Blink issue 03 february08 2014

WHAT LIES BENEATH Lingerie buyers across India finally come of age, and choose colours over granny’s whites P5 saturday, february 8, 2014

shivakumar lakshminarayan (courtesy tito’s)

Find out how Tito’s, the five-table restaurant, took over a lane and became Goa’s destination cool p9

The place to party

THE PINK BULLET Watching Mumbai’s monorail take to the tracks P3

LOST AND FOUND Did the Congress party hope for defeat in 2009 P8

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saturday, february 8, 2014 saturday, february 8, 2014

Now, unwine Eat your rice and drink it too

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n the haze that is an alcohol-addled afternoon, I stumble out of the belly of Delhi’s new JW Marriott; more accurately, from the underground section of its Japanese fine dining restaurant, Akira Back, named after its snowboarder-turned-Las Vegas-showman-chef. A man who also runs the Bellagio’s Yellowtail kitchen. Here for a sake tasting and pairing lunch — a first for me and most other guests — I find myself wondering (as I was three hours ago), if marathon sake tasting is any different from marathon wine tasting.

I’ve been at plenty of tables overrun by Riedels and Spiegelaus before — some planted smack in the middle of a vineyard like a Peter Mayle novel — encouraged to sniff, swirl and sip, preferably, without knocking the stemware or burping. Sake, on the other hand, has only ever played second fiddle to my sushi and tempura; ignored by the third sip, and forgotten entirely by the fourth like jasmine tea at a Peking duck dinner.

It comes as no minor surprise then, that there are seven shot glass-like sapphire blue chokos lined up in front of me. Typically drunk cold — at about 10 degrees like white wines, alOn the road A day in though maintaining the temperature once the served life of a Lambada it’s is hardly a matter of national emerwoman at Narikampadu gency — only a few sakes, usually those with a in Andhra Pradesh rougher edge, benefit from ch vijaya bhaskar heating. Ours are all cold, of course, because Masumi, the 350-year-old familyrun sake brand that is hosting the event, is showcasing its best and brightest.

Graded by the degree to which the brown rice is milled, where the finest variety retains as little as 40 per cent of the original grain, sakes on top of the quality pyramid are called daiginjo (40-50 per cent). Ginjo (50-60 per cent) and futsushu (60-70 per cent), the equivalent of a table wine, are lower down the order.

As with all things Japanese, there are several other finer distinctions, each more esoteric and difficult to enunciate than the next. But in essence, apart from the milling of the rice and the water (collected from high mountain streams), it is the climate (most conducive in winter) and the koji (mold used to break the starch into sugars) that determine a sake’s sweetness, umami and end notes.

Many of the sakes we taste are surprisingly fruity, prompting a fellow taster to exclaim “ber” like eureka at one point. All are light, non-acidic (unlike wines), and paired, as is the custom, with camaraderie and great food — from the signature Akira Back Yellowtail Jalapenos and sous vide Wasabi Tenderloin to sake-steamed Grouper and spicy Dragon Sushi; all delicate, toothsome and refreshing.

But what’s perhaps, most refreshing, is that many in the room (including me), know as much about sakes as they know about their motherboards. Even the vino-it-alls flounder trying to clothe sake in a borrowed, ill-fitting vocabulary. I do no such thing, of course, enjoying the buzz and walking out into the weak winter sun like a sated, sake-soaked trout. Hic!

naintara maya oberoi

MEAL TICKET

Tapeador-ing in Andalusia

Shutterstock/Max Sugar

spoken as freely as it was. But at the same time, he says it’s unlikely that the language is going to disappear. “For us, tradition dictates that we don’t marry within our own settlement. So to arrange for a wedding, we are in constant touch with other Banjara communities, and we use Banjara to communicate as that’s the only language all of us understand,” he adds.

Badtiya’s home is a modern-day tanda, where his entire family lives in the same building with separate rooms for each of his children and their families. As we sit down and speak, with framed portraits of family elders hanging on the wall behind him, Rohit, his grandson, listens in on our conversation. Baditya says, “It is true that younger people don’t speak Banjara as much as we used to. It is impossible for Banjara to be forgotten though, because it is older than most spoken languages, and even has the same roots as Romani or the language of the gypsies in Europe.”

The in-betweeners

SHUTTERSTOCK

Ganesh Devy, founder, Bhasha Research and Publication Centre, Vadodara, and initiator of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI) says the Banjaras are an apt example of the ‘inf, like me, you are plagued by both of cold black olives and marinated pep- cantina. betweeners’ whenhurt it comes languages It didn’t that to the kitchen in Indiner’s indecision (“How can I possi- pers, and drink red wine sweetened with knew dia. “On hand, there are about its one stuff: to wit, duck confit 100-150 with lanbly choose?”) and menu envy (“Is lemonade (the only abomination in all pear guages thatparcels, receive in some sort orange of State resupport; in filo a zesty his appetiser better than my appe- this), it seemed the only way to eat. on the other, about 300 sauce, languages have no duction, with a thin Gouda a palmtiser?”), tapas is the answer to your trouform bowl of support at all,” tells us when we On the banks of the river in Seville’s sized of boar stewDevy in Rioja wine, bles. The word tapa means cover, and Triana quarter, two friends and I shared a duck meetfoie himgras for tea at thewith Indian Council of Somousse biscuit-like they say it comes from the tradition of plate of the simplest possible tapa, pan toasts cial Science and Research Delhi. “Beand tomato and guava(ICSSR), chutneys. barkeeps covering their carafes of wine con tomate: grilled bread rubbed with tween two Cruz endsbarrio, of the Over inthese the Santa we language ate with a piece of bread and some ham or garlic, tomato paste and olive oil, and dinner spectrum, there out are many that are looking onto languages a beguiling, cheese to prevent flies diving in. This washed it down with cheap white wine. leafy neither supported by cerulean. the State nor are they ensquare tiled in Judging evolved into a style of eating: small We piled our bread with Serrano dangered. Banjara such a manner case.” from is hisjust harried plates punctuating a long evening ham, slivers of Manchego cheese, Devy addsand thatsuspicious unlike Banjara, there are disappearwhiled away at a bar. Some places, like and anchoas, white anchovies many languages havekitchen, not survived anceswhich into the the the Granada, still adhere to the amiable cus- marinated in vinegar and garlic. test of time: “Languages of communities, establishment’s lone wait- such On balmy tom of serving tapas on the house. as the Sansi in Naths AP and Kanjars Then we walked across the erPunjab, was also its in lone cook.

Those with more decisive natures or bridge, stopping at a bar for evenings, inpeople Rajasthan But — allhe ofdelivered who haveinbeen in the subthe end: spill out on to forsheep’s larger appetites can upgrade from a tapa shrimp grilled in saffron and continent nearly as long aswith the Banjaras — cheese figs pavements to to a ración, a full-size portion of anything lemon, and patatas bravas, ubiqare steadily declining.” yearsorange from now, it and bitter“Ten Seville pick from tiny unlikely that’s on the tapas menu. But there’s uitous fried potato cubes with tois highly that a language like Sansi marmalade, sesame seedbowls something really enjoyable about tapear, mato sauce and garlic mayo. might survive at all,”goat’s he says.

Andlollithere are flecked cheese the verb,have which means to in meander nomads, theythe are,best historically, multiple reasons do not a birthplace the con-fromQuintessential the declinetopped of these lanTapas aren’t usually pops,forratatouille bar to bar (eventually, slidewhere from bar ventional sense. The to place I togypsies, traders and of cattle herders; always on guages according Devy. “Even representation Spanish cuiwith to poached quailthough egg the bar), eating and drinking a littlesays at each,the sine, move, never settling down and in any one Sansi community was born was known as Tanda,” mostly well off today, but rather, the cheapest and aisMoroccan-style stew with talking to the person next to you at theplace. the Banjara-Marathi writer AtmaOverfilling. the years, taking up trades and most Theythis are nomadic usually atrait has many of them of spinach withother chickpeas counter, andin then on.of If the you dobeenmix ram Kaniram Rathod, his moving short story on the wane. Theirfillers language, callednuts, Ban- inbusinesses, their language is hardly being spoof cupboard — olives, a terracotta bowl. thisTanda well,isor often,where or enthusiastically, same name. a place a nomadic jara,Spanish Gooar, Lambadi andsardines, Sugali, is roast surprisingken, even within their own community. omelette, vegBack in tree-lined Hercules de Alame-This is you earn the its distinction a tapeador. tribe chooses to pitch tents for of a while.

The ly alive and well though. because unlike the Banjaras, the Sansis gies, croquettes, cold meats and cheeses da, we chose Al Aljibe for our final night were In Andalusia thisissummer, smack one that Rathod talks about located in the in — and things that are easy to cook. and when inprimarily Seville. mercenaries, Al Aljibe sprawls over atheir re- skills middle the dog days, itItseemed Yavatmal the District inofMaharashtra. could im-Modern became redundant sometime in the early Butfamily some of Seville’s tapas bars are stored two-storey villa with a patio and a 19th to eat full-size of any-It is sending estimated there arenew around 5.7 mil- charming have wellpossible been anywhere else onservings the Indian century, their language began to prosdecline as outthat unexpected interpretaroof garden.

Even if the thing, and the indulgence of asking forlion tions Banjaras India.

While it’s a small numsubcontinent. well,of thedining culmination of which we are witnesson in the timeworn standards.

We pect in a vine-covered courthe menu six times in one evening compared the totalupon population, The Banjaras, tracing their roots back to Ra- wasber were ing today,” he says. lucky to to stumble La Daliaand in tyard redolent of citrus hadn’t swayed delicious itself. the balmy acrossdethe country, the jasthan, are known in more forDuring their colourful at- eve-spread theofBanjaras, adaptability Hercules Alameda, a self-consciously us, the menu, aFor whirl Asian, Spanish nings when everyone outofontocommunity is a close-knit tire — fitting well into the spilled aesthetic is their greatest hip, minimalist spot thatone. still preserved and Latin American flavours, asset. would “They the books pavements to pick from little bowls“We the might not speak Banjara outcoffee-table — than their language. speak Telugu in Andhra, Marathi convivial hum of a neighbourhood have. Service was leisurely, and the tapa side our houses very often, but in Maharashtra, Hindi infor Madhya came one at in a time, so we lingered our homes, and when speaking to Pradesh, and salmon so on, sashbut along hours over marinated Banjara three has the our people from elsewhere, it’s the regional language, imi capped bywith rocket, a cheerful yellow they same roots as still the only language we use,” always speak Banjara as pepper vinaigrette and sharp drizzles of well.

Romani or the says Hari Singh Badtiya from They have aduck richbreast oral tradition talanguagetamarind, of the Japanese-style Chowkhandi Gaon, a 300-familieswithchutney, many thousands of songs with mango grilled squid gypsies intaki Europe strong settlement near Subhash and satirical stories,” asays with coriander aioli and pumpkin, lit- Devy.

Nagar in west Delhi. Badtiya, 64, is “Today,with it is also the cream language of tle shrimp burger a spicy a figurehead in his community, political sauce, bell their peppers and and a ethnic wobblyidentiand was a depot-master at the Deladds.

Thewith organisation poached quailty,” egg,he fillet of beef carhi Transport Corporation’s Shadipur bus ter- amelised Banjara Prakashan has developed a script for onions, and thin slices of roast minal, until his retirement four years ago. He pork the language usingcut”, the alphabets of describedasaswell, a “secret served claims that unlike several other Banjara folk, with the Devanagari polenta andscript. salad.With sites such as banjawho decided to settle down permanently in ratimes.com, awarebanjara.org, We felt like real tapeadors, sated banjarazoneby the the last couple of decades, his community food .com,andbanjarapukar.in and banjaratigers. the wine and the languorous weighed anchor in the capital three genera- bonhomie blog.com, Banjaras seem to the be developing around us.

And night — an tions ago. “I remember my dadi saying that we and ever-growing online presence several other tapas bars —too. was still came to Delhi when she was a child. Our settle- ahead Regardless of howanyone? the situation pans out in of us. Seconds, ment was originally somewhere in the Pahar- naintara the future, theoberoi Banjaras andwriter their language maya is a food based Platter me, please A ‘modest’ tapas spread of dates, chickpea salad, salami, fresh mozzarella, ganj area, but around the time of India’s are living evidence of the fact that the streetedamame and olives served on a slate board tradville/shutterstock in Paris. t@naintaramaya independence, we were asked to relocate to wise always survive.

Chowkandi Gaon,” he says.

Paperbanerjee trail Hari Singh Badatiya, his wife and granddaughter posing with their community certificates Kamal Narang soity Badtiya is disappointed that Banjara is not sibi arasu

When it comes to epic tapa-thons, small is often big

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That gypsy tongue

A majority of Banjaras may have abandoned their nomadic lives. But the one thing that endures is their language

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Wheels above the city With a shout of Ganpati Bappa Mourya, Mumbai’s monorail takes to the tracks, leaving believers and sceptics in its wake

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fter 20 minutes of waiting in a ticket spects, are more reserved with their praise. queue to take a ride in the Mumbai “This is nice. But we are waiting for the Metro.

Monorail, an elderly man starts to That will be more useful to us,” says one of the get impatient. He animatedly nar- young sceptics. rates woes about the traffic congestion and Raman Unny, a resident of Wadala, was benoise pollution that he has had to brave since ginning to believe that the project would nevthe mammoth project started in 2009. But to- er see the light of day. Every time the Mumbai day, all is forgiven. He cut short his Sunday Metropolitan Region Development Authority morning walk to experience the country’s first (MMRDA) defaulted on their deadlines, his monorail in the eastern fringes of Mumbai, hopes dwindled. Now impressed with reports connecting the areas of Wadala to Chembur. of the project being second only to Japan’s His wife couldn’t make it in time, but he has Osaka monorail corridor, which has been promised to give her a live commentary over around since 1990, he is convinced that the the phone once he steps into the two-year delay must have been train. “I’ve never travelled outside for good reason. This is the first of the country. I’ve only heard about the five proposed monorail lines monorails elsewhere in the world planned across the city to control The new train can from my children. I’m so proud traffic congestion and ease the carry 560 people in that it has come to my city,” he load of the local trains, the priits four coaches says, stopping to congratulate the mary mode of travel for most monorail officials in his vicinity.

Mumbaikars. When complete, With every passing minute, the line will stretch 11km to Jacob there is a new addition to the serCircle, near Mahalaxmi. If all goes pentine queue. Some auto drivers have aban- on schedule, this will take another year. doned their rickshaws, shopkeepers have The crowd is in a thrall about this new mode pulled down shutters and parents have of transport. Instead of the plain chit of paper dragged their groggy children out of bed to they’re used to receiving as tickets, it’s a royal witness this spectacle. Families of 10 have ar- blue coin with the monorail engraved on it. rived with cameras in hand, documenting ev- Children have already taken a fancy to it, spinery step, from the time they purchase their ning it like a top on the counter, much to the first ticket. When they spot a ticket vending annoyance of the ticket-seller. Helpers guide machine, which is not yet operational, they ar- families through this adventure, leading range themselves around it, according to se- them to the metal detectors and baggage niority for a family picture. A group of scanners. The train is already 20 minutes late. youngsters, who’ve trekked all the way from But no one is cribbing. The crowd breaks into the city’s western suburbs to pay their re- applause as they sight the bubble gum-pink

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A bubble-gum pink bullet The monorail passes shanties and cricket grounds as it travels through the city pti/shashank parade

Fact track ■

It is one of India’s most eco-friendly transport projects

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The trains have an inbuilt protection system. If a monorail driver jumps a signal or becomes incapacitated, a radio warning will prompt him/her to apply the brakes.

If that fails too, the train will automatically come to a halt

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Run on electricity, it will be noise-free

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The entire line will cost ₹ 2,460 crore

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₹1,900 crore has already been spent in the first phase The tickets cost ₹5 to ₹11, raising concerns about how it will recover the grand budget of the project

The average speed will be 65 km/hr. It can go up to 80 km/hr

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train bedecked with a string of marigold flowers. Chants of ‘Ganpati Bappa Mourya’ fill the platform. In a matter of seconds, the area falls silent as the train whizzes past filled with delirious passengers.

Inside, the compartments that have been designed by Ahmedabad’s National Institute of Design are sleek and trendy. It’s a welcome change from the filthy paan-stained floors and walls of local trains that are defaced with advertisements that claim to cure everything from back pain to marital strife.

Also, instead of having to hang out of the cramped compartment to take in a breath of fresh air, commuters can delight in the cool breeze of the air conditioner. However, these benefits can be enjoyed only by a fraction of Mumbai’s commuters travelling on this line.

As opposed to the much larger local trains that ferry almost 6,000 passengers at a time, this new train can only hold a measly 560 people in its four coaches, questioning how effective it will prove to be in solving the city’s traffic woes.

“Ooooh” scream the unsuspecting passengers each time the train gingerly manoeuvres around bends or jerks to a halt. Its 9km long route runs above some of the most narrow and congested lanes of the city, making it a particularly challenging project for Larson and Toubro and Scomi International of Malaysia. Relocating nearly 300 families that resided along these bylanes contributed to the delay in the launch, as did the concerns of the Ministry of Forests over the mangrove forests.

While the ride opens with an aerial view of vast stretches of mangroves and a cricket match on a green plot of land, it slowly creeps past a cluster of slums and building societies and you can literally peek into dining rooms of flats located on the top floors.

As expected, there are a fair number of firstday glitches. One of the trains stops midway, forcing commuters to disembark. No exlanations are offered for the lapse. But Mumbaikars are not complaining. At least not on the first day. If officials at Central Railways are to be believed, this euphoria will last only a few days before commuters are forced to return to the good old local trains that offer better connectivity and serve more people. mohini chaudhuri

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Travel Log Get there

Scott Limo offers one-way or return trips from the Bay Area.

The owner’s knowledge of the region makes the drive more of a tour rather than a simple drop-off (scott@lim0zen.com, (415) 599-4747). For guided tours contact Terrific Tours ($100-125, terrifictours.com).

Stay

Hotel Healdsburg ($300; healdsburg.com) is well located with luxurious rooms. Its sister property, H2 Hotel ($200; h2hotel.com) is a chic, ecofriendly alternative. You can also book at the B&B, Belle Du Jour ($200-300; belledejourinn.com).

Budget travellers can opt for L&M Motel, a quaint family-run motel near the plaza ($85; landmmotel.com).

Eat

Make reservations if you’ve got your heart set on a particular restaurant. OpenTable (opentable.com) and urbanspoon Top notch Vines in Sonoma shutterstock (urbanspoon.com) offer free, instant reservations across the country. Or contact the restaurants directly: Willi’s Seafood and Raw Bar (starkrestaurants.com/ willis_seafood.html), Barndiva (barndiva.com/index.html), A head for the times Founder of Myntra SIVAKUMAR Mukesh Bansal PV Oakville Grocery Co. (oakvillegrocery.com), Downtown Bakery and Creamery (downtownbakery.net), Dry riving north over the Golden Gate way; nor did we want to drive after wine-tast- many restaurants and bars — tasting room Creek Kitchen (charlie Bridge one freezing morning last ing. Luckily, this worked out in our favour. guides and waitresses, winemakers and farmpalmer.com/dry-creek-kitchen), summer, thick fog enveloping the Earlier in the summer, I had read the story ers, restaurant owners and suppliers, all speBistro Ralph (bistroralph.com), car like a tenacious ghost, it was dif- of the inventive California cuisine at Charlie cialists in the field. It is an elevated art and Mateo’s Cocina Latina ficult to imagine this journey ending where it Parker’s renowned Dry Creek Kitchen (DCK), science, oenology, and it inspires a kind of rev(mateoscocinalatina.com), would. I had been dreaming for months of and its home, the Hotel Healdsburg. Although erence in its followers here.

SCOPA Restaurant neat rows of vines, green, topped by an expan- Healdsburg is 30 minutes north of Sonoma A bracing macchiato and one of the deli(scopahealdsburg.com) and siveasky, blue, culminating in delicious glass- in India. rom loss-making personalised gift- steam proper, happy remove from thesellregularHow wine Soawe started in 2007 with buns from Bakery and big iscious your sticky logistics cost, andDowntown why is it the capabilities.

PremjiInvest has come for longSpoonbar (spoonbar.com). es, venture red andtowhite, allIndia’s stamped with ing those ing one of most crowds,products the success of DCK brought townimportant personalised online for both cor- themost Creamery was almost enough to bring aspect of an e-commerce termusinvestment and they believe in our busiBLink tipI think it is the right path enchanting North California appellations — and sought-after fashion e-commerce into individuals. an epicureanBy spotlight — and wave How porates the time theleft aventure? down earth, sologistics we headed to ourness hotel dotoyou keep costback under building, and up fortoasay cookery creeks and valleys overflowing with Petit Sy- was portals, Mukesh Bansal-led Myntra of fine its wake.

The with ambitious plans of a long nap. As itfor internet readyrestaurant for takeoffopenings in India inin2010, turncheck? us. It isSign difficult aboutclass the with future and Pinot Noirs.

Was it even possible has come rahs a long way.

Braving losses and mergbest part was that all this localofgoodness was isedabout wethat had gathered a good understanding the Logistics out, Hotel like the inviting 10 perHealdsburg cent of ourwas operating right now.Relish But Culinary our intention is to stay Adventures theby fabled wine country was within er attempts bigger rival Flipkart, Myntrareach? set our rightteam on the town square. market, and andSpanish-style back end systems of a sophisticated, costs Aand living we areroom continuing to improve aswell-travelled we independent. (relishculinary.com) at their Thetopretty of Sausalito flashed has managed securebay a funding of ₹300 place where you could be nourished likegrow. kingsWe have wereby,in place. friend: North California-style personified. Spaa hybrid model — own delivery centre or at picturesque streaks of blue leavening theinvestheavy sky. Lush and still walk everywhere? It sounded perfect. crore from PremjiInvest, the private cious rooms, opulent beds, staff as well as third-party services.

Withslatted more wooden outdoor locations. Also, don’t Marin sprawled to the left, the ancient ment venture of County billionaire Azim Premji.

Mynin time our lunch reservation at and Why did youArriving move away fromfor personalised doors to privateofbalconies naturalDolight volumes economies scale, we and are able you thinkmiss it isthe consolidation time inon the farmers’ market of Muir Woods beckoning just be- to fashion? tra can redwoods now strengthen its technology Willi’s Seafood and Raw Bar, our gifting everywhere. to get better rates from third-party delivery Indian e-commerce space?

Saturdays and Wednesdays from Theinfrastructure Pacific Coast, windy and hauntingly platform, yond. delivery and customglasses Kistler Chardonnay We realised that itofwas a niche area and we companies. We have alsoLater, we had dinner expanded our deliv-at BarndiMay to November (healdsburg beautiful intold a grave, way,the formed thenotwere er experience, Bansal BLinkelegiac on the day crisp and flacould buildaa revelation, large-scale busia locavore rustic ery team va, to 500 peopleutopia across with 30 aConsolidation has been happening in this farmersmarket.org). western border of the Sonoma touchthe funding was announced.

The moneyCounty, also ness A plate ofSosix withvourful. personalisation. webriny oysreddeliver barn set in acent gorgeous cour-for a while. Some more M&As will hapcities. They 65 per of space At night, the wine Drink it with a chillyon hand every morning and ters, allows theing e-tailer to embark future growth each from different State, changed the model.

We astarted tyard. Make it a point to ask our orders. penthe this year.

Any player not among the top industry locals There are of find wineries But in as himself, the highway snaked initiatives.evening.

He has faith he says, and through setsports us onapparel. course. SubseNext up, three with selling waitstaff here for recommendatwo in its category willhundreds most likely it diffiI believe that overata the bars unwind some of which require historicofSpanish Missionretailing towns, in the valleys, in the potential online fashion smalladded plates casual-wear redolent of sea, salt, quently, we tions:offered they are wine andcult food The discounts by all online to raisehere, money independently. period ofand time, restaurants reservations for tastings. Though and vineyards coming into view a surf: India. Therivers Flipkart deal might have brought in under tart wild salmon and formalanda ethnic-wear over ceviche nerdsunsustainable. who live andDo breathe the retailers seem discounts should go have tasting feesits ($10-60, warming sun,have it soon felt like differentthe counthe money, but would resulted in aBansal salty oyster crackers, warm next 18with months. goodbecoming stuff. Ours directed What us to-makesmany you see them more Myntra bullish about future? down. includes sixwines),inothers altogether. over his company. He losing his try independence Maine lobsters in a soft roll wardsforward? the sliced raw Yellowfin turealistic going E-commerce will be about very powerful India as wants to be firmly in the driver's seat, at least Any thoughts smothered in to garlic of moving otherbutter, jumna, plated with retail The discounts are not Japanese-style offered on modern notor very strong in the counare isfree, free with the between Napa and Sonoma had bo prawns pan fried with garlic and spring on- sticky for now. The eciding fashion-focused businessman, categories? soy, avocado, watermelon picktherice, entire catalogue.

They are and try.

Moreover, we are aofvertical and purchase bottles.destination Many easy, for we hadFlipkart heard how who does not been see any threat from or crowded For dessert — more We want ions. to stay committed towine, of course. It was ledusually Fresno on chilli; filet mignon with lobster olda inventory.

Latest won’t face challenge fromtasting any horizontal wineries have rooms playand commercial of to Napa had Amazon, talks about what parts it takes build a become, strong, heady, dizzying In this potato fashion asa it is a big category andcombination. there is a collections puree and summer beans; er a ‘crisare not on discount.

Butgreen I believe (like Flipkart, which deals in around the plaza, butmultiple nothing catehow relaxed and authentic Sonoma stillopportunity successfuland e-commerce business and when paradisein ofthe plenty, suspect huge nextIfew years.Willi’s Seafood young of chicken’ with divinely nutty Chantethat is over py a period time, discounts should gories). We give a different experience under compares to the experience of a was.

Even so, we craved an experience off the at the top of the treasure heap.

Myntra can turn profitable: mushrooms, roasted go down. relle As the market evolves, weartichoke, will seg- pancetta category, which be replicated visitingcannot the vineyards.

Try by any well-trampled tourist track, always aWhat hardare theAfter lunch, we for strolled aroundofthe quaint critical factors the success a ricotta and egg ravioli. Chêvre cro- player. ment our and catalogue. vertical So competition for us will be Russian Hill Estate (russianhill trick to master a foreigner.

Hundreds of plaza, firm Back in 2007, when internetaspenetration was set around of tallend trees, a hint of quettes drizzled with wildflower honey an e-commerce — bothaatpark the back and limited. estate.com), Porter Creek dozens of hotels: where to begin? far lower, wineries, what made you jump onto the cool in the luminous light dappling the leaves. and front end? lavenderdoes hadPremjiInvest set a sweet introduction to We thiswant (portercreekvineyards.com), What advantages bring to to be profitable by FY’15, and curBay Area locals, it’ssee common to drive e-commerceFor bandwagon?

Did you a have tasting rooms—rightMyntra? here, And The up front Many end iswineries all about user experience cornucopia of pleasures. and sus- our revenue is about ₹100 crore a will you ever sell MyntraSeasonal to an rently Moshin (moshinvineyards. for a coming? leisurely lunch, take in a winery or possible boom you can sample away ever getting youtwo have so to give them the best.

A without good backinterestedtainable seller? agriculture is the core of the region’s month. In the year ahead, our revenue run ewinerysolutions.com), Balletto and home before I was in the UShead for 10back years, working forsunset. e-com-But we into a speed car. There are boutiques, art galleries, in- thefarm-to-table enddid is all about of delivery, predictabilimovement, and the take We feel best way to build our business is bylocals rate would be about ₹250 crore a month. (ballettovineyards.com) and not want to Bay hirearea. a car,I knew acclimatise merce start-ups in the it was ato driving bookstores, shops aplenty. ty, 24X7dependent call-centre, and antique a reliable pride in the diversity being independent.

We wantof produce to buildborne a by the Kendall Jackson (kj.com). the opposite side of the road or finding our At night, the matter ofontime before e-commerce gathers industry locals unwind unique at the fashion return-and-exchange policy. fertile topography. brand with strong back end RASHMI PRATAP

A grape escape

Tucked into the quieter reaches of Sonoma County are barrels of handcrafted wines, some of which are found only in the tasting rooms of Healdsburg

Flip the fashion cart

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Turning it inside out The new, exciting contours of India’s innerwear story

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Fitting the bill Founder of Zivame.com, Richa Kar strikes a pose at her Bangalore office (above); and some of the “fashion accessories” from her growing brand (below) GRN Somashekar

hen New York’s Henry S Lesher patented the first bra prototype back in 1859, little would he have imagined that innerwear would one day become a $30-billion industry. Nor would have the many others who improvised the design over the next century or so. Comfort and convenience remained the watchwords, and it wasn’t until the last decade of the 20th century that lingerie became associated with women’s confidence, sex appeal and market opportunity.

India took its time warming up to the trend, and today it’s not uncommon to see lingerie displayed prominently in retail outlets, luxury shopping destinations and international stores, besides of course, a burgeoning market online.

Not only are women buying more lingerie, now that it is available online, they also have more choices than ever before, says Richa Kar, founder of online lingerie retailer Zivame. They are gladly moving away from the inhibited shopping experience at stores to an online space that is rich with recommendations, choices and the promise of a right fit, she adds.

Contrast the more than 85 sizes available across brands at Zivame with the 12 basic sizes that ruled shelf space at the many small, discreet innerwear stores manned by nervous staff. Kar gets orders from all corners of the country — whether it’s Ambala, Shantiniketan, Kalimpong, Dharwad or even Port Blair.

She uses India Post to deliver to farflung locations, which account for about 6 per cent of her orders. Tier II and III cities are shopping furiously from her —

from 15 per cent in 2012 they now make up a ban centres. “And global trends are widely third of all transactions on Zivame. followed and understood …innerwear is no Tarang Virulkar, who works for e-commerce longer a taboo purchase,” he says. company storeadda.com, regularly orders linAgreeing with this, Venu Nair, managing digerie online. Living in Amravati, Maharashtra, rector of Marks & Spencer Reliance India, is she now has access to a wide range of brands bullish about the Indian lingerie market. Linand products with just a few clicks. “It reduces gerie now accounts for over a fifth of Marks & the time required for shopping, and is value Spencer’s sales in India, and it sold 33 per cent for money.” Discounts and special offers are more during the first half of this fiscal. another big draw, says Virulkar, pointing to Zi“Women are willing to spend money on vame’s recent ‘Buy two for ₹300” offer. feeling good,” says Kar. “Lingerie has now beBut for every Virulkar who’s plunged into come a fashion accessory. Our repeat customthe Web with confidence, there is ers buy four to five times in a also an Anjali Rai who firmly refusyear, with sales peaking during es to buy lingerie online as she is festivals.” Her website features a wary she might end up buying the different product line each week.

Orders pour in wrong size. “I prefer walking into “Brands are waking up, offering from Ambala and my favourite neighbourhood smaller but more frequent lines Shantiniketan, store,” says this Indore resident.

— a lot more colours, a lot more Kalimpong and Pegged at about ₹17,500 crore focus on fit and sizes,” she says.

Dharwad, Port in 2012, the country’s lingerie marMahendran concurs. Even unBlair even ket is tantalising for both domestil three years ago, retailers wanttic and international players, ed only black, white and skin including Marks & Spencer, Jolicolours. “Today, white is the slowdon, Parah, Christies, Hanes, Wonest-moving category. Colours and derBra, Triumph, Ultimo, Lovable, funky patterns are in,” he says.

Plié, Jockey, Amanté, Penny, Bw!tch, Enamor, This demand for newer styles is sweet music to Hollywood Fashion Secrets and many more multinational retailer Marks & Spencer. “Our brands. Market research firm Euromonitor ex- extensive breadth of lingerie styles, shapes pects the market to grow 54 per cent by 2017. and sizes sets us apart from the competition.

Sensing this opportunity, Akshay Mahen- We also offer a host of clever product innovadran set up innerwear company Daiki Brands tions,” says Nair. in 2009. “Although the market was fragmentFrom shy and unsure even a few years ago, ed, we saw there was big potential in the pre- today’s lingerie buyer — even in small towns mium and mass market segments,” he says. and villages — knows her noodle strap from Four years later, he has been proved right. her multi-way bras. And she sure is in the His confidence stems from the fact that mood to indulge. more women are earning now and have disposable incomes in both semi-urban and ur- rashmi pratap

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CUB READS

Site of change Delhi isn’t an easy city to love, but you arrive here to reinvent yourself Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck Author: Jeff Kinney Category: Fiction Publisher: Puffin Books Price: ₹350

janice pariat

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hen asked about the origin of Wimpy Kid, author Jeff Kinney said that he wanted to write “about the funny parts of growing up and none of the serious parts”.

Hard Luck, the eighth in an ongoing series and a bestseller, is exactly that. Reminiscent of Spanky and Alfa’s troubled friendship in The Little Rascals, Greg Heffley’s latest struggles revolve around losing his best friend. Rowley Jefferson has dumped Greg for Abigail, the girlfriend. With Rowley gone, Greg’s social life takes a turn for the worse. Kinney’s depiction of Greg’s school is both scary and hilarious.

Segregation and bullying abound, often resulting in comical outcomes. Sample this: The only place where boys and girls hang out is the playground. The kids have started playing Girls Chase Boys but, as a hapless Greg soon finds out, the girls are only interested in chasing the popular boys. When the boys chase the girls, they risk getting stuck in detention. Kinney’s Hard Luck relies on making the ordinariness of growing up super funny. However, it is also a darker commentary on the travails of childhood. Kinney is a grown-up version of Greg, whose memory of a punishing childhood is softened by time.

PAPERWALLAH

A line runs through How literary works challenge and topple the notion of borders

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n 2004, Belgian artist Francis Alÿs performed The Green Line. He held a can of leaking paint, and strolled along the armistice border in Jerusalem – effective until 1967, after which Israel occupied Palestinian-inhabited Yellow joys The territories east of the line. His “line-makamaltas in full ing” was a playful act, articulating the bloom in summer, near the Parliament border as an arbitrary mark on the House vv krishnan ground. “Sometimes,” said Alÿs, “doing something poetic can become political.

Sometimes doing something political can become poetic.” A sentiment that alor three years, my daily commute plush jobs in the Capital for the famously bet- and masala Maggi we meet people from differso holds true in literature. While watchfrom work to home covered 13km and ter-behaved city of Mumbai. Girls change their ent backgrounds, swap memories and share ing Alÿs’ video recently at the Tate, it seven centuries. Office stood near the travel plans to ensure that this behemoth new experiences. Jawaharlal Nehru University wasn’t hard to imagine Manto’s Toba Tek 14th century Feroz Shah Kotla, a long- doesn’t fall into their itinerary. People work has been the site of political and social awakSingh lying “on that piece of ground with abandoned fortress, overrun by black cats and here but choose to retire elsewhere. Friends ening for generations of students. Delhi conno name,” refusing to move. It prompted whispering djinns. Behind the glass and mar- pick Bangalore over us because we treated jures up doctors and engineers, architects and a discussion on literary works that chalble newspaper office rests a Muslim graveyard, them wrong. Those who could, applied for vi- lawyers, professors and bureaucrats from that lenged our notions of geographical bor- Barbed lives Closing borders is as impossible as stopping the migration of birds AFP/Ozan Kose visited by peacocks and barred to women. At sas and moved abroad. amorphous body called youth. ders, and while first in line was Amitav ITO, the city’s busiest intersection, where the But people who believe in toil and labour We realise that we can never know this city Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines, others — po- tan, Iran and Afghanistan, the characters a series of wordless pencil drawings, traffic light shines red for 15 minutes, conver- continue to pour into the city. You arrive in in its entirety, yet we come to find joy in its ems, short stories, graphic novels — were are caught between crystallising nation the graphic novel bursts with immisations are struck up with passengers in adja- Delhi in order to reinvent yourself, because small and frequent charms. We become adalso unearthed. states. As Dawa Khan, leader of the no- grant stories of survival and hope. The cent vehicles — nothing like failed civic you believe in your own agency. It is here that dicted to the gulmohar and amaltas flowers The dangerous thing about borders is madic Kharots, says, “What is this I hear idea behind it came, Tan explained in an systems to rally crowds into comrades. En careers are chosen and professions cemented. that bloom in the height of summer, the pink how, in their construction and mainte- about closing of borders... It’s impossible interview, from his experience of being route, I would pass by the avenues of Lutyens’ Most people who are here, have left something silk cotton flowers in spring, the bhutta sellers nance, they come to inhabit a naturalised to do that. It’s like attempting to stop mi- half-Chinese at a time (1970s) and place Delhi, where bats hang upside down from ma- behind, be it the safety of one’s parents or the who appear before the rains, the smell of bakMiracles space, creating the assumption of a land- grating birds or the locusts.”

(Fremantle, Western Australia) when Author: Ranjit Lal hua trees and white colonial mansions stretch comfort of hometowns. This leaveing nankhatai (butter biscuits) on scape that has always been (and always As historically evident, the “enchant- this was fairly unusual. “I was constantCategory: Fiction out in the sun. As the autorickshaw charged taking is a process of wish fulfilcold evenings. We long for NoPublisher: Penguin India will be) divided in that way. Yet this read- ment of lines” leads to horrific partitions ly asked ‘where are you from?’ My retowards the All India Institute of Medical Sciment.

It is a belief that one’s fuvember’s mist that clings to tree Price: ₹299 ing is compromised if we peer even most and violence, unfathomable loss and suf- sponse was ‘here’.” This sense of ences, patients hobbling on crutches and ture can be made and that it isn’t branches, reminding us winter is Delhi packs briefly into the past — national lines per- fering. Drifting House, a collection of jumbled borders — geographic and ethpushed in wheelchairs emerge from darkened ordained at birth. But these depararound the corner. We wait for centuries within petually shift in the wake of wars, annex- short stories by South Korean Krys Lee, nic — is captured in My Brother at The subways. That is the thing about Delhi, it packs tures, from the familiar, ensnare the afternoon stupor at the end of miles and Canadian Border, a prose-poem by Iraations, trade agreements. Manipuri-born sheds light into lives divided by boundacenturies within miles, and multitudes be- the people of Delhi in a constant a Holi party. We look forward to f Wimpy Kid chronicles the struggles of multitudes poet Robin Ngangom quietly captures ries. Following the country’s overnightbetween nian-American SholehWolpé. “On their tween milestones. nostalgia for what has been left commuting to work on the Metchildhood, Ranjit Lal’s Miracles is a teen tale milestones this arbitrariness in My Invented Land — division in 1953, millions of Koreans to- way to Canada… my brother and his But this isn’t an easy city to love.

On its behind and a reluctance to call ro, where we spy upon the Whatthat swings between extremes of enduring “My homeland has no boundaries. At day face upheaval and alienation — friend…stopped at the border and the streets, only its apathy can match its aggres- this city home. Delhi is that odd sapp conversations of our fellow loss and finding joy. On her first day at a new cockcrow one day it found itself inside a whether living on the wrong side of the guard asked: Where you boys heading? sion.

Empathy is altogether absent and suspicreature, which no one wants to passengers, who belong to a school, 16-year-old Trisha has many things to country to its west.” The Shadow Lines, 38th parallel or scattered across Korea- My brother: Mexico. The guard blinked the default attitude. Importance is lay claim to. Most people who live range of backgrounds. We revel worry about — her hip mom’s popularity, cion a which I first read at university, still con- towns of the diaspora. In the title story, and said: This is the Canadian border. judged by the muscle and money you flaunt, here say they belong to elsewheres, which are in the green space, found in every neighbourbratty little sister Shivi and her puppy fat (a veys rare timelessness. Its most famous Lee follows three siblings as they journey My brother turned to his friend, and politeness is seen as cowardice. Last De- kinder and gentler. hood, where boys play cricket, aunties dry teen obsession, naturally). But soon enough, passage is one where the narrator discov- across a snowy landscape to China to grabbed the map from his hands... You cember Delhi gang raped a young woman, this Even if it is not “home”, alchemy and trans- their henna-coloured hair and dogs raise their Trisha’s shapely curves, dulcet voice and ers, with compasses and a map, the futili- find their mother. “Houses loomed like idiot, he yelled, you’ve been holding the January it hounded a black community and formations happens here. It is here that the UP puppies. We take pride that we can picnic in wicked spin bowling leave her neighbour ty of boundaries. Yet the lines that also ghosts. The government’s face was every- map upside down.” most recently it beat to death a 19-year-old stu- auto rickshaw driver’s son finds a job with the company of ancient tombs. We come to reAkshay spellbound. Even as teen love blosresonate in this age of frequent travel are where…” Among several moving pasBorders, for their power to be exdent with blonde hair. “Love thy neighbour,” is HCL, where the maali’s son gets hired by an in- ly upon the fleeting, yet strangely meaningful, soms, dark clouds gather in Trisha’s life when Thamma’s — “But if there aren’t any sages, one, where the eldest brother pressed, rely on the cooperation and a saying which is so commonplace that it has ternational BPO, where the daughter of the do- networks we build in our neighbourhoods. her mom is diagnosed with cancer. The time is trenches or anything, how are people to realises he can no longer carry his little collusion of subjects in relation to become banal. But Delhi spits and hisses at all mestic worker from Darjeeling finds a seat in A long-time Chennai resident once said, ripe for her transition into a responsible know? I mean, where’s the difference sister, captures, in stark simplicity, the them. Wolpé’s poem offers, similar to such civic reminders that tell us to treat peo- Modern School, Vasant Vihar. It is where your “Delhi is like crack. It is no good for you, but all adult. Keeping vigil at her mother’s bedside, then?” The narrator’s grandmother can- terrifying failure of the modern state. Manto’s writings, not merely a dismanple right and treat them well, even if we share dreams for your children spread beyond your of you are addicted to it.” Maybe, that is true.

Trisha deals with the household, mends fences not fathom how a border is the airport, “He cleaned her face with his mittens- tling, but an ultimate act of resistance nothing in common with them, other than a house. In relocating to Delhi we get to avail of Yes, Delhi’s air sags with dirt, its sky seldom rewith her grandparents, has a breakup and not the frontier. …Then he closed his eyes, twisted their against boundaries. A joyful, blatant physical proximity. choice and reinvent our circumscribed selves. lents to blue, it boils when hot, freezes when tops her board exams. If the plot for Miracles Nowhere, though, are we more privy to mother’s scarf around Gukhwa’s neck, disregard. by how it caters to those Delhi is the city where millions come of age. cold. But exiting is not an option. Delhi might takes a leaf out of K-Jo’s family dramas, what A city is defined the emergence of boundaries than Jamil and choked her.” pariat is the author of Boats Landon who look different, those who have come from That unique campus city which is much more makejanice us cower, at times, but we muston insist keeps it heart warming is Ranjit Lal’s sprightly Ahmad’s The Wandering Falcon. Set As sparse as Lee’s muted voice, is t@janicepariat outside, those who have travelled distances to than just a campus.

At Delhi University fighting back; because it is ours and because it writing. And in Shivi, he gives us a loveable around the permeable borders of Pakis- Shaun Tan’s The Arrival. Narrated through make it home. doughy minds — straight out of high school — is worth owning. brat. Curious, mischievous and immensely huggable, Shivi is the brightest spark in young And Delhi often has an abysmal record on realise, for the first time, how our choices all these fronts. Colleagues have abandoned come to define us. Over endless cups of chai nandini nair Trisha’s coming-of-age tale.

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Veiled truths A woman draws her pallu as she passes the menfolk in a village in central India A Roy Chowdhury

UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Mikan ki Ma Justice is for those who can afford it and demand it. For Mikan ki Ma it was not even a dream

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Omair Ahmad is an author. His last book was on Bhutan

et me tell you about Mikan ki Ma. My mother often speaks of her, so these are her words rather than mine. The only exchange I had with Mikan ki Ma was limited to her greeting me. A salaam from her side and mine was all that stood between us. I only knew that she was one of the few women working at our farmhouse.

Though she was poor, it doesn’t mean she had nothing. It might not have been material wealth but she had her laughter, her gossip, her honour, all of them determined by her social standing. This standing was jealously guarded because it was so important, and as a woman she had no escape, unlike the men.

The men could leave the village to work in the city or even go to a faraway State to do seasonal work. There they were out of range of prying eyes and wagging tongues. What they did far from the fields remained largely unknown back at the farm.

For the women there was no such escape, no matter how temporary. The city was sinful, as everyone knows. What kind of work would a woman do that would not expose her to the licentiousness of the city folk? No amount of tainted money could buy back a clean name.

The men went to stand in the market square in the big city where they were examined and their labour bought for a day, a week or longer.

Their sweat was auctioned off to the builders.

It was not just with their crops that the farmers fed the maw of cities, but also with their bitter sweat, their strained muscles and their aching bones with which they built the houses of the rich.

Women were useless at such work. Who would pay for them as much as they would pay for men to carry the cement, lug the equipment and lay the bricks? Who would listen to

the caterwauling of hungry children? No, the the authorities should have been brought in women were tied to their homes as effectively and Paras arrested and fined? Not in India, and as if they were chained to them by links of not among the poor in India. steel. They earned the little income they could What money, what compensation, would as field hands and the bitter wages they re- Mikan ki Ma have received even if the police ceived as mothers, daughters and wives. would have registered her complaint, even if a Mikan ki Ma should have been considered lawyer had fought her case, even if a judge fortunate. Her husband, Paras, owned five would have passed a ruling? Paras was too acres of land, a considerable amount. There is poor to be fined anything more than a pita Persian saying that a man usually commits a tance. He had already sold all the land that his crime for one of three reasons: sons had not otherwise snatched zan, zar ya zameen (women, monaway from him. What little money or land), and zameen is the ey he got was what he stole from greatest of these. It gives you Mikan ki Ma after she earned it at There is a Persian somewhere to build your home, our farmhouse. saying that a man somewhere for your children to Even if Mikan ki Ma had reusually commits a play, somewhere to graze your ceived something from Paras, crime for zan, zar ya cattle and to plant your crop. It is where would she have gone for zameen (women, your mother, your provider, and refuge? To her sons, maybe; to Mimoney or land), your place of rest. It is the wealth kan after whose proud birth she and zameen is the that cannot be calculated, but it is was given her public name? But greatest of these one that can be lost.

Mikan and his brother were as Paras was comparatively well shiftless and violent as their faoff. He could afford a proper ther, as apt to beat and steal from house, so he built one beyond his her as Paras was. needs. He could afford to drink and gamble, so Justice is for those that can afford it and dehe did. He could afford to be lazy, so he was. He mand it, for Mikan ki Ma it was not even a could afford to beat his wife, so he did. Pros- dream. We talk these days so easily about perity can break a man as easily as poverty if equal rights for women, about misogyny and he does not have the character to handle it. Pa- similar social constructs, but we rarely talk of ras lost his wealth swiftly because he mistreat- the human beings, of the people that they ed it. He lost his land not much later because were. I learned Mikan ki Ma’s story from my he was too shiftless to care for it properly. His mother, but in reality, I only knew her as one of wife he beat and stole from, abused and threw a flock of women who were found happily gosout of his house, but it took a long time to lose siping at the farm. These days when I hear of her because she had nowhere to go. exploitation and other horrors, I think of peoMikan ki Ma sought refuge at our farm- ple like her, and wonder how much we leave house. My mother employed her and fed her, out of the stories we tell about the women we listened to her story and paid her. Maybe you speak about so confidently. believe that more could have been done, that t@OmairTAhmad

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family albums they warn of the passing of time, the fragility of youth and the impossibility of ensnaring the present.

Her house bears witness and the weight of these memories. An imperious green chest squats in the centre of the drawing room, filled with albums and covered with photo books. In anticipation of our meeting she has taken out blue clip files filled with newspaper cuttings of Dayanita’s work, hotel receipts and articles which once caught her interest — on the Kohinoor diamond, or her husband’s record wheat production — now jaundiced with age. “Clippings are safe. Computers I don’t feel are safe,” she says, as she rummages through the files even while taking more out.

She puts her iPhone on silent and brings out her iPad to share a video of Dayanita speaking about the Delhi Photo Festival.

Guilty of a mother’s foibles, Nony favours praising her daughter to discussing her own work. The video refuses to boot, and she grumbles about her slow router and faulty connection. Even though photographs from the past surround her, this grandmother of two has Talking the talk clearly embraced the present, be darbari, it through The affable gadgets, social networksJanardhan or the world Dwivediof instant photography. briefs the media the DSC RX 100.

She is now at ease withoutside her Sony Parliament in Delhi “To begin with, I was not comfortable with digpti/kamal kishore ital, I felt tied to the machinery. They have their own dictionary, you couldn’t choose apertures, distances. I didn’t have freedom,” DILLI DARBAR she says. She now uses her camera to photograph images from the television — Jodha Akbar and Comedy Nights with Kapil Sharma being her two favourites — which requires a keen understanding of light, shadow and colour.

Even though she admits a love for all colours and for using them (unlike her daughter), she is partial to black and white as they commute her to the old Hindi movies, which she adored and which her father frowned upon. Growing up in a world where dancing and ne of the few members of Congress the decision to conclude the civil nuclear ener- suggest. Enveloped by such euphoria no one banter with the opposite sex were discourPresident Sonia Gandhi’s darbar in gy agreement with the United States were all in the Congress Party was thinking long-term, aged, Nony would often dream that she was Delhi who I befriended and seen as political mistakes that would cost the as Dwivedi now wishes they had. In 2004, the he photograph is never taken — dest child would become one of India’s hopping and skipping down an endless white genuinely got to like, during my Congress dearly. Then there was inflation and Congress was stunned by the opportunity that it is always given,” a common best-known photographers and bookmakers. corridor. The movies would lure her but retime in government, was her speechwriter the handling of the terror attack in Mumbai. presented itself and chose to form a governadage but one that speaks for Most people are known as children of their mained a forbidden world, even as she made and spokesperson Janardhan Dwivedi. Affable Not to worry, said the party’s strategists, if ment. By 2009 it was so comfortably enevery page of Nony Singh’s The parents, but Nony has the rare distinction of her sisters pose as Scarlett O’Hara and Sophia and cultured, Dwivediji always sported a we lose the elections as a result of all these sconced in office that everyone, perhaps with Archivist (Dreamvilla Productions). To flip being known as the mother of Dayanita Singh. Loren. Guru Dutt she believes was especially smile. A rarity among the nose-in-the-air, self- costly mistakes, we will blame it on Prime Min- the exception of Dwivediji, was happy to be through the slim volume of black and white Nony (originally Ranjit Kaur) always be- talented in manoeuvres with light and shade. important darbaris of Delhi. Every now and ister Manmohan Singh and sit in the opposi- back in office. images is to be transformed all at once into in- lieved the eldest of her four daughters would She says, “I am good. But I can’t be as good as then, we would meet over a lunch of tandoori tion. Rahul Gandhi would then become leader The issue at hand was not whether or not truder and confidant. You are conscious that turn toward fine art or literature. She was that moviemaker.” With its focus on the everypomfret at Delhi’s India International Centre. of the opposition in the Lok Sabha. This would the Congress would form a government, but you are privy to the deeply private, but you al- “good at expression” but a fussy model when day and family, the book doesn’t reveal Nony’s Our conversation was rarely about politics. enable Rahul Gandhi to emerge a national who should be given credit for the party’s imso feel that the host has invited you in, offered her mother, who liked to treat her children as tumultuous life.

But whenever politics entered the discussion, leader in his own right, stepping away from proved performance. Every party leader was you a chair and fragments of themselves, even dolls, dressed them up as Mother Mary, a RoShe moved to India as an 11-year-old after it became clear to me that DwiKvediji was a his mother’s pallu. It was an arrangement that happy to go on TV and claim that the credit as you contemplate the responsibilities of car- man gypsy or a Marathi fisherwoman and Partition. She was a mother of four young girls smart cookie. No wonder he was such a trust- Dr Singh had come to accept. “The should go to Rahul Gandhi. When then photographed them. The rying another’s secrets. when the ’84 riots blazed through ed and valued aide of the party president. So, party will get credit for all the asked for his comment on the reNony Singh started taking photographs as a day Dayanita was to leave home Delhi. When she lost her husband I’d take whatever Dwivediji says seriously. good things the government has sult, the minister of State in the seven-year-old with a box-camera. Today she is for National School of Design, in 1982, she inherited a mountain In a rare interview last week, he said that the done, and the government will PMO Prithviraj Chavan told a 76 and The Archivist is her debut book. As a Nony took a photo of her daugh-If we lose, said the of court cases, and was inundated Congress Party should not have formed the get the blame for all the misnews channel the ‘mandate was young woman, she had never heard of “pho- ter, hand on hip, gaze both impa-party strategists by paperwork, court hearings and Nony hasinan for Rahul government in 2009 and instead, ought to takes.” He would readily concede.

Gandhi’. He was later rewe’ll blame tography as a profession”. Years later, her el- tient and loving, which also2009, judicial nitty-gritty. Files now obsession with the have sat in the opposition. What he did not Remember that Sonia Gandhi warded with a chief ministership! the PM... Rahul captured her outline. This photo seethed with injunctions and depastwill mention was that this may well have been the suddenly took a decision, virtualIn Andhra Pradesh, the late YS emerge as a leader, proved portentous to Nony hintmanded attention. At times she party’s original strategy in 2009. At least many ly on the eve of the poll in 2009, to Rajasekhara Reddy and his suping at a child making her way in away from his would don her husband’s turban political analysts thought so. The Congress place Dr Singh’s face on the cover porters claimed the party’s imthe world but graced by a moth- mother’s pallu while driving to and from court, never expected to improve upon its tally of of the party manifesto and deproved tally in the State was a er’s shadow. in order to be mistaken for a man.

2004 and assumed it would be required to sit clare him the party’s prime minisreward for his leadership and For Nony the urge to photograph doesn’t Only the last three photos in the book, of bunin the opposition. Unfortunately, for the par- terial candidate. The game keeping the State united. Sitting arise from the need to capture but also for a dles of files, “my strange and not-so-strange ty’s grand strategists, the people of India — es- seemed clear. When the results alone at home, Dr Singh thought reverence, even obsession, with the past. Seat- bedfellows” hint at this cloud of chaos that pecially in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, are in, blame Dr Singh for the defeat, anoint the mandate was his. Soon he was disabused ed in front of a wall covered with framed im- loomed above. Dayanita’s File Room spotlights Punjab and a couple of other States — voted so Rahul the leader and move on. Unfortunately, of any such illusions. Uncertainty about the ages from the book, the black-haired lady says, the countless lives these files contain and have handsomely for the Congress that it had no for the strategists who assumed the Congress parentage of the victory was the mother of “I am an archivist. Memories mean a lot to me. squandered, and thus takes forward and pays option but to form a government. would fare poorly, the voter in a clutch of UPA-2’s woes rather than the decision to keep Moments once they pass they don’t come. I am tribute to her mother’s battles.

Consider the facts. In the run up to the polls States and across urban India decided to re- the coalition marriage going. a collector because I fall in love with someThe one photo opportunity Nony feels she in 2009 the Congress party had convinced it- ward Dr Singh and his government handIn 2014, Dwivedi’s 2009 strategy may well thing because I have captured it,” she adds, “If missed out on is of those days in court. Having self that the government of Prime Minister somely. The Congress saw its tally, at 206 seats, play out. The Congress Party will blame Dr I lose the moment I get disturbed.” gone through nearly a 100 lawyers in 30 years, Manmohan Singh had disappointed the par- rise to a level that it had not seen since 1991.

Singh and his government for the defeat, and Not one to take her camera outside, and pre- she wants to choreograph a photo of four lawty’s rank and file and its traditional support When the results came in there was a scram- Rahul Gandhi will build his brand as leader of ferring portraits to landscape, Nony focused yers walking down a corridor, with one shootbase, especially the Muslims. The decision to ble in the party to claim credit for the perform- opposition. Or so some hope. on the women in her family with her Zeiss ing her a smirk. Clearly, the archivist has work jettison the Left Front, the decision not to de- ance, rather than the kind of wise Ikon camera. The photos in the book reveal yet to chronicle and share with the world. clare Telangana a separate State and, above all, self-effacement that Dwivedi’s remarks now sanjaya_baru@hotmail.com the pleasures of domesticity be it family holidays, fancy dresses and picnics, but like all nandini nair Sepia tones From Nony Singh’s The Archivist, (left to right) Nony’s sister poses as Sophia Loren in Srinagar; Nixi (Dayanita) on her way to National School of Design; Nixi dressed as a gypsy and her sister as an angel

Defeat victory the light Gentlyasframing

Why the Congress party might have hoped to have sat in the opposition in 2009 Photographer Nony Singh on hoarding the past and embracing the present

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Memories and moments Nony Singh surrounded by her photos in her Delhi home

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Sleepless in

Goa

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In the last decade and a half, Tito’s lane has become the place to party in Goa. The making of Goa’s golden mile, surprisingly, began with a tiny bar

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y 6pm the lights come on. The music is turned up, just a notch, so that you know where it’s coming from, even if you can’t make out which song is playing. Tanned bodies stumble in from the beach at one end of the lane. At the other, the young and the beautiful spill out of their rented cars, the fumes of their freshly spritzed perfumes filling the air. In the middle of the lane, a man tries to take a few steps, staggers, tries to hold himself steady and then gives up. He sits on the pavement, and after a moment’s consideration, lies down. He is unshodden, dirty, and too drunk to care. Behind him, a white billboard flickers into life. In bold red, it says, “Tito’s. Where else?!”

If Goa is the party centre of the country, then, indisputably, Tito’s is its very nucleus.

From September to March, when it’s officially tourist season, on any weekend in Goa, there are about a 1,000 people who wake up with a hangover they are likely to have acquired in Tito’s lane. On special days — New Years’ Eve and Christmas, this number multiplies four or five

fold. Tito’s is a name so popular in Goa, that taurant. Not to be confused with Tito’s the not only is it inscribed on every graffiti-free nightclub next door. Like Meryl Streep in a sea wall that is available from the airport to the of Kim Kardashians, Tito’s the restaurant is northern beaches of Baga and Calangute, it shimmeringly adult and sexily grown up. The furniture is dark wood and chiffon-like canohas also taken over an entire lane.

All told, Tito’s lane is only about 900m long. pies flutter in the breeze from the sea. At a taIt breaks off the Aguada Siolim Road — the pre- ble, on a platform raised just so that it feels like you are floating above the ferred route to pay pilgrimage to road, David Andrew De Souza is all of Goa’s northern beaches — waiting for me. Trim and with a and starts unobtrusively enough with a grocery store in the corface that belies his 44 years, DaTito’s the restaurant vid, along with his brother, Ricarner. This is where the practicalis shimmeringly adult minded can stock up on bottled do, are the co-owners of Tito’s. and sexily grown up Not just the eponymous restauwater to stay hydrated on a night rant and the nightclub. In one on the lane. From there, barring form or the other, the De Souza an occasional store selling the brothers have a stake in most of kind of trifle only a tourist would buy, the lane is so packed with bars, Tito’s lane.

In a while, De Souza would tell me which espubs and nightclubs that it seems like another universe altogether; one that was created tablishments are his, but first, in the facetiousness that can only be afforded by the really exclusively for hedonism.

Even though it’s too early for the party to successful, he tells me he rarely wears pants. swing in right earnest, I am happy to skirt past When I peep down the table, I notice they are the shoeless drunk to step into Tito’s. The res- heavy-duty pants — cargo khakis with multi-

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fell into the ditch. And found this guy there. crowd I’d like. But hey, I like their money,” he They helped each other out of it, became says.

By the time I step out of the restaurant, the friends and eventually, business partners.

Now his son works with me in Kamaki. But the buzz outside has grown to a steady din. Masses of people are walking in from both ends of Goa of that time is gone,” says De Souza.

In 1985, the senior De Souza succumbed to the road. Occasionally, a car lumbers in, only liver cancer and Ricardo and David had the to be left stranded while people mill past it choice of continuing their education or run- like wildebeest in a Serengeti documentary. ning the business. They chose the latter. Ricar- It’s a great mass of humanity, primed for a Frido ran the kitchen and forced David to handle day night, when enjoy they must. Caught the bar, only because it meant an extra hour of among the young and the eager to party, is a work every day. David mixed drinks and ran group of elderly tourists. Speaking Telugu and clutching their handbags and pallus, they from the bar to the kitchen with food orders.

“Slowly, we just began to get busier. The gawk at the displays of affection and affectanumber of tables went up from five to seven, tion playing out in the lane with a mixture of n 1971, David’s father, Tito Henry De Souza, then 10. And soon we were running out of fear and revulsion. For a while they look came to Goa from East Africa and decided to place. When the plot next to us trapped, as though they were accistart a restaurant. Goa was hippie-central then became available, we bought that dentally ejected there from a time and tourists came from Germany, USA and En- and expanded. And so on. Until machine. Eventually they recover gland, and stayed six months at a time. Having now,” he shrugs. At the time, in and hurry their friends along. At The start of this lived abroad, Tito and his wife were comfort- the late ’80s and early ’90s, the the end of the lane they cross over millenium was the able in this milieu and decided to start a place young De Souzas would make to the main road and stand there inflection point in that would get the expatriates together. De about ₹2,500 on Christmas watching the spectacle of new Inthe life of Tito’s.

Souza was a good cook and could turn up a night. Now, that’s the entry dia dressed up and ready to drink Indians had begun mean fish and chips or a fillet of beef. Starved charge for any of their clubs on a the night away, safe from behind travelling of familiar fare, foreign tourists flocked to Ti- big night. an imaginary wall of passing cars. to’s for comfort food. The restaurant soon beThere is a line outside Tito’s The start of this millennium came a community. Tourists would have their was the inflection point in the life nightclub. A dozen or so men are mails delivered here, leave notes for each oth- of Tito’s. Indians had begun travporing over the poster. I walk past er on a board. Often, they brought their own elling. And they were looking for the ‘mother them, find a gap in the wall of black-shirted music cassettes and played them in a small of all parties’ as the calendar changed from bouncers guarding the entrance and enter player in the restaurant. Romances flourished 1999 to 2000. Goa had, for a few years then, Club Mambo. The tables outside are filled with and friendships were forged across the tables been the favoured year-end destination for large groups of tourists — brown and whiteat Tito’s. people in Mumbai and Bangalore. But for New skinned — and most of them are in that mid“We knew all the guests then. Business was Year’s Eve 2000, the young and hip across the dle stage of a long evening of drinking — loud, about relationships. My father met this man country descended on Goa. A lot of local bars yet affable. Inside, at the centre is a raised platin a ditch once. Literally. He was coming back advertised mega-nights of loud music and un- form with a long sash hanging from the ceilfrom the bar. And this man was going to the limited booze. But several of them did not ing. At some point in the night, a Russian bar to get more booze. It was monsoon. Dad have the required licences. Alarmed by the gymnast is expected to perform an acrobatic crowd and worried that something might go dance on it. The dance floor, waxed and woodspectacularly wrong, the authorities re- en, runs around it. The DJ spins the latest rave Night watch (clockwise from right) fused to allow any party which didn’t tunes and a hundred or so people move with Masha and Polina at Café Cape Town; the have a proper permit. Almost ev- it. The strobe lights fly all over the room and line outside Tito’s nightclub at 1am; and eryone who was in North Goa everything is visible only as a blur. Everyone in Nikita Khattar and her friends veena venugopal All aboard Jitish Kallat’s doll-like sculptures comment on the practice of frisking in this ‘age of terror’ (AP /altaf qadri) ended up at Tito’s. De Souza Mambo, it seems to me, is young. And they are placed a stage that opened all beautiful.

When I step out, I notice the crowd outside onto the beach, and even he sixth edition of the India Art Fair fair, I found myself wondering if I had madeat 7 just has gone pastthe theRoaffable stage of drunkenbother, do they?

You can fool the don’t following mornconcluded in Delhi among the usual good use of my Saturday. Things had beguningmans, nessfool andus. is now but you can’t And well theninto its affected stages. I peopleTayou, were screamconversations of what an ugly cele- with a jewellery stall, gone on to vodka-spon- ingthere sit onbya stool by theKabar and a bunch of girls, all was ‘Denture Venture’ Siddharth for more.

Tito’s had bration of money art has become sored art and were seeming to take a decided- arrived. dressed in what designers are lately prone to rawal, an arrangement of demented brushes apart from being overpriced, mediocre, a ly downward route. It was VIP hours, before 2 that could swear you off calling ‘resort wear’ — long, flimsy dresses and experimental art forglobal-level scam and so on. All this is very bor- pm, so of course all of Delhi was there. In the ever. e Souza is not halter neck — are taking photographs of Let’s just say enthat I wouldn’t liketops to meet ing. As if there was ever a time when art was corridors, air kissing had been elevated to a Karawal tirely in asanguine each other.

Theymind. pose with their index and litdark alley. This isn’t a stable not overpriced and as if money is not celebrat- form of art. At various galleries, you could aboutJean-Francois the change inRauzier’s cli- tlehyperphotos finger flexed,were the gesture of coolness now ed, with or without art. So when I entered the overhear a lime green Birkin ask a black Cha- entele.

“The backpackcurrent to teenagers fascinating in the more conventional sense ofaround the world. Every art fair, I set these lofty expectations aside and nel 2.55 if the horror in front of them, whichers did not have money. few minutes them calls for a group hug the word, as were Israeli artist Nissim one Ben of Adehad only one: let there be some interesting art. cost several millions and an eyeball, would But they made Tito’s for but and they converge. ret’s black-and-whites, each time you start-It is a wonder the hug It was with a sinking feeling, then, that I look good in their living room. me. Indian tourists have doesn’t collapse on the ground in a heap. ed to enjoy something, you’d come across stared at celebrated artist Anish Kapoor’s Abmoney and we are packed ev- Somehow Why do people with money have terrible they manage to stumble out of it, something else to counter that. solut-sponsored piece. ‘Absolut Kapoor’ is a taste? If they wanted to buy Manjunath ery night. necessarily the even Ka- It isn’t if it involves several lurches and many I had grown art-weary walking around for “dramatic work”, the plaque said, with Ka- math’s ‘Customised Kalpavfour hours, when aiding my exit poor’s “signature interplay of form and vi- ruksha’, at Gallery Espace, one came the Casa Paradox display brant colour”. For many long silent moments, would understand. By far the best where Raseel Gujaral stood wearI gaped. My understanding of art may be limit- piece at the fair, one marvelled at ing the remains of a pink parrot, How can you tell ed but I had in front of me: a couple of red bot- the artist’s imagination of the in an apparent effort to blend in Anish Kapoor to tles. This was not dramatic. Red can be loosely wish-fulfilling tree. Some other with her loud furniture. Luckily, I return home and described as vibrant, I give you that. Perhaps, galleries stood out: Minsky with found relief right next door, in Sawork harder like Sonam Kapoor, I should’ve been in 10-inch Henrique Vaz Duarte’s scary girls; chin Tekade’s Flower Season series heels so I could have a top view? My mind Bruno Art Group with Gerstein’s — a beautiful, delicate spread of went to the poor sods at Absolut and how they colourful butterflies; Mark Hawhite paper flowers. Taking no must want their money back but, haha, how chem that displayed Yves Hayat’s further chances, I left the scene in do you tell Anish Kapoor to go back home and awesome Les Parfums De Revoltes; Akar Prakar a hurry. work harder? for Bikash Bhattacharjee’s eerie works.

At the exit gates, I ran into someone I know, As I took two steps away from Sir Anish’s disAtul Dodiya gave the poor children being hanging about, waiting to pass on his VIP pass appointment, I came upon Subodh Gupta’s ... dragged around by supermums, something to another friend. The ticket was ₹300. The VIP heart shaped out of steel tassels. Now I’m a fan to do. Their eyes, glazed with boredom thus pass was meaningless after 2pm. The VIP of this man — even though my middle class in- far, lit up as they pressed the switches along- lounge was packed to the brim (of course), so stinct always wants to offer him some old side ‘Highway Yogi’ and ‘Tsunami’, both of even those with a pass had to eat outside. But clothes in exchange of his shiny bartans (how which had roller shutters, to make the shut- it’s a VIP pass. This is Delhi. And its love for bydoes he keep them so sparkly clean?) — and I ters go up and down — clearly finding more passing queues and demanding free tickets is love his quirky installations, but I’d run a mile joy in that than all the art around. quite the work of art. from anyone who’d put this furry steel gold And who can blame them. Take Pascale Marheart up on their walls. thine Tayou’s plastic bags. Just a lot of plastic kalyani prasher who has worked at a media house Within three minutes of entering the art bags stuck on rectangular board. Some people for ten years is a recent convert to freelance writing ple pockets. I am dutifully grateful. “Tito’s is ours — the club and the restaurant. Then we own Club Mambo. I co-own Kamaki with a friend. Not the property, just the business. And we own Café Cape Town across the road. Café Del Mar on the beach is ours,” he counts off, and then thinks for a while before adding, “and a few others here and there”. It is hard to tell if De Souza is boastfully modest or modestly boastful (“I love making money. I hate counting it.” “I make do without a sports car; I make do without a plane.”) Either way, he has earned his story. For in the beginning, there were only five tables and a balcony.

A fair bit of art

Pieces that worked and those that didn’t at the recently concluded sixth India Art Fair

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Show me the money When saleable works elbow out interesting installations

Clay with me A visitor looks at an interactive clay sculpture “Everything ends and Everything matters” by Anindita Dutta at the sixth India Art Fair (ap /altaf qadri)

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he sixth edition of the India Art Fair, wishes played in the background. The artist in Delhi, turned out to be a mixed encouraged viewers to sit under the tree and bag this year, even though it saw one listen to the wishes while recording their own. lakh visitors. Since the art market is Works by artist Priyanka Dasgupta pleasantregaining the balance that it lost during reces- ly surprised us. Her interactive multimedia sion, the Fair reflected an increase in sales. piece, titled ‘Forgetting’ was based on her However, the organisers seemed unwilling to grandmother. The goatskin sculpture of her take risks, and presented predictable hits like grandmother, reminiscent of the leather pupHusains and Razas. There were several run-of- pets of Kerala, was placed before a projector the-mill paintings by artists like T Vaikuntam, that reflected the sculpture’s shadow. A sensor right time, it is clear that lilies he has cu- went a banal painting of water bycarefully Sanjay Bhatoff as it’s youunsafe?” went near “Because I askthe her.piece and the rated his and portfolio of barsbadly in Tito’s lane. And tacharya a crumpled mounted line shadow would smaller andaappear to “No,” she tellsbecome me, fixing me with look that Café Capeby Town is where intends the ol- suggests drawing Pablo Picassohethat only for indicated recede into the distance. “My grandmother wonder at which planet I’ve come der of his clientele to head. to from. the demographic gallery’s miserliness and unwillingness was a “Because recluse and yet she us over people are would always want judging you, “This placeworks is funbyand notoproblem,” Polina man. bring better him India. all theYou time.

It was push-and-pull emohave to bethe with it with it, youofknow. says.

“We come day.”

Perhaps it ishere timeevery for the India Art Fair to You tionscan’t thatbeI wanted yourselfto in capture Delhi.” in this piece,” abandon the safe and to tread more confident- said the New psycho-social York-based Dasgupta.

Important lesson about Delhi he following evening I find neither Masha ly towards the bold.

Art restorer and critic Ru- learned, Abhay Maskara’s wasIfull of thoughtI walk on.booth Though reach the enPolina at “It Café Cape Town.

Butthe at Fair the trance pikanor Chawla says, is apparent from provoking works likeminutes T Venkanna’s of Tito’s five later, Iconfrontadon’t see next tablepainting are halfis aback.” dozen 20-somethings that easel While Chawla is a Khattar tional graffiti-like paintings, or her friends.

A line ofShine 50 orShivan’s so men talking Hinglish the manner is mostly connoisseur of in painting and that modern art, are rather sinister tapestry outnightclub. of the sewaiting their turn towoven enter the heard inher Mumbai.

One of them, a wiry girl Each some of contemporaries who like to push veredtime headsthe of dead andcan provocative doorschickens open you hear the with a ballerina’sofbody and atoBarbie’s head, thump-thump the boundaries art seem have stayed video works byofartist which the Ruben music Bellinkx, playing inside. stands by thea table dancing alone.

Her eyes are Necks away, while few others rose to the occasion. captured three a chair. crane to dogs sneakfighting a peek, over like they are exclosed she sways away, occasionally Nehaand Kirpal, the founder and directorlifting of the pecting The usual blockbuster of the was arta movie star to walk out.show I hang back. a knee or pumping her the air. istIt’s Fair explains, “The Art Fair is a fist keyinimpetus Subodh Gupta whose giant chandelier past 1am when I finally walk into crethe The waiters walk it around within the commercial art world, exposesher, lo- nightclub. ated out of Being steel utensils, lights bulbs ‘ladies’ Itube don’t haveand to pay or watching cal and international galleriesout to afor an errant queue up. I pass was athrough highlight many.

Jaganthefor metal detector elbow from which could and get my bags large and diverse audience nathchecked.

Panda’sDespite eight-foot golden myself, I feel their tray of excited. Like deer India and around thesend world.” that hinted shrinking something epic at is our about to hapdrinks While Kirpal highlighted the com- crashing. pen to me. Inatural am toldenvironment the door on was my also left isa Her“We friendsIt conmercial aspect, she added, showstopper, Kalthe one on as mywas rightJitish is Bollyis time “western” for the and tinue likeArt wood. have a variety of cutting edge soloto chat doll-like sculptures are sitting everywhere.

A loudthat arIndia Fair toPeoplelat’s there. the projects and have focusedsheonisn’t abandon commented gument out on mywryly right,on so Ithe pickpracthe safe breaks And since this is door on the left sound art this year.” tice and of frisking and bodyissearches walk in.

Inside a large Tito’s lane, no dance floor. Chock-full Shireen Gandhy of Gallery in Chein today’s ‘age of terror.’ of men dancing with one stares. mould said sales have improved, What seem was perhaps uneach other. Women to prefer most the floor It is Saturday upstairs. Within “We have sold to our regular pleasant to art lovers blaseconds, there arewas halfthe a dozand the crowd buyers, even though the market is still too en tantmen presence of me corporate with around asking sponsorship, me if I was alone the laneGandhas and jumpy for new buyers.” Earlyonthis week, largeinsisting corporate thatwith merged the thatsigns I dance them.with “Let me only important grown larger. hy had reportedly sold three art buy art. While Kirpal and herone team were quite hapyou a drink,” pleads repeatedly.

When few cost shops on Ipy works, which covered theThe average of the to merge the boundaries consistently refuse, he says,of “I art wasand onlymoney offerthe lane, booth and allowed for some profit.which are ing some galleries artists too happy because it’sand free,” andwere walksnot away.

I walk not bars, are filled with over

about toit.the other door and it is simply more of Pushing the envelope shoppers — buying what theNirav same.Modi’s diamonds and Raseel Gujral’s There were about 10 to gallerpasses off15ascutting-edge turquoise and sil- Paradox lifestyle rather unusual Perhaps it’s thestall fact were that Iaam closer to 40 ies and art of the 91 booths that ver projects jewellery,out fake-original branded T- than inclusion.

“I don’t comfortable up 20, but I am feel disappointed byputting Tito’s, the participated this year.coloured A phone flip-flops. booth created shirts and brightly The nightclub. my stall near that sellscountry, diamonds Likesomething most places in the it’s

by Israeli artist with Achiafliers Anzi announcing packed a surprise. lane is strewn Tito’s just and athrow we saying that other art is bunchpillows. of menAre dancing with each On stepping the inky booth, voices deal for the inside day, written prominently in sayEn- while just another commodity?”

Laura Wilgetting roaring drunk. said It is impossible ing, “this number ‘Free is busy”, the to glish and Russian. entrysurrounded for ladies.’ And liams South specialist.

Another see athis as aAsian placeArts where you could meet viewer.

This was followed by amen gushpay of air from new ‘Free unlimited drinks.’ But ₹1,500 gallery owner grumbled, are being people or have your mail“We delivered or attwoentry. fans, one above and one below, which dis- tempt for charged a whopping amount — over ten mealakh, any kind of human contact more oriented the viewer. imagine the telephone Nikita Khattar and“Iher three friends arrived ningful while the Paradox stall is not anythan swaying next to a charged sweaty body. booth as aafternoon launchingfrom station fromI find which one Tito’s just that Delhi. them thing?now Howoccupies is that fair?” perhaps all that was visitakes off into theaungraspable of longbargaining with street vendorspace for party ac- bleMaskara “Theonce. structures of art fairs are from itssaid, balcony It would be dramating, desire—and fantasy,” says Anzi who is reprecessories fluorescent bands that are wrap- ic currently such that art market dictates to say that it has lostthe its soul.

Certainly, it has sented

by Threshold Art Gallery. ped around the wrist, forehead or waist. changed what art in is character. shown where and who is noticed Not far from boothwith wasbig an eightEventually theythe buyphone hairbands bows internationally not.I walk An art only It’s nearly 3amor when out.fair Thecan smell of footthem, clay spiral-shaped ArtistMouse Anin- booze on like aspirantssculpture. for a Minnie build on structure andthat perhaps when andthat sweat is so strong it overpowdita Dutta invited performance artists from ers Club, and pose for photographs. there alternative of young funding wewalk will theare stink of the sea.ways Three men National of Drama, Delhi,she to tells interact KhattarSchool runs a tiki bar in Delhi, me, out see abehind bit more experimentation.” me.

Two of them stand swaying withso it in — they atisit,toscratched it and hit and and a wayclawed her job have a good time.

Asjust long as that, the promotion of art lies in the like with no warning whatsoevit. “We partsoofmuch the earth, struggles But sheare hasall heard aboutour Goa, she just er, hands of private and Ithe government the middle oneentities crumples. leave him lying and to conflicts saysto, Dutta, had come are here.impermanent,” “Like had to had you on plays of sponsoring art, events likeguard, the Art theshy pavement, as his friends stand a explaining her work. know,” she insists.

Fairyards will away have from to rely on corporate sponsorfew where the shoeless drunk ‘Kalpataru the Wishing INobina ask herGupta’s where they are going.

And the Tree’ four lay ship.

Buta sponsorship intrude on just day earlier. Itshould could not be my writer’s comprised a stainless tree fit with elec- luck, of them chorus, “Tito’s!steel Where else?!” the artwork or end, impede on could the be viewers’ this circular or this what tronic sensors that isresponded to movement.

“Delhi clubbing very different,” Khattar happens experience. in Tito’s lane just about every night.

When a viewer neared work,about the lights explains, “you have to bethe careful what venugopal georgina maddox is a Delhi-based art writer would flicker and a recording of people’s veena you wear.”

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The empire and the king (clockwise from above) Waiting for the gymnast at Café Mambo; the end of an evening at Tito’s; and David De Souza veena venugopal

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t’s well past midnight when I leave Mambo. The crowd has thinned a little. Yet, outside Tito’s nightclub there is still a line waiting to check past the metal detector.

I feelattoo and too tired, to Deer in the woods Jagannath Panda’s eight-foot golden deer that hinted ourold shrinking go in and so I walk on. I stop at Café Cape Town, natural environment georgina maddox which is as much a café as Starbucks is a bar, and order a drink and some food. The pork chops when they arrive are a delight and the king fish is the size of a cushion. Next to me, two girls are busy texting on their phones.

Like most foreigners in Goa now, my texting aficionado neighbours — Masha and Polina — are also from Russia. Masha works in a travel company and lives in Goa for six months in the year. Polina is here visiting. They tell me they come to Tito’s lane every day.

“Why?” I ask.

“Good music, good people,” Masha says.

Even in St Petersburg, where she lives the rest of the year, Masha cannot go out as safely so late in the night, she tells me. Perhaps it is the vintage bar top and the slightly older clientele, but it does exude a feeling of security, while across the road, Kamaki is pumping out high-decibel music and beaming technicolour videos on giant television screens. Although Souza attributes the success of his Springing to life Nobina Gupta’s ‘Kalpataru; the Wishing Tree’ thatDe responded to movement business to just being at the right place at the georgina maddox

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Fool’s gold Waste from the active Hutti Gold Mines is dumped on farmlands. Soil samples have revealed that this has made the land unusable. Nothing can grow on it for 25 years. The locals ominously refer to the place as the ‘cyanide mountain’, owing to the large amounts of sodium cyanide present in the refuse generated from the mines

Forgotten people Kiradalli Tanda village, predominately populated by the Lambada tribe that is affected by the neighbouring gold mine

Hell hole The closed entrance to the Mangalur mine that was setup by the B

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Picture this Sudhram holds a photograph of his wife Rukhmani Bai, who died of cancer in 2012, at the age of 38

The vengeful ghosts of a gold mine Gold mining in north Karnataka has wreaked havoc on the groundwater and the lives of the people in the region

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sked when he realised his late wife Rukhmani Bai was seriously ill, Sudhram lifts his leg to show the lesions on his foot. Once infected, his foot could develop gangrene, forcing the doctors to amputate it. His wife, whose illness began much the same way, was on crutches for years until she died of cancer two years ago.

There are dozens of cases like theirs in the village of Kiradalli Tanda, in Karnataka’s Yadgir district, a settlement of the nomadic Lambada people. Independent studies such as the elaborately titled, Environmental Arsenic Contamination and its Health Effects in the Historic Gold Mining Area of the Mangalur Greenstone Belt, have shown that the groundwater in the village has an arsenic level of 303 micrograms per litre, 30 times over the permissible limit defined by the World Health Organisation. A CAG report compiled in 2013 also states, “In 16 habitations in the region, a combined total of at least 24,000 people are affected due to arsenic contamination of their drinking water.”

Just 4km from Kiradalli Tanda, is the now defunct Mangalur gold mine, which was mined by the British from 1887 to 1913, briefly re-opened by the Government of Karnataka in

B British in 1887

1980 and shut down again in 1994. As with settlements near gold mines in Australia, Ghana, Canada, France, Slovakia and Brazil, here too the levels of arsenic pollution are very high.

The state-run and still active Hutti Gold Mines is 60km away from Kiradalli Tanda. But much like Mangalur, it continues to add to the region’s environmental woes. Both the mines are responsible for contaminating the groundwater in Yadgir district with arsenic, causing mild to extreme poisoning of all those who live in the area. In Kiradalli Tanda alone, nine people have died since 2009 because of various forms of cancer and many more suffer from skin lesions.

While the government has taken some corrective measures, such as installing water desalination machines, they are but minor solutions for what is a serious health concern.

Meanwhile, for people like Sudhram and thousands of others who live in the region, mining has rendered their land unusable, driving them into the maw of the mines, yet again, to earn their livelihood. javed iqbal is a photojournalist who reports on tribal issues in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra and AP

Cause and effect Kishan Chauhan, seen here with his daughter, had to amputate his leg after a lesion caused by arsenic poisoning got infected

New order The abandoned Mangalur mining office is used by farmers to store sugarcane and paddy

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fell into the ditch. And found this guy there. crowd I’d like. But hey, I like their money,” he They helped each other out of it, became says.

By the time I step out of the restaurant, the friends and eventually, business partners.

Now his son works with me in Kamaki. But the buzz outside has grown to a steady din. Masses of people are walking in from both ends of Goa of that time is gone,” says De Souza.

In 1985, the senior De Souza succumbed to the road. Occasionally, a car lumbers in, only liver cancer and Ricardo and David had the to be left stranded while people mill past it choice of continuing their education or run- like wildebeest in a Serengeti documentary. ning the business. They chose the latter. Ricar- It’s a great mass of humanity, primed for a Frido ran the kitchen and forced David to handle day night, when enjoy they must. Caught the bar, only because it meant an extra hour of among the young and the eager to party, is a work every day. David mixed drinks and ran group of elderly tourists. Speaking Telugu and clutching their handbags and pallus, they from the bar to the kitchen with food orders.

“Slowly, we just began to get busier. The gawk at the displays of affection and affectanumber of tables went up from five to seven, tion playing out in the lane with a mixture of n 1971, David’s father, Tito Henry De Souza, then 10. And soon we were running out of fear and revulsion. For a while they look came to Goa from East Africa and decided to place. When the plot next to us trapped, as though they were accistart a restaurant. Goa was hippie-central then became available, we bought that dentally ejected there from a time and tourists came from Germany, USA and En- and expanded. And so on. Until machine. Eventually they recover gland, and stayed six months at a time. Having now,” he shrugs. At the time, in and hurry their friends along. At The start of this lived abroad, Tito and his wife were comfort- the late ’80s and early ’90s, the the end of the lane they cross over millenium was the able in this milieu and decided to start a place young De Souzas would make to the main road and stand there inflection point in that would get the expatriates together. De about ₹2,500 on Christmas watching the spectacle of new Inthe life of Tito’s.

Souza was a good cook and could turn up a night. Now, that’s the entry dia dressed up and ready to drink Indians had begun mean fish and chips or a fillet of beef. Starved charge for any of their clubs on a the night away, safe from behind travelling of familiar fare, foreign tourists flocked to Ti- big night. an imaginary wall of passing cars. to’s for comfort food. The restaurant soon beThere is a line outside Tito’s The start of this millennium came a community. Tourists would have their was the inflection point in the life nightclub. A dozen or so men are mails delivered here, leave notes for each oth- of Tito’s. Indians had begun travporing over the poster. I walk past er on a board. Often, they brought their own elling. And they were looking for the ‘mother them, find a gap in the wall of black-shirted music cassettes and played them in a small of all parties’ as the calendar changed from bouncers guarding the entrance and enter player in the restaurant. Romances flourished 1999 to 2000. Goa had, for a few years then, Club Mambo. The tables outside are filled with and friendships were forged across the tables been the favoured year-end destination for large groups of tourists — brown and whiteat Tito’s. people in Mumbai and Bangalore. But for New skinned — and most of them are in that mid“We knew all the guests then. Business was Year’s Eve 2000, the young and hip across the dle stage of a long evening of drinking — loud, about relationships. My father met this man country descended on Goa. A lot of local bars yet affable. Inside, at the centre is a raised platin a ditch once. Literally. He was coming back advertised mega-nights of loud music and un- form with a long sash hanging from the ceilfrom the bar. And this man was going to the limited booze. But several of them did not ing. At some point in the night, a Russian bar to get more booze. It was monsoon. Dad have the required licences. Alarmed by the gymnast is expected to perform an acrobatic crowd and worried that something might go dance on it. The dance floor, waxed and woodspectacularly wrong, the authorities re- en, runs around it. The DJ spins the latest rave Night watch (clockwise from right) fused to allow any party which didn’t tunes and a hundred or so people move with Masha and Polina at Café Cape Town; the have a proper permit. Almost ev- it. The strobe lights fly all over the room and line outside Tito’s nightclub at 1am; and eryone who was in North Goa everything is visible only as a blur. Everyone in Nikita Khattar and her friends veena venugopal All aboard Jitish Kallat’s doll-like sculptures comment on the practice of frisking in this ‘age of terror’ (AP /altaf qadri) ended up at Tito’s. De Souza Mambo, it seems to me, is young. And they are placed a stage that opened all beautiful.

When I step out, I notice the crowd outside onto the beach, and even he sixth edition of the India Art Fair fair, I found myself wondering if I had madeat 7 just has gone past the theRoaffable stage of drunkenbother, do they?

You can fool the don’t following mornconcluded in Delhi among the usual good use of my Saturday. Things had beguningmans, nessfool andus. is now but you can’t And well theninto its affected stages. I peopleTayou, were screamconversations of what an ugly cele- with a jewellery stall, gone on to vodka-spon- ingthere sit onby a stool by theKabar and a bunch of girls, all was ‘Denture Siddharth for more.

Tito’s hadVenture’ bration of money art has become sored art and were seeming to take a decided- arrived. dressed in what designers are lately prone to rawal, an arrangement of demented brushes apart from being overpriced, mediocre, a ly downward route. It was VIP hours, before 2 that could swear you offcalling ‘resort wear’ — long, flimsy dresses and experimental art forglobal-level scam and so on. All this is very bor- pm, so of course all of Delhi was there. In the ever. e Souza is not halter neck tops — are taking photographs of Let’s just say enthat I wouldn’t like to meet ing. As if there was ever a time when art was corridors, air kissing had been elevated to a Karawal tirely in asanguine each other.

Theymind. pose with their index and litdark alley. This isn’t a stable not overpriced and as if money is not celebrat- form of art. At various galleries, you could aboutJean-Francois the change inRauzier’s cli- tlehyperphotos finger flexed,were the gesture of coolness now ed, with or without art. So when I entered the overhear a lime green Birkin ask a black Cha- entele.

“The backpackcurrent to teenagers fascinating in the more conventional sense ofaround the world. Every art fair, I set these lofty expectations aside and nel 2.55 if the horror in front of them, whichers did not have money. few minutes them calls for a group hug the word, as were Israeli artist Nissim one Ben of Adehad only one: let there be some interesting art. cost several millions and an eyeball, would But they made Tito’s for but and they converge. ret’s black-and-whites, each time you start-It is a wonder the hug It was with a sinking feeling, then, that I look good in their living room. me. Indian tourists have doesn’t on the ground in a heap. ed to enjoy something, you’d collapse come across stared at celebrated artist Anish Kapoor’s Abmoney and we are packed Why do people with money have terrible Somehow they manage to stumble out of it, something else to evcounter that. solut-sponsored piece. ‘Absolut Kapoor’ is a taste? If they wanted to buy Manjunath ery night. necessarily the even Ka- It isn’t if it involves several lurches and many I had grown art-weary walking around for “dramatic work”, the plaque said, with Ka- math’s ‘Customised Kalpavfour hours, when aiding my exit poor’s “signature interplay of form and vi- ruksha’, at Gallery Espace, one came the Casa Paradox display brant colour”. For many long silent moments, would understand. By far the best where Raseel Gujaral stood wearI gaped. My understanding of art may be limit- piece at the fair, one marvelled at ing the remains of a pink parrot, How can you tell ed but I had in front of me: a couple of red bot- the artist’s imagination of the in an apparent effort to blend in Anish Kapoor to tles. This was not dramatic. Red can be loosely wish-fulfilling tree. Some other with her loud furniture. Luckily, I return home and described as vibrant, I give you that. Perhaps, galleries stood out: Minsky with found relief right next door, in Sawork harder like Sonam Kapoor, I should’ve been in 10-inch Henrique Vaz Duarte’s scary girls; chin Tekade’s Flower Season series heels so I could have a top view? My mind Bruno Art Group with Gerstein’s — a beautiful, delicate spread of went to the poor sods at Absolut and how they colourful butterflies; Mark Hawhite paper flowers. Taking no must want their money back but, haha, how chem that displayed Yves Hayat’s further chances, I left the scene in do you tell Anish Kapoor to go back home and awesome Les Parfums De Revoltes; Akar Prakar a hurry. work harder? for Bikash Bhattacharjee’s eerie works.

At the exit gates, I ran into someone I know, As I took two steps away from Sir Anish’s disAtul Dodiya gave the poor children being hanging about, waiting to pass on his VIP pass appointment, I came upon Subodh Gupta’s ... dragged around by supermums, something to another friend. The ticket was ₹300. The VIP heart shaped out of steel tassels. Now I’m a fan to do. Their eyes, glazed with boredom thus pass was meaningless after 2pm. The VIP of this man — even though my middle class in- far, lit up as they pressed the switches along- lounge was packed to the brim (of course), so stinct always wants to offer him some old side ‘Highway Yogi’ and ‘Tsunami’, both of even those with a pass had to eat outside. But clothes in exchange of his shiny bartans (how which had roller shutters, to make the shut- it’s a VIP pass. This is Delhi. And its love for bydoes he keep them so sparkly clean?) — and I ters go up and down — clearly finding more passing queues and demanding free tickets is love his quirky installations, but I’d run a mile joy in that than all the art around. quite the work of art. from anyone who’d put this furry steel gold And who can blame them. Take Pascale Marheart up on their walls. thine Tayou’s plastic bags. Just a lot of plastic kalyani prasher who has worked at a media house Within three minutes of entering the art bags stuck on rectangular board. Some people for ten years is a recent convert to freelance writing ple pockets. I am dutifully grateful. “Tito’s is ours — the club and the restaurant. Then we own Club Mambo. I co-own Kamaki with a friend. Not the property, just the business. And we own Café Cape Town across the road. Café Del Mar on the beach is ours,” he counts off, and then thinks for a while before adding, “and a few others here and there”. It is hard to tell if De Souza is boastfully modest or modestly boastful (“I love making money. I hate counting it.” “I make do without a sports car; I make do without a plane.”) Either way, he has earned his story. For in the beginning, there were only five tables and a balcony.

A fair bit of art

Pieces that worked and those that didn’t at the recently concluded sixth India Art Fair

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Show me the money When saleable works elbow out interesting installations

Clay with me A visitor looks at an interactive clay sculpture “Everything ends and Everything matters” by Anindita Dutta at the sixth India Art Fair (ap /altaf qadri)

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he sixth edition of the India Art Fair, wishes played in the background. The artist in Delhi, turned out to be a mixed encouraged viewers to sit under the tree and bag this year, even though it saw one listen to the wishes while recording their own. lakh visitors. Since the art market is Works by artist Priyanka Dasgupta pleasantregaining the balance that it lost during reces- ly surprised us. Her interactive multimedia sion, the Fair reflected an increase in sales. piece, titled ‘Forgetting’ was based on her However, the organisers seemed unwilling to grandmother. The goatskin sculpture of her take risks, and presented predictable hits like grandmother, reminiscent of the leather pupHusains and Razas. There were several run-of- pets of Kerala, was placed before a projector the-mill paintings by artists like T Vaikuntam, that reflected the sculpture’s shadow. A sensor right time, it is clear thatlilies he has cu- went a banal painting of water by carefully Sanjay Bhatoff as it’s youunsafe?” went near “Because I askthe her.piece and the rated his and portfolio of barsbadly in Tito’s lane. And tacharya a crumpled mounted line shadow would smaller andaappear to “No,” she tellsbecome me, fixing me with look that Café Capeby Town is where intends the ol- suggests drawing Pablo Picassohethat only for indicated recede into the distance. “My grandmother wonder at which planet I’ve come der demographic of his clientele to head. to from. the gallery’s miserliness and unwillingness was a “Because recluse and yet she us over people are would alwayswant judging you, “This placeworks is funbyand Polina man. bring better himnotoproblem,” India. all theYou time.

It was push-and-pull emohave to bethe with it with it, youofknow. says.

“We come day.”

Perhaps it ishere timeevery for the India Art Fair to You tionscan’t thatbe I wanted yourselfto incapture Delhi.” in this piece,” abandon the safe and to tread more confident- said the New York-based Dasgupta.

Important psycho-social lesson about Delhi he following evening I find neither Masha ly towards the bold.

Art restorer and critic Ru- learned, Abhay Maskara’s was Ifull of thoughtI walk on.booth Though reach the enPolina at “It Café Cape Town.

Butthe at Fair the trance pikanor Chawla says, is apparent from provoking worksfive likeminutes T Venkanna’s of Tito’s later, Iconfrontadon’t see next tablepainting are halfis aback.” dozen 20-somethings that easel While Chawla is a Khattar tional graffiti-like paintings, or her friends.

A line ofShine 50 orShivan’s so men talking Hinglish the manner is mostly connoisseur of in painting and that modern art, are rather sinister tapestry outnightclub. of the sewaiting their turn towoven enter the heard Mumbai.

One of them, a wiry girl Each some ofinher contemporaries who like to push veredtime headsthe of dead andcan provocative doorschickens open you hear the with a ballerina’sofbody and atoBarbie’s head, thump-thump the boundaries art seem have stayed video works byof artist which the Ruben music Bellinkx, playing inside. stands by the dancing alone. eyes are Necks away, while a table few others rose to theHer occasion. captured three a chair. crane to dogs sneakfighting a peek, over like they are exclosed she sways away, occasionally Nehaand Kirpal, the founder and directorlifting of the pecting The usual blockbuster of the was arta movie star to walk out.show I hang back. a knee or pumping the air. istIt’s Fair explains, “The Art Fair isher a fist keyinimpetus Subodh whose giant chandelier past Gupta 1am when I finally walk into crethe The waiters walk itaround within the commercial art world, exposesher, lo- nightclub. ated out of Being steel utensils, lights bulbs ‘ladies’ Itube don’t haveand to pay or watching cal and international galleriesout to afor an errant queue up. I pass was athrough highlight many.

Jaganthefor metal detector elbow from which could and get my bags large and diverse audience nathchecked.

Panda’sDespite eight-foot golden myself, I feel their tray of excited. Like deer India and around thesend world.” that hinted shrinking something epic at is our about to hapdrinks While Kirpal highlighted the com- crashing. pen to me. Inatural am toldenvironment the door onwas my also left isa Her“We friendsIt conmercial aspect, she added, showstopper, Jitish Kalthe one on as mywas right is Bollyis time “western” for the and tinue likeArt wood. have a variety of cutting edge solo to chat doll-like sculptures that are sitting everywhere.

A loud arIndia Fair toPeoplelat’s there. the projects and have focusedsheonisn’t abandon commented gument out on mywryly right,on so Ithe pickpracthe safe breaks And since this is door on the left sound art this year.” tice and of frisking and bodyissearches walk in.

Inside a large Tito’s lane, no dance floor. in Shireen Gandhy of Gallery in Chetoday’s ‘age of terror.’

Chock-full of men dancing with one stares. mould said sales have improved, What seem was perhaps uneach other. Women to prefer most the floor It is Saturday upstairs. Within “We have sold to our regular pleasant to art lovers blaseconds, there arewas halfthe a dozand the crowd buyers, even though the market is still too en tantmen presence of me corporate with around asking sponsorship, me if I was alone the laneGandhas and jumpy for new buyers.” Earlyon this week, largeinsisting corporate thatwith merged thatsigns I dance them.with “Let the me onlyimportant grown larger. hy had reportedly sold three art buy art. While Kirpal and herone team were quiteWhen hapyou a drink,” pleads repeatedly. few cost shops on Ipy works, which covered theThe average of the to merge the boundaries money consistently refuse, he says,of “I art wasand only offerthe profit. lane, which are ing booth and allowed for some some galleries artists not too happy because it’sand free,” andwere walks away.

I walk not bars, are filled with over

abouttoit.the other door and it is simply more of Pushing the envelope shoppers — buying what theNirav Modi’s diamonds and Raseel Gujral’s same.

There were about 10 to gallerpasses off15ascutting-edge turquoise and sil- Paradox lifestyle rather unusual Perhaps it’s thestall fact were that Ia am closer to 40 ies and art of the 91 booths that verprojects jewellery,out fake-original branded T- than inclusion.

“I don’t comfortable up 20, but I am feel disappointed byputting Tito’s, the participated this year.coloured A phone flip-flops. booth created shirts and brightly The nightclub. my stall near that sellscountry, diamonds Likesomething most places in the it’s by Israeli artist with Achiafliers Anzi announcing packed a surprise. lane is strewn Tito’s just and athrow we saying that other art is bunchpillows. of menAre dancing with each On the inky booth, voices dealstepping for the inside day, written prominently in sayEn- while just another commodity?”

Laura Wilgetting roaring drunk.said It is impossible ing, number ‘Free is busy”, the to glish“this and Russian. entrysurrounded for ladies.’ And liams South specialist.

Another see athis as aAsian placeArts where you could meet viewer.

This was followed by amen gushpay of air₹1,500 from new ‘Free unlimited drinks.’ But gallery owner grumbled, are being people or have your mail“We delivered or attwo fans, one above and one below, which dis- tempt for entry. charged a whopping amount — over ten lakh, any kind of human contact more meaoriented the viewer. imagine the telephone Nikita Khattar and“Iher three friends arrived ningful while the Paradox stall is not anythan swaying next to a charged sweaty body. booth as aafternoon launchingfrom station fromI which one Tito’s just that Delhi. find them thing?now Howoccupies is that fair?” perhaps all that was visitakes off into theaungraspable of longbargaining with street vendorspace for party ac- bleMaskara “Theonce. structures of art are from itssaid, balcony It would be fairs dramating, desire—and fantasy,” says Anzi who is reprecessories fluorescent bands that are wrap- ic currently such that art market dictates to say that it has lostthe its soul.

Certainly, it has sented

by Threshold Art Gallery. ped around the wrist, forehead or waist. changed what art in is character. shown where and who is noticed Not far from boothwith was big an eightEventually theythe buyphone hairbands bows internationally not.I walk An art only It’s nearly 3amor when out.fair Thecan smell of foot clay spiral-shaped ArtistMouse Anin- booze on them, like aspirantssculpture. for a Minnie build on structure andthat perhaps when andthat sweat is so strong it overpowdita invited performance artists from ers Club,Dutta and pose for photographs. there alternative ways of young funding wewalk will theare stink of the sea.

Three men National of Drama, Delhi,she to tells interact KhattarSchool runs a tiki bar in Delhi, me, out see abehind bit more experimentation.” me.

Two of them stand swaying with it — clawed atisit,to scratched it and hit and and so inthey a way her job have a good time.

Asjust longlike as that, the promotion of art lies in the with no warning whatsoevit. partso ofmuch the earth, struggles But“We sheare hasall heard aboutour Goa, she just er, hands of private entities and Ithe government the middle one crumples. leave him lying and saysto, Dutta, had conflicts to come are here.impermanent,” “Like had to had you on plays of sponsoring art, events likeguard, the Arta theshy pavement, as his friends stand explaining her work. know,” she insists.

Fairyards will have to rely on corporate sponsorfew away from where the shoeless drunk Nobina ‘Kalpataru the Wishing I ask herGupta’s where they are going.

And the Tree’ four lay ship.

Buta sponsorship intrude on just day earlier. Itshould could not be my writer’s comprised a stainless tree fit with elec- luck, of them chorus, “Tito’s!steel Where else?!” the artwork or end, impede on could the be viewers’ this circular or this what tronic sensors that isresponded to movement.

“Delhi clubbing very different,” Khattar happens experience. in Tito’s lane just about every night.

When a viewer neared work,about the lights explains, “you have to bethe careful what venugopal georgina maddox is a Delhi-based art writer would flicker and a recording of people’s veena you wear.”

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The empire and the king (clockwise from above) Waiting for the gymnast at Café Mambo; the end of an evening at Tito’s; and David De Souza veena venugopal

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t’s well past midnight when I leave Mambo. The crowd has thinned a little. Yet, outside Tito’s nightclub there is still a line waiting to check past the metal detector.

I feelattoo and too tired, to Deer in the woods Jagannath Panda’s eight-foot golden deer that hinted ourold shrinking go in and so I walk on. I stop at Café Cape Town, natural environment georgina maddox which is as much a café as Starbucks is a bar, and order a drink and some food. The pork chops when they arrive are a delight and the king fish is the size of a cushion. Next to me, two girls are busy texting on their phones.

Like most foreigners in Goa now, my texting aficionado neighbours — Masha and Polina — are also from Russia. Masha works in a travel company and lives in Goa for six months in the year. Polina is here visiting. They tell me they come to Tito’s lane every day.

“Why?” I ask.

“Good music, good people,” Masha says.

Even in St Petersburg, where she lives the rest of the year, Masha cannot go out as safely so late in the night, she tells me. Perhaps it is the vintage bar top and the slightly older clientele, but it does exude a feeling of security, while across the road, Kamaki is pumping out high-decibel music and beaming technicolour videos on giant television screens. Although Souza attributes the success of his Springing to life Nobina Gupta’s ‘Kalpataru; the Wishing Tree’ that De responded to movement business to just being at the right place at the georgina maddox

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family albums they warn of the passing of time, the fragility of youth and the impossibility of ensnaring the present.

Her house bears witness and the weight of these memories. An imperious green chest squats in the centre of the drawing room, filled with albums and covered with photo books. In anticipation of our meeting she has taken out blue clip files filled with newspaper cuttings of Dayanita’s work, hotel receipts and articles which once caught her interest — on the Kohinoor diamond, or her husband’s record wheat production — now jaundiced with age. “Clippings are safe. Computers I don’t feel are safe,” she says, as she rummages through the files even while taking more out.

She puts her iPhone on silent and brings out her iPad to share a video of Dayanita speaking about the Delhi Photo Festival.

Guilty of a mother’s foibles, Nony favours praising her daughter to discussing her own work. The video refuses to boot, and she grumbles about her slow router and faulty connection. Even though photographs from the past surround her, this grandmother of two has Talking the talk clearly embraced the present, be darbari, it through The affable gadgets, social networksJanardhan or the world Dwivediof instant photography. briefs the media theDSC RX 100.

She is now at ease withoutside her Sony Parliament in Delhi “To begin with, I was not comfortable with digpti/kamal kishore ital, I felt tied to the machinery. They have their own dictionary, you couldn’t choose apertures, distances. I didn’t have freedom,” DILLI DARBAR she says. She now uses her camera to photograph images from the television — Jodha Akbar and Comedy Nights with Kapil Sharma being her two favourites — which requires a keen understanding of light, shadow and colour.

Even though she admits a love for all colours and for using them (unlike her daughter), she is partial to black and white as they commute her to the old Hindi movies, which she adored and which her father frowned upon. Growing up in a world where dancing and ne of the few members of Congress the decision to conclude the civil nuclear ener- suggest. Enveloped by such euphoria no one banter with the opposite sex were discourPresident Sonia Gandhi’s darbar in gy agreement with the United States were all in the Congress Party was thinking long-term, aged, Nony would often dream that she was Delhi who I befriended and seen as political mistakes that would cost the as Dwivedi now wishes they had. In 2004, the he photograph is never taken — dest child would become one of India’s hopping and skipping down an endless white genuinely got to like, during my Congress dearly. Then there was inflation and Congress was stunned by the opportunity that it is always given,” a common best-known photographers and bookmakers. corridor. The movies would lure her but retime in government, was her speechwriter the handling of the terror attack in Mumbai. presented itself and chose to form a governadage but one that speaks for Most people are known as children of their mained a forbidden world, even as she made and spokesperson Janardhan Dwivedi. Affable Not to worry, said the party’s strategists, if ment. By 2009 it was so comfortably enevery page of Nony Singh’s The parents, but Nony has the rare distinction of her sisters pose as Scarlett O’Hara and Sophia and cultured, Dwivediji always sported a we lose the elections as a result of all these sconced in office that everyone, perhaps with Archivist (Dreamvilla Productions). To flip being known as the mother of Dayanita Singh. Loren. Guru Dutt she believes was especially smile. A rarity among the nose-in-the-air, self- costly mistakes, we will blame it on Prime Min- the exception of Dwivediji, was happy to be through the slim volume of black and white Nony (originally Ranjit Kaur) always be- talented in manoeuvres with light and shade. important darbaris of Delhi. Every now and ister Manmohan Singh and sit in the opposi- back in office. images is to be transformed all at once into in- lieved the eldest of her four daughters would She says, “I am good. But I can’t be as good as then, we would meet over a lunch of tandoori tion. Rahul Gandhi would then become leader The issue at hand was not whether or not truder and confidant. You are conscious that turn toward fine art or literature. She was that moviemaker.” With its focus on the everypomfret at Delhi’s India International Centre. of the opposition in the Lok Sabha. This would the Congress would form a government, but you are privy to the deeply private, but you al- “good at expression” but a fussy model when day and family, the book doesn’t reveal Nony’s Our conversation was rarely about politics. enable Rahul Gandhi to emerge a national who should be given credit for the party’s imso feel that the host has invited you in, offered her mother, who liked to treat her children as tumultuous life.

But whenever politics entered the discussion, leader in his own right, stepping away from proved performance. Every party leader was you a chair and fragments of themselves, even dolls, dressed them up as Mother Mary, a RoShe moved to India as an 11-year-old after it became clear to me that DwiKvediji was a his mother’s pallu. It was an arrangement that happy to go on TV and claim that the credit as you contemplate the responsibilities of car- man gypsy or a Marathi fisherwoman and Partition. She was a mother of four young girls smart cookie. No wonder he was such a trust- Dr Singh had come to accept. “The should go to Rahul Gandhi. When then photographed them. The rying another’s secrets. when the ’84 riots blazed through ed and valued aide of the party president. So, party will get credit for all the asked for his comment on the reNony Singh started taking photographs as a day Dayanita was to leave home Delhi. When she lost her husband I’d take whatever Dwivediji says seriously. good things the government has sult, the minister of State in the seven-year-old with a box-camera. Today she is for National School of Design, in 1982, she inherited a mountain In a rare interview last week, he said that the done, and the government will PMO Prithviraj Chavan told a 76 and The Archivist is her debut book. As a Nony took a photo of her daugh-If we lose, said the of court cases, and was inundated Congress Party should not have formed the get the blame for all the misnews channel the ‘mandate was young woman, she had never heard of “pho- ter, hand on hip, gaze both impa-party strategists by paperwork, court hearings and Nony has in an for Rahul government in 2009 and instead, ought to takes.” He would readily concede.

Gandhi’. He was later rewe’ll blame tography as a profession”. Years later, her el- tient and loving, which also 2009, judicial nitty-gritty. Files now obsession with the have sat in the opposition. What he did not Remember that Sonia Gandhi warded with a chief ministership! captured her outline. This photothe PM... Rahul seethed with injunctions and depastwill mention was that this may well have been the suddenly took a decision, virtualIn Andhra Pradesh, the late YS proved portentous to Nony hint-emerge as a leader, manded attention. At times she party’s original strategy in 2009. At least many ly on the eve of the poll in 2009, to Rajasekhara Reddy and his suping at a child making her way in away from his would don her husband’s turban political analysts thought so. The Congress place Dr Singh’s face on the cover porters claimed the party’s imthe world but graced by a moth- mother’s pallu while driving to and from court, never expected to improve upon its tally of of the party manifesto and deproved tally in the State was a er’s shadow. in order to be mistaken for a man.

2004 and assumed it would be required to sit clare him the party’s prime minisreward for his leadership and For Nony the urge to photograph doesn’t Only the last three photos in the book, of bunin the opposition. Unfortunately, for the par- terial candidate. The game keeping the State united. Sitting arise from the need to capture but also for a dles of files, “my strange and not-so-strange ty’s grand strategists, the people of India — es- seemed clear. When the results alone at home, Dr Singh thought reverence, even obsession, with the past. Seat- bedfellows” hint at this cloud of chaos that pecially in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, are in, blame Dr Singh for the defeat, anoint the mandate was his. Soon he was disabused ed in front of a wall covered with framed im- loomed above. Dayanita’s File Room spotlights Punjab and a couple of other States — voted so Rahul the leader and move on. Unfortunately, of any such illusions. Uncertainty about the ages from the book, the black-haired lady says, the countless lives these files contain and have handsomely for the Congress that it had no for the strategists who assumed the Congress parentage of the victory was the mother of “I am an archivist. Memories mean a lot to me. squandered, and thus takes forward and pays option but to form a government. would fare poorly, the voter in a clutch of UPA-2’s woes rather than the decision to keep Moments once they pass they don’t come. I am tribute to her mother’s battles.

Consider the facts. In the run up to the polls States and across urban India decided to re- the coalition marriage going. a collector because I fall in love with someThe one photo opportunity Nony feels she in 2009 the Congress party had convinced it- ward Dr Singh and his government handIn 2014, Dwivedi’s 2009 strategy may well thing because I have captured it,” she adds, “If missed out on is of those days in court. Having self that the government of Prime Minister somely. The Congress saw its tally, at 206 seats, play out. The Congress Party will blame Dr I lose the moment I get disturbed.” gone through nearly a 100 lawyers in 30 years, Manmohan Singh had disappointed the par- rise to a level that it had not seen since 1991.

Singh and his government for the defeat, and Not one to take her camera outside, and pre- she wants to choreograph a photo of four lawty’s rank and file and its traditional support When the results came in there was a scram- Rahul Gandhi will build his brand as leader of ferring portraits to landscape, Nony focused yers walking down a corridor, with one shootbase, especially the Muslims. The decision to ble in the party to claim credit for the perform- opposition. Or so some hope. on the women in her family with her Zeiss ing her a smirk. Clearly, the archivist has work jettison the Left Front, the decision not to de- ance, rather than the kind of wise Ikon camera. The photos in the book reveal yet to chronicle and share with the world. clare Telangana a separate State and, above all, self-effacement that Dwivedi’s remarks now sanjaya_baru@hotmail.com the pleasures of domesticity be it family holidays, fancy dresses and picnics, but like all nandini nair Sepia tones From Nony Singh’s The Archivist, (left to right) Nony’s sister poses as Sophia Loren in Srinagar; Nixi (Dayanita) on her way to National School of Design; Nixi dressed as a gypsy and her sister as an angel

Defeat victory the light Gentlyasframing

Why the Congress party might have hoped to have sat in the opposition in 2009 Photographer Nony Singh on hoarding the past and embracing the present

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Memories and moments Nony Singh surrounded by her photos in her Delhi home

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Do-gooders, really?

Chasing Chaos is a gripping ethnography of that strange, and increasingly prominent and powerful tribe — the international aid junkie

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hen Jessica Alexander drives into a refugee camp in Rwanda, her humanitarian aid worker colleague, surrounded by newly arrived refugees from Congo, asks her: “I wonder how the mothers keep their kids apart? Don’t they all look the same to you?” Alexander doesn’t respond to the question, coloured as it is by off-hand racism: don’t all black people look the same?

Later, during her work with the community, she is often addressed as ‘Mel’. Melanie is the Canadian volunteer who works for another organisation, six inches shorter and with cropped blonde hair as opposed to the author’s long and dark hair.

This seemed like an uncannily apt metaphor for the central question raised by Alexander’s intimate and self-aware memoir of her years spent chasing humanitarian crises across the globe. From a statement on racism, the narrative switches to examine how well the two communities — those affected by crises, usually in Asia or Africa and those who responded on behalf of international agencies and NGOs, usually well heeled Europeans and North Americans — understand or even recognise each other.

Chasing Chaos is not an account of the crises per se; details of the causes and complexities are glossed over. But it is not meant to be a comprehensive examination of the politics underpinning the massive displacement

witnessed in Rwanda or Darfur. Nor is it an listen more if you are there.” Therein lies the in-depth assessment of the response mountirony of international assistance. The objeced by the international community to natutive of such assistance is to help communities ral disasters such as the tsunami (Alexander get back on their feet. But when the money also covers the period she spent as an evaluacomes in tandem with large armies of internator in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, covering the tional professionals, decisions are taken by rehabilitation and resettlement efforts). It those who control the purse strings, but not works best as ethnography of a strange, and by those whose lives are most entwined in the increasingly prominent and powerful tribe: consequences. And as aid agencies compete the international aid workers, covering their for greater resources from increasingly tightmotivations and contradictions. When she fisted Western governments, every crisis is an accepts an assignment in Darfur, despite reopportunity for agencies to raise their profiles Chasing Chaos: My Decade in and Out of sistance from her concerned father, she adand budgets up one notch or many.

Humanitarian Aid mits with disarming honesty, “If I Alexander is clearly aware of Author: Jessica Alexander wanted to keep doing aid work, I these contradictions. The role of Category: Non-fiction Publisher: Broadway Books had to go to a place like Darfur. the aid worker (including her Price: ₹975 (Flipkart) Hardship duty stations like Darown) and her effectiveness in The role of the fur… were where you moved up short assignments is interrogataid worker is in the ranks and built your ed with candour. But she does not interrogated resume.” present, or even seriously conwith candour In Darfur, Alexander is flown template, any alternatives. There into the command of a commitis enough critique of her coltee representing the 24,000 resileagues and the agencies they dents of the El Fasher settlement. represent, and most of it is wellShe is assisted by Ishaq, her ‘local’ assistant formulated (On occasions, she is a tad too unand translator. She soon realises that it is lucharitable, referring to some of her older fedicrous to think she is the ‘boss’: aid workers male colleagues as “humanitarian widows”, like her are entirely dependent on Ishaq and women who have dedicated their lives to aid others like him for local knowledge, to naviwork, shuttling across countries and failing to gate tenuous local politics and to underform any sustainable relationships. The most stand which relief measures were feasible. prominent breakdown features another womBut when she insists that Ishaq lead one of an colleague who runs over the water jerry the meetings, he refuses: “believe me, they’ll cans of refugees who don’t get out of the way of her jeep after one warning). What is missing from her narrative spanning across Rwanda, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Indonesia is a clear view of local alternatives, ownership of development and humanitarian initiatives by Asian or African countries and professionals. This could be because of the international institutional framework she operated within.

But again, Chasing Chaos is not, and is probwith Tito’s y 6pm the lights come on. The music fold. Tito’s is a name so popular in Goa, that taurant. Not to be confused ably not meant to the be, a defining assessment of Meryl Streep inhumanitarian a sea is turned up, just a notch, so that you not only is it inscribed on every graffiti-free nightclub next door. Likeinternational interventions know where it’s coming from, even if wall that is available from the airport to the of Kim Kardashians, Tito’s overthe therestaurant last decade.isIt is a memoir of her besexily grown up. The — professional successyou can’t make out which song is northern beaches of Baga and Calangute, it shimmeringly adult andwildering experiences furniture is dark wood and chiffon-like cano- personal relationships playing. Tanned bodies stumble in from the has also taken over an entire lane. es and frustrations, All told, Tito’s lane is only about 900m long. pies flutter in the breezethat fromcrumble the sea. At a tabeach at one end of the lane. At the other, the over long-distance Skype calls, just settings so that it feelscontinents and seemingyoung and the beautiful spill out of their rent- It breaks off the Aguada Siolim Road — the pre- ble, on a platform raisedsocial across like you arely floating aboveuniverses, the ed cars, the fumes of their freshly spritzed per- ferred route to pay pilgrimage to from different none of which she road, Davidfits Andrew De Souza is after a few peripatetic fumes filling the air. In the middle of the lane, all of Goa’s northern beaches — into with any ease waiting foryears me. Trim with— aand it is a story she has rea man tries to take a few steps, staggers, tries and starts unobtrusively enough in theand sector face that belies his 44with years, great Dato hold himself steady and then gives up. He with a grocery store in the corcounted wit, warmth and Tito’s the restaurant vid, along with his brother, Ricarsits on the pavement, and after a moment’s ner. This is where the practicalself-awareness. is shimmeringly adult do, are the co-owners Tito’s. consideration, lies down. He is unshodden, minded can stock up on bottled Thankfully,ofAlexander’s story does not end and sexily grown up Not just thewith eponymous restaudirty, and too drunk to care. Behind him, a water to stay hydrated on a night a cute coming-of-age revelation (she realrant and the Insustain one her personal relationwhite billboard flickers into life. In bold red, it on the lane. From there, barring isesnightclub. only that to form or theships, other,she thehas De to Souza an occasional store selling the says, “Tito’s. Where else?!” re-settle in the US, but she brothers have a stake in most If Goa is the party centre of the country, kind of trifle only a tourist does not end with of any profound insights on then, indisputably, Tito’s is its very nucleus. would buy, the lane is so packed with bars, Tito’s lane. her place in the world). There are no easy resoIn a while, De Souza would tellto me which es- as there are none to the From September to March, when it’s officially pubs and nightclubs that it seems like anothlutions her doubts, first, in the facetioustourist season, on any weekend in Goa, there er universe altogether; one that was created tablishments are his, butdevelopment and humanitarian crises that ness that can only be afforded byus. the really are about a 1,000 people who wake up with a exclusively for hedonism. surround Even though it’s too early for the party to successful, he tells me he rarely wears pants. hangover they are likely to have acquired in Tikaushik barua works I notice they arein the development sector and to’s lane. On special days — New Years’ Eve and swing in right earnest, I am happy to skirt past When I peep down the table, Uneasy truth How do western countries which control the purse strings, make policiesthe for refugee camps in faraway reuters/edward heavy-duty pants — cargo khakis multiChristmas, this number multiplies four or five shoeless drunk to stepcontinents? into Tito’s.

The res- echwalu is the authorwith of Windhorse

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In the last decade and a half, Tito’s lane has become the place to party in Goa. The making of Goa’s golden mile, surprisingly, began with a tiny bar

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CUB READS

Site of change Delhi isn’t an easy city to love, but you arrive here to reinvent yourself Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck Author: Jeff Kinney Category: Fiction Publisher: Puffin Books Price: ₹350

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hen asked about the origin of Wimpy Kid, author Jeff Kinney said that he wanted to write “about the funny parts of growing up and none of the serious parts”.

Hard Luck, the eighth in an ongoing series and a bestseller, is exactly that. Reminiscent of Spanky and Alfa’s troubled friendship in The Little Rascals, Greg Heffley’s latest struggles revolve around losing his best friend. Rowley Jefferson has dumped Greg for Abigail, the girlfriend. With Rowley gone, Greg’s social life takes a turn for the worse. Kinney’s depiction of Greg’s school is both scary and hilarious.

Segregation and bullying abound, often resulting in comical outcomes. Sample this: The only place where boys and girls hang out is the playground. The kids have started playing Girls Chase Boys but, as a hapless Greg soon finds out, the girls are only interested in chasing the popular boys. When the boys chase the girls, they risk getting stuck in detention. Kinney’s Hard Luck relies on making the ordinariness of growing up super funny. However, it is also a darker commentary on the travails of childhood. Kinney is a grown-up version of Greg, whose memory of a punishing childhood is softened by time.

PAPERWALLAH

A line runs through How literary works challenge and topple the notion of borders

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n 2004, Belgian artist Francis Alÿs performed The Green Line. He held a can of leaking paint, and strolled along the armistice border in Jerusalem – effective until 1967, after which Israel occupied Palestinian-inhabited Yellow joys The territories east of the line. His “line-makamaltas in full ing” was a playful act, articulating the bloom in summer, near the Parliament border as an arbitrary mark on the House vv krishnan ground. “Sometimes,” said Alÿs, “doing something poetic can become political.

Sometimes doing something political can become poetic.” A sentiment that alor three years, my daily commute plush jobs in the Capital for the famously bet- and masala Maggi we meet people from differso holds true in literature. While watchfrom work to home covered 13km and ter-behaved city of Mumbai. Girls change their ent backgrounds, swap memories and share ing Alÿs’ video recently at the Tate, it seven centuries. Office stood near the travel plans to ensure that this behemoth new experiences. Jawaharlal Nehru University wasn’t hard to imagine Manto’s Toba Tek 14th century Feroz Shah Kotla, a long- doesn’t fall into their itinerary. People work has been the site of political and social awakSingh lying “on that piece of ground with abandoned fortress, overrun by black cats and here but choose to retire elsewhere. Friends ening for generations of students. Delhi conno name,” refusing to move. It prompted whispering djinns. Behind the glass and mar- pick Bangalore over us because we treated jures up doctors and engineers, architects and a discussion on literary works that chalble newspaper office rests a Muslim graveyard, them wrong. Those who could, applied for vi- lawyers, professors and bureaucrats from that lenged our notions of geographical bor- Barbed lives Closing borders is as impossible as stopping the migration of birds AFP/Ozan Kose visited by peacocks and barred to women. At sas and moved abroad. amorphous body called youth. ders, and while first in line was Amitav ITO, the city’s busiest intersection, where the But people who believe in toil and labour We realise that we can never know this city Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines, others — po- tan, Iran and Afghanistan, the characters a series of wordless pencil drawings, traffic light shines red for 15 minutes, conver- continue to pour into the city. You arrive in in its entirety, yet we come to find joy in its ems, short stories, graphic novels — were are caught between crystallising nation the graphic novel bursts with immisations are struck up with passengers in adja- Delhi in order to reinvent yourself, because small and frequent charms. We become adalso unearthed. states. As Dawa Khan, leader of the no- grant stories of survival and hope. The cent vehicles — nothing like failed civic you believe in your own agency. It is here that dicted to the gulmohar and amaltas flowers The dangerous thing about borders is madic Kharots, says, “What is this I hear idea behind it came, Tan explained in an systems to rally crowds into comrades. En careers are chosen and professions cemented. that bloom in the height of summer, the pink how, in their construction and mainte- about closing of borders... It’s impossible interview, from his experience of being route, I would pass by the avenues of Lutyens’ Most people who are here, have left something silk cotton flowers in spring, the bhutta sellers nance, they come to inhabit a naturalised to do that. It’s like attempting to stop mi- half-Chinese at a time (1970s) and place Delhi, where bats hang upside down from ma- behind, be it the safety of one’s parents or the who appear before the rains, the smell of bakMiracles space, creating the assumption of a land- grating birds or the locusts.”

(Fremantle, Western Australia) when Author: Ranjit Lal hua trees and white colonial mansions stretch comfort of hometowns. This leaveing nankhatai (butter biscuits) on scape that has always been (and always As historically evident, the “enchant- this was fairly unusual. “I was constantCategory: Fiction out in the sun. As the autorickshaw charged taking is a process of wish fulfilcold evenings. We long for NoPublisher: Penguin India will be) divided in that way. Yet this read- ment of lines” leads to horrific partitions ly asked ‘where are you from?’ My retowards the All India Institute of Medical Sciment.

It is a belief that one’s fuvember’s mist that clings to tree Price: ₹299 ing is compromised if we peer even most and violence, unfathomable loss and suf- sponse was ‘here’.” This sense of ences, patients hobbling on crutches and ture can be made and that it isn’t branches, reminding us winter is Delhi packs briefly into the past — national lines per- fering. Drifting House, a collection of jumbled borders — geographic and ethpushed in wheelchairs emerge from darkened ordained at birth. But these depararound the corner. We wait for centuries within petually shift in the wake of wars, annex- short stories by South Korean Krys Lee, nic — is captured in My Brother at The subways. That is the thing about Delhi, it packs tures, from the familiar, ensnare the afternoon stupor at the end of miles and Canadian Border, a prose-poem by Iraations, trade agreements. Manipuri-born sheds light into lives divided by boundacenturies within miles, and multitudes be- the people of Delhi in a constant a Holi party. We look forward to f Wimpy Kid chronicles the struggles of multitudes poet Robin Ngangom quietly captures ries. Following the country’s overnightbetween nian-American SholehWolpé. “On their tween milestones. nostalgia for what has been left commuting to work on the Metchildhood, Ranjit Lal’s Miracles is a teen tale milestones this arbitrariness in My Invented Land — division in 1953, millions of Koreans to- way to Canada… my brother and his But this isn’t an easy city to love.

On its behind and a reluctance to call ro, where we spy upon the Whatthat swings between extremes of enduring “My homeland has no boundaries. At day face upheaval and alienation — friend…stopped at the border and the streets, only its apathy can match its aggres- this city home. Delhi is that odd sapp conversations of our fellow loss and finding joy. On her first day at a new cockcrow one day it found itself inside a whether living on the wrong side of the guard asked: Where you boys heading? sion.

Empathy is altogether absent and suspicreature, which no one wants to passengers, who belong to a school, 16-year-old Trisha has many things to country to its west.” The Shadow Lines, 38th parallel or scattered across Korea- My brother: Mexico. The guard blinked the default attitude. Importance is lay claim to. Most people who live range of backgrounds. We revel worry about — her hip mom’s popularity, cion a which I first read at university, still con- towns of the diaspora. In the title story, and said: This is the Canadian border. judged by the muscle and money you flaunt, here say they belong to elsewheres, which are in the green space, found in every neighbourbratty little sister Shivi and her puppy fat (a veys rare timelessness. Its most famous Lee follows three siblings as they journey My brother turned to his friend, and politeness is seen as cowardice. Last De- kinder and gentler. hood, where boys play cricket, aunties dry teen obsession, naturally). But soon enough, passage is one where the narrator discov- across a snowy landscape to China to grabbed the map from his hands... You cember Delhi gang raped a young woman, this Even if it is not “home”, alchemy and trans- their henna-coloured hair and dogs raise their Trisha’s shapely curves, dulcet voice and ers, with compasses and a map, the futili- find their mother. “Houses loomed like idiot, he yelled, you’ve been holding the January it hounded a black community and formations happens here. It is here that the UP puppies. We take pride that we can picnic in wicked spin bowling leave her neighbour ty of boundaries. Yet the lines that also ghosts. The government’s face was every- map upside down.” most recently it beat to death a 19-year-old stu- auto rickshaw driver’s son finds a job with the company of ancient tombs. We come to reAkshay spellbound. Even as teen love blosresonate in this age of frequent travel are where…” Among several moving pasBorders, for their power to be exdent with blonde hair. “Love thy neighbour,” is HCL, where the maali’s son gets hired by an in- ly upon the fleeting, yet strangely meaningful, soms, dark clouds gather in Trisha’s life when Thamma’s — “But if there aren’t any sages, one, where the eldest brother pressed, rely on the cooperation and is so commonplace that it has ternational BPO, where the daughter of the do- networks we build in our neighbourhoods. her mom is diagnosed with cancer. The time aissaying whichtrenches or anything, how are people to realises he can no longer carry his little collusion of subjects in relation to become banal. But Delhi spits and hisses at all mestic worker from Darjeeling finds a seat in A long-time Chennai resident once said, ripe for her transition into a responsible know? I mean, where’s the difference sister, captures, in stark simplicity, the them. Wolpé’s poem offers, similar to such civic reminders that tell us to treat peo- Modern School, Vasant Vihar. It is where your “Delhi is like crack. It is no good for you, but all adult. Keeping vigil at her mother’s bedside, then?” The narrator’s grandmother can- terrifying failure of the modern state. Manto’s writings, not merely a dismanple right and treat them well, even if we share dreams for your children spread beyond your of you are addicted to it.” Maybe, that is true.

Trisha deals with the household, mends fences not fathom how a border is the airport, “He cleaned her face with his mittens- tling, but an ultimate act of resistance nothing in common with them, other than a house. In relocating to Delhi we get to avail of Yes, Delhi’s air sags with dirt, its sky seldom rewith her grandparents, has a breakup and not the frontier. …Then he closed his eyes, twisted their against boundaries. A joyful, blatant physical proximity. choice and reinvent our circumscribed selves. lents to blue, it boils when hot, freezes when tops her board exams. If the plot for Miracles Nowhere, though, are we more privy to mother’s scarf around Gukhwa’s neck, disregard. by how it caters to those Delhi is the city where millions come of age. cold. But exiting is not an option. Delhi might takes a leaf out of K-Jo’s family dramas, what A city is defined the emergence of boundaries than Jamil and choked her.” pariat is the author of must Boats on Landon who look different, those who have come from That unique campus city which is much more makejanice us cower, at times, but we insist keeps it heart warming is Ranjit Lal’s sprightly Ahmad’s The Wandering Falcon. Set As sparse as Lee’s muted voice, is t@janicepariat outside, those who have travelled distances to than just a campus.

At Delhi University fighting back; because it is ours and because it writing. And in Shivi, he gives us a loveable around the permeable borders of Pakis- Shaun Tan’s The Arrival. Narrated through make it home. doughy minds — straight out of high school — is worth owning. brat. Curious, mischievous and immensely huggable, Shivi is the brightest spark in young And Delhi often has an abysmal record on realise, for the first time, how our choices all these fronts. Colleagues have abandoned come to define us. Over endless cups of chai nandini nair Trisha’s coming-of-age tale.

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ELSEWHERE

Manjula Padmanabhan

Sisters in arms Author Nandita Haskar on what distinguishes the Northeast

Shopping for one When you can’t find sliced bread, you make do with sponge cake

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ell, the building is NOT seething with drug addicts, I am happy to say. I’ve met Pete a couple times since that first day and it was just a friendly “hi” in the hallway, nothing Veiled truths A woman more. He certainly looks miserably ill though.

His brothdraws her pallu to er Trevor is about the same height but otherwise entirely different shestarvation. passes look at: blond hair, sun-tanned complexion and no signasof the menfolk in He’s a carpenter by trade and roars off early in the morning, in his a village in great Paddy times The Northeast consists of eight states and some 400 communities; here farmers gather the harvest big Dodge, to get to the construction site where he’s currently employcentral India outside Guwahati ritu raj konwar A Roy Chowdhury ed. In addition, he has a gleaming black Harley Davidson and a bright red Porsche sports convertible!

Settling in has taken all my attention. The friends with whom I norUNDISCOVERED COUNTRY mally stay when I’m in the US sent me off with three containers of uman rights activist and lawyer, so woman-centric. These religions were decooked food to tide me over the shock of fending for myself. It’s not exNandita Haksar has been associated stroyed by Sanskrit speaking tribes who actly a shock. Just a bit odd that there’s no one else making decisions with Northeast India for the past 30 implemented a process of Sanskritisation. The around here. If I want to eat ice-cream at tea-time or pizza at 3am ... yes! I years. Her latest attempt to promote Christian missionaries also destroyed many can. I mean, at home in Delhi, The Partner (TP from now on) and I decide understanding and respect for the people of the tribal institutions. My book talks about these every day what the cook is going to make for us at breakfast, lunch and region is a book titled Across the Chicken Neck: hidden histories and of the clash between old dinner. It’s not very difficult, because neither TP nor I want anything Travels in Northeast India, where she undertakes religions and the new ones. fancy. It’s papaya/toast/eggs for breakfast, rice/dal/two veggies for lunch, the challenge of travelling beyond the Chicken soup/salad/fruit for dinner. Every day.

Neck, a slim strip of land barely 33 km long, Which insurgencies have affected the Here, however, I not only have to decide what I want, I’ve also got to which connects the entire Northeast to the rest Northeast most and how? buy it. Hmm. I’ve hardly ever done that. Some people love going grocery of India. Excerpts from an interview: et me tell you about Mikan ki Ma. My the caterwauling of hungry children? thepeople the authorities should have been category. brought in shopping andNo, other don’t. I belong to the second But The book often coversspeaks 15 insurgencies.

I have tried to were tied to their homes as effectively and Paras arrested and fined? Not in India, and mother of her, so these women when you’re living alone, there are no options.

Either you do it or no one What is the Chicken Neck? give the historical context of the armed rebelare her words rather than mine. The as if they were chained does to them by links not among the inaIndia. it. Stark!

So theofday after I moved in,poor I took little walk up and down The Northeast region of India shares only two lions a faceIto the rebels.

Forkiexample, theThey earned the little income they could onlyand exchange had with Mikan Ma steel.

What money, to what compensation, would the main thoroughfare, called Broadway, check out the facilities.

A few per cent of its border with India and 98 per cent Bodos havegreeting been demanding of hands and the bitter wages they re- Mikan ki Ma have received even if the police was limited to her me. A salaamrecognition from as field shops and restaurants, the Police Station, the Post Office, the Town Hall, with our neighbouring countries — China, Bhuthestood ’50s but it was only af- as mothers, daughters and wives. her sidetheir and language mine wassince all that between ceived would registered herhomes complaint, a two churches and a school.

Andhave a few residential too, aeven littleiffurtan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. This us. twoI only ter knew they picked up arms that the Bodo language that she was one of the few Mikan ki Ma should have considered lawyer had fought her case, even if a judge therbeen up the road from where I am. per cent land that links the entire wasfarmhouse. included in the eighth schedwomen working at our fortunate. Her husband, Paras, owned would a ruling? wasontoo That’s it.

No bigfive grocery store have withinpassed walking distance.Paras Instead, the region with mainland India is ule of the constitution.

Though she was poor, it doesn’t mean she acres of land, a considerable amount. is poor fined aanything more than a pit-It other side ofThere Broadway from to me,bethere’s little shop called “LEO’S”. called the Siliguri Corridor or the insurgents have restored a saying that a man usually commits a tance. He had already sold all the land that his had nothing. It mightThe not have been material a Persian sells all the usual things you might find at a convenience store, such as Chicken Neck. The journey was of dignityher and self-respect in for one of three reasons: wealth butused she hadsense her laughter, gossip, crime sons otherwise snatched The Northeast chips and biscuits plus a small selection ofhad freshnot veggies and fruit.

Before born from a need to understand the theirdetermined respective by communities and her honour, all of them her so- zan, zar ya zameen (women, monawaya list: frombread, him. What to be our link with going in there for the first time, I made butter,little milk,moneggs, region as a whole; to understand its have recovered histories that were standing. is thecoffee and chocolate. ey he got was what he stole from thecial outside world This standing was jealously ey or land), and zameen cheese, diversity and its politics in cultural sought to be destroyed. have guarded because it was so important, and as aTheygreatest of these. It givesI entered you Mikan ki Ma after shewhere earned at the place like a spy from a universe noit one There is afeeling Persian and political contexts. forced the Indian state to concede woman she had no escape, unlike the men. somewhere to build your home, ourmy farmhouse. buys their own food.

I felt I had to hide sense of inadequacy in order saying that a man legitimate demands have The men could leavetothe village to work in theandsomewhere for your children to‘normal’. I picked up a half litre Even Mikan milk, ki Maone haddozen reto seem of if skimmed usually commits a Tell us about the identity crisis protested against oppression and city or even go to a faraway State to do seasonal play, somewhere to graze your ceived something from Paras, eggs and a packet of butter.

Then I went looking for bread.

There were crime for zan, zar ya faced by the tribes you injustice.

Having this, Iofhave also raised work. There they were outsaid of range prying cattle and to plant your crop. is where would she of have gone for sweetItloaves, raisin buns, packets of tortillas and stacks yellow sponge encountered there. zameen (women, many questions about their methods and more eyes and wagging tongues. What they did far your mother, your provider, and refuge?

To her sons, maybe; to Micake. No sign of long, rectangular, money or land), ordinary, everyday sliced bread.

Few people realise that the Northeast used to be the importantly, their lack of vision for the future. from fields remained largely unknown your place of rest. It is the wealth kan after whose proud birth she I was sure it waszameen hiddenisaway and the somewhere but I didn’t want to ask for our link with the outside world through theback old at the farm. that cannot be calculated,fear butof it being is wasSo given her public name?

But exposed as a visiting alien.

I bought the sponge cake ingreatest of these The Northeast includes different states, silk routes both by sea and land. Assam was linkFor the women there was no such escape, no one that can be lost.

Mikan and his up brother werewith as stead.

And then, out of sheer nervousness, I filled my basket with their own characteristics.

How do ed to China and many tribes were involved inmatter ac- how temporary. The city was sinful, as Paras was comparatively shiftless of and violent as their fathreewell flavours of chewing gum, a container frozen guacamole, one you break it down in your book? tive trade with Tibet, Bhutan and beyond. These everyone knows. What kind of work would a off. He could afford atired proper ther, as apt to beat and steal from cabbage, a tin of coffee, air-freshener, baked beans, marmalade and the would Northeast consistsher of to eight stateshouse, and so he built one beyond his trade links were broken by the British who stole womanYes, do that not expose the liher as Paras soya sauce. Then I paid in cash and scurried backwas. across Broadway feelwithinof these thereNo areamount some 400 lucrative trade from people and built artificial centiousness the states city folk? of communeeds. He could afford to drink and gamble, Justice is for those that can afford it and deing victorious and so defeated, both at once. with language, borders which resulted in gradual isolation.tainted nities moneyeach could buytheir back aown clean name. culture, he did. He could afford to beMy lazy, so he was. mand it, for range Mikanand ki an Maindustrial-size it was not even a kitchen has aHe four-hob cooking fridge and history.

There is a debate about whether we afford to beat his wife, so he did. Pros- dream. We talk these days so easily about After India’s independence, very little atThe men went to stand in the market square could but no toaster or microwave. So for dinner that first night, I had slices of cancity speak meaningfully about Northeast.

This can break a man as easily as poverty if equal rights for women, about misogyny and tempt was made by way of real development, in the big where they were examined and perity charred sponge cake instead of toast. Plus two extremely greasy fried was my dilemma while writing the book. and when people rebelled or articulated their their labour bought for a day, a week or longer. he does not have the character to handle it. Pa- butter similar constructs, but we rarely talkguaof eggs made in melted andsocial a chunk of rock-hard bright green I believe that in some contexts we can speak of his wealth swiftly because he mistreat- the human beings, of the people that they grievances, their voices were stifled by bullets Their sweat was auctioned off to the builders. ras lost camole which refused to unfreeze in a timely fashion. For dessert I had thejust Northeast as acrops wholethat butthe in other and bombs. I am referring to the bombing ofItAiwas not with their farm- contexts ed it. He lost his land notcherry-apple much later because were.

I learned storythe from myof chewing gum.

Followed

by Mikan coffee —kiorMa’s anyway, smell we must remember that the eight states are zawl in the ’60s and the atrocities committed by ers fed the maw of cities, but also with their hevery was too shiftless to care for itIproperly.

His that mother, but inhave reality, I only knew her as one of I coffee. had forgotten I didn’t brewing equipment when different: and their Tripura wife werehe beat and stole from, abused and threw a flock of women who were found happily gosthe Indian armed forces in Naga areas. To sum it sweat, bitter theirSikkim, strainedManipur muscles and picked up the tin. kingdoms that merged into after out indeup, the “identity crisis” is a fight by people aching and bones with which they built theIndia houses of his house, but it took No a long timeMy to first lose meal siping at the farm.

These daysWhy? whenBecause I hear of matter. in solitude was wonderful. the pendence, while other communities had powercommunities fighting the ignominy of being of the rich. her because she had nowhere to go. and other horrors, I think of peobest part of being alone exploitation is … no complaints! ful kingdoms in the as the Ahom, Mikan the forgotten by history.

Women were useless at past suchsuch work.

Who ki Ma sought refuge at our farm- ple like her, and wonder how much we leave Dimasa and the Khasi, and many other commuwould pay for them as much as they would pay house. My mother employed her PADMANABHAN and fed her, author outand of artist, the stories weof tell about women wein MANJULA tells us tales her parallel lifethe in Elsewhere, USA, What is the role of religion? livedthe in village republics. fortnightly series. you marginalien.blogspot.in for mennities to carry cement, lug the equip- listened to her story andthis paid her. Maybe speak about so confidently.

Omair Ahmad is an author.

His last The original religions of the people were based ment and lay the bricks? Who would listen to believe that more could have been done, that t@OmairTAhmad book was on Bhutan on the agricultural cycle. Many of them were al- ARUNIMA MAZUMDAR is a Delhi-based freelance journalist

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Mikan ki Ma

Justice is for those who can afford it and demand it. For Mikan ki Ma it was not even a dream

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Travel Log Get there

Scott Limo offers one-way or return trips from the Bay Area.

The owner’s knowledge of the region makes the drive more of a tour rather than a simple drop-off (scott@lim0zen.com, (415) 599-4747). For guided tours contact Terrific Tours ($100-125, terrifictours.com).

Stay

Hotel Healdsburg ($300; healdsburg.com) is well located with luxurious rooms. Its sister property, H2 Hotel ($200; h2hotel.com) is a chic, ecofriendly alternative. You can also book at the B&B, Belle Du Jour ($200-300; belledejourinn.com).

Budget travellers can opt for L&M Motel, a quaint family-run motel near the plaza ($85; landmmotel.com).

Eat

Make reservations if you’ve got your heart set on a particular restaurant. OpenTable (opentable.com) and urbanspoon Top notch Vines in Sonoma shutterstock (urbanspoon.com) offer free, instant reservations across the country. Or contact the restaurants directly: Willi’s Seafood and Raw Bar (starkrestaurants.com/ willis_seafood.html), Barndiva (barndiva.com/index.html), A head for the times Founder of Myntra SIVAKUMARCo. Mukesh Bansal PV Oakville Grocery (oakvillegrocery.com), Downtown Bakery and Creamery (downtownbakery.net), Dry riving north over the Golden Gate way; nor did we want to drive after wine-tast- many restaurants and bars — tasting room Creek Kitchen (charlie Bridge one freezing morning last ing. Luckily, this worked out in our favour. guides and waitresses, winemakers and farmpalmer.com/dry-creek-kitchen), summer, thick fog enveloping the Earlier in the summer, I had read the story ers, restaurant owners and suppliers, all speBistro Ralph (bistroralph.com), car like a tenacious ghost, it was dif- of the inventive California cuisine at Charlie cialists in the field. It is an elevated art and Mateo’s Cocina Latina ficult to imagine this journey ending where it Parker’s renowned Dry Creek Kitchen (DCK), science, oenology, and it inspires a kind of rev(mateoscocinalatina.com), would. I had been dreaming for months of and its home, the Hotel Healdsburg. Although erence in its followers here.

SCOPA Restaurant neat rows of vines, green, topped by an expan- Healdsburg is 30 minutes north of Sonoma A bracing macchiato and one of the deli(scopahealdsburg.com) and siveasky, blue, culminating in delicious glass-in India. rom loss-making personalised gift- steam proper, happy remove from thesellregular wine Soawe started in 2007 with sticky buns from and How big iscious your logistics cost, andDowntown why is it theBakery capabilities.

PremjiInvest has come for longSpoonbar (spoonbar.com). es, venture red andtowhite, stamped with ing those ing one ofallIndia’s most crowds,products the success of DCK brought townimportant personalised online for both cor- themost Creamery was almost enough to bring aspect of an e-commerce termusinvestment and they believe in our busiBLink tipI think it is the right path enchanting North California appellations — and sought-after fashion e-commerce into individuals. an epicureanBy spotlight — and wave How porates the time theleft aventure? down earth, we headed to ourness hotel dotoyou keepsologistics costback under building, and up for cookery with creeks and valleys overflowing with Petit Sy- was portals, Mukesh Bansal-led Myntra of fine its wake.

The with ambitious plans of a long nap. As itfor internet readyrestaurant for takeoffopenings in India inin2010, turncheck? us. It isSign difficult toasay aboutclass the future and Pinot Noirs.

Was and it even possible has come arahs long way.

Braving losses mergbest part was that all this localofgoodness was isedabout wethat had gathered a good understanding the Logistics out, Hotel like the inviting 10 perHealdsburg cent of ourwas operating right now.Relish But Culinary our intention is to stay Adventures theby fabled wine country was Myntra within reach? er attempts bigger rival Flipkart, set our rightteam on the town square. market, and andSpanish-style back end systems of a sophisticated, costs Aand living we areroom continuing to improve aswell-travelled we independent. (relishculinary.com) at their Theto pretty of Sausalito flashed has managed secure bay a funding of ₹300 place where you could be nourished likegrow. kingsWe have wereby, in place. friend: North California-style personified. Spaa hybrid model — own delivery centre or at picturesque streaks of blue leavening theinvestheavy sky. Lush and still walk everywhere? It sounded perfect. crore from PremjiInvest, the private cious rooms, opulent beds, staff as well as third-party services.

Withslatted more wooden outdoor locations. Also, don’t Marin sprawled to the left, the ancient ment venture of County billionaire Azim Premji.

Mynin time our lunch reservation at and Why did youArriving move away fromfor personalised doors to privateofbalconies andable naturalDolight volumes economies scale, we are you thinkmiss it is the consolidation time inon the farmers’ market of Muir Woods beckoning just be- to fashion? tra can redwoods now strengthen its technology Willi’s Seafood and Raw Bar, our gifting everywhere. to get better rates from third-party delivery Indian e-commerce space?

Saturdays and Wednesdays from Theinfrastructure Pacific Coast, and windy and hauntingly platform, yond. delivery customglasses Kistler Chardonnay We realised that itofwas a niche area and we companies. We have alsoLater, we had dinner expanded our deliv-at BarndiMay to November (healdsburg beautiful a grave, way,the formed thenot were er experience, Bansalintold BLink elegiac on the day crisp and flacould buildaa revelation, large-scale busiva,500 a locavore rustic ery team to peopleutopia across with 30 aConsolidation has been happening in this farmersmarket.org). western border of the Sonoma touchthe funding was announced.

The moneyCounty, also ness A plate ofSosix withvourful. personalisation. webriny oysred barn set in acent gorgeous cour-for a while. Some more M&As will hapcities. They deliver 65 per of space At night, the wine Drink it with a chillyon hand every morning and ters, allows theing e-tailer to embark future growth each from different State, changed the model.

We astarted tyard. Make it a point to ask our orders. penthe this year.

Any player not among the top industry locals There are of find wineries But in as himself, the highway snaked initiatives.evening.

He has faith he says, and through setsports us onapparel. course.SubseNext up, three with selling waitstaff here for recommendatwo in its category willhundreds most likely it diffiI believe that overata the bars unwind some of which require historic Missionretailing towns, in the valleys, in the potential of Spanish online fashion smalladded platescasual-wear redolent of sea, salt, quently, we tions:offered they are wine and food The discounts by all online cult to raisehere, money independently. period ofand time, restaurants reservations for tastings. Though and vineyards coming into view a surf: India. Therivers Flipkart deal might have brought in under tart wild salmon and formalanda ethnic-wear over ceviche nerdsunsustainable. who live andDo breathe the retailers seem discounts should go have tasting feesits($10-60, warming sun,have it soon felt like differentthe counthe money, but would resulted in aBansal salty oyster crackers, warm next 18with months. goodbecoming stuff. Ours directed What us to-makesmany you see them more Myntra bullish about future? down. includes sixwines),inothers altogether. over his company. He losing his try independence Maine lobsters in a soft roll wards the sliced raw Yellowfin turealistic going forward?

E-commerce will be about very powerful India as wants to be firmly in the driver's seat, at least Any thoughts smothered in to garlic of moving otherbutter, jumna, plated with retail The discounts are not Japanese-style offered on modern notor very strong in the counare isfree, free with the between businessman, Napa and Sonoma had bo prawns pan fried with garlic and spring on- sticky for now. The eciding fashion-focused categories? soy, avocado, watermelon pickthe rice, entire catalogue.

They are and try.

Moreover, we are aofvertical destination and purchase bottles.

Many easy, for we hadFlipkart heard how who does not been see any threat from or crowded For dessert — more We want ions. to stay committed to wine, of course. It was ledusually Fresno on chilli; filet mignon with lobster oldainventory.

Latest won’t face challenge fromtasting any horizontal wineries have rooms playand commercial of to Napa had Amazon, talks about what parts it takes build a become, strong, heady, dizzying In this potato fashion asa it is a big category andcombination. there is a collections puree and summer beans;er a ‘crisare not on discount.

Butgreen I believe (like Flipkart, which deals in around the plaza, butmultiple nothingcatehow relaxed and authentic Sonoma stillopportunity successfuland e-commerce business and when paradisein ofthe plenty, suspect is py huge nextIfew years.Willi’s Seafood young of chicken’ with divinely nutty Chantethat over a period time, discounts should gories). We give a different experience under compares to the experience of a was.

Even so, we craved an experience off the at the top of the treasure heap.

Myntra can turn profitable: mushrooms, roasted go down. relle As the market evolves, weartichoke, will seg- pancetta category, which cannot be replicated visiting the vineyards.

Try by any well-trampled tourist track, always aWhat hardare theAfter lunch, we for strolled aroundofthe quaint critical factors the success a ricotta and egg ravioli. Chêvre cro- player. ment our and catalogue. vertical So competition for us will be Russian Hill Estate (russianhill trick to master a foreigner. of plaza, firm Back in 2007, when internetas penetration wasHundreds set around of tallend trees, a hint of quettes drizzled with wildflower honey an e-commerce — bothaatpark the back and limited. estate.com), Porter Creek dozens of hotels: where to begin? far lower, wineries, what made you jump onto the cool in the luminous light dappling the What leaves.advantages and front end? lavenderdoes hadPremjiInvest set a sweet introduction to We thiswant (portercreekvineyards.com), bring to to be profitable by FY’15, and curBay Area locals, it’ssee common to drive e-commerceFor bandwagon?

Did you a have tasting rooms—rightMyntra? here, And The up front Many end iswineries all about user experience cornucopia of pleasures. and sus- our revenue is about ₹100 crore a will you ever sell MyntraSeasonal to an rently Moshin (moshinvineyards. for a coming? leisurely lunch, take in a winery or possible boom so give you can sample away without ever getting youtwo have to them the best.

A good backinterestedtainable seller? agriculture is the core of the region’s month. In the year ahead, our revenue run ewinerysolutions.com), Balletto and home before I was in the UShead for 10back years, working forsunset. e-com-But we into a speed car. There are boutiques, art galleries, in- thefarm-to-table enddid is all about of delivery, predictabilimovement, and the take We feel best way to build our business is bylocals rate would be about ₹250 crore a month. (ballettovineyards.com) and not want to Bay hirearea. a car, acclimatise merce start-ups in the I knew it was ato driving bookstores, shops aplenty. ty, 24X7dependent call-centre, and antique a reliable pride in the diversity produce by the being independent.

We wantof to buildborne a Kendall Jackson (kj.com). the opposite side of the road or finding our At night, the matter ofon time before e-commerce gathers industry locals unwind unique at the fashion return-and-exchange policy. fertile topography. brand with strong back end RASHMI PRATAP

A grape escape

Tucked into the quieter reaches of Sonoma County are barrels of handcrafted wines, some of which are found only in the tasting rooms of Healdsburg

Flip the fashion cart

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Funding in place, fashion e-commerce portal gets down to business in style

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The next morning, we had arranged a fourhour vineyard drive through Terrific Tours.

Known for their group tours from the Bay Area, they also do pick-ups within wine country for private tours — and in our case, they even agreed to deliver us back to San Francisco at no extra cost.

A guided tour turned out to be the ultimate way to handpick a path through three major appellations, the Russian River, Alexander and Dry Creek Valleys. As we had requested, our guide had tailored a sampling of boutique and off-the-radar wineries. We drove through gently winding crests and valleys, past slow-moving rivers and great moody pines. Out there among the vines, the concepts that seem so esoteric to a city-dweller start to make perfect sense. And if you’re not a wine-drinker, there is great pleasure to be found in the landscape alone, and many alternative sports to pursue — kayaking, canoeing, hiking, golfing, fishing, hot-air ballooning, horseback riding...

For wine enthusiasts, the pleasure is all in the tastings. The family-run Russian Hill Estate, a stately property with a sylvan view, had a selection of such excellence that we promptly purchased three bottles at the late hour of 11:30am. We had made an early-morning stop at Oakland Grocery, a pure treat of a gourmet food store stacked with the artisanal products California does so winningly — divine smallbatch chocolates, salted almond caramel corn, specialty olive oils, cheese and cold cuts, homemade bread. At a picnic table set over

the vineyards, we unwrapped our wax paper packets, the crackle and aroma of freshly prepared sandwiches creating an unforgettable sensation in our bright patch of sun.

Porter Creek was next, a friendly little winery that produces organic wines. Its tasting room, wreathed in purple lavender, sits next to an enormous weeping willow in the shade of a hillside vineyard. We also enjoyed Moshin Vineyards, which specialises in hand-crafted wines, particularly in distinctive Pinot Noirs.

By now we had had a selection of big-bodied, velvety Pinots, and were looking for a particular Chardonnay, something a bit complex — golden-coloured, crisp, non-oaky. Wisely, Dan had saved the best for last: Balletto Vineyards, an exceptional small-batch winery. Every single wine at their tasting was a hit.

Three bottles richer and about 35 samples down, it was regrettably time for us to exit paradise.

In Sonoma, there’s a tangible pursuit of excellence just below the surface ease and enjoyment of life’s pleasures; and a discovery of wines so limited in production that they’re only sold through the tasting rooms. The locals’ love of their land is so infectious that you invariably find yourself wishing you could somehow abandon the urban dream, buy a few acres of land, plant vegetables, lay down vines and watch the special terroir work its California magic.

Turning it inside out anees saigal is a food and travel writer based in the slightly more accessible paradise of Goa

The new, exciting contours of India’s innerwear story

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down on this one. It has been years since I produced yearly in manufacturing the bothen New York’s Henry S Lesher from 15 bottled per centwater, in 2012 theywas now up a tles;ban centres. “And global trends bought there nomake way I’d transportation creates even moreare CO2.widely patented the first bra proto- third allplastic transactions Zivame.again. followed understood All that weand produce remains…innerwear with us — in is no add toofthe bottle on mountain type back in 1859, little would Tarang Virulkar, works for e-commerce longerand a taboo purchase,” he says. in the ocean. One ‘conservaIn India, bottledwho water is presented as a landfills he have imagined that inner- company regularly orders lin- tive estimate’ Agreeingreckons with this,that Venu Nair, managing our oceans al- dilife-savingstoreadda.com, alternative to unsafe municipal wear would one day become a $30-billion in- gerie online. in Amravati, rector of Marks & Spencer India, is contain 157.5 million tonsReliance of plastic. or local waterLiving supplies; in manyMaharashtra, countries ready dustry. Nor would have the many others who she hasfashion. However, access to a wide range of brands Thebullish about the Indian lingerie market.

United Nations Environment Pro- Linit is now a recent everywhere, improvised the design over the next century and products with just a few clicks.over “It reduces gerie now accounts over pieces a fifth of Marks & estimates thatfor 46,000 float it has been growing exponentially the gramme or so. Comfort and convenience remained the the required for shopping, andalone, is value in Spencer’s sales in India, and soldsea 33 per joanna van every single square mile ofitthe — cent last time couple of decades.

In America gruisen watchwords, and it wasn’t until the last dec- for money.”

Discounts offers are worldwide. more during the first of thisgarbage fiscal.

There are half floating they’ve calculated that and one special year’s discardade of the 20th century that lingerie became another big draw, says pointing to Zi- patches, “Women are willing spend money on most notably in thetoNorth Pacific, ed bottles stacked endVirulkar, to end would reach associated with women’s confidence, sex ap- vame’s recent twonearly for ₹300” offer. feeling good,” says Kar. “Lingerie now beplastic outweighs plankton byhas six to the moon and‘Buy back fifteen times where A BUTTERFLY BREEZE FROM MP peal and market opportunity.

ButConsumption for every Virulkar who’s come a fashion accessory. repeat of customInevitably birds, fish andOur creatures over! in India tooplunged is increas-into one.

India took its time warming up to the trend, the with thereand is already the sea eat this, ers fiveintimes withbuy the four resulttothat that in a ing Web (40-50 perconfidence, cent per year) and today it’s not uncommon to see lingerie also anto Anjali Raihalf whoafirmly with sales mammals peaking during million marine it’s up almost billionrefuslitres annual- area alone 100 year, displayed prominently in retail outlets, luxu- es to buya lingerie online as she is 13 per and turtles die festivals.” a every yearHer andwebsite 70-100 features per ly. Only small percentage (under ry shopping destinations and international wary she might end up buying the per cent cent of the birddifferent product line each week. population is affected. No cent) is recycled and plastic is 100 Fitting the bill Founder of Zivame.com, Orders pourcan in we hope stores, besides of course, a burgeoning mar- wrong size. “I preferCan walking into “Brands areorganic wakingfish. up,We offering longer to find non-biodegradable. we, or the planet, Richa Kar strikes a pose at her Bangalore from Ambala ket online. my smallerthe butfish. more frequent too eat and plastic through (Watch The lines really favourite afford this? neighbourhood office (above); and some of the “fashion Shantiniketan, Not only are women buying more lingerie, store,” says water this Indore a lot more colours, a lot more accessories” from her growing brand Midway Pollution—Disaster on Youtube.com.)

Bottled can resident. cost 10,000 times (below) GRN Somashekar Kalimpong and filters now that it is available online, they also have Pegged at about ₹17,500 focus oncarry fit and sizes,” she So install and reusable bot-says. morecrore than tap waDharwad, Port from home. more choices than ever before, says Richa in 2012, the country’s lingerie Mahendran Even untles filled Most of concurs. the bottled ter. marWashingtonevenis merelytil Kar, founder of online lingerie retailer Zi- ket is tantalising for both domesthree years ago, retailers hen we took the step from water filtered tap water anyway, wantbased Earth PolicyBlair vame. They are gladly moving away tic and internationalInstitute players, ed only black, white and skin biologist and wildlife phofreshly purified home esti- so no different from from the inhibited shopping experi- including Marks & Spencer, colours. the slowtographer to hoteliers, less“Today, healthywhite whenisyou matesJolithat over 50 water; in fact, rather ence at stores to an online space that is don, Parah, Christies, Hanes, Wonest-moving category.inColours Raghu (Chundawat) and I sat simmering plas- and million barrels of consider it may have rich with recommendations, choices and derBra, Triumph, Ultimo,oilLovable, patternsAtare he says. took with us our environmental ethic. We six months. ourin,” Sarai, are used an- tic on a shelf forfunky the promise of a right fit, she adds.

Plié, Jockey, Amanté, Penny, Bw!tch, Enamor, we This demand for RO/UV newer filtration styles is sweet music to wanted to keep our carbon footprint as installed a good system nually to pump, Contrast the more than 85 sizes availa- Hollywood Fashion Secrets and transport many more within multinational Marks & Spencer. neutral or low as possible and aimed to sight of theretailer guest area.

One hand is “Our process, ble across brands at Zivame with the 12 brands. Market researchand firm Euromonitor extensive breadth lingerieofstyles, provide comfort and indulgence without to count the ofnumber guestsshapes refrigerate ex- enough basic sizes that ruled shelf space at the pects the market to growbottles.

54 per And cent for by 2017. and sizes sets us apart from the competition. the waste of luxury. Local materials, solar have questioned the origins of the waev- who many small, discreet innerwear stores Sensing this opportunity, Akshay Mahen- ter.We also offer of clever product innovaenergy and minimal reliance on concrete Happily thea host naysayers were proved ery litre you drink, manned by nervous staff. Kar gets orders dran set up innerwear company Brands wrong tions,” Nair. and steel were key features of this. A crucial — says hotels can run without bottled three to Daiki five litres from all corners of the country — in 2009. “Although the market fragmentshy and unsure a few years ago, aspect on which I was determined not to Raghu and I are back even to consensus. of waterwas have been water.From whether it’s Ambala, Shantiniketan, Ka- ed, we saw there was bigused potential in the compromise was the plastic water bottle. to make thepre- today’s lingerie buyer — even in small towns limpong, Dharwad or even Port Blair. mium and mass marketbottle. segments,”About he says. joanna and villages — knows her photographer, noodle strap from No Bisleri! “You can’t run a hotel without van gruisen is a wildlife uses India Post to deliver to farFour years later, he has been proved right. her multi-way bras.

And she sure is in the conservationist and hotelier based near Panna Tiger offering bottled water” I was told — initial- TheShe 2,500,000 tons of wasteland Birds and fish end up eating plastic dumped in the water in Madhya Pradesh Gopal locations, which account for flung His confidence stemscarbon from the fact isthat Reserve mood to indulge. ly, even by Raghu. But my foot was hard Nagara dioxide about 6 per cent of her orders. Tier II and more women are earning now and have disIII cities are shopping furiously from her — posable incomes in both semi-urban and ur- rashmi pratap

Message in a bottle

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Now, unwine Eat your rice and drink it too

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n the haze that is an alcohol-addled afternoon, I stumble out of the belly of Delhi’s new JW Marriott; more accurately, from the underground section of its Japanese fine dining restaurant, Akira Back, named after its snowboarder-turned-Las Vegas-showman-chef. A man who also runs the Bellagio’s Yellowtail kitchen. Here for a sake tasting and pairing lunch — a first for me and most other guests — I find myself wondering (as I was three hours ago), if marathon sake tasting is any different from marathon wine tasting.

I’ve been at plenty of tables overrun by Riedels and Spiegelaus before — some planted smack in the middle of a vineyard like a Peter Mayle novel — encouraged to sniff, swirl and sip, preferably, without knocking the stemware or burping. Sake, on the other hand, has only ever played second fiddle to my sushi and tempura; ignored by the third sip, and forgotten entirely by the fourth like jasmine tea at a Peking duck dinner.

It comes as no minor surprise then, that there are seven shot glass-like sapphire blue chokos lined up in front of me. Typically drunk cold — at about 10 degrees like white wines, alOn the road A day in though maintaining the temperature once the life of a Lambada it’s served is hardly a matter of national emerwoman at Narikampadu gency — only a few sakes, usually those with a in Andhra Pradesh rougher edge, benefit from ch vijaya bhaskar heating. Ours are all cold, of course, because Masumi, the 350-year-old familyrun sake brand that is hosting the event, is showcasing its best and brightest.

Graded by the degree to which the brown rice is milled, where the finest variety retains as little as 40 per cent of the original grain, sakes on top of the quality pyramid are called daiginjo (40-50 per cent). Ginjo (50-60 per cent) and futsushu (60-70 per cent), the equivalent of a table wine, are lower down the order.

As with all things Japanese, there are several other finer distinctions, each more esoteric and difficult to enunciate than the next. But in essence, apart from the milling of the rice and the water (collected from high mountain streams), it is the climate (most conducive in winter) and the koji (mold used to break the starch into sugars) that determine a sake’s sweetness, umami and end notes.

Many of the sakes we taste are surprisingly fruity, prompting a fellow taster to exclaim “ber” like eureka at one point. All are light, non-acidic (unlike wines), and paired, as is the custom, with camaraderie and great food — from the signature Akira Back Yellowtail Jalapenos and sous vide Wasabi Tenderloin to sake-steamed Grouper and spicy Dragon Sushi; all delicate, toothsome and refreshing.

But what’s perhaps, most refreshing, is that many in the room (including me), know as much about sakes as they know about their motherboards. Even the vino-it-alls flounder trying to clothe sake in a borrowed, ill-fitting vocabulary. I do no such thing, of course, enjoying the buzz and walking out into the weak winter sun like a sated, sake-soaked trout. Hic!

naintara maya oberoi

MEAL TICKET

Tapeador-ing in Andalusia

Shutterstock/Max Sugar

spoken as freely as it was. But at the same time, he says it’s unlikely that the language is going to disappear. “For us, tradition dictates that we don’t marry within our own settlement. So to arrange for a wedding, we are in constant touch with other Banjara communities, and we use Banjara to communicate as that’s the only language all of us understand,” he adds.

Badtiya’s home is a modern-day tanda, where his entire family lives in the same building with separate rooms for each of his children and their families. As we sit down and speak, with framed portraits of family elders hanging on the wall behind him, Rohit, his grandson, listens in on our conversation. Baditya says, “It is true that younger people don’t speak Banjara as much as we used to. It is impossible for Banjara to be forgotten though, because it is older than most spoken languages, and even has the same roots as Romani or the language of the gypsies in Europe.”

The in-betweeners

SHUTTERSTOCK

Ganesh Devy, founder, Bhasha Research and Publication Centre, Vadodara, and initiator of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI) says the Banjaras are an apt example of the ‘inf, like me, you are plagued by both of cold black olives and marinated pep- cantina. betweeners’ whenhurt it comes languages It didn’t that to the kitchen in Indiner’s indecision (“How can I possi- pers, and drink red wine sweetened with knew dia. “On hand, there are about its one stuff: to wit, duck confit100-150 with lanbly choose?”) and menu envy (“Is lemonade (the only abomination in all pear guages thatparcels, receive some sort of State support; in filo in a zesty orange rehis appetiser better than my appe- this), it seemed the only way to eat. on the other, 300 sauce, languages have no duction, with a about thin Gouda a palmtiser?”), tapas is the answer to your trouform bowl of support at all,” tells us when we On the banks of the river in Seville’s sized of boar stewDevy in Rioja wine, bles. The word tapa means cover, and Triana quarter, two friends and I shared a duck meetfoie himgras for tea at thewith Indian Council of Somousse biscuit-like they say it comes from the tradition of plate of the simplest possible tapa, pan toasts cial Science and Research (ICSSR), Delhi. “Beand tomato and guava chutneys. barkeeps covering their carafes of wine con tomate: grilled bread rubbed with tween these two Cruz ends barrio, of the Over in the Santa we language ate with a piece of bread and some ham or garlic, tomato paste and olive oil, and dinner spectrum, there out are many that are looking onto languages a beguiling, cheese to prevent flies diving in. This washed it down with cheap white wine. leafy neither supported by the State nor are they ensquare tiled in cerulean.

Judging evolved into a style of eating: small We piled our bread with Serrano dangered. Banjara just such a case.” from is his harried manner plates punctuating a long evening ham, slivers of Manchego cheese, Devy addsand thatsuspicious unlike Banjara, there are disappearwhiled away at a bar. Some places, like and anchoas, white anchovies many languages which havekitchen, not survived ances into the the the Granada, still adhere to the amiable cus- marinated in vinegar and garlic. test of time: “Languages of communities, establishment’s lone wait- such On balmy tom of serving tapas on the house. as the Sansi inerPunjab, Naths AP and Kanjars Then we walked across the was also its in lone cook. people — Those with more decisive natures or bridge, stopping at a bar for evenings, in Rajasthan allhe ofdelivered who havein been the subBut the in end: spill out on to forsheep’s larger appetites can upgrade from a tapa shrimp grilled in saffron and continent nearly ascheese long aswith the Banjaras — figs pavements to to a ración, a full-size portion of anything lemon, and patatas bravas, ubiqare steadily declining.” yearsorange from now, it and bitter“Ten Seville pick from tiny unlikely that’s on the tapas menu. But there’s uitous fried potato cubes with tois highly that a language like Sansi marmalade, sesame seedbowls something really enjoyable about tapear, mato sauce and garlic mayo. might survive at all,”goat’s he says.

Andlollithere are flecked cheese the verb, which means toin meander Quintessential nomads, theythe are,best historically, multiple reasons do not have a birthplace the con-from the decline topped of these lanTapas aren’t usually pops,forratatouille bar to bar (eventually, slidewhere from bar ventional sense. The to place I to gypsies, traders and cattle herders; always on guages according Devy. “Even representation of Spanish cuiwith to poached quailthough egg the bar),born eating and drinking a littlesays at each, the move, never settling down and in any one Sansi community was was known as Tanda,” mostly well off today, sine, but rather, the cheapest and aisMoroccan-style stew with talking to the person next you at the the Banjara-Marathi writerto Atmaplace.

Overfilling. the years, taking up other trades and most Theythis are nomadic usually atrait has many of them of spinach with chickpeas counter, andinthen moving on.ofIfthe you do ram Kaniram Rathod, his short story beenmix on the Theirfillers language, callednuts, Ban- in businesses, their language is hardly being spoof wane. cupboard — olives, a terracotta bowl. thisTanda well,is or often, or enthusiastically, same name. a place where a nomadic jara, Spanish Gooar, Lambadi andsardines, Sugali, is surprisingken, even their own community. omelette, roast vegBack in within tree-lined Hercules de Alame-This is you to earn theits distinction a tapeador. tribe chooses pitch tents for aofwhile.

The ly alive and well though. because unlike the Banjaras, the Sansis gies, croquettes, cold meats and cheeses da, we chose Al Aljibe for our final night were In Andalusia thisissummer, one that Rathod talks about located insmack the in — and things that are easy to cook. primarily and when in Seville. mercenaries, Al Aljibe sprawls over their a re- skills Modern middle the dog days, it Yavatmal the District inofMaharashtra.

It seemed could imbecame redundant sometime in the early Butfamily some of Seville’s tapas bars are stored two-storey villa with a patio and a 19th to eat full-size of anyIt is sending estimated that there arenew around 5.7 mil- charming have wellpossible been anywhere else onservings the Indian century, their began to prosdecline as out unexpected interpretaroof language garden. Even if the thing, and the indulgence of asking for lion tions Banjaras India.

While it’s a small numsubcontinent. well,of thedining culmination of which we are witnesson inthe timeworn standards.

We pect in a vine-covered courthe menu six their timesroots in one evening ber compared total upon population, The Banjaras, tracing back to Ra- was ing today,” he says. were lucky to to the stumble La Daliaand in tyard redolent of citrus hadn’t swayed delicious in itself. the balmy spread acrossdethe country, the jasthan, are known more for During their colourful at- evetheofBanjaras, adaptability Hercules Alameda, a self-consciously us, the menu, aFor whirl Asian, Spanish nings well when into everyone spilled outofonto community is a close-knit tire — fitting the aesthetic is their greatest hip, minimalist spot thatone. still preserved and Latin American flavours, asset. would “They thebooks pavements to pick from little bowls “We might not speak Banjara outcoffee-table — than their language.

Telugu in Andhra, Marathi the convivial hum of a neighbourhood have. Service speak was leisurely, and the tapa side our houses very often, but in Maharashtra, Hindi infor Madhya came one at in a time, so we lingered our homes, and when speaking to Pradesh, and salmon so on, sashbut along three hours over marinated Banjara has the our people from elsewhere, it’s with the regional language, imi capped by rocket, a cheerful yellow they same roots as still the only language we use,” always speak Banjara as pepper vinaigrette and sharp drizzles of well.

Romani or the says Hari Singh Badtiya from They have aduck richbreast oral tradition talanguagetamarind, of the Japanese-style Chowkhandi Gaon, a 300-familieswith chutney, many thousands of songs with mango grilled squid gypsies intaki Europe strong settlement near Subhash and satirical stories,” asays with coriander aioli and pumpkin, lit- Devy.

Nagar in west Delhi. Badtiya, 64, is “Today,with it is also the language of tle shrimp burger a spicy cream a figurehead in his community, political sauce, bell their peppers andand a ethnic wobblyidentiand was a depot-master at the Deladds.

Thewith organisation poached quailty,” egg,hefillet of beef carhi Transport Corporation’s Shadipur bus ter- amelised Banjara Prakashan has developed script for onions, and thin slices of aroast minal, until his retirement four years ago. He pork the language usingcut”, the alphabets of describedasaswell, a “secret served claims that unlike several other Banjara folk, with the Devanagari polenta andscript. salad.With sites such as banjawho decided to settle down permanently in ratimes.com, awarebanjara.org, We felt like real tapeadors, satedbanjarazoneby the the last couple of decades, his community food .com,andbanjarapukar.in and banjaratigers. the wine and the languorous weighed anchor in the capital three genera- bonhomie blog.com, Banjaras to the be developing around seem us. And night — an tions ago. “I remember my dadi saying that we and ever-growing online presence several other tapas bars —too. was still came to Delhi when she was a child. Our settle- ahead Regardless of how anyone? the situation pans out in of us. Seconds, ment was originally somewhere in the Pahar- naintara the future, theoberoi Banjaras andwriter theirbased language maya is a food Platter me, please A ‘modest’ tapas spread of dates, chickpea salad, salami, fresh mozzarella, ganj area, but around the time of India’s are living evidence of the fact that the streetedamame and olives served on a slate board tradville/shutterstock in Paris. t@naintaramaya independence, we were asked to relocate to wise always survive.

Chowkandi Gaon,” he says.

Paper banerjee trail Hari Singh Badatiya, his wife and granddaughter posing with their community certificates Kamal Narang soity Badtiya is disappointed that Banjara is not sibi arasu

When it comes to epic tapa-thons, small is often big

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That gypsy tongue

A majority of Banjaras may have abandoned their nomadic lives. But the one thing that endures is their language

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Nikah on wheels

Wheels above the city

Horn Not OK Please

Gangster Abu Salem Indians prove once again that allegedly gets hitched on the they know how to blow their Mumbai-Lucknow Express own horn With a shout of Ganpati Bappa Mourya, Mumbai’s monorail takes to the tracks, leaving f an enterprising music band were to create the hile bumping off musician Gulshan Kubelievers and sceptics in its wake soundscape of an Indian city, pride of place mar or Manisha Koirala’s secretary

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would be given to the horn. The high-pitched autormight be considered a disservice to Bollyickshaw panh panh, the thunderous blare of trucks wood, Abu Salem might have just redeemed and the timid ting ting of bicycles. To make matters himself and done great service to prospective worse, “Za Germans” are now getting into the act as producers and directors hunting for the next fter 20 minutes of waiting in a ticket spects, are more reserved with their praise. well. In a recent interview with a national financial big masala flick. Salem, as is reported by a Fact track queue to take a ride in the Mumbai “This is nice. But we are waiting for the Metro. daily, Michael Perschke, director, Audi India reMumbai-based daily, married his long-time It is one of India’s most eco-friendly projects Monorail, an elderly man starts to That will be more useful to us,” says one of vealed Indians use their horn on atransport daily basis as admirer (whose identity is still unknown) the that get impatient. He animatedly nar- young sceptics. much as Germans do on an annual basis.

To keep while being escorted to Lucknow for a court The trains have an inbuilt protection system.

If a up monorail driver signal or incapacitated, rates woes about the traffic congestion and with skills,jumps Audia tests itsbecomes horn for the Inhearing. A kazi from Mumbai helpfully read Raman Unny, a resident of Wadala, was be-our tooting a radio will prompt him/her to for applytwo the brakes. noise pollution that he has had to brave since ginning to believe that the project woulddian bywarning blowing it constantly full the ceremony over the phone. Police gossip nev- market If that fails too, the train will automatically come to a the mammoth project started in 2009. But to- er see the light of day. Every time the Mumbai weeks. Ouch. and rumour mills claim the couple fell in love halt day, all is forgiven. He cut short his Sunday Metropolitan Region Development Authority during Salem’s various appearances for the Run on electricity, it will be noise-free morning walk to experience the country’s first (MMRDA) defaulted on their deadlines, his 50-odd cases that he’s on trial for.

The entire line will cost ₹ 2,460 crore monorail in the eastern fringes of Mumbai, hopes dwindled. Now impressed with reports connecting the areas of Wadala to Chembur. of the project being second only to Japan’s ₹1,900 crore has already been spent in the first phase His wife couldn’t make it in time, but he has Osaka monorail corridor, which has been The tickets cost ₹5 to ₹11, raising concerns about how it promised to give her a live commentary over around since 1990, he is convinced that the will recover the grand budget of the project the phone once he steps into the two-year delay must have been The average speed will be 65 km/hr. It can go up to train. “I’ve never travelled outside for good reason. This is the first of 80 km/hr the country. I’ve only heard about the five proposed monorail lines monorails elsewhere in the world planned across the city to control train bedecked with a string of marigold flowThe new train can from my children. I’m so proud traffic congestion and ease the ers. Chants of ‘Ganpati Bappa Mourya’ fill the carryover 560America, people in outh India it seems. everyone in the Andhra that it has come to my city,” heis taking loadJust of when the local trains, pri- platform. In a matter of seconds, the area falls its four Pradeshthe was etching out coaches their family trees find a connection to Satya says, stopping to congratulate maryto mode of travel for most silent as the train whizzes past filled with deNadella, the newly appointed CEO of Microsoft, news of Vivek ap- lirious passengers. monorail officials in his vicinity.

Mumbaikars.

WhenMurthy’s complete, pointment broke. Murthy, a London-born and of atoKannaWith every passing minute, theAmerica-raised line will stretchson 11km Jacob Inside, the compartments that have been diga doctorCircle, couplenear hasMahalaxmi. been appointed the designed by Ahmedabad’s National Institute there is a new addition to the serIf all goes surgeonthis general of another America.

He will of Design are sleek and trendy. It’s a welcome pentine queue. Some auto drivers have aban- on schedule, will take year. oversee the US Public sys- change from the filthy paan-stained floors and doned their rickshaws, shopkeepers have The crowd is in a thrall about thisHealth new mode tem for the four years. pulled down shutters and parents have of transport.

Instead ofnext the plain chit ofApparpaper walls of local trains that are defaced with adDr Murthy, dragged their groggy children out of bed to they’re usedently to receiving as tickets,a it’sstaunch a royal vertisements that claim to cure everything supporter of President Obama, witness this spectacle. Families of 10 have ar- blue coin with the monorail engraved on it. from back pain to marital strife. makes periodic to to hisit,ancesrived with cameras in hand, documenting ev- Children have already takenvisits a fancy spinAlso, instead of having to hang out of the Maddur Ta- cramped compartment to take in a breath of ery step, from the time they purchase their ning it like tral a topvillage, on theHallegere, counter, much to the in ticket-seller.

Karnataka. Helpers He hasguide also fresh air, commuters can delight in the cool first ticket. When they spot a ticket vending annoyance luk of the conducted camps andleading donat- breeze of the air conditioner. However, these machine, which is not yet operational, they ar- families through thiseyeadventure, ed, according to one and Indian news benefits can be enjoyed only by a fraction of range themselves around it, according to se- them to the metal detectors baggage for the of Mumbai’s commuters travelling on this line. niority for a family picture. A group of scanners.site, The“millions” train is already 20betterment minutes late. facilities in thebreaks Taluk.into Ta- As opposed to the much larger local trains youngsters, who’ve trekked all the way from But noeducational one is cribbing.

The crowd milasNadu are pretending the city’s western suburbs to pay their re- applause they and sightKerala the bubble gum-pink that ferry almost 6,000 passengers at a time, none of this is a big deal. this new train can only hold a measly 560 people in its four coaches, questioning how effective it will prove to be in solving the city’s AP traffic woes.

“Ooooh” scream the unsuspecting passengers each time the train gingerly manoeuvres around bends or jerks to a halt. Its 9km long route runs above some of the most narrow and congested lanes of the city, making it a particularly challenging project for Larson and Toubro and Scomi International of Malaysia. Relocating nearly 300 families that resided along these bylanes contributed to the delay in the launch, as did the concerns of the Ministry of Forests over the mangrove forests. osé Salvador Alvarenga went on a fishing trip in December 2012 off While the ride opens with an aerial view of the coast of Costa Azul, Mexico. He was found 13 months and vast stretches of mangroves and a cricket 10,000km later, lying with his fishing boat crowning him at Ebon match on a green plot of land, it slowly creeps Atoll, Marshall Islands. Alvarenga claims he and his friend got lost at past a cluster of slums and building societies sea due to bad weather. After his companion died of starvation, he ate and you can literally peek into dining rooms raw fish, birds, turtles, and drank bird blood to survive. of flats located on the top floors.

Authorities now find many gaping holes in his story. Irrespective, As expected, there are a fair number of firsthis friends have said that a cow will be killed in honour of his return. day glitches. One of the trains stops midway, Whether a volleyball called Wilson was involved in the story is not forcing commuters to disembark. No exlanaclear as yet. tions are offered for the lapse. But Mumbaikars are not complaining. At least not on the first day. If officials at Central Railways are to be believed, this euphoria will last only a few days before commuters are forced to return to the good old local trains that offer better connectivity and serve more people.

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First an Indian CEO of Microsoft and now an Indian is America’s surgeon general

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The (Real) Life of Pi?

El Salvodorian castaway, who went on a fishing trip, reaches shore 13 months later

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A bubble-gum pink bullet The monorail passes shanties and cricket grounds as it travels through the city pti/shashank parade

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cornerstone in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

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n the past few days, I’ve spent most of my time trying to convince a sceptical 12-year-old that knowing algebraic factorisation is an essential skill for a cool adult life. Ergo, this week’s quiz is dedicated to the third-oldest profession in the world, teachers!

1

The two other leading candidates for this teaching job were Isocrates and Speusippus.

However, the man who eventually took the job was even more famous. He was persuaded only after they agreed to rebuild his hometown of Stageira. Who was the teacher and his equally famous pupil?

2

This gentleman has a PhD in Sanskrit and Indian studies from Harvard and has taught religion at the universities of Amherst and Columbia. He is the first American to be ordained in the Tibetan Buddhist order. His daughter is however, even better known in non-academic circles, and her name reflects her father’s interests. Identify the daughter?

3

In 1967, which autobiographical novel by Guyanese E R Braithwate was made into a popular film starring Academy Award winner Sidney Poitier and singer Lulu?

4

Which Indian filmstar taught martial arts in the late ’80s in Mumbai and got his first break after working with producer Pramod Chakravarthy’s grandson?

5

In 1886, Anne Sullivan, 20, graduated from Perkins School for the Blind as the valedictorian of her class. She went on to build an amazing teaching career. Who was her most famous pupil?

the new york times crossword-1222

a cut above the rest

6

Who was known as the ‘Phantom of Fine Hall’ and featured in a novel by Rebecca Goldstein titled The Mind-Body Problem?

7

Between 1990 and 1993, which famous author taught English as a foreign language at Porto in Portugal?

8

Sir Humphry Davy was the inventor of the Davy’s safety lamp and a leading chemist and contributor to the Royal Society. But who or what did he regard as his foremost discovery?

9

Before he became a rockstar, this gentleman taught English, music and soccer at St Catherine’s Convent School. He later said, “I was the only man on the faculty. In fact, I was the only teacher not in a habit.” Identify this musician

10

The faculty for this institution has featured the likes of Amartya Sen and Manmohan Singh. Notable students include Prannoy Roy, author Amitav Ghosh and former President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika. What is this seat of learning?

Answers 1. Aristotle, who taught Alexander the Great 2. Uma Thurman, whose father Robert Thurman was a well-known Buddhist academic. Incidentally, her godfather is Timothy Leary 3. To Sir with Love 4. Akshay Kumar 5. Helen Keller 6. Mathematician John Nash, the subject of the feature film A Beautiful Mind 7. JK Rowling 8. His student and former assistant Michael Farraday.

Incidentally, Einstein had a portrait of Farraday in his study in Princeton 9. Gordon Sumner, better known as Sting 10. The Delhi School of Economics

joy bhattacharjya is, in this age of televisions pundits and Facebook gurus, simply grateful that facts are not opinions. t@joybhattacharj

Across 1 Oceans 6 Bats 10 “The Clan of the Cave Bear” novelist 14 Razz 19 Tennis’s Goran Ivanisevic, e.g.

20 A band may be on one 21 Torch-lit event 22 River of forgetfulness in Hades 23 Iron Age people 24 It has nine rooms 25 Ottoman 26 Serve up on a platter, say 27 Collectors of DNA 28 Game twist 30 Some basketball players: Abbr.

31 Espies 33 Profit from 34 “I’m innocent!”

35 Lab safety org.?

39 3-D pic 40 Diner fixtures, informally 43 More rakish 46 Canon offering 47 Clown prop 51 Sitcom ET 52 Walt Disney’s middle name 54 Cable inits. since 1996 56 “Be a ___” 57 “Six Million Dollar Man” feature

60 Cabbed it 63 Most likely to be called up 64 From the top 68 Move, informally 69 2400, on the SAT 73 Dolt 74 Like most checks and political candidates 78 Green 79 Not so nice 82 Annual literary prize 83 Picked up, in Britain 84 Home of Velázquez’s “Las Meninas” 85 Breakfast dish 86 They break at dawn 87 Angelica and others 89 Like some resolution, for short 91 Showed no restraint, in brief 92 Cask filler 93 Linguistic quintet 94 Parts of sows and cows 96 Head of steam?

97 Place to lounge 99 Jazz great Carmen 103 Cricket’s sound 105 Triply 106 Like New Jersey among states admitted to the Union 107S ubway fare 109 Chinese hard-liner

110 “Antigone” or “Elektra” 112 One famed for heartlessness 114 Last name in cookies 115 Some notepad jottings 117 It may be left hanging 119 Take out 120 Farmworker in “The Wizard of Oz” 121 Scale unit 122 Tony winner Tharp 123 Spheres 124 Ice cream brand 125 Recess 126 It’s what’s to be expected 127 “The ___ the limit”

Down 1 Grab 2 Abbr. on a musical score 3 Cause of a crybaby?

4 Provider of an inside look?

5 Nos. after a period, maybe 6 Yen 7 Last name in “Star Wars” 8 Farm females 9Takes for granted 10 Charitable giving, e.g.

11 Trees with poisonous seeds 12 Marquis’s inferior 13 First name in “Star Wars” 14 Girl group with four #1 hits in the 1990s

X_A

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15 Often-decorative kitchen item, in Britain 16 Aids for long drives 17 Gas bill unit 18 Crisp 29 Lead-in to pop or pass 32 Chicago setting: Abbr.

34 Japanese computer giant 36 [See above] 37 Last place, with “the” 38 Indy 500 winner Luyendyk 40 2007 title role for Ellen Page 41 In utero 42 [See above] 43 Sharp putdown 44 1974 Fassbinder film subtitled “Fear Eats the Soul” 45 Subj. of some 911 calls 48 Figurehead, for short?

49 Like some parenting 50 QB Manning 53 Ottoman V.I.P. 55 RR stop 58 Brown-___ (sycophants) 59 Like one pre-Columbian civilisation 61 Parting word 62 Taunting figure 65 Running pants?

66 Subj. for Galileo 67 N.B.A. Hall-of-Famer Thomas

69 Oscar winner Swinton 70 Oscar winner Tatum 71 [See above] 72 Winter month in Spain 74 Withdraw from the bank?

75 [See above] 76 Seashore fliers 77 Twosomes 80 [See above] 81 [See above] 88 “___ kleine Nachtmusik” 90 Per 93 National rival 95 Her name is Norwegian for “beautiful woman who leads you to victory” 98 Van Gogh painting that once sold for a record $53.9 million 100 Highlight of many a western 101 Fix 102 Ain’t right?

104 Concerto movements 105 Broke 108 Didn’t get involved 109 Pac-Man screen, e.g.

110 ___’clock scholar 111 Numbskull 113 Loch ___ 116 Twosome 118Canon offering, briefly

By Jeff Chen/Edited by Will Shortz