Blink issue 116 april23 2016

LORD OF THE BREAD How to ďŹ nd the perfect ingredients to make the perfect sandwich and traverse old and new Bengaluru at the same time p21 saturday, april 23, 2016

Blues for the Bard

dipankar

On his 400th death anniversary, a celebration of Shakespeare’s enduring charm p6-19

explore know

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CREATURE FEATURE

Beaking news Changing the shape of beaks helped Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos survive droughts

ambika kamath

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utside the public eye, there are paying attention to them for long enough. lapagos over 50 times as much rain as had fallcreatures — a bird here, a fish When you watch an ecosystem for long en during the 1977 drought. Vines and shrubs there, particular flies, worms, and enough, you start to see not just the common- that produce small soft seeds thrived, smothflowers — that have been the cor- place but also the rare. You move from the ering the plants that bear bigger, tougher nerstones of evolutionary biology for decades. messiness of an unknown system to the order seeds. So when the next drought rolled In this final-ish instalment of Creature Feature of system well-comprehended; only then can around, many more of the seeds available to (the column is going on hiatus while I finish you spot those unpredictable bolts of light- the finches were small and soft, and the small, my PhD), I’m going to tell you about the most ning (literal or metaphorical) with the power pointy-beaked birds did just fine. famous of evolutionary biology’s organisms: to shake up everything. For the Grants, the This complete reversal in how the beaks Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos Islands. first of these bolts was a drought in 1985. changed shape in response to drought proves I haven’t seen Darwin’s finches, or been anyThey had already seen the aftermath of a that the natural world is messy. The Grants’ where near the Galapagos (they are a chain of drought in 1977. Plants stopped producing ability to understand the reversal proves the islands in the Pacific Ocean, at the equator, I’m new seeds, but the existing seeds kept getting value of long-term studies of nature. As the told). But these birds are so iconic to students eaten by finches. As the dry spell continued, Grants put it in their book 40 Years of Evolution, of evolutionary biology that I feel like I’ve the birds depleted the island’s supply of small “if we had stopped before [1982, the El Niño known them for years. And what we all know soft seeds. Small birds with small beaks that year], after the 10th field season, we could have best about them is the shape of their beaks. were incapable of feeding on large, hard seeds concluded, incorrectly, that droughts invariaWhat a finch can eat — small soft seeds or soon starved to death. Eightybly select for large body and Poll star Working home inon Charida village, of Rajeev against complete a big order for Chhau masks from a political party in Kolkata nandi large hard seedsat—his depends the shape its Dutta fiveraces per cent oftime theto adults in the beak size.”

But, debapriya because “longbeak. But you can flip this equation around: population died; only one of 388 term processes require longthe shapes of seeds that are not eaten, that re- chicks survived. The survivors term study”, they didn’t stop.

The survivors were big main in the environment, depend on the were big with robust beaks, with robust beaks, who And while most of us don’t finches’ beak shapes. Both sides are important who lived because they could have the luxury of returning lived because they to understanding how finches evolve. crack open the harder seeds each year to a Pacific island to could crack open the Charles Darwin, one of the first people to that had remained uneaten. study birds named after the harder seeds that had fully describe the process of evolution by natIn this climatic carnage, the forefather of evolutionary biolremained uneaten ural selection, noticed these rather nonde- Grants saw evidence in real ogy, we do all have plants and script birds on his travels. But Darwin soon time for evolution by natural seanimals in our gardens and on returned to England and turned his attention lection — the finches evolved our streets that we can pay atto pigeons, barnacles, and earthworms. Finch- bigger beaks. At this point, they tention to. So if the last two ajeev Dutta has an intense on could es in Galapagos, however, have been scowl the sole Last month, he earned ₹5,000 ca- years have been satisfied that more they’dfrom understoryteller — he loves telling stories.

“Tradiof Creature Feature haven’t convinced his face. Behind his two-room house stood focus of evolutionary biology’s pre-eminent teringthe to orders politicalonparties.

“From you effectsfrom of drought finch beaks, tionally, we are the sub-caste that was excluthat any organism can be interesting, let’s in Charida village (Purulia district, power couple, Peter and Rosemary Grant, for and BJP to Trinamool, comes to us,” he switch called it a day. everybody But they persisted. sively supposed make masks.

Nowadays, things up. to Pick just one organism, and the last 40West yearsBengal), or so. the ancient Ayodhya says. he did, makes aboutthe ₹300 a day, AndOn it’saverage, good they because effect of in everybody makes them,” says.

His two the months ahead, lookhe at it closely.

Looksons for hills rest in knobbly shapes.

One hill attention looks like drought This level of undivided scientific and paysin his helpers ₹50 each.

1985, on the same finch species liv- changes are also into mask-making.

— across days, across seasons. Maybe a scraggly vulture’s face, another a bent to a single population of animals inlike the wild is ingThere are more than was 200entirely Chhau groups in you’ll on the same island, different.

Overstart fourtodecades dedicated this craft, make sense of thistoorganism’s old man.

Dutta seems to the astoundalmost unheard of. Butimmune such long-term studies This Purulia town and all of them source their life, time, smaller birds with the pointiest Sutradhar has seen and like I’m trying to domany in myup PhD. Notdowns. quite ing show beauty his surroundings.

He is can usofhow we’ve come to live inpainting a world beaks maskswere frommore Charida, 55 kmthan large 40 years, “During likelyabout to survive myagrandfather’s peobut it’ll be start. We can time, exchange a mask the “demon god” Mahisasur, so filleddepicting with creatures of all shapes and sizes birds away.with For long, these dance large beaks.

What changed? In be- notes when I’mple wouldn’t even give us monback. who,kinds. according mythology, was have slain tween and ThistoisHindu because the Grants troupesthewere only the world experitwo the droughts, ey. They would give us just organismic and evolutionary by goddess regarded symbol of enced been able toDurga, measure changesasinathe shapes sourceanofEl income for much like what we’re ambika kamath studiesgrains, Niño event, vegetables and shakti.

Even and sizes andwhen kinds it of comes finchesto— demon changesgods, that undergoing the mask this makers. year, minus some global biology at Harvard University;saris. That would sufthere is apredict strict hierarchy. we often and infer but rarely see — by warming.

However, of Thelate, 1982the El Niño brought to the Ga- ambikamath@gmail.com fice,” he says. Today, “Mahisasur is of primary importance. Then masks are being he is grateful that come the others like Raktasur,” says the 38- recognised as obcity dwellers have year-old Dutta, who has been making Chhau jects of art in their “great whims and masks since he was 11. These masks are essen- own right. “Each fancies”. “The othtial to the indigenous dance form. The Chhau mask takes about er day, some BJP dance, characterised by vigorous movements three days to be workers bought and acrobatics, depict dramatic moments completed. First we use clay to some masks from various Puranic tales. The recent contro- shape the mask, then we dry it, from me and told me that my versy stoked by Human Resource Develop- and finally we paint on it. Next mask will adorn the house of ment minister Smriti Irani, who questioned we attach the headgear,” Dutta some major BJP leader. For me all Even when it comes the deification of Mahisasur by certain com- explains. The elaborate head- to demon gods, there parties are the same. I only need munities, has not affected Dutta in any way. gear, a characteristic feature of ₹150 for my mask,” he laughs. is a strict hierarchy.

“For us mask makers, demons and gods are the Chhau masks, take a few Back in Dutta’s house, things Mahisasur is of the same,” he says while rushing to finish days to be made. Beads, sequins, are in emergency mode now. All primary importance. work on a consignment of 20 masks for deliv- and silver and golden foils are Then come the others members of the family, includery to Kolkata. “It will be presented to dignitar- collated into intricate shapes. ing wife Phulmoni (33) and like Raktasur ies who visit the state during the election “The women of the household daughter Drishti (7) have joined season,” he says. help us make the headgear,” exDutta and his helpers in their The election month has proved to be an un- plains Dutta. race against time. usual boom time for this village, which is A few minutes’ walk from his It’s 3 pm, and four masks rehome to about 300 artisans involved in either hut, down a winding, dusty path is Jagdish Su- main to be finished. making masks or assembling decorations for tradhar’s house. It’s bigger but doesn’t have “My daughter is deft at making headgear,” the headgears. “Until around February, we the modern features (read concrete walls and says Dutta, pointing to the child busily makwere making about three to four smalls masks a television) that Dutta’s dwelling has. Sutrad- ing a garland of yellow beads. “I plan to teach a day, but from March we have been making har, 55, has been a Chhau mask-maker for her this art, but I would rather she becomes a about 10 each day. Various political parties most of his life. “We have been making these doctor or an engineer,” says the father. have approached us for small, compact masks masks for about three generations; before debapriya nandi is a freelance journalist to present to visiting political leaders,” says that we were idol-makers,” he says.

Dutta, who has two helpers to run his unit.

Like his surname suggests — a sutradhar is a based in Kolkata

Q Demons are cast here

Come elections and Charida village in Purulia, West Bengal, sees a spike in demand for its Chhau dance masks depicting gods, anti-gods, and everything in between

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Little by little A finch at the Galapaos shutterstock

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Unholy matrimony CK Janu, seen here with young supporters, has called the BJP the ‘Satan’ she would compromise with, if it helped her people s gopakumar

MIND THE GAP

A leap in the dark?

The decision to ally with the BJP in the Kerala elections puts tribal leader CK Janu in the eye of a political storm

j devika

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he news of the well-known tribal leader CK Janu’s decision to contest along with the BJP in the coming assembly elections in Kerala has left sections of the Left deeply hurt. There can be little doubt that her leadership has contributed in no small measure to the visibility and voice recently gained by this community, which is just a minuscule minority of the population and dogged by a history of unrelenting oppression, exploitation, and marginalisation. It is common knowledge that despite the markedly high visibility that Adivasis have gained in Kerala, no government has fulfilled promises made to them, and large funds set apart for tribal development seem to never reach the most deserving sections. Clearly, Janu’s decision is a response to this desperate situation, but her reference to the BJP as the ‘Satan’ she would compromise with if it helped her people has provoked much criticism, especially in the social media, which compares her with Faustus selling his soul to Mephistopheles.

I find the above comparison extraordinarily unkind. Of course, the disappointment, even the outrage, her decision generated is understandable. Far from just a tragedy for the tribal people, this decision is a huge blow to radical civil society as a whole — indeed, the ‘Stand-up Struggle’ that the Adivasi Gotra Sabha had initiated last year was immensely successful in drawing greater numbers into the radical civil society. No doubt other leaders of marginal communities have made such decisions before — Mayawati, for example — and managed to stave off getting swallowed by the BJP. In Kerala, the Dalit Human Rights Movement leader Seleena Prakkanam has argued that for-

mal politics here is no longer a clash of ideolo- the scars of the violence she had suffered visigies, and that it is populated by the big men ble on her face? But — and I am being self-critand their personal constituencies. She rejects ical here — did those horrifying images, which moralising about marginalised groups seek- clearly revealed the limits of the idolisation of ing unconditional alliances with the latter. the poor woman as the ideal subject of neolibBut Janu is not reaching out to the BJP from a eral welfarist order, prompt us to rethink, for position of relative strength, like Mayawati, or example, the terms on which feminists particworking with individual leaders, like Prakka- ipated in the governmentalised empowernam. Janu’s successes were in, and through ment discourse? the radical civil society, and forging connecI too am sad at Janu’s decision. Janu is not tions with the BJP would mean that all bridges selling her soul to the devil for personal ambiwith that other world will have to be burned. tion perhaps, but she is indeed attempting a But are the accusatory responses justified? I leap across the abyss. She believes that the BJP cannot help thinking that accusamay propel her across, but history responses can serve only to torically, there is no evidence stall serious questioning of why that offers any comfort. If upper those of us who saw promise in Jacaste Hindus in Kerala have been Janu had revealed nu’s Adivasi Gothra Sabha were unthe traditional rivals of the Syrthe limits of able to engage in open, fearless and ian Christian land-grabbers of neoliberal frank internal criticism of it even Wayanad through the 20th cenfeminism in Kerala when researchers did point to its tury, there is an equally long his-

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potential to become elitist. More importantly, Janu as an Adivasi woman had revealed the limits of neoliberal feminism in Kerala in the early years of the Millennium itself, during the Muthanga struggle. Those were heady times when neoliberal welfarism in the state was celebrating the ‘below-poverty-line woman’ as the new subject of empowerment through self-help and micro-credit; it was also the time when Adivasis and Dalits were being slowly told that they could no longer expect land as a productive resource and that they had to be happy with handouts through the panchayati raj institutions. And there was Janu, refusing both these solutions, defiant and willing to face the state’s wrath. Who can forget the images of Janu being hauled into the police vans,

tory of their close collaboration to suppress common enemies. It is hard to perceive that the BJP, especially the national leadership, would so easily turn away from the Syrian Christian transnational community that actively aspires to be the ‘model minority’ under the Hindutva regime and participates in the bunch of lies called ‘love jihad’, for the hapless tribes of Kerala.

Janu’s leap is indeed to be watched, but I hope she remembers Lloyd George’s observation that you cannot cross the abyss in two jumps. Especially when it is the BJP that persuades her that there is no abyss at all.

j devika is a historian and critic based in Thiruvananthapuram

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She who fights monsters The battle over history COSMOPOLIS

A dazzling new graphic novel subverts popular storytelling tropes about ‘gifted’ young girls

The city council’s decision to dismantle memorials dedicated to the pro-slavery Confederacy has sparked a legal and cultural tussle in New Orleans drieu is white, black lawmakers and activists back his efforts. For over a century, blacks in New Orleans have had to walk beneath lofted statues of men who strove to preserve their enslavement. Defenders of the monuments tend to be white. They don’t see the heroes of the Confederacy as agents of the subjugation of blacks, but rather as signs of the unique cultural heritage of the American south, a region that still defines itself against the ‘Yankee’ north. Many white New Orleans residents feel that the city council’s decision strikes directly at their sense of identity.

I’m torn by these debates. On one hand, those who want to get rid of these statues ignore a possible teaching moment. Monuments reveal as much about the people who sheascan a dragonThe at will), make(yes, them theliterally peoplebecome they represent. he realises that Nimona is neither progeyoung nor Confederates and their segregationist innocent and that in even combined forces ny were undoubtedly thethe wrong.

But inkingdom may bethe toocitizens feeble to steadofofthe knocking it down, of stop New her. is exceptionally at capOrleansStevenson could reinterpret a statue talented honouring turing micro-expressions.

Silentinto panel a Confederate general as a window the progressions, the one where hateful societysuch thatas thought him Nimona worth is impatiently waiting for Blackheart to finish honouring.

Memory of injustices Beyond the glimpses of the New Orleans of cliché, a discerning visitor will find signs of an ongoing cultural battle shutterstock with monuments his scientificseek experiOnfiddling the otheraround hand, public ments, or the one conception where Blackheart is By woken to represent a society’s of itself. ew towns in the US brim with as Landrieu, to dismantle four public memorials. taking up the in the middle of the a paper misConfederates offnight theirby pedestals, strong a sense of place as New Or- Three of the monuments are dedicated to fig- the city sile of thrown

by Nimona, aresend toura de force seNew Orleans would strong leans. Its centuries-old French Quar- ures from the American Civil War who fought and overdue quences.message.

Her styleOver is deceptively cartoonish, 150 years after the ter boasts density and antiquity on the side of the pro-slavery Confederacy — end of much like Nimona jaws are pointed, the American Civilherself: War, it would finally where the average American city is diffuse and the generals Robert E Lee and PGT Beauregard recognise eyebrows raised have beyond the ahairline, that blacks as much stake in but facelessly modern. Sat in the swampy delta and the Confederate president Jefferson Davis. the civic somehow, thereOrleans is no doubt in do, the that reader’s life of New as whites where the Mississippi river meets the Gulf of The fourth commemorates an attempted theirmind that of Stevenson being deadly serious. memory the pastiscannot be subordiMexico, New Orleans has had more in com- coup in 1874 (nearly a decade after the end of nated to The cover memory of the book proclaims, “Netheback historical of whites. mon with old Caribbean emporiums like Ha- the Civil War) by a paramilimeses! I’m Dragons!

Symbolism!” wary ofScience! the impulse to demol-LeavNotSan quite cartoony The opening pagecities. of Nimona,tary and (right) matador illustration vana and Juan than other American groupa composed of for-by Noelle Stevenson ing ish aside other threeI are anddragons, erase, butthe in this instance Locals readily speak of the particularity of mer Confederate soldiers. All cornerstones thecouncil modern-day fantathink theof city of Newcomics Orleans heofidea behind Buffy the Vampire their city, its mix cultures, its famous music in a monarchywere not unlike those seen in sia. And theseis set monuments of these Its three, symbolism is where has it right. move to take down Battles over history the most iconic traditions and Slayer, Creoleone and of Cajun cuisine, its TV classical fairy us tales, erected in theswords-and-sorcery late-19th and comicbooks tend to become hammy monuments actually makes New show howwith we seemostthe of alland time, was encapsulated tangled historyshows of French Spanish coloni- early-20th the addition of aadvanced and socentury, period technology and distinctly clumsy, overwhelming the Orleans a more inclusive place, ac-readourselves in the in its opening scene. It came from that a saw alism, British invasion, and slavery. phisticated, even biological weaponry.

This the consolidation of er with visual cues.

Not so for Stevenson. knowledging that the landscape of Havpresent and who simple trope, ubiquitous Hollywood I was in New Orleans recently,inmy visit coin-gorethe platform fordisone of the overraciallays segregation and uponto the Nimona’s the city belongs all itsreader citizens. wenovel’s imagine our ing impressed fests. alley, petite blonde woman ciding withA adark festival in athe French Quarter. arching concerns: the tension between criminatory laws against traits, sheonly doesa not make her characThis isn’t dilemma pertiselves to scibe childlike walking down,students checkingroamed nervously over her Troupes of college the narence (which, blacks in and Newmagic Orleans andas in most fantasies, is ter unrecognisable in the second half. are By now, nent to New Orleans.

Americans shoulder every now then, ominous music row streets, stuffing theirand faces with crawfish a stand-in for human the wider American south.creativity). we know that she’ssymbols not just a still wrestling over other playing in the background.

Soon, we shift to The Many sausages while drinking tankards of ‘hurriyears ago, Sirhas Ambrosius council verdict monster-slayer like Buffy; from the Civil War, especially the in the(apoint of view of the unnamed monster/ canes’ suspiciously bright red cocktail).

Goldenloin, the most famous hesparked a legal and cultural many‘battle ways, she is aInmonster Confederate flag.’ recent hercreatureevery stalking Brassghoul/otherworldly bands and fiddlers occupied street the of thehow land,the defeated best battleroabout past ishis remembered in months, It is to University Stevenson’s credit studentsself. at Oxford and Nimona is wholly poor Anyelderly moment now, the beast will recorner.

A girl. gaunt, woman flung bead Lord BallisterofBlackheart New friend Orleans.

Supporters the decision insist thenhave that Nimona wholly conPrinceton University protestedis against convincing as both veal itself her, aand she will letbalcony. out a bloodnecklaces downtofrom wrought-iron in amonuments lance duel, unfairly using an andmonster that the celebrate a dark poi- the vincing both roles: monster their in campuses of Cecil andennobling little girl on scream.of the New Orleans of cli- sonous Thesecurdling were glimpses energy beam blast his right history.

Thetomemorials take pride in Rhodes and Woodrow and little girl. respectively, Wilson Except, in customs Joss Whedon’s the girl ché, a city whose are nowworld, well packarm off.

TheConfederacy, cheating was sug- waged a both early-20th century the legacy of the which Similarly impressive is the way leaders with deeply around,Visitors taunts the vampire, kicks and agedswivels for tourists. queued outside gested thetomysterious Direcrebellion in by order maintain the barbaric in- racist views. In India, we too, see memorials Blackheart’s character to historpunchesHouse’, the living daylightbuilding out of him and, fi‘Napoleon’s a beautiful that tor, the old woman who heads stitution of slavery.

“We, the people of New Or- ical figures are often evolve. somewhat dry and the Asubject of great con-somnally, himNapoleon through the heart with leans, a the might havestabs hosted if privateers Institution ofand Lawwe Enforcement andtoHerohave the power have the right bre warrior at thepoliticisation). beginning, his true nerdy testation (and cynical stake. Easy Whedon fromwooden New Orleans hadpeasy. succeeded inwanted, their he ics. After poor choice, Blackheart resolves Such correct thesethis historical wrongs,” Landrieu colours are often revealed beautifully. mutual debates invite scholarlyThe contriexplained years theemperor equations of fear scheme of freeing thelater, French from Goldenloin’s arch-enemy, supersaid to in become December.

“The Confederacy was aon attraction between him Goldenloin butions in puzzling out the realand meaning of a is andcaptivity power toand be sobringing utterly reversed British him to that the peovillainside whoof uses science gadgetryThe to scupthe wrong history andand humanity.” handled with(for wit example, and delicacy: an epilogue, historical figure howinhorrible, ple would shudder thinking about the vamAmericas. per opponents his rival’s endeavours.

One day,—aaryoung mayor’s — and there are many wewas even see the beginnings of it inactually their childreally, Rhodes?).

But they aren’t Thepire’s city’sfate. history is not only the source of gue that girl history called is Nimona, whothat happens a hood history and it doesto nobe about the encounters. past. Battles over history show us Whedon, sure, will amusing trivia. AI’m curious sign enjoy hung Nimona, on the the comes to Blackheart, offering goodshape-shifter, to suppress the symbols of the past in to marksin the beginning of what how weNimona see ourselves the present and who will first solo graphic novel by ‘Save Lumberjanes co-crewindows of various boutiques: Our Monbe his sidekick. Apart from a bloodlust that the present. surely be a purpletopatch we imagine ourselves be. in Stevenson’s career. ator It Noelle Stevenson.

This book been se- Predictably, uments.’ protested the decision of had the city seems comical more thanthe anything else in one As good as Lumberjanes was and still is, this is debate about fate of the t@kanishktharoor rialised earlier, in the formmayor of a webcomic, council, led by the left-of-centre Mitch monuments so young,isNimona likeThough a happy,Lanshallow, her definitive work. raciallyseems coded. which is one of the reasons why you can see it rotund youngster. But as Blackheart watches getting better and better by the page. Nimona her drop bodies and burn down buildings aditya mani jha

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Nimona Noelle Stevenson HarperCollins India Fiction (graphic) ₹600 (approx.)

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Kanishk Tharoor is the author of Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories, a collection of short fiction

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

The travails of democracy Two of our neighbours have recently experienced the uglier side of democracy and electoral politics. Neither Bhutan nor Tibet wants to resemble India

Renouncing power The transition to democracy had been a longtime project of the Dalai Lama, even before he severed the link between the political and the religious powers of his office sampath

kumar gp

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

ue to my work, I have had the great privilege of seeing two democratic transitions take place from relatively close quarters. These involved the transfer of power to elected representatives of the Tibetan exile government, as well as the democratic transfer in Bhutan. Both of these transitions involved small populations, and therefore, perhaps, they have not received the attention they deserve.

In 2011, a group of us who had been associated with the Tibetan exile government through personal attachment or through work, sat and talked with the Dalai Lama. He was exultant, and said that while he had often stated that the time of monks and kings ruling countries was over, he was glad to finally be able to act on that himself. As anybody who has conversed with the Dalai Lama will tell you, he blends a curious mixture of humour with seriousness in his speech. He referred to the Chinese government’s talk of him as a devil, and stuck his hands, with his index fingers pointing up on each side of his head, and said, chuckling, “Do you see my horns?”

He had a right to be delighted. The transition to democracy had been a very long project of his, begun even as he fled into exile in 1959. Dr Lobsang Sangay, who became the head of the elected exile government, was not the first elected head of cabinet. That designation belonged to Samdhong Rinpoche, often addressed as Professor Rinpoche, who was elected to that post in 2001, and then re-elected in 2006. It was only after this long testing of the waters, that the Dalai Lama devolved all power from his post, severing the link between his political and religious powers. He is supposed to be the 14th incarnation, and he

told us, “Only after the Dalai Lama became po- Jigme Y Thinley, who became the first demolitical, in the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, was cratically elected Prime Minister of Bhutan in there controversy. Now, with no politics, I April 2008, had served in the post before, hope there is no controversy.” Smilingly, he twice. added, “You do not have to believe in reincarUnlike Dr Sangay, Thinley lost his re-election nation, but I am the Dalai Lama, so I can sur- bid in 2013, but that election too was marred render my power.” by very personalised attacks. Although neither Dr Sangay was given a newly created title, the new King, Jigme Khesar Wanghuck, nor that of ‘Sikyong’ — or political leader. Prof Rin- the clergy, made public remarks, the people poche had the first elected ‘Kalon Tripa’ — or questioned the problems with democracy — Prime Minister. This month, Dr Sangay has this contentious procedure to elect their leadbeen re-elected to his post, and will be taking er. In fact, while I was researching my book on up his duties soon, but the election was con- Bhutan, I was intrigued to learn that there was tentious, and reportedly the Dalai Lama was no word for ‘Leader of the Opposition’ in dismayed by the personalised Dzongkha, Bhutan’s state lanand parochial nature of the camguage, and a new word had to be paigning. He is no longer the pocoined — as all words with ‘oppolitical leader, though, merely a sition’ in it, had a negative conspiritual one. He is the connotation. In the current The 2013 elections in science-keeper of the nation.

Bhutanese cabinet, no minister Bhutan were marred In Bhutan, too, the issue of has served in such an exalted by very personalised elections and opposition repost before, not even the current attacks mains mired in complications.

Prime Minister, Tshering Tobgay.

The Fourth King of Bhutan, I was in Bhutan earlier this Jigme Singye Wangchuck, had month, and it became clear that prepared the run-up to elections in dealing with this problem — of through a variety of ways. There had been pub- the contention and discord that accompanies lic consultations on the Constitution before it democracy — the Bhutanese did not look to Inwas passed in July 2008. Before that, in 2007, dia as an example. I do not believe the Tibetans there was a ‘mock election’ so that people do either. could learn how to vote. No parties were repreThe kind of democracy that is seen in the Insented, only four colours. People voted over- dian Parliament is personalised, vicious, and whelmingly for yellow, as that colour was the often hypocritical. This saddened me. Sandclosest to the colour shawls that the monks wiched between India and China, both the Tiand royals wear. Even before abdicating in fa- betans and Bhutanese have chosen vour of his son, in 2006, the Fourth King had democracy, but Indian democracy is so divimade it a practice of allowing his ministers to sive, that they fear becoming like us. act in a variety of posts, including as Prime t@OmairTAhmad Minister, and therefore it was no surprise that

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Blame it on the Bard

Down play A file picture of a performance of Hamlet, at the Jerusalem Centre for the Performing Arts reuters/ eliana aponte; a still from the film The Taming of the Shrew the hindu

How a resolve to read every Shakespearean play ended on an anticlimactic note

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ould you feel favourably disposed towards a writer who can’t even spell his name consistently? You’d better, because that’s exactly what characterised William Shakespeare, unarguably the greatest English writer of all time. Records exist of dozens of variations of his name, including Shakspere, Shacksper, Shaxpere, Shake-spere, and even (remarkably) Shakestaff. Indeed, the one spelling our Bard doesn’t seem to have used in his lifetime was... Shakespeare.

To be fair to him, the Elizabethans weren’t particular about spelling. And not just because they didn’t have Microsoft spellcheck.

Which is just as well. If Shakespeare had worked on MS Word and failed to review his output, we might conceivably be puzzling over such oracular pronouncements as “Caesar, beware the idea of math”.

On the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, I’m reminded of a time when I aspired to read every single play by him. Yes, all 37 of them. And what prompted this exercise in masochism? Well, immediately after school I had applied to join an undergraduate course in English literature and had been given inside information that the chief interviewer (popularly known as ‘Shakespeare Gopinathan’) was known to favour candidates who showed easy familiarity with the Bard. As the internet was still some years away, cramming was diffiolks at my collegebe (IIT Kharagpur), in cult. Sparknotes wouldn’t born for another the time-honoured tradition of engidecade, and reading the plays in the original neering schools everywhere in India, was out of the question. performers.

Which is tosnobbish say, they Or waslove it? After all, I took a rather particularly love to for jeerhaving them read off the pride in my English the stage comwith insults plete works ofofvariable Sidney creativity.

Sheldon Ayushmann and Harold Khurana,I who has two sincemonths added at anmy ‘n’disposto his Robbins. also had name become funnier, al, andand access to my marginally grandfather’s modestwas liflat-outI driven away he made a lame, onobrary. knew he hadafter a copy of the complete matopoeic joke about Kharag Khaworks of Shakespeare.

The firstSingh folio.and Kidding ragpur.

Dadlani, playing a remarkably — it was Vishal an ELBS (low-priced) edition that the anodyne Pentagram, took offfrom his shirt old man set hadwith apparently purloined the before library, realising that by being entirepublic going the topless seal on was the flyleaf. ly unrelated to his indignity. was brutal.

BeIt didn’t seem to have beenItread much (or mused indie by even read at rockers all) but were it didbeing haveflipped all the off plays bonathe fidesonnets. nerds and paternity doubts were anbeplus What it didn’t have were ing vocalised in Calculus (it’sOh anwell. ancient G(r) notations or even a glossary.

Nothing eek language, don’tgained. you know?) ventured, nothing And then day in 2009, three young men Being of one an OCD-ish disposition I would from liked a theatre troupe inthe Bengaluru (or was it have to approach project systemati-

cally and breeze through the plays in chrono- play no end. logical order. I fondly imagined this would The random sampling was often entertainallow me to see how Shakespeare’s literary ge- ing. A Midsummer Night’s Dream elicited a few nius blossomed over the years as he perfected chuckles, especially the name of the (literally) his art. But the anthology categorised the ass-headed character Nick Bottom. Romeo and plays in three sections (comedy, tragedy, his- Juliet seemed rather hyped. It could have been torical), beginning with The Tempest. So I jump- summarised in four short sentences: ‘Teens ed right in. It was a little slow since I had to fall in love. Families feud. Things don’t go well. pause in the middle of every other sentence to Everybody dies.’ The Taming of the Shrew look up an unfamiliar word. What the heck seemed terribly sexist, even to a callow 17-yearwas a ‘sirrah’? Why were the characters so old. The Comedy of Errors seemed to recycle the fond of saying ‘marry’ when matrimony clear- oldest plot device in history — confusions arisly wasn’t on their minds? But I persisted. ing as a result of two sets of identical twins.

Till page four. That was quite At the end of the month, the enough for one day. score was 12 down, 25 to go. The shutterstock By the end of the week I remainder included littlewas only halfway known plays such as Titus through The Tempest.

Andronicus and Pericles, At this rate I would which even Shakesstill be plodding peare might have foralong by the time gotten about if the new millennisomeone hadn’t um rolled around. brought out an anClearly there had to thology. The final be a better way. The desperate attempt innew plan of action? volved what might, Dip into various plays strictly speaking, be at random and hope for considered cheating. I the best. Next up, Hamlet, discovered on the bookthe Great Dane. I jest — I mean shelf an abridged ‘Easy Enthe Prince of Denmark. This was glish’ edition of Tales from not to be missed. Despite never Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Chennai?)

The Complete Works of same auditorium, had witnessed a full having readperformed the play it sounded Lamb.which Imagine — an abridgeTaminghouse of thein 2009.

William Shakespeare (Abridged), created familiar.

I could identify with a playThe ment of an abridgement. But it Shrew seemed terribly by the an You can’t make thisthe stuffthing up. Almost the wag Reduced who saidShakespeare Shakespeare Company, was just to sail 400 me sexist, to aafter histhrough American trio.

The production everyeven years death, Shakespeare hadplays galvandidn’t write anything original; spoofed the rest of the in callow 17-year-old major Shakespeare whileasomehow also ised a hostilerecord crowdtime. comprised entirely of sulhe merely cobbled play together performing its essential scenes: lenPostscript: youngsters, nonebeof lot of well-known quotations. thealmost interview Hamlet, Othello, and Juliet, whom hadwith readtrivial a word of his Nowhere was Romeo this cobbling gan well, questions The Tempest, Androniworks theoutside school. more evidenteven than Titus in Hamlet. about Romanticofpoets and cus; allwas in 43 Through innovation, word-perThat twofrenetic down: aminutes. comedy like. Then it was Shakespeare “The biological clock the The audience it: Hamlet’s fect satire and was some and a tragedy. loved Logically, a historical play had Hamlet.

Gopinathan’s turn.

“So who theuproarious merchant is ticking, I famous enquiry answered whatfrom had seemed to be next.

What was better choice thanwant King aRi-babyofnow!”

Venice?” heperformances, casually enquired behind by a choreographed cheerfor that distant,Ah,distinctly highbrow chard III (of “my kingdom a horse” fame)? steel-rimmedaglasses. this was one play I was,lastquite pursuit had been transformed The Englishliterally, king to becrowdkilled in battle, His had not only read but understood.

“Shylock!” I sourced:was “May-be (left half), may-his maker in answered in ainto a crowd-pleaser, a surprisMajesty destined to meet heartbeat. be-not half),of may-be, may-Field. I wish I accessible art. an1485 at(right the Battle Bosworth Which, as ingly it happens, waspiece the of wrong be-not (all together)!” acerbic Ophelia A friend and I were amongwas those chanting had a premonition thenAn that the king’s re- swer.

The merchant of Venice Antonio.

But snapped at her “The biological “May-be, inseeing unison day. mains would be paramour: unearthed more than two they mustmay-be-not!” have felt bad on mythat crestfallclock is ticking, Hamlet. a baby Years later, whenthey she was partme ofanyway. the Young Indecades later from under Iawant parking lot innow!”

Leic- en look because passed Two years weeksin ago, a group of Khaester.

Withand nottwo a bridle sight, let alone a dia Fellowship (now a programme offered by menon is a Mumbai-based independent writer a ragpurItstudents performed thea play in dull the hari Ashoka University), she told me about horse. would have spiced up rather

No fear Shakespeare

Presenting an antidote to the ‘Shakesfear’ gripping campuses everywhere — a concoction that uses everything from manga to masala Bollywood

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uniquely instructive Shakespeare lecture delivered by one of her professors, Jonathan Gil Harris.

Asked what it takes to teach plays like Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to firsttimers, Harris said: “I teach a course called Literature and the World to undergraduates in which Shakespeare features quite a bit. Many of them suffer from what I call ‘Shakesfear’.

They have only encountered Shakespeare, if at all, in the Indian high school classroom, where he tends to be taught incredibly badly,

according to a centralised curriculum, by as. In one panel, his lead actor Richard Burteachers who have little interest in him. And if bage mocks A Midsummer Night’s Dream thus: they are interested in him, they feel restricted “This barbarous farrago of fairytale hodgepotch is a mere crowd-pleaser at best.” by the demands of the curriculum.”

Indeed, Gaiman showed us that comics can How, then, are these marooned greenhorns be a powerful way to introduce Shakespeare, helped to overcome ‘Shakesfear’?

“The first thing I tell them is that if you’re although the Sandman series isn’t intended going to appreciate Shakespeare, you have to for children, strictly speaking. In 2007, Selfrecognise that his plays were written to be Made Hero published a series called Manga heard, not read. The language has an acoustic Shakespeare. It featured graphic adaptations dimension that actually conveys much more of plays like Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and othmeaning than you’d think. Invariably, the stu- ers, all drawn in the distinctive manga style, dents I teach find, much to their surprise, that Japan’s gift to the comics world.

As in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shakespearean trilowhen they get together in groups and read out loud, they understand 50 to 75 per cent more gy, this meant cultural transposition: Romeo than when they were simply sitting and read- and Juliet, for instance, was set against the backdrop of warring yakuza (Japanese mafia) ing quietly.”

Harris (who also serves as President of the clans. However, British comics artist Emma Shakespeare Society of India) also noted sever- Vieceli’s Hamlet was the high point of the seal striking similarities between Shakespeare ries. Vieceli sets the story in 2107, in a world and Bollywood, especially the money-spin- ravaged by climate change catastrophes. The ning masala movie, a genre that, at its best, characters wear ‘smart’ clothes, compatible marries the strengths of commercial and high with all manner of futuristic tech, including art. “The second thing I do may sound gim- wireless communication gear and weaponry. micky, but trust me, it’s not. I insist that if And they somehow still conform to the classiShakespeare were alive today, he would have cal Hamlet costume mould, complete with written for Bollywood. He did not think of his elaborate robes and billowing sleeves. During plays as high art: he lived off them, and he was the course of a telephonic interview, Vieceli part of an entertainment industry that was re- described the process of creating a cyberpunk Hamlet: “I had studied Shakespeare at univergarded as fairly B-grade by many.”

Now, one can crib a lot about Bollywood, its sity and Hamlet was one of my favourite plays. paucity of creative intent and the shocking I realised that there are an awful lot of mocynicism of some of its leading stars, but even ments in Shakespeare where a character apits worst critics will agree that in India, there pears onstage, says just one or two lines, and are few greater levellers. When a major Bolly- leaves. This is not very convenient for comics, where you need time to introwood film gets it right in a big duce the character, time for him way, its one-liners and songs are to speak his lines, time for him to on everybody’s lips, rich and poor. This was, Harris argued, al- “Shakespeare did not leave the action. Hence, I decided to set the story in the future, so so the lot of Shakespeare. think of his plays as that people can ‘appear’ through “Shakespeare’s playhouse was high art: he lived off some sort of high-tech device, in the red light district in the them” speak and go away.” south bank of London. One paid She further explained: “What only one penny to get in, which makes this interesting is that is why there were many workway before I drew Hamlet, my dising-class people as part of the audience. But there were also a lot of rich peo- sertation was on Hamlet and education. I was ple in the balcony seats. So Shakespeare wrote trying to suggest ways in which we can make entertainment for a very mixed audience, Shakespeare accessible to young readers. As a some of whom were illiterate and some of comics fan, not once did it occur to me to use whom were very literate. And that is not un- comics! Young people respond to visuals. like what the masala Bollywood film is trying Shakespeare was never meant to be words on to do. Masala means not just spicy but also a a page, he was supposed to be EastEnders... you mixture: a little bit of comedy, a little bit of went down the street and threw tomatoes at tragedy, a little bit of Mumbai basti and then a performers doing Shakespeare.” little bit of Switzerland.”

Writers and educators like Harris and VieceOne can only imagine the reactions of stu- li know that Shakespeare has to be rescued dents looking at Shakespeare through the fa- from the tyranny of the canon: a phenomenon miliar, blinding strobe lights of Bollywood familiar to most students of literature everyitem numbers (yet another Shakespeare paral- where. The moment a text gets stuck in the lel, as Harris mentioned — the musical inter- league of Most Grievously Important Books, lude). But Bollywood is hardly the only lens both students and teachers are caught in a that Harris employs to make Shakespeare quagmire of mechanical classroom discuscome alive for his class: on the bookshelf in his sions about symbolism and historical signifioffice, one could spot Dream Country, the third cance and other respectable pursuits that volume of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series of ignore present-day relevance altogether, comicbooks. Harris confirmed that this was while boring the pants off you, one might add. indeed one of the Shakespeare texts he dis- Luckily for us, there is still room for a Bollycusses with his students. wood Romeo or a Hamlet who says “To be or One of the stories in Dream Country is called not to be” even as a retractable blade slips out ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, and it sees of his sleeve, foreshadowing the bloodshed in Lord Shaper aka Morpheus aka Dream of the his near-future. Vieceli sums it up nicely: Endless (an anthropomorphic representation “When I was being taught, the focus was all of the metaphysical concept ‘dream’) commis- on the language. And while that’s important sioning William Shakespeare to write a play and I’m not trying to take anything away from about the faerie world. It is revealed that Mor- that, Shakespeare’s plays were all about the pheus granted Shakespeare a boon: that his people, and the raw emotions that they explays would be remembered until the end of pressed: emotions like anger and jealousy time. In return, the latter would pen two plays aren’t going anywhere and that’s the reason for Morpheus. why Shakespeare has lasted so long.”

Gaiman peppers the story with little metaAmen. jokes about the present-day perception of Shakespeare vis-à-vis what he used to be seen aditya mani jha

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The cyberpunk prince A page from Emma Vieceli’s manga Hamlet photo courtesy self made hero

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The play’s the thing The Prince of Elsinore remains an inspiration for a scholar who single-handedly ran a magazine devoted to the Shakespearean play for 25 years journal had 50 or 60 subscribers from around the world — college libraries, Shakespeare scholars and “Hamlet crackpots” paid $14 (₹250 in India) for an annual subscription. In the first year, Desai invested around ₹5,000, a princely sum then, in producing and mailing the journal to subscribers. As people wrote in, with questions, praise and contributions, Desai kept at it, calling for submissions, editing and rewriting, laying out the pages and spending a few thousand rupees year after year. He found a printer close by, a former student as well as a Hamlet aficionado. “Overall, though, I think I broke even. Jyoti doesn’t agree; she thinks I’ve ended up losing money.” Across the table, Jyoti rolls her eyes.

There isn’t an issue of the journal he cannot locate… or quote from. Nor is there a line in Hamlet (perhaps in all of Shakespeare) that he cannot recite from memory. Tall and wiry, Language of loaf In Coriolanus, Shakespeare uses a bread-making simile to illustrate the lead character’s crudeness in speech with anshutterstock impressive voice and a perfectly clipped accent, Desai often trails into long passages from the play. Or he brings over a book and asks me to read a paragraph or two. “No, no, read it aloud,” he insists . I read aloud, worrying about pronunciation and enunciation, until the sheer beauty of the sentences takes over and makes you forget the impossibility of the situation — that we are in brutal Delhi in 2016, reading something written 400 years ago, and being lulled and comforted by it. Only then does it become possible to understand why Desai started Hamlet Studies and how he kept it running for years. tar-crossed lovers, delirious mon- bubbling over with ‘hell broth’ made of ‘fillet been star baker.

The very firstthe lines of Troilus Thea best part of running journal, he Jubilee run RW Desai, retired professor and the sole staffer Hamletsnake’, Studies kamal archs, lovelorn countesses, bumbling ofof a fenny ‘eye narang of newt, and toe of frog, says, and Cressida evoke theofintricacies of bakingtoa was in the kind work he managed jesters, scheming consorts — it’s not wool of bat, and tongue of dog, adder’s fork, publish. cake (‘Food, Taste and ina copy ShakesImmediately he’sCooking off to find in hard to visualise the brain behind and blind-worm’s sting, lizard’s leg, and owl- which peare’sBaron Plays’ Rees

by Federica Scarpa, University of Mogg, former editor of the does Shakespeare, it take to startleaning a mag- kebabs, such characters,hat William cake and biscuits, Desai, occasionally Times, et’s wing’.

Trieste,who 1995).

Pandarus, the viralso sat in theunderscoring House of Commons, azinequill entirely devoted one edited over a writing desk, in hand, and to a mug

by Jyoti, me how Hamlet His plays havetells generous helpings of Studies meats, had tue an of essay patience which Troilus needs to win on the ‘Politics of Hamlet’.

“He’s a play?malt And and then, whatbydoes it came of ale (brewed with water most to be. cakes and breads. And he tells us politician pies, wines, Cressida’s himself, affections, says:brings “He that will havetoa which such depth take to run it single-handedly housewives of the time) within reach. A but- not Although thebut play is eterjust whatthe hisrelevance charactersofate, also how his cakeanalysis out of of thethe wheat tarry you the play. must Whereneeds else could for 25 loaf years? love—for the with subject, of course, tered andApies made elderberry or nal, in the late-1970s, envi- read it was made.

Picking the up socio-political the many enticing grinding… it?” Ay, the grinding; but you must tarbut also a certain doggedness, scholarly pur- ronment blackberry (research suggests athat both Shakin India perfectly Hamlet-esque. clues littering the was works, award-winning chef ry Then, the bolting…

Ay, the you must Desai makes mebolting, read outbut a poem that suit of depth andcontemporary a notion thatChristopher others are Indira espeare and his Gandhi in had imposed Emergency and atarry Alan Deegan, collaboration with Shakesthe leavening… leavening, but subscriber, Subimal Ay, Das,the from Assam had equally as also, let’s saylength it, an subsequently Marloweprofound; loved these) — are at just arm’s theSmith-Howard, election to thewrote JanataThe al- written peare scholar lost Alycia here’s yetin. in The the word thelines kneading, poem‘hereafter’ ends with from appreciable I shouldn’t from the pagewhimsy. on whichTherefore, Viola or Lady Macbeth liance. along with two Food of Desai Love: A—Shakespeare Cook-other scholars Hamlet: the making of the cake, the heathave been surprised by the directions given to of is being brought to life.

English literature, AN Kaul and GK Das — debook in 2012.

Arranged by seaing ground of the oven A patch of little to gainand the baking; theIt home of such person. east, IElizawas cided may come as aashock thatWalk the great to start the magazine son, Tudor recipes are givenina nay, you must staybut thethe cooling That hath no profit name. told, and cross intersections, thenloved look 1979. bethan poet andtwo playwright, who dearly “Hamlet addresses issues modern twist in the book.

The The great Elizabethan too, or youout may chance burn I point that thesetowords out for the parked outside bis- that a feast, was1950s alsoDodge a food hoarder whoa was all of us are grappling with list starts with Spring, where your lips.” could also best describe his enpoet and playwright, cuit-coloured building.

In the event, threatened with imprisonment forI did tax miss eva- in our modern world — freedom Deegan suggests a light lamb In Coriolanus, heStudies. employs deavour with Hamlet Dewho dearly loved a Hamlet addresses the andby Rupin Desai, lecturer retired profession.Dodge, Research JayneWArcher, in me- of speech, political espionage, ‘hodgepodge’, or stew, and the feast, bread-making illustrate sai is quiet for atowhile.

“You the are was also issues that all aoffood us sor of English literature and the soleinstaffer of the dieval and renaissance literature Wales’s manipulation by politicians famous crimped cod.

The hearty lead character’s crudeness in lanright, I never saw that until now,” hoarder are grappling with in Hamlet Studies for a quarter to in Aberystwyth University, showscentury, that forhad nearly whosepasty hands(from we are vicvenison TheallMerry guage: he says. “Consider this: he has our modern world — come downstairs and find me. I may well tims.

15 years Shakespeare “bought and as stored exploit us even Wives ofThey Windsor) is the highlight been bredfatigue i’ the had wars/made Sincehim he Finally, freedom of speech, confess, I didn’t know east lay. though grain, malt andeven barley forwhich resaleside at inflated we are a democracy. of the Autumn menu. could“And drawthe a sheer sword,physical and is laill stop. political espionage, Upstairs, there are books everywhere — cata- Above prices to his neighbours and local tradesall, there is the whole The food that Shakespearean school’d/ In bolted language; bour involved.

Packing, tying manipulation logued, numbered, indexed.

“That’s all Shakesmen”. Interestingly, his play Coriolanus, which question Hamlet is reflects the meal and bran charactersofeatjustice. or refer to also together/ He throws things up, going to the without post ofpeare,” Desai points to shelves behind me. complicated, shows how a famine is the created by the rich and we deemed it the reign of distinction.” fice. I did feel a great sense of changes in theand British diet under “And thiswas is all Yeats,”athe be- utterly corrupt, written thepoints heighttoofthose the 1607 of I.a Credit journalfor de-much of this Queen worthy Elizabeth The “un-sieved flour” refers to the emptiness after the lastbread issue. polBut hind him.inInEngland.

1971, Desai completed his voted food riots The had Midland Revolt, led to goes it,” Desai says. change to overseas expeditions by the itics of the period wheatdecision bread was losit waswhere a conscious I took.

PhD from the Northwestern a likes by peasants, was a cry againstUniversity unfair foodon disTheofthree of them wrote to Shakespeare Sir Walter Raleigh (known to be the There ing ground to white bread. former was were other things to The do. Twenty five Fulbright Hiswidespread thesis was on Shak- scholars tribution, scholarship. hoarding and hunger. the world, edited the years Empire’saround first potato planter) andand Sir put Francis still eaten by time.” the country folk while ‘white’ is a long espeare’s influence on Yeats.

After a farmers year of journal In Shakespeare’s hands, the rioting together.

Vikas Publishing House, aturlo- bakers Drake. They helped tomatoes, potatoes, London wereenough almost to double in numAlso,in aren’t 25 years analyse Hamteaching in the US, he returned to India and cal became Roman plebeians up in arms against sponsored the printing and cir- let, key,publisher, chillies, quince, vanilla and sugar make berI than ask. the ‘brown’ ones. The brown bread, joined Delhi University as a reader. His wife, culation. the autocratic Coriolanus. on,kitchens the publisher washed made their wayTwo intoyears English and larders. bran is and other cheap grains, was “Oh from no!” Desai astonished at the question.

Jyoti, is alsodoubt, a professor of Englishfood andimagery teaches his hands off the project. Kaul dropped out. “Hamlet Without Shakespeare’s the foodisofinexhaustible.” the working class.

Breads and cakes Shakespeare at Khalsapractices College. Over munifimirrors the culinary and ahabits of And Das got posted to Kashmir. “So I said, well In Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare introvenugopal cent spread of cucumber sandwiches, shaami then, the time.

Barring, of course, the odd cauldron carry on,” Desai says.

By well then,have the veena If not I’ll a writer, Shakespeare could duces ‘biscuit’ as a sailor’s food: “Cobloaf!/ He

Blast from the repast

With his inimitable flair, Shakespeare tells us not just what his characters ate, but also how it was made

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The wandering players Geoffrey Kendal’s touring theatre company, Shakespeareana touched unknown villages, little towns and large cities alike in the 1950s India, performing the plays of the Bard. The story of the Shakespeare Wallah in pictures

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y mother (Jennifer Kendal) was 13 and an erudite student, when her father Geoffrey Kendal asked her principal if she could take a year off school in the Lake District, as both her parents were to tour India with their new theatre company, Shakespeareana, and wanted her to be with them. The principal said there could be no better education than travel, and gladly gave her a year’s leave, promising her a seat in school when she returned. My mother never did return to school!

Years later, Kendal wrote in his autobiography, The Shakespeare Wallah, “Being an actor must be the best job in the world. It combines all the things that a person need look for: health, romance, travel … the positive tragedy of failure, and the will to overcome it. It provides good companionship, and interest in literature, architecture, music, and dancing — in short, just about everything that most people strive for.”

Spreading the beauty and magic of Shakespeare was his passion and he was fortunate to share this with his family and thousands of people across the subcontinent!

Text and images courtesy sanjna kapoor

All in a caravan The cast, crew and the properties were all bundled into a caravan on Shakespeareana’s journeys across the country. Seen here is a teenaged Jennifer Kendal with her father, Geoffrey Kendal (right)

Picture perfect The Shakespeareana Company in 1953. One can spot the legendary actor Utpal Dutt (second from left) and the little Felicity Kendal

Enter Kapoor Shashi Kapoor as Cassio and Geoffrey Kendal in the title character in Othello. Kapoor debuted for the Shakespeareana with this play in 1956

Pound of flesh Geoffrey Kendal as Shylock and Laura Liddell as Portia in The Merchant of Venice

Full house An audience in Delhi during Shakespeareana’s 1953 tour. Lady Mountbatten is seen in the front row

The prologue The Shakespeareana cast and crew in Bengaluru.

Jennifer Kendal is seen standing on a bench that was to be the stage while Shashi Kapoor is in the front

Total abandon The Indian schoolgirl was Kendal’s favourite audience as they got thoroughly involved in the play. The casket scene in The Merchant of Venice was particularly popular

Comic capers Geoffrey Kendal as Malvolio in Twelfth Night

Dose of laughter Geoffrey Kendal as Falstaff in Henry IV

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Stratford upon Bundelkhand Shorn of awe for the Bard’s literary status in the English language, Vishal Bhardwaj appropriates him to create a contemporary realm of experience and Hamlet. In Bhardwaj’s Haider, Shahid Kapoor plays the grieving Hamlet, driven to insanity by his father’s disappearance, the news of his probable death on one hand and his mother’s (played by Tabu) imminent marriage to his uncle (played by Kay Kay Menon) on the other. “Ya toh aap bahut badi lool hai, ya bahut badi chudail” (You’re either a fool or a witch). Kapoor doubts his mother’s intentions In the bard’s honour in marrying his uncle evenAas they mourn Shakespeare Firsthis father. Bhardwaj had never been to Kashmir Folio discovered nearly 400 years after before, and it was only after reading Basharat histhat death is displayed Peer’s Curfewed Night, a book relives the viat Mount Stuart, Isle of olent ’90s in a Kashmir under the much-reBute, Scotland, Britain viled Armed Forces (Specialreuters/russell Powers) Acts, cheynethat Bhardwaj found the missing link.

Bhardwaj is a great fan of Shakespearean asides — the ‘Dear O’ song in Othello becomes ‘O Saathi Re’ in Omkara, sung by Kareena for Devgn; the Mousetrap scene in Hamlet becomes ‘Bismil’ in Haider. The play-within-aplay, a crucial juncture in the plot, comes alive magnificently in Haider, as larger-than-life puppets dance around in a 1,000-year-old Kashmiri temple. Gulzar’s lyrics transport the Bona fide originals Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shakespearean films have distinct idioms and characters who are unique, while echoing the spirit of their textual counterparts the hindu; pti Mousetrap scene into Kashmir’s charged valley, as the plot reaches fever-pitch intensity — Haider has been declared mad, and his mothhat no story can exist without con- Devgn, playing Othello, is a lower-caste dacoit er is marrying her husband’s younger brother mong most harrowing flict wasmy best illustrated by theschool Bard, who (Throne of Blood), (Macbeth) brings her to Roman his lair. Polanski Immediately there — “Hosh I’m also of Edmond termethinking aa jaa, Hosh mein aaO’Brien’s jaa, Aye bulmemories in is one our class tragebeing are especially his of celebrated andwarnings: Vishal Bhardwaj (Maqbool) have made “Bahubali, aurat ka— dariya char- bul–e rific performance as Casca in Khushboo-e-gul the 1953 Julius bismil, Aye bulbul-e bismil, marched to a dismal little dies.

Shakespeare’s plays are screenrooted itra acclaimed films of Macbeth, and baap all ofkothose ko mat bhoolna…

Jo ladki apne thag me Caesar. the early scene to where zeharInbhara hai” (Come your Casca senses,deo ing room conflicts and made to time, watchyeta sakti in the socio-political of his rate among mykisi favourite Shakespeare hai, woh aur ki sagi kya hogi”adapta- scribeswounded how Caesar was thricethe offered the nightingale, fragrant seemingly “film” of The Merchant of (Bahubali, his ability toendless bring out the universal nature of tions, but Welles’s you feel do notmakes overlook a like you are crown, O’Brien is flanked by two wonderful flowers are poisoned).

Venice.conflicts I think this was ahim Masterpiece these makes relevant Theatre for all woman’s trapped with thecharacter… characters in a land where it British actors — James fluid as Brutus and Haider, Bhardwaj WithMason or BBCApart production, theinnumerable sort where the camera she times. from the theatrical is always This is also true of his 1951 John Gielgud, one has who twilight. could not stay of the most celebrated experimented more stays at a fixed fromacross the action, if a true adaptations thedistance world over, moreas than Othello, onefather, of thehow most striking black-and- Shakespearean performers to her ever,supernatural as Cassius. with the stage performance were being video-taped.

It will three centuries, film versions have been no whiteshe films you’ll stay trueever to see (if you get a decent Yet, in a film where even the greatinmumbler element Shakesreeked of respectability and tasted medi- you)? less prolific, with even stalwarts suchlike as Polanprint, and a big ‘if’).

Onethat’s of OthelMarlon Brando enunciated his linestragedies. with revpearean cineand calculated to make healthy and ski Kurosawa tryingyou their hand at it.forev- lo’sAnyway, most having iconicdisparaged that faux-film erence, O’Brien speaks almost if He carelessly, believes ashis er Closer dull: the characters didn’t have a hairUniverout of lines home, it was perhaps at Delhi we saw in school, echoes faith-I should add that I have no this were dialogue from a films B-noirare, rather than at some place,Hindu the costumes the lighting sity’s Collegewere that pristine, Vishal Bhardwaj un- fully problem the classical, polished approach timeless poetry to be handled in with Omkara. withan kidexpresgloves. level, never changed, theforactors declaimed their covered his affinity the Bard.

A student of Dolly to Shakespeare, as long as it has some playful- And he is perfect. His little eye-rolls Mishra’s desion ofand thepauses sublines as if they were a long-distance literature, he was a teaching founder-member of the cision ness intoit.leave Evenher respected British actor-direc- as he says “Twas not a crownconscious neither, ’twasthat one elocution course in what we dramatics society(and on campus.

His easily most imre- father tors — the sort who and stay were knighted before they of these coronets — and, as often I told you, put it goeshe unacpressed, convent-educated markable achievements so Indians far haveimagined been his true had turned — have been comfortable by once: but, for all that, knowledged to her 50 love, to my thinking, he in evwas the adaptations only “correct”ofway of speaking English tragically, screen three Shakespearean enough withmakes the texts (and would fain have hadlife. it” add up to eryday sentences).— Despite worked tragedies Macbeth,having Hamletrecently and Othello.

All Omkara aware enough Shakespeare doubtthather. one of the most bracing scenes in Bhardwaj’s genius up anworks interest inout Shakespeare, I nearly fell While three stand for their near-obsession in his Othello own time wrote for the (Omkara) a Shakespeare — the words, lies infilm his approach toasleep; students who hadn’t developed with thethe curious relationship between life and is masses) to have with them; a victim of hisfun circumand the world around them, wards Shakespeare, one A well-made that interest might easilyand have off stances death, succession battles thebeen cruelput tussle look at — the inventive,outsider witty vera minority alive. that is not burdened by literShakespeare film can come thecapability Bard for life. of vs lineage. sions of aHenry V and Hamlet—that staking claim to power his do other things that couldn’t aryO’Brien history, orprobably awed by the Bard’s No wonderhas that years later, head nearly tragic Bhardwaj adapted themmy into hyper-loLaurence made in faiththe flawOlivier proves to be his have got away with playing Casca celebrated status.

He approprican’t be done as came off from all the nodding I subjected to lessness cal mise-en-scènes around India, his filmsitbe1940s. But what thrills Desdemome most in his beloved, like that in a large theatrical proates Shakespeare into his coneffectively on stage while reading OrsoninWelles interview: “It’s na ing closer to an theatre structure.

Maqbool when watching Shakespeare (Dolly).

Othelloa (Omkara) has duction. Arealm well-made Shakestemporary of experience, Bhardwaj has terrible what’s doneout to Shakespeare schools internalised (Macbeth) is played against the in backdrop adapted them into movie are things thatracist are slightthe very ideolpeare film cantodo yet stays true theother soul things of the hyper-local mise-en- original […]the If heMumbai could tune in on us with a time ma- ogy of underworld, while Haider ly askew, orfights out ofagainst, left field —a that he secretthat can’twork. be done as effectively Hamlet and Gerscènes around India chine, he’d that modern English actors (Hamlet) is think juxtaposed with the politics of ly baseball analogy maygood be believing he isthat never on stage: instance, a soliloquy trude mayfor have become Shahid’s were speaking in a foreign A lot of his enough Kashmir.

In Omkara (Othello)tongue. the racial politics apt, because… for her.Americans! In the 1929 The Tam- can be turned into an interior — Haider and Tabu’smonologue Ghazala, the gutsier moments suffer in very much from that ingThe surrounding the Moors Scotland, a darker of regular the Shrew, Mary Pickford jibes from his sup-— one of the very appropriate for characters are local, often mourning relativeswho of the particular, refined, southern-EnAndalusian nomadicupper-class, tribe to which Othello posed most powerful women Hollywood at the on the brinkrespected friends and fellow in bandits, of madness.

(Assingled Anthony doctor outLane for glish way of speaking.” belonged, has been well transported into the about time —how gives the “tamed” Katherina’s final noted of Hamlet, Mishra is a ‘loot’, al“this guy, youdissenter, feel, would treating a political yet Thepolitics context a discussion of Welles’s ways caste of was Bundelkhand. monologue impish touch: after saying play atan the back of his mind.

Mishrathe is their happily order a drink inside his own In chemistry is as intriguing andhead”.) complex low-budget filmand of Macbeth, the childlike, Bhardwaj’s1948 casting direction where play a mawords “I am ashamedinthat are so sim- as vulnerable herwomen blind faith in Omboth Olivier’s Hamlet and Polanski’s that of the 1948 Danish mother-son duo in 1971 the setsrole hadinarecreating creaky, otherworldly, evenclassical prehis- kara jor the aura of these ple / To offer war where they kneel for original. that ultimately leads toshould her own undoMacbeth, there are dramatic passages where toric feel to them and actorsare spoke works.

Desdemona andthe Ophelia frailwith crea-a ing. peace / OrAli seek for rule, andvillainy sway / just Saif Khan’s Iagosupremacy, shines in his line or had two once is spoken aloud the while the rest AsaGulzar described director’s Scottish ‘burr’Shakespearean that was sometimes to un- with tures, typical tragichard beauties, Where are Iago bound to ofserve, love,hated and oeuvre, histhey subtlety. is one the most is voiceover.

When Macbeth, caughtare in adaptaa world “Bhardwaj says his works derstand.

But Welles had wanted to create whose essence is well captured

by Kareena Ka-a literary obey”, she winksinat history. her maidservant, thus tions figures Langda Tyagi, of mirage and deceit, for learns that one ofgimthe of Shakespeare a marketing sense and of lived-in-ness, and the respectively, film caught the poor Shraddha Kapoor, in Bhardwaj’s knocking her own servile-sounding speech mick.

Iago, is never above whispering witches’ prophecies hasworks comeintrue, the great They are original themselves.” dark, visceral energy of the play. At least three poison Omkara and Haider. out of the intoball-park Omkara’sand ears.making Petruchio’s soliloquy that begins “This supernatural solicother major directors — Akira Kurosawa Kapoor is upper caste and fair, while Ajay manly preening seem ridiculous.

Suspicion is a tragic trait shared by Othello payel iting / majumdar Cannot be ill, cannot be good…” is treat-

A method in the madness

The classical brilliance of a Laurence Olivier or a John Gielgud is handy if you’re making a Shakespeare film. But as several directors have proved, a rose in another language, era or cultural setup, smells just as sweet

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Three-act penance A chance visit to the Bellary jail led Hulugappa Kattimani to pass on his theatre acumen to prisoners, some of whom have been profoundly affected by the onstage experience

The stage is set Inmates from prisons across Karnataka performing King Lear at Ravindra Kalakshetra in Bengaluru in March 2012. Run by Hulugappa Kattimani (below), Sankalpa is a theatre group striving to reform prisoners through theatre workshops grn somashekar

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here is a phrase in Kannada that is often applied to the learning of the English language, that it is like an iron peanut — hard to bite into, impossible to digest. A large dose of Shakespeare may be a similar bagful of peanuts.

Most schools teach the bare basics: a few oftrepeated phrases here and there — a rose by any other name; thereby hangs a tale; to be or not to be... Relegated invariably to the realm of ed as private contemplation; his lips high-brow culture, it is a wonder thenmove that only he clasps new seal says “I therewhen is a section of his people, someand illiterate, am Thane of Cawdor”. (Merely thinking isn’t some not-so-well-educated, staging Macbeth enough forworks that line, he Bard. has toThey assure and other by the arehimself prisonthat this really is happening.) ers, most serving life sentences, most falling It can be fascinating to see aggressive, movie verinto the also stereotype of hardened, sions thatAnd remind us —indeed, through association jailbirds. thereby, hangs a tale. — of Why what Shakespeare? a big shadow old Will has cast onKattisubI ask Hulugappa sequent literature popular culture.

Take mani, actor, theatreand personality and the man Looking for Richard (a part-perAl Pacino’s behind this1996 marvellous idea of staging plays III as well a documenformance of Richard with jail inmates through hisasorganisation tary about“Guilt how to deal with the play) Sankalpa. and redemption play awhere, main watching Pacino as the improbable role in Shakespeare’s stories,” he says,brother seated making his circuitous journey to the throne, in his gorgeous antique rosewood furnitureone in residential the Godfafilledthinks houseofinMichael one of Corleone the newer trilogy (and then recalls how the ther layouts of Mysuru.

Rangayana, theoften governrise and falltheatre of Michael across those films has ment-run institute and repertory been “Shakespearean”).

Welwheredescribed Kattimaniasworks, is hosting itsOr annual Chimes les’s superbcamp, performance as 400-plus Falstaff insevenchildren’s with some to much on at Midnight (1966), 14-year-olds, and it which is too drew noisysofor a chat. the actor-director’s with a “Shakespeare’s playsown are identification relatable to the prischaracter who is jester, tragic oners’ state of mind,” hedupe says, and adding thathero the Titus, at once. Or Julie Taymor’s punkishthe 1999 desi-fication of the plays helped inmates in which Anthony playsin the venunderstand the storyHopkins better. Thus, Macbeth, geance-driven Titus Andronicus; he the Tiber river became Tapati-nadi, when Rome beserves her sonsand baked into meat-pies, came Tamora Maggipattana Macbeth became one thinks of Hopkins’s emblematic movie Maranayaka. role, Hannibal pioneering Lecter, and wonders she’ll get Kattimani’s attemptsifat prisonsome nice chianti with that. is nearly two decer reforms through theatre ades old now, beginning as a wild experiment ow, an if Iof know a few the Shakesinspired by admission: the teachings his guru, stalsoliloquys bytoheart, isn’t bewart pearean BV Karanth.

“He used tell usitto merge cause I have that readtheatre them over but with people, is notand justover reciting because I heard actors performing elodialogues, you need experiences.

Hethem told us to quently Even in now, whenstations, Richard III’s observe onscreen. people closely, railway on opening lines play invisit my head, “Cheated the road.”

A chance to theI hear infamous Bel-

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lary Jail, where some of the most hardened they lose something and the society sees them criminals are housed, made Kattimani won- differently too, once they are released. der if theatre could be used to help reform at “Through theatre, they learn life lessons,” he least some of them. Gopal Hosur, the then Su- adds. Over the years, he has steadfastly refused perintendent of Police at Bellary, got all the to vouch for anyone and ask for their release, permissions (he later retired as Director Gen- even though such requests keep coming his eral of Police and remains the chief advisor at way. Neither does he ask why they have been Sankalpa). It was as radical a thought jailed or what their past is.

To be or not to be Laurence Olivier as Hamlet in a 1948 adaptation the hindu archives then as it continues to be now.

Would he care to replicate the mod“We started by teaching the el elsewhere, I ask, given how sucof feature yoga, by dissembling nature…” in Oli- hat even in the 16thitcentury.)

The“There rhythm prisoners clay modelcessful has proven. is of so vier’s effete snarl. is important, of alone,” course,hebut ling, painting, andThinking so on,” of Hamlet be- the language much to do here reseeching his father’s ghost to speak to him, I more important plies. are the associations it cresays Kattimani, admitting Among the things he hear Branagh’s urgent, hot-blooded ates, how it depicts psychologies that itKenneth was tougher to make nowindividual has planned is an idea shouts as he races afterunthe phantom in his against the backdrop of long universal the police department he has beenconcerns; mulling monumental four-hour film of Hamlet; one how, in the best plays, coexists derstand. He has several anover. thematic Several ofdepth the prisoners line rushing into another, the heartfelt inflec- with surface frivolity bawdiness, comecdotes to share, poignant whoand made up hisand troupe tion he gives “father” when very dark, or vice and verstories of to prisoners re- saying “I’ll call edy yields to something have now been released thee Hamlet, royal Dane…” And sa. And I see this spirit scenes the homeone in formed by theking, powerfather, of theatare in back in like their though not man a big from fan ofthe BraSanjay Leela Bhansali’s re. ThereI’m is the towns.

“I want Goliyon to startkia nagh’s earlier Much Raasleelaseasonal Ram-Leela, where blusHakki Pikki tribe withAdo the About long repertory for Nothing, I’ll never forget the lanter andthem, wordplay a beard, who refused to talk to wherebetween they stage guid scene group of young men turns into anyone.

Thenwhere there’sthe thecamera acplays for six months and The wonderful nonpans across picnickers, revealsomething before tor who didn’t consider esgo serious back home formost the English adaptations ing Emma Thompson’s Beatrice of them rest realise what is happencaping when they were on of the year.

Or they make us ask: what is reading lines “Sigh no more, ing, andcan Ram’s Singh) a trip totheShravanabelastay(Ranveer on a piece of the Bard’s essence? ladies…” fromasa he book. hands land, become gola, because said, whereirrevocably they can rapt thus stained with Or in Angoor, if But he being ran away, whoby rendilive, blood. farm and share the tions thehis actual where theThey peerless Deven Varma wouldofplay part words in the also eveproduce. should be able to After playing Gandhi means that a question (as Bahadur, a version of one of ning’s performance?

Andarises the farm by day and immerse themin anonplay, an actor when encounter many wonderful the Dromios)selves has a bhaang-induced hallucinaother I actor who the internalised in theatre in the evenings,” vegetarian English adaptations, Ran (King tion inand the middle of an existential crisis. Or in Stanislavski’s methodKurosawa’s acting turned he says. gave up cussing Lear) Thronetaught of Blood, and Gulzar’s Angoor Bhardwaj’s Haider, thetogravediggers’ (that and Kattimani them) to Therewhere are plans form a team (A Comedy of Errors) among reminder of the links between such an extent, that after them: play- does a Shak- song ‘So Jao’ isofa about 50 inmates, taken from espeare film in and the structures ing Gandhi, heanother turnedlanguage vegetar- count as real Shakespeare eight to episodic 10 different jails, and Shakespeare?

That sounds film. ian, mild-mannered, and like gavea conservative musical interludes stage of a popular four- toHindi five-hour-long thought, andThere maybeare it is, butthe it does invite us The puristsplay; mightmaybe not careCrime for these of up cussing. also andsorts Punito ask: what the Bard’s butsomething if they areon the same purists changes theisprison and“essence”? police departments adaptations, shment, maybe 1857.

Kattimani Wegone can agree that it isn’t mainly in his plots, who decryasks modern-dress retellings orsing insist have through, seeing the effects theatre no longer them whether they can or most of which borrowed or outright co- on anodyne, static-camera, Oxbridge-accenthas had on the were inmates. dance when he is choosing them for plays. “I pied from other sources.

(It’s amusing productions, weinterested, may safely because dismiss In the last 18 years, the troupe has hadwhen over ed now ask merely ifI think they are people say that soinmany Hindi with Fluellen’s elegant words fromto Hen150 performances several partsfilms of theabout state them life experiences are more than enough do star-crossed lovers — Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, ry V — “Avaunt, you cullions” — and pray that a and the country.

Dwelling on prison reforms, theatre,” he says.

Ek Duje Ke explains Liye, etc — have from Romeo bear follows them off the stage.

Kattimani how thecome idea of a karagraand given that thecriminal basic story of that ha, aJuliet, jail, is to destroy intent, but deepa bhasthi is a writer and the editor of ‘The Forager’, an singh online journal of food politics arjun is a Delhi-based writer play, goes back atrarely least to Ovid, was old jai whenwhich the prisoners are seen as human,

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Richard II James Norton plays the title role in a film which is part of Complete Walk, a series that is being screened along the banks of the Thames to mark Shakespeare’s 400th death anniversary marc brenner

King John Tanya Moodie as Constance, the duchess of Brittany, in James Dacre’s production bronwen sharp

The Winter’s Tale Rachel Stirling as Hermione, queen of Sicily, in a William Longhurst production mark brenner

Orpheus Keri Fuge plays Cupid, the god of desire and love, in a Luigi Rossi production stephen cummiskey

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All the world’s a Globe In 1613, just three years before Shakespeare’s death, wadding from a stage cannon triggered a fire that reduced the iconic Globe Theatre to ashes. It was quickly rebuilt before its closure in 1642. What we know as the Globe today stands a few hundred metres from where the Bard once performed. Reconstructed in 1997 by Chicago-born Sam Wanamaker, the London landmark continues to be about all things Shakespeare. Here’s a collection from some of its recent performances

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Nikki Amuka-Bird plays Hippolyta and David Caves plays Theseus in a film from Globe’s Complete Walk series

Coriolanus Dominic West in the title role. Filmed at Ostia Antica in Rome, this too is part of the Complete Walk series

Pericles Sheila Reid in the role of Gower, the narrator, in a Dominic Dromgoole production marc brenner

The Merchant of Venice Phoebe Pryce (Portia) and Jonathan Pryce (Shylock) in a Jonathan Munby production manuel harlan

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Stratford upon Bundelkhand Shorn of awe for the Bard’s literary status in the English language, Vishal Bhardwaj appropriates him to create a contemporary realm of experience and Hamlet. In Bhardwaj’s Haider, Shahid Kapoor plays the grieving Hamlet, driven to insanity by his father’s disappearance, the news of his probable death on one hand and his mother’s (played by Tabu) imminent marriage to his uncle (played by Kay Kay Menon) on the other. “Ya toh aap bahut badi lool hai, ya bahut badi chudail” (You’re either a fool or a witch). Kapoor doubts his mother’s intentions In the bard’s honour in marrying his uncle evenAas they mourn Shakespeare Firsthis father. Bhardwaj had never been to Kashmir Folio discovered nearly 400 years after before, and it was only after reading Basharat histhat death is displayed Peer’s Curfewed Night, a book relives the viat Mount Stuart, Isle of olent ’90s in a Kashmir under the much-reBute, Scotland, Britain viled Armed Forces (Specialreuters/russell Powers) Acts, cheyne that Bhardwaj found the missing link.

Bhardwaj is a great fan of Shakespearean asides — the ‘Dear O’ song in Othello becomes ‘O Saathi Re’ in Omkara, sung by Kareena for Devgn; the Mousetrap scene in Hamlet becomes ‘Bismil’ in Haider. The play-within-aplay, a crucial juncture in the plot, comes alive magnificently in Haider, as larger-than-life puppets dance around in a 1,000-year-old Kashmiri temple. Gulzar’s lyrics transport the Bona fide originals Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shakespearean films have distinct idioms and characters who are unique, while echoing the spirit of their textual counterparts the hindu; pti Mousetrap scene into Kashmir’s charged valley, as the plot reaches fever-pitch intensity — Haider has been declared mad, and his mothhat no story can exist without con- Devgn, playing Othello, is a lower-caste dacoit er is marrying her husband’s younger brother mong most harrowing flict wasmy best illustrated by theschool Bard, who (Throne of Blood), (Macbeth) brings her to Roman his lair. Polanski Immediately there — “Hosh I’m also of Edmond termethinking aa jaa, Hosh mein aaO’Brien’s jaa, Aye bulmemories in is one our class tragebeing are especially his of celebrated andwarnings: Vishal Bhardwaj (Maqbool) — dariya have made “Bahubali, aurat ka char- bul–e rific performance as Casca in Khushboo-e-gul the 1953 Julius bismil, Aye bulbul-e bismil, marched to a dismal little dies.

Shakespeare’s plays are screenrooted itra acclaimed films of Macbeth, and baap all ofkothose ko mat bhoolna…

Jo ladki apne thag me Caesar. the early scene to where zeharInbhara hai” (Come your Casca senses,deo ing room conflicts and made to time, watchyeta sakti in the socio-political of his rate among mykisi favourite Shakespeare hai, woh aur ki sagi kya hogi”adapta- scribes wounded how Caesar was thricethe offered the nightingale, fragrant seemingly “film” of The Merchant his ability toendless bring out the universal nature of (Bahubali, tions, but Welles’s you feel do notmakes overlook a like you are crown, O’Brien is flanked by two wonderful flowers are poisoned).

Venice. conflicts I think this was ahim Masterpiece these makes relevant Theatre for all woman’s trapped with thecharacter… characters in a land where it British actors — James fluid as Brutus and Haider, Bhardwaj WithMason or BBCApart production, theinnumerable sort where the camera she times. from the theatrical is always This is also true of his 1951 John Gielgud, one has who twilight. could not stay of the most celebrated experimented more stays at a fixed fromacross the action, if a true adaptations thedistance world over, moreas than Othello, onefather, of thehow most striking black-and- Shakespearean performers to her ever,supernatural as Cassius. with the stage performance were being video-taped.

It will three centuries, film versions have been no whiteshe films you’ll stay trueever to see (if you get a decent Yet, in a film where evenelement the greatinmumbler Shakesreeked of respectability and tasted medi- you)? less prolific, with even stalwarts suchlike as Polanprint, and a big ‘if’).

Onethat’s of OthelMarlon Brando enunciated his linestragedies. with revpearean cineand calculated to make healthy and ski Kurosawa tryingyou their hand at it.forev- lo’sAnyway, most having iconicdisparaged that faux-film erence, O’Brien speaks almost if He carelessly, believes ashis er Closer dull: the characters didn’t have a hairUniverout of lines home, it was perhaps at Delhi we saw in school, echoes faith-I should add that I have no this were dialogue from a films B-noirare, rather than at some place,Hindu the costumes the lighting sity’s Collegewere that pristine, Vishal Bhardwaj un- fully problem the classical, polished approach timeless poetry to be handled in with Omkara. withan kid expresgloves. level, never changed, thefor actors declaimed their covered his affinity the Bard.

A student of Dolly to Shakespeare, as long as it has some playful- And he is perfect. His little eye-rolls Mishra’s depauses sion ofand the sublines as if they werea teaching a long-distance literature, he was founder-member of the cision ness intoit.leave Evenher respected British actor-direc- as he says “Twas not a crownconscious neither, ’twasthat one elocution course in what we dramatics society(and on campus.

His easily most imre- father tors — theand sort who stay were knighted before they of these coronets — and, as Ioften told you, he unacput it goes pressed, convent-educated markable achievements so Indians far haveimagined been his true had turned — have been comfortable by once: but, for all that, knowledged to her 50 love, to my thinking, he in evwas the adaptations only “correct”ofway of speaking English tragically, screen three Shakespearean enough withmakes the texts (and would fain have hadlife. it” add up to eryday sentences).— Despite worked tragedies Macbeth,having Hamletrecently and Othello.

All Omkara aware enough thather.

Shakespeare doubt one of the most bracing scenes in Bhardwaj’s genius up anworks interest inout Shakespeare, I nearly fell While three stand for their near-obsession in his Othello own time wrote for the (Omkara) a Shakespeare the words, lies infilm his — approach toasleep; students who hadn’t developed with thethe curious relationship between life and is masses) to have with them; a victim of hisfun circumand the world around them, wards Shakespeare, one A well-made that interest might easilyand have off stances death, succession battles thebeen cruelput tussle look at — the inventive,outsider witty vera minority alive. that is not burdened by literShakespeare film can come thecapability Bard for life. of vs lineage. sions of Henry V and Hamlet—that staking a claim to power his do other things that probably couldn’t aryO’Brien history, or awed by the Bard’s No wonderhas that years later, head nearly tragic Bhardwaj adapted themmy into hyper-loLaurence in faiththe flawOlivier proves made to be his have got away with playing Casca celebrated status.

He approprican’t be done as came off from all the nodding I subjected to lessness cal mise-en-scènes around India, his filmsitbe1940s. But thrills Desdemome most in what his beloved, like that in a large theatrical proates Shakespeare into his coneffectively on stage whilecloser reading OrsoninWelles interview: “It’s na ing to an theatre structure.

Maqbool when watching a (Omkara) Shakespeare (Dolly).

Othello has duction. A realm well-made Shakestemporary of experience, Bhardwaj has terrible what’s doneout to Shakespeare schools internalised (Macbeth) is played against the in backdrop adapted them into movie are things thatracist are slightthe very ideolpeare film cantodo yet stays true theother soul things of the hyper-local mise-en- original […]the If heMumbai could tune in on us with a time ma- ogy of underworld, while Haider ly askew, or fights out ofagainst, left field —a that he secretthat can’twork. be done as effectively Hamlet and Gerscènes around India chine, he’d that modern English actors (Hamlet) is think juxtaposed with the politics of ly baseball analogy maygood be believing he isthat never on stage: instance, a soliloquy trude mayfor have become Shahid’s were speaking in a foreign tongue.

A lot of his enough Kashmir.

In Omkara (Othello) the racial politics apt, because… for her.Americans! In the 1929 The Tam- can be turned into an interior — Haider and Tabu’smonologue Ghazala, the gutsier moments suffer very much from that ingThe surrounding the Moors in Scotland, a darker of the Shrew, Mary Pickford regular jibes from his sup-— one of the very appropriate for characters are often mourning relativeswho of the local, particular, refined, upper-class, southern-EnAndalusian nomadic tribe to which Othello posed most powerful women Hollywood at the on the brinkrespected friends and fellow in bandits, of madness.

(Assingled Anthony doctor outLane for glish way of speaking.” belonged, has been well transported into the about time —how gives the “tamed” Katherina’s final noted of Hamlet, Mishra is a ‘loot’, al“this guy, youdissenter, feel, would treating a political yet Thepolitics context a discussion of Welles’s ways caste of was Bundelkhand. monologue impish touch: after saying play atan the back of his mind.

Mishrathe is their happily order a drink inside his own In chemistry is as intriguing andhead”.) complex low-budget filmand of Macbeth, the childlike, Bhardwaj’s1948 casting directionwhere play a mawords “I am ashamedinthat are so vulnerable herwomen blind faith in simOm- as both Olivier’s Hamlet and Polanski’s that of the 1948 Danish mother-son duo in 1971 the setsrole hadinarecreating creaky, otherworldly, evenclassical prehis- kara jor the aura of these ple / To offer war where theytoshould kneel for original. that ultimately leads her own undoMacbeth, there are dramatic passages where toric feel to them and actors are spoke works.

Desdemona andthe Ophelia frailwith crea-a ing. peace / OrAli seek for rule, andvillainy sway / just Saif Khan’s Iagosupremacy, shines in his line or had two is spoken aloud while the rest AsaGulzar once described the director’s Scottish ‘burr’ Shakespearean that was sometimes hard to un- with tures, typical tragic beauties, Where are Iago bound to ofserve, love,hated and oeuvre, histhey subtlety. is one the most is voiceover.

When Macbeth, caughtare in aadaptaworld “Bhardwaj says his works derstand.

But Welles had wanted to createKa-a literary whose essence is well captured

by Kareena obey”, she winksinat history. her maidservant, thus tions figures Langda Tyagi, of mirage and deceit, learns that one ofgimthe of Shakespeare for a marketing sense and of lived-in-ness, and the film caught the poor Shraddha Kapoor, respectively, in Bhardwaj’s knocking her own servile-sounding speech mick.

Iago, is never above whispering witches’ prophecies hasworks comeintrue, the great They are original themselves.” dark, visceral energy of the play. At least three poison Omkara and Haider. out of the intoball-park Omkara’sand ears.making Petruchio’s soliloquy that begins “This supernatural solicother major directors Kurosawa Kapoor is upper caste — andAkira fair, while Ajay manly preening seem ridiculous.

Suspicion is a tragic trait shared by Othello payel iting / majumdar Cannot be ill, cannot be good…” is treat-

A method in the madness

The classical brilliance of a Laurence Olivier or a John Gielgud is handy if you’re making a Shakespeare film. But as several directors have proved, a rose in another language, era or cultural setup, smells just as sweet

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Three-act penance A chance visit to the Bellary jail led Hulugappa Kattimani to pass on his theatre acumen to prisoners, some of whom have been profoundly affected by the onstage experience

The stage is set Inmates from prisons across Karnataka performing King Lear at Ravindra Kalakshetra in Bengaluru in March 2012. Run by Hulugappa Kattimani (below), Sankalpa is a theatre group striving to reform prisoners through theatre workshops grn somashekar

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here is a phrase in Kannada that is often applied to the learning of the English language, that it is like an iron peanut — hard to bite into, impossible to digest. A large dose of Shakespeare may be a similar bagful of peanuts.

Most schools teach the bare basics: a few oftrepeated phrases here and there — a rose by any other name; thereby hangs a tale; to be or not to be... Relegated invariably to the realm of ed as private contemplation; his lips high-brow culture, it is a wonder thenmove that only he clasps new seal says “I therewhen is a section of his people, someand illiterate, am Thane of Cawdor”. (Merely thinking isn’t some not-so-well-educated, staging Macbeth enough forworks that line, heBard. has toThey assure and other by the arehimself prisonthat this really is happening.) ers, most serving life sentences, most falling It can be fascinating to see aggressive, movie verinto the also stereotype of hardened, sions thatAnd remind us —indeed, through association jailbirds. thereby, hangs a tale. — of Why what Shakespeare? a big shadow old Will has cast onKattisubI ask Hulugappa sequent literature popular and culture.

Take mani, actor, theatreand personality the man Looking for Richard (a part-perAl Pacino’s behind this1996 marvellous idea of staging plays III as well a documenformance of Richard with jail inmates through hisasorganisation tary about“Guilt how to deal with the play) Sankalpa. and redemption play awhere, main watching Pacino as the improbable role in Shakespeare’s stories,” he says,brother seated making his circuitous journey to the throne, in his gorgeous antique rosewood furnitureone in residential the Godfafilledthinks houseofinMichael one of Corleone the newer trilogy (and then recalls how the ther layouts of Mysuru.

Rangayana, theoften governrise and falltheatre of Michael across those films has ment-run institute and repertory been “Shakespearean”).

Welwheredescribed Kattimaniasworks, is hosting its Or annual Chimes les’s superb performance as400-plus Falstaff insevenchildren’s camp, with some to much on at Midnight (1966), 14-year-olds, and it which is too drew noisysofor a chat. the actor-director’s with “Shakespeare’s playsown are identification relatable to the pris-a character who is jester, tragic oners’ state of mind,” hedupe says, and adding thathero the Titus, at once. Or Julie Taymor’s punkish 1999 desi-fication of the plays helped the inmates in which Anthony plays venunderstand the storyHopkins better. Thus, in the Macbeth, geance-driven Titus Andronicus; he the Tiber river became Tapati-nadi, when Rome beserves her sonsand baked into meat-pies, came Tamora Maggipattana Macbeth became one thinks of Hopkins’s emblematic movie Maranayaka. role, Hannibal pioneering Lecter, and wonders get Kattimani’s attemptsifatshe’ll prisonsome nice chianti with that. is nearly two decer reforms through theatre ades old now, beginning as a wild experiment ow, an if Iof know a fewthe Shakesinspired by admission: the teachings his guru, stalsoliloquys bytoheart, bewart pearean BV Karanth.

“He used tell usittoisn’t merge cause I have that readtheatre them over but with people, is notand justover reciting because I heard actors performing dialogues, you need experiences.

He them told useloto quently Even in now, whenstations, Richard III’s observe onscreen. people closely, railway on opening lines play invisit my head, “Cheated the road.”

A chance to theI hear infamous Bel-

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lary Jail, where some of the most hardened they lose something and the society sees them criminals are housed, made Kattimani won- differently too, once they are released. der if theatre could be used to help reform at “Through theatre, they learn life lessons,” he least some of them. Gopal Hosur, the then Su- adds. Over the years, he has steadfastly refused perintendent of Police at Bellary, got all the to vouch for anyone and ask for their release, permissions (he later retired as Director Gen- even though such requests keep coming his eral of Police and remains the chief advisor at way. Neither does he ask why they have been Sankalpa). It was as radical a thought jailed or what their past is.

To be or not to be Laurence Olivier as Hamlet in a 1948 adaptation the hindu archives then as it continues to be now.

Would he care to replicate the mod“We started by teaching the el elsewhere, I ask, given how sucof feature yoga, by dissembling nature…” in Oli- hat even in the 16thitcentury.)

The“There rhythm of prisoners clay modelcessful has proven. is so vier’s effete snarl. is important, of alone,” course,hebut ling, painting, andThinking so on,” of Hamlet be- the language much to do here reseeching his father’s ghost to speak to him, I more important plies. are the associations it cresays Kattimani, admitting Among the things he hear Branagh’s urgent, hot-blooded ates, how it depicts psychologies that itKenneth was tougher to make nowindividual has planned is an idea shouts as he races afterunthe phantom in his against the backdrop of long universal the police department he has beenconcerns; mulling monumental four-hour film of Hamlet; one how, in the best plays, coexists derstand. He has several anover. thematic Several ofdepth the prisoners line rushing into another, the heartfelt inflec- with surface frivolity bawdiness, comecdotes to share, poignant whoand made up hisand troupe tion he gives “father” when very dark, or vice and verstories of to prisoners re- saying “I’ll call edy yields to something have now been released thee Hamlet, royal Dane…” And sa. And I see this spirit scenes the homeone in formed by theking, powerfather, of theatare in back in like their though not man a bigfrom fan ofthe BraSanjay Leela Bhansali’s re. ThereI’m is the towns.

“I want Goliyon to startkia nagh’s earlier Much About Raasleelaseasonal Ram-Leela, where blusHakki Pikki tribe withAdo the long repertory for Nothing, I’ll never forget the lanter andthem, wordplay beard, who refused to talk to wherebetween they stagea guid scene group ofplays young turns into anyone.

Thenwhere there’sthe thecamera acformen six months and The wonderful nonpans across picnickers, revealsomething serious before most tor who didn’t consider esgo back home for the English adaptations ing Emma Thompson’s Beatrice of them rest realise what is happencaping when they were on of the year.

Or they make us ask: what is reading lines “Sigh no more, ing, andcan Ram’s Singh) a trip tothe Shravanabelastay(Ranveer on a piece of the Bard’s essence? ladies…” fromasa he book. hands land, become gola, because said, where irrevocably they can rapt thus stained with Or in Angoor, if But he being ran away, whoby rendilive, blood. farm and share the tions thehis actual where theThey peerless Deven Varma wouldofplay part words in the also eveproduce. should be able to After playing Gandhi means that a question (as Bahadur, a version of one of ning’s performance?

Andarises the farm by day and immerse themin anonplay, anthe actor when encounter many wonderful Dromios)selves has a in bhaang-induced hallucinaother Iactor who the internalised theatre in the evenings,” vegetarian English adaptations, Ran (King tion inand the middle of an existential crisis. Or in Stanislavski’s methodKurosawa’s acting turned he says. up cussing Lear) Thronetaught of Blood, and to Gulzar’s gave Angoor Bhardwaj’s Haider, thetogravediggers’ (that and Kattimani them) Therewhere are plans form a team (A Comedy of Errors) among reminder of the links between such an extent, that after them: play- does a Shak- song ‘So Jao’ isofa about 50 inmates, taken from espeare film in and the structures ing Gandhi, heanother turnedlanguage vegetar- count as real Shakespeare eight to episodic 10 different jails, and Shakespeare?

That sounds film. ian, mild-mannered, and like gavea conservative musical interludes stage of a popular four- to Hindi five-hour-long thought, andThere maybeare it is, butthe it does invite us The puristsplay; mightmaybe not careCrime for these of up cussing. also andsorts Punito ask: what the Bard’s but if they areonthe same purists changes theisprison and“essence”? police departments adaptations, shment, maybe something 1857.

Kattimani Wegone can agree that it isn’t mainly in his plots, who decryasks modern-dress retellings insist have through, seeing the effects theatre no longer them whether they canorsing or most of on which borrowed or outright co- on anodyne, static-camera, Oxbridge-accenthas had the were inmates. dance when he is choosing them for plays. “I pied from other sources.

(It’s amusing productions, weinterested, may safely because dismiss In the last 18 years, the troupe has hadwhen over ed now ask merely ifI think they are people say that soinmany with Fluellen’s elegant words fromtoHen150 performances severalHindi partsfilms of theabout state them life experiences are more than enough do star-crossed lovers — Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, ry V — “Avaunt, you cullions” — and pray that a and the country.

Dwelling on prison reforms, theatre,” he says.

Ek Duje Ke explains Liye, etc — have from Romeo bear follows them off the stage.

Kattimani how thecome idea of a karagraand given that thecriminal basic story of that ha, aJuliet, jail, is to destroy intent, but deepa bhasthi is a writer and the editor of ‘The Forager’, an singh online journal of food politics arjun is a Delhi-based writer play, goes back least to Ovid, was old jai whenwhich the prisoners areatrarely seen as human,

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The play’s the thing The Prince of Elsinore remains an inspiration for a scholar who single-handedly ran a magazine devoted to the Shakespearean play for 25 years journal had 50 or 60 subscribers from around the world — college libraries, Shakespeare scholars and “Hamlet crackpots” paid $14 (₹250 in India) for an annual subscription. In the first year, Desai invested around ₹5,000, a princely sum then, in producing and mailing the journal to subscribers. As people wrote in, with questions, praise and contributions, Desai kept at it, calling for submissions, editing and rewriting, laying out the pages and spending a few thousand rupees year after year. He found a printer close by, a former student as well as a Hamlet aficionado. “Overall, though, I think I broke even. Jyoti doesn’t agree; she thinks I’ve ended up losing money.” Across the table, Jyoti rolls her eyes.

There isn’t an issue of the journal he cannot locate… or quote from. Nor is there a line in Hamlet (perhaps in all of Shakespeare) that he cannot recite from memory. Tall and wiry, Language of loaf In Coriolanus, Shakespeare uses a bread-making simile to illustrate the lead character’s crudeness in speech with anshutterstock impressive voice and a perfectly clipped accent, Desai often trails into long passages from the play. Or he brings over a book and asks me to read a paragraph or two. “No, no, read it aloud,” he insists . I read aloud, worrying about pronunciation and enunciation, until the sheer beauty of the sentences takes over and makes you forget the impossibility of the situation — that we are in brutal Delhi in 2016, reading something written 400 years ago, and being lulled and comforted by it. Only then does it become possible to understand why Desai started Hamlet Studies and how he kept it running for years. tar-crossed lovers, delirious mon- bubbling over with ‘hell broth’ made of ‘fillet been star baker.

Therunning very firstthe lines of Troilus Thea best part of journal, he Jubilee run RW Desai, retired professor and the sole staffer Hamletsnake’, Studies kamal archs, lovelorn countesses, bumbling of of a fenny ‘eye narang of newt, and toe of frog, and evoke theofintricacies of bakingtoa says,Cressida was in the kind work he managed jesters, scheming consorts — it’s not wool of bat, and tongue of dog, adder’s fork, cake (‘Food, Taste and ina Shakespublish.

Immediately he’sCooking off to find copy in hard to visualise the brain behind and blind-worm’s sting, lizard’s leg, and owl- peare’s Plays’ Rees

by Federica of which Baron Mogg, Scarpa, former University editor of the does Shakespeare, it take to startleaning a mag- et’s such characters,hat William kebabs, cake and biscuits, Desai, occasionally Trieste, wing’.

1995).

Pandarus, the virTimes, who also sat in theunderscoring House of Commons, azine entirely devoted one edited over a writing desk, quill in hand, and atomug

by Jyoti, me how Hamlet His plays havetells generous helpings of Studies meats, tue of essay patience which Troilus needs to wina had an on the ‘Politics of Hamlet’.

“He’s play?malt Andand then, whatbydoes it pies, of ale (brewed with water most camewines, to be. cakes and breads. And he tells us Cressida’s affections, says:brings “He that will havetoa politician himself, which such depth take to run it single-handedly housewives of the time) within reach. A but- notAlthough thebut play is eterjust whatthe hisrelevance charactersofate, also how cake out of of thethe wheat tarry you the his analysis play. must Whereneeds else could for 25loaf years? love—for the with subject, of course, tered andApies made elderberry or it nal, in made. the late-1970s, envi- grinding… was Picking the up socio-political the many enticing read it?” Ay, the grinding; but you must tarbut also a certain doggedness, scholarly pur- clues blackberry (research suggests athat both Shakronment in India perfectly Hamlet-esque. littering the was works, award-winning chef ry Then, the bolting…

Ay, the you must Desai makes mebolting, read outbut a poem that suit of depth andcontemporary a notion thatChristopher others are Alan espeare and his IndiraDeegan, Gandhi in had imposed Emergency and tarry collaboration with Shakesthe leavening… leavening, but a subscriber, Subimal Ay, Das,the from Assam had equally profound; as also, let’s saylength it, an peare Marlowe loved these) — are at just arm’s subsequently theSmith-Howard, election to thewrote JanataThe al- here’s scholar lost Alycia yetin. in The the word thelines kneading, written poem‘hereafter’ ends with from appreciable I shouldn’t from the pagewhimsy. on whichTherefore, Viola or Lady Macbeth Food liance. along with two of Desai Love: A—Shakespeare Cook-other scholars Hamlet: the making of the cake, the heathave been surprised by the directions given to book is being brought to life. of English literature, AN Kaul and GK Das — dein 2012.

Arranged by seaing ground of the oven and the baking; A patch of little to gain theIt home of such person. east, IElizawas son, may come as aashock thatWalk the great cidedTudor to start the magazine recipes are given ina nay, you must stay but thethe cooling That hath no profit name. told, and cross intersections, thenloved look modern bethan poet andtwo playwright, who dearly 1979. “Hamlet addresses issues twist in the book.

The The great Elizabethan too, or youout may chance burn I point that thesetowords for the outside bis- list aoutfeast, was1950s alsoDodge a foodparked hoarder whoa was that starts all of us are grappling with with Spring, where your lips.” could also best describe his enpoet and playwright, cuit-coloured building.

In the event, threatened with imprisonment forI did tax miss eva- Deegan in our modern world — freedom suggests a light lamb In Coriolanus, heStudies. employs deavour with Hamlet Dewho dearly loved a Hamlet addresses the Dodge, andby Rupin Desai,lecturer retired profession.

Research JayneWArcher, in me- ‘hodgepodge’, of speech, political espionage, or stew, and the feast, bread-making illustrate sai is quiet for to a while.

“You the are was also issues that all aoffood us sor of English literature and the soleinstaffer of famous dieval and renaissance literature Wales’s the manipulation by politicians crimped cod.

The hearty lead character’s crudeness in lanright, I never saw that until now,” hoarder are grappling with in Hamlet Studies for a quarter to venison Aberystwyth University, showscentury, that for had nearly in whosepasty hands(from we are vicTheall Merry guage: he says. “Consider this: he has our modern world — come downstairs and find me. I may well Wives 15 years Shakespeare “bought and as stored tims. ofThey exploit us even Windsor) is the highlight been bredfatigue i’ the had wars/made Sincehim he Finally, freedom of speech, confess,malt I didn’t know east lay. of grain, andeven barley forwhich resaleside at inflated though we are a democracy. the Autumn menu. could drawthe a sword, and is laill stop. “And sheer physical political espionage, Upstairs, there are books everywhere — cata- Above prices to his neighbours and local tradesall, there is the whole The food that Shakespearean school’d/ In bolted language; bour involved.

Packing, tying manipulation logued,Interestingly, numbered, indexed.

“That’s all Shakesmen”. his play Coriolanus, which characters question ofeatjustice.

Hamlet is reflects the meal and bran or refer to also together/ He throws things up, going to the without post ofpeare,”how Desai points to the shelves behind me. changes shows a famine is created by the rich and complicated, we deemed it the reign of distinction.” fice. I did feel a great sense of in theand British diet under “And thiswas is all Yeats,” be- Queen corrupt, written athe thepoints heighttoofthose the 1607 utterly Elizabeth worthy of I.a Credit journalfor de-much of this The “un-sieved flour” refers to the emptiness after the lastbread issue.polBut hind riots him.inInEngland.

1971, Desai completed his change food The had Midland Revolt, led voted togoes it,” Desai says. to overseas expeditions by the itics of the period wheatdecision bread was losit waswhere a conscious I took.

PhD from the Northwestern by peasants, was a cry against University unfair foodon dis-a likes Theofthree of them wrote to Shakespeare Sir Walter Raleigh (known to be the ing ground to white bread. former was There were other things to The do. Twenty five Fulbright scholarship.

Hiswidespread thesis was on Shak- Empire’s tribution, hoarding and hunger. scholars around the world, edited the still first potato planter) andand Sir put Francis by time.” the country folk while ‘white’ yearseaten is a long espeare’s influence on Yeats.

After a farmers year of Drake.

In Shakespeare’s hands, the rioting journalThey together.

Vikas Publishing House, aturlo- bakers helped tomatoes, potatoes, London wereenough almost to double in numAlso,in aren’t 25 years analyse HamteachingRoman in the plebeians US, he returned to India and key, became up in arms against cal publisher, sponsored the and printing and cir- ber chillies, quince, vanilla sugar make let, Ithan ask. the ‘brown’ ones. The brown bread, joined Delhi University as a reader. His wife, their the autocratic Coriolanus. culation. on,kitchens the publisher washed made way Two into years English and larders. bran is and other cheap grains, was “Ohfrom no!” Desai astonished at the question.

Jyoti, is alsodoubt, a professor of Englishfood andimagery teaches his hands off the project. Kaul dropped out. the Without Shakespeare’s foodisofinexhaustible.” the working class.

“Hamlet and cakes Shakespeare at Khalsapractices College. Over a munifimirrors the culinary and habits of Breads And Das got posted to Kashmir. “So I said, well In Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare introveena ‘biscuit’ venugopal centtime. spread of cucumber sandwiches, shaami If the Barring, of course, the odd cauldron then, carry on,” Desai says.

By well then,have the duces not I’ll a writer, Shakespeare could as a sailor’s food: “Cobloaf!/ He

Blast from the repast

With his inimitable flair, Shakespeare tells us not just what his characters ate, but also how it was made

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The wandering players Geoffrey Kendal’s touring theatre company, Shakespeareana touched unknown villages, little towns and large cities alike in the 1950s India, performing the plays of the Bard. The story of the Shakespeare Wallah in pictures

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y mother (Jennifer Kendal) was 13 and an erudite student, when her father Geoffrey Kendal asked her principal if she could take a year off school in the Lake District, as both her parents were to tour India with their new theatre company, Shakespeareana, and wanted her to be with them. The principal said there could be no better education than travel, and gladly gave her a year’s leave, promising her a seat in school when she returned. My mother never did return to school!

Years later, Kendal wrote in his autobiography, The Shakespeare Wallah, “Being an actor must be the best job in the world. It combines all the things that a person need look for: health, romance, travel … the positive tragedy of failure, and the will to overcome it. It provides good companionship, and interest in literature, architecture, music, and dancing — in short, just about everything that most people strive for.”

Spreading the beauty and magic of Shakespeare was his passion and he was fortunate to share this with his family and thousands of people across the subcontinent!

All in a caravan The cast, crew and the properties were all bundled into a caravan on Shakespeareana’s journeys across the country. Seen here is a teenaged Jennifer Kendal with her father, Upper crust Sir Toby Belch’s cakes in Twelfth Night are probably shortcakes spiced with ginger. A 1655 recipe indicates they were popular at banquets shutterstock Geoffrey Kendal Text and images courtesy sanjna kapoor (right)

would pun thee into shivers with his fist, as a ing and guts in the Shakespearean lexicon. In Falstaff as “O! My sweet beef…” he brings to sailor breaks a biscuit.” The word ‘cobloaf’ re- Henry IV, he writes (of Falstaff): “Why dost mind the sweetened pies of meat and dried fers to a “small loaf shaped with a round thou converse with (…) that stuffed cloak-bag fruit that remained an English favourite till head”. The “biscuit” in question are rusks of of guts/ That roasted Manningtree ox with the the Georgian period (1714-1830) (Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to Recent “twice-cooked bread that were, in Italy, pro- pudding in his belly.”

The suckling pig with “a pudding in his bel- Times, CA Wilson, 1973). duced on a commercial scale” (Scarpa) for The Clown’s shopping list in The Winter’s fleets and battalions. Research shows that ly” was frequently mentioned in recipe books what the Tudors called biscuits were more re- from 15-18th century. There is evidence that Tale tells us the day’s common kitchen ingrefined and “served as a sweetmeat for ban- the invention of the pudding cloth — the first dients. Of course it has sugar, along with the quets”, while the sailor’s rusks were meant to use was recorded in Cambridge, in 1617 — even- dried fruits and spices: “What am I to buy for tually snapped the ties between puddings and our sheep-shearing feast? Three pounds of last through long voyages.

Sir Toby Belch’s cakes in Twelfth Night (“Dost animal guts. Freed from the grip of animal en- sugar, five pound of currants, rice…/ I must thou think because thou art virtuous, there have saffron to colour the warden pies; mace; shall be no more cakes and ale?”) are probably dates… nutmegs, seven; a race or two of shortcakes spiced with ginger. APicture 1655 recipe in-The Shakespeareana Company in 1953. One but thatandI Geoffrey may beg;/ Four perfect Enter Kapoor Shashiginger, Kapoor as Cassio Kendal in spot at thebanlegendary actor Utpal Dutt (second from left) and the title character in Othello. debuted for as themany raidicates that these cakes were can eaten poundKapoor of prunes, and Shakespeareana with this quets. The anti-Puritan strainthe inlittle SirFelicity Toby’sKendal sinsplay o’ in th’1956 sun.” words echoes the popular sentiment against Other than adding to the taste of the impending ban on lavish festivities and meat-based dishes, spices and entertainment. pungent sauces were also used to mask the odours of Comic capers Geoffrey Kendal as Malvolio in Twelfth NightPudding and pie “tainted meat”. The pracThe Bard’s interest in pies — both in the maktice, quite understandably, ing and eating — finds expression in Titus Anwas common in kitchens of dronicus, in a rather bone-chilling manner: England’s poor, who, unlike the “Hark, villains! I will grind your bones to trails, the pudding finally berich, could ill afford fresh meat dust/ And with your blood and it I’ll make a came a welcome addition to the through much of the year. paste/ And of the paste a coffin I will rear/ And daily fare of all classes (Scarpa).

There is a reflection of this in The Bard’s interest make two pasties of your shameful heads/ And Bassanio’s words (The Merchant Sugar, sauces and meats in pies finds world is still deVenice): bid that strumpet, your unhallow’d dam/ Like Full house An audience inofDelhi during“The Shakespeareana’s 1953 Pound of flesh Geoffrey Kendal as Shylock and Laura Liddell as expression in a rather with ornament/ In law, to the earth swallow her own increase./ This is ItofisVenice safe to assume that Shakestour. Lady Mountbatten isceiv’d seen in the front row Portia in The Merchant the feast that I have bid her to…/ Let me go peare had, apart from a soft spot bone-chilling manner what plea so tainted and corrupt/ But, being season’d with grind their bones to powder small/ And with for carbs, a sweet tooth. Sugar gracious voice/ Obscures the this hateful liquor temper it/ And in that paste was also used in seasoning meat show of evil?” let their vile heads be baked.” and fish dishes in wealthy ElizaWe’ll never know what the spread at MacHuman bones, blood, severed heads are not bethan households back then. It relegated the the most desired ingredients for the perfect cheaper honey to kitchens of the poor. This beth’s banquet was like. Banquo — rather, his pie, but Titus’s words demonstrate a sound change in the sweetener hierarchy finds voice ghost — stole the thunder that could have beknowledge of pie-making. The word “coffin” in As You Like It: “…for honesty coupled to longed to Lady Macbeth’s chef. But we know was commonly used by Elizabethan bakers to beauty is to have honey a sauce to sugar”. In the duo loved their meats with sauce. In an efdescribe the pie-crust. While Titus uses the this image, Shakespeare makes honey only a fort to embolden her husband’s spirit, Lady Macbeth says, “… the sauce to meat is ceremoblood of Demetrius and Chiron to moisten the sauce drizzled occasionally on sugar.

The practice of caramelising and candying ny/ Meeting were bare without it.” Macbeth, a paste for a pie that he served to their mother, Elizabethan cooks, as well as many others be- fruits — both techniques that require sugar tad unsure of their murderous plot, says that and honey — cast finds a mention in Hamlet, where he is plagued “saucy fears”. fore and after them, used animal blood to add Total abandon The Indianwith schoolgirl wasdoubts Kendal’sand favourite The prologue The Shakespeareana and crew in Bengaluru. tongue the flatterer as audience “can- as they got thoroughly involved in the play. The casket “colour” toasblack puddings andJennifer sauces.Kendal is seenthe standing onof a bench that was is todescribed be the Dose of laughter Geoffrey Kendal Falstaff in scene in The Merchant of Venice was particularly popular stage while Shashi Kapoor is in the front aditi sengupta died”.

When Henry, Prince of Wales, addresses The word “pudding” often stands for stuffHenry IV

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Blame it on the Bard

Down play A file picture of a performance of Hamlet, at the Jerusalem Centre for the Performing Arts reuters/ eliana aponte; a still from the film The Taming of the Shrew the hindu

How a resolve to read every Shakespearean play ended on an anticlimactic note

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ould you feel favourably disposed towards a writer who can’t even spell his name consistently? You’d better, because that’s exactly what characterised William Shakespeare, unarguably the greatest English writer of all time. Records exist of dozens of variations of his name, including Shakspere, Shacksper, Shaxpere, Shake-spere, and even (remarkably) Shakestaff. Indeed, the one spelling our Bard doesn’t seem to have used in his lifetime was... Shakespeare.

To be fair to him, the Elizabethans weren’t particular about spelling. And not just because they didn’t have Microsoft spellcheck.

Which is just as well. If Shakespeare had worked on MS Word and failed to review his output, we might conceivably be puzzling over such oracular pronouncements as “Caesar, beware the idea of math”.

On the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, I’m reminded of a time when I aspired to read every single play by him. Yes, all 37 of them. And what prompted this exercise in masochism? Well, immediately after school I had applied to join an undergraduate course in English literature and had been given inside information that the chief interviewer (popularly known as ‘Shakespeare Gopinathan’) was known to favour candidates who showed easy familiarity with the Bard. As the internet was still some years away, cramming was diffiolks at my collegebe (IIT Kharagpur), in cult. Sparknotes wouldn’t born for another the time-honoured tradition of engidecade, and reading the plays in the original neering schools everywhere in India, was out of the question. performers.

Which is tosnobbish say, they Or waslove it? After all, I took a rather particularly love to for jeerhaving them read off the pride in my English the stage comwith insults plete works ofofvariable Sidney creativity.

Sheldon Ayushmann and Harold Khurana, Iwho has two sincemonths added at anmy ‘n’disposto his Robbins. also had name become funnier, was al, andand access to my marginally grandfather’s modest liflat-outI driven away after he made a lame, onobrary. knew he had a copy of the complete matopoeic joke about Kharag Khaworks of Shakespeare.

The firstSingh folio.and Kidding ragpur.

Dadlani, playing a remarkably — it wasVishal an ELBS (low-priced) edition that the anodyne Pentagram, took offfrom his shirt old man set hadwith apparently purloined the before library, realising that by being entirepublic going thetopless seal onwas the flyleaf. ly unrelated to his indignity. was brutal.

BeIt didn’t seem to have beenItread much (or mused indie by even read at rockers all) but were it didbeing haveflipped all the off plays bonathe fidesonnets. nerds and paternity doubts beplus What it didn’t have were aning vocalised in Calculus (it’sOh anwell. ancient G(r) notations or even a glossary.

Nothing eek language, don’tgained. you know?) ventured, nothing And then day in 2009, three young men Being of one an OCD-ish disposition I would from liked a theatre troupe inthe Bengaluru (or was it have to approach project systemati-

cally and breeze through the plays in chrono- play no end. logical order. I fondly imagined this would The random sampling was often entertainallow me to see how Shakespeare’s literary ge- ing. A Midsummer Night’s Dream elicited a few nius blossomed over the years as he perfected chuckles, especially the name of the (literally) his art. But the anthology categorised the ass-headed character Nick Bottom. Romeo and plays in three sections (comedy, tragedy, his- Juliet seemed rather hyped. It could have been torical), beginning with The Tempest. So I jump- summarised in four short sentences: ‘Teens ed right in. It was a little slow since I had to fall in love. Families feud. Things don’t go well. pause in the middle of every other sentence to Everybody dies.’ The Taming of the Shrew look up an unfamiliar word. What the heck seemed terribly sexist, even to a callow 17-yearwas a ‘sirrah’? Why were the characters so old. The Comedy of Errors seemed to recycle the fond of saying ‘marry’ when matrimony clear- oldest plot device in history — confusions arisly wasn’t on their minds? But I persisted. ing as a result of two sets of identical twins.

Till page four. That was quite At the end of the month, the enough for one day. score was 12 down, 25 to go. The shutterstock By the end of the week I remainder included littlewas only halfway known plays such as Titus through The Tempest.

Andronicus and Pericles, At this rate I would which even Shakesstill be plodding peare might have foralong by the time gotten about if the new millennisomeone hadn’t um rolled around. brought out an anClearly there had to thology. The final be a better way. The desperate attempt innew plan of action? volved what might, Dip into various plays strictly speaking, be at random and hope for considered cheating. I the best. Next up, Hamlet, discovered on the bookthe Great Dane. I jest — I mean shelf an abridged ‘Easy Enthe Prince of Denmark. This was glish’ edition of Tales from not to be missed. Despite never Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Chennai?)

The Complete Works of same auditorium, had witnessed a full having readperformed the play it sounded Lamb.which Imagine — an abridgeTaminghouse of thein 2009.

William Shakespeare (Abridged), created familiar.

I could identify witha playThe ment of an abridgement. But it Shrew seemed terribly by the an You can’t make thisthe stuffthing up. Almost the wagReduced who saidShakespeare Shakespeare Company, was just to sail 400 me sexist, to aafter histhrough American trio.

The production everyeven years death, Shakespeare hadplays galvandidn’t write anything original;spoofed the rest of the in callow 17-year-old major Shakespeare whileasomehow also ised a hostilerecord crowd time. comprised entirely of sulhe merely cobbled play together performing its essential scenes: lenPostscript: youngsters, nonebeof lot of well-known quotations. thealmost interview Hamlet, Othello, and Juliet, whom hadwith readtrivial a word of his Nowhere was Romeo this cobbling gan well, questions The Tempest, Androniworks theoutside school. more evidenteven than Titus in Hamlet. about Romanticofpoets and cus; allwas in 43 Through innovation, word-perThat twofrenetic down: aminutes. comedy the like. Then it was Shakespeare “The biological clock The audience it: Hamlet’s fect satire and was some and a tragedy.loved Logically, a historical play had Hamlet.

Gopinathan’s turn.

“So who theuproarious merchant is ticking, I famous enquiry answered whatfrom had seemed to be next.

What was better choice thanwant King aRi-babyofnow!”

Venice?” heperformances, casually enquired behind by a choreographed cheerfor that distant,Ah,distinctly highbrow chard III (of “my kingdom a horse” fame)? steel-rimmeda glasses. this was one play I was,lastquite pursuit had been transformed The Englishliterally, king to becrowdkilled in battle, His had not only read but understood.

“Shylock!” I sourced:was “May-be (left half), may-his maker in answered in ainto a crowd-pleaser, a surprisMajesty destined to meet heartbeat. be-not half),of may-be, may-Field. I wish I accessible art. an1485 at(right the Battle Bosworth Which, as ingly it happens, waspiece the of wrong be-not (all together)!” acerbic Ophelia A friend and I were amongwas those chanting had a premonition thenAnthat the king’s re- swer.

The merchant of Venice Antonio.

But snapped at her “The biological “May-be, in seeing unison day. mains would be paramour: unearthed more than two they mustmay-be-not!” have felt bad on mythat crestfallclock is ticking, Hamlet. a baby now!”

Years later, whenthey she was partme of anyway. the Young Indecades later from underIawant parking lot in Leic- en look because passed Two years weeks in ago, a group of Kha-a dia Fellowship (now a programme offered by ester.

Withand nottwo a bridle sight, let alone menon is a Mumbai-based independent writer a ragpurItstudents performed thea play in dull the hari Ashoka University), she told me about horse. would have spiced up rather

No fear Shakespeare

Presenting an antidote to the ‘Shakesfear’ gripping campuses everywhere — a concoction that uses everything from manga to masala Bollywood

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uniquely instructive Shakespeare lecture delivered by one of her professors, Jonathan Gil Harris.

Asked what it takes to teach plays like Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to firsttimers, Harris said: “I teach a course called Literature and the World to undergraduates in which Shakespeare features quite a bit. Many of them suffer from what I call ‘Shakesfear’.

They have only encountered Shakespeare, if at all, in the Indian high school classroom, where he tends to be taught incredibly badly,

according to a centralised curriculum, by as.

In one panel, his lead BurEmilia, Desdemona’s maid,actor whoRichard is currently Night’s Dream teachers who have little interest in him. And if bage mocks AtoMidsummer threatening hand in her papers.

“Mythus: misbarbarous farrago of almost fairytale hodgethey are interested in him, they feel restricted “This tress is a twit, the master stabs me potch a mere crowd-pleaser at best.”to your by the demands of the curriculum.” when is I try to help, and I’m married Indeed, Gaimanvillain. showed us that comics can How, then, are these marooned greenhorns most malevolent Who stabs me dead. be powerful way to introduce Shakespeare, helped to overcome ‘Shakesfear’?

I’veahad enough.” series isn’tshe’s intended the Sandman “The first thing I tell them is that if you’re although 10. Cleopatra wants you to note ophichildren, strictly speaking.

In 2007, Selfgoing to appreciate Shakespeare, you have to for diophobic.

And has recently turned dairy-free.

HeroMacbeth published a series called Manga recognise that his plays were written to be Made 11. Lady feels one-dimensional.

“I It featured graphic adaptations heard, not read. The language has an acoustic Shakespeare. love long walks and Metaphysical poetry, but Romeo and Juliet and othplays like dimension that actually conveys much more of where’s the Hamlet, space for character enrichment all drawn in the distinctive manga style, meaning than you’d think. Invariably, the stu- ers, beyond the blood and gore in your shortest giftAlso, to the comics world. for that condents I teach find, much to their surprise, that Japan’s tragedy?” she’s still waiting As in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shakespearean when they get together in groups and read out signment of all the perfumes in Arabia. triloRomeo thisRosencrantz meant cultural loud, they understand 50 to 75 per cent more gy,12. andtransposition: Guildenstern are instance,Tom was Stoppard, set againstthey the Juliet, for than when they were simply sitting and read- and switching allegiance. backdrop warring yakuza insight (Japanese mafia) ing quietly.” claim, hasoffar profounder and emHowever, British comics artistever Emma Harris (who also serves as President of the clans. pathy into their characters than you did. was high point ofyou the see seShakespeare Society of India) also noted sever- Vieceli’s They are Hamlet stepping offthe your pages.

Now setsdon’t. the story in 2107, in a world al striking similarities between Shakespeare ries. them.Vieceli Now you by climate changehis catastrophes.

The and Bollywood, especially the money-spin- ravaged 13. Hamlet has changed mind and now ‘smart’ clothes, ning masala movie, a genre that, at its best, characters requests forwear death by fire.

Muchcompatible room for all manner of futuristic tech, including marries the strengths of commercial and high with melodrama, he says. and like weaponry. art. “The second thing I do may sound gim- wireless 14. Thecommunication three witches gear would to be they“Do somehow still conform to ask, the classimicky, but trust me, it’s not. I insist that if And named. you not realise,” they “how mould, with Shakespeare were alive today, he would have cal you Hamlet continuecostume to demonise thecomplete female figure? and billowing sleeves.

During written for Bollywood. He did not think of his elaborate By leavingrobes us untitled we become stock charcourse of adangerously telephonic interview, Vieceli plays as high art: he lived off them, and he was the acters, easily, stereotyped.

The theold, process of creating cyberpunk part of an entertainment industry that was re- described “hags”. Ugly, evil women.

Weaurge you to Hamlet: “I had Shakespeare univergarded as fairly B-grade by many.” re-examine thestudied term with better at informed wasperspective. one of my favourite plays. and Hamlet Now, one can crib a lot about Bollywood, its sity critical historical In addition, realised thatMarsh’s there are an‘Witches awful lot of how mopaucity of creative intent and the shocking Iread Heather essay and Shakespeare a character ap-a cynicism of some of its leading stars, but even ments they areinsilenced’.

And ifwhere you find yourself at says just one or twoSybil, lines,Bathand its worst critics will agree that in India, there pears loss foronstage, names, we’d like to suggest ThisDaisy. is not very convenient for comics, are few greater levellers. When a major Bolly- leaves. sheba, and you aneed time to handintrowood film gets it right in a big 15. Othello where would like rewrite of the duceNot theincharacter, for him way, its one-liners and songs are kerchief speech. character,time he says.

Imto speak for him to on everybody’s lips, rich and plausible that a tale his of lines, such time sentimentality thehim, action.

Hence,storyteller I decided poor. This was, Harris argued, al- “Shakespeare should comeleave from master did not to set theHis story in the future, so so the lot of Shakespeare. to be. mother gifts him the think of his that playshe’s as meant people “Come can ‘appear’ through “Shakespeare’s playhouse was hankyoff on herthat deathbed? on, you can do high art: he lived some sort of high-tech device, in the red light district in the better.” them” speakconcurs. and go away.” south bank of London. One paid 16. Desdemona “Doesn’t say much She further explained: “What only one penny to get in, which about me if I believe such trite.”

Also Othello’s makes this interesting that is why there were many workstories now tire her. (Juliet, she adds, is is lovely.)

Hamlet, my you disbeforefirst I drew ing-class people as part of the 17. Richardway III would like to thank Hamlet education.

I was was onthe audience. But there were also a lot of rich peo- sertation for writing him most and eloquent of opening to suggest which wewere can thinkmake ple in the balcony seats. So Shakespeare wrote trying lines, but wants toways knowinwhat you accessible young As Aa entertainment for a very mixed audience, Shakespeare ing when you pennedtohis last. readers.

“A horse! fan,kingdom not once did occur toTragic me to yes, use some of whom were illiterate and some of comics horse! My for ait horse!?

Young people respond whom were very literate. And that is not un- comics! but you try saying that while tryingtotovisuals. keep a like what the masala Bollywood film is trying Shakespeare straight face.”was never meant to be words on you he wassays supposed to just be EastEnders... to do. Masala means not just spicy but also a a page, 18. Antony could he marry Octavia? the street and threw tomatoes at mixture: a little bit of comedy, a little bit of went Cleo isdown exhausting.

Shakespeare.” tragedy, a little bit of Mumbai basti and then a performers 19. Hamletdoing has changed his mind again. He little bit of Switzerland.”

Writersprefers and educators andlike Vieceactually death atlike sea.Harris No, he’d to One can only imagine the reactions of stu- li knowwith that Ophelia.

Shakespeare hassays to be rescued drown No, he he’ll let us dents looking at Shakespeare through the fa- from tyranny of the canon: a phenomenon knowthe later.

(The rest of us suggest for the little miliar, blinding strobe lights Bollywood familiar mostofstudents every4. Juliet calls for ‘Juliet and ofDesdemona’. whinger to Prince Denmarkoftoliterature be bumped off item numbers (yet another Shakespeare moment a text stuck in the (She also requests an extensive rewrite paralto in- where. slightlyThe earlier in the play.

Actgets 1, Scene 2, preferlel, as Harris — but the beautiful, musical interof Most Grievously Important corporate thismentioned unexpected, turn league ably, immediately before the first of hisBooks, solillude).

But Bollywood is hardly the only lens both students teachers are caught in a of events.) oquies.

May weand suggest a deus ex machina that Harrisfeels, employs to character, make Shakespeare of mechanical 5. Julius as titular he needs quagmire intervention?

We find it a classroom terrifically discususeful come for his class: on the in his sions aboutinsymbolism historical signifimore alive airtime.

“Three scenes inbookshelf which I appear plot device times like and these.)

Dreamspeaks Country, the third office, one could spotBrutus and other pursuits that alive. Three!

While more than cance 20. Ophelia says, respectable if she must, she’d prefer to series of ignore present-day volume of as Neil Gaiman’s relevance altogether, four times many lines asSandman I do. drown alone. comicbooks.

Harrismake confirmed you, one might add.

How does this sense,that this was while boring the 21.pants Lady off Macbeth would like to indeed one of the Shakespeare texts he dis- Luckily for us, there still room for gardena BollyWilliam?” add thatisshe also enjoys cusses with hissays students. wood Romeoing, or aespecially Hamlet who says “To or 6. (Brutus this doesn’t making herbe own Antony says not could he even Dreambut Country is called One ofhim the stories to be” as a retractable blade slips out trouble in thein least, terrariums.

‘A Midsummer Dream’, it marry sees Octavia? of his sleeve, foreshadowing the bloodshed in “Marcus Brutus”Night’s has a nice ring andjust 22. Macbeth says he wouldn’t Cleo is exhausting Lord Shaper aka Morpheus aka Dream of the his near-future.

Vieceli sums it upeither. nicely: to it, don’t you think?”) mind the Seychelles Endless (an anthropomorphic representation “When I was being taught, focus was we all 7. Macbeth assures you he’s 23. Have we the mentioned of the metaphysical commis- on the language. that’s important agreeable with theconcept title of ‘dream’) his don’tAnd wantwhile to die? sioning Shakespeare to write a play and I’m not trying takeTimon, anything away from play, butWilliam feels a small change of 24. to Titus, and Coriolaabout faeriedoworld.

It issome revealed that Mor- that, Shakespeare’s plays were all about the settingthe might the cast nus aren’t fussy about revisions; pheus grantedthe Shakespeare boon:No that his people, andlike the emotions more that they good. Lighten mood, as ita were. more they’d just to raw be performed often.explays would be remembered end of pressed: emotions cold, wet, miserable Scotland.until Havethe you conThis is all.

For now.like anger and jealousy time.

In Bali? return, the latter would pen two plays aren’t going anywhere and that’s the reason sidered Respectfully, for8.Morpheus.

Shakespeare Lear seconds that. Roaming the heath, he why Your Tragedianshas lasted so long.”

Gaiman peppers story with little metaAmen. says, isn’t much fun.the Especially when running jokes about the present-day perception of janice pariat is the author of Seahorse; into many flibbertigibbets. t@janicepariat mani jha Shakespeare vis-à-vis what he used to be seen 9. We recommend a revision of the role of aditya

Q Dear Will, it’s not R PAPERWALLAH

us, it’s you

An open letter to Shakespeare from his tragic characters

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ear William, We have taken the liberty to write to you in the hope that we may sugjanice pariat gest certain revisions regarding the plays in which we feature. It was pointed out to us, by a few others, that this could be seen as an audacious, even imprudent, move on our part, but we’d like to assure you that our petition has been penned with tremendous reverence and humility, keeping in mind, of course, that you are the greatest playwright the world has ever seen, etcetera, etcetera.

Hence, consider this a gentle entreaty, if you like, by your nearest and dearest, who only have your best interests at heart.

These are our demands: 1. We would all prefer not to die. This tends to upset the audience. And us.

2. Apart from Hamlet. He requests death at sea while sailing to England. Feels it far more poetic than being nicked by a poisoned sword in a duel.

3. Romeo wishes for his play to be renamed ‘Romeo and Romeo’. “I was always,” he conThe cyberpunk prince A page from Emma Vieceli’s manga Hamlet“only photo ever courtesy madewith hero myself.” fesses, inself love

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She who fights monsters The battle over history COSMOPOLIS

A dazzling new graphic novel subverts popular storytelling tropes about ‘gifted’ young girls

The city council’s decision to dismantle memorials dedicated to the pro-slavery Confederacy has sparked a legal and cultural tussle in New Orleans drieu is white, black lawmakers and activists back his efforts. For over a century, blacks in New Orleans have had to walk beneath lofted statues of men who strove to preserve their enslavement. Defenders of the monuments tend to be white. They don’t see the heroes of the Confederacy as agents of the subjugation of blacks, but rather as signs of the unique cultural heritage of the American south, a region that still defines itself against the ‘Yankee’ north. Many white New Orleans residents feel that the city council’s decision strikes directly at their sense of identity.

I’m torn by these debates. On one hand, those who want to get rid of these statues ignore a possible teaching moment. Monuments reveal as much about the people who sheascan a dragonThe at will), make(yes, them theliterally peoplebecome they represent. he realises that Nimona is neither progeyoung nor Confederates and their segregationist innocent and that in even combined forces ny were undoubtedly thethe wrong.

But inkingdom may bethe toocitizens feeble to steadofofthe knocking it down, of stop New her. is exceptionally at capOrleansStevenson could reinterpret a statue talented honouring turing micro-expressions.

Silentinto panel a Confederate general as a window the progressions, the one where Nimona is hateful societysuch thatas thought him worth impatiently waiting for Blackheart to finish honouring.

Memory of injustices Beyond the glimpses of the New Orleans of cliché, a discerning visitor will find signs of an ongoing cultural battle shutterstock with monuments his scientificseek experiOnfiddling the otheraround hand, public ments, or the one conception where Blackheart is By woken to represent a society’s of itself. ew towns in the US brim with as Landrieu, to dismantle four public memorials. taking upthe in the middle of the a paper misConfederates off night their by pedestals, strong a sense of place as New Or- Three of the monuments are dedicated to fig- the city sile of thrown

by Nimona, aresend toura de force seNew Orleans would strong leans. Its centuries-old French Quar- ures from the American Civil War who fought and overdue quences.message.

Her styleOver is deceptively cartoonish, 150 years after the ter boasts density and antiquity on the side of the pro-slavery Confederacy — end of much like Nimona jaws are pointed, the American Civilherself: War, it would finally where the average American city is diffuse and the generals Robert E Lee and PGT Beauregard recognise eyebrows raisedhave beyond the ahairline, that blacks as much stake in but facelessly modern. Sat in the swampy delta and the Confederate president Jefferson Davis. the civic somehow, thereOrleans is no doubt in do, the that reader’s life of New as whites where the Mississippi river meets the Gulf of The fourth commemorates an attempted theirmind thatof Stevenson being deadly serious. memory the pastiscannot be subordiMexico, New Orleans has had more in com- coup in 1874 (nearly a decade after the end of nated to The cover memory of the book proclaims, “Netheback historical of whites. mon with old Caribbean emporiums like Ha- the Civil War) by a paramilimeses! I’m Dragons!

Symbolism!” wary ofScience! the impulse to demol-LeavNotSan quite cartoony The opening pagecities. of Nimona,tary and (right) matador illustration vana and Juan than other American groupa composed of for-by Noelle Stevenson ing ish aside other threeI are anddragons, erase, butthe in this instance Locals readily speak of the particularity of mer Confederate soldiers. All cornerstones thecouncil modern-day think theof city of Newcomics Orleansfantaheofidea behind Buffy the Vampire their city, its mix cultures, its famous music in a monarchywere not unlike those seen in sia. And theseis set monuments of right. these Its three, symbolism is where has it move to take down Battles over history the cuisine, most iconic traditions and Slayer, Creole one and of Cajun its TV classical fairy us tales, erected in theswords-and-sorcery late-19th and comicbooks tend to become hammy monuments actually makes New show howwith we seemostthe of alland time, was encapsulated tangled historyshows of French Spanish coloni- early-20th the addition and socentury,of aadvanced period technology and distinctly clumsy, overwhelming the Orleans a more inclusive place, ac-readourselves in the in its opening scene. It came fromthat a saw alism, British invasion, and slavery. phisticated, even biological weaponry.

This the consolidation of er with visual cues.

Not so for Stevenson. knowledging that the landscape of Havpresent and who simple trope, ubiquitous Hollywood I was in New Orleans recently,inmy visit coin-gorethe platform one of the overraciallays segregation andfordisuponto the Nimona’s the city belongs all itsreader citizens. wenovel’s imagine our ing impressed fests. alley, petite blonde woman ciding withA adark festival in athe French Quarter. arching concerns: the tension between criminatory laws against childlike traits, doesa not make her characThis isn’tshe only dilemma pertiselves to scibe walking down,students checking nervously over her Troupes of college roamed the narence (which, blacks in and Newmagic Orleans andas in most fantasies, is ter unrecognisable in the second half. are By now, nent to New Orleans.

Americans shoulder every now then, ominous music row streets, stuffing theirand faces with crawfish a stand-in for human the wider American south.creativity). we know that she’ssymbols not just a still wrestling over other playing in the background.

Soon, we shift to The Many sausages while drinking tankards of ‘hurriyears ago, Sirhas Ambrosius council verdict monster-slayer like Buffy; from the Civil War, especially the in of view of the unnamed monster/ canes’the(apoint suspiciously bright red cocktail).

Goldenloin, the most famous hesparked a legal and cultural many‘battle ways, she is aInmonster Confederate flag.’ recent hercreatureevery stalking Brassghoul/otherworldly bands and fiddlers occupied street the of thehow land,the defeated best battleroabout past is his remembered in months, It is to University Stevenson’s credit studentsself. at Oxford and Nimona is wholly poor girl. Anyelderly moment now, the beast will recorner.

A gaunt, woman flung bead Lord BallisterofBlackheart New friend Orleans.

Supporters the decision insist thenhave that Nimona wholly conPrinceton University protestedis against convincing as both veal itself her, aand she will letbalcony. out a bloodnecklaces downtofrom wrought-iron in amonuments lance duel, unfairly using an andmonster that the celebrate a dark poi- the vincing both roles: monster their in campuses of Cecil andennobling little girl on scream.of the New Orleans of cli- sonous Thesecurdling were glimpses energy beam blast his right history.

Thetomemorials take pride in Rhodes and Woodrow and little girl. respectively, Wilson Except, incustoms Joss Whedon’s the girl ché, a city whose are nowworld, well packarm off.

TheConfederacy, cheating was sug- waged a both early-20th century the legacy of the which Similarly impressive is the way leaders with deeply around,Visitors taunts the vampire, kicks and aged swivels for tourists. queued outside gested by thetomysterious Direcrebellion in order maintain the barbaric in- racist views. In India, we too, seememorials Blackheart’s character to historpunches the living daylightbuilding out of him and, fi‘Napoleon’s House’, a beautiful that tor, the old woman who heads stitution of slavery.

“We, the people of New Or- ical figures are often evolve. somewhat dry and the Asubject of great con-somnally, himNapoleon through the heart with leans, a the might havestabs hosted if privateers Institution ofand Lawwe Enforcement andtoHerohave the power have the right bre warrior at the beginning, his true nerdy testation (and cynical politicisation). stake. Easy Whedon fromwooden New Orleans hadpeasy. succeeded inwanted, their he ics. After poor choice, Blackheart resolves Such correct thesethis historical wrongs,” Landrieu colours are often revealed beautifully. mutual debates invite scholarly The contriexplained years theemperor equations of fear scheme of freeing thelater, French from Goldenloin’s arch-enemy, supersaid to in become December.

“The Confederacy was aon attraction between him Goldenloin butions in puzzling out the realand meaning of a is andcaptivity power toand be sobringing utterly reversed British him to that the peovillainside whoof uses science gadgetryThe to scupthe wrong history andand humanity.” handled with(for witexample, and delicacy: an epilogue, historical figure howinhorrible, ple would shudder thinking about the vamAmericas. peropponents his rival’s — endeavours.

One day,—aaryoung mayor’s and there are many even see the beginnings of it inactually their childreally,wewas Rhodes?).

But they aren’t Thepire’s city’sfate. history is not only the source of gue that girl history called is Nimona, whothat happens a hood history and it doesto nobe about the encounters. past. Battles over history show us Whedon, sure, will amusing trivia. AI’m curious sign enjoy hung Nimona, on the the comes to Blackheart, offering goodshape-shifter, to suppress the symbols of the past in to marksin the beginning of what how weNimona see ourselves the present and who will first of solo graphic novel by‘Save Lumberjanes co-crewindows various boutiques: Our Monbe his sidekick. Apart from a bloodlust that the present. surely be a purpletopatch we imagine ourselves be. in Stevenson’s career. ator It Noelle Stevenson.

This book had city been se- Predictably, uments.’ protested the decision of the seems comical more thanthe anything in one As good as Lumberjanes was and still is, this is debate about fate ofelse the t@kanishktharoor rialised earlier, in the formmayor of a webcomic, council, led by the left-of-centre Mitch monuments so young,isNimona likeThough a happy,Lanshallow, her definitive work. raciallyseems coded. which is one of the reasons why you can see it rotund youngster. But as Blackheart watches getting better and better by the page. Nimona her drop bodies and burn down buildings aditya mani jha

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Kanishk Tharoor is the author of Swimmer Among the Stars: Stories, a collection of short fiction

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saturday, april 23,23, 2016 saturday, april 2016

TUMMY TRAVELS

Sandwiched in Bengaluru The travails of democracy UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Find the ingredients for the finest sandwich in all of Asia Two of our neighbours have recently experienced the uglier side of democracy and electoral for one week’s worth of sandwiches. politics. Neither Bhutan nor Tibet wants to resemble India

zac o’yeah

From Mosque Road it is a short rickshaw ride to 106 MG Road and the Bangalore Ham Shop, which has been in business since forever, but Indian-owned since 1936. Products in the clean but tiny outlet (barely a 100 sq ft) come from their own manufacturing unit on the outskirts of town, such as the green masala sausages (foodies rave about these). A 200 gm pack of ready-to-eat smoked ham slices costs ₹150 and is sufficient for about five to six sandwiches. It is their ham, I’m told, that is used in the club sandwiches at Koshy’s.

Next, one needs cheese and that is luckily available around the corner. The ideal choice is the time-tested Nilgiri’s cheddar. For some reason the half-kilogram slabs sold at an affordable ₹270 at the original Nilgiri’s Supermarket in 171 BrigadeRenouncing Road (founded in 1905) taste power The better than those 200 gm packs available in transition to shops around town.

I’m not sure why, but the democracy had bigger piece of cheese to develop a finer been aseems longtime of the Dalai consistency andproject a mellow tanginess that Lama, even before works on the palate especially well when comsevered the link bined with the he above-mentioned ham. Incibetween the dentally, Nilgiri’s alsoandbakes wholewheat political the crackers to go with your powers cheeseoftray. religious sampath be nothing but his office must Finally, the seasoning kumar gp mustard. This remained a problem for the longest time because many factory-produced ue to my work, I have had the great told us, “Only after the Dalai Lama became po- JigmeIndian mustards to taste of vinegar.

Y Thinley, who tend became the more first demoprivilege of seeing two democratic litical, in the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, was cratically Afterelected trying every available I discovered Prime Ministerbrand, of Bhutan in transitions take place from relative- there controversy. Now, with no politics, I Aprila 2008, local world-class which, as it haphad servedmustard in the post before, ly close quarters. These involved the hope there is no controversy.” Smilingly, he twice.pens, is unbranded. It can be bought at the transfer of power to elected representatives of added, “You do not have to believe in reincarLusitania Cold Storage (a short walk from NilUnlike Dr Sangay, Thinley lost his re-election Comfortexile zonegovernment, Bangalore Ham Shop on MG Road; (below) thebut country at Lusitania the Tibetan as well as the giri’s).

Lusitania is the too youngest establishnation, I ammustard the Dalai Lama, zac soo’yeah I can sur- bid in 2013, but that election was marred democratic transfer in Bhutan. Both of these render my power.” ment on my tour — it has only been around by very personalised attacks.

Although neither transitions involved small populations, and sinceKing, 1972.Jigme They specialise in Goan sausages Dr Sangay was given a newly created title, the new Khesar Wanghuck, nor eing athey Swede Bengaluru, one sinprovide one—key therefore, perhaps, haveinnot received the and other ready-to-cook meats, but there’s althat of ‘Sikyong’ or component. political leader. Prof Rin- the clergy, made public remarks, the people culinary concern overshadows all To begin with, good ‘Kalon bread is a must. attention theygle deserve. so a shelf interesting and condipoche had the first elected Tripa’ — orLong questioned thewith problems with pickles democracy — others: to get just right or so I hear, Johnson In 2011, a group of usHow who had beenthe associatments such procedure as prawn balchao. a good Primeago, Minister.

Thisbakeries month,around Dr Sangay has Marthis contentious to elect And theiron leadsandwich?

In my native Sweden been I ket sold bread with a thick crust, in the days ed with the Tibetan exile government through willI was haveresearching just received a batch re-elected to his post, and will be taking er. Inday fact,they while my book of onfresh grewattachment up on ‘ost or och skinkmacka’ — aand cheesewhen plenty Anglo-Indian personal through work, sat ‘country mustard’. up his duties soon,ofbut the electionfamilies was con- Bhutan, I was intrigued to learn that there was and-ham thatHe is was something of our still lived in that area. thicker talked with thesandwich Dalai Lama. exultant, Made in editions, the tentious, and reportedly theThe Dalai Lama was no word for ‘Leader oflimited the Opposition’ inlabel national crust was needed to mop up the and said that dish. while he had often stated that dismayed is sometimes printed, sometimes by the personalised Dzongkha, Bhutan’s state lanare plenty of sandwich joints in Benstew from the plate the timeThere of monks and kings ruling countries handwritten, and soldhad forto₹80 and parochial nature of the with. cam- Nowaguage, and a new word be per galuru, including global brands. days, He people was over, he was glad tosome finally be able to actThere jar. It packs in awith decent punch paigning. is no don’t longereat thestew po- with coined — as all words ‘oppoare also interesting Indian who fusionhas sandwiches. bakeriesmerely like Fatima’s on that himself.

As anybody con- liticalbread, which, unprepared, leader,sothough, a sition’ in it, ifhadyou’re a negative conAt with a trendy by, ayou, top he draw spiritual is (started 1957)istend produce versed the café DalaiI often Lama pass will tell might make hair stand on your one.in He the toconnotation.

In thethe current The 2013 elections in the chilli macaroni sandwich. soft-crust ofloaves, which aren’t blends a curious mixture of humour But withI’m seri-somehead even if you’re Where it science-keeper the nation.

Bhutanese cabinet, nobald. minister Bhutan were marred what in my sandwich tastes. chewy ousness inconservative his speech. He referred to the Chifrom a mystery.

The tacitIn nearly Bhutan, too,enough. the issue of hascomes served in issuch an exalted by very personalised Located in St Mark’s the venerable To add woes, I had nese government’s talk of himRoad, as a devil, and elections urn staff says: “Made a lady.” andto my opposition re-already post before, not even thebycurrent attacks Parade been the city’s favoubought stuckKoshy’s his hands, withCafé his has index fingers pointWhere? mains mired ainstate-of-the-art complications.profesPrime Minister, Tshering Tobgay. riteon hangout sinceofthe and it issaid, the club special serrating up each side his1950s head, and ‘In town.’

The sional Fourthbread Kingsaw of(a Bhutan, I was in Bhutan earlier this sandwich there, have discovered, that is Jigme a edSingye knife for carving bread) chuckling, “Do you seeImy horns?” youitneed more ingredients, Wangchuck, hadfrom month,Ifand became clear that version an ‘ost och Adams Company, the 104-yearHeperfected had a right to beof delighted.

Theskinkmacka’. transi- prepared then around corner—isofBamthe&run-up to elections in dealing with thisthe problem As democracy a test, I bring friends whoproare neiold kitchenware shopThere located tion to had been aalong very — long buries in Richmond Road, which through a variety of ways. hadin been pub- the contention and discord that accompanies of even Koshy’s norfled club sandwiches — consultations Richards Square, adjacent to before it democracy — the Bhutanese ject ofther his,fans begun as he into exile in lic sells the finest cold cuts of varion the Constitution did not look to InThe seasoning timeSangay, reactions range from “sooper” Russel in Market, where youthat, get in 2007, 1959. and Dr each Lobsang who became the was passed Now, the having done the July 2008.

Before dia as anmust example.ous I dokinds. not believe Tibetans be nothing but But you have got to asknot for the from election’ pasta machines head to of “orgasmic”. the elected exile government, was shopping, it is time to go home. thereanything was a ‘mock so that people do either. mustard only if you doThat it nicely will the pastry tongs.

I was naturally the first electedand head of cabinet. designaOnce there, simply combine couldtolearn how to vote.

No parties were repre- mustard The kind of democracy that is seen in the In- the waiter bring bowl of it. Rinpoche, often sented, desperate to find the bread tion belonged to aSamdhong in avicious, logical and manner only four colours.

Peoplethat voted over- dian Parliament isingredients personalised, However, I want to be able towho make a good suited my addressed as Professor Rinpoche, was — This perhaps addingme. a slice of onwhelmingly forsaw. yellow, as that colour was the often hypocritical. saddened Sandsandwich at home, and and so I set about doing exday I shawls was toldthat about elected to that post in 2001, then re-election, tomato or pickled closest Then to theone colour the monks wiched between India and China, both thegherkin Tiidentify classic and of preferthe most ancient bread abdicating shop in ed in tensive 2006. Itresearch was onlyto after this long testing for extra juiciness and there and royals wear.

Even before in fa- betans and Bhutanese have —chosen ably non-imported ingredients the in100-year-old AlbertKing Bakery the waters, that the Dalai Lama devolvedfor all my you go:but biteIndian into the perhapsistastiest vour town, of his son, 2006, the Fourth had on democracy, democracy so divi-sandpersonal ‘sandwich project’. the link be- madeMosque Road.ofThe rustic his bakery is onlytoopen power from his post, severing wichthey in allfear of Asia. it a practice allowing ministers sive, that becoming like us.

Interestingly, the search led me toHesome evenings but including sells the most amazing tween his political and religious powers. is of act ininathe variety of posts, as Prime writer and part-time t@OmairTAhmad the oldest food shops of Benpao and bunstherefore which matched bread that saw. The zac o’yeah is a part-time travel supposed to beand themost 14th trusted incarnation, and he Minister, it was nomy surprise galuru, where quality has been assured for crust is thick, the chewy texture perfect. A bag detective novelist based in Bengaluru. His latest novel is generations, and each of which was able to of eight substantial pieces is ₹60 and enough Hari, a Hero for Hire

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

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CREATURE FEATURE

Beaking news Changing the shape of beaks helped Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos survive droughts

ambika kamath

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utside the public eye, there are paying attention to them for long enough. lapagos over 50 times as much rain as had fallcreatures — a bird here, a fish When you watch an ecosystem for long en during the 1977 drought. Vines and shrubs there, particular flies, worms, and enough, you start to see not just the common- that produce small soft seeds thrived, smothflowers — that have been the cor- place but also the rare. You move from the ering the plants that bear bigger, tougher nerstones of evolutionary biology for decades. messiness of an unknown system to the order seeds. So when the next drought rolled In this final-ish instalment of Creature Feature of system well-comprehended; only then can around, many more of the seeds available to (the column is going on hiatus while I finish you spot those unpredictable bolts of light- the finches were small and soft, and the small, my PhD), I’m going to tell you about the most ning (literal or metaphorical) with the power pointy-beaked birds did just fine. famous of evolutionary biology’s organisms: to shake up everything. For the Grants, the This complete reversal in how the beaks Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos Islands. first of these bolts was a drought in 1985. changed shape in response to drought proves I haven’t seen Darwin’s finches, or been anyThey had already seen the aftermath of a that the natural world is messy. The Grants’ where near the Galapagos (they are a chain of drought in 1977. Plants stopped producing ability to understand the reversal proves the islands in the Pacific Ocean, at the equator, I’m new seeds, but the existing seeds kept getting value of long-term studies of nature. As the told). But these birds are so iconic to students eaten by finches. As the dry spell continued, Grants put it in their book 40 Years of Evolution, of evolutionary biology that I feel like I’ve the birds depleted the island’s supply of small “if we had stopped before [1982, the El Niño known them for years. And what we all know soft seeds. Small birds with small beaks that year], after the 10th field season, we could have best about them is the shape of their beaks. were incapable of feeding on large, hard seeds concluded, incorrectly, that droughts invariaWhat a finch can eat — small soft seeds or soon starved to death. Eightybly select for large body and Poll star Working home in on Charida village, Rajeev complete a big order for Chhau masks from a political party in Kolkata nandi large hard seedsat—his depends the shape of its Dutta fiveraces per against cent oftime thetoadults in the beak size.”

But, debapriya because “longbeak. But you can flip this equation around: population died; only one of 388 term processes require longthe shapes of seeds that are not eaten, that re- chicks survived. The survivors term study”, they didn’t stop.

The survivors were big main in the environment, depend on the were big with robust beaks, with robust beaks, who And while most of us don’t finches’ beak shapes. Both sides are important who lived because they could have the luxury of returning lived because they to understanding how finches evolve. crack open the harder seeds each year to a Pacific island to could crack open the Charles Darwin, one of the first people to that had remained uneaten. study birds named after the harder seeds that had fully describe the process of evolution by natIn this climatic carnage, the forefather of evolutionary biolremained uneaten ural selection, noticed these rather nonde- Grants saw evidence in real ogy, we do all have plants and script birds on his travels. But Darwin soon time for evolution by natural seanimals in our gardens and on returned to England and turned his attention lection — the finches evolved our streets that we can pay atto pigeons, barnacles, and earthworms. Finch- bigger beaks. At this point, they tention to. So if the last two ajeev Dutta has an intense on could es in Galapagos, however, have beenscowl the sole Last month, he earned ₹5,000 ca- years have been satisfied that more they’dfrom understoryteller — he loves telling stories.

“Tradiof Creature Feature haven’t convinced his face. Behind his two-room house stood focus of evolutionary biology’s pre-eminent tering the to orders politicalon parties. effectsfrom of drought finch “From beaks, you tionally, we are the sub-caste that was excluthat any organism can be interesting, let’s in Charida village (Purulia district, power couple, Peter and Rosemary Grant, for and BJP to Trinamool, comes to us,” he switch called it a day.everybody But they persisted. sively supposed make masks.

Nowadays, things up.to Pick just one organism, and the last 40West yearsBengal), or so. the ancient Ayodhya says.

On he makes about the ₹300 a day, And it’saverage, good they did, because effect of in everybody makes them,” His two sons the months ahead, lookhe atsays. it closely.

Look for hills rest in knobbly shapes.scientific One hill looks like drought This level of undivided attention and paysin his1985, helpers ₹50same each.finch species liv- changes on the are also into mask-making.

— across days, across seasons. Maybe a scraggly vulture’s face, anotherinlike bent to a single population of animals the awild is ingThere aresame more than was 200 entirely Chhau groups in you’ll on the island, different.

Overstart fourtodecades dedicated this craft, make sense of thistoorganism’s old man.

Dutta seems to the astoundalmost unheard of. Butimmune such long-term studies This Purulia town and all of them source their time, smaller birds with the pointiest Sutradhar has seen many and downs. life, like I’m trying to do in myup PhD. Not quite ing beauty his surroundings.

He isinpainting can show usofhow we’ve come to live a world beaks masks were frommore Charida, about 55 kmthan large 40 years,“During likely to survive peobut it’ll my be agrandfather’s start. We can time, exchange a mask the “demon god” Mahisasur, so filleddepicting with creatures of all shapes and sizes birds away. with For long, large these beaks.dance What changed? In be- notes when I’m ple wouldn’t even give us monback. who,kinds. according mythology, was slain and ThistoisHindu because the Grants have tween troupesthewere only the world experitwo the droughts, ey. They would give us just organismic and evolutionary by goddess regarded symbol of enced been able toDurga, measure changesasina the shapes sourceanofElincome for much like what we’re ambika kamath studiesgrains, Niño event, vegetables and shakti.

Even and sizes andwhen kindsitofcomes finchesto— demon changesgods, that undergoing the mask this makers. year, minus some global biology at Harvard University;saris. That would sufthere is a predict strict hierarchy. we often and infer but rarely see — by warming.

However, of late, the The 1982 El Niño brought to the Ga- ambikamath@gmail.com fice,” he says. Today, “Mahisasur is of primary importance. Then masks are being he is grateful that come the others like Raktasur,” says the 38- recognised as obcity dwellers have year-old Dutta, who has been making Chhau jects of art in their “great whims and masks since he was 11. These masks are essen- own right. “Each fancies”. “The othtial to the indigenous dance form. The Chhau mask takes about er day, some BJP dance, characterised by vigorous movements three days to be workers bought and acrobatics, depict dramatic moments completed. First we use clay to some masks from various Puranic tales. The recent contro- shape the mask, then we dry it, from me and told me that my versy stoked by Human Resource Develop- and finally we paint on it. Next mask will adorn the house of ment minister Smriti Irani, who questioned we attach the headgear,” Dutta some major BJP leader. For me all Even when it comes the deification of Mahisasur by certain com- explains. The elaborate head- to demon gods, there parties are the same. I only need munities, has not affected Dutta in any way. gear, a characteristic feature of ₹150 for my mask,” he laughs. is a strict hierarchy.

“For us mask makers, demons and gods are the Chhau masks, take a few Back in Dutta’s house, things Mahisasur is of the same,” he says while rushing to finish days to be made. Beads, sequins, are in emergency mode now. All primary importance. work on a consignment of 20 masks for deliv- and silver and golden foils are Then come the others members of the family, includery to Kolkata. “It will be presented to dignitar- collated into intricate shapes. ing wife Phulmoni (33) and like Raktasur ies who visit the state during the election “The women of the household daughter Drishti (7) have joined season,” he says. help us make the headgear,” exDutta and his helpers in their The election month has proved to be an un- plains Dutta. race against time. usual boom time for this village, which is A few minutes’ walk from his It’s 3 pm, and four masks rehome to about 300 artisans involved in either hut, down a winding, dusty path is Jagdish Su- main to be finished. making masks or assembling decorations for tradhar’s house. It’s bigger but doesn’t have “My daughter is deft at making headgear,” the headgears. “Until around February, we the modern features (read concrete walls and says Dutta, pointing to the child busily makwere making about three to four smalls masks a television) that Dutta’s dwelling has. Sutrad- ing a garland of yellow beads. “I plan to teach a day, but from March we have been making har, 55, has been a Chhau mask-maker for her this art, but I would rather she becomes a about 10 each day. Various political parties most of his life. “We have been making these doctor or an engineer,” says the father. have approached us for small, compact masks masks for about three generations; before debapriya nandi is a freelance journalist to present to visiting political leaders,” says that we were idol-makers,” he says.

Dutta, who has two helpers to run his unit.

Like his surname suggests — a sutradhar is a based in Kolkata

Q Demons are cast here

Come elections and Charida village in Purulia, West Bengal, sees a spike in demand for its Chhau dance masks depicting gods, anti-gods, and everything in between

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Little by little A finch at the Galapaos shutterstock

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saturday, april 23,23, 2016 saturday, april 2016

Keeping tabs on apps

No country for siesta

Admin to register with police

Smart mattress to check adulterers

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o crack down on rumours spread over social media, the Jammu and Kashmir government has asked the administrators of ‘WhatsApp news groups’ to register with the office of the District Magistrate. The police will then monitor the groups for ‘irresponsible remarks that lead to untoward incidents’ and deal with them under the law. Also, government employees have been asked not to make any comments or remarks on the policies of the government.

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Snail mail washes ashore

pain, which has a high rate of adultery, has decided to fight back. Their latest weapon is called Smartress: it’s a mattress that comes equipped with no less than 24 ultrasonic sensors that detect “suspicious movement” in the bed, and beam them on to a mobile app, informing the owner. The company has used the no-brainer tagline: “If your partner isn’t faithful, at least your mattress is.” Fair warning to those looking for a little on the side: whatever you do, don’t do it on this mattress.

Oldest message in a bottle found Unholy matrimony CK Janu, seen here with young supporters, has called the BJP the ‘Satan’ she would compromise with, if it helped her people s gopakumar

MIND THE GAP

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bottle sealed with a message from a British scientist has been confirmed as the world’s oldest ‘message in a bottle’ by the Guinness Book of World Records. The historic postcard, sent by George Parker Bidder in 1906, along with a promise of a reward, was found by holiday-maker Marianne Winkler off the coast of Germany.

A leap in the dark?

Furry warriors on twitter Police dogs get feted

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Sniffing out leader the good stuff The decision to ally with the BJP in the Kerala elections puts tribal CK Janu in the eye of a political storm Airport dogs prefer cheese to drugs

he Mumbai Police Twitter handle, known for posting puns about crime and safety awareness, now has the police dog squad to talk about. With #superheroes, the dog squad and their handlers are getting some praise. Sample some tweets, “With great duty comes great res’PAW’nsibility” and “A sniff in he news of the well-known tribal time saves nine”. Yeah, this stuff leader CK Janu’s decision to contest gets old pretty quickly. along with the BJP in the coming as#SorryNotSorry j devika sembly elections in Kerala has left sections of the Left deeply hurt. There can be little doubt that her leadership has contributed in no small measure to the visibility and voice recently gained by this community, which is just a minuscule minority of the population and dogged by a history of unrelenting oppression, exploitation, and marginalisation. It is common knowledge that despite the markedly high visibility that Adivasis have gained in Kerala, no government has fulfilled promises made to them, and large funds set apart for tribal development seem to never reach the most deserving sections. Clearly, Janu’s decision is a response to this desperate situation, but her reference to the BJP as the ‘Satan’ she would compromise with if it helped her people has provoked much criticism, especially in the social media, which compares her with Faustus selling his soul to Mephistopheles.

I find the above comparison extraordinarily unkind. Of course, the disappointment, even the outrage, her decision generated is understandable. Far from just a tragedy for the tribal people, this decision is a huge blow to radical civil society as a whole — indeed, the ‘Stand-up Struggle’ that the Adivasi Gotra Sabha had initiated last year was immensely successful in drawing greater numbers into the radical civil society. No doubt other leaders of marginal communities have made such decisions before — Mayawati, for example — and managed to stave off getting swallowed by the BJP. In Kerala, the Dalit Human Rights Movement leader Seleena Prakkanam has argued that for-

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which cost the city £1.25m to procure, no visimal politics here is no longer niffer a clashdogs, of ideolothe scars of the violence she hadfound suffered or heroin Manchester Ingies, and that it is populatedcocaine by the big men over ble six on months her face?atBut — and I amAirport. being self-critstead, hundreds of ‘small of cheese and sausages’ were and their personal constituencies.

She rejects icalamounts here — did those horrifying images, which flagged.groups The dogs nosedclearly out cigarettes, and of moralising about marginalised seekrevealed tobacco, the limitsillegal of themeat idolisation evenwith cash the but not the illegal drugs that their handlers were of hoping unconditional alliances latter. the poor woman as the ideal subject neolibingto for.

ToBJP be fair though, a cheese andorder, sausage sniffing dog is ve- for But Janu is not reaching out the from a eral welfarist prompt us to rethink, ry useful in our book. position of relative strength, like Mayawati, or example, the terms on which feminists particworking with individual leaders, like Prakka- ipated in the governmentalised empowernam. Janu’s successes were in, and through ment discourse? the radical civil society, and forging connecI too am sad at Janu’s decision. Janu is not tions with the BJP would mean that all bridges selling her soul to the devil for personal ambiwith that other world will have to be burned. tion perhaps, but she is indeed attempting a But are the accusatory responses justified? I leap across the abyss. She believes that the BJP cannot help thinking that accusamay propel her across, but history responses can serve only to torically, there is no evidence stall serious questioning of why that offers any comfort. If upper those of us who saw promise in Jacaste Hindus in Kerala have been Janu had revealed nu’s Adivasi Gothra Sabha were unthe traditional rivals of the Syrthe limits of able to engage in open, fearless and ian Christian land-grabbers of neoliberal frank internal criticism of it even Wayanad through the 20th cenfeminism in Kerala when researchers did point to its tury, there is an equally long hispotential to become elitist. More tory of their close collaboration importantly, Janu as an Adivasi to suppress common enemies. It woman had revealed the limits of is hard to perceive that the BJP, neoliberal feminism in Kerala in the early especially the national leadership, would so years of the Millennium itself, during the easily turn away from the Syrian Christian Muthanga struggle. Those were heady times transnational community that actively aswhen neoliberal welfarism in the state was pires to be the ‘model minority’ under the celebrating the ‘below-poverty-line woman’ as Hindutva regime and participates in the the new subject of empowerment through bunch of lies called ‘love jihad’, for the hapless self-help and micro-credit; it was also the time tribes of Kerala. when Adivasis and Dalits were being slowly Janu’s leap is indeed to be watched, but I told that they could no longer expect land as a hope she remembers Lloyd George’s observaproductive resource and that they had to be tion that you cannot cross the abyss in two happy with handouts through the panchayati jumps. Especially when it is the BJP that perraj institutions. And there was Janu, refusing suades her that there is no abyss at all. both these solutions, defiant and willing to face the state’s wrath. Who can forget the im- j devika is a historian and critic based in ages of Janu being hauled into the police vans, Thiruvananthapuram

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

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n this day, exactly 400 years ago, William Shakespeare shuffled off this mortal coil.

Ten questions about the most influential writer ever in this language.

here,there & elsewhere

Comic tragedy

Tales of William the Bard

1

The character with the most lines in a single play is Hamlet, with 1,506. Four of the top five characters are also eponymous with the play.

Who is the only one in the top five who is not also the title character of the play?

2

Which 20th-century dystopian classic has numerous references to Shakespeare’s The Tempest and also derives its title from a line in the play?

3 4

What specific reason did Eugene Schieffelin give for releasing 60 starlings in Central Park in 1890?

Shakespeare’s longest play is Hamlet. Which is the shortest, which can be performed in less than a third of the time required for Hamlet, which takes approximately four hours to perform?

5

What is Shakespeare’s contemporary John Taylor believed to have created, which has ensured that he is remembered well into the 21st century?

6

William Shakespeare began to seriously write poetry at the age of 28, with his first collection of sonnets releasing in 1593. What is the most common reason offered for his switch to sonnets at the time?

7 8

Which of Shakespeare’s plays starts with the male protagonist grieving because of his unrequited love for the beautiful Rosaline?

Which Tom Stoppard play, first staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966, is an account of the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet?

9

William and Anne Shakespeare were the parents of twins, Judith and Hamnet. Just name both the plays he wrote that featured twins in significant roles?

10

In his will, what was Shakespeare’s bequest to his wife, Anne Hathaway?

Answers 1. Iago, who has 1,088 lines in Othello. Othello himself has just 880 lines!

2. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, from Caliban’s ‘O brave new world that has such people’ 3. He wanted to introduce all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays in America. There are 200 million of them now and are regarded as an invasive species affecting the local ecosystem 4. A Comedy Of Errors. The 1982 comedy classic Angoor, directed by Gulzar, was based on this play 5. He is regarded as the painter of the famous Chandos portrait, which is the image of the Bard in almost all contemporary references. It is called the Chandos portrait as it belonged to the family of the Duke of Chandos, who handed it over to the National Portrait Gallery in the 19th century 6. There was an outbreak of plague in Europe in 1592 and almost all London theatres were closed between 1592 and 1594.

7. Romeo and Juliet. Romeo changed his mind very quickly, though, after meeting Juliet at a Capulet ball 8. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. It was also released as a film starring Gary Oldman, Tim Roth and Richard Dreyfuss in 1990, with Stoppard credited as the director 9. A Comedy Of Errors, which featured two sets of twins, and Twelfth Night, featuring Viola and Sebastian 10. His second best bed. In his defence, Anne was wealthy in her own right and probably did not need the money, and as the best bed of the house was normally reserved for guests, this could have been the bed they shared through their marriage

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

his is me, Bins. Today I got a book in the mail. I ordered it. “See?” I show it T to She-Who-I-Live-With. “I got this for you.” It’s called The Art Of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, by Singaporean artistcartoonist Sonny Liew.

At once, she is suspicious. “Why suggest a book even before you’ve read it?” I say that I heard the review on NPR, National Public Radio. I believe this radio channel is maybe the best thing in the entire Western Hemisphere. Maybe even the Universe. Except that every book they talk about makes you want to order it at once. “Ohhh! You always fall for NPR!” she screams (well, no, she does not really scream. But it sounds more interesting).

“No, no — you will like it,” I assure her. “It’s by a Singaporean cartoonist, writing about an imaginary cartoonist, called Charlie Chan Hock Chye ...” Really, it is completely fabulous, this thing. Even I, from the continent of Tintin and Asterix (because they were Belgian, you know? Not French, like me), have to admit it is a fantastical concept: the make-believe biography of a failed cartoonist, who documents the history of the tiny island nation of Singapore.

Wooah. Superb.

Needless to say, Madame is not impressed. “Sounds boring,” she says.

“Just pick up the book,” I tell her. “You

will love it.” “You’ve not even read it!” she exclaims. “I don’t need to,” I say. “All the online reviews were ecstatic.” She opens the book, flips through the pages.

“Hmmm. The artwork is ...” pause “... not bad.” Another pause. “Amazing.” Then she goes quiet as she reads. “It’s very clever,” I tell her. “You know, the artist who narrates the story? He never existed.”

Now she’s shaking her head. “No! He MUST have! Look — there are photographs of pages from his early comic books, complete with those little dots from half-tone printing, and the acid-yellow stains of old cello-tape!” I am grinning as I listen to her. “— and that is what makes it brilliant!, no?” I tell her,

with triumph in my voice. “It is all makebelieve. The work of the author. It is also a metaphor for the cultural life of Singaporeans: permanently suppressed.”

She makes a face at me. “At least let me read it and make up my own mind!”

Actually, I have partially read it, because Amazon lets you read bits of it when you complete your order. I read up to the place where the imaginary cartoonist shows his comic book reconstruction of the Japanese occupation of Singapore, using animal characters. It’s a tribute to Art Spiegelman’s Maus told in a Southeast Asian accent. In another section, Charlie Chan shows us his version of SpiderMan: bitten by a cockroach, Roachman scurries up the walls. And fights for the poor, the downtrodden.

Later, when Madame has finished reading, she is quiet. I ask her what she’s thinking. “Well ... I thought Charlie Chan seemed a bit like me.” I ask her to explain. She shrugs, “It’s kind of obvious: failed Asian cartoonist, never finds an audience, dies in obscurity ...” I laugh and shake my head. “Do not give yourself airs!” She nods and sighs. And looks away. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

cornerstone

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