Blink issue 115 april16 2016 by Partha Pratim Sharma-Portfolio

CHAI PE CHARCHA The simple act of women sitting at a dhaba and sipping tea has become a loaded message aimed at reclaiming public spaces in Pakistan p2 saturday, april 16, 2016

A room to read

Under the shade of a tree, inside an ageing bus, or a room deep inside a narrow alley â&#x20AC;&#x201D; no place is unbecoming for a library. Community initiatives unfolding in unlikely places around the country are taking stories to its most ardent listeners p7-11

m vedhan

MURDER BY NUMBERS Another blogger is killed in Bangladeshâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s battle between free thinkers and radicals p6

PAINTING THE PARSIS Three art shows give the Capital a peek into the glorious Parsi past p14

know play

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Fit to frame When the West Indies win, the celebrations echo worldwide. Here, the team after winning the T20 World Cup getty images / gareth copley

Calypso comes home A resurgent West Indies at the crease gives cricket back its joy

mong all the cricket tours in the Cup, and the men’s and women’s T20 World West Indies is not winning a world title for world, the one to the West Indies is Cup have once again established the West In- the first time. It won the first two editions of always the most prized. Every itine- dies as a team to watch. It perhaps triggers the the World Cup in 1975 and 1979 before losing Tea point In less than a year, Girls at Dhabas grew from a hashtag into arant movement that saw thousands women public spaces across Pakistan at dhabas the 1983 final to India. The 2004 Champions cricket writer would of give an reclaiming imagination of a generation of courtesy cricketgirls lovers arm to do a Caribbean assignment for multiwho have not known the Caribbean charmers trophy win at The Oval was hailed as a revival vijay lokapally ple reasons; the alluring beaches and the jam- to be excellent on the cricket field. of West Indies cricket and it culminated in the ming and liming outings, the brass band and Chris Gayle epitomises the West Indian T20 World Cup title in 2012. But things went the rum-and-coke sessions, and then the crick- style. He regales you with shots, some of awry when the players repeatedly fell out with et — pure and entertaining. The spectators en- which land at your feet. His appeal is global. the cricket administration before reaching its joy the cricket and back their team fully in its His batting has an infectious impact on his lowest point in 2014 when the team called off bid to destroy the best. Nothing can match the colleagues as well as the oppothe tour to India midway on issues West Indian way — lyrical and joyful. Even if nents. His bat speaks and we have related to match fees. they lose, there is music in the stands. When seen it on many occasions. The Fire in Babylon is a superb tribute they win, the celebrations echo worldwide. current West Indies team may that documents the spirit of West Watching the West Indies demolish India in not have a star like Richards or They played to win. Indian cricket through extensive the ’70s and ’80s was not that painful. Of Garry Sobers but it has perform- If they did not win, research and thought-provoking they graciously garam chai ki piyaliHolding ho... aur snared uss course it“Ek hurt when Michael important, because it implies page has posts on interesting events like ers who playtoo, to win the hearts of ownership interviews with legends of#Girlthe acknowledged (A steaming ko peenay waali Viv ho.”Richards Sunil Gavaskar or when bludge- their of position sOnBikes game. — a bicycle-riding meet in fans. and place. Women are frequently It traces the rise and held decline cupDev. of tea… hers to savour) oned Kapil But all your heart did not bleed told to stay or remain invisible intheir pub-defeat March: “CALLING ALLinGIRLS! Meet us this SunAllow meout toof,make a point of cricket the Caribbean. Once a because Holding and Richards were your he- worth lic spaces — there isthe a moment for aofbike ride through our cities. illustrating state of of a reclamation day @ 10am land fearsome fast bowlers, it at a dhaba and having cuppa West roes too.itting Watching them in action wasaadmirin there.” After the ride, will be forIndies a diaIndian junior. After the juwas we ironical to gathering see the West does notat exactly scream feminism. But nior ing athleticism its zenith. Cricket was the #GirlsAtDhabas sparked nashta, in thein company of allwith the World Cup winalso over India atoff a huge dis- logue overopen its attack the T20 final when public best sport in the worldspaces when become the West overtly Indies Dhaka cussion (online and offline) on patriarchy and amaze (sic)a women show up, and of allies. last February, skipper spinner. who It was a reflection the patriarchal that Shimron dominated the gameand in a paternalistic, throwback to Don public spaces in Pakistan. perusalofof them their times; Invite West all your girlfrands (sic) and aunties!” Hetmyer prayedA some Indies had come to terms with the simple act‘The becomes loaded with a political would Bradman’s Invincibles.’ blog and page throws There many postsquickly. applaudgetFacebook to play first-class cricket as a reward demands of the dayare and adapted In message. Girlstriple at Dhabas, a women’s move- for The recent triumph that embraced up the an eclectic mixwin. of posts and squad, inci- the process iting thealso mixed-gender gully crickWorld Cup The Indian had regained the reputamentIndian in Pakistan, is projecting tea drinking at dentally, West cricket has been acknowledged photos. Aincluded girl sitssixreading a cricketers. tion it had surrendered et match organised express first-class — it is nowto a team to these roadside shacks as their an actopponents. of rebellion. overwhelmingly even by Car- That book,was a cup milky tea,between a light- theThere solidarity with the girls and boys theofdifference teamsis—a history reckon with. and all began onfour April 24, in 2015, with a selfie of the losItBrathwaite’s sixes a row that buried er and a half-eaten a fire context in for October 2015, were atWest Indies hadparatha players on with in their to gender It may takewho, a while the West Indies to reone of the taken at a dhaba andEden post- belly. England infounders a stunning avalanche at the table The beside her.were Theobviously caption satiated. tacked by Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba Indians its space as a Test team. The recent sucdynamics inclaim public ed on Instagram underto thecricket hashtagfolklore. #GirlsAtDGardens now belong In says: “Badar commercial, Kara- Clyde at the University of KaraFrom the days of Frank Worrell, Walcesses not amount to a complete spaces in South Asiamay activists habas. It wasWest likedIndies and reposted andhighover. cott four strokes was putover on the chi. and The street mad the withWest Indians resurgence ofchi for playing the game. but the Evertongets Weekes, cricket in the Caribbean, Thepedestal reactionbyspurred Sadia Khatriwho to start est a carefree cricketer, knewa have cars and people at night, butstream ofgiven the world a steady of classic champion song is a pleasant reminder that Grass, no greener Tumblr asking with the entertainers. just one blog way to makefor hissubmissions point. fers the quietest reading in If they did happy days are They playedspots to win. back in the West Indies. Cricket same Thehashtag. positive trait that marks West Indies not the morning.” Khatri says have foundperinwin, they graciously acknowledged their unites the islands and thethey cricket anthem In less than year, Girls Dhabas night grew defeat. cricket came to athe fore thatatglorious ApartOf from dhabas, the photos are sited in spiration, support and strength fromincamcourse, Clive Lloyd differed. Ri-a fectly portrays the state of the game the fromBrathwaite a hashtag into a clarion call thatassaw and walked into history a chards wide range of spaces.of“The dhaba is just and one West paigns likeIt isWhy Loiter? in India. “It’s too boasted a long memory Indies. time to “Rally Round The West thousands ofof women reclaiming public both match-winner rare quality. site where women are opponents, outsiders, in there reassuring to know thatproclaims. this work And isn’tworld being came hard at their caseare of Indies”, as David Rudder spaces many posting Someacross peoplePakistan, mock at the term, ‘Whenselfies West Lloyd, many others and, on one’s specific cricket done inisisolation, there a history brutally. Butdepending the West Indies remained rejoicingthat with thisisdistinct setand of that showed hanging out at It dhabas. Indies wins, itthem is cricket that wins’. is true be- the identities, the dynamics change context towho, gender in public spaces most popular cricket team on with earth every even cricketers likedynamics the rest, play to win but alA Karachi-based journalist, says cause West Indies signifies the Khatri game as no dhaoth- when change of space,” says Khatri. “So we essential- so in entertain. South Asia.” they slayed their opponents mercilessly. Even when they lose. bas,Itinassembles addition tothe being “reper. besta public from aspace, group of There ly encourage people to send infor photos, stories They were particularly influenced by the lay no embarrassment the loser beis Deputy Editor (Sports), resent awhich breakotherwise of sorts from the daily grind… cause islands compete as individuand narratives experiences thatbest defyteam gender ideaslokapally in the book Why Loiter? Women and Risk you wereofflattened by the in vijay Hindu Streets, which encouraged women The act ofThe taking the selfie at orunder-19 photograph is the al teams. title triumphs World norms in different real-world spaces.” Their FB The On Mumbai world.

No LoC for loitering women Q

It’s bilateral cooperation of the gendered kind — two movements for female emancipation in Pakistan are drawing strength from the struggles of their sub-continental sisters in India

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Notes from everywhere The movement essentially encouraged people to send in photos, stories and narratives of experiences that defy gender norms in various real-world spaces courtesy girls at dhabas

illustrator-designer Shilo Shiv Suleman, who founded the Fearless Collective — a grouping of artists, activists, photographers and ﬁlmmakers who use their work to speak out against gender violence. Suleman’s collective began as a reaction to the 2012 Delhi gang-rape incident, to combat the fear-mongering emanating from the media. A viral campaign evolved into a storytelling platform that made use of wall art. After picking a location for each of her art displays, Suleman conducts workshops for the women in that area. “This throws up ideas that are relevant to that context, which is then painted on the wall. From the workshops, we create public art as intervention. It becomes interactive on many levels.” Suleman visited Pakistan in November 2015 (after an 11-month struggle for a visa) on Mushtaq’s invitation. Fearless Pakistan was a mural project in three cities — Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi — based on the theme of fearlessness and rooted in stories shared at workshops by the locals. “Log kia kaheinge, hum hi tou log hain, hum kia kahenge” (What will people say, we are the people, what will we say) — these words cry out from the mural painted on the walls of the National Bank of Pakistan in Lahore, challenging the fear women have of being judged by society. “We are the creation of god” is the text accompanying a 30-foot mural, in Rawalpindi, of a transgender activist riding a motorcycle. The theme was decided on after learning that

@whyloiter: “This “advice” repeats itself the National College of Arts in Pindi had hired across cities. Women being policed “for our a khwaja sira (transgender). Says Suleman: “We worked with different groups for each of own good”.” Khatri says Why Loiter? has made them the walls. In the unsafe neighbourhood of Lyari in Karachi, it was the chilthink about the process of creatdren from the neighbourhood; ing a movement: “Even in terms of in Lahore we worked with situating ourselves as a group, young girl students; in Pindi Why Loiter? turned out to be an eswe painted with the transgensential resource. We talk about In terms of situating der community. We have had this often, how reading the book ourselves as a group, girls and women in hijab and felt like the writers had taken all Why Loiter? turned our thoughts and frustrations and out to be an essential salwar kameez painting in spaces that are considered unarticulated them with logic, rearesource safe. The act of painting itself son and relevance. I think we unbecame an act of fearlessness.” derstood a lot of our own work Khatri, meanwhile, intends better too. And it also brought up to collaborate further with new questions. The intersection of class and gender is something that often #whyloiter and has begun a series of Twitter comes up in our interactions (both online and discussions to take the initiative to remote inoffline), and the book is a fantastic study of teriors as well. “The response from feminist class and gender dynamics in Mumbai; so collectives across the border has been reassuring and relieving. The connections we’ve there are entire chapters we can draw from.” made with activists and women have easily Wall of shame been the best part of the response,” she says. Yet another cross-border project uses wall art and murals to spread the word. Fearless Pakis- anuradha sengupta is a Kolkata-based freelance tan took shape after activist Nida Mushtaq re- journalist and founder-editor of Jalebi Ink, a media ached out to Bengaluru-based collective for children and youth

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PRESENT IMPERFECT

An unfortunate development Gurgaon may have changed its name to Gurugram, but there is no changing the unfortunate story of its lopsided growth and its shameless champions walking briskly along as the nanny pushes a stroller with the latest ‘bundle of joy’. This year’s beagle, acquired after somehow managing to get rid of last year’s pug, gambols along. It’s not often that real life resembles a Facebook post. “Stay blessed,” someone always comments. Around the corner, a young father, smug in his rakish looks and the ample projection of his modern mindset, takes his toddler on a stroll, while allowing the wife a little weekend lie-in. He points each car and the toddler, a Wide canvas Idyllic landscapes, town scenes, paintings, floralatdesigns star correctly or happy baby faces were used generously to already, woo the target buyeridentifies them — Audi brinda suri A8, BMW X5, he babbles, and gasps three times before he strings together Porsche. “That’s not a Porsche,” the father is firm. He is right, the Porsches aren’t here, they are mostly in the next building, named after a flower, magnolia, but forever destined to be called Mongolia, although no one says it without adding “the most expensive apartment in the city.” Even on a scorching April morning, the line to enter the most expensive apartment in the city is long. Plumbers, carpenters, domestic help, wait in the 38 degree heat to be patted down to an inch of their lives before Less-than-perfect It’s not often that real life resembles a Facebook post galina barskaya/shutterstock they are allowed to step on to the marble floors of the actual building, whose florist’s bill for a month is more to build t was in grandpa’s wardrobe for as long Morton was among the few early-20th cennamed biscuit tinsthan and,enough soon, other confecSouth Mall, a large in Gurgaon, he is fond of saying, especially to its a shaded reception at the ‘service’ entrance. asutside I had the known. A Point slim tin box with a retury companies that had opted to package tioners followed suit, offering cakes, toffees white Mercedez-Benz into visiting westerners,items is toin believe that you But it’s fine, really, in another month, it’ll be 10 picmovable lid featuring a swivels bonny blue-eyed confectionery lithographed tin boxand later chocolates. Idyllic landscapes, theholding main Golf Course road andarearen’tes.living Gurgaon. Allthese air conditioners degrees hotter,town but scenes, the Porsches will still be exgirl a snowy dog. It was gift for Today,inlike a lot else, have far outlived turesque famous paintings, verses its its banks three times, would be turned on all the time, the power bill there and who’s to say there’s no joy in his sons, andinto once contents were over, their original purpose to become collectors’ quisite regal settings, floral designswalkor happy untilgrandma it is perfectly line with the perfect BMWs and notwithstanding — thisa is personal comfort, ing past them. greater happiness is had in decided it was to store items and there’s whole legion of enthusibaby facesThe were used generously inin andriveffort to Audisgrandpa’s on its either side.squares. It is 5 pm andquite the trafnot consideration others — and if you weretheir ing them, no target doubt,buyer which—iswomen why last week a pocket And a collecasts out therefor in the cyber world sharing woo the and children. fic ontion this he arterial road is heavy, the Merc’s perto go up for a visit, even before you’re settled driver emptied out as much as he could of his had of jewel-tones in silk and satin. collection and tales of what those boxes held: Christmas, coronation and royal births saw fect parking, this narrowfor stretch of a road in, you’d told in genuine excitement employer’s Magnoliatheme apartment, Grandpaon was a stickler discipline, so it was frombe chessmen to toy train sets to about sewing eslimited-edition boxes. loaded the whileaconstruction workers build metro line the project with it in and simply drove off. treat for us grandkids to beaallowed to open sentials,that laces,their locksseven-year-old and a lot more.son is employer’s LithoJaguar tins arrived India at the beginning above, results in about a hundred cars braking working on. It’d be around the theme of savThere is much talk, of course. Of unreliable this box, select a piece that matched with the Lithographed tin boxes, the kind we’re fa- of the 20th century and became fashionable and waiting to crawl on. The mall has parking ing the planet and the emerged global warming is in help soon and corrupt systems. Spoken un-Partitie and turban. miliar with now, on the that shelves enough. police Till a few decades after the space inGrandpa its basement ₹20ago on weekdays melting ice chromolithography caps and finishironically, illegally parked, died aand fewat years at the ripe age 1882the when was invented. tion, most tins werewhile decorated with European it is one of His thebox, cheapest places to park to in be theat the ing off the polar bear entirely. these champions of developof 90. however, continues A series of colour plates were used for the themes. by Mid-Sixties onward, the Indian sensicity. Yet, nospot one in does. luxury cars Gur- it Sometimes in- multi-colour tin- bility crept ment honesty is par- patsame hisThe wardrobe, andinopening process, aas diorama a result of iswhich inwho and,believe alongside Victorian gaonnow haveisbeen onathe patienttrove saving volved; ironycould never be is. produced. By The luxury cars in amount but work calendar has to be done art likeacquired unlocking treasure of mesheets terns, of ₹20 and ₹30 byeach parking on the street, no are the icons was of success (no?). They look around, at the mories, with kerchief bringing alive a These 1890, embossing also intro- Gurgaon have been gods-goddesses, mythological matter how inconvenient. This city,newly-married one that that duced television channels intermetro labourers in their tattered story, some that go back to his in the design and brand acquired on the tales, protagonists of folk legwas born out of liberalisation’s economview;names they began are the untiring orange safety vestspalaces, and the Bendayssolely in Rawalpindi. All these years it was the appearing in re-patient saving of ₹20 ends, grand national ic buoyancy, unequivocally embraces “develchampions of ‘development’. maids riding cycleslotus inside, rather than the box itself, which had lief, often in an attractive Igold such astheir the tiger, and ₹30 byChristmas, parking on gali symbols opment”, no one has developed by paying ran past two of them this Sunday home, their headtin in boxheld aand charm. That was until recently when, by finish. andand theshake Tricolour graced the street, no matter coronation and royal for something can bethe acquired of of morning, glory hour disgust. “Yaar, these like people will and accident, Iwhen cameitacross vintagefree section Thethat birth of the tinwhen can, the howbirths inconvenient es of companies Nutrine saw limited cost. an Even a fool knows financial development is however, set ₹20 of also. e-commerce sitethat. selling a box similar to the predecessor to the box, Parleaascrime well asfora host mithai edition theme boxescommit Earlier in grandpa’s the morning, the Merc, alongfell with asidegoes for physical Withand these people around, this one in cupboard. I nearly off the back to development, 1810 when British confectioner shops throughthe other cars parkeditin high-rise apartand merchant overheard Peter one say to the country improve.” chair big when I noticed had a price tag of $51 or Durand was isout will the never country. Unlike Of today, ments, are approximately. washed downThe copiously, after other,sued “Honesty is, for of course, course ours is a names diverseare nation, ₹3,400 seller’s description a patent his ideaimof “prewhen brand splashed which the ‘Morton driver clambers in and turnslitho the enportant. Paramount. to happen, but we can all agree thatacross it’s only read Pure Confectioner tin box serving food inButanwork ironhascan boldly a robbery product,and the imgine and conditioner on. On the rare oc- no?” coated His friend earnestly, empatheti- corruption when ages it’s done of a Gucci withthe girlair and dog picture’. withnodded tin”. The early 19th did outside the talking while the casion Ithat a morningreached walker out or marathon cally.century Across saw the the driveway, on the of lawns, the suit trade and inname a Maruti It can’t be easy to on immediately for grandpa’s rapid growth industrialisastayedcar. almost hidden, usually trainer requests that itthe engine be switched wivestion are and furiously kicking andof punching the spend ₹50 lakh on a car and ₹15 crore on a box. On flipping over, as in the online image, cooking food out a tin, as opposed the rear or the sides in small font. off because accumulated dieselgolden rings letair; being led through a mansymhouse, Over and despite the factthe thatcharming the windows I foundthe Morton writtentoxic in small to preparing freshthese food,motions becameby a status the centuries, patterns are thick for a meat knifeato struggle in dri-fit andtinned rippling muscles. Thiswidely is the sold are sealed and thewere blinkers areappealed worn, little ters. enough It was a toffee box, from brand set up in bol.wear By 1820, food was being and shapes what to bits buyers, through, would be in rudely informed that The tribeacross whoseEngland, arch nemesis areand flabby stomachs of reality insist on pushing their way in 1849 he by JT Morton Aberdeen, Scotland. France the US. who would put the boxes to good useand long afthe employer is expected any moment the had and cellulite scarred thighs. The enemies sullying the mood. can’t behad easy. What is easy off. firm later became C&E Morton,and which The early cans/boxes hadreal paper labels on ter the goodiesIt inside been polished car has to be kept interests at a suitably tundra temperfemale colleaguestinthronging is saving ₹20. Pour Japanese commercial in India and, in 1928, are a elsewhere them. The—first lithographed box, not mulWhilethe tin boxes were the being lovinglysingle preserved aturelocal untilmagnate then. Upstairs, penthouse, the husbands’ workplaces the tight,orbanmalt,and no water, justinice. Thanks. boughtin itsthe rights. The Morton ti-colour till then, withorremovable hinged recycled homes across the world, who the owner the car has installed air and condidagelid, dress waiting inbeen the commissioned wardrobe. Never brand of was registered here in 1947 is now is said to have in 1868 could have thought these would become coltioners everybyfive metres. The onlyLtd. wayA to live tin mind, the evening tribe re-assembles, owned Oudh Sugar Mills simple byinBritish biscuitthe manufacturers Huntley & lector items some day. t @veenavenugopal box had opened up chapters of a remarkable Palmers. As the popularity of their decorated legacy, hidden away from the limelight. containers grew worldwide, litho tins were re- brinda suri is an independent journalist

The heirloom

Vintage lithographed tin boxes are little time machines, bringing you the charming kitsch of the late 19th century

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Veena Venugopal is editor BLink and author of The Mother-in-Law

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BAWDY LINE

Tongue in check The King James Bible is perhaps the most inﬂuential English-language text of all time

Ambarish Satwik is a Delhi-based vascular surgeon and writer

y common consensus, the greatest and the most perfectly formed work of English prose ever written was produced by a committee of 54 people over 400 years ago. It was commissioned by a closeted gay monarch to settle a political and theological dispute and took seven years to complete. It was the time when London was laid waste by Bubonic plague, when the East India Company was being licked repeatedly at sea by the Dutch and hadn’t quite managed to move beyond elephant hunting in Sierra Leone, when England was first giddy on Shakespeare, and Othello, King Lear and The Tempest ran to packed houses at the Globe Theatre. 1604-1611. What has been variously called ‘the perfection of English, the complete expression of the literary capacities of language’, a ‘miracle’ and a ‘national shrine, built only of words’ wasn’t even an original production. It was a mere translation from the old tongues of antiquity — Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. But such a well kitted out translation that the product was loftier than the originals; one that ended up supplying more phrases to modern English idiom than any other literary source, including Shakespeare. It came to pass, salt of the earth, grapes of wrath, how are the mighty fallen, know for a certainty, root of the matter, thorn in the flesh, at death’s door, the way of all flesh, a law unto himself, scum of the earth, the haves and havenots, bite the dust, my brother’s keeper, the skin of one’s teeth, as old as the hills, casting pearls before swine, at their wit’s end, the powers that be, eat, drink and be merry, and so on. All resonant phrases living on in the Englishspeaking world. But let us not forget that this prose for all seasons was laid down, built and assembled from common and colloquial speech; prepared for the public from vulgate raw material. The King James Bible (KJB), ‘probably the most beautiful piece of writing in all the literature of the world’ (HL Menken), was actually a

erywhere: in the rhetoric of Lincoln and Martin Luther King and Roosevelt and Churchill and Obama, in all major works of literature from Melville and Faulkner through Steinbeck and Saul Bellow to Vikram Seth and Joanne Rowling, in the lyrics of Sinatra and Marley, in journalism and jurisprudence and advertising, in Monty Python and cricket commentary and Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. In Nehru’s ‘tryst with destiny’, in Ambedkar’s declamations. In Tagore’s elevated, half-poetic register, in the dense mysticism of Aurobindo Ghosh. In the treatises of Amartya Sen. In prime-time television sophistry. And everything in between. What does it take for a certain turn of phrase to unwittingly live through us? What, for instance, is the Hindustani analogue of the KJB? Where is that great quarry of Hindustani phraseology? I wish to bring to your notice here a complete inversion of the settled order. The finest and the most arresting flecks of idishutterstock omatic Hindustani started out in the spoken, confederation of 66 books that introduced no not the written language. The keeper of more than 43 new words to the English lan- phrase and idiom has been the rustic vernacuguage and were written using a lexicon of lar. The baseborn. Untouched by the ascendanabout 12,000 words only. Shakespeare, on the cy of Arabic inflections and Farsi compounds, other hand, wallowed in 30,000 different and the gnarled prosody of Sanskrit. words, many of them overbearingly polysylTo open SW Fallon’s Dictionary of Hindustani labic, with many turgid imports from Latin. (1879, with illustrations from folklore, riddles, The KJB was written in the clear vernacular proverbial sayings, songs, colloquialisms and of the people ‘so that it may bee understood literature) is to see the invisible stream that even of the very vulgar’. But it had to sound flows all around us, full of things we have left stately and majestic. The KJB translating com- unsaid. In his imperishable preface he blames mittee was divided into six subcommittees. Its the members of our literary nobility for the members were called ‘God’s Secretaries’, but atrophy of the vulgar tongue. “These are the not all of them were black-gowned clerics. It’s autocrats who have banished the people’s instructive to note the profiles of some of the mother tongue, and forged in its place the artimembers. There was a matheficial language which divides the matician, who was also Enpeople and the ruling class. With gland’s first Arabist (who had might and main they have laearlier written a book called The boured to keep out the spoken The King James Bible vernacular from the written lanBlasphemous Seducer Mohamwas written in the mad), a theologian who fought guage of books and legal procevernacular of the the Spanish in Puerto Rico, a Latidure and official people. But it had to nist who was a certified alcoholcorrespondence; and what they sound stately ic, another Latinist who was were unable wholly to thrust out better known as a cuckold, an of sight, they have mutilated, archbishop who had previously and mangled, and crushed. They authored a bestseller called A have emasculated a vigorous raBrief History of the Whole World. Such prose, cy language, and substituted for its living such pithiness of phrase required a certain strength and fire stiff pompous words; kind of worldliness. And all manner of writers. strange Arabic sounds which have no meanIt was also written as prose that was meant ing for the people, and the dull cold clay of to be heard, to be read out aloud. The gram- Sanskrit forms” mar had to be uncluttered; the cadences had Once a week, I dip into Fallon. His compento be rich and compelling. The editorial proc- dium should be seen as a monument ‘made ess had to be, therefore, an auditory exercise. up of words only’ (agglutinated by a commitEach draft was finally submitted to a Commit- tee of native informants). On its pages is found tee of Revisers, which heard it over and over in the sap and wit of the north Indian vernacular: all its sonorousness and cast it differently if it the common stock of allusions that once was found wanting in stateliness and rhythm. played in the minds and memories of its For some time now, a surfeit of academic ma- speakers and disseminators. Language that is terial is being spawned to ascertain the quali- both ordinary and heightened, rank and tative and quantitative influence of KJB on the sweet, and lingers in the mind. To borrow collective imagination of all Anglophones. from Kenneth Burke, language that brings out There was a time when most Englishmen and the thisness of that or the thatness of this. Americans could quote directly from it. One asatwik@gmail.com can find the marks and smudges of the KJB ev-

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STATES OF MATTER

The war on thought Bangladesh’s political establishment seems ﬁrmly anchored to the unprincipled middle ground in the battle between the free thinking and the radical

sukumar muralidharan

azimuddin Samad, a 28-year-old university student and activist for a radical “free thinking” movement in Bangladesh, was set upon, hacked and shot as he returned home in Dhaka on April 6. His attackers allegedly left the scene with loud vows of faith in their god. A branch of the global terrorism franchise al Qaeda claimed responsibility but Bangladesh’s Home Minister Asaduzzaman Kamal discounted this, attributing the murder to a local fringe group. He was also reluctant to identify the murder as a crime against free speech. In later statements to a western news network, he seemed to blame the victim: “The bloggers should control their writing. Our country is a secular state ... people should be careful not to hurt any religion, any people’s beliefs, any religious leaders”. Social media has given youth in Bangladesh a powerful means of creating an alternative discourse that avoids the self-imposed conpage of this newAsvolume of strictions he of title earlier generations. in India, selected stories by Ashapurna is Debi the horizon of aspirations in Bangladesh becarries this evocative factors, credit: “Transing extended by demographic by the latedin into English rapid increase theBengali proportion of by thePrasenyouth jit Gupta”. It’s population. a small homage both to the strata in total And the youth demany sub-languages that speak,where write acriand mographic has a vision of we a future think as events well as long to thepast oft-forgotten translamonyin, over is immaterial and tor, whose burden it is tothought prove anprocesses author’s enofficial efforts to corral are tire reputation a foreign audience. an invitation toto rebellion. In Debi’s case,Bangladesh’s that reputation is complicatMeanwhile, political estabed. She began to publish her work astoa the teenaglishment seems firmly anchored uner, in 1936, and by theground. time of her in 1995, principled middle Latedeath March, the had penned a staggering novelsto and nov-a country’s Supreme Court242 declined hear ellas, 62 asking books for invalidation children andof over 3,000 petition a constitushort her work tionalstories. clause Although declaringwidely Islam read, the state reliwas derided for its tendency togion.also Afterlargely close to three decades of deliberate wards thethe domestic thedismissed quotidian.with The the auneglect, petitionand was thor did observation not command respect, summary that none of the only petrecognition. itioners had a credible locus standi to make the This is surprising, especially if one skips the case. excerpt from Jhumpa Lahiri’s thesis Secularism was written intoMaster’s the constituthat serves as the book’s andthat retion of Bangladesh in 1972introduction, in the euphoria turns to itliberation. later. Lahiri writes at some length followed It was removed from the about the author’s criticalby reception, fundamental principles a 1979 offering amendthe observation complaint issued by critment, which also“(A) introduced a preambular inics is the author’s supposed conservatism, esvocation to divine mercy and beneficence. pecially with regards to women’s lives.” which And then came the 1988 amendment, Only 21Islam of thethe aforementioned declared state religion,3,000 whilestories assurare Matchbox, andfaiths. while the extent ingcollected absolute in freedom for all of In the author’s paletteCourt remains of the 2010, the Supreme heldout invalid grasp of most non-Bengali readers, is 1979 amendments, encouraging thewhat belief represented here contradicts, or at the with very among generations closely associated least complicates, her that reputation as a nonthe 1971 liberation war its underlying valfeminist writer. Debi’s The feminism extraordiues would be restored. AwamiisLeague (AL) narily subtle. in power since 2008 with the government, She does forget their rage,fluffed their mandate tonot amend themen: constitution, worries, their susceptibility to being maniputhe challenge. In 2011 it enacted amendments lated. ‘Brahma’s Weapon’, Oshima seeks emwhichInretained Islam as state religion, but ployment a former flame’s company, to her reaffirmedatthe principle of equality, irrespechusband’s jealousy. In ‘Glass Beads Diamonds’, tive of faith. Shomita shows up unannounced totoa make wedPrime Minister Sheikh Hasina had ding in her ex-in-laws’ household, whiletohera the political manoeuvres appropriate current waits in In the2011, car. the In the complexhusband agenda on hand. firstdisinturbing Mollika and dictments‘Shadowsun’, were issued sisters by the International Ghentu are pitted(ICT) against each since Crimes Tribunal set up in other accordance childhood, feminine and the othwith a 1973one act,deemed for suspected war criminals er inferior. In ‘Earth Rojoni is temporarily from 1971. The causeSky’, of the ICT had wide public

Through a familiar guise Ashapurna Debi’s works were subversive literature about life within ordinary households, and were welcomed in those very households in their nonthreatening guise kr deepak

A subtle subversion A new translation of Ashapurna Debi’s short stories hits the right notes and reminds us of the subversive appeal of Bengal’s proliﬁc ‘domestic’ chronicler

Matchbox Ashapurna Debi Prasenjit Gupta (tr) Hachette India Fiction ₹399

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swayed by a warm welcome on a visit home feet of her husband to show respect.” On one but ultimately chooses to keep working at a hand, her books were seen as light romantic Freeplantation: speech martyr activists slogans, demanding the arrest the three tea the Bangladeshi subtext is the painand of students those shout reading. On the other, theyoftold the truth assailants andexperience shot studentthat activist Nazimuddin Samadmundane to death as he walked with awithin friend inmarital Dhaka. at home,who whohacked cannot freedom about oppression photo/ am ahad Police suspect 28-year-old Samad was challenge targeted forthe his outspoken atheism to choose. Her characters do not contexts. Thisapbifocality of her work is what exmilieu that causes them this grief. They lie to plains its popularity: it was subversive literathemselves andexcept to others: little Monoroma in endorsement, among Bangladesh’s Is- ture lifeDesh, within households, editorabout of Amar wasordinary arrested in April 2013. ‘A Covering ofProcedures Leaves’ learns fromin watching lamic parties. adopted the war welcomed in those same households through Shortly afterwards, a number of youth blogher deeply-bonded parents fresh that love is the on- agers crimes trials soon created polarisation, non-threatening were taken inguise. and charged with offences ly true wealth, a pretense of to success will under especially as thebut hearings moved a decisive In terms language, the Bengali English insultoflaws. The AL government was obspare the providers’ stage late in 2012. pain. brought to life by wellagainst rendered. The viously seeking to Gupta insureisitself a backIn ‘Grief’, Shoktipoda decidescharges to delaywere tell- languages December 2012, sedition are interwoven effortlessly, without lash from either side. ing his wife Protibha thatlanguage her mother has Amar died, theInawkwardness brought against Bangla daily of italics. number Onomatopoeic May 2013, an unspecified of lives and initturn feignstranscripts not having the touches Desh,she after published of seen purportcat purrs “pirringwere lostare in maintained: a night-timeacrackdown on Hifapostcard withconversations the news so as to fullythe express ed telephone between ICT’s pirring”, and a drawing is made at “khoshzat demonstrators. All who demanded acher he comes home. headanguish judge only and when an overseas expert onThey war khosh speed”. A glossary at the back ofwith the countability found themselves targeted, are not jurisprudence. progressive in any way. The author, book crimes Originally published needs little consultation — not because one human rights campaigner, Adilur Rahhowever, in her close rendering on the website of The Economist, the tran- man, spending of several a pan-Indian monthsfamiliarity in prison. but of their had lives,Justice lays bare the sufferscripts Nizamul Haque ‘Nasim’, due to the smoothness the As yet another blogger is murderedofnow, ing within.about the undue pressure he faced state prosecution speaking translation and the universality has secured a conviction in Only ingovernment the title story, from the to ‘Matchconduct swift trials, the killing of of the spaces in which the stoHaider. Mahmudur has been orbox’, concern the sta-Justice even does at theher cost of duefor process. Haque occur. There is somethinghas to dered release on bail, but the government In one reading, this is ries tus quowithout of aundue patriarchal resigned fuss, but in shooting saidpretext for understanding found to keep him a statement of somebeother worldview take the an explicit turn. the messenger government through osmosis: in any fine restraint. In another, imprisoned. “This is precisely why Inot compare signalled that it would falter translation, ease is a charMeanwhile,such to seemingly unit is a statement of women to matchboxes. in its obsessive pursuitEven of acteristic most notable whencut it derline that their suspicions sheer power when they have the means withconvictions. goes unnoticed. Forvolunteers instance, across ideologies, AL Secularism was in themselves to set off many ragIn early 2013, mass protests whenlaunched Keshob Rai in ‘The Scheme have a mass campaign removed from the ing fires, neversoon flareafter up and broke outthey in Dhaka an Oflitigation Things’ ison full of vitriol for a of various grounds fundamental burn awaysentenced the maska senior of men’s ICT bench Ischild described “that cold-inagainst two of theascountry’s bestprinciples by a 1979 high-mindedness, largelamist politician totheir life impristhe-nose, enlarged-spleen-inknown editors, Mahfuz Anam of heartedness. They don’t burn own the-abdomen,the amulet-on-the-arm, onment. Demonstrators drawnup their amendment tiger’sDaily Star and Matiur Rahcolourful shells. They won’tborn burn them — and claw-around-the-neck, entirely from generations rickets-stricken boy”, man of Prothom Alo. Both were inthe this too. That’s why they leave we need no explanation aftermen theknow liberation war, gathof volved infor the meanings liberation them carelessly in the kitchen, in this odd string ered atscattered a squareso near Dhaka Uniof invectives. movement and have since been the pantry, in the bedroom, here, there, really versity, demanding death. Amar Reading these stories,inone its consistent theirsenses publicwhat advocaanywhere. fear, they put original Desh and aAnd few quite other without media outlets pushed audiences — those whose lives most cy of its values. them in their pockets.”that In one this is a closely back with accusations thereading, demonstrators mirrored the — In another frontthose in theof war oncharacters thought, the statement of restraint. Inrespect another,for it is a state- must were atheists with little religious have felt. lack of a better they government hasFor introduced a draftword, law crimiment of sheer traditions. Thepower. Jamaat, Bangladesh’s principal must have felt understood. nalising the denial of the war crimes of 1971. Here, party the introduction sheds light again, Islamic and a partner in various coali- Marked Even the reader, at timessanction bored by out distant for particularly severe is quoting from the scholar Manisha Roy’squies1972 the tion governments since 1990, remained domesticity of squabbling longanyone questioning the three in-laws millionor civilian critique: novels,awhich em- suffering cent but“Ashapurna perhaps Debi’s sponsored kindred spouses, genius takes to casualty figure thatsees has the become theitnationalphasise the glory of love in a conjugal setting, stir organisation, Hifazat-e-Islami, to retaliate. such clarity of recognition. ist theology of Bangladesh since liberation. areThe frequently givenkilling to brides wedding prefirst targeted of aasyouth blogger, manivannan is isa Chennai-based sukumar muralidharan an independentpoet writer sents. have attractive jackets,during often with AhmedThey Rajib Haider, occurred this sharanya researcher based in Gurugram and Shimla illustrations of a demure wife touching phase of turbulence. Mahmudur Rahman, the and writer

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Adventures of the mind Deepalaya, a library in a corner of Delhi, is quietly transforming lives of children by giving them access to books

Soft power Student council members, Simpy Sharma and Shivam Singh issue books at Deepalaya library kamal narang

n Mondays and Fridays it’s easy to find the way to Deepalaya library, you just have to follow the children. Some are still in their school uniforms, most have changed into colourful ‘home wear’; and in groups of twos and threes, with books tucked under their arms, they head to the tiny building where, for the last 16 months, they have discovered that between the covers of a book lie adventures of the mind. The first time I visited Deepalaya, it was a school. The gates of Khirki village are exactly across the road from Delhi’s mall mile — a length which in reality is shorter than a mile — that houses brands with unpronounceable names and unaffordable price tags, and walking into the school from that route is a quick lesson on how topology and sociology can transform in an instant. When the Right to Education Act was implemented, Deepalaya ceased to be a school. But writer Mridula Koshy and her partner, Michael Creighton, who ran a small library programme in the premises, continued with their sessions. Once a week they would come and read aloud to the kids. For a while they still had about 40 kids coming to the library, but that number began falling rapidly, until some weeks they had only six children attending. “We knew the books were being wasted. So our first impulse was to give them away. We donated about 500 books. Our second impulse was that it was a mistake and we should keep the library running,” Koshy says. In January 2015, they went into the community, knocking door after door and informing the kids that the library would carry on with its activities. The numbers went up rapidly, from 40 to 80 to 100, within days. My second visit to Deepalaya was after it became a library minus a school. Google maps routed me through the narrow alleys and bylanes of Panchsheel Vihar, and driving through pathways not originally meant for

four-wheelers, past tiny houses where mi- Khatun, Simpy Sharma, Shivam Kumar Singh grant workers and their families lived, what and Shivani Sharma, over a tenuous Skype call. was immediately evident was the kind of Eloquent and clear-headed, they serve as both transformation that a library like Deepalaya helpers in the library as well as its evangelists. can make in a place like that. Away from the Singh, 13, tells me that now it is important for shiny, reflective glass of the malls, living the parents to join the library. The community life of being invisible cogs in an indifferent walks, of late, have been targeted at them. His city, the only succour is the power of a story. favourite book is Tintin, he says, and while he’s And Koshy, who has spent her life writing, was always dreamed of being an engineer, reading best placed to not just recognise it, but exe- books in the library has given him “the conficute it as a model that is truly transformative. dence that he can actually pursue his dream.” As the number of children grew, the chalRitika Sharma, also 13, another student lenges in running the programmes multi- council member, demonstrates a maturity far plied. Koshy and Creighton decided to set up a beyond her years when she says that not only robust volunteer programme. The library is has her power of imagination expanded, she open four days a week; books are given out on has also learned that whatever you do, you Mondays and Fridays. On an avermust always do with love. age Monday, they have 180 kids. Koshy’s dream is for the library On a busy Monday, that number to serve as a blueprint for other liclimbs as high as 220 in the span braries in other communities. A Deepalaya is now of four hours. As many as thirtysecond branch of Deepalaya is altrying to get more six volunteers, apart from one ready operational, a third is comadults to come to staff member — Koshy herself — ing up. “That’s one a year. With that the library manage a total of 600 kids, kind of numbers, we don’t even 6,000 books and all the scratch the surface. My grand programmes. dream is that we create a model As successful as the library has which can be replicated by volunbeen in giving children access to books, what teers anywhere else.” With all the proit really does is serve as a place where answers grammes it organises, Deepalaya needs a to puzzling questions — on paper and in life — budget of ₹10 lakh annually. Currently, most can be found. The read-aloud programmes of this comes from individual donations. help the kids understand structure and moTo state that spending a few hours a week in tives. “It makes them confident, about them- the Deepalaya library will transform the adult selves as well as about literature. Reading lives of the kids who use it is merely a summagives them a sense of identity, a hook to the tion of hope, not a scientific extrapolation of past,” Koshy says. cause-and-effect. The enhanced confidence of Deepalaya’s That literature needs readers is a given. But readers is immediately visible. An important what a couple of hours spent wandering tenet of the library is its student council mem- through Deepalaya provides is ample evibers. Picked from among the users, the eight- dence that with a nudge in the right direction, member student council not just helps with it is possible to create readers who will always running the library in an orderly fashion, but need literature. is now also empowered to envision the future of the library. I meet Ritika Sharma, Nunihar veena venugopal

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The backpacker’s library One man with a backpack is determined to introduce the children of Kalagachia, West Bengal, to the joys of reading from a wide variety of genres. Some are about the natural world, some have messages, others are fairy tales and fables. They are mostlyThe given friends oldby faithful A or sourced rickshaw puller takes from old workplaces, while some are from his own collection. a break on a summer day at a busy road in Kayal peppers the with activities northsessions Kolkata. Once and games. The children are expected to write the hub of the about or draw outBengal threeRenaissance, things that were disnorth Kolkata cussed on each Saturday. Thennow there’s the baklanguishes the says a word. ko (word) game where eachaschild non-modern section And each word hasoftothe make sense when added city ashoke to the previous one, ending in a legible senchakrabarty tence. The one they play today ends with senHOME SPUN tences like “Aaj — aami — haantey — jaabo. Haantey — jai — maachh — kintey.” (Today I will go to the haat. I go to the haat to buy fish). “We string these together in the end. The idea is to try to create stories,” says Kayal. He also brings with him newspaper clippings as he likes to introduce discussions on current affairs. Today he has brought an article about astronauts growing zinnia flowers on the International Space Station. After he reads it out,American a discussion around the efhe American novelist Faye Myenne as a literary academic and a novelist, it is not so The North cityensues that most resembles fort taken to grow a flower in an environment Ng once told me: “The first five years much one of temperament, or of the techni- it in this sense is perhaps Montreal — small but withoutwith the sun, windCalcutta, and air; things wecomtake is all you need.” The first five years of calities of intellectual labour. It is one of place. dense culture. too, is for granted Thebut children excited life, she argued, is the material for a As an academic, my identity is predominantly pressed, noton justearth. in space also inare time — at a saikat majumdar to hear that the300 flowers were grown lifetime of fiction writing. Western, and increasingly, through the last little more than years old, it is youngunder by Inspecial lights that the sun, the plants That statement has left a deep impact on decade and a half, American. My disciplinary dian standards butmimic the product ofso a dense and Bits from books Partha Kayal interacts with children and me. attempts tomade createsme an atmosphere immersive sengupta think they are getting the sun’sintricately rays. And since It has realise why,ofin spite oflearning hav- anuradha training as an academic has taken place, ini- magnified kind of history patthere iswith no wind, theand moisture bySpathe ing spent the last 17 years in North America, so tially, through a British colonial curricular sys- terned cultural social released upheavals. conductor calls out and arrives in Kalagachia after as a two-hour plantsithad topolar be evaporated with fans. To take little of myhefiction is set there. A few“Mallikpur short sto- tem, and I have finally emerged a literary tially, is the opposite of huge, sprawled brickfield!” as the including bus grindsthe torea scholar journeyand (with a changethrough of bus enAmerican route). Every the discussion further, Kayal But introduces a ries, perhaps. Both my novels, researcher aca- cities, like Los Angeles or Delhi. physically halt. Across the road chimney Saturday, some As 20ayoungsters wait totoreceive book on cent The Firebird, where I feela tall I found my demic training. novelist, I belong India. small as itspace. is, it is humongous in human terms, — part his sense help inoflearning to read or listen the va- with Theclose nexttotwenty minutes are taken up with identity asisavisible novelist, are of setthe in brick-making the same mi- My craft owes something totoWestern 15 million residents. outfit this place is1980s, named after. Aa narrow riety of tall—tales, adventure storiesto and natu- theIt probably children explains poring over images of city astrolieu — athat Calcutta of the though fiction- traditions I do have, in addition a doctowhy this “small” is sand-and-gravel path snakes from road,a rate ral world lessonsstudies, he has an prepared them. large nauts,enough the moon, andmicro-cities other planets. ‘What is alised early 19th century Bengal alsothe played in literary MFA infor Creative to hold within, hunthrough paddy a village. The Writing. His programme complements what the this around this Its person,’ asks a boy, pointing significant role fields, in mytowards first novel, Silverfish. But the real part of writing, the chilpart dreds of them. neighbourhoods are not landscape Calcutta is punctuated by coconut and dren really learn in school.—The to an image of an astronaut on Mid-1980s — at least a decadetrees before it that matters thebooks part merely physical spaces, but also quite a few lichen-covered ponds withnot ducks. they engages do not have the inextricable moon. Does entwinement the moon have became Kolkata — which contained, the that withaccess place to, andthey atof The path ventures a clearing is dotget from Kayal. many holes like these? they first five years, but into the first decadethat of my life. mosphere non-intellectually, vislanes and houses and Are gossipy ted by in a cluster small the houses with tiled The session is ainfollowbig? How the astronaut go Rooted the sameofmilieu, two novels told cerally, is firmlytoday rooted India, voices anddoes loafing bodies. The The books they do roofs. A couple ofone narrow wooden beams have upsensibility to the books birds they to sleep in such heavy clothes? different stories: spoke of an elderly man in as in on landscape. word ‘neighbourhood’ felt prinot have access to, The North American been thrown pond as a makeshift been reading foristhe Can youspatial get up to when on trapped in theacross corrupta and dysfunctional bu- have Of course, Calcutta an past aes- city me,you so fall in The they getKolkata from Kayal that most marily bridge. From here, a short walk brings youand to thete’s few weeks. KayalItisisan the moon? The children are full reaucracy of the Communist government delight. a environmodern Firebird I used the Bangla word resembles is perhaps another clearing group of children sit city mental activist and sense has been in- Montreal — small but para. of questions, and Kayalthat answers the lost voice of awhere youngawidow from colonial in the historic of the The micro-city has on a colourful plastic under manuscript; the shade of term, volvedinwith to create each the one most patiently and as Bengal preserved in asheet timeworn the campaigns sense in which that been real to mewith is that dense with culture trees, surrounded ponds awareness about in the much detail possible. the other narratedby the storyand of apaddy youngfields. boy’s modernity is nowthe incrisis decline, or where I spentasclose to 20 years of “I asked attachment you to list the birds we saw last has Sunderbans. He last writes fordecseveral publica“These children very active, running disturbing to his mother, a stage been for the three my lifeare — north Calcutta. Once time. Have you done that?” asks a of man with ades tionsat and helps a theatre outfit in Kolkata that around fields, swimming in ponds, actress, a community’s suspicion women least. This is the modernthe hub of the Bengalclimbing Renaissalt-and-pepper hair. have done it but it isn’t works children in rural identify plants, birds and inwho perform, and an“Iintense relationship to ity thatwith saw its daybreak with areas. the He is also a trees. They can sance, it now languishes as the very “That’s okay,” responds the man. Bengal math teacher at a rural school. haven’t had exposure to an artgood.” form that eventually becomes poisoned. Renaissance, and which“I realised that sects. But they provincial andmuch the non-modern “This not an exam. Read what you’ve the regimented structure of aCommunist classroom was books. Reading requires concentration and My is relationship to the US,out I realise, is pri- was effectively stalled by the re- section of the city, as opposed to the posher written.” not conducive to learning. I wanted really and sitting in one spot forwith a long smiles. marily that of an academic. I enjoy that life; gime inaugurated in 1977. The decaytocreated swankier south, itstime,” wider,he tree-lined listed a ‘hoop’,” says the boy. intellectual by interact with the children,has create an atmoThe day’s ends Kayal reading the“Iincredible and incomparable that stalled modernity inspired both avenues and,session since the newwith millennium, snaz“That’s a ‘hoopoe’, sphere of immersive learning.” outmalls. fromThe a northern much-leafed thick,ishardbound force represented bynot its‘hoop’.” fabulous university my novels. Because it is an intense, atmospher- zy cityscape stubbornly “You see man as he points to a ic kind Kayalofbegan his interactions withthat village book. It istoanchange. old-fashioned fable across hunsystem, of this,” whichsays I’vethe been privileged to be decay, with sensual contours are resistant Its serpentine, meandermap The of West Bengal. “It is our state. This is painful, childrenindelible by bringing into their lives. dredslanes of pages they have for part. sparkling conversations that go with and theatre utterly unforgettable — ing thatthat appear at been cracksreading between where we are. If we go toBut another district, The load-shedding, children now love to put plays houses the pastwith couple of months.facades, brittle yelits fine-wine receptions. somehow, nonesay of the traffic jams,together the dysfunccrack-jawed Birbhum, the birds willinto be different.” for thebureaucracy, village. Kayaland hadcrucially earlier worked were welike last time? the that has found its way my fiction. tional for The with Fire- low“Where paint decayed grins thatWhat have was become “That’s bulbul,” points to children from another wasout a couqueen asking for?” A boy leans across the mat Why thea shepai first five? Or 10,he perhaps 15 aatbird the bird, the unique moral village. policing“That carried by grimaces. flying Before above. adulthood, “It is red at at the throat. ple of years back.Party But I could not sustain The to The get micro-cities closer to Kayal, his chinmake resting onponhis most? any rate? If you go the Communist that easily crossedit.over of Calcutta you towards Birbhum, red isthat missing.” children more interested in television, hands, in concentration. Gradually, a Because, I now the realise, is the period from the were city streets to the innards of the der thescowling inevitable. The one manforms is Partha Kayal,with a schoolteacher the internet mobile phones. Also, their silence falls which over the group the world outwhen a relation place that is home and theand life of women. Does that moves theas modern artist alwho spends his free an inforweren’t very city. helpful.” The experience side fades away. says, “Books non-intellectual, or attime leastoperating predominantly so, parents Calcutta is a small Physically, it is more ways frustrate theHe modern citizen?are how we mal mobile libraryfull outof of primal his backpack for the withDublin this group, he it says, been pro- connect with the world.” raw and visceral, joys and ter- like though hashas much in more common, (In thisthem monthly column, authors chronicle the children of Kalagachia. has been regularly architecturally ductive. The parents too have pitched in. “For rors, sensual memories,Heabsurd connections and otherwise, with London. It cities they call home.) visiting 24 Parganas, West is instance, theycity. giveOften theirasrooms for our read- anuradha sengupta is a Kolkata-based freelance made onthis thevillage basis in of South daily habits and bodily a walkable a student I walked journalistmajumdar and founder-editor Jalebinovel Ink, awas media Bengal, for of thea past nine months. Every Satur- home ing sessions it’s raining.” ’s most of recent The experience person. from Stwhen Xavier’s College in Park Street to saikat collectivepublished for children youthIndia last year day, he setsisoff at around 6.30 am from Kolkata Shyambazar The booksinhenorth brings to Kalagachia by and Hachette If there a disconnect between my identity Calcutta, where I come lived. Firebird,

The primal place

Kolkata’s micro-cities are so much more than mere physical spaces

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Touchstone to Telugu tales Katha Nilayam, with its 88,000-strong collection, is the ﬁrst stop for any queries on Telugu short stories

Story keepers Rama Rao (below), who had initially rejected awards, began to accept them to fund Katha Nilayam, which now boasts 433 anthologies and 2,604 collections basheer (left), kv kurmanath

ust before we begin our conversation, the aram failed to find some stories he was look92-year-old Kalipatnam Rama Rao gets a ing for to include in an anthology. “If this has call from a research scholar in Warangal. happened to stories written just a few years The caller wants to know whether a partic- ago, we could imagine the fate of those writular story written by Tadi Nagamma in the ten decades ago. I immediately decided to 1930s is stocked in Rao’s library. “I will have it start collecting them,” says Rao. checked,” Rao assures him, and immediately He bought a piece of land in Srikakulam alerts Vivina Murthy, who is digitising about with the cash prize of ₹1.1 lakh he won for the 88,000 Telugu short stories collected over the Jan Peeth award in 1995. A writer who had repast 19 years at the Katha Nijected awards till then, Rao belayam in Andhra Pradesh’s Srigan to accept them to fund his kakulam district. “If the story is project. He got help from readavailable, the researcher will be ers too, and as Katha Nilayam If the story is sent a copy. If not, we will search slowly built, Rao set up a trust to available, the for it,” says Rao, known as KaRa manage it. To make sure that researcher will be in literary circles. sent a copy. If not, we Katha Nilayam has a bright fuRao says the library has about ture, Rao wrote a ‘will’, entrustwill search for it 80 per cent of all the short stoing the trust with all the rights ries written in Telugu in the last in managing the library. As a pol137 years. “We will strive to collect icy, the library doesn’t the remaining 20 per cent before charge a fee. “We they get lost in the sands of time,” he says. “The have two accounts — one for other day we got a call from a man in Kham- maintenance requiremam who wants to publish, as a collection, ments and the other for the stories written by his 90-year-old father. the corpus. We have a But he couldn’t find the copies. We are looking corpus of ₹18 lakh for them,” he says. which has been built Calls like these are common for both Rao over the years,” says and Murthy. Katha Nilayam has emerged as a Rao, also a retired one-stop shop for all queries on Telugu short schoolteacher. He stories. It is the first point of reference for hun- never misses dreds of research scholars and Telugu teachers from across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The library now has 433 anthologies and 2,604 collections, besides scores of books on critical appraisals of short stories and writers. Rao himself has authored stories that deal with complex human relationships in villages in very simple language. He shot to fame in 1964 with his story “Yagnam”, which also kicked off a debate that is yet to settle. In the story, the protagonist kills his son to finish an endless cycle of debt. The idea of a library struck Rao in 1995 when friend and fellow writer Madhurantakam Raj-

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any event that has something to do with short stories. Accompanied by his son Subba Rao, a retired engineer who is also a writer, he travels long distances to meet writers, critics and readers and collect anthologies. Stories and anthologies now pour in from different parts of the two Telugu States. His stature as one of the greatest short story writers has helped build the collection. But Rao downplays his role. He credits the library to the team of volunteers who have pitched in at every step. “Anybody could have done it. It happens that I started it. But for the contribution from scores of people, it would not have been possible,” he asserts. The library helped push back the history of Telugu short story by about 30 years — from 1910 to 1879. “We published an anthology of 82 stories that were written before Gurazada Appa Rao’s “Diddubatu,” considered to be the ﬁrst short story till then,” says Murthy, who took up the job of digitising the short stories after his retirement. Rachapalem Chandrasekhara Reddy, who teaches Telugu at the Yogi Vemana University in Kadapa, calls the Katha Nilayam a treasure-trove and an inspiration for researchers. “Information on any short story or writer is just a phone call away. It helps our students a lot in their research,” he says. “Of the 88,000 stories in the library, 12,000 are available in the pdf format. We don’t want people to travel to Srikakulam to access these stories. We intend to make them available online,” says Murthy, also an author of over 150 short stories. He and his writer wife Ramalakshmi shifted to Srikakulam from Bengaluru to take care of the digitisation. The Manasu Foundation, which has been publishing the complete works of Telugu literary giants, is helping the library in the process. kv kurmanath

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Silambattam among the bookshelves The Cuckoo Movement in Tamil Nadu has set up seven libraries where children, especially from rural and tribal communities, are taught folk and martial arts endemic to their region

Tea and prosperity The Parsi traders asserted their economic independence as stoic, resilient, relentless traders across long distances and geographies on unknown waters. The painting ‘Loading Tea at Canton’ courtesy peabody essex museum, mark sexton

The indomitable Parsis

Classroom capers Not just books, there’s also drama at a workshop conducted by the Cuckoo Movement at a government school in Tamil Nadu courtesy facebook

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t was a classroom full of confused yet other, says Alageswari, a volunteer. It all began four buildings made of adobes and thatched happy young faces, rejoicing at the idea with a single library at a school in Keeranur in roofing. The rooms are marked by huge winof a week without books and regular les- Dharapuram district in 2004. Filled with un- dows overlooking the gargantuan mountain, sons. The Cuckoo Movement in Tamil Na- conventional books and with room for fun bare walls, sparse furnishing and displays of du, an organisation of volunteers from all and games, the library proved a big draw for wood sculptures. walks of life, was conducting a workshop at the schoolchildren. The buildings are surrounded by overthis government school in Oothukuli. The “Each child is born with an innate talent, grown millet fields and ripened vegetables children, aged eight to 15, at first struggled to which school education may not necessarily ready for harvest. estonji Bomanji’s ‘Feeding Parrot’ understand what was going on. Thethe eight vol- rative bring out. example, a boyhistory. living in Look the wild of For Indian cultural at The residential school is expected to funcdraws attention to its illuunteers instantly had divided them into groups and Bomanji’s can identify birdGirl’, just by listening to its call, ‘A aParsi draped in purple and tion from 2017 and accommodate 100 chilmination, where it is silambattam light that yellow taught them painting, drawing, or a girlwith canbangles ventureon into and outhands, of theher forest her little lit- dren, primarily from rural and tribal speaks through the portrait. The tle (a martial art form rooted in Tamil Nadu) and without assistance. skills overhangs are assets, communities. The idea is to provide an ecosysfeet inany leather slippers.Such A curtain woman’s enduring sad eyes (although even theatre, all focusing on the theme of the na- abut the regular curriculum painting of what is perhapsfails a palm-leaf mantem where children can explore profile only one eye), the caged bird, uscript ture andshows environment. to recognise them,” says another writer, the little girl pointing to the and learn on their own, with just herSlowly, lone earring, half-sunlight caressing however,the they began to enjoy them- eclectic volunteer and cofounder of she thehas drawn on graffiti of innocence a little prodding. Volunteers will the folds her enthused soft headgear, her many blue dress selves, inofpart by the new top Cuckoo movement. of the painting. The blue floor and the help the students channel their Each child is born (with vermilion in her — a paint thingsa they were cloth learning. Allleft thehand) children Rural and tribal es- it iswith brushes on thechildren, side suggest a studio, an innate talent, creativity into art forms. tangible anchor which sustains life. It prom- but took turns to learn all the art forms. pecially, discovered that the the studio itself becomes a feministwhich com- school Artist Pazz Shan drives down ises herway the they world outside herthemselves mapped, pass “This could see for workshops notspace onlyand helped of a cosmic a zone of possibilifrom Bengaluru twice every education may not trapped, inner space. trou- ties. what theylate-colonial were capable of and whatThe interestthemThere overcome their any inferiority is hardly light here,necessarily but the bring out month to teach children art for a bled eyes most,” of the child, almost(name rendered invisi- little ed them says Sivaraj changed), complex gave and themshade, a therebut is, also in colour promises week at the under-construction ble, trapped in a cage one ofseem the volunteers. goal to workoptimism towards.and Tasting a certain defiance. school in Puliyanur. “The whole where is the subSo, tothe getonly the solace children to understand the ill- success with the the pointing at Likefirst herlibrary, little finger idea of alternative education, dued The influence of the the groups network of 500 effectslight. of fertilisers, for instance, hervolunteers aesthetic went adventure, spoilone that does not emphasise Dutch artist to Johannes is were asked stage aVermeer drama based on it. paintings All on to establish seven more across Tamil Nadu. grading, fascinates me,” she says. ing the bigger painting. The and striking. The cageddid parrot and that the volunteers was use a picture-book each of these the In libraries, contrast,children Mehlli learn Gobhai Volunteer Aarthi Kumar observes that in portraits are a At tribute the light outside appeareffects as moto describe the harmful of fertilisers on influences folk and martial arts endemicsurface, to that region. turns a parched almost such an atmosphere children gain their unto various ments revelation and freedom the soilofand other living beings. It was left to “In Oothukuli, wea have students into learnlike piecemany of parchment, a derstanding from self-learning, and are able in 1882 canvas. If it is a rethethis children’s imagination to explain it ing Silambattam. off as a local team, workStarting of rough, textured lumi- to lead sustainable lives. The results are almembrance of things past, then, through drama. The young minds worked en- the children went onlike to participate an internosity, hands withinskin that ready showing. “We have success stories like surely, Bomanji’s is lookthusiastically andportrait it got their creative juices national competition last year knows the sea, theand saltcame and out the Illuminating take who Pestonji Bomanji’sour ‘Feeding the that of Ramesh, attended workshops kamal narang on show at as thehis NGMA ing outside Vermeer’s predictable ambience — full-moon flowing. One of the groups, for instance, symvictorious,”tide. Alageswari says, her His paintings are voice both swellstone Parrot’ and took up art profession. He can make the embroidered carpets and purple curtains bolically portrayed what new buds feel when and ing with pride. leather, shimmering water on a moonless sculptures out of scrap and is financially stadraped forever like floating walls. fertilisers are sprayed. Towards the end of the night, The and movement has gonewhere one step ahead to of a cool courtyard a sleepwalkman in contented repose, slightly tipsy. ble.a His work was recently displayed at an art Bomanji’sthe painting is part thecraving new exhiworkshop, students wereofleft to er establish Thewith Cuckoo Forest School atthe Puliyacan walk lucidity, measuring sur- The dawn issays no longer an illusion and he is exhibition,” Alageswari. bition ‘No Parsi is an Island’, curated with bril- face learn more. nur with townhisinmind. Tiruvannamalai district. “The cocking a snook the anti-booze brigade. To quote AlbertatEinstein: ‘Look deep into naliance by cultural critics Nancy Adajania and school to provide‘The an alternative educa- ture, Sorabaims Pithawalla’s Dawn of ProhibTheand paintings and portraits are aeverything tribute to then you will understand oungsters to television and smartRanjit Hoskote,glued focusing on Parsi artists from ition’ tion, through art forms ratheronthan books, various is a 1937 classic. Modelled Bollywood influences,the from European and Dutch better’. Hopefully, Cuckoo movement will phones rarely experience the outdoors. the late-colonial period to the present day. On actor teaching children howas to alive usingman, the limitDavid Cheulkar young cele- traditions, Vermeer and of Rembrandt, toindethe hatch a future generation creative and The Cuckoo Movement draw such display at the National attempts Gallery oftoModern Art brating ed resources nature offer,” says Alageswahis bottles ofcan drink, a half-smoked cig- legendary JJ School of Art in Bombay. Among pendent thinkers. childreninout andthe encourage them engage (NGMA) Delhi, paintings tell atostory sel- arette ri. Theon six-acre property at the foot of Javadi others, there are Nelly Sethna’s meticulous the table, his scarf complementing swathi sculptures’ moorthy hanging like oriental landmoretold with— the outsideundisclosed world and visual with each dom an almost nar- the Hills, an extension of bottle; the Eastern has ‘textile green glass of the this isGhats, a portrait

The Parsi story seen through three very different exhibitions in Delhi that chronicle their art and aesthetics, their early history and their unique brand of spiritualism

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scapes, and artists sharing contrary space with each other: Pestonji Bomanji (1851-1938), MF Pithawalla (1872-1937), his son Sorab Pithawalla, and Jehangir Ardeshir Lalkaka (18841967) — the last, a portraitist who blended British royalty with his idea of orientalism/ nationalism, the ﬁrst Indian to be appointed deputy director of the JJ School of Art. The curators of the show write: “From the second half of the 19th century to the present, artists of Parsi origin have participated actively in the domain and debates of Indian art. Far from remaining anchored within the ethnic and religious harbour of their birth, they have charted vivid, memorable voyages across the ocean of transcultural exchanges. They have been dynamic and productive navigators of the ‘in-between’, that richly hybrid threshold space of exchanges among diverse peoples and practices (…)” ‘Painted Encounters: Parsi Traders and the Community’, curated by Peroza J Godrej and Firoza Punthakey Mistree, also at the NGMA, resurrects Parsi aesthetic encounters in the early colonial period, against the backdrop of

The long list A group of loyal readers await the mobile library at Bhaktawarpur kamal narang

Art narrative The paintings and early photographs became the narrative of the aesthetic life of the Parsi trader and adventurer. A balling room in the opium factory at Patna courtesy wellcome library, london

A busload of books

beautiful, her eyes and eyelashes transparent and forthright, staring beyond the frame. The wealthy Readymoney family, with a substantial stake in the opium trade, make a nice, happy picture. For those interested in the spiritual origins and natural elements in Zoroastrianism, and aoji aao” (Come, come). Rahi- Bankim Chandra Chatterjee are always in cir- in, a recce and enquires about its does humble history across West andmemberCentral suddin’s greeting is warm, al- culation and the wait for them is long. ship “The‘Threads application should be Asia, formalities. the exhibition of Continuity’, most cheery, each time a Bharti, the driver, arrives and the bus li- signed gazettedCama, officer,” saysDadi Rahisuddin curatedby bya Shernaz with Pudumfamiliar face climbs into the brary is set to roll. I join in, accompanied by a and guides Lilaowala her to officers the locality. jee, he Ashdeen andinKritika Mudgal, bus. He sits on a rickety, wire-meshed office photographer. There are three rather iffy-look- will Dilbaug Singh flippingjourney. throughIt Hindi be a soft and is sensuous showchair, next to the engine box. The dusty table ing chairs in the bus and Bharti is particular books, looking forofVishwas Patil’sthe Sambhaji. cases the journey Zarathustra, monoin front of him has been wiped clean a few about who sits where. Quickly identified as Singh beyond theisticcouldn’t stoic andstudy prophet. No oneschool, listenedbut to times, a register spread out and cards stacked the frailest, I’m asked to sit behind the table makes reading whatever he cousin, can find.his A him inup thebybeginning, except his on a wooden tray. Soon enough, there is a stea- and hold onto it tightly. The photographer set- security guardAnd at athat school nearby, he takes a only follower. is why he chose to travdy trickle of people. Familiarity defines the tles into a chair next to the water cooler. short break everylandscapes. Tuesday toHis visit the mobile el across distant greatness lies transactions, books are returned to RahisudAs we steer into into the maddening morn- library. Rafiquddin, a retired is in simplicity: good deeds, goodteacher, ideas and din after which visitors walk towards the ing traffic of Chandni Chowk, the precautions hunched on the booksbein truthfulness; lifefloor, as a sifting moral through battleground bookshelves for the week’s two books. seem completely warranted. Bharti believes in the lowest shelf. “Bhaktawarpur hasevil, no in litween the forces of goodness and hamkar,he orsays. ‘co-workTo the residents of Bhaktawarpur, about 30 driving boisterously through the melee of brary, thisisisonly our only Rafiwhichso man god’savenue,” er’. The principle of celebration is the celebrakm from Delhi, Rahisuddin, driver CP Bharti handcarts, cycle rickshaws and pedestrians quddin has read most of the books in the bus, tiondoesn’t of nature: water, earth, sky, arrivman, and the DTC, astraders Delhi Transport is Canton fighting forthe space buses anddocumented vans. An am- but wantfire, to miss out on the new Long-distance The journeyCorporation from Calcutta to became new with Parsi pilgrimage, peabody essex museum by artistsknown, and portraitists. The painting Canton’ courtesy woman, plant, moon, stars, sunshine; better bus they sit in ‘View are of familiar bitious swerve and the photographer is on the als in theanimal, collection. things animate andshoe inanimate. Themarfire sights. They are part of the Delhi Public Li- floor. His arm has hit the cooler stand and is allVijay Singh runs the shop in the temples stillinburn, though few time and to farpick bebrary’s (DPL) ruralinmobile launched in bruised. their adventures Chinaservice, (including the opiA commotionrepresentations of sorts ensues.of Since huge black-and-white the ket. He hops whenever he finds tween, and despite prosecution, andthere con1953 to reach out often to people on thestrategic urban fringum wars), their dubious, and there no grave injuries, however, ordernais up opiumare factories of Patna, with bare-bodied comics for his children. He exile wishes theymore live across the globe, es. Buses,alliances with a motley collection ofCompabooks, restored steadfast with the East India and we out of labour, the tives trapped in drive sweatshop presided demnations, were new books in thefew linot even famcriss-cross therelationship Capital and with the rural mobile city. ny, and their the ‘natives’. and Rahisuddin over Bharti by cane-wielding officialsare of the East In- and far between, brary.sometimes Readers looking forfive specific in South Korea). service parks at two different points each day The Parsi traders asserted their economic in- quite a team, both ease in their dia Company, getsatjuxtaposed with the Parsi ilies in an entire titles country put in a(as written request to Parsis rejoice who in their quiet, collecof the week.asEvery the turn of routine. dependence stoic,Tuesday, resilient,it’s relentless tradweekly traders inTheir flowing whitejourneys confabulating in the And yet, theRahisuddin, then tries to sublimity Bhaktawarpur Tiggipur. ers across longand distances and geographies on take them to Kapashera and Bijdocks, and the Chinese opium smokers in bring them the nextwith timeZarathusaround. InCanall, thetive, busaloof, eccentric tra’s early saying: be my own selfthin and unknown waters. In their quest for prosperity, wasan, Dabas and ton, in Majra an eternal daze,Ghevra often carried Half anTo hour later, thetrue visitors stockson around 1,200 t’s 10 am on Tuesday and thedangers DPL building so myAbest… they defied thea illegalities and of the village, books in English Alipur andslaves Shahbad dairy. stretchers by the of the out. few stay back to chit-chat. in Chandni Chowkshifts is quiet. Thepersonal library The The ‘Threads on times. The paradigm in their drive is long we get talk- and Hindi in the bus Soon, trade. There areand many dark it’s time of to Continuity’, leave. Rahisudshares a wall the Metro re- ing. display at theappear Indira very Gandhi Nalives and socialwith lifestyles led to station a desire but to docRahisuddin tells us that ironies in the layers of smoke din doesn’t excited mains fromthese the bustle on the other tional forstop, the Arts (IGNCA), umentblanketed and preserve narratives. This, in Bharti is athat diploma-holder in liand haze constitute this aboutCentre the next Tiggipur. He The Parsis rejoice in side. preparing to set out forfirst the brary also features precious turn,Rahisuddin led them toisthe art of portraiture, sciences.of the early co‘art narrative’ knows each stop well. collections Majra Daday. HukumbyChand Sharma, an old in DPL hand, lonial Tehran Museum: celebrated Chinese lithographs Canton, At 11.40 am we are at Bhakta- their quiet, collective, from period. bas, the fabulous library’s farthest point, is aloof, eccentric walks the bus a duster. book- warpur, goblets, locks,and keys, neckwhere into the smoke of with the opium and The the unbrifixed spot in the market oppoThere at arethe moments of lovethe best, hemetals, says. Schoolchildren other losublimity shelves along thefirst busuplifted are an site laces, jewels, His fireplaces, dled wealth of the the length opium of trade Prathmik Balika is a cals flock to ly relief too. The TataVidyalaya. family in Rahisuddin the library. registerwood, shows ce27 eclectic editions and tad ramic the leap treasure-trove. of imagination Noddy for the Parsis. Opium disappointed, the school is closed that new memberships multiple moods, inasblack-andat objects, Majra Dadas.pendants, In stark Harry Potter series for big sure.trade One can paperweights, gift coins and porcewas perhaps only are onehere, of the ele- day. “I usually lot ofasschoolchildren and contrast, Kapashera white, serenehave and astill, if has none. spot thethere Ramayana forindigo, young Indian readers, as also lainthe magic are also ments; was also silk, salt- teachers coming he says. untouched by thein,” turmoil of Nevertheless, At Tiggipur, buslights. halts atThere a T-point nextanto texts accounting, physicaltin chemiscient manuscripts, size of petre,onpepper, lead,botany, quicksilver, and there are visitors the journeys andaplenty. the distanca few shops. There is no one insome sight.the “We had try and pathology. Tomes journalism and es,Ram a matchbox. Theyschool would, once time, copper. From China, thereonwas Chinese silk, Gopal, whothe once used to be a daily- gone detached from quest for the adventure to the local and toldupon themaabout mass accompany memoirs hang theseWematchbox manuscripts around pearls,media jewelscarelessly and tea. The long journey from wage has been waiting formoment a while. “I of lifelabourer, and wealth. A remarkable is the library. can only tell, isn’t it?” asks Rahiand historical novels. Hindithe and English be- have the neck,Soon like ahe necklace. Calcutta to Canton became new Parsi pilbeen coming formovie’ the past 12-13 years,” he suddin. shared by the ‘silent of Sooni Tata and and Bharti bring out their (No bus Parsistays is anput Island and Painted stsellers too, all withbya hint of dustand on says grimage,abound documented artists boisterously Bharti and Ra- lunch boxes. The Ladyafter Meherbhai Tata,greeting with their Europeanfor close to half Encounters: Parsiman Traders andin thewith Community, them. Rahisuddin has chosen a new set of hisuddin. portraitists. Thesleeves, mobilemeticulously library has meant much style puffed carved ruf- an hour. A young walks a crumNGMA, Jaipurnote House, India Delhi, March books forBharuch that day’s the busand stocks From to trip. SuratIntoall, Bombay, all to “My son on the holding books here to pled fledhim. blouses and relied silk dresses, white 10 rupee and asksGate, for books. Rahi22 to May 29, him 10amthe to form. 5pm, Tuesday to Sunday. around 1,200 English and Hindi.the A prepare the docks andbooks ports in between, or from for the CISF examinations. I couldn’t roses in their delicate fingers, mesmerised by suddin hands On the drive back, of Continuity, IGNCA, five-year membership fortoa the nominal fee have sprawling sweatshopscomes of Patna Calcutta them. images. Now my daughter-in-law there are noThreads their afforded own imagined more adventures and DaddyDelhi, Long March 22 to May 29) of ₹20. Hari the Om paintings Sharma, the library dockyards, and earlyinformaphoto- borrows for herportrait, teacher’sby training Anotherbooks remarkable ‘anony- Legs proves to be good company. tion assistant, much course,” graphs becamesays theacademic narrativebooks of theare aesthetic says.of Dhunbai Cowasji Jehangir mous’, ishethat anima sengupta is executive editor, Hardnews in Popular works of Prem Chand and lifedemand. of the Parsi trader and adventurer. The Readymoney Bhawna, an(1860-1940): undergraduate student, proud, grandwalks and pamit

The rural mobile service’s modest collection is the only library Delhi’s urban fringes have

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Bitter pill Workers in Maharashtra’s sugarcane ﬁelds have no place to call home

here is little or no sweetness in the life of those working in Maharashtra’s sugarcane industry. The districts of Solapur, Kolhapur and Latur have a high concentration of sugarcane farmers, most of whom sell their crop to sugar barons at lower-than-market rates. Once the deal is struck, the burden of clearing the ﬁelds and transporting the sugarcane to the sugar mills in the region falls on labourers. These workers are the least paid in the industry. They spend their lives in makeshift tents in open ﬁelds. Without proper sanitation or drinking water facilities, their homes are breeding grounds for airand water-borne diseases. Healthcare units are few and far between, and the

lack of proper toilets compromises the safety and privacy of women. A worker puts in at least 12-14 hours of labour on an average day, transporting tonnes of sugarcane on bullock carts and smoke-belching trucks. The sugarcane mafia continues to exploit these farm hands, paying them significantly less than what the farmers earn. The biggest irony in this sordid picture is the deprivation of drinking water. Irrigation of fields in this parched region continues to grab headlines in national media, but those who produce and/or transport crops, continue to thirst. shome basu is a Delhi-based photojournalist

The exodus Buffalo and bullock carts march towards the sugar mills of Solapur in Maharashtra. This temporary migration takes place after the harvest, as families journey towards the factories to sell sugarcane

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The feet tell the story The life of a sugarcane farmer is tough. They have to work with heavy machetes on rocky terrains for long hours

Nary a cover A child gets a bath in a makeshift bathroom. The older folks too have no choice but to use these hay-covered arrangements. The factory owners do not provide sanitation facilities to the travelling farmers

Water journeys The water shortage in Solapur, Kolhapur and Latur forces the travelling families to transport water to the camps from the factories nearby. The factories spend gallons of water to produce sugar but never bother to distribute some among the farmers

Dinner at the camp The sugarcane farmers travel with their families and the camps become their villages for a while

Till my turn A farmer from Latur breaks for lunch with his wife in front of their makeshift hut outside a factory. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s awaiting his turn to take the sugarcane-laden cart inside and get his produce weighed and sold

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The indomitable Parsis

Classroom capers Not just books, there’s also drama at a workshop conducted by the Cuckoo Movement at a government school in Tamil Nadu courtesy facebook

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t was a classroom full of confused yet other, says Alageswari, a volunteer. It all began four buildings made of adobes and thatched happy young faces, rejoicing at the idea with a single library at a school in Keeranur in roofing. The rooms are marked by huge winof a week without books and regular les- Dharapuram district in 2004. Filled with un- dows overlooking the gargantuan mountain, sons. The Cuckoo Movement in Tamil Na- conventional books and with room for fun bare walls, sparse furnishing and displays of du, an organisation of volunteers from all and games, the library proved a big draw for wood sculptures. walks of life, was conducting a workshop at the schoolchildren. The buildings are surrounded by overthis government school in Oothukuli. The “Each child is born with an innate talent, grown millet fields and ripened vegetables children, aged eight to 15, at first struggled to which school education may not necessarily ready for harvest. estonji Bomanji’s ‘Feeding Parrot’ understand what was going on. Thethe eight vol- rative bring out. example, a boyhistory. living in Look the wild of For Indian cultural at The residential school is expected to funcinstantly draws attention to its illuunteers had divided them into groups and Bomanji’s can identify birdGirl’, just by listening to its call, ‘A aParsi draped in purple and tion from 2017 and accommodate 100 chilmination, where it is silambattam light that yellow taught them painting, drawing, or a girlwith canbangles ventureon into and outhands, of theher forest her little lit- dren, primarily from rural and tribal speaks through the portrait. The tle (a martial art form rooted in Tamil Nadu) and without assistance. Such skills overhangs are assets, communities. The idea is to provide an ecosysfeet inany leather slippers. A curtain woman’s enduring sad eyes (although even theatre, all focusing on the theme of the na- abut the regular curriculum painting of what is perhapsfails a palm-leaf mantem where children can explore profile only one eye), the caged bird, uscript ture andshows environment. to recognise them,” says another writer, the little girl pointing to the and learn on their own, with just herSlowly, lone earring, half-sunlight caressing however,the they began to enjoy them- eclectic volunteer and cofounder of she the has drawn on graffiti of innocence a little prodding. Volunteers will the folds her enthused soft headgear, hermany blue dress selves, inofpart by the new top Cuckoo movement. of the painting. The blue floor and the help the students channel their Each child is born (with vermilion in her — a paint thingsa they were cloth learning. Allleft thehand) children Rural and tribal es- it iswith brushes on thechildren, side suggest a studio, an innate talent, creativity into art forms. tangible anchor which sustains life. It prom- but took turns to learn all the art forms. pecially, discovered that the the studio itself becomes a feministwhich com- school Artist Pazz Shan drives down ises herway thethey world outside herthemselves mapped, pass “This could see for workshops notspace onlyand helped of a cosmic a zone of possibilifrom Bengaluru twice every education may not trapped, space. trou- ties. what theylate-colonial were capableinner of and whatThe interestthemThere overcome their any inferiority is hardly light here,necessarily but the bring out month to teach children art for a bled eyesmost,” of the child, almost(name rendered invisi- little ed them says Sivaraj changed), complex but gave and themshade, a there is, also in colour promises week at the under-construction ble, trapped in a cage one ofseem the volunteers. goal to workoptimism towards.and Tasting a certain defiance. school in Puliyanur. “The whole where solace is the subSo, tothe getonly the children to understand the ill- success with the the pointing at Likefirst herlibrary, little finger idea of alternative education, dued The influence of the the groups network of 500 effectslight. of fertilisers, for instance, hervolunteers aesthetic went adventure, spoilone that does not emphasise Dutch artist to Johannes is were asked stage aVermeer drama based on it. paintings All on to establish seven more across Tamil Nadu. grading, fascinates me,” she says. ing the bigger painting. The and striking. The cageddid parrot and that the volunteers was use a picture-book each of these the In libraries, contrast,children Mehlli learn Gobhai Volunteer Aarthi Kumar observes that in portraits are a At tribute the light outside appear as moto describe the harmful effects of fertilisers on influences folk and martial arts endemicsurface, to that region. turns a parched almost such an atmosphere children gain their unto various ments revelation and freedom the soilofand other living beings. It was left to “In Oothukuli, wea have students into learn-a derstanding from self-learning, and are able like piecemany of parchment, in 1882 canvas. If it is a rethethis children’s imagination to explain it ing Silambattam. off as a local team, workStarting of rough, textured lumi- to lead sustainable lives. The results are almembrance of things past, then, through drama. The young minds worked en- the children went onlike to participate inskin an internosity, hands with that ready showing. “We have success stories like surely, Bomanji’s is lookthusiastically andportrait it got their creative juices national competition last year knows the sea, theand saltcame and out the Illuminating take who Pestonji Bomanji’sour ‘Feeding the that of Ramesh, attended workshops kamal narang on show at as thehis NGMA ing outside predictable ambience — full-moon flowing. OneVermeer’s of the groups, for instance, symvictorious,”tide. Alageswari says, her His paintings are voice both swellstone Parrot’ and took up art profession. He can make the embroidered carpets and purple curtains bolically portrayed what new buds feel when and ing with pride. leather, shimmering water on a moonless sculptures out of scrap and is financially stadraped forever like floating walls. fertilisers are sprayed. Towards the end of the night, The and movement has gonewhere one step ahead to of a cool courtyard a sleepwalkman in contented repose, slightly tipsy. ble.a His work was recently displayed at an art Bomanji’sthe painting is part thecraving new exhiworkshop, students wereofleft to er establish Thewith Cuckoo Forest School atthe Puliyacan walk lucidity, measuring sur- The dawn issays no longer an illusion and he is exhibition,” Alageswari. bition ‘No Parsi is an Island’, curated with bril- face learn more. nur with townhisinmind. Tiruvannamalai district. “The cocking a snook the anti-booze brigade. To quote AlbertatEinstein: ‘Look deep into naliance by cultural critics Nancy Adajania and school to provide‘The an alternative educa- ture, Sorabaims Pithawalla’s Dawn of ProhibTheand paintings and are aeverything tribute to then you willportraits understand oungsters to television and smartRanjit Hoskote,glued focusing on Parsi artists from ition’ tion, through art forms ratheronthan books, various is a 1937 classic. Modelled Bollywood influences,the from European and Dutch better’. Hopefully, Cuckoo movement will phones rarely experience the outdoors. the late-colonial period to the present day. On actor teaching children howas to alive usingman, the limitDavid Cheulkar young cele- traditions, Vermeer and of Rembrandt, the hatch a future generation creative andtoindeThe Cuckoo Movement draw such display at the National attempts Gallery oftoModern Art brating ed resources natureofcan offer,” says Alageswahis bottles drink, a half-smoked cig- legendary JJ School of Art in Bombay. Among pendent thinkers. childrenin out andthe encourage them engage (NGMA) Delhi, paintings tell atostory sel- arette ri. Theon six-acre property at the foot of Javadi others, there are Nelly Sethna’s meticulous the table, his scarf complementing swathi sculptures’ moorthy hanging like oriental landmoretold with— the outsideundisclosed world and visual with each dom an almost nar- the Hills, an extension of bottle; the Eastern has ‘textile green glass of the this isGhats, a portrait

The Parsi story seen through three very different exhibitions in Delhi that chronicle their art and aesthetics, their early history and their unique brand of spiritualism

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The long list A group of loyal readers await the mobile library at Bhaktawarpur kamal narang

A busload of books

beautiful, her eyes and eyelashes transparent and forthright, staring beyond the frame. The wealthy Readymoney family, with a substantial stake in the opium trade, make a nice, happy picture. For those interested in the spiritual origins and natural elements in Zoroastrianism, and aoji aao” (Come, come). Rahi- Bankim Chandra Chatterjee are always in cir- in, a recce and across enquires about its does humble history West andmemberCentral suddin’s greeting is warm, al- culation and the wait for them is long. ship “The‘Threads application should be Asia, formalities. the exhibition of Continuity’, most cheery, each time a Bharti, the driver, arrives and the bus li- signed gazettedCama, officer,” saysDadi Rahisuddin curatedby bya Shernaz with Pudumfamiliar face climbs into the brary is set to roll. I join in, accompanied by a and guides Lilaowala her to officers the locality. jee, he Ashdeen and in Kritika Mudgal, bus. He sits on a rickety, wire-meshed office photographer. There are three rather iffy-look- will Dilbaug Singh flippingjourney. through Hindi be a soft and is sensuous It showchair, next to the engine box. The dusty table ing chairs in the bus and Bharti is particular books, looking forofVishwas Patil’sthe Sambhaji. cases the journey Zarathustra, monoin front of him has been wiped clean a few about who sits where. Quickly identified as Singh beyond theisticcouldn’t stoic andstudy prophet. No oneschool, listenedbut to times, a register spread out and cards stacked the frailest, I’m asked to sit behind the table makes reading whatever he cousin, can find.his A him in up thebybeginning, except his on a wooden tray. Soon enough, there is a stea- and hold onto it tightly. The photographer set- security guardAnd at athat school nearby, he takes only follower. is why he chose to trav-a dy trickle of people. Familiarity defines the tles into a chair next to the water cooler. short break every Tuesday toHis visit the mobile el across distant landscapes. greatness lies transactions, books are returned to RahisudAs we steer into into the maddening morn- library. Rafiquddin, a retired is in simplicity: good deeds, good teacher, ideas and din after which visitors walk towards the ing traffic of Chandni Chowk, the precautions hunched on the booksbein truthfulness; lifefloor, as a sifting moral through battleground bookshelves for the week’s two books. seem completely warranted. Bharti believes in the lowest shelf. “Bhaktawarpur hasevil, no in litween the forces of goodness and hamkar,he or says. ‘co-workTo the residents of Bhaktawarpur, about 30 driving boisterously through the melee of brary, thisisisonly our god’s only avenue,” Rafiwhichso man er’. The principle of celebration is the celebrakm from Delhi, Rahisuddin, driver CP Bharti handcarts, cycle rickshaws and pedestrians quddin has read most of the books in the bus, tiondoesn’t of nature: water, earth, sky, arrivman, and the DTC, as Delhi The Transport is Canton fighting forthe space withpilgrimage, buses anddocumented vans. An am- but wantfire, to miss out on the new Long-distance traders journeyCorporation from Calcutta to became new Parsi peabody essex museum by artistsknown, and portraitists. The painting Canton’ courtesy woman, plant, moon, stars, sunshine; better bus they sit in ‘View are of familiar bitious swerve and the photographer is on the als in theanimal, collection. things animate andshoe inanimate. Themarfire sights. They are part of the Delhi Public Li- floor. His arm has hit the cooler stand and is allVijay Singh runs the shop in the temples stillinburn, though few time and far bebrary’s (DPL) ruralinmobile launched in bruised. their adventures Chinaservice, (including the opiA commotionrepresentations of sorts ensues.ofSince huge black-and-white the ket. He hops whenever he finds to pick tween, and despite andthere con1953 to reach out often to people on thestrategic urban fringum wars), their dubious, and there no grave injuries, however, ordernais up opiumare factories of Patna, with bare-bodied comics for his prosecution, children. He exile wishes theymore live across the globe, es. Buses,alliances with a motley collection ofCompabooks, restored steadfast with the East India and we out oflabour, the tives trapped in drive sweatshop presided demnations,were new books in thefew linot even famcriss-cross therelationship Capital andwith the rural mobile city. ny, and their the ‘natives’. and Rahisuddin over Bharti by cane-wielding officialsare of the East In- and far between, brary.sometimes Readers looking forfive specific in South Korea). service parks at two different points each day The Parsi traders asserted their economic in- quite a team, both ease in their dia Company, getsatjuxtaposed with the Parsi ilies in an entire titles country put in a(as written request to Parsis rejoice who in their quiet, collecof the week.asEvery the turn of routine. dependence stoic,Tuesday, resilient,it’s relentless tradweekly traders inTheir flowing whitejourneys confabulating in the And yet, theRahisuddin, then tries to sublimity Bhaktawarpur Tiggipur. ers across longand distances and geographies on take them to Kapashera and Bijdocks, and the Chinese opium smokers inInCanbring them the nextwith timeZarathusaround. all, thetive, busaloof, eccentric tra’s early saying: be my own self thin and unknown waters. In their quest for prosperity, wasan, Dabas and ton, in Majra an eternal daze,Ghevra often carried Half anTo hour later, thetrue visitors stockson around 1,200 t’s 10 am on Tuesday and thedangers DPL building soout. myAbest… they defied thea illegalities and of the village, books in English Alipur andslaves Shahbad dairy. stretchers by the of the few stay back to chit-chat. in Chandni Chowkshifts is quiet. Thepersonal library The The ‘Threads on times. The paradigm in their drive is long we get talk- and Hindi in the bus Soon, trade. There areand many dark it’s time of to Continuity’, leave. Rahisudshares a wall the Metro re- ing. display at theappear Indira very Gandhi Nalives and socialwith lifestyles led to astation desire but to docRahisuddin us that ironies in the layerstells of smoke din doesn’t excited mains from the bustle on the other tional forstop, the Arts (IGNCA), umentblanketed and preserve these narratives. This, in Bharti is athat diploma-holder in liand haze constitute this aboutCentre the next Tiggipur. He The Parsis rejoice in side. preparing to set out forfirst the brary also features precious turn,Rahisuddin led them toisthe art of portraiture, sciences.of the early co‘art narrative’ knows each stop well.collections Majra Daday. HukumbyChand Sharma, an old in DPL hand, lonial Tehran Museum: celebrated Chinese lithographs Canton, At 11.40 am we are at Bhakta- their quiet, collective, from period. bas, the fabulous library’s farthest point, is aloof, eccentric walks the bus withopium a duster. book- warpur, goblets, locks,and keys, neckwhere into the smoke of the and The the unbrifixed spot in the market oppoThere at arethe moments of lovethe best, hemetals, says. Schoolchildren other losublimity shelves along of thefirst busuplifted are an site laces, jewels, His fireplaces, dled wealth of the the length opium trade Prathmik Balika is a cals flock to ly relief too. The TataVidyalaya. family in Rahisuddin the library. registerwood, showsce27 eclectic treasure-trove. Noddy editions and tad ramic the leap of imagination for the Parsis. Opium disappointed, the school is closed that new memberships multiple moods, inasblack-andat objects, Majra Dadas.pendants, In stark Harry Potter series for big sure.trade One can paperweights, gift coins and porcewas perhaps only are onehere, of the ele- day. “I usually lot ofasschoolchildren and contrast, Kapashera white, serene have and astill, if has none. spot thethere Ramayana forindigo, youngIndian readers, as saltalso teachers lainthe magic are also ments; was also silk, coming he says. untouched by thein,” turmoil of Nevertheless, At Tiggipur, buslights. halts atThere a T-point nextanto texts accounting, physicaltin chemiscient manuscripts, size of petre,onpepper, lead,botany, quicksilver, and there are visitors the journeys andaplenty. the distanca few shops. There is no one insome sight.the “We had try and pathology. Tomes journalism and es,Ram a matchbox. Theyschool would, once time, copper. From China, thereonwas Chinese silk, Gopal, who used to be a daily- gone detached from theonce quest for the adventure to the local and toldupon thema about mass accompany memoirs hang theseWe matchbox manuscripts around pearls,media jewelscarelessly and tea. The long journey from wage has been waiting formoment a while. is “I the of lifelabourer, and wealth. A remarkable library. can only tell, isn’t it?” asks Rahiand historical novels. Hindithe and English be- have the neck,Soon like ahe necklace. Calcutta to Canton became new Parsi pilbeen coming formovie’ the past 12-13 years,” he suddin. shared by the ‘silent of Sooni Tata and and Bharti bring out their is anput Island and Painted stsellers too, all with of dustand on says grimage,abound documented bya hint artists boisterously Bharti and Ra- lunch boxes. (No Ladyafter Meherbhai Tata, greeting with their EuropeanThe Parsi bus stays for close to half Encounters: Parsi man Traders andin thewith Community, them. Rahisuddin has chosen a new set of hisuddin. portraitists. Thesleeves, mobilemeticulously library has meant much style puffed carved ruf- an hour. A young walks a crumNGMA, Jaipurnote House, India Delhi, March books that day’s the busand stocks FromforBharuch to trip. SuratIntoall, Bombay, all to “My son on the holding books here to pled fledhim. blouses and relied silk dresses, white 10 rupee and asksGate, for books. Rahi22 to May 29, him 10amthe to form. 5pm, Tuesday to Sunday. around 1,200 English and Hindi.the A prepare the docks andbooks ports in between, or from for the CISF examinations. I couldn’t roses in their delicate fingers, mesmerised by suddin hands On the drive back, of Continuity, IGNCA, five-year membership fortoa the nominal fee have sprawling sweatshopscomes of Patna Calcutta them. images. Now my daughter-in-law there are noThreads their afforded own imagined more adventures and DaddyDelhi, Long March 22 to May 29) of ₹20. Hari the Om paintings Sharma, the library dockyards, and earlyinformaphoto- borrows for herportrait, teacher’s Anotherbooks remarkable by training ‘anony- Legs proves to be good company. tion assistant, much course,” graphs becamesays theacademic narrative books of theare aesthetic says.of Dhunbai Cowasji Jehangir mous’, ishethat anima amit sengupta is executive editor, Hardnews in Popular works of Prem Chand and lifedemand. of the Parsi trader and adventurer. The Readymoney Bhawna, an(1860-1940): undergraduate student, proud, grandwalks and p

The rural mobile service’s modest collection is the only library Delhi’s urban fringes have

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The backpacker’s library One man with a backpack is determined to introduce the children of Kalagachia, West Bengal, to the joys of reading from a wide variety of genres. Some are about the natural world, some have messages, others are fairy tales and fables. They are mostlyThe given friends oldby faithful A or sourced rickshaw puller takes from old workplaces, while some are from his own collection. a break on a summer day at a busy road in Kayal peppers the with activities northsessions Kolkata. Once and games. The children are expected to write the hub of the about or draw outBengal threeRenaissance, things that were disnorth Kolkata cussed on each Saturday. Thennow there’s the baklanguishes the says a word. ko (word) game where eachaschild non-modern section And each word hasoftothe make sense when added city ashoke to the previous one, ending in a legible senchakrabarty tence. The one they play today ends with senHOME SPUN tences like “Aaj — aami — haantey — jaabo. Haantey — jai — maachh — kintey.” (Today I will go to the haat. I go to the haat to buy fish). “We string these together in the end. The idea is to try to create stories,” says Kayal. He also brings with him newspaper clippings as he likes to introduce discussions on current affairs. Today he has brought an article about astronauts growing zinnia flowers on the International Space Station. After he reads it out,American a discussion around the efhe American novelist Faye Myenne as a literary academic and a novelist, it is not so The North city ensues that most resembles fort taken to grow a flower in an environment Ng once told me: “The first five years much one of temperament, or of the techni- it in this sense is perhaps Montreal — small but withoutwith the sun, windCalcutta, and air; things wecomtake is all you need.” The first five years of calities of intellectual labour. It is one of place. dense culture. too, is for granted Thebut children excited life, she argued, is the material for a As an academic, my identity is predominantly pressed, not on justearth. in space also inare time — at a saikat majumdar to hear that the flowers were lifetime of fiction writing. Western, and increasingly, through the last little more than 300 years old, it isgrown youngunder by Inspecial lights that the sun, the plants That statement has left a deep impact on decade and a half, American. My disciplinary dian standards butmimic the product ofso a dense and Bits from books Partha Kayal interacts with children and me. attempts tomade createsme an atmosphere immersive sengupta think they are getting the sun’sintricately rays. And since It has realise why,ofin spite of learning hav- anuradha training as an academic has taken place, ini- magnified kind of history patthere iswith no wind, theand moisture released bySpathe ing spent the last 17 years in North America, so tially, through a British colonial curricular sys- terned cultural social upheavals. conductor calls A out and arrives in Kalagachia after as a atwo-hour plantsithad topolar be evaporated with fans. To take little of myhefiction is set there. few“Mallikpur short sto- tem, and I have finally emerged literary tially, is the opposite of huge, sprawled brickfield!” as the including bus grinds tore-a scholar journeyand (with a changethrough of bus enAmerican route). Every the discussion further, Kayal But introduces ries, perhaps. Both my novels, the researcher aca- cities, like Los Angeles or Delhi. physicallya halt. Across the road chimney Saturday, some As 20ayoungsters wait totoreceive book on cent The Firebird, where I feela tall I found my demic training. novelist, I belong India. small as itspace. is, it is humongous in human terms, — part his sense help inoflearning to read or listen the va- with Theclose nexttotwenty minutes are taken up with identity asisavisible novelist, are of setthe in brick-making the same mi- My craft owes something toto Western 15 million residents. outfit this place named after. Aa narrow riety of tall—tales, adventure storiestoand natu- the children explains poring over images of city astrolieu — athat Calcutta of theis1980s, though fiction- traditions I do have, in addition a doctoIt probably why this “small” is sand-and-gravel path snakes from road,a rate ral world lessonsstudies, he has an prepared them. large nauts,enough the moon, andmicro-cities other planets. ‘What is alised early 19th century Bengal alsothe played in literary MFA infor Creative to hold within, hunthrough paddy a village. The Writing. His programme complements what the chilthis around this Its person,’ asks a boy, pointing significant role fields, in mytowards first novel, Silverfish. But the real part of writing, part dreds of them. neighbourhoods are not landscapeCalcutta is punctuated by coconut and dren really learn in school.—The to an image of an astronaut on Mid-1980s — at least a decadetrees before it that matters thebooks part merely physical spaces, but also quite a few lichen-covered ponds withnot ducks. they engages do not have the inextricable moon. Does entwinement the moon have became Kolkata — which contained, the that withaccess place to, andthey atof The path ventures a clearing is dotget from Kayal. many and holeshouses like these? they first five years, but into the first decadethat of my life. mosphere non-intellectually, vislanes and Are gossipy ted by in a the cluster small the houses with tiled The session is ainfollowbig? How the astronaut go Rooted sameofmilieu, two novels told cerally, is firmlytoday rooted India, voices anddoes loafing bodies. The The books they do roofs. A couple ofone narrow wooden beams have upsensibility to the books birds they to sleep in such heavy clothes? different stories: spoke of an elderly man in as in on landscape. word ‘neighbourhood’ felt prinot have access to, The North American been thrown pond as a makeshift been reading foristhe Can youspatial get upto when on trapped in the across corrupta and dysfunctional bu- have Of course, Calcutta an past aes- city me,you so fall in The they getKolkata from Kayal that most marily bridge. From here, a short walk brings you to thete’s few weeks. KayalIt isisan the moon? The children are full reaucracy of the Communist government and delight. a environmodern Firebird I used the Bangla word resembles is perhaps another clearing group of children sit city mental activist and sense has been in- Montreal — small but para. of questions, and Kayalthat answers the lost voice of awhere youngawidow from colonial in the historic of the The micro-city has on a colourful plastic under manuscript; the shade of term, volvedinwith to create each the onemost patiently and as Bengal preserved in asheet timeworn the campaigns sense in which that been real to mewith is that dense with culture trees, surrounded ponds awareness about in the much detail possible. the other narratedby the storyand of apaddy youngfields. boy’s modernity is nowthe in crisis decline, or where I spentasclose to 20 years of “I asked attachment you to list the birds we saw last has Sunderbans. He last writes fordecseveral publica“These children very active, running disturbing to his mother, a stage been for the three my lifeare — north Calcutta. Once time. Have you done that?” asks a of man with ades tionsat and helps a theatre outfit in Kolkata that around fields, swimming in ponds, actress, a community’s suspicion women least. This is the modernthe hub of the Bengalclimbing Renaissalt-and-pepper hair. have done it but it isn’t works children in rural identify plants, birds and inwho perform, and an“Iintense relationship to ity thatwith saw its daybreak with areas. the He is also a trees. They can sance, it now languishes as the very “That’s okay,” responds the man. Bengal math teacher at a rural school. haven’t had exposure to an artgood.” form that eventually becomes poisoned. Renaissance, and which“I realised that sects. But they provincial andmuch the non-modern “This not an exam. Read what you’ve the regimented structure of aCommunist classroom was books. Reading requires concentration and My is relationship to the US,out I realise, is pri- was effectively stalled by the re- section of the city, as opposed to the posher written.” not conducive to learning. I wanted really and sitting in one spot forwith a long smiles. marily that of an academic. I enjoy that life; gime inaugurated in 1977. The decayto created swankier south, itstime,” wider,he tree-lined listed a ‘hoop’,” says the boy. intellectual by interact with the children,has create an atmoThe day’s ends Kayal reading the“Iincredible and incomparable that stalled modernity inspired both avenues and,session since the newwith millennium, snaz“That’s a ‘hoopoe’, sphere of immersive learning.” outmalls. fromThe a northern much-leafed thick,is hardbound force represented bynot its‘hoop’.” fabulous university my novels. Because it is an intense, atmospher- zy cityscape stubbornly “You see this,” says man as he points to a ic kind Kayalofbegan his interactions withthat village book. It istoanchange. old-fashioned fable across hunsystem, of which I’vethe been privileged to be decay, with sensual contours are resistant Its serpentine, meandermap The of West Bengal. “It is our state. This is painful, childrenindelible by bringing into their lives. dredslanes of pages they have for part. sparkling conversations that go with and theatre utterly unforgettable — ing thatthat appear at been cracksreading between where we are. If we go to another district, The load-shedding, children now love to put plays houses the pastwith couple of months.facades, brittle yelits fine-wine receptions. But somehow, nonesay of the traffic jams,together the dysfunccrack-jawed Birbhum, the birds willinto be different.” for thebureaucracy, village. Kayaland hadcrucially earlier worked were welike last time? the that has found its way my fiction. tional for The with Fire- low“Where paint decayed grins thatWhat have was become “That’s bulbul,” points 15 to at a bird children from another wasout a couqueen asking for?” A boy leans across the mat Why thea shepai first five? Or 10,he perhaps the bird, the unique moral village. policing“That carried by grimaces. flying Before above. adulthood, “It is red atat the throat. ple of years back.Party But I could not sustain The toThe get micro-cities closer to Kayal, his chinmake resting onponhis most? any rate? If you go the Communist that easily crossedit.over of Calcutta you towards Birbhum, red isthat missing.” children more interested in television, hands, in concentration. Gradually, a Because, I now the realise, is the period from the were city streets to the innards of the der the scowling inevitable. The one manforms is Partha Kayal,with a schoolteacher the internet mobile phones. Also, their silence falls which over the group the world outwhen a relation place that is home and theand life of women. Does that moves theas modern artist alwho spends his free an inforweren’t very city. helpful.” The experience side fades away. says, “Books non-intellectual, or attime leastoperating predominantly so, parents Calcutta is a small Physically, it is more ways frustrate theHe modern citizen?are how we mal and mobile libraryfull outofofprimal his backpack for terthe like withDublin this group, he it says, been pro- connect with the world.” raw visceral, joys and though hashas much in more common, (In thisthem monthly column, authors chronicle the children of Kalagachia. has been regularly architecturally ductive. The parents too have pitched in. “For rors, sensual memories,Heabsurd connections and otherwise, with London. It cities they call home.) visiting 24 Parganas, West is instance, theycity. giveOften theirasrooms for our read- anuradha sengupta is a Kolkata-based freelance made onthis thevillage basis in of South daily habits and bodily a walkable a student I walked journalistmajumdar and founder-editor Jalebinovel Ink, awas media Bengal, for of thea past nine months. Every Satur- home ing sessions it’s raining.” ’s most of recent The experience person. from Stwhen Xavier’s College in Park Street to saikat collectivepublished for children youthIndia last year day, he setsisoff at around 6.30 am from Kolkata Shyambazar The booksinhenorth brings to Kalagachia by and Hachette If there a disconnect between my identity Calcutta, where I come lived. Firebird,

The primal place

Kolkata’s micro-cities are so much more than mere physical spaces

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Touchstone to Telugu tales Katha Nilayam, with its 88,000-strong collection, is the ﬁrst stop for any queries on Telugu short stories

Story keepers A business nursery Visitors at the Kachchh ‘Rann Utsava’. Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan’s TV campaign to boost Gujarat tourism has made the Rann Utsava a Rama Rao (below), major tourist attraction in the last ﬁve years s subramanium who had initially rejected awards, began to accept them to fund Katha Nilayam, which now boasts 433 anthologies and 2,604 collections

Intrepid and industrious

basheer (left), kv kurmanath

A new book that details the history of the globetrotting Kachchhi merchants from the 18th ust before we begin our conversation, the aram failed to ﬁnd some stories he was look- any event that has something to do with short Kalipatnam Rama Rao gets a ing include in an anthology. this has stories. Accompanied by his son Subba Rao, a and92-year-old 19th centuries shows them toforbeto far ahead of their“Iftimes

call from a research scholar in Warangal. happened to stories written just a few years retired engineer who is also a writer, he travels The caller wants to know whether a partic- ago, we could imagine the fate of those writ- long distances to meet writers, critics and ular story written by Tadithat Nagamma in the ten decades ago. ofI immediately decideddurto readers and collect anthologies. and any believe the globalisaKachchh, as part Bombay Presidency opened new opportunities for theStories enterpris1930s is stocked Rao’s library. “I will have it start collecting them,” nowGoswami’s pour in from different parts tioninof Indian economy began ing the British Raj, hadsays beenRao. the link between anthologies ing Kachchhis. book focusses on checked,” Raowith assures him, andSingh immediately a piece of Bombay and Karachi, of land in Srikakulam of two Telugu States. Manmohan becom- theHe bought merchants thethe doings and wanderings of Kachchhi meralerts Vivina Murthy, who isFinance digitising about with the the port of cash prize of ₹1.1 lakh he won for the chants His stature as one of the 19th centuries. greatest short story ing the Union Minister through Mandvi. in the 18th and The 88,000 Telugu short stories collected over the JanThe Peeth in 1995. A arid writer who had re- writers helpedorbuild the collection. But in 1991 in the PV Narasimha Rao Government; veryaward landscape of an Kachchh highkings ofhas Kachchh, the Jadeja Raos, as they past years atbelieve the Katha jected awardsthat till prompted then, Rao the be- Rao his the role.prime He credits the of library many19Gujaratis that NiPrime Minister lights adversity, something weredownplays called, were movers this layam in Modi Andhra Pradesh’s Srigan accept them to fund his to theglobalisation, team of volunteers who have pitched in Narendra had, as Chief Minister of Guja- people to smell anto opportunity in this natural early as they provided a low-tax kakulam district. “If the story is project.has He no gotfertile help soil, fromplains read- at every step. “Anybody could havewhich done it.cut It rat (2001-14), commenced the western state’s drawback. Kachchh administration to boost trade, available, the researcher will be ers too, and as Katha Nilayam happens that I started it. But for the contribumarch to modernity. or rivers; its long coastline and few harbours across divisions of caste and creed. The If the story is sent a copy. Raowhich set upthe a trust to tion from scores of people, would the not early have Not quite.If not, we will search were silverbuilt, lining, enterKachchhi merchants were itamong available, the the onlyslowly forChhaya it,” saysGoswami, Rao, known as KaRa at Mumbai manage it. To make he asserts. an academic converted into sure their that life- been globalpossible,” bankers and venture capitalists, whose researcherprising will be Kachchhis in literary circles. Kathamade Nilayam has a bright fuThe library helped pushbanks. back the history of University, puts to rest such ‘speculations’ in If line. Oman virtually an temples doubled as their sent a copy. not,They we even says the library has about Rao wrote a ‘will’, entruststory by about 30 yearstrade — from herRao scholarly work Globalization Before Its extension of ture, Kachchh, and Muscat that of Telugu Whatshort did the Kachchhi merchants in? will search for it 80 perThe cent of allMerchants the shortofstoing theKandla trust with published anthology of 82 Time: Gujarati Kachchh, which Mandvi. Post-1947, and all the rights 1910 to 1879. “We Ivory, pearls, an dates and arms ries written Telugu in the last managing the library. As a pol- stories that were Gurazada Apis part of thein series called “The Story of Indian Mundra havein emerged amongst werewritten their before mainstay in Oman, 137 years. “We will strive collect Goswami’s the biggest ports icy, the library doesn’t pa Rao’s “Diddubatu,” considered to be the Business”, published bytoPenguin. of India. but they tended to become entrethe remaining per cent charge “Weof first short story till then,” says Murthy, work might go20 a long way before in establishing that Kachchh has beena fee. a land preneurs in Zanzibar. Their who first they lost in the sands of time,” he says. “The two accounts — one for took up the job of digitising the short stoit wasget the Kutchhi (or ‘Kachchhi’) traders who have entrepreneurs — and of decisive halt when they sailed through Kachch has been a other dayreal we harbingers got a call from a man in econoKham- maintenance require- her land of entrepreneurs ries after retirement. Rachapalem were the of the Indian battles between India and thehis Arabian Sea was Oman, whmam who wants toinpublish, a collection, and the for the Reddy,not who teaches Temy’s global march, the lastastwo centuries, ments aggressors that other changed ere the Sultans only allowed and of decisiveChandrasekhara the stories by his corpus. We have lugu atthem the Yogi Vemana University in albeit at a written slow pace. The 90-year-old 2001 killer father. earth- the course of history. It was athrough battles between India to settle down but also But he couldn’t find hit the global copies. headlines; We are looking of ₹18 that lakh Mahmud Kadapa, calls the Katha Nilayam a treaquake in Kachchh but corpus this semi-desert practise their religion. From and her aggressors for he says. hascame beentobuilt sure-trove inspiration for rethethem,” famed khamir (resilience) of its people en- which of Ghazni loot the world there, and the anKachchhi diaspora Callsthe like thesedistrict’s are common theSomnath years,” Temple in says searchers. on any short sured sleepy revival,for soboth muchRao so over famous the spread“Information across the world. and Nilayam has emerged as a Rao, also a retired too, invastory orGoswami writer isnot just a details phone how call that Murthy. Bhuj, theKatha district headquarters, emerged 10th century; Pakistan, only one-stop shop forairports all queries on Telugu short schoolteacher. away. It the helpsKachchhi our students a lot intranstheir as one of the best in India. Bollywood ded India in 1965Hethrough this merchants stories. It isAmitabh the first point of reference for hun- never misses The political rise research,”acted he says. megastar Bachchan’s TV campaign border district. business, she also researchdreds of research scholars Telugu teach- and decline of Surat alternated with the de- es on“Of 88,000 in the library, to boost Gujarat tourism hasand made Kachchh’s howthe they set upstories mercantile firms and ers 12,000 are available in theThey pdf established format. We ‘Rannfrom Utsava’across a major Andhra attractionPradesh in the last and five cline and rise of the Mandvi port in Kachchh business houses in Oman. Telangana. The library now 433 antholowant of people to travel to Srikakulam to years. Kachchh has been an has important nurs- district. A major earthquake in the early don’t the House Bhimanis, Ratansi Purshottam, gies and 2,604 collections, besides scores of 19th Century dried up the Lakhpat port, which access stories. We intend to make them ery of India’s business acumen. Khimjithese Ramdas, the Jorjanis. books on critical of traces short the stories online,” says Murthy, alsowere an author Goswami, herselfappraisals a Kachchhi, ori- forced the British to develop Karachi as an al- available The prominent business houses those and Rao himself has authored stories ternative, prompting many Gujarati traders of over 150Topan, short stories. gins writers. of the journey that led the early Kachchhi Shivji Jairam Shivji and Thariya that deal with complextohuman relationships He and his writer wife Ramalakshmi shifted traders and merchants set up shop in places and merchants to move there; but their Topan. in villages inasvery simple language.The He stream shot to strong links with Gujarat and Bombay en- to The Srikakulam Bengaluru to take of as far-flung Oman and Zanzibar. book is from a pioneering study of care Indian fame in 1964became with hisa story “Yagnam”, which the digitisation. The Manasuyears, Foundation, of travellers torrent in the last two dured. This included the family of Mu- business history in its formative during also kickedcarrying off a debate that is yetGujaratis to settle. all In hammed Ali Jinnah, son of a Saurashtrian thewhich hasand been publishing the complete centuries, the footloose Mughal British eras, without which the the protagonist his son to finish Gujarati; Jinnah had himself settled down anyworks literary giants, is helping overstory, the world. It was this kills Kachchhi migration study of of Telugu the current Indian globalisation an endless cycle ofthe debt. the be library in the process. that commenced emergence of little Guja- in Bombay (now Mumbai) before migrating would incomplete. The of aEast library struck Rao in 1995 when rats inidea Middle and Africa, before they fur- to Karachi. kv kurmanath friend and fellow writer Madhurantakam Rajpandit ther migrated to the West, and then the East. As elsewhere, therefore, war and trade virendra

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Globalization Before Its Time: The Gujarati Merchants from Kachchh Chhaya Goswami Penguin/Porfolio Non-ﬁction ₹299

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9 17BL BL

know read

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STATES OF MATTER

The war on thought Bangladesh’s political establishment seems ﬁrmly anchored to the unprincipled middle ground in the battle between the free thinking and the radical

sukumar muralidharan

azimuddin Samad, a 28-year-old university student and activist for a radical “free thinking” movement in Bangladesh, was set upon, hacked and shot as he returned home in Dhaka on April 6. His attackers allegedly left the scene with loud vows of faith in their god. A branch of the global terrorism franchise al Qaeda claimed responsibility but Bangladesh’s Home Minister Asaduzzaman Kamal discounted this, attributing the murder to a local fringe group. He was also reluctant to identify the murder as a crime against free speech. In later statements to a western news network, he seemed to blame the victim: “The bloggers should control their writing. Our country is a secular state ... people should be careful not to hurt any religion, any people’s beliefs, any religious leaders”. Social media has given youth in Bangladesh a powerful means of creating an alternative discourse that avoids the self-imposed conpage of this newAsvolume of strictions he of title earlier generations. in India, selected stories in byBangladesh Ashapurna is Debi the horizon of aspirations becarries this evocative factors, credit: “Transing extended by demographic by the latedin into English rapid increase theBengali proportion of by thePrasenyouth jit Gupta”. It’s population. a small homage both to the strata in total And the youth demany sub-languages that speak,where writeacriand mographic has a vision of we a future think as events well aslong to thepast oft-forgotten translamonyin, over is immaterial and tor, whose burden it is tothought prove anprocesses author’s are enofficial efforts to corral tire reputation a foreign audience. an invitation toto rebellion. In Debi’s case,Bangladesh’s that reputation is complicatMeanwhile, political estabed. She began to publish her work as teenaglishment seems firmly anchored toa the uner, in 1936, and by theground. time of her in 1995, principled middle Latedeath March, the had penned a staggering novelsto and nov-a country’s Supreme Court242 declined hear ellas, 62 asking books for for invalidation children and 3,000 petition of over a constitushort her work tionalstories. clause Although declaringwidely Islam read, the state reliwas derided for its tendency togion.also Afterlargely close to three decades of deliberate wards thethe domestic the quotidian. The the auneglect, petitionand was dismissed with thor did observation not command respect, summary that none of the only petrecognition. itioners had a credible locus standi to make the This is surprising, especially if one skips the case. excerpt from Jhumpa Lahiri’s thesis Secularism was written intoMaster’s the constituthat serves as the book’s andthat retion of Bangladesh in 1972introduction, in the euphoria turns to itliberation. later. Lahiri writes at some length followed It was removed from the about the author’s criticalby reception, fundamental principles a 1979 offering amendthe observation complaint issued by critment, which also“(A) introduced a preambular inics is the author’s supposed conservatism, esvocation to divine mercy and beneficence. pecially with regards to women’s lives.” which And then came the 1988 amendment, Only 21Islam of thethe aforementioned declared state religion,3,000 whilestories assurare in Matchbox, andfaiths. while the extent ing collected absolute freedom for all of In the author’s paletteCourt remains of the 2010, the Supreme heldout invalid grasp of most non-Bengali readers, is 1979 amendments, encouraging thewhat belief represented here contradicts, or at the with very among generations closely associated least complicates, herthat reputation as a nonthe 1971 liberation war its underlying valfeminist Debi’s The feminism extraordiues wouldwriter. be restored. AwamiisLeague (AL) narily subtle. in power since 2008 with the government, She does forget their rage,fluffed their mandate to not amend themen: constitution, worries, their susceptibility to being maniputhe challenge. In 2011 it enacted amendments lated. ‘Brahma’s Weapon’, Oshima seeks emwhichInretained Islam as state religion, but ployment a former flame’s company, to her reaffirmedatthe principle of equality, irrespechusband’s jealousy. In ‘Glass Beads Diamonds’, tive of faith. Shomita shows up unannounced wedPrime Minister Sheikh Hasina hadtotoa make ding in her ex-in-laws’ household, whiletohera the political manoeuvres appropriate current waits in In the2011, car.the In the complexhusband agenda on hand. firstdisinturbing Mollika and dictments‘Shadowsun’, were issued sisters by the International Ghentu are pitted against each since Crimes Tribunal (ICT) set up in other accordance childhood, feminine and the othwith a 1973one act,deemed for suspected war criminals er inferior. In ‘Earth Rojoni is temporarily from 1971. The cause Sky’, of the ICT had wide public

Through a familiar guise Ashapurna Debi’s works were subversive literature about life within ordinary households, and were welcomed in those very households in their nonthreatening guise kr deepak

A subtle subversion A new translation of Ashapurna Debi’s short stories hits the right notes and reminds us of the subversive appeal of Bengal’s proliﬁc ‘domestic’ chronicler

Matchbox Ashapurna Debi Prasenjit Gupta (tr) Hachette India Fiction ₹399

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swayed by a warm welcome on a visit home feet of her husband to show respect.” On one but ultimately chooses to keep working at a hand, her books were seen as light romantic Freeplantation: speech martyr activists slogans,On demanding the arrest the three tea the Bangladeshi subtext is the painand of students those shout reading. the other, theyoftold the truth assailants andexperience shot studentthat activist Nazimuddinabout Samadmundane to death as he walked with awithin friend inmarital Dhaka. at home,who whohacked cannot freedom oppression photo/ am ahad Police suspect 28-year-old Samad was targeted for the his outspoken atheism to choose. Her characters do not challenge contexts. Thisapbifocality of her work is what exmilieu that causes them this grief. They lie to plains its popularity: it was subversive literathemselves andexcept to others: little Monoroma Isin ture endorsement, among Bangladesh’s lifeDesh, within households, editorabout of Amar wasordinary arrested in April 2013. ‘A Covering Leaves’ learns frominwatching lamic parties.ofProcedures adopted the war welcomed in those same households through Shortly afterwards, a number of youth blogher deeply-bonded parents fresh that love is the on- agers crimes trials soon created polarisation, non-threatening were taken in guise. and charged with offences ly true wealth, a pretense of to success will under especially as thebut hearings moved a decisive In terms language, the Bengali English insultoflaws. The AL government was obspare the providers’ stage late in 2012. pain. brought to life by wellagainst rendered. The viously seeking to Gupta insureisitself a backIn ‘Grief’, Shoktipoda decidescharges to delaywere tell- languages December 2012, sedition are interwoven effortlessly, without lash from either side. ing his wife Protibha thatlanguage her mother has Amar died, theIn awkwardness brought against Bangla daily of italics. number Onomatopoeic May 2013, an unspecified of lives and feignstranscripts not having the touches Desh,she afterinitturn published of seen purportcat purrs “pirringwere lostare in maintained: a night-time acrackdown on Hifapostcard withconversations the news so as to fullythe express ed telephone between ICT’s pirring”, and a drawing is made at “khoshzat demonstrators. All who demanded acher when he comes home. headanguish judge only and an overseas expert onThey war khosh speed”. A glossary at the back ofwith the countability found themselves targeted, are not jurisprudence. progressive in any way. The author, book crimes Originally published needs little consultation — not because one human rights campaigner, Adilur Rahhowever, in her close on the website of Therendering Economist, the tran- man, spending of several a pan-Indian monthsfamiliarity in prison. but of their had lives,Justice lays bare the sufferscripts Nizamul Haque ‘Nasim’, due to the smoothness the As yet another blogger is murderedofnow, ing within. speaking about the undue pressure he faced state prosecution translation and the universality has secured a conviction in Only ingovernment the title story, from the to ‘Matchconduct swift trials, the killing of of the spaces in which the stoHaider. Mahmudur has been orbox’, concern the sta-Justice even does at theher cost of duefor process. Haque occur. is somethinghas to dered release on bail, butThere the government In one reading, this is ries tus quowithout of aundue patriarchal resigned fuss, but in shooting saidpretext for understanding found to keep him a statement of some beother worldview take the an explicit turn. the messenger government through osmosis: in any fine restraint. In another, imprisoned. “This is precisely why Inot compare signalled that it would falter translation, ease is a charMeanwhile,such to seemingly unit is a statement of women to matchboxes. in its obsessive pursuitEven of acteristic most notable whencut it derline that their suspicions sheer power when they have the means withconvictions. goes unnoticed. Forvolunteers instance, across ideologies, AL Secularism was in In themselves to set off many ragearly 2013, mass protests whenlaunched Keshob Rai in ‘The Scheme have a mass campaign removed from the ing fires, neversoon flareafter up and broke outthey in Dhaka an Oflitigation Things’ ison full of vitriol for a of various grounds fundamental burn awaysentenced the maska senior of men’s ICT bench Ischild described “that cold-inagainst two of theascountry’s bestprinciples by a 1979 high-mindedness, largelamist politician to their life impristhe-nose, enlarged-spleen-inknown editors, Mahfuz Anam of heartedness. They don’t burn own the-abdomen,the amulet-on-the-arm, onment. Demonstrators drawnup their amendment tiger’sDaily Star and Matiur Rahcolourful shells. They won’tborn burn them — and claw-around-the-neck, entirely from generations rickets-stricken boy”, man of Prothom Alo. Both were inthe this too. That’s why they leave we need no explanation aftermen theknow liberation war, gathof volved in for the meanings liberation them carelessly in the kitchen, in this odd string ered atscattered a squareso near Dhaka Uniof invectives. movement and have since been the pantry, in the bedroom, here, there, really versity, demanding death. Amar Reading these stories,inone its consistent theirsenses publicwhat advocaanywhere. fear, they put original Desh and aAnd few quite other without media outlets pushed audiences — those whose lives most cy of its values. them in their pockets.”that In one this is a closely back with accusations thereading, demonstrators mirrored the — In another frontthose in theof war oncharacters thought, the statement of restraint. Inrespect another,for it is a state- must were atheists with little religious have felt. lack of a better they government hasFor introduced a draftword, law crimiment of sheer traditions. Thepower. Jamaat, Bangladesh’s principal must have felt understood. nalising the denial of the war crimes of 1971. Here, party the introduction sheds light again, Islamic and a partner in various coali- Marked Even the reader, at timessanction bored by out distant for particularly severe is quoting from the since scholar Manisha Roy’s 1972 the tion governments 1990, remained quiesdomesticity of squabbling in-laws or longanyone questioning the three million civilian critique: novels,awhich em- suffering cent but“Ashapurna perhaps Debi’s sponsored kindred spouses, genius takes to casualty figure thatsees has the become theitnationalphasise the glory of love in a conjugal setting, stir organisation, Hifazat-e-Islami, to retaliate. such clarity of recognition. ist theology of Bangladesh since liberation. areThe frequently givenkilling to brides wedding prefirst targeted of aasyouth blogger, manivannan isisa an Chennai-based sukumar muralidharan independentpoet writer sents. have attractive jackets,during often with AhmedThey Rajib Haider, occurred this sharanya researcher based in Gurugram and Shimla illustrations of a demure wife touching phase of turbulence. Mahmudur Rahman, the and writer

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takeaway cover

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Adventures of the mind Deepalaya, a library in a corner of Delhi, is quietly transforming lives of children by giving them access to books

An enduring staple ‘Hopper’ is the colonial mispronunciation of ‘appam’, which is now commonly used in Sri Lanka shutterstock/sta

MEAL TICKET

On the crêpevine A new restaurant in Soho is spicing up London’s love for Sri Lankan food

naintara maya oberoi

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n Mondays and Fridays it’s easy to in London, I couldn’t stop find hile the way to Deepalaya library, hearing Sri Lankan resyou just haveabout to follow the chiltheschool new dren.taurant Some areHoppers, still in their the Soho uniforms, most star haveofchanged intofirmament colourful that has received rave reviews across the ‘home wear’; and in groups of twos and threes, boardbooks (and either off orarms, coincided with tuckedsparked under their they with atomini-craze for hoppers onfor Instagram). head the tiny building where, the last 16 As a fan of appams, the light fermented rice months, they have discovered that between crêpes eatenoffor breakfast and as a snack in the covers a book lie adventures of the southern and Sri Lanka,Deepalaya, I didn’t need any mind. TheIndia first time I visited it was make meal out of them. apersuading school. Thetogates ofaKhirki village are exactly ‘Hopper’ is thefrom colonial mispronunciation across the road Delhi’s mall mile — a of ‘appam’, is now commonly length whichwhich in reality is shorter than aused milein — Sri Lanka (early European colonisers must that houses brands with unpronounceable have been obtuse, because, my names anddeliberately unaffordable price tags, andto walkear, into the the twoschool words don’t anything ing from thatsound route is a quick alike). Calling eatery Hoppers is thus prelesson on howantopology and sociology can sumably a nod the culinary borrowings, netransform in antoinstant. gotiations appropriations between the When theand Right to Education Act was implevarious cultures of this little mented, Deepalaya ceased toisland. be a school. But So would Hoppers mangling, a minwriter Mridula Koshy be anda her partner,orMichael gling of flavours? We were aboutlibrary to find proout, Creighton, who ran a small but only, the the door informed us, after gramme in girl theatpremises, continued with a waitsessions. of three hours. Hoptheir Once aThree weekhours? they Luckily, would come pers read uses aaloud high-tech queuing system, and to thevirtual kids. For a while they where you can put yourcoming name down, to still had about 40 kids to theleave library, workthat up number an appetite elsewhere in the neighbut began falling rapidly, until bourhood, yoursix place in theattend“line” some weeksand theycheck had only children anytime; they send you a were text when at ing. “We knew the books beingyou’re wasted. theour head ofimpulse the “queue”. Wegive were number So first was to them away.48. We Just 15 minutes shybooks. of threeOur hours, we were donated about 500 second imat the was doorthat along with three other evpulse it was a mistake andgroups, we should eryone suspicious. We keep thelooking library ravenous running,” and Koshy says. In Janucircled the they entryway hyenas, poary 2015, wentlike into the feigning community, liteness (“Have long too?”), knocking door you afterbeen doorwaiting and informing the whilethat all inching furtively kids the library wouldtowards carry onthe withdoor. its acFinally, wenumbers shuffledwent into aup warm, snug space, tivities. The rapidly, from 40 a mishmash someone’s to 80 to 100, of within days. idea of a colonial café My andsecond a dosavisit canteen. There was are after terracotta to Deepalaya it betiles, film posters and acarved wooden came a library minus school. Googleraksha maps (fire dance) masks on the walls, alleys rattanand on the routed me through the narrow bychairs of and Panchsheel ceiling, and Vihar, amber-tinted water lanes and driving glasses and terracotta Moneyplants through pathways notcrockery. originally meant for

Soft power Student council members, Simpy Sharma and Shivam Singh issue books at Deepalaya library kamal narang

four-wheelers, past tiny houses where mi- Khatun, Simpy Sharma, Shivam Kumar Singh are dotted hereand and there, as if the lush grant workers their families lived,foliage what and sambol. AndSharma, what of over the appams themselves? Shivani a tenuous Skype call. of theimmediately island were bursting the corners. was evident out wasofthe kind of Eloquent The simple appam was athey joy serve in itself: the and clear-headed, as both Sri Lankan food is anot new in London. But helpers transformation that library like Deepalaya sour, fermented flavour, theascrepey bowled in the library as well its evangelists. Hoppers part of thelike Sethi restaurant empire can makeisin a place that. Away from the Singh, shape, 13, thetells crispme and lacy edges the spongy that now it isand important for in London, which includes popular Trishshiny, reflective glass of thethe malls, living the parents middle full of give. can even spoon your to join the You library. The community na, of Gymkhana, and Bao. life being invisible cogs The in anexpectations indifferent walks, curry into the have ‘bowl’been if you like (“Are you a ripof late, targeted at them. His werethe understandably city, only succour high. is the power of a story. favourite per and a dipper a tipper and aand ripper?” book isor Tintin, he says, while asks he’s It looked like has theyspent had another hit on their And Koshy, who her life writing, was always Hoppers’ Instagram). Theanegg hopperreading was a dreamed of being engineer, hands. The menu plates, best placed to notskips just between recognisesmall it, but exe- books star too, at “the the edges, inpaper-thin the libraryand has crunchy given him conficurries, extras listed under dence cute it ashoppers, a modeland thataisfew truly transformative. cradling a jiggly in the that he canjust-fried actually egg pursue hiscentre. dream.” ‘Rice, Roast and Kothu’, and it includes As the number of children grew, thea helpchalBut everything the bone marRitika Sharma, paled also before 13, another student ful glossary for people are new multito Sri council lenges in running the who programmes row. A thick lake of varuval pooled in the botmember, demonstrates a maturity far Lankan foodand and its signatures: plied. Koshy Creighton decidedpennywort to set up a beyond tom ofher the dish, and two years terracotta when she says that not only leaf, cinnamon, pandan leaf, corobust volunteerlemongrass, programme. The library is has tree-trunks of bone rose from the middle, conher power of imagination expanded, she conut,four anddays so on. We ordered as many things open a week; books are given out on has cealing luxurious, creamy marrow. alsoa learned that whatever youThe do,varuyou as we could to, with Mondays andpoint Fridays. On andrinks aver- to go along val, which I must have previously only eaten always do with love. as a dry (the Monday, drinks menu age they features have 180Dutch kids. genever and fry, accented the fattiness with ChettiKoshy’s dream is its forrich, the library arrack, as well as spice-inflected On a busy Monday, that number Hoppers protonad-style serve as aflavours. blueprint for other licocktails lager.) climbs asand highLion as 220 in the span vides thin metalcommunities. marrow scoops braries in other A Deepalaya is now rotis arrived first, of Mutton four hours. As many as thirtyand a layered flaky roti to scoop second branch of Deepalaya is altrying to get more withvolunteers, a spicy ginger-garlic six apart from dipone and soak up the aleftovers ready operational, third is with, comadults to come to Would Hoppers ping member sauce, —like staff Koshywondrous herself — but we“That’s dug inone with our knives ining up. a year. With that the library be a mangling, or a kind breaded deep-fried manage a total of kathi 600 rolls. kids, stead. fell at table, as of Silence numbers, weour don’t even We would have and ordered 6,000 books all more the mingling of flavours? scratch it did atthe every other confronted surface. My grand but for the arrival of the hot butprogrammes. by a varuval. dream is that we create a model terAsdevilled shrimps: fat, curly successful as the library has What follow this which cancould be replicated bybuttery, voluncrustaceans, doused in an incenbeen in giving children access to books, what teers anywhere visceral treat? The buffalo else.” With all the biryaprodiary, buttery sauce, it really does istomato-garlic serve as a place whereshowered answers grammes ni was, by it itself, not worth the sticker price,a organises, Deepalaya needs with green onions and—pickled green pepperto puzzling questions on paper and in life — budget which isofprobably they serve it in a most thali ₹10 lakhwhy annually. Currently, corn.beLamb kothu the roti griddled and of can found. Theroti, read-aloud programmes with duck egg raita, donations. and aubergine thisa comes fromcurry, individual then the pan-fried with lamb,structure was just and as good, help kids understand mo- pickle. Butthat the spending coconut milk kariawas subTo state a fewfish hours week in and so“Itwere the them two birds that followed: well- the tives. makes confident, about themlime: warming, but delicate, the spices just Deepalaya library will transform the adult spiced duck in aas flatabout roti, which came with a ra- lives selves as well literature. Reading rightoffor a kids dreary spring We never even the who use it day. is merely a summasa (gravy), quail of 65,identity, a nice rendition gives themand a sense a hook of to legs the tion madeof ithope, to dessert, running our marrow not a scientific extrapolation of and breast past,” Koshycrisped says. in the 65 masala, topped cause-and-effect. spoons dreamily through the remains of the with enormousconfidence banana pepper and coco- varuval, Theanenhanced of Deepalaya’s ordering needs more readers egg hoppers to swirl That literature is a given. But nut flakes. An array of little bowls up what readers is immediately visible. Anbrought important through the fishofcurry, arguing about a couple hoursand spent wandering the rear: coriander chutney, a fresh, bright go- through tenet of the library is its student council memwhether another plateprovides would beisoverkill. Deepalaya ampleHopevitu kola sambol, coconut-pennywort relish dence bers. Picked fromaamong the users, the eightpers felt like a little island of right warmth in the that with a nudge in the direction, run through with a pungent salty flavour member student council not just helps with it heart of London, well worth wait. is possible to create readersthe who will always (which, the wasfashion, from dried running themenu libraryexplained, in an orderly but need literature. Maldivian flakes), to a caramelised onion naintara maya oberoi is a food writer based in is now also fish empowered envision the future Paris t@naintaramaya venugopal seeni pol veena of thesambol, library. Iand meetchilli-coconut-shallot Ritika Sharma, Nunihar

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PRESENT IMPERFECT

An unfortunate development Gurgaon may have changed its name to Gurugram, but there is no changing the unfortunate story of its lopsided growth and its shameless champions walking briskly along as the nanny pushes a stroller with the latest ‘bundle of joy’. This year’s beagle, acquired after somehow managing to get rid of last year’s pug, gambols along. It’s not often that real life resembles a Facebook post. “Stay blessed,” someone always comments. Around the corner, a young father, smug in his rakish looks and the ample projection of his modern mindset, takes his toddler on a stroll, while allowing the wife a little weekend lie-in. He points each car and the toddler, a Wide canvas Idyllic landscapes, town scenes, paintings, floralatdesigns star correctly or happy baby faces were used generously to already, woo the target buyeridentifies them — Audi brinda suri A8, BMW X5, he babbles, and gasps three times before he strings together Porsche. “That’s not a Porsche,” the father is firm. He is right, the Porsches aren’t here, they are mostly in the next building, named after a flower, magnolia, but forever destined to be called Mongolia, although no one says it without adding “the most expensive apartment in the city.” Even on a scorching April morning, the line to enter the most expensive apartment in the city is long. Plumbers, carpenters, domestic help, wait in the 38 degree heat to be patted down to an inch of their lives before Less-than-perfect It’s not often that real life resembles a Facebook post galina barskaya/shutterstock they are allowed to step on to the marble floors of the actual building, whose florist’s bill for a month is more to build t was in grandpa’s wardrobe for as long Morton was among the few early-20th cennamed biscuit tinsthan and,enough soon, other confecSouthA Point Mall, a large in Gurgaon, he is fond of saying, especially to its a shaded reception at the ‘service’ entrance. asutside I had the known. slim tin box with a retury companies that had opted to package tioners followed suit, offering cakes, toffees white Mercedez-Benz into visiting westerners,items is toin believe that you But it’s fine, really, in another month, it’ll be 10 picmovable lid featuring a swivels bonny blue-eyed confectionery lithographed tin boxand later chocolates. Idyllic landscapes, theholding main Golf Course road andarearen’tes.living Gurgaon. Allthese air conditioners degrees hotter,town but the Porsches will still be exgirl a snowy dog. It was gift for Today,inlike a lot else, have far outlived turesque scenes, famous paintings, verses its its banks three times, would be turned on all the time, the power bill there and who’s to say there’s no joy in his sons, andinto once contents were over, their original purpose to become collectors’ quisite regal settings, floral designswalkor happy untilgrandma it is perfectly line with the perfect BMWs and notwithstanding — thisa is personal comfort, ing past them. greater happiness is had in decided it was to store items and there’s whole legion of enthusibaby facesThe were used generously inin andriveffort to Audisgrandpa’s on its either side.squares. It is 5 pmAnd andquite the trafnot consideration others — and if you weretheir ing them, no target doubt,buyer which—iswomen why last week a pocket a collecasts out therefor in the cyber world sharing woo the and children. fic ontion this he arterial road is heavy, the Merc’s perto go up for a visit, even before you’re settled driver emptied out as much as he could of his had of jewel-tones in silk and satin. collection and tales of what those boxes held: Christmas, coronation and royal births saw fect parking, this narrowfor stretch of a road in, you’d told in genuine excitement employer’s Magnoliatheme apartment, Grandpaon was a stickler discipline, so it was frombechessmen to toy train sets to about sewing eslimited-edition boxes. loaded the whileaconstruction workers build metro line the project with it in and simply drove off. treat for us grandkids to beaallowed to open sentials,that laces,their locksseven-year-old and a lot more.son is employer’s LithoJaguar tins arrived India at the beginning above, results in about a hundred cars braking working on. It’d be around the theme of savThere is much talk, of course. Of unreliable this box, select a piece that matched with the Lithographed tin boxes, the kind we’re fa- of the 20th century and became fashionable and waiting to crawl on. The mall has parking ing the planet andnow, the global warming is in help soon and corrupt systems. Spoken un-Partitie and turban. miliar with emerged on thethat shelves enough.police Till a few decades after the space inGrandpa its basement ₹20ago on weekdays melting ice chromolithography caps and finishironically, illegally parked, died aand fewat years at the ripe age 1882the when was invented. tion, most tins werewhile decorated with European it is one of His the box, cheapest places to park to in be theat the ing off the polar bear entirely. these champions of developof 90. however, continues A series of colour plates were used for the themes. by Mid-Sixties onward, the Indian sensicity. Yet, nospot one does. luxury cars Gur- Sometimes in- multi-colour tin- bility crept ment honesty is par- patsame in hisThe wardrobe, andinopening it process,aas diorama a result of iswhich inwho and,believe alongside Victorian gaonnow haveis been onathe patienttrove saving volved; ironycould never be is. produced. By The luxury cars in amount but work calendar has to be done art likeacquired unlocking treasure of mesheets terns, of ₹20 and ₹30 byeach parking on the street, no are the icons was of success (no?).gods-goddesses, They look around, at the mories, with kerchief bringing alive a These 1890, embossing also intro-Gurgaon have been mythological matter howsome inconvenient. This city,newly-married one that that duced television channels intermetro labourers in their tattered story, that go back to his in the design and brand acquired on the tales, protagonists of folk legwas born out of liberalisation’s economview;names they began are the untiringin re-patient saving of ₹20 orange safety vests palaces, and the Bendayssolely in Rawalpindi. All these years it was the appearing ends, grand national ic buoyancy, unequivocally embraces “develchampions of ‘development’. maids riding cycleslotus inside, rather than the box itself, which had lief, often in an attractive Igold such astheir the tiger, and ₹30 byCparking on gali symbols hristmas, opment”, no one haswas developed by paying ran past two of them this Sunday home, their headtin in boxheld and a charm. That until recently when, by finish. andand theshake Tricolour graced the street, no matter coronation and royal for something can bethe acquired of of morning, glory hourtinwhen disgust. “Yaar, these like people will and accident, Iwhen cameitacross vintagefree section Thethat birth of the can, the howbirths inconvenient es of companies Nutrine saw limited cost. an Even a fool knows financial development is however, set fora host ₹20 of also. e-commerce sitethat. selling a box similar to the predecessor to the box, Parleaascrime well as mithai edition theme boxescommit Earlier in grandpa’s the morning, the Merc, alongfell with asidegoes for physical Withand these people around, this one in cupboard. I nearly off the back to development, 1810 when British confectioner shops throughthe other cars parkeditin high-rise apartand merchant overheard Peter one say to the country improve.” chair big when I noticed had a price tag of $51 or Durand was isout will the never country. Unlike Of today, ments, are approximately. washed downThe copiously, after other,sued “Honesty is, for of course, course ours is a diverse nation, ₹3,400 seller’s description a patent his ideaimof “prewhen brand names are splashed which the ‘Morton driver clambers in and turnslitho the enportant. Paramount. to happen, but we can all agree that across it’s onlya robbery read Pure Confectioner tin box serving food inButanwork ironhascan boldly product,and the imgine and conditioner on. On the rare oc- no?” coated His friend earnestly, empatheti- corruption when ages it’s done of a Gucci withthe girlair and dog picture’. withnodded tin”. The early 19th did outside the talking while the casion Ithat a morningreached walker out or marathon cally.century Across the on the of lawns, the suit trade and inname a Maruti It can’t be easy to on immediately for grandpa’s saw driveway, the rapid growth industrialisastayedcar. almost hidden, usually trainer requests that itthe engine be switched wivestion are and furiously kicking andof punching the spend ₹50 lakh on a car and ₹15 crore on a box. On flipping over, as in the online image, cooking food out a tin, as opposed the rear or the sides in small font. off because accumulated dieselgolden rings letair; being led through a mansymhouse, Over and despite the factthe thatcharming the windows I foundthe Morton writtentoxic in small to preparing freshthese food,motions becameby a status the centuries, patterns are thick for a meat knifeato struggle in dri-fit andtinned rippling muscles. Thiswidely is the sold are sealed and thewere blinkers areappealed worn, little ters. enough It was a toffee box, from brand set up in bol.wear By 1820, food was being and shapes what tobits buyers, through, would be in rudely informed that The tribeacross whoseEngland, arch nemesis areand flabby stomachs of reality insist on pushing their way in 1849 he by JT Morton Aberdeen, Scotland. France the US. who would put the boxes to good useand long afthe employer is expected the had and cellulite scarred thighs. The enemies sullying the mood. can’t behad easy. What is easy off. firm later became any C&Emoment Morton,and which The early cans/boxes hadreal paper labels on ter the goodiesIt inside been polished car has to be kept interests at a suitably tundra temperfemale colleaguestin thronging is saving ₹20. Pour Japanese commercial in India and, in 1928, are a elsewhere them. The—first lithographed box, not mulWhilethe tin boxes were the being lovinglysingle preserved aturelocal untilmagnate then. Upstairs, penthouse, the husbands’ workplaces the tight,or banmalt,and no water, justinice. Thanks. boughtin itsthe rights. The Morton ti-colour till then, withorremovable hinged recycled homes across the world, who the owner the car has installed air condidagelid, dress waiting inbeen the commissioned wardrobe. Never brand of was registered here in 1947 and is now is said to have in 1868 could have thought these would become coltioners everyby five metres. TheMills onlyLtd. wayAto live tin mind,byinBritish the evening tribe re-assembles, owned Oudh Sugar simple biscuitthe manufacturers Huntley & lector items some day. t @veenavenugopal box had opened up chapters of a remarkable Palmers. As the popularity of their decorated legacy, hidden away from the limelight. containers grew worldwide, litho tins were re- brinda suri is an independent journalist

The heirloom

Vintage lithographed tin boxes are little time machines, bringing you the charming kitsch of the late 19th century

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Veena Venugopal is editor BLink and author of The Mother-in-Law

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Small wonder Tongue in check BAWDY LINE

No bigger than a living room, The Little Museum of Dublin holds rarities such as the ﬁrst edition of Ulysses, a handwritten postcard by Samuel Beckett, and more from over a century TheofKing Bible perhapsthe thepast most inﬂuential of all IrishJames history. Andismaking come alive is English-language a tour guide whotext is a bit of time a seanchaí

Chock-a-bloc More than 5,000 displays are packed into The Little Museum of Dublin; (inset) a facsimile of James Joyce’s death mask kiran mehta

his (political) views resting on, and Marerywhere: in the rhetoric of Lincoln his love of and Maude Gonne, and Churchill tin Luther King Roosevelt who wouldn’t go out works on his dates! and Obama, in all major of literature Movingand from the through unrequited love-story, from Melville Faulkner Steinbeck backtotoVikram the turbulent times, Lawlor and harking Saul Bellow Seth and Joanne explains that Stephen’s Green the scene Rowling, in the lyrics of Sinatra andwas Marley, in of fierce fighting and “500 civilians and 40 chiljournalism and jurisprudence and advertisdren were killed”. fighting was stopped ing, in Monty Python andThe cricket commentary for an hour every day. WeIntry to decipher and Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. Nehru’s ‘tryst the ‘tea-time’, ‘A pint’... Not withreason: destiny’,‘prayers’, in Ambedkar’s declamations. In really, it elevated, was to ensure that theregister, park-keeper, James Tagore’s half-poetic in the Kearney, could the resident ducks. dense mysticism offeed Aurobindo Ghosh. In the We’re next directed a photo of televia ‘little old treatises of Amartya Sen. Intoprime-time in a carriage’ and asked guess her idension lady sophistry. And everything into between. tity.does Clue:it‘as popular in Ireland cold-sore’. What take for a certain turnas ofaphrase This is Queen ‘theWhat, famine I to unwittingly liveVictoria throughorus? forqueen’. inlook closely at the grainy picture, from stance, is the Hindustani analogue of the KJB?April 1900, when arrived in Kingstown Where is that greatshe quarry of Hindustani phra-(now Dún ILoughaire) to recruit toafight seology? wish to bring to your Irishmen notice here with the British the Boer War. complete inversion of the in settled order. The Lawlor pointsflecks out that all the finest and the most arresting of idishutterstock items inout theinmuseum were doomatic Hindustani started the spoken, y common consensus, the greatest confederation of 66 books that introduced no not the written language. nated byThe locals, and asofmore keeper and the most perfectly formed work more than 43 new words to the English lan- phrase and idiom has been come the museum thein, rustic vernacu- conof English prose ever written was guage and were written using a lexicon of lar. The baseborn. Untouched tinually changes. by the ascendanproduced by a committee of 54 peo- about 12,000 words only. Shakespeare, on the cy of Arabic inflections and Farsi We are led to the inner compounds, ple over 400 years ago. It was commissioned other hand, wallowed in 30,000 different and the gnarled prosody ofroom, where we come Sanskrit. by a closeted gay monarch to settle a political words, many of them overbearingly polysylacross of a first edition of To open SW Fallon’s Dictionary Hindustani and theological dispute and took seven years labic, with many turgid imports from Latin. Ulysses, dated 1922. “We (1879, with illustrations from folklore, riddles, to complete. It was the time when London was The KJB was written in the clear vernacular proverbial sayings, songs,keep it open onand the last colloquialisms e’re all storytellers; laid waste by Bubonic plague, when the East it’s many more. Suddenly of the people ‘so that it may Ibee understood literature) is to see the invisible page so stream that when that we makes us atIrish, India Company was beingwhat licked repeatedly a booming voice,But andit had to sound flows all around us, fullleave even hear of the very vulgar’. today, canleft all say of things wewe have apart our love sea by the Dutch and hadn’t quitefrom managed to of look to see stately and up majestic. The aKJBman translating com- unsaid. In his imperishable we’ve finished the book!” No preface he blames the pint,” quipped move beyond elephant hunting in Sierra Le- my dressed in black an mittee was divided intotrousers, six subcommittees. Its the members of our small feat, nobility given that literary forthe thebook friendEngland Antoinette a Dubliner, as she one, when was Reilly, first giddy on Shakesimmaculate white‘God’s shirt,Secretaries’, bow-tie, but atrophy of the has members were called thetongue. heft of a“These brick and vulgar are is, theironitheKing Gaelic seanchaí peare,translated and Othello, Lear term and The Tempest(proand a top-hat. is Lawlor,clerics. who apnot all of them were This black-gowned It’s autocratscally, day in the of Leopold whoabout have one banished thelife people’s nounced a time, ran to packed Shaw-ne-key). houses at theOnce Globeupon Theatre. pears to straight out of instructive to have note walked the profiles of some of the 19th Bloom, andand his odyssey mother tongue, forged inthrough its placeDublin. the artiwhen parchment, quills, and script were the 1604-1611. century. He doffs to our group of 15 vismembers. There washis a hat matheThe room has a more picture ficialalso language whichrecent divides the of privileges of variously a few, thecalled Celts adopted a pragWhat has been ‘the perfecitors, before us into matician, who leading was also En- a forgotten era. Yeats, taken in 1923 afterruling he’d class. won the Nobel people and the With matic waythe of passing onexpression history and culture: tion of English, complete of the expect him to(who start had with the most prized Prize in Literature. gland’sI first Arabist might and main they have laword of mouth. And the traditional Irish raliterary capacities of language’, a ‘miracle’ and item in thea room, but instead earlier written book called The he has us lookHe isn’t the only accomplished writer in boured to keep out the spoken The King James Bible conteur was born, a repertoire a ‘national shrine, built armed only ofwith words’ wasn’t of ing out the windowMohamat St Stephen’s Greens, Blasphemous Seducer this inner room — there’s postcard vernacular from athe writtensigned lan- by was an ability to wax lyrical make the even stories, an original production. It wasand a mere centre of Dublin life’. To throw inwritten a bit of in the mad),‘the a theologian who fought Samuel Beckett. part of a school project, a guage ofAsbooks and legal procevernacular mundane fascinating. happened to translation fromseem the old tongues ofI antiquity time-travel, Lawlor asks us to close our eyesof the the Spanish in Puerto Rico, a Lati12-year-old boy wrote and a letter to the previous dure official people. But it had to meet a modern-day seanchaí, the tour — Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. But such a wellguide and was “picture the 1900s on these nist who a certified alcoholowner of hisand home. Thethey boy was correspondence; what at thethat Little Museum Dublin.ic, another kittedAdam out Lawlor, translation the productofwas streets: women trailing gowns sound stately Latinistinwho was overjoyed at to receiving were unable wholly thrust outa reSet inthe a charming loftier than originals;Georgian one thattownhouse, ended up the and broad-brimmed hatsan helped better known as a cuckold, sponse from none other than of sight, they have mutilated, museum dates backto tomodern the 18thEnglish century,idwitharchbishop a out of who supplying more phrases carriages by men in full had previously Beckett, explaining what it was and mangled, and crushed. They colourful ‘Doorsliterary of Dublin’ as its distinguishiom than any other source, including suits. aOne among called them Awas a authored bestseller to grow aupvigorous in that rahouse. Clue: ‘As popular inhave like emasculated ing feature. Back when the town was filled Shakespeare. Patrick Ireland a cold- and But Brief gentleman History of the named Whole World. Such prose, the Nobelfor Prize cy as language, substituted itswinner living endsore’. This is Queen with identical houses, it that It came to pass, salt of thelegend earth,has grapes of one To of assist in the visualisasuchPearce”. pithiness phrase required a certain ed stiff with, pompous “If you everwords; meet my strength and fire or ‘the toohow many of Guinness led for many wrath, are bottles the mighty fallen, know a an we’re directed a blackkind tion, of worldliness. And allto manner of writers.Victoria ghostwhich in the or the strange Arabic sounds havehouse no meanIrishman tothe stumble the home! It was certainty, root of matter,into thorn in wrong the flesh, and-white picture also written asabove prose the thatfirewas meantfamine my regards.” ing queen’ for the people,grounds, and thegive dullitcold clay of Dubliners and painted at death’s door,got thecreative way of all flesh, a lawtheir untodoors ofread Patrick Pearce,The a gram- Sanskrit forms” to beplace, heard,that to be out aloud. The artefacts, more than in distinctive colours from canary yellow to himself, scum of the earth, — the haves and haverevolutionary and leader the mar had to be uncluttered; theof cadences had 5,000 all, range from twoOnce a week, I dip into in Fallon. His compenredsdust, — so the most inebriated nots,deep bite the myeven brother’s keeper, the to be1916 Rising against richEaster and compelling. The British editorial proc- dium should be seen toneas posters of Che Guevara, a monument ‘made dewouldn’t go wrong. skin of one’s teeth, as old These as the multi-hued hills, castingdoors rule. leaderan of auditory the rebel-exercise. up of words only’ (agglutinated ess had toAnother be, therefore, signed by an Irishman Jim Fitzby a commitlater began to be featured tourism adverts, pearls before swine, at their wit’sinend, the powbeautysubmitted named Maud Each lion draftwas was‘afinally to a Gonne’. Commit- tee ofpatrick, to ‘Think On Big’ art by Caroline native informants). its pages is found making them anand iconic of the city. tee of Revisers, ers that be, eat, drink be marker merry, and so on. As he speaks her, Lawlor points whichofheard it over and overtoina picMcCarthy, wherein Monster crisps, a the sap and wit of the north IndianMunch vernacular: I walkphrases into theliving museum the first storey All resonant on inon the Englishof WB Yeats.and Thecast poet in love with all itsture sonorousness it was differently if it the snack synonymous the ’90s, is encased the common stock of with allusions that once in and come a us cosy speaking world.upon But let notliving forgetarea, thatcomplete this was found elegant and courageous Gonne. proposed wanting in stateliness and He rhythm. 24-karat It is aand metaphor for the played in thegold. minds memories of bubble its a warm fireplace, sink-into sofas,and a Victorprosewith for all seasons was laid down, built marriage she rejected him ma— one of For some timethrice, now, abut surfeit of academic that was Celtic Tiger. Language that is speakers and the disseminators. ian armchair draped a hand-woven assembled from loosely common andbycolloquial foremost namestoinascertain literaturethe — every terialthe is being spawned quali-time. Lawlor signs with wordsrank from and another both ordinary andoff heightened, quilt, and showcases crammed tovulgate the hilt. Upspeech; prepared for the public from wasn’t just Gonne who wasn’t fond of tativeItand quantitative influence of KJBtoo on the Dubliner, George Bernard “You see sweet, and lingers in the mind.Shaw, To borrow on looking closely at the oddities in the cabiraw material. him. Yeats rejected violence as a means to secollective imagination of all Anglophones. and you say ‘Why?’that But brings I dreamout things fromthings, Kenneth Burke, language many are‘probably accompanied Thenets, KingI find Jamesthat Bible (KJB), the by and thereby Therecure was Irish a timeindependence, when most Englishmen andirked that never were,orand say ‘Whyof not?’” the thisness of that theIthatness this. notes: there’s a cast which is ‘aliterafacsimile mostlittle beautiful piece of writing in all the the nationalists. Lawlor breaks outit.into Americans could quote directly from Onea poAn apt quotation for a museum that was fas asatwik@gmail.com James Joyce’s mask’; ture of the world’ (HL death Menken), washalf-drunk actually a botem, the bringing patriots’ can find marksout andthe smudges ofsentiments: the KJB evcinatingly pieced together from donations. tles of decades-old Irish whiskey, a model of a WB Yeats has always been the trump of our kiran mehta is a Mumbai-based journalist long-ship since ‘Dublin was a Viking city’, and hates,

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Travel Log Getting there

Fly Mumbai/Delhi/Chennai to Dublin, on British Airways, with a stopover in London Get around

Museum timings and cost: Open on all days, 9.30am to 5pm; Thursdays open until 8pm. Admission is €8. Senior citizens and students pay €6. The guided tours start on the hour, every hour andisare included vasin the Ambarish Satwik a Delhi-based ticket price. cular surgeon and writer

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Fit to frame When the West Indies win, the celebrations echo worldwide. Here, the team after winning the T20 World Cup getty images / gareth copley

Calypso comes home A resurgent West Indies at the crease gives cricket back its joy

mong all the cricket tours in the Cup, and the men’s and women’s T20 World West Indies is not winning a world title for world, the one to the West Indies is Cup have once again established the West In- the first time. It won the first two editions of always the most prized. Every itine- dies as a team to watch. It perhaps triggers the the World Cup in 1975 and 1979 before losing Tea point In less than a year, Girls at Dhabas grew from a hashtag into arant movement thatwriter saw thousands women public spaces across Pakistan girls at dhabas the 1983 final to India. The 2004 Champions cricket would of give an reclaiming imagination of a generation of courtesy cricket lovers arm to do a Caribbean assignment for multiwho have not known the Caribbean charmers trophy win at The Oval was hailed as a revival vijay lokapally ple reasons; the alluring beaches and the jam- to be excellent on the cricket field. of West Indies cricket and it culminated in the ming and liming outings, the brass band and Chris Gayle epitomises the West Indian T20 World Cup title in 2012. But things went the rum-and-coke sessions, and then the crick- style. He regales you with shots, some of awry when the players repeatedly fell out with et — pure and entertaining. The spectators en- which land at your feet. His appeal is global. the cricket administration before reaching its joy the cricket and back their team fully in its His batting has an infectious impact on his lowest point in 2014 when the team called off bid to destroy the best. Nothing can match the colleagues as well as the oppothe tour to India midway on issues West Indian way — lyrical and joyful. Even if nents. His bat speaks and we have related to match fees. they lose, there is music in the stands. When seen it on many occasions. The Fire in Babylon is a superb tribute they win, the celebrations echo worldwide. current West Indies team may that documents the spirit of West Watching the West Indies demolish India in not have a star like Richards or They played to win. Indian cricket through extensive the ’70s and ’80s was not that painful. Of Garry Sobers but it has perform- If they did not win, research and thought-provoking they graciously “Ek garam chaiMichael ki piyaliHolding ho... aur uss course it hurt when snared ers important, because it implies page has posts on interesting who playtoo, to win the hearts of ownership interviews with events legendslikeof#Girlthe acknowledged (A steaming ko peenay waali Viv ho.”Richards Sunil Gavaskar or when bludge- their of position sOnBikes — a bicycle-riding meet in fans. and place. Women are frequently game. It traces the rise andheld decline cup Dev. of tea… hers to savour) oned Kapil But all your heart did not bleed told to stay or remain invisible intheir pub-defeat March: “CALLING ALLin GIRLS! Meet us this Sun-a Allow meouttoof,make a point of cricket the Caribbean. Once because Holding and Richards were your he- worth lic spaces — there isthe a moment for aofbike ride through our cities. illustrating state ofofa reclamation day @ 10am land fearsome fast bowlers, it at a dhaba and having cuppa West roes too.itting Watching them in action wasa admirin there.” After the ride, will be forIndies a diaIndian junior. After the juwas we ironical to gathering see the West does notat exactly scream feminism. ing athleticism its zenith. Cricket was But the nior #GirlsAtDhabas also sparked off a huge dis- logue overopen nashta, in the in company of allwith the World Cup win over India at its attack the T20 final when public spaces best sport in the world when become the Westovertly Indies Dhaka cussion (online and offline) on patriarchy and amaze (sic)a women show up, and of allies. last February, skipper spinner.who It was a reflection the patriarchal that Shimron dominated the gameand in a paternalistic, throwback to Don public spaces in Pakistan. perusalofof them their times; Invite West all your girlfrands (sic) and aunties!” Hetmyer prayedA some Indies had come to terms with the simple act ‘The becomes loaded with a political would Bradman’s Invincibles.’ blog and page throws many postsquickly. applaudgetFacebook to play first-class cricket as a reward demands of There the dayare and adapted In message. Girlstriple at Dhabas, a women’s move- for The recent triumph that embraced up the an eclectic mixwin. of posts and squad, inci- the process it ing thealso mixed-gender gully crickWorld Cup The Indian had regained the reputament Indian in Pakistan, is projecting drinking at dentally, West cricket has been tea acknowledged photos. Aincluded girl sits six reading a cricketers. tion it had surrendered et match organised express first-class — it is nowtoa team to these roadside shacks as an actopponents. of rebellion. overwhelmingly even by their Car- That book,was a cup milky tea,between a light- theThere solidarity with the girls and boys theofdifference teamsis—a history reckon with. and all began onfour April 24, 2015, with a selfie of the losItBrathwaite’s sixes in a row that buried er and a half-eaten a fire context in for October 2015, were atWest Indies hadparatha playerson with in their to gender It may takewho, a while the West Indies to reone of theinfounders taken at a dhaba post- belly. England a stunning avalanche at and the Eden table The beside her.were Theobviously caption satiated. tacked by Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba Indians its space as a Test team. The recent sucdynamics inclaim public ed on Instagram under to thecricket hashtagfolklore. #GirlsAtDGardens now belong In says: “Badar commercial, Kara- Clyde at the University of KaraFrom the days of Frank Worrell, Walcesses not amount to a complete spaces in South Asiamay activists habas. It was West liked Indies and reposted andhighover. cott four strokes was putover on the chi. The gets mad with for playing the game. but the and street Everton Weekes, the West Indians resurgence ofchi cricket in the Caribbean, Thepedestal reactionbyspurred Sadia Khatri who to start est a carefree cricketer, knewa have cars and people at night, but stream ofgiven the world a steady of classic champion song is a pleasant reminder that Grass, no greener Tumblr asking with the entertainers. just oneblog way to makefor hissubmissions point. fers the quietest reading spots in If they did happy days are They played to win. back in the West Indies. Cricket same Thehashtag. positive trait that marks West Indies not the morning.” Khatriand says have foundperinwin, they graciously acknowledged their unites the islands thethey cricket anthem In less thantoathe year, Girls Dhabas night grew defeat. cricket came fore thatatglorious Apart Of from dhabas, the photos sited inRi-a fectly spiration, support and strength fromincamcourse, Clive Lloyd are differed. portrays the state of the game the from Brathwaite a hashtag into a clarion call thatassawa chards and walked into history wide range spaces.of“The dhaba is just and one West paigns likeIt is Why in India. “It’s too of boasted a long memory Indies. time Loiter? to “Rally Round The West thousands of ofwomen reclaiming public both match-winner rare quality. site where women are opponents, outsiders, there reassuring to know thatproclaims. this work isn’t being came hard at their in caseare of Indies”, as David Rudder And world spaces many posting Someacross peoplePakistan, mock at the term, ‘Whenselfies West Lloyd, many others and, on one’s specific cricket done inisisolation, there a history brutally. Butdepending the West Indies remained rejoicingthat with thisisdistinct setand of that showed hanging at dhabas. Indies wins, itthem is cricket that out wins’. It is true be- the identities, the dynamics change context towho, gender in public most popular cricket team on with earthevery even cricketers likedynamics the rest, play to win spaces but alA Karachi-based journalist, says cause West Indies signifies theKhatri game as nodhaoth- when change of space,” says Khatri. “So we essential- so in South Asia.” they slayed their opponents mercilessly. entertain. Even when they lose. bas,Itinassembles addition tothe being “reper. besta public from aspace, group of There ly encourage people to send infor photos, stories They were particularly influenced by the lay no embarrassment the loser beis Deputy Editor (Sports), resent awhich breakotherwise of sorts from the daily grind… cause islands compete as individuand narratives experiences thatbest defyteam gender ideas lokapally in the book Why Loiter? Women and Risk you wereofflattened by the in vijay Hindu Streets, which encouraged women The act ofThe taking the selfie at orunder-19 photograph is the al teams. title triumphs World norms in different real-world spaces.” Their FB The On Mumbai world.

No LoC for loitering women Q

It’s bilateral cooperation of the gendered kind — two movements for female emancipation in Pakistan are drawing strength from the struggles of their sub-continental sisters in India

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illustrator-designer Shilo Shiv Suleman, who founded the Fearless Collective — a grouping of artists, activists, photographers and ﬁlmmakers who use their work to speak out against gender violence. Suleman’s collective began as a reaction to the 2012 Delhi gang-rape incident, to combat the fear-mongering emanating from the awmakers in campaign India live evolved in an exclusive, media. A viral into a storyclosed zone. Expectedly, theyuse ﬁnd montelling platform that made ofthe wall art. Afkeyster andpicking dogs that stray intofor their sterile a location each of zone her art particularly so, theyworkshops have called for displays,intrusive. SulemanAnd conducts out the to those who for help. In an women inlive thatoutside area. “This throws upadideas vertisement published in context, nationalwhich newspathat are relevant to that is then pers,painted the House Committee, Sabha, has we on the wall. FromRajya the workshops, invited suggestions people ‘possessing create public art from as intervention. It becomes expertise’ to help manage the animals. Those interactive on many levels.” who wish to help our besieged MPs may send Suleman visited Pakistan in November 2015 two(after copies their suggestions, anof11-month struggle for‘neatly a visa) typed’ on Mushandtaq’s addressed to the Director, Rajya invitation. Fearless Pakistan wasSabha a mural Secretariat. project in three cities — Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi — based on the theme of fearlessness and rooted in stories shared at workshops by the locals. “Log kia kaheinge, hum hi tou log hain, hum kia kahenge” (What will people say, we are the people, what will we say) — these words cry out from the mural painted on the walls of the National Bank of Pakistan in Lahore, challenging the fear women have of being judged by society. “We are the creation of god” is the text accompanying a 30-foot mural, in Rawalpindi, of a transgender activist riding a motorcycle. The theme was decided on after learning that

Doggone this

Lawmakers need help from animals

Chief Mouser to the Empire Cat employed by foreign office

cat named after a former British PM has been recruited as the ‘Chief Mouser’ in the UK. Palmerston, an otherwise unremarkable cat from the Battersea Dogs and Cats home, was bestowed this lofty title and given the responsibility of keeping the foreign office free of mice. The newest foreign office employee will also give company to Prime Minister David Cameron’s cat, Larry.

Smoky territory Couple fumes over claim rejection by Panasonic

anasonic has refused to reimburse a British couple for their damaged flat screen TV, claiming that their 20-cigarette-a-day habit is the reason behind the television not outliving its five-year guarantee. Thomas Defty and his wife had purchased a 42-inch TV from Panasonic in 2012. Lately, they noticed a curious shadowing of the screen. When they approached Panasonic with their five-year guarantee card, they were informed that nicotine deposit had damaged their television, and since this fell under environmental damage, it was outside the purview of the guarantee. Who knew cigarette smoking was injurious to the TV’s health?! Notes from everywhere The movement essentially encouraged people to send in photos, stories and narratives of experiences that defy gender norms in various real-world spaces courtesy girls at dhabas

Inky exits through drainpipe

to hang out aimlessly. They found many similarities between women’s experiences in Mumbai and urban Pakistan. Published in 2011 by Mumbai-based sociologist Shilpa Phadke, journalist Sameera Khan and architect Shilpa Ranade, the book has spawned an online and offline movement across Indian cities. Why Loiter? reached out to the Girls at Dhabas team after the latter’s n octopus has made a daring eshashtag campaign captured the popular cape from the National Aquarium imagination. The two groups are now workin New Zealand. Inky, said to be ‘unusuing on collaborations. ally intelligent’, was found missing In December last year, the annual Why Loifrom his tank in the morning. The staff ter? social media campaign on Twitter and FB believes he slid out through a small included conversations, videos and Tweetchgap in the lid of his tank, slithered ats on the art of loitering from Pakistan. The across the floor and escaped 50 metres Girls at Dhabas hosted #WhyLoiter events, onto the sea through a drainpipe. Eight line as well as offline, in Pakistan on the same high-fives to that. days as in India. The use of the hashtag has, in a sense, demo@whyloiter: “This “advice” repeats itself the National College of Arts in Pindi had hired cratised their activism. The Twitter feeds of across cities. Women being policed “for our a khwaja sira (transgender). Says Suleman: “We worked with different groups for each of both movements have an ongoing conversa- own good”.” tion, which has helped remove the barriers of Khatri says Why Loiter? has made them the walls. In the unsafe neighbourhood of Lyari in Karachi, it was the childistance and geography. Several posts share think about the process of creatdren from the neighbourhood; stories of liberation and the struggle to re- ing a movement: “Even in terms of in Lahore we worked with claim public spaces. situating ourselves as a group, young girl students; in Pindi “Is there a difference between Lahore and Is- Why Loiter? turned out to be an eswe painted with the transgenlamabad in the opportunity to loiter?” asks sential resource. We talk about In terms of situating der community. We have had #WhyLoiter in one. this often, how reading the book ourselves as a group, girls and women in hijab and About Islamabad, Pakistan-based @bytesfo- felt like the writers had taken all Why Loiter? turned rallPK replies “Beautiful city with a lot of plac- our thoughts and frustrations and out to be an essential salwar kameez painting in spaces that are considered unes to loiter but it didn’t even have any buses articulated them with logic, rearesource safe. The act of painting itself until just a few months ago.” son and relevance. I think we unbecame an act of fearlessness.” @whyloiter: “No buses at all?” derstood a lot of our own work Khatri, meanwhile, intends @girlsatdhabas: “Funnily enough most better too. And it also brought up to collaborate further with women I know have never been on a bus. Con- new questions. The intersection of sidered unsafe/for the lower class. Same for lhr class and gender is something that often #whyloiter and has begun a series of Twitter metro. comes up in our interactions (both online and discussions to take the initiative to remote in@whyloiter: “How are poor women expect- offline), and the book is a fantastic study of teriors as well. “The response from feminist ed to commute? class and gender dynamics in Mumbai; so collectives across the border has been reassuring and relieving. The connections we’ve @girlsatdhabas: “Poor women expected to there are entire chapters we can draw from.” made with activists and women have easily use buses or metro, which themselves are a been the best part of the response,” she says. nightmare. No space, men sitting in women’s Wall of shame 1,500-year-old mummy has been found the Altai mountainsproject of Mongolia wearing section. Yetin another cross-border uses wall art modern Adidas-style anuradha sengupta trainers. The partial which scientists believe is the Turkic burial in Mongolia, was wearing is a Kolkata-based freelance @bytesforallPK: “Some of the mummy, buses in LHR and murals to spread thefirst word. Fearless Pakisjournalist and founder-editor of Jalebi Ink, a media shoesnot thatthat seemed have theI’ve recognisable three Experts areMushtaq still studying specimen, found are actually bad,to but then been tan tookstripes shapepattern. after activist Nida re- the collective for children and youth buried three metres belowwomen. the ground, and hope to clear ‘time-travelling mummy’. told to wear a dupatta by several :( ached out the airtoabout the Bengaluru-based

Octopus escapes from the aquarium

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

his week’s quiz is all about libraries and librarians.

here,there & elsewhere

Between the pages

Historical joy

In which great work of literature do Fred Clement, Dr Simmons, Professor West, and Harris memorise speciﬁc books to make sure that the story is never forgotten?

In 1938, this Nobel Prize-winning author worked as an assistant at the Miguel Cane Municipal Library. Seventeen years later he was appointed the director of the National Public Library. Identify this leading literary ﬁgure.

In 1731, which prominent American and his philosophy group ‘Junto’ set up America’s ﬁrst library, originally a subscription library only for the members of the club?

The National Library in Kolkata, India’s largest library originally started as Calcutta Public Library in 1836. Which leading industrialist, from one of the leading families of India, was its ﬁrst proprietor?

Which famous library requested permission from the Athenians to borrow the original scripts of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides and paid the then huge amount of 15 talents of a precious metal as security deposit?

A slightly frivolous question. What architectural detail makes the Kansas City library in Missouri unique and a reasonably big tourist attraction?

The US Library of Congress houses the largest number of books in the world. Which American President actually sold 6,457 books from his collection to the library to give it a boost?

The library of Unseen University, the most important library in the city of AnkhMorpork, is a regular feature in the works of Terry Pratchett. What is unique about the chief librarian?

Another ﬁction query. Which famous ﬁctional library is overseen by the efficient Madam Irma Pince, and is the location for many important twists in the plot?

n the way back from Hartford I read an online article about O reducing clutter. The author advises letting go anything that doesn’t “ﬁll you with joy”. Bins decides this is a great excuse for throwing out all my books. “Look at this one,” he says, picking up a small but thick, heavy book called A History of The World In 100 Objects, by Neil MacGregor. “I bet you’ve never even opened it.” “Give it back this minute!” I snarl. But he starts leaﬁng through it with a contemptuous smirk on his face. “No one ever reads such books.” He opens a random page and holds it up. The photograph shows an exquisite little chariot, all in gold, made around 2,500 years ago, in the time of Cyrus the Great of Persia. Four lively horses are tethered to the front and two men stand within the vehicle. “Bet you don’t know what this is!” Well, as it happens, I do. Because Bins is wrong: I have indeed opened the book. “Okay, so I admit I’ve not read it from cover to cover,” I say. “But I’ve looked at every one of the objects.” They, the 100 objects chosen to represent different eras, cultures and kingdoms from around the world reside in the British Museum in London, England. The book is based on the BBC series of the same name. “I

think it’s the most wonderful way there is, of learning history ...” Bins is clucking and shaking his head however. “O-ho-ho! That all sounds so nice and good-intentioned — but my point is, you do not really READ such books. You just look at them, once, then you put them down on a coffee table.” He looks around. “And the problem is, you don’t have a coffee table!” I take the book from him. I show him some of the items that I’ve read about. There’s the Rhind Papyrus from around 1550 BC in ancient Egypt, on which we can discern mathematical puzzles about cats, mice and ears of corn. There’s the Moche Warrior Pot,

from pre-European Peru, with its wonderfully detailed rendering of a kneeling soldier, bearing arms. There’s the Swimming Reindeer from maybe 50,000 years ago, in France, made from a mammoth’s bone. Being so old, it’s very fragile, representing an Ice Age artist’s vision of two reindeer, beautifully realised, with their eyes bulging, their limbs spread out as if in water. It’s strangely moving, really, to see an artefact from so long ago, and so well crafted. “Hmmm,” says Bins, trying not to be swayed. “I hope you didn’t choose something French just to change my mind?” I click my tongue. “Don’t be silly! All the objects in the book are equally interesting. Reading about them is like travelling across time and space, imagining the scenes of life in each place where these things were made. If I haven’t read about them all it’s only because...because...” I shrug. “I distract you too much?” says Bins. He takes the book from me and says, “Okay, okay, I’ll read it ﬁrst and explain it all to you later!” Then he ducks and runs away before I can brain him. Still carrying the book. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the ﬁctional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

cornerstone

Which historical Indian library was named Dharmaganja and comprised three large buildings — the Ratnasagar, the Ratnadadhi and the Ratnaranjaka?

Answers 1. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s famous allegory on censorship 2. Jorge Luis Borges, whose ﬁction prominently featured libraries 3. Benjamin Franklin. He also wrote a work of ﬁction many years later which was banned 4. Prince Dwarkanath Tagore, who contributed a huge sum of ₹300 to earn the privilege 5. The famous Library of Alexandria. In fact, all ships coming into Alexandria harbour had to surrender their books for the library to make copies 6. The entire library front is designed to look like a giant bookcase. Worth looking up! 7. Thomas Jefferson, easily the most erudite occupant of the White House 8. He is an orangutan. He was originally regarded human, but once converted found that opposable toes were very useful for climbing bookshelves and sorting books, and that most people did not relish arguing with a large and strong simian 9. The Hogwarts Library in the Harry Potter series. Highly protective of her books, Irma tended to put jinxes and curses on books so that they would not be misused by readers 10. The library at Nalanda, which was believed to have been burnt down in the early middle ages

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

Reach us at blink@thehindu.co.in. Follow us: t@Ink_BL f facebook.com/hbl.blink