Blink issue 108 february27 2016

SECOND LIFE Six years of restoration later, Haveli Dharampura in Old Delhi emerges from behind filth and squalor to become a shining example in conservation p2 saturday, february 27, 2016

prashant nakwe

₹unners’ High It may have started as an inexpensive fitness fad, but running is now the new golf. A booming industry with big sponsors, fancy kits and celebrity endorsers, it lures more enthusiasts to lace up and race p10

EYES ON THE OCEAN An MIT researcher designs drones that can map and scale the seabed p6

THE WAY I DANCE Malavika Sarukkai wants to live it, exult in it and embrace it p14

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CREATURE FEATURE

Split ends The punishing heat of California’s Central Valley compelled Ensatina salamanders to part ways and re-emerge as two different species

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icture a stream meandering through a forest, and imagine what happens when it encounters a rock. Following the path of least resistance, the stream splits into two, each half finding its way forward on either side of the rock. Once they’ve moved past the barrier, the two streamlets flow back together, moving ahead as one. A few feet down, you won’t be able to tell that the rock was part of this stream’s history. But what if you sat beside the rock, and carefully dripped oil into one of the two streamlets? When the two arms of what used to be one stream meet on the other side of the rock, they will fail to reunite. You’ll be able to tell that they are different streams now, even though they flow alongside one another.

Now imagine that the stream, instead of beBorn againup Delicately moulded lakhori is bricks — with which are both hard to find and expensive — were used in the resurrection of Haveli Dharampura ing made of droplets of water, filled little animals that are shaped like lizards but feel like frogs. This tale of streams splitting and then failing to rejoin becomes the tale of breed, which means that they are one species later, we’d found a large female and a little Ensatina salamanders in California, US. It’s the at the top of the range, but two species by the male, eliciting from Prado-Irwin one of the story of how new species form. time they get to the bottom. The discovery of biggest smiles I’ve seen on a biologist’s face.

Just like frogs, salamanders are amphib- this remarkable pattern was a vindication to With just a couple of these salamanders in ians, so they need to live in a wet environment. biologists, who had long been in search of that hand, it’s difficult to appreciate the bigger geEven the daytime air is too dry for Ensatina, so perfect example, showing the process of how ographical and historical patterns that make they move around at night and spend their millions of species that we share our world these animals famous. Their bright colours days living under logs. When active, they pot- with have formed. are more immediately impressive. And just as ter about, looking for insects to eat on the forLast month, I travelled in CaliPrado-Irwin had suggested, there est floor. Not the most jet-setting of lifestyles, fornia with a colleague, Sofia was an interesting story to be but over the last few million years, they’ve Prado-Irwin, whose enthusiasm told here too. made their way down the entire length of Cali- for amphibians and reptiles in In some parts of California, EnWhile the coastal fornia, a distance of over 1500 km. Like the general, and for Ensatina salasatina co-occurs with a species of varieties stayed illiencounters ki hasti munassar fered a womb-like comfort to the uniformly outsider coloured, store the pastnewt to a that dignified living heritage.

It stream that a rock,kai thehangamon salaman- manders in particular, rivals any is incredibly toxic. In par was thi impeded by the punishing- biologist’s who was out of sorts infor theany concrete the jungles was Vijay Goel, the former MP from Chandni ders’ dispersal enthusiasm contrast, Ensatina are not toxic at mountainous har So roz majthat New Delhi has Chowk. “You’ve the filth neglect of in ly hot andQila, dryChandni CentralChowk, Valley. the other creature.

She spawned. ascribes her all, seen but they takeand advantage varieties became Jama Masjid hafteways. sair enthusiasm In the innumerable by-lanes out Old Delhi. Dotheir you want to seeneighbours. what it can be? populationma of Ensatina split ka, andhar parted partly to these ani-spreading blotchier noxious By Jamna pul ki, mela phool waalon ka mals’ from Daryagunj the Jama Masjid and Come and see Haveli the Dharampura,” said.

As eachkehalf of har the saal population encountered “interestingtobehaviours evolving very same he colour Yeh pancchon baatein—abon nahin Chandni Chowk,stories,” the kabaadi by the unlikely interest different environments the coast and on and evolutionary but al-shops nestled Vaguely intrigued patterns as the newts, downoftoa against the occasional splendour Phir mountains kaho Dilli kahan in restoring architectural inland — the salamanders gradual- so to “some innate reason that I of old have- career politician identical yellowold eyes, the salalis. The magnificent mostly led into a sites, I agreed. koi shehr is naam Hindustan mein ly Haan acquired changes.

The ka most striking of can never describe.”facades I undermanders can fool predators into warrenthisofinexplicable hastily partitioned kabhi tha these changes were in colour — while the stand awe in thedwellings, face of a thinking they are newts. These predators have (Delhi’s character wasuniformly defined bycoloured, the Red small itching a ride with Goel the next day, we whereslice impoverished still drew their coastal varieties stayed of nature — tenants I feel similarly about liz- learnt, possibly through painful experience, Fort,mountainous Chandni Chowk, the became crowds blotchier. that every- ards. drove streetatleading daily But water the public outside.

The to avoid the varieties myfrom passion by no tap means matches the into toxicanewts all costs.to the Jama day thronged Masjid, the walks to the Ya- Prado-Irwin’s, lane, overhung with electric cainteriors seemed of the Mumbai Masjid.

When they Jama do finally come back together, andmini-replicas I got to see her excitement But toThe an amphibian and reptile enthusiast muna andthe thecoastal yearly and Phoolwalon ki about bles and littered, woundinteracinto a chawls;Ensatina the glory of yesteryear like oil Bridge and water, mountainfirsthand when we went hik- like Prado-Irwin, clever ecological sair.varieties None of this remains; what of Delby-lane. At thesalamanders mouth of a buried in shade the everyday reality of with the ex- tions like thesmall ous no longer mix.

Thebecame two types of ing in the of redwood trees one between the hi? There wasdoonce city thateach wentother by this provision the goal havelis’ impoverished salamanders not arecognise as plicit of locating some salamanders. This and the newtsby-lane, are onlyan partancient of why these aniname.)and therefore do not interbreed, which turned store masalas, dalof and denizens. mates out to be an easy task. We only hadThere to mals oursold attention.

Much hersoap fasare are worth — Mirza Asadullah of Khan ‘Ghalib’to different “flip powder tinthecanisters.

This wasa how ended is the very definition belonging over log, the andpast there was — this bright or- cination simplyin from chance to The see approximately 500 derives ‘world’s narrowest street’ adin squalor and degradation. species. But everywhere along the ring, sala- ange gummy-bear looking In thing havelis on thein Old them living their daily lives.

She recounts how, Delhi.

The poet’s angst settles like the mythical fog ground,” joined by-lane to form what overflowing sewage and described. gaudy manders from adjacent populations can interas Prado-Irwin Minutes as aabout six-year-old, she this saw “this giant bull snake Of them, only over the minarets of Jama Masjid in the late paint that smothered the deliloosely to me like itcalled was a Dharampura million feet 50 are in that a stillseemed is winter afternoon. Seen through the dish an- cately carved red stone and mohalla, where Goel’s haveli can long. I was just so scared and impressed at the retrievable condition tennas and innumerable Sintex water tanks wooden facades of the once found. same time. Itbe was an eye-opener [to see] that crowding the rooftops, the monument’s maj- grand mansions. In overhangSuddenly, thewhere electric cables things like this live in a place I live.”

It’s esty is as indeterminate as the character of ing electric cables and crudely disappeared.

Shutters of decthe an impression that has persisted for two this city, which has been famously destroyed designed shops that sold artifishops lining the by-lane, which ades, directing Prado-Irwin’s attention to and rebuilt seven times by its various cial jewellery and greasy ‘Chinese food’. The frogs, has a lizards, new sewerage line, were all painted in and Ensatina salamanders.

I susconquerors. the same is Gali Guliyan, a by narsudden charm of a centuries-old Jain temple pect that ifcolours. more ofThis us were as impressed a For the migrant in me, confined mostly to that paled in the stink of the garbage collect- plant row but squeaky clean by-lane which crissor animal in our vicinity, we’d be doing a the throbbing metropolis that the seven cities ing outside. crosses two old temples and houses Goel’s much better jobJain of getting along with the milhave metamorphosed into, Shahjahan’s now famous Haveli Dharampura.

The former And so it was till one person, albeit a far lions of species we share the Earth with.

Walled City signified an easy return to what more influential one compared to a rootless MP is not looking to restore just an old haveli. kamath studies organismic was left behind. To the decrepit town, an erst- migrant, called with a promise to show me ambika His is a more ambitious project.and evolutionary Harvard University while princely state of my past. Purani Dilli, its what a true haveli actually looked like. What a biology “Youat see what underground sewage lines ambikamath@gmail.com Worlds apart The two types of Ensatina salamanders not recognise eachofother as mates and therefore do not interbreedcan briando freiermuth crowded mohallas and dochaotic bazaars and focus on disposing garbage efficiently can little attention to basic amenities to re-

ambika kamath

Brick by brick

It took six years to give Old Delhi’s Haveli Dharampura, hidden in what could well be the world’s narrowest street, a new lease of life

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Capital neglect When Vijay Goel (seen with son Siddhant in the far-right photo), the former MP from Chandni Chowk, bought Haveli Dharampura, it was a run-down mansion which housed 60 families

do to an area? It has taken me years of running from one corporation official to another official and back. But the result is that I have managed to restore at least some parts in this mohalla to a semblance of order,” Goel said.

There are approximately 500 havelis in Old Delhi. Of them, only about 50 are in a retrievable condition still. But the multiplicity of the city’s civic authorities, combined with the fact that they are individually owned and embroiled in tenant-landlord disputes, means that it would take a Herculean effort to restore them to their former glory.

Haveli Dharampura has, thus, been resurrected as a model which can be emulated if Goel can interest the authorities into a bigger renovation project. Along with son Siddhant, architect Kapil Aggarwal and Heritage India Foundation, founded by Goel, his ambition is to convert Old Delhi into a kind of model living heritage project.

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he story of Haveli Dharampura’s new life started six years ago when Goel bought a run-down mansion housing 60 families. From 1869, when the haveli belonged to a Muslim family, it passed different hands, finally be-

advice, he was mistaken.

“For six years, there wasn’t a week when I didn’t hear of some disaster in Dharampura. I used to dread that the whole structure would come down during the monsoons. I have run from INTACH to MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) to every expert architect I heard of.

But eventually, I just had to depend on common sense and what was available. Fortunately, I know these parts. My father’s office was here and I know people around. We started from strengthening the foundation and worked our way up,” said Goel.

Architect Aggarwal cobbled together a team of conservation students from Delhi, specialist masons and labourers mostly from Rajasthan, and local construction workers who are familiar with the haveli designs. For the next two years, they worked only on strengthening the foundations, putting up iron scaffoldings, and chipping away layers of paint work and cement that had buried the original lakhori bricks and architecture.

The interiors took four years. Out of 60 rooms on three floors, this team redesigned 28 with adjoining bathrooms on each floor, the design and architecture showcasing an influence of Mughal, Rajasthani and European longing to multiple owners. The roof was col- elements. And now, when visitors enter an imlapsing in places, about 60 partitions had pressive façade into a sun-filled courtyard, the concealed the original architecture of the image is a stunning, three-storey architectural three-storeyed mansion, and a section of the brilliance. Artwork adorns the walls and modwall was ready to give in. ern plumbing and sealed electric-wiring Goel spent time getting previous residents transforms the winding staircases and hidden to vacate. After the haveli was cleared of the tahkhanas. Each floor has a distinct character tenants, Goel’s next task was to and view, leading up to the sunny find masons familiar with the rooftop, where Goel plans to original construction work. Forhold kite-flying expeditions. tunately for him, renovation The haveli would be a muIn havelis, work in the Red Fort involved a construction material seum, a performance space, a few masons who had discovered place where past has been reincludes a mix of that walls are not just brick and stored. “It will be a place where jaggery, urad dal, mortar. For havelis, construcstudents can learn about conserwood apple pulp and tion material includes a mix of vation. About how we can still crushed bricks jaggery, urad dal, wood apple view the past. How our ancestors pulp and crushed bricks. They allived,” said Goel. so used the delicately moulded As I stood on the rooftop, lakhori bricks, which are hard to watching Jama Masjid through a find and expensive. haze of smoke and squalor, the impossibility But first, the clumsily constructed parti- of Goel’s promise began to sink in. In a countions had to be demolished. Goel and Sidd- try where the past is mostly a ruse to practise hant supervised the removal of 1,000 gutter-level politics, the invocation of beauty truckloads of debris from the dilapidated is difficult to envisage. mansion. And if Goel thought being an MP gave him some authority and access to expert poornima joshi

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A Russian ballad A 25-km hiking trail brings you to Baikal, the world’s deepest and oldest freshwater lake

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he thin sash of azure blue expanded gradually as I strode towards the marble-strewn shore under the shade of towering larch and pine trees. In a moment, I was facing the icy waters of Siberia’s Baikal lake, stretching ahead as far as the eye can see. As freshwater lakes go, it has much to boast about: it is the world’s deepest, largest (by volume) and oldest. From reading about it in a Std VI geography book, decades ago in a school in remote Tamil Nadu, to being slapped by the breeze on its shores, I have come a long way, literally and figuratively. As I stood gazing at its billowing waters, a ticklish urge rose in me.

Earlier that day, a sunny morning, I had set out on a 25-km hiking trail around Baikal.

Termed the Great Baikal Trail, the route would lead me from the Siberian town of Listvyanka on Baikal’s shores to the mining village of Bolshie Koty, reached only on foot or a hydrofoil.

This section, located within the Pribaikalsky National Park, passed through dense vegetation watched over by impossibly tall larch, birch, poplar and alder trees, slowly changing

colours as fall approached.

At the town of Listvyanka, where I started Much like Lake Baikal, whose delicate ecolo- the hike, there was a strange makeover undergy is often threatened by pollution and tou- way, it seemed. Slope-roofed wooden houses rism, the forests surrounding the lake as part are being built, some replacing the flat grey of the Pribaikalsky National Park also host nu- concrete structures from the Soviet era. Even merous species of plants, animals and birds — as oil prices turn increasingly volatile and Rusmany of them endangered. The sia’s economy struggles to cope National Park was established in with the after-effects, tourism is 1986 and covers over a million starting to boom. It became Do apI count Many migrants of acres of protected forest area. parent that town-folk are taking I noticed the Puttuma A decade ago, Great Baikal note of the cash flow trickling in, Nagar unmistakable could not avail Trail (GBT), a non-profit organiaided by tourism, and building presence of Chinese flood relief as they sation, was formed by environguesthouses and hotels. did not have the tourists. They are mental enthusiasts and locals to I had spent the previous eve- identity requisite arriving by the proofofm prabhu ‘promote local sustainable dening walking the fish markets busloads all over velopment, social equality and Listvyanka, where women sold Russia low-impact eco-tourism’ in the dried omul fish, a Siberian delicaregion. As part of its work, GBT cy, and eating Uzbek pilaf cooked has cleared, with the help of inover an open fire. ternational volunteers, narrow I noticed the unmistakable walking trails in the National Park area that presence of Chinese tourists. They are arriving snake alongside the lake. When I read about by the busloads all over Russia, and Baikal is the trail, as part of my research for the ride on no exception. the Trans-Siberian express, I knew Baikal At the hotel I stayed in, the wooden ceiling would be one of the highlights of my trip. of my room pounded all night as unruly chil-

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The relief efforts after the Chennai floods have exposed the linguistic and regional fault lines in Puttuma Nagar, a corner of the city that many migrant workers call home

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eyond the bustle of the SIPCOT special economic zone on the Rajiv Gandhi IT Expressway, the neighbourhood of Kazhipattur in Vaniyanchavadi is little more than a blink-and-miss combination of bus stop and signboard. Entering Puttuma Nagar, a working-class settlement, along a muddy path leading off the main road, I am greeted by a battered statue of Ambedkar, the kind that typically adorns localities which other gods have forgotten.

Abutting a large waterbody that drains into the sea, the settlement was ravaged by the unprecedented rains that lashed Chennai and its surrounding areas in November and December. At first glance, the dwellings in Puttuma Nagar might appear indistinguishable from each other, a working-class griminess overhanging them uniformly. But it is, in some ways, as ‘cosmopolitan’ as some of the most affluent areas of Chennai. More than seven languages are spoken here as residents, mainly migrant workers, trace their roots to Bihar, Assam, Nagaland, Odisha and Jharkhand among other places. Immigrants from places closer afield in rural Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have also made home here.

As Tolstoy famously said, happy families are all alike but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. The floods and the subsequent relief efforts have exposed the linguistic and regional fault lines within the community. A survey by a coalition of NGOs, which later submitted a report to the government on flood relief efforts, repeatedly encountered stories of deprivation and alienation among the non-Tamil population of the city. “We will not receive any compensation,” says Sunita Karri, a construction worker from Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh. “The officials told us we are not eligible since we do not have any local documents. Even when NGO workers came to dis-

tribute food in the area, Tamil residents tried moved here over 15 years ago, have managed to prevent us from taking it.” to secure a proof of existence and can hope to When floodwater invaded Puttuma Nagar, get compensation from the government. But the panchayat leader broke open the local there are also other Tamil-speaking people school and residents took shelter in it. Several who moved here from interior regions who Hindi-speaking residents, perhaps due to the are being denied government benefits much language barrier, either remained unaware or like their non-Tamil counterparts. Rajathi had felt unwelcome to share this space. Forced to left Thiruvannamalai to work as a domestic look for alternative safe space, they found few help in Chennai nearly 15 years ago. She had to left once the waters rose to waist-level. “I spent travel to her village immediately after the a day with a neighbour who charged me ₹200. floods to perform the last rites for her father.

After that, a few roommates and I stayed in the “After we came back, we submitted our details common toilet and bathroom, which were for relief, but the officer said it was too late built at a height,” recounts Sudand refused to accept them,” she hanshu Dash, a migrant worker says. Some who had moved here from Odisha. He eventually confrom rural districts of Tamil Nadu tracted typhoid and had to be said they were present during the Stories like those treated at a private hospital. enumeration but were still igfrom Puttuma Nagar When the waters receded nored as they did not have proof are no doubt being about five days later and people of local residence. played out across slowly returned home, they Volunteer surveyors have come other localities of confronted newer problems. across similar tales of governChennai With the government largely mental neglect from migrant absent, it was the residents workers in at least 20 villages from nearby high-rise apartalong the IT Expressway. In sharp ments who arrived with rations contrast, in many of the flood-afand relief material. But even these did not re- fected middle-class localities in the heart of ach large sections of the migrant population. the city, government officials appear to have Like most other migrants in this locality, Pad- set the bar much lower — they are ready to acma Korada too rents a house from a Tamil- cept any form of identification papers, irrespeaking landlord. The construction worker spective of the place of origin. With elections from Andhra Pradesh hesitates to talk about fast approaching, clearly it helps to belong to the relief efforts, attempting instead to redi- a segment of the population that can either rect my questions to her landlord, standing a make a noise or cast a ballot. few feet away. But she lets slip in hushed TeluThe floods may have been instrumental in gu that many landlords, including hers, col- bringing people together in many parts of the lected relief material on their tenants’ behalf city, but for the migrant workers of Puttuma and re-distributed them as they deemed fit.

Nagar and elsewhere, it is yet another remindPuttuma Nagar’s story is being played out er that they are second-classLakeside citizens dreams in their A house facing the across other localities of Chennai too. But this adopted land. picturesque Baikal is not a simple, binary tale of the migrant verlake prathap nair sus local. Some like Renuka Selvam, who visvaksen p

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Split down the middle The relative calm inside the JNU campus — where sloganeering is a part of life — is in stark contrast to the tension at its gates

The writing’s on the wall Awash with posters, the administration building in JNU saurabh yadav

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or more than two weeks, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been in the eye of a storm. The JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar is lodged in Tihar jail. Late on Tuesday night, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, two out of five students facing charges of sedition, surrendered to the police. Union ministers, state legislators, police and the media have the university under their lens.

The peace inside the campus contrasts with the heavy police presence, barricades at the gates and the long line of media outdoor broadcast vans parked outside. An oasis within the city, the JNU campus is an overwhelming expanse of green and part of the Capital’s Ridge forest.

At the heart of the sprawling campus, the walls of the administrative building are covered with giant murals. All India Students Association’s (AISA) murals hold the pride of place, depicting marching workers and fists clenched in protest. Not far away, Shyama Prasad Mookherjee, founder of Bharatiya Jan Sangh (now known as BJP), smiles from an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) poster.

In a democratic tradition, space on the wall comes from the JNU ‘wall day’, when students stand in front of designated walls to claim banner space for the academic year. The murals, which mirror conflicting political views, represent the diversity of JNU’s student community.

“There is a liberal culture of free speech on campus; everyone is allowed to have their own views, we listen to them,” said Shiv, a postgraduate. “The ABVP activists are guerrillas, they

Kumar Sharma, joint secretary of JNUSU. With a large number of research students and social studies programmes on offer, those supportive of a liberal or socialist ideology have always been in a majority at JNU. Over the last few years, the ABVP has increased its clout at JNU. This has led to several confrontations in the campus. In end-December 2015, at the 22nd International Congress of Vedanta, Baba Ramdev was invited as the keynote speaker — a move that was successfully opposed by JNUSU. In the last few days, three office-bearers of the ABVP have resigned in protest over the government’s handling of the current situation.

On the evening of February 24, ABVP held a meeting in front of the administration building to commemorate martyrs. Retired army officers addressed a small, attentive crowd of students, after speaking to TV news. There were posters of the nine victims of the Parliament attacks, as also the armymen who died in recent terrorist strikes in Kashmir. Students waved saffron flags and shouted ‘Bharat maata ki jai’. General GD Bakshi, a former soldier and, as he reminded the cheering hordes, former student (degrees at the National Defence Academy are awarded by JNU), was the first speaker of the evening. His speech was punctuated by claps, his voice getting shrill at times as he spoke about “When they ask for azaadi for Kashmir, how do they ask for it, with Kalashnikovs, with grenades, with the lives of 44,000 Indians?” In a jibe at the US, Bakshi appear suddenly, and they don’t want to talk,” said: “If America can allow a programme at its he added. universities to celebrate Obama, no Osama, The happenings of the last two weeks have then tell us (sic).” diverted attention from the classrooms. “We The other speakers, also ex-servicemen, went to sleep and woke up next morning as calmly dwelled on the effect ‘anti-national’ anti-nationals,” said Vishwambhar Prajapati. demonstrations have on the morale of solEvery group in JNU has its identifying slo- diers at the border and their families. gans, and the most vocal members are recogSitting in silent protest at the stairs of the nised even from afar. “Those shown shouting administration building, a group of students on TV (calling for azaadi of Kashmir, and the waited with placards. “We are for democracy division of India) are not JNU students,” said and for dissent, is it possible for us to show a Sanghamitra Das, a student. “If gesture of magnanimity and alsomeone raises such slogans, we low them to go ahead with their have to see them not as anti-naprogramme,” JNUSU vice-presitional but from their perspecdent Shehla Rashid asked the The leaders at JNU tive and angst of life in crowd, as they chose to not disare known for their Kashmir... people forget that.” rupt the ABVP programme by the ability to speak Das went on to say, “Most stushouting counter-slogans. well... that is why we dents are apolitical, but the leadThe violence and anger directchoose them ers at JNU are known for their ed at them outside has not repolitical views and the ability to duced the defiance of the speak well and that is why we students within the campus. The choose them.” disproportionate use of force by “Different slogans are the culture of JNU. the police has had the effect of uniting various Some will call for the eradication of casteism, universities in support of the students. There (jaatiwaad ko tod phod do), some people shout have also been letters from various universi‘brahminwad murdabad’ (down with brah- ties from across the world. Every evening, sominism), others say ‘brahminwad zindabad,” cial activists and academics speak to students explained Prajapati. gathered at the administration building.

Abhijeet, an ABVP office-bearer, who was The pressure from ministers of the Central present at the controversial cultural event on government and the police has turned the isFebruary 9, said, “We have a problem with the sue into a David vs Goliath battle. At JNU, alusage ‘judicial killing’.” A poster of the event most everyone agrees, this is a political battle that said ‘Against the judicial killing of Afzal and the students are not prepared to take this Guru and Maqbool Bhat’ was sent to the vice- lying down. chancellor along with a petition to stop the event. It was signed by ABVP member Saurabh saurabh yadav

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Robot navigators of the deep seas MIT researcher Sampriti Bhattacharyya has designed drones that work like ‘Google Maps for the ocean’

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eventy per cent of the world’s surface can also be used to monitor oceanic pollution. area is underwater, yet only five per The drone itself resembles a bright-yellow cent of it is mapped. Sampriti Bhatta- egg, the toy-like appearance belying its comcharyya, a 28-year-old PhD candidate plex, avant-garde nature. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology The number of drones in use can be in(MIT), is on a mission to fill this gap. creased depending on the nature and size of a Her trusty aides in this are the drones she mission, as also customised for specific redesigned to detect radiation leakage at under- quirements, Bhattacharyya says, over a Skype water nuclear reactors as part of her doctoral call. All the drones on a mission will be atSafe space For a writer, sometimes what’s required is steadiness.

Afteraall, the orchestra must first take370 its placetached before there be music shutterstock research.

After Malaysian Airlines Flight to a can central station.

The number of disappeared on March 8, 2014, the young re- drones needed will also depend on the camera PAPERWALLAH searcher came up with her idea — what she resolution of individual drones. calls a “Google Maps for the ocean floor” — an Having already tasted success as an entreautonomous, underwater ‘smart’ drone that preneur, Bhattacharyya is however deterfunctions as our eye on the vast ocean floors. mined to complete her PhD before plunging With a bit of tweaking, her radiation detecting fully into her start-up. robots could now be deployed to map and Bhattacharyya attributes her achievements scale the bottom of the sea. to her interest in astrophysics, which paved Not just that, Bhattacharyya tapped into the her way for a Master’s in aerospace engineerentrepreneurial community on campus to ing from Ohio State University. A student of market her drone. Hydroswarm, her compa- South Point, one of the better-known schools ny, which is eight months old, was kick-started in Kolkata, she went on to pursue mechanical hat does it mean to lead with a something the $15,000 to prize money she won during slip, to drop.

But for the first And when things begin to get too comfortengineering from a little-known private colwriter’s life?

MIT’stime 100inKa Entrepreneurship competition very long while, Delhi felt embracive. able, the city gives me“What dissent. lege in Khidirpur, Kolkata. changed my There’s a self-help book on (one The of the student-run business plansomecitylargest and I were in accord.

I slipped, Only glimmeringly does it to me. That trajectory from a small college tocome an internathe matter (what isn’t there a how, competitions) in Harvard Business and into its rhythms — the late evenings, thisrenowned too is a writer’s One

by Ia partionally schoollife. was themarked fact that self-help book on, one wonders?) that, in its lazy School.

Shethe also went to win morns, rattle andon hum of itsthe streets, ticular of in belonging that translates pursued my sense interest astrophysics.

I even got into own words, “addresses issues that face writ- the$50,000 goldpolluted prize after beating over air.an (hideously yet) softening I internship a quiet space my work withatNASA,” shetable. says. Even if I usually ers”. Including writer’s block, rejection, and found 2,500 start-ups atrather the MassChallenge a place to be; fittingly a barsati, Naturally, tend to she agree Doris Lessing, who once is awith strong advocate of womself-discipline. Apart from that, “established thatAccelerator most iconic of competiDelhi’s accommodation of- said, “Whatever you’re meanttechnology, to do, do it now. en in STEM (science, authors offer advice on writers’ conferences, ferings tion.for Inthe September 2015, young and single. A barsati with The conditions are always impossible”, engineering and math), assert-I can networking, self-promotion, the editorial an overhanging she was the jamun hardware tree that was in flush see howing sometimes what’s required that despite the also many gen- is process and other matters.” winner fruitalley whenwildcard I moved in.

It felt like a blessing. steadiness. all, the orchestra must first derAfter imbalances in these fields, a venture But that is not what I meant at all. That is atneighbourhood Techcrunch SF became Dis- CBInsights, My mine, but not take its place there can be music. therebefore are opportunities for the capitalist not it, at all. rupt,it awas technology en-paying because where I was rent. database, If the city has reached to me, so have its determined.

Theout gender disparihas The phrase has stayed with me ever since I trepreneurship Down the road, I made friends with thedeclared fruit people. The evening, introduced ty isother not unique toI’m India, she ar- to a Hydroswarm of read Andrew Motion’s biography of the poet seller, platform. a under whose CBInsights, cart, parked a tree, one stranger, a friend’s friend.

Janice? gues.

“Even in “You’re the US, in You the top seven grantPhilip Larkin, a few years ago. It’s titled, as you changed venture capitalist data- Close with the seasons. write…” They methe they’ve universities such tell as MIT, gen- read funded robotics might have guessed, A Writer’s Life. And it fasci- by, through base, has Hythedeclared park, a vegetable firstisbook; theyideal, thinkespeit’s amazdermy ratio far from companies in the US nated me. Could there be such a thing? Did it stall. One droswarm one of the I was late afternoon, ing. I’m in a ‘I’m cially in thrilled; higher not levels, in a ceinvolve vintage Underwood typewriters? Cats. walking topbackseven home, grantladen with lebrity’ fields kind of but that I’ve of way, engineering A writer's life is hardcore Gallons of coffee made from a rustic Bialetti. A groceries, funded robotics and the winter sun had metassomeone to whom my book mechanical engineerstark, humdrum such window with a view. in theFor US.that inturnedcompanies the trees gold. has made miraculous ing,” she says.itsTogether withway. her That discipline A fireplace. Walls lined with books.

It world took —about one-and-a-half friends she has started stant, the the children’s it has left my handscalled and landed a non-profit Lab up Until last summer, I wasn’t sure. years Bhattacharyya to establish swings, thefor grass, the dusty air — in theirs.

It is real.to providing X Foundation, which is dedicated In fact, shifting across continents, disillu- stood still. the company from conceptualisaAnd I remember saying A writer’s life is this, then. internship and study opportunities to kids inLong sioned with freelance writing, anchorless to myself, tion. While commercial sale has India. “We have thousands remember this. Reperiods ofofsilence. studentsOfinaloneness.

India (quite literally and otherwise), it felt hard member this. notAt started (“We’re work- marthe oldyet neighbourhood handwritten from who Sometimes, are probablyofsmarter than letters me, who doreadenough just to build a life. Any sort of life. I ket, still flanked ing by with our customers shops, at not small independent I have ers that you cherish. noticing seasons. And, the option to go Of to top international was back in Delhi, the city I had fled in 2009, a find a chaat and thealu moment, butNow, it’s going tikki stand. the owner in this city, the of flowering winter trees. schools because theysmell do not have the required city where I’d always felt unable to write (only knows I like a tad to happen very soon”, she on extra tamarind, lighter A writer’s life isuniversity, stark, humdrum discipline. No stamp from a good or the exposure after moving back to Shillong for a year did I the mint sauce, more says),papri companies than dahi in bhalla. way butwe through the them page. an Word they other need. Hence, could give op- after start and finish the stories in Boats on Land). On some evenings,the and wooden de- portunity foilenergy plate and word.toIt reach is having with potential homes where theirlovers maximum What would happen now? sectors, in- at spoon in hand, I sit in fence the market courtyard, are comfortable to write.proAnd, for with you hands-on experienceenough and internship I hated it at first. rare peace. Across thecluding road, I find amany good dry when that life doesn’t you feline compangrammes can helpallow them grow, like it Defensive, uncertain, I was meticulously cleaners. A stationeryfrom have helped store India, with multitudiions, friends who ownsigns cats. off.

A writer’s life, no me,” Bhattacharyya guarded. Plotting even how to flee again. A nous delights. A neighbourhood already invested away, I find a matter how individually disparate, involves payelretreat. majumdar year, that’s what I would give it. Before anoth- tailor. Who is old world,in it.gentle, The drones and and polite, And always, resurrection. er sweltering summer came around, I’d try to and calls himself Masterji. I have a bootlegfind an elsewhere. Yet, slowly, the unthinkable ger’s number saved in my phone. And an elec- janice pariat is the author of Seahorse Me and mine Sampriti Bhattacharyya with her drone prototype happened. I settled. Tentatively. Waiting for trician who appears at the doorstep in a trice. t @janicepariat

Resurrecting the writer’s life Sometimes, the ideal second start lies in less-than-ideal conditions for writing

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Plateau in peril

typical to the plateau,” Mohite says. “The soil and the microorganisms, in addition to the temperature and humidity, cannot be replicated in a lab or greenhouse, and hence they have a low survival rate. Though seed banks have also been planned, reintroducing them to the plateau will be as difficult. For now, the only way to preserve these flowers is by natural conservation,” he adds.

Aparna Watwe, assistant professor at Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences, had done a study on the plant communities on the lateritic plateaus of Satara, and believes the complex interrelationship between the plants, animals and environment make it difficult to grow them in a controlled environment.

“Shivaji University’s (in Kolhapur) project on aquatic plants had managed to maintain Aponogeton satarensis in aquariums. Some efforts to grow Impatiens and Utricularia have been successful in a limited way,” she says.

Like the Ceropegia media, there are other species that sparsely dot the plateau. In fact, the Strobilanthes sessilis or Topli karvi, which blooms only once in seven to eight years, can be seen on the plateau this season. But there may come a time when some plant species may be wiped out permanently. “Only a few Adelocaryum malabaricum remain on Kaas now. I have seen only one in the past five years, while I clearly remember seeing many more around eight years ago, before the tourism boom,” says Prerna Agarwal, whose project explores the ecological impact of tourism and the need to develop community-based tourism at Kaas plateau.

“Growing species ex-situ and then transplanting them in their natural environment is not uncommon. This is generally taken as a desperate measure for species on the verge of extinction. However, protecting the wild gene pool is equally important, which can be done by conserving the species in its natural habitat,” she adds.

A policy was framed in 2012 allowing only 200 vehicles a day on Kaas Pathar, as the plateau is locally known. A parking lot was also planned at the base of the hill. But since the road leads to Kaas and Bamnoli villages, as also the popular tourist hill-town of Mahabaleshwar, any attempt by the short-staffed forest department to curtail the entry of vehicles proved futile. In fact, until three years ago, cars even used to drive over the flower beds, until environmentalists had fences put up.

“Vegetation trampling is the biggest threat Beauty so delicate A few feet down from the main Kaas plateau there’s no sign of some of the flowers that are in bloom atop it moving images faced by the plateau. Added to this, there is a lot of solid waste generation and pollution ishal Prasad’s bike comes to a halt a and the human presence are proving detri- due to growing tourism,” says Agarwal. little past the main area that marks mental to this unique ecosystem at an elevaPrasad’s BRCF conducts regular research on the Kaas plateau. Sachin Suryawan- tion of 1,213m in the Sahyadri hills of the the wildlife that survives in the area, and on shi, who aids Prasad in his work at Western Ghats, about 20km from Satara, Mah- the effect human interference has had on the the Biodiversity Research and Conservation arashtra. So fragile is this biodiversity that a environment. The Joint Forest Management Foundation (BRCF), is waiting by the roadside, few feet down from the main plateau, there’s Committee was formed to aid conservation; it engrossed in a handbook on the flowers that no sign of some of the flowers worked towards sensitising villagmake the plateau a tourist hub on weekends. that bloom atop it. The cars ers on the importance of the Kaas Prasad, the founder of BRCF, walks towards a bring along pollen alien to the plateau. The committee employed few nondescript shrubs — which form a con- region, and once these plants the villagers to manage the surForty seven-odd trast to the riot of colours at the hilltop — and come to life and multiply, they roundings, in addition to having flowers found here takes a closer look at them before calling us threaten the endemic species. them as guides. are now declared over. “This is the Ceropegia media or Kharpudi As a result, 47-odd flowers Though there are similar platcritically endangered eaus in Maharashtra, Goa and Karbud and is indigenous to the Kaas plateau,” he found here have now been desays. “We believe this is the last known plant clared critically endangered. nataka, they are currently that bears this flower in this area.” He examinShekhar Mohite, professor of inaccessible to tourists and the ones the plant closely and breaks into a nervous botany at Lal Bahadur Shastri ly way to get there is on foot. Once smile. “I see two more buds. I hope they sur- College in Satara, and the aua road is cut through these vervive,” he says, as the clouds clear and the sun thor of Flowers of Kaas Plateau, had led the Un- dant sites, it is only a matter of time before lights up the plateau’s flower carpets, dotted esco team here and has been instrumental in they face similar problems. Kaas plateau is a by the occasional tourist making his way to carrying out studies on the plateau. “In the pilot project of sorts and its conservation the centre for the perfect selfie. past, there have been attempts to try ex-situ holds the key to other such environments in Every weekend, cars line up on the road that conservation (endangered flowers were relo- the Western Ghats. cuts right through the plateau, declared a Un- cated from the plateau to protected areas), but esco Heritage Site in 2012. The vehicular traffic the micro climate in which they flourish is shail desai is a Mumbai-based writer

Tourism is killing the fragile biodiversity of Kaas plateau, a Unesco Heritage Site in the Western Ghats

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FILM FATALE

Who’s afraid of a homosexual woman?

Carol’s exclusion from this year’s Best Picture Oscar nominations is a reminder of the continuing Academy discomfort with LGBT-themed films

anna mm vetticad

them more acceptable and reassuring to an ire ultra-conservative viewer: an Unreserved all-pervading Acrossdegenerathe sense of sadness and/or (supposed) world, when cy and in some cases, death for the LGBT young people do character. not have job The Academy’s extreme aversion to homoprospects, they take to the sexuality was never more evident than in politics of Bro2006 when the eloquently heart-rending protest to vent keback Mountain was nominated for Best Pictheir frustration ture but lost to the less deserving Crash. pti High-profile Academy member and veteran AGENDA actor Tony Curtis said with undisguised disdain at the time: “This picture is not as important as we make it. It’s nothing unique. The only thing unique about it is they put it on the screen. And they make ’em (male gay lovers) cowboys… Howard Hughes and John Wayne wouldn’t like it.” Ernest Borgnine was too disgusted to even watch Brokeback. “I didn’t see it and I don’t care to see it,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I know they say it’s a good picture, but I don’t care to see it. If John Wayne were alive, he current row over ‘sedition’ in Ja- tion has been cynical, anti-democratic and in- the in bothover street and muscle power, he’dRSS be rolling in heft his grave!” waharlal Nehru University (JNU) credibly dangerous for the country. Instead of in Five a manner the lines Congress cannot.forward The reyears that on, the had edged AP Not good enough?

Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett in Carol ap/the weinstein has been framed as (left) one between the looking at the rootcompany of the problem — the fail- cent murderwhen of a RSS in Kerala, almarginally The functionary Kids Are All Right received freedom of expression of the liber- ure to fix the economy and jobs — the govern- legedly by left-wing activists,for shows that they four nominations including Best Picture at als versus the overt patriotism of the right. Su- ment has clamped down on students who will not take RSS intimidation lyingThe down.

Althe 83rd Academy Awards in 2011. film’s Academy are has upona lot us, were perficially,he that is true. Awards But it also the adder-uper (yes, grammar Nazis, I know voicing a legitimate demand.

When Kan- so, the Left is the most fulcrum around protagonists were notnatural gay men, they were lesnot surprisingly, more to doand with the economy —the and#OscarsSoMonday’s haiya that is Kumar not a word), the person whoseprovides shouted bhukhmari azaadi which a national anti-BJP alliance will relatake bian women.

Theirs was not a closeted White has risen to a cre- (freedom budget — than wecampaign may think. the glue that binds it all together, and it is lay no shape. from hunger), the provocation And if the unites, Modi is tionship; they wereOpposition married — to each other.

It scendo. ModiThe blistering When Narendra won the 2014 elec- not doubt possible that voters genuinely in his slogan, butAcademy in the inability of succes- doomed 2019. Remember, BJPa got only was not aindepressing story; itthe was comedy condemnation this year contributor of the Academy of sive tions, perhaps the biggest was the believe Haynes’s cinematic mathematics was governments to solve the food crisis.

If 31 per cent the popular vote in 2014, even at drama.

TheofAnnette Bening-Julianne MooreMotionvote.

Picture Arts and Sciences voters’ ap- Umar youth In Modi, India’s bulging youth not right.

Khalid shouted slogans supporting Af- the height thewin Modi starrer didof not in wave. any category, but even parent racial bias though,one threatens to overpopulation saw a messiah: who would cre- zalPossible.

Guru, the provocation was in the inability itsThe BJP’s top were leadership nominations a baby understands step ahead. the shadow criticism of worktheir of The ate jobs for them as of theyanother entered the greater likelihood we are importance governments to create though, a better ifKashmir, the Left uniting the opposiYou mightofexpect theinhesitation over LGBT persistent evident in the nominaforce in theprejudices millions. Unfortunately, that has verdant honest about it, is that opportunities. an Academy which is tion, with economic andtoishave therefore keen to finish off itslater, stuthemes diminished half a decade tions: homophobia. not happened.

Labour Bureau statistics show 94When per cent white, 76 stands per cent and an his av- dent Arun Jaitley upmale to present The right-wing assault on JNU that leadership. too in the year after the legalisation of Director Todd Haynes’ Carol, starring Cate budget, that job growth has remained under stress, erage ofhe 63will years indiewire.com) same-sex marriages doold well(source: to underis part across of that warallideological American states Blanchett and Rooney Mara as women particularly in the manufacturing sector,who de- stand was simply with Carol. I mean, by the US Supreme and uncomfortable address those ‘sedifare, as Court. is the effort draw a false It hastonot.

Carol, as fall inthe love withMinister’s each otherMake in 1950s Newcall.

York, tious’ spite Prime in India c’mon!slogans.

What did expect in response to several American Thisyou government equivalence between commentators haveIslamists pointed has received nods categories: Best AcThe inability of in thesix Modi government to should two lesbian women how who are not introspect it has and out, Leftists. is perhaps just too female, The government's tress (Blanchett), Supporting Actress (Mara), push through major economic reforms like managed dead or broken at the end the to throw awayof imthe democratic wayaffirmto kill tooBut positive and too life failure to revive the Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, the Land Bill and the GST Bill has dentedOrigibusi- mense film, who shrug off in goodwill andthe themen most the Leftthe would be to present a ing for notoriously conformeconomy has also nal Score and Costume Design.

It has ness confidence.

The rupee just fell not, to anhowall- decisive their lives, yet are in not30callous, mandate years, budget that focuses on more free ist Academy.

What did you expect resulted in the ever, low, beenthe nominated for Best or the within time stock markets areDirector back to where and who spoiler alert priori20—months.

More—than 50 market reforms, on privatising The film’s central characters, in response to two of the Left and all-important Picture they were twoBest years back;Oscar. all the ‘Modi mo- per tise cent happiness, of mind of ourpeace population is resurgence up Therese more sectors to Carolopening Aird and Belivet, lesbian women who Now, it could wellwiped be argued perhaps A- younger mentum’ has been out.that Business leadand beingthan true(or to who they are of the same foreign investment, on creating could be disturbing to traditionare not dead or cademy genuinely did notitconsider ers mayvoters not want to admit for fearCarof age above that perceived as)even 28-year-old KanhaiyaHoly Kuaalists more conducive atwho continue business to see LGBT broken at the end of ol worthy.

After all, our response to films is mar. reprisal, but the fact is that the positive sentiGrail If this of government womanhood: loses mosphere most importantly, a persons as—“the other”.

They are the film? subjective and the I may love a film (I did Car- the ment around economy and joblove growth maternity? youth, it loses the nation. It budget thatwith givesself-doubt, jobs to the likes not filled they ol) that not2014 likeisatno all,longer without either is aOver that we you saw may in May there. years, many films on lamethe duck. of Kanhaiya are Kumar, Umar Khalid not ashamed aboutand theirtheir sexof Faced us being right or wrong.

ThatIndia’s being said, it LGBT with a bleak future, youth, gay bisexual The(lesbian government’s failuretransto revive the econ- peers. ual orientation despite encounis equally validaffected to ask these howturn, it is omy who are most by thisvoters negative gender) and/orinwith prihas themes also resulted the resurgence of the This budget has social alreadyopprobrium been toutedand as tering possible thatrebelling: a film they deem well written, have started from Hyderabad Uni- Left. maryCoupled or important supporting LGBT make-or-break with rural distress, the rebellion several analysts.

If Jaitley confusion, and by their parting shot to the viewwell acted, looking University, and pleasing to the versity, JNU good and Jadavpur to the Jat of characters have earned Oscar nominations. the university youth will be perfect breed- fails deliver, not only will we continue with er is to optimistic. ear, is notdemanding good enough?

They did even ing students government jobnot quotas.

The tendency has been to award actors ground though for a left-wing ideology that a moribund economy, we will haveto a soNow if only they’d had the also courtesy be need no to drop any of the the present They longer want to pictures listen toin Modi’s excus- seemed who performed (Tom Hanks dead justthese a fewroles months back.

The for re- ciety that is further and even miserable, they mightdivided have had a shot at amore Best lotabout to acknowledge Carol. Academy rulesModi per- surgence es the UPA government’s follies.

Philadelphia in 1994, Philip Seymour Hoffman of the Left is actually a much bigger frustrated, as different fight for Picture nomination.

To besections female and homomit 10 nominees forsky, theand Bestnow Picture yet problem promised them the theyrace, are defor Capotefor inModi 2006,than Seanmeets Penn for theMilk eye.in 2009, shrinking resources.

Jaitley as well sexual and sure of yourself, thatmight too half-a-centhey choseit. only eightthe thisworld, year. when young Jared manding Across Leto for may Dallas Buyers Club inin2014) While they not be strong mostrather parts make it seditious. tury back — now that’s going a bit too far, no?

Admittedly, it is possible for a film have people do not have job prospects, theyto take to of than production entirety. Beautiful thethe country, the Leftinisits cadre-based and ideanna mm vetticad is the author of The Adventures mitra mustafi is the founder of The all its elements in place and yet not quite add ologically the politics of protest to vent their frustration. as these films are, it is important to Rashtriya point out sambuddha committed, just like the of an Intrepid Critic t@annavetticad t@some_buddha Indian;Film up.The In BJP anygovernment’s cinematic venture, thetodirector is Swayamsevak response this situathat most possess features make Political Sangh (RSS). which The Leftmight can match

A seditious budget

We need a budget that understands the voices of Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Return of the native Nearly seven decades after India gained independence from British rule, it is still difficult to imagine the two nations coming to a common understanding

A blight on Blighty The sculpture ‘Gift Horse’, by Hans Haacke, at Trafalgar Square in London has been taken as a criticism of the ravages of the market, as well as the austerity measures of the British government. afp/ justin tallis

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Omair Ahmad is the South Asia Editor for The Third Pole, reporting on water issues in the Himalayas

t is always odd to visit England as an Indian. So much of our history is tied to this small country, and yet so little of our current reality overlaps. I spent a year in London a decade ago — supposedly researching a book that I am no closer to writing even now — and this is the first time I have returned since. I end up spending the Sunday afternoon with a friend in Guildford, just an hour from London by train. In the conversation about books and politics over a lovely lunch and then tramping around the countryside, the distance that our history evokes dissolved in the ease that friendship brings. It was only in the evening, when I returned to London, walking back through the streets that the old mood came back.

India is hard to miss in London, especially at its heart, Trafalgar Square. The central column holds the statue of Admiral Nelson, and in four directions radiating from it are four plinths. One is ‘empty’, or used to be until the Royal Society of Arts came up with the brilliant idea of using it to put up interesting new sculptures, such as the ‘Gift Horse’. This was designed by the German artist Hans Haacke, whose work is a commentary on political and social systems.

The sculpture is a bronze skeleton of a horse, and has an electronic ribbon tied to one of its forelegs that displays live readings from the London Stock Exchange. It is a criticism of the ravages of the market, as well as the austerity measures of the British government; but in a sense, if you really want to see it, you must see it as an Indian.

Ignore, of course, the statue of George IV: we have little time for kings. Of more importance are the statues of General Charles Napier and

General Henry Havelock. Napier, of course, is ing in 2002, in which 202 people — of many naremembered as the general who annexed tionalities — died, but many among them Sindh to the territories swallowed up by the British. Each person killed is represented by a East India Company in the mid-1800s. This was dove. Apparently this site was chosen for its the time the British were involved in supply- proximity to the Foreign and Commonwealth ing opium to the Chinese, in contravention to Office, and is a reminder that the tourists were requests made by the Chinese government. At not given adequate warning by the Foreign least one historian has linked the voracious Office. appetite of the East India Company in swalThe doves, symbolising peace and the innolowing up Indian states to the losses they bore cent lives lost, make a strong impression. The in the Opium Wars when Chinese authorities memorial, though, is a little overshadowed by seized and burned the drugs. the fact that it is situated on Clive Steps, We all know that the policy led to greater named after Robert Clive, who established the and greater resentment in India, leading to military and political supremacy of the British the 1857 Uprising.

East Indian Company in the IndiThe other general on a plinth an subcontinent. in Trafalgar Square is Havelock, His statue, with a hand on a who served in India for decades sword, stands in the backdrop of and led the British troops in re- Robert Clive’s statue, the Bali Bombings Memorial and capturing Kanpur and Lucknow. is a dampener. The images it standing in the He died a few days after the reevokes are of the horrors that imbackdrop of the Bali capture of Lucknow, due to dys- memorial, evokes the perialism brought to India, not horrors that entery. least the famines that were often imperialism brought The statues of Napier and Hathe result of deliberate if misto India velock, in a way, are a far more guided policies. These images dibiting critique of the murderous minish the tragedy of the 202 drive to accumulate wealth at all lives lost in a calculated and brucost, with no reflection on the tal act of mass murder. There is, lives ruined, than the sculpture of course, no monument to the of Hans Haacke. three million or so people who died in the BenThe lesson does not end there. If you hike gal famine of 1943, at a time when 2.3 million from Trafalgar Square, you will move towards men were part of the British-led Indian Army. the heart of the British government — WhiteThus our histories divide us as much as both hall and Westminster — and take a left past the rulers and the ruled are equal parts of Downing Street, ignoring the Prime Minister’s them, and I wonder when, if ever, we will share residence, you will find yourself on Horse a common understanding. Maybe never, exGuards Road. Take a left, and you will find an- cept that shared as friends. other sculpture. It is new, a globe carved with t@OmairTAhmad doves. This is the memorial for the Bali bomb-

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‘Dance lives in dance’ The ephemerality of her art and, by extension, life is the guiding light for Malavika Sarukkai

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am trying to imagine Malavika Sarukkai playing basketball. Checked uniform, pigtails, scrubby knees. It’s an image that refuses to coalesce. We are sitting under a red silk cotton tree. The trunk is stout, the flowers are magenta and fleshy, and over the course of our conversation, they drop fleetingly into our coffee cups like benedictions. I take in the particular curve of Sarukkai’s elbow, the way her eyes dart and torso sways. When she speaks, the body speaks too. Aramandis, abhinaya, ashta-nayika — all this I can see. Threepoint field goal? Not so much. But she is telling me about her childhood in Bombay. Two sisters growing up in a city by the bay. One bookish, “Give her a book and she’d drown in it” (of her sister, the acclaimed poet Priya Sarukkai Chabria), the other dabbling in Bharatanatyam, but who disliked dancing in front of people, who preferred running around with friends instead and, yes, playing basketball.

Leaps and bounds The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon has more than 40,000 participants vying for prize money worth $377,000 shashi ashiwal Sarukkai began taking Bharatanatyam lessons when she was seven. When guests visited their dance school, her guru would call her mother, who was working at The Times of India, and say, bring Malavika. “I used to dread it. I did it because I had to. They’d say do this item or that item,” she laughs. “Nobody says ‘item’ now.” But on one level she concedes she must have liked it. “Dance was a world that I went to and nobody came into that world. It had a certain peace, which I could not find in the outside world, which was very disturbed, very fragmented. So running away into dance was a sanctuary.”

After her arangetram in 1972, her family moved south to the city that was then Madras.

Sarukkai was doing the usual things people do at that age — going to college, getting a degree.

When I ask what she was studying, she blinks.

“Geography, I think. It’s all sort of wispy and a success and then grow it gradually. the route, timers and traffic control, among Though Verghese didn’t hear from him other requirements. The challenges peak on disappeared.” There is one specific moment she recalls, a turning point that occurred as again, that episode, he believes, sums up the race day. At the Mumbai marathon, more than she walked into the Queen Mary’s campus. running industry in India since 2011. “Not just 40,000 apples, an equal number of sandwich“There was this compound full of these huge, metros and mini-metros, but even smaller es, and nearly 40,000 litres of water were distowns and districts want to host marathons,” tributed. At the Wipro Chennai Marathon gracious trees; I remember walking in and he says, adding that he gets at least 50 enqui- (TWCM), an army of 1,600 volunteers took care looking at the trees and going home and ries from across the country each year. telling my mother, ‘I don’t want to go of water stations, markers and food deliveries, India’s first annual marathon back, I want to dance.’ And my mother says CV Bhaskar, director of Show was launched in Pune in 1983, said, ‘If you love it, you must do it.’”

Space Events, the organising barely a few years after this form company. The costs involved are of running grew popular in the barely covered by the registraEvery participant US in the 1970s. The current tion fees, even after the yearly inwants a medal, craze in India did not start until creases.

“Our average certificate, ntil 2013, Rahul Verghese had never 2004, when the Standard Charregistration fee is ₹900, but we photographs, timing heard of Sri Ganganagar. The foun- tered Mumbai Marathon end up spending ₹1,200 on each chip, water stations der of Running and Living Infotain- (SCMM) grabbed attention with participant,” says Bhaskar. and a meal ment, a company that organises its sheer scale — over 40,000 parThe Indian runner is certainly marathon races, today never tires of mention- ticipants vie for prize money pampered. “Apart from the ing this remote district — known as the ‘food worth $377,000. Today, nearly [identification] bib, every particibasket of Rajasthan’ — close to the internation- 320 races take place round the pant wants a medal, certificate, al border with Pakistan. year, says Dilip Jayaram of Procam, the compa- photographs, timing chip, water stations and “In 2013, I got a call from Sri Ganganagar. ny that organises many of these marquee run- a meal after the race,” says Vidyuth SreenivaThe person wanted to organise a marathon ning events, including SCMM. san, a co-founder of Chennai Runners Club, there for 5,000 people,” recounts the IIM-Ahthe brain behind the Chennai marathon. Inmedabad alumni, who had launched his mar- Pace of growth ternational races are nothing like this, he inketing company in 2007 after working 25 Organising a marathon is no less challenging sists, pointing out that some even require years for various companies, including HUL than running one, at least in terms of prepara- runners to bring their own water. The club he and Motorola. He advised his caller to launch a tion. Each year, Procam has to liaison with 30 started with his friends in 2006 has mushsmaller event with fewer participants, make it government v ganesan departments for approvals for roomed into more than 15 chapters citywide

The business of As legions of fitness enthusiasts lace up around the country and splurge on fancy kits, marathon races are becoming moneyspinners. It also helps that running is the new golf, a networking opportunity for business magnates and sundry celebrities

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saturday, february 27, 2016

and has 7,000 members.

To cover additional costs, organisers depend heavily on sponsors. As a marathon is very different from, say, cricket or football, as the participant is also a spectator here, the organisers are selling it differently. “In a marathon, there is 2.5 lakh sq ft of branding possible. I ask companies to look at it from the point-ofsweat perspective,” says Jayaram, in a reference to the running route.

For instance, at the Mumbai marathon, Nestlé was the ‘nutritional partner’ and positioned itself at the water stations along the running route. And pain relieving balm Volini was the ‘recovery partner’, so runners ended the race, in joy and some pain, surrounded by Volini posters.

The organisers even hard sell the bib distribution event, which can potentially attract up to 30,000 footfalls as runners arrive to collect their kits. Ahead of the Chennai marathon, the bib distribution was timed together with a health and fitness expo.

It helps the running industry that marathon is the new golf, a networking opportunity that brings together the crème de la crème of customers — from Reliance honcho Anil Am-

Exclusive miles The huge turnout in Delhi for the woman-only, multi-city marathon Pinkathon rv moorthy; (inset) model-actor Milind Soman is its brand ambassador sampath kumar gp

vealthe themselves — energy prana.

“When for prestigious Bostonfields, Marathon.

A runner you’re able tounder touchthe this energy, contours who finishes fixed timeitcan run in movement differently,has you go further, you Boston.

Accreditation sparked off greater think, ‘How can Iamong send this How do I competitiveness the energy? organisers.

“With actually sculpt dorunning I do with my every major cityspace? havingWhat its own calenbody,runners which ishave my instrument, which issays the dar, become selective,” site of theThis sacred?’

We have nothing else to do.

Bhaskar. forces organisers to make their We just get on theand stage and we dance, and evrace memorable attract sufficient numerything rests within it.” he explains. bers before scaling it up, For Sarukkai it’s aessential that the dancing Mumbai enjoys geographical advantage Crowded tracks body haveofa porous allow influby virtue being amembrane linear city to (the running ence, but alsooftomonotonous distil it. “Dance is not someShow Space’s Bhaskar agrees that the flurry of route is free loops) and can thing that’s created studios.

Dance ismarafrom activity is counterproductive for the business rightfully boast beinginthe most popular everything.

Whether it’s country. sculptureThe or painting in general. “It takes time to build a property thon destination in the SCMM is or forest…

Weannual have tosporting be openevent to influences. out of an event,” he argues. “It takes time to Asia’s largest by numWe of have to have empathy. If you don’t have break even… though we are still at the tip of ber participants. an iceberg in terms of the running industry, empathy you cannot dance… I tell my dancforfor thedance’s start line ers, ‘Dance sake. Dance lives in that there will be consolidation and some events Dressed luminosity, and when for we stop, it stops.’” will drop off,” Jayaram predicts.

In 2012, in Singapore a marathon, Sriram This ephemerality of danceshopping and, by extenChauhan relies on an entry-by-invite model Kanakarajan was window with sion, lifewhen is something for La Ultra. Just about 20 runners make the friends he came Sarukkai across a understands sports shop well. What she loves about cut to participate in the gruelling run. The reg- called Running Lab. Itmost looked like Bharatanaany other, tyam by is its precision andthere geometry.

And preistration fee ranges from ₹19,500 (almost lined sports shoes, but was one differsumably she side extracts this from students double for a foreigner) for the 111- ence.

On one of the shop washer a treadmill.

As in a dancer of Bharakm category, to ₹1.9 lakh for with Onmaddening entering, a rigour. salesgirl running shoes tanatyam what she is after are the the 333-km run. Again, the and trackthough, pants invited him to run on mothe ments. Moments of bliss,his which the fee here too does not cov- treadmill.

She analysed gait,displace stride and centre. “It can be second,” she says, “But if er the costs. landing of feet, andathen recommended a suityou’re ablefor to him. touchKanakarajan it even momentarily, it’s An avid marathon- able shoe realised that likehad brilliance, you’re free of yourself.

What a er, Chauhan initially he been using a wrong shoe until then.

Just aimagine! it’s ourselves, our struggled to find relief.

Sensing businessAlways opportunity for a similar fame,in whatever we’vemany gained, it’savidly suchtaking a bursponsors and spent store India, where were den.”

It’s a curious play of opposites.

In two the from his pocket. But up running, Kanakarajan partnered with practisefor ofadance the centre, the word of mouth and friends tie-up you withseek the Running Labin founperformance, youour long be free of it. Stillexposure through der.

“We opened firsttostore in Chennai in ness,2014. movement.

Horizontals, “Bedocumentaries in in- July The response has beenverticals. heartening,” cause is living,” says. “Dance ternational channels he says.dance His family is intoSarukkai the automotive busidoesn’t books.the It lives in store dance. have meant that the ness andlive he in expects sports toPeople break can write write butmore you seventh edition of La Ul- even in twoand years, afterabout whichdance, he plans know what, dance is in the body.” tra this year will have spon- stores in other metros.

Throughout journeylocality, there has sors, including a start-up from Located in theSarukkai’s posh RA Puram the been also one stocks constant that hassuch moved withbelts, her.

Bengaluru. Like La Ultra, there are store accessories as fuel Not husband lover don’t or child, butuntied her mother, several races that sell on the niche quotient. bungee laces or (which come midOne and the other Over the years though, Sarukkai has managed to draw huge crowdsby along with her, to sitduo in Saroja Kamakshi, whom shefeet callsdry, a fellow-travDevils Circuit, founded husband-wife running), socks that keep and pads the grove of her sanctuary marcos eller. protect Her mother passed in 2013, but Adnan Adeeb and Zeba Zaidi, is a six-city race that nipples from away bleeding, a comwhenproblem she is spoken of runners. there’s a complete shift involving a 5-km route filled with obstacles mon among For over a decade Sarukkai worked rigor- that to sitinclude in the grove of herand sanctuary.

“I’veSuzuki stuck in“Running the body, aisfullness in an theindustry,” eyes. “I wish mud, slush ice. Maruti spawning saysyou La ously and devotedly with her gurus, perform- Swift on this but it has been a huge multi-city effort. It’s Ultra’s could have met her — she is path the title sponsor.

Another Chauhan, who is was also courageous the directorand of ing, on an average, 40-45 times a year. “I run not only about convinced what the brave and so we walked the growing in being popularity is the about Pinkathon, Centre for free-spirited…

Sports and Fitness at Ashoka believed in their worldview, and what they which you’re is doing, taking the risk to do it again. University. same path,“Ashoulder to shoulder…

Do gear you openbut only to women. runner could be wearing were teaching me, but then I began feeling a Constant risk. I won’t give up because I believe worth have anybody likehethat?” ₹50,000,” says. A specialist in sportsfinish line little unsettled with what I was actually saying Beyond in it toothe intensely.”

I ask the inevitable:his marriage, exercise medicine, privatechildren? sessions Was are with my dance. I started moving in my own di- Verghese’s SarukkaiR&L has not always a soloruns performer, it a conscious to? Sarukkai is not onlybeen arranges for cli- heavily bookeddecision despite not the steep fee of ₹2,500 rection, but I was very respectful of dance. I re- ents but recently, during a weeklong in aeach hurry to answer. “I think my generation but also in setsMumbai, up running groups.

It con- for session. ally like the classical, the matrix. I find it ducts tributeworkshops to her work, dancedand with a group felt“People like wenow hadhave to choose. so of young, forshe schools corporate four toI started five pairs runinexhaustible.” for the on firstleadership, time. “When you’re solo, ning and itshoes. was always dance, dance, dance. houses health anddancing productivity They are concerned aboutThings issues Here is another turning point, dancing the development. the improvisation is extensive, periphery but they never lasted, Clients include because you came in the such as hydration, or about reLalitha Lavanga on stage: “I did this move- companies can just takelooking off like for a springneverafter tookaroot, just sent teamcovery race,”dance says Jayaram, ment for tree (gestures with both hands building board and the musicians will it all away.”

She remarks programmes, as well as adding, “Running has gonehow beraised, back and it felt so wonderful. follow. With a group a bani and TCSarched), chief N Chandrasekaran to Bolly-I brands thisjust newbeing generation of dancers seeking ways tothere’s connect yond a cool sport.”

A runner could be could feel a tree,Kaif, but ifJohn I didAbraham this (gestures certain discipline“We of space, wood starslike Katrina and with are marriedare — maybe customers. hold ayou run Citygetting administrators slowly wearing gearhow worth with one hand, Additionally the traditional pose), was tug too on have be more awareinof the Milind Soman. the racesitalso men to are thetoFormula 1 track Noida, thechanging? popularity ofMaybe marShe remarks this waking People now symbolic.

I was searching something not and frame.”

She also at your heartstrings, withfor their share of—phiwomen no benefit longer the winners get to mentors test drive ₹50,000... athons andfeel howthey they can new generation of have four to pairs the symbolic, but awareness.

Antheir awareness of the vehicles young dancers — only a clutch, lanthropy.

Runners can top registration have to choose?

“When you’ve of brands sponsoring local economy.

At nearly dancers arefive getting of running They tree.with Then I started to calling it some ‘treeness’ and the whorace. can survive the marathon. fee a donation charity; organistravelled long and discovered It is a great marketing married participants (including — shoe. maybe men 40,000 are concerned about ‘birdness’, more of the essence thanfor the “It’s not just about dance,” she ers set aside a part of the race rather proceeds a opportunity,” deep, you can look says Verghese.

R&L 500 foreigners in around 2014), and the are changing? issues such as specifics.

People didn’t why I was is says,“breaking-even “It’s about pushing them cause.

“Marathons haveunderstand become the largest say, Icertainly could have donebusiness this or now”, he SCMM means hydration, or about going in that for direction…

I don’t in think many informs. to go within and find the movesingle source charity raising the counbut you can’t regret,othbeforthat, its organiser and several recovery after a race questions are asked of tradition, you do ment from find the try.

In the last 12 years, the SCMMbut hasifcontribwhat those you’vein received From the inside, list oftoraces that erscause — especially the hosquestion it andinwant to find your own links crowd centre, the and weekend ask questions…

I uted ₹187 crore charity, distributed through from life bounty. sectors. calendar pitality andistransport thenNGOs,” you’re explains on a lonely path, because nobody round don’t think there’s thatthat thirst 700 Jayaram.

“Between birth and death a passage the year, it is clear thein dancers to Studies in thethere’s US have shown is interested.” push boundaries, discover, to possess it… If and we have that In the larger scheme of things, however, the shorter to ask, whataffluent are we doing in our runs aretothe moneywhen participants A word that emerges frequently we talk is spinners. you’re notOf thirsty you don’t anchor sponsors such as Standardas Chartered, allowedtome to touch inner 300-plus runs, seek onlyand you don’t life? Dance has converge run, it can the result in — whatever sadhana practice, search andmarathons you don’t find.

I think that’sofwhat Airtel and—Wipro (TCSriyaz, is thetapasya title sponsor of the 50 layers of myself, I could never are full (42.195 km). Most the an estimated $200which million windfall forhave the you want call it, sheare says, you have to live to it, corporate we have toand change.”

New York to marathon) crucial.

According donecity. otherwise. For this I’m grateful. Someother niche events, including host invest in it.

And whileanshe says that you don’t As a dancer industry grapevine, anchor sponsor can Pinkathon, I feel18.7 lonely — hugely lonely, finished especially aremyself under I’m 3-10curious km. about Saruk- times In 2014, million Americans a createin choreography for applause, thoughts on how dance asand the race; bring nearly ₹5-10 crore a year. you create kai’s after my mother, feel singular about it, Still, it is the mega-sized likeschanges of SCMM since 2000, and the Inumber of marathons it for itself, need an for the TWCM body ages. does alter the physi- had “Once youyou arestill assured of audience a mega sponsor but quadrupled I’m still travelling. stilltoo, a pilgrim. thatHow make thematurity biggest noise.

“Serious to 1,200.I’m India, is lacingI work. if the work doesn’t makeina building ripple or runners cality of plan a performance?

Sarukkai believes for, say,And three or five years, it helps want to dance the want to dance.

I want their year around these mara- up with fervour forway theI running industry —a cause a stir, is what with her thons,” that physicality is something you’re more sector the run as awhich property and happened attract other sponto live it.

I want exult gleefully in it. I want to embrace says Bhaskar. that is, astomany point out, reearly investigations, then it’s the kind of aware ofaccredited when you by begin dancing, but you cession-proof sors,” explains Rajat Chauhan, anworst orthopaedic it. I want it to embrace me.”

Those the Association ofas Intertoo! criticism.

Over the years though, Sarukkai move and age with the there are other who founded La Ultra – the High, has the national Marathons andbody, Distance Races, such annamaya sheath that re- prince tishanimathews doshi is athomas poet and novelist based in Chennai managed to drawultra hugemarathon crowds along with levels world’s highest of 333 kmher, in as the beneath Mumbai the marathon, serve as qualifiers Leh, Ladakh.

On the flip side, the marathon boom has serious runners worried about misplaced zeal and priorities — more than love for the sport, the focus seems increasingly on creating records. “Everyone is besotted by numbers, and everyone wants to create a record,” says Verghese, who organises about 20 races a year across the country.

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Here comes the cat Ahead of World Wildlife Day we unleash some feline charms of the super-sized, super-fast kind

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he largest cat on the planet, the tiger’s roar can be heard up to 3.2 km away.

During sprints, cheetahs breathe two-and-a-half times every second and produce heat at a rate more than 50 times the usual.

Lions spend 16 to 20 hours a day sleeping and lounging about. But all this sedentary lifestyle has no bearing at all on the thunderous roar of the adult lion. He can be heard eight km away.

The word ‘jaguar’ comes from the Native American word ‘yaguar’ — which means ‘he who kills with one leap’.

The smallest of the big cats, the leopard can drag a prey up trees as high as 15 metres in order to protect its trophy from other predators.

Gifted with exceptional hearing, a mountain lion’s tail accounts for almost one-third of its body length.

The Big Cat Week, National Geographic Channel’s week-long series, shows biologist Patrick

Gotcha! A lion cub perched on a termite mound in Botswana’s Duba Plains ©beverly joubert/wildlife films botswana

Aryee’s widely acclaimed An Amazing Animal Family. He travels to Thailand to meet the oldest cat alive on the planet today, the clouded leopard. After an encounter with the Siberian tiger, Aryee focuses on African cats like the caracal and the serval. The latter has super-sized ears that can catch the faintest scurrying sound made by rodents on the grasslands. Aryee’s feature ends with a section on American cats such as lynx, margay and pallas.

Dr Philip Stander’s documentary on the desert lions of Namibia — another piece of work to have been praised worldwide — captures the lives of five lions aka Five Musketeers.

Also of interest is Cat Fight, a documentary that shows the behavioural reasons behind infighting within feline families.

Big Cat Week on National Geographic Channel runs from February 29 to March 6 Images courtesy: national geographic channel

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Fast track Cheetah, the fastest mammal on land, chases a gazelle in Maasai Mara, Kenya ndr naturfilm/reinhard radke

I am the king A lion at Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Park national geographic channel

Pride and the prey A buffalo in Botswana’s Duba Plains fights a losing battle © beverly joubert / wildlife films botswana

Dry run Cheetahs often go without a drink of water for three to four days national geographic channels/bob croslin

The eyes have it Jaguars have a layer of tissue in the eyes that reflects light into the retina, almost doubling the cat’s vision national geographic channel

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‘Dance lives in dance’ The ephemerality of her art and, by extension, life is the guiding light for Malavika Sarukkai

I

am trying to imagine Malavika Sarukkai playing basketball. Checked uniform, pigtails, scrubby knees. It’s an image that refuses to coalesce. We are sitting under a red silk cotton tree. The trunk is stout, the flowers are magenta and fleshy, and over the course of our conversation, they drop fleetingly into our coffee cups like benedictions. I take in the particular curve of Sarukkai’s elbow, the way her eyes dart and torso sways. When she speaks, the body speaks too. Aramandis, abhinaya, ashta-nayika — all this I can see. Threepoint field goal? Not so much. But she is telling me about her childhood in Bombay. Two sisters growing up in a city by the bay. One bookish, “Give her a book and she’d drown in it” (of her sister, the acclaimed poet Priya Sarukkai Chabria), the other dabbling in Bharatanatyam, but who disliked dancing in front of people, who preferred running around with friends instead and, yes, playing basketball.

Leaps and bounds The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon has more than 40,000 participants vying for prize money worth $377,000 shashi ashiwal Sarukkai began taking Bharatanatyam lessons when she was seven. When guests visited their dance school, her guru would call her mother, who was working at The Times of India, and say, bring Malavika. “I used to dread it. I did it because I had to. They’d say do this item or that item,” she laughs. “Nobody says ‘item’ now.” But on one level she concedes she must have liked it. “Dance was a world that I went to and nobody came into that world. It had a certain peace, which I could not find in the outside world, which was very disturbed, very fragmented. So running away into dance was a sanctuary.”

After her arangetram in 1972, her family moved south to the city that was then Madras.

Sarukkai was doing the usual things people do at that age — going to college, getting a degree.

When I ask what she was studying, she blinks.

“Geography, I think. It’s all sort of wispy and a success and then grow it gradually. the route, timers and traffic control, among Though Verghese didn’t hear from him other requirements. The challenges peak on disappeared.” There is one specific moment she recalls, a turning point that occurred as again, that episode, he believes, sums up the race day. At the Mumbai marathon, more than she walked into the Queen Mary’s campus. running industry in India since 2011. “Not just 40,000 apples, an equal number of sandwich“There was this compound full of these huge, metros and mini-metros, but even smaller es, and nearly 40,000 litres of water were distowns and districts want to host marathons,” tributed. At the Wipro Chennai Marathon gracious trees; I remember walking in and he says, adding that he gets at least 50 enqui- (TWCM), an army of 1,600 volunteers took care looking at the trees and going home and ries from across the country each year. telling my mother, ‘I don’t want to go of water stations, markers and food deliveries, India’s first annual marathon back, I want to dance.’ And my mother says CV Bhaskar, director of Show was launched in Pune in 1983, said, ‘If you love it, you must do it.’”

Space Events, the organising barely a few years after this form company. The costs involved are of running grew popular in the barely covered by the registraEvery participant US in the 1970s. The current tion fees, even after the yearly inwants a medal, craze in India did not start until creases.

“Our average certificate, ntil 2013, Rahul Verghese had never 2004, when the Standard Charregistration fee is ₹900, but we photographs, timing heard of Sri Ganganagar. The foun- tered Mumbai Marathon end up spending ₹1,200 on each chip, water stations der of Running and Living Infotain- (SCMM) grabbed attention with participant,” says Bhaskar. and a meal ment, a company that organises its sheer scale — over 40,000 parThe Indian runner is certainly marathon races, today never tires of mention- ticipants vie for prize money pampered. “Apart from the ing this remote district — known as the ‘food worth $377,000. Today, nearly [identification] bib, every particibasket of Rajasthan’ — close to the internation- 320 races take place round the pant wants a medal, certificate, al border with Pakistan. year, says Dilip Jayaram of Procam, the compa- photographs, timing chip, water stations and “In 2013, I got a call from Sri Ganganagar. ny that organises many of these marquee run- a meal after the race,” says Vidyuth SreenivaThe person wanted to organise a marathon ning events, including SCMM. san, a co-founder of Chennai Runners Club, there for 5,000 people,” recounts the IIM-Ahthe brain behind the Chennai marathon. Inmedabad alumni, who had launched his mar- Pace of growth ternational races are nothing like this, he inketing company in 2007 after working 25 Organising a marathon is no less challenging sists, pointing out that some even require years for various companies, including HUL than running one, at least in terms of prepara- runners to bring their own water. The club he and Motorola. He advised his caller to launch a tion. Each year, Procam has to liaison with 30 started with his friends in 2006 has mushsmaller event with fewer participants, make it government v ganesan departments for approvals for roomed into more than 15 chapters citywide

The business of As legions of fitness enthusiasts lace up around the country and splurge on fancy kits, marathon races are becoming moneyspinners. It also helps that running is the new golf, a networking opportunity for business magnates and sundry celebrities

U

running Q R

ND-X _ A

BL

cover watch

saturday, february 27, 2016

and has 7,000 members.

To cover additional costs, organisers depend heavily on sponsors. As a marathon is very different from, say, cricket or football, as the participant is also a spectator here, the organisers are selling it differently. “In a marathon, there is 2.5 lakh sq ft of branding possible. I ask companies to look at it from the point-ofsweat perspective,” says Jayaram, in a reference to the running route.

For instance, at the Mumbai marathon, Nestlé was the ‘nutritional partner’ and positioned itself at the water stations along the running route. And pain relieving balm Volini was the ‘recovery partner’, so runners ended the race, in joy and some pain, surrounded by Volini posters.

The organisers even hard sell the bib distribution event, which can potentially attract up to 30,000 footfalls as runners arrive to collect their kits. Ahead of the Chennai marathon, the bib distribution was timed together with a health and fitness expo.

It helps the running industry that marathon is the new golf, a networking opportunity that brings together the crème de la crème of customers — from Reliance honcho Anil Am-

Exclusive miles The huge turnout in Delhi for the woman-only, multi-city marathon Pinkathon rv moorthy; (inset) model-actor Milind Soman is its brand ambassador sampath kumar gp

vealthe themselves — energy prana.

“When for prestigious Bostonfields, Marathon.

A runner you’re able tounder touchthe this energy, contours who finishes fixed timeitcan run in movement differently,has you go further, you Boston.

Accreditation sparked off greater think, ‘How can Iamong send this How do I competitiveness theenergy? organisers.

“With actually sculpt dorunning I do with my every major cityspace? havingWhat its own calenbody,runners which ishave my instrument, which issays the dar, become selective,” site of theThis sacred?’

Weorganisers have nothing else to do.

Bhaskar. forces to make their We just get on theand stageattract and we dance, and evrace memorable sufficient numerything rests within it.” he explains. bers before scaling it up, For Sarukkai it’s aessential that the dancing Mumbai enjoys geographical advantage Crowded tracks body haveof a porous allow influby virtue being amembrane linear city to (the running ence, but alsooftomonotonous distil it. “Dance is not someShow Space’s Bhaskar agrees that the flurry of route is free loops) and can thing that’s created inthe studios.

Dance ismarafrom activity is counterproductive for the business rightfully boast being most popular everything.

Whether it’s country. sculptureThe or painting in general. “It takes time to build a property thon destination in the SCMM is or forest…

Weannual have tosporting be openevent to influences. out of an event,” he argues. “It takes time to Asia’s largest by numWe of have to have empathy. If you don’t have break even… though we are still at the tip of ber participants. an iceberg in terms of the running industry, empathy you cannot dance… I tell my dancforfor thedance’s start line ers, ‘Dance sake. Dance lives in that there will be consolidation and some events Dressed luminosity, and when for we stop, it stops.’”Sriram will drop off,” Jayaram predicts.

In 2012, in Singapore a marathon, This ephemerality of danceshopping and, by extenChauhan relies on an entry-by-invite model Kanakarajan was window with sion, lifewhen is something for La Ultra. Just about 20 runners make the friends he came Sarukkai across a understands sports shop well. What she loves about cut to participate in the gruelling run. The reg- called Running Lab. Itmost looked like Bharatanaany other, tyam by is its precision geometry.

And preistration fee ranges from ₹19,500 (almost lined sports shoes, and but there was one differsumably she side extracts this from students double for a foreigner) for the 111- ence.

On one of the shop washer a treadmill.

As aindancer of Bharakm category, to ₹1.9 lakh for with Onmaddening entering, arigour. salesgirl running shoes tanatyam what she is after are the the 333-km run. Again, the and trackthough, pants invited him to run on mothe ments. Moments of bliss,his which the fee here too does not cov- treadmill.

She analysed gait,displace stride and centre. “It can be second,” she says, “But if er the costs. landing of feet, andathen recommended a suityou’re ablefor to him. touchKanakarajan it even momentarily, it’s An avid marathon- able shoe realised that likehad brilliance, you’re free ofshoe yourself.

What a er, Chauhan initially he been using a wrong until then.

Just aimagine! it’s ourselves, our struggled to find relief.

Sensing businessAlways opportunity for a similar fame,in whatever we’vemany gained, it’savidly such taking a bursponsors and spent store India, where were den.”

It’s a curious play of opposites.

In two the from his pocket. But up running, Kanakarajan partnered with practisefor ofadance the centre, the word of mouth and friends tie-up you withseek the Running Labin founperformance, youour long be free of it. Stillexposure through der.

“We opened firsttostore in Chennai in ness,2014. movement.

Horizontals, “Bedocumentaries in in- July The response has beenverticals. heartening,” cause is living,” says. “Dance ternational channels he says.dance His family is intoSarukkai the automotive busidoesn’t books.the It lives in store dance.toPeople have meant that the ness andlive he in expects sports break can write write butmore you seventh edition of La Ul- even in twoand years, afterabout whichdance, he plans know what, dance is in the body.” tra this year will have spon- stores in other metros.

Throughout Sarukkai’s journeylocality, there has sors, including a start-up from Located in the posh RA Puram the been also one stocks constant that has such moved withbelts, her.

Bengaluru. Like La Ultra, there are store accessories as fuel Not husband lover or child, butuntied her mother, several races that sell on the niche quotient. bungee laces or (which don’t come midOne and the other Over the years though, Sarukkai has managed to draw huge crowdsby along with her, to sitduo in Saroja Kamakshi, whom shefeet callsdry, a fellow-travDevils Circuit, founded husband-wife running), socks that keep and pads the grove of her sanctuary marcos eller. protect Her mother passed in 2013, but Adnan Adeeb and Zeba Zaidi, is a six-city race that nipples fromaway bleeding, a comwhenproblem she is spoken of runners. there’s a complete shift involving a 5-km route filled with obstacles mon among For over a decade Sarukkai worked rigor- that to sitinclude in the grove of herand sanctuary.

“I’veSuzuki stuck in “Running the body, aisfullness in the eyes. “I wish mud, slush ice. Maruti spawning an industry,” saysyou La ously and devotedly with her gurus, perform- Swift on this but itsponsor. has been a huge multi-city effort. It’s Ultra’s could have met her — she is path the title Another Chauhan, who is was also courageous the directorand of ing, on an average, 40-45 times a year. “I run not only about convinced what the brave and so we walked the growing in being popularity is theabout Pinkathon, Centre forfree-spirited…

Sports and Fitness at Ashoka believed in their worldview, and what they which you’re doing, taking the risk to do it again. University. same path,“Ashoulder to shoulder…

Do gear you is openbut only to women. runner could be wearing were teaching me, but then I began feeling a Constant risk. I won’t give up because I believe worth have anybody likehethat?” ₹50,000,” says. A specialist in sportsfinish line little unsettled with what I was actually saying Beyond in it too the intensely.”

I ask themedicine, inevitable:his marriage, exercise privatechildren? sessions Was are with my dance. I started moving in my own di- Verghese’s SarukkaiR&L has not always a soloruns performer, it a conscious to? Sarukkai is not onlybeen arranges for cli- heavily bookeddecision despite not the steep fee of ₹2,500 rection, but I was very respectful of dance. I re- ents but recently, Mumbai, during a weeklong in aeach hurry to answer. “I think my generation but also in sets up running groups.

It con- for session. ally like the classical, the matrix. I find it ducts tributeworkshops to her work, dancedand with a group felt“People like wenow hadhave to choose. so of young, forshe schools corporate four toI started five pairs runinexhaustible.” for the on firstleadership, time. “When you’re solo, ning and itshoes. was always dance, dance, dance. houses health anddancing productivity They are concerned aboutThings issues Here is another turning point, dancing the development. the improvisation is extensive, but they never lasted, Clients include because you came in the periphery such as hydration, or about reLalitha Lavanga on stage: “I did this move- companies can just takelooking off like for a springneverafter tookaroot, dance just sent teamcovery race,” says Jayaram, ment for tree (gestures with both hands building board and the musicians willas it all away.”

She remarks programmes, as well adding, “Running has gonehow beraised, back and it felt so wonderful. follow. With a group a bani and TCSarched), chief N Chandrasekaran to Bolly-I brands thisjust newbeing generation of dancers seeking ways tothere’s connect yond a cool sport.”

A runner could be could feel a tree,Kaif, but ifJohn I didAbraham this (gestures certain discipline“We of space, wood starslike Katrina and with are married are — maybe customers. hold ayou run Citygetting administrators slowly wearing gearhow worth with one hand, the traditional pose), was tug too on have be more1 track awareinof the Milind Soman.

Additionally the racesitalso men to arethechanging?

Maybe thetoFormula Noida, popularity of marShe remarks this waking People now symbolic.

I was searching something not and frame.”

She also at your heartstrings, withfor their share of—phiwomen no benefit longer the winners get to mentors test drive ₹50,000... athons andfeel howthey they can new generation of have four to pairs the symbolic, but awareness.

Antheir awareness of the vehicles young dancers — only a clutch, lanthropy.

Runners can top registration have to choose?

“When of brands sponsoring local economy.

At you’ve nearly dancers arefive getting of running tree.with Then I started to calling it some ‘treeness’ and the whorace. can survive the marathon. fee a donation charity; organistravelled long and discovered It is a great marketing married participants (including — shoe. maybeThey men 40,000 are concerned about ‘birdness’, more of the essence thanfor thea opportunity,” “It’s not just about dance,” she ers set aside a part of the racerather proceeds deep, you can look says Verghese.

R&L 500 foreigners in around 2014), and the are changing? issues such as specifics.

People didn’t why I was is says,“breaking-even “It’s about pushing them cause.

“Marathons haveunderstand become the largest say, I certainly could have donebusiness this or now”, he SCMM means hydration, or about going in that for direction…

I don’t in think to go within and find the movesingle source charity raising the many coun- informs. but you can’t regret,othbeforthat, its organiser and several recovery after a race questions of tradition, you do ment from find the try.

In the are lastasked 12 years, the SCMMbut hasifcontribwhat those you’vein received From theinside, list oftoraces that erscause — especially the hosquestion andinwant to find your own links crowd centre, the and weekend ask questions…

I uted ₹187 it crore charity, distributed through from life bounty. sectors. calendar pitality andistransport thenNGOs,” you’re explains on a lonely path, because nobody round don’t think there’s thatthat thirst 700 Jayaram.

“Between birth and death a passage the year, it is clear thein dancers to Studies in thethere’s US have shown is interested.” push boundaries, discover, to possess it… If and we have that In the larger scheme of things, however, the shorter to ask, whataffluent are we doing in our runs aretothe moneywhen participants A word that emerges frequently we talk is spinners. you’re notOf thirsty you don’t anchor sponsors such as StandardasChartered, allowedtome to touch inner 300-plus runs, seek onlyand you don’t life? Dance has converge run, it canthe result in — whatever sadhana practice, search andmarathons you don’t find.

I think that’sof what Airtel and—Wipro (TCSriyaz, is thetapasya title sponsor of the 50 layers of myself, which I could never are full (42.195 km). Most the an estimated $200 million windfall forhave the you want call it, sheare says, you have to live to it, corporate we have to and change.”

New York to marathon) crucial.

According donecity. otherwise. For this I’m grateful. Someother niche events, including host invest in it.

And whileanshe says that you don’t As a dancer industry grapevine, anchor sponsor can Pinkathon, I feel18.7 lonely — hugely lonely, finished especiallya aremyself underI’m 3-10curious km. about Saruk- times In 2014, million Americans createin choreography for applause, thoughts how dance changes as and the race; bring nearly ₹5-10 crore a year. you create kai’s after my mother, feel singular about it, Still, it is the on mega-sized likes of SCMM since 2000, and the Inumber of marathons it for itself, you need an for the TWCM body ages. does physi- had “Once you arestill assured of audience a mega sponsor but I’m still travelling. stilltoo, a pilgrim. thatHow make thematurity biggest alter noise.the “Serious quadrupled to 1,200.I’m India, is lacingI work. if the doesn’t makeina building ripple or runners cality of plan a performance?

Sarukkai believes for, say,And three or work five years, it helps want to dance the want to dance.

I want their year around these mara- up with fervour forway theI running industry —a cause a stir, is what with her thons,” that physicality is something you’re more sector the run as awhich property and happened attract other sponto live it.

I want exult gleefully in it. I want to embrace says Bhaskar. that is, astomany point out, reearly investigations, then it’s the kind of aware ofaccredited when you by begin dancing, butofas you cession-proof sors,” explains Rajat Chauhan, anworst orthopaedic it. I want it to embrace me.”

Those the Association Intertoo! criticism.

Over the years though, Sarukkai move andMarathons age with the there are other who founded La Ultra – the High, has the national andbody, Distance Races, such annamaya sheath that re- prince tishanimathews doshi is a thomas poet and novelist based in Chennai managed to drawultra hugemarathon crowds along with levels world’s highest of 333 kmher, in as the beneath Mumbaithe marathon, serve as qualifiers Leh, Ladakh.

On the flip side, the marathon boom has serious runners worried about misplaced zeal and priorities — more than love for the sport, the focus seems increasingly on creating records. “Everyone is besotted by numbers, and everyone wants to create a record,” says Verghese, who organises about 20 races a year across the country.

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FILM FATALE

Who’s afraid of a homosexual woman?

Carol’s exclusion from this year’s Best Picture Oscar nominations is a reminder of the continuing Academy discomfort with LGBT-themed films

anna mm vetticad

them more acceptable and reassuring to an ire ultra-conservative viewer: an Unreserved all-pervading Acrossdegenerathe sense of sadness and/or (supposed) world, when cy and in some cases, death for the LGBT young people do character. not have job The Academy’s extreme aversion to homoprospects, they take to the sexuality was never more evident than in politics of Bro2006 when the eloquently heart-rending protest to vent keback Mountain was nominated for Best Pictheir frustration ture but lost to the less deserving Crash. pti High-profile Academy member and veteran AGENDA actor Tony Curtis said with undisguised disdain at the time: “This picture is not as important as we make it. It’s nothing unique. The only thing unique about it is they put it on the screen. And they make ’em (male gay lovers) cowboys… Howard Hughes and John Wayne wouldn’t like it.” Ernest Borgnine was too disgusted to even watch Brokeback. “I didn’t see it and I don’t care to see it,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I know they say it’s a good picture, but I don’t care to see it. If John Wayne were alive, he current row over ‘sedition’ in Ja- tion has been cynical, anti-democratic and in- he’d the RSS in bothover street and muscle power, be rolling in heft his grave!” waharlal Nehru University (JNU) credibly dangerous for the country. Instead of in Five a manner thelines Congress cannot.forward The reyears that on, the had edged AP Not good enough?

Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett in Carol ap/the weinstein has been framed as (left) one between the looking at the rootcompany of the problem — the fail- marginally cent murderwhen of a RSS functionary in Kerala, alThe Kids Are All Right received freedom of expression of the liber- ure to fix the economy and jobs — the govern- four legedly by left-wing activists,for shows that they nominations including Best Picture at als versus the overt patriotism of the right. Su- ment has clamped down on students who the will 83rd not take RSS intimidation lyingThe down.

AlAcademy Awards in 2011. film’s Academy are upon perficially,hethat is true.Awards But it also has a us, lot the (yes, grammar Nazis, I know wereadder-uper voicing a legitimate demand.

When Kan- protagonists so, the Left is the most fulcrum around were notnatural gay men, they were lesnot surprisingly, more to doand with the economy —the and#OscarsSoMonday’s that not a word), the person whoseprovides haiyais Kumar shouted bhukhmari azaadi bian whichwomen. a national anti-BJP alliance will relatake Theirs was not a closeted Whitewecampaign has risen to a cre- the budget — than may think. glue that binds it all together, and it is lay no tionship; (freedom from hunger), the provocation shape. And if the unites, Modi is they wereOpposition married — to each other.

It scendo. ModiThe blistering When Narendra won the 2014 elec- doubt possible that Academy voters genuinely not in his slogan, but in the inability of succes- was doomed 2019. Remember, BJPa got only not aindepressing story; itthe was comedy condemnation this year contributor of the Academy of believe tions, perhaps the biggest was the Haynes’s cinematic mathematics was sive governments to solve the food crisis.

If drama.

31 per cent the popular vote in 2014, even at TheofAnnette Bening-Julianne MooreMotion Picture Arts and Sciences voters’ ap- not youth vote.

In Modi, India’s bulging youth right.

Umar Khalid shouted slogans supporting Af- starrer the height thewin Modi wave. didof not in any category, but even parent racial bias though,one threatens to overpopulation saw a messiah: who would cre- zalPossible.

Guru, the provocation was in the inability itsThe BJP’s top were leadership nominations a baby understands step ahead. the shadow criticism of worktheir of The ate jobs for them as of theyanother entered the greater likelihood we are importance governments to create though, a better ifKashmir, the Left uniting the opposiYou mightofexpect theinhesitation over LGBT persistent in the nominaforce in theprejudices millions. evident Unfortunately, that has honest it, is that opportunities. an Academy which is themes verdantabout with economic tion, and therefore keen to finish off itslater, stutoishave diminished half a decade tions: homophobia. not happened.

Labour Bureau statistics show 94When per cent white, 76 per centupmale and an his av- that Arun Jaitley stands to present dent too leadership.

The right-wing assault on JNU in the year after the legalisation of Director Todd Haynes’ Carol, starring Cate erage that job growth has remained under stress, ofhe 63will years indiewire.com) same-sex marriages budget, doold well(source: to underis part across of that warallideological American states Blanchett and Mara as women particularly in Rooney the manufacturing sector,who de- was simply with Carol. I mean, by the US Supreme stand and uncomfortable address those ‘sedifare, asCourt. is the effort draw a false It hastonot.

Carol, as fall inthe love withMinister’s each otherMake in 1950s Newcall.

York, c’mon! spite Prime in India What did expect in response to several American tious’ slogans.

Thisyou government equivalence between commentators haveIslamists pointed hasThe received nods categories: Best Acinability of in thesix Modi government to two lesbian women how who are should introspect it not has and Leftists. out, is perhaps just too female, The government's tress Supporting Actress (Mara), push (Blanchett), through major economic reforms like dead or broken at the end the managed to throw awayof imthe democratic wayaffirmto kill tooBut positive and too life failure to revive the Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, the Land Bill and the GST Bill has dentedOrigibusi- film, who shrug off men in mense goodwill andthe the most the for Leftthe would be to present ing notoriously conform-a economy has also nal and Costume Design.

It has hownessScore confidence.

The rupee just fell not, to an all- their lives, yet are in not30callous, decisive mandate years, budget that focuses on more free ist Academy.

What did you expect resulted in the ever, nominated for Best or the and time been low, the stock markets areDirector back to where who spoiler alert prioriwithin 20—months.

More—than 50 market reforms, on characters, privatising The film’s central in response to two of the Left Carol all-important Picture they were twoBest years back;Oscar. all the ‘Modi mo- tise happiness, of mind per cent of ourpeace population is resurgence and opening up Therese more sectors to Aird and Belivet, lesbian women who Now, it could wellwiped be argued perhaps A- and mentum’ has been out.that Business leadbeingthan true(or to who they are younger of the same foreign investment, on creating could be disturbing to traditionare not dead or cademy genuinely did notitconsider ers mayvoters not want to admit for fearCarof above that perceived age as)even 28-year-old KanhaiyaHoly Kua more conducive atalists who continue business to see LGBT broken at the end of ol worthy.

After all, our response to films is Grail reprisal, but the fact is that the positive sentiof government womanhood: mar. If this loses mosphere most importantly, persons as—“the other”.

They area the film? subjective and the I may love a film (I did Car- maternity? ment around economy and joblove growth the youth, it loses the nation. It budget thatwith givesself-doubt, jobs to the likes not filled they ol) not2014 likeisatno all,longer without either is aOver thatthat we you saw may in May there. years, many films on lamethe duck. of Kanhaiya are Kumar, Umar Khalid not ashamed aboutand theirtheir sexof Faced us being right or wrong.

ThatIndia’s being said, it LGBT with a bleak future, youth, gay bisexual The(lesbian government’s failuretransto revive the econ- peers. ual orientation despite encounis equally validaffected to ask these howturn, it is gender) who are most by thisvoters negative and/orinwith priomy hasthemes also resulted the resurgence of the This budget has social alreadyopprobrium been toutedand as tering possible that rebelling: a film they deem well written, have started from Hyderabad Uni- mary or important supporting LGBT confusion, Left. Coupled with rural distress, the rebellion make-or-break by several analysts.

If Jaitley and their parting shot to the viewwell acted, looking University, and pleasing to the versity, JNU good and Jadavpur to the Jat characters have earned Oscar nominations. of the university youth will be perfect breed- er fails to deliver, not only will we continue with is optimistic. ear, is notdemanding good enough?

They did even The students government jobnot quotas. has been to award actors ing tendency ground though for a left-wing ideology that a moribund economy, we will also haveto a soNow if only they’d had the courtesy be need to drop anywant of the the present They no longer topictures listen toin Modi’s excus- who performed (Tom Hanks seemed dead justthese a fewroles months back.

The for re- miserable, ciety that is further and even they mightdivided have had a shot at amore Best lot to acknowledge Carol. Academy rulesModi per- Philadelphia es about the UPA government’s follies. in 1994, Philip Seymour Hoffman surgence of the Left is actually a much bigger Picture frustrated, as different fight for nomination.

To besections female and homomit 10 nominees forsky, the and Bestnow Picture promised them the theyrace, are yet de- for Capotefor in Modi 2006,than Seanmeets Penn for problem theMilk eye.in 2009, sexual shrinking resources.

Jaitley as well and sure of yourself, thatmight too half-a-centhey choseit. only eightthe thisworld, year. when young Jared manding Across Letothey for Dallas Buyers Club inin2014) While may not be strong mostrather parts tury makeback it seditious.

— now that’s going a bit too far, no?

Admittedly, it is possible for a film have people do not have job prospects, theyto take to than production entirety. Beautiful of thethe country, the Leftinisits cadre-based and idemm vetticad is the author of The Adventures sambuddha mitra mustafi is the founder of The all elements in place and yet not quite add as theits politics of protest to vent their frustration. these films are, it is important to point out anna ologically committed, just like the Rashtriya an Intrepid Critic t@annavetticad t@some_buddha Political Indian;Film up.The In BJP anygovernment’s cinematic venture, thetodirector is that response this situamost possess features might make of Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). which The Left can match

A seditious budget

We need a budget that understands the voices of Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid

sambuddha mitra mustafi

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Return of the native Nearly seven decades after India gained independence from British rule, it is still difficult to imagine the two nations coming to a common understanding

Out of sight, out of mind It is a myth that prostitutes have agency over their bodies, their selves A blight onrv moorthy Blighty The sculpture ‘Gift Horse’, by Hans Haacke, at Trafalgar Square in London has been taken as a criticism of the ravages of the market, as well as the austerity measures of the British government.

The invisible ‘sex worker’ A diverse and incisive anthology of Indian stories featuring prostitutes

afp/ justin tallis

IA

River of Flesh and Other Stories: The Prostituted Woman in Indian Short Fiction Ruchira Gupta (ed.)

Speaking Tiger Fiction ₹350

Omair Ahmad is the South Asia Editor for The Third Pole, reporting on water issues in the Himalayas

t some point in the last decade and is an excellent foil that Das uses to describe the joo Bhai’s reluctance to give up his life of leit is always aoddhalf, to visit England asbecame an Indi- ‘sex prostitutes General Napier, of inhabited course, is as it life Henry within Havelock. the walls of a kotha, ing insure 2002, insettle whichdown 202 people — ofhusband-hood. many naand to stable an. So much of our history is tied to this corworkers’.

In the new, politically remembered as the and general who annexed is by the lovelorn the cynical, by the modtionalities — comes died, but among When he backmany after living up athem storm in small country, and yetwe soaspired little ofto our currect world live in, this Sindhesttoand the the territories swallowed up by the beshameless.

Rukmani herself British.

Each person killeda isprostitute-turned-wife. represented by a Lucknow, it is with rentseen reality I spent a year thing in Lon-to do. was as overlaps. the politically correct East India Company in theofmid-1800s.

This was the comes the favourite the local inspector, dove.Chhammi-bi Apparently lives this site was chosen for itsuntil through the indignity don aWith decade — supposedly researching a ‘upthatago one stroke, in our minds, we the time the British involved inin supplyone who allows were the kotha to run return for proximity to the Foreign and Commonwealth her stubbornness-induced penury takes her bookgraded’ that I am noprostitute, closer to writing even the brought hernow out—of the ing opium to the Chinese, in contravention free services.

Das writes wryly abouttolove, Office, is aand reminder thatto theBombay, touristswhere were she toand Delhi eventually and this is the first timebehind I have returned since.station I requests gaudy sari from the railway made by the Chinese At are abandonment and death.government.

Once his dues not given adequate warning by the Foreign becomes the spiritual guide in an upmarket end up spending the Sunday afternoon with a we and consigned her someplace, which least paid one by historian has linked the voracious her services, the inspector describes to Office. brothel. In Hyder’s deft hands, Chhammi-bi’s friend in Guildford, just an hour London couldn’t quite describe, yet from we knew gave her appetite of theprostitute East India Company in had swal-come The the child a new doll that doves, symbolising innotransformation, alongpeace withand the the deteriorating by train.

In theand conversation about books ‘agency’, our permission for herand illegal, lowing upthe Indian states to that the losses borewhen into market; one closesthey its eyes cent morality lives lost,inmake a strong impression.

The to a newly free country, is a delight politics a lovely then tramping yetover moral rightlunch to doand with her body as she in thelaid Opium Chinese authorities downWars and when says ‘mummy’ when her stommemorial, is a favourite, little overshadowed by read. though, My other Bibhutibhushan around the countryside, the distance that our pleased.

It is this agency that human traffickseized and drugs. ach is burned pressed.the When he eventually brings her the fact that it is situated Clive Steps, Bandyopadhyay’s ‘HeengonKochuri’, lovingly history the ease thatques- Wethe ing evokes activist dissolved and writerinRuchira Gupta all doll, knowRukmani that theforgets policy led she to is agreater prostitute named after Robert Clive, who established the of a translated

by Arunava Sinha, is the story friendship brings.

It was only in tions in her introduction tothe theevening, book River of and greater resentment in India, leading and is all child, repeatedly jabbing thetostommilitary and political supremacy of the British gluttonous young boy who befriends a prostiwhenFlesh I returned London, walking back and Otherto Stories: The Prostituted Woman in the 1857 achUprising. and making the doll call her East in the IndituteIndian in theCompany neighbourhood only bethrough theShort streets that“Ithe camewom- The‘mummy’, Indian Fiction. wasold toldmood that some other general on a plinth reminding the inancause subcontinent. her customer brings home back.en choose prostitution over marriage, that in Trafalgar is Havelock, spector Square of his own grandHis statue, with a handIt’s ona astory delicious heeng kochuris.

India is find hardfreedom to miss in London, especially at who daughter. they from patriarchal structures served in India decades “I dofornot feel like sword, stands in the backdrop of inthat brings to mind the ethos and It is telling that all its heart, Trafalgar Square. central column in prostitution, that The college girls prostitute and led the British troops in re- heRobert playing with a woman today,” the Bali Bombings Memorial and nocence of a pre-liberalised India, Clive’s statue, the stories here holdsthemselves the statuefor of the Admiral and in — to sake ofNelson, consumerism capturing Kanpur Lucknow. tells Ayee, theand brothel madam, standing a dampener.

The images it kids it was possible for young inthe thepast iswhere are set in four buy directions radiating from it are four He died shoes, lipstick, bags, clothes perfume…” a few days after re-withbackdrop of the Bali when she presses himthe to go evokes are of the horrors imto wander about the that neighbourplinths. is ‘empty’, or used to bein until the sheOne writes, “ I saw little ‘agency’ their lives.” capture of Lucknow, due“Something to dys- memorial, evokes the perialism another woman. to India, nottreats hood andbrought impetuously accept Royal Society of Arts came up with the brilliant The book, a collection of 21 stories including horrors that entery. has died in me today,” he says. least the famines that were often from strangers. idea 14 of translations, using it to put up interesting depicts stories ofnew various TheThe statues of Napier and Hainspector’s remorse, howev-imperialism brought the Itresult of deliberate if stories mis- in is telling that all the tobook.

India River of Flesh sculptures, such as the ‘Gift Horse’.

Thispoints was in kinds of prostitutes from various velock, in a way, are far more er temporary, is aarare occurrence in the guided images di- proare policies. set in theThese past. As we have designed the German artist Hans time by in modern Indian history.

AsHaacke, anthologies biting of the murderous Incritique Baburao Bagul’s ‘Woman of the Street’ gressed minish the tragedy of the 202 to a more sexually permissive society, whose commentary political and drive(translated go,work Riverisofa Flesh and Otheron Stories is a veritable to accumulate wealth at all

by Shanta Gokhale) and Niranja- sex in literature, lives lostespecially in a calculated andliterature, brupopular socialtreasure systems.trove of good Indian writing. From Iscost, na’s with‘The noLast reflection on (translated the Customer’

by Ashwin has beental act of to mass murder.

There is, as reduced accounts of self.

It feels Themat sculpture a Premchand, bronze skeleton of Das a to Chughtaiis to Kamala lives Kumar), ruined, than the sculpture the prostitute is dehumanised: the though of course, no monument now that we are allowed to tothe talk in horse,Bibhutibhushan and has an electronic ribbon tied to one HaBandyopadhyay, Saadat of Hans Haacke.only seeks her services and often customer threesome million or soabout people who died the Bendetail our own sexinlives, there is of itssan forelegs that displays live readings from Manto to Amrita Pritam, there are as many Thedoes lesson notenough end there.

If in you hike not does even see value her to hongal famine of 1943, at a time when 2.3 million no interest in recording the lives of sex workthe London Stock Exchange.

It isofa prostituted criticism of lives distinctly drawn accounts fromour Trafalgar Square, you willdue move her with the payment to towards her. men ers. were(Mayank part of the British-led Army.

Austen Soofi’sIndian Nobody Can Love the ravages ofare thesexual market, as well as as there positions in the theausterKamastura. the heart the British — WhiteNotofall stories aregovernment dire, however, and in not Thus histories divide us as much as both Youour More is a notable, non-fiction exception). ity measures ofstories the British government; but even in of There are of rage, of regret, and hall and Westminster — and take a at leftthe past all stories is the prostitute right centre. the rulers and the aremore equal parts ofwave This marks the ruled second, powerful, a sense, if you really to see rightly it, you must reformation.

Yet,want as Gupta warns us, Downing Street, ignoring the Primeis Minister’s Qurratulain Hyder’s ‘Ancestry’ a marvellous them, I wonder when, if ever, weInwill ofand marginalising prostitutes. theshare past, we see itagency as an Indian. is hard to find. residence, will find yourself story ofyou Chhammi-bi, who was on bornHorse in a mida common understanding. never, ex- The merely turned our headsMaybe away from them.

Ignore, of course, of George IV: we Kamala Das’sthe ‘Astatue Doll for the Child ProstiGuards Road.

Take a family left, and will find andling zamindar at you Shahjahanpur and is cept rivers that shared asstill friends. of flesh flow all around us. But now have tute’, little time for kings.story Of more the opening in importance the book, starts otherbetrothed sculpture.while It is new, with stillaaglobe childcarved to their neigh- we have learned to convincingly pretend they t@OmairTAhmad are the statues of General Charles Napier andto the with a 13-year-old Rukmani being taken doves.

ThisAjjoo is theBhai. memorial for the Bali bomb- pre- don’t exist. bour Chhammi-bi’s otherwise brothel by her mother, herself a former prosti- dictable life goes through the stresses of a tute. The pre-pubescent, debuting prostitute cholera epidemic, the Partition, as well as Aj- veena venugopal

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Robot navigators of the deep seas MIT researcher Sampriti Bhattacharyya has designed drones that work like ‘Google Maps for the ocean’

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eventy per cent of the world’s surface can also be used to monitor oceanic pollution. area is underwater, yet only five per The drone itself resembles a bright-yellow cent of it is mapped. Sampriti Bhatta- egg, the toy-like appearance belying its comcharyya, a 28-year-old PhD candidate plex, avant-garde nature. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology The number of drones in use can be in(MIT), is on a mission to fill this gap. creased depending on the nature and size of a Her trusty aides in this are the drones she mission, as also customised for specific redesigned to detect radiation leakage at under- quirements, Bhattacharyya says, over a Skype water nuclear reactors as part of her doctoral call. All the drones on a mission will be atSafe space For a writer, sometimes what’s required research. is steadiness.

Afteraall, the orchestra must first take370 its placetached before there be music shutterstock After Malaysian Airlines Flight to a can central station.

The number of disappeared on March 8, 2014, the young re- drones needed will also depend on the camera PAPERWALLAH searcher came up with her idea — what she resolution of individual drones. calls a “Google Maps for the ocean floor” — an Having already tasted success as an entreautonomous, underwater ‘smart’ drone that preneur, Bhattacharyya is however deterfunctions as our eye on the vast ocean floors. mined to complete her PhD before plunging With a bit of tweaking, her radiation detecting fully into her start-up. robots could now be deployed to map and Bhattacharyya attributes her achievements scale the bottom of the sea. to her interest in astrophysics, which paved Not just that, Bhattacharyya tapped into the her way for a Master’s in aerospace engineerentrepreneurial community on campus to ing from Ohio State University. A student of market her drone. Hydroswarm, her compa- South Point, one of the better-known schools ny, which is eight months old, was kick-started in Kolkata, she went on to pursue mechanical hat does it mean to lead with a something the $15,000 to prize money she won during slip, to drop.

But for the first And when things begin to get too comfortengineering from a little-known private colwriter’s life?

MIT’stime 100 inKa Entrepreneurship competition very long while, Delhi felt embracive. able, the city Kolkata. gives me“What dissent. lege in Khidirpur, changed my There’s a self-help book on (one The of the student-run business plansomecitylargest and I were in accord.

I slipped, Only glimmeringly does to it come to me. That trajectory from a small college an internathe matter (what isn’t there a how, competitions) in Harvard Business and into its rhythms — the late evenings, thisrenowned too is a writer’s One

by Ia partionally schoollife. was themarked fact that self-help book on, one wonders?) that, in its lazy School.

Shethe also went to win morns, rattle andon hum of itsthe streets, ticular of in belonging that translates pursued my sense interest astrophysics.

I even got into own words, “addresses issues that face writ- the$50,000 goldpolluted prize after beating over air.an (hideously yet) softening I internship a quiet space my work withatNASA,” shetable. says. Even if I usually ers”. Including writer’s block, rejection, and found 2,500 start-ups atrather the MassChallenge a place to be; fittingly a barsati, Naturally, tend toshe agree Doris Lessing, who once is awith strong advocate of womself-discipline. Apart from that, “established thatAccelerator most iconic of competiDelhi’s accommodation of- said, “Whatever you’re meanttechnology, to do, do it now. en in STEM (science, authors offer advice on writers’ conferences, ferings tion.for Inthe September 2015, young and single. A barsati with The conditions are always impossible”, engineering and math), assert-I can networking, self-promotion, the editorial an overhanging she was the jamun hardware tree that was in flush see howing sometimes what’s required that despite the also many gen- is process and other matters.” winner fruitalley whenwildcard I moved in.

It felt like a blessing. steadiness. all, the in orchestra must first der After imbalances these fields, a venture But that is not what I meant at all. That is at neighbourhood Techcrunch SF became Dis- CBInsights, My mine, but not take its place there can be music. therebefore are opportunities for the capitalist not it, at all. rupt,itawas technology en-paying because where I was rent. database, If the city has reached to me, so have its determined.

Theout gender disparihas The phrase has stayed with me ever since I trepreneurship Down the road, I made friends with thedeclared fruit people. The evening, introduced ty isother not unique toI’m India, she ar- to a Hydroswarm of read Andrew Motion’s biography of the poet seller, platform. a under whose CBInsights, cart, parked a tree, onestranger, a friend’s friend.

Janice? gues.

“Even in “You’re the US, in You the top seven grantPhilip Larkin, a few years ago. It’s titled, as you changed venture capitalist data- Close with the seasons. write…” They tellMIT, methe they’ve universities such as gen- read funded robotics might have guessed, A Writer’s Life. And it fasci- by, through base, has Hythedeclared park, a vegetable first theyideal, thinkespeit’s amazdermy ratio isbook; far from companies in the US nated me. Could there be such a thing? Did it stall. One droswarm one of the I was late afternoon, ing. I’m in a ‘I’m cially in thrilled; higher not levels, in a ceinvolve vintage Underwood typewriters? Cats. walking topbackseven home, grantladen with lebrity’fields kind of but that I’ve of way, engineering A writer's life is hardcore Gallons of coffee made from a rustic Bialetti. A groceries, funded robotics and the winter sun had metassomeone to whom my book mechanical engineerstark, humdrum such window with a view. in theFor US.that inturnedcompanies the trees gold. has made miraculous ing,” she says.its Together withway. her That discipline A fireplace. Walls lined with books.

It world took —about one-and-a-half friends she has started stant, the the children’s it has left my handscalled and landed a non-profit Lab up Until last summer, I wasn’t sure. years Bhattacharyya to establish swings, thefor grass, the dusty air — in theirs.

It is real.to providing X Foundation, which is dedicated In fact, shifting across continents, disillu- stood the from conceptualisastill.company And I remember saying A writer’s life is this, then. internship and study opportunities to kids inLong sioned with freelance writing, anchorless to myself, tion. While commercial sale has India. “We have thousands remember this. Reperiods ofofsilence. studentsOfin aloneness.

India (quite literally and otherwise), it felt hard member this. notAt started (“We’re work- marthe oldyet neighbourhood handwritten from who Sometimes, are probablyofsmarter than letters me, who doreadenough just to build a life. Any sort of life. I ket, still flanked ing by with our customers shops, at not small independent I have ers that you cherish. noticing seasons. And, the option to go Of to top international was back in Delhi, the city I had fled in 2009, a find a chaat and thealu moment, butNow, it’s going tikki stand. the owner in this city, the of have flowering winter trees. schools because theysmell do not the required city where I’d always felt unable to write (only knows I like a tad to happen very soon”, she on extra tamarind, lighter A writer’s life isuniversity, stark, humdrum discipline. No stamp from a good or the exposure after moving back to Shillong for a year did I the mint sauce, more says),papri companies than dahi in bhalla. way butwethrough the them page. an Word they other need. Hence, could give op- after start and finish the stories in Boats on Land). On some evenings,the de- portunity foilenergy plate and wooden word.toItreach is having with potential homes where theirlovers maximum What would happen now? sectors, in- at spoon in hand, I sit in fence the market courtyard, are comfortable to write.proAnd, for with you hands-on experienceenough and internship I hated it at first. rare peace. Across thecluding road, I find amany good dry whenthat life doesn’t feline compangrammes can helpallow themyou grow, like it Defensive, uncertain, I was meticulously cleaners. A stationeryfrom have helped store India, with multitudiions, friends who ownsigns cats. off.

A writer’s life, no me,” Bhattacharyya guarded. Plotting even how to flee again. A nous delights. A neighbourhood already invested away, I find a matter how individually disparate, involves payelretreat. majumdar year, that’s what I would give it. Before anoth- tailor. Who is old world,inand it.gentle, The drones and polite, And always, resurrection. er sweltering summer came around, I’d try to and calls himself Masterji. I have a bootlegfind an elsewhere. Yet, slowly, the unthinkable ger’s number saved in my phone. And an elec- janice pariat is the author of Seahorse Me and mine Sampriti Bhattacharyya with her drone prototype happened. I settled. Tentatively. Waiting for trician who appears at the doorstep in a trice. t @janicepariat

Resurrecting the writer’s life Sometimes, the ideal second start lies in less-than-ideal conditions for writing

janice pariat

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Plateau in peril

typical to the plateau,” Mohite says. “The soil and the microorganisms, in addition to the temperature and humidity, cannot be replicated in a lab or greenhouse, and hence they have a low survival rate. Though seed banks have also been planned, reintroducing them to the plateau will be as difficult. For now, the only way to preserve these flowers is by natural conservation,” he adds.

Aparna Watwe, assistant professor at Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences, had done a study on the plant communities on the lateritic plateaus of Satara, and believes the complex interrelationship between the plants, animals and environment make it difficult to grow them in a controlled environment.

“Shivaji University’s (in Kolhapur) project on aquatic plants had managed to maintain Aponogeton satarensis in aquariums. Some efforts to grow Impatiens and Utricularia have been successful in a limited way,” she says.

Like the Ceropegia media, there are other species that sparsely dot the plateau. In fact, Fishing for applause At Anantashram, the non-veg thali is a seafood fest, the aromas ranging from tomato-ish to exceedingly coconutty zac o’yeah or Topli karvi, which the Strobilanthes sessilis blooms only once in seven to eight years, can TUMMY TRAVELS be seen on the plateau this season. But there may come a time when some plant species may be wiped out permanently. “Only a few Adelocaryum malabaricum remain on Kaas now. I have seen only one in the past five years, while I clearly remember seeing many more around eight years ago, before the tourism boom,” says Prerna Agarwal, whose project explores the ecological impact of tourism and the need to develop community-based tourism at Kaas plateau. here are worse ways to spend a holi- opposite the station, I walk around until, understand).

“Growing species ex-situ and then Anantrans“Like the old khanawals, day than bumming around Goa, down a side street leading off the municipal planting them intotheir naturaldedicated environment is tashram aimed be strictly to the even though the week invariably square, I spot a restaurant that’s neither posh not Thisended is generally as a act ofuncommon. feeding. Lunch not at ataken fixed time ends with hangover and diarrhoea. nor dingy, but just normal-looking and crowd- desperate for species verge of but when measure the kitchen ran outonofthe food, and zac o’yeah But that has as much to do with my own time ed with locals. The name on the board in- extinction.

However, thefacing wild gene many customers satprotecting on a bench the management priorities as with Goa — I spend trigues me: Anantashram. pool equally important, be done wall, isate without a flickerwhich of ancan expression, about 10 per cent of my days doing wholeTheir evocative slogan reads: ‘Simply Good by species of in an its hour.” naturalThere, habandconserving left withinthe a quarter some beach stuff, while 90 per cent goes to- Food, Booze & Friendly Ambience’ The menu itat,” she adds. has a fish thali with distinctly Subramanian wards hunting things to eat and drink. includes the usual multi-cuisine, but I browse Gomantak-style A policy was framed in I2012 allowing only flavours. quickly google to The beverage part of my diet is straightfor- to the Goan section covering some two pages. 200 vehicles a day on Kaasmight Pathar,beasthe thename platfigure out if Anantashram ward: zero in on any seedy bar and sample un- Their special non-veg thali priced at ₹300 eau is locally parkingedition lot wasofalso of some fishy known. chain, a Anon-veg the branded local cashew feni. A decent vintage turns out to be a seafood feast. From left to planned at the basevegetarian of the hill.hotels But since the ubiquitous Udupi of westcan give the finest of tequilas a run for its right, my platter is filled with bowls brim- road leads to Kaas and Bamnoli villages, as alern coastal India. money. I take it as a compliment when I order ming over with prawn kishmur (a fried shrimp so But theno, popular tourist hill-town Mahabafrom what I gather, this of Goan Anana ‘caju’ and a slice of chonok and a scruffy bar- salad), tisryo (tiny clams cooked with spicy co- leshwar, any born attempt by 1970 the short-staffed tashram was around — making it tender at a local watering hole called Mount conut), kingfish curry (with kokum), crab xec- forest to its curtail the entry of vehimuch department younger than Mumbai counterpart Topi, who until then acted indifferent, stops xec (curried crab), kingfish (coated in semoli- cles futile.by Inafact, until three years who ago, — asproved a fish shack man named Anant, whatever he’s doing, stares at me for three sec- na and fried), bangda uddamethi (mackerel cars even used to drive overpriced the flower cooked fish curry and rice at 75 beds, paise onds, before he asks: “Sir, are you Goan?” curry flavoured with fenugreek seeds), and until environmentalists fences put per portion.

As the shack’shad popularity grew,up. it Apart from the delicious pan-fried chonok there’s also a kind of sardine preparation, the “Vegetation threat was deemedtrampling necessary is to the startbiggest a fine dining Beauty so delicate A few feet down from the main Kaas plateau there’s no sign of some of the flowers that are in bloom atop it moving images fish, which I simply cannot get enough of, I name of which I don’t rememfaced by the version. plateau. Added this, there Taking to another lookisata chase shellfish that isn’t deep-fried to death. ber, and finally there’s one vegelot of solid waste generation Iand pollution my surroundings, notice there’s ishal Prasad’s bike comes to amussel halt a and After sampling several unsatisfactory thecurry human presence tarian and so on. are Theproving detri- due to growing tourism,” some décor, asays bar,Agarwal. and the menu little pastmotions the mainfollow. area that marks mental preparations, loose this unique delicateto aromas range ecosystem from to- at an elevaPrasad’s BRCF conducts regular research on cards are a little fancy.

The fish I spend per that Kaas plateau.

Sachin SuryawanAt that the point, I rue my fate, recalling my tion of 1,213m Sahyadri hills of theabout mato-ish to in the exceedingly the10wildlife the area,but andwill on thalisurvives is still in available, cent of my the days in human who aids Prasad in his work at Western three best shi, gourmet seafood experiences from Ghats, about 20km from Satara, Mahcoconutty. effect had ,on thea now interference set you back has by ₹80 still doing the Biodiversity Research and Conservation arashtra. earlier trips: fragile is this biodiversity a wholesome As a sideSodish I order a plate of Goa that environment.modest The Joint Forest amount forManagement a hearty seabeach while Foundation is red waiting by the roadside, 1) Mussels(BRCF), fried in masala paste at the few feet down fromexpecting the main plateau, there’sstuff, pan-fried prawns, a Committee was formed food meal. to aid conservation; it 90% goes towards engrossed in a handbook on the flowers that legendary shack-turned-bistro St Anthony’s in no of some of the Instead flowers I fewsign standard shrimps. worked towards villagWatching thesensitising people at my taeating and drinking ers make the plateau Baga Beach.

Yum. a tourist hub on weekends. that bloom atop it. The cars get some eight massively XXXL the down importance of theI can’t Kaas bleonwolf their thalis Prasad, the founder of BRCF, walkscaviar towards 2) A chunky, melt-in-the-mouth dish,a bring along pollen to the crustaceans (₹350)alien tossed in a plateau.

The committee help but accost them. Itemployed turns out few nondescript shrubs — which a congabadi, at the rustic Bhatti Villageform Resto Bar. region, anddistinctly once these plants subtle and sweet and the villagers manageabout the surthey’re fromtoMargao, 25 Forty seven-odd trast to the riot of colours at the hilltop — and come Awesome. to life andmasala. multiply, they a vinegary Goan What roundings, addition to having km away, in and they ride up on flowers found here takes a closer at them before 3) The prawnlook sambar cooked withcalling a mix us of threaten endemic species. generous the restaurant! them as guides. scooters at least once a week to now declared over. is theprawns Ceropegia media or Kharpudi fresh “This and dried at Terry’s, next to the As Demolishing a result, 47-odd flowers my thali, I recall the are eminent Though there are similar eat the thali. According to them, it’s the plattopcritically endangered bud and is indigenous to the Kaas plateau,” he found Betim Ferry Jetty on the Mandovi riverside. here have now been deSamanth Subramanian’s travelogue Following eaus in Maharashtra, Goa and Karmost you get in Goa in terms of value, quality says.

“We believe believehow this good is theitlast known plant clared You can’t was! endangered.

Fish, incritically one chapter of which he trawls Mum- and flavours. nataka, they are currently that bears this flower this area.”

He examinHowever, this timeinfoodie nirvana eludes bai’s Shekhar Mohite, of back lanes for professor the most authentic khanainaccessible to tourists the onSo, somewhat unexpectedly, theand best local es plant closely and breaks a nervous methe and I wake up grumpy on into my last day in botany Lal Bahadur wal or at ‘lunch home’, aShastri traditional type of food isn’t found ly wayintothe getcapital there iscity on of foot.

Once Panjim, smile.

“I see two more hope they sur- College Goa. The train is to leavebuds. fromI Vasco da Gama in Satara, and eatery harking back to the the auindustrial revolu- nor on oneaofroad cut through verthe is beaches, but in these the humvive,” theI decide cloudsto clear thegrub sun thor stationheatsays, 3pmas and graband some Kaascentury, Plateau,when had led thedotUn- dant tion of Flowers the lateof19th mills matter of other time draws. before drumsites, heartitofisaonly towna that lacks lights the plateau’s carpets,been dotted in the up vicinity.

For thoseflower who haven’t to esco team here and been instrumental in they ted the cityscape andhas workers needed homely face again, similarwhat problems.

But then do youKaas needplateau touristisat-a by thesuffice occasional making his way to carrying Vasco, to saytourist that this port town where out studies plateau. evolved “In the pilot and affordable meals.on Thethe khanawals project of sorts and Anantashram? its conservation tractions for when you have the centre theends perfect railwayfor line is aselfie. business and trans- past, thereinto haverestaurants been attempts to try ex-situ holds the key to other such environments in with time and Subramanian zac Western o’yeah isGhats. a part-time travel writer and part-time Every weekend, carsbase line but up on thetoo road that conservation port hub, with a navy none many (endangered were tracks down the last greatflowers khanawal inreloGir- the cuts right through In thefact, plateau, a Untourist attractions. none declared that I know of. cated plateau to protected areas), but detective novelist. His latest novel is Hari, a Hero for gaum,from alsothe named, curiously enough, Ananzacnet@email.com Hire desai is a Mumbai-based writer esco Heritage Site in 2012. vehicular traffic the Avoiding the quick mealThe joints immediately micro(now climate in which tashram shut down they fromflourish what isI shail

Tourism is killing the fragile biodiversity of Kaas plateau, a Unesco Heritage Site in the Western Ghats

An ashram for fish

Searching for local food in Goa? Look no further than Vasco da Gama’s Anantashram

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A Russian ballad A 25-km hiking trail brings you to Baikal, the world’s deepest and oldest freshwater lake

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he thin sash of azure blue expanded gradually as I strode towards the marble-strewn shore under the shade of towering larch and pine trees. In a moment, I was facing the icy waters of Siberia’s Baikal lake, stretching ahead as far as the eye can see. As freshwater lakes go, it has much to boast about: it is the world’s deepest, largest (by volume) and oldest. From reading about it in a Std VI geography book, decades ago in a school in remote Tamil Nadu, to being slapped by the breeze on its shores, I have come a long way, literally and figuratively. As I stood gazing at its billowing waters, a ticklish urge rose in me.

Earlier that day, a sunny morning, I had set out on a 25-km hiking trail around Baikal.

Termed the Great Baikal Trail, the route would lead me from the Siberian town of Listvyanka on Baikal’s shores to the mining village of Bolshie Koty, reached only on foot or a hydrofoil.

This section, located within the Pribaikalsky National Park, passed through dense vegetation watched over by impossibly tall larch, birch, poplar and alder trees, slowly changing

colours as fall approached.

At the town of Listvyanka, where I started Much like Lake Baikal, whose delicate ecolo- the hike, there was a strange makeover undergy is often threatened by pollution and tou- way, it seemed. Slope-roofed wooden houses rism, the forests surrounding the lake as part are being built, some replacing the flat grey of the Pribaikalsky National Park also host nu- concrete structures from the Soviet era. Even merous species of plants, animals and birds — as oil prices turn increasingly volatile and Rusmany of them endangered. The sia’s economy struggles to cope National Park was established in with the after-effects, tourism is 1986 and covers over a million starting to boom. It became Do apI count Many migrants of acres of protected forest area. parent that town-folk are taking I noticed the Puttuma A decade ago, Great Baikal note of the cash flow trickling in, Nagar unmistakable could not avail Trail (GBT), a non-profit organiaided by tourism, and building presence of Chinese flood relief as they sation, was formed by environguesthouses and hotels. did not have the tourists. They are mental enthusiasts and locals to I had spent the previous eve- identity requisite arriving by the proofofm prabhu ‘promote local sustainable dening walking the fish markets busloads all over velopment, social equality and Listvyanka, where women sold Russia low-impact eco-tourism’ in the dried omul fish, a Siberian delicaregion. As part of its work, GBT cy, and eating Uzbek pilaf cooked has cleared, with the help of inover an open fire. ternational volunteers, narrow I noticed the unmistakable walking trails in the National Park area that presence of Chinese tourists. They are arriving snake alongside the lake. When I read about by the busloads all over Russia, and Baikal is the trail, as part of my research for the ride on no exception. the Trans-Siberian express, I knew Baikal At the hotel I stayed in, the wooden ceiling would be one of the highlights of my trip. of my room pounded all night as unruly chil-

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The relief efforts after the Chennai floods have exposed the linguistic and regional fault lines in Puttuma Nagar, a corner of the city that many migrant workers call home

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eyond the bustle of the SIPCOT special economic zone on the Rajiv Gandhi IT Expressway, the neighbourhood of Kazhipattur in Vaniyanchavadi is little more than a blink-and-miss combination of bus stop and signboard. Entering Puttuma Nagar, a working-class settlement, along a muddy path leading off the main road, I am greeted by a battered statue of Ambedkar, the kind that typically adorns localities which other gods have forgotten.

Abutting a large waterbody that drains into the sea, the settlement was ravaged by the unprecedented rains that lashed Chennai and its surrounding areas in November and December. At first glance, the dwellings in Puttuma Nagar might appear indistinguishable from each other, a working-class griminess overhanging them uniformly. But it is, in some ways, as ‘cosmopolitan’ as some of the most affluent areas of Chennai. More than seven languages are spoken here as residents, mainly migrant workers, trace their roots to Bihar, Assam, Nagaland, Odisha and Jharkhand among other places. Immigrants from places closer afield in rural Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have also made home here.

As Tolstoy famously said, happy families are all alike but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. The floods and the subsequent relief efforts have exposed the linguistic and regional fault lines within the community. A survey by a coalition of NGOs, which later submitted a report to the government on flood relief efforts, repeatedly encountered stories of deprivation and alienation among the non-Tamil population of the city. “We will not receive any compensation,” says Sunita Karri, a construction worker from Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh. “The officials told us we are not eligible since we do not have any local documents. Even when NGO workers came to dis-

tribute food in the area, Tamil residents tried moved here over 15 years ago, have managed to prevent us from taking it.” to secure a proof of existence and can hope to When floodwater invaded Puttuma Nagar, get compensation from the government. But the panchayat leader broke open the local there are also other Tamil-speaking people school and residents took shelter in it. Several who moved here from interior regions who Hindi-speaking residents, perhaps due to the are being denied government benefits much language barrier, either remained unaware or like their non-Tamil counterparts. Rajathi had felt unwelcome to share this space. Forced to left Thiruvannamalai to work as a domestic look for alternative safe space, they found few help in Chennai nearly 15 years ago. She had to left once the waters rose to waist-level. “I spent travel to her village immediately after the a day with a neighbour who charged me ₹200. floods to perform the last rites for her father.

After that, a few roommates and I stayed in the “After we came back, we submitted our details common toilet and bathroom, which were for relief, but the officer said it was too late built at a height,” recounts Sudand refused to accept them,” she hanshu Dash, a migrant worker says. Some who had moved here from Odisha. He eventually confrom rural districts of Tamil Nadu tracted typhoid and had to be said they were present during the Stories like those treated at a private hospital. enumeration but were still igfrom Puttuma Nagar When the waters receded nored as they did not have proof are no doubt being about five days later and people of local residence. played out across slowly returned home, they Volunteer surveyors have come other localities of confronted newer problems. across similar tales of governChennai With the government largely mental neglect from migrant absent, it was the residents workers in at least 20 villages from nearby high-rise apartalong the IT Expressway. In sharp ments who arrived with rations contrast, in many of the flood-afand relief material. But even these did not re- fected middle-class localities in the heart of ach large sections of the migrant population. the city, government officials appear to have Like most other migrants in this locality, Pad- set the bar much lower — they are ready to acma Korada too rents a house from a Tamil- cept any form of identification papers, irrespeaking landlord. The construction worker spective of the place of origin. With elections from Andhra Pradesh hesitates to talk about fast approaching, clearly it helps to belong to the relief efforts, attempting instead to redi- a segment of the population that can either rect my questions to her landlord, standing a make a noise or cast a ballot. few feet away. But she lets slip in hushed TeluThe floods may have been instrumental in gu that many landlords, including hers, col- bringing people together in many parts of the lected relief material on their tenants’ behalf city, but for the migrant workers of Puttuma and re-distributed them as they deemed fit.

Nagar and elsewhere, it is yet another remindPuttuma Nagar’s story is being played out er that they are second-classLakeside citizens dreams in their A house facing the across other localities of Chennai too. But this adopted land. picturesque Baikal is not a simple, binary tale of the migrant verlake prathap nair sus local. Some like Renuka Selvam, who visvaksen p

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Split down the middle

Travel log Getting there

To get to Listvyanka, the town on the shores of Baikal from where the hiking trail begins, there are frequent buses from the nearest city of Irkutsk. The one-hour bus ride will cost you around 200 Russian roubles (₹200). It is also possible to take a hydrofoil from Irkutsk to Listvyanka. booking Kumar Sharma, joint secretaryPrior of JNUSU. With is advised. a large number of research students and so-

The relative calm inside the JNU campus — where sloganeering is a part of life — is in stark contrast to the tension at its gates

dren played a game of midnight fetch on the floor above. Early the next day, a Chinese man, who appeared to be in his thirties, belted out an opera number in high pitch outside my room, in merry anticipation of his sightseeing trip later in the day. I tapped my window to attract his attention and deplored him with my eyes. He looked at me, disgusted, as if I were an unwelcome guest at his doorstep and walked away. Later in Beijing, as I continued my trip, I would read about the Chinese government imposing fines and placing Chinese tourists misbehaving abroad on no-fly lists.

I walked to the sound of pesky barking dogs on quiet streets lined by cherry trees, peeping their heads out of courtyard fences. Soon, the

The writing’s on the wall Awash with posters, the administration building in JNU saurabh yadav

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or more than two weeks, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been in the eye of a storm. The JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar is lodged in Tihar jail. Late on Tuesday night, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, two out of five students facing charges of sedition, surrendered to the police. Union ministers, state legislators, police and the media have the university under their lens.

The peace inside the campus contrasts with the heavy police presence, barricades at the gates and the long line of media outdoor broadcast vans parked outside. An oasis within the city, the JNU campus is an overwhelming expanse of green and part of the Capital’s Ridge forest.

At the heart of the sprawling campus, the walls of the administrative building are covered with giant murals. All India Students Association’s (AISA) murals hold the pride of place, depicting marching workers and fists clenched in protest. Not far away, Shyama Prasad Mookherjee, founder of Bharatiya Jan Sangh (now known as BJP), smiles from an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) poster.

In a democratic tradition, space on the wall comes from the JNU ‘wall day’, when students stand in front of designated walls to claim banner space for the academic year. The murals, which mirror conflicting political views, represent the diversity of JNU’s student community.

“There is a liberal culture of free speech on campus; everyone is allowed to have their own views, we listen to them,” said Shiv, a postgraduate. “The ABVP activists are guerrillas, they

cial studies Tip programmes on offer, those supportive of liberalomul or socialist ideology have Trya dried fish, a Siberian always been in a majority at JNU. speciality, found only in Lake Baikal.

Over the last few around years, the ABVP has inRestaurants Listvyanka serve creased its clout JNU. This has led to several omul in at different forms; smoked confrontations the campus.

In end-Decemomul isin special.

Once found in ber 2015,abundance at the 22ndin International Baikal, omulCongress has beenof Vedanta,declared Baba Ramdev was invited as theinkeyan endangered species note speaker — a move that was successfully 2004 owing to commercial opposedoverfishing.

by JNUSU. In the last few days, three office-bearers of the ABVP have resigned in protest over the government’s handling of the current situation.

On the evening of February 24, ABVP held a meeting in front of the administration building to commemorate martyrs. Retired army officers addressed a small, attentive crowd of students, after speaking to TV news. There were posters of the nine victims of the Parliament attacks, as also the armymen who died in recent terrorist strikes in Kashmir. Students waved saffron flags and shouted ‘Bharat maata ki jai’. General GD Bakshi, a former soldier and, as he reminded the cheering hordes, former student (degrees at the National Defence Getting picky (Top)was Dried omul Academy are awarded by JNU), the first fish on sale; speaker of the evening. His speech wasthere puncis an abundance of tuated by claps, his voice getting shrill at mushroom on the times as he spoke about “When ask for Baikalthey trail images prathap azaadi for Kashmir, how do they asknair for it, with Kalashnikovs, with grenades, with the lives of village receded behind me as I walked further of the metal during time.

However, with 44,000 Indians?”

In this a jibe at the US, Bakshi into thesuddenly, forest. and they don’t want to talk,” no appear prior arrangements for accommodation in said: “If America can allow a programme at its Russian couple, armed with a wooden Bolshie heAadded.

Koty and unsure ofObama, arrivingno before the universities to celebrate Osama, pole tohappenings aid mushroom picking, walked ahead.

The of the last two weeks have last left for Listvyanka, thenhydrofoil tell us (sic).”

‘Idiverted no understand you,’ thethe man said when “We I atattention from classrooms.

IThe realised would bealso ambitious to do a otheritspeakers, ex-servicemen, tempted conversation. picking as is round went to sleep and wokeMushroom up next morning on foot. calmlytrip dwelled on the effect ‘anti-national’ Russia’s passionate and I noticed the demonstrations anti-nationals,” saidpastime Vishwambhar Prajapati.

After walking four in the Siberian havehours on the morale of wilsolabundance of the fungi trail. MushEvery group in JNU hason itsthe identifying slo- derness with sparse I heard the diers at the border andcompany, their families. rooms in musty yellow and pearly white lined murmuring gans, and the most vocal members are recogwaves protest of Baikal. wereof more Sitting in silent atThere the stairs the the path, hugging the “Those roots ofshown trees. shouting hikers nised even from afar. now, a young Russian coupleofwith their administration building, a group students midsummer heavily over onATV (calling forsilence azaadihung of Kashmir, and the enthusiastic five-year-old ahead; a waited with placards.

“Westomping are for democracy forest, intermittently division of India) are broken not JNUbystudents,” said and for dissent, Dutch who would thea is itcouple possible for us tostay show the gushing ofDas, streams and the Sanghamitra a student.

“If night in of Bolshie Koty; a group of gesture magnanimity and aloccasional roar such of a plane flying someone raises slogans, we three middle-aged Russians low them to go ahead with their overhead. looked to see have to seeIthem notup as anti-nabreaking for lunch. programme,” JNUSU vice-presiBurst of Siberian patches of bright blue perspecsky visitional but from their A sun-bleached wooden bench dent Shehla Rashid asked the The leaders at JNU daisies, shiny orange ble canopyofgapslife likein a tivebetween and angst stood shore, empty, crowd,byasthe they chose to notbeckdisare known for their globeflowers and tattered carpet.

Kashmir... people forget that.” oning.

I would break my hike rupt the ABVP programme by the ability to speak lilies populated here.

In went front of unfurDas onme, to the say,path “Most stu- dwarf And now was the time to shouting counter-slogans. well... that is why we the path led like a beige ribbon. of dents are apolitical, butBursts the leadfulfil urge. and anger directThemy violence choose them Siberian shinyfor orange ers at JNUdaisies, are known their waited the has last not of the edI at themuntil outside reglobeflowers dwarf lilies political viewsand and the ability to hikers in duced disappeared the defianceslowly of the populated speak wellthe andpath. that is why we their tracks, swallowed

by The the students within the campus.

Baikal’s delicate ecology has choose them.” dense foliage of use gnarly ferns, disproportionate of force by been threatened recently form of rag- bushes “Different slogans are in thethe culture ofa JNU. studded burgundy berries and the police has hadwith the effect of uniting various ing wildfire that large swathes of for- trunks Some will call forscorched the eradication of casteism, of tallinbirches. sunny day but universities supportItofwas theastudents.

There ests in the surrounding area.

Also, plansshout for a there (jaatiwaad ko tod phod do), some people was been a nip letters in the air and Baikal’s waters have also from various universiradioactive-waste processing facility in the vil- remain ‘brahminwad murdabad’ (down with brahcold throughout theEvery year (with a maxities from across the world. evening, solage of Shiryayeva, Baikal, haszindabad,” triggered mum minism), others saynear ‘brahminwad of 15°C inacademics summer).speak I disrobed and, cial activists and to students concerns endangering the lake’s envi- framing explainedabout Prajapati. in my head to caption my Ingatheredwords at the administration building. ronment, way for a petition on stagram Abhijeet,and an paved ABVP office-bearer, who was picturefrom (thatministers I now hold bragging The pressure of the Central Change.org asking Russian president Putinon to rights present at the controversial cultural event for skinny in has Baikal), I stepped government and dipping the police turned the isreconsider decision.

February 9,the said, “We have a problem with the gingerly thevs riverbed scattered with sue into aon David Goliath battle.

At JNU, alThe ‘judicial trail would have A eventually to smooth usage killing’.” poster of led theme event marbles and this walked into Baikal’s most everyone agrees, is a political battle the town of Koty, withofa Afzal pop- clear thatmining said ‘Against theBolshie judicial killing waters, which splashed gently around and the students are not prepared to take this ulation less than 100.

Thewas goldsent mining indusGuru and Maqbool Bhat’ to the vice- my ankles. lying down. try in the village of Bolshie Koty to was active chancellor along with a petition stop the saurabh nair yadav is a Bengaluru-based freelance writer from to signed 1968 and about 160 kg prathap event.1848 It was by produced ABVP member Saurabh

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CREATURE FEATURE

Split ends The punishing heat of California’s Central Valley compelled Ensatina salamanders to part ways and re-emerge as two different species

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icture a stream meandering through a forest, and imagine what happens when it encounters a rock. Following the path of least resistance, the stream splits into two, each half finding its way forward on either side of the rock. Once they’ve moved past the barrier, the two streamlets flow back together, moving ahead as one. A few feet down, you won’t be able to tell that the rock was part of this stream’s history. But what if you sat beside the rock, and carefully dripped oil into one of the two streamlets? When the two arms of what used to be one stream meet on the other side of the rock, they will fail to reunite. You’ll be able to tell that they are different streams now, even though they flow alongside one another.

Now imagine that the stream, instead of beBornmade againup Delicately moulded lakhori bricks — which ing of droplets of water, is filled with are both hard to find and expensive — were used in the resurrection of Haveli Dharampura little animals that are shaped like lizards but feel like frogs. This tale of streams splitting and then failing to rejoin becomes the tale of breed, which means that they are one species later, we’d found a large female and a little Ensatina salamanders in California, US. It’s the at the top of the range, but two species by the male, eliciting from Prado-Irwin one of the story of how new species form. time they get to the bottom. The discovery of biggest smiles I’ve seen on a biologist’s face.

Just like frogs, salamanders are amphib- this remarkable pattern was a vindication to With just a couple of these salamanders in ians, so they need to live in a wet environment. biologists, who had long been in search of that hand, it’s difficult to appreciate the bigger geEven the daytime air is too dry for Ensatina, so perfect example, showing the process of how ographical and historical patterns that make they move around at night and spend their millions of species that we share our world these animals famous. Their bright colours days living under logs. When active, they pot- with have formed. are more immediately impressive. And just as ter about, looking for insects to eat on the forLast month, I travelled in CaliPrado-Irwin had suggested, there est floor. Not the most jet-setting of lifestyles, fornia with a colleague, Sofia was an interesting story to be but over the last few million years, they’ve Prado-Irwin, whose enthusiasm told here too. made their way down the entire length of Cali- for amphibians and reptiles in In some parts of California, EnWhile the coastal fornia, a distance of over 1500 km. Like the general, and for Ensatina salasatina co-occurs with a species of varieties stayed illiencounters ki hasti munassar fered a womb-like comfort to the uniformly outsider coloured, store the pastnewt to a dignified living heritage.

It stream that a rock,kai thehangamon salaman- manders in particular, rivals any that is incredibly toxic. In par thi who was out of sorts in for the any concrete the jungles was Vijay Goel, the former MP from Chandni ders’ dispersal was impeded by the punishing- biologist’s enthusiasm contrast, Ensatina are not toxic at mountainous Chowk, har roz that New Delhi has Chowk. “You’ve the filth neglect in ly hot andQila, dryChandni Central Valley.

So majthe other creature.

Shespawned. ascribes her all, seen but they takeand advantage of varieties became Jama Masjid hafteways. sair enthusiasm In the innumerable by-lanes out Old Delhi. Dotheir you want to seeneighbours. what it can be? populationma of Ensatina splitka, andhar parted partly to these ani-spreading blotchier noxious By Jamna pul ki, mela phool waalon ka mals’ from Daryagunj the Jama Masjid and Come and see Haveli Dharampura,” said.

As eachkehalf of har thesaal population encountered “interestingto behaviours evolving the very samehecolour Yeh pancchon baatein — abon nahin Chandni Chowk, stories,” the kabaadi by the interest different environments the coast and on and evolutionary but al-shops nestled Vaguely intrigued patterns as unlikely the newts, downoftoa against the occasional splendour Phir kaho Dilli kahan in restoring architectural inland mountains — the salamanders gradual- so to “some innate reason that I of old have- career politician identical yellowold eyes, the salalis. The magnificent facades mostly led into a sites, I agreed.manders can fool predators into koi shehr is naam Hindustan mein ly Haan acquired changes.

Thekamost striking of can never describe.”

I underwarrenthis of inexplicable hastily partitioned kabhi tha these changes were in colour — while the stand awe in thedwellings, face of a thinking they are newts. These predators have (Delhi’s character wasuniformly defined bycoloured, the Red small itching a ride with Goel the next day, we whereslice impoverished still drew their coastal varieties stayed of nature —tenants I feel similarly about liz- learnt, possibly through painful experience, Fort,mountainous Chandni Chowk, the crowds every- ards. drove streetatleading to the Jama daily water the public outside.

The to avoid the varieties became that blotchier.

But myfrom passion by no tap means matches theinto toxicanewts all costs. day thronged Masjid, the walks to the Ya- Prado-Irwin’s, lane, overhung with electric cainteriors seemed of the Mumbai Masjid.

When they Jama do finally come back together, andmini-replicas I got to see her excitement But toThe an amphibian and reptile enthusiast muna and the thecoastal yearly and Phoolwalon ki about bles and littered, woundinteracinto a chawls;Ensatina the glory of yesteryear like oilBridge and water, mountainfirsthand when we went hik- like Prado-Irwin, clever ecological sair. varieties None of this remains; what became of Delthesalamanders mouth of a buried in the everyday realitytrees of with the ex- tions like thesmall ous no longer mix.

The two types of ing in the shade of redwood one by-lane. betweenAtthe hi? There wasdoonce city that each wentother by this by-lane, ancient provision the goal havelis’ impoverished salamanders not arecognise as plicit of locating some salamanders. This and the newts are onlyan part of why these aniname.)and therefore do not interbreed, which turned store masalas, dal of and denizens. mates out to be an easy task. We only hadThere to are mals are worth oursold attention.

Much hersoap fas— Mirza Asadullah Khan ‘Ghalib’to different “flip powder tinthe canisters.

This wasahow ended is the very definition of belonging over log, the andpast there was—this bright or- cination simplyinfrom chance toThe see approximately 500 derives ‘world’s narrowest street’ adin squalor and degradation. species. But everywhere along the ring, sala- ange gummy-bear looking In thing havelis on the them living their daily lives.

She recounts how, in Old Delhi.

The poet’s angst settles like the mythical fog ground,” joined to form what overflowing and gaudy manders from adjacent populations can interas sewage Prado-Irwin described.Of Minutes as about a six-year-old, she this saw by-lane “this giant bull snake them, only over the minarets of Jama Masjid in the late paint that smothered the delicalled me like it was aDharampura million feet 50 are in athat stillseemed isto loosely winter afternoon. Seen through the dish an- cately carved red stone and mohalla, where Goel’s haveli long. I was just so scared and impressed at can the retrievable condition tennas and innumerable Sintex water tanks wooden facades of the once found. same time. Itbe was an eye-opener [to see] that crowding the rooftops, the monument’s maj- grand mansions. In overhangthewhere electric cables things like this Suddenly, live in a place I live.”

It’s esty is as indeterminate as the character of ing electric cables and crudely disappeared.

Shutters of decthe an impression that has persisted for two this city, which has been famously destroyed designed shops that sold artifishops lining the by-lane, which ades, directing Prado-Irwin’s attention to and rebuilt seven times by its various cial jewellery and greasy ‘Chinese food’. The frogs, has a lizards, new sewerage line, were all painted in and Ensatina salamanders.

I susconquerors. the same is Gali Guliyan, a by nar-a sudden charm of a centuries-old Jain temple pect that ifcolours. more ofThis us were as impressed For the migrant in me, confined mostly to that paled in the stink of the garbage collect- plant row but squeaky clean by-lane which criss-a or animal in our vicinity, we’d be doing the throbbing metropolis that the seven cities ing outside. crossesbetter two old templesalong and houses Goel’s much jobJain of getting with the milhave metamorphosed into, Shahjahan’s now famous Haveli Dharampura.

And so it was till one person, albeit a far lions of species we share the Earth The with.former Walled City signified an easy return to what more influential one compared to a rootless MP is not looking to restore just an old haveli. kamath studies organismic was left behind. To the decrepit town, an erst- migrant, called with a promise to show me ambika His is a more ambitious project.and evolutionary Harvard University while princely state of my past. Purani Dilli, its what a true haveli actually looked like. What a biology “Youatsee what underground sewage lines ambikamath@gmail.com Worlds apart The two types of Ensatina salamanders not recognise eachofother little as mates and therefore do not interbreed brian freiermuth crowded mohallas and do chaotic bazaars and focus on disposing garbage efficiently can attention to basic amenities can do to re-

ambika kamath

Brick by brick

It took six years to give Old Delhi’s Haveli Dharampura, hidden in what could well be the world’s narrowest street, a new lease of life

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Full power, office shower Water crisis drives Delhi to official cubicles

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he ongoing protests by the Jats in Haryana have led to dry taps in several colonies in Delhi’s southern and western parts. An unexpected side-effect of this is that office-goers have reported to work early — not to beat the protest-induced traffic jams, but to shower and make themselves presentable. If the crisis continues, offices across the NCR may soon have to find shelf space for shower caps, soaps, loofahs and other toiletries.

Trigger-happy in Punjab The State has 20 per cent of India’s gun licences

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unjab has the curious distinction of holding 20 per cent of arms licences in the country, second only to Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. A whopping 4.5 lakh pistol licences have been issued to civilians by the Punjab government, allowing them to hold three arms per licence, an advisory note to the state government by traffic cop Navdeep Asija stated. Going by the numbers, there are 11 lakh guns as against 77,000 police personnel in the state. Now, one can only hope the civilians don’t jump the gun needlessly.

Capital neglect When Vijay Goel (seen with son Siddhant in the far-right photo), the former MP from Chandni Chowk, bought Haveli Dharampura, it was a run-down mansion which housed 60 families

Not-so-fine air Cow farts cause climate change

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an cows be guilty of causing climate change?

Apparently yes. When they fart without a care after bingeing on hay and feed, they release methane, which contributes in no small way to climate change. There’s no way farmers can prevent their cows from farting, but they have been adapting feed to cut down methane emission, some by adding nitrate and fat to feed. But organic farmers didn’t have a solution until scientists discovered the multiple uses of oregano. A bit of herb in the feed is said to lower a cow’s methane emission considerably. Public transport users in India can’t wait to see if this works for humans.

advice, he was mistaken.

“For six years, there wasn’t a week when I didn’t hear of some disaster in Dharampura. I used to dread that the whole structure would come down during the monsoons. I have run from INTACH to MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) to every expert architect I heard of.

But eventually, I just had to depend on common sense and what was available. Fortunately, I know these parts. My father’s office was here and I know people around. We started from strengthening the foundation and worked our way up,” said Goel.

Architect Aggarwal cobbled together a team of conservation students from Delhi, specialist masons and labourers mostly from Rajasthan, and local construction workers who are familiar with the haveli designs. For the next two years, they worked only on strengthening the foundations, putting up iron scaffoldings, and chipping away layers of paint work and cement that had buried the original lakhori bricks and architecture. hen you’ve had one tootook many,four the years. prudent thing The interiors Out of 60 to do isrooms to call aon cab.

Onefloors, Wisconsin howevthree this couple, team redesigned er, chose to let drive instead.

Jason 28 their with nine-year-old adjoining bathrooms on each floor, Roth, 36, and Amanda Eggert, 32, pleadedshowcasing not guilty last the design and architecture an inweek, to charges of recklessly endangering safety nefluence of Mughal, Rajasthani and and European longing to multiple owners. The roof was colglecting a child.

Their nine-year-old daughter was driving elements.

And now, when visitors enter an imlapsing in places, about 60 partitions them, had aroundpressive 120 kmfaçade northeast Minneapolis, afterthe into aof sun-filled courtyard, concealed the original architecture the they theyofdecided were intoxicated.

What made matimage is atoo stunning, three-storey architectural three-storeyed mansion, and a section of the wasbrilliance. ters worse that theirArtwork other child, all of 11 walls months adorns the andold, modwall was ready to give in. was also in theern car. plumbing and sealed electric-wiring Goel spent time getting previous residents transforms the winding staircases and hidden to vacate. After the haveli was cleared of the tahkhanas. Each floor has a distinct character tenants, Goel’s next task was to and view, leading up to the sunny find masons familiar with the rooftop, where Goel plans to original construction work. Forhold kite-flying expeditions. tunately for him, renovation The haveli would be a muIn havelis, work in the Red Fort involved a construction material seum, a performance space, a few masons who had discovered place where past has been reincludes a mix of that walls are not just brick and stored. “It will be a place where jaggery, urad dal, mortar. For havelis, construcstudents can learn about conserwood apple pulp and tion material includes a mix of vation. About how we can still crushed bricks jaggery, urad dal, wood apple view the past. How our ancestors pulp and crushed bricks. They allived,” said Goel. so used the delicately moulded As I stood on the rooftop, lakhori bricks, which are hard to watching Jama Masjid through a find and expensive. haze of smoke and squalor, the impossibility But first, the clumsily constructed parti- of Goel’s promise began to sink in. In a countions had to be demolished. Goel and Sidd- try where the past is mostly a ruse to practise hant supervised the removal of 1,000 gutter-level politics, the invocation of beauty truckloads of debris from the dilapidated is difficult to envisage. mansion. And if Goel thought being an MP gave him some authority and access to expert poornima joshi

Honey, I let the kid drive Drunk couple gives keys to child

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do to an area? It has taken me years of running from one corporation official to another official and back. But the result is that I have managed to restore at least some parts in this mohalla to a semblance of order,” Goel said.

There are approximately 500 havelis in Old Delhi. Of them, only about 50 are in a retrievable condition still. But the multiplicity of the city’s civic authorities, combined with the fact that they are individually owned and embroiled in tenant-landlord disputes, means that it would take a Herculean effort to restore them to their former glory. or Jayalalithaa’s supporters, her birthday Haveli Dharampura has, thus, been resuris a serious tradition. On her 68th, celerected as a model which can be emulated if brated earlier this week, over 1,000 supporters Goel can interest the authorities into a bigger turned up at a function organised by Velarenovation project. Along with son Siddhant, chery MLA MK Ashok, and got Amma’s picture architect Kapil Aggarwal and Heritage India tattooed on their forearm. As a tribute to Foundation, Amfounded by Goel, his ambition is ma’s age, the organiser had wanted 668 party to convert Old Delhi into a kind of model livworkers to get the tattoo. Reckon when ingitheritage project. comes to their leader, the love of the supporters knows no bounds. Thankfully, the tattoohe story of Haveli Dharampura’s new life artistes had enough ink to keep the swelling started six years ago when Goel bought a tide of supporters etched for life. run-down mansion housing 60 families. From

Tat’s called love

Party workers get Amma tattoos

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1869, when the haveli belonged to a Muslim family, it passed different hands, finally be-

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

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his quiz is dedicated to an event that comes around once every 1,460 days. It is about leap years and February 29.

here,there & elsewhere

Smelly stories

Leap it

1

Who is the only Indian Prime Minister who assumed office before celebrating his 21st birthday?

2

Which calendar, named after a general, was the first to use the concept of a leap year in 46 BC?

3

The plot of which famous Gilbert and Sullivan opera revolves around a protagonist born on February 29 and has to serve out a punishment till his 21st birthday?

4

In 1940, on February 29, Hattie McDaniel accomplished a first in the world of show business. What was it?

5

On this day in 1964, which Australian swimming great set a new world record in the 100m freestyle event?

6

February 29 used to be celebrated in many parts of America as Sadie Hawkins Day. What was special about the day?

7

Which great Indian dancer, largely responsible for the revival and spread of Bharatanatyam, was born on this day in Madurai in 1904?

8 9

Which successful American businessman opened his first club on February 29, 1960?

In which popular American television serial would you come across a character named ‘Leap Year William’, who always wears blue and yellow?

10

Traditionally, which creature is associated with February 29 and often picturised on Leap Day pictures?

he temperature has plunged and I don’t want to budge from under my T comforter. I often wish I could hibernate all through the winter, like squirrels and bears. But of course that would mean jettisoning the hyper-active langur called Bins with whom I happen to live.

He’s reading a book called DO SPARROWS LIKE BACH? that he found in my backpack. It’s the kind of book I always think I’m going to enjoy reading while travelling, but never do because I’m always too anxious to read. “Did you know,” he whispers, his scraggly grey moustache tickling my right ear, “that the human soul weighs as much as a slice of bread?” “I still don’t know,” I mumble, “coz I’m ASLEEP.” He continues undeterred. “They found out by keeping a dying man on a weighing scale,” he tells me. “He lost three-fourths of an ounce at the moment of death.”

The book is a collection of brief essays based on stories in the New Scientist. The focus is on the bizarre end of the science spectrum. Typical titles include: “Furry Submarines Embarrass Swedish Navy” and “Bleeping Miss Daisy.” The editors must have had fun putting the book together. The furry submarines, for instance, turned out to be otters and minks swimming underwater, apparently mimicking the sounds made by submarines. Miss Daisy refers to cows with radio collars that

play musical tones to tell them when to return to their milking stalls.

“These scientists are crazy,” continues Bins, in his whiskery whisper. “Look at this: Canadian biologists have discovered that herrings can produce audible farts!”

I groan and push him away. “They expel air from the anus with a high-pitched sound. It’s not the same way humans do it, though,” he rattles on, “because fish don’t breathe air ...” I sit up. “You will soon not be breathing air either,” I promise him, “unless you stop!” He grins, jumps out of reach and goes on reading. “The researchers believe the herring use the sound perhaps to locate one another in the dark.”

“Why is flatulence funny?” I wonder out loud, as I finally get up. “I don’t know,” says Bins, “but it says here that, ‘The average adult in the Western world farts roughly 10 times a day, releasing enough gas to inflate a party balloon.’ And farting can sometimes be fatal! The hydrogen and methane produced inside the gut is flammable.

During surgery, sparks from electric equipment have caused explosions!” It must have been horrid for the family of doctors and patients alike but it’s hard not to giggle at the thought of bum bombs.

“This one’s about naughty bits,” says Bins. Male spiny anteaters have fourheaded penises. Their ladies are equipped to receive only two of the four at any given session. This makes these mammals vaguely similar to reptiles. Snakes for instance have two dingdongs and can choose when to use which one. “Meanwhile male rhinoceros beetles ...” “Enough with the weird stories!” I cry. “— or what about this one about Whale Poop?

Or Shouting Bombs?” asks Bins.

“Okay! I’ll make tea,” I say. Bins smiles happily. “And in case you were wondering? Sparrows DO like Bach.” manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

cornerstone

Answers 1. Morarji Desai, born on February 29, 1876 2. The Julian calendar named after Julius Caesar. We now use the Gregorian calendar named after Pope Gregory XIII, which came into use in 1582 AD 3. The Pirates of Penzance 4. She was the first person of African-American origin to win an Oscar 5. Dawn Fraser, who won a total of eight Olympic medals including four golds 6. On this day women could propose to men and they couldn’t turn down the proposal. It was inspired by a character in the popular comic strip “L’il Abner” and was common till the late ’50s 7. Rukmini Devi Arundale 8. Hugh Hefner. The first Playboy Club was opened in Walton Street in Chicago 9. 30 Rock 10. Frog; appeared on a Google doodle on February 29, 2012

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joy bhattacharjya is a quizmaster and Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup t@joybhattacharj

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