Blink issue 111 mar19 2016

DIARY OF AN EXILED KING What does an ill-understood but kindly monarch of good times do when banished to green, but not greener, pastures? p5 saturday, march 19, 2016

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Back to the drawing board The Right to Education Act and its provisions for children from the economically weaker sections (EWS) of society are not working in the Delhi-NCR p9

BREAKING A LEG Ayesha Dharker has pulled off an astonishing range of roles with ĂŠlan p14

THE VILLAGE BY THE SEA How the oscillating rhythms of Mumbai’s tides inspired a poet p17

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The beginning of an Dear WADA, please end to open defecation enhance your performance BEYOND THE FIELD

How Harijan Pally in Nadia, West Bengal, became the epicentre of a clean revolution The case of Maria Sharapova proves that as long as the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) does not run a tighter ship, it will always be one step behind modern-day athletes, a tribe that will do anything not-yet-outlawed to gain an edge suhrith parthasarathy

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n March 6, Maria Sharapova’s agent announced that the tennis star would hold a press conference the following day to make what he termed a “major announcement.” Reports abounded of a possible retirement. After all, Sharapova had competed only sporadically A curious over the last several months, and she hadn’t confession Tennis played a single match this year since losing to star Maria Sharapova Serena Williams in the quarterfinals of the speaks during a news Australian Open. This was Sharapova’s 18th conference in Los consecutive loss to Williams. It was possible Angeles on March 7.

Sharapova said she that she had, by now, had enough. has failed a drug test Having won five major titles and amassed at the Australian more than $35 million in prize money alone Open ap / damian (to say nothing about her off-court earnings), dovarganes and with Williams proving insurmountable, perhaps Sharapova believed there was little [WADA] only from the beginning of 2016. Sha- before her, committed a grave moral sin? “It’s left for her to prove. rapova claims she’s been on Meldonium for not up to me to decide the punishment, but if The next day though, when she took to a mi- nearly 10 years, for medical reasons, and was you’re taking performance-enhancing drugs crophone assembled in a dingy Los Angeles unaware of the decision to ban the substance. and you fail a drugs test, you have to get sushotel, with a clumsily folded sheet of paper in According to her, she missed reading an email pended,” British tennis star Andy Murray said, hand, Sharapova moved quickly to dispel ru- from WADA in December last year that expli- in response to Sharapova’s admission. “I think mours of her retirement. “I know many of you cated the list of banned substances, a list that taking a prescription drug that you don’t necthought that I would be retiring today,” she now included Meldonium. But this supposed essarily need, but just because it’s legal, that’s said in commencing her conference. But “if I ignorance might not quite mitigate the dam- wrong, clearly. That’s wrong. If you’re taking a was going to announce my retirement, it age done. prescription drug and you’re not using it for would probably not be in a downtown Los AnAfter all, WADA had been specifically moni- what that drug was meant for, then you don’t geles hotel with this fairly ugly carpet.” But toring Meldonium for over a year, after find- need it, so you’re just using it for the performwhat followed this quip — the major announ- ing traces of it in blood samples obtained ance-enhancing benefits that drug is giving cement, as it were — was altogether more from several athletes. According to one study, you. And I don’t think that that’s right.” shocking, a completely unanticipated revela- some 2.2 per cent athletes in the world had But there are also larger ethical issues at tion that hasPulin jolted theSuresh world of tennis intoBansfor Meldonium in their These reports here.

That those who violate WADA’s proStellar show Nayak, Bansfore and Vijay — core members of thesystem.

Young Star Club, which staged stake plays and campaigned door-to-door to make Harijan all images: rina mukherji Pally open defecation-free virtual suspension.

“I wanted to let you know pointed to its powers of boosting body metab- scriptions ought to face sanctions is unquesthat a few days ago, I received a letter from the olism in a player, of helping imtionable. Tennis players — [International Tennis Federation] that I had prove an athlete’s endurance especially those at the top — ofNadia was declared the first the area, the capabilities.

Young Star Club failednaApril drug2015, test at the Australian Open,” she and themaintain ambulance.

We helped aerobic For was a one of the even ₹10 forten a large coterieher of open defecation-free India. sport first tolike respond. said. “I did fail the test, and Idistrict take fullinresponpay,” says Suresh, an active member of the tennis, in which sucadvisors.

It’s within the scope of Is Sharapova’s Two Members of the club alreadyblunder involvedan innocent sibility formore it.” districts in West Bengal — Hu- cess club who is employed administrative asis predicated todaywere on sutheir jobs as to an know what goes into glilately, and Burdwan, Bikaner in Rajasin effortsbodily to improve their surroundings.

Until tennis hadand been relatively unaf- preme condition, the theirUniversity. bodies. But sport also tends oneThe or hassistant she at Kalyani than quickly followed Nadia’s Even act. Here is the performance-enhancing municipality’s decision toquality partner with Kamal a grave fected by doping scandals. as other Suraj initially installed a basic at a cost to encourage and toilet virtually recommitted story of how the beginning made intestthe in Kar’s CLTS Foundation gaveclear. the club the fillip sports were mired with manywas top athletes of ₹300. Nowward he wants thewho municipal authorMeldonium was rather players do everything moral sin? slums of Kalyani Municipality. they were looking for. Supported ing positive for banned substances, very few of Sharapova’s him proper costs explanation that by the mu- ities to build they cana to secureunit eventhat the most nicipality’s health-in-charge Dr the best tennis players had faced such ignomi- she ₹13,000, butofis unable to pay the was consuming the subnegligible gains, while rea decade Harijan was one of stance KasturitoBakshi, club condimemny. Innly recent timesago, though, withPally the frequency initial contribution of ₹1,000. treat a the medical maining within the realms of the the dirtiest partsmore of Kalyani Municipality bers may wentordoor door, appealof testing increasing, prominent players tion Once again,Djokovic the localiscommunity maytonot have been law.

Novak famous for in Nadia district, WestMarin Bengal.

“People ev- true. ing to the residents build have faced sanctions.

Cilic, whowho would pitched indiet, to help.

Indeed, until last to year, within the pure who undertaking ahas gluten-free and for sitting People ever er came hold their toiletsofinthe every home. later winhere theon USwork, Open,would was banned fornoses; nine letter doping law, if not under far broadinside a “CVAC Pod” — an egg-shaped chamber came here on work, he aclub has come a long it made (which us feelwas so ashamed,” Suresh They were metshe with mixed re- to take months reduced to recalls four) for test- er ethical norms, had all rights thehold that helps saturate player’s blood with way oxwould their stiff resistance it Bansfor, a resident. sponse.

A few often families hadto aling positive for nikethamide, while the Ser- drug.

Athletes tend do everything ygen.

It might be from unfairthe to question Djokovic noses; it made us feel encountered in thethere early is days.

Its Home to Troicki largely was Dalits from and Uttar ready built toilets but others, to improve bian Viktor given anBihar 18-month ban within their powers to compete, for using these measures when nothso ashamed corethem. committee — comprising Pradesh, besides a few other familiesmissing from Odlike that of daily-wage sweeper (reduced to 12 months) for simply a their physical and mental conditions. But Sha- ing illegal about But that Sharapova was Nayak, and a few isha, test. the 9.26-acre Harijan Pally was overrun Suraj Bansfore, refusedistoalmost heed. blasé; every using a drug Pulin drug But neither of these players is quite rapova’s explanation for more thanSuresh 10 years before it others cultural occasions bythe open defecation.

Few houses here had toi- time Finally, Surajathlete learned thea drugs hard test, the rea- was finally found in league of Sharapova.

And what’s more, a major fails to—beused performance enhancsuchabout as Holi and Diwali to sport stage lets, so the residents — dailytheirs, wage-earners, as sons way are — the after his either five-year-old in Sharapova’s case, unlike the infracsame: an ignorance of hav- ing tells us much the regime that plays thatunder, urged an people to build toilets also appears central to and government daughter Kanti repeatedly with operates tion be state far more egregious.Class III ing consumed thewas substance or andown ignorance administration thatand is, put an end to open Their messages and IV employees — used of diarrhoea TheClass drug in questionamong here, them Meldonium, the law. and gastroenteritis. “I saw Suraj’s time and again, leftdefecation. in the slipstream by those linkedto toilets to health.

Flies that sat on faeces the grounds around thein slum instead. wife outside their home the onequestions morning. trying which is manufactured Latvia, and is unapIn crying some quarters, therefore, find an advantage. in the outdoors could easily contaminate In 2006, when the localFood municipal bodyAdan- remain Her daughter was unconscious proved by the American and Drug the same, and the answersafter eitherhaving black parthasarathy a Chennai-based lawyer food, and infect people.isChildren and the elnounced a community-led total sanitation loose motions all night. The child needed to be suhrith ministration, was added to the list of banned or white.

Is Sharapova’s blunder an innocent writer t@suhrith derly were particularly vulnerable; and the (CLTS) programme to endAnti open-defecation in one, hospitalised, mother didsuperstars not have and substances by the World Doping Agency or has she,but likethe so many other

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Community in cahoots

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early half of India — 595 million people — defecate in the open, according to Unicef. The country accounts for 59 per cent of the world’s population that does not use toilets. Little wonder then that the country loses 1.88 lakh of its under-five children to diarrhoea every year.

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LTS (community-led total sanitation) relies on “the community taking the initiative to improve its sanitation level, rather than a subsidy-driven, top-down approach”, explains Dr Kamal Kar, who came up with the approach in 1999 while leading an evaluation mission for WaterAid in Bangladesh. It is enough to make people see where the problem lies, and what open defecation can cause in terms of sickness and disease, he says. However, he rues that this approach has been largely ignored, even at a time when the current government has “put the greatest emphasis ever on ending open defecation in India”.

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he success of the CLTS approach depends on identifying natural leaders in the community; this must be followed up by the use of the right kind of trainers to help the programme progress to the next phase.

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hildren can prove to be the best agents for change, and are hence an important part of the programme. Once the entire community realises that they are actually “eating each other’s shit” owing to the practice of open defecation, a collective decision immediately follows to end the practice and build toilets. CLTS has wrought wonders in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Bolivia, Yemen, Tanzania, Uganda, Pakistan, Indonesia, besides India.

Closed issue The toilet at Amit Bansfor’s home that was built with financial aid from Kalyani Municipality

diarrhoea and other enteric diseases that stunt growth,” says Dr Bakshi.

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urrently, a lease deed is being negotiated for Harijan Pally that will ensure the residents never face eviction in the future.

A roof guaranteed over their heads, the residents appear even more willing to invest in a toilet. Until 2006, the family of railway clerk Bulbul Prasad had no qualms defecating outside. After using an asbestos-lined single-pit toilet for a few years, they are now enthusiastically building a vastly improved bath-and-toilet complex in their compound.

Kishore Bansfor’s house, on the other hand, already had a toilet before the family was shifted to another plot during the slum’s realignment. He has now chosen to build a twin-pit toilet along with a massive tank. His cousin Amit Bansfor, too, had to abandon his old home but has now gained a ₹13,000 government toilet after paying just ₹1,000.

Dr Bakshi lays much of the credit for HariHealthy interest Youngsters were roped in to spread the message linking toilets to disease-free living jan Pally’s success story at the door of the Young Star Club and its indefatigable young heroes. Refusing to rest on their laurels, the money spent on medicine and/or hospitalisa- who insisted on using the outdoors as they club has busied itself in making the surroundtion far exceeded the cost of a toilet. Ultimate- had done for many years. ings free of garbage and filth. Its next camly, “the economics of health was what drove in The club took to shaming them. Little chil- paign will get people to stop throwing plastic the point,” Dr Bakshi says. dren were given whistles to raise the alarm and other waste in the open.

The slum was made of homes built haphaz- when they saw someone using Such enthusiasm proved conardly on land belonging to Kalyani University. the open grounds to answer natagious. More communities As a first step, a meeting was arranged and the ture’s call. stepped up to the challenge of land was formally handed over to Kalyani MuSeptuagenarian Shambhu cleaning the environment. In Septuagenarian nicipality. In consultation with the residents, Das hurled his lota in frustrafact, in Vidyasagar colony — one Shambhu Das hurled the municipality and the CLTS Foundation re- tion at one such group of vigihis lota in frustration of the first slums under Kalyani constructed the houses in neat rows; next they lant children and community Municipality to become open at a group of vigilant laid out sewer lines and drains. Houses that members. defecation-free — the residents children could not be realigned were demolished and recently cleared a filthy, clogged ther slums began to take the families shifted to an alternative plot. Evdrain that had unfailingly overnotice of the CLTS model’s ery family opted to build a toilet, and most of flowed during every monsoon in them chose the basic model. The municipality success in Harijan Pally, and the the past 12 years. Clearly, enlightdistributed free plastic pans to set up single- efforts of the Young Star Club in using plays ened communities can readily empower and other media to drive home the message of themselves for a better future. pit toilets.

Of course, merely building toilets was not an open defecation-free environment. “They used an actual pan to explain the working of a rina mukherji is a Kolkata-based journalist guaranteed to end open defecation.

Old habits die hard, so there were many pit latrine, and how using toilets can curb specialising on environmental issues

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The Museum NASA and theofpower of healing and closure pipe dreams

Travel log Getting there

Fly Lufthansa to Frankfurt and connect to Zagreb.

Stay

Best Western Hotel Astoria has comfortable doubles in a central location. www.hotelastoria.com

Tip In Zagreb, a one-of-a-kind museum acts as a repository of The colourful Market is a The Indian media, its all-consuming rush present breaking news, failed to seeDolac through great place to get a peek into relationships past, in helping people move on to while preserving Croatian life and mingle with the lies of alife misguided, bits of the they oncepossibly had delusional teenager the locals. Fridays and

Saturdays are busy; any other day of the week is good to from the Bengali news channel ABP Ananda, wander around the stalls one of the first channels to “break” the Satatasting the smoked cheeses parna Mukherjee story, cabbage. on the condition of and pickled anonymity.

Sataparna’s story was also given a political twist by a number of news channels in Bengal because of hercatches father’smy credentials. headcandy colours eye: it wasThe donated master Kamduni Primary school, Pradip by a girl of who had a long-distance relationship Mukherjee was one of the most prominent between Zagreb and Sarajevo and resolved to voices brutal gangrape tear offagainst one legthe of the toy every time and they murmet. der ofwould a 21-year-old Kamduni 2013.

They start a in life togethervillage when in the caHe had attracted lot ofthat flaknever fromhappened the West terpillar lost all itsalegs: Bengal for joining protest rally as they government split before that.

There isaan old Nokia at the village.

“I would travel from cell phone with a message fromone an departanonyment donor of the that statereads: government another to mous “It lastedto300 days too get herHesome to go to London, butsonoI long. gavegrants me his mobile phone one helped,” he anymore.” says. When his daughter’s couldn’t call him claims were disproved, some local channels tried to project it as a conspiracy against the Trinamool government. “How the media has nailed this case is potentially dangerous. If inMending walls There is a graffiti wall where you can write a message to the deed Sataparna is an attention-seeking teenmuseum or something that you want to express and let go kalpana sunder ager, isn’t it our fault that we have given her that much attention without checking facts? ach one of us has been broken- of emotions and relationships Instead of taking that responsibility, we are hearted at one time or another. — romantic, parent-child bond, trying to spin a new tale,” says Dasgupta.

The museum teaches us to deal divorces, separation from loved Ayoti Patra, a PhD research scholar at the with loss and closure,” says my ones, and many more — and tries University of Maryland, USA, was one of the guide, urging me not to miss this popular at- to find universal patterns in loss. first people to call Sataparna’s bluff through a shutterstock traction in Zagreb, Croatia. The museum itself An arched entrance leads into Facebook post. She feels that any “diligent is a by-product of a breakup. When co-foun- the gallery, which is an intimate space journalist should have noticed the inconsisataparna Mukherjee, 17, beams with ders Dražen Grubisic and Olinka Vistica (a with has no facilitieslighting. in London and all of our in- tencies subdued Narrow passageways I think the success of this quirky muin that Sataparna’s theories”. self-satisfaction. don’t want of this to are filmmaker) ended their “Irelationship four ternships are awarded live seum lined with exhibits —toa students toy car, a who hat, love owes to the fact thatthe every perThisprobably is not the first time that Indian be anhad end.toI want to go more high (sic). notes, years, they divide their sentimental withina50 miles ofred ourgown, location NewstiletYork son beautiful andin black on has earthfallen is intrigued the reporting. twin themes media prey to by poor In A NASA scientist and aThey celebrated writ- tos. memorabilia between them. didn't want City.The Thecards application deadline for our stu- of mention the length of 2016 the relaloveRamar and loss.

Wefrom all need toNadu let goclaimed of past re1996, Pillai Tamil to er,”just saysget therid ISC from Kamduni village tionship, to ofstudent it, so they created a museum. dents closed 1. We have not madenote any lationships city March and country, as also a short results in liberating ourtransbothave foundasa itmagic bush that could (about 30 kmfriends from to Kolkata) an interview They invited donateinsome artefacts about selections yet,” Cabbage Huffington the object and its told association withPost the tled ThereThis is awas graffiti wall by where muteemotions. water to petrol. reported one given toown Kolkata’s news channel on Ja- relationship. of their failedleading relationships, and created India over anIemail. become absorbed by the candid you write a message thelater museum or Tamilcan Nadu newspaper andtowas followed nuary 29. The project YouTube linklost to the an interactive about loveinterview that had stories However, thisby fact-checking done by shared people thatwas touched onthe is- something that to express anddailies. let go. up by almost allyou thewant leading national has potential a volley oftocomments.

“I want to go ‘more sues the connect with varied audiencwebsite almost the leading and IEventually, likeafter early death,allteenage lovedailies lost, AIDS see a 20-year-old woman’s scrawl: haveusing nevit turned out that he “Iwas high’?? willglobe. be the most ‘happiest’ person? and es acrossI the mediapeople houseswho of the nevercountry came er beenof inhand a serious relationship sleight to substitute kerOxford??

Please give me a break!”

It’s a rainy, grey day when I walksays intoone. the “Is ti- home. had Icelebrated Sataparna’s am not surprised that in yet.

I hope when it ishe over I can osene for the liquid claimed thismuseum. a news channel or faking news channels?” ny Ironically, it is located just across 2011 “achievement” glowing the placethrough was voted Eudonate the museum.” to have to derived from the bush. asks another. from Zagreb’s City Hall, where local couples rope’s articles that‘most talked about the 17- Sataparna innovative “If you wish to get rid of a gift Sataparna, who eventually The exhibits are Mukherjee thisThe month, her face was probably all museum’. getEarlier married. museum displays some 100 year-old’s passion for writing, from an ex, you can send it — with made a plea to be spared organised in aisles eventually made a over your timeline. teenage ‘relics’ outFacebook of the about 1,000The that are instuits and theexhibits long listare of her extra-curThe organised in your storya—Facebook to the museum and through post, said thattorepresent plea be spared dent ofItabegan school a north Kolkata ‘bank’. as in a travelling exhibit, suburb collect- aisles ricularthat activities.

“It’s like every represent different they will display it without reshe “might be suffering from dedifferent emotions through a claimed to havein been internship by emotions. ing mementos the offered form ofan letters, clothes, Bengali’s dream come true. and NAThe Aisle of Rage vealing your identity,” says the lusion and the incessant phone Facebook post NASA’s Goddard Space Centre footwear, keys, and so onFlight before, finally,(GSFC) mak- Fury, SA, Oxford, topping all exams, for example, holds objectsI girl the counter. callsat from media houses are andits a full scholarship from the University of like ing home in Zagreb in 2010. am the surprised how people garden gnome sculpOn sale inher the preparation gift shop arefor Thampering London.

“I unique was feted

by All India Students’ As- ture What is about the museum is that lapped allwas thisthrown up without that by aneven anshirts young Croatian designboard by exams”. sociation inthe August when I got a confirmation even today, heartbroken can donate their gry questioning NASA, an agenwife ontohow the windshield of her husband’s ers. The biggest-selling item, receptionist Abha Soni, a the consultant psyfromand NASA. After which I was interviewed by new stuff find closure. cy ofcar theonUSthe federal to- says, day ofgovernment, their divorce.can Theget Resois a white eraser with words “bad mechiatrist from Nagpur whothe works extensively theEach localdisplay daily Ganashakti,” she said.

Eventualis accompanied by the dates nance getherofwith to that offerholds a 17-year-old GriefOxford is a room a single ob-a mories eraser”. reckons that it’s high time we with teenagers, ly, Michael Cabbage, Chiefand for notes Com- ject and locations of the Associate relationships, special Piyasree of letMaterial thatinternship,” belonged tosays a young girlDasgupta who ended objects giveismeaning to he ourorlives her be. “If a person delusional, she munications, Goddard for her of explanationNASA written by theirInstitute anonymous Huffington Post, who wrote to theAchief of and life on the night of her break-up. suicide create a narrative them.

Their valwill go to any extent toaround prove his or her theory.

Space Studies, thattourist they neither donors.

I talk clarified to a British at the have mu- note communications to corroborate the facts. from a mother to her son brings me to ue is not always monetary: be valuThey won’t accept anythingobjects to the can contrary.

In any record of says, a student by athat name norand do tears. seum and he “Seems bizarre idea Indeed, the myth of Sataparna One section called the Rites ofMukherjee Passage is able because of emotional association fact they will fabricate other lies to makeor it they have a facility London. no re-I mostly voyeuristic to me, inbut since “We it’s have working, is, moreabout than anything a creation of the weddings.else, There are photo al- depending on who gave them us.do is to let sound plausible.

The least we to can cord ofit’sany studentstrokes namedfor Sataparna guess different different Mukpeo- bums, Indian wedding media. “When youaare under constant gifts and dress.

I see a vinyl herEmpathy is healing and that is for what themore mube instead of bothering her one herjee being granted ple.”

The museum’s objectivean is “tointernship, overcome record pressure provide breaking news,“Ifyou have oftothe Terry Jacks number you go seum creates a stage for.to The exhibits are everquote,” says Soni.

Amen that. scholarshipcollapse or any form of academic or finanemotional through donating some away,” to overlook fact-checking at times.

Moreover, donated by a girl who listened to it ev- changing, dynamic, just like relationships are. cial assistance from you ourofinstitute.

Further- ery article that reminds the sad incident Sataparna’s father, Mukherjee, is a re- debapriya nandi is a freelance journalist based day through thePradip four months of an intense in Kolkata sunder is a Chennai-based travel writer more, the Goddard Institute forwhole Spacepanoply Studies relationship. and letting go.” It explores the nowned social activist,” says toy a representative A quirky stuffed caterpillar in kalpana

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The secret diary of V Mallya, aged 60 1

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Pages out of the liquor baron’s private memoirs as he settles amidst the Red Coats

dipankar

March 13, 2016 Depressed. I am living in poverty in the UK. All I have is 36 acres. Feeling cramped and claustrophobic, plus, how will I manage with just 43 Mercedes? None of them matches my pink shirt.

A secretary from the finance ministry called to inform me that they are misplacing the relevant files as quickly as possible. I told them to work faster. You have to give them credit, though. It’s been 40 years since my friend Bill invented the PC, but they’re still not using computers. People think I’m smooth, but look at them. They’re an inspiration. It’s because the IAS exam is so competitive.

Sid keeps whining about supermodels. He misses them. What can I do? None of them are taking my calls. Talk about ingratitude. Am shocked. Are they worried about not being paid? I don’t see why. I never paid them before.

March 14, 2016 Problems in the morning again. The ghost of my father keeps tapping on the bathroom window while I’m trying to do the ‘big job’.

This happens every day. Sometimes he manages to get in. He moans and cries and keeps waving a calculator at me. From time to time, he raises his face to the chandelier and howls like a lost soul trapped in the lowest pit of hell. He hovers over the commode, trying to strangle me, frustrated by his lack of flesh. I try to get him with the comfort nozzle, but the water keeps going though him. ‘Son’, he whispers tearfully, ‘give me back my money.’ This is very inconsiderate. His sobbing is interrupting my bowel movement.

The bikinis were delivered. They were the wrong size, so I sent them back. Some of the high-heeled shoes were quite cute, though.

The oil painting of the State Bank chairman came in today. I am placing it in the living room, to remind me of the good times. Such a kind, sweet lady, and not at all hasty. She only declared me a defaulter in November 2015, because the State Bank of India does not like to jump to conclusions. The painter asked me for payment. I told him to come back next week.

Got another prank call. Some jackass at the other end just went mwahahahaha and then disconnected. I suspect Captain Gopinath.

to be upset with me. I offered him some beer, but this made him even angrier. He wants me to get him a role in the next Karan Johar movie. After a while, he became quite abusive. He blamed me for blowing up his inheritance. He said my new beard made me look like a Bond villain. He was hysterical. I worry about him.

He’s been like this ever since Deepika ditched him.

This is not the right time. Perhaps tomorrow morning.

March 15, 2016

March 17, 2016

Woke up this morning to find that my air- The bikinis are all here, finally, so I called Sid plane-shaped pillow is missing. down from his bedroom, where Am shocked. The security in this he was getting a foot massage. house is terrible. I may have to “Try this on,” I say, handing him a start paying them. hot little number in fluorescent My ass will look Called the Tirupati temple. gorgeous, but I worry pink. He looks puzzled, like me Asked them to give back the when I try to do math. I put a about wedgies three kilos of gold which I had hand on his shoulder. It is lisdonated to them in 2012. They some. “We can’t afford supersaid no. Perplexed. Had no idea models anymore, son,” I say. that it was non-refundable.

“This means we have to model for Am debating the merits of a thong. Am in the calendar ourselves. It was part of the contwo minds. My ass will look gorgeous, but I tract. They were very insistent. This should worry about wedgies. teach you a lesson. Making money is never easy.”

March 16, 2016 To my surprise, he is not reluctant. Or mayThe ghost of my father got into my bedroom be I should not be surprised. He was always a last night, still crying bitterly. Between sobs, little swishy. As the sun sets over the green Enhe tried to give me advice. “Buy cheap,” he glish meadows, the gardeners prune the whispered. “Buy ch-e-e-e-a-p.” This is becoming hedges, we try on bikinis, father and son, strikintolerable. Called up Tirupati Temple and ing poses and doing the duck face in the mirasked them if they could send over a priest, at ror. It is a rare moment of togetherness. My least. They said no. It’s as if gratitude is a for- troubles seem far away. Finally, I am at peace. eign concept.

Sid came over from acting school. He spent shovon chowdhury’s latest novel, Murder With the whole evening sitting in front of the fire- Bengali Characteristics, is set in a Calcutta occupied place, whining. All my family members seem by China

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Ticker cruelty and a Rule oftapes law inoftrauma few Nawabi spirits STATES OF MATTER

An account of 14 years spent in the darkest recesses of the Indian penal system, Mohammad Aamir Khan’s book is a searing indictment of what passes for terror investigations

sukumar muralidharan

A pair of recent graphic novellas are a bit light on the storyline, but the formidable artwork more than makes up for this testimonies scripted by the police. Acquittals came in rapid succession, but in 2003, in what seemed a truce offering from a sceptical judiciary, both Khan and Shakeel were held guilty in the Karol Bagh bombing.

On appeal, the Delhi High Court reversed the convictions, observing in Khan’s case that the prosecution had “miserably failed to adduce any evidence to connect the accused-appellant with the charges, much less prove them”. Liberty, though, did not come for long years. Khan survived partly because of the resilience of youth. But the older Shakeel, a push-cart vendor of cloth, and the sole source of livelihood for his family of three, hanged himself by his bedsheet in Delhi’s Tihar jail. He had spent 10 years in an endlessly long and dark tunnel and saw not the faintest glimmer of hope or freedom.

Without the slightest hint of irony, Delhi Police produced the confessions rendered under torture by Khan and Shakeel, as evidence of Spooks ahoy Tunda’s involvement in the Karol Bagh bombGhosts of Kingdom ing. The only evidence was Pastbesides, takes us on a a “disclosure” statement Tunda made to a police ride through graveyards officer. In April 2015, Kolkata’s a sessions court in Delhi and run-down threw the case out. Other charges, including a colonial buildings planned attack on the Republic Day parade in 1994, were similarly dealt with. On March 5, Justice lastoften Mohammad Aamir who was acquitted after spending 14 years jail on trust terrorme?’ charges, t’sat not that you seeKhan, an entire book the argument, ‘But youindon’t It fails. kata is unlikely to have ghosts, ghouls or restthe last of the cases against Tunda was dismissudershan piece of duringhinging an interview, in New Delhi v executed on one smartly Because they respond with ‘It’s not you we less middle-agedspend man gets up from sed. spirits.

He willA nonetheless perhaps the design, but Ayesha Tariq’s graphic novel- don’t trust, it’s the world.’” his andyears contradicts him, an enigrestseat of his in prison as flashing an undertrial in errorism is a form Anger of war,ofpolitics by la Sarah: The Suppressed the ObediMultiple charges were filed against the matic Tariq has an intuitive understanding of colsmilethat before leaving. other cases could be brought, on similarother means. begin ent Pakistani Daughter is Problems just that. And no,when this our long-time and the However, Delhi Po- ly Soon, schemeexile andfrom greatIndia design sense.

Morgan finds himself old shoddy grounds, in drawn other to an police the political imagination is not a criticism.

On the front cover,becomes we see a I’d licereally may well outaits inventory of grave, like have to seeemptied her tackle more substanwhich reveals clues to the life and grisly jurisdictions. its flask, captive and begins to blurthat thethe op- tial corked glass chock-full of words cases — nuanced both solved unsolved — in the death and storyand for her next project.

Siraj-ud-Daulah the last inThe of narration that Khan(1733-57), has rendered since erational lines between prevention, pre-emp- process. titular character Sarah (an almost-18-year-old Butrecent that may havenovella been the part. dependent Another graphic ofeasy a similar of Bengal, whointo wasthe overhis release inNawab 2012, offers a window pation, and girl) evenwants provocation.

Pakistani to say but cannot. During length Among twenty-odd terror bombings (85 the pages) sees a gifted comics artist thrown after Battleinvestigations of Plassey and, thology of the the terrorism that stifled civilitylife disappears theDialogue course ofisthe book,and as Sarah’s is depict- writing Tunda was accusedstory of, one stood simply an original for the firstout time: this ultimately, executed on rule the orders the East have laid waste to the of law.ofFrom the when the political turns to terrored through a ticker discourse tape of little cruelties, we is because casePast offered points of refer- India Ghoststhe of police Kingdom

by Harsho Mohan Company.byChattoraj is at his best when first approach a shadowy intelligence offiism,the a circumstance of great convenience to Chattoraj. see bottle struggling to contain its terrible ence with Aamir AmongKhan, otherarrested titles, Chattoraj has he’s drawingcer, scenes quick, brutal action: onlyof known as ‘Guptaji’, the intelligence and security agencies, which drawn word-genie. in 1998The and accused of no fewer Hyderabad Graphic Novel (written by horseback chases, attacks, people whensurprise he was returning fromgetthe seek a takes relaxation of accountability Tariq the metaphor about ‘the norms. weight Jai than 19 terror before Undurti) as bombings, well as the laughting impaled swords.

Pakistan Highon Commission after That intent to words’ operatequite with absolute freedom of unspoken literally and har- a-minute his full acquittal and parody release Bollywood He is also intotop form when securing a visa visit a sister in Dialogue is stifled from scrutiny has in for her some time enjoyed nesses its power illustrations.

It’sthe a Widhwa from prison 2012. Behen (writMaainAndhi drawing Kolkata: matrix beof Karachi, Khan was the seemingly when the political eager endorsement of this political that tenCharges smart tactic for a book shortelements (80 pages). against Tunda and

by Adhiraj Singh).

There is seedy ing set lanes, up as acul-de-sacs, patsy for thehandcyniThere is perhaps no discourse turns to flourish fear andher ethnic stereotyping.

Sarah on lives with stentorian, ex-military perhaps Khan converged a bomb blast no otherincrosshatch-er carts, street vendors and puchkacal pursuit of rewards by the moreterrorism diligent crossRationality andorthodox, the sifting‘chronic of fact from fan- more dad (Abu), her worrier’ at a popular eatery in Delhi’s Kadiligent in India; nobody sellers is beautifully sketched.

As Delhi Police.

He agreed to an outhatcher in India than tasy are a clear for the poli- who mom (Ami) andand herpresent callous,danger smug elder brothrol Bagh area facial in October 1997, a captures mini-expresis the character of Alambhai, landish proposal from Guptaji to Harsho Mohan tics(Bhayya). of fear. And hasdown proven case yet er Abu this shoots herthe dreams of sions crimebetter for which outfit called thananChattoraj: his who helpsof Morgan decode a use some his time in Karachi Chattoraj again with Abdul Karim ‘Tunda’ of distinctive, driving her 73-year-old own car with a curt “You’re not old the Shaheed intense, Khalsa claimed rerigorous piece of Urduintelligence, calligraphy. but his in gathering the henna-tinted beard and fearsome reputaenough”.

Ami forbids her from wearing jeans style sponsibility, though Police lends itself wellDelhi to both carAt the end of the book, there’s nerve expectedly failed him at evtion.going Tunda, name reflects a her disability and outwhose after evening (even as Bhay- icature arrested three the same day. The ery critical moment. and Kashmiris more serious, a section called ‘Howback to Create a He came emptysupposedly suffered a bomb-making acci- straight-up ya has the freedom to in come and go as he pleasthree initialportraits. suspects, like several others, soon handed andComic’, where Guptaji’s Chattoraj explains then began horrible dent,And wasSarah, arrested in August amidst es). naturally, has2013, to help witha disappeared down the memory hole. Into/takeFebru- his Ghosts of Kingdom Past is a homage working methods: script, layout, reference vendetta. blaze of celebratory reporting cooking in the media household chores, including and down ary 1998, the police introduced an entirely of the gloriously bad, Orientalising Brit- photographs, artworktolettering.

That Khan survived tell his taleFor is areaders tribute and vivid reconstructions of his three-decadecleaning dishes for the big family dinners ish newand castHollywood of characters, Khan filmsbringing of the ’80s and from ’90s: unfamiliar withand thesolidarity mechanics of this by medito the support rendered his long career in parents. the cause of the Islamic jihad. hosted by her Delhi andthe Mohammad fromlike Ghaziayou know kind, they Shakeel have names Oper- um, this is aavery helpful who primer indeed. be family and few lawyers took on theTohazIt was an attractive that for matched existThe most hilarious story sequence me was the ation bad toCobra trial,(actual with the spectral figure of Tunda sure, 1997 film starring kickboxsome published way to go ard ofChattoraj’s defendingwriting him. Hishas recently ing templates andthat gained greater traction af- er two-page spread explained “Ami and lurking in the background.

Don Wilson), typically with the stock Indian before catches up years with spent his artwork.

And as accountitof fourteen in the darkest ter it Rule was ofembroidered with some details Abu’s Odds: Rules of travelling with a character Khan and Shakeel were or both arrested early with called Kohinoor Shalimar (Deepti Sarah, a more substantial and(Framed nuanced recesses of the Indian penal system as about prior to to terrorism.

Hisa capboy in aTunda’s car, alsolife applicable being with boy Bhatnagar’s in 1998 but met for thein first time while under character Operation Cobra).

In storyline would be great the2016) next time a Terrorist, Speaking Tiger Books, is essenture on India’s with Nepal — a favoured in a room”.

Theborder illustration depicted that the Ghosts custodyof… in we Sonepat jail. They wereand charged have Most Learned Virile around.

Butfor thisalliswho a minor tial reading seekcarp. to retrieve the poslocale forofstaging events in the must fight be against number girls in the gathering grea- British with collaborating a number bomb sibility paranormal on expert Sir Alec of Morgan, Ghosts Pastfrom is, onthe balance, short ofofa Kingdom democracy abyss ita could terror —(but was not described asthe a “carefully crafted ter than equal to) number of boys. who blastshas in conducted Delhi and successful its environs, but as the and investigations read; perfect, I’d imagine, for a longsoonsweet plunge into. operation” involving India’s external intelli- in “If I travel with a co-group, there must always hearings began, the prosecution to ish ride on the Metro.

Japan and Egypt, and now has hisfailed eyes set gence and counterparts in girls Saudiso Arabe an agency odd number of boys and it on make much progress, with its unseemly de- sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer Kolkata. and researcher based in Gurgaon and Shimla mani jha bia and look the United Emirates. doesn’t like I’mArab ‘with’ anybody. Ever tried pendence on function, forced confessions andthat witness At a public Morgan says Kol- aditya

I T Ghosts of Kingdoms Past Harsho Mohan Chattoraj Penguin India Fiction ₹150

Sarah: The Suppressed Anger of the Pakistani Obedient Daughter Ayesha Tariq Penguin India Fiction ₹299

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LIGHTHOUSE

It’s cascading Trump, it’s cascading Modi!

The seemingly inexplicable rise of Donald Trump and a proliferation of pro-Hindutva sentiments in India may have a common theoretical ground: preference falsification share, compounded by the opposition consolidating against it (as in Bihar). So a desperate party would double down on Hindutva to mobilise its core Hindutva vote.

But what if this is all wrong?

What if the rise of Modi consists of sudden preference cascades following decades of preference falsification? In Gujarat, for example, what if the majority Hindus bear an unspoken antipathy towards the minority community?

They may not express it openly because it’s awkward to do so. Then the 2002 riots happen, and Muslims are ‘put in their place’. Modi, then chief minister, never openly takes credit for it, but he doesn’t deny his culpability either, and you can read between the lines.

Tribal loyalties Maybe the exact same impulse explains both Trump and Modi: the instinctive attraction for a Boom, Modi wins the next elections in a landstrong leader who will lead our tribe well and shit on all others k bhagya prakash/ reuters slide — and every state election after that.

Similarly, what if many Indians silently e live in strange times. A few Everyone at the table may have hated the food share notions of cultural or religious superiordays ago, my friend and fel- — but everyone may think that everyone else ity that are not polite or politically correct to low libertarian, the writer loved it. express publicly? (I am attempting dispasShikha Sood Dalmia, posted Preference falsification can have grave con- sionate political analysis here, and this is not on Facebook: “Am I going mad or is the world? sequences. Kuran cites the Soviet Union as an meant to be judgemental.)

In America, I’m rooting for a Democrat and in example. The Soviets used the strong arm of The rise of Modi at a national level could India I’m defending a bloody communist!” the state to clamp down on free speech. Even if have led to a preference cascade, and though I was doing the same. In the US, the bigoted, 99 per cent of the people hated communism these voters might have come up with many nativist, protectionist Donald Trump was and wanted the government to fall, it would policy reasons for voting for him — “He will dominating the Republican primaries, un- not do so because of preference falsification. make GST happen”, and so on — those may leashing invective of the sort that usually only Until suddenly, one day, the public expression have been rationalisations more than reasons. anonymous online trolls dare to express. In In- of that preference reached a crit(Note: I am not implying that all dia, Narendra Modi’s government carried out ical mass, and a phenomenon BJP supporters are like this.) But a venal persecution of a few university stu- that Kuran called a ‘preference why now? What suddenly endents, based on doctored videos and a fake cascade’ took place. From the abled this preference cascade? I What suddenly tweet. They arrested one of them for sedition, outside, it might seem that a rehave an answer: social media. enabled this who was then beaten up by lawyers in the gime toppled suddenly, over- preference cascade? I Social media exploded in India courthouse as the police looked on passively. night, without warning — as we over the last six years, just as Mohave an answer: My support, instinctively, went to the Demo- saw across the former Soviet di’s national ascent began. Social social media crats in the US; and to the beleaguered com- Bloc. But while the preference media lets you express your prefmunist students in India. cascade may have been sudden, erences far more freely than in reWhat is going on here? How can a man like the preferences themselves were al life, because you’re either Trump be on the verge of leading the party of not new. anonymous or at a physical reAbraham Lincoln? Why is Indian politics slipReynolds invokes Kuran in the American move from whomever you’re talking to. So ping back into crude tribalism just when India context, and speculates that Trump’s surge more true preferences get expressed — and should finally be marching towards modern- could be the result of a preference cascade. more and more people see more and more ity? Could there be one answer to both these Maybe Trump is articulating views that others opinions validating their own preferences. questions? would never do themselves in public. (“I hate Cascade! If this is true, then in both the US and A few days ago, the American columnist foreigners.” “Mexicans are rapists.” “All Mus- India, beneath the veneer of sophisticated poGlenn Reynolds wrote a piece titled ‘A Trump lims should be deported.” Whatever.) Once litical discourse, there lies a primal core that wave is on the way’. To explain the Trump phe- they see a prominent man like him say these cares about more basic things, like race and nomenon, Reynolds cited a book by sociolo- things, and others rush out in support, they identity. In fact, maybe the exact same impulse gist Timur Kuran, Private Truths, Public Lies: The are emboldened to vote for him. explains both Trump and Modi: the instinctive Social Consequences of Preference Falsification.

Now, shift your attention to India. My view attraction for a strong leader who will lead our Say you are at a dinner party at your boss’s of the last elections until recently was basical- tribe well and shit on all others. place. The food is terrible: the dal makhani has ly this: the BJP got its highest vote share ever But these are just theories, and they could no salt, the butter chicken has too much toma- because not only did it mobilise its traditional be wrong, or merely partly right. And there to purée. Your boss asks how you like the food. base — the Hindutva voters — it also attracted could be other silent preferences out there You murmur your appreciation, as you’ve seen other voters who were sick of the UPA’s cor- waiting for their cascade. What could those others on the table do. You are hiding your ac- ruption, who wanted economic reforms and be? Who will make it happen? tual preference in order to fit in or avoid social so on. And now that the BJP was bound to dist@amitvarma awkwardness. This is ‘preference falsification’. appoint some of them, it would lose vote

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

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The original champions of secularism An interdisciplinary analysis of an evergreen Bollywood classic by three scholars specialising in religion, anthropology and international studies, respectively be Amar, scion of an implicitly Hindu-dominated state, or Akbar, the romantic Muslim as model minority, or Anthony, the good-hearted Christian hooch peddler? Could it not be the quintessential long-suffering mother, played

by Nirupa Roy, who as ‘Bharati’ remains blind Extra-vulnerable through the better part of the It is the Thefilm? scaly pangolins restoration of her sight through divine interare easy to hunt, a slowcharacvention that gives the three have leading rate ters a sense of purpose withreproduction respect to their and do not breed individual identities, within the copious boseasily in captivity om of a Mother India (the name of chakrabarty the mother ashoke directly invokes the name of the country). Only by reuniting with their mother do the boys embrace brotherhood. With such an imaginative leap, the narrative creates a mesmerising impact on its viewers.

It is a sheer enigma that the feel-good ideology of pluralism has outlived four decades of populist viewing.

Described as the ultimate formula film, it can be easily read as a multivalent allegory encompassing many tragic elements of human mall, nocturnal and a harmless mam- day of February has been designated as Pango- rest existence.

Packedfrom within its states, comic coordinatovertones of 75 people eight mal covered in scales… precious little lin Day to raise awareness about this ed are tragic ranging from the perby interludes, the Madhya Pradesh Forest is known about the pangolin; even endangered animal. ceived backwardness theForce, masses to athe irreDepartment’s Special of Task was major rough estimates of the animal’s numAll four pangolin species in Asia — the Chi- success sponsiveness a political class. wildlife However, it for theof country’s besieged probers in India are unavailable. What is clear is nese, Sunda, Indian and Philippine — have tection must beforce. to the credit of the film-maker that that huge numbers are being poached and been declared endangered or critically endan- despite story’s in slumand neighbourSomethe states likedealing Maharashtra Madhya sold across the border in far-eastern countries. gered. The four African species — Cape, White- Pradesh hoods, lost the haveyouth, been and moredeprived effectivepeople, in curbing In fact, in 2015 the pangolin was the most bellied, Giant Ground and Black-bellied — are organised audience lapped up aswhile an escape illegal it trade, othersfrom suchthe as One for the ages Amar Akbar Anthony has cemented among Bollywood classics poached and trafficked animal in India — Traf- its place deemed vulnerable.

What adds to the worry is Karnataka drudgery of reality.

It is through such angreaunand Uttarakhand have shown fic, an international body which detects wild- the fact that these animals are easy to hunt, ter written agreement with the viewers enthusiasm in enforcing the law.that “WeDesai have life crime, documented the seizure of more have a slow reproduction rate and do not to could salvage dream of creating a cineensure that the wildlife protection is not just years it had the breed than 4,300 early kg of 40 scales in after the past fivehit years. peal has cemented its place among Bollywood for easily in captivity. matic ofWildlife secularism. bigillusion animals. crimes pose a threat authorspangolin have reconNot just inscreens, India, three the humble is classics.

In northeast India, there are signs that mili- to Without the directly book Amar Anthonationaldoubt, security, andAkbar indirectly, of Manmohan threatened structed globally the too ‘illogic’ — anywhere between tant Desai hadhave a method and trade justi- and groups turnedintohis theillogic lucrative ny isshould an interdisciplinary gift bysays three fans to be treated as such,” Talukdar. blockbuster film Ak- in 100,000 andDesai’s one million animals are Amar believed fied his oblique delivering wildlife parts.method “As the of pangolins arepositive found theTraditionally, innumerable fansgroups of an all-time classic.the In tribal have hunted bar Anthony frame frame.based For William poached in the lastby 15 years, merely Elion outside messages, arguingareas, that in nothing thanteaa pangolin protected reserveless forests, analysingfor thefood. enduring appeal of a sheer enson,number Christian Lee seized Novetzke, and Andy estates the of scales worldwide. palatable, would have deliv- tertainer, andsugar-coated farmland, itpill is tougher to protect Elison, Novetzke and Rotman haveI “I visited a tea estate in Darjeeling where Rotman, the production is more than a fantaAccording to the International Union for them. ered theAlso, message about culturalmachinery and commuthe government is came pooledacross their pangolin individualburrows. scholarships in the Tea garden sy film in the masala genre (IUCN), as it affirms the Conservation of Nature thereaismorvir- mostly nal harmony. three focussedThe on film’s big animals fields offill religion, anthropology workers the burrows with waal universe in which good triumphs over tually no population record for any of evil, the (like eponymous the tiger brothers and rhino),”assert says andand international studies, and ter trap the pangolin when it villainy is vanquished, patriotism is en- Biplab eight known pangolin species.

Their secretive, their respective at nuTalukdar identities from Aaranyak, come upout. withEating a brilliant, multiemerges of pangolins shrined, and and the laws of family estab- an solitary nocturnal habits duty haveare ensured merous points, butorganisation. find unity in environmental layered reading the Biswajit film. Like is common here,”ofsays R Thehas film’s three There been a 500 lished.

What comes out the is least a layered that the pangolins are among observ- their in the end, one Thediversity very networks thataswere the oft-told fable of the blind Choudhury, Secretary, Nature Eneponymous brothers per cent increase in interpretation the film’s deeper symbol- poaching ed or researchedofspecies. brother quips, ‘we leopard are threeand in assert the tiger, men and the elephant, have vironment and Wildlifethey Society. their the price of identities pangolin ism, relevantare to these times being when hunted secularism Pangolins reportedly be- rhino one’. Could be possible in realhave it now put the pangoapplied selective to conNiraj points outblinkers that while the atscales numerous in thepoints, last is not only bad word also threat of lin cause theira scales are but used in under Chinese mediity?inEven the“There film pretheirthough crosshair. has struct theofelephant.

The pangolins byauthors tribals but findtounity their hunting three fourin years misinterpretation. cine, much like the demand for tiger bones been sents athe possibility a ‘reality’, 500 per centof increase in caution the reader the was a traditional waytooffinish life, what diversity in the end It rhino may have been and horns hada crazy drivenlost-and-found those animalsento the it offers and scales competpricediffering of pangolin in book with the the feeling that surthe is endangering animal’s tertainer, but its Smuggling leading characters Amar, the near-extinction. routes —thread ing last perspectives.

It emphasises three to four years,” says elephant also a tree.

If you vival is theispoaching for trade.

Akbar, and Anthony Hindu, Muslim, and Niraj. through India, Nepal,are Myanmar and Bhutan, the presence of multiple Poaching networks realcut think that’sthe impossible, well, Moreover, odds are stacked Christian,animal as wellparts as policeman, bringing to China. qawwal, and across ities. Given matrix statesthe andcomplex even international borders. is what authorities the film is all—about. against the that enforcing after dada — reflect anxie- of In “In respectively 2015, we have seen the cultural scales getting sub-plots feeding into the story’s melodraIndia, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau months The final sequence, the musical spent trackingwith the poachers and numfinalties of the state, theaverage. nation, Aand civil society.

It (WCCB) smaller, 10-15 g on fully-grown panma, thisissubsumes thegathering central theme of the ly tasked with intelligence berarresting conveys the cruxthey of the The ‘Anhoni them, arestory. released on bail has been viewed differently different golin’s scales weigh 50-60g. by This shows peothat related film. While many viewers findcrime the lack ofshare a sin- within to organised wildlife and Ko Honidays.

Kar De’ — to make the impossible posple, though.

While carriespoached, a subtle and political smaller animals areitbeing will it gle cohesive messagestate disappointing, the film with the respective police and forest of- sible is a celebration co-operation and As — Tilottama Verma, of additional director message for filmmaker Shyam Benegal, it has ficials. definitely impact the species,” says Shekhar remains celebration of competing con- WCCB Ina2005, the bureau was able and to break unity in diversity.

It trying reminds the viewer consays, “We are to save silent,to namebeen a akind of ‘illogic’ with a strong emotional Niraj, member of Traffic, a wildlife trade up tradicting perspectives.

After network all, one story is less an interstate wildlife trade and arsidervictims makingwho the impossible possible. is decan never speak forItthemcontent fornetwork. actress Shabana Azmi. It was rest monitoring neverseveral the fullpoachers story. who were supplying a selves; tailing itsuch as thisimpossible that makes book is almost to the track an dumped by critics found it loaded with group The IUCN, which who tracks threatened species In drawing multipleand perspectives of middlemen traders. Infrom 2015,relian- illegally immensely entertaining. killed animal to its source.” The scales implausiblerecently situations and unrealistic characworldwide, bumped up the status of other gion, history, popular culture, networkliterature that was and busted was found to are clearly tilted against the pangolin for now. ters,pangolin and yet ittocontinues be seen as a step film be the ‘critically to endangered’, themade authors search the real hero amongst sudhirendar sharma is an independent writer, of the samefor traders and middlemen, researcher yadav and academic aboutfrom national integration.

Itsthe enduring ap- and away ‘extinct’.

Since 2011, third Sunthe dominant characters of theThe film.recent Couldarit saurabh a newer team of poachers.

Tipping the scales

The little-known and even less researched pangolin is being hunted to near-extinction in India

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Amar Akbar Anthony William Elison, Christian Lee Novetzke and Andy Rotman Harvard Business School Press India Non-fiction ₹995

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No child left behind It’s the cruel season of preschool and nursery admissions in Delhi. No parent is spared, but the ordeal is extra-harsh for those from the economically weaker segments aka EWS “In the beginning there was light.

Then Delhi schools ganged up and made us all pay ‘illumination charges’” — Book of Genesis, Barakhamba edition, 2016

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owards the beginning of every year, parents in Delhi put on their game face and military gear, prepping for nursery admissions, an exchange so woefully lopsided that ‘seller’s market’ does not even begin to describe it. The criteria for admissions could involve class discrimination, blatant money-grabbing, or manic pixie unicorn farts: private schools could choose their own parameters, no matter how outlandish. Over the last decade or so, however, dents have been made in the citadel.

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Playing Titania Shakespeare is one instance, says Dharker, where the Indian tradition of rote learning comes handy. The actor in A Midsummer Night’s Dream topher mcgrillis

A Dharker shade Best foot forward The RTE Act wasplayed drafted with Shakespearean the best of intentions, with the awareness that in India, the playing ground is anything level for most people kr deepak Ayesha Dharker has parts, Hollywood roles and thebutmusical Bollywood Dreams. Naturally, labels evade her

In 2006, the Delhi High Court appointed a committee, chaired by Ashok Ganguly, to sughat makes beingand an nursery actress gest ways of regulating preschool Inallowed Ayesha aDharkadmissions. The enjoyable? schools were rebuter’s view, it’s thesides ability to dip tal, after which, plausibly, both could arstories of was people, rive at a middleinto ground.

This the whethcourt’s er factual or fictional.

“Acting is the best job normal course of action.

Of course, like Dufor a nosy person,” jokes at theto offices ryodhana, the schools ofDharker, Delhi refused cede of Shakespeare in an the inchRoyal of ground and wereCompany promptly(RSC) slapped Stratford-upon-Avon, where she children is playingnor Tiwith a binding order: neither tania in a production A Midsummer Night’s their parents could be of interviewed.

Dream mark the 400thkept death anniversary of And to yet, complaints piling up, about Shakespeare. nextout performance just a massive sumsThe shelled to jump theisqueue, few hours away, Dharkerscreening, comes across as about social andbut economic about relaxed and blatant enthusiastic.

“I love and the schools’ disregard forstories, DoE (Direcpeople their stories torate ofcarry Education) rules. around with them.

I’mFinally, the kind of person who sitsChief on a Minister bus prein January this year, tending to read aannounced book but actually just looks Arvind Kejriwal the scrapping of around…,” she says a gentle smile. most 62 criteria that werewith deemed ‘arbitrary’, Dharker had a career‘management that has givenquoher notably thehas much-reviled access all quota sorts of stories.

She played Emilia ta’. Theto only that remained after the DoE in Othellooffor the RSC last the year,reserved and has25tried circular January 6 was per her everything from soap weaker operas (Bricenthand seatsatfor EWS (economically segtain’s long-running Coronation Street) to Hollyments) and DG (disadvantaged groups) stuwood (Star Wars II:however, Attack the of the Clones), dents. In February, Delhi High musicals (Bollywood and indie cineCourt reinstated 11 ofDreams) the scrapped 62 criteria ma (the comedy Outsourced). quota), ruling (including the management At just she portrayed suicide bomber that the 19 government hadthe acted without auin Santosh Tamil filmofThe Terrorist, loosthority andSivan’s the autonomy private schools ely the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. hadbased been on breached.

A difficult it was formative The courtrole, clarified thata the rules of one landfor alDharker, who recalls it as one that conlocation hadn’t changed: thethe government was vinced pursue professionally. free to her allottoland onlyacting to schools that had no Her acting career management quota.began more than a decade previously as atoschoolgirl in Mumbai. to The Right Education (RTE) Act,Eager which bunk a maths lesson, eight-year-old Dharker took effect on April 1, 2010 (everywhere in Inauditioned the lead part in a French film dia except for Jammu & Kashmir), has proved about a young girl who she’d been rewoefully inadequate inbelieved getting schools to toe incarnated. of theminimum film opened to the line andBeing admitpart a certain numher worlds (she got to gooftoits Paris and see ber new of EWS students.

Many black-andbillboards the filmthose plastered along white rules,of including pertaining to the Champs Élysées), and broughtare herblithely new roles, segregation of EWS students, vioto people at different including Dominique Lapierre’s City stages of Joy, lated. BLinkinspoke of this process: anand educator, a parent andher an for which Om Puri Shabana Azmi took

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activist. Their stories were troubling, to say were never told. My best friend told me years the least. later that she grew up in a one-room house… under their wing (she still refers to them as Ma you it just Both who Sushmita arenever going came to castup.” someone looks and like The a,b,c… of EWS and Baba). The experience taught her how the me, Sreemoyee feel that social screenlet’s extend it towith whoDelhi, I sound like…You Sreelekha, the wisest a little world of film could of besix-year-olds, a nurturingisone.

“A can ing is a way “I have stood in line to obtweak it of uplife. or down but it’s nice to have a disappointed despite the— presence of a flavour light bulb wentthat off in my head I realised that tain EWS certificates for so many families,” of what you sound like.” journalist, newspaperwallah in but her incredhouse, says they are notaonly amazing artistes Sushmita.

“Inat Delhi, poorispeople are haPlaying Titania the RSC “heaven” for there are nobeings cameras in sight.

At firstshe’s she refusible human too.”

It’s a lesson held her, rassed most.

And the notthe least because the authorities innovative change travelles to her school uniform: ideal- ing on tochange till thisout day.ofCritical of reality TV where theirproduction, behaviour sowhich suddenly. apalsoBecause draws of onmy local ly, she would liked beingofclicked in her experts sneer have at the talents aspiring ar- amateur pearance,groups, they could tell that I was not from will take her to Glasgow and school’s colours. sheway does tistes, she stressesAnd it’swhen not the foreventualanyone the an EWS family, so be opportunity tothey visit wouldn’t the placesshout she’dor long ly change, it is into a special that’s to pursue their career.

“The something creative world is heard rude to would make things imofme. fromBut herthey parents.

She points out that equally worthy of the occasion. space, and if Shakespeare not a mean, closed, competitive possible for the others.

Therewhere were people who is one instance the Indian Sreelekha’s mother works domestic you are finding it is, you needastoaget out of school would wait for the to build up and tradition of queues rote learning comes in help for Sushmita Kundu, retired teacher there and find people youacan relate to. It in is handy. then charge writelearning!! out the forms for “This money stuff is to worth Shakesher 60s lives in Kalkaji, neighbourhood there towho shine a light on theaworld; it should peare’s the parents!” obsessed with human beings and layin south Delhi.that Kundu’s daughbe something makes you blossom and ers it on storiesGeru today a quietly confithat isare completely unlikely ter, the open up.”writer and columnist dent girlthat who stands up coto and events are ridiculously Sreemoyee Kundu, isto fiercely Dharker’sPiu willingness try schoolyard bullies.

Her story is incidental — it’s just magical and proud ofroles littlehas‘Geru’ different meant(Sreelekshe’s doubly when comes aliveremarkable when you speak it!”you In Delhi, reason, ha’s petavoided name) and posts about largely being pigeonconsider witnessed We move that on toshe discussing theher fudecency and her frequently media. Ifcompassion holed (though, on likesocial all ethnic mother beingenthusiastic thrashed blackShe’s very to do you are going fly to in the ture.

Both Sushmita and Sreemoyee minority actors, she’s received and-blue father whenfilm she more with by theher independent cast someone who face of top-down keepfair a close the child’s looksclass her shareeye of on cringe-worwas in justIndia three.“There After Sreemoyee scene is just so like rhetoric me, lets progress. thy scripts). “I am extremely took happening, her under her wing, Geru extend it to who I much particularly if Sushmita says: come “When I was sound like lucky.

I feel I have at the came back it from a nearby park you compare to British cinema, seeking school admission right time and stand on thefor one day and which is on itsasked knees.what The naukrani depth of (Hindiand fortalent a female servant) Geru, I ultimately didn’t shoulders of people who use havethe variety and technical Kalkaji playmates had EWS certificate were to get for her, as it meant. Apparently, dealt with thatwe kind ofable thing skill we her boast in India — it just their parents play wastheir a very tough affair. I chose Amity Interna- been instructed all lives.” doesn’tbycompare.”

She isnot sadto that in withtheatrical a servant’s daughter. tional School.

The only way heritage we couldas send Dharker sees her mixed an her ad- the space, there is nothing with the In Delhi,and reason, decency and there was under the EWS provision; the fees resources vantage — her Indian father and Lahore-born creativity of the RSCcompassion to nurture fly in the of top-down class irrevwere toomet high They said:to‘Oh, we talent mother in otherwise.

Glasgow and eloped Mumandface passion, pointing outrhetoric, that talented Tu jaanta hai ocably codified themostly classic line can’t possible, there be artistes bai — say andwhether one thatthat has is left her open to allwill sorts in Indiainare forced to “subsi(You have nowork. idea who meratheir baaptheatre kaun hai? a lottery, it’s a long of opportunities.

“I and don’tcomplicated think we’re process.’ made to dise habit” with other dad is, do you?) of a three-year-old who They were very even to divulge be fitters-in,” shereluctant says of her feeling of not the be- myDharker, mother process. to I’veany been a teacher all my or lifeculture. and so loves stories of adventure, rough and tumble, longing particular country The fine print they couldn’t insult me directly.

But they told has lighter ambitions too, and is eager to have “People get very hung-up on approval, belongcourse, no one is saying thattothe RTE Act itme at office: ‘Why dobut youthey want to go aOfgo ing andthe being accepted, dampen at “kids’ stuff”.

“If I were choose anyself was particularly well That thought out. through this just and to admit her?’themselves thing their ownallambition they stop I’d love to be a pirate. would be The my first — and, to ango extent, valida — critiSreemoyee remembers her own childhood dream. from achieving.”

If I could fromthe thismost to being pirate, wasdie that it forced unaided schools to covin She’s Kolkata studyingher in own Loreto House, keenand to maintain identity — Icism would happy.” where herher mother taught: “We had she a lotemof er the educational costs of disadvantaged including Mumbai accent, which ramwhile still collecting a cess of 2 per students, poor students with But we never knew, we braces in her role as us.

Titania, as in all others.

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History’s brocaded canvas Unbroken Thread: Banarsi Brocade, an exhibition at the National Museum Delhi, chronicles the journey of the fabric from couture to prêt, noting how its curious narrative runs parallel to Indian history extra threads are woven into the base structure to make patterns. While with the pit looms, weavers would make designs on the fabric out of memory, the jacquard introduced punching cards, making the task for weavers relatively simple and reducing the time taken to complete a weave.

Brocading is not a prerogative of the Banarsi, as the exhibition notes; there are other prominent families of brocades such as the Fighting the good fightof Activist Sumitfrom VohraBengal, fine cotton weaving Jamdani the muga silk mekhalas from Assam, the heavy silk saris of Kanchipuram and the woolchild’s education, if need be (“I was ready to len shawls of Kutch.

The sophisticated Balugive Perhaps fittingly, T-shirt charidonation”). is silk-on-silk brocade with his motifs of has a blood-red Godzilla up activities. skyscraparistocrats engaged inchewing leisurely ers: theall grim caption says, “Size does matter.”

While these techniques of brocading have The mammon-worshipping privateand school incorporated Persian, Central Asian Chioligarchs would agree. nese influences, they are distinguished by their characteristics and identities.

Time for imposition In the naqsha tradition of designing Banarsi Educational activist Sumit Vohra is the (a founsaris, each sari is conceived as a naqsha sinder admissionsnursery.com, onegle of image).

It is then drawn ona popular graph paper stop portal for by parents struggling to loom. negotiate and rendered the weaver on the The the slippery entrance gethwa loomtoofkindergarten.

Banarsi saris Asked is the about the lottery system typically of employed most sophisticated the naqby schools after shortlisting candidates, some sha designs, and can be of the stories he shares are the stuff characterised byofitsHollydiagwood heist movies. onal creeper designs.

“The DoE has clearly mentioned in itscan circuMost designs be A helping hand Sushmita Kundu (left) with 6-year-old Sreelekha photo courtesy sreemoyee piu kundu lars that an observer (approved by athe DoE) traced to certain should be present at these lotteries. thisBais period ofBut the Organic exhibition aims toon establish thateduthe Banarsi sari is not the a IIMs (Indian Institute of Mancent on art theThe total tax payable primary including often ignored. One schoolnarsi decided sari. beforeFor inmajumdar during admissions. For instance, if hallowed piece history but to a continuously evolving art payel cation.

This ofamounts double taxation. agement), hand the candidates it wanted andthe putbutidar those stance, Moreover, there is no clarity over how schools you’re looking to get into an IIM, a perfect un- chits in a refrigerator. During lottery, the sari,the with the patanarsi saris khaandani.

I rememare to select the 25 perare cent for the EWS and DG dergrad All of score, this histoa good internship stint, proven person drawing the chits ka frompallu the jar only became ber my otherwise indulgent grandquotas. This, in turn, ensures that parents of leadership ry is brought skills toand so on will get you points. picked the cold ones. Another school used prominent in two the admonishing the first students mother like Geru are harassedme or,for worse, ig- Schools, gether on andthetold other hand, have no way of kinds of white paper: the favoured chits had a 19th century. when I slipped and tore her red- judging nored by time uppity private schools. through children weaves and who’re yet to begin their sandpaper-like texture on one to distinThe side exhibition at and-silver relic of her wedding There is banarsi, also the aargument that the RTEdays dis- education. garments at ongoSothe they judge the parents instead. guish them.” the National Museum from the 50s.

Banarsis are not meantAlltopribe ing criminates against low-cost schools. exhibition “The schools Banarsi set conditions Vohra aims has spent years educatto establish that wornschools by eight-year-olds.

Made only for royalty that vate must fulfil certain infrastructural Brocade: we cannot Unbroken even hope to ing parents aboutsari the is vagaries of the Banarsi not a halduring the Mughal period, was meet,” requirements within threebanarsi years, silk failing Thread,Gaurav at the says.

National Mu-or “If you admission procedures.

Thebut key,a lowed piece of history once a they novelty, at length with the your which facediscussed immediate de-recognition. seumspouse in Delhi.

On child’s since Februor the older The inequality begins he feels, is accountability a continuously evolving art. and There couturier, made from imported from Chi- sibling One of the requirements is a silk playground, ary 24, the exhibition has studiedtraces in the response of system for varied grievare examples when at school A big turningwhen point in quick na, andisdesigned

by Noor Jehan herself.

It in- school, which near-impossible for small schools ways in brocading you which get points.

If your ances.

Under the Rightand to Educastyles have converged, matechildrenloom of the elite Banarsi history volved an with running outintimate of slums,relationship conflict zones andone’s oth- firstborn evolved, for instance by from the are is followed a girl tion deputyfrom director of rials Act, havethe changed the anmade to feel they came when weavers couturier, garment. so child, er sensitivefrom areasthread — thetovery places Not where naqshayou embroidery from get points.

MyPersia, wife shifted has the power silk to act cient imported Chinese to are shinier, fromsmarter, manually education now, as brocading or banarsi schools are especially needed,techniques one might have add. and Iinspired traditional Shi- operated did not the attend fancy interoffenders.

“There should various silks from the south of Inbetter pit looms to against inspired pouches, bags, stoles, Finally,pencil with its focus on ageswallets, 6-14, the law national kargarh brocading deschools andpattern, we do not in in place, dia,an toefficient synthetichelpline materials the the modern jacquard be artificial the cloth garments, even child cheap-ish overlooks prospect of an EWS drop- want picting animals and human a second child.

Should my so that parents can report any 20th century.

Weavers have also kitschout in after tourist towns, withheelephant insignia ping Class X, after or she stops get- boy forms at ajust hunting scene.

Also suffer because he does wrongdoing immediately. been unorthodox when it comes for foreign tourists. ting a free education. on display are the varieties in sanot have a sister?”

Schools right now are notclassic really to patterns.

A resplendent Banarsi brocade is a fabric whose history ri Gaurav brocading techniques andof his friends afraid of punitive tells me about some measures.

This needs to onion-pink kanjeevaram sari had Great expectations runs parallel to socio-cultural transitions in and patterns.

By the time youqualified take in all thecerex- change,” acquaintances who forof EWS Vohragramophone says. contemporary motifs.

Gaurav (nameThese changed), a dapper man in his this country. transitions are reflected in tificates hibits, you begin to children understand phenomena to get their enrolled in priThe RTE Act was drafted with bestvisible of inBanarsi brocade is one of ourthe most 30s, owns an electrical goodsThe and servicestraves- vate terms of designs and fabrics. brocade like the establishment the red-and-silver Ba- tentions, schools.

“They goofthrough much more with theabroad, awareness that in India, the cultural exhibits right from the 1861 tablishment inthe Kalkaji.

He has an affable smile elled to adorn turbans of Maratha kings as pain narsithan sari as theIn symbol of an Indian bride,Anor playing I did. some schools, like Frank ground is anything butThe levelform for most India exhibition in London. has and a brisk, humorous of putting his thony, well as the girdles of the way Kodava community the repurposing of old Banarsi into adults. they refuse to speak inbrocading any language The inequality begins in to school, when flourished, evolved and spread the distant point across.

He’s just emerged from two gru- other of Coorg, Karnataka. contemporary garments.

The exhibition than English.

I couldn’t follow a lothas of children of the aregoes madetotoBenaras’ feel theycomare corners and theelite credit elling monthsor ofsilk running pillar-to-post, all to Brocading, weaving, didn’t begin in what also borrowed fromhold personal collections on to shinier, they said. They EWS admissions better.

And in a city like Delhi, munity smarter, of weavers: their expertise as well as get his firstborn a son — enrolled in a good aidentify Benaras until the—17th century. further of evolution. separate day, sotrends that parents who are well-off elitist prejudice is approach not just systemic, it is even their unorthodox to their craft. nursery “My wife and I, we are not Beforeschool. that, Benares was renowned as avery cot- don’t A big turning point Banarsi loomThis history have to mix withinpoor people.” de- aspirational — the ability to cordon off the less Unbroken Thread is a result of a year-long felwell-educated.

So forBrocade our child, meeting the spite ton weaving centre. weavers and patcame the when weavers shifted Act’s fromguidelines manually well-off Right to Education our little cliques. lowship from supported by the Indian Foundation for criteria, thearrived requiredfrom number of points to gain against terns had Persia (modern-day operatedsegregation. pit looms toMoreover, the modern the jacquard, Ganguly theNow will march the Museum private and school Arts, who Bangalore, under their Araccess to the lottery, an almost impossible Iran) via Gujrat, andisweavers kept arriving Committee invented by report Joseph had Marie Jacquard.

Designs bosses clearly disapproved to the principal’s room, for a timely chival Fellowship.

The exhibition is on till Aprilrap 25 challenge.” from Surat and Ahmedabad and settling in both are now traced onto a graph paper and then on criteria mentioned

by Gaurav. their errantMuseum, knuckles? at the National Delhi.

The ‘points’ system mentions is the one Benaras, displaced by he natural calamities and onto punching cards.

Brocading reA self-made man, Gaurav is proudis of also the fact mani jha payel majumdar usually employed management colleges, that the demise of royalby workshops. ferred as embroidering onofthe loom,for where hetocan cough up a lot money his aditya

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Living with the enemy Too many women in Sunderbans have lost a husband to their feline neighbours. In the tussle over shrinking habitats, tigers are attacking the men who enter the forest for food

Lonely struggle Aloka Maity (70) at her home in Madhya Gurguria village. After her husband Niranjan died in a tiger attack 20 years ago, Maity took up household work in Kolkata. However, a cardiac arrest 10 years ago left her partially paralysed

Strength and solace Rakhi Bhuiyan, who lost her husband Bappa in a tiger attack 22 days ago, with her mother at their home in Purba Gurguria

Memory of loss Bhagabati Das (70), who lost her husband Bhagaban Das in a tiger attack almost 30 years ago, at her residence in Binodpur

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akhi Bhuiyan of Purba Gurguria village was only 15 when she lost her husband Bappa (18) in a tiger attack.

The two had been married for only a year when a man-eater took Bappa’s life. “As Bappa’s family lost their agricultural land to the river during the Aila cyclone in 2009, he had to go to the forest to forage for food. Despite the risks, it was the only way of procuring our daily meals. I never liked his job, because I lived in fear every time he went into the forest for days,” says Rakhi, sitting beside her mother in their hut. It’s barely three weeks since she lost her husband.

A rapid rise in the sea level due to climate change is triggering a silent yet drastic livelihood change in the agricultural fields and water bodies of Sunderbans, the World Heritage Site that spans 10,000 sq km across the Indo-

Bangladesh border. As agriculture and fishing become increasingly unviable in the island due to natural calamities and salt water ingression, a sizeable number of Sunderbans’s farmers have chosen the life of migrant labour. For those who could not migrate, the only options are fishing and collecting honey from the dense mangrove forested areas haunted by man-eaters.

The number of Royal Bengal tigers in Sunderbans is also on the decline. Pushed to the wall by loss of natural habitat, the tigers have turned on villagers who enter the forests in search of food. The proof of this is the large number of tiger widows on the islands. subrata biswas is an independent visual storyteller and painter who divides his time between Delhi and Kolkata

The scar bearers Most villages in the islands of Sunderbans have a large population of tiger widows. Their number is growing day by day

Another name, same story Seema Sardar (60), who lost her husband Jharu Sardar in a tiger attack almost eight years ago, at her home in Purba Gurguria

Matter of no choice “I always told Abdul not to go to the forest, but we had no other way. In August 2015, he left for the forest; the next day the co-workers returned with his body,” says Bahadjaan Ghorami (40), sitting in her roadside shanty with her son Chopi Alam in Bhasa village

Number check Puspo Das (55), another tiger widow, plays with her grandchildren at her home in Baikunthapur.

According to a local survey, Baikunthapur village has at least 85 tiger widows

A survivor’s notes Khudiram Naskar (60) from Purba Gurguria village survived a tiger attack in 2013. He suffered serious injuries and continues to need medical attention for the severe pain in the chest, hand and neck

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Playing Titania Shakespeare is one instance, says Dharker, where the Indian tradition of rote learning comes handy. The actor in A Midsummer Night’s Dream topher mcgrillis

A Dharker shade Best foot forward The RTE Act was played drafted with the best of intentions, with the awarenessHollywood that in India, the playing ground is anything level for most people kr deepak Ayesha Dharker has Shakespearean parts, roles and thebutmusical Bollywood Dreams. Naturally, labels evade her

In 2006, the Delhi High Court appointed a committee, chaired by Ashok Ganguly, to sughat makes beingand an nursery actress gest ways of regulating preschool Inallowed AyeshaaDharkadmissions. The enjoyable? schools were rebuter’s view, it’s thesides ability to dip tal, after which, plausibly, both could arstories of was people, rive at a middle into ground.

This the whethcourt’s er factual or fictional.

“Acting is the best job normal course of action.

Of course, like Dufor a nosy person,” jokes at theto offices ryodhana, the schools ofDharker, Delhi refused cede of the Royal Shakespeare in an inch of ground and wereCompany promptly(RSC) slapped Stratford-upon-Avon, where she children is playingnor Tiwith a binding order: neither tania in a production A Midsummer Night’s their parents could be of interviewed.

Dream mark the 400th death anniversary of And to yet, complaints kept piling up, about Shakespeare. nextout performance just a massive sumsThe shelled to jump theisqueue, few hours away, Dharkerscreening, comes across as about social andbut economic about relaxed and blatant enthusiastic.

“I love and the schools’ disregard forstories, DoE (Direcpeople their stories torate ofcarry Education) rules. around with them.

I’mFinally, the kind of person who sitsChief on a Minister bus prein January this year, tending to read aannounced book but actually just looks Arvind Kejriwal the scrapping of around…,” she says a gentle smile. most 62 criteria that werewith deemed ‘arbitrary’, Dharker had a career‘management that has givenquoher notably thehas much-reviled access all quota sorts of stories.

She played Emilia ta’. Theto only that remained after the DoE in Othellooffor the RSC last the year,reserved and has25tried circular January 6 was per her everything from soap weaker operas (Bricenthand seatsatfor EWS (economically segtain’s long-running Coronation Street) to Hollyments) and DG (disadvantaged groups) stuwood (Star Wars II:however, Attack the of the Clones), dents. In February, Delhi High musicals (Bollywood and indie cineCourt reinstated 11 ofDreams) the scrapped 62 criteria ma (the comedy Outsourced). quota), ruling (including the management At just 19 she portrayed suicide bomber that the government hadthe acted without auin Santosh Tamil filmofThe Terrorist, loosthority andSivan’s the autonomy private schools ely the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. hadbased been on breached.

A The difficult it was formative courtrole, clarified thata the rules of one landfor alDharker, who recalls it as one that conlocation hadn’t changed: thethe government was vinced pursue professionally. free to her allottoland onlyacting to schools that had no Her acting career management quota.began more than a decade previously as atoschoolgirl in Mumbai. to The Right Education (RTE) Act,Eager which bunk a maths lesson, eight-year-old Dharker took effect on April 1, 2010 (everywhere in Inauditioned the lead part in a French film dia except for Jammu & Kashmir), has proved about a young girl who she’d been rewoefully inadequate inbelieved getting schools to toe incarnated. of theminimum film opened to the line andBeing admitpart a certain numher worlds (she got to gooftoits Paris and see ber new of EWS students.

Many black-andbillboards the filmthose plastered along white rules,of including pertaining to the Champs Élysées), and broughtare herblithely new roles, segregation of EWS students, vioto people at different including Dominique Lapierre’s City stages of Joy, lated. BLinkinspoke of this process: anand educator, a parent andher an for which Om Puri Shabana Azmi took

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activist. Their stories were troubling, to say were never told. My best friend told me years the least. later that she grew up in a one-room house… under their wing (she still refers to them as Ma you it just Both who Sushmita arenever going came to castup.” someone looks and like The a,b,c… of EWS and Baba). The experience taught her how the me, Sreemoyee feel that social screenlet’s extend it towith whoDelhi, I sound like…You Sreelekha, the wisest a little world of film could of besix-year-olds, a nurturingisone.

“A can ing is a way “I have stood in line to ob-a tweak it of uplife. or down but it’s nice to have disappointed despite the—presence of a flavour light bulb wentthat off in my head I realised that tain EWS certificates for so many families,” of what you sound like.” journalist, newspaperwallah in but her incredhouse, says they are nota only amazing artistes Sushmita.

“In at Delhi, poorispeople are haPlaying Titania the RSC “heaven” for therehuman are no beings cameras in sight.

At firstshe’s she refusible too.”

It’s a lesson held her, rassed most.

And the notthe least because theauthorities innovative change travelles to her school uniform: ideal- ing on tochange till thisout day.ofCritical of reality TV where theirproduction, behaviour sowhich suddenly. apalsoBecause draws of onmy local ly, she would liked beingofclicked in her experts sneerhave at the talents aspiring ar- amateur pearance,groups, they could tell that I was not from will take her to Glasgow and school’s colours.

And sheway does eventualtistes, she stresses it’swhen not the for anyone the an EWS family, sotothey be opportunity visitwouldn’t the placesshout she’dor long ly change, it is into a special that’s to pursue their career.

“The something creative world is heard rude to But would make things imofme. from herthey parents.

She points out that equally worthy of thecompetitive occasion. space, and if Shakespeare not a mean, closed, possible for the others.

Therewhere were people who is one instance the Indian Sreelekha’s mother works domestic you are finding it is, you needastoa get out of school would wait for the to build up and tradition of queues rote learning comes in help for Sushmita Kundu, retired teacher there and find people youa can relate to. It in is handy. then charge writelearning!! out the forms for “This money stuff is to worth Shakesher 60s lives in Kalkaji, neighbourhood there towho shine a light on thea world; it should peare’s the parents!” obsessed with human beings and layin south Delhi.that Kundu’s daughbe something makes you blossom and ers it on storiesGeru today a quietly confithatisare completely unlikely ter, the open up.”writer and columnist dent girlthat who stands up coto and events are ridiculously Sreemoyee Kundu, is to fiercely Dharker’sPiu willingness try schoolyard bullies.

Her story is incidental — it’s just magical and proud ofroles littlehas ‘Geru’ different meant(Sreelekshe’s doubly when comes aliveremarkable when you speak it!”you In Delhi, reason, ha’s petavoided name) and posts about largely being pigeonconsider witnessed We move that on toshe discussing theher fudecency and her frequently media. Ifcompassion holed (though, on likesocial all ethnic mother thrashed blackShe’s being very enthusiastic to do you are going fly to in the ture.

Both Sushmita and Sreemoyee minority actors, she’s received and-blue father whenfilm she more with by theher independent cast someone who face of top-down keepfair a close the child’s looks her shareeye of on cringe-worwas just three.

After Sreemoyee scene in India “There is just so like me, lets class rhetoric progress. thy scripts). “I am extremely took happening, her under her wing, Geru extend it to who I much particularly if Sushmita “When was sound like lucky.

I feel I says: have come at Ithe came back it from a nearby park you compare to British cinema, seeking school admission right time and stand on thefor one day and which is on itsasked knees.what The naukrani depth of (Hindiand fortalent a female servant) Geru, I ultimately didn’t shoulders of people who use havethe variety and technical Kalkaji playmates EWS certificate were to get for her, as it meant. Apparently, dealt with thatwe kind ofable thing skill we her boast in India — it had just their parents play wastheir a very tough affair. I chose Amity Interna- been instructed all lives.” doesn’tbycompare.”

She isnot sadto that in withtheatrical a servant’s daughter. tional School.

The only way heritage we couldas send Dharker sees her mixed an her ad- the space, there is nothing with the In Delhi,and reason, decency and there was the EWS provision; the fees resources vantage — under her Indian father and Lahore-born creativity of the RSCcompassion to nurture fly in the of top-down class irrevwere toomet high They said:to‘Oh, we talent mother in otherwise.

Glasgow and eloped Mumandface passion, pointing outrhetoric, that talented Tu jaanta hai ocably codified themostly classic line can’t possible, there will be artistes bai — say andwhether one thatthat has is left her open to all sorts in Indiainare forced to “subsi(You have nowork. idea who meratheir baaptheatre kaun hai? a lottery, it’s a long of opportunities.

“I and don’tcomplicated think we’re process.’ made to dise habit” with other dad is, domother you?) of a three-year-old who They were very even to divulge be fitters-in,” shereluctant says of her feeling of not the be- myDharker, process. to I’veany been a teacher all my or lifeculture. and so loves stories of adventure, rough and tumble, longing particular country The fine print they couldn’t insult me directly.

But they told has lighter ambitions too, and is eager to have “People get very hung-up on approval, belongcourse, no one is saying thattothe RTE Act itme at office: ‘Why dobut youthey want to go aOfgo ing andthe being accepted, dampen at “kids’ stuff”.

“If I were choose anyself was particularly well thought out. through this just and to admit their ownallambition they her?’ stop themselves thing I’d love to be a pirate.

That would beThe my first — and, to an go extent, valida — critiSreemoyee remembers her own childhood dream. from achieving.”

If I could fromthe thismost to being pirate, wasdie that it forced unaided schools to covin She’s Kolkata studyingher in own Loreto House, keenand to maintain identity — Icism would happy.” where herher mother taught: “Wewhich had ashe lotemof er the educational costs of disadvantaged including Mumbai accent, ramwhile still collecting a cess of 2 per students, poor students with But we knew, we braces in her role asus.

Titania, as never in all others.

“If vidya

Q Q R R

BL

watch cover

saturday, march 19, 2016

History’s brocaded canvas Unbroken Thread: Banarsi Brocade, an exhibition at the National Museum Delhi, chronicles the journey of the fabric from couture to prêt, noting how its curious narrative runs parallel to Indian history extra threads are woven into the base structure to make patterns. While with the pit looms, weavers would make designs on the fabric out of memory, the jacquard introduced punching cards, making the task for weavers relatively simple and reducing the time taken to complete a weave.

Brocading is not a prerogative of the Banarsi, as the exhibition notes; there are other prominent families of brocades such as the Fighting the good fightofActivist Sumitfrom VohraBengal, fine cotton weaving Jamdani the muga silk mekhalas from Assam, the heavy silk saris of Kanchipuram and the woolchild’s education, if need be (“I was ready to len shawls of Kutch.

The sophisticated Balugive Perhaps fittingly, T-shirt charidonation”). is silk-on-silk brocade with his motifs of has a blood-red Godzilla up activities. skyscraparistocrats engaged inchewing leisurely ers: theall grim caption says, “Size does matter.”

While these techniques of brocading have The mammon-worshipping private school incorporated Persian, Central Asian and Chioligarchs would agree. nese influences, they are distinguished by their characteristics and identities.

Time for imposition In the naqsha tradition of designing Banarsi Educational activist Sumit Vohra is the(a founsaris, each sari is conceived as a naqsha sinder of admissionsnursery.com, onegle image).

It is then drawn ona popular graph paper stop portal forby parents struggling toloom. negotiate and rendered the weaver on the The the slippery entrance gethwa loomtoofkindergarten.

Banarsi saris Asked is the about the lottery system typicallyofemployed most sophisticated the naqby schools after shortlisting candidates, some sha designs, and can be of the stories he shares are the stuff characterised byof itsHollydiagwood heist movies. onal creeper designs.

“The DoE has clearly mentioned in itscan circuMost designs be A helping hand Sushmita Kundu (left) with 6-year-old Sreelekha photo courtesy sreemoyee piu kundu lars that an observer (approved by athe DoE) traced to certain should be present at these period lotteries.ofBut thisBais the Organic exhibition aims toon establish that eduthe Banarsi sari is not the a IIMs (Indian Institute of Mancent on art theThe total tax payable primary including often ignored. One school decided beforenarsi sari. For inmajumdar during admissions. For instance, if hallowed piece history but to a continuously evolving art payel cation.

This ofamounts double taxation. agement), hand the candidates it wanted andthe putbutidar those stance, Moreover, there is no clarity over how schools you’re looking to get into an IIM, a perfect un- chits in a refrigerator. During lottery, the sari,the with the patanarsi saris khaandani.

I rememare to select the 25 perare cent for the EWS and DG dergrad All of score, this histoa good internship stint, proven person drawing the chits ka from the jar only pallu became ber my otherwise indulgent grandquotas. This, in turn, ensures that parents of leadership ry is brought skills toand so on will get you points. picked the cold ones. Another school used prominent in two the admonishing me the first students mother like Geru are harassed or,for worse, ig- Schools, gether on andthetold other hand, have no way of kinds of white paper: the favoured chits had a 19th century. when I slipped and tore her red- judging nored bytime uppity private schools. through children weaves and who’re yet to begin their sandpaper-like texture on The one side to distinexhibition at and-silver relic of her wedding There is banarsi, also the aargument that the RTEdays dis- education. garments atSothe ongothey judge the parents instead. guish them.” the National Museum from the 50s.

Banarsis are not meantAlltopribe ing“The criminates against low-cost schools. exhibition schools Banarsi set conditions Vohra aims has spent years educatto establish that wornschools by eight-year-olds.

Made only for royalty that vate must fulfil certain infrastructural Brocade: we cannot Unbroken even hope to ing parents aboutsari theis vagaries of the Banarsi not a halduring the Mughal period, was meet,” requirements within threebanarsi years, silk failing Thread, Gaurav at the says.

National Mu-or “If you admission procedures.

Thebut key,a lowed piece of history once a they novelty, at length with the your which facediscussed immediate de-recognition. seumspouse in Delhi.

On child’s since Februor the older The inequality begins he feels, is accountability continuously evolving art. and Therea couturier, made from imported from Chi- sibling One of the requirements is asilk playground, ary 24, the exhibition has studiedtraces in the quick response of system forvaried grievare examples when at school A big turningwhen point in na, andisdesigned

by Noor Jehan herself.

It in- school, which near-impossible for small schools ways in brocading you which get points.

If your ances.

Under the Right to Educastyles have converged, and matechildrenloom of the elite Banarsi history volved an with running outintimate of slums,relationship conflict zones andone’s oth- firstborn evolved, for instance from the is followed by a girl tion deputyfrom director of rials Act, havethe changed the anare made to weavers feel they came when couturier, garment. so child, er sensitivefrom areasthread — thetovery places Not where naqshayou embroidery from get points.

MyPersia, wife shifted has the power silk to act cient imported Chinese to are shinier, from smarter, manually education now, as brocading or banarsi schools are especially needed,techniques one might have add. and inspired traditional Shi- operated I did not the attend fancy interoffenders.

“There should various silks from the south of Inbetter pit looms to against inspired pouches, bags, wallets, stoles, Finally,pencil with its focus on ages 6-14, the law national kargarh brocading deschools andpattern, we do not be in in place, dia,an toefficient synthetichelpline materials the the modern jacquard artificial cloth garments, cheap-ish overlooks the prospect of an even EWS child drop- want picting animals and human a second child.

Should my so that parents can report any 20th century.

Weavers have also kitschout in tourist towns, withhe elephant insignia ping after Class X, after or she stops get- boy forms at a just hunting scene.

Also suffer because he does wrongdoing immediately. been unorthodox when it comes for foreign tourists. ting a free education. on display are the varieties in sanot have a sister?”

Schools right now are notclassic really to patterns.

A resplendent Banarsi brocade is a fabric whose history ri Gaurav brocading techniques andof his friends afraid of punitive tells me about some measures.

This needs to onion-pink kanjeevaram sari had Great expectations runs parallel to socio-cultural transitions in and patterns.

By the time youqualified take in all thecerex- change,” acquaintances who forofEWS Vohragramophone says. contemporary motifs.

Gaurav (name changed), a dapper man in his this country.

These transitions are reflected in tificates hibits, you begin to understand phenomena to get their children enrolled in priThe RTE brocade Act was drafted with bestvisible of inBanarsi is one of ourthe most 30s, owns an electrical goodsThe and services es- vate terms of designs and fabrics. brocade travlike the establishment the red-and-silver Ba- tentions, schools.

“They goofthrough much more with theabroad, awareness that in India, the cultural exhibits right from the 1861 tablishment Kalkaji.

He has an affable smile elled to adorninthe turbans of Maratha kings as pain narsithan sari as theIn symbol of an Indian bride,Anor playing I did. some schools, like Frank ground is in anything butThe levelform for most India exhibition London. has and a brisk, humorous of community putting his thony, well as the girdles of the way Kodava the repurposing of old Banarsi into adults. they refuse to speak inbrocading any language The inequality begins into school, when flourished, evolved and spread the distant point across.

He’s just emerged from two gru- other of Coorg, Karnataka. contemporary garments.

The exhibition than English.

I couldn’t follow a lothas of children of the aregoes made feel they are corners and theelite credit totoBenaras’ comelling monthsor ofsilk running pillar-to-post, all to Brocading, weaving, didn’t begin in what also borrowed fromhold personal collections on to shinier, they said. They EWS admissions better.

And in a city like Delhi, munity smarter, of weavers: their expertise as well as get his firstborn a son — enrolled in a good aidentify Benaras until the—17th century. further of evolution. separate day, sotrends that parents who are well-off elitist prejudice isapproach not just systemic, it is even their unorthodox to their craft. nursery “My wife and I, we are not Beforeschool. that, Benares was renowned as avery cot- don’t A big turning point Banarsi loomThis history have to mix withinpoor people.” de- aspirational — the ability to cordon off the less Unbroken Thread is a result of a year-long felwell-educated.

So forBrocade our child, meeting the spite ton weaving centre. weavers and patcame the when weavers shifted Act’s fromguidelines manually well-off Right to Education our little cliques. lowship from supported by the Indian Foundation for criteria, thearrived requiredfrom number of points to gain against terns had Persia (modern-day operatedsegregation. pit looms toMoreover, the modern thejacquard, Ganguly theNow will march the Museum private and school Arts, who Bangalore, under their Araccess to the lottery, an almost impossible Iran) via Gujrat, andisweavers kept arriving Committee invented by report Joseph had Marie Jacquard.

Designs bosses clearly disapproved to the principal’s room, for a timely chival Fellowship.

The exhibition is on till Aprilrap 25 challenge.” from Surat and Ahmedabad and settling in both are now traced onto a graph paper and then on criteria mentioned

by Gaurav. their errantMuseum, knuckles? at the National Delhi.

The ‘points’ system mentions is the and one onto Benaras, displaced by he natural calamities punching cards.

Brocading reA self-made man, Gaurav is proudisof also the fact mani jha payel majumdar usually employed management colleges, that the demise of royalby workshops. ferred as embroidering onofthe loom,for where hetocan cough up a lot money his aditya

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The original champions of secularism An interdisciplinary analysis of an evergreen Bollywood classic by three scholars specialising in religion, anthropology and international studies, respectively be Amar, scion of an implicitly Hindu-dominated state, or Akbar, the romantic Muslim as model minority, or Anthony, the good-hearted Christian hooch peddler? Could it not be the quintessential long-suffering mother, played

by Nirupa Roy, who as ‘Bharati’ remains blind Extra-vulnerable through the better part of the It is the Thefilm? scaly pangolins restoration of her sight through divine interare easy to hunt, a slowcharacvention that gives the three have leading rate ters a sense of purpose with reproduction respect to their and do not breed individual identities, within the copious boseasily in captivity om of a Mother India (the name of chakrabarty the mother ashoke directly invokes the name of the country). Only by reuniting with their mother do the boys embrace brotherhood. With such an imaginative leap, the narrative creates a mesmerising impact on its viewers.

It is a sheer enigma that the feel-good ideology of pluralism has outlived four decades of populist viewing.

Described as the ultimate formula film, it can be easily read as a multivalent allegory encompassing many tragic elements of human mall, nocturnal and a harmless mam- day of February has been designated as Pango- existence.

Packedfrom within its states, comic coordinatovertones rest of 75 people eight mal covered in scales… precious little lin Day to raise awareness about this are ranging from the pered tragic by interludes, the Madhya Pradesh Forest is known about the pangolin; even endangered animal. ceived backwardness theForce, masses to the irreDepartment’s Specialof Task was a major rough estimates of the animal’s numAll four pangolin species in Asia — the Chi- sponsiveness a political class. wildlife However, it success for theof country’s besieged probers in India are unavailable. What is clear is nese, Sunda, Indian and Philippine — have must to the credit of the film-maker that tectionbeforce. that huge numbers are being poached and been declared endangered or critically endan- despite story’s in slumand neighbourSomethe states likedealing Maharashtra Madhya sold across the border in far-eastern countries. gered. The four African species — Cape, White- hoods, youth, the Pradeshlost have been and moredeprived effectivepeople, in curbing In fact, in 2015 the pangolin was the most bellied, Giant Ground and Black-bellied — are audience up aswhile an escape organisedlapped illegal it trade, othersfrom suchthe as One for the ages Amar Akbar Anthony has cemented among Bollywood classics poached and trafficked animal in India — Traf- its place deemed vulnerable.

What adds to the worry is drudgery reality.

It is through such angreaunKarnatakaof and Uttarakhand have shown fic, an international body which detects wild- the fact that these animals are easy to hunt, written agreement with the viewers ter enthusiasm in enforcing the law.that “WeDesai have life crime, documented the seizure of more have a slow reproduction rate and do not could salvage dream of creating a cineto ensure that the wildlife protection is not just years it had the peal than 4,300 early kg of 40 scales in after the past fivehit years. cemented its place among Bollywood matic breedhas easily in captivity. of Wildlife secularism. for bigillusion animals. crimes pose a threat authorspangolin have reconNot just inscreens, India, three the humble is classics.

In northeast India, there are signs that mili- to Without the directly book Amar Anthonationaldoubt, security, andAkbar indirectly, of Manmohan threatened structed globally the too‘illogic’ — anywhere between tant Desai hadhave a method intohis illogic and trade justi- ny groups turned the lucrative an interdisciplinary gift bysays three fans to andisshould be treated as such,” Talukdar. blockbuster film Ak- fied 100,000 andDesai’s one million animals areAmar believed his oblique delivering positive in wildlife parts.method “As theof pangolins are found theTraditionally, innumerabletribal fans groups of an all-time classic.the In have hunted bar Anthony frame For William poached in the lastby 15 frame. years, based merely Elion messages, arguingareas, that in nothing thanteaa analysing outside protected reserveless forests, thefood. enduring appeal of a sheer enpangolin for son, Christian Lee seized Novetzke, and Andy palatable, the number of scales worldwide. would have deliv- tertainer, estates andsugar-coated farmland, itpill is tougher to protect Elison, and Rotman haveI “I visited a tea Novetzke estate in Darjeeling where Rotman, the production is more than a fantaAccording to the International Union for ered message culturalmachinery and commuthem.theAlso, the about government is pooled their pangolin individualburrows. scholarships in the came across Tea garden sy in the masala genre as it affirms morthefilm Conservation of Nature (IUCN), thereais vir- nal harmony. three mostly focussedThe on film’s big animals fields of fill religion, anthropology workers the burrows with waal universe in which good triumphs over tually no population record for any of evil, the eponymous (like the tiger brothers and rhino),”assert says and international studies, and ter and trap the pangolin when it villainy is vanquished, patriotism is en- their eight known pangolin species.

Their secretive, at nuBiplabrespective Talukdar identities from Aaranyak, come upout. withEating a brilliant, multiemerges of pangolins shrined, laws of family estab- merous solitary and the nocturnal habits duty haveare ensured points, butorganisation. find unity in an environmental layered reading ofsays the Biswajit film. Like is common here,” R Thehas film’s three There been a 500 lished.

What comes out the is least a layered that the pangolins are among observ- their in the end, one Thediversity very networks thataswere the oft-told fable of the blind Choudhury, Secretary, Nature Eneponymous brothers per cent increase in interpretation the film’s deeper symbol- brother ed or researchedofspecies. ‘we are threeand in assert poachingquips, the tiger, leopard men and the elephant, have vironment and Wildlifethey Society. their the price of identities pangolin ism, relevantare to these times being when hunted secularism Pangolins reportedly be- one’. be possible in realrhinoCould have it now put the pangoapplied selective to conNiraj points outblinkers that while the atscales numerous in thepoints, last is not only bad word also threat of ity? cause theira scales are but used in under Chinese medithe“There film prelin inEven theirthough crosshair. has theofelephant.

The hunting pangolins byauthors tribals but findtounity their struct three fourin years misinterpretation. cine, much like the demand for tiger bones sents possibility a ‘reality’, been athe 500 per centofincrease in caution the reader the was a traditional waytooffinish life, what diversity in the end It may been a crazy and rhinohave horns had drivenlost-and-found those animalsento it and scales compettheoffers pricediffering of pangolin in book with the the feeling that surthe is endangering animal’s tertainer, but its leading characters Amar, ing near-extinction.

Smuggling routes —thread perspectives.

It emphasises the last three to four years,” says elephant also a tree.

If you vival is theispoaching for trade.

Akbar, and Anthony Hindu, Muslim, and the through India, Nepal,are Myanmar and Bhutan, of multiple Niraj.presence Poaching networks realcut think that’sthe impossible, well, Moreover, odds are stacked Christian, as wellparts as policeman, bringing animal to China. qawwal, and ities. matrix acrossGiven statesthe andcomplex even international borders. is what the film is all—about. against the that enforcing authorities after dada — reflect anxie- of In “Inrespectively 2015, we have seen the cultural scales getting sub-plots feeding into the story’s melodraIndia, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau months The final sequence, the musical spent trackingwith the poachers andnumfinalties of the state, theaverage. nation, Aand civil society.

It ma, smaller, 10-15 g on fully-grown panthisissubsumes thegathering central theme of the ber (WCCB) tasked with intelligence conveys the cruxthey of the The ‘Anhoni ly arresting them, arestory. released on bail has been viewed differently different golin’s scales weigh 50-60g. by This shows peothat film.

While many viewers findcrime the lack ofshare a sin- Ko related to organised wildlife and Honidays.

Kar De’ — to make the impossible poswithin ple, though.

While carriespoached, a subtle and political smaller animals areit being will gle cohesive messagestate disappointing, the film it with the respective police and forest of- sible is a celebration co-operation and As —Tilottama Verma, of additional director message filmmaker Shyam Benegal, it has remains definitelyfor impact the species,” says Shekhar celebration of competing con- unity ficials. Ina2005, the bureau was able and to break diversity.

It trying reminds conWCCBin says, “We are to the saveviewer silent,to namebeen of ‘illogic’ with a strong emotional Niraj,a akind member of Traffic, a wildlife trade tradicting perspectives.

After network all, one story is sider up an interstate wildlife trade and armakingwho the impossible is deless victims can never possible. speak forItthemcontent for network. actress Shabana Azmi. It was never monitoring the fullpoachers story. who were supplying a tailing rest several as thisimpossible that makesto the book selves; itsuch is almost track an dumped by critics found it loaded with group The IUCN, which who tracks threatened species In drawing multipleand perspectives of middlemen traders. Infrom 2015,relian- immensely entertaining. illegally killed animal to its source.” The scales implausible situations and unrealistic characworldwide, recently bumped up the status of gion, popular culture, other history, networkliterature that was and busted was found to are clearly tilted against the pangolin for now. ters, and yet ittocontinues be seen as a step film the the pangolin ‘critically to endangered’, authors search for the real hero amongst sudhirendar sharma is an independent writer, be made of the same traders and middlemen, academic saurabh and yadav about national integration.

Its the enduring ap- the away from ‘extinct’.

Since 2011, third Suncharacters of the The film.recent Couldarit researcher anddominant a newer team of poachers.

Tipping the scales

The little-known and even less researched pangolin is being hunted to near-extinction in India

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Amar Akbar Anthony William Elison, Christian Lee Novetzke and Andy Rotman Harvard Business School Press India Non-fiction ₹995

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HOME SPUN

How the city of Bombay made me a writer A poet remembers how Bombay’s tides, its glamour and its literary titans shaped his worldview and made their way into his verses

hoshang merchant

No child left behind It’s the cruel season of preschool and nursery admissions in Delhi. No parent is spared, but the ifty years ago I was 20. And Bombay ordeal is extra-harsh for was a different city than it is today. We those fromlived theat Pali Hill with the stars; Nargis, Dilip Kumar, Usha Kiran, Meena Kueconomically weaker mari, Sadhana, Kalpana, Saira Banu. I saw them all in person and was besotted with their segments aka EWS glamour.

I learnt the shenanigans of celebrity.

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Our house at Pali Hill was by the sea. The music of the ebb and tide seeped into my dreams and came out in my poems two dec“In the beginning ades later. there was light.

Then Delhi and Theschools trains ganged crushedup my body but liberated mademy us soul. all pay ‘illumination These were the gay love-factories. Bolcharges’” — Book of Genesis, lywood taught us how to make love on BomBarakhamba edition, 2016under one umbrella in bay beaches or walk the rain like Raj and Nargis. The poems were owards the beginning of every year, sure to follow. parents Delhi put on their At KalainGhoda’s Wayside Inn,game Nissim Ezekiel face and military gear,towering preppingabove for the railheld court.

I’d see him nursery admissions, an exchange way crowds, commuting between so his New Mawoefully lopsided ‘seller’s market’ does rine Linesthat office and Jogeshwari College. With not even begin to describe The criteria for were the him, having tea atit.the central table, admissions could involve classMehrotra discriminayoung Arvind Krishna and Adil Justion, blatant money-grabbing, or manic pixiethreshold, sawalla.

Once I teetered on the unicorn farts: private schools choose wanting to enter theircould clique, but when they their owninvited parameters, out- by their me I no ranmatter away, how followed landish. Over the last decade or so, however, guffaws. dents have been made inTurner the citadel.

At Bandra’s Road were two Parsi ladies, Hilla and Dosan. Since ‘Dosan’ means ‘old lady’ in Parsi Gujarati, Hilla would invert her name and call her ‘Sando’ and Hilla herself would become ‘Lahi’. They’d put up art-reproductions in their walls and give us tea to talk about ‘Pablo Piccacio’, as they’d call Picasso.

They remembered me as ‘that boy who asked such intelligent questions’.

My teachers at school weren’t impressed

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Concrete monstrosities “I went early morning, saw Malabar Hill’s skyline spoilt by Antilla, epitomising new Mumbai’s vulgar wealth. And left by the midnight’s Air India flight to Hyderabad en route from New York, full of Telugu NRIs” adeel halim/ bloomberg

with my pretensions. ‘What will you write?’ books and netted me ₹400. I never went to they’d sneer. I longed to write a middle for a take the money. So busy was I in that city! daily. I christened myself ‘Bronco’, but all my Ezekiel presided over PEN and declared me articles were returned. However, I kept at it. not a poet. Was I not only dying to be a celebriAt Samovar the barefoot MF Husain would ty? That stuck. Bombay’s literary mafia still be seen. I would walk through the Jehangir Art has knives out for me. When he finally wished Gallery or the Museum. My last talk for the AIR to feature me in a ‘New Poets’ column, I dewas on the Museum’s exhibits, most of them clined. When I wrote Ezekiel’s obituary, I from the Ratan Tata Collection of Chinese Art. I prayed, ‘O God, give every poet an adversary of remember little figurines of Chinamen de- Nissim’s calibre.’ picting hell’s torture. Demons pulling out I last visited Bombay for a lit-fest to hawk my your hair, poking you with hot pincers, goug- autobiography, which details how I became ing out your eyes. ‘I’ll be good out of fear,’ India’s first gay poet from a Bombay childprayed the 16-year-old Parsi boy that I was in hood. The shocked Parsis have made my book those days. a Bombay bestseller. I went early morning, My college-mate Saleem Peeradina had be- saw Malabar Hill’s skyline spoilt by Antilla, come guest editor for a newspaepitomising new Mumbai’s vulper. I reviewed Mishima for gar wealth. And left by the midthem. But readers from the night’s Air India flight to south found my sexy reviews too Hyderabad en route from New much for them. So I was York, full of Telugu NRIs. I loved The Bombay trains blacklisted. the Bombay art on the walls of Sacrushed my body but At their auditorium, the Film har airport: the Bombay artists, liberated my soul.

Finance Corporation would all of them big names now.

These were the gay love-factories show their funded art films. My Earlier, I had been in Bombay sister and I wept at Shabana Azduring the 1993 bombings. I was mi’s Ankur. I hated Smita Patil’s having tea and cake for old times’ looks. Where had Meena’s glamsake when I ran into my college our fled? It was cinema vérité Incrush. Bombay’s landmarks were dia-style all the way. Much later, Patil falling like nine pins: Stock Exchange, Air Inredeemed herself as Gopi’s raped wife in Chi- dia building, Passport office, Mahim Dargah, dambaram. I loved her in that film.

Chandivali Studios. I fled to the suburbs and Thacker and Co had lovely books at throwa- into the mouth of newer bombs. The city had way prices. I read EM Forster, Aubrey Menen changed. I had become a poet. My tribute to and Herbert Marcuse on Epicureanism. What Bombay is in my book Sufiana. an amoral lot! Lovely, really. Taraporewalla’s shutterstock hoshang merchant is a poet, critic and gay activist had old books. Strand’s Mr Shetty sold my first

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Ticker cruelty and a Rule oftapes law inoftrauma few Nawabi spirits STATES OF MATTER

An account of 14 years spent in the darkest recesses of the Indian penal system, Mohammad Aamir Khan’s book is a searing indictment of what passes for terror investigations

sukumar muralidharan

A pair of recent graphic novellas are a bit light on the storyline, but the formidable artwork more than makes up for this testimonies scripted by the police. Acquittals came in rapid succession, but in 2003, in what seemed a truce offering from a sceptical judiciary, both Khan and Shakeel were held guilty in the Karol Bagh bombing.

On appeal, the Delhi High Court reversed the convictions, observing in Khan’s case that the prosecution had “miserably failed to adduce any evidence to connect the accused-appellant with the charges, much less prove them”. Liberty, though, did not come for long years. Khan survived partly because of the resilience of youth. But the older Shakeel, a push-cart vendor of cloth, and the sole source of livelihood for his family of three, hanged himself by his bedsheet in Delhi’s Tihar jail. He had spent 10 years in an endlessly long and dark tunnel and saw not the faintest glimmer of hope or freedom.

Without the slightest hint of irony, Delhi Police produced the confessions rendered under torture by Khan and Shakeel, as evidence of Spooks ahoy Tunda’s involvement in the Karol Bagh bombGhosts of Kingdom ing. The only evidence was Pastbesides, takes us on a a “disclosure” statement Tunda made to a police ride through graveyards officer. In April 2015, Kolkata’s a sessions court in Delhi and run-down threw the case out. Other charges, including a colonial buildings planned attack on the Republic Day parade in 1994, were similarly dealt with. On March 5, Justice lastoften Mohammad Aamir who was acquitted after spending 14 years jail on trust terror me?’ charges, t’satnot that you seeKhan, an entire book the argument, ‘But youindon’t It fails. kata is unlikely to have ghosts, ghouls or restthe last of the cases against Tunda was dismissudershan piece of duringhinging an interview, in New Delhi v executed on one smartly Because they respond with ‘It’s not you we less middle-agedspend man gets up from sed. spirits.

He willAnonetheless perhaps the design, but Ayesha Tariq’s graphic novel- don’t trust, it’s the world.’” his andyears contradicts him, an enigrestseat of his in prison as flashing an undertrial in errorism is a form Anger of war,ofpolitics by la Sarah: The Suppressed the ObediMultiple charges were filed against the matic Tariq has an intuitive understanding of colsmilethat before leaving. other cases could be brought, on similarother means. begin when ent Pakistani Daughter isProblems just that. And no, this our long-time exile and the However, Delhi Po- ly Soon, scheme andfrom greatIndia design sense.

Morgan finds himself old shoddy grounds, in drawn other to an police the political imagination is not a criticism.

On the front cover,becomes we see a I’d licereally may well outaits inventory of grave, like have to seeemptied her tackle more substanwhich reveals clues to the life and grisly jurisdictions. its flask, captive and begins to blurthat the the op- tial corked glass chock-full of words cases — nuanced both solved unsolved — in the death and storyand for her next project. of Siraj-ud-Daulah the last inThe narration that Khan(1733-57), has rendered since erational lines between prevention, pre-emp- process. titular character Sarah (an almost-18-year-old Butrecent that may havenovella been the part. dependent Another graphic ofeasy a similar of Bengal, whointo wasthe overhis release inNawab 2012, offers a window pation, and even provocation.

Pakistani girl) wants to say but cannot. During length Among twenty-odd terror bombings (85 the pages) sees a gifted comics artist thrown after Battleinvestigations of Plassey and, thology of the the terrorism that stifled civilitylife disappears theDialogue course ofisthe book,and as Sarah’s is depict- writing Tunda was accusedstory of, one stood out simply an original for the first time: this ultimately, executed on rule the orders the East have laid waste to the of law.ofFrom the when the political turns to terrored through a ticker discourse tape of little cruelties, we is because casePast offered points of refer- India Ghoststhe of police Kingdom

by Harsho Mohan Company.byChattoraj is at his best when first approach a shadowy intelligence offiism,the a circumstance of great convenience to Chattoraj. see bottle struggling to contain its terrible ence with Aamir AmongKhan, otherarrested titles, Chattoraj has he’s drawingcer, scenes quick, brutal action: onlyof known as ‘Guptaji’, the intelligence and security agencies, which drawn word-genie. in 1998The andHyderabad accused of no fewer Graphic Novel (written by horseback chases, attacks, people whensurprise he was returning from getthe seek a takes relaxation of accountability Tariq the metaphor about ‘the norms. weight Jai than 19 terror Undurti) asbombings, well as the before laughting impaled swords.

Pakistan Highon Commission after That intent to words’ operatequite with absolute freedom of unspoken literally and har- a-minute his full acquittal and parody release Bollywood He is also intotop form when securing a visa visit a sister in Dialogue is stifled from scrutiny has in for her some time enjoyed nesses its power illustrations.

It’sthea Widhwa from prison 2012. Behen (writMaainAndhi drawing Kolkata: matrix beof Karachi, Khan was the seemingly when the political eager endorsement of political that tenCharges smart tactic for a book this shortelements (80 pages). against Tunda and

by Adhiraj Singh).

There is seedy ing set lanes, up as acul-de-sacs, patsy for thehandcyniThere is perhaps no discourse turns to flourish fear andher ethnic stereotyping.

Sarah on lives with stentorian, ex-military perhaps Khan converged incrosshatch-er a bomb blast no other carts, street vendors and puchkacal pursuit of rewards by the moreterrorism diligent crossRationality andorthodox, the sifting‘chronic of fact from fan- more dad (Abu), her worrier’ at a popular eatery in Delhi’s Kadiligent in India; nobody sellers is beautifully sketched.

As Delhi Police.

He agreed to an outhatcher in India than tasy are a clear for the poli- who mom (Ami) andand herpresent callous,danger smug elder brothrol Bagh area facial in October 1997, a captures mini-expresis the character of Alambhai, landish proposal from Guptaji to Harsho Mohan tics(Bhayya). of fear. And hasdown proven case yet er Abu this shoots herthe dreams of sions crime better for which outfit called thananChattoraj: his who helps Morgan decode use some of his time in Karachia Chattoraj again with Abdul Karim ‘Tunda’ of distinctive, driving her 73-year-old own car with a curt “You’re not old the Shaheed intense, Khalsa claimed rerigorous piece of Urduintelligence, calligraphy. but his in gathering the henna-tinted beard and fearsome reputaenough”.

Ami forbids her from wearing jeans style sponsibility, though Police lends itself wellDelhi to both carAt the end of the book, there’s nerve expectedly failed him at evtion.going Tunda, whose name reflects a disability and out after evening (even as her Bhay- icature arrested three the same day. The ery critical moment. and Kashmiris more serious, a section called ‘How to Create He came back empty-a supposedly suffered a bomb-making acci- straight-up ya has the freedom to in come and go as he pleasthree initialportraits. suspects, like several others, soon handed andComic’, where Guptaji’s Chattoraj explains then began horrible dent,And wasSarah, arrested in August amidst es). naturally, has2013, to help witha disappeared down the memory hole. Into/takeFebru- his Ghosts of Kingdom Past is a homage working methods: script, layout, reference vendetta. blaze of celebratory reporting in the media household chores, including cooking and down ary 1998, the police introduced an entirely of the gloriously bad, Orientalising Brit- photographs, artworktolettering.

That Khan survived tell his taleFor is areaders tribute and vivid reconstructions of his three-decadecleaning dishes for the big family dinners ish newand castHollywood of characters, Khan filmsbringing of the ’80s and from ’90s: unfamiliar withand thesolidarity mechanics of this by medito the support rendered his long career in parents. the cause of the Islamic jihad. hosted by her Delhi and the Mohammad fromlike Ghaziayou know kind, they Shakeel have names Oper- um, this is aa very helpful who primer indeed. be family and few lawyers took on theTo hazIt was an attractive that matched existThe most hilarious story sequence for me was the ation bad toCobra trial,(actual with the spectral figure of Tunda sure, 1997 film starring kickboxsome published way to go ard ofChattoraj’s defending writing him. Hishas recently ing templates and that gained greater traction af- er two-page spread explained “Ami and lurking in the background.

Don Wilson), typically with the stock Indian before catches up years with spent his artwork.

And as accountitof fourteen in the darkest ter it Rule was of embroidered with some details Abu’s Odds: Rules of travelling with a character Khan and Shakeel were or both arrested early with called Kohinoor Shalimar (Deepti Sarah, a more substantial and(Framed nuanced recesses of the Indian penal system as about prior to to terrorism.

Hisacapboy in aTunda’s car, alsolife applicable being with boy Bhatnagar’s in 1998 but met for thein first time while under character Operation Cobra).

In storyline would be great the2016) next time a Terrorist, Speaking Tiger Books, is essenture on India’s with Nepal — a favoured in a room”.

Theborder illustration depicted that the Ghosts custodyof… in we Sonepat jail. They wereand charged have Most Learned Virile around.

Butfor thisalliswho a minor tial reading seekcarp. to retrieve the poslocale forofstaging events in the must fight be against number girls in the gathering grea- British with collaborating a number bomb sibility paranormal on expert Sir Alec ofMorgan, Ghosts Pastfrom is, on balance, short ofofa Kingdom democracy the abyss itacould terror —(but was not described asthe a “carefully crafted ter than equal to) number of boys. who blastshas in conducted Delhi and successful its environs, but as the and investigations read; perfect, I’d imagine, for a longsoonsweet plunge into. operation” involving India’s external intelli- in “If I travel with a co-group, there must always hearings began, theand prosecution to ish ride on the Metro.

Japan and Egypt, now has hisfailed eyes set gence and counterparts in girls Saudiso Arabe an agency odd number of boys and it on make much progress, with its unseemly de- sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer Kolkata. and researcher mani based jha in Gurgaon and Shimla bia and look the United Emirates. doesn’t like I’mArab ‘with’ anybody. Ever tried pendence on forced confessions andthat witness At a public function, Morgan says Kol- aditya

I T Ghosts of Kingdoms Past Harsho Mohan Chattoraj Penguin India Fiction ₹150

Sarah: The Suppressed Anger of the Pakistani Obedient Daughter Ayesha Tariq Penguin India Fiction ₹299

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MEAL TICKET

City of gins It’s cascading Trump, it’s cascading Modi!

LIGHTHOUSE

A ginaissance is on in London, Paris and elsewhere. Leading the revival are small-batch gins distilled in copper vats and sold in apothecary-style bottles

naintara maya oberoi

the Dog’s Nose a distinctive, bitter, yeasty bite, unlike all the others we tried.

But from then on, everything went downhill. As we nosed about in the numbered glasses, we were struck by the difficulty of putting taste and smell into words. Gin is a complex blend of similar flavours; apart from the juniper, there may be seeds, consolangelica, cishare, compounded bycoriander the opposition trusagainst peels,itelderflower, chamomile, idating (as in Bihar).nettle, So a desperate rosemary, cinnamon, partyliquorice, would double down on Hindutvaor to nutmeg. moof gins also use more esoteric inbiliseThe its new core crop Hindutva vote. likeis heather, dandelion, kelp, safButgredients what if this all wrong? fron, andof fresh cream.

What if baobab, the rise frankincense of Modi consists sudden “Bigcascades and creamy?”

Friend #2 of read aloud preference following decades preffrom the tag for In theGujarat, East London Liquor Comerence falsification? for example, Dry. “Never heard of unspoken a gin being whatpany’s if the majority Hindus bear an creamy.” antipathy towards the minority community?

We attempted in any They may not expresstoitdiscern openlycreaminess because it’s of thetoclear gins before us, and failed. awkward do so.

Then the 2002 riots happen, “I thinkare this‘put one has anise,” one friend and Muslims in their place’.

Modi,said.

“That’s coriander somethen chief minister, neverseeds,” openly corrected takes credit this isdeny Littlehis Bird?” for it,one butelse. he “So doesn’t culpability ei“I don’t coriander at all,” Friend ther, and you get canany read between thesaid lines.

Tribal loyalties Maybe the exact same impulse explains both Trump and Modi: the instinctive attraction for a #1.Modi “It tastes … green,” I said in finally, like a Boom, wins the next elections a landstrong leader who will lead our tribe well and shit on all others k bhagya prakash/ reuters synaesthete.

This was getting slidedrunk — and every state election after that. stressful.

Certain gins flavours, silently but we were Similarly, whathad if distinct many Indians e live in strange times. A few Everyone at the table may have hated the food sharehopeless atcultural namingorthem: wassuperiorthat twang notions of religious days ago, my friend and fel- — but everyone may think that everyone else ity that lemon or nettle?

Was that coniferous are peel not polite or politically correct to pop low libertarian, the writer loved it. sagepublicly? or the ever-present juniper?

And the express (I am attempting dispasShikha Sood Dalmia, posted can have grave mention of anomalies likeand barkthis or cubeb political analysis here, is not berRestrained splendour Dismissed for long as a countryPreference club drink or falsification an old fogey’s sundowner, gin nowconmakes asionate shutterstock/marques comeback “Am on Facebook: I going mad or is the world? sequences. Kuran cites the Soviet Union as an meant ries served to further befuddle us. toonly be judgemental.)

In America, I’m rooting for a Democrat and in example. The Soviets used the strong arm of The ‘Yankee Dandy’ set wascould no picnic The rise of ModiDoodle at a national level ong considered vodka’s uncool India I’m defending a bloody communist!” pointy beardsdown and bow ties)speech. and sold in trendy the state to clamp on free Even if haveeither. does cascade, cassia bark taste like?” led to a“What preference and though mythe favourite drink, gin, is I was doinggrandma, the same. In US, the bigoted, apothecary-style bottles. London boasts all 99 per cent of the people hated communism Friend #2,have reading No 209, theseasked voters might comethe upnotes withfor many in the throes of a worldwide nativist, protectionist Donald Trump wasresurmannerthe of specialised gintobars, and wanted government fall,tastings, it wouldtours from San Francisco. policy reasons for voting for him — “He will gence.

For once,primaries, I’m aheadunof the dominating the Republican and visits (including to the Ginstinot do sodistillery because of preference falsification.

“No happen”, idea, I don’t go so about bark,” make GST and on gnawing — those on may trend, havingofhopped the bandwagon leashing invective the sortonto that usually only Untiltute on Portobello Road).

Andexpression gin’s sidekick, suddenly, one day, the public said.rationalisations “Wait, I think this one’s thereasons. fennel one! haveIbeen more than years ago when it turned that In my anonymous online trolls dare to out express.

In-spirit tonic water, isreached riding the wave too; purists now Is this Death’s of that preference a crit(Note: Door?”

I am not implying that all animal is,Modi’s in fact,government an elderly moustachioed dia, Narendra carried out colfaint atand the sight of a yellow-belted Schweppes ical mass, a phenomenon I was BJP wrong: the “fennel” wasthis.) actually supporters are like But the onel.

And as I was for my birthday a venal persecution of in a London few university stu- that or Catch bottle, supermarkets sell artisanal sage, bay Kuran called a ‘preference laurel andWhat Douglas fir notesenof the why now? suddenly year,on it seemed fitting to celebrate it withcascade’ a tonictook dents,this based doctored videos and a fake andplace. quinine syrups; many suddenly bars California From the and What forest in preference ‘Saint George’s Terroir’. abled this cascade?

I evening inthem this city, spiritual, tweet.gin-themed They arrested one of forgin’s sedition, make their own. outside, it might seem that a rebark,anGoogle revealed, was a kind of answer: social media. enabled this Cassiahave notthen original, home. who ifwas beaten up by lawyers in the gime toppled At 214 Bermondsey Southwark, staffed cascade? by dalchini suddenly, in over(cinnamon), but by theninitIndia was too Social media exploded preference I Gin, which takes its nameon from the French courthouse as the police looked passively. people who look like—they moonlight a hipnight, without warning as we late. We over glared thesix criss-crossed scorecard. theatlast years, just as Mohaveinan answer: and Dutch words for juniper, and geMy support, instinctively, went togenièvre, the Demobarbershop, the bar boasts nearly 50 types saw ster across the former Soviet #3 were still began. doggedly sipping di’sand national ascent Social social media Friends #2 is ofbeleaguered Dutch origincom(and the crats never in the(or US;jenever), and to the They offer ‘gin Bloc. ofButgin. while the also preference away, trying to distinguish media lets you express your pref- beroot of the in expression ‘Dutch courage’). It’s munist students India. flights’, as Ibeen thought of them, cascade may or have sudden, tween lavender and orris erences far more freely than in root. remade by distilling fermented What is going on here?

How cangrains a manwith like juni‘gin exams’.

Each ‘flight’ the preferences themselves wereoffers the tonic in,” said Friend al life,“Put because you’re either perbeberries herbs, spices the or other Trump on theand verge of leading partyaromatof not new. three distinctive gins, served on #1 despairingly, at last.re- This anonymous or at a physical “Howmove hard can a ics. Gin, in its Why cheapest form,politics was the ruin of Reynolds Abraham Lincoln? is Indian slipice in unmarked glasses; cus-American invokes Kuran in the seemedyou’re like the only possible from whomever talking to. So regin test be?” poor tribalism in the 18th-century, and in context, a tomers ping London’s back into crude just when India asked to identify the surge more true preferences andare speculates that Trump’s sponseget to expressed the situation.

Giving — and more refined version, coupled quinine, should finally be marching towards with modernon tasting notes. couldgins be based the result of a preference cascade. more and more people up, we turned the scorecard see more and moreover, the making of the inthese the next.Maybe Trump ity? Could there be oneBritish answerEmpire to both “How hard can a gin test be?” is articulating views that others opinions validating poured Bermondsey theirthe own preferences.Tonic A decade ago, vodka ruled bars and clubs evquestions? wenever said to other, giddily or- (“I hate Cascade! If this is true, would doeach themselves in public.

Waterthen into the the nineUSidentical in both and erywhere, its characterless alcoholic bite makA few days ago, the American columnist dering all three of the of paper foreigners.”

“Mexicans are‘flights’. rapists.”A piece “All Musand around. I took India,glasses, beneath thepassed veneerthem of sophisticated po- the it the perfect for titled all cocktails ending Glenning Reynolds wrote base a piece ‘A Trump tasting notes and the names of the lims provided should be deported.”

Whatever.)

Once Bird, which called ‘a London liticalLittle discourse, therethe liesbar a primal core that Dry “-tini.”

Gin was represented by low-quality wavein is on the way’.

To explain the Trump phe- they gins; were to man guesslike which see a you prominent himwas say which, these becitrus aspirations’. careswith about more basic things, like race and brandsReynolds which didcited nothing for its reputanomenon, a book by stuffy socioloforeand tearing open sealed envelope they to check things, others rusha out in support, we chorused.

Immediately, identity.“Cheers,” In fact, maybe the exact same impulse the tion, and didn’t exactly shine inLies: cocktails gist Timur Kuran, Private Truths, Public The eiyour answers.

Tonic are emboldened to vote forwas him.provided, but our world seemed a better place.

Whatever the boexplains both Trump and Modi: the instinctive Its restrained eleganceFalsification. meant that it was Now, Socialther.

Consequences of Preference waiter us to taste spirit shiftadvised your attention toeach India.

My neat view first. tanicals had leader contributed to the attraction forthat a strong who will leadseemingour as party a relicatofyour Prohibition, a the(214 Sayusually you aredismissed at a dinner boss’s of its own the was amber-gold lastmakes elections untiltonic, recently basical- Bersimple, butonapparently tribely well and shit all others. horribly complex club drink, athe colonial hangover place.country The food is terrible: dal makhani hasor an mondsey Water or BTW short.)

We be- Butflavours ly this: the BJPTonic got its highest votefor share ever of the we were grateful for them. these are justgins, theories, and they could oldthe fogey’s sundowner; the clean perfecno salt, butter chicken haseven too much tomagannot with thedid ‘Tour of London’, included because only it mobilise its which traditional My gin-and-tonic was crisp and cold, all garbe wrong, or merely partly right.

And there tion Your of the gin-and-tonic, itslike commonest to purée. boss asks how you the food. avaEast Londonvoters Liquor—Company’s Dry, Little base the — the Hindutva it also attracted floral, like the oneout hinge day becouldden-fresh be otherand silent preferences there tar, was easy overlook. as you’ve seen otherBird You murmur yourto appreciation, from Moonshine voters whoPeckham, were sickand of the UPA’s cor-Kid’s tween and summer. was happy waiting forspring their cascade.

WhatItcould thosehour Happily, thedo. ginaissance has now taken others on the table You are hiding your ac- off, Dog’s Nose, distilled in Bethnal Green. ruption, who wanted economic reforms andThree at last. be? Who will make it happen? in London,inParis and Thesocial revival is tual preference order to elsewhere. fit in or avoid ofnow the that four the of us identified so on.out And BJPcorrectly was bound to dis- the t@amitvarma writer based in spearheaded small-batchfalsification’. gins distilled in awkwardness.

Thisby is ‘preference Moonshine, twolose kinds of beer naintara maya oberoi is a food appoint some ofwhich them,features it would vote artisanal copper vats (by people sporting hops in its mix in the Dutch style. This gives Paris t@naintaramaya

The seemingly inexplicable rise of Donald Trump and a proliferation of pro-Hindutva sentiments in India may have a common theoretical ground: preference falsification

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

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saturday, march 19,19, 2016 saturday, march 2016

The Museum NASA and theofpower of healing and closure pipe dreams

Travel log Getting there

Fly Lufthansa to Frankfurt and connect to Zagreb.

Stay

Best Western Hotel Astoria has comfortable doubles in a central location. www.hotelastoria.com

Tip In Zagreb, a one-of-a-kind museum acts as a repository of The colourful Market is a The Indian media, its all-consuming rush present breaking news, failed to seeDolac through great place to get a peek into relationships past, in helping people move on to while preserving Croatian life and mingle with the of alife misguided, bits lies of the they oncepossibly had delusional teenager the locals. Fridays and

Saturdays are busy; any other day of the week is good to from the Bengali news channel ABP Ananda, wander around the stalls one of the first channels to “break” the Satatasting the smoked cheeses parna Mukherjee story, cabbage. on the condition of and pickled anonymity.

Sataparna’s story was also given a political twist by a number of news channels in Bengal because of hercatches father’smy credentials. headcandy colours eye: it wasThe donated master Kamduni Primary school, Pradip by a girlof who had a long-distance relationship Mukherjee was one of the most prominent between Zagreb and Sarajevo and resolved to voices brutal gangrape tear offagainst one legthe of the toy every time and theymurmet. der a 21-year-old Kamduni 2013.

Theyofwould start ain life togethervillage whenin the caHe had attracted lot ofthat flaknever fromhappened the West terpillar lost all itsa legs: Bengal for joining protest rally as they government split before that.

There isa an old Nokia at village.

“I would travel from cellthe phone with a message fromone an departanonyment of the that statereads: government another to mous donor “It lastedto300 days too get herHe some to go to London, butsonoI long. gavegrants me his mobile phone one helped,” he anymore.” says. When his daughter’s couldn’t call him claims were disproved, some local channels tried to project it as a conspiracy against the Trinamool government. “How the media has nailed this case is potentially dangerous. If inMending walls There is a graffiti wall where you can write a message to the deed Sataparna is an attention-seeking teenmuseum or something that you want to express and let go kalpana sunder ager, isn’t it our fault that we have given her that much attention without checking facts? ach one of us has been broken- of emotions and relationships Instead of taking that responsibility, we are hearted at one time or another. — romantic, parent-child bond, trying to spin a new tale,” says Dasgupta.

The museum teaches us to deal divorces, separation from loved Ayoti Patra, a PhD research scholar at the with loss and closure,” says my ones, and many more — and tries University of Maryland, USA, was one of the guide, urging me not to miss this popular at- to find universal patterns in loss. first people to call Sataparna’s bluff through a shutterstock traction in Zagreb, Croatia. The museum itself An arched entrance leads into Facebook post. She feels that any “diligent is a by-product of a breakup. When co-foun- the gallery, which is an intimate space journalist should have noticed the inconsisataparna Mukherjee, 17, beams with ders Dražen Grubisic and Olinka Vistica (a has facilitieslighting. in London and all of our in- tencies withno subdued Narrow passageways I think the success of this quirky muin that Sataparna’s theories”. self-satisfaction. don’t want of this to ternships filmmaker) ended their “Irelationship four are awarded live seum are lined with exhibits —toa students toy car, a who hat, love owes to the fact thatthe every perThisprobably is not the first time that Indian be anhad end.toI want to go more high (sic). within years, they divide their sentimental miles ofred ourgown, location NewstiletYork media notes, a50 beautiful andin black son on has earth is intrigued thereporting. twin themes fallen prey to by poor In A NASA scientistthem. and aThey celebrated writ- City. memorabilia between didn't want Thecards application deadline for our stu- 1996, tos. The mention the length of 2016 the relaof love and loss.

We all need let goclaimed of past reRamar Pillai from TamiltoNadu to er,” saysget therid ISCofstudent from Kamduni village dents to just it, so they created a museum. closed 1. We have not madenote any have tionship, city March and country, as also a short lationships results in liberating our botfound as a it magic bush that could trans(about 30 kmfriends from Kolkata) an interview They invited to donateinsome artefacts selections Cabbage Huffington about the yet,” object and its told association withPost the mute tled emotions.

ThereThis is awas graffiti wall by where water to petrol. reported one given to own Kolkata’s news channel on Ja- India of their failedleading relationships, and created over an Iemail. relationship. become absorbed by the candid Tamil you can write a message thelater museum or Nadu newspaper andtowas followed nuary 29. The project YouTube link lost to the an interactive about loveinterview that had stories However, thisby fact-checking done by shared people thatwas touched onthe is- up something that to express anddailies. let go. by almost allyou thewant leading national has a volley oftocomments.

“I want to go ‘more website the potential connect with varied audiencalmost allteenage the leading and Eventually, sues likeafter early death, lovedailies lost, AIDS I see a 20-year-old woman’s scrawl: have nevit turned out that he “Iwas using high’?? willglobe. be the most ‘happiest’ person? media es acrossI the houseswho of the and people nevercountry came er beenofinhand a serious relationship sleight to substitute kerOxford??

Please give me a break!”

It’s a rainy, grey day when I walksays intoone. the“Is ti- had Sataparna’s home. Icelebrated am not surprised that in yet. I hope when it ishe over I can osene for the liquid claimed this a news channel or faking news channels?” ny museum.

Ironically, it is located just across “achievement” glowing 2011 the placethrough was voted Eudonate the museum.” to have to derived from the bush. asks fromanother.

Zagreb’s City Hall, where local couples articles talked about the 17- Sataparna rope’s that‘most innovative “If you wish to get rid of a gift Sataparna, who eventually The exhibits are Mukherjee this The month, her face was probably all year-old’s getEarlier married. museum displays some 100 museum’. passion for writing, from an ex, you can send it — with made a plea to be spared organised in aisles eventually made a over your timeline. teenage ‘relics’ outFacebook of the about 1,000The that are instuits and theexhibits long listare of her extra-curThe organised in your storya —Facebook to the museum and through post, said thattorepresent plea be spared dent school a north Kolkata ‘bank’.ofItabegan as in a travelling exhibit, suburb collect- ricular activities.

“It’s like every aisles that represent different they“might will display it without reshe be suffering from dedifferent emotions through a claimed to havein been internship

by Bengali’s ing mementos theoffered form ofan letters, clothes, come true. and NAemotions.dream The Aisle of Rage vealing your identity,” says the lusion and the incessant phone Facebook post NASA’s Goddard Space Centre footwear, keys, and so onFlight before, finally,(GSFC) mak- SA, Oxford, toppingholds all exams, Fury, for example, objectsI girl at from the counter. calls media houses are and a full scholarship the University of am ing its home in Zagreb from in 2010. surprised how people like the garden gnome sculpOn sale inher thepreparation gift shop arefor Thampering London.

“I unique was feted

by Allthe India Students’ As- lapped What is about museum is that allwas thisthrown up without ture that by aneven anshirts by young Croatian designboard exams”. sociation in the August when I got a confirmation even today, heartbroken can donate their questioning NASA, an agengry wife ontohow the windshield of her husband’s ers. The biggest-selling item, receptionist Abha Soni, a the consultant psyfrom NASA. After which I was interviewed by cy stuff and find closure. ofcar theon USthe federal to- chiatrist new day ofgovernment, their divorce.can Theget Resosays, is a white eraser with words “bad mefrom Nagpur whothe works extensively theEach localdisplay daily Ganashakti,” she said.

Eventualis accompanied by the dates gether to that offerholds a 17-year-old nance ofwith GriefOxford is a room a single ob-a with mories eraser”. reckons that it’s high time we teenagers, ly, Michael Cabbage, Chiefand for notes Com- special and locations of the Associate relationships, Piyasree of letMaterial ject thatinternship,” belonged tosays a young girlDasgupta who ended objects giveismeaning to he ourorlives her be. “If a person delusional, she munications, Goddard for Huffington of explanationNASA written by theirInstitute anonymous Post, who wrote to the Achief of will her life on the night of her break-up. suicide and go create a narrative them.

Their valto any extent toaround prove his or her theory.

Space Studies, thattourist they neither donors.

I talk clarified to a British at the have mu- communications to corroborate the facts. note from a mother to her son brings me to They ue is not always monetary: be valuwon’t accept anythingobjects to the can contrary.

In any record of says, a student by athat name norand do tears. seum and he “Seems bizarre idea Indeed, the myth of Sataparna One section called the Rites ofMukherjee Passage is fact able they because of emotional association will fabricate other lies to make or it they have a facility London. no re-I is, voyeuristic to me,inbut since “We it’s have working, moreabout than anything a creation of the mostly weddings.else, There are photo al- sound depending on who gave them us.do is to let plausible.

The least we to can cord studentstrokes namedfor Sataparna guessofit’sany different differentMukpeo- Indian media. “When youaare under constant bums, wedding gifts and dress.

I see a vinyl herEmpathy is healing and that is for what themore mube instead of bothering her one herjee granted ple.” The being museum’s objectivean is “tointernship, overcome pressure provide breaking news,“Ifyou have record oftothe Terry Jacks number you go quote,” seum creates a stage for.to The exhibits are eversays Soni.

Amen that. scholarship or any form of academic or finanemotional collapse through donating some to overlook fact-checking at times.

Moreover, away,” donated by a girl who listened to it ev- changing, dynamic, just like relationships are. cial assistance from you ourofinstitute.

Further- Sataparna’s article that reminds the sad incident father, Mukherjee, is a re- debapriya nandi is a freelance journalist based ery day through thePradip four months of an intense Kolkata sunder is a Chennai-based travel writer kalpana more, the Goddard Institute forwhole Spacepanoply Studies nowned and letting go.” It explores the social activist,” says toy a representative relationship.

A quirky stuffed caterpillar in in

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The curious case of old The secret diary of V photographs Mallya, aged 60 1

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of ordinary folks are ending as uphe in settles antiques shopsthe andRed finding PagesStudio out of images the liquor baron’s private memoirs amidst Coatsbuyers too

Framed and found Photographs are often found among piles of discarded objects at the ‘antique shops’ of Karaikudi sravanthi challapalli dipankar

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March 13, 2016 ntering a shop selling antiques inThe Ka-oil painting of the State Bank chairmanold.to be upset ples — newly married, middle-aged, witharchitecture me. I offered him some ions, and even thebeer, studio furniDepressed. I am living in poverty in the UK. All raikudi’s Muneeswaran Kovil came Street,in today.

I am placing it in the living Would you sell your family photographs?

I made but this even angrier.

He wants ture.him Publishers and writers have me used them as I have is 36 acres. Feeling cramped clausI’m jolted.

My and travel companions room, to remind me of the times. He Such a ittosome ask someone whogood has many. gives get himillustrations a role in theornext Karancovers Johar to moin book evoke a bytrophobic, plus, how will manage justsearch have ledI me to onewith in their forsweet kind, lady, and not at all only thought and says he hasty. might,She if he didn’tvie. have After agone while, heAn became quite abusive.

Hehobbyists era. even smaller niche of 43 Mercedes?

None them matches my pinkutensils. brass riceofmeasures and enamel A me declared a defaulter in November 2015, be-them? space for them.

Who would use He me blamed for it blowing up his inheritance.

Hesome picuses for collages.

I show Lateef shirt. narrow staircase leads up to rooms thatcause are athe doesn’t State Bank of India does not to if know.

They might be like valuable they said my new beard made me look a Bond tures.

He agrees they arelike pictures of ordinary A secretary from the finance ministry calledof squalid study in anarchy; there are heaps jump to conclusions.

Theand painter asked me postcards for villain. can be dated turned into or Hepeople was hysterical. worry about that are Iunlikely to be him. bought to be to inform objects me that—they are with misplacing the rel-wirework, sofas unravelling payment. keepsakes.

I told him to come back next The Internet tells week. me that art stuHe’s been shown like thisoff. ever sinceatDeepika ditched They are “Look the backdrops. evant filesvintage as quickly as possible. told themdolls, to trunks radios, clocks,Icrockery, Got another call. Some jackass at dentsprank use them for projects.

Butthe few photohim. usually painted — mansions, pillars, flowers, work faster. have totoys, givea them credit,a rocking andYou suitcases, puja stand, other endgraphs just went mwahahahaha and then I see in Karaikudi lend themselves to is not This the right time.ofPerhaps palaces, elements Britain.tomorWe were poor, though. It’s beena40 years sinceturban my friend horse, silk-and-zari withBill fake pearls, disconnected. suspect Captain Gopinath. suchIuse.

And then, why would there stillrow be so morning. and we wanted to be like the Joneses.” invented rusty the PC, but water they’re still not using flasks, coolers, empty tins of Glaxo many around if they did sell?

Most of the stuff at Bismi Arts comes from March 15, 2016 March 2016 computers.

People thinkround, I’m smooth, but look switches and Ovaltine, black electrical Bismi Arts, in fact, has a roomful. And Ra- 17, large family homes that have been partiat them. They’re It’s because familiaran to inspiration. those who grew up in the Woke 1970s,up bek, this morning to this find that my air- The bikinis are all here, who owns business finally,says so I called tioned, Rabek.Sid Shahul Hathe IAS exam so competitive. andisphotographs — of people, families, graduplane-shaped pillow is missing. along with his father, seemingly down from his bedroom, where meed runs a similar business in Sid keeps whining about supermodels. ation day, and school and college He groups.

Am shocked. security in this of stories hasThe an equal number he was getting a foot massage. the same street.

There is only one misses them.The What can I do? None of them areshort. photographs bring me up I’ve is terrible. house may have to two custo share.IHe once found “Try this on,” I say, handing him a cardboard box of photographs in An 85-year-old taking myseen calls.

Talk pictures about ingratitude.

Am family being sold at the secondstart paying them.sobbing over a phototomers hot little number in fluorescent his store, but there are legions of My ass will look businessman came shocked. hand Are they worried about not being Moore Market that once stood opposite Called graph. the Tirupati NRIs andtemple. sisters, they had pink. He looks puzzled,— like me teapots, enamelware kettles, gorgeous, but I worry to buy a cashbox and paid? I don’t why. I never paidrailway them before. thesee Chennai Central station. Asked Black- them to give back stumbled upon thethe photograph when I try to docarriers math. I — put lining a tiffin the about wedgies ended up finding a and-white images of people who have three posedkilosofof gold which—I now had an ailing their mother hand on his shoulder.

It is lisshelves.

These have come from picture of himself March 14, 2016 in studios, probably for the family, ending up to donated them in — 2012.

They 90-year-old in her graduation afford superthecan’t erstwhile Czechoslovakia, as a child some. “We Problems in in shabby the morning again.

Thedo ghost markets.

How theyofmake that said no. Perplexed. ideafirst in the robes. SheHad had no stood models anymore, son,” I say.

Sweden, Hungary and the UK, my fatherjourney? keeps tapping theofbathroom I try to on think the possibilities —wasuniversity, that it non-refundable. they told him. He “This means we have to model among other places,for and were all window while trying died, to doathe ‘bigwas job’. maybeI’m everyone house sold off,Am thedebating the merits of a thong. for Am in the calendar ourselves.part sold them five photographs It was of theThere con- was simof part dowries.

This happens every day.

Sometimes he managinheritors weren’t interested in the phototwo minds.

My ass will from look Punjab, gorgeous, but I tract. They were very ply ₹1,500.

A man who insistent.

Thissoshould too much, it was sold off, es to get in.

He moans and cries andfamily, keepsor wavgraphs of the extended even immeworry about hadwedgies. studied in a Coimbatore college, discovteach yousays a lesson.

Making never Hameed.

So, notmoney all theisstuff is from faming a calculator at me.they From timeknow to time, diate family, didn’t howhe to preserve ered his class photograph here. An 85-year-old easy.” ilies that fell on hard times? “Oh no! They were 2016 raises his face tothey the chandelier howls them, didn’t haveand space, theylike didn’tMarch know 16, businessman from Karaikudi came to buy a surprise, To my notareluctant.

Oradds. may-I leave the too manyhetoisuse, burden,” he a lost soulwhose trapped in the lowest pitwere… of hell. He The ghostcashbox photographs they of my father got intoupmyfinding bedroom and ended a picture of place be I should not with be surprised.

He was always a mixed feelings, not without wonhovers over But the who commode, to strangle would trying buy them?

They mostly lastfeanight,himself still crying bitterly.

Between sobs, from as a child.

Antiques dealers Jailittle swishy.

As the sunwill setsone over the green to En-my, or anydering what day happen me, frustrated his lackpeople; of flesh.

I tryposed to geteasily, turedby ordinary some heothtried to meback advice.

“Buy cheap,” he inglish purgive take photographs to sell theirmeadows, the gardeners prunephotographs. the one else’s collection of family I him with ers thenot comfort nozzle, butKaraikudi the watershop so. Many in the had shops, whispered.

“Buy ch-e-e-e-a-p.”

This isofbecoming says Rabek. Some the photos are not wedon’t hedges, try on bikinis, father and son, know which is worse — strikhaving to part keeps going though hewith whispers children in him. them‘Son’, — boys long hair, per- older intolerable.

Called Tirupati Temple and thanup 30 years, going by the date on ingthe poses with and doing the duck facefor inmoney, the mir-or because cherished images tearfully, ‘give backamy money.’ is very hapsme before tonsure at aThis temple somewhere; asked them if they could send over aitems priest, at seem frame.

Many of the other don’t tois athey ror. It rarebecame moment of togetherness. a burden.

Maybe theMy sellers kept inconsiderate.

His interrupting mybut least. babies onsobbing a table is with nothing on a goldTheybesaid no. It’seither, as if gratitude a for- objects antiques more likeiseveryday troubles seem far away.

Finally, I amI hope at peace. one copy of each photo. they did. Maybowel movement. chain or two, big black bottus on the forehead eign concept. from the recent past. be, some of the sold photos will find other shovon chowdhury latest novel, Murder With families, like The bikinis were to delivered.

They were theand a gold and cheek guard against evil eye, Sid came over from acting school. spent Mohammed Lateef, whoHe runs the antiques homes, or ’sbe reunited with their is set did in a Calcutta occupied Bengali wrong size, so around I sent them of the the belt the back. groin Some — a favourite studio wholestore evening in frontShop of the The sitting Old Curiosity in fireChennai, says Characteristics, the lucky ones at Bismi Arts.

by China high-heeled shoes were quite cute, though. pose for infants of the ’60s and ’70s; little girlswhining. place, All my family members seem business. old photographs make for a niche in frocks with bindis and kajal-lined eyes; cou- People buy them to research an era, its fash- sravanthi challapalli

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The beginning of an Dear WADA, please end to open defecation enhance your performance BEYOND THE FIELD

How Harijan Pally in Nadia, West Bengal, became the epicentre of a clean revolution The case of Maria Sharapova proves that as long as the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) does not run a tighter ship, it will always be one step behind modern-day athletes, a tribe that will do anything not-yet-outlawed to gain an edge suhrith parthasarathy

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n March 6, Maria Sharapova’s agent announced that the tennis star would hold a press conference the following day to make what he termed a “major announcement.” Reports abounded of a possible retirement. After all, Sharapova had competed only sporadically A curious over the last several months, and she hadn’t confession Tennis played a single match this year since losing to star Maria Sharapova Serena Williams in the quarterfinals of the speaks during a news Australian Open. This was Sharapova’s 18th conference in Los consecutive loss to Williams. It was possible Angeles on March 7.

Sharapova said she that she had, by now, had enough. has failed a drug test Having won five major titles and amassed at the Australian more than $35 million in prize money alone Open ap / damian (to say nothing about her off-court earnings), dovarganes and with Williams proving insurmountable, perhaps Sharapova believed there was little [WADA] only from the beginning of 2016. Sha- before her, committed a grave moral sin? “It’s left for her to prove. rapova claims she’s been on Meldonium for not up to me to decide the punishment, but if The next day though, when she took to a mi- nearly 10 years, for medical reasons, and was you’re taking performance-enhancing drugs crophone assembled in a dingy Los Angeles unaware of the decision to ban the substance. and you fail a drugs test, you have to get sushotel, with a clumsily folded sheet of paper in According to her, she missed reading an email pended,” British tennis star Andy Murray said, hand, Sharapova moved quickly to dispel ru- from WADA in December last year that expli- in response to Sharapova’s admission. “I think mours of her retirement. “I know many of you cated the list of banned substances, a list that taking a prescription drug that you don’t necthought that I would be retiring today,” she now included Meldonium. But this supposed essarily need, but just because it’s legal, that’s said in commencing her conference. But “if I ignorance might not quite mitigate the dam- wrong, clearly. That’s wrong. If you’re taking a was going to announce my retirement, it age done. prescription drug and you’re not using it for would probably not be in a downtown Los AnAfter all, WADA had been specifically moni- what that drug was meant for, then you don’t geles hotel with this fairly ugly carpet.” But toring Meldonium for over a year, after find- need it, so you’re just using it for the performwhat followed this quip — the major announ- ing traces of it in blood samples obtained ance-enhancing benefits that drug is giving cement, as it were — was altogether more from several athletes. According to one study, you. And I don’t think that that’s right.” shocking, a completely unanticipated revela- some 2.2 per cent athletes in the world had But there are also larger ethical issues at tion that has jolted the world of tennis intoBansfor Meldonium in their reports stakeand here.

That those who violate WADA’s proStellar show Pulin Nayak, Suresh Bansfore and Vijay — core members of thesystem.

Young StarThese Club, which staged plays campaigned door-to-door to make Harijan all images: rina Pally open defecation-free virtual suspension.

“I wanted to mukherji let you know pointed to its powers of boosting body metab- scriptions ought to face sanctions is unquesthat a few days ago, I received a letter from the olism in a player, of helping imtionable. Tennis players — [International Tennis Federation] that I had prove an athlete’s endurance especially those at the top — ofNadia was declared the first the Young Star Club failednaApril drug2015, test at the Australian Open,” she the the maintain ambulance.

We helped and area, aerobic capabilities.

For was a one of the even ₹10 forten a large coterieher of defecation-free India. first respond. said. open “I did fail the test, and district I take fullinresponpay,” says Suresh, an active member of the sporttolike tennis, in which sucadvisors.

It’s within the scope of Is Sharapova’s Two Members of the club involvedan innocent sibility formore it.” districts in West Bengal — Hu- cess club who is employed administrative asis predicated todaywere on already sutheir jobsas toan know what goes into blunder gli lately, and Burdwan, Bikaner in Rajaseffortsbodily to improve their surroundings.

The Until tennis hadand been relatively unaf- in sistant preme condition, the theirUniversity. bodies. But sport also tends one or has she at Kalyani than quickly followed Nadia’s Even act. Here the municipality’s decision toquality partner with Kamal a grave fected by doping scandals. as is other Suraj initially a basic at a cost performance-enhancing to installed encourage andtoilet virtually recommitted story of howmired the beginning made intestthe Kar’s CLTS Foundation gaveclear. the club the fillip sports were with manywas top athletes of ₹300. Nowward he wants thewho municipal authorin Meldonium was rather players do everything moral sin? slums of Kalyani Municipality. were looking for. Supported ing positive for banned substances, very few of they him a to proper costs Sharapova’s explanation that by the mu- ities to buildthey can secureunit eventhat the most health-in-charge Dr the best tennis players had faced such ignomi- nicipality’s ₹13,000, butofis unable pay the she was consuming the subnegligible gains, to while rea decade Harijan Pally one of Kasturi club condimemny. Innly recent timesago, though, with thewas frequency initial of ₹1,000. stance toBakshi, treat athe medical mainingcontribution within the realms of the the dirtiest partsmore of Kalyani Municipality wentor door door, appealof testing increasing, prominent players bers Once again,Djokovic the localiscommunity tion may maytonot have been law. Novak famous for in Nadia district, West Marin Bengal.Cilic, “People ev- ing the residents build have faced sanctions. whowho would has pitched indiet, to help. true.to Indeed, until last to year, within the pure who undertaking a gluten-free and for sitting People ever er came would hold their every home. later winhere theon USwork, Open, was banned fornoses; nine toilets letter ofinthe doping law, if not under far broadinside a “CVAC Pod” — an egg-shaped chamber came here on work, he club has come a long it made (which us feel was so ashamed,” Suresh were met she withhad mixed re- to take months reduced torecalls four) for test- er They ethical norms, all rights theholdthat helps saturate a player’s blood withway oxwould their stiff resistance it Bansfor, a resident.

A few families hadtoal-do everything ing positive for nikethamide, while the Ser- sponse. drug. Athletes often tend ygen.

It might befrom unfairthe to question Djokovic noses; it made us feel encountered in the there early days.

Its Home to largely froman Bihar and Uttar others, to improve bian Viktor Troicki Dalits was given 18-month ban ready within built their toilets powersbut to compete, for using these measures when is nothso ashamed corethem. committee — comprising Pradesh, besides a few other familiesmissing from Od-a like of daily-wage sweeper (reduced to 12 months) for simply theirthat physical and mental conditions. But Sha- ing illegal about But that Sharapova was Nayak, and a few isha, the Harijan Pally was overrun Bansfore, refusedistoalmost heed. blasé; every using a drugPulin drug test.9.26-acre But neither of these players is quite Suraj rapova’s explanation for more thanSuresh 10 years before it othersto—be used cultural occasions by the open defecation.

Few houses here had toi- Finally, Suraj athlete learnedfails thea drugs hard test, the rea- was finally found in league of Sharapova.

And what’s more, time a major performance enhancsuch about as Holithe and Diwali to sport stage lets, so the residents — dailytheirs, wage-earners, as way — the aftersame: his either five-year-old in Sharapova’s case, unlike the infracsons are an ignorance of hav- ing tells us much regime that plays thatunder, urged an people to build toilets also appears central to and government Kantithe was repeatedly with operates tion be state far more egregious.Class III daughter ing consumed substance or andown ignorance administration thatand is, put an end to open Their messages and Class IV employees — used diarrhoea The drug in questionamong here, them Meldonium, of the law. and gastroenteritis. “I saw Suraj’s time and again, leftdefecation. in the slipstream by those linked to toilets Flies that sat on faeces the grounds around thein slum instead. outside their home the one questions morning. trying which is manufactured Latvia, and is unap- wife In crying some quarters, therefore, find to anhealth. advantage.

In 2006, the local Food municipal body Adan- Her daughter wasand unconscious having proved by when the American and Drug remain the same, the answersafter either black in the outdoors could easily contaminate parthasarathy a Chennai-based lawyer food, and infect people. isChildren and the elnounced a community-led total sanitation motions all night. The child needed to be suhrith ministration, was added to the list of banned loose or white.

Is Sharapova’s blunder an innocent writer t@suhrith derly were particularly vulnerable; and the (CLTS) programme to endAnti open-defecation in hospitalised, but mother didsuperstars not have and substances by the World Doping Agency one, or has she, likethe so many other

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Saving Teddy Community in cahoots

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Pigeon air patrol

Louisiana bears no longer threatened

early half of India — 595 million people — defecate in the open, according to Unicef. The country accounts for 59 per cent of the world’s population that does not use toilets. Little wonder then that he thereal-life countryinspiration loses 1.88 lakh of teddy its under-five for the bear, children to diarrhoea every year. the Louisiana black bear, is off the endan-

Birds with backpacks monitor pollution

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gered list. Considered a threatened species for LTS (community-led total sanitation) relies on “the community over two decades, the bears have been in pubtaking thelicinitiative improve sanitation level, rather memorytosince 1902 its when US president ‘Ted- than a subsidy-driven,dy’ top-down approach”, explains Dr Kamal Kar, Roosevelt refused to shoot one. By 1992,who came up with habitat the approach in reduced 1999 while leading an evaluation loss had their number to 150, mission for WaterAid in Bangladesh.

It is enough to make people see but the furry creatures have bounced back due where the problem lies, and what openand defecation can cause to conservation efforts, at least 500 now in terms of sickness and hethe says. roam thedisease, forests in US.However, he rues that this approach has been largely ignored, even at a time when the current government has “put the greatest emphasis ever on ending open defecation in India”.

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Paris-based lab that monitors air pollution worldwide, has put pigeons to work to help track air quality. Plume Labs has begun its project in London, where pigeons, with tiny backpacks strapped to them, track air pollution and send data back to the lab. The data is also posted on a website, tagged with locations.

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he success of the CLTS approach depends on identifying natural leaders in the community; this must be followed up by the use of the right kind of trainers to help the programme progress to the next phase.

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hildren can prove to be the best agents for change, and are hence an important part of the programme. Once the entire community realises that they are actually “eating each other’s shit” owing to the practice of open defecation, a collective decision immediately follows to end the practice and build toilets. CLTS has wrought wonders in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Bolivia, Yemen, Tanzania, Uganda, Pakistan, Indonesia, besides India.

Closed issue The toilet at Amit Bansfor’s home that was built with financial aid from Kalyani Municipality

diarrhoea and other enteric diseases that stunt growth,” says Dr Bakshi.

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urrently, a lease deed is being negotiated for Harijan Pally that will ensure the residents never face eviction in the future. ndia’s biggest mystery deepened some more. Family A roof guaranteed over their heads, the resiphotographs of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and teledents appear even more willing to invest in a grams sent by Azad Hind Fauj veterans, were found in a toilet. Until 2006, the family of railway clerk box owned by Gumnami Baba. Believed to resemble the Bulbul Prasad had no qualms defecating outfreedom fighter, the baba had died in 1985 in Faizabad, Utside. After using an asbestos-lined single-pit tar Pradesh. His belongings, which had been locked up in toilet for a few years, they are now enthusiastithe district treasury, are being examined by state officials. cally building a vastly improved bath-and-toilet complex in their compound.

Kishore Bansfor’s house, on the other hand, already had a toilet before the family was shifted to another plot during the slum’s realignhe hacker grouptoAnonymous ment.

He and has activist now chosen build a twin-pit has declared war on US Presidential cantoilet along with a massive tank. His cousin didate Donald Trump. video deAmit Bansfor, too,Their had recent to abandon his old clares, “We have been watching for a long home but has now gainedyou a ₹13,000 governtime ment and what seepaying is deeply toiletwe after justdisturbing… ₹1,000.

Your hateful and lays inconsistent Dr Bakshi much of campaign the credit has for HariHealthy interest Youngsters were roped in to spread the message linking toilets to disease-free living not only the United of door Amerijan shocked Pally’s success storyStates at the of the ca, you haveStar shocked the entire planet withyoung Young Club and its indefatigable your heroes. appalling actionsto and ideas.”

The group Refusing rest on their laurels, the money spent on medicine and/or hospitalisa- who insisted on using the outdoors as they calledclub outhas to busied fellow itself hacktivists to sabotage in making the surroundtion far exceeded the cost of a toilet. Ultimate- had done for many years.

Trump’s as he and poses a threat to camingscampaign free of garbage filth.

Its next ly, “the economics of health was what drove in theirpaign way of plans to take The club took to shaming them. Little chilwilllife. getAnonymous people to stop throwing plastic the point,” Dr Bakshi says. downand Trump’s luxury condos dren were given whistles to raise the alarm other website waste inselling the open.

The slum was made of homes built haphaz- when they saw someone using in California.

Such enthusiasm proved conardly on land belonging to Kalyani University. the open grounds to answer natagious. More communities As a first step, a meeting was arranged and the ture’s call. stepped up to the challenge of land was formally handed over to Kalyani MuSeptuagenarian Shambhu cleaning the environment. In Septuagenarian nicipality. In consultation with the residents, Das hurled his lota in frustrafact, in Vidyasagar colony — one Shambhu Das hurled the municipality and the CLTS Foundation re- tion at one such group of vigihis lota in frustration of the first slums under Kalyani constructed the houses in neat rows; next they lant children and community Municipality to become open at a group of vigilant laid out sewer lines and drains. Houses that members. defecation-free — the residents children could not be realigned were demolished and recently cleared a filthy, clogged ther slums began to take the families shifted to an alternative plot. Evdrain that had unfailingly overndian just got a taste of Pakistani tech weapons.

SmeshApp, notice ofsoldiers the CLTS model’s ery family opted to build a toilet, and most of flowed duringaevery monsoon in app thatand tracked smartphones, in Harijan Pally, the Indian soldiers through theirthe them chose the basic model. The municipality success spyware past 12 years. Clearly, enlightremoved Googleplays Play store. installed, thecan appreadily empower of been the Young Starfrom Clubthe in using distributed free plastic pans to set up single- effortshas enedOnce communities stolemedia storedto text messages, photographs call information and track and other drive home the message of andthemselves pit toilets. for a better future. movements.

Honeytrap accounts “They on Facebook were used to lure soldefecation-free environment.

Of course, merely building toilets was not an open diers intopan installing the the app.working of a rina mukherji is a Kolkata-based journalist used an actual to explain guaranteed to end open defecation.

Old habits die hard, so there were many pit latrine, and how using toilets can curb specialising on environmental issues

Netaji pics in dead man’s belongings

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

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n March 19, 1895, the Lumière brothers shot the first-ever footage on their cinematograph. This quiz is dedicated to them and all the filmmakers that followed.

here,there & elsewhere

Muddled memory

Filmmakers

1

One of Hollywood’s most iconic directors instructed his office to buy up all copies of a novel by Robert Bloch on which his film was based, so that viewers would not know the ending. The film was one of his biggest hits, and Bloch’s novel remains comparatively unknown.

Name the director and the film for which he went to such extreme lengths.

2

It’s not always easy to switch from leading man to film direction, but this actor managed to win an Academy award for Best Director in his very first try, for Ordinary People.

The film also won the Best Picture award. Name the director.

3

Which renowned Indian film director has earned a postgraduate degree in finance from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and started his career with the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi?

4

In 1960, who became the first director to win Academy Awards for producer, director and screenwriter for the same film? The film was nominated for 10 Oscar awards and won five.

5

Which director has not only used New York’s Central Park as a location for at least six of his films, but has also written a wickedly funny off-Broadway play called Central Park West, about a psychiatrist who discovers that her best friend is having an affair with her husband?

6

This iconic director has used the Rolling Stones song Gimme Shelter in three of his films, so it is not surprising that he also directed Shine a Light, the definitive documentary about the band. Name the director.

7

In which iconic film of the 1980s does director/producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra play the role of Dushasana, the brother of Duryodhana, in the climax. He was also the production controller for the film.

8

e are planning a short trip to see my sister who now lives in W Hartford, Connecticut. But I have misplaced the tickets. “If you had read the same book as me ...” begins Bins.

“Stop lecturing!” I snarl. “Just find the TICKETS!” Needless to say, this only results in a full-blown dissertation on Joshua Foer’s MOONWALKING WITH EINSTEIN. “It’s really very helpful,” Bins insists, “especially for people who are losing their minds. Like you.” Losing tickets is not the same as losing my mind, I say.

“It’s all about memory,” says Bins. “The author has an idea that anyone can train himself to remember everything.

Even where he left the bus tickets.” In order to prove his theory, the author sets himself the target of competing in the US Memory Championship. “The what?” I ask. Bins gives me a withering glance as if to say, “Isn’t it obvious??”

Foer gives himself a year to train.

And at the end of that year ... well, yes, OF COURSE, he wins the competition.

But not before he’s convinced Bins that, just like the author “anyone can win! It is only a matter of training!

And–” he taps the side of his head “–the little grey cells, like the great French detective Hercule Poirot used to call them.” I smirk: “Poirot was BELGIAN, not French!” Bins shrugs.

“French, Belgian ... pfff. What matters is the little grey cells. They can be taught to remember. They can be trained to perform like jumping giraffes!” I grimace at this bizarre image.

There are several techniques. “The Memory Palace, for instance,” says Bins.

“Using the imagination we build a skyscraper. Then in every room, we place the thoughts that we want to remember.

Then...” he raises his eyebrows dramatically “...to retrieve the thoughts, we just walk around in the imaginary building until – voilà! We find the tickets!” I look around my little home, and shake my head. Alas, in a real room, with real closets, shelves and pockets, there are no tickets to be seen.

Another technique is called PAO: Person-Action-Object. It involves creating mental images in such a way that various sequences can be remembered in the form of weird little scenes. “Ah! So the title of the book is actually a series of numbers?” I ask.

“Playing cards,” says Bins. For Foer, Michael Jackson moonwalking with Einstein becomes the King of Hearts followed by the Three of Diamonds.

Each person has to create his or her own library of images, however. “Like jumping giraffes might be 77?” I ask, but Bins shakes his head irritatedly. “Do not make fun,” he scolds. “The human brain is a fabulous instrument but most of us never learn how to play it!” Foer tells us that he had an average person’s memory before he began training. His ultimate success is supposed to convince us that we could all do likewise. “I doubt it,” I say. Then I reach into my pocket for my hanky and voilà!

The tickets. “You see?” says Bins triumphantly, as we shoulder our backpacks and prepare to leave the house. “You are smarter than 77 jumping giraffes!” “Whatever!” I sigh, as I lock the door. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

cornerstone

Challenger Deep, in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, is the deepest known point on the earth’s seabed, almost 11 km below sea level. Which noted director is one of only two men in history to stand on Challenger Deep?

9

Ritwik Ghatak was one of India’s most iconic filmmakers. Who played the main protagonist Nilkanth in his last film, Jukti Takko Aar Golpo?

10

Which cinematic technique connects two films made by the great director Sidney Lumet, Twelve Angry Men and Dog Day Afternoon?

Answers 1. Alfred Hitchcock and Psycho 2. Robert Redford 3. Mani Ratnam. The film starred a young Anil Kapoor 4. Billy Wilder, for the Jack Lemmon-Shirley Maclaine comedy The Apartment 5. Woody Allen. Films include Annie Hall, Manhattan and Hannah & Her Sisters 6. Martin Scorsese. The films are Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed 7. Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron 8. James Cameron 9. He played the role himself 10. The films are real-time, as in the viewer watches events happen at the same rate as the characters experience them

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

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