Blink issue 15 may03 2014

JAILED ABROAD Caught for straying into ‘enemy’ territory, captured fishermen in India and Pakistan get help from unlikely quarters p2 saturday, may 3, 2014

arunangsu roy chowdhury

The story of the dwindling Chinese community in Kolkata tells of forced departures, uneasy prospects and a people searching for a new home p10

Leaving Chinatown

A MONGREL LIFE Who needs a permanent address? For the rootless, friends are family p8

THIS IS THE END As the planet reels towards doom, a look at the best dystopian novels p17

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THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

Through a lens closely rohit gupta

Waves of terror Porbandar coast, in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, which is believed to have been used as an entry point by terrorists involved in the 26/11 attack ap/ajit solanki

The arrival of the microscope in the subcontinent challenged long-cherished views about the Hindu cosmos and the human body practice of inoculation in Bengal conducted

by Brahmins who “...lay it down as a principle, that the immediate cause of the smallpox exists in the mortal part of every human and animal form, that the mediate (or second) acting cause, which stirs up the first, and throws it into a state of fermentation, is multitudes of imperceptible animalculae floating in the atmosphere; that these are the cause of all epidemical diseases, but more particularly of the smallpox; that they return at particular seasons in greater or lesser numbers; that these bodies, imperceptible as they are to the human organs of vision, imprison the most malignant tribes of the fallen angelic spirits. That these animalculae touch and adhere to every thing, in greater or lesser proportions, according to the nature of the surfaces which they encounter; that they pass and repass in and out of bodies of all animals in the act of respiration, without injury to themselves…” (Holwell, 1767) This account is in contradiction with Forbes, whose story was meant to illustrate the Brahmin ignorance of microbial life forms. On the other hand, Holwell seems to in the pleasing walks of science. The Brahmin suggest a familiarity with the notion of miread English books, searched into the Encyclo- crobes. Traditionally, smallpox was treated as paedia, and profited by the best philosophical a manifestation of the Goddess Sitala’s anger, instruments. The gentleman, on receiving a but treated nonetheless. It became necessary valuable solar microscope as a present from but the committee has not given up just yet.

It for try.later “The epidemic fate of fisherfolk does not depend onmanagement programmes Europe, showed it with to his Hindoo ly the on oceanic tides,” the 84-year-old is currently calling for arapture ‘no-arrest policy’ and by Empire to assimilate such local activist beliefs friend; and… discovered the innumerhighlighting the misuse to of him the captured fish- into said their over own a Skype call. “It also on the propaganda fordepends vaccination.

As able animalculae devoured by the Brahmins of the relationship, which ing trawlers — Pakistan recently auctioned atide result, theIndia-Pakistan complex relationship of Hindu on every fruit vegetable theytrawlers, eat…” each beliefs more than 215and captured Indian suffers several ups andscience downs.”kept changing and Western Aghast at the the pious Brah- through worth at least ₹40realisation, lakh.

His 60-odd-year existence in Pakistan has the 18th century. min, “grasping the instrument, descended been equally from leading variIf the Hinduchequered scriptures—were interpreted as with a quicker motion than is customary with saying A Malayali in Pakistan ous business firms, to working as a journalist, that plants have life, then the Brahhis caste into the garden; seizing a min’s getting arrested in 1958 ‘leftist’ leanings Biyyothil Mohyuddin Kutty,where, who hails from diet was already in for contradiction with large stone, he laid the microscope upon Kerala’s Malabar region, first travelled tothe Pa- his anddharma. turning Debatable a political negotiator anwas effort as that mayinbe, it lowest of the veranda, and settled instantaneouskistan step in 1949 and eventually in Kara- then to integrate ethnic silk Balochistan into maina sin to harvest from silkworms, and ly smashed it to piecesofbefore astonished chi.

A member the hisPILER and wool stream Pakistan. from sheep?“I became involved with the friend could prevent general-secretary ofhim.”

PPC, he is vociferous Sindhi fisherfolk is issue throughbecause my connecThis question important the Laterfisherfolk’s the Brahmin about rightsexplained in his adopted coun- tion with PILER. suchscience as Karamat Ali, clashPeople of Western and Hinthat his actions were merely in the du beliefs slowly simmered for interest of his fellow countrymen, over a century. The British gov“I am a solitary individual among ernment’s enforced scheme for Because disease 50 million people all educated in containing smallpox involved a breeds fear, the same belief with myself! All vaccine developed by Edward medical science happy in their ignorance! So may Jenner from cows, and faced very can be a form of they ever remain!” Forbes later strong resistance in its adoption political power over used this anecdote — fact or fabriby the natives. And it finally exthe human body cation, one does not know — to adploded with the Mutiny of 1857, vocate the conversion of Hindus sparked by the sepoys’ suspicion to Christianity. that cartridges of the Enfield rifle According to a report found in were being greased with the fat the Asiatic Journal, as late as 1839 the humble of cows and pigs. microscope continued to cause “... astonishHylozoism — the idea that all matter is in ment, especially among the native gentlemen some sense alive — was prevalent in many anwho were present. The Hindoos, who are cient cultures, and was directly opposed to the afraid to take away life, drink water without emerging mechanistic view of nature in the hesitation; but by this microscope it is discov- 17-18th centuries. Especially so during the Britered that in every handful of water which is ish Raj, which coincided with the ‘scientific drunk, hundreds of living creatures are con- revolution’ in Europe (as loose as that term stantly put to death.” might be). Even today Jaina monks of certain The arrival of the microscope in the subcon- sects can be seen walking around barefoot tinent thus challenged some long-held views with mouths covered by cloth to prevent about the Hindu cosmos and the human body. themselves from killing airborne One of the major themes of this confrontation microorganisms. was smallpox in India, of which a famous acrohit the history as waters count comes to us via thefishermen company Tides of misfortune Indian in asurgeon Karachi jail who are gupta accusedexplores of trawling illegallyofinscience Pakistani afp/asif hassan John Holwell, who describes an indigenous Compasswallah t @fadesingh

Catch 22

Blown up (Clockwise from below) Hindoo Devotees of the Gosammee and Jetty Tribes, a drawing by James Forbes in the late 1700s; Robert Hooke’s microscope in 1665; and Hooke’s drawing of a flea in his Micrographia wikicommons

A cross-border band of good Samaritans works to free Indian and Pakistani fisherfolk who are jailed for straying into each other’s waters

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n December 4, 2004, 18-year-old Ketan Bharadwaj Solanki and six other fishermen from Diu woke up to the sound of firing and warnings over a loudspeaker asking them to surrender.

Their trawler had been three days at sea, off the Gujarat coast, when Pakistan’s Maritime Security Agency (MSA) arrested them for allegedly crossing the international maritime boundary. They had drifted a bit with the tide during the night but “were still a good 13 nautical miles within the Indian border”, says Solanki, who spent the next six months in a Karachi jail before returning to Diu. Solanki got away lucky. For most of the fishermen who are taken in by the coastal authorities on either side of the border, being under arrest for two to four years is commonplace and some have even languished in jail for as long as nine years. At last count, there were 366 Indian fishermen in a Karachi jail and ncounters of Pakistani the microscope with more than 200 of their counterparts native Indians during the of in various Indian jails, according to arrival the PakisBritishForum science were fundamental in tani Fisherfolk (PFF). history, perhaps Solankishaping was ablecolonial to get out of jail relatively more the telescope soon culturally because ofsignificant the work than of groups like PFF — its along scientific Because Peace disease breeds who withtwin. the Pakistan Coalition fear, can be a form of political (PPC)medical and thescience Pakistan Institute of Labour Edupower human(PILER) body. on their side of cation over and the Research It border is hardcomplemented to say when the microscope the byfirst the efforts of aclanded on the shores or whether it tivists like Jatin DesaiofofIndia, the Pakistan-India came via British, or Dutch sources. In People’s Forum French for Peace and Democracy the late 1700s, artist James Forbes men(PIPFPD) here inthe India. tions anthe anecdote, which became a staple arof Over last decade or so, these ‘invisible orientalist theto Hindu reaction to rests’ have lore beenabout brought the fore by these Western science. written to in get 1765-a groups. In 2012, The theymemoir, even managed 84, relates “thecommittee story of anfrom English gentleman, joint judicial both countries extremely of natural andside experimental to visit thefond fisherfolk on either of the borphilosophy, being withinathe liberalder, both in jail andintimate outside, and same minded who had been educated at year the Brahmin, total toll of arrested fishermen in eiBenares, or some college; ther country fell toother undercelebrated 100, the lowest in they generally passed the has morning together two decades.

This number since increased,

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Far from home Fisheries Department officials interrogate arrested Pakistani fishermen at Okha Port, in Kutch district of Gujarat pti

managing director of PILER, Muhammad Ali Shah and Saeed Baluch of PFF, and advocate Faisal Siddiqui have been instrumental in highlighting the issue and I assist them in any way I can,” says Kutty.

He and his associates visit the jailed Indian fishermen and help them contact the Indian High Commission. “If a batch of 30 fishermen is released today by Pakistan, another new batch is picked up after a week or two. The same thing happens on the Indian side. Thus, the fisherfolk are a permanent tragic feature of Pakistan-India maritime relations. We help the released fish-workers find a safe passage back home.”

This passage is a longwinded one — fishermen who land in trouble for straying a few kilometres from their home turf off the Gujarat coast, now have to pass through Wagah at the Indo-Pak border and travel to Amritsar and then to Ahmedabad before finally reaching home.

Pointing out that fisherfolk elsewhere in Journalists in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the world too routinely stray into foreign wa- and has been involved with the fisherfolk isters — Indonesian fishermen drift into Austra- sue since 2002.

“I trace my roots to Bhavnagar in coastal lian waters, Pakistanis into Iran, Thai into Malaysia and Eritreans into Yemen — Kutty Saurashtra, Gujarat. I heard about Premjibhai says they rarely face the animosity that fisher- Khokhari, who was the first to conduct a surfolk from India and Pakistan encounter in vey of the number of missing and detained Ineach other’s territory. “It is because of the pe- dian fishermen in Pakistan. This led me to join culiar relationship between our countries the PIPFPD,” says Desai. Together with his Pathat the fisherfolk are caught in the crossfire.” kistani counterparts, he is pushing for bilaterCompounding the problem is the fact that al agreements, a bi-annual count of all in some regions, such as Sir Creek, each coun- arrested fishermen, and ways to help the artry claims its own Exclusive Economic Zone rested fishermen communicate with their and no one really knows where one side be- friends and family.

He says Indian fishermen are more adversegins or ends. “In the sea there are no boundaries or flags or demarcations, how are we ly effected owing to several reasons: In Kutch supposed to know which part of the water is and Saurashtra the fluctuating tides are someHindustan and which Pakistan?” asks Jagad- times enough to carry trawlers to the other ish Ramji Solanki, a 29-year-old fisherman side. Moreover, industrialisation has robbed from Diu who spent more than a year in Kara- them of a good catch on this side and they are chi’s Landhi Central Jail for inadvertently forced to tread close to the Pakistani side for a better haul of fish. crossing international waters.

While the arrests were few and There have been instances far between in the 1980s, they where coastal authorities have have increased. Moreover, fishercrossed international borders to men today remain longer at sea, make arrests, especially during Coast Guard arrests close to 10-12 days, compared to a periods of high tension between hundreds of week some decades ago. “With the nations. fishermen but each boat that is captured, the While the issue seems insurcouldn’t stop a bunch livelihood of not only the eight mountable, Kutty remains hopeof guys with guns? fishermen on board is effected ful. “We know that it will take a but also that of the nearly 20 long time, but we are ultimately people who sell the catch; curpushing for a no-arrest policy rently there are reportedly 780 where fisherfolk should just be sent back if found on the wrong side,” he says, trawlers in the MSA’s possession and at least adding, “Why should something that happens 215 with the Indian coastguard,” says Desai.

Rather than arresting fishermen for geopolin faraway Kargil or Siachen affect their lives?” itical gains, he says, both countries would do well to take them into confidence in an effort The Indian vanguard Referring to Mumbai’s 26/11 date with terror, to enforce coastal security. “They are the ones Jatin Desai narrates the story of a boatman, who know what happens at sea and will thereChaudhury, on whose vessel Ajmal Kasab and fore be the best eyes and ears.”

After more than a decade of campaigning, his fellow terrorists apparently arrived from Pakistan. “They killed everyone except Chaud- he despairs at the helplessness that forces him hury, who was the tandel (captain) and knew to stop answering calls from affected families. the directions; and just before reaching Mum- Desai mentions a friend called Fazal Bhai in bai they killed him. His boat was from Porban- Kutch who he says, calls at least thrice every dar (Gujarat).” His point: “What is surprising is week to ask about his relatives jailed in Karathat the Coast Guard arrests hundreds of fish- chi. “Earlier I used to tell him that I’d call him ermen every year but couldn’t stop a bunch of back if there was any news, but then it became guys with guns?” really difficult to keep saying that after a Mumbai-based Desai, like Kutty, has donned while. So now I don’t pick up the phone. Bevarious avatars, including that of a journalist cause, what can I tell him really?” for Gujarati daily Janmabhoomi and later Midday. He was president of the Bombay Union of sibi arasu

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Across the line Pakistan resident Biyyothil Mohyuddin Kutty campaigns for the rights of fisherfolk on both sides of the border

The rights man Jatin Desai, who is a journalist-turned-activist paul noronha

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Tough love Jamuna, seen here with her calf at Manas National Park in Assam, is among the three hand-reared female rhinos that were successfully translocated from the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation joanna and Conservation near vanKaziranga gruisen National Park; (below) feeding time for Purabi at CWRC anjan sangma / subhamoy bhattacharjee/ ifaw-wti

A BUTTERFLY BREEZE FROM MP

Politics and the way of the tiger In election season, our political parties seem to be side-stepping reality or are oblivious to the link between GDP and climate change

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grew up and lived in the UK for half my life but have now settled and been in India for the other half. I identify somewhat with the dhobi’s dog (or donkey) of the well-known Urdu proverb, though I prefer to regard it as having a strong attachment to two homes rather than not quite belonging to either. However as far as the governments of the two countries are concerned, I am indeed that dog/donkey, as neither allow me a vote.

While hoping for India to recognise dual citizenship, I have retained my UK passport. More than 20 years of residence elsewhere, Britain disallows participation in elections (now after 15 years abroad). And 30 years residence in India but without citizenship, disallows participation here.

I would not choose to be voteless but these days it seems no great disadvantage as the choices, both here and in the UK, often seem somewhat limited. As an environmentally conscious person and appreciator of the natural world, it is distressing to find so little emaziranga, with 15 to 20 pathy for such viewswhich in the began political spectrum. rhinos when the national was It is also more than a little worryingpark to find, created in the earlyso20th amongst the political parties, littlecentury, underhome 1,700weofactually them standing ofbecame how close to thetobrink within a hundred years, currently shelters are — ecologically and,and thus, economically. a staggering 2,329seems of these one-horned deniWishful thinking to outweigh rational zens — or two-thirds of the total rhino populathinking in a way rather reminiscent, on a tion worldwide.

Bursting its seams, it now scary planet-scale, of the at local forest departfaces a challenge its creators never envisioned. ment’s reaction to the poaching and extincWith four rivers crisscrossing it and four major species thriving here — the rhino, Bengal tiger, Asiatic elephant and wild Indian buffalo — the 430 sq km Kaziranga National Park continues to be a tourist paradise. But there is trouble in paradise. Rhinos and tigers are multiplying rapidly, and the overcrowding is driving them into adjacent forested blocks, human habitations and tea gardens. The resulting man-animal conflicts have tragic consequences for both.

The Park also has about 1,165 wild elephants, 108 tigers (with a healthy male-female ratio, promising future growth), 1,900 wild buffaloes, 1,000 swamp deer and several hoolock gibbons, to name a few. Together, they are, quite literally, testing this sanctuary’s limits.

While there has been a wildlife explosion inside the Park and on its periphery, there has al-

Rhino hide-and-seek

There’s a baby boom in Assam’s rhino-land Kaziranga, but before they can exult, the onehorned denizens have to dodgeWriting poachers’ bullets and find a safe nook in a shrinking habitat on the wall Token presence at events highlighting the need to arrest climate change doesn’t really

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so been a mushrooming ofTiger hotels, dhabasa and tion of tigers in the Panna Reserve few the overcrowded Pobitora to Manas in 2008. tourist lodges on its fringes and along the Since then, selected rhinos have been regularyears back. wildlife corridors leading out of it.

And while Although science and reason clearly spelt ly translocated to developed, protected habany the move tothe allocate additional to the out path tigers were on, theareas wildlife au- itats. As many as 22 rhinos were moved to Park for its burgeoning wildlife usually met Manas, an excellent rhino habitat that had thorities preferred to insist thatisall was well, with“the opposition, many an outsider has been destroyed during Assam’s civil strife. that tiger density has never been better”. bought land here, confident of good business.

Such wishful thinking took the Reserve to the Orang, Laokhowa and Burhachpori are the Of the and five main animal corridors out of Kazibrink, over — only six months after this other favoured areas. “With the dispersal, the ranga — Haldibari, Kanchanjuri, Burapahar, statement was published, the Reserve did not rhinos and other wildlife will have access to Panbari and Angudi — the last two are have a single tiger left.

Extinction in blocked this (lo- nearly 2,000 sq km of grasslands,” says NK Vaby new settlements with support human cal) case was not exactly foreverfrom as the park su, who was the director of Kaziranga until rights be activists. could repopulated with tigers from other this year.

Over the years, there have six addiareas (though the specific Pannabeen genes may be Lost Meanwhile, the translocated rhinos in Maand found Although Panna was repopulated tionsforever).

— small chunks a few if the whole with tigers, thenas lost What wouldofhappen given birth foresthave department’s decisiontoto young not raise an alarm in time in hastestimony meant that the genes squarethought kilometres planet likeeach this? — to the ones, to Panna the success r sreenivasa murthyled by Dr Bibhab Park make roomlook for to the Weto need not even theaniextremes to be may be lost forever of the IRV 2020, mals. However, thisbefore is not an concerned.

Shortly theinteelection, the InTalukdar, chair of the Internationgrated wildlife area — it isondotted tergovernmental Panel Climate Change al Union forBut Conservation of aim Naby all is notwithstanding. to continue to Overcrowding with IPCC, human settlements and tea by environ(the sometimes criticised ture (IUCN), specialist for into exponential growthAsian as sorhino many econodriving rhinos gardens,groups making diffimental asexpansion ‘too conservative’) publishgroup.

Themanifestos project hasenvisage, on board mists demand, and the is adjacent forested cult. the and need“responsible” for “safe ed itsReiterating authoritative report; the Assam Forest the in a world ofDepartment, finite resources, blocks an andunreal dream passage”, recently the Gauhati one that has been produced by 1,250 internaBodoland Council, Inbased, as such growth Territorial is, on the use of fossil tea gardens High Court called for corridors tional experts and approved by 194 govern- fuels. It works ternational Rhino Foundation, until you reach the end; or raththat “must be providedshows to thethat climate er, until you World ments.

It unequivocally Wide Fund for Nature - Inreach the halfway point (see artiwildlife isatcaused any cost, howeverand big poses a seri- cles on Peakdia, change by humans Fish itand Wildlife Service Oil).USThen does not. We have thatthreat. cost may be.” ous But, cheeringly, if perhaps surpris- reached thisand the and NGOnow Aaranyak. point need to adjust With numbers rapidly, there literally ingly, it also rising reports that A major roadblock the rhino success sto‘wishes’ totoreality. is very little climate space forchange the animals catastrophic can to move. ry — assumingBut that translocathistheis planned our responsibility During thewithout annualsacrificing floods, the be averted liv-animals also tions will happen goodnot time is the too; we in should just—criticise move towards“It the neighbouring ing standards. doesn’t cost the district of reported risethe in political poachingparties. activityAfter in the all,area. to a It doesn’t cost Karbi Anglong and here, again, world to save the planet,” accord-their passage Vasu admitslarge that itextent, remains a major challenge their manifestos rethe world to save is blocked.

(As a tourist staying ing to its economist leader, Ott- in a village for the Park.flect Whilethe theviews official rhino offigure what for they bethe planet home in Karbi last December, I heard distress- poaching inlieve mar Edenhofer.

2013 the is 27, the unofficial electorate wants.estimate Clearly ingBut stories elephants uprooting a home is 30-plus. This none of the main election year been rhino they dotoo notthere thinkhave mitigating clibarely a feweven yardsmention away and a tiger manifestos this re- snatching deaths every month, their splendid mate change is much of a horn votecattle and a little further Feeling insecure and yanked off mercilessly. port give onlyoff. unspecific some poachers winner. It is While time we all made it so; hemmed in, a the villager narrated principal his struggles nods towards overarching, fac- it have been caught thewake CBI is is past time for usand all to upinvestigating to the loomto get fromofthe departtor (thecompensation deplorable state ourforest planet) that ing half-a-dozen there that are also inabyss andcases, recognise nowefforts is theto only ment for the hisheart cattle andour the de- time should be at theloss baseofand of all plans volve to thedemand, locals inand wildlife andaction. forest Science protecto take, stroyed house.) and visions for the future. The AAP at least and tion.reason In a country where conservation tell us so.

We must burst theefforts fantaseems to recognise some connection between sy have rarely lift metour with such success, bubble, (ostrich) heads hopefully, from the Horn of India ecology and economy as the two are com- sand poaching and realistically encroachment won’t eclipse and look at the ‘Eaarth’ — asa The Indian Vision (IRV) but 2020even project — Bill bined in a Rhino section heading, they, feat McKibben that’s beyond the wildest imagination of renames our already changed launched support — hopes along withwith bothinternational the BJP and the Congress par- planet conservationists.

The problem nowofmight be — before our lives go the way the Panto push up to 3,000 within ty, stressthe therhino neednumbers for maintaining high GDP na onetigers. of plenty, but in some ways it is a good the next with six years and disperse sev- problem to have. growth apparently little them to nointo underen protected to safeguard epi- joanna van gruisen is a wildlife photographer, standing of itsareas connection to ouragainst worsening and hotelier basedon near the Panna Tiger usha rai a journalist who writes development and demics and poaching. climate change conditions and vice versa — at- conservationist in Madhya environment issuesPradesh The first lot of rhinos was translocated from Reserve tendant welcome nods to alternative energies

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All work, all play For toy designer Suhasini Paul, life is literally a game where she makes the rules

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Just playthings Suhasini Paul is among a handful of toy designers in India, with clients ranging from Disney to Italy’s Ferrero

t was the summer of 1992. Suhasini Paul and her five friends in Nagpur spent the hot afternoons playing carrom during their vacation. As the square board permitted only four players at a time, they had to take turns to play. That got Paul thinking about a way to get all of them to play together.

A hexagonal board lying unused at home caught her eye. She then turned it into a carrom board by inscribing it with lines and other markings using chalk and colour. The board was balanced on a small stool and a bowl placed under each corner in place of the usual corner-pocket. That year, the Reserve Bank of India came out with a new ₹1 coin that was so smooth it glided easily over surfaces. That became the carrom striker for Paul and her friends, while 25 paise coins served as carrom men. A 50-paise coin painted in pink became the queen, and a carrom game for six players was ready.

The friends played with it for the next three years. Paul then left to study electrical engineering, followed by a post-graduation course at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. When she returned to Nagpur in 2005,

hexagonal carrom boards were being sold ev- fers for design consulting and her studio, Pink erywhere. “What I had thought of 15 years ago Elefant, was born. She sells her toy collections was something that toymakers had come up under this brand, even as she designs many others for clients. She has over 100 board with then,” she reminisces.

Today, 35-year-old Paul is among a handful games and puzzles to her credit, as also severof toy designers in India and has worked with al baby and soft toys. clients ranging from Disney to Italy’s Ferrero Living close to Toy City, the planned cluster (Kinder Joy) and Thailand’s Royalking, besides of toymakers in Greater Noida, allows her to several companies across the US, UK, China not only design for other manufacturers but also get her own toy brand manuand India. factured at their factories.

Paul had her first major break in 2005 when she was selected to “I am the interface between consumers and manufacturers as do her diploma project with A racket for lawn I understand what each of them Frank Educational Aids, the then tennis can be used wants,” she says. market leader. “I had to design for table tennis by This also prompted her to four games that could create envichanging the handle ronmental awareness among come up with a range of interchangeable sports toys for Disney children,” she recalls. She used that offer children greater varieconcepts such as the water cycle ty. So, for instance, a racket used and the solar system to create games and even designed puzzles based on for lawn tennis can also be used for table tenthe dos and don’ts for keeping the environ- nis simply by changing the handle. An elastic sling attached to the handle further turns it ment green.

The company launched these games at the into a slingshot.

Since 2009, Paul has been designing the surHong Kong Toy Fair in January 2006 and they were a huge hit. Soon, Paul began getting of- prise toys that come with the Kinder Joy confection. These too have modular elements that are complete on their own, but can be assembled together into a newer toy.

Paul prefers to charge a one-time fee for her designs, rather than a royalty. “A one-time design fee lets me focus on design rather than financial aspects,” she says.

And when it comes to design, her focus has been two-fold — to create environmental awareness among children; and to make toys that are not only educational and recreational but also easy to use and carry.

The first led her to Anji, a sprawling bamboo forest in China. “I researched for a month to create a doll’s house,” she says. The result is a doll’s house built entirely without screws and is completely recyclable, which sells under the Eco Joy sub-brand from Ecowayz at ₹4,000.

She sells nearly 90 per cent of her Pink Elefant products online through Flipkart, Fashion and You, 99lables.com and shopo.in. The rest sell at design stores such as Buzzeria in Delhi and Goa’s Tuk Tuk. “I also get orders directly through clients in Malaysia and Singapore,” she says.

From eco-friendly toys, her ideas are evolving in a natural progression. “I now want to design a playground for children. I am looking for opportunities to design good playspaces with eco-friendly materials,” she says.

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Anywhere office

ELSEWHERE

manjula padmanabhan

Shared office spaces are eagerly lapped up by start-ups, entrepreneurs and multinational firms looking for ways to save on expensive real-estate and housekeeping costs

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K-based online education company DBS Business Centre and Stylus are some of rangement with the real-estate firm K Raheja Leo Learning is setting up office in the other major companies offering shared of- Corp. While the Raheja group provides the reIndia. While Mumbai’s Lower Parel fice spaces. al estate, ServCorp sets up and operates the business district is perfect for it, the This model is equally suited for those who shared offices. fledgling unit cannot afford the high rentals. work from home. A receptionist, whom they “In India, the demand is picking up,” says TaHowzat Chris Gayle of Royal Challengers is a hero for our merry men of the Junior Premier League bhagya prakash Its Country Manager Amish N Engineer has a share with several other companies, can trans- ranviir Kaur, Imperial ServCorp’s India head. solution. He works out of a swanky office at fer their business calls to London or Singapore The company with 150 serviced offices worldCUB READS the Peninsula Business Park, but pays only for or anywhere else in the world, giving them an wide has two centres in India. “We have brohis well-furnished private workspace, includ- official address and phone number for com-to all ken We plan to have to seven more he solution myeven. shopping needs is mysix friend ing internet connectivity, electricity, and the munications. And when they have to hold thelives nexton two years,” Muriel.

Shea hascentres retiredin and her own,she butsays. On her services of office aids and a receptionist. This meeting, a room can be booked at are Pune, suburbs in Mumbai, hasany twobusigrown list children, five grandchildren and a Chennai, works out cheaper, and every three months he ness centre. and the National constellation ofBangalore friends, all of whom she is Capital happy Region. renews his contract with Regus, the company “People and companies are increasingly to entertain with food from her kitchen. managing the office space. looking for flexible arrangements as they connect Over the years, she hasGlobal become an ace-shopper, with couLuxembourg-based Regus specialises in ser- don’t want to park resources in real estate,” ServCorp gives all its clients access to its porpon-wielding and bargain-spotting skills that reluctant viced and shared office spaces, which are ea- says Sahil Verma, COO ofshoppers Regus. like me can only dream of. Sotal.

“They can pass on any inonce a week, typicalgerly lapped up by a host of start-ups, Delhi’s Connaught Place, for struction to usand through the ly a Thursday, she comes by in her black Honda Accord entrepreneurs and multinational firms that instance, is the world’swe eighthwebsite,” says Kaur. head for the hunting grounds. Today, for instance, our So, for inare looking for ways to save on expensive real- costliest office destination at a is Ocean State Job Lot. Its slogan stance, if aMore client first stop is “A Lot ForisAboarding a ost of our summer vacations along with Neel and Aryaman. Ravinder estate and housekeeping costs. monthly rent of ₹414 perLot sq ft, ac- TheyCompanies flight, he/she canthat share this indon’t Less”. sell brand name products at low prices were spent in Hyderabad. Singh, the superstar captain, his cronies, and cording to a report released earliformation on the portal and enwant to park may be the result of overstocking or packaging changes or While at my grandfather’s, we India’s most successful junior coach Satyajit One for all er this year by consultancy firmjust a shift sure that no calls are diverted to resources in real perhaps in consumer habits. would make good use of the Sinha complete the cast of the Junior Devils.

“This format allows us to use common services Cushman and Wakefield. Bandra themwhich during the flight. estate called a Swiffer, I am looking for a gadget combines part of his compound that was leased out to Drawing on his own experience as the and be mobile at the same time,” says Amit Kurla, in Mumbai, is next inefficiency the With their wide the of a dust-cloth with a mop’s long handle fornetwork of a school, which closed in summer. We would team director of Kolkata Knight Riders in the Goenka, CEO of private equity firm Nisus Fi- India list, at ₹285. centres across countries, the cleaning floors.

Muriel leads me straight to the shelf where a take turns to bat and bowl, practise our IPL, Bhattacharjya fashions a Junior Premier nancial Services. “The private equity business shared-office service providers variety of similar items are dangling. “This is what I use,” she strokes and aim for windowpanes. One sum- League that is ready to fly off the pages and is dynamic and requires frequent travel. Most India sharing clientsmetohow book rooms says, picking out a slender green stick.allow She shows mer, I remember my dad being particularly make its real-world debut even before the of the work is intellectual and there is no need “We entered in 2004 because we saw asheet hugeof the within minutes for ain meeting, whether in Duthe disposable dust-cloth is kept place.

It’s a lethal with the ball. Delivery after delivery, he current IPL season ends. The matches are exfor large physical infrastructure. opportunity here. We thought we could dis- bai, Singapore or London. dollar less than the online price of foxed us batsmen into pulling all the wrong citing and the characters immensely believaWhen travelling within India or abroad, he rupt the market and have been proved right,” $10.

Little surprise that with such conveI barely have then time to fantasise shots with a cunning left-arm spin. I must’ve ble, such as “secret weapon” Sachin, can use any of the 2,000 offices operated by says Verma. niences, even MNCs are increasingly opting about finally having clean floors been 10. And that was my first introduction trivia-buff Neel and mercurial Ravinder.

Regus in 100 countries. Goenka’s arithmetic is As its revenues doubled in India over the for serviced offices when expanding operwhen she has already danced off to spin bowling.

Sledging and intimidation are as much a simple: “If you have a 20-member team in one past three years, Regus confidently added 25 ations rather thanto invest ina creating one. Intel, down the aisles find box of We are often the When Neel Roy heads to Ranchi for winter part of the junior IPL; when Sachin bowls a place for a long period of time, it makes eco- new offices, and now has 50 business centres IBM, Twitter, Apple, American Express, Fujitsu, dust-cloth refills. only people of vacations with his grandpardoosra to claim his first scalp of nomic sense to own the facility. For fewer peo- in 12 cities across the country.

Morgan Stanley area among the From there weand go JP toMorgan Michaels, colour there ents in Junior Premier League, I the tournament, Mumbai Patriple, a shared office works best.”

Australian office-space major Imperial Serv- MNCs using servicedofoffices. vast treasure-house art and craft felt a familiar thrill. The city ofot’s best batsman walks on to Imperial ServCorp, ApeeJay Business Centre, Corp entered in 2008 with a franchisee ar- supplies.

“Since liberalisation, MNCs have been makWithout Muriel I would fers no prospects, especially not the crease, locks eyes with him have to wear blinkers like a tongaof the cricketing kind, at first. and says, “That might work with horse to avoid being distracted.

One evening, on his way to the Jayesh but it won’t work with She quickly locates the key-chains that I want for a craft prolocal store, Neel’s cricketMilind Sugwekar.” Dramatic ject plus matching hooks and a stack of white card paper. starved ears pick up the “rhythstuff indeed.

Then at the check-out counter, she persuades the girl to give mic thump of a Cosco ball”. CuEven the much-maligned me 40 per cent off even though I don’t have a coupon. We rious, he spies a ‘curly-headed’ Duckworth Lewis system makes leave triumphant, having paid a mere $15 for goods worth Junior Premier League boy bowling with the strangest an appearance in a Junior Devils The First XI twice as much. action he had seen. “Instead of match.

Who can forget the Joy Bhattacharjya At Stop & Shop, the grocery store, Muriel has trained me to coming over his right ear, as any heartburn this insane method Puffin pay attention to labels and to compare the contents of simiFiction good bowler should, the kid was has caused? Remember the ₹199 lar containers in order to avoid paying for the attractive slinging the ball almost parallel group-stage match in the 2003 packaging. I have learnt to shun all those aisles displaying to the ground — much like MalWorld Cup, when South Africa fancy foods at even fancier prices and instead reach for inga. But he was bowling spin,” writes Joy lost by one run because they read the D/L whatever is unprocessed, fresh and, as far as possible, local.

Bhattacharjya in Junior Premier League. charts wrong?

Finally, we head for the local ice cream parlour. It’s always Over the next two weeks, Neel and his new If the plot itself seems predictable, of my treat and we always order the same things: a basket of friend Sachin Rawat, who is a Chris Gayle fan, course, you know how it’s going to unfold French fries for Muriel and a double-scoop sundae for me, play cricket, watch cricket videos and discuss right from selections to the winner, it is the followed by coffee. It’s a popular family restaurant where the Junior Premier League that is to kick-off matches, the players, the descriptions of the the other customers range from white-haired old couples right after the summer break, for which Neel field placements and nuggets of cricket trivwearing red-plaid jackets to young mothers with blonde, had been shortlisted. ia — how players choose their jersey numblue-eyed children. Muriel is US-born but Portuguese by ethBack in Delhi, Neel forgets about Ranchi bers, how top fielders practise catches at the nic origin, belonging to the tiny island-nation of Cape Verde, and Sachin as the JPL draws near. With help boundary, that make the Junior Devils’ jouroff the west coast of Africa. We are often the only people of from Shruti, the over-enthusiastic older sis- ney an exciting one. Throw in a team item colour there, looking surprisingly alike, with our short grey ter, Neel and his classmate Aryaman Khurana number (Give them hell, Devils), a coach’s myshair and spectacles. We spend an hour laughing about our prepare for the JPL trials. “In four weeks, terious disappearance, a cheating scandal, families, our lives and the world around us. Then she drops 2,000 boys would go through a week of famous rivalries and media attention and me home and we say goodbye for the week. trials. Just 30 boys would be chosen for the fi- Bhattacharjya’s JPL is the stuff the best IPLs

Day in the aisles

Necessities, goodies and bargains

Let the games begin

With gripping matches and believable characters, Junior Premier League is as exciting as the real deal

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nal camp, and by the time JPL started only 20 boys would remain,” writes Bhattacharjya.

Miraculously, Sachin Meeting pointmoves Coffeeto Delhi and into shops were the Neel’s school, getsusually nominated for the trials, only alternative gets noticed at the for week-long camp and start-ups and small makes it to the final Junior Devils team, businesses r ravindran

are made of. This, the first of a three-part series, is the sort of book one might pick up for a summer or winter break at the end of which awaits a cricket camp. priyanka kotamraju

MANJULA PADMANABHAN, author and artist, tells us tales of her parallel

life in Elsewhere, US, in this fortnightly series marginalien. blogspot. in

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ing a beeline to India. While studying the market, and even after setting up initial operations, they continue to use these (shared) services,” says Pratik Das, Senior Property Manager at ApeeJay Business Centre, which has offered shared office spaces since the late 1990s.

Even after moving into owned spaces, some MNCs continue to use the serviced and shared spaces as satellite offices. Das says this not only saves costs but also helps the multinationals expand faster.

So when Twitter entered the Indian market, it operated from Regus’ network of shared offices. This helped it save time and capital.

“Twitter has signed global terms with Regus.

Every time they want to expand to a new location, they move into a ready Regus office,” says Verma. Twitter and other MNCs declined to comment for the story.

The shared-office arrangement is especially suited for MNCs that frequently downsize staff and have a sales force that’s mostly on the field. “If they build own spaces, they end up becoming property managers. To focus on their core business, they prefer to pay on use-basis

For hire ServCorp's South Mumbai offices charge ₹20,000 per seat per month

month while in NCR’s Gurgaon, it is ₹10,00014,000. “The rates are adjusted to inflation.

The pricing depends on the demand and supply,” Verma says.

With the various permutations and combinations, clients have access to a bouquet of services at varying charges. A meeting room with videoconferencing facility, stationary and unlimited refreshments costs ₹1,600 per hour in Lower PaRobust revenue model rel, while a plain vanilla meeting Industry estimates peg the cost savings from a shared office at 30 room can be hired for ₹800 an hour. Access to a business lounge to 50 per cent vis-à-vis an indeThe cost savings pendent office. from a shared office again comes for varying rates, deAnd while the serviced-offices is pegged at 30 to 50 pending on the number of days. cut costs for others, their own revper cent enue model is robust too. Space is Cookie-cutter advantage A major advantage for the serusually taken on a long-term viced-office providers is the econlease from a landlord, and the ofomies of scale. “Because we have fices built in various sizes are let out for short durations — from three months done this (created office spaces) in 2,000 locato three years. “We pay rent to landlords. It is tions, we are able to optimise space to use the floor plan most efficiently,” Verma says. an asset-light model,” says Verma.

The business centres usually charge per ServCorp’s Kaur points to the company’s seat. In South Mumbai, for instance, shared of- globalised operations. “We either procure furfices typically charge ₹20,000 per seat per niture and other office accessories globally or get them locally made according to our standard international designs,” she says. As they build offices in multiple locations, the business centres will naturally enjoy more competitive rates compared to a company building an owned space in one location.

However, while the cost and speed of operations are great news for start-ups, on the downside is the absence of branding. Regus and ServCorp, for example, don’t allow clients to display their logo or brand name.

“Shared services office-spaces do not offer scope for customisation or visible company branding as leased or owned office spaces do.

Also, they obviously do not count as a company’s assets,” says property consultancy JLL’s Puri.

But that is perhaps of not much concern to a start-up still finding its feet. And an MNC with global-level recall will hardly miss its logo outside yet another cabin, especially one that is invaluably saving money. than block the property,” says Verma.

Anuj Puri, Chairman and Country Head of property consultancy JLL India says shared offices are an excellent way of managing investment risk, even as they offer a cost-effective and flexible solution to start-ups, companies that wish to expand cautiously and those that have no long-term plans.

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PRESENT IMPERFECT

We, the mongrels

Fabulist first Author Jim Crace discusses his craft at The Hindu Lit For Life Festival in Chennai r ravindran

nents or the distant past — at the tail end of the Stone Age (The Gift of Stones, 1988), or just before the industrial revolution (Signals of Distress, 1994) — and moved by cataclysmic events that thoroughly shake a community and loosen its great truths. Ultimately, however, deFriends with kids Are the new urban families the various and reutersspite ; (inset) city-slicker Sikander veenabackdrops venugopal contemporary themes, Crace is an old-fashioned storyteller possessed by deep roots and flement. Do I fill it with the address of the grand, sweeping narrative arcs. house my parents have but have never lived in? Or that of the apartment I bought in MumClass in my blood bai thinking it was forever, but did not know at Does he hold on to the idea of To ask the a novelist to time that forever would be four years? Is it Englishness? talkaabout placehis where I can permanently be found?

“I’m not in love with the Ennovels Why is likeisasking it important? Permanent Address alglish landscape, the English charsomebody to cook ways reminds me of death. acter, the idea of the dull and about their dancing I am not the only one who has this problem. cold-hearted nation,” he says.

I now find myself in a community of people “But my working-class roots are who are from everywhere and are, right now, important to me. Class is the seahere. Ours is the society whose permanent adwater in which all Englishmen dress is here and now. And it is important, this must swim. Stories of class warfare are imporsociety. For how else will we manage to work, tant. It’s something I feel in my blood. Ruling travel and raise children without the support classes can never fit well in this world.” of grandparents and relatives?

Indeed, Crace’s characters are placed in opI moved houses a couple of months ago. The position to the elite. “Oxford is a snobbish rent is higher in the new place and the area place,” he says. “What does it ultimately celesmaller. You don’t need to be an economist to brate? Ruling-class intellectuals.” understand that that is not a good deal. But He speaks with other writers comfortably, I had no choice. Our back-up parbut at a slight remove; Crace once said to The ents in the old place were Paris Review (2006), “To ask a novelist to talk moving cities and we had about his novels is like asking somebody to back-up parents availacook about their dancing. All you get is a bad ble in the new. omelette and a worse tango.”

For those who His is a self-deprecatory, self-taught style of are well-rooted talking about method. “The abstract ideas I and wondering have first: where it is located, who, when, how this works, what,” he says. “And when you have finished here’s the explaone-tenth of your novel, 50 per cent of your nation. It is sort work is done.” of like the TV Crace’s first book, Continent (1986), took him show Friends, to full-time writing — after a couple of years but with children volunteering in Sudan and time at the BBC, he have never seen Sikander awake. Dusty by tradition. The and minus the was a freelancer for a decade — and he has rebeige and well-fed, he sleeps unruffled rootless are free to cheesiness and the mained in that world since. despite the heat, the hustle, the noise of soar. sex. Back-up parents “I tried freelance journalism. Earlier, it was rickshaw drivers calling out to potential There are two difficulmust fulfil certain cri6,000 words at a time,” he says. “Now I must customers and the footsteps of thousands ties though. And both interia — they must have write 80,000-odd words to finish a novel. Jourmarching past. Inevitably, a bit of his tongue volve answers to questions. I kids around the same age as nalism is a meal made of lots of starters; writmanages to escape his mouth and it seems have now lived in Gurgaon and yours and, more importantly, the ing a novel is the main course.” like, in his own way, not only is Sikander unin- worked in Delhi for six years. I lived in Mumkids must be friends; and they must have the Life has changed in lots of ways that chanterested in the lives of the people stepping bai for seven years before that. Belfast before same open-door policy as you and a similar nel Crace’s dystopian anxieties. over him, he is actually pulling a face at them. I that. Noida for a short while before that, after value system, as it were. It’s a set-up where it is “Things are different today, more difficult,” call him Sikander because, for the last few two years in business school in Mumbai. A perfectly acceptable to message the WhatsApp says Crace of the current dystopia. “Life was months, every morning I have found his su- year in Ahmedabad before that. And three group of other parents in the evening and ask, easier for me, in terms of jobs, space, lifestyle, pine form outside the Sikanderpur Metro sta- years in Chennai before that. The hardest ques- “Have any of you seen my child today?” And inmoney, etc. I could be a hippie and manage. I tion. A fortnight ago though, Sikander went tion I am asked is where I am from. I used to evitably, she would have been fed, entertained managed till I got a family, settled down missing. After failing to spot him all answer it with a longwinded “Well, and generally looked after. It used to take a vilaround 40. But my kids don’t want to be 67, week, and increasingly worried originally I am from Kerala, but I…” lage to raise a child. For the rootless, it takes a they want to be 27.” about what might have happened and by the time I reach Chennai or gated community to raise a child. hy have I agreed to write most acutely.

Crace’s nostalgia for the natural beauty of to him, I asked the parking guy if Ahmedabad, I realise that I have Yet, despite this closeness, these friendships Permanent Address another book, you ask “I write about the way in which land is sto- the English countryside reflects a North Lonhe’d seen him. He hadn’t either. Evbrought the questioner to glassy- too are transient. People change jobs, move cireminds yourself. Fearalways decreases len,” he says, speaking specifically of Harvest, don childhood at the frontlines of the conflict ery morning I’d hold my breath and eyed regret and all he is wishing for ties, and you are left to find other friends and of death where a pre-industrial English village faces between development and the pastoral. as you write me another scan for him. He wasn’t visible anyis the ability to go back in time and other parents. wealthy interlopers. “This is about how people book.”

Describing his idyllic childhood, he laughs: where. It was unsettling. not ask that question. My answer I do see that this is the human equivalent of Jim Crace starts simply, as if he is about to turn on each other in times of trouble and “If you love your parents, you turn into them.”

Sikander isn’t my dog, but in wasn’t long because I intended to a mongrel existence. And I cherish its cultural break it all down for me — then reveals an in- blame immigrants, about communities.

The next project takes him far away from many ways he feels mine. In the noconfound. It was long because I vacuum. Not because it does not impose much tense clutch of ideas that demonstrate the am- These themes are explored in medieval times.” the idyllic. “I am writing a stage play next,” he madic urban life that a lot of us lead, it be- wasn’t sure where exactly I was from. It is mys- on you, but because you can fill it up with what bitiousness of his oeuvre. I first saw Crace, the A self-proclaimed fabulist who started out says. “Back to theatre. It is focused around the comes imperative to clutch on to some tifying, this business of belonging some- you like. And it is perhaps this fraternity of the 67-year-old author of the Booker shortlisted as a political realist, Crace deals in big, bold re- Minotaur legend, how civilization needs symbols of non-transience. Living in a city you where. Now when people ask where I am from, mongrels that draws me to Sikander. Who, I Harvest (2013), impress an audience at The Hin- alities in his 13 works of fiction (novels and col- scapegoats to blame. But my minotaur is fejust happened to move to — to which you have I just answer with “here”. am happy to report, was discovered fast asleep du’s Lit for Life festival in Chennai this January, lections of short stories), for which he has won male; a her. The creature looks beastly, but it is no linguistic, cultural or familial roots — there The other difficulty is in filling forms. at 10pm on Wednesday night. His schedule when he read a striking paragraph he had The Guardian Fiction Prize, the Whitbread a woman!” is so little that you can lay claim to, that you Whether it is for a passport or PAN number, seems to have changed. Perhaps he’s with difthought to pick out from co-panellist Abra- Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle It is this kind of fun that takes readers back, grab whatever you get. I don’t mean for this to government agencies are obsessed with the ferent friends now. ham Verghese’s novel in explaining his own Award, among many other accolades. It is again and again, to Crace. invoke pity, because rootlessness is great. You notion of capturing your permanent address. ideas of craft. A similar attention to killer de- hard to pick out one book as less significant are neither drawn by nostalgia nor tied down I look at the box for Permanent Address in baf- t@veenavenugopal tails is evident when I meet him at the Jaipur than another, the stories are novel-sized in rajni george is reader at Granta and literary editor Literature Festival, where he observes the fun their scope. They are set in invented conti- at Punctum

Increasingly in urban India there is a society whose permanent address is ‘here and now’

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Whether set in an invented continent or a distant past, author Jim Crace’s stories are deeply rooted in realism

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and author of The Mother-in-Law which releases later this month

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

The activist How long can we be dependent on the drive and honesty of activists like Ashraf, expecting them always to rise out of the broken systems to inspire us

The unsettled Riot victims in Muzaffarnagar shifting out of a relief camp in Loi village pti

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Omair Ahmad is an author. His last book was on Bhutan

met Ashraf (name changed) a few months back in distressing circumstances. Like most other residents of Delhi, I knew that tens of thousands of people had fled their homes after the Muzaffarnagar riots. And like most other Delhi residents I had no idea what to do about it.

A friend, though, put me in touch with an NGO working with those who had fled their homes in fear. My wife and two of our friends — Vivek and Ruchika — decided we would drive down to see the camps.

It was there that we met Ashraf. He had done a survey of the camps around the area, doing a needs assessment, finding out where the people had come from, and under which conditions they had fled their homes. He also did an informal check of how many residents were in each camp, how many supplies had been received, and thus a rough breakup of how much had gone where — and how much had also disappeared between the donors and those in whose names a few unscrupulous men picked up the donations and pocketed them. This is work that he did on his own time, at his own cost, and while he guided us from camp to camp, explaining where one political party had managed to assert itself, and where another had done so, we asked him how he came to be involved in the work he was doing.

He shrugged, at first, not really ready to open up to strangers.

But it is hard to walk through one miserable camp after another and remain strangers. His story came out in small bursts. He was a local boy, not really from an educated background.

His father had been marginally literate and had seen no reason to waste his money on Ashraf’s education. Ashraf wanted to study, though, and he did small jobs that allowed him to get through school, earn a degree. It

was more his drive than the degree that would he told the story, and then we were at another have mattered. He had an office job, a salary, camp. Three of the families there had lost relabut something pushed him in other direc- tives in the riots, water from the recent rains tions. It started with medical shops, illegal puddled around the makeshift camps set up drugs and a small piece of empowerment on forestland. Faeces floated in the water, and called the Right to Information Act. children ran around. Disgusted, Ashraf made Ashraf’s small town had, a while back, start- a short speech, saying the children should be ed experiencing a small uptick of violence. in school. “Look at me,” he said, “I had nothing, Prohibited drugs were freely available, and not even a supportive father, but I worked, I young men had started sampling them. Ini- prayed, I can stand on my own two feet.” tially it was merely a cause of hilarity and anIt is an image that stays with me. A month noyance, and then it transformed into ago, I was at a conference on Countering Viostreet-fights and stabbings. A few young men lent Extremism in South Asia and South East died. Nobody acted though. Everybody knew Asia. We discussed the issues in Afghanistan, that a few medical stores were illePakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh gally selling drugs, but the police and the Philippines. The one big had been paid off, the local poliquestion for many of us was what tician was curiously quiet, and explained Indian exceptionalWhat explains who cared about a few good-forism? How was it that in the midst Indian excepnothing boys? of all this fury and violence, India tionalism in the Ashraf cared. Maybe he saw was affected only very slightly in midst of all this fury himself in them — a young man comparison to all the others? To and violence with few opportunities, he too me part of the answer lay in Ashmight have fallen into such habraf, and the systems that allowed its, had he not had his determinasomeone like him to stand tall, tion. Ashraf filled out an RTI stand proud and, in the midst of request, asking whether the drugstores had tragedy and deprivation, assert that there the proper licences for the medicines they were ways to challenge injustice in the world were stocking, and how many prohibited and triumph against it. Unfortunately, some drugs they were stocking. The education he of the question comes from that image as well. had received was enough for him to painstak- The thousands in the camps had fled because a ingly state the details of his enquiry, and hav- broken system had not protected them from ing paid the ₹10 fee, he waited for his answer. murder and rape, nor had shown any initiaThe answer came in the form of an official tive to hold the guilty to account. How long enquiry team. The drugstore owners, utterly can we rely on the drive and honesty of activcomplacent that they had bribed the right offi- ists like Ashraf, expecting them always to rise cials, found themselves shut down. Unwilling, out of broken systems, find their way on their or unable, to believe that this had all been en- own, inspire us, while the systems stay broken, gineered by a young man on his own, they and we do little to fix them? blamed their downfall on scheming rivals.

Ashraf did not enlighten them. He grinned as t @OmairTAhmad

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Eerie does it In this show Chintan Upadhyay revives his stuffed toys, making them less erotic and more poignant

Early bird Eager diners gather at Chinese eateries, in Kolkata, the prawn wafers and pork momos run out in a few hours ashoke chakrabarty

Missing fromartist Chinatown The shocking As Kolkata’s Chineselatest population dwindles, we discover story of immigration gone wrong Chintan Upadhyay’s woollen installations highlighta his politics and idiosyncrasies and a community straddling two worlds

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t first glance, the tony Gallery Espace in New Friends olkata’s love affairColony with appears Chinese to be hosting a sale of second-hand food begins at daybreak.

In a lane woollens.

However, on closer near the Lal Bazar police station,in-a spection, one realises this is hawkers not a random group of Chinese sit bycolthe lection, a serious statement on thechicken plight wayside,but keeping their pork momos, of India’s and marginalised by artist Chintan Upsausages prawn wafers warm in steel adhyay (42), whose to solo ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron — steamers.

Known loyal customers as the Redux’ recently breakfast, opened at the the food Delhisells gallery. famed Chinese rapidcardigans ly. Woollen By 8am, sweaters, the vendors have alland but sweatdisapshirts peared.lie Forstuffed the resttoofresemble the day, it portly is hard bodies to find scattered across the gallery floor. an eerie a significant Chinese imprint in Is anitarea still reconstruction of second-class sleeper coachreferred to as the city’s Old Chinatown.

Thoes that rattle through Uttar Pradesh and Bihar mas Chen, a 36-year-old mechanical engineer, on their metros, filled with grew up way hereto inthe Tiretta Bazar.

When heIndia’s walks working class travelling in the hopehe of finding around the neighbourhood today, is often jobs?

The brutality theallsituation is heightleft asking — where of have my people gone? ened viewer encouraged the Tomwhen Lai’s the family had ismoved out of by Tiretta artist a video that is playing Bazar to in view the 1950s, butwork he remembers that in the corner oftime, the gallery — one is forced his far-left grandmother’s even the large backthen walk over the ‘bodies’. yard to and living room of their Park Street “I love thatwitness my works are impromptu interactive and house would several paropen to interpretation. ‘bodies’ lying on ties. “Fifty or 70 peopleThese would suddenly land the asleep,rice or dead, they could up. floor We’d could cook be noodles, and momos tobe at the train station or at a riot scene… gether.

It would be a community feast.

Now I want accentuate the sense abandonment meet to someone Chinese onceof a month, maybe and denigrated status,” says Upadhyay, two,”their says Lai, a designer of retail spaces in the who based in Delhishould but hails fromasPartapur, city. is Lai’s revelation come no suraprise. smallThere townjust in Rajasthan.

“I also wantoftoChiexaren’t enough Indians plore the complexities of names given to meet. these nese origin left to party with or even trains, like ‘Shramjeevi Express’ or Indian‘Garib From 50,000-strong in 1960, Kolkata’s Rath’.

It iscommunity a convenient shrank way to label the proleChinese to less than tariat distinguish themsome fromoptithe 10,000soinwe thecan early 2000s. While Rajdhani Express of travellers,” adds Upadhyay. mistic members the community prefer to believe that they still number 3,500-4,000 in No to controversy thestranger city, official estimates in 2013 revealed that The word used often describe Upadhyay is the number might beto closer to 2,000.

Though ‘idiosyncratic’.

He hascalls previously courted conthis drop in numbers for a closer examintroversy works. He headlines ation, it iswith firsthis an occasion formade nostalgia. when sat in and asked to Ritahe Chen, 60,the hasbuff witnessed thepeople slow erasmear withinfluence saffron, thus the sure ofhim Chinese fromreclaiming Kolkata. A haircolour ritualistic manner thenumerous height of dresserin fora 45 years, she talks ofatthe the Gujarat riots.salons Another he made Chinese-owned of time the past.

Oncenews the

for impersonating a pregnant woman and spine. The school uniforms tell of the systemic dressing in a house-dress.

He has re- violence preferredupdestination for many a even Kolkata that is only oftenfitting embedded in our educaland, it seemed that the communiclaimed old cars,for seta them on fire turned woman looking bouffant andand a bob, only tion system. the “Besides, uniforms are that maty acquired namethe Hakka, a word that space into a garden . remain. Chen re- chine-made, a handful of the parlours and it marks the transition of the roughly translates to ‘stranger’.

Paul Chung, While his piecesserved are unconmembers theperformance sumptuous food at the child, fromofthe of home to Association, the outside president theworld Indian-Chinese ventional has keptrestaurant. afloat withA work that world,” legendary he Nanking favourite he explains. talks about how Chinese businessman Tong pleases the commercial market some Achi haunt of Bollywood stars such as aswell Raj — Kapoor In yet another part of the we encounarrived in Calcutta withgallery 110 Hakka labourmay argueKumar, that heNanking is best known for histopaintand Dilip was forced shut ter pretty hand-knitted ers in 1782 toboxes set up showcasing a sugarcane factory for the ings sculptures of after glitzy, larger-than-life shopand in the late 1970s a bitter property woollens that seem to have started off as a carBritish. The 72-year-old settles comfortably ingenetically modified babies comehad in all dispute. Bentinck Street, shethat recalls, an digan or capbefore for a child butahave turned into to his couch making comparison, “As shapes androw sizes, multiple arms, heads unending of with Chinese shoe shops.

Just a some formwork like ethic a creature with large far as fantasy a migrant was concerned, and legs.ofFor these collaboquarter these areworks now Upadhyay in business.

“They ears a doll-like “In theseVery, works they or were a lot likefigure. the Punjabis. veryI rated with artistabroad,” Manish she Sharma, a Rajasthani wanted have all settled explains. to explore the idea of love, which is ofdetermined.” miniatures babies For Chen,painter, ‘abroad’who is a covered familiar the place.

Her tenWith shown bypassing the knitting of woollens in Ineach decade, the number of with his interpretations of seven Indiansiblings have Chinese migrant parents, son and six of her dia. It has all but disappeared workers in Calcutta began to miniatures.

Thetobabies gainedsuch a as Austra- rise. But much all immigrated destinations among our middle class. Forcrew, the like Tong Achi’s original traditional layer and to their global, lia, Hong Kong Macau.

“In fantasy forms “those I approached says Chung, comingpeoin hybrid appearance.

Calcutta, it is very difficult to have ple I knew to knit that never came heresomething to stay. They For this solo she he has to These ‘bodies’ lying captured a good future,” says.chosen “It is betfantasy.

Soon I was came heretheir to earn money and rerevive a genre of work that he first ter if they leave.” flooded with forms —allI turn.” The yearstrange 1949 changed on the floor could Bentinck Street had created in 1996, during his final picked best of the lot,”Party he says. that. Asthe the Communist of beunending asleep, orrow dead an of year Master’s Waiting in lineexhibition at MahaThese are puncChina sculptural establishedworks the People’s ReChinese shoe shops, raja Sayajirao University’s Faculty There are many families like tuated series ofclear performance public,by it abecame that no only a quarter of of Fine in Arts, Vadodara.

Upadhyay Chen’s Kolkata.

Straddling two photographs where people atwarm homecoming awaited which remain created large phallus-shaped ‘soft disparate worlds, they all mentempt to wear of these fanthose who had some been lured by jobs toys’ that produced quite a last stir among his tastically shaped tion waits in visa offices that woollens.

“These act lost as overseas.

“That’s the day we more and the staff, fillers, almost weeks conservative and queues incolleagues passport oflike process drawings,” laments says Upour motherland,” who show with their cheeks fices left thathis stretch for months.

If burning. adhyay of theChung. work. Families that would strictHe the erotic stuffedtheir toysaccounts, again in ly One onerevisited is to collectively consider pop into and everyone’s insistquestion upon thethat usemay of Mandarin Canto1999, during a show at thethat National Gallery of mind it might be fair to assume the narrative who will buytoand collect works nese atishome began send theirthese children to Modern Mumbai, where he added little Kolkata’sArt, Indian-Chinese community is athat of that consist mainly of second-hand English-medium schools.

Calcutta’swoollens.

Chinese surprise feature — those who to “I immigration gone wrong.

Thesecretly steady tried exodus think there is a market.

There are intrepid community might have even mastered adaptouch the ‘toys’ embarrassed by a loud only proves that were for this minority, seamless in- collectors, not justfor from abroad butaalso Intation if it weren’t October 1962, dateinthat rendition of some slightly Bollywood tegration has always provedrisqué a distant dream. dia. must believe in our own collectors and saw We India go to war with China. number that went from the portable re- our Discrimination, lackoff of opportunity and unfaown art markets; international exPaul Chung was still while in school when the Chicord player hidden insideare thejust toy. some of the posure vourable circumstances is good,their it does not bode that we nese launched offensive.

Hiswell classmates For this solo cited at Gallery Espace, Upadhyay varied reasons by those boarding the only lap uphim what with aIndian ‘foreignand returnridiculed forcomes not being pashas the but stuffed by making them nextrevived plane out, theytoys all agree — there’s no ed’ stamp.

It isstones one ofwhen the many disquieting assersby threw he walked down the less eroticaway andfrom morehistory. poignant. Another work pects running our globalised world,” says Upadhyay. street.ofSome like Monica Liu, however, had it at Descendents the show comprises woollen school uni- worse. of the Hakka people in China, (The exhibition tilltime, May Monica 31 at Gallery EsOnly nine runs at the and her forms, which have populace been cutofand stuffed till pace, the Indian-Chinese Kolkata seems Delhi.) family were picked up from their home, imthey appear to resemble which dangle to have movement in itsmeat, blood.

Known for prisoned in Shillong Jail for a fortnight and is a Delhi-based art writer off swords and sendacross shiversthe down the viewer’s their migrations Chinese main- georgina then sent maddox to the Central Internment Camp in

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Rajasthan’s Deoli. Held without trial, they and This, in some ways, is just the tip of Peter’s insurance company, Jimmy, a permanent Cana few thousand others were forced to stay in discontent. He and other Tangra residents be- adian resident, speaks fondly of a Hakka Chithe desert camp for five years. “We were given lieve that you only need to walk through Chi- nese community that might have its roots in food, but no education. We had lights, but no natown to measure governmental Kolkata but now flourishes in Toronto. Over a fans. We were completely forgotten by the In- discrimination. Despite paying taxes, they ask, series of emails, he talks of the several Hakka dian government,” says Monica. By the time “Why do our streets have no lamps?” James restaurants in nearby neighbourhoods and of she was released, it became apparent that Chung, who once had a leather business in retired Chinese citizens who gather to gossip most members of her community were look- Tangra, has since spent the last seven years in about the young. The community has also ing for a ticket out of India, one that proved Sweden and Canada. Back in the country for a been catalogued in a phone directory and the too expensive for her. “Think about this,” she hiatus, he says, “Unlike other minorities who guest lists for weddings are said to now far exsays, “My husband has nine brothers and two have benefited from reservations and quotas, ceed similar occasions in distant Kolkata. Tosisters. But only he stayed back. What does the Indian-Chinese are completely ignored.” ronto, it would seem, is the new Tangra. that tell you?”

Arguing that the Chinese are effectively disBack in Chinatown, Fredrick Liao has sacriMonica’s life is, an in adolescent many ways, tale Inof couraged from thinking of themselves as Indi- ficed the arguably superior nightlife, transf you weren’t in anorth dogged perseverance. not chances having an, Chung says, “We go to the same schools. port systems and sanitation of Taiwan to help dia between the ’80sFrom and ’90s, enough forhaven’t airfare,heard she now owns six We have dal with our meals. We try our best to run his father’s restaurant. As he scrolls down are money that you of Mastram, restaurants a beauty parlour.

On the walls be regular Indian citizens, but at every step we his Facebook profile, he points to a recent picone of and the most prolific writers of Hindi of her office hang of herMastram, hobnobbing erotica.

So you canpictures either watch deb- are reminded of our difference. So if you feel ture. Twenty young Indian-Chinese friends with thefilmmaker late former chief minister Basu you are not wanted, you’ll either fight or you’ll have gathered at the airport. They are bidding utante Akhilesh Jaiswal’sJyoti fictionaland Teresa.

Ordering thereleases staff atnext her go away.” ised Mother biopic of the author that a mate farewell. He explains, “Only those with Tangra restaurant, Monica says the “empire” week, or, as the film’s controversial tagline businesses stay. Everyone else leaves sooner or she has created should be reason for Toronto is the new Tangra suggests, quiz your paapa, chacha enough or tau who later. As a result I have more friends in Canada her to pored stay put. not everyone havechildren most likely overBut dog-eared copies After having suffered prejudice even keener than I do in Kolkata.” from the area is quite as fortunate. hiding under their bedsheets.

There’s a third than the one described by Chung, Jimmy LeA locality in which east Kolkata, housed option as well, is to getTangra your hands on a ong felt that flight was a better option than For those left behind majority of the populationup that had fight. The 31-year-old says that while growing No amount of travel, it seems, can help memcopy from any Chinese small bookstore north, Outleaving of the box Akhilesh Jaiswal put up steamy preferred over various otherwouldn’t destina- up, where it isthe stillcity available.

But Jaiswal Chinatown was always a cause for bers of the Indian-Chinese community escape Mastram posters on Mumbai’s buses tions.

Home that. to over 350people tanneries, mostit of recommend “Many who read in discomfort.

“Outside that comthe contradictions of their dual them Chinese-owned, thevery locality had rightthe ’80s thought it was well-written.

It fort zone, I was stereotyped as eiheritage. Fiona Leong left Kolkata fully earnederotica itself the name was more and veryChinatown. poetic. As Ait1996 got ther North-eastern Nepalese. says the term ‘Sheilaor Ki Jawani’ — now a Katrifor Scotland in 2010. After sucSupreme Courtpeople directive disturbed popular, other started usingthe thepeace. name Children andnumber adults would na Kaif item as welltease as a C-grade film cessfully pursuing a Master’s deA Hakka Chinese Citing environmental the Mastram to cash in on itsconcerns, success and theapex con- me and saycame that Ifrom ate cockroach— probably Mastram. gree, she worked as a financial community with court ordered that theit area’s tanneries be es.”And tent deteriorated.

Now is no longer erotica, He yet, remembers nobody people knows mockthe real Mastram. advisor with a bank in Aberdeen roots in Kolkata is moved outside the city limits.isLeather manuit is XXX porn. The language very bad and ing features, eyeson the pubThe his books have his no “chinky” information for two years. When people would now flourishing in facturer Peter Liu graphic. was one of the read worst-affectthe writing is too If you it you’ll and his nose.

Theare ridicule, lisher orflat where they printed.heWhen Jaiswal ask where she was from, they weToronto ed.

“You‘Oh can’t solve thehappening’,” problem by he simply be like, shit, what’s says, says, made feel that I from booktried “always to scoop out me information ren’t satisfied when she said Inallotting landblush. in some new leather complex,” didn’t with a slight belong they and that I should shop owners, feigned ignorance. Other dia. Their confusion would only heAbout says. “Relocation requires my move two years ago, Jaiswalfinance boughtand 30 Masfast as I could.”

Jim-time suspect Hindi away pulp as fiction writers of the deepen when she spoke Chinese. little local business could neverstation realisetothat tram copies from a Delhi railway use my left Kolkata he was the author was awhen bank clerk or a19, professor. But This “identity crisis”, she says, cost.”

Electricity hishis manufacturing as props for thissupply movie.to But introduction first going to Mumbai, thenmovie Taiwan “I had alall this is hearsay.

Jaiswal’s is a—tribute to “was Made a shoestring budget, the is altheonbiggest disadvantage of film moving unit wasbooks severed in 2002 Peter has since ways wantedthe to the dates backand to his to original be in a place where there are overseas.”

Mastram who started ready making news for unique promotionDressed in aitssky-blue salwar kabeen trying hard keep hisHe head teenage years intoBhopal. gotabove water. people who looked likeand me”not — and that meez, this series hisseeing successors al tactics.

There Fiona isn’t asays trailer on TV yet, 25-year-old she returned to He eight children andfrom most aof them now many members his has first-ever Mastram hisuse Indian-Hakka commu- Kolkata whoof still the pseudonym. because after they three couldn’t afford it. But Youyears because shethe needed live overseas. asks friend who Peter passed it dejectedly, on with “When you nity were moving to Toronto, he finally In his film, he has showndecidMas- to Tube promo a catchy

by YolevYo be with herfeaturing parents and sister.song “At some see such reviews. troubles“We in front of big your eyes, why glowing became ed to settle in Canada. tram to be a regular guy based in Honey Singh has already clocked over 60 lakh el, I always knew I’d come back to be with my Hindi pulp fiction would you want to stay?” fans. I remember boys waiting for an auto claims forchilan family,” Manali with a wifeadjuster and two hits. In Mumbai she says. around 800 BEST buses have writers of theWorking time as the new Mastrams to arrive,” he dren, who aspires to write Hindi been adorned Mastram’s deOften, familybyties tend to saucy be theposters strongest suspect Mastram says. The film’s sexually charged literature but ends up writing draw. spite aSeeing Shiv Sena diktat take them down. that his fourto siblings had left for was a bank clerk or YouTube trailer also shows a few porn for a living. Newcomer Ra- destinations “They said it will corrupt youngsters, so weWilrelike Los Angeles and Toronto, a professor army jawans sneaking a peak into hul Bagga plays the role of Mas- liam moved it. Hamaara lakhinkaKolkata ghaata Wong decidedtwo-three to stay back its pages. “I heard it was very poptram and the wife is played by with ho gaya,” Jaiswal He says with a laugh.

He isn’t his parents. took control of Shanghai ular among army officers. Those Tara Alisha Berry. Jaiswal says that Co, worried parents similar reservaa dry about cleaning shop having his father had set up in staying at the border didn’t have while tracking the real Mastram 1936. tionsWong aboutsays theirthat wards watching it. “Whoever even though he has never television or anything else for entertainment, proved impossible, his cast and crew were fa- been wantstotohis see the film will find a way for sure, village in China, he doesn’t believe so they’d read Mastram,” he says. Typically, miliar with his books. “I tried doing some re- there whether it reason meansfor going secretlyinheritance or in the is any his Chinese each Mastram would be around 20-25 pages search but it was going nowhere. I decided to and open,” he says confidently. for his“My parents, Indian roots to be in As conflict. chiland contain a series of short stories. Back in give up and focus on a fictional biopic. I was dren they’re relieved filmcomfortable is finally reand I grew to upknow here. the We feel the day it cost ₹10. Today, it is around ₹30. okay doing that because what if the real guy’s in leasing. have politely India.”Although His elderother son isrelatives studying at the Shri The plots of Mastram’s stories were usually life was not interesting enough for a film,” Ram asked,College “Have you made an adult of Commerce, Newmovie?”

Delhi, while driven by a steamy affair at the workplace or says the 28-year-old, who has previously co- theThe jury isone stillgoes out on as the censors are younger to that school in Chandigarh fantasies about a seductive neighbour. Jaiswal written Gangs of Wasseypur. yet to see badminton the film. Jaiswal it will be and plays at thehopes national level. passedlike without anymusic, cuts. Apart from an expli“They Indian Indian films, they cit scene involving a bunch of schoolboys have an Indian palate.

I just wish they also reading a Mastram in a hostel, he believes he’s knew a little Mandarin.”

Desi blood William Wong, who runs a dry cleaning shop, wishes his children knew inFortunately safe territory. claims filmmembers is much forHe Wong andhis other Mandarin cut Kolkata’s women looking for a bouffant and a bob used to flock to a bit of Mandarin Tangra’s parlours tamer than the recent Sunny Leone-starrer Raof his community, there has recently been talk gini₹100 MMScrore 2, which included a shower scene.

“It of being spent to revive the city’s willand get an A certificate, which fine. Afterofall, old new Chinatowns.

The is brainchild a it is a film about a porn writer.

If that gets a U Singaporean conglomerate called Buzzmedia, certificate it will plans be disappointing,” he says. the ‘Cha’ Project to reopen several shutJaiswal maintains its heart, Mastram tered Chinese eateriesthat andateven seeks to revive is essentially a slice-of-life aboutlanguage a writer.

Pei May, the last survivingfilm Chinese But if people to the theatre by the school in the are city.lured But despite the optimism promise some steamy scenes,not then so beare it. about theof injection of funds, many “For a small film like this, it is important that convinced that this will staunch the decline of people come to watch it. populace.

If they loveAsit28-yearfor the Kolkata’s Indian-Chinese adult content, okay.

And if they lovea it for old Terence Yehit’s puts it, “Kolkata is like slow, the story, that is great too,” he says. outdated gadget and everyone wants a faster the Monica ultimateLiu compliment, belifeHowever, nowadays.” imagines a he possilieves, wouldwhere be if the elusive owned ble scenario there’d beMastram no Chinese inup to his work seeing the film.

“I don’t habitants left inafter Kolkata.

“That’s the day even think that is possible, but if it does happen, it I’ll have to run.”

Behind the pen name would be too cool.”

Mastram tells of a man shreevatsa nevatia is a freelance writer based whosix dreams of writing Full menu Monica Liu, who owns restaurants today, along with her cousin Call of home Fredrick Liao abandoned the comforts of Taiwan and returned to Hindi literature Peter Liu Kolkata to run his father’s restaurant (all photos: ashoke chakrabarty) in Kolkatachaudhuri mohini

The real Sheila ki jawani

He introduced a generation of men to erotica. Yet the author of the Mastram books remains unknown. Akhilesh Jaiswal chronicles his many splendours in a forthcoming film

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Heave ho! Stones, acting as weights, suspended from ropes help lower or raise the cantilever Chinese ďŹ shing nets, 11 of which remain in Fort Kochi, Kerala

Shadow play Dusk at Puthuvypeen near Fort Kochi leaves the landscape in an ethereal glow

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Balancing act Fishermen stand on the wooden planks of a fishnet to raise it out of the water, near Vallarpadam container terminal

Small fry Anchovies and other small fish are the usual catch

Gone fishers The Chinese nets are essential to the vistas of Kerala’s Fort Kochi, but few fishermen still use them

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Tug of survival The fishing nets are raised out of water every few hours to check on the haul

hinese fishing nets in Kerala’s littoral Fort Kochi proudly testify to ancient trading ties between far-flung shores. Hundreds of fishermen once worked these ingenious devices, until more modern ways of fishing took over.

Only about a 100 fishermen still use the Chinese fishing nets in the Fort Kochi and Vypeen areas. With them survives the expertise of operating the traditional contraptions which, according to some versions of history, were brought by the Chinese explorer Zheng He. Recent research points to Portuguese Casado settlers from Macau though. Five, sometimes six fishermen are needed to operate each net.

In the 1980s, Fort Kochi alone had 21 Chinese fishing nets.

Local fishermen say the tide turned from 1995 onwards. Cost and scarcity of teakwood led many to opt for steel and motorised versions of the net. Fish are fewer now after the constant dredging of the shipping channel. An activity passed down several generations no longer holds the same allure.

Only 11 nets remain in Fort Kochi and nine in Puthuvypeen, of which four are motorised and can be operated by a team of just two fishermen.

With the steadily dwindling number of Chinese fishnets, Kerala’s coastlines might be seeing the last of them. For the seaside folk of Kochi, there is no time to mourn this dying skill as the search for new forms of livelihood ensues.

thulasi kakkat

In the net A fisherman appraises the day’s catch; over the decades fish have become scarce

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Eerie does it In this show Chintan Upadhyay revives his stuffed toys, making them less erotic and more poignant

Early bird Eager diners gather at Chinese eateries, in Kolkata, the prawn wafers and pork momos run out in a few hours ashoke chakrabarty

Missing fromartist Chinatown The shocking As Kolkata’s Chineselatest population dwindles, we discover of immigration gone wrong Chintan Upadhyay’s woollen installations highlighta story his politics and idiosyncrasies and a community straddling two worlds

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t first glance, the tony Gallery Espace in New appears olkata’s loveFriends affairColony with Chinese to be hosting a sale of second-hand food begins at daybreak.

In a lane woollens.

However, on closer near the Lal Bazar police station,in-a spection, one realises this is hawkers not a random group of Chinese sit by colthe lection, a serious statement on thechicken plight wayside,but keeping their pork momos, of India’s and marginalised by artist Chintan Upsausages prawn wafers warm in steel adhyay (42), whoseto solo ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron — steamers.

Known loyal customers as the Redux’ recentlybreakfast, opened atthe thefood Delhisells gallery. famed Chinese rapidcardigans ly. Woollen By 8am, sweaters, the vendors have alland but sweatdisapshirts peared.lie Forstuffed the resttoofresemble the day, it portly is hard bodies to find scattered across the gallery floor. an eerie a significant Chinese imprint in Is anitarea still reconstruction of second-class sleeper coachreferred to as the city’s Old Chinatown.

Thoes that rattle through Uttar Pradesh and Bihar mas Chen, a 36-year-old mechanical engineer, on their metros, filled with grew up way hereto inthe Tiretta Bazar.

When heIndia’s walks working class travelling in the hopehe of is finding around the neighbourhood today, often jobs?

The brutality of theallsituation is heightleft asking — where have my people gone? ened viewer encouraged by the Tomwhen Lai’s the family had is moved out of Tiretta artist view1950s, a video that is playing Bazar to in the butwork he remembers that in the far-left corner oftime, the gallery — one is forced his grandmother’s even the large backthen walk over the ‘bodies’. yard to and living room of their Park Street “I love thatwitness my works areimpromptu interactive parand house would several open to interpretation. lying on ties. “Fifty or 70 peopleThese would‘bodies’ suddenly land the be asleep,rice or dead, they could up. floor We’d could cook noodles, and momos tobe at the train station or at a riot scene… gether.

It would be a community feast.

Now I want accentuate the sense abandonment meet to someone Chinese onceof a month, maybe and denigrated status,” says Upadhyay, two,”their says Lai, a designer of retail spaces in the who is based in Delhishould but hails fromasPartapur, city. Lai’s revelation come no suraprise. small townjust in aren’t Rajasthan.

“I also wantoftoChiexThere enough Indians plore the complexities of names given tomeet. these nese origin left to party with or even trains, like ‘Shramjeevi Express’ or Indian‘Garib From 50,000-strong in 1960, Kolkata’s Rath’.

It iscommunity a convenientshrank way to label the proleChinese to less than tariat distinguish themsome fromoptithe 10,000soinwe thecan early 2000s. While Rajdhani Express of travellers,” adds Upadhyay. mistic members the community prefer to believe that they still number 3,500-4,000 in No to controversy thestranger city, official estimates in 2013 revealed that The word used often describe Upadhyay is the number might beto closer to 2,000.

Though ‘idiosyncratic’.

He hascalls previously courted conthis drop in numbers for a closer examintroversy works. He headlines ation, it iswith first his an occasion formade nostalgia. when sat in and asked to Ritahe Chen, 60,the hasbuff witnessed the people slow erasmear withinfluence saffron, thus the sure of him Chinese from reclaiming Kolkata. A haircolour ritualistic manner thenumerous height of dresserin fora 45 years, she talks ofatthe the Gujarat riots.salons Another he made Chinese-owned of time the past.

Oncenews the

for impersonating a pregnant woman and spine. The school uniforms tell of the systemic dressing in a house-dress.

He has re- violence preferredupdestination for many a even Kolkata that is only oftenfitting embedded in our educaland, it seemed that the communiclaimed old cars,for seta them on fire turned woman looking bouffant andand a bob, only tion system. the “Besides, uniforms are that maty acquired namethe Hakka, a word that space into a garden . remain. Chen re- chine-made, a handful of the parlours and it marks the transition of the roughly translates to ‘stranger’.

Paul Chung, While his pieces are unconmembers theperformance sumptuous food served at the child, fromofthe of home toAssociation, the outside president theworld Indian-Chinese ventional has keptrestaurant. afloat withA work that world,” legendary he Nanking favourite he explains. talks about how Chinese businessman Tong pleases the commercial market some Achi haunt of Bollywood stars such as aswell Raj — Kapoor In yet another part of the we encounarrived in Calcutta withgallery 110 Hakka labourmay argueKumar, that heNanking is best known for histopaintand Dilip was forced shut ter hand-knitted ers inpretty 1782 toboxes set up showcasing a sugarcane factory for the ings sculptures ofafter glitzy, larger-than-life shop and in the late 1970s a bitter property woollens that seem to have started off as a carBritish. The 72-year-old settles comfortably ingenetically modified babies comehad in an all digan dispute. Bentinck Street, shethat recalls, or capbefore for a child butahave turned into to his couch making comparison, “As shapes androw sizes, multiple arms, heads unending of with Chinese shoe shops.

Just a some form like ethic a creature with large far as fantasy a migrant work was concerned, and legs.ofFor these collaboquarter these areworks now Upadhyay in business.

“They ears a doll-like “In theseVery, works they or were a lot likefigure. the Punjabis. veryI rated with artistabroad,” Manish she Sharma, a Rajasthani wanted have all settled explains. to explore the idea of love, which is ofdetermined.” miniatures babies For Chen,painter, ‘abroad’who is a covered familiar the place.

Her tenWith shown bypassing the knitting of woollens in Ineach decade, the number of with his interpretations of seven Indiansiblings have Chinese migrant parents, son and six of her dia. workers It has all but disappeared in Calcutta began to miniatures.

Thetobabies gainedsuch a as Austra- rise. But much all immigrated destinations among our middle class. Forcrew, the like Tong Achi’s original traditional layer and to their global, lia, Hong Kong Macau.

“In fantasy forms “those I approached says Chung, comingpeoin hybrid appearance.

Calcutta, it is very difficult to have ple I knew to knit that never came heresomething to stay. They For this solo she he has to These ‘bodies’ lying captured a good future,” says.chosen “It is betfantasy.

Soon I was came heretheir to earn money and rerevive a genre of work that he first ter if they leave.” flooded with forms —allI turn.” The yearstrange 1949 changed on the floor could Bentinck Street had created in 1996, during his final picked of the lot,”Party he says. that. Asthe thebest Communist of beunending asleep, orrow dead an of year Master’s Waiting in lineexhibition at MahaThese are puncChina sculptural establishedworks the People’s ReChinese shoe shops, raja Sayajirao University’s Faculty There are many families like tuated series ofclear performance public, by it abecame that no only a quarter of of Fine in Arts, Vadodara.

Upadhyay Chen’s Kolkata.

Straddling two photographs where people atwarm homecoming awaited which remain created large phallus-shaped ‘soft disparate worlds, they all mentempt to wear of these fanthose who had some been lured by jobs toys’ that in produced quite a last stir among his tastically shaped tion waits visa offices that woollens.

“These actlost as overseas.

“That’s the day we more and the staff, fillers, almost weeks conservative and queues incolleagues passport oflike process drawings,” laments says Upour motherland,” who show with their cheeks fices left thathis stretch for months.

If burning. adhyay of the work. Families that would strictChung.

He the erotic stuffedtheir toysaccounts, again in ly insist onerevisited is to collectively consider One question pop into and everyone’s upon thethat usemay of Mandarin Canto1999, during a show at thethat National Gallery of mind it might be fair to assume the narrative who will buytoand collect works nese atishome began send theirthese children to Modern Mumbai, where he added a little Kolkata’sArt, Indian-Chinese community is that of that consist mainly of second-hand English-medium schools.

Calcutta’swoollens.

Chinese surprise feature — those who to “I immigration gone wrong.

Thesecretly steady tried exodus think there is a market.

There are intrepid community might have even mastered adaptouch the ‘toys’ were embarrassed by a loud only proves that for this minority, seamless in- collectors, not justfor from abroad butaalso Intation if it weren’t October 1962, dateinthat rendition of some slightly Bollywood tegration has always provedrisqué a distant dream. dia. must believe in our own collectors and saw We India go to war with China. number that went from the portable re- our Discrimination, lackoff of opportunity and unfaown art markets; international exPaul Chung was still while in school when the Chicord player hidden insideare thejust toy.some of the posure vourable circumstances is good,their it does not bode that we nese launched offensive.

Hiswell classmates For this solo cited at Gallery Espace, Upadhyay varied reasons by those boarding the only lap uphim what with aIndian ‘foreignand returnridiculed forcomes not being pashas the but stuffed by making them nextrevived plane out, theytoys all agree — there’s no ed’ stamp.

It isstones one ofwhen the many disquieting assersby threw he walked down the less erotic andfrom morehistory. poignant. Another work pects running away our globalised world,” says Upadhyay. street.ofSome like Monica Liu, however, had it at Descendents the show comprises woollen school uni- worse. of the Hakka people in China, (The Only exhibition May Monica 31 at Gallery Esnine runs at thetilltime, and her forms, which havepopulace been cutofand stuffed till pace, the Indian-Chinese Kolkata seems familyDelhi.) were picked up from their home, imthey appear to resemble which dangle to have movement in itsmeat, blood.

Known for prisoned in Shillong Jail for a fortnight and is a Delhi-based art writer off swords and send shivers down the viewer’s their migrations across the Chinese main- georgina then sent maddox to the Central Internment Camp in

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Rajasthan’s Deoli. Held without trial, they and This, in some ways, is just the tip of Peter’s insurance company, Jimmy, a permanent Cana few thousand others were forced to stay in discontent. He and other Tangra residents be- adian resident, speaks fondly of a Hakka Chithe desert camp for five years. “We were given lieve that you only need to walk through Chi- nese community that might have its roots in food, but no education. We had lights, but no natown to measure governmental Kolkata but now flourishes in Toronto. Over a fans. We were completely forgotten by the In- discrimination. Despite paying taxes, they ask, series of emails, he talks of the several Hakka dian government,” says Monica. By the time “Why do our streets have no lamps?” James restaurants in nearby neighbourhoods and of she was released, it became apparent that Chung, who once had a leather business in retired Chinese citizens who gather to gossip most members of her community were look- Tangra, has since spent the last seven years in about the young. The community has also ing for a ticket out of India, one that proved Sweden and Canada. Back in the country for a been catalogued in a phone directory and the too expensive for her. “Think about this,” she hiatus, he says, “Unlike other minorities who guest lists for weddings are said to now far exsays, “My husband has nine brothers and two have benefited from reservations and quotas, ceed similar occasions in distant Kolkata. Tosisters. But only he stayed back. What does the Indian-Chinese are completely ignored.” ronto, it would seem, is the new Tangra. that tell you?”

Arguing that the Chinese are effectively disBack in Chinatown, Fredrick Liao has sacriMonica’s life is, an in adolescent many ways, a tale Inof couraged from thinking of themselves as Indi- ficed the arguably superior nightlife, transf you weren’t in north dogged perseverance. not chances having an, Chung says, “We go to the same schools. port systems and sanitation of Taiwan to help dia between the ’80sFrom and ’90s, enough forhaven’t airfare,heard she now owns six We have dal with our meals. We try our best to run his father’s restaurant. As he scrolls down are money that you of Mastram, restaurants a beauty parlour.

On the walls be regular Indian citizens, but at every step we his Facebook profile, he points to a recent picone of and the most prolific writers of Hindi of her office hang of herMastram, hobnobbing erotica.

So you canpictures either watch deb- are reminded of our difference. So if you feel ture. Twenty young Indian-Chinese friends with the late former chief minister Basu you are not wanted, you’ll either fight or you’ll have gathered at the airport. They are bidding utante filmmaker Akhilesh Jaiswal’sJyoti fictionaland Teresa.

Ordering the staff atnext her go away.” ised Mother biopic of the author that releases a mate farewell. He explains, “Only those with Tangra restaurant, Monica says the “empire” week, or, as the film’s controversial tagline businesses stay. Everyone else leaves sooner or she has created should be reason for Toronto is the new Tangra suggests, quiz your paapa, chacha enough or tau who later. As a result I have more friends in Canada her to pored stay put. not everyone havechildren most likely overBut dog-eared copies After having suffered prejudice even keener than I do in Kolkata.” from the area is quite as fortunate. hiding under their bedsheets.

There’s a third than the one described by Chung, Jimmy LeA locality in which east Kolkata, housed option as well, is to getTangra your hands on a ong felt that flight was a better option than For those left behind majority of the populationupthat had fight. The 31-year-old says that while growing No amount of travel, it seems, can help memcopy from any Chinese small bookstore north, of the box Akhilesh Jaiswal up steamy preferred over various otherwouldn’t destina- Out where it isthe stillcity available.

But Jaiswal up, leaving Chinatown was put always a cause for bers of the Indian-Chinese community escape posters on Mumbai’s buses tions.

Home that. to over 350people tanneries, mostit of recommend “Many who read in Mastram discomfort.

“Outside that comthe contradictions of their dual them Chinese-owned, thevery locality had rightthe ’80s thought it was well-written.

It fort zone, I was stereotyped as eiheritage. Fiona Leong left Kolkata fully earnederotica itself the name was more and veryChinatown. poetic. As Ait1996 got ther North-eastern Nepalese. says the term ‘Sheilaor Ki Jawani’ — now a Katrifor Scotland in 2010. After sucSupreme Courtpeople directive disturbed popular, other started usingthe thepeace. name Children andnumber adults would na Kaif item as welltease as a C-grade film cessfully pursuing a Master’s deA Hakka Chinese Citing the Mastramenvironmental to cash in on itsconcerns, success and theapex con- me and saycame that Ifrom ate cockroach— probably Mastram. gree, she worked as a financial community with court ordered that theit is area’s tanneries be es.”And tent deteriorated.

Now no longer erotica, He yet, remembers nobody people knows mockthe real Mastram. advisor with a bank in Aberdeen roots in Kolkata is moved outside the city limits.isLeather manuit is XXX porn. The language very bad and ing features, eyeson the pubThe his books have his no “chinky” information for two years. When people would now flourishing in facturer Peter Liu graphic. was one If ofyou the read worst-affectthe writing is too it you’ll and his nose.

The ridicule, lisher orflat where they are printed.he When Jaiswal ask where she was from, they weToronto ed.

“You‘Oh can’t thehappening’,” problem byhe simply be like, shit,solve what’s says, says, made feel that I from booktried “always to scoop out me information ren’t satisfied when she said Inallotting landblush. in some new leather complex,” didn’t with a slight belong they and that I should shop owners, feigned ignorance. Other dia. Their confusion would only heAbout says. “Relocation requires my move two years ago, Jaiswalfinance boughtand 30 Masas fast as I could.”

Jim-time suspect Hindi away pulp fiction writers of the deepen when she spoke Chinese. little local business could neverstation realisetothat tram copies from a Delhi railway use my left Kolkata he was the author was a when bank clerk or a19, professor. But This “identity crisis”, she says, cost.”

Electricity hishis manufacturing as props for thissupply movie.to But introduction first going to Mumbai, then Taiwan “I had alall this is hearsay.

Jaiswal’s movie is a—tribute to “was Made a shoestring budget, the is altheonbiggest disadvantage of film moving unit wasbooks severed in 2002 Peter has since ways wantedthe to the dates backand to his to original be in a place where there are overseas.”

Mastram who started ready making news for unique promotionDressed in aitssky-blue salwar kabeen trying hard keep his teenage years into Bhopal.

Hehead gotabove water. people who looked likeand me”not — and that meez, this series hisseeing successors al tactics.

There Fiona isn’t asays trailer on TV yet, 25-year-old she returned to He eight children andfrom most aof them now many members his has first-ever Mastram hisuse Indian-Hakka commu- Kolkata whoof still the pseudonym. because after they three couldn’t afford it. But Youyears because shethe needed live overseas. asks friend who Peter passed it dejectedly, on with “When you nity were moving to Toronto, he finally In his film, he has showndecidMas- to Tube promo a catchy

by YolevYo be with herfeaturing parents and sister.song “At some see suchreviews. troubles“We in front of big your eyes, why glowing became ed to settle in Canada. tram to be a regular guy based in Honey Singh has already clocked over 60 lakh el, I always knew I’d come back to be with my Hindi pulp fiction would you want to stay?” fans. I remember boys waiting for an auto claims an family,” Manali with a wifeadjuster and twoforchilhits. In Mumbai she says. around 800 BEST buses have writers of theWorking time as the new Mastrams to arrive,” he dren, who aspires to write Hindi been adorned Mastram’s deOften, familybyties tend to saucy be theposters strongest suspect Mastram says. The film’s sexually charged literature but ends up writing draw. spite aSeeing Shiv Sena diktat take them down. that his fourtosiblings had left for was a bank clerk or YouTube trailer also shows a few porn for a living. Newcomer Ra- destinations “They said it will youngsters, so weWilrelike corrupt Los Angeles and Toronto, a professor army jawans sneaking a peak into hul Bagga plays the role of Mas- liam moved it. Hamaara lakhin kaKolkata ghaata Wong decidedtwo-three to stay back its pages. “I heard it was very poptram and the wife is played by with ho gaya,” Jaiswal He says with a laugh.

He isn’t his parents. took control of Shanghai ular among army officers. Those Tara Alisha Berry. Jaiswal says that Co, worried parents similar reservaa dryabout cleaning shop having his father had set up in staying at the border didn’t have while tracking the real Mastram 1936. tionsWong aboutsays theirthat wards watching it. “Whoever even though he has never television or anything else for entertainment, proved impossible, his cast and crew were fa- been wantstotohis seevillage the film will find a way for sure, in China, he doesn’t believe so they’d read Mastram,” he says. Typically, miliar with his books. “I tried doing some re- there whether it reason meansfor going secretlyinheritance or in the is any his Chinese each Mastram would be around 20-25 pages search but it was going nowhere. I decided to and open,” he says confidently. for his“My parents, Indian roots to be in As conflict. chiland contain a series of short stories. Back in give up and focus on a fictional biopic. I was dren they’re relieved is finally reand I grew to upknow here. the We film feel comfortable the day it cost ₹10. Today, it is around ₹30. okay doing that because what if the real guy’s in leasing. relatives have politely India.”Although His elderother son is studying at the Shri The plots of Mastram’s stories were usually life was not interesting enough for a film,” Ram asked,College “Have you made an adult of Commerce, Newmovie?”

Delhi, while driven by a steamy affair at the workplace or says the 28-year-old, who has previously co- theThe jury isone stillgoes out on as the censors are younger to that school in Chandigarh fantasies about a seductive neighbour. Jaiswal written Gangs of Wasseypur. yet toplays see badminton the film. Jaiswal it will be and at thehopes national level. passedlike without anymusic, cuts. Apart from an expli“They Indian Indian films, they cit scene involving a bunch of schoolboys have an Indian palate.

I just wish they also reading a Mastram in a hostel, he believes he’s knew a little Mandarin.”

Desi blood William Wong, who runs a dry cleaning shop, wishes his children knew in Fortunately safe territory. claims filmmembers is much forHe Wong andhis other Mandarin cut Kolkata’s women looking for a bouffant and a bob used to flock to a bit of Mandarin Tangra’s parlours tamer than the recent Sunny Leone-starrer Raof his community, there has recently been talk gini₹100 MMScrore 2, which included a shower scene.

“It of being spent to revive the city’s will and get an A certificate, which fine. Afterof all,a old new Chinatowns.

The is brainchild it is a film about a porn writer.

If that gets a U Singaporean conglomerate called Buzzmedia, certificate it will be disappointing,” he says. the ‘Cha’ Project plans to reopen several shutJaiswal maintains that its heart, tered Chinese eateries andateven seeks Mastram to revive is essentially a slice-of-life aboutlanguage a writer.

Pei May, the last survivingfilm Chinese But if people to the theatre by the school in the are city.lured But despite the optimism promise of injection some steamy scenes,not then so beare it. about the of funds, many “For a smallthat film like this, it is important that convinced this will staunch the decline of people come to watch it. populace.

If they loveAsit28-yearfor the Kolkata’s Indian-Chinese adult content, okay.

And if they lovea it for old Terence Yehit’s puts it, “Kolkata is like slow, the story, that is great too,” he says. outdated gadget and everyone wants a faster the Monica ultimateLiu compliment, belifeHowever, nowadays.” imagines a he possilieves, wouldwhere be if the elusivebeMastram owned ble scenario there’d no Chinese inup to his work seeing the film.

“I don’t habitants left inafter Kolkata.

“That’s the day even think that is possible, but if it does happen, it I’ll have to run.”

Behind the pen name would be too cool.”

Mastram tells of a man shreevatsa nevatia is a freelance writer based whosix dreams of writing Full menu Monica Liu, who owns restaurants today, along with her cousin Call of home Fredrick Liao abandoned the comforts of Taiwan and returned to Hindi literature Peter Liu Kolkata to run his father’s restaurant (all photos: ashoke chakrabarty) in Kolkatachaudhuri mohini

The real Sheila ki jawani

He introduced a generation of men to erotica. Yet the author of the Mastram books remains unknown. Akhilesh Jaiswal chronicles his many splendours in a forthcoming film

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PRESENT IMPERFECT

We, the mongrels

Fabulist first Author Jim Crace discusses his craft at The Hindu Lit For Life Festival in Chennai r ravindran

nents or the distant past — at the tail end of the Stone Age (The Gift of Stones, 1988), or just before the industrial revolution (Signals of Distress, 1994) — and moved by cataclysmic events that thoroughly shake a community and loosen its great truths. Ultimately, however, deFriends with kids Are the new urban families the various and reutersspite ; (inset) city-slicker Sikander veenabackdrops venugopal contemporary themes, Crace is an old-fashioned storyteller possessed by deep roots and flement. Do I fill it with the address of the grand, sweeping narrative arcs. house my parents have but have never lived in? Or that of the apartment I bought in MumClass in my blood bai thinking it was forever, but did not know at Does he hold on to the idea of To ask the a novelist to time that forever would be four years? Is it Englishness? talk aabout placehis where I can permanently be found?

“I’m not in love with the Ennovels Why is likeisasking it important? Permanent Address alglish landscape, the English charsomebody to cook ways reminds me of death. acter, the idea of the dull and about their dancing I am not the only one who has this problem. cold-hearted nation,” he says.

I now find myself in a community of people “But my working-class roots are who are from everywhere and are, right now, important to me. Class is the seahere. Ours is the society whose permanent adwater in which all Englishmen dress is here and now. And it is important, this must swim. Stories of class warfare are imporsociety. For how else will we manage to work, tant. It’s something I feel in my blood. Ruling travel and raise children without the support classes can never fit well in this world.” of grandparents and relatives?

Indeed, Crace’s characters are placed in opI moved houses a couple of months ago. The position to the elite. “Oxford is a snobbish rent is higher in the new place and the area place,” he says. “What does it ultimately celesmaller. You don’t need to be an economist to brate? Ruling-class intellectuals.” understand that that is not a good deal. But He speaks with other writers comfortably, I had no choice. Our back-up parbut at a slight remove; Crace once said to The ents in the old place were Paris Review (2006), “To ask a novelist to talk moving cities and we had about his novels is like asking somebody to back-up parents availacook about their dancing. All you get is a bad ble in the new. omelette and a worse tango.”

For those who His is a self-deprecatory, self-taught style of are well-rooted talking about method. “The abstract ideas I and wondering have first: where it is located, who, when, how this works, what,” he says. “And when you have finished here’s the explaone-tenth of your novel, 50 per cent of your nation. It is sort work is done.” of like the TV Crace’s first book, Continent (1986), took him show Friends, to full-time writing — after a couple of years but with children volunteering in Sudan and time at the BBC, he have never seen Sikander awake. Dusty by tradition. The and minus the was a freelancer for a decade — and he has rebeige and well-fed, he sleeps unruffled rootless are free to cheesiness and the mained in that world since. despite the heat, the hustle, the noise of soar. sex. Back-up parents “I tried freelance journalism. Earlier, it was rickshaw drivers calling out to potential There are two difficulmust fulfil certain cri6,000 words at a time,” he says. “Now I must customers and the footsteps of thousands ties though. And both interia — they must have write 80,000-odd words to finish a novel. Jourmarching past. Inevitably, a bit of his tongue volve answers to questions. I kids around the same age as nalism is a meal made of lots of starters; writmanages to escape his mouth and it seems have now lived in Gurgaon and yours and, more importantly, the ing a novel is the main course.” like, in his own way, not only is Sikander unin- worked in Delhi for six years. I lived in Mumkids must be friends; and they must have the Life has changed in lots of ways that chanterested in the lives of the people stepping bai for seven years before that. Belfast before same open-door policy as you and a similar nel Crace’s dystopian anxieties. over him, he is actually pulling a face at them. I that. Noida for a short while before that, after value system, as it were. It’s a set-up where it is “Things are different today, more difficult,” call him Sikander because, for the last few two years in business school in Mumbai. A perfectly acceptable to message the WhatsApp says Crace of the current dystopia. “Life was months, every morning I have found his su- year in Ahmedabad before that. And three group of other parents in the evening and ask, easier for me, in terms of jobs, space, lifestyle, pine form outside the Sikanderpur Metro sta- years in Chennai before that. The hardest ques- “Have any of you seen my child today?” And inmoney, etc. I could be a hippie and manage. I tion. A fortnight ago though, Sikander went tion I am asked is where I am from. I used to evitably, she would have been fed, entertained managed till I got a family, settled down missing. After failing to spot him all answer it with a longwinded “Well, and generally looked after. It used to take a vilaround 40. But my kids don’t want to be 67, week, and increasingly worried originally I am from Kerala, but I…” lage to raise a child. For the rootless, it takes a they want to be 27.” about what might have happened and by the time I reach Chennai or gated community to raise a child. hy have I agreed to write most acutely.

Crace’s nostalgia for the natural beauty of to him, I asked the parking guy if Ahmedabad, I realise that I have Yet, despite this closeness, these friendships Permanent Address another book, you ask “I write about the way in which land is sto- the English countryside reflects a North Lonhe’d seen him. He hadn’t either. Evbrought the questioner to glassy- too are transient. People change jobs, move cireminds yourself. Fearalways decreases len,” he says, speaking specifically of Harvest, don childhood at the frontlines of the conflict ery morning I’d hold my breath and eyed regret and all he is wishing for ties, and you are left to find other friends and of deathwhere a pre-industrial English village faces between development and the pastoral. as you write me another scan for him. He wasn’t visible anyis the ability to go back in time and other parents. wealthy interlopers. “This is about how people book.”

Describing his idyllic childhood, he laughs: where. It was unsettling. not ask that question. My answer I do see that this is the human equivalent of Jim Crace starts simply, as if he is about to turn on each other in times of trouble and “If you love your parents, you turn into them.”

Sikander isn’t my dog, but in wasn’t long because I intended to a mongrel existence. And I cherish its cultural break it all down for me — then reveals an in- blame immigrants, about communities.

The next project takes him far away from many ways he feels mine. In the noconfound. It was long because I vacuum. Not because it does not impose much tense clutch of ideas that demonstrate the am- These themes are explored in medieval times.” the idyllic. “I am writing a stage play next,” he madic urban life that a lot of us lead, it be- wasn’t sure where exactly I was from. It is mys- on you, but because you can fill it up with what bitiousness of his oeuvre. I first saw Crace, the A self-proclaimed fabulist who started out says. “Back to theatre. It is focused around the comes imperative to clutch on to some tifying, this business of belonging some- you like. And it is perhaps this fraternity of the 67-year-old author of the Booker shortlisted as a political realist, Crace deals in big, bold re- Minotaur legend, how civilization needs symbols of non-transience. Living in a city you where. Now when people ask where I am from, mongrels that draws me to Sikander. Who, I Harvest (2013), impress an audience at The Hin- alities in his 13 works of fiction (novels and col- scapegoats to blame. But my minotaur is fejust happened to move to — to which you have I just answer with “here”. am happy to report, was discovered fast asleep du’s Lit for Life festival in Chennai this January, lections of short stories), for which he has won male; a her. The creature looks beastly, but it is no linguistic, cultural or familial roots — there The other difficulty is in filling forms. at 10pm on Wednesday night. His schedule when he read a striking paragraph he had The Guardian Fiction Prize, the Whitbread a woman!” is so little that you can lay claim to, that you Whether it is for a passport or PAN number, seems to have changed. Perhaps he’s with difthought to pick out from co-panellist Abra- Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle It is this kind of fun that takes readers back, grab whatever you get. I don’t mean for this to government agencies are obsessed with the ferent friends now. ham Verghese’s novel in explaining his own Award, among many other accolades. It is again and again, to Crace. invoke pity, because rootlessness is great. You notion of capturing your permanent address. ideas of craft. A similar attention to killer de- hard to pick out one book as less significant are neither drawn by nostalgia nor tied down I look at the box for Permanent Address in baf- t@veenavenugopal tails is evident when I meet him at the Jaipur than another, the stories are novel-sized in rajni george is reader at Granta and literary editor Literature Festival, where he observes the fun their scope. They are set in invented conti- at Punctum

Increasingly in urban India there is a society whose permanent address is ‘here and now’

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Whether set in an invented continent or a distant past, author Jim Crace’s stories are deeply rooted in realism

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and author of The Mother-in-Law which releases later this month

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY PAPERWALLAH

janice pariat

The activist Sheer vertigo

How can we bebe dependent on the driveliterary and honesty of activists Ashraf, expecting Aslong we may soon reliving nightmarish scenarios, revel in like these dystopian books them always to rise out of the broken systems to inspire us This is the end Dark times call for dark literature shutterstock / igor zh

The unsettled Riot victims in Muzaffarnagar shifting out of a relief camp in Loi village pti

IS

met Ashraf (name changed) a few was more his drive than the degree that would he told the story, and then we were at another months back in distressing circumstanc- have mattered. He had an office job, a salary, camp. Three of the families there had lost relaome years ago, in the sliver of time af- nightmarish literary scenarios. powers secret. This is the bible of anti-essenes. Like most other residents of Delhi, I but something pushed him in other direc- tives in the riots, water from the recent rains ter graduate school and a first job, I In Kate Wilhelm’s Where the Late Birds Sing, tialisation, and David’s gift a metaphor, toknew that tens of thousands of people tions. It started with medical shops, illegal puddled around the makeshift camps set up was considering, quite seriously, the civilisation has collapsed from devastating wards freedom of thought and speech. had fled their homes after the Muzaffarnagar drugs and a small piece of empowerment on forestland. Faeces floated in the water, and prospect of a PhD. In English Litera- pollution, while JB Ballard’s The Drowned World If dark times call for dark literature, take riots. And like most other Delhi residents I had called the Right to Information Act. children ran around. Disgusted, Ashraf made ture, of course, and in one of two (not entirely transports us to a planet struggling with envi- succour in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. I finno idea what to do about it.

Ashraf’s small town had, a while back, start- a short speech, saying the children should be unrelated) topics: the poetry of Philip Larkin, ronmental catastrophe. Rising temperatures ished it in a single reading, on the banks of the A friend, though, put me in touch with an ed experiencing a small uptick of violence. in school. “Look at me,” he said, “I had nothing, or dystopian fiction. More precisely, the man- have created a flooded, an increasingly tropi- Cam in Cambridge. This last detail important NGO working with those who had fled their Prohibited drugs were freely available, and not even a supportive father, but I worked, I ner in which ‘literature’ was treated in Yevge- cal Earth, and Ballard integrates this changing only in that it illustrates how I couldn’t be dishomes in fear. My wife and two of our friends young men had started sampling them. Ini- prayed, I can stand on my own two feet.” ny Zamyatin’s We and George Orwell’s 1984. physical universe with a psychological one, as tracted by charming sun-lit surroundings, — Vivek and Ruchika — decided we would drive tially it was merely a cause of hilarity and anIt is an image that stays with me. A month Amidst the numerous unsettling scenarios his characters undergo a strange phylogenet- gripped as I was by the most harrowing read down to see the camps. noyance, and then it transformed into ago, I was at a conference on Countering Vioconjured in these novels, I was haunted by the ic regression. More post-apocalyptic drama of my life. The Road left me devastated and upIt was there that we met Ashraf. He had done street-fights and stabbings. A few young men lent Extremism in South Asia and South East simplest, the most political of acts that, in the awaits in Margaret Atwood’s lesser known lifted in its outlining of the worst, and best, of a survey of the camps around the area, doing a died. Nobody acted though. Everybody knew Asia. We discussed the issues in Afghanistan, end, would condemn both the protagonists — Oryx and Crake (first in the Madd Addam trilo- human capability. The story is simple: a father needs assessment, finding out where the peo- that a few medical stores were illePakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh that of putting pen to paper. I was, at the same gy), which opens in the wake of an unnamed and his young son journey, over several ple had come from, and under which condi- gally selling drugs, but the police and the Philippines. The one big time, thrilled, that in damning words, the au- cataclysm. The past unfolds slowly through months, through a landscape blasted by an tions they had fled their homes. He also did an had been paid off, the local poliquestion for many of us was what thors were also holding them aloft in rever- the narration of a mysterious unspecified catastrophe, towards informal check of how many residents were in tician was curiously quiet, and explained Indian exceptionalence. Perhaps, for an early, hesitant character named Snowman. Be- What explains the sea. McCarthy’s sparse prose each camp, how many supplies had been re- who cared about a few good-forism? How was it that in the midst practitioner of fiction, it was reassuring to fore catastrophe strikes the main Indian excepis haunting and bleak, endurable ceived, and thus a rough breakup of how nothing boys? of all this fury and violence, India have them say, ‘See how powerful this is.’ features of his world are based on tionalism in the because of its integrity, its utter My love for darkly much had gone where — and how much had Ashraf cared. Maybe he saw was affected only very slightly in midst of all this fury In order to write the lengthy, and dreaded, the gradual exaggeration of cerwholeness of seeing. imagined worlds comparison to all the others? To also disappeared between the donors and himself in them — a young man Sample Essay, necessary for a PhD application tain dismal trends in ours — inter- and violence With Iron Heel by Jack London lingers. Ever so me part of the answer lay in Ashthose in whose names a few unscrupulous with few opportunities, he too (which makes me think I wasn’t at all suited net child pornography, gated (of Call of the Wild fame), we move often, they rear upraf, and the systems that allowed men picked up the donations and pocketed might have fallen into such habfor the vocation), I read and re-read stashes of communities, genetic modificaaway from post-apocalyptic setas prophetic someone like him to stand tall, them. This is work that he did on his own time, its, had he not had his determinadystopian fiction, Burgess’ Clockwork Orange, tion, multinational corporations. tings into a near-future world warnings at his own cost, and while he guided us from tion. Ashraf filled out an RTI stand proud and, in the midst of Huxley’s A Brave New World, Bradbury’s Fahren- Atwood wreaks her usual spirited gripped by the rise of a tyrannical camp to camp, explaining where one political request, asking whether the drugstores had tragedy and deprivation, assert that there heit 451, filling my waking hours with apoc- havoc: “He doesn’t know which is corporate oligarchy. Unusual for party had managed to assert itself, and where the proper licences for the medicines they were ways to challenge injustice in the world alyptic visions. Yet even though I never did worse, a past he can’t regain or a this technology-obsessed genre, another had done so, we asked him how he were stocking, and how many prohibited and triumph against it. Unfortunately, some end up with a PhD — my academic ambitions present that will destroy him if he London focuses on the changes in came to be involved in the work he was doing. drugs they were stocking. The education he of the question comes from that image as well. fizzled after a friend, who knew me better looks at it too clearly. Then there’s the future. society and politics, with the oligarchy He shrugged, at first, not really ready to open had received was enough for him to painstak- The thousands in the camps had fled because a than I did myself, asked ‘Do you wish to study Sheer vertigo.” formed by robber barons who bankrupt the up to strangers. ingly state the details of his enquiry, and hav- broken system had not protected them from literature or create it?’ — my love for darkly Considering how divisive election process- middle class and seize power before enforcing But it is hard to walk through one miserable ing paid the ₹10 fee, he waited for his answer. murder and rape, nor had shown any initiaimagined worlds lingers. Ever so often, they es tend to be, I’m reminded of John Wynd- a “caste system” for workers. Disquietingly facamp after another and remain strangers. His The answer came in the form of an official tive to hold the guilty to account. How long rear up as prophetic warnings, saints of catas- ham’s brilliantly satirical The Chrysalids, which miliar? Iron Heel was published in 1908. story came out in small bursts. He was a local enquiry team. The drugstore owners, utterly can we rely on the drive and honesty of activtrophe, disquieting in their ability to edge presents us with a (post-nuclear, fundamenIf the elections are leaving you sleepless, boy, not really from an educated background. complacent that they had bribed the right offi- ists like Ashraf, expecting them always to rise closely to our stark and constant failings. I’m talist Christian) world obsessed with “purity”. stay up with Adrian Barnes’ debut novel Nod. His father had been marginally literate and cials, found themselves shut down. Unwilling, out of broken systems, find their way on their perilously drawn to them; now, as the Indian As humans are born with mutations and de- The eerie premise? Dawn breaks and no one in had seen no reason to waste his money on Ash- or unable, to believe that this had all been en- own, inspire us, while the systems stay broken, elections roll on, more than ever. formities, the State decides to execute anyone the world has slept the night before. Or will raf’s education. Ashraf wanted to study, gineered by a young man on his own, they and we do little to fix them?

If a Green analysis of the Congress, BJP and who isn’t ‘perfect’, who is ‘blasphemous’ or again. And so we wait, the future sheer vertigo. though, and he did small jobs that allowed blamed their downfall on scheming rivals.

AAP manifestos is anything to go by — distress- ‘abnormal’. When an extra toe can mean a him to get through school, earn a degree. It Ashraf did not enlighten them. He grinned as t @OmairTAhmad ingly lax and uninformed about environmen- death sentence, it becomes imperative that janice pariat is the author of Boats on Land tal issues — we may soon be reliving several David, the protagonist, keeps his telepathic t @janicepariat

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Anywhere office

ELSEWHERE

manjula padmanabhan

Shared office spaces are eagerly lapped up by start-ups, entrepreneurs and multinational firms looking for ways to save on expensive real-estate and housekeeping costs

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K-based online education company DBS Business Centre and Stylus are some of rangement with the real-estate firm K Raheja Leo Learning is setting up office in the other major companies offering shared of- Corp. While the Raheja group provides the reIndia. While Mumbai’s Lower Parel fice spaces. al estate, ServCorp sets up and operates the business district is perfect for it, the This model is equally suited for those who shared offices. fledgling unit cannot afford the high rentals. work from home. A receptionist, whom they “In India, the demand is picking up,” says TaHowzat Chris Gayle of Royal Challengers is a hero for our merry men of the Junior Premier League bhagya prakash Its Country Manager Amish N Engineer has a share with several other companies, can trans- ranviir Kaur, Imperial ServCorp’s India head. solution. He works out of a swanky office at fer their business calls to London or Singapore The company with 150 serviced offices worldCUB READS the Peninsula Business Park, but pays only for or anywhere else in the world, giving them an wide has two centres in India. “We have brohis well-furnished private workspace, includ- official address and phone number for com-to all ken We plan to have to seven more he solution myeven. shopping needs is mysix friend ing internet connectivity, electricity, and the munications. And when they have to hold thelives nexton two years,” Muriel.

Shea hascentres retiredin and her own,she butsays. On her services of office aids and a receptionist. This meeting, a room can be booked at are Pune, suburbs in Mumbai, hasany twobusigrown list children, five grandchildren and a Chennai, works out cheaper, and every three months he ness centre. and National constellation ofBangalore friends, all of the whom she is Capital happy Region. renews his contract with Regus, the company “People and companies are increasingly to entertain with food from her kitchen. managing the office space. looking for flexible arrangements as they connect Over the years, she hasGlobal become an ace-shopper, with couLuxembourg-based Regus specialises in ser- don’t want to park resources in real estate,” ServCorp gives all its clients access to its porpon-wielding and bargain-spotting skills that reluctant viced and shared office spaces, which are ea- says Sahil Verma, COO ofshoppers Regus. like me can only dream of. Sotal.

“They can pass on any inonce a week, typicalgerly lapped up by a host of start-ups, Delhi’s Connaught Place, for struction to usand through the ly a Thursday, she comes by in her black Honda Accord entrepreneurs and multinational firms that instance, is the world’swe eighthwebsite,” says Kaur. head for the hunting grounds. Today, for instance, our So, for inare looking for ways to save on expensive real- costliest office destination at a is Ocean State Job Lot. Its slogan stance, if aMore client first stop is “A Lot ForisAboarding a ost of our summer vacations along with Neel and Aryaman. Ravinder estate and housekeeping costs. monthly rent of ₹414 perLot sq ft, ac- TheyCompanies flight, he/she canthat share this indon’t Less”. sell brand name products at low prices were spent in Hyderabad. Singh, the superstar captain, his cronies, and cording to a report released earliformation on the portal and enwant to park may be the result of overstocking or packaging changes or While at my grandfather’s, we India’s most successful junior coach Satyajit One for all er this year by consultancy firm just a shift sure that no calls are diverted to resources in real perhaps in consumer habits. would make good use of the Sinha complete the cast of the Junior Devils.

“This format allows us to use common services Cushman and Wakefield. Bandra themwhich during the flight. estate called a Swiffer, I am looking for a gadget combines part of his compound that was leased out to Drawing on his own experience as the and be mobile at the same time,” says Amit Kurla, in Mumbai, is next inefficiency the With their wide the of a dust-cloth with a mop’s long handle fornetwork of a school, which closed in summer. We would team director of Kolkata Knight Riders in the Goenka, CEO of private equity firm Nisus Fi- India list, at ₹285. centres across countries, the cleaning floors.

Muriel leads me straight to the shelf where a take turns to bat and bowl, practise our IPL, Bhattacharjya fashions a Junior Premier nancial Services. “The private equity business shared-office service providers variety of similar items are dangling. “This is what I use,” she strokes and aim for windowpanes. One sum- League that is ready to fly off the pages and is dynamic and requires frequent travel. Most India sharing clientsmetohow book rooms says, picking out a slender green stick.allow She shows mer, I remember my dad being particularly make its real-world debut even before the of the work is intellectual and there is no need “We entered in 2004 because we saw asheet hugeof the within minutes for a in meeting, whether in Duthe disposable dust-cloth is kept place.

It’s a lethal with the ball. Delivery after delivery, he current IPL season ends. The matches are exfor large physical infrastructure. opportunity here. We thought we could dis- bai, Singapore or London. dollar less than the online price of foxed us batsmen into pulling all the wrong citing and the characters immensely believaWhen travelling within India or abroad, he rupt the market and have been proved right,” $10.

Little surprise that with such conveI barely have then time to fantasise shots with a cunning left-arm spin. I must’ve ble, such as “secret weapon” Sachin, can use any of the 2,000 offices operated by says Verma. niences, even MNCs are increasingly opting about finally having clean floors been 10. And that was my first introduction trivia-buff Neel and mercurial Ravinder.

Regus in 100 countries. Goenka’s arithmetic is As its revenues doubled in India over the for serviced offices when expanding operwhen she has already danced off to spin bowling.

Sledging and intimidation are as much a simple: “If you have a 20-member team in one past three years, Regus confidently added 25 ations rather thanto invest ina creating one. Intel, down the aisles find box of We are often the When Neel Roy heads to Ranchi for winter part of the junior IPL; when Sachin bowls a place for a long period of time, it makes eco- new offices, and now has 50 business centres IBM, Twitter, Apple, American Express, Fujitsu, dust-cloth refills. only people of vacations with his grandpardoosra to claim his first scalp of nomic sense to own the facility. For fewer peo- in 12 cities across the country.

Morgan Stanley area among the From there weand go JP toMorgan Michaels, colour there ents in Junior Premier League, I the tournament, Mumbai Patriple, a shared office works best.”

Australian office-space major Imperial Serv- MNCs using servicedofoffices. vast treasure-house art and craft felt a familiar thrill. The city ofot’s best batsman walks on to Imperial ServCorp, ApeeJay Business Centre, Corp entered in 2008 with a franchisee ar- supplies.

“Since liberalisation, MNCs have been makWithout Muriel I would fers no prospects, especially not the crease, locks eyes with him have to wear blinkers like a tongaof the cricketing kind, at first. and says, “That might work with horse to avoid being distracted.

One evening, on his way to the Jayesh but it won’t work with She quickly locates the key-chains that I want for a craft prolocal store, Neel’s cricketMilind Sugwekar.” Dramatic ject plus matching hooks and a stack of white card paper. starved ears pick up the “rhythstuff indeed.

Then at the check-out counter, she persuades the girl to give mic thump of a Cosco ball”. CuEven the much-maligned me 40 per cent off even though I don’t have a coupon. We rious, he spies a ‘curly-headed’ Duckworth Lewis system makes leave triumphant, having paid a mere $15 for goods worth Junior Premier League boy bowling with the strangest an appearance in a Junior Devils The First XI twice as much. action he had seen. “Instead of match.

Who can forget the Joy Bhattacharjya At Stop & Shop, the grocery store, Muriel has trained me to coming over his right ear, as any heartburn this insane method Puffin pay attention to labels and to compare the contents of simiFiction good bowler should, the kid was has caused? Remember the ₹199 lar containers in order to avoid paying for the attractive slinging the ball almost parallel group-stage match in the 2003 packaging. I have learnt to shun all those aisles displaying to the ground — much like MalWorld Cup, when South Africa fancy foods at even fancier prices and instead reach for inga. But he was bowling spin,” writes Joy lost by one run because they read the D/L whatever is unprocessed, fresh and, as far as possible, local.

Bhattacharjya in Junior Premier League. charts wrong?

Finally, we head for the local ice cream parlour. It’s always Over the next two weeks, Neel and his new If the plot itself seems predictable, of my treat and we always order the same things: a basket of friend Sachin Rawat, who is a Chris Gayle fan, course, you know how it’s going to unfold French fries for Muriel and a double-scoop sundae for me, play cricket, watch cricket videos and discuss right from selections to the winner, it is the followed by coffee. It’s a popular family restaurant where the Junior Premier League that is to kick-off matches, the players, the descriptions of the the other customers range from white-haired old couples right after the summer break, for which Neel field placements and nuggets of cricket trivwearing red-plaid jackets to young mothers with blonde, had been shortlisted. ia — how players choose their jersey numblue-eyed children. Muriel is US-born but Portuguese by ethBack in Delhi, Neel forgets about Ranchi bers, how top fielders practise catches at the nic origin, belonging to the tiny island-nation of Cape Verde, and Sachin as the JPL draws near. With help boundary, that make the Junior Devils’ jouroff the west coast of Africa. We are often the only people of from Shruti, the over-enthusiastic older sis- ney an exciting one. Throw in a team item colour there, looking surprisingly alike, with our short grey ter, Neel and his classmate Aryaman Khurana number (Give them hell, Devils), a coach’s myshair and spectacles. We spend an hour laughing about our prepare for the JPL trials. “In four weeks, terious disappearance, a cheating scandal, families, our lives and the world around us. Then she drops 2,000 boys would go through a week of famous rivalries and media attention and me home and we say goodbye for the week. trials. Just 30 boys would be chosen for the fi- Bhattacharjya’s JPL is the stuff the best IPLs

Day in the aisles

Necessities, goodies and bargains

Let the games begin

With gripping matches and believable characters, Junior Premier League is as exciting as the real deal

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nal camp, and by the time JPL started only 20 boys would remain,” writes Bhattacharjya.

Miraculously, Sachin Meeting pointmoves Coffee to Delhi and into shops were the Neel’s school, getsusually nominated for the trials, only alternative gets noticed at the for week-long camp and start-ups and small makes it to the final Junior Devils team, businesses r ravindran

are made of. This, the first of a three-part series, is the sort of book one might pick up for a summer or winter break at the end of which awaits a cricket camp. priyanka kotamraju

MANJULA PADMANABHAN, author and artist, tells us tales of her parallel

life in Elsewhere, US, in this fortnightly series marginalien. blogspot. in

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Travel Log Get there

There are plenty of carriers, from Singapore Airlines to Indigo, which operate flights from major Indian metros (about ₹ 30,000 return). From the airport take a taxi to Sentosa, if you’re tired. Else, take an MRT to the harbour front station (exit B) followed by a cable car ride.

Whistle-stop Sentosa

Stay

The Resorts World Sentosa has 15 hotels. Choose one that fits both your budget and style (sentosa.com.sg). We stayed at the Festive Hotel, tailored for families — with loft beds and expandable sofas (about S$300 per night; rwsentosa.com).

From gigantic sea creatures to Hollywood stars, this modern-day ‘pleasure island’ has it all

Tip

If you’re here on a Saturday, visit the Boardwalk Bazaar, a stylised flea market on the waterfront.

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ome say, the most Singaporean thing immersed in its own world of distractions; to do is to plan ahead. And plan they one where public transport is free too. You did — decades ago, conceptualising would do well though to bring along a loaded and transforming what was once Pu- wallet and credit cards, especially if you’re of lau Belakang Mati (or the ‘island of death from the ‘family tourist’ mould. Sample this: a day the property,” says Verma. ing a beeline to India.

While studying the marbehind’ in Malay, watched over by a British for- than pass block for Universal costs S$74 for adults (and month while in NCR’s Gurgaon, it is ₹10,000Anuj Chairman and Country of 14,000. “The rates are adjusted to inflation. ket, and 1967 even after setting upto the initial tress until when it was returned lo- S$54 forPuri, children between four and 12),Head for the operations, they into continue to use these property consultancy JLL India of- The pricing depends on the demand and supcal government), what is now the resort Water Park it’s S$36 (S$26) and says S$38 shared (S$28) for are an excellentIt’s waymostly of managing (shared) island of services,” Sentosa. says Pratik Das, Senior Prop- fices the SEA aquarium. moneyinvestwell- ply,” Verma says.

With the various permutations and combieven as theyyou offer a cost-effective erty Managerasatpeace ApeeJay Centre, Translated and Business tranquillity, the ment spent risk, though — unless have a bad day at flexiblecasino, solution to start-ups, companies nations, clients have access to a bouquet of which has offered shared office spaces word Sentosa still resonates on the islandsince that and the island’s of course. that wish to expand cautiously and those the late bears its1990s. name. But holidaymakIn the four years since it that first services at varying charges. A meeting room moving plans. ersEven whoafter wash up oninto its owned shoresspaces, some have no long-term opened doors, Resorts World with videoconferencing facility, stationary and unlimited refreshments MNCs continue to use and find a room in the oneserviced of its and shared Sentosa has become so popular, costs ₹1,600 per hour in Lower Pamodel spaces as satellitehotels, offices.also Daslook says this not on- Robust revenue many, sprawling that even the locals arrive in rel, while a plain vanilla meeting ly saves costs but also the multinationforward to visiting thehelps Universal droves peg overthe thecost weekend. Our Sentosa is aIndustry pleasureestimates savings a sharedguide office Eros at 30 Ceino, who room can be hired for ₹800 an als expand faster.

Studios Theme Park and the specisland that is from Italian hour. Access to a business lounge So when entered the Indianimmersed market, intoits50own per cent anthe indetacular SEA Twitter aquarium. hasvis-à-vis lived in City State The for cost savings pendent office. it operated fromthat Regus’ network The few days we spend on of shared more than two decadesfrom and has a shared office again comes for varying rates, deworld ofof distractions And while seen the serviced-offices fices.

This helped can it save time Sentosa, however, hardly be and capital.

Singapore and isSentosa pegged at 30 to 50 pending on the number of days. own rev- years, says, “Twitter has global described as signed tranquil.

Fromterms roll- with Regus. cut costs for others, evolvetheir in as many per cent robust too. is the city has Cookie-cutter advantage Every time they want to expandatto a new loca- enue model is“The er-coasting through fireballs pace ofSpace life in A major advantage for the sertion, they move into aofready Regus office,” says usually taken on a faster, long-term Universal in search The Mumbecome people are now viced-office providers is the econfrom landlord, and thecan of- go relax and Verma. and other MNCs to lease my’s lostTwitter book to watching a Newdeclined York Citylooking foraplaces where they Singapore sling (clockwise from above) Characters omies of scale.

“Because intime. various sizes areSentosa let comment for the story. styled Hollywood parade and taking a selfie fices have built a good Places like and Garfrom the movie Madagascar; a roller coasterwe ridehave (created office and spaces) in 2,000 locadurations — from three months done Thetoshared-office is follows especially next the resident arrangement Merlion, action us out densfor byshort the Bay in the city offer just that.” (boththis at Universal Studios); The SEA Aquarium suited MNCs thattraveller. frequently downsize aroundfor like a fellow Even lunch isstaff be- to three years. “We pay rent to landlords. It is tions, we are able to optimise space to use the ed by Ceino, we begin take itplan all inmost at once.

They areVerma usuallysays. found lazefficiently,” model,” saystaking Verma.in the sights floor and havethe a sales force that’s mostly — onwith the an asset-light set with possibility of adventure andbusiness sounds ofcentres this cityusually within acharge city (a hive by the pools of points their luxury hotels.

Those The per ingServCorp’s Kaur to the company’s field. theybarrier build own spaces, they end beonly a“Ifglass between eating and up being of activity that belies its girth of five so inclined,operations. also take a “We toureither of theprocure British Fort furcoming managers. To focus on their seat.

In South Mumbai, formodest instance, shared of- globalised eaten byproperty manta rays. km sq).

Sure wecharge experience leisure here, butper at niture Siloso, and a strategic site during Worldglobally War II. Of other office accessories or typically ₹20,000 per seat core business, they prefer to pay on use-basis fices entosa, while just a hop, skip and jump what seems like the speed of light. Perils of be- get special interest the Indian tourists here are them locallytomade according to our stanaway from Singapore’s city centre, is al- ing a journalist, I guess… Most tourists who dard the displays of the fort’s history which Subinternational designs,” sheinsays.

As they most a different country — a pleasure island come to Sentosa don’t go to such lengths to build ash Chandra also played a part. Bose visitoffices Bose in multiple locations, the busied the city will when it was enjoy undermore Japanese ness centres naturally comoccupation in 1942. petitive rates compared to a company Another especially for Indians building anattraction, owned space in one location. living in a landlocked city and suchspeed as Delhi (like However, while the cost of operthis writer) is thenews three-km-long beachfront ations are great for start-ups, on the girdling the island.

Although on reclaimed downside is the absence of branding.

Regus landServCorp, and created using sand from countries and for example, don’t allow clients likedisplay Indonesia the beach is as to their and logoMalaysia, or brand name. good as real.

And what better way mark “Shared services office-spaces doto not offera tropical than to or plunge into a cold scope forholiday customisation visible company blue sea. as leased or owned office spaces do. branding Leaving the sun behind the as beach (and Also, they obviously do noton count a compathe merry employees of an consultancy Indian television ny’s assets,” says property JLL’s channel on a ‘bonus tour’ here), we choose an Puri. elaborate at the Mövenpick a deliBut thatmeal is perhaps of not muchHotel; concern to parting fromits Sentosa — an acious start-up still gift finding feet. And anisland MNC that has clearly defied of life. with global-level recallthe willcircle hardly miss its lowriter on an cabin, invitation from Singago(The outside yetwas another especially one pore is Tourism Board.) that invaluably saving money.

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As good as real An aerial view of Sentosa

For hire ServCorp's South Mumbai offices charge ₹20,000 per seat per month

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Tough love Jamuna, seen here with her calf at Manas National Park in Assam, is among the three hand-reared female rhinos that were successfully translocated from the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation joanna and Conservation near vanKaziranga gruisen National Park; (below) feeding time for Purabi at CWRC anjan sangma / subhamoy bhattacharjee/ ifaw-wti

A BUTTERFLY BREEZE FROM MP

Politics and the way of the tiger In election season, our political parties seem to be side-stepping reality or are oblivious to the link between GDP and climate change

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grew up and lived in the UK for half my life but have now settled and been in India for the other half. I identify somewhat with the dhobi’s dog (or donkey) of the well-known Urdu proverb, though I prefer to regard it as having a strong attachment to two homes rather than not quite belonging to either. However as far as the governments of the two countries are concerned, I am indeed that dog/donkey, as neither allow me a vote.

While hoping for India to recognise dual citizenship, I have retained my UK passport. More than 20 years of residence elsewhere, Britain disallows participation in elections (now after 15 years abroad). And 30 years residence in India but without citizenship, disallows participation here.

I would not choose to be voteless but these days it seems no great disadvantage as the choices, both here and in the UK, often seem somewhat limited. As an environmentally conscious person and appreciator of the natural world, it is distressing to find so little emaziranga, with 15 to 20 pathy for such viewswhich in the began political spectrum. rhinos when the national was It is also more than a little worryingpark to find, created in the earlyso20th amongst the political parties, littlecentury, underhome tobrink 1,700weofactually them standing ofbecame how close to the within hundred years, currently shelters are — aecologically and,and thus, economically. aWishful staggering 2,329seems of these one-horned denithinking to outweigh rational zens — or two-thirds of the total rhino populathinking in a way rather reminiscent, on a tion Bursting its seams, it now scaryworldwide. planet-scale, of the at local forest departfaces a challenge never envisioned. ment’s reaction its to creators the poaching and extincWith four rivers crisscrossing it and four major species thriving here — the rhino, Bengal tiger, Asiatic elephant and wild Indian buffalo — the 430 sq km Kaziranga National Park continues to be a tourist paradise. But there is trouble in paradise. Rhinos and tigers are multiplying rapidly, and the overcrowding is driving them into adjacent forested blocks, human habitations and tea gardens. The resulting man-animal conflicts have tragic consequences for both.

The Park also has about 1,165 wild elephants, 108 tigers (with a healthy male-female ratio, promising future growth), 1,900 wild buffaloes, 1,000 swamp deer and several hoolock gibbons, to name a few. Together, they are, quite literally, testing this sanctuary’s limits.

While there has been a wildlife explosion inside the Park and on its periphery, there has al-

Rhino hide-and-seek

There’s a baby boom in Assam’s rhino-land Kaziranga, but before they can exult, the onehorned denizens have to dodgeWriting poachers’ bullets and find a safe nook in a shrinking habitat on the wall Token presence at events highlighting the need to arrest climate change doesn’t really

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so been a mushrooming of Tiger hotels, dhabasa and tion of tigers in the Panna Reserve few the overcrowded Pobitora to Manas in 2008. tourist lodges on its fringes and along the Since then, selected rhinos have been regularyears back. wildlife corridors leading out of it.

And while Although science and reason clearly spelt ly translocated to developed, protected habany move tothe allocate to the out the path tigers additional were on, theareas wildlife au- itats. As many as 22 rhinos were moved to Park for its burgeoning wildlife usually met Manas, an excellent rhino habitat that had thorities preferred to insist thatisall was well, with opposition, many an outsider has been destroyed during Assam’s civil strife. that “the tiger density has never been better”. bought land here, confident of good business.

Such wishful thinking took the Reserve to the Orang, Laokhowa and Burhachpori are the Of the five animal corridors out of Kazibrink, and main over — only six months after this other favoured areas. “With the dispersal, the ranga — Haldibari, Kanchanjuri, Burapahar, statement was published, the Reserve did not rhinos and other wildlife will have access to Panbari and Angudi — the last two are have a single tiger left.

Extinction in blocked this (lo- nearly 2,000 sq km of grasslands,” says NK Vaby settlements with support human cal)new case was not exactly foreverfrom as the park su, who was the director of Kaziranga until rights activists. could be repopulated with tigers from other this year.

Over the years, there have sixmay addiareas (though the specific Pannabeen genes be Lost Meanwhile, the translocated rhinos in Maand found Although Panna was repopulated tions — small chunks a few if the whole with tigers, thenas lost forever).

What wouldofhappen given birth foresthave department’s decisiontotoyoung not raise an alarm in time in hastestimony meant that the Panna genes square kilometres planet thought likeeach this? — to the ones, to the success r sreenivasa murthy Park make for to the Weto need not room even look theaniextremes to be may be lost forever of the IRV 2020, led by Dr Bibhab mals.

However, thisbefore is not an concerned.

Shortly theinteelection, the InTalukdar, chair of the Internationgrated wildlife area — it isondotted tergovernmental Panel Climate Change al Union forBut Conservation of aim Naby allis notwithstanding. to continue to Overcrowding with human settlements and tea by environ(the IPCC, sometimes criticised ture (IUCN), specialist for into exponential growthAsian as sorhino many econodriving rhinos gardens, making diffimental groups asexpansion ‘too conservative’) publishgroup.

Themanifestos project hasenvisage, on board mists demand, and the is adjacent forested cult. the need for “safe ed itsReiterating authoritative and “responsible” report; the Assam Forest the an unreal dream in a world ofDepartment, finite resources, blocks and passage”, recently the Gauhati one that has been produced by 1,250 internaBodoland Council, Inbased, as such growth Territorial is, on the use of fossil tea gardens High called corridors tional Court experts and for approved by 194 govern- fuels. It works ternational Rhino until you reach the Foundation, end; or raththat “must be provided shows to thethat climate er, until youWorld ments.

It unequivocally Wide Fund for Nature - Inreach the halfway point (see artiwildlife any cost, howeverand big poses a seri- cles on Peakdia, change isatcaused by humans Fish itand Wildlife Service Oil).USThen does not. We have that cost may be.” ous threat.

But, cheeringly, if perhaps surpris- reached thisand the NGO Aaranyak. point and now need to adjust With numbers rapidly, there literally ingly, it also rising reports that A major roadblock the rhino success sto‘wishes’ totoreality. is very little space forchange the animals catastrophic climate can to move. ry — assumingBut that translocathistheis planned our responsibility During thewithout annualsacrificing floods, the be averted liv-animals also tions will happen goodnot time is the too; we in should just—criticise move towards“It the neighbouring ing standards. doesn’t cost the district of reported risethe in political poachingparties. activityAfter in the all,area. to a It doesn’t cost Karbi and here, again, their passage Vasu admits large worldAnglong to save the planet,” accordthat itextent, remains a major challenge their manifestos rethe world to save is (As a tourist staying ingblocked. to its economist leader, Ott- in a village for the Park. flect Whilethe theviews official rhino offigure what for they bethe planet home in Karbi last December, I heard distress- poaching inlieve mar Edenhofer.

2013 the is 27,electorate the unofficial estimate wants.

Clearly ingBut stories elephants uprooting a home is 30-plus. This none of of the main election year been rhino they dotoo notthere thinkhave mitigating clibarely a feweven yardsmention away and a tiger manifestos this re- snatching deaths every month, their splendid mate change is much of a horn votecattle a little further Feeling insecure and yanked off mercilessly. port and give onlyoff.unspecific some poachers winner. It is While time we all made it so; hemmed in, a the villager narrated principal his struggles nods towards overarching, fac- have been caught thewake CBI is it is past time for usand all to upinvestigating to the loomto fromofthe departtorget (thecompensation deplorable state ourforest planet) that half-a-dozen there are ining abyss andcases, recognise thatalso nowefforts is theto only ment the hisheart cattle andour the de- volve shouldfor be at theloss baseofand of all plans thedemand, locals inand wildlife andaction. forest Science protectime to to take, stroyed house.) and visions for the future. The AAP at least tion.

In a country where conservation and reason tell us so.

We must burst theefforts fantaseems to recognise some connection between have rarely lift metour with such success, sy bubble, (ostrich) heads hopefully, from the Horn of India ecology and economy as the two are com- poaching and realistically encroachment won’t eclipse sand and look at the ‘Eaarth’ — asa The Indian Vision (IRV) but 2020even project — feat bined in a Rhino section heading, they, that’s beyond the wildest imagination of Bill McKibben renames our already changed launched support — hopes along withwith bothinternational the BJP and the Congress par- conservationists.

The problem nowofmight be planet — before our lives go the way the Panto up to 3,000 within ty, push stressthe therhino neednumbers for maintaining high GDP one of plenty, but in some ways it is a good na tigers. the next with six years and disperse sev- problem to have. growth apparently little them to nointo underen protected to safeguard epi- joanna van gruisen is a wildlife photographer, standing of itsareas connection to ouragainst worsening conservationist and hotelier basedon near the Panna Tiger rai a journalist who writes development and demics poaching. climate and change conditions and vice versa — at- usha Reserve in Madhya issuesPradesh The first lot of rhinos was translocated from environment tendant welcome nods to alternative energies

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Passion by the glass Bordeaux’s romance with the East

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ou have to wonder how the French have stayed true to their winemaking legacies.

It’s a profession that requires patience. Yet, the pursuit of profit hasn’t dampened the passion many winemakers, like 41-year old Pierre Courdurie, have for tradition.

Courdurie has his own vineyard, Chateau Patache d’Aux, but has also been marketing wines for 15 years. He works in Bordeaux (the highest wine-producing region in France), and helps promote wines from the Chateau De Fontenille in 35 countries and to 10,000 customers worldwide. Located near the Abbey of La Sauve Majeure, the chateau’s founders were the wealthy Cadouin family who moved here in 1524.

But vineyards existed since the 5th century. In India, Fontenille is distributed by Aspri Spirits.

I ask Courdurie what keeps him going in a profession without many guarantees.

He likens it to the anticipation people may feel about a baby. Something about the new, not knowing what to expect every year, is excitJust playthings Suhasini is as ing asPaul well among a handful of challenging. toy“But designers in fundamenIndia, with clients tally, it’s about ranging from Disney sharing passion,” he says. to Italy’s Ferrero “Wine is part of a culture. We grow with it. It was part of French history, even before the Romans. Even when we look at the future, we need to remember who was here before us, and who will be here after us. It’s similar to India in that sense,” says Courdurie, drawing a link between two distinct cultures.

Over a glass of Rouge AOC Bordeaux, I’m told how the chateau ensures fruitiness in its reds, allowing the macerated wine to sits in a barrel for 18 months before rotating between tank and barrel every six months. When we switch to Entre Deux Mers Blanc, a white that’s fresh on the palette, its gold hue a testament to its high ‘minerality’, he says, “It’s the terroir that makes the difference — this is gravel and limestone combining to produce citrus notes. Earlier, people believed in the oak influence.

I’m not a fan of oak-aging for whites; they have to have finesse. That’s how they go best with seafood or salads.” As our impassioned talk of terroir winds down, Courdurie leaves me with a final French flourish, “Love is passion, finesse, elegance, just as our wines are!” jessu john

MEAL TICKET

naintara maya oberoi

Hungary pangs

Goulash, schmoulash… there is so much more to Budapest than just a stew

All I work, all play

t was 8pm on a beautiful summer day in Budapest. The setting sun glinted off the Danube and streamed over (west-bank) Buda and (east-bank) Pest’s endearing muddle of architectures: neo-Gothic, baroque, and art nouveau buildings squashed up against Communist-era offices with tinted windows à la Nehru Place. But I wasn’t going to be distracted. t was the summer of 1992. Suhasini Paul Our first here, in coincidentally Hunand her fiveday friends Nagpur spent the gary’s national day, had been a write-off. hot afternoons playing carrom during The only restaurant open late atboard night,peraftheir vacation.

As the square teronly the St Stephen’s fireworks mitted four players Day at a time, they by hadthe to pad got Thai Paul bar. And we’d take river, turnshad to been play. aThat thinking missed national birthday cake, made about a way the to get all of them to play together. by the National Hungarian ConA hexagonal board Guild lyingofunused at home fectioners, Milotaiithoney caught her eye. this She year thenaturned into abritcarpraline cream itand torte. rom tle, board by inscribing withwalnut lines and oth(Contrary to insinuations made my er markings using chalk and colour.

Theby board not timed was co-travellers, balanced onI ahad small stool this and holiday a bowl to under sampleeach a country-sized birthday placed corner in place of thecake.) usual Now, feeling likeyear, my culinary tourist crecorner-pocket.

That the Reserve Bank of if anyone Indiadentials came outwould with abe newrevoked ₹1 coin that was so found out I’deasily been over eating Thai food onbea smooth it glided surfaces.

That holiday, wasPaul determined cameHungarian the carrom strikerI for and her thatwhile our next mealcoins involve goulash. friends, 25 paise served as carrom Lizst Ferenc Square, an elegant jummen. AIn 50-paise coin painted in pink became ble of organic burgergame kitchens, wine bars, the queen, and a carrom for six players martini glasses and fedoras, we wanwas ready. dered fortuitously into thethehip Menza.

The friends played with it for next three named a Soviet-era canyears.Ironically Paul then left toafter study electrical engiteen,followed it teeters nostalgiccourse chic neering, by abetween post-graduation pure kitsch: retro Bauhaus-style furat theand National Institute of Design in Ahmedaavocado-green diner-orange bad. niture, When she returned toand Nagpur in 2005, walls, Formica tables, young yuppie couples, elderflower prosecco cocktails. No leathery meat or soggy desserts here, though. I took one look at the menu —

bone marrow toast, blackberry cream explained, however, that goulash (or gusoup, roasted duck liver in sour cherry lyás) is a thin beef soup, made with paprisauce — and forgot all about goulash for ka, as Menza’s had been. Gulyás means the moment. “It’s all very light,” the wait- “herdsman” in Magyar, and the classic er assured us. “Hungarian food is rich, peasant broth was invented by Hungarbut we try to refine it, make it modern.” ian shepherds on the open plain. What Perhaps “light” means something else we think of as goulash is actually its when translated into Magyar. The gou- thicker relative, pörkölt. And the ettelash was a savoury red broth of beef and rem’s pörkölt did, in fact, fulfil all my ferslongings: for designit consulting and her studio, Pink hexagonal were being sold evcarrots, butcarrom it was boards the only light thing goulash was a hearty, garerywhere.The “What I had garlic thought of 15 years ago Elefant,licky, was born.

She sells her toy collections around. heavy huddled-around-thethis brand, even as she designs many was something thatatoymakers had come up under fireplace cream soup sported cap of kind of stew, bright others red for and clients.

Shewith haschunks over 100 board with then,” she reminisces. langos, fried bread with dotted andbeef, puzzles to her credit, as also severToday, 35-year-old Paul is among a handful games of cheese and sour cream sealpotatoes, carrots, al babypeppers and softand toys.caraway seeds. of toy India and has worked with ing thedesigners steam in.inOur chilli Perhaps “light” clients ranging Disney to Italy’s Ferrero City, the mustard pork from medallions After to a Toy weekend of planned sour cluster means somethingLiving close in Greater Noida, her to (Kinder Joy) and Thailand’s besides with cottage cheese noodlesRoyalking,else cherry strudel, tiny open allows sawhen of toymakers design for othersandwichmanufacturers but several companies across the US,translated UK, Chinaintonot only was a huge serving, crowned lami-and-gherkin also get her own toy brand manuandaIndia. by flaky roasted pepper, es, pickled cucumbers in Magyar factured at their factories. had her firstfloret majorofbreak andPaul a dahlia-sized dill-and-yoghurt sauce, in 2005“Cottage when shecheese?” was selected “I am interface garlic.

I to dumplings andthe some deadly between consumers as do her diploma project squawked, imagining some with palinka cocktails,and wemanufacturers ended A racket for lawn I understand what each FrankofEducational Aids, pasthe then kind Punjabi paneer our Budapest holiday with a of them tennis can be used shetrendy says. Bock market leader.

“I had cheese to design ta, but the quark-like crumbled celebratory meal wants,” at the very for table tennis by four games that could enviover the noodles wascreate perfect with the Bisztro. Bock, run byThis a chefalso and aprompted somme- her to changing the handle ronmental awareness amongof Hun- lier, serves inventive come up with a range pork.

Marvelling at the capacity Magyar cuisine, and of interchangeable sports children,” she recalls. usedsatiated boasts a very well-thought-out garian stomachs, we leftShe feeling winetoys list for Disney that offer children greater varieconcepts as quite the water cycle about that shows off Hungary’s and happy,such if not convinced best. ty. So, forainstance, used and anorexic the solar system to create that goulash.

Our waiter suggested Furmint,a racket a lawnminerally tennis can alsofor be me, usedand for table tengames and even puzzles based on forcrisp At lunch in thedesigned stately Buda white by changing handle. the dos don’ts etterem for keeping the environ- nis simply side, at a and traditional a darker red for mythe friend.

No An elastic sling attached the handle ment green. the menu (restaurant), longerto haunted byfurther the turns it wasThe a company roll-call oflaunched clas- these games at the into a slingshot. spectre of state-run coSince 2009,operative Paul has been designing the surHongpork, Kong Toy Fair in January 2006 and they sics: potatoes, vineyards, come with wine the Kinder weredumplings, a huge hit. cabSoon, Paul began getting of- prise toys thatHungary’s beef, in- Joy confection. These too haveismodular elements that bage. Still, I thought dustry now a thrivare complete on own, can be assemgoulash deserved ingtheir mix ofbut small bled together into a newerSweet toy. Toanother shot. producers.

Paul preferskaji, to charge a one-time Our elderly waiter or tokay, is still fee for her designs, rather thanmost a royalty.

“A one-time dethe famous sign fee lets me focus on design Hungarian wine, rather but than financial aspects,” she says. it’s facing stiff competiAnd when comesnew to design, her focus has tion itfrom wineries been and two-fold to create environmental young — producers. awareness children; andmy to make toys “Do notamong over-order,” said that are not the onlyfeverish educational and recreational friend, watching menu-scanto use carry. ning but glintalso in easy my eye.

Sheand ought to have firstWe ledate herluscious, to Anji, acone-like sprawling bamboo known The better. foreststuffed in China.

“I researched for a month to calamari with herby cottage create a doll’s house,” shewith says.pike The result is a cheese, cabbage leaves stuffed house without perchdoll’s tartare, andbuilt freshentirely bread with blackscrews and is completely recyclable, which sells under the salt butter and salami.

Using some clever Ecopsychology, Joy sub-brand from Ecowayz at ₹4,000. reverse I persuaded my com90 per cent of her Pink Elepanion She to sells sharenearly the paprika peppers fant products online (spectacular), through Flipkart, Fashstuffed with goat cheese ion andinYou, 99lables.com and shopo.in. The the chicken a creamy orange paprika sell at design stores suchtorte. as Buzzeria in saucerest (passable) and a sour cherry Delhi and Goa’s Tuk Tuk. “Iso also get orders diGoulash, schmoulash; there was much through morerectly to Hungary.

By clients the endin ofMalaysia the meal,and Singashe says. how to come back I was pore,” already plotting toys, her ideas are evolvfor nextFrom year’seco-friendly birthday cake. ing in a natural progression. “I now want to design a playground forwriter children. naintara maya oberoi is a food based I am lookfor opportunities to design good playin Parising t@naintaramaya Good stuff Calamari filled with herby cottage cheese; (inset) what we think of as goulash is actually spaces with eco-friendly materials,” she says.

For toy designer Suhasini Paul, life is literally a game where she makes the rules

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THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

Through a lens closely rohit gupta

Waves of terror Porbandar coast, in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, which is believed to have been used as an entry point by terrorists involved in the 26/11 attack ap/ajit solanki

The arrival of the microscope in the subcontinent challenged long-cherished views about the Hindu cosmos and the human body practice of inoculation in Bengal conducted

by Brahmins who “...lay it down as a principle, that the immediate cause of the smallpox exists in the mortal part of every human and animal form, that the mediate (or second) acting cause, which stirs up the first, and throws it into a state of fermentation, is multitudes of imperceptible animalculae floating in the atmosphere; that these are the cause of all epidemical diseases, but more particularly of the smallpox; that they return at particular seasons in greater or lesser numbers; that these bodies, imperceptible as they are to the human organs of vision, imprison the most malignant tribes of the fallen angelic spirits. That these animalculae touch and adhere to every thing, in greater or lesser proportions, according to the nature of the surfaces which they encounter; that they pass and repass in and out of bodies of all animals in the act of respiration, without injury to themselves…” (Holwell, 1767) This account is in contradiction with Forbes, whose story was meant to illustrate the Brahmin ignorance of microbial life forms. On the other hand, Holwell seems to in the pleasing walks of science. The Brahmin suggest a familiarity with the notion of miread English books, searched into the Encyclo- crobes. Traditionally, smallpox was treated as paedia, and profited by the best philosophical a manifestation of the Goddess Sitala’s anger, instruments. The gentleman, on receiving a but treated nonetheless. It became necessary valuable solar microscope as a present from but the committee has not given up just yet.

It for try. later “The fate of fisherfolk does not depend onepidemic management programmes Europe, showed it with to his Hindoo ly on tides,” the 84-year-old is currently calling for arapture ‘no-arrest policy’ and by theoceanic Empire to assimilate such localactivist beliefs friend; and… the discovered the innumerhighlighting misuse to of him the captured fish- into said their over aown Skype call. “It also on the propaganda fordepends vaccination.

As able animalculae devoured by the auctioned Brahmins atide of the India-Pakistan relationship, which ing trawlers — Pakistan recently result, the complex relationship of Hindu on every fruit vegetable theytrawlers, eat…” each beliefs more than 215and captured Indian suffers several ups andscience downs.”kept changing and Western Aghast at the the pious Brah- through worth at least ₹40realisation, lakh.

His 60-odd-year existence in Pakistan has the 18th century. min, “grasping the instrument, descended been equally frominterpreted leading variIf the Hinduchequered scriptures—were as with a quicker motion than is customary with saying A Malayali in Pakistan ous business firms, to working as a journalist, that plants have life, then the Brahhis caste Mohyuddin into the garden; seizing gettingdiet arrested in 1958infor ‘leftist’ leanings Biyyothil Kutty,where, who hails froma min’s was already contradiction with large stone, he laid the microscope upon Kerala’s Malabar region, first travelled to the Pa- his anddharma. turning aDebatable political negotiator an was effort as that mayinbe, it lowest step of the andsettled instantaneouskistan in 1949 andveranda, eventually in Kara- then to integrate ethnic silk Balochistan into maina sin to harvest from silkworms, and ly smashed it to piecesofbefore astonished chi.

A member the hisPILER and wool stream Pakistan. from sheep?“I became involved with the friend could prevent general-secretary of him.”

PPC, he is vociferous Sindhi issue through because my connecThis fisherfolk question is important the Laterfisherfolk’s the Brahmin about rightsexplained in his adopted coun- tion with PILER. suchscience as Karamat Ali, clashPeople of Western and Hinthat his actions were merely in the du beliefs slowly simmered for interest of his fellow countrymen, over a century. The British gov“I am a solitary individual among ernment’s enforced scheme for Because disease 50 million people all educated in containing smallpox involved a breeds fear, the same belief with myself! All vaccine developed by Edward medical science happy in their ignorance! So may Jenner from cows, and faced very can be a form of they ever remain!” Forbes later strong resistance in its adoption political power over used this anecdote — fact or fabriby the natives. And it finally exthe human body cation, one does not know — to adploded with the Mutiny of 1857, vocate the conversion of Hindus sparked by the sepoys’ suspicion to Christianity. that cartridges of the Enfield rifle According to a report found in were being greased with the fat the Asiatic Journal, as late as 1839 the humble of cows and pigs. microscope continued to cause “... astonishHylozoism — the idea that all matter is in ment, especially among the native gentlemen some sense alive — was prevalent in many anwho were present. The Hindoos, who are cient cultures, and was directly opposed to the afraid to take away life, drink water without emerging mechanistic view of nature in the hesitation; but by this microscope it is discov- 17-18th centuries. Especially so during the Britered that in every handful of water which is ish Raj, which coincided with the ‘scientific drunk, hundreds of living creatures are con- revolution’ in Europe (as loose as that term stantly put to death.” might be). Even today Jaina monks of certain The arrival of the microscope in the subcon- sects can be seen walking around barefoot tinent thus challenged some long-held views with mouths covered by cloth to prevent about the Hindu cosmos and the human body. themselves from killing airborne One of the major themes of this confrontation microorganisms. was smallpox in India, of which a famous acrohit gupta explores the history as waters count comes to us Indian via the company Tides of misfortune fishermen in a surgeon Karachi jail who are accused of trawling illegallyofinscience Pakistani afp/asif hassan John Holwell, who describes an indigenous Compasswallah t @fadesingh

Catch 22

Blown up (Clockwise from below) Hindoo Devotees of the Gosammee and Jetty Tribes, a drawing by James Forbes in the late 1700s; Robert Hooke’s microscope in 1665; and Hooke’s drawing of a flea in his Micrographia wikicommons

A cross-border band of good Samaritans works to free Indian and Pakistani fisherfolk who are jailed for straying into each other’s waters

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n December 4, 2004, 18-year-old Ketan Bharadwaj Solanki and six other fishermen from Diu woke up to the sound of firing and warnings over a loudspeaker asking them to surrender.

Their trawler had been three days at sea, off the Gujarat coast, when Pakistan’s Maritime Security Agency (MSA) arrested them for allegedly crossing the international maritime boundary. They had drifted a bit with the tide during the night but “were still a good 13 nautical miles within the Indian border”, says Solanki, who spent the next six months in a Karachi jail before returning to Diu. Solanki got away lucky. For most of the fishermen who are taken in by the coastal authorities on either side of the border, being under arrest for two to four years is commonplace and some have even languished in jail for as long as nine years. At last count, there were 366 Indian fishermen in a Karachi jail and ncounters of Pakistani the microscope with more than 200 of their counterparts during the arrival of in variousnative IndianIndians jails, according to the PakisBritishForum science were fundamental in tani Fisherfolk (PFF). perhaps Solankishaping was ablecolonial to get outhistory, of jail relatively more culturally than the telescope soon because ofsignificant the work of groups like PFF — its along scientific Because Peace disease breeds who withtwin. the Pakistan Coalition fear, be a form of political (PPC)medical and thescience Pakistancan Institute of Labour Edupower human body. on their side of cation over and the Research (PILER) is hardcomplemented to say when the microscope theItborder byfirst the efforts of aclanded on the shores or whether it tivists like Jatin DesaiofofIndia, the Pakistan-India came via Forum British, French or Dutch sources. In People’s for Peace and Democracy the late 1700s, artist James Forbes men(PIPFPD) here inthe India. tions anthe anecdote, which a staple arof Over last decade or so,became these ‘invisible orientalist lore about thetoHindu reaction to rests’ have been brought the fore by these Western science.

The memoir, writtento in get 1765-a groups. In 2012, they even managed 84, relates “the story of anfrom English gentleman, joint judicial committee both countries extremely of natural andside experimental to visit the fond fisherfolk on either of the borphilosophy, being within athe liberalder, both in jail andintimate outside, and same minded who had been educated at year the Brahmin, total toll of arrested fishermen in eiBenares, or some college; ther country fell toother undercelebrated 100, the lowest in they generally passed thehas morning together two decades.

This number since increased,

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Far from home Fisheries Department officials interrogate arrested Pakistani fishermen at Okha Port, in Kutch district of Gujarat pti

No cutting, please

Politician Chiranjeevi asked to get back in line

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f reports are to believed, the Union Minister might be a rare sight in his ministerial chambers in Delhi. However, he sure made a spectacle of himself while voting at the posh Jubilee Hills neighbourhood in Hyderabad.

He tried the age-old trick of wave, smile and cut the line. However, a fellow voter stopped the minister in his tracks, saying, “We have been waiting for more than 90 minutes for our turn, why do you expect special treatment on a day like this?”

The confounded minister who was vigorously marching ahead with his family, quickly retreated and joined the line, casting his vote only when his turn finally came around.

A lesson that will stay with him, hopefully.

In Adachi we trust In this Tokyo borough, the elderly get some time, love and tenderness

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t took the discovery of the rotting body of a 111-year-old man in Adachi, Japan, four years ago, for the authorities to sit up and take heed, but they seem to have gotten their act together since then. The Adachi borough with more than six lakh residents, out of which 21 per cent are over 65, are battling kodokushi or “lonely deaths”, which is a national crisis in Japan, known to have the world’s largest ageing population.

The Adachi authorities started a project, the Power of Communities Promotion Division, in 2011 and it is now bearing fruit. Having identified elderly people who need care, the government provides them access to public health insurance, sports facilities and other welfare services. The best part is that the younger people in the area are also encouraged to go check on their elderly neighbours, ensuring that the worst ailment of ageing — loneliness — is kept at bay.

Pointing out that fisherfolk elsewhere in Journalists in the late 1980s and early 1990s, managing director of PILER, Muhammad Ali Shah and Saeed Baluch of PFF, and advocate the world too routinely stray into foreign wa- and has been involved with the fisherfolk isFaisal Siddiqui have been instrumental in ters — Indonesian fishermen drift into Austra- sue since 2002.

“I trace my roots to Bhavnagar in coastal highlighting the issue and I assist them in any lian waters, Pakistanis into Iran, Thai into Malaysia and Eritreans into Yemen — Kutty Saurashtra, Gujarat. I heard about Premjibhai way I can,” says Kutty.

He and his associates visit the jailed Indian says they rarely face the animosity that fisher- Khokhari, who was the first to conduct a surfishermen and help them contact the Indian folk from India and Pakistan encounter in vey of the number of missing and detained InHigh Commission. “If a batch of 30 fishermen each other’s territory. “It is because of the pe- dian fishermen in Pakistan. This led me to join is released today by Pakistan, another new culiar relationship between our countries the PIPFPD,” says Desai. Together with his Pathat the fisherfolk are caught in the crossfire.” kistani counterparts, he is pushing for bilaterbatch is picked up or two.

The 300km he after townaofweek Shivpuri, around from State capital Bhopal Compounding problem is the fact that al agreements, a bi-annual count of all same thing happens the Indian side.

Thus,have decided andon home to 17 lakh people to annulthe some extra fat in some regions, such as Sir the fisherfolkin are a permanent tragic feature their municipality, quite literally. Following a petition filed by aCreek, res- each coun- arrested fishermen, and ways to help the artry claims its own Exclusive Economic Zone rested fishermen communicate with their of Pakistan-India maritime relations.

We help ident at the State High Court, the municipal authorities have issued a the released fish-workers find a safe passage really knows tender for ‘shooters’ who can take and careno of one all the extra pigs where in the one side be- friends and family.

He says Indian fishermen are more adverseends. “In the sea there are no boundaback home.” town, setting the stage for a porcinegins massorexecution. ries the or township flags or demarcations, This passage is a longwinded — fisherWhile a few saneone voices are pointing to less Taranti- how are we ly effected owing to several reasons: In Kutch men who land in trouble forsuch straying a fewthe pig supposed to know which the partauof the water is and Saurashtra the fluctuating tides are somenoesque means as shifting population elsewhere, kilometres from their home turf off the and which thorities seem adamant onGujahuntingHindustan them all down.

Blood Pakistan?” thirsty as asks Jagad- times enough to carry trawlers to the other rat coast, nowthey havemight to pass Wagah atmade ishit Ramji Solanki, a 29-year-old be,through at least they have mandatory that all executers fisherman side. Moreover, industrialisation has robbed from Diu the Indo-Pak procure border aand travelweapon to Amritsar licensed before taking theirwho aim.spent more than a year in Kara- them of a good catch on this side and they are and then to Ahmedabad before finally reac- chi’s Landhi Central Jail for inadvertently forced to tread close to the Pakistani side for a better haul of fish. hing home. crossing international waters.

While the arrests were few and There have been instances far between in the 1980s, they where coastal authorities have have increased. Moreover, fishercrossed international borders to men today remain longer at sea, make arrests, especially during Coast Guard arrests close to 10-12 days, compared to a periods of high tension between hundreds of week some decades ago. “With the nations. fishermen but each boat that is captured, the While the issue seems insurcouldn’t stop a bunch livelihood of not only the eight mountable, Kutty remains hopeof guys with guns? fishermen on board is effected ful. “We know that it will take a but also that of the nearly 20 long time, but we are ultimately people who sell the catch; curpushing for a no-arrest policy rently there are reportedly 780 where fisherfolk should just be sent back if found on the wrong side,” he says, trawlers in the MSA’s possession and at least adding, “Why should something that happens 215 with the Indian coastguard,” says Desai.

Across the line Pakistan resident Biyyothil Mohyuddin Kutty campaigns for Rather than arresting fishermen for geopolin faraway Kargil or Siachen affect their lives?” the rights of fisherfolk on both sides of itical gains, he says, both countries would do the border well to take them into confidence in an effort The Indian vanguard Referring to Mumbai’s 26/11 date with terror, to enforce coastal security. “They are the ones Jatinof Desai the story of a boatman, who know what happens at sea and will thereod is the staple in every platter fish narrates ‘n’ on whose vessel Ajmal Kasab and fore be the best eyes and ears.” chips dished out in Scotland.Chaudhury, The Scot fishAfter more than a decade of campaigning, hiswhen fellowBBC’s terrorists apparently arrived from ermen however rose up in fury, Philippines and Malaysia are hen will thisChauddeluge of he selfies despairs at the helplessness that (which forces him Pakistan. except MasterChef urged viewers to refer to the“They Ma- killed everyone end, you and ask?knew Well, not apparently selfie spots’) — are to anystop answering calls from‘hot affected families. hury, who was rine Conservation Society’s (MCS) website for the tandel (captain) the directions; Mumtimebefore soon reaching for sure and someDesai enter-mentions essentially a tripod equipped withina a friend called Fazal Bhai advice on sustainable fish. Our Scottish fisher- and just bai they killed boattech-folk was fromhave Porbanprising now come up who button at calls the end or Bluetooth to Kutch he says, at least thrice every men believe that the MCS erroneously lists cod him. His dar (Gujarat).” is surprising is week with “What the selfie stick, a device thatto ask operate aboutthe hisshutter. relatives jailed in Karaas “fish to avoid”. To extricate themselves out of His point: that the Coast arrests ofafishgive hundreds you at least foot more of stick willhim surethat come in chi. “Earlier IThis used to tell I’dhandy call him this stink, a MasterChef spokesperson told TheGuardcan ermen everyadyear but couldn’twhile stop ataking bunch of coverage selfiesback with thewas pursuit of vanity, allowing one if there any news, but then it became Scotsman, “We are keen to provide the right with guns?” your beloved, your cat, yourreally dog, difficult to puttomuch-needed keep saying distance that afterbe-a vice and welcome any updatedguys information Mumbai-based Kutty, has that like strange guy ondonned the street… well So tween the lens those incrimiwhile. now I don’t pickand up the phone.

Bebased on new research and findings.”

The chefs Desai, various avatars, including of a journalist cause, what you getthat the point. nating enlarged pores can Idouble tell himchins, really?” are waiting, so are the cod. and—later Mid-are all the and other blemishes that reveal for Gujarati daily Janmabhoomi These sticks which The rights man Jatin Desai, who is a of the Bombay Union of sibi arasu journalist-turned-activist paul noronha day. He was president rage in Southeast Asia, especially in themselves in arm-length selfies.

Down with the pigs

A town in MP resorts to extreme measures to deal with their ‘pig menace’

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Q

Much ado about cod Scottish fishermen not amused after BBC’s MasterChef ‘blacklists’ the most popular fish in the UK

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Stick with it

And now, a selfie stick to get just the right angle

partha pratim sharma

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ND-X _ A

3 23BL BL

HANG

saturday, may 3, 2014

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cornerstone in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

H 1

ere is an election special quiz. Hoping I don’t have to do another one around this time next year!

Rae Bareli has been a safe seat for the Congress since Independence, with both Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi winning from there. But who was the first Congress party member to win from Rae Bareli?

2

You think only our television channels get it wrong! “________ defeats Truman” was a famously incorrect banner headline on the front page of the Chicago Tribune on November 3, 1948, the day after incumbent democrat Harry S Truman won an upset victory over his Republican challenger. Who did Truman beat, which was completely misreported by the Tribune the next morning?

3

She won the 2011 MP elections as a Labour candidate from Hampstead and Kilburn by the narrowest of margins. However, her Academy award wins for Women in Love ( 1970) and A Touch of Class (1973) were both pretty emphatic. Identify this talented actress-turnedpolitician.

4 5

Which Harvard alumni lost the 1997 Presidential elections to KR Narayanan?

The BSP is allowed the elephant as its symbol in all but two Indian States. Name any one of the two, both of which have strong local parties with the elephant as their symbol.

the new york times crossword-1124

nosy nonsense

6

Fill in the blanks in this election slogan of the ’70s to identify this colourful politician.

Na Nar na Nari, Indira Ka Pujari, Sanjay Ka Sawari ________ ? I promise you that you have definitely heard of him!

7

Atal Bihari Vajpayee is the only politician who has won from six different constituencies: Balrampur — 1957, 1967, Gwalior — 1971, New Delhi — 1977, 1980, Vidisha — 1991, Gandhinagar — 1996, Lucknow — 1991, 1996, 1998.

But even he lost the 1984 elections from Gwalior in the sympathy wave after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Who defeated him in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections?

8

Charles Dunbar Burgess King won the 1927 Presidential elections in his country getting a total of 2,34,000 votes. An amazing result, especially since his country had only 15,000 registered voters at the time. Which African country did King lead between 1920 and 1930?

9

Which political term was coined by the Boston Gazette in 1812 in reaction to the redrawing of a US state district in order to benefit a particular political party? The name originated from the governor who signed the order, and the animal a particular district’s shape resembled.

10

Which sportsman fought the 1971 Lok Sabha elections on a Vishal Haryana ticket after Mrs Gandhi cancelled the privy purse for former royals? He lost, incidentally.

Answers

1. Feroze Gandhi, who was the MP in 1952 and 1957.

2. Thomas Dewey. To be fair it was considered a major upset.

3. Glenda Jackson 4. TN Seshan, the 10th Election Commissioner, and arguably, the one who brought the post into public prominence.

5. The Asom Gana Parishad in Assam and the Sikkim Sangram Parishad. Part points allowed.

6. ND Tiwary. Former cabinet minister, three time UP CM, and not so proud father.

7. Madhav Rao Scindia 8. Liberia 9. Gerrymander, named after Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry and the salamander shape of the redrawn district.

10. Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, the Indian cricket captain.

joy bhattacharjya is a quiz master, director Kolkata Knight Riders and author of Junior Premier League — The First XI t@joybhattacharj

Across 1 Top off, as someone’s drink 8 Isolated hill surrounded by lava 15 Shine 20 Lubrication point 21 Snapping things 22 Avoiding the rush, say 23 She “speaks things in doubt, / That carry but half sense” 24 They’re not accented in music 25 Unimaginative 26 One unsatisfied with a “She loves me, she loves me not” result?

28 Picky little dog?

30 Faint trace 31 A lot 33 Neglect 34 Detests 38 Game equipment 40 Haitian couple 41 Bandleader’s cry 42 Called off 43 Lay atop 47 “L’Arlésienne” composer 48 It’s not much 49 Lake ___ (Australia’s lowest point)

50 Audition winner’s part, maybe 51 Peep 52 Business transactions free from government regulation?

57 Spanish bear 58 Vanquish 61 Narrow land projections into the sea 62 Floors 64 Billet-doux recipient 66 Hands, informally 67 Orbit rival 69 Coat style 70 Bank run 71 Change structurally 72 It’s nothing at all 73 Carefree dairy product?

77 “Really!”

80 Radiohead head Yorke 82 Modest response to a compliment 83 French 101 pronoun 84 It covers Hector’s death 86 Continental free trade group 88 Block, as a stream 91 Likes lots 92 F.S.U. player, for short 93 Bright red 94 One spinning one’s wheels?

95 Optimally 98 It’s often heard at a ballpark 99 Reconstruction-era cartoonist 101 Optimistic theater audience?

103 Marvel from Idaho’s largest city?

109 Soot 110 Kind of seat 112 Straight-shooting 113 It’s bigger than a family 114 Slalom, for one 115 Winston’s home in “1984” 116 Snapchat demographic 117 Nuts 118 In words Down 1 Kind of pyramid 2 TV’s Kelly 3 Educ. book category 4 “___ Like the Wind” (song from “Dirty Dancing”) 5 Sunday reading 6 Supporter of the 1%, say 7 Advances on 8 Missile name 9 Got to the point?

10 Eagerly adopt 11 Polish leader?

12 Developers’ expanses

13 Profanities 14 Canadian business often connected to a Tim Hortons 15 Makes bail, e.g.

16 Talking points?

17 “Un Ballo in Maschera” aria 18 Some chorus members 19 “Like hell!”

27 Mollify 29 “Hold your horses” 32 Boosted, as an ego 34 Heat alerts, for short?

35 Tiny indicator 36 Barely remembered seaman?

37 “Listen up, Lucia!”

39 Hoosier capital, informally 40 Detective writer Earl ___ Biggers 43 Some loaves 44 Sports score most likely to be on the highlight reel?

45 Actress Elizabeth with older twins 46 Fagin’s end 48 Pulled tight 49 Defib team 52 Post office workers, for short?

53 CBS series that, oddly, was filmed in L.A.

54 Lens 55 Sen. McConnell 56 “Downton Abbey” maid 59 Museum decoration 60 “Sherlock” channel, affectionately, with “the” 63 Bread box?

64 “De Monarchia” writer 65 He discusses divine providence in Job 66 Labyrinthine 67 An Arnaz 68 Busy travel day, maybe 70 Cheeky 71 Goes back into business 74 Venice’s oldest bridge 75 “Fûmes” is a form of it 76 Birds with inflatable neck sacs 78 “I ___ Hamlet” (Paul Rudnick play) 79 Fumes may produce one 81 Financiers 84 Brand of gloves and slippers 85 Blitzed 87 Concertgoers who are into

the hits?

88 Rice paper?: Abbr.

89 Desert steed 90 One of the Balearic Islands 91 County seat of Suffolk, England 93 Stupid sort 95 Specialized talk 96 2014 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee 97 The Beatles’ “P.S. I Love You,” e.g.

98 Honshu port 100 “The Two Pots” storyteller 102 College up the coast from L.A. 104 March time 105 Certain tourney overseer 106 TV spots 107 City near Presque Isle State Park 108 Like some tea leaves 111 Sports ___

By Brendan Emmett Quigley / Edited by Will Shortz

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