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rni no. 28587/75

the politics of outrage Why myth, history and electoral calculation collided to fuel the Padmavati conflagration

armed forces: mission china december 4, 2017 `60

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the saudi game of thrones

ARMED FORCES: MISSION CHINA

THE SAUDI GAME OF THRONES

DECEMBER 4, 2017 `60

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DIGITAL EDITION

FREE WITH YOUR DIGITAL EDITION FIVE THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE CITY

DECEMBER 2017

A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

NOVEMBER 2017

FUN EVENTS TO LOOK 2017 FORWARDNOVEMBER TO

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Winter Special WHAT NOT TO MISS THIS SEASON

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THE POLITICS OF OUTRAGE

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WHY MYTH, HISTORY AND ELECTORAL CALCULATION COLLIDED TO FUEL THE PADMAVATI CONFLAGRATION

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FENDING OFF THE DRAGON

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ABSURDITY OF EPIC PROPORTIONS

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BIG BROTHER TO ROHINGYA RESCUE

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

W

e behave rather strangely for a country acclaimed as the world’s largest democracy. We ban books and films before even reading or seeing them. In October 1988, India became the first country in the world to ban the import of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, within nine days of its release in the UK and much before the rest of the world woke up to the perceived slight to Muslims for what they considered to be blasphemous references. We had, unfortunately, a role to play in it, carrying an exclusive interview with Rushdie and some excerpts from his book in the September 15, 1998, issue of india today. The initial attacks on the book came from the late Janata Party MP Syed Shahabuddin who alleged that the book was “a deliberate insult to Islam” while admitting that he had not read the book, only the review. Subsequently, there was a fatwa demanding Rusdhie’s head by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, which forced the writer into hiding for nine years.

That drama has been replayed in India again and again attacking a variety of art and literature, from Wendy Doniger’s books to Bolly wood films ranging from Jodhaa Akbar to Udta Punjab. With Padmavati, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnum opus dedicated to the mythical Rani Padmini, the politics has hit a new low. Since work on the film started late last year, Bhansali has been slapped and shoved, threats have been issued to mutilate leading lady Deepika Padukone, and a bounty has been placed on both the director and actor’s heads. Powerful chief ministers of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Punjab have banned the release of the film in their states. Meanwhile, a littleknown group, calling itself the Karni Sena, led by a former Union minister’s son, Lokendra Nath Kalvi, is making political capital from the so-called insult to Rajputs. Not a single one of them has seen the film.

India has become a republic of “offended sentiments” in which one person’s freedom of expression ends where another person’s perceived honour begins. The postponement of Padmavati’s release underlines several disturbing trends.

The most important is the absence of the rule of law. The state did nothing to book Kalvi for hate speech or to ensure that the Central Board of Film Certification completes due process for its timely release.

Then there is the question of artistic licence. The world over, filmmakers are making movies and TV series on living figures, such as Netflix’s The Queen, and recent history, such as Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. Most of all, the politics of Padmavati has exposed the rampant desire under way in some quarters to reimagine our history in simplistic terms as valorous Hindus versus evil Islamic invaders. In such a charged environment, facts don’t matter, emotions do.

So it doesn’t matter that Bhansali’s film is based on a poem, Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s Padmavat, written in 1540, more than 200 years after Rani Padmini of Chittor is said to have immolated herself to defend her honour against Alauddin Khilji. Based on the historical record, there is no evidence that Khilji attacked Chittor for Padmini rather than the mundane reasons of territorial conquest.

Or indeed whether Padmini existed. But none of that matters to those who cannot see beyond their own agenda.

Senior Associate Editor Suhani Singh who reported this story believes the postponement of Padmavati and Kalvi’s threat that he’ll ensure it remains in cold storage is a blow to filmdom. It’ll make filmmakers think twice before tackling subjects out of the ordinary. There’s also deafening silence from some of the most powerful people in the industry amidst a culture of fear. “All their muscle-flexing is restricted to the screen,” says Suhani.

The fundamental problem is that we still think in terms of caste and community and how we can further our self-interest. In a country beset with such serious problems as a slowing economy, crumbling infrastructure, suffocating pollution, ailing healthcare and a pathetic education system, the national conversation is dominated by a mythical character. It doesn’t reflect well on us as a nation with claims to modernity and democracy.

(Aroon Purie)

UPFRONT

THE RAFALE DOGFIGHT PG 4

POV: THE UN(MAKING) OF PARLIAMENT PG 13

INSIDE

LEISURE

IN PERFECT HARMONY PG 59

Q&A WITH AMIT TRIVEDI PG 68

THE SA R I

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AND IT’S A WRAP Reinvented by talented designers, the sari now becomes an aspirational symbol

20

C OV E R S T O RY

DRAMA QUEEN

The blurring lines between myth and history and electoral arithmetic come in the way of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati

SAU DI A R A BI A

38

GAME OF THRONES The escalating Riyadh-Tehran rivalry is plunging West Asia into more turmoil

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INDIA TODAY

DE C E M BE R 4, 2 017

LEISURE

THE RAFALE DOGFIGHT PG 4

RAHUL TAKES CHARGE PG 8

UPFRONT Austenistan

Edited by Laaleen Sukhera Bloomsbury, Rs 350 THE (UN)MAKING OF PARLIAMENT id you know there’s a Jane AustenPG 13 Society of Pakistan (JASP)? This anthology of short stories inspired

by Jane Austen’s novels and set in contemporary Pakistan is written by members of the JASP. It’s a sparkling world that doesn’t bother with the Pakistan you see on the news. In Austenistan, the partying is constant, there’s romance in the air and booze is always at hand. Smart, sassy and essentially a pack of mini Mills & Boons, with tall, fair, handsome heroes who have a thing for heroines perched on Jimmy Choos.

D

BOOKS

Dreadful Tale

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Q&A WITH SUNITA NARAIN PG 7

hen Elsie Bainbridge arrives at The Bridge at the beginning of Laura Purcell’s first novel, The Silent Companions, the stage is set for an eerie story along the lines of The Others.

The Bridge is a ghostly, half-derelict mansion where “everything was dead”. Elsie is dressed, appropriately, in widow’s weeds, and the weather obliges too: “The sky was iron grey, the monotony broken only by crows.” So far, so Gothic.

With her elements in place—young widow, hostile villagers, crumbling mansion house, mist and mud and rain—Purcell’s story unfolds in a series of unfortunate events told in three different times. The main story, set in 1865, follows Elsie’s discovery of an antique painted figure in a long-locked attic room—one of the “silent companions” of the book’s title.

NT E This sets in train ghostly, ghastly and IL S THE S ANION gruesome happenings that lead to a COMP e path of LENDING A HAND th llows in st stories foKENZABURO Tarantinoesque body count and Elsie’s Suu Kyi with Xi Jinping at a o FUKUHARA / AFP gh ic th e o G Belt & Road Forum meet ile on th incarceration in St Joseph’s Hospital for which p d doom n a m o M YA N M A R lo Trust No Aunty the insane. g Maria Qamar The asylum is the setting for the Simon and Schuster, Rs 599 second strand of the novel, where a doctor tries to piece together the events that have led aria Qamar is better known as to her incarceration. Is his patient mad? Is she a @hatecopy on Instagram, and fantastist? Has she succumbed to what the villagers describe as with art that’s a love child of Amar an attack of the “morbs”? Is she a criminal, or is there something Chitra Katha and Roy Lichtenstein, out there… beyond the understanding of mere science?

By Ananth Krishnan she’s got advice for the desi girl. Trust The third strand is the back-story for the companions.

No Aunty is a guide to surviving Rewind to 1635, and Josiah Bainbridge, lord of the manor, and hasare signalled its willing­ the conservative this announced a new aunties, wouldthe seeagents Chinaofassume “centre stage” his wifehina Annie, preparing for a visit from theinitiative, King andalso Queen. ness to emerge as a key figures player— world who, in conjunction with “China­Myanmar the world, turning the page over the Annie decides that life-like painted on freestandingEconomic Corridor” oldof perhaps your strict parents, try to turn you bide following visitthe to Naypyidaw. cautious “hide your brightness, wooden boardseven willmediator—in be just the ticket to amuse and his delight tackling Rohingya crisis in Myan­ a good, (brown) In less Beijing, analysts have seen this intoyour time” maximgirl. thatAlthough guided Chinese visitingthe royals.

The ‘companions’ turn out to be a harmless mar. Foreign minister Wang Yi, who harbingers talking to the South diplomatic push as a precursor to a diplomacy so far.Asian diaspora divertissement than malevolent of evil. visitedUnfortunately, Bangladesh and from in North America, Qamar’s words more confident Chinese diplomacy China said on November 20ofthat theMyanmar pastiche of elements from great gothic November 17 to fail 20, to offered a “three­ may well resonate with many in made addressing its proposal had “won approval” from ghost stories deliver on the promise by theregional eerie problems. The wisdom stage” proposal afterkeyhole talks on the girls in India. She not be call­ viewbook’s is Myanmar may emerge as a test­ young both Bangladesh and may Myanmar, eyediplomatic peeking out of a die-cut cover. In in Dhaka, and to piling underline that China’s new orapproach insightful, case for what President Xi Jinping an­ saying ing anything for a three­step to restor­ so relentlessly on the gloom and doom, Purcell’s book n a “new era” that buting considerable will back rather she’s fun. in Rakhine state, from where nounced October as peace backfires andfinancial the resultmuscle is more dreadful thanin dread-full.

BIG BROTHER TO M ROHINGYA RESCUE

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DE C E M BE R 4, 2 017

INDIA TODAY

3

UPFRONT over 600,000 Rohingya refugees, according to the United Nations, have fled to Bangladesh since August.

The first stage involves an on-the-ground ceasefire to allow Rohingya people to return and to stop them fleeing across the border. The second stage, Wang said, was to encourage and support Bangladesh and Myanmar to strengthen exchanges and to find a solution “on the basis of equality”, while the third step was for the international community to help develop Rakhine state.

It is no accident that China has ongoing investments worth tens of billions of dollars in both Bangladesh and Myanmar—projects it wants to protect.

Wang, the foreign minister, hinted as much when the day after his proposal, he announced a plan to build an economic corridor with Myanmar following talks with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who has grown close to China since assuming her role.

The corridor will build on an existing $1.5 billion pipeline connecting Yunnan province with Kyaukpyu port and special economic zone, which began delivering oil to China in April with the capacity of bringing 22 million tonnes annuChina has ally from the Bay of Beninvestments gal. The corridor would worth tens of further guarantee “access billions of to the Indian Ocean more dollars in both conveniently”, Gu XiaoMyanmar and song, a strategic expert, Bangladesh it told the Party-run Global wants to protect Times. “The corridor could help ease Myanmar’s conflict and ensure stability along the border between China and Myanmar by providing greater employment and better living standards for Myanmar people,” added scholar Chen Fengying, lest observers point out that China’s strategic motivations were the real driver of this diplomacy.

There are, at this stage, more questions than answers about both the proposal and China’s intentions. Asked if the Myanmar government had indeed committed to China on a ceasefire, foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang didn’t give details.

He also didn’t say whether the proposed second stage meant China wanted to mediate between Bangladesh and Myanmar on issues such as the return of those who have fled their homes.

It may well be too early to tell whether China’s plan will come to fruition, especially in the absence of clear details. But what does appear more than clear is China’s new appetite to demonstrate regional leadership. And this, in of itself, could have huge ramifications for the region, particularly when its other major player, India, has shown little inclination of doing the same. n

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DEFENCE

The Rafale Dogfight

D

efence deals have turned into political missiles for the BJP and the opposition Congress in recent years. If the BJP is pursuing the UPA-era (now cancelled) Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam for alleged bribery leads to the Congress, the latter has spied an opportunity too.

Congress president-designate Rahul Gandhi launched a fierce assault on the government on November 16, alleging a scam in the September 2016 deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets worth €7.87 billion (Rs 56,000 crore) signed between India and France. Rahul alleged the jets cost three times the price the UPA had negotiated for them, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had bypassed the Cabinet Committee on Security when he announced the deal in Paris in April 2015, and that he’d overlooked public sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to favour Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence Ltd,

JET SET Anil Ambani (centre) after a flight in a Rafale jet at the aero show in Bengaluru

INDEX

GONE TO POT? Speaking on the occasion of ‘World Toilet Day’, on November 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said ending open defecation would be the “best gift” for Indian women. The Swachh Bharat website shows considerable progress is being made towards that goal, with millions of toilets being built and thousands of villages declared open defecation free. Despite the impressive statistics on display, a new report by the UK-based NGO WaterAid on “the state of the world’s toilets” shows just how far India still has to go. The report “explores how the lack of decent toilets around the world prevents women and girls from fulfilling their potential”. While Ethiopia has the highest percentage of people in the world without access to toilets, India still has the highest number.

MANJUNATH KIRAN / AFP

which has no previous aircraft-making experience.

Rahul Gandhi didn’t supply proof of these allegations, but coming as they did ahead of the Gujarat assembly elections, his statements caught the government on the back foot.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman called his allegations ‘shameful’ and Rahul Gandhi’s statements drew a rare rebuttal from French officials. The Congress kept up its barrage, nevertheless, baiting the government into revealing the unit cost of each aircraft. And there will certainly be some fireworks over this in the upcoming winter session of Parliament.

The truth, as usual, is more complicated. Dassault’s Ra-

732.2 MILLION INDIANS WITH NO ACCESS TO TOILETS, OVER 355 MILLION OF WHOM ARE WOMEN AND GIRLS; 343.5 MILLION IN CHINA AND 122.8 MILLION IN NIGERIA

fale did finish ahead in a tortuous seven-year process to buy 126 jets. The UPA government had earmarked $10 billion (Rs 68,000 crore) for the deal in 2007, but the contract was never signed. By 2012, the price had ballooned to over $20 billion, twice the amount set aside by the government.

“The new deal was cheaper, it was to be delivered faster, on much better terms, with superior weaponry,” says a senior government official. Comparing the two deals, defence ministry officials say, is disingenuous because at €3.3 billion (Rs 23,000 crore), the actual flyaway cost of the 36 aircraft was just half the €6.8 billion (Rs 49,000 crore) contract signed in 2016. The remaining sum, they maintain, was to be spent on ground support equipment, the weapons package and unique requirements like creating parallel infrastructure for the Rafales in two air bases—Hasimara in West Bengal and Sarsawa in UP. The 36 aircraft deal also came with a five-year ‘Performance-based Logistics’ agreement to ensure that nearly 75 per cent of the aircraft strength would be available at any point. (Less than 50 per cent of India’s Russian-origin Sukhoi fleet is thought to be available.) The first Rafales are to fly in by February 2020 and all 36 by 2022. The jury is out on whether the government’s vigorous defence of the aircraft brightens or dims Rafale’s chances in India. It’s in the fray to sell an additional 36 Rafales and 54 aircraft carrier-based variants of the aircraft to the navy. But what the fiasco underscores is the need for greater transparency in defence deals. n

56 PER CENT

INDIANS WITHOUT ACCESS TO TOILETS IN 2015, COMPARED WITH 93% ETHIOPIANS AND 25% CHINESE

—Sandeep Unnithan

$106.7 BILLION COST OF POOR SANITATION TO THE INDIAN ECONOMY IN 2015, SAYS WATERAID, COMPARED WITH $35.9 BILLION IN CHINA AND $10.6 BILLION IN BRAZIL

54.3 MILLION

60,700

TOILETS BUILT IN RURAL INDIA SINCE SWACHH BHARAT WAS LAUNCHED IN OCTOBER 2014, SAYS ITS WEBSITE

CHILDREN UNDER 5 DIE EVERY YEAR FROM DIARRHOEAL DISEASE, SAYS WATERAID

2.76 MILLION INDIAN VILLAGES HAVE BEEN DECLARED OPEN DEFECATION FREE, ALSO 7 STATES, INCLUDING SIKKIM, KERALA, GUJARAT AND PUNJAB

Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

7.9 MILLION 72.03 MILLION HOUSEHOLDS IN NOVEMBER, 2017, NOW HAVE ACCESS TO TOILETS, SAY SWACHH BHARAT FIGURES

TOILETS IN INDIA ARE ACTUALLY USABLE, ESTIMATED CENTRE FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT IN AN AUGUST 2017 REPORT

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INDIA TODAY

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C H AT T E R

The week in social media @ShougatDasgupta

The Rosogolla Wars A couple of weeks ago, Mamata Banerjee tweeted of her pride in West Bengal winning GI status for the rosogolla. Many Bengalis used her proclamation of triumph as an excuse to post pictures of themselves swallowing spongy, sugary, white balls by the dozen. Except, of course, this was no victory, simply recognition that West Bengal had its own variation of a dessert popular in various parts of India. You can see why geographical indication is necessary for products whose qualities are entirely defined by the place in which they are made. But GI cannot tell us whether the rosogolla belongs to West Bengal or Odisha. It belongs, of course, to both. Has the sniping between the two states over the sweet’s origins been so bitter because the stakes are so vanishingly small? n

The Tharoor Rollercoaster Personable and always prepared to offer an opinion, Shashi Tharoor is a social media phenomenon. With the adulation comes opprobrium, to use the sort of Latinate word Tharoor might appreciate. And this was a particularly illustrative week.

At a pride event, a marcher held up a sign imploring Tharoor to marry him. Just days later, an atypically graceless pun on the name of the new Miss World Manushi Chhillar—India’s first for 17 years—left Tharoor bloodied by brickbats. Chhillar was untroubled

by Tharoor using her name, slang for small change, to make a ‘dad joke’ about demonetisation. If only those politicians who took up cudgels on her behalf weren’t such rank hypocrites. n

Crass Youth Congress In Gujarat, the Congress has been receiving praise for a social media campaign that has put the BJP on the back foot. But with little supervision of social media teams, months of good work can be undone by a single, ill-judged tweet. Patronising Narendra Modi on the grounds of his ‘chaiwala’ past, the Congress should know, is not a winning tactic. A Twitter handle linked to the party’s youth wing did just that though, the brash stupidity of its tweet forcing the Congress to apologise. BJP leaders really don’t needing a helping hand to mount their high horses. n

UPFRONT Q&A

‘NEXT WINTER, WE NEED BLUE SKIES’ At a time when #cleanair and #righttobreathe have become the most popular hashtags on India’s social media scene, environmentalist Sunita Narain talks to Prachi Bhuchar about her new book and a blueprint for a clean, green future.

Q. What makes Conflicts of Interest different from your previous books?

I’ve never written a book like this. I’ve always written on issues, but this one recounts my environment journey. It’s a luxury for someone like me to write so reflectively, and it’s intensely personal. It takes the issues of environment to a general audience, explains the journey and also focuses on solutions. The book is also a blueprint for a green future and the direction it must take.

Q. What are the main ‘conflicts’ discussed in the book?

In almost every green issue, there is conflict of interest.

When we talk about air pollution, the diesel conflict of interest comes through. It’s the same with the pesticides debate. Even in tigers there is a conflict of in-

PU LLQUOTE

“That’s none of your business”

terest in terms of ideology and thinking. In addition to business, self-interest, there is an idea of a contested reality and there is a conflict that exists.

The challenge is, how do you change mindsets and get people to sit up and take notice?

“We have perfect policies, but implementation is a problem. We have weak deterrents.”

SUNITA NARAIN

Environmentalist

Q. Who is affected most by the environmental changes?

The poor are more sensitive to environmental degradation while the rich of India are resource ignorant. The problem is convincing the rich

Seemingly self-assured, absconding tycoon VIJAY MALLYA snapped at reporters outside a London courthouse who dared ask why he wasn’t returning home to clear his name. Moments before this, he’d been insisting on his innocence, that charges of financial

Conflicts of Interest: My Journey through India’s Green Movement

By Sunita Narain Publisher Penguin Random House Pages 240; Price Rs 599

and middle classes that they too will pay a price in the long run.

Q. The three biggest environmental problems of our times...

Air pollution, both urban and rural, is one of the biggest. Data is clear about the health burden.

Delhi needs leapfrog solutions. Climate change and its impact on the poor is another issue. And the relationship between water and everything else; water and pollution, water and floods, water and sanitation. Water, or its scarcity, will be one of the biggest problems in the times to come.

Q. Is the problem in policy or implementation?

We are perfect in the policy department but implementation is a problem. We have weak deterrents. The systems of accountability have been weakened, so monitoring is a huge problem. You can’t fix things if you disregard/ disable institutions in power.

Q. A solution to India’s air pollution problems...

Last year, there was no information about air pollution, but we worked hard to put a consolidated map of real-time monitoring stations online. You are no longer in the dark and that is the reason there is outrage today. There is strength in information, which is why governments choose not to put it out. We can sort out the pollution crisis in Delhi since we know the sources. It is only a matter of going after them.

But no one wants to take responsibility. I am determined to give one more winter to sort out pollution. Next winter, we need blue skies. n

chicanery to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore were “baseless and fabricated”. Mallya has told the court that he’s afraid for his life in India and that prison conditions are inhuman.

His trial is set for December 4 and he has reason to be confident.

Though a treaty has been in place for 25-odd years, only one person, accused in the burning alive of 23 Muslims in the 2002 Gujarat riots, has been extradited to India from the UK. It was in October 2016, and he didn’t contest his extradition.

INDEX

Clean the World Environment minister Harsh Vardhan was at the UN climate change conference in Bonn between November 6 and 17 when the noxious smog over Delhi made international headlines for the second consecutive year. He had to play a delicate balancing act between sounding the alarm over climate change in Germany, assuring the countries present of the leading role India intends to play in tackling the issues, and playing down panic over the extreme unhealthiness of Delhi’s air. The meeting as such was a sort of preliminary discussion on the obligations outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. From 2020, countries will be called to account for their pledges. India’s emissions are relatively low, per capita, but its success in combating pollution is essential to the global effectiveness of the agreement.

2°C

33-35 %

RISE IN GLOBAL TEMPERATURES SINCE ABOUT 1880 MUST BE KEPT BELOW THIS NUMBER. ON COURSE TO PASS THIS NUMBER BY MID-CENTURY

REDUCTION IN CARBON FOOTPRINT BY 2030 (FROM 2005 LEVELS) PROMISED

BY INDIA AS PART OF THE PARIS AGREEMENT

6.81 %

56.5 %

OF THE WORLD’S CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS, OR 2.45 MILLION KILOTONNES, ACCOUNTED FOR BY INDIA. CHINA (29.51%), USA (14.34%) AND THE EU (9.62%)

OF INDIA’S POWER CAPACITY WILL BE IN RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES BY 2027, ACCORDING TO THE 3RD NATIONAL ELECTRICITY PLAN (NEP); PARIS TARGET: 40% BY 2030

1.9 %

275

GIGAWATTS

OF ENERGY (PROJECTED) FROM RENEWABLES BY 2027; IN 2016, WHEN NEP3 WAS DRAFTED, ONLY 50 GW (15%) CAME FROM RENEWABLES; COAL WAS 60%

INDIA’S PER CAPITA CO2 EMISSIONS. COMPARED TO QATAR (39.7%), AUSTRALIA (18.6%), US (16.1%), RUSSIA (12.3%), CHINA (7.7%)

$2.5

TRILLION

Or about Rs 160 lakh crore required between now and 2030 to fund India’s ‘Intended Nationally Determined Contribution’ to reduce emissions

UPFRONT

RAHUL’S IN CHARGE

Ever since Rahul Gandhi, 47, fought his first election in 2004, his ascent to Congress presidency was preordained.

The Congress Working Committee has decided it’s time to bite the bullet—in a few weeks. So Rahul remains on the verge, a faintly damning phrase that sums up his political career. By mid-December, he’ll take over a party that’s only just recovered from what seemed to be terminal decline. Rahul’s also in the midst of a personal renaissance.

Campaigning in Gujarat, he has been assured, caustic, taken the fight to the BJP. Can he revive the Congress?

2004: Just before his 34th birthday, Rahul contests the Lok Sabha election from father Rajiv’s old seat Amethi.

Congress shocks ruling BJP 2007: Made general secretary in charge of the Youth Congress and National Students’ Union of India. Prom­ ises to reform youth politics—introduces YC elections and drives membership to unprecedented levels 2008: In a speech about farmer suicides, Rahul tells Parliament about Kalavati, a widow in Maha­ rashtra’s drought­ridden ridden Vidarbha region. The speech makes national headlines, as reporters beat a path to Kalavati’s door 2009: Retains Amethi in general elec­ tions. Stays the night in a Dalit home, eating, bathing and sleeping out in the open. Begins Bharat darshan, speaking at 125 rallies in six weeks 2011: Joins farmers in Bhatta Parsaul village on May 11 protesting the forcible acquisition of their land at low rates by the state government.

Is arrested by UP police.

Later, the UPA government passes the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2012: Congress wins just 28 seats in UP assembly polls. After the December 16 gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh, Rahul sponsors the education of her two brothers 2013: Is appointed Congress vice president; power is poison, he says. Describes as “complete nonsense” his own party’s proposed ordinance giving convicted politicians reprieves from disqualifica­ VIKRAM SHARMA

tion. In December, Congress finishes 3rd in Delhi behind the BJP and AAP. Rahul says he’ll transform Congress, “in ways you cannot imagine.”

2014: In an abject general election defeat, seats.

Congress is reduced to just 44 seats Partymen call for sister Priyanka to lead.

2015: Disappears for two months for Vipassana. Reinvigorated, in April he coins the phrase ‘suit­boot ki sarkar’ for the Modi government, forcing it to turn tail on amend­ amend ments to the 2011 Land Acquisition Bill. In November, brings Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar together to win Bihar elections.

2015-17: His leadership of the Congress is in danger of becoming a national joke, as the Congress loses elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Assam and Kerala. In UP, the alliance with Akhilesh Yadav is an apparent disaster.

In Manipur and Goa, the Congress is the largest party but fails to form government.

Only in Punjab is victory secured and credit goes to Amarinder Singh.

2017: Effective speeches on US university campus­ es give Rahul confidence.

A Congress social media campaign in Gujarat mock­ ing the BJP’s promise of development—“vikas gando development— chhe”—goes viral, thayo chhe” encouraging Rahul to embrace Twitter and sharpen his pitch.

Calls GST “Gabbar Singh Tax”; cleverly mocks Amit Shah’s son, Jay, alleged to have profited from “Shah­jyada”, a his connections, as “Shah reference both to Jay’s greed and the ‘Shehzada’ nickname Shah and Narendra Modi use to deride him. n —Compiled by Kaushik Deka

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UPFRONT BOOKS

THE MAN WITH A RINGSIDE VIEW

By Saeed Naqvi

T

he description of Pakistan as Except for a short stint as high ‘people next door’, though laden commissioner to Singapore, Raghavan with irony, fascinated me. Yet I has, by choice, focused almost excluhad not compulsively reached out for sively on relations with Pakistan, first the book. I had nurtured a certain imas joint secretary in the South Block age of T.C.A. Raghavan in the and later as high commissioner. He, course of my personal interactions with therefore, has had access to all top him when he was the high commissecret files. While in harness, he sioner to Pakistan. always had a ringside seat in hisHe was equipped with a certain toric meetings, but he has successfully mellowness, a deep sensibility, quite resisted the temptation of being onedifferent from other pundits who sided or didactic. cannot conceal prejudice, a view quite While writing, he positions himself at variance with the image that The outside his advantageous seat. Indeed, People Next Door conjures up. What if he even dresses up the narrative of The People Next Door: Raghavan too emerges hard as nails on Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner The Curious History of the subject of Pakistan? to New Delhi, who, during the 1965 India’s Relations with Pakistan It is just as well that the books war, rushed in panic with top secret

by T.C.A. Raghavan editor has imposed on me this fait acfiles to rouse the bleary-eyed Iranian HarperCollins compli. Reading the book enables me ambassador, who accepted the docuPp: 360; Rs 699 to affirm without a shadow of doubt ments for safekeeping. The remaining that the author of The People Next Pakistani files were deposited with Door is exactly the person I had come the Turkish ambassador, delineating As high commisto know for my own very private work. the Teheran-Islamabad-Ankara axis of Throughout this most readable book, those days. sioner, Raghavan he keeps a deep, steady but also quizHe joins all the dots in the bilateral participated in zical gaze on Indo-Pak affairs. He was relationship, but always has time for historic meetings. high commissioner through exceptionanecdotes that shed light on the conseYet he has resisted ally challenging years, but he copes quences of Partition on actors in India, with the ups and downs with compoPakistan and Bangladesh. There is that being one-sided or sure. In “If”, one of his non-imperial wonderful story of Azim Hussain, who didactic poems, Kipling wrote: joined the ICS in Lahore but opted for If you can meet with triumph and India after Partition. disaster The story of K.L. Gauba has all And treat these two imposters just the ingredients of a novel. Katherthe same… ine Mayo’s annoying book on India and Indians, Mother Well, that exactly is how Raghavan contemplates the India, had invited Gandhiji’s famous remark, “It is a drain Indo-Pak engagement. inspector’s report.” But Gauba, Lahore’s celebrated lawyer, In fact, his concluding paragraph says as much—“the proceeded to do one better: he paid back Mayo in her coin traditional divides of hawks and doves fade in imporby writing a book on her motherland, the US. Titled Uncle tance—at some state, and for some period of time, each Sham, it was the biggest bestseller of its day. This was a tiny camp will be proven right before it is again proven wrong.” strand in Gauba’s life lived on an epic scale: his conversion There is always an amused twinkle in his eye. to Islam, change of nationality from Pakistani to Indian He seems to follow quite effortlessly a cardinal principle and a myriad dramatic zig zags. for good writing: it is as important to be relevant as it is to No serious student of India-Pakistan history can ignore be interesting. the book. Besides, it is very readable. n

10

INDIA TODAY

DE C E M BE R 4, 2 017

EXPOSUR E

CASUALTIES OF THE ANTHROPOCENE Villagers festooned with flowers the bodies of two female elephants killed by a passenger train en route to Guwahati. Stragglers in a herd of about 15 trying to cross the tracks, the elephants were hit around midnight on Saturday, November 18, as they searched for food. Amchang Wildlife sanctuary is nearby, but Assam forest officials insisted that the elephants did not normally venture onto the tracks.

The Asian elephant has been an endangered species for over 30 years now, their numbers declining by an estimated 50 per cent over the past seven decades or so. India is home to just over 27,000 jumbos, with nearly 6,000 living in Assam. Loss of habitat is one of the primary reasons for the declining elephant population and conservationists warn that the pressure exerted by human encroachment continues to force elephants to seek out new routes, leading to such deadly encounters.

ANUPAM NATH/ AP

DE C E M BE R 4, 2 017

INDIA TODAY

11

UPFRONT GL ASSHOUSE

SECURITY TAN-TRUMP

ARMS AND THE LADY

I

vanka Trump’s Secret Service detail has their Indian counterparts in a tizzy. US President Donald Trump’s advisor and daughter is leading her country’s delegation to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad between November 28 and 30. The Secret Service has insisted she travel in a 20-vehicle convoy, unusually large even for a VVIP. It has also demanded that stores and homes near the Westin Hotel where she will be staying, along with the Falaknuma Palace, where Prime Minister Modi will host a reception on November 28, be shut down. But what caused most amusement was a US request that the Indian police on her security detail not carry weapons because Ivanka is a US Secret Service protectee. Predictably, it was turned down.

D

irector-general (acqui (acquisitions) Smita Nagaraj was recently moved out of the defence ministry, a surprising move just months before her retirement. Opinion is divided on her departure—the armed forces saw her as a hurdle as the acquisitions wing under her had scuttled several proposals to import arms, including surface-to-air and anti-tank missiles. The DRDO and champions of indigenous efforts are un unhappy at having lost an ally.

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

F

RAJWANT RAWAT

ormer finance minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha is at it again. The latest was a snarky tweet that the Modi government should “celebrate Moody’s upgrade with a midnight ceremony in Parliament’s central hall”. Political circles have it that Sinha is drifting towards the Congress. It will be a relief for his embarrassed son, Jayant Sinha, MoS for civil aviation.

DANCING QUEEN

A

mruta Fadnavis frequently gets requests to sing at the events she attends. But organisers at a recent marathon in Thane, where she was an invitee, had other plans. They requested her to shake a leg to the tune of a popular Marathi number. The banker wife of Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis not only obliged but also stole the thunder from other guest dancers like actors Hrithik Roshan and Jacqueline Fernandes and Thane police commissioner Param Bir Singh. Bollywood calling soon?

Sandeep Unnithan with Amarnath K. Menon, Kiran D. Tare and Anshuman Tiwari

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M

MANDAR DEODHAR

THE SINHA’S SINS

Picture Proofed ahatma Gandhi’s likeness on our currency notes is their best known security feature.

Now a picture of Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao will soon guarantee the authenticity of the new pattadar passbooks being issued to landowners in his state after the land survey is completed in January next year. Rao’s waterproof and tamperproof portrait will also have other security-enabled features. Father of the Telangana nation?

UPFRONT POINT OF V IEW

The (Un)making of Parliament

By S.Y. Quraishi

T

Whimsical scheduling/ cancelling of House sessions by the government of the day is a challenge to the primacy of Parliament

he delay in announcing the date for the commencement of the winter session of Parliament has caused great concern.

The session generally starts in the third week of November. Parliament rules require that the dates for the House session be announced 15 days in advance to give MPs ample time to come to Delhi. With no such announcement made for this year’s winter session at the time of writing (21 November), it is most likely that the normally month-long session will be shortened, if not scrapped. Rivals of the BJP have raised serious objections to the delay.

The reaction of political parties is on expected lines. The general allegation is that the BJP is looking to delay/ scrap the winter session so that the issues raised by the opposition do not cloud the judgement of voters when Gujarat votes on December 9 and 14.

On 30 October, Derek O’Brien of the Trinamool Congress tweeted: “Can we expect dates for the winter session to be announced today? Anyone listening?” Anand Sharma, Congress deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, said: “The prime minister is running away from Parliament and debates... What is happening is an assault on democracy.” Even Sonia Gandhi has come out strongly on the issue.

On the other hand, newspaper reports quote a senior member of the Union government as saying: “A large section of parliamentarians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ministers in the Union government and many senior Congress leaders, will be busy in the election campaign, which could adversely impact the winter session. Most of the 37 MPs, 26 from the Lok Sabha and 11 from the Rajya Sabha, will also be involved in campaigning; it makes sense to delay the session... If most of the BJP and Congress leaders are busy in Gujarat, ...it will be difficult to hold meaningful discussions on important legislation in the absence of a vast number of MPs from the ruling party and the main opposition.”

If the session is indeed delayed till after

the Gujarat elections or is cancelled, it will be a blow to the democratic process of the country. Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, mirroring similar sentiments, tweeted: “It will be a sad day for Indian democracy if the winter session of Parliament is postponed on account of [the] Gujarat elections.”

It is, however, necessary to remember that no fixed date is laid down in the rules. The past 10 sessions have commenced on dates far apart—ranging from 9 November in 2010 to 5 December in 2013. In 2008, the session was dropped altogether. The only rule is that there should not be a gap of more than six months between two sessions. By that logic, the monsoon session having ended on 11 August, there’s time till February!

The winter sessions were delayed in 2003, 2008 and 2013 due to elections in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The cancellation of the session in 2008, by the then UPA government, was purportedly because the prime minister was out of the country. There was no major hue and cry though the reason was far from compelling.

Whimsical scheduling/ cancelling of House sessions by the government of the day is certainly a challenge to the primacy of Parliament. However, what is harder to ignore is that there has been a marked decline in the importance of Parliament, as is evident from the downtrend in the number and duration of sittings since the first Lok Sabha (1952-57).

Regular sessions with healthy debates are vital to the survival of a representative democracy.

It’ll be good to fix a minimum number of sittings for each session as well as the opening dates of Parliament sessions to minimise the scope for politicking on this issue. This will ensure that deliberations on policy and legislation do not take a hit every time a state goes to elections. n The writer is a former chief election commissioner and author of An Undocumented Wonder—the Making of the Great Indian Election Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

STATES

GUJARAT: TICKETS QUEER PITCH PG 1 6

MADHYA PRADESH: GODSE TO GOD PG 1 9

PURUSHOTTAM DIWAKAR

ASSAM: GRAFT INQUIRY PG 1 8

KERALA: SOLAR BURNS PG 1 7

BEWARE THE EVIL EYE The ‘love jihad’ booklet on display

R AJASTH A N

THE OTHER JIHADIS

JAIPUR

A ‘spiritual’ fair where the state bussed in school children celebrates communal caricatures and hate speech

By Rohit Parihar

O

stensibly organised to “showcase themes that flow from Hindu spiritual genius, ancient literature and life­ style”, a five­day fair in Jaipur by the Hindu Spiritual & Service Foundation (HSSF), a Chennai­based organisation linked to the RSS and whose patrons include well­known economist S. Gurumurthy, ended on November 20 with many red faces in the Vasundhara Raje government here.

Pamphlets distributed at the event, to which government school children were bussed in—reportedly on the instruc­

14

INDIA TODAY

DE C E M BE R 4, 2 017

tions of minister of state for primary education Vasudev Devnani—included bizarre prescriptions on, among others, how Hindu girls can tackle ‘love jihad’.

Volunteers manning a stall put up by rightwing outfits Bajrang Dal­Vishwa Hindu Parishad freely handed out mate­ rial that asked Hindu families to “tell your daughters that Muslims are dirty, terrorists, exploiters of women, traitors, pro­Pakistan and lumpen…”. Incredulously, one Bajrang Dal pamphlet bore a picture of Bollywood actor Kareena Kapoor

whose marriage to fellow actor Saif Ali Khan is alluded to as an example of ‘love jihad’.

Predictably, the provocative material at a few stalls, including books about ‘Christian conspiracies’, forms for vegetarianism pledges, signature campaigns demanding that the cow be declared India’s ‘national mother’, and brochures asking people to ‘keep in mind the larger benefit of Hindus while voting’, over­ shadowed all else in the media coverage.

The Raje government’s ostensible sup­ port to such an event which openly seemed to be inciting communal hatred has raised many eyebrows. It only added to the state government’s discomfiture that its educa­ tion minister actually facilitated the visits by schoolchildren.

While the police intervened and stopped further distribution of the offensive literature on the third day of the HSSF fair, Bajrang Dal and VHP activists at the venue were smug having already distributed thousands of pamphlets. The attendant controversy and publicity could only further their cause, a Bajrang Dal functionary gloated.

CM Raje’s office declined to comment,

A PARTY SPOKESPERSON INSISTED THERE WAS “NOTHING WRONG IF STUDENTS WERE SHOWN GOOD WORK”

M AH AR ASHTR A

Murder in Uniform

Yet another custodial death in the state’s police stations

SANGLI

By Kiran D. Tare

F

rom the beginning, there was clearly something fishy about robbery suspect Anil Kothale’s death in the Maharashtra Police’s custody in Sangli on November 7. A subsequent probe ordered by inspector general of police (Kolha­ pur range) Vishwas Nangre­Patil revealed that the man, accused of stealing a mobile phone, was brutally murdered, allegedly by the five policemen assigned to question him.

The probe found that sub­ inspector Yuvraj Kamte was assisted by constables Anil Lad, Arun Tone, Nazir Mulla and Rahul Shingate in the brutal kill­ ing. Kothale apparently died as a

result of sustained beatings and torture. The cops later trans­ ported his body to Amboli ghat in neighbouring Sindhudurg dis­ trict and burnt it to destroy the evidence. While Kamte initially claimed that the suspect had escaped from custody, it eventu­

18 DEATHS

till November this year in Maharashtra’s police stations; leads again in dubious distinction

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

insisting it was for the police to take action if any wrong was committed. And where the CM’s spokesperson denied that any instruc­ tions were issued for school students to attend the fair, a spokesman for education minister Devnani insisted there was “noth­ ing wrong if students were exposed to good work by anyone”. He clarified that this did not mean the crass pamphlets.

Notably, this isn’t the first time that the Raje government has aided the HSSF’s ef­ forts. Recently it had helped the outfit stage a massive Vande Mataram recital in Jaipur, where students of the NSS (National Service Scheme) were asked to participate.

Meanwhile, Gunwant Singh Kothari, senior RSS pracharak and coordinator of the HSSF fair in Jaipur, described the distribu­ tion of pamphlets as “deliberate mischief”, admitting the organisers needed to exercise more caution in future. n

DE C E M BE R 4, 2 017

INDIA TODAY

15

STATES

ally emerged that the sub-inspector had falsely implicated and killed him at the behest of his employer, who is a local shop-owner.

Kothale’s murder has once again focused unwanted public scrutiny on the Maharashtra police, and at a time when the force has acquired the dubious distinction of topping the country in cases of custodial deaths. With 35 custodial deaths in 2013, 21 in 2014 and 19 each in 2015 and 2016, Maharashtra recorded the highest number of such cases in any state.

With 18 deaths in the state’s police stations between January and November, this year has been no different.

Minister of state for home Deepak Kesarkar admits custodial deaths are a worry but claims the number has come down after the government took stringent measures. “We have formed a seven-member

FORMER DGP PRAVEEN DIKSHIT SUGGESTS THAT NOT EVERY CUSTODIAL DEATH IS A MURDER committee of senior officers to look into this issue,” he says. Former DGP Praveen Dikshit suggests that not every custodial death is a murder. Medical problems and illness, he says, often result in deaths in police custody.

But Kothale’s case constitutes a clear violation of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) guidelines. “The gruesome act committed by the police personnel is the worst example of cruelty and lawlessness amounting to violation of right to life of the victim,” an NHRC notice to Maharashtra police says.

While IG Nangre-Patil dismissed the accused policemen from service on November 17 citing ‘violation of service rules’, activists have condemned the action as “cosmetic”. It has also led to a furore over Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s (he’s also the home minister) lack of interest in matters of policing. n

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G U J A R AT

G ANDHINAG AR

Tickets Queer Poll Pitch

Has the Congress messed up its electoral alliance with the Patidars?

By Uday Mahurkar

T

he Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) has always said that its main objective is to secure quotas for the Patel community. And to that end it was prepared to take the Congress’s support. But it all seemed to unravel after the Congress announced its first list of 77 candidates late on November 19.

Political considerations evidently took over as Congress initially gave PAAS just three of the seven seats it had agreed to (a total of 20 Patel candidates have got tickets so far). And two of these went to candidates without the approval of the outfit’s leadership. PAAS coconvenor Dinesh Bhambhania was livid. “We will defeat the Congress.

It has stabbed us in the back,” he declared. Enraged activists attacked the Congress office in Surat on Monday where local Patel businessman Praful Togadia was nominated against the leadership’s wishes.

HEAVY DUTY Ex-CM Oommen Chandy (bottom right) with the Solar Judicial Commission report in the assembly

PTI

3

SHAILESH RAVAL

Such was the uproar that Hardik nearly cancelled his public meetings in Rajkot the following day. The controversy, however, was brought under control after the Congress reportedly replaced four Patel candidates including Togadia at Hardik’s behest. There were even murmurs of differences between Hardik and Bhambhania, his right hand man who had backed him even after the recent sex videos scandal involving the Patidar leader. Anyway, it hasn’t had much impact on Hardik’s charisma as crowds at his rallies have only swelled further. A cautious BJP has distanced itself from the

KERALA

controversy, fearing a sympathy wave in Hardik’s favour.

The saffron party, meanwhile, seems to have fared better in ticket distribution. Declaring SEATS its initial list of 89 candidates out of 77 was the three days before the Congress, PAAS share initially in the party had announced 134 the Congress’s first list nominees by the time the Congress released its first list. The party has dropped two sitting ministers, electing instead to nominate nine first-timers. The PATEL RAP BJP too faced protests in a few PAAS co-convenor Bhambhania (left) fends constituencies but has been able off an angry protester to nip it in the bud.

Unwilling to take any chance, the BJP has also shifted a number of sitting MLAs from their traditional bastions.

Ex-minister Saurabh Patel has been moved from Vadodara to Botad, and assembly speaker Raman Vora is to contest from Dasada in Saurashtra instead of Idar in North Gujarat. Party president Amit Shah is camping in Gujarat, to fine-tune the campaign and also quell any protests over ticket distribution.

One factor that might affect some seats is the NCP decision to go it alone after seat-sharing talks with the Congress failed. The NCP won two seats in 2012 and its tie-up with the Congress had knocked out at least three BJP candidates. n

THIRUVANANTHAPUR AM

SINGED BY THE SUN

Judge indicts former CM Oommen Chandy, other state Congressmen in solar scam

By Jeemon Jacob

F

ormer Congress chief minister Oommen Chandy and several of his colleagues in Kerala’s former United Democratic Front government are in trouble, with the Justice G. Sivarajan Commission handing down a damn-

ing verdict against them.

Instituted by Chandy himself in 2013 to probe the infamous ‘Solar Scam’, the commission has relied rather heavily on the testimonies of Saritha S. Nair, a con woman facing 33 cases of cheating, and her partner

Biju Radhakrishnan. The ‘entrepreneurs’ had duped scores of potential investors through Team Solar, their energy firm.

In four volumes adding up to 1,073 pages, the 75-year-old former high court judge has put together a vivid description of the systemic failures in Chandy’s government and the cover-up by the state police. Besides Nair’s deposition, Sivarajan based his findings on 214 witness statements and 812 documents.

Promptly tabling the report in the state assembly on November 9, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the ruling Left Democratic Front evidently hope to put the rival UDF on the mat. On another plane, analysts see this as Vijayan’s opportunity to pay back Chandy, who had recommended a CBI probe against him in 2006 in the SNC Lavalin affair.

Although the former CM, who was

DE C E M BE R 4, 2 017

INDIA TODAY

17

STATES examined by the commission for 53 hours, has denied all charges, the report squarely indicts the septuage­ narian, saying he not only got Rs 2.16 crore as bribe but also received sexual favours from Nair. The judge notes that Chandy assured Nair of subsidies to set up solar projects under the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation and demanded 10 per cent in kickbacks from any business done by Team Solar.

Besides Chandy, the commis­

CHANDY’S FOES IN THE CONGRESS ARE SAID TO BE HAVING A BIT OF A CHUCKLE AT HIS TROUBLES sion has also indicted his cabinet mates Aryadan Mohammed, A.P. Anil Kumar and Adoor Prakash, former

GUILTY GLUT Assam CM Sonowal (centre) with government officials

ASSA M

The Big Purge

GUWAHATI

CM Sonowal is committed to his crusade against corruption.

But it could become an embarrassment for his government

By Kaushik Deka

C

hief Minister Sarbananda Son­ owal may have an easygoing son­of­the­soil image among the people, but that’s not true among his officials. Since he took charge in May 2016, 315 of them, including an IAS officer and several heads of autonomous bodies, have been arrested on corrup­ tion charges. In the last 18 months,

18

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DE C E M BE R 4, 2 017

eight major scams have been unearthed, including the high­profile Assam Public Service Commission cash­for­jobs scandal. Among the arrested in this are Sunayana Aidew, niece of Rajen Gohain, Union MoS for railways, and Rajarshi Sen Deka, son of ex­Congress minister Nilamani Sen Deka.

“We promised corruption­free gov­

Union ministers K.C. Venugopal and S.S. Palanimanickam, MP Jose K. Mani, two MLAs—Hybi Eden and P.C. Vishnunath—besides senior police of­ ficers K. Padmakumar and M.T. Ajith Kumar. Nair has apparently submitted supporting evidence in the form of pen drives and CDs. Conscious of the major political opportunity at hand, CM Vijayan has now constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to lead the investigation.

Meanwhile, riven by dissent, the

ernance and we will deliver on that,” says Sonowal, who reviews the cases with senior police and other govern­ ment officials every fortnight. On November 7, the CM’s vigilance cell ar­ rested Ranjit Gogoi, director, informa­ tion and PR department for his alleged involvement in a Rs 34 crore unauthor­ ised multi­media publicity campaign called ‘Vision Assam, Mission Assam’ in 2015. Meanwhile, another high­pro­ file officer, Gautam Barua, ex­chair­ man of the Assam Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board, is absconding.

The Opposition is crying political vendetta as all the scams unearthed so far took place under the previous Tarun Gogoi­led Congress government.

Several leaders of his cabinet have been interrogated so far. One of the big­ gest scams—in the state social welfare department and reportedly worth Rs 2,000 crore—has seen six employees arrested so far. Meanwhile, Akon Bora, the Congress minister who headed the department then, claims nothing ir­ regular happened under his charge.

The battle against corruption has also raised a couple of uncomfortable questions against CM Sonowal himself.

The first embarrassment came in Sep­ tember. Stating that the Assam CID has been investigating the multi­crore Louis Berger case involving a Gauhati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) project in “a partisan man­ ner”, the Gauhati high court handed

MAMATA AGRAWAL

Congress is in a quandary. Cha­ ndy detractors like V.M. Sudheeran and Ramesh Chennithala are said to be having a bit of a chuckle at his troubles. It’s the end of the road for the ex­CM, they’re privately saying.

For the moment, though, besides the ruling LDF, which is hoping to take over the political space freed by the Congress’s fall from grace, even the BJP is looking to use this turn to expand its influence in the state. n

DEADLY AIM Inside the Nathuram Godse temple

M A D H YA P R A D E S H

over the investigation to the CBI. The case has its roots in a July 2015 lawsuit filed against Louis Berger, an American consultancy firm, under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by the US depart­ ment of justice. Firm executives told a US court that they had—between 1998 and 2010—paid $9,766,630 (Rs 63.5 crore at $=Rs 65) in bribes to unnamed “officials” in the Assam and Goa governments for water management consultancy projects.

The GMDA project was report­ edly decided by the SCAMS Gauhati development said to be worth department, whose over `5,000 minister at the time crore unearthed was Himanta Biswa so far in antiSarma, who later corruption drive switched to the BJP and is Sonowal’s now close aide and No. 2.

The second embarrassment came in October when R.P. Sarma, BJP MP from Tezpur, dropped a bombshell ac­ cusing state irrigation minister Ranjit Dutta of taking bribes to allocate work in his department. The MP also alleged that some other ministers were taking 10 per cent commission for projects.

While the BJP rubbished the allegations and warned Sarma to mind his words, it came as a blow to the government’s credibility. Many see the surge in the anti­corruption drive in November as a consequence of Sarma’s allegations. n

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For the Love of Godse The Hindu Mahasabha’s deification of Gandhi’s murderer provokes outrage—but no action

By Rahul Noronha

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new temple in Gwalior with Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse as the presiding deity has predictably kicked up a political storm. The ‘shrine’, located in the Hindu Mahasabha’s Daulatganj of­ fice premises, opened on November 15, which the rightwing outfit observes as ‘Balidan Diwas (sacrifice day)’. Godse was hanged on the day in 1949.

Hindu priests blessed Godse’s idol before it was installed. While Congress leaders were quick to launch protests across the state to demand that sedi­ tion charges be brought against Hindu Mahasabha functionaries, the ruling BJP finds itself in a bit of a quandary.

Vociferous in his condemnation of the Godse temple, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia demanded that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan take a clear position on the controversial shrine. Pointing to attempts by BJP governments across the country to appropriate Gandhi, Scindia also cited CM Chouhan’s recent Gandhi­style satyagraha in June against violence by the state’s farmers.

The state government’s response has been decidedly feeble: Gwalior’s additional district magistrate issued a notice soliciting information from the Hindu Mahasabha on how the Godse temple was established without permission. Evidently unfazed, Hindu Mahasabha national vice­president Jaiveer Bhardwaj says, “The temple was established to strengthen the ideal of Akhand Bharat (one India), of which Godse was a strong votary.” He says Gandhi’s assassination was “retribution for breaking up India”. Proudly elaborating on Godse’s Gwalior connect, Bhardwaj says that before assas­ sinating Gandhi, Godse stayed on the very premises where the temple now stands. “The weapon he used was also from Gwalior,” he gushes.

But the BJP is clearly not happy with the Hindu Mahasabha’s move.

“The BJP does not support the glorification of any murderer. Our govern­ ments at the Centre and states are working along Gandhiji’s ideals, be it cleanliness or promotion of khadi,” says BJP spokesperson Rahul Kothari. n

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By S U H A N I S I N G H

A STILL UNSEEN FILM ABOUT A MYTHICAL QUEEN HAS T H E N AT I O N I N T U R M O I L . W H E R E W I L L I T E N D ?

THE POLITICS OF

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PUSH AND SHOVE AND SLAP the filmmaker in Jan­ that the Centre is complicit in Padmavati’s delay. “The uary 2017. Vandalise the sets in Nagpur in March. Threat­ film’s release has been postponed because of pressure en to chop off the leading lady’s nose. Call to behead the from the people as well as an active role played by the top two for Rs 10 crore. Attack a cinema hall in Kota. Declare leadership, the PM and the I&B minister,” he says. a nationwide bandh. The Padmavati versus the politics This isn’t the first time the decade­old outfit has drama has played out in troubling fashion with threats of locked horns with Bollywood in the name of Rajput pride.

Tarantinoesque violence. At the end of Kill Padmavati: In 2008, it was Jodhaa Akbar, targeted for depicting Jod­ Part One, it’s the bad guys who win. haa as Akbar’s wife. Nine years later, it’s Padmavati. “The The Shri Rajput Karni Sena, a minor group of Raj­ three­minute trailer gives us an idea of what the film is puts headed by Lokendra Singh Kalvi, presently a BJP about. That is enough to express dissent,” says Kalvi who supporter and son of the late Union minister Kalyan hasn’t seen the film and doesn’t trust Bhansali to show Singh Kalvi, has temporarily won the battle by forcing him the final theatrical cut. “Deepika (Padukone, the the producers, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Bhansali heroine) is a nalayak (stupid). She challenged us, saying Productions, to postpone the film’s release. The film­ the film will be released at any cost. Now we are deter­ makers insist Padmavati “captures Rajput valour, dig­ mined not to allow the release of the film anywhere.” nity and tradition in all its glory” and that the film “will This time around, the Sena’s angry rhetoric has fill every Indian with pride”. That the blow to Indian been empowered by the Rajasthan government whose cinema comes when the Smriti Irani­led information Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje wants a committee of and broadcasting ministry celebrates Indian and world historians, film experts and Rajput community members cinema at the International Film Festival of India in Goa to scrutinise the film. The UP, MP, Gujarat and Punjab is an irony not lost on anyone. governments have also refused to allow the release of the With the Sena, Ksha­ film until the objectionable triya Samaj, Bajrang Dal, material is removed. At the Rajasthan’s royalty and more time of writing, Maharash­ THE CENTRE’S LACK OF convinced that the film will tra and Telangana too were distort history and hurt contemplating a ban. In their CORRECTIVE ACTION IN THE public sentiment, Bollywood opposition, there is consen­ FACE OF THREATS AND THE finds its creative licence un­ sus: Padmavati’s release is a der siege. In an interview to threat to law and order as it SILENCE OF KEY FIGURES india today, Kalvi suggests will hurt Rajput sentiments.

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THE PADMINI MYSTIQUE

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t the root of the controversy around Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film Padmavati is the fact that there is not a single historical and authentic document describing the life and times of Padmini, who was said to be queen of Chittorgarh when Alauddin Khilji attacked in 1302. Her name finds no mention in the known works of that era.

So those who have accused Bhansali of distorting history—without even watching the film—have no evidence to prove what exactly has been depicted wrong about her. Bhansali has claimed that his movie is based on the poem Padmawat, composed by Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi in 1540. Historians view Jayasi’s work with scepticism and consider it a work of fiction. “I have made up the story and related it,” are the words with which Jayasi ends his Padmawat.

There is a vague reference to Padmini in Amir Khusrau’s Khaizain-ul-Futuh (The Trea Trea-sures of Victory) in which the court historian of Khilji narrates his conquest of Chittorgarh through the metaphor of Solomon, a hudhud bird, and Bilkis, the Queen of Sheba.

Based on this, scholars such as Muhammad Habib conclude that

Padmini was a historical figure and Khilji attacked Chittorgarh seeking her submission.

Jayasi’s work influenced his contemporary Abu’l Fazl to write about the legend of Khilji’s pursuit of Padmini but Abu’l Fazl described Padmini as a class of women, extraordinarily beautiful and not as the queen of Chittorgarh. Later, Persian historian Ferishta (1560-1620), 17th century historians Muhnot Nainsi and Khwaja Nizam-ud-din Ahmad, British scholar Col. James Tod (1782-1835), and Shyam Lal Das, who wrote a poetic history of Mewar in the early 20th century, have also written about Padmini. But there was no unanimity that Khilji invaded Chittorgarh for her.

Much later in the 20th century, works such as Annals of Jaisalmer by Hari Singh Bhati, Pugal ka Itihas by Hukum Singh Bhati and Udaipur Rajya ka Itihas by G.H. Ojha make more specific referrefer ence to Padmini’s existence. “She is described as daughter of Rawal Punpal Bhattai of Jaisalmer and his wife Jam Kanwar, who was born in Sirohi,” says Ranbir Sinh and Rao Shiv Pal Singh, Jaipur-based historians. Sinh denies that Khilji had set his sights on her.

What’s ironic is that while Jayasi could get away with his fictional account in medieval India, Bhansali’s celluloid drama got stuck in a political drama in 21st century India. n —Rohit Parihar

PAUL FEARN / ALAMY

RAJNEETI AT PLAY For the concluding Kill Padmavati: Part Two to unfold, one hopefully with a better­ending, the makers have been told to wait until Gujarat votes, according to sources at the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). At stake is the Rajput vote in Gujarat, amounting to six per cent of the voting population. For the BJP, the growing alliance between the Karadia Rajputs and Patels, traditionally seen as rivals, in the coastal belt of Saurashtra is a worry­ ing development. The Patels, under the leadership of Har­ dik Patel, have accused BJP state president Jitu Vaghani, a Patidar himself, of not fighting for the community’s

rights. The Rajputs, meanwhile, believe Vaghani is guilty of arm­twisting tactics and “has an anti­Rajput mindset”.

Anxiety looms furthermore with both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh (which has the second highest Rajput population, after Rajasthan), going to polls in 2018.

Cinema being an easily accessible art with commer­ cial interests involved has always been a soft target. The Padmavati row is unprecedented because a major film studio, Viacom18, in which the Mukesh Ambani­owned Network 18 has a 50 per cent stake, under pressure from the political powers that be, has voluntarily “deferred” the release of one of the most anticipated films of 2017.

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COVER STORY: CINEMA PURUSHOTTAM DIWAKAR

HIMANSHU V YAS/GETTY IMAGES

Besieged by attacks and threats, Team Padmavati has chosen to shun communication. Their silence only highlights the cacophony of the rowdy antagonists.

Padmavati becomes one of the many footnotes in India’s history of suppressing artists, be it banning author Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses in October 1988 or allowing the vandalisation of artist M.F. Husain’s works of goddesses Durga and Saraswati in 1998. For National Award-winning Prakash Raj, one of the few actors critical of the Centre, the Padmavati episode is further proof of how organised trolling plagues the country. “Where have these people found this courage of late? They decide to give death threats, kill,” says Raj. “I am worried about the ambience this is creating. This is unacceptable.”

The Centre’s lack of corrective action in the face of

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threats and the silence of key figures like Irani has surprised many. The Prasoon Joshi-led CBFC denying the film a certificate—citing an ‘incomplete’ application—was another blow to the filmmakers. That the furore is based predominantly on rumours about an unseen film makes a farce of the proceedings.

ONE QUEEN TO INFURIATE THEM ALL At the centre of the vitriol, brow-beating and protests is Rani Padmini, the storied Rajput queen of Chittor, India’s equivalent of Helen of Troy whose beauty is said to have provoked an attack on the kingdom. Legend has it that she and the other royal women immolated themselves— a practice known as jauhar—to defend their honour against a lustful invader, the Sultan of Delhi, Alaud-

SAM PANTHAKY/AFP

WHAT’S EATING KARNI SENA?

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ABHISHEK N. CHINNAPPA/REUTERS

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1. LIGHT A NEW FIRE Rajput women protest against the film in Chittor 2. BEAT IT Karni Sena chief Lokendra Kalvi addresses a Padmavati protest rally in Gandhinagar, Gujarat 3. NEW LIST Violent upper caste reservation protests in Jaipur add Padmavati ban to their demands 4. A TURN IN THE SOUTH An antiPadmavati protest in Bengaluru

he Karni Sena was founded in 2006 by Lokendra Singh Kalvi, son of the late Kalyan Singh Kalvi, the former Union cabinet minister who led a massive Rajput agitation against the Sati ban following the Roop Kanwar episode in 1987. Lokendra, however, has failed to match his father’s stature. He tried his luck in politics but lost elections twice, and has been in and out of the BJP and Congress. He is now with the BJP although he had once led a violent agitation against Vasundhara Raje in 2003.

The 62-year-old spent a few years in the wilderness in the late ’90s and early 2000s when he launched, along with Devi Singh Bhatti, a powerful BJP MLA and Rajput leader from Bikaner, a pro-reservation agitation for the economically weak of all castes. Their rallies got good support and, encouraged by it, both left the BJP and floated a party, the Social Justice Front, which contested the 2003 assembly polls in over 60 seats. But only Bhatti won, which later led to the disbanding of the party and both of them returning to the BJP. When the reservation issue failed to have any impact on the governments in power, he set up the Karni Sena in 2006 to bring an element of aggression among the Rajput youth. Now, with the Padmavati issue, it has seen it grow “across India” as a Hindu hardliner group “that fights for national pride”. “We resort to aggression only when our peaceful overtures fall on deaf ears,’’ says Kalvi. The Karni Sena began to get noticed around 2008 when it opposed Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodhaa Akbar for claiming that Jodhaa was actually Jehangir’s wife.

Around that time, he had quit the BJP and joined the Congress. In 2014, he again returned to the BJP. In July this year, a hundred thousand Rajputs marched in Sanward village in Nagaur district to protest against the encounter killing of Anand Pal Singh, a Rajput brigand. They attacked police officers and women, and the government had a tough time pacifying them. Anand Pal was viewed as the Rajput answer to Jat aggression and his rise coincided with the grant of OBC status to Jats which has benefitted the caste tremendously in panchayati raj and local bodies polls and in jobs, at the cost of the Rajputs— or so they believe.

The pan-India response that Kalvi has got with his protests against Padmavati should help raise his stature as a Rajput leader. The BJP may even reward him by making him a party office-bearer, to cash in on his appeal among Rajputs. Kalvi is a hardworking leader but given his poor political skills and emotional nature, he will be unable to translate it into votes for himself. One reason for this is also that there are very few seats in the assembly and none in Parliament that can be considered a safe seat for Rajputs. n —Rohit Parihar

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din Khilji, in the 14th century. Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s Awadhi poem Padmawat (1540) was the first popular account of Khilji’s obsession with Padmini and the much-celebrated Rajput resistance— they may have lost the war but their pride was intact, given Padmini’s sacrifice.

There’s no historical evidence that Khilji attacked Chittor for Padmini, rather than merely to expand his empire. Eminent historian Banarsi Prasad Saksena noted how Amir Khusru, Ziauddin Barni and Abdul Malik Isami and other historians of the era made no mention of Padmini’s existence. “We have no reasons for thinking that he [Khilji] bothered about Rai’s (Ratan Singh’s) wives or women,” observed Saksena. Kalvi, who claims to be the 37th blood descendant of Padmini, counters: “If Padmavati was a fantasy, how come I am a real character? If she was a fantasy, why did one president, two prime ministers and 15 CMs visit the Padmini Palace (in Chittorgarh Fort) and bow before her memory?”

There’s more to the legend of Padmini/ Padmavati than her celebrated suicide. Lindsey Harlan, a retired professor of religious studies based in the United States, explores why Padmini was worshipped among women in her book Religion and Rajput Women: The Ethic of Protection in Contem­ porary Narratives. She points out that in popular legend it was Padmini’s heroism which saw her plan an operation to rescue her husband after he is captured by Khilji. ‘In going out to war, she disregards female custom and performs male duty,’ writes Harlan. ‘Treading on male territory, she assumes her husband’s command. Padmini is heroic not because she fulfils the codified role of the pativrata (dutiful wife) but because she departs from it to assume another, more urgent role.’ Meanwhile, in the popular Amar Chitra Katha comic, Padmini, part of the ‘Glorious Heritage of India’ series, she is described as ‘the perfect model of Indian womanhood’.

SYMBOL OF HINDU PRIDE In a series of interviews for her book, Harlan asked Rajput women why they idolise Padmini. “I admire Padmini because she was very clever; she showed the Muslims that!” said one. For most, the folklore demonstrates Padmini’s bravery as she would rather die than become a hostage or wife to a man who happens to be a mighty king of another faith. Ramya Sreenivasan, a professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, describes in her book The Many Lives of a Rajput Queen how the Padmini narrative has been reinterpreted as exemplifying ‘Rajput’ and now ‘Hindu’ patriotism in the face of ‘Muslim conquest’. ‘By the 18th century, the narratives in Rajasthan articulated an emergent demonisation of the conquering enemy as the iconoclastic,

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FACT AND FICTION MOST OF THE OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE FILM ARE BASED ON FICTIONAL CLAIMS OBJECTION The film has a dream sequence in which Padmavati romances Khilji REALITY There is no such scene in the film OBJECTION Padmavati dances in full court and shows her waist in the ‘Ghoomar’ song REALITY It’s not cor­ rect as she dances in front of her husband and some women in the zenana OBJECTION Bhansali may show a different version to the protesters and may show a different version to the CBFC REALITY It’s most likely a ploy to ensure that the movie is never released OBJECTION Dawood Ibrahim has financed

the film REALITY There is no evidence to suggest this OBJECTION It may glamourise Khilji, the villain in the story REALITY Any movie glamourises every char­ acter. Khilji was a power­ ful ruler and a victor but the movie shows him as a lustful, cruel invader OBJECTION Padmini is revered as a deity and she cannot be glam­ ourised REALITY Jayasi glamo­ urised Padmini long ago through her romance with Ratansen. No one knows whether she lived a glamorous or simple life as a queen, or even existed

unclean Muslim,’ she writes.

Sreenivasan’s work suggests that not just Rajputs but other Hindu groups too have appropriated Padmini as the epitome of Hindu valour. And sure enough, it has happened. The Hindu Janjagruti Samiti (HJS), headquartered in Goa and also active in Maharashtra, MP, Gujarat and Rajasthan, warns that it will hold the CBFC responsible for “public outrage” if Padmavati is released without clearing objections. Its spokesperson Satish Kochrekar alleges an attempt to create “contempt for Indian culture, traditions, civilisation and distort the glorifying history of Hindus”. Ironically, from Goliyon Ki Rasleela...

Ramleela (Gujarat) to Bajirao Mastani (Maharashtra), Bhansali’s filmography rests on his ability to showcase Indian culture and traditions in all their glory. The director’s reputation was built on his talent for visual splendour and elaborately staged song-and-dance routines. He was first inspired by the legend of Padmini in 2008 when he directed a French opera-ballet at the Theatre Du Chatelet in Paris. Based on Albert Roussel’s 1923 score, Bhansali’s take with costumes by Rajesh Pratap Singh, choreography by Tanushree Shankar and sets by Omung Kumar, was deemed ‘just Bollywood camp’ in a Guardian review.

Paris didn’t burn, but at home in India Bhansali’s film adaptation has infuriated members of the ruling BJP too as evidenced by the shockingly violent threats by Suraj Pal Amu, the party’s media coordinator in Haryana (he offered Rs 10 crore to anyone who beheads Deepika).

may steal the show in Bhansali’s version?

At first glance, Bhansali’s imagining of Padmavati appears to stick to what acclaimed filmmaker Shyam Benegal calls our tendency to “mythologise” our stories. “If there’s something in our history that’s unpleasant or difficult for us to accept, then we offer a mythologised version of it that’s more acceptable by softening it and removing the jagged edges,” says Benegal who tackled the Padmini legend in an episode of the TV series, Bharat Ek Khoj, based on Nehru’s The Discovery of India. But it’s a move that may not always work, for Benegal also calls India “a great republic of hurt sentiments”. “We behave as though ‘Our history is superior than your history’,” he says.

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

Padmavati isn’t the only film that has put the I&B ministry in a soup. Even before the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) began, the ministry was under attack for rejecting both Marathi film Nude and Malayalam film S Durga, despite being recommended by the Sujoy Ghosh-led Indian Panorama jury. Kerala-based filmmaker Sanalkumar Sasidharan had already changed the film’s title from Sexy Durga to S Durga to get clearance for the Mumbai Film Festival in October. “Some vested interest groups had read only the title and not seen the film,” says Sasidharan who appealed in the Kerala High Court against the ministry decision and scored a victory when the IFFI organisers were directed to screen the film.

“They attributed several things to the film without watchEANWHILE, THE ‘GHOOMAR’ song ing it, including ‘hurting of religious sentiments’. My film from Padmavati, which has already is not what they have tagged.” amassed 54 million views on YouTube, His situation isn’t much different from the predicais now being accused of misrepresentment that Padmavati’s makers find themselves in—having Rajput culture. The Karni Sena ing a film judged and rejected even before being seen. contends that women born in Hindu Only Sasidharan doesn’t have the backing of a big studio royal families never danced in public. “This is a Talibani and superstars headlining his film. “It’s a dangerous trend objection,” said noted lyricist and screenwriter Javed spreading across the Indian intelligentsia and opinion Akhtar to India Today TV. “In India, we tell our sagas makers,” says Sasidharan. “Their silence is treated as a through dancing. These people are imitating the mullahs. salute to the mob. If you resist them or cross the line in When did Indians start looking down on dancers and any way, you are targeted and hunted.” singers? That is the privilege of Saudi Arabia, not us.”

Meanwhile, filmmaker and former CBFC member A few Muslims including the Dargah Diwan of Ashoke Pandit questioned the silence of “industry-made Ajmer too have joined the rising chorus of disapproval, politicians” like MPs Raj Babbar, Paresh Rawal and Jaya disconcerted in this case with the trailer’s portrayal of a Bachchan. “They should make an appeal to the president, narcissistic and barbaric Muslim sultan. Actor Ranveer prime minister or the home minister,” he says. “They are Singh, who plays Khilji, gave the clearest sign of how not representing the film industry but the political parties, the Delhi Sultan is likely to come across by putting up and every political party has become a ‘Manmohan Singh’ a collage on Twitter in which his kohl-eyed king is seen today. Isn’t it their duty to get together and appeal to the alongside two great cinema people or the Karni Sena?” villains: Malcolm McDowell As for Bollywood, the THE KARNI SENA SAYS in The Clockwork Orange response to the Padmavati and Heath Ledger’s Joker in saga can be div ided into two WOMEN FROM HINDU ROYAL The Dark Knight. Are there camps: those introspecting FAMILIES NEVER DANCED concerns that just as Joker about the sorry state of affairs overshadowed Batman, while the rest are in silent IN PUBLIC. “THIS IS A Singh’s flamboyant Khilji mode. But there is no denying

TALIBANI OBJECTION,” SAYS JAVED AKHTAR

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A LONG HISTORY OF PROTEST Udta Punjab (2016) The film’s depiction of Punjabi men being add­ icted to drugs led to pro­ tests by the Shiv Sena PK (2014) Hindu groups conside­ red it blasphemy against Hindu gods and gurus Goliyon Ki Raasleela: Ram-Leela (2013) The title apparently hurt

Hindu sentiments as the name was based on Hindu mythology. An FIR was filed against Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh for the same

Viswaroopam (2013) The Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagham claimed the Kamal Haas­ san film represented the community as a group of

much has happened and it is happening repeatedly. The film industry is everybody’s favourite sitting duck and it needs to stand up and say we refuse to be puppets in this game of electoral gains and divisive politics.” the downbeat mood in that it has lost a major battle LESSONS FROM THE PAST against the fringe which has the backing of the ruling Erstwhile UTV producer Ronnie Screwvala knows what party. “We have to cry wolf because the wolf is coming it means to have rogue elements breathing down your everyday and eating us,” says Amul Vikas Mohan, a neck. For his film Jodhaa Akbar (2008), the Karni Sena trade analyst and producer of the 2017 comedy Behen raised the distorting-history-and-hurting-Rajput-pride Hogi Teri. “We aren’t even doing that. We are just letting card and objected on the grounds that Akbar was Jodit be. So nobody takes us seriously. We just brush everyhaa’s father-in-law and not her husband. Screwvala says thing under the carpet.” he anticipated trouble during the release, especially since Hansal Mehta, whose own web series, Bose, released the film’s crew had also faced trouble shooting in Rajason AltBalaji without any objection from the family memthan. His strategy was to “speak to the aggrieved parties bers of Subhas Chandra Bose, calls out the industry for directly and not via the media”. However, unlike Padmaits lack of unity when under attack. “I will protest when vati, Jodhaa Akbar had managed to obtain a censor cerit affects me. This attitude of self-preservation has always tificate from the CBFC. “Since we had that [certificate], marred a proactive response to these incidents,” says there was nothing to discuss or argue with anyone,” he Mehta. “Until we get over this selfish, myopic mindset, we says. No private screenings for aggrieved party or memwon’t be able to unite.” bers of the media were done, he adds. While many may Actress Shabana Azmi has seen her share of disrupsee the decision to delay Padmavati’s release as a sign of tions and violence. The Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal legitimising the fringe and in turn becoming vulnerable disrupted the release of Fire, Deepa Mehta’s lesbian love to bullies, Screwvala doesn’t. story, in December 1998 “I don’t think what Viacom while the production of did in anyway compromised Water had to be moved to “IF YOU EXPECT A SOLUTION, them or the movie or gave Sri Lanka after the sets were in to fringe threats,” says destroyed. “I think the film YOU NEED TO GIVE US Screwvala. “They did what industry has realised it is a TIME, SPACE AND A they thought was best, which situation of now or never,” is to act responsibly and take said Azmi to India Today TV STATE OF MIND TO COME the process one step at a time.” about the controversy. “Too

TO A DECISION,” SAYS CBFC CHIEF PRASOON JOSHI

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terrorists. Wanted a ban

Kadal (2013) Protests from Christian groups. The Indian Chris­ tian Democratic Par ty wanted some scenes de­ leted, claimed it was off­ ensive to Christians Aarakshan (2011) The film focused on the caste­based reser va­ tion system in India. Was banned in UP, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh initially.

Finally, the Supreme Court had to intervene My Name is Khan (2010) Was controversial well

ahead of its release af­ ter lead actor Shahrukh Khan’s offhand comment about Pakistani cricket players not playing in the IPL. Resulted in attacks on cinemas by the Shiv Sena

Kurbaan (2009) Kareena Kapoor’s bare back in the posters app­ arently hurt sentiments Jodhaa Akbar (2008) The Karni Sena wanted the film banned in Rajas­ than. Typically, none of them had seen the movie.

Their argument: Jodha­ bai was the daughter of Motaraja Udai Singh of

THE BUMPY ROAD AHEAD At present, the Karni Sena is not the biggest of Padmavati’s worries. The immediate priority is to convince the Prasoon Joshi-led CBFC which has asked for adequate time, the 68-day window it seeks to certify a film, to assess and reach a verdict. “This situation was not created by the CBFC,” said Joshi while attending the IFFI in Goa. “It has nothing to do with the protests on the roads.

You show the film to media houses and get reviews done, but now you want the CBFC to deliver a fair and wellthought out decision?”

The makers’ call to show the film to a select few media professionals is their prerogative. But the hopes that they will validate the filmmaker’s intent and the film’s historical content, and subsequently suppress the extreme forces on their own TV shows, didn’t have the desired result. Joshi’s comments indicate that it has only miffed the powers that be. “There is an anxiety, eagerness, aggression and impatience that needs to end,” Joshi told a leading news portal. “If you expect a solution, you need to give the CBFC time, space and a state of mind to come to a decision.”

Meanwhile, with the fate of the film, budgeted to be around Rs 180-200 crore, in limbo, it’s not just the producers that will be hit hard. Bollywood will be too.

The film’s delay hurts the industry which was banking on the film, along with Tiger Zinda Hai, to compensate for the poor showing in the first half of 2017. “If it doesn’t release in 2017, Bollywood has a very bad year,” says Vajir Singh, editor of trade magazine Box Office India.

“It was expected to do huge business because of Deepika, Ranveer and Bhansali.” But it’s not just the industry that

Marwar and was married to Jehangir,Akbar’s son.

Later claimed they would not have objected if the film had been called ‘Ak­ bar­Harku Bai’ or ‘Salim­ Jodha’ since these names have historical credence

nationalist groups consid­ ered it disrespectful and an attack on Hindu culture and religion

Firaaq (2008) Controversial since it was set in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots

Fire (1996) Discussed the taboo issue of lesbianism. The Shiv Sena was not amused

Parzania (2007) Again, portrayed families caught in the Gujarat riots

Bombay (1995) Set during the 1992­93 riots, Mani Ratnam had to show the film to Shiv Sena boss, the late Bal Thacker­ ay, and agree to his cuts to ensure a smooth release

Water (2006) Dealt with issue of wid­ ows in Varanasi. Hindu

Jo Bole So Nihaal (2005) Protests by Sikh groups over the title

bleeds. As bigotry prevails, democracy does too. The government’s celebrated Make in India takes a hit too, Bollywood being a most prolific and popular export. For the moment, the BJP has reacted demurely to the lurid provocations of unhinged party members such as Suraj Pal Amu. It has issued a show cause notice to Amu for tarnishing the party image. Says party general secretary Anil Jain, “What Amu said is a blot on the image of a disciplined party wedded to the law. We will think of further action after we get a reply from him.”

Seated at a hotel in Mumbai, Kalvi’s pride is at its peak. His defiant responses suggest that he’s looking forward to contesting next year’s state elections. Twice a loser, could the third time be a charm? But before that, he takes the issue that put him in the spotlight to Patna, Bhopal, Lucknow, Hyderabad and Kochi. The Karni Sena, he asserts, has no plans to bend its hard line on Padmavati.

“At this point, there is only one solution to the row—bury the film in cold storage. Don’t release it ever,” he says.

In the wake of such provocative statements, one can only imagine Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s aggrieved state at his residence in Magnum Opus in suburban Mumbai where he lives under police protection. What will be the fate of his own magnum opus? He was last seen and heard in a video, pleading for calm. Maybe he too should stick to making laugh-out-loud comedies and action thrillers, ideally in calmer foreign locales. For if history has taught us anything, it is that revisiting history can bring out the worst in us. n with Kiran Tare, Kaushik Deka, Rohit Parihar, Uday Mahurkar and Prachi Sibal

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Absurdity of Epic Proportions Or when reflections on sublime love degenerate into a theatre of the absurd

BY PURUSHOTTAM AGRAWAL

M

ALIK MUHAMMAD JAYASI BELONGED to Ram and Rahim… only those sadhus and fakirs could the Chishtia order of Sufis. His miraclehope to win popular admiration who seemed beyond legends have been part of popular memory. discriminating on religious lines… For Hindus and The most stunning miracle he perMuslims alike, it was time to open up to each other. formed—the Padmawat—has been around People were tending towards sharing rather than physically for five centuries. Jayasi composed his distancing. Muslims were willing to listen to the Ram magnum opus in 1540 in Awadhi, its manuscripts story of the Hindus and Hindus were ready to hear were mostly found written in the Persian script. Takthe Dastan of Hamza… and sometimes both tried to ing the legend of Padmini from the oral traditions explore pathways to God together.” of Rajputana, Jayasi created a fascinating texture of To Shukla, Padmawat was a luminous signpost legend, history and mythology (Hindu as well as Isof this shared search of the pathway to God. He lamic), drawing liberally from his vast knowledge and wrote about Padmawat with as great a passion and life experiences. Padmawat was apparently an instant critical acumen as he did about his most favourite hit in the literary circles of north poet—Tulsidas. Taking a cue India, and was also translated into from the “last stanzas” of the Bengali in the sixteenth century epic, which supposedly “hold the itself. Thus, to Jayasi goes the credit key” to Sufi content “hidden” in of taking the Padmawati legend to the text, he thought it was an Bengal; wherefrom a number of allegory of Sufi spiritual pracnovels, plays and poems glorifying tice. But, Mata Prasad Gupta, the Rajputs were to emanate in the the great text-critic and scholar nineteenth century. of the early modern vernacular Ever since Ramchandra Shukla, literature of north India, in his the most influential historian of edition of Padmawat (1963), Hindi literature, published his based on a comparative study of edition of Padmawat (1924), its sixteen manuscripts of different excerpts have inevitably been periods, comes to the convincing included in Hindi syllabuses—from conclusion that the so-called ‘key schools to post-graduate prostanzas’ were “added to the text grammes. Shukla situated the text much later.” He concludes that in a historical context in which far from an allegory of any kind, after initial conflicts, Hindus and Jayasi was, in fact, composing Muslims were coming to terms with a richly layered poem of human each other: “A century ago, Kabir desire and love. had already castigated bigotry of Jayasi was a practising Sufi, NAGMATI TALKING TO HER every kind. One is not sure of the but he did not compose PadPARROT Illustrated manuscript of Jayasi’s Padmawat, circa 1750 pundits and mullas, but ordinary mawat to propagate or preach people had recognised the unity of Sufism or any other edition

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KHILJI IN FLIGHT An 1825 Rajput painting depicting the departure of the Delhi sultan and women of Ranthambhor committing jauhar

JAYASI WROTE PADMAWAT TO CELEBRATE HUMAN LOVE, LUXURIATING IN ALL ITS FACETS—DESIRE, WANDERING, JEALOUSY, SEPARATION, SUFFERING AND SACRIFICE of Islam. He wrote it to celebrate human love, luxuriating in all its aspects—desire, wandering, coupling (described in uninhibited, moving erotica), jealousy, separation, struggle, suffering and sacrifice. If at all he wished to preach anything, it was human, carnal love, which in its deep reaches becomes sublime and transforms the mortal human into the immortal and divine (‘manush prem bhayau baikunthi’). At the end of his epic, he is confident that ‘anybody listening to this poem, written in blood and tears, is bound to feel—and sing—the pain of love him/herself’. He writes of the inevitability of death and identifies with the universal human desire to leave behind memories: “Who in this world does not long for abiding fame?/ I hope the readers of this story also remember my name.”

His hope did bear fruit. Even if he is not as

popular among the masses as Kabir, Tulsi, Mira or Surdas, his Padmawat fired the imagination of scholars of both literature and history. Apart from Shukla and Gupta mentioned here earlier, the two most important works are: a fascinating Bhashya (a scholarly commentary) on Padmawat

by Indologist Vasudeva Sharan Agrawal and a thought-provoking monograph by eminent poet, critic and Lohia acolyte Vijay Dev Narain Sahi.

I

T IS IMPORTANT TO INTERNALISE all this to

see the current controversy in perspective.

Please note that Jayasi glorified a Rajput legend of valour, and in the process cast one of the most powerful and competent Muslim kings as the anti-hero of his narrative. But, he was not penalised by his Muslim peers or benefactors. He presented a brahmin Raghava Chetan as the real

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villain of the piece, and brahmin sentiments were can be ‘accused’ of being left-liberal or ‘sickular’. not hurt. He described with abandon the beauty of It’s true that ‘freedom of expression’ is not limitPadmini and her love-making with Ratansen, he did less, but the limits are set by law, not by armed mobs not hesitate to describe the jealous fights between invoking hurt sentiment. Also, irrespective of the Padmawati and Nagmati (Ratansen’s first wife) and historicity or otherwise of the persona of Padmawati, Rajput modesty was not outraged. even an artist as uninspiring as Bhansali has a right As is expected of a great poet, Jayasi put love and to poetic licence. Given the present state of historical life in the ultimate existential perspective of tranknowledge, the character of Padmawati can only be sience in the face of impending death. In a poignant described as legend, and legends happen to be more poetic move, at the end of his saga, Jayasi makes vicdeeply entrenched in the cultural memory of a people. torious Alauddin reflect not only on his pyrrhic vicThis begs the question: what makes your tory (duly noted in the ironic manner he talks of how memory or sentiments so brittle? Even if someone ‘Chittor was taken over by Islam’) but also on the has a different take on a shared memory, why should nature of insatiable desire. He picks up Ratansen’s it bother you if you are so attached to it? Asking this ashes from his pyre (also the pyre of his two wives) question will take the wind out of the politics of hurt lamenting: ‘I actually wanted to sentiment, and put the matter in avoid this’ and continues, ‘Desire the realm of rational enquiry— is insatiable, permanent / but this which, of course, is anathema to THIS ABSURD world is illusory and transient / all warriors of hurt sentiments.

Insatiable desire man continues Finally, the absence of rational THEATRE IS NOT to have/ Till life is over and he argument doesn’t by any means ABOUT A WOMAN’S reaches his grave.’ indicate the absence of calculation.

Contrast this poignancy with There is nothing ‘spontaneous’ HONOUR; IT’S A the absurd theatre playing out about organised, aggressive disMALE CHAUVINIST around a film that in all likelihood play of hurt sentiment of any kind. will only reiterate smug, self-satisIt is always politically motivated, FANTASY THAT fied stereotypes of Rajput ‘valour’. the gist of which comes out clearly The ‘warriors’ are announcing reif the right questions are asked. So, DENIES WOMEN wards for chopping off a woman’s ask why there is no outrage against ANY AGENCY nose ostensibly in defence of the the boss of the production house. honour of another. It’s not really Ask if it’s mere coincidence that about the honour of a woman, but just before the Gujarat elections, an unmitigated male chauvinist fantasy that denies the electronic media is obsessing about this ‘burning’ the woman any individuality, a chauvinism that finds issue while ignoring seemingly ‘mundane’ issues like expression in a woman self-immolating or in widowthe Rafale deal, the plight of farmers and the bloodburning. The glorification of this medieval fantasy shed on the jobs front. continues unfortunately, in subtle and not so subtle Among all bhakta and sufi poets, Jayasi was the ways. Bhansali’s film is going to contribute to this most insistent on his poetic persona. He was also glorification. This is the sub-text of claims that the painfully conscious of his ‘ugly’ appearance and film actually upholds Rajput ‘honour’. bodily deformities, and confronted them with confiPersonally speaking, I just detest Bhansali’s dence in the power of his poetry: “Muhammad, poet obsession with vulgar opulence and cannot forgive of love, ugly and frail, causes laughs and jeers/ But him for massacring the beautiful self-destructive hearing his verses, nobody can hold back tears.” tragedy of Devdas. But criticising someone for lack The poet was conscious of his bodily deformities of subtlety or genuine understanding of a subject is and could use his poetry as an antidote. Are we willone thing and issuing death threats is quite another. ing to face the deformities of our souls, our minds?

It is no surprise that many BJP leaders are implicAre we blessed with an antidote, or just condemned itly or explicitly endorsing such threats. Of late, the to inch towards a fractured social psyche, a violent Congress chief minister of Punjab has also endorsed society and a dysfunctional state? n the ‘right to nurture hurt sentiment’. The violence of The author is a leading scholar of early ‘hurt sentiments’ persists despite the ‘No Objection’ modern vernacular literature, certificates issued by journalists Ved Pratap Vaidik, a novelist and public intellectual Arnab Goswami and Rajat Sharma, none of whom

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BIG STORY | CHINA

FENDING OFF THE DRAGON

The armed forces ratchet up their military plans to tackle an assertive China amid significant geopolitical changes Sandeep Unnithan

IN

January 2018, the Indian navy’s Mumbai-based western fleet is to start a series of annual theatre-level naval exercises. Manoeuvres lasting over a month where aircraft, surface warships and submarines, divided into red and blue forces, will simulate naval war games, refine tactics while bringing their platforms into a high state of operational readiness. Nothing unusual except that less than a month later these exercises will be replicated on the east coast, off Visakhapatnam, by the eastern fleet’s warships, aircraft and submarines operating from the mainland up to the Andaman & Nicobar islands and Malacca Straits. This is the first time in recent years the navy is activating both commands. Earlier, it combined both and exercised on one coast, once a year. From next year, naval officials say, simultaneous twin-front maritime war games will be the norm.

Naval officials call the theatre-level exercises a direct response to China’s ramped-up naval presence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR); 17 Chinese warships were deployed here this year, the largest in recent years. On August 1, China unveiled a $590 million (Rs 3,831 crore) base and dockyard in Djibouti near the Horn of Africa, which will house PLA

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troops and allow China to replenish ships and submarines.

These events, seen together with China’s 2013 acquisition of Gwadar port, blur the distinctions between the navy’s Pakistan-focused western naval command and its Chinafocused eastern naval command.

China completed a seventh submarine deployment in the IOR this September in addition to completing the deployment of its 27th anti-piracy force this year. Analysts say an eighth submarine deployment, most likely of an SSN (nuclearpowered attack submarine), is due in early 2018. Through these deployments in India’s backyard, China has demonstrated its ability to project maritime power far from its shores. “India has never claimed the Indian Ocean as ‘India’s Ocean’, but China has claimed the bulk of South China Sea as ‘China’s Sea’, and now has a full-fledged military base in Djibouti and is significantly strengthening Pakistan’s navy with eight submarines,” says G. Parthasarathy, former Indian high commissioner to Islamabad. A message that has not been lost on Indian naval planners. “If push comes to shove, we’ve got to be prepared,” a senior naval official says. These developments follow tectonic geopolitical moves in the two months since the Indian and Chinese militaries climbed down from a 71-day faceoff at Doklam, Bhutan, on August 28.

FORWARD MARCH

PLA personnel at the opening ceremony of China’s new military base in Djibouti on August 1, 2017

GETTY IMAGES

China’s manoeuvres have forced India to shed its reticence and join the quadrilateral grouping with the United States, Australia and Japan Chinese President Xi Jinping was anointed “core leader” on October 18, and outlined a 30-year vision for his military—mechanisation, information technology and strategic ability by 2020, modernisation by 2035 and a world-class one by 2050. The developments have enormous military consequences for India, which shares a 4,000 km unsettled border.

New Delhi shed its reticence and moved into a quadrilateral grouping with three other maritime democracies— the United States, Australia and Japan. On November 12, officials of the four ‘Quad’ nations met on the sidelines of the Asean summit in Manila and called for a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’, a veiled reference to China, which claims all of the South China Sea. Analysts say Doklam confirmed for New Delhi the turbulent future of Sino-Indian relations.

Chinese policy towards India over the last decade and New Delhi’s objections to the $1 trillion (Rs 65 lakh crore) Belt

and Road Initiative are seen as major reasons for India shedding its reticence about the quadrilateral initiative.

Contingency preparations for a two-front war with China and Pakistan are no longer the figment of a military planner’s imagination. They have explicit government sanction because they are, as a top official explains, a credible worst case scenario. “The country’s defence preparedness should be adequate to meet the worst case scenario.”

The three services are validating new war plans and accelerating their short and medium term defence plans to enhance the ‘dissuasive’ posture against China, first enunciated in the Raksha Mantri’s Operational Directives in 2010.

The armed forces, particularly the army, have been directed to replenish critical ammunition deficiencies by 2018.

The looming Chinese threat was the point of discussion at the commanders’ conferences of the navy, army and air force held separately between September and October this year, where the services lay out their annual priorities. The navy rolled out its new Mission Based Deployments (MBD) for its warships; the army, a plan to speed up border road construction and link up mountain passes.

“The Indian military is gearing up to face the Chinese challenge in the coming years,” says Harsh V. Pant, head of

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BIG STORY | CHINA

INDIAN ARMY Linking mountain passes in Uttarakhand by 2021 Accelerating completion of border roads by 2022

MISSION CHINA

A snapshot on the tri-services’ approach to counter the military challenge from Beijing

INDIAN AIR FORCE Upgrade/ modernise 30 IAF, Navy, Coast Guard and ARC airfields by 2020 Induct two squadrons of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft/ additional 36 aircraft

Complete raising of Mountain Strike Corps with artillery and helicopters

Acquire five S-400 long range surface-to-air missile systems from Russia

CHIN A

IND I A

Persian Gulf

Gulf of Aden

INDIAN NAVY 24% increase in present warship numbers, from 140 to 198 by 2027 through indigenous construction

East coast of Africa

North Bay of Bengal South of Sri Lanka

Seychelles

Mauritius

Present deployment Planned deployment Graphic by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

the Observer Research Foundation’s Strategic Studies Pro­ gramme. “More than its predecessors, the Modi government seems to have no hesitation in standing up to China, so the civilians and the military in India now seem to be on the same page. India’s role in the Quad will only be credible if its own posture towards regional security has some credibility.”

The IAF is addressing vulnerabilities, such as the lack of modern airfields from which to operate its fighter aircraft, and also reactivating disused airfields near the China borders to resupply troops posted along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Nyoma, an airfield in Ladakh, abandoned after the 1962 war, is likely to be reactivated as a forward airbase. Seven advance landing grounds in Arunachal Pradesh are being activated. The MoD will shortly award contracts worth nearly Rs 1,800 crore for upgrading 30 airfields of the IAF, Navy, Coast Guard and R&AW’s Avia­ tion Research Centre under the Modernisation of Airfield Infrastructure (MAFI Phase 2). This follows the completion of the first batch of 30 airfields under the Rs 1,200 crore MAFI­1 last year. The MoD shaved two years off the contract time by giving the project a Defence Acquisition Council

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(DAC) clearance after bypassing the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage. The project is to be completed within the next three years, and officials familiar with the project call it more complicated than the first as it has 15 remote high­altitude airfields and remote marine airfields where access of men, construction material and equipment will be difficult.

The IAF’s entire airfield infrastructure is within the range of China’s highly potent Rocket Force comprising over 1,200 intermediate range ballistic missiles. This is the reason for the unusual military manoeuvres on October 24 of 20 IAF airplanes, including C­130J transports and Su­ 30MKI fighters, landing and taking off on the Agra express­ way. The IAF has already identified 12 other highways in the country which could be used as emergency landing strips in case military airbases are knocked out in a surprise attack.

Last October, India signed an agreement with Russia to purchase five S­400 ‘Triumf’ long­range surface­to­air missiles that can shoot down cruise, ballistic missiles and aircraft 400 km away. “We need a combination of such long­ range missiles, radars and surveillance systems that can monitor military activity far behind the borders,” says Air

Marshal P.S. Ahluwalia, former western air commander.

In 1962, China swiftly built a road that brought in men and material, leading to the defeat of the Indian army in the northeast. In 2017, it is the absence of roads that is hamper­ ing the army’s offensive and defensive war plans. Only 22 of the 61 Indo­China Border Roads (ICBRs) of 3,409 km, cost­ ing Rs 4,644 crore and identified by the government in 2006 as priority projects and handed over to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), were completed as of 2016. The new target is for all 73 roads to be done by 2022. These will not only allow the speedy movement of troops and equipment in times of war but also facilitate peacetime patrolling.

The army commanders’ conference held in New Delhi between October 9 and 15 aimed for a concerted heft towards road­building activities in the northern and central sectors of the LAC facing China. The army has decided to connect the four Himalayan passes at Niti, Lipulekh, Than­ gla 1 and Tsangchokla by 2020 on priority. This is to allow lateral movement of troops and equipment between various sectors in wartime. aval officials say the Quad is making its presence felt most acutely in the maritime domain. The trilateral Malabar naval exer­ cises, involving the US, Japan and India, in the Bay of Bengal this July were followed by a smaller one in October at Goa, involving Japanese and Indian naval anti­submarine warfare aircraft.

In June this year, it unveiled MBD, an ambitious plan to counter China’s maritime presence in the IOR. Unveiled soon after the naval commanders’ conference, in October, MBD will see an Indian warship or aircraft present at every point of the IOR—an area over five times India’s 2.3 mil­ lion square kilometres.

Since June, warships have been continuously deployed in the Malacca Straits, Gulf of Aden, Persian Gulf and Northern Bay of Bengal, becoming the first responders in many crises, such as the flooding in Sri Lanka, cyclone Mora in Bangladesh and Myanmar, thus ensuring the navy remains a net provider of security and humanitarian assistance in the IOR. MBD efforts are synergised between the MoD, MEA and navy, with deployments to be extended in the coming months to the south of Sri Lanka and the southern IOR covering Mauritius, Seychelles and the East Coast of Africa. A senior naval official explains the MBD logic. “We want to be present near the chokepoints. We want to know who is entering and exiting.”

There is also a subtle signalling on China’s vulnerabili­ ties. China consumes over 13 million barrels of oil each day, over half of which is imported from West Asia. While it is trying to cut back on this through the use of renewables and overland through Central Asia, the dependence will continue for some decades.

The tri­services’ ‘Mission China’, however, runs the risk of delays and falling short of its ambitious objectives. Chief among these concerns is the lack of Indian military reform.

N

In the likely absence of a major uptick in defence spend, these reforms could deliver more bang for a shrinking budgetary buck. Key recommendations of the Lt General D.B. Shekatkar committee report, submitted in December 2016, for the post of a single­point military advisor, a chief of defence staff and theatre commands integrating the three services to fight wars jointly are yet to receive political clearance. There are shortfalls of military hardware, which will take years to replenish.

The IAF remains beguiled by its shrinking fighter squadrons. It has only 32 squadrons as against an authori­ sation of 42 because retiring aircraft are not being replaced swiftly. These will be addressed in the short term by the ac­ quisition of 36 Rafale fighters from France. The acquisition of 123 LCA Tejas and a yet­to­be­decided single­engine fighter under the MoD’s Strategic Partnership Policy are at least five years away.

Army officials, meanwhile, are sceptical of being able to complete all their mountain road projects within the revised deadline of 2022. This is because of the small construction window of less than six months a year in the mountains due to rain and snow and the enormous invest­ ments in machinery, helicopters and specialised tunnelling equipment these projects will entail. Clearly, when it comes to China, nothing short of work on a war footing will do. n

WORLD

SAUDI ARABIA

WHAT LIES AHEAD IN WEST ASIA’S GAME OF THRONES? Saudi Arabia’s unprecedented purge of the high and mighty among the ruling elite along with Iran’s expanding sphere of influence are sparking further tensions in the region

BY SARANG SHIDORE

audi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s arrest of nearly 200 powerful princes, government officials and businessmen on anti-corruption charges has sent shockwaves throughout the kingdom and the Gulf region. The arrests are just the latest—though the most daring—move by 32-year-old bin Salman, known widely by his media acronym MbS, in his meteoric rise to power since his father King Salman ascended the throne in January 2015. In April of that year, MbS was made deputy crown prince, and then further promoted to crown prince in June 2017, replacing the incumbent Mohammed bin Nayef. Bin Nayef was reportedly coerced to resign, placed under house arrest and later left the country, ostensibly for medical treatment.

The scope of the most recent purge is unprecedented, massive and risky. It concentrates almost all power in a single individual and destroys the careful system of checks and balances within the royal family that has ensured the

S

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stability of the regime for decades. Tremendously powerful princes, such as multi-billionaire investor Alwaleed bin Talal, and the heads of the navy and the powerful National Guard have been removed. Given King Salman’s advanced age and ill-health, nothing now stands in the way of the ascension of MbS to the Saudi throne as the most-powerful Saudi monarch in modern history. Indeed, there are already rumours that King Salman will abdicate soon and formalise his son’s takeover.

But barely had the neighbourhood absorbed the news of the Saudi purge when Riyadh unleashed another bombshell by inducing Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a close Saudi ally, to resign in a televised speech from Riyadh that squarely targeted Iran and its close ally in Lebanon, the Hezbollah militia. Prior to his shock resignation, Hariri was prime minister of a coalition government that included Hezbollah. This was followed by tough Saudi rhetoric about treating Lebanon “as a government declaring war on Saudi Arabia” and demanding that Lebanon “must choose between peace or aligning with Hezbollah”.

AMMAR ABD RABBO/AP

POWER PLAY

Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman

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The Lebanon gambit marks an upping of the ante in the highly tense Saudi-Iran relationship, which has involved major proxy wars in Syria and Yemen. In Syria, Saudi Arabia has supported Sunni Islamist rebels trying to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad government, in turn backed by Russia, Iran and Iran-sponsored Shia militias.

In Yemen, Riyadh has waged a destructive air campaign against Iran-backed Houthi insurgents. Most unusually, Saudi Arabia also came down hard on fellow Gulf state Qatar in June of this year, accusing it of pro-Iranian and pro-terrorist sympathies and putting in place an economic blockade along with fellow Gulf states United Arab Emirates and Bahrain as well as Egypt.

SAUDI ARABIA

Hezbollah at a time of Riyadh’s choosing. Given Hezbollah’s formidable and growing strength, including its arsenal of 100,000-plus deadly rockets and missiles, Israel would in any case have to think very hard before launching a military offensive, with its risk of major Israeli losses.

Israel’s current priority is to work with Russia and ensure there is no permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

Saudi Arabia could also try and bring about an antiHezbollah government in Beirut that will seek to curb the militia’s activities. However, Hezbollah’s tentacles in Lebanon run deep and no Lebanese government that confronts it can survive long. The third option for Riyadh would be to deploy the weapon of economic sanctions. Lebanon is considerably more vulnerable than gas-rich Qatar. It hese activist Saudi moves are likely a imports nearly all its energy, runs a large trade deficit, and response to several adverse developments is crucially dependent for its balance of payments on the for Riyadh this year in the wider region. In billions of dollars of annual remittances from close to half Syria, Sunni Islamist rebels have decisively a million Lebanese expatriates in the Gulf. failed to overthrow the Assad government in spite of If Riyadh manages to replicate the anti-Qatar coalisupport from a number of states, apart from the Saudis, tion against Lebanon, a sanctions regime could hit Beirut such as Turkey, Jordan and the United States. What is left hard. However, it would not really damage Hezbollah—the of the Sunni Islamist rebel movement is concentrated in militant group is its own quasi-state and relies on off-book the northwestern province of Idlib and pockets near the funding sources and direct Iranian weapons transfers city of Hama and east and south of capital Damascus. A through Syria. If anything, the weakening of the Lebanese mostly secular Kurdish rebel force also government could make Hezbollah even occupies a significant swath of northern more powerful in the country’s politics and Syria, but it has primarily targeted Daesh, security dispensation. Finally, whereas also known as ISIS. SAUDI ARABIA Egypt has participated in the anti-Qatar Daesh has been comprehensively desanctions and operations in Yemen, it has exSCALING UP feated as a territorial entity, largely removplicitly rejected any action against its much TENSIONS ing the potent anti-Iranian force from the closer neighbour Lebanon. scene. Turkey has essentially abandoned the The core strategic rivalry in the region WITH LEBANON anti-Assad coalition and is focused on safecentres over Iran, and here Saudi Arabia, APPEARS TO BE Israel and the United States are on the same guarding its own interests by participating A DESPERATE in the Astana dialogue with Russia and side. Riyadh and Tel Aviv, nominally bitter Iran. In Yemen, sustained Saudi firepower foes with no diplomatic relations, have in MOVE AMID has failed to dislodge the Houthis from SETBACKS TO fact been converging for many years on the capital Sana’a and the war is now effectively Iran question. Their security relationship is ITS INTERESTS now no longer a secret with the open offer a stalemate. The economic blockade has IN THE REGION of cooperation by Israeli army chief Gadi failed to achieve Qatar’s capitulation, and pushed it closer to Iran and Turkey.

Eizenkot in an interview with Saudi media.

Viewed from this perspective, the Saudi This is aided by the Trump administration’s ratcheting up of tensions with Lebanon apreversal of the Obama-era rapprochement, pears to be a desperate rather than a bold move in the wake albeit limited, with Iran. Riyadh strongly opposed the inof setback after setback to Riyadh’s interests in the region. ternational nuclear deal with Iran, but the Trump adminPerhaps Saudi Arabia is looking for a win—any win—to istration’s decertification of the agreement has reassured score against a Persian rival that has been the one big Saudi Arabia that the United States remains committed gainer in all of West Asia’s wars over the past two decades. to the containment of Iran.

It may believe that manipulating the domestic politics of West Asian conflicts are typically viewed through the tiny, fragile Lebanon offers that opportunity. lens of identity politics—Muslim vs Jew, Sunni vs Shia, A Saudi military option against Hezbollah is practically Arab vs Kurd and so forth. These factors do play a role. in the realm of fantasy. Geography militates against it, and However, the Israel-Saudi convergence is a repudiation the Saudi military is already bogged down in Yemen. Saudi of the theory of predestined cultural or religious conflicts Arabia may try to persuade Israel to do the job, but Israel, in the region, and a validation of drivers such as geography, though a bitter foe of Hezbollah, would not like to attack the balance of power dynamic, and the role of great powers.

T

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TEHRAN

WARRING WEST ASIA

1 Supports Shi’ite militia

The no-holds-barred Riyadh-Tehran rivalry is only worsening the crisis in their neighbourhood

Hezbollah

Supports Bashar al-

2 Assad’s regime

3 Supports significant Shi’ite militia groups

4 Accused by Bahrain of LEBANON 27/27 Beirut ISRAEL 0/15

1

2

JORDAN 2/94

EGYPT 0/90

3

2

Population by faith (%)

5 Backs Houthi rebel forces

3

Baghdad

Damascus

Tel Aviv

sabotaging oil pipeline

Tehran

13/74 SYRIA

IRAQ 57/40

4

1 Supported the unsuc-

Riyadh SAUDI ARABIA 15/95

Sana’a

cessful rebel campaign to topple Assad

2

QATAR 14/86 5

UAE 15/85

Suspected of pressing Lebanon’s PM Saad Hariri to resign

3 Believed to have covert OMAN 0/21

security relationship aimed at containing Iran

4 Backs government of

4

SHIA/ SUNNI Rest: Others

RIYADH

70/30 BAHRAIN

KUWAIT 36/64

1

5

IRAN 89/10

YEMEN 44/56

Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in Yemen

5 Organised a multilateral economic blockade on Qatar

Graphic by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

The one major complication in any US-Saudi-Israeli strategy of containing Iran is Russia. A late entrant to West Asia’s wars, the Russia-Iran alliance in Syria has created major new facts on the ground in a short time period.

So significant have been its gains that the alliance has even begun to attempt a post-conflict settlement in the political dialogue being conducted at Sochi in Russia. Though prospects for the success of the Sochi process are dim, all these developments represent a major setback to US, Saudi and Israeli goals in the region.

Though the US has a deeply adversarial relationship with Russia, this is not true for the other two parties looking to contain Iran. Israeli-Russian ties have remained strong throughout the Syria conflict (though a rift has recently emerged over alleged Iranian bases close to the Israeli-Syrian border.) The Saudis have firmed up energy

cooperation with Moscow, and are looking to acquire sophisticated Russian arms. Like everything in West Asia, complexity rules, and friends and foes are not always absolute or permanent.

An intriguing signal of this was provided a few weeks back by the visit of Iraqi Shia firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to Saudi Arabia, which has alienated Shias in the region with its doctrinaire version of Sunni Islam and crackdown on its own Shia minority. Sadr’s Mehdi Army, which Tehran has backed in the past, was one of the biggest adversaries of the United States during its occupation of Iraq. The most likely explanation is that Sadr, an Iraqi nationalist wary of Tehran, is responding to Iranian attempts to undercut him as it gains power in the region.

There is, however, an outside chance that Saudi Arabia is quietly signalling its readiness for a dialogue with Tehran

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41

WORLD

SAUDI ARABIA

COMMON CAUSE

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is greeted by Saudi King Salman in Riyadh during his 2016 visit to the kingdom

even as its public rhetoric remains hostile.

The latter is easier said than done, but the recent initiaSuch a dialogue is not illogical given the current power tion of US oil and gas imports is a welcome step in the dispensation in the region and the uncertainty of US supdirection of diversification. A serious follow-through on port in the event of a Saudi conflict with Iran. After all, the ambitious policy of electric vehicles announced by the Saudi Arabia and Iran have also recently taken the first central government should be among the highest priorities steps toward restoring diplomatic relations, broken off in order to curb oil consumption. Having a sound continsince Riyadh executed a prominent Shia cleric last year. gency plan ready for the evacuation of Indian citizens in Could Riyadh’s harsh rhetoric against Beirut and Tehran the extreme case of a strategic shock (such as the fall of simply be a policy of mass distraction during the risky the Saudi regime or a regional war with Iran) is essential. phase of consolidation of MbS’s rule, even New Delhi should also strongly support any as he is slowly coming to terms with Iranian international or regional moves that seek to power? In West Asia, some strategies may be lessen tensions in the region.

INDIA NEEDS unlikely, but almost all things are possible.

India does not have much influence on As far as India is concerned, its interests the incredibly complex power plays in West TO FOLLOW in West Asia are clear—energy security cenAsia, but it can take greater measures to AN OMNItred on the Gulf states and Iran, developing weather the storms that may lie ahead.

DIRECTIONAL the Iranian port of Chabahar, defence and India also needs to maintain its historically technology partnership with Israel, the omnidirectional foreign policy in order to POLICY TO well-being of Indian expatriate workers, emerge a net gainer no matter which side EMERGE AS A and wider regional stability. With no faprevails in a region that promises to be in NET GAINER NO vourites in the Saudi-Israel-Iran fight, New flux for many years to come. n Delhi would be well-advised to maintain MATTER WHO The writer is a senior global analyst with equidistance between Tehran, Tel Aviv and PREVAILS IN geopolitical forecasting firm Stratfor and a Riyadh while diversifying energy imports, WEST ASIA visiting scholar at the University of Texas. to the extent possible, away from a volatile The views expressed are personal and conflict-prone region.

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RISK-PROOF YOUR FUTURE DISCONTINUING LIFE INSURANCE PLANNING FOR RETIREMENT EQUITY SAVINGS SCHEMES FOR RETIREES

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

SMART MONEY LIFE INSURANCE

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

THE PERILS OF STOPPING YOUR LIFE INSURANCE PREMIUM Discontinuing abruptly will put your life cover and other policy benefits at risk

D

o you know what happens to your insurance policy when you stop paying premium? Does it continue to offer insurance cover?

Abruptly stopping payment of premium because you are unhappy with the policy or facing a financial crunch— without considering the consequences—is unwise.

Here’s a lowdown on the options available should you wish to discontinue a traditional life insurance policy, and how to go about it.

EXPERT VIEW

 TRADITIONAL

PLANS A traditional life insurance policy is a protection-cumsavings plan. It assures the policyholder a payout sum along with bonus on maturity of the policy. Unlike unit-linked plans, which have the option of investing in equities, traditional plans invest only in fixedincome instruments and offer a return of around 4-6 44

INDIA TODAY

per cent.  THE PREMIUM QUESTION Life insurance is a longterm agreement, so if the policy is discontinued midway, the maturity benefit is interrupted and not received. If circumstantces perevent you from continuing your traditional life insurance policy, follow these options: l Surrender: One can opt for this only when the policy attains surrender

Ashish Vohra MD-CEO, Reliance Nippon Life

“Holding the policy till maturity entitles the policyholder to benefits in full, payable at maturity with bonus, if any, and death benefit in case of demise during the policy tenure.”

DE C E M BE R 4, 2 017

value, which is usually after payment of full premium for two to three years, depending on the terms of the policy. On surrendering the policy, the amount is paid immediately, but the policyholder will not be entitled to life cover.

Also, there could be tax implications depending on the year of surrender. l Paid-up policy: If a policyholder stops paying premium after the policy has attained surrender value, it automatically becomes paid-up. The life cover and maturity benefit continue, but are proportionately lower—the calculation is based on the number of premiums paid against the total number of premiums due. Such a policy will not be eligible for bonus in the future. When the policy matures, the policyholder will receive only the paidup value. l Lapse: If a policy that hasn’t crossed the initial years and acquired surren-

der value is discontinued, it will lapse. All benefits will be lost. l Revival: Most insurance companies allow you to revive a policy that has been stopped midway provided it is done within a certain prescribed period. This can be done by paying late fee in addition to the pending premiums, or after additionally undergoing a medical test.  WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? Before buying life insurance, understand the purpose of the policy and how it works so that it’s easier to make it run its full course. However, discontinue the policy if you are unhappy with it or if you are over-insured. Financial advisors say investors can surrender and reallocate to other asset classes that offer higher returns. But, before surrendering an insurance policy, buy a substitute life cover to guard against unforeseen eventualities. n

LEISURE

SMART MONEY RETIREMENT

Austenistan EXPERT VIEW Edited by Laaleen Sukhera Bloomsbury, Rs 350

D

W

ti o n b y

Il lu s tra

Dreadful Tale

S ID D H

ANT JU

MDE

id you know there’s a Jane Austen Society of Pakistan (JASP)? This Suresh inspired Sadagopan anthology of short stories Founder, Ladder7

by Jane Austen’s novels andAdvisories set in Financial contemporary Pakistan is written by “[Some] retirees members of the JASP. It’s a sparkling wrongly believe their entire world that doesn’t bother withsavings the should be in fixed BOOKS Pakistan you see on the news.

In income instruments.

Austenistan, the partying is cons tant, Some part should be in equity.” there’s romance in the air and booze is always at hand. Smart, sassy and essentially a pack of mini Mills & Boons, hen Elsie Bainbridge arrives at The Bridge at the with tall, fair, handsome heroes who beginning of Laura Purcell’s first novel, The Silent have a thing for heroines perched on Companions, the stage is set for an eerie story along Jimmy Choos. EQUITIES Getting the right mix of the lines of The Others.

The Bridge is a ghostly, half-derelict mansion where assets in your portfolio is “everything was dead”. Elsie is dressed, appropriately, in widow’s crucial. Given longer life weeds, and the weather obliges too: “The sky was iron grey, the spans now, equities go a monotony broken only by crows.” So far, so Gothic. long way in protecting your With her elements in place—young widow, hostile villagers, corpus against inflation. crumbling mansion house, mist and mud and rain—Purcell’s Suresh Sadagopan, founder story unfolds in a series of unfortunate events told in three of Ladder7 Financial Advisodifferent times.

The main story, set in 1865, follows ries, Mumbai, says, “[Some] A guide to steady income after you hang up your boots Elsie’s discovery of an antique painted figure retirees wrongly believe their in a long-locked attic room—one of the entire savings should be in “silent companions” of the book’s title. sub-limit clauses.

Make sure to sustain the same for the some fixed income instruaving well for a big This sets in train ghostly, ghastly and ILENT THE S retirement S N you buy health insurance lifetime.

You must phase ments. Some part should be corpus ANIO gruesome happenings that lead to a COMP e path of th with adequate sum insured. out this money to earn you a in equity as that’s what can isn’t enough; you in follows host stories Tarantinoesque body count and Elsie’s ga robust efinancial ic th Senior citizens should opt steady income in the years to boost returns.” need o G n th incarceration in St Joseph’s Hospital for h pile o om whicto o d d for a policy cover of a mimicome.

Identify your immediInvestment in equities plan ensure it generates a n Trust No Aunty the insane. gloom a mum of Rs 5 lakh.

If you do ate requirements, what you should be in accordance comfortable income through The Maria Qamar asylum is the setting for the not prefer to pay for health will require in another three with your risk599 profile. “Usuyour golden years. Here’s a Simon and Schuster, Rs second strand of the novel, where a doctor insurance, you must create a to five years, and thereafter.” ally, we suggest 40 per cent guide to getting it right. tries to piece together the events that have led substantial corpus for mediBased on your immediate or less in equity assets,” aria Qamar is better known as says to her incarceration. Is his patient mad? Is she a cal exigencies. needs, some money Sadagopan.

“For very fantastist?

HEALTH Has INSURANCE @hatecopy on Instagram, andconshe succumbed to what the villagers describe as should be par ked in liquid investors, Opt for adequate health with art that’sservative a love child of Amar10-15 per an attack of the “morbs”? Is she a criminal, or is there something instruments.

The rest should cent investment is advised.” coverout at an early enough  REGULAR INCOME Chitra Katha and Roy Lichtenstein, there… beyond the understanding of mere science? be in a balanced portfolio should age. AnThe earlythird startstrand meansis the back-story Though expenses tend to go she’s gotfor advice forRetirement the desi girl.

Trust for the companions.

No Aunty is a guide surviving as the Rewindperiods to 1635, Josiah Bainbridge, of the manor, not beto considered waiting inand the policy down afterlord retirement, one andregular needs and one-off aunties, the agents the income. conservative his Annie, aretime preparing a visittofrom the King and Queen. expenses, such as travelling. end ofofnew Rent, willwife be over by the you forneeds channel investold world who,consultancy, in conjunction withand decides life-like figures freestanding Systematic withdrawal interest mayAnnie actually needthat the insurmentspainted wisely toongenerate strict parents, try togo turn youway wooden boards willcovers be just theregular ticket toincome. amuse “Funds and delight a good dividends a long ance.

There are also in the from debt funds is your into a good, (brown) girl.

Although visiting designed royals. The to be less afund harmless way to set up a stable income in taking the pressure off specially for‘companions’ those theturn formout of provident talking to the South Asian diaspora divertissement than malevolent harbingers of evil.re- stream with minimum your corpus.

Also, account who didn’t buy individual and gratuity are one-time in North Qamar’s words ofof the pastiche of elements from greatthe gothic taxation. You can also investAmerica, for the life expectancy healthUnfortunately, insurance till the ceivables and constitute with many failplans to deliver onbiggest the promise by the eerie in annuities offeredwisdom by life may well yourresonate spouse while planning. ageghost of 61,stories but such pie inmade the retirement young India.don’t She may not eye peeking outbuilt-in of a die-cut keyhole theDinesh book’sRohira, cover. In insurance companies, butgirls in And, forget tobe draft usually have some corpus,”on says saying anything new or insightful, so relentlessly piling on the gloom and doom, Purcell’s book they offer low returns (5-7 your will. n restrictions and may be founder and CEO, 5nance. but she’s fun. backfires and the result is more dreadful rather than dread-full. n per cent per annum). accompanied by co-pay and com. “There should be a plan

by Teena Jain Kaushal

PREPARING FOR THE GOLDEN YEARS

S

M

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45

SMART MONEY INVESTMENTS

KEEPING THE FAMILY SILVER With deposit rates down, retired people need options to supplement their income. Hybrid equity savings schemes may be the answer

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

I

n a falling interest rate scenario, retirees have to look beyond investment options like fixed deposits and small saving schemes. Guaranteed, regular returns and safety of capital is the attraction here for them, but with deposits rates at a record low, looking at alternatives has become imperative.

If one is willing to take a bit of risk, there is a tax-efficient alternative that mutual funds (MFs) offer for slightly conservative investors. Let’s see how this category—equity savings schemes or equity income schemes—can supplement your income.

cash and derivative markets to avoid any losses) to the portfolio. They generally invest 20 to 40 per cent of their assets in equity (unhedged) carrying higher risk than the rest of the portfolio, which goes into debt and equity derivatives (returns are more predictable from this portion of the portfolio).

 TAX ADVANTAGE As these funds invest over 65 per cent in equity and equity derivatives, they are treated as equity mutual funds.

Capital gains after one year and dividend income from these funds are tax-free. Capital gains before one year (short term) are taxed at 15 per cent.

SCHEME

1 YEAR

2 YEAR

Reliance Equity Savings

14.9

10.6

HDFC Equity Savings

14.1

14.8

Aditya Birla Sun Life Equity Savings

13.3

12.1

Edelweiss Equity Savings Advantage

12.2

9.2

 WHAT ARE THEY?

Principal Equity Savings

11.8

9.2

These are hybrid mutual funds of a newer kind. Unlike traditional hybrid funds that invest only in equity and debt, these funds invest in debt, equity and equity derivatives. They use equity derivatives for arbitrage opportunities (the simultaneous purchase and sale of an asset to profit from a difference in the price) or for hedging (buying or selling the same security of the same value in both the

Kotak Equity Savings

11.7

9.6

DSP BlackRock Equity Savings

11.5

-

Axis Equity Saver

11.2

8.2

L&T Equity Savings

11

8.6

SBI Equity Savings

10.9

9.9

ICICI Prudential Equity Income

9.6

10.9

DHFL Pramerica Equity Income

8.4

7.8

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DE C E M BE R 4, 2 017

Tata Regular Saving Equity

6.6

8

Returns % as on November 14, 2017, for 1 year, 2 year and 3 year terms; *stated unhedged equ

 HOW TO USE THEM Mutual funds, be it equity, debt or hybrid, do not provide gilt-edged guarantees, especially as they have equity exposure. So they can’t be your main source of income. However, if you have a regular income and want to supplement it, you can invest in them. The equity portion will beat inflation in the long run, which may not be possible with an all-debt portfolio. MFs also can’t guarantee a dividend; it can be declared only if there’s a surplus. So, instead of going for the dividend option, choose the growth variant and use a systematic withdrawal plan (SWP) through which a specific sum can be accessed. Start an SWP after staying invested for at least two years so that a corpus is built before you start withdrawing.  HOW TO CHOOSE

As equity allocation varies from fund to fund in this category, check the maximum actual equity (unhedged) allocation that the fund can take. It’s also important to keep a check on the debt portfolio, what quality of papers it invests in (defines credit risk in fund) and the average maturity of the portfolio (defines interest rate risk). Choose as per your risk appetite. n

by Renu Yadav

3 YEAR

EQUITY ALLOCATION* (%)

-

20-40

10.2

15-40

-

20-45

7.8

15-35

7.9

20-30

8.4

15-25

-

20-40

-

20-45

7.9

20-30

-

20-50

-

20-40

9.7

15-30

6.5

15-35

ity allocation range as per scheme offer document Source: Value Research

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67

HEALTH HUNGER HORMONE

NOT SO SWEET

Guess who’s playing hunger games now?

A new hormone called asprosin. Responsible for triggering hunger in the brain, its regulation could help treat obesity, as per new research published in the journal Nature Medicine. “It potentially opens the doors on a completely new way to treat obesity,” says Dr Atul Chopra, who led the team of researchers who discovered the hormone.

By Amarnath K. Menon Added sugars are the undisputed villains of a host of medical conditions, be it obesity and metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, dental plaque and cavities, or even heart disease. Health surveys estimate that most adults get 15 per cent of their calories from added sugars alone. If you can’t get rid of them entirely, you can certainly reduce added sugars in your diet, advise diabetes specialists IMAGES BAZA AR

SAY NO TO SUGAR Reduce its consumption, beginning with foods which are its most obvious sources like sweets, bakery products and sugary beverages Avoid buying and consuming processed foods where the label mentions ingredients with the

suffix ‘..ose’ Opt for wholegrain options over white rice and white flour, which have simple carbs that can be quickly broken down into sugar in the body causing a spike in blood sugar levels Junk artificial sugars

TAKE HEART ypertension has a new normal. A blood pressure of 120/ 80 milllimeters of mercury is now normal, but 130/ 80 or higher is now categorised as hypertension. The term ‘prehypertension’ is also a thing of the past; people with a

H

IMAGES BAZA AR

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INDIA TODAY

that can exacerbate sugar cravings, making it tougher to migrate to a nosugar diet Never ever put sugar in sweetened drinks, including fruit juices Stay hydrated with unsweetened tea or coffee or plain water

Follow a diet rich in whole and complete foods, such as vegetables, fruits, tofu, lean meat, fish, unprocessed grains legumes and seeds Add sweet-tasting herbs or spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom, to food and drink

New guidelines on who is hypertensive bring cheer

GUT INSTINCT Gut imbalances often lead to bloating, constipation, wind, slow digestion, leaky gut, poor absorption and lethargy.

Want to mend that gut feeling? Read on... l

Minimise stress levels

Add probiotics twice daily and fermented vegetables and green leafy veggies to each meal l

systolic measure (the higher reading when the heart is beating) of 120-129 and a diastolic measure (between heart beats, when the heart is at rest) below 80 are now considered as having ‘elevated’ blood pressure. Under the new guidelines of the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology Task Force, those in Stage 1 of high blood pressure (systolic reading of 130139 or a diastolic of 80-89) should have a 10-year risk assessment of heart disease, stroke and cardiovascular problems. Published in the journal Hypertension and

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the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the guidelines were developed after analysing 900 published studies. “If you already have a doubling of risk, you need to know about it,” says Dr Paul K. Whelton, lead author of the guidelines. “It doesn’t mean you need medication, but it’s a yellow light that you need to be lowering your blood pressure, mainly with non-drug approaches.” While that makes more people fall in the hypertensive category and have medication, it will prevent more strokes, cardiovascular events and kidney failure.

l

Give up gluten, flour and grains

l

Also refined sugar

Sip apple cider vinegar added to a litre of water through the day

l

l

l

Drink aloe vera in water three times a week Limit dairy products to one portion a day

OUTFIT Red handloom sari with cape DESIGNER Sari by Paromita Banerjee Sarkar, cape by Samant Chauhan MODEL Pragya Vats, campaigner for Save the Children, India

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FASHION

THE SARI

AND IT’S A WRAP A sign of both modernity and tradition, in the hands of designers today, the sari is becoming an aspirational symbol too

BY CHINKI SINHA

Photograph by BANDEEP SINGH

D

ELHI-BASED DESIGNER David Abraham, one half of the Abraham & Thakore label, says he remembers his Syrian Christian grandmother changing out of her white chatta munda into richly coloured Kanjeevarams on special occasions. “I remember in particular a beautiful sapphire blue sari with a self border that she would wear,” he says. It was the question of identity that made him experiment with the sari—cut it, style it, reinvent it. For Abraham & Thakore, who have made both stitched and unstitched versions of the sari, it is a long piece of untouched fabric, which could represent a regional culture, could be a uniform for work, or even a metaphor for steamy sex.

And as the fashion weeks enter another Autumn/ Winter cycle, more saris, draped in unconventional ways, are expected on the runways. Identity is an important question in today’s age where high-street fashion brands like Zara and H&M are making the world a place of homogenised identities. So a culturally significant clothing like the sari is back in the urban closet with a bang.

Recently, the sari’s emergence as the new fashion statement was unfairly described as nationalistic promotion in a piece by Asgar Qadri in The New York Times: “...the Banarasi sari, the traditional garment known for its fine silk and opulent embroidery—and primarily worn by Hindu women.” The article, ‘In India, Fashion Has Become a Nationalist Cause’, took a myopic view of a garment that represents cultures crisscrossing many religions and identities.

Yet, in the sari’s revival as an aspirational garment, the force of nostalgia is perhaps often underestimated. The past, with the possibilities it contains for the future, is what has made many designers turn to the sari. They have experimented with drapes, styles and even the blouse, which is a parallel narrative and a statement piece in itself, one that can become a game changer for the sari— like a bomber jacket, a cape or a cropped shirt.

The sari has a global parallel. In 2015, Japanese musician Yoshiki, internationally recognised as the leader and co-founder of heavy metal group X Japan, announced his kimono brand, Yoshikimono. The first collection featured a range of ‘rock star kimonos’, featuring unorthodox prints

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FASHION

THE SARI

OUTFIT Bomber shirt and a denim pant-style sari DESIGNER Arjun Saluja MODEL Artist and writer Mithu Sen

and unusual obi wraps on body-hugging kimonos, slashed to miniskirt length and paired with stilettos, leather collars and high-heeled boots.

Perhaps that’s the trajectory the Indian sari, a garment that never followed the normative sartorial choice, is now following. Draupadi’s ‘unending fabric of time’, as Rta Kapur Chishti described it in her 2010 book Saris of India—Tradition and Beyond, has made a comeback on the runways. It is competing effortlessly with high-street fashion and haute couture, with designers trying to channel nostalgia and futuristic vision simultaneously. Like Japan, which rediscovered the kimono through stalwarts like Yohji Yamamato and Rei Kawakubo, who defied western fashion’s stereotypical forecasts by evolving the kimono, India seems to be going through an interesting fashion churn. These days, designers are turning the sari into an aspirational, almost revolutionary choice of garment.

Since 2006, there has been a revival of the quintessential sari, which is still the most-worn garment in India but which has lost its appeal among the ‘smart set’. In 2009, Kolkata-based Sabyasachi Mukherjee, one of the most successful designers out of India, launched a ‘Save the Sari’ project. In 2011, French couture designer Hermes entered the Indian market with 28 handcrafted saris, priced at about Rs 4.5 lakh each—proving the tenacity of the sari as a muse. In 2017, there are more designers than ever who are experimenting with the garment.

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Social media is abuzz with talk of the iconic sari— Twitter features the #100saripact, while Facebook has any number of groups devoted to it, like Kaithari, For the Love of Sari, Sadee Sari and The Magic of Saris. The sari is now also a digital revolution and remains the only garment in India that still retains heirloom value. Fashion weeks in the past few years have proved this, with designers either presenting collections that include saris, or presenting only saris.

Like Anavila Sidhu Mishra, who is now pushing the envelope in terms of making the sari contemporary with different kinds of drapes and styling.

F

rom veterans like Abraham and Thakore to the new bunch of designers passionate about traditional weaves and crafts—a prime example being Gunjan Jain of Vriksh, a label that specialises in Odisha weaves like bomkai and ikat—designers are trying to understand and present the sari in ways that can compete with other silhouettes like the gown. “The return of the sari is part of a much larger conversation on identity,” says Abraham. And that identity is of a defiant Draupadi in the face of the male gaze, in a world increasingly experiencing polarisation between masculine and feminine with the great churning of cultural ethos and other socio-economic changes.

“The deep involvement and sense of identity Indian women associate with the sari has made them resist the pressure to change their style of dress,

M ZHAZO

M ZHAZO

inadvertently providing continuity in the weaving tradition in every part of the country,” says Chishti. It is that possibility of the future that made her travel across the country documenting the sari a few years ago. There was much folklore and many myths about the sari that made it a lived garment with motifs like bitter gourd and fish woven into the bomkai, which depicted living memory via design directories of weavers. And today, in its evolution, the sari has become more aggressive, with the Google Culture Institute and Border & Fall, an online fashion portal, documenting at least 80 drapes.

Chishti, who runs the Sari School in Delhi—which teaches participants about the history and the roughly 108 ways of draping a sari—says that it is more than just a personal garment. “In the 1970s, if one went to college wearing a sari, it was a statement of having ‘come of age’... just as the wearing of jeans is today. The urban wearing style is a post1870s phenomenon. The sari went through various stages of resembling the hobble skirt and the gown.”

Paromita Banerjee Sarkar, 33, remembers her mother picking her up from kindergarten when she was a child— Sarkar would hold her mother’s hand, and also the end of her sari pallu, while walking alongside. Her earliest memories of the sari were therefore those of OUTFIT Gold foilassurance and security—if she laminated khadi sari held on to the end of her mothand gold calligraphy er’s pallu, it seemed, her mother applique on khadi coat would always be there to protect styled with a white her. Today, Sarkar, a graduate of handwoven shirt the National Institute of Design DESIGNER Abraham (NID), is a Kolkata-based and Thakore designer who works with crafts MODEL Artist and textiles. She is currently tryand teacher ing to stake a claim to the sari on Manmeet Devgun her own terms.

Sarkar says that years ago, while she was still at NID, she began to wonder about the changes the sari was going through. The future of the sari, she believes, will be one in which it stops being a statement and returns to being a natural and everyday garment without trying too hard. More so, Sarkar says, because it is one of the oldest unstitched drapes known to us. “We work on classics and not on trends or colour forecasts, so you can wear our saris again and again over the years,” she says. “The saris can be styled to suit a particular occasion and can be dressed up or down with the right accessories. Most of the times, the urban woman is not buying a sari keeping in mind any specific occasion.”

In 2006, Abraham and Thakore presented their first version of the sari—a black jamdaani catering to the western notions of minimalism. They had woven everyday motifs like cyclerickshaws—and the particular outfit that opened the runway show in Delhi wound up being acquired by the

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53

FASHION

THE SARI

OUTFIT Anavila gold zari border linen sari paired with a raw silk top and necklace DESIGNER Sari by Anavila, top by Payal Khandwala, necklace by Cult curator MODEL Journalist and writer Smita Nair

MANDAR DEODHAR

Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Ten years later, the Houndstooth sari by the designer duo, paired with a long-sleeved shirt and belts, was part of a curated show called The Fabric of India. Held at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2015-2016, curators Rosemary Crill and Divia Patel brought together the rich textile history of the sari and its contemporary collection. The show featured the Abraham and Thakore sari in black and white checks, contrasted with bright lemon yellow. The curators say the show intended an exploration into how “textile traditions are being included within the dynamic industry” and how the sari is being updated. “I remember when the handloom sari was representative of the old traditional mindset—aunties wore saris. Then, to my mind, it represented a mindset that was arty, somewhat left of centre and was often teamed with Kolhapuri chappals and a jhola. Now, suddenly the sari has become ‘fashion’.

It can be ‘fashion’, it can be something an edgy young woman wears belted with a corset, or a manstyle shirt. This is wonderful,” says Abraham.

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And it isn’t just the handloom enthusiasts who have taken up the sari. Others too, like Arjun Saluja—who owns the label Rishta and is a master of pattern cutting, forever experimenting with drapes and structures—have done their own versions of the stitched sari as urban street wear, avant garde or even a performance-costume like garment. Saluja is perhaps the most experimental when it comes to channeling the potential of the sari—his stitched garments take the form of Hakama pant style or even dhoti-wraps, which are paired with bomber and leather jackets. In many ways, this marks a crossover point for the sari.

When Sanjay Garg, who is known for his handwoven saris (under his label, Raw Mango), first arrived on the scene with his bright-bordered Chanderi saris, nobody could predict he would become the man behind the “coming of age” of the sari in urban India, with his revival of traditional saris.

His play with what he calls Indian minimalism is what makes his vision grand. Using colours like rani pink, sharbati, lime green, reds and yellows,

OUTFIT Banarasi silk sari paired with a sequinned jacket DESIGNER Sari by Sanjay Garg, jacket by Peachoo MODEL Celebrity hair stylist Sapna Bhavnani

RAJWANT RAWAT

MANDAR DEODHAR

OUTFIT Handwoven silk sari from Odisha DESIGNER Gunjan Jain MODEL Poet and artist Astha Mittal he says he had always wanted to write a story nobody had written before. The sari, dismissed as ‘occasion wear’ until a few years ago, was his muse. And Garg was part of the brave new world.

A disruptive force in fashion, Garg was soon followed by others, such as Anavila Sidhu Mishra, who says she wore her first sari on Diwali when she was in Class IX—and felt that she had been transformed from a tomboy into a lady. Born and brought up in

Karnal, Haryana, Mishra completed her graduation from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Delhi in 2000, with a specialisation in knitwear design. She was working in the corporate sector when she was asked by the ministry of rural development to undertake a three-year project with NIFT in Madhya Pradesh. “This was in 2004. I was dealing with real human beings. It changed my perception on sustaining them. I couldn’t move back to the corporate world after that,” she says. That was when she ventured into making saris. Her story echoes the story of how the sari is becoming a part of the modern women’s wardrobe.

“The sari was never so important to me. I was always dressed in trousers and shirts. I looked at women who did everything in a sari. I was no longer an outsider and I tried to be accepted by them and started wearing saris,” she says.

Before her first show at the 2014 Lakme Fashion Week, she spent two nights draping 30 saris for the show. “Young women today don’t want to wear a sari. It is up to us designers to make it look beautiful.

For me, it has to pass my test of me wanting to wear it,” she says. n

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STATE OF OF THE STATE STATES THE STATES

The Champions League The India Today State of the States Conclave honours the achievements of states on various socio-economic parameters

By KAUSHIK DEKA

he india today State of the States Conclave, held in New Delhi on November 16, was witness to something very unusual. Politicians, across party lines, were praising each other for the contributions they had all made to the development process in the states. In short, it was a grand display of cooperative federalism. Union min-

T

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ister for road transport and highways, shipping and water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari said from the stage that he had always cleared infrastructure projects—even going out of his way, according to him—without ever considering which party was in power in a particular state. Gadkari got instant support from two Congress chief ministers—Virbhadra Singh of Himachal Pradesh and V. Narayanasamy of

Puducherry—who were sitting in the front row. They thanked the Union minister while Telangana minister K.T. Rama Rao even tried to bargain for a “national project” status for one of the infrastructure projects in the state. In effect, the everyday political slugfests were set aside as the agenda of development took centre stage.

Union minister Gadkari, who gave away the awards, claimed the BJPled NDA government at the Centre

CHANDRADEEP KUMAR

WINNERS BIG STATES OVERALL HIMACHAL PRADESH ECONOMY TELANGANA AGRICULTURE MADHYA PRADESH EDUCATION HIMACHAL PRADESH HEALTH MAHARASHTRA INFRASTRUCTURE HIMACHAL PRADESH LAW & ORDER GUJARAT GOVERNANCE KERALA INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT HARYANA TOURISM HARYANA ENTREPRENEURSHIP KARNATAKA ENVIRONMENT & CLEANLINESS TELANGANA

SMALL STATES

HALL OF FAME Union minister Nitin Gadkari, India Today Group Vice-Chairperson Kalli Purie and India Today Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa with the award winners

“We need extensive public transport systems like the one London has. Only that can solve the problems we are facing now.”

NITIN GADKARI Union Transport Minister

does not believe in mixing politics with development. Amid demands for sustainable methods to tackle the pollution issue in Delhi, he said: “We want to cater to the city’s transportation needs by providing public transport that runs on pollution-free fuel.”

Gadkari also revealed that the transport ministry is in talks with the petroleum ministry for introducing ethanol as an alternative to petrol and diesel. “Ethanol is cheap and produced from sugar molasses. Instead of burning rice husk and cotton straw, farmers will be able to sell the stubble to the thousands of units our government sets up. These units will convert biomass to ethanol,” Gadkari said.

He also explained the economics of ethanol, saying that one tonne of

OVERALL PUDUCHERRY ECONOMY DELHI AGRICULTURE NAGALAND EDUCATION ARUNACHAL PRADESH HEALTH DELHI INFRASTRUCTURE SIKKIM LAW & ORDER PUDUCHERRY TOURISM PUDUCHERRY

paddy waste would produce 180 litres of ethanol. “I will stop the practice of importing fuel and instead make India create indigenous fuel. I have been working on this issue for over 10 years now,” he said.

Hinting that the solutions for the future lie in improved public transport, he said: “We should look to an extensive public transport system like the one big cities like London have.

Only something like that can solve the problem we are facing now.”

The conclave also saw awardwinning chief ministers recount their turnaround stories. Pinarayi Vijayan, chief minister of Kerala, which was declared best big state in governance, said, “My government believes in keeping politics off development and focus-

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VIKRAM SHARMA

STATE OF OF THE STATE STATES THE STATES

CENTRE STAGE (From left) Puducherry CM V. Narayanasamy addresses the gathering as Raj Chengappa,

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Himachal’s Virbhadra Singh and Haryana’s Manohar Lal Khattar listen in

ing on development of the people.”

Suggesting that people should be able to contribute to the development process, CM Vijayan said, “Development and policies are not hollow words, supposed to be brought up only in election season to secure votes.

We have to serve the people of the country.” He highlighted the fact that Kerala can boast about high standards of living because the government prioritised public healthcare, education and affordable housing along with waste management.

The Kerala chief minister’s biggest challenge has been to create a corruption-free governance environment.

“We have attacked corruption from top to bottom,” the CM said, adding that he wanted to end the fear perception the public has about the government.

Crediting the development in Himachal Pradesh to the continuous efforts by former prime ministers, Virbhadra Singh said: “Earlier, Himachal was competing with the smaller states, but now the state is in the big league. We are striding forth as a strong economy.

The satisfaction factor among people in our state is quite high.” Indeed, Himachal Pradesh emerged as the overall

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best among large states and also was winner in two other categories—education and infrastructure.

Claiming that the state’s wellconnected borders, from Kashmir on one side to Punjab on the other, are a reflection of the excellent road network in Himachal Pradesh despite the difficult terrain, the chief minister said that the state has made gigantic leap in the education sector. From a time when it was laggard in the education sector, today it consistently tops the rankings among states.

Manohar Lal Khattar, chief minister of Haryana, which was declared winner among big states in two

The Kerala chief minister’s biggest challenge has been to create a corruptionfree governance system. “We have attacked corruption from top to bottom,” Pinarayi Vijayan said

categories (inclusive development and tourism), said that from the beginning the focus of his government has been on making women part of the development process. The drive against female infanticide and the Union government’s ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign was a step in that direction.

The chief minister pointed out that as compared to the required 33 per cent representation of women in local bodies, the state now has 42 per cent representation. He also claimed that his government has made “minimum” education mandatory for eligibility to contest in a panchayat election and purged the political system of antisocial elements.

Talking about growth rates, Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy said that at 11 per cent, his state was growing more than double of the national average. The chief minister invited prospective investors to set up businesses in the state and take advantage of the benefits of the industrial policy launched last year. Puducherry was declared the overall best state among small states and was also winner in two categories—law and order and tourism. n

CENTRED ON JOAN DIDION PG 6 2

MONOPOLY BUSTERS PG 6 6

LEISURE

INTERVIEW WITH RAUL ZURITA PG 65 Q&A WITH AMIT TRIVEDI PG 6 8

OPER A

IN PERFECT HARMONY In Chang’an Men, or The Gate of Eternal Peace, Lucknow-born composer and conductor Vijay Upadhyaya attempts what even Chinese musicians consider a daunting exercise: distilling the essence of Chinese history and philosophy into one grand musical composition.

Y VIJA AYA’S Y H n D UPA a Chang’a ry oper s the sto y or tell Men inese hist ugh o h r C h of et ultur and c music

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LEISURE Unveiled in Beijing on November 13 to a packed residential complex in north Beijing that forms the base Beijing Concert Hall, Upadhyaya’s ambitious 80-minute for the China National Symphony Orchestra. symphony fuses Western and Chinese styles. It features Upadhyaya says his hope for the symphony, which will an elaborate Western choral arrangement, several Chinese be performed in Vienna next, “is to not only explain Chiclassical instruments and a southern Chinese folk singer. nese culture abroad but to their own people,” especially to It was an impressive debut, despite the fact that the younger generation that’s forgotten its roots.

Upadhyaya had only a week with the China National The first of the symphony’s four movements draws on Symphony Orchestra in Beijing. “This was the first time the Lunyu, or Analects of Confucius, expressing the five such a composition was commissioned by the governtraditional virtues of noble being, righteousness, proper ment of China to a foreigner,” he said after the concert. conduct, wisdom and trustworthiness. A quintessentially A naturalised Austrian who has lived in Vienna Chinese piece, it ends with a sense of aggression that since 1987 and heads the music department Upadhyaya says is meant to represent the chaos at Vienna University, Upadhyaya has been of the Warring States period and subsequent It took visiting China regularly for a decade. Over the search for order that fuelled Confucian thought.

Upadhyaya past two years, he has visited every six weeks to The second movement is inspired by the I nearly a year Ching or Book of Change. It is slow and meloresearch Chinese history and philosophy, and it took him nearly a year to write the opera. to write the dious, following the tones of language in the “The opera basically tells the story of Chinese tradition of performances of old Chinese poetry. opera history and the roots of Chinese philosophy The ‘guzheng’—a stringed Chinese instrument— through music,” he explained as melodious features prominently, played by musician Wei Ji sounds drifted through the grim, Soviet-style of the China Central Conservatory of Music.

FILM

Best Bet

COURTESY NETFLIX

N

OUND MUDB y of two tor is the s orld War II W r e m for justing s read soldier a racially to life in d town in ate segreg ississippi rural M 60

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etflix films Okja, First They Killed My Father and The Meyerowitz Stories will all vie for Oscar glory this year. But the newly released Mudbound is the streaming giant’s best shot at a win.

Co-written and directed by Dee Rees, the story of two families living in a racially segregated town in rural Mississippi in the 1940s is rewarding both in scale and emotion.

At the end of World War II, young men from both families return home. But neither the privileged white captain Jamie (Garrett Hedlund) nor the black sergeant Ronsel (Jason Mitchell)—thrown together by their common experience of war—is happy with what he finds.

Jamie finds his elder brother Henry (Joe Clark) struggling with the farm and his family. And Ronsel has trouble readjusting to his second-class status in segregated America after fighting in Europe.

While this writer found the guzheng-heavy movement to be the most powerful one, Upadhyaya appears most passionate about the third movement. It features singer Cai Yayi performing Nanyin, a type of folk music from southeastern Fujian. “Nanyin is a dying art and she is one of few authentic artists trying to preserve it,” he says.

In India, Upadhyaya performed a similar orchestral arrangement using Tamil and Malayalam folk music, and plans to do so in Telugu and Kannada. He believes China is doing far more than India in promoting traditional culture and fast-fading folk arts. The Chinese government has invited him to be part of a “1,000 experts” programme to advise the government on promoting the arts and preserving traditions. “India and China are facing the same problem, and it’s not due to any political system but because of changes such as the media and globalisation. In India, it is being killed through Bollywood. Besides the Carnatic music tradition, there is the Hindustani music tradition but folk music is dead. The diversity is dying out.”

“The difference,” he says, “is that the government of

“Over there I was a liberator,” Ronsel tells Jamie as the two bond over alcohol, cigarettes and war stories. In America he feels captive to his race.

Adapted from Hillary Jordan’s novel of the same name, Mudbound is not only about the former soldiers’ readjustment woes. It’s also the story of their families struggling to seek a better life in a rough environment. With a fine ensemble cast that includes Carey Mulligan as Henry’s wife Laura and Mary J. Blige as Ronsel’s mother Florence, Rees creates a compelling portrait of the messy life in the agrarian south.

Rees and co-writer Virgil Williams ably weave in passages from Jordan’s novel in voiceovers that reveal the innermost thoughts of the characters.

As a director, Rees doesn’t resort to household theatrics and extreme violence to expose the racial divide, and she treats her characters, even the flawed ones, with tenderness.

Her subtlety means that Mudbound isn’t as riveting a watch as Jordan Peele’s horror hit Get Out or as disturbing as Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave. But it’s a powerful addition to films that raise questions about America’s race problem. n

—Suhani Singh

China has a programme to try and keep this alive. This is a major policy emphasis and in India we simply haven’t seen any such effort.” But music is not the only arena where he feels China’s authoritarian government is outperforming Indian democracy. It’s also doing better in the fight against pollution and gender inequality, he says. “Working in China for 10 years, I don’t believe in democracy anymore,” he said. “India and China started in the 1970s at the same point, and look at where China is today.”

He laments that political squabbles have thwarted more cultural exchanges between India and China. “There is a big acceptance and respect for Indian culture in China, but I find that India is too defensive about the whole thing. They see us as a similar culture, but there seems to be a lobby in India that is against China. Maybe there are political issues in Arunachal or Kashmir, but you can also look at the positive points, whether business or culture.”

Starting a joint India-China orchestra, he suggests, would be one small step in addressing the disharmony.

But that, for now, remains an unfinished symphony. n —Ananth Krishnan

OSCAR BOUND Netflix’s Oscar contenders hit the web the same day they hit theatres. Will one of them manage what Beasts of No Nation (2015) couldn’t?

OKJA

This heartwarming fantasy film was a sensation at Cannes. It could earn Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho a Best Director nod.

FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER

Angelina Jolie’s drama about the Khmer Rouge has already been selected as Cambodia’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film.

THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES

The story of three adult siblings and their difficult relationships with their artist father, this ensemble comedy could get Adam Sandler a nod for Best Supporting Actor.

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DOCUMEN

TA R Y

TE D ST RE SH

IN SK Y PH OT OG

RA PH IC AR CH

IV E

Y L T C E F R PE CENTRED

have always found that if I examine something, it’s less scary,” author Joan Didion says one hour into The Centre Will Not Hold, a new 90-minute Netflix documentary on her fascinating life. Didion has denied numerous requests from other filmmakers keen to make similar movies. And the perceptible intimacy between this iconic

I

E ENTR THE C T HOLD O N L ­ WIL ix docu is a Netfl n writer o y r menta ion’s life Joan Did

American writer and director Griffin Dunne who, incidentally, is her nephew, proves she waited for the right moment.

Dunne unobtrusively unveils Didion’s extended insight on subjects that have yielded one of the most enduring bodies of work in modern American literature: the drug epidemic in San Francisco (Slouching Towards Bethlehem, 1966) and the

Manson murders in the 1960s (The White Album, 1977); violence wrought by civil war in El Salvador as a result of America’s Cold War era foreign policy (Salvador, 1982); and the nearly debilitating grief she endured after the deaths of her husband, writer John Griffin Dunne, and 39-year-old daughter, Quintana, in 2003 and 2005, respectively—The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) and

WAT C H L I S T

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NEWTON

SYAAHI

India’s entry to the Oscars is a must­watch. Featuring pitch­perfect performances, it’s a political satire that makes you appreciate India’s vibrant democracy even as it exposes its flaws. Amazon Prime

In this National Award­winning short, a child (Himanshu Bhan­ dari) finds himself in a predica­ ment of Iranian film propor­ tions: track down his father’s novel manuscripts in a bazaar.

YouTube

LEISURE N C PA

Blue Nights (2011).

Didion’s major literary works (as well as screenplays co-written with her husband) foreground the chronology of the film.

Her reflections on why and how she undertook each project are accompanied by thoughts from writers and friends on Didion’s impact on their own work as well as on American literature and culture. Together, they prompt the viewer to wonder what makes her work unique and attempt to pinpoint why her work will endure—which is inevitable.

For me, the answer is the integrity that the film reveals she brought to her working life. Integrity, her life shows, is required not only to endure, but also to produce honest work, and thus, ultimately, connect with the inner life of other human beings. Integrity defines Didion’s work, and the unspoken goal of the

Integrity defines Didion’s work, the film tries to translates that ideal from prose to video

film is to translate that ideal from prose to video.

In Self-respect, Its Source Its Power, an essay Didion wrote for Vogue magazine in the early 1960s, Didion puts it this way: ‘Character, the willingness to accept responsibility over one’s own life, is the source from which self-respect springs.

However long we postpone it, we eventually lie down alone in that notoriously uncomfortable bed, one we made ourselves.

Whether or not we sleep in it, of course, depends on whether or not we respect ourselves.’

In this spirit, the film reveals that the ‘examined life’ of Joan Didion has produced literature immeasurably worth reading. n —Ashwin Parulkar

IN THE SPOTLIGHT Nine plays, in English, Hindi and Gujarati, and across genres, will premiere as part of the eighth edition of NCPA CentreStage 2017 from Nov. 25 to Dec. 3. Among the highlights: a live podcast by British comic Andy Zaltsman and an adaptation of Shakespeare’s poem, Lucrece

—Rinky Kumar 1 SUNDAYS WITH CHITRA & CHAITALI Actress Isheeta Ganguly merges the Chitra of Rabin­ dranath Tagore’s Chitrangada with the Chitra of Maha­ bharata in this English play. Exploring women’s issues, albeit in a light vein, it has music by renowned compos­ er Pritam and opening narration by actor Ira Dubey 2 MARA ASATYA NA PRAYOGO: MY EXPERIMENTS WITH LIES Directed by renowned actor Pritesh Sodha, this Gujarati monologue is a tongue­in­cheek look at the degeneration of moral values in contemporary society 3 SHABD LEELA The Hindi play, directed by actor K.K. Raina and adapt­ ed by actor­singer Ila Arun, will have actors Rajeshwari Sachdev, Varun Badola, Rahul Bagga and Abhishek Pandey read out portions of author Dharamveer Bharti’s works such as Kanupriya, Andha Yug et al 4 DR ANANDIBAI: LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE Veteran director Manoj Shah chronicles the struggles and suc­ cesses of Dr Anandibai Joshi, India’s first female doctor in the 19th century who died at age 22, in this Gujarati play 5

LESS THAN ZERO Written and directed by Kaizad Gustad, this English­gibberish play has its protagonist Zero (Yashwant Singh) wanting to end his life, yet wearing a hat to keep the sky from falling on him. Two angels (Salone Mehta, Nandita Dubey) arrive to help him see life in better light

GODLESS

After David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh joins the Netflix bandwagon with a Western in which Jeff Daniels is a menacing outlaw in search of his traitorous protege

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LEISURE Austenistan Edited by Laaleen Sukhera Bloomsbury, Rs 350

D BOOKS

Dreadful Tale

W

hen Elsie Bainbridge arrives at The Bridge at the beginning of Laura Purcell’s first novel, The Silent Companions, the stage is set for an eerie story along the lines of The Others.

The Bridge is a ghostly, half-derelict mansion where “everything was dead”. Elsie is dressed, appropriately, in widow’s weeds, and the weather obliges too: “The sky was iron grey, the monotony broken only by crows.” So far, so Gothic.

With her elements in place—young widow, hostile villagers, crumbling mansion house, mist and mud and rain—Purcell’s story unfolds in a series of unfortunate events told in three different times. The main story, set in 1865, follows Elsie’s discovery of an antique painted figure in a long-locked attic room—one of the “silent companions” of the book’s title.

NT E This sets in train ghostly, ghastly and IL S THE S ANION gruesome happenings that lead to a COMP e path of in th follows host stories Tarantinoesque body count and Elsie’s g Gothic ile on the incarceration in St Joseph’s Hospital for p h ic h w m nd doo the insane. gloom a The asylum is the setting for the second strand of the novel, where a doctor tries to piece together the events that have led to her incarceration. Is his patient mad? Is she a fantastist? Has she succumbed to what the villagers describe as an attack of the “morbs”? Is she a criminal, or is there something out there… beyond the understanding of mere science?

The third strand is the back-story for the companions.

Rewind to 1635, and Josiah Bainbridge, lord of the manor, and his wife Annie, are preparing for a visit from the King and Queen.

Annie decides that life-like figures painted on freestanding wooden boards will be just the ticket to amuse and delight the visiting royals. The ‘companions’ turn out to be less a harmless divertissement than malevolent harbingers of evil.

Unfortunately, the pastiche of elements from great gothic ghost stories fail to deliver on the promise made by the eerie eye peeking out of a die-cut keyhole on the book’s cover. In so relentlessly piling on the gloom and doom, Purcell’s book backfires and the result is more dreadful rather than dread-full. n

id you know there’s a Jane Austen Society of Pakistan (JASP)? This anthology of short stories inspired

by Jane Austen’s novels and set in contemporary Pakistan is written by members of the JASP. It’s a sparkling world that doesn’t bother with the Pakistan you see on the news. In Austenistan, the partying is constant, there’s romance in the air and booze is always at hand. Smart, sassy and essentially a pack of mini Mills & Boons, with tall, fair, handsome heroes who have a thing for heroines perched on Jimmy Choos.

Trust No Aunty Maria Qamar Simon and Schuster, Rs 599

M

aria Qamar is better known as @hatecopy on Instagram, and with art that’s a love child of Amar Chitra Katha and Roy Lichtenstein, she’s got advice for the desi girl. Trust No Aunty is a guide to surviving aunties, the agents of the conservative old world who, in conjunction with your strict parents, try to turn you into a good, (brown) girl. Although talking to the South Asian diaspora in North America, Qamar’s words of wisdom may well resonate with many young girls in India. She may not be saying anything new or insightful, but she’s fun.

LEISURE Photo by BANDEEP SINGH

I N T E RV I E W

Words on Water

Renowned Chilean poet Raul Zurita opened the Kochi Biennale this year with an ode to the Syrian refugees killed in the Mediterranean, Sea of Pain. This month, a new Hindi translation of his poems (1979-2016) is out under the same title.

Q When did you first encounter the sea?

I was six. The immensity of the waves crashing in the sea, to me it was a metaphor for the intensity of human feelings. My sister was scared but I was happy.

Q Why did you write Sea of Pain?

I was pained by the fate of

the Syrian refugee children.

The sea had become their tomb. You saw the bodies on the shore and I recreated the sea on the stage when it throws up the bodies.

Q How do you see India?

I first came to India in 2004 for the Kolkata Book Festival. It is a fascinating country. From a boat, I saw

the sunrise in Benares.

The cremations were something that had amazing strength, almost an act of purification.

Maybe there is no explicit reference to India in my poems but there are many images from here.

Q Any specific influences?

At 25, I stumbled upon the Mahabharata and I love the unresolved character of the boy who was thrown in the river. In the final conflict, he forgets the spell. He goes down the chariot and

the arrow chops his head.

I like him. He knew the fate that awaited him. It is like Achilles in Homer’s Iliad.

Q What is the power of poetry?

Poetry is like the hand that plunges into you and saves you. Poetry has no powers.

It cannot change the state of society. It can’t stop the armies. But without poetry, there is no hope.

Q What is love?

It is the most important thing in the world. n

—with Chinki Sinha

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LEISURE

TECH

CUT THE

CLUTTER WIRELESS HEADPHONES HAVE EXISTED FOR YEARS BUT THE NEW BREED OF WIRELESS EARBUDS SCORE HIGH ON SOUND AND STYLE —Nidhi Singal GAMES

Monopoly Busters The last we heard of an Indian board game, a prince lost his kingdom and wife. A few millennia down, a new board game spends its time avoiding men likely to wager their wives in a gamble. Released this month, Nashra Balagamwala’s Arranged is a board game on the Indian arranged marriage system. It’s full of unwanted suitors and aunties who’ll thrust those suitors at you. If arranged marriage is not your thing, there are a host of new games that aren’t about building an empire, buying up the city or hunting down Mr X.

APPLE AIRPODS `12,900

RISE UP: THE GAME OF PEOPLE AND POWER Time: 1.5 hours, Players: 2-5 Play against the ‘System’ and get a movement going at campuses, workplaces, the inter-web, farms, in the culture space using tokens from supporters. The ‘System’ plays its own cards to counter the movement.

Lose supporters or let the system gain too many wins, and your movement is dead.

FREEDOM: THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD Time: 1-2 hours, Players: 1-4 In this game based on the Civil War in the United States, players collaborate with each other to fuel the antislavery abolitionist movement. You free slaves and raise funds while evading slave catchers and finish the game without losing too many slaves to the plantations.

BLOC BY BLOC: THE INSURRECTION GAME Time: 2-3 hours, Players: 2-4 If insurrection’s more your style, try Bloc by Bloc.

Each player has a number of revolutionaries to form a faction and works with other factions in the city (the board) to ‘liberate’ it before the military quells the rebellion. Through 8 rounds, each one night, the players loot shopping centres and set up barricades while also trying to finish their faction’s secret agenda.

Complete this secret agenda, and you win.

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These smart wireless earbud auto-detect whether your are walking or jogging and log the time, distance and calories burnt. They also have 4GB of internal storage that can store up to 1,000 songs, useful for workouts even when the phone is not around

SAMSUNG GEAR ICONX EARBUDS `13,490

$159

DIPESH SHRIVAS

GOOGLE PIXEL BUDS

Built to be used with Pixel smartphones, these earbuds give the user access to Google Translate. Circular in shape, they feature gesture controls such as swipe or touch to switch songs, answer calls or even adjust volume levels. These are wireless headphones but the left and right buds are connected via a cloth cord and rest in a charging case

B E V E R AG E

LIQUID GOLD

Easy to set up with just one tap, AirPods sense when they are in your ears and pause music when taken out. Work seamlessly with iPhone, a double tap activates Siri.

Stored neatly in a case, when opened, shows the battery status of each pod

U

BANG & OLUFSEN BEOPLAY E8 $299

Made for music, Beoplay E8 is a perfect blend of design and performance, that too in a small wireless earbud. It has touch sensitive pads to control music and calls, and a Transparency feature allows surrounding noise to pass through. With a fourhour battery life, it comes with a charging case that can juice Beoplay E8 twice

nlike a traditional grape wine, which seldom smells of the fruit itself, the aroma of chikoo wine comes from the overwhelmingly sweet fruit. Made ciderstyle, Fruzzante Wines’ inaugural beverage made with locally grown chikoos is a deep gold-hued carbonated drink with a sweetness in flavour akin to vanilla, toffee or butterscotch. A hint of bitterness complements the flavour of the wine—which is best served with a dash of tonic.

The brainchild of Priyanka Save and her husband Nagesh Rai, Fruzzante is the only producer of chikoo wine in the E world. Save and her family own O WIN CHIKO p golda chikoo and mango plantation is a dee onated rb in Dahanu, Maharashtra, and hued ca a flavour ith since 2009, the engineer had drink w vanilla or akin to cotch been attempting to make use of butters the produce and process it. “The basic problem we faced was the fruit’s ph meant it would oxidise in half an hour.

So juicing or drying the fruit was not feasible; the fermentation process would begin on its own,” explains Rai. And then the idea of producing wine struck them.

At the family-owned Hill Zill Resort and Winery in Bordi, 25 km from Dahanu, the chikoos are ripened in a temperature-controlled chamber, then crushed and processed for juice extraction.

The nectar, 40 per cent pure chikoo juice, is then transferred to tanks for fermentation. Canadian winemaker Dominic Rivard, a specialist in fruit wine, has helped the duo perfect the process.

Currently serving the cider-style wine in 330ml bottles at Rs 255 across retail outlets in Mumbai, the team continues to experiment with other fruits. Next is likely to be a mango dessert wine, followed by a starfruit wine. n —Moeena Halim

DE C E M BE R 4, 2 017

INDIA TODAY

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Q A

Music Hour

Music director Amit Trivedi, on living in the studio, the 1970s and why he misses the horn section in the orchestra Q. So, you just rode the Red Bull Tour Bus. Do your best ideas come in the studio or do you like to venture out of the city to be inspired?

It is not feasible every time to go out. When I do, I go to Goa mostly.

It’s the most chilled-out place in India. It’s like getting away from all the madness. You need silence and space in your life.

Q. One instrument you miss the most in Hindi music.

The horn section. There aren’t many people, in Bombay at least, who do it. It’s kind of vanishing but I love it.

ANIRUDDHA CHOWDHURY/ GETT Y IMAGES

68

Q. If you could go back in time, which musical decade would you choose?

The 1970s was the best ever. I don’t think it can be recreated, not in my life span at least. The best work happened then across the globe.

I don’t know if it was something in the air or water. It was magical.

Q. Do you get time to see live performances?

One day I will just tell Bollywood goodbye for six months. I have to take a sabbatical.

I need to travel, understand more and get clued in with what’s happening around the world in music. Yes, YouTube does open up your world but it’s not the same as personally going and seeing.

Q. What’s the best concert you have attended?

Shakti. I have seen them perform many times when the late U. Srinivas [mandolin player] was there.

—with Suhani Singh

EDI RIV IT T music to M A han gave last Aamir K ret c e e th rer, S star perstar Su

Volume XLII Number 49; For the week November 28-Dec 4, 2017, published on every Friday Total number of pages 92 (including cover pages)

DIGITAL EDITION

THE SAUDI GAME OF THRONES

DECEMBER 4, 2017 `60

www.indiatoday.in

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ARMED FORCES: MISSION CHINA

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THANK YOU FOR READING 8 3 9 9 0 9

RNI NO. 28587/75

THE POLITICS OF OUTRAGE WHY MYTH, HISTORY AND ELECTORAL CALCULATION COLLIDED TO FUEL THE PADMAVATI CONFLAGRATION

PLEASE CONTINUE TO YOUR FREE MAGAZINES FIVE THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE CITY

DECEMBER 2017

A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

NOVEMBER 2017

FUN EVENTS TO LOOK FORWARD TO

OUR PICK OF THE MONTH

ANNIVERSARY ISSUE A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

Mumbai NOVEMBER 2017

OUR PICK OF THE MONTH

A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

MODELS IN DESIGNER PAYAL SINGHAL’S OUTFITS

ALSO OUR PICK OF THE MONTH

Winter Special WHAT NOT TO MISS THIS SEASON

WED IN STYLE PEOPLE BEHIND THE CITY’S HOTTEST WEDDING TRENDS

GET MARRIED IN STYLE

8 BRIDAL WEAR DESIGNERS ON THE LATEST TRENDS

NOVEMBER 2017

FUN EVENTS TO LOOK FORWARD TO

OUR PICK OF THE MONTH A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

WED IN STYLE PEOPLE BEHIND THE CITY’S HOTTEST WEDDING TRENDS

inside

16

City Buzz

Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie

Ü

Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa Editor-at-large Kaveree Bamzai

Cover Story

Group Creative Editor Nilanjan Das Group Photo Editor Bandeep Singh

Associate Editor

4

Photograph by

TWOGETHER STUDIOS

Ü

Eight exciting events to look forward to in the city including a super fun pet fest and an electronic music festival.

Wed me Good

A curated list of all that you need to make your wedding a truly memorable affair.

Mohini Mehrotra Editorial Team Rewati Rau, Akshita Khosla

Cover photograph by TWOGETHER STUDIOS

Photo Department Vikram Sharma, Chandradeep Kumar, M Zhazo, Rajwant Rawat Photo Researchers Prabhakar Tiwari, Saloni Vaid, Shubhrojit Brahma Design Jyoti K Singh Production Harish Aggarwal (Chief of Production), Naveen Gupta, Vijay Sharma, Prashant Verma Layout Execution Ramesh Kumar Gusain Pradeep Singh Bhandari

Publishing Director Manoj Sharma Associate Publisher (Impact) Anil Fernandes Impact Team Senior General Manager: Jitendra Lad (West) General Managers: Upendra Singh (Bangalore); Kaushiky Gangulie (East)

2 INDIA TODAY DELHI F NOVEMBER 2017

OUR PICK of the month Bake in India

London-based Shaheen Peerbhai, a chef trained in classical French cuisine and pâtisserie from Le Cordon Bleu Paris and London and Centre de Formation d'Alain Ducasse in France, will be holding classes in Delhi. Set around different themes such as chocolate, brunch, eggfree bakes and more, here you will learn at least five different recipes and will get detailed recipe notes.

On December 14 to 18 At Country Inn & Suites by Carlson, District Centre, Saket Details classes.purplefoodie.com/

cover story

THE

Wedding SOIREE

GONE ARE THE DAYS WHEN WEDDINGS WERE ONLY ABOUT THE SEVEN VOWS. WITH PRE-WEDDING FUNCTIONS BECOMING AS IMPORTANT AS THE BIG DAY, THE QUINTESSENTIAL MODERN COUPLE WANTS IT ALL. FROM EXOTIC DESTINATIONS FOR PHOTOSHOOTS, TO DAZZLING JEWELLERY, QUIRKY DECOR TO A DOLLOP OF TRADITIONAL ROMANCE. HERE’S A CURATED LIST OF ALL THAT YOU NEED TO MAKE YOUR WEDDING A TRULY MEMORABLE AFFAIR. _ by Mohini Mehrotra, rewati rau and

akshita khosla

4 INDIA TODAY DELHI F NOVEMBER 2017

Lens of Love TWOGETHER STUDIOS You might not look at your wedding album every day but if there is one person who can help you preserve those memories, it will be your photographer. Arjun and Praerna Kartha’s boutique wedding photography company, Twogether Studios was born at a time when people were struggling with candid stills. “Photography was accidental. We quit our corporate jobs to explore this new genre when traditional studios were largely following a template

Photograph by Twogether Studios

cover story

Photograph by Photo Tantra

system,” says Praerna, 32. According to Arjun, 35, you must enter this business only if you love people. “You’ve got to make it about the couple. Photographers often make mistakes in the name of their artistic vision,” he adds. Talking about how they prepare themselves before every shoot, Arjun says, “We have learnt that the more you know the couple’s likes and dislikes—their chemistry, favourite colours, etc., the better the outcome is. It ensures we get happy and relaxed subjects rather than shy and nervous ones.” For the duo, it is imperative to please the couple so that they can look back at the pictures with fond memories. Sharing his dream locations, Arjun says, “I would love to shoot a couple with the Northern Lights in the background, do a photo series next to each of the seven wonders of the world or maybe shoot during cherry blossom season in Tokyo.”

Favourite Moment It’s always when the bride walks in. There is an audible hush with the eyes of the crowd on her.

PHOTO TANTRA Lauded as photographers who capture magic, Vinayak Das, 44, and Snigdha Sheel, 39, have shot everywhere from Udaipur to New Zealand, and have covered the wedding of The Big Bang Theory star Kunal Nayyar with former Miss India Neha Kapoor.

“Travel and documentary photography fascinated us but it was weddings that got us hooked in 2009.

From then to now, we are more involved personally and can really feel the pulse of emotions,” says Das. Sheel says it’s not as simple as it sounds. “You have to know how the couple met and what motivates them, to be able to truly capture their love,” she adds.

Describing their style as empathetic, real and timeless, Das mentions that his dream location to shoot at is Iceland.

Tip for Couples Spend as much time with your photographer as you’ll spend on choosing your clothes and jewellery.

Details arjunkarthaphotography.com

Details phototantra.com

6 INDIA TODAY DELHI F NOVEMBER 2017

Photograph by

VINEET MODI

cover story

Fashion SAMANT CHAUHAN This designer has managed to redefine silk roots of India, one collection at a time. From Jamalpur in Bihar, Chauhan took silk to fashion stores in Europe, Australia and the US and is constantly innovating to make Bhagalpur silk a global phenomenon. The NIFT Delhi graduate says he is inspired by people, culture, travel and art.

His dream client to dress is the uber-styish Deepika Padukone.

Chauhan’s bridal ensembles are mostly handwoven and uniquely

A cocktail gown from designer Samant Chauhan's latest collection; (below) Samant Chauhan

cover story Designer Ridhima Bhasin

modish with simple yet elegant cuts. “Our design aesthetics tell the story of a garment’s sourcing and making. Each detail on a piece has a purpose. My roots and my childhood have a major influence,” says Chauhan, 36.

Describing his fashion style as chic, comfortable and timeless, Chauhan talks about bridal trends this season and says, “A bride’s garment should be a reflection of herself— today and tomorrow. It has to stay with her forever.” A flag bearer of ethical and organic fashion, Chauhan stresses that the highlights of his pieces are embroideries and motifs. His recent Rajputana Collection from ‘The Silk Route’ uses tussar silk, cotton silk and gold zari fabric, and celebrates prosperity and magnificence of the Rajputana gharanas. “My favourite piece is the one we made with Bhagalpuri silk. For embroidery we used all the leftover fabric,” adds Chauhan.

Trousseau must-have for a bride A Benarasi saree.

Details samantchauhan.com

RIDHIMA BHASIN The effervescent modern bride can don many avatars—she can be a vision of understated elegance or can look regal, mirroring the opulence of our traditions. The idyllic spirited new-age woman inspires designer Ridhima Bhasin whose pieces strike the right balance between contemporary and conservative. A London School of Fashion graduate, Bhasin combines rich fabrics with pastel shades resulting in romantic cuts and atypical silhouettes. “Brides today believe in looking powerful and impactful with a minimalistic approach. It’s not necessary to wear something heavy to draw people’s attention,” says Bhasin, 28, whose eponymous brand is synonymous with floral fusion. Her collection flatters the modern Indian bride with its subtle yet edgy embroidery. Speaking of influences, she adds, “Architecture fascinates me.

Persian tombs, wall paintings, different shades and Afghani culture inspire me.”

Our Pick The sheer neck fringe embroidered anarkali from her Fleur Ory collection.

Contact ridhimabhasin.com

8 INDIA TODAY DELHI F NOVEMBER 2017

cover story SAKSHI MALIK When she was still purusing her B.A. programme in economics and philosophy in Delhi University, and struggling with her career decision, a conversation with her best friend's dad about makeup as an upcoming field turned out to be the defining moment in her life. "I somehow knew that was my calling. I started researching beauty academies in India and abroad and eventually started assisting Chandni Singh of Chandni Singh Makeup Studio in Delhi in September 2009. After assisting her for over six months, Malik took up a professional makeup degree course at Delamar Academy of Make-up & Hair in London and later, in 2016, came back and converted a room in her Gurgaon house into a small studio. And that's how Sakshi Malik Studio was born. Ever since she set shop, Malik has decked many a bride and is also an avid makeup blogger. Talking about current wedding makeup trends, Malik says, "Light eyes and dark lips are definitely in."

A person you'd like to style Kareena Kapoor Khan Details sakshimalik.com

Photograph by

CHANDRA DEEP KUMAR

Aakriti Kochar at her makeup studio; (below) Sakshi Malik

Make up AAKRITI KOCHAR A graduate from the Pearl Academy for Makeup and Hairstyling, this 29-year-old-graduate can transform you with her fuss-free makeup skills. Kochar stresses on perfection and her talent lies in the fact that she accentuates your features without applying multiple layers of foundation. “Makeup is an art and one cannot merely copy someone’s work to make a living out of it,” she adds. Talking about what’s trending this season, she says, “I’m going to focus on either all metallics or all pastels. Variations in smokey eyes is always a hit. For hairstyling, we are looking at textured looks without over-the-top volume but a hint of drama with curls,” says Kochar. This young artist is an ardent Mickey Contractor fan because of his eye for detail and perfection in blending skills. “I stalk him every day,” she adds.

Kochar’s favourite look is smokey brown eye lids with heavy kohl eyes.

A person you'd like to style Madonna and Beyonce Details aakritikochar.com Photograph by

RAJWANT RAWAT

cover story

Actor Mugdha Godse showcasing Apala jewellery with Sumit Sawhney

Jewellery

NEETY SINGH JEWELLERY It all began with an impromptu exhibition in Singapore where her collection was a sell-out in just half a day, "and there has been no looking back ever since," says Neety Singh, 46, of Neety Singh Jewellery. For years she had been creating jewellery for friends and family, but it was with this exhibition that she decided to convert her passion into a successful venture. "My jewellery is a blend of Indian art with an urban touch—where every piece is a head-turner without being in your face," says Singh.

From statement earrings to oversized neckpieces in gold with polki and emeralds, chunky cocktail rings to stunning wedding wear, at Neety Singh there's something to excite all kinds of bridal jewellery lovers. And the best part is that you can get a piece custom designed as per your taste and sensibility.

Hotseller Neety Singh's navrattan hoops are the ever-popular choice with her clients.

APALA BY SUMIT Ever since its launch in 2006, Apala has been satiating the city's growing demand for luxury jewellery with a contemporary edge. "My love affair with fine art and designing began at an early age, when I used to see my mother, Arti Sawhney, a well-known furniture designer, work with craftsmen. As a child, I would design fine carvings on chalk and bead them into jewellery pieces and ask my mother countless questions about precious stones and jewellery styles," says owner and designer Sumit Sawhney, 33. Apala specialises in handcrafted fine silver jewellery set with precious and semi-precious gemstones and 22kt gold layering. Talking about wedding jewellery trends this season, Sawhney says, "Chokers, big naths and maang tikas are much in vogue and so is layering."

Highlight You can look out for Apala's creations in the upcoming wedding flick Veere Di Wedding.

Details neetysinghjewellery.com

Details apalajewels.com

Jewellery designer Neety Singh

10 INDIA TODAY DELHI F NOVEMBER 2017

Lifestyle

cover story Noor Mahal terrace decorated for a wedding

SAGE KONCPT When it's about shopping for a new house before the wedding, there's nothing as time tested as steel. Pioneering this is lifestyle stainless steel brand Sage Koncpt.

Started by 29-year-old Abhishek Anand, the brand has umpteen varieties of steel ware that can bring a stylish edge to your house. Prep up your dining table with beautiful platters and bowls from Sage or liven up your bar with suave bar accessories.

But if you're the kind who loves to accessorise the house with knickknacks, their photo frames and candle stands would surely leave you spoilt for choice.

Details sagekoncpt.com

INATUR Post-wedding detox can also include a hamper of chemical-free skin-care products from Inatur.

Started by beauty enthusiast Pooja Nagdev, the brand has a variety of skin and hair care products including creams, shower gels, face packs and bath oils. For men, they have a charcoal range for skin detoxification. Details inatur.in

(top) Inatur beauty products; (below) stainless steel home decor products by Sage Koncpt

Venues NOOR MAHAL Built four years back like a palace, Noor Mahal in Karnal is themed after the rich cultural heritage of India—a luxurious mix of the grand Mughal and Rajputana styles of architecture, and makes for the perfect wedding destination from the city. A look around the lobby will give you a glimpse of grandeur to come—done up in emerald hues with beautiful carved wood furniture reminiscent of the royal durbars. The main courtyard, which is open to sky, is a lovely place to hold a mehendi ceremony, whereas the sprawling lush green lawns on both sides of the property offer enough space to hold a lavish wedding ceremony or reception. With 125 luxuriously appointed rooms and suites and nine banquets spread over the area of 2 lakh sq.ft. of area, it’s tailor-made for a stylish wedding. There are five categories of rooms in the hotel—with spacious baths, fine interiors and all the modern amenities that make for a comfortable stay, and a fully functional luxurious spa and wellness centre where the bride and groom can enjoy pampering treatments before the D-day. Coming to the food, the hotel's culinary team offers all kinds of spectacular cuisines—from traditional Thai and authentic Indian fare to Mexican and Spanish delights. In addition, their in-house sommelier makes sure your food is complemented with the right drinks.

Highlight If you're only using the hotel as a wedding venue and not as a destination, they provide the bride and groom with complementary rooms to get ready in with refreshments.

Details noormahal.in

(above) A wedding setup at The Leela Ambience Convention hotel; (left) Eros Hotel

offers a choice of Indian, Oriental and continental cuisine at the hotel, apart from the customisation option.

Highlight Overlooking the beautiful Lotus Temple, this venue is fit for people looking for an old-world charm in their weddings.

Details eroshotels.co.in

EROS HOTEL One of Delhiites' favourite wedding destinations for two decades, Eros Hotel has stood the test of time.

The sprawling property in South Delhi offers beautiful venues, perfect for the big fat Delhi wedding. Catering from 20 to 2,000 people, the hotel houses a royal ballroom and an outdoor poolside venue along with few other small and medium sized spaces. Inspired by the British colonial architecture, all the venues depict grandeur in the truest sense of the word. Venues and spaces notwithstanding, it is undoubtedly the food which makes a wedding successful. Speaking of that, Eros Hotel 12 INDIA TODAY DELHI F NOVEMBER 2017

LEELA AMBIENCE CONVENTION HOTEL Perfectly suited for an extravagant wedding is Leela Ambience, one of the largest wedding venues in the country. Boasting of India's largest pillar-free banquet hall in a luxury hotel ballroom, the space spans an area of 25,000 sq ft-that can accommodate up to a whooping 5,000 people as a floating crowd and 2,500 people in a theatre-style set-up. It can be further divided into five smaller spaces of differing sizes for various dos.

For outdoor venues, you can pick from four spectacular options such as their outdoor patio and garden. With an inventory of 480 rooms and the kitchen offering a variety of cuisine including continental, Oriental, Pan Asian and Indian, the hotel has played host to quite a few grand weddings.

Highlight Leela Ambience houses one of the finest spas in the city—Shanaya Spa & Salon.

Details theleela.com/Ambience-Hotel/East_Delhi

cover story (eft) Marut Sikka's catering setup; (below) desserts by Saltt Catering; (far below right) Yuvraj Singh and Hazel Keech at an event catered by Tandoori Nights

Catering INDUS CULINARY Way back in the year 1998, when Indian weddings were all about a set traditional menu, Marut Sikka, came up with the concept of culinary curation. Ever since, his company Indus Culinary has curated many dream menus for weddings in the city. "The idea is to give people an authentic experience.

So at our events, expect sweets from Kolkata, paranthas from Agra, Italian made by an Italian chef, and so on," says Sikka, who is called a food curator. This is why Sikka, 50, and his company take up less events, but do what they are best at— creating bespoke culinary experiences. "At a wedding we did in 2000, dimsums became a separate counter rather than a part of the Chinese station. There was a separate counter for fondue too," adds Sikka who also started the trend of serving international food in its authentic form.

Celeb Quotient Indus Culinary has catered to many star-studded events including ex-US President Bill Clinton's meal at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's wedding in Mumbai and many other celebrity events.

Details facebook.com/marutsikka

TANDOORI NIGHTS Run by a passionate duo, Tandoori Nights Catering has been making delicious memories for Delhiites since the year 2001. Chef Lalit, 43, and Sakshi Tuli, 34, who started their careers with ITC Maurya, began their catering service owing to their keenness to bring fine dining experiences to the city's celebrations. Being in the business for over 15 years, the couple has seen the city evolve from typical traditional fare to global cuisine. Celeb Quotient Tandoori Nights has catered for many celebrity events including the wedding of cricketer Yuvraj Singh to Hazel Keech, Saif Ali Khan and

Kareena Kapoor's pre-wedding function, among others.

Details tandoorinights.in/

SALTT CATERING Sammir S Gogia's love for food motivated him to start his own catering company called Saltt Catering in 2006. Offering gourmet catering in multiple cuisines for a wide range of events, Saltt is one of the most sought-after names in the city. Having drawn from culinary practices and traditions from every part of the Indian subcontinent, Saltt prides itself on offering a broad variety of Indian cuisines including but not limited to Mughlai, Rajasthani, Marwari, Malwani, Bengali, Konkan. Over and above its Indian delicacies, Saltt boasts a specially curated menu of favourite International cuisines including Oriental, European, Middle Eastern and Continental.

Celebrity Quotient Saltt Catering has catered for many wedding functions of families of brands like Rajnigandha, Aeryans (gold souk family) and Liberty.

Details facebook.com/salttcatering

Designer Manish Arora with actor Shraddha Kapoor

Feature

FASHION EXTRAVANAZA

Blenders Pride Fashion Tour held in Gurgaon saw actor Shraddha Kapoor walk the ramp for designer Manish Arora.

T

he recently concluded Blenders Pride Fashion Tour held in Gurgaon enthralled the city's discerning fashion fraternity. Actor Shraddha Kapoor walked the ramp in in ace fashion designer Manish Arora's creation. The show, held at the Kingdom of Dreams was a spectacular affair presented by Grain ft. Tapan Raj and Delhi Peace Ensemble.

Speaking about his collection, the designer says, "My collection is an amalgamation of ten years of my experience in Paris. It brings together a multitude of patterns, accents and influences. From camis, sequin boxer shorts to denim gilets and statement gowns and a varivari ety of Arabic prints to architectural geometry from the Middle East, traditional Indian Zardozi embroidery and Aztec animalia prints."

Showcasing across five cities including Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Mumbai and Bengaluru, the Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2017 featured some of the most illustrious and globally renowned designers including Abraham & Thakore, Falguni Shane Peacock, Gauri & Nainika, Manish Arora, Nikhil Thampi, Shantanu & Nikhil and Tarun Tahiliani.

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things to look forward to

FINE FEAST

If you are tired of the pub-grub-and-booze kind of vibes in Connaught Place, this latest entrant might just be the answer to your fine dine cravings. Priyank Sukhija's first outlet in the city opened 18 years ago in Chankyapuri, and now Lazeez Affaire has opened its doors in CP as well. Go here when you're in a mood to feast your tastebuds to huge portions of sumptuous Mughlai and Indian fare in a contemporary and stylish setting. Our Picks Akhrot paneer seekh, which even carnivores must try after digging into the delicious lasooni murg tikka. In the main course, don't miss the usual suspects—think dal makhani, chicken tikka paneer masala and the others.

Meal for two Rs 1,600 At K 12, Outer Circle, n By Rewati Rau Connaught Place

3

MOMO BLAST GoBuzzinga's Momo Festival is back with its fourth edition and comes packed with the craziest and yummiest momos in town. Here is where you will find the best momos from all over Delhi under one roof—from chocolate and vodka to tandoori, achari, Peshawari, Oreo, and many more.

ON December 16 and 17 AT Garden of Five Senses, Saket DETAILS facebook.com/gobuzzinga/

2

CUDDLE TIME Pet Fed, India’s biggest pet festival is back with its new edition in Delhi, so get prepared for the cutest weekend of the year with 3,000 plus pets (dog, cat, hamsters and guinea pigs included).

This should be enough to get you there, but the plethora of activities planned is the extra nudge that will have you rushing to book the tickets. ON December 2 and 3 AT NSIC Grounds, Okhla TICKETS Insider.in, PayTM and BookMyShow.

16 INDIA TODAY DELHI F NOVEMBER 2017

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city buzz

ELECTRONIC ALERT BUDx, a new initiative by Boiler Room and Budweiser Experiences is all set to put the spotlight on talent and the electronic music scene in India. The underlying focus of BUDx is to bring fans and artists closer together in a collaborative, creative experience around emerging electronic music culture through workshops, masterclasses and live shows. ON December 6 to 8 AT Dhanmill Compound, Chattarpur REGISTER budfactory.in/BUDX TIME 6 p.m. onwards

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SPICY DELIGHTS There’s something deeply comforting about going back to old favourites. And when these old favourites come with a fresh new twist to taste, one has to go back for more and more. Mr Mamagoto, Mamagoto's new Asian brasserie, has upped its shutters in Cyber Hub and the menu is a spicy mix of baos, salads, tacos and some old favourites.

Walk in and be greeted by cheerful yellow walls, a flurry of mismatched furniture and an easy vibe that immediately puts you in the mood for a laidback evening. Mr Mamagoto is comfort Asian food, with fun American and European elements that are easy to eat and wouldn’t be out of place at a hawkers' street in Thailand. For those who crave the classic taste of Mamagoto, dig into their signature dishes such as laksa, teriyaki meal and spicy ramen bowl.

We recommend Poached prawns with chilli lime jelly, pork belly taco, char sui, three pepper bomb, Burmese curry pulled pork bao, white chocolate panna cotta and coconut custard.

At 102, 1st Floor, Cyber Hub, DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon. Meal for two 1,600 plus taxes (exclun By Jahnavi Chakravarty sive of alcohol)

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BOWLS OF WONDER More and more cuisines have been adopting the ‘bowl meal’ format and it now appears to be a growing trend worldwide.

Keeping this in mind, Monkey Bar has come up with a special winter menu—the One Bowl Winter promotion, which promises to bring you delicious comfort food in a bowl.

So what's stopping you? Head there now to enjoy regional Indian and Asian meal bowls.

ON On till January, 2018 AT Plot No 11, Local Shopping Complex, Next to Mini Cooper Showroom, Pocket C 6 & 7, Vasant Kunj

8

SPECIAL SOUNDS The contemporary arts and music festival that made its debut in 2013, Magnetic Fields is back with its fifth edition. With a fantastic line-up which includes exciting names from across various soundscapes joining the likes of Four Tet, Ben UFO, Machinedrum, The Ska Vengers, Delhi Sultanate and more, the event promises to be a music lover's delight.

ON December 15 to 17 AT Alsisar Mahal, Rajasthan TICKETS magneticfields.in/

7

PLAY DAY It's the time of the year again to start preparing your superhero outfit for Delhi Comic Con. The inaugural show which was held in the city in February 2011 featured 25 exhibitors and attracted close to 5,000 visitors. This year, it promises to be bigger, better and packed full of super fun.

ON December 15 to 17 TIME 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. AT NSIC Exhibition Grounds, Okhla TICKETS comiccondelhi.com/tickets/

18 INDIA TODAY DELHI F NOVEMBER 2017

DIGITAL EDITION

THE SAUDI GAME OF THRONES

DECEMBER 4, 2017 `60

www.indiatoday.in

9

7 7 0 2 5 4

ARMED FORCES: MISSION CHINA

OC

REGISTERED NO. DL(ND)-11/6068/15-17; U(C)-88/15-17; FARIDABAD/05/17-19 LICENSED TO POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT

THANK YOU FOR READING 8 3 9 9 0 9

RNI NO. 28587/75

THE POLITICS OF OUTRAGE WHY MYTH, HISTORY AND ELECTORAL CALCULATION COLLIDED TO FUEL THE PADMAVATI CONFLAGRATION

PLEASE CONTINUE TO YOUR FREE MAGAZINES FIVE THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE CITY

DECEMBER 2017

A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

NOVEMBER 2017

FUN EVENTS TO LOOK FORWARD TO

OUR PICK OF THE MONTH

ANNIVERSARY ISSUE A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

Mumbai NOVEMBER 2017

OUR PICK OF THE MONTH

A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

MODELS IN DESIGNER PAYAL SINGHAL’S OUTFITS

ALSO OUR PICK OF THE MONTH

Winter Special WHAT NOT TO MISS THIS SEASON

WED IN STYLE PEOPLE BEHIND THE CITY’S HOTTEST WEDDING TRENDS

GET MARRIED IN STYLE

8 BRIDAL WEAR DESIGNERS ON THE LATEST TRENDS

Mumbai NOVEMBER 2017

OUR PICK OF THE MONTH

A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

MODELS IN DESIGNER PAYAL SINGHAL’S OUTFITS

GET MARRIED IN STYLE

8 BRIDAL WEAR DESIGNERS ON THE LATEST TRENDS

Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa

inside

Editor-at-large Kaveree Bamzai Group Creative Editor Nilanjan Das Group Photo Editor Bandeep Singh

4

Ăœ Cover Story

Wed in Style

Eight designers, favourites among the fashion elite, offer their top tips for the season in this guide to bridal trends.

Senior Associate Editor Moeena Halim Associate Editor Mohini Mehrotra

Cover photograph courtesy PAYAL SINGHAL

Editorial Team Akshita Khosla, Rewati Rau Photo Department Mandar Deodhar, Danesh Jassawala, Vikram Sharma Photo Researchers Prabhakar Tiwari, Saloni Vaid, Shubhrojit Brahma Design Jyoti Singh Production Harish Aggarwal (Chief of Production), Naveen Gupta, Vijay Sharma, Prashant Verma Layout Execution Ramesh Kumar Gusain Pradeep Singh Bhandari

Publishing Director Manoj Sharma Associate Publisher (Impact) Anil Fernandes Impact Team Senior General Manager: Jitendra Lad (West) General Managers: Upendra Singh (Bangalore); Kaushiky Gangulie (East)

2 INDIA TODAY MUMBAI F NOVEMBER 2017

OUR PICK of the month Opening with the Icons [ November 26 ]

The iconic CafĂŠ Sarovar at the Jehangir Art Gallery is now being replaced by Gallery No 4. The gallery, designed as an eco-friendly space, is being inaugurated with the exhibition of the private and heritage art collection of TCS. Dilip De has curated the exhibition, which includes 15 important and iconic paintings such as the works of Anjoli Ela Menon, Laxma Goud, Sunil Das and so on.

At Gallery No 4, Jehangir Art Gallery, Kala Ghoda Time 11 a.m. to 7p.m.

Tel 022-22043095/8624

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Wed in STYLE

EIGHT DESIGNERS, FAVOURITES AMONG THE FASHION ELITE, OFFER THEIR TOP TIPS FOR THE SEASON IN THIS GUIDE TO BRIDAL TRENDS _ by moeena halim

Payal Singhal LABEL

PAYAL SINGHAL

Handloom silk and brocade and fabrics like mul, chanderi and organza are big trends for wedding wear. Off-shoulder crop cholis, strapped cholis, full circle high-waisted lehengas, tiered lehengas, dhoti pants and cape kurtas are trending high in bridal couture.

Unconventional colours such as coral and bottle green, cranberry red, purple and even black would be a delight to spot on a bride.

Confidence and knowing what her likes and dislikes are is definitely something I see in more brides today. She wants to look beautiful on her wedding day but also be who she is and marry a bit of tradition with fashion and modernity.

She will pick colours and silhouettes that she is comfortable with and speak to her personality and also want to wear something which is unique and has a ‘never seen

before’ feel to it.

Classics with a modern twist are here to stay. Getting married is all about tradition, so you have to keep that quality and then play with your silhouettes, colours and embroideries to get a contemporary look from it.

We always keep in mind the number of functions, the themes if any, what are the things the bride likes and is comfortable with, where the event will take place, how many people will be there, what are the traditions and rituals. After considering all these factors, we start working on an outfit as all these things play a part in the design and its functionality.

The Payal Singhal Bride is someone who loves fashion and wants to have fun at her own wedding. She wants to look stunning and also move around, mingle with her guests and party till the end.

Available at Shop No 3, Raj Mahal Building, Altamount Road

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Sonam and Paras Modi LABEL

SVA

Available at Shop No 8, Vasan Udyog Bhavan, Opposite Phoenix Mills, Sunmill Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel

Opulent fabrics such as decadent silks, lush velvets, sheer organza and tulle are the rage this season. The rich feel of these fabrics always adds timelessness to a bride’s wardrobe.

Raw silk is one of this season’s festive best. Choose from an array of colours and prints. Skip light-weight fabrics and opt for some experimental options such as brightly embellished silk satin.

Go bold this season with hues of crimson, saffron and midnight blue.

We’re thinking of timeless colours that are perfect for a cocktail or an evening soirée. We would love to see a bride 6 INDIA TODAY MUMBAI F NOVEMBER 2017

do a deep midnight blue or emerald and venture into statement black for evening dos.

Clean-cut silhouettes are in. Ditch the typical dupatta and opt for cape sleeve jackets and corset belts to add to an interesting silhouette.

An amalgamation of classic and contemporary always works.

Elements from classics are still prevalent in Indian couture and it’s always nice to have them in your wardrobe as they will be loved and worn for years to come. We think striking the perfect balance between

classic with contemporary touches would be ideal. Anything from cropped bustiers to embroidered jackets teamed with elaborate lehengas and layered with capes—they always add a twist to the classic bridal silhouette. Pre-draped saris and corset belts add to a modern-day edgy look over a sari or lehenga.

A quintessential SVA bride remains true to herself. She perfects the art of feminine grace keeping in mind the tradition of Indian heritage and never leaves her wedding trousseau incomplete.

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Nachiket Barve LABEL

Available at Unit no 152, Bldg No 5, New Ashirwad Industrial Estate, off ram mandir, Goregaon West

Photograph by

My collection THEIA imbues the sensibilities of the modern Indian bride, from contemporary and feminine silhouettes to delicate embroidery and metallic detailing.

My inspirations were the legendary Greek and Roman goddesses Aphrodite, Hera, Gaia, Artemis and Athena, therefore I have worked with Greek drapes like the toga, and then brought in panelled skirts, bias cuts and capes worn over sultry creations with intricate embroideries to give it the traditional touch.

The bride is the celebrity on her wedding day; it’s vital to remember that. Choose something that’s ideal for you. Body type, skin tone, personality all need to be kept in mind. It should be as comfortable as it can be.

A happy bride makes a beautiful bride. And lastly take some pictures to see how it looks on camera.

A Nachiket Barve bride is someone who is evolved, likes to amalgamate tradition and modernity, and someone who understands and values quality, innovation and craftsmanship.

SAGAR AHUJA

NACHIKET BARVE

Amit Aggarwal LABEL

AMIT AGGARWAL Lush and regal fabrics, which exude a sense of tradition even on modern silhouettes, seem to be the most popular picks for winter brides. We are seeing a great response to our restored brocade and Patola ensembles.

The opulence of a vintage handwoven textile, moulded in contemporary styles is ideal for today’s brides.

Sustainability in couture is important to us. We restore Banarasi weaves using our signature technique of industrial pleating and latticing with recycled polymer strips and have been further reworked with contemporary zardozi embroidery both with metal and fibres, exquisite hand-pleated tape embroideries and detailed threadwork mixed with unusual industrial yarns.

Rose gold and silver are interesting bridal couture choices. These neutral metallic colours look great on a bride. However, a bride in black would definitely make a statement. Black with metallic accents would be ideally suitable for the wedding cocktail.

Patterns and styles are subjective to the individual’s personality and body type. I always suggest one must wear something that feels second to skin.

The Amit Aggarwal bride is someone who is independent, strong and loves to make a statement.

Available at Atosa, Aman Villa, 6/B, Anand Vihar Co-Op Society, 20th Road, Opp St Elias School, Khar West; and at perniaspopupshop.com

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Rimple and Harpreet Narula LABEL

RIMPLE AND HARPREET NARULA The bridal outfit has to be an extension of the bride, her persona and her journey and imbibe elements that she personally relates to. It is very interesting to note how globalisation and the curiosity to travel is having a cross-cultural effect on fashion, how various cultures, elements and crafts intermingle and this is also the direction bridal trends will have in the upcoming season.

Different textiles will come together in one outfit layered with traditional crafts, embroideries and motifs.

We see ourselves using gilded brocades from Benaras, silks from down south, organic handloom weaves from Kota layered with varq ka kaam and traditional embroideries such mukke ka kaam and dunka work. It is good to be inspired by the costumes that one sees on the big screen but at the same time a real bride’s outfits should also incorporate elements that a bride relates to.

While designing the Padmavati costumes, we used sturdy natural fibre cloth such as wool, silks, velvet, cotton matte, Kota cotton and organic mals that were festooned with metal thread/wire embroidery. A lot of techniques have been used to create the detailed looks for Rani Padmavati that are reminiscent of the era and each look had numerous processes that were used to achieve it.

Discuss in detail with the designers which elements work for you and which don't, what would suit your carriage and personality and then create an outfit that is a true reflection of your being.

A colour palette of mostly deep tones of old green, earthy red, rust orange and midnight blue layered with traditional embroideries and prints will be popular this year.

Av a i l a b l e a t A z a o u t l e t s ( A l t a m o u n t R o a d , B a n d ra , J u h u )

8 INDIA TODAY MUMBAI F NOVEMBER 2017

Cover Story

Masumi Mewawalla LABEL

PINK PEACOCK COUTURE

Sanjay Garg

Organza is my pick this season for layering and jackets.

Experiment with new colours and never repeat a colour for any of the functions. I suggest brides go for ivories and blush colours in the lighter tones. Among the darker ones, my picks this season are burgundy, wine and brown. I also love a nice dusty green, which is perhaps my personal favourite colour for brides this season. I would also love to see

Available at Pink Peacock Couture, A to Z Industrial Estate, Lower Parel; and at perniapopupshop.com

LABEL

RAW MANGO

Available at 1 Reay House, Best Marg, Colaba

DANESH JASSAWALA

Designer Masumi Mewawalla (right in black dress)

Photograph by

Fabric, I believe, does not play such an important role by itself. The textile should be functional and serve a purpose, either towards the silhouette or any ornamentation.

Colours are a very personal choice, but I also believe that it is important to keep tradition and culture in mind when choosing a colour.

In terms of patterns, I think it’s nice to get a balance of both contemporary and traditional.

Gold tissue, sooti sari to Banarasi silk, our options are endless. Our designs range from saris with monkeys, flamingoes, rabbits and more to antique trellis of florals. We are fortunate to be able to cater to all kinds of women—whether they choose minimalistic options, simply colour block our textiles or opt for a Banarasi silk.

brides experimenting with black as an option in bridal couture. It’s a mindset that prevents brides from opting for black.

In terms of patterns, I believe in the aesthetics of my label which is a mixture of classic and contemporary silhouettes. We at the label try making bridal outfits or silhouettes for the modern bride who loves experimenting with silhouettes but sticks to traditional embroidery.

Progressive silhouettes are a huge trend. We’re seeing brides trying different drapes, layers, cuts and so on.

Rose gold embroidery is my USP. We create 3D flowers, checkered, salli drops, sequins to highlight the borders. It’s feminine and unique.

Shubhika Davda

Cover Story Photograph by

MANDAR DEODHAR

LABEL

PAPA DON'T PREACH

Designer Shubhika Davda in her own creation

Av a i l a b l e a t G r o u n d Fl o o r, I n s i d e S u n M i l l C o m p o u n d , Lo w e r Pa r e l

14 INDIA TODAY PUNJABI F JUNE 2017

Sheer is definitely here to stay, also tulle and silk organzas for the cocktail, sangeet and receptions can be seen on gowns and sequined lehengas.

For the winter wedding—velvets and raw silks still rule as they look opulent and ornate even with very little embroidery.

Velvetpreen is one of my favourite fabrics this season. It is a combination of velvet and neoprene. The neoprene lends a beautiful stiffness and form to the velvet, hence making the lehengas look grander and larger than life without the need to put extra cancan inside. Vista blue, a combination of a blue and a lilac, and also leaf green are colours I’d love more brides to wear.

Certain cuts suit Indians better, one must not depend only on the designer but on their own personal experience and guide the designer as to what they feel complements them the best.

Hybrid lehengas with belts and pockets and interesting hemlines or embellishments if done right can look great.

My muse is always a ‘perfectly flawed girl’. Best defined by our tag line “She’s like a ribbon around a bomb”—pretty yet explosive, a mix of intriguing contradictions.

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A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

NOVEMBER 2017

FUN EVENTS TO LOOK FORWARD TO

OUR PICK OF THE MONTH

ANNIVERSARY ISSUE A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

Mumbai NOVEMBER 2017

OUR PICK OF THE MONTH

A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

MODELS IN DESIGNER PAYAL SINGHAL’S OUTFITS

ALSO OUR PICK OF THE MONTH

Winter Special WHAT NOT TO MISS THIS SEASON

WED IN STYLE PEOPLE BEHIND THE CITY’S HOTTEST WEDDING TRENDS

GET MARRIED IN STYLE

8 BRIDAL WEAR DESIGNERS ON THE LATEST TRENDS

FIVE THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE CITY

DECEMBER 2017

A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE

anniversary issue

ALSO OUR PICK OF THE MONTH

Winter

Special WHAT NOT TO MISS THIS SEASON

inside

14 Buzz

City Life

Ü

Eight exciting things to look forward to this month including a Christmas themed fire-less cookery workshop for children.

Ü

Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa Editor-at-large Kaveree Bamzai

Cover Story

Group Creative Editor Nilanjan Das Group Photo Editor Bandeep Singh

Associate Editor Mohini Mehrotra Editorial Team Akshita Khosla, Rewati Rau Photo Department Vikram Sharma

4

Frosty Fun Kolkata’s love for food, fashion and fitness gets a new meaning in winters. The city’s carnivals and clubs impart an air of ecstasy during these months. India Today Kolkata lists what not to miss this season.

Cover photograph by SUBIR HALDER; Model ARPITA GHOSH; Makeup by MALAY ROY; Styling AAVYA NATH

Photo Researchers Prabhakar Tiwari, Saloni Vaid, Shubhrojit Brahma Design Rajesh Angira Production Harish Aggarwal (Chief of Production), Naveen Gupta, Vijay Sharma, Prashant Verma Layout Execution Ramesh Kumar Gusain Pradeep Singh Bhandari

Publishing Director Manoj Sharma Associate Publisher (Impact) Anil Fernandes Impact Team Senior General Manager: Jitendra Lad (West) General Managers: Upendra Singh (Bangalore); Kaushiky Gangulie (East)

2 INDIA TODAY KOLKATA F DECEMBER 2017

OUR PICK of the month Super Sunday

Health food destination Eat Good Food in association with Artsforward is all set to host the city’s first Sunday Soul Sante—a gala celebration with music, a live art market, live pottery making and a delectable range of fresh bakes and cakes and healthy yet delicious food that is EGF’s forte. Incidentally, this also doubles as the restaurant’s 2nd birthday celebrations.

On December 3, 2017 At 19 A Tarak Dutta Road, Kolkata

0Ozora's sprawling sky deck offers stunning views of the cityscape

FROSTY Cover Story

Fun

KOLKATA’S LOVE FOR FOOD, FASHION AND FITNESS GETS A NEW MEANING IN WINTERS. THE CITY’S CARNIVALS AND CLUBS IMPART AN AIR OF ECSTASY DURING THESE MONTHS. INDIA TODAY KOLKATA LISTS WHAT NOT TO MISS THIS SEASON. by priyadarshini chatterjee

4 INDIA TODAY KOLKATA F DECEMBER 2017

DRINK & DINE

ON TOP OF THE WORLD Soak in the winter chill while sipping on cocktails over stunning views of the Kolkata skyline at 328 feet above ground. Ozora, the swanky sky bar cum restaurant on the 20th floor of Acropolis should top your list this winter. The sprawling 20,000 sqft outfit with a 10,000 sqft sky deck offers a 360 degree view of the cityscape.

SUBIR HALDER Photograph by

The breakfast spread at Shiraz Golden restaurant

Photographs by

SUBIR HALDER

LOVE FOR MUGHLAI

Potato Parmigiana

Tipple and Taste The LED lit bar offers an interesting range of cocktails such as the Foreplay, a cinnamon and coffee infused vodka martini or saffron infused whiskey served on the rocks. The menu is studded with luxurious numbers such as chicken in gorgonzola and cream sauce, mixed seafood pasta and bekti baked with chilli infused cheddar.

Winter Specials “We will have al-fresco barbeque and sparkling wine brunches on the sky deck,” says Chef Taniya Ghosh.

AT 1858 20th floor, Rajdanga Main Road

Round the year, Mughlai food lovers in the city queue up at the Shiraz Golden restaurant for their fill of perennial favourites such as biryani and chaanp. Come winters, and those in the know flock to the restaurant in the wee hours of dawn to savour the winter special breakfast items on the menu.

Warm Up Spread On offer is a range of rich, meaty curries steeped in the virtues of slow cooking, such as dal gosht that has chunks of meat cooked with a mix of lentils and pulses with warm spices, and gosht stew, a spice laden meat curry which is a far cry from its western namesake. But among the quintessential winter treats, offal–maghaz, kalla and zaban—is crucial to the early morning spread. The highlight of the royal spread is paaya—goat trotters cooked in its own juices with a host of warm spices for almost 18 hours on a slow fire.

“Things such as paaya, maghaz, kalla and zaban are not ideal for the scorching Kolkata summers. We only eat and serve it during winters. They also warm up your body,” says Ishtiaque Ahmed, partner, Shiraz Golden restaurant. You could mop up the spicy gravies with flaky lachha parathas or soft rotis fresh out of the tandoor. Wash it down with a cup of strong tea, a mandatory component of the Mughlai breakfast.

AT 135 Park Street DECEMBER 2017 F INDIA TODAY KOLKATA

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Cover Story F A S H I O N

Photographs by

SHIBANANDA GHOSH

BANARASI WEAVES

6 INDIA TODAY KOLKATA F DECEMBER 2017

PINKI SINHA

DESIGNER

An Ornate Story Designer Pinki Sinha’s latest collection for her label Vishwa is an extension of her unyielding fixation with traditional Banarasi weaves. The collection, Zari-Dhaga, revisits the age-old Banarasi tradition and reinterprets the luxurious, ornate weaves through vintage silhouettes, playful accents and an opulent colour story.

Old Meets Contemporary “With this collection we have also extensively explored the age-old kadhwa and jangla patterns, intricate chandbaali motifs and the almost extinct rang-kaat weaves,” says Sinha, 39, who is known to work closely with weavers to revive old, dying motifs and patterns. However, an interesting element of this collection is the use of not-sotraditional chequered base used in some of the designs including stylish off-shoulder capes teamed with Afghan pants. “We have given a twist to the traditional Banarasi base by using checks on the base,” says Sinha.

Winter Ready From intricately embellished sarees and fluid anarkalis to kurtas with flirty silk skirts and shararas with lots of ghera paired with straight cut kurtas and angrakkhas crafted out of exquisite weaves—the collection is apt for all those weddings and other dressy occasions this winter. The colour palette focuses on rich jewel tones such as ruby reds, sapphire blues and emerald greens and the warm, lush and heavy, pure silks are just right for the dipping temperature.

AVAILABLE AT 85 Lansdowne

Cover Story

ADARSH MAKHARIA

DESIGNER F A S H I O N

FLOWER POWER The simplicity and refined elegance of Ikebana—the centuriesold Japanese art of arranging flowers—has been the inspiration for Kolkata-based designer Adarsh Makharia’s winter festive collection aptly christened Ikebana ki Kahani, for his label Osaa.

Visual Delight The line seamlessly blends floral and geometric motifs to create striking visual metaphors evocative of the art of Ikebana. The collection's bold colour story that extends from blues and emerald green to rich aubergine, sunny yellow and cheery pink is inspired by the elements and hues of Ikebana—water, foliage and flowers.

The fusion silhouettes find translation in luxurious silks, woven tissue, flat chiffon and mulberry silk while surface ornamentation comes in the form of intricate embroidery, zari and zardozi embellishment and the liberal use appliqué work. “It is intrepid, elaborate and yet delicate,” says Makharia, 40.

Spoilt For Choice From structured peplum tops accented with weaved obi and kedia tops paired with asymmetrical lehengas, to jackets teamed up with ghararas and exquisitely embellished sarees paired with embroidered crop tops with balloon sleeves of smart shirtblouses—each number is a unique combination of the delicate and the powerful. The collection’s exclusive couture line titled Ikebana Couture is dedicated to heavily embellished bridal wear.

AT 11/1B/2 East Topsia

Cover Story

riods of slow running) to trek and hike training, high-intensity boot camps, trail runs and agility exercises—there will be something new every week. “We will be exploring spots ranging from the verdant Lakes to buildings under construction, terraces with a view and even parking lot ramps,” says Anindita Mitter, manager.

AT 57 Jawaharlal Nehru Road

SUBIR HALDER

Winters mean excess—parties, eating out and fat-laden festive treats. However, with the falling temperature your metabolism too takes a dip. It’s crucial that you fight that urge to stay under the quilt forever and pack in a workout session.

Besides, releasing a few endorphins would also help fight the winter blues.

What's New Regular gym routines often tend to become monotonous. Every Saturday, Skulpt Gym’s hour-long outdoor programmes will fold in an exciting mix of fitness regimes and training programmes. From different forms of running such as speed training, tempo running and fartlek training (which intermixes periods of fast running with pe-

Photograph by

WINTER WARM UP

W E L L N E S S AND FITNESS

GLOW IN THE CHILL The dry winter months strip your skin off moisture rendering it chapped and flaky. Your hair loses its luster and the parched scalp is often plagued by stubborn dandruff. However, with all the parties that crowd the winter calendar, you must look great.

Take a Break Indulge in a range of winter special therapies for your hair and skin with a mini vacation at ITC Sonar. ITC's spa breaks offer packs and masques use a range of seasonal ingredients along with other nourishing agents that give the skin that extra dose of nourishment. So, there are hair masques made with yoghurt, a rather effective moisturiser, nolen gur, a quintessential winter ingredient, and fullers earth that help revive the sheen.

They also offer scrubs made with gobindo bhog rice infused with the warming properties of ginger and honey to exfoliate the dead skin.

Season's Best “A particularly effective winter skin care routine for the whole body includes exfoliation with a scrub made from peels of seasonal fruits, followed by a thermal mud wrap that not only revitalises the skin but also warms one up,” says Piyali Pal, spa manager.

AT Kaya Kalp, ITC Sonar 1 JBS Haldane Avenue 8 INDIA TODAY KOLKATA F DECEMBER 2017

Photograph by

SUBIR HALDER

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CALCUTTA PHOTO TOURS

(L to R) The Mullick ghat flower market, Chinese breakfast at Tiretti bazaar and a roadside eatery serving haleem

W I N T E R ACTIVITY

“Winter sunshine in Kolkata is like liquid gold,” says Manjit Singh Hoonjan, 45, an accomplished photographer and the founder-proprietor of the Calcutta Photo Tours—a travel outfit dedicated to conducting cultural and historical walks in the city with a focus on photography. “The soft light that suffuses the city on winter mornings is ideal for photography,” he adds. Besides, winters are the best times to explore the numerous delights of Kolkata on foot.

Bazaar of Beauty Of the numerous interesting walks, a top pick is the photo walk exploring the Mullick ghat flower market—one of the largest flower markets in Asia. The early morning bustle of the flower market, the crowds, the spiraling heaps of garlands, the flood of marigolds and the myriad hues of winter flora makes it a fantastic place to explore and photograph. “Winters bring in the best yield of flowers,” says Hoonjan. Besides, this walk is also a window to life on the banks of the Hooghly and offers fantastic photo options for those looking to capture the river and the Howrah Bridge.

Cultural Delight Another interesting walk that takes a whole new meaning during winters is one titled Culture Kaleidoscope that explores the lifestyle and culture of different communities that inhabit the city—the Chinese, Jews, Armenians, Parsis, Anglo Indians and others. “Food

Photographs by

KOLKATA ON FOOT

is an integral part of understanding a culture, and is an important part of this walk,” says Hoonjan.

During winters there’s a fantastic range of seasonal treats —stellar fruit cakes from little known bakeries in the Bow Barracks (the Anglo Indian hub of the city) to Nolen Gur laden sandesh at heritage sweet shops and steaming bowls of fish ball soup.

Details calcuttaphototours.com

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GETAWAYS

Jora Ghat on the Chandannagar strand

Photograph by

COLONIAL TRAIL Calcutta might have been the second city of the mighty British Empire, but Bengal has been home to many other European settlers. Only a few kilometers from the erstwhile British capital, in small innocuous towns nestled on the banks of the Hooghly, other European colonists such as the French, Danes and Portuguese built their colonies. Drive up the river Hooghly this winter to explore Bengal’s other colonial heritage or the little that remains of it.

Danish Den Once known as Frederiksnagore after the Danish 10 INDIA TODAY KOLKATA F DECEMBER 2017

SHUBHAJIT SAHA

King Frederick VI, Serampore is a busy suburban town strewn with remnants of its Danish history and relics of it native heritage. A walk through the town’s narrow alleyways and tapering by-lanes could lead you to crumbling skeletons of once grand feudal mansions, and centuries-old temples such as the Radhaballav Temple.

There are the vestiges of the town’s Danish past (1755-1845) such as the two-century-old St Olav’s Church (recently restored from utter disrepair as part of the National Museum of Denmark’s Serampore Initiative), the imposing facade and ionic columns of the illustrious Serampore college, the

Danish cemetery, and the Danish Government House. It’s also a good idea to visit the Carey Museum and the erstwhile house of British missionary William Carey who made this town his home.

The French Connection A French colony till 1951, Chandernagore might have been stripped off its past glory by the ravages of time, yet it has effectively preserved some of its charm and traces of its French heritage.

Take a walk down the Chandannagar strand, a beautiful boulevard along the river Hooghly, to discover a few interesting specimens of colonial French architecture. There’s the Dupleix Palace, the house of French Governor Joseph Francois Dupleix, now converted into the Chandannagar Museum and Institute that stores Dupleix’s personal

belongings and other colonial artifacts, or the brick red building of the sub divisional sessions court that was once the luxurious Hotel de Paris.

You could explore the 19th century Sacred Heart Church with its beautiful stain glass windows. A short walk down the river-side promenade stands a quaint building, locally known as the patal bari or underground house (the lowest floor is submerged under water) that owes its fame to a string of legendary visitors including Rabindranath Tagore, who supposedly stayed and wrote here on several occasions.

Sample the legendary jal bhara sandesh with its hollow centre filled with nolen gur (liquid date palm jaggery). Try the ones at the Surjya Kumar Modak sweetshop.

Photograph by

SUBIR HALDER

St Olav's Church

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GETAWAYS

A Slice of Portugal Drive further down to Bandel, an erstwhile Portuguese settlement dating back to the 16th century.

It was perhaps here that Bengalis first learnt the virtues of chhana or cottage cheese from the Portuguese settlers. It is also where the eponymous Bandel cheese, a salty and smoky indigenous cheese, originated.

But nowadays people flock to Bandel to visit the Bandel Church or the Basilica of the Holy Rosary

built on the river banks by the seafaring Portuguese. First built in 1599, the church was razed to the ground by the Mughals, before being built again. Of the many legends associated with the church the most enduring one is that of the statue of Our Lady of the Happy Voyage that now stands in a niche above the front balcony.

The statue, purportedly lost in the river during the Bandel siege, is known to have appeared miraculously outside the church gate one

day. Also check out the centuries old flag mast of a Portuguese ship that survived a terrible storm at sea, presented to the church as a token of thanks by the ship’s captain. A short distance from the church stands the Hooghly Imambara, a massive and impressive specimen of Islamic architecture. The tall towers of the Imambara offer fantastic views of the river and the surroundings.

AT Church road, Barabazar, Chandannagar

Photograph by

AVIK BISWAS

The Sacred Heart Church has beautiful stained glass windows

12 INDIA TODAY KOLKATA F DECEMBER 2017

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GETAWAYS

Mud huts near the pond

A TRYST WITH HISTORY Itachuna Rajbari

Over 250 years old, the Itachuna Rajbari, a sprawling feudal mansion tucked in an obscure village in the Hooghly district, now converted into a heritage homestay is a fantastic place to spend a winter weekend far from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Built by Safallya Narayan Kundu, an illustrious member of Bengal’s erstwhile landed gentry in 1766, the Rajbari not only comes with a heavy dose of history that traces its roots back to the Bargis or Maratha warriors who plundered Bengal for a decade, but it also has a Bollywood connection. The period flick Lootera was shot right here.

The Rustic Life You could take your pick from one of the Rajbari’s well-appointed

18 INDIA TODAY KOLKATA F DECEMBER 2017

rooms complete with period furniture or book one of the mud cottages by the lotus pond. And while the very point of visiting this place is to slow down and take it easy, there’s always something to do here. Explore the mansion’s labyrinthine interiors on your own or request a guided tour, enjoy sumptuous home-cooked Bengali meals, participate in the evening aarti at the Kundus’ private temple, go fishing, or learn how to cut hay—the Rajbari is an ideal place to enjoy the simple pleasures of rural life. During winters they also host al-fresco barbeques and bonfires for guests, and on certain evenings rural musical recitals are organised. If you are a sucker for ghost stories, there are rumours abound that the mansion has a few of its own.

Details itachunarajbari.com

The facade of the feudal mansion

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things to look forward to

Light Platters

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ark Street, long identified with vintage eateries serving heritage platters of 'Continental food' and familiar spreads of Chinese staples, has had a metamorphosis of sorts in recent years. Boasting hordes of new drink and dine destinations such as Mamagoto and Spiceklub, it has yet another exciting new addition, Ping’s Café Orient on Middleton Row. The idea at Ping’s is to serve a wholesome, street-style Asian spread with an eye for healthy eating, in a fun and laid-back setting more appealing to Gen-Y. Its Park Street outpost is a cheery space spread over 1,500 square feet and 2 floors, with quirky, colourful interiors. Ping’s primarily rides on the strength of its cocktails. In fact, the best dessert on the menu is a boozy number too—hot chocolate foam, light and delicate is piped into a glass of chilled rum. The carefully curated menu is studded with familiar favourites and rarer dishes from around Asia—Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand

to Japan and the Philippines. From the delightfully light and flavourful Tokyo Tower Ramen, a pop pick here, and tenderloin Bulgogi to smoky charcoal roasted pork skewers to squidgy dumplings stuffed with mushrooms, water chestnut and Philadelphia cheese, and flavoured with a hint of truffle oil—the menu has quite a few stunners. Besides, there are a few #onlyinCal items like Bekti Biryani trumped up with sticky rice and a whole steamed Pomfret in a fragrant broth.

Price 1,500 plus taxes for two At 2A Middleton Row n

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PARTY TIME The Ffort Raichak is all set to host their annual winter gala the Ffort Fiesta—a nine-day long carnival of music, food and fun. From live performances by bands like Ehsa(A)s and Juke Box Caspers and dance and musical acts by Ukrainian performers 14 INDIA TODAY KOLKATA F DECEMBER 2017

to a sumptuous Christmas Eve buffet serving everything from cold turkey platter to whole poached Bekti, Ffort Fiesta has every ingredient to spice up your year-end. The grand finale will see renowned band Krosswindz take stage.

At District 24, Parganas south, Rouchak

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COOK FOR christmas

The Busy Bee Academy will be hosting a fun Christmas themed fire-less cookery workshop for children at their Salt Lake address, with Chef Rahul Arora of Bon Apetit and Paranthe Wali Gali. Children will learn how to trump up simple but fun dishes with Christmassy twist—from fun cake pops and decadent mousse to sandwiches and wraps, or Christmas themes cup cake décor. The workshop will culminate in a Christmas party of sorts, complete with a tree and Santa caps, where children will be able to sample the dishes they learn to prepare.

At AC-030, Salt Lake Rd, AB Block, Sector 1, Salt Lake City Kolkata 700064 Tel 09831031005

BITE this

Cha Bar, the cosy café on the first floor of the Oxford Bookstore on Park Street, have come up with a brand new menu that packs in dishes like sandwiches stuffed with shredded chicken, gherkins and olives or one with a chicken Mortadella, jalapeno and Cheddar filling, fish and chips, etc. Besides that, you can now sample a good cup of Kashmiri Kahwa over your favourite novel.

At Oxford Book Store, 17, Park Street

DAPPER dressing

Designer Surbhi Pansari has recently launched her Fall/Winter 2017 collection for men. The line has a range of blazers, checkered bow ties, double-breasted waist coats, tailored shirts with detailing on the placket and stylish pocket squares. The season is best reflected in the collection's dark colour story. Shades of grey, midnight blue, charcoal and black dominate the line.

At 12, Loudon Street, Maruti Building Park Street

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KARAOKE nights

The city seems to be warming up to the Karaoke culture. The Irish House, one of the most popular chill zones among the city’s youngsters, has introduced Karaoke nights to their weekly calendar. So you could grab the mic and sing your heart out—rock, pop, retro or commercial, anything works at their Thrilling Karaoke Nights on every Wednesday. Things get even groovier. Every performer will be treated to a Kamikaze shot on the house.

At Quest Mall, Syed Amir Ali Avenue, Park Circus

SPECIAL treat

To celebrate their anniversary, Yauatcha Kolkata has introduced a limited period menu, the Flow and Prosper Menu, that packs in quirky martinis and exciting dim sums.

There’s the Lam Peak Martini trumped up with gin, pineapple, basil, passion fruit and Martini Bianco vermouth or Thea Martini concocted with vodka, ginger juice, vanilla and chilli sugar, apple juice and lime. On the food menu there are delights like vegetable chive dumpling, pork and prawn suimai and chicken and coriander dumpling.

Time Available on weekdays from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.

At Yauatcha, 5th Floor, Quest Mall, Syed Amir Ali Avenue, Park Circus

COOL tacos

Rollick, one of the most popular ice-cream parlours in town, has come up with a few quirky additions on the menu—tacos stuffed with ice cream. From a decadent chocolate, fudge and oreo cookies loaded warm waffle taco to crisp tacos stuffed with more chocolate, nuts and brownies or a sweet and tangy number trumped up with fresh fruits, Rollick’s icecream tacos might just be hard to resist.

At 1A, Russel Street, Park Street Area and Ground Floor, City Centre 1, Sector 1, Salt Lake