Blink issue 119 may14 2016

HOLIDAY AT HOME Though a young market in India, homestays are growing in number as travellers opt for the personal touch over big box hotels p4 saturday, may 14, 2016

partha pratim sharma

Once considered an uncool communist hardliner, 92-year-old VS Achuthanandan is the star campaigner in the Kerala elections.

Meet the mass leader who espouses causes that resonate with the people p10

Red hot

NOVEL NARRATIVE Siliguri is at home being the small town where nothing really happens p17

ON THE ROAD Travelling in Arunachal Pradesh is a lesson in surrendering yourself to a place p20

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Another shot at gold The Rio Olympics in August features India’s largest contingent ever. Can they deliver a performance to match?

How green is my valley The National Highway 5 in Visakhapatnam sports a lush green look in 2009 kr deepak A gold encore?

Half measures hurt

Former world and Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra celebrates after winning the 10m air rifle gold in the 8th Asian Airgun Championship in New Delhi in September last year

Planting trees along newly constructed national highways is the obvious thing to do, but outsourcing the process to private companies is doing more harm than good sandeep saxena

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ndia has not missed participating in any n 2012, the Gujarat government importOlympic Games since its debut 96 years ed two machines to transplant ago.

Forhydraulic long, going to the Olympics for trees along their state participation, highways instead Indian athletes meant not of cutting them down while winning.

That mindset changed onlyconstructafter libing roads. Narendra YouTube eralisation and the Modi’s opening of thechannel Indian has shortin video clipsThe of these hydraulic economy the ’90s. athletes realisedtransthey planters up trees, then had to go picking out on their own toand train and transcomplanting in best another location. clip has will pete withitthe in the field. AThe system tell you how huge andmeritorious. put them in now been puttoinlift place to trees help the another prepared pit. settled It won’tonce tell you veOne thing has been andthat for all, ry few among the transplanted treesprovided have surthat there is money in Indian sport, vived, according data released by the the people runningto it are clean and willing to Government of Gujarat. avoid the and inevitawork professionally for itsTopromotion the ble destruction of forest cover while conwelfare of sportspersons.

Some former sportsstructing roads, the government had begun men and women joined hands to oversee the transplanting and translocating them along process and things have been streamlined. stateresults and national highways The are there for all to. see.

Half aout decade later, the Ministry of Road Eight of nine bronze medals, four silTransport andlone Highways has in colluded vers and the gold came the lastwith 20 the Ministry of Environment andindividuals Forestry to years.

In the decades before that, employ this strategy to improve India’s forest like Henry Rebello, Gurbachan Singh Randhacover and carbon sink — Singh soil, ocean or Usha trees wa, Milkha Singh, Sriram and PT thatdone absorb gases and carbon had the greenhouse country proud by coming close compounds emitted in the atmosphere. The to winning a medal. government hasmodern-day approved theIndian National Green Importantly, athletes Highway Mission under which 1 per of have appeared to be a determined lot.cent Their the project cost is to bepre-’90s set asideera towere transplant counterparts from the more trees in allin highway projects.

It aims to plant interested cheering the hockey team than trees along national to improveBut the worrying about theirhighways, own performance. country’s credit as well as generate the hockeycarbon team, too, became also-rans after employment in ifrural areas. (The aim in the the 1964 Games, one forgets the discounted first gold. year was to plant along an initial 6,000 1980 km.) foratEnvironment, ForFor Minister India, it of all State started the 1996 Atlanta ests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, Games when Leander Paes won a bronze medin 44 a recent organised

by TERI (The al, years conference after Kashabha Dadasaheb Jadhav Energy and Resources and NHAI won an individual bronzeInstitute) at the 1952 Helsinki (National Highway Authority of India), reportOlympics. edOnthat government would that the overcast morning at Stone release Moun₹42,000 crore overGeorgia, the nextPaes three yearswith for aftain Tennis Centre, played a forestation, and every hadcame to announce wrist injury, which moststate scribes to know an afforestation theFernando Compensatoafter he rallied toplan beatunder Brazilian Mery Afforestation Bill, praise that has ligeni 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. Fund He earned frombeen ten-

nis legends for his tenacity.

Another controversy is brewing in tennis. passed thelater, Lower House on May 3. DisturbFour by years iron woman Karnam Mal- India wind has or animals, proper guards need to a realisticand chance of winning medals ingly, he alsothe said, Highways leswari won first“National medal byGreen an Indian wom- in beboth created them.

Often, due toThe budgetthearound men’s and mixed doubles. two Mission is a major initiative.

We wantin to high-ranking an, and that was apublic bronze in weightlifting ary constraints, that is — notSania the case.” players Mirza, world encourage public-private under Sydney.

Another four years,partnership it was a silver in number As perone datainreleased bydoubles, the Gujarat women’s andgovernRohan which 200 hectare patches will be given to pri- Bopanna, Athens, double-trap shooter Rajyavardhan ment, transplantation and translocation ranked 13 in men’s doubles — are had the vate industries who Rathore becoming theare firstimporting Indian to timber. win it. people been carried out for five would years, and to watch outthe for.last Mirza likethe to This long land will given on lease The waitbefor gold endedforin40-50 the years next choose successher ratemixed has been between 8.5-51 per cent. doubles partner.

Like Sushil, with 90inper cent of theAbhinav forest forBindra harvest on a Paes Games Beijing with shootThis ismakes transplantation rather risky also talking about his apast, more so revenue-sharing ThisKumar will encourage ing it down. Boxerbasis.

Vijender and wres- about strategy.

Since Grand the contract forintransplantahis three Slam titles the run-up business create jobs. The for to tler Sushiland Kumar swelled the guidelines tally to three tion usually awarded to are a private agency, theisOlympic year. There no wildcards this will soon medals. issued,” he said. with twobe bronze (such as Drip turn isina this time andDrop that Drizzle), will denywhich Paes in a berth The building national extracts At the Londonof Games, thehighway medal spread wasa what partner brought in byathe construction comwould have been record seventh Olymhuge cost thesilver environment.

For instance, bigger withontwo and four bronze med- pics. pany,Another there isdiscipline neither ownership of hopes the prowith medal is according to a report published

by Indian the Asian als.

Sushil Kumar became the first to shooting ject, nor accountability. and India will have one more shooDevelopment Bank, 16,524 treesand the shoo- ter than the 11 at win medals in successive Games While national highways conLondon.

Past medalists Binwerecontinued removedtoduring the con-serious medal dra and Gagan ters be considered stitute just(bronze) 1.7 per cent toNarang willof bethe there struction ofSaina NH-26Nehwal betweenand UP Mary Kom once again. tal 33 lakh km road network of prospects. and MPthe alone.

A total of 125.2 kl/ proved mettle of women in Indian sport India, according to NHAI’s webThe most exciting entry is that of gymnast If trees are km oftheir diesel was used. with bronzes. site, they manage 40 cent of Dipa Karmakar.

TheperAgartala transplanted while Industry insiders this posThe August 5-21 Riosay Games are India’s totalperformances road traffic. The gymnast’s in govthe the project is going es a chicken-and-egg problem almost upon us. The Indian conernment thather the lead-up tohas theannounced big event make on, their chances of for people charge of constructingent hasinset another record trees along atransplantation serious medal of contender.

For survival reduces There is money in tion. trees are transplanted afas theIflargest ever for the Olymnational highways help it the first time, there will will be two dramatically Indian sports, ter construction, the40project pics, with 48 men and womachieve its Intended Nationally women’s singles players in badprovided the people drags on for longer, increasing en qualifying so far. Some spots Determined Contribution goals, minton, Saina Nehwal and PV running it are clean costs. transplantation is carare yet If to be filled from athletics, and create carbon sink hockey of 2.5-3 Sindhu.

Andathe women’s and willing to work ried onboxing duringand construction, the tennis, golf. billion provided the team willtonnes, be playing only for the chances of the trees’ re- professionally for its The Olympic rulessurvival state that trees survive.

Privatising second time at the Olympics,the afpromotion duces dramatically.

Theearns newly the quota the individual is transplanted planting of trees is a stop-gap solution, and ter making their debut 36 years trees are vulnerable infection for the country, and to not for the and prone to several examples from prove: transago. Add tothe the past list three women damage, and often withstand the te- plantation isarchers, individual who wonunable it. The to selecunprofitable. reported The each ofAswhom can by win a diousthus construction. tion becomes subjective, Hindu earlier,medal 74 peron cent of transplantations their day. Two other Rane works for Drip Drop Drizzle, have failed in likeSanjeev it is happening in wrestling 11 forest circles in Maharashtra gutsy women, Vinesh Phogat and ‘green partner’ in the construction of Nation- Sakshi and tennis. in a 10-year evaluation period (2004-2014).

Malik, have won quota places in womal The Expressway 1, between Vadodara and first whiff of controversy is Ahmebeing en’s While ₹1,500 crore has been spent on afforeswrestling. dabad. in Rane admitted that not one treeIndia had tation stoked wrestling, a discipline where in Karnataka in the last 30ofyears, forest Finally, what are the chances the men’s survived transplantation five wrestler years on.who He hockey looks good for a medal. The cover went down by 2,898 sq km 1997team?

After hiring andbetween firing wellcites several forIndia, this failure.

“ItYadav, is im- known achieved the reasons quota for Narsingh 2011. With the new bill now in place, wesettled might hockey coaches, things have perative that trees that areSushil indigenous to the is jittery about the reputed snatching it down. be going disasTheyahead shouldwith makean theecologically knock-out round regionIt is begoing used,tofor can withstand the from away. be they a political decision with trousadecision. tough pool. trauma of Federation transplantation.

Trees also need to Wrestling bigwigs lining up on srivatsa is a veteran sports journalist payel majumdar be protected against natural forces such as veturi both sides.

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Tune into change The Mandakini ki Awaaz radio station is based in Sena Gadkari, near Rudraprayag; (below) Manvendra Singh Negi, the brain behind the venture shail desai

Breaking waves Born a year after the Uttarakhand floods, a community radio service near Rudraprayag is filling many gaps in information

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hen the floods hit Kedarnath in Uttarakhand in 2013, most of those who lay in its path were sitting ducks. As a result, while the temple town saw maximum devastation, towns and villages downstream too were washed away by the waters of the Mandakini River.

Today though, the river and the population on its banks have a voice in the form of a community radio: Mandakini ki Awaaz, which has not only brought the people closer, but has also empowered them with timely information about inclement weather in the mountains.

“We were in the process of setting up the radio station when the floods hit this region,” says Manvendra Singh Negi, station manager at Mandakini ki Awaaz. “It was difficult to see the destruction and not be able to help; we had no permission at that time. Communication had failed all over. For three months, we put the radio work aside and joined the relief operations,” he adds.

Negi’s radio journey began in 2001, when he realised the need for a local radio station.“There were many things that the current radio service wasn’t catering to, which I thought was important for people separated by mountains and valleys. Not everyone has access to newspapers and television, and getting local information across was important,” he says.

There was no policy in place for community radios until 2007. Negi applied for a licence only three years later. While the registration process took its course, Mandakini ki Awaaz connected base with People’s P.ow.e.r Collective (PPC), which guided the team on the technical aspects.

“We provided them with funding for the first 18 months. We believe in learning by doing and conducted eight modules through which we got them to understand the basic workings of a radio station. This is cuttingedge information that goes straight to people in remote areas; we are working with the state

government for more such services in Uttarak- and records the event, and after editing and hand,” says Saritha Thomas, founder of PPC mixing, it is archived and played on demand. and a former reporter with the British Broad- In addition, the radio station also has a soundcasting Corporation. proof recording facility where artistes can reAfter dry runs that started about a month cord their work. prior, Mandakini ki Awaaz finally delivered its But community building and social service first broadcast on 21 September 2014, on remain the soul of Mandakini ki Awaaz.

90.8MHz frequency from its base in Sena Gad“We run a paheli each morning and give liskari near Rudraprayag. And it’s been a steep teners the day to crack it — it’s good mental exlearning curve for the six full-time employees, ercise. These are based on old Pahari stories volunteers and the listeners alike. and beliefs, which the seniors are familiar “I had little idea about a computer, let alone with. We’ve seen greater interaction among a radio station, when I came here,” says Siva- the kids and youngsters, and their elders, nand Nautiyal, who aired the first live show since the latter have the answers to these ridand has been working with the radio station dles,” Negi says. for over two years. “We’ve graduThe radio station also takes up ally developed a healthy rapport issues on behalf of communities, with the listeners, and a good and approaches the authorities way to gauge this is the feedback concerned for a response. The isWe run a paheli each we receive, which isn’t always sues range from getting electricimorning and give positive,” he adds. ty supply arranged for a senior listeners the day What started off with six citizen couple, to restarting a to crack it hours of programming, has tostalled ropeway project. Another

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day hit eight. It extends to 11 ½ hours on weekends when shows for women and senior citizens are hosted. The average day starts at 6am in the summers and 7am in the winters with religious songs, followed by news, weather updates, and alerts on happenings in the vicinity. The programmes are in Hindi and Garhwali.

Over the years, the radio station has developed a network of correspondents and citizen reporters, some of whom were trained via workshops and work on a volunteer basis. The team also selects important headlines from newspapers for discussions with its listeners, who call in to share their views.

While music is a regular feature like most radio stations, Mandakini ki Awaaz focusses on Garhwali and regional artistes and poets, and gives them a platform to popularise their work among the locals. During a live performance, a member of the staff visits the venue

show records listeners’ queries, gets a response from the department in question, plays both on air and triggers discussions and suggestions on the topic.

“I run a local shop and pass on alerts to my customers. But my favourite time is when they play folk songs in the evening. I enjoy those over a cup of chai,” says Shakuntaladevi Negi from Bedu Bagad village.

Help has poured in from PPC and well-wishers, who contribute with essentials such as a generator that can address the problems created by electricity fluctuations. The channel also generates money through advertisements and private announcements.

And because they’re all too familiar with nature’s fury, Mandakini ki Awaaz is also in the process of obtaining permits for an emergency radio service. shail desai is a Mumbai-based writer

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A place Up closelike andhome Arunachal

Homestays, though still an unstructured segment in India, is beginning to make a dent in the Optimism the face of adversity thehomely motto of the land dawn-lit mountains, whose tourism in market as travellers optisfor comfort onofholidays geographic position is as fraught with risk as its mercurial weather

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hen Kamala and Vinod Pa- and launched their website. Today, weekends the study excludes self-catering villas, houseust one warningrekh — and I’ll scoot. moved backSound to Indiame dead! are packed the Gulmohur Homestay, whichour boats Betteratdead than disgraced. and farmhouses as they are not conthe contongue and marvel at the surprising carries far in thefrom mountains.

I’m clue- in Nothing the USYetsometime ParekhsI’ve have named after the with flam-trasts weathered so far intree the course ventional hotel that accommodation.

If these in the vistas unfold. Along the as-were less about the 1982, truckthey heading way of our wantedmy to continue boyant flowers. travels through West Kameng district, centtofrom be included, numbers would have gone Dirang tothe Tawang via Jaswantgarh, along the sole the ‘Y’in junction. what they hadroute beentodoing Chicago — re-popularly In Kerala’s midway between known Thiravoor, as the ‘Buddhist circuit’, has Ko-named up significantly.

In the top 50soldier emerging after the heroic Indian whotouBeyond rise of the mountain to the leftwithcome searchthe on human development.

Working chiclose and to Alappuzha, Francis anof ayurvedevoking so acute Xavier, a feeling de- had rism destinations of India, form 13 fought the Chinese againsthomestays insurmountof this lies our proposed thebifurcation Institute of Cultural Affairs, andestinaaffiliate of aspair. ic Certainly practitioner, extremely not theisblizzard we encounter able odds duringper total accommodathecent warof of the 1962, lie dense fortionUN — the high-altitude Lake, the better agency, the duoSangetsar had travelled worldon the busy between October andsnowflakes ests, resonant with 13,700 ft-high Sela Pass, the tion, itbirdcalls. says.

Giant icicles known byTo the name their it hadchildren acquiredunderstood after a cer- In-pinprick-sharp over. ensure March everyon year.

He exposed has turned our faces as we hang like bared dinosaur It is notteeth without from reason hollowsthat taindian Madhuri Dixit shot a dance sequence on Pa-stephis culture and grew up around family, ancestral out to200-year-old watch a pair of Brahminy ducks, in the rock face. homestays are gaining Magnolias bloom in wildpopulariproHomestays, hotels its shores a 1997 Bollywood film.

Branching unperturbed rekhs for chose Nashik to build a home. home along in- gliding by the the backwaters rough weather, Hari Nair, CEO of HolidayIQ, fusion along thety. hillside. resortsOther are not a off to the rightwe is decided the routetotoreturn, Bumlawe Pass near toacross “When wanted to Sela a comfortable accommodaLake. Nor the onward driveand — depoints out two factors.

“On the journeys — sometimes undertaken threat toon each other stomachs, the China border.

Among theand vehicles be close to a rural area have heading a live lab ofspitetion tourists. plunging Xavier’sto a shockthe carfor temperature supply side, it is theare economics growling for eateries rare in of will continue to realms there is a convoy of Indian Army nowTheying eco-friendly human development,” says trucks, Kamala. is for an weand minus 10°C houseboat — to Tawang, have accommodation in India that is these remote — yield equally irresiststalled in theseven snow acres some hairpin ahead byconvivial bought of landbends surrounded addedcompany attraction those onfor the way:stayA trio of smil- co-exist growth. cost and of land ible photo ops: driving trees laden withThe peach of us. hills in Nashik and made it home. Two decadesing Monpa ing withwomen family.whom I cajole into singing pear blossoms grow and around building a property is high Dirang; an elderly “Those trucksarchitect are skid-proofing tyres with later, their daughter-in-law dividedfolk songs Parekhs Xaviersforare for us and in exchange the ride they matron wearingwhile the average occupancy pretty turquoise earringsrate chains,” volunteers Lobsang, explaining the seekamong the palatial house into three and the Parekhs thehometown thousandsJang of famto their en route, be- smiles shyly from of hotels is only 40 to 45 per a doorway near Sangti vil-cent. traffic hold-up.

Nonchalant about such con- cause began to host guests in one of the divisions. iliesinclement who are now turning weather hastheir brought the lage; ponies andItyaks is notgraze enough to justify languidly onfresh the intingencies, ourwith localthe taxibed-and-breakfast driver promptlycon-road-repair Familiar homes into homestays. work they wereThe en-number of home- vestments in rooms.” way to Mandala and beyond; and stretches out inhad the seen snowabroad, for a power cept they the nap. family firstgaged stays has gone up from 17 in 2004 to 1,663 in in to a standstill.

Growthasand of traditional hotheprofitability mud-and-snow-churned I grab theachance I’d guest missed the Gorsalam hosted Japanese inat2007.

By 2010, they Even 2014the and is spread across 207 destinations in tels chains rogue snowfall in Tais to hampered highusreal estate road Nagagigiby forces back, army check postto almost an hour ago. Tension were ready welcome travellers regularlywang thethat country, says a research by HolidayIQ. But and financial frosts surrounding costs.mists Thesetransform propertiesentire are mostswirling The no-frills over an issue with our Inner Line Permits, mountain peaks and passes, forests into a dreamscape of accommodation in mandatory for civilian access to the militarily trees and flagpoles, rooftops and phantom silhouettes.

Tawang comes with sensitive areas of Arunachal Pradesh, followed cars, cancelling our trip to the The Zemithang valley, with its genial, rosy-cheeked by jubilation at being allowed by the friendly lakes twice, can’t sour my mood. playful children and shaggy housekeeping staff sentry on duty to proceed, had resulted in my Cowering in our hotel room’s dogs and its Monpa heritage lovcriminal lapse: overlooking the only public sub-zero chill under a hillock of ingly preserved, is so much like loo for miles. quilts, I’m hopeful of enjoying the Shangri-La of my imaginaThe next such facility — somewhere near blazing sunshine next morning. tion that it melts away the riMadhuri Lake — seems light years away as the Such optimism in adversity, a way of life in gours of the exhausting day trip from Tawang. minutes tick by and traffic remains immobile. the “land of dawn-lit mountains” whose stra- And our aversion to drab Bomdila, with its unMy desperation mounting, I sneak out to pa- tegic geographic position is as fraught with fortunate reputation as a town overrun by the trol the area behind our hired SUV. With all ac- risk as its mercurial weather, is something Chinese during the 1962 war, is forgotten tion focussed on the stalled convoy ahead, the we’re learning to summon with the local’s while visiting the unique Chillipam Monastecoast to the rear looks clear. Our car serving as cheerful ease. The no-frills accommodation in ry nearby that showcases the little-known tana protective shield in front, I squat and focus Tawang, for instance, comes with genial, rosy- tric aspects of Buddhism, the interiors rich on the job. cheeked housekeeping staff eager to ensure with exquisite murals and images depicting And then I hear the beast growl. Though our comfort during the frequent power outag- the Padmasambhava in erotic postures with still out of sight, the monster truck is ap- es, even if it means pumping life into a tem- curvaceous apsaras. proaching from behind. Horror-struck, I feel peramental, kerosene-fuelled room heater Even Tawang, inconsequential for most vismy surroundings, the rich cobalt sky, the fir that spits fire and releases fumes toxic enough itors, surprises. With its gilded rooftops visitrees Christmassy in their mantle of snow, the to asphyxiate us. The food, though basic, is ble from afar, the magnificent 17th-century spectacular ice floe-flecked Penga Teng Tso — fresh, piping hot. The hostile road conditions, Tawang Monastery complex is a sight to bethe glacial lake at 12,000-something feet that the random bouts of vertigo and nausea be- hold in fair weather and foul. The town’s we’d stopped by minutes earlier — becoming come bearable as we roll the melodious place quaint Old Market — with my favourite landpart of a high-altitude hallucination. Strike names — Tenga, Sesa, Nechiphu, Lumla — on mark, the aptly named Tipsy Wine Shop —

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Postcards from heaven The road to Tawang ; (inset) herds of sheep near Sela Pass on a winter morning ritu raj konwar

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Of gentle tweaks Homestays usually involve alterations and extensions to an existing property. So the costs are minimal. Lymond House, a colonial building in Ooty, is now a homestay k ananthan

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Simple pleasures Local food, the personal touch and being easy on the pocket are factors that work in favour of homestays. (Clockwise from left) Homestays in Nainital, Xavier Homestay in Alappuzha and another in Mussoorie special arrangement

ly financed through debt which makes capital (interest and depreciation) cost one of the biggest expenditures for hotel chains eat into their profitability. Take the case of India Hotels Co — India’s largest hotel chain. In FY15, the company spent ₹467 crore on interest and depreciation, more than its operating profits.

In contrast, homestays are rooms that already exist or are an extension of an existing property. So the costs are minimal. “Most of these places have been built by the owner for his/her own use. So maintenance, and not revenue, is usually the target,” agrees Sanjai Saxena, CEO of Indianhomestays.org, a website that brings together homestay owners and travellers. Kamala agrees: “This is not our bread and butter. So revenue is not the prime consideration.”

On the demand side, says Nair, travellers today prefer an alternative to the usual resorts and hotels. “You get to stay with the family and often the local food is a big draw,” he says.

Nair seems to be right. Mauli Village, a homestay spread over 17 acres in Maharashtra’s Alibaug, is regularly packed with collegegoers, families and even movie production units. “The traditional Maharashtrian food, prepared by the owner’s family, is one of the reasons I keep going back to Mauli. They grow vegetables and fruits in the property which makes it very green. Besides, the tariffs are much lower than other properties in Alibaug,” says Manish Sharma, a regular at the homestay. Kamala says the biggest difference is the environment. “People who come from metros, short on fresh oxygen, are completely relaxed.

The experience is not mechanical. Unlike hotels, where you have four walls and a TV for yourself, homestays are refreshing and therapeutic,” she says.

Saxena says families particularly prefer homestays. “They need flexibility as there could be special dietary requirements. Moreover, every thing is personalised in a homestay. So while hotels are fine for business travel, we are seeing people returning regularly to homestays for vacations,” he says.

As of now, homestays are in a nascent stage in India. “The scale is small but it is gradually growing,” says Saxena. His firm began with 25 homestays in 2010 and had 60 bookings that year. Today, it has over 150 homestay facilities listed on the website and made 700 bookings in 2015. Ditto for Kamala’s Gulmohur Homestay. “There is rarely a weekend without guests,” she says.

Indianhomestays, Saxena says, could grow faster but they are deliberately going slow.

“We have a team which visits every homestay, stays there, meets people and does a physical check of things. Facilities as well as safety of guests are paramount. We don’t list a property till we are sure about it,” he adds.

Achin Khanna, managing director of the sons, when hotels are full but the demand perConsulting & Valuation practice at HVS South sistent, homestays answer that demand. “This Asia, says while a homestay is an established is exactly what happened in Coorg,” he points concept abroad, it is not yet well-known in In- out. Given that economics is tilted in favour of dia. “Yes, there is a demand for it. But you need homestays, the growth potential is more comrobust distribution channels to cater to that pared to hotels. “I think homestays will see demand. Currently, it is more by word of one million new rooms in the next decade,” mouth or local travel agenclaims Nair. cies. It is not yet fully structurHowever, the biggest obstacle to ed,” he says. the sector’s growth is government And this is the issue a handpolicy. There is no comprehensive While hotels are fine ful of aggregators are looking policy at the national level but a for business travel, to address. Sensing the defew states like Kerala and Karnatawe are seeing people mand, online players along ka have come up with their own. the lines of indianhomes- returning regularly to Kerala has formed a State Homehomestays for tay.org are coming up. Saffronstay and Tourism Society, which is a vacations stays.com, MyIndianStay.com consortium of homestay providers and cheersBye.com, which and tourism promoters to ensure lists over 1,000 properties quality of service. across 70 locations on it, are a But owners are levied commerfew of them. cial rates and extra taxes in states These aggregators charge homeowners for without homestay policies. “It often becomes marketing their properties. The commission a hassle to deal with local government offitypically varies between 10 and 20 per cent of cials,” says Nair. While homestay owners are the tariff. going all out to create comfortable stays for While homestays are taking away business guests, it is now the turn of the state governfrom hotels and resorts, they are not a threat ments to provide them a supportive regulatoto each other and will continue to co-exist, ry environment. After all, if the government says Nair of HolidayIQ. Homestays, he says, treats them as purely commercial establishwill flourish in smaller and less accessible des- ments, homestays will lose their charm and tinations. But once these places gain scale and go the hotel way. visibility, hotel chains will enter the market and build businesses. However, in peak sea- rashmi pratap

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The first of a new genus In praise of Mary Wollstonecraft, philosopher, pioneering feminist and, as it turned out, intrepid treasure hunter in was her fearlessness. She travelled extensively, with her baby, in an age where pirates and highwaymen presented a genuine threat.

Has there been another single-mum philosopher on the high seas?

For her professional achievements alone, Wollstonecraft deserves recognition. But then there’s the personal life. She was intense, possessive, and prone to fall in love. Her first forays into the landscape of love were Girl, disastrous. And it was one ofinterrupted these disasters A poster in the that triggered my fascination and ledheart me to of Perumbavoor town write about her in the first place. mourns the death of In 1795 she wrote a bestseller based on her Jisha, a law student above-mentioned travels in Scandinavia. who was killed on It’s a thulasi kakkat lovseries of letters addressedApril to a28 mysterious er, detailing the lively stories of the lands she MIND THE GAP passed through with her 10-month-old daughter. All very tantalising, but the back story is even juicier. It turns out that this trip of hers was in fact a treasure hunt.

To scroll back a little, Wollstonecraft had been living in Revolutionary Paris. Here she had fallen in love with a handsome American called Gilbert Imlay who was smuggling aristocratic silverware to trade with Scandinavian countries. One of Imlay’s ships, laden with silver, went missing off the rocky coast of Norway. Guess who got sent off to retrieve it? s if to mock all those who fervently which accelerated with the widening of eco- should itself put us tomighty shame,founder even as we marWollstonecraft, the of femibelieved that the death penalty will nomic inequalities in and through the Gulf nism, vel at undertakes her remarkable tenacity, rage this mission outand of sheer ensure women’s safety in this coun- boom, affected poor and lower-caste women desperation against the way snuffed out solove. cruelly.

— it towas regain Imlay’s She try, yet another ghastly murder of a more severely. Today, the shrinkage of state viewed And Imarriage shudderastoa think what might form of slavery (nothave unyoung woman rocks our conscience now. support to crucial services like education and reasonably been the tenor of the discussion, Jisha apgiven legislation had of the time) Jisha, a 30-year-old young woman from Pe- healthcare, and the neoliberal turn in Kerala’s yet peared to be less than ‘proper’. she considered her bond withInterestingly Imlay to be rumbavoor in central Kerala, was not out late; welfarism that enthrones self-help as the ma- sacred. enough,Unfortunately even as no slurs havequite beenascast on it wasn’t sacred when last seen, she had been fetching water jor instrument of poverty alleviation means to Jisha’s been efhim,character and whileyet, shethere was has doing hisenough northern from a public tap. On a perfectly normal after- that the poorest families must struggle inces- treasure-hunting fort to blame hererrands, mother’s “un-cooperative he was shacked up Larger than life Mary (as seen in this portraittobykeep Richard Rothwell) a gigantic life noon in April, whenWollstonecraft the neighbourhood had1840santly their headshad above the water, or with nature”, “quarrelsome nature” and so on for an actress. shutterstock that was cruelly cut shortshe been full of people, was battered, stran- run faster to stay at the same place. Jisha, her theThe social and was poverty the family expainisolation of her loss so great that she gled, raped, mutilated in the most grisly way friends remember, faced this scenario in her tried perienced.

Another incident, the gang-rape to take her own life — of twice.

Initially I doesright an 18th-century fe- batim imaginable, andhat killed inside the raminto the poetry of Samuel Taylor Cole- struggled with life with singular determination of a this.

19-year-old student at Varkala Wollstonecraft’s critics malethat philosopher from En- ridge. shackle squatter-hut she called home.

Withinendurance. a few years of establishing have always used and extreme whose assaulted her with herdate personal life against her, to offer today?

In the debatesgland and have protests thatus have fol- herself as a writer she had not only charged in- which made me I wonder if her murder would his want friends, made the thereader’s headlines to deflect atMuch moreand than youanger might lowed, much pain and grief sheer at to battle with leading ofestablishment tention elsewhere; have evoked suchthe a tsunami in Kerala in theover middle ofunhapthe deto gloss these expect.

Mary Wollstonecraft the forethe apathy of the government, was the police, the thinkers the had day, not but been also penned the first outrage ifofshe so batelife. on But Jisha’s death. The young pyhave parts of her gradually I came to What might mother feminismand andthe an early champion of welfare of machinery, neighbourhood is call for For gender equality the English lan-tenor heroic. example, someinhave woman not die,parts but even if understand as did important of her been the of the them human rights,sodescribed

by Amartya Sen as guage, being shared, also the hope that the threads beginning demand 2’, justice for one had called this incident“I‘Nirbhaya she lost her life and suffered simlegacy. discussion, Jisha “the most that underestimated ofbecome the En- half of sorrow now bind usthinker will also of the human the reference beingrace!” to the horrifappeared to be less ilar injuries, it maydefiance not have Wollstonecraft lived in open ofprothe lightenment.” that we wasn’t enough, her per- ic Arape the ground on If which build more long-lastVindication of the Rights of Woman wasthan pub-‘proper’ and murder of a young the and same sort first of expectations voked of the world, discovered sonal life hadofallresistance. the plot twists, romance and lished ing citadels But these debates making theinapwomaninon1792, a bus in Delhi Deresounding and united outcry. hand what awaits a woman who heartache of also a Bollywood movie. and protests reveal the limits of our polit- parently preposterous claim cember 2014.

But that only reFor this society’s woman did theShe “wrong” breaks rules. had a She was born into an unhappy family slid- that ical imagination. were our capable of veals women how selective political thing going out on a and datetried with child by out of wedlock, ingClearly, down the social HerShe alcoholic father Jisha was ascale. fighter. was a law stu- reason.

All thatare. they needed was imaginations ‘Nirbhaya 2’, if atoman she knew reinvent her only own through domestica Wollstonecraft beat mother, and neitherher parent sawinfitthe to education. denther determined to pursue studies detracwe need to Her call itmany that at all, coulddiscovered not have first cellphone (according reports). what She wastoattempting hand calllife. educate daughters.

Her older brother tors face of their enormous challenges.

Women-led matched today’s in-Nepali woman beeneasily the mentally-challenged society where young evWoolfthe calls “her face experiwhat awaitsWe a live in aVirginia went to school she was sit no, for ternet households arewhile numerous in forced Kerala,toand trolls ingang their whose hideous raperaging and murder in Roh-whoer-greater are continually exmentsasinthey living”, and she paid woman breaks policing hours in silence. safe toofsay that Wollstonenot because the It’s vestiges matriliny persist. misogyny — some things never tak was news less than a year ago. But no,society’s com- posed possibilities price. and desires. In such rules to new the craft never let silence herThe again.

Rather, it could be thedefine reverse. end of ma- change.

Undeterred, she from urgedKerala at least a society in which mentators on Facebook women’s sexualwords desire may Wollstonecraft’s still Wollstonecraft her own way, managtriliny meant thatfound matrilineal women’s claim women to focus less on physical could descry Nirbhaya again only when an- itself be a crime, transgressions to be matter today, and are heronly political ing to attach herself to families who possessed to permanent residence in the family home as appearance, andstudent, more onwho finan-was ostensibly expected — the other woman demand that as women stayI legacy is as fresh ever. Did books.

Following Janeto Austen route of the cial a customary rightthe came an end.

With independence.

Her mobility, most struggling for upward was mur- ‘pure’ in a society wherethat sex is permitted only mention she is also Franpoor-but-worthy she became a lady’s quotable rise of dowry andgirl, the migration to patrifocal quote of all the is the ultimate distill- kenstein’s dered. Why? Because atrocity at Rohtak via marriage that requires(Her hefty dowry paygrandmother? daughter was companion and alost governess, all the marriage, women land rapidly.

This while was a ation of feminism: “I do not wish to Mary has not made an impression on (women) our memomentsShelley.) is absurd. hypocrites wax ThatAnd she yet hadthe a way with sea capplanning escape. was her future. have society inher which evenWriting patrilineal communiover over themselves.” ries? power Because wemen, can but really mourn only for tains? sentimental for gigantic a ‘pure’ life victim’, whose How her was one cut cruelly As declared in a letter to her sister: “I am young tiesshe imposed customary obligations on broth‘PowerIndian over ourselves’ looks different, of short, women who seem to have promise was aborted — as if it was theI’ve promand that she died twice?

Sadly run the first of a new genus.” ers to protect their sisters. All such obligations course, one woman another. me, it out fought from the limitations oftotheir socialFor circumised of future not the spacethat andreally you’llmattered, just haveand to buy Indeed she course was. She first womwaned in the of became the 20ththe century.

Poor sparked desire to follow lead, tobut re- book stances, the whose struggles caninbeher (unfairly, livingto present. find out. an war correspondent, a noted philosopher, women received land during the land reforms trace her journeys and of explore her legacy furstill) reduced to tales (possibly neoliberal rowlatt ’s book Inand Search Maryinis available in j devika is a historian criticofbased an pioneer, lesseducational frequently; and in anyand case,an theinfluential lack of up- ther in myheroism book In Search of Mary.byAnd in doing bee self-help) interrupted patriarchy? t@BeeRowlatt Thiruvananthapuram travel whose foundcommunities, their way ver- so ward writer mobility of words the Dalit I had tripshe of my life.toWhat most drew me India The factthe that had struggle so hard

Who qualifies to be Nirbhaya?

The outrage over Jisha’s rape and murder shows we can really mourn only for women whose struggles can be reduced to tales of heroism interrupted by patriarchy

j devika

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In Search of Mary Bee Rowlatt Alma Books Non-fiction ₹399

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STATES OF MATTER

grimly of the new anti-Semitism which had assumed the form of the global “boycott, disinvestment and sanctions” campaign against Israel. Within the Israeli political spectrum, Shaked represents today’s mainstream, having paved the way to her current ministerial perch with virulent outbursts likening Palestinians to snakes.

It is a heavy burden of selective perception that apologists for Israel have to carry. The Balfour declaration, which paved the way for the colonisation of Palestine by European Jewry, is another legacy of British imperialism that will soon mark its centenary. There is little evidence though of any honest stocktaking.

Anti-Semitism accusations went up several notches when Labour fielded Sadiq Khan, the son of an immigrant Pakistani bus driver, in this month’s London mayoral election. ConObama’s purported decision to remove a bust servative rival Zac Goldsmith, whose sister of Winston Churchill from the presidential of- was once married to yesteryear’s Pakistani fice, signalling his undying resentment of the cricket icon Imran Khan, further stirred the British empire. toxic broth with a series of bizarre media Obama’s grandfather was part of Kenya’s rants targeting immigrants of the Muslim Mau Mau uprising, brutally suppressed dur- faith. Defeat brought contrition. And Golding Churchill’s post-war premiership with im- smith’s mother pointed out how racism just mense loss of life and widespread torture, all could not be in the make-up of a man so devotto protect a few thousand white settlers in the ed to his sister’s two sons. country’s most fertile lands. Johnson’s reOn the rather different stage of university marks were well over the borderline of racism, politics, April witnessed a brief prelude to this but attracted humoured indulgence rather ugly clash. Malia Bouattia, born to immigrant than censure.

Muslim parents from Algeria, contested the Similar gentleness was not in evidence with presidency of the National Union of Students politicians who called into ques(NUS) and won despite a sustion other aspects of the British tained campaign accusing her of legacy of settler colonialism. Reanti-Semitism and terrorism cent weeks have witnessed a It is a heavy burden of sympathies. A number of univerrash of media reports on how sity unions have threatened to selective perception the Labour Party, under its leftbreak off NUS affiliations since that apologists for wing leader Jeremy Corbyn, has her election.

Israel have to carry become a haven for If hate speech is the template anti-Semitism. against which allegations of antiCorbyn and his Labour colSemitism are assessed, Britain leagues have been veteran camhas a law in place prohibiting paigners for Palestine who have scrupulously “threatening, abusive or insulting words or honoured the red lines between racial baiting behaviour”, when there is clear intent to “stir and legitimate criticism of Israel. Blurring up racial hatred”. Implementing the law has these political demarcations has been a fa- been quite another thing, since there are convoured tactic of Israel’s most fervent defend- cerns about a possible abridgment of free ers, including extreme elements within who speech and the constriction of the political have enjoyed an uninterrupted run in power rules of engagement. for long years.

The British philosopher Jeremy Waldron At the Holocaust remembrance on May 5, Is- has cut this Gordian knot with an interpretarael’s justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, warned tion that is attentive to the circumstances in which a speech act occurs. The touchstone here is equal citizenship, a premise that Waldron shares with the 20th century’s most renowned theorist of justice, John Rawls.

Rawls looked at how a “well-ordered society” could be created by introducing a “veil of ignorance” that obscures all existing and inherited systems of inequality. Waldron goes further and considers the process by which a fair social order could be created. Norms of equal citizenship, he says, need rigorous observance in the transition from a state of inequality. All forms of “group libel”, which question the rights of certain ethnicities to equal citizenship, would be classified as hate speech in the circumstances.

By this criterion, the crusaders against antiSemitism — who gladly tar entire immigrant groups and left-leaning politicians — seem to lurk perilously near the hate speech threshold. To endorse statements from Israeli politicians condemning Palestinians to not merely lesser status but non-citizenship would comfortably clear that threshold. Silence in the face of such rhetoric too would be a crime of omission.

The curse of imperial hubris

As recent public outbursts have shown, crusaders against anti-Semitism lurk perilously near the hate speech threshold

sukumar muralidharan

War of words Newly elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan at Holocaust Remembrance Day. Khan was the target of racist attacks by Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith, who slammed the Labour Party for being ‘antiSemitic’ getty images/jack taylor

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ew expect today’s boundaries to survive when order is finally restored in the Arab world after years of turmoil.

There is rich irony that the AngloFrench deal that created these boundaries completed a century of infamy on May 16, with every commentator marking the occasion with strong denunciations.

Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot, two obscure civil servants of the British and French empires, would have faded into the mists of history had they not earned renown for the cartographic aggression that bears their name. The governor of Iraq’s Erbil province was recently quoted saying that “hundreds of thousands have been killed because of Sykes-Picot and all the problems it created”.

It was an act of imperial arrogance that “changed the course of history, and nature”.

A centenary is an opportunity for stocktaking, but there is little of that in evidence as Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande double down in their quest of regime change in Syria, leaving untended other festering sores such as the brutal occupation of Palestine.

When US President Barack Obama recently visited Britain, the incumbent mayor of London, Cameron’s Conservative Party colleague Boris Johnson, added his own quirky bit to the mood of imperial hubris. Obama’s insistence on Britain remaining in the European Union was an inheritance of his Kenyan parentage, said Johnson. Principal exhibit in this extraordinary slur against a visiting dignitary was

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sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer based in Gurgaon

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saturday, may 14,14, 2016 saturday, may 2016

The dystopia of body panic Just do it (or don’t) APPROACHING EYE LEVEL

In Alexandra Kleeman’s debut novel, the body is mechanised, dictated by capitalist urges and ultimately, stripped of identity What it takes to keep your head above the water sans a saviour who either shames or gloats A dreams of “an inverse pornography in which all that mattered was what was going on within what appeared to be a successful fucking.” Elsewhere, in what I read as the starvation facility she ends up in, A notes of her room-mate, “I saw her collarbones and shoulder blade sliding past each other like pistons in an engine.” Autonomy is an endlessly detachable battlefield, and the scars are ugly proof of flesh, or life. “All around me, people were giving feelings and help to one another all the time, as if it were the only thing to do,” A notes. Capitalism mutates resistance, and links arms with those who do the smothering, especially if they’re men: “[C] was a graceful consumer: he could consume without being consumed in turn.”

It’s a novel about how eating disorders can be learned and transmitted, but not quite. It’s about the Debordian spectacle, but not really.

It’s your favourite horror story about bodies that are consumed into hunger, sadness, and other kinds of desire, but it’s also about how bodies at their most intimate can, up close, be as gross as their components, the hyper-intimacy becoming a constant kind of erasure of the self. “The dangerous part of having a face was showing it off, not losing it. To see your face spread onto the faces around you, absorbed by others,” she observes of the helpers at shutterstock Wally’s, all of whom look the same. Disappearcouple of weeks ago I nearly one who has been swimming — at a modest over ance the country.

Though I had sympa-starts means resemblance, as been B gradually drowned. I was on my first lap of the level of competence — for years. I began to thetic, had notinto quite theirwas suspicion that or toImorph hergot — “she disappearing, day, charging along from the plea- drown not like someone whose favourite new the laws of physicsor and their bodies would lettime, reappearing, appearing for the first Loss of appetite You Too Havethat a Body Like Mine is about eating disorders can beat spread shutterstock themwhatever” sure of being in aCan pool didn’t trick lasthow summer was to swim the bottom down. Or maybe suspicious of one— but itthey alsowere implies stealing feel like where Putin went ice-fishing. My old of the pool between the ankles of willing vic- theirself minds.

I hadn’t beenDisappearing obnoxious enough away, like the Dads synhome Delhi is just far enough in memory to tims. I just flapped my arms about uselessly to say “just which do it”.haunts But I hadn’t quite underdrome the town, where fathers he second thing did do after finishing feel like a pleasant place to visit Iand tourisThe NewinChristian Church of the Conjoined and bobbed and out of the water, gasping. stooddisappear the panicbut either.

If you just if calm down of nobody knows it’s because Alexandra Kleeman’s terrifying ty things. A bookstore or two may have given deis aIcult-ish capitalist enterprise EveryEater, time Iwhich surfaced, yelled “help”, sounding you’d“self-napping” float. No? Actually, no. or otherwise.

You Too Can Have a Body up the ghost inbut my novel absence but the best place in the dystopian world the novel,deeset in a I’ve fresh comical to even my own ears, of and further understanding what goes onAinIn many ways, this isofthe rack that hangs wasgood. to reach for ayet slice of for cold badamLike milkMine is still I haven’t nameless suburban town in that America, pening my misery and conviction this the side my nephew each he venhernervy struggle against lifesummer on: her as body, as it diswalnut cake — knifed lost my abilitycardamom to say “Chalo bhaiyya” andwith per- tiny, highlight which appears to be a poem supermarwas the end. Toof misquote Stevie Smith’s turesappears, toward the pool, bymore inch. Iinalso hadways; resists byinch being other icing into a crust on suadedark autorosebuds, drivers toits take mecolding to distant places, chain named Wally’s where the lives I wasket ‘waving and drowning’.

Out there wasof our a refresher course in how rejecting rationality. she remembers to remember more clearplateeven — and consider percentage it bright a skillmy I don’t attempt towhat exercise in Ben- of the protagonist A, day herand room-mate in emotional, You summer happy swimmers, it all thefeelings time: why don’t people ly,hear she retrieves and speech, she realiswas remembering an epigaluru, soplastic, hopelessand are true, my chances.

Best of all, physical and the linguistic proximity B, and A’s es that there and in here was cool blue just leave difficult is “notheir better way to marriaglive or worse. sodeI know of thewhere BritishI can horror short film in Delhi go to swim anyseries boyfriend C, intersect and me drowning quietly. most visibly. es?terrible, Why don’t they quit It was all and you hadjust to do it conDon’t Hugyear.

Me I’m Scared (“Oh what’s that! A waf- AfterTurns month of the out, had company several of Ithese up and in drinking?

Why stantly.”

In don’t You Toothey Canjust Have a pie?saying, But you’re to end up in sad inSo fle-y as I was I wasgoing charging along orange-phobia, for light good rea- Sometimes our downmy ventures, I felt the lose weight?

Why don’tthe they just? of Body Like Mine, critique side!”) which might cool thinkpool of as a distant, this perfectly warm,one perfectly and at grip son.

Consider Kleeman’s de- drowning minds of one of the swimming As if capitalist our lives aren’t inexdesirefull is of straightforsympatheticmark but began criticalthecompanion to the the three-fourth slow process scription canned coaches on myofarm.

Andoranges: almost urges unexamined ward, andand electric, but what’s take overatour Bodies their mostplicable gruesome world of unhurried dissolvingway. appetites of drowning.

I did it in an First in “There were disappeared. cans of (. . .) man- swimming instantly my panic beliefs.

As if even the beliefs ex-surgimost exciting is Kleeman’s bodies intimate can, up novel. cameKleeman’s the thought that I couldn’t possibly I diddarin suspended in sugwhatoranges I’ve done for years closely cal ability to fistimmediately it with black huclose, be as gross asamined Thefurther first thing was, of course, to google swim any because how tired I was. “orwater, thepool little—naked pieces whenary tired in the flipped neat nuggets andof meaning. yoke our their components yieldmour Alexandra Kleeman” to was reassure myself Thenanges the thought that this pool rather jostling up together in the on my back and floated. My sa- perSometimes our drowning more-than-human lives to it, the others the annals of the interdeep that at the deeptoo, endfrom — unlike the politically dark of the can,me curled viourfect didn’t have to drag intofetalminds take over our swimming kind that makes us afraid of benet, might have testified to theiracknowlrepulsion of correct pools I usually swim in which ly against one another.” the light, just tow me like a tugboat. If tug- bodies. And we areing really lucky wekind canthat make alive, and if the is ulti— perhaps RealFoods, edge oranges that it may be goodeven to be a nation Wholeof boats are Or raw ones: lithe and muscular, that is. He it to the side without anyoneeffective sticking around mately dystopian Foods, andyou what foods meant shorties when areabout on a 17hourthat busare ride or to opened the refrigerator and saw checked“Ithat I wasn’t dying and went backnothing to to shame us or gloatitover beingdisappearance: our saviour. disfiction.

Mostly, is about kill you but are secret lining the knowin a movie theatre butthe otherwise not soofmuch. but a pile of stripped oranges, a pyramid the children he was coaching.

I hung to the lip of In appearance the last couple gone a few of — weeks and byI’ve — women’s bodies, theofgummy calories I’vewhat-you-eat swum in theschool: deep end this pool be- of all the pale, yellow colour rind. of thethem, pool feeling foolish.

For the firstof time in They timeswants, to the pool.and Andany swam nervously to-fickle needs, semblance of the confectionary that was are still just aasnew transparent fore when the deep end trophy as would be so to eat —reluctant pre-peeled, my brief career of easy persuading chil-unarwards theaddictive deep end.

Each time I forced but lies of selfhood.

As amyself promise, I the ingredients at the back of the packet of conquest and didn’t frighten me.

But now they gouges in their dren moured. and adultsThe intolittle the pool, I suddenly un-rinds to look down to inviting and reject- on realised as the I picked at depths the flaky rosebuds areApril squished into,itand the cookie on this morning terrorised me.brands It sud- that matched diameter of B’s fingernails derstood why the so many were convinced thatexacted itsthe cold comfort.

I had the jitters fresh cake, the title is a grimace of and hope, where it different that are denlypromise seemed three impossible thatfruity I can fillings even sumly. But for some reason, theextremely oranges now they just couldn’t.

I am usually sym-filled respect, if not for the one waters neighbourmakes perhaps of of thethe most unexpected missing ingredients mon all theconfidently energy to swim the from threethe strokes to pathetic me with dread (. . .) An orange wasn’tespea type of and repeat over and over again, hoodand pool, definitely arguments for the murky my on, compelling for bits us toofcarry list, of substituted near-concentrates the side the pool. by It was too much andofI varso much asIanother entity, looking ciallyfood to children, that had no hideous plan to out mindaswhich sometimes refuses bodies that always couldto bejust. in the world, if yingdopercentages.

Foods that,and in began the novel, couldn’t it. I was dizzy, worried for itsletown interests, secretive and sealed, hid- not our own. suddenly them go — this being an extremet@chasingiamb LighttoFoods, or food that aren’t of to gowould down. Ibe began go down not like someing itsand insides the outside world.”all ly popular evilfrom method of instruction “VERIFIED OR POSTULATED DARKNESS” since Bodies become automata: both sex and star- sharanya is currently pursuing a PhD in performance you knew exactly what went into them, as per vation lend an awkward resting post for flesh. studies at the University of Exeter, UK

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You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine Alexandra Kleeman Fiction Harper ₹1,299

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Nisha Susan is a writer and editor of the feminist website The Ladies Finger

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LIGHTHOUSE

What we talk about when we talk about politics Online political discussions turn into barroom brawls faster than you can say ‘ad hominem’ ‘paid audience’ or a ‘presstitute’, in that colourful coinage of a retired army general with that typical Indian penchant for tasteless puns. Ah yes, she could also be anti-national, trying to break up the country. Any issue they raise, they can be told, ‘Ah, but you have an agenda for kicking up a storm. We’re on to you!’

This can be combined most effectively with Whataboutery. For example, if the Congress raises the issue of a corruption scandal in the BJP government, the BJP can say that their intent in raising this matter is to divert attention from their own scam from a week ago.

And so on. This can even get recursive. (To visualise this process, imagine fractals.)

Three, you categorise your opponents by applying a pejorative label on them, and then dismiss that entire category as being beneath contempt, thus removing the need to engage with it. This happens across the spectrum. Just go on Twitter, and you’ll find it packed with Whataboutery Why do we have a picture of Modi here? What about Pappu? What about Muffler? a shaikmohideen ‘bhakts’ and ‘aaptards’ and ‘adarsh liberals’ and ‘sickulars’ and so on. Once you apply such ne of the great things about social like-minded people deliberate, they typically a label to someone, you do not need to engage media is that we talk to each other end up adopting a more extreme position in with them in reasoned debate. much more. I am not being ironic: line with their pre-deliberation inclinations.”

Attacking the person instead of the argubecause of Facebook alone, I know Thus, we find that most political discussion ment is an ancient tradition — some intrepid much more about my friends than I would online consists of people talking past each historian might even find that it is of Indian otherwise. I am also in touch with many more other. And when they do talk to each other, it origin. I have just enumerated the three most people than I would otherwise be, especially isn’t pretty. Anonymity (or even physical dis- common ways of doing this. There are many old friends. This is useful as one gets middle- tance) turns mice into tigers, and most politi- other ways of appearing to win an argument aged. At some point around 40, the world cal discussions online turn personal really without even engaging with it to begin with. starts to narrow and goes on narrowing. Social fast. If you want to dominate a discussion, you Google for a great essay, ‘38 Ways to Win an Armedia keeps it broad, and even recluses stay ignore the issues involved and attack the per- gument’, by Arthur Schopenhauer and you up-to-date and tip-top, as they would say back son instead. There are three key ways in which will see some examples. They include noble in my day. this happens. techniques such as shifting goalposts, attackThis column is not about the personal, One, you accuse your oppoing straw men and appeals to authough, but the political. There is far more po- nent of hypocrisy. (This is also thority. The 38th of them is litical awareness among young people today known as Whatboutery.) So if masterful, and one that many than there was when I was growing up in the someone talks about the 2002 Twitteratti are adept at: “Become Anonymity (or even ’80s. When I was a teenager, I did not know the Gujarat riots, you go, ‘But what personal, insulting and rude as physical distance) difference between left-wing and right-wing, about the 1984 Delhi riots? I turns mice into tigers soon as you perceive that your and my informed opinion of Rajiv Gandhi was didn’t see you condemn that?’ If opponent has the upper hand.” that he was handsome. Today, 12-year-olds someone points to a Muslim In a sense, this gets to the heart have vociferous opinions and are signing on- lynched by a Hindu mob, you say, of the matter. The whole point of line petitions when they are not on hunger ‘What about that Hindu social political discourse seems not to strikes in-between meals. Political discourse worker killed by Bangladeshi migrants in As- be political but personal. When we take a has increased exponentially in volume; but sam?’ If they defend the free speech of a mem- point of view, we make an assertion not about how much is noise and how much is signal? ber of phallana community, you say, what the state of the world but about ourselves. Our There were hopes that social media would about dhimkana community, where were you ideologies become a proxy for personal statelead to a virtual global town square where in- when they were censored? Not just trolls, all ments: ‘I am compassionate’. ‘I am righteous’. formed citizens could debate with one anoth- politicians do exactly this. When Arvind Kejri- ‘I am clever enough to engineer society’. Many er. Instead, it has led to a conglomeration of wal was questioned about the hundreds of of our actions in the political sphere are not echo chambers, some of them truly bizarre. crores of taxpayers’ money he spent on run- meant to actually affect change, but to show No matter what you believe in, you can now ning ads for the Delhi government, he replied, our nobility. And because our positions are so find hordes of like-minded people online, and ‘But the BJP also does this. Why don’t you ques- tied to our identity, any attack on them is an atbe reassured by the validation they provide. tion them?’ tack on us. We react viscerally. It feels personal, This has lead to a phenomenon that social sciTwo, you question the intent of your oppo- so we get personal. entists call ‘group polarisation’. The econo- nent. She could be a CIA agent, a pinko stooge t@amitvarma mist Cass Sunstein defines it thus: “When of the Chinese, a lackey for the corporates, a

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

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In search of the unfettered line An ongoing exhibition celebrates the work of Nasreen Mohamedi, one of the most distinctive modern Indian artists

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guish of a quivering hand — the artist suffered from Huntington’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects muscular movements and that led to her premature death in 1990, at the age of 53.

Even though Mohamedi’s drawings are visibly grids, the lines are seismographic in their essence. The turmoil of a world being shaken is ironically made evident in the forced steadiness of the line. In her pocket-sized notebooks, she creates a different grid by neatly blackening much of her text. One wonders what was written on the page marked June 6 that all of it needed to be hidden. Her silence is then one of erasure, a suppression of a voice/s.

Star power V S Achuthanandan has been the key campaigner for CPI(M) in this Assembly elections and tokens to his popularity are easily found at the rally venues. (inset) The Boys of CheGuevara are having fun at Kannambra kk

mustafah

“He is ours, yo!”

Living on the edge An untitled ink and graphite on paper, circa 1975 (Collection: Zynab I. Hydari, Mumbai) all images courtesy: kiran nadar museum of art, new delhi

Spiderweb cracks An untitled ink and watercolour on paper, circa 1965 (Collection: Private c/o Talwar Gallery)

Mohamedi’s retrospective is part of the in-

We sense it through the seeming impersonali-

stitutional of museums — such asin Muof thefray. lines; when some of her At 92, VS Achuthanandan is among theefforts oldest candidates thetypoll In Kerala, helines dart upseo Reina Sofia and the Met — to seek out wards they bring us relief as they appear to be is a phenomenon. The man oncealternative considered has grown to be narrativesatocommunist the Western canonhardliner of lines of flight. modernity by exploring newer geographical Mohamedi’s later work (’80s) consists of the people’s hero coordinates, art-historically speaking. The multi-planar grids that float in the ecru space

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annambra is nondescript. The vengeful summer has cast a pale aura across the small, ho-hum village in Kerala’s Palakkad district. The early May morning is a little balmy and breezy, thanks to a short spell of showers the previous night. The morning sun, though, is burning nonchalantly. The festoons of red flags appear Signal noiseand An untitled ink and graphite onin paper, bright,tofresh bewitchingly hopeful the circa 1970 (Collection: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, daylight.

New Delhi ) Streams of people are flowing towards a peepal tree along a narrow road. Women, he clean, precise lines of giggling Nasreen some wearing red paper caps, carry out t-shirts of one drawtoddlers, Mohamedi while boysexpand wearing that ing to the lines of the adjacent scream ‘Boys ofmeet CheGuevara’ laugh boisterdrawing. Avolunteers cage is formed; theshirts gaps ously. Tight-lipped in red between thepants grids grow and smaller.

A and khaki directsmaller and re-direct traffic gasp at the thepeepal. momentary threat of asphyxiaaround tion, and the lines recede to the limitsAnof Next tothen the tree is a make-shift pandal. the frame. Nowfrom celebrated one of the nouncements giant as speakers blurmost the significant artistsSoon, to emerge in post-Indechatter of people. a white Toyota Corolla pendence India, Mohamedi’s work is a hauntpulls over and the loudspeakers go berserk.

As ing engagement with systematically abstraction. falls The the door opens, the crowd retrospective herAoeuvre, after being exhibback to give of way. short, agile, old man in ited at the Kiran Museum ArtThe in Delhi white kurta andNadar mundu steps of out. man and theat Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina smiles the crowd.

Firecrackers punctuate Sofia in Madrid, is currently one the inauguthe notes of mediapersons andofwomen dash ral exhibitions of the Met Breuer New York, the towards him in a trance.

Hundreds of cellMetropolitan Art’s newly-acquired phones thrustMuseum into theofhumid air struggle to building devoted capture the hero. to modern and contemporary art. the short welcome speech is over, the Once

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minimalism of Mohamedi’s works and its vi- of paper. They still carry the resonance of the sual semblance to that of the American ab- blotched, webbed landscape of her ‘Untitled’ stract expressionist Martin, have made man climbs up the Agnes podium and gestures to (1960).

ThanksBut to aitdiet with military is asfollowed if the lines have found adisciway it easier for the Karachi-born artist to become to the crowd. pline and agileunrelated mind thatand putsunfettered social issues exist byan being to part of thisStark exploration.

In the catalogue Nas- other Silence. and beautiful. into political this aage VS of is lines andcontext, frames.even They at exude sense reen Mohamedi: Waiting is aSankaran Part of Intense Liv- calmness And then Velikkakathu Achuthageared up for a feat fewthan othersthe of butmore are battles, less impactful ing, curator Roobina Karode art historians nandan begins to skin andand scythe rivals in- claustrophobic his ilk can claim.grids of the ’60s.

Geeta Deepak Ananth, cludingKapur, incumbent chief minister of Kerala, “VS is a phenomenon, which theatworld The retrospective the outMet and Andrea Giuntaand draw specuOommen Chandy, Prime Minister Naren- side Kerala will acknowledge sooner or later,” Breuer also includes Mohamedi’s lative lineages linking Mohamedra Modi.

“A multitude of scams have hit this says VK Preman, a carpenter Ochira in photographs thatfrom follow the dradi to the drawings of Henri government,” he intones in his Kollam district. and Preman is ma of architectural natural Mohamedi’s later Michaux, the writings of Albert characteristic way. “There is the among thezigzag millions of people in lines — the shadow cast by work consists of Camus, andthe the solar poetrygraft, of Rumi. bar graft, and in the Lefton leader aKerala gutter,who thesee curve made the multi-planar grids It is, however, kinship VS myriad other her grafts...” hetosays. a new era of hope and change. shore by the waves claiming terIt is float difficult to find in the ecrua ritory.

Gaitonde The crowdthat is inisamost spell,insightful. akin to the that And that why thepale CPI Theyexplains share the same communist leader space of paper Gaitonde a retrospective of audience had of Beatles or Bob Mar(M), whose current State as leadertints and minimalism her these days who his works at the Guggenheim ley decades ago. ship is notmaking quite inher sync with the drawings, practice in enjoys such mass New York in to 2014-15.

Welcome a day in the life of straitjacketed ways of VS, is both media appear seamless. popularity Between her stints studying comrade Achuthanandan, senior forced to fieldisthe nonagenarian A drawing always relegated abroad, spentParty time of with Gaitonde as a draft no matter leader ofMohamedi the Communist in thishow Assembly elections. sophisticated and finand fromand the Progressive Indiaothers (Marxist) former chiefArtists’ Group ished it is. This preparatory “It is difficult to find is a comcharacter at the Bhulabhai minister of Kerala. Desai At 92, Memorial VS — as Institute, pounded in Mohamedi’s munist leader casethese by thedays fact who that Mumbai.

There is little visualcall similarity friends, foes and frenemies him —inisthe In- she enjoys such mass popularity,” notes Prabhat never titled or dated her works.

There are a works of both artistscommunist — Gaitonde leader explores dia’s most popular in the ac- few Patnaik, economist exceptions whenand theprofessor artist hasEmeritus, mischiepossibilities of texturing colour, while Moha- vously tion, and arguably the world’s too. Cuban JNU. Patnaik vice-chairman of to thesign State curvedwas the edge of a drawing in medi’s graphite lines followsaid their determined revolutionary Fidel Castro, to be the most- block planning board under chiefright minister Achuthletters in the bottom of the page. course on pale paper.

Yet, both seemalive to betoday, deal- Mohamedi’s written-about communist leader anandan. The VS ofgovernment body work is thenof not2006 aboutdid an ing withsprings silence. Gaitonde’s is an is three younger and hasimmersive been out siof artist make leaving impressive changes in the econobehind a legacy of State’s artworks but lence colourssince bloom, brush active —politics 2006, the strokes year thedrift, Left amy; it enhanced agriculture production,line. insearch, a silent quest to be an unfettered forms manifest; hisformed is an affirmative cosmicunsi- centivised Democratic Front its government start-ups, strengthened self-help The exhibition ‘Nasreen Mohamedi’ is on lence.

OnKerala. the other hand there’s nothing view der VS in groups, gave5fillip traditional industries till June at theto Met Breuer, New York. peaceful aboutpolitical the muteness Mohamedi’s Not many leadersofin India can such as coir, cashew and handloom and rejuis an sector art criticunits. based in New York unwavering line brought about and by the an- blessy match his charisma, popularity vigour. venatedaugustine ailing public

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“He is a ‘model’ politician,” says Sarah Joseph, writer, feminist and activist. “He is a solid comrade, who never jumped ship even when rivals in his party tried to crucify him.

He stuck to his guns and made his way.”

To the uninitiated, the VS way is an intriguing terrain to tread. Achuthanandan was born into a backward caste Ezhava family in Alappuzha in 1923 and lost his mother at four and father at age 11. He gave up studies and worked as a tailor’s help and, later, as a coolie at a coir factory. He got involved in trade union activities, which led him to communism.

He joined the Communist Party in 1940, a year after it was formed in Kerala. In 1946, VS played a key role in the bloody Punnapra-Vayalar uprising against CP Ramaswamy Iyer, the diwan of the southern princely state of Travancore. More than 1,000 people lost their lives in the armed uprising. When the CPI split in 1964, Achuthanandan was among those who founded CPI(M), and stayed with it ever since.

The rest, as they say, is history — in present perfect continuous.

ticularly television, early on,” observes V Ab- missionary zeal and patience and acts like an dul Muneer, who teaches mass media at EMEA activist if the issue falls in sync with his line of College in Malappuram. Muneer, whose doc- politics,” says Harish Vasudevan, a lawyer in toral work studies the influence of televised the Kerala High Court. If he is convinced, no electoral debates on voter behaviour, says one, including his party bosses, can deter him, Achuthanandan ensures the issues he picks says Vasudevan. “This is something you never up fill prime-time news and debates. “VS expect from a politician of his age.” evolved as a poor man’s hero when people This crusader approach has had a big imwere disenchanted with the romanticised no- pact in Kerala. “Isn’t that sexy?” asks a journaltions of communism,” observes Shiju Joseph, ist working in Bengaluru. “He does things clinical psychologist in Thiruvananthapuram. which the bravest among the youth dare not “He represented the same old tough and touch. His energy level is amazing.” C Bharath rough, ‘anankastic’ personality who could Chandran, a cardiologist in Thiruvananthaputrigger and treat your nostalgia.” ram whom VS consults, agrees. “His chronoShiju says, the current VS is a “hero born af- logical age may be 92, but his biological age is ter Achuthanandan turned 80 years old.” It is in the sixties or seventies.” He never breaks his me, I need the toilet regimen easier to trustxcuse someone whotoisuse considered asked toofplay Marjinadiet in and Ali Baba.

Marjina minimalist exercises even first,” Soon, he wipes his brow, shift- amidst asexual, he reasons.

VS became made me famous afterrallies. which“He I was flooded hectic election never skips ing folklore. clumsilySriin a discoloured with afemale a living, growing Bhaduriyoga was and one walks,” of the meal orroles.” his morning plastic chair nath Krishnamoorthy, a that tilts precari- highest paid jatrapress actresses in the earnsays his secretary KV’60s, Sudhakaously to IT theprofessional, left. I nod as he drags his feet and ing ₹8,000ran. former a month. “I performed every night movesis towards a door marked for ‘purush’ in villages and“He who now working small in Bengal.

Young hastowns a curious mind and an (male).

Theon word is jarring, as is the moment. on a book Achuthmen fought open for a approach glimpse oftotheir darling issues,” says We are says, at a special anandan “VS is screening of Chena Kintu Chapal Rani through green room Joseph the C Mathew, who window. was VS’s Ajana – Known Strangers, a documentary that Those were theITdays,” he says sigh.“He is advisor and with is anaally. captures the lives of 15 female impersonators Bhaduri recalls meeting idol Utalways under matinee the spotlight, so representing the final generation of such ac- tam Kumar at one of his performances. he doesn’t act. His is not“While fleettors in Bengal’s rich jatra (mobile theatre) lin- watching a play the or lifepopularity,” of poet Michael ing on fame says eage. Directed by debutant Debojit Majumdar, MadhusudanMathew.

Dutta, which for four years, VS’s ran mental strength who claims to have invested his life’s savings Uttam Kumar by my performance andwas themoved élan with which he takes in the film, it is part of a cultural programme in the role Jahnvi, poet’s He on of rivals and the issues hasmother. impressed for a media school that I’ve been invited to by askedMathew. to meet His the actress essaying the role. supporters consider his Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee, a prominent queer When organisers in,Chandrathe man stancethe on the politicalbrought murderme of TP artist in Kolkata. was shocked.

He then hugged me. It’s perhaps sekharan, in which CPI(M) workers were alleg“Chapal Bhaduri, at 77, is perhaps the last edly the best tribute I’ve received.” involved, courageous. living female impersonator in Indian folk theBy said the end the ’60s, the arrival of women All andof done, VS means realpolitik, feels atre. He is the last torchbearer of a near-ex- Sarah. performers the script of Chapal Rani’s “Overaltered time, VS has compromised some tinct tradition,” says Chatterjee, as the man in of successful onstage. problem was his standsrun for the sake of“My practical politics,” question limps back in our direction. more complex.

I was closet gaythat andno myother emshe says, while acknowledging “In those days, women led cloistered lives, political ployers asked to leave when they found leaderme in the history of the state has so there was no question of them acting on made out. My lateasister was thehe only one who such socialKetaki impact.

“But disappointstage…” Bhaduri says, his voice short of a quiv- ed accepted who on I was,” says Bhaduri. us withme hisfor silence the alleged ‘VIP’ in the er. “My voice was always soft and effeminate, Kiliroor The artiste found acase, newand leaseother of lifecrucial at Kamasex scandal isbut today the ENT tells me my vocal chords are sues la Opera, a group that paidinformation,” ₹100 a show for in which he had inside saysa permanently damaged and I have to stay quiet Sarah. part in Durgeshnandini. “I often did three for a year at least.” shows ends Even though VS isin yeta today facetoa make convincing Born to jatra actress Prova Demeet but when Petromax corruption charge against him, rivals didlightput vi, Bhaduri’s initiation into the ing was replaced by the new, dazto good use allegations of corruption and mismedium was at age seven. His lights,histhe usewas of public zling office against son VAdifference Arun KuMy problem mother passed away three years more complex. woman mar.

Political observersthe feel‘imitation’ he has gone back I was a between later. Soon after, Bhaduri, and and the ‘real’ woman became on his crusade against corruption.

They cite closet gay and my his elder sister, Ketaki Dutta, a glaring,” says. his current in thehemuch-debated Lavalin employers asked me stand theatre actress of repute, were from the spotlight, corruption in which the former partyBhasecto leave when they caseAway shown the door by their brothduri’s personal life also took sevretary and, reportedly, his in-house bête noire found out “Life took an ugly when eralPinarayi dramaticVijayan, turns. Aiscloistered and CM-hopeful allegedly All in a day VS Achuthanandan doesn’t break his regimen of minimalist diet and exercises even amidst hectic electioners. rallies which witness hugeturn turnout kk mustafah she (mother Prova) expired. I relationship lasted 30 years involved. And there werethat rumours that he The rise to fame an to youngsters who like to join would be sidelined wasinspiration 10,” Bhaduri says. “Ketaki — oneduring with the a married Assemblyfamily polls, Achuthanandan was not so popular until a value-based Krishnamoorthy lauds much to the delight and I shiftedpolitics.” to a small room friend of with children — Left, ended his critics in the escouple of decades ago. He was known as a har- VS’s mediaTheatre interventions. leader near social Biswaroopa in north The Kolkata.

In pecially when the was asked to sign off bank deonactor social media. dliner, the uncool communist who focussed whose party had opposed computerisation 1958, I joined Natto Company, a jatra group. posits helddidn’t jointly.happen.

“When Instead, I asked him But that if theabout eleconly on striking out enemies within and out- decades Facebook They gaveago me ajoined stage name, Chapal Rani, and a my future, hetion replied ‘It’sare notany myindication, concern’…aI rallies side the party. At least two party Congresses sometime backand and enjoys salary of ₹100 ₹1now for food.” think he wasVSattracted to another wave is sweeping thewoman.

State. AsI reaffirmed this notion. The media found his a huge fan following.

I try and slip in the next question, when he loved him. Deeply,” says.

Dhivin,he one of the ‘Boys of Chebody language too rustic to strike a chord points In fact, theleft issues VS“Ispicks at my hand, that atoreal solitaire?”

Today, Bhaduri’s contribution to theatre is Guevara’ in Kannambra tells me with the masses. But he was open to a makeov- fight have also helped build the he asks. immortalised through three acclaimed with a swagger, “He is ours,films: yo!”

He was flexible for a er, and found an unusual ally in the popular hero’s image.

When political I smile in agreement.

Performing Chapal Bhaduri StoVS’s car– The leaves Kannambra, a makeover, and found theAsGoddess art of mimicry, which got a shot in the arm parties stayed fromWhy gender “My ring is away a zircon. don’t you come ally ry, in Ushno Jonne, a telefilm in which he man who has come with his an unusual the Taar with the advent of cable television. “We found and green issues, cherryhome?

We can’t reallyVS hear each other here…” plays as himself, Premer three childrenand tellsArekti his friend, popular art of a cameo his mannerisms cool and amusing,” says Dia- picked brought themanother to the question.mimicry he saysand before I can shoot Goppo (Just Another Story) inand which Ritu“It’s thisLove resilience strength na Silvester, the producer of the hugely pop- public sphere. encroach“I held a job atBe theitSealdah Railway Division parno Ghoshthat is young Bhaduri.

Buthim the aveteractually makes forular satire show Cinemala on Asianet. “When ments the paid pristine hills daily of for 28 days an is cynicalmidable — a day on job that me ₹2.50 about the future jatra the rival to theofBJP and—even we chose him for imitation, not many in the Mathikettan in theeven Western in a month. I hadn’t finished school, so form that made him theModi. subject of both adulaNarendra I wish VS would middle-class living rooms knew him. The ac- Ghats, corruption scandals when I quit my job after three years, where tion and censure.

“The dead, He even emerge as aheritage nationalisleader. is tor who played him had to be briefed.” But the against Congress or cases of sexual else could I go butveterans the stage?”

Bhaduri meets athough is more money in it today.” biggerthere legend than EMS Namboodiripad.” show became a hit, and with it VS. Ever since harassment of women, VS afought my eye, stretching out on single them cot inand the Asthe we Left wrapwins, up the Bhaduri If willconversation, VS become the chief many actors have aped his strangely-intonat- struck an emotional chord with the people.

To minister nondescript government quarter in north tells me about he still can’tVS, reconagain?anI incident ask the man.

“With the ed, oddly-rhythmic manner of speaking and assist him was a with pack his of sister’s dedicated Kolkata he shares son,bureaudaugh- sky cile is with. co-actor me to embrace the “A limit whenasked it comes tonot springing a the audience loved it. The show and its myriad crats, partymen and media persons (infa- surprise,” ter-in-law and granddaughter.

His tiny room, him. He said my fake dugsee into pat comes the breasts reply. “Let’s the his rein The his clones made VS a living room sensation and mously Thehe Syndicate byin rivals). recentlybilled painted mentions passing, has sults chest.on Those in sitting my ears.

May words 19,” VSstill tellsring BLink headquarter in only Chandra helped demystify his tough-nut Stalinist dozens The causes VS chooses to of champion a campaign of calendar images Maa Kali strike and Rastage is a temple, it’s the way Nagar, I knowPato image. chord withParamhansa. many. “Take issues such as the lakkad, makrishna live,” he“We says.will make it really big this time.”

“VS five is among thehisfew politicians in India deadly endosulfan pollution in Kasargod or He continues: “I had no earlier experience, In the name of the woman Chapal Bhaduri, 77, has more than decades to credit as a jatra performer jose ppiu kundu is an author based in Delhi image courtesy: chena kintu ajana — known strangers sreemoyee who realised the potential of mass media, par- the issues; of VSmy studies them Iwith andrecent lacked land the support colleagues. was jinoy

Body of art

The best days are behind Chapal Bhaduri, the last living female impersonator in Indian theatre, but a slew of films and documentaries keep his work relevant

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Going nuts The perfect cashew apple is what every drop of feni owes its punch to

Finding feni A sultry day in Goa is devoted to the making of its national drink: cashew feni

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tatutory warning: This is not for those with a sensitive nose or low alcohol tolerance. The Cashew Trail, in the state that is synonymous with feni (apart from seafood and surf), is a daylong affair devoted to the process of making the potent liquor.

Our day at the Cashew Trail is a hot one, exceptionally hot even for a Goan summer. We begin by picking cashew apples at a farm in south Goa. The juice from the cashew apple goes through three stages of distillation — from urrack to cazulo and then, feni.

Cashew is believed to have its origins in Brazil. In early 16th century, the first cashew tree in Goa was planted by the Portuguese, the same people who had colonised Brazil. Fenimaking, however, was not the agenda. The aim was to stop the erosion of topsoil during Goa’s powerful monsoons. It turns out that the cashew tree took to the Indian soil better than it did to Brazil’s. India is now one of the world’s largest cashew producers.

At every cashew farm in Goa, the cazkar or the picker plays the most important part in

the feni-making process. They also deseed the ripe fruits. The apples are then transferred to the stomping area. The pulp of the fruit is extracted after hours of powerful footwork. The extract is gathered into a mound, which is left overnight under a heavy stone. This squeezes the juice out of the pulp. Called neero, this fresh juice makes for a refreshing drink. It goes into a kodem, a large earthen pot that is used for fermenting. When the bubbling in the pot stops — usually after three days — the neero is ready for distillation. Urrack, the first distillate, has 12 to 16 per cent alcohol. The second cut is the cazulo. By the time the juice is aged enough to be called feni, the alcohol content is between 42 and 46 per cent.

Cashew feni was awarded GI (Geographical Indication) in 2009 as a special alcoholic beverage of Goa. No longer listed as a country liquor, it is now available outside Goa as a heritage spirit.

(The writer-photographer was invited to Cashew trail 2016 by Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa) partha pratim sharma

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Stomping ground The cashew apples are deseeded and taken to the colmbi, which is a basin cut out of stone

No mean feat Extraction of pulp from the fruits is underway

Fruits of labour Raw cashew nuts

Ground rules The juice from cashew apples is buried in an earthen pot to ferment over three days

First cut Urrack, a cooling drink available only in summer

Playing with ďŹ re The process continues in a bhatti, a traditional feni distillation unit

To market, to market Bottles and casks of feni ready to hit the shelves

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saturday, may 14, 2016

In search of the unfettered line An ongoing exhibition celebrates the work of Nasreen Mohamedi, one of the most distinctive modern Indian artists

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guish of a quivering hand — the artist suffered from Huntington’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects muscular movements and that led to her premature death in 1990, at the age of 53.

Even though Mohamedi’s drawings are visibly grids, the lines are seismographic in their essence. The turmoil of a world being shaken is ironically made evident in the forced steadiness of the line. In her pocket-sized notebooks, she creates a different grid by neatly blackening much of her text. One wonders what was written on the page marked June 6 that all of it needed to be hidden. Her silence is then one of erasure, a suppression of a voice/s.

Star power V S Achuthanandan has been the key campaigner for CPI(M) in this Assembly elections and tokens to his popularity are easily found at the rally venues. (inset) The Boys of CheGuevara are having fun at Kannambra kk

mustafah

“He is ours, yo!”

Living on the edge An untitled ink and graphite on paper, circa 1975 (Collection: Zynab I. Hydari, Mumbai) all images courtesy: kiran nadar museum of art, new delhi

Spiderweb cracks An untitled ink and watercolour on paper, circa 1965 (Collection: Private c/o Talwar Gallery)

Mohamedi’s retrospective is part of the in-

We sense it through the seeming impersonali-

stitutional of museums — such asin Muof thefray. lines; when some of her At 92, VS Achuthanandan is among theefforts oldest candidates thetypoll In Kerala, helines dart upseo Reina Sofia and the Met — to seek out wards they bring us relief as they appear to be is a phenomenon. The man oncealternative considered hardliner narrativesatocommunist the Western canon of lines of has flight.grown to be modernity by exploring newer geographical Mohamedi’s later work (’80s) consists of the people’s hero coordinates, art-historically speaking. The multi-planar grids that float in the ecru space

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annambra is nondescript. The vengeful summer has cast a pale aura across the small, ho-hum village in Kerala’s Palakkad district. The early May morning is a little balmy and breezy, thanks to a short spell of showers the previous night. The morning sun, though, is burning nonchalantly. The festoons of red flags appear Signal noiseand An untitled ink and graphite onin paper, bright,tofresh bewitchingly hopeful the circa 1970 (Collection: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, daylight.

New Delhi ) Streams of people are flowing towards a peepal tree along a narrow road. Women, he clean, precise lines of giggling Nasreen some wearing red paper caps, carry out t-shirts of one drawtoddlers, Mohamedi while boysexpand wearing that ing to the lines of the adjacent scream ‘Boys ofmeet CheGuevara’ laugh boisterdrawing. Avolunteers cage is formed; theshirts gaps ously. Tight-lipped in red between thepants grids direct grow smaller and smaller.

A and khaki and re-direct traffic gasp at the thepeepal. momentary threat of asphyxiaaround tion, and the lines recede to the limitsAnof Next tothen the tree is a make-shift pandal. the frame. Nowfrom celebrated one of the nouncements giant as speakers blurmost the significant artistsSoon, to emerge in post-Indechatter of people. a white Toyota Corolla pendence India, work is a hauntpulls over and theMohamedi’s loudspeakers go berserk.

As ing engagement with systematically abstraction. falls The the door opens, the crowd retrospective of herA oeuvre, after being exhibback to give way. short, agile, old man in ited at kurta the Kiran Museum of ArtThe in Delhi white andNadar mundu steps out. man and theatMuseo Nacional Centro de punctuate Arte Reina smiles the crowd.

Firecrackers Sofia in Madrid, is currently one the inauguthe notes of mediapersons andof women dash ral exhibitions of the Met Breuer New York, the towards him in a trance.

Hundreds of cellMetropolitan Art’s newly-acquired phones thrustMuseum into theof humid air struggle to building devoted capture the hero. to modern and contemporary art.the short welcome speech is over, the Once

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minimalism of Mohamedi’s works and its vi- of paper. They still carry the resonance of the sual semblance to that of the American ab- blotched, webbed landscape of her ‘Untitled’ stract expressionist Martin, have made man climbs up the Agnes podium and gestures to (1960).

ThanksBut to aitdiet with military is asfollowed if the lines have found adisciway it easier for the Karachi-born artist to become to the crowd. pline and agileunrelated mind thatand putsunfettered social issues exist byan being to part of thisStark exploration.

In the catalogue Nas- other Silence. and beautiful. into political this aage VS of is lines andcontext, frames.even They at exude sense reen Mohamedi: Waiting is aSankaran Part of Intense Liv- calmness And then Velikkakathu Achuthageared up for a feat fewthan othersthe of butmore are battles, less impactful ing, curator Roobina Karode art historians nandan begins to skin andand scythe rivals in- claustrophobic his ilk can claim.grids of the ’60s.

Geeta Deepak Ananth, cludingKapur, incumbent chief minister of Kerala, “VS is a phenomenon, which theatworld The retrospective the outMet and Andrea Giuntaand draw specuOommen Chandy, Prime Minister Naren- side Kerala will acknowledge sooner or later,” Breuer also includes Mohamedi’s lative lineages linking Mohamedra Modi.

“A multitude of scams have hit this says VK Preman, a carpenter Ochira in photographs thatfrom follow the dradi to the drawings of Henri government,” he intones in his Kollam district. and Preman is ma of architectural natural Mohamedi’s later Michaux, the writings of Albert characteristic way. “There is the among thezigzag millions of people in lines — the shadow cast by work consists of Camus, andthe the solar poetrygraft, of Rumi. bar graft, and in the Lefton leader aKerala gutter,who thesee curve made the multi-planar grids It is, however, kinship VS myriad other her grafts...” hetosays. a new era of hope and change. shore by the waves claiming terIt is difficult to find float in the ecrua ritory.

Gaitonde The crowdthat is inisamost spell,insightful. akin to the that And that why thepale CPI Theyexplains share the same communist leader space of paper Gaitonde a retrospective of audience had of Beatles or Bob Mar(M), whose current State as leadertints and minimalism her these days who his works at the Guggenheim ley decades ago. ship is notmaking quite inher sync with the drawings, practice in enjoys such mass New York in to 2014-15.

Welcome a day in the life of straitjacketed ways of VS, is both media appear seamless. popularity Between her stints studying comrade Achuthanandan, senior forced to fieldisthe nonagenarian A drawing always relegated abroad, spentParty time of with Gaitonde as a draft no matter leader ofMohamedi the Communist in thishow Assembly elections. sophisticated and finand fromand the Progressive Indiaothers (Marxist) former chiefArtists’ Group ished it is. This preparatory “It is difficult to find is a comcharacter at the Bhulabhai Institute, pounded in Mohamedi’s minister of Kerala. Desai At 92, Memorial VS — as munist leader casethese by thedays fact who that Mumbai.

There is little visualcall similarity friends, foes and frenemies him —in is the In- she enjoys such mass popularity,” notes Prabhat never titled or dated her works.

There are a works of both artistscommunist — Gaitonde leader explores dia’s most popular in the ac- few Patnaik, economist exceptions whenand theprofessor artist hasEmeritus, mischiepossibilities of texturing colour, while Moha- vously tion, and arguably the world’s too. Cuban JNU. Patnaik vice-chairman of to thesign State curvedwas the edge of a drawing in medi’s graphite lines follow their determined revolutionary Fidel Castro, said to be the most- block planning board under chiefright minister Achuthletters in the bottom of the page. course on pale paper.

Yet, both seemalive to betoday, deal- Mohamedi’s written-about communist leader anandan. The VS ofgovernment body work is thenof not2006 aboutdid an ing withsprings silence. younger Gaitonde’s is an is three and hasimmersive been out siof artist make leaving impressive changes in the econobehind a legacy of State’s artworks but lence colourssince bloom, brush strokes active —politics 2006, the year thedrift, Left amy; it enhanced agriculture insearch, a silent quest to be an production, unfettered line. forms manifest; hisformed is an affirmative cosmicunsi- centivised Democratic Front its government start-ups, strengthened self-help The exhibition ‘Nasreen Mohamedi’ is on lence.

OnKerala. the other hand there’s nothing view der VS in groups, gave 5fillip traditional industries till June at theto Met Breuer, New York. peaceful aboutpolitical the muteness Not many leadersofinMohamedi’s India can such as coir, cashew and handloom and rejuis an sector art criticunits. based in New York unwavering line brought about and by the an- blessy match his charisma, popularity vigour. venatedaugustine ailing public

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“He is a ‘model’ politician,” says Sarah Joseph, writer, feminist and activist. “He is a solid comrade, who never jumped ship even when rivals in his party tried to crucify him.

He stuck to his guns and made his way.”

To the uninitiated, the VS way is an intriguing terrain to tread. Achuthanandan was born into a backward caste Ezhava family in Alappuzha in 1923 and lost his mother at four and father at age 11. He gave up studies and worked as a tailor’s help and, later, as a coolie at a coir factory. He got involved in trade union activities, which led him to communism.

He joined the Communist Party in 1940, a year after it was formed in Kerala. In 1946, VS played a key role in the bloody Punnapra-Vayalar uprising against CP Ramaswamy Iyer, the diwan of the southern princely state of Travancore. More than 1,000 people lost their lives in the armed uprising. When the CPI split in 1964, Achuthanandan was among those who founded CPI(M), and stayed with it ever since.

The rest, as they say, is history — in present perfect continuous.

ticularly television, early on,” observes V Ab- missionary zeal and patience and acts like an dul Muneer, who teaches mass media at EMEA activist if the issue falls in sync with his line of College in Malappuram. Muneer, whose doc- politics,” says Harish Vasudevan, a lawyer in toral work studies the influence of televised the Kerala High Court. If he is convinced, no electoral debates on voter behaviour, says one, including his party bosses, can deter him, Achuthanandan ensures the issues he picks says Vasudevan. “This is something you never up fill prime-time news and debates. “VS expect from a politician of his age.” evolved as a poor man’s hero when people This crusader approach has had a big imwere disenchanted with the romanticised no- pact in Kerala. “Isn’t that sexy?” asks a journaltions of communism,” observes Shiju Joseph, ist working in Bengaluru. “He does things clinical psychologist in Thiruvananthapuram. which the bravest among the youth dare not “He represented the same old tough and touch. His energy level is amazing.” C Bharath rough, ‘anankastic’ personality who could Chandran, a cardiologist in Thiruvananthaputrigger and treat your nostalgia.” ram whom VS consults, agrees. “His chronoShiju says, the current VS is a “hero born af- logical age may be 92, but his biological age is ter Achuthanandan turned 80 years old.” It is in the sixties or seventies.” He never breaks his xcuse me, I need the toilet regimen easier to trust someone whotoisuse considered asked toofplay Marjinadiet in and Ali Baba.

Marjina minimalist exercises even first,” he wipes his brow, shift- amidst asexual, he reasons.

Soon, VS became made me famous afterrallies. which“He I was flooded hectic election never skips ing folklore. clumsilySriin a discoloured with afemale a living, growing Bhaduriyoga was and one walks,” of the meal orroles.” his morning plastic chair nath Krishnamoorthy, a that tilts precari- highest paid jatrapress actresses in the earnsays his secretary KV’60s, Sudhakaously to IT theprofessional, left. I nod as he drags his feet and ing ₹8,000ran. former a month. “I performed every night movesis towards a door marked for ‘purush’ in villages and“He who now working small in Bengal.

Young hastowns a curious mind and an (male).

Theon word is jarring, as is the moment. on a book Achuthmen fought for glimpse oftotheir darling opena approach issues,” says We are at a special anandan says, “VS is screening of Chena Kintu Chapal Rani through green room Joseph the C Mathew, who window. was VS’s Ajana – Known Strangers, a documentary that Those were theITdays,” he says sigh.“He is advisor and with is anaally. captures the lives of 15 female impersonators Bhaduri recalls meeting idol Utalways under matinee the spotlight, so representing the final generation of such ac- tam Kumar at one of his performances. he doesn’t act. His is not“While fleettors in Bengal’s rich jatra (mobile theatre) lin- watching a play the or lifepopularity,” of poet Michael ing on fame says eage. Directed by debutant Debojit Majumdar, MadhusudanMathew.

Dutta, which for four years, VS’s ran mental strength who claims to have invested his life’s savings Uttam Kumar by my performance andwas themoved élan with which he takes in the film, it is part of a cultural programme in the role Jahnvi, poet’s He on of rivals andthe issues hasmother. impressed for a media school that I’ve been invited to by askedMathew. to meet His the actress essaying the role. supporters consider his Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee, a prominent queer When in,Chandrathe man stancethe on organisers the politicalbrought murderme of TP artist in Kolkata. was shocked.

He then hugged me. It’s perhaps sekharan, in which CPI(M) workers were alleg“Chapal Bhaduri, at 77, is perhaps the last edly the best tribute I’ve received.” involved, courageous. living female impersonator in Indian folk theBy the the ’60s, the arrival of women All saidend andof done, VS means realpolitik, feels atre. He is the last torchbearer of a near-ex- Sarah. performers the script of Chapal Rani’s “Overaltered time, VS has compromised some tinct tradition,” says Chatterjee, as the man in of successful onstage. problem was his standsrun for the sake of“My practical politics,” question limps back in our direction. more complex.

I was closet gaythat andno myother emshe says, while acknowledging “In those days, women led cloistered lives, political ployers asked to leave when they found leaderme in the history of the state has so there was no question of them acting on made out. My lateasister was thehe only one who such socialKetaki impact.

“But disappointstage…” Bhaduri says, his voice short of a quiv- ed accepted who on I was,” says Bhaduri. us withme hisfor silence the alleged ‘VIP’ in the er. “My voice was always soft and effeminate, Kiliroor The artiste found acase, new and leaseother of lifecrucial at Kamasex scandal isbut today the ENT tells me my vocal chords are sues la Opera, a group that paid information,” ₹100 a show for in which he had inside saysa permanently damaged and I have to stay quiet Sarah. part in Durgeshnandini. “I often did three for a year at least.” shows ends Even though VS isinyeta today facetoa make convincing Born to jatra actress Prova Demeet but when Petromax lightcorruption charge against him, rivals did put vi, Bhaduri’s initiation into the ing was replaced by the new, dazto good use allegations of corruption and mismedium was at age seven. His lights,histhe usewas of public zling office against son VAdifference Arun KuMy problem mother passed away three years more complex. woman mar.

Political observersthe feel‘imitation’ he has gone back I was a between later. Soon after, Bhaduri, and and the ‘real’ woman became on his crusade against corruption.

They cite closet gay and my his elder sister, Ketaki Dutta, a glaring,” says. his current in thehemuch-debated Lavalin employers asked me stand theatre actress of repute, were fromthe the spotlight, corruption in which former partyBhasecto leave when they caseAway shown the door by their brothduri’s personal life also took sevretary and, reportedly, his in-house bête noire found out “Life took an ugly when eral Pinarayi dramaticVijayan, turns. Aiscloistered and CM-hopeful allegedly All in a day VS Achuthanandan doesn’t break his regimen of minimalist diet and exercises even amidst hectic electioners. rallies which witness hugeturn turnout kk mustafah she (mother Prova) expired. I relationship lasted 30 years involved. And there werethat rumours that he The rise to fame an to youngsters who like to join would be sidelined wasinspiration 10,” Bhaduri says. “Ketaki — oneduring with the a married Assemblyfamily polls, Achuthanandan was not so popular until a value-based Krishnamoorthy lauds much to the delight and I shiftedpolitics.” to a small room friend of with children — Left, ended his critics in the escouple of decades ago. He was known as a har- VS’s mediaTheatre interventions. leader near social Biswaroopa in north The Kolkata.

In pecially when the was asked to sign off bank deonactor social media. dliner, the uncool communist who focussed whose party had computerisation 1958, I joined Nattoopposed Company, a jatra group. posits helddidn’t jointly.happen.

“When Instead, I asked him But that if theabout eleconly on striking out enemies within and out- decades Facebook They gaveago me ajoined stage name, Chapal Rani, and a my future, hetion replied ‘It’sare notany myindication, concern’… aI rallies side the party. At least two party Congresses sometime backand and enjoys salary of ₹100 ₹1now for food.” think he wasVSattracted to another wave is sweeping thewoman.

State. AsI reaffirmed this notion. The media found his a huge fan following.

I try and slip in the next question, when he loved him. Deeply,” says.

Dhivin,heone of the ‘Boys of Chebody language too rustic to strike a chord points In fact, theleft issues at my hand,VS“Ispicks that atoreal solitaire?”

Today, Bhaduri’s contribution to theatre is Guevara’ in Kannambra tells me with the masses. But he was open to a makeov- fight have also helped build the he asks. immortalised through three acclaimed with a swagger, “He is ours,films: yo!”

He was flexible for a er, and found an unusual ally in the popular hero’s image.

When political I smile in agreement.

Performing – The Chapal Bhaduri Sto-a VS’s car leaves Kannambra, makeover, and found theAsGoddess art of mimicry, which got a shot in the arm parties stayed fromWhy gender “My ring is away a zircon. don’t you come ally ry, in Ushno Jonne, a telefilm in which he man who has come with his an unusual the Taar with the advent of cable television. “We found and green issues, cherryhome?

We can’t reallyVS hear each other here…” plays as himself, Premer three childrenand tellsArekti his friend, popular art of a cameo his mannerisms cool and amusing,” says Dia- picked brought themanother to the question.mimicry he says and before I can shoot Goppo (Just Another Love Story) inand which Ritu“It’s this resilience strength na Silvester, the producer of the hugely pop- public sphere. encroach“I held a job atBe theitSealdah Railway Division parno Ghoshthat is young Bhaduri.

Buthim the aveteractually makes forular satire show Cinemala on Asianet. “When ments on that the paid pristine hills daily of for 28 days an is cynicalmidable — a day job me ₹2.50 about the future jatra the rival to theofBJP and—even we chose him for imitation, not many in the Mathikettan in theeven Western in a month. I hadn’t finished school, so form that made him theModi. subject of both adulaNarendra I wish VS would middle-class living rooms knew him. The ac- Ghats, corruption scandals when I quit my job after three years, where tion and censure.

“The dead, He even emerge as aheritage nationalisleader. is tor who played him had to be briefed.” But the against Congress or cases of sexual else could I go butveterans the stage?”

Bhaduri meets athough is more money in it today.” biggerthere legend than EMS Namboodiripad.” show became a hit, and with it VS. Ever since harassment of women, VS afought my eye, stretching out on single them cot in and the Asthe we Left wrapwins, up the Bhaduri If willconversation, VS become the chief many actors have aped his strangely-intonat- struck an emotional chord with the people.

To minister nondescript government quarter in north tells me about anI incident he still can’tVS, reconagain? ask the man.

“With the ed, oddly-rhythmic manner of speaking and assist him was a with pack his of sister’s dedicated Kolkata he shares son,bureaudaugh- sky cile is with. co-actor me to embracea the“A limit whenasked it comes tonot springing the audience loved it. The show and its myriad crats, partymen and media His persons (infa- surprise,” ter-in-law and granddaughter. tiny room, him. He said my fake dugsee into pat comes the breasts reply. “Let’s thehis rein The his clones made VS a living room sensation and mously Thehe Syndicate byin rivals). recentlybilled painted mentions passing, has sults chest.on Those in sitting my ears.

Maywords 19,” VSstill tellsring BLink campaign headquarter in only Chandra helped demystify his tough-nut Stalinist dozens The causes VS chooses toof champion of calendar images Maa Kali strike and Ra-a stage is a temple, it’s the way Nagar, I knowPato lakkad, image. chord withParamhansa. many. “Take issues such as the live,” makrishna he“We says.will make it really big this time.”

“VS five is among the politicians in India deadly endosulfan pollution in Kasargod or He continues: “I had no earlier experience, In the name of the woman Chapal Bhaduri, 77, has more than decades to hisfew credit as a jatra performer jose ppiu kundu is an author based in Delhi image courtesy: chena kintu ajana — known strangers sreemoyee who realised the potential of mass media, par- the landsupport issues; of VSmy studies them Iwith and recent lacked the colleagues. was jinoy

Body of art

The best days are behind Chapal Bhaduri, the last living female impersonator in Indian theatre, but a slew of films and documentaries keep his work relevant

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saturday, may 14,14, 2016 saturday, may 2016

The dystopia of body panic Just do it (or don’t) APPROACHING EYE LEVEL

In Alexandra Kleeman’s debut novel, the body is mechanised, dictated by capitalist urges and ultimately, stripped of identity What it takes to keep your head above the water sans a saviour who either shames or gloats A dreams of “an inverse pornography in which all that mattered was what was going on within what appeared to be a successful fucking.” Elsewhere, in what I read as the starvation facility she ends up in, A notes of her room-mate, “I saw her collarbones and shoulder blade sliding past each other like pistons in an engine.” Autonomy is an endlessly detachable battlefield, and the scars are ugly proof of flesh, or life. “All around me, people were giving feelings and help to one another all the time, as if it were the only thing to do,” A notes. Capitalism mutates resistance, and links arms with those who do the smothering, especially if they’re men: “[C] was a graceful consumer: he could consume without being consumed in turn.”

It’s a novel about how eating disorders can be learned and transmitted, but not quite. It’s about the Debordian spectacle, but not really.

It’s your favourite horror story about bodies that are consumed into hunger, sadness, and other kinds of desire, but it’s also about how bodies at their most intimate can, up close, be as gross as their components, the hyper-intimacy becoming a constant kind of erasure of the self. “The dangerous part of having a face was showing it off, not losing it. To see your face spread onto the faces around you, absorbed by others,” she observes of the helpers at shutterstock Wally’s, all of whom look the same. Disappearcouple of weeks ago I nearly one who has been swimming — at a modest over ance the country.

Though I had sympa-starts means resemblance, as been B gradually drowned. I was on my first lap of the level of competence — for years. I began to thetic, had not quite their suspicion that or toImorph into hergot — “she was disappearing, day, charging along from the plea- drown not like someone whose favourite new the laws of physicsor and their bodies would reappearing, appearing for the firstlettime, Loss of appetite You Too Havethat a Body Like Minetrick is about eating disorders can beat spread shutterstock themwhatever” sure of being in aCan pool didn’t lasthow summer was to swim the bottom down. Or maybe suspicious of one— but itthey alsowere implies stealing feel like where Putin went ice-fishing. My old of the pool between the ankles of willing vic- theirself minds.

I hadn’t beenDisappearing obnoxious enough away, like the Dads synhome Delhi is just far enough in memory to tims. I just flapped my arms about uselessly to say “just which do it”.haunts But I hadn’t quite underdrome the town, where fathers he second thing did do after finishing feel like a pleasant place to visitIand tourisThe NewinChristian Church of the Conjoined and bobbed and out of the water, gasping. stooddisappear the panicbut either.

If you just if calm down of nobody knows it’s because Alexandra Kleeman’s terrifying ty things. A bookstore or two may have given deis a Icult-ish capitalist enterprise EveryEater, time Iwhich surfaced, yelled “help”, sounding you’d“self-napping” float. No? Actually, no. or otherwise.

You Too Can Have a Body up the ghost inbut my novel absence but the best place in the dystopian world the novel,deeset in a I’ve fresh comical to even my own ears,of and further understanding what goes onAinIn many ways, this isofthe rack that hangs wasgood. to reach for ayet slice of for cold badamLike milkMine is still I haven’t nameless suburban town in that America, pening my misery and conviction this the side my nephew each he venhernervy struggle against lifesummer on: her as body, as it diswalnut cardamom cake — knifed lost my ability to say “Chalo bhaiyya” andwith per- tiny, highlight which appears to be a poem supermarwas the end. Toof misquote Stevie Smith’s turesappears, toward the pool, bymore inch. in I also hadways; resists byinch being other icing into a crust on suadedark autorosebuds, drivers toits take mecolding to distant places, chain named Wally’s where the lives of our I wasket ‘waving and drowning’.

Out there was a refresher course in how rejecting rationality. she remembers to remember more clearplateeven — andattempt consider percentage it bright a skillmy I don’t towhat exercise in Ben- of the protagonist A, day herand room-mate in emotional, You summer happy swimmers, it all thefeelings time: why don’t people ly, hear she retrieves and speech, she realiswassoplastic, and remembering an epigaluru, hopeless aretrue, my chances.

Best of all, and the linguistic proximity B, and A’s es that there and physical in here was cool blue just leave difficult is “notheir better way to marriaglive or worse. sodeI know of thewhere BritishI can horror short film in Delhi go to swim anyseries boyfriend C, intersect and me drowning quietly. most visibly.

Why don’t they quit It was alles?terrible, and you hadjust to do it conDon’t Hugyear.

Me I’m Scared (“Oh what’s that! A waf- AfterTurns month of the out, had company several of Ithese up and in drinking?

Why stantly.”

In don’t You Toothey Canjust Have a pie?saying, But you’re to end up in sad inSo fle-y as I was I wasgoing charging along orange-phobia, for light good rea- Sometimes our downmy ventures, I felt the lose weight?

Why don’tthe they just? of Body Like Mine, critique side!”) which might cool thinkpool of as a distant, this perfectly warm,one perfectly and at grip son.

Consider Kleeman’s de- drowning minds of one of the swimming As if capitalist our lives aren’t inexdesirefull is of straightforsympatheticmark but began criticalthe companion to the the three-fourth slow process scription canned coaches on myofarm.

Andoranges: almost urges unexamined ward, andand electric, but what’s take overatour Bodies their mostplicable gruesome world of unhurried dissolvingway. appetites of drowning.

I did it in an First in “There were disappeared. cans of (. . .) man- swimming instantly my panic beliefs.

As if even the beliefs ex-surgimost exciting is Kleeman’s bodies intimate can, up novel.that I couldn’t possibly I diddarin cameKleeman’s the thought suspended in sugwhatoranges I’ve done for years closely cal ability to fistimmediately it with black huclose, be as gross asamined Thefurther first thing was, of course, to google swim any because how tired I was. “orwater, thepool little—naked pieces whenary tired in the flipped neat nuggets andof meaning. yoke our their components yieldmour Alexandra Kleeman” to was reassure myself Thenanges the thought that this pool rather jostling up together in the on my back and floated. My sa- perSometimes our drowning more-than-human lives to it, the others the annals of the interdeepthat at the deeptoo, endfrom — unlike the politically dark of the can,me curled viourfect didn’t have to drag intofetalminds take over our swimming kind that makes us afraid of benet, might have testified theiracknowlrepulsion of correct pools I usually swim in to which ly against the light, just one tow another.” me like a tugboat. If tug- bodies. And we areing really lucky wekind canthat make alive, and if the is ulti— perhaps RealFoods, edge oranges that it may be goodeven to be a nation Wholeof boats are Or raw ones: lithe and muscular, that is. He it to the side without anyoneeffective sticking around mately dystopian Foods, andyou what foods meant shorties when areabout on a 17hourthat busare ride or to opened the refrigerator and saw checked“Ithat I wasn’t dying and went backnothing to to shame us or gloatitover beingdisappearance: our saviour. disfiction.

Mostly, is about kill you but are secret lining the knowin a movie theatre butthe otherwise not soofmuch. but a pile of stripped oranges, a pyramid the children he was coaching.

I hung to the lip of In appearance the last couple gone a few of — weeks and byI’ve — women’s bodies, theofgummy calories I’vewhat-you-eat swum in theschool: deep end this pool be- of the pale, yellow colour rind. of thethem, pool all feeling foolish.

For the firstoftime inThey timeswants, to the pool.and And swam nervously to-fickle needs, any semblance of the confectionary are still just aasnew transparent fore when the deep that end was trophy as would be so to eat —reluctant pre-peeled, my brief career of easy persuading chil-unarwards theaddictive deep end.

Each time I forced but lies of selfhood.

As amyself promise, I the ingredients at the back of the packet of conquest and didn’t frighten me.

But now they The gouges in their drenmoured. and adults intolittle the pool, I suddenly un-rinds to look down as to the inviting depths and reject- on realised I picked at the flaky rosebuds areApril squished into,itand the cookie on this morning terrorised me.brands It sud- that matched of B’s fingernails derstood why the so diameter many were convinced thatexacted itsthe cold comfort.

I had the jitters fresh cake, the title is a grimace of and hope, where it different that are denlypromise seemedthree impossible thatfruity I canfillings even sumly. But for some reason, theextremely oranges now they just couldn’t.

I am usually sym-filled respect, if not for the one waters neighbourmakes perhaps of of thethe most unexpected missing ingredients mon all theconfidently energy to swim thefrom threethe strokes to pathetic me with dread (.over . .) An orange wasn’tespea type of and repeat and over again, hoodand pool, definitely arguments for the murky my on, compelling for bits us toofcarry list, of substituted near-concentrates the side the pool. by It was too much andofI varso much as Ianother entity, looking ciallyfood to children, that had no hideous plan to out mindaswhich sometimes refuses bodies that always couldto bejust. in the world, if yingdopercentages.

Foods that,and in began the novel, couldn’t it. I was dizzy, worried for itslet own interests, secretive and sealed, hid- not our own. suddenly them go — this being an extremet@chasingiamb LighttoFoods, or food that aren’t of to gowould down. be I began go down not like someing itsand insides the outside world.”all ly popular evilfrom method of instruction “VERIFIED OR POSTULATED DARKNESS” since Bodies become automata: both sex and star- sharanya is currently pursuing a PhD in performance you knew exactly what went into them, as per vation lend an awkward resting post for flesh. studies at the University of Exeter, UK

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You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine Alexandra Kleeman Fiction Harper ₹1,299

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Nisha Susan is a writer and editor of the feminist website The Ladies Finger

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LIGHTHOUSE

What we talk about when we talk about politics Online political discussions turn into barroom brawls faster than you can say ‘ad hominem’ ‘paid audience’ or a ‘presstitute’, in that colourful coinage of a retired army general with the rain A that typical Indian penchantDon’t for stop tasteless day in Sukna puns. Ah yes, she could also bemonsoon anti-national, School trying to break up the country. near AnySiliguri. issue they children return home raise, they can be told, ‘Ah, but youa railway have an along line lila We’re sah agenda for kicking up a storm. on to you!’

HOME SPUN This can be combined most effectively with Whataboutery. For example, if the Congress raises the issue of a corruption scandal in the BJP government, the BJP can say that their intent in raising this matter is to divert attention from their own scam from a week ago.

And so on. This can even get recursive. (To visualise this process, imagine fractals.)

Three, you categorise your opponents by applying a pejorative label on them, and then dismiss that entire category as being beneath en years ago, when I began writing published. The truth is that I was dissatisfied wherethus Nepal, Bhutan,the Bangladesh and China contempt, removing need to engage what I hoped would be the likeness with the ‘story’ — I couldn’t be audacious closer than Calcutta. am also aware, with are it. This happens across theIspectrum.

Just in of ado novel, I began groping a title enough to call a ‘novel’ — and didn’t want go a on however a way, that mywith sense of Twitter,preternatural and you’ll find it packed Whataboutery Why we have a picture of Modifor here?

What about Pappu?

Whatitabout Muffler? a shaikmohideen even before I had put pen to paper. I few hundred trees to be killed for a bad book. morality — my placeand on the map —liberals’ has come to ‘bhakts’ and ‘aaptards’ ‘adarsh like to think of the titles of novels as a writer’s Now, all these years later, I like to think of that me from living placeyou rimmed mounand ‘sickulars’ and soin on.a Once applyby such ne offor thethe great things those about long socialyears pet name project: like-minded people deliberate, theyillustration typically of first aborted attempt as a good tains, the Eastern Looking at one’s a label to someone, youHimalayas. do not need to engage media is that we talk to eachneeds othernickspent raising a recalcitrant infant end up adopting more extreme position in with shadow Siliguri itselfa — a provincial town’s experithedebate. expanse of mountains is a them inagainst reasoned more.

I am not beingcriticism ironic: to names.much I’d read enough literary line with their pre-deliberation ments with self doubt. (Ainclinations.” few years later, I Attacking good education about one's insignificance. the person instead of the argubecause Facebook alone, know that the of title of a book wasI know related to Thus, we find most politicalofdiscussion found that that all permutations my name had my obsessive love for nature ment isMy anfriends ancientput tradition — some intrepid muchwhat more about my but friends than would it was about, I chose toIbe sceptical: online consists ofTwitter peoplehandles. talking I past each historian been taken as am @Sumanato mymight years even in Siliguri, a ‘green life’, as I’m refind that it is of Indian otherwise.

I am also inname touchchildren with many more ever how did parents without other.Siliguri And when they dohappy talk toto each other, it origin. on Twitter, have my homeminded time to time.the When I sitmost down to I havefrom just enumerated three people than I would otherwise be, especially knowing what their children’s lives would be isn’t town pretty.asAnonymity (orIteven physical a surname. seems like adislogical write,ways however, it is neither the consciousness common of doing this. There are many old friends. is useful asthat oneliterary gets middleabout? This The other thing critics had tance) turns mice—into tigers, and mostinpolitiprogression in boarding school Calcutta,other I ofways that of green — its colonial appearing to winbut anincreasingly argument diaged.told At me, some point around 40,experts, the world in the tone of dating was this cal discussions turn the personal really was ‘the girlonline from Silla’, last word being without a lapidated tea gardens or it the Baikuneven engaging with toanorexic begin with. starts—tofirst narrow andwere goesinevitably on narrowing.

Social fast. Ifteenage novels autobiographiyou want to dominate discussion, abbreviation forathe town.) you Google thapur — nor‘38 ofWays hazyto historical gossip for a forest great essay, Win an Armedia keeps broad,— and even recluses stay my cal.

Mineitwasn’t it certainly wasn’t about ignore the issues involved attack What was so specialand about my the per- gument’, by Arthur surrounding Siliguri Schopenhauer andthat youorbit up-to-date tip-top, as they saygym, backI reallife. A and few months into thewould writing son instead.

There aremade three key hometown that me ways wantin which will see some examples. my consciousness.

Having condiThey include noble in myised day.the veracity of that truism: I hadn’t set out this happens. to write about it? The answer to tioned me goalposts, to reject grand narratechniques such as shifting attackThis column is not about to write about myself, but Ithe didpersonal, want to write One, accuse yourword: oppo-Noththatyou would be one tives,men Siliguri itsto residents ing straw andpushes appeals auMy sense of moralitythority. though, butthe theplace political. is farme more about that There had made thepoperson nent ing. of hypocrisy.

(This aischronicler also As Tabish Khair, into The my stories: anonymous 38th ofthethem is has come to me frommasterful, liticalI’dawareness become. among young people today known as Whatboutery.) of small town life, toldSo meifonce, madman andwho onewrote that unsolvable many living in a place Twitteratti than there was is when I wastown growing up in the someone Siliguri a small in sub-Himalayan about the out 2002 whentalks we were driving of Sili-Anonymity mathematical on its are adeptequations at: “Become even rimmed (or by mountains ’80s. When teenager, I did of not know the For Bengal,I was andaI’ve spent most my life here.

Gujarat riots, go,towns ‘But what guri, “All you small look the physical walls insulting in the 1980s; fishmonpersonal, andthe rude as distance) difference betweenI’dleft-wing and Iright-wing, some reason, decided that did not want to aboutsame, the particularly 1984 Delhi when riots?you I areturns mice into tigers soonger who thinks Baishas Nimai you perceive that25th your and my opinion of of Rajiv was putinformed its name in the title myGandhi imagined novel. didn’t see you condemn If of leaving them”.

I likethat?’ to think akh —has thethe birth anniversary of opponent upper hand.” that Ihe was handsome. needed a nickname;Today, it was12-year-olds a relief that someone I this seemingly points tounremarkable a Muslim — Tagore is related InRabindranath a sense, this gets to the—heart have didn’t vociferous signing on- poneedopinions to create and one. are Its geographical lynched a Hindudeep mob,subterranean you say, butby actually — nature of to the 25th of December of two of the matter. Thebecause whole point of men line petitions they are not on hunger sition as awhen connector, a ‘gateway’ to the coun‘Whatprovincial about that social life Hindu as one that supplied to me the in beards; Sapna-didi, who calls Kuwait political discourse seems not Colony to strikes in-between Political discourse try’s Northeast,meals. a corridor as it were, had given worker killed by Bangladeshi migrants As-never aesthetic of my writing. Though onein can near thebut railpersonal. quarters When ‘Wait Colony’; be political we take Ratan, a has increased in volume; but it a funny exponentially and wicked nickname: ‘The Chicksam?’beIf they free speech of afrom, mem-I am sure defend where the affinities spring believes Siliguri immortal pointwho of view, we make an is assertion notbecause about it is how much is noise how muchconfused is signal?univeren’s Neck’.

Theand story of three ber of phallana community, you say, what aestempted to link the ‘Nothing happens’ made plastic. about its river the state ofof the worldI’ve butwritten about ourselves.

Our MaThere hopes— that social media would sity were students a Bengali girl and her two aboutthetic dhimkana whereinwere youBeckthat I community, first encountered Samuel hananda, nowa proxy ‘Maha-ganda’, I’vestatewritten ideologies become for personal lead to a virtual global town square where in- stufriends, a Rajbangshi orphan and a Nepali whenett, they weresimultaneously censored? Not with just trolls, all ments: almost my discovery about a tiger entering the‘I town, I’ve also writ‘I am compassionate’. am righteous’. formed citizens couldwith debate one anothdent involved thewith Gorkhaland movepoliticians do Kaul’s exactlyfilm this.Uski When Arvind of Mani Roti, and Kejriof course about the Sukna forest that givesMany the town ‘I amten clever enough to engineer society’. er. Instead, led to conglomeration of wal was ment —itI has decided to acall ‘Love in the Chicken’s theexplorations hundreds ofof the Amitquestioned Chaudhuri’sabout delicate itsactions green beard, I’ve never written a poem of our in thebut political sphere are not echo Neck’. chambers, some of them truly Writing alone, keeping it abizarre. secret from crores of taxpayers’ money he spent ‘Nothing happens’ aesthetic in on hisrunnovels, or to story aboutaffect Siliguri.

I doubtbut if I to ever will. I’m meant actually change, show No matter whatwho’d you believe in, you can my family have thought this now a useless ning with ads for theunselfconscious Delhi government, he replied, my ambition for my superstitious — the most importantare things our nobility.

And because our positions so in find hordes like-minded people online, and job exerciseofcompared to the more important ‘But the BJP also does this.

Whythat don’t you quesown writing.

I am certain this way of lookone’s life lose any grace andon humour tied to our identity, attack them iswhen an at- one be reassured the validation theydissertation provide. tion at hand —by finishing my doctoral — them?’ ing at the world, my rejection of Aristotelian commits to writing.It feels personal, tack on us. We them react viscerally.

This has leadittotoa phenomenon sciI sent a competitionthat forsocial unpublished Two, you question the intent of your oppo-away speed in narrative, a natural turning (Inpersonal. this monthly column, authors chronicle the so we get entists call ‘group Surprisingly, polarisation’.itThe manuscripts. waseconolonglisted nent.from She could a CIA agent, a pinko socialbeand historical modelsstooge of ‘great- cities they call home.) t@amitvarma mist for Cass defines it Prize. thus: That “When theSunstein Man Asian Literary was in of the Chinese, a lackeyimpulse for theto corporates, ness’, a modernist inhabit theacusp 2008, and since then I’ve often had to answer between provincialism and cosmopolitanism, sumana roy is a poet and writer based out of Siliguri queries about why I never got the manuscript all of these come from living in Siliguri, a place t@SumanaSiliguri

Living in the Chicken’s Neck Siliguri equals being in a very serious relationship with a place where nothing happens

sumana roy

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

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saturday, may 14,14, 2016 saturday, may 2016

The first of a new genus In praise of Mary Wollstonecraft, philosopher, pioneering feminist and, as it turned out, intrepid treasure hunter in was her fearlessness. She travelled extensively, with her baby, in an age where pirates and highwaymen presented a genuine threat.

Has there been another single-mum philosopher on the high seas?

For her professional achievements alone, Wollstonecraft deserves recognition. But then there’s the personal life. She was intense, possessive, and prone to fall in love. Her first forays into the landscape of love were Girl, disastrous. And it was one ofinterrupted these disasters A poster in the that triggered my fascination and ledheart me to of Perumbavoor town write about her in the first place. mourns the death of In 1795 she wrote a bestseller based on her Jisha, a law student above-mentioned travels who in Scandinavia. was killed on It’s a thulasi kakkat lovseries of letters addressedApril to a28 mysterious er, detailing the lively stories of the lands she MIND THE GAP passed through with her 10-month-old daughter. All very tantalising, but the back story is even juicier. It turns out that this trip of hers was in fact a treasure hunt.

To scroll back a little, Wollstonecraft had been living in Revolutionary Paris. Here she had fallen in love with a handsome American called Gilbert Imlay who was smuggling aristocratic silverware to trade with Scandinavian countries. One of Imlay’s ships, laden with silver, went missing off the rocky coast of Norway. Guess who got sent off to retrieve it? s if to mock all those who fervently which accelerated with the widening of eco- should itself put us tomighty shame,founder even as we marWollstonecraft, the of femibelieved that the death penalty will nomic inequalities in and through the Gulf nism, vel at undertakes her remarkable tenacity, rage this mission outand of sheer ensure women’s safety in this coun- boom, affected poor and lower-caste women desperation against the way snuffed out solove. cruelly.

— it towas regain Imlay’s She try, yet another ghastly murder of a more severely. Today, the shrinkage of state viewed And Imarriage shudderastoa think what might form of slavery (nothave unyoung woman rocks our conscience now. support to crucial services like education and reasonably been the tenor of the Jisha apgiven the discussion, legislation had of the time) Jisha, a 30-year-old young woman from Pe- healthcare, and the neoliberal turn in Kerala’s yet peared to be less than ‘proper’. she considered her bond withInterestingly Imlay to be rumbavoor in central Kerala, was not out late; welfarism that enthrones self-help as the ma- sacred. enough,Unfortunately even as no slurs havequite beenascast on it wasn’t sacred when last seen, she had been fetching water jor instrument of poverty alleviation means to Jisha’s yet, there been efhim,character and while she was has doing hisenough northern from a public tap. On a perfectly normal after- that the poorest families must struggle inces- treasure-hunting fort to blame hererrands, mother’s he “un-cooperative was shacked up Larger than life Mary (as seen in this portraittobykeep Richard Rothwell) a gigantic life noon in April, whenWollstonecraft the neighbourhood had1840santly their headshad above the water, or with nature”, “quarrelsome nature” and so on for an actress. shutterstock that cruelly cut shortshe beenwas full of people, was battered, stran- run faster to stay at the same place. Jisha, her theThe social and was poverty the family expainisolation of her loss so great that she gled, raped, mutilated in the most grisly way friends remember, faced this scenario in her tried perienced.

Another incident, the gang-rape to take her own life — of twice.

Initially I doesright an 18th-century fe- batim imaginable, andhat killed inside the raminto the poetry of Samuel Taylor Cole- struggled with life with singular determination of a this.

19-year-old student at Varkala Wollstonecraft’s critics malethat philosopher from En- ridge. shackle squatter-hut she called home.

Withinendurance. a few years of establishing have always used and extreme whose assaulted her with herdate personal life against her, to offer today?

In the debatesgland and have protests thatus have fol- herself as a writer she had would not only charged in- which made me I wonder if her murder his want friends, made the thereader’s headlines to deflect atMuch moreand than youanger might lowed, much pain and grief sheer at to with leading ofestablishment tention elsewhere; havebattle evoked suchthe a tsunami in Kerala in theover middle of unhapthe deto gloss these expect.

Mary Wollstonecraft the forethe apathy of the government, was the police, the thinkers thehad day, not but been also penned the first outrage ifofshe so batelife. on But Jisha’s death. The young pyhave parts of her gradually I came to What might mother of feminismand andthe an neighbourhood early champion of welfare machinery, is call for For gender equality the English lan-tenor heroic. example, someinhave woman not die,parts but even if understand as did important of her been the of the them human rights,sodescribed

by Amartya Sen as guage, being shared, also the hope that the threads beginning demand 2’, justice for one had called this incident“I‘Nirbhaya she lost her life and suffered simlegacy. discussion, Jisha “the most that underestimated ofbecome the En- half of sorrow now bind usthinker will also of the human the reference beingrace!” to the horrifappeared to be less ilar injuries, it maydefiance not have Wollstonecraft lived in open ofprothe lightenment.” that we wasn’t enough, her per- ic Arape the ground on If which build more long-lastVindication of the Rights of Woman wasthan pub-‘proper’ and murder of a young the and same sort first of expectations voked of the world, discovered sonal life hadofallresistance. the plot twists, romance and lished ing citadels But these debates making the womaninon1792, a bus in Delhi inapDeresounding and united outcry. hand what awaits a woman who heartache of also a Bollywood movie. and protests reveal the limits of our polit- parently preposterous claim cember 2014.

But that only reFor this society’s woman did theShe “wrong” breaks rules. had a She was born into an unhappy family slid- that ical imagination. were our capable of veals women how selective political thing going out on a and date tried with childby out of wedlock, ingClearly, down the HerShe alcoholic father Jishasocial was ascale. fighter. was a law stu- reason.

All thatare. they needed was imaginations ‘Nirbhaya 2’, if atoman she knew reinvent her only own through domestica Wollstonecraft beat mother, and neitherher parent sawinfitthe to education. dent her determined to pursue studies detracwe need to Her call itmany that at all, coulddiscovered not have first cellphone (according reports).

She wasto attempting what hand calllife. educate daughters.

Her older brother tors face of their enormous challenges.

Women-led matched today’s in-Nepali woman beeneasily the mentally-challenged We society where young evWoolfthe calls “her face experiwhat awaits a live in a Virginia went to school she was sit no, for ternet households arewhile numerous in forced Kerala,to and trolls in their whose hideous gang raperaging and murder in Roh-whoer-greater are continually exmentsasinthey living”, and she paid woman breaks policing hours in silence. safe toofsay that Wollstonenot because the It’s vestiges matriliny persist. misogyny — some things never tak was news less than a year ago. But no,society’s com- posed the price. and desires. In such rules to new possibilities craft never let silence herThe again.

Rather, it could be thedefine reverse. end of ma- change.

Undeterred, she from urgedKerala at least a society in which mentators on Facebook women’s sexualwords desire may Wollstonecraft’s still Wollstonecraft her own way, managtriliny meant thatfound matrilineal women’s claim women to focus less on physical could descry Nirbhaya again only when an- itself be a crime, transgressions to be matter today, andare heronly political ing to attach herself to families who possessed to permanent residence in the family home as appearance, andstudent, more onwho finan-was ostensibly expected — the other woman demand that as women stayI legacy is as fresh ever. Did books.

Following Janeto Austen route of the cial a customary rightthe came an end.

With independence.

Her mobility, most struggling for upward was mur- ‘pure’ in a society wherethat sex is permitted only mention she is also Franpoor-but-worthy she became a lady’s quotable rise of dowry and girl, the migration to patrifocal quote of all the is the ultimate distill- kenstein’s dered. Why? Because atrocity at Rohtak via marriage that requires(Her hefty dowry paygrandmother? daughter was companion and alost governess, all the marriage, women land rapidly.

This while was a ation of feminism: “I do not wish to Mary has not made an impression on (women) our memomentsShelley.) is absurd. hypocrites wax ThatAnd she yet hadthe a way with sea capplanning escape. was her future. have society inher which evenWriting patrilineal communiover over themselves.” ries? power Because wemen, can but really mourn only for tains? sentimental for gigantic a ‘pure’ life victim’, whose How her was one cut cruelly As declared in a letter to her sister: “I am young tiesshe imposed customary obligations on broth‘Power over ourselves’ looks different, of short, Indian women who seem to have promise was aborted — as if it was theI’ve promand that she died twice?

Sadly run the first of a new genus.” ers to protect their sisters. All such obligations course, fromlimitations one woman another. me, it out fought the ofto their socialFor circumised of future not the spacethat andreally you’llmattered, just haveand to buy Indeed she course was. She first womwaned in the of became the 20ththe century.

Poor sparked the desire to follow lead, tobut re- book stances, whose struggles caninbeher (unfairly, livingto present. find out. an war correspondent, a noted philosopher, women received land during the land reforms trace her journeys andof explore her legacy furstill) reduced to tales (possibly neoliberal rowlatt ’s book Inand Search Maryinis available in j devika is a historian criticofbased an pioneer, lesseducational frequently; and in any and case,an theinfluential lack of up- ther in myheroism book In Search of Mary. in doing bee self-help) interrupted byAnd patriarchy? t@BeeRowlatt Thiruvananthapuram travel whose foundcommunities, their way ver- so ward writer mobility of words the Dalit tripshe of my life.toWhat most drew me India TheI had factthe that had struggle so hard

Who qualifies to be Nirbhaya?

The outrage over Jisha’s rape and murder shows we can really mourn only for women whose struggles can be reduced to tales of heroism interrupted by patriarchy

j devika

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In Search of Mary Bee Rowlatt Alma Books Non-fiction ₹399

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saturday, may 14,14, 2016 saturday, may 2016

grimly of the new anti-Semitism which had assumed the form of the global “boycott, disinvestment and sanctions” campaign against Israel. Within the Israeli political spectrum, Shaked represents today’s mainstream, having paved the way to her current ministerial perch with virulent outbursts likening Palestinians to snakes.

It is a heavy burden of selective perception that apologists for Israel have to carry. The Balfour declaration, which paved the way for the colonisation of Palestine by European Jewry, is “Would you likeofour wine?” the man said inwill Enanother legacy British imperialism that glish. mark “We ordered a bottle of white, we soon its centenary.

There is which little evihaven’tthough finished.

It’s just going to go waste.” dence of any honest stocktaking.

“Oh, yes,” we accusations said at once, hearts Anti-Semitism wentour up several warmed when by thisLabour camaraderie. brought notches fieldedHe Sadiq Khan,over the theirofice and the half-fullbus bottle of Geson anbucket, immigrant Pakistani driver, in rard month’s Bertrand London chardonnay. this mayoral election. Conew expect today’s boundaries to sur- Obama’s purported decision to remove a bust servative So far sorival good, even with our supermarketZac Goldsmith, whose sister vive when order is finally restored in of Winston Churchill from the presidential of- was gourmet-aisle starters. busy hum of peoonce married to The yesteryear’s Pakistani the Arab world after years of turmoil. fice, signalling his undying resentment of the cricket ple eating underfurther the warm glowthe of icontogether Imran Khan, stirred There is rich irony that the Anglo- British empire. the ball lamps suffused theofdining if toxic broth with a series bizarreroom; media French deal that created these boundaries Obama’s grandfather was part of Kenya’s rants you squinted, youimmigrants might be persuaded that it targeting of the Muslim completed a century of infamy on May 16, with Mau Mau uprising, brutally suppressed dur- faith. was 1910.

Defeat brought contrition. And Goldevery commentator marking the occasion ing Churchill’s post-war premiership with im- smith’s And then, thepointed spell broke.

A line of noisy mother out how racism just with strong denunciations. mense loss of life and widespread torture, all could Chinese inmake-up identicaloffluorescent parnottourists be in the a man so devotMark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot, two to protect a few thousand white settlers in the ed kastofiled past to two what appeared to be the reshis sister’s sons. obscure civil servants of the British and country’s most fertile lands. Johnson’s re- trooms, turned out to be the souvenir On thebut rather different stage of university French empires, would have faded into the marks were well over the borderline of racism, politics, shop, filled with glasses, adish towels andto other April witnessed brief prelude this mists of history had they not earned renown but attracted humoured indulgence rather ugly Chartier merchandise. clash.

Malia Bouattia, born to immigrant for the cartographic aggression that bears than censure.

From parents then on,from everything downhill.

Muslim Algeria,went contested the their name. The governor of Iraq’s Erbil provSimilar gentleness was not in evidence with presidency Our waiter of brought us a bottle ofof overpriced the National Union Students ince was recently quoted saying that “hun- politicians who called into quesmineral water, and told thatdespite they were out (NUS) and us won a susdreds of thousands have been killed because tion other aspects of the British of carafes totained put the tap water in. Telling campaign accusing her ofa of Sykes-Picot and all the problems it created”. legacy of settler colonialism. ReFrench person to pay for theirand waterterrorism is like deanti-Semitism It was an act of imperial arrogance that cent weeks have witnessed a It is a heavy burden privingof themsympathies. of bread orAgiving them a wellnumber of univer“changed the course of history, and nature”. rash of media reports on how done steak; it awakens Revolusity unions bloodthirsty have threatened to selective perception A centenary is an opportunity for stocktak- the Labour Party, under its lefttionary instincts.

“Well, we’re not having any break off NUS affiliations since that apologists for ing, but there is little of that in evidence as Bri- wing leader Jeremy Corbyn, has of carry it,” said Frenchman #2 firmly. “We will not her election.

Israel have to tain’s Prime Minister David Cameron and become a haven for hydrate ourselves tonight!”

If hate speech is the template French President Francois Hollande double anti-Semitism.

We clinkedagainst glasses, and allegations when we finished which of antidown in their quest of regime change in Syria, Corbyn and his Labour colour house wine (a red Moulin de Gassac 2015, Semitism are assessed, Britain leaving untended other festering sores such leagues have been veteran camat €12.50 a bottle), the chardonnay. has apoured law inout place prohibiting as the brutal occupation of Palestine. paigners for Palestine who have scrupulously “threatening, “I see why they didn’torfinish it,” said Frenchabusive insulting words or When US President Barack Obama recently honoured the red lines between racial baiting behaviour”, man #1, putting histhere glassisdown when clearhastily. intent to “stir visited the mayor of Lonlegitimate criticism ofnaintara Israel. they were the dispiriting. upMains racial arrived, hatred”. but Implementing law has Comme Britain, ci comme ca incumbent Despite the positive reviews online,and Bouillon Chartier fails to impress mayaBlurring oberoi don, Cameron’s Conservative Party colleague these political demarcations has been a fa- been The duck wasthing, strangely accompaquiteconfit another sinceoily, there are conBoris Johnson, added his own quirky bit to the voured tactic of Israel’s most fervent defend- cerns nied byabout limp, ainsipid potatoes.

My rump possible abridgment ofsteak free isitors tohubris.

Paris are often ininsistence search of ers,Chartier’s mood of imperial Obama’s room retains within its original includingdining extreme elements who speech was draped in an unobjectionable au and the constriction of the sauce political “real” French experience, the kind have on Britain aremaining in the European Union Belle enjoyed Époque an decor, with columns, uninterrupted run mirrored in power rules poivreof(pepper sauce), but both the rump and engagement. that you see Allen movies for was an inheritance of in hisWoody Kenyan parentage, walls, ball-lamp long years. chandeliers, and a glass-roof- theThe entrecôte came with anaemic fries British steak philosopher Jeremy Waldron or Fitzgerald novels.in The moveable said Johnson.

Principal exhibit this extraor- edAtceiling.

Wooden sideboards are marked the Holocaust remembrance on May 5, Is- has reconstituted from sad, frozen cut this Gordian knot withpotatoes. an interpretafeast of slur everyone’s isn’tdignitary easy to find, dinary againstdreams a visiting was rael’s with the numbered where regulars justice minister,drawers Ayelet Shaked, warned tion “Dessert?” queried our waiter. that is attentive to the circumstances in though. I often find myself at a loss when peo- would keep their personal napkins. The menu which “I’ll have the Pont-l’Évêque,” Frencha speech act occurs. Thesaid touchstone ple ask me if I know of a reasonably-priced, is a traditional bill of French #2, taking refuge inthat theWallast here is equalman citizenship, a premise “authentic” restaurant here in Paris. fare, entrées ranging from vegeresortthe of the when things dron shares with 20thFrench century’s most reSo this year, in anticipation of the next lot of table soup, garlic-butter snails, are going south: cheese. nowned theorist of justice, John Rawls. holidayers’ queries, I thought I’d investigate a and marinated herring with pothis was sociewise.

Rawls lookedInat retrospect, how a “well-ordered Telling a French restaurant I’ve heard about for years, albeit tatoes, to salads and charcuterie The chou was a kind ty” could be created byChantilly introducing “veil of person to pay for not from anyone French. platters. Mains run the classic cream sandwich, four inches of ignorance” that obscures all existing and intheir waterherited is like systems Bouillon Chartier was founded during the gamut too, with pot-au-feu, whipped cream Waldron between goes two of inequality. deprivingfurther them and considers Belle Époque, the “beautiful era,” which lasted duck confit, and various steak claggy chou buns. My the process by baba whichaua of bread from 1871 to 1914, or from the end of the Fran- variations (and bizarrely, sparhumcould was inedible: a cylindrical fair social order be created.

Norms of co-Prussian War to the start of World War I. ghetti bolognaise). sponge in an acrid equal citizenship, hecake says,soaked need rigorous obBrothers Frédéric and Camille Chartier started TripAdvisor had warned us bottom-shelf servance in the transitionBacardi from a dupe. state of intheir eatery in a former train station, specialis- about surly waiters, but ours, in Our waiter appeared to which tot up equality. All forms of “group libel”, ing in cheap, filling fare, named after the word the traditional long white apron, was amiable, question the bill (about €25 each) from what he’d writthe rights of certain ethnicities to bouillon, or broth, referring to the restorative even chatty. ten down on our paper tablecloth.

“Don’t equal citizenship, would be classified as worhate stews served. Unlike its contemporaries La “I am the only waiter here who will not sell speech ry aboutinthe he said cheerfully, as if he thewater,” circumstances.

Coupole and Le Dome, though, Chartier’s pric- you the beef muzzle,” he said dramatically. hadn’t just tried to upsell it to us. against antiBy this criterion, the crusaders es are reasonable enough to be accessible to “You know a real muzzle? This one is all Semitism We paid—and passing a long queue of wholeft, gladly tar entire immigrant most; entrées start at under €2, and mains chopped up, it’s not the real calves’ muzzle sal- groups waitingand diners, mostly politicians non-French-speakers, left-leaning — seem to (from €8.70) and wines are among the most ad. Well, I can only advise you. After that, it’s lurk on our way out. Inear wanted turnspeech and tell them perilously the to hate threshkeenly-priced in Paris. up to you, of course.” After this virtuoso rou- old. thatTo it endorse was cheap and the room was nice, but statements from Israeli politicNeither of the two French test subjects I ca- tine, naturally we vetoed the beef muzzle sal- ians that this was well, all.

Every neighbourhood in condemning Palestinians to not merely joled into accompanying me knew of it, but I ad for foie gras with fig chutney (a steal at €7), lesser Paris has a bistro where the food is better,comthe status but non-citizenship would decided to disregard that. They don’t take a terrine (country-style pâté), and a plate of fortably staff charming, and threshold. there’s no tourist-trap clear that Silence in gift the bookings, so you can expect to queue for your ham and saucisson (sausage). shopof atsuch the end.

Even iftoo it’swould not at be Chartier pricface rhetoric a crime of meal (and share your table with other people), “Well,” said French tester #1, chewing omission. es, it’ll be worth your while. but as we were early enough, the maître d’ thoughtfully. “It’s passable, I guess. In the style sukumar an independent naintaramuralidharan maya oberoi is aisfood writer basedwriter in waved us past with his walkie-talkie to a table of Monoprix Gourmet.” in Gurgaon Paris t@naintaramayaoberoi for four.

The couple next to us came over as they left. based

MEAL TICKET STATES OF MATTER

The curse of at Chartier Taking stock imperial hubris The quest for a moveable feast in Paris doesn’t always lead to happy endings

naintara maya oberoi

sukumar muralidharan

As recent public outbursts have shown, crusaders against anti-Semitism lurk perilously near the hate speech threshold

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War of words Newly elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan at Holocaust Remembrance Day. Khan was the target of racist attacks by Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith, who slammed the Labour Party for being ‘antiSemitic’ getty images/jack taylor

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A place Up closelike andhome Arunachal

Homestays, though still an unstructured segment in India, is beginning to make a dent in the Optimism the face of adversity thehomely motto of the land dawn-lit mountains, whose tourism in market as travellers optisfor comfort onofholidays geographic position is as fraught with risk as its mercurial weather

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hen Kamala and Vinod Pa- and launched their website. Today, weekends the study excludes self-catering villas, houseust one warningrekh — and I’ll scoot. moved backSound to Indiame dead! are packed the Gulmohur Homestay, whichour boats Betteratdead than disgraced. and farmhouses as they are not conthe contongue and marvel at the surprising carries far in thefrom mountains.

I’m clue- in Nothing the USYetsometime ParekhsI’ve have named after the with flam-trasts weathered so far intree the course ventional hotel accommodation.

If these in the vistas that unfold. Along the as-were less about the 1982, truckthey heading way of our wantedmy to continue boyant flowers. travels through West Kameng district, centtofrom be included, numbers have gone Dirang tothe Tawang via would Jaswantgarh, along they the sole the ‘Y’in junction. what hadroute beentodoing Chicago — re-popularly In Kerala’s midway between known Thiravoor, as the ‘Buddhist circuit’, has Ko-named up significantly.

In the top 50soldier emerging after the heroic Indian whotouBeyond rise of the mountain Working to the leftwithcome searchthe on human development. chiclose and to Alappuzha, Francis anof ayurvedevoking so acute Xavier, a feeling de- hadrism destinations of India, homestays form 13 fought the Chinese against insurmountof this lies our proposed thebifurcation Institute of Cultural Affairs, an destinaaffiliate of aspair. ic Certainly practitioner, extremely not theisblizzard we encounter able odds duringper total accommodathecent warof of the 1962, lie dense fortionUN — the high-altitude Lake, the better agency, the duoSangetsar had travelled worldon the busy between October andsnowflakes ests, resonant with 13,700 ft-high Sela Pass, the tion, itbirdcalls. says.

Giant icicles known byTo the nametheir it hadchildren acquiredunderstood after a cer- In-pinprick-sharp over. ensure March everyon year.

He exposed has turned our faces as we hang like bared dinosaur It is notteeth without from reason hollowsthat taindian Madhuri Dixit shot a dance sequence on Pa-stephis culture and grew up around family, ancestral out to200-year-old watch a pair of Brahminy ducks, in the rock face. homestays are gaining Magnolias bloom in wildpopulariproHomestays, hotels its shores a 1997 Bollywood film.

Branching unperturbed rekhs for chose Nashik to build a home. home along in- gliding by the thebackwaters rough weather, Hari Nair, CEO of HolidayIQ, fusion along thety. hillside. resortsOther are notjourneys a off to the rightwe is decided the routetotoreturn, Bumlawe Pass near toacross “When wanted to aSela comfortable accommodaLake. Nor the onward driveand — depoints out two factors.

“On the — sometimes undertaken threat toon each other stomachs, the China border.

Among theand vehicles be close to a rural area have heading a live lab ofspitetion for tourists. plunging Xavier’sto a shockthe car temperature supply side, it is theare economics growling for eateries rare in of will continue to realms there is a convoy of Indian Army nowTheying eco-friendly human development,” says trucks, Kamala. is an minus 10°C houseboat — to Tawang, for weand have accommodation in India that is these remote — yield equally irresiststalled in theseven snow acres some hairpin ahead byconvivial bought of landbends surrounded addedcompany attractiononfor those the way:stayA trio of smil- co-exist growth. cost and of land ible photo ops: driving trees laden withThe peach of us. hills in Nashik and made it home. Two decadesing Monpa ing withwomen family.whom I cajole into singing pear blossoms grow and around building a property is high Dirang; an elderly “Those trucksarchitect are skid-proofing tyres with later, their daughter-in-law dividedfolk songs Parekhs Xaviersforare for usand in exchange the ride they matron wearing while the average occupancy pretty turquoise earringsrate chains,” volunteers Lobsang, explaining the seekamong the palatial house into three and the Parekhs thehometown thousandsJang of famto their en route, be- smiles shyly from of hotels is only 40 to 45 per a doorway near Sangti vil-cent. traffic hold-up.

Nonchalant about such con- cause began to host guests in one of the divisions. iliesinclement who are now turning weather hastheir brought the lage; ponies andItyaks is notgraze enough to justify languidly onfresh the intingencies, ourwith localthe taxibed-and-breakfast driver promptlycon-road-repair Familiar homes into homestays. work they wereThe en-number of home- vestments in rooms.” way to Mandala and beyond; and stretches out inhad the seen snowabroad, for a power cept they the nap. family firstgaged stays has gone up from 17 in 2004 to 1,663 in in to a standstill.

Growthasand of traditional hotheprofitability mud-and-snow-churned I grab theachance I’dguest missed the Gorsalam hosted Japanese inat 2007.

By 2010, they Even 2014the and is spread across 207 destinations in tels chains rogue snowfall in Tais to hampered highusreal estate road Nagagigiby forces back, army check postto almost an hour ago. Tension were ready welcome travellers regularlywang thethat country, says a research by HolidayIQ. But and financial frosts surrounding costs.mists Thesetransform propertiesentire are mostswirling The no-frills over an issue with our Inner Line Permits, mountain peaks and passes, forests into a dreamscape of accommodation in mandatory for civilian access to the militarily trees and flagpoles, rooftops and phantom silhouettes.

Tawang comes with sensitive areas of Arunachal Pradesh, followed cars, cancelling our trip to the The Zemithang valley, with its genial, rosy-cheeked by jubilation at being allowed by the friendly lakes twice, can’t sour my mood. playful children and shaggy housekeeping staff sentry on duty to proceed, had resulted in my Cowering in our hotel room’s dogs and its Monpa heritage lovcriminal lapse: overlooking the only public sub-zero chill under a hillock of ingly preserved, is so much like loo for miles. quilts, I’m hopeful of enjoying the Shangri-La of my imaginaThe next such facility — somewhere near blazing sunshine next morning. tion that it melts away the riMadhuri Lake — seems light years away as the Such optimism in adversity, a way of life in gours of the exhausting day trip from Tawang. minutes tick by and traffic remains immobile. the “land of dawn-lit mountains” whose stra- And our aversion to drab Bomdila, with its unMy desperation mounting, I sneak out to pa- tegic geographic position is as fraught with fortunate reputation as a town overrun by the trol the area behind our hired SUV. With all ac- risk as its mercurial weather, is something Chinese during the 1962 war, is forgotten tion focussed on the stalled convoy ahead, the we’re learning to summon with the local’s while visiting the unique Chillipam Monastecoast to the rear looks clear. Our car serving as cheerful ease. The no-frills accommodation in ry nearby that showcases the little-known tana protective shield in front, I squat and focus Tawang, for instance, comes with genial, rosy- tric aspects of Buddhism, the interiors rich on the job. cheeked housekeeping staff eager to ensure with exquisite murals and images depicting And then I hear the beast growl. Though our comfort during the frequent power outag- the Padmasambhava in erotic postures with still out of sight, the monster truck is ap- es, even if it means pumping life into a tem- curvaceous apsaras. proaching from behind. Horror-struck, I feel peramental, kerosene-fuelled room heater Even Tawang, inconsequential for most vismy surroundings, the rich cobalt sky, the fir that spits fire and releases fumes toxic enough itors, surprises. With its gilded rooftops visitrees Christmassy in their mantle of snow, the to asphyxiate us. The food, though basic, is ble from afar, the magnificent 17th-century spectacular ice floe-flecked Penga Teng Tso — fresh, piping hot. The hostile road conditions, Tawang Monastery complex is a sight to bethe glacial lake at 12,000-something feet that the random bouts of vertigo and nausea be- hold in fair weather and foul. The town’s we’d stopped by minutes earlier — becoming come bearable as we roll the melodious place quaint Old Market — with my favourite landpart of a high-altitude hallucination. Strike names — Tenga, Sesa, Nechiphu, Lumla — on mark, the aptly named Tipsy Wine Shop —

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Postcards from heaven The road to Tawang ; (inset) herds of sheep near Sela Pass on a winter morning ritu raj konwar

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Travel log

stands out for the deep empathy shared among locals; its many stores, selling Chinese Getting there knick-knacks, woven Arunachali jholas and, of Most domestic airlines connect course, liquor, liquor, liquor, lie untended duryour starting point, Guwahati, with ing business hours as their owners zip off on Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and an errand, their faith in the patience and inChennai. From Guwahati airport, tegrity of waiting customers unshaken. you need to travel by hired car to Inspired, perhaps, by such tolerance and destinations in Arunachal. A fourtrust, we’ve stopped cribbing about the limitwheel drive is recommended, as ed food options, the appalling roads, the scarroads can be rough and there may city of public toilets, ungrudgingly managing be snow at certain altitudes. with a sheltered hollow here and a bush there during our long drives. I’ve even quipped Permits about charging passing vehicles a toll fee Indian citizens need an Inner Line when our impromptu toilet stops are more exPermit to enter and travel within posed than we’re comfortable with.

Arunachal Pradesh.

Visitorsinholding Simple pleasures Local food, the personal touch and being easy on the pocket are factors that work in favour of homestays.

(Clockwise from left) Homestays Nainital, A grave mistake, for which I’m paying now, Xavier Homestay in Alappuzha and another in Mussoorie special arrangement foreign passports require a as a lifetime’s worth of hard-earned respectProtected Area Permit. For ability hangs in the balance. Crouched behind information about entry ly financed through whichLake, makes capital our car on the road todebt Madhuri I hear the formalities, visit: http:// (interest and depreciation) coston one of Before the big-I tormentor truck bearing down me. arunachalipr.gov.in/ILPEntry.htm. gestreact, expenditures for hotel chains can it comes to a grinding halt aeat fewinto feet Another day in paradise A Monpa woman in ritu raj konwar Tawang their profitability.

Take the case Indiadoesn’t Hotels behind me. Surprisingly, the of world Stay Co — India’s as largest chain.

In FY15,stripthe self-destruct I rushhotel through a reverse Hotel Pemaling, Dirang company spent ₹467 crore on interest and detease, hampered by several layers of thermals.

God, however, is merciful: Army personnel (www.hotelpemaling.com/); the preciation, than itsfollowed operating My sprint tomore the car door, byprofits. my nose- at the ‘Y’ junction order all non-military vehiDolma Khangsar Guest House In into contrast, homestays are rooms that al- cles to turn back. Is the road snowbound? Is dive the back seat, is impressive. (www.dolmahotels.com/) or Hotel ready exist or arepartner’s an extension of an existing At my travel startled look, I di- the traffic bottleneck to blame? Has the weathZax Star (hotelzaxstar.in/), Tawang; property.

So the secret. costs are minimal. “Most of er turned? No one knows. vulge my sordid the Lungta Residency, Bomdila these places have been builtshe by theannounces, owner for “Military ambulance,” Exasperated, my friend grumbles about the (www.lungtaresidency.com/). his/her own use. So maintenance, and not rev- ambulance driver; his inexperience had glancing back. enue, is usually the target,” agrees Sanjai Saxe- slowed us down, ruining our day. I couldn’t be Flashing my bare behind at soldiers in highSightseeing na, CEO zones of Indianhomestays.org, security is not among my a website happier; Madhuri Lake will reIt is best to hire a car, with driver, that brings together homestay owners and fetishes, I promise. main a distant dream, but the Arfrom Guwahati for the duration of travellers. agrees: “This Suddenly,Kamala the traffic begins to is not our my man and I are finally parting your stay in Arunachal Pradesh. bread and butter.

So revenue is not the prime crawl.

Lobsang leaps in behind ways.

Travelling in opposite diUsually knowledgeable about The town’s quaint Old consideration.” the wheel. I’m expelling my rections, never to meet again. sightseeing attractions and Market — with the On theglad demand side, says Nair, travellers breath, to exit the ‘crime As we drive back to Tawang, I weather conditions, the drivers aptly tonamed Tipsy day prefer an alternative the usual resorts scene’, when our driver,tooverthink of the poor soldier setting also serve as guides. The other Wine Shop — stands and hotels.

“You getwaves to stay with come by gallantry, the am-the family out on his long journey this option is to hire a local taxi with outand for the deep often theahead. local food is a big bulance I shut my draw,” eyes he says. morning, coming up this very driver from Tawang for a day trip empathy shared Nair seems to be right.

Village, a locals and think of ostriches as theMauli arroad, unprepared for the shock among that combines some local homestay over my vehiclespread overtakes us.17 acres in Maharashawaiting him. I replay the scene sightseeing with visits to Bumla tra’s is regularly packed TenAlibaug, feet ahead, it skids on with collegeof my mortification and imagine Pass, Penga Teng Tso and Madhuri goers, and families movie snow halts.and Theeven young ja- production the jawan’s expression. I wonder Lake. Cost: ₹4,500. units.at“The Maharashtrian food, wan the traditional wheel looks back, if he’d drawn courage from the Tip preparedhelp. by the owner’sLobsang family, isrushes one of forthe motto inspiring the name of many an Army seeking I cringe. reasons I keep back to Mauli. grow establishment across Arunachal: “Fikar not.” ward.

And so itgoing goes: stop, start, skid,They stop.

Owing to recurring taxi-union vegetables and fruits in the property which Don’t worry. The situation suddenly seems hiAeons later…

The ambulance has stalled problems, hired cars from sun shines a little brighter makesthe it very Besides, the tariffs are larious. again, road green. ahead of it jammed with vehiAchin The Khanna, managing director of as thea sons, when hotels are full be butprevented the demand Guwahati could by perbreaks& through. much than other in Alibaug,” cles inlower various stages of properties distress. A tipper truck laugh Consulting Valuation practice at HVS South sistent, homestays answerin that demand. local taxi drivers Tawang from“This says Manish Sharma, a regularworkers at the homestands by, as road-construction desul- Asia, says while a homestay is an established is exactly proceeding what happened in Coorg,” hethe points to Bumla Pass or ghose is a freelance writer editor basedin In- out. Givenlakes. stay. Kamala is the mita torily scrape says snowthe offbiggest to the difference side. The ambuconcept abroad, it is not yetand well-known that economics is tiltedininsuch favour The best solution a of Kolkata environment.

“People who come from metros, in lance driver flips a backward glance. dia.

“Yes, there is a demand for it. But you need homestays, the growthispotential is more contingency to negotiate withcomshort on fresh oxygen, are completely relaxed. robust distribution channels to cater to that pared to the hotels. think homestays local“Itaxi drivers and hirewill onesee The experience is not mechanical. Unlike ho- demand. Currently, it is more by word of one million new rooms in the next decade,” of their vehicles, with driver, on tels, where you have four walls and a TV for mouth or local travel agenclaims the spot Nair. to complete your yourself, homestays are refreshing and ther- cies. It is not yet fully structurHowever, biggest journey.

Travelthe agents are obstacle aware ofto apeutic,” she says. ed,” he says. the sector’s growth is government this issue and usually refund the Saxena says families particularly prefer And this is the issue a handpolicy. paid Therein isadvance no comprehensive amount for the While hotels are fine homestays. “They need flexibility as there ful of aggregators are looking policy day trip. at the national level but a for business travel, could be special dietary requirements. More- to address. Sensing the defew states like Kerala and Karnatawe are seeing people over, every thing is personalised in a home- mand, online players along ka have come up with their own. stay. So while hotels are fine for business the lines of indianhomes- returning regularly to Kerala has formed a State Homehomestays for travel, we are seeing people returning regular- tay.org are coming up. Saffronstay and Tourism Society, which is a vacations ly to homestays for vacations,” he says. stays.com, MyIndianStay.com consortium of homestay providers As of now, homestays are in a nascent stage and cheersBye.com, which and tourism promoters to ensure in India. “The scale is small but it is gradually lists over 1,000 properties quality of service. growing,” says Saxena. His firm began with 25 across 70 locations on it, are a But owners are levied commerhomestays in 2010 and had 60 bookings that few of them. cial rates and extra taxes in states year. Today, it has over 150 homestay facilities These aggregators charge homeowners for without homestay policies. “It often becomes listed on the website and made 700 bookings marketing their properties. The commission a hassle to deal with local government offiin 2015. Ditto for Kamala’s Gulmohur Home- typically varies between 10 and 20 per cent of cials,” says Nair. While homestay owners are stay. “There is rarely a weekend without the tariff. going all out to create comfortable stays for guests,” she says.

While homestays are taking away business guests, it is now the turn of the state governIndianhomestays, Saxena says, could grow from hotels and resorts, they are not a threat ments to provide them a supportive regulatofaster but they are deliberately going slow. to each other and will continue to co-exist, ry environment. After all, if the government “We have a team which visits every homestay, says Nair of HolidayIQ. Homestays, he says, treats them as purely commercial establishstays there, meets people and does a physical will flourish in smaller and less accessible des- ments, homestays will lose their charm and check of things. Facilities as well as safety of tinations. But once these places gain scale and go the hotel way.

Soft touch Magnolias bloom in wild profusion along a hillside mita ghose guests are paramount. We don’t list a property visibility, hotel chains will enter the market till we are sure about it,” he adds. and build businesses. However, in peak sea- rashmi pratap

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Another shot at gold The Rio Olympics in August features India’s largest contingent ever. Can they deliver a performance to match?

How green is my valley The National Highway 5 in Visakhapatnam sports a lush green 2009 kr deepak A look goldinencore?

Half measures hurt

Former world and Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra celebrates after winning the 10m air rifle gold in the 8th Asian Airgun Championship in New Delhi in September last year

Planting trees along newly constructed national highways is the obvious thing to do, but outsourcing the process to private companies is doing more harm than good sandeep saxena

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ndia has not missed participating in any n 2012, the Gujarat government importOlympic Games since its debut 96 years ed two machines transplant ago.

Forhydraulic long, going to the to Olympics for trees along theirmeant state participation, highways instead Indian athletes not of cutting them down while constructwinning.

That mindset changed only after libing roads. Narendra YouTube eralisation and the Modi’s opening of thechannel Indian has short in video clipsThe of these hydraulic economy the ’90s. athletes realisedtransthey planters up trees, and then had to gopicking out on their own to train andtranscomplanting in another location. clip will pete withitthe best in the field. AThe system has tell you how huge andmeritorious. put them in now been puttoinlift place totrees help the another prepared pit. It won’tonce tell you veOne thing has been settled andthat for all, ry few among the transplanted trees provided have surthat there is money in Indian sport, vived, according data released by the the people runningtoit are clean and willing to Government of Gujarat. avoid the and inevitawork professionally for itsTopromotion the ble destruction of forestSome cover while conwelfare of sportspersons. former sportsstructing roads, the government had begun men and women joined hands to oversee the transplanting and translocating them along process and things have been streamlined. stateresults and national highways The are there for all to. see.

Half aout decade later, the Ministry Road Eight of nine bronze medals, of four silTransport andlone Highways has colluded vers and the gold came in the lastwith 20 the Ministry of Environment and individuals Forestry to years.

In the decades before that, employ thisRebello, strategy to improveSingh India’s forest like Henry Gurbachan Randhacover and carbon — soil, ocean or Usha trees wa, Milkha Singh, sink Sriram Singh and PT that done absorb gases and carbon had the greenhouse country proud by coming close compounds to winning a emitted medal. in the atmosphere. The government hasmodern-day approved theIndian National Green Importantly, athletes Highway Mission which 1 perlot. cent of have appeared to under be a determined Their the project cost is tothe bepre-’90s set asideera to were transplant counterparts from more trees in all in highway projects.

It aims to plant interested cheering the hockey team than trees alongabout national highways, to improve But the worrying their own performance. country’s credit as well as generate the hockeycarbon team, too, became also-rans after employment in if rural aim in the the 1964 Games, one areas. forgets(The the discounted first year 1980 gold.was to plant along an initial 6,000 km.) foratEnvironment, ForForMinister India, it of allState started the 1996 Atlanta ests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, Games when Leander Paes won a bronze medin a44recent organised

by TERI (The al, yearsconference after Kashabha Dadasaheb Jadhav Energy and Resources Institute) and NHAI won an individual bronze at the 1952 Helsinki (National Highway Authority of India), reportOlympics. edOnthat government would that the overcast morning at Stone release Moun₹42,000 crore overGeorgia, the nextPaes three years with for af-a tain Tennis Centre, played forestation, every state hadcame to announce wrist injury, and which most scribes to know an afforestation the Fernando Compensatoafter he rallied toplan beatunder Brazilian Mery Afforestation Bill, praise that has ligeni 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. Fund He earned frombeen ten-

nis legends for his tenacity.

Another controversy is brewing in tennis. passed thelater, Loweriron House on May 3. DisturbFour by years woman Karnam Mal- India wind has or animals, proper guards need to a realisticand chance of winning medals ingly, hewon alsothe said, “National Highways leswari first medal byGreen an Indian wom- in beboth created them.

Often, due to The budgetthearound men’s and mixed doubles. two Mission a major initiative.

We want to an, and is that was apublic bronze in weightlifting in high-ranking ary constraints,players that is not the case.”

— Sania Mirza, world encourage public-private partnership under Sydney.

Another four years, it was a silver in number As per one datainreleased bydoubles, the Gujarat women’s andgovernRohan which 200 hectare patches will be given to pri- Bopanna, Athens, double-trap shooter Rajyavardhan ment, transplantation and translocation ranked 13 in men’s doubles — arehad the vate industries who importing Rathore becoming theare first Indian to timber. win it. people been carried out for five years, to watch outthe for.last Mirza wouldand likethe to This land befor given on lease forin 40-50 The long will wait gold ended the years next choose successher ratemixed has been between 8.5-51 per cent. doubles partner.

Like Sushil, with 90inper cent of theAbhinav forest forBindra harvest on a Paes Games Beijing with shootThis is makes transplantation rather risky also talking about hisapast, more so revenue-sharing ThisKumar will encourage ing it down. Boxerbasis.

Vijender and wres- about strategy.

Since Grand the contract for in transplantahis three Slam titles the run-up business createswelled jobs. The for to tler Sushiland Kumar the guidelines tally to three tion usually awarded to aareprivate agency, theis Olympic year. There no wildcards this will soon issued,” with twobe bronze medals. he said. (suchtime as Drip which turn isina this andDrop that Drizzle), will deny Paes in a berth Thethe building national extracts At LondonofGames, thehighway medal spread wasa what partner brought by athe construction comwould have in been record seventh Olymhuge cost ontwo thesilver environment. instance, bigger with and four For bronze med- pics. pany,Another there is discipline neither ownership of hopes the prowith medal is according a report published

by Indian the Asian als.

Sushil to Kumar became the first to shooting ject, nor accountability. and India will have one more shooDevelopment 16,524 trees and the shoo- ter than the 11 at win medals in Bank, successive Games While national London.

Past highways medalists conBinwerecontinued removed to during the con-serious medal dra and Gagan ters be considered stitute just(bronze) 1.7 per cent toNarang willofbethe there struction ofSaina NH-26Nehwal betweenand UP Mary Kom once again. tal 33 lakh km road network of prospects. and MP the alone.

A total 125.2 kl/ proved mettle of of women in Indian sport India, according to NHAI’s webThe most exciting entry is that of gymnast If trees are km oftheir diesel was used. with bronzes. site, manage 40 cent of Dipathey Karmakar.

TheperAgartala transplanted while Industry insiders say this posThe August 5-21 Rio Games are India’s totalperformances road traffic. The gymnast’s in govthe the project is going es a chicken-and-egg problem almost upon us. The Indian conernment that her the lead-up tohas theannounced big event make on, their chances of for people in set charge of constructingent has another record transplantation trees along a serious medal of contender.

For survival reduces There is money in tion. trees are transplanted afas theIflargest ever for the Olymnational highways it the first time, there will will help be two dramatically Indian sports, ter construction, the40project pics, with 48 men and womachieve Intended Nationally women’sits singles players in badprovided the people drags on for longer, increasing en qualifying so far. Some spots Determined Contribution goals, minton, Saina Nehwal and PV running it are clean costs. is carare yetIftotransplantation be filled from athletics, and create carbon sink hockey of 2.5-3 Sindhu.

Anda the women’s and willing to work ried on boxing during and construction, the tennis, golf. billion provided team willtonnes, be playing only for the professionally for its chances of the trees’ reThe Olympic rulessurvival state that trees Privatising secondsurvive. time at the Olympics,the afpromotion duces dramatically.

Theearns newlyis transplanted the quota the individual planting of trees is a stop-gap solution, and ter making their debut 36 years trees arecountry, vulnerable infection for the andto not for the and prone to several examples fromtothe prove:women transago. Add thepast list three damage, and often withstand the te- plantation isarchers, individual who wonunable it. Theto selecunprofitable.

Aswhom reported Thea each of canby win diousthus construction. tion becomes subjective, Hindu earlier,medal 74 peron cent of transplantations their day. Two other Sanjeev Rane works for Drip Drop Drizzle, have failed ingutsy like it is happening in wrestling 11 forest circles in Maharashtra women, Vinesh Phogat and ‘green partner’ in the construction of Nation- in and tennis. a 10-year period (2004-2014).

Sakshi Malik, evaluation have won quota places in womal Expressway 1, between Vadodara and The first whiff of controversy is Ahmebeing While ₹1,500 crore has been spent on afforesen’s wrestling. dabad. in Rane admitted that not one treeIndia had tation stoked wrestling, a discipline where in Karnataka in the last 30ofyears, forest Finally, what are the chances the men’s survived transplantation years on.who He cover looks good for a medal. five The wrestler went down by 2,898 sq km hockey team?

After hiring andbetween firing 1997wellcites several forIndia, this failure.

“It Yadav, is im- 2011. achieved thereasons quota for Narsingh With the new bill now in place, wesettled might known hockey coaches, things have perative that trees that are Sushil indigenous to the is jittery about the reputed snatching it be going anthe ecologically disasdown.

Theyahead shouldwith make knock-out round regionIt be used,tofor can withstand the trous away. is going bethey a political decision with from adecision. tough pool. trauma of transplantation.

Treeslining also need to Wrestling Federation bigwigs up on srivatsa is a veteran sports journalist payel majumdar be protected both sides. against natural forces such as veturi

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saturday, may 14,14, 2016 saturday, may 2016

Tune into change The Mandakini ki Awaaz radio station is based in Sena Gadkari, near Rudraprayag; (below) Manvendra Singh Negi, the brain behind the venture shail desai

Hiss-panic!

186 snakes found under a wall

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schoolboy from Quebec may have stumbled upon an ancient Mayan city using satellite photos. William Gadoury, 15, observed that Mayan cities lined up with constellations of stars that were known to them. By matching satellite photos with star maps known to the Mayans, Gadoury found an object that could be a Mayan structure. Sure, some experts have doubted his theory, yet, compared to other teenagers, this guy should be able to get his parents off his back while surfing the Internet instead of “studying”.

What a sight!

Woman regains vision after accident

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ot every fall is bad for you, as Mary Ann Franco discovered. The 70year-old had to undergo surgery on her arm and back after she took a fall. But for Franco, who was blind for over 20 years, the surgery brought back her eyesight “Oh, God, it’s so wonderful to see,” said an overjoyed Franco while her doctors are baffled by the medical miracle.

canadian space agency

aking up to loud hissing isn’t a pleasant idea. Ask Jitendra Mishra, retired forest department officer in UP’s Lakhimpur district, and he’ll describe what it sounds like when 186 snakes start hissing. Mishra and family woke up one night to find four snakes in a room.

When more reptiles appeared from various corners of the house, the petrified Mishras sought refuge in a neighbour’s house. After a fretful night, the family started digging around a wall in their house — to be greeted by a knot of 186 snakes. The serpents were later released in a river nearby.

Big boss Breaking waves

Billionaire sponsors holiday for 3,000 employees Born a year after the Uttarakhand floods, a community radio Chinese tycoon made headlines for taking 3,000 service near Rudraprayag is filling many gaps in information employees and their families to Spain on a holi-

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day. Li Jinyuan, founder and owner of the Tiens Group, spent £15 million on the trip. We’re told that Jinyuan is hen the floods holiday hit Kedarnath planning a bigger later this government year. More than for more such services in Uttarak- and records the event, and after editing and inthe Uttarakhand 2013, mostwill hand,” twice number ofinemployees travel tosays BaliSaritha for Thomas, founder of PPC mixing, it is archived and played on demand. those who its path ad. thatof one.

Easily thelay bestinrecruitment and a former reporter with the British Broad- In addition, the radio station also has a soundwere sitting ducks. As a result, casting Corporation. proof recording facility where artistes can rewhile the temple town saw maximum devasAfter dry runs that started about a month cord their work. tation, towns and villages downstream too prior, Mandakini ki Awaaz finally delivered its But community building and social service were washed away by the waters of the Manda- first broadcast on 21 September 2014, on remain the soul of Mandakini ki Awaaz. kini River.

90.8MHz frequency from its base in Sena Gad“We run a paheli each morning and give lisToday though, the river and the population kari near Rudraprayag. And it’s been a steep teners the day to crack it — it’s good mental exon its banks have a voice in the form of a com- learning curve for the six full-time employees, ercise. These are based on old Pahari stories munity radio: Mandakini ki Awaaz, which has volunteers and the listeners alike. and beliefs, which the seniors are familiar not only brought the people closer, but has al“I had little idea about a computer, let alone with. We’ve seen greater interaction among so empowered them with timely information a radio station, when I came here,” says Siva- the kids and youngsters, and their elders, about inclement weather in the mountains. nand Nautiyal, who aired the first live show since the latter have the answers to these rid“We were in the process of setting up the ra- and has been working with the radio station dles,” Negi says. dio station when the floods hit this region,” for over two years. “We’ve graduThe radio station also takes up says Manvendra Singh Negi, station manager ally developed a healthy rapport issues on behalf of communities, at Mandakini ki Awaaz. “It was difficult to see with the listeners, and a good and approaches the authorities the destruction and not be able to help; we way to gauge this is the feedback concerned for a response. The isWe run a paheli each had no permission at that time. Communica- we receive, which isn’t always sues range from getting electricimorning and give tion had failed all over. For three months, we positive,” he adds. ty supply arranged for a senior listeners the day put the radio work aside and joined the relief What started off with six citizen couple, to restarting a to crack it operations,” he adds. hours of programming, has tostalled ropeway project. Another

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Negi’s radio journey began in 2001, when he day hit eight. It extends to 11 ½ realised the need for a local radio station.“Th- hours on weekends when shows ere were many things that the current radio for women and senior citizens service wasn’t catering to, which I thought are hosted. The average day was important for people separated by moun- starts at 6am in the summers and 7am in the tains and valleys. Not everyone has access to winters with religious songs, followed by newspapers and television, and getting local news, weather updates, and alerts on happeninformation across was important,” he says. ings in the vicinity. The programmes are in There was no policy in place for community Hindi and Garhwali. radios until 2007. Negi applied for a licence Over the years, the radio station has develasturi Paati (grandmother) is a houseonly three years later. While the registration oped a network of correspondents and citizen hold name in Tamilsome Nadu. grandprocess took its course, Mandakini ki Awaaz reporters, ofThe whom were trained via mother featured in on election connected base with People’s P.ow.e.r Collec- has workshops and work a volunteer basis. The released by bothimportant the rulingheadlines from tive (PPC), which guided the team onadvertisements the tech- team also selects party (AIADMK) and the opposition (DMK). nical aspects. newspapers for discussions with its listeners, In for onethe ad shewho sayscall “Amma” fed her while in “We provided them with funding in to share their views. the by other people: “Why for the first 18 months. We believe in learning do-she asks While music is avote regular feature like most claims that ing and conducted eight modulesincumbent through government?” radio stations,Paati Mandakini ki Awaaz focusses politically neutral and regional was paidartistes by which we got them to understand she the is basic on Garhwali and poets, parties to begives a model. workings of a radio station. This isboth cuttingand them a platform to popularise their edge information that goes straight to people work among the locals. During a live performin remote areas; we are working with the state ance, a member of the staff visits the venue

Poster perfect

Granny in Tamil Nadu cuts across party lines

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show records listeners’ queries, gets a response from the department in question, plays both on air and triggers discussions and suggestions on the topic.

“I run a local shop and pass on alerts to my customers. But my favourite time is when they play folk songs in the evening. I enjoy those over a cup of chai,” says Shakuntaladevi Negi from Bedu Bagad village.

Help has poured in from PPC and well-wishers, who contribute with essentials such as a generator that can address the problems created by electricity fluctuations. The channel also generates money through advertisements and private announcements.

And because they’re all too familiar with nature’s fury, Mandakini ki Awaaz is also in the process of obtaining permits for an emergency radio service. shail desai is a Mumbai-based writer

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

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n May 14, 1972, the USA launched its first permanent space station, Skylab. Ten questions follow on international spacecrafts.

here,there & elsewhere

Soul matters

The final frontier

1

Giotto was a robotic European spacecraft mission launched in 1985 for a very specific mission; in 1986, it succeeded. What was the mission and why was a spacecraft named after a Renaissance painter? If it helps, the answers are related, and the year is very significant?

2 3

Fiction. Which intrepid traveller uses a device called TARDIS?

For what specific purpose was the Antonov 225, the largest and heaviest plane ever built, designed?

4

The US Apollo lunar programme in the late ’60s was launched using the largest and heaviest rockets ever built at the time. What were they named?

5

The Space Shuttle Constitution was the first orbiter of the Space Shuttle system and was launched in 1976. What was it later renamed, after more than a hundred thousand letters from fans of a particular television series?

6

India’s first satellite Aryabhata, was launched by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1975. But in 1980, which was the first satellite to be placed in orbit by an Indian-made launch vehicle?

7

The DLR-TUBSAT from Germany was the first in 1999. TELEOS 1 and six other satellites from Singapore were the latest of 57, as of December 2015. What is common to all of these satellites?

8

Which cartoon strip inspired the call signs of the Command module and Lunar module of Apollo X, the last experimental space mission before the moon landing in July 1969?

9 10

Which first happened on the Soviet TM 32 space ship on April 28, 2001?

In June 1983, what did Pioneer 10, a space probe originally launched to explore Jupiter in 1972, become the first to achieve?

“I

will NOT read it,” says Bins, throwing the book down on the table between us. It’s Shauna Singh Baldwin’s The Selector of Souls. “Yes, you will,” I say. “You need to wake up.

It’s like an alarm clock for the spirit. It will make you angry. It will make you sad. It will make you thoughtful.”

Bins groans and clutches his head.

“Why can’t you just tell me the story?”

“Because it’s one of those books that uses an unusual character to carry the narrative load,” I say. “In order to appreciate the author’s ideas, you have to look through that character’s eyes and see the world from her perspective.” Bins groans some more.

“You make it sound like medicine!” But it’s not, I tell him. Instead it’s like being a tourist, visiting the foreign country of another person’s life.

The story unfolds via the perspectives of two very different Indian women.

One is urban, young and wealthy, the other is semi-rural, dirt poor and prematurely old. It is this second one, Damini, whose perspective is presented with unusual sympathy and insight. “For instance, you, Bins, would find it very hard to squeeze yourself down to fit inside the frame of a small, thin woman with hennaed hair —” The question in his face is this: why would he bother?

What makes it worthwhile?

“Because she’s heroic,” I say. “Because she’s interesting. Because she’s complex.

AND she’s a poor, underprivileged woman, struggling to hold her head up in a culture that likes to keep its women crushed underfoot.” Bins quirks an eyebrow. “So ... it’s a feminist novel?” I shrug. “I would say it’s humanist rather than rigidly feminist.”

For instance, at a certain point in the story, the author seems to suggest that it would be kinder for all concerned if poor, underprivileged women could use the magic of ultrasound sex-determination to save themselves the terrible burden of bearing daughters whom they cannot afford to raise.

“Are you saying you think that too?” asks

Bins. It’s illegal in India, after all. “Well,” I say, “I do really think it’s atrocious that rich women can bribe their doctors to select the sex of their children, but poor women cannot. It’s dreadfully unfair that the very women who are least able to feed their too-many children, also have the least access to sex selection. I believe the author just wants to show us how cruel the system is. How much in need of compassionate overhaul.” She doesn’t condone the actions of her heroine but she’s clearly deeply sympathetic. As we should all be.

Bins picks up the book again now. “Is that all it’s about?” he wants to know.

It’s a fairly hefty volume, almost 550 pages long in paperback. I click my tongue. “No, no — of course there’s much more to it! The other protagonist, Anu, has a lot of life-complications to overcome, such as an abusive husband and her own confusions. There’s an underlying mysticism combined with a free and flexible interpretation of theology. Plus a flickering of ugly saffron politics in the background.”

He’s about to open the book when he stops. “How about some tea?” he asks. “Coming right up,” I say. manjula p admanabhan, author and artist writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US in this weekly column

cornerstone

Answers 1. Giotto was launched to observe Halley’s comet, making a return after 76 years in 1986. Giotto was one of the first painters to depict the comet as the Star of Bethlehem in his painting ‘Adoration of the Magi’ 2. Dr. Who in the television series of the same name.

TARDIS stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space, and is Dr Who’s time machine 3. It was designed to transport the Buran, Russia’s answer to the Space Shuttle. Only one was ever built 4. The Saturn rockets, which succeeded the Jupiter family of rockets. They are the only launch vehicles to ever transport humans beyond a low earth orbit 5. The Enterprise, named after the Starship Enterprise from the television series Star Trek. President Gerald Ford was also partial to the new name 6. Rohini, put into orbit by the Indian rocket SLV (Satellite Launch Vehicle) 7. All international satellites launched by ISRO, which is regarded as one of the most competitive and reliable satellite delivery systems internationally 8. Peanuts; the modules were called Charlie Brown and Snoopy respectively 9. Dennis Tito became the first tourist in space. He apparently paid $20 million for the privilege 10. It became the first man made object to escape the solar system; it is currently estimated to be approximately 10 billion miles away from Earth

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

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