Blink issue 21 june14 2014

STUCK IN A MUDDLE As Delhi University admissions get going, students ask if the fouryear undergraduate degree will ourish or ounder p4 saturday, june 14, 2014

ANISHA SHARMA

While Oxford has no single Little India, it has traces visible to the attentive observer, which tell of the complex and intertwined histories of both India and Britain p10

India on the Isis

BUS TO THE WALL Cheapest and best ways to unearth the lanes, dives and music shops of Beijing p20

MYSORE BY FOOT Author Mahesh Rao on the unexpected pleasures of an amble through the city p17

explore know

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saturday, june 14,14, 2014 saturday, june 2014 CREATURE FEATURE

Painted Grasshopper

High drama

Why might anything be this crazily coloured?

Colour me bright Gnawing at milkweed

In a rare instance of online ‘slacktivism’ leading to offline victory, 14-year-old Sunder walks free after seven years of abuse

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hat does it take the road, with police protection for an elephant to to boot, bike-borne men gave walk free? Two them the chase. It was all very cinyears, 2,20,000 ematic. Think Argo of the beasts. people and a hashtag (#FreeSunAnd yet, Sunder is healing now der) that went viral on Facebook — his legs mauled by spiked and Twitter. In a rare instance of chains, his ears and eyes punconline ‘slacktivism’ leading to of- tured with a billhook — in a 49.5 fline victory, 14-year-old Sunder hectare enclosure at the forested escaped seven years of severe Park near Bangalore. Relearning abuse, often unleashed by his his Ps and Qs, he is not yet allowed own mahout, at a temple in Kol- to befriend and make small elehapur and later, in a dark poultry phant talk with any of his 13 penshed in Warananagar nearby. A mates — 12 of whom, significantly, cause supported by heavyweights are female. But it won’t be long behose of us who value naBut imagine like Sir Paul McCartney and Ami- fore Sunder’s social life takes a ture probably have some you’re a plantanditspearheaded happy, turn. biases abouthe which orga- feeding this Bachchan, income. Also, is this was just an historic initial dole from the governExpedition Operators insect Associ- cannot afford to losetabh by the and Indian arm of the People once reclusive teenager nisms we find most(EOA) intri- had ment from The a general Relief Fund that has is set ation a meeting with now hard for the climbing sponsorship searching for something to nibfor the Treatment of Ani-for earthquakes already met and andsuch shaken trunks guing. For many people, aside catastrophes. manybrighter of the foreign operators in needing community in Ethical the administrable away at without to beto have faith mals (PETA), ele-the But in this case, the huge with international Van Raj, a giant and more colourful creatures war-andwary tion of mountaineering tourism in the Nepal, supKathmandu a letter of was the sent jaws to of a hungry goat. bull elephant.

Hethe al-derant more attention.

I realised thatofI Culture, effects willphant’s probablyrelease be quitelast dras- port for the families has watered down the Nepal’s Ministry Tourism Wouldn’t you doand well tolong-term pick a plant weekthe was nearly as of mands of the Sherpas so who appears to havethe too harbour Civil this bias when(which I stop-regulates are asking Aviation climbing tic, and won’t this will also effect employment that the largeronherbivore dramatic as the warmed up to young ped in amazement the sight of ademands.

Ministry have a fund in place for such acciEverest)atwith various havewas spent the local community; not only Sherpas, but al- Sunder touch?IThis the strategy adopthastoalready events that led to it. taxi met Shiva, a baby eleparticular grasshopper.

This dents in the future.

The Ministry sees this outhotels, airlines, food suppliers, porters, weeks trying to grasspresent ed a reasonable argu- sowho by the grasshopper, singleand shaken Following phant who nearly hopper is the sort but of animal that driversatand even postcard sellers. a Su- trunks side with support a way around having such ment, I am sad to saymindedly that the reaction chomped away the Vanas Raj, Sunder a carlooks odder from and odder longer and tourism preme is 9.4 perCourt cent oforder, Nepal’s a giant funds, absolving themgave of responsibility. senior the officials is thatmargin of contempt.

This leaf,Travel of a milkweed oblivious bull elephant officials from diacdoesarrest (hethe you look at itis—the anywhere your eyes that But how this help is forecastforest to rise to 11 best opportunity has sapGDP, to the the Ministry toxin-laced thatwhich oozed Kolhapur hadn’t baby may rest on its body, will see un- from Sherpa who died seen earlieraon in the per cent 2023. Travel and tou-along with ever hadyou to make meaningful and theprogressive leaf’s veins. Clearly, it by had before!) whenwho they expected colour and outrageous season? Or the Sherpa surrism employs thanfrom 1.25 Kerala archanges that will be appreciated byto the Sherpamilkweed evolved tolerate toxins. more vets the shed to first ran into but each pattern. The wings are finely community andveined, would demonstrate the in- million people, whichrived is 8.2atper vived this avalanche, was But thetograsshopper’s colouragain Sunder’s trust and But ithome is for to the that yellow linesternational running community that they are serious cent ofit the total employment in walking hisladies village a few tion indicates does Thelure hugehim other. into designed truck to Sunder put his best foot forward. through a delicate a country that has 46 pera specially cent international days later and was struck dead about surthe administration of this important more than just ingest support transportinhim tofor safety.

Four days, site, director veter- to face that fades from

by PETA lightning?

What ofaccess tourist business. But no, they have donemilkweed noth- unemployment.

Any decrease toxins — it the families has On the several bananas and jackfruits affairs, Drhe Manilal green to reddish-pink. funds does have? Valliyate, Care needs ing, which is disappointing. What islikely even holds tourism will be a on employment to watered downlatthe inary Imagine you’re breached reports wastobesotted by the in Under the wings, worse isitsthat they are now embroiled in cor- and greatdeploys loss to Nepal. er, the elephant finally to behe taken have a structure them demands of the a plant-eating insect the trough that had been dug to two female elephants who welabdomen isruption, stripedlies and deceit. place that will be able to channel them in its Because own body,of the widespread Sherpas for a fund in in search of help him board his ride to the comed him to the Elephant Care with blue and During yellow; the 2014 season, foreign operators about donations for bereaved families making itpublicity toxic too.

A this unfortunate case of future something to nibble Biological Park. Al- Centre: for theSherpa first time, at the other end of thethat more than $100 million of all“Maybe high-altitude workestimate wasfor example, accident,that 16 families Bannerghatta have been bird, accidents at without needing to 700km and 25 hours away; a he tried strike a chord with the grasshopper,spent the by an-the international community eats to rightfully gainmost consideraers intothe future. on Ev-the able grasshopper be wary about the staggering him. touched andantennae are erest. similarly heard thatHethere was yet Furthermore, we estimate that thewill totalshare blethe income from donations from distance for any un- ladies Inear same jaws of a hungry goat trained animal. But even before smelled striped. In between otherthem.” bus crash in Nepal just a around the world which, I have impactare to the GDP of Nepal would havefate been as the herbivores the long trudge to the shelter had Ifcouple all goesof well, it won’t long six blue, orange, yellowof $15 million, and that the direct in excess heard, amounts to something days afterbethe avathatinate the milkweed, there was much begins see the and green spiny legs, lanche inbefore which Sunder 23 people weretokilled.

Accicome forapermit fees would be approximately $8,00,000. were appalled that the shouting and learnlike to avoid eat- Manybegun, andoffered hollering. who like Park in the Anekalregularly range, dotted radially striped head This is a huge amount of wasted Nepal government only $400The permahout, vic- dents this happen in the $3.3 million. ing grasshoppers that part ofI heard the belligerent fac- but withthere gurgling streams ponds, and chest andmoney beady in blue Whyof one theeyes. course Nepal tim, a paltry However, that country is never any and media attenlookyear, like and the nausea-inducing kind. amount.was tion, even attempted to confuse as his poor greenpeople refuge.won’t Far away might anything be this crazily tion, and these evenfrom get the Being toxic doesn’t help that first and excite a partially drugged chainsthe and darkness, meangot. ma-But coloured? support which avalanche victims grasshopper — it must get eaten for Sunder with erroneous are comundercover videos And this is when I checked myself, the bird to learn to avoid others of these houts peopleand also not worthy of aidthat from mands. When that failed, tyres first stirred community of embarrassed by my easy fascination its species. But birds must eat, and if the of government as theya have no insurance the truck and the elephant ambuworld webbers to launch arewith the bright and colourful, be- toxic grasshoppers looked similar cover? There arewide so many improvements lance (meant to bring up the rear in mammoth rescue operation. cause the reason for this grasshop- to non-toxic, edible grasshoppers, quired the Nepalese community, and if the on the journey) were promptly per’s colours lay right in front of me, the bird would simply have to eat mountaineering industry can lead the way deflated. Even when the party hitthat soity within the unremarkable plant that the next grasshopper it came across. then wouldbanerjee be a great example. it was sitting on — a milkweed. Milk- The risk of a violent vomiting epiweed sap teems with toxins that dis- sode would be outweighed by the What needs to be done courage all kinds of animals from bird’s need to feed. And so it’s in the • The Ministry should set up a special commitfeeding on the plant. When eaten in best interests of both the bird (or tee to investigate this year’s accident. large quantities, these any other predator) and the grass• Those ring leaders that were responsible toxins cause many hopper that the toxic grasshoppers need to be held accountable. herbivores to vomit look as distinctive as possible. Sport• The Ministry needs to be overhauled from violently. Herbivores ing more colours than your average top to bottom, including the aviation sector.

Steep climb ahead learn to associate this fruit basket offers all subsequent • New rules need to be put in place to ensure A view of Everest Base unpleasant nausea with grasshoppers a chance to live anoththat Sherpas are better looked after.

Camp from Crampon • New rules and regulations need to be put in er day. It also saves the predator a Point, the entrance to milkweed, and avoid eating the plant in the fu- second harrowing, near-death expeplace so that the investment and security of the Khumbu icefall, where an avalanche ture. The avoidance is rience. Meanwhile, the milkweed, operators and members is ensured. killed 16 people earlier well-founded, for if an its leaves only slightly chewed, finds Will this happen? I am doubtful. But it is in the year; reportedly, animal manages to eat itself at the centre of an ecological time that those in power makes some meaonly two foreign about twice as much and evolutionary drama. ningful and progressive changes. climbers have milkweed as returned to Everest russell brice is a mountaineer from New Zealand caused it to vomit, ambika kamath studies organismic and after the season was closed afp/robert kay evolutionary biology at Harvard University and the owner/manager of Himalayan Experience it will die. ambika kamath

When things fall apart

Russell Brice a mountaineer for the last few decades, who has operated 19 expeditions to Everest, writes about all that is still undone in the aftermath of the recent Everest tragedy

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ment is fuelling this migration.

The 2011 Planning Commission report says that nearly 58 per cent of the villages in Uttarakhand have no access to proper roads. It is estimated that the total number of displaced people from the State is well over a whopping 20 lakh. A number so big, that those displaced if they are brought together in one place will equal a district as big as Haridwar.

The most dangerous outcome of this migration is that the State, which was essentially created at the beginning of the millennium to empower the mountain people, runs the risk that within the decade would have more seats in its Legislative Assembly from the plains than from the mountains. This would defeat the very purpose of carving it from what was till then a joint Uttar Pradesh.

Back to the future When Praveen Pawar, a consultant with the United Nations Disaster Management Team (UNDMT), was in Uttarakhand after last year’s deluge, he stumbled upon a remarkable fact.

“I was looking for ways to show the State government apparatus that it should tap the resources available in its land. Give the people reasons to stay rooted and not move away,” says the 38-year-old consultant who recently moved back to Maharashtra from Uttarakhand. “I heard about Barsu and put my theories into practice and began work on the village’s restoration.” His brainchild is the ‘Barsu Project’ — a four-year plan which, if implemented, would return the entire village and its 2,000 nalis to their former glory by 2018. Currently running it as a philanthropic venture, Pawar is trying to rope in friends and funding agencies to raise the ₹45-odd lakh required for the project.

Once restored, the village, he hopes, will not (roughly 22 acres), growing fruits and vegeta- only get back its inhabitants but also develop bles. Within five years I want to make sure all into a centre for homestays, aromatic treatthe families return and take up what used to ments and other eco-tourism projects. be their homes and fields.”

The day-to-day running of the Barsu project is handled by a Rudraprayag-based NGO and A lost age Semwal, who are together also in charge of Government gazettes indicate that Barsu vil- overseeing land improvements, hiring lalage has been in existence since 1372 AD. “At bourers and supervising the restoration work. one point the entire 2,000 nalis (98 acres) used The local administration has chipped in with to be well-cultivated. But for as long as I can re- three solar-powered street lamps and water member, while the rest of the supply for restoring the land. world was racing forward, we “We want to see how the Barsu didn’t have electricity, water or project develops and replicate it even a decent road,” says Semwal. in other areas, if successful,” Barsu is a ghost village, or, as says Raghav Langer, district maBarsu is a ghost they say in Garhwali, a bhootiya gistrate, Rudraprayag. “Slowly, village and it’s not gao. And it’s not the only one of we will enable the people of Barthe only one of its its kind. su to benefit from schemes such kind In Uttarakhand, there is an unas MGNREGA and National Agrider-reported but pressing social culture Development Scheme. epidemic of sorts — the migraThe redevelopment of such viltion of young people away from lages can be an effective check villages and into the State capital and other on migration.” parts of the country. In fact, among the State’s The houses remaining in the village are also nine hill districts, some such as Pauri and Al- being restored. Some of them are more than mora have shown negative population 200 years old, rich with intricate architecture growth in the 2011 census. The absence of in- that bring to mind those found in centuriesdustry and, consequently, gainful employ- old houses across Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Semwal, who is giving us a mini-tour of the village, says, “Well, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but they say that many people in Uttarakhand came from dakshin (south) and settled here many centuries ago.” (Interestingly, several historians, including DP Saklani, the author of Ancient Communities of the Himalayas, have made references to the Dravidian connection.)

Semwal adds, “My father was one of the first to leave the village back then. Nothing will make me happier than being the one to bring all of my people back home.”

Uttarakhand’s ‘ghost busters’

Migration has left many Uttarakhand villages literally lifeless; one mountain village is finding ingenious ways to get its people back and stay rooted to the land

T Slow and steady (clockwise from top) Rakesh Semwal, an erstwhile resident of Barsu, hopes to return to his ancestral home within a year; his nephew Vijay Semwal, who is trying to bring Barsu back to life; and a view of the village as it is today virender singh negi

o get to Barsu from Dehra Dun, the Uttarakhand capital, you need to drive 180km on the rickety, mountainous and rain-battered National Highway 58 towards Rudraprayag district. Another 6km of consistently poor roads, followed by a half-kilometre climb on foot takes you to what was once the village of Barsu, nestled in the Shivalik range, overlooking the outer Himalayas.

“We once had 83 families in our village, but since my father’s time people have been moving away to the village of Punar, and further on to Rudraprayag, Dehra Dun and Delhi,” says Vijay Semwal, 40. He had left Barsu when he was a child but has now returned and is leading efforts to bring the village back to life, literally. “We managed to get people to notice our plight and, over the last few months, we have begun work on developing 200 nalis

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U-turn ahead

A moment to pause At the MAO Livehouse, a popular rock club on the Gulou East Street in Beijing zac o’yeah

Agitating students at nearest metro station, buy a ticket (which will the Chhatra cost you no more than 2RMB or about ₹20) Marg crossing in Delhi and alight at Jiushitan station in the University northerndemand the section of central Beijing. From therollback subway of the Four take Exit A, facing the Ring Road, andYear turnUndergraduate left.

On the corner, there’s a small fast Programme food grill monica tiwari where you can buy some excellent, spicy Chinese-style shawarma rolls for breakfast for just a few RMBs. Munching on your delicious morning meal, continue along the road, which is full of bus stands advertising all kinds of destinations in Chinese and a few offering trips to the Great Wall in English. Avoid these — you may end up cruising through a number of souvenir shops on the way and barely get an hour by the Wall.

You want the direct shuttle bus. And you find it another block away, right by the ancient Arrow Tower (known as Deshengmen) at a large traffic roundabout. You will see a line of local tourists boarding the buses — these run throughout the morning and the last one leaves Beijing around noon. Join the queue and buy your ticket onboard.

To confirm that it’s the right bus, repeatedly say ‘Badaling’ (the name of the village by the Wall) or ‘Wanli Chang Cheng’ (which I have reason to believe is Chinese for ‘very long wall’). Much of the ride is through endless Beijing suburbs but the last bit is extremely picturesque with ruined stretches of wall clinging to steep hills, old watchtowers and mysterious pavilions. After about an hour, you reach your destination and stand at the foot of une is not the month for protests at year courses, with an option to ‘drop out’ the Great Wall. from Failing the test Delhi University,” says Sunny Kumar, the second year on. BSc degrees have become Infrastructure, or the lack of it, is another the Delhi president of the All India Stu- BTech. Students will now take twice asThe Wall cause for criticism. The administration hadn’t many hinese dents monuments impress with ableadand papers reliable—public transport, costs no20 pertain Association (AISA).

With the Given howplanned cheap the is, theclassrooms Wall does get nearly 50 — of which only forbus enough or teachers their size.

The Great of—China, more — both waysdiscipline.

— which is While highly retaining mission season in fullWall swing over three lakhthanto₹260 crowded, especially oncourses. weekends.

Most their chosen for the new “Often weguidehad to wait for pocket-friendly compared to the ₹1,500 travel courses for example,have is over 3,000km long.so far, applications been submitted and their rigour books willa suggest going tofree,” remote, and quality, the discipline classroom to be saysless-freBalaji. “We even While you on can’t, despite claims agents for aseen busthe tour or upwards all colleges term break,all Kumar is right.

Yet, charge quented had partslessons of the Wall, but for During sheer the comhave also syllabi diluted toofaccommoin bamboo huts.” to the contrary, see it4,from the of moon, you do ₹10,000 per forcourses. a semi-private tour since June hordes students and unions convenience Badaling, some 70kmdisciplines, north of arts studatehead other One year on,by life for the bined classes for various apparentlyhave see the city of Shanghai fairly car. Here first thenbatch was my chance to save a few been staging protests andclearhunger strikes downtown Beijing, is unbeatable.

Due with to itsmath and of FYUP ‘guinea pigs’ has been one dents struggled to keep pace ly from outer space —the at rollback 6,300sqkm in area bucks, which I could time then misspent, put to good useofhavdemanding of the controversial proximityscience to the capital, dramatic setof anxiety, and little value. coursesand andits vice versa. “According to ing a ball inThe Beijing after thecourses mandatory Wall up and half aFour kilometre in height (going by its (FYUP).

Year Undergraduate Programme ting, this UGC, particular section is visited by must mil- be 1:30,” foundation have thrown sevthe teacher-student ratio had been ticked off the to-do list. this: “As part lions highest skyscrapers), the acity is said student to be theof Political Shruti Balaji, first-year every“But year,for including all the eral dilemmas.

Sample of ourof tourists says Kumar. foundation courses, colonly manmade thing visible to theCollege naked eye For the History convenience of local Beijingers and toVIPs Science at Lady Shriram (LSR), claims (suchleges as USpacked president Honours course, we’re taught ques90 Richard studentsNixon) in onewho auditorium.” of an astronaut.

Chinese tourists, a non-stop ser- come to China. the quality of education has suffered greatly. tion andthere’s consider multiplebus interpretations.

There’s little doubt that at the heart of the In any case, are of far the cheaper ways than viceistoa theWe Wall and back.

Although the from ticketa Marxist, The there syllabus foundation courses It was the first part of the administration’s Great Wall to be mismanlooked at Indian history controversy is the only 12RMB (₹130) one way and public renting a spaceship get a good look Chi-fourisyears chief causetofor criticism.

“You at know, opened visitors inFrom 1957 and nowadays foundation a Nationalist and other pointstransof view,” says toagement. badlyis designed na’s greatest tourist attraction.

I discovered port is simple to use, surprisingly few foreign is great, we’d like to know more about subpurely tourist village — courses which means there are Chandraneev Das, first-year, St (“for which we teachers while hanging out in Beijing recently that tourists advantage of this No mat- decent restroom facilities, jects outside our discipline,” she the says, “But the take a stretch of souveStephen’s College.

“Inoption. the second weren’t consulted,” says Narain) most affordable ticket topoor, the Wall, comfortwhere semester, you are in Beijing, head towards level was very andby teachers had ater minican sample the the Indian Historythe nir and food shops where andyou appointment of hundreds mal role to play. We were learning about bal- foundation course was a nationgreat variety of local snacks, get yourself of ad-hoc teachersphoto ‘dropout’ Intographed a recent survey, anced diets in Science and prime numbers in alist version only.” In its second in ethnic wear against back- criticism degrees and the banning 91 per cent the Mathematics.” The foundation course for In- year, the ‘experimental batch’ ground ofofBactrian camels and buy anmany stuof the programme, 11,000-odd formation Technology covered the basics of will get to choose a minor disciengraved students certificate to prove climbed dents that and you teachers say the FYUP voted against FYUP computers — what is software, what is hard- pline course. Already attracting the Wall. is an ill-conceived plan. ware, how to use a printer and so on. “We were dispute, the DC-II option under I quite like this carnival“Any aspect of of Badaling, form dissent has been even given laptops, but we never got to use FYUP holds great promise, but the mixture of the tackybanned,” and the monumental, says Sucheta De, presithem. We were in classes for so long we didn’t only on paper. “There was an opand the opportunity to rubAISA. shoulders with plays by dent, “Even street need them,” says Anusha Sundar, a first-year tion for African studies, a field hundreds of Chinesestudents teenagers on snapping FYUP weren’t alstudent of History at LSR. their selfies.

WhenStudents they spotsay you, they want to I’m interested in,” says Sundar. But at LSR, lowed.” review committees have Since its introduction last year, the FYUP has there is no faculty to teach it. selfie themselves alongside you. visited their classes for feedback. “Yet no acbeen the subject of nearly every protest at the you wish to actually climb Wall At DU, what makes life interesting isIf its tion has been taken, andthe none of (so their reports university. It has united Left- and Right-wing healthy balance of academic rigour andthat you can, clear conscience, buyKumar. that extraare with in thea public domain,” says outfits; drawn in reluctant organisations like curricular activities. But with the current I-climbed-the-wall askfavour yourself But notcertificate), everyone is in of scrapping the NSUI; and made it to the manifestos of par- classroom schedules, students strugglefirst if your cardiovascular system and legs to fit FYUP. “It’s either implement it or roll it back ties. The foundation courses have been brand- in the cultural calendar or interact with can sesurvive it (the steep parts no canmiddle be very ground,” taxcompletely.

There’s says ed ‘substandard’ and a ‘joke’. In a recent niors. “We’re in classes from 8.45am to 5pm,” Sundar. Students, like her, want to give FYUP a survey, 91 per cent of the 11,000-odd students says Balaji. On an average day, they must make chance, if changes are made to the syllabus. voted against FYUP. On June 9, AISA and the four presentations for foundation courses. BSc students, who will now be awarded a Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) “Though the course material is simple, consid- BTech, say the technical degree will add more forwarded an alternative to the HRD ministry. er the sheer amount of time spent in class,” value. But without a new syllabus or AICTE recshe says. With school-level material and time- ognition, it is useless, counters Kumar.

Diluted learning tables, it’s unsurprising that attendance has While the rollback debate rages, with the When it was originally conceived during UPA- plummeted. “In my Analysis course, I’ve al- ball now in HRD minister Smriti Irani’s court, II, the FYUP was seen as an ambitious attempt ways had 95 per cent attendance,” says Nandi- first-year students are worried their learning to revamp India’s higher education, and was ta Narain, who teaches Mathematics at St will be inferior and their juniors will graduate modelled on the American university system. Stephen’s and is the DUTA president. “But last at the same time as them. “What will happen Through the foundation courses, it intended year, in a class of 45, there were never more to placements?” asks Sundar, “We’re quite the to infuse an inter-disciplinary approach and than 30 students.” She further points out that joke of the college, the guinea pigs of FYUP.” improve students’ employability. All the un- the administration no longer allots five per priyanka kotamraju dergraduate disciplines have become four- cent marks for attendance like it used to.

An uneducated guess Great escape

Delhi University’s ambitious four-year undergrad programme fails to impress a large section of students andofteachers alike, who brand it asofsubstandard and a joke Scale the Great Wall China and scour the warren lanes that is Gulou, one of Beijing’s most charming hutong neighbourhoods, for a rich cultural experience at cut-price

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Soup kitchen beneficence Sumitra Mahajan has understood the one truth that evades even the smartest of her peers — never threaten the multitude of mediocrity with a display of merit or ambition

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othing works better in politics than an appearance of harmlessness unless, of course, illusions of grandeur are supported by mass following. In the latter case, the leader’s hauteur is suffered, even overtly admired, by the followers for the natural purpose of advancing their own careers. But even when they follow the leader, it is hard for most politicians to camouflage their ambition; an unfortunate insufficiency that usually evokes the ever-present insecurity among their ilk.

There are, however, exceptions to this general rule. The newly elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan ‘Tai’ is that rare breed of politician whose elevation is celebrated by her peers in a profession where promotion, any promotion, is directly proportional to the number of enemies one makes.

She is the universal ‘Tai (elder aunt)’, a title she has chosen to officially adopt in her resume in the Lok Sabha. Her homely pudginess, mussed saris and henna-dyed mop is an instant invocation to universal empathy. With her soup kitchen beneficence, the Speaker has mastered the art of making everyone feel at home. She has understood the one truth that evades even the most brilliant of her peers — never threaten the multitude of mediocrity with a display of merit or ambition.

And so she sails through life with an appearance of harmless surrender. She threatens no one and does not mind being underestimated, a tendency that has been reciprocated

with accolades from the highest, and really ground in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, by a stagquite unusual, quarters. gering 4.67 lakh votes. Although she lost the The prime minister Narendra Modi, who assembly elections thrice before Mahajan conhas recently advised his newly elected MPs tested Lok Sabha for the first time in 1989, her against routine exhibition of their magnifi- victory run has been uninterrupted since cence — “zara zara si baat par desh ke naam then. sandesh dene ki zaroorat nahin hai” (“there is no The second woman Speaker in the Lok Sabneed to start addressing the nation at the ha is among the few women in Parliament slightest opportunity”) — has publicly accept- who does not hail from a political family. Her ed Mahajan’s ‘greatness’. father, Purushottam alias Appasaheb Sathe At the time of her election, the prime minis- was an active RSS worker in their hometown ter quoted a Sanskrit saying: “Mahajano yena Chiplun in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. But Appagatasya pantha (you should follow great peo- saheb died when Mahajan was just a teenager, ple). We now have a ‘Mahajan’ (great person) and she had to shift to Mumbai to finish her presiding over the House and what could be graduation. She was married to a lawyer, more appropriate?”

Jayant Mahajan based in the city of Indore, This is high praise indeed, sort and has two sons — Milind, who of proverbial icing on the cake — is a software professional, and landing a job for which many Mandar, a commercial pilot. For more were vying and lobbying. the lone woman politician in a Her homely While reports of the veteran LK traditional middle-class family, pudginess, mussed Advani becoming Speaker apMahajan is impressive in the peared routinely in the media saris and henna-dyed heights she has scaled. mop is an instant since the election results came But credentials alone do not invocation to out, Mahajan’s candidature amount to much, as Murli Manouniversal empathy floated almost inadvertently, har Joshi and LK Advani have and was accepted without any gathered to their misfortune. It is murmur of dissent. the ability to soothe ruffled And who can deny her credenfeathers and march ahead withtials — the longest serving womout getting noticed that really an MP in Parliament, former minister of state counts. Like the BJP president Rajnath Singh, and member of the Mahila Morcha, this 71- another politician whose strength lies in the year-old lawyer- turned-politician has won the almost universal underestimation of his enor2014 Lok Sabha election from her home mous talent for realpolitik, Mahajan manages to achieve ends without seeming to do much.

In November 2000, while she was serving as a junior minister under the then feared Human Resource Development minister Murali Manohar Joshi, the Tai invited her long-suffering colleagues for a meal of assorted Marathi delicacies. Over food, about 14 MPs, all of whom were junior ministers in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government, shared their grievances about not getting enough work.

Tai heard everyone, commiserated and planned ahead. While everyone else embarked on a confrontationist path, she held her counsel. Shahnawaz Hussain, her colleague sulked, and before him, Uma Bharati openly rebelled against Joshi. MoS Petroleum E Ponnuswamy bluntly asked Vajpayee to be allotted more work.

But Mahajan is not one to complain and pick up fights. She, on her part, reached out to the former BJP president Kushabhau Thakre who worked on her behalf to carve out a whole department. Mahajan was allotted the charge of the Department of Women and Child Development under the HRD Ministry to which Joshi was apparently too busy to pay attention. She flourished in the ministry, instituting lasting schemes like Bharatiya Stree Shakti Puraskar, an award for women achievers in diverse fields that the successive UPA government furthered.

The quintessential homemaker has now stepped into the haloed precincts of the Speaker’s office in the Lok Sabha. MPs secretly expect her motherly admonitions to work better than her predecessor’s affected politeness.

Blessed be the underdog Although LK Advani was widely believed to be a leading contender, especially after the election results were announced, Sumitra Mahajan pipped the veteran leader to the post without any dissent PTI

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Life goes on Farmers transplant paddy at a village near Thanjavur, not far from where 44 Dalits were killed by upper-caste landlords in 1968 b velankanni raj

Bright idea After winning over rural markets with doorstep deliveries and credit facility for retailers, Jyothy Laboratories, manufacturer of Ujala fabric whitener, is looking for urban buyers bloomberg/ abhijit bhatlekar; and (below) joint managing director Ullas Kamath

Beyond the Indian hinterland Comrades in anger

look beyond rural India. “In moving to urban India, there will be more opportunities than challenges. Migratory population in cities is humongous. And their needs are more like those of rural consumers — whether it is the kind of products or even the price they are willing to pay. If a company can ensure a good supply chain across large cities, it can grab a substantial chunk of the market,” says Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at consulting firm Third Eyesight.

Jyothy has accordingly made changes in its management structure. Its top team now has 17 people, including the CEO, S Raghunandan.

Each brand head operates in a silo. “We have brought in a new management team to grow plies directly to one million of them. Now, as it the categories. We give them enough money State, men in power and capitalists have conreadies to spread into every urban nook and to Kandasamy’s spiritand suffuses the telling spend on a brand understand thewith reatinued lessen their grip onstrategies. what theyTo hold corner,to it has re-jigged some be- asons nod to behind the unconventional, often stoking the their performance or dear — power, caste, hierarchy and gender — ire gin with, it has added more products to its of her contemporaries, be it the White man non-performance.” which line-up.Kandasamy in her activist’s role contin- writing Indian seems fictionto inbe English, heThe gamble payingmatinee off. Raghuues“When to incessantly you arechallenge. in business, you want to roes or TED Theveteran, activist in Kandasamy is nandan, antalks.

FMCG has helped the Kandasamy is also notasintent onportfolio. pleasing also spread your risks as well product unsparing of those complicit in the horcompany restructure and cut the distributor her readily, rants against lan- rors Andreader that’s what wegiven have her done,” says Kamath. of caste margin fromviolence. eight perRetelling cent to sixthe persocial cent. deguage being a construct of oppression.

The mographics The company acquired 50.9 per cent in lossThanjavur in the she Advertisingofand sales spend has1960s, increased novel’s belies convention and besides be- recounts makingform Henkel India, a subsidiary of Germalandlords while by 65 per how cent the to ₹135 crore inheld FY14.sway, “Brand exing times, includes a narrany’sself-indulgent Henkel AG, for at ₹60.73 crore in March 2011. the distant government in faraway Ma-a penditure continues tooffices pay returns over tive thatit attempted avoids theto improve linear. its rural-ur- long period of With that dras seem indifferent so do time,” says Kamath. and He points However, the narrative ban sales mix.

Before therecollecacquisithe localeven Brahmins whoadverhave out that when MNCs tion of per thecent events nuanced tion, 65 of itsisUjala sales evacuated their grow quarters to tise, they from not only their with enough eloquence came from rural India.

“Now itto is bigger cities.but Thealso political own brands createleadnew here are no heighten horror.

The story 50:50 fromthe urban and rural.

That ers of Tamil“Everybody’s Nadu’s Dravidian categories. brand Big T companies don’t individual voices moves forwardhas with informais how Henkel helped.

They parties in know for snub as do grows ascome people a product give credit, butof protest, tion in the form areas of a angstI or have coming distributors in urban oppressive capitalists. exists and then they compare ensure my only the collective rage published pamphlet a public and that network hasorimproved In retelling the tale of terrible similar products.” distributors doas it Kandasamy recounts notice.

At times an investigative our reach,” Kamath says. injustice and oppression, Kandaevents with a authorial pops upstockists to lend Earlier, voice retailers and samy’s foreboding indication Global dream dispassionate an appropriate tenor,reluctant which she in urban areas were to seems beisthat whiletomurder, Jyothy to Labs looking launch candour junks to Jyothy write Lab’s in a way that take on products. vengeance and the newer products and establishre-launch brings brutality and(Henkel’s the in- detergent some others.ment’s “Along the with Henko indifference a “We should be in atsilenced least two difference and other ne- categories more categories brand), we of areviolence able to push massacre 40isyears in a fewmore years. than The aim to be glect with a telling force.

The mosquito re- among the top too like personal care and liquid ago, a contemporary and three players in each State category,” varying forms of narratives add it.” pellent. And people are accepting Kamath says.people with much more mechalayered angles to the storytelling from differ- nisms recording andtodocumenting Thatfor does not appear be daunting.seem Henent groups ofmore people involved in the incident, to Villagers buy commit thecent samestake offences of vikelcontinue can still to buy a 26 per in Jyothy such as the Paddy Association, the olence “In rural India, the Owners’ consumption per family evengive today, andthe consign Labs byand 2016.brutality That would Jyothy finanMarxists leaflets, court retellings might be and smalltheir but the number of families is them to forgetfulness. menMoreover, are numcial muscle to take onThe thedead biggies. and the that author’s as she urban tries to unearth so large it outgrows India,” saysthe Ka- bers and the women, with deities or village godan equity partnership Henkel should alstory later. The characters floatRuas desses math. decades His assumption is not without basis. been simplycompany’s fossilised low it whose to hoppain ontohas the German groups through the only real ral spending at book, ₹3.75 with lakhthecrore far into widestone. international network and ride into flesh-and-blood feel emerging with the villain emerging outstripped urban consumption at ₹2.994 Kandasamy’s literary sickle takes an angry markets. of the piece, Gopalakrishna Naidu.

There are swipe lakh crore during 2009-12. Rural consumption class enemies andand cultural idols But at until then, Kamath his team arewith buno voices of orequivalent protest, only perindividual person exceeded theangst urban by the same tenacity in this novel it does in her sy marking the miles and theasmilestones on collective as Kandasamy 2 per cent,rage according to CRISILrecounts and dataevents from poems and the road to activism. urban India. with a dispassionate candour that seems to the National Sample Survey Organisation. tilak is a Delhi-based independent journalist rashmigpratap bring terriblepresence, injustice of it all.has to sudha But back for athe national Jyothy

Jyothy Laboratories is that rare company that grew up in the villages and is now ready to take on FMCG biggies in their urban strongholds Meena Kandasamy swipes her literary sickle against systemic oppression in her debut novel

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The Gypsy Goddess Meena Kandasamy HarperCollins Fourth Estate Fiction ₹499

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n a market where homegrown and multiKandasamy been doggnationaleena companies alikehas make a beeline voicing here’s her protest against for the edly hinterland, one that has boardedcaste, a buspatriarchy to urban and Indiaclass. afterHer befeminist name works, Ambedkarite coming a household in villages.

Jyothy support and her liberal stance haverural lent Laboratories has Left meticulously targeted her voice, rich in social conconsumers to grow its militancy, brand intowith the acountemporary bite, be her protest against Hintry’s fifth-largest in it the fast-moving consumer dutva, caste or misogyny. Outrage at social goods category. injustices has beentruckloads the leitmotif her two poEvery month, ofinUjala fabric etry collections and her translations of Dalit whitener and detergent, Maxo mosquito reworks to English. pellentfrom coil Tamil and Exo utensil cleaner arrive at once said she disconnected theKandasamy doorstep of retailers inwas lakhs of villages, from in English, andtransportathe smugsavingIndian themwriting precious time and ness of bourgeois angst characters go tion costs.

The goods arewhere also sold on credit, out to “drink coffee”.

Her Thesuch Gypwhich is a major draw fordebut ruralnovel, retailers sy is certainly this asGoddess Gyaneshwar Kadamremoved of Ajang from village in comMahfort zone, Dhule which district. she scoffs at.are She insistsshort she arashtra’s “We always will not playcapital. the exotic village for effect. on working Credit is a card big help.

Even The is aprefer fictionalised of get a real inour story buyers to pay account after they their cident. dayproducts in 1968, inofthe village wages. On So Christmas I don’t stock distribuof Kilvenmani in Thanjavur district, 44 Dalit tors who don’t give me credit,” he says. farmers, including women and children, were This, then, is the story of thousands of retailkilled by now upper-caste landlords, while a fumers who swear by Jyothy Labs products. bling band India, of Communists failed to help. The “In rural we have the first-mover adnovel recreates an vantage.

Sincethewehorrific went toincident villagesinfirst, imagined manner withand a postmodern touch. gave them respect credit, we get trust Forty-five later, Kandasamy’s in return.years Big companies don’t give fiction credit, revisits brutality of how do theit.44 but I the ensure my distributors Thewere molocked in ment a hut and alive topeople teach the you burnt give credit, berest a lesson; to ensure that they didsays notUllas procome your patrons,” test or ask for a Dickensian extramanaging fistful of rice Kamath, joint dior wages. She is naturally worried the rector of Jyothy about Labs, best business of storytelling in this dayUjala of Faceknown for its fabbook statuses: “And how I go ahead with ric can whitener. the story when the first line itself has not instantly received a hundred thousand Likes?”

City shops beckon Like you will, with The a little patience products if you go company’s past the first chapter where she plays provocaare available through 2.9 teur telling the reader that the mechanics of million outlets, and it sup-

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to process into garments and pump back into the market. Bangladesh, a country we cannot ignore as a garment exporter, also demands a high share. Together, they account for 60 per cent of our exports. This has the garment industry stakeholders in Tirupur, our knitwear and garment production capital, worried enough to ask (through the Tirupur Exporters Association) for a three-month cease on cotton yarn exports and price rollback.

Cotton production, and consequently the price, fluctuates between years as it is dependent on the vagaries of nature. “Cotton is subject to commodity prices and this could change from month to month by ₹5-10. Cotton is also cheaper in the south of India than in the north,” says Source Easy’s Srinivasan.

Futures trading in cotton ostensibly gave farmers and traders an opportunity to cover their price risk. Now, as the speculated interest in a commodity rises, so does the price. In the case of cotton, it also fluctuates a few times a year. This makes it hard for buyers and brands to fix a profit margin.

Two worlds (left) A worker dries coloured cotton yarn at a small-scale weaving unit near Kochi, Kerala kk mustafah; and (right) a fashionable set at an upmarket mall in Delhi sporting synthetic fabrics s subramanium

Who moved my classic cotton?

Why are apparel stores flooded with synthetic fabric even in the peak of summer? Time to take stock

A Changing fabric (below) FabIndia is among the handful of shops that still rely mostly on cotton mahesh harilal; (right) and an Anita Dongre creation — the designer is among those experimenting with new forms of synthetic georgette and polyester

quick meander around any highstreet store and there’s something amiss — shuddh swadeshi cotton, as also its other avatars such as mul. Replacing them on the racks are new synthetic polyester blends. Fashion labels such as Zara, Mango, Chemistry, Vero Moda, Promod, Forever 21, W and Forever Young have, for the past few seasons, been saving their cottons for basic merchandise such as T-shirts, blazers, spaghetti-strap tank tops and vests. Even summer collections, which used to be dominated by gossamer muls and cottons, are populated by chiffon and georgette. The last bastions of muls are indigenous brands such as Anokhi, Global Desi, Cotton World, FabIndia and The Shop. Their aesthetic and prices are not in sync with the frequency of global trends.

But it’s not that ’70s show again. The new polyesters may not absorb sweat, but can draw it away. And this preference is not discouraging cotton either. A quick commerce lesson: India is the second-largest producer of cotton after China, and con-

tributes to 18 per cent of world’s cotton. Then what explains fashion’s current infatuation with nylon, polyester and acrylic? Wasn’t cotton’s war against synthetics won in the ’70s and ’80s, after terylene and its shiny ilk made us sweat through the decades? The reversal is effected by two factors: the shooting price of cotton and polyester’s evolution into a fabric we don’t want to tear off our body.

Fibre frontiers Pankaj Ruia, a fabric exporter and supplier to brands such as AND and Global Desi, says his clients ask for synthetics mainly because it lends itself to fashion. Brands and ‘approachable’ designers such as Anita Dongre are exploring other avenues, including the production of natural fabrics such as rayon, viscose and modal. A variety of such fabrics is produced from natural and sustainable sources such as wood-pulp, bark, bamboo and banana fibre.

Some brands use these alone, while others combine them with polyester. AND and Global Desi, for instance, are heavily marketing their Liva fabric — a kind of viscose made from wood-pulp, which is wrinkle-free, has sheen, breathes and is lightweight. Cotton World chooses Modal — made with beech-wood pulp — for its prints, as it absorbs colour like cotton but doesn’t bleed after a wash.

Final stitch The crux of the matter is that cotton is expensive to produce. Polyester, clinically labelled a petrochemical product, can be produced as Dear, dear much as needed. Through a new procedure Like many other global issues, this one too can called wicking, it has been made more wearabe traced to China. Recession ble. While it still doesn’t absorb raised dollar prices and cotton sweat, it draws it away from the yarn producers in India prebody. This makes it desirable for ferred to export instead of sellsportswear, together with its A kind of polyester, ing locally. “When the dollar strength and durability. This made by ‘wicking’, touched ₹65, cotton prices went new polyester also has the stamp draws sweat away up by ₹20,” says Pranay Srinivaof approval from some designfrom the body san, a garment exporter and proers. Anita Dongre’s team has prietor of Source Easy. been testing new forms of synSpotting the potential, cotthetic georgette and polyester, ton began to be traded as a and finds it hard to distinguish commodity on the Multi Commodity Ex- them from natural fibres. The designer will change (MCX) in 2004. And speculated in- wear it on her person for six months until she terest raised its price. For good reason is convinced it can be included in her labels. too. During financial 2012-13, cotton Its old qualities — vibrancy of colour, lack of yarn export was expected to touch an fading, sheen, weightlessness and fluidity, and all-time high. It had risen by 15 per low cost of maintenance — are in keeping with cent in 2011-12 from a year ago — fashion’s current affair with prints and sheers.

827.68 million kg (720 million kg).

“Even though dyeing synthetics is more exWhile exports were capped in 2011 pensive — the colour has to be injected into to leave some cotton for domestic the molecules of the fabric at 130°C (cotton is markets, there was no such limit just dunked into a vat of colour and it absorbs in 2012, leading to costlier yarn it),” says N Srinivasan of Saks Fashion, “it’s still prices for domestic users. more lucrative for brands to rely on synthetics Textile commissioner AB as they cost less to maintain and the colour Joshi had been reported saying doesn’t fade like with cottons. They’re cost efthat about 1,000 million kg of fective in the long run.” yarn was expected to go out The good news is that there is no replaceof India in 2013. In the first ment yet for linens and mul. But for the forefive months, according to a seeable future, polyester is here to stay in news report, cotton yarn ex- affordable fashion. ports had touched 590 million kg. China took, and wants, most of it, mitali parekh is a Mumbai-based writer

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Novel visit to These emotional sons the Andamans PRESENT IMPERFECT

ELSEWHERE

manjula padmanabhan

The genesis of India’s gender crisis is this oedipal obsession its men have with their mothers What better way to uncover this remote corner than by setting a story there Aquamarine reverie The picture-perfect Andaman islands inspire romance, and heartbreak

On the beach A day spent in the company of friends, bright sun and cold waves

M

uriel has a cabana at the beach. She rents it from the city of Elsewhere at $20 a month for the summer. She invites me to go with her one breezy Wednesday in June, along with her six-year-old grandson, Mikey.

We get there at 11.30am. Her annual payment of the cabana ankaj Sekhsaria has had a place in these jungles and the decifee includes a parking spot, which is a good thing because the deep, abiding interest in mation of its wildlife? The age-old place is filling up with summer vacationers.

Type cast The and a long involvement question remains: should we interThe cabanas have been built onto a long platform, book wooden from which with the Andaman Islands, fere in (some say improve, others one flight up from the sandy floor ofthe the titlearrival of the area. Five which is such a good thing because say destroy) the life of tribal socieborrowed hundred of them are available on hire.movie Each isspace is perhaps most of us know little about what ties? Which begs another: how and saw noinside. great virtue four-foot wide, six-foot deep, with a bench There are goes on in these peripheral parts of why did our own ancestors (who hooks to hang towels from and a couple in ofIndian shelves. The wood is motherhood the country (including the North- must once have been naked, ‘savage’ unpainted and weathered, but sturdy. At one end of the plateast). And what better way to inter- tribals too) change, so that we beform, there are showers and toilets. est the lay reader than setting a nov- came what we are today? Should we The little space has been shut for a whole year and spiders el there, whose tell you just oon characters after his swearing-in ceremony, leave themficers’, be, letthe them remain of ‘unconditional providers love’. upon her.

‘Unclean’ sheallow is, in Mikey her pain — have made full use ofcome the facilities.

Muriel doesn’t the story of what been brewing Primehas Minister Narendra Modi took to protecting ferociously their forests, The Indian mother — so generous in enter her love unclean whatever fit thereafor me to until she has swept out she the touches, dust andand cobwebs there through their lives.

Twitter. or should we try to so ‘tame’ them of-living —with and selfless in — her is anthe emotion so ter only to be destroyed.

In the name thrift, broom she has brought for just this purpose. of I’ve Most of us know the Andamans “Earlier in the evening inten my converby corrupting them intense that through we can only brought find in ourselves therefore, giveaher about theand unclean a small bag with my towel, change ofher dryonly clothes for its aquamarine seas, tropical sation with Prime Minister Nawazdrink?

SharifOfhecourse, we must remem-to call her enough elucidation Mother India. and the worthless, human or inanisandwiches.

She’s brought everythingwhether else: three folding rainforests, exoticvery flora and fauna, shared some emotional things.” ber that ‘civilised’ often does not culture goes, there is mate.chairs, Of course, as popular If there be aumbrella, broken-legged, ragged a beach a hamper the notorious Cellular Jail me and, ofhe stays “Nawaz Sharif ji told that Isla- noethically meanin morally, or behabetter representation of Mother India than string-cot, let toys her have that toand lie upon; of sand for Mikey a deepit can course, the ‘dangerous’ mabad but goes to and meetarrowhis Mother once superior a Mother viourally — unfortunately, India. Released in 1957 and still revered be saved in that same black chamber for the basket of food. happy tribals, the Jarawas. Sekhsaria it usually means week.”

57 exploitative. years later, Nargis Dutt’s Radha is the moth- next to Mikey need it.

Otherwise, her a little strips down tomake his trunks, It’ssmall oddlywhen comforting takes us to the islands with small “This time when he awas sitting Sekhsaria with his takes on a no journey er foruswhom sacrifice is too it support of cow-dung stones, onwear the bare while the two of or us of older ladies seedemonso much earthen floor. And let no one waste effort in cast of core characters neatly Mother he saw visuals onrepreTV of myaround Motherthe of- islands — partly by boat, comes to raising her two sons.toShe loose shifts over our bathing cosungainly senting nearly every ‘special inter- partly overland, fering me sweets”. exploring and exstrates the highest of moral values and isflesh the sweeping or No dusting or washing place till tumes. way we’re going the to comest’ group andtouched workingboth there.Nawaz “Theliving visuals Sharif ji these pounding issuesof en route, epitome pure, unadulterated this occasion be over,” pete with the curvaceous beautiesMayo Thus, Harish, andthere’s his Mother.

He told me that after seeing through love. Yet, his the characbook from which wrote. cavorting in the sun wearing tiny trying figure out theto visuals his Mother got very emotional.” ters. slips in- came saw the The titlenovel of the movie While earned DeIndia’s triangles of clothMayo and string! what toAdo with hisitlife day later, was revealed that Modi had tono such a ‘documentary virtue. wrath with Gandhi calling her spite the bright sun, the water The desi worship of is co-o-o-old. All three of us chirp and gifted whether journal- shawl to Sharif’s mother. mode’ a pashmina (with back stoKatherine Mayo’s Mother India, book “the report of a drain inloudly as we wet our feet in the foaming surf.

Meanwhile, all To be civilised mothers is so intense ism suits him, Seema, a updated his followers on ries And on June 5, Modi providing published 30 historiyears beforearound the us, there are children andspector sent out with the one adults leaping about in the usually means to that it can be nothing ‘natural born’scene girl who the next in this heartwarming saga, “Na- cal perspective), with attacking movie, was a polemic purpose of opening and examinchilly sea, shrieking and exhilarated. be exploitative else but Mother.

Cow has returned tojiher waz Sharif hasis-sent a wonderful white sari the ‘author’s dosociety, castevoice’ and gender norms ingbodies the drains of the Thereisare of Ganges tight young on show, butcountry very to ourdozens Mother. landsfornursing heartmy Mother.

I am really grateful to him and ing lot of the in aIndia.

A explainhistorian andmany re- more mature physiques, lumpy, be reported upon,” it is fair dangling in thick foldsto say is our Mother break, the avidMother soon.” willDavid send it to my ing directly. searcher, Mayo came to India, “tocovered in freckles. It’s oddly that the makeover of Mother and comforting to see so much Incrocodile I hateresearcher, to be the one to throw cold water on see On what a personal level, unsubsia volunteer dia began as awinter, reaction to her ungainly flesh. Most are still ivory-pale from the while Unclethis Pame their of both warm, fuzzy,‘most good local’ neighbourly exchange, Harish and Seema have bag- and unatdised, uncommitted, work. so successful has this Muriel, Mikey and I are amongst the fewAnd brown sugars in the guides, course Tanumei repbutand I amofafraid the question has togage be raised. to clear: Harish tached,is figuring could out observe crowd. of The little boy begins work on makeover been,but that foronly a woma sandcastle gets resenting not only the Asian Jarawas but What is with South men and their whatmothto do withcommon his life and Seema things inisdaily human life.”

What an to matter in India, she has to be a mother. as far as one turret before it’s time for us to eat Muriel’s enorthe change is happening to allthe word ers? Notthat only does Modi use trying‘emoto recover heartbreak — injustices shefrom observed were the caste,lunch. gen- We Other women far too easily dispensable mousofpicnic go back up to are the cabanas for sandwichof them. tional’ twice (imagine the mockery if Hillary and yes, something is illiteracy. surely brewder and In the chapter titled ‘Mother from public much so, es, chips, two kinds of salad and consciousness. fruit. I’ve madeSocookies for that There are always problems when Clinton and Angela Merkel had gone anda marvellous ing!on What set-up India’, Mayo doesfor nota see thedessert. sacrifice and puthe genesis of India’s gender crisis is this We eat our fill before returning to the beach for a long,oeditribalon societies come in contact with like this) but each time he writestruly mother, it romance, soppy which would rity of an Indian mother’s love.

Instead, what pal obsession its men have with their mothers. leisurely stroll. whatis we call The ‘modern’ ones, of and Mother. desi worship mothers so in- sparkle haveisadded to the she sees arestory the but, unsanitary Up andand inhumane how else wouldon youthe explain the absence down we go,For walking gingerly shell-strewn thesetense issues areithighlighted in this that can be nothing else but alas,Mother. there’s notconditions even a single linger-Indianbeach in which mothers — somehundreds of anyof words about the two other women who alongside others.

Seagulls wheel overhead, book.Cow Whose rights Ganges come first: is our Mother. is our Mother. ing sunset kissonly before the ‘last 13 years oldwave’ — give birthswooping to their children. werethe in brightly the newsclad thisstrollers, fortnight?

The cousins down amongst swimmers Those of theovert tribals, who have of been This glorification mothers is atroaring the comes in!“The expectant mother makes no preparafrom Badaun who were raped, murdered and sun-bathers, looking for food. By late afternoon the clouds and living on of thethe islands for millennia, root problem this country hasRead with this its book to realise how tions for the baby’s coming move — suchinasonce the gethung from a mango tree; theirour heads bowed, more. The wind scrapes goosebumps skins. or those of We thesave settlers from the adoration women. so much of our and some marginalised of ourofown cititing ready little garments. would be their bodies limp.

They don’t invoke in us the “I’mThis cold!” complains Mikey.

We buy ourselves pink puff-balls mainland and for themothers new generation adulation that it is fairly impossizens have been made,dangerously how they’vefor granted taking the favour warm fuzziness of equipment a pashmina of cotton candyof before locking the beach intowrapped the of ‘natural borns’ — like Seema?

Is —been ble to even respect other women thoseexploited who the and are now being gods.

But she may andcabana. does toss into ahome grandmother beaming octogenarian We head with the sun or anda salt air in our hair and in building a road through terri- corrupted. aren’t mothers.

Andtribal it is convenient too, this The book could havedark chamber shed or into a small widow’s whites. They don’t seek our admirafine greywhatever sand between our toes. toriesacute a good idea? you dealof woman. focus onHow onlydo one kind Thetighter done with editing in places, rags, incapable of fur- tion, command our respect or invoke any emsoiled and disreputable withmore the diseases that we can(like singmeasles) the virtues of motherhood, but nevertheless is quite an eyetherituse, fall from the handsMANJULA of the household pathy. aren’t Mothers.

PADMANABHAN, authorThey and artist, tellsour us tales of her parallel life in ‘civilised’ man it passes on towomen the trib-to that the easier is to limit one amopener and anduring education. the year.

Let’s rationalise Mother to mother.

It’s time. in Elsewhere, US, in this fortnightly series marginalien. blogspot. als, who have defence bition.

Andno what are theagainst venerated virtues of And it is into this evil-smelling rubbish-hole ranjitsacrilal naturalist writes forcreeps when her hour is t@veenavenugopal them?

Doesmothers? anyone care the‘ultimate Indian Theyabout are the thatand theauthor, young wife rampant deforestation that takes children and adults

P

The Last Wave Pankaj Sekhsaria HarperCollins Fiction ₹350

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LIGHTHOUSE

I have something to ask you There are no right or wrong answers, just questions that are, hopefully, also stimulating

What lies beneath An answer is more than a sum of its parts shutterstock

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

riting a column is an act of hubris. When you present a column to the world, you are essentially saying, before whatever you say in the column: ‘Listen to me, my opinions have value.’ This is both arrogant and delusional, but we choose to be in denial of this, for if we were not how could we write, in the same way that we choose to be in denial of our mortality, for if we were not how could we live?

Anyway, in today’s column, I shall not present my views before you. Instead, I will ask you a few questions, to which there are no right or wrong answers. These are just difficult questions, even if some of them have seemingly simple answers, and I present them in the hope that you might find some of them stimulating. I have just one request to make: Instead of just skimming over the piece, please pause at the end of every question and formulate an answer in your mind.

Q1: Do you support the rights of two consenting adults to do whatever they wish with each other provided they don’t infringe on the rights of anyone else? Q2: Why? Q3: Do you support gay rights? Q4: Do you believe in free markets?

Q3 and Q4 are related to Q1: If you believe that no one should interfere in what two consenting adults choose to get up to with each other, as long as they mess with no one else, then that should apply to both sex in a bedroom and commercial transactions. The moral case for not interfering with free markets and homosexuality is, thus, exactly the same.

If you support gay rights because you believe in freedom, it would seem hypocritical to then condemn free markets. Or vice versa. If you support either of these because of a reason not based on your support for individual freedom, then that’s okay. But Q5: If so, what is that first principle you draw from?

Now, you might say that you support gay rights but not free markets, because much as

you love freedom, you also have to look at the right to choose whether to abort and being consequences of actions, and ‘unfettered’ free against female foeticide? If a woman has the markets can have adverse consequences. (The right to choose to abort, aren’t her reasons besame argument could be made from the other hind this decision irrelevant to that right, and side about homosexuality and its impact on an examination of those reasons invasive to society.) Q6: Do you believe that freedom her privacy? You might personally find her should be subordinate to utility? That our atti- reason for it repugnant, but should your feeltude towards a particular behaviour should ings affect her rights? And as a general practice, depend on the consequences of that beha- should the feelings of some people be an exviour? Q7: If so, who determines what the like- cuse to abrogate the rights of some others? ly consequences of anything could be, and Of course, if you are into consequences, you how we should therefore treat that act? A dem- could argue that female foeticide should be ocratically elected government? banned purely because it skews Q8: If so, can you think of examthe sex ratio, which is bad for soples where a democratically ciety. But, to consider a thought elected government f***ed up experiment, what if in the natuAt times, one is left spectacularly? Q9: If so, might it ral course of things, 11 girls were with more questions make sense to instead enshrine born for every 10 boys, and the than answers. And certain principles in the Constiprevalent rate of female foeticide that’s okay tution that even a democraticalactually corrected this imbally elected government cannot ance? Q16: Would it be okay mess with? Q10: If so, should then? If not, why not? (Apart these include freedom? Q11: If from the rights of the foetus, so, what kind of freedoms which you already agree are subshould be included? Personal freedom? Free- ordinate to the rights of the mother if you andom of speech? Freedom of sexual orientation swer ‘yes’ to Q13.) and carnal intercourse? Economic freedom?

I haven’t asked the questions above to show Q12: If you value some of these over others, the absurdity in this position or that, or to why so? bring you round to any particular way of (To deviate a moment from questions and thinking. These are thorny issues with many actually make an observation, allow me to nuances. I’m a libertarian and a freedom funpoint out that none of these are actually pro- damentalist, and I support both gay rights and tected by the Indian Constitution, although it free markets, with my support for the latter, pays lip service to a couple of them. But that’s though it stems from principle, being bolneither here nor there.) stered by the benefits of economic freedom.

Moving further along the subject of free- (Contrast the two Koreas.) But the first princidom and consequences, here’s Q13: Do you be- ples I draw upon are not the only ones you can lieve that women should have the right to construct a worldview from. And there are sitchoose whether or not to abort a baby? I’m uations where even those first principles don’t guessing that’s an easy one to answer, so here’s lead me to a coherent answer. At times, one is another easy one Q14: Do you support the ban left with more questions than answers. And on female foeticide? that’s okay. We are feeble creatures, and don’t If your answer to both these questions is have to know everything. ‘yes’, then Q15: How can you resolve the cont@amitvarma tradiction inherent in supporting a woman’s

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Still feasting off the runaway success of The Lunchbox, actress Nimrat Kaur is hungry for the many different flavours of Bollywood, including its masala entertainers

f actress Nimrat Kaur’s life were a movie, it would be neatly split into two parts — before and after the release of The Lunchbox. Before, she was a student travelling daily in a University Special bus from Noida to attend BCom Honours classes at Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce who shifted to Mumbai to make it as an actor. That meant leaving the comfort of her home to squeeze into overstuffed local trains day in and day out tohave get to auditions.

Sometimes, it paid off. walked this stretch of pavement sev-Youriod but now unaffordable for anyone except thers’ fortunes on the expensive tastes they might place hertimes from now, a Kumar eral hundred but Sanu I havemusic nevervid-the bankers who commute to London every cultivated in England. An issue of the studenteoseen in 2002, and more a Cadbury this before.

As I recently, bend to tie my shoe-Silkmorning. And they virtually never head east run Isis magazine from the early 1950s capad.

“It used to bebronze an ordeal. travelling laces, a round slabAfter embedded in byacross Magdalen Bridge where the High Street tures the tone of their reception in post-war or stone auto, stares you enter roomful of people.trifurcates. With every 100 or so feet east, the England with its description of a certain Rathetrain paving backa at me. Engraved make-up constantly on You it is have an outline mapon, ofyou’re India with an odddab-buildings get less gothic, the complexions mesh Divecha: “This fine specimen of Hindu bing your you’re wearing heels and yourdarken and grocers start selling a decidedly manhood is equally at home theorising on the kind of hat inface, the centre.

In the bottom-right clothes areingot uncomfortable.

By the letters end of it,un-European range of fruits and corner of the are the mysterious secrets of his successes in Vindon’tmy even look likethe youpavement deserve tofor be onvegetables.

‘CF’.you I raise eyes from cent’s [a club restricted to Unicamera.

Today, my heart out to people some explanation from the goes surroundings.

I The Cowley Road is a nice place versity-level sportsmen] or I see themstone returning from a bad audi-to live in, but few people want to see when the asymmetric architecture of the fingering his native chapattis in There have been sheCommunity says, sippingCentre a cold coffee at a suburEasttion,” Oxford towering ge- visit. My house, a modest former the Taj…” Indian students in banabove Mumbai nially me. café. working-class dwelling, sits on Of course, Divecha’s contemOxford dating back Theare second act of her fairytale life beganone of the many narrow streets There no postcards of the Cowley Road poraries at Oxford would have to 1871 lastcorner year atshop. the Cannes Film Festival,on either side of the Cowley for this saletime at the No, the picture included such figures as the fuof which Kaur an almost photographic postcards go for thehas medieval architecture of Road. I walk past the East Oxford ture Nobel laureate VS Naipaul, After up bytwo herrivers, chauffer,Community Centre almost every thememory. city centre, or being one ofstood the city’s ambivalent even then about his hurried down arriv-day, passing swiftly on to the theshe Cherwell and the the Isisbuzzing (known Croisette, outside OxIndianness as he read keenly time to hear herselfacross beingthe intro-Cowley Road Methodist Church just ahead, about events in India and tried in vain to find a fordingasjust theinThames), writhing duced asofthe Charulata’ at Thesometimes pausing to note that it advertises a copy of RK Narayan’s latest novel. The social grassy acres the‘modern-day University’s two largest colLunchbox premiere.

“When the film was over,weekly service in Punjabi, a tradition dating anthropologist MN Srinivas was there, having leges, Magdalen and Christ Church. there was a standing ovation 15the minutes.

Visitors to Oxford come here tofor see Uni- Itback to 1967. There have been Indian students finished his doctorate, and beginning to dewas and so overwhelming.

You know youtold have ain Oxford since 1871. For a long time, these velop his pioneering theories of caste in India. versity are puzzled when they are good film, but to just get that kindofofbuildings resoundingwere mostly the children of well-off profes- The first generations of Indian Rhodes Scholthere is no campus, dozens aftertaste Kaur’s roleto of Ina lonelyars homemaker in the critically Thethe Lunchbox welcome On head the road, spread acrossisthemind-blowing. city. They seldom too IsionalsLingering or minor royalty Nimrat who returned were present as well,acclaimed including metal-has her to stardom and (below) thecivil red carpets of global festivals and awards shows ap/chris o’meara could hear in different languages far north, withpeople its sprawling detached housestalkdia to catapulted take up important positions in the lurgist andfilm yoga exponent TR Anantharaman, it. I couldn’t everything, builtabout for university tutorsunderstand in the Victorian pe- service or judiciary, or to squander their fa- whose time at Trinity College was enlivened by but I could catch the name of the film,” she have a management firm now that looks into The present big question on many a mind is says dreamily. This was her second outing at my work, so things are more sorted and orga- when Kaur will next display her talent on the festival. The year before she had trav- nised. People can put a name to my face. I’ve screen. She’s spent a good part of last year elled with a film called Peddlers, which become more public. That next level has hap- reading scripts and meeting with filmmakers was screened in the same International pened,” says Kaur. Catching her by surprise, but hasn’t confirmed anything yet. “I’m very Critics’ Week category but didn’t make Amitabh Bachchan congratulated her on her happy with what’s coming to me, but I’m also the kind of splash The Lunchbox made. performance in the greenroom at an awards very greedy. I keep thinking maybe something A year later Kaur, 32, is still basking in show. “He held my hand and said it was an better is yet to come my way. I should lock that glory. She’s travelled with the film honour to meet me. I was surprised he knew something soon,” she says. While The Lunchbox to festivals in Switzerland, France, my name. He also spoke about my Cadbury ad, occupied a very unique space in Indian cineCroatia, and will soon visit Slovenia. saying he loved me more in that. ma, Kaur is eager to experiment “I’m still eating off that feast,” she That was my only truly starwith different genres. As a film says with a laugh. The inherently In- struck moment ever,” she says, viewer she doesn’t discriminate dian tale of a lonely homemaker in with a laugh. between a masala entertainer Malad and a grumpy, soon-to-retire She hasn’t had to battle fail- I keep thinking maybe and an indie film. When there’s a accountant bonding over a misdi- ure, negative reviews or harsh Salman Khan or an Akshay Kusomething better is rected lunchbox has been relished critics, until now. The only thing mar movie playing, she makes yet to come my way by global audiences like it were that vaguely qualifies as bad the trek to Juhu’s single-screen their own. “Wherever I’ve been, press is a video she stumbled upChandan theatre to soak in the people have asked such incredibly on a few months ago, showing excitement from a balcony seat. pertinent questions. Why is it that her bending repeatedly in a “I need something that puts me you speak in Hindi, but Irrfan dress with a plunging neckline. “I don’t google in a different space and exposes me to a differ(Khan) speaks in English? Why myself. I did once or twice and found this. I ent audience. All these meetings with writers, does he write like he does? Does found it very, very funny. I thought, what the filmmakers, producers help in understanding the dabba system actually exist or hell is happening to me,” she says. Other than what’s in the market and how I’m viewed as an is it made up?” she says. these minor irks, Kaur says there’s nothing to actor,” she says.

On the personal front, her life dislike about her jet-setting life. The frequent She waited 10 years before landing The appears unchanged outwardly. red-carpet appearances are hectic, but she’s Lunchbox and is prepared to take her time to She’s completed 10 years in Mum- fast becoming a pro at it. “You have to get your plot her next move (reportedly, a Saurabh bai and recently moved into a new stylist, and make sure you don’t make a fool of Shukla movie with Rajkummar Rao). “I was apartment in the suburbs with her yourself. Also, you can’t wear something that never here because I needed quick money, a cats Karamchand and Kit Kat. Her somebody else has already worn. By the end of big car or a big house... Whatever comes slow, warm and friendly demeanour ap- the night, you are completely exhausted be- stays longer,” she says. pears untouched by stardom. And cause fittings happen until the last minute,” mohini chaudhuri yet, things are different now. “I she explains.

Tracing the ambiguous and intertwined histories of India and Britain through the campus of Oxford University and some of its most famous alumni

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Interconnections The iconic All Souls College, Oxford, where Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was once the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics anisha sharma

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Curious curiosities (Clockwise from bottom) The elephant-shaped weathervane; the Indian-run supermarket Tahmid; that mysterious ingot with an India map and the jewelled elephant in the façade of the Indian Institute anisha

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his fellow students thinking it an amusing idea to black up, don grass skirts and go canoeing down the river.

However, the wave of immigration to Britain from the Indian subcontinent from 1947 onwards changed the demographics of Oxford’s Indian population. The poet Adil Jussawalla, who studied English in Oxford in the early 1960s, recalls that as against the 66 Indian students at the University in his time, there were naround 2,000 Indian workers and 2008, two years after he wasliving forced to working Road, drivingthe buses, leavealong IndiaCowley for good following decrunning restaurants, in against the car ade-long vicious and hateworking campaign factory that so much of east Oxhim, MFemployed Husain was commissioned to ford’s factory is not what paint apopulation. grand seriesThe oncar ‘Indian Civilisation’ by it used to be, but the Indians have remained. long-term patron Usha Mittal.

Elated at theI see women in saris draped in the style chance to paint the history of aGujarati country he carrying shopping Every now and then, loved and missed, bags. and quickly realising thatI hear a snatch of Punjabi conversation. he would not be able to capture what heOxford wanthas single can serve as its ed tono in any less,locality Husainthat announced his intenequivalent of the to be found in tion to paint 96 ‘Little panels,Indias’ in triptychs.

By the so many European cities.

Intime of his death inand 2011American Husain had made stead, has traces, visiblea to the of attentive obmuch it progress, painting series eight magserver, of the now ambiguous, nificent triptychs, on displayintertwined at London’s histories of the twoMuseum countries.

Victoria and Albert (V&A).

None ofother this quite explains themany ingot: why Like his admirers, I enjoy things an Indian map on the pavement?

I ask around about Husain’s works — the vibrant colours he and a German — doingon a doctoused,find histhat unique stylefriend — drawing both rate in Sanskrit knows the answer. ‘inWestern and folk— techniques, and theThe grandgot’ is one of 58, part of an art installation commemorating the history of the Cowley Road. There is no guide to the installation; it is meant to encourage curious pedestrians to hunt for themselves. I try again: what could ‘CF’ stand for, and what is that odd headdress inscribed on the map?

I try some fellow students at the University, who promptly justify their reputation for cleverness. A Japanese philosopher with a keen interest in the Church of England informs me that the headdress in question is a “shovel hat”, once worn by missionaries. This is a good start, but it hints that the key to the mystery will take us into politically fraught territory.

The history of India’s links with Oxford is, perforce, a history of the British imperial project, and missionaries had their part to play in this project along with traders, soldiers and civil servants. Oxford provided generous numbers of all three. It is worth noting that the activities of Christian missionaries in India —

A final celebration on canvas His last works, eight magnificent triptychs by MF Husain pay tribute to India’s many civilisations

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A country captured (clockwise from right) A triptych on ‘Indian households’; ‘Indian dance forms’; and ‘Three dynasties’ v&a,

courtesy of usha mittal

ation as it is articulated in various Indian philosophies. He is buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery in north-west Oxford, not far from Jowett’s grave.

Indians have long entertained a suspicion of foreign scholars, particularly those with evangelical intentions. But Pope continues to inspire affection among all Tamils. An impressive statue marks his memory in Chennai’s Triplicane neighbourhood. His grave is modest and bears a touching inscription: “This stone has been placed here by his family, and by his Tamil friends in S. India, in loving admiration of his life-long labours in the cause of oriental literature and philosophy.”

I wonder if the ingot is a general allusion to Cowley’s missionary connections with India, when a historian friend writes to me suggesting that ‘CF’ must be a reference to the Mission Priests of St John the Evangelist, popularly known as the ‘Cowley Fathers’. The Cowley Fathers were an Anglican religious order formed in the 19th century, the first since the English Reformation. Fr Richard Meux Benson, one of the founders of the order, had wanted desperately to do missionary work in India but was prevented from doing so by his Bishop, who insisted he was needed in Cowley. The order did eventually found a mission in India, but it was a certain Fr O’Neill who dedicated his life to it, living in rural areas of what are now the States of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and engaging in the traditional combination of social service and evangelism. His letters reunlike in much of Africa, for example — never veal a figure both loved and mocked, in particstood in a simple relationship with the em- ular for his inability to sit cross-legged. pire, for colonial administrators thought it In India, Fr O’Neill formed a close associsimplest to keep off Indian religions and often ation with the fascinating and ultimately tragfound missionaries a nuisance. And some of ic figure of Nehemiah Goreh. Born Nilakantha the missionaries Britain sent to India had the Shastri, Goreh was a formidably intelligent exasperating habit of going native on arrival. but tortured Brahmin from Bundelkhand None did so more spectacularly than Verrier who spent his youth afflicted by every kind of Elwin (1902-64), the lapsed missionary who doubt — shocking his father, a pious and went on to become one of the foremost schol- learned Shaiva, by first declaring himself a nessauthorities of his themes and thetribal works themselves, Vaishnava, arly on India’s peoples. getic periodand for then, Husain, despite livingby in to who, everyone’s horror, which hark back to his time as a painter of cinYet another Christian figure, central to the converting exile outside India, went about to of Christianity.

But evenhis hiswork conema hoardings.

Allmodern these aspects aresail evident cultural history of India, set from version with the energy, enjoyment that he could not quell and his clarity proliferating in the works on display at the V&A, but me doubts.

England for Sawyerpuram, located in to Tamil had always had.ever fearful that he had made a He was the emotion that went into these paintings Nadu.

The Canadian-born George Uglow Pope mistake, “He always had areturning whole image inHindu mind constantly to the was particularly striking. started his education in the Tamil language, fold, whenthen he started… was always sure of finding ahe new appeal in very the gospel. familiar andboy objects in what onWith somemany accounts, as a figures 19-year-old on the he wastortured doing,”letters recalled son Mustafa He wrote to his Fr Benson in Enhis works Mother Pillar, ship bound—for IndiaTeresa, in 1839.the He Ashoka stayed on for gland, by telephone from Dubai.

Husain, ever theI declaring “with sorrow that, however Ganesha producing — Husain conveys a very pic- try decades, book after bookwarm on Tamil multitasker, was two other major constantly toworking persuadeonmyself about the ture of a stridently secularEnglish India. Husain made projects before grammar, an influential he passed away — the truth of Christianity, myHistory mind carefully handwritten notesand to translation of the Tirukkural, of Arab forstate the Qatari does notCivilisation come to the of cerinnumerable commentaries on accompany each panel, bringing royal family andthe 100state yearsofofmy Intainty...

Is not Indian home philosophy. this point further. Divia dian Cinema.

With typical mind very curious?”

He wentHuto Oxford has no single He returned to Englandcurator, late in Patel, the exhibition’s sain aplomb and energy he split England and lived in the Cowley Husain locality thatmade can serve his lifeit to become Chaplain at carefully handwritten Fathers’ opens with his portrait of Indihis timeMission between Qatar, Dubai House but, preas its equivalent of Balliol College, Oxfordscene colan dynasties — athe dramatic and his Mayfair in London dictably, came studio to regret even notes to accompany the ‘Little Indias’ lege with the longestbloody historybatof of Ashoka fighting — thedecision: decision“Oh, of those when cold and that each panel support forlions Indian students.

Baltles as his ascend the pillar whereintowhich go was often cells, one hasan noimpulprivaliol was the of George of victory, andcollege his eventual consiveThat thing, withEnglish Husainfood, carrying cy! horrid and Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy Inversion to Buddhism standsofside around number of me tickets with then Fr aBenson told to wash dia during the years of tolerance the great 1899 famine. the floor of my by side a portrait of the different destinations and makcell. I told him at once I could But was also the college of Benjamin anditculture promoted under the reignJowett, of Ak- not ing do up it, hisand mind at the last moment, recalls to send someone else. Those fathe of the College keenly chambar, Master and a depiction of the who Raj and Queen Vic- thers Mustafa.

Far from being the seen solitary do menial work.

I have the worker, fathers pioned academic aspirations of Cornelia washing toria astheGandhi and the independence he continued to enjoy having people the mission-house stairs.

Oh,around how I Sorabji — themarch first woman movement upon it.of any nationality to hate him the as he worked.

“He religiosity was a realhe people’s life!”

In English found read lawofathis Oxford, later fe- the Most panelsand take on India’s equallyfirst grand man,” he said. same unreflective ritualism that he had male advocate.

Balliol was closely connected themes — a detailed triptych on the cities of In- loathed Mittal,inwho day hisobservdeath, his saw pasthim life. on He the died, asof one to Indian Institute, building since used er diathe vividly captures thearich history of Delhi, recalled that even at but theutterly hospital he talked put it, “very saintly, joyless.” for a variety purposes but whose Varanasi andofKolkata through someelephantof their about theto panels planned to to do.com“He I’d like thinkhe thestill ingot is there shaped weathervane as the single most famous figures remains and buildings, while visan- memorate was full of excitement theThe series,” Goreh and to hiscomplete sufferings. last ible of its purpose ofthe “arousing othersign canvas onoriginal transport conveys energy time she said at the past launch.

I walked it, I was on my way home [in Britain]and an interest Oriental subjects and from of towns cities —in again there are gentle If there was any sadness about aTahmid. countryMy he the Indian-run supermarket in making England and IndiaIndia, better such acquaintreferences to multicultural as a shopping couldn’t return to, weighed it certainly isn’twith evident in bag was down a kiloed with eachon other”.

Sikh family a Bajaj scooter, a pilgrimage to gram the works on display.

I look but I of ladies’ fingers,“Ialook glassand jar of red chilli Oxford hadand beenan home, in the 19th century, Pandharpur old Muslim man on a pickle, don’t see any,” said Patel, the curator.

“I onlyI and a packet of desiccated coconut. to prominent Max Mueller, but was horse cart. He Sanskritist adds a particularly personal see acomforted vibrancy and the optimism that you see. a little by the thought that a Pope Elwin were of Oxford men touchand to the panel onexamples Indian households, with latter-day A celebration of awould country that hething loved.”

Goreh have one less to who took of anhimself interestasinaIndian traditions oth- worry a picture child under the char(‘MFabout.

Husain: Indian Civilization’ runs at Loner than that of Sanskrit. diedfloor” in 1908, poy “doodling horses Pope on the ashavhis don’s Victoria and Albert Museum till July 27.) ing preached histhe last grandfather sits by side. sermon, which nakul krishna is doing a doctorate in Philosophy at University vidya ram of Oxford happened to be about the with concept of liberThe paintings coincided a very ener- the

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Between the lines The intricate bracket or madal, a loadtransferring system that holds up the columns of old homes, is often carved in the shape of a peacock or a parrot

In the city of pols While the bid for the Unesco World Heritage tag has put Old Ahmedabad and its architecture in the spotlight, its residents, some of whom have lived here for generations, are nearly forgotten

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Line of control Twelve-year-old Anis and his friend Darsheel live in a Hindu pol in Kalupur. Like in the rest of Ahmedabad, pols here have traditionally been demarcated along the lines of religion and caste. The areas where Muslims live are now referred to as ‘Pakistan’. Anis points towards one such place and says, “On this side is the border, and then begins Pakistan”

he old city is in flux. Some people are leaving or have already left, the ornate doors of their havelis are locked up. Other families have recently moved in, migrant workers or people from other areas of Ahmedabad, the 604-year-old city which is also the fifth largest in the country.

Some dream of leaving these congested lanes of the pols — traditional housing clusters unique to the capital of Gujarat — for a more spacious life in the newer parts of the city or even elsewhere in India. Others hold on tight to their homes, in the face of adversity, cherishing the secret nooks and invisible corners that their old homes offer. The pols — there are over 360 in the old city — have their own distinct style of architecture with only one or two entrances; in some cases, tucking away a couple of secret entrances as well.

The old city of Ahmedabad was nominated for the Unesco World Heritage City status in 2011, along with Delhi and Mumbai. Caught in the red tape, the heritage tag may take a while coming. In the meanwhile, a lot of hype has been generated around the bid.

What is often overlooked though is the day-to-day life of the people who live in this heritage-city-to-be. What are their aspirations and struggles? What is their experience of living in this historically segregated city?

meher ali is a freelance journalist based in Ahmedabad

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Old hand A craftsman smoothens out part of a teak window frame in Duttatre Vyas’s 200-year-old haveli at Khadia. Vyas has held on to his house, against all odds — from the 2001 earthquake, which nearly brought the top floor down and forced the local corporation to issue notices to demolish the roof, to mounting pressure from real estate sharks. He eventually solicited the help of a local conservation outfit, City Heritage Centre, this year. Vyas hopes to convert it into a homestay for foreigners

Inherited treasures Chandrika Ben Padh with her daughter Padh Nirali Jayesh Bhai at their home in Toda Ni Pol, Kalupur. Chandrika Ben, who moved here when she married 25 years ago, says she wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Their house is, at least, 100 years old. Nirali, who was born and brought up here, is studying to become a company secretary

Looking ahead Nathu Bhai Premchand Bhai Dhobi (seen here with his wife, Laxmi Ben) was born in this house in Jahapanah Ni Pol, where his family has lived as tenants for three generations. He runs his ironing business here, and now wants to shift his family of six to a flat for more space and privacy

A fading reminiscence The top floor of Duttatre Vyas’s house at a pol at Khadia in central Ahmedabad

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Still feasting off the runaway success of The Lunchbox, actress Nimrat Kaur is hungry for the many different flavours of Bollywood, including its masala entertainers

f actress Nimrat Kaur’s life were a movie, it would be neatly split into two parts — before and after the release of The Lunchbox. Before, she was a student travelling daily in a University Special bus from Noida to attend BCom Honours classes at Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce who shifted to Mumbai to make it as an actor. That meant leaving the comfort of her home to squeeze into overstuffed local trains day in and day out tohave get to auditions.

Sometimes, it paid off. walked this stretch of pavement sev-Youriod but now unaffordable for anyone except thers’ fortunes on the expensive tastes they might place hertimes from now, a Kumar eral hundred but Sanu I havemusic nevervid-the bankers who commute to London every cultivated in England. An issue of the studenteoseen in 2002, and more a Cadbury this before.

As I recently, bend to tie my shoe-Silkmorning. And they virtually never head east run Isis magazine from the early 1950s capad.

“It used to bebronze an ordeal. travelling laces, a round slabAfter embedded in byacross Magdalen Bridge where the High Street tures the tone of their reception in post-war or stone auto, stares you enter roomful of people.trifurcates. With every 100 or so feet east, the England with its description of a certain Rathe train paving backa at me. Engraved You make-up constantly on it is have an outline mapon, of you’re India with an odddab-buildings get less gothic, the complexions mesh Divecha: “This fine specimen of Hindu bing your you’re wearing heels and yourdarken and grocers start selling a decidedly manhood is equally at home theorising on the kind of hat inface, the centre.

In the bottom-right clothes areingot uncomfortable.

By the letters end of it,un-European range of fruits and corner of the are the mysterious secrets of his successes in Vindon’tmy even look likethe youpavement deserve tofor be onvegetables.

‘CF’.you I raise eyes from cent’s [a club restricted to Unicamera.

Today, my out to people some explanation fromheart the goes surroundings.

I The Cowley Road is a nice place versity-level sportsmen] or I see themstone returning from a bad audi-to live in, but few people want to see when the asymmetric architecture of the fingering his native chapattis in There have been sheCommunity says, sippingCentre a cold coffee at a suburEasttion,” Oxford towering ge- visit. My house, a modest former the Taj…” Indian students in ban Mumbai nially above me. café. working-class dwelling, sits on Of course, Divecha’s contemOxford dating back Theare second act of her fairytale beganone of the many narrow streets There no postcards of the Cowleylife Road poraries at Oxford would have to 1871 lastcorner year atshop. the Cannes Film Festival,on either side of the Cowley for this saletime at the No, the picture included such figures as the fuof which Kaur an almost photographic postcards go for thehas medieval architecture of Road. I walk past the East Oxford ture Nobel laureate VS Naipaul, After up bytwo herrivers, chauffer,Community Centre almost every the memory. city centre, or being one ofstood the city’s ambivalent even then about his hurried down arriv-day, passing swiftly on to the the she Cherwell and the the Isisbuzzing (known Croisette, outside OxIndianness as he read keenly time to hear herself beingthe intro-Cowley Road Methodist Church just ahead, about events in India and tried in vain to find a fordingasjust theinThames), writhing across duced asofthe Charulata’ at Thesometimes pausing to note that it advertises a copy of RK Narayan’s latest novel. The social grassy acres the‘modern-day University’s two largest colLunchbox premiere.

“When the film was over,weekly service in Punjabi, a tradition dating anthropologist MN Srinivas was there, having leges, Magdalen and Christ Church. there was a standing ovation 15the minutes.

Visitors to Oxford come here tofor see Uni- Itback to 1967. There have been Indian students finished his doctorate, and beginning to dewas and so overwhelming.

You know youtold have ain Oxford since 1871. For a long time, these velop his pioneering theories of caste in India. versity are puzzled when they are good film, but to just get that kindofofbuildings resoundingwere mostly the children of well-off profes- The first generations of Indian Rhodes Scholthere is no campus, dozens aftertaste Kaur’s roleto of Ina lonelyars homemaker in the critically Thethe Lunchbox welcome On head the road, spread acrossisthemind-blowing. city. They seldom too IsionalsLingering or minor royalty Nimrat who returned were present as well,acclaimed including metal-has her to stardom and (below) thecivil red carpets of global festivals and awards shows ap/chris o’meara could hear in different languages far north, with people its sprawling detached housestalkdia to catapulted take up important positions in the lurgist and film yoga exponent TR Anantharaman, it. I couldn’t everything, builtabout for university tutorsunderstand in the Victorian pe- service or judiciary, or to squander their fa- whose time at Trinity College was enlivened by but I could catch the name of the film,” she have a management firm now that looks into The present big question on many a mind is says dreamily. This was her second outing at my work, so things are more sorted and orga- when Kaur will next display her talent on the festival. The year before she had trav- nised. People can put a name to my face. I’ve screen. She’s spent a good part of last year elled with a film called Peddlers, which become more public. That next level has hap- reading scripts and meeting with filmmakers was screened in the same International pened,” says Kaur. Catching her by surprise, but hasn’t confirmed anything yet. “I’m very Critics’ Week category but didn’t make Amitabh Bachchan congratulated her on her happy with what’s coming to me, but I’m also the kind of splash The Lunchbox made. performance in the greenroom at an awards very greedy. I keep thinking maybe something A year later Kaur, 32, is still basking in show. “He held my hand and said it was an better is yet to come my way. I should lock that glory. She’s travelled with the film honour to meet me. I was surprised he knew something soon,” she says. While The Lunchbox to festivals in Switzerland, France, my name. He also spoke about my Cadbury ad, occupied a very unique space in Indian cineCroatia, and will soon visit Slovenia. saying he loved me more in that. ma, Kaur is eager to experiment “I’m still eating off that feast,” she That was my only truly starwith different genres. As a film says with a laugh. The inherently In- struck moment ever,” she says, viewer she doesn’t discriminate dian tale of a lonely homemaker in with a laugh. between a masala entertainer Malad and a grumpy, soon-to-retire She hasn’t had to battle fail- I keep thinking maybe and an indie film. When there’s a accountant bonding over a misdi- ure, negative reviews or harsh Salman Khan or an Akshay Kusomething better is rected lunchbox has been relished critics, until now. The only thing mar movie playing, she makes yet to come my way by global audiences like it were that vaguely qualifies as bad the trek to Juhu’s single-screen their own. “Wherever I’ve been, press is a video she stumbled upChandan theatre to soak in the people have asked such incredibly on a few months ago, showing excitement from a balcony seat. pertinent questions. Why is it that her bending repeatedly in a “I need something that puts me you speak in Hindi, but Irrfan dress with a plunging neckline. “I don’t google in a different space and exposes me to a differ(Khan) speaks in English? Why myself. I did once or twice and found this. I ent audience. All these meetings with writers, does he write like he does? Does found it very, very funny. I thought, what the filmmakers, producers help in understanding the dabba system actually exist or hell is happening to me,” she says. Other than what’s in the market and how I’m viewed as an is it made up?” she says. these minor irks, Kaur says there’s nothing to actor,” she says.

On the personal front, her life dislike about her jet-setting life. The frequent She waited 10 years before landing The appears unchanged outwardly. red-carpet appearances are hectic, but she’s Lunchbox and is prepared to take her time to She’s completed 10 years in Mum- fast becoming a pro at it. “You have to get your plot her next move (reportedly, a Saurabh bai and recently moved into a new stylist, and make sure you don’t make a fool of Shukla movie with Rajkummar Rao). “I was apartment in the suburbs with her yourself. Also, you can’t wear something that never here because I needed quick money, a cats Karamchand and Kit Kat. Her somebody else has already worn. By the end of big car or a big house... Whatever comes slow, warm and friendly demeanour ap- the night, you are completely exhausted be- stays longer,” she says. pears untouched by stardom. And cause fittings happen until the last minute,” mohini chaudhuri yet, things are different now. “I she explains.

Tracing the ambiguous and intertwined histories of India and Britain through the campus of Oxford University and some of its most famous alumni

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Interconnections The iconic All Souls College, Oxford, where Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was once the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics anisha sharma

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Curious curiosities (Clockwise from bottom) The elephant-shaped weathervane; the Indian-run supermarket Tahmid; that mysterious ingot with an India map and the jewelled elephant in the façade of the Indian Institute anisha

sharma

his fellow students thinking it an amusing idea to black up, don grass skirts and go canoeing down the river.

However, the wave of immigration to Britain from the Indian subcontinent from 1947 onwards changed the demographics of Oxford’s Indian population. The poet Adil Jussawalla, who studied English in Oxford in the early 1960s, recalls that as against the 66 Indian students at the University in his time, there werenaround 2,000 Indian workers 2008, two years after he wasliving forcedand to working Road, drivingthe buses, leavealong IndiaCowley for good following decrunning restaurants, in against the car ade-long vicious and hateworking campaign factory that so much of east Oxhim, MFemployed Husain was commissioned to ford’s factory is not what paint apopulation. grand seriesThe on car ‘Indian Civilisation’ by it used to be, but the Indians have remained. long-term patron Usha Mittal.

Elated at theI see women in saris draped in the style chance to paint the history of aGujarati country he carrying shopping Every now and then, loved and missed, bags. and quickly realising thatI hear a snatch of able Punjabi conversation. he would not be to capture what heOxford wanthas single can serve as its ed tono in any less,locality Husainthat announced his intenequivalent of the ‘Little Indias’ to be found in tion to paint 96 panels, in triptychs.

By the so many European cities.

Intime of his death inand 2011American Husain had made stead, it has traces, visiblea series to theof attentive obmuch progress, painting eight magserver, of the now ambiguous, nificent triptychs, on displayintertwined at London’s histories of the twoMuseum countries.

Victoria and Albert (V&A).

None ofother this quite explains themany ingot: why Like his admirers, I enjoy things an Indian map on the — pavement?

I ask around about Husain’s works the vibrant colours he and a German — doingon a doctoused,find histhat unique stylefriend — drawing both rate in Sanskrit knows the answer. ‘inWestern and folk— techniques, and theThe grandgot’ is one of 58, part of an art installation commemorating the history of the Cowley Road. There is no guide to the installation; it is meant to encourage curious pedestrians to hunt for themselves. I try again: what could ‘CF’ stand for, and what is that odd headdress inscribed on the map?

I try some fellow students at the University, who promptly justify their reputation for cleverness. A Japanese philosopher with a keen interest in the Church of England informs me that the headdress in question is a “shovel hat”, once worn by missionaries. This is a good start, but it hints that the key to the mystery will take us into politically fraught territory.

The history of India’s links with Oxford is, perforce, a history of the British imperial project, and missionaries had their part to play in this project along with traders, soldiers and civil servants. Oxford provided generous numbers of all three. It is worth noting that the activities of Christian missionaries in India —

A final celebration on canvas His last works, eight magnificent triptychs by MF Husain pay tribute to India’s many civilisations

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A country captured (clockwise from right) A triptych on ‘Indian households’; ‘Indian dance forms’; and ‘Three dynasties’ v&a,

courtesy of usha mittal

ation as it is articulated in various Indian philosophies. He is buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery in north-west Oxford, not far from Jowett’s grave.

Indians have long entertained a suspicion of foreign scholars, particularly those with evangelical intentions. But Pope continues to inspire affection among all Tamils. An impressive statue marks his memory in Chennai’s Triplicane neighbourhood. His grave is modest and bears a touching inscription: “This stone has been placed here by his family, and by his Tamil friends in S. India, in loving admiration of his life-long labours in the cause of oriental literature and philosophy.”

I wonder if the ingot is a general allusion to Cowley’s missionary connections with India, when a historian friend writes to me suggesting that ‘CF’ must be a reference to the Mission Priests of St John the Evangelist, popularly known as the ‘Cowley Fathers’. The Cowley Fathers were an Anglican religious order formed in the 19th century, the first since the English Reformation. Fr Richard Meux Benson, one of the founders of the order, had wanted desperately to do missionary work in India but was prevented from doing so by his Bishop, who insisted he was needed in Cowley. The order did eventually found a mission in India, but it was a certain Fr O’Neill who dedicated his life to it, living in rural areas of what are now the States of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and engaging in the traditional combination of social service and evangelism. His letters reunlike in much of Africa, for example — never veal a figure both loved and mocked, in particstood in a simple relationship with the em- ular for his inability to sit cross-legged. pire, for colonial administrators thought it In India, Fr O’Neill formed a close associsimplest to keep off Indian religions and often ation with the fascinating and ultimately tragfound missionaries a nuisance. And some of ic figure of Nehemiah Goreh. Born Nilakantha the missionaries Britain sent to India had the Shastri, Goreh was a formidably intelligent exasperating habit of going native on arrival. but tortured Brahmin from Bundelkhand None did so more spectacularly than Verrier who spent his youth afflicted by every kind of Elwin (1902-64), the lapsed missionary who doubt — shocking his father, a pious and went on to become one of the foremost schol- learned Shaiva, by first declaring himself a nessauthorities of his themes and thetribal works themselves, Vaishnava, arly on India’s peoples. getic periodand for then, Husain, despite living by in to who, everyone’s horror, which hark back to his time as a painter Yet another Christian figure, central of to cinthe converting exile outside India, wentBut about to of Christianity. evenhis hiswork conema hoardings.

Allmodern these aspects aresail evident cultural history of India, set from version with the energy, that he could enjoyment not quell and his clarity proliferating in the works display at the V&A, but me doubts.

England for on Sawyerpuram, located in to Tamil had always had.ever fearful that he had made a He was the emotion that went into these paintings Nadu.

The Canadian-born George Uglow Pope mistake, “He always had areturning whole image in Hindu mind constantly to the was particularly striking. started his education in the Tamil language, fold, whenthen he started… was always sure of finding ahe new appeal in very the gospel. familiar andboy objects in what onWith somemany accounts, as a figures 19-year-old on the he wastortured doing,” letters recalled son Mustafa He wrote to his Fr Benson in Enhis works Mother Pillar, ship bound— for IndiaTeresa, in 1839.the HeAshoka stayed on for gland, by telephone from Dubai.

Husain, ever theI declaring “with sorrow that, however Ganesha producing — Husain conveys a very pic- try decades, book after bookwarm on Tamil multitasker, was onmyself two other major constantly toworking persuade about the ture of a stridently secularEnglish India. Husain made projects before grammar, an influential he passed away — the truth of Christianity, myHistory mind carefully handwritten notesand to translation of the Tirukkural, of Arab forstate the Qatari does notCivilisation come to the of cerinnumerable commentaries on accompany each panel, bringing royal family andthe 100state yearsofof my Intainty...

Is not Indian philosophy. home this point further. Divia dian With typical mindCinema. very curious?”

He wentHuto Oxford has no single He returned to England late in Patel, the exhibition’s curator, sain aplomb and energy he split England and lived in the Cowley Husain locality thatmade can serve his lifeit to become Chaplain at carefully handwritten his opens with his portrait of InditimeMission between Qatar, Dubai Fathers’ House but, preas its equivalent of Balliol College, Oxfordscene colan dynasties — athe dramatic and his Mayfair in London dictably, came studio to regret even notes to accompany the ‘Little Indias’ lege with the longestbloody historybatof of Ashoka fighting — thedecision: decision“Oh, of those when cold and that each panel support Indian students.

Baltles as hisfor lions ascend the pillar where go was often cells, intowhich one hasan noimpulprivaliol was the of George of victory, andcollege his eventual consive thing, withEnglish Husainfood, carrying cy! That horrid and Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy Inversion to Buddhism standsofside around number of tickets with then Fr aBenson told me to wash dia during the years of tolerance the great 1899 famine. the floor of my by side a portrait of the different destinations and makcell. I told him at once I could But was also the college of Benjamin anditculture promoted under the reignJowett, of Ak- not ing do up it, hisand mind at the last moment, recalls to send someone else. Those fathe of the College keenly chambar, Master and a depiction of the who Raj and Queen Vic- thers Mustafa.

Far from being the seen solitary do menial work.

I have the worker, fathers pioned academic aspirations of Cornelia washing toria astheGandhi and the independence he continued to enjoy having people the mission-house stairs.

Oh,around how I Sorabji — the first woman movement march upon it.of any nationality to hate him the as he worked.

“He was a realhe people’s life!”

In English religiosity found read lawofathis Oxford, later fe- the Most panelsand take on India’s equallyfirst grand man,” he said. same unreflective ritualism that he had male advocate.

Balliol was closely connected themes — a detailed triptych on the cities of In- loathed Mittal,inwho day hisobservdeath, his saw pasthim life. on Hethe died, asof one to Indian Institute, building since used er diathe vividly captures thearich history of Delhi, recalled at but the utterly hospital he talked put it, that “veryeven saintly, joyless.” for a variety purposes but whose Varanasi andofKolkata through someelephantof their about theto panels planned to to do.com“He I’d like thinkhe thestill ingot is there shaped weathervane as the single most famous figures remains and buildings, while visan- memorate was full of excitement theThe series,” Goreh and to hiscomplete sufferings. last ible of its purpose ofthe “arousing othersign canvas onoriginal transport conveys energy time she said at the past launch.

I walked it, I was on my way home [in Britain]and an interest Oriental subjects and from of towns cities —in again there are gentle If there was any sadness about aTahmid. countryMy he the Indian-run supermarket in making England and IndiaIndia, bettersuch acquaintreferences to multicultural as a shopping couldn’t return to, weighed it certainly isn’twith evident in bag was down a kiloed with eachon other”.

Sikh family a Bajaj scooter, a pilgrimage to gram the works on display.

I look but I of ladies’ fingers,“Ialook glassand jar of red chilli Oxford hadand beenanhome, in the 19th century, Pandharpur old Muslim man on a pickle, don’t see any,” said Patel, the curator.

“I onlyI and a packet of desiccated coconut. to prominent Max Mueller, but was horse cart. He Sanskritist adds a particularly personal see acomforted vibrancy and the optimism that you see.a a little by the thought that Pope Elwin were of Oxford with men latter-day touchand to the panel onexamples Indian households, A celebration of awould country that hething loved.”

Goreh have one less to who tookof anhimself interestasinaIndian traditions oth- worry a picture child under the char(‘MFabout.

Husain: Indian Civilization’ runs at Loner than that of Sanskrit. diedfloor” in 1908, poy “doodling horses Pope on the as havhis don’s Victoria and Albert Museum till July 27.) ing preached his grandfather sits by the last side. sermon, which nakul krishna is doing a doctorate in Philosophy at University vidya ram of Oxford happened to be coincided about the with concept of liberThe paintings a very ener- the

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Novel visit to These emotional sons the Andamans PRESENT IMPERFECT

ELSEWHERE

manjula padmanabhan

The genesis of India’s gender crisis is this oedipal obsession its men have with their mothers What better way to uncover this remote corner than by setting a story there Aquamarine reverie The picture-perfect Andaman islands inspire romance, and heartbreak

On the beach A day spent in the company of friends, bright sun and cold waves

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uriel has a cabana at the beach. She rents it from the city of Elsewhere at $20 a month for the summer. She invites me to go with her one breezy Wednesday in June, along with her six-year-old grandson, Mikey.

We get there at 11.30am. Her annual payment of the cabana ankaj Sekhsaria has had a place in these jungles and the decifee includes a parking spot, which is a good thing because the deep, abiding interest in mation of its wildlife? The age-old place is filling up with summer vacationers.

Type cast The and a long involvement question remains: should we interThe cabanas have been built onto a long platform, bookwooden from which with the Andaman Islands, fere in (some say improve, others one flight up from the sandy floor ofthe the arrival title of the area. Five which is such a good thing because say destroy) the life of tribal socieborrowed hundred of them are available on hire. movie Each isspace is perhaps most of us know little about what ties? Which begs another: how and saw noinside. great virtue four-foot wide, six-foot deep, with a bench There are goes on in these peripheral parts of why did our own ancestors (who hooks to hang towels from and a couple in ofIndian shelves. The wood is motherhood the country (including the North- must once have been naked, ‘savage’ unpainted and weathered, but sturdy. At one end of the plateast). And what better way to inter- tribals too) change, so that we beform, there are showers and toilets. est the lay reader than setting a nov- came what we are today? Should we The little space has been shut for a whole year and spiders el there, whose tell you just oon characters after his swearing-in ceremony, leave themficers’, be, letthe them remain of ‘unconditional providers love’. upon her.

‘Unclean’ sheallow is, in Mikey her pain — have made full use ofcome the facilities.

Muriel doesn’t the story of what been brewing Primehas Minister Narendra Modi took to protecting ferociously their forests, The Indian mother — so generous in enter her love unclean whatever fit thereafor me to until she has swept out she the touches, dust andand cobwebs there through their lives.

Twitter. or should we try to so ‘tame’ them of-living —with and selfless in—her is anthe emotion so ter only to be destroyed.

In the name broom she has brought for just this purpose. of I’vethrift, Most of us know the Andamans “Earlier in the evening inten my converby corrupting them intense that through we can only brought find in ourselves therefore, giveaher about theand unclean a small bag with my towel, change ofher dryonly clothes for its aquamarine seas, tropical sation with Prime Minister Nawazdrink?

SharifOfhecourse, we must remem-to call her enough elucidation Mother India. and the worthless, whether human or sandwiches. She’s brought everything else: three foldinginanirainforests, exoticvery flora and fauna, shared some emotional things.” ber that ‘civilised’ often does not culture goes, there is mate.chairs, Of course, as popular If there be aumbrella, broken-legged, ragged a beach a hamper the notorious Cellular Jail me and, ofhe stays “Nawaz Sharif ji told that Isla- noethically meanin morally, or behabetter representation of Mother India than string-cot, let toys her have that toand lie upon; of sand for Mikey a deepit can course, the ‘dangerous’ arrowmabad but goes to and meet his Mother once superior a Mother viourally — unfortunately, India. Released in 1957 and still revered be saved in of that same black chamber for the basket food. happy tribals, the Jarawas. Sekhsaria it usually means week.”

57exploitative. years later, Nargis Dutt’s Radha is the moth- next to Mikey need it.

Otherwise, her a little strips down tomake his trunks, It’s small oddlywhen comforting takes us“This to the islands with small time when he awas sitting Sekhsaria with his takes on a no journey er foruswhom sacrifice is too it support of cow-dung or older of stones, onwear the bare while the two of us ladies see demonso much earthen floor. And let no one waste effort in cast of core characters neatly Mother he saw visuals onrepreTV of myaround Motherthe of- islands — partly by boat, comes to raising her two sons.toShe loose shifts over our bathing cosungainly senting nearly every ‘special inter- partly overland, fering me sweets”. exploring and exstrates the highest of moral values and isflesh the sweeping or No dusting or washing place till tumes. way we’re going the to comest’ group andtouched workingboth there.Nawaz “Theliving visuals Sharif ji these pounding issuesof en route, epitome pure, unadulterated this occasion be over,” pete with the curvaceous beautiesMayo Thus, Harish, andthere’s his Mother.

He told me that after seeing through love. Yet,his the characbook from which wrote. cavorting in the sun wearing tiny trying figure out theto visuals his Mother got very emotional.” ters. slips in- came saw the The titlenovel of the movie While earned DeIndia’s triangles of clothMayo and string! what toAdo with his it life day later, was revealed that Modi had tono such a ‘documentary virtue. wrath with Gandhi calling her spite the bright sun, the water The desi worship of is co-o-o-old. All three of us chirp and gifted whether journal- shawl to Sharif’s mother. mode’ a pashmina (with back stoKatherine Mayo’s Mother India, book “the report of a drain inloudly as we wet our feet in the foaming surf.

Meanwhile, all To be civilised mothers is so intense ism suits him, Seema, a updated his followers on ries And on June 5, Modi providing published 30 historiyears beforearound the us, there are children and spector sent out with the one adults leaping about in the usually means to that it can be nothing ‘natural born’scene girl who the next in this heartwarming saga, “Na- cal perspective), with attacking movie, was a polemic purpose of opening and examinchilly sea, shrieking and exhilarated. be exploitative else but Mother.

Cow has returned to jiher waz Sharif hasis-sent a wonderful white sari the ‘author’s dosociety, castevoice’ and gender norms ing the drains of the Thereisare of Ganges tight young bodies on show, butcountry very to ourdozens Mother. landsfornursing heartmy Mother.

I am really grateful to him and ing lot of the in aIndia.

A explainhistorian andmany re- more mature physiques, lumpy, be reported upon,” it is fair dangling in thick foldsto say is our Mother break, the avidMother soon.” willDavid send it to my ing directly. searcher, Mayo came to India, “tocovered in freckles. It’s oddly that the makeover of Mother and comforting to see so much Incrocodile I hateresearcher, to be the one to throw cold water on see On what a personal level, unsubsia volunteer dia began as awinter, reaction to her ungainly flesh. Most are still ivory-pale from the while Unclethis Pame their ‘most of both warm, fuzzy, good local’ neighbourly exchange, Harish and Seema have bag- and unatdised, uncommitted, work. so successful has this Muriel, Mikey and I are amongst the fewAnd brown sugars in the guides, course Tanumei repbutand I amofafraid the question has togage be raised. to clear: Harish tached,is figuring could out observe crowd. of The little boy begins work on makeover been,but that foronly a woma sandcastle gets resenting only the Asian Jarawas butand their What not is with South men what mothto do withcommon his life and Seema things inisdaily human life.”

What an to matter in India, she has to be a mother. as far as one turret before it’s time for us to eat Muriel’s enorthe change that is happening to allthe word ers? Not only does Modi use trying‘emoto recover heartbreak — injustices shefrom observed were the caste,lunch. gen- We Other women far too easily dispensable mousofpicnic go back up to are the cabanas for sandwichof them. tional’ twice (imagine the mockery if Hillary and yes, something is illiteracy. surely brewder and In the chapter titled two ‘Mother from public much for so, that es, chips, kinds of salad and consciousness. fruit. I’ve madeSocookies There are always problems when Clinton and Angela Merkel had gone anda marvellous ing!on What set-up a see thedessert.

India’, Mayo doesfor not sacrifice and puthe genesis of India’s gender crisis is this We eat our fill before returning to the beach for a long,oeditribalon societies come in contact with like this) but each time he writestruly mother, it romance, soppy which would rity of an Indian mother’s love.

Instead, what pal obsession its men have with their mothers. leisurely stroll. whatiswe call The ‘modern’ ones, of and Mother. desi worship mothers so in- sparkle haveisadded to the story she sees are thebut, unsanitary Up andand inhumane how else wouldon youthe explain the absence down we go,For walking gingerly shell-strewn thesetense issues areithighlighted in this that can be nothing else but alas,Mother. there’s notconditions even a single linger- Indianbeach in which mothers — some of anyof words about the two other women who alongside hundreds others.

Seagulls wheel overhead, book.Cow Whose rights Ganges come first: is our Mother. is our Mother. ing sunset kissonly before the ‘last 13 years oldwave’ — give birthswooping to their children. werethe in brightly the newsclad thisstrollers, fortnight?

The cousins down amongst swimmers Those of theovert tribals, who have of been This glorification mothers is atroaring the comes in!“The expectant mother makes no preparafrom Badaun who were raped, murdered and sun-bathers, looking for food. By late afternoon the clouds and livingroot on of thethe islands for millennia, problem this country hasRead with this its book how tions to for realise the baby’s coming move — suchinasonce the more. get- The hung from a mango tree; theirour heads bowed, wind scrapes goosebumps skins. or those of We thesave settlers from the adoration women. so much of our and some marginalised of ourofown cititing ready little garments. would be their bodies limp.

They don’t invoke in us the “I’mThis cold!” complains Mikey.

We buy ourselves pink puff-balls mainland and for themothers new generation adulation that it is fairly impossizens have beentaking made,dangerously how they’vefor granted the favour warm fuzziness of equipment a pashmina of cotton candyof before locking the beach intowrapped the of ‘natural borns’ — likeother Seema?

Is —been ble to even respect women thoseexploited who the andgods. are now being But she may andcabana. does toss into home a grandmother beaming octogenarian We head with the sun or anda salt air in our hair and in building a road through terri- corrupted. aren’t mothers.

Andtribal it is convenient too, this The book could have dark chamber shed or into a small widow’s whites. They don’t seek our admirafine greywhatever sand between our toes. toriesacute a good idea? you dealof woman. focus onHow onlydo one kind Thetighter done with editing in places, rags, incapable of fur- tion, command our respect or invoke any emsoiled and disreputable withmore the diseases that we can(like singmeasles) the virtues of motherhood, but nevertheless is quite an eyetherituse, fall from the handsMANJULA of the household aren’t Mothers.

PADMANABHAN,pathy. authorThey and artist, tellsour us tales of her parallel life in ‘civilised’ man it passes on towomen the trib-to that the easier is to limit one amopener and an during education. the year.

Let’s rationalise Mother to mother.

It’s time. in Elsewhere, US, in this fortnightly series marginalien. blogspot. als, who have defence bition.

Andno what are theagainst venerated virtues of And it is into this evil-smelling rubbish-hole ranjitsacrilal naturalist writes forcreeps when her hour is t@veenavenugopal them?

Doesmothers? anyone care the‘ultimate Indian Theyabout are the thatand theauthor, young wife rampant deforestation that takes children and adults

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The Last Wave Pankaj Sekhsaria HarperCollins Fiction ₹350

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VEENA VENUGOPAL is editor BLink and author of The Mother-in-Law

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Softer rhythms The gardens of Lakshmipuram are filled with birdsong; roads in Mysore morph into badminton courts every evening ma sriram

LIGHTHOUSE

I have something to ask you There are no right or wrong answers, just questions that are, hopefully, also stimulating

HOME SPUN

shakes his head in vigorous agreement to the Leader’s pronouncements and looks like he is operating a hand pump with his chin. I wonder if the Acolyte owes the Leader a significant sum of money.

“The man has a face like a horse,” says the Leader, “will you take advice from a man who looks like a horse?”

What lies beneath On the other side isof the Leader are the An answer more than aIsum of no its idea if they really Twins. Of course have alking is the best way to go Today I’m on 6th Main, the hub of Paduvara- are twins butparts theyshutterstock do look remarkably similar, more slowly than any other halli (its official name is Vinayaka Nagar but right down to their moustaches: both suffer a riting a method column is an act hu-been that hasofever you love freedom, alsoto have to look at the no one here you seems care).

To the south, rightslight to choose whether to aborton and sparseness of growth thebeing left side. bris. When yousays present a co- phifound,’ the French consequences actions, and Road, ‘unfettered’ freeclear across theofbusy Hunsur there are against a woman has the Thefemale Twins foeticide? don’t say Ifmuch but occasionally lumn toGros. the world, are you losopher Frédéric And in you Mysore, markets can have consequences.

(The rightmove signs that theadverse Karnataka State Open University to choose abort, aren’t her theirto heads together for areasons privatebeconferessentially saying, before can really walk.

Compared to many other cisamehas argument be made fromrecently. the otherA new receivedcould generous funding hindence this decision irrelevant to thatspeakers right, and in Telugu.

The Kannada in the whatever you say inI’m theconvinced column: ‘Listen ties in India, there to is me, less of side a about homosexuality andwhite its impact on pilbuilding with a gleaming dome and an examination of those reasons invasive to group regard this with a practised indulmy opinions haveyou’ll value.’ is both arrogant chance that beThis mowed down by a speedsociety.)

Do you believe that freedom lars Q6: has appeared on its campus.

Next to her it privacy? personally gence, asYou if themight men are childrenfind who her have reand delusional, buttumble we choose to open be in manhole denial or ing rickshaw, into an should be subordinate to utility?circular That ourstructure atti- reason there rises a mysterious for itinto repugnant, butfantasy should world your feeltreated their usual and are of this, for if were howofcould wevendor. write, I’m tread allwe over thenot wares a street tude with towards a small particular behaviour should a few windows studding its high ings affect her rights?about And as a general practice, now babbling spaceships. in thenot same way thatiswe choose to be proof in denial sure there any statistical for this, depend onPerhaps, the consequences behawalls. this is whereofthethat English Literashould “Very the feelings of some says people an ex-“very poor mileage,” thebe Leader, of ourbut mortality, fortime if we for were not how couldwhen who has hard evidence viour?

Q7:PhD If so,students who determines what the liketure will be sequestered for their cuse poor.” to abrogate the rights of some others? we live? there’s ambling to be done? ly consequences own safety. of anything could be, and Of course, are into Thereifisyou a woman inconsequences, a yellow sari onyou the peAnyway, today’s column, I shall not preYouin can choose the time and place of your how weTo should therefore treat that act?fat A demthe west of Paduvarahalli, labradors couldriphery argue of that thisfemale group,foeticide listeningshould to everybeword. sent my views before you.you Instead, willtoask stroll, based on what wouldIlike hear: in ocratically elected government? pant on the lawns of Jayalakshbanned purely The Lady in because Yellow isitofskews course all you athe few questions, which there are noin the mornings thetodemented birdsong Q8: Ifmipuram, so, can you thinktoofavoid examtrying the jets the sex is bad for aso-memtooratio, awarewhich that she is not rightgardens or wrongofanswers.

These are ajust Lakshmipuram; fewdifficult hours later ples from where democratically the asprinklers.

The new orciety.ber But, a thought of to theconsider group but seems deterquestions, even ifof some of them have seemingthe rumble shutters being lowered in Lashelected government f***ed ganic shop is open on up Sundays experiment, the natumined what not if toin let this fact A goat is tethered to At times, one is left ly simple answers,asand I present them the spectacularly? kar Mohalla shops close for the in afternoon; If so, might it down and doingQ9: a busy trade.

Just ral course of things, 11 girls were discourage her. She seems partica motorbike; a with more questions hopeand thatonce you might find some stimuthe schools have of letthem out, the soft pock makethe sense instead enshrine roadtofrom there, not far from bornularly for every 10 boys,inandwhat the the interested balcony encloses a than answers. And lating. have just onesent request to make: Instead ofI shuttlecocks sailing through the lanes certain the Constitheprinciples Alliance in Française, I’m told prevalent Leaderrate hasoftofemale say, butfoeticide not because coconut tree of just piece, please pause ofskimming Gokulam. over And the if you linger long enough, tution thattwo evenhouses a democraticalthat now have re- that’s okay actually corrected this particularly imbalshe finds his words at thesomeone end of every questionwill andsoon formulate an ly elected somewhere be bellowing government cannot mote-controlled gates. ance?

Q16: Would be okay edifying; in fact,itquite the conanswer your mind. forincoffee, and you will probably be offeredmess a with?

Q10:isIfnoso, But there callshould for gates of then?

If not, why not?

(Apart trary.

She rewards even his most Q1:lota Do too, you out support the rights of two conof a sense of hospitality, obligathesethat include freedom?

Q11: If kind in Paduvarahalli. frommeagre the rights of thewith foetus, utterances an eye senting whatever tionadults or in to thedo fervent hopethey thatwish you with will soon so, what of are freedoms Houseskind and flats crammed into the grid of roll. I fear which you already agreeshe arewill subthat in a few minutes resort each other theyloitering. don’t infringe on the should put anprovided end to your be included?

Personal freedom?

Freenarrow lanes that lead off the main road ordinate — to a to thesnort. rightsThe of the mother if you anloud Lady in Yellow definitely rights of anyone else? Q2: Why? Q3: Do you dom man of speech?

Freedom and nature haveoftosexual makeorientation their peace with swer does ‘yes’ to Q13.) not owe the Leader money; she would support gay rights? Q4: Do you believe in free and carnal intercourse?

Economic freedom? that. A goat is tethered to a motorbike; a balco- I haven’t asked the questions abovetotothis show not allow herself to owe money man. markets?

Q12: ny If you valuea some of tree. these over others, the absurdity encloses coconut in this position or that, affair. or to The Leader yawns — a prolonged Q3 and Q4 are related to Q1: If you believe why so?A group congregates on the stone benches bring you any particular way I canround see thetosetting sun through theofchink that no one should interfere in what two con(Tooutside deviatethe a moment questions and and Ganesh from temple.

Old towels thinking.

These are Beauty thorny Parlour issues with manyMedbetween Praise and Shiva senting adults choose to get up to with each actually make observation, me surface to nuances. lungis haveanbeen laid acrossallow the hard a libertarian and a freedom fun- my icals.I’m I feel that I am beginning to outstay other, as long as they mess with no one else, pointtoout that none ofthe these are actually pro- damentalist, accommodate behinds of this seemingsupport gaythank rightsthe and welcomeand so IIfinish myboth coffee, group then that should apply to both sex in a bed- tected the Indian Constitution, although it free markets, lyby close-knit group of men. The most promimy support the latter, and leave.with Outside FriendlyforChickens, a hen room and commercial transactions. The mor- pays nent lip service to a is couple ofman them. that’s though member a large inBut a half-sleeved it its stems from principle, beingAsbolgives companion a vicious peck.

I make al case for not interfering with free markets neither hereshirt, nor there.) white crisp and spotless, in spite of the stered the down benefits economic mybyway theofstreet, a girlfreedom. throws up a and homosexuality is, thus, exactly the same.

Moving further along subject of freeheat. His glasses arethe a little lopsided, giving (Contrast the Koreas.) the lady first leaning princi- out bunch oftwo coriander toBut an old If you support gay rights because you believe dom him and consequences, Q13: Do you bea slight air ofhere’s unpredictability.

He also ples Iof draw not the onlyfrom ones you theupon first are floor window; the can window in freedom, it would seem hypocritical to then lieve seems that women have to thedeference right to and a man should accustomed construct from.

And there are sitabovea worldview a boy drops a scooter helmet to his condemn free markets. Or vice versa. If you choose whether or not to a baby? I’m likes to punctuate hisabort conversation with uations a friend where even on those principles don’t waiting thefirst road.

Around the corner, support either of these because of a reason not guessing that’sfinger. an easy onecall to answer, here’s lead me wagging Let’s him theso Leader. to a have coherent At times, clothes beenanswer. hung out to dryone on aishigh based on your support for individual freedom, another“Ieasy Q14: Dowould you support the ban toldone you this happen,” says the left with questions thanofanswers.

Andsays: wall. more The slogan on one the T-shirts then that’s okay. But Q5: If so, what is that first on female foeticide?

Leader, “ten times I must have told you.” that’s‘Live okay.

WeMysore are feeble don’t Life Size.’creatures, I couldn’tand agree more. principle you draw from?

If your answer these questions is have Also seatedto onboth the benches — a tall man, a to(In know thiseverything. monthly series, authors chronicle the ciNow, you might say that you support gay ‘yes’, short then man, Q15: How you resolve the he conand acan man who looks like might ties they call home.) t@amitvarma rights but not free markets, because much as tradiction inherent in supporting a woman’s a litbe dozing.

On the other side, positioned tle too close to the Leader, is the Acolyte. He mahesh rao is the author of The Smoke is Rising

A Mysore-size life

mahesh rao

The many and myriad joys of an amble through the city

‘W W

Gateless Houses and flats are crammed into the grid in Paduvarahalli, but there is still space for a man and his music ma sriram

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

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Life goes on Farmers transplant paddy at a village near Thanjavur, not far from where 44 Dalits were killed by upper-caste landlords in 1968 b velankanni raj

Bright idea After winning over rural markets with doorstep deliveries and credit facility for retailers, Jyothy Laboratories, manufacturer of Ujala fabric whitener, is looking for urban buyers bloomberg/ abhijit bhatlekar; and (below) joint managing director Ullas Kamath

Beyond the Indian hinterland Comrades in anger

look beyond rural India. “In moving to urban India, there will be more opportunities than challenges. Migratory population in cities is humongous. And their needs are more like those of rural consumers — whether it is the kind of products or even the price they are willing to pay. If a company can ensure a good supply chain across large cities, it can grab a substantial chunk of the market,” says Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at consulting firm Third Eyesight.

Jyothy has accordingly made changes in its management structure. Its top team now has 17 people, including the CEO, S Raghunandan.

Each brand head operates in a silo. “We have brought in a new management team to grow plies directly to one million of them. Now, as it the categories. We give them enough money State, men in power and capitalists have conreadies to spread into every urban nook and to Kandasamy’s spiritand suffuses the telling spend on a brand understand thewith reatinued lessen their grip onstrategies. what theyTo hold corner, to it has re-jigged some be- asons nod tobehind the unconventional, often stoking the their performance or dear — power, hierarchy and gender — ire gin with, it hascaste, added more products to its of her contemporaries, be it the White man non-performance.” which line-up.Kandasamy in her activist’s role contin- writing Indianseems fictiontoinbe English, heThe gamble payingmatinee off. Raghuues“When to incessantly you arechallenge. in business, you want to roes or TED Theveteran, activist in is nandan, antalks.

FMCG hasKandasamy helped the Kandasamy is also notasintent onportfolio. pleasing also spread your risks as well product unsparing of those complicit in the horcompany restructure and cut the distributor her readily, her rants against lan- rors Andreader that’s what wegiven have done,” says Kamath. of caste margin from violence. eight per Retelling cent to sixthe persocial cent. deguage being a construct of oppression.

The mographics The company acquired 50.9 per cent in lossThanjavur in the she Advertisingofand sales spend has1960s, increased novel’s belies convention and besides be- recounts makingform Henkel India, a subsidiary of Germathe₹135 landlords while by 65 per how cent to crore inheld FY14.sway, “Brand exing times, includes a narrany’s self-indulgent Henkel AG, for at ₹60.73 crore in March 2011. the distant continues government in faraway Ma-a penditure tooffices pay returns over tive thatit attempted avoids theto improve linear. its rural-ur- long period of With that dras seem indifferent so do time,” says Kamath. and He points However, the narrative ban sales mix.

Before therecollecacquisithe localeven Brahmins whoadverhave out that when MNCs tion of per thecent events nuanced tion, 65 of itsisUjala sales evacuated their grow quarters to tise, they from not only their with enough eloquence came from rural India.

“Now itto is bigger cities.but Thealso political own brands createleadnew here are no heighten horror.

The story 50:50 fromthe urban and rural.

That ers of Tamil“Everybody’s Nadu’s Dravidian categories. brand Big T companies don’t individual voices moves forwardhas with informais how Henkel helped.

They parties in know for snub as do grows ascome people a product give credit, butof protest, tion coming in the form areas of a angstI or have distributors in urban oppressive capitalists. exists and then they compare ensure my only the collective rage published pamphlet a public and that network hasorimproved In retelling the tale of terrible similar products.” distributors doas it Kandasamy recounts notice.

At times an investigative our reach,” Kamath says. injustice and oppression, Kandaevents with a authorial voice pops upstockists to lend Earlier, retailers and samy’s foreboding indication Global dream dispassionate an appropriate tenor,reluctant which she in urban areas were to seems beisthat whiletomurder, Jyothy to Labs looking launch candour junks to Jyothy write Lab’s in a way that take on products. vengeance and and the re-launch establishnewer products brings brutality and(Henkel’s the in- detergent some others.ment’s “Along the with Henko indifference “We should be in atsilenced least twoa difference and other ne- categories more categories brand), we of areviolence able to push massacre 40isyears in a fewmore years. than The aim to be glect with a telling force.

The mosquito re- among the top too like personal care and liquid ago, a contemporary State and three players in each category,” varying forms of narratives add it.” pellent. And people are accepting Kamath says. people with much more mechalayered angles to the storytelling from differ- nisms recording andtodocumenting Thatfor does not appear be daunting. seem Henent groups ofmore people involved in the incident, to Villagers buy commit thecent samestake offences of vikelcontinue can still to buy a 26 per in Jyothy such as the Paddy Association, the olence “In rural India, the Owners’ consumption per family evengive today, andthe consign Labs byand 2016.brutality That would Jyothy finanMarxists leaflets, court retellings might be and smalltheir but the number of families is them to forgetfulness. menMoreover, are numcial muscle to take onThe thedead biggies. and the that author’s as she urban tries to unearth so large it outgrows India,” says the Ka- bers and the women, with deities or village godan equity partnership Henkel should alstory later. The characters floatRuas desses math. decades His assumption is not without basis. been simplycompany’s fossilised low it whose to hoppain ontohas the German groups through at the book, only real ral spending ₹3.75 with lakhthecrore far into widestone. international network and ride into flesh-and-blood feel emerging with the villain emerging outstripped urban consumption at ₹2.994 Kandasamy’s literary sickle takes an angry markets. of the piece, Gopalakrishna Naidu.

There are swipe lakh crore during 2009-12. Rural consumption at class enemies andand cultural idols But until then, Kamath his team arewith buno voices of orequivalent protest, only perindividual person exceeded theangst urban by the same tenacity in this novel it does in her sy marking the miles and theas milestones on collective as Kandasamy 2 per cent,rage according to CRISILrecounts and dataevents from poems and activism. the road to urban India. with a dispassionate candour that seems to the National Sample Survey Organisation. tilak is a Delhi-based independent journalist rashmigpratap bring terriblepresence, injustice Jyothy of it all.has to sudha But back for athe national

Jyothy Laboratories is that rare company that grew up in the villages and is now ready to take on FMCG biggies in their urban strongholds Meena Kandasamy swipes her literary sickle against systemic oppression in her debut novel

I M

The Gypsy Goddess Meena Kandasamy HarperCollins Fourth Estate Fiction ₹499

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n a market where homegrown and multiKandasamy been doggnationaleena companies alike has make a beeline voicinghere’s her protest against for the edly hinterland, one that has and class. boardedcaste, a buspatriarchy to urban India after Her befeministname works, Ambedkarite coming a household in villages.

Jyothy support and her liberal stance haverural lent Laboratories has Left meticulously targeted her voice, rich in social conconsumers to grow its militancy, brand intowith the acountemporary bite, be it her protest against Hintry’s fifth-largest in the fast-moving consumer dutva, caste or misogyny. Outrage at social goods category. injustices has beentruckloads the leitmotif her two poEvery month, of inUjala fabric etry collections and her translations of Dalit whitener and detergent, Maxo mosquito reworks to English. pellentfrom coil Tamil and Exo utensil cleaner arrive at once said she disconnected theKandasamy doorstep of retailers inwas lakhs of villages, from in English, andtransportathe smugsavingIndian themwriting precious time and ness of bourgeois angst characters go tion costs.

The goods arewhere also sold on credit, out to “drink coffee”.

Her Thesuch Gypwhich is a major draw fordebut ruralnovel, retailers sy is certainly this comas Goddess Gyaneshwar Kadamremoved of Ajang from village in Mahfort zone, Dhule which district. she scoffs at.are She insists she arashtra’s “We always short will not playcapital. the exotic village for effect. on working Credit is a card big help.

Even The is aprefer fictionalised account of get a real inour story buyers to pay after they their cident. dayproducts in 1968, inofthe village wages. On So Christmas I don’t stock distribuof in Thanjavur district, torsKilvenmani who don’t give me credit,” he says.44 Dalit farmers, including women and children, were This, then, is the story of thousands of retailkilled bynow upper-caste while a fumers who swear bylandlords, Jyothy Labs products. bling band India, of Communists failed to help. The “In rural we have the first-mover adnovel recreates an vantage.

Sincethe wehorrific went toincident villagesinfirst, imagined manner withand a postmodern touch. gave them respect credit, we get trust Forty-five later, Kandasamy’s in return.years Big companies don’t give fiction credit, revisits brutality of how do theit.44 but I the ensure my distributors Thewere molocked in ment a hut you and burnt alive topeople teach the give credit, berest a lesson; to ensure they didsays notUllas procome yourthat patrons,” test or ask for a Dickensian extramanaging fistful of rice Kamath, joint dior wages. She is naturally worried the rector of Jyothy about Labs, best business of storytelling in this dayUjala of Faceknown for its fabbook statuses: “And how can I go ahead with ric whitener. the story when the first line itself has not instantly received a hundred thousand Likes?”

City shops beckon Like you will, with The a little patienceproducts if you go company’s past the first chapter where she plays provocaare available through 2.9 teur telling the reader that the mechanics of million outlets, and it sup-

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A bittersweet affair Two worlds (left) A worker dries coloured cotton yarn at a small-scale weaving unit near Kochi, Kerala kk mustafah; and (right) a fashionable set at an upmarket mall in Delhi sporting synthetic fabrics s subramanium

to process into garments and pump back into the market. Bangladesh, a country we cannot ignore as a garment exporter, also demands a high share. Together, they account for 60 per cent of our exports. This has the garment industry stakeholders in Tirupur, our knitwear and garment production capital, worried enough to ask (through the Tirupur Exporters Association) for a three-month cease on cotton yarn exports and price rollback.

Cotton production, and consequently the price, fluctuates between years as it is dependent on the vagaries of nature. “Cotton is subject to commodity prices and this could change from month to month by ₹5-10. Cotton is also cheaper in the south of India than in the north,” says Source Easy’s Srinivasan.

Futures trading in cotton ostensibly gave farmers and traders an opportunity to cover their price risk. Now, as the speculated interest in a commodity rises, so does the price. In the case of cotton, it also fluctuates a few times a year. This makes it hard for buyers and brands to fix a profit margin.

Too hot for chai? Try a cold cup of chai brûlée instead Cheat’s Chai Brûlée Serves 10 10 egg yolks About 90gm caster sugar 850-900ml double cream (I used the local fresh cream in tetrapacks, but you’re free to spend on good, expensive double cream) 4-5 pods of elaichi, bruised Tea to taste (about 5-6 tablespoon or teabags; I used a combination of Assam and Darjeeling tea)

shutterstock

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met my first chai brûlée at a friend’s place eight years ago. Adapted from an elaborate recipe by Suvir Saran (a chef who spearheaded the first Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in the US, Devi, and set up Veda in Delhi, only to leave its kitchens after a rumoured fallout with partner Rohit Bal). Ever since, I’ve looked at the recipe longingly before every dinner party, bought the ingredients — all 16 of them — read the instructions twice (plus one more time for good luck) and then promptly abandoned my masterpiece-in-themaking for a trudge to Mother Dairy.

But since my friend is now raising a baby and Suvir Saran, sheep and goats in Vermont, I took matters into my own hands recently. This time, I gave the standard crème brûlée — a mix of Rachel Allen’s (rachelallen.com) and Ree Drummond’s (thepioneerwoman.com) recipes — a spin with chai and elaichi to make a cheat’s version that works for me.

1 Whisk the egg yolks with caster sugar until the mixture looks pale and slightly thick. Preheat the oven to 180°C. 2 Heat the cream, adding in the bruised elaichi, until the cream is just about to boil. Remove from heat and let the tea steep until the cream changes colour. While the cream is still hot, start by adding it, one tablespoon at a time through a sieve (if using loose tea), into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Gradually whisk in the entire lot. If there’s any froth on the surface, skim it. I gave up after a point though.

3 Pour the mixture into ramekins or espresso cups (the latter looks more dramatic). Place the cups in a water-bath — till the water is halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake for 30 minutes or until set.

4 Cool, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

5 Before serving, sprinkle some sugar over each, spreading it out evenly and use a blowtorch to caramelise it or put it under a hot grill in the oven for a maximum of one minute. I don’t have a blowtorch and I wasn’t confident about the grill either, so I let it be, which as it turns out is a good thing. This way, if you don’t caramelise the sugar crust like a proper brûlée, it should keep well in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Who moved my classic cotton?

Fibre frontiers Pankaj Ruia, a fabric exporter and supplier to brands such as AND and Global Desi, says his clients ask for synthetics mainly because it lends itself to fashion. Brands and ‘approachable’ designers such as Anita Dongre are exploring other avenues, including the production of natural fabrics such as rayon, viscose and modal. A variety of such fabrics is produced from natural and sustainable sources such as wood-pulp, bark, bamboo and banana fibre.

Some brands use these alone, while others combine them with polyester. AND and Global Desi, for instance, are heavily marketing their Liva fabric — a kind of viscose made from meander around any high- tributes to 18 per cent of world’s cotton. Then wood-pulp, which is wrinkle-free, has sheen, soityquick banerjee street store and there’s something what explains fashion’s current infatuation breathes and is lightweight. Cotton World amiss — shuddh swadeshi cotton, as with nylon, polyester and acrylic? Wasn’t cot- chooses Modal — made with beech-wood pulp also its other avatars such as mul. Re- ton’s war against synthetics won in the ’70s — for its prints, as it absorbs colour like cotton placing them on the racks are new synthetic and ’80s, after terylene and its shiny ilk made but Aah doesn’t bleedclass after—a food wash.in real the plane. business is polyester blends. Fashion labels such as Zara, us sweat through the decades? The reversalcrockery, a choice of hot and cold towels, a Mango, Chemistry, Vero Moda, Promod, Forev- effected by two factors: the shooting pricewide of selection Final stitch of magazines and newspaer 21, W and Forever Young have, for the past cotton and polyester’s evolution into a fabric The crux of the matter is thatseated cotton is expenpers, and celebrities and tycoons few seasons, been saving their cottons for ba- we don’t want to tear off our body. to produce.

Polyester, clinically aroundsive to keep me entertained.

And then labelled a sic merchandise such as T-shirts, blazers, spapetrochemical product,itcan produced as GDP growth started slowing, wasbeyearghetti-strap tank tops and vests. Even summer Dear, dear much as needed.

Through a new procedure end appraisal time and the HR department rishi piparaiya collections, which used to be dominated by Like many other global issues, this one too can wicking, has been made more wearahad tocalled justify their itexistence.

So they gossamer muls and cottons, are populated by be traced to China. Recession ble.

While it still doesn’t banned business class travel. And I learned absorb chiffon and georgette.

The last bastions of raised dollar prices and cotton sweat, it draws it away that there is a parallel economy class life, from the WINDOW Changing fabric OR AISLE muls are indigenous brands such as Anokhi, yarn producers in India prebody.seats This makes it desirable for consisting of cramped and tinfoil (below) FabIndia is Global Desi, Cotton World, FabIndia and The ferred to export instead of sellsportswear, together with its food trays behind that blue curtain. among the handful of A kind of polyester, Shop. Their aesthetic and prices are not in sync ing locally. “When the dollar strength and durability.

This shops that still rely Now if all HR departments adopted a made by ‘wicking’, mostly on cotton touched ₹65, cotton prices went with the frequency of global trends. new polyester also has the stamp consistent industry-wide travel policy, it draws sweat away mahesh harilal; (right) But it’s not that ’70s show again. The new up by ₹20,” says Pranay Srinivaapproval from some designwouldn’t be so bad. of Like any good, selfish, from the body and an Anita Dongre polyesters may not absorb sweat, but can san, a garment exporter and proers. Anita Dongre’s dog-in-the-manger Indian, I believe if I amteam has creation — the prietor of Source Easy. draw it away. And this preference is not disbeeneveryone testing new designer is among flying economy, so must else. forms But of synSpotting the potential, cotcouraging cotton either. A quick comthetic georgette and polyester, those experimenting that’s not the case. The shame of the walk with new forms of ton began to be traded as a merce lesson: India is the second-largest andrun finds it hard to distinguish compounds when you into acquaintsynthetic georgette producer of cotton after China,the and con-of commodity on the Multi Commodity ances Ex- and them from natural fibres.

Thenow designer will ike the rest of the world, I was economy will help me avoid ‘walk erstwhile juniors, who are and polyester change (MCX) in 2004. And speculatedwith in- other wear it on her personoccupying for six months closely following the outcome of shame’. As I have said in Aisle Be Damned, organisations, the until she terest raised its price.

For good reason is convinced it can be included in her labels. the national elections that con- my treatise on air travel, the walk of shame front section, while you make your way to too. During financial 2012-13, cotton old qualities of colour, cluded a few weeks ago. I am fairly is the ultimate stigma that any corporate the back.Its “Rishi Sir, what—avibrancy coincidence to lack of yarn export was expected to touchmeet an you fading, sheen, and fluidity, and indifferent to the bumbler, the muffler or traveller can be exposed to: “The walk of sir on this weightlessness flight. Where are you all-time high. It had risen by 15 per of maintenance — aresir. in Oh. keeping with the dazzler, or their respecshame refers to the journey seated,low sir?cost I’ll come sit next to you, cent in 2011-12 from a year agoEconomy?

— fashion’s current affair withRishi.” prints and sheers. that a passenger, usually active political parties. I just Oh. Have a good flight, 827.68 million kg (720 million kg).

“Even though dyeing synthetics is more excustomed to flying business, have a single expectation So I have been slinking my way along the While exports were capped in 2011 pensive — themortified colour has to bewalk injected into from the next government — makes through the business business class aisle, at each I’m indifferent to the to south, leave some the molecules of thenow. fabric at I130°C so cotton for domestic class section when he hap- economy heads may they kick-start the econof shame, for many years And now (cotton is bumbler, muffler or markets, there was no such limit just dunked into a vat of colour and it absorbs omy and take it to new pens to be flying economy. do the executives.” pin all my hopes on the new government. dazzler, or their in 2012,the leading to costlier yarn it),” says Nsoar, Srinivasan of Saks Fashion, “it’s still I have been doing This phenomenon is typically heights. There are a lot of reaMay the Sensex may our GDP boom, political parties for domestic users. and may more for brands to rely on synthetics for two observed during the years of walk of shame prices sons why you, dear reader, thelucrative HR department consequently commissioner reverse AB asits they cost lesstravel to maintain dececonomic slowdown that fol- governments now. ATextile and I should care about the draconian policy. and Acchethe colour Joshi had been reported saying doesn’t fadeHum like business with cottons. low a sustained period of ade ago, I used to merrieconomy — lower unemploydin aane wale hain. class They’re mein cost efthat about 1,000 million kg of fective in the long run.” ment, stronger trade, higher growth activity. When the ly occupy the jaane wale hain. yarn was expected to go out The good news is that there is no replacesalaries, better standard of living and so economy is booming, corporate executives big-bummed of India in 2013. In the first ment yetisfor rishi piparaiya the linens author ofand Aislemul.

Be But for the foreon. But the primary reason I care about it is fly business class. But this is one of the first seats in the five months, according to a seeable future, polyester is here to stay in Damned rishi@aislebedamned.com because as a frequent air traveller, a strong perks to go once markets turn, and as the front section of news report, cotton yarn ex- affordable fashion. ports had touched 590 million kg. China took, and wants, most of it, mitali parekh is a Mumbai-based writer

Why are apparel stores flooded with synthetic fabric even in the peak of summer? Time to take stock

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One of the most difficult journeys that life can put you through

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U-turn ahead

A moment to pause At the MAO Livehouse, a popular rock club on the Gulou East Street in Beijing zac o’yeah

Agitating students at nearest metro station, buy a ticket (which will the Chhatra cost you no more than 2RMB or about ₹20) Marg crossing in Delhi and alight at Jiushitan station in the University northerndemand the section of central Beijing. From therollback subway of the Four take Exit A, facing the Ring Road, andYear turnUndergraduate left.

On the corner, there’s a small fast Programme food grill monica tiwari where you can buy some excellent, spicy Chinese-style shawarma rolls for breakfast for just a few RMBs. Munching on your delicious morning meal, continue along the road, which is full of bus stands advertising all kinds of destinations in Chinese and a few offering trips to the Great Wall in English. Avoid these — you may end up cruising through a number of souvenir shops on the way and barely get an hour by the Wall.

You want the direct shuttle bus. And you find it another block away, right by the ancient Arrow Tower (known as Deshengmen) at a large traffic roundabout. You will see a line of local tourists boarding the buses — these run throughout the morning and the last one leaves Beijing around noon. Join the queue and buy your ticket onboard.

To confirm that it’s the right bus, repeatedly say ‘Badaling’ (the name of the village by the Wall) or ‘Wanli Chang Cheng’ (which I have reason to believe is Chinese for ‘very long wall’). Much of the ride is through endless Beijing suburbs but the last bit is extremely picturesque with ruined stretches of wall clinging to steep hills, old watchtowers and mysterious pavilions. After about an hour, you reach your destination and stand at the foot of une is not the month for protests at year courses, with an option to ‘drop out’the Great Wall. from Failing the test Delhi University,” says Sunny Kumar, the second year on. BSc degrees have become Infrastructure, or the lack of it, is another the Delhi president of the All India Stu- BTech. Students will now take twice asThe Wall cause for criticism. The administration hadn’t many hinese dents monuments impress ableadand papers reliable—public transport, costs no20 pertain Association (AISA).with With the Given howplanned cheap the is, theclassrooms Wall does get nearly 50 — of which only forbus enough or teachers their size.

The Great of—China, more — both waysdiscipline.

— which is While highly retaining mission season in fullWall swing over three lakhthanto₹260 crowded, especially oncourses. weekends.

Most their chosen for the new “Often weguidehad to wait for pocket-friendly compared to the ₹1,500 travel courses for example,have is over 3,000km long.so far, applications been submitted and their rigour books willa suggest going tofree,” remote, and quality, the discipline classroom to be saysless-freBalaji. “We even While you on can’t, despite claims agents for aseen busthe tour or upwards all colleges term break,all Kumar is right.

Yet, charge quented had partslessons of the Wall, but for During sheer the comhave also syllabi diluted toofaccommoin bamboo huts.” to the contrary, see it4,from the of moon, you do ₹10,000 per forcourses. a semi-private tour since June hordes students and unions convenience Badaling, some 70kmdisciplines, north of arts studatehead other One year on,by life for the bined classes for various apparently see the city of Shanghai fairly car. Here first thenbatch was my chance to save a few have been staging protests andclearhunger strikes downtown Beijing, is unbeatable.

Due with to itsmath and of FYUP ‘guinea pigs’ has been one dents struggled to keep pace ly from outer space —the at rollback 6,300sqkm in area bucks, which I could time then misspent, put to good useofhavdemanding of the controversial proximityscience to the capital, dramatic setof anxiety, and little value. coursesand andits vice versa. “According to ing a ball inThe Beijing after thecourses mandatory Wall up and half aFour kilometre in height (going by its (FYUP).

Year Undergraduate Programme ting, particular section is visited by must mil- be 1:30,” foundation have thrown sev-this UGC, the teacher-student ratio had been ticked off the to-do list. this: “As part of highest skyscrapers), the acity is said student to be theof Political Shruti Balaji, first-year lions every“But year,for including all the eral dilemmas.

Sample ourof tourists says Kumar. foundation courses, colonly manmade thing visible to theCollege naked eye For the History convenience of local Beijingers and toVIPs Science at Lady Shriram (LSR), claims (suchleges as USpacked president Honours course, we’re taught ques90 Richard studentsNixon) in onewho auditorium.” of an astronaut.

Chinese tourists, a non-stop ser- come to China. the quality of education has suffered greatly. tion andthere’s consider multiplebus interpretations.

There’s little doubt that at the heart of the In any case, are of farthe cheaper ways than viceisto Wall and back.

Although the from ticketa Marxist, The there syllabus foundation courses a theWe It was the first part is of the the administration’s Great Wall to be mismanlooked at Indian history controversy only 12RMB (₹130) one way and public renting a chief spaceship a good look Chi-fourisyears causeto forget criticism.

“You at know, opened visitors inFrom 1957 and nowadays foundation a Nationalist and other pointstransof view,” says toagement. badlyis designed na’s greatest tourist attraction.

I discovered port is simple to use, surprisingly few foreign is great, we’d like to know more about subpurely tourist village — courses which means there are Chandraneev Das, first-year, St (“for which we teachers while hanging out in Beijing recently that the “But tourists advantage of this No mat- decent restroom facilities, jects outside our discipline,” she says, the take a stretch of souveStephen’s College.

“Inoption. the second weren’t consulted,” says Narain) most affordable ticket topoor, the Wall, comfortwhere semester, you are in Beijing, head towards level was very and by teachers had ater minican sample the the Indian Historythe nir and food shops where andyou appointment of hundreds mal role to play. We were learning about bal- foundation course was a nationgreat variety of local snacks, get yourself of ad-hoc teachersphoto ‘dropout’ Intographed a recent survey, anced diets in Science and prime numbers in alist version only.” In its second in ethnic wear against back- criticism degrees and the banning 91 per cent the Mathematics.” The foundation course for In- year, the ‘experimental batch’ ground ofofBactrian camels and buy anmany stuof the programme, 11,000-odd formation Technology covered the basics of will get to choose a minor disciengraved students certificate to prove climbed dents that and you teachers say the FYUP voted against FYUP computers — what is software, what is hard- pline course. Already attracting the Wall. is an ill-conceived plan. ware, how to use a printer and so on. “We were dispute, the DC-II option under I quite like this carnival“Any aspect of of Badaling, form dissent has been even given laptops, but we never got to use FYUP holds great promise, but the mixture of the tackybanned,” and the monumental, says Sucheta De, presithem. We were in classes for so long we didn’t only on paper. “There was an opand the opportunity to rubAISA. shoulders with plays by dent, “Even street need them,” says Anusha Sundar, a first-year tion for African studies, a field hundreds of Chinesestudents teenagers on snapping FYUP weren’t alstudent of History at LSR. their WhenStudents they spotsay you, they want to I’m interested in,” says Sundar. But at LSR,selfies. lowed.” review committees have Since its introduction last year, the FYUP has there is no faculty to teach it. selfie themselves alongside you. visited their classes for feedback. “Yet no acbeen the subject of nearly every protest at the you wish to actually climb Wall At DU, what makes life interesting isIf its tion has been taken, andthe none of (so their reports university. It has united Left- and Right-wing healthy balance of academic rigour andthat you can, clear conscience, buyKumar. that extraare with in thea public domain,” says outfits; drawn in reluctant organisations like curricular activities. But with the current I-climbed-the-wall askfavour yourself But notcertificate), everyone is in of scrapping the NSUI; and made it to the manifestos of par- classroom schedules, students strugglefirst if your cardiovascular system and legs to fit FYUP. “It’s either implement it or roll it back ties. The foundation courses have been brand- in the cultural calendar or interact with can sesurvive it (the steep parts no canmiddle be veryground,” taxcompletely.

There’s says ed ‘substandard’ and a ‘joke’. In a recent niors. “We’re in classes from 8.45am to 5pm,” Sundar. Students, like her, want to give FYUP a survey, 91 per cent of the 11,000-odd students says Balaji. On an average day, they must make chance, if changes are made to the syllabus. voted against FYUP. On June 9, AISA and the four presentations for foundation courses. BSc students, who will now be awarded a Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) “Though the course material is simple, consid- BTech, say the technical degree will add more forwarded an alternative to the HRD ministry. er the sheer amount of time spent in class,” value. But without a new syllabus or AICTE recshe says. With school-level material and time- ognition, it is useless, counters Kumar.

Diluted learning tables, it’s unsurprising that attendance has While the rollback debate rages, with the When it was originally conceived during UPA- plummeted. “In my Analysis course, I’ve al- ball now in HRD minister Smriti Irani’s court, II, the FYUP was seen as an ambitious attempt ways had 95 per cent attendance,” says Nandi- first-year students are worried their learning to revamp India’s higher education, and was ta Narain, who teaches Mathematics at St will be inferior and their juniors will graduate modelled on the American university system. Stephen’s and is the DUTA president. “But last at the same time as them. “What will happen Through the foundation courses, it intended year, in a class of 45, there were never more to placements?” asks Sundar, “We’re quite the to infuse an inter-disciplinary approach and than 30 students.” She further points out that joke of the college, the guinea pigs of FYUP.” improve students’ employability. All the un- the administration no longer allots five per priyanka kotamraju dergraduate disciplines have become four- cent marks for attendance like it used to.

An uneducated guess Great escape

Delhi University’s ambitious four-year undergrad programme fails to impress a large section of students andofteachers alike, who brand it asofsubstandard and a joke Scale the Great Wall China and scour the warren lanes that is Gulou, one of Beijing’s most charming hutong neighbourhoods, for a rich cultural experience at cut-price

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The ramble Along Nanluogixiang, the main pedestrian alley off Gulou Street, lined with bars, cafés and shops zac o’yeah

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Soup kitchen beneficence

Open secret tip Back in Beijing, as you alight at the Arrow TowIf you don’t want to take the er, still kicked about scaling the Great Wall, it’s public bus to the Wall, cona splendid idea to head down the road that sider using a travel agency leads south from here — Deshengmen Nei Dasuch as Bespoke (bespokejie. It’ll take you to Houhai Road, which is a beijing.com) or Beijing Hikers lovely lakeside promenade on the north side (beijinghikers.com). Or ask of Houhai Lake. At the end of the lake you enyour hotel’s travel service to ter the Gulou area, one of the liveliest in Beijtake you in a taxi to a lessing, with music bars, tea cafes and great visited part, away from the restaurants in the vicinity of the Bell & Drum hordes of local tourists.

Towers (another set of ancient towers). This is othing works better in politics a great way to round off a great with accolades from day. the highest, and really ground in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, by a stagthan an appearance of harmlessYour first objective should be to burn some quite unusual, quarters. gering 4.67 lakh votes. Although she lost the ness unless, of course, illusions of money of the saved on the guidedNarendra tour buses The prime minister Modi,109 who Nanluoguxiang, roughly opposite the Draassembly elections thrice before Mahajan congrandeur are supported bytomass the Wall by recently hitting any of thehis hundreds of maMPs has advised newly elected Schooltested complex; openfor until which Lok Sabha the1am) first time in 1989, her following. In the latter case, the leader’s hau- Myagainst shops. choice: routine practically next door the magnifiexhibition oftotheir only has some four tables moptop modvictory run has and been uninterrupted since teur is suffered, even overtly admired, Drum by the Tower is the famed hole-in-the-wall In- keish cence — “zara zara si baat par desh naam waitersthen. dishing out tea or beers; there’s no followers for the natural purpose of advancdie Musicsandesh Store (17 Gulou West nahin Street;hai” daily dene ki zaroorat (“there is nobut there’s food, a smallwoman stage and occasional The second Speaker in the Lok Sabing their own careers. But even when they fol- need 1pm-11pm).

Onetoof start its kind in China, this tributes addressing thein nation at the to likes of the Velvet hathe is among fewUnderground women in Parliament low the leader, it is hard for most politicians to slightest download age, it persists in stocking CDs fea- acceptopportunity”) — has publicly and Leonard If hail this from doesn’t do it forfamily. Her whoCohen. does not a political camouflage their ambition; an unfortunate turing all ed theMahajan’s cult rock‘greatness’. bands in the country, you, then Gulou Street has a host bigger father,East Purushottam alias ofAppasaheb Sathe insufficiency that usually evokes the ever-preand prides itself having At theon time of herthe election, the prime minis- wasmusic barsRSS with daily in performan active worker their hometown sent insecurity among their ilk. largest collection of Chinese un-saying: “Mahajano yena Chiplun ter quoted a Sanskrit ances,inor you could work yourBut AppaRatnagiri, Maharashtra.

There are, however, exceptions to this gen- gatasya derground musicpantha you can find (you should follow great peo- saheb waydied through the alleys thea teenager, when Mahajan wasatjust eral rule. The newly elected Speaker of the Lok ple). anywhere in the world. youaask We now Ifhave ‘Mahajan’If(great person) back of the Drama School until and she had to shift to Mumbai to finish her you ask what Sabha Sumitra Mahajan ‘Tai’ is that rarewhat breedChinese rock over sounds presiding thelike, House and what could be you find Penghao Theatre Café graduation.

She was married to a lawyer, Chinese rock sounds of politician whose elevation is celebrated by moreofappropriate?” the proprietor the tiny shop is like, the proprietor ofJayant (35 Mahajan Dongmianhua Hutong), based in the city of Indore, her peers in a profession where promotion, likely to answer Oasis”, This“Like is high praisebut indeed, sort where theand artyhas crowd twodrinks. sons — Milind, who the tiny shop is likely any promotion, is directly proportionalhe to is thenonetheless happy to play of proverbial icing on the cake — “Like Oasis” Finally, isat athe end of professional, the day software and to say number of enemies one makes. the best for you before get landing a job you for which many there’s nothing beats Yu- pilot. For Mandar,that a commercial ing). There’sShe an entry of 40RMB at down is thefee universal ‘Taipayable (elder aunt)’, a titleto buying (typical rates forlobbying. more were vying and gong Yishan, a large rock politician club the lone woman in a Her homely(on 2-3 Zhangzizhong the ticket she booth daily 8am-4.30pm). has(open chosen to officially adoptIf in her CDs re-are While 40-80RMB).

And reports of the it veteran LK Road, rath- family, traditional middle-class pudginess, mussed you’re lazysume or cardiacally wantpudginess, in the Lokchallenged Sabha. Herand homely doesn’t allAdvani sound like Oasis… Speaker apbecoming er near Zhangzizhong Sta- in the Mahajan is Metro impressive andThe henna-dyed to minimise the climbing, there are, of course, mussed saris and henna-dyed mop is anNext, in- if peared you happen to be in hungry, for a sub-saris routinely the media tion). entrance is surprisingly but heights shediscreet has scaled. is turn an instant cable cars stant that take you up to top for an ad- stantial invocation tothe universal empathy.

With post-Wall-climb lunch or early dinner mop since the election results came if you left at the south end of NanluoguxBut credentials alone do not invocation towalk (east) ditional fee ofsoup about 30RMB. her kitchen beneficence, the Speaker hasa few head doors further up candidature Jiu (Old) Gulou iang out, Mahajan’s and then alongto Dianmen amount much, asEast Murli Manoempathy Up on the Wall there’s near the top, Street mastered the arta café of making everyone feel atto the Yun Nan Restaurant & Bar at the universal floated almost inadvertently, Street you’ll notice, after few blocks, a sudhara Joshi and LK Advani have 3,330ft above seaShe level only the goes totruth home. has (which understood one that of and mouth Lingdang Hutong without — here isany a Yun- den eruption of graffiti was accepted aroundtoatheir nameless gathered misfortune. It is prove thatevades the Chinese takemost theirbrilliant snacking even the ofveher peers — eatery nan-style with murmur of exquisite, dissent. slightly spicier gate in the wall — inside there’s an industrialthe ability to soothe ruffled ry seriously).

Sitting there, it multitude is good to of connever threaten the mediocrity food than the standard includ- sized performance hall And who canChinese deny herfare, credenwith aand well-stocked feathers march ahead withtemplate the that the isn’t a singular ing more tials withfact a display ofWall merit or ambition. interesting vegetarian options — the longest serving wom-than bar, the sound system is said to be the best inthat really out getting noticed Great Wall atAnd all, constructed at one particular so she sails through life with an appearmost restaurants, in a cosy setting. an MP inall Parliament, former minister ofChina. state Usually, theLike performances are by indie counts. the BJP president Rajnath Singh, time in history, but a patchwork of Walls built ance of harmless surrender.

She threatensYour no third — even you’re merely andagenda member of theif Mahila Morcha, this 71- or another bands visiting politician foreign acts, tickets costlies in the whose strength under many dynasties, the thirsty — isyear-old onedifferent and doeseras notand mind being underestimatto go bar-hopping in this hipster arlawyer- turned-politician has won the 100RMB, around on a good night you can almost and universal underestimation of his enorearliest sections dating as that far back at least ed, a tendency has asbeen reciprocated ea of Beijing, where the dudes and dudettes 2014 Lok all Sabha election from her experience home mous heavy stage-diving and manages talentduty for realpolitik, Mahajan 300BC. Over the millennia, sections have been hang out in chic nightspots lining Gulou East body-surfing. to achieve ends without seeming to do much. added resulting in a mammoth structure run- Street and its narrow side alley NanluoguxThe club shuts around 2am, which In November 2000,atwhile shepoint was serving as ning from the Pacific coast and ending some- iang, an 800-year-old historic pedestrian you’re quite happyminister that a long, day isfeared Hua junior undergreat the then where way out in the Gobi Desert. street lined with single-storey buildings res- over. And you’re probablyDevelopment broke, too. minister Murali man Resource This popular Badaling section is a Ming Dy- cued from the wrecking ball and turned into Manohar Joshi, the Tai invited her long-sufferis acolleagues bilingual crimefor fiction author. last nasty construction (early 1500s) and is heavily trendy shops. I plonk myself down on a sofa in zac o’yeahing a meal of His assorted Marathi Majestic Over food, about 14 MPs, all of restored so it appears fairytaleish, straight out the dim and very tiny 69 Café (tucked away on book was Mrdelicacies. of a Disney cartoon. Or, taking a more optimiswhom were junior ministers in Atal Bihari Vajtic approach, you could say that it looks the payee’s government, shared their grievances way it would have when it was brand new. about not getting enough work.

It’s about 8m high and 5m wide at the top Tai heard everyone, commiserated and (where you walk). One modern, and rather planned ahead. While everyone else emwelcome, addition is the railing — even barked on a confrontationist path, she held though it does disturb the illusion that one is her counsel. Shahnawaz Hussain, her colvisiting a medieval monument. At several league sulked, and before him, Uma Bharati points, the climb gets so steep that I’d easily openly rebelled against Joshi. MoS Petroleum have tumbled down if there hadn’t been E Ponnuswamy bluntly asked Vajpayee to be something to hold on to. allotted more work.

The good thing about taking the public But Mahajan is not one to complain and shuttle bus to the Wall is that one can spend as pick up fights. She, on her part, reached out to much time as one likes, slowly work one’s way the former BJP president Kushabhau Thakre along it. The last bus back to Beijing leaves at who worked on her behalf to carve out a around 4pm from the Badaling side. whole department. Mahajan was allotted the charge of the Department of Women and Child Development under the HRD Ministry to which Joshi was apparently too busy to pay attention. She flourished in the ministry, instituting lasting schemes like Bharatiya Stree Shakti Puraskar, an award for women achievers in diverse fields that the successive UPA government furthered.

The quintessential homemaker has now stepped into the haloed precincts of the Speaker’s office in the Lok Sabha. MPs secretly expect her motherly admonitions to work better than her predecessor’s affected politeness.

Sumitra Mahajan has understood the one truth that evades even the smartest of her peers — never threaten the multitude of mediocrity with a display of merit or ambition

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Painted Grasshopper

High drama

Why might anything be this crazily coloured?

Colour me bright Gnawing at milkweed

In a rare instance of online ‘slacktivism’ leading to offline victory, 14-year-old Sunder walks free after seven years of abuse

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hat does it take the road, with police protection for an elephant to to boot, bike-borne men gave walk free? Two them the chase. It was all very cinyears, 2,20,000 ematic. Think Argo of the beasts. people and a hashtag (#FreeSunAnd yet, Sunder is healing now der) that went viral on Facebook — his legs mauled by spiked and Twitter. In a rare instance of chains, his ears and eyes punconline ‘slacktivism’ leading to of- tured with a billhook — in a 49.5 fline victory, 14-year-old Sunder hectare enclosure at the forested escaped seven years of severe Park near Bangalore. Relearning abuse, often unleashed by his his Ps and Qs, he is not yet allowed own mahout, at a temple in Kol- to befriend and make small elehapur and later, in a dark poultry phant talk with any of his 13 penshed in Warananagar nearby. A mates — 12 of whom, significantly, cause supported by heavyweights are female. But it won’t be long behose of us who value naBut imagine like Sir Paul McCartney and Ami- fore Sunder’s social life takes a ture probably have some you’re a plantanditspearheaded happy, historic turn. biases abouthe which orga- feeding cannot afford to lose tabh this Bachchan, income. Also, is this was just an initial dole from the governExpedition Operators Associinsect by the and Indian arm of the People once reclusive teenager nisms we find most(EOA) intri- hadsearching ment from The a general Relief Fund that has is set ation a meeting with now hard for the climbing sponsorship for something to nibfor the Treatment of Ani-for earthquakes already met and andsuch shaken trunks guing. For many people, aside catastrophes. manybrighter of the foreign operators in needing community in Ethical the administrable away at without to beto have faith mals (PETA), the ele-the But in this case, the huge with international Van Raj, a giant and more colourful creatures war-and wary of mountaineering tourism in Nepal, supKathmandu a letter of was the sent jawsto of a tion hungry goat. bull elephant. al-derant more attention.

I realised thatofI Culture, long-term effects will phant’s probablyrelease be quitelast dras- port for the families has watered downHe the the Nepal’s Ministry Tourism and Wouldn’t you do well to pick a plant weekthe was nearly as of mands of the Sherpasso who appears to havethe too harbour Civil this bias when I stop-regulates are asking Aviation (which climbing tic, and this will also effect employment that the largeronherbivore won’t dramatic as the warmed up to young ped in amazement the sight of ademands.

Ministry have a fund in place for such acciEverest)atwith various havewas spent the local community; not only Sherpas, but al- Sunder touch?I This the strategy adopthastoalready that led to it. taxi dents Shiva, a baby eleparticular grasshopper. in the future.

The Ministry sees this outhotels, airlines, foodevents suppliers, porters, weeks tryingThis to grasspresent aedreasonable argu- sowho by the grasshopper, singlemet and shaken Following a Su- trunks who nearly hopper is the sortbut of animal that even postcard sellers. side support a wayphant around having such ment, I am sad to saymindedly that the reaction chomped drivers away atand the with Vanas Raj, preme Sunder a carlooks odder from and odder longer Travel and tourism is 9.4 perCourt cent oforder, Nepal’s a giant funds,bull absolving them gave of responsibility. senior the officials is thatmargin of contempt.

This leaf, of a milkweed oblivious elephant officials from diacdoesarrest you look at itis—the anywhere your eyes that But how this help(hethe which is forecast forest to rise to 11 best opportunity has sapGDP, to the theMinistry toxin-laced that oozed Kolhapur hadn’t seen aonbaby may rest on its body, will see un- from Sherpa who died earlier in the per centitby 2023. Travel and tou-along with ever hadyou to make meaningful and progressive the leaf’s veins. Clearly, had before!) whenwho they expected colour and season? Or the Sherpa surrism employs thanfrom 1.25 Kerala archanges thatoutrageous will be appreciated byto the Sherpamilkweed evolved tolerate toxins. more vets the shed to first ran intobut each pattern. The wings are finely community andveined, would demonstrate the in- million people, whichrived is 8.2atper vived this avalanche, was But thetograsshopper’s colouragain Sunder’s trust and But ithome is forto the yellow linesternational running community that they are serious cent ofitthe total employment in walking hisladies villagethat a few tion indicates does Thelure hugehim other. speciallyinternational designed truck to Sunder put his best foot forward. through a delicate a country that has 46into pera cent days later and was struck dead about surthe administration of this important more than just ingest support transportinhim to safety.

Four days, the PETA site, director veter- to face that fades from lightning?

What of access tourist business. But no, they have donemilkweed noth- unemployment. toxins — it Any decrease for the families has On by several and jackfruits affairs, Drhe Manilal green to reddish-pink. funds does have? Valliyate, Care needs ing, which is disappointing. What is likely even holds tourism will bebananas a onemployment to watered downlatthe inary Imagine you’re breached reports wastobesotted by the in Under the wings, worse isits that they are now embroiled in cor- and great deploys loss to Nepal. er, the elephant finally to be he taken have a structure them demands of the a plant-eating insect the trough that had been dug to two female elephants who welabdomen isruption, striped place that will be able to channel of the widespread lies and deceit. them in itsBecause own body, Sherpas for a fund in in search of help him board his ride to the comed him to the Elephant Care with blue and During yellow; the 2014 season, foreign operators about donations for bereaved families making itpublicity toxic too.

A this unfortunate case of future something to nibble Biological Park. Al- Centre: for theSherpa first time, at the other end of thethat more than $100 millionbird, of all“Maybe high-altitude workestimate wasfor example, accident, that 16 families Bannerghatta have been accidents at without needing to 700km and 25 hours away; a he tried strike a chord with the grasshopper,spent the by an-the international community on to rightfully gain most consideraers intothe future. eatsEv-the able grasshopper be wary about the staggering him. touched andantennae are erest. similarly heard thatHe there was yet Furthermore, we estimate that thewill totalshare ble the income from donations from distance for any un- ladiesI near same jaws of a hungry goat trained animal. But even before smelled striped. In between otherthem.” bus crash in Nepal just a around the world which, I have impactare to the GDP of Nepal would havefate been as the herbivores the long trudge to the shelter had Ifcouple all goesofwell, it won’t long six blue, orange, yellowof $15 million, and that the direct in excess heard, amounts to something days after be the avathatin-ate the milkweed, there was much begins see the and green spiny legs, lanche in before which Sunder 23 people weretokilled.

Accicome for apermit fees would be approximately $8,00,000. were appalled that the shouting and learnlike to avoid eat- Many begun, andoffered hollering. who like Park in the Anekalregularly range, dotted radially striped head This is a huge amount of wasted Nepal government only $400The permahout, vic- dents this happen in the $3.3 million. ing grasshoppers that part ofI heard the belligerent fac- but with gurgling streams ponds, and chest and beadyin blue Whyof one money theeyes. course year, Nepal tim, a paltry However, that country there is never any and media attenlook likeand the nausea-inducing kind. amount.was tion, even attempted to confuse as hispoor green refuge.

Far away might anything be this crazily tion, and these people won’t evenfrom get the Being toxic doesn’t help that first and excite a partially drugged chainsthe and darkness, meangot. macoloured? support which avalanche victims But grasshopper — it must get eaten for Sunder with erroneous are comAnd this is when I checked myself, the bird to learn to avoid others of these houts peopleand alsoundercover not worthyvideos of aidthat from mands. When that failed, tyres of first stirred community of embarrassed by my easy fascination its species. But birds must eat, and if the government as theya have no insurance the truck and the elephant cover? ambu- There world webbers to launch arewith the bright and colourful, be- toxic grasshoppers looked similar arewide so many improvements lance (meant to bring up the rear in mammoth rescue operation. cause the reason for this grasshop- to non-toxic, edible grasshoppers, quired the Nepalese community, and if the on the journey) were promptly per’s colours lay right in front of me, the bird would simply have to eat mountaineering industry can lead the way soity banerjee deflated. Even when the party within the unremarkable plant that the next grasshopper it came across. thenhit that would be a great example. it was sitting on — a milkweed. Milk- The risk of a violent vomiting epiweed sap teems with toxins that dis- sode would be outweighed by the What needs to be done courage all kinds of animals from bird’s need to feed. And so it’s in the • The Ministry should set up a special commitfeeding on the plant. When eaten in best interests of both the bird (or tee to investigate this year’s accident. large quantities, these any other predator) and the grass• Those ring leaders that were responsible toxins cause many hopper that the toxic grasshoppers need to be held accountable. herbivores to vomit look as distinctive as possible. Sport• The Ministry needs to be overhauled from violently. Herbivores ing more colours than your average top to bottom, including the aviation sector.

Steep climb ahead learn to associate this fruit basket offers all subsequent • New rules need to be put in place to ensure A view of Everest Base unpleasant nausea with grasshoppers a chance to live anoththat Sherpas are better looked after.

Camp from Crampon • New rules and regulations need to be put in er day. It also saves the predator a Point, the entrance to milkweed, and avoid eating the plant in the fu- second harrowing, near-death expeplace so that the investment and security of the Khumbu icefall, where an avalanche ture. The avoidance is rience. Meanwhile, the milkweed, operators and members is ensured. killed 16 people earlier well-founded, for if an its leaves only slightly chewed, finds Will this happen? I am doubtful. But it is in the year; reportedly, animal manages to eat itself at the centre of an ecological time that those in power makes some meaonly two foreign about twice as much and evolutionary drama. ningful and progressive changes. climbers have milkweed as returned to Everest russell brice is a mountaineer from New Zealand caused it to vomit, ambika kamath studies organismic and after the season was closed afp/robert kay evolutionary biology at Harvard University and the owner/manager of Himalayan Experience it will die. ambika kamath

When things fall apart

Russell Brice a mountaineer for the last few decades, who has operated 19 expeditions to Everest, writes about all that is still undone in the aftermath of the recent Everest tragedy

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At your service

Cheeky computer

ment is fuelling this migration.

The 2011 Planning Commission report says that nearly 58 per cent of the villages in Uttarakhand have no access to proper roads. It is estimated that the total number of displaced people from the State is well over a whopping 20 lakh. A number so big, that those displaced if they are brought together in one place will equal a district as big as Haridwar.

The most dangerous outcome of this migrartificial intelligence could be a scary prostion is that the State, which was essentially crepect or a reason to rejoice, depending on ated at the beginning of the millennium to which side of the fence you are on. In a first, a aybe it’sthe because of thepeople, popularruns the risk empower mountain computer designed by a Russian team beat the TVwithin show Downton Abbey or maythat the decade would have more seats Turing test conducted at the University of be it’s a passing fad, but the tradiin just its Legislative Assembly from the plains Reading, England. This computer managed tional British is gaining This a newwould defeat than frombutler the mountains. to fool researchers into thinking that lease life.purpose With most of the super theofvery of carving it from what was it was a 13-year-old boy called Eurich, theyaan Emir in Qatar or a tytillbethen joint Uttar Pradesh. gene Goostman. Eugene coon in China, an Anglophone butler passed by a wafer thin is very vogue. In China, the Backmuch to theinfuture margin though. To pass fascination for a butler the with the When Praveen Pawar,among a consultant the Turing test, a comtopUnited one perNations cent is attributed to the Disaster Management Team puter program needs to popularity ofwas Downton Abbey, with (UNDMT), in Uttarakhand after last year’s dupe at least 30 per cent of fansdeluge, wanting have their own Carhe to stumbled upon a remarkable fact. human judges in fiveson,“I the butler to the was perfectionist looking for ways to show the State govminute, text-based chats.

Earlernment and Countess Grantham the tap the reapparatus that it in should Among the three judges show.

The demand so the people sources availableisinapparently its land. Give on this year’s panel, two high in countries theand Internareasons to stay that rooted not move away,” caught on, but Eugene tional Academy based in thewho recently saysButler the 38-year-old consultant managed to fool one UK moved has opened in Chengbackantooutpost Maharashtra from Uttarakjudge, to scrape through du to train“Ithe Chinese inBarsu the ways hand. heard about andofput my theothe test. But as one tech British ries ‘buttling’. into practice and began work on the portal points out, “It village’s restoration.” His brainchild is the should also be noted ‘Barsu Project’ — a four-year plan which, if imthat a chatbot successplemented, would return the entire village fully pretending to be a and its 2,000 nalis to their former glory by 13-year-old boy for n what Harvard deems as “good news for fans of anthropoder2018. Currently running it as a philanthropic whom English is the mic, bibliomaniacs and cannibals alike,” a book published in venture, Pawar is trying to rope in friends and second language, is the 1880s has been confirmed to be made out of human skin. Tifunding agencies to raise the ₹45-odd lakh remore clever gamestled Des destinees de l'ame, it apparently dealt with the intricaquired for the project. manship than any cies of the human soul and was deemed ‘worthy’ enough to Once restored, the village, he hopes, will not great display of artigrowing fruits and vegeta- only get back its inhabitants but also develop be bound by actual human skin. A note by the binder, Dr o get to Barsu from Dehra Dun, the (roughly 22 acres), ficial intelligence.”

Uttarakhand capital, you need to bles. Within five years I want to make sure all into a centre for homestays, aromatic treatLudovic Bouland, also confirms this: “I had kept this drive 180km on the rickety, moun- the families return and take up what used to ments and other eco-tourism projects. piece of human skin taken from the back of a womtainous and rain-battered National be their homes and fields.” an.” The authenticity of the book’s binding was testThe day-to-day running of the Barsu project Highway 58 towards Rudraprayag district. Aned through various methods, including liquid is handled by a Rudraprayag-based NGO and other 6km of chromatography, mass spectrometry, peptide fingerprinting andconsistently poor roads, fol- A lost age Semwal, who are together also in charge of a half-kilometre so on. This is not the first instance of human skinlowed being by used to bind books climb on foot takes Government gazettes indicate that Barsu vil- overseeing land improvements, hiring layou to of what was once theofvillage of Barsu, nes- lage has been in existence since 1372 AD. “At bourers and supervising the restoration work. either. The account of the events that led to the hanging John Horwood tled in the Shivalik range, overlooking the out- one point the entire 2,000 nalis (98 acres) used The local administration has chipped in with Bristol 200 years ago was bound with his own skin. er Himalayas. to be well-cultivated. But for as long as I can re- three solar-powered street lamps and water “We once had 83 families in our village, but member, while the rest of the supply for restoring the land.

Slow and steady since my father’s time people have been mov- world was racing forward, we “We want to see how the Barsu (clockwise from top) Rakesh Semwal, an ing away to the village of Punar, and further didn’t have electricity, water or project develops and replicate it erstwhile resident of on to Rudraprayag, Dehra Dun and Delhi,” even a decent road,” says Semwal. in other areas, if successful,” Barsu, hopes to return Barsu is a ghosta case village, or, asgone sour, says Vijay Semwal, 40. He had left Barsu when n what is definitely of sweet mimic its products.

The chocolate says Raghav Langer, company district maBarsu is a ghost to his ancestral home say in bhootiyagone sour, he was a child but has now returned and is orthey should weGarhwali, say, sweeta maker saysit’s thisnot is a major health and safety risk since gistrate, Rudraprayag.

“Slowly, village and within a year; his leading efforts to bring the village back to life, gao.

And it’s not the only one of chocolate company Hershey’s is suing Tinctu“customers may inadvertently eat them thinkwe will enable the people of Barthe only one of its nephew Vijay Semwal, literally. “We managed to get people to noticereBelle its kind. edible marijuana maker, saying the kind ing they are ordinary candy.”

Closer su to chocolate benefit from schemes such who is trying to bring Barsu back to life; and our plight and, over the last few months, weproducts In Uttarakhand, is an unhas won its are a rip-off ofthere classic Hershey’s choc- home, Pepsico India as MGNREGA andcopyright National inAgria view of the village as der-reported but sells pressing social safe and fringement lawsuit have begun work on developing 200 nalisolates.

TinctureBelle its ‘diabetic at the Delhi High Court. culture Development Scheme. it is today epidemic of sorts — the delicious’ products at legal potmigrashops and med- The soft drinks giant had accused Aqua The redevelopment of Minersuch vilvirender singh negi of young people away fromColorado, al (India) of usinglages ical tion marijuana centres found across a “deceptively tradecan be ansimilar” effective check building in London’s Southwark neighbourvillages intorange the State capital andJoy, other mark and the and product includes, Ganja while marketing its mineral water on migration.” hood, a short walk from the city’s famed parts of the country.

In fact, among State’s bottles Aquafine, a rip-off, Pepsico said, from Hasheath, Hashees and Dabbythe Patty, The houses remaining in the village are also Shard building and the Globe Theatre, recently innine hill districts, some such as Pauri and Al- its Aquafina all of which Hershey’s claims brand of mineral water. being restored.

Some of them are more than stalled spikes — 19, 1.5-inch studs — to keep the mora have shown negative population 200 years old, rich with intricate architecture homeless away. But the move has drawn ire from growth in the 2011 census. The absence of in- that bring to mind those found in centuriesall quarters. After an expression of outrage by dustry and, consequently, gainful employ- old houses across Kerala and Tamil Nadu. SemLondon’s twitterati, which translated into a wal, who is giving us a mini-tour of the village, change.org petition with more than 40,000 sigsays, “Well, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but nees, even Mayor Boris Johnson got a chance to they say that many people in Uttarakhand comment on someone else’s intelligence for a came from dakshin (south) and settled here change. He tweeted: “Spikes outside Southwark many centuries ago.” (Interestingly, several housing development to deter homeless sleeping historians, including DP Saklani, the author of are ugly, self-defeating and stupid. Developer Ancient Communities of the Himalayas, have should remove them ASAP.” made references to the Dravidian connection.)

Semwal adds, “My father was one of the first to leave the village back then. Nothing will make me happier than being the one to bring all of my people back home.”

A Russian chatbot aces the Turing test. But is it really as smart as it seems?

Downtown Abbey craze fuels a demand for butlers

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Under my skin

Uttarakhand’s ‘ghost busters’

Scientists find that a 19th-century book about the human soul is bound with... well… human skin Migration has left many Uttarakhand villages literally lifeless; one mountain village is finding ingenious ways to get its people back and stay rooted to the land

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Too much like us

Hershey’s sues an edible marijuana maker, saying the ‘pot bars’ look too much like its products

Spike that

London building installs pavement spikes, sparks online outrage

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cornerstone in-faq by joy bhattacharjya Relatively speaking

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ince mothers-in-law are the flavour of the season, why should the rest of the clan be left out? A quiz on relatives!

Which expression is believed to have originated when Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, third Marquess of Salisbury, promoted his nephew, Arthur Balfour, to the post of chief secretary of Ireland?

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In the world of film and entertainment, how do we better know Leonard, Adolph, Julius, Milton and Herbert?

Her uncle is Pandit Jasraj, her elder sister was a singer-actress, her brothers were fairly successful music directors. She had a dream film debut, and not much more. Identify the person.

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She married Spenser Gregson, and after his death went back to her original fiancé, Percy Craye. Also known as Lady Worplesdon, she is easily one of the most frightening characters in fiction. By what name do we know her?

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Storied Indian sporting family: If the husband played hockey in the Olympics and the son, tennis, then in which sport did the wife represent the country? And for no extra points, she happens to be the granddaughter of which famous Indian?

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the new york times crossword-0922

that girl

Hitchcock-favourite Tippi Hedren had a fairly well-known son-in-law and even named a pet lion after him. Name the gent.

Still on in-laws. Which legendary actress was a mother-in-law to both Gary Oldman and Martin Scorsese?

Which classic adventure story’s plot revolves around an identical twin of King Louis XIV, who was incarcerated? The story is inspired by a real life incident.

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The brother has been nominated for 14 Academy awards and has won both Best Director and the Irving Thalberg award. Woody Allen once famously wanted to be reincarnated as his fingertips. The sister has five Academy award nominations and won her only Oscar in 1983. Name both.

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In the 2014 football World Cup, two brothers will be representing different countries in the final stages of the tournament.

Name both brothers and the countries they are representing?

Answers

1. ‘Bob’s Your Uncle’ 2. These are the real names of the five Marx brothers, Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo and Zeppo. Their father was a tailor nicknamed ‘Misfit Sam’.

3. Vijayta Pandit, remember Love Story — the brothers being Jatin and Lalit.

4. Bertie Wooster’s dreaded Aunt Agatha, who according to him wore barbed wire next to the skin and howled with the wolves at midnight.

5. Basketball — Jennifer Paes, others being Vece and Leander. Her grandfather was the poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt.

6. Antonio Banderas — they got along quite well.

7. Ingrid Bergman — they were both married to her daughter Isabella Rossellini.

8. The Man In the Iron Mask — the final instalment of The Three Musketeers adventures.

9. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine.

10. Jerome Boateng is representing Germany, while his elder brother Kevin-Prince Boateng is representing Ghana.

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

ACROSS

1 Monopolizer 4 Isn’t well 8 The people vs. us 12 When repeated, spirited 15 Fiscal exec 18 Hot and bothered 20 Luxury hotel amenity 21 Where to buy clubs at a club 23 Confiscate a chef’s appetizer?

25 “Count me in!”

26 10, for the base 10 number system 27 Charles Nelson ___, old game-show staple 28 Spill catcher 29 Quick round of tennis, maybe 31 Pulitzer winner James 32 Lewis with 12 Emmys 35 Rondo maker 36 Performance artist with a palindromic name 37 Conk a coach’s team member?

40 Driver’s lic. info 41 Furnishes with soldiers 43 Clueless 44 Graduate from Barnard, say 45 Old Roman well?

46 Disney dog 48 HVAC measures, for short 49 Certain radio user 51 Like most fish 53 View from Long Is. 55 Close a VW Beetle owner’s car door?

60 Like much rush-hour traffic 61 Bud 63 Abbr. of politeness 64 You suffer when you’re in it 65 Feu fighter?

66 Put a spice mix on a cook’s piece of poultry?

70 Point 71 Immortal P.G.A. nickname 73 Island where Homer is buried, by tradition 74 Exclusive 75 Cancels, as a mission 77 Keep a bad comedian onstage?

80 Poetic preposition 81 Not prompt 82 Perfect 83 Wrathful 85 Some sports cars, informally 86 Bit of choreography 88 The “g” in e.g.

91 “Baby” singer’s nickname,

with “the” 93 Off-white shade 97 Canadian N.B.A. team, on scoreboards 98 Find out what a baby’s milk tastes like?

101 “True Blood” network 102 ___ store 103 Apples introduced in 1998 104 Asian holidays 105 Full 107 Magician David 109 Latin dance 111 Valleys 112 Observation of cardinals, say 114 Hop over an electrician’s wires?

116 Alliance between nations 117 Crate & Barrel rival 118 Not magnified or reduced 119 Paris’s Parc ___ Princes 120 Setting at 0° long.

121 U.S.A.F. V.I.P. 122 Jimmy Carter’s middle name 123 A pop

DOWN

1 Isn’t cramped 2 1992 David Mamet play

3 Smoothly applied, as eye makeup 4 Tips 5 Suffix of imprecision 6 Creepy look 7 Barely moves?

8 Irish city near Killarney 9 Loudly dress down 10 uBid competitor 11 ___ school 12 N.Y. engineering school 13 Grabbing distance 14 Windbag’s output 15 Ensure a surfer’s safety?

16 Like many accents 17 Run 19 Commando movie accessories 22 ___ mai (dim sum dish) 24 Rifle attachment 30 “See?!”

32 Group of unsolicited manuscripts 33 ___ radio 34 “We the Living” author Rand 38 Like a coquette 39 Besides 42 [You cad!]

45 Sea lane danger 47 “Love and Happiness” singer, 1972

48 Vague memory 50 Squishy seat 51 Goggle 5 2Take a mechanic’s inventory?

53 Allergic reaction 54 Band with a 1985 U.K. No. 1 album titled “Meat Is Murder” 56 Gut wrencher?

57 “Such a pity” 58 Agreement 59 Rooms with high ceilings 60 Security feature 62 Ones making intros 67 Shore dinner handout 68 Part of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s costume 69 Fit to be consumed 72 Blue-roofed chain 76 “___ I hear” 78 ¬ Groups of troops 79 Relative of Camembert 84 One side in “The War of the Worlds” 85 Shade of black

86 Like Julius Caesar 87 Where to write your name on an I.R.S. form 89 Zenith competitor 90 Org. that registers pointers 91 Muff 92 “Just arrived!”

94 N.B.A. Hall-of-Famer nicknamed Handy Andy 95 Something easy as pie 96 “Luck Be a Lady” composer/lyricist 98 Jacket part 99 “C’mon, help me out” 100 Ultimate purpose 106 They make indents 108 Suffix with fluor- or chlor109 Pickled veggie 110 Discipline 113 High-profile interviewee 114 Fiddler’s tune, maybe 115 Sleeper, for one

By Joe DiPietro / Edited by Will Shortz

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