and reviews to a number of Indian and foreign dailes and portals, he is also editor of his defence news features agency– Word Sword Features

Colonel Bhat// China has been making

cartographic claims on Indian territory since 1950s. Till date, the country maintains its claim over Arunachal Pradesh. According to experts, our neighbour has made incursions as deep as 20km in parts of it. After the Naga Separatist Movement which it supported, China moved onto Meitei insurgents of Manipur. Since 2008, the country has been supporting the United Liberation Front of Asom’s (ULFA) anti-talks faction. As trade develops between India and China, at the latter’s advantage, the country will continue to meddle in India’s Northeast (NE).

India has enunciated a Look East Policy, which if implemented, has great potential for development of India’s NE states and also the countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh. But that can only happen if India is able to neu-

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tralise China threat, and if its neighbours— especially Burma—ensure that their territory cannot be used by insurgent-terrorist groups.

Bangladesh, under the regime of proPakistan Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and Pakistan’s ISI, had also provided sanctuary to these groups for two decades. When Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League came back with a massive electoral mandate, it made these groups retreat to Burma.

So far, to keep the NE together, India has periodically used the Army. What it needed to do was to exercise political will and undertake infrastructural development. Also, the Illegal Migration Determination by Tribunal (IMDT) Act, enacted by the ruling Congress in 1983, replacing the Foreigner’s Act of 1946, virtually regularised illegal migrants from Bangladesh upto March 1971. This

Act made it impossible for a Bangladeshi migrant to be deported from Assam. Under the Act, the onus of establishing nationality rested not on the migrant or government, but on an individual who had to pay a fee to lodge a complaint to a stipulated jurisdiction. It took 22 years for the Supreme Court to repeal Act. Over and over again, India’s blindness to NE has led insurgents become conduits for ISI to enter India’s NE. ULFA became an effective tool of ISI for pursuing its aim of settling illegal Bangladeshi migrants in parts into Assam, raising new madarassas and controlling old ones and trying to convert ethnic Assamese Muslims to fundamentalism, creating communal tension, circulating fake Indian currency, trafficking arms and narcotics, sabotaging installations—particularly rail, oil and public services—assassinations and massacres.

My book, Assam Terrorism and the Demographic Challenge (Centre for Land Warfare Studies-Knowledge World) assumes greater relevance in the light of the recent riots in Kokrajhar. It dwells on how the demographic pattern of at least eight districts in Assam got adversely altered over two decades of terrorism by ULFA, when its leaders were hiding in Bangladesh. By now, it is believed that 11 districts have been affected.

The July and August 2012 riots between Bodos and non-Bodos in Kokrajhar, being referred to as “Bagladeshis or Mians” and its neighbouring districts left 77 killed and about 378,045 people rendered homeless.

This being an official figure, no one knows how many more people took shelter in the safe zones. Out of the displaced, 266,700 are Muslims and 111,345 are Bodos.

Assam is a serious case of demographic shifts, which have occurred due to votebank politics. Whereas unspecified crores of illegal migrants from Bangladesh have settled in Assam, it now comes to light that there are only 3,000-odd families have land holding records, while the rest were found without any land records. At this rate the future of the NE is far from bright and for Look East Policy with tremendous potential, much will have to be meaningfully done to keep this region secure and on the path of integration and progress.

issue

closer look at Northe a st //

Bertil Lintner Historian Bertil Lintner // On the eastern fringes of the Indian subcontinent, the new rivalry between India and China grows warmer.

When I say this is a ‘new’ rivalry, it is so only compared to the 19th century Great Game in the west. Indo-Chinese rivalry is not new in the modern sense—it goes back China’s invasion of Tibet in the early 1950s, the Lhasa uprising 1959, the 1962 border war, Chinese support for ethnic insurgents in Indias northeast, and the fact that the Dalai Lama’s movement in exile continued to be based in India. It is a regional rivalry between the two giants of Asia, and now, of course, it is also about China’s access (through Burma) to the Indian Ocean, which has added a new dimension to it. The question remains whether the region will be always disturbed, or is there a chance for economic prosperity and peace. That unfortunately is had to say. Peace is possible in Mizoram, and to some extent, in Nagaland.

But Manipur remains a troubled area with more insurgent groups than in any other Northeastern state. And Manipur is crucial to New Delhi’s Look East Policy, as the state is India’s gateway to Southeast Asia. At the beginning of my book, I mention that, “The Great Game East is also about India’s struggle to keep its ethnically-diverse Northeastern states within the Union.”

It is important to remember that there are insurgencies in the NE not only because Pakistan and China have supported those movements over the past few decades. There are genuine grievances as well; many Northeastern people do not rally they are Indians, and many “mainland” Indians are blissfully unaware of the NE problems. It is important, of course, that the various peoples of the NE have been granted statehood, but more has to be done to create a better understanding among the population.

It is important to look closely at the issue of foreigners in Assam and the agitation against Bangladeshi settlers. It is a big problem because Bangladesh is underdeveloped, and Assam’s fertile plains are there to the north. Furthermore, the borders are porous

and impossible to police.

The presence of immigrants in Assam is both a destabilising factor, and an economic opportunity.

The immigrants take the jobs which ordinary Assamese people do not, and they contribute to the economy. However, any kind of immigration has to be regulated, which has not been the case. The recent conflict between Bodo and Muslims was interpreted broadly as a conflict between local and foreigners. As I saw it, the strife was a fight over land and resources.

The never-ending unrest in Manipur has been the most difficult issue to solve in the NE. It is not only local militants versus the Centre, but Nagas against Meiteis, and Kukis against Nagas. No single solution would satisfy aspirations of all nationalities in this multiethnic state. Carving it up into smaller entities would not be a solution; creating autonomous districts within the state, with more self-government than now, could be the way forward. Insurgency has always been a bane of the NE. Manipur is still the most volatile state in the region. However, the Naga problem seems to be reaching some kind of a stalemate. Naga leaders were the first one to reach China for training. It is hard to see what the Nagas could get which they don’t already have: their own state. And I cannot imagine that the Centre will agree to any solution which is not within the framework of the Constitution. To do anything otherwise could, and would, set a precedent for other ethnic conflicts in other parts of the country and as such be a threat to the unity of the entire Indian Union.

With economic development, and more importantly, serious considerations for the

Bertil Lintner is a Swedish historian. In 1985 he undertook an 18 month, 2,275km journey from Northeastern India across Burma’s northern rebel held areas to China, making him the first outsider in decades to cross the region. His latest book is the Great Game East

ethnic aspirations of the peoples, the strifes and the economic problems could be solved.

One cannot come without the other; and only economic development will not be enough. These are different cultures and traditions that we are talking about. These differences must be respected and safeguarded and not seen as a threat to India’s unity.

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PLATFORM

SIDDHARTHA VAIDYANATHAN | Sports Journalist

Lessons to be Learnt From T20 Cup

Some things change so quickly that it’s easy for others to stay just the same THE WORLD T20, a tournament that

Sri Lanka hosted, West Indies won and India participated in—taught us some vital lessons about cricket’s past, present and future. Here, I list a few (in no particular order).

1. An international T20 tournament is won by a team that starts poorly, stutters, hiccups, and threatens to choke before beating down the odds in grand style. India did it in 2007. Pakistan surprised everyone with their late surge in 2009. Ditto England, in 2010. West Indies followed the script here. The trend is clear. Mary Poppins, who spread the rumor saying well begun is half done, was wrong. It is time Lalit Modi filed a lawsuit against her.

2. West Indies need to do the exact opposite of what their heroic predecessors did. Clive Lloyd might have unleashed the most fearsome fast bowlers, and Viv Richards, and his gum-chewing buddies, might have turned bowlers into thumb-sucking toddlers, but this WI team is a polar opposite. Darren Sammy’s team

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relies on spin and medium-pace.

They defend when it is time to attack, and go ballistic when it is time to consolidate. They lose heads regularly and need to hold their nerve to win close games. And they celebrate ‘Gangnam Style’. Yes, the men from the Calypso heartland are bowing at the alter of a Korean, whose motto is “dress classy, dance cheesy”. The wheel turns. And how!

3. Sri Lanka are in contention for cricket’s greatest bridesmaid. This was their fourth major finals defeat since 2007. They resemble England in the 1980s and early 1990s (a World Cup semi-final loss and two finals losses). Had Sri Lanka been South Africa, they would have had the word ‘chokers’ plastered all over their jerseys, but people are applying words like ‘unlucky’ and ‘temperamental’.

Lanka Captain Mahela Jayawardene was lost for words at the end of the final and suggested more matches against India will help them prepare better. OK, I made the last part up.

4. Pakistan are in a worst position

Author

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

when they are tipped to win. Many cricket experts picked them as the pre-tournament favorites. Some said, “It’s their tournament to lose” (now stop getting ideas!) and others said they have the right mix of youth and experience (though nobody was sure which part of that fence Shahid Afridi sat on). Surely enough Pakistan lost. So all ye’ experts: if you really think that Pakistan is the best team, then lie through your teeth, and say they suck. Write stories about skirmishes, inflated egos and conspiracy theories. Quote former Pakistani cricketers (some of who think every ball is fixed). And when the team wins, write how they beat all odds (knowing well that they were the best in the tournament).

5. Pakistan will beat India when they play them next in a global tournament. I say this with conviction because I have immense faith in one of the most important laws of cricket—the law of averages. Now, I know statisticians (genuine ones who deal in high-end mathematics, not some

platform

SIDDHARTHA VAIDYANATHAN//

There’s no break in cricket’s caravan these days, no time to sulk, no time to take stock. Some things change so quickly that it’s easy for others to stay just the same”

fluffy tabulators who calculate batting averages), and these guys tell me that the law of averages is bunkum.

They say that the law is used conveniently when it fits a situation and is forgotten otherwise. They say I am an ignorant dunce, who thinks that five heads will be followed by tails.

I may not know statistics, but I know history. Mark my words. Pakistan may have lost to India in every contest in a global tournament, but there will come a day (not too far in the future) when they are going to need four runs off the last ball, and when one of their batsmen is going to tonk a full-toss for six and charge down the ground like a triumphant bison. Then Pakistan will keep beating India for the next 10 years and the statisticians will continue to insist that the law of averages is bogus. In other words, history will repeat itself—in more ways than one.

6. Afghanistan and Ireland will continue to see cricket’s big boys conspiring against them. These two teams (and Zimbabwe) are like the

clowns in a theatre—the big boys want them in the arena, wish for everyone to enjoy their cameos, but do not want them to take over the performance. They cannot bear the sight of these teams in the later rounds. Cricket’s economics seems to frown upon this. So, they create a format to ensure that these teams make a guest appearance.

This is a pity. Because the only way Afghanistan, Ireland and the so-called minnows, are going to improve is by playing big games, not by rearing their heads for a game or two and then returning to obscurity. It’s all fine to celebrate Afghanistan’s long road from a wartorn background to an international tournament (there are many stories that keep appearing in few years), but it makes no sense to reach this far if they aren’t given more chances to raise their game. I am sure they themselves will prefer pragmatism to overt sentimentality.

7. India can lose as many matches as they want and the same questions

will be asked and left unanswered.

India lost eight Test matches in a row. Everyone asked if M.S. Dhoni has reached the end of his tether.

Now, after the World T20, they ask the same question. During the whitewashes in England and Australia, many asked what Duncan Fletcher was bringing to the side. They continue to ask the same after this World T20 ouster. Why did the selection committee make such bad decisions?

Ditto and ditto. When is someone going to take a call on Sehwag and Gambhir? Is the IPL the reason for our poor performance? Asked before, asked again. A few days after the World T20 some of India’s cricketers headed to South Africa for the Champions League T20. Then, they will head back for the home series against England. So on and so on.

There’s no break in cricket’s caravan these days, no time to sulk, no time to take stock. Some things change so quickly that it’s easy for others to stay just the same. (All views expressed in this column are of the author)

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good karma

\\ HA JI PUBLIC SCHOOL

SCHOOL

CHALEIN HUM... ...Is what the students of Haji Public School are singing, and they are not the only ones celebrating

BY MANJIRI INDURKAR

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O

nce on the banks of Chenab, a bunch of children were busy chatting amongst each other. As the villagers heard them, they began to wonder—the children looked like one of their own. But none of the local people knew English. How did this bunch manage to master it? Finally, the elders could take it no longer and went up to the bunch to ask them. It was then that the children shared a wonderful secret—Haji Public School (Breswana).

Sabbah Haji beams with pride, and happiness, when she recounts how her students stand apart from the crowd.

good karma

HA JI PUBLIC SCHOOL //

Founder FOUNDER NAME: Sabbah Haji FOUNDED IN: 2008 ORGANISATION NAME: Haji Public School WEBSITE: http://www. hajipublicschool.org

Her students are, of course, different from rest of their ilk; they are not only well-versed in English, they know how to use a computer and access the internet. In fact, Haji Public School students begin using the computer from Class I, an unthinkable practice in most government-run schools in Breswana, which is tucked away in the Doda mountains in Jammu and Kashmir. This is where Sabbah Haji, the school’s founder, belongs to. And this is where her mother was born.

In 2008, when the Amarnath Riots broke out, Breswana was deeply impacted. Sabbah was in Bengaluru, working for a website designing firm. She watched the riots take place from the safe confines of her cubical. It was only when she received a distress call from her mother, did she realise that it was time to pack her bags and return.

She quit her cushy corporate job and left, to start a school, funded by Haji Amina Charity Trust, which was started by her uncle, Nasir Haji.

Within the first year, the school had 30 students. The extra care that Sabbah put in, reaped results, as her students began showing marked improvement right at the

outset, whether in their conversation or comprehension skills. They read books, which Breswana has not seen before. Watching their children learn and grow, villagers began to send youngsters from their families, too, and winds of change began to blow.

The journey thus far, might sound like a fairytale, but it was not always easy. Sabbah, however, does not believe in complaining. She is more than happy that the “children are getting their right to quality education”.

And if you pester her enough, she opens up and explains the process.

“Starting the school would not have been a problem had it not been for the authorities,” she confesses.

The land was provided by her father, and the money by her uncle. But the permission to start the school and the legal frame work involved, crossing that hurdle was no mean feat. It took the Haji team quite a few trips down the hill to get the paperwork done. Authorities of the local government schools were scared. And rightly so, because what Sabbah and team were offering was so much more.

Even today, when Haji Public School has earned quite a name, pan-India, local authorities and the state government refuse to acknowledge them. The school’s teachers are often made to travel distances for minor paperwork every other day. But Haji and team does not let such small details faze her. She accepts them as they come, and forgets about them the moment they are over. She talks with an infectious optimism about the future—where and how they plan to start a high school. “Right now, we only have lower classes. In higher classes, parents will start feeling uncomfortable sending girls to co-ed schools. We plan to have different schools for girls and boys by that time. The motive is to provide everyone with solid education. Once that happens, we can fight the gender issues,” she says. Sabbah and team also plan to start a college with hostel facilities for young men and women.

With so many issues to fight, how does Haji Public School manage to get competent teachers and run their classes? Sabbah says that they pick local people and train them, ensuring that they are fit to teach a particular batch.

The trust also runs volunteering programmes, where individuals from various parts of the country come and teach the children, and train the teachers as well. Haji Trust’s focus to hire only local people as teachers, has ensured steady employment in the village. And the locals are also involved in other activities surrounding the school.

Unlike government schools, Sabbah makes her students pay a minimal fee, however, books and uniforms are distributed for free.

Perhaps, it is this minimal amount that makes her students and their parents value the education they receive. Students of Haji Public School do not follow the government curriculum. Instead the team designed an innovative syllabus, where students are taught through toys, sketch books and picture perception methods. The school also provides students sports equipment. The school has a world-class library which boasts of more than a thousand books, most of which have been donated by organisations such as Pratham Books. The library is not just open for students and staff, but the entire village.

Kashmir seems to be forever trapped in turbulent times, especially if you believe the 24*7 news channels. But within that violence and strife, there are little oases of peace, of which Haji Public School is one. It manages to function without worry lines. If Sabbah Haji is to be believed, the violence of Kashmir is a thing of the past. She tells us so, with such conviction that even we would like to believe it. Looking at Haji Public School and its students, makes us think that there is, at least, a part of Kashmir which remains at peace.

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“It is personal in the sense that there is something at stake, something genuine and human”

READING ROOM

— Jeet Thayil

Author

Narcopolis

Is Narcopolis Thayil’s antidote after all the decades spent smashed?

Yes, it probably is

BY ROHINI BANERJEE

AN ALCOHOLIC and

an substance abuser for over two decades, firsttime author and long-time poetcum-musician, Jeet Thayil perhaps found his antidote in writing. It is not surprising that Thayil found his cure in prose and verse after all, as he has the DNA makeup. Jeet Thayil has the fortune of calling Thayil Jacob Sony George, better known as T.J.S. George, an Indian writer, biographer and a Padma Bhushan awardee, his father. However, pedigree can be both a boon and a bane.

Legacy can be daunting. And living up to it, a challenge. But legacy could not have been Thayil’s singular challenge—his biggest one lay in one detail; how was he to make his book authentic enough for his readers? Will they not immediately sniff a foreign-educated writer who lived a substantial bit of his life away from the city that he describes with such obvious pleasure. Thayil’s first attempt garnered mixed reviews from Indian reviewers and critics.

However, it has been a sweeping success overseas. He is not far from joining the league of Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie and Kiran Desai, as

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his debut novel Narcopolis is next in the race to winning this year’s Man Booker Prize 2012, the winner of which will be declared on October 16, 2012, at London’s Guildhall.

So does the Indian author succeed after all? In bits, he does. Thayil creates a melange of characters successfully. However, it is difficult to emotionally connect with most of them. The main protagonist is the city of Bombay—its transition from the old-world Bombay to the newage Mumbai. And living in the city’s underbelly are the so-called dregs of the society—Rashid the opium den owner. Dimple, an eunuch who makes pipes in Rashid’s opium den.

Mr Lee, a Chinese refugee who manages to drive a stolen vehicle out of China and into Bombay.

Then there is the vast supporting cast of pimps, prostitutes, and criminals who drop in and out. The variety is Thayil’s attempt at “honouring the people I knew in the opium dens, the marginalised, the addicted and deranged, people who are routinely called the lowest of the low; and I wanted to make some record of a world that no longer exists, except

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeet Thayil was born in Kerala, India, in 1959 and was educated in Hong Kong, New York and Mumbai. He is a performance poet, songwriter and guitarist, and has published four collections of poetry. He is the editor of the Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets. He lives in India

Publisher: Faber & Faber ISBN 13: 978-819061-739-0 Pages : 336 Price: `499

within the pages of a book”.

The story opens in Rashid’s opium house on Shuklaji Street sometime in the 1970s. We meet the owner himself, his clients, and Dimple.

Thayil is no stranger to the written word as he has been an accomplished poet. That strength serves him well as he takes the readers in and out of his characters’ lives, emerging occasionally inside a vivid drug-induced recollection. The story, which begins in the 1970s, jump cuts to a few years. This is where Thayil emerges victorious, while exposing the contrarian nation—one that seems to be in an opium-induced, dream-like state, wrapped up in ideals of simplicity and unaware of the sweeping changes that would strike soon with the economic liberalisation in the 1990s. For Rashid and Dimple change arrives in the form of heroin, a drug that heralds a new world order. Their regular customers switch while their city disintegrates into communal riots and mayhem.

The degeneration does not limit itself to the city but drags all the individual players along with it. All things end. The end sadly does come

reading room CRITICS & AUTHORS //

“It is where I spent the first 20 years of my life. I am grateful it was not a paradise” — Manu Joseph

and it is written with empathy. It is well understood through a scene which unfolds in a shiny nightclub, with Rashid’s. The story finally ends at 2004 (incidently also the year when Thayil returned to India). It ends at Shuklaji Street, the same spot it started: with the ‘I’ narrator and a pipe:

“All I did was write it down, one word after the other, beginning and ending with the same one, Bombay.”

Language is the clear focus of the book which is an highly-intertextual one, containing references to invented texts, stories within stories from a broad mix of genres and repetitions

of key phrases and narratives. Layers of reality mingle and swirl so that it’s not always evident what is dream, what is not. Thayil apparently felt that he lost almost 20 years of his life to addiction. But reading Narcopolis, it seems that perhaps that it was not much of a waste after all.

The Illicit Happiness of Other People: A Novel A quirky look at the average, domestic life of a pre-liberalised India BY ROHINI BANERJEE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Manu Joseph is the editor of OPEN magazine, and writes the Letters From India column for the global edition of The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune.

This is his second novel Publisher: The Fourth Estate ISBN: 9350293641 Pages: 343 Price: ` 449

THE ILLICIT HAPPINESS OF OTHER PEOPLE is

set in pre-1991 Madras, when India was not shining and Madras was the name of a 17th century town rather than a modern metropolis. Joseph says in his acknowledgements, “It is where I spent the first 20 years of my life. I am grateful it was not a paradise.” It was rather a place where “all husbands are managers, women are housewives, and all bras are white”. That is Joseph’s Madras—miles and years away from being the metropolis of Chennai that it is today. The main protagonist is Ousep Chacko. Ousep is a journalist by day, and neighbourhood drunk by night.

His wife, Mariamma, has a postgraduate degree in economics, nurses fantasies about killing her husband, and regularly talks to the walls. They have two sons—Unni and Thoma. Unni, the elder, is the one whom everyone loves. It seems there is nothing he can not handle, from his classmates to his mother’s delusions, his father’s drunken antics to his brother’s anxieties. A gifted cartoonist, he’s the one person in the novel who isn’t burdened by the mania for academic excellence. Unni is the last person anyone expects would have a great fall, but one day, inexplicably, he does. For the next three years,

Unni becomes Ousep’s study and the father’s project of unconquerable will is to figure out why Unni lost his will.

Mariamma continues to stretch the family’s money, raises her remaining boy, and, in her spare time, gleefully fantasises about Ousep dying. Meanwhile, younger son Thoma, missing his brother, falls head over heels for the much older girl who befriended them both. Haughty and beautiful, she has her own secrets. The Illicit Happiness of Other People—a smart, wry, and poignant novel—teases you with its mystery, philosophy, and unlikely love story.

The Illicit Happiness... is a witty, unforgiving but deeply affectionate look at life in pre-liberalised India. There is none of the acidic contempt that can be found in Joseph’s first novel, Serious Men. It is fun, despite all the unhappiness and angst that riddles it. Joseph’s characters are peculiar. Their stories are told with an empathy that is intelligent enough to note all absurdities without reducing anyone or anything to a caricature. The author has no sympathy for the blinkers that old India clapped on itself, but even as his scathing critique stings painfully, Joseph’s sense of humour makes it impossible for a reader to not grin while reading the novel.

NOVEMBER 2012

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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!

PHIBIAN $1.2 MILLION

Be it on road or water, the Phibian conquers all— that should be its slogan.

The manufacturers of Phibian, a truck that also transforms into a fast-moving boat in water, claim it to be the ‘largest, wheeled high-speed Amphibian’, a one-of-its-kind. It can retract its wheels in water, like a plane retracting its landing gear, and it’s fast.

The Phibian can split water in excess of 30-mph while carrying a max payload of 15 people or 1,500-kg. It is unlike any other toy out there, eh?

Phibian

NEW REDESIGNED PS3 Sony recently introduced a version of its popular gaming console—Sony PS3—said to be 25 per cent slimmer than its current slim model

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HANDHELD NAUTIZ X1 Sweden based company announced what is said to be the toughest and roughest smartphone till date with IP67 certification and 810G military standard

warehouse

GADGE TS & GIZMOS //

PERSONAL SUBMARINE $2 MILLION

What do you do if you are filthy rich? Go for a dive into the ocean with your personal submarine, of course! For a cool US$2 million, you can purchase this water-ready, two person vessel that can dive down up to 1000-feet below the surface. This state-of-the-art submersible vessel comes with an array of instruments—hygrometer, depth gauges, fluxgate and magnetic compasses, mechanical clinometers, GPS receiver, and other communication equipment—to ensure you have your personal expedition, and a private James Cameron moment, somewhere down the continental shelf.

GENUINE PT 728 $ 1 MILLION

No half measures here, this is a fully-restored, close-to-70-yearold World War II Patrol Torpedo Boat. Updated with modern electronics, radar, and two turbo-charged diesel engines providing 1,100 total horsepower, this genuine PT boat also comes equipped with a single .50- and two twin .50-caliber Browning machine gun stations, an aft 20-mm Oerlikon cannon, four tubes that each housed a Mark VIII torpedo, all deactivated. With the PT boat, and a million dollars, you can scare the living daylights out of Indian coastguards. Are you in?

SEABREACHER You got to get the Seabreacher Submersible Vessel, which allows two people inside a sealed cockpit as the vessel cruises at 40 mph, if you wish to know how a fish feels

BBQ BOAT The floating barbeque boat comes with a barbeque grill, an umbrella, and capacity to accommodate 10 adults onboard.

Price US $50,000

NOVEMBER 2012

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

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hitchhiker’s guide \\ Tanz ania

hitch

hiker

Photos by photos.com

Graceful Gazelles: The gazelles are the most delicate and graceful creatures to be spotted at the Serengeti National Park and an inhabitant of the Arusha National Park

The Quaint Call of Arusha

Small and serene, Arusha is a jewel tucked away in Tanzania

By Bishnupriya Banerjee

“B

ut is it safe?” Between my husband and I, we have a trulyextended family. Nearly everyone in that rather large and well-meaning Bengali family of ours expressed their dismay when we declared our decision to move to Africa for good. We were bombarded by tales of people they knew of or heard of or read about, who lost a leg, an eye and assorted parts of their bodies in mugging incidents. South Africa was safe, but the east? Despite the naysayers, my husband and I remained unfazed. We invented a game to guess at what point of conversations, the safety question would pop up.

Partly, our families are to be blamed for our interest in Africa. They got us the book—the greatest adventure tale ever written in Bengali—that all teenagers, especially the boys, read. The book by novelist Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay called Chander Pahaar (loosely translated as The Mountain of the Moon). It is not just a

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book. It is a rite of passage that my husband and I went through. Between that and the Enid Blytons, I was frankly torn between what would be more glorious or glamorous—discovering an island cove or a cave filled with diamonds. Thus when the Arusha offer came in, a

hitchhiker’s guide Tanz ania //

hiker of the month

bit of that child who remained was too thrilled to even care. There were no second guesses. It was a “I do” to Arusha’s call. I knew that the world had changed and that in Arusha there were probably no caves filled with diamonds. But what greeted us, was a rather exotic mix of old world charm and new development, present in a chaos reminiscent of home. There are few direct flights to Arusha, usually it is better to land in the capital of Tanzania, Dar-e-salaam, and then take a car or bus to the city. Arusha does have its own airport, which is rather small and tidy.

The city is the fourth-largest in Tanzania, a lovely little spot tucked away within a valley, with more-orless mild weather all year round. Because it is situated in a higher altitude, the region is also drier. Arusha is the capital of northern region of Tanzania also called the Arusha Region.

And it is the place to go for those who dream about safaris—the city is close to some of Africa's most famous national parks, including the Serengiti. It is also famous for its touts trying to sell safaris, and vendors trying to sell souvenirs. Though well-meaning, it is better to book the safaris well before you land to ensure safer travel. The town rests on a rather picturesque spot below the Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the Great Rift Valley.

Make it a pit stop in Africa, even if you do not plan on staying for long, as it is close to Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, Olduvai Gorge, Tarangire National Park, and Mount Kilimanjaro.

The visit that got us excited was the Arusha Nation-

When she was seven and poring over Enid Blyton books, Bishnupriya Banerjee knew that she would be a traveller when she grew up. She also knew that one day there would be a small island with a hidden cove named after her. But being a wife, a mother and a homemaker, has made her drop her island plan. Her ambition now is to travel across the continent of Africa, where she is settled

African Safari: (Above) A luxury tent in the park, a bush elephant, a giraffe makes a quick getaway after spotting photographers and women in traditional attire in the city

al Park which, till 1967, was known as the Ngurdoto Crater National Park. The Arusha National Park is located halfway between Arusha and Moshi towns.

It is surrounded by a sweeping band of forests. The breathtaking bit within it, is the Momella Lakes with

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hitchhiker’s guide \\ Tanz ania

its flamingoes and hippos. The lakes, because of their varied mineral content, each supports a different type of algae growth which lends it a distinct colour.

From the highlands, the lakes divide the park almost equally. In the rainy season (November to December and March to May) it swells into a mighty waterway that floods the entire area. The sweeping plains around Momella lakes are natural grasslands fed by underground streams.

Because the water is salty, animals do not use them for drinking. For ornithologists, the lakes are a mustvisit because some 400 species of birds use the wetlands close to the lakes. While there you can also spot the bushbucks, water-bucks and bohor reedbuck.

Also within the park is the Ngurdoto crater all of 3km wide and 1,474 metres deep. The crater has rocky cliffs, forest and swamp interspersed by open plain.

Though tourists are not allowed on the crater floor, there are plenty of spots from where one can watch the animals. Once, it is belived, the Mount Meru was higher than Kilimanjaro. Meru collapsed sideways, destroying its eastern slope of the volcanic cone. The mountainscape is scenic and spectacular. Use Meru as an high-attitude warm-up before you tackle Mount Kilimanjaro, which is 5,895m high. The Arusha park promotes walking safaris with armed escorts as transitory lions are spotted, but we got to see none.

And there is plenty more to see in the towns. Before we became one of the people, my husband and I decided to be tourists for a bit and take in the scenary on a daladala (mini-van taxi) into town to the Central Market (intersection of Market Street and Somali Road) which sells herbs, spices, sandals made from old tyres, colourful kangas, traditional medicines and local produce such as baobab seeds and fresh tamarind, both

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Adventure Land: Some of the sights at the national parks of Tanzania

Wild Calls

Wooden Haven: Arusha offers a lot of accommodation to suit all budgets

Plumed Pretty: A couple of local eagles eye the tourists

Bright Wings: For ornithologists Arusha National Park is a treat

of which can be sucked like sweets. The markets are open daily between 7am and 6pm. For those who are interested in local crafts there are enough crafts shops at Goliondo Road where Tingatinga paintings, Masai jewellery and batik, are sold.

Beautiful, exotic and filled by asili (‘genuine’ in Swahili) people, Arusha is a must-see, especially during the months between January and March, when the wheather is just perfect for a stroll.

life

photos BY Subhojit Paul

reel

Shadow Lines Actor and director Rajat Kapoor

The Indie Man on Film Commerce Actor, director, scriptwriter and producer Rajat Kapoor, on things he flees from

By Manjiri Indurkar

S

itting alone inside a vacant auditorium and watching the stage lights dim or shine upon an empty stage can be disconcerting.

Without its actors, a stage seems robbed off its identity. The lights, shining upon the vacuum, make the emptiness more pronounced.

As I sat contemplating upon how the calm seemed just ‘wrong’, in walked Rajat Kapoor, the director of Nothing Like Lear. Suddenly, the stage erupted with a flurry of activities.

He walked into the auditorium—sporting an unusually thick beard streaked with grey—and immediately got busy checking (read trashing) the lighting. Let’s say he was not happy at all. Kapoor was worried that his audience might be troubled by the excessive light. He wanted the side ones to be moved back. He wanted the back lights to be turned off. He was worried that his actor would not get enough space to move. Nit-picking or perfectionist, call him what you will, Rajat Kapoor

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is a man who loves his job. Though this was perhaps the fortieth show of Nothing Like Lear, based on William Shakespeare's King Lear, Kapoor was five hours before showtime to take care of the details.

Kapoor belongs to the league of experimental filmmakers. Apparently, he locked on to the idea of becoming a director at the age of 14. As a boy, his father would frequently take his brother and him to watch films. “Once I started watching Hindi films, it became a habit,” he tells us. “Deewar and Bobby left a huge impact. If Deewar was the most violent film that I had watched, Bobby was about the sensual,” he says, and then adds with a chuckle, “At least for my 13-year-

reel life

R a jat K apoor //

Director of the month

old self.” Life changed more as Kapoor graduated from college to join Alliance Francaise, Delhi. It was at Alliance Francaise that he had his first theatre experience. “Till the age of 20, I had probably seen just two plays. In Alliance, I joined a theatre group just for a lark. Then I got so hooked that I could not think of life without the stage,” he says. Soon, he was co-running a theatre group, Chingari. He directed his first play Fireworks—a Swiss drama. “It was a tremendous high. I had never felt such a rush before. Watching the baby come alive, watching the audience’s reaction to it, their laughter, the applause, the butterflies and the wonderful satisfaction.” Perhaps it was the rush which made him enrol in the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and then move to the celluloid city of Mumbai where his days of struggle began.

As a start, Kapoor assisted directors such as Mani Kaul and Kumar Shahani for three years. His first milestone was directing the National Award-winning short film Tarana. Though the film fetched critical acclaim, his scripts still struggled to find producers.

The second milestone of his career was an Indie film, Private Agent, which he made with veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah. The film did the festival circuit but it never got a mainstream release.

To earn that extra bit, Kapoor, the good-looking man that he is, landed himself a Brooke Bond tea commercial, where he was spotted by actor-cum-director Farhan Akhtar. In those days, Akhtar was busy planning his debut film Dil Chahta Hai, and was on a lookout for an actor who could play a young uncle to one of

A man who dons many hats, Rajat Kapoor juggles his time between acting, writing and directing. He has been part of critically-successful films such as Mithya, Raghu Romeo, Bheja Fry, Phas Gaye Re Obama and Pappu Can't Dance Sala. He also hosts a show called the Lounge on NDTV Good Times

Director's Cut: (Right) Rajat Kapoor played the role of Ranjeet Thadani, a slightly mean but otherwise good businessman, who pulls a prank on Bharat Bhushan (Vinay Pathak), a wannabe singer and a simple chap in Bheja Fry. The experimental film was a huge hit.

(Top) Mithya directed by Kapoor is the story of a small-time actor (Ranvir Shorey) who impersonates a gangster after being coreced by police

the protagonists. When Akhtar saw Kapoor in the commercial he knew he had found his man. Those who have seen the film, will agree that Kapoor played the part, however small, with a lot of conviction. After that he received the much-deserved attention in Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding where he played a pedophiliac. A challenging role acted so astutely that audience loved to hate him.

The film received international fame and made Kapoor a famous face.

For him, the early 2000s, was a “good time to be in the film industry”. It was experiencing a new wave of experimental cinema. People were willing to spend money on films which were not mainstream. During this time that he made Raghu Romeo with a littleknown actor, Vijay Raaz. The film brought him his third National Award and set his career in motion. A slew of films followed; Mixed Doubles, Mithya, Fatso and now, Aankhon Dekhi, which he is working on. He also appeared in Bheja Fry, Corporate, Phas Gaye Re Obama, Dasvidaniya and more Indie films.

As he ponders, I make the mistake of pointing out that a ‘set of actors’ seem to appear in several of his films. I am not even done, when he interrupts with an emphatic “No!” “I do not make films with the

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reel life

// R a jat K apoor

same set of actors.” He has obviously been asked the question before and does not appreciate it. “Ranvir [Shorey] is the only exception, and that, too, because he suited the roles. All films where Vinay [Pathak] and I have worked together, were not directed by me. It is not something that I chose,” he lets me know.

When the conversation drifts towards the current spate of films getting made, he expresses his disappointment in the industry.

“Five years ago the industry was in a good place for independent filmmakers. Now, it seems that the mainstream sh**** films have made their comeback.

Things have gone from bad to worse,” he sighs.

However, Kapoor always knew that his films will appeal to only a select few, and they would never make a tonne of money.

He adds as an afterthought, “Only cr**** films make a lot of money.” Since we were on the subject, his decision to work in the widely-panned Agent Vinod had to be scrutinised. He bursts out laughing at the suggestion. “[Sriram] Raghavan—the director—is a friend,” he says still smiling, and adds that playing an ISI agent was an incentive that made him think about the offer. As an afterthought he adds that there are some roles that he wishes to forget, say a Kisna for instance. One understands that Kapoor, the actor and the director, has consciously stayed away from stereotypes. How does he manage to do that? “By saying a firm no. It has been hard, I have been offered roles of abusive uncles over and over again. I was also asked to play a father to a popular heroine because I once played an uncle. I said a flat no.”

Before the interview gets done, Kapoor the director kicks in. He pointedly asks me if I am staying back for the play which is some hours away. I assure him that I would and he breaks into a smile and a nod.

Nothing Like Lear is a monologue. It starts with the lead, a brilliant Atul Kumar, talking gibberish, switching from one mood to another with an admirable ease. Seeing him perform, I am reminded of a small

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Actor by Chance: (Left) A still from Phas Gaye Re Obama. Kapoor never wanted to be an actor, it all happened by chance, and thank goodness it did!

Reel Bytes

The Storyteller: A still from last directorial venture Mithya

Director's Actor: Kapoor admits that he is a submissive actor

First Love: Raghu Romeo his national award winning debut film

information which Kapoor shared during our talk. He extensively praised Charlie Chaplin. The great Chaplin has been an inspiration, and that is evident on Kapoor’s strokes, as Shakespeare and Chaplin unite on stage during the play.

As the curtain falls, the audience stands up. There is ear splitting applause and a flushed director accepts it all with a smile and a bow. He makes the usual round shaking hands and accepting accolades—but not for long. There is another show to be performed.

Another act to be played. His job is not done yet as the show must go on.

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NOTES

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a H as to why 'T S A t-for u A TALe is a reason ood watch-soful '3

GIRL ON FIRE LISTEN

This girl is on fire / Looks like a girl, but she’s a flame / so bright, she can burn your eyes with a serious case of writer's block, singer-songwriter Alicia Keys returns to the mainstream in a sexier avatar; hair slick and body sleeker. Somewhere along her sexy way, it seems that those lyrics which made her stand out were abandoned. The soul diva premiered her new single in June 2012, and from then on like her US-based contemporaries, Key's taken the more is merrier approach by releasing three different versions of the same song.

Now, her album—'Girl on Fire' is ready to hit the stalls on November 27, 2012.

WATCH

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'Talaa ber 30, 20 Novem

CII TRADE FAIR

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Northern Region, will be organising the 17th edition of its Annual B2C Exhibition, the CII Chandigarh Fair 2012, from Thursday, November 7 to 11, 2012, at the Parade Ground, Sector 17, Chandigarh.

Keeping in mind the overwhelming response in the past editions , the administrators have decided to extend the event to five days. The success of all the preceding exhibitions with increased exhibitor & visitor participation including highvolume business growth has made CII Chandigarh Fair one of the most sought after trade events in the northern part of India.

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ATTEND

17th INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S FILM FESTIVAL

The all-India 17th International Children’s Film Festival will be held in Hyderabad between November 14 and November 20, 2012.

The festival will showcase Indian films such as 'Stanley ka Dabba', 'I am Kalam' and 'Chillar Party' among regional films. Around 170 feature films from 40 countries will be showcased at the festival. With a budget of `5 crore, the Shilpramum (Hyderabad) festival aims at roping in NGOs, schools and individuals to be a part of it. The festival will also invite around 10 children from 10 districts in Hyderabad, to attend proceedings.