Blink issue 122 june04 2016

WILD VISION The new Jungle Book is a spectacular representation of what the jungle stood for when it wasn’t the diminished experience it is today p20 saturday, june 4, 2016

thulasi kakkat

Monsoon as metaphor Its punctual arrival in Kerala is the key to our general well-being. In parched Jaisalmer, where it barely visits, it’s a desperate hope. Whether it’s meagre or generous, not much else inspires, satiates or saddens like the rain does p3-18

STREET SMART The journey of the humble chaat from Chowpatty to the chef’s table p21

TWIST IN THE TALE Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s reading of the Vedas places Aryan antiquity in the Arctic p22

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THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

Dawn of the Vedas On the astronomical reading of the ancient texts by Lokmanya Tilak

rohit gupta

direction in a full circle over 26,000 years, the position of stars is altered in the same cycle. So was there a time in the distant past when the first dawn of a vernal equinox was heralded by the rising of Orion?

In The Presence of Siva, Stella Kramrisch describes this transition in Vedic mythology, “The motion of the vernal equinox, of the beginning of the year, of all rites on which life depended and which were enacted in the sacrifice.... the realization that the Sun, which had always appeared rising in Orion, had Waves of optimism slowly left that station to rise in another star Gandhi,anomavice(Aldebaran) was startling. ItRahul appeared president of the Indian lous, it came as a shock. The beginning of the ap National Congress qadrianalysis year had moved…” (A morephoto/altaf thorough of subsequent Aryan migration is found in the AGENDA works of SB Roy, Rajesh Kochhar and others.)

Meanwhile, some contemporaries of Tilak in Europe, astronomers were studying the causes of the Ice Age, so important to both geology and evolution. Most prominently Agassiz, Adhemar, and James Croll suspected that the long cycle of axial precession was forcing a pattern of climate change across the globe; add to it the fact that the Earth’s elliptical orbit itself rotates in space. This theory would come to its logical conclusion in the 1920s with Serbian astronomer Milutin Milankovitch linking Earth’s movement with a rashant Kishore (really stressed out): Dalit axis is what we need to win the state. 100,000 cycle of Punjab Ice Ages. think the Udta character is based on Good morning, RG... these Congress Maybe it’s time you picked up the phone and Honey A curious by-product ofhave Tilak’s is the Singh.

So we will tooutput first change defeats in Kerala and Assam are really gave Mayawatiji a call. idea that Vedicimage myths encode Honey Singh’s among theastronomical public. hurting my aura of invincibility. I was RG (not convinced): You know with May- events, and that Hindu represent astronRG (intense): How gods do we do that?

That on such a winning streak before I met you. awatiji, I don’t quite feel the dynastic connec- omical objects.

Krishna is a shepherd, might be as tough as changing my image.so is Rahul Gandhi (patting his pet dog): My con- tion. She is not a princeling like me or Orion.

Shiva is We depicted adorned with Moon PK: Simple. get Honey Singh toarecord dolences on the defeat, PK. But think of your- Akhilesh. Of course the Gandhi and Yadav dy- on his head; the Pleiades are known as Krittika ‘Vande Mataram’ with Lata Mangeshkar and self as Virat Kohli, who played a blinder of an nasties are not close to being comparable, but or nurses to Kârttikeya, a son of Shiva.

Sachin.

What can be better for his image?Brahinnings, but the team lost. It’s really not your both are dynasties nonetheless. Mayawati ma’s heads seem likebrilliant. the four No cardinal diRGfour (ecstatic): That’s wonder fault, don’t take it too hard. does not have any dynastic ambitions at all. I rections of north, south, east west. A they call you an ace strategist.

Weand get someone PK (agitated): That is a ridiculous analogy, find her kind of strange! plethora Hindu godsParty are shown withamultifrom theofAam Aadmi to record Snapworse than some of Modi’s metaphors. YOU PK (violently rolling eyes): But an alliance ple chatarms with arrayed Tanmay like Bhat,Da so Vinci’s we can ‘Vitruvian call them are supposed to be our Virat, the match-win- with the Samajwadi Party does not make any Man’.

Could these arms be theand residual myths both anti-national cokeheads freedom-ofner. But you just don’t seem to have it in you to sense. There will hardly be any incremental of celestial maps, pointing varioustodirecspeech junkies.

Then we linkat Kejriwal both, The move In for this us. undated painting, nakshatras (constellations) windivine any matches votes that are weseen can marching transfer through to eachthe other. With- tions like a compass, encoding the geometry and puncture his campaign. celestial man RG (initially shocked at PK’s impertinence, out Mayawatiji’s Dalit votes we will be of constellations?

It is noteworthy that the ofPK (not convinced): But that’s exactly what recovers): What can I do? Mummy and the vet- doomed and I will go back to my ten bandied count of Hindu gods — all 330 milSubramanian Swamy likes calln team two ofwill thenot most mono- had erans’ givesensational me the captaincy. any claim to the Indian subcontinent as a lion of them — UN job. hadyou: at one surpassedcokethe ing an point anti-national graphs published India’s strug- motherland.

Mummy is behaving likeduring MS Dhoni.

Thus he placed the vastness of number of Hindus RG (feigning concern): Now, themselves, but is probahead. Aren’t we becoming like for Independence, PKgle (getting nostalgic aboutBal MS Gangadhar Dhoni and age question territory, now,above wait the a minute!

Areofyou tell- and“sharpblywith more sensible as an estimate of the numthe BJP? You know used Yes, astronomical SoniaTilak Gandhi): they were data both inside great ness of intellect above rigiding me you won’t gothe back to berRG of stars. (earnestly): Yes, but BJP Mayawatiji, I don’t hymns to calculate ageaoftime, Vedas. only match-winners oncethe upon butNot now it’s ity offor faith.

Gandhi work AmitMahatma Shah?

Onehard cannot provenationalism, mythology does Hindu quite feel the did date theirtocomposition priorenjoy to 4000 timehefor them step back and the himself supported Tilak’s theory PK (embarrassed): Amitbhai is like a theorem, ascertain the we only do soft.nor Like hard drugs dynastic BC, Tilak’s analysiswired) placedOk, Aryan antiquity in in game.

(Suddenly so we have Uttar his commentary ondeep-fried the Bhaga total bully. I hate the true of theOrVedas and origin soft drugs. hardwith and any soft connection” the Arcticand region.

Pushed fromnext theseyear; Northern Pradesh Punjab elections we re- wad in which Krishna food Gita, he feasts on, and forcesdeev- A curious by-product authority. their own, for the power. AskSave Shashi Tharoor. of Tilak’s output is tundras Age, he suggested, they mi- clares, ally needbytoan getIce serious about those elections. the months, I ama eryone“Among else to eat as well. I’m authors of I’ve the watched Vedas forego PK: Yes, that any TED the idea that Vedic grated down to as Central Asia east-a Mrigashirsha...among If we lose those well, no oneand willthen give me the deal seafitness freak, I just cannot certainty about cosmologitalk. (Under histheir breath) It was myths encode ward, to their present job. They will think I’mtropical a loser.latitudes. sons, I am Spring.” with that. cal knowledge.

In speeches one of the better than all your put astronomical events Indologist Hermann Jacobi provided RG (chuckling): I’ve been losing for the furlast Tilak deduced How in his book RG (grinning): about working for our together. highest paeans to scepticism ther to support Tilak’s happened thesis, citing five evidence years, man.

Has anything to Orion thatthen? the name Mri-your type. friend(1893) Kejriwal He seems RG: What?that can be found in world literaHugo Winckler (1907) who me? You really do stress toofound much,invocations PK. gashirsha translates “thepeople an- are already PK (proudly): Well,to some ture, placing creation before PK: Nothing. to the Mitra, Varuna, Indra and the Ash- telope’s PK names (clenching teeth): Well, that’s because head”, is Prashant the calling the Punjabwhich elections Kishore gods (like Big Bang the RG (decisively): Let itthe be leaked to before NDTV that vins on tablets in Boghazkoi, modern-day my surname is not Gandhi, Mror Gandhi, so I ac- constellation Orion inI think western terminoloversus ArvindofKejriwal.

Kejriwal is al- birth of stars), ‘Nasadiya the Rig all is well in thethe Congress.

WeSukta’ have of introspecTurkey.

Thetodocument tually have perform. Winckler found is a gy.

Thebut onset spring is stand signalled by the ver- Veda right, hisof anti-drugs is hypocritical, (translation AL Basham) ted, the party hasby taken collectivesays: responsibiltreaty “between Subbiluliuma, king of the RG (rolling eyes): Ok, ok, enough thisHittes- nal equinox some in the‘rock Northern hemisphere, considering stars’ in his party. in all, whoare knows, and whoThe canparty say is ity,But, theafter Gandhis in charge. tites, and Mattiuaza, kingwe of Mitani ty attitude.

Tell me what need to(Northern do for Ut- lateRG March.

“It’smoment): the time ofCan year when day and (eureka we make someWhence it allin UP came, how creation ready for battle and and Punjab, with my viMesopotamia), the time about 1400 BC,” night tar Pradesh andof Punjab. areVishal nearlyDadlani equal. an At an equinox, one like election issuethe in happened? sion and your strategy. who Vedicwith gods.

PKclearly (totallyworshipped wired): Ok, these let’s start UP. An Earth’s dividing line bePunjab?terminator Can we say—hethe is the drug-addicted the are later than creation, PK:gods Sure,themselves RG. Undoubtedly, Tilak wanted to showessential the Brit- tween alliance with Mayawati is absolutely and Punjab? night — becomes vertical and rapperday in Udta so who knows truly whence it hasof arisen?

Disclaimer: This article is a piece fiction. ish Vedic culture was farcrunched more ancient for Raj thethat Congress.

My team has caste connects the north and south poles,” says PK (WTF, but reconsiders): Maybe you arethe on gupta mitra exploresmustafi the history asof The sambuddha is of thescience founder (and hence superior) to them. so he website and sub-caste data going back In to doing Vedic times, Astronomy the Day. We now to something.

ThisPicture pot is of really potent.

The rohit t@some_buddha Political Indian;t@fadesingh had the that very anotion that Aryans know and to it challenge is quite clear Brahmin-Muslimthat due though, to the Earth’s axis changing its Compasswallah first problem is that most Punjabis

Face swap

Tanmay Bhat’s unrecorded Snapchat as Rahul Gandhi and Prashant Kishore, discussing the state of the Congress Party

sambuddha mitra mustafi

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The winds of change

is the difference between land and sea temperatures. Under normal circumstances, land warms faster than the sea, and attracts moisture-laden winds from the Indian Ocean, which then precipitate over the parched peninsula. Deviations from normal surface temperatures due to El Niño reduce this gradient, impacting the monsoon heavily. This effect is even more pronounced in South Asia due to the land-locked nature of the Indian Ocean, with no access to the poles.

The most recent spell of El Niño was one of the longest and strongest ever, and besides leading to unusually warm winters, was seen as a prime driver of the poor monsoon in the last two years. It is thanks to the dissipation of the El Niño event — and emergence of La Nina conditions — that this year promises to be better for agricultural markets.

ENSO isn’t the only factor affecting the monsoon. There’s the Indian Ocean Dipole (a local phenomenon, somewhat similar to El Niño), Inter-Tropical Convergence Zones (which can hasten the arrival of monsoon), cloud configuration, atmospheric conditions and oceanic parameters, to name but a few.

However, the silent juggernaut behind South Asia’s changing monsoon is anthropogenic climate change — the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activity .

While it is not possible to pin down climate change as the reason behind a particularly extreme event such as a cyclone or a flood, we know that 90 per cent of the heat from global warming during the last four decades has been accumulated in the oceans, effectively making them heat sinks and intensifying El Niño events. This idea is supported by the fact that in the past 140 years, the three strongest El Niño years were 1982, 1997 and 2015. Similarly, a 2015 Nature study of monsoon data across South Asia over the last century found a downward trend overall, with a 10-20 per cent decrease in rainfall over central and east India.

A warming planet means that the atmosphere can hold more moisture, which can delay monsoons, and then lead to heavier rainfall when it does occur. Climate change is also thought to increase the inter-annual variability of the monsoon in the future, outside of an El Niño state. Both flood and drought phenomena could be more severe, as was seen in July 2005, when Mumbai received over one metre of rainfall in a single day.

Unfortunately, we are still waiting for the day when we’ll be able to accurately predict The deluge For millions of Indians, the variability of rainfall, even on narrow time scales, can have disproportionately large impacts, with short, intense showers leading to floods and weeklong delays leading to droughts ap the day-to-day and intra-seasonal variability of the monsoon. We remain far from confident in our climate models. As of now, our underhe last week of May saw weather- millennia, with generations having danced to standing of the various processes affecting the men and economists rejoice as “pre- its rhythmic arrival and departure. But will state of precipitation in this challenging remonsoon” and “monsoon-like” this rhythm remain the same forever? gion, where vast water bodies interact with rainfall finally hit the shores of KerOne of the phenomena affecting this the atmosphere over plains, deserts, and ala and Karnataka. After two consecutive rhythm is ‘El Niño’, meaning mountains, is severely limited. drought years, the India Meteorological De- ‘The Little Boy,’ or ‘Christ Child’.

However, what we do know is partment, as well as private forecasters, are First spotted by South American that for millions of Indians (and, predicting a better-than-normal monsoon fishermen in the 1600s, El Niño effectively, for every resident of A warming planet with close to 106 per cent of the long period is the warm phase of the El Niño South Asia), the variability of means that the average of 89 cm during June-September.

Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a rainfall, even on narrow time atmosphere can hold The monsoon, which accounts for about 80 climate event that happens due more moisture, which scales, can have disproportionper cent of India’s total showers, is the life- to the unusual warming of sea ately large impacts, with short, can delay monsoons blood of the nation. Half our population de- surfaces in the Pacific Ocean inintense showers leading to pends directly on agriculture, with about teracting with the atmosphere. floods and weeklong delays leadtwo-thirds of our farm land irrigated by rain- On average, an El Niño arrives eving to droughts. fall. Droughts wreak havoc on the economy as ery three to seven years, and afThe only way to prepare for the a whole, with industry lobby group Asso- fects the weather in large parts of the world. A future is to face climate change head-on, by cham estimating that the last two consecutive related, and somewhat contrasting phenom- enacting large-scale mitigation measures as drought years may have cost the country enon is the ‘La Nina’, which is marked by a well as adapting our economy and society to ₹65,000 crore, and put as many as 33 crore cooling of ocean surface waters. the changing climate. people at risk.

While the monsoon’s arrival and intensity The monsoon has been largely seen as a pre- are governed by a number of variables with shrey goyal is a co-founder of the Sustainable dictable affair by the Indian subcontinent for varying levels of consistency, a key ingredient Growth Initiative, Delhi

Understanding climate change phenomena is key to preparing for the uncertainties of the monsoon

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Call of the wild A promotional image for Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book

ON THE SHELF

It’s a jungle out there Come rain, come shine

Reeling them in Fishermen are happy when they see estuaries full of water. Estuaries, where freshwater flows into the sea, are fish-breeding centres l balachandar

The recent film adaptation of The Jungle Book is not interested in providing allegories for human society. Its trump card is making a scarily believable simulacrum of the wild

anita roy

Good monsoon years are good business for the fishermen of coastal India. Lack of political his year’s Disney of its 1967 awareness and theremake absence of a focused fisheries policy are, however, holding them back Caste also rears its ugly head.

Baloo enlightenduring love of these ‘wild-men’ stories, chil-

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cartoon classic The Jungle Book is an eye-opener. Not only because the is the deliver cue forancelebraCGIonsoon pyrotechnics amaztions all along India’s coastline. ing megabang for your megabucks ($175 miltotells popular wisdom, lion) but alsoContrary because it us a lot about however, it isn’t its merely the arrivhow our species has changed attitude to all al ofothers the first festivities. Trathe werains sharethat thetriggers planet with. ditional fishing communities celebrate the If you compare the new film to the old one, arrival of the monsoon and thatand onedeparture to the Kipling original, you with find equal enthusiasm. yourself wrestling a knotty epistemological A ontological great example of this is Nariyal Purnima and conundrum: Are humans like (or Narali a festival marking the deanimals orPurnima), are we fundamentally different?

In parture of the“Ooo, monsoon, celebrated by the Koother words, oo, oobee doo, I wanna be li fishermen of Maharashtra, among others. like you-ooo-ooo.”

Decorated with oil lamps, Go back boats, to the illuminated original book, published in are released the waters and coconut offer1894 — just 13inyears after Darwin’s The Descent ings are—made to Varuna, Hindu god of the of Man and you’ll meet athe very different manseasthan and the oceans.

In Goa, Catholic fishermen cub tousle-haired moppet of the ’60s. celebrate the feast is ofan St Lawrence, their patron Victorian Mowgli arrogant chap, full of saint whoand ensures theirfrom well-being and a prosswagger self-belief day one, pushing perous season. the other wolf cubs aside to get at their mothher 2013 book Khazan Ecosystems of Goa, er’sInmilk.

Sangeeta Sonaknot writes aboutofthe He was M taught, the ways thesynchronwild, but icityLaws of these monsoon the of the Jungle,festivals:

by Baloo“The whococonut — for a puja,—on the of Naralistiff Purnima, with bear has anday incredibly upper along lip: “Better a corresponding feastfrom of Sthead Lawrence he should be bruised to footamong by me Catholic has marked beginning of who lovefishers, him than that he the should come to the marine fishing seasonBagheera, in Goa for centuharm through ignorance.” the panries. The theun-animal-like blessing of the obsesboats, ther, alsorites has ainvolve distinctly the backwater rivers the sea for getting a good sion with rules andand regulations, fishing harvest and a prayer to Varuna, of Mowgli accepted into the wolf pack onLord a legal the water, to calm the seas and safeguard all technicality. fishermen.” interesting oninthis It’s pretty An obvious that thevariant animals Kitheme is the festival Rajaanimals Parba, in pling’s Jungle Book areofnot at Orissa, all: no which likens thebeen onsetsoofhide-bound the monsoon the animal has ever by to codes menses of the the sea.They According to of conduct andearth moraland strictures. are basiA Whitney Sanford’s From by Incally men in wolves’ Growing clothing,Stories motivated dia: Religion and the Fate of Agriculture, “The uniquely man-made concepts like shame, concept revenge of the menses of the earth reflects rechonour, and loyalty.

ens the man-cub on the correct attitude to- dren raised by wolves, and chimps raised as wards the lower classes: “They have no Law. humans. And yet, our fellow-feeling with the ognition seasonalThey cycles, which the earth rest They are of outcastes. areinwithout leaders. facilities. spite ofinhabitants having vasthas resources and of theIn planet’s never been moves through periods of productivity.

For more They have no remembrance…

We do not drink employment fraught.opportunities, there is no collecboth women and thedrink; earth,we menses fallow tive, where the monkeys do notisgoa where involvement coastal areas Westreamlined are responsible for the of sixth mass experiod, a period allows thewhere ‘recuperathe monkeys go;that we do not for hunt they tinction in the economic development of the country. in our earth’s history; the World Wildtion ofwe fertility’.” hunt; do not die where they die.”

The Fund’s coastal‘Living guardians of the country have no life Planet Index’ published in The ‘fallow period’ to ’60s the fact King Louie and his here trooprefers in the are 2014 political recognition; thisthe is how it has been estimated that half world’s wildlife that atlike thethe onset of the monsoon, fishermen more jungle’s groovy subculture than has since timelost immemorial.

One reason for this is been in the last 40 years.

As our biodiavoid venturing intotheir the water, on account of versity its Dalit underclass, irresponsible monthat coastal communities are generally dwindles in the real jungles ofegalithe inclement weather.

It is true keying around and all that jazzthat the mon- tarian in nature.

In awe sense, individual is world, areevery becoming more soon canacause disturbances for on a par withand cocking snookprofessional equally at the another the community.

One moreinskilled at creating a fishermen. But in theirand heartthe of hearts, they does not accept patriarchal Bagheera the othersimulacrum. as a leader. Not just convincing believe that military the monsoon is good forThe their toffee-nosed discipline there is no— denying that fishing the same but enhanced: more animalsHowever, in haul: in the long a good monsoon equalsJungle of Colonel Hathirun, and his elecommunities have been more activelyvivid denied — politiwith Kipling’s Book beautiful, a goodbrigade. fish catch. They are happy when they phant cal power.

In the 16th century, Christianity none of the inconveniences are basically men in seeJump estuaries of and water. cut tofull 2016, weEstufind penetrated the southern coast (mosquitoes, heat, squelchiness) wolves’ clothing aries, whereinfreshwater flows inourselves a very different and fishermen to be conof the real thing.began The new Disney to the sea,jungle. are This fish-breeding neck of the is a vividverted.isThe church gaveand educavision Edenic: the lion the centres.

With traditional knowlly, audaciously, staggeringly lifetion and social status to some of lamb, or the antelope and jackal, Nearly 70 years after edge,place. handedWhen down from generlike the battlethe traditional coastal drink from the samecommuniwatering Independence, large ation toman-eater generation, fishermen scarred Shere Khan jumpsparts down ties. aUnfortunately, with itsgarvihole. There’s even seductive snake in the oftoour coastline know just edge whereyou temperature the water’s can feel the weight, see sion and mission, the church den, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

And we pay are still lacking basic and salinity in twitch the sea;of whisker,amenities each ripple ofreduce muscle, al- our admission also awarefee,blocked happily,the to political gaze at ‘nature’ that’s — where the — fish will flock to. carnivorous — digitally enhanced, most almost smell the hot, ness of the offishing coursecommunities.

— so that we This isThe truecombination blue native knowlbreath. of live-action and might feel the There is an invisible net that still sensations of awe and wonder edge, their knowledge CGI wizardry has created aabout world where each that wildlife used assures the dependency of saved these to evoke, whilst being stars,each wind patterns, cur- ant-leg is in from the inconvenience leaf, tendril, eachwater articulated communities theexperience’. leaders of of ato ‘real rents, tides,moving waves and so on. Fishing commu- theThe incredible detail. religion.

Religious need to have a last words of the leaders movie are comforting. nities livenot a just verythe eco-friendly and that are Panther But it’s difference life in form hold on these people for their and bear looking on survival. as lithe-limbed heavilyyou, dependent Perhaps therelaon- brown-skinned strikes but alsoon thenature. far more complex As a shippingsun-kissed professional, I have child andtravelled his wolf set of thebetween monsoon is as good and a time any to cub-siblings tionship the human theasnatural far and wide race in thethrough country,the especially coastal luxuriant and take stock of fishermen’s lives the cripworld that we currently have.

Inand Victorian En- seemingly India. To my surprise, fishing villages are the endlessly abundant playground of pling problems theysuperiority face in thisof country. gland, the ‘natural’ Man — and vine regular in almost all to the upland andcustomers branch: “I could get used this,” says 70 years Independence, large in Nearly particular white,after upper-class men (for, de- Bagheera. trade centres nearby.

When fish landings It seems like — tragically — we are alparts appearances of our coastline arecontrary, still lacking basic spite to the Mowgli is ready high, have. trade also experiences a boom. Fisheramenities. no direct, andfar transjust that) —There was aisgiven.

Now, fair we are less men do not seem to have a close relationship royupland is a writer, editor and publisher; parent for marine There sure.

Wemarketing want to claim kinshipproducts. with animals — anita with the communities other than for are next lots of under-used and Tarzan, unusedattests waterfront the CGI extravaganza, to an t@anitaroy their immediate needs. For them, the sea and

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Old men and the sea Today, fishermen stand perplexed and depressed with nobody to voice their sufferings. Their hard-earned fortunes are being taken away thulasi kakkat

A wishlist for the coastal areas ● The establishment of a separate central ministry for fisheries to govern the coast. ● Creation of general awareness programmes about traditional fishing rights and the government schemes available to coastal people through microlevel initiatives like the Jan Shikshan Sansthan. ● Inshore, offshore and deep-sea fishing areas should be marked for the entire peninsular country and fishing rights reserved for appropriate groups: inshore for traditional fishermen, offshore for fishermen with mechanised boats and deep-sea for trawlers. These areas should be monitored to maintain this demarcation. ● Bottom trawling operations in the inshore and offshore fishery areas (within 12 nautical miles) should be banned.

Local fishermen should be encouraged to undertake deep-sea fishing. ● Creation of cultural centres for the preservation of traditional fishery knowledge and the cultures of coastal regions is a must. There should be sustained documentation of folk songs, dramas and literature through a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL). ● Introduction of legislative and parliamentary constituencies on the coast, without affecting the upland communities and their administrative systems. ● Restriction of building projects on or near traditional fishing villages and mudbanks as per the 1991 CRZ (Coastal Regulation Zone) legislation. ● Development of eco-tourism in the backwaters, without affecting traditional fishing operations and with the involvement of local communities.

the seashore are workplaces, whereas the up- longs to. As a result, beautiful shorelines are land region is meant for entertainment and being eroded in front of their eyes. Inshore rest. They do not bother about who is ruling and offshore, there are no fishery resources. and what is really happening in the upland, Coastal areas have become the dustbin of the which has invisible control over their lives upland folk. But there is no one from the comand their mobility. munity to question these danAnd so, due to political domgerous developments. No one inance and power, the upland seems bothered. communities have always had Today, fishermen stand perPlanned, knowledgean upper hand over the coast, plexed and depressed with nobased activism is the decade after decade. Due to all body to voice their sufferings. way to safeguard these factors, there is — and alTheir hard-earned fortunes are fishermen’s freedom ways has been — a dire lack of pobeing taken away. They are and rights litical representation and strong forced to stand facing the sea voices from coastal communiand the waters, showing their ties at the national level. backs to the land. They stand as One could point out the lack of Pattinavar, Palli Maraikayar, Natbasic education as something tar, Karaiyar, Kadaiyar, Muthithat adds to the problem. But the so-called rayar, Varunakula Muthali, Sempadavar, educated younger generation, too, does not Odakaran, Parvatha Rajan, Ambalakarar, Valawant to identify with the community it be- ingar, Valayar, Paravar and so on. They stand atomised and antagonised to each other. They do not connect with their own brethren from neighbouring states. They are ignorant of their own existence and their numerical (and hence, electoral) strength.

Planned, knowledge-based activism is the way to safeguard fishermen’s freedom and rights. To blaze is the compulsion of the times.

Fishermen have to unite and arise. They have to prepare their society to move towards justice. They do not need any more of the politics of falsehood.

Fishermen also have to realise that the inland communities are their own brothers and sisters. Their lives are mutually dependent.

The coastal and inland people are held together by the bonds of national integration. But the inland communities must also understand that coastal communities are equally the rightful citizens of this great nation.

To adapt a Swami Vivekananda quote, let new India also arise from the huts of fishermen.

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Festive spirit A fisherman’s family in Mumbai performs a puja on Narali Purnima, a festival marking the departure of the monsoon pti/ mitesh bhuvad

rn joe d’cruz is a Tamil novelist, writer and documentary filmmaker

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Showering life

ponds emerged. Torrential rains in the mountains furrowed their way to the sea, forming rivers. There are 41 rivers in Kerala, flowing towards the west to meet the sea; an average of one river for every 14 km. The Malayalis’ element is water, and that shows up in the suffixes to place-names in Kerala, like kulam (pond), puzha (river), kara (bank), vaya (river-mouth), thura (harbour) and so on.

Across centuries, the two monsoons, the southwest and the thunderous northeast monsoon during November, fashioned a calendar for the Malayali’s life. One of the first plants to bloom after the rains in August-September is thumba (Ceylon slitwort); no coincidence that it is at the centre of the pookalams or floral designs made during Onam. Similarly, after the rains subside, and on the day the sun transits to the northern hemisphere, herAustrian alding summer, Rainmaker Kerala celebrates Vishu, psychoanalyst Wilhelm whose signatureReich flower is konna (golden built machines shower). From Vishu the year is dicalledonwards, ‘cloudbusters’ that supposedly vided into periods ofcould roughly 14 days, called makepositions), rain by njattuvelas (the sun’s each named after an asterism. manipulating Not so longanago, when Keraenergy called ‘orgone’ la was predominantly agrarian, the njattuvela from the atmosphere kk mustafah named after the sixth asterism, thiruvathira in Malayalam, was the most important. It pours without a pause during the period and anything seeded or planted will flourish.

Before the rivers were dammed, ferocious rains and floods redrew Kerala’s geography.

Even now, monsoons do not respect the coastline; chunks of beaches are swallowed every season and sand deposited elsewhere. This has been going on for centuries. It was on a monsoon day in June 1341 that the sand bar at Kochi broke and a new harbour was born. Rains also closed many harbours, including probably the historical Muziris of the Roman maps. or Bollywood, visual depiction of the the house. Before they can arrest the scientist unethical experiments are they documented by Monsoons are not what used to be. monsoon is largely a question of ex- and trash his laboratory, however, he urges his Christopher Turner increeping his 2011urbanisation, non-fiction Blame it on progress, tremes. On one hand are the perfectly son to switch on the machine, which he does. work Adventures in the Orgasmatron. cutting of forests, or just people. First to beengineered montages of sensual ex- Even as the scientist is led away, he watches as come The scarce first full-body orgasmatrons built was chakara, a marinewere phenomcess: the uninhibited, virginal child-of-nature the skies open up. in the encountered early ’40s, andfrequently after that, on it was enon thenatural Kerala dancing in the rain (Aishwarya Rai in Guru), What will really stump you is the fact that that set1970s, his sights higher, attempting to coastReich till the in which large areas of the the seductress inviting the hero to shed his this video, directed by Julian Doyle and con- control of the eleArabian and Sea harness bubbled the withorgone fish. Though the sombre chastity (Raveena Tandon in Mohra), ceived by Bush and Terry Gilliam, is based en- ments. designed built machines called reasonsHe behind the and formation of the chakara or the entire cast rain-dancing with the great tirely on facts, except for the climactic ‘cloudbusters’ (after which named her are still being debated, one Bush popular explanaunwashed masses (in Bollywood, this means rain-catching, of course. The scientist was Aus- song), could supposedly make by tion is which that the mudbanks formed by rain the silt Pitter-patter Enjoying the firsttowards shower of the the season nalukettu homestead in Kochi kakkat street urchins), hinting mon-at a traditional trian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reichthulasi (1897-1957) manipulating the orgone of the waterbodies, atmosphere. brought by monsoon-swelled soon's role in nation-building (Shah Rukh and the boy was his son Peter, who would go It is important to note the attract symbolic rich in aquatic organisms, fishparallels in large Khan, Karisma Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit in on to write a memoir called The between the human and non-hunumbers. At Purakkad, a beach famous for the wo Hai). events were to happen in Book Dil Toh Pagal On thecertain other hand are the like fireworks a faraway temple festival. occurrence, aman of Dreams, at which Bush and orgone here: the bursting of generation of children has now Kerala on the first of June every year. Gilliam poverty porn classics like ‘Allah Megh De Paani Then, the firstupon. drop — a giant drop — of rain grown up without drew the rainclouds seeing one.was, in Reich’s vacation De’ (Lord, Schools bless us reopened with rain), after a Bengali folk fell. later,the when I read Marquez’s One OnMuch reading book, Bush eyes, analogous to sexualthey release.

Last year, Malayalis nearly thought had Reich claimed rains arrived.

Children came had song usedand

by SD Burman in the Vijay Anand Hundred Years of Solitude, I experienced a feelbeen moved enough to Not particularly it must lostthe the monsoon altogether. subtle, The rains were discovery cosmic, home with their newshot clothes drenched, listen- write classic Guide; or that in Ashutosh Gowariing of deja when I read the passage about of ascarce. and vuproduce a song be admitted.

Even forget Vivek AgnihoFamiliar cries of ‘don’t to take all-pervasivethe energy ing to the drumming raindrops on their ker’s Lagaan, where a of thousand smiles are around Colonel it.

Buendía’s The veryrecollection first line ofof discovering maker ofin so-bad-it’s-hilarious umbrella’tri, died down Kerala homes. The called orgone new umbrellas.

Then, afterunison, aboutasathe week, wiped off in choreographed vil- the ice with father.by a muscular song,his backed movies like in a21 Traffic Jam weather department saidBuddha there was per cent sneezesseeinvaded classrooms Kerala; lagers rainclouds making all wayover for the un- cello Hippalus, a Greek riff and lush with navigator that etheand Chocolate, understands deficiency in rainfall duringthis the cough, cold and running forgiving Champaner sun. noses were a small real, believed to have lived the first inimitable Bushindelivery, analogy.

In Chocolate, Sushma 2015 monsoon.

Cold statistics did price to me payto forsuggest playing in the rains.

The disAllow a surreal alternative to goes century BC,dream is credited by the “I still of Orgonon”.

Reddy’s character is called not convey the agony of oneMonraincomfort waned with thescene: intake the of piping hot, writer the aforementioned peasants of Periplus of the Eryth‘Orgonon’ was the name of soon Iyer, onemonth suspects, just inso less and sultry passing Behind cloudsweat-inducing, pepper andhuts. tamarind juice Reich’s frown and head back to their Six of them raean Sea175-acre with discovering a dihome, laboratory and re-theAnil Kapoor can voice a dirt-cheap pun slowly about to another.

Green was curtains was rasam,out or equally potent coffee brewed with wheel a ginormous machine and point it search rect route from Red Sea after to moving centre.

Hethe lived there to “monsoon ki giving raat” (away monsoon night / a night to brown in the KeralikeMonsoon). dried ginger andsun. jaggery. squarely at the The machine whirs into Maine India. But PlinyItthe later in 1950. wasElder named after his lightning, most with la landscape. fireworks at a is a fiercely The first of Junea was theenergy day the world action and blasts bluealso jet of into the controversial claimed that claim: Hippalus actually a cosmic form of energy Bush inventive encyThose days itsongwriter, rained only in faraway temple came to Kerala,a with their wide-angle sky, attracting group of fluffy clouds,lenses. thick that plotted thecalled southwest monsoon Reich ‘orgone’.

It was an extrapolaclopaedic in the range of her inspirations and memories.

Remembrance of festival To shoot monsoon’s annual tryst tion with rain. southwest Lightning cracks its whip, the faucet winds, not concept the routeofasthe such. of and Freud’s libido; Reich beallusions: it rains is difficult to imagine, for indrumming on tin roofs in with India, somewhere on everyone the Kerala coast. lieved overhead opens, drenching in sight.

In anythat case, anything did in the world stance, any other everyif neurotic patient major-league star gales singing mountainous Munnar, of These punctual rains nonchalantly, decided the country’s Everybody goes home nodding could launchbethousands of ships to Incured if they reached their full ‘orga- the string of decimal for pi. ‘Cloudbustslanting digits rains slapping one’s face food figures at stock exchange at theoutput, guys operating the machine.

Easybourspeasy. stic dia,potential’, it was the of themselves ing’, with its at thatknowledge is, surrendered rousing, fauxKannursoaring beach,chants, and theits etherees The and music generalvideo sensefor of Kate well-being.

Bush’s 1985 song utterly these seasonal winds. of orgasm. To that end, military drum to the throes crescendos, and its thoughtful alness of gossamer rains one canThe day my father took mealbum Hounds to witness the ar‘Cloudbusting’ (from the of Reich Kerala, the gateway to the monsoon, is ac- lyrics, developed machines called ‘orgone to be an effective bufferminds. against not seeproves at Wayanad, crowded restless rival of monsoon at Fortplotline.

Kochi beach was also Love) features a similar A young boy cumulators’ tually a workorin‘orgasmatrons’, progress, continually meant shaped to har- theThis otherwise despondence of KoPeyear, atundeniable Andhakaranzhi beach near the day Iby first the sea. The double take was ness (played a saw surprisingly androgynous-lookby the theinterplay orgone. of three big forces in nature, ter A boy discovers, for the first chi,Reich’s the skystory. was overcast on the appointed day. beyond kid’s his ken.scientist The seafather had withdrawn, ing Bush)a helps (an earnest namely, the sea, the rain-bearing monsoon The ‘sexual revolution’ that Reich wanted to time, the ofinevitable fallibility a parent.

A couple shining egrets flewofagainst the purring Sutherland) menacingly, set waiting stealthily to bring Donald up a complicatedcloudsabout and their the during Western Ghats. wouldstopper, find takers the 1968 Pushed into a corner by athis revelation, the pitch-dark sky.

There was long peel of thuntrample machine upon thein wind-strewn land. The blue student looking absolute secrecy on their Scientists had of premised thousands of boy revolts Paris andthat Berlin; protestors believe to restore lost agender. will Followed byanything rain. sky rapidly changed filters to darker shad- threw farmhouse.

The boy isitsvery close to his father years ago, theof sea was close to thePsychology mountains. copies Reich’s The Mass of cy, even that his father made it rain. es, and night descended a part of the hori- Fascism and clearly idolises him. on Meanwhile, a group Then it atreceded, as This a narrow strip of land, the police. moment, along with ns madhavan is the author of Litanies of Dutch He is based Battery. mani jha in Kochi. zon.

Behind the cloud-curtains was lightning, of menacing government officials approach Reich’s smattered with big andblatantly small lakes, several eccentric, illegal and aditya

The punctuality of the first monsoon shower decides more than just the country’s food output and stock indices

I still dream of Orgonon

A pseudo-scientific rainmaking machine spawned one of the most enjoyable pop songs of the ’80s and its memorable music video

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The town the rains forgot The driest place in India, Jaisalmer taps into old beliefs to turn barren stretches into oases Paanido barsade re Main kad se khadi udiku Mhara sookha hai talaab Paanido barsade re (Give us water, clouds I’ve been waiting so long, My ponds and rivers are dry Give us water, clouds)

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aisalmer in May is as close as you can get to hell’s fury while still alive. In the last week of the month, the temperature is 48°C and at 11 am, when I alight from the air-conditioned capsule of the railway compartment, the sun is so blindingly bright and the hot wind whips so painfully at my skin, that I have to stand still for a good minute while my brain wraps itself around this shocking contrast.

The shade of the platform roof is merely a few metres away but even that short walk is a long lesson on how impossibly difficult living conditions are when a town is bordered by a desert. The week before my visit, television channels showed jawans of the Border Security Force roasting papads on the hot, desert sand. It’d made me guffaw. Now, feeling quite like that papad, humour evaporated rapidly.

For all this, Jaisalmer is not the hottest place in the country. That honour belongs to neighbouring Palodhi, which touched 51°C in May 2016. But Jaisalmer is a city whose obsession with the rain is even more special. It is the

driest place in India. (Zanskar valley gets the begins, a weak cloud that drips for 10 minutes, distinction in some years, but even so, with teasing the children who come out to play and 100 times Zanskar’s population, Jaisalmer’s hold their dry faces up to the cool spray. dryness is a more lived agony.)

In an average year, Jaisalmer gets 8.25 inchFor more than a third of the year, like a des- es of rain. To compare, Mawsynram, the wetperate lover, Jaisalmer longs for an errant rain, test place in India, gets 467 inches. Mumbai uncertain about its temperament, yet plead- city gets 88 inches, Chennai gets about 55 ing for a torturous, distant pleasure. The dry inches and Kochi, about 118 inches. desert heat starts in March and builds up rapEvery three years or so, the rains skip the idly over the next few months. In city altogether. And even though May, the temperature touches the ektaras play the Megh Malhar 50°C. Everything is dried to a raga and optimistic desert peahusk; sand creeps in and lodges cocks dance in their iridescent Though the ektaras in the cracks on your lips and glory, the clouds simply float by, play the Megh Malhar under your eyelids; there is noleaving them woeful, in the whirl raga and optimistic where to hide and nothing to be of angry sands. desert peacocks done. The tourists have long fled dance in their et, the driest place in India is and the cafes are closed. The iridescent glory, the actually pretty wet. Water lone musician sits under the clouds simply float by has always been a revered comshade of a verandah and sings modity in the desert. In the times for rain. of the Rajputana kingdom, some Towards the end of July, when 600 years ago, marking sources it begins to feel like there would be no salvation at all, and perhaps this is the of water was a primary function of governend of the world, the clouds finally roll in. ance. Limestone pillars, carved with various Even so, it is for a short burst. The inappropri- symbols, stood next to wells and ponds to ately termed monsoon “season” lasts a few guide walkers and wanderers towards them.

While the mythical river Saraswati is the weeks — technically, till September — but the rainfall is meagre. Towards the sand dunes of source of most legends related to groundwaSam, where tourists go on camel safaris, the ter in the area, every large well comes with its combined rainfall of the season will not ex- own back story.

From the tiny roof of the Mirage hotel, ceed two hours. Often it’s over before it even

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Sharing drop by drop At the Khadero ki dani hamlet, children draw water from the paar — indigenously built wells that trap rainwater — to fill the troughs meant for birds and animals images: veena venugopal

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conjured up an entire menu dedicated to the rain gods.

True, the country welcomes all six seasons with equal verve and joy. The innumerable festivals bear testimony to this. However, varsha or monsoon holds a very special place in our hearts. A season captured in all its glory in music, poetry and painting — at once as delicate as the tinkling of Radha’s anklets and as furious and destructive as the war drums of Kurukshetra. From Kalidasa’s Meghaduta to Tansen’s Mian-ki-Malhar, from our folk music traditions to Tagore’s songs on varsha rwitu, the season’s bounty of love, longing and creation on one hand and destruction on the other have always held us in thrall.

For the Bengali, gastronomy perhaps adds the umami element to the heady smell of wet earth and romance associated with the monsoon. The housebound Bengali of yore, besides writing poetry and composing love songs to the rhythmic beat of the incessant rains,the also dreamt up an entire culiSpot devil A patali paani well tapsmonsoon into groundwater, although literally around it refers tothe the mythical nary spread.

It revolved ubiquihell the centreor of the Earth a mix of rice, pulses tousin khichuri khichdi, and assorted vegetables, slow-cooked into a gruel. And it was served with cow’s ghee, an arferocity has abated little, the—wind is atamahowray of pickles sweetaand sour mango, ling, whipping which, one lime point, rind,being jujube, Indianatolive, — blows Bhati’smade cap right off his head; he stops painstakingly in the sumthe scooter while go darting between trucks mer, Iand a variety of vegetable to fetch it. Wefries turnand off the main before road near Dafritters, slowly Perhaps the tradition modra, and follow theup odd tyre track to the moving the food chart to vilinof celebrating the lage. A camelclude ride eggs, is thevarious ideal way kindstoofreach fried monsoon with Khadero ki dani, sputterglory on till the fish —but thewe crowning being khichuri began with track disintegrates into cushiony sand and hilsa and its roe — and, at the Shiva’s request the scooter tyres whirr but fail to take us forheight of extravagance, slowto Parvati ward. I hop off, bag and camera hanging cooked mutton curry.

The from meal my shoulder,ended and push the scooter, Bhatypically withwhile tomato ti awkwardlychutney, manoeuvres with one foot, papaditand sweets. half-pedalling, So half-pushing. is so only it was then, It and it iswhen now. the scooter topples andlooks Bhatiforward jumps off Every Bengali homeover eagerly to that notice hemeal has only afthe Ikhichuri evenone asleg. theSomehow, downpour ter a seemingly long trudge, during we threatens to become a deluge.

Not which to be left push therestaurants scooter likeranging an errant buffalo, a clusbehind, from the low-end ter offive ramshackle homesand appear in the to the stars host khichuri hilsa festivals distance. at this time, knowing well that a Bengali will, a hundred metres at About a crunch, even swim to thisfrom meal.the village Water mark Limestone pillars, carved with symbols, stand next to wells and ponds to guide walkers and areThe therest wells thatisBhati made.

Called about paar, of India not that emotional wanderers towards them these wells are simple water conserving systheir khichdi, associating it more with sickbed tems employing of physics.

The or infirmary food.theAnbasics exception is Gujarat, shape the landvariations is such that it forms which of has a few to its credit.aAnatupopwhere an air-cooler battles uselessly against duced to once every two days as before. ral rainwater. is kept ularcatchment saying in area northfor India goes —This “Khichdi ka the heat, the only view is of a pillar marking a “It is important to not change the habits of garbage-free andpapad, simpledahi tracks are made on chaar yaar, ghee, aur achaar (Khichwater source and a large well now sealed shut. people,” Singh says, “if people become used to the ground channel water.

Gravity di has four to pals: ghee, the papad, curd and pulls pickLegend has it that Arjuna and Krishna were getting water every day, they will become the wells — holes on has the le)”.water Not sointo forthe thesmall Bengali, though, who travelling through the desert when Arjuna felt used to wasting more water every day”. The ground, — fortified natural stone. raised thereally bar many times by over.

The dish behorribly thirsty. There was no sign of water municipality quietly reverted to the pre-bum- “There threewatery types gruel, of water,” Bhati exgins asare a thin which slowly anywhere. Krishna then used his Sudarshan per monsoon system. In summer, even now, plains, paani, which is surface water; ra-a evolves“palar through many avatars to become chakra and made a well right there. Further, municipal water is available once in three or jani paani, which is seepage water; and patali fine-dining experience during the rains.

Celehe predicted that one day this land would be four days in some parts of the town. People paani, groundwater.

The systembetis brated which authorisMani Shankar Mukherjee, ruled by one of Arjuna’s descendants. “Usually store as much water as they possibly can, and built in suchas a way that itwrites conserves all three. ter known Sankar, in his book wells are made inside a fort. This fort is unique then teach themselves to use just that much.

When theKhaowa surface Daowa water is(The exhausted, seepBangalir Eating the Habits of because here it was the other way around. The is tapped.

Andthe finally, the Bengali): age “All water of India knows that khiurther away from the sprawfort was made here because of this well. Rawal bythe April or May, the seepchuri exists for Bengali andwhen the Bengali exling fort that is the heart of Jaiswal, who is a descendant of Arjuna’s clan, age water is exhausted, ists for khichuri.”

Thisreserve communal love is built his fort here and ruled the kingdom of Jaisalmer city, towards the desis tapped.

This expressed in the the groundwater 13th-century Manasa Mangal getting Rajputana on the strength of the water source ert, water is the central force If people start way the water table does deKabya, a compendium of narrative folknot poetry they toplete created by Krishna,” Basawal Dan, local histo- around which all lives revolve. water every day, the villagers not dededicated theand snake goddessareManasa, will start wasting Here, under the leadership of a rian and business owner, tells me. pendent ontothe government where Shiva asks Parvati cook him a mealfor of more water every day Although there are no modern symbols of few good men, a new-found aswater supply most days.”cocomoong dal khichuri with on daab (tender access to water, barring the occasional water sertion of old beliefs has meant We walk past lush greenstatus berry nut) water. Manasa acquires a special tankers plying down the narrow roads, the that despite the pitifully low levtrees rural to reach the paar, and deamong Bengal’s communities during veneration of this most indispensable ele- el of rainfall, even the arid the fact sand the monsoonspite because it isthat also thedunes seasonrise of ment continues even now. About six years ago, stretch can be converted into an oasis. mere metres awayPerhaps from it, the slightly snakebite deaths. traditionsunken of celndisputedly, in love of western India,iserupts joyous Singh Bhati one ofinto these waterdancwar- stretch Varun Singh, a long-timeIndians residentare of the city, nerJethu until is almost verdant.

Children ebrating thethere monsoon with khichuri began with the monsoons, dif- riors. ing and singing.

And of perhaps, there’s more are Under the aegis the Thar Integrated tells me, after a particularly goodalbeit spell for of rain wells, all of them holdwithplaying Shiva’saround requestthe to Parvati. ferent reasons.

Recallhad thedecided scene Social singing over chai and sizzling pakodas.

Development Society, Bhati has been in- ingThe the local municipal corporation tiny glasses to the top with theknown sweet origin of filled the name ‘khichdi’, also fromdaily the film Lagaan — ominous Cut to Bengal, where the monsoon lasts indigenous methods to conserve wa-a berries to supply water to homes in the city. This voking from thethetrees around.

A greenas kushari, lies in Sanskrit ‘khiccha’, meandark clouds on the Ahorizon, rumbling thungood fourdesert months.

Yes,for there is exultation at plumed in the region a couple of decades enraged its citizens. large posse of them, led ter bee eater flies in fordish. a fewThe dipsformal in the ing a rice-and-pulse-based der,the theolder windmembers gatheringofspeed, a brilliant now. the first drops of rain.IBut song and dance water In the evening, ridethe pillion on Bhati’s by the community, pea of fowl aimlessly.

Bengaliand name theamble dish isaround a rather curious streak of lightning andthe then the silver sheets happenstoingo the kitchen.

And Bengal see Khadero ki yes, dani, a tinyalone, ham- Camels demonstrated outside municipality office scooter appear atop the meaning embankment ‘khechranno’, with ‘anno’ rice. and Furof rain.

The entire village, in some remote in all theEven distinction having 22 of kmIndia, fromholds the city. though of the sun’s walk and demanded that the water supply becorre- let in for a has drink of water. both sides of ther digging revealed thatOn ‘khechar’ in San-

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Storm in aF hot-potQ How the Bengali dreamt up an entire monsoon culinary spread revolving around the ubiquitous khichuri or khichdi

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Liquid hoard Women in the village walk the short distance to the paar several times a day to fetch water for their daily needs

By 7.30 in the evening, the light has dulled to a golden orange and the small oasis seems like something from a dream. Camels gallop around, while crows get a free ride perched on their humps and heads. A peacock that was lazily strutting around suddenly embarks on a vigorous dance, plumes held mightily aloft, and the village children — free from worries of school and homework on their summer break — dart around chasing one another. Where some surface seepage has occurred, even the ground breaks away from the brown desert colour palette to a dark, mossy green. It is hard to believe that this is an arid zone. Bhatti rubs the stub of his leg and explains the phenomenon simply. “Nature is not a PDS (public distribution system),” he says, “we cannot say Kerala has so much water, we also want to use that much. We have to live with what we have.

That is our tradition. And this is where tradition is important.”

Water warrior Jethu Singh Bhati built the first two wells in the village and later urged the local panchayat to replicate these

the wells are stone troughs; even as the children demonstrate how they draw water from the well, they are careful not to spill any into the sand as they tilt the bucket into the troughs. These are for the birds and animals.

Not a drop is wasted; even when they rinse out their glasses, six- and seven-year-olds run all the way back to the trough to throw the water in, rather than pour it on the ground.

Bhatti built two of the paars and then requested the local panchayat to add more. They agreed, and now with five paars and one deep well that dips into the groundwater, Khadero ki dani is mostly self-sufficient in its water needs. The villagers have to perform some basic maintenance activities, keeping the catchment area clean and de-silting the wells once in two or three years.

Every few minutes, women emerge from the village, balancing water pots on their heads and carrying small children on their hips. Maro, who has been living in the village

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ack in town, at night, the main bazaar is busy, filled with locals buying sweets and for over 30 years and whose five children were haggling over sari prices. In a corner, a lone, born and raised here, is here with her sister-in- turbaned, mustachioed folk musician sings law and nephew. “Before the wells, we had to even though no one stops to listen. His name go about 20 km for water. My husband’s broth- is Rashid Khan, he tells me. We talk about the heat, and the wait for the rain. I er would go on camel to fetch tell him about the full wells of water, which would last us for Khadero ki dani. two days. Bringing water was a “Water is important for the full-time job for one man in evNature is not a PDS. body,” he tells me before breakery family,” she says. Now she We have to live with ing into song, “but the soul, the makes the short walk to the paar what we have about thrice a day and fills up soul needs rain.” two or three pots. That takes care Aabhe maathe adangiyo of the cooking, cleaning, bathSamdariyo bhariye ing as well as feeding the liveChod yiyal marwaad re stock the family owns. The men are free to Halo re yiyal marwaad re work — conventionally as goatherds and, (The skies over Marwar are filled with clouds more recently, as security guards in the wind- A heavy rain is falling mill factories that have sprouted nearby. “In The ponds are filling up fast the drought years, when the wells dry up, we The animals can’t wait, they are hurrying towards have to call for the tankers. We pay ₹1,500 per Marwar) tanker and use the water for as long as possiveena venugopal ble, usually stretching for a month,” she says.

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Rain or shine The ritzy umbrella brands from Kerala, be it Popy or John’s, have campaigns on air perennially courtesy www.johns.in

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Rare muse The kurunji was among the many botanical wonders that bloomed on paper under the Chennai-based artist’s deft brushstrokes kk mustafah; (below) his drawings of orchids made it to postal stamps

Where’s the drenched ad?

Cloudburst of colours

It’s a mystery why so few advertisers have capitalised on the poetry and magic of rain

tends to get amplified.”

Suthan recalls how it began to rain when his agency was shooting for the e-commerce brand Jabong’s ‘Be You’ campaign. “Rain can mess up everything during a film shoot. However, for this campaign, we used the rain as the andanam is a busy area, north of backdrop.

We showed people fun in “OT was an independent soul …who wor- tles and recycled jars, and plastichaving mugs collectthe Adyar river, in Chennai. Tucked ried little for money or fame but cared pas- ing the rains.”

Clearly, the rains here became anI silver droplets from the cloudburst. inside is a quiet neighbourhood sionately about his plants, a green asked accidental prop rather than the central star. him what they were for. lined by ubiquitous powder puff environment and the rains,” recalls long-time But if youcalled switch on Malayalam “I’ve been a nutcase,” he said,channels his shintrees, shedding their pink pollen to carpet the friend and filmmaker Theodore Bhaskaran. youeyes will have no complaints on him that front.

The ing and moustache giving a Hercule lanes. Tropical trees like neem, mango, cocoritzy umbrella brands from Kerala, be it Popy Ravindran had worked on a watercolour se- Poirot appearance. nut palms; flowering plants like hibiscus, cor- ries of orchids and four of these had been or“He John’s, have campaigns onpeer air perennially. would visit a place and over a plant al jasmine; and creepers like blue pea, rose picked by the philately department to be re- or And jingles like Mazha mazha kuda flower over different times of the kuda, day ormazseaand jasmine and mandatory tulsi shrubs grew leased as stamps. I’d landed up at his place to sons ha vannal Popytheir kudatexture (Whenand ever it rains, to mirror colour and in the tiny gardens of modest homes and in report on his unusual plant artwork. there’s Popy umbrella) keep playing in your look accurately,” says Bhaskaran. pots in the government flats around the place, It had rained that week, a boon in parched head.

OT preferred rainwater to store-bought disscenting the rain-washed air. A large outdoor Madras then, much before tsunami waves or tilled Suthan, hails from the Kerala, several waterwho for producing bestsays effect with plant nursery was located in the area, adding floods of the Genesis kind had struck the city watercolours. campaigns from state revolve the He the preferred to turnaround a natural verdure to the place. monsoon.like “I was involvedinto in a amonsoon renamed Chennai. The recent cloudburst had material rainwater fabulouscamart In the 19th century though, Nandanam was me hopping across puddles along the narrow supply. paign for Kerala Tourism.

The idea was to proRain would be the important ingrecalled Gambier’s Garden after a British em- roads before climbing onto Ravindran’s pad. dient mote monsoon as a goodpaintings, time for ayurveda, as for his botanical especially pire’s resident of the area. And in a nod to that Dropping an umbrella on the the pores on his ourfamous skin breathe better,” he says. orchid and the rare former resident stood OT Ravindran’s home, floor, I stepped in and grumbled, He draws attention the brilliant Escotel Nilgiri to kurunji flower.way It seemed on the first floor of an old Madras garden only to have OT (“O for orchid, T used the monsoon a metaphor its netalmostasorganic that for rainwater house that had seen better days, which he for trees, wokay?” not Oyitty work coverage Kerala.

The and catchy ad shows ledin the pods flowers to All along theawindow shared with his beloved plants and paintings. Thavorath Ravindran) scold me: montage ofbloom shots — Kathaonboats, paperelephants, that he painted sills and balcony Ravindran was an artist, horticulturist, “Rains are nature’s bounty; kali artistes, young girls taking classical music with his deft hands.

Roof over roof Kansai Nerolac Paints’s goofy commercial puts a smile on your face stood tiny bottles and nurseryman, landscape designer, ecologist, don’t disrespect it.” lessons — set against a rain-lashed Kerala and OT also had a rudimentary recycledends jars with therainwater columnist and more. However, friends retag line: “The monsoon, the only It was a den in bachelor shamharvesting apparatus million images gush in when one bles racking your brains?

Sodesk too did member him as the passionate plant artist.

Kerala better He than we do”. style.

A large work wasthe ad folks we thing that covers around his place. wrote in dethinksworks of rain andmorphologically Bollywood. Raj covered reached out to when to come up with inThe prodigious of his Kerala is also for Kansai with piles asked of paper, tailthe of setting his procedure in Nerolac Madras Kapoor romancing Nargis underand an books stancesand of TVCs against the rains. accurate watercolour paintings of plants Paints’s larger-than-life umbrella ad, one of art set material.

Paint Musings, a Chennai tabloid.

Pipes umbrella, singing hua ikraar Monsoons preorchids have travelled across‘Pyaar the world.

His palettes the most rain-relatthat are hada national held colours would runmemorable around the terrace hua’ as three little children in raincoats walk occupation, yet why the ad mugs hold- and siphon the collections have been mentioned and feted in across ed water campaigns of aand national the years, glasshas jars, plastic into tanks large past. Amitabh and Moushumi Chat- ing industry in India used the rainand tubes and tubs. Excess water places as far asBachchan the Hunt Institute of Botanical brand. goofywould television up fistfuls of paintbrushes, fromThe the tubs drain terjee’s drenchedCarnegie stroll as ‘Rimjhim gire Arts saa- slabs imagery sparingly?

Documentation, Mellon, and commercial a smile on of pigments layAs in aPrathap heap on the table.

OT into compoundputs through an inlet.

Monsoons areaawell in the wan’ plays in theNancy background; Kishore Suthan,prickly chief creative partner at anational Centre Washington.

Reagan bought his stood, your face with its exaggeration as a cactus, among profusion The well held another six months’ supply of preoccupation, Kumar’s ‘EkKew ladki bheegi in bhaagi si’ and Bach- of boutique Bang in the plants,yet works, and Gardens London has them and mottledagency greenery of delicate creepwater for use in theabsurdity. house, forSixty-foot-long growing deliwhy has the ad chan’s rainy romp with Smita Patil to the beat ers Middle “There’s so much tothe place. in its holdings. blue umbrellas carand says, saplings dotted all over cate plants forand a year’s supply forare waterindustry in India used andred of Much ‘Aaj rapat jaye toh’.

Ininterest old Hindi rain and monsoons.

Yet it’s more than his in movies, football,rain his the“He ried by large groups of people was a creative fellow; his righteous incolour painting. the rain imagery also conjured dark stormy nights one seasontowards that’s not been and ex- community fascination for up plants and flowers grew where into a dignation and placed over a roofBut to ifproecology It’s been a decade since OT passed. he sparingly? lightning ripped through theevident skies since and sense, ploitedhis by brusque ads.” Onemanner reason, made he lifelong passion.

A love that was tectduring the house from rain.

The him seem had been around the recent Chennai marked a turning point in the film. thinks, thenocost of towards any- floods he’d sure his childhood in leafy Kannur, in Kerala, spur- like shots accompanied by a a burcould but hebebore ill-will haveare joined the community Now rainplants and advertising; do and any latjin- one shooting in thehisrain.

Heand ex- flowers,” says while plotting folksy ring himthink to draw as a schoolboy that phonetically and adored plants means song and methods to put the gles come toinmind?

Can instantly recall a Bhaskaran. plains, “Shooting in the outer graduate botany in you Madras.

He however plays onpaintings. the word ‘umbrella’ rain to good use for his TV commercial that showcases the artjoy doors callshis forartdifferent equipment, lighting was a self-taught(TVC) painter with an amazing Beyond work and furniture, all along and is sung by Pankaj Awasthi in his tradeg tilak is aThough Delhi-based journalist and romance of any the art monsoon shower? Still the andwindow camera/lenses. the lack of tiny hygiene istry that rivalled school graduate. mark Sufi style.

Shah Rukh Khan stars sills andAlso, balcony stood bot- sudha

OT Ravindran left behind a legacy of repurposing rainwater as an art supply for his paintings

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Raindrops keep falling on our films Bollywood displays a curious reluctance to depict rain as the nuisance it can so easily be an inopportune shower at any time? Why is rain always a good thing, something that enThe sizzle factor Rain or to see a ables us to win colonial wagers used as soaked Sridevi bouncewas around inasuspenders? metaphor for This may well be out of a valiant sense of dethe Aqua nial. Perhaps the dream merchants of Mumbrand name bai — like, of course, the dreamers in this highly themselves sensuous ad sunnier side — choose to look at rain as the precisely because they are entirely aware of how awful it can get. Turning on the spin and waxing eloquent about rain could be among the cleverest (and most obvious) of coping mechanisms. Mumbai is an impossible city making impossible films, and the last thing the people watching those films need is a reminder that they’re going to walk out of the film into a sidewalk-less street covered in wetmud while something bites them on the neck.

Much better to sing, instead, that raindrops are magical and that a little wetness never killed nobody.

Background Fittingly, rain itself has always music Publicbeen a strong metaphor for faith. The will-it/won’t-it nature service ads, that of a cloudburst is thelike sort ofofhighly tangible natural phenomenonLead thatIndia, holds meteoroloused gists accountable andhave makes for much amarainy teur soothsaying. We associate rain with gods situations to who like dancing, withdrive divinely home evocative mutheir message sical ragas, and with omens of good fortune and rebirth. Few among us, in fact, have not, at in the ad, he is not the one carrying it on his ceFor Parameswaran, two classic campaigns The film, simply calledprayed ‘The Tree’, a fallsome specific instant, for ashows shower. lebrity shoulders; the scene-stealers are the that use the rain effectively have been Vicks Va- enRain tree is stalling on a road.

Whilesimply everyall the traffic more worthy of prayer umbrella and the song. Ashish Khazanchi, porub’s ad featuring a kid coming home one stands around fretting, because of the way it has alwaysfuming inspiredand poIt was a dark and stormy night Hindi cinema has foreverwho usedcrafted rain as shorthand forfor romance, andAmbience, many a song hassneezing, dazzled us with splashing‘Goa aboutin in athe squall or this film Publicis andlovers Taj Hotels’ Rains’ honking, a little to boy walksIttowards the tree ets, from Tagore Gulzar. is, in fact, one of holding up a genuinely iconic umbrella says that the brief was to convey ‘suraksha’ or campaign. In the Vicks ad, the kid comes and tries to move it. Slowly thesublime crowd pitches Gulzar’s most simple, most songs I told Wife that I’d be home protectionheinminute a simple andThe effective manner.

Leave out the classic scolds songs, in soaking wetmany, and hismany irate mother and they to manage toIremove the obstacle. that comes mind as type this, a song called a piece onimportant.” rain in HindiAfter cin- him.

“We were writing told tonality was however, and out it isahard to of seeflowers what else He pulls bunch that we he ‘Geela Surprisingly, evenfrom brands that peddle Geela Paani’ the movie Satya. love As a ema,they shedecided expertlyto rolled an eye and had much debate, go with a mamhavebeen cinematically been doing with the mon- and hiding and says, “Happy Birthday, romance — chocolate, have monsoon-mad Urmila deodorants Matondkar —spins predicted thatinfuses I’d be using thistouch as an Mummy.” moth umbrella, which a comic soon all this time.this I’m ad all combined for lyrical romantici“I think the best of stayed featuring rains in their ads. around,away the from words — literally translating to excuse to go the resplendent Raveeand helps theon adabout cut through the clutter.

The advertising, sation, but surely thatrational can’t be benefit all theresell is. The a strong for “Come to Water’ think — of speak it, notofmuch ‘Wet Wet what advertising makes rain na Tandon and ‘Tip Tip Pani’, the Mohra song, incidentally, wasBarsa written much later Vicks much-vaunted first dollop showersofbring with them with a huge emotion,” says that can remember has used saysofAjay rain,Iof the musicality and therain,” marvel the song where she was turns the barnyard heat while Khazanchi onup location in Kerala.

“It Parameswaran. as much hypothermia as they do joy, and we Gahlaut, director,over Ogilvy. monsoon,executive of the waycreative the sky runneth and and drizzling makes us when all sit we up and Akshay was tookstare a ridewhile on the boat focus readily oncreated the latter.

Bring The too Taj campaign in the ’80son bythe ad However, an ad he does recall vividly is the one the way the drops pitter-patter against glass.

Kumar in, by far, mostgave credible fewidea,” min- legend and the—rhythm of the oars me the rain, insist ourSimoes movies, andid understandable de- created Frank also wonders for the Ogilvy fortastes Wildstone Aqua starring And theby way a drop to eager, eager lips. utes of performance of TVC his early — looks brand. he says.

So well has the doneyears that Nerolac mand considering we are a in largely agrarian supermodel With hotel occupancy Goa dropping Sheetal Mallar.

A highly sensuous In 1990, Amol Palekar made a lovely film — a appropriately stupefied and dry of mouth. to has used it for three consecutive seasons. country that is frequently single digits during suffermonone, ittheatrical shows Mallar stepping loose, adaptation of This, I concede, was indeed thequick first thought to soons, Monsoon-related ads with recall are ing from drought or other.

Tajsome decided to romantiout NtoRichard gatherNash clothes the the playfrom The Rainpop to mind for this directly article for BLink’s mostly for products linked to monrain, cise Yet the eats at“They me: why Goathought in the rains. ran terrace—ascalled the skies turnRoomani cloudy maker Thodasa soon as issue, but I chastised as I an now do some such rainwear, or those myself that have indido ourbeautiful films hardly look at filmsever in cinema and raindrops come pelting Ho Jayen.

In the film, Anita KanThe much-vaunted Bollywood had Hindiassociation, film: must we asbepaints, so goddamned rect such cold rubs, halls rain asina nuisance? the more affluent secdown.

Thean beautifully war plays oddball, apicturised weird girl first showers bring overdosed on that obvious? tyres and so on; even here, veteran ad man Am- tions It isn’t as if they don’t know of Mumbai and other key ad shows Mallar getting everyone around her is trying to with them much aspect, butas there is cinema hasthinks foreverthe used rain as shortbi Hindi Parameswaran monsoon has cities. how bad where Tajit gets. saw Mumbai, a dramatic indrenched in the rain even as a nudge toward conventionality, hypothermia as they enough and more handused for romance, been meagrely.and many a song has daz- crease the films are made, a cityeffort that in room sales;istheir man watches her.

The soulful till an unlikely magician shows do joy room for elegant love zled uscompanies with loverslike splashing about in have a squall Tyre MRF and CEAT in- helped cries forthe rain till itGoa arrives, after entire hotel insong adds the of romance up — in thetoform a spry and or holding up a genuinely iconic umbrella.

Ro- dustry,” vested in rainy-day campaigns.

Ogilvy’s TVC which says it Parameswaran. manfully wades oomph factor.

Says Gahlaut, ebullient Nana Patekar — who mance, certainly, but tyre also,rides like Tandon mem- through for CEAT’s all-season on its better downpour.

Thoughthebrands have There been “Rain was used promises that as hea metaphor will makefor it orably demonstrated, If intertwined grip.

But it was MRF thatraunch. scored with its out-of- slow are three to four months of solto capitalise on rains, the the name Aquahe and to make the rain.

Naturally, is jeered at, but flowers were a sign that the couple wasbefore mak- public the-box thinking. For several decades, id, relentless andfilled this wobbly city — its situation servicerain, ads have the vacuum with sensual; thewe film ended up looking beneath the ridicule can gradually sense ing love too shyly to year, showMRF onscreen, the monsoons each wouldthunder release evocative laughablecampaigns. infrastructure held together by very The Centre for Science differentup from others.” Everyone wants the creeping of optimism. andadlightning spelt out (in that and an with its prediction of loud whenall-caps) rains would duct-tape and dreams — buckleshad under the him Environment, for instance, a headSums Suthan, personally that to beup right, even“Ithough they believe can’t wholetheyMumbai. were going at it far primally, discrehit The MRF Raintoo Day campaign has turning cloudburst every single year. Flooding, water- rains campaign on rainwater harvesting invoke poetry magic. And monsoon heartedly believe in and an assertion so absurd. tion thrown to theand winds, and it was the—camnow gone digital more interactive the that damage, traffic woes.

Yet here stand theofcharexquisitely captured the moment joy is indeed season wistfulness, tailor-made based for romance.

It is thisa aching on the era that had to timidly look the heavens. company sends out teams totodocument the and acters in ouronmovies, wonder people’schak-dhoom-dhooming faces when it rained. Bollywood overdosed on that but fact that it had could indeed show up aspect, at any moThings are different in these increasingly ex- One journey of the southwest monsoon from Keraaway,man eternally and ready, at the drop holdsplayful, his umbrella upside down to there enough and morerain room for elegant ment, is that I believe makes so special.

And, plicit times, butand for create many an un-kissed la to Mumbai, content thatdecade, depict capture of a drop, torainwater frolic. When laststreet timefolwe love.” the andwas the the whole indeed, so cinematic. All we need to do is time the only way Hindi cinema — all toomedia literal,enall lows different facets of the season.

Social saw asuit. protagonist lament the absolute inabili- theA snapping rain-loving is waiting. ofnation our fingers just right. too often — allow could people show a to woman thejourney throes ty Another gagements followinthe to walk public out of service the house wearing white ad shot in thearains is narayanan raja sen is a Mumbai-based writer of passion was to, well,about get a woman wet. and make predictions the rains. shirt India’s in Julycampaign knowing he by chitra Lead on could takingget thecaught initiative.

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When the skies open up‌ Running for cover acquires a poetic dimension during monsoon

Black magic Overcast skies at Thippagondanahalli reservoir, in the outskirts of Bengaluru k murali kumar

Two for joy A rainy day snapshot from Marine Drive, Mumbai vivek bendre

Red alert Tourists at India Gate in Delhi s subramanium

Cover story Khasi farmers in knups, the traditional bamboo hat, in Shillong, Meghalaya ritu raj konwar

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Ready to roll Light shower or heavy, farmers in Palakkad rarely take a day off kk mustafah

Jumbo pack Elephants and mahouts in Kaziranga return to their camp ritu raj konwar

Speaking numbers Dongria Kondh tribals near Lanjigarh in Odisha’s Kalahandi district brave showers to attend a village meeting kr deepak

Dark days The king of Mayong, a village in Assam’s Morigaon district, leads a procession to celebrate Gohain Uliuwa. Mayong is considered the capital of black magic and witchcraft ritu raj konwar

United we stand Workers of a political party wait outside a counting centre in Perumbavoor, Kerala thulasi kakkat

Upbeat An umbrella tries to hold up to lashing winds in Thiruvananthapuram s gopakumar

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Rain or shine The ritzy umbrella brands from Kerala, be it Popy or John’s, have campaigns on air perennially courtesy www.johns.in

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Rare muse The kurunji was among the many botanical wonders that bloomed on paper under the Chennai-based artist’s deft brushstrokes kk mustafah; (below) his drawings of orchids made it to postal stamps

Where’s the drenched ad?

Cloudburst of colours

It’s a mystery why so few advertisers have capitalised on the poetry and magic of rain

tends to get amplified.”

Suthan recalls how it began to rain when his agency was shooting for the e-commerce brand Jabong’s ‘Be You’ campaign. “Rain can mess up everything during a film shoot. However, for this campaign, we used the rain as the andanam is a busy area, north of We showed people fun in “OT was an independent soul …who wor- backdrop. tles and recycled jars, and plastichaving mugs collectthe Adyar river, in Chennai. Tucked ried little for money or fame but cared pas- the rainsthe here became anI ing rains.” silver Clearly, dropletsthe from cloudburst. inside is a quiet neighbourhood sionately about his plants, a green accidental prop rather thanfor. the central star. asked him what they were lined by ubiquitous powder puff environment and the rains,” recalls long-time But youcalled switch on Malayalam “I’veifbeen a nutcase,” he said,channels his shintrees, shedding their pink pollen to carpet the friend and filmmaker Theodore Bhaskaran. you will have no complaints on that The ing eyes and moustache giving him front. a Hercule lanes. Tropical trees like neem, mango, cocobrands from Kerala, be it Popy Ravindran had worked on a watercolour se- ritzy Poirotumbrella appearance. nut palms; flowering plants like hibiscus, cor- ries of orchids and four of these had been or “He John’s, have campaigns onpeer air perennially. would visit a place and over a plant al jasmine; and creepers like blue pea, rose picked by the philately department to be re- And jingles like Mazha mazha kuda or flower over different times of the kuda, day ormazseaand jasmine and mandatory tulsi shrubs grew leased as stamps. I’d landed up at his place to ha Popytheir kudatexture (Whenand ever it rains, sonsvannal to mirror colour and in the tiny gardens of modest homes and in report on his unusual plant artwork. there’s Popy umbrella) keep playing in your look accurately,” says Bhaskaran. pots in the government flats around the place, It had rained that week, a boon in parched head.

OT preferred rainwater to store-bought disscenting the rain-washed air. A large outdoor Madras then, much before tsunami waves or tilled Suthan, hails from the Kerala, several waterwho for producing bestsays effect with plant nursery was located in the area, adding floods of the Genesis kind had struck the city campaigns from state revolve around the watercolours.

Hethe preferred to turn a natural verdure to the place.

“I was involvedinto in a amonsoon renamed Chennai. The recent cloudburst had monsoon. material like rainwater fabulouscamart In the 19th century though, Nandanam was me hopping across puddles along the narrow paign Kerala Tourism.

Theimportant idea was to prosupply.for Rain would be the ingrecalled Gambier’s Garden after a British em- roads before climbing onto Ravindran’s pad. mote as a goodpaintings, time for ayurveda, as dient monsoon for his botanical especially pire’s resident of the area. And in a nod to that Dropping an umbrella on the the pores on his ourfamous skin breathe better,” he says. orchid and the rare former resident stood OT Ravindran’s home, floor, I stepped in and grumbled, He draws attention the brilliant Escotel Nilgirito kurunji flower.way It seemed on the first floor of an old Madras garden only to have OT (“O for orchid, T used the monsoon a metaphor its netalmostasorganic that for rainwater house that had seen better days, which he for trees, wokay?” not Oyitty work coverage Kerala.

The and catchy ad shows ledin the pods flowers to All along theawindow shared with his beloved plants and paintings. Thavorath Ravindran) scold me: montage ofbloom shots — Kathaonboats, paperelephants, that he painted sills and balcony Ravindran was an artist, horticulturist, “Rains are nature’s bounty; kali artistes, young girls taking classical music with his deft hands.

Roof over roof Kansai Nerolac Paints’s goofy commercial puts a smile on your face stood tiny bottles and nurseryman, landscape designer, ecologist, don’t disrespect it.” lessons — set against a rain-lashed Kerala and OT also had a rudimentary recycledends jars with therainwater columnist and more. However, friends retag line: “The monsoon, the only It was a den in bachelor shamharvesting apparatus million images gush in when one bles racking your brains?

Sodesk too did member him as the passionate plant artist.

Kerala than we do”. style.

A large work wasthe ad folks we thing that covers around his better place. He wrote in dethinksworks of rain andmorphologically Bollywood. Raj covered reached out to when to come up with inThe prodigious of his Kerala is also for Kansai with pilesasked of paper, tailthe of setting his procedure in Nerolac Madras Kapoor romancing Nargis underand an books stancesand of TVCs against the rains. accurate watercolour paintings of plants Paints’s larger-than-life umbrella ad, one of art set material.

Paint Musings, a Chennai tabloid.

Pipes umbrella, singing ‘Pyaar hua ikraar Monsoons preorchids have travelled across the world.

His palettes the most rain-relatthat are hada national held colours would runmemorable around the terrace hua’ as three little children in raincoats walk occupation, yet why the ad mugs hold- and siphon the collections have been mentioned and feted in across ed water campaigns of aand national the years, glasshas jars, plastic into tanks large past. Amitabh and Moushumi Chat- ing industry in India used the rainand tubes and tubs. Excess water places as far asBachchan the Hunt Institute of Botanical brand. goofywould television up fistfuls of paintbrushes, fromThe the tubs drain terjee’s drenched Carnegie stroll as ‘Rimjhim gire Arts saa- slabs imagery sparingly?

Documentation, Mellon, and commercial a smile on of pigments layAs in aPrathap heap on the table.

OT into compoundputs through an inlet.

Monsoons areaawell in the wan’ plays in theNancy background; Kishore Suthan,prickly chief creative partner at anational Centre Washington.

Reagan bought his stood, your face with its exaggeration as a cactus, among profusion The well held another six months’ supply of preoccupation, Kumar’sand ‘EkKew ladkiGardens bheegi in bhaagi si’ and Bach- of boutique Bang in the plants, works, London has them and mottledagency greenery of delicate creepwater for use in theabsurdity. house, forSixty-foot-long growing deliyet why has the ad chan’s rainy romp with Smita Patil to the beat ers Middle “There’s so much tothe place. in its holdings. red blue umbrellas carand says, saplings dotted all over cate plants forand a year’s supply forare waterindustry in India used and of Much ‘Aaj rapat jaye toh’.

Ininterest old Hindi rain and monsoons.

Yet it’s more than his in movies, football,rain his the“He ried by large groups of people was a creative fellow; his righteous incolour painting. the rain imagery also conjured darkand stormy nights one seasontowards that’s not been exfascination for up plants flowers grewwhere into a dignation and placed over a roofBut to ifproecology and community It’s been a decade since OT passed. he sparingly? lightning rippedA love through theevident skies since and sense, ploitedhis by brusque ads.” Onemanner reason, made he lifelong passion. that was tect during the house from rain.

The him seem had been around the recent Chennai marked a turning point in the film. thinks, could bebore thenocost of towards any- floods he’d sure his childhood in leafy Kannur, in Kerala, spur- like shots accompanied by a a bur but he ill-will haveare joined the community Now think rainplants and advertising; do any shooting in thehis rain.

Heand ex- flowers,” says while plotting folksy ring him to draw as a schoolboy and jinlat- one that phonetically and adored plants means song and methods to put the gles come toin mind?

Can instantly recall a Bhaskaran. plains, “Shooting in the outer graduate botany inyou Madras.

He however plays onpaintings. the word ‘umbrella’ rain to good use for his TV commercial that showcases the artjoy doors callshis forartdifferent equipment, lighting was a self-taught(TVC) painter with an amazing Beyond work and furniture, all along and is sung by Pankaj Awasthi in his tradesudhaSufi g tilak a Delhi-based journalist and romance of any the art monsoon shower? Still the and window camera/lenses. the lack of tiny hygiene istry that rivalled school graduate. style.is Though Shah Rukh Khan stars sills andAlso, balcony stood bot- mark

OT Ravindran left behind a legacy of repurposing rainwater as an art supply for his paintings

N

A

Q R Q R

ND-X _ A

courtesy: http://postagestamps.gov.in

BL

cover

saturday, june 4, 2016

Raindrops keep falling on our films Bollywood displays a curious reluctance to depict rain as the nuisance it can so easily be an inopportune shower at any time? Why is rain always a good thing, something that enThe sizzle factor Rain or to see a ables us to win colonial wagers used as soaked Sridevi bouncewas around inasuspenders? metaphor for This may well be out of a valiant sense of dethe Aqua nial. Perhaps the dream merchants of Mumbrand name bai — like, of course, the dreamers in this highly themselves sensuous ad sunnier side — choose to look at rain as the precisely because they are entirely aware of how awful it can get. Turning on the spin and waxing eloquent about rain could be among the cleverest (and most obvious) of coping mechanisms. Mumbai is an impossible city making impossible films, and the last thing the people watching those films need is a reminder that they’re going to walk out of the film into a sidewalk-less street covered in wetmud while something bites them on the neck.

Much better to sing, instead, that raindrops are magical and that a little wetness never killed nobody.

Background Fittingly, rain itself has always music Publicbeen a strong metaphor for faith. The will-it/won’t-it nature service ads, that of a cloudburst is thelike sort ofofhighly tangible natural phenomenonLead thatIndia, holds meteoroloused gists accountable andhave makes for much amarainy teur soothsaying. We associate rain with gods situations to who like dancing, withdrive divinely home evocative mutheir message sical ragas, and with omens of good fortune and rebirth. Few among us, in fact, have not, at in the ad, he is not the one carrying it on his ceFor Parameswaran, two classic campaigns The film, simply calledprayed ‘The Tree’, a fallsome specific instant, for ashows shower. lebrity shoulders; the scene-stealers are the that use the rain effectively have been Vicks Va- enRain tree is stalling on a road.

Whilesimply everyall the traffic more worthy of prayer umbrella and the song. Ashish Khazanchi, porub’s ad featuring a kid coming home one stands fretting, because of thearound way it has alwaysfuming inspiredand poIt was a dark and stormy night Hindi cinema has foreverwho usedcrafted rain as shorthand forfor romance, and Ambience, many a song hassneezing, dazzled us with splashing‘Goa aboutin in athe squall or this film Publicis andlovers Taj Hotels’ Rains’ honking, a little to boy walksIttowards tree ets, from Tagore Gulzar. is, in fact,the one of holding up a genuinely iconic umbrella says that the brief was to convey ‘suraksha’ or campaign. In the Vicks ad, the kid comes and tries most to move it. Slowly thesublime crowd pitches Gulzar’s simple, most songs I told Wife that I’d be home protectionheinminute a simple andThe effective manner.

Leave out the classic songs, soaking wetmany, and hismany irate mother scolds in and they to manage toIremove the obstacle. that comes mind as type this, a song called a piece on important.” rain in HindiAfter cin- him.

“We were writing told tonality was however, and out it isahard to of seeflowers what else He pulls bunch that we he ‘Geela Surprisingly, even brands that peddle Geela Paani’ from the movie Satya. love As a ema,they she decided expertlyto rolled an eye and had much debate, go with a mamhavebeen cinematically been doing with the mon- and hiding and says, “Happy Birthday, romance — chocolate, deodorants —spins have monsoon-mad Urmila Matondkar predicted thatinfuses I’d be using thistouch as an Mummy.” moth umbrella, which a comic soon all this time. this I’m all for lyrical romantici“I think ad combined the best of stayed featuring rains in their ads. around,away the from words — literally translating to excuse to go the resplendent Raveeand helps theon adabout cut through the clutter.

The advertising, sation, but surely thatrational can’t be all theresell is. The a strong benefit for “Come toWater’ think — of speak it, notofmuch ‘Wet Wet what advertising makes rain na Tandon and ‘Tip Tip Pani’,much the Mohra song, incidentally, wasBarsa written later Vicks much-vaunted first dollop showersofbring with them with a huge emotion,” says that can remember has used says rain,Iof the musicality and therain,” marvel ofAjay the song where she turns the barnyard heat while Khazanchi was onup location in Kerala.

“It Parameswaran. as much hypothermia as they do joy, and we Gahlaut, director,over Ogilvy. monsoon,executive of the waycreative the sky runneth and and drizzling makes us when all sit up while Akshay was we and tookstare a ride on the boat focus readily oncreated the latter.

Bring The too Taj campaign in the ’80son bythe ad However, an ad he does recall vividly is the one the way the drops pitter-patter against glass.

Kumar in, by far, credible fewidea,” min- legend and the—rhythm of the most oars gave me the rain, insist ourSimoes movies, andid understandable de- created Frank also wonders for the Ogilvy fortastes Wildstone Aqua starring And the by way a drop to eager, eager lips. utes of performance of TVC his early — looks brand. he says.

So well has the doneyears that Nerolac mand considering we are a in largely agrarian supermodel With hotel occupancy Goa dropping Sheetal Mallar.

A highly sensuous In 1990, Amol Palekar made a lovely film — a appropriately stupefied and dry of mouth. to has used it for three consecutive seasons. country that is frequently single digits during suffermonone, ittheatrical shows Mallar stepping loose, adaptation of This, I concede, was indeed thequick first thought to soons, Monsoon-related ads with recall are ing from drought or other.

Tajsome decided to romantioutNtoRichard gatherNash clothes the the playfrom The Rainpop to mind for this directly article for BLink’s mostly for products linked to monrain, cise Yet the eats at“They me: why Goathought in the rains. ran terrace—ascalled the skies turnRoomani cloudy maker Thodasa soon issue, but I chastised as I an now do some such as rainwear, or thosemyself that have indido ourbeautiful films hardly look at filmsever in cinema and raindrops come pelting Ho Jayen.

In the film, Anita KanThe much-vaunted Bollywood had Hindiassociation, film: mustsuch we asbepaints, so goddamned rect cold rubs, halls rain asina nuisance? the more affluent secdown.

Thean beautifully war plays oddball, apicturised weird girl first showers bring overdosed on that obvious? tyres and so on; even here, veteran ad man Am- tions It isn’t as if they don’t know of Mumbai and other key ad shows Mallar getting everyone around her is trying to with them much aspect, butasthere is cinema hasthinks foreverthe usedmonsoon rain as shortbi Hindi Parameswaran has cities. how bad where Tajit gets. saw Mumbai, a dramatic indrenched in the rain even as a nudge toward conventionality, hypothermia as they enough and more hand used for romance, been meagrely.and many a song has daz- crease the films are made, a cityeffort that in room sales;istheir man watches her.

The soulful till an unlikely magician shows do joy room for elegant love zled us companies with lovers like splashing about in have a squall Tyre MRF and CEAT in- helped cries forthe rainentire till it Goa arrives, after hotel insong adds the of romance up — in thetoform a spry and or holding up a genuinely iconic umbrella.

Ro- dustry,” vested in rainy-day campaigns.

Ogilvy’s TVC which says it Parameswaran. manfully wades oomph factor.

Says Gahlaut, ebullient Nana Patekar — who mance, certainly, but tyre also, rides like Tandon mem- through for CEAT’s all-season on its better downpour.

Thoughthebrands have There been “Rain was used promises that as hea metaphor will makefor it orably demonstrated, If intertwined grip.

But it was MRF thatraunch. scored with its out-of- slow are three to four months of solto capitalise on rains, the the name Aquahe and to make the rain.

Naturally, is jeered at, but flowers were a sign that the couple wasbefore mak- public the-box thinking. For several decades, id, relentless and filled this wobbly city — its situation servicerain, ads have the vacuum with sensual; thewe film ended up looking beneath the ridicule can gradually sense ing love too shyly to year, showMRF onscreen, the monsoons each wouldthunder release evocative laughable campaigns. infrastructure held together by very The Centre for Science differentup from others.” Everyone wants the creeping of optimism. andadlightning spelt out (in that and an with its prediction of loud whenall-caps) rains would duct-tape and dreams — buckleshad under the him Environment, for instance, a headSums Suthan, personally believe that to beup right, even“Ithough they can’t wholetheyMumbai. were going it far too primally, discrehit The at MRF Rain Day campaign has turning cloudburst every single year. Flooding, water- rains campaign on rainwater harvesting invoke poetry magic. And monsoon heartedly believe in and an assertion so absurd. tion thrown to theand winds, and it was the—camnow gone digital more interactive the that damage, traffic woes.

Yet here stand theofcharexquisitely captured the moment joy is It indeed season wistfulness, tailor-made based for romance. is thisa aching on the era that had to timidly looktotodocument the heavens. company sends out teams the and acters in ouronmovies, wonder people’schak-dhoom-dhooming faces when it rained. Bollywood overdosed on that but fact that it had could indeed show up aspect, at any moThings are different in these increasingly ex- One journey of the southwest monsoon from Keraaway,man eternally and ready, at the drop holdsplayful, his umbrella upside down to there enough and morerain room for elegant ment, is that I believe makes so special.

And, plicit times, butand for many un-kissed la to Mumbai, createan content thatdecade, depict capture of a drop, torainwater frolic. When laststreet time folwe love.” the andwas the the whole indeed, so cinematic. All we need to do is time the only way Hindi cinema — all too media literal,enall lows different facets of the season.

Social saw asuit. protagonist lament the absolute inabili- theAsnapping rain-loving is waiting. ofnation our fingers just right. too often — could show a to woman thejourney throes ty Another gagements allow people followinthe to walk public out of service the house wearing white ad shot in thearains is narayanan raja sen is a Mumbai-based writer of passion was to, well,about get a woman wet. and make predictions the rains. shirt India’s in Julycampaign knowing he by chitra Lead on could takingget thecaught initiative.

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conjured up an entire menu dedicated to the rain gods.

True, the country welcomes all six seasons with equal verve and joy. The innumerable festivals bear testimony to this. However, varsha or monsoon holds a very special place in our hearts. A season captured in all its glory in music, poetry and painting — at once as delicate as the tinkling of Radha’s anklets and as furious and destructive as the war drums of Kurukshetra. From Kalidasa’s Meghaduta to Tansen’s Mian-ki-Malhar, from our folk music traditions to Tagore’s songs on varsha rwitu, the season’s bounty of love, longing and creation on one hand and destruction on the other have always held us in thrall.

For the Bengali, gastronomy perhaps adds the umami element to the heady smell of wet earth and romance associated with the monsoon. The housebound Bengali of yore, besides writing poetry and composing love songs to the rhythmic beat of the incessant rains, also dreamt uppaani an entire monsoon culiSpot the devil A patali well taps into groundwater, although literally around it refers tothe the ubiquimythical nary spread.

It revolved hell in khichuri the centreor of khichdi, the Earth a mix of rice, pulses tous and assorted vegetables, slow-cooked into a gruel. And it was served with cow’s ghee, an arferocity has abated little, the—wind is atamahowray of pickles sweetaand sour mango, ling, whipping which, one lime point, rind,being jujube, Indianatolive, — blows Bhati’smade cap right off his head; he stops painstakingly in the sumthe scooter while go darting between trucks mer, Iand a variety of vegetable to fetch it. Wefries turnand off the mainbefore road near Dafritters, slowly Perhaps the tradition modra, and follow theup odd tyre track to the moving the food chart to vilinof celebrating the lage. A camelclude rideeggs, is thevarious ideal way kindstoofreach fried monsoon with Khadero ki dani, sputterglory on till the fish —but thewe crowning being khichuri began with track disintegrates into cushiony sand and hilsa and its roe — and, at the Shiva’s request the scooter tyres whirr fail to take usslowforheight of but extravagance, to Parvati ward. I hop off, bag and camera hanging cooked mutton curry.

The from meal my shoulder,ended and push the scooter, Bhatypically withwhile tomato ti awkwardlychutney, manoeuvres with one foot, papaditand sweets. half-pedalling, So half-pushing. is so only it was then, It and it iswhen now. the scooter topples andlooks Bhatiforward jumps off Every Bengali homeover eagerly to that Ikhichuri notice hemeal has only afthe evenone asleg. theSomehow, downpour ter a seemingly long trudge, during we threatens to become a deluge.

Not which to be left push therestaurants scooter likeranging an errant buffalo, a clusbehind, from the low-end terthe offive ramshackle homesand appear in the to stars host khichuri hilsa festivals distance. at this time, knowing well that a Bengali will, a hundred metres at About a crunch, even swim to thisfrom meal.the village Water mark Limestone pillars, carved with symbols, stand next to wells and ponds to guide walkers and areThe therest wells thatisBhati made.

Calledabout paar, of India not that emotional wanderers towards them thesekhichdi, wells are simple water conserving systheir associating it more with sickbed tems employing of physics.

The or infirmary food.the Anbasics exception is Gujarat, shape of landvariations is such that it forms which hasthe a few to its credit.aAnatupopwhere an air-cooler battles uselessly against duced to once every two days as before. ral catchment area for rainwater. is kept ular saying in north India goes —This “Khichdi ka the heat, the only view is of a pillar marking a “It is important to not change the habits of chaar garbage-free andpapad, simpledahi tracks are made on yaar, ghee, aur achaar (Khichwater source and a large well now sealed shut. people,” Singh says, “if people become used to di thehas ground channel water.

Gravity four to pals: ghee, the papad, curd and pulls pickLegend has it that Arjuna and Krishna were getting water every day, they will become le)”. the water wells — holes on has the Not sointo for the thesmall Bengali, though, who travelling through the desert when Arjuna felt used to wasting more water every day”. The raised ground, — fortified natural stone. thereally bar many times by over.

The dish behorribly thirsty. There was no sign of water municipality quietly reverted to the pre-bum- gins “Thereas are threewatery types gruel, of water,” Bhati exa thin which slowly anywhere. Krishna then used his Sudarshan per monsoon system. In summer, even now, evolves plains, “palar paani, which is surface water; ra-a through many avatars to become chakra and made a well right there. Further, municipal water is available once in three or fine-dining jani paani, which is seepage water; and patali experience during the rains.

Celehe predicted that one day this land would be four days in some parts of the town. People brated paani, which groundwater.

The system is authorisMani Shankar Mukherjee, betruled by one of Arjuna’s descendants. “Usually store as much water as they possibly can, and ter builtknown in suchas a way that itwrites conserves all three.

Sankar, in his book wells are made inside a fort. This fort is unique then teach themselves to use just that much.

When theKhaowa surface Daowa water is(The exhausted, the seepBangalir Eating Habits of because here it was the other way around. The age of water is tapped.

Andthe finally, the Bengali): “All India knows that khiurther away from the sprawfort was made here because of this well. Rawal bythe April or May, the seepchuri exists for Bengali andwhen the Bengali exling fort that is the heart of Jaiswal, who is a descendant of Arjuna’s clan, age water is exhausted, ists for khichuri.”

Thisreserve communal love is built his fort here and ruled the kingdom of Jaisalmer city, towards the desis tapped.

This expressed in the the groundwater 13th-century Manasa Mangal getting Rajputana on the strength of the water source ert, water is the central force If people start way the water table does deKabya, a compendium of narrative folknot poetry they toplete created by Krishna,” Basawal Dan, local histo- around which all lives revolve. water every day, the villagers not dededicated theand snake goddessareManasa, will start wasting Here, under the leadership of a rian and business owner, tells me. pendent ontothe government where Shiva asks Parvati cook him a mealfor of more water every day Although there are no modern symbols of few good men, a new-found aswater supply most days.”cocomoong dal khichuri with on daab (tender access to water, barring the occasional water sertion of old beliefs has meant We walk past lush greenstatus berry nut) water. Manasa acquires a special tankers plying down the narrow roads, the that despite the pitifully low levtreesrural to reach the paar, and deamong Bengal’s communities during veneration of this most indispensable ele- el of rainfall, even the arid the fact the monsoonspite because it isthat alsosand thedunes seasonrise of ment continues even now. About six years ago, stretch can be converted into an oasis. mere metres awayPerhaps from it, the tradition slightly sunken snakebite deaths. of celndisputedly, in love of western India,iserupts joyous Singh Bhati one ofinto these waterdancwar- ebrating Varun Singh, a long-timeIndians residentare of the city, nerJethu stretch until is almost verdant.

Children thethere monsoon with khichuri began with the monsoons, dif- ing singing.

And of perhaps, there’s more with riors.and Under the aegis the Thar Integrated tells me, after a particularly goodalbeit spell for of rain are playing wells, all of them holdShiva’saround requestthe to Parvati. ferent reasons.

Recallhad thedecided scene singing over chai and sizzling pakodas.

Social Development Society, Bhati has been in- ingThe the local municipal corporation tiny glasses to the top with theknown sweet origin of filled the name ‘khichdi’, also from daily the film Lagaan — ominous Cut toindigenous Bengal, where the monsoon lasts methods to conserve wa-a as to supply water to homes in the city. This voking berries from thethetrees around.

A greenkushari, lies in Sanskrit ‘khiccha’, meandark clouds on the A horizon, rumbling thunfourdesert months.

Yes,for there is exultation at ing ter in the region a couple of decades enraged its citizens. large posse of them, led good plumed bee eater flies in fordish. a fewThe dipsformal in the a rice-and-pulse-based der, theolder windmembers gatheringofspeed, a brilliant the drops of rain.IBut song and dance Bengali now.first In the evening, ridethe pillion on Bhati’s by the the community, water and peaof fowl aimlessly. name theamble dish isaround a rather curious streak of lightning andthe then the silver sheets the kitchen.

And Bengal scooter toingo see Khadero kiyes, dani, a tinyalone, ham- ‘khechranno’, demonstrated outside municipality office happens Camels appear atop the meaning embankment and with ‘anno’ rice. Furof rain.

The entire village, in some remote theEven distinction having letall 22 of kmIndia, fromholds the city. thoughof the sun’s ther and demanded that the water supply becorre- in walkdigging in for a has drink of water. both sides of revealed thatOn ‘khechar’ in San-

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Storm in aF hot-potQ How the Bengali dreamt up an entire monsoon culinary spread revolving around the ubiquitous khichuri or khichdi

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Ananda khichuri (Serves two) 1 cup gobindo bhog rice 3/4 cup yellow moong dal 3 tsp refined oil 3 tsp ghee 2 tsp sugar 1/4 tsp cumin seeds 1 inch ginger, chopped 2 whole dry chillies 2 bay leaves 3-4 green chillies Salt to taste Vegetables (sweet potato, red pumpkin, pointed gourd or parwal , ridge gourd and cauliflower), diced

1 Wash rice and dal and keep them soaked while you cut the vegetables.

2 Heat oil and temper with cumin seeds, bay leaves and ginger. Add the vegetables and fry on high heat quickly for a few minutes. Add the rice and dal, and mix well. Add salt and sugar.

3 Add enough water to cook to gruel consistency. Take off fire with ghee and green chillies.

4 Serve hot with fritters of your choice, or the Bengali labda — a mixed vegetables dish.

Fit for the foodie Restaurants ranging from the low-end to the five stars host khichuri and hilsa (in the picture above) festivals during monsoon, knowing well that a Bengali will, at a crunch, even swim to this meal shutterstock

skrit means birds. So khechranno literally is (Jewish), Afghani and English. bird-feed! I suppose the practice of scattering The mindboggling variety notwithstandmixed grains for birds is at the root of the no- ing, there are two broad categories of Bengali menclature. The Charak Samhita, an ayurvedic khichuri — geela or liquid and gruelly, and bhuBhuni khichuri medical text, extols the virtues of the khichuri. ni or dry and rich. And both kinds lend them(Serves two) The dish also finds mention in the writings of selves equally to vegetarian (sans onion and 1 cup gobindo bhog rice Seleucas Nicator, the emissary of Alexander garlic) and carnivore versions. A whole range 1 cup roasted yellow moong dal the Great, and in the medieval travelogues of of dals, from the Bengal special sona moong to 3 tsp ghee Liquid hoard Jean-Baptiste Women in the village walk the short distancemasoor to the paar several a day (both to fetchpolished water for and their daily needs Coconut slivers Frenchman Tavernier. and uradtimes to chana 2 onions, sliced It is believed that the love for khichuri whole), are paired with various kinds of rice 2 tsp ginger paste spread across India through pilgrimages, as it like the prized gobindo bhog or the indigetsp coriander powder was the easiest to cook. The varienous brown unpolished rice or By27.30 in the evening, the light has dulled 1 tsp cumin powder ty that Bengal makes is attributthe fine Dehradun variety. As far to a golden orangepowder and the small oasis seems 1 tsp turmeric ed to the Bengali’s famed as tempering is concerned, there like something from a dream. Camels gallop 1 tsp red chilli powder wanderlust, with the ideas for are innumerable permutations around, while get a free ride perched on 2 whole drycrows red chillies Curiously though, different khichuris gleaned from and combinations with spices their2humps and heads. A peacock that was labay leaves at the end of the 2 tbsp curd travels to different places. One of ranging from the humble jeera zily strutting around suddenly embarks on a day, every Bengali Wholedance, green cardamom, cloves and Bengal’s earliest printed cookto the imported hing to fragrant vigorous plumes held mightily aloft, swears by the cinnamon books, from the late 19th centugaram masalas cooked with a and the village children — free from worries of vegetarian khichuri Button onions and grated ginger ry, Pak-Pronali lists at least 17 plethora of vegetables or fish, school and homework on their summer break Sugar and salt to taste variations. The khichuri section prawns or egg, and reaching a — dart around chasing one another. Where Bring dalseepage to boil. has When 3/4 cooked typically runs into several pages crescendo with meat. And, of some1 surface occurred, even the and breaks the water dries up, the take brown it off the in many of these cookbooks and course, when it comes to the ac- ground away from desert firepalette and keep The grains must they even record meaty khichuris such as companiments, the more the better. colour to aaside. dark, mossy green.

It is hard be separate and semi firm.

Mughlai, Kabuli, Jehangiri, Zarda, Daudkhani In more modern times, Pragyasundari Devi, to believe that this is an arid zone. Bhatti rubs 2 Wash rice and keep ready and Makeswar — clearing showing the influ- the niece of Rabindranath Tagore and the stub of some his legghee and and explains the phenom3 Heat fry thin ence of Muslim rule in Bengal. Other influen- doyenne of Bengali cuisine, elaborates on the enoncoconut simply. slivers “Nature is notand a PDS (public disgolden keep ces include Gujarati, Armenian, Yehudi ideal accompaniments for khichuri. Apart tribution he says, cannot say aside. system),” Fry the sliced onions“we in the ghee andwater, keep we aside. from the usual crisp potato, brinjal, pumpkin, Kerala hasassowell much also want to use Now We in the same ghee, add dry we redhave. cauliflower, fish and fish roe or egg fritters that 4much. have to live with what bay leaves,And cardamoms, clovestradifried with rice flour and besan, or monsoon Thatchillies, is our tradition. this is where cinnamon. greens cooked with poppy-seed paste, she lists tion and is important.”

5 Add ginger paste, coriander powder, Water warrior Jethu Singh Bhati built the first two wells inthe the village and later urged the local panchayat to Anglo-Indian chicken country captain, cumin powder, turmeric powder and replicate these ack town, at night, the main bazaar is prawn dopiaza, mutton jalfrezi, various vindared in chilli powder, all mixed together busy, filled locals buying sweets and loos, fish kalia, fried liver, crumbed fish fry, in curd.

Frywith this masala well, add the wells are stone troughs; even as the chil- for among others.

When five recommending overcups sariofprices. a corner, overmany 30 years and whose children werea haggling four-five water In and let it alla lone, boil a few minutes. Remove from dren demonstrate how they draw water from born tomato to go withwith theher above, she turbaned, mustachioed folk musician sings andchutney raised here, is here sister-inthe well, they are careful not to spill any into law makes concession saying: though no one stops to listen. His name anda nephew.

“Before the“Khichuri wells, wedoesn’t had to evenflame.

6 In fresh addme. the We ricetalk andabout fry the taste too bad either with plain curd”. She goes is Rashid the sand as they tilt the bucket into the go Khan,ghee, he tells about 20 km for water.

My husband’s brothit well till all grains are coated with on would to expound at least kinds of vegetartroughs. These are for the birds and animals. er heat, and the wait for the rain. I go ononcamel to20 fetch ghee and separate. Add button include ian khichuris Not a drop is wasted; even when they rinse out water, tell him about full mix wells of which alone. wouldThese last us for the phensa onions, sliced ginger, the the dal and with moong or masoor dal; zakhichuri their glasses, six- and seven-year-olds run all two Khadero dani. mix, salt days.made Bringing water was a well again.

Add thekimasala malaiinkhichuri, til or sefrani bhuni the way back to the trough to throw the water full-time “Water important for the jobkhichuri; for one man evand sugar to taste. is Bring to boil and Nature is not a PDS. cover. khichuri; samefamily,” seed khichuri, in, rather than pour it on the ground. body,” he tells me before breakery she says. alu Nowbukhara she We have to live with 7 When water evaporates, addthe thesoul, the more. jackfruit Bhatti built two of the paars and then re- makes ing into song, “but thekofta shortkhichuri walk toand the paar what we have coconut soul slivers and rain.” green chillies and thrice a day reason, and fillsthen, up that author quested the local panchayat to add more. They about It’s not without needs put on slow cookAabhe for about 15adangiyo or three pots.

That takes careto the khichuri agreed, and now with five paars and one deep two Sankar devotes a whole chapter maathe minutes on a tawa. in his Additionally, well that dips into the groundwater, Khadero of thebook. cooking, cleaning,every bath-family in Ben8 Serve with friedSamdariyo hilsa, friedbhariye liver or gal as has Curiously ki dani is mostly self-sufficient in its water ing wellitsas favourite feeding theversion. livemutton bhuna. Chod yiyal marwaad re though, the end of the every needs. The villagers have to perform some ba- stock theatfamily owns.

Theday, men are Bengali free to Halo re yiyal marwaad re with anand, ar- (The skies over Marwar are filled with clouds swears—byconventionally the vegetarian khichuri sic maintenance activities, keeping the catch- work as goatherds ray ofrecently, vegetarian and non-vegetarian ment area clean and de-silting the wells once more as security guards in theaccomwind- A heavy rain is falling auntponds Parulare Sengupta, paniments, among them nearby. being the in two or three years. mill factorieschief that have sprouted “In The filling upwho fast has two mouth-watering cookbooks to they her are credit.

I leave you ubiquitous Every few minutes, women emerge from the droughtbegun years,bhaja whenand thefried wellshilsa. dry up, we The animals can’t wait, hurrying towards Myto personal favourites with the recipes for both. the village, balancing wateris concerned, pots on there their have call for the tankers.are Wethe payAnanda ₹1,500 khiper Marwar) Crackling up As far as tempering at the Anandamayee Ashram churi served heads and carrying smalland children on their tanker and use the Ma water for as long as possiare innumerable permutations combinations — shutterstock from the humble jeera garamliving masalain veena khichuriforserved by my prithavenugopal sen is a food writer based in Gurgaon and usually the bhuni hips.

Maro, who hastobeen the village ble, stretching a month,” shegrandsays.

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Showering life

ponds emerged. Torrential rains in the mountains furrowed their way to the sea, forming rivers. There are 41 rivers in Kerala, flowing towards the west to meet the sea; an average of one river for every 14 km. The Malayalis’ element is water, and that shows up in the suffixes to place-names in Kerala, like kulam (pond), puzha (river), kara (bank), vaya (river-mouth), thura (harbour) and so on.

Across centuries, the two monsoons, the southwest and the thunderous northeast monsoon during November, fashioned a calendar for the Malayali’s life. One of the first plants to bloom after the rains in August-September is thumba (Ceylon slitwort); no coincidence that it is at the centre of the pookalams or floral designs made during Onam. Similarly, after the rains subside, and on the day the sun transits to the northern hemisphere, herAustrian alding summer, Rainmaker Kerala celebrates Vishu, psychoanalyst Wilhelm whose signature Reich flower is konna (golden built machines shower). From Vishu the year is dicalledonwards, ‘cloudbusters’ supposedly vided into periodsthat ofcould roughly 14 days, called makepositions), rain by njattuvelas (the sun’s each named after an asterism. manipulating Not so longan ago, when Keraenergy called ‘orgone’ la was predominantly agrarian, the njattuvela from the atmosphere kk mustafah named after the sixth asterism, thiruvathira in Malayalam, was the most important. It pours without a pause during the period and anything seeded or planted will flourish.

Before the rivers were dammed, ferocious rains and floods redrew Kerala’s geography.

Even now, monsoons do not respect the coastline; chunks of beaches are swallowed every season and sand deposited elsewhere. This has been going on for centuries. It was on a monsoon day in June 1341 that the sand bar at Kochi broke and a new harbour was born. Rains also closed many harbours, including probably the historical Muziris of the Roman maps. or Bollywood, visual depiction of the the house. Before they can arrest the scientist unethical experiments are they documented by Monsoons are not what used to be. monsoon is largely a question of ex- and trash his laboratory, however, he urges his Christopher Turner increeping his 2011urbanisation, non-fiction Blame it on progress, tremes. On one hand are the perfectly son to switch on the machine, which he does. work Adventures in the Orgasmatron. cutting of forests, or just people. First to beengineered montages of sensual ex- Even as the scientist is led away, he watches as come The scarce first full-body orgasmatrons built was chakara, a marinewere phenomcess: the uninhibited, virginal child-of-nature the skies open up. in the encountered early ’40s, andfrequently after that, on it was enon thenatural Kerala dancing in the rain (Aishwarya Rai in Guru), What will really stump you is the fact that that set1970s, his sights higher, attempting to coastReich till the in which large areas of the the seductress inviting the hero to shed his this video, directed by Julian Doyle and con- control harness the of the eleArabian and Sea bubbled withorgone fish. Though the sombre chastity (Raveena Tandon in Mohra), ceived by Bush and Terry Gilliam, is based en- ments. designed built machines called reasonsHe behind the and formation of the chakara or the entire cast rain-dancing with the great tirely on facts, except for the climactic ‘cloudbusters’ (after which named her are still being debated, one Bush popular explanaunwashed masses (in Bollywood, this means rain-catching, of course. The scientist was Aus- song), could supposedly make by tion is which that the mudbanks formed by rain the silt Pitter-patter Enjoying the firsttowards shower of the the season nalukettu homestead in Kochi kakkat street urchins), hinting mon-at a traditional trian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reichthulasi (1897-1957) manipulating the orgone of the waterbodies, atmosphere. brought by monsoon-swelled soon's role in nation-building (Shah Rukh and the boy was his son Peter, who would go It is important to note theattract symbolic rich in aquatic organisms, fishparallels in large Khan, Karisma Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit in on to write a memoir called The between the human and non-hunumbers. At Purakkad, a beach famous for the wo Hai). eventsOn were to happen in Book Dil Toh Pagal thecertain other hand are the like fireworks a faraway temple festival. occurrence, aman of Dreams, at which Bush and orgone here: the bursting of generation of children has now Kerala on the first of June every year. Gilliam poverty porn classics like ‘Allah Megh De Paani Then, the firstupon. drop — a giant drop — of rain grown up without drew the rainclouds seeing one.was, in Reich’s vacation De’ (Lord, Schools bless us reopened with rain), after a Bengali folk fell. later,the when I read Marquez’s One OnMuch reading book, Bush eyes, analogous to sexualthey release.

Last year, Malayalis nearly thought had Reich claimed rains arrived.

Children came had song usedand

by SD Burman in the Vijay Anand Hundred Years of Solitude, I experienced a feelbeen moved enough to Not particularly it must lost the the monsoon altogether. subtle, The rains were discovery cosmic, home with their newshot clothes drenched, listen- write classic Guide; or that in Ashutosh Gowariing of deja when I read the passage about of ascarce. and vuproduce a song be admitted.

Even forget Vivek AgnihoFamiliar cries of ‘don’t to take all-pervasivethe energy ing to the drumming raindrops on their ker’s Lagaan, where a of thousand smiles are around Colonel it.

Buendía’s The veryrecollection first line ofof discovering maker ofinso-bad-it’s-hilarious umbrella’tri, died down Kerala homes. The called orgone new umbrellas.

Then, afterunison, about asa the week, wiped off in choreographed vil- the ice with father.by a muscular song,his backed movies like in a21 Traffic Jam weather department saidBuddha there was per cent sneezesseeinvaded classrooms Kerala; lagers rainclouds making all wayover for the un- cello Hippalus, a Greek riff and lush with navigator that etheand Chocolate, understands deficiency in rainfall during this the cough, cold and running forgiving Champaner sun.noses were a small real, believed to have lived the first inimitable Bushindelivery, analogy.

In Chocolate, Sushma 2015 monsoon.

Cold statistics did price to me payto forsuggest playinga surreal in the rains.

The disAllow alternative to goes century BC,dream is credited by the “I still of Orgonon”.

Reddy’s character is called not convey the agony of oneMonraincomfort waned with thescene: intake the of piping hot, writer the aforementioned peasants of Periplus of the Eryth‘Orgonon’ was the name of soon Iyer, onemonth suspects, just inso less and sultry passing Behind cloudsweat-inducing, pepper andhuts. tamarind juice Reich’s frown and head back to their Six of them raean Sea175-acre with discovering a dihome, laboratory and re-theAnil Kapoor can voice a dirt-cheap pun slowly about to another.

Green was curtains was rasam,out or equally potentmachine coffee brewed with wheel a ginormous and point it search rect route from Red Sea after to moving centre.

Hethe lived there to “monsoon ki giving raat” (away monsoon night / a night to brown in the KeralikeMonsoon). dried ginger andsun. jaggery. squarely at the The machine whirs into Maine India. But PlinyItthe laterafter his lightning, in 1950. wasElder named most with la landscape. fireworks at a is a fiercely The first Junea was theenergy day the world action and of blasts bluealso jet of into the controversial claimed that claim: Hippalus actually a cosmic form of energy Bush inventive encyThose days itsongwriter, rained only in faraway temple cameattracting to Kerala,a with their wide-angle sky, group of fluffy clouds,lenses. thick that plotted thecalled southwest monsoon Reich ‘orgone’.

It was an extrapolaclopaedic in the range of her inspirations and memories.

Remembrance of festival To shoot monsoon’s annual tryst tion with rain. southwest Lightning cracks its whip, the faucet winds, not concept the routeofasthe such. of and Freud’s libido; Reich beallusions: it rains is difficult to imagine, for indrumming on tin roofs in with India, somewhere on everyone the Kerala overhead opens, drenching in coast. sight. lieved In anythat case, if neurotic anything did in the world stance, any other every patient major-league star gales singing mountainous Munnar, of These punctual rains nonchalantly, decided the country’s Everybody goes home nodding could launchbethousands of ships to Incured if they reached their full ‘orga- the string of slanting decimal digits for pi. ‘Cloudbustrains slapping one’s face food figures at stock exchange at theoutput, guys operating the machine.

Easybourspeasy. stic dia, potential’, it was the of themselves ing’, with its at thatknowledge is, surrendered rousing, fauxKannursoaring beach, chants, and theits etherees The and music generalvideo sensefor of well-being.

Kate Bush’s 1985 song utterly these seasonal winds. of orgasm. To that end, military drum to the throes crescendos, and its thoughtful alness of gossamer rains one canThe day my father took mealbum Hounds to witness the ar‘Cloudbusting’ (from the of Reich Kerala, the gateway to the monsoon, is ac- lyrics, developed machines called ‘orgone to be an effective bufferminds. against not seeproves at Wayanad, crowded restless rival of monsoon at Fortplotline.

Kochi beach was also Love) features a similar A young boy cumulators’ tually a workorin‘orgasmatrons’, progress, continually meant shaped to har- theThis otherwise despondence of KoPeyear, atundeniable Andhakaranzhi beach near the day Iby first the sea. The double take was ness (played a saw surprisingly androgynous-lookby the interplay the orgone. of three big forces in nature, ter A boy discovers, for the first chi,Reich’s the sky story. was overcast on the appointed day. beyond kid’s his ken.scientist The seafather had withdrawn, ing Bush)a helps (an earnest namely, the sea, the rain-bearing monsoon The ‘sexual revolution’ that Reich wanted to time, the ofinevitable fallibility a parent.

A couple shining egrets flewofagainst the purring Sutherland) menacingly, set waiting stealthily to bring Donald up a complicatedcloudsabout and their the during Western Ghats. wouldstopper, find takers the 1968 Pushed into a There cornerwas by athis revelation, the pitch-dark sky. long peel of thuntrample machine upon thein wind-strewn land. The blue student looking absolute secrecy on their Scientists had of premised thousands of boy revolts Paris andthat Berlin; protestors will believe to restore lost agender. Followed byanything rain. sky rapidly changed itsvery filters to darker shad- threw farmhouse.

The boy is close to his father years ago, theof seaReich’s was close to thePsychology mountains. copies The Mass of cy, even that his father made it rain. es, and night descended a part of the hori- Fascism and clearly idolises him.on Meanwhile, a group Then it atreceded, as This a narrow strip of land, the police. moment, along with ns madhavan is the author of Litanies of Dutch is based Battery. He mani jha in Kochi. zon.

Behind the cloud-curtains was lightning, of menacing government officials approach Reich’s smattered with big andblatantly small lakes, several eccentric, illegal and aditya

The punctuality of the first monsoon shower decides more than just the country’s food output and stock indices

I still dream of Orgonon

A pseudo-scientific rainmaking machine spawned one of the most enjoyable pop songs of the ’80s and its memorable music video

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The town the rains forgot The driest place in India, Jaisalmer taps into old beliefs to turn barren stretches into oases Paanido barsade re Main kad se khadi udiku Mhara sookha hai talaab Paanido barsade re (Give us water, clouds I’ve been waiting so long, My ponds and rivers are dry Give us water, clouds)

driest place in India. (Zanskar valley gets the begins, a weak cloud that drips for 10 minutes, distinction in some years, but even so, with teasing the children who come out to play and 100 times Zanskar’s population, Jaisalmer’s hold their dry faces up to the cool spray. dryness is a more lived agony.)

In an average year, Jaisalmer gets 8.25 inchFor more than a third of the year, like a des- es of rain. To compare, Mawsynram, the wetperate lover, Jaisalmer longs for an errant rain, test place in India, gets 467 inches. Mumbai uncertain about its temperament, yet plead- city gets 88 inches, Chennai gets about 55 ing for a torturous, distant pleasure. The dry inches and Kochi, about 118 inches. desert heat starts in March and builds up rapEvery three years or so, the rains skip the aisalmer in May is as close as you can get to idly over the next few months. In city altogether. And even though hell’s fury while still alive. In the last week May, the temperature touches the ektaras play the Megh Malhar of the month, the temperature is 48°C and 50°C. Everything is dried to a raga and optimistic desert peaat 11 am, when I alight from the air-condi- husk; sand creeps in and lodges cocks dance in their iridescent Though the ektaras tioned capsule of the railway compartment, in the cracks on your lips and glory, the clouds simply float by, play the Megh Malhar the sun is so blindingly bright and the hot under your eyelids; there is noleaving them woeful, in the whirl raga and optimistic wind whips so painfully at my skin, that I have where to hide and nothing to be of angry sands. desert peacocks Food thought Much while of whatmy webrain consume, done. from cereals to vegetables, a seed of some sort to stand still forfor a good minute The tourists have islong fled dance in their et, the driest place in India is wraps itself around this shocking contrast. and the cafes are closed. The iridescent glory, the actually pretty wet. Water The shade of the platform roof is merely a few lone musician sits under the clouds simply float by has always been a revered commetres away but even that short walk is a long shade of a verandah and sings modity in the desert. In the times lesson on how impossibly difficult living con- for rain. of the Rajputana kingdom, some ditions are when a town is bordered by a desTowards the end of July, when 600 years ago, marking sources ert. The week before my visit, television it begins to feel like there would channels showed jawans of the Border Securi- be no salvation at all, and perhaps this is the of water was a primary function of governty Force roasting papads on the hot, desert end of the world, the clouds finally roll in. ance. Limestone pillars, carved with various sand. It’d made me guffaw. Now, feeling quite Even so, it is for a short burst. The inappropri- symbols, stood next to wells and ponds to like that papad, humour evaporated rapidly. ately termed monsoon “season” lasts a few guide walkers and wanderers towards them.

While the mythical river Saraswati is the For all this, Jaisalmer is not the hottest place weeks — technically, till September — but the in the country. That honour belongs to neigh- rainfall is meagre. Towards the sand dunes of source of most legends related to groundwabouring Palodhi, which touched 51°C in May Sam, where tourists go on camel safaris, the ter in the area, every large well comes with its 2016. But Jaisalmer is a city whose obsession combined rainfall of the season will not ex- own back story. ccomplished have From the tiny roof ofthethe hotel, built at with the rain is even more special.artists It is themayceed embodies nourishment for itthe future plant two hours.

Often it’s over before even More recently, B-2Mirage Stealth Bomber, painted hundreds of verses on a but can use its flesh to lure potential distribu- a whopping cost of $2 billion, took inspiration kernel but the unwritten genetic in- tors. It slumps into dormancy but can swing from the flying-wing design of these same custructions a seed carries make it an back to life at an opportune time. Seed is the cumber seeds. What is shocking, however, is indomitable botanical marvel. The ‘fierce en- past, present and future rolled into one tiny that while seeds evolved to spread life, the ergy’ a seed carries, as George Bernard Shaw pop — a metaphor for life and renewal. stealth bomber has the capacity to wipe out would describe it, can help it become any one What makes The Triumph of Seeds unique is large swathes of lives. of the estimated 3,52,000 kinds of plants that its multi-dimensional treatment of the subGiven the rate of scientific progress, includuse seeds to reproduce, from the humble mus- ject, without getting entangled in a cobweb of ing genetic manipulation, the future of natutard to the mighty oak. botanical jargons. From his own research on rally occurring seeds could be anything but Given our dependence on seeds, from the Central American almendro tree to his certain, a subject that Hanson seems unsetmorning till night, it can hardly be denied keen observations on South American coffee, tled about. The fact that plant geneticists have that humans might not have evolved in a Hanson has pieced together compelling sto- the tools to add, delete or alter the genetic world without seeds. Spread across five ab- ries on the evolution of seeds. traits of seeds, that big corporations have the sorbing chapters, The Triumph of Seeds capIn this book, the extraordinariness of seeds resources to monopolise production and distures the traits and habits of seeds that have is never taken for granted. Much tribution of seeds has tossed up not only nourished mankind, but also en- of what we consume, from cereserious moral and ethical quesdured to sustain successive human popula- als to vegetables, is a seed of tions. The development of infations. Despite the rapid strides in seed science, some sort. From starch to promous ‘terminator seeds’, Seeds might stay seeds remain the most prized possession of teins and from oil to saturated genetically modified plants dormant but they national agencies and inter-governmental or- fats, seeds are incredible storewhich produce sterile seeds, is continue to inspire ganisations. No wonder, then, that the first houses of energy. against the very nature of seeds, ideas things to be moved out from war-torn Aleppo What makes seeds even more and stands to break our tangible in Syria were the seed vaults, shipped to a se- fascinating is the fact that deconnection from the past to the cure location in Norway. So secure are such lo- spite such stored energies, some future. cations that the National Seed Bank, on the seeds can lie dormant for hunAt this time, when plant engiedge of the Colorado State University, is de- dreds of years. neering is outpacing natural evosigned to withstand earthquakes, blizzards A date seed recovered from the ruins of Ma- lution, and when corporations are and catastrophic fires, and will stay afloat sada Fortress in Israel germinated after nearly manipulating seeds, the world is passing should floods submerge the area.

2,000 years. It is now a 10-foot palm tree. through deep moral and cultural crises.

Conservation biologist Thor Hanson has Seeds might stay dormant but they contin- Through this lively and intelligent book, Hanput together an immensely readable and en- ue to inspire ideas. While seeds and warfare son cautions that unless we remain watchful grossing treatise on the history, biology, and may sound like odd bedfellows, the dropping there will be more such canny transformaevolution of one of the vegetable kingdom’s of four hand grenades from the cockpit of a re- tions. If you love your popcorn and the cup of smartest inventions. That it preserves the fu- connaissance plane during the Italo-Turkish coffee, weSharing each have to protect dropan byobligation drop At the Khadero ki ture plant, and within it is preserved the fu- War of 1911, came to be thanks to a type of seed. the seeds.dani hamlet, children draw water from the paar — indigenously built wells that trap ture of living beings, is testimony to the seed’s The airplane used on that historic occasion rainwater — toisfill the troughs meant for sharma director, The Eco-logical fascinating evolution and incredible versatili- was essentially a flying seed, scaled-up from sudhirendar birds and animals images: veena venugopal ty. A seed is a package of versatile features: it the streamlined pips of a Javan cucumber. Foundation, New Delhi

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Nature’s smartest Rinvention Thor Hanson’s book is a thoroughly engaging treatise on the many ways in which seeds sustain life on this planet

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The Triumph of Seeds Thor Hanson Basic Books Non-fiction ₹1,821 (approx.)

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Call of the wild A promotional image for Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book

ON THE SHELF

It’s a jungle out there Come rain, come shine

Reeling them in Fishermen are happy when they see estuaries full of water. Estuaries, where freshwater flows into the sea, are fish-breeding centres l balachandar

The recent film adaptation of The Jungle Book is not interested in providing allegories for human society. Its trump card is making a scarily believable simulacrum of the wild

anita roy

Good monsoon years are good business for the fishermen of coastal India. Lack of political his year’s Disney of its 1967 awareness and theremake absence of a focused fisheries policy are, however, holding them back Caste also rears its ugly head.

Baloo enlightenduring love of these ‘wild-men’ stories, chil-

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cartoon classic The Jungle Book is an eye-opener. Not only because the is the deliver cue forancelebraCGIonsoon pyrotechnics amaztions all along India’s coastline. ing megabang for your megabucks ($175 miltotells popular wisdom, lion) but alsoContrary because it us a lot about however, it isn’t merely the arrivhow our species has changed its attitude to all al the first festivities. Tratheofothers werains sharethat thetriggers planet with. ditional fishing communities celebrate the If you compare the new film to the old one, arrival of the monsoon and thatand onedeparture to the Kipling original, youwith find equal enthusiasm. yourself wrestling a knotty epistemological A ontological great example of this is Nariyal Purnima and conundrum: Are humans like (or NaraliorPurnima), a festival marking the deanimals are we fundamentally different?

In parture of the“Ooo, monsoon, celebrated by the Koother words, oo, oobee doo, I wanna be li fishermen of Maharashtra, among others. like you-ooo-ooo.”

Decorated with oil lamps, Go back boats, to the illuminated original book, published in are the waters and coconut offer1894released — just 13inyears after Darwin’s The Descent ings are—made to Varuna, Hindu god of the of Man and you’ll meet athe very different manseas and the oceans.

In Goa, Catholic fishermen cub than tousle-haired moppet of the ’60s. celebrate feast is of an St Lawrence, their patron Victorian the Mowgli arrogant chap, full of saint whoand ensures theirfrom well-being and a prosswagger self-belief day one, pushing perous season. the other wolf cubs aside to get at their mothher 2013 book Khazan Ecosystems of Goa, er’sInmilk.

Sangeeta Sonaknot writes aboutofthe He was M taught, the ways thesynchronwild, but icity of these monsoon the Laws of the Jungle,festivals:

by Baloo“The whococonut — for a puja, theanday of Naralistiff Purnima, with bear —on has incredibly upper along lip: “Better ahecorresponding feastfrom of Sthead Lawrence should be bruised to footamong by me Catholic has marked beginning who lovefishers, him than that he the should come of to the marine fishing seasonBagheera, in Goa forthe centuharm through ignorance.” panries. the un-animal-like blessing of the obsesboats, ther,The alsorites has ainvolve distinctly the rivers the sea for getting a good sionbackwater with rules andand regulations, fishing and a prayer to Varuna, of Mowgliharvest accepted into the wolf pack onLord a legal the water, to calm the seas and safeguard all technicality. fishermen.” interesting oninthis It’s pretty An obvious that thevariant animals Kitheme the festival ofnot Rajaanimals Parba, in pling’s is Jungle Book are at Orissa, all: no which thebeen onsetsoofhide-bound the monsoon the animallikens has ever by to codes menses of the the sea. They According to of conduct andearth moraland strictures. are basiA Whitney Sanford’s From Incally men in wolves’ Growing clothing,Stories motivated by dia: Religion and the Fate of Agriculture, “The uniquely man-made concepts like shame, concept the menses of the earth reflects rechonour, of revenge and loyalty.

ens the man-cub on the correct attitude to- dren raised by wolves, and chimps raised as wards the lower classes: “They have no Law. humans. And yet, our fellow-feeling with the ognition seasonalThey cycles, which the earth facilities.

They are of outcastes. areinwithout leaders. spite ofinhabitants having vasthas resources and rest of theInplanet’s never been moves through periods of productivity.

For employment They have no remembrance…

We do not drink more fraught.opportunities, there is no collecboth and thedrink; earth,we menses fallow tive, wherewomen the monkeys do notisgoa where involvement coastal areas Westreamlined are responsible for the of sixth mass experiod, a period allows thewhere ‘recuperathe monkeys go;that we do not for hunt they in the economic development of the country. tinction in our earth’s history; the World Wildtion fertility’.” hunt;ofwe do not die where they die.”

The coastal ‘Living guardians of the country have no life Fund’s Planet Index’ published in The to ’60s the fact King‘fallow Louie period’ and his here trooprefers in the are political recognition; thisthe is how it has been 2014 estimated that half world’s wildlife that thethe onset of the monsoon, fishermen moreatlike jungle’s groovy subculture than since timelost immemorial.

One reason for this is has been in the last 40 years.

As our biodiavoid venturing intotheir the water, on account of that its Dalit underclass, irresponsible moncoastal communities are generally versity dwindles in the real jungles ofegalithe inclement weather.

It is true that the mon- tarian in nature. keying around and all that jazz In awe sense, individual is world, areevery becoming more soon canacause disturbances for on a par withand cocking snookprofessional equally at the another the community.

Onea moreinskilled at creating fishermen. in theirand heartthe of hearts, they does not accept patriarchal But Bagheera the othersimulacrum. as a leader. Not just convincing believe that the monsoon is good forTtheir toffee-nosed military discipline there is no— denying that fishing the same but enhanced: more he animalsHowever, in haul: in the long a good monsoon equalsJungle of Colonel Hathirun, and his elecommunities have been more activelyvivid denied — politiwith Kipling’s Book beautiful, aphant goodbrigade. fish catch. They are happy when they cal power.

In the 16th century, Christianity none of the inconveniences are basically men in seeJump estuaries of and water. cut tofull 2016, weEstufind penetrated southern coast (mosquitoes,the heat, squelchiness) wolves’ clothing aries, whereinfreshwater flows inourselves a very different and fishermen to be conof the real thing.began The new Disney to sea,jungle. are This fish-breeding neckthe of the is a vividverted. church gaveand educavision isThe Edenic: the lion the centres.

With traditional knowlly, audaciously, staggeringly lifetion and social status to some of lamb, or the antelope and jackal, Nearly 70 years after edge, handedWhen down from generlike place. the battlethe traditional coastal drink from the samecommuniwatering Independence, large ation toman-eater generation, fishermen scarred Shere Khan jumps down with itsgarvihole. There’s ties. even aUnfortunately, seductive snake in the parts oftoour coastline know just edge whereyou temperature the water’s can feel the weight, see sion and mission, the church den, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

And we pay are still lacking basic and reduce in twitch the sea;of whisker,amenities each salinity ripple of muscle, al- our admission also awarefee,blocked happily,the to political gaze at ‘nature’ that’s the — fish will flock to. carnivorous — digitally enhanced, most where — almost smell the hot, ness of theoffishing coursecommunities.

— so that we This isThe truecombination blue native knowlbreath. of live-action and might feel the There is an invisible still sensations of awe net andthat wonder edge, their knowledge CGI wizardry has created aabout world where each that wildlife used assures the dependency of saved these to evoke, whilst being stars, wind patterns, cur- ant-leg is in from the inconvenience leaf, each tendril, eachwater articulated communities theexperience’. leaders of of ato‘real rents, tides,moving waves and so on. Fishing commu- theThe incredible detail. religion.

Religious need to have a last words of theleaders movie are comforting. nities livenot a just very the eco-friendly and that are hold But it’s difference life in form on these people for their Panther and bear looking on survival. as lithe-limbed heavily dependent Perhaps therelaon- brown-skinned strikes you, but alsoon thenature. far more complex As a shippingsun-kissed professional, I have child andtravelled his wolf set of thebetween monsoonthe is as good and a time any to far tionship human theasnatural and wide race in thethrough country,the especially coastal cub-siblings luxuriant and take of fishermen’s lives the cripworldstock that we currently have.

Inand Victorian En- India.

To my surprise,abundant fishing villages are the seemingly endlessly playground of pling theysuperiority face in this of country. gland,problems the ‘natural’ Man — and regular in almost all to the upland vine andcustomers branch: “I could get used this,” says 70 years Independence, large in Nearly particular white,after upper-class men (for, de- trade centres nearby.

When fish landings Bagheera.

It seems like — tragically — weare alparts of our coastline arecontrary, still lacking basic spite appearances to the Mowgli is high, ready trade have. also experiences a boom. Fisheramenities. no direct, andfar transjust that) —There was aisgiven.

Now, fair we are less men do not seem to have a close relationship anitathe royupland is a writer, editor and publisher; parent for marine There sure. Wemarketing want to claim kinshipproducts. with animals — with communities other than for t@anitaroy are under-used and Tarzan, unusedattests waterfront the lots nextof CGI extravaganza, to an their immediate needs. For them, the sea and

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STREET, EAT, REPEAT

Right up the street How bhel puri, sev puri and pani puri have become favourites with experimental chefs Chaat salad

Cucumber Corn Apple Paneer Pomegranate Mint Leaves 1 tbsp date / jaggery chutney 2 tbsp curd Chaat masala 1 tbsp honey Sev

shabnam minwalla

1 Dice the cucumber, paneer and apple to about the same size.

2 In a blender, add two spoonfuls of curd, lots of mint leaves, chaat masala, a spoonful of honey and a spoonful of chutney. Blend till you get an even consistency. This will be your dressing.

3 Add the dressing to the salad and mix well.

4 Top with pomegranate seeds, corn Old men and the sea Today, fishermen stand perplexed and depressed with nobody to voice their sufferings. Their hard-earned fortunes areleaves. being taken away with thulasisev kakkat and fresh mint Sprinkle and serve. seashore are workplaces, whereas the upPick me up Apparently chaat was created in the kitchen ofthe Shah Jahan, whose hakim advised him to eat foods that were longs to. As a result, beautiful shorelines are Chaat at Delhi’s Bengali Market v sudershan light spicy s mahinsha A but wishlist for the coastal areas land region is meant for entertainment and being eroded in front of their eyes. Inshore

The establishment of a separate central ministryorbidden for fisheries governthe thesweetest. coast. fruittotastes ● Creation general awareness Just of like forbidden junk tastes the programmes about traditional fishing most chatpata. something Ischemes realise whenevrights andThis theisgovernment eravailable I crunchto oncoastal a spoonful of bhel puri,microspiked people through with green chutney tossed with raw levelevil initiatives like the and Jan Shikshan mango.

Or topple a sev puri loaded with potaSansthan. to,●onion andoffshore addictive chutneys. open my Inshore, and deep-seaOrfishing mouth to be accommodate fat,entire drippy paareas wide should marked for athe nipeninsular puri (trying hard and not fishing to think about the country rights provenance of appropriate the pani and the fact that I’m reserved for groups: inshore wearing my favourite whiteoffshore sari). for for traditional fishermen, I grew up with in anmechanised age when chaat fishermen boatswas andstrictly street food,for served fromThese little stalls Chowdeep-sea trawlers. areas on should patty or Juhu beach.

Or dispensed from carts be monitored to maintain this that merrily sprinkled their offerings with demarcation. mirchi powder and operations germs alike. the ● Bottom trawling in Hardly the sort of places that the Hygienic Mummy Briinshore and offshore fishery areas (within gade would patronise.

12 nautical miles) should be banned.

To make bad matters worse, I was a sickly Local fishermen should be encouraged tolittleundertake girl with adeep-sea peculiar affinity for the Hepatitis fishing.

A ●virus.

So although wecentres lived down the road Creation of cultural for the from Kailash Parbhat Hindu Hotel preservation of traditional fishery— that Bombay mecca forand all things crunchy tangy — I knowledge the cultures of and coastal seemed to spend an inordinate amount of regions is a must. There should be time being sick or recovering or Being Sensisustained documentation of folk songs, ble beforeand the literature Exams. through a dramas All that early deprivation has taken its toll.

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library As a student in Los Angeles, the first cooking (TKDL). trick I learnt involved Pringle potato crisps, ● Introduction of legislative and buttermilk from a tetrapak and a bottled mint parliamentary constituencies on the chutney that, when combined, came up with a coast, without affecting the upland sort of dahi papri chaat for dummies. Whenevcommunities and their administrative er I was feeling sick or homesick, I would drive systems.

45 minutes to the Indian grocery store for a ● Restriction of building projects on or plate of soggy sev puri. My first email address near traditional fishing villages and ever — in the days when the Internet was geeky mudbanks as per the 1991 CRZ (Coastal and zany — was bhelpuri@hotmail.com. (SadRegulation Zone) legislation. ly, that had to go. It didn’t strike the right note ● Development of eco-tourism in the for a newbie trying to play hardnosed journalbackwaters, without affecting traditional ist. It was also embarrassing to spell out to fishing operations and with the Mumbai University professors and the secreinvolvement of local communities. taries of CEOs. And so I was forced to relegate it

F ●

to a cyber junkheap.)

rest. They do not bother about who is ruling and offshore, there are no fishery resources. and what is really happening the upland, Coastal have become of the Even today, I’m one of those in single-minded Little areas wonder then that the dustbin once humble, whichwho has spurn invisible control over their lives cholera-spreading upland folk. But there onefeted fromasthe comsorts elegant offerings like khao foodisisno now “the uland their mobility. munity question thesestreet dansuey and wild mushroom risotto and instead timate healthy snack”toand an “iconic And so, due political at domgerous developments.

Nofrom one lurk near chaattocounters parties. One of food”. It has witnessed many mutations, inanceobsessive and power, thewho upland bothered. those types cannot browse popcorn bhelseems to chocolate pani puri. Not to communities have always Today, fishermen stand bhel perthrough a newfangled menuhad without order- forget the unabashedly scarlet Chinese an upper hand over coast,sev Planned, plexed and depressed with vegnoing the seafood bhel, the chicken puri and knowledgethat is made from fried noodles, stir-fried based the ketchup, decade Due toofallcourse, body toand voice their sufferings. even theafter bhel decade. ice cream.

For, like activism so giesisand is banned outside way to safeguard schools these of factors, there is buddies, — and al-bhel puri Theirinhard-earned fortunes are many its street food has Mumbai because it uses freedom ajinomoto ways has all been — a dire of po- infishermen’s being (MSG). taken away. They are become fancy andlack upmarket reand rights liticaltimes. representation and strong forced Bhel to stand the and sea cent puri,facing sev puri voices from coastal communiand the showing their Nobody is clear about the paniwaters, puri have become faties at the level. backs tovourites the land. with They stand as origin of national bhel puri experiOne could Pattinavar, Palli Maraikayar, and sev puripoint — out the lack of mental chefs — Natand basicit education tar, Karaiyar, Muthibut seems a as something pop Kadaiyar, up in molecular that addstogethto the problem. But the so-called rayar, Varunakula Muthali, Sempadavar, coming gastronomy joints educated youngerMahageneration, too, does not Odakaran, Parvatha Rajan, Valaer of traditional and Ambalakarar, five-star restauwant to identify with the community it be- ingar, Valayar, Paravarrants and in so the on.strangest They stand rashtrian munchies with of atomised and antagonised other.chaat They the glorious chaats from avatars.to each Papri do not connect with theirwith ownspherified brethren from Uttar Pradesh. Apparently topped curd neighbouring states.

They foam. are ignorant of chaat was created in the kitchen and coriander Crab chaat. their own existence and their numerical (and of Shah Jahan, whose hakim adPulled pork sev puri dressed with hence, electoral) strength. vised him to eat foods that were barbecue sauce, garlic and labPlanned, knowledge-based activism the light but spicy. The Mughal neh.

Jalapeno bhel madeiswith It seems a coming way to safeguard fishermen’s freedom and kitchen went into overdrive and tortilla chips.

Scallop sev puri together of rights. To blaze is thewith compulsion of tomatoes, the times. concocted the chaat. served sundried traditional Fishermen have to unite andregular arise. They have Over the centuries, the dish cheese and the chutneys.

Maharastrian to prepare their society to move towards justravelled across India — evolving Bhel puri that uses Taiwanese munchies with the tice.from They do not of the politics in the yummiest ways possible. riceneed cake any as a more base. Charred brocglorious chaats of falsehood.coli chaat.

Some swear by those spice Uttar Pradesh Fishermen also to realise that the inbombs that go by the irresistible All have of which are worth samland communities theironce. own brothers and name of golgappa. Others like pling are at least After which sisters. Theiryou lives dependent. their samosas smashed and canare feelmutually you’ve done your duThe coastal and people are held togethtopped with chutneys. The Benty inland

by Modern Indian Food and er byathe bonds national integration.

But galis adore the mustardy tang of jhaal muri. post couple of of fancy pictures on Facebook. the inland communities must also underWhile everyone is suddenly into crisp palak Then head back to your favourite bhelwala, standinto that communities are wonder equally chaat, corn bhel and chaat tokris. bite hiscoastal superlative sev puri and the rightful of this great Like most chaats, the Bombay versions are a why you cancitizens never replicate his nation. deadly chutTo at adapt a After Swami Vivekananda quote, magnificent mix of flavours and textures. neys home. which you can cheer up let by new India alsobatata arisepuri. from the huts of Crisp papdi contrasts with soft potato and ordering a dahi crunchy onion. The sweet tamarind-date chut- fishermen. ney works alongside the family mintyingreen chutney shabnam minwalla is a journalist and the author of Festive spirit A fisherman’s Mumbai Strange Haunting of Model School rn joe d’cruz is a Tamil novelist,High writer and and The to createa dishes that are sweeta festival and salty, sour The performs puja on Narali Purnima, marking Shy Supergirlfilmmaker documentary the departure thesame monsoon and spicy at of the time.pti/ mitesh bhuvad

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THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

Dawn of the Vedas On the astronomical reading of the ancient texts by Lokmanya Tilak

rohit gupta

direction in a full circle over 26,000 years, the position of stars is altered in the same cycle. So was there a time in the distant past when the first dawn of a vernal equinox was heralded by the rising of Orion?

In The Presence of Siva, Stella Kramrisch describes this transition in Vedic mythology, “The motion of the vernal equinox, of the beginning of the year, of all rites on which life depended and which were enacted in the sacrifice.... the realization that the Sun, which had always appeared rising in Orion, had Waves optimism slowly left that station to rise in of another star Rahul Gandhi, anomavice(Aldebaran) was startling. It appeared president of the Indian lous, it came as a shock. The beginning of ap the National Congress qadrianalysis year had moved…” (A morephoto/altaf thorough of subsequent Aryan migration is found in the AGENDA works of SB Roy, Rajesh Kochhar and others.)

Meanwhile, some contemporaries of Tilak in Europe, astronomers were studying the causes of the Ice Age, so important to both geology and evolution. Most prominently Agassiz, Adhemar, and James Croll suspected that the long cycle of axial precession was forcing a pattern of climate change across the globe; add to it the fact that the Earth’s elliptical orbit itself rotates in space. This theory would come to its logical conclusion in the 1920s with Serbian astronomer Milutin Milankovitch linking Earth’s movement with a rashant Kishore (really stressed out): Dalit axis is what we need to win the state. think 100,000 Ice Ages. thecycle UdtaofPunjab character is based on Good morning, RG... these Congress Maybe it’s time you picked up the phone and Honey A curious by-product Tilak’s is the Singh.

So we willofhave tooutput first change defeats in Kerala and Assam are really gave Mayawatiji a call. idea that Vedicimage myths encode Honey Singh’s among theastronomical public. hurting my aura of invincibility. I was RG (not convinced): You know with May- events, and that Hindu godswe represent astronRG (intense): How do do that?

That on such a winning streak before I met you. awatiji, I don’t quite feel the dynastic connec- might omicalbe objects.

Krishna is a shepherd, as tough as changing my image.so is Rahul Gandhi (patting his pet dog): My con- tion. She is not a princeling like me or Orion.

Shiva is We depicted adorned with Moon PK: Simple. get Honey Singh toarecord dolences on the defeat, PK. But think of your- Akhilesh. Of course the Gandhi and Yadav dy- ‘Vande on his head; the Pleiades are known as Krittika Mataram’ with Lata Mangeshkar and self as Virat Kohli, who played a blinder of an nasties are not close to being comparable, but Sachin. or nurses to Kârttikeya, a son of image?

Shiva. BrahWhat can be better for his innings, but the team lost. It’s really not your both are dynasties nonetheless. Mayawati ma’s heads seem the fourNo cardinal diRGfour (ecstatic): That’slike brilliant. wonder fault, don’t take it too hard. does not have any dynastic ambitions at all. I they rections of an north, south, east andsomeone west. A call you ace strategist.

We get PK (agitated): That is a ridiculous analogy, find her kind of strange! plethora Hindu godsParty are shown withamultifrom theof Aam Aadmi to record Snapworse than some of Modi’s metaphors. YOU PK (violently rolling eyes): But an alliance chat ple arms arrayed Bhat, like Da Vinci’s with Tanmay so we can ‘Vitruvian call them are supposed to be our Virat, the match-win- with the Samajwadi Party does not make any both Man’.anti-national Could these arms be theand residual myths cokeheads freedom-ofner. But you just don’t seem to have it in you to sense. There will hardly be any incremental speech of celestial maps, pointing various junkies.

Then we link at Kejriwal to direcboth, The move Infor thisus. undated painting, nakshatras (constellations) are seen marching through win divine any matches votes that we can transfer to eachthe other. With- and tionspuncture like a compass, encoding the geometry his campaign. celestial man RG (initially shocked at PK’s impertinence, out Mayawatiji’s Dalit votes we will be of PK constellations?

It is noteworthy that the of(not convinced): But that’s exactly what recovers): What can I do? Mummy and the vet- doomed and I will go back to my ten bandied count of Hindu Swamy gods — all 330 callmilSubramanian likes two of mono- had erans’n team willthe notmost give sensational me the captaincy. any claim to the Indian subcontinent as a lion of them ing UN job.

— had at one surpassed the you: an point anti-national cokegraphs published India’s strug- motherland.

Mummy is behaving likeduring MS Dhoni.

Thus he placed the vastness of number of Hindus RG (feigning concern): Now, themselves, but is probahead. Aren’t we becoming like for Independence, PK gle (getting nostalgic aboutBal MS Gangadhar Dhoni and age question territory, now,above wait athe minute!

Areofyou tell- and“sharpblywith more sensible as an estimate of the numthe BJP? You know used Yes, astronomical SoniaTilak Gandhi): they were data both inside great ness of intellect above rigiding me you won’t gothe back to berRG of stars. (earnestly): Yes, but BJP Mayawatiji, I don’t hymns to calculate ageaof Vedas. match-winners oncethe upon time, butNot nowonly it’s ity offor faith.

Gandhi work AmitMahatma Shah?

Onehard cannot provenationalism, mythology does Hindu quite feel the did date theirtocomposition priorenjoy to 4000 timehefor them step back and the himself supported Tilak’s theory PK (embarrassed): Amitbhai is like a theorem, the we only do soft.nor Likeascertain hard drugs dynastic BC, Tilak’s analysis placed Aryan in in game.

(Suddenly wired) Ok, so weantiquity have Uttar his commentary ondeep-fried the Bhaga total bully. I hate the true origin of the any and soft drugs.

OrVedas hard with and soft connection” A curious by-product authority. the Arcticand region.

Pushed fromnext these Northern Pradesh Punjab elections year; we re- wad in which Krishna food Gita, he feasts on, and forces deevtheir own, for the power. AskSave Shashi Tharoor. of Tilak’s output is tundras Age, he suggested, they mi- clares, ally needby toan getIce serious about those elections. the as months, I ama eryone“Among else to eat well. I’m authors ofI’ve thewatched Vedas forego any PK: Yes, that TED the idea that Vedic grated down toasCentral east-a Mrigashirsha...among If we lose those well, noAsia oneand willthen give me the deal seafitness freak, I just cannot certainty about cosmologitalk. (Under histheir breath) It was myths encode ward, to their present job. They will think I’mtropical a loser. latitudes. sons, I am Spring.” with that. cal knowledge.

In speeches one of put the better than all your astronomical events Indologist Hermann Jacobi provided RG (chuckling): I’ve been losing for the furlast Tilak deduced How in his book RG (grinning): about working for our together. highest paeans to scepticism ther evidence to support Tilak’s happened thesis, citing five years, man.

Has anything to Orion that the He name Mri-your type. friend(1893) Kejriwal then? seems RG: What? that can be found in world literaHugo Winckler (1907) who me? You really do stress toofound much,invocations PK. gashirsha translates “thepeople an- are already PK (proudly): Well, to some ture, placing creation before PK: Nothing. to PK the (clenching names Mitra, Varuna, Indra and because the Ash- telope’s teeth): Well, that’s head”, is Prashant the calling the Punjabwhich elections Kishore gods Let (like Big Bang beforethat the RG (decisively): itthe be leaked to NDTV vins on tablets in Boghazkoi, modern-day my surname is not Gandhi, Mr or Gandhi, so I ac- constellation Orion in western terminoloversus Arvindof Kejriwal.

I think Kejriwal is al- birth of stars), ‘Nasadiya of the Rig all is well in thethe Congress.

WeSukta’ have introspecTurkey.

Thetodocument tually have perform. Winckler found is a gy.

Thebut onset spring isstand signalled by the ver- Veda right, his of anti-drugs is hypocritical, (translation AL Basham) ted, the party has by taken collectivesays: responsibiltreaty “between Subbiluliuma, kingof of this the HitRG (rolling eyes): Ok, ok, enough tes- nal equinox some in the‘rock Northern hemisphere, considering stars’ in his party. in ity,But, all, whoare knows, and who canparty say is theafter Gandhis in charge.

The tites, and Mattiuaza, kingwe of need Mitani ty attitude.

Tell me what to(Northern do for Ut- late “It’smoment): the time of year and ready RGMarch. (eureka Can wewhen makeday someWhence it allin UP came, and how for battle and Punjab, withcreation my viMesopotamia), the time about 1400 BC,” night tar Pradesh and of Punjab. areVishal nearlyDadlani equal. an At election an equinox, one like issuethe in happened? sion and your strategy. who Vedic gods.

PKclearly (totallyworshipped wired): Ok, these let’s start with UP. An Earth’s dividing line bePunjab?terminator Can we say—hethe is the drug-addicted the are later than creation, PK: gods Sure,themselves RG. Undoubtedly, Tilak wanted to showessential the Brit- tween alliance with Mayawati is absolutely andPunjab? night — becomes vertical and rapperday in Udta so who knows truly whence it hasofarisen?

Disclaimer: This article is a piece fiction. ish Vedic culture more ancient for Raj the that Congress.

My teamwas hasfar crunched caste connects the north and south poles,” says PK (WTF, but reconsiders): Maybe you arethe on guptamitra exploresmustafi the history of science sambuddha is the founderasof The (and hence superior) to them.

In Vedic doingtimes, so he to and sub-caste data going back to website Astronomy the Day. We now something.

This Picture pot is of really potent.

The rohit t@some_buddha Political Indian;t@fadesingh had challenge the that very anotion that Aryans first and to it is quite clear Brahmin-Muslimknowproblem that duethough, to the Earth’s axis changing its Compasswallah is that most Punjabis

Face swap

Tanmay Bhat’s unrecorded Snapchat as Rahul Gandhi and Prashant Kishore, discussing the state of the Congress Party

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The winds of change

is the difference between land and sea temperatures. Under normal circumstances, land warms faster than the sea, and attracts moisture-laden winds from the Indian Ocean, which then precipitate over the parched peninsula. Deviations from normal surface temperatures due to El Niño reduce this gradient, impacting the monsoon heavily. This effect is sea wall in the archaeological site of Dholavira — even more pronounced in South Asia due to which could be more than 6,000 years old — may have the land-locked nature of the Indian Ocean, been the world’s first tsunami protection measure. What with no access to the poles. was so far believed to be protection from invaders is now The most recent spell of El Niño was one of being seen in a new light. Scientists at the National Instithe longest and strongest ever, and besides tute of Oceanography claim the wall, between 15 and 18 leading to unusually warm winters, was seen metres in thickness, indicates that “our ancestors were as a prime driver of the poor monsoon in the aware of a tsunami and succeeded in creating a defence”. last two years. It is thanks to the dissipation of Another shot in the arm for national pride. the El Niño event — and emergence of La Nina conditions — that this year promises to be better for agricultural markets.

ENSO isn’t the only factor affecting the monsoon. There’s the Indian Ocean Dipole (a local phenomenon, somewhat similar to El Niño), Inter-Tropical Convergence Zones (which can hasten the arrival of monsoon), cloud configuration, atmospheric conditions and oceanic parameters, to name but a few.

However, the silent juggernaut behind South Asia’s changing monsoon is anthropogenic climate change — the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activity .

While it is not possible to pin down climate change as the reason behind a particularly extreme event such as a cyclone or a flood, we know that 90 per cent of the heat from global warming during the last four decades has been accumulated in the oceans, effectively making them heat sinks and intensifying El Swiss idea village with 22,000 Niño events. This is supported byinhabitthe fact to pay a fine rather that in the ants past has 140chosen years, the three strongest 10 refugees. village of El Niñothan yearssettle were 1982, 1997 andThe 2015. SimilarOberwil-Lieli held a referendum to arly, a 2015 Nature study of monsoon data across rive over at the “Wefound have aworked South Asia thedecision. last century downhard all our lives haveper a lovely vilward trend overall, withand a 10-20 cent demassive sponge growing on the seabed off the Northwestern that we docentral not want crease lage in rainfall over and spoiled,” east India.an Hawaiian Islands could be the oldest animal on the planet. The unnamed resident told that the media.

The A warming planet means the atmosize of a minivan, the world’s largest sponge was first spotted by DaAndreas which Glarner spheretown’s can holdmayor, more moisture, canwas deniel Wagner of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administraquoted as saying, “Money be sent lay monsoons, and then leadcould to heavier tion of America. “We know that several coral species at those depths helpitthem, but ifClimate we arechange housing rainfalltowhen does occur. is can live to multiple hundred to even a few thousand years: the oldest them here it sendsthe outinter-annual the wrong messalso thought to increase varione is 4,500 years. Thus, my best guess is that this is likely a very old one more thing money can ability age.” of theThat’s monsoon in the future, outside sponge on the order of century to millennia,” Wagner was reported buy then. of an El Niño state. Both flood and drought as telling The Guardian. phenomena could be more severe, as was seen in July 2005, when Mumbai received over one metre of rainfall in a single day.

Unfortunately, we are still waiting for the day when we’ll be able to accurately predict The deluge For millions of Indians, the variability of rainfall, even on narrow time scales, can have disproportionately large impacts, with short, intense showers leading to floods and weeklong delays leading to droughts ap the day-to-day and intra-seasonal variability of the monsoon. We remain far from confident in our climate models. As of now, our underhe last week of May saw weather- millennia, with generations having danced to standing of the various processes affecting the men and economists rejoice as “pre- its rhythmic arrival and departure. But will state of precipitation in this challenging remonsoon” and “monsoon-like” this rhythm remain the same forever? gion, where vast water bodies interact with rainfall finally hit the shores of KerOne of the phenomena affecting this the atmosphere over plains, deserts, and ala and Karnataka. After two consecutive rhythm is ‘El Niño’, meaning mountains, is severely limited. drought years, the India Meteorological De- ‘The Little Boy,’ or ‘Christ Child’.

However, what we do know is partment, as well as private forecasters, are First spotted by South American that for millions of Indians (and, Parsekar, chief minister of Goa,Niño bepredicting a better-than-normalaxmikant monsoon fishermen in the 1600s, El effectively, for every resident of A warming planet lievesperiod Goans areis“annoyed the with close to 106 per cent of the long the warmwith phase ofbehaviour, the El Niño South Asia), the variability of means that the attitude and way ofSouthern life of Nigerians” in the state. a average of 89 cm during June-September.

Oscillation (ENSO), rainfall, even on narrow time atmosphere can hold In afor sweeping thehappens arrest ofdue a The monsoon, which accounts about 80statement climatefollowing event that more moisture, which scales, can have disproportionNigerian forliferapingtoa woman in north Goa, theofCM per cent of India’s total showers, is the the unusual warming sea ately large impacts, with short, can delay monsoons Nigerians for law in and blood of the nation. Half our blamed population de- surfaces theorder Pacificproblems Ocean inintense showers leading to bout 130 policefloods officers school delays officials in “notwith just about in Goa, but in the with entirethe country”.

His pends directly on agriculture, teracting atmosphere. andand weeklong leadNorthern Japaning have been looking for a sevenwords are in starkOn contrast toan what External two-thirds of our farm land irrigated by rainaverage, El Niño arrivesAfevto droughts. year-old who went missing afterway histoparents fairseconomy MinisterasSushma Swarajtotweeted this week: fall. Droughts wreak havoc on the ery three seven years, and afThe only prepareleft forhim the in aA bear-infested a punishment.

Yamato Ta“Next time you meet anthe African citizen, pl shake a whole, with industry lobby group Assofects weather in large parts of the world. future is toforest face as climate change head-on, by nooka had been large-scale hurling stones at carsmeasures and people hand and say ‘India loves you’”.

This will becontrasting a tad cham estimating that the last two consecutive related, and somewhat phenomenacting mitigation as during a family trip in Hokkaido.

His parents left him difficult since Africa is not a country, but which hey, it’sis marked by drought years may have cost the country enon is the ‘La Nina’, a well as adapting our economy and society to on the road, drove about 500 m, and turned back, but the sentiment counts right? ₹65,000 crore, and put as many as 33 crorethatcooling of ocean surface waters. the changing climate.

Yamato had disappeared by the time they returned to people at risk.

While the monsoon’s arrival and intensity shrey is a co-founder of the Sustainable the spot.

Angoyal unfortunate, karmic twist in puniThe monsoon has been largely seen as a pre- are governed by a number of variables with Initiative, Delhi shment,Growth we say. dictable affair by the Indian subcontinent for varying levels of consistency, a key ingredient

Rock steady

Tsunami-resistant wall in Gujarat

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Cutting it fine

Swiss village prefers fine over refugees

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Floored!

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

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n this day in 1917, the first ever Pulitzer prizes were awarded. This week’s quiz theme is journalism.

here,there & elsewhere

Lady reporter

Scribes and scribbles

1

With which specific set of stories did Genevabased journalist Chitra Subramanium first come into national prominence in the mid-’80s?

2

English tradition has it that this two-word term for assistants in the first movable type presses originated from the surname of the assistant to William Caxton, who started the first ever printing press in the West. Famous people who have worked in this capacity in their early days include Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin. Name the term.

3

In which work of fiction would you come across two freelance photographers hired by Khabardar magazine to expose the dealings between the Commissioner of Police and a certain Mr Tarneja?

4

Which author’s famous work was based on a set of reports on life in an Okie migrant camp for the San Francisco News in 1936?

5

Which famous writer’s only play, Fifth Column, was based on his experiences as a journalist in Spain during the Spanish Civil war?

6

Which bestselling work of fiction, written by a former journalist, was about a freelance crime reporter named Peter Miller who discovers intriguing mentions of a secret Nazi organisation in a holocaust survivor’s diary?

7

For which magazine did Gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson cover the 1972 Presidential campaign in a set of articles later published as Fear And Loathing On the Campaign Trail ’72?

8

Why did this tweet make headlines, and fill in the blanks. ‘Helicopter hovering over ______ at 1 am (is a rare event)?’

9

If Mithun Chakraborty’s character in the film Guru was modelled on newspaper baron Ramnath Goenka, which real-life person was the inspiration for the role played by R Madhavan (named Shyam in the film)?

“W

hat’s that?” Bins demands to know. “My iPad,” I say, innocently. “Aaaagh —!” exclaims Bins, “you KNOW what I mean!” I grin peacefully. There is nothing more satisfying than getting a rise out of someone while telling the absolute truth.

But I relent. I am not a professional torturer after all. “Oh... you want to know what I’m reading on my iPad? It’s that book I was telling you about. By a young friend, who lives in New York, Radha Vatsal. It’s her debut novel.”

Called a FRONT PAGE AFFAIR, it’s one of the few books I decided to read on Kindle via the iPad because I didn’t want to wait to get my copy in the mail.

“Aha!” says Bins. “Bias! You’re promoting a friend’s book!” I wave my hand in the air to erase his remarks from the atmosphere. “Pooh. I thought I’d try the first couple of pages and before I knew it, I was hooked.”

“Nepotism,” mutters Bins. “It’s a murder mystery,” I say. “With a very unusual twist.” Bins contorts his face into a you’re-promoting-a-friend’s-book sneer.

But I hold my ground. It really is an unusual and interesting twist: a fastpaced, historically accurate tale of dastardly doings set in the early years of the 20th century, in New York. The Duke of Sarajevo has just been shot, the Lusitania has been sunk but the US is

dithering about wading across the Atlantic to enter the war. “The main character is a young woman journalist, starting out in her career, at a time when hardly any women chose to be employed.”

Bins narrows his eyes. He’s trying hard not to show that everything about the subject is interesting to him: the period, the attention to detail, the engagement with history. “But what’s the Indian angle?” he wants to know. “There isn’t one,” I say, feeling oddly triumphant. I’ve been feeling, lately, that Indian writers and readers alike need to spread their wings a bit. Be willing to engage with people, places and ideas that have no

direct connection to God’s Own Subcontinent. “It’s quite astonishing, how richly detailed it is. Yet it doesn’t feel forced. Like watching an authentic black-and-white Pathé documentary.” I know he will like the reference to the famous French series, with the cheeky little cockerel icon.

“Sounds like a gimmick to me,” sniffs Bins. “So specialised. Besides, a young woman journalist in those days! What could such a lady do? They had to wear those funny skirts with fringes and big hats...” I yawn and sigh. “Oh what a narrow view! There were many kinds of fashions in those days, just like these days. The murder is pretty interesting too. How and why it happens. The politics of those times.”

Now I am openly grinning, while he scowls. “I think you would enjoy it.”

He puffs out his scraggly yellow moustache in a last-ditch attempt at resistance. “We-e-e-ll ... I won’t like to read anything on that sissy electronic gadget!” he says. “No worries. I’m getting the hard copy by mail,” I say.

He gets up with a defeated air. “Where are you going?” I ask. “To make the tea, of course,” he says. manjula padmanabhan, artist and author, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, in this weekly column

cornerstone

10

Which multiple-Oscar-winning film of the ’70s chronicles the story of Howard Beale, a cynical anchor about to be fired by his network, who suddenly becomes hugely popular for ranting openly on air?

Answers 1. The Bofors scandal, which exposed kickbacks in the supply of Field Howitzers to the Indian Army 2. Printer’s Devil. The first assistant’s surname was Deville, from where ‘devil’ originated 3. Kundan Shah’s film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron 4. John Steinbeck; this was the inspiration for Grapes of Wrath 5. Ernest Hemingway 6. The Odessa File. The writer, Frederick Forsyth, was also a journalist in the siege of Biafra 7. Rolling Stone 8. This tweet by Sohaib Athar was the first time the world got to know about the operation to eliminate Osama Bin Laden. The missing word was Abbottabad 9. S Gurumurthy, who wrote a series of articles on Reliance’s transgressions in that period 10. Network, which won a posthumous Best Actor award for Peter Finch

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

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