TIMELINE TUTORIAL Social media is proving to be a handy aid and resource material in curating courses and conducting classroom discussions p2 saturday, april 30, 2016
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Summers evoke precise memories — of holidays that steal a bit of yourself, unexpected merry trips, and events that shape a point of view. To break the numbing spells of nothingness are the joys of mangoes, goli soda and homemade ice cream p6-19
Seasons in the sun
NO ROOM TO READ Even a book launch could become a difficult social engagement in Kashmir p4
GOING FOR GOND Indigenous works ďŹ nd patronage and appreciation at the Kanha Museum p20
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Status update as teaching assistant
ute I post Toru Dutt’s sonnet (excerpted): But nothing can be lovelier than the ranges Of bamboos to the eastward, when the moon Looks through their gaps, and the white lotus changes Into a cup of silver. One might swoon Drunken with beauty then, or gaze and gaze On a primeval Eden, in amaze. Comments on the poet’s use of the sonnet form to show an idealised Eden as the pristine homeland quickly leads to translations. Maaz Bin Bilal, who teaches in Ashoka University, Delhi, and is a Ghalib translator, pitches in with his experience of realising the ghazal form in English. Ghalib, to the undergraduates, becomes a cool dude. It must be divulged here, without compromising any secrecy, that typically, for each seI was delighted to find some of my favourite mester and the courses opted, my students writers and poets honourably involved in create a Rise ‘closed’ Facebook group to exchange of the underdogs crowdsourcing. No other term seemed more ideas, thus addingRiyad an element of freshness to Mahrez’s like the promising in Facebook democracy. the teaching andstory, sharing. larger Leicester City In this, poet Kazim Ali became my main inGoing back to the context of student polistory, has a great dash spiration. The creative writing director of tics, it was on Facebook of romance about itthat Vemula’s suicide mike hewitt/getty images news publications Oberlin College generously shares his reading note went viral before lists on Facebook and invites additions from picked it up. The study-abroad students from time to time. The aesthetic of the range is the US who I teach have been deeply swayed by highly rewarding. So I took courage from Ali it. This is poetry, said many, not of anguish but to trek for my own treasure. After all, Anais of clarity. Vemula’s imagination of man as Nin’s pithy quote said it all: “Life shrinks or ex- stardust and not a number, thing, or vote, coupands in proportion to one’s courage.” pled with his deep reflections on nature, love The methodology is simple. Once I write a and politics is what the students understand Facebook status, such as “Hey all, so I will be and imbibe. teaching a course on how books/texts/scripts During my crowdsourcing, Arpita Ghosh, become movies or pictures or images or vi- assistant professor at Ramananda Centenary sual concepts… Tips and resource sug- College, Purulia, West Bengal, was delightfully gestions are highly appreciated”, quick with her suggestions, especially when it within an hour the comment came to my Construct of Body Image course. would certainly be thefills most win- proved thread up,improbable as do my inbox themselves to be betterskewed than enviTelling students about thefarrather subners since tiny Ipswich TownThe wonsuggestions the league saged, and email. a manager who has been quietly text ofand masculinity and nationalism in the in 1962. Even if Spurs somehow a rabbit impressive, range from pull Premchand’s not tooand much, but yet well-known changing Indian history mythology out of the hat, Leicester’s story would(Shatranj still re- infusing The Chess Players in the team, inChitra his own words, the comic-book series Amar Katha became main remarkable, and would toresonate fora “Italian Ke Khiladi) How to Kill livelier tactical with herway”. suggestions of reading Ketu years to come. Such has been the outrageous Mockingbird to Bibhu- Katrak Consider Leicester’s mostBody) influential play(Politics of the Female and Caroline implausibility of their run. tibhushan Bandyo- ers, each(Appetites); of whose rises has been Knapp Ghosh’s wittyastonishing, recommenThe heroes at the heart of this impending padhayay’s Pather and eachon offan whom waswere identified signed dations fiction helpfuland in holding Leicester triumph are manifold. One of Panchali (Song of the the by head ofclasses. recruitment Steve fortLeicester’s for my high-energy phenomenal aspects of their feattoisthe marked by Walsh. Road) immenBarelyoffour years ago,Rajesh Jamie Vardy, now Speaking high energy, Rajamani’s the absence in their squad,sely at the beginning of the popular Harry club’s marksman, wasIndian playing memes areleading a spin-off of classical artfor to the season, of a single marquee Potter player, series.a playThe Fleetwood a on team in the effective fifth drive homeTown, points feminism, postmodern er that a top European club might at the best haulhave appears to division of English football. Kante, who angst, caste bigotry, as wellN’Golo as visual subvertime yearned for. Indeed the comprised be squad a student project was up that for €8 million last summer sion.snapped And now Rajamani’s comics has a rather motley crew, from play- from onjourneymen Sa’adat Hasan was virtually been French cited asside oneCaen, of the recent bestunknown works in ers to former youth prodigies that had moved Manto’s Toba Tek amongst fans in England. performancthe country, I know whyBut it his made sense to to pastures new and low in search of its first team es Singh, with unique in midfielditfor crowdsource forLeicester my class.have showcased a football, to players whogeopolitical had risen slowly up pedigree narrative of media some renown. As social is a lot of YouTube, the more the ranks from the lower eche— an underclass film sensuous visualThe jewel in ofthe crown, representation Michael Onlons, to mostly unknown conti- on YouTube. daatje’s poem assignment though, has beenPeeler’ Riyadgathered Mahrez, ‘The Cinnamon nental players who wereMajumdar of similar suggestions Saikat a playerinblessed with thesection most the comments apparently too light-weight Stanford for University has silken touch and balance. An Alsuch as Andy Garcia reading ‘Tonight I can Leicester City’s the hurly-burly Premier League. The Chess been teaching Play-ascent gerian, he(Pablo was signed in the‘Nina’s sumwrite the saddest lines Neruda)’, dizzying gives The squad’s composition ers for his Modern Indianus Litermer Eady)’, of 2013and for Prahlad a paltrySingh sum Tiof Blues hope for a (Cornelius looked so dire thatclass. 10 out 11 ature Inofour £750,000. At theKabir. time, In there paniya singing thiswere conbeautiful future Guardian journalists quizzed beFacebook interaction, many Mahtext, doubts where over thewhether text/screen fore theMajumdar season began predicted shares his rez, who is slight of frame, could interdisciplinary mode plays in that Leicester were certainties thrill: “I begin by pointing out I was delighted to find cut it in the Premier League.help Yet, beautiful layers, one cannot for relegation. The in airsome of inevitahow close — even, ways, seasons in,Susan he now stands but remember Sontag on some of my favourite three bility about a demotion interchangeable — Hindiwas andonly Ur- accentuated the very apex of the game, having been debeauty: writers andatpoets when Claudio Ranieri was announced as their clared du were to Premchand.” as the “The Professional AssociresponsesFootball to beauty in art honourably involved new In his most recent the Wemanager. revel in the master’s effort- job, with ation’s Player of the Year. and to beauty in nature are interin crowdsourcing Greece national team, the Italian had less prose, free football of the religious Mahrez’s story, much likeBeauty the larger Leicesdependent… regains its been sacked after four been games in charge, ter City story,solidity, associations thatjust have has a its great dash of romance inevitability, as a judgwhich a loss to lowly thrust included on Hindi and Urdu later. Faroe Islands. about it. As fans of needed football,towemake live today ment sense in of aa Gary Lineker, former England “The story the itself is quite a and Leices- world where large spending power often energies, acts as a portion of one’s ter great,for branded the decision to appoint stunner students… The decadence of Rathe sole trump. Leicester City andusurping Mahrez affinities, andBut admirations; and the nieri worldasis“uninspiring”. morally troubling and yet most stu- have shown us that there is still place in sport notions appear ludicrous. So, what, might wonder, has been the for“Imagine dents find itone aesthetically captivating, and this the unpredictable. ascent saying, Their ‘Thatdizzying sunset is key this Leicester triumph? Althoughisit’s gulfto between the moral and the aesthetic an gives us hope for a beautiful future, one where interesting.’” been described thus inspace certain quarters, their perhaps endlessly intriguing and offers great football, too, canwhat occasionally bethan the For a poet and writer, is handier feat is neither a consequence of mere fortune, true teaching moments,” writes Majumdar. suchvictor. quotes that abound in the social media? norOne is itcouldn’t a freak accident. It has rather been the agree more. parthasarathy is a Chennai-based nabina das is a poet and fiction writer currentlylawyer living effect a syncretic players, Theofpoetry classamalgam doesn’t between depend on text- suhrith writer; t@suhrith in Hyderabad and teaching creative writing scouted and My selected superbly, who books alone. ‘Timeline’ is abuzz the have min- and
A creative writing instructor on sourcing material and ideas from social media and other non-traditional mediums
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hat do fictional subtitles for Godard movie shots, Burka Avenger, Harry Potter, Premchand, and Inedible India graphic/memes have in common? Hold your breath… all of them are crowdsourced for classroom teaching from Facebook. During aTHE recent discussion with a friend, we BEYOND FIELD concurred how a general feeling of pessimism permeated most issues about academia these days, especially following the tragic suicide of the Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in January in Hyderabad Central University, to the current crackdown in JNU and HCU.
Keeping the faith
On the brink of a maiden Premier League triumph, Leicester City have reminded fans of the glorious uncertainties of football
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n these very pages, in August last year, I had predicted a closely fought, potentially thrilling race to this season’s English Premier League title. The defending champions, Chelsea, I proclaimed, under the doughty genius of Jose Mourinho, were favourites, but only just. Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United had, after all, each made considerable improvements to their respective squads of players, and were surely capable of mounting a serious title challenge. My faith in this prediction might have had an alarming element of conviction about it. But the old adage of sport’s glorious uncertainties is usually inapplicable to football in England, at least in that there is a prosaic regularity to the nature of the league’s challengers. Yet this confidence in my prediction, and indeed that of many pundits of the game, far more knowledgeable than I, couldn’t have been any more misplaced. Chelsea, who sacked Mourinho in December last year, are floundering in the middle of the table. Manchester United’s football has been routinely uninspiring, and any hint of a title challenge from them died as early as a few weeks into the season. Manchester City have flattered on occasion, but have been far too inconsistent. And Arsenal have been Arsenal, threatening to win the league only to fall I must apologise this detour while setapart at the businessfor end. ting out toallexplain how in as the a creative writing Leaving these clubs wake, though, instructor I source at mythe material andleague, ideas perched majestically top of the frompoised socialto networks andfirst other non-traditionand claim their title in their stoal media. But teaching is a political too. ried yet unadorned history, with justactthree Hence,left non-traditional. games in the season, are the ridiculously The termLeicester crowdsourcing my dictiounfancied City. Thecame onlytoteam capanary recently, and its need arose rather ble ofonly surmounting Leicester, Tottenham Hoturgently. Otherpoints than creative I had to spur, are seven behind, writing, in second place. teach withinneed the now shortis span semester, All Leicester a winofin aany one of somethree challenging andgames. highly And engaging courstheir remaining were this to es, namely, ‘Construct of Bodywould Imageunquesin Pop happen, Leicester’s conquest Culture and Creative Texts’ and ‘From Books as to tionably go down in the annals of football Screen andgreatest Back’. underdog triumphs; they one of the
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STATES OF MATTER
Charlie Hebdo stirs the pot, yet again The satirical magazine hasn’t taken long to shed the mantle of free speech martyr and become the rusty relic of a benighted colonial past
sukumar muralidharan
to others here, except in certain bizarre and unlikely scenarios. It is also an observed fact that France’s Muslim community were not given to conspicuous emblems of their faith until recent years, when the retreat of the welfare state and the denial of equality may have triggered a reassertion of identity. Far from an accommodative posture, the French republic responded with ever more dogmatic assertions of its doctrine of secularism or laicite. This was in the most charitable view, little else than an effort at scapegoating, at blaming the large immigrant communities from former colonies, for their failure to integrate into an inhospitable social milieu. In further rubbing in its insistence that the free speech right would not recognise the slightest cultural sensitivity of immigrant groups or seek to engage them in a spirit of civility, France retreated further into the dogmas of colonial conquest and racist domination. The more strident voices within French Thou art guilty After the Brussels attacks in March that left 32 civilians dead, Charlie Hebdo came out with a feminism have called for the boycott of clothsearing indictment of all who bore culpability reuters ing lines that bring the hijab or headscarf to atire is an effective solvent for dogma, Charlie cartoons lampooning religion, soon af- the market. Others have likened a woman’s until it gets mired in a theology of its ter the January 2015 attacks. Those who did personal choice of the hijab to African-Ameriown. When that theology melds with not like the cartoons could just move on. But can acquiescence in their own enslavement in background conditions and becomes for some reason, Charlie was unwilling to the 19th century. an entrenched consensus on which the civility grant that degree of latitude in matters involvMeanwhile, a rather crass form of selectivity of social life is built, it begins to corrode basic ing symbols of Islam in the public space. is manifest in enforcing the free speech right. freedoms. It was all very well to “shut up, look else- In March, a protester wearing a shirt denouncTerrorism in Brussels claimed 32 lives in where and move past all the street-insults and ing the Israeli occupation of Palestine was arMarch, all innocent civilians who bore no rumpus”, said Charlie, but that would be at the rested and interrogated. And hate-speech law blame for the grievances — real or imagined — risk of suffocating the spirit of public inquiry. has been invoked to convict at least a dozen the attackers may have harboured. It took the Citizens were stopped from asking perfectly civil society activists calling for a peaceful French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, hon- reasonable questions, such as “how the hell campaign against Israel, under the rapidly oured as a free speech martyr since several did I end up having to wander growing “Boycott, Disinveststaffers were killed in a January 2015 terrorist the streets all day with a big veil ment and Sanctions” (BDS) attack, to read the deeper patterns. on my head?”; and, “how the hell movement. In a searing indictment of all who bore cul- did I end up having to say In January, a group of French The French republic pability, Charlie named Tariq Ramadan, a well- prayers five times a day?”. activists and writers signed a responded with ever known professor of religion, active in making For Charlie, these restraints public pledge of support to the more dogmatic the case for a new compact between Islam and were just the same as another, BDS movement, defying the deassertions of its the west, an unnamed baker who typically which prevented a French or Belclared governmental intent to doctrine of would take over a Paris boulangerie and re- gian citizen from asking “how criminalise any such call. Alongsecularism or laicite move all offerings that violate his personal the hell” he ended up in a taxi side its crass partisanship for Isdietary taboos, and an ordinary woman com- headed for Brussels airport, rael, the French government has plying with the sartorial demands of her faith, “with three rucksacks packed also been unrepentant about the such as the headscarf or face veil. with explosives”. Terrorism lay chaos it has fomented in seeking France had done itself a serious disfavour in a logical continuum with the professor ar- regime changes across a wide swathe of the by its attitude of tolerance, said Charlie. Rama- guing the case for an enlightened understand- Arab world, from Libya to Syria. This goes with dan did not carry Kalashnikov rifles into the ing of Islam, the benign but bearded baker the pursuit of commercial advantage in arms lecture hall to make his case for Islam. He was with the “prayer bruise” on his forehead, and deals with regimes that promote the most open to being challenged and refuted on ev- the devoted mother of a family who refused to primitive forms of religious fundamentalism, ery substantive point. And if ham sandwiches shed her face veil. What really was at stake for such as Saudi Arabia. were not available with the local baker, it was Charlie was secularism as a principle, increasIt did not take long for Charlie Hebdo to shed easy to move on and shop elsewhere. That ingly being “forced into retreat” by the silenc- the mantle of free speech martyr. Today, it woman in the veil similarly, was unlikely to be es of political correctness. looks very much like the rusty relic of a becarrying a bomb under her enveloping attire. Even the most extreme liberalism allows nighted colonial past. Interestingly, these simple principles of some public scrutiny over personal choices. coexistence — of live and let live — strongly re- These would be limited in matters sartorial or sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer sembled those advanced in defence of the dietary, since there is little possibility of harm based in Gurgaon
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THE CRITICAL ISSUE
Dissent has no space here You may not find a room in Kashmir to launch a book that puts the spotlight back on a case of atrocities by the Armed Forces
Showpiece Visitors can view local artworks, meet and interact with the artists, and buy some of the Gond paintings at the state-of-the-art Kanha Museum of Life and Art, abutting the Singinawa Jungle Lodge in Kanha
Curated in the jungle The recently opened Kanha Museum of Life and Art showcases indigenous art in the lush lap of the land of its birth
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he journey to Kanha, in Madhya Pradesh, is a long and picturesque one. In summer the forests are mostly dry, but of the 70 tree species found Ghosts from the past Women of Kunan and Poshpora, two adjacent villages near Kupwara, who survived sexual assaults by the army shahid tantray here the evergreen Sal and the Mahua (Madhuca longifolia) are always in bloom. Wildlife littleinover month ago, I went Kichli to Sri- and I wondered when something even as simple sensitive and authoritarian actions on the abounds theajungles of Kanha, nagar theluck, launch Docome You ReMukki, and,for with one of may across as a book launch can face such obstruction, part of state institutions. No one any longer Kunan Poshpora?, book we and deer, member wild boar, water buffalo,apeacocks what must it be like for other activities that knows who is speaking the truth, who is to be at Zubaan recently Writ- we, in places like Delhi and Mumbai and oth- believed and what really happened. Meanpartridge foraging in thepublished. underbrush. ten by Whether five young Kashmiri women arriving by train, roadlawyers or air, most ers, take for granted — theatre, music, poetry while, lives have been lost, the child is traumaand PhD scholars, thetobook takes a fresh look tourists are here observe the wildlife, in parand more? tised and frightened, her privacy has been at theticular Kunanthe Poshpora case of they 1991 where elusive rape tigers. Now have a new Apparently the organisers only managed to violated, her mother has been intimidated the army is accused of one accosting and sexually attraction in wait, that brings together naget the space they eventually did by threaten- and political parties can only resort to scoring assaulting a large number inMuseum the ing to hold the event in the open, on the road, points against each other. ture and indigenous artof— women the Kanha two adjacent villages of Kunan and Poshpora. of Life and Art (KMLA). with signs saying they had not been allowed to On previous visits to Kashmir — maybe less The room where the launch place, on the Opened on March 1, the took museum abuts rent a space. It was only after this that they than two years ago — I had allowed myself to the fourth floor of a shopping was overeight-year-old, 110-acre mall, Singinawa Jungle were allowed to hire a room in the mall — a believe, because of the seemingly reduced flowing withinpeople survivors from the twoenviLodge Kanha.— Both properties were smaller one than they would presence of the army in the villages, young oldKedia, men, and a large numsioned by and Tulika a collector of indigehave wanted, which explains streets of Srinagar, that perhaps ber ofnous women, many of founder them clearly students. artwork and of Must Art Gallery why it was so full. things were beginning to imThey in listened with rapt attention and what Delhi and Kolkata. It also explains, at least partialprove. But I realise that it’s easy What must it be like seemed“Like to me tofading be a barely controlled the footprints of theanger, jungle cat, ly, why every person in that room to fool yourself if you want to. for other activities to theindigenous stories of the and those of the artsurvivors too needs patronage and apwas so angry. Why should the po- that we, in places like This time it took only a day to young women who had written the book and lice have any say in whether you preciation,” says Kedia. feel the palpable anger, the simDelhiJangarh and Mumbai, Of a feather A work by the late Gond artist Singh Shyam taken on the task of about reopening the case.indigenous There were a hundred can or cannot hold an event in mering resentment, and the take for granted? Handed over toKedia the army the time — be- your own city? The cumulative trees when tookatover the Singinawa deep sense of betrayal. I realised causeproperty, Kashmir comes under Armed Forces over and she hasthe since planted Jungle Lodge thejust onsite murals, sculpangerSinginawa of over two decades of than de- the KMLA,” says paintingthat because therecreating had been Special Powers Act — the 30,000 saplings. Thecase, idea the is toyoung create writa lush enKedia. Alka Pande, curator, course, the nial that the sexual violation of art historian and tures, bas-relief elections,murals it wasand, no of guarantee ers discovered theyvisitors began can to look it, art, vironmentwhen in which viewatlocal author of several books, was instrumental in trademark paintings on both canvas the women Kunan and PoshthatGond the people had faith in politwas never closed. It had been al-even meet officially and interact with the just artists, and the current and paper. pora putting had evertogether taken place, and theexhibition army’s tak-at the ical parties. I also realised that the disillusionlowed to drift. And thispriced is whatsmall-format pushed themGond buy reasonably museum. also(but systematically A stunning muralofbyKashmiri him graces the extering over of theShe case what does catalogued sexual ment and, yes, despair Muslims to demand that The it belodge reopened. paintings. and the museum have Kedia’s produced two nallonger wall ofdirected the museum — the made in the violence havecollection to do with and the Armed Forces Spe-handwas no only at State. ThatGond Butbeen my reason for by writing about this event designed Nanda SJB Rana, boasting some publications thatwell provide insight into style basasrelief, theof work depicts cial Powers Act, you might ask), coupled we too, asusing people, citizens India, need people to is not to talk about the case or indeed environment-friendly features such asthe natural carryingthis onanger. with their daily life, side by side with the theartworks. difficulty of finding a space to even understand book.lighting Instead,and it issolar to talk about what I saw and talk about power. The this paintings, andtowood Pretending with a dramatic rendition of a or tiger creeping — the murals, anger isterracotta not difficult the anger is not there, hoping heard that day in Srinagar. The organisers of understand sculptures, behindinto thepolitical bamboocapital, to stalk annot unsushere.totem poles and bamboo artefacts it willfrom transform will Pride of place the launch had had a difficult time finding a by indigenous artists are seen housed a pecting deer.Anger Full of lifenot andgo local witticisms, It’smade the same kind of anger we’ve re- in make it go away. does away with space“Our for indigenous the event. Everywhere they went,tales art forms have myriad setting has all the trappings a proper the artwork ushers one into the museum. cently whenthat protests erupted over the of allegainattention. It finds new forms, creates new they to were and were told that hotels, tell,refused their colours evoke multiple emotions directional lighting audio “The has given me and other arttionsmuseum: of sexualFrom assault of a young girl,and now dangers. It’s museum time we understood this. clubs,and andtheir others had been instructed by the known diversity is absolutely breathtaking. guides extensive girl’. labels, well-mounted as theto‘Handwara The truth of this art- ists a place to showcase our work, and I really blink@thehindu.co.in police to not host the launch. I was overwhelmed by the talent, sensitivity works and lost sparkling white walls. loved creating the works onsite. However I incident is now in all the many layers of inand wisdom of the local artists, and hence I The extremely talented and equally shy Ma- still shuttle between Kanha and Delhi to sell could think of no other value addition to the noj Gadpal tells us that he is responsible for my works,” says Gadpal, a Kanha resident, un-
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Urvashi Butalia is an editor, publisher and director at Zubaan
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NATIONALISM NOW PART OFCOLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMS! T he only object on the desk is a small statue of Smriti Irani, with a red button between her feet. The Education Secretary wakes up and removes the newspaper from his face. He smiles, seeing my interest. “Push, push,” he says, “we have audio also.” I press the button. “Bharat Mata ki jai!” says the statue. “Bharat Mata ki jai!” It keeps saying this until I press the button again. ‘She is repeating the curriculum,’ says the Education Secretary, “It is now uniform from Class I to PhD. Just one of the many steps we are taking to fight the wave of anti-nationalism that is sweeping the country.” “What are the others?” I ask, licking the tip of my pencil. Because of budget constraints, we at BLink
are not allowed to use electronic devices. In this way, we are conserving electricity. “The situation was rapidly going out of hand,” says the officer. “We have not had so many sedition cases since 1947. Meanwhile, the RSS was distracted, because their tailors are having difficulty with the new trouser design. They are unable to explain to their customers that since these are full pants, more fabric is required. As a result, disputes over pricing have arisen. It was up to us to take the initiative. This is when the Cabinet Secretary called for introspection. ‘What is the secret of our own success?’ he
AMITABH TO DO PANAMA TOURISM CAMPAIGN!
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n news hailed as ‘a giant step forward’ by the Panama-India Friendship Forum, Amitabh Bachchan has been appointed brand ambassador for Panama Tourism. “Ever since you named a cigarette after us, India and Panama have had a special bond,” said a Panama Tourism official. “Recent events have only brought us closer. In places like Iceland and Britain, we have been facing a lot of negativity. Even in South Africa, where the President made the public pay for his swimming pool, questions have been raised. But in India, both the government and the public have been extremely sympathetic. We are very grateful. This is just our way of saying thanks.” Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Swiss Tourism has registered unhappiness. “After every-
asked. ‘Why are we uniformly excellent?’ Since it would have been rude to interrupt, we allowed him to answer. ‘It’s because of a rigorous selection process. Only the finest candidates are admitted to the IAS. We must do the same with colleges. We must ensure that only true nationalists receive higher education, so that the proper environment is maintained on campus.’ We all agreed that this was an inspired idea, in some cases repeatedly. Immediately afterwards, we leaped into action. Some of our fax machines were not working, but we did not let this slow us down. We hand-
thing Switzerland has done for you, we are feeling betrayed,” he said. “Newer options may look more exciting, but we can still offer many advantages, such as cheese and ski lodges. Not to mention Roger Federer. Like Mr Bachchan himself, we are old, reliable, and have given many years of service. Discerning investors should not be hasty in switching loyalties.” In related news, our beloved Salman Khan has been appointed brand ambassador for Formula 1 racing, while Indian Olympic Association sources have confirmed that his father Salim Khan will represent India in the 400-m race at Rio de Janeiro, where he will be portrayed by Farhan Akhtar. “He can easily cover 400 metres,” said their publicist. “He is doing it all the time.”
SHOVON CHOWDHURY is chief Truthdigger and author of Murder with Bengali Characteristics
delivered documents to each other, in some cases within two to three weeks. A comprehensive college admission process has now been developed. There will be written exam and compulsory viva voce. The written exam will include multiple choice questions on subjects such as food items, Harsha Bhogle, circumstances under which a person should be beaten with a shoe, and whether the PM is brilliant, fabulous, highly photogenic or all of the above. Viva voce will include a section in which candidates must demonstrate ability to hum Vande Mataram while their mouth is gagged. In addition, for women, we are introducing police verification of wardrobe. A special cell will be set up to measure skirts.”
START-UP TO GIVE AWAY FREE MONEY!
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n news that has been described as ‘making me feel less handsome’ by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, a group of Bengaluru-based venture capitalists have announced that they are setting up a digital company which could transform our relationship with money. “For years, we were giving money to companies who were giving it away to customers. They used our money to buy customer loyalty. We have nothing against customers, but we would prefer it if they were loyal to us. That’s why we’re setting up freemoney.com, where registered users will receive free money. In the process, middlemen such as Flipkart and Big Basket will be eliminated. This will enable us to leverage our core competence, which is giving away
The Investigator is a monthly round-up of all things droll and newsy. All views are personal. Really personal t@shovonc
money, while eliminating unnecessary activities, such as employing people and doing things. Eventually, the entire customer base of all these companies will shift to us, making us one vast entity, which will be giving away money to everyone. Our cash flows will be phenomenal. Valuations should go through the roof. There’s no reason why we can’t go global. Eventually, the global economy would consist of freemoney.com, supported by a select number of vendor companies.” Do they anticipate any obstacles on their march to global domination? “Our only fear is that Rajan might leave the country, as he will have nothing to do. This could lead to female consumers turning against us.”
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Summer kisses The golden in Berlin effect trickle-down
The ’70s
A little gang of international all under 30, converge Berlin The wittily-inclined hold thatstrangers, India has two seasons, monsooninand and experience random joylasts and independence. later, thelover encounter mango. The mango season only a hundredYears days — some becomes— the reason for a transformative event counted and the country makes the most of itin life manjula padmanabhan
manjula padmanabhan
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t was the summer of 1974. I had just turned 21 and I was as if our little gang of international strangers had ummer startles me out copywriting with a been brought together for no reason but to experience was headed to Europe forofa my holiday, all by myself. clunk it onwas thea tin roof.organised It soundsby like stone peltActually junket a political or- two weeks of random joy. We had all been selected as a ing and Icalled come the out World on theLiberal verandah to ask the result of writing an essay on the topic mentioned above. ganisation Union in coldurwan happened. “Aam, didi,”mind. he grins laboration withwhat … you know what? Never The In those days, I used to draw cartoons and write occafrom to ear. That’s when I realise that our mango pointear is that I had been invited to spend 10 days in atree re- sional articles for a small, lively, semi-political journal is now studded hard green balls. Soon the children sort area calledwith Gummersbach, in Germacalled Freedom First. It was through FF that are dancing round the boundary fence, pelting stones in ny, along with a group of other under-30s I’d been invited to write the essay. Ten pagearnest and sending the green from around the world. Once balls there,rolling we down the es of jargon-laden blather submitted in Jadrive scrambleto forlectures them. wouldbefore spendmaking 10 daysalistening nuary resulted, five months later, in a The Seventies was a are murmuring about aam daal or chopping onPeople “Centralisation versus Federalism”. West-bound flight. time of strange calm theThe rawtopic green of mangoes into slices and them in in India our discussions wasdunking so Until this trip, I had always travelled chilli powder. By the time that the green can ripen into gold, mind-numbingly boring we listened within the cocoon of the Foreign Service the branchesand are drooling empty and we have look elsewhere slack-jawed during theto day, because my father was a senior diplomat. for ourintaste summer.we got drunk and then the of evenings I’d grown used to gliding through customs The first inklingguys, of the season’s comes happy. Seventeen five gals: itripe was mangoes toand immigration on that magic carpet of from the alphonsos that materialise in south Kolkata’s tal delirium. One of us (not me) met the man she would privilege that remains perfectly invisible until suddenly Gariahat Named after Portugese Al- it’s not there anymore. ultimatelymarket. marry. Another of us (me) had anexplorer encounter phonso Albuquerque, the transformative alphonso proudly declares that led de directly to the major event of my The Seventies was a time of strange calm in India. We itself the The ‘kingstrangest of mangoes’ has won the respect of had just joined the nuclear club but the turmoil of the later life. thingand of all was that the Brit-Gercelebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.cool In fact, mango imman organisers were entirely withwhen this situation. It Emergency and all that would follow were as-yet unports were restricted in the UK, the Indian-origin British politician Keith Vaz tried to sweeten 10 Downing Street with alphonsos. Nonetheless, the king of mangoes has competition in the bazaar. There are the ‘lame man’s mango’ (langra), the parrot pleaser (totapuri), the tenth day (dussehri) to contend with. Cities and states jostle to lay claim to orchards with the best trickles of golden sweetness — Lucknow, Varanasi, Bihar, West Bengal and, Ripe royal The ‘chinnarasalu’ variety arrives bright and early at a market in Vijayawada ch vijaya bhaskar more frequently these days, Maharashtra. The word ‘mango’ comes from the Tamil mangkay, though in Hindi and Bengali it is aam — how a royal fruit with the Bengali calendar. Sher Shah Suri named the turned India into a mango republic and became a pun chausa variety. Shah Jehan was reportedly furious when for the common man is a matter of speculation. The wit- one of his sons guzzled all the mangoes from his favoutily-inclined hold that India has two seasons, monsoon rite tree in the Deccan instead of sending them to Delhi. and mango. Both are seasons of refreshment, the manEven the British caught mango fever, settling into go season being vital in nurturing the country’s poetic their enormous bathtubs to enjoy a pleasure that was soul. The paisley design that is so popular in embroidery presumably borne in on silver trays by pompous butand block printing came from the mango, and without lers. They referred to it as the Bathroom Fruit simply beit where would many designers be? Koels rave about cause their khansamas were unable to dish it in any mangoes in the trees from the time the buds begin and ‘propah’ way for their pucca sahib’s table, and so it reKalidas’s literary references have found mained a guilty pursuit. their way into timeless erotica. Some people make a hole on the top of The season itself lasts only a hundred the fruit and squeeze out the pulp. Others days — some lover counted — and to make slit the sides and spoon out the flesh. In my They referred to it as the most of it, mangoes become a part of family, the fruit arrives cold and neatly the Bathroom Fruit every possible dish. From mango chutney cubed with the inner stone discarded — simply because their (green and ripe) and mango salads (ditto) which is an art in itself as the knife has to khansamas were to mango lassi, kulfi, aam panna and ice carefully slice about without destroying unable to dish it in cream. It is turned into the aamsatta, manthe flesh. any ‘propah’ way go syrup set out to dry on terraces burning Today there are 40 variations of Akbar’s with hot summer afternoons until they are original Murshidabad mangoes alone and ready to be wrapped in muslin and doled most people don’t even know what they out throughout the year. The aamsatta, are, though mango aficionados swear they though, is in danger of becoming a grandmother’s tale can name them blindfolded. In 2013, a rare mango saand the ubiquitous aam papad is no replacement, de- pling was named Hirer Angti (a 1992 film) in honour of spite the odd appearance in wedding chutneys. the remarkable filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh, who had Mothers and grandmothers warn teens that gorging just passed away. Murshidabad’s annual Mango Haat on mangoes can result in an outbreak of pimples. The is- teaches the delicate art of peeling and slicing the fruit, sue is hotly debated by radio jockeys and fielded by ce- besides showcasing a host of dishes that the new centulebrities. One Page Three personality advised deep ry has added to the mango repertoire. However nothing breathing, “cooling” foods and lots of water before and beats the original fruit — ripe or green; the empty after mango banquets. branches outside my window bear witness to that. Mughal emperor Akbar is said to have brought the mango to Murshidabad, in today’s West Bengal, along anjana basu is a Kolkata-based writer
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dreamt of. We were still naïvely confident of our coun- Chapel and from Geneva, I had a day-trip to Chamonix in try’s leaders, wrapped tight in our post-Independence France, thanks to my multiple-entry visa. At each border, dreamtime. We watched black-and-white TVs, drove there was the elaborate ritual of changing money — no around in the lumbering dinosaurs known as Ambassa- Euro, no credit cards! I can remember Italy’s wildly indors and the only way to watch a movie was in a cinema flated currency, where a cup of espresso or a single-ride hall. Phones had rotary dials and Coca-Cola was sold ex- bus fare cost thousands of lire; France’s weirdly lightclusively in glass bottles. But alphonso mangoes were weight aluminium francs; Germany’s colour-coded not yet being exported to West Asia so middle-class deutschemarks. Britain’s giant pennies and newly minthouseholds like ours could easily afford to buy 12 dozen ed seven-sided 10p coins, that had been made specificalfragrant fruit. We stored them in the guest bedroom in ly to work in the telephone booths, were heavy to haul layers of straw to ripen and ate them in great joyous around but at least they felt like real money. bowlfuls of pre-cut, refrigerated chunks every day at I used to wear hard contact lenses in those days. I relunch! member how the cold weather caused them to dry out Looking back, the most startling difference between so that I spent my first couple of weeks constantly wiptravel in the ’70s and now was the complete loss of com- ing my eyes and washing the lenses, fretting about masmunication immediately after being dropped off at the cara running down my cheeks. I wore fishnet stockings, airport. Oh yes, there were telephones! But internation- miniskirts, twinkly eye-shadow and I ate like an escaped al calls were extremely expensive and only possible via convict. Oysters in vinegar on the street in London, croisoperators. There were agonisingly long pauses between sants for breakfast in France, silky-thin wisps of prosciresponses. Conversations were often limited to three utto ham with chilled honeydew melon balls in Italy, minutes, to save money. So once I had all my visas, taken every kind of wurst (sausage) in Germany and mounmy inoculation shots and was sitting in the departure tains of cheese everywhere. In Switzerland, the family lounge at Santa Cruz, it was like going on a spacewalk, friends who hosted me made the best mango ice cream I without a tether. I was floating free from everyone and have ever eaten, before or since. It was garnished with tieverything I had known till then. I had been 16 at the ny wild strawberries, slender and spear-shaped, each time my father retired. The five years between then and one a flavour-bomb of intense, deep-pink sweetness. 21 had provided me with many definitions of misery, all On my return to Germany, I spent 10 days with a friend of them connected with the social restrictions of living from my boarding school days. She and I had studied in the Homeland. However nervous I was of travelling German together but she went on to major in it in colwithout the carpet of privilege, I was also wildly ready to lege and later emigrated to Germany. When I went to break out on my own. meet her, she was teaching English in a small rural The meeting point for the whole group was Berlin — school, south of Münich. It was quite an adventure getWest Berlin that is. The Wall was still up. ting to her but I had a wonderful time. On East Berlin glowered on the other side of it the way back I had a scary transit at the and all of East Germany surrounded the train station in Kassel. I arrived there at divided city in its gloomy embrace. The Inmidnight and my connection left at two in However nervous dian contingent numbered four — three the morning. Three cheery prostitutes and I was of travelling women and one silent young man who without the carpet of some slurring drunken types shared the said nothing for the full duration of two waiting room with me at that hour, while privilege, I was also weeks. We flew out from Bombay, meeting the station hibernated for the night. The atwildly ready to break inside the aircraft. The other international mosphere turned surreal, like a black-andout on my own flights converged on Berlin around the white art-movie, with minimal lighting, Insame time, from Australia, Israel, Argentidustrial-era clocks and cast-iron na, Finland, France, Italy, Canada and, of angle-frame construction. course, our host country Germany. India But nothing went wrong. During the was the only country represented by more than two peo- Gummersbach session we participants had often wonple. There were a couple of organisers from the German dered whether some Dark Powers were manipulating side and also a British Liberal MP. He was an older man our thoughts and dreams, extracting a price for our parwho reminded me so strongly of Richard Harrison as ticipation. So far as I know, however, there weren’t any Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady that it was very diffi- repercussions whatsoever either from that part of the cult not to chuckle over his very propah British accent. trip or its aftermath. None of us participants had the slightest idea what to Well. Unless you count this one thing … expect of our seminar. I got the impression that we were Remember the Australian? I had chosen the Frenchall equally surprised to have been selected. For our very Canadian over him in Germany, but I didn’t forget him. first night in Berlin, we were plied with so much cham- He had been the oldest of the group, a divorcee and a pagne that we were levitating within minutes. All five of lawyer, very witty to talk to. My connection with him was us girls were danced off our feet and by the time we stag- the only one that endured in postcards and occasional gered back to the little pension where we each had sep- letters. Twenty years later, in 1994, when another junket arate rooms, the pattern for the next two weeks was took me to Melbourne, Australia, I wrote to ask if I could firmly set: sober thoughtfulness and occasional sight- visit him in Sydney. He readily agreed. So I spent a cheerseeing during the day, alcohol-fuelled dancing at night. I ful 10 days in his apartment, getting to know his young had a steady boyfriend back in Bombay. However, right daughter and very pretty, smart lawyer girlfriend. from the airport in Berlin, I locked eyes with the cute In his apartment, I read a few copies of a 16-page jourFrench-Canadian, with a second option on the equally nal aimed at Australian and South Asian playwrights. It cute Australian. seemed interesting, so I asked my friend if he would pay In those days, a prepaid ticket of the sort I had meant a tiny sum on my behalf, for a year’s quarterly subscripthat I could get a round trip of further flights around Eu- tion. Which he did. I received the copies at my address in rope. So from Germany, I flew to the UK. I had persuaded New Delhi where I now lived. One year later, in the my Canadian friend to join me for a few days. Though he fourth and final edition of that journal, I saw a tiny adroomed at a guest house while I stayed with my uncle vertisement for an international play-writing competiand aunt, I experienced London in a rose-tinted blur. tion, sponsored by something called the Onassis There was a bomb-blast at Westminster Abbey on the Foundation, in Greece. I’d never heard of it, but of day we were supposed to see it. But we had chosen to course, like everyone else of my generation, I associated spend the morning canoodling indoors, so for once ro- that name with Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of US Presimance actually saved our lives. dent John F Kennedy, assassinated in 1963. Aristotle Saw Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, live, on stage. Onassis, the Greek shipping tycoon had, for a brief time, Caught a grand performance by Maggie Smith in a hilar- acquired Jackie as his wife. ious farce called Snap. It was about venereal disease in The prize money, mentioned in bold letters, was those innocent pre-AIDS days, when the worst thing to $250,000. “It would be nice,” I thought to myself, “to win fear about VD was social disapproval! that.” Two years later and 23 years after that fateful sumThen I parted company with the Canadian, to go to mer holiday in Germany, I did. France, Italy, Switzerland and back to Germany, all on that same round-trip ticket. Saw the Louvre, the Sistine manjula padmanabhan is a writer, artist and playwright
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The ’80s
Hit the high spots A long line of prayer flags greets trekkers approaching the top of the Kongmaru La, the last pass on the Markha Valley trek images sujoy das
Cooling point A Himalayan trek is always a rewarding escape from the scorching plains
Scarlett by the night Depending on which time of the day it was, I was someone from a book. Just before I fell into bed, I allowed myself to be Scarlett O’ Hara the hindu archives
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here was no snow when I stepped on top of hot sun had been beating down on us for most of the afthe Kongmaru La (5,100m), the last pass on ternoon, so without much ado we plunged into the icy the Markha Valley trek. Below me was the waters for instant bliss. steep trail which I had just ascended, zigzagThe next day’s walk from Skiu to Markha was the longging across the hillside. The long line of prayer flags est — we passed a small lodge at Pendse which sells danced crazily in the breeze while to the southeast, the handicrafts made by the Ladakh Women’s Alliance snowy dome of Kangyatse peak (6,400m) dominated Group. Just before Markha we crested a small pass with a the horizon. To the northwest was a long range of moun- fantastic array of chortens and yak horns. tains — the Karakoram? Could K2, the secThat night at Markha we were rewarded ond highest peak in the world be amongst by one of the most wondrous night skies. them, I wondered? The silence at the pass With my camera on a tripod I waited for was soon shattered by the shrill neighing the stars. Sirius, the brightest star, shone The lake camp below of the ponies and the cries of men guiding like a beacon while higher up overhead Kangyatse peak is their wards across this divide and down inwas the Great Bear. Markha Valley’s love in the summer of 1980. to thediscovered valley. indiscriminately and randomly. Fifteen minutes uphill from the Markha best-kept secret I was 14our years oldof and unidimensional physiSix days ago, team sixas trekkers, acBy 1981, I had moved on theMarkha next phase of teendom. campsite liesto the gompa. The view cally as by a playing card. Worse, I wore soda bottle I had discovered companied the indomitable Stanzin how reinvent myself head. Defrom thetomonastery revealsinamy series of terglasses, a navy blue BSA SLR and his crew, rode had started out from Leh.bicycle, The had a min- pending on which day it was, I was someone racedtime fieldsofinthe neat chequerboard patterns iature pomeranian calledbetween Julie, read Markha Valley, wedged thebooks Stok from book. Mostly Ginnieare from Herabovea the river. TheI was villagers able to and wasrange in thetotop the the class. I was peaks to the grow one crop Kangri thethree northofand Zanskar man Therewe Should Have Been Casin Raucher’s summer and saw ripened barley the class nerd everybody That south, is the most popular left trekalone. in Ladakh. tles. She made it seem alright to be skinny, ready to be harvested. didn’t meanalong I didn’t a deeply satisfyThe drive thehave Indus and then along theHowever Zanskar I saved leggy and sassy. Though just before took I fell inThemy walk to Hankar the following morning us ing life: I had nurtured huge crush riverinner to Chilling took around atwo hours. The crossing offor past to bed, Ihigh allowed myself to be Scarlett O’to Ha-a Tacha monastery clinging love lovethe impossibly for years for at school thealmost river attwo Chilling is aansenior experience, as there is no cliff. It seemed ra more sweeping a white staircase in a like down a mountaineering challenge who didn’t even know I obsessed bridge! A trolley, whichI existed, holds three people at the most, than a walk —green velvet not dress the arms of a shadwe decided tointo attempt the climb. about thea actors Pratap Pot- across the is run by winch Rajinikanth, that drags the contraption owy man who thenext foot.day near a Stanzin proposed that wewaited campatthe hen, and Zanskar. the singer Cliff Richard, who also frothing I also had Lobo singing ‘I’d Love You to small lake rather than continue to Nimaling. The lake didn’t I existed. However I savedwere my love for love. Onceknow across the river, our ponies waiting and Want playing in mypeak head.isItMarkha helpedValley’s to havebest-kept a particcampMe’ below Kangyatse I fell in loveour with the voice an‘Man announcer with Stanzin, guide, cook of and Friday’ on in AIR the ular classmate hadthelong conversations secret. Our tentswith werewhom pitchedI on shores of the lake, Chennai. I fell love withwalk Rhett I fell in love lead, we set off.inThe day’s toButler. Skiu was mostly onwith lev- about his bike; me on mine. which nothing is rich inspecific. birdlife.He Weon spotted sandpipers, waglarge bikesand with a thump that could heard mile Then el ground in about three hours we be arrived at a specin the March of thatdippers year, just a many week before my tails, redstarts, accentors, and other speaway. I fell in love on with a face onof a billboard. I fell in love tacular campsite the banks the Markha river. The board I fell ill with chickenpox. I now sought a cies. Inexams, the background, the peak of Kangyatse stands
The teenaged class nerd fell in love indiscriminately. She emerged from her burrow to find Bohemian love and be the young wife. However, there was only one constant through the summers of 1980s — reinvention
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tragic heroine amidst the books I read. wasn’t happy either. I was stricken by a sense of ennui. But something truly fell out of the bottom of my Those were years when nothing much happened in world that summer when my grandmother died. All Chennai or my life. MGR died in December 1987. We acthrough April and May, I had watched her deteriorate quired a Dyanora colour TV. In summer, the heat beat from a woman who was like a cruise liner into a catama- down on us but we poured water on the floor, ran the fan ran. She had cancer and I am not sure if the disease even- on at its maximum speed and sweated it out. During the tually killed her or if it was the radiation treatment. monsoons, we let the leaks of our flat in the Belly Area in When you lose a grandparent, you have your first intim- Chennai drip into plastic buckets. My music lessons had ation of mortality. Tomorrow was not forever and I had come to a standstill and the books I read no longer excitto emerge from my burrow. ed me. Meanwhile I dreamt of writing and just writing. And so there was a brief infatuation with a classmate. Penguin India had set up offices in Delhi and one heard We played table tennis and exchanged love notes, I of a mysterious creature called a publisher. This one was wrote him poetry and he gave me quotes from the Song called David Davidar. of Solomon. He was a brilliant hockey player and gorBut there was life to be lived. My husband climbed the geous looking and a devout Christian. The corporate ladder. I continued to jump jobs. love story ended in a few weeks when we By the summer of 1988, I was into my fifth were told off by a priggish teacher. My Rojob. We had custard and fruit for breakfast meo was lacking in spine. So once again I and ate sandwiches for lunch and ate out The truth was I didn’t retreated into books and made Eric Carat Rangis five days a week. Even the menu know who I was or men’s ‘All by Myself’ my anthem. Who never varied: egg fried rice, prawn, lamb or what I wanted to be needed love when there was cricket and chicken in ginger-garlic sauce and two tennis. Besides I was saving myself for the fresh lime sodas sweet and salt. It was a litbad boys of Harold Robbins. tle bit like being trapped in Groundhog Day except they hadn’t made the film yet. In the Summer of 1982 I was still skinny Sometime in the summer of 1989, I went with my husand sassy and I had short hair. But I wore silver bangles from elbow to wrists, sleeveless smocks and an attitude band and a couple of his colleagues for a concert at the which was largely a defence mechanism. I was also in University Auditorium. A French jazz band was playing. love with the word Bohemian. And so I argued about ev- After a while a few of us began dancing in the aisles. The erything — our way of life, freedom of expression and all man I was dancing with was an upcoming filmmaker. that my parents represented — middle-class middle In- Now he is a top-of-the-game stalwart but then we were dia. I had meanwhile discovered a few Russian, some European and many American writers. I also had Meat Loaf to bolster me along. Two out of three ain’t bad. And I was ready to engage with life. And I did. At Shoranur in my grandparents’ home, I met a young man nine years older than I was. He called my Julie the Hound of Baskervilles (my father‘s name is Bhaskaran). He read Updike and Kerouac, talked about Sylvia Plath and Ginsberg, had long hair, used multi-syllable words, didn’t have a job and fitted my template of the Bohemian love interest. When I went back to school, I parked Bohemia and settled for being the class eccentric. I would wake up each morning thinking what new thing am I going to learn today! The rest of the class looked at me in disgust when I mentioned it. I fed a goat every day my lunch of roti and omelette. I had also begun discovering the joy of travel for travel’s sake — I rode the bus to the terminus and back. In fact, I wasn’t being rebellious as much as adventurous when I went on bike rides on the Bullet of the boy who was regarded as the bad boy of Avadi. And I was drawn to the glint of light on the metal frame of a batchmate. That and his jawline. I also had begun writing and everything else receded into the background as I filled pages of a book with poetry with a yearning for I don’t know whom or what. The mid-Eighties passed in a haze as I tried to make sense of my feelings, my body, my life… I was in a relationship with the young man I had met in 1982; I had dropped out of college; I was trying to become a journalist on the misguided notion that talent was enough; I was oblivious to what was happening in the world as I retreated deeper into my reading and music. There was something constant about what words and song did for located in our twenties. If the music moved you, you danced. You didn’t think beyond that. me while everything else was flux. However a policeman lurking there asked my husIn the summer of 1986, I married the young man and a few days later, Julie died. With that my childhood came band’s colleague who I was with. He had seen me come to an end and I reinvented myself to young wife. I was all with one man and there I was dancing with another. The the young wives of literature. I was the clueless Dora of colleague pointed out my husband to him. That’s her David Copperfield aiming to be Rose Red Browne of What husband, he said. So how can she dance with another Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge. I was the intimidated man? The policeman demanded in an incredulous Rebecca of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca and the briskly voice, our friend said. efficient O-lan of Pearl S Buck’s The Good Earth. The truth We laughed about it. was I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted to be. But I realised then that it was time to break the ennui. I had a husband, a home and bookshelves for my Or I would become the person the world expected me to books and his. And a Binatone stereo for our cassettes. I be. The Good Wife. The decade was coming to an end. baked and sewed. But in the span of three months, I had Somewhere in my head Belinda Carlisle was singing moved three jobs. The longest I lasted was for three ‘Heaven is Place on Earth.’ I was almost 24. It was time to months in a real estate company. The real estate boom reinvent myself. Once again. was just beginning in India but I was still paid fairly well. It helped me support my habit — old furniture. Half of anita nair is the author of novels like The Better Man and Idris. Her books have been translated into over 30 languages. Her new my first salary was spent on a hat stand from a yard. We had little money, but I wasn’t unhappy. But I novel, Chain of Custody, will be published soon
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Once uponina holiday… My delight nothing
The ’90s
Remembering the year I beganwithout to comeinternet to termsorwith my own privilege It took a college1990, getaway — planned mobile phones — to break the monotony of uneventful family breaks
parvati sharma
Memory lane The 1990 I remember was certainly a different city. We had sparrows in Delhi, then. We didn’t have any chief ministers. Khan Market (above) had a grand total of three eating places, one of which was a chaat shop. And in my memories, it remains eternally so, its streets empty, its air clean rv moorthy
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lidays? I wonder why. It can’t have to do with their form
Picture imperfect Thereusually was a constant needfor to twist our summer into something useful, spiritual. Every journey you don’t go there a change of holidays and content: it’s not theeducational, “long break” we’re nostalgic needed a clear destination, an even clearer purpose dipankar
scene, to discover new things. Its most allur- about (I’ve taken long breaks as an adult, none of which ing attraction, in fact, is of forever, steadfast my mind recalls with such dreamy longing); and it can’t sameness. The bumps are all eased out; the great up- be what we did or didn’t do in them (even then, I’m sure, s a small I hated summer holidays. heavals, which mustchild, have been, have simmered into aI educational, spiritual. journey needed awere clearfilled desthere must have been Every kids whose summers loved school and theeach thought summer few flavourful memories, told time of thethe same way. tination, anaction even clearer purpose.pottery Thus, we wentand to muwith more and adventure, classes jolstretching — hot, looming, The 1990days I remember wasahead certainly a different city.unWe seums, planetariums sitesorofI’d historical importance. ly travels, than mineand were, have desired, but I known — was unnerving. knewchief I was sup- We had sparrows in Delhi, then. We didn’tI have minisburned the granite of ancient doubt if weour feelfeet ouron memories more or less temples. keenly beposed to look forward holidays hateeating schoolplacbut cause ters. Khan Market had ato grand totaland of three Looking back at the photographs, I can see that we all of this). something aboutwas thea lack structure and endless look es, one of which chaatofshop. And in mythe memories, My sister andof I, slouchy resentful, look Myweary. most vivid memory that 1990and holiday is of carrysunshine me uneasy. It always felt aits little it remainsmade eternally so, its streets empty, air wrong clean. to like bored hostages. Mysharbat, mother, a fine Indian green lady who ing tall glasses of khus the deliciously wabeBut home during anditmy mother oftenwas tried to won’t now that I the lookday it up, turns out 1990 a big smile justtobecause you areout taking a picture, looks ter struggling make its way of the ice, into the turn holidays into ‘Indian culture’ training like she can’t khus-scented year our for summer change. Tim Berners-Lee started wait to get back to her house plants. bedroom where the Under cooler camps. But worst of all were theThe family vacations. building the World Wide Web. World no circumstances these be labelled blew, could and lying in pictures bed and reading. If at‘Fun all I Every Organisation year, with grim determination, Health stopped listing ho- my parents Summer Holidays’. As soonthey as they could dothe so without had worries, concerned piles of planned our as holidays. Under their steady mosexuality a disease. The Soviet Uniongaze, looking too bad, my parents thenow responsibiliundone holidayshrugged homework that the Is picnics, there anything that ferry visits to amusement beganrides, to falland apart, Kashmir exploded,parks and ty of creating wholesome family vacations. holidays were ending — but 1990 was havcan make you more transformed joyless excursions. This Iraq annexed into Kuwait. Places had been visited, no children had ing none of it. It was going to show me big wistful than the kind of merry-making wasunaware, allegedlyornew About most of this I was onbeen misplaced, things were afoot, photographs whether I likedhad it orbeen not. memory of summer to them. My parents took a perverse ly dimly so, and if you had told me pride then duly affixed in albums. Barely weeks after schools opened that Myholidays? sister and I, in bragging whenever theya difference could about that any of this would make to summer (or was it days? I can’t remember, One for the season slouchy and how deprived been. my life 26 yearstheir later,childhood I wouldn’thad have bebut there was hardly time enough to subresentful, look like They anything up,have they lievednever you. had Or, more likely,growing I wouldn’t As the went homework), by and school mit thatyears wretched thebecame streets bored hostages never anywhere. Theytohad cared. went In 1990, I was going turnto13,make and more frightening, with integral calof Delhi fell into thefilled chaos of the anti-Mantheir toys, neverundeniably got to pick personal their ownand allegedly dal agitations,culus even own for this event, and other such beasts, and schools shut down again.I learned to clothes. My sister and I had no idea how of pretty blamomentous, I could only summon a shade look forward to theWell, summer like everyone Once my jubilation settled… no. There was no they had suffered. comparison,little our lives sé. I even wrote anInunimpressed essay on the sub- settling of jubilation. else. I couldn’t wait to hide away that opThis was, by any standard, the best were pampered and frivolous. consequence, charject, at school, declaring how I In couldn’t fathomour what the pressive school uniform, tie upto myme; hair I want-I thing that had ever happened it however was a miracle. acters were insipid and feel unsatisfactory. Years later, when big deal was. I didn’t myself being possessed by ed I could finally put with away that thoseone awful thattoI wasto.familiar, of course, daybooks you get Icrazed tried teenage to confront my fraudster parents photo- had demons; I still really liked with my parents, diligently underlined. I often underlined text school and find it’s closed, of the intense, entire forbidden graphic evidence of their outings toto zoos and my life, actually, so I’dchildhood advise everyone not getand car- books, that any sentence be day, less thrill ofunable being to at accept home on a weekday. But could that one beaches, feigned and memory loss. ried away,they thanks veryignorance much. important than prayers the others. holidays beno matter what you Even offer after up tothe what gods, that My parents a generation who not gan, mother were liked part that of essay. Sometimes, shewere rememI could not relax. I would beto haunted by stories of one day is fickle and impossible summon. The sumyet idea ofsigh. ‘travelling for pleasure’. mythical berscomfortable it even now,with withthe a wistful over-achievers whoSchool finished theclosed syllabus ofday, the mer of 1990 was different. was one They in travelling for weddings, forwhen job interSo Ibelieved was chugging along, happily enough, sum- entire the summer. fearfor ofaexams then ityear was ahead closedduring the next. Then it was The closed week, views, for conferences. Thus, there was a constant mer came and school closed. Is there anything thatneed can past with in a gulp of school anxietygates that then and two,future, then asettled month.inOnce a way, to twist summer something useful, make youour more wistfulholidays than the into memory of summer ho- would take tofor dislodge. creakyears open, a day or two. We trooped in, and
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Summer of discontent Pro-reservation demonstrators put up a human blockade at ITO junction in New Delhi on September 2, 1990, and demanded that the junction be renamed “Ambedkar Chowk” the hindu archives Yearly grind With grim determination, my parents planned our holidays. Under their steady gaze, picnics, ferry rides, and visits to amusement parks transformed into joyless excursions ap/rahmat gul
When this didn’t happen, we became increasingly confused and frustrated, and acrimonious, until one Summer in a small temple town meant that you could bunked Games during which we held a maraI shuffled backperiod, to college life and its exhilarations and no longer ignore the smallness of your surroundings. thon debate of In which I remember almost nothing excontradictions. the hostel I slept restlessly on a dentNothing went unnoticed and nothing seemed to cept that cot, it ended when mywindows, friend said, “Oh, to in be that case, ed metal stared out of longed part of change. Underneath the heat lay a steady, restless bore- Ithe suppose won’t mind if I call you aup —”while and she world.you Every night we were locked theprocity dom, that demon of disappointment was never far. In posed a casteist that I can’tus.now after throbbed and lit slur up all around We remember, tussled for bathour little town, there really was nothing to do. We had which for asad little while.for all 127 of us. We roomswe anddidn’t had atalk single, phone no parks, no shopping malls, no coffee shops. We were From this,aI suppose, one we cancould deduce twobe things. always little hungry, never alone.One: But couldn’t go to movies unless someone’s brother (young- that arguing doesn’t or it wasI must there have that Ibeen found peoplecaste like me, who matter, at the end er, stiff, embarrassed) could be bribed into escorting us. shouldn’t matter, or some thought, of the year, couldn’t wait such to getnaïvely out offloppy the hostel but Television was a single-channel affair, not above display- delivered no doubt kindeither. superior didn’t exactly want with to gothe home Notcertainty quite yet.that ing the time on a full screen which we all dutifully gives liberals a bad name. My friend,through with greater While everyone else crammed studyacuity, holiwatched every day. was it does. And therefore that our days,saying we were in another world,two: plotting. Wedisagreeplanned As summer stretched before us, we cut each other’s ment rather vigorous no thanmobile it was rigorous, those was trips withmore no internet, phones. beWe hair, tried to make cutlets, tried to crochet blankets. cause, if that we Station, were saying, thenofwe were each stood in line is at what Egmore terrified the grumpy Something key seemed to be missing in all the maga- actually the other’s point. railway arguing clerks, exact change growing sweaty in our zine recipes we tried, things congealed and burned and palms. Many,The many years later, my friend to me peculiarity of these trips apologised and the feverishwould not even be consumed by ants. The crochet yarn for outburst, laughed it nessthat they inspiredand wasI was thatembarrassed everyone gotand caught up in grew yellow and sweaty under our fingers off, but if I’m the honest, I’d admit I’m glad she did, because adventure. Roommates whom no one and we could no longer remember why we it had rankled. the logic of my own argument, of everBynoticed before overheard discussions Cooling my heels My most vivid memory of that 1990 holiday is ofacarrying tallinglasses of khus sharbat, the thought making blanket summer was course, it shouldn’t have.themselves But it did, and it for is only very and invited along the ride. deliciously green water struggling to make its way out of idea. the ice,As into thedays khus-scented a good the passed, bedroom the heatwhere the slowly that I Books have understood why — understood how got pushed aside and lost as suggestWhile everyone else cooler blew, and lying in bed and reading g ramakrishna would stupefy us, making us too tired to deeply notions of caste and discrimination are entanions were thrown around and this idea of crammed through were told school was shutting, again. We wondered, even talk. gled in enlightened selves. travel took on a life of its own. study holidays, weour most with a kind hystericalasglee, they’d thein another And thenof inevitably, Maywhat reached its do about It is tempting, now, tocompetitive make a littleand story outto of show it: of Girls got eager were term exams. book!disappeared. I didn’t knowOur such a thing was hottest days,Open people how, in that last pre-lib summer, with the city around us off their hometowns, their families, their world, plotting even and yet, there was, and smallpossible, town emptied out anditfolded intooh, it-what a fitting fighting a frenzied battle against change, the two of us bedrooms back home. We ended up going snub to the dreadful memorising of facts self, becoming still and subdued under theand equations were permanently altered. Suchand novelistic is the to obscure places visitingforce people we it was. sun. People slipped away quietly summer privilege of hindsight, though… so much of hardly vague didn’t even like verynot much, girls we my jubilation never settled; but when I had ex- and fracturedknew. to So, theno, small towns that they had come memory. Before you knew what was happenhausted all theand nothing I could do in aswallowed day, I wouldup hear from. Friends neighbours were by ing, Still, if not from that moment on, then over theeating years, you were petting their Pomeranians and my parents discussing mysterious reasons behind we sleepy villages and sankthe into the houses their parents did change.cooking. My friend grew up to be an activist, their mother’s my freedom. The government hadmiraculous grown up in. They came back with callused feet, whose dedication admire When I think backwork now,and I realise what aI pain wegreatmust was goingby tomemories reserve a lot jobs forwith people haunted ofofcousins sadistic streaks have been, a gaggle ly; she is with isofmore girls, intimately all laughterinvolved and shiny hair, of underprivileged and the smell of ricecastes, fields.and a lot of privsues quiet of social justice than I could ever descending upon corners of the world. Cackling ileged-caste people were dispatched upset about it. opposite di- loudly into the The more unlucky in the claim to be. Andmore uponthan me you it began to night, eating thought Never again, in adult First one student, then who another, rection, to young the houses of relatives lived in bigger ci- girls dawn, that though I might never fullyusoutcould. The logistics of feeding us and picking up shall a grow burnt in protest. My par- life,by ties tothemselves face weeks alive, of uninterrupted showing-off cityI have my 12-year-old instinct alone to shrug, andsuch dropping us back to railway stations mustI treasure of fresh ents, on the other thought the reser-of not being have been a nightmare. relations and thehand, interminable feeling would have to stop claiming that identity beginnings vations were Summer a perfectly So, confused good enough. wasgood a hazeidea. of being by that I couldn’t just stop But I like towasn’t think important; that we were worth the trouble. We naturally, I. Andatif city it hadn’t beenlooked for a effortlessly tried to cleanatup traffic anddid staring girls who declaring the worldweunfair, would after ourselves, were but polite and friend whoand felt disdainful. violently otherwise, 1990 glamorous have We to accept alsotrying that privilege is personlargely agreeable. were still on our personaliwould not have been the year I discovered as much aswe it iswere political. My ownincreasleisure, ties, not quiteal, sure of who but growing Game-changer that people I knew and liked could hold views so radical- my own delight in nothing, notWe appear ingly sure of who we weredid not. weremiraculousdetaching ly the ones was inheriting. Indifferent spite of from ourselves, we Iwere all a little happy when ly, from nowhere. ourselves from our families and our pasts. It felt good to On the phone, and on those occasional school days, beMaybe school re-opened. what makes us wistful summer holidays is liked for who we were in thatfor moment and nothing weMost began volatile on the of to thehave girlsincreasingly I went to school withdebates never went to just theFor fact of their placepoint in time: year after year, more. a very specific in time, maybe justthey for subject. Having our parents’ opinions, we mark college and were absorbed either married or about to be married the sloughing offtravellers of one distinct bitdestination. of life into anthat summer, we were with no We were surprised encounter someone, a good by theboth timeso I came hometofor the summer after that first other. again I emerge, and to certified could Never go where wewill wanted; therestamped was no one tell us friend, that too, didn’t agree, initially, I think, dizzying year ofwho college. I had nothat friends to visit, just from eighth standard, standing in awe no-man’s-land, what the to do. We were welcomed when arrived. And our arguments took the form of “You’re wrong”, “No, waiting weddings and engagements to attend. I spent that suma whole new first Nevercould again,take in adult nothing,for not even the end of day. summer, that you’re wrong”— both gifts of usand hoping, suppose, that the life, mer buying wedding beingI continually disapI have awayshall from us. such a treasure of fresh beginnings. other would check her facts at the dinner pointed by the mehendi I applied on my table handslater andthat the parvati is the is author of the novelwriter Closer to Home snigdhasharma manickavel a Chennai-based night, and returnmarried. with better sense. men my friends
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Stay cool and carry on Between 2001 and 2015, India has seen a dozen of its warmest years. And 2016 seems in a tearing hurry to outdo 2015 as the hottest year in the history of the planet. As April draws to a close — having set the stage for a searing May and June — we look at how India keeps itself cool and hydrated
AHMEDABAD
Mango lassi A few paces from the legendary KC Das sweet shop in Esplanade, central Kolkata, a row of roadside stalls have busy afternoons under the scorching summer sun. The top draw, apart from the plain sweet lemon or pineapple juice, is the mango lassi. It is creamy mango pulp garnished with dry fruits and sandesh. Loyalists claim it’s a meal in a glass
KOLKATA
ashoke chakrabarty
Vimto (flavoured masala soda) Founded in 2000, Gandhi Soda 1869 (the year Mahatma Gandhi was born) has transformed the way Amdavadis guzzle their summer cooler. The best-selling Vimto is a mixture of dates, pomegranate, salt, lime and soda. All yours for ₹10-40 vijay soneji
HYDERABAD Mango falooda The city of the Nizams has been in the grip of one of its worst summers. With the mercury hovering in the mid-40s, Hyderabadis are turning to the chilled mango falooda for succour. It is a milkbased drink with generous helpings of basil seeds, Rooh Afza syrup and ice cream. Seen here is the one available at Shah Ghouse restaurant in the Old City mohammed yousuf
Chhaas soda Also popular in Rajkot and Surat, this Saurashtra innovation adds the fizz of local soda to the ubiquitous buttermilk (1:3). The mixture is sprinkled with roasted cumin powder and rock salt. Some patrons like to call this drink ‘bubbly salty chilled chhaas soda’ vijay soneji
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DELHI
Banta Summer after unbearable summer, Delhi has relied on the trusted soda , served in glass bottles with marbles (goli) in their throats, for respite. From crowded markets to vendors stationed at gated colonies, the banta rules the Capital’s summer months kamal narang
SRINAGAR
Fruit juice Srinagar is cool and pleasant, but the tourists still want a drink by the Dal nissar
ahmad
VISAKHAPATNAM
Ice chaat Only the ice cream vendors in this coastal city are celebrating the onslaught of summer. The ones on RK Beach, a three-km stretch, are selling 4,000-5,000 ice creams a day. The ice chaat, a concoction of ice cream, crushed ice and dried fruits, is vying to be the bestseller cv subrahmanyam
BENGALURU
Goli soda While Bengaluru prepares to bid goodbye to its famed ‘airconditioned’ climate — this being the city’s hottest April since 1931 — it’s also rediscovering an old favourite: Goli soda. This refreshing summer beverage blends soda with lime or orange juice, crushed ice, chaat masala and rock salt sudhakara jain
MUMBAI
Mixed fruit punch If all goes well, dark monsoon clouds should crowd the Mumbai horizon in early June. Till then, however, the parched city has to fall back on its tried-and-tested mixed fruit juice and chuski vendors paul noronha
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Once uponina holiday… My delight nothing
The ’90s
Remembering the year I beganwithout to comeinternet to termsorwith my own privilege It took a college1990, getaway — planned mobile phones — to break the monotony of uneventful family breaks
parvati sharma
Memory lane The 1990 I remember was certainly a different city. We had sparrows in Delhi, then. We didn’t have any chief ministers. Khan Market (above) had a grand total of three eating places, one of which was a chaat shop. And in my memories, it remains eternally so, its streets empty, its air clean rv moorthy
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he past may be a different country, sure, but
lidays? I wonder why. It can’t have to do with their form
Picture imperfect Thereusually was a constant needfor to twist our summer into something useful, spiritual. Every journey you don’t go there a change of holidays and content: it’s not theeducational, “long break” we’re nostalgic needed a clear destination, an even clearer purpose dipankar
scene, to discover new things. Its most allur- about (I’ve taken long breaks as an adult, none of which ing attraction, in fact, is of forever, steadfast my mind recalls with such dreamy longing); and it can’t sameness. The bumps are all eased out; the great up- be what we did or didn’t do in them (even then, I’m sure, s a small I hated summer holidays. heavals, which mustchild, have been, have simmered into aI educational, spiritual. journey needed awere clearfilled desthere must have been Every kids whose summers loved school and theeach thought of the summer few flavourful memories, told time the same way. tination, anaction even clearer purpose.pottery Thus, we wentand to muwith more and adventure, classes jolstretching — hot, looming, The 1990days I remember wasahead certainly a different city. unWe seums, planetariums sitesorofI’d historical importance. ly travels, than mineand were, have desired, but I known — was unnerving. knewchief I was sup- We had sparrows in Delhi, then. We didn’tI have minisburned the granite of ancient doubt if weour feelfeet ouron memories more or less temples. keenly beposed to look forward holidays hateeating schoolplacbut cause ters. Khan Market had ato grand totaland of three Looking back at the photographs, I can see that we all of this). something aboutwas thea lack structure endless look es, one of which chaatofshop. And inand mythe memories, My sister andof I, that slouchy resentful, look Myweary. most vivid memory 1990and holiday is of carrysunshine me uneasy. It always felt aits little it remainsmade eternally so, its streets empty, air wrong clean. to like bored hostages. Mysharbat, mother, a deliciously fine Indian green lady who ing tall glasses of khus the wabeBut home during anditmy mother often tried to won’t now that I the lookday it up, turns out 1990 was a big smile justtobecause you areout taking a picture, looks ter struggling make its way of the ice, into the turn holidays into ‘Indian culture’ training like she can’t khus-scented year our for summer change. Tim Berners-Lee started wait to get back to her house plants. bedroom where the Under cooler camps. But worst of all were theThe family vacations. building the World Wide Web. World no circumstances could these pictures be labelled blew, and lying in bed and reading. If at‘Fun all I EveryOrganisation year, with grim determination, Health stopped listing ho- my parents Summer Holidays’. As soonthey as they could dothe so without had worries, concerned piles of planned our as holidays. Under their steady picnics, mosexuality a disease. The Soviet Union gaze, looking my parents thenow responsibiliundone holidayshrugged homework that the Is there anything thattoo bad, ferry visits to amusement beganrides, to falland apart, Kashmir exploded,parks and ty of creating wholesome family vacations. holidays were ending — but 1990 was havcan make you more transformed joyless excursions. This Iraq annexed into Kuwait. Places had been visited, no children had ing none of it. It was going to show me big wistful than the kind of merry-making wasunaware, allegedlyornew About most of this I was onbeen misplaced, things were afoot, photographs whether I likedhad it orbeen not. memory of summer to them. My parents took a perverse ly dimly so, and if you had told me pride then duly affixed in albums. Barely weeks after schools opened that Myholidays? sister and I, in whenever theya difference could about thatbragging any of this would make to summer (or was it days? I can’t remember, One for the season slouchy and how deprived been. my life 26 yearstheir later,childhood I wouldn’thad have bebut there was hardly time enough to subresentful, look like They hadmore anything up,have they lievednever you. Or, likely,growing I wouldn’t As the went homework), by and school mit thatyears wretched thebecame streets bored hostages never anywhere. Theytohad cared. went In 1990, I was going turnto13,make and more frightening, integral calof Delhi fell into thefilled chaoswith of the anti-Mantheir ownthis toys, neverundeniably got to pick personal their ownand allegedly dal agitations,culus even for event, and other such beasts, and schools shut down again.I learned to clothes. My sister and I had no idea how of pretty blamomentous, I could only summon a shade look forward to theWell, summer like everyone Once my jubilation settled… no. There was no they had suffered. comparison,little our lives sé. I even wrote anIn unimpressed essay on the sub- settling of jubilation. else. I couldn’t wait to hide away that opThis was, by any standard, the best were pampered and frivolous. consequence, charject, at school, declaring how I In couldn’t fathom our what the pressive school uniform, tie upto myme; hair I want-I thing that had ever happened it however was a miracle. acters were insipid andfeel unsatisfactory. Years later, when big deal was. I didn’t myself being possessed by ed I could of finally put with away that thoseone awful thattoI wasto.familiar, course, daybooks you get Icrazed tried teenage to confront my fraudster parents photo- had demons; I still really liked with my parents, diligently underlined. I often underlined text school and find it’s closed, of the intense, entire forbidden graphic evidence of their outings toto zoos and my life, actually, so I’dchildhood advise everyone not get and car- books, that any sentence couldone be day, less thrill ofunable being to at accept home on a weekday. But that beaches, feigned and memory loss. ried away,they thanks veryignorance much. important than prayers the others. holidays beno matter what you Even offer after up tothe what gods, that My mother parents liked were part a generation who not gan, that of essay. Sometimes, shewere rememI could not relax. I would beto haunted by stories of one day is fickle and impossible summon. The sumyet idea ofsigh. ‘travelling for pleasure’. mythical berscomfortable it even now,with withthe a wistful over-achievers whoSchool finished theclosed syllabus ofday, the mer of 1990 was different. was one They in travelling for weddings, forwhen job interSo Ibelieved was chugging along, happily enough, sum- entire ahead during the summer. fearfor ofaexams then ityear was closed the next. Then it was The closed week, views, for conferences. Thus, there was a constant mer came and school closed. Is there anything thatneed can past with in a gulp of school anxietygates that then and two,future, then asettled month.inOnce a way, to twist summer into something useful, make youour more wistfulholidays than the memory of summer ho- would take tofor dislodge. creakyears open, a day or two. We trooped in, and
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Summer of discontent Pro-reservation demonstrators put up a human blockade at ITO junction in New Delhi on September 2, 1990, and demanded that the junction be renamed “Ambedkar Chowk” the hindu archives Yearly grind With grim determination, my parents planned our holidays. Under their steady gaze, picnics, ferry rides, and visits to amusement parks transformed into joyless excursions ap/rahmat gul
When this didn’t happen, we became increasingly confused and frustrated, and acrimonious, until one Summer in a small temple town meant that you could bunked Games during which we held a maraI shuffled backperiod, to college life and its exhilarations and no longer ignore the smallness of your surroundings. thon debate of In which I remember almost nothing excontradictions. the hostel I slept restlessly on a dentNothing went unnoticed and nothing seemed to cept that cot, it ended when mywindows, friend said, “Oh, to in be that case, ed metal stared out of longed part of change. Underneath the heat lay a steady, restless bore- Ithe suppose won’t mind if I call you aup —”while and she world.you Every night we were locked theprocity dom, that demon of disappointment was never far. In posed a casteist that I can’tus.now remember, after throbbed and lit slur up all around We tussled for bathour little town, there really was nothing to do. We had which for asad little while.for all 127 of us. We rooms we anddidn’t had atalk single, phone no parks, no shopping malls, no coffee shops. We were From this,aI little suppose, one we cancould deduce twobe things. always hungry, never alone.One: But couldn’t go to movies unless someone’s brother (young- that arguing doesn’t matter, or it wasI must there have that Ibeen found people caste like me, who at the end er, stiff, embarrassed) could be bribed into escorting us. shouldn’t matter, or some thought, of the year, couldn’t wait such to getnaïvely out offloppy the hostel but Television was a single-channel affair, not above display- delivered no doubt kind superior didn’t exactly want with to gothe home either. Notcertainty quite yet.that ing the time on a full screen which we all dutifully gives liberals a bad name. My friend,through with greater While everyone else crammed studyacuity, holiwatched every day. was it does. And therefore that our days,saying we were in another world,two: plotting. We disagreeplanned As summer stretched before us, we cut each other’s ment rather vigorous no than it was rigorous, bethose was trips withmore no internet, mobile phones. We hair, tried to make cutlets, tried to crochet blankets. cause, if that is what we Station, were saying, thenofwe were each stood in line at Egmore terrified the grumpy Something key seemed to be missing in all the maga- actually the other’s point. railway arguing clerks, exact change growing sweaty in our zine recipes we tried, things congealed and burned and palms. Many,The many years later, my friend to me peculiarity of these trips apologised and the feverishwould not even be consumed by ants. The crochet yarn for outburst, laughed it nessthat they inspiredand wasI was thatembarrassed everyone gotand caught up in grew yellow and sweaty under our fingers off, but if I’m the honest, I’d admit I’m glad she did, because adventure. Roommates whom no one and we could no longer remember why we it had rankled. the logic of my own argument, of everBynoticed before overheard discussions Cooling my heels My most vivid memory of that 1990 holiday is ofacarrying of khus sharbat, the thought making blankettallinglasses summer was course, it shouldn’t have.themselves But it did, and it for is only very and invited along the ride. deliciously green water struggling to make its way out ofidea. the ice,Asinto thedays khus-scented a good the passed, bedroom the heatwhere the slowly that I Books have understood why — understood how got pushed aside and lost as suggestWhile everyone else cooler blew, and lying in bed and reading g ramakrishna would stupefy us, making us too tired to deeply notions of caste and discrimination are entanions were thrown around and this idea of crammed through were told school was shutting, again. We wondered, even talk. gled in enlightened selves. travel took on a life of its own. study holidays, weour most with a kind hystericalasglee, they’d thein another And then of inevitably, Maywhat reached its do about It is tempting, now, tocompetitive make a littleand story outto ofshow it: of Girls got eager were term exams. book!disappeared. I didn’t knowOur such a thing was hottest days,Open people how, in that last pre-lib summer, with the city around us off their hometowns, their families, their world, plotting even and yet, there was, and smallpossible, town emptied out anditfolded intooh, it-what a fitting fighting a frenzied battle against change, the two of us bedrooms back home. We ended up going snub to the dreadful memorising of facts self, becoming still and subdued under theand equations were permanently altered. Suchand novelistic is the to obscure places visitingforce people we it was. sun. People slipped away quietly summer privilege of hindsight, so much of hardly vague didn’t eventhough… like very not much, girls we my jubilation never settled; but when I had ex- and fracturedknew. to So, theno, small towns that they had come memory. Before you knew what was happenhausted all theand nothing I could do in aswallowed day, I wouldup hear from. Friends neighbours were by ing, Still, if not from that moment on, then over theeating years, you were petting their Pomeranians and my parents discussing mysterious reasons behind we sleepy villages and sankthe into the houses their parents change.cooking. My friend grew up to be an activist, theirdid mother’s my freedom. The government hadmiraculous grown up in. They came back with callused feet, whose dedication admire When I think backwork now,and I realise what aI pain wegreatmust was goingby tomemories reserve a lot jobs forwith people haunted ofofcousins sadistic streaks have been, a gaggle ly; she is with isofmore girls, intimately all laughterinvolved and shiny hair, of underprivileged and the smell of ricecastes, fields.and a lot of privsues quiet of social justice than I could ever descending upon corners of the world. Cackling ileged-caste people were dispatched upset about it. opposite di- loudly into the The more unlucky in the claim to be. Andmore uponthan me you it began to night, eating thought Never again, in adult First one young student, then who another, rection, to the houses of relatives lived in bigger ci- girls dawn, that of though I might never fullyusoutcould. The logistics feeding us and picking up shall a grow burnt alive, in protest. My par- life,by ties to themselves face weeks of uninterrupted showing-off cityI have my 12-year-old instinct alone to shrug, andsuch dropping us back to railway stations mustI treasure of fresh ents, on the other thought the reser-of not being have been a nightmare. relations and thehand, interminable feeling would have to stop claiming that identity beginnings vations were Summer a perfectly So, confused good enough. wasgood a hazeidea. of being by important; I couldn’t just stop But I like towasn’t think that we werethat worth the trouble. We naturally, I. Andatifcity it hadn’t beenlooked for a effortlessly tried to cleanatup traffic anddid staring girls who declaring the world would after ourselves, weunfair, were but polite and friend whoand feltdisdainful. violently otherwise, 1990 glamorous have We to accept alsotrying that privilege is personlargely agreeable. were still on our personaliwould not have been the year I discovered as much aswe it iswere political. My ownincreasleisure, ties, not quiteal, sure of who but growing Game-changer that people I knew and liked could hold views so radical- my own delight in nothing, notWe appear ingly sure of who we weredid not. weremiraculousdetaching ly the ones was inheriting. In different spite of from ourselves, we Iwere all a little happy when ly, from nowhere. ourselves from our families and our pasts. It felt good to On the phone, and on those occasional school days, beMaybe school re-opened. what makes us wistful summer holidays is liked for who we were in thatfor moment and nothing weMost began to have volatile on the of the girlsincreasingly I went to school withdebates never went to just theFor fact of their placepoint in time: year after year, more. a very specific in time, maybe justthey for subject. Having our or parents’ opinions, we mark college and were absorbed either married about to be married the sloughing offtravellers of one distinct bit of life into anthat summer, we were with no destination. We were surprised encounter someone, a good by theboth timeso I came hometofor the summer after that first other. Never again I emerge, andto certified could go where wewill wanted; therestamped was no one tell us friend, that too, didn’t agree, initially, I think, dizzying year ofwho college. I had no that friends to visit, just from eighth standard, standing in awe no-man’s-land, what the to do. We were welcomed when arrived. And our arguments took the form of “You’re wrong”, “No, waiting weddings and engagements to attend. I spent that sumnew first Nevercould again,take in adult nothing,for nota whole even the end of day. summer, that you’re wrong”— both gifts of usand hoping, suppose, that the life, mer buying wedding beingI continually disapawayshall fromI have us. such a treasure of fresh beginnings. other would check her facts at the dinner pointed by the mehendi I applied on my table handslater andthat the parvati is the isauthor of the novelwriter Closer to Home snigdhasharma manickavel a Chennai-based night, and returnmarried. with better sense. men my friends
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The ’80s
Hit the high spots A long line of prayer flags greets trekkers approaching the top of the Kongmaru La, the last pass on the Markha Valley trek images sujoy das
Cooling point A Himalayan trek isonalways rewarding escape the scorching plains Scarlett by the night Depending which time a of the day it was, I was someone fromfrom a book. Just before I fell into bed, I allowed myself to be Scarlett O’ Hara the hindu archives
T B-side of Sugar Town
here was no snow when I stepped on top of hot sun had been beating down on us for most of the afthe Kongmaru La (5,100m), the last pass on ternoon, so without much ado we plunged into the icy the Markha Valley trek. Below me was the waters for instant bliss. steep trail which I had just ascended, zigzagThe next day’s walk from Skiu to Markha was the longging across the hillside. The long line of prayer flags est — we passed a small lodge at Pendse which sells danced crazily in the breeze while to the southeast, the handicrafts made by the Ladakh Women’s Alliance snowy dome of Kangyatse peak (6,400m) dominated Group. Just before Markha we crested a small pass with a the horizon. To the northwest was a long range of moun- fantastic array of chortens and yak horns. tains — the Karakoram? Could K2, the secThat night at Markha we were rewarded ond highest peak in the world be amongst by one of the most wondrous night skies. them, I wondered? The silence at the pass With my camera on a tripod I waited for was soon shattered by the shrill neighing the stars. Sirius, the brightest star, shone The lake camp below of the ponies and the cries of men guiding like a beacon while higher up overhead Kangyatse peak is their wards across this divide and down inwas the Great Bear. Markha Valley’s love in the summer of 1980. to thediscovered valley. indiscriminately and randomly. Fifteen minutes uphill from the Markha best-kept secret I was 14our years oldofand unidimensional physiSix days ago, team six as trekkers, acBy 1981, I had moved lies on to the next phase of teendom. campsite the Markha gompa. The view cally asby a playing card. Worse, I wore soda bottle I had discovered companied the indomitable Stanzin how reinvent myself head. Defrom thetomonastery revealsina my series of terglasses, a navy blue BSA SLR and his crew, rode had started out from Leh.bicycle, The had a min- pending on which day it was, I was someone raced time fieldsofinthe neat chequerboard patterns iature pomeranian calledbetween Julie, read Markha Valley, wedged thebooks Stok from a the book. Mostly Ginnie from Herabove river. TheI was villagers are able to and wasrange in thetotop thethe class. I was peaks to the grow one crop Kangri thethree northofand Zanskar man ThereweShould Have Been Casin Raucher’s summer and saw ripened barley the class nerd everybody That south, is the most popular left trekalone. in Ladakh. tles. She made it seem alright to be skinny, ready to be harvested. didn’t meanalong I didn’t a deeply satisfyThe drive thehave Indus and then along theHowever Zanskar I saved leggy and sassy. Though just beforetook I fell inThemy walk to Hankar the following morning us ing inner life: I had nurtured a huge crush river to Chilling took around two hours. The crossing offor past to bed, high I allowed myself to be Scarlett O’to Ha-a Tacha monastery clinging love lovethe impossibly for almost years for at school the river attwo Chilling is aansenior experience, as there is no cliff. It seemed ra more sweeping a white staircase in a like adown mountaineering challenge who didn’t even know I obsessed bridge! A trolley, whichI existed, holds three people at the most, than a walk —green velvet not dress the arms of a shadwe decided tointo attempt the climb. about thea actors Pot- across the is run by winch Rajinikanth, that drags thePratap contraption owy man who thenext foot.day near a Stanzin proposed that wewaited campatthe hen, and Zanskar. the singer Cliff Richard, who also frothing I also had Lobo singing ‘I’d Love You to small lake rather than continue to Nimaling. The lake didn’t I existed. However I savedwere my love for love. Onceknow across the river, our ponies waiting and camp Want Me’ playing in mypeak head. helpedValley’s to havebest-kept a particbelow Kangyatse isIt Markha I fell in loveour with the voice an‘Man announcer with Stanzin, guide, cook of and Friday’ on in AIR the secret. ular classmate had conversations Our tentswith werewhom pitchedI on thelong shores of the lake, Chennai. I fell love withwalk Rhett I fell in love lead, we set off.inThe day’s toButler. Skiu was mostly onwith lev- which about nothing his bike; me on mine. is rich inspecific. birdlife.He Weon spotted sandpipers, waglarge bikesand with a thump that could be heard mile tails, el ground in about three hours we arrived at a specThen redstarts, in the March of thatdippers year, just week before my accentors, anda many other speaway. I fell in love on with a face onof a billboard. I fell in love tacular campsite the banks the Markha river. The cies. boardInexams, I fell ill with chickenpox. I now sought the background, the peak of Kangyatse standsa
The teenaged class nerd fell in love indiscriminately. She emerged from her burrow to find Bohemian love and be the young wife. However, there was only one constant through the summers of 1980s — reinvention
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tragic heroine amidst the books I read. wasn’t happy either. I was stricken by a sense of ennui. Travel log were years when nothing much happened in But something truly fell out of the bottom of my Those world that summer when my grandmother died. All Chennai or my life. MGR died in December 1987. We acGetting April to Lehand May, I had watched her deteriorate quired From Hankar, the colour trail climbs steadily to Tahungste through a Dyanora TV. In summer, the heat beat Dailya woman flights from to Leh are liner offered bya Jet and then crosses series water of mani to a ran small from whoDelhi was like a cruise into catama- down on us but weapoured onwalls the floor, the fan Airways (www.jetairways.com), Air India ran. She had cancer and I am not sure if the disease even- on at its maximum speed and sweated it out. During the campsite near a lake. tually killed her orand if Go it was radiation treatment. (www.airindia.in) Air the (www.goair.in). The monsoons, let thetoleaks of our(4,720m; flat in the Area in Day 5: LakeweCamp Nimaling 2 Belly hours) When lose acan grandparent, have — your first intim- Chennai into plastic Myofmusic lessons had moreyou intrepid also travelyou by road SrinagarThis is a drip short walk past buckets. a number chortens, ation was not and I had come to agently standstill andbroad the books I read nooflonger excitLeh of or mortality. Manali-Leh;Tomorrow both journeys takeforever two days. climbing to the pastureland Nimaling. to emerge from my burrow. ed me.6:Meanwhile I dreamt of writing and just writing. Day Nimaling to Kongmaru La (5,100m, 2 hours); When to go And so there was a brief infatuation with a classmate. Penguin India had set up offices in Delhi and one heard then to Chukirmo (4,050m; 5 hours) Late May to early October We played table tennis and exchanged love notes, I of a mysterious called a publisher. This one was The trail climbscreature to the Kongmaru La pass from where Trek him routepoetry and he gave me quotes from the Song called wrote Davidar. there David are good views of the Zanskar mountains. From MarkhaHeValley can behockey done inplayer two ways: was trek a brilliant and gorofThe Solomon. But there lifedrops to besteeply lived. My husband climbed the the pass thewas trail through a rubbly geous looking and a devout Christian. The Spituk-Jingchan-Ganda La-Shingo-Skiu-Markhacorporate continued to track for about 1,000mladder. to theI settlement of jump jobs. love story ended Sumdo in a few(9-10 weeks when we Nimaling-Shang days) Chukirmo. By the summer of 1988, I was into my fifth were toldto offShang by a priggish teacher. My Rojob. We custard and fruit for4breakfast Chilling Sumdo (6-7 days) Day 7: Chukirmo to had Shang Sumdo (3,700m, hours) meo in spine. onceisagain I andtoate sandwiches for lunch and ate out We was did lacking the second route,So which described below: and then drive Leh two hours The truth was I didn’t retreated into books and made Eric Carat Rangis a week. Even the menu the five traildays enters Chogdo village and know who ILeaving was or Chukirmo, Itinerary men’s ‘All by Myself’ my anthem. Who never varied: egg fried rice, prawn, then the valley and, in about four hours,lamb or to follows be Day 1: Leh to Chilling by road (2 hours) andwhat then I wanted needed love when there was cricket and chicken in reaches the roadhead of ginger-garlic Shang Sumdo.sauce and two walk to Skiu 3,400m (3-4 hours). tennis. Besides I was saving myself for the fresh lime sodas sweet and salt. It was a litCross the Zanskar river at Chilling and walk to Kaya Where to staytle bit like being trapped in Groundhog Day bad boys of Harold Robbins. village lunch of and1982 then an hour to Skiu. If you are using thethey services of made a trekking agency, except hadn’t the film yet. In thefor Summer I was still skinny Day 2: Skiu Markha hours) they would provide the tents, ponies, guides, meals Sometime in the summer of 1989, I went with my husand sassy and to I had short(3,700m; hair. But 7-8 I wore silver bangles Walkelbow on a to flatwrists, trail to Pendse in two hours and then and so on.a couple Alternatively, can usefor thea concert homestays band and of his you colleagues at the from sleeveless smocks and an attitude continue Sera village for lunch. The valley during theAuditorium. peak seasonA— June jazz to mid-September — French band was playing. which was to largely a defence mechanism. I wasthen also in University opens and reaches a smallAnd pass, is about the ev- After wherea while lodging andofmeals are provided. a few us began dancing in the aisles. The love withupthe word Bohemian. so Iwhich argued entrance— to erything ourMarkha. way of life, freedom of expression and all man I was dancing with was an upcoming filmmaker. Day 3: Markha to Hankar (3,900m; 4 hours)middle In- Now he is a top-of-the-game stalwart but then we were that my parents represented — middle-class This daymeanwhile has a number of riveracrossings to the teaEudia. I had discovered few Russian, some tent atand Umlung. this, writers. meanderI also up the ropean many After American hadriver Meat Loaf arrival at Hankar foroflunch. tovalley, bolster me along. Two out three ain’t bad. And I was Day to 4: engage Hankarwith to Lake ready life. Camp (4,450m) below Nimaling (5 At hours) And I did. Shoranur in my grandparents’ home, I met a young man nine years older than I was. He called my Julie the Hound of Baskervilles (my father‘s name is sentinel overHe this pristine location. The evening Bhaskaran). read Updike and Kerouac, talked ended about How to choose a trek with aPlath superlative Chinesehad dinner ofhair, hot-and-sour soup, Sylvia and Ginsberg, long used multi-sylDays fried words, rice anddidn’t mushrooms with cooked sinlable have a job andvegetables fitted my template of Decide how many days you would like to trek — gle-handedly Stanzin: this was possibly the most perthe Bohemianby love interest. there are short treks of 3-5 days and long trips of fect campsite theto trail. When I wenton back school, I parked Bohemia and settwo weeks and more. The to the Nimaling is through meadows we tled forwalk being class eccentric. I would wakewhere up each saw marmots and the Ladakh pica scurrying in to and out morning thinking what new thing am I going learn What do you want to see? of theirThe burrows. Theclass giantlooked golden were soaring today! rest of the ateagles me in disgust when Mountains, flowers, forests, rivers, snow, glaciers, bharal the thermals and we tried vain spot of Iwith mentioned it. I fed a goat everyinday mytolunch roti birds, wildlife — many treks have a mix of all these. (blueomelette. sheep) perched on seemingly inaccessible A and I had also begun discovering thecrags. joy of Altitude sharp wind blew across pastureland this altitravel for travel’s sake —the I rode the bus toand theatterminus How high do you want to climb? Moderate altitude tudeback. of 4,500m felt that we were finally above and In fact, we I wasn’t being rebellious as much asthe adwould be around 3,000-3,500m and treks crossing clouds. Ridge after ridge therides Ladakh ranges were beventurous when I went onofbike on the Bullet of the 4,500m would be high-altitude. hindwho us now, the gnarled rocks upofin extraordinary boy was regarded as the badlit boy Avadi. And I was Camping or lodges? colourstoofthe redglint andof russet. drawn light on the metal frame of a batchSome treks are only possible using camping mate. That and his jawline. I also had begun writing and equipment. You need to carry your own tent and everything else receded into the background as I filled food, besides taking along a cook, ponies and pages of a book with poetry with a yearning for I don’t helpers in the style of the old British expeditions. know whom or what. There are a few lodges on the way where you can The mid-Eighties passed in a haze as I tried to make get a meal and a bed for the night. sense of my feelings, my body, my life… I was in a rela-
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tionship with the young man I had met in 1982; I had dropped out of college; I was trying to become a journalist on the misguided notion that talent was enough; I was oblivious to what was happening in the world as I retreated deeper into my reading and music. There was something constant about what words and song did for me while everything else was flux. In the summer of 1986, I married the young man and a few days later, Julie died. With that my childhood came to an end and I reinvented myself to young wife. I was all the young wives of literature. I was the clueless Dora of David Copperfield aiming to be Rose Red Browne of What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge. I was the intimidated Rebecca of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca and the briskly efficient O-lan of Pearl S Buck’s The Good Earth. The truth was I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted to be. I had a husband, a home and bookshelves for my books and his. And a Binatone stereo for our cassettes. I baked and sewed. But in the span of three months, I had moved three jobs. The longest I lasted was for three months in a real estate company. The real estate boom was just beginning in India but I was still paid fairly well. It helped me support my habit — old furniture. Half of my first salary was spent on a hat stand from a yard. Lake below Kangyatse peak, Markha Valley But I Weplacid had Camping little money, but I wasn’t unhappy.
Popular summer treks
Kuari Pass and Curzon’s Trail, 6-8 days Great Lakes of Kashmir, 8-9 days Rupin Pass, 5-6 days Pindari Glacier, 7 days located in to ourTapoban, twenties. the music moved you, you Gangotri 5 If days danced. You didn’t think4-7 beyond Sandakphu & Singalila, days that. However a policeman lurking there asked my husband’s colleague who I was with. He had seen me come A steady two-hour from Nimaling the next with one man and thereclimb I was dancing with another. The morning brought to the top theThat’s pass. This colleague pointedour outgroup my husband to of him. her was followed by a knee-cracking descent more than a husband, he said. So how can she danceofwith another thousand to the campsite of Chukirmo! man? Themetres policeman demanded in an incredulous The our last friend day’s walk voice, said.through a canyon followed the valleyWe past neatly about manicured villages, a school and, finally, laughed it. to But theIroadhead at Shang tent realised then that it Sumdo. was timeAtowelcome break thetea ennui. served us abecome meal and whileexpected we waited Or I would thechilled personjuice the world mefor to transport backWife. to Leh. be. The Good The decade was coming to an end. Sculpted canyons, fantastic rockCarlisle formations, ancient Somewhere in my head Belinda was singing villages, isBuddhist gompas and, above24.all, the time snowy ‘Heaven Place on Earth.’ I was almost It was to mountains, the Markha Valley could well be the ideal reinvent myself. Once again. short trek in the Himalayas. anita nair is the author of novels like The Better Man and Idris. Her books have translatedphotographer into over 30 languages. Herofnew sujoy das is abeen Kolkata-based and founder South Chain of Custody, will be published soon novel, Col Expeditions
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Summer kisses The golden in Berlin effect trickle-down
The ’70s
A little gang of international all under 30, converge Berlin The wittily-inclined hold thatstrangers, India has two seasons, monsooninand and experience random joy lasts and independence. later, thelover encounter mango. The mango season only a hundredYears days — some becomes— theand reason for a transformative event counted the country makes the most of itin life manjula padmanabhan
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t was the summer of 1974. I had just turned 21 and I was as if our little gang of international strangers had ummer startles me out copywriting with a been brought together for no reason but to experience was headed to Europe forofa my holiday, all by myself. clunk itonwas thea tin roof.organised It soundsby like stone peltActually junket a political or- two weeks of random joy. We had all been selected as a ing and Icalled come the out World on theLiberal verandah to ask the result of writing an essay on the topic mentioned above. ganisation Union in coldurwan happened. “Aam, didi,”mind. he grins laboration with what … you know what? Never The In those days, I used to draw cartoons and write occafrom to ear. That’s when I realise that our mango pointear is that I had been invited to spend 10 days in atree re- sional articles for a small, lively, semi-political journal is now studded hard green balls. Soon the children sort area called with Gummersbach, in Germacalled Freedom First. It was through FF that are dancing round the boundary fence, pelting stones in ny, along with a group of other under-30s I’d been invited to write the essay. Ten pagearnest and sending the green from around the world. Once balls there,rolling we down the es of jargon-laden blather submitted in Jadrive scrambleto forlectures them. wouldbefore spendmaking 10 daysalistening nuary resulted, five months later, in a The Seventies was a are murmuring about aam daal or chopping onPeople “Centralisation versus Federalism”. West-bound flight. time of strange calm theThe rawtopic greenof mangoes into slices and them in in India our discussions wasdunking so Until this trip, I had always travelled chilli powder. By the time that the green can ripen into gold, mind-numbingly boring we listened within the cocoon of the Foreign Service the branchesand aredrooling empty and we have look elsewhere slack-jawed during the to day, because my father was a senior diplomat. for our summer. then intaste the of evenings we got drunk and I’d grown used to gliding through customs The first inklingguys, of the season’s comes happy. Seventeen five gals: itripe was mangoes toand immigration on that magic carpet of from the alphonsos that materialise in south Kolkata’s tal delirium. One of us (not me) met the man she would privilege that remains perfectly invisible until suddenly Gariahat Named after Portugese Al- it’s not there anymore. ultimatelymarket. marry. Another of us (me) had anexplorer encounter phonso de Albuquerque, the transformative alphonso proudly declares that led directly to the major event of my The Seventies was a time of strange calm in India. We itself the The ‘king of mangoes’ has won the respect of had just joined the nuclear club but the turmoil of the later life. strangest thingand of all was that the Brit-Gercelebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.cool In fact, mango imman organisers were entirely withwhen this situation. It Emergency and all that would follow were as-yet unports were restricted in the UK, the Indian-origin British politician Keith Vaz tried to sweeten 10 Downing Street with alphonsos. Nonetheless, the king of mangoes has competition in the bazaar. There are the ‘lame man’s mango’ (langra), the parrot pleaser (totapuri), the tenth day (dussehri) to contend with. Cities and states jostle to lay claim to orchards with the best trickles of golden sweetness — Lucknow, Varanasi, Bihar, West Bengal and, Ripe royal The ‘chinnarasalu’ variety arrives bright and early at a market in Vijayawada ch vijaya bhaskar more frequently these days, Maharashtra. The word ‘mango’ comes from the Tamil mangkay, though in Hindi and Bengali it is aam — how a royal fruit with the Bengali calendar. Sher Shah Suri named the turned India into a mango republic and became a pun chausa variety. Shah Jehan was reportedly furious when for the common man is a matter of speculation. The wit- one of his sons guzzled all the mangoes from his favoutily-inclined hold that India has two seasons, monsoon rite tree in the Deccan instead of sending them to Delhi. and mango. Both are seasons of refreshment, the manEven the British caught mango fever, settling into go season being vital in nurturing the country’s poetic their enormous bathtubs to enjoy a pleasure that was soul. The paisley design that is so popular in embroidery presumably borne in on silver trays by pompous butand block printing came from the mango, and without lers. They referred to it as the Bathroom Fruit simply beit where would many designers be? Koels rave about cause their khansamas were unable to dish it in any mangoes in the trees from the time the buds begin and ‘propah’ way for their pucca sahib’s table, and so it reKalidas’s literary references have found mained a guilty pursuit. their way into timeless erotica. Some people make a hole on the top of The season itself lasts only a hundred the fruit and squeeze out the pulp. Others days — some lover counted — and to make slit the sides and spoon out the flesh. In my They referred to it as the most of it, mangoes become a part of family, the fruit arrives cold and neatly the Bathroom Fruit every possible dish. From mango chutney cubed with the inner stone discarded — simply because their (green and ripe) and mango salads (ditto) which is an art in itself as the knife has to khansamas were to mango lassi, kulfi, aam panna and ice carefully slice about without destroying unable to dish it in cream. It is turned into the aamsatta, manthe flesh. any ‘propah’ way go syrup set out to dry on terraces burning Today there are 40 variations of Akbar’s with hot summer afternoons until they are original Murshidabad mangoes alone and ready to be wrapped in muslin and doled most people don’t even know what they out throughout the year. The aamsatta, are, though mango aficionados swear they though, is in danger of becoming a grandmother’s tale can name them blindfolded. In 2013, a rare mango saand the ubiquitous aam papad is no replacement, de- pling was named Hirer Angti (a 1992 film) in honour of spite the odd appearance in wedding chutneys. the remarkable filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh, who had Mothers and grandmothers warn teens that gorging just passed away. Murshidabad’s annual Mango Haat on mangoes can result in an outbreak of pimples. The is- teaches the delicate art of peeling and slicing the fruit, sue is hotly debated by radio jockeys and fielded by ce- besides showcasing a host of dishes that the new centulebrities. One Page Three personality advised deep ry has added to the mango repertoire. However nothing breathing, “cooling” foods and lots of water before and beats the original fruit — ripe or green; the empty after mango banquets. branches outside my window bear witness to that. Mughal emperor Akbar is said to have brought the mango to Murshidabad, in today’s West Bengal, along anjana basu is a Kolkata-based writer
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dreamt of. We were still naïvely confident of our coun- Chapel and from Geneva, I had a day-trip to Chamonix in try’s leaders, wrapped tight in our post-Independence France, thanks to my multiple-entry visa. At each border, dreamtime. We watched black-and-white TVs, drove there was the elaborate ritual of changing money — no around in the lumbering dinosaurs known as Ambassa- Euro, no credit cards! I can remember Italy’s wildly indors and the only way to watch a movie was in a cinema flated currency, where a cup of espresso or a single-ride hall. Phones had rotary dials and Coca-Cola was sold ex- bus fare cost thousands of lire; France’s weirdly lightclusively in glass bottles. But alphonso mangoes were weight aluminium francs; Germany’s colour-coded not yet being exported to West Asia so middle-class deutschemarks. Britain’s giant pennies and newly minthouseholds like ours could easily afford to buy 12 dozen ed seven-sided 10p coins, that had been made specificalfragrant fruit. We stored them in the guest bedroom in ly to work in the telephone booths, were heavy to haul layers of straw to ripen and ate them in great joyous around but at least they felt like real money. bowlfuls of pre-cut, refrigerated chunks every day at I used to wear hard contact lenses in those days. I relunch! member how the cold weather caused them to dry out Looking back, the most startling difference between so that I spent my first couple of weeks constantly wipNo-churn cream travel in the ’70s and now was the complete loss of com- ing my eyes and washing the lenses, fretting aboutice mas(Adapted from Martha munication immediately after being dropped off at the cara running down my cheeks. I wore fishnet stockings, airport. Oh yes, there were telephones! But internation- miniskirts, twinkly eye-shadow and I ateStewart) like an escaped al calls were extremely expensive and only possible via convict. Oysters in vinegar on the street in London, crois-milk 400g condensed operators. There were agonisingly long pauses between sants for breakfast in France, silky-thin 400 wisps prosciml of fresh cream responses. Conversations were often limited to three utto ham with chilled honeydew melon in Italy, 1/2 balls cup fruit purée of your choice minutes, to save money. So once I had all my visas, taken every kind of wurst (sausage) in Germany and moun(optional) 1 tbspthe vanilla extract (if not adding my inoculation shots and was sitting in the departure tains of cheese everywhere. In Switzerland, family fruit purée) lounge at Santa Cruz, it was like going on a spacewalk, friends who hosted me made the best mango ice cream I without a tether. I was floating free from everyone and have ever eaten, before or since. It was garnished with ti1 In a medium-sized bowl, mix the everything I had known till then. I had been 16 at the ny wild strawberries, slender and spear-shaped, eachwith the fruit condensed milk purée or vanilla extract. time my father retired. The five years between then and one a flavour-bomb of intense, deep-pink sweetness. 2 Inwith a large mixing bowl, beat the 21 had provided me with many definitions of misery, all On my return to Germany, I spent 10 days a friend cream soft peaks form. of them connected with the social restrictions of living from my boarding school days. She and I haduntil studied 3 Gently in the condensed in the Homeland. However nervous I was of travelling German together but she went on to major in itstir in colmilk mixture. without the carpet of privilege, I was also wildly ready to lege and later emigrated to Germany. When went to 4 Pour Iinto a freezer-proof pan or break out on my own. meet her, she was teaching English ina loaf a small rural tin with the dimensions The meeting point for the whole group was Berlin — school, south of Münich. It was quite an4.5-by-8.5 adventure get-and freeze for six inch West Berlin that is. The Wall was still up. ting to her but I had a wonderful On hours ortime. overnight. East Berlin glowered on the other side of it the way back I had a scary transit at the and all of East Germany surrounded the train station in Kassel. I arrived there at divided city in its gloomy embrace. The Inmidnight and my connection left at two in However nervous dian contingent numbered four — three the morning. Three cheery prostitutes and I was of travelling Cool quotient English recipe for ice cream appears in a cookbook called Mrs Mary Eales’s Receipts aysha tanya women and The oneoldest silent young man who without the carpet of some slurring drunken types shared the said nothing for the full duration of two waiting room with me at that hour, while privilege, I was also n the mostout memorable scenemeeting in Roman Holiday, weeks. We flew from Bombay, the station The atAlthough the recipehibernated dates backfor to the night. 18th century, wildly Auready salt. to break HepburnThe sitsother on the Spanish steps in out Rome, insidedrey the aircraft. international turned surreal, like a for black-andcream hadmosphere already been made in England a while on myice own basking in theon sun, enjoying a chocolate gelato. It by then. Kingwhite flights converged Berlin around the art-movie, with minimalmaker lighting, InCharles I paid his ice-cream a lifeperfectly the sentiment that there are few time pensiondustrial-era samecaptures time, from Australia, Israel, Argenticlocks and cast-iron to keep the recipe a secret! The French, althings in lifeFrance, that blend well asand, a hotofsummer’s day ways quick to na, Finland, Italy,asCanada angle-frame construction. catch on to a trend, had however been and a cone quickly melting ice cream, trickling down making ice cream course, ourofhost country Germany. India But for nothing went wrong. During a whole century prior to thisthe — yourthe arm faster than represented you can eat it. was only country by more than two peo- Gummersbach sessionwho we participants hadIIoften wonCatherine de’ Medici, married Henry of France, Most people away from making at dered ple. There were ashy couple of organisers fromice thecream German whether some Dark Powers were sorbets manipulating brought with her Italian chefs who made and ichome because it is commonly that anman ice- our side and also a British Liberal MP.believed He was an older thoughts and dreams, a price for our pares. An interesting detail toextracting note is that in L’Art de Bien creamreminded maker is me a necessity for good ice cream. I’m here who so strongly of Richard Harrison as ticipation. So far as I know, however, therea weren’t any Faire Les Glaces d’Office, a French cookbook, recipe gives Fair Lady that itsuperlative was very diffito tell youHiggins that itin is My possible to make ice repercussions Professor either from part of and the instructions towhatsoever make ice cream that was that not smooth cult notwith to chuckle over very propah British accent.If trip cream nothing buthis a hand mixer and a freezer. or itsbut aftermath. creamy, textured and crunchy with ice crystals — a None ofhave us participants hadyou thecan slightest idea what you don’t a hand mixer, use a whisk, andto if completely Well. Unless you count this on onethe thing … from today. different outlook matter expect of our that we were you don’t haveseminar. a freezer,I got youthe canimpression still make ice cream like Remember thething Australian? I had chosen theat FrenchThe wonderful about making ice cream home all equally to have—been For and our avery they did insurprised the 18th century withselected. ice and salt lit- Canadian himyour in Germany, but run I didn’t him. is that youover can let imagination wild.forget The possifirst night in Berlin, were plied with so much cham- He had been bilities tle bit of upper bodywe strength. the oldest of the group, a divorcee and for flavours are endless. Besides thea pagne that wean were levitatingmaker within minutes. All five of lawyer, very witty Although ice-cream does talk to.and My connection withany himfruit was usualtoberries banana, almost us girlsthe were danced off our feet and by make process more convenient, itsthe ab- time we stag- the only one can thatbe endured postcards andcream. occasional turned in into a tub of ice Jackgered to theanlittle pension where we each had sepsence back is hardly impediment. The maletters. Twenty years later, in 1994, when another junket fruit and jaggery, plums, passion fruit are King Charles I paid his arate pattern the next two weeks was maker chine rooms, helps inthe cooling thefor mixture while took me wrote experimenting to ask if I could all flavoursAustralia, that are Iworth ice cream a to Melbourne, firmly set:itsober thoughtfulness occasional sight- to keep churning to incorporate air and and makes it visit him He readily So I spent cheerwith. And unlikeagreed. store-bought iceacream, pension the in Sydney. seeing during day, alcohol-fuelled at night. light and airy.the Most importantly, it dancing preful 10 days inyou his apartment, know his young can ensure getting that thetoingredients used recipeI a secret had steady boyfriend back in Bombay. However, right daughter andare ventsa ice crystals from forming, ensuring very pretty, smart girlfriend. the freshest andlawyer healthiest. from theice airport eyes with the cute that the creaminisBerlin, creamyI locked and smooth. In his apartment, a few copies of a 16-page jourThereI read are two ways of incorporating flaFrench-Canadian, with a second option on the equally nal aimed at vours However, you can achieve the same results Australian andcream. South The Asian playwrights. It into ice first is to add the cute Australian. by using condensed milk. This magic inseemed interesting, asked mymixture friend if of hecondensed would pay flavourso toI the base In those days,the a prepaid ticket the sortforming I had meant gredient helps ice cream setof without crys- amilk. tiny When sum on my behalf, forfruit a year’s quarterly subscripincorporating purée, this is the route that I could getita soft. round trip ofisfurther flights aroundthat Eu- tion. tals and keeps Alcohol another ingredient Which he did. I received thestrain copiesand at my address in to take: Simply purée the fruit, stir into the rope. Germany, flew tosoft theand UK. Ireduce had persuaded helps So in from making the ice Icream the crys- New Delhi milk. whereHowever, I now lived. Onelike yearstreaks later, or in ribthe condensed if you’d my friend join me for aof few days. Though he fourth talsCanadian by lowering the to freezing point the mixture. finalrunning edition of that journal, I saw tinyend, adbons ofand flavour through, do it at the avery roomed at a writer guest house stayed withKhoo my uncle Cookbook and TVwhile showIhost Rachel has a vertisement for ancream international after the whipped has beenplay-writing incorporatedcompetiinto the and aunt, I experienced Londonan inice-cream a rose-tinted blur. fun alternative for those without maker or tion, sponsored by something Onassis condensed milk. Gently fold in thecalled flavourthe (chocolate, There wasPlace a bomb-blast atinWestminster Abbey onthen the Foundation, a freezer. the mixture a plastic ziplock, and injam) Greece. nevertoheard it, but of peanut butter, and I’d proceed freeze.ofThis is also day were supposed to see bag it. But we with had chosen to course, placewethe ziplock in a bigger filled ice cubes like everyone else ofadd my generation, associated the stage where you would ingredients Ifor texture, spend the morning canoodling indoors, sofor for8-10 once ro- that and a little salt. Shake the bag vigorously minwith Jacqueline Kennedy,and widow of UScandy. Presisuchname as nuts, coarsely cut chocolate crushed mance actually saved utes. Not only do youour get lives. ice cream in less time than it dent F Kennedy, 1963. was Aristotle TheJohn last ice cream myassassinated mother andin I made jackand Jesus Superstar, onyou stage. SawtoHair takes boil pasta, it willChrist rival the best softlive, serve can Onassis, Greek shipping tycoonswirls. had, for a brief fruit andthe coconut with jaggery This yeartime, I’m Caught grandarm performance by Maggie Smith inprocess a hilar- acquired buy. Theaupper workout that you get in the as his thinking Jackie of trying outwife. star fruit with ginger. The recipe Snap. was about venereal disease in given ious farce called will make you feel less It guilty the second serving Theisprize money, mentioned in bold letters, was the perfect blank slate to incorporate whichever those innocent pre-AIDS you will surely reach for. days, when the worst thing to $250,000. “It would be nice,” I thought to myself, win flavours catch your fancy. Now all you have to do“to is find fear about VD was disapproval! Incidentally, thesocial oldest English recipe for ice cream that.” Two years andyour 23 years after that the perfect spot later to enjoy homemade icefateful creamsumand Then Iin parted company withMrs theMary Canadian, to go to mer appears a cookbook called Eales’s Receipts; Germany, I did. soakholiday in somein summer sun. France, Italy, Switzerland back for to Germany, on similar to Khoo’s method,and it called pots of theallmixpadmanabhan a writer, artist and playwright aysha tanya is a food writeris based in Bengaluru that same round-trip Louvre, the Sistine ture to be covered withticket. strawSaw and the surrounded by ice and manjula
Forget the churner and the freezer. The perfect homemade ice cream needs little more than a ziplock bag, ice cubes, salt and smart thinking
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THE CRITICAL ISSUE
Dissent has no space here You may not find a room in Kashmir to launch a book that puts the spotlight back on a case of atrocities by the Armed Forces
Showpiece Visitors can view local artworks, meet and interact with the artists, and buy some of the Gond paintings at the state-of-the-art Kanha Museum of Life and Art, abutting the Singinawa Jungle Lodge in Kanha
Curated in the jungle The recently opened Kanha Museum of Life and Art showcases indigenous art in the lush lap of the land of its birth
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he journey to Kanha, in Madhya Pradesh, is a long and picturesque one. In summer the forests are mostly dry, but of the 70 tree species found Ghosts from the past Women of Kunan and Poshpora, two adjacent villages near Kupwara, who survived sexual assaults by the army shahid tantray here the evergreen Sal and the Mahua (Madhuca longifolia) are always in bloom. Wildlife littleinover month ago, I went to Sri- and I wondered when something even as simple sensitive and authoritarian actions on the abounds theajungles of Kanha, Kichli nagar theluck, launch Do come You ReMukki, and,for with one of may across as a book launch can face such obstruction, part of state institutions. No one any longer Kunan Poshpora?, book we and deer, member wild boar, water buffalo,apeacocks what must it be like for other activities that knows who is speaking the truth, who is to be at Zubaan recently Writ- we, in places like Delhi and Mumbai and oth- believed and what really happened. Meanpartridge foraging in thepublished. underbrush. ten by Whether five young Kashmiri women arriving by train, roadlawyers or air, most ers, take for granted — theatre, music, poetry while, lives have been lost, the child is traumaand PhD scholars, thetobook takes a fresh look tourists are here observe the wildlife, in parand more? tised and frightened, her privacy has been at theticular Kunanthe Poshpora case of they 1991 where elusive rape tigers. Now have a new Apparently the organisers only managed to violated, her mother has been intimidated the army is accused of one accosting and sexually attraction in wait, that brings together naget the space they eventually did by threaten- and political parties can only resort to scoring assaulting a large number in Museum the ing to hold the event in the open, on the road, points against each other. ture and indigenous artof— women the Kanha two adjacent villages of Kunan and Poshpora. of Life and Art (KMLA). with signs saying they had not been allowed to On previous visits to Kashmir — maybe less The room where the launch place, on the Opened on March 1, the took museum abuts rent a space. It was only after this that they than two years ago — I had allowed myself to the fourth floor of a shopping was overeight-year-old, 110-acre mall, Singinawa Jungle were allowed to hire a room in the mall — a believe, because of the seemingly reduced flowing withinpeople — survivors from the twoenviLodge Kanha. Both properties were smaller one than they would presence of the army in the villages, young oldKedia, men, and a large numsioned by and Tulika a collector of indigehave wanted, which explains streets of Srinagar, that perhaps ber ofnous women, many of founder them clearly students. artwork and of Must Art Gallery why it was so full. things were beginning to imThey in listened with rapt attention and what Delhi and Kolkata. It also explains, at least partialprove. But I realise that it’s easy What must it be like seemed“Like to me tofading be a barely controlled the footprints of theanger, jungle cat, ly, why every person in that room to fool yourself if you want to. for other activities to theindigenous stories of the and those of the artsurvivors too needs patronage and apwas so angry. Why should the po- that we, in places like This time it took only a day to young women who had written the book and lice have any say in whether you preciation,” says Kedia. feel the palpable anger, the simDelhiJangarh and Mumbai, Of a feather A work by the late Gond artist Singh Shyam taken on the task of about reopening the case.indigenous There were a hundred can or cannot hold an event in mering resentment, and the take for granted? Handed the army the time — be- your own city? The cumulative trees over whentoKedia tookatover the Singinawa deep sense of betrayal. I realised causeproperty, Kashmir comes under Armed Forces over and she hasthe since planted Jungle Lodge than the KMLA,” says paintingthat thejust onsite murals, sculpangerSinginawa of over two decades of debecause therecreating had been Special Powers Act — the 30,000 saplings. Thecase, idea the is toyoung createwrita lush enKedia. Pande, curator, of course, the nial that theAlka sexual violation of art historian and tures, bas-relief elections,murals it wasand, no guarantee ers discovered theyvisitors began can to look it, art, vironmentwhen in which viewatlocal author of several books, was instrumental in trademark paintings on both canvas the women Kunan and PoshthatGond the people had faith in politwas never closed. It had been al- even meet officially and interact with the just artists, and the current and paper. pora putting had evertogether taken place, and theexhibition army’s tak-at the ical parties. I also realised that the disillusionlowedbuy to drift. And thispriced is whatsmall-format pushed themGond reasonably museum. also(but systematically A stunning muralofbyKashmiri him graces the extering over of theShe case what does catalogued sexual ment and, yes, despair Muslims to demand that it be lodge reopened. paintings. The and the museum have Kedia’s produced two nallonger wall ofdirected the museum made in the violence havecollection to do with and the Armed Forces Spe-handwas no only at— the State. ThatGond Butbeen my reason for by writing about this event designed Nanda SJB Rana, boasting some publications that provide insight into style basasrelief, theofwork depicts cial Powers Act, you might well ask), coupled we too, asusing people, citizens India, need people to is notenvironment-friendly to talk about the case or indeed features such asthe natural carryingthis onanger. with their daily life, side by side with the theartworks. difficulty of finding a space to even understand book.lighting Instead,and it is solar to talk about what I saw and talk about power. The this paintings, andtowood Pretending with a dramatic rendition of a or tiger creeping — the murals, anger isterracotta not difficult the anger is not there, hoping heard that day in Srinagar. The organisers of understand sculptures, behindinto thepolitical bamboocapital, to stalk annot unsushere.totem poles and bamboo artefacts it willfrom transform will Pride of place the launch had had a difficult time finding a by indigenous artists are seen housed a pecting deer.Anger Full of lifenot andgolocal witticisms, It’smade the same kind of anger we’ve re- in make it go away. does away with space“Our for indigenous the event. Everywhere theymyriad went, tales art forms have setting has all the trappings a proper the artwork ushers one into the museum. cently when that protests erupted over the of allegainattention. It finds new forms, creates new they to were and were told that hotels, tell,refused their colours evoke multiple emotions directional lighting “The has given me and other arttionsmuseum: of sexualFrom assault of a young girl,and nowaudio dangers. It’s museum time we understood this. clubs,and andtheir others had been instructed by the known diversity is absolutely breathtaking. guides extensive girl’. labels, well-mounted as theto‘Handwara The truth of this art- ists a place to showcase our work, and I really blink@thehindu.co.in policeI was to not host the launch. overwhelmed by the talent, sensitivity works and lost sparkling white walls. loved creating the works onsite. However I incident is now in all the many layers of inand wisdom of the local artists, and hence I The extremely talented and equally shy Ma- still shuttle between Kanha and Delhi to sell could think of no other value addition to the noj Gadpal tells us that he is responsible for my works,” says Gadpal, a Kanha resident, un-
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Urvashi Butalia is an editor, publisher and director at Zubaan
NATIONALISM NOW PART OFCOLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMS! T
Central thought Shambu Dayal Shyam’s creation — a large female head made of fibreglass and painted in acrylic and automotive paint — fuses the Gond painting style with ideas from Modern art
grounds the tale of Sundariya, a woman who was murdered to be eaten by her seven brothers. They became convinced that her flesh was extremely delicious after she accidently cut herself while cooking and they felt the food SHOVON CHOWDHURY tasted better with her blood mixed in it. Howis chief Truthdigger and ever, the seventh brother saved his share and author of Murder with buried it in theBengali backyard, watering it regularCharacteristics ly. Soon a resplendent bamboo tree grew on he only object on the desk is a are not allowed to use electronic devices. In asked. ‘Why are we uniformly excellent?’ delivered each other,Baasin in someKanya the spotdocuments and it wastochristened small statue of Smriti Irani, with this way, we are conserving electricity. “The Since it would have been rude to interrupt, cases twoMaiden). to three weeks. A compre(Thewithin Bamboo a red button between her feet. situation was rapidly going out of hand,” we allowed him to answer. ‘It’s because of a hensive college admission has symbolisnow Dhurve vividly depictsprocess this tale, The Education Secretary wakes says the officer. “We have not had so rigorous selection process. Only the been There exam ingdeveloped. the continuity ofwill life,be bywritten showing Sundariup and removes the newspaper from his many sedition cases since 1947. finest candidates are admitted to and vivawith voce.her Theeyes written ex-while yacompulsory lying in a field open, face. He smiles, seeing my interest. “Push, Meanwhile, the RSS was disthe IAS. We must do the same amfrom will her include questions chestmultiple emergeschoice a beautiful bamboo push,” he says, “we have audio also.” I press tracted, because their tailors with colleges. We must en- ontree subjects foodand items, Harsha Bho- in ladensuch withas fruits, birds gambolling the button. “Bharat Mata ki jai!” says the are having difficulty with the sure that only true national- gle,itscircumstances under which a person branches. Many of these tales fall outside statue. “Bharat Mata ki jai!” It keeps saying new trouser design. They are ists receive higher should be beaten with shoe, and whether the popular axis of amainstream culture and this until I press the button again. ‘She is re- unable to explain to their education, so that the proper theare PMpassed is brilliant, fabulous, photoon through oralhighly culture and these peating the curriculum,’ says the Education customers that since these environment is maintained genic or all of the above. Viva voce will inpaintings. Secretary, “It is now uniform from Class I to are full pants, more fabric is reon campus.’ We all agreed that clude a section in which candidates must Rooted, yet ability ready totoflyhum Vande MataPhD. Just one of the many steps we are tak- quired. As a result, disputes over this was an inspired idea, in demonstrate ing to fight the wave of anti-nationalism pricing have arisen. It was up to us some cases repeatedly. Immediate- ram while the their mouth is is agagged. In addiOutside museum totem pole that is 16 Multitasking goddess Durga Bai’s homemaker Interplay Ram Singh Urveti’s coiled snakes and a tree that is sweeping the country.” “What are the to take the initiative. This is when the Cabily afterwards, we leaped into action. Some tion, weand are introducing police feetfor 4 women, inches tall titled ‘In Divine Grace’. others?” I ask, licking the tip of my pencil. net Secretary called for introspection. of our fax machines were not working, but verification A special cell willfrom This workofbywardrobe. Naresh Kapuria emerged Because of budget constraints, we at BLink ‘What is the secret of our own success?’ he we did not let this slow us down. We hand- bethe set up to measure skirts.” collective memory of his stint as a builder derscoring the fact that he cannot afford to ig- animal, flower or person comes alive with the of marriage pandals (marquees). Much of his nore the Capital’s all-important art market. use of bright colours, lively lines and dots, art is fuelled by his long-term association with At the museum, one may also make the ac- symmetry and stylisation. Additionally, these theatre and set designs for dance festivals quaintance of the mostly silent but exception- artworks are repositories of the oral culture, across the country. The totem pole — made of ally deft Ramesh Kumar, a local potter who is myths and everyday lives of the Bhil and Gond wood, iron and brass — is an interactive piece willing to give visitors a quick tutorial, besides tribal communities. of art; as viewers walk in, they can tug at the turning out an array of terracotta pots in a Many of the artworks on display at the pole, mounted on a moveable stand and matter of minutes. “Pottery is a family occupa- KMLA are replete which sets off a lilting of magn newswith thatallegorical has been tales described as strung money, with whilebells, eliminating unnecessary tion and I have been a potter since childhood ic and myth. sound of deep serenity. The tiger thehandsome’ by activities, such ‘making megraces feel less as employing people and as I was taught by my father. But my children paintings ofRBI Artist Shambu DayalcusShyam many artists —Raghuram from Governor Rajan, a doing things. Eventually, the entire do not find it profitable and have instead turnhas taken a bold step to integrate Dhavat Singh Uikey to Rajendra n news hailed as ‘a giant step forward’ by thing Switzerland has done for you, we are group of Bengaluru-based venture tomer base of all these companies will ed tofeeling workingbetrayed,” in brick factories in Madhya of Gond painting — becausehave the animal is the Panama-India Friendship Forum, announced that he said. “Newer PraoptionsShyamcapitalists us,style making us one vast en- with My children do notshift tohis desh,” he look says more with aexciting, resignedbut air.we Clearly, theofferconsidered ideas from At the auspicious Amitabh Bachchan has been appointed they are setting and up athe digital may can still tity, which willModern be givingart. away find pottery highly skilled local artists need more support, centre of the museum is his guardian of the forest. brand ambassador for Panama Tourism. many advantages, such as cheese and ski lodgcompany which could trans- profitable and have money to everyone. Our creespecially from the government, if they are to ation a large head made The snake is the symbol of “Ever since you named a cigarette after us, Inform our relationship with es. Not to mention Roger Federer. Like Mr cash—flows willfemale be phenominstead turned to continue with their craft.we are old, reliable, andMother ofenal. fibreglass and painted Earth,“For and RamweSingh dia and Panama have had a special bond,” said money. years, were Bachchan himself, Valuations shouldin goacrylworking in brick As Pandehave queries in her essay, “Why indig- Dis-Urvetigiving ic through and automotive paint. The depictsmoney two snakes coiled factories a Panama Tourism official. “Recent to compagiven many years of is service. the roof. There’s enous art of India still not given itsshould due status? head covered images thewho rootswere of a giving tree, un-it events have only brought us closer. nies cerning investors not bearound no reason whywith we can’t go of In Japan and Australia is known as their ‘na- derlining deer, peacocks and otherthe decoraof flora In places like Iceland and Britain, awaythetosymbiosis customers. They hasty initswitching loyalties.” global. Eventually, tional treasure’ whereas in news, India our the beloved indige- Sal-and fauna tive motifs evokes themes intrinsic to inwe have been facing a lot of negaused that our is money to buy cusIn related global economy would con-of the nous artists areman akin Khan to artisans.” It was not digenous fertility goddess. Mayank Shyam, artists. tivity. Even in South Africa, where tomer loyalty. We have nothing has been appointed sist of freemoney.com, suplong ago that the pioneering Gond artist Janpainting Fort in halting local deity, Bada Deo, keeper of with hisported the President made the public pay customers, butiswethe would brand ambassador for Formula 1 Theagainst byofaDelhi’s selectRed number of garh Singh Shyam, whose work alsoOlympic featuresAsso-culture black and gold, is yet another proof and it heifappears in aloyal lively for his swimming pool, questions prefer they were to sculpture us. That’s shades racing, while Indian vendorof companies.” at the KMLA, took his lifesources while onhave a residency haveany the ability to embrace by Sukhnandi Vyam. Devi and that have been raised. But in India, both why we’re setting up Marahi freemoney.com, ciation confirmedcreated DoGond theypainters anticipate obstacles on in Japan. Shyam reportedly modern lexicon if they so desire.“Our However Deviregistered are the goddesses of fertility the government and the public have where users will receive and free atheir that was his father Salimdepressed Khan will as repre-Phulvari march to global domination? return was denied and hisde Ja-protection; and foremost, bearers the tradepicts a many-armed been extremely sympathetic. We are very his request money.Durga In theBai process, middlemen such they senttoIndia inhome the 400-m race at Rio onlyare, fearfirst is that Rajan might leaveofthe passport impounded. ditional Gond style, which is both their goddess in a painting that sings the praise of grateful. This is just our way of saying thanks.” neiro, where he will be portrayed by Farhan as Flipkart and Big Basket will be elimi- country, as he will have nothing to do. gift nemesis is, until India accords the tireless whousnot only works Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Swiss Tounated.homemaker This will enable to leverage our and Akhtar. “He can easily cover 400 metres,” said Thistheir could lead — tothat female consumers The story lines importance to its indigenous artists. fieldscompetence, and tends thewhich cattle is but also cooks rism has registered unhappiness. “After every- their publicist. “He is doing it all the time.” in thecore giving away more turning against us.” Most Gond paintings are made painstakingly and cleans for her family. The Investigator is a monthly round-up of all things droll newsy. All are personal. Really personal Suresh t@shovonc withand a plethora ofviews intricate details. Each tree, Kumar Dhurve’s painting fore- georgina maddox is a Delhi-based art writer
AMITABH TO DO PANAMA TOURISM CAMPAIGN!
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START-UP TO GIVE AWAY FREE MONEY!
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Status update as teaching assistant
ute I post Toru Dutt’s sonnet (excerpted): But nothing can be lovelier than the ranges Of bamboos to the eastward, when the moon Looks through their gaps, and the white lotus changes Into a cup of silver. One might swoon Drunken with beauty then, or gaze and gaze On a primeval Eden, in amaze. Comments on the poet’s use of the sonnet form to show an idealised Eden as the pristine homeland quickly leads to translations. Maaz Bin Bilal, who teaches in Ashoka University, Delhi, and is a Ghalib translator, pitches in with his experience of realising the ghazal form in English. Ghalib, to the undergraduates, becomes a cool dude. It must be divulged here, without compromising any secrecy, that typically, for each seI was delighted to find some of my favourite mester and the courses opted, my students writers and poets honourably involved in create a Rise ‘closed’ Facebook group to exchange of the underdogs crowdsourcing. No other term seemed more ideas, thus adding Riyad an element of freshness to Mahrez’s like the promising in Facebook democracy. the teaching andstory, sharing. larger Leicester City In this, poet Kazim Ali became my main inGoing back to the context of student polistory, has a great dash spiration. The creative writing director of tics, it was on Facebook Vemula’s suicide of romance about that it mike hewitt/getty images news publications Oberlin College generously shares his reading note went viral before lists on Facebook and invites additions from picked it up. The study-abroad students from time to time. The aesthetic of the range is the US who I teach have been deeply swayed by highly rewarding. So I took courage from Ali it. This is poetry, said many, not of anguish but to trek for my own treasure. After all, Anais of clarity. Vemula’s imagination of man as Nin’s pithy quote said it all: “Life shrinks or ex- stardust and not a number, thing, or vote, coupands in proportion to one’s courage.” pled with his deep reflections on nature, love The methodology is simple. Once I write a and politics is what the students understand Facebook status, such as “Hey all, so I will be and imbibe. teaching a course on how books/texts/scripts During my crowdsourcing, Arpita Ghosh, become movies or pictures or images or vi- assistant professor at Ramananda Centenary sual concepts… Tips and resource sug- College, Purulia, West Bengal, was delightfully gestions are highly appreciated”, quick with her suggestions, especially when it within an hour the comment came to my Construct of Body Image course. would certainly be the most win- Telling thread fills up,improbable as do my inbox proved students themselves to be better than enviabout thefar rather skewed subners since tiny Ipswich TownThe wonsuggestions the league text and email. saged, a manager who has been quietly of and masculinity and nationalism in the in 1962. Even if Spurs somehow pull a rabbit well-known range from Premchand’s impressive, changing not tooand much, but yet Indian history mythology out of the hat, Leicester’s story would still re- comic-book The Chess Players (Shatranj infusing in the team, inChitra his own words, the series Amar Katha became main remarkable, and wouldtoresonate for Ke Khiladi) How to Kill a livelier “Italian with tactical herway”. suggestions of reading Ketu years to come. Such has been the outrageous Mockingbird to Bibhu- Katrak Consider Leicester’s most influential play(Politics of the Female Body) and Caroline implausibility of their run. tibhushan Bandyo- Knapp ers, each of whose rises has been (Appetites); Ghosh’s witty astonishing, recommenThe heroes at the heart of this impending padhayay’s Pather dations and eachonoffan whom was identified signed fiction were helpfuland in holding Leicester triumph are manifold. One of Panchali (Song of the fort by Leicester’s head ofclasses. recruitment Steve for my high-energy phenomenal aspects of their feattoisthe marked by Walsh. Road) immenBarely ago,Rajesh Jamie Rajamani’s Vardy, now Speaking offour highyears energy, the absence in their squad,sely at the beginning of memes popular Harry the club’s marksman, wasIndian playing areleading a spin-off of classical artfor to the season, of a single marquee Potter player, series.a playThe drive Fleetwood team in the effective fifth homeTown, pointsa on feminism, postmodern er that a top European club might at the best haulhave appears to angst, division of English football. Kante, who caste bigotry, as wellN’Golo as visual subvertime yearned for. Indeed the comprised be squad a student project sion. was snapped upthat for €8 million last summer And now Rajamani’s comics has a rather motley crew, from play- been onjourneymen Sa’adat Hasan from French was virtually cited asside oneCaen, of the recent bestunknown works in ers to former youth prodigies that had moved Manto’s Toba Tek the amongst fans Iinknow England. performanccountry, whyBut it his made sense to to pastures new and low in search ofits first team crowdsource Singh, with unique es in midfielditfor forLeicester my class.have showcased a football, to players whogeopolitical had risen slowly up pedigree narrative ofmedia some renown. As social is a lot of YouTube, the more the ranks from the lower — anecheunderclass film sensuous visualThe jewel in ofthe crown, representation Michael Onlons, to mostly unknown conti- on YouTube. daatje’s poemthough, assignment has beenPeeler’ Riyadgathered Mahrez, ‘The Cinnamon nental players who were Saikat Majumdar of similar suggestions a playerinblessed with thesection most the comments apparently too light-weight Stanford for UniversityLeicester has such silken touch and balance. An Alas Andy Garcia reading ‘Tonight I can City’s the hurly-burly Premier League.The Chess been teaching Play-ascent gerian, he(Pablo was signed in the sumwrite the saddest lines Neruda)’, ‘Nina’s dizzying gives The squad’s composition ers for his Modern Indian us LitermerEady)’, of 2013and forPrahlad a paltrySingh sum Tiof Blues hope for a (Cornelius looked so dire thatclass. 10 out 11 ature In of our £750,000. At theKabir. time,In there paniya singing thiswere conbeautiful future Guardian journalists quizzed beFacebook interaction, many doubts Mahtext, where over thewhether text/screen fore the season began predicted Majumdar shares his rez, who is slight of frame, could interdisciplinary mode plays in that Leicester certainties thrill: “I beginwere by pointing out I was delighted to find beautiful cut it in the Premier League.help Yet, layers, one cannot for relegation. Thein airsome of inevitahow close — even, ways, threeremember seasons in, he now stands Susan Sontag on some of my favourite but bility about a demotion interchangeable — Hindiwas andonly Ur- accentuated the very apex of the game, having been debeauty: writers andatpoets when Claudio Ranieri was announced as their involved du were to Premchand.” clared as the “The Professional responsesFootball to beautyAssociin art honourably new In his most effortrecent job, with the Wemanager. revel in the master’s ation’s Player of the Year. and to beauty in nature are interin crowdsourcing Greece national football team, the Italian had less prose, free of the religious Mahrez’s story, much likeBeauty the larger Leicesdependent… regains its been sacked after fourbeen games in charge, ter City story, associations that just have has a its great dash of as romance solidity, inevitability, a judgwhich on included a loss to lowly thrust Hindi and Urdu later. Faroe Islands. about it. As fans of needed football,towe live today in a ment make sense of Gary Lineker, former England “The story the itself is quite a and Leices- world wherelarge spending power often energies, acts as a portion of one’s ter great,for branded the decision to appoint Ra- affinities, stunner students… The decadence of the sole trump. Leicester and City the andusurping Mahrez andBut admirations; nieri asis“uninspiring”. world morally troubling and yet most stu- notions have shown us that there is still place in sport appear ludicrous. So, what, might wonder, has been the for“Imagine dents find it one aesthetically captivating, and this the unpredictable. ascent saying, Their ‘Thatdizzying sunset is key to this Leicester triumph? Althoughisit’s gulf between the moral and the aesthetic an interesting.’” gives us hope for a beautiful future, one where been described thus inspace certain quarters, their perhaps endlessly intriguing and offers great football, too, can occasionally the For a poet and writer, what is handierbethan feat is neither a consequence of mere fortune, such teaching moments,” writes Majumdar. true victor. quotes that abound in the social media? nor is itcouldn’t a freak accident. It has rather been the One agree more. parthasarathy is a Chennai-based nabina das is a poet and fiction writer currentlylawyer living effect a syncretic betweenon players, Theofpoetry classamalgam doesn’t depend text- suhrith and writer; t@suhrith Hyderabad and teaching creative writing scoutedalone. and My selected superbly, have in books ‘Timeline’ is abuzzwho the min-
A creative writing instructor on sourcing material and ideas from social media and other non-traditional mediums
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hat do fictional subtitles for Godard movie shots, Burka Avenger, Harry Potter, Premchand, and Inedible India graphic/memes have in common? Hold your breath… all of them are crowdsourced for classroom teaching from Facebook. During a THE recent discussion with a friend, we BEYOND FIELD concurred how a general feeling of pessimism permeated most issues about academia these days, especially following the tragic suicide of the Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in January in Hyderabad Central University, to the current crackdown in JNU and HCU.
Keeping the faith
On the brink of a maiden Premier League triumph, Leicester City have reminded fans of the glorious uncertainties of football
suhrith parthasarathy
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n these very pages, in August last year, I had predicted a closely fought, potentially thrilling race to this season’s English Premier League title. The defending champions, Chelsea, I proclaimed, under the doughty genius of Jose Mourinho, were favourites, but only just. Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United had, after all, each made considerable improvements to their respective squads of players, and were surely capable of mounting a serious title challenge. My faith in this prediction might have had an alarming element of conviction about it. But the old adage of sport’s glorious uncertainties is usually inapplicable to football in England, at least in that there is a prosaic regularity to the nature of the league’s challengers. Yet this confidence in my prediction, and indeed that of many pundits of the game, far more knowledgeable than I, couldn’t have been any more misplaced. Chelsea, who sacked Mourinho in December last year, are floundering in the middle of the table. Manchester United’s football has been routinely uninspiring, and any hint of a title challenge from them died as early as a few weeks into the season. Manchester City have flattered on occasion, but have been far too inconsistent. And Arsenal have been Arsenal, threatening to win the league only to fall I must apologise this detour while setapart at the businessfor end. ting out toall explain how as a creative writing Leaving these clubs in the wake, though, instructor I source my material andleague, ideas perched majestically at the top of the frompoised social to networks andfirst other non-traditionand claim their title in their stoal media. But teaching is a political actthree too. ried yet unadorned history, with just Hence, left non-traditional. games in the season, are the ridiculously The termLeicester crowdsourcing came my dictiounfancied City. The onlytoteam capanaryofonly recently, and its need arose rather ble surmounting Leicester, Tottenham Hoturgently. Otherpoints than creative I had to spur, are seven behind,writing, in second place. teach withinneed the now shortisspan semester, All Leicester a winofinaany one of somethree challenging andgames. highly And engaging courstheir remaining were this to es, namely, ‘Construct of Bodywould Imageunquesin Pop happen, Leicester’s conquest Culture and Creative and ‘From Books to tionably go down in Texts’ the annals of football as Screen Back’. underdog triumphs; they one of and the greatest
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scan know
saturday, april 30,30, 2016 saturday, april 2016
STATES OF MATTER
Charlie Hebdo stirs the pot, 97, not out! yet again Nonagenarian wants Master’s degree
A The satirical magazine hasn’t taken long to shed the mantle of free speech martyr and 97-year-old man from Bihar is a step closer to his dream of a Master’s degree. A first-year MA economics student, Raj Kumar Vaishya sat for a three-hour exam with students younger than his grandchildren. With a law degree from 1940, Vaishya now wants to study economics to understand why India has failed to solve problems like poverty.
become the rusty relic of a benighted colonial past
sukumar muralidharan
to others here, except in certain bizarre and unlikely scenarios. It is also an observed fact that France’s Muslim community were not given to conspicuous emblems of their faith until recent years, when the retreat of the welfare state and the denial of equality may have couple of gaya vultures at the Nordhorn triggered reassertion of identity. zoo inFar Germany have adopted an abanfrom an accommodative posture, the doned egg and built a nestresponded to incubatewith it. After French republic ever more Lisa, a griffon vulture at the of zoo, dogmatic assertions its abandoned doctrine of secularher egg, staff kept the egg an most incubaism or laicite. Thissafely was ininthe charitable tor. Isis and Nordhorn, loving pair, promptview, little elsethe than an effort at scapegoating, ly sat on at theblaming egg when brought thetheir largehandlers immigrant communities it in. If the eggformer is a fertilised this will be to intefrom colonies,one, for their failure id you think that adult colouring books are popular simply one luckygrate babyinto vulture. an inhospitable social milieu. because folks find colours soothing? According to a ChrisIn further rubbing in its insistence that the tian blogger called The Last Hiker, the real reason is a little more free speech right would not recognise the sinister than that. In a blog post two months ago, he writes: “Is it slightest cultural sensitivity of immigrant really about colouring? Or is it about spiritual hosts of wickedgroups or seek to engage them in a spirit of ciness sneaking mandalas into our homes and into our subconvility, France retreated further into the dogscious minds?” So now you know: mandalas (ritualistic mas of colonial conquest and racist diagrams in Hinduism/ Buddhism) are portals to hell and all domination. youAfter hipster types are in for an32 extended sauna. The more strident voices within French Thou art guilty the Brussels attacks in more March than that left civilians dead, Charlie Hebdo came out with a feminism have called for the boycott of clothsearing indictment of all who bore culpability reuters ing lines that bring the hijab or headscarf to atire is an effective solvent for dogma, Charlie cartoons lampooning religion, soon af- the market. Others have likened a woman’s until it gets mired in a theology of its ter the January 2015 attacks. Those who did personal choice of the hijab to African-Ameriown. When that theology melds with not like the cartoons could just move on. But can acquiescence in their own enslavement in background conditions and becomes for some reason, Charlie was unwilling to the 19th century. an entrenched consensus on which the civility grant that degree of latitude in matters involvMeanwhile, a rather crass form of selectivity of social life is built, it begins to corrode basic ing symbols of Islam in the public space. is manifest in enforcing the free speech right. freedoms. It was all very well to “shut up, look else- In March, a protester wearing a shirt denouncTerrorism in Brussels claimed 32 lives in where and move past all the street-insults and ing the Israeli occupation of Palestine was ara white a BJP man this time RPwould Sarma,be at the rested and interrogated. And hate-speech law March, all innocent civilians t’s who borehorse no and rumpus”, saidagain, Charlie, but that MPimagined from Tezpur, left of forsuffocating Parliamentthe onspirit his “pollution blame for the grievances — real or — risk of public inquiry. has been invoked to convict at least a dozen free vehicle,” as the Citizens card around horse’sfrom neck asking said. The the attackers may have harboured. It took the werethe stopped perfectly civil society activists calling for a peaceful DelhiHebdo, Policehonwould reasonable have none of it; they stopped French satirical magazine Charlie questions, such as him “howatthe hell campaign against Israel, under the rapidly Railsince Bhavan, barelydida Ikilometre from to the Parliament oured as a free speech martyr several end up having wander growing “Boycott, DisinvestHouse. odd protest an odd staffers were killed in a January 2015An terrorist thefor streets all day. day with a big veil ment and Sanctions” (BDS) attack, to read the deeper patterns. on my head?”; and, “how the hell movement. In a searing indictment of all who bore cul- did I end up having to say In January, a group of French The French republic pability, Charlie named Tariq Ramadan, a well- prayers five times a day?”. activists and writers signed a responded with ever known professor of religion, active in making For Charlie, these restraints public pledge of support to the more dogmatic the case for a new compact between Islam and were just the same as another, BDS movement, defying the deassertions of its the west, an unnamed baker who typically which prevented a French or Belclared governmental intent to doctrine of would take over a Paris boulangerie and re- gian citizen from asking “how criminalise any such call. Alongsecularism or laicite move all offerings that violate his personal the hell” he ended up in a taxi side its crass partisanship for Isdietary taboos, and an ordinary woman com- headed for Brussels airport, rael, the French government has plying with the sartorial demands of her faith, “with three rucksacks packed also been unrepentant about the such as the headscarf or face veil. with explosives”. Terrorism lay chaos it has fomented in seeking France had done itself a serious disfavour in a logical continuum with the professor ar- regime changes across a wide swathe of the by its attitude of tolerance, said Charlie. Rama- guing the case for an enlightened understand- Arab world, from Libya to Syria. This goes with dan did not carry Kalashnikov rifles into the ing of Islam, the benign but bearded baker the pursuit of commercial advantage in arms lecture hall to make his case for Islam. He was with the “prayer bruise” on his forehead, and deals with regimes that promote the most professional cyclist has been banned for six years after open to being challenged and refuted on ev- the devoted mother of a family who refused to primitive forms of religious fundamentalism, race officials discovered a hidden electric motor under ery substantive point. And if ham sandwiches shed her face veil. What really was at stake for such as Saudi Arabia. her seat. Femke Van den Driessche was caught at the UCI Cyclowere not available with the local baker, it was Charlie was secularism as a principle, increasIt did not take long for Charlieresonance Hebdo to shed cross World Championships, after a magnetic scan easy to move on and shop elsewhere. That ingly being “forced into retreat” by the silenc- the mantle of free speech martyr. Today, it spotted a battery and Vivax electric motor in the seat tube, actiwoman in the veil similarly, was unlikely to be es of political correctness. looks very much rusty relicVan of aden bevated by a switch hidden underlike thethe handlebars. carrying a bomb under her enveloping attire. Even the most extreme liberalism allows nighted colonial past. Driessche’s explanation: it was her friend’s cycle and a meInterestingly, these simple principles of some public scrutiny over personal choices. chanic had switched it, by mistake. coexistence — of live and let live — strongly re- These would be limited in matters sartorial or sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer sembled those advanced in defence of the dietary, since there is little possibility of harm based in Gurgaon
Two to tango
Gay vultures adopt egg
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Conspiracy of the wicked Last blogger theory
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Horsing it to the house MP gallops to beat odd-even
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Cyclist banned for electric motor
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saturday, april 30, 2016
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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya
T
his week’s quiz is all about holidays, to mark the beginning of summer vacation for schools across the country.
here,there & elsewhere
Culinary cuckoo
Questionable holidays
1
The South African town of Hermanus is one of the world’s best known centres for which specific activity, especially between May and December?
2
In which country is Grounation Day observed as an important holiday on April 21 every year? It actually commemorates the visit of a person to that specific country in 1966.
3 4
For what specific reason did Northumberland’s Alwick Castle experience a 230 per cent increase in visitors after 2011? Ten million people come to see this tourist attraction every year, and most decide to go to either the Badaling or the Mutianyu areas. Which specific tourist attraction features both these areas?
5
Which famous Scotsman’s 1879 account, Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes, is regarded as one of the first works in English to present hiking and camping as recreational activities?
6
India has only three national holidays. The rest are decided by the individual states and Union Territories. Two of these holidays are Republic Day and Independence Day. Which is the third?
7
Which festival, celebrated in many parts of India and at least one neighbouring country, gets its name from the fact it is celebrated on the sixth day of the month Kartika?
8
Enotourism, better known as wine tourism, is one of the fastest growing holiday activities. With reference to enotourism, distinguish between horizontal tasting and vertical tasting?
9
The most profitable holiday in the history of mankind was when an untidy Scottish biologist returned to London after a month’s holiday in August 1928 with his family. What did he discover when he came back?
10
his week, I’ve been too busy cooking to read anything! It all began with a T promotion I read online for something called Blue Apron. “Look,” I say to Bins, “there’s a company that will deliver packages of fresh food to our doorstep, with instructions for transforming it into delicious meals.” He gives me one of his I-cannot-believe-this-nonsense expressions. So I read the article, think about it a bit, read all the reviews and soon decide to subscribe to the service. It seems surprisingly affordable: at around $10 per serving, members can choose to get weekly deliveries of three meals of two servings each for the two-person plan. The veggies are locally sourced ingredients and all the ingredients are weighed and measured to suit the recipes. There are copious notes and online videos to help wouldbe chefs overcome their natural incompetence. I choose the “omnivore” option, agree to accept delivery on a Friday, make my initial payment and then there’s nothing for me to do but wait impatiently for the initial 10-day period to pass! By Friday morning, I am pacing the floors and checking the driveway every half hour for signs of the delivery van. Bins taps the side of his head and says, “This Blue Diaper Hocus-pocus is CRAZY. It’s not possible to learn
cooking from opening little boxes and reading instructions!” I plug my ears and continue staring out the kitchen window. At 5.30, I hear a knock on the front door and there it is! A small neat carton with the Blue Apron logo printed on it. Inside, just as described, the contents are labelled and packed as if for a child’s construction kit, with the meats between freezer-paks and the veggies clearly identified in see-through cellophane. I immediately unpack the first meal on the list. It’s called Korean Bao Sliders. “Looks like a giant idli-burger,” says Bins, with a disapproving sneer. I pay no attention to him, as I slice scallions, mix a spicy sauce from dinky containers of
mayonnaise and Korean Gochujang paste, then prepare the Sweet Potato Tempura for deep frying. This involves a thin batter into which I must dip the bright orange slices of sweet potato. According to the recipe, I should be able to prep the meat patties (also known as ‘sliders’) during the deep frying, but of course the moment the oil’s hot, the fire-alarm goes off. Bins is busy rolling on the floor with laughter, so I have to run about opening windows and fanning the alarm until it shuts down. I refuse to get flustered. The final moves involve steaming the soft white ‘Bao’ buns. When they’ve puffed up nicely, I smear their interiors with the spicy mayonnaise sauce and insert the patties. I complete the garnishes and make up two plates, two burgers each, and two more in reserve. Ta-daa! “Dinner’s served!” I yodel. Bins is already sitting down with his napkin tucked into the neck of his t-shirt. “Smells good,” he says. Picks up a Bao burger and takes a bite. “Not bad,” he concedes. In five minutes he’s polished off his portion plus the reserves. “Not enough!” he finishes, burping thunderously. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column
cornerstone
The Vespa 125 cc Piaggio scooter became one of the largest selling vehicles in Europe, and a design classic thanks to its use in which classic film of the ’50s?
Answers 1. Whale watching. Right Whales come so close to the shore that visitors can actually watch them from their hotels. The town also employs a ‘whale crier’ to walk through the town announcing where whales have been seen. 2. Jamaica, which celebrates Grounation Day in honour of Haile Selassie’s visit 3. It was the setting for the first two Harry Potter films 4. The Great Wall of China. 5. Robert Louis Stevenson. It was very popular in its time and even discussed how the first sleeping bags were designed 6. Gandhi Jayanti, on October 2 7. Chath, which means sixth in Hindi, Nepali and Bhojpuri. It is celebrated in many parts of eastern India and Nepal 8. Horizontal tasting involves tasting wines of the same vintage from different wineries, while vertical tasting is about tasting all the different vintages from a single winery 9. That a colony of staphylococci had been destroyed by a strange mould that had grown by accident. That mould turned out to be penicillin, which saved millions of lives in the 20th century 10. Roman Holiday, starring Gregory Peck and newcomer Audrey Hepburn
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joy bhattacharjya is a quizmaster and Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup t@joybhattacharj
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