OPEN Magazine 4 November 2013 by Open Media Network

Medak: Keeping the seat warm for Rahul Gandhi

The new rules of marriage

RS 35 4 N ove m b e r 2 0 1 3

INSIDE Why all the Radia tapes should be made public l i f e

a n d

t i m e s .

e v e r y

w e e k

Science versus Ageing An exciting battle is on to push back old age

Open Mail | editor@openmedianetwork.in Editor Manu Joseph managing Editor Rajesh Jha Deputy Editor Aresh Shirali Political Editor Hartosh Singh Bal Features and Sports Editor Akshay

Sawai

Senior Editors Kishore Seram, Haima Deshpande (Mumbai) Mumbai bureau chief Madhavankutty Pillai deputy political Editor Jatin Gandhi associate editors Dhirendra Kumar Jha, Rahul Pandita assistant editors

Anil Budur Lulla (Bangalore), Shahina KK, Aastha Atray Banan, Mihir Srivastava, Chinki Sinha Special Correspondents Aanchal Bansal, Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), Gunjeet Sra Assistant Art Director Tarun Sehgal SENIOR DESIGNER Anup Banerjee photo editor Ruhani Kaur assistant Photo editor Ritesh Uttamchandani (Mumbai) Staff Photographers Ashish Sharma, Raul Irani Editorial Researcher Shailendra Tyagi asst Editor (web) Arindam Mukherjee staff writer Devika Bakshi Associate publisher Deepa Gopinath Associate general managers (advertisement) Rajeev Marwaha (North

and East), Karl Mistry (West), Krishnanand Nair (South) Manager—Marketing Raghav Chandrasekhar

National Head—Distribution and Sales

Ajay Gupta regional heads—circulation D Charles

(South), Melvin George (West), Basab Ghosh (East) Head—production Maneesh Tyagi pre-press manager Sharad Tailang cfo Anil Bisht hEAD—it Hamendra Singh publisher

R Rajmohan

All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. Printed and published by R Rajmohan on behalf of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd., 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad—121007, (Haryana). Published at 4, DDA Commercial Complex, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110017. Ph: (011) 30934199; Fax: (011) 30934162 To subscribe, sms ‘openmagazine’ to 56070 or log on to www.openthemagazine.com Or call our Toll Free Number 1800 300 22 000 or email at: subscription@openmedianetwork.in For corporate sales, email ajay@openmedianetwork.in For marketing alliances, email alliances@openmedianetwork.in For advertising, email advt@openmedianetwork.in

Volume 5 Issue 43 For the week 29 Oct—4 Nov 2013 Total No. of pages 64 + Covers cover photo

Raul Irani

4 november 2013

Suman Verma

I tried avoiding this article twice (‘Misogyny, Rape and Medicine’, 7 October 2013), presuming that it is the same one aspect journalists write about. But, when I finally went through the write-up, I feel no one must have approached the subject in this manner before. I would like to add here that last year when the Delhi gangrape incident was That girl [victim of the discussed in every Shakti Mills gangrape household, I heard one lady Reiki Master case] was brave too, in talking of the incident the sense that even if as if it was just another someone stared at her, bad episode. her eyes said: ‘Shame Fortunately, she does on you, Shame on the not have a daughter. She misogynist society’ has a son. In my office too, a male graphic designer had the audacity to ask me, when he overheard the staff talking about it, “Don’t you think the case is unnecessarily discussed?” And I told him that for him it might all look like hype because his wife stays home and they have a son. I want to thank Open for carrying such an article. It says so much about our society. I remember seeing the Shakti Mills gangrape survivor coming out of hospital without covering her face. That girl was brave too, in the sense that even if someone stared at her, her eyes said: ‘Shame on you, Shame on this misogynist society’.  letter of the week Fishing in Troubled Waters

when the formation of Telangana state is imminent despite protests and unrest in the Seemandhra region, the timing of fasts undertaken by both Chandrababu Naidu and Jagan Mohan Reddy is not only irrelevant but opportunistic. They had given their consent earlier for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh (‘The Fast and the Spurious’, 21 October 2013). Sensing that their electoral fortunes would drastically dip, both leaders are attempting to reap political dividends by preparing a base in the Seemandhra region. With the state administration coming to a halt under an inefficient Chief Minister, the

characters, big and small, each infused with life. That is a much harder job than, say, dressing up some pretty young people from Bombay like pretty young people from California for a low-stakes crime caper.  Dee

Sachin’s National Appeal

luckily Maharashtrians are not as parochial or as possessive about Sachin as Bengalis were about Dada. And that’s the way it should be (‘The Ala Re Sachin’, 28 October 2013). For 24 years, Sachin has played his heart out for India and all Indians respect that. A really well crafted article.  siddhartha

Vicarious Pleasure

field is wide open for political parties to fish in troubled waters—to score brownie points before the upcoming General Election.  KR Srinivasan

Art of Retelling

while it is true that most stories come out of certain familiar plots, what sets the work of writers like SalimJaved apart is the nuance with which the details in their particular retelling are sketched out (‘A Quiet Revolution’, 14 October 2013). So, even while Sholay is inspired by The Magnificent Seven, which is inspired by Seven Samurai, what makes Sholay such a classic is its

beautifully written piece—a wee bit long, but quite captivating for most parts (‘Nights out in a New Town’, 21 October 2013). This is a deliciously vicarious look into previously unheard-of sordid goings-on. What attracted me more than the sex-tourism angle was that it was an unashamedly classist article, through the lens of an effete middle-class Indian, into the rough-and-ready realm of the black-moneyed business type. The ‘roof of the world’, provides the perfect ‘WildWest’ setting that gives this article an altogether otherworldly feel. Jabir was undoubtedly the standout character, like most young tour guides generally are. This book will certainly be bought, and passed around.  A alok

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Communal Profiling by Public Sector Banks check

State-run banks are required to confirm that applicants with certain Muslim names are not terrorists

Mohammad, Abdullah, Rahman, Yusuf, Ismail and Basheer are some of the most common names among Muslims, and those who are so named might face a tough time opening accounts in public sector banks. The Reserve Bank of India has provided a list of such names to banks with instructions not to approve accounts for applicants with these unless it is confirmed they are not terrorists. The software used to register personal data of new customers has been updated with provisions to rule

ernakulam

4 november 2013

out the possibility of a ‘terrorist’ opening a bank account. Banks were also given a list of terrorists ‘wanted’ in India and overseas, and it is now their responsibility to ensure that customers with similar names are not terrorists. They were not, however, issued any guidelines on how to go about this—it is presumably left to the imagination of clerks. Says SS Anil of the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI): “When we enter the name of a new customer, we have to click either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question that pops up—

whether we have checked the list [of terrorists] provided on the intranet. When ‘yes’ is clicked, it brings up the next question—whether we have confirmed that this name is not on the list.” He finds it a completely unjust procedure. “No bank in Kerala has started following this instruction so far. It is ridiculous and practically impossible,” he says. “Apart from the social taboo it creates, there are practical problems. The list contains more than 10,000 names. If we follow this instruction, we might be able to process only a

few [applications] daily.” BEFI even suspects that this is an insidious attempt to weaken public sector banks. “In rural Kerala, a good number of people come every day to open new accounts,” says Anil, who works as a clerk at the Ernakulum City branch of Canara Bank. His bank has good penetration in Kerala’s northern districts, which have large Muslim populations. “More than 50 per cent of the customers who come to the bank in such areas have names that are on the list.” n Shahina KK

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vivek thakkar

small world

contents 6

38 cricket

Peak form at 42

elections

angle

The great gold dig of 2013

Rahul’s Medak strategy

cover story Science versus ageing

business

Are animal spirits in India dying?

passing through

radia tapes

Horace Grant of the Chicago Bulls

Make the whole lot public

Stress Busting For Cops d a n d a s a n a In a bid to de-stress from all the work that goes into maintaining law and order in the city, the Delhi Police seem to have turned to spiritual healing. Nearly 35 senior officials of the force attended a ‘stress management’ workshop on 20 October, conducted by city-based spiritual healer Amrit Raj. Raj gave them a two-and-a-half hour lecture on how to ensure proper coordination between the body, mind and soul using yoga, meditation and Ayurveda. The cops seemed so impressed by the workshops that they have now decided to convert the lessons into a handbook and have it distributed to police stations across the city. n Aanchal Bansal

After he mocked the excavation sparked by ‘seer’ Shobhan Sarkar’s dream of gold in Unnao, Narendra Modi ended up praising the godman awa k e n i n g

“The whole world is laughing at us... somebody has dreamt and the Indian Government has launched an excavation. The money hidden by looters of India in foreign banks is more than 1,000 tonnes of gold”

“Lakhs of people have... faith in seer Shobhan Sarkar... I salute his austerity and renunciation. I urge [also] the Indian Government to come out with a white paper on black money deposited in other countries”

—Narendra Modi at a rally in Chennai, 18 October 2013

—Narendra Modi, on Twitter, 21 October 2013

around

turn

Gold Hype in iPhones m i d a s The Apple iPhone5s Gold may not have been officially launched in India yet, but the country’s obsession with it is drumming up huge demand for the product. The world’s number one consumer and importer of gold, India is likely to be the saviour of a product that has not found many takers abroad. According to Forbes, for every order of 1,000 new iPhones by Indian retailers, the demand for the gold-coloured body is as high as 750. The colour may not be for everybody, but if demand continues to increase, it could bump up Apple’s position in the Indian market, where it currently stands at number eight. n Gunjeet Sra

4 open

4 November 2013

vogue

Fashion forecasters: do we need them?

b books

The Landour Cookbook

c cinema

A labour strike in space

a chin

ese co

uple

F o r selling their daughter online

so they could buy an iPhone An unemployed Chinese couple in Shanghai set a new record for greed when they sold their third baby online and used the money to buy an iPhone, expensive shoes and other luxury items. The couple were unemployed, not very educated and living off their parents. The woman, who had two sons, found herself ‘accidentally’ pregnant earlier this year. She lied to her neighbours about the bump, saying it was a tumour and that she was getting it treated. She had already put the baby up for adoption three months before she gave birth at home. In the advertisement, the couple had demanded 30,000-40,000 yuan for the child. After their arrest, the parents claimed that they had put their baby up for adoption to ‘ensure better guarantees for her’ in life. Not sure about the baby, but the sale surely offered ‘better guarantees’ to the parents, who lost no time going shopping for more important things than babies. n 4 November 2013

Deepika the diplomat

Delhi

App Guide f i n g e r t i p s Delhi’s Tourism Department is looking to become smartphone savvy by developing an app for tourists. It will bring together on a single platform all the information relevant to tourists: Delhi Metro routes and fares, bus timings, places to visit, hotels and places to eat. This is in line with services provided by various cities like London, New York and Oslo. While there are a few smartphone applications like this offered by private developers, the government wants to have its own app along with boosting its online presence through Facebook and Twitter. The new app will also be synchronised with the official Delhi Metro app. n Aanchal Bansal

Photo Illustration tarun sehgal

■

Hansal Mehta and Shahid

true life

on able Pers Unreasotnhe Week of ■

NOT PEOPLE LIKE US

To Err is Rat-Like r o d e n t r y Bizarre though it may seem, Science Daily reports that a new study in the journal Nature Neuroscience shows that the brains of humans and rats adapt to errors in a similar manner. The electrode recordings of each species’ brain activity showed that they employed low-frequency brainwaves in the medial frontal cortex of the brain to synchronise neurons in their motor cortex after a mistake, and that this action bore a direct correlation with subsequent improvement in the task. “With this rat model of adaptive control,

we are now able to examine whether novel drugs or other treatment procedures boost the integrity of this system,” said James Cavanagh, co-lead author of the report. n Gunjeet Sra Photo: courtesy of Brown University

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angle

On the Contrary

People Laughing At Themselves Ye living under a star sign: throw not stones at someone’s dream of hidden gold M a d h ava n ku t t y P i l l a i

dent of a godman’s dream leading to the Archaeological Survey of India digging for gold under the Unnao Fort, The Indian Express came out with an editorial on 19 October ending with these lines: ‘In this pleasant anticipation of imminent wealth—for village, state and nation—perhaps it is only killjoys who will blame the ASI for shortchanging scientific rigour on the whims of politicians. Even if all that glitters is a sadhu’s ambitions, this could go down as a case of unforgettable freakonomics, India-style.’ You will notice the sarcasm and condescension; they are definitely warranted, given how absurd the episode is. Editorials reflect the opinion of the paper and we can safely presume that The Indian Express is completely clear about the virtues of that ‘scientific rigour’ it found so lacking in the ASI. It is then a little hard to explain what the paper carried on page 18 that same day. If you were a Leo born between 24 July and 23 August, the paper said, this is what would happen to you: ‘Mercury’s witty wanderings in your chart are maintained for a little while longer, and helping you to stay one step ahead of the field in terms of your ideas and proposals. However, I don’t think you can escape today’s general undercurrent of unreason.’ Between dreaming of gold and the witty wanderings of Mercury, take your scientific pick. The Indian Express is not the only agency so blissfully unaware of the limits of its rational leanings. It is the story of every newspaper where space is given to quackery like Reiki, Chakras, Past Life Regression, astrology, gemstones and so on. People swallow such nonsense daily, without questioning. Many among them would no doubt have smirked at the gold being dug. On Tuesday, some of them would also have observed Karva Chauth, a ritual which correlates fasting to safety despite the sad truth that no bus is not going to run over a man because his wife did not eat for a few hours. You could argue that there is a differ-

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vishal srivastav/express archives

fter the unsurprising inci-

glitter fixation Crowds of people gather to watch the ASI excavation at Dodia Khera village in Unnao, UP

ence between personal belief and the ASI’s use of public resources to humour one godman’s gobbledygook. That is true, but hardly a novelty. We are breathtakingly hypocritical about keeping faith separate from State. Why else do ministers and judges routinely get sworn into office in the name of ‘God’, an entity that—forget the question of its existence—does not even have a definition? Or take public festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai or Durga Puja in Kolkata. Entire streets are parcelled off with State sanction to self-appointed groups so that they can force everyone to celebrate. To a man not blinded by faith, how bizarre

You have to agree that unlike the enormous amount of blood shed over the question of a temple or a mosque in Ayodhya, this incident is actually a wholesome sort of farce. No one is getting hurt and an entire nation is getting entertained

does a procession to drown a 20-foot elephant-headed idol in water look? If believing in a god who looks like an elephant is normal, then it is normal for the godman to dream and it is normal for a politician to force the ASI to act on that dream. And you would have to agree that unlike the enormous amount of blood shed over the question of a temple or a mosque in Ayodhya, this incident is actually a wholesome sort of farce. No one is getting hurt, an entire nation is getting entertained, employment is being generated, considering the springing up of food stalls near the dig venue, and, importantly, a few wise men who thought Shobhan Sarkar (the godman who had the dream) had a hotline to God are soon going to realise that he is either mad or a fraud. The ASI does not come out looking too good, but in the fraternity of archaeologists not dependent on the body, that is no surprise either. To the rest of the world, this incident reaffirms the exotic idea that India is a country that has developed nuclear weapons but remains, in the far reaches of its heart, a giant village. n 4 november 2013

“WELCOME TO OUR WORLD”

The seven pilots of the Breitling Jet Team belong to the international elite of aviation professionals. In performing their aerobatic figures at almost 500 mph, flying 7 feet from each other and with accelerations of up to 8Gs, errors are not an option. It is for these masters of audacity and daring exploits that Breitling develops its chronographs: sturdy, functional, ultra high-performance instruments all equipped with movements chronometer-certified by the COSC – the highest official benchmark in terms of reliability and precision. Welcome to the Breitling world.

B R E IT LIN G .COM

CHRONOMAT 44 FLYING FISH

real

india

A Hurried Man’s Guide to the feud at The Hindu

Two years ago, Siddharth Varadarajan became the first ever editor of The Hindu who didn’t belong to the family that ran it. His hiring was seen as a bid to ‘professionalise’ the daily. Many family members objected to the appointment, but N Ram, the outgoing Editor-in-Chief, backed the move. A few days ago, however, Ram was party to a decision to hand editorial control back to the family. Varadarajan was forced to resign and Arun Anant, CEO of the company, was also ejected. The rejig leaves N Ram as Chairman of Kasturi and Sons (the board that runs the newspaper), N Murali and N Ravi (Ram’s brothers) as co-Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, respectively, and Malini Parthasarathy (Ram’s cousin) as Editor.

india today group/getty images

The Hindu is home to a long-running family feud over editorial control. The first public spat broke out in 1989, when Ram, then associThe Hindu is ate editor, got into a tiff home to a with his uncle, then edilong-running tor, G Kasturi. Ram wantfamily feud over ed to publish a number editorial control of articles on the Bofors scam after The Hindu first broke the story, but Kasturi refused. Ram then approached the Press Council of India and held a press conference issuing statements against his uncle. As a result, Ram was sidelined from the paper and put in charge of the Hindu

group’s magazines Frontline and Sportstar. When Kasturi retired, Ravi took over, and various other family members like Parthasarathy also took on top editorial positions. A coup in 2003 placed Ram above Ravi as Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper. In 2011, a month before Ram was to turn 65 and demit office, he announced that the board was appointing a ‘professional’ editor (Varadarajan). He also announced that Ravi, who was expected to take over Ram’s post, would step down as editor, and so would other board directors handling editorial functions. Malini and Ravi objected to the decision then but were outnumbered on the board.

It Happens

Preserving the Fine Print How an art student kept a culture alive after the second-hand booksellers of South Mumbai were evicted S u h i t K e l k a r

N 2005, the famous

second-hand booksellers of Hutatma Chowk in South Mumbai were sent packing by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation after the area was declared a no-hawking zone. Around 75 booksellers had the book thrown at them, so to speak, and a beloved street culture breathed its last. Mumbai’s book-lovers agitated, wrote articles in newspapers, and perhaps even bought a couple more books before the hawkers left for good. Himanshu S, then a student at JJ School of Art, went a step further. He borrowed Rs 3 lakh bookwise Himanshu sells books on a street in Mumbai from six of his college mates and purchased a people who don’t always get to say van-load of books so as to what they want.” help the booksellers financially. He Himanshu is now an art teacher stowed the books in the JJ School with various city schools and canteen, later moving them into a colleges. In 2001, as a broke student loaned space in the Kitab Khana commuting daily from Vasai to bookstore, and later still into the homes of charitable-minded friends. Mumbai, he had assisted the Hutatma Chowk booksellers. “I He has been selling books ever would be since. He and his associate Aqui paid daily,” Thami, a Social Work graduate, set In 2001, as a he says with up temporary stalls with 30-40 books broke student, a smile, “and inside trendy cafes, outside Himanshu had could pick up Mumbai’s umpteen literary festivals assisted the a couple of and even on the roadside outside a Hutatma Chowk books for the tattoo parlour in Bandra. They night.” recover the money a few hundred booksellers In his rupees at a time. Himanshu says he has paid off all but Rs 90,000 so far. He year-long stint selling books on the pavement, he learnt the knack of doesn’t remember how many books putting the nicer-looking books on he’s sold. He has also gathered around him a collective of like-mind- top of the pile. He also came to respect the booksellers, who couldn’t ed folk that calls itself Bombay read but were “smart enough to Underground, which is currently learn from people what the books assembling a photo-book with photographs taken by women in the were about. They would know George Orwell better than most Dharavi shantytown. Says Thami, people.” n “We try to facilitate expression of 4 november 2013

business

Of Animal Spirits and the Great Churn con f i de n ce Are animal spirits in India dying? By the consternation caused by an FIR-happy CBI pointing fingers at top industrialists and bureaucrats (in cases that await the due scrutiny of law), it would seem a funeral is in order. India’s industrial sclerosis, Radia’s irradiation, Walmart’s withdrawal spasms and the primary investor’s low pulse—according to Prime Database, only Rs 2,166 crore of equity was raised in the first half of 2013-14—are all said to be signs only a fool can ignore. Before giving in to the gloom, however, it may be a good idea to read (or re-read) a book called Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, written jointly by George Akerlof, whose wife Janet Yellen is set to take over as chief of the US Federal Reserve (and would at least have read it if nothing else), and Robert Shiller, who won this year’s Nobel for Economics (along with two others). In a July 2009 review for Open titled ‘Rawlsian Roulette’, I had described the book as a ‘big boost for behavioural economics’ and the authors as ‘market efficiency sceptics who warned us against markets going out of whack on account of asymmetric information and irrational exuberance, respectively’: ‘In this 2009 book, they clutch their chins, knit their eyebrows and examine the economy as a beast under the influence of confidence, fairness, money illusion and other such animal spirits, and then use these quirks of human existence to explain stuff like acute poverty and yo-yo stock prices.’

rawlsian roulette For a system that is not loaded against anyone but equally favourable or perilous to all

My only problem was with Chapter 13. ‘Akerlof and Shiller want State intervention to resolve a problem of perverse labels that distort judgment and job markets. Me? I’d rather rely on information and imagination,’ I wrote, ‘I’d count on sizzlers such as the Rawlsian Roulette scene in Dhoom: II. One bullet is spun in a six-chamber revolver, and two lovers who’ve fallen out take turns pulling the trigger at each other. You can work out the horror of rising

Issues of equity and justice do animate people in India. Is this really bad for the economy?

probability. Or just hope the bullet’s a blank, as a general rule for all, whichever end you’re at. John Rawls knew it. Others know it. Equity and justice animate people: just let a depth-of-field view of the Indian scenario come into play, and hear the economy roar with self confidence.’ Was I foolish? Should I take that last line back? Failures of equity and justice do work people up and India does pay them occasional attention. Alas, the only good roar one hears these days is Katy Perry’s on FM. Then again, this may just be a phase, a churn India must undergo to reclaim its emergence story. n ARESH SHIRALI

“Fear and euphoria are dominant forces and fear is many multiples the size of euphoria. Bubbles go up very slowly as euphoria builds. Then fear hits and it comes down very sharply. When I started to look at that, I was sort of intellectually shocked. Contagion is the critical phenomenon which causes the thing to fall apart”

Man-made Gravity Jetfuel and levies are a far bigger chunk of aviation costs in India than most other markets

Fuel Cost (40%) Infographic by tarun sehgal

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ownership Cost (35%) Source: deloitte touche tohmatsu india pvt ltd

Crew maintenance airport Cost Cost fees (10%) (10%) (5%) compiled by Shailendra Tyagi

Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, talking about market bubbles in an interview about his latest book, The Map and the Territory

RAVEENDRAN/AFP

st r at egy

The Medak Manoeuvre To capitalise on Telangana, the Congress might field Rahul Gandhi as its Lok Sabha candidate in his late grandmother’s southern constituency DHIRENDRA K JHA hyderabad

he Congress, for all you know, is

still busy making cold political calculations on how to make the most of Andhra Pradesh’s break-up. Surely, the party must be tempted to gerrymander the electoral map, given the shambles in which it finds itself here, a large state that gave it rock-solid numbers in the country’s last two Lok Sabha elections. Come 2014, salvaging even a part of that parliamentary support would be difficult for it. Andhra Pradesh is buckling. But the Congress knows that a chaotic bifurcation of the state would be a calamity. A plan, therefore, is afoot to change the ground scenario in much the same manner the party did more than three decades ago in the aftermath of its worst ever crisis after Independence. 4 November 2013

The plan focuses on the constituency of Medak in the proposed Telangana state. This is the Lok Sabha seat that heralded a new beginning for Indira Gandhi in 1980, three years after she was evicted from power by the Janata Party on an anti-Emergency wave. Again, preparations are on for it to play an important role for the Congress in national politics. This time, the effort underway is for her grandson Rahul Gandhi as he gears up to lead the party into a general election due in April-May next year. ust as Indira Gandhi started her 1980 march to Delhi from two parliamentary constituencies, her traditional seat of Rae Bareli in the north and Medak in the south, so it seems Rahul Gandhi

may contest the Lok Sabha polls from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Medak in Telangana. According to sources, all roadblocks have been cleared for the purpose and preparations have reached an advanced stage to declare Gandhi as Medak’s Congress candidate. “This is the reason that M Vijay Shanthi, the sitting MP from Medak, has been made to join the Congress,” says Jagdish Shetkar, the party’s MP from Zahirabad, another Lok

Telangana would have 17 Lok Sabha seats that an alliance with the TRS could deliver to India’s ruling coalition, which faces a wipeout in Seemandhra

Sabha constituency in Medak district (there are two). Shanthi is an actressturned-politician who won the seat in the General Election of 2009 on a ticket of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), which led the agitation for the region’s statehood. She has recently switched to the Congress. By and large, Congress leaders do not acknowledge any such plan in public, but in private conversations they have no qualms admitting it. The idea of Rahul Gandhi opting for a second constituency apart from Amethi for 2014 has been in the air for several weeks now. It was first mentioned by YSR Congress leader Dr MV Mysoora Reddy in August, when he charged Congress President Sonia Gandhi with trying to split Andhra Pradesh as a ploy to brighten her son’s prospects in Telangana. Later, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) also levelled similar allegations against the Congress chief. All through, leaders of the grand old party have kept silent on the issue but moved bit by bit to get Medak ready for Rahul Gandhi. In 1980, his grandmother had won hands down in Medak. At the time, Andhra Pradesh was a southern bastion the Congress could count on. In the 1977 polls, when the party was routed in most parts of the country, it won 41 of the state’s 42 seats; the only seat it lost was that of Nandiyal, which elected Janata Party candidate Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy. Indira Gandhi’s 1980 comeback after the failed Janata experiment had been with a thumping majority. She regained Rae Bareli—which she lost in 1977—by a wide margin too. But since one person can hold only one seat, she gave up that seat in the north and opted to represent Medak for the rest of her life, showering largesse and attention on a scale that made it a household name in India. Her assassination in 1984 left the entire district feeling politically orphaned. “The district still cherishes the Indira years,” according to Shetkar, a third-generation Congress leader of the area, “It was a golden period—almost 100 per cent electrification was achieved and several big industries were set up in Medak medak connection Indira Gandhi at a public rally in Medak district in July 1984, one of whose two seats Rahul plans to contest

the hindu archives

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mahesh kumar A./ap

those who matter Osmania University students celebrate after the UPA endorsed the creation of Telangana; TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao

Sajjad HUSSAIN/AFP

[in her time].” It was because of the Indira stamp on the district that in November 2010, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh K Rosaiah announced that his government would rename Medak after the former Prime Minister. However, he could not go ahead with the proposal as his regime ended abruptly. 14 open

nce upon a time, Medak was known

as ‘Metuku’ (a morsel of food in Telugu) because it had abundant paddy to supply other often-drought-hit parts of the region with rice. Of late, it has been a nerve-centre of the movement to carve out of Andhra Pradesh a separate state of Telangana.

Located 60 km north of Hyderabad city, Medak shares boundaries with the districts of Warangal, Nalgonda, Hyderabad and Nizamabad. As a parliamentary constituency, Medak contains seven Assembly segments: Siddipet, Medak, Narsapur, Sangareddy, Patancheruvu, Dubbaka and Gajwel. Of these, Siddipet plays the largest role in determining the fate of Medak’s Lok Sabha candidate, since this segment has an unusually large number of voters. In fact, in 2009, it was because of the near-total support of Siddipet—the home turf of TRS chief K Chandrasekar Rao—that Shanthi scraped a victory despite performing poorly in the other six segments. The current Assembly representative of Siddipet is Harish Rao, son-in-law of the TRS chief. Of the other six segments, the MLA of Medak belongs to the TDP, while those from Narsapur, Sangareddy, Patancheruvu, Dubbaka and Gajwel are 4 November 2013

of the Congress. “Siddipet is the only segment in the Medak constituency that is yet to be neutralised by the party,” says Muthiyam Reddy, the Congress MLA who represents Dubbaka. According to Reddy, if Rahul Gandhi changes his mind and lets Shanthi contest the Medak Lok Sabha seat again, she will fail to retain it this time simply because she is now with the Congress and Siddipet remains loyal to the TRS. These two parties have held merger talks but nothing has come of it so far. “Last time round, Siddipet went one-sided and she won by nearly 6,000 votes,” he says, “Even if Telangana is formed before the next election, and if the TRS-Congress merger does not take place, she may just not be able to make it because Siddipet would opt for the TRS candidate.” In a way, that remains a key challenge for Rahul Gandhi too. Despite the fact that Medak has had a bond of sorts with the Gandhi-Nehru family, much would depend on the UPA Government’s ability to deliver on its promise of Andhra bifurcation and related benefits. For that, it must settle some issues on the ground, issues that are getting more complicated by the day. In picking Medak as a seat for Rahul Gandhi, the Congress expects to elicit popular sympathy and claim sole credit for fulfilling the long-cherished statehood dream of the people of Telangana. However, this is bound to alienate the TRS, which considers Medak its backyard; there is speculation that K Chandrasekhar Rao is also thinking of contesting next year’s polls from his native district. Yet, it is not a challenge that Rahul Gandhi has no hope of overcoming. One politician who can be instrumental in persuading the TRS chief to step aside for him is K Keshav Rao, the veteran Congress leader who has recently joined

the TRS along with two other party MPs. Though Keshav Rao is a general secretary of the TRS and a key aide of the party’s chief, he is believed to be a Congressman at heart. Sources in the TRS say that Keshav Rao and other Congress leaders of the Telangana region who had shifted to the TRS could help sort out an impasse over Medak in case the two parties fail to merge. On his part, Keshav Rao is reluctant to comment on an issue he calls ‘hypothetical’ because the Congress is yet to declare its Medak candidate. He, however, welcomes the idea of Gandhi taking up the new state’s ‘cause’. “Telangana as such is loyal to the Gandhi family,” he says, “This is particularly so in case of

If Rahul contests the Medak seat, it could portray him as a leader of the south as well as north. And this would place him in contrast with Modi Sonia Gandhi, the first person of the family who has come out openly in favour of a separate state of Telangana.” Of the Congress heir apparent, he says, “Everybody here is charmed by the idea of Rahul Gandhi contesting from Telangana. There can be no better situation than Rahul Gandhi… playing a role in sorting out differences between the TRS and the Congress.” On the two parties’ possible merger, this is what he has to say: “We are prepared to merge with the Congress if the demand of the people of Telangana for a separate state with full powers in all of its ten districts is fulfilled by the Government.” The formation of Telangana seems cer-

tain, but whether the merger will happen is still a common talking point in Hyderabad. All kinds of arguments, both for and against it, are being put forth. On one issue, however, there is consensus within the political class as well as among voters at large: the question of what is holding back the creation of Telangana. The Congress is seen to be delaying it to grant sufficient time for two things: first, for agitators asking for a united Andhra to burn out with fatigue; and second, for the party unit in the state—be it Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy or other politicians—to come to terms with the Centre’s decision. In addition, observers feel that the Congress leadership wants to time it in such a manner that it comes to Parliament only in the last session of its current term (the vote-on-account session in February-March 2014), and not in the winter session of 2013. That way, the Congress could maximise its advantage in Telangana as election season kicks in. The new state would have 17 Lok Sabha seats that an alliance with the TRS could easily deliver to India’s ruling coalition. It seems likely, however, that the Congress will be wiped out in Seemandhra, the state’s other part with 25 seats. The party’s odds of success could rise if Rahul Gandhi were to contest the Medak seat. The move would also gel well with the Congress vice-president’s efforts to emerge as the voice of Dalits and Tribals; Scheduled Castes and Tribes make up almost a third of the population of the Telangana region. It could also prove to be an effective way to portray Rahul Gandhi as a leader of the south as well as north. This would place him in contrast with the BJP’s Narendra Modi, who does not appear to have the courage to test his popularity south of the Vindhyas. n

e s s ay

The Rest of the X-Tapes Only a fraction of the over 5,800 recorded conversations that lobbyist Niira Radia had with public figures and others have been revealed to the public. An official revelation of the entire set of what are known as Radia Tapes will be a significant moment in Indian democracy praveen negi/india today group/getty images

manu joseph

photos gurinder osan/ap

radia tape exposure Ratan Tata of the Tata Group (below left) and Anil Ambani of ADAG are among the businessmen affected by the fallout

t is possible to argue that everyone

whom Niira Radia called from her phones was just stringing her along, the way an “innocent and gullible” television journalist and a “sweet-talking” columnist claimed they did in the way of defending the substance of their conversations with a woman who was until recently a seemingly efficient lobbyist for Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata and others. But, the Supreme Court does not have the time for humour. In fact, it has taken a grave view of over 5,800 recorded phone conversations she had with politicians, businessmen, journalists and fixers. This month the court instructed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe several issues emanating from her conversations, which go far beyond the 2G spectrum scam, and affect, among others, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Anil Ambani’s Reliance ADAG and Unitech. When Niira Radia’s troubles began in 2007, she was probably not aware of it. A

4 November 2013

mysterious and an anonymous complaint reached the Finance Minister alleging that Radia was working for a foreign intelligence agency, and that the speed with which she had built her wealth pointed to dubious dealings. The Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) suggested that her phones be brought under surveillance. After the then Home Secretary of the Government of India granted permission, her phones were tapped during two periods—one lasting 120 days, the other 60 days—between August 2008 and July 2009.

That the Supreme Court is even hearing this matter as Ratan Tata vs Union of India and Others is a direct result of the revelation of a fraction of the Radia Tapes

In October this year, the court raised an interesting question: when the Income Tax Department was sitting for so long on this treasure of information that pointed to several instances of possible criminal conduct, why had it not acted in any substantive manner? The answer is plain: the conversations were not in the public domain until May 2010, when one conversation was aired by Headlines Today, and more significantly in November that year when Open published some conversations it perceived to be in national interest and Outlook ran over a hundred of those conversations. Only a fraction of her recorded conversations were leaked to the media. That the court is even hearing this matter in the form of Ratan Tata versus Union of India and Others, and that it has been concerned enough to instruct the CBI to probe several leads embedded in Radia’s conversations, is a direct consequence of the revelation of just a small fraction of open www.openthemagazine.com 17

what the nation now knows as the Radia Tapes, which showed how corporations influence government policy and cabinet postings. The entire set of conversations is in some kind of a sealed container with the court. The Income Tax department and the CBI have copies. Very few people know the contents of most of these conversations but from the court’s observations they appear to be disturbing in nature. The revelation of a fraction of the Radia Tapes has, apart from setting in motion a series of investigations against corporations, politicians and government servants, illuminated the common citizen’s understanding of how this country is being run, and resulted in the cancellation of several 2G spectrum licences that were granted to companies in a dubious or improper way.

rashant Bhushan, the lawyer and

activist, in his writ petition to the Supreme Court pleading for the full disclosure of the Radia Tapes, leaving out just those conversations that are personal in nature, states: ‘If it weren’t for some 100 odd Radia tapes that are in the public domain, people of this country would not have known that rather than the scripted government files, oral conversations in corporate boardrooms and on telephone which the persons involved have no idea are being recorded, instead more closely reflect the true process of public decision making.’ The Radia Tapes also did its service to general entertainment when in August this year Anil Ambani told a court that he had no recollection of a company that many believe he owned. “I am not aware of any company by the name of Swan Telecom Limited,” he stated. The judge said, “Sir, you are forgetting too much. Try to recollect something.” And moments later, “This is an advice to you. It can go against you that you don’t know even the names of your companies. So be careful.” Ambani, though, recognised his wife’s signature on a form that was used to open a bank account for Swan. An official, court-sanctioned action of putting the entire set of Radia recordings in the public domain would be far more useful to the country than a whistleblower or less noble entity leaking a few 18 open

portions of them to the media. The Indian media is so firmly under the control of corporations today that it is unable to launch exclusive journalistic attempts to unearth stories that show billionaires or their companies in poor light. That time is over. In recent times, all major business scandals in India have been reported by the media as general coverage of government investigations or court proceedings. If the entire set of Radia Tapes is put in the public domain, its interpretation and compilation under the full glare of the public will be the journalistic value the media will bring to the issue. That is a process no cosy network of billionaires will be able to effectively control. Also, a lesson from the revealed fraction of the Radia Tapes is that the media is not necessarily an ally of the citizen anymore. In fact, those conversations were with the media for months. In May

Very few people know the contents of most conversations on the tapes, but from the Court’s observations they appear to be disturbing in nature 2010, when Headlines Today aired a conversation between Radia and former Telecom Minister A Raja, the public, immune to political corruption, was not moved. It was when the larger tranche of recordings carrying her conversations with prominent journalists was revealed that the story caught the nation’s attention. The media complicity was the entertaining prelude that brought home the deeper story of Radia’s dealings. For days after Open and Outlook ran the transcripts and recordings, the mainstream media was so resolute in its pact of silence that Open taunted them in its print edition, at the risk of appearing a bit sanctimonious, by carrying two blank pages with a headline that said this was how the Indian media had covered the Radia Tapes. After Ratan Tata went to court seeking to restrict the media from revealing the rest of the recordings, some of my colleagues and I had to essentially go door to

door seeking a lawyer to represent the magazine’s view that it had the right, in public interest, to carry the conversations. We would arrive at a prominent lawyer’s office and he would tell us that he had revised his decision to represent us for a complicated reason, and we would then go to another lawyer who would say something similar. It appears that it is extremely hard for Indian journalism to match the full force of corporate India. In the purely hypothetical situation where an editor is in possession, through no illegal means, of the entire set of Radia Tapes, what must s/he do after ascertaining their veracity? An editor is equipped to decide what is in national interest, not what is a national secret, especially when the apparent secret, which has no national security implications, is on his table. The spirit of journalism and how journalism is viewed by the Constitution, in fact, leaves an editor with no choice but to publish the conversations. An official revelation of the rest of the Radia Tapes will save at least some editors a lot of trouble. ‘Sunlight is the best disinfectant,’states Prashant Bhushan, in his writ petition. ‘Right to information is the very heart and soul of democracy. Therefore, this Hon’ble Court has repeatedly recognised it as a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.’ Bhushan quoted from the 1975 ruling of the State of Uttar Pradesh versus Raj Narain case, in which Narain, the Janata Party politician, had accused Indira Gandhi of electoral malpractice: ‘The people of this country have a right to know every public act, everything that is done in a public way, by their public functionaries. They are entitled to know the particulars of every public transaction in all its bearing.’ Bhushan also quoted from the preamble of the Right to Information Act of 2005: ‘Democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed.’ In any case, as the petition notes, most of the Radia Tapes, by their very nature, do not fit into any definition of ‘sensitive information’ that has to be protected from the public eye. n 4 November 2013

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amanda rohde/getty images

The Battle against Ageing

Early-stage research shows that lifestyle changes and certain chemicals can turn back cellular ageing, but the pill of youth is still many years away PRIYANKA PULLA

few weeks ago, a group of researchers including

maverick American physician Dean Ornish and Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn published a study that caught a lot of eyeballs. In the study, which appeared in Lancet Oncology, a prestigious medical journal, Ornish’s team compared two sets of prostate cancer patients. Both had undergone dramatically different treatments for five years—one received conventional therapy while the other made drastic lifestyle changes, exercising, meditating, attending support-group sessions and eating a diet of whole foods. At the end of the study period, Ornish found that while the blood immune cells of patients in the conventional therapy group had aged as all normal human cells do, the clock had seemingly turned back in the cells of the group that had made lifestyle changes. Normal human cells cannot pull off such a feat without external intervention; cell ageing is inexorable. Only stem cells and cancer cells are known to reverse their own ageing, rendering them potentially immortal. But now, Ornish’s study seemed to show that normal cells could turn back time too, as long as a person could surrender to the healing power of plant-based foods, exercise and social support. The Ornish study measured ageing through telomere length—a concept that has become pivotal to anti-ageing research in the past few years. Each of our cells has a nucleus, which contains long chromosomes of genetic material. At the tips of each such chromosome are little caps that protect the genetic material inside. If one can imagine a chromosome as a shoelace, telomeres would be like the aglets at its tips that keep the lace from fraying.

These telomeres have a useful little property that makes them excellent timekeepers of cell age. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres in its daughter cells grow a little shorter. When we are born, our telomeres are at their longest. But as our body ages, telomeres keep losing genetic material like the sand in an hourglass, until they reach a critical shortness. This is a signal for our cells to call it a day and initiate programmed cell death, also known as apoptosis. One way to disrupt this continuous whittling away of telomeres is to introduce an enzyme called telomerase in cells, which puts the telomeric caps back on our chromosomes. However, most normal cells in human beings do not make telomerase. Therefore, they are unable to put the brakes on ageing. On the other hand, stem cells, from which our body regenerates tissue, and cancer cells can synthesise their own telomerase, which renders them almost immortal.

rejuvenators The study by Dean Ornish (below) and Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn (bottom left) isn’t the only one to point to a causal link between ageing and telomere length, and though Ornish believes in a lifestyle-based approach, others are racing to develop a pill to encourage telomere regrowth

Science Picture Co./Corbis

micheline pelletier/corbis

bill reitzel/corbis

If chromosomes were shoelaces, telomeres would be the aglets at the tips, protecting the genetic material inside. These are at their longest when we are born, but each time a cell divides, the telomeres in its daughter cells grow shorter

The Ornish study found that the telomeres of cancer patients in the lifestyle-change group had grown, while the patients receiving conventional treatment had shrunken telomeres. This study is only the latest in a long line of research trying to answer critical questions about telomeres. First, how big a role do telomeres play in ageing and disease? Second, can we do anything to lengthen them? And, third, will lengthening them really help our bodies do a Benjamin Button? DO SHORT TELOMERES CAUSE DISEASE?

Several studies so far have shown that people with afflictions such as cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease have shorter telomeres on average. One would expect this, of course, because short telomeres seem to lead to cell death. But this isn’t enough evidence to conclude that short telomeres cause a particular disease. There could be a number of other reasons why people with diseases tend to have short telomeres—these diseases could be causing shorter telomeres, rather than the other way round. Or some unknown third factor could be causing both short telomeres and the diseases. For example, heavy smoking could be shortening one’s telomeres at a faster rate, while also choking up one’s arteries, leading to cardiovascular problems. Complicating matters further, there are several other factors already known to cause ageing and disease. Oxidation, in which cell DNA is damaged by free radicals, and glycation, in which sugar binds with body cells leav22 open

ing them unable to do their jobs, can both trigger disease. So how much do telomeres contribute to ill health, if at all? In 2010, a study published in the journal Nature provided some evidence that telomeres were actually the cause of ageing-related afflictions. A group of Harvard medical researchers genetically engineered mice to stop producing telomerase, causing their telomeres to shorten faster than usual. Soon, these mice began to show various signs of ageing such as osteoporosis, poor sight, shrunken testes and brains. When the researchers then gave the mice injections to reactivate telomerase, the mice bounced dramatically back to youth—their vision improved and their testes and brains grew back to normal. This was strong evidence of the effect short telomeres had on disease, but as David Kipling, another researcher who studies ageing at Cardiff University, told The Guardian, “Mice are not little men.” It would be wrong to assume telomerase would work exactly the same way in human beings. In March this year, another study in Nature Genetics threw up even stronger clues suggesting causation. In this study, an international group of researchers identified seven gene variants that were together known to affect telomere length. Next, they examined whether these seven variants were also associated with diseases such as cancer, heart disease and pulmonary fibrosis, which scars the lungs. They found a high association in several cases. Since the effect of these variants on telomeres was already known, this was further proof that telomere length could indeed cause disease. According to Richard Cawthon, a researcher who studies the genetics of human ageing at the University of Utah, low telomerase activity affects tissues that get replaced the most often, such as bone marrow, skin and intestinal tissue. People with dyskeratosis congenita, a premature ageing disorder where the skin and bone marrow are often affected, tend to have shorter telomeres, he adds. THE PILL OF YOUTH AND ITS SIDE EFFECTS

Even as researchers look for answers to the causation question, a small cottage industry of firms is already trying to develop the pill of youth by lengthening telomeres. In 2002, a California biotechnology company called Geron Corporation licensed the commercial rights to sell a telomere-lengthening compound to another firm called TA Sciences. This compound was branded TA-65 (TA stands for telomerase activation) and is claimed to increase telomere length by activating the enzyme telomerase. But TA-65 does not have the backing of largescale human tests required for any drug to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The tests that prove its efficacy are all small in scale. And this means that TA65 can only be sold as a nutraceutical. There are many questions about TA-65 that need clear answers. For example, it is known that cancer cells pro4 November 2013

prnews foto/t.a. science inc./ap

chromosome tonic TA-65 is claimed to increase telomere length by activating the enzyme telomerase

duce telomerase, so that they can extend their lifecycles. This is one of the weapons in their arsenal that lets them divide and proliferate wildly. So, if TA-65 is kickstarting telomerase production in someone who already has a few cancerous cells in the body, could it give cancer a boost? Of course, such a side effect of TA-65 would take years to develop. “So, one may have to test the drug for many years,” says Nilesh Samani, a professor of cardiology at University of Leicester, who was part of the Nature Genetics study on the causal role of telomeres in disease. Cawthon further explains that when mice are engineered to overexpress telomerase throughout life, it raises cancer risk. But this does not happen when genes that suppress tumours are expressed at the same time. Therefore, the key to making a drug like TA-65 work may be to adopt a similar two-pronged approach. “For people taking TA-65, combining this with doing things that lower cancer risk, such as regular exercise and intermittent fasting would be best,” he says. But TA Sciences CEO Noel Patton Thomas dismisses such concerns around the safety of the drug. “We have had 20,000 people taking the product for six years. It is simply not causing cancer.” And yet, this isn’t evidence enough for the nutraceutical to be approved as a drug. Meanwhile, TA 65 has at least one satisfied customer. William H Andrews, a molecular biologist and ultra marathoner, who was a part of the team that identified telomerase at Geron, is strongly convinced that inducing telomerase activity in normal cells is a surefire way to reverse ageing. Seven years ago, he became the first paying customer for TA-65. At that time, he did not quite know what to expect, but today, he feels that both his long-distance running and vision have improved from taking the longevity supplement. Today, when he finishes an ultramarathon, he is usually at the front of the pack, rather than at the back, as he used to be before he began taking the compound. The age spots on his hands, too, have all disappeared, he says. “Were all these placebo effects?” asks Andrews, “Anything is possible, but I am very optimistic about anything that protects my telomeres or lengthens them.” This is why Andrews set up his own firm, Sierra Sciences, 14 years ago, to develop a telomerase-inducing drug. Since then, the firm has discovered over 900 chemicals that induce telomerase expression in the lab. One of its products has been licensed to a nutraceutical firm to be marketed as supplement, while Sierra Sciences is trying to launch an anti-ageing drug for pets. “Dogs, cats, and horses have all been shown to suffer from telomere shortening. A recent study of dog breeds showed that the shorter a breed’s telomeres, shorter its average lifespan,” says Andrews. There is another, more pragmatic reason behind Sierra’s decision to target the pet market first. This market, while more regulated than the drug-supplement segment, is less stringently monitored than the human 24 open

“There are many factors that cause ageing. I think of each one as a stick of dynamite burning inside our cells. The most important stick of dynamite to be concerned about is the one with the shortest fuse. I believe that stick, in humans, is telomere shortening”

drug market. It could be the sweet spot from which Sierra Sciences can launch itself into the anti-ageing drug market, even as data is being gathered and revenues are being generated. Andrews is optimistic that a drug for humans will be in clinical trials soon. “We are less than three years away,” he says. Will a telomerase-inducing drug ever become a reality? TA-65 has its critics. Carol Greider, who won the Nobel prize along with Elizabeth Blackburn for the discovery of telomerase, says the assays used by TA Sciences to measure the lengthening of telomeres are not accurate enough to say for sure if the drug really works. 4 November 2013

But it is too early to pronounce these efforts a success or write them off. “These companies are making early proof-of-concept drugs. There is potential that such therapies may come into the clinical arena and we can’t ignore their potential simply because there is the fear of side effects,” says Samani. MEDITATION, LOVE AND TELOMERES

As the race to develop a telomere-based drug continues, the study by Dean Ornish suggests that the pill of youth need not be a pill, after all. Ornish is already known for his lifestyle-based interventions in cardiovascular disease. In 1990, he published a landmark study showing that the thickening of arterial walls in heart disease could actually be reversed through a lifestyle programme devised by him. This programme, known as the Ornish Spectrum, is not simple by any means. It is a mix of several interventions, such as switching to plant-based foods, meditation and regular exercise. The most unique feature of the programme, though, is its acknowledgement that loneliness and social isolation can cause illness and premature death more than poor diet or smoking ever can. Therefore, the Ornish Spectrum requires a person following it to seek love and intimacy. It may sound like a hopelessly vague task, but the programme recommends several ways to achieve this, such as improving communication skills, meditating, group therapy, psychotherapy and even learning how to confess and forgive. If this holistic approach has the ring of traditional Indian medicine to it, it is because Ornish was a disciple of the Indian spiritual guru Satchidananda Saraswati for years. Ornish has said in the past that his programme borrows much from Satchidananda’s philosophy. Ornish’s Lancet Oncology study, though, is far from conclusive. Only ten patients were tracked in the lifestylechange group. Given that current methods of measuring telomeres are inexact, variation in telomere from one lab to another is high. This means the increase in telomere length seen by Ornish’s team could have been random variation, and unless it is repeated with larger groups of patients, it is hard to say for sure. A DECADE OR A CENTURY?

Ornish’s study was testing if lifestyle changes could reverse cellular ageing. Within the limitations of the study, it showed that dramatic changes to lifestyle could indeed lengthen telomeres and turn back the ageing clock in cells. The question now is: how many years can such cellular changes add to a person’s life? Several scientists put this number at about 20-30 years. Beyond that, other mechanisms of ageing would kick in. Human cells can also be damaged through routes such as oxidation and 4 November 2013

glycation. Exactly how big a role our chromosomal aglets play remains a big question. Andrews, though, is willing to place his bets on telomeres. “There are many factors that cause ageing. I like to think of each one as a stick of dynamite that is burning inside our cells. But, the most important stick of dynamite for us to be concerned about is the one with the shortest fuse. I believe that the stick with the shortest fuse in humans is telomere shortening,” he says. As Andrews looks for ways to lengthen the fuse on the dynamite of ageing, a couple of firms have begun offering tests to measure this fuse, as it were. In 2009, the year Elizabeth Blackburn won a Nobel for her discovery of telomerase, she started a company to measure the length of telomeres as a way to predict disease risk. While this firm, Telome Length, currently offers tests only for researchers and not individuals, another company in Spain, called Life Length, tests individuals for a cost of $500 per head. Most doctors are not yet using these tests to measure disease risk, but according to Jerry Shay, scientific advisor to Life Length, “Boutique doctor wellness groups are incorporating this with their test batteries.” Life Length has plans to open a centre in India soon, by when it hopes to bring down the cost of the test with greater automation. Unfortunately, all the methods used to measure telomere length today are imperfect. This is a problem when researchers such as Andrews test their drugs. “[These tools] are great for large population studies where high variability can still result in trend lines. But, when looking at just one person or a few people, the variability can be too high to give meaningful data,” explains Andrews. Before a telomere-lengthening drug becomes a reality, there are several bridges to cross—better measurement tools and more research into the cancer-causing side effects of telomerase. The final drug, according to Samani, will have to go through several experimental studies in animal models to make sure there is absolutely no risk of cancer. This could take many years. Further, it would be hard to test for such side effects in human beings. He cites the example of statins to illustrate how difficult it may be to establish a drug’s safety. Statins, today a frontline treatment for cardiovascular disease, had to be tested for decades before their benefits could become clear. First, there was the question of whether lowering cholesterol was actually effective in fighting heart disease. Second, there was the question of side effects of statins. Merck suspended clinical trials of its Lovastatin for four years in the 1980s, when another statin was shown to trigger toxic reactions in animals. It was only in 1994 that a large Scandinavian study showed that the benefits of Simvastatin may indeed outweigh risks. Telomere-lengthening compounds may have to take the same long and hard road. But given the miracles they promise, it may be well worth it. n open www.openthemagazine.com 25

c i v i l co d e

New Rules of Marriage The matrimony survival guide is being updated by new technology, modern attitudes and an old sex manual Aastha Atray Banan

ocial

media

entrepreneur

Irshad Daftari and his wife Neeti Babu were living continents apart and it was not going too well. They were constantly snapping over the phone, trying to control each other’s life. To make the marriage work, they realised, something drastic needed to be done. Their solution: stop talking and communicate only by email. “When you email, you think it out,” says Daftari, “It was so much better, and slowly, our issues got sorted out.” They are both in their thirties and have spent three of their five married years apart. Before their wedding, they had made a pact to never stop the other from anything. “Neeti has travelled almost 19 countries,” says Daftari, “We knew we needed to be individuals and do what we wanted.” In 2008, soon after the nuptials, Neeti stayed in Mumbai while he went to Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, to get a management degree. The next year, he returned to Mumbai; but in 2011, Neeti went off to London School of Economics for an MSc in Social Policy and Development. Since last October, they have been living in Delhi, where Neeti works as a child rights expert. She still has to travel around the country off and on. Today, when either travels, they talk on Skype.

ustaining a marriage is hard work,

so it is just as well that it has its bene-

26 open

fits—starting with there being someone to come home to and be your horrible self with. It is said to be good for health too. One study, published in Clinical Oncology, has even found that your chances of surviving cancer are better if you’re married. But with the balance of power between husband and wife having shifted towards ‘balance’, modern marriages need new rules if they are to survive. One of these is an occasional break from your partner. That is how Raksha Hegde, 35, and her husband Rahul

There seems to be no fixed marital rule on what to do about meeting attractive people of the opposite sex. Evidently, both fidelity and infidelity work Narayan spend a few weekends. “He may want to take a Saturday just to read a book and I might want to go to a movie alone with my son. People ask me, ‘Why didn’t Rahul come for the movie?’ and I am like, why does he need to?” Raksha met her husband when she was 15 and he was 19. They had similar interests and fell in love. They got married when she was 23 and have now been together for almost 12 years. Three years after their son was born, however, they found their lives in a rut. That’s when they decided to pursue divergent inter-

ests. “He bought an Enfield and I joined Yoga,” she says, “We both just needed to find ourselves. We were almost turning into the typical couple with a kid.” Another way to boost the odds of marital success is to raise the kids together— actually together, with every aspect of it shared equally. Shoma Narayanan, a banker and Mills & Boon author, feels that her 13-year marriage has survived the strain of their hectic jobs because she

and her spouse split all tasks halfway. Her husband Badri, an HR professional, spent time with their first baby. He did the morning shift while Shoma was at work. Badri took over all the work a few years ago, though, after Shoma developed a brain tumour. They text each other multiple times a day. The messages range from the functional ‘When will you send the car to pick me up?’ to the sentimental ‘I love

you’. If one is travelling, they video chat without the kids. On their 13th anniversary this year, they revisited a place and moment in time when they used to take long walks in Colaba. “At the last minute, our daughter said she wanted to come [along]. We didn’t have the heart to refuse her. But it was still romantic. But we do make sure we take out ‘our’ time, even if it’s 20 minutes every day just to catch up.”

going the distance Irshad Daftari and Neeti Babu have spent three of their five married years apart. They now live together in Delhi

ashish sharma

ritesh uttamchandani

Thick and thin When Shoma Narayanan developed a brain tumour a few years ago, her husband Badri took over all the housework

common complaint of marital life

is the frustration of meeting attractive people of the opposite sex and not being able to do anything about it. There is no fixed rule for this. Evidently, both fidelity and infidelity work. A 30-year-old copywriter in Mumbai 28 open

who has been married for eight years says she once had to stop herself from falling in love with someone who ticked all the boxes. She realised in the nick of time that “the happy new feeling would get old as well”. Echoing her, a 33-year-old man married for four years says that

while it feels great to be found desirable by someone, what would you do after you’ve scratched the itch? “Now what? That’s what I would say, right? Would I leave my wife and start all over again? Absolutely not,” he says. Let pragmatism prevail, many advise. 4 November 2013

A 40-year-old media professional who got married at 22 and divorced in 18 months says the experience of her first marriage helped her take a pragmatic view of her second. She was 27 when she remarried—to a colleague she’d dated for three years. She has no illusions about marriage, she says, because though couples start off like-minded, all that can change. Leaving romantic notions behind, she believes, is the only way to make a marriage work: “At the end of the day, every relationship pans out the same way. You get bored and stuck in a rut. There are times when you feel like brother and sister. You have to have patience through it all. There is no point rocking the boat for an affair because everything exciting just becomes boring after a while.” Yet, there are some who believe it’s best to get it out of your system by giving in to temptation—but with your eyes open. A 32-year-old, married for five years, recently met someone she felt attracted to. One evening, he invited her over when his wife was away in another city, and what began as a kiss ended with sex. It has been a while since that incident and she does not regret it at all. “If I hadn’t done it,” she says, “I may have regretted it all my life. But since I went in knowing what I was going to do, I did it and got out without emotional attachment. In life, you need to do something for yourself—and [you should not] overthink it.” Nandini Krishnan, author of Hitched: The Modern Woman and Arranged Marriage, says she found a whole new set of codes while researching the book. She recounts the story of a former colleague who had a crush on a married man and stalked him online for a bit. She found he never put up family pictures anywhere. Also, while he followed his wife on Twitter, she didn’t follow him. To Krishnan’s colleague, that meant he was in an unhappy marriage that would break down once she waltzed into his life. “A few years ago, all you had to do to prove your marriage was happy was talk about your spouse and children,” she says, “Now you have to follow each other on Twitter. I suppose this is a roundabout way of saying you need out-of-the-box rules if you want to prove to the world that your marriage is happy. If you shut out the world and all the puerile intrusive questions people ask, you’re fine.” 4 November 2013

Krishnan has another story of a gay friend who penned a Facebook post on how he and his partner kept their relationship going. ‘One candlelit dinner a week at a fancy restaurant; a long drive along the beach; an evening relaxing at home with country music, cricket and wine; a day at the spa. I do this on Thursdays and Saturdays; he does this on Fridays and Sundays.’ “Then, there’s another couple I know who have separate loos,” says Krishnan, “I didn’t want to know the details of how they got there and what impact that’s had on their marriage, but they seem quite happy. There is one woman I know who tends to have some pretty scary fights with her husband, but they have this standing rule that they won’t go to bed angry. I think they must have a really

“A few years ago, all you had to do to prove your marriage was happy was talk about your spouse and children. Now you have to follow each other on Twitter” well-equipped bar. Or they don’t go to bed much. But they stick to that rule.”

hen it comes to marital sex, the pri-

mary rule is an age-old one: do not ignore it. The spice-it-up rule of modern marriages is also ancient. A 42-yearold TV professional bought a copy of the Kamasutra and claims to have tried all— yes, all—of its positions with his wife. “It was funny as well as lots of fun,” he says. According to him, sex tends to turn routine and so couples end up going without it for months on end. “But if we meet a new person we feel attracted to, don’t we feel like having sex? So why don’t we try the same things with our spouse?” A 25-year-old banker who just got married says that she and her husband make sure they try out different things in bed even if it’s as elementary as fantasy roleplaying. “You need to be interested in each other physically, not just emotionally,” she says, “It won’t work otherwise.” But the most important rule of marriage is to not give up on it. Swati

Vasishtha, 40, feels that is the only reason her marriage has survived frequent thoughts of throwing in the towel. “You got into this with your eyes open and you have to work at it,” she says, “People give up too soon. You need to give it your best shot. There will be problems, there will be other people who excite you, but then we aren’t rabbits—we can choose.” Vasishtha remembers the second year of her marriage with utmost clarity. She had just moved to Mumbai from Delhi with her husband Siddharth Thakur. They both had new jobs. It was 2004 and the couple, who’d had a love marriage after dating for three years, were looking forward to living together on their own, away from the rest of the family. But the experience unsettled them. “Sometimes living with a family works as a glue for one’s marriage,” she says, “Many things go unnoticed.” He was working with a TV network and she was running an event management firm. Their hours were long and she often returned to an empty house. They had arguments and fights every day and they nearly called it quits several times. But they held on, reminding themselves of “what we first fell in love with”. Says Vasishtha, “You need to keep doing that.” Having a baby renewed their relationship. “Even though things like sex took a backseat, we bonded over Sia,” she says, “Siddharth was a hands-on father and did everything I wanted.” But then their daughter fell sick with a rare disease of the stomach and the trauma nearly wrenched them apart again. “I became a nurse and mother. Sia clung to me all the time, through blood tests and hospital visits. We were both reacting differently to our pain. I focused only on Sia and forgot everything else. Siddharth started drinking and turned aloof. There was a time when we stopped talking. I asked his family to talk to him because I had no energy to deal with it.” The family stepped in and he came around. As Sia got better, they slowly revived their relationship. They started going for family vacations, dinners and movies. They were communicative again. Today, ten years later, Swati says that she is still in love with her husband but makes a point of a few things: “I have no shame in saying I am sorry when I am wrong— and sometimes when I am not.” n open www.openthemagazine.com 29

l i n e ag e

The Parsi Genealogy Project One man’s effort to put the family trees of everyone in the community on the internet

Gautam Singh/AP

Lhendup G Bhutia

endangered India’s Parsi population has been shrinking rapidly for decades; Yazdi Tantra (facing page) wants to preserve the community’s centuries-long legacy

t is a weekday and the sixth-floor office of On-lyne, an infotech company, is buzzing with activity. The sound of clackety keyboards and sight of paper-spewing printers fill the room. Employees sit at their desks, working on computers, answering phone calls and conferring with one another. Inside a large cabin at one end of the busy room, Yazdi Tantra switches his gaze back and forth between his laptop and desktop computer. One screen flickers with the blue of a Facebook page; the other has his email. Both have the same subject: ‘Parsi Family Tree’. The silver-haired Tantra is a director of On-lyne and a Parsi himself. “We have to face it,” he says somewhat despondently, “We might not be around in another few years. Or just a handful of us will remain… Will [those who do] remember their past, their ancestors? Or will everything be just darkness?” Interest in one’s ancestry and concern for one’s legacy are human traits common to all, but perhaps far more pronounced in the case of a minority group threatened with the possibility of extinction. India’s Parsi community of Zoroastrians is almost certainly on that path. According to the 1941 Indian Census, there were 115,000 Parsis in India. In 2001, the count was only 69,601. This figure has probably dwindled in the decade since. Over the years, Tantra has set up several websites for Parsis: Zorastrians.net offers community news; Parsidirectory.com is an online directory; Theparsiinstitutions. com lists all the institutions run and maintained by Parsis; and Themissingparsi.com puts long-lost Parsi friends and relatives back in touch. Six months ago, he started an ambitious project. Through a website and Facebook page for The Parsi Family Tree, he aims to connect all Parsis throughout the world. The website Theparsifamily.commutree.com is open only to members of the community. They are in-

4 November 2013

vited to put up their genealogies and add to existing family trees on the site. Tantra wants to enable people to find common ancestors. He says, “Parsis are members of a small community. Many of them also happen to be distantly related to each other. This way, people can learn about their ancestors and also connect with each other.” It is early days yet and there are 2,015 individuals currently listed as part of various family trees. Tantra himself had to seek the help of his mother and other elderly family members to trace their ancestry back five generations. To popularise the website, Tantra has advertised the project in community

newspapers and approached Parsis he is acquainted with to upload their family trees. While some readily agreed, others didn’t. “Many times they refuse me pointblank,” he says, “They often have unfounded fears that making information on their families public might harm them.” A few months ago, on a visit to his son who lives in Las Vegas, Tantra learnt of a Parsi woman who had migrated to the US from Karachi. She had been collecting the genealogy of that port city’s Parsis— those who still lived there and also those who had moved to another country. Since 1992, she had amassed data on over 10,000 such Parsis, tracing some family lines seven, even nine generations back. She had devoted herself to that project after her father’s death, which was when “We have to face it,” says she realised how little she knew about Yazdi Tantra, who runs the her ancestors. With word having gotten Parsi Family Tree project, around, young Parsis had been contacting her for details of their ancestors; she “We might not be around in was glad to oblige them with data. another few years. Or just a when Tantra contacted her, handful of us will remain...” sheHowever, declined to share her database with him. “She has a treasure trove of apoorva guptAY information,” he says, “But when she was collecting information, she often convinced people by promising not to make any of it public without their consent. I’m in touch with her now and am trying to convince her to change her mind.”

round 200 km north of Mumbai in the small Gujarati coastal town of Udvada lies the pilgrimage site of Atash Behram. According to a legend, when the first group of Zoroastrians reached India by ship between the eighth and 10th century CE, fleeing the Islamic invasion of Persia, they brought along the sacred flame of a fire temple. The Atash Behram temple houses that same flame, looked after by descendants of Udvada’s nine priestly families of the faith. On a wall in one room of the Parsi heritage museum within the temple premises, those families are literally illustrated as

open www.openthemagazine.com 31

nine trees, each branch and offshoot listing names of descendants. On seeing these on a visit two years ago, it struck Tantra that he could try doing this for the entire community. “Drawing upon the knowledge of community members and using the reach of the web,” he says, “I realised there was a realistic chance of attempting this.” Next month, Tantra plans to visit Atash Behram again and request the priests for information on all the family trees they are aware of. “The Parsi community is one large jigsaw puzzle,” he says, “As I have progressed, I have learnt how each individual’s knowledge is like a stepping stone. One family leads to another, and before you know it, a genealogical archive seems to be shaping up.” The Parsi Family Tree is currently a mishmash of a number of family trees. Many of them are tiny, with no more than three generations listed. Some, however, look astoundingly large. The Dadachanji family tree, for example, goes on for pages and pages, tracing about 814 family members over three centuries. It starts with a certain Ervad Darab Ervad Chanji, and the ‘Darab’ and ‘Chanji’ may have turned into ‘Dadachanji’ down the years. So says Viraf Dadachanji, 71, the man who made this large family tree available to Tantra. “After I sold my ancestral home in Navsari [near Surat, Gujarat] in 1979,” he says, “I held an auction to sell off all belongings in the house. When I was going through the unsold items, I found around seven or eight dusty old books. They were called Dadachanji Vanshavali and seemed to contain a record of my various ancestors. I chucked all of them and saved one, just in case I might want to take a peek at it in the future.” A retired chartered accountant who lives in Vashi, Navi Mumbai, he got round to reading the book only after his retirement—almost 30 years after he found it. He discovered that it contained a total of 47 family trees within the Dadachanji line. The book traced the Dadachanji lineage for around 250 years, from the late 17th century right up to 1920, when the book was published. Small biographies and achievements of various Dadachanjis also found mention. Complied over a period of 27 years, the book had begun as a project of a 32 open

family member named Ervad Jamaspji Edulji Dadachanji, who died midway through it, and was taken up by one Ervad Sohrab Pallonji Dadachanji. “When I read the book, I realised what a fantastic piece of work it was,” says Dadachanji, “There were no computers, courier services or even good telephone services then. They had made house-tohouse visits and double-checked details with records of donations at times of birth, marriages and deaths with local aagiaries (fire temples). Their effort would remain meaningless if someone did not update it. I decided to fill in the gap from 1920 to 2007.” For the next whole year, Dadachanji devoted himself to finding others of his clan. He ruled out house-to-house visits since that would be too laborious. And since aagiary donations at births, marriages and deaths are now an irregular Parsi custom, with records likely to be sketchy, he dug his nose into MTNL phone directories and trawled

To complete his family tree, Viraf Dadachanji spent days sifting through archives. “I consumed so much dust and ink, by evening my tongue was black with newsprint” through Parsi internet directories to find contact details. Some responded coldly to his calls at first, but opened up once they identified common acquaintances. Parsi friends living abroad, through their own contacts or local phone directories, helped him locate other Dadachanjis. He spent long hours in newspaper offices and libraries, going through obituaries in old Parsi newspapers, swallowing dust and ink as he flipped through them with his fingers and saliva. “I was consumed with a maddening passion. My wife thought I had gone insane. I went through over 15,000 newspaper records. I think it even took a toll on my health,” he says in between laughs. “I consumed so much dust and so much ink that in the evenings when I would check my tongue, it would be black with newsprint.” There were some disappointments,

such as the loss of some well-kept newspapers in the Mumbai floods of 2006. He kept back-up copies of all the data he had mined, just in case, and managed to complete his project within a year. By the end of it, he believes, he had all Dadachanjis down. He then invested about Rs 35,000 to publish a number of leatherbound copies of the family tree for distribution to all members. When he heard of Tantra’s project, Dadachanji gladly shared all his information with him. Tantra uploaded all of it onto the web and was so impressed by the elderly gentleman’s offline work that he kept a copy of the updated Dadachanji Vanshavali for himself.

antra’s project is a work in pro-

gress. Every few days, he sees a new tree being formed or people updating their lists. He is pursuing many others who he knows maintain records of their family lines. One of them is Adil Patuck, director of Patuck Education Trust, which runs a few educational institutes in Mumbai. Some 20 years ago, Patuck came across documents at home that listed all Patucks from 1765 to the early 1900s. He has been researching and updating that list ever since. He hasn’t, however, decided if he should let Tantra have the family tree. “When I collected the information, I promised I wouldn’t share it with others,” says Patuck, “I don’t know if it would be right to share it on a public platform like the web. I will have to contact those mentioned, or their family members, before handing over any details.” Dadachanji, however, believes he did the right thing by sharing his book. Since it was published in 2008, he has been keeping notes of all family births and deaths in the hope that someone will take up the task of updates after him. The only person interested, a friend, is roughly as old as him. “I am worried there will be no one to take the book forward,” says the 71-year-old, “When I distributed copies of the updated book, many seemed grateful. But many were uninterested. When I explained the purpose of my effort, some even said, ‘So what do I do with it?’ Now with this new website, I know the work is safe. And in the future, someone can update the tree.” n 4 November 2013

pa s s i n g t h r o u g h

ritesh uttamchandani

Rocking with Michael

Horace Grant of the Chicago Bulls on playing with Jordan and the glorious 90s Akshay Sawai

n 30 January 1994 in Bangalore, Kapil Dev induced an edge from Sri Lanka’s Don Anurasiri that went into the safe hands of Mohammad Azharuddin in the slips. With this wicket, Dev equalled Sir Richard Hadlee’s record of 431 Test scalps. India also won the Test and the series. There was joy all around. In the dressing room, Dev and Azharuddin danced on a table. Champagne rained. Among the celebrating members of the team was a young Sachin Tendulkar. He wore a black cap with a red peak and an emblem of an enraged beast with flaring nostrils. The snarl of the animal, Benny the bull, was in sharp contrast with the benign face of the man wearing it. Young fans of sports would have recognised the cap blindfolded. It was—it had to be—a Chicago Bulls cap. The first American basketball team to be known in India were arguably the Harlem Globetrotters. But the Globetrotters were entertainers, whose show combined sport and circus elements. The first active National Basketball Association (NBA) team to register in Indian consciousness were undoubtedly the Bulls. The legendary rivalry between the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics of earlier years, and that between the Celtics’ Larry Bird and the Lakers’ Magic Johnson, were great chapters in basketball history. But it preceded the Bulls era, when India had not woken up to the NBA. The Bulls’ popularity in India was easy to explain. They had the most famous basketballer in the world: Michael Jordan. And they were the reigning champions. The Bulls won their first NBA Championship in 1991, India’s year of economic liberalisation and arrival of

genie with a message Grant, as NBA ambassador, is here to talk about the future of Indian basketball 4 November 2013

cable TV. The Bulls’ global impact in the 1990s gained force when they won three Championships in a row, called threepeats, twice in that decade (1991-93, 199698). It also helped that they had a hipster coach in Phil Jackson, a man who had done LSD and smoked marijuana in his youth and spouted Zen philosophy. Jackson was heavily influenced by the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Jordan was the fulcrum of the team. But he had able support from two other men. One was the sleepy-eyed Scottie Pippen. And the other was Pippen’s buddy who had been drafted into the Bulls in 1987, the same year as him: Horace Grant. Jordan and Pippen did the sexier work in

Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen did the sexier work in attack and indeed were the greater players. Horace Grant did the grunt work in defence attack and indeed were the greater players. Grant did the grunt work in defence. They had a term for him. A lunch pail and hard hat guy.

wo decades after their glory years,

this asteroid from the Bulls universe has landed in Mumbai as NBA ambassador to talk about the future of Indian basketball. Grant sits in an armchair in the lobby of the Taj Land’s End hotel in Mumbai, checking his mobile phone. Over two metres tall and a devoted weightlifter, Grant looks like a genie looking at his messages. He wears a black Adidas vest, shorts, a black cap and an oversized Diesel wristwatch. On one

finger of his right hand is one of his four NBA Championship rings (from 1992), its diameter almost large enough to fit around a sushi roll. He looks younger than his 48 years. For those who grew up on the lore of the Bulls, it is thrilling to meet Grant. After all, he was part of that dressing room. And he played with that man. Tell us about the first meeting, Horace. Where was it? What did he say? “At practice. ‘I’m MJ. Let’s work’,” comes the deep voiced reply. Grant, whose identical twin Harvey also played in the NBA, is from Georgia. He went to college at Clemson University in South Carolina, not far from Jordan’s home state of North Carolina. At Clemson, Grant was dedicated enough not to miss a single game. This was not lost on talent scouts. In 1987, he was picked by the Bulls. “Playing basketball as a youth, you want to get to college and the idea is to [eventually] get to the NBA. That day when I was drafted was one of the happiest days of my life. There are so many teams you visit, you don’t know what team is going to pick you. Back then teams did not like to show their hand, so to speak.” Grant’s reaction to being drafted by the Bulls was this: “Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. I’m going to be playing with Michael Jordan.” But once the thrill sank in, Grant realised the heft of the task ahead of him. The Bulls hadn’t won a Championship yet. And practice under Jordan was torture. Life was about to get very hard. “College was supposed to prepare you for NBA,” Grant says. “Mentally? Yes. Physically, the NBA was just another level. My body had never been so torn down, so sore after that first practice. I’d rather be playing a game because practice would be so tough.” open www.openthemagazine.com 35

Of Jordan, he says, “He was one of the toughest leaders. That team at that particular time needed that leader. If he hadn’t been there, we wouldn’t have gotten over the hump, meaning the Detroit Pistons [the Bulls’ archrivals]. He brought out the best of us.” Jordan wasn’t the only beast in training. There also was Charles Oakley. The area under the basket during a melee is often called ‘the alligator pond’. Grant learnt many of his pond survival tricks from Oakley. He learnt them during a drill called ‘the box-out’, where you muscle out your rival in trying to grab the ball. “Charles Oakley taught me how to scratch, kick, trip, even bite. He taught me everything,” Grant says. That’s why they sometimes called the Bulls ‘the Dobermans’. “[The title] Dobermans fit our team. We weren’t the biggest team. But we trusted each other at the back end. Michael and Scottie took a lot of chances getting in the passing lane, stealing the ball, because they knew I was back there. I knew if I was guarding a guy like Charles Barkley [a star of the Philadelphia 76ers], and I was in a bind, I knew Michael or Scottie would help. Our defence was close and sleek, that’s why we got the nickname ‘The Dobermans’.” Jordan joined the Bulls in 1984, and Pippen and Grant were signed in 1987. But the league title wasn’t coming. Though Jordan’s gifts were never in question and he won individual honours almost every season since joining the Bulls, he had a reputation of being a selfish player. The team that troubled the Bulls most was Detroit. They defeated them three consecutive years (1987-88, 88-89, 89-90). What made the losses to Detroit worse was that they had a player named Bill Laimbeer who was a good basketballer but a troublemaker who stopped at nothing to rile opponents. Asked if he had forgiven Laimbeer, Grant says with a mocking grunt and some guffaws. “Laimbeer… Heh, heh, heh. Well, I forgive everybody. But Laimbeer, I forgive but never forget. Ha ha ha ha ha. He’s the type of guy you love to have on your team, but you just don’t like him much.” The breakthrough came in 1991, when the Bulls finally shut Detroit up in the Eastern Conference finals. Detroit were 36 open

so upset that their captain, Isiah Thomas, and some key players walked off the court with seconds of the game still left just to avoid shaking hands with the Bulls. That season, says Grant, they did not allow Detroit and Laimbeer to get to them. This caught Detroit offguard. A few days ago, Thomas said that he regretted his actions, but that the Bulls, including Jordan and Jackson, had insulted the Pistons in a pre-game press conference in Detroit, their own soil, provoking the decision on not shaking hands with the Bulls. Grant says, “Every team talks trash. But after the game is over, you shake hands. Every year they beat us, we shook hands. They didn’t have sportsmanship. Kids crying over spilt milk.” In the finals, the Bulls got over the mighty Lakers led by Magic Johnson. And finally, the mountain had been climbed. In a famous picture, a sobbing Jordan can be seen hugging the trophy,

“Charles Oakley taught me how to scratch, kick, trip, even bite. He taught me everything,” Grant says. That’s why they were also called ‘the Dobermans’ his father James beside him. Jordan was close to his father. Two years later, his dream life was shaken to the core when Jordan senior was murdered while taking a nap in his car, a red Lexus coupe which was a gift from his son. Of the night of the win, Grant says, “It was a surreal moment. I don’t think it sank in till that summer. Looking back, I still get tingles. I remember having a cigar with my guys, drinking champagne. Not sleeping.” Superstars they always were, but now the Bulls became the beloved sons of Chicago. “It was an A-lister’s lifestyle. You go into a restaurant, ‘Okay Mr Grant, you don’t have to wait, there’s a table.’ That first championship, I don’t think I paid even $20 out of my pocket.”

rant was popular for playing with goggles. Off court, he, Pippen and some other players started another

fashion trend: colourful zebra pattern pants. “It was one of those 90s moments,” he says. “Michael didn’t wear them, of course. Bill Cartwright had a pair. BJ Armstrong.” And of course Pippen, his best friend. “Scottie, that’s my man. We came in the same year. We were always close. You saw Scottie, you saw Horace. You saw Horace, you saw Scottie.” In Barcelona 1992, you saw Scottie, but you did not see Horace. That year, superstars of the NBA deigned to play the Olympics, swaggering into town and enjoying the staggering hype around them. They were called the Dream Team, and remain the most star-studded side in any sport in Olympic history. Grant did not make the team. Pippen, on the other hand, was an automatic choice. Grant reportedly did not handle his exclusion well. “It wasn’t that,” he says. “I was a role player then. Lot of role players don’t make Dream Teams.” It is humble of him to say this. A role player is someone with a specific task who often starts a game on the bench and comes on when required. Grant says the reason for his pique was that while Jordan and Pippen got the odd off-day from the rigorous training, he didn’t. “We had a disagreement, Phil (Jackson) and I. I had been working all summer long. I said to Phil, ‘Phil, give me a day or two off.’ Phil said ‘no’.” Grant won three more Championship rings (1992 and 93 for Chicago and in 2001 for the Lakers). Asked to show the one he is wearing on his finger, he says, “If you want to see them, you must see them all.” He unzips his backpack and pulls out the other rings. They are chunky and heavy, with team logos and victory years inscribed on them. He says he’s been offered upwards of $100,000 for each. But 1991 was special. In March 2011, the team had a reunion on the court at United Center, the Bulls home venue, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the win. “You put us all together in a building, there is reminiscing, cigars, champagne and leg-pulling.” Signing off, Grant is asked to name the five best teams according to him in modern basketball history. For numbers 2 to 5, he names the Lakers, the Celtics, the San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Rockets. At No 1, he picks the Chicago Bulls. n 4 November 2013

l at e t u r n

The Curious Case of the 42-Year-Old Cricketer How Pravin Tambe, an obscure leg spinner, became the best bowler of the Champions League tournament Lhendup G Bhutia

few days before Sachin Tendulkar announced his retirement from cricket and opened a floodgate of emotions and memories, a similar atmosphere—though on a smaller scale—surrounded the finals of the Champions League tournament (CLT20). Played between the Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians, Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid were going to be seen for the last time in a limited-overs match. The duo gave pre-match bytes, commentators pressed them for anecdotes, and a mushy melodrama hung in the air. There was no mention of how poorly Dravid and Tendulkar had performed throughout the tournament. Despite both being shadows of their former selves, they had the empathy of spectators. They were two 40-year-olds with decades of cricket behind them, battle-weary men with slowing reflexes in what is essentially a young man’s game. Yet, the two were not the oldest on the field. In a game where batsmen got away with murderous strokes, an obscure legspinner of the Rajasthan Royals, who many had not even heard of, turned out to be the most economical bowler. He took two wickets and conceded only two fours. When he bowled, a Royals victory did not look improbable. And it was not just a lucky patch. His performance 38 open

throughout the tournament had been stellar. Rotund, stout and doublechinned, a bowler who had not even played a first-class cricket match sent down skiddy leg-break after leg-break with the odd flipper that tricked the best of batsmen. He emerged as the highest wicket taker in the tournament (taking

Dravid and Tendulkar were two 40-year-olds on the field, but the oldest player was Pravin Tambe—the Champion League’s top wicket taker this season 12 wickets in four matches), bowling, as he says, better than he has ever done. Two days later, he turned 42.

“D

o I look fat?” Tambe asks as he attempts to measure his waist with his hands. “My friends phoned to ask why I appear fat on TV. Can TV do that?” It’s a week after the final and Tambe has just appeared behind a jumble of cardboard boxes on the staircase of the building he lives in. In a bright orange T-shirt, he runs barefoot down the

steps to his apartment. Inside, the living room is cramped with memorabilia of the recent tournament. A large dummy cheque, the sort seen on TV during prize ceremonies, is placed on a table too small for it. Signed photographs of well-known cricketers he met during the tournament are stacked on another. “You know how it felt?” he asks. “It felt unbelievable.” Tambe lives in Nahur, a far-flung suburb of Mumbai, with a 13-year-old son, a six-year-old daughter and his wife. The building he lives in is damp and looks badly maintained. With no lift, one has to take a dark stairway coloured with dry jets of paan juice along the walls to reach his fourth floor one-bedroom apartment. Tambe plays cricket in local club matches for the B team of DY Patil Sports Academy. Off the field, he works as the manager of the academy’s hostel. During earlier editions of the IPL, he acted as a liaison officer whenever matches were played at the DY Patil Stadium. “This means, if the players need ice for an ice bath, I get the ice,” he says, “If someone wants their gear looked after, I do it.” For the first IPL match at DY Patil Stadium, he remembers walking around the Mumbai Indians’ dressing room, asking cricketers if they needed anything and working up the courage to request photographs with them. 4 November 2013

ritesh uttamchandani

when life begins at 42 Pravin Tambe had not even played first-class cricket before

ambe’s is a remarkable story of a bounce back to top form. Before the CLT20 tournament, he was “a nobody”, he says. But just a few matches later, spectators were sitting up each time his captain handed him the ball for an over. Both off and on the field, he was suddenly seen as a threat to batsmen. He has been playing cricket in various forms since his teenage years—first as a medium pace bowler in the city’s tennis ball cricket tournaments, and later with a leather ball for various clubs in different divisions. He turned to leg spin sometime in his early twenties because his then club lacked good spinners. The last highpoint of his career was back in 2000, when he was on the probables list of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy team. But a number of good spinners—Sairaj Bahutule, Ramesh Powar and Nilesh Kulkarni, all of whom also went on to represent India—kept Tambe away from first-class cricket. Bahutule and Kulkarni are retired now and Powar has shifted to Rajasthan’s Ranji team. As a result, Tambe was plucked out of near-retirement this year, although he couldn’t make it to the playing 11. Before he was liaison officer at the IPL, his last encounter with a celebrity cricketer was with Sachin Tendulkar. It was 1998, a few days before Australia reached India to play a marquee Test series, billed as a duel between the world’s best batsman and the world’s best bowler: Tendulkar versus Shane Warne. Tendulkar played not just the Test matches but also in Australia’s warm-up game against Mumbai. To counter Warne, he wanted to practice against a leg spinner. Tambe, along with another spinner, was summoned to bowl to him at the nets. “For over two hours, we bowled ball after ball to Tendulkar,” says Tambe, “It was a hot sunny day, but we were simply thrilled to be there. He would try all sorts of shots against us, and occasionally would even say ‘good ball’.” Tendulkar put up a great show in the matches, attacking Warne especially, and India went on to win both the warm-up game and the Test series. At the end of the tour, Warne famously remarked that he experienced nightmares of Tendulkar hitting him for sixes. “Every time Warne’s comment came up in conversation, I would tell friends and family that I had a little 40 open

part to play in it,” he says with modesty. For a long period, this turned out to be Tambe’s only brush with fame. His name never came up for selection for the Mumbai team after 2000 until this year. He, however, continued to toil for various clubs in the city. He remembers being told how a stint in county cricket would help improve his game, so he got the former cricketer Abey Kuruvilla, a friend, to put in a word for him with some of his acquaintances in the UK. He played for a few years at this level as an amateur, which meant he got no remuneration, just travel fare between India and the UK and an allowance for his stay there. In 2004, Orient Shipping, the company for which he played, disbanded its cricket team. He was left without a job, a major anxiety for a man with a wife and child to support. “This was probably the time I was most scared in my life,” he says. In panic, he took up the job of a ‘sorter’ at a

In 1998, Tambe had bowled to Tendulkar at the nets to help him prepare for his epic contest with Shane Warne—the one that gave the Australian nightmares diamond company for a paltry salary of Rs 1,600 a month, but quit after he was asked to work overtime on a Saturday and miss local games. “They probably thought I was a middle-aged man pursuing a fool’s errand,” he says. “For me, it was never about playing for India or Mumbai. I would have liked that, but my real passion was playing cricket.” Getting a job at DY Patil Sports Academy was a relief indeed. The Rajasthan Royals break came as a surprise. Having noticed his bowling in a tournament earlier this year, the team’s talent spotters called him for a trial. Although he was picked for the squad, he only got three IPL games to play. However, when two of the squad’s best spinners were banned for spot-fixing (Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila, who were caught along with medium pace bowler Sreesanth), he got a chance to show everyone what he had in him.

ince that dramatic CLT20 perfor-

mance, Tambe’s life hasn’t changed much. He has been invited to a few Durga Puja pandals as a guest, and had a surprise birthday party thrown by his building society. Grocery delivery boys do smile at him in half-recognition, but he still goes about his old routine. Two days after the CLT20, he was leading DY Patil’s B team in a three-day local match, riding to the venue on his Yamaha Avenger bike he bought second-hand eight years ago. The only reminder of his new-found fame in his building is a poster, now torn, put up at the entrance by his housing colony. Tambe, who had no first-class experience, was picked up by the Royals for the minimum base price of $10,000. His two Man of the Match awards at the CLT20 had cash prizes of $5,000 each, but he has been too shy to ask his team management if that money is for him or the team. When he won his first Man of the Match award against the South African team, Highveld Lions, he wanted to keep the outsized dummy cheque he was given as a souvenir, though it is usually returned to the authorities after the ceremony so they can use it for other matches. “I did not know this. So when they came asking, I refused. I did not know if I would win another prize or if I would even play many matches for the team. So I did not want to part with it,” he says. Once managers of the Royals explained how it works, he reluctantly gave it up. The next time he was adjudged Man of the Match, the last to be played in Jaipur (against the Chennai Super Kings), he kept the dummy for himself. “I knew this would be the last match in Jaipur and it would be the last time it was required for the tournament here. So I quietly kept it. And when the finals got over, I brought it home as a souvenir.” “I don’t know what the future holds for me. Some say, considering my age, I won’t last long. Either I’ll be hit with injuries or my form will vanish. All I know is I’m enjoying the game and bowling at my best. What I have decided to follow is Dravidbhai’s advice,” he says. At the end of the CLT20 final, Rahul Dravid sought him out. The cricketer had learnt of his age through media reports. He shook Tambe’s hand, smiled at him and said, “For you, remember, life begins at 42.” n 4 November 2013

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vo g u e

Fashion Forecasters Crystal ball gazers or enemies of diversity? AANCHAL BANSAL

strdel/afp

s she rummaged through her re-

search of over six months, Harleen Sabarwal, then in her twenties, was staring at grim headlines mourning the crash of dotcom businesses and a possible stagnation of the economy. That was back in 2002. Working in Bombay as a trend forecaster for Raymond’s, she had to come up with ideas to revamp the festival collection of its brand Park Avenue that year. She had to make it younger and ‘zippier’, as it were. “There was grimness in everything I picked up,” says Sabarwal, “most of it building up after the 9/11 attacks—terrorism, war, economic stagnation. And here I was, looking at redoing an entire collection asking people to 4 November 2013

appeal (Below) A model in designer Urvashi Kaur’s creation at the Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week 2013; (facing page) Sonam Kapoor showcases a design by Manish Malhotra at a product launch in Mumbai

ashish sharma

come, buy and celebrate Diwali.” Looking at Raymond’s usual designs— checks, stripes and solids—she knew that nothing would work that season. There was tension in the air. People felt restricted and had a rising interest in spirituality. “Feng Shui became extremely popular those days,” she says, “Checks, which were usually part of half the designs, were out of the question as checks would have added to the ‘boxed’ feeling that the world was going through.” Stripes would not have appealed to buyers either, since stripes suggest ‘flow’, a sentiment that seemed blocked by anxiety. Likewise, solids would have been too plain; they held no promise of a better future. 4 November 2013

It all looked rather bleak until Sabarwal hit upon a self-help book by American psychologist Sign A Dayhoff. Titled Diagonally Parked in a Parallel Universe: Working through Social Anxiety, it offered a way out for the season. “Diagonals it was,” she says, “That was my brief to the designers of the collection. It fit with the climate of that time.” Unsure of the market response to this idea and discouraged by a failed photo shoot with model Milind Soman (who reportedly backed out as he saw it as too ‘risky’ for a comeback campaign), Raymond’s withheld all advertising and slipped the new designs into the market quietly. “Despite the soft launch, we were

sold-out for the next season too,” says Sabarwal, “Diagonals clicked because we were all stuck emotionally and customers were subconsciously attracted to them… the pattern reflected the state of mind of an entire generation.” Eleven years later, Delhi-based designer Urvashi Kaur has zeroed in on minimalism as the season’s sentiment. It has inspired her 2014 Spring Summer Collection, the final trimmings of which she has just about finished for Delhi’s fashion week. It is a theme in response to the pressures of economic recession and climate change, and so the fabrics are soft, flowing and also organic. “It is more about serenity and minimalism,” she open www.openthemagazine.com 43

says, “Eco-friendly fabrics are in, as we are more conscious about the environment.” It is what she expects to see on the fashion runway this season. Designer Ranna Gill, on the other hand, believes that the neons of the last season will continue to dominate summer fashion for another year. “It’s all about youth and brightness,” she says, “[About] trying to be cheerful.” What unites their efforts is the fashion industry’s need to look ahead at choices of the future. Without it, what they make could be woefully out of sync with what sells.

ashion forecasting is about predicting colours, patterns and designs that are expected to make waves the following season. “It is a whole process of studying economics, trends and even psychology to come up with options like colour palettes, designs and even fabrics that are available,” explains Kaur. “Emotions, mindsets and the general sentiment all reflect on culture,” she says, “and fashion is where it is most visible.” She cites the classic example of the female tuxedo that came into fashion after World War II as a feminist symbol of escape from the feminine. Trend forecasting, which has a wide ambit, takes into account social influences ranging from automobiles and lifestyles to food & beverages and medicine. Most fashion houses in the West have inhouse forecasters who travel widely, study street fashion and track trends on the internet, apart from keeping tabs on innovations in fabric and materials. Much money rides on their forecasts. Guided by these, fashion labels like Donna Karan and Gucci work 9-12 months ahead while designing a collection for a season. “Forecasting is all about market economics,” says Sabarwal. “A designer running a brand will look at what is economical and trendy enough to attract buyers, the basics of business.” In India, the practice is still in its infancy. Some firms have inhouse forecasters, but many others go by the word of forecasting agencies like Style-Sight and WGSN in London that put out a global handbook for designers and fashion houses. “Designers in India broadly look at these trends and then appropriate 44 open

them to our climate and culture,” says Gill, who specialises in Western wear.

ot only does India not have agencies that issue fashion forecasts, designers are divided over whether it works or not. “Now I cannot have leather pants for the summer in India,” says Gill, “It might work in Paris or London that dictate the trends in fashion, but not here.” In any case, a huge slice of the Indian market is traditional wear. “We have different sensibilities, cultures and a huge range of climatic diversity,” says Kaur, “We also have a huge trousseau business that most designers rely heavily on. Indian bridalwear doesn’t necessarily have to follow trends ushered in by Milan or Paris.” In sum, she says, “We may look at the general colour palette,

repetitive Vidya Balan in a Sabyasachi design during the opening ceremony of the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival

but we have our own designs to match our cultural sensibilities.” Delhi-based designer Arjun Saluja, who has a label called Rishta by Arjun Saluja, is not even sure of global colour forecasts. “We cannot use a colour palette given down to us because that’s not how we are organised as a country,” he says. “Also, colours that might work in, say, north India, may not work in cities of the south. The choice in fabrics will be different across cities—mainly due to climatic differences, culture and general thoughts.” Pallavi Mohan, a designer who focuses on Western wear with her label Not So Serious, however believes that global forecasts are indeed helpful in competing with global apparel labels like Zara and Mango, which put out new collections at affordable prices even before

abarwal is critical of the way India’s design fraternity operates. Most Indian designers, she alleges, work as ‘one-night stand’ designers who only work from fashion week to fashion week and have no coherent line of thought in what they do. This, she says, is why they do not understand the value of fashion forecasting. “Most do not even have a signature style,” she says. In Sabarwal’s opinion, Manish

Malhotra and Sabyasachi are among those facing an identity crisis over their style. “Only now is Malhotra looking at developing a signature style after years of experience in dressing up leading Bollywood actresses, while Sabyasachi, who happened to be the only designer with a signature style, has now become repetitive.” Sabyasachi, who popularised khadi and a deglam look, did admit in public that he’d become repetitive after the somewhat jaded look he gave Vidya Balan at Cannes this year. That he now offers bridal makeovers on the TV show Band Bajaa Bride has not done anything to quell that criticism. Malhotra, meanwhile, is trying to make up for lost time in promoting his signature style. “Fashion in our country is only restricted to glamorous stars, Middle East buyANTONIN THUILLIER/AFP

these trends get off the runway. “I am already working on my 2015 line, so keeping abreast of trends is essential,” she says, “I have a business to run.” The forecasts, though, are only reference points. “If a Bolero jacket is in fashion, I will also make a Bolero jacket but it will be in line with my creative thought and style.”

ers and pastry events after fashion week,” says Sabarwal, “We lack an Indian identity as we blindly follow the season diktaks of the West. In most parts of the country, we don’t even have spring and fall as seasons, but we continue to bring out collections [for those].” Kaur believes that Indian designers need to adopt a cohesive approach to fashion. “As an industry, we are divided into factions,” she says, “There is a fashion council, but it functions between two fashion weeks. Then there are bloggers and writers who haven’t been tapped [properly]. We have to function as an industry to promote the Indian design sensibility internationally.”

rofessor

Kaustav

Sengupta,

an associate professor at National Institute of Fashion Technology and a youth trend anthropologist, sees a bright future for fashion forecasting in India over the next few years. “We do have a very diverse cultural range,” he says, “but with the internet and social media becoming popular, fashion choices made by the young in today’s times have become ‘flatter’ than [those by] the previous generation—a boy in Patna and a boy in Delhi have access to the same brands and fashion information on the internet. They look the same.” While working as a forecaster for Nike in India, Professor Sengupta says he noticed an interesting trend: consumers in Pune and Bangalore appeared to have the same choice of footwear. “Most of them were IT professionals who would travel abroad on projects,” he says, “They would end up buying the same kind of shoes.” With forecasters like WGSN opening offices in India and with the country opening up to foreign investment in the retail sector, Sengupta expects fashion forecasting to gain in importance. “Most foreign brands setting up shop in India will engage forecasters to study the Indian market,” he says. However, he does rue what these trends imply: a gradual loss of diversity in how people dress. “We might just end up looking like people in London or Milan,” he fears, “Everyone in these cities seems to dress up in the same colours, same silhouettes and same style—maybe just different brands.” n open www.openthemagazine.com 45

between the sheets

“What’s Good Sex?”

In pursuit of the seemingly ubiquitous yet elusive sonali khan

few days ago, the best friend and I met for drinks.

I knew something was up when my normally let’sstick-to-beer friend handed her credit card to the barman and told him to keep the shots coming. When a friendship has survived everything—hideous acne breakouts, the tragic end of first relationships, panicked phone calls about missed periods, cheating partners, runaway bride acts, and, most recently, detailed conversations about home loans and floating interest rates—it’s reasonable to assume you know everything there is to know about the person. It’s hard to keep secrets when both of you know the contents of the other’s lingerie drawer so well that you can advise each other, with credibility, against pairing a certain kind of thong with a specific pair of shorts. Which is why I was shocked by what followed next: “What’s good sex?” she asked me baldly. With all the grace of a battering ram in a china shop, I offered her a prolonged, “Haiiiiinnn? Means what?” In my defence, there had been no less than seven rounds of shots and considering I wasn’t going through a sexual existential crisis like my friend, I was well on my way to the kind of inebriation that inspires I’m-too-old-for-this-shit morning-after epiphanies. “Nothing, forget it,” she muttered. Somewhere from the dregs of my fast-slipping sense of equilibrium, I remembered my best friend duties and dragged her outside to continue the conversation. Three fortifying gulps of water later, with a measure of sanity (and grammar) restored, the questions burst forth. “Did something happen? Are you not enjoying it suddenly? Don’t worry, it’s probably just a phase,” I offered in a rush. “I guess so,” she nodded slowly, looking unconvinced. “But what happened?” “I was talking to XYZ. And he told me I don’t participate enough,” she mumbled, hoping that my alcohol-addled brain wouldn’t focus on the name. He is the ex from lifetimes past, who breezes in and out of her life, often at terribly inconvenient times. We all have a variation of such an ex—the one who skulks around on the periphery of our lives, fulfilling some inexplicable purpose. The piece with the jagged edges—the one that doesn’t fit neatly into the jigsaw puzzle of your romantic life. The one with

whom sex is never completely off the table. In my friend’s case, he was not qualified to give her suggestions or feedback on her sexual prowess or proclivities. He can, at best, be compared to the jeggings frenzy that hit us sometime in the mid to late noughties—a torrid affair while it lasted, but mercifully short-lived. Why my friend had opted to hang on to this particular pair long after it had stopped looking good on her, I will never know. But like I said, all of us have that one ex who serves no purpose other than occupying precious closet space. The last time they’d hooked up was when my friend had bid her teens a teary farewell. He was hardly a credible source for a sexual-performance review. “He’s an idiot,” I told her. “You’ve obviously gotten better in the last 6 years!” Later that night, as I googled ‘good sex’, I was confronted with a staggering number of How Tos. Advice on ‘good sex’ was available everywhere, in every format—from 140-character tweets to 1,400-word essays to several-hundredpage-long sagas. Apparently, there are a lot of people out there who have nailed this ‘good sex’ business. Good for them. Thinking about good sex reminded me of a fling I had last year. He hated oral sex—unbelievably, unlike most men, the getting part, not the giving. I couldn’t believe my luck—how often does a girl stumble upon such a perfect one-night-stand? But the point is: our definitions of what constituted good sex were pretty different. He had some weird shit going on that I was curious enough to try but decided wasn’t for me— even though it meant giving up the man who gave head and didn’t want it in return! (They’re not unicorns; these men, though rare, really do exist.) Coming back to my friend: if I had actually answered her question, she would have sworn off sex altogether. Because there’s no way my friend with the sensitive gag reflex is ever going to try some of the stuff I’ve put on the non-negotiable side of my checklist. Over the next few days, I asked a bunch of friends what ‘good sex’ meant and I had my own sexual epiphany. More on that next time. n

He had some weird shit going on that I was curious enough to try, but decided wasn’t for me

46 open

Sonali Khan was holding on to her virtue, and then she fell in love...with several men. She drinks whisky, not Cosmopolitan 4 November 2013

true life

mindspace

out there Labour politics in orbit 48

Bidding and Screaming

O p e n s pa c e

Deepika Padukone Bipasha Basu

n p lu

Shahid Boss

61 Cinema reviews

Lego Mindstorms EV 3 Graham Chronofighter Oversize JBL J22i In-Ear Headphones

Tech & style

The Human Ancestor Conundrum Converting Fat Cells to Liver Cells Sleep Clears Brain of Toxins

Sc i e n c e

Hansal Mehta and Shahid Eleven Directors, One FIlm

Cinema

Narendra Kumar Ahmed

a rt s

The Landour Cookbook

books

A Strike on a Space Station

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gamma-keystone/getty images

true life

gamma-keystone/getty images

On Strike in Outer Space

The story of a flight to a now-defunct NASA space station demonstrates that even beyond the reach of gravity, Mission Control will still try to keep you down Samir Chopra

kylab 4, the third and final

degrees in engineering and science and thousands of hours of flying time on jet aircraft—also went on strike. Shortly after their mission began, the crew refused to work for one day, and had to be persuaded to return to their duties. In other words, a good old industrial action followed by negotiations with ‘management’ took place in outer space. The usually staid communiques between NASA’s Mission Control and orbiting astronauts, which convey the impression of jointly held objectives and co-operation, were replaced by considerably more tense and fraught communications. Skylab 4’s status as a landmark in manned space exploration is, then, not just because of its duration but also because it has important lessons to teach us about labour relations in spaceflight. These issues have thus far only been imaginatively alluded to in fictional stories of disgruntled crewmembers on board the starship Enterprise, but will become germane if long-duration manned space flight—to Mars, or to the Moon to establish lunar colonies—ever becomes a reality.

Skylab 4 reminds us that while spaceflight might seem glamorous and pristine like the gleaming white spacesuits astronauts wear, on closer inspection it can reveal many of the familiar human and environmental dynamics that make our workplace relationships so fascinating and challenging. It most usefully illuminates the tensions that may arise between a rigid, controlling, science-regulating administration and a group of workers ostensibly selected for their discipline and psychological wherewithal to resist the stress of spaceflight. It was, of course, useful for other reasons too. By noting the Skylab 4 strike, I do not mean to diminish the crew’s activities, or reduce their 12week stint in space to merely this story.

o what went wrong?

Most prominently, from the moment the crew went into orbit, their lives were a blur of experiment and regulation, tightly and excessively controlled by a domineering set of NASA mission co-ordinators at Houston’s Mission Control. Time was limited; a

william r. pogue/corbis

manned mission to NASA’s ultimately doomed Skylab space station, was launched on 16 November 1973 and concluded on 8 February 1974. It was the longest manned flight—84 days—in the history of space exploration at that time. Skylab 4’s crew—astronauts Gerald Carr, William Pogue and Edward Gibson— conducted dozens of experiments and demonstrations during their time in low Earth orbit. They carried out hundreds of observations of the Earth’s resources using Skylab’s cameras and remote sensing arrays, and of the Sun’s surface using the station’s telescope. The three astronauts also performed space walks, floating high above the Earth’s atmosphere as they carried out inspections of the space station’s exterior and performed routine maintenance and repair on it. In addition to performing this catalogue of impressive scientific and technical work, the Skylab crew—highly trained, motivated and educated men of impressive military and scientific training, boasting PhDs and Masters

space cadets Carr (left) and Gibson (floating) horsing around in zero gravity; (facing page) the crew of Skylab 4 before the launch at Houston, Texas

large number of scientific experiments had been planned by an enthusiastic group of scientists on Earth. For every single second of their waking hours the crew was prodded, poked, telemetered, scanned and required to work through long, tedious check-lists of activities. Every bodily function had to be recorded and regulated—this was, after all, a mission whose primary objectives included the study of the effects of long-term habitation in space. The interior of the Skylab space station might have been a capacious 350 cubic metres, but there was nowhere to hide from Mission Control. This was a scientific experiment, on taxpayer expense, and NASA intended to get its money’s worth. The three men were designated ‘astronauts’ but all too often, they were made to feel like highly-trained and monitored guinea pigs. This tone of panopticon-like control had been set from the very beginning, when Bill Pogue had vomited—an entirely normal reaction to arrival in low Earth orbit, one which sometimes afflicts even experienced astronauts— shortly after arriving at the station, and decided, in collusion with other members of the crew, to not report the incident to Houston. But unknown to the astronauts, they were being monitored and eavesdropped upon round the clock, and soon they were castigated like a triplet of hand-in-cookie-jar schoolboys and warned that all such incidents had to be recorded and reported. That early ‘eavesdropping’ incident was by far the most trust-destroying interaction between the Skylab crew and Mission Control. The astronauts soon realised that they were, for all practical purposes, prisoners under surveillance; they had no privacy, and there was nowhere they could ‘hide’ from the peeping eyes and ears of NASA’s Mission Control. They might have been hundreds of thousands of feet above the Earth’s surface but there was no getting away from this control. Their workspace was, in short, a nightmare of regulation. And they were overworked. Faced with remote discipline at its extreme, the crew asserted their resistance. They had the most combative, unvarnished conversations ever with Houston, a far cry from the sanitised politeness characteristic of astronaut communications with ground controllers. Not for them the glowing encomi50 open

ums standardly paid to NASA’s engineering genius. Gibson noted that the minute-by-minute monitoring was ‘no way to do business’ and that the entire mission had been a ’33-day fire drill’. They became notorious for ‘complaining’. And they complained about everything. They complained about

Faced with extreme discipline,

the crew asserted their resistance. They became notorious for ‘complaining’.

they complained about everything. They complained about their towels and about their toilets,

they complained about the pockets on their spacesuits being too small, and about their Velcro strips not working

their towels, they complained about their toilets, they complained about the pockets on their spacesuits being too small, and they complained about their Velcro strips not working. Matters finally came to a head when Pogue, Carr and Gibson ‘took a day off’ and did whatever they pleased, ignoring their predetermined schedule.

For instance, on this self-enforced furlough, Ed Gibson, the resident science pilot, a solar physicist with a PhD from California Institute of Technology, retired to the solar observation station and spent the entire workday recording images at his own pace, not bothering to make any detailed entries in his lab handbooks. ‘Negotiations’ followed. Carr put forward the astronauts’ demands: ‘We need more time to rest. We need a schedule that is not so packed. We don’t want to exercise after a meal. We need to get things under control.’ Mission Control, for their part, felt the crew’s ‘rigidity’ was making it ‘difficult for them to have the flexibility of scheduling needed’. Finally, though, the astronauts were reassured that ground controllers were ‘very happy with the way you are doing business’. Work schedules were altered, expectations adjusted; the astronauts were made fuller ‘partners’ in their mission’s planning, and work resumed. The story of Skylab 4 prompted much discussion about the regulation of work in space. For instance, it was clear that workers in space, unless policed by another crew, possessed some rather straightforward advantages in their negotiations with ‘management’. To begin with, space flight is tremendously expensive, with every minute of space flight time costing thousands of dollars, as the crew—trained at great expense—operates multi-million dollar equipment developed over years of research. Furthermore, space workers cannot be replaced easily; putting another crew in space instead of Carr, Gibson and Pogue would have required a Saturn rocket launch, not an undertaking to be carried out in a rush. It has since been suggested that the so-called ‘revolt’ or ‘strike’ wasn’t really one at all. But these revisionist accounts do not discount the contentious and irritable relationship between Houston and Skylab 4, nor do they refute the notion that even highly trained military types and scientists fully convinced of the value of their work are likely to push back when placed in an artificially controlled, tootightly-regulated environment. The lessons here are not just for manned space flight, but for any workplace environment that approximates its conditions, whether in space or on Earth. We ignore them at our peril. n 4 November 2013

Books Recipes and Reminiscences For Ruskin Bond and Ganesh Saili, authors of the The Landour Cookbook, good food is comfort food PRERNA RATURI

usybodies, both of them. At his home in Mussoorie, Ganesh Saili is reading a newspaper while trying to tend to his three-year-old granddaughter, who seems to be coming down with a cold. Before that, he was researching and reading up on important landmarks of the hill town. Ruskin Bond has even less time as he puts papers together to file his tax returns. That the landline phone isn’t working, and workers are cleaning up the mud and muck near his stairs, making his front door almost inaccessible, suits him just fine. “Just as well,” he grins, “No tourists trying to call or come visiting for photographs and autographs!” But both are ready to put everything aside to talk about food. Together, they have edited the The Landour Cookbook: Over Hundred Years of Hillside Cooking and Bond has written an apt introduction for it, spiced with humour and full of the wistful fragrance of days gone by. Published by Niyogi Books, the second edition of the book is out in the market and is selling—for lack of a better cliché—like hot cakes. It was Saili who, in the 1990s, came across a spiral-bound copy of recipes that had been painstakingly collected and locally printed by the wives of missionaries in Mussoorie between 1850 and 1950. “These were mostly American women who followed their missionary husbands from all parts of India—Agra, Kanpur, Delhi, Balia, parts of Madhya Pradesh—in the summers. It was too hot to do the Lord’s work when it was so hot in the plains,” he explains. Hill stations remain the best escape from scorching summers in the plains. Today, you can see men-folk in

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their three-quarter pants, panting up the Mall Road, hoping that one day the roads there will be less steep and have four lanes in which to whizz around in their sedans. Teenagers in their Greater Kailash-best, too, prefer to strut around Mall Road, since Landour, slightly further away, has nothing to see, really. “Just trees all around, no use.” Women are courageous enough to walk uphill in their skinny jeans and muffin-top-displaying lycra tops. Aunties in crepe de chine salwar-suits, teamed with pointed heels, dig their fingers into their husbands’ shoulders as they come downhill, ready to slip or

It was Saili who, in the 1990s, came across a spiral-bound copy of recipes that had been painstakingly collected and locally printed by the wives of missionaries in Mussoorie between 1850 and 1950 twist their ankles any minute. A little over a century ago, it would have been the families of missionaries, being carried in dandees (baskets balanced on sturdy sticks that were carried by ‘natives’) or sitting sidesaddle on horses, several of them accompanied by their servants, pets, grand pianos and crates of wine, all carried on mules. “There were huge bungalows for missionaries in Landour—the Mennonites, Protestants, Pentecostals, Methodists and others,” says Saili. Their wives would set up home in these bungalows for four to six months in the summer and form a

local club. In their free time, they swapped and shared recipes for everything from the well-known soufflés and fondues to the lesser-known Hungarian goulashes and Kentucky chocolate crullers. The Landour Cookbook has all these and more, with exhaustive sections on breads and rolls, jams and jellies, pickles and relishes and, of course, confectionery. “In a way, it is more a social history than a cookbook,” says Bond, emphasising the way each recipe includes the name of its contributor. Original measurements are mentioned in the same units used decades ago—seers, mounds and chattacks. “Of course, we have stated modern measurements [as well].” Although Bond is fond of the little recipe book, it’s simple ‘Hindustani’ food that he loves. “I like dal, sabzi, roti and meat. I love fish. We have the machchliwala come and deliver freshwater fish such as the rohu (carp) and singara (cat fish) every once in a while,” he says. Living with his adopted family, Bond rarely enters the kitchen and leaves the cooking to his granddaughter-in-law, Beena. “She cooks really nice food, though she is more of a chili person. But I don’t mind spicy, since I have inherited my mother’s likes and dislikes for food.” For Saili, cooking is a stress buster. “I love cooking biryani and all that my mother used to make,” he says, talking about simple and delicious dishes such as bhangjeera (perilla) chutney, kaafli (pahari spinach cooked in local spices) and thichwani (a mild curry of smashed radishes or baby potatoes cooked on a slow fire). While Saili remembers his mother’s cooking, Bond shudders at the thought 4 november 2013

foodies Both residents of Mussoorie, Ganesh Saili (left) and Ruskin Bond are fond of pahari cuisine

of a rhubarb sweet dish served every day while he was at Bishop Cotton School in Shimla. “I hated that thing,” he says. His first food memories are far more delectable. Bond was about seven years old when he was in the princely state of Jamnagar, now in Gujarat, with his parents. “Our khansama there cooked delicious food such as fish and lamb cutlets, stir-fried vegetables and curries. He made the best 4 november 2013

mutton koftas,” remembers Bond. Called Jaan Sa’ab, the Maharaja of Jamnagar would often organise banquets and parties and the Bond family would be invited to those as well. There would be platters full of gulab jamuns and laddoos and all things sweet. “I think I had my fill of sweets then, since I like savoury things more now,” he says. “But then I have always been fond of eating,” says

Bond. In 1951 in Dehradun, he took part in a tikki-eating contest. Made of mashed potatoes and dal, these tikkis are crisp brown on the outside and famous for their fiery green and sweet red chutneys. “Just out of school and I ate 32 tikkis!” he chortles. The prize: someone else had to pay for the spicy treat. While spicy chaat may not be up Bond’s culinary alley anymore, he still likes pakoras and the occasional parantha for breakfast. Of course, local delicacies from Uttarakhand such as patyud (a dish made of colocasia leaves) remain a favourite. “In fact, one of the best meals I had was many, many years ago in a village near Landsdowne. A friend’s mother quickly rustled up some green vegetables—made of all edible greens such as spinach, onion leaves and radish leaves—and rotis,” he reminisces. For Saili, it was the pahari gath (a lentil that grows in the hills) ki daal and rice with homemade white butter that makes for the best meal he ever ate. “My friend Professor Misra happened to be near Badrinath. My mother’s village, Kuhed was nearby and I went to my maternal uncle’s house, which is where I had that heavenly meal. It’s easy to say, ‘How I loved the lobsters at The Taj Mahal Hotel’, but that food doesn’t hit the primary taste buds of mine,” he says frankly. Saili does like to rustle up a fancy meal every once in a while and has learnt the tricks of the trade from one of the old khansamas in Mussoorie. “The poor man died last year. He was an alcoholic, though it is old age that killed him.” Of course, there is an old local shop in Landour that serves a lot of preserves and chutneys made from recipes in the cookbook. And while Saili claims to have tried several cakes and chutneys from the book, Bond is more cautious. “I have tried one of them— a pie. I don’t remember which. All I remember is I had a stomach ache after eating it,” he chuckles, “So I won’t guarantee the recipes. You should try them at your own risk.” Another Ruskin Bond book, then, laced with irony, wit and suspense. n open www.openthemagazine.com 53

arts Bright Pants, Big Plans Narendra Kumar Ahmed gains in influence even as he shuts down stores. His new job at Amazon India lets him focus on his designs and give techies style tips MOHINI CHAUDHURI

celebrated couturier Narendra Kumar Ahmed has never needed a resume to validate his achievements— until last October when Amazon India offered him the role of creative director. He tried to wriggle out of writing one but the Human Resources department insisted. Ahmed hurriedly jotted down a few points that he thought were highlights of his career—being a part of the teaching faculty of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and launching India’s first fashion magazine, Elle, as fashion editor, to name a couple. He just about filled a page. He was also asked to turn in his graduation mark sheet from Bombay University, which he had misplaced. “I kept telling them that I have a BSc in Chemistry with 43 per cent,” says an amused Ahmed at his workshop on the fourth floor of a crummy industrial estate in central Mumbai. “Did I really need a mark sheet? It is not like I’m claiming a 90 per cent!” His office extends over three large rooms packed with masterjis squatting amid piles of colourful materials, beads and shiny sequins. Ahmed’s staff members stand vigil, spouting instructions barely audible above the whirring of the sewing machines. Along the walls are rows of hangers wearing freshly-sewn sherwanis, suits and evening dresses. It’s now been four months since he started work at Amazon and Ahmed still hasn’t found his mark sheet. He has filed an affidavit, which he will have to produce at the University in order to get a duplicate. Since May, Ahmed has been leaving his home every Monday morning at 4 am to catch a flight to Bangalore, where Amazon’s office is located. On Friday free bird “I’m not interested in having a hundred stores. I just concentrate on my cuts and fits” 54 open

night, he flies back to Mumbai to attend to his own business. This constant back and forth has to be tiring, but Ahmed makes it sound effortless. “My only challenge is learning how to use Microsoft Outlook,” he jokes. There has been speculation over whether his new job will leave any time for him to make clothes, but

Ahmed looks relieved to have escaped the day-to-day management of his two stores. “I have a team that’s been with me for years to look after my business,” he says. “This way, I’m actually concentrating more on my designing.” On his new role, he offers limited insight. He explains that he’s not at liberty to reveal much except that he is ritesh uttamchandani

n a career spanning two decades,

working with a team to build Amazon India’s new fashion stores. “I will use my years of experience in various areas of fashion to make Amazon.in the premiere lifestyle portal in India. On 19 September, we launched our ‘Fashion Jewellery’ and ‘Watches’ stores—the widest selection in the country. We have many more things planned for the future,” he says. What drew him to the project was the opportunity to learn the ropes of e-commerce, and he couldn’t have asked for a better place than Amazon for that. Ahmed was grilled over 12 rounds of intense interviews with various heads of the company based in the US and Japan before landing the job. He’s not sure if there were other designers in the running. Looking back, he seems befuddled at how he made the cut. He remembers being quizzed on his leadership skills and ability to guide a team. To that end, Ahmed’s selection doesn’t surprise much. As he catches up on work at his Mumbai office, he speaks to his staffers with warmth and respect and attends to each of his visitors patiently. “My team hasn’t changed in 13 years and that’s saying a lot in this industry. After working for me, many of them had the option to go elsewhere for double the salary, but they chose to be here because we believe in what we do.” His colleagues at Amazon, mostly techies in loose-fitted jeans, casual shirts and chappals, are still reeling from their first meeting with Ahmed, who turned up in lime green pants. Now they wait eagerly to see what shade he will wear next. On the rare occasion that Ahmed wears regular pants, they seem disappointed. “When I met one of my bosses a few weeks later, he said, ‘So you’re the guy with the green pants.’ But that’s the great thing about fashion, it allows you to be yourself,” Ahmed says. He doesn’t dole out fashion advice to his colleagues but says he’s happy to guide the few who come to him with sartorial queries. In January, Ahmed touched another milestone. His store in Mumbai’s Khar area was listed as one of the world’s best for menswear by Esquire magazine’s Big Black Book of Style. For the uninitiated, the Big Black Book is con4 november 2013

sidered the definitive guide to men’s style by industry insiders and fashion aficionados. Ahmed is the first Indian designer to have found mention in the publication, along with names like Tom Ford, Burberry and Louis Vuitton. “It was a huge honour for me. I think I can die now,” he says, while trying to fish a copy of the magazine out of his office desk. He was unaware of the news till a friend in publishing informed him. “I couldn’t believe it. I asked him to send me three copies. To think that my label, which has only been around for 10 years, was in the same list as the other big names made it [even] more special,” he says. There aren’t too many places where one can get hold of a Narendra Kumar ensemble. Ahmed once had a store in Bangalore’s Leela Palace Hotel, but he shut it down. About three years ago, he

In January, Ahmed’s store in Khar was listed as one of the world’s best in menswear by Esquire’s Big Black Book of Style, considered the industry’s definitive guide to men’s fashion also closed his store in Delhi, considered the nerve-centre of the fashion industry. “I find that city too aggressive for my liking. I didn’t feel like managing that store any more. I studied for two years in Delhi [at NIFT] but that’s it. I also had a couple of job opportunities there but didn’t take them,” he says. He’s now left with his store in Khar and one in Pune. “I’m not interested in having a hundred stores. I just concentrate on my cuts and fits,” he says. Ahmed doesn’t claim to be an astute businessman. He’s used to getting paranoid calls from his accountant Suresh when he hands out clothes for free, which he does quite often. He once gifted a blue velvet waistcoat he was wearing to a woman he met at one of his shows. “She told me she liked it, so I gave it to her. There are very few people who appreciate good work and then come up and tell you [so],” he says. The

most affordable Narendra Kumar suit is for Rs 25,000; they go as high as 1.5 lakh. What he lacks as a businessman, he makes up for in creativity. At fashion weeks, Ahmed’s shows are always highly anticipated. They play out like mini movies, complete with story, script and music. He chooses themes that are powerful, relevant and sometimes deeply personal. The show closest to his heart was at the National Centre for Performing Arts in Mumbai. It was inspired by a love letter his father Rukunuddin Ahmed had written his mother Lakshmi when she was being coerced into marrying someone else. “My father was a Muslim and my mother a Hindu. At their time, an intercommunity marriage was almost like asking for death. I wanted to do a show on love and courage,” he says. Ahmed speaks about his shows passionately. So when his message is lost on the audience, he feels disillusioned, even a tad angry. He considers his show at the Lakme Fashion Week in March—titled ‘The Thought Police’ after a concept from George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four—one of his best. “The show was the first of its kind and something that has never been attempted the world over. But I got no reaction from the press.” He hired bouncers for the show and dressed them in police khakis. They lined both sides of the runway, obstructing the audience’s view of the models. Those sitting in the front row managed a fleeting glimpse of the clothes. “It was a reflection of what was going on in our country—Nirbhaya being sent to Singapore for treatment when the Government knew she wasn’t going to make it, two girls being arrested for an innocent comment on Facebook, and Dhoble’s crackdown on nightclubs. We were being ruled by fear and that’s what I was trying to show. But the photographers kept complaining about how they couldn’t see anything,” says Ahmed, shaking his head ruefully. Could this cost him an audience or even potential buyers? “I don’t care,” he shoots back. After a pause, he adds, “As long as I can sleep soundly at night, I’m happy.” n open www.openthemagazine.com 55

CINEMA ashish sharma

A Fire Rekindled After a promising start and a quick burn-out, Hansal Mehta returns to cinema with fresh fervour Nikhil Taneja

ver the last few years, it has seemed that Hansal Mehta had quietly retired as a doyen of Indian indie cinema, while his more vocal friend and colleague Anurag Kashyap took up the mantle full time. He and Kashyap had debuted together, co-writing the 1997 movie ...Jayate. Mehta’s first few films, particularly Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar (2000) and Chhal (2002), seemed to herald the dawn of a distinct cinematic voice. But the difficulty of funding offbeat cinema before the beginning of the multiplex phenomenon, coupled with an appalling assault on him by members of the Shiv Sena, diverted his focus. After making a few critical and commercial duds, Mehta went into semi-retirement—until the death of activist and lawyer Shahid Azmi drew him back. Shahid, Mehta’s biopic based on Azmi’s life, produced by Kashyap, is a searing portrait of an honest man in a dishonest system. Its unassuming simplicity, both in design and edit, lend it a heart-warming optimism, distinguishing it from other ‘rebel with a cause’ films. In an era of bombastic one-manarmy heroes, Shahid is a quiet celebration of the hero within every man. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival 2012 to much acclaim, and has since travelled to several other festivals. Mehta seems to have found form once again, winning Best Director at the New York Indian Film Festival and the Indian Film Festival of Stuttgart. Excerpts from an interview:

Class conflict and the common man’s inability to fight the system were central themes in your early work. You’ve now 56 open

redemption song At his lowest, Hansal Mehta’s voice of conscience was his friend and collaborator Anurag Kashyap, who told him that he’d sold out

returned from a long sabbatical with another film—Shahid—that addresses these issues. Why do they matter so much to you?

I believe art is very often a quest [to find] yourself and your voice. These issues you spoke of... have angered me most of my life, and when it came to making my first feature film, they found their way in. I’ve been a common man and travelled by [local] trains. I used to go to college from Khar to Dadar every day, and somewhere within me, I knew that I [wouldn’t] be standing in [those] trains forever. But I would get very frustrated look-

ing at the people who I knew [would] die travelling on those trains. The man who wears the same kind of clothes every day and carries the same dabba to office—I would be angry at that man and at his inertia. My anger wasn’t for him, it was at him. Somewhere, I think, my films began to transform that anger into some sort of search or a quest for a solution to this inertia.

You were trying to make these films at a time when mainstream Bollywood was largely escapist; the parallel movement of the 80s, of films mirroring society, had died down. 4 november 2013

Amitabh Bachchan’s fall and retirement in the late 80s put Hindi cinema in a complete quandary. Films started failing, star kids didn’t work— even Aamir Khan was doing Inder Kumar films. Our industry was in a state of flux and there was no hope, until Shah Rukh Khan came in. Anurag [Kashyap], Nagesh Kukunoor and me were among the first few people who started making such films at that time, when it was all but impossible to make them. Anurag’s first film Paanch didn’t release. I was debt-ridden because of Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar and Chhal. There was no funding and, in fact, Dil Pe… was made on my assistant director’s money. Nagesh Kukunoor had the longest run of successful films, but somewhere, he also became a victim of the system. So I wanted to get out at that time because it was very lonely working against the system, and I couldn’t deal with it. It all became too much for me, and I felt that I may end up committing suicide. I had just wanted to make my kinds of films, but I had not taken on any responsibility. Koi jhanda le ke nahin nikla thha main, yaar (I didn’t start out waving a flag).

There was an incident after Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar where your office was ransacked and your face was blackened by members of the Shiv Sena because of a dialogue in the film. Though Chhal followed that incident, were the mainstream films you did afterwards a reaction to the incident in any way?

After the incident, I reached a point where I really regressed. I used to drink all the time. I was depressed and would be locked up in my room. I was in very bad shape. But it quickly got over because I like looking at myself in my mirror. And when I asked myself, ‘What the fuck are you doing to yourself?’ I got no answer, so I carried on. That’s Taurean nature: the moment I smell defeat, I push myself. But yes, Chhal began my diversion from the space [where I started]. It was a two-hour music video with pumping background music and cool shots. But at least it was an experiment in form. Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai was a sad episode. I think I failed as a director with it. But I was debt-ridden and I wanted to run

4 november 2013

my house. That was a desperate mistake, to have done that. I stopped looking at the mirror. At that time, the only person who was like a voice of conscience to me was Anurag. He’d meet me at regular intervals only to tell me, ‘Tu bik gaya hai’ (You’ve sold out) and would then move on. Sanjay Gupta was very gracious to give me Woodstock Villa because of Chhal. I should have remained friends with him and let the respect override everything. But I got sucked into the glamour of it all: Sanjay Dutt backing you, the film [being launched] at IIFA (International Indian Film Academy Awards) by Abhishek Bachchan, and all the back thumping. But when I saw the preview of the film, I realised I had been dishonest to my craft, to my producer, and to the two newcomers making their debut with it. And I felt terri-

“The moment you can admit to yourself that you were dishonest, you find yourself. And [when] news of Shahid’s death came, it was a wakeup call for me to come alive,” says Hansal Mehta, director of Shahid ble. I still carry that guilt with me. The day the film released, I left Bombay and went away to [my] village.

You went away for quite a while.

I spent around two-and-a-half years purely in introspection. I took a step back to observe myself. And the first thing you realise when you do that is that you’ve not spent enough time with your loved ones. Ambition can be ruthless, especially to your loved ones. The moment you rediscover love, you start rediscovering yourself. I know it sounds idealistic, but spending time with the children, with nature and cooking, helped me become more transparent. The moment you can admit to yourself that you were dishonest, you find yourself. And [when] news of Shahid’s death came, it was a wakeup call for me to come alive.

What was it about Azmi that moved you?

When I read about his death, I thought he had a remarkable life. Here was a guy from below ordinary circumstances, [who] was possessed with this drive for change, and who became an amazing vehicle of it. He had spread so much goodwill that, for me, he is Gandhi—in that he’s the common man who went [to extraordinary] measures to bring about change. I saw my life in his journey. It was like my own autobiography magnified many times. Dwelling on who killed him wouldn’t bring him back, but his life could inspire many more Shahids. This movie is also the tipping point of my life. After almost courting Shahid and discovering a man of such integrity, I know I’m never going to make a film without full creative freedom.

The film mirrors our cultural insensitivity, yet at the same time, there is an undying optimism running through it.

We are an intolerant nation, and our intolerance is growing. This film is also a result of that. We are also divided on everything; we can’t just agree to disagree. These are volatile times we are living in, and that is the unfortunate reality of our city, Mumbai. It used to be called Bombay [earlier], and Bombay was not like this, but the name change has been very symbolic. But I didn’t want to leave audiences with just that because Shahid was an independent spirit who taught me to be fearless and [realise] that if there is a hurdle, it is only temporary. That optimism comes from Shahid. Everyone we met during research had nothing but good things to say of him. The film has happened almost like a miracle. We shot with very little money, limited resources and no permissions for locations. Every time the shoot [was] stalled or we [ran] into trouble—which happened a lot—we’d meet someone who’d say, ‘Shahid bhai par film bana rahe ho? (You’re making a film about Shahid?) How can we help you? Please make a good film.’ There was a power beyond my own human capability helping me on this. I would often feel that Shahid himself was around, making this film happen. n open www.openthemagazine.com 57

CINEMA Kamath’s Eleven A forthcoming film brings together 11 filmmakers of a variety of genres to collaborate on a single narrative. The result could be a panorama of Indian cinema DEEPA VENKATRAMAN

hen I asked filmmaker and critic Sudhish Kamath if we could meet so I could interview him about the forthcoming movie ‘X’, he was busy interviewing someone else. As I watched the rushes for a part of the movie, I wondered: how could a full-time journalist and film critic for a leading newspaper possibly have the time to write scripts and make movies? And now, he has been instrumental in bringing together 11 directors to collaborate on one movie titled ‘X’ with one script, one storyline, one lead actor (Rajat Kapoor) and eleven actresses. After about an hour’s wait, when Kamath joined us, his assistant director Javeeth asked: “Sudhish, why this unshaven look?” “What to do?” responded a tired-looking Kamath, “I had no time.” Asked how he manages to multitask so well, Kamath, director of Good Night Good Morning and That Four-Letter Word, casually declares: “Keep yourself away from Twitter and Facebook and you will have plenty of time to do various other things than your work. But yes, I am a movie buff and equally passionate about filmmaking. I make time for ‘X’ after work hours.” The journey of ‘X’ commenced in mid-March, two weeks before The Goa Project, a unique un-conference for multi-disciplinary creative professionals. Many ideas were pitched and voted on before the event. Kamath proposed this idea on a website: ‘A social experiment: To make a movie in a day through a collaborative effort with many filmmakers, actors and musicians present.’ The idea for ‘X’ became concrete when Sudhish met Shiladitya Bora and Sandeep Mohan (Love, Wrinkle Free) at 58 open

The Goa Project. They decided to make the movie over a longer period of time instead of rushing to complete it in two days. Sandeep, who was a speaker at The Goa Project, says with excitement, “I couldn’t say ‘no’ to such a unique concept.” “The protagonist of ‘X’ is a filmmaker,” Kamath says. “I wanted to have different filmmakers’ ideas on how we can do the ‘boy meets girl’ theme. The idea is to capture various genres, flavours and treatments in one movie.” Most movies involving multiple directors are anthologies—collections of short films, each directed by a different

Qaushiq Mukherjee feels Indian audiences have opened up and ‘X’ will be well received. “There are all kinds of films being made here and being successful in their own right,” adds Anu Menon director, loosely connected by a common theme. The history of anthology films in India goes back all the way to the 1939 the Tamil film Sirikkathe. Satyajit Ray did something similar in Teen Kanya in 1961, telling three separate stories. More recently, Bombay Talkies paid homage to 100 years of Indian cinema through four short films by four directors. ‘X’, however, is not an anthology film; its goal is a single cohesive story, told in eleven different genres, demonstrating the possibilities of cinema. With the novel concept came the challenge of convincing the filmmakers, cast and technical crew. Bora started to work out the finances right away,

and in a month’s time, he had managed to convince Nigeria-based presenter Manish Mundra to fund it. The film will be the directorial debut for well-known film critic Raja Sen. Known for writing modern and intelligent dialogue for 99 and Go Goa Gone, Sen was initially hesitant, but accepted it as a challenge. “When Sudhish called me,” he recalls, “I thought he wanted me to write the script. I was surprised when he asked me to be a part of the directorial team.” Apart from Kamath, Mohan and Sen, the directorial team will also include Pratim D Gupta, Abhinav Shiv Tiwari, Rajshree Ojha, Anu Menon, Suparn Verma, Gautham Menon, Hemant Gaba and Qaushiq Mukherjee, aka Q. The structure of the film threw up complex challenges of coordination between crewmembers in different parts of the country. Right from the beginning, a private Google group was created to exchange ideas over email, and a WhatsApp group was created for real time communication. Over 300 emails were exchanged among them before they met. The filmmakers first came together with their respective storylines during an intense 48 hour workshop in Mumbai in May, where they discussed the broader treatment of the movie and its funding. Although they were aware of each other’s earlier movies, many had never met. Not all went smoothly as 11 different filmmakers with their own strengths and ideas tried to come to a consensus. Suparn Verma (Acid Factory, Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina, Aatma 2) had anticipated these challenges. His motivation for joining the creative crew was, in fact, to face these challenges and think out of the box. “Yes, there were a lot 4 november 2013

ritesh uttamchandani

now do gyarah Director Suparn Verma, one of almost a dozen midwives for the movie ‘X’, shoots his segment of the film

of disagreements,” he confesses. “All our individual segments had to be linked to make it one story. We kept discussing various aspects until all of us were in sync and we spoke the same language.” The two women filmmakers among them—Rajshree Ojha and Anu Menon—had distinct views to share on relationships. Says Ojha (Chaurahein, Aisha): “Our way of looking at a woman is different. Right from the start, I was sure that my segment would be about a mature relationship between a wife and a husband.” Lead actor Rajat Kapoor gave his inputs as well. “When we narrated our segments, Rajat told us to find an echo in each of [them],” says Kamath. “The biggest challenge,” says Hemant Gaba (Shuttlecock Boys), “was to connect our individual segments and make it one movie. We accomplished it by having common objects, dialogues and scenes connecting the protagonist’s life.” For Abhinav Shiv Tiwari, whose film Oass is making waves at film festivals, it was a good learning experience. “All of us had faith in each other’s work and merit. Whenever I used to get stuck somewhere, there were ten other brains to help me. I sent my rough draft to Sudhish, and he helped 4 november 2013

me with scripting.” Kamath was affectionately called the George Clooney of their ‘Oceans 11’. “That is how they rag me. There were a few outbursts during the workshop, but at the end of the day we brushed away our egos and worked as a team.” The script went through six revisions. “I sent the final draft, and Q was the first to respond, and gave a go-ahead,” recalls Kamath. “Getting a thumbs up from Q, who has his own reservations about mainstream cinema, was very satisfying.” Q, or Qaushiq Mukherjee was awarded Best Director at the 2010 South Asian International Film Festival in New York City for his film Gandu— banned in India for its bold subject and graphic content. With a limited budget, filmmakers had to come up with creative workarounds, such as using car headlights to light a night shot, or using a friend’s apartment for their set instead of a studio. Pratim D Gupta (Paanch Adhyaay), who shot in Kolkata, says he was “just about to begin shooting at Howrah Bridge in the late evening and the bridge’s lights did not show up. We had to wait for a while until the lights came on.” ‘X’ has been shot in London, Chennai, San Francisco, Kolkata, Delhi

and Mumbai. Except for Gautham Menon’s, the other ten segments of the movie are ready for post-production. The makers are keen on premiering the film at a reputed film festival abroad. Q is confident the movie will be well received. He strongly feels that Indian audiences have opened up and there is a niche for movies that are experimental in nature. Anu Menon (London Paris New York), feels that India is, in fact, more open to such films. London, she says, is very tough, “a bit inward looking” because it is “a small pool”. She finds India more exciting: “There are all kinds of films being made here and being successful in their own right.” Kamath feels ‘X’ could encourage more such genre-blending creative collaborations among filmmakers and hopefully bridge the gap between different kinds of cinemas in India. An art house film is clearly not the same as a commercial film. “But our sensibility bias makes us believe that one kind of cinema is better than the other.” “X represents Indian cinema,” Kamath says. “The movie is done in English, Hindi, Tamil and Bengali. It is a blend of off-beat, arty, masala, regional, commercial and mainstream cinema.” In short: the consummate Indian film. n open www.openthemagazine.com 59

liver line Some 6,300 liver transplants are performed annually in the US, with another 16,000 patients on the waiting list. Every year, more than 1,400 people die for want of a suitable liver

The Human Ancestor Conundrum A new study suggests that we have descended from a single hominid species

Converting Fat Cells to Liver Cells

field museum library/getty images

science

ccording to a widely-held scientific view, modern humans had several species of ancestors. This view holds that about two million years ago, there were several hominids walking the Earth. These include species like H rudolfensis, H gautengensis,H ergaster and H erectus, each with a different cranium shape. However, a new study claims that these were not different species, but part of a single evolving lineage that led to modern humans. The paper, authored by paleoanthropologists of University of Zurich, was published in Science. It bases its findings on the study of an intact skull, believed to have been an early Homo individual living about two million years ago in current Dmanisi, a small town in Georgia. It is the only intact skull ever found of a human ancestor that lived in the early Pleistocene, considered to be the time when human predecessors started moving out of Africa. Apart from the skull, remains of other individuals had been recovered from the site earlier. This gave researchers a unique opportunity to measure variations in a single popu60 open

lation of early Homo. Upon comparison, the new skull was found to have a longer face and its teeth were larger than the others. It also had the smallest braincase compared to the others. The researchers further compared all the fossils found at Dmanisi with fossils of other species of human ancestors that had lived in Africa during the same period. They found that the variations within different species to be the same as variations within fossils found at Dmanisi, leading them to conclude that there are no different species of human ancestors; just variants of H erectus. The researchers write in the journal, ‘The Dmanisi sample, which now comprises five crania, provides direct evidence for wide morphological variation within and among early Homo paleodemes. This implies the existence of a single evolving lineage of early Homo, with phylogeographic continuity across continents.’ They claim that there was only a single species of human ancestors, Homo erectus, which evolved about 2 million years ago in Africa, and expanded through Eurasia, via places such as Dmanisi. n

According to a study in Cell Transplantation, Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have developed a new and more efficient way to turn fat cells into liver cells. The scientists performed their experiments on mice, but the adipose stem cells they used came from human liposuction aspirates and became human, liver-like cells that flourished inside the mice bodies. All aspects of the new fat-to-liver technique are adaptable for human use, says Gary Peltz, the study’s senior author. Adipose stem cells merely have to be harvested from fat tissue. The process takes nine days from start to finish—fast enough to regenerate liver tissue in acute liver poisoning victims, who would otherwise die within a few weeks without liver transplantation. n

Sleep Clears Brain of Toxins

A new study shows that the space between brain cells may increase during sleep, allowing the brain to flush out toxins that build up during waking hours. The study, published in Science, shows that during sleep a plumbing system called the glymphatic system may open, letting fluid flow rapidly through the brain. Previous studies suggest that toxic molecules involved in neurodegenerative disorders accumulate in the space between brain cells. In this study, researchers tested whether the glymphatic system controls this by injecting mice with beta-amyloid, a protein associated with Alzheimer’s. The Beta-amyloid disappeared faster when the mice were asleep, suggesting sleep tends to clear toxic molecules from the brain. n

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arm9 family This is the most popular ARM processor family. ARM9 processors are used across a wide range of products and applications that include smartphones, PDAs, set top boxes, electronic toys, digital still cameras and video cameras

tech&style

Lego Mindstorms EV 3 The thrill of toy robots that walk, talk, think and obey your commands gagandeep Singh Sapra

Graham Chronofighter w Oversize

Price on request

$349.99

This new Chronofighter is designed for explorers of modern times. The start and stop lever is made of a unique carbon, which grants the watch enhanced usability. It also has a calculated telemeter scale that uses the speed of sound to measure distances. Its main features also include: a calibre G1747, automatic chronograph, Incabloc shock absorber and 48 hours power reserve. n

JBL J22i in-ear Headphones

o start with the basics , Mindstorms is a programmable robot construction kit. The kit includes motors, sensors, a programmable intelligent brick, remote control, cables, and elements that will help you build the mechanics of a robot. EV stands for ‘evolution’ and this is the third in the Mindstorms series. The EV3’s programmable brick has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities, and you can command your robot using an iPad, or even have it send messages to the internet. You can also control your robot using voice apps on the iPad. There are online building instructions for about 17 designs, and you can idevise your own using the bricks or buying another set of them from a Lego store. The programmable brick uses an ARM9 processor and has Linux running on it. If you have programming 4 november 2013

skills, you can go into the operating system and programme it; if not, use the Lego software to create command sets such as asking your robot to follow the light, bump into something and turn around, or pick things up and deliver them elsewhere. The EV3’s colour sensor can detect up to 7 colours. You can teach your robot to avoid certain colours and get attracted to some. It communicates colour changes up to 1,000 times per second, so you can have it follow a trail of light too, or have it solve the Rubik’s cube. You can programme the EV3 via a PC or using an SD Memory card that goes into the brick. If you have more kits, you can have a robot command a group of seven ‘Slaves’, who can create a mess or help you clean one up. Let your imagination flow. n

Rs 2,990

A fresh design and brand new quality materials make these ‘J’ series inear headphones from JBL look good and also feel good in your ears. The convenient 3-button remote lets you skip tracks as well as answer calls, the J22i is available in black and silver, comes with a gold-plated 3.5 mm jack to connect to a phone or music player, and a cable pouch for storage. The set also includes three pairs of silicon sleeves, flat tangle-free eastomer cables, as well as a rugged strain relief connection that serves to dampen vibrations. n Gagandeep Singh Sapra is The Big Geek at System3. He can be reached at gadgets@openmedianetwork.in

open www.openthemagazine.com 61

CINEMA

editorial t weak Director Hansal Mehta says Shahid’s editor Apurva Asrani was given a screenplay credit for the film because he transformed the film’s narrative from linear to non-linear during edits, which Mehta believes made it a better film

Shahid This is a well made film, but why make a martyr of the man whose life it’s about? ajit duara

o n scr een

current

Boss Director Anthony D’Souza cast Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha,

Ronit Roy

Score ★★★★★

yadav cast raj kumar mehta al ns ha r to Direc

ivil rights lawyer Shahid Azmi was a shooting star, wresting 17 acquittals in 7 years, and was shot dead about three years ago. Shahid is a film on his life, and though it’s well made, it may be too early for hagiography. The movie effectively shows how the State, faced with a spate of terror attacks in Mumbai in this case, has used draconian anti-terrorist laws to pick up suspects and detain them indefinitely without trial. It shows how Azmi (Raj Kumar Yadav) argued their cases by exposing the incompetence of police investigations and tearing apart the presentations of dim-witted State prosecutors. Without doubt, Azmi was an intelligent and brave lawyer. Yet, by the end of the movie, he is turned into a martyr for civil liberties. Is Shahid celluloid journalism or is it a genuine biography? Earlier in his life, Azmi had spent several years in prison himself as a terror suspect after he returned from a training camp in Pakistan Occupied 62 open

Kashmir, but the film’s narrative gives short shrift to this period. No doubt he was an impressionable and highly charged young Muslim boy who was incensed by Mumbai’s post-Babri riots of 1992-93, but he did go to Kashmir and was arrested under TADA. This part of the film is opaque, seen through a glass darkly, and from a perspective that is entirely ‘victim/ underdog’ oriented. The balance of the film is lost here. Later, after Shahid Azmi has become a celebrated lawyer and the State prosecutor (Shalini Vatsa) refers to his past as a terror suspect, director Hansal Mehta presents this as an outrageous and obtuse query, an affront to a court of law. Is it really? So though the film is well made— the courtroom scenes are particularly well designed, written and shot—the cinéma vérité style is deceptive. The script turned Azmi into a hero even before Rak Kumar Yadav was cast to play him. n

Boss is an action film, with comedy thrown in, and though this predictable remake of a South Indian film is genrefriendly to Akshay Kumar’s general oeuvre, the film’s hero ends up with egg on his face and he doesn’t even know it. He is cast here opposite a villain played by Ronit Roy, and though admirers of Udaan don’t give Roy enough credit for it, that film worked so well because he played an ogre of a father so convincingly. He is a remarkably fit 48 year old, and right through Boss looks like he could beat Akshay Kumar to pulp. On the other hand, Kumar, playing ‘Boss’—an understudy to his mentor, ‘Big Boss’ (Danny Denzongpa)—looks like a man on the edge of flab. Moreover, he plays his part with a laidback air not quite appropriate for a mobster who takes contracts to bump off people. Every time he confronts Police Inspector Ayushman Thakur (Roy), a corrupt and ruthless man doing the bidding of politicians, screen language speaks louder than the herocentric script and Kumar comes off worse. But what slows down the picture and makes it so boring is the back story. Apparently, it was rejection by the father he adored (Mithun Chakraborty), that made Boss so bossy. This tearful personal history is so patently fraudulent, it dulls the movie entirely. n ad

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Not People Like Us

R aj e e v M asa n d

Link-Ups Old and New

Student of the Year star Varun Dhawan wasn’t exactly unprepared for tabloid rumours, having been raised in a film family and around other second and third generation filmi kids like Ranbir Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor. The actor, who has been previously linked to Alia Bhatt and Shradha Kapoor (he has denied being in a relationship with either), is now seeing Bipasha Basu if the gossip rags are to be trusted. “We had a good laugh about that,” Varun has said of such stories, which he insists are false. Meanwhile Bipasha, who has made no efforts to hide or deny her own relationship with Harman Baweja, has also dismissed the link-up with Varun good-humouredly. The actress recently returned from London where she was shooting with ex Saif Ali Khan for Sajid Khan’s Humshakals, and managed to make time to hang out at the city’s hotspots with Harman during her time off from the set. The vibes between Bipasha and Saif (who famously ‘hit it off’ while filming Race some years ago, shortly before Saif and Kareena became an item) were warm and friendly, say unit members who were nervous initially about the stars’ comfort level. But comic scenes were canned without trouble and the pair appeared to have moved on gracefully.

The Fairest Of Them All

In an industry where stars happily run each other down behind their backs while pretending to be great friends, it’s refreshing to know that there are still some people who can be counted on to say only what they really mean. Deepika Padukone, ex-girlfriend and blockbuster co-star of Ranbir Kapoor, has reportedly been telling off friends who thought they could share a laugh with her about the debacle of his latest film Besharam. “You’re being too harsh,” she has said to gossipmongers who delighted in discussing Ranbir’s fall from grace. While she won’t defend the film (possibly because, as she told the film’s detractors, she hasn’t yet seen it), Deepika has repeatedly been saying it’s unfair to write off Ranbir, or to place the entire blame of the film’s failure on his shoulders. She remains uncharacteristically silent, though, when the subject shifts to the film’s leading lady, the underwhelming Pallavi Sharda, 4 november 2013

who Deepika again will not defend. Close friends of the actress reveal that she’s in a good place both personally and professionally, and that she has resolved whatever grudges she held against Ranbir around the time of their break-up. “Which is why she doesn’t need to revel in his failure,” a source explains. In fact, she recognises that they make a saleable and exciting pair on screen (as was evident in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani), and cannot wait to start working with him on Imtiaz Ali’s next, another love story.

Sold on Himself

A down-on-his luck actor who scored a surprise hit recently has decided to exploit the current success of his movie by hiring a shrewd publicist, and showing up just about anywhere that cameras are likely to be present. Nothing wrong with that, given that the poor chap was more or less forgotten until now. But the problem is, the gummy-smiled actor appears to have great delusions of his importance. He has insisted that his publicists negotiate a handful of magazine covers for him, and put him on all the top chat shows on television, aside from securing him invitations to every big bash in the city. Unfortunately for him, the only person who thinks his fate has truly turned is himself. His publicist has been screamed at for not delivering, and for failing to “milk my success”. Not only do magazines not want him on their covers, they’re not exactly queuing up to interview him for inside stories either. The few journalists his publicist has been able to round up to interview him have apparently come away complaining that the actor invariably asks them to interview his girlfriend too, who is not only unconnected with films, but flat out boring as well. The young fellow doesn’t even have another film on the cards, aside from a possible sequel to the hit he’s celebrating. His publicist has reportedly told him, gently, to expend his energies finding movies he can do, and that publicity would invariably follow. But the actor seems to have only one thing on his mind—waking up to pictures of himself in every tabloid and film glossy! n Rajeev Masand is entertainment editor and film critic at CNN-IBN open www.openthemagazine.com 63

open space

Bidding and Screaming

by r i t e s h u t ta m c h a n da n i

The Cotton and Oilseeds Exchange in Surendranagar, or ‘satta bazaar’ as locals call it, was built in 1964 and is the first non-delivery based forward contract exchange in India. Simplified—a farmer pledges x output (measured in trucks; one truck can hold 4 metric tonnes of cotton) of his harvest to a broker who takes the pledge to the exchange and looks for buyers willing to pay a suitable amount for the same. The financials are settled within 3 days of the deal. The exchange is housed in a modest rectangular apartment block; the trading floor is the courtyard, also known as ‘satta hall’. The traders on the ground floor represent farmers; the buyers occupy the gallery on the first floor. A whole lot of screaming goes on between the two floors, reminiscent of the earlier days of the Bombay Stock Exchange. The exchange was shut down during the emergency and remained so till 2002. Currently, the exchange trades only in local varieties of cotton such as Kalyan v797, but traders would like to include genetically engineered and hybrid varieties, too. Before that happens, though, they want to take the market online, since all that yelling in this day and age is not good for the heart 64 open

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