Blink issue 08 march15 2014

HOLI HAI Capturing the many shades of Holi in Brajbhoomi, from women raining blows on men to flowing streams of bhang p13 saturday, march 15, 2014

PARTHA PRATIM SHARMA

Over 17 per cent of India’s GDP is controlled by 55 people.

Where is India going wrong in creating a clean capitalist system p10

Crony Nation

HERO ON JANPATH The rise of Chirag Paswan... from failed actor to wily politician p3

RAISING A SKINK Tramping through Kutch and Kolhapur on the lookout for fan-throated lizards p19

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know you pay for it. When you can’t wait any longer. When you’re desperate. I know your tired fingers hurriedly access your credit card, under the covers, late at night.

You’re looking for a life, or perhaps just a helping hand, and as a purist, I judge you for it. You, my friend are a Candy Crush addict, and you’ve finally broken down and paid for that hammer lollypop.

I know what it must feel like. Because I’ve come close to it. I too have spent days at the Salty Canyon, and stood at the edge of the Bubblegum Bridge, wondering, “Is there really a way across?”

Desperate calls on dying batteries have been made to helpful friends, asking for an extra life. Or just one more move. But despite the help, a Candyvore’s journey is a lonely one; you know that, of course.

But I have never paid. Not for extra lives, or moves, or even to get to a new level.

My patience is always rewarded, and I still stand proud, undefeated.

Yet, there are times when I too am ashamed.

When I wake up after luridly colourful dreams of Tiffi and Mr Toffee and strange, enchanting carnival tunes. When I catch myself mid-whoop at the office because a colour bomb met a striped candy. When I fake a party hangover to explain the dark circles and the sleepless nights. After all, is it normal for a 20-something to be quite this taken in by a bunch of lozenges? To count alking down atill winding in the day in 30-minute intervals a new lane life is west Delhi, where the puppeteers live, a little girl runs to us and says in English, “My name Savita”. Wearing a worn out kurta and two pigtails tied with red ribbon, she was initially happy with all the attention her neighbourhood of artistes, better known as Kathputli Colony, was getting. Walking through, one can hear the dhol play, watch puppeteers at work and children somersault.

Home to magicians and puppeteers, craftsmen and tailors, this unique area in Delhi, may no longer be the seven-year-old’s home.

Kathputli Colony is said to be the world’s largest community of street performers. The shanties, some of which are close to 60 years old, are small cramped quarters equipped with water and electricity. However, like any urban slum, drains overflow outside the homes, and garbage lies in unattended heaps.

added to the game? All those delayed deadlines, postponed conversations and abandoned dates — what are they all for?

I know it’s not worth it. I’m wasting my time and youth and what little grey cells repeated stints at Farmville have left me with, but I have no one to turn to… what if I ask for help and they laugh, mock and turn me away? Or worse, take away my phone?

And then I look around me and find some hope. There are others afflicted too. It isn’t my fault; it’s a disease. And it’s spreading everywhere. I can recognise the others, staring intensely at their phones; I can see their fingers move, connecting the This land is my land Residents of threes, ad infinitum. It Kathputli Colony express their anger in seems never-ending. slogans and protests meeta ahlawat Sometimes I pray to the heavens for relief. Or just for change. And through my despair, I Livelihood matters Puppeteer Jagdish Bhatt, a resident of Kathputli Colony, who know a new day must has performed across the globe come soon. After all, it ramesh sharma wasn’t that long ago that we spent our days mingling with birds in need of anger management. For now though, there are miles to go and pots of gold to plumb at the end of the rainbows. And so I must strive, charging half a league, half a league, half a league onward. It’s not quite a war, and not child’s play either. It’s a dangerous game... For there’s no going back, no matter how hard you try, once you’ve joined the CANDY CRUSH SAGA.

Diary of a gaming addict who went down the rabbit hole

Puppet on a string

As the residents of Kathputli Colony defy bulldozers, we examine what the redevelopment plans would mean for this community of artistes

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Few takers The Kathputli Colony transit camp in Anand Parbat shiv kumar pushpakar

kakul royhas is a Delhi-based But this been the journalist home of Delhi’s grassroots craftspeople for the last few decades.

On February 27, Savita and her mother, along with the NGO Hazards Centre and other residents of the colony, defied the bulldozers that entered their colony threatening to move them to the transit camp in Anand Parbat, following Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) redevelopment plan. A few days after that, Savita’s mother and aunt were called by a policeman and asked to sign a document, written completely in English, which they could neither read nor understand.

The DDA plan that came up in 2007, states that the 3,200 families living in this colony will be moved to the camps, till Raheja Developers construct a multi-storey complex in the same area. After the initial uproar, the documents are now available in Hindi.

we do when it rains?” says a distressed Kamat Bhai, a resident of the transit camp.

In response, Dimple Bhardwaj, spokesperson for the Raheja Developers, clarified, “We have tried to make the transit camp as comfortable as possible. Baseless fears go against the cause of making Delhi slum-free.”

A few days ago, when I visited the Anand Parbat camp, walking distance from the Kathputli colony, I found 60 families had moved so far.

The presence of CCTV cameras across the colony did make it seem spooky. But the quarters, though clean, are tiny and there is no room for musical instruments or the puppets.

“The relocation policy states that the transit camp will have spaces for recreation and livelihood. But the houses are made of toxic waste material, windows are falling apart, drains are getting choked, electricity plug points and switches are not working. If it is like this We need a place to Indian marionette now, imagine how it will be after create our music, The art of the puppeteers goes two years?” alleges Dunu Roy, diour sculptures. Our back close to 1,500 years. They rector of Hazards Centre. The pollivelihood depends were an essential part of every icy document has an eerie on this mela and festival in Rajasthan. resemblance to the one that was The Rajasthani Bhat community handed out to the workers when are said to be the pioneers of this the mills were shut down in Mumstorytelling form. bai. However, as one glitzy mall afJagdish Bhat, a famous puppeteer, who has ter another came up, the land promised to the performed in the US and Europe says, “This workers continued to shrink. The schools and used to be jungle land. When we moved here it the hospitals promised to them completely was not an important junction. We needed a disappeared from the document. It took years place to create our music, our sculptures. Our of fighting in the courts on behalf of the Mill livelihood depends on this.” Bhat adds that Workers Union for the mill workers to get their homes have “been sold to builders for a what was promised to them. Many are still throwaway price of ₹6.11 crore, though the na- homeless and continue to live in shanties. tional auditor’s report has valued the land at “It is convenient to use these people as cul₹1,043.2 crore.” tural mascots but when we mistreat them, we In the transit camps, the voices of dissent erode India’s culture,” says Myna Mukherjee, are loud and clear. “We are a family of seven, director of an arts collective and gallery, Enwhen we put our beds down in this cramped gendered, who has created both art and magic hut there was no room for our dhols and pup- with Bhat and his group. pets. We had to keep them outside and keep watch so that they do not get stolen. What will georgina maddox is a Delhi-based art writer

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Make up star Toned and tanned Chirag Paswan is sure to bring his histrionics from Bollywood to Parliament ranjeet kumar

Lights, camera, action Gym-trained Chirag Paswan might be a failed actor but he is now proving to be a wily neta

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uried behind the gaudy candlesticks, colourful posters and guilt-edged furniture in Ramvilas Paswan’s ornate sitting room is a beautiful sketch. Understated in its delicate pencilstrokes, it brings out the subaltern origins of a once charismatic Dalit leader. “Mein us ghar mein diya jalane chala hoon, jahan sadiyon se andhera hai (My dream is to light a lamp in a home darkened by centuries of oppression),” read two lines etched as a prescribed motto for the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader.

But the artist clearly misread the leader’s goal. The lamp, Chirag, was not exactly a metaphor for social justice. Behind his grand claims of annihilating caste by seizing political power lay very mundane, pedestrian ambitions of promoting a mediocre progeny.

Chirag is not a lamp that lights a poor home.

He is a gym-trained, light-eyed entertainer whose only claim to people’s affections till February, this year, was a dud at the box office.

“Katto gilehri chhamak chhallo rani, ashik ko aise na tadpao jaani (Do not torment a lover, my beautiful temptress),” he crooned in the item number that failed to fire the fortune of his 2011 Bollywood entry, Miley Naa Miley Hum. This was, however, not for want of trying.

What the film lacked in merit, the son-father made up with aggressive promotion. On the occasion of Diwali that year, the Paswan family crossed their picket fence on 12 Janpath to greet their neighbour at 10 Janpath — Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

“We invited Soniaji, Rahulji and Manmohan Singhji for a screening of my son’s film,” Paswan said during the film’s promo. Rahul Gandhi even turned up for the screening. “He said Chirag is very talented,” the father gushed. But for once, the critics proved right and the film sank without a trace.

But temporary failures clearly do not daunt ambitious aspirants in any profession. Especially when they have a resourceful father who

left his past life, and first wife Raj Kumari, in exasperated by the Congress’ indifference. the backyard of Bihar, to reap the harvest of “Who do I call? Lalu is refusing to give us any his youthful struggles. In his heyday, Paswan seats. Rahul Gandhi is never available and Sowas a fiery orator and convincing champion niaji is invisible. Elections are around the corof Dalit rights. The dividends of those youth- ner. What do they expect us to do,” Paswan ful struggles have been equally rewarding — said. He still may have been willing to wait at Paswan has been a minister in some of the the Gandhis’ doorstep but ideology is not an most lucrative departments in the Union Gov- excuse for failure. Nor is being treated as unernment over the years i.e. Chemical and Fer- touchables by the Congress in the name of sectilisers, Coal, Railways et al. ularism. In any case, Chirag had already However, his party has been flailing since its decided that Modi was “innocent”. humiliating defeat in the last Lok Sabha as Thence started secret parleys with Modi’s well as the assembly elections in Bihar in 2010. party. Shahnawaz Hussain, the lone Muslim The time was ripe to introduce the handsome BJP MP in the Lok Sabha, was deputed by party son who, during various promotional events president Rajnath Singh to broker peace. “I for his films, described politics as being “quite told them I am a Muslim too. When I am comsimilar to films”. “In both profesfortable with the BJP, what is your sions, we deal with the masses,” he problem,” Hussain told me. They declared. The son has been charheld secret meetings in empty ming the masses in most public houses, five star hotels and finally Nowhere else in Chirag and his uncle Ramchandra functions that the LJP and its varithe political ous fronts like Dalit Sena have Paswan were escorted to Rajnath spectrum has a been holding in Bihar.

Singh’s official residence at Ashoka dynastic shift But nowhere else in the political Road through a back alley. From 12 spectrum has a dynastic shift pre- presented a more seats, which is what Chirag designificant sented a more significant political manded in exchange for LJP’s political transition than LJP. The sole reason about-face, the negotiation came to transition given for Ramvilas Paswan to quit seven and a deal was struck. the National Democratic Alliance On February 27, BJP leaders Shah(NDA) was Narendra Modi and the nawaz Hussain, Rajiv Pratap Rudy Gujarat riots in 2002. Since then, and Ravi Shankar Prasad reached the BJP has been his target. The Paswan’s residence. In a snazzy grey son’s arrival has, however, reversed the fa- suit, Chirag beamed at the cameras and shook ther’s logic. hands with the BJP team. “We have to move on.

In his second act as Chairman of the LJP’s You can’t be trapped in 2002,” he said. parliamentary board, the smooth-talking acBefore a militant herd of cameramen tor was not about to suffer the Congress’s pushed me behind a pillar, the sight signalled characteristic big brother treatment. His fa- the arrival of a showman. Politics has tradither, a shrewd judge of the shifting political tionally been kind to superstars from the landscape after Modi’s projection as the BJP’s world of cinema. But for reducing social jusprime ministerial candidate, was still hesitant tice and secularism to a caricature, a failed acin making the first move. At a luncheon host- tor is perhaps just the right choice. ed last month by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader DP Tripathi, Paswan was visibly poornima joshi

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One day at a time Soni Sori looks forward to an innings in politics suvojit bagchi

A French soap opera A soap master will help you handcraft the Savon de Marseille like it has always been made since the Middle Ages in this Mediterranean city

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arrive in Marseille at the cusp of winter, when the frigid mistral winds funnel through the Rhone Valley and chill your bones. Walking down the streets of the Old Port I notice stubby bars of soap sold in all sizes and colours, and soon, discover the workshop-cum-showroom of La Grande Savonnerie in Port Vieux. A place where I learn about the history of the famed local suds and even make my own soap.

“The wind here makes our skin dry, so we have always made soap from olive oil,” said Jean-Baptiste Jaussaud, whose family owns the brand. And informs me that it’s more than just another bar of soap.

“If you want to avoid unpleasant night cramps, place a cube of soap at the bottom of your bed; use itactivist, as a moth choolteacher, tribalor rights al-

repellent or an antiseptic. It is also great for factories. However, decades later, the advent of doing your laundry.” washing machines and chemical detergents The saponification or soap-making process sounded the death knell for traditional soaps. came from West Asia during the Crusades. The In the 21st century, there is renewed interest archetype of the Marseille soap came from an- in the Savon de Marseille, which is seen as a other Mediterranean city — Aleppo in Syria, simple, sustainable and bio-degradable prodwith its 4,000-year history of soap-making. uct made by passionate craftsmen in a tradiCrescas Davin, a local Jew, first made soap in tional way. “They are gentle on the skin,” says Marseille back in 1371. In times Jaussaud, “I love the green bars on gone by, soap-making was often a string and huge loaves stamped accompanied by horrible acciwith their weight.” dents in which ill-fated workers The soap master, says it takes Soap-making slipped and disappeared into the two weeks to make the Marseille arrived from West bubbling vats of soap, says Jausbar. The ingredients bubble in anAsia during the saud. Since the Middle Ages, it has cient cauldrons for 10 days and Crusades been made by boiling olive oil then the mixture is poured into and soft soda in water for several pits to harden. Machines turn the hours; this is later hardened and malleable pieces of soap into cut into cubes. cubes and then stamp them. The Amateur soap-makers thrived in the south soaps are set out to dry in the sun and mistral of France, a region that had all the raw materi- winds. I try my hand at moulding the soap and als needed — olive oil, salt and ashes from the stamping it with my name. You can also try Camargue, and palm oil and copra from the making face cream, washing powder or toothcolonies. Apparently, realising that the ama- paste, all under the tutelage of a Maitre de Sateurs were eating into the soap business, in von or soap master.

1688, King Louis XIV proclaimed in an edict Unlike French wines, named only after the that soap makers ‘could only use virgin olive place they are produced in, soaps made in othoil and no other fats’. A significant develop- er regions can be called Savon de Marseille as ment for the industry was when French chem- long as they are made the same way. ist Leblanc discovered how to extract caustic sunder is a Chennai-based travel writer soda from sea By 1930 there 90not soap Recalling the horrific treatment meted out In court, Sorisalt. pleaded with thewere judge to kalpana

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WINDOW OR AISLE

Out on bail, Soni Sori hopes to reclaim her dreams and some of her dignity

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leged Maoist conduit and now, a po- send her back to Chhattisgarh. Feminist-histo- to her, Sori says, “While looking at my body, he tential neta with the Aam Aadmi Party, rian Uma Chakravarthi, who was present at (the then DSP, Ankit Garg) abused me in filthy 40-year-old Soni Sori is many people in the district court at the time recounts, “The language and humiliated me. Later, he went first time I saw her was at the court. Peculiarly, outspecial and (…) sent three boys in. I(They) started one person. requirements.

When molesting me and On the evening of September 10, 2011, Soni she was not objecting to being inchecked out, a four-line ite-I fell after they pushed Then they brutally inSori fled Jabeli, her village in Chhattisgarh, af- carcerated but said she wanted it mised bill was me. presented. ter an anonymous caller informed her that to happen in Delhi because if she sertedNight stones2:in£115, my body.”

Night 1: £115, two-year she might be ‘encountered’ by the police. Her went back, they would torture Night 3: £115,After Total:a£345.

A ho- term in the of Raipur nephew Lingaram Kodopi was arrested earlier her.” “I thought that was an interhotlinejails connected me and to a Jagdalpur in The teacher tel said Chhattisgarh and later, at Delhi’s that day. esting position to take, but soon, that whisked he’d give me cab daliacompany Tihar jail, SoriIisleft, a free A month later, on October 4, 2011, she was ar- we realised that was exactly what me to Heathrow.

I paid, I woman for if I attended school now. Granted bail by the Supreme rested in the Capital by the Delhi Crime happened, and what the implicawas conquered. month and acquitted Branch and brought to the Saket District tions of the judge’s decision to After aCourt mostlastindulgent five of the seven Court. Several charges were filed against Sori, send her back were,” she says. weekend, in I also checked outcases — however, Sori would rather not put her including one for being a Maoist go-between, When she was produced in the of my lavish Bedouin retreat. in heart jail behind Sheinduswants to use it inextracting money from officials of the Essar Raipur court the following week, Sori couldn’t lifeMy sank asher. their fuel her press political ambitions and to group, attacking the house of a local Congress even walk from the police van to the cour- stead trialtoprinting spewed topage the jailing system and villagclerk had record her statement in- bring leader, Avdesh Gautam, and attempting toNottroom. outchanges page after of invoice. for saleAToiletry is noto longer a ‘return’ gift side the van. es in her home State that have all but fallen off blow up Essar Trucks, among others.

Room service, lunch, desert thesafari, map. BLink meets her in Delhi. drinks, dinner, breakfast, lunch again, phone calls, fromyet Jabeli plan by a few years, but what the heck… I size bed, a two-seater couch and a func- falconry Dispatches show, dinner again, still “Do you know what dalia (broken tional work desk. A clothes hanger stood more drinks, am a BLink columnist now. taxes, service charges, char- wheat) is?” asks Soni prefacing a tale from her childA few weeks later, I was dispatched to in as a substitute for a wardrobe and ba- itable donation to Sori, save some turtles, othhood in Dantewada.

“At theextra local school in our London for a ‘training program’ (yes, ap- sic business traveller essentials, such as er extras, other charges, other village, children were given dalia in exparently my boss believes there is still complimentary Wifi, TV, ironing board, charges — their Jabeli, solar calculator crashed changetheforbright attendance. hairdryer and coffeemak- twice, despite some stuff I don’t know) and sunlight.Every As I morning I’d my father’s near theIschool and ofer were all there. Neither scanned graze was booked at the no-frills the sheets with cows trepidation, fer toawash the baniyan students for their ‘Express’ category hotel of an toiletries nor room ser- came across $10 entry, tuckedofaway. sharecharge of the dalia. teacherensaw this one day vice was offered, but help- “What’s this international chain. Having for?” The I politely It was no-frills... But said he’d give me athan bowlthe too if I attended been an avid collector of UK ful notes around the quired —and more out of curiosity helpful notes assured classes.

That’s howonI started going to school. room assured me that if I meaningless visas for two decades, I don’t impact it had the overall me, if I dashed to the wasa not happy about the cows being expect much from London were to dash across to the bill. “Sir, My we dad found toiletry bottle broreception, I’d get it all abandoned he came around eventually.” reception, I’d get any- ken in your hotel rooms. In a city where room andbut that’s chargeable.”

Like several other girls who sought an eduthing I require. The breakTihar Residency-style cells go Lately, I’ve checked-out of hotels catercation in and around theasBastar for £300 a night, this £115 fast buffet stayed ing to high-end leisure travellers well district, Sori later enrolled at one the aschools run by unchanged during my as budgetwas room in its heart seemed business travellers.

Andof what Mata it Rukmani Kanya Ashram, set up by Dhastay — scrambled eggs, baked beans, sau- stark contrast most suspect. has been. rampal Saini, a disciple of Gandhian Vinoba As I swiped open the door, I must ad- sages. Standard. Delicious. And free.

Bhave. isLocated outside the author of Aislethe Be town of Jagdalpur, Time whizzed by without a fuss: no rishi piparaiya mit, I was pleasantly surprised. The room 130km from Jabeli, this residential school was was bigger than expected and had a full- laundry, no extras, no lost keys and no Damned rishi@aislebedamned.com where Sori spent most of her childhood, returning home only for vacations. After completing her education, she was absorbed as a

Check-in, Cheque-out

Rallying around Members of the All India Students Association demanding her release in January this year vv krishnan

How high-end hotels tend to offer low-end hospitality

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ately, I’ve checked-in to hotels catering to high-end leisure travellers as well as budget business travellers. And what a stark contrast it has been.

I took a short break at one of the Middle East’s most luxurious resorts. Each guest villa, in the heart of the desert, was a sprawling Arabian palace, complete with its own temperature-controlled private pool, Mumbai-flat-sized bathrooms, cinema-like televisions, an Einstein-flummoxing coffee machine and ceramic toiletry (your butter-fingered columnist sadly dropped and broke a lovely little conditioner bottle). The resort boasted splendid restaurants, a world-renowned spa and an array of exotic leisure activities. At a base room rate of $600 per night, this was extending my retirement

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Another country Women outside a polling booth at Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh v sudershan; and (right) a Moriya tribal in Bastar district goes about his daily business a roy chowdhury

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teacher by the Ashram, which runs more than 39 schools for girls across Bastar. But her days in the classroom were numbered. When Sori’s father discovered that she had fallen in love and married Anil Futane, a Marathi, born and brought up in the town of Geedam in Dantewada, “He made sure I lost the job,” she says.

And it was only after a few years that Sori and her father reconciled and she went back to teach at the Ashram.

An Adivasi woman graduating from a student to a teacher is still uncommon in the red corridor. It was no surprise then that local women sought Sori out when the police accused their menfolk of being Naxals and arrested them. “They used to say, please come Soni madam, you know Hindi, you can help us get them out, so I would accompany them,” she says. “On such trips to the thana, I used to ask the CRPF and the police: Sir, if your fight is against the Naxals, go to the jungle and arrest them. Why are you dragging us into this?”

“It was probably her outspoken nature that put Soni in peril. She used to help others in trouble and that in turn put her in trouble,” says Himanshu Kumar, a Gandhian activist who ran the Vanavasi Chetana Ashram in Dantewada for 22 years, until it was destroyed by the State government. Kumar has known Sori for over a decade now.

Caught in the crossfire of ideology, on another occasion, Sori found herself face to face with the Naxals. It was 2011 and the Maoists were trying to hoist a black flag at her school on Independence Day. Sori resisted their attempts to do so and insisted that the Indian national flag be hoisted. On September 9 that same year, the State police charged Sori as a Maoist accomplice, and apparently, on the advice of an ‘anonymous caller’ who said the police might ‘encounter’ her, Sori decided to flee.

On the run for nearly a month, she was picked up in Delhi and sent back to Chhattisgarh.

In the jailhouse “When I was jailed two years ago, I wondered why all of this was happening to me,” says Sori, “But after I met the women in jail and heard their stories… I changed my mind. All the 70 female inmates at the Jagdalpur jail were villagers from the neighbouring districts and

most of them were arrested on ‘Naxal cases’.

By the time Sori was released on bail in FebMany were assaulted by the police, and are ruary, she had lost her husband, Anil Futane — physically unwell, but there is no one to hear a paralytic, who was arrested on similar chargtheir pleas. Their cases lie unattended. I don’t es and died in jail last year. Her father was shot know how and why they tolerate the pain? at by Maoists and crippled in the leg. She was Someone had to fight for them, so I did.” suspended from her job at the Ashram and Sori has earlier said that while in jail, she most of her family turned its back on her. was singled out and subjected to sexual torture by the jail authorities. In a press con- Election season ference in Delhi last month, she said, “I was Nobody, not even Sori, had imagined however, brutally tortured in Raipur jail. While in the that her life would take such a political turn. custody of the Dantewada police, I was “Had I not been imprisoned, I doubt I would stripped naked and given electric shocks.” have considered a path in politics,” says Sori.

When news of her condition reached various Vani Subramanian, a Delhi-based filmmakhuman rights activists and civil society er, who campaigned to free Sori, thinks it’s a groups in Delhi, more than the nature of her good idea. “She’s clear about what she wants, arrest, the torture she was subjected to in jail which is a hell of a lot more than many of us,” garnered support for her cause. she says, “It’s odd that Sori was arDelhi-based lawyer Vrinda rested as a Maoist supporter in Grover, who had represented Sori the first place. She has always says, “Some of us knew of her pribeen vocal about her opposition or to her arrest as well. But it was to them. It’s time for her now to Even if you commit when the news about her sexual explore her options. Whether she a crime, it is no torture got out that women’s chooses a pure political route or justification for rights groups took up her cause not, is up to her.” custodial torture immediately. Even if you have Sori believes that the political committed a crime, it is no justifiroute is also the most viable. The cation for custodial torture espeemergence of AAP and the imcially committed on a woman pending Lok Sabha elections arrested on charges of a political crime.” seem to coincide with her release. And she has Chakravarthi agrees, “The treatment meted a clear mandate — to revamp the jailing sysout to Soni and Linga are clear indications of tem in her home State. the manner in which Adivasis are treated by Prashant Bhushan, lawyer and advisor to the State.” “The Chhattisgarh police stooped AAP thinks Sori is an ideal candidate for the so low as to fly her back to Raipur from Delhi, party in Chhattisgarh — “She’s a courageous, so they could get more time with her before bold tribal activist who has been victimised producing her at court,” she says. and tortured by the police. She symbolises the While in jail, Sori continued to raise her plight of the Adivasis in Chhattisgarh, a State voice against the ill treatment of undertrials dealing with many issues ranging from excesand the poor quality of food. “At Raipur, there sive mining, looting of land and natural rewere insects in our food, so we carried out a sources, and poor jailing systems.” hunger strike. I threatened to take the wormAsked about her chances, if she is given an infested food samples to court too. That AAP ticket to contest the elections, Sori says, worked in our favour because the women “Winning or losing doesn’t matter. Even if I were made in-charge of their food,” says Sori, lose, it won’t be a loss — I’ll get to interact with “I also asked the officers why they made wom- so many of my people, share my thoughts and en work, clean toilets and so on, when it was il- ideas with them, and in turn, communicate legal (for undertrials).” Sori also sent letters their issues to the election forum. So, there is and messages to the Supreme Court, her law- no loss here, this is a win-win situation.” yer, NCW, NHRC and so on, not knowing if they sibi arasu with inputs from Amit Kumar were received by the intended parties.

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‘Cruising’ in India Packed with rendezvous and revelations

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ohn Burbidge’s “memoir of same-sex love” set in India comes at an opportune time, when the LGBT movement has found voice against a draconian law recently upheld by the Supreme Court. Set in the ’80s, The Boatman candidly chronicles Burbidge’s exploits in the streets of Chowpatty in Bombay, the parks of Connaught Place in Delhi and the maidans of Calcutta. But what begins as an adventure to “test his gay potential” soon turns into a tale of addiction. Indeed, in an interview Burbidge says that he had sexual relations with more than 200 men in two years in India.

It is 1980. A 33-year-old Burbidge arrives in India, four years after his first stint. He is neither a “poofter”, nor a “homo” — the derisive terms hurled at gays in his home country Australia — but finds himself increasingly drawn to India’s “young men”.

Over the next four years, we follow Burbidge as he builds his double life of a keen international NGO worker by day and a raging homosexual scouring the cities’ underbellies by night. Chapter after chapter, night after night, told in a style resembling paper presentations made at dull seminars, Burbidge stumbles upon public spaces where an invisible populace comes together — maalishwallas offering more than just a massage, young medical students, men whose loving mothers feed him The Boatman John Burbidge home-cooked Yoda Press meals, husbands Memoir and rickshawallahs ₹350 — in parks, dimly-lit streets, urinals at railway stations and men’s hostels for fleeting gratification.

On a fundraising trip in Calcutta, Burbidge’s sexual life is subjected to a humorous scrutiny by his friends — “So Burbs, what’s this I hear about your after-hours activities? What do they call it, boating?”

“From that day on,” writes Burbidge, “I was saddled with the title of ‘the boatman’.”

Not all of his encounters are pleasant.

Plainclothes policemen catch him in the act at a brothel in Calcutta, at railway stations and in parks. Word also gets around quickly about his sexual diseases. Rumour and suspicion rule at his office, where coworkers begin to get curious about his nightly escapades. Trapped in a low-paying job, he is also bitter about not being able to move out of “the street gay scene”.

But Burbidge survives, and the dangers scarcely stop him and “his agenda”.

For a country that still criminalises homosexuality, The Boatman chronicles its Freshcities arrivals own that defy the law every night as Sales at Croma’s spaces morph,seven people emerge and all stores at airports across types of liaisons are made and broken.

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India have been growing at 17 per cent annually

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Flying off the shelves sinha The tillsarunava are ringing loud and clear at airport outlets, raking in more than shops in the city

PUB CRAWL

CCrystal ball gazing

irca 2002: Waiting for a flight at the Mumbai Airport is a nightmare.

There is just one coffee shop and a long queue to announce it. Your ability to wait out and pay for a cup of coffee will be of no help. If the shop’s staff, employees of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), are not irritated by the time your turn arrives, you’ll get your coffee. And if you’re lucky, it is the real Holy Grail will be hot. Else, yourhat only takeaway from the publishing inover)”.

India at shop will be a sullen of “khatam hai (it’s present?

No, it’s not the The rest of the airport looks equally sad — next Chetan Bhagat, nor bare walls, dark corridors and a disinterested someone who cana match literaryground staff. Carrying book isthe mandatory, commercial success of an Amitav for there’s nothing to browse throughGhosh — no orno a Jhumpa Lahiri.

It is, according seshops, food courts — except the pagestoofathe nior in editor bestseller your at bag.a publishing company, those twotoor three non-fiction Fast forward 2014: fromsolid Starbucks and Cabooks that be priced atRoyal ₹700 or ₹800 fé Coffee Day towill Domino’s and Challensell about 30,000 Bringing in gers and Bar, there is enough tocopies. keep you and your net figure of about ₹1 your croreflight each, these tasteabuds occupied when is deare theif titles thattopublishers layed.

And you want shop, yourabsolutely flight betThe next question, of course, who ter love. be delayed, for there’s Apple,is:Sony, are these writers whose books are asEmporio Armani, Roberto Cavalli, Croma, Kisuch sales?

Unlikebrands fiction, mayasured and aofmultitude of other tothey take yourcannot custombe to. newcomers, for it is seldom that such books sell on the is strength of Not surprisingly, airport retail estimated content — it is the writer’s reputato betheir a ₹6,000 crore industry.

With 61.42 miltion that sales hinge by on.air So,inpublishing lion passengers travelling 2013 alone, is more a matter of persuadtherethese is anbooks ever-burgeoning market to tap. ing the big, established names to write than of discovering the next big talent.

One that apparently allows some brands to earn almost eight to nine times of what they earn at malls or high-street outlets.

Dipak Agarwal, CEO, operations and strategy at DLF Brands, which include Boggi Milano, Mango, Sunglass Hut, ELC and Mothercare, says revenues from airport outlets are equally Taking off high for them — “Productivity at airports is 80 Ajit Joshi, MD and CEO of Infiniti Retail, vouch- per cent more than street retail.” This means es for this upward trajectory. His company that if a street store is bringing in ₹2,000 per sells consumer durables under the Croma sqft, shops at airport would rake in anywhere brand, which has a strong presence at air- between ₹3,600 and ₹4,000 per sq ft. The reaIndia. theretail intervening Calcutta and runsoperate forports. In “Our stores atperiod, the ter-writing layali writer, set inson?

“Here, stores for 24 in the country has,very of course, changed wards and backwards through time, minals are doing well. We hours and traffic is much higher dramatically.

A newsales generation of writers telling a story as remarkable for its invenhave annualised of ₹1.27 than city outlets,” says Agarwal. is in place — ft not the creators lakh per sq atthat airport outlets —of com- tiveness as for its subversions of history.

Customers at mercially successful the highest among campus-lit, all our for-MBA-lit Besides its shining The literary travellingmerit, walletit’s airport outlets are and lust-lit are likely to currently get a look in — bound to make a lot of Bengalis very hotoutlets are mats,” he says.

Croma Customers at airport well-travelled and and so is astores vibrant publishing economy. under their collarsoften — not least because noand more has seven across Indian airwell-travelled more aware The one thingfrom that 850 hastonot changed, one writing in Bangla write to conports, ranging 2,000 aware,thought so their to propensity though, the identity the editor of the something like this. sq ft. Iniscontrast, theof company’s clude a transaction is higher than new issue: as in 1997, it’s going be pilotper sq ft revenues from outletstoin window-shoppers at stores in the heir on-court city. chemistry ended in bited by old hand Ian Jack. Now, cities are India just about ₹30,000 to how “We get a wide range of custer acrimony.

A pity, for Leander will writers ₹40,000 per who sq ft. have gotten used to tomers round-the-clock, who Paes have time to and Mahesh might well channeling FaceCafé Coffeethemselves Day, which through opened its first airspare tillBhupathi they get onboard.

It’s have a great time to India, and themselves, book and Twitter for port outlet in 2001,pitch has opened 33 more since pick upwon I-thought-of-you gifts, souvenirs, guilt many more global laurelssays in Dilip Kainclusion? then and is continuing its expansion. “In the purchases and thank you notes,” doubles tennis. But have last few years, airports have gone through a pur, founder of Hidesign, which specialises in t’s notfacelift, easy toand predict theairlines are oper- leatherthey movedand on?

We’ll know major many handbags accessories.

The buzz is building publishing sensation of soonset enough, withairport Mahesh ational today. This has increased the number Hidesign up its first outlet in Inabout Aarachar, an the year when you’re already of air travellers.

Airports have good footfalls dia at Bhupathi’s Hyderabad’s autobiography international departure outrageously in March. scheduled to beIt retails published that resultBut in some betterbooks sales,”insays K Ramakrish- terminal in April 2008. at domestic as imaginative novel the just president provoke (marketing).

And thenairports Paes will un-and Kapur nan, making the company’s well as soon. international now,

by KR Meera such punts anyway. And the doubtedly publish the story buzz is building about Aaraof his own life too, so the char, an outrageously imagicross-court returns might native novel by KR Meera, get exciting. Let’s hope they originally serialised in Malayalam and do — sanitised autobiographies are so being published later this year in J Devi- boring. ka’s English translation by Penguin Random House. Hangwoman, as the book is hat do you do after you’ve sold titled in English, is, incredibly for a Mayour equity stake in India’s largest English language publishing company for ₹55 crore? Last October, after the merger of Penguin Books and Random House, the new company paid that amount for the 45 per cent stake in the pre-merger Penguin Books India that was owned by Aveek Sarkar’s Ananda Publishers. The Kolkata-based Ananda Bazar group’s Sarkar (whose daughter Chiki Sarkar is Publisher at Penguin Random House India) is known for putting his money where his love for literature is. Will he now look for another English publisher to invest in? Multinationals HarperCollins and Hachette are unlikely to be looking for investors. That leaves... everyone else from Aleph to Tav, right?

Much to look forward to, from Granta on India to a Malayalee writer on Calcutta

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he last time that Granta magazine focussed exclusively on India was in 1997, with a 288-page issue to mark the 50th year of India’s independence. Eighteen years later, in early 2015 to be precise, Granta will be back with its eye on

Tell tale Mahesh Bhupathi has pipped Leander Paes to the autobiography post

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“Our retail stores at the terminals are doing very well.

We have annualised sales of ₹1.27 lakh per sq ft at airport outlets — the highest among all our formats,” says Ajit Joshi, managing director and CEO, Infiniti Retail Limited (Croma)

bijoy ghosh

“There are quite a few budget airlines today that do not essentially offer food and beverages; many travellers like a quick takeaway for their onward journey,” says K Ramakrishnan, president (marketing), Cafe Coffee Day

pv sivakumar

“We get a wide range of customers round-the-clock, who have time to spare till they get onboard. It’s a great time to pick up I-thought-of-you gifts, souvenirs, guilt purchases and thank you notes,” says Dilip Kapur, founder of Hidesign

bijoy ghosh

says, “Overall, we are doing very well, with Delhi and Mumbai leading the pack.”

For Café Coffee Day, no-frills airlines have come as a shot in the arm. “There are quite a few budget airlines today that do not essentially offer food and beverages; many travellers like a quick takeaway for their onward journey,” says Ramakrishnan.

Siddharth Sahgal, mall mechanic and chief managing officer at the advisory firm, Beyond Squarefeet, points out that 70 per cent of the buyers here are business travellers. “They have time constraints and shop at airports instead of malls. Since they are an educated, focused group of genuine customers, they also act as ambassadors for the products,” he says, “Besides, there is a lot of faith in the merchandise

that retails at airports as brands do not typically showcase discounted goods.”

Temporary turbulence But if sales are high, so are costs of operating at airports. The rentals are eight to nine times higher than at malls or high streets. Ankur Bisen, senior vice president, retail and consumer products at Technopak, says, “One reason for such high rentals is the acute supply shortage. Since most of the supply is restricted to Delhi and Mumbai, the demand for these travel retail destinations is high.” Apart from these two airports, retail space is also being developed at the Bangalore and Hyderabad airports, which have also been privatised.

While GVK group operates the Mumbai and

Bangalore airports, GMR manages the Delhi and Hyderabad airports.

GVK charges a fixed rent or offers a revenue sharing arrangement with retailers. So a brand that earns well will have to shell out ever-increasing revenue to the operator, if it opts for the latter. Bisen says the choice of revenue model depends on the category and format. A standard rule cannot be applied to say that one model will work better over the other.

Profitability targets can also be hard to meet since traffic has not grown in keeping with projections. The number of passengers travelling by air grew only 4.43 per cent in 2013 after a decline in 2012, according to DGCA. Besides, the staff has to be paid for operating 24x7 and that doubles salary expenses. Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at the advisory firm, Third Eyesight, says, “The staff deployed at airport outlets is different from high streets because of the better quality of customers walking in and a superior product mix. That is an addition to costs.” Moreover, as Kapur says, “Operationally, it requires a good deal of sophistication in dealing with both security and government regulations.”

But Sahgal of Beyond Squarefeet believes that good brands can afford such expenses as airports generate high sales volumes. Joshi agrees: “Airport sales more than compensate for the rentals and will only grow faster as more people travel by air.” Over the years, airport retailing has been profitable for Croma, says Joshi, declining to detail the financials.

Airport sales add two per cent to Croma’s total revenue. And while they have been growing at 17 per cent annually, other stores have reported nearly half the growth at 9 per cent.

DLF’s Agarwal is not worried about high operating expenses either. “One can take on high costs as airports offer high visibility. It is an investment in brand-building,” he says.

Airports, then, are not just retail outlets.

They are also the places where brands as built.

Croma’s Joshi says, “ airports get filtered premium customers.” And that makes them the best platform to launch the latest products.

“You get to tap India’s who’s who as well as regular business travellers. These buyers are also the decision-makers for their families.” Kapur concurs, “We consider airports critical to the development of the brand internationally. We would target all major airports in India and strategically important stores internationally to help us build the brand.”

However, airport retail in India has other challenges. Unlike in Singapore, Dubai or London, India doesn’t have airports that act as a hub for passengers. “Most of the airports here are not hubs; there is some traffic getting redirected to other locations in the country, but it is just a fraction. Most of the traffic is meant for the destination, leaving little scope for shopping at airports,” says Dutta.

Also, there is a lot of low-cost traffic due to tariff dynamics in the market. “We’re living with that as a nation of travellers. But it just means that unless you have a real need for something, you won’t buy at the airport. And that’s a challenge,” adds Dutta.

Shubhranshu Pani, managing director, retail services, JLL India, says, “The future of airport retailing depends on how it evolves and how it’s positioned. In the West, airport retail is an option for shoppers who have requirements after normal shopping hours. If Indian establishments make 24x7 shopping their USP and airports do away with some of the access restrictions, it would boost their success.”

Creating retail spaces alone is not enough.

The retail flight will take off only when the quality of customers improves and impulse buying supplements planned shopping. rashmi pratap

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anna mm vetticad

FILM FATALE

dipankar

Spinster over shrimati

DEFENCE B MINISTRY AUTHORISES USE OF FILES AS WEAPONS

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try not to sneeze as the bearer puts the files on the table and backs away.

They should have given him gloves.

The files are dank and mottled, and covered in years of dust. I can see mold and fungus. Some of the thicker files could well be breeding other forms of life. As chemical weapons, these would be lethal. If deployed in bulk, they would be weapons of mass destruction. The Defence Ministry babu smiles at me from across the table. “As you can see, we are well-prepared,” he says.

“What led you to take this step?” I ask.

“In 2014, China’s defence budget increased by 12 per cent to $132 billion, the biggest increase since 2010,” he says, “We increased ours by 5 per cent, to $37 billion.

As a result we’ve been unable to do certain things, like buy new batteries for subma-

achelorette, bachelorina, bachelor with the hero. Though there are exceptions Veronica exemplifies this hypocritical attigirl, singleton, single woman…in a such as Vidya Balan, Deepika Padukone and tude. Humour emanating from sexually bid to avoid the dreaded ‘spinster’, Priyanka Chopra (when she chooses well), the promiscuous heroes is commonplace in BollyEnglish language users opt for a filmography of their contemporary Katrina wood. Cocktail was unusual in that it featured string of alternative expressions to denote an Kaif typifies the Hindi film heroine’s job: to be a promiscuous leading lady, adopted an equalunmarried female human. Their concerns are a pretty showpiece the hero falls in love with, ly non-judgmental stance towards her, and easily explained. After all, social prejudice has like Kat’s Aaliya was in Dhoom 3 last year. made her sex life — like the hero’s — a source of lent meanings to that word, going way beBollywood would argue that its sexism amusement. Post-interval though, the film deyond a woman’s marital status. Unlike the merely reflects real life where a woman’s iden- scended into crowd-pleasing orthodoxy with coolth associated with the male ‘bachelor’, tity is expected to revolve around whether or the happy-go-lucky Veronica getting neurotiover the centuries, ‘spinster’ has come to not she’s a wife; where a man is always the cally desperate for marriage, while the man reSHOVON CHOWDHURY is stand for a neurotic, frustrated, ill-tempered, neutral ‘Mr’ revealing nothing to strangers mains his easygoing self. chief Truthdigger and author despairing, unattractive woman, unhappy at about his marital status, whereas most IndiCocktail’s purported liberalism cloaked its of The Competent Authority being unmarried past what is prescribed by ans continue to prefix women’s names with deep-seated narrow-mindedness that was consensus as the socially permissible age.

‘Mrs’ (married) or ‘Miss’ (unmarried) al- mirrored by a less high-profile film in 2011. In By dodging the word, liberals though ‘Ms’ (marital status un- Turning 30,Gul Panag’s trite Naina turns frantic arerines. possibly succumbing to the from Airlines For the army and the navy, the modfor 11 years. specified) It contains is also available. when she turns 30, andIndian shreds her dignity as very biases they no doubt decry. by 4 and 3 bacteria that can eat aircraft,age, lent bydisinterest, the ernisation budget has shrunk Queen’s Rani doesn’t want to be she panics about middle male That’s a subject dis- of the ruAviation Ministry.” through steel.

We per cent.

Givenfor theanother depreciation someone’s Shrimati for social re- menopause (already?), wrinkles and drooping cussion.

Forreduction the moment though, “Supposing you have developed a pee, the is much more. ThisTo is be fair, demption.

She has the confidence breasts.

Bollywoodvariety is not of delivery let’s turn our attention to how better.” run out ask. helping us defend the country to be a spinster — and yes, I insist To be fair, Bollywood is of notfiles?” aloneI in steering alone in steering mainstream Bollywood “Against the Chinese?”keeps I ask. systems. In on case babus laughthem. up- Popusing that word. clear of spinsters The or stereotyping of spinsters or attack, away “No, fromagainst spinsters doggedly roariously.

“There is lit-similar of a naval ourasarmed forces. clear Our priThe arrival of Rani in Bolly- ular culture in the West often reflects stereotyping them officials as well-meaning speakersis to prevent ministry risk pretending of that. As a to last mary functionEnglish in the ministry wood is a welcome baby step for sentiments eventle while do othdo.a Single women in code Bollywood resort,Helen some of us are coup. Our penal is from the ninewill paddle an into the that still insists on pi- erwise. British writer industry Fielding’s bestselltend to be 20-somethings who are willing to become amocean in rubber ding- men and women. For ing Bridget Jones’s teenth century. The forces have weapons geonholing Diary and its film adaptation in from the process of being courted, WWII. They are ahead of us. If they behies and hurl them at the Bo-lauded instance, the carefree bachelor starring Reneemunition.

Zellweger Since were widely falling intoo loveadvanced, or gettingthey married fors guns have no ammo, enemy vessels. come could get ideas. playedThey

by Saif Ali Khan in film af- for their supposedly free-thinking portrayal of to men during their1947, films.so Rare willfilm also (Hum be fired feasibility are being con- obThere’s beenthe nocourse coupofsince ouris ter Tum, Salaam Namaste, Love Aaj a single woman,studies yet Bridget was literally thestrategy Bollywood story dwells atalso length onaa Kal, evaluate if babusgoals: can be fired a boymust be that working.

We have fromCocktail) guns has of no spinster equivalent. Cine- ducted sessed to with three primary getting heroine’s singledom andexternal celebrates it, or gives ma them.”

I tuck my pencil contingency plan for defence.” naval destroyand language respond to social diktats. from friend, getting a date, gettingbehind laid. my us a leading young or old — who has And leave hissuperstar room, reeling from the has a He pickslady up a—file.

I try not to look.

Small ers, so, launchHum Tum’s Karan and Cocktail’s Gau- ear and Hollywood Sandra Bullock pointedly opted to stay unmarried. in this horrifying image of babus descending ed from subcreatures are crawling all over it.It’s “This file tam would be widely described as a track record of playing stereotypiscenario that Vikas Bahl’s Queen, now “ladies’ marines,man” and with no pejorafrom the sky, en masse, at high(Miss velocity.

If pertains todirector submarine purchase,” he says, cal spinsters Congeniality, in theatres, springs a surprise us. hands that doesn’t beat the Chinese, will.Propos“It has been untouched byon human dropped tive intent. If Karan had a kg rangarajan Two Weeksnothing Notice, The Queen’s atypical happily-ever-after brings us female clone, what al). Being career-oriented a Rani Mehra (Kangna Ranaut) who is persist- would she be though? for her characters ineviently single and pleased about it. This is a de- ‘Gentlemen’s woman’ tably translates into parture from the Hindi film norm of a (a non-existent being testy, gauche woman’s position as the heroine being estab- term) or ‘slut’? and — in the case of lished in terms of her romantic relationship Cocktail’s heroine Two Weeks Notice — ear Ally, miserably eating My father-in-law recently purpizzas at home chased a gun. Should I worry? alone.

Regards, Prakash, Bengaluru Oceans away in Bollywood, Queen the backside be- nose he capital was in uproar after an “We attacked him from turns Dear Prakash, up its regal his heavy inadvertent lathi-charge on na- cause it was safer. Because It depends on how long he has known at thatof cliché.

With the intional icon Rahul Gandhi late beard we were unable to recognise him. It you. Were you married recently? Have you dustry now planning to last evening in Delhi. The mis- was only when he started talking about novel been meeting him frequently? If so, there make Charles Dickens’ hap occurred as he was emerging from the NREGA that we realised who it was.” is cause for worry. In your place, I would Great Expectations into a film starDoctors atAditya AIIMSRoy have reported home of a Dalit woman in east Delhi. The hide behind my wife as much as possible. ring Katrina and Kapur, it would be that tothe is now of lady’s son, a youth studying in Class IV, had Alternately, he may have purchased it for interesting seepatient if Dickens’ Miss out Havisham is written ‘Tanu weds Manu’ on his cap, “Despitetelling severalorblows use in crisis situations. The best way to verupdated danger. for a modern she is releading to the unfortunate misunderto the seems to classic: be ify this is to cause a crisis situation. You tained as she was head, in thishe 19th century a standing. The dim lighting and the fact quitewho fine,”gave saidup one them. could hide behind a curtain and leap out tragic spinster onoflife simply be“Wejilted have her. advised him to that his cap was not properly laundered at him, perhaps while making a humorous cause a man C’mon Bollywood, have two evolved Crocin beyond tablets England daily also contributed to the tragedy. remark. Alternately, you could creep up beprove that you’ve of “We have standing instructions one in week, to your hind him, put a finger in his back, and 150 yearsfor agothe andnext Cocktail 2012.and Here’s to arrest anyone wearing a thatyou his don’t Gandhi cap is shout ‘Hands up!’ Either of these methods chance toensure prove that equate unmarGandhi cap with slogans,” said always should help you understand the situation. ried women withproperly cobwebslaundered and gloom.in the future.”

Constable Ram Manohar Pande, Yours truly, Ally anna mm vetticad is the author of The Adventures

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ASK ALLY Ally Subramaniam was born in south-west Sundarbans, but was blown away by a cyclone and washed up on the shore near ChenMy way Kangna as nai. He was adopted byMehra a poor Rani in Queen (right) jives to her Brahmin family from Tirupur.

He tune, unlikeat can answer all yourown questions Veronica in Cocktail askallysubramaniam@gmail.com (above) who, sadly,

dipankar

Queen’s atypical happily-ever-after is a refreshing change in a sea of gender clichés

DELHI POLICE LATHICHARGE RAHUL GANDHI BY MISTAKE!

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of an Intrepid Film Critic t @annavetticad

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Politics and the sociopath A particular personality type seems to be drawn to politics, and excels there. Prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi fits the bill The Mask What Modi does is but a reflection of what his electorate wants a roy chowdhury

‘For those of us climbing to the top of the food chain, there can be no mercy. There is but one rule: Hunt or be hunted’ — Frank Underwood, House of Cards.

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Amit Varma is a novelist. He blogs at indiauncut.com

have often wondered, what kind of person wants to be a politician? Growing up, we gravitate towards our future professions on the basis of interests or aptitude or, often, just circumstances. What we are drawn towards depends on the kind of person we are: someone bad at maths is unlikely to turn to engineering or investment banking, just as an introverted geek is probably going to avoid a career in news broadcasting. So what are you like, then, if you aspire to be a politician and end up being good at it?

First up, the stated reasons are mostly bunkum: aspiring politicians want to serve the community or make the world a better place only as much as Miss India contestants want to be like Mother Teresa. No, with few exceptions, people are driven to get into politics by just one instinct: the lust for power. It’s primal, it’s hardwired into us — the chief of the tribe has the best chance of propagating his genes — but there are many who want what only a few will get, and the road to the top is always bloody. Those who navigate it successfully need to possess ambition, charm and ruthlessness in equal measure.

The kind of person best suited to do it is a sociopath. A sociopath — the term is also used interchangably with psychopath — is a person who feels no empathy towards his fellow humans, a condition that is innate. (Damage to a part of the brain called the amygdala is the most likely culprit.) Psychologist Robert Hare defines them as “intraspecies predators who use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and violence to control others and to satisfy their own selfish needs. Lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they cold-bloodedly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret.”

Sociopaths are thus cut out for some professions more than others. While they comprise upto four per cent of the general population,

they are estimated to make up over 20 per cent tician, is Narendra Modi. To me, he seems to be of the prison population in the US, which is a textbook sociopath, who believes in nothing, what you’d expect from people who lack any has no principles, and will simply do whatever conscience. It has been theorised that they are it takes to get to power and stay there. also over-represented among trial lawyers, If you agree, consider the implications: if bankers and of course, among politicians.

Modi is indeed a sociopath, all the things you A study published last year analysed the 42 like or loathe about him may be misplaced. He US presidents leading up to George W Bush may be neither a bigoted Muslim-hater nor a and found a high degree of sociopathy in their champion of development and growth, but an personalities. But this is not necessarily a neg- opportunistic politician pandering to differative assessment. As Scott Lilienfeld, a psychol- ent constituencies at different times. (On one ogist who worked on the study, said, “Certain side, the electorate of Gujarat, with whom the psychopathic traits may be like a double- perception that he engineered the riots, edged sword. Fearless dominance, for exam- whether or not he did, brought him much ple, may contribute to reckless criminality support. On the other side, the small business and violence, or to skilful leadership in the owners and industrialists who fund him, and face of a crisis.” Indeed, over a century ago the spread the impression that he supports free philosopher and psychologist William James markets while his actions reveal him, so far, to had said, “When superior intellect and a psy- be no more than a crony capitalist.) Every aschopathic temperament coalesce [...] in the pect of his public image could be carefully same individual, we have the best constructed to get him political possible conditions for the kind gain, and his actions if he beof effective genius that gets into comes PM would be tailored the biographical dictionaries.” Soaround the constraints and opWhatever you like or ciopaths can acquire power more portunities of his political enviloathe about Modi easily than others. ronment that will be different may be misplaced While politics is the natural at the national level from what habitat of the sociopath, political they have been in Gujarat or on systems differ across the world. the campaign trail.

Sociopaths are more likely to All this, I must clarify, is neidominate politics in countries where the State ther a defence nor a condemnation of Modi. has more power and less accountability than Being a sociopath is biological destiny, just as it should. I’d think, therefore, that there is a being left-handed or gay or allergic to corianbetter chance of finding a sociopathic politic- der is, but how you are born should be neither ian in India than, say, in Scandinavia. Indeed, a reason to condemn you nor an exculpation the disdain with which Indians regard politics for your actions. Men should be judged by and politicians indicate there’s something to what they do, not by what they are — and it is this. In the population, one in 25 people is a so- not the purpose of this column to examine ciopath; list 25 Indian politicians and see, ac- whether Modi is a genocider or a developmencording to you, how many fit the bill. tal messiah, both of which are simplistic narThere are exceptions, of course. In my view, ratives anyway. Consider this: If Modi is indeed the following gents don’t seem to be socio- a sociopath, whose public persona is conpaths: Manmohan Singh, an accidental poli- structed around whatever will get him to powtician; Rahul Gandhi, a buffoon trying to run er, then whatever you like or dislike about him the family business because he’s good at noth- reveals less about him and more about India. ing else (or because it’s there); Arvind Kejriwal, When India looks at Narendra Modi, it looks a sanctimonious and misguided activist. But into a mirror. What you are is what you get. one man who seems to fit the bill, and who t@amitvarma even his opponents admit is talented as a poli-

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Guru from New Zealand

Jacob Rajan on being the weird masked Indian theatre guy who tickles and provokes the audience

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acob Rajan, born to Malayali parents based in New Zealand, is a founding partner, with Justin Lewis of Auckland-based theatre company, Indian Ink. Founded in 1997, the company is celebrated for its trilogy of plays Krishnan’s Dairy, The Candlestickmaker and The Pickle King. Performing in India for the very first time, playwright and actor Rajan brought The Guru of Chai to the International Theatre Festival of Kerala, held in Thrissur. Known for his clever use of masks from a set of teeth to Balinese masks, his theatre aims to create “serious laughter”.

Back in NZ and soon to head for a US tour, he speaks about his love for masks and being a niche within a niche. Extracts from the interview.

ily on my heritage and memories of India as source material for my work. So it was great to come to India and see what had changed.

back to India to live.

The mask has been a constant in your work over the decades. Why are you drawn to it?

What are your memories of India, Masks are mysterious. That is part of since you were born in Malaysia the allure. When you put a mask on, and moved to NZ as a child? there is an element of possession. All in one Jacob Rajan plays 17 characters in The Guru of Chai robert catto I have sort of touched base with In- Your ego disappears. As a performer dia about four times in my life, it is very seductive — to give yourself er would say the more you conceal and audience. In a way the play is sometimes for three to a new being, to lose the more you reveal. And with the just wiring. We plug into the audimonths, sometimes six yourself entirely. I mask, because your face is fixed, ence to light them up. months. And I mainly came to acting quite your eyes and body are thrown into stayed with family. Keralate. I am the son of im- relief. They amplify the emotions, to What does it mean to be an Indian la was always this lush migrant parents. I was show the truth of what you are tell- artist in NZ? The play is wiring. green backwater. I alsupposed to be a doc- ing. When a mask is truly inhabited, I was the first Indian graduate from We plug into the ways had this lazy, quiet tor. So this idea of be- the audience goes on a richer and The New Zealand Drama School. It is audience to light time at my grandmothing an actor was never more profound journey, from real a fairly new voice. I occupy all the them up er’s place by the river. in my consciousness silliness to gut-wrenching tears. The niche (Laughs). But I do hesitate to mask allowsAnd them to gothe into that pigeonhole it completely as In Indian growing up, and resh from shaking up the business owned byprobaits richest people. here, na’sareconomy is over four times larger.

2013, realism, the too audience is richest It is interesting that theatre. are universal, bly rightly so. prove I was weea. community with audits of Delhi’s numbers areWith a country where India’s manThe wasthemes worth almost double guarded, with masks, the au- finding What was it like to perform in though you haven’t love, facing mortality. shy as a child, power firms and an FIR against painfully the much is held by toomore few. And they are helped of China’s richest man.

This is ayour cause for wordience can patronage. be really moved.

India for the first time? lived here, your Indian identity If we targeted audience performance(he for me is way toby be government country’s biggest industrialist to rejoicean at Indian the brilliance of generously Ac- ry, not a reason I know there was a tide pushing us permeateswho through theatre. we would have died a long time ago. someone elseadfor a while. must your not be named), Arvind Kejriwal cording to the Forbes rich list (2011), the 55 dol- our billionaires. influence my parents. of Indian Industri- lar-billionaires in India Whycontrolled do you break fourth wall towards India, but the economics of My biggestdressed What is wegenerating continue to trymany to dobilliois to the is Confederation overthe 17 per “If a country too a way, masks annul emotions, 12 years ago,many they attendees were go- byInsurprise. by interacting with whose the audience? it never worked out; you don’t work Till about es. maketotheatre is economy, beautiful, then funHe took cent of its GDP; compare that to China, naires relative the sizethat of its We never want4toper pretend and acting means emoting, how docontrolled India every year. It is on ticket prices, which is our bread ing back to “Dhanda ny, sad wrote and true. to zaroori haia (business is essenit isthe off-balance,” Ruchir Sharma, emerg115 billionaires a mere cent. that audience is notonly there.

Theatre lives those leader, contradictions work?medium-sized my Party and butter here. It was always going fairly strong tial),”pull. saidBut the NZ Aamis Aadmi re- Among economies, in Rusing markets head of Morgan Stanley, in his NANDINI NAIR “If a country’s average I disagree withofthat.sia My(29 mask that interaction between actorBreakout think to be a cultural exchange. I rely heav- home, I wouldn’t minding all thatofhegoing comes from a family per teachcent) andin Malaysia (20 per cent) did book Nations. small-time businessmen. “If government gets dollar-billionaires control more wealth than billionaire has amassed tens of billions, not into business, there is too much corruption,” in India. Both Russia and Malaysia are known merely billions, the lack of balance could lead continued the former bureaucrat who has for large oligopolies, with cronies of political to stagnation (of the economy).” ould Akhtari Bai, a charming tawaif sometimes been labelled a neo-nationaliser, rulers controlling But would building fortunes by indulging vast reserves of natural rewhoisblossomed the nationally the “only the private sector can create jobs for In- sources. India vanityofof patriarchs and patriarchs-inin dubiousinto company.

‘Enemies’ capitalism loved singer Akhtar,were be waiting dia’s youth.” His problem, he said, was not be termed feminism?

In the 2014 Forbes list,Begum three Indians At the heart of capitalism is a constant churn a feminist? with capitalism, but crony capitalism.

1914, Begum Akhtar waseconomist the only richer thancalled China’s richest man, though Chi- of Born ideasin and businesses, what the In the centenary year of this legendary sing- child of Mukhtari Bai, a small-time tawaif in But how much of a crony country are we compared to others? Is our industry ready to er of ghazal and thumri, her hometown Luck- Faizabad. Kidwai says the mother was called change and embrace clean capitalism? What now is mulling this question after a local Bade Sahib (‘his highness’) by the household, women’s group commemorated her as one of which was terrified of her tyrannical ways. policy carrots-and-sticks does it need? the region’s iconic feminists.

From a young age, Akhtari Bai’s earnings from “Begum Akhtar would not have understood song and dance had supported the family.

Where the rich are While evaluating cronyism, a good question the term ‘feminist’,” observes historian SaWhen her very attractive daughter joined to ask is how much of the country’s wealth is leem Kidwai. Although, having known her the Hindi film industry in Bombay and started personally, he asserts that the singer had lived enjoying late-night rides with friends on Malife on her own terms until her death in 1974, rine Drive and moonlit picnics on Juhu beach, revealing a true feminist soul.

Mukhtari Bai was in a state of panic. Afraid of He suspects that Begum Akhtar would have losing the goose that had laid so many golden broken into helpless giggles and thought it a eggs for her, she summoned her daughter and great joke to be called a feminist, despite the regained control over her life. fact that she had so smartly stepped away But Akhtari Bai managed to escape the mafrom the crippling circumstances of her birth triarchal hold by arranging a marriage for herand dared to be different. self into high society. She did this knowing When Madhavi Kuckreja and her team at Sa- that the price of respectability was a life in purnatkada, a non-profit organisation for wom- dah, and giving up the arts and individual freeen, were planning their annual cultural event, dom. Perhaps Begum Akhtar’s feminism lay they decided to celebrate the life and times of precisely in her understanding of all this. AfLucknow’s famous daughter on her 100th ter her marriage, she charmed her way into Not just a tawaif Begum Akhtar the hindu archive birth anniversary; and the lives of other wom- the hearts of those who mattered and was en who have all but been forgotten by history. soon considered an equal by even the most suBut is Begum Akhtar truly a feminist? After percilious. She did all this, but she never lost all, she earned the title of begum, or lady, only the freedom to be herself. She reigned over after marriage to a ‘respectable’ lawyer. She classical arts with her unforgettable ghazals, was born into a community seen as one of the thumris and dadras. abettors of patriarchy.

Her manners were impeccable and she was Although, like all tawaifs, she came from a loved for her generosity. She may not have matrilineal society. Children were known by seen herself as one, but Begum Akhtar was their mother’s name, and the community cel- nevertheless a feminist because she conebrated the birth of the girl child. Daughters sciously created a path for herself using her inherited property, controlled incomes and tremendous talent, but without compromismoved around town with freedom. In 19th ing on her dignity. She was unconventional century Lucknow, the tawaif enjoyed a status and fearless in asserting her choices despite that was perhaps superior to that of the so- her gender. called respectable the who elitehas forbeen theyvocal about corruption in India’s power corridors and A mixed moneybag The Bandra Kurla Complex towers over the burgeoning slums of Dharavi in Mumbai, Clean sweep If Arvindwomen Kejriwal,of a man mehru jaffer (© Women’s Feature Service) meeta ahlawat India’s wealthiest city bloomberg/dhiraj singh political parties, elected, would the corporate boardrooms be astir? had their ownisincome.

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‘Anarchist’ Arvind Kejriwal thinks it’s not on, the country’s GDP groans under its weight and the polity is corroded by it… But is India Inc ready yet to pull the plug on cronyism and embrace clean capitalism?

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Fearless feminist of thumri ND-X _ A

Begum Akhtar would very likely have laughed off any such suggestion, but her life in music is emblematic of the spirit of gender rights

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ber to tamarind pastehurdle and kasiThis brings uskernel to the powder most crucial to mi (a capitalism fermented in concoction ironfinancing rust and clean India: the of crony jaggery). of political parties, which is the backbone of Paraphrasing Michelangelo, Shettar talksfor of corruption.

Research by the Association taking away Reforms all the excess to find the form hidDemocratic shows alarming opacity denfunding: inside. He applies it in 75 referred per centtoofstone, partyshe funds come also to other materials. to the from ‘unknown sources’,When going“talking by the Income material, pushthe it over a little and knock it Tax ReturnI with Election Commission. over edge,” she What Thethe Congress andsays. the BJP areculminates the biggestisof-a bit of an with illusion where her between materialsthem seemtoto fenders, ₹3,000 crore behave the exact opposite their truethere nature, tally unaccounted for. Onofthis issue is where wood floats,among metal attempts fly and broad consensus parties: to they see threads form a strong network. has led to themselves above scrutiny.

TheyThis hide behind her 19th workcentury being described critics variously the argumentbythat their donor as ethereal, poised, fluid, almost base is too large, and thepoetic, donations toowhimsmall sical, though never frivolous. for them to maintain proper accounts.

Works like party ‘Fire incan therightfully belly’ follow her sigKejriwal’s claim the naturehigh style ground of suspending installations, moral on this her issue: its crowdone thatfunding harks back to her at the sourced model hasstudent left the days old school KarnatakaGoing Chitrakala stunned. into theParishath, Lok Sabha Bangalore elections, from where she graduated with MastersKejin corrupt political funding is set to abecome Sculpture in 2000.

“As that a student, I used to riwal’s big pitch to show Congress and BJP make that had topopular be disStigma of doing business are thesmall same:sculptures Mukesh Ambani is the played on pedestal to bethis seen.

This ended up If our leaders are serious about promoting symbol heauses to create equivalence. clean capitalism, they can start by removing making them look heavy. I was also playing with gravity. All my imagination the word “socialist” from the preamble. Cling- At thebalance electionand races is three-dimensional, that’s installaing to an economic system (if only on paper) In the likely scenario that thehow Aamthe Aadmi Partions began to be suspended,” shecauses says. some that has failed the world over, we display a da- ty wins a majority in Delhi, and suspensions works differ maging hypocrisy and unwillingness to learn keyThe upsets in the Lokmake Sabhaher elections, it will evalerycreate time.a“‘Just bit boardrooms. more’ has been shown from mistakes. so stir ina the AAP’s chalfour times and peoplewithout have told me Further, it is this socialist consensus at the lenge will be to each keeptime, expanding black that it looks different.

The works begin to detime of independence that attached a stigma money and not get co-opted into the “system”. their own physicality.

When for a work susto doing business, gave birth to the vile license fine But is Indian business ready the is clean pended, you can lookIf at it in threw three up ways — raj, embedded cronyism, prevented mass en- capitalism challenge? politics Aam either like it isdoes floating, flying high orhave like itits is trepreneurship and kept India a poor nation. Aadmi Party, Indian business fallinginsurgents down,” sheready explains. old artThe best brains moved to foreign shores, own to The take37-year on the old stallations now,a occupied by a lone artist ist has talked elsewhere how her works are where theyand found free market guard?

Fromof the lukewarm recepassistant, who brings out juice and biscuits. “drawings intion space”. for their ideas. to Kejriwal’s speech, it seems To understand her work, I canAsnow only rely Her room-sized take precise We were left with the lees. they areworks still nervous of this plannew, on her words andlicensed images and of her drawings to install, in the socialist State ha-installations ning and detailed unknown element over like which Between them, that have been exhibited across the world and ‘Vasanta’, made of beeswax rassed legitimate entrepreneurs, they from don’thundreds have much control.

Congress and BJP have a permanentcronies place at the Mu- pellets and dyed the ofold init wasfound the unscrupulous Modi strings. and the Is BJP areprocess the safe, have ₹3,000 crore of seums of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and stalling these, a work itself, I wonder. who thrived; over time they made school betinfor India Inc. It’s Shetbusy unaccounted funds San Francisco, thewhich Kiran Nadar she likes see the work as one lots of money,and with they Museum of tar tells me filling the to coffers of the potential Art, Delhi, andstatus elsewhere.

Like in the works at whole unit, winning though ithorse, doesn’thoping always remain bought social and became for reher ongoing ‘Between sky and earth’ so, “The work acquires its owntopersona, a life role models. Ashow vicious cycle ofthe croturns if he comes power. Small at the was Talwar Gallery, Delhi — all in wood — of its own.” Her deliberations space letalso the nyism created. wonder then, thaton corporates Shettar’s art practice focuses on the physicaliviewer political navigateparties between her suspended To promote clean capitalism, India has to joined in demanding that ty of materials.

Her works have always comworks; the movements of people, their embrace and celebrate capitalism with all its funding remains opaque: they feareven political bined the natural, the vendetta breath, and thebacked light cast imperfections, ratherthe thanindustrial treating it and as a necif they the from wrongwindows, horse. all traditional beeswax, sawdust, these the way the myopic work looks essary evil in—afrom constitutionally socialist wood, State.

But change ultimately, it’s this viewthroughof Indimud, to latex, rub- an out corporates the day. “I find interestOnecotton can argue thatmetal, China PVC is a tubing, communist that those holds dynamics them back from ing,” says this of skylights.

State, but has taken to capitalism with greatness.

Thelover corrupt, crony system disThough the materials Shettar both employs are aplomb. So why does India need a constitu- suades good people from joining politics locally sourced,professions her works that havecreate never entry been tional amendment? Because India is a democ- and business: distinctively ‘Indian’ unlike works of can her racy that derives its spirit from the barriers for talented, honestthe individuals contemporaries like Subodh Gupta andup Bharti Constitution; China derives its spirit from the only remain mediocre.

By not taking the Kher. “I am so comfortable with my identity consensus within the Party and the vision of clean capitalism challenge, by continuing to thatits I have never felt the its leaders. No Indian leader will ever have the put faithnever in thequestioned old schoolit,idea of mutual need to say hey,with I’m Indian, lookIndia at me,” she overarching authority of Deng Xiaoping, back-scratching politicians, Inc has says, decided dismissing the question of identity. whose vision turned around his country’s eco- only to wallow in its own mediocrity.

We talk of titling They beguilnomic direction. A visionary Indian leader will Capitalism’s imageworks. problem in carry India is coming namesbylike light bubstill need constitutional backing. pounded the‘Sun-sneezers parsimony ofblow its capitalists. bles’ andWorld ‘Me, no, not me, buyeven me, India ranks 133 in the Giving Index, eat me,(109) wear me, me, me,Prino, Bankrolling politics below Bangladesh and have Nepal (115). me’, namesas that come into beBeyond the Constitution, India’s competition vate charity not contributions a percentage of sometime over the months laws need to be strengthened and implement- GDP are onlying 0.4 per cent here, compared with years sheUS. spends one ed seriously. While The Competition Act of 1.3 inover the UKand and 2.2 in the In 2011,on corpoI push material work. was There isn’tbillion a process, 2002 is a big improvement from earlier legis-and rate philanthropy only $1.5 dollars a little knock it thoughtoshe says, “I findits that lations, it took seven more years for it to come India according Bain, though 46when richover thein edge I listen classical music, or mayinto force and replace the obsolete Monopo- est people had a netto worth of $176 billion. whenyet: I amthe reading a particular lies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act. But there be is hope 2012 Bain report my high-net-worth verbal formulations are Experts have pointed out that the new act showed thatbook, younger Indians, better.” still leaves too many legal ambiguities, thus fa- especially those below the age of 30, stand out has been away from Sagara, workvouring lawyers and large firms that can hire in Shettar their commitment to ‘give back’.

Education ingthefrenetically and cause, putting up shows, for them. For example, a large firm or cartel may is most favoured followed by food nearly a month, living the gypsy life. “When get away with abusing the competition laws if and shelter.

There’s reason to believe India’s I’m not working,of I feel like a different person, I its lawyers can prove their client’s “contribu- next generation capitalists and billionaires feel be lost,” says.stock: She clearly cannot waitinto tion to the (sic) economic development”. will of ashe better they will be more return in to causes her studio.

But the big story also lies in the seven-year volved and demand cleaner systems ‘Between earth’ delay before The Competition Act came into for(Ranjani politicalShettar’s donations, eventheif sky theand current runs at Talwar Gallery, Delhi, till March 29) force: both the NDA and UPA governments crop arethe happy with the status quo. went slow, unwilling to upset the big corpomitra mustafijournalist is a journalist, deepa bhasthi is a freelance based rates that bankrolled their 2004 and 2009 sambuddha Fulbright scholar and media entrepreneur in Bangalore election campaigns. caught in a game of whack-a-mole: every time a competitor comes up, he has to dole out big cash, or risk defeat. This keeps him in check; eventually one competitor holds out and creates a company bigger than Facebook. That, in effect, is the cycle of creative destruction: what is bad for the big capitalist is often good for the entire capitalist system.

If you track the rich lists of the US, China or European nations over a period of time, you will see a constant churn of names — newcomers entering and incumbents dropping out. In India, you will mostly see the same families over decades, occasionally disturbed by a new software billionaire.

So where is India going wrong in creating a clean capitalist system? Let’s start with the preamble to the Constitution: “We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic…”

Strong as thread Shettar’s installation titled ‘Interplay’ talwar art gallery

Cutting-edge artist Ranjani Shettar on making wood float in air, metal fly and threads soar The babu and Mr Moneybags Raghuram Rajan with Mukesh Ambani at IIM Bangalore’s annual convocation last April gp sampath kumar

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Suspended in motion Shettar’s work combines the natural, industrial and traditional talwar art gallery

Capital gains Had Mark Zuckerberg been in India and greased the palms of the powers-that-be, would he still have had to pay a whopping $19 billion in cash and stock for WhatsApp? reuters/dado ruvic

n artist’s studio is perhaps what the inside of a writer’s head must look like. Materials of many kinds, paints, pencils, half-finished drawings, threads, rusting metal and the planned disorder must resemble the words that haven’t yet arranged themselves into a sequence. Though, when I meet the sculptor Ranjani Shettar in her sometimes-studio and residence in Bangalore, there is none of the chaos I had hoped to find. All her works are out for shows; her workspace-cum-home is roughly six hours from Bangalore, in a village “off the map”, near Sagara in central Karnataka. The office where we sit is huge, stark white, high ceilinged to accommodate her large in-

Joseph Schumpeter termed creative destruction. But disproportionately powerful crony billionaires collude with policymakers to marginalise the competition: this deters innovation, and hurts the creative destruction process. So, India’s crony billionaires are actually the biggest enemies of capitalism.

Imagine Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as a crony capitalist: he realises that WhatsApp is a competitor taking away much of his younger audience, and business. So, he colludes with powerful friends on Capitol Hill to tweak policy to ban instant messaging over smartphones. The reason given is “national security”. Instead of coughing up $19 billion to WhatsApp’s founders, as Zuckerberg did last month, he could have gotten away by paying $1 billion each to some of the Republicans and Democrats on the Hill.

But the fact that Zuckerberg had to write WhatsApp a fat cheque is incentive for other innovators to create products that threaten the big capitalist. Then, Zuckerberg gets

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Gulaab gang Village elders of Nandgaon chant mantras at the Ladliji Temple in Barsana

The colour purple A child throws gulal at the devotees at the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan

Smear campaign The many-hued melee between the people of Barsana and Nandgaon

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The hand of god A devotee raises his hands in salutation at the Banke Bihari Temple in Vrindavan

Colours of March Holy child A young boy dressed up as Krishna, awaits his turn in the raas at Vrindavan

Rang de basanti A man immersed in a pool of colours made from the tesu flower at the Dauji Temple near Vrindavan

For two weeks every year, Brajbhoomi in Uttar Pradesh is, quite literally, a riot of colours

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oli is the biggest and brightest event in the calendar of Brajbhoomi or Braj — a cultural cluster held together by myth and by an unmarked area of 3,800 sq km, encompassing towns such as Vrindavan, Gokul, Barsana, Nandgaon, Govardhan and Mathura. Believed to be the land of Krishna, where the god-child was born and raised, here, in the weeks leading up to the festival, Brajwasis or the people of Braj, re-enact a centuries’ old tradition.

Celebrations begin a week before the national holiday. On the first day, men from Nandgaon travel to the neighbouring Barsana, impersonating Krishna visiting his beloved Radha. And as the clouds of pink and purple tint the skies, Barsana turns into a battleground. Retaliating against Krishna’s transgressions — legend has it that Krishna and his entourage stole the gopis’ clothes, while they were bathing in the Yamuna — local women rain blows with their laths (staff) on the men of Nandgaon. Lathmar holi, where the women drive the men away, is played out all over again the next day. This time, Nandgaon hits back with a vengeance. The cadence of the drums and the rivers of bhang make for a heady concoction as young and old are smeared in every shade of happiness. The colours are made of natural dyes, derived from the tesu flower.

Another peculiar tradition in Braj can be witnessed at the Prahlad temple in the village of Phalain. On the day before Holi, a local priest, who prays for 40 days in preparation, walks on burning coals. Trudging up to half-akilometre, he wears a chandan mala around his neck, a protective charm and family heirloom that has apparently been handed down through four centuries. The kinnar or crossdressing men, who dress as Radha and dance to the legends of the raas, are also a source of great entertainment throughout the festive week. Celebrations are, however, capped by women who tear the clothes of errant men throwing colours at them as part of the kapda phar holi tradition. All in jest, of course.

Having returned to Braj during Holi for the last six years, I notice that nothing ever changes here, except perhaps, the number of security personnel. This year, along with the teams of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) of the Uttar Pradesh Police, they have turned Braj into a fortress, even as the age-old battles between the sexes rages right under their gulalsmeared nose.

(Some of these photographs are on display at Gallery Sanskriti in Kolkata till March 31.) udit kulshreshtra is a Gurgaon-based visual artist and photographer

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Crony India shining

Guru from New Zealand

Jacob Rajan on being the weird masked Indian theatre guy who tickles and provokes the audience

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acob Rajan, born to Malayali parents based in New Zealand, is a founding partner, with Justin Lewis of Auckland-based theatre company, Indian Ink. Founded in 1997, the company is celebrated for its trilogy of plays Krishnan’s Dairy, The Candlestickmaker and The Pickle King. Performing in India for the very first time, playwright and actor Rajan brought The Guru of Chai to the International Theatre Festival of Kerala, held in Thrissur. Known for his clever use of masks from a set of teeth to Balinese masks, his theatre aims to create “serious laughter”.

Back in NZ and soon to head for a US tour, he speaks about his love for masks and being a niche within a niche. Extracts from the interview.

ily on my heritage and memories of India as source material for my work. So it was great to come to India and see what had changed.

back to India to live.

The mask has been a constant in your work over the decades. Why are you drawn to it?

What are your memories of India, Masks are mysterious. That is part of since you were born in Malaysia the allure. When you put a mask on, and moved to NZ as a child? there is an element of possession. All in one Jacob Rajan plays 17 characters in The Guru of Chai robert catto I have sort of touched base with In- Your ego disappears. As a performer dia about four times in my life, it is very seductive — to give yourself er would say the more you conceal and audience. In a way the play is sometimes for three to a new being, to lose the more you reveal. And with the just wiring. We plug into the audimonths, sometimes six yourself entirely. I mask, because your face is fixed, ence to light them up. months. And I mainly came to acting quite your eyes and body are thrown into stayed with family. Keralate. I am the son of im- relief. They amplify the emotions, to What does it mean to be an Indian la was always this lush migrant parents. I was show the truth of what you are tell- artist in NZ? The play is wiring. green backwater. I alsupposed to be a doc- ing. When a mask is truly inhabited, I was the first Indian graduate from We plug into the ways had this lazy, quiet tor. So this idea of be- the audience goes on a richer and The New Zealand Drama School. It is audience to light time at my grandmothing an actor was never more profound journey, from real a fairly new voice. I occupy all the them up er’s place by the river. in my consciousness silliness to gut-wrenching tears. The niche (Laughs). But I do hesitate to mask allowsAnd them to gothe into that pigeonhole it completely as In Indian growing up, and resh from shaking up the business owned byprobaits richest people. here, na’sareconomy is over four times larger.

2013, realism, the too audience is richest It is interesting that theatre. are universal, bly rightly so. prove I was we ea. community with audits of Delhi’s numbers areWith a country where India’s manThe wasthemes worth almost double guarded, with masks, the au- finding What was it like to perform in though you haven’t love, This facing mortality. shy as a child, power firms and an FIR against painfully the much is held by toomore few. And they are helped of China’s richest man. is ayour cause for wordience can patronage. be really moved.

India for the first time? lived here, your Indian identity If we targeted audience performance(he for me is way tobybe government country’s biggest industrialist to rejoicean at Indian the brilliance of generously Ac- ry, not a reason I know there was a tide pushing us permeates through theatre. we would have died a long time ago. someone elseadfor a while. who must your not be named), Arvind Kejriwal cording to the Forbes rich list (2011), the 55 dol- our billionaires. influence my parents. of Indian Industri- lar-billionaires in India Whycontrolled do you break fourth wall towards India, but the economics of My biggest What is wegenerating continue to to dobilliois to dressed the is Confederation overthe 17 per “If a country tootrymany a way, masks annul emotions, 12 years ago,many they attendees were go- byInsurprise. by interacting with whose the audience? it never worked out; you don’t work Till about es. maketotheatre is economy, beautiful,then funHe took cent of its GDP; compare that to China, naires relative the sizethat of its We never want4toper pretend and acting means emoting, how docontrolled India every year. It hai is a (business on ticket prices, which is our bread ing back to “Dhanda ny, sad wrote and true. to zaroori is essenit isthe off-balance,” Ruchir Sharma, emerg115 billionaires a mere cent. that audience is notonly there.

Theatre lives those leader, contradictions work?medium-sized my Party and butter here. It was always going fairly strong tial),”pull. said But the NZ AamisAadmi re- Among economies, in Rusing markets head of Morgan Stanley, in his NANDINI NAIR “If a country’s average I disagree withofthat.sia My(29 mask that interaction between actorBreakout think to be a cultural exchange. I rely heav- home, I wouldn’t minding all thatofhegoing comes from a family per teachcent) andin Malaysia (20 per cent) did book Nations. small-time businessmen. “If government gets dollar-billionaires control more wealth than billionaire has amassed tens of billions, not into business, there is too much corruption,” in India. Both Russia and Malaysia are known merely billions, the lack of balance could lead continued the former bureaucrat who has for large oligopolies, with cronies of political to stagnation (of the economy).” ould Akhtari Bai, a charming tawaif sometimes been labelled a neo-nationaliser, rulers controlling But would building fortunes by indulging vast reserves of natural rewhoisblossomed the nationally the “only the private sector can create jobs for In- sources. India vanityofof patriarchs and patriarchs-inin dubiousinto company.

‘Enemies’ capitalism loved singer Akhtar,were be waiting dia’s youth.” His problem, he said, was not be termed feminism?

In the 2014 Forbes list, Begum three Indians At the heart of capitalism is a constant churn a feminist? with capitalism, but crony capitalism.

1914, Begum Akhtar waseconomist the only richer thancalled China’s richest man, though Chi- of Born ideas in and businesses, what the In the centenary year of this legendary sing- child of Mukhtari Bai, a small-time tawaif in But how much of a crony country are we compared to others? Is our industry ready to er of ghazal and thumri, her hometown Luck- Faizabad. Kidwai says the mother was called change and embrace clean capitalism? What now is mulling this question after a local Bade Sahib (‘his highness’) by the household, women’s group commemorated her as one of which was terrified of her tyrannical ways. policy carrots-and-sticks does it need? the region’s iconic feminists.

From a young age, Akhtari Bai’s earnings from “Begum Akhtar would not have understood song and dance had supported the family.

Where the rich are While evaluating cronyism, a good question the term ‘feminist’,” observes historian SaWhen her very attractive daughter joined to ask is how much of the country’s wealth is leem Kidwai. Although, having known her the Hindi film industry in Bombay and started personally, he asserts that the singer had lived enjoying late-night rides with friends on Malife on her own terms until her death in 1974, rine Drive and moonlit picnics on Juhu beach, revealing a true feminist soul.

Mukhtari Bai was in a state of panic. Afraid of He suspects that Begum Akhtar would have losing the goose that had laid so many golden broken into helpless giggles and thought it a eggs for her, she summoned her daughter and great joke to be called a feminist, despite the regained control over her life. fact that she had so smartly stepped away But Akhtari Bai managed to escape the mafrom the crippling circumstances of her birth triarchal hold by arranging a marriage for herand dared to be different. self into high society. She did this knowing When Madhavi Kuckreja and her team at Sa- that the price of respectability was a life in purnatkada, a non-profit organisation for wom- dah, and giving up the arts and individual freeen, were planning their annual cultural event, dom. Perhaps Begum Akhtar’s feminism lay they decided to celebrate the life and times of precisely in her understanding of all this. AfLucknow’s famous daughter on her 100th ter her marriage, she charmed her way into Not just a tawaif Begum Akhtar the hindu archive birth anniversary; and the lives of other wom- the hearts of those who mattered and was en who have all but been forgotten by history. soon considered an equal by even the most suBut is Begum Akhtar truly a feminist? After percilious. She did all this, but she never lost all, she earned the title of begum, or lady, only the freedom to be herself. She reigned over after marriage to a ‘respectable’ lawyer. She classical arts with her unforgettable ghazals, was born into a community seen as one of the thumris and dadras. abettors of patriarchy.

Her manners were impeccable and she was Although, like all tawaifs, she came from a loved for her generosity. She may not have matrilineal society. Children were known by seen herself as one, but Begum Akhtar was their mother’s name, and the community cel- nevertheless a feminist because she conebrated the birth of the girl child. Daughters sciously created a path for herself using her inherited property, controlled incomes and tremendous talent, but without compromismoved around town with freedom. In 19th ing on her dignity. She was unconventional century Lucknow, the tawaif enjoyed a status and fearless in asserting her choices despite that was perhaps superior to that of the so- her gender. calledsweep respectable thewho elitehas forbeen they A mixed moneybag The Bandra Kurla Complex towers over the burgeoning slums of Dharavi in Mumbai, Clean If Arvindwomen Kejriwal,of a man vocal about corruption in India’s power corridors and mehru jaffer (© Women’s Feature Service) meeta ahlawat India’s wealthiest city bloomberg/dhiraj singh political parties, elected, would the corporate boardrooms be astir? had their ownisincome.

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‘Anarchist’ Arvind Kejriwal thinks it’s not on, the country’s GDP groans under its weight and the polity is corroded by it… But is India Inc ready yet to pull the plug on cronyism and embrace clean capitalism?

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Fearless feminist of thumri ND-X _ A

Begum Akhtar would very likely have laughed off any such suggestion, but her life in music is emblematic of the spirit of gender rights

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berThis to tamarind pastehurdle and kasibrings uskernel to the powder most crucial to mi (a fermented concoction ironfinancing rust and clean capitalism in India: theof crony jaggery). of political parties, which is the backbone of Paraphrasing Michelangelo, Shettar talksfor of corruption.

Research by the Association taking away Reforms all the excess to find the form hidDemocratic shows alarming opacity denfunding: inside. He applies it in 75 referred per centtoofstone, partyshe funds come also to other materials. to the from ‘unknown sources’,When going“talking by the Income material, pushthe it over a little and knock it Tax ReturnI with Election Commission. over edge,” she What Thethe Congress andsays. the BJP areculminates the biggestisof-a bit of an with illusion where her between materialsthem seemtoto fenders, ₹3,000 crore behave the exact opposite their truethere nature, tally unaccounted for. Onofthis issue is where wood floats,among metal attempts fly and broad consensus parties: to they see threads formabove a strong network. hasbehind led to themselves scrutiny.

TheyThis hide her work being described bythat critics variously the 19th century argument their donor as ethereal, poised, fluid, almost base is too large, and thepoetic, donations toowhimsmall sical, though never frivolous. for them to maintain proper accounts.

Works like party ‘Fire incan therightfully belly’ follow her sigKejriwal’s claim the nature high style ground of suspending installations, moral on this her issue: its crowdone thatfunding harks back to her at the sourced model hasstudent left thedays old school KarnatakaGoing Chitrakala stunned. into theParishath, Lok SabhaBangalore elections, from where she graduated with MastersKejin corrupt political funding is set to abecome Sculpture in 2000.

“As that a student, I used to riwal’s big pitch to show Congress and BJP make that had to popular be disStigma of doing business are thesmall same:sculptures Mukesh Ambani is the played on pedestal to bethis seen.

This ended up If our leaders are serious about promoting symbol heauses to create equivalence. clean capitalism, they can start by removing making them look heavy. I was also playing with gravity. All my imagination the word “socialist” from the preamble. Cling- At thebalance electionand races is three-dimensional, that’s installaing to an economic system (if only on paper) In the likely scenario that thehow Aamthe Aadmi Partions began to be suspended,” shecauses says. some that has failed the world over, we display a da- ty wins a majority in Delhi, and suspensions works differ maging hypocrisy and unwillingness to learn keyThe upsets in the Lokmake Sabhaher elections, it willevalerycreate time. a“‘Just bit boardrooms. more’ has been shown from mistakes. so stir ina the AAP’s chalfour times and peoplewithout have told me Further, it is this socialist consensus at the lenge will be toeach keeptime, expanding black that it looks different.

The works begin to detime of independence that attached a stigma money and not get co-opted into the “system”. their own physicality.

When for a work susto doing business, gave birth to the vile license fine But is Indian business ready the isclean pended, you can lookIf at it in threw three up ways — raj, embedded cronyism, prevented mass en- capitalism challenge? politics Aam either like it isdoes floating, flying high orhave like itits is trepreneurship and kept India a poor nation. Aadmi Party, Indian business fallinginsurgents down,” sheready explains. old artThe best brains moved to foreign shores, own to The take37-year on the old stallations now,a occupied by a lone artist ist has talkedguard? elsewhere how her works are where theyand found free market Fromofthe lukewarm recepassistant, who brings out juice and biscuits. “drawings intion space”. for their ideas. to Kejriwal’s speech, it seems To understand her work, I canAsnow only rely Her room-sized take precise We were left with the lees. they areworks still nervous of thisplannew, on her words andlicensed images and of her drawings to install, in the socialist State ha-installations ning and detailed unknown element over like which Between them, that have been exhibited across the world and ‘Vasanta’, made of beeswax rassed legitimate entrepreneurs, they from don’thundreds have much control.

Congress and BJP have a permanentcronies place at the Mu- pellets and dyed the ofold init wasfound the unscrupulous Modi strings. and theIsBJP areprocess the safe, have ₹3,000 crore of seums of Modern (MoMA) in New York and stalling these, a work itself, I wonder. who thrived; over Art time they made school betinfor India Inc. It’s Shetbusy unaccounted funds San Francisco, thewhich Kiran Nadar she likes see the work as one lots of money,and with they Museum of tar tells me filling the to coffers of the potential Art, Delhi, andstatus elsewhere.

Like in the works at whole unit, winning though it horse, doesn’thoping always remain bought social and became for reher ongoing show ‘Between sky and earth’ so, “The work acquires its owntopersona, a life role models. A vicious cycle ofthe croturns if he comes power. Small at the was Talwar Gallery, Delhi — all in wood — of its own.” Her deliberations space letalso the nyism created. wonder then, thaton corporates Shettar’s art practice on the physicaliviewer political navigateparties between her suspended To promote clean focuses capitalism, India has to joined in demanding that ty of materials.

Her works have always comworks; the movements of people, even their embrace and celebrate capitalism with all its funding remains opaque: they fear political bined the natural, the vendetta breath, and the backed light cast windows, imperfections, ratherthe thanindustrial treating itand as a necif they thefrom wrong horse. all traditional beeswax, sawdust, the way the myopic work looks throughessary evil in—afrom constitutionally socialistwood, State. these Butchange ultimately, it’s this view of Indimud, to latex, rub- an out corporates the day. “I find interestOnecotton can argue thatmetal, China PVC is a tubing, communist that those holdsdynamics them back from ing,” says this lover of skylights.

State, but has taken to capitalism with greatness.

The corrupt, crony system disThough the materials employs are aplomb. So why does India need a constitu- suades good people from Shettar joining both politics locally sourced,professions her works that havecreate never entry been tional amendment? Because India is a democ- and business: distinctively ‘Indian’ unlike works of can her racy that derives its spirit from the barriers for talented, honestthe individuals contemporaries like Subodh Gupta andup Bharti Constitution; China derives its spirit from the only remain mediocre.

By not taking the Kher. “I am so comfortable my identity consensus within the Party and the vision of clean capitalism challenge, with by continuing to thatits I have never felt the its leaders. No Indian leader will ever have the put faithnever in thequestioned old schoolit,idea of mutual need to say hey,with I’m Indian, lookIndia at me,” she overarching authority of Deng Xiaoping, back-scratching politicians, Inc has says, decided dismissing the question of identity. whose vision turned around his country’s eco- only to wallow in its own mediocrity.

We talk of titling They nomic direction. A visionary Indian leader will Capitalism’s imageworks. problem in carry India beguilis coming namesbylike light bubstill need constitutional backing. pounded the‘Sun-sneezers parsimony ofblow its capitalists. bles’ andWorld ‘Me, no, not me, buyeven me, India ranks 133 in the Giving Index, eat me,(109) wear me, me, me, Prino, Bankrolling politics below Bangladesh and have Nepal (115). me’, namesas that come into beBeyond the Constitution, India’s competition vate charity not contributions a percentage of sometime over the months laws need to be strengthened and implement- GDP are onlying 0.4 per cent here, compared with years sheUS. spends one ed seriously. While The Competition Act of 1.3 inover the UKand and 2.2 in the In 2011,on corpoI push material work. was There isn’tbillion a process, 2002 is a big improvement from earlier legis-and rate philanthropy only $1.5 dollars a little knock it thoughtoshe says, “I findits that lations, it took seven more years for it to come India according Bain, though 46when richover thein edge I listen classical music, or mayinto force and replace the obsolete Monopo- est people had a netto worth of $176 billion. whenyet: I amthe reading a particular lies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act. But there be is hope 2012 Bain report my high-net-worth verbal formulations are Experts have pointed out that the new act showed thatbook, younger Indians, better.” still leaves too many legal ambiguities, thus fa- especially those below the age of 30, stand out has been away from Sagara, workvouring lawyers and large firms that can hire in Shettar their commitment to ‘give back’.

Education ingthefrenetically and cause, putting up shows, for them. For example, a large firm or cartel may is most favoured followed by food nearly a month, living the gypsy life. “When get away with abusing the competition laws if and shelter.

There’s reason to believe India’s I’m not working,of I feel like a different person, I its lawyers can prove their client’s “contribu- next generation capitalists and billionaires feel lost,” says.stock: She clearly cannot wait into tion to the (sic) economic development”. will be of she a better they will be more return to studio.

But the big story also lies in the seven-year volved in her causes and demand cleaner systems ‘Between earth’ delay before The Competition Act came into for(Ranjani politicalShettar’s donations, eventheifsky theand current runs at Talwar Gallery, Delhi, till March 29) force: both the NDA and UPA governments crop arethe happy with the status quo. went slow, unwilling to upset the big corpomitra mustafijournalist is a journalist, deepa bhasthi is a freelance based rates that bankrolled their 2004 and 2009 sambuddha Fulbright scholar and media entrepreneur in Bangalore election campaigns. caught in a game of whack-a-mole: every time a competitor comes up, he has to dole out big cash, or risk defeat. This keeps him in check; eventually one competitor holds out and creates a company bigger than Facebook. That, in effect, is the cycle of creative destruction: what is bad for the big capitalist is often good for the entire capitalist system.

If you track the rich lists of the US, China or European nations over a period of time, you will see a constant churn of names — newcomers entering and incumbents dropping out. In India, you will mostly see the same families over decades, occasionally disturbed by a new software billionaire.

So where is India going wrong in creating a clean capitalist system? Let’s start with the preamble to the Constitution: “We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic…”

Strong as thread Shettar’s installation titled ‘Interplay’ talwar art gallery

Cutting-edge artist Ranjani Shettar on making wood float in air, metal fly and threads soar The babu and Mr Moneybags Raghuram Rajan with Mukesh Ambani at IIM Bangalore’s annual convocation last April gp sampath kumar

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Suspended in motion Shettar’s work combines the natural, industrial and traditional talwar art gallery

Capital gains Had Mark Zuckerberg been in India and greased the palms of the powers-that-be, would he still have had to pay a whopping $19 billion in cash and stock for WhatsApp? reuters/dado ruvic

n artist’s studio is perhaps what the inside of a writer’s head must look like. Materials of many kinds, paints, pencils, half-finished drawings, threads, rusting metal and the planned disorder must resemble the words that haven’t yet arranged themselves into a sequence. Though, when I meet the sculptor Ranjani Shettar in her sometimes-studio and residence in Bangalore, there is none of the chaos I had hoped to find. All her works are out for shows; her workspace-cum-home is roughly six hours from Bangalore, in a village “off the map”, near Sagara in central Karnataka. The office where we sit is huge, stark white, high ceilinged to accommodate her large in-

Joseph Schumpeter termed creative destruction. But disproportionately powerful crony billionaires collude with policymakers to marginalise the competition: this deters innovation, and hurts the creative destruction process. So, India’s crony billionaires are actually the biggest enemies of capitalism.

Imagine Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as a crony capitalist: he realises that WhatsApp is a competitor taking away much of his younger audience, and business. So, he colludes with powerful friends on Capitol Hill to tweak policy to ban instant messaging over smartphones. The reason given is “national security”. Instead of coughing up $19 billion to WhatsApp’s founders, as Zuckerberg did last month, he could have gotten away by paying $1 billion each to some of the Republicans and Democrats on the Hill.

But the fact that Zuckerberg had to write WhatsApp a fat cheque is incentive for other innovators to create products that threaten the big capitalist. Then, Zuckerberg gets

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anna mm vetticad

FILM FATALE

dipankar

Spinster over shrimati

DEFENCE B MINISTRY AUTHORISES USE OF FILES AS WEAPONS

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try not to sneeze as the bearer puts the files on the table and backs away.

They should have given him gloves.

The files are dank and mottled, and covered in years of dust. I can see mold and fungus. Some of the thicker files could well be breeding other forms of life. As chemical weapons, these would be lethal. If deployed in bulk, they would be weapons of mass destruction. The Defence Ministry babu smiles at me from across the table. “As you can see, we are well-prepared,” he says.

“What led you to take this step?” I ask.

“In 2014, China’s defence budget increased by 12 per cent to $132 billion, the biggest increase since 2010,” he says, “We increased ours by 5 per cent, to $37 billion.

As a result we’ve been unable to do certain things, like buy new batteries for subma-

achelorette, bachelorina, bachelor with the hero. Though there are exceptions girl, singleton, single woman…in a such as Vidya Balan, Deepika Padukone and bid to avoid the dreaded ‘spinster’, Priyanka Chopra (when she chooses well), the English language users opt for a filmography of their contemporary Katrina string of alternative expressions to denote an Kaif typifies the Hindi film heroine’s job: to be unmarried female human. Their concerns are a pretty showpiece the hero falls in love with, easily explained. After all, social prejudice has like Kat’s Aaliya was in Dhoom 3 last year. lent meanings to that word, going way beBollywood would argue that its sexism yond a woman’s marital status. Unlike the merely reflects real life where a woman’s idencoolth associated with the male ‘bachelor’, tity is expected to revolve around whether or over the centuries, ‘spinster’ has come to not she’s a wife; where a man is always the stand for a neurotic, frustrated, ill-tempered, neutral ‘Mr’ revealing nothing to strangers despairing, unattractive woman, unhappy at about his marital status, whereas most Indibeing unmarried past what is prescribed by ans continue to prefix women’s names with consensus as the socially permissible age.

‘Mrs’ (married) or ‘Miss’ (unmarried) alBy dodging the word, liberals though ‘Ms’ (marital status unarerines. possibly succumbing to the For the army and the navy, the modfor 11 years. specified) It contains is also available. very biases they no doubt decry. by 4 and 3 bacteria that can eat ernisation budget has shrunk Queen’s Rani doesn’t want to be That’s a subject dis- of the ruthrough steel.

We per cent.

Givenfor theanother depreciation someone’s Shrimati for social recussion.

Forreduction the moment though, have developed a pee, the is much more. ThisTo is be fair, demption.

She has the confidence Bollywoodvariety is not of delivery let’shelping turn our attention to how better.” us defend the country to be a spinster — and yes, I insist alone in steering mainstream Bollywood “Against the Chinese?”keeps I ask. systems. Inon case using that word. of spinsters or attack, away “No, fromagainst spinsters doggedly of a naval ourasarmed forces. clear Our priThe arrival of Rani in Bollystereotyping them officials as well-meaning speakersis to prevent ministry mary functionEnglish in the ministry wood is a welcome baby step for do.aSingle women in code Bollywood coup. Our penal is from the ninewill paddle an into the that still insists on piindustry tend to be 20-somethings who are ocean in rubber ding- men and women. For teenth century. The forces have weapons geonholing in from the process of being courted, WWII. They are ahead of us. If they behies and hurl them at instance, the carefree bachelor falling intoo loveadvanced, or gettingthey married enemy vessels. come could get ideas. played They

by Saif Ali Khan in film afto men during their1947, films.so Rare willfilm also (Hum be fired There’s beenthe nocourse coupofsince ouris ter Tum, Salaam Namaste, Love Aaj thestrategy Bollywood story dwellsWe at also length onaa Kal, must be that working. have from guns has of no spinster equivalent. CineCocktail) heroine’s singledom celebrates it, or gives ma contingency plan and for external defence.” naval destroyand language respond to social diktats. us a leading young or old — who has And He pickslady up a—file.

I try not to look.

Small ers, so, launchHum Tum’s Karan and Cocktail’s Gaupointedly opted to stay unmarried. in this ed from subcreatures are crawling all over it.It’s “This file tam would be widely described as a scenario that Vikas Bahl’s Queen, now “ladies’ marines,man” and with no pejorapertains todirector submarine purchase,” he says, in theatres, springs a surprise us. hands “It has been untouched byon human dropped tive intent. If Karan had a kg rangarajan Queen’s atypical happily-ever-after brings us female clone, what a Rani Mehra (Kangna Ranaut) who is persist- would she be though? ently single and pleased about it. This is a de- ‘Gentlemen’s woman’ parture from the Hindi film norm of a (a non-existent woman’s position as the heroine being estab- term) or ‘slut’? lished in terms of her romantic relationship Cocktail’s heroine ear Ally, My father-in-law recently purchased a gun. Should I worry?

Regards, Prakash, Bengaluru

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ASK ALLY Ally Subramaniam was born in south-west Sundarbans, but was blown away by a cyclone and washed up on the shore near ChenMy way Kangna as nai. He was adopted byMehra a poor Rani in Queen (right) jives to her Brahmin family from Tirupur.

He tune, unlikeat can answer all yourown questions Veronica in Cocktail askallysubramaniam@gmail.com (above) who, sadly,

Dear Prakash, It depends on how long he has known you. Were you married recently? Have you been meeting him frequently? If so, there is cause for worry. In your place, I would hide behind my wife as much as possible.

Alternately, he may have purchased it for use in crisis situations. The best way to verify this is to cause a crisis situation. You could hide behind a curtain and leap out at him, perhaps while making a humorous remark. Alternately, you could creep up behind him, put a finger in his back, and shout ‘Hands up!’ Either of these methods should help you understand the situation.

Yours truly, Ally

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Veronica exemplifies this hypocritical attitude. Humour emanating from sexually promiscuous heroes is commonplace in Bollywood. Cocktail was unusual in that it featured a promiscuous leading lady, adopted an equally non-judgmental stance towards her, and made her sex life — like the hero’s — a source of amusement. Post-interval though, the film descended into crowd-pleasing orthodoxy with the happy-go-lucky Veronica getting neurotically desperate for marriage, while the man reSHOVON CHOWDHURY is mains his easygoing self. chief Truthdigger and author Cocktail’s purported liberalism cloaked its of The Competent Authority deep-seated narrow-mindedness that was mirrored by a less high-profile film in 2011. In Turning 30,Gul Panag’s trite Naina turns frantic from Airlines when she turns 30, and Indian shreds her dignity as aircraft,age, lent bydisinterest, the she panics about middle male Aviation Ministry.” menopause (already?), wrinkles and drooping “Supposing you breasts. run out ask.

To be fair, Bollywood is of notfiles?” aloneI in steering babus laughthem. up- Popclear of spinsters The or stereotyping roariously.

“There is litular culture in the West often reflects similar risk pretending of that. As ato last sentiments eventle while do othresort, some of us are erwise. British writer Helen Fielding’s bestsellwilling to become aming Bridget Jones’s Diary and its film adaptation the Bo-lauded starring Reneemunition.

Zellweger Since were widely fors guns have no ammo, for their supposedly free-thinking portrayal of feasibility are being con- oba single woman,studies yet Bridget was literally ducted evaluate if babusgoals: can be fired a boysessed to with three primary getting from them.”

I tuck my pencil friend, getting a date, gettingbehind laid. my ear and leave hissuperstar room, reeling from the has a Hollywood Sandra Bullock horrifying image of babus descending track record of playing stereotypifrom the sky, en masse, at high(Miss velocity.

If cal spinsters Congeniality, that doesn’t beat the Two Chinese, will.ProposWeeksnothing Notice, The al). Being career-oriented for her characters inevitably translates into being testy, gauche and — in the case of Two Weeks Notice — miserably eating pizzas at home alone.

Oceans away in Bollywood, Queen “We attacked him fromturns the backside be- nose up its regal cause it was safer. Because his With heavythe inat that of cliché. beard we were unable to recognise him. It dustry now planning to was only when he started talking about novel make Charles Dickens’ NREGA that we realised who it was.”

Great Expectations into a film starDoctors atAditya AIIMSRoy have reported ring Katrina and Kapur, it would be thattothe is now of interesting seepatient if Dickens’ Miss out Havisham is “Despitetelling severalorblows updated danger. for a modern she is reto the seems to classic: be tained as she was head, in thishe 19th century a quitewho fine,”gave saidup one them. tragic spinster onoflife simply be“Wejilted haveher. advised him to cause a man C’mon Bollywood, have two evolved Crocin beyond tablets England daily prove that you’ve of one in week, to your 150 yearsfor agothe andnext Cocktail 2012.and Here’s thatyou his don’t Gandhi cap is chance toensure prove that equate unmaralways ried women withproperly cobwebslaundered and gloom.in the future.” anna mm vetticad is the author of The Adventures

DELHI POLICE LATHICHARGE RAHUL GANDHI BY MISTAKE!

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he capital was in uproar after an inadvertent lathi-charge on national icon Rahul Gandhi late last evening in Delhi. The mishap occurred as he was emerging from the home of a Dalit woman in east Delhi. The lady’s son, a youth studying in Class IV, had written ‘Tanu weds Manu’ on his cap, leading to the unfortunate misunderstanding. The dim lighting and the fact that his cap was not properly laundered also contributed to the tragedy.

“We have standing instructions to arrest anyone wearing a Gandhi cap with slogans,” said Constable Ram Manohar Pande,

turns rather The Investigator is a fortnightly desperate round-up of all things droll and newsy. All views are personal. Really personal t@shovonc

dipankar

Queen’s atypical happily-ever-after is a refreshing change in a sea of gender clichés

of an Intrepid Film Critic t @annavetticad

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saturday, march 15,15, 2014 saturday, march 2014

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uthor of five novels, Kamila Shamsie is now out with A God in Every Stone (Bloomsbury). Essentially set in Peshawar, of the early 20th century, with an interlude in London, the book pivots around a young Englishwoman Vivian Spencer who works as a nurse during the War but whose love is archaeology; and Qayyum Gul, a soldier, who loses an eye and is mired in conflict.

Here, Shamsie talks about “following the brush”, deleting eight months of work and her fluid identities. Extracts from the interview:

In A God in Every Stone, there are three generations of archaeologists; Tahsin Bey, Vivian Spencer and Najeeb Gul. Do you feel like the fourth-generation archaeologist?

That is interesting. This book felt like a weird kind of excavation, I started off knowing very little about the history of Peshawar. I was excavating, but I was excavating stuff that was sitting in the British Library rather than going out with a spade anywhere. But there was a lot of sifting through layers.

In your excavations, what was your one find that you felt was yours first and yours only?

It was the discovery of bodies being disposed off after the massacre (the 1930 massacre in Peshawar). It is entirely possible that in the Pashto or Hindko texts about the massacre this fact exists, but I didn’t find it anywhere in the English language texts. I spoke to a historian who has worked on that period and she said she had never heard about it... I was sitting in the British Library the day I found the letter, which details what had happened and I had an extraordinary prickling sensation — you’ve found something which you didn’t really believe was there. And everyone (around me) was poring over manuscripts. I wanted someone to look up and acknowledge that I had found something. But everyone was just carrying on reading about Grain Records of 1833 or whatever they were looking at. (Laughs) In a novel like this, taken from historic fact, but where you create characters, what is the process?

Do you have a plot in mind? Do the characters come to you first?

Neither. I am a very disorganised writer. Michael Ondaatje has a very elegant way of putting it. Which is ‘Writers who follow the brush’. It is a good way of saying you start with very little. I started with two things. I was interested in the archaeological history and particularly the figure of Scylax the traveller. And I was interested in Khudai Khidmatgar and this history of non-violence in Peshawar. These were the two areas I wanted to bring together. But the characters and research happened as I was writing, with many detours and wrong turns. At one point I deleted eight months of work.

Amityou Varma is a novelist.

Hethen? blogs at Did almost give up indiauncut.com The point till you delete is frustrat-

question. But what comes through the writing is your own sense of history. When I vote, I vote at a ballot box. And that is more frustrating.

When you write a sentence you control it. When you vote at the ballot box you don’t, you choose who is the least bad option there and your guy never wins!

Politics and the sociopath Writing life Kamila Shamsie finds characters who are at the cusp of loyalties the most interesting ramesh sharma

A particular personality type seems to be drawn to politics, and excels there. Prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi fits the bill In a recent Guardian article, you write that when you applied for

The Mask British citizenship, you felt What Modi does betrayed and were the betrayer. In is but a reflection what of whatways, his do you feel, Pakistan electorate wantsyou? has betrayed a roy chowdhury

Any nation that has high rates of insecurity and poverty and violence has betrayed its citizens. Obviously, where you are along the social and economic ladder lessens that. 1) You don’t have to deal with it that much 2) You have the ability to get out of it.

I certainly don’t want to make it sound like I was the oppressed one.

But people in Pakistan do say congratulations when you have a new passport. And there is a level of betrayal. People should be saying, “Why did you leave it?”

My parents lived in England for periods of time. In order to get a British passport, they would have needed to fill out a form at the post office and shown that they had been living there six he months.

And ‘For those of us climbing to the top of the food they are estimated to make up over 20 per cent tician, is Narendra Modi.

To me, seems to be this was in who the late ’50sin and early ’60s. chain, there can be no mercy. There is but one of the prison population in the US, which is a textbook sociopath, believes nothing, My and father of course, we would rule: Hunt or be hunted’ — Frank Underwood, what you’d expect from people who lack any has no principles, willsaid, simply do whatever not do that, just got free of House of Cards. conscience. It has been theorised that they are it takes to get to power andwe stayhave there.

British.the Whyimplications: would we acquire also over-represented among trial lawyers, If you agree,the consider if nationality?

And the you betrayal have often wondered, what kind of per- bankers and of course, among politicians.

Modi is indeedtheir a sociopath, all the things is that mymay generation doesn’t son wants to be a politician? Growing up, A study published last year analysed the 42 like or loathe about him be misplaced.

He feel way. Muslim-hater nor a we gravitate towards our future profes- US presidents leading up to George W Bush may be neitherthat a bigoted sions on the basis of interests or aptitude and found a high degree of sociopathy in their champion of development and growth, but an grew up in Karachi, or, often, just circumstances. What we are personalities. But this is not necessarily a neg- opportunistic You politician pandering tostudied differ- in the US and live intimes. the UK. drawn towards depends on the kind of person ative assessment. As Scott Lilienfeld, a psychol- ent constituencies at different (OnWhat one doesof Karachi mean you when we are: someone bad at maths is unlikely to ogist who worked on the study, said, “Certain side, the electorate Gujarat, withtowhom the you he are writing? turn to engineering or investment banking, psychopathic traits may be like a double- perception that engineered the riots, I still of writing Karachi. just as an introverted geek is probably going edged sword. Fearless dominance, for exam- whether or not he do did,a lot brought him in much London is a more distracting place. I to avoid a career in news broadcasting. So ple, may contribute to reckless criminality support. On the other side, the small business don’t thinkwho of Karachi as and a place what are you like, then, if you aspire to be a and violence, or to skilful leadership in the owners and industrialists fund him, where I no write. Ifree still go politician and end up being good at it? face of a crisis.” Indeed, over a century ago the spread the impression thatlonger he supports often enough, to think First up, the stated reasons are mostly bun- philosopher and psychologist William James markets while back his actions reveal him, so far, of to it as an aongoing process. There is that kum: aspiring politicians want to serve the had said, “When superior intellect and a psy- be no more than crony capitalist.)

Every assenseimage growing, thatbeI am spending community or make the world a better place chopathic temperament coalesce [...] in the pect of his public could carefully much more to time than here. I only as much as Miss India contestants want same individual, we have the best constructed get away him political don’t and see myself as anifexpat. to be like Mother Teresa. No, with few excep- possible conditions for the kind gain, his actions he be-I very much see a Karachiwallah tions, people are driven to get into politics by of effective genius that gets into comes PMmyself wouldas be tailored and Londoner.

I don’t know everyjust one instinct: the lust for power. It’s primal, the biographical dictionaries.” Soaround the constraints and if opWhatever you like or one in Karachi would feel that it’s hardwired into us — the chief of the tribe ciopaths can acquire power more portunities of his political envi-way, I loathe about Modi guess thatthat is the difference. has the best chance of propagating his genes easily than others. ronment will be different may to beme misplaced ing, — but whatwant is what is interesting in Mohsin at the national level from what But Vivian betraying him. butonce thereyou arerealise many who only aends up While politics is theWhat natural wrong that be to very Uzma Aslam is this process of they In anhave interview with Pankaj In aisrather way… of the sociopath,and fewand willdelete, get, and thecan road the top alwaysepichabitat political been in Gujarat or Mishra on refreshing. process writing isit successfully looking Rather epic way.

Yes. Shediffer doesn’t en- the youcampaign talk abouttrail. the importance of bloody.The Those whoof navigate systems across world.at bits of Pakistan through the not page two, three for me.charm It is and fiction.toIn a way that is relatively political tirely know what she is doing. is a likely in writing. rage needone, to possess ambition, ruthlessSociopaths are Itmore All this,anger I must clarify, isIsneithis veering, careening course. new inwhere the English it important mix of things. Partly an appeal — the in fiction? of Modi. ness in equal measure. dominate politics in countries the Statelanguage. ther a So defence nor a condemnation exciting. What to- Rageis is an important do this.

And in lessfeels The kind of person best suited toEmpire do it is aneeds so- you has to more power and accountability than brings Beingusa sociopath biological destiny,response just as to gether that is different of the na- history.

The reader largely sees the I hope this istonot a raging part,used sheinis daddy’s girl. And this istherefore, ciopath.

A sociopath — the term is also it should.

I’d think, there isaspects a being left-handed or gay or allergic corianand tryingpoliticto excavate archaeologist Tahsin Bey through — the have to write from stillwherebetter I feel most sympathy terchangably with psychopath is a part person chance of findingtion a sociopathic derdifferent is, but hownovel. you areYou born should be neither of its history and culture.

There Vivian Spencer’s Howtowards did he hisfor ness. Rage an interesting one. It is her. In time place forsay, a inbits who feels noeyes. empathy fellow hu-thatian in and India than, Scandinavia.

Indeed, a reason to condemn youisnor an exculpation is a different that comemans, to you? an abstraction. is thebysense woman to toa be the treated seriously

by Indians a condition that is innate. (Damage disdain with which regard coming politics together for your actions.

Men should‘Where be judged because we findthey our-do, not He became more significant charof injustice’ be—the men...isand a momentindicate she happens part ofathe brain called the amygdala the that andis politicians there’s something tooften what by what would they are andmore it is preselves platforms actermost laterlikely on. He was going to be Robert ciseofway articulating it. I don’t wants to stretch outIn and as far one culprit.)

Psychologist Hare this. theenjoy population, in 25on people is a so- together. not theAnd purpose thisofcolumn to examine because and thesesee,guys all my this archaeologist who intro-predators want to soundor like all writers should as possible. that list is an25impordefines them figure as “intraspecies who I think ciopath; Indian politicians ac- are whether Modi is a genocider a developmenfriends. fellow- both ducesuse hercharm, to the Circlet of Scylax intimidation, (an tant component takeof up history and politics. of what manipulation, and cording toshe you,does. how many fit the There bill. is a sensetalofmessiah, which are simplistic nar- We ship.

But when sit down to write ancient artefact).

And originally, he to satisfy their novels simply make us violence to control others and There are exceptions, of course.

In mywe view, ratives anyway.need Consider this:that If Modi is indeed everyone is abe solitary Writersand such asthe Nadeem Aslam, was in theselfish background. laugh. One of the greatest own needs. Lacking in conscience following gents don’t seem to socio-writer. a sociopath, whose public persona is novels con- evHamidpaths: and you are seen toSingh, an accidental poli- structed around Hein isfeelings an interesting figure forcold-bloodedly me Mohsintake erwhatever written iswill Marilynne Robinson’s for others, they Manmohan get him to powYou saidtrying being to Pakistani you have belong to the New Wave of Gandhi, a buffoon because hethey is, aswant so many Housekeeping.

It is all sethim in one what and characters do as they please, violattician; Rahul run er, then whatever you like or dislike about to be political.

Pakistani writers.

Is it fairbusiness to club because are, at the cuspnorms of loyalties. house around a group of India. women. It ing social and expectations without the the family he’s good atAslam noth- in an reveals less about him and more about interview once said “I vote with aselse BritishI was also interested in the idea you all together is not on the big questions slightest sense of guilt or regret.” ing (or because it’s there); Arvind Kejriwal, When India looks attaking Narendra Modi, it looks of every sentence Would you What Pakistani writers? that your allegiances don’tcut have history is a really Sociopaths are thus outto for some profesa sanctimonious and misguided activist.I write.”

But into a mirror. youand arepolitics is what but youitget.

Wecomprise club together because are to say thatbill, is true your writing too? profound, moving novel. fall along ofthan nation or ethnicity sionslines more others.

While they one man whowe seems fit the andofwho That is a metaphoric friends. But when the novor gender.

Butper it cent can of bethe around t@amitvarma upto four general population, evenyou hisread opponents admit is talented as a poli-statement rathels, they have very distinctive styles. er than a literal one. It is a good NANDINI NAIR shared love.

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Writer by detour

Kamila Shamsie on being a Karachiwallah and Londoner and on one of the greatest novels ever written

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work read

‘Cruising’ in India Packed with rendezvous and revelations

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ohn Burbidge’s “memoir of same-sex love” set in India comes at an opportune time, when the LGBT movement has found voice against a draconian law recently upheld by the Supreme Court. Set in the ’80s, The Boatman candidly chronicles Burbidge’s exploits in the streets of Chowpatty in Bombay, the parks of Connaught Place in Delhi and the maidans of Calcutta. But what begins as an adventure to “test his gay potential” soon turns into a tale of addiction. Indeed, in an interview Burbidge says that he had sexual relations with more than 200 men in two years in India.

It is 1980. A 33-year-old Burbidge arrives in India, four years after his first stint. He is neither a “poofter”, nor a “homo” — the derisive terms hurled at gays in his home country Australia — but finds himself increasingly drawn to India’s “young men”.

Over the next four years, we follow Burbidge as he builds his double life of a keen international NGO worker by day and a raging homosexual scouring the cities’ underbellies by night. Chapter after chapter, night after night, told in a style resembling paper presentations made at dull seminars, Burbidge stumbles upon public spaces where an invisible populace comes together — maalishwallas offering more than just a massage, young medical students, men whose loving mothers feed him The Boatman John Burbidge home-cooked Yoda Press meals, husbands Memoir and rickshawallahs ₹350 — in parks, dimly-lit streets, urinals at railway stations and men’s hostels for fleeting gratification.

On a fundraising trip in Calcutta, Burbidge’s sexual life is subjected to a humorous scrutiny by his friends — “So Burbs, what’s this I hear about your after-hours activities? What do they call it, boating?”

“From that day on,” writes Burbidge, “I was saddled with the title of ‘the boatman’.”

Not all of his encounters are pleasant.

Plainclothes policemen catch him in the act at a brothel in Calcutta, at railway stations and in parks. Word also gets around quickly about his sexual diseases. Rumour and suspicion rule at his office, where coworkers begin to get curious about his nightly escapades. Trapped in a low-paying job, he is also bitter about not being able to move out of “the street gay scene”.

But Burbidge survives, and the dangers scarcely stop him and “his agenda”.

For a country that still criminalises homosexuality, The Boatman chronicles its Freshcities arrivals own that defy the law every night as Sales at Croma’s seven spaces morph, people emerge and all stores at airports across types of liaisons are made and broken.

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India have been growing at 17 per cent annually

vv krishnan kotamraju priyanka

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saturday, march 15,15, 2014 saturday, march 2014

Flying off the shelves sinha The tillsarunava are ringing loud and clear at airport outlets, raking in more than shops in the city

PUB CRAWL

CCrystal ball gazing

irca 2002: Waiting for a flight at the Mumbai Airport is a nightmare.

There is just one coffee shop and a long queue to announce it. Your ability to wait out and pay for a cup of coffee will be of no help. If the shop’s staff, employees of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), are not irritated by the time your turn arrives, you’ll get your coffee. And if you’re lucky, it is the real Holy Grail will be hot. Else, yourhat only takeaway from the publishing inover)”.

India at shop will be a sullen of “khatam hai (it’s present? it’s not the The rest of the airport looksNo, equally sad — next Chetan Bhagat, nor bare walls, dark corridors and a disinterested someone who cana match literaryground staff. Carrying book isthe mandatory, commercial success of an Amitav for there’s nothing to browse throughGhosh — no orno a Jhumpa Lahiri.

It is, according seshops, food courts — except the pagestoofathe nior in editor at a publishing company, bestseller your bag. those twotoor three non-fiction Fast forward 2014: fromsolid Starbucks and Cabooks that be priced ₹700 Challenor ₹800 fé Coffee Day towill Domino’s andatRoyal and there sell about 30,000 Bringing in gers Bar, is enough tocopies. keep you and your net figure of about ₹1 your croreflight each, these tasteabuds occupied when is detheif titles thattopublishers layed.are And you want shop, yourabsolutely flight betlove.delayed, The next question, of course, who ter be for there’s Apple,is:Sony, are these writers whose books are asEmporio Armani, Roberto Cavalli, Croma, Kisuch sales?

Unlike fiction, mayasured and aof multitude of other brands to they take yourcannot custombe to. newcomers, for it is seldom that such books sell on the is strength of Not surprisingly, airport retail estimated content — it is the writer’s reputato betheir a ₹6,000 crore industry.

With 61.42 miltion that sales hinge by on.airSo, lion passengers travelling inpublishing 2013 alone, is more a matter of persuadtherethese is anbooks ever-burgeoning market to tap. ing the big, established names to write than of discovering the next big talent.

One that apparently allows some brands to earn almost eight to nine times of what they earn at malls or high-street outlets.

Dipak Agarwal, CEO, operations and strategy at DLF Brands, which include Boggi Milano, Mango, Sunglass Hut, ELC and Mothercare, says revenues from airport outlets are equally Taking off high for them — “Productivity at airports is 80 Ajit Joshi, MD and CEO of Infiniti Retail, vouch- per cent more than street retail.” This means es for this upward trajectory. His company that if a street store is bringing in ₹2,000 per sells consumer durables under the Croma sqft, shops at airport would rake in anywhere brand, which has a strong presence at air- between ₹3,600 and ₹4,000 per sq ft. The reaIndia. theretail intervening Calcutta and runsoperate forports. In “Our stores atperiod, the ter-writing layali writer, set inson?

“Here, stores for 24 in the country has,very of course, changed wards and backwards through time, minals are doing well. We hours and traffic is much higher dramatically.

A newsales generation of writers telling a story as remarkable for its invenhave annualised of ₹1.27 than city outlets,” says Agarwal. is in place — ft not the creators lakh per sq atthat airport outlets —of com- tiveness as for its subversions of history.

Customers at mercially successful the highest among campus-lit, all our for-MBA-lit Besides its shining The literary travellingmerit, walletit’s airport outlets are and lust-lit are likely to currently get a look in — bound to make a Customers lot of Bengalis very hotoutlets are mats,” he says.

Croma at airport well-travelled and and so is astores vibrant publishing economy. under their collarsoften — not well-travelled least because noand more has seven across Indian airmore aware The one thingfrom that 850 hastonot changed, one writing in Bangla write to conports, ranging 2,000 aware,thought so their to propensity though, the identity the editor of the something like this. sq ft. Iniscontrast, the of company’s clude a transaction is higher than new issue: as in 1997, it’s going be pilotper sq ft revenues from outletstoin window-shoppers at stores in the heir on-court city. chemistry ended in bited by old hand Ian Jack. Now, cities are India just about ₹30,000 to how “We get a wide range of custer acrimony.

A pity, for Leander will writers who ₹40,000 per sq ft. have gotten used to tomers round-the-clock, who Paes have time to and Mahesh might well channeling FaceCafé Coffeethemselves Day, which through opened its first airspare tillBhupathi they get onboard.

It’s have a great time to India, and themselves, book and Twitter for 33 more since pick upwon port outlet in 2001,pitch has opened I-thought-of-you gifts, souvenirs, guilt many global laurelssays in Dilip Kainclusion? then and is continuing its expansion. “In the purchases andmore thank you notes,” doubles tennis. But last few years, airports have gone through a pur, founder of Hidesign, whichhave specialises in t’s notfacelift, easy toand predict theairlines are oper- leatherthey moved on?

We’ll know major many handbags and accessories.

The buzz is building publishing sensation of soonset enough, withairport Mahesh ational today. This has increased the number Hidesign up its first outlet in Inabout Aarachar, an the year when you’re already of air travellers.

Airports have good footfalls dia at Bhupathi’s Hyderabad’s autobiography international departure outrageously in March. scheduled to be published that resultBut in some betterbooks sales,”insays K Ramakrish- terminal in April 2008.

It retails at domestic as imaginative novel the making just president provoke (marketing).

And thenairports Paes will un-and Kapur nan, the company’s well as soon. international now,

by KR Meera such punts anyway. And the doubtedly publish the story buzz is building about Aaraof his own life too, so the char, an outrageously imagicross-court returns might native novel by KR Meera, get exciting. Let’s hope they originally serialised in Malayalam and do — sanitised autobiographies are so being published later this year in J Devi- boring. ka’s English translation by Penguin Random House. Hangwoman, as the book is hat do you do after you’ve sold titled in English, is, incredibly for a Mayour equity stake in India’s largest English language publishing company for ₹55 crore? Last October, after the merger of Penguin Books and Random House, the new company paid that amount for the 45 per cent stake in the pre-merger Penguin Books India that was owned by Aveek Sarkar’s Ananda Publishers. The Kolkata-based Ananda Bazar group’s Sarkar (whose daughter Chiki Sarkar is Publisher at Penguin Random House India) is known for putting his money where his love for literature is. Will he now look for another English publisher to invest in? Multinationals HarperCollins and Hachette are unlikely to be looking for investors. That leaves... everyone else from Aleph to Tav, right?

Much to look forward to, from Granta on India to a Malayalee writer on Calcutta

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he last time that Granta magazine focussed exclusively on India was in 1997, with a 288-page issue to mark the 50th year of India’s independence. Eighteen years later, in early 2015 to be precise, Granta will be back with its eye on

Tell tale Mahesh Bhupathi has pipped Leander Paes to the autobiography post

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arunava sinha translates classic and contemporary Bengali fiction and nonfiction into English t @arunava

getaway work

saturday, march 15,15, 2014 saturday, march 2014

Close encounters Nomadic Fakirani women in Kutch; and (below) fan-throated lizards ambika kamath

“Our retail stores at the terminals are doing very well.

We have annualised sales of ₹1.27 lakh per sq ft at airport outlets — the highest among all our formats,” says Ajit Joshi, managing director and CEO, Infiniti Retail Limited (Croma)

Bangalore airports, GMR manages the Delhi they had found a sargota in the bathroom! and airports.

One Hyderabad that was causing mayhem — at least five of a fixed rentitor offers revenue theGVK staffcharges had been chasing into theaopen, out sharing arrangement with retailers. of the dark corners where it was seekingSoref-a brand that earns well will have to shell evuge from the broom-wielding men. out I ran er-increasing revenue to the operator, if it opts down the corridor, re-captured the lizard, and for the latter.

Bisen says theone choice of revenue sheepishly admitted it was of mine before model depends on the category and format.

A insisting that everyone present at least touch standard rule cannot be applied to say that the reptile.

I feel confident that this episode one model will worka better over the other. convinced at least few people that lizards Profitability targets can also be hard to can be more entertaining than dangerous. meet since traffic has are notremarkably grown in keeping Fan-throated lizards persistwith The number of disturbancpassengers ent inprojections. the face of human-induced travelling air grew only 4.43 peryou centcan in 2013 es to theirby habitat.

Consequently, find after decline in 2012, according to DGCA.open thema in all sorts of places, including Besides, the frequented staff has to by be cows, paid for operatgrazing areas goats and ing 24x7 and that doubles salary are expenses.

Debuffaloes.

Usually, the livestock accompavangshu executive at the advisory nied by aDutta, herderchief or two, and these herders are firm, Third says, “TheI’ve staffmet. deployed among the Eyesight, friendliest people Workat outlets is different from high streets ingairport in Kutch this year with a Gujarati-speaking because of theI had better qualitytoofget customers field assistant, a chance to know walking in andherders a superior product mix.interacThat is some Kutchi well.

Our first an addition to Shivji, costs.” aMoreover, as Kapur says, tion was with buffalo-herder who ofbijoy ghosh “Operationally, requires a good of so-I fered to brew usitsome tea right in deal the field. phistication in dealing with both security was yet to learn that you never refuse milkand or government tea in Kutch, regulations.” so my initial ‘no’ stirred up some But Sahgal of Beyond Squarefeet believes religion-based anxiety — Shivji thought we rethat brands can afford as fusedgood because we were Hindusuch andexpenses thought he airports generate high was Muslim.

By the timesales the volumes. confusionJoshi was agrees: sales more than compensate cleared “Airport up (we didn’t care about his religion, for willhim onlythe grow fasterthe as andthe onlyrentals wantedand to save trouble), more people air.”

Over the years, airtea was ready,travel and itby was delicious. port retailing has Ibeen profitable for Croma, Another herder met was young Latho, who says Joshi, declining detail the financials. herded goats with his to father Mathabhai.

Latho Airport sales add two perour cent to Croma’s total talks non-stop.

Despite insistence that he words, if you have different tools with which revenue. have been growing at needed toAnd be while quiet they for us to work, he regaled to communicate, do you need to communi- 17 cent annually, other reportusper with stories of why hestores hatedhave school (he cate differently? In the last two years, I’ve col- ed nearly sit halfstill thelong growth at 9 perand cent. couldn’t enough) how the lected many exciting observations of these sparrows DLF’s Agarwal is not worried highhow ophad built nests in theabout well and lizards, and of the people I run into when I’m erating expenses “One take on high he would show useither. a cobra if wecan took a photo of on its tail in southern and western India. costs as airports It ispassed an inhis favourite goatoffer andhigh him.visibility.

One day we Many people, both rural and urban, can be vestment brand-building,” he Isays. him whileindriving to the site. waved, and ambivalent towards lizards, and are often Latho Airports, then, just took it as aare signnot that weretail were outlets. leaving alarmed that I not only catch pv these animals They are also thethe places where brands built.

Kutch.

Leaving goats in the care ofashis fasivakumar myself but also encourage them to touch and Croma’s Joshi says, “ airports getmake filtered ther, he sprinted 2km after us to sureprehe hold the ones I catch (the fear is mium customers.”

And that makes got his photos before wethem left! the unfounded — almost all lizards, best platform My to launch thealso latest products. work has given me the including geckos and skinks, are “You get to tap India’stowho’s whowith as well as regchance interact some of non-venomous). When working ular business travellers. buyers some are also India’s finestThese naturalists, of One day, a lizard in Kolhapur last year, I’d bring lizthe decision-makers for their families.”

Kapur whom have dedicated decades to fled through the ards back to the hotel at which I concurs, “Weunderstanding consider airports to the the critical complexities drainpipe and fell was staying, and take them up to development the brand internationally.

We ofofIndia’s ecosystems, and in the next to the hotel’s the terrace to measure and phowould targetprocess, all major airports in India and forged long-standing restaff bathroom tograph before releasing them strategicallylationships important stores internationally with people around the next day. The hotel staff to help us build theranging brand.” from herders to them, would watch me warily, However, tea-stall airport retail in India other owners.

In myhas days off keeping a safe distance challenges. Unlike in Singapore, Dubai or Lonfrom watching lizards, I like tagfrom the lizards and choosing not to don, havenaturalists airports that act asfaa ging India alongdoesn’t with these to their see or touch them. One day, howev- hub for passengers. of the airports here vourite ecosystems.“Most On one such trip with er, a lizard escaped as I was photo- are not hubs;athere is some traffic Jugal Tiwari, naturalist based in getting Kutch, Iredimet graphing it, ran through a rected to other locations the country, it Musabhai and his family,in nomadic camelbut herdrainpipe, and fell near the is justinathe fraction. of the who traffickeep is meant ders Banni Most grasslands, track staff bathrooms below. I for the animals destination, leavingthey littlesee scope for of the and plants as they searched for it, but in vain. shopping airports,” saysand Dutta. move fromatplace to place share the inforThe next afternoon, I mation Also, there is a lot In of return, low-cost to with Tiwari. hetraffic raisesdue funds heard an urgent tariff dynamics the market.

“We’re to provide camelinherding families withliving solar bijoy ghosh knock on my door with thatthat as acan nation of cell travellers. just batteries charge phonesBut anditpow— it was the ho- means thatenabling unless you have real need er lamps, them to awalk safely for at that retails at airports as brands not typitel do staff and something, won’t buy at the airport.

And night. Suchyou symbiotic relationships benefit cally showcase discounted goods.” that’s a challenge,” Dutta. people, science,adds nature, and are a remindShubhranshu Pani,who managing director, reer that anyone cares about the surTemporary turbulence tail services, India, says, “The future ofalso airvival JLL of India’s biodiversity must But if sales are high, so are costs of operating port retailing depends how of it evolves and care about the on welfare its people. at airports. The rentals are eight to nine times how it’s positioned. In the West, airport retail higher than at malls or high streets. Ankur Bi- is an option ambika kamath studies organismic and for shoppers who have requiresen, senior vice president, retail and consum- ments afterevolutionary biology at Harvard normal shopping hours. University If Indian er products at Technopak, says, “One reason establishments make 24x7 shopping their USP for such high rentals is the acute supply short- and airports do away with some of the access age. Since most of the supply is restricted to restrictions, it would boost their success.”

Delhi and Mumbai, the demand for these travCreating retail spaces alone is not enough. el retail destinations is high.” Apart from The retail flight will take off only when the these two airports, retail space is also being quality of customers improves and impulse developed at the Bangalore and Hyderabad buying supplements planned shopping. airports, which have also been privatised.

While GVK group operates the Mumbai and rashmi pratap

The nature of things “There are quite a few budget airlines today that do not essentially offer food and beverages; many travellers like a quick takeaway for their onward journey,” says K Ramakrishnan, president (marketing), Cafe Coffee Day

“We get a wide range of customers round-the-clock, who have time to spare till they get onboard. It’s a great time to pick up I-thought-of-you gifts, souvenirs, guilt purchases and thank you notes,” says Dilip Kapur, founder of Hidesign

On the trail of fan-throated lizards in Kolhapur and Kutch

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s a biologist studying the behaviour of one of South Asia’s most common lizards, I find myself travelling to seemingly unexotic places. I don’t work in the rainforests of the eastern Himalayas or scuba-dive in the coral reefs of the Andaman Islands. Instead, I roam in fallow fields and grazing lands to watch the fanthroated lizard. As the name suggests, males of this lizard have a fan under their throat, which they extend and retract quite dramatically to display to and communicate with other members of their species. The size and colour of these fans vary incrementally among populations across India — from small and white to large and colourful — and I am interested in how the display behaviour of these lizards change accordingly. In other

says, “Overall, we are doing very well, with Delhi and Mumbai leading the pack.”

For Café Coffee Day, no-frills airlines have come as a shot in the arm. “There are quite a few budget airlines today that do not essentially offer food and beverages; many travellers like a quick takeaway for their onward journey,” says Ramakrishnan.

Siddharth Sahgal, mall mechanic and chief managing officer at the advisory firm, Beyond Squarefeet, points out that 70 per cent of the buyers here are business travellers. “They have time constraints and shop at airports instead of malls. Since they are an educated, focused group of genuine customers, they also act as ambassadors for the products,” he says, “Besides, there is a lot of faith in the merchandise

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One day at a time Soni Sori looks forward to an innings in politics suvojit bagchi

A French soap opera A soap master will help you handcraft the Savon de Marseille like it has always been made since the Middle Ages in this Mediterranean city

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arrive in Marseille at the cusp of winter, when the frigid mistral winds funnel through the Rhone Valley and chill your bones. Walking down the streets of the Old Port I notice stubby bars of soap sold in all sizes and colours, and soon, discover the workshop-cum-showroom of La Grande Savonnerie in Port Vieux. A place where I learn about the history of the famed local suds and even make my own soap.

“The wind here makes our skin dry, so we have always made soap from olive oil,” said Jean-Baptiste Jaussaud, whose family owns the brand. And informs me that it’s more than just another bar of soap.

“If you want to avoid unpleasant night cramps, place a cube of soap at the bottom of your bed; use itactivist, as a moth choolteacher, tribal or rights al-

repellent or an antiseptic. It is also great for factories. However, decades later, the advent of doing your laundry.” washing machines and chemical detergents The saponification or soap-making process sounded the death knell for traditional soaps. came from West Asia during the Crusades. The In the 21st century, there is renewed interest archetype of the Marseille soap came from an- in the Savon de Marseille, which is seen as a other Mediterranean city — Aleppo in Syria, simple, sustainable and bio-degradable prodwith its 4,000-year history of soap-making. uct made by passionate craftsmen in a tradiCrescas Davin, a local Jew, first made soap in tional way. “They are gentle on the skin,” says Marseille back in 1371. In times Jaussaud, “I love the green bars on gone by, soap-making was often a string and huge loaves stamped accompanied by horrible acciwith their weight.” dents in which ill-fated workers The soap master, says it takes Soap-making slipped and disappeared into the two weeks to make the Marseille arrived from West bubbling vats of soap, says Jausbar. The ingredients bubble in anAsia during the saud. Since the Middle Ages, it has cient cauldrons for 10 days and Crusades been made by boiling olive oil then the mixture is poured into and soft soda in water for several pits to harden. Machines turn the hours; this is later hardened and malleable pieces of soap into cut into cubes. cubes and then stamp them. The Amateur soap-makers thrived in the south soaps are set out to dry in the sun and mistral of France, a region that had all the raw materi- winds. I try my hand at moulding the soap and als needed — olive oil, salt and ashes from the stamping it with my name. You can also try Camargue, and palm oil and copra from the making face cream, washing powder or toothcolonies. Apparently, realising that the ama- paste, all under the tutelage of a Maitre de Sateurs were eating into the soap business, in von or soap master.

1688, King Louis XIV proclaimed in an edict Unlike French wines, named only after the that soap makers ‘could only use virgin olive place they are produced in, soaps made in othoil and no other fats’. A significant develop- er regions can be called Savon de Marseille as ment for the industry was when French chem- long as they are made the same way. ist Leblanc discovered how to extract caustic sunder is a Chennai-based writer soda from sea By 1930 there 90not soap Recalling the horrific treatmenttravel meted out In court, Sorisalt. pleaded with thewere judge to kalpana

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WINDOW OR AISLE

Out on bail, Soni Sori hopes to reclaim her dreams and some of her dignity

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leged Maoist conduit and now, a po- send her back to Chhattisgarh. Feminist-histo- to her, Sori says, “While looking at my body, he tential neta with the Aam Aadmi Party, rian Uma Chakravarthi, who was present at (the then DSP, Ankit Garg) abused me in filthy 40-year-old Soni Sori is many people in the district court at the time recounts, “The language and humiliated me. Later, he went first time I saw her was at the court. Peculiarly, outspecial and (…) sent three boys in. I(They) started one person. requirements.

When molesting me and On the evening of September 10, 2011, Soni she was not objecting to being inchecked out, a four-line ite-I fell after they pushed Then they brutally inSori fled Jabeli, her village in Chhattisgarh, af- carcerated but said she wanted it mised bill was me. presented. ter an anonymous caller informed her that to happen in Delhi because if she stones2:in£115, my body.”

Night 1: serted £115, Night two-year she might be ‘encountered’ by the police. Her went back, they would torture Night 3: £115,After Total:a£345.

A ho- term in the of Raipur nephew Lingaram Kodopi was arrested earlier her.” “I thought that was an interhotlinejails connected me and to a Jagdalpur in The teacher tel said Chhattisgarh and later, at Delhi’s that day. esting position to take, but soon, that whisked he’d give me cab daliacompany Tihar jail, SoriIisleft, a free A month later, on October 4, 2011, she was ar- we realised that was exactly what me to Heathrow.

I paid, I woman for if I attended school now. Granted bail by the Supreme rested in the Capital by the Delhi Crime happened, and what the implicawas conquered. lastindulgent month and acquitted Branch and brought to the Saket District tions of the judge’s decision to After aCourt most five of the seven Court. Several charges were filed against Sori, send her back were,” she says. weekend, in I also checked outcases — however, Sori would rather not put her including one for being a Maoist go-between, When she was produced in the of my lavish Bedouin retreat. in heart jail behind her.

Sheinduswants to use it inextracting money from officials of the Essar Raipur court the following week, Sori couldn’t lifeMy sank as their fuel her press political ambitions and to group, attacking the house of a local Congress even walk from the police van to the cour- stead trialtoprinting spewed topage the jailing system and villagclerk had record her statement in- bring leader, Avdesh Gautam, and attempting to Nottroom. outchanges page after of invoice. for saleAToiletry is noto longer a ‘return’ gift side the van. es in her home State that have all but fallen off blow up Essar Trucks, among others.

Room service, lunch, desert thesafari, map. BLink meets her in Delhi. drinks, dinner, breakfast, lunch again, phone calls, from yet Jabeli plan by a few years, but what the heck… I size bed, a two-seater couch and a func- falconry Dispatches show, dinner again, still “Do you know what dalia (broken tional work desk. A clothes hanger stood more drinks, am a BLink columnist now. taxes, service charges, char- wheat) is?” asks Soni a tale from her childA few weeks later, I was dispatched to in as a substitute for a wardrobe and ba- itable donation to Sori, save prefacing some turtles, othhood in Dantewada.

“At theextra local school in our London for a ‘training program’ (yes, ap- sic business traveller essentials, such as er extras, other charges, other village, children were given dalia in exparently my boss believes there is still complimentary Wifi, TV, ironing board, charges — their Jabeli, solar calculator crashed changethe forbright attendance.

Every hairdryer and coffeemak- twice, despite some stuff I don’t know) and sunlight.

As I morning I’d my father’s near the Ischool and ofer were all there. Neither scanned graze was booked at the no-frills the sheets with cows trepidation, fer toawash the baniyan students for their ‘Express’ category hotel of an toiletries nor room ser- came across $10 entry, tuckedofaway. of the dalia. teacherensaw this one day vice was offered, but help- “What’s share international chain. Having this charge for?” The I politely It was no-frills... But said he’d me athan bowlthe too if I attended been an avid collector of UK ful notes around the quired —and more out of give curiosity helpful notes assured classes.

That’s howon I started going to school. room assured me that if I meaningless visas for two decades, I don’t impact it had the overall me, if I dashed to the wasa not happy about the cows being expect much from London were to dash across to the bill. “Sir, My we dad found toiletry bottle broreception, I’d get it all abandoned he came around eventually.” reception, I’d get any- ken in your hotel rooms. In a city where room andbut that’s chargeable.”

Like several other girls who sought an eduthing I require. The breakTihar Residency-style cells go Lately, I’ve checked-out of hotels catercation in and around theasBastar for £300 a night, this £115 fast buffet stayed ing to high-end leisure travellers well district, Sori later enrolled at one the aschools run by unchanged during my as budgetwas room in its heart seemed business travellers.

Andof what Mata Rukmani Kanya Ashram, set up by Dhastay — scrambled eggs, baked beans, sau- stark contrast most suspect. it has been. rampal Saini, a disciple of Gandhian Vinoba As I swiped open the door, I must ad- sages. Standard. Delicious. And free.

Bhave. Located outside is the author of Aislethe Be town of Jagdalpur, Time whizzed by without a fuss: no rishi piparaiya mit, I was pleasantly surprised. The room 130km from Jabeli, this residential school was was bigger than expected and had a full- laundry, no extras, no lost keys and no Damned rishi@aislebedamned.com where Sori spent most of her childhood, returning home only for vacations. After completing her education, she was absorbed as a

Check-in, Cheque-out

Rallying around Members of the All India Students Association demanding her release in January this year vv krishnan

How high-end hotels tend to offer low-end hospitality

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ately, I’ve checked-in to hotels catering to high-end leisure travellers as well as budget business travellers. And what a stark contrast it has been.

I took a short break at one of the Middle East’s most luxurious resorts. Each guest villa, in the heart of the desert, was a sprawling Arabian palace, complete with its own temperature-controlled private pool, Mumbai-flat-sized bathrooms, cinema-like televisions, an Einstein-flummoxing coffee machine and ceramic toiletry (your butter-fingered columnist sadly dropped and broke a lovely little conditioner bottle). The resort boasted splendid restaurants, a world-renowned spa and an array of exotic leisure activities. At a base room rate of $600 per night, this was extending my retirement

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A spectre that haunts

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Food for thought A ceremonial Seder plate for the Jewish festival of Passover

Gota Sheddho

shutterstock

A fresh plate Nothing marks a new year or a winter’s harvest better than a laden table Another country Women outside a polling booth at Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh v sudershan; and (right) a Moriya tribal in Bastar district goes about his daily business a roy chowdhury

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Made on the day of Saraswati Pujo/ Basant Panchami to be eaten the day after (Sheetol Shosthi or the ‘Cold Shasthi’), this dish is an earthy — and super easy! — stew of whole black gram (urad) and vegetables. As with all shasthi rituals, this lunar sixth-day is all about the welfare of young children. In this case, the mother wishes her children unimpaired health by keeping her vegetables whole, because on this day, to cut and burn the seasonal fruits of the earth would be to inflict injury on the fruits of her own womb. She further sacrifices her comfort to theirs by eating the dish cold and kept (preserved!) overnight, innocent of spice but for a drizzle of hearty mustard oil.

For modern non-magical eating, it goes deliciously well with a side-order of mishti doi, though the traditional accompaniment is a sour chutney of Indian plums (topakool).

Choose five from: 12 baby brinjals, with the stalks intact 6 whole new potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled 6 small sweet potatoes, scrubbed and whole 18 fresh young peapods, on the vine 12 whole pods of flat or broad beans (sheem) or string beans (borboti) 24 baby spinach plants, still in a bunch with the tap roots largely intact 6Bybaby or was smallreleased red radish, the turnips time Sori onwith bail tops in Feb6 or she 12 baby carrots tops Anil Futane — ruary, had lost herwith husband, 12 tomatoes, vine chargor a paralytic, whoalso waspreferably arrested on on the similar at least with stalks intact and green es and died in jail last year. Her father was shot Also: 400-500g or so of whole black gram, at soaked

by Maoists and crippled in the leg. She was overnight

he Chinese, all over the world, just soups of Italy, Hungary and Brazil have been teacher bydrove the Ashram, more than into thewhich Year ofruns the Horse with well gold-coin shape cases’. of the mostdigested. of them The weretiny arrested on ‘Naxal 39 schoolsendless for girlsnoodles across and Bastar.

But her days lentils golden oranges is the assaulted first taste of Year’s promMany were bythe theNew police, and are in the classroom were numbered.

When Sori’s ise of perfection plenty.

These just with leaves intact, edible charms physically unwell, and but there is no oneare to hear father discovered thatensures she hadlongevity fallen in love of theTheir manycases magical foods that feature whose consumption and some their pleas. lie unattended.

I don’t and marriedlike Anil their Futane, a Marathi, prosperity, size and born and know how and in cultural observances the why they tolerate across the pain? broughtAtup in theSankranti, town of Geedam globe.

Foods, that bysotheir very ex- suspended from her job at the Ashram and shape.

Makar mid- in Dante- Someone had to fight for them, I did.” wada, “He made sure I lostdate theof job,” she says. istencesaid or cooking, ensure January (the uncorrected Sori has earlier that while in jail,their she most of the her legumes family turned its back on 1 Put and vegetables in her. a pressure cooker with enough water to Andwinter it was solstice only after few years cook’s continuity, the in athe old Hin-that Sori and was singledown outand andtheir subjected to sexual cover by two fingers’ depth and bring to her calendar), father reconciled and she back to andjail prosperity andInprotection of Election du Bangladeshis andwent Foods authorities. a press conseason that torture ensure by the a rollingnot boil. teachIndians at the Ashram. east from Assam, Bengal wholelast communities. ference month, she said, “I was Nobody, even Sori, had imagined however, their own and theirin Delhi 2 Cook on would medium-low heat afor the turn.

AnOrissa, Adivasi graduating a stuDown in Kochi and thereand aswoman well as parts of Bi- from brutally tortured in Raipur jail.

While in the that her life take such political cook’s continuity duration of about 5 whistles, or about dentand to aJharkhand teacher is still uncommon har steamed rice in the red custody of abouts, Jewish homes haveI been the Dantewada police, was “Had I not been imprisoned, I doubt I would 15 minutes. corridor.

It assortment was no surprise then that local stripped naked picking their raisinsshocks.” for the have cakes in an of shapes andover given electric considered a path in politics,” 3 Serve cold with a drizzle of raw says Sori. women sought(pitha), Sori out when the police ac- When news Pesach (Passover)reached since the start and textures thickened of her condition various Vani Subramanian, a Delhi-based filmmak(unrefined) mustard oil on day-old rice. cusedand their menfolkitofwith being Naxals and ar- human rights milk sweetened cocoof 2014, and will its er, who campaigned to free Sori, thinks it’s a activists andsoon civildrink society NB: idea.

For once, notshe of wants, rested “They used tosyrup say, please nut andthem. the first date-palm (notuncome gur); sweet the four of theofseder groupspromise in Delhi,inmore than cups the nature her good “She’sproportions clear aboutare what greatisimport; add andmore subtract Sonifirst madam, know Hindi, you can help us next all fruitsyou of this winter’s harvest.

Down month.

Each draught seder by to anin adult arrest, the torture she was of subjected jail which a hell of a lot thanand many of us,” substitute ingredients at odd will. that Authenticity get them so I would accompany them,” certifies or herfor a free of ancesSouth, the out, plentiful pot of pongal has bubbled garneredhim support her descendant cause. she says, “It’s Sori was aronly demands the as usea of wholesupporter lentils or in thana,the I used to tors she says.

“On such trips thetime, once enslaved.

The ritual drink frees him over its abundance.

Bytothis lentil Delhi-based lawyer Vrinda rested Maoist legumes ofthe some sortplace. if uradShe is has always ask the CRPF and the police: Sir, if your fight is or her anew eachrepresented year. A fifthSori cup awaits the Grover, who had first unavailable, and a quintet of vegetables, against the Naxals, go to the jungle and arrest Prophet, as Elijah mightofcome again. And resays, “Some of us knew her pribeen vocal about her each numbering in multiples of sixopposition — the them. Why are you dragging us into this?” demption will come… the cupEven is there or to her arrest as well.because But it was to them. if you commit legumes make six. It’s time for her now to “It was probably her outspoken nature that undrunk version of Santa’s cookies when the(another news about her sexual exploresome her options. a crime, it is Asno for seasoning, families Whether do add she put Soni in peril. She used to help others in and milkgot thatout makethat surewomen’s he slides downjustification nontorture chooses a pure political route salt, sugar, turmeric and chilli powder or or for trouble and that in turn put her in trouble,” existent chimneys). rights groups took up her cause not, is up Itoknow her.”of one that whole green chillies; custodial torture uses fennel seeds (great forthat the the political says Himanshu Kumar, a Gandhian activist immediately.

The Bene Israel ‘losthave tribes’ are lookEvenof iftheyou Sori believes carminativeroute effectison legume-heavy diets).The who ran the Vanavasi Chetana Ashram in Dan- ing forwardatocrime, making matzoth (matzos), committed it istheir no justifialso the most viable.

For non-ritual purposes,ofgoAAP to town! tewada for 22 years, until it was destroyed by the unleavened crispbreads a thanksgiving cation for custodial torture espeemergence and the imthe State government. Kumar has known Sori and Unlike ciallya promise. committed onthe a pridefully woman puffed up pending Lok Sabha elections for over a decade now. leavened loaves, theyofcelebrate a sense of com- seem to coincide with her release. And she has arrested on charges a political crime.”

Caught in the crossfire of ideology, on an- munity in hardagrees, times (the frommeted Israel a clear The full moon of Holi has also round Chakravarthi “Theflight treatment mandate — to revamp thecome jailing sysother occasion, Sori found herself face to face with time forLinga breadare to rise) the divine celebration of unfettered liveliness, out tonoSoni and clear and indications of with tem initsher home State. with the Naxals. It was 2011 and the Maoists covenant to renew theAdivasis people ifare they observe with theBhushan, liberal consumption bhaangthe manner in which treated by and Prashant lawyer and of advisor to were trying to hoist a black flag at her school austere humility (eggless, wine-free).

And so, laced thandai, down the full-moonthe State.”

“The Chhattisgarh police stooped AAP thinks Soriwashing is an ideal candidate for the on Independence Day. Sori resisted their at- piousness expectation of reward en- shaped gujiyas, the plains so low as toand fly her back to Raipur fromare Delhi, party in sweet-stuffed Chhattisgarh — “She’s in a courageous, tempts to do so and insisted that the Indian acted oncould seder get plates across communiBihar up to thewho capital of Delhi. so they more timeJewish with her before from bold tribal activist hascity been victimised national flag be hoisted. On September 9 that ties.

Thereher is at the sacrificial magic of the and Over among will see in producing court,” she says. tortured bythe theParsis, police.Navroze She symbolises thea same year, the State police charged Sori as a shankbone theSori lamb that bleeds; bitter year with rava and falooda and the While in of jail, continued to the raise her sweet plightnew of the Adivasis in Chhattisgarh, a State Maoist accomplice, and apparently, on the ad- herbs of the Israelites wild wanderings cleans- scent ofwith rosewater rising.ranging Wheat from shoots will voice against the ill treatment of undertrials dealing many issues excesvice of an ‘anonymous caller’ who said the po- ed of brine, just the wanderalongside.

Again, both and sweetness andwith the salty poortears quality of food.

“AtasRaipur, there grow sive mining, looting of land naturaland relice might ‘encounter’ her, Sori decided to flee. ing is purified his so exile austerity; by food alone, magically wereJew insects in ourby food, weand carried out a growth sources,are andensured poor jailing systems.”

On the run for nearly a month, she was picked the sweet haroseth (date jam) that the binds the ensuring that the of ‘Sal hunger strike.

I threatened to take wormAsked about hergratulatory chances, if greeting she is given an up in Delhi and sent back to Chhattisgarh. celebrants of thesamples feast intotoa community, be denied. infested food court too. symThat Mubarak’ AAP ticketcannot to contest the elections, Sori says, bolising brickfavour mortarbecause used by the Meanwhile, back in Bengal,matter. we greeted worked the in our theenslaved women “Winning or losing doesn’t Even the if I In the jailhouse Israelites. here inofIndia, with abe wholesome Sheddho, were madeAnd in-charge theirwhere food,” Baghdadi says Sori, spring lose, it won’t a loss — I’ll dish, get toGota interact with “When I was jailed two years ago, I wondered Jews settled with their ne- for the health young ’uns,my thethoughts whole baby “I alsohave asked the officers whysambusak, they madethe womso many of my of people, share and why all of this was happening to me,” says So- cessity eschewing chametz enacting wishcommunicate for similar en work,ofclean toilets and so on,(gluten when itgrains, was il- vegetables ideas with them, and the in turn, ri, “But after I met the women in jail and heard which puffundertrials).” up with prideSori when leavened) will wholeness uncut like Chilegal (for also sent letters their issueson toour thechildren, election forum.

So, the there is their stories… I changed my mind. All the 70 see rolling to outthe of Supreme rice-flourCourt, pastels, rather lucky noodle. andthe messages her law- nese no loss here, this is a win-win situation.” female inmates at the Jagdalpur jail were vil- similar toNHRC both and Northern Indian aloo samosa yer, NCW, so on, not knowing if they sibi arasu with inputsisfrom Amit Kumar manidipal mandal a travel and food writer in Delhi lagers from the neighbouring districts and and wereSpanish receivedempanadas. by the intended parties.

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Pongalo pongal The pot of plenty bubbles over at Coimbatore m periasamy

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know you pay for it. When you can’t wait any longer. When you’re desperate. I know your tired fingers hurriedly access your credit card, under the covers, late at night.

You’re looking for a life, or perhaps just a helping hand, and as a purist, I judge you for it. You, my friend are a Candy Crush addict, and you’ve finally broken down and paid for that hammer lollypop.

I know what it must feel like. Because I’ve come close to it. I too have spent days at the Salty Canyon, and stood at the edge of the Bubblegum Bridge, wondering, “Is there really a way across?”

Desperate calls on dying batteries have been made to helpful friends, asking for an extra life. Or just one more move. But despite the help, a Candyvore’s journey is a lonely one; you know that, of course.

But I have never paid. Not for extra lives, or moves, or even to get to a new level.

My patience is always rewarded, and I still stand proud, undefeated.

Yet, there are times when I too am ashamed.

When I wake up after luridly colourful dreams of Tiffi and Mr Toffee and strange, enchanting carnival tunes. When I catch myself mid-whoop at the office because a colour bomb met a striped candy. When I fake a party hangover to explain the dark circles and the sleepless nights. After all, is it normal for a 20-something to be quite this taken in by a bunch of lozenges? To count alking down atill winding in the day in 30-minute intervals a newlane life is west Delhi, where the puppeteers live, a little girl runs to us and says in English, “My name Savita”. Wearing a worn out kurta and two pigtails tied with red ribbon, she was initially happy with all the attention her neighbourhood of artistes, better known as Kathputli Colony, was getting. Walking through, one can hear the dhol play, watch puppeteers at work and children somersault.

Home to magicians and puppeteers, craftsmen and tailors, this unique area in Delhi, may no longer be the seven-year-old’s home.

Kathputli Colony is said to be the world’s largest community of street performers. The shanties, some of which are close to 60 years old, are small cramped quarters equipped with water and electricity. However, like any urban slum, drains overflow outside the homes, and garbage lies in unattended heaps.

added to the game? All those delayed deadlines, postponed conversations and abandoned dates — what are they all for?

I know it’s not worth it. I’m wasting my time and youth and what little grey cells repeated stints at Farmville have left me with, but I have no one to turn to… what if I ask for help and they laugh, mock and turn me away? Or worse, take away my phone?

And then I look around me and find some hope. There are others afflicted too. It isn’t my fault; it’s a disease. And it’s spreading everywhere. I can recognise the others, staring intensely at their phones; I can see their fingers move, connecting the This land is my land Residents of threes, ad infinitum. It Kathputli Colony express their anger in seems never-ending. slogans and protests meeta ahlawat Sometimes I pray to the heavens for relief. Or just for change. And through my despair, I Livelihood matters Puppeteer Jagdish Bhatt, a resident of Kathputli Colony, who know a new day must has performed across the globe come soon. After all, it ramesh sharma wasn’t that long ago that we spent our days mingling with birds in need of anger management. For now though, there are miles to go and pots of gold to plumb at the end of the rainbows. And so I must strive, charging half a league, half a league, half a league onward. It’s not quite a war, and not child’s play either. It’s a dangerous game... For there’s no going back, no matter how hard you try, once you’ve joined the CANDY CRUSH SAGA.

Diary of a gaming addict who went down the rabbit hole

Puppet on a string

As the residents of Kathputli Colony defy bulldozers, we examine what the redevelopment plans would mean for this community of artistes

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Few takers The Kathputli Colony transit camp in Anand Parbat shiv kumar pushpakar

kakul royhas is a Delhi-based But this been the journalist home of Delhi’s grassroots craftspeople for the last few decades.

On February 27, Savita and her mother, along with the NGO Hazards Centre and other residents of the colony, defied the bulldozers that entered their colony threatening to move them to the transit camp in Anand Parbat, following Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) redevelopment plan. A few days after that, Savita’s mother and aunt were called by a policeman and asked to sign a document, written completely in English, which they could neither read nor understand.

The DDA plan that came up in 2007, states that the 3,200 families living in this colony will be moved to the camps, till Raheja Developers construct a multi-storey complex in the same area. After the initial uproar, the documents are now available in Hindi.

we do when it rains?” says a distressed Kamat Bhai, a resident of the transit camp.

In response, Dimple Bhardwaj, spokesperson for the Raheja Developers, clarified, “We have tried to make the transit camp as comfortable as possible. Baseless fears go against the cause of making Delhi slum-free.”

A few days ago, when I visited the Anand Parbat camp, walking distance from the Kathputli colony, I found 60 families had moved so far.

The presence of CCTV cameras across the colony did make it seem spooky. But the quarters, though clean, are tiny and there is no room for musical instruments or the puppets.

“The relocation policy states that the transit camp will have spaces for recreation and livelihood. But the houses are made of toxic waste material, windows are falling apart, drains are getting choked, electricity plug points and switches are not working. If it is like this We need a place to Indian marionette now, imagine how it will be after create our music, The art of the puppeteers goes two years?” alleges Dunu Roy, diour sculptures. Our back close to 1,500 years. They rector of Hazards Centre. The pollivelihood depends were an essential part of every icy document has an eerie on this mela and festival in Rajasthan. resemblance to the one that was The Rajasthani Bhat community handed out to the workers when are said to be the pioneers of this the mills were shut down in Mumstorytelling form. bai. However, as one glitzy mall afJagdish Bhat, a famous puppeteer, who has ter another came up, the land promised to the performed in the US and Europe says, “This workers continued to shrink. The schools and used to be jungle land. When we moved here it the hospitals promised to them completely was not an important junction. We needed a disappeared from the document. It took years place to create our music, our sculptures. Our of fighting in the courts on behalf of the Mill livelihood depends on this.” Bhat adds that Workers Union for the mill workers to get their homes have “been sold to builders for a what was promised to them. Many are still throwaway price of ₹6.11 crore, though the na- homeless and continue to live in shanties. tional auditor’s report has valued the land at “It is convenient to use these people as cul₹1,043.2 crore.” tural mascots but when we mistreat them, we In the transit camps, the voices of dissent erode India’s culture,” says Myna Mukherjee, are loud and clear. “We are a family of seven, director of an arts collective and gallery, Enwhen we put our beds down in this cramped gendered, who has created both art and magic hut there was no room for our dhols and pup- with Bhat and his group. pets. We had to keep them outside and keep watch so that they do not get stolen. What will georgina maddox is a Delhi-based art writer

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Make up star Toned and tanned Chirag Paswan is sure to bring his histrionics from Bollywood to Parliament

Brawling over biriyani No mutton, no shaadi, ranjeet kumar declares an irate baraat

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or a couple in Bangalore, the happily-ever-after was not to be when the biriyani reached the wedding buffet.

An argument over the main dish served at the wedding reception brought the huffing and puffing groom’s family to the local thana. Local dailies reported that the groom’s family had demanded mutton biriyani but were served paltry chicken instead. This resulted in a major row and both families ended up at the KG Halli police station.

The good folks at the station suggested that they make peace and not make this a ‘police matter’. We agree. Wonder if the smart cops tucked into the spurned chicken biryani at the end of it all.

SMS to find best route to god Biometric cards to be issued to all pilgrims travelling to Uttarakhand

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ith last year’s disaster still fresh in the minds of the government and the people, the Himalayan State has decided to play it safe rather than be sorry. In a first, the government will issue biometric cards and register the mobile numbers of all who want to trek up to Badrinath as part of the Char Dham Yatra.

“A total of 25 places have been identified, most of them in the

Lights, camera, action

Garhwal region, where biometric cards will be made and issued to pilgrims. All pilgrims will have to swipe their biometric card en route as well, which will also help us keep a track of their location,” said Uttarakhand State tourism secretary, Umakant Panwar, earlier this week. The government will also text weather updates to the faithful as they trek up to their destinations.

Gym-trained Chirag Paswan might be a failed actor but he is now proving to be a wily neta A not-so-pleasant kind of heavy Confirmed What’s weight got to do with marks bachelor?

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uried behind the gaudy candlesticks, hen a recent study revealed that group selfiescolourful may be increasing posters and guilt-edged the lice problem among teens, many a girl scratched her head and furniture in Ramvilas Paswan’s ordumped her BFF. In more bad news for teenage girls, another research, nate sitting room is a beautiful conducted by the universities in the UK and sketch. published in the InternationUnderstated in its delicate pencilal Journal of Obesity, shows that girls who were obese it had lower academic strokes, brings out the subaltern origins of a achievement. The study showed that overweight girls received a Dleader. in- “Mein us ghar once charismatic Dalit stead of a C, which was the average, in the core subjects of English, Maths mein diya jalane chala hoon, jahan sadiyon se and Science. The data from almost 6,000 children touted as the most andheraishai (My dream is to light a lamp in a comprehensive study yet on the association between obesity and aca- of oppression),” home darkened by centuries demic prowess in adolescents. However, researchers say etched that further read two lines as a prescribed motto work is needed to understand why obesityfor is negatively related to acathe Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader. demic results. Strangely, obese boys seem to beBut doing inclearly school.misread the leader’s theokay artist

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left his past life, and first wife Raj Kumari, in exasperated by the Congress’ indifference. the backyard of Bihar, to reap the harvest of “Who do I call? Lalu is refusing to give us any his youthful struggles. In his heyday, Paswan seats. Rahul Gandhi is never available and Sowas a fiery orator and convincing champion niaji is invisible. Elections are around the corof Dalit rights. The dividends of those youth- ner. What do they expect us to do,” Paswan ful struggles have been equally rewarding — said. He still may have been willing to wait at n August Paswan has been a minister in 2013, someaof34-year-old the the bachelor Gandhis’ doorstep but ideology is not an from Byculla travelled most lucrative departments in the Union Gov-1,400km excusetoforthe failure. Nor is being treated as unDelhii.e.Zoo in an attempt to find a suitableby the Congress in the name of secernment over the years Chemical and Fertouchables mate. moved into tilisers, Coal, Railways et al.Shiva the celibate rhinoularism.

In any case, Chirag had already cagebeen at the zoo and tried befriendthat the Modi was “innocent”.

However, his partyahas flailing since its to decided duo ofasMaheshwari humiliating defeat mother-daughter in the last Lok Sabha Thenceand started secret parleys with Modi’s But zoo’s attempts that began well as the assemblyAnjuga. elections inthe Bihar in 2010. party.

Shahnawaz Hussain, the lone Muslim goal. The lamp, Chirag, was not exactly a meta- The time was ripe towith much the promise seem to be An Lok Sabha, was deputed by party introduce handsome BJPfailing.

MP in the phor for social justice. Behind his grand son who, during various old horn injury hasevents kept Shiva out of acpromotional president Rajnath Singh to broker peace. “I claims of annihilating caste by seizing politi- for his films, described tionpolitics – copulation to “quite be precisetold — and he’sI am yet atoMuslim make his public even as being them too.

Whendebut, I am comcal power lay very mundane, pedestrian ambi- similar to films”. “In with regular medical attention. The hormone misboth profesfortablesupplements with the BJP,have whatalso is your tions of promoting a mediocre progeny. sions, we deal with the sedmasses,” their mark. is theHussain news of the of a he And adding to the pressure problem,” toldarrival me. They Chirag is not a lamp that lights a poor home. declared. The son has younger, rhinosecret from Kanpur is onin his empty way to been more char- agile competitor. A maleheld meetings He is a gym-trained, light-eyed entertainer ming the masses inthe Delhipublic Zoo. Perhaps a bit of alpha rivalry is just what needs? most houses, five starShiva hotels and finally Nowhere else in Chirag and his uncle Ramchandra whose only claim to people’s affections till functions that the LJP and its varithe political February, this year, was a dud at the box office. ous fronts like Dalit Sena have Paswan were escorted to Rajnath spectrum has a “Katto gilehri chhamak chhallo rani, ashik ko been holding in Bihar.

Singh’s official residence at Ashoka dynastic shift aise na tadpao jaani (Do not torment a lover, But nowhere else in the political Road through a back alley. From 12 my beautiful temptress),” he crooned in the spectrum has a dynastic shift pre- presented a more seats, which is what Chirag designificant item number that failed to fire the fortune of sented a more significant political manded in exchange for LJP’s political his 2011 Bollywood entry, Miley Naa Miley Hum. transition than LJP. The sole reason about-face, the negotiation came to transition This was, however, not for want of trying. given for Ramvilas Paswan to quit seven and a deal was struck.

What the film lacked in merit, the son-father the National Democratic Alliance On February 27, BJP leaders Shahmade up with aggressive promotion. On the (NDA) was Narendra Modi and the nawaz Hussain, Rajiv Pratap Rudy occasion of Diwali that year, the Paswan fam- Gujarat riots in 2002. Since then, and Ravi Shankar Prasad reached e have just entered the BJP hall has of fame — for most Thenian or Bahraini counterparts.” ily crossed their picket fence on 12 Janpath to the been histhe target.

Paswan’s residence. In a snazzy grey repressive onlineson’s spy system democratic It went on tosuit, comment ouratbabus fighting forshook greet their neighbour at 10 Janpath — Conarrival in has,a however, reversed the faChiragabout beamed the cameras and country.

A document published recently by Reporters the “good cause” in cyber space, “The existing Indian gress president Sonia Gandhi. ther’s logic. hands with the BJP team. “We have to move on. without puts the In Indian Government’s cyber laws give authorities a free hand toinmount sur“We invited Soniaji, Rahulji andBorders Manmohan his second act as Chairman of the LJP’s You can’t be trapped 2002,”major he said. snooping for Development of Telematics veillance acoperations against users of the Webof andcameramen other Singhji for a screening of my son’sagency, film,” Centre Pas- parliamentary board, the smooth-talking Before a militant herd technology. the (C-DOT)promo. in the same as America’s Se-thetelecommunication wan said during the film’s Rahulcategory tor was not aboutNational to suffer Congress’s pushed me behindIta also pillar,authorises the sight signalled curity and“He the British Government interception anyarrival information transmitted by comGandhi even turned up for theAgency screening. characteristic bigCommunicabrother treatment.

His fa- ofthe of a showman.

Politics has tradition Headquarters (GCHQ). puter and any person refuses decrypt his private said Chirag is very talented,” the father ther, a shrewd judge of the shifting political tionallywho been kindtoto superstars from the Titled ‘Enemies of the Internet’, document states, information request up to seven gushed. But for once, the critics proved right landscapethe after Modi’s projection as the BJP’s upon worldofficial of cinema.

Butfaces for reducing social jus“The NSA in the United States, GCHQ incandidate, the United years in prison.”tice and secularism to a caricature, a failed acand the film sank without a trace. prime the ministerial was still hesitant and Centre in formaking Development ofmove.

Telematics It does look like 2014 is thejust newthe 1984 in India.

Our baBut temporary failuresKingdom clearly do notthe daunt the first At a luncheon hosttor is perhaps right choice. are no better their Chinese, Russian, Ira- Congress bus sureParfind inspiration in unlikely places. ambitious aspirants in in anyIndia profession.

Espe- than ed last month by the Nationalist cially when they have a resourceful father who ty (NCP) leader DP Tripathi, Paswan was visibly poornima joshi

Shiva the rhino may die a virgin after all

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Spy vs spy

Needed urgently: a desi Edward Snowden to take on C-DOT

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cornerstone in-faq by joy bhattacharjya Colours

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es, Holi’s around the corner. After considering illegal substances, interesting spring and harvest rituals and spaced-out people in the song ‘Jai jai siva sankar’ as options, we finally settled on a colours quiz. I told you we were adventurous and kind (this is an easy set!).

Show time A rearing Lipizzaner

1 2 3

Technically, what colour are the Lipizzaner horses, the most famous performing horse breed in the world?

the new york times crossword-0126

olden goldies

Which ’80s punk rock band, who are still very big, decided on their name because of their fondness for marijuana?

What sobriquet were the military unit, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, given after a particularly brave effort during the battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War?

4 5 6 7

Still on nineteenth-century history. Which colour was named in celebration of a French victory against the Austrians in 1859?

Which ’80s Pulitzer-winning novel relates the story of a 14-year-old black girl named Celie raised in the American South?

Connect Air Force, Tiffany, Cambridge and Cornflower. The list is by no means exhaustive, of course.

Which late eighteenth- and early nineteenthcentury painter was so fond of the shade vermillion that eventually, it also came to be known by his name?

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A greyish shade of red was named after a variety of rose, which in turn was named from an ancient Asian city. Identify the shade, and/or the city.

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What infamous substance would you get if you mixed equal parts of the herbicides 2, 4, 5-T and 2, 4-D?

Which acclaimed film of the late ’70s was loosely based on an incident that occurred in a town near Dhanbad in December 1975, with the character modelled on Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim?

Answers

1. Greys. Most horses which look white in colour are actually greys.

2. Green Day 3. The Thin Red Line. Also the title of a novel and film 4. Magenta 5. The Colour Purple, by Alice Walker. Later, an awardwinning film 6. Shades of blue; did not give you Prussian, Cobalt, Midnight and the other better known shades 7. Goya 8. Damask, from the Damask Rose, originally from Damascus 9. Agent Orange, the dreaded defoliant used during the Vietnam War 10. Kaala Patthar

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

130 Lawn care tools 131 Some Civil War shots

DOWN ACROSS 1 Egyptian resurrection symbol 7 Ought to have, informally 14 “Come on, help me out” 20 Tropical juice type 21 Weapon for 27-Across 22 Total 23 Traffic cop’s answer upon being asked “Describe your job”? [1975] 25 Certify 26 Fraternity letter 27 Fictional user of a 21-Across 28 Follower of A, B or AB, informally 29 Positions in old monasteries 30 Like some rollers after use 32 Post-tornado highway detritus, perhaps?

[1974] 36 Scarlett’s sister-in-law and best friend in “Gone With the Wind” 38 Brand 39 Inter ___ 40 Chilling 43 Big inits. in health products

44 Hub 47 Speck 48 Chemical compounds in tea 50 Remark about a female stoner?

[1980] 55 Epitome of simplicity 56 Cracker brand 58 Lose it 59 DNA structure 63 British heads 65 Jour’s opposite 67 Familia members 69 Get closer 70 Repeated cry accompanying a gavel hit 72 Roast pig after a pig roast? [1956] 75 Stressed 76 Fume 78 Close 79 Base figs.

81 ___’ Pea 82 Attempts 84 “If I ___ …”

86 Moolah 88 See 9-Down 89 Napa Valley excursion, maybe?

[1963]

92 Sundry 94 R&B’s ___ Hill 97 Pulitzer-winning novelist Jennifer 98 Java 100 Displayed for scoring, as in gin rummy 101 Santa ___, Calif.

103 Ghana neighbor 106 Yes-men 108 Data request from a good ol’ furnace repairman? [1953] 112 Regatta racer 116 Believer in a strong centralized government 117 Roulette, e.g.

118 On the job 120 “Yoo-___” 121 Not bankrupt 122 Frontiersman awakening in a foul mood? [1969] 126 About whom Nabokov said “She was like the composition of a beautiful puzzle — its composition and its solution at the same time” 127 Teed off 128 Marcos who collected shoes 129 Rendezvous

1 Long pitch 2 Dragon fruit plants 3 Generating some buzz?

4 Templeton, e.g., in “Charlotte’s Web” 5 Words stated with a salute 6 Setting for David’s “The Death of Marat” 7 Everything being considered 8 Bray part 9 Hockey great whose name is a homophone of 88-Across and 12 3- and 124-Down 10 Barely ahead 11 Recluses 12 Pup 13 True or false: Abbr.

14 Sun spot 15 ___ nous 16 Supposed ancestor of Dracula 17 Spotted horse 18 Big name in TV talk 19 “Dig in!”

24 ___-kiri 29 Old “From one beer lover to another” sloganeer 31 Fed 33 Dive shop rentals 34 PC whizzes

35 iPod model 37 Name that starts a well-known “ism” 40 Speechless 41 Backless seat for one 42 Secret language device 45 Space cadet 46 Marsh hunter 49 Bit of jewelry 51 Input 52 Stated 53 Warren ___, baseball’s winningest lefty 54 Flock : sheep :: drove : ___ 57 Jerusalem’s Mount ___ 60 “Truthiness,” e.g., before Stephen Colbert 61 Etiologist’s study 62 Had a haughty reaction 64 Line in writing 66 Shopper in the juniors section, maybe 68 What may not come out in the wash?

71 “Side by Side by Sondheim,” e.g.

73 Mass gathering site 74 Push 77 Leader after Mao 80 Guck 83 Try to hit, as a fly

85 Indian head 87 Like clockwork 90 Trying to break a tie, say 91 Spa class 93 “Lohengrin” lass 94 Cure, in a way 95 Support 96 As a rule 99 To-dos 102 Stella ___ (beer) 104 1997 Demi Moore title role 105 Jittery 107 Cigar butt?

109 Singer John with the 1988 title track “Slow Turning” 110 “Cómo ___?”

111 Like beef for fondue 113 Dish in a bowl 114 Odyssey maker 115 Features of much Roman statuary 119 Georgia O’Keeffe subject 122 Gullet 123 See 9-Down 124 See 9-Down 125 Pennant race mo.

By Dan Schoenholz / Edited by Will Shortz

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