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Ideas
Imagination
Dialectics
1st May 2013 `30
Are You Crying? No I’m peeing through my eyes Queer Market The Anti-Racism Market The Protest Market The Mommy Market The Green Market
Market of Causes
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Professor with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sherry Turkle has continuously explored the psychological dimension to humantechnology relationship. In this age of simulated sex, 3D and sociable robots, are we headed for a new meltdown? Have we lost conversation? A ten minute time that stretched into a half an hour long conversation, that could have stretched further, if not for the appointment diary. By Pritha Kejriwal and Sayan Bhattacharya.
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Illustration by Sourav Bhattacharya
Connected and Alone
Valleeward
THE CURIOUS CASE OF LIYAQAT SHAH Does a former militant have a way back? Is he allowed to have one? By Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal.
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man who entered the Indian territory via Nepal from Pakistan administered Kashmir with his wife and daughter in tow, in March 2013, stands accused of being part of a terror plot as a supposed member of a fidayeen squad that was readying to attack Delhi during the festival of Holi. The Delhi police which arrested Liyaqat Shah, has been unable to explain several lacunae in its story – from the questions related to the indicted man’s family members, to the hotel where ammunition was found dumped by Liyaqat’s alleged accomplice, who, interestingly also left the key at the manager’s desk. Jammu and Kashmir police has admitted that it knew about Liyaqat Shah’s arrival as part of an amnesty policy Jammu and Kashmir government announced and okayed two years back, for the benefit of those youth who went across the Line of Control (LoC) after 1989 to seek arms training but are not involved in any cases, and no longer with any militant organization. Even as the chief minister endorsed the same, he decided to prod the Centre to hand over Liyaqat’s case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
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A man uses a public lavatory decorated with female mannequins at Sao Joao da Madeira shopping centre in northern Portugal. REUTERS/Jose Manuel Ribeiro 18 | KINDLE INDIA
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Queer Market The Anti-Racism Market The Protest Market The Mommy Market The Green Market
MARKET OF CAUSES Watering the postmodern desert of utter and complete consumerism... May 2013
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REUTERS/Jorge Dan Lopez
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COVER STORY
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By Sayan Bhattacharya
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he conversation floated from the efficacy of gender neutral pronouns to Amitabh B a c h c ha n’s misogyny to rape and the visual medium and then it halted at sindoor, Farah Khan’s ek chutki sindoor. My friend wondered whether given the deeply patriarchal connotations of this symbol of married bliss, and given her feminist orientations, would it be expected of her that she should not apply sindoor after marriage. But what if she wants to don it just as she highlights her eyelashes or applies kohl? What if the vermillion augments the bright red of her dupatta? Why can’t she wear it, solely for its aesthetic appeal? May 2013
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COVER STORY
By Shubham Nag
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PROTEST MARKET By Christoph Trost
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ou’ve seen these powerful images of the hoi polloi assembling on squares, united by the banners and slogans. It’s a pity that such moments of light, outrage and eyes full of hope occur so rarely in history. But in times where everything is sold, ranging from pleasure
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in 20 exotic positions to meteorite rocks, these moments can be bought as well: Teaching, marketing and blueprinting the revolt. The US-based Albert Einstein Institute with Gene Sharp, the modern Guru of non-violent protest at the helm, have shared their well practiced methods online for free. In the leaflet 198 methods of nonviolent action (available in 32 languages) are listed. You can get inspirations from “Skywriting and earthwriting” all the way to “Overloading
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By Nidhi Dugar Kundalia
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GREEN MARKET By Joykrit Mitra
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apitalism used the global warming scam to make massive profits through ‘green’ products for decades. And now, through the Capand-trade gambling joint. ECO CON
“There is a very common mind-set right now which holds that all that we’re going to need to do to avert the large-scale planetary catastrophes…is make slightly different shopping decisions.” Alex Steffen, planetary futurist. In 1972, the Club of Rome commissioned a book called The Limits to Growth. Its writers unearthed computer simulations of unchecked economic and population growth on the environment, predicting catastrophe within
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the century. The modeling was criticized for being simplistic, presupposing what it set out to prove, but the damage was done. Environmentalism was born. Green awareness exploded as capitalists stirred up consumers into a frenzy to buy ‘green’ products. (In the US, eco-anxiety is a diagnosed disorder – when the mind reels at the thought of choosing between paper and plastic, and if the decision will result in catastrophe.) “Consumer demand has got us into the current mess, now it has to get us out again.” The justification, described by psychiatrist and environmental writer Richard Gosden. “Consumers must inform themselves about major environmental problems and then, by being cross-informed through product labeling, should only select environmentally benign products.” But buying Green is an oxymoron, capitalism’s expansionist
ZoĂŤ Heller I N T E R V I E W
Not one to mince words, be it through her widely popular book reviews, which are often more readable than the texts they review or her complex characters and their ambiguous motives, novelist and journalist ZoĂŤ Heller talks books, movies, Feminism, Rushdie, 50 shades, religion and more. By Sayan Bhattacharya.
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RNI NO. WBENG/2010/36111 Regd. No. KOL RMS/429/2011-2013
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