Democratic World March 2012 by Democratic World

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

D E M O C R A T I C

W O R L D

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

PICTURE PERFECT WHY INSTAGRAM IS THE

LATEST CRAZE Page 22

MONSTER OR MESSIAH? EXPERTS DEBATE INDIA’S

NUCLEAR POWER POLICY PAGE 28

PLUS

GOOD KARMA

WAREHOUSE

PLATFORM

BROAD CANVAS

express

EDIT ORIAL SONICA MALHOTRA KANDHARI | editorial@democraticworld.in

A Matter of More Than a Month BEING A career woman keeps me on my toes most

EDITOR'S CHOICE

THE DOTCOM POSTER BOY A frontrunner in business, Sanjeev Bikhchandani is an inspiration for millions of entrepreneurs. The founder of Info Edge (Naukri.com) talks of his struggles and triumphs in the ‘Looking Back’ section

days, but just occasionally, I manage to take out the time for my close group of friends. In these sessions, we revert to our teenage selves as we begin the goodold arguments about politics, society and inevitably, the role and status of women. With March being the month of International Women’s Day, the majority of us were vocal about the fact that keeping aside just one day or even a month dedicated to women didn’t really mean much. After all, women make up approximately 44.3 per cent of the world’s population. After debating the issue, we finally agreed that most women were simply too busy to care. They were working too hard in the homes, offices, fields and factories to quibble about which day in the year and how many days should be dedicated to them. However, we at DW do care—especially about women who have stood up to be counted and served as role models for others to follow. One such person is Mrinal Pande. Her first story was published when she was only 21 and today she is the author of several books and translations. But being a writer is just part of what she does. She was the first woman editor of Hindustan and later was anchor and editor with NDTV and Doordarshan. Today, she is the chairperson of Prasar Bharati. She also graces the cover of our magazine this month because of the ideals she stands for. A truly democratic person, her writing resonates with sen-

sitivity to women, concern about the divide between small-town and big-town India and her sorrow at the slow erosion of vernacular languages. Once we managed to coax the exceedingly busy author onto our cover, we reached out to more women to send us their stories. Intrepid traveller Sudha Mahalingam shares her trip to Borneo and her wonderful images with us. Former editor of Femina, Sathya Saran, agreed to come on as a guest columnist, with a thought-provoking piece on motherhood. Sweta Srivastava Vikram is a US-based upcoming writer who shares her quest for identity and definition in the ‘Foreign Despatches’ section. A chance encounter with Kolkata-based Sunandini Banerjee brought us face-to-face with her stunning prints and collages. Before we knew it, we had very diverse and interesting voices speaking in our pages. Even this small list of women doing such interesting work is very heartening. It made me realise that it isn't a matter of dedicating a day or even a month to their achievements; the way I see it, history is being made every day.

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TOC

SANJEEV BIKHCHANDANI THE ‘FIRST MOVER, EARLY MOVER’ TALKS ABOUT HIS JOURNEY

MAN OF THE MONTH

| MARCH

2 0 12

C O V E R DE S I GN B Y SHOK EEN S A IFI | P HOTO B Y SUBHOJI T PAUL

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

READ MORE ON PAGE 32

12 ASHOK MALIK

COVER STORY

12 | Not A Simple Story

Journalist, writer and editor, Mrinal Pande narrates the chapters in the book called life—and of the faces and situations which make it unputdownable

Please Recycle This Magazine And Remove Inserts Before Recycling

COPYRIGHT Democratic World is published & printed by M Gulab Singh & Sons (a unit of MBD Group) at Gulab Bhawan 6, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002, India and printed at Perfect Printers Gulab Bhawan 6, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110002, India. Democratic World is for private circulation only. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of M Gulab Singh & Sons.

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26 | IN AID OF REASON When aid recipients become donors, should the helping hand be pulled back?

SATHYA SARAN

34 | THE OTHER HALF The role of women in humanising civil society

28 ISSUE

28 | MONSTER OR MESSIAH?

With an impending energy crisis, will nuclear power be the answer for India? Experts weigh the pros and cons

22 REGULARS

SOCIAL AGENDA

22 | Photography Goes Social

Instagram is the new Twitter of the photography world, where pictures do the talking

GOOD KARMA

WAREHOUSE

BROAD CANVAS

HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE

36 | SOCIETY'S VOICE THE RAMANATHANS

42 | GADGETS & GIZMOS MERCEDES F125 or the Razor Project—

44 | BEWITCHING BOOK ART SUNANDINI BANERJEE

48 | SPLENDID AND SURREAL BORNEO

which would you rather splurge on?

The artist and editor talks of the inspirations behind her art

believe it takes responsible individual citizens to achieve real democracy

Sudha Mahalingam takes a journey of a lifetime through the wild island

MARCH 2012

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EDITORIAL

SALES & MARKETING

Managing Editor: Monica Malhotra Kandhari Group Editor: Sonica Malhotra Kandhari Editor: Dr Chander Trikha Executive Editor: Aniha Brar Features Editor: Rohini Banerjee Sub Editor: Manjiri Indurkar

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

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RAHUL GANDHI

“I have not come here to make promises but to take UP on the path of change”

THEY SAID IT

UPtoDATE Supreme Court gives verdict on the 2G Spectrum Scam Cancels all distributed licences

LAW\\ The Supreme Court finally gave its verdict

on 2G spectrum scam in February. The apex court ordered the government to revoke all the 122 telecom licences that were distributed under the tainted sale of 2008, by telecom minister at the time, A. Raja. This decision, while praised in most quarters, has left the finance sector—bankers, investors and vendors—in a state of shock. They have expressed grave concern about the billions of dollars going down the drain. In contrast, the UPA government has hailed court’s decision, which is being seen as a double bonanza for the government.

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On one hand, Home Minister P. Chidambaram has been let off the hook by the trial court on the grounds that “anybody and everybody associated with the decision in any degree cannot be roped in as an accused”. Judge O.P. Saini rejected Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy’s petition, and ruled that Chidambaram would not be held criminally responsible for the distribution of licences during his tenure as finance minister. On the other hand, with the cancellation of the licences, the 540 MHz spectrum could be available for public auction again, which could mean a multi-billion-dollar deal for the government.

122

Number of distributed licences cancelled by the Supreme Court

up-to-date

FROM AROUND THE WORLD //

Djoker Has The Last Laugh SPORTS\\ Novak Djokovic was the last man standing

Unrest in Maldives leads to fall of President Mohamed Nasheed resigns as tension mounts in the islands INTERNATIONAL\\ Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed resigned from office as

tension escalated amidst mass protest, in the otherwise peaceful archipelago. Vice President Mohamed Waheed has been sworn in to rule the nation till the presidential elections next year. Nasheed had ordered the arrest of criminal court judge Abdulla Mohamed for releasing a government critic who, according to the judge, was illegally detained. This move was condemned and termed as unconstitutional by the Opposition, the Supreme Court and critics. Soon after, protests were organised and demonstrators accused Nasheed of being a dictator. Authorities in Maldives have asked the former president to make a public statement on the controversial arrest order of the judge, but he has reportedly refused to do so. The court has also issued an arrest warrant against him on suspicion of illegal arrest and breach of the constitution, but he has not been arrested yet. India sent its team of envoys to Maldives after he was deposed, and extended unqualified support to the new President, Mohamed Waheed. However, this decision has not been received well by many back home in India.

in the clash for the title between Rafael Nadal and himself, at the singles final of the Australian Open, in what turned out to be the longest grand slam match ever. Djokovic won the match, which lasted for 5 hours and 53 minutes, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (7-5), 7-5. With this victory Djokovic became the fifth man since the Open Era began in 1968 to win three straight Grand Slam finals. Ironically, Nadal became the first man in the Open Era to lose three straight major finals. He was beaten in four sets MATCH by Djokovic at POINT last year’s Wimbledon and U.S. Open final. In the fifth set, at 4-4, minutes before the electrifying victory, Djokovic collapsed after losing a 31-shot rally, the longest of the match. But then, he shored up his reserves of strength and rallied, beating Nadal for the seventh time in a final since last March. At the end of the historic match, Djokovic delighted his supporters by tearing off his shirt in celebration.

INTERNATIONAL

Smiling and gazing into the future—This is how Nelson Mandela will be seen on the new South African currency notes. The government has decided to replace current banknotes bearing images of Africa’s ‘big five’ game animals in a move to honour the iconic freedom fighter. The release is due at the end of 2012. MARCH 2012

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

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\\ FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Jaipur Literature Festival (left) A session being commenced at the festival Salman Rushdie (below) gave the festival a miss due to death threats and mass protests

The Politics of Literature & Salman Rushdie: Mass protests make the author skip the festival LITERATURE \\ The Jaipur Literature Festival

2012 began on a low note this year due to raging protests within the country by Islamic fundamentalists. They were agitating against celebrated author Salman Rushdie in a bid to stop his arrival in the country. Despite this, Rushdie was committed to attending the festival after a gap of five years. However, just days before he was due to show-up, he decided against his visit, citing security concerns as the main reason for not attending the festival. He said he had received concrete threats and stated, “I have now been informed by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that paid assassins from Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to ‘eliminate’ me.” He claimed that he was cancelling his visit in the interests of his family as well as the safety of other visitors to the festival. However, the Maharashtra police later

declined the sharing of any such information with Rushdie, saying that they had no information that gangsters or paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld had planned to eliminate Rushdie. But they also said that they were not aware if Rajasthan police had any such inputs and shared the information with Rushdie. Reports published in The Hindu later claimed that it was a plot invented by local intelligence officials in Rajasthan to keep Rushdie from attending the festival. According to the same report, the festival administration sources informed the paper that the threat to Rushdie came from two hit men indentified as “Altaf Batli” and “Aslam Kongo”. However, the Mumbai police denied the existence of the assassins after scanning through their database. Adding fuel to fire, four renowned authors—Hari Kunzru, Ruchir Joshi, Amitava Kumar and Jeet Thayil—read excerpts

Calling the decision “awful”, Rushdie said that the issue was linked to the UP elections

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from Rushdie’s banned book Satanic Verses in an unscheduled session, risking arrest. As word got out, protests began within Jaipur, compelling them to leave the city the next day. On the last day of the festival, a video conference was organised at the venue, in which Rushdie was to address the people. But due to protests by the Jaipur-based Milli Council, the video conference was scrapped on the very afternoon it was to take place. Several activists of the Milli Council gathered at the venue claiming the conference was an insult to Muslims. Rushdie, in an interview with the television news channel NDTV 24x7, blamed politics for this. Calling the decision “awful”, he said that it was somehow linked to the elections in UP. Freedom of expression has become the hot topic in the country post the festival, with many quarters condemning the organisers and the government for their weak stand. The government’s failure to act on the matter is also being seen as the politics of minority appeasement.

up-to-date

FROM AROUND THE WORLD //

BUSINESS

IAF’s biggest fighter jet deal won by France’s Dassault Rafale DEFENCE\\ French avia-

tion company Dassault signed a whopping $11 billion deal with India, as the government decided to buy 126 French-made Rafale combat aircrafts for the India Air Force. The French company clinched the deal after

emerging with the lowest bid in a two-way competition with the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. Dassault had so far been struggling to find a foreign buyer for Rafale, which has been termed as one of the most effective and expensive fighter jets. Soon after

the deal was signed, the company shares soared by 21 per cent. Eighteen aircrafts will be delivered in “fly away” condition within 36 months and the rest 108 will be manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, through technology transfers.

Blast outside Israeli Embassy Leaves Four Injured

SALT PEPPER AS STAR CRICKETER YUVRAJ SINGH BATTLES CANCER, INDIA PRAYS FOR HIS QUICK AND COMPLETE RECOVERY

“Here’s betting Yuvraj Singh whacks the cancer off for a six. Get well soon Yuvi..our thoughts & prayers are with you.” MTV India | Music Channel

“Yuvraj, get up in the morning and say it out loud—“Everyday in every way I am getting better and better!!” You will!!.” Amitabh Bachchan | Actor

“Stunned to know that Yuvraj Singh has cancer. Just can’t believe it. The last time this happened to me was Leander’s lesion.” Venkat Ananth | Twitterati

Bomb Blast: The car which had earlier been carrying an Israeli diplomat's wife burns after the explosion. The blast happened in front of the Israeli Embassy

TERROR ATTACK\\ In a suspected coordinated attack, an Israeli embassy car exploded

in front of the embassy in New Delhi. This incident took place right after a bomb was defused in an Israeli embassy vehicle in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. An Israeli diplomat, who was inside the car at the time of the blast, suffered splinter injuries and was admitted to a private hospital. According to initial investigation reports, two motorcycle-borne youths, tailing the vehicle in the high security zone, placed ‘something’ in the rear of the car, when it stopped at a traffic signal. Minutes later, there was an explosion and the vehicle burst into flames. The bomb used was of an unusual type—without a timer or detonator. Investigators are awaiting a detailed report by the Central Forensic Lab, and the use of RDX or a nitrate base hasn’t been ruled out. Home Minister P. Chidambaram said that the terror attack was carried out by well trained persons and that the intended target was the Israeli diplomat’s wife. Israel has blamed Iran for this attack, while Iran has denied the allegation.

“Yuvi found out about his condition minutes before I was to interview him. I panicked, he didn’t. Unbelievably brave.” Rahul Kanwal | Journalist

“Yuvraj Singh helped India win the World Cup with undetected lung cancer. One of the greatest efforts ever for a sportsman?” Saurabh Malhotra | Twitterati

MARCH 2012

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foreign despatches \\ NOTES FROM THE DIA SPOR A

SWETA SRIVASTAVA VIKRAM NYC, USA

Femininity and Feminism–do we misuse the two F-words? SWETA SRIVASTAVA VIKRAM: A few months ago, as part of my status update, I posted a quote on Facebook: “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” The words, written by Virginia Wolf, seemed apt to share along with my radio interview and video clips of a reading, in New York City (NYC), where I was a featured poet. The post earned several comments and multiple “likes”. Women from all over sent me e-salutations. But I got an embittered comment from Deven, a middle-aged man living in India. He said, “I don’t think that among your friends you have any male chauvinist pigs, so why do you feel the need to rub in the notion of feminism?” Deven reiterated that MCPs rarely existed. He expressed his disinterest in listening to “hogwash” about equal rights. He wrote, “It is the woman of the house who’s wearing the pants. The men are relegated to being mere bread-earners. I know of half-a-dozen families where the male is suffering because the female is intent on proving herself; proving what point, I really don’t know. Try and watch some of the soaps we have on television today, in every one there’s a woman scheming out things—showing India how it should be done.” I wrote back to Deven and explained that I wasn’t attacking him or sending out “hate”. I was making a point using history and literature as benchmarks. I feel fortunate to have been born in times when women have a voice—more than the generations before did. But there was a time when writer Jane Austen used a pseudonym to disguise her identity because it was not lady-like for a woman to write a novel. True, women in India have come a long way, and the media, often, represents the changing trends. But what if some women watched soaps about a domineering fairer sex to fulfill their fantasies? Or to escape their own weak reality? Do these soaps accurately

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SWETA SRIVASTAVA VIKRAM

is an award-winning writer, poet, novelist, author, essayist, educator and blogger, whose musings have been translated into three chapbooks of poetry, two collaborative collections of poetry, a novel and a non-fiction book. Her scribbles have appeared in anthologies and journals across six countries. Sweta has won two Pushcart Prize nominations, an International Poetry Award, Best of the Net nomination, nomination for Asian American Members’ Choice Awards 2011, and was short-listed for the Independent Literary Awards. Taj Mahal Review describes her as “a poet with hauntingly beautiful talent”. Sweta has held artist residencies in Europe and America. A graduate of Columbia University, she reads her work, takes creative writing workshops, and gives talks at universities. Sweta lives in New York City with her husband.

mirror behavioural attitudes and statistics of the viewers—victims versus perpetrators? According to the National Crime Records Bureau in India, every three minutes a crime is committed against women. Every six hours, a married woman is abused: found beaten to death or driven to suicide in India. Every hour, two women are raped. Clearly, all the women watching Ekta Kapoor shows don’t use a whip at home. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ newly released data shows India has the highest female infant mortality rate—again, indicating discrimination. Since I knew Deven, I jokingly suggested he drink some beer and relax. Deven sent me an electronic smiley accompanied by a note, “I am the biggest fan of your work. May god bless you!” He then went on to say, “It’s my pleasure to know someone so honest and true.” Deven ended the e-mail with, “What I really feel hurt about is the way we have lost femininity somewhere along the way to feminism.” Deven’s last few words stayed with me. But before I could say anything further, NYC-based Maya, who came from a broken marriage, responded to Deven. “What you do to people comes back to haunt you. A species that has been kept in shackles for such long is bound to be fierce after getting some independence in this male-dominated society. It is inappropriate to confuse feminism with femininity. Men deserve the unhappiness. Cheers to feminism.” Maya went on to disclose specific statistics on female infanticide, rapes, illiteracy, widowhood, dowry deaths, and remarriage in India. Delhi-based

foreign despatches NOTES FROM THE DIA SPOR A //

“Do these soaps accurately mirror sociocultural values, behavioural attitudes, and statistics of the viewers— victims versus perpetrators?”

Sudha, who was separated from her husband of five years, echoed Maya’s beliefs. The verbal outpour made me think if the experience of emancipation for desi women in USA is not too different from their Indian counterparts. I empathised with the numbers Maya shared. But I didn’t have the same viewpoint as her on feminism or femininity. Maya’s opinion of men was not very different from Deven’s understanding of women. Their personal experiences clouded their judgment. But more importantly, they both lacked clarity on the differences between “feminism” and “femininity.” The dictionary meaning of feminine is: “Having qualities traditionally ascribed to women, as sensitivity or gentleness.” And feminism is explained as: “The doctrine advocating social, political, and rights of women equal to those of men.” When Hillary Clinton decided to run for the presidential elections in 2008, she received negative criticism for her “lack of femininity”. This wasn’t from men necessarily; women too chastised her. I remember meeting a lady and she’d said to me, “I know Hillary Clinton wears the pants in her house. But does she have to prove that to the world? Can’t she act slightly more feminine?” I said, “You mean, doll up like Palin and wish no word ever left her mouth?” Does our society misuse the two F-words? Fact is that educated, confident Hillary Clinton, a role model for many, stood by her cheating husband. But the world called her “cold” never “caring”. But Sarah Plain, who invented the word “refudiate” and lied about her daughter’s pregnancy, was considered a good wife and mother because of her feminine charm? I began to ask around—what people understood by the terms femininity and feminism. I happened to interview Leena, a 33-year-old, self-proclaimed feminist, member of senior management in the PR world of NYC. I noticed that the top few buttons of her shirt were unbuttoned, flaunting her cleavage. Her skirt had a slit deep enough to create an “oomph” factor. While we got chatting over a glass of wine, she confessed: “How I dress makes a difference to my career.” Before I could say anything, one of Leena’s male co-workers showed up. They both spoke briefly. I noticed Leena found excuses to caress this man’s elbow and shoul-

ders. I figured they were dating. But Leena said, “God no. He is a jerk. I make most of these guys at work cry. I am a feminist.” A little while later, she admitted, “I almost always earn more money than the men I date, but somewhere I liked to be treated like a lady.” I raised my eyebrow, “How do you mean?” She took a sip of her wine, “I like the man to hold the car door and pay for dinner.” “I am sure you can afford to pay for yourself, right?” “Of course.” Leena looked appalled. “But you call yourself a feminist?” She rolled her eyes, “Sure, I might be a feminist. But I am a woman at heart who likes courteous men.” I thought to myself: who qualities for a “courteous man”? Someone who is respectful, caring, and supportive of his or her partner’s stance on equality so might not always offer to pay. Or a man who always buys a woman dinner, but treats her like a piece of meat? I left the wine bar wondering how many “feminists” like Leena applauded maltreatment of men. And how many women like Leena abused their “feminine” charms. Are some women hypocritical about gender equality: flag the “poor woman” card when it suits them? Other times, argue for equal opportunity. A liberal, male PhD student at an Ivy-League School on the east coast of the US said to me: “Lately due to the Hiltons and Kardashians of the world, feminism does need a revision. I see more girls in my class using femininity as a springboard to get ahead. They forget the history. The idea behind the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention, 1848, was equality and fairness, feminism, which I agree with. But now I feel it’s changed to something far more remote.” Women have seen hard times. Be it India or the US, we still battle both at home and workplace. I am proud to be different from men, both physically and emotionally. Though I don’t need to be protected by my knight in shining armour, I appreciate being adored and cared for. While I don’t like my husband holding the car door for me—makes me feel invalid—I have no qualms finishing an article while he fixes tea. In the same breath, the inner woman in me enjoys taking care of my house and family. Maybe living away from India has helped us redefine the social terms to suit our lifestyle and attitude. But there is merit in male-female interdependence and life built on mutual respect. I am a bit tired of the compulsive obsession of identifying with only one school of thought always. If women have come a long way, so have men. And as a feminine feminist, I am proud to give credit when deserved. See, a woman could embrace feminism while being a feminist. Who says she couldn’t love her man just as easily as fight for women’s rights, issues, and interests, in her summer dress and red lipstick? (Disclaimer: All names of people have been changed to guarantee anonymity. [1] http://www.legalindia.in/domestic-violence-againstwomen-in-india)

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Foreword

IT WAS A typical wintry morning in Delhi as, armed with a set of questions, I waited for Mrinal Pande to arrive. I knew the well-documented facts, of course—she was the chairperson of Prasar Bharati, had been a journalist, editor and television anchor in a career spanning decades, and was a writer whose stories and columns I was familiar with. But none of this had prepared me for the person who arrived (dot on time) and settled herself in a corner of the garden where we were to meet. What struck me immediately was her soft-spoken and calm manner as she answered my questions and acceded to the photographer’s occasional request to adjust her shawl or shift the chair. As the interview progressed, I realised another thing—there were going to be no pat responses and breezy answers from the person who has “a horror of sounding smart and using quotable quotes”. This was an introspective person who took pains to ensure that her responses were well-thought-out. The only way to depict a person like her, then, is the way she talked to me—by telling stories.

Her Mother’s House IT WAS COLD and dark in the early hours of the morning in Nainital, but one household was already in a bustle as children got ready for school. Mrinal, her two sisters, a brother and assorted cousins were all dressed and gobbbling down the breakfast the lady of the house had got up before dawn to make. Tiffins were packed, bags were picked up and they were sent off. The cycle repeated itself when they came back, hungry once more, and the mother would put loaves of bread and jars of jam on the table for them to eat. Dinner-time would come and the process would begin all over again. Her “rather fastidious and demanding father” was also shown equal attention and care. Similar scenes may have been enacted in homes all over India, but there was one glaring

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difference—the mother in question was Gaura Pant ‘Shivani’, one of the most prolific writers of womenbased fiction and magazine stories in Hindi. Mrinal Pande’s father was a well-respected educationist who had been a widower with an infant daughter when he married her mother. With Mrinal being born a year later, her mother had two very small children on her hands and practically raised twins. Pande remembers, “My mother was a warm-hearted person and being a writer, was very sensitive,” so the children grew up in total harmony, a fact they took for granted. “We thought everybody’s mother wrote, everybody’s mother sang and also cooked and helped them with home-work. We also thought that everybody’s mother could shell out money whenever it was needed for school uniforms by writing a chapter for some serialised novel. Today, these seem like huge achievements.” She remembers times when her mother didn’t even have rough paper for the first draft of her story, so would

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write in the margins of her children’s schoolbooks and send them off to the publisher by post. Now that Pande is a mother of two grown-up daughters and a writer herself, her respect and admiration for her mother’s achievements is evident in the way she speaks of her. She had seen first-hand the struggles that creative women who were also home-makers had to face, and these were lessons that would remain with her. Her personality and interests were also being shaped in other ways by the world her parents inhabited. Writers, poets and playwrights were frequent visitors to their house. Anecdotes trip off her tongue as she recalls the visits of some of the best-known names in Hindi literature. One such person was Sumitranandan Pant, a fellow-pahadi and famous Hindi poet of the Chhayavadi school. Even though Mrinal Pande is a grandmother today, she becomes a twinkle-eyed teenager as she recalls his absent-minded habit of using a Vicks inhaler— sometimes forgetting that it was still in his nose as he went about his business! When her parents moved to Lucknow, her mother also befriended Mahadevi Verma, the outstanding poet, freedom fighter and women’s activist. Mrinal remembers being riveted by her

compelling ideas, deep voice and mellifluous Hindi as Mahadevi Verma lectured at her college. Sorrow came to the house as Mrinal lost her father at a relatively young age. Her mother was devastated and claimed that she would never write again as she had “lost her greatest critic and supporter.” It was Mahadevi Verma who told her mother, “People may tell you that writing will give you strength. Forget about all that. We must write for ourselves.” Today, Pande looks back at that world with nostalgia and warmth as she says, “The literary scene was so much more humane and warmly interconnected in those days. When my father died, this band of writers (all of whom were as poor as my mother) visited regularly and asked her to begin writing again. Then A very yo g Mrinal Pande there was Ashok Agrawal, who was the editor of elder sisterun with Veena and a cou sin Swatantra Bharat. When he found out that my mother did not really know where she would live, he asked her to write a weekly column and become an accredited journalist. This made her eligible for a government allotted flat in Lucknow. And that is the only roof that she knew till she died.”

Taking Flight AS A YOUNG GIRL, Mrinal Pande was withdrawn and introverted, a contrast to her mother, whose forthright way of expressing her opinion had often had repercussions within the family. She remembers her aunts sometimes taunting her and saying that it was not her degree in English Literature, but the roundness of her rotis that would ultimately count. “I used to feel plump, and sometimes that I stood out like a sore thumb. I used to feel that it was sinful to be too bright and stand first in class every time. It’s only when I went to college that I realised that people liked me for who I was—and then I had many admirers and boyfriends”, she says with a naughty grin when remembering those days. But the sensitivities of those earlier years left her with some valuable lessons. In college, she studied Sanskrit, ancient Indian history and English literature. She was also fluent in Hindi, Kumaoni and Marathi. Despite this, she was not writing much. In fact, she never even wrote for her school or college magazine. That was to come later, when a 21-year-old, married Mrinal followed her civil servant husband to a small kasbah called Nimaj on the

border between Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. She penned her first short story, Kohra aur Macchliyan, and sent it off to Dharmvir Bharati, editor of Dharmyug, for his opinion. The letter he sent in response is one of Pande’s most cherished possessions to this day. Bharati spoke of her work in glowing terms. The course was set and Mrinal Pande had entered the world of published writers. Over the next four decades, she wrote countless articles and columns, as well as books like That Which Ram Hath Ordained, My Own Witness, Daughter’s Daughter, Devi – Tales of the Goddess in Our Time and Stepping Out – Life and Sexuality in Rural India. She also translated Vishnu Bhatt Godshe Versaikar’s 1857: The Real Story of the Great Uprising from Marathi to English. Mrinal, her mother and sister, Ira Pande, all ventured into a field of potential landmines and hurt sentiments— autobiographical writing. “I cannot deny that it has created a lot of bad blood between me and many family members. Part of it may be envy, but they also feel that I have the facility to write and to be recognised for my writing which they do not, and they also have a side of the story to tell.

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That is fair enough. But then my reply to them is to just go ahead and write it,” she says. And the negative responses did not stop at family. When she wrote My Own Witness, an account of the world of media, Amita Malik wrote a harsh review and called it an autobiography masquerading as fiction. Thinking back to that time, Pande admits that, “Being a writer you are, of course, hypersensitive and things do hurt. But I have always written very close to the line in any case and you cannot write any other way. There’s a kind of nervous energy that sustains you; it’s like something that has to be done, so you just grit your teeth and carry on.” Her latest work is a collection of her columns called The Other Country, published by Penguin India. She has also compiled an anthology of all her mother’s writings and is hard at work on the translation of Amritlal Nagar’s Gadar ke Phool, which translated loosely, means ‘gathering the ashes of the revolt’. Set 100 years after the revolt of 1857, it is a collection of the local lores and memories of the people in the areas of Awadh that took part in the gadar. Obviously, the writer’s pen doesn’t stay still for long.

Women She Admires

“I

ADMIRE Kali because she threw the concept of time out of the window. And time is a big demarcator between the rich and the poor. The poor sometimes can’t even plan for the evening meal, while the rich make plans for seven generations. So Mahakali is my idol. Mahasaraswati, because she is a woman who builds no temples to herself. She is a woman who is forever mobile. She doesn’t wear colours—she wears a colour that has all the

seven colours in it. And she is completely devoted to her vocation, which is books and the arts. The third name may sound strange. I admired Indira Gandhi a lot. I interviewed her for our cover story for the first issue of Vama and I was always fascinated by her because she balanced power, humaneness and a very tricky part of our democracy, and did it excellently. She had many critics, but I think she couldn’t have behaved any other way. She was also very intelligent.”

In the Spotlight WRITING BOOKS IS just one part of Mrinal Pande’s life. In her long and diverse career, she has worked on magazines, edited newspapers and even had a few stints on television. In 1984, she launched Vama, a periodical for women readers. From there, she joined the HT Media group, was an editor and anchor on the Hindi newdesk at NDTV for a year and a half and then left to join as chief editor of multi-edition Hindi daily, Hindustan. As her learning curve in various types of news media grew, so did her awareness of another, less noble, aspect—the position and dignity accorded to Hindi news and news-gatherers. From her stint on television, Pande remembers noticing that there was much more professional help available for those delivering the news in English: the

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autocue only worked in Roman script, the graphics had to be entered by people on the Hindi desk themselves and even the research was often left to the reporters. This frustrated her immensely, especially since she felt strongly that Hindi programming was the way ahead (a fact that the plethora of Hindi news channels has since proven). It was possibly these kinds of frustrations that eventually led to her departure from Hindi news television. As she says, “We have subverted known financial wisdom by putting our mouth where our money is not. That’s happened primarily because media houses are run by anglophiles who are monolingual people and not always tuned in to the market situation. It remains for the foreigners to come and see that. When STAR first came here, it was

meant to be an all-English bouquet. But the moment Rupert Murdoch took it in hand, he realised that would not work and overnight STAR turned Hindi.” At Hindustan, it was the same story from a different angle and she got a first-hand look at some of the problems of being a Hindi journalist. As she puts it, “Hindi journalists face more challenges in terms of lower visibility and monetisation, and higher risk if there is a communal or other conflagaration; also in terms of higher bribability at election time and of being treated like rubbish by an anglophile higher management. A lot of these things then become self-fulfilling prophecies.” When it comes to circulation figures, Hindi newspapers

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INSIGHT | Ira Pande

Always my first editor

RINAL and my elder sister were close in age (two years between them) and my brother and I (younger by three years to me) were closer. I was viewed as a pesky younger sister by the older sisters. We actually became closer much later in life, when our children flew the nests and left us for foreign shores. Now I find that we sisters are so close that we talk to each other every day and share so much more. What I do remember from my childhood is how brilliant she always was and how I was in awe of her. Later, when I followed her to University, our teachers always held her up as a contrast to me: how reserved and sober she was as compared to a much more talkative and bindaas me. I think that is the role that I have adopted ever since. Her composure and dignity is what I admire and envy the most. My Hindi is nowhere as strong as hers, although I do speak and write pretty fluently. However, for creative and critical writing, I find the English vocabuIRA PANDE lary easier to handle. Mrinal has the added advanWriter and Editor tage of knowing Sanskrit, which sadly I never learnt as a child. My new discovery is translation, which I run by her before sending off to a publisher. She remains my first editor. There are no areas of conflict at all. We have quite different areas of interest: also she has been a journalist and so her editing is more in the range of that discipline, whereas mine is more in creative writing. There are times when we argue but with age, even those arguments have mellowed. When it comes to autobiographical writing, I think both my mother and Mrinal, who has been quite forthright sometimes when writing of family, have paid a price. I am a coward in that respect and avoid that area. What I feel for my sister is love, admiration and warmth. My sisters are my treasure and I pity all those who do not have a sister to turn to.

run alongside—and in many cases, ahead of—their English counterparts. A larger amount of the population of what is called the Hindi belt speaks the language than it does English. Despite these facts, Hindi publications and the people who work on them are often considered infra-dig. Pande was quite put out when people in her own organisation would come and tell her that they didn’t read the paper, but their gardener, sweeper or driver did. She thought it was unforgivable for them to only know their product secondhand when they were supposed

to sell and publicise it. She was similarly astounded when a marketing manager told her that her “personal branding would get compromised” if she put her picture in the publication she was working for. An angry Pande couldn’t help responding with, “So basically you wouldn’t mind having your mug shot on a can of tinned beef, but would hate to have it on a heeng ki dibiya, right?” It would have been understandable if these petty setbacks had demotivated Mrinal Pande, who could speak and write in English fluently, after all. But

(From rig ht to left) Gaura Pant daughters: 'Shi Ira, Mrinal and Veena vani' with her three

and Mrinal Pande with her husb

and two daughters

they had the opposite effect: “People don’t want their mug shots on a Hindi product because that would be demeaning for them somehow; this does make me angry, but also determined to give it back. Now I have more strength than ever before, because I am backed by market studies. The first such study that revealed the growth and the viability of the language in India came from Lintas. Then Dabur followed and they discovered the huge potential of rural markets. But it has taken the rest of the people a long time to understand, primarily because of psychological shutters.”

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Where the Personal is Political “SOMETIMES LIFE CREATES a trajectory where you meet certain people and accept certain assignments that somehow shape your attitudes and responses.” This is how Mrinal Pande explains her beliefs and recurring themes in her work—the lives and concerns of women, the growing divide between small-town ‘Bharat’ and modern ‘India’, and the loss of the mother-tongue. Call her a feminist, and she will deny the appellation, as she sees feminism as an extension of her view of social equality. “I am a feminist to the extent that I am not a male supremacist, but I am also a democrat. I don’t let my feminism interfere with my judgement as an editor; it’s not as though I hire only women or cover up for their flaws,”, says the person whose appointment as the first woman editor of

Hindustan had caused initial misgivings in her male colleagues. While they had to accept that she deserved the post (“the management would never waste their money just to support an ideal”), she still had to battle fears that her feminism would make her biased. Added to it was the fact that many considered her elevated social status and upper crust education a disqualification. She remembers they would imply that she couldn’t truly understand the real world. “And I would just tell them to shut up and show them that I had done four tours to every one of theirs, and had known social classes that they wouldn’t know how to exchange four words with. But I found that persevering paid off because no male editor could boast of having a more dependable group

of people around him than I finally did. Somehow my presence also answered a lot of their unspoken questions about the women in their own lives—mothers, daughters, girlfriends and working women. So the two sides did a sort of yin and yang movement and answered each other’s questions.” One doesn’t have to dig too deep to know where her sensitivity and understanding of Indian women comes from. Mrinal Pande herself was one of three sisters. Her mother was one of seven sisters, each of whom had a strong personality and was educated. Though her own mother was a writer, she also saw female relatives who had an awareness of their own potential but were unable to put it to use, a fact that often shaped their interaction with the world

INSIGHT | Ela Bhatt

Worthy daughter of a worthy mother

FIRST met her when I came to Delhi as a chairperson of the commission, I was very member of the Rajya Sabha. I had heard keen on not extending the time period beyond of her, of course, though I had heard more the given one and half years. We managed about her mother. When I met her I realised to finish our work and submit a report called that she is a worthy daughter of Shramshakti, which was an account a worthy mother. The governof what we saw on the field. Some ment of India under Rajiv of their stories were really unfortuGandhi had formed a National nate and sad. They were what we Commission for Self-Employed call the ‘grind of work’, so we have Women in the commerce secexperienced all of that together, tor, mostly the poor working lived together and enjoyed ourselves women. We were asked to look together. Mrinal and I travelled at the kind of work they do, together a lot. We had to take eviwhat their issues are and how dence from women in the poor and ELA BHATT their work and living standards rural sector; those who were workFounder, Self-Employed can be improved upon. As Women's Association of India ing independently. We travelled long

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distances, from Madhya Pradesh to Orissa to Bihar to West Bengal and due to our long discussions in the car, we became close. Mrinal used to tell us stories of the families with a strong base of education, especially among the Kumaon Brahmins. She would talk of how her mother was in the first batch of students in Santiniketan. Education was a much more important part of her upbringing than wealth, I believe. Her family had important roles in the political and top-level bureaucracy in the country. However, she could still identify with people from different backgrounds and social classes effortlessly and sweetly. During those field trips, her proficiency in Hindi came in very handy, especially when we would travel

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outside. Then she went to all-girl educational institutions, where she saw women struggle with doing their jobs as well as managing a home and children. Many of her prettier teachers would also try and downplay their looks so that family members wouldn’t say “mauj karne jaa rahi hai.” Once in college, she met girls who came from well-off urban families and had been given the same opportunities as their brothers. As she says, “They had no misgivings and no knots inside them about having been ill-treated and were very pleasant to meet.” But perhaps her deepest involvement came when she was asked to do a report on women in the unorganised sector by the government of India. These were the poorest women who worked at jobs from lifting sand on their heads to working in factories. In 2002, she got a MacArthur Foundation fellowship to do a book on reproductive health in rural women. It allowed her to travel extensively and talk to women about their most intimate experiences. Mrinal says, “That was a tremendous learning experience because not only did one

get to see how they lived, one also saw what values shaped their personalities, how the rest of society looked at them and how they judged society in turn.” Through these travels and conversations she also realised that no social problem could be traced back to a single cause and that notions of feminism, rural-urban divide and language barriers were all interlinked. These linkages are evident in the answers she gives to my questions, as one thought flows into the other. “I feel that feminism is a way of asking for equal treatment and also treating your own kind as equals, which is what I feel many feminists are not able to do. This starts with the use of language. The moment you express yourself in a particular language, you are also taking a political stance. In India, using English means that you define yourself at the top of the power pyramid. And when you use Hindi, you are identifying yourself with the bottom. It is a mass vote gatherer and politicians have seen the advantages of using vernaculars

in the Northern belt. She handled all our meetings in the region. Because she had a great command over the language, she could ask people questions in a better way and more importantly, understand the answers far better than the rest of us. So that was her main contribution to the cause. She was also actively involved in watching and editing over 50 hours of footage and turning it into a three-hour documentation. It was a very rewarding time, personally and professionally. We lost touch in the middle, but I meet her often these days. I have to say she is still the same—sweet, soft and plump but very piercing in her gaze, her eyes and her words. Plus she writes as well

(though I have to admit that since she writes in Hindi mostly, I am not able to read it, even though I understand it), so that makes her thought process different and even stronger. She also has very strong opinions about women and I appreciate and respect that. She is soft-spoken, sensible and firm and talks in a very persuasive way. The last time we met some two weeks ago, we were discussing the issue of child marriage and the role that media can play in discouraging people from doing it. She is a champion for the cause of an alliance called 'Women not Brides'. She told me that she had already made a proposal for this cause and was now working on pushing the agenda.

her the Padma Shri in 2006 for Mrinal Pande was awarded to the field of Journalism distinguished contribution

to communicate to people. But what they are communicating are often very subversive ideas. At the same time, the class that can see the political game is chattering and criticising the political class all the time—but in English.” While Pande feels keenly that we need to rediscover the best and brightest of Hindi literature, she is not a linguistic bigot by any means. To her, the use of language is linked to the time and people being described. As she says, “English is a language that has been shaped in a very different climate and culture, and I have to be careful in using it to depict our reality.” She admits, though, that there are some things about which she can write more easily in English. For example, when writing the book on reproductive health, she discovered that Hindi and a few other regional languages had lost the capacity to describe sexuality except in ways that made it sound surreptitious and ugly. So she opted for English. I asked her what she thought of J.M. Coetzee’s recent statement that people who speak two languages lead dual lives. Her answer sums up her attitude:“Your life just becomes broader. It takes in more than if you had access to just one language. Duality implies one side shutting out the other—I don’t feel a split.”

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The People’s Broadcaster INSIGHT | Tripurari Sharan

An Inspiration

MET Mrinal Pande a couple of months before I joined here at Doordarshan. This was the first in-person meeting, but I had known of her as a journalist and highly regarded media person. At the first interaction, what came across was her warmth and her soothing manner. The hallmark of a truly inspiring personality lies in how she resolves issues and there she wins hands down. One big bane at DD has also been publicity, and here she has TRIPURARI SHARAN been instrumental. In terms Director General, Doordarshan of national programming, she has been extremely supportive of our efforts to bring on people like Saeed Mirza, Ketan Mehta and Kundan Shah. I would put her in the category of people who are thinkers and premeditate their actions.

IN JANUARY 2010, Mrinal Pande was appointed chairperson of Prasar Bharati, (the Public Service Broadcaster and apex body of official Indian broadcast media). In many ways, the timing could not have been worse as the organisation was mired in allegations of corruption dealing with the Commonwealth Games that India hosted the same year. As the head of the board, Pande could be seen across television news stations and in the papers denying all knowledge of what had transpired before she took over. She claimed the CEO had kept her in the dark regarding the financial deals. Circumstances proved her right as the courts and the Shunglu Committee Report held others accountable. The CEO of Prasar Bharati and the DG of Doordarshan (DD) were indicted. Ask her why she accepted the charge in the first place, and her reasons echo the sentiments of generations which grew up without cable television. “I had grown with All India Radio (AIR) and DD and always had admiration and affection for them. They were also the ones who gave me my first break in

broadcasting. I thought that if I could make even one per cent of a difference, then why not?” The storm past, Pande just put her head down and got down to work. Hoping to restore a measure of credibility to Prasar Bharati, the board has been expanded and people like multi-talented film-maker Muzaffar Ali and journalist Suman Dubey have been brought on. While they wait for the appointment of a new CEO, digitisation and monetisation efforts are on for both AIR and DD. Citing the example of the BBC vis-a-vis the Fox Network, Pande points out that programming on a national broadcaster is more sedate and straitlaced than private channels, but concedes that quality could be improved. It remains to be seen whether the good ideas tabled before the board can pull the broadcaster of the masses back to its glory days, but there is no doubt that Mrinal Pande is determined to give it a shot before her six-year term is up. “We may not be able to realise our full potential straight away, but we have cleared a lot of cobwebs. I believe that DD and AIR deserve to start afresh.”

Afterword

THE MORNING HAS turned to afternoon, the interview is over and it is time for us to leave. The conversation has ranged from family to feminism, and class divide to corruption. Yet it has been a strangely peaceful time, not least because of Mrinal Pande, who has delivered her strongest opinions with the sweetest of smiles. We leave with the impression of a woman who has positioned herself squarely in the middle of the gulf that separates men and women, anglophiles and ‘hindi-walas’. And we know that she will continue her efforts to bridge that gulf…one word at a time.

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social agenda \\ INSTAGR AM

PHOTOGRAPHY GOES SOCIAL Instagram shows that pictures are worth a thousand words, as photo streaming becomes a phenomenon BY MALA BHARGAVA

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social agenda INSTAGR AM //

IMAGING BY SHOKEEN SAIFI

bout a year ago, someone suggested I write about a little photo app that went by the not-veryinteresting name of Instagram. Something inspired by telegrams, I gather. It was an iPhone camera app and allowed users to take a picture, run it through one of 16 filters, and upload it into a stream of photos from other users. I didn’t see the big deal with that—and decided not to bother one with one little app in a sea of photo apps. Bad call. Instagram turned out to be no ordinary app. In fact, it ended up becoming a huge phenomenon, with 15 million users, including President Obama and General Electric. Plus the usual celebrities, of course.

Looking at Instagram today (and yes, I’m an addicted user as well) it makes you wonder whether just about anything can be made to become a social network. Theoretically, it’s possible. We all saw how the Kolaveri song, admitted to be silly even by its creator, went wildly viral. Is it then entirely random, acquiring a life of its own for no fathomable reason? Sometimes, but not always. Instagram actually got many things right. The idea behind it was to capture wordless moments in your life and instantly and very simply upload them to share with others—as they happen. If you see someone walking by with a bright attractive handbag, it catches your eye, you snap it and off it goes into the stream. You wake up and particularly like the way the sunlight is lighting up your ceiling; you click and share the moment then and there with nothing further that needs to be said. Your cat looks at you accusingly because you haven’t given her any treats and within seconds you’re laughing about the look with other cat-owners on Instagram— easily findable, with a hashtag #catsofinstagram. The soft cross-processed filters gave the photos the look of a captured memory, adding to an experience which turns out to be appealing and addictive. Though you could share photos in many places, Facebook included and not forgetting the photoexclusive Flickr, using Instagram was a different feeling. And so it was that the app, which you can download for free on an iOS device, saw a rise so meteoric that it has significantly contributed to the iPhone becoming more popular than digital cameras. The app became a whole social network—the Twitter of photographs, in a sense—but far warmer and without the pressure of having to aim for some standard of quality. On Twitter, you could have arguments and agreements about your content or links, but on Instagram, you share whatever quality you like and some people will admire it. Unless you plan to be on the Popular page or win Instagram contests, which means you have to watch your photography skills. A word on the photography. It’s typically photos taken on the iPhone and the Insta-

INSTAGRAM TIPS & TRICKS HASH TAGS A few years ago, Hash was a fairly irrelevant symbol for those of us not into coding or hacking of any kind. It burst into our consciousness the day Twitter became a status symbol. And today it is the most popular way of getting noticed on all social networking websites. Use a hash tag with a caption that resonates with your image and watch it go viral in cyberspace!

STATIGRAM If you think that managing your Instagram account through your iPad alone is too much of a hassle, Statigram is just what you need. Statigram lets you use your personal computer to manage your Instagram account. All you need to do is go to the Statigram website and log in through your Instagram Id and voila! You are managing every aspect of your Instagram account from your computer. To make your pictures a viewing experience, you need a little more than just creativity and depth. Imagine you have a great picture, clicked without bearing in mind the Instagram 1*1 crop feature, and all it does now is sit as your wallpaper. Won’t it be a sad day? Try to see the world in square through the round of your lens, and share the everyday magical moments. Your iPhone or iPad is not a camera, so it won’t have the much-needed depth and sharpness. Therefore, play around with your angles and make them as unusual as you can. Shoot down, shoot from below, and shoot with object in the foreground to blur out. Let your pictures do the talking; let them tell your story! In this land of floating images, visibility is the only key to survival. And to gain visibility you have to be an active member of the Instagram communities. There are many competitions that happen from time to time. Sometimes you win a prize and sometimes it’s just a shout-out. Whatever the case, these contests are the best way of being discovered and also a lot of fun!

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BLOG WATCH

gram filters, now imitated by hundreds of other photo apps, make up a current trend in lo-fi images. The theory is that these ‘bad’ photos which look as if they’re taken with a toy camera, take away from realism but in doing so, add ambiguity, atmosphere and room for interpretation. This fires the imagination of viewers, much the same as black-and-white photography does, and engages them more deeply. For Instagram, it’s more than just the pictures and filters. It’s the community. Natural communities form and become active at sharing and engaging. These could be made up of people who actually know each other offline, but the community could just as easily spring up around a shared interest— which in turn often means a grouping of people according to shared values or beliefs. A group of teenagers, for example, readily band together via photographs only they find amusing. Another group could consist of parents who are eager to engage with others who feel a similar love for their children and document their lives in photos. The Instagram app isn’t worthy of mention because it's a great app, but because it teaches a few important social lessons. First, make sure there is content that will appeal and give an opportunity to engage. Second, make it easy for people to engage. This Instagram does by keeping the interface dead simple. Third, get out of the way and let the community form itself. This too, Instagram does rather well, by keeping a benign eye on happenings rather than tweaking and interfering too much. The users of Instagram have loved it so much that a bunch of artists got together and created ‘sonic postcards’ or ambient musicscapes based on some of the photographs they selected. While you may not be setting out to create a social network, these lessons apply to whatever content you do put out online —whether it’s a tweet or a whole website, a YouTube channel based around your business or cause, or your Facebook page. Mala Bhargava was Editorial Director at 9.9 Media and is a tech writer. She is also the author of That’s IT, a regular column on personal computers in Business World

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On My Bedside Table They call them Metro Reads—fastpaced and simple books, just right for readers with a frenetic lifestyle. I decided to check out two of them. Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas by Madhuri Banerjee was fairly straightforward—girl never meets boys. Girl wants to meet boys. Girl meets bad boy. Girl realises her mistake. Girl rectifies her mistake. It was an easy read. But it’s been done before in a more compelling form via Anita Jain’s Marrying Anita and a dozen other books. Eminently forgettable! Love on the Rocks by Ismita Dhanker Tandon is a bit of a mystery. Sancha marries a merchant navy officer and sails with him. She discovers that the head cook was found dead in the meat locker and gets drawn into the plot. But oh the horror of it—in the last chapter a character’s “applets” are pulled off his uniform. Applets? Ye Gods and little fishes! That is not a typo. She really thought they were applets, not epaulettes. And it went through how many rounds of editing? Though the books were breezy and good for killing time, I was disappointed with the language. Indian writing in English is never easy but many have pulled it off with great success, which neither of these books had. The past five years have seen a surge in light Indian writing in English and I can’t say I appreciate it. The plots are not compelling, the settings are the usual offices and malls, and the language isn’t particularly eloquent. Admittedly, there is an audience for them. For all that we snigger at Chetan Bhagat, he sells. This, when he is killing literature with his pedestrian language and stale plots. But then I guess for every Vikram Seth, we must pay the price with several more Chetan Bhagats.

Mad Momma

There are those who use the whole English as a ‘second language’ thing to their advantage, like Melvin Durai’s Bala Takes the Plunge. Humourous, the book hits the nail on the head in so many different ways, all the while laughing at itself. My only issue—boring cover image. Indu Sundaresan’s The Twentieth Wife and The Shadow Princess was also a pleasure. I’ve always had a fascination with the Mughal Period and have been buying up all her work on Flipkart. Her The Splendor of Silence was also a great read, with characters you feel deeply for. I read through the night and fell asleep sobbing raggedly into my hotel pillow. Not the best recommendation, I know, but trust me on this one? I made the mistake of picking up Phiroz Madon’s The Third Prince, since I was on my Mughal times rampage. Where do I begin with all that was wrong with it? To pick a single flaw: the language. He describes a sadhu’s hair as dreadlocked. Yes, technically correct, but the anachronism irked. The dialogues were written in too contemporary a style for the period he was writing about, though he got the setting bang on. I loved Jawahara’s The Burden of Foreknowledge. Why aren’t such books flying off our store shelves? Is it that we’re getting the next generation used to books that don’t require you to pay attention or even pick up a dictionary for the odd word? I asked Jawahara why it was that most of the historical fiction set in India is by authors living abroad? Jawahara made the point that libraries abroad are better stocked and organised.The last few libraries I saw here had crabby librarians who knew nothing and said even less. Clearly there is no hope for us. (To read more, visit: hemadmomma.wordpress.com/)

PLATFORM ASHOK MALIK | Political Journalist

In Aid of Reason

When aid recipients become donors, should the helping hand be pulled back?

IN JANUARY 2012, India took the first

steps towards setting up an international aid agency, to be located within the Ministry of External Affairs. In February, there was a controversy in Britain over the government’s decision to continue giving £280 million in aid to India each year. This charity did not persuade the Indian Air Force to award its fighter aircraft contract to a British manufacturer. Further, it was argued in London, at a time when Britain itself was facing economic decline and advocating austerity in public spending, did it make sense to send money to an emerging economy that could surely look after itself?Were the two phenomena paradoxical? Could India be an aid recipient and aid giver at the same time? To be fair it could and it can, for aid is often not so much a product of a recipient’s needs as a giver’s motivations. Why does a country give aid to another? There are essentially two reasons. At the broader level the winners of the international economic system hand out some of their earnings to the less well-off as part of a

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MARCH 2012

social contract, and to ensure disaffection does not boil over. This is the sort of enlightened self-interest that determines why a family in an upperclass neighbourhood contributes to the welfare of the nearby slum lest neglect and alienation someday breed extreme resentment. This sentiment is not always expressed negatively. The international aid community is full of “do gooders” who genuinely believe in aid for aid’s sake and not merely as a contrivance for stability. Yet the wider philosophy remains the same. The second reason is more transactional. Countries give aid to strategic allies in exchange for, say, votes at the United Nations and similar bodies or route it in the form of goods and services produced by the donor economy. For recipient countries such as India—with expanding internal resources—external aid is only useful if it is substantial or if some unique proposition is being delivered. In the case of British aid, £280 million amounts to just over `2,000 crore a year. Five years ago, estimates by the Comptroller and Auditor General

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

of India concluded that annual antipoverty spending by union government ministries alone amounted to `51,000 crore. The outlay has only grown since then, with state government spending added to it. As such, British aid is a drop in the ocean. There was a time when India happily took bilateral assistance from anyone who offered it. But as domestic capacities strengthened, this image as an all-purpose beggar was recognised as an embarrassing anachronism. There was also a practical problem. Individual donors had different reporting formats, regulations to meet and forms to fill. The bureaucratic cost of administering a relatively small amount of aid from a specific country was just not worth it for the government. In 2003, the NDA government cut the Gordian knot and said it would take bilateral aid from only six donors—Britain, the United States, Russia, Germany, Japan and the European Union. The UPA government, which came in the following year, initially criticised this policy and reinstated several other donors. Eventually, the UPA govern-

platform

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— Write to us at editorial@democraticworld.in

ment too saw merit in its predecessor’s restrictive action. As such, what Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee means when he terms British aid “a peanut in our total development programme”, and what Jaswant Singh did in the Finance Ministry in 2003 when he shortened the list of bilateral donors to India are not substantively different. For donor countries the continuance of aid well beyond any reasonable sell-by date and without pragmatic calculations of its political benefits is probably the result of sheer inertia. Japan is one of India’s largest aid partners, but its imperatives and support have remained the same even as India has moved from poor to middle-income status and even as its global stature (and ability to win an election to, for instance, the Security Council) has challenged if not surpassed Japan’s. Some Japanese aid helps develop Indian infrastructure and (indirectly) facilitates Japanese companies that have invested in India. Some of it is clearly overdone, and the result of nobody in Tokyo reversing a legacy initiative and taking a cold-blooded cost-benefit call. In the case of Britain the inertia is of another order. The British Department for International Development (DFID) is almost a special-interest group within Whitehall. With its impressive budgets, job opportunities, patronage networks and local associate organisations in India, it has a vested interest in perpetuating

Were the two phenomena paradoxical? Could India be an aid recipient and aid giver at the same time? To be fair it could and it can, for aid is often not so much a product of a recipient’s needs as a giver’s motivations” the idea that British aid is absolutely critical to India’s development, if not its survival. Those in Britain who wonder if India deserves aid should not point a finger at New Delhi alone. They would be better served turning a gaze at DFID and asking whether it is becoming a self-serving entity. The principal problem Britain faces is that it has divorced its aidgiving from a straightforward pursuit of foreign policy goals. In contrast, emerging powers like China and India take a far more calculative line. When China builds airports in Africa or India strengthens public health capacities in Afghanistan, it does so with clear, short-term objectives. These could be seeking a stronger economic relationship and access to resources (in the case of China and Africa), or a deeper strategic and security embrace (in the case of India and Afghanistan). While aid giving is increasingly becoming more transactional—and its transactional attributes are in turn increasingly appreciated in traditional recipient capitals that are transiting to a new role in world

affairs—the semiotics of aid is equally important. There is a difference between a country offering help as a partner, and appearing condescending—even without wishing to be so. A few years ago, the then British foreign secretary turned up in India with more enthusiasm than good sense. He went on a poverty tour of the countryside, even spending a night in a poor village in Uttar Pradesh and taking pains to empathise with the “real India”. Obviously, this squared up with his politics—he belongs to the left of the Labour Party—and his sense of the relationship between First World Britain and the desperately poor in India. It is the same attitude of gushing charity and noblesse oblige that informs so much of Britain’s aid infrastructure in India. All this may be wonderful for the soul but is it astute diplomacy? It gets Britain NGO partners, but does it actually win it new Indian friends and influence people at large? If not, is the aid programme worth it? The views expressed in this column are of the author alone.

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issue | a closer look at Nuclear Energy

Monster or Messiah?

At the 2009 Copenhagen Summit, a major point of contention between nations was ‘climate change’. Today, almost all countries are trying to put a cap on their own and others’ carbon emissions. In a scenario where our energy demands are increasing exponentially, going nuclear seems like the only solution. But with its inherent safety hazards and environmental implications, is this really the best way forward? BY MANJIRI INDURKAR

THE NUCLEAR AGE 1945 Dr Homi J Bhabha

establishes the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and nuclear research in India begins 1948 Jawaharlal Nehru

forms the Atomic India Commission 1954 The Department of

Atomic Energy (DAE) is established 1956 APSARA, India’s

first nuclear reactor, goes critical. India enters the nuclear arena 1969 The Tarapur nuclear

power plant with a generation capacity of 320 MW goes operational

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

A quick look at the facts shows that India’s nuclear dream is older than the nation-state itself and has been a part of its ambitions for decades. Today, India has 20 nuclear reactors installed at six plants in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka. Despite this, proposals to set up new plants are meeting with stiff resistance.

tion. Today, almost 16 per cent of the world’s energy demands are being met with nuclear technology, which is clean, green—and if nuclear activists are to be believed—safe. Yet, in India only 2.9 per cent of electricity generated comes from nuclear plants and it continues to be a contentious subject.

WHY NUCLEAR ENERGY

The nuclear accident that happened in Chernobyl, Ukraine in the year 1986 was the biggest in world history, releasing large amounts of radioactivity into the atmosphere. The battle to contain this accident involved 500,000 workers and an estimated cost of 18 billion rubles, which crippled the Soviet economy. In the year 2011, following an earthquake and a tsunami in Japan, a series of equipment failures and nuclear meltdown led to the release of radioactive material. In following days so much of it was released in the atmosphere and ground, that the government banned the sale of food grown in the area. In 1988, India signed an agreement with the USSR for the construction of two reactors. The project, however, remained in a state of limbo due to the breaking-up of the Soviet. Moreover, environmentalists started protesting against the plants owing to their potential hazards, and continue to do so even today.

With the rapid climatic changes pointing towards an impending doom, all nations are fighting to reduce carbon emissions. Carbon emission is directly related to our increasing energy demand, which in turn is directly related to growth. So reducing carbon emissions can lead to a slow down in economic growth; perhaps an unending one. If we want to save the planet and continue to progress, we have to shift focus to cleaner and safer forms of energy. And that is where nuclear and other renewable sources of energy come in. In ideal circumstances, renewable sources—solar, wind, tidal, geothermal and biomass—would be the best way forward. But various limitations, the lack of storage technology and the huge amount of land required, do not allow for their complete exploitation. Nuclear, however, has the capability to provide large amounts of energy with very little fuel consump-

MARCH 2012

A RECIPE FOR DISASTER?

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A CLOSER LOOK AT NUCLE AR ENERGY //

CHANDRA BHUSHAN

Deputy Director General, CSE

Chandra Bhushan is the Deputy Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment. He also heads the industry and environment programme and deals with issues of energy conservation and climate change. He likes to crunch climate numbers and demystify climate technologies CAUSES FOR CONCERN

CHANDRA BHUSHAN// I am not against

»» There is no proper waste disposal technology in place »» In case of a disaster or leakage, it will lead to earth, air and groundwater contamination and make the land uninhabitable »» Radiations can cause cancer and can lead to genetic disorders for generations »» Hot water from the plants released into the sea will disrupt aquatic life In this environment of resistance to the idea, the government is struggling to maintain its nuclear expansion plans. It is undeniable that if steps are not taken today we will run out of power. With so much at stake, we asked the experts for their view on the future of nuclear energy in India.

nuclear energy. All I am saying is that there are issues with nuclear energy which must be addressed. The government has to be very transparent, all information has to be in the public domain and people must be allowed to scrutinise it. The causes of concern are many—such as waste disposal, fear of accidents and leakage, per unit cost of electricity, etc. Whenever they do an environmental assessment of these plants they don’t give us enough information, they only say that these are confidential documents. If there is an anti-nuclear environment in the country, the blame lies squarely with the government. You can’t bulldoze public opinion. You can’t just come and say, “I am

going to acquire all your land and set up a nuclear plant there, come what may!” I am sorry to say that the nuclear establishment has been arrogant about this issue in a way. For them, it’s become like “either you are with us or you are against us”. But this cannot work in a democracy. People have different opinions and you have to sit together to resolve conflict. Look at Koodankulam. As of today, they have stopped people from entering the plant, so this issue has shot into the limelight, but it has been simmering since 1988. I can tell you, the main reason behind this issue is the economic well-being of the people, which has not been addressed properly since 1988. We also have to find alternate solutions. For instance, if you think that renewable energy has a future then the government should probably pay attention to it. With all the new technology, renewable energy can be made cheaper, and attention should be focussed on it. It shouldn’t just focus on nuclear energy because it is a prestige issue. The government authorities keep stressing the usage of Thorium (which is available in abundance in India), but the fact is that many countries find it unsafe. Also, we have been talking about Thorium for the past 60 years, but no one has really been able to put it to proper use. What really has been nuclear power’s contribution to India? These plants generate just about 5,000 MW of energy, which is just about three per cent of our total production capacity. Even if they start producing 30,000 MW the contribution of nuclear energy to India’s energy demands will be not more than five per cent. The issue is the energy security of the country, and we need to shift focus from whether we should have nuclear energy or not, to what our strategy should be to ensure energy security. Fifty per cent of the population still survives without electricity more than six decades after independence. Moreover, India needs to learn a lesson from the Fukushima incident in Japan. If a tsunami and earthquake can hit Fukushima, they can also hit the coastal regions of India. We need to take various opinions into con-

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\\ A CLOSER LOOK AT NUCLE AR ENERGY

SAURAV JHA Energy Consultant and Author

sideration, learn from what happened and take necessary precautionary measures. There is a myth about nuclear power plants generating electricity at competitive rates. But the truth is that we don’t know enough. The land is subsidised, the plants are funded by the government and we don’t know what calculations they are using. And if these plants are being set up by the private sector, how competitive will the rates be? If the government was to take the liability of `15,000 or 20,000 crore in case of a nuclear accident then the insurance cost itself will make these plants unviable. None of our plants have insurance right now; the only available insurance is sovereign insurance. The government says it will take care in case of a disaster, but we all know what happened in Bhopal. It has been 30 years now and people are still suffering and the company has not been held accountable. Therefore, I think it is a misplaced notion that nuclear energy will make us energy independent. Why don’t you look at Germany? It took a decision not to use coal or go nuclear, and instead decided to invest only in renewable sources. So why can’t our government look in that direction? I don’t know what numbers it is looking at, but I would put my money on renewable energy every time. We have looked at the Nuclear Liability Bill very closely and there is not much information available. There are also security concerns—and here I am talking about atom bombs. They have to be very clear about segregating arms from energy needs and nuclear has to be seen only through the prism of energy. The past decades have seen rising protests against nuclear, and the situation is different from what it was in the early ’60s. I think it is about information and education and has everything to do with empowerment. It is a very healthy sign for a democracy that people have strong opinions on different issues, and it should be celebrated.

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SAURAV JHA// I don’t

really tilt towards any particular form of energy; I think we need them all. If we have to move to a world where we can sustain our current living standards and also take into account the energy intensity ethos, we will need a source which will fulfil the demands and yet be clean and green at the same time. There is a certain amount of energy that every society demands. And this demand is met by coal all over the world. To the niche that coal fills, nuclear is our only answer. I have found that awareness about nuclear power is not what it should be. The notion that nuclear is going to be expensive is not accurate. If you look at the cost of electricity generated by NPCIL’s nuclear stations in 2010-2011, the delivering cost has been between `2.13 to `2.65 per unit, and that is not expensive by any yardstick. You will have to understand the nature of nuclear; it is only expensive when you build it. Its overheads and initial capital costs are high, but running costs are not. If you look at Japan, it is generating 40 per cent of its power from nuclear, as is Korea. We talk about China in every other instance, except in the one area in which it is really surging ahead. They are marching forward and have put in place the highest forging capacity which is required to make the main components of Pressurised Water Reactors (PWR). Let me now take you to Koodankulam; it already has two nuclear reactors func-

Saurav Jha is an economist turned energy consultant. He is also the author of The Upside Down Book of Nuclear Power, which is a quick guide to understanding nuclear energy. He writes and researches on global energy issues and clean energy development tioning for the past 30 years. These have been hit by tsunamis also and nobody has died so far of radiations in the region. And with Koodankulam’s new reactor, which is the safest nuclear reactor ever built, with 12 back-ups installed, with safety nets installed so that fish don't get sucked into the intake channel, are we going to destroy the livelihood of people in that region! I understand that people are afraid of cancer, but establishing a direct relationship between nuclear and cancer is is just scare-

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A CLOSER LOOK AT NUCLE AR ENERGY //

mongering. There certainly is a link between cancer and radiation, but there has to be a major leak from a nuclear plant for that to happen. I know that our energy situation is going to lead us to high inflation. People ask why Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that nuclear energy will decrease our oil consumption. The answer is very simple—a 1,000 MW thermal plant requires 2.3 to 2.6 million tonne of coal per annum which is transported by rail, which is essentially running on diesel. But a 1,000 MW nuclear plant requires 73-100 tonne of Uranium, which is transported by trucks so there is hardly any comparison. If even 10-12 per cent of our generation was through nuclear energy, we would reduce oil consumption by the same amount each year. The biggest problem with nuclear reactors is how to get rid of the residual heat. In case of an emergency, when you shut down a reactor you shut down the chain reaction. But the already fissile material keeps undergoing radiological decomposition and emitting heat in the form of radiation. That heat, if not brought to a kind of thermal equilibrium, will lead to a meltdown. But in the case of PWR you don’t reach that point and the emergency core cooling reactors are much easier to design for these reactors. In nuclear, all the cost of safety has to be built in with the landing cost of power; with other technologies you don’t do that. 650,000 people in China die premature deaths because of emissions from coal. How much is coal paying for that? Wind causes a lot of upper air circulation problems, a lot of

birds die because of that. Is that calculated anywhere? Naturally not, because with wind you are already paying `5 per unit and it is an attractive technology! But India knows that it cannot run all its plants based on wind. Wind is a very intermittent source and if you need to deal with the situation today, you need nuclear. Solar PV requires eight acres per MW of land, so where will you find thousands of acres to build a power station which will then not even generate that much power? The problem here is also of transparency—the government just doesn’t do enough to educate people. Being in the energy sector I can tell you there’s a lot of hogwash around how we run a grid, etc. Whenever you install renewable energy plants, they need back-up power. Take the example of wind. It will flow whenever it wants to, so how can I supply continuous power with it? When you say that the wind plant has the install capacity of 3,000 MW, the assumption is that there is 3,000 MW capacity of base load power coming in, which certainly isn’t the case. Nuclear is actually a friend of solar and wind. It will provide back-up to wind and solar without emitting anything.

SPOT POLL

The use of nuclear technology has been debated for decades. For our Issue of the month people tell us their take on nuclear plants:

40% 17% 42% Important

Dangerous

Alternate Options

And tell me, where have you achieved storage? One of the biggest challenges ever since Faraday demonstrated electromagnetism is that we do not have big capacitors which can store power for a reasonably long time. If we achieve that, then great! We will generate electricity when the wind is blowing, store it and use it later. If we had efficient batteries then we could shift to renewable completely. As far as consumption of water and disruption of aquatic life is concerned, the essential water supply system of a nuclear plant is the same as that of thermal. Even if the heat generated here is higher due to the superheated steam, the difference is not that much. In fact, this factor has already been considered by the Environmental Impact Assessment team. Let me give you the example of Kaiga, Karnataka. It has a reservoir made from the Kali river, 23km inland and it has been found that the slightly heated water is better for breeding a certain kind of fish. So the NPCIL lets the fish grow to a certain level and then releases it into the Kali river for fishermen to catch. If you talk about disasters, there was no loss of life due to exposure to radiation even in Fukushima. The only worrisome factor is the clean-up cost. And this will not cripple your economy; it will in fact boost it as it will make you invest in better infrastructure. You know what will cripple your economy? All the carbon restrictions that you have been made to take on. You talk about the costs you pay in Fukushima what about the cost you pay everyday due to coal? Finally, coming to the burial of nuclear waste; it is a contentious issue everywhere. India has been working on this and the DAE is working on coming out with waste disposal sites. But radioactive burial is not the ultimate solution. You must recycle your residual uranium. In fact, one reprocessing reduces the physical volume by 97 per cent. The main problem is with the actinide group, a highly radioactive and unstable group of elements. A lot of work is going on in the field of bio-remediation of these actinides. Certain microns have been found which can digest these actinides. That could be a big story coming out in the next couple of years. But till all this happens you have to recycle and reduce the sheer volume of waste.

MARCH 2012

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

PHOTO BY SUBHOJIT PAUL

THE DOTCOM POSTER BOY It took Sanjeev Bikhchandani seven years of struggle to put together the jobs portal, Naukri.com. But today Info Edge is a hugely successful internet business leader in the country

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MARCH 2012

looking back

SANJEE V BIKHCHANDANI //

DOSSIER

COMPANY NAME: Info Edge (India) Limited FOUNDER: Sanjeev Bikhchandani 1997: Bikhchandani buys space on a server in America and creates a jobs portal. Naukri.com is launched 2000: Naukri.com gets `7 crore from ICICI Venture and goes on to become the largest jobs portal in the country 2006: Info Edge lists on the Bombay Stock Exchange

2011: Info Edge invests in DC Foodiebay Online Services Private Limited (through its website zomato.com) and Nogle Technologies Private Limited. Also commits investments in Mydala.com and 99labels.com

come from a family of working professionals, but I always knew that I would run my own business. I had been working at GlaxoSmithKline for almost two years when I quit my job. I was 27 years old, had five years of work experience, an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, and a fuzzy goal to start something of my own. I knew that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life chasing a one-foot longer car, or an address a few kilometres away from where I lived. So, I finally told my boss that I was moving out on my own. Later, he became my first client. At the time my wife, Surabhi, my batchmate from IIM-A, was working. We were living at my parents’ house, so I knew we would manage. A friend and I started two companies—Info Edge and Indmark. When I was at IIM-A, I escorted companies around the campus during placements and saw them fight over students. That’s when it struck me that a survey of the salaries being offered to fresh MBA talent would really sell. My partner had worked with his uncle, a trademarks attorney. In those days, trademarks were searched for at the registry in Mumbai, which kept manual records; it was a time-consuming and unreliable process. My partner knew that pharma companies were the largest users of this search. So, we decided to upload the information on pharma trademarks, and offer computerised searches. We used the money from salary surveys to fund this entire exercise. I wrote the software myself, looking at examples from my IIM-A textbooks. Neither my partner nor I took a penny out of the company in the first three years. I was really afraid initially; going back to a job would only have confirmed that I had failed. That’s what kept me going. In 1993, my partner and I went separate ways; he kept the trademarks company and I kept the salary survey business. I moved my office

“It’s ok to start small. If you pump in too much money before you learn the trade, it translates into some very expensive mistakes. Then you run the risk of failing because you took on too much too soon” —Sanjeev Bikhchandani back into the servant quarter of my parents’ house and started life over. In our early years, we had made a pitch to the Department of Telecom to create a jobs database. That project, though, got cancelled. Then in 1996, I stumbled upon the internet at a fair in Pragati Maidan. I found out how I could start a site like that and was told that I would need a server connection and that all servers were in USA. My brother lived there, so I asked him to buy me server space. I got a friend to help me build the website and put it on the net. By April 1997, we had launched Naukri.com. We got traffic even though we were simply culling job information from newspapers and posting it on the site. When people applied for those jobs, our website was mentioned as a reference. That’s when various companies started taking interest in what we were doing. I then offered to advertise their vacancies at `350 a listing. In our first year of operation, Naukri earned a revenue of `2.5 lakh. By the next year, that figure jumped to `18 lakh. That’s when we decided to focus only on Naukri. By then, my wife had stopped working and our second child had arrived. Naukri was sucking up all the money, so I had to take up another job. Chandan Mitra, the editor of Pioneer, asked me to work on a marketing supplement, which I did for four years. By mid-1999, people started showing an interest in investing in our company. Some of these NRI investors were ready to pump in a million dollars. But once I heard their math,

I realised that it didn't work for me—I had taken 10 years to reach that stage and they wanted to list us on the NASDAQ the next summer. However, we changed our minds in 2000, when a competitor launched its operations with an ad campaign that cost twice our annual turnover. We got `7 crore from ICICI Venture. From there on, Naukri gained a momentum of its own. But there’s no denying the early struggle—for six years, the company couldn’t pay me a salary, but we learned to live with uncertainty and still keep our cool. Entrepreneurship is about a few basic things. The first is persistence; it’s all about keeping at it. The second is ‘first mover, early mover’. And the third thing I believe is that it’s ok to start small. That way, you make your mistakes when the cost of those mistake is still low. Last year we had 42,000 users and this year we may see that go up by 10-15 per cent. We’ve also invested in about six start-ups. The major goal is to stay the dominant internet company of India. As for me, I gave up the CEO’s job in 2010. Now I look at external investments and work with younger companies, entrepreneurs and so on.

I Wish I Could... I’ve always been interested in education. I have done some teaching at various business schools. If I wasn't an entrepreneur, I’m sure I would have been a professor somewhere. (As told to Pooja Kothari)

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DEMOCRATIC WORLD

PLATFORM SATHYA SARAN | Journalist

The Other Half The role of women in humanising civil society

I THINK it was at a United Nations’

Seminar on Women’s Development and Empowerment where I first heard a statement which left quite a mark on me. A speaker, after making a strong case for women’s rights and equality, said, “After all, we, the women, are one-half of this world. And we are mothers to the remaining half.” From the time I heard it, I have used the line liberally in conversations, eliciting mixed reactions. Men who heard it either turned thoughtful or retaliated with ‘witticisms’. To this last lot, the thought was perhaps a source of discomfort, so much so that they needed to brush it away. Women, on the other hand, heard it with evident pride. They realised their inherent advantage: they could give birth, nurture, train and teach the ‘other half’. In the past few months, I have been giving thought to what the statement implies, especially the latter half. Yes, it is true that we, the women, are one-half of the world’s population. And the ratio can remain

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MARCH 2012

balanced and unaffected unless the sex determination madness that has overtaken India (and a few other countries) continues unabated and changes the balance irreversably. The fact of motherhood is a biological given and doesn’t bear much discussion. Even a surrogate mother is a mother in all the ways that matter. In fact, in such a case, the truth of motherhood is reinforced twice— once through the woman whose body nourishes a child through nine months and then through the mother whose genes the child bears. My concern is related to the dual nature of responsibility that women bear in these changed times. Nowadays, women juggle several roles— daughter, wife, mother, and in an increasing number of cases, working woman. No longer are we content only to serve, nurture, cherish and train our children. We also have the added responsibility to ourselves and want to live our own lives to the full. For many, the twin concepts of space and time have now evolved into ‘My space’ and ‘Me time’. And in this

Author

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

newfound need for self, a lot of what we knew is often lost. Make no mistake, I am one of these women too; I love my space, I enjoy the moments when I have no responsibility, and though I believe I have fulfilled much of my role as a homemaker and mother well enough, there are lacunae that an earlier generation of mothers and grandmothers would shake their heads and go tsk tsk at. Today, as always in India, a male child is more prized than a lion cub in a litter of females. The penchant for a male child, the belief that a son is special because he will first earn the ‘big bucks’ as salary, and then as dowry, quite blinds the fond mother. But being mothers to the other half of the universe of humans implies that it is also on the shoulders of women to ensure that their sons live their lives as responsible human beings. Yet, how many of today’s suddenly liberated women expend thought on this aspect? How often do we see sons being brought up differently from their sisters? Personally,

platform

SATHYA SAR AN //

There is a dual nature of responsibility that women bear in these changed times. It is on us that the responsibility rests to ensure that the ‘other half’ of the world also remains human ”

I’ve seen it often enough to make me uncomfortable. I was recently travelling by train to a city in Rajasthan. In the cubicle next to mine was a family of four: a young, pretty, but infinitely tiredlooking mother, an indifferent father, a son of around four years, and a daughter somewhat older. Even though the boy was in a lovely post-toddler period, he was unbearably impossible. He screamed when denied something, climbed up and down the berths and attacked everything his sister took up to play with. He didn’t stop demanding things for a single moment , didn’t eat when he was told to and demanded food when all had been put away. When at last he fell asleep, the entire compartment I think heaved a collective sigh of relief. The mother never lost her cool with him. She either chose to ignore the tantrums or remonstrated with him in the softest tone, that had no effect. Mostly, she gave in. The quiet sister tried to calm her little brother as well, then left him to his own

devices when it yielded no result. The father, shunning all responsibility, was as detached as a saint. I could not help thinking that if it had been the girl who was behaving this badly, she would have—even if she were the younger of the two— been disciplined immediately by one of the parents. I wondered too how they would cope with the boy as he grew older, if they did not start at least making him understand better behaviour at this age. But perhaps blinded by the joy in finally having a son, they let him have his way in everything, almost afraid to rebuke him as he was so precious. The point I’m trying to make is simple. It’s on us (the women) that the responsibility also rests to ensure that the other half remains human. Changing values, growing materialism and progress are all changing the definition of motherhood. But if women remain anchored to one fact, that when taught the right values, a child will hold on to them through most challenges and upheavals, they will be doing their bit for the future of mankind.

I have to applaud the new freedom that some sections of women have garnered; and laud the fact that television and cinema have taught even rural women self-reliance and given them the impetus to seek their own identity. However, I do have a word of caution. Let us not forget that we are the shapers of mankind and in our hands lies the power to ensure the safety of the world. If mothers do not teach war and cupidity and balance the lessons of power with those about love; if they ensure that their sons—as much as their daughters—grow up respecting others, valuing nature and learning to conserve it; if they make their boys understand humility as well as pride, learn to care for those weaker than them, then women, too, will find themselves a step closer to real independence. And they will leave a legacy of greater equality and peace for men and women the world over. The views expressed in this column are of the author alone.

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good karma \\ JANA AGR AHA

Mentors

NAME: Ramesh and Swati Ramanathan, Janaagraha LOCATION: Bengaluru STARTED: December 2001

PHOTOS BY JANAAGRAHA

PROGRAMMES: Ward Infrastructure Index, Janaagraha, IPaidaBribe, Area Suraksha Mitra, Bala Janaagraha, BCCR, Jaagte Raho, PROOF, Applied Research and the Indian Urban Space WEBSITE:

http://www.janaagraha.org/ http://www.ipaidabribe.com/

GIVING SOCIETY A

VOICE

Demanding citizens’ rights through societal participation—that’s Janaagraha BY ROHINI BANERJEE

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good karma JANA AGR AHA //

It has been nearly 13 years since

the Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation, Janaagraha, has been working with citizens and state governments to improve the quality of life in and around India’s cities and towns. The years have not diminished the NGO’s vigour. In fact, they have served to highlight the difference between Janaagraha and the others of its ilk—that Janaagraha won’t put the onus of change solely on the government. Their motto: “be the change you wish to see.” Janaagraha’s defines “quality of life” in two ways: the quality of urban infrastructure and services(read: roads, drains, transport, water supply, etc.) and the quality of citizenship. For Janaagraha, the responsibility for lasting social change rests as much with the residents as is does with the state, and so these two aspects are inter-related. Founded in 2001 by Swati and Ramesh Ramanathan, Janaagraha began more as a civic movement—to enable citizens’ participation in public governance—than an organisation. However, it evolved into an institution working to uphold citizenship and democracy. The idea for the organisation was planted long before the Ramanathans returned to India from the US stints. Both were based and working abroad—Swati as a successful architect and Ramesh in the investment banking sector and microfinance. “We had just moved into a new neighbourhood in Connecticut and noticed fliers seeking volunteers for a clean-up operation at a local park. We thought ‘who does that, on a Sunday?’ However, we did wish to meet the neighbours, so landed up anyway. There was one volunteer in dirty overalls, more vocal and active than the rest who was giving directions. We assumed ‘here’s the tree-hugger’. Days later, on my way to work, I met him again. This time he was in a well-cut, formal suit and tie, reading the Wall Street Journal on his way to work. That’s when I realised that for most of us

there’s this definitive idea of a volunteer being someone who has a lot of time on his hands. And those who desist do so because their days are consumed by the pragmatic and the immediate: deadlines, agendas and children. But it’s true that every life demands an underlying foundation and a deeper rationale to guide actions.” That was a moment of epiphany. Swati realised that democracy was not just a part of breakfast-table conversation, but a participatory system in which every cog had a part to play. When home beckoned, Swati and Ramesh returned to Bengaluru, India. At that time, they took a crucial decision—to work together. For two years (19992001), Ramesh worked with then Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, and his Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF). The committee looked into municipal financial reforms and encouraged citizen participation in its budgetary process. He remembers that the records were in a “terrible state”. Once the situation was under control, there were welcome changes. Under the BATF, channels of communication and participation had opened. The time seemed right to involve citizens in greater numbers in the process of governance. “But when we first presented the idea of carrying out similar work as the BATF, the government intervened and resisted. The BATF was a creature of the system. They believed that such a forum, outside the system would be a threat. But we believed strongly in the

need for an independent organisation working on similar lines as the BATF.” In Swati’s words, that was the genesis of Janaagraha. Once they started, they did not spend too many hours thinking about the change in their quality of life. There was no denying, however, that their regular nine-to-seven lives were over. Both the Ramanathans were clear from the beginning that Janaagraha would not be a foundation in which they would occasionally step in to review how it was doing. When she looks back at the first few years, Swati remembers, “Despite knowing that we would be devoted full-time, honestly we didn’t know that Janaagraha would consume us so much. But because Ramesh and I sort of jumped into it full force, we didn’t mind when the organisation slowly became a 24x7 affair. Now, it’s the biggest part of our lives.” For the first five years, the organisation was funded completely by their combined savings. They set up a Ramanathan Trust and sent out a call for volunteers—pretty much any one who was willing to be a part of the change: youth, students or community members. Their first project was the Ward Infrastructure Index. Inspired by the BATF, this index assessed the quality of life in the municipal wards of Bengaluru based on their quality of infrastructure. It also rated the wards on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the highest rating. Scores gave both residents and municipalities an idea of how well, or badly, they were doing especially against stated government benchmarks. The Ward Index rated services such as water supply, electricity, public safety, civic amenities, transport and environment. The invaluable data,

“Democracy is not just a part of breakfast-table conversation, but a participatory system in which every cog has a part to play” —Swati Ramanathan MARCH 2012

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good karma \\ JANA AGR AHA

“In as much as we believe in the power of volunteers, we also believe that having a group of professionals acts as a fly-wheel. If you have a strong core team of workers then it's easier to rope in and motivate volunteers who come in to work with us” —Ramesh Ramanathan available to citizens for the first time, gave them a chance to hold local administration and elected representatives accountable. From then on, the organisation has branched out into several initiatives. Their most visible initiative, however, was the IPaidABribe campaign. That was Janaagraha’s attempt to tackle corruption, where citizens report actual corrupt acts on the website ipaidabribe.com. Suddenly, ordinary voices from across India were talking about administrators, bureaucrats, contractors or elected representatives asking for bribes. The initiative managed to create quite a ripple. “Over the past decade, corruption has been one of the top three issues that Indians genuinely believe ails the country. At Janaagraha we were not that interested in the major scams; these are a reality in every democracy or regime everywhere. We were interested in the day-to-day entitlements which were denied to citizens. We realised that the problem was data—there was none available that could be taken to the powers-that-be as a case in point. One day a board member, Sreedhar Ganeshan joked that ideally there should be a website which would let people report corrupt practices. The idea slowly took root.” It took them two years to test the theory, get the right people on board and talk to vari-

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Bala Janaagraha: For the organisation, lessons on responsibility, ideally, should start young

and in schools

ous departments. Once they had the right man at the helm, a former IAS officer called TR Raghunandan, the site was good to go. Today, IPaidaBribe’s “Ask Raghu” segment invites a volley of questions—on licencing and registration mainly—that are answered by the former IAS officer. Though the highest number of questions still come from the Bengaluru areas, most of the other metros also feature in the list. The founders of Janaagraha give the credit for their growth to the quality of people they have on their side. “At any given point, we have around 1,000 volunteers working on the projects,” says Ramesh. “In as much as we trust the power of volunteers, we also believe that having a group of professionals acts as a fly-wheel. If you have a strong core team then it’s easier to rope in and motivate volunteers who come in,” he says. Janaagraha has come a long way since 2001. Today, it is a registered trust. This year it’s allocated budget is `8 crore, most of which comes from donations and support from people who recognise Janaagraha’s efforts. Interestingly, the husband and wife team were wary of asking for financial support in the beginning. “We did decide to fund ourselves till we had achieved a critical mass and credibility. We knew that if we had the template right, we would get the support. What we sought was not just financial support, but also encourage-

ment and ideas from like-minded people,” explains Ramesh. Also, as Swati points out, they were wary of “suggestions”. “We did speak to certain NGOs and individuals who told us of contributors with an agenda— those who offered help and then dictated the direction in which an organisation should proceed. We had a clear vision and so wanted to stay away from contributors till we had built a strong identity.” Today, the foundation has become a self-sufficient entity. The previous year the Ramanathans did not have to put in even a single rupee into Janaagraha. Having said that, they didn’t charge a paisa from the coffers either. Most of their initiatives have a major online presence and this digitisation has helped it reach beyond geographical boundaries. Companies such as Omidyar Network, Dell, Infosys, Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb, Tata Tea and Times of India along with Sudha and Narayan Murthy, Ashish Dhawan and Sridhar Iyengar are all part of the list of donors and supporters who have put their faith in the organisation. When we ask the duo about the future and the big S (sustainability), they appear confident. “We celebrated a decade recently, so we may have passed the test of time,” says Swati with a laugh. It seems that society’s voice of conscience is indeed getting stronger by the day.

READING ROOM

“My stories focus on crime or people doing bad things, generally in a humorous way” — Madhulika Liddle

Author

The Eighth Guest and Other Muzaffar Jang Mysteries Desi detective tales with a twist—Liddle’s sandook of criminals is a delight for both history buffs and mystery lovers BY ROHINI BANERJEE

second book, The Eighth Guest and Other Muzaffar Jang Mysteries, is once again based around the Dilli Durbars of the 17th century, at a time when the Mughal Empire had shifted base from Agra to Delhi under Emperor Shahjahan. The main protagonist of the book is “consulting detective” Muzaffar Jang, a young amir, first introduced in Liddle’s The Englishman’s Cameo. In the first book, Liddle did what few Indian authors had done before—placed a detective novel in a historical era. Like with the first, Liddle’s second offering also gives the readers a vivid insight into the heydays of Shahjahanabad, taking them through bustling bazaars, royal havelis, elephant stables and sarais outside the walled city. Unlike the first book—a murder mystery with several intertwining sub-plots—the second book is a series of independent stories of murders, espionage and thefts. Liddle continues to write Jang’s character cleverly, by focusing more on the young detective’s peers than him, and weaving a character based on the difference between them. Unlike his royal friends, Jang often MADHULIKA LIDDLE’S

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collaborates with the “invisible class” (read: boatmen, servants, mahouts and slaves). He seems obsessed neither with luxury nor leading a decadent lifestyle, is pragmatic and appears more “manly” than his often-effeminate friends (perhaps because our amir was raised by Zeenat Begum; an older sister, often strict, always maternal, moral and yet modern). He is more active than most of his friends and clients who sometimes groan at the prospect of movement. But his tehzeeb is intact, and so is the chivalry. Liddle’s Jang, thus, is quite the maverick of his times and often stands out. As does his creator. Unlike several other Indian authors who write in English, Liddle does not ‘exoticise’ her context or story by adding several layers of explanations or meaning to the text. She presumes that her readers have an understanding of old Dilli, which frankly, makes her style refreshing, less tedious to read and less condescending. Liddle’s language is lucid and her style matter-offact. Though there aren’t many direct references to political intrigues, there are passing references or hints in

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Madhulika Liddle is a popular Indian novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, The Englishman’s Cameo, was well received in literary circles the world over, and was translated and released in French. Her stories have won her several awards. Occasionally, Liddle also does travel and film writing Publisher: Hachette India ISBN: 9789350092750 Price: `350

the sub-plots which make Shahjahanabad more real for the reader. If you are one of those who has been on a steady diet of crime fiction, for you Liddle’s weakest point will be her plots: they are predictable at best. But because the crimes are often not over-the-top or too dramatic, one could be tricked into believing that they could very well have happened—in all times. The book’s strength lies in its details and the manner in which Liddle lays them down. The author’s Dilli is vibrant, alive and very real for the readers. Though the characters speak in English, there is a faint whiff of courtly tehzeeb in the manners of speech. On a personal note, two of her stories did stand out for me—The Bequeathed Garden and The Eighth Guest— because of the kind of characters she has sketched out. The footnotes at the end of the story add a layer of genuine history to the settings of the stories. All in all, Liddle’s style has enough in it to entice not just the whodunit lover, but also the fan of historical fiction. Born in Guwahati, Madhulika Liddle lives in New Delhi at present.

“ Most paradoxically, a man whose physical appearance inspires shock and pity has led us joyfully to where the boundaries of time and space ought to be—but are not”

reading room CRITICS & AUTHORS //

— Kitty Ferguson

Before she became a full-time writer, she worked in the hospitality, advertising and industrial design sectors. Her stories have won several awards, including the top prize at the 2003 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. Her elder sister, Swapna Liddle, is a historian (often helping

the younger sister to get facts straight and organising Muzaffar Jang Walks through Old Delhi for fans). Liddle has confessed that she is often drawn to the murkier underbelly of humanity—it could be a result of being a police officer’s daughter. Though the family travelled frequently, her

longest stint was in Delhi. “My affection for the city and its considerable historical heritage were directly responsible for my debut novel,” she has admitted. Otherwise, the prolific author spends her time writing about cinema and travel, and penning short scripts for All India Radio.

Stephen Hawking: An Unfettered Mind This is a good second biography from the same author, but leaves one wanting more BY ANIHA BRAR

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kitty Ferguson is a science writer. She is the author of many books such as Black Holes in Spacetime and Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything. She often writes on subjects like the history of science and knowledge and the interface between science and religion Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan ISBN: 0230340601

SCIENCE WRITER Kitty Ferguson has been working with

Stephen Hawking for decades, and produced his bestselling biography, Stephen Hawking: A Quest for the Theory of Everything, in 1992. An Unfettered Mind is her latest version on the same subject. Stephen Hawking is a British physicist and cosmologist, whose work on black holes and the origins of the universe—and many public appearances—have made him an academic celebrity. In 2009, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in USA. This would be enough to garner him superstar status, but the fact that he has ALS, a type of motor neuron disease which has cost him almost all neuromuscular control, makes him a man that everyone wants to read about. In 1962, Hawking was told that he would not live for more than two years (he turned 70 this year). He was appointed Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, the chair once held by Isaac Newton, and with the publication of his phenomenal bestseller, A Brief History of Time, Hawking entered drawing rooms all over the world. With so much publicity, it would be daunting for any biographer to come

up with something new. Ferguson has made it almost halfway there. One would assume that her closeness to the subject would give her lots of material, but this is where the book leaves one dissatisfied. While we do get insights into a person who could be lazy, loved a good bet and was a poor driver, there are no real personal revelations. She seems to have too much respect for her subject to really lay him bare. This time around, Ferguson delves into areas she had not earlier: his slowly crumbling first marriage and divorce, followed by a second marriage and divorce 11 years later. However, if you are looking for insights into the tension and strife that must have beset the man, you may be a trifle disappointed. One of the strengths of the book lies in her handling of scientific issues; she uses metaphors, not maths, to make fairly complex ideas intelligible. She says, “Hawking’s life story and his science are rife with paradoxes. Things are often not what they seem.” Unfortunately, though, this book is pretty much as it seems. Perhaps one will need a third biography for a more complex and gripping tale of this exceptional scientist’s life.

MARCH 2012

Price: $27

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WARE

HOUSE

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

HOT!

MERCEDES F125 Concept car

PRICE UNDECIDED The F125 features a hybrid electric-hydrogen propulsion and an all-wheel-drive. Gullwing doors open into the interiors, which have touch, speech and gesture controls for the car’s functions. You’ll have to wait to get one, as this is a prototype of how cars will look in 2025.

Mercedes F125

POWERTREKK

MyFC’s Powertrekk produces power equivalent to four AA batteries using just a tablespoon of water. Yup, just water! Cost: `15,000

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HP ENVY SPECTRE

This notebook is made of glass— including its lid, palmrest and trackpad. Seems that HP’s gone ga-ga over glass. Cost: `70,200

warehouse

GADGE TS & GIZMOS //

SPHERO Cool apps controller

`6,530 This translucent cricket-ball sized orb may look like a toy, but it packs in quite a punch in terms of technology. You control Sphero via bluetooth from your iOS or Androidbased smartphone or tablet. Capable of producing millions of colours on its surface, it reaches speeds of up to three ft per second. Precise control is achieved with the integrated gyro, accelerometer and compass. A host of apps centred around Sphero are available at app stores. And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s affordable!

RAZER PROJECT PROJECT FIONA PRICE UNDECIDED Somebody at Razer got a crazy idea of compacting an entire gaming PC into a tablet, and the result: Project Fiona. The tablet is powered by an Intel Core i7 and runs onWindows. It features a 1280x800 screen, Dolby 7.1 sound and a full-screen hybrid user interface. It also has two dual shock controllers.

STYLUS FOR THE iPAD

Ten One Design unveils Sketch Plus with the revolutionary Pro Tip technology which can work on an iPad. To see more visit: http://bit.ly/zx1ZDu

ELECTRIC FIRE EXTINGUISHER

DARPA develops a new flame suppression technique that kills flame using electricity: to see more: http://bit.ly/wntPKl MARCH 2012

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

PHOTOS BY BISHAN SAMADDAR

BROAD CANVAS The Palette: Banerjee's work combines paintings, sculptures, wood-cuts, line drawings, magazine slippings and even scanned photographs and images

Bewitching Book Art

Sunandini Banerjee makes the cover into a canvas with stunning visuals and digital creativity

ne is usually not advised to ‘judge a book by its cover’, but when it comes to the books and catalogues that Seagull Books bring out, that is exactly what one is tempted to do. The artist-designer-visualiser behind these beautiful and gripping designs is Sunandini Banerjee, who is today both Senior Editor and Senior Graphic Designer with the publishing house. A student of English literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Sunandini admits that she “can’t even draw a tree”. But that did not stop her from acquiring a reputation not only as a great designer of book covers, but also as an artist who has three exhibitions to her credit. Today, she designs all of Seagull’s books, book covers and catalogues. So how does an editorial assistant become an expert on the art of the book? With inspiration, vision and the brilliant use of technology. As Sunandini puts it herself,

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“Pictures—photographs, street-signs, hoardings, paintings, drawings, coloured pages in magazines— all of these fascinated me. Different types of lettering, lettering and image together, all caught my eye. But I didn’t quite know what to do with this, till I started working with books and on the computer.” Distilling a lifetime of observation into practice, she found the combination of the scanner, Photoshop and QuarkXpress a hugely liberating experience. Of course, every budding artist needs a supportive patron or mentor and for Banerjee, that person was Naveen Kishore, Publisher of Seagull Books. Acknowledging his contribution, she says, “He con-

broad canvas

SUNANDINI BANERJEE //

DESIGNER OF THE MONTH

tinues to give me the space and the encouragement to do more and be more.” When trying to ascribe a genre to her work, ‘collage’ is the word that springs readily to mind. But if the image you come up with is that of many layers in a particular medium or style, then it would be an incomplete definition. Her work certainly operates at many levels—visual, emotional, literary and often, humorous. But there is more to her art than a simple patchwork of images. Explaining how she tries to fit the cover to the content, Banerjee says, “My covers are not always only about the book in front of me. Other books, other stories, other memories, other places—everything makes its way into a cover. I go with my gut and try to convey both what the book is about and what I think it is about. I think about what it reminds me of, what else I have read about it, a song it brings to mind or a colour that flashes in my memory in response to the words. A cover interprets, talks, laughs, comments, underscores, reminds and prompts.” (Little wonder, then, that readers spend time interpreting the covers for a while before they flip the page). There is no uniformity to Banerjee’s process when it comes to designing the covers. Step one consists of working off a short blurb describing the contents of the book. From that point, like all creative endeavours, it takes on a life of its own. Sometimes the title is evocative enough to bring images to mind. When that happens, the whirl of activity begins as Banerjee looks around for what she can use: a photograph, a

Sunandini Banerjee completed her Masters in English Literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and joined Seagull Books as an editorial assistant. It was her first encounter with the world of publishing and with what computers could do. Along with proofreading and copy-editing, she began to explore page layouts and pagesetting and gradually, cover designs

Designing Dreamscapes:

Cover of Green Eyed Thieves by South African writer Imraan Coovadia (above); splashes of colour relieve the cloud-filled black and white cover for Dorothee Elmiger's book, Invitation to the Bold of Heart (right)

newspaper clipping, a line drawing or something to scan. And by slow degrees, layer upon layer gets built as objects, emotions and visuals come together in an impactful whole.

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broad canvas

\\ SUNANDINI BANERJEE

At other times, the connection is harder to make as authors ask for something different (once she had to do 39 options for a cover!) and the images don’t come together satisfactorily. When that happens, it is back to the drawing board for Sunandini. Sometimes, if the blurb is not enough to conjure the images, then she reads the book in greater detail, or corresponds with the author for a starting point for her imagination. As she puts it, “There is no formula; it’s all about instinct and spontaneity.” In 2003, Sunandini Banerjee designed her first Seagull Books catalogue, and today their catalogues are as anticipated as the next title. In contrast to designing a book cover, the catalogue is more of a team effort, with a lot of time being spent planning the look and content. Once the contributions are in, the process begins for Banerjee. “Last year, the theme of the catalogue was ‘Loss’ and we requested our publishing friends and colleagues from all over the world to send in their writings, extracts, poems and thoughts on loss. Then I came up with the idea of using old family photographs to illustrate those writings, because, to me, nothing conjures up more nostalgia and affection for ‘the lost’ than old family albums”, says Banerjee, trying to explain the intuitive quality to her work. Though Sunandini does not consider herself an artist in the literal sense of the word, there is no doubt that her work deserves a place in the annals of modern art—as evinced by her shows at the India Habitat Centre. Words like ‘fresh’ and ‘different’, clichéd as they may be, certainly apply to her work. There is no tried and tested formula to her efforts, as she goes seeking inspiration anywhere she can, which in turn lends her work a universal appeal. As she puts it, “Inspiration knows no borders. I am a global citizen, as is the rest of my generation. I grew up reading in English and Bengali; listened to classical and contemporary music from the West and East; and watched Hollywood, Bollywood and Tollywood.

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Drawing in the Viewer: Banerjee says she avoids sticking to a style as styles bore her. This is evident in her designs, which use everything from picture frames to paper-clips

CAPTIVATING COVERS

Red: Banerjee's artwork; a digital print on archival paper

Prose: Chosen by Huffington Post as one of the 'Most Outstanding Covers of 2010'

Well Versed: This is the cover of The Sixth Secret Poem, a book of poetry

A tree is a tree anywhere in the world. I will not use lotuses, peacocks and paisleys because I am Indian. I grew up being at home in the world’s imagination. I would be disappointed if my work did not reflect that magnificent canvas.” Her work does indeed reflect a very broad canvas and many of her designs also have a subtle touch of humour about them. Ask her and she says, “Laughter is a great band-aid for the hurts and bruises that life inflicts upon you. Laughing at and with yourself is essential if you don’t want that swelling ego-balloon to burst. Some of the visual jokes in my work are deliberate, like a ploy to see how many people in the world get the joke and laugh out loud. Some are qu eter; I’m sharing a joke with myself though I’m aware the viewer is eavesdropping. Some are a reminder to myself and to anyone who’s watching: Don’t take this too seriously. I didn’t.” (As told to Aniha Brar)

HIKER

PHOTOS BY SUDHA MAHALINGAM

HITCH

Equatorial delight: Borneo began as a single volcano beneath the sea. Several eruptions later, the landmasses formed were joined by earthquakes to make one big island

Surreal and Splendid

Uncharted and mostly untouched, Borneo is simply breathtaking BY SUDHA MAHALINGAM

n search of that elusive earthly paradise, uncharted by Google, unmapped by GPS and unchronicled by Lonely Planet, I had zeroed in on the jungles of Indonesian Borneo; inaccessible to all but the most persistent and hardy traveller. So five of us, a group which included two teenagers, set out in pursuit of our Holy Grail, a remote, primordial speck on our denselypopulated planet. Armed with water-purifying tablets, insect repellent masks, knee-length leech-resistant boots, kerosene lanterns, bedrolls, knives and ropes, we set out on our exploratory voyage fancying ourselves modern-day Marco Polos. The chance to spot orangutans in their habitat and not in corralled conservation centres was an added attraction. Borneo—or Kalimantan as it is known locally—is a large island straddling the Equator. It is shared by three countries; Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. While Malaysia has burnt down most of its rainforests for palm oil plantations or mani-

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cured, accessible tourist spots for dollar-laden tourists, Indonesia, happily, has left nature relatively alone. So there are still pristine rainforests left, though timber and palm oil traders are advancing relentlessly upon them. Pontianak, an hour’s flight from Jakarta, was our first pit-stop. Pontianak’s claim to fame is that it sits bang on the Equator, straddling two hemispheres. And that it trades palm oil to food processing firms that take care of the trans fat content in all those unhealthy fried foods we so relish. It also fancies itself a techno-savvy ‘cyber city’, as a board at the airport informed us. Interestingly, our plane steward could

hitchhiker’s guide BORNEO //

HIKER OF THE MONTH

not figure out why a bunch of loony Indians would wish to visit Pontianak when the drop-dead gorgeous Borobudur and languorous Bali beckoned tourists by the droves. No, he hadn’t heard of either Ketapang or Kubang Hill, and didn’t think much of them either. “You are taking all this trouble to see orangutans?” he asked us incredulously. After a night’s halt, we made our way to the jetty on Kapuas River to catch a boat to Ketapang at the edge of the rainforest. If you think over-crowding and filth are endemic to India, think again. Bedlam prevailed at the jetty packed with cargo, scooters, luggage and a mass of humanity. For locals, this is the only transport available to visit villages scattered on the island. Eventually, we managed to get the right boat and flashing ingratiating smiles and our foreign identities, we managed to gatecrash into the captain’s cabin. After seven hours of slicing through the mangrovelined Kapuas, we reached Ketapang, a village on the edge of the rainforest. Our hotel, built with indigenous materials and hoisted on stilts to take care of flooding at high-tide, was a haven. The next day, we hired a guide-cum-cook, stocked up on rations and rode the dirt track winding its way to the edge of the forest. From the moment you enter the forest, you become aware of the decibel level in a rainforest. There is a cacophony of bird calls, insect buzzes, and powerful, screeching winds. More than once, we stopped when we heard something like gunfire, which our guide informed us was rainforest thunder! We carefully picked our way up the forest

Sudha Mahalingam balances a full-time career as an energy regulator with extensive travelling. She seeks out unusual corners of the planet, plans and funds her own trips and usually travels alone. She has also essayed into amateur photography and has held travel photoexhibitions in Delhi. She has published over 120 travelogues and photo essays which can be accessed on www.footlooseindian.com

Monster Roots: Canoes sail through darkened creeks as the banks resound with calls. We spot funny-shaped fruits and butterflies of brilliant colours flutter around and settle on our arms and shoulders

floor, sodden with metre-high foliage and logs covered with fluorescent toadstools, underneath which lurked all manner of strange creatures. Vines draped themselves around solid tree trunks, and sometimes a lazy serpent as well. As the forest floor grew steeper, we had to pause more frequently for breath, marvel-

MARCH 2012

DEMOCRATIC WORLD

hitchhiker’s guide \\ BORNEO

ling at the porter-cum-cook who, armed with most of the gear and sporting nothing more than worn chappals skipped lightly up the path. At several places, our ascent was only made possible by knotted ropes tied to trees, by which we would haul ourselves, and our packs, up. Sometimes, the ropes would snap, hurling us down. It was only with the help of our trusty guide that we managed to reach the camp—weary, covered in mud, scarred but exhilarated. When you read camp, don’t let your imagination run wild with visions of resort-style facilities. All we had was a wooden shack raised on poles. It sported a sloping roof, but no walls; leaving visitors at the mercy of the rain, wind and insects. There was no bedding nor toilets; all we could do was sprawl on the planks or huddle together in the middle to escape the spray of the incessant rains. But to our weary bodies, this was paradise. Our porter-cum-cook miraculously managed to convert all the soggy groceries into a delectable meal that would have been the envy of a starred Michelin chef. From the camp, we set out to explore the rich and diverse rainforest—for a worm’s-eye view, literally! The canopy was so high, and the trees so dense, that sunlight hardly filtered through. Chlorophyll of every hue filled our eyes. A cornucopia of insects flaunted their fluorescent poison, warning visitors. Some had small but impressive horns or hooks. Snakes came in varying sizes, as avian fauna of incredible variety, including the gorgeously plumed hornbill with its helicopter-like whir as flew overhead. Gibbons and macaques and proboscis monkeys were all around. Much to our dismay, the ever-elusive orangutan was nowhere to be seen; our guide informed us (as we tromped through the jungle making as much noise as a herd of wild bison) that unless we quickly learnt to trek quietly, we might never get to see one. We did not get to see the simian, but we did spot mushy durian peels and swaying branches. Our guide though, seemed to spot them in glorious detail. So as to not lose face, we nodded sagely, craned our necks and pointed our lenses at swinging branches. The leeches on the ground were delighted by our distraction. They latched on to the unlikeliest parts of our anatomy. Since a leech-bite doesn't hurt, we discovered the bites only when we reached camp. If you happen to plan a trip around the Durian fruiting season,

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MARCH 2012

Smoky sky: The setting sun casts a golden hue over pristine rainforests in Indonesian Borneo, which comprise two-thirds of the total island

WANDERING AROUND

Delicious Durian: The durian is revered in Southeast Asia as the king of fruits

Crusty shell: The carcass of a crab on the jetty

Indigenous people:

Borneo’s diverse population is collectively known as Dayaks

your walks will be enlivened by raucous simians and avians, as they fight over choice pickings. Our next pit-stop was Kubang Hill, draped in misshapen mangroves so scary in their contortions that I was reminded of Noddy’s jungles. We took a canoe with an outboard motor and sailed through Kapuas from the village of Teluk Melano which was festooned with swallows’ nests—a delicacy and a dollar-spinner for the villagers. We shifted to smaller canoes paddled by local boys and went into tiny creeks, darkened by overhanging vegetation, while monster roots blocked our path. The jungle unfolded in all its glory: banks resounded with all sorts of calls, funny-shaped fruits hung from branches and butterflies of brilliant colours fluttered around and settled on our arms. Kubang Hill is another kind of water-logged obstacle race. You don’t know what you’re stepping on until your toes are lacerated by thorny stumps. There are leeches galore and since you’re wading barefoot, they have a field day. (I picked at least four from between my toes.) We sat on fallen logs to have our picnic of goreng wrapped in a leaf. And suddenly, there appeared the silent old man of the forest, his languorous limbs clinging to a pandanna leaf and his child-like eyes scrutinising us warily. Before I could mount my 400 mm lens, the orangutan vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. But, no complaints there. The evening was crowned by a memorable boat ride back to Sukadana, through a gorgeous evening sky—all of 360 degrees— glowing with the surreal and splendid hues of the setting sun.

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NOTES LISTEN

EN VIVO! Iron Maiden's En Vivo! was recorded on April 10, 2011, in front of approximately 50,000 ecstatic fans at the Estadio Nacional, Santiago, during the Round The World In 66 Days leg of The Final Frontier World Tour. The album cum DVD captures a magnificent performance by the band, embraced by the legendary Latino passion and energy of their Chilean fans.

WATCH

ATTEND

DJ DAVID GUETTA'S INDIA TRYST, 2012 Grammy-winning artistcum-producer and DJ, David Guetta, is to come down to India in early March 2012. Guetta will headline the 2012 edition of the Eristoff Invasion Festival. Guetta was rated by DJ Mag as the world's numero uno spinner. The maestro DJ is slated to play his first live gigs in India at the festival, which will hit three cities—New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru on March 9, 10, and 11, respectively.

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MARCH 2012

JOHN CARTER The year 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of John Carter, a character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912. Considered the world's first 'space hero', Carter was introduced in Burroughs' story Under the Moons of Mars. Now, the film tells the story of war-weary military captain John Carter, played by Taylor Kitsch, as he gets embroiled in an epic conflict.

GHARANA 2012

JAIPUR ELEPHANT FESTIVAL, 2012 Rajasthan may bring to mind images of sun, sand and camels— but it's equally famous for its royal elephants. On the eve of Holi each year, these splendid animals are groomed and paraded around the city. There are also elephant polo matches—a sport with a distinguished history in Jaipur. An added dollop of entertainment: the tug-of-war between pachyderms and people. The event starts from March 7.

Chennai's first Dhrupad festival, organised by the Prakriti Foundation, began in February 2006. The enthusiastic response to the event eventually led to Gharana, an annual classical music festival, held every year in March. This year the threeday festival will be held from March 30 at the Museum Theatre, Egmore.

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