Blink issue 31 august23 2014

KNOCK KNOCK A door-to-door survey in Telangana has its share of critics, sceptics and supporters p3 saturday, august 23, 2014

rv moorthy

They court lathis and arrest, they renounce families and careers, and sacriďŹ ce years in the pursuit of the Civil Services. The world of the UPSC aspirant is rich in dreams, and desperation p9

I want in

QUIET EMOTIONAL Author Cyrus Mistry on winning prizes and renouncing the limelight p16

DAY IN FRAMES A pastry chef shares her visual diary of shopping, cooking and dining in the Capital p20

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THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

The astronomer Whose land is it, anyway? and the chessboard

In a village in Maharashtra, a staggering 20 per cent of landowners are women. Are they the gamechangers or mere pawns in the system?

The mathematics that flowed from the chessboard reveal the mysteries of the magic squareuring anda the itself recentuniverse visit to Yavatmal disMuch has been documented in micro-stud- downers, and with great difficulty, estimated

rohit gupta

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Reap what you sow Only one father proudly said he had given his daughter and son equal shares of land wfs

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trict in Maharashtra for a commishe gamestudy, of chess wasacross of particular sioned I came a couple interest Orientalist of maletofarmers who scholars claimed durthat ing theabout British20 Raj, including Sir Wilin their villages per cent of the lanliam women.

Jones, founder of the Asiatic downers were Having travelled in ruSociety.

Over succession of Britishthat aural India fortime, yearsa now, and knowing thors thatlandownership, this royal war whennurtured it comesthe to notion women’s game originated in India.

More interesting, the norm is only around three to five per cent, however, connection the history of sciI refusedistoitsbelieve theirtorather tall claims. ence around the world.

Twenty per cent landownership by women is The sinologist Needham suggested something that I Joseph have not seen in my decades that the ancient Chinese used the compass for of work, which had, incidentally, begun with divination on afarmers chequered boarddistrict which repreDalit women in Medak of Tesented astronomical objects — the stars and langana.

Their confident assertion, however, constellations.

ThisI occult instrument, intrigued me and promptly ended upmeant going to the embattled and Yang forces to measure one of the villages.

ThisYin is about Tivsala vilin theincosmos, passed lage Ghatanji block.over to India as a tactical warBut of first, two human Important in here’s aarmies. brief background ofthis the story common origin of chess and the statusisofthe women’s work in India to put things compass, “the ancestor of all dial-and-pointer in perspective.

An overwhelming majority of readings, the greatest singleasfactor in the Indian women recognised ‘workers’ in voyoffiages of discovery, and theon oldest instrument of cial data are dependent agriculture as their magnetic-electrical science.” mainstay. In the Census, they are listed as CulIn 1826,and a Frenchman byLabour. the name of Fare Villot tivators Agricultural Many alwas quoted saying in several journals so classified as unpaid helpers in the worldfamily wide that chess was astronomers enterprise under a invented category by called ‘Self Emin Ancient “The(National king, according him, ployed’ byEgypt. the NSSO Sampleto Survey represents the sun,making and the them queen,unpaid the moon.

Office), effectively tenThe sometimes on a black square antsformer in theirisown family’s land. and sometimesinon a white, and thus gives us Meanwhile, the agriculture sector at prealternately day and night. The queen always sent, there is a masculinisation as wellisas femiplaced in trend the first instance on herincolour benisation being witnessed different cause moon inboth opposition (the white parts ofthe India.

Yet, in these phenomena — queen) a bright more colour, and inthan conjuncone, of affects men wielding control ever tion (themainly black queen) affects a black one…” before, due to integration with marThe claimedwhere to see women a sharp are similarity kets,author and another, left to between Egyptian calendars and run the agricultural enterprise by astronomithemselves cal tables found onwho monuments and the chess— it’s the women end up being marginalboard.

Although this too hinted at an ised without anyfanciful, formal entitlements as ‘farmancient between and the game of ers’. Of link course, it is ascience well-recognised reality chess, a bond whichinvisibility may have carried over to now that women’s and empowerthe European Renaissance. ment as farmers is strongly linked to their lack the compass seen as the primal founofIfownership overisland. tain of our scientific knowledge, the amount of mathematics that flowed from the chessboard was impressive too.

When John Napier published Rabdologia (1617) containing some new graphical methods for rapid calculation, “The third device used a checkerboard-like grid and counters moving on the board to perform binary arithmetic. Napier termed this technique location arithmetic from the way in which the locations of the counters on the board represented and computed numbers. Once a number is converted into a binary form, simple movements of counters on the grid could multiply, divide and even find square roots of numbers.”

Napier’s work on logarithms and calculators was heavily oriented towards the urgent needs of astronomers, who had to perform fiendishly laborious computations repeatedly. Furthermore, the “coordinate plane” of Descartes’ La Géométrie (1637) was essentially a chessboard, infinite in all directions. Even today, you can see how chess notation and rectangular coordinates on a plane are analogous.

Even Sir Isaac Newton is known to have been interested in and purchased chessmen at some point. The eminent biologist TH Hux-

ies about the various benefits that accrue to a that about 17 per cent of its total landowners household, in terms of better education, are women. A few days later, an enterprising health and so on, with women’s ownership farmer, who pulled out more accurate inforover property like land. This is apart from the mation from the talati, called back to share strategic empowerment that the woman her- that the village has 341 pattedars in all, and 71 self could gain, for instance, allowing her a of them are women. That is around 21 per greater say in household-level decision-mak- cent! From Pagandi, a neighbouring village, ing. Women’s rights activists, feminist econo- too, I received a call that out of 396 pattedars mists and others have for long been pointing there, 59 were women — about 15 per cent.

Tivsala is a village that has a mixed social out how important it is for women farmers to actualise their equal inheritance rights to composition. Apart from Dalit, Muslim and land (apart from women’s control over prop- Other Backward Classes (OBC) women, it also erty and assets in general). Five Year Plans of has families classified as scheduled tribes and the Planning Commission have acknowl- nomadic tribes. Of the names that we were edged the need to ensure women’s landow- able to list out while sitting in the village, we nership and have promised measures like started looking at each case to see why the periodic updates of land records, creating land accrued to the woman in question. Apart from women who received land awareness, special ‘inheritance in their name because the family camps’, computerisation of land wanted to bypass land ceiling records, and so on. laws, and ones who got land due However, in a deeply-entrenched patriarchal system, About five years ago a to widowhood (in equal propornot much changes on the new trend started, of tion), a surprising shift had occurred in the recent past. ground. Even after debates and men transferring a About five years ago, a new recommendations, the basic part of the land to trend started, of men transferdocument on land ownership in their wives ring a part of the land in the most States does not even have a names of their wives, across difcolumn to indicate whether a ferent castes. This is done so that given landowner is a man or a they can access government woman. If the basic document does not contain this, there is no way to know schemes and subsidies. The sprinkler irrigaat a larger level what the current status of tion scheme seems to be popular. These women’s landownership in any given location schemes can be availed only if a farmer has is, unless the patwari or talati (lowest-ranking marginal or small holdings in the official clasrevenue officer appointed by the district col- sification. Splitting the family land allows the lector) chooses to cull out information based family to access these schemes, and this is the on his (this is a male-dominated domain of main incentive for the increasing land transSeeing numbers Girolamo Cardano’s ‘Magicfamsquaresfers for the heavenly bodies’, 1539; (below) in the name of women. work) first-hand information about each Durer’s magic square with N=4, numbers from 1In toaddition NxN=16 to this, if a new piece of land is ily inAlbrecht a village. purchased by a couple, chances are high that Tivsala, I met many farmers in the village, the plot is registered the name ofofthe womleynwas of the emphatic viewpoint that “The larger boards, where in the number squares includingiswomen who own land. We an.aOnce again, pragmatic reasons like bypasschessboard the world; the pieces aretried the on side is not odd (for example, 20x20), some to list out the of all the rules women ingthese ceiling regulation accessing schemes phenomena of names the universe; of lanthe of tours produceand another strange phedrive this decision.

Thereare was only onefrom case game are what we call the laws of Nature. The nomenon.

If the squares numbered that I came across in this village, of we a father player on the other side is hidden from us. We N to NxN along the path of the knight, get a proudly known announcing he hasasregistered know that his play is always fair, and patient. pattern since that antiquity a magic his land in thesquare. name ofOn both hisadaughter But also we know, to our cost, such square, and the son equally. sum of numbers in any directhat he never overlooks a misThis villagetion — and what hascolumn really changed take, or makes the smallest al— be it row, or diagfor the womenonal there has tothe be same, studied lowance for ignorance.” is — always asmore if by closely. I could gleanSmall that magic men continue to Connoisseurs of the game magic. squares are control everything farm and are have for centuries been fascinatfoundon in the many oldfront cultures, inalso in chargecluding of marketing and income from ed by walks of the knight upon Vedic rituals or Chinese sales, even though women put in more labour an empty board, for the knight mythology. than men. Women who9x9x9 I met magic also said that has the most complex move A new square this land will was be passed on to their not among all the pieces. A knight’s constructed by sons, Andrew the daughters.Hollingworth Frost in 1866, tour is a sequence of moves such Thestationed impressive in landownership that the knight visits every single square on while asincrease a missionary in Nasik, Inby women in afirst village like cube Tivsala mostly the chessboard, but only once. “The earliest dia.

It was the magic towas be discovfor opportunistic known reference to the Knight’s Tour problem ered in history. reasons and was not in any way drivenone byday, women gaining more dates back to the 9th century AD. In Rudrata’s Perhaps we will find that the awareentire ness about their rights, or men more Kavyalankara, a Sanskrit work on poetics, the universe is magical, in which thegetting elementary sensitive are about due share.

However, pattern of a knight’s tour on a half-board has particles likewomen’s knights touring at the speed there is hope.

While transfer happening been presented as an elaborate poetic figure of light.

The stars arethe arrayed likeisnumbers infor practical reasons, I can’t how this called the ‘turagapadabandha’ or ‘arrange- side a magic hypercube, and imagine no matter where, won’t help women they choose ment in the steps of a horse’.” which direction westrategically, look from, if the sum and to assert themselves On an 8x8 board, there are an astonishing the firmament appearfor theequal same.rights as women and farmers.

26,534,728,821,064 “directed and closed” knight’s tours, a surprisingly large number of rohit gupta explores the history of science as t @fadesingh kavitha kuruganti Women’s Feature Service solutions for such a restricted problem. On Compasswallah

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Be counted An enumerator verifies original documents during the Intensive Household Survey conducted by the Telangana Government at Fasalwadi village in Medak district pv sivakumar

Surviving the T-survey

Auto driver Niranjan was undecided about going to his village, where his extended family owns a small chunk of land. “Will I lose my claim on my share in the undivided landholding if I don’t go?” he wanted to know. He finally chose to stay back in Hyderabad for the survey to ensure his “family doesn’t become ineligible for welfare schemes”.

Despite having to travel all the way from Bahrain, Balachandar backs the government’s decision. “What is wrong in sharing the details? Accurate information will help the government in drafting schemes,” he says.

The survey covered 1.05 crore households, 20 lakh more than the 2011 Census. About 2.3 lakh households are yet to be covered.

Social networking sites were flooded with people to stay home for the day and provide messages from users sharing their survey exthe right details to help the government weed periences. People stayed indoors all day, upout fake beneficiaries in welfare schemes. The dating friends about the goings-on. number of households far exceeded the numThe timing of the survey had fuelled fears ber of ration cards, burning a big hole in the that the government was out to discriminate exchequer. “We pay salaries but we don’t have against natives of Andhra Pradesh. Barely the accurate number of employees in the gov- weeks ago, there were moves to exclude Andernment,” he said. hra students from the fee reimbursement Accurate data would help the government scheme, triggering protests from parties in formulate efficient policies, he pointed out. Andhra Pradesh. The draft pro forma too had “We all thought the population of Hyderabad queries related to nativity. is 76 lakh and has about 15 lakh households.

However, the final pro forma dispelled all But preliminary numbers indicate that the such fears. There was nothing in it to tell peopopulation crosses the 1.2-crore mark in about ple apart. There was only an optional question 20 lakh households,” he said after the survey. about the availability of birth certificate.

About four lakh government “Statistics hold the key for govemployees and thousands of enernance. Electoral rolls tell you gineering students went door to something, Census gives you door for the survey. People with some other data. We need accuWill I lose my share in roots in Telangana and living rate data. Our survey is a superthe family land if elsewhere in India or abroad hit. I am sure other States will I don’t go to my feared they may be excluded have a look at it and emulate,” a village? from government welfare beaming chief minister said afschemes if they failed to show ter the survey. up for the survey. Telugus with There were many who refused roots in Andhra Pradesh, but livto answer certain questions or ing in Telangana feared it was a ploy to ex- even avoided the survey. Jana Sena President clude them. and film actor Pawan Kalyan stayed away from Ramulu, a 30-year-old mason, had not visit- his Nandagiri Hills residence, indicating his ed his native village for close to five years. But unwillingness to participate in the exercise. on August 19, he arrived in Gadwal, 100km Actress Vijayashanti too refused to take part. from Hyderabad, with his wife and daughter.

And after the many days of chaos, confusion Balachandar, who works in Bahrain, also head- and outright indignation leading up to the ed home to Warangal with his family. He was survey, it was all over in minutes, said the maamong scores of migrant workers in the Gulf son Ramulu, incredulity writ large on his face. who timed their India visit to coincide with kv kurmanath the survey.

All roads, and hopes and fears, led to Telangana as it embarked on a day of household enumeration

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hey may have dreaded it, loved it or hated it, but no one ignored it. The first-ever Intensive Household Survey conducted on August 19 in the newly formed State of Telangana saw lakhs of people scurrying home. Whether they were textile workers in Surat and Bhiwandi, construction workers in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, IT employees in Pune and Bangalore, or eking out a living from menial jobs elsewhere, all those who called Telangana home made a beeline for the survey, families in tow, to inscribe their place in the government records.

For more than 20 days preceding the survey, people talked of nothing else, anxiously wondering what was in store for them, what they should reveal and what they shouldn’t.

Domestic helps, auto drivers and construction labourers working in the cities were unsure whether they were expected to return to their native village or stay back in the city. No one had any answers.

With the air thick with confusion, rumours spread wildly. There were apprehensions about sharing bank account details, and other privacy concerns. In fact, some citizens even moved the High Court to challenge the survey.

The government quickly backed down and clarified that the survey was not mandatory, which prompted the court to give a go-ahead.

When the big day finally dawned, practically every street remained deserted, not least because the government had declared a public holiday and directed private concerns to shut shop. Buses were off the roads too.

Announcing the survey on August 1, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao had asked

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I SPY

One fine day Pastry chef, alumnus of the Culinary Institute of America and owner of the online bakery Foodaholics, Kishi Arora shares her delicious Instagram feed from the Capital 7:00am Early start at #INA market... With rosella

7.30am Some baby raddish love

8.00am Breakfast at Dosa Junction #INA

The cooked-up story

9.00am Peak-hour metro ride home. What was I thinking?!

10.00am #Inflation! ₹68 for one lemon

Lemon Polenta Cake

For the cake: 115gm fine polenta, 1/2tsp baking powder, 225gm butter, softened (plus extra for greasing ), 225gm sugar, 225gm almond meal , 3 eggs, zest of 1 lemon, 1tsp finely chopped rosemary, plus sprigs to garnish

Markets overseas are ravenous for ready-to-eat chole, dal makhni and other desi food.

Indian kitchens still prefer home-cooked meals over convenience, but will that change soon?

For the syrup :

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t was the peak of summer and Sahil Gilani was craving Indian food as he had been travelling overseas for several weeks. Dosa was what he wanted, and it was not easy to find in Central London. After asking acquaintances, he arrived at the food court of the department store Selfridges on Oxford Street. among 10.30am Lemon zestThis plus was elbow grease...the city’s handful of eateries serving the fermented crepe. Gilani ordered a dosa and found it tasted all too familiar. He asked the waiter how it was made but the latter didn’t know. Gilani asked to speak to the chef. After demurring initially, the chef revealed his secret — he had been using the Gits brand of ready dosa mix for close to a decade. Gilani, in turn, revealed his secret — he was the director of Gits Foods.

Even at home in India, Mumbai-based media professional Ajita Srivats uses MTR Ready to Eat (RTE) palak paneer and chana masala to whip up a meal whenever the family chooses to watch cricket on TV over the weekend, instead of eating out. And when she gets

11.30am Break between baking and cooking

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Instant gratification MTR Foods gets four-fifths of its revenue from exports; Haldiram’s ready-toeat products are mainly exported, besides retailing under the Minute Khana brand in the national capital region

Juice of 1 lemon, 2 rosemary sprigs, 50gm sugar

1. Preheat oven to 160oC. Butter the sides of a seven-inch cake tin and line home late from work, the MTR ready meals money-spinner. with has parchment. help her fix a quick dinner.

Gits been selling its instant mixes 2. Mix polenta and for baking in a in With trained chefs and domestic help in (ready to cook or RTC) overpowder four decades In another large India. bowl, cream butter it countries outside In 2000, short supply, restaurants and households are 40 bowl. until soft with an electric mixer. Add turning to ready meals to serve authentic Indi- launched RTE foods as well. Today, a majority sugar and beat until light and fluffy, then of the for meal. its Parsi dhansak, Gujarati an food quickly and economically. beatbuyers in almond kadhi, An RTE meal simply has to be 3. Whisk undhiu, eggs untilPunjabi just mixed.

AddMumbai to heated and eaten.

The choices pav bhaji and moong dal butter, beating all along.

Add zest andhalwa 11.00am ...equal to Lemon Polenta Cake. Yay! are in the US, UK, Australia and range from gravies and dals to chopped rosemary.

4. Gently West fold inAsia. the polenta and baking parathas, theplas, biryanis, vegeThe Indian housewife powder to combine.

“When we entered the RTE tables, and even sweets like guis not ready 5. to Tip batter into cake tin and bake for lab jamun and halwa. In India meals segment, we used the outsource her meals 1.5 hours same or untildistribution skewer inserted into we channels the main manufacturers are centre of were cake using comesfor outour clean.

RTC The items. RTE MTR Foods, Gits, Maiyas, ITC’s cake will cook to a deep golden-brown Kitchens of India and Delhienterin international colour andhelped may dipusa little the middle. chain stores abroad, which based Haldiram’s.

6. For syrup, place all ingredients in a were reluctant to the RTC says saucepan stock with 1/4 cup ofproducts,” water. Bring toGilani.a boil, Around 80 per cent of the thesugar. revenues Feeding desi tastes stirring to dissolve Boil for RTE meals come from exports and that is While the aroma of fresh idlis, upma and stuff- Gitsfor 3-4 minutes until ever so slightly thickened.

Remove rosemary sprigs.year.

Set The ed parathas still rule the Indian home, MTR ra- growing at about 50 per cent every aside. are doubling, in fact, in some counva dosa and Gits dal makhni are rockstars in numbers 7. says RestGilani. cake outside oven for 10 kitchens outside the country. For Indian RTE tries, minutes. using a is Even the Loosen Indian around marketedges for RTE meals food companies, the overseas market is the small, sharp knife, then unmould. Pour warm syrup. Cool and serve.

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12.00pm #Birthday spoils for a friend — lunch and flower pot cake

12.30pm Sorting old notes and coins for mom

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poised for rapid growth, predicts the market research firm ValueNotes.

The heat-and-eat food industry in India, valued at ₹237 crore in 2014, has been growing at a CAGR of 18 per cent for the last three years.

On the back of rapid urbanisation, rising disposable income and improved retail infrastructure, it will be a ₹640-crore industry by 2019, according to ValueNotes.

But that is still a few years away. Currently, MTR Foods gets four-fifths of its revenue from exports. “The Indian housewife is not yet ready to outsource her meals. She wants solutions, but wants to cook,” says Vikran Sabherwal, vice-president (marketing) for MTR Foods.

Packaged platter Sahil Gilani, director of Gits Foods; (above) Vikran Sabherwal, vice-president — marketing, MTR Foods

able to distinguish between home-cooked Wooing the locals food and our RTE food,” he says.

The slow growth is also attributed to prevailGilani’s father, RH Gilani, joint managing diing perceptions about RTE meals. When first rector at Gits Foods, personally tastes every introduced in India in 1987 by the Pune-based batch at their Pune plant. “We make small Tasty Bites Eatables, ready foods were thought batches of around 50-100kg to ensure good to last long because they contained artificial quality and consistency in taste,” he says. The flavours and preservatives. The products were average batch size in the RTE industry is rolled back within a year. In 1998, the company around 150kg. was taken over by US-based Preferred Brands International. Today, it is a strong name over- The package deal seas but does not sell in India even though the Research is also on to develop recipes that products are made at its Pune plant. taste right and have long shelf-life. A littleTasty Bites might be uninterested in India, known fact is that it is not preservatives but rebut many other players are hungry for it. Del- tort packaging technology that helps keep the hi-based Haldiram’s, which sells everything food fresh. from namkeens to sherbets and In retort packaging, food is chips to bhel-puri, entered the RTE undercooked, packed in metsegment about four years ago. “We al-plastic pouches and heated already had a good understanding at 116-121 degrees Centigrade.

The sheer number of the overseas market when sellThis kills existing microorganof consumers makes ing our snacks and sweets there. isms, and the sealing prevents India an attractive We studied the growing demand the entry of new microbes, market for Indian meals and launched our thereby extending the shelfrange abroad,” says AK Tyagi, vicelife of most foods to as long as president (FMCG business) at Hal18 months. diram’s group.

Today, even freezing techWhile exports are the mainstay for its RTE nology is catching up. Haldiram’s has introfoods, the company is also selling them under duced frozen meals, which taste better and the Minute Khana brand name in the national last longer. Freezing slows food decomposicapital region. “We will expand to other areas tion as any residual moisture turns into ice, in the domestic market as and when demand which inhibits bacterial growth. The can is reimproves,” he says. frigerated at minus 15 degrees Centigrade, That, however, first calls for a change in per- says Tyagi. “We are also exporting frozen ception. “We are trying to do that. The mo- sweets,” he adds. ment the perception about RTE foods changes, growth will be good,” says Gilani.

Ready attraction To win customer trust, Gits offers free sam- Within India, distinct user categories are pling and collects feedback regularly. “We emerging. “I am not yet bullish on in-home uskeep refining recipes until a customer is un- age but outside of home, when people travel

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and have no access to freshly cooked meals, they rely on RTE,” says Sabherwal.

So the main user groups are working women, youngsters staying away from family for study or work, and overseas travellers.

“The strong factor driving consumption is convenience — rising income and changing lifestyle are a part of it. It may be used just once a week or fortnight, but the sheer number of consumers makes India an attractive market,” says Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at consultancy firm Third Eyesight.

In large cities, consumers grappling with long commutes and work-hours often sign on tiffin services, hire a cook, or eat out. RTE foods present them yet another option.

“Some companies have grown rapidly in the space. You don’t need to be a national player, all you need is deep penetration within your chosen geography to be available on the shelf,” he adds.

Yet another factor affecting demand is the pricing of the food items. “If you look at cooking a meal from scratch as against eating out or opening a packet, the pricing can make a lot of difference. If pricing is higher than what the market can bear, then they will become niche products with limited consumption,” Dutta says.

As things stand, RTE food manufacturers are trying to keep a tight leash on costs. A 300-gm packet of MTR palak paneer is priced ₹75 while alu methi comes for ₹65. While this pricing may find takers in metros, the rest of India may baulk at it.

So, until convenience trumps pricing and perceptions, RTE foods will continue to satiate mainly the hungry desi souls overseas. rashmi pratap

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Izzat on the line Who is to decide which dance is PRESENT IMPERFECT unconstitutional and which isn’t afp/indranil mukherjee

izzat, has shown that whenever Krishna (or Ram in Ramlila) enters the mix, everything, including the very same stories and the same moves, become expressions of religious devotion or ecstasy!

The difference between the Anti-Nautch campaigns of Madras in the early 19th century and the current struggle between moral policing and the law is that here it is more obvious that colonists are not the sole culprits as it is happening more than a half-century after Independence. Morcom’s theory would suggest that it is high time those who simplify the earonald Trump came to India last lier history with a simplistic post-colonial week and announced the launch of blame-game revisit and nuance their Trump Tower in Mumbai, a 75-storey pronouncements. residential complex with apartHappiest reading is the chapter on the Bolments whose price tags will be between $80lywood dance revolution, where Morcom re100 million. If this wasn’t enough to generate counts how middle-class India seeks out envy the colour of bile, The Donald also poutdance not only for sexual titillation but also ed and pronounced that real estate in Mumbai fitness, as a yoga, and for the joy of dancing. I is very cheap right now, a statement no one wonder about the numerous dance contests with an EMI would ever be heard saying. Now, on TV. And how many Shiamak Davar Performthe only thing I have in common with Trump ing Arts Institute and zumba classes are being is that my bank balance is as thin as his hair, offered in every district of Mumbai? Is Mumyet I found myself scouring for details about bai the dance city for the urban many? (Chenthe project the following day. If there were no nai and Delhi are for the elites). The author libel laws in this country, I would have deshows how the positive perception of dancing scribed the details using another word; but for by a rising middle class offers a counter-vision now let’s just call them puzzling. of dance, and in turn, makes life more bearaMumbai’s floor rise charges (the extra monble for those who have inherited performance ey you pay per square foot as you go higher up as profession. Davar’s recent success with sevthe building so you can comfort yourself that eral sold-out performances of Selcouth juxtathe smell outside the window is that of a cirrus poses the splendid and sordid aspects of the cloud and not sanitary waste) being what they dancing body. are, my guess is that the $20 million range The author offers much food for thought in would be the difference between the lowest her discussions of the changing world of and the highest floors in the tower. And that’s Kothi, of performers of feminity at wedding money very well spent. But the remaining $85 parties, mujras, melas, dance bars and private million fetches you, and here I suggest you salon performances. Gender tunnel-vision has play a guessing game with other members of turned a blind eye towards the effects of the family, a 3 BHK. At best, a 4 BHK! Now, even hereditary professions, chance and choice, though the Trump Tower will not be designed when it comes to cross-dressing. Such perto look like Godzilla bit off chunks of it, it formers have been marginalised and commitwould still be awkward to invite Mukesh and ted to the ‘shadows’ by omission from Nita Ambani for your housewarming party mainstream discourse. How do you name and take them on a grand tour of four piddly what was supposed to not exist? This language his book is rich about the ways which late what is spoken, most notoriously when is protective of some − for example, hijras have bedrooms. Who are these people whoin can public perception, laws, and com- ‘saviours’ argue that the ‘victims’ are incapa- organisational structures that bring protecdo with so little? and gender It is only in munal Mumbai, where real politics estate ex-affect ble of knowing what is best for them. Of tion and links with the police. However, fedetermine livespoles and livelihoods. course, we have heard and are still hearing male impersonator performers have been pectations areand so low that four and a Anna Morcom’s argument stretch of plastic can framing pass off as a crediblecorre- many variations of this; most recently from increasingly harassed, and with violence, besponds closely to will mine:meekly that generalisations politicians responding to rapes. This is surely cause they ‘do not exist’. Meanwhile, the classidwelling, that people settle for so popular in have socialfound and critical theory set up the author’s intention — to draw attention to cal tradition owes much to this group of this. Trump would his 4 BHK tower binaries inclusion and exclusion and con- Tallan already overwritten and$100-million to re- performers, impossible toof price as a “luxury lifestyle” anyfor dancers haveafp/punit received refined talk Donald Trump peddles anarrative gleaming new, ‘dream’ to space-starved Mumbai panajpe stantly to be qualified.

Generalised where else inneed the country.

In Gurgaon, where Icate- mind us that it is not just history, or a fascinat- techniques of performing gender transformahandy labels to census ing mythology of noble by hearted tawaifs (as in live, gories people might would offer have sneered at its name Gurgaon, I was astounded the builders’ tion from tently failed to them. show up, I gave up and threw in and politicians, but both Pakeezah, need to be even.takers, No onestatisticians would voluntarily live in a buildability to stringMughal-e-Azam). any two English‘Victims’ words togethNo one reads this book Aabout performmy lot with thewho other Orchchiders. couple of inclusion and exclusion such groups treated as individuals.

Also After in re-inscribing ing called a ‘tower’.

It has tofrom be ‘court’, ‘gar- can er while deciding on a name. going yearsers in South Asiatime can the come away withwas easy anlater, by which ‘chch’ sound living persons or offer histories, thereofareDeerwood no happy saviours — the sa- swers about dens’entomb or ‘terraces’.

And that firstopportunities name? through a blur way in livesI are rollingthe naturally off which my tongue, for self-advancement. bindmoras much in Morcom’s writingI being those of us circumscribed Trump?

A building namedIdeals after can a mere Parksviours and Parkwood Heights, Indiannew society, law andtoglobcalled by a brand restaurant as way. they might liberate. Morcom posits that herstories tal? No askedwho the rewrite broker ifthe the place hadand show how the al middle-class values. When This isI not a book order dinner. rattled off for have differently disaffected ‘evils’ of the In generalisations the NCR (and, I am told, in Bangalore as any buildings atnautch all thatsystem didn’thave not abated. the fainthearted.

It hasthis been ‘work’ to read it the address, very polished Trump would have lives take of various groupsof of performers well)the builders the naming their cre- have anMorcom Englishtracks name.what “Yes,”happens he it is other a rewarding experience voicebut at the end said, “I’m lumped under one of dancer to women who work as bar ations very seriously.

The notion first lot — ofthat buildings beamed, and that is how wegirls found his 4 BHK for anyoneI feel whocompelled wants to theorise sorry, ma’am, to equals availability. as ourselves they move (or are moved)tower impossible to grabbed allsexual the palace names — Belvedere, found outside ‘Karam contemporary South point out to you that the word isAsian The author argues that the an names astonishingly from rural to urban communi- price as a “luxury Windsor, Hamilton.

Then came of hi Dharam’ apartments.

Standing dance or orchid. issues related pronounced Think to of sexualit number of persons She draws the studies fancyvast localities from aroundwho thedance worldfor — asoliving there,ties. looking at theon words writ- of lifestyle” ity and the visibilising effects spelled with a ‘k’, then it of Theanywhere saviours in as being else in this country together in the single recent ethnographers thereare is clumped Beverly, Bel air, Regency, Trinity‘slut’ andcateten inseveral deep red and a large font, I naming is already The in bodbe easywhat to remember.”

Morcom’s writing arewould gory And because livelihoods and their ways andthat her ludicrosity own fieldwork to track those of us who showgalauti Westend. eventheir though there isn’t a water realised is a greaies.kebabs, Morcom examines ways in when they eventubeing cannot be in easily categorised. changes through the 20th cenbodyof larger than a puddle its vicinity, there Perter calling than linguistics. which public perceptions are ally arrived, tasted of indignahow the ‘evils’ of the lifestyles sexwith work arere-indis- Since tury,I didn’t and adds personalising is an formative entire Malibu Towne,and smug that want to wake up inand the writing ofin dance nautch system havetion formed,deep-fried criminately together.

Shetoincludes an account dundant ‘e’. If you canlumped name a building after a She everycidents. morning the thought of histories. The impact of theory embarrassment. not abated distinguishes dancers into of howDharmendra, the Maharashtra Legisla- decided distant town, then it‘traditional’ isn’t much of a stretch to the a righteous I eventually on living ability In Mumbai, Trump Towersbodies, has no and suchthe fears. categories of, “classical courtesans Assembly has Orchid made several namethree it after an imaginary location on a TV and on ative building called Garden. There The brisk and businesslike of performers to intervene Mumbaikar, who is in dancing “devadasis” andthe “transattempts ban dance in bars,for miles an expert in economising show.other And so, there isgirls”, Wisteria Lane, where wasn’t a singleto orchid to be spotted theoretical assumptions everything, will im-have gender male or female impersonators”. information that is Yet, particularly Desperate Housewives of television lived. I am nor was there a garden. the worst part of mediately shortenbeen subject to But debate the name to TT. giveover the the She argues with the breakdown of the at this time, because attempt not exactly sure ofthat the marketing advantages livingrelevant there wasn’t the falsity of another its name, it building last few years inofthe area of dance studies. a couple years, and come mon- This sheltering effect by of athe “longterm concubinto reintroduce this ban in May, of calling a building name that invokes was was its made pronunciation.

Everyone called it and andblue participates soon,book it willcontributes be wrappedto, with plastic. Allin a age” system of housewives private sponsors, evenonmore after the CourtofinBachchan.

July 2013 conimages of scheming who cheat ‘orchchid’, like Supreme it was a relative global of the local practices. must-read, 72 floors of view it. Even helipad.

And Athen we are drivenand to sex curred with an earlier High to Court ruling theirhereditary husbandsperformers with the gardener thework. The first few months I refused relent and that and nowat you can all laugh it. have been prepared for it.

Redemption is must complicated.

The human unconstitutional to ban handyman, but there be a reason. stuckittoisthe right way of saying thesome word. kinds But of is a professor of dance t @veenavenugopal rights discourse victims by enlargand not others, and that dancers When I first startedempowers looking for houses in whendancing groceries and pizza delivery guys consis-have uttara asha coorlawala ing their voices through media, press and a right to work. Meanwhile, a parallel dis- at Columbia University, and at the Alvin Ailey American publicity. But this approach can also manipu- course, of classical dance, a matter of national School of Dance, New York

Unreal estates

Of towers trumping Mumbai and ‘orchchid gardens’ overrunning dusty, arid Gurgaon

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Body in dance

An exhaustive treatise on the many dangers of the notion that dancer equals sexual availability

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Courtesans, Bar Girls and Dancing Boys The Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance Anna Morcom Non-fiction Hachette India ₹595

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Veena Venugopal is editor BLink and author of The Mother-in-Law

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

An India in Germany Our soldiers fought in this war, yet we know so little of it, or those who suffered under its heel

From the family album Lt Col Anwar Karim, my grandmother’s brother, who fought on the African and Italian fronts; and (above) my grandfather, Major Mohammed Abu Nasr Moezzuddin, on the Burma front

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Omair Ahmad is an author. His latest book is on Bhutan

ndia sent a million men to fight during World War II, and yet few of us know for what. My grandfather spent five years as a major in the Royal Medical Corps on the Burma front and two other great-uncles served in North Africa and Italy. I never spoke to them of these experiences. It seemed to be a war between Europeans in which we were caught up. But the world has shrunk over time, or maybe it was always small and we have finally lifted our head out of the hole of our own self-pity.

In 2012, I was travelling through Germany for book readings from a novel of mine translated into German, and ended up at the small town of Krefeld. My friends in Berlin had told me to expect only an ugly town. What I experienced was something else. The reading was held at an old train station. Built in the early 1900s, it was no longer in use for its original purpose, but had been transformed into a cultural centre. My reading was part of a cultural show and began with a performance by three Indian musicians playing a harmonium, a tabla and something under a blanket that was never revealed. They were Bengalis, judging by their accents, from Cologne, which was all that I managed to learn about them. A German woman in Indian clothes danced to their music. They performed a Bollywood number from the movie Jab We Met at the start, and a hymn of praise to Durga (no dancing during this one), and ended with an old Sufi song made famous by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Sanu, Ek Pal Chain Na Aaye.

After this performance, which seemed neither appropriate nor inappropriate, I read a brief passage from the book in English, and then watched the audience as the sections in

German were read out, since my knowledge of the town [Duisburg] to show me all the shops the language was non-existent. The reading and the houses [of Jews] that had been burned was by a former evangelical pastor, originally down [on Kristallnacht]. He didn’t say anyfrom East Germany, although it would have thing. I kept asking him, but he didn’t say anybeen easy to mistake him for a successful thing.” His English was not good, and he banker. He was completely immersed in the struggled with it, but these sentences came text and told me afterward, “That imam, Mau- through. The effort exhausted him though. lana Qayoom — is that how you say it? — I really His closest childhood friend had been Jewish, liked that character. What happens to him... and it still haunted him. His wife added a few horrible, horrible.” I did not know how to ask words in explanation. “If his father had told him about his experience of the Stasi regime him, then he might have spoken to other chilas a pastor under a government that believed dren, perhaps. In school, the children were all religion was passé at best, questioned about anybody mendangerous at worst. tioning the arson, or showing My hosts in Krefeld were an elsympathy. Such people were derly German couple, the husidentified and shipped off to conHe escaped, crossing band having retired as a teacher centration camps.” of literature. One room on the borders, and returned The old man waved the fingers home after the war, ground floor of their house was of both hands in a dismissive gesguided by a compass given over to German literature ture that said clearly, without the and nothing else (other topics — geography, world need of words, that he and his faliterature — occupied other ther would have been disposed rooms, even a basement) arof as easily as water flicked off a ranged by the year of the auperson’s fingers. His story did thor’s birth, starting from not end there. He was recruited Goethe and Schiller and marching to Grass. into the army at age 14 in the last year of the Many of them were first editions, but the new- war. He escaped, crossing borders, and returnest books had no place to be stacked. After ed home after the war, guided by a compass Grass, the books by new writers were piling up and nothing else. on tables and the floor. His wife was actually This was one of the regimes that our million the one playing host to me. She was also a soldiers fought against, and we know so little teacher, of German language to foreign stu- of it, or those who suffered under its heel, that dents, as well as an activist with Fair Trade in it saddens me. It is not just the sacrifices we Calcutta and the Literature Club in Krefeld. made, but the entirely necessary war we After the reading, the old man had been fought, whose goals we do not really engage worked up. The passage had rattled an old with, that is forgotten, and something of India memory, and he told me, “On November 10, is lost with it.

1938, when I was eight years old, my father t@OmairTAhmad took me by the hand and walked me through

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Iron-man cometh An artist’s rendering of the Sardar Patel statue that will come up on a river island in Gujarat under ‘The Statue of Unity’ project, for which the Narendra Modi government has sanctioned ₹200 crore reuters/information department, gujarat

I prefer to sit quietly and write Author Cyrus Mistry on second choices, the travails of publicity and the simple joy of writing

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Passion Flower Seven Stories of Derangement Cyrus Mistry Aleph Fiction ₹495

uthors often protest that they do not enjoy talking about their books, which must speak for themselves.

Yet, they most often make for the best interviews as they have thought hard and they articulate well. But there are those who do belong to the Salinger School of Reticence — whose personas arise from being removed from the mob. In our publicity-struck world, where authors’ faces sell books, to shun the limelight is a stand and not merely a preference. Cyrus Mistry is one of those rare authors who has remained out of sight. Not that he does not like talking to people one-on-one, he makes clear, it is just that crowds he cannot handle and publicity he hopes to be excused from. “I hope I can dissociate myself from the compulsion to market and publicise myself.

Once I have a body of work, I hope people will feel ‘he is too famous to be disturbed’,” he says, sneaking in a smile. He speaks with care, measuring each word, his gaze intent.

It has been a good year for the frail 58-years tools of political expression reold author.

He won the $50,000 DSCand South membrance go,Chronicle the ‘Statue Unity’ Asian Literature Prize for of of a Corpse project dreamt up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in a league of its own.

Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the first home minister of free India, is the ‘Iron man’ credited with bringing together 565 disparate princely states into one nation-state. Alive to the enormous political gains in appropriating his legacy, Modi, as the then chief minister of Gujarat, forcefully underscored the ‘need’ for the statue during election rallies. However, a drive to collect iron from across the country for the memorial has largely backfired as nearly 16 States are yet to respond.

After his elevation as prime minister, Modi renewed his interest in the project by allocating it ₹200 crore from the Union Budget. ‘The Statue of Unity’ site states: “India cannot afford to bury the life of a man as great as Sardar Patel... it is to make Sardar Patel a source of inspiration for every generation that such a massive and divine statue is being built.”

While the Patel statue is the tallest planned so far, it is by no means the first along these lines. Across the country are several longstanding projects to erect statues for personalities ranging from the Maratha warrior-king Shivaji and architect of the Indian Constitution BR Ambedkar in Mumbai to the 133-feet statue of the Tamil poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar in Kanyakumari.

“The fact is that statues have been prominent tools of political expression from antiquity,” says AG Krishna Menon, convenor, Intach Delhi. “In India, you can find images of patrons sculpted on temple walls; and from colonial times, the European model of placing statues of kings. And more recently, cultural figures became the established norm. This model is rooted in the Greek and Roman antiquity of Europe.”

Bearer, has just completed a three-city tour, worlds of pollution and purity, and the procand is out with a remarkable collection of esses of death and faith. For an author who short stories — Passion Flower: Seven Stories of says “I did not know how to write a novel... the Derangement. Even for those who don’t like be- form itself was a big stumbling block”, Corpse ing ‘out there’, prize money makes the differ- Bearer is a finely wrought work, where the plot ence between hustling to write and being skips along at a steady pace. allowed to write. And these are choices, Mistry, Passion Flower, a collection of short stories recovering from a long illness, has known all spanning 30 years, is an even more assured too well. “It has solved a lot of financial prob- work, for the characters spring out from the lems,” he says, “it has stopped creditors pages and shake you by the collar in a way that breathing down my neck... I can now get back only madness — or everydayness — can. Unexto writing.” pected Grace, about a young mother’s strugWriting fiction has always been a second gles with her newborn child and her choice for him. His first love has been and re- suspicions about her husband, achieves just mains playwriting. Fiction is a more inde- what Mistry sets out to do with his writing. pendent world requiring only a writer and a “Writing is a dry, gruelling, lonely pastime. reader. A play, on the other hand, When you are emotionally mandates a director, actors, stirred, then you want to write. crew and an audience to blow You want to move your reader, life into it. Mistry had to wait 10 they should get a lump in the You want to move years to bring to stage his awardthroat... otherwise, there is no your reader, they winning play, Doongaji House, point,” says the author, who adshould get a lump in written when he was 21. He enmits to the foibles of emotional the throat... sequent death to excuses the creation countered the led usual of of Andhra thing you can do, we It also can do.’ It was as excesses. is impossible to not otherwise, there is Pradesh in 1953, for instance, became revered much “no commercial potential”.

In a symbol of achievement the Secrebe moved

by Preeti’sasdoings and no point as Amarajeevi (immortal being) 1991, theatre director Toni Pateland his statutariat across the road.” He referring Grace. to the undoing in was Unexpected es appeared every Amajor urban centre in statue of Dewan brought it toinstage. popular Sir T Madhav Rao. daughter, Staring at her infant the newly carved-out State. And Mahesh Dattani production fol- in a strange Equally as she statues are used to unsuspectprop up a wonders, “How andlowed, tellingasturn events,translater, as the move- cause or personality, did aofMarathi are helpless the first to bevulating, howthey utterly and mentlation for a that breakaway Telangana travelled across heated up, tacked by those on theshe opposing side. easy to nerable is. How many the of Sreeramulu’s statues country. In Delhi on in thethose DSC parts prize smother, During to the height Naxalbari movesnuff out of thisthe little morsel of life. were desecrated. tour, he says, “Unless you are an active ment thebeen late times ’60s, the statues that were There in have when, pacing the livIn Tamil Nadu, a Statewhich which routinely theatre person, I am not,elects it is seen as representative the Bengalyowling State maing-room floor with herofsenselessly in its political from plays. the world cinema, chinery toughleaders to produce The of exigencies repeatedly vandalised.

“They my arms were — indigestion, colic, the doctor said — idolatryofand statues are integral to any narra-a considered earning a living forced me to write of leaders like Ram Mohan when I havestatues considered, no that’s not correct, tive of power. novel. I wrote one play, then 10 years Roy, the philosopher Ishwar Sathe thought has crossed myChandra mind ofVidya its own On a December morning in 2002, statueI gar, later I wrote another.

In thethe interim, and of those belonging Bengali volition, how simple it wouldtobethe to grip her reby of Kannagi, “theshort one who burnt wrote stories and did journal- the legs and naissance of the smash her as soft symbols skull against the Pandyan capital of Madurai ism... for me that was a squander- wall...” Whilebourgeoisie,” says Shantanu Senthe subtitle of the book clearly to ashes” ining... the Tamil Cillap- to take up hints at madness, I wasepic compelled gupta, for a scholar the characters Centre for Mistryatthe patikaram, went missing the form of thefrom novel.”

Socialare Sciences, Kolkathat breatheStudies in theseinpages “lonely” and its pedestal onItthe Marina is city’s a second choice that has “quirky”, ta. “These statues “disturbances” were regularly with frequent Astrologers had those promenade.reaped While profits. the official He says, “For years, thein their lives.found decapitated or brought warned statue communication given washow would I felt I did notout know to writebring a bad to only the the ground Hisluck pausescrashing stretch long, flutter all of that a truck had rammed into— it istothe novel.

Then I realised only through thatthe period.” hands distracts from thought-filled sithe rulinghis leaders the statue andthat it will had earn beenyou money.” A lences. As the author thing ‘Chappal garlands’ of two novels,and two other plays moved for repairs, rumours novel he remains proud of, Radiance and currentlymeans of desecrating Ambedkar working on a collection of plays swirled that political powers of Ashes — a coming-of-age story set and a novel, statues are usually thefilled first Mistry grew up in ahow home were behind as astroloin the shift, Bombay of the early ’90s — with books and blood is drawn in any attacks music.

His father’s father owngers had warned that the statue was first published inwould the UKbring and against the DalitHis community. episodes ed a bookshop. brother is The the much-acbad luck to the rulers of the State. got him substantial royalty but min- lead to all-out between communities. claimed authorclashes Rohinton Mistry.

He had read The statue’simal translocation mileage. to Hethe feltGovernshort- In lead-upsuch to the Pradesh thethe Russians, asAndhra Dostoevsky andAssembChekov, ment Museum created a predictable uproar, ly changed by the publisher, 2012, for example, withinto a byby-elections 11. He admitsin that he devoured the Greats which many believe ledseemed to the ruling party’s who to have little week least six Ambedkar were atmake aatfavourable impressionstatues with the adults. defeat in the following Assembly elections. time for an Indian author. tacked across thewas State.

His childhood filled with music — he The incoming chief Mistry’s minister second and DMKnovel, stal- learned And while debate over whether it the the piano, andrages is certain that the wart M Karunanidhi promptly the is Chronicle reinstalled of a Corpse justified buildinfuse a statue four rhythms ofto music hiscosting writing.

He times never statue at the Marina. Interestingly, wasreader Karu- the Bearer took itthe money needed for awriting.

Mars mission, Ramis Su-a listens to music while “But there nanidhi who commissioned the cloistered statue in tar, into the the 90-year-old famous for conconnection betweensculptor music and writing,” he 1968, when he was the world publicof works minister, structing the khandhias many oftothe Mayawati statues says, “it is very hard explain...” and his party counts among chief achieve- commissioned (Parsiitscorpse-bearers) by quietly a former Pradesh Preferring to sit and Uttar write, and easments, the many statues—ittheir installed on the and Ma- chief practices minister,by offers some sobering perspecily distracted people, Mistry is impatient rina of figures from Tamil literature. their rituals. While tive.

“A statue’s lifehe iscan longer thantoathe person’s.

So for the day when return solitude telling the story of the once constructed, can take on any of Kodaikanal, his itadopted home fornumber the last An easy target son of a fire temple of meanings as is Mumbai, convenient that in 10 years.

Far from he for loves thetime gentle In his essay about statues in Trivandrum, his- history.” priest who falls in love Sutar He’s been buildhill-station, forshould it is theknow. one place that allows torian Robin Jeffrey writes: “The statue of un-a ing with the daughter forbe 67ayears. the statues author to writer. veiled on May 30, 1893…corpse was a way of saying to bearer, it also nandini nair arasu British rulers: ‘We toodelves have statesmen. deep into Anythe sibi

The rise and rise of statues Q

Commemoration is all too often a tall, and very expensive, order in Indian politics

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Go away closer Mistry chooses the solitude of Kodaikanal for his writing

Those that went before Potti Sreeramulu, the man whose fast and sub-

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Pelf in the gloom The lure of officialdom — the white Ambassador, the red beacon, the power ap/ manish swarup

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Kill for the IAS Tomorrow morning nine lakh candidates will sit for the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT).

Aspirants give years to this exam… this cause. BLink maps their story of hope and inertia

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hashibhushan Chaubey is the master of all he surveys. He bestrides the pavement, arms akimbo, shirt stretched across paunch, teeth stained with paan and gold chain peeping out from under a denim collar. The hopefuls bow, fawn and ask for his advice. “Vajiram guide,” he decrees, as if revealing a secret panacea. The repeaters dive straight for the piles of yellow and white stacks, they flip left, they flip right, make a quick purchase and scurry back to their rooms. Those who have cleared the prelims (PTs in local parlance) or even the mains, shake his hand, do salaam and swagger on.

Forty-two-year-old Chaubey runs Atul Photostat opposite Batra Cinema in Mukherjee Nagar, north Delhi. The piles of guidebooks and study material he sells from his 10x10 feet shop might one day distill Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers from candidates.

Started in 2005, in a basement, today Atul Photostat is a meeting point for aspirants, who arrive in lakhs to north Delhi from across India.

‘Seniors’ counsel ‘juniors’, recommending certain coaching institutes while declaring others bogus, ‘juniors’ provide newbies with all-important paying guest and dabba advice.

Chaubey first came to Delhi from Aurangabad district, Bihar, in 2001. At that time, there was only one coaching academy on the block.

He refused to join, believing that he could

study better on his own. For four years, he — security, power and prestige. Nearly 40 years shared a room with three others and studied later, it is unfortunate that little has changed. every day for 14 to 16 hours. Did he see much of And while no one admits it, the IAS is also seen Delhi? What did he think of the city? He as the quickest and smoothest way to make throws a disdainful stare, “Mera matlab aur money. For the lakhs sitting for the exam, the maksad sirf padhai se tha...” (My only goal and IAS (the top choice edging out even the Indian purpose was studies.) He married during Foreign Service) remains the only door not onthose years, but his wife remained in Bihar ly for samaaj seva (social service), but also the with his parents so he could study. They didn’t power to make decisions and implement urge him to return; while failure is a festering one’s own preferences and predilections. In fear, there is nothing stronger — the Indian mindset, power arises or more human — than hope. not from economic clout but the Once he had exhausted his authority of the State. The notion chances, he had little interest in in the traditionally feudal Hindi finding another profession. The heartland is that wealth follows Once he had UPSC had ensnared him. If he on the heels of power rather than exhausted his couldn’t make the hallowed serthe other way round. chances, he had little vice, he’d help others do it. And The increasing number of caninterest in finding what better way than providing didates from Uttar Pradesh (UP) another profession. students study guides. and Bihar tells the larger story of The UPSC had the lack of opportunities and exensnared him The Cause posure in these States. The caTomorrow morning nine lakh reers these candidate will carve candidates will sit for the Civil out if they enter the Service reServices Aptitude Test (CSAT). Of mains unknown, but the world these, less than 200 will make it to the Indian of the aspirant is one of perseverance borderAdministrative Service (IAS) and 1,200 into any ing on obsession, a determination that seems service at all. This is easily the most competi- like madness. They put their lives on hold, tive exam in the world. However, year after they surrender themselves to the whims of year, the number of aspirants only increases. this exam... this Cause. They survive on little In the ’70s, the lure of a sarkari job was obvious else but hope. This is a story of hope.

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Service industry Rites of passage Shashibhushan At tomorrow’s exam the maximum number of Chaubey outside the candidates are from Delhi, home to hundreds photocopy shop he of coaching academies. Mukherjee Nagar has set up after exhausting always been a bastion for Delhi University stuall his CSAT attempts; dents. Baroque balconies bedecked with launand (below) the bustling Agarwalwala dered underwear, parks packed with students lane, also in Mukherjee poring over books, the occasional coffee shop, Nagar ramesh sharma the omnipresent beauty parlour, the rickshawwallah, the samosa-seller, the alley where one can score (marijuana that is) — these are the hallmarks of this area. But Batra complex has always been all this and something more.

Packed with hundreds of coaching institutes — ALS, Omniscient, Paramount, Ujjwal, Chanakya, etcetera, etcetera — that promise to make Leaders for Tomorrow, this is the national hub for the Union Public Service Commission ecently, have been para-clear (UPSC) exam, Iwhich everyfinding aspirantamust “one good idea” (a good artist will have one in slim older woman in a floral dress taking doxany at the heart of all that is in life his or her lifetime, a genius may have two): to small and purposeful steps, her eyes lowered, to enter of India’s premier services. and thedwell world.

And so it was with use her body as her material.

Aspirants in lanes called Meerutwalla shoulders rounded. They walk perhaps seven Abramovic’s Hours, and Marina Aggarwalwala, named512after the asweet In an early work, she scratched out the five- lengths of the room together. long-duration performance Serpentine shops at their entrance.atAtthe around 5pm, they point communist star on her belly with a raAn assistant with a pixie haircut (in fact, Gallery in London the artist, a dozen pour out of involving their rooms, notebooks under zor. She screamed until she lost her voice, Lynsey Peisinger, Abramovic’s key collaboraor soarm, black-clad assistants, someand props, and toward all danced until she collapsed, took psychoactive tor) is unexpectedly at my shoulder. She and march in twos threes 160 gallery Onthe onerare hand 512 Hours various visitors. classes. On leisurely evening, drugs, lived with Aborigines in the Australian smiles and leads me to the end of the room to seemed and banal, and on the othstall for Batheyridiculous gather around the litti-chokha desert for a year in temperatures that never start our walk. It is an extraordinary experier, quite extraordinary.

— informal discussions on exam pattrabaazi dipped below 45°C. Her work pushed at all ence. I notice the warmth of her small hand In terns leafy or Kensington Gardens, at precisely even matters of the heart. Batra limits: of pain, physical and mental endu- and the comfort of the contact. I am alone but 10amcomplex Abramovic swung open as theit is double is as rich in dreams in desperrance, of what is art, of the relationship be- not alone. I have an acute awareness of my surdoorsation. of theThe Serpentine and of welcomed as- top average age entrantsthe to the tween artist and audience. roundings — of the dark green terrazzo tiles sembled throng with a broad smile, as into services today hovers at around 28,ifwhereas a Later years have seen a mellowing, a move- on which I am placing my feet, the leopard is an electrical engineer, in politics),” he ahead says. The her own At least she was clothed. few home. years ago it was closer to 24. (In Im- mentAditya towards long-duration per- with a few at- quite interested print onesie five paces of lure temptsand undermass his belt; Thakur is also a veteran of the redme. beacon culture runs rampant ponderabilia, 1977, former visitors UPSC had to squeezeand be-chief PK Mishra, member formance audience I am absolutely present and in with a background in Chemistry.

They’re not candidates from UPwalking and Bihar.

Students tween the naked bodies Abramovic and herget in secretary of UP, saysof very few candidates participation.

More than half-athe slow seems to ex-from too worried about the impending CSAT or the more affluent that offertime greater opporlong-term to entertoday a Bologon thecollaborator first attempt;Ulay the average is three million people saw Abramovic’s pandStates each moment, itself, The humble bluethat have beeniswrought to the exam. tunities, such Maharashtra na gallery.)

Here looked in whiteget in attempts.

Heshe believes if ademure, person doesn’t 2010changes retrospective The Artist Prein a as profound way. and ThisGujarat, is green lentils have This locality, they say,1,400 is rifeof with throw up far fewer candidates. shirt,by black trousers and long black the fourth try, it’sshoes. highlyHer unlikely he or she sent at MoMA New York, meditation. somehow been repeaters.

TheirgazneighVKa Singh, from Allahabad, hair swept ponytail off acategory white, remarkwill oninto theafifth.

General candidates themstories took of part in “mutual In third room, heads are who imbued with a is across particularly openedover the Excellent Acadeably un-aged can writeface. the exam six times till the age of 32, ing”,bour sitting from famous her at a for bunched 23 schoolCivil desks grandeur it to the interview stage my inlong Karnal inOn 2005, The self-styled “grandmother” performOBCs and SC/STs are allowedofmore attempts tablemaking and staring into her eyes. in three rows. eachsays is a that with three helentils first put anceand art was Belgrade, in This thrice, also born enjoyin a higher ageYugoslavia, cut-off. show brought her adifferent rockstaropof puy and up rice,posters a Batra complex is as pilewhen tional “He sits (for the screaming ‘Prepare for Civils’, 1946. There she had she describes as her of But who is towhat tell that to the thousands status (notsubjects. to mention rockstar of A4 paper and a sharprich in dreams as it is sheet exam) everyher year, people whether hopefuls? At Mukherjee Nagar, Ajay Devgn josfriends), shifting andbut her doesn’t meened pencil.would Some ask people have he in desperation it. Who will take him when could get them job atpiles, the Civil tles against posters of institutes and ‘Room hi diummake into the “cultural superhighway”. separated their rice and lentils intoa large he is already a where well-paying Hospital. realised that Room’ because the locality is on a war footing There a lockerhas room everything has others have arranged themHe in quickly linear patterns. job? The in this“Count dusty town in Haryana, for the PTs. Here, no one has time for Singham. to bebank deposited.

Nointerviewer sunglasses, will no watches, An assistant whispers, the grains of think yehnotoh wordthere ‘Civils’bedidanything not have the corrupt hoga (he are al- rice.” Surprised the and certainly telephones or cameras (could currency it this has in He had must says “It’s Aditya. do they The lesser lanes lowed intobe thecorrupt),” performance. veryWhy impormoresame banal?), I ask if is his thehometown. task everyone to change posters to ‘Prepare for IASI and to join the civil services?

“Samaj seva Ber Sarai, a warren of IAS institutes and PGs in tant want that the visitor will not be connected to karhas been given,the and she nods.

But actually IPS’ to get draw in students. that’s the hai. reality,” Lekin power jo milta hai,Ulrich south Delhi, is Mukherjee Nagar lite. Presided any na other explained Hans can hardly over the marbled beauty of the In UP,lentils; it is a different story altogether. thing want to do social service, but the over by a Made Easy academy, here too three Obrist, the (we Serpentine’s co-director of exhibiblue-green the humble staple has Julia Simlai,been associate professor head of the Geget is the real men live to a room. We walk in uninvited on tionspower and you programmes.

Earthing).” defenders are somehow imbued with a and grandeur that ography Department at Isabella Thoburn Aditya Jha and Sudhanshu Shekhar Thakur on handed out to those who want them. I don brings to mind Blake’s famous line: “To see a College, been teaching Geography to UPSC the morning of Independence Day. Their mineC/O andHindi enter.heartland world in a has grain of sand…” in Lucknow more than 20 years.

In Mukherjee Nagar,arrayed 26-year-old Shyam Chand In aspirants room is empty of all distractions other than People are randomly across a low, 512 Hours the audience for becomes the mateShe most of the students fromplatform, Allahabad, UP, concurs; will take the essentials and textbooks. Towels are draped wooden standing alone he or in pairs, rial of a says performance that shows come themfrom whatrural backgrounds andenter towns such Balia, fourth time. “IAS over window frames. Razor, comb and toothand exam they for are the sitting quietly on main chairspower sur- milcan happen when they fully intoasthe pre- Bahand Badaun. academies se hoon, ta hai.the Aur platform. main toh UP brush hang near the mirror. We pretend to not rounding Others are politics leaningmain sent raich moment.

And theCoaching overwhelming re- — in Lucknow or Delhi — costThe ₹75,000 to over one hai (And fromobservUP, so I’m kaafi notice the kachchas (underwear) on the floor. against theinterest white walls of theI’m gallery, sponse has been gratitude. exhibition’s ing the strange tableau. This is what happens: Tumblr page abounds in this kind of comAbramovic or an assistant leads a visitor by the ment: “Beautiful... I feel thankful for the expehand to a platform or chair, instructs rience and time to wander through thoughts, her to keep her eyes closed, to memory, silence and stillness.” There is the breathe, and they stand to- odd dissenting voice: “This is a complete farce. gether for some time, like Art as a great deception.” And some who don’t statues, holding hands. know what to think, “I don’t know if I loved it Then the assistant leaves to or hated it.” draw another person into On balance, the experience was more prothe picture. How do you found than banal or ridiculous — it was probaget picked? I wonder. It’s bly the most fully present I have ever been in like waiting to be chosen an art gallery. But perhaps the greater paradox for a school team without was this: the performance was billed as Abrabeing sure that you like movic’s most radical yet, but it was about sharthe sport. ing with the public a form of a practice — In the second room, the mindfulness, meditation — that is 2,500 years sport is slow-motion old. A spiritual practice (also radical in its day) walking and I immediate- first documented in India in the time of the ly like it more. Seven Buddha and the Upanishads. people are taking tiny (512 Hours runs at Serpentine Gallery, London steps at the slowest pace till Monday.) they can. Abramovic is holding the hand of a charty dugdale writes on travel and art

Mindful with Marina Abramovic

The self-styled ‘grandmother’ of performance art makes her audience her material and leaves them fully aware of the present moment

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Body of artwork Marina Abramovic’s long-duration performance 512 Hours at the Serpentine Gallery, London marco anelli

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lakh a year. The money is seen as an investment — possibly a life-changing one — and certainly, the only route to power and prestige.

The business of kingmaking Across the institutes, we meet former UPSC aspirants, like Chaubey, who prepared, took the exam and failed. Instead of casting aside this world, where the chances of becoming an IAS officer are nearly one in 10,000, they chose to remain in it, and to help others learn from their mistakes. Anita Sharma, who sits in an air-conditioned room, which also passes off as the Omniscient IAS Academy at the top of a rickety steel staircase that runs up Batra cinema, has a similar story. The first female graduate from her village of Jagner, outside Agra, she decided to become an IAS officer in Class VIII, the day she saw the Agra District Magistrate come to her village for some land reclamation work. She wrote the exam thrice but could not clear it. “If you can’t be king, you become kingmaker,” she says with a laugh, while trying to stop her two-year-old daughter Cherry, who she keeps with her at the office, from leaping off the table.

Even while considering these improbable, no, ludicrous chances, aspirants surrender lucrative jobs for a chance at the Services. In November 2005, 25-year-old mechanical engineer Tirumala KV left his job in Bangalore and moved to Jia Sarai in south Delhi to prepare for the Civils. Six years and four attempts MANJH KHAMAJ later, he joined the Indian Trade Services (ITS) or Indian Tatta (shit) Services, as his ‘Punjabi biwi’ lovingly christened it. The Shimoga-native kept a blog of that time, recording the daily travails of being an IAS aspirant. He names his desert cooler Marvin, eavesdrops on girls living upstairs through the ‘chimney’ in his room, and writes of the anxiety of result days and the heartbreak after. When a former Jia Sarai-ite visits their adda and introduces himself — “Hi, I’m Sanjay… IRS” — Tirumala is full of scorn. “Theelhi man is nodisappoints longer a name, is a never with he ‘heard designation, he believes He lives it. He onand the street’ gems;it.Khan Market is breathes it.particularly I am XYZ IRS. I am ABCinIAS. I am fertile.

I was Mercury KLM IPS,” he vents rummaging on his blog. through their Audio, During those six years, Tirumala took the up impressive Hindustani music stock, when jobs in Bangalore, saved moneythe andmusic returned vanilla music playing through systo hisstopped modestand quarters at Jia toUstad attempt tem gave way toSarai one of Vithe Hemore failed twice dhuns. before Just clearing it. layatexam.

Khan’s popular as I was Newly married, only prospect of the honwarming up to it, thethe dhun was replaced by a Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia piece. After a few seconds, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma took over.

My curiosity took me to the source of the music. Two women were requesting the changes: one had plans of buying, the other was advising. A few more options later, the adviser said, “Take the first one. It was the most soothing.”

Whatever the contest, Ustad Vilayat Khan remains unbeatable. He had a new feather to add to his titles: along with Aftaab-e-Sitar (Sun of the Sitar), he was now ‘the most soothing’.

The conversation between the two ladies got better. It emerged that the buyer was looking for a CD to accompany her fitness sessions.

The prude that I am (and try hard not to be), I was shocked at the thought of my favourite maestro’s notes forming a background to a Pilates class.

Perhaps I overreacted. Many contemporary Hindustani musicians would find nothing wrong with that and most music companies would be delighted at the prospect.

Like baked chips and fat-free ice cream, Hindustani music now has a healthy option: Music Therapy.

Bookstores don’t face a problem displaying the works of Deepak Chopra and his ilk. Snugly, they sit in Self Help. Music stores are yet to introduce such a shelf. The Music Therapy CDs invariably appear in Indian Classical. Rashid Khan and Veena Sahasrabuddhe are interspersed with ‘Inner Feelings’ and ‘Pure Bliss’.

eymoon would soften the blow of the result. ams, while also completing their MAs, MPhils Seniors would offer mostly unsolicited advice and even PhDs. Michelle Bolouruchi from Calion subjects as varied as the choice of study ma- fornia, and formerly with JNU, has just submitterial to the colour of the interview-tie. “Ini- ted her MPhil thesis on ‘UPSC aspirants in a tially, we all wanted to join the IAS to change University setting’. Based in India since 2008, the world, serve the nation,” says Tirumala, she realised that at JNU she could find a mini now the deputy director general of Foreign ethnography and chose to focus on a group of Trade in Bangalore. “But by the third or fourth 16 aspirants. With her viva still pending, she attempt, it is basically about cracking the ex- does not want to divulge too many details of shutterstock am, making the cut.” Many aspirants, he says, her thesis, but says that while power is a bait, are graduates from ordinary colmany candidates do wish to do leges (not the IITs, IIMs or NITs) something for their country. She for whom preparing for the IAS has been told that to get into the becomes their sole hope. FamIAS means seven generations will ilies buy into it, sending pocket be happy. While JNU might proIf you can’t be king, money month after month. Stuvide a Plan B, it is eventually a setyou become dents live the dream, year after tling, an act of finally conceding kingmaker year, preferring to remain IAS asthat the dream has failed. pirants rather than graduates Chaubey and Aditya Jha agree. on a break with no Plan B. On an“What would they go back to,” other blog, an aspirant confessasks Chaubey. Pressure runs high es to concocting a frightening tale involving a as “stakes get higher,” says Tirumala. Some like near-death experience, rather than reveal the Anita The proximity underscores the irony: Khan’s Sharma upsimply titular posts at acoaching that music —take quite music: song, a actual result the exam to his family.

He had Bageshree orofSahasrabuddhe’s Madhmad Sa- centres, some like Kalpanasyncopation Sharma open meend, an out-of-the-blue — their is effailed only thetopossibility of death could rang isand presumed be less therapeutic than own institutes.

Ashutosh fective medicineOthers for our like afflictions.

The Tiwari sleeve present thatneighbours. failure in a better light. its curative become experts offering classes to stunotes of subject a CD don’t administer the therapy: UsA few days ago, I happened to notice an of- dents thronging of Mukherjee Natad Bade Ghulamthe Ali lanes Khan just needs to sing Campus calling fering from Hindustani slide guitar maestro gar, Jia Sarai and Beron Sarai. you don’t make ‘Chand Re’, landing the “If epic pancham, and Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi has it, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt: ‘Music for in Mental Peace’. left with nothing,” says Tirumala. theyou’re world looks brighter.

How would the great churned out IAS to officers since ’70s.comes Here, “You Leaving nothing chance, thethe album a failure; quite exustadthink have you felt are if each of hisI can’t three-minutestudents years trying to crack the ex- plain with the spend subtitle: ‘Advanced Music Therapy’.

I went through it. Kedar But I had theJaijaisupgems it.

— the Kamod or the or the (It is not a new release, but I had not come port wife, and myà child was and on the way. wantiof—my were glossed la ‘Peace Calm’? across it before.)

It’s tougher for the single Andmuch for his listeners, many of ones,” them he toosays. old The coupling of classical music and therapy, It’s not that dating now tosurprising browse CDthen racks, would itsites be a(some cause then, is not entirely a function of that are exclusive to MukherjeeorNagar) for bewilderment would have it be the store manager’s whim. Incropped up, teeming with requests from men an affront? creasingly, Hindustani musiwhose “dream Itisisto crack lookingHinfor odd thatIAS” established cians (both established and “cute” girlfriends. dustani musicians should think not-so) are working on music Despite drawtheir of this world, isn’t withmusic initits regular Like baked chips and thethat therapy albums. Musicians are its flaws. Kush Verma, general, Nacourse does director not uplift or soothe. fat-free iceout cream, not immune to silliness — makAdministrative Research, The of need to fall under the music Hindustanitional musicInstitute ing inane music by just playing a believes thattherapy the present exam format tests umbrella is perhaps now has a healthy bandish with drums — but option: musicknowledge A sealignedthan withcompetencies. the need to make Intherapy rather something about music therapy nior IAS officer he music has submitted a dianhimself, classical accessible. albums is not quite harmless. thesis that says administrative service in Butthe is that goal achieved by packWhen straight-up renditions of India is still aaging colonial construct andalbums a generalalone?

Existing are Khamaj and Kafi, with emphaist system. A serious problem with the new IAS, acbeing re-launched with tisised lilt, are presented as ‘Peace and Calm’ cording to him, that policymaking and tles and new track is names. and ‘Total Relaxation’ (the actual ragas appear- execution have not remained Ustad Shahid Parvez’s Shyamindependent, Kalyan now ing as subtitles — as is the case with Bhatt’s al- rather one world interferes with‘No theTension other. forms part of an album called bum), the exercise raises questions. Does the While theRagas’; brightest and the bestBanerjee’s do come into through Pandit Nikhil Henomenclature infuse healing powers into an the economist mantsystem, is now Verma ‘Relief’ believes in ‘Musicthat for Relaxation’. otherwise mundane Khamaj? Therapy Kaushik Basu was right when heofdescribed IAS The presumption is that a list tracks with through music is well accepted across the officers as “F1 drivers caught a traffic jam”. fluffy titles (and a promise toin cure) is cause for world. Whatever its efficacy, it is fair to expect more In Mukherjee Nagar, thousands are curious hoping curiosity than a list of ragas. But that some degree of rigour is exercised (be- to become drivers, even if thetherapeutic road aheadreis buyers are F1 likely to get equal yond the time spent in naming tracks) to justi- filled with potholesa and traffic light is lief, not to mention morethe meaningful introfy why a set of notes should constitute therapy stuck at red. would agree withfrom Chaubey, duction to Lakhs Hindustani music, the and not music per se. who says, “The Hindustani trouble withalbums, this linewhether is, you non-medicinal Ustad Ali Akbar Khan believed that an ailing never it won’t or that you won’t or notthink they are whathappen the doctor ordered. person could recover faster if made to hear ei- make it...” ther Yaman Kalyan or Shudh Kalyan every day. arunabha deb is a Kolkata-based music writer and and priyanka kotamraju shubhodeb@hotmail.com lawyer nair Without going to that extent, it is safe to say nandini

QCalm?

Kedar or Peace and

Desperate times...

Members of the Samajwadi Party student union stop a train near Allahabad to demand a new CSAT format afp/sanjay kanojia; and (above) UPSC aspirant Mohammed Aftab in his papery world at Mukherjee Nagar monica tiwari

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There is something discomforting about finding a favourite maestro’s notes forming the background to Pilates

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Forsaken, forgotten From Hyderabad to Tiruvannamalai, Hubli to Delhi, statues that once stood tall now cut a sorry figure

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have seen thousands of statues abandoned or simply neglected across the country.

Our faith systems lead us to believe that even a stone can acquire divinity through pran pratishtha (or establishment of soul and spirit). A dash of vermillion, the presence of a benevolent tree, and another deity comes into being to revere, to worship. In the case of unreligious statues, however, often this reverence quickly dissipates, as if the soul has left the body, as if the statue is all stone again. Soon the sculpted likeness of a once-loved political figure or national hero loses sheen, its stature reduced to a forlorn shadow, often at the centre of a busy square, a tattered old garland perhaps still hangs around the neck. Respect is lost — both for the artist and the icon he chiselled out of a featureless rock.

This bothers me, and even though I can’t do much to change what is really a collective, selective amnesia, I feel that by merely recording them through the lens, I add another annotation to this curious phenomenon.

Yet new statues rise every year, for our society needs to venerate, however transient that may be. An all-important hanger to conveniently hang our faith or ideology on. And to promptly forget. gireesh gv is a Delhi-based photographer. These images are part of his ongoing project, Decorative Soldiers.

Tall order Swami Vivekananda crosses his arms at Prathipadu in the East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. A 56-foot statue on an eight-foot-high base, it watches over the village from the Narendra Giri hillock next to a national highway

Gold mine A huddle of gilded luminaries near Chengam, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu

Graveyard shift Statues — cutting across

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Braving the elements At Hubli, Rani Chennamma of Kittur, who rebelled against the British

sss party lines — at a sculptor’s yard near Hyderabad

Changing with the times Gandhiji holds a RSS flag aloft near Kolar, Karnataka

Babasaheb in the wings An unattended BR Ambedkar statue awaits his turn at the pedestal in a small town in Andhra Pradesh

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Service industry Rites of passage Shashibhushan At tomorrow’s exam the maximum number of Chaubey outside the candidates are from Delhi, home to hundreds photocopy shop he of coaching academies. Mukherjee Nagar has set up after exhausting always been a bastion for Delhi University stuall his CSAT attempts; dents. Baroque balconies bedecked with launand (below) the bustling Agarwalwala dered underwear, parks packed with students lane, also in Mukherjee poring over books, the occasional coffee shop, Nagar ramesh sharma the omnipresent beauty parlour, the rickshawwallah, the samosa-seller, the alley where one can score (marijuana that is) — these are the hallmarks of this area. But Batra complex has always been all this and something more.

Packed with hundreds of coaching institutes — ALS, Omniscient, Paramount, Ujjwal, Chanakya, etcetera, etcetera — that promise to make Leaders for Tomorrow, this is the national hub for the Union Public Service Commission ecently, have been para-clear (UPSC) exam, Iwhich every finding aspirantamust “one good idea” (a good artist will have one in slim older woman in a floral dress taking doxany at the heart premier of all that is in life his or her lifetime, a genius may have two): to small and purposeful steps, her eyes lowered, to enter of India’s services. and thedwell world.

And so it was with use her body as her material.

Aspirants in lanes called Meerutwalla shoulders rounded. They walk perhaps seven Marina Abramovic’s Hours, and Aggarwalwala, named512 after the asweet In an early work, she scratched out the five- lengths of the room together. long-duration performance Serpentine shops at their entrance.atAtthe around 5pm, they point communist star on her belly with a raAn assistant with a pixie haircut (in fact, Gallery in London the artist, a dozen pour out of involving their rooms, notebooks under zor. She screamed until she lost her voice, Lynsey Peisinger, Abramovic’s key collaboraor soarm, black-clad assistants, someand props, and toward all danced until she collapsed, took psychoactive tor) is unexpectedly at my shoulder. She and march in twos threes 160 gallery Onthe onerare hand 512 Hours various visitors. classes. On leisurely evening, drugs, lived with Aborigines in the Australian smiles and leads me to the end of the room to seemed and banal, and on the othstall for Batheyridiculous gather around the litti-chokha desert for a year in temperatures that never start our walk. It is an extraordinary experier, quite extraordinary.

— informal discussions on exam pattrabaazi dipped below 45°C. Her work pushed at all ence. I notice the warmth of her small hand In terns leafy or Kensington Gardens, at precisely even matters of the heart. Batra limits: of pain, physical and mental endu- and the comfort of the contact. I am alone but 10amcomplex Abramovic swung open as theit is double is as rich in dreams in desperrance, of what is art, of the relationship be- not alone. I have an acute awareness of my surdoorsation. of theThe Serpentine and of welcomed as- top average age entrantsthe to the tween artist and audience. roundings — of the dark green terrazzo tiles sembled throng with a broad smile, as into a Later years have seen a mellowing, a move- on which I am placing my feet, the leopard services today hovers at around 28,ifwhereas is an electrical engineer, in politics),” he says. her own At least she was clothed. few home. years ago it was closer to 24. (In Im- mentAditya towards long-duration per- with a few at- quite interested print onesie five paces aheadThe of lure temptsand undermass his belt; Thakur is also a veteran of the redme. beacon culture runs rampant ponderabilia, 1977, former visitorsUPSC had to squeezeand be-chief PK Mishra, member formance audience I am absolutely present and in with a background in Chemistry.

They’re not candidatesthe from UPwalking and Bihar.

Students tween the naked bodies Abramovic and herget in secretary of UP, saysof very few candidates participation.

More than half-aslow seems to ex-from too worried about the impending CSAT or the more affluent that offertime greater opporlong-term to entertoday a Bologon thecollaborator first attempt;Ulay the average is three million people saw Abramovic’s pandStates each moment, itself, The humble bluethat have beeniswrought to the exam. tunities, such Maharashtra na gallery.)

Here looked in whiteget in attempts.

Heshe believes if ademure, person doesn’t 2010changes retrospective The Artist Prein a asprofound way. and ThisGujarat, is green lentils have locality, they say,1,400 is rifeof with throw up far fewer candidates. shirt,by black trousers and long black the fourth try, it’sshoes. highlyHer unlikely he or she sent This at MoMA New York, meditation. somehow been repeaters.

TheirgazneighVKaSingh, hair will swept ponytail off acategory white, remarkoninto the afifth.

General candidates themstories took of part in “mutual In third from room,Allahabad, heads are who imbued with a is particularly openedover the Excellent Acadeably can un-aged writeface. the exam six times till the age of 32, ing”,bour sitting across from famous her at a for bunched 23 schoolCivil desks grandeur it to the interview stage my inlong Karnal inOn 2005, The self-styled “grandmother” performOBCs and SC/STs are allowedofmore attempts tablemaking and staring into her eyes. in three rows. eachsays is a that with three he lentils first put anceand art also was enjoy born in Belgrade, in This thrice, a higher age Yugoslavia, cut-off. show brought her adifferent rockstaropof puy and up rice,posters a Batra complex is as pilewhen tional “He sits (for the screaming ‘Prepare Civils’, 1946. There she had she describes as her of But who is towhat tell that to the thousands status (notsubjects. to mention rockstar of A4 paper and a for sharprich in dreams as it is sheet exam) everyher year, people whether hopefuls? At Mukherjee Nagar, Ajay Devgn josfriends), shifting andbut herdoesn’t meened pencil.would Some ask people have he in desperation will take him when could them job atpiles, the Civil tles against posters of institutes and ‘Room hi diummake into it. theWho “cultural superhighway”. separated their rice and get lentils intoa large he is already a where well-paying Hospital. realised that Room’ because the locality is on a war footing There a lockerhas room everything has others have arranged themHe in quickly linear patterns. job? The in this“Count dusty town in Haryana, for the PTs. Here, no one has time for Singham. to bebank deposited.

Nointerviewer sunglasses, will no watches, An assistant whispers, the grains of think yehnotoh wordthere ‘Civils’bedidanything not have the corrupt hoga (he are al- rice.” Surprised the and certainly telephones or cameras (could currency it has He had must says Aditya. do they The lesser lanes lowed intobe thecorrupt),” performance.

“It’s veryWhy impormoresame banal?), I ask if thisin is his thehometown. task everyone to change posters to ‘Prepare for IASI and to join the civil “Samaj seva Ber Sarai, a warren of IAS institutes and PGs in tant want that the visitor will services? not be connected to karhas been given,the and she nods.

But actually IPS’ to draw in students. that’s the hai. reality,” Lekin power jo milta hai,Ulrich south Delhi, is Mukherjee Nagar lite. Presided any na other explained Hans can hardly get over the marbled beauty of the In UP,lentils; it is a different story altogether. thing want to do social service, but the over by a Made Easy academy, here too three Obrist, the (we Serpentine’s co-director of exhibiblue-green the humble staple hasJulia Simlai,been associate professor head of the Geget is the real men live to a room. We walk in uninvited on tionspower and you programmes.

Earthing).” defenders are somehow imbued with a and grandeur that ography Department at Isabella Thoburn Aditya Jha and Sudhanshu Shekhar Thakur on handed out to those who want them. I don brings to mind Blake’s famous line: “To see a College, been teaching Geography to UPSC the morning of Independence Day. Their mineC/O andHindi enter.heartland world in ahas grain of sand…” in Lucknow more than 20 years.

In Mukherjee Nagar,arrayed 26-year-old Shyam Chand In aspirants room is empty of all distractions other than People are randomly across a low, 512 Hours the audiencefor becomes the mateShea says most of the students fromplatform, Allahabad, UP, concurs; will take the essentials and textbooks. Towels are draped wooden standing alone he or in pairs, rial of performance that shows come themfrom whatrural backgrounds and enter towns such asthe Balia, fourth time. “IAS over window frames. Razor, comb and toothand exam they for arethe sitting quietly on main chairspower sur- milcan happen when they fully into pre- Bahand Badaun.

Coaching academies se hoon, ta hai.the Aur platform. main toh UP brush hang near the mirror. We pretend to not rounding Others are politics leaningmain sent raich moment.

And the overwhelming re- — in Lucknow or Delhi — costThe ₹75,000 to over one hai (And fromobservUP, so I’m kaafi notice the kachchas (underwear) on the floor. against theinterest white walls of theI’m gallery, sponse has been gratitude. exhibition’s ing the strange tableau. This is what happens: Tumblr page abounds in this kind of comAbramovic or an assistant leads a visitor by the ment: “Beautiful... I feel thankful for the expehand to a platform or chair, instructs rience and time to wander through thoughts, her to keep her eyes closed, to memory, silence and stillness.” There is the breathe, and they stand to- odd dissenting voice: “This is a complete farce. gether for some time, like Art as a great deception.” And some who don’t statues, holding hands. know what to think, “I don’t know if I loved it Then the assistant leaves to or hated it.” draw another person into On balance, the experience was more prothe picture. How do you found than banal or ridiculous — it was probaget picked? I wonder. It’s bly the most fully present I have ever been in like waiting to be chosen an art gallery. But perhaps the greater paradox for a school team without was this: the performance was billed as Abrabeing sure that you like movic’s most radical yet, but it was about sharthe sport. ing with the public a form of a practice — In the second room, the mindfulness, meditation — that is 2,500 years sport is slow-motion old. A spiritual practice (also radical in its day) walking and I immediate- first documented in India in the time of the ly like it more. Seven Buddha and the Upanishads. people are taking tiny (512 Hours runs at Serpentine Gallery, London steps at the slowest pace till Monday.) they can. Abramovic is holding the hand of a charty dugdale writes on travel and art

Mindful with Marina Abramovic

The self-styled ‘grandmother’ of performance art makes her audience her material and leaves them fully aware of the present moment

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lakh a year. The money is seen as an investment — possibly a life-changing one — and certainly, the only route to power and prestige.

The business of kingmaking Across the institutes, we meet former UPSC aspirants, like Chaubey, who prepared, took the exam and failed. Instead of casting aside this world, where the chances of becoming an IAS officer are nearly one in 10,000, they chose to remain in it, and to help others learn from their mistakes. Anita Sharma, who sits in an air-conditioned room, which also passes off as the Omniscient IAS Academy at the top of a rickety steel staircase that runs up Batra cinema, has a similar story. The first female graduate from her village of Jagner, outside Agra, she decided to become an IAS officer in Class VIII, the day she saw the Agra District Magistrate come to her village for some land reclamation work. She wrote the exam thrice but could not clear it. “If you can’t be king, you become kingmaker,” she says with a laugh, while trying to stop her two-year-old daughter Cherry, who she keeps with her at the office, from leaping off the table.

Even while considering these improbable, no, ludicrous chances, aspirants surrender lucrative jobs for a chance at the Services. In November 2005, 25-year-old mechanical engineer Tirumala KV left his job in Bangalore and moved to Jia Sarai in south Delhi to prepare for the Civils. Six years and four attempts MANJH KHAMAJ later, he joined the Indian Trade Services (ITS) or Indian Tatta (shit) Services, as his ‘Punjabi biwi’ lovingly christened it. The Shimoga-native kept a blog of that time, recording the daily travails of being an IAS aspirant. He names his desert cooler Marvin, eavesdrops on girls living upstairs through the ‘chimney’ in his room, and writes of the anxiety of result days and the heartbreak after. When a former Jia Sarai-ite visits their adda and introduces himself — “Hi, I’m Sanjay… IRS” — Tirumala is full of scorn. “Theelhi man is nodisappoints longer a name, is a never with he ‘heard designation, he believes He lives it. He on and the street’ gems;it.Khan Market is breathes it.

I am XYZ IRS. I am ABC I am particularly fertile.

I was inIAS. Mercury KLM IPS,” he ventsrummaging on his blog. through their Audio, During those six years, Tirumala took the up impressive Hindustani music stock, when jobs in Bangalore, saved moneythe andmusic returned vanilla music playing through systo hisstopped modestand quarters at Jia toUstad attempt tem gave way toSarai one of Vithe failed twice dhuns. beforeJust clearing it. layatexam.

Khan’sHe more popular as I was Newly married, only prospect of the honwarming up to it, thethe dhun was replaced by a Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia piece. After a few seconds, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma took over.

My curiosity took me to the source of the music. Two women were requesting the changes: one had plans of buying, the other was advising. A few more options later, the adviser said, “Take the first one. It was the most soothing.”

Whatever the contest, Ustad Vilayat Khan remains unbeatable. He had a new feather to add to his titles: along with Aftaab-e-Sitar (Sun of the Sitar), he was now ‘the most soothing’.

The conversation between the two ladies got better. It emerged that the buyer was looking for a CD to accompany her fitness sessions.

The prude that I am (and try hard not to be), I was shocked at the thought of my favourite maestro’s notes forming a background to a Pilates class.

Perhaps I overreacted. Many contemporary Hindustani musicians would find nothing wrong with that and most music companies would be delighted at the prospect.

Like baked chips and fat-free ice cream, Hindustani music now has a healthy option: Music Therapy.

Bookstores don’t face a problem displaying the works of Deepak Chopra and his ilk. Snugly, they sit in Self Help. Music stores are yet to introduce such a shelf. The Music Therapy CDs invariably appear in Indian Classical. Rashid Khan and Veena Sahasrabuddhe are interspersed with ‘Inner Feelings’ and ‘Pure Bliss’.

eymoon would soften the blow of the result. ams, while also completing their MAs, MPhils Seniors would offer mostly unsolicited advice and even PhDs. Michelle Bolouruchi from Calion subjects as varied as the choice of study ma- fornia, and formerly with JNU, has just submitterial to the colour of the interview-tie. “Ini- ted her MPhil thesis on ‘UPSC aspirants in a tially, we all wanted to join the IAS to change University setting’. Based in India since 2008, the world, serve the nation,” says Tirumala, she realised that at JNU she could find a mini now the deputy director general of Foreign ethnography and chose to focus on a group of Trade in Bangalore. “But by the third or fourth 16 aspirants. With her viva still pending, she attempt, it is basically about cracking the ex- does not want to divulge too many details of shutterstock am, making the cut.” Many aspirants, he says, her thesis, but says that while power is a bait, are graduates from ordinary colmany candidates do wish to do leges (not the IITs, IIMs or NITs) something for their country. She for whom preparing for the IAS has been told that to get into the becomes their sole hope. FamIAS means seven generations will ilies buy into it, sending pocket be happy. While JNU might proIf you can’t be king, money month after month. Stuvide a Plan B, it is eventually a setyou become dents live the dream, year after tling, an act of finally conceding kingmaker year, preferring to remain IAS asthat the dream has failed. pirants rather than graduates Chaubey and Aditya Jha agree. on a break with no Plan B. On an“What would they go back to,” other blog, an aspirant confessasks Chaubey. Pressure runs high es to concocting a frightening tale involving a as “stakes get higher,” says Tirumala. Some like near-death experience, rather than reveal the Anita The proximity underscores the irony: Khan’s Sharma upsimply titular posts that music — take quite music:at acoaching song, a actual result the exam to his family.

He had Bageshree orofSahasrabuddhe’s Madhmad Sa- centres, some like Kalpanasyncopation Sharma open meend, an out-of-the-blue — their is effailed only thetopossibility of death could rang isand presumed be less therapeutic than own institutes.

Ashutosh fective medicineOthers for our like afflictions.

The Tiwari sleeve present thatneighbours. failure in a better light. its curative become experts offering classes to stunotes of subject a CD don’t administer the therapy: UsA few days ago, I happened to notice an of- dents thronging lanes just of Mukherjee Natad Bade Ghulamthe Ali Khan needs to sing Campus calling fering from Hindustani slide guitar maestro gar, Jia Sarai and Beron Sarai. you don’t make ‘Chand Re’, landing the “If epic pancham, and Jawaharlal Nehru in Delhi has it, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt:University ‘Music for Mental Peace’. left with nothing,” says Tirumala. theyou’re world looks brighter.

How would the great churned out IAS to officers since ’70s.comes Here, “You Leaving nothing chance, thethe album a failure; quite exustadthink have you felt are if each of hisI can’t three-minutestudents spend years trying to crack the ex- plain with the subtitle: ‘Advanced Music Therapy’.

I went through it. Kedar But I had theJaijaisupgems it.

— the Kamod or the or the (It is not a new release, but I had not come port wife, and myà child was and on the way. wantiof—my were glossed la ‘Peace Calm’? across it before.)

It’s tougher for the single Andmuch for his listeners, many of ones,” them he toosays. old The coupling of classical music and therapy, It’s that dating nownot tosurprising browse CDthen racks, would it sites be a (some cause then, is not entirely a function of that are exclusive to Mukherjee for bewilderment orNagar) would have it be the store manager’s whim. Incropped up, teeming with requests from men an affront? creasingly, Hindustani musiwhose “dream Itisisto crack lookingHinfor odd that IAS” established cians (both established and “cute” girlfriends. dustani musicians should think not-so) are working on music Despite drawtheir of this world, isn’t withmusic in itits regular Like baked chips and thethat therapy albums. Musicians are its flaws. Kush Verma, director Nacourse does not upliftgeneral, or soothe. fat-free iceout cream, not immune to silliness — makAdministrative Research, The of need to fall under the music Hindustanitional musicInstitute ing inane music by just playing a believes thattherapy the present exam format tests umbrella is perhaps now has a healthy bandish with drums — but option: musicknowledge A Insealignedthan withcompetencies. the need to make therapy rather something about music therapy nior IAS officer hemusic has submitted dianhimself, classical accessible.a albums is not quite harmless. thesis that says administrative in Butthe is that goal achievedservice by packWhen straight-up renditions of India is still aaging colonial construct andalbums a generalalone?

Existing are Khamaj and Kafi, with emphaist system. A serious problem with thenew IAS, acbeing re-launched with tisised lilt, are presented as ‘Peace and Calm’ cording to him, that policymaking and tles and new track is names. and ‘Total Relaxation’ (the actual ragas appear- execution have not remained Ustad Shahid Parvez’s Shyamindependent, Kalyan now ing as subtitles — as is the case with Bhatt’s al- rather one world interferes with‘No theTension other. forms part of an album called bum), the exercise raises questions. Does the While theRagas’; brightest and the bestBanerjee’s do come into through Pandit Nikhil Henomenclature infuse healing powers into an the economist mantsystem, is now Verma ‘Relief’ believes in ‘Musicthat for Relaxation’. otherwise mundane Khamaj? Therapy Kaushik Basu was right when heofdescribed IAS The presumption is that a list tracks with through music is well accepted across the officers as “F1 drivers caught a traffic jam”. fluffy titles (and a promise toin cure) is cause for world. Whatever its efficacy, it is fair to expect more In Mukherjee Nagar, thousands are curious hoping curiosity than a list of ragas. But that some degree of rigour is exercised (be- to become drivers, even if the road aheadreis buyers are F1 likely to get equal therapeutic yond the time spent in naming tracks) to justi- filled with potholesa more and the traffic light is lief, not to mention meaningful introfy why a set of notes should constitute therapy stuck at red. would agree withfrom Chaubey, duction to Lakhs Hindustani music, the and not music per se. who says, “The Hindustani trouble withalbums, this linewhether is, you non-medicinal Ustad Ali Akbar Khan believed that an ailing never it won’t or that you won’t or notthink they are what happen the doctor ordered. person could recover faster if made to hear ei- make it...” ther Yaman Kalyan or Shudh Kalyan every day. arunabha deb is a Kolkata-based music writer and nair and priyanka kotamraju lawyer shubhodeb@hotmail.com Without going to that extent, it is safe to say nandini

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Desperate times...

Members of the Samajwadi Party student union stop a train near Allahabad to demand a new CSAT format afp/sanjay kanojia; and (above) UPSC aspirant Mohammed Aftab in his papery world at Mukherjee Nagar monica tiwari

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Iron-man cometh An artist’s rendering of the Sardar Patel statue that will come up on a river island in Gujarat under ‘The Statue of Unity’ project, for which the Narendra Modi government has sanctioned ₹200 crore reuters/information department, gujarat

I prefer to sit quietly and write Author Cyrus Mistry on second choices, the travails of publicity and the simple joy of writing

A Passion Flower Seven Stories of Derangement Cyrus Mistry Aleph Fiction ₹495

uthors often protest that they do not enjoy talking about their books, which must speak for themselves.

Yet, they most often make for the best interviews as they have thought hard and they articulate well. But there are those who do belong to the Salinger School of Reticence — whose personas arise from being removed from the mob. In our publicity-struck world, where authors’ faces sell books, to shun the limelight is a stand and not merely a preference. Cyrus Mistry is one of those rare authors who has remained out of sight. Not that he does not like talking to people one-on-one, he makes clear, it is just that crowds he cannot handle and publicity he hopes to be excused from. “I hope I can dissociate myself from the compulsion to market and publicise myself.

Once I have a body of work, I hope people will feel ‘he is too famous to be disturbed’,” he says, sneaking in a smile. He speaks with care, measuring each word, his gaze intent.

It has been a good year for the frail 58-years tools of political expression reold author.

He won the $50,000 DSCand South membrance go,Chronicle the ‘Statue Unity’ Asian Literature Prize for of of a Corpse project dreamt up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in a league of its own.

Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the first home minister of free India, is the ‘Iron man’ credited with bringing together 565 disparate princely states into one nation-state. Alive to the enormous political gains in appropriating his legacy, Modi, as the then chief minister of Gujarat, forcefully underscored the ‘need’ for the statue during election rallies. However, a drive to collect iron from across the country for the memorial has largely backfired as nearly 16 States are yet to respond.

After his elevation as prime minister, Modi renewed his interest in the project by allocating it ₹200 crore from the Union Budget. ‘The Statue of Unity’ site states: “India cannot afford to bury the life of a man as great as Sardar Patel... it is to make Sardar Patel a source of inspiration for every generation that such a massive and divine statue is being built.”

While the Patel statue is the tallest planned so far, it is by no means the first along these lines. Across the country are several longstanding projects to erect statues for personalities ranging from the Maratha warrior-king Shivaji and architect of the Indian Constitution BR Ambedkar in Mumbai to the 133-feet statue of the Tamil poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar in Kanyakumari.

“The fact is that statues have been prominent tools of political expression from antiquity,” says AG Krishna Menon, convenor, Intach Delhi. “In India, you can find images of patrons sculpted on temple walls; and from colonial times, the European model of placing statues of kings. And more recently, cultural figures became the established norm. This model is rooted in the Greek and Roman antiquity of Europe.”

Bearer, has just completed a three-city tour, worlds of pollution and purity, and the procand is out with a remarkable collection of esses of death and faith. For an author who short stories — Passion Flower: Seven Stories of says “I did not know how to write a novel... the Derangement. Even for those who don’t like be- form itself was a big stumbling block”, Corpse ing ‘out there’, prize money makes the differ- Bearer is a finely wrought work, where the plot ence between hustling to write and being skips along at a steady pace. allowed to write. And these are choices, Mistry, Passion Flower, a collection of short stories recovering from a long illness, has known all spanning 30 years, is an even more assured too well. “It has solved a lot of financial prob- work, for the characters spring out from the lems,” he says, “it has stopped creditors pages and shake you by the collar in a way that breathing down my neck... I can now get back only madness — or everydayness — can. Unexto writing.” pected Grace, about a young mother’s strugWriting fiction has always been a second gles with her newborn child and her choice for him. His first love has been and re- suspicions about her husband, achieves just mains playwriting. Fiction is a more inde- what Mistry sets out to do with his writing. pendent world requiring only a writer and a “Writing is a dry, gruelling, lonely pastime. reader. A play, on the other hand, When you are emotionally mandates a director, actors, stirred, then you want to write. crew and an audience to blow You want to move your reader, life into it. Mistry had to wait 10 they should get a lump in the You want to move years to bring to stage his awardthroat... otherwise, there is no your reader, they winning play, Doongaji House, point,” says the author, who adshould get a lump in written when he was 21. He enmits to the foibles of emotional the throat... sequent death led to excuses the creation countered the usual of of Andhra thing you can do, we Italso can do.’ It was as excesses. is impossible to not otherwise, Pradesh in 1953, for instance, became revered there “no commercial potential”.

In much is a symbol of achievement the Secrebe moved

by Preeti’sasdoings and no point as Amarajeevi (immortal being) 1991, theatre director Toni Pateland his statutariat across the road.” He referring Grace. to the undoing in was Unexpected es appeared every Amajor urban centre in statue of Dewan brought it toinstage. popular Sir T at Madhav Rao. daughter, Staring her infant the newly carved-out State. And Mahesh Dattani production fol- in a strange Equally asshe statues are used to unsuspectprop up a wonders, “How andlowed, tellingasturn events,translater, as the move- cause or personality, did aofMarathi are helpless the first and to bevulating, howthey utterly mentlation for a that breakaway Telangana travelled across heated up, tacked by those on theshe opposing side. easy to nerable is. How manythe of Sreeramulu’s statues country. In Delhi on in thethose DSC parts prize smother, Duringto the height Naxalbari movesnuff out of thisthe little morsel of life. were desecrated. tour, he says, “Unless you are an active There ment in thebeen late times ’60s, the statues that have when, pacing thewere livIn Tamil Nadu, a Statewhich which routinely theatre person, I am not,elects it is ing-room seen as representative the Bengalyowling State mafloor with herofsenselessly in its political from plays. the world cinema, my toughleaders to produce The of exigencies chinery were repeatedly vandalised.

“They arms — indigestion, colic, the doctor said — idolatryofand statues are integral to any narra-a when earning a living forced me to write considered of leaders like Ram Mohan I havestatues considered, no that’s not correct, tive of power. novel. I wrote one play, then 10 years the Roy,thought the philosopher Ishwar Sahas crossed myChandra mind ofVidya its own On a December morning in 2002, statueI volition, later I wrote another.

In thethe interim, gar, and of those belonging Bengali how simple it wouldtobethe to grip her reby of Kannagi, “theshort one who burnt wrote stories and did journal- the legs and naissance as symbols of the smash her soft skull against the Pandyan capital of Madurai ism... for me that was a squander- wall...” Whilebourgeoisie,” says Senthe subtitle of theShantanu book clearly to ashes” ining... the Tamil Cillap- to take up hints at madness, I wasepic compelled gupta, for a scholar the characters Centre for Mistryatthe patikaram, went missing the form of thefrom novel.”

Socialare Sciences, Kolkathat breathe Studies in theseinpages “lonely” and its pedestal onItthe Marina is city’s a second choice that has “quirky”, ta. with “These statues “disturbances” were regularly frequent Astrologers had those promenade.reaped Whileprofits. the official He says, “For years, theinstatue their lives.found decapitated or brought warned communication given was I felt I did notout know how to writebring a bad to only the the ground Hisluck pausescrashing stretch long, flutter all of would that a truck had rammed into— it isto novel.

Then I realised the only through thatthe period.” hands distracts from thought-filled sithe rulinghis leaders the statue andthat it will hadearn been thing you money.” A lences. As the author ‘Chappal garlands’ of two novels,and two other plays moved for repairs, rumours novel he remains proud of, Radiance and currentlymeans of desecrating Ambedkar working on a collection of plays swirled that political powers of Ashes — a coming-of-age story set and a novel, statues are usually thefilled first Mistry grew up in ahow home were behind as astroloin the shift, Bombay of the early ’90s — with books and blood is His drawn in any attacks music. father’s father owngers had warned that the statue was first published in would the UKbring and ed against the DalitHis community. episodes a bookshop. brother is The the much-acbad luck to the rulers of the State. got him substantial royalty but min- claimed lead to all-out between communities. authorclashes Rohinton Mistry.

He had read The statue’simal translocation mileage. to He the feltGovernshort- the In the lead-upsuch to the Pradesh Russians, asAndhra Dostoevsky andAssembChekov, ment Museum created a predictable uproar, by changed by the publisher, ly by-elections 2012, for example, withintoa 11. He admitsin that he devoured the Greats which many believe ledseemed to the ruling who to haveparty’s little make week aatfavourable least six Ambedkar atimpressionstatues with thewere adults. defeat in the following Assembly elections. time for an Indian author. His tacked across thewas State. childhood filled with music — he The incoming chief Mistry’s minister second and DMKnovel, stal- learned And while debate over whether it the the piano, andrages is certain that the wart M Karunanidhi promptly the rhythms Chronicle reinstalled of a Corpse is justified buildinfuse a statue ofto music hiscosting writing.four He times never statue at the Marina. Interestingly, wasreader Karu- listens Bearer took itthe the money needed for awriting.

Mars mission, Ramis Su-a to music while “But there nanidhi who commissioned the cloistered statue in connection into the tar, the 90-year-old famous for conbetweensculptor music and writing,” he 1968, when he was the world publicof works minister, says, the khandhias structing many Mayawati statues “it is very hardofto the explain...” and his party counts among chief achieve- commissioned (Parsi its corpse-bearers) by quietly a former Pradesh Preferring to sit and Uttar write, and easments, the many statues—ittheir installed on theand Ma- ily practices chief minister,by offers some sobering perspecdistracted people, Mistry is impatient rina of figures from Tamil literature. their rituals. While for tive.the “A statue’s lifeheiscan longer thantoathe person’s.

So day when return solitude telling the story of the of once constructed, can take on any Kodaikanal, his it adopted home fornumber the last An easy target son of a fire temple 10 of years. meanings as is Mumbai, convenient that in Far from he for loves thetime gentle In his essay about statues in Trivandrum, his- hill-station, priest who falls in love history.” Sutar He’s been buildforshould it is theknow. one place that allows torian Robin Jeffrey writes: “The statue of un-a the with the daughter ing author statues to forbe 67ayears. writer. veiled on May 30, 1893…corpse was a way of saying to bearer, it also nair sibi arasu British rulers: ‘We toodelves have statesmen. deep into Anythe nandini

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Commemoration is all too often a tall, and very expensive, order in Indian politics

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Those that went before Potti Sreeramulu, the man whose fast and sub-

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Anatomy of loss

ELSEWHERE

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An ode not to the reclusive writer, but to the very act of writing itself Who is Jerry? An undated image shows JD Salinger working on Catcher in the Rye during World War II ap/the story factory, paul fitzgerald

Lost and found When in doubt… go back and look for it

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wo streets down from where I live, there’s a shop called The Panhandler. It’s filled with equipment for beautiful kitchens and dining rooms. Two years ago, I would have barely noticed it. Now, as the Master of My Own Cutting Board, whenever I pass by, I sense mage all have to start ters that came in for Salinger. While she netic feelers pulling me in. somewhere,” begins was instructed to send a form letter — a I have succumbed a number of times, spending half the My Salinger Year, Joan- template which says ‘thank you for writing day just staring at the colourful enamelled pots, ceramic disna Rakoff’s memoir of but no, Salinger is not interested in whathes and countless small gadgets that I mostly can’t afford. A the year she worked in a New York literary ever you have to say’, Rakoff finds herself butter-spreader in the shape of a plump boy, for using on hot agency. The Agency, which remains un- responding differently. She writes to old corn-cobs. A strawberry huller for pulling out the central plug named in the book, is Harold Ober Associ- war veterans, young children and lazy stuof a strawberry. A wooden rolling pin for punching out small ates and it represents one of the most dents with her own blend of empathy and ravioli squares in pasta dough. And much more besides. reclusive writers of modern times, JD Sal- advice.

Anyway. Last week, I told myself that I needed to buy gifts to inger. What Rakoff is starting is her career, bring back to India and what better place to visit but this parStill, for all the references to Jerry, the as the Bright Young Associate, The Girl Fri- book is really about Rakoff. Like those pins adise of elegant items? So I went in. An hour later, I emerged day to her boss, who is also unnamed in that you drop in Google maps, Salinger with a cast iron saucepan, two ceramic kitchen knives and a the book but is only two clicks away from marks plots of the story along the way, but kitchen timer for myself, plus one tiny garlic-grinder as a gift. being revealed as “legendary literary the story itself is Rakoff’s journey to findOn my way home, I stopped at another favourite shop, Ace agent” Phyllis Westberg.

Hardware, and bought a couple of batteries. ing herself. Professionally and romanticalRakoff perhaps planned to start else- ly, Rakoff is in a bit of a muddle. Salinger, That was a Friday afternoon. On where. She had completed her master’s in meanwhile, is a loud voice at the other end Saturday, late in the evening, I hapEnglish Literature at Oxford and told her of the phone. There is a prospect of pubpened to look in my purse for my college boyfriend that what she wanted to lishing his story Hapworth as a novella, and credit card and discovered it I spend a restless do was write poetry, not analyse those of Salinger would call for the boss ever so ofwasn’t there. Immediately, a black night, dreaming of others. But where she found herself was in ten. Rakoff answered his calls, and alhole appeared in the middle of my low-cost forms of New York, nearly broke and living with though he never remembered her name tummy. I could not breathe or self-dispatch Don, a socialist and aspiring writer with an he was pleased that she read poetry. By the swallow. I’m absent-minded so I’ve unapologetic roving eye. Even though the time it’s certain that the Hapworth deal will trained myself to always put the year is 1996, the Agency is stuck in a time not go through, Rakoff herself is ready to card back in the same place: inside many decades past. On her a slender card-wallet, inside my move on and do something master first day at work, Rakoff is in- hashibhushan Chaubey is the purse.

I use ithe while—shopping, I take the out 40 years For When four years, else with herstudy life. better on his own. security, power andcard-wallet prestige. Nearly pave- years troduced to her work tools — of all he surveys. He bestrides the and keep and it in studied my hand until the card shared a room others Thirteen later, now awith three later,I’ve it isreceived unfortunate thatback. little But has changed. a humongous Selectric type- ment, arms akimbo, shirt stretched theDid wallet is empty. every day for 14isto 16 hours. he see much of And while no one admits it, the IAS is also seen mother of two kids, Rakoff She replies with her writer and a massive old-style across paunch, teeth stained I can card at Ace Hardware.

It’s a SunDelhi? What of remember the city? using He the told with by her husband (who did is he think as the quickest and smoothest way to make own blend of paan and gold chain peeping out from under aDon throws Dictaphone, which has pedday but thematlab shop opens noon.

I go with my receipts. disdainful stare, “Mera aur after neither nor theacollege money.

For theover lakhs sitting for the exam, the empathy and advice denim and ask that als to play and pause. And as collar. The hopefuls bow, fawnboyfriend) Nope, not there. the street andout theeven pave-the Indian maksad sirf padhai (My only goalI search and up Salinger is no se tha...”

IASand (thedown top choice edging for his if finds she figured how to use the an-advice. “Vajiram guide,” he decrees, from Aceduring HardwareForeign to my house, knowing theonly while purpose studies.) ment He married more.asShe herselfwas readService) remainsallthe door not onrevealing dive cient machinery, she also sat a secret panacea. The repeaters that it’s hopeless.

The card not possibly haveservice), fallen out those years, but his wife remained in Bihar ing her favourite book Franny lycould for samaaj seva (social but also the down with her boss straight for a for the piles of yellow and of the wallet.

Nor have there been visiting burglars. parents so he could study.

They didn’t andwhite Zooey, with and his eventually power to any make decisions andThe implement stacks,Jerry.” they flip left, they flip right, makephlegmily, a urge him chat. “We need to talk about only possible explanationone’s is that space aliens have it. to return; while failure is a festering sobbing — loudly, helplessly. own preferences andtaken predilections.

In purchase and “Salinger’s scurry back to their “People are going toquick call and ask for his Maybe — it works really well on Mars. the Indian mindset, power arises fear, is nothing stronger stories, to a one, arethere anatomies rooms.They’re Those going who have theinch prelims address, his phone number. can’t call the bank because it’s a Sunday.

Not that I wantclout to: but the orfrom morethe human of cleared loss, every of them, start — than Ihope. not from economic in local theRakoff mains, to ask you to put them(PTs in touch withparlance) him. toor the account will surely be emptied by now, whichofmeans I willThe notion Once he had exhausted his theeven finish,” writes. authority the State. shake his hand, do salaamInand swagger Or me. Reporters will call.

Students.

Graduhave no new kitchhad little interest inoption but to slit my wrists with Rakoff’s defton. words ischances, revealedhe anothin my thesmart traditionally feudal Hindi Forty-two-year-old runsofAtul ate students. They’ll say they want to inter- Chaubey en knives.

I don’t have enough cash in the house to follows finding The After all, er anatomy lossPho— the old worldanother of pub- profession. heartland is that wealth Once he had tostat in Mukherjee view him or give him a opposite prize or Batra an Cinema get If to he the airportexhausted and fly back spend a restless night, had ensnared him. lishing that the Agency UPSC inhabited.

It is the heels of power rather than histo India. Ion Nagar, north Delhi. piles of guidebooks honorary degree or who knows what.

Pro- The dreaming low-cost he forms of self-dispatch.

On Monday, decouldn’t make the hallowed ser- ofchances, then perhaps a matter of simple extrapolathe other way round. had little andrights. study They material hisa10x10 feet from ducers will call about film mayhe sells knowinginterest it’s useless, I go to Panhandler’s and… it’s of canvice, he’danother help others dospite it. And tionfrom that in few years now, The increasing number in finding shop might one But day distill IndianofAdministrabe very persuasive, very manipulative. there. The owner, a charming, friendlydidates lady, knew be better way than providing anatomy loss would bewhat revealed — that fromI would Uttar Pradesh (UP) another profession. tivenever, Service (IAS) fromthemselves. candidates. you must never — never, never giveofficers had UPSC no number students of books It is hard now —study whenguides. anxious but sheThe and Bihar tells the larger story of had for me.

Started in 2005, in a basement, Pho-favourite author and out his address or phone number.”

I am speechless with relief. to Ace Hardware before and exyou cantoday tweetAtul to your lack of opportunities ensnared himI’d gone the tostat is a meeting for aspirants, who ar- — to Rakoff sat through this instruction won-point the Panhandler. Mystery solved, I buy several Theimagine Cause that comment on his blog posure in more these garlic States. The calakhs to north dering who Jerry was.rive Thein first Jerry that Delhi -grinders night.

Tomorrow morning nine lakh as gifts and sleep soundly that therefrom everacross was a India. world where you identireers these candidate will carve ‘juniors’, cer-withcandidates came to her mind was,‘Seniors’ in fact,counsel Jerry Seinfiedrecommending yourself so much a characterwill in a sit for the Civil out if they enter the Service retainleaving coaching while declaring oth-out Services feld. It was only as she was the institutes boss’ book Aptitude that you took a notepad and Test (CSAT). Of mains unknown, but the world and aspirant artist, tells of life in bogus, ‘juniors’ with office and her eyes fell ers on the row of Salin- provide than 200 willMANJULA make it PADMANABHAN, to the Indian author wrote anewbies letter to the these, author.lessViewed of the is her oneparallel of perseverance bordermarginalien.blogspot.in all-important paying guest and dabba advice.

Elsewhere, US, in into this fortnightly series ger’s books that it hit her.

“Oh, that Jerry.”

Administrative and 1,200 any ing through that prism, My Salinger Year is notService (IAS) on obsession, a determination that seems Chaubey from AurangaOver the next few months, Rakofffirst wascame in- to at all. This anDelhi ode to Salinger, but toservice the comfort of is easily the most competi- like madness. They put their lives on hold, district, Bihar, in 2001.

At that time, troduced not just to thebad hysteria surroundthe printed word.there tive exam in the world. However, year after they surrender themselves to the whims of was only one ing Salinger, but also his works.

One coaching of the academy on the block. year, the number of aspirants only increases. this exam... this Cause. They survive on little veena venugopal He refused that he could In the ’70s, the lure of a sarkari job was obvious else but hope. This is a story of hope. things she had to do was reply to to thejoin, let- believing

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My Salinger Year Joanna Rakoff Bloomsbury Memoir ₹399

Pelf in the gloom The lure of officialdom — the white Ambassador, the red beacon, the power ap/ manish swarup

Kill for the Q IAS Tomorrow morning nine lakh candidates will sit for the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT).

Aspirants give years to this exam… this cause. BLink maps their story of hope and inertia

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talk read

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saturday, august 23,23, 2014 saturday, august 2014

Izzat on the line Who is to decide which dance is PRESENT IMPERFECT unconstitutional and which isn’t afp/indranil mukherjee

izzat, has shown that whenever Krishna (or Ram in Ramlila) enters the mix, everything, including the very same stories and the same moves, become expressions of religious devotion or ecstasy!

The difference between the Anti-Nautch campaigns of Madras in the early 19th century and the current struggle between moral policing and the law is that here it is more obvious that colonists are not the sole culprits as it is happening more than a half-century after Independence. Morcom’s theory would suggest that it is high time those who simplify the earonald Trump came to India last lier history with a simplistic post-colonial week and announced the launch of blame-game revisit and nuance their Trump Tower in Mumbai, a 75-storey pronouncements. residential complex with apartHappiest reading is the chapter on the Bolments whose price tags will be between $80lywood dance revolution, where Morcom re100 million. If this wasn’t enough to generate counts how middle-class India seeks out envy the colour of bile, The Donald also poutdance not only for sexual titillation but also ed and pronounced that real estate in Mumbai fitness, as a yoga, and for the joy of dancing. I is very cheap right now, a statement no one wonder about the numerous dance contests with an EMI would ever be heard saying. Now, on TV. And how many Shiamak Davar Performthe only thing I have in common with Trump ing Arts Institute and zumba classes are being is that my bank balance is as thin as his hair, offered in every district of Mumbai? Is Mumyet I found myself scouring for details about bai the dance city for the urban many? (Chenthe project the following day. If there were no nai and Delhi are for the elites). The author libel laws in this country, I would have deshows how the positive perception of dancing scribed the details using another word; but for by a rising middle class offers a counter-vision now let’s just call them puzzling. of dance, and in turn, makes life more bearaMumbai’s floor rise charges (the extra monble for those who have inherited performance ey you pay per square foot as you go higher up as profession. Davar’s recent success with sevthe building so you can comfort yourself that eral sold-out performances of Selcouth juxtathe smell outside the window is that of a cirrus poses the splendid and sordid aspects of the cloud and not sanitary waste) being what they dancing body. are, my guess is that the $20 million range The author offers much food for thought in would be the difference between the lowest her discussions of the changing world of and the highest floors in the tower. And that’s Kothi, of performers of feminity at wedding money very well spent. But the remaining $85 parties, mujras, melas, dance bars and private million fetches you, and here I suggest you salon performances. Gender tunnel-vision has play a guessing game with other members of turned a blind eye towards the effects of the family, a 3 BHK. At best, a 4 BHK! Now, even hereditary professions, chance and choice, though the Trump Tower will not be designed when it comes to cross-dressing. Such perto look like Godzilla bit off chunks of it, it formers have been marginalised and commitwould still be awkward to invite Mukesh and ted to the ‘shadows’ by omission from Nita Ambani for your housewarming party mainstream discourse. How do you name and take them on a grand tour of four piddly what was supposed to not exist? This language his book is rich about the ways which late what is spoken, most notoriously when is protective of some − for example, hijras have bedrooms. Who are these people whoin can public perception, laws, and com- ‘saviours’ argue that the ‘victims’ are incapa- organisational structures that bring protecdo with so little? and gender It is only in munal Mumbai, where real politics estate ex-affect ble of knowing what is best for them. Of tion and links with the police. However, fedetermine livespoles and livelihoods. course, we have heard and are still hearing male impersonator performers have been pectations are and so low that four and a Anna Morcom’s framing argument stretch of plastic can pass off as a crediblecorre- many variations of this; most recently from increasingly harassed, and with violence, besponds closely to will mine: that generalisations politicians responding to rapes. This is surely cause they ‘do not exist’. Meanwhile, the classidwelling, that people meekly settle for so popular in have socialfound and critical theory set up the author’s intention — to draw attention to cal tradition owes much to this group of this. Trump would his 4 BHK tower binaries inclusion and exclusion and con- Tallan already overwritten and$100-million to re- performers, impossible to of price as a “luxury lifestyle” anyfor dancers haveafp/punit received refined talk Donald Trump peddles anarrative gleaming new, ‘dream’ to space-starved Mumbai panajpe stantly to be qualified.

Generalised where else inneed the country.

In Gurgaon, where I cate- mind us that it is not just history, or a fascinat- techniques of performing gender transformagories might offer sneered handy labels to census ing mythology of noble by hearted tawaifs (as in live, people would have at its name Gurgaon, I was astounded the builders’ tion from them.up, I gave up and threw in tently failed to show and politicians, but both Pakeezah, need to be even.takers, No onestatisticians would voluntarily live in a buildability to stringMughal-e-Azam). any two English‘Victims’ words togethNo one reads this book Aabout performmy lot with thewho other Orchchiders. couple of inclusion and exclusion such groups treated as individuals.

Also After in re-inscribing ing called a ‘tower’.

It has tofrom be ‘court’, ‘gar- can er while deciding on a name. going yearsers in South Asiatime can the come away withwas easy anlater, by which ‘chch’ sound living persons or offer histories, there no happy saviours — the sa- swers about dens’entomb or ‘terraces’.

And that firstopportunities name? through a blur ofareDeerwood way in which livesI are rollingthe naturally off my tongue, for self-advancement. bindmoras much in Morcom’s writingI being those of us circumscribed Trump?

A building namedIdeals after can a mere Parksviours and Parkwood Heights, Indian society, law and called abybrand new restaurant toglobas way. they might liberate. Morcom posits that tal? No askedwho the rewrite broker ifthe theherstories place hadand show how the al middle-class values.When This isI not a book order dinner. rattled off for have differently disaffected ‘evils’ of the In generalisations the NCR (and, I am told, in Bangalore as any buildings atnautch all thatsystem didn’thave not abated. the fainthearted.

It hasthis been ‘work’ to read it the address, very polished Trump would have lives take of various groups performers well)the builders the naming of of their cre- have anMorcom Englishtracks name.what “Yes,”happens he it isother a rewarding experience voicebut at the end said, “I’m lumped under one of dancer to women who work as bar ations very seriously.

The notion first lot — of that buildings beamed, and that is how wegirls found his 4 BHK anyoneI feel whocompelled wants to theorise sorry,for ma’am, to equals availability. as ourselves they move (or are moved)tower impossible to grabbed allsexual the palace names — Belvedere, found outside ‘Karam South pointcontemporary out to you that the word isAsian The author argues that the an names astonishingly from rural to urban communi- price as a “luxury Windsor, Hamilton.

Then came of hi Dharam’ apartments.

Standing dance or orchid. issues related pronounced Think to of sexualit number of persons She draws the studies fancyvast localities from aroundwho thedance worldfor — asoliving there,ties. looking at theon words writ- of lifestyle” ity and the visibilising effects spelled with a ‘k’, then it of Theanywhere saviours in as being elseMorcom’s in this country together in the single recent ethnographers thereare is clumped Beverly, Bel air, Regency, Trinity‘slut’ and cateten inseveral deep red and a large font, I naming is alreadyThe in bodbe easywhat to remember.” writing arewould gory And because livelihoods and their ways andthat herludicrosity own fieldwork to track those of us who showgalauti Westend. eventheir though there isn’t a water realised is a greaies.kebabs, Morcom examines ways in when they eventubeing cannot be in easily categorised. changes through the 20th cenbodyof larger than a puddle its vicinity, there Perter calling than linguistics. which public perceptions are ally arrived, tasted of indignahow the ‘evils’ of the lifestyles sexwith work arere-indis- Since tury, and adds is an formative entire Malibu Towne,and smug that I didn’t wantpersonalising to wake up inand the writing ofin dance nautch system havetion formed,deep-fried criminately together.

She an account dundant ‘e’. If you canlumped name a building after a She everycidents. morning toincludes the thought of histories. The impact of theory embarrassment. not abated distinguishes dancers into of howDharmendra, the Maharashtra Legisla- decided distant town, then it‘traditional’ isn’t much of a stretch to the a righteous I eventually on living ability In Mumbai, Trump Towersbodies, has no and suchthe fears. categories of, “classical courtesans Assembly has Orchid made several namethree it after an imaginary location on a TV and on ative building called Garden. There The brisk and businesslike of performers to intervene Mumbaikar, who is in dancing “devadasis” andthe “transattempts ban dance in bars,for miles an expert in economising show.other And so, there isgirls”, Wisteria Lane, where wasn’t a singleto orchid to be spotted theoretical assumptions everything, will im-have gender male or female impersonators”. information that is Yet, particularly Desperate Housewives of television lived. I am nor was there a garden. the worst part of mediately shortenbeen subject to But debate the name to TT. giveover the the She argues with the breakdown of the at this time, because not exactly sure of that the marketing advantages livingrelevant there wasn’t the falsity of another its name,attempt it building last few years inofthe area of dance studies. a couple years, and come mon- This sheltering effect by of athe “longterm concubinto reintroduce this ban in May, of calling a building name that invokes was was its made pronunciation.

Everyone called it and and participates soon,book it willcontributes be wrappedto, with blue plastic. All in a age” system of housewives private sponsors, evenonmore after the Supreme CourtofinBachchan.

July 2013 conimages of scheming who cheat ‘orchchid’, like it was a relative global view of the local practices. must-read, 72 floors of it.

Even helipad.

And Athen we are drivenand to sex curred with an earlier High to Court ruling theirhereditary husbands performers with the gardener thework. The first few months I refused relent and that and nowat you can all laugh it. have been prepared for it.

Redemption is must complicated.

The human unconstitutional to ban handyman, but there be a reason. stuckittoisthe right way of saying the some word. kinds But of is a professor of dance t @veenavenugopal rights discourse victims by enlargand not others, and that When I first startedempowers looking for houses in whendancing groceries and pizza delivery guysdancers consis-have uttara asha coorlawala ing their voices through media, press and a right to work. Meanwhile, a parallel dis- at Columbia University, and at the Alvin Ailey American publicity. But this approach can also manipu- course, of classical dance, a matter of national School of Dance, New York

Unreal estates

Of towers trumping Mumbai and ‘orchchid gardens’ overrunning dusty, arid Gurgaon

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Body in dance

An exhaustive treatise on the many dangers of the notion that dancer equals sexual availability

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Courtesans, Bar Girls and Dancing Boys The Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance Anna Morcom Non-fiction Hachette India ₹595

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Veena Venugopal is editor BLink and author of The Mother-in-Law

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saturday, august 23,23, 2014 saturday, august 2014

A BUTTERFLY BREEZE FROM MP

Fat is not always fine An India in Germany UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

About half of all the produce and labour of the world’s farmers is thrown away or squandered. Isn’t it incredible that while a billion starve, we waste food enough for three billion?

Our soldiers fought in this war, yet we know so little of it, or those who suffered under its heel e went to Europe this summer joanna gruisen

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to visit friends and family, and to spread the word about our sarai to agents there. It was four years since my last visit. On earlier occasions, I would be hit by an uncomfortable culture shock when re-exposed to the naked consumerism of the West — so many items, so many shoppers. That was during the ’80s and ’90s; unfortunately, over the years Indians have also fallen prey to retailers’ shoppingmakes-me-happy mantra, so now the contrast is not at all acute.

However, I was shocked by the change in restaurant food portions; these had grown, and were what I would call American-sized. As an occasional visitor, Raghu had previously drawn my attention to the fact that now people in Britain were little different in size than Americans. Earlier, he used to joke, you could always tell which of the two countries you were in by the number of corpulent individuals seen on the streets — in those days, America outweighed the UK. The contrast is not as visi- Fat facts India is among the top 10 countries where, according to a recent study, more than half of the world’s ble anymore. Of course, a combination of fac- 671 million obese people live, even as it battles widespread malnutrition and food shortage reuters/arko datta tors has led to this scenario, but most agree that globalisation, the spread of fast-food Meanwhile, in case you feel is album a longLt Col farmers From thethis family Anwar is thrown away or squandered. Is it Karim, my grandmother’s chains and cheap unhealthy food are major way from India, where the popular image is ofbrother, not who crazy that while a billion starve, we waste fought on the African and Italian fronts; reasons. But I’m sure those large portions a large malnourished population, think again. food enough to feed three billion? And this grandfather, Major have something to do with it. One is enough India figures as one ofand the(above) top 10mycountries does not include the ‘wasted’ extra calories Mohammed Abu Nasr Moezzuddin, on for two but if, like me, you have been brought where, according to a recent study, more than that those 671 million consume. the Burma front up to finish everything on the plate, it is easy half of the world’s 671 million obese people But the good news is that we can all quite to overeat. Alternatively, one leaves half of it live. The US, China, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, easily help make a difference. After realising ndia sentand a million to fight German were read out,Pakistan since myand knowledge of are uneaten it gets men thrown away during — I’ll get to Egypt, Germany, Indonesia the town to show all the shops how [Duisburg] much of an effectme consuming animal World Warissue II, and yet few of us know for the language non-existent.

Thetwo reading the waste later. the otherwas nine.

Over the last decades, and the houseshas [of on Jews] that had been burned products personal and environmental what. My grandfather spent five years as a was by a former obesity has evangelical become a pastor, global originally problem, and downhealth, [on Kristallnacht]. didn’t one researcherHesays: “It’ssay the anynumber major in the Royal Medical Corps on the fromthere East is Germany, although it would now what some describe as ahave ‘globesithing.

I kept asking but he person didn’t say any- the one thing that him, an average around Burma front and two other great-uncles beentyeasy to mistake him for a successful epidemic’.

No longer a Western phenomthing.”

Hiscan English was not good,change, and heaffect world do to reduce climate served in North Africa and Italy. I never spoke banker.

He obesity was completely immersed in the struggled enon, has spread to the developing with it,and but these their sentences came just biodiversity protect own health: to them of these experiences. It seemed to be a text and told meOfafterward, “ThatIndia’s imam,large Mau- popcountries. course, with through.

The effortproducts exhausted though. eat less animal andhim eat more plants.” war between Europeans in which we were lana Qayoom — is percentage that how you it? — Iin really ulation, the ofsay obesity the popHis closest childhood friendBrian had been Jewish, calls American scientist Machovina caught up. But the world has shrunk over likedulation that character.

Whatlower, happens to him... the is relatively nevertheless and it stillconservation haunted him.plan His wife few we his 90P added as hea says time, or maybe it was always small and we horrible, I did not how to ask words in explanation. highhorrible.” number should beknow a cause “Ifaim his to father told of should get a had minimum have finally lifted our head out of the hole of him about his experience the Stasi regime him, then he might for concern — for theof country, spoken to other 90have per cent of our dailychilcalories our own self-pity. as a pastor under a government that believed dren, perhaps. Infrom not just the individuals.

Obesity school, the children plants instead were of meat.

In 2012, I was travelling through Germany all religion wasand passé at best, is a serious expensive public aboutmeat anybody menTrue, India’s consumption A 2008 study questioned for book readings from a novel of mine trans- dangerous worst. and is viewed in healthat problem, tioning the arson, or showing per capita is relatively low but, suggested that junk lated into German, and ended up at the small Mysome hostscountries in Krefeldaswere anthe el- bigone of sympathy.

Such people were even so, it is growing enough for food consumption town of Krefeld. My friends in Berlin had told derlygest German the threatscouple, in terms of husfinancial alters brain activity in identified shipped to offblame to con-soarsome and economists crossing me to expect only an ugly town. What I experi- bandcost having a teacher andretired societalasimpact.

Anoth-He escaped, camps.” ing food prices on the increasing a manner similar tocentration borders, and returned enced was something else. The reading was of literature.

Onenot room the er reason to on encourage The old man waved demand for meat the andfingers dairy prodaddictive drugs home after the war, held at an old train station. Built in the early ground floor of their house was McDonald’s and KFC! of both hands in a dismissive ucts in China and India. ges1900s, it was no longer in use for its original given over toisGerman literature India also moving towardsguided by a compass ture that said clearly, without the releObesity and diet are both purpose, but had been transformed into a cul- (other topicsthe — geography, world eating ‘wrong’ foods — proc- and nothing else needvant of words, he and his fa-food to thethat issue of global tural centre. My reading was part of a cultural literature — occupied other fare essed, sugar-high, ‘Western’ ther security. would have beenfor disposed Demand food could show and began with a performance by three rooms, even a basement) ar- more. And the double over — but is also, perhaps, eating of asthe easily water flicked off a nextas50 years: as populations Indian musicians playing a harmonium, a ta- ranged of the au- study suggested increase,person’s twoby canthe go year together.

A 2008 fingers.

His continue, story didwe’re if the current trends bla and something under a blanket that was thor’sthatbirth, starting from alters brain activ- looking not junk food consumption there.

He was recruited at aend ‘global famine’.

Time to change never revealed. They were Bengalis, judging by Goethe and Schiller similar and marching to Grass. ity in a manner to addictive drugs like into our the army ageIndia, 14 in it the year of the of habits.atFor is last more a question their accents, from Cologne, which was all Manycocaine of themand wereheroin. first editions, but the new- with After many weeks war. He escaped,to, crossing borders,with, and returnreturning or remaining old habits that I managed to learn about them. A German est books had no place be food, stacked. unlimited access to to junk theAfter pleasure ed home after theadopting war, guided by (but a compass rather than new outdated) woman in Indian clothes danced to their mu- Grass,centres the books by brains new writers were piling up reof rat became desensitised, and nothing else. globalised ones. The West is now learning the sic. They performed a Bollywood number from on tables andmore the floor.

Hispleasure. wife was actually quiring food for This was one ofand the regimes million advantages returnsthat (in our health and rethe movie Jab We Met at the start, and a hymn the oneBut playing host to that me. much She was also a beis there really difference soldiers fought against, and we know so and littlefood duced effects on climate change of praise to Durga (no dancing during this teacher, of German language to foreign tween overeating and leaving foodstuon the of it, shortages) or those who under its heel, that of suffered eating locally grown, seasonal one), and ended with an old Sufi song made fa- dents, as well as constitute an activistunnecessary with Fair Trade in And plate?

Both waste. it saddens me.When It is not just the sacrifices we why produce.

India already knows this, mous by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Sanu, Ek Pal Calcutta Literature Club Afford in Krefeld. can and the the world afford this? not in permade, but the necessary warmewe deviate fromentirely the path?

It distresses to see Chain Na Aaye.

After theeconomic reading, terms, the oldbut man had been sonal in expense to the fought, whose goals wemisguided do not really engageways, India espousing Western After this performance, which seemed nei- worked up. ItThe passage had an oldcounplanet. is estimated that rattled in developed with,when that isin forgotten, something of India‘backso manyand fields its self-styled ther appropriate nor inappropriate, I read a memory, he told “On November 10, food tries and as much as ame, third to half of all the is lostwardness’ with it. is now vanguard action. brief passage from the book in English, and 1938, produced when I was eight years old, my fathercounis thrown away; in developing t@OmairTAhmad photographer then watched the audience as the sections in took tries, me bywe thelose hand and walked me through similar amounts post-harvest. joanna van gruisen is a wildlife Put another way, this means just about half of conservationist and hotelier based near the Panna Tiger all the produce and labour of the world’s Reserve in Madhya Pradesh

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Omair Ahmad is an author. His latest book is on Bhutan

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One fine day Pastry chef, alumnus of the Culinary Institute of America and owner of the online bakery Foodaholics, Kishi Arora shares her delicious Instagram feed from the Capital 7:00am Early start at #INA market... With rosella

7.30am Some baby raddish love

8.00am Breakfast at Dosa Junction #INA

The cooked-up story

9.00am Peak-hour metro ride home. What was I thinking?!

10.00am #Inflation! ₹68 for one lemon

Lemon Polenta Cake

For the cake: 115gm fine polenta, 1/2tsp baking powder, 225gm butter, softened (plus extra for greasing ), 225gm sugar, 225gm almond meal , 3 eggs, zest of 1 lemon, 1tsp finely chopped rosemary, plus sprigs to garnish

Markets overseas are ravenous for ready-to-eat chole, dal makhni and other desi food.

Indian kitchens still prefer home-cooked meals over convenience, but will that change soon?

For the syrup :

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t was the peak of summer and Sahil Gilani was craving Indian food as he had been travelling overseas for several weeks. Dosa was what he wanted, and it was not easy to find in Central London. After asking acquaintances, he arrived at the food court of the department store Selfridges on Oxford Street. among 10.30am Lemon zestThis pluswas elbow grease...the city’s handful of eateries serving the fermented crepe. Gilani ordered a dosa and found it tasted all too familiar. He asked the waiter how it was made but the latter didn’t know. Gilani asked to speak to the chef. After demurring initially, the chef revealed his secret — he had been using the Gits brand of ready dosa mix for close to a decade. Gilani, in turn, revealed his secret — he was the director of Gits Foods.

Even at home in India, Mumbai-based media professional Ajita Srivats uses MTR Ready to Eat (RTE) palak paneer and chana masala to whip up a meal whenever the family chooses to watch cricket on TV over the weekend, instead of eating out. And when she gets

11.30am Break between baking and cooking

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Instant gratification MTR Foods gets four-fifths of its revenue from exports; Haldiram’s ready-toeat products are mainly exported, besides retailing under the Minute Khana brand in the national capital region

Juice of 1 lemon, 2 rosemary sprigs, 50gm sugar

1. Preheat oven to 160oC. Butter the sides of a seven-inch cake tin and line home late from work, the MTR ready meals money-spinner. with has parchment. help her fix a quick dinner.

Gits been selling its instant mixes 2. Mix polenta and for baking in a in With trained chefs and domestic help in (ready to cook or RTC) overpowder four decades In another large India. bowl, cream butter it countries outside In 2000, short supply, restaurants and households are 40 bowl. until soft with an electric mixer. Add turning to ready meals to serve authentic Indi- launched RTE foods as well. Today, a majority sugar and beat until light and fluffy, then of the for meal. its Parsi dhansak, Gujarati an food quickly and economically. beatbuyers in almond kadhi, An RTE meal simply has to be 3. Whisk undhiu, eggs untilPunjabi just mixed.

AddMumbai to heated and eaten.

The choices pav bhaji and moong dal butter, beating all along.

Add zest andhalwa 11.00am ...equal to Lemon Polenta Cake. Yay! are in the US, UK, Australia and range from gravies and dals to chopped rosemary.

4. Gently West fold in the polenta and baking parathas, theplas, biryanis, vegeAsia.

The Indian housewife powder to combine.

“When we entered the RTE tables, and even sweets like guis not ready 5. to Tip batter into cake tin and bake for lab jamun and halwa. In India meals segment, we used the outsource her meals 1.5 hours same or untildistribution skewer inserted into we channels the main manufacturers are centre of were cake using comesfor outour clean.

The RTE RTC items.

MTR Foods, Gits, Maiyas, ITC’s cake will cook to a deep golden-brown Kitchens of India and Delhienterin international colour andhelped may dipusa little the middle. chain stores abroad, which based Haldiram’s.

6. For syrup, place all ingredients in awere reluctant to the RTC says saucepan stock with 1/4 cup ofproducts,” water. Bring toGilani.a Around 80 per cent of the the sugar. revenues Feeding desi tastes boil, stirring to dissolve Boil for RTE meals come from exports and that is While the aroma of fresh idlis, upma and stuff- Gitsfor 3-4 minutes until ever so slightly thickened.

Remove rosemary sprigs.year.

Set The ed parathas still rule the Indian home, MTR ra- growing at about 50 per cent every aside. are doubling, in fact, in some counva dosa and Gits dal makhni are rockstars in numbers 7. says RestGilani. cake outside oven for 10 kitchens outside the country. For Indian RTE tries, minutes. using a is Even the Loosen Indian around marketedges for RTE meals food companies, the overseas market is the small, sharp knife, then unmould. Pour warm syrup. Cool and serve.

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12.00pm #Birthday spoils for a friend — lunch and flower pot cake

12.30pm Sorting old notes and coins for mom

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1.00pm Lunch: #ambi still in season

3.00pm Back on the road... and cutting chai

poised for rapid growth, predicts the market Ambi Ki Sabzi research firm ValueNotes.

4.00pm A yellow submarine #Delhi surprises 2 raw The mangoes or ambi food industry in India, valheat-and-eat 1 green chilli (orcrore more,inif 2014, you like) ued at ₹237 has been growing at 1tbsp mustard a CAGR of oil 18 per cent for the last three years.

Pinch of heeng (asafoetida) On the back of rapid urbanisation, rising dis1/2tsp panch phoran — equal parts posable income and improved retail infrassaunf (fennel), kalonji (nigella seeds), tructure, it will be ajeera ₹640-crore methi (fenugreek seeds), (cumin) industry by Packaged platter Sahil according and 2019, mustard seeds to ValueNotes.

Gilani, director of Gits 1/4tsp But haldithat is still a few years away. Currently, Foods; (above) Vikran four-fifths of its revenue from Sabherwal, vice-president RedMTR chilli Foods powdergets to taste Curry leaves “The (optional) exports.

Indian housewife is not yet ready — marketing, MTR Foods 1. Wash and peelher twomeals. raw mangoes to outsource She wants solutions, 2. Dice the mangoes and says slit a Vikran Sabherwal, but wants to cook,” green chilli or two.(marketing) for MTR Foods. vice-president 3. Heat the mustard oil till smoking, able to distinguish between home-cooked then reduce heat, add a pinch of Wooing the locals food and our RTE food,” he says. heeng (asafoetida) and 1/2tsp panch The slow growth is also attributed to prevailGilani’s father, RH Gilani, joint managing diphoran. ing perceptions 4. Add the mangoes,about greenRTE chillimeals. When first rector at Gits Foods, personally tastes every in India in 1987 by the Pune-based batch at their Pune plant. “We make small andintroduced a pinch of haldi.

Toss.

5. Keep on lowready flame,foods makewere thought batches Tasty cooking Bites Eatables, of around 50-100kg to ensure good 8.00pm Club or pub, cool to wear anywhere suretothe pieces are spread lastmango long because they contained artificial quality and consistency in taste,” he says. The evenly around thepreservatives. pan (mom says flavours and The products were average batch size in the RTE industry is that’s the trick). rolled back within a year. In 1998, the company around 150kg.

6. Increase theover flame, in salt Preferred and was taken by stir US-based Brands red chilli powder.

International.

Today, it is a strong name over- The package deal 7. Add some curry leaves, if you like seas butindoes not oil sell— in and India even though the Research is also on to develop recipes that — sautéed a little serve are made at its Pune plant. taste right and have long shelf-life. A littlehotproducts with parathas.

Tasty Bites might be uninterested in India, known fact is that it is not preservatives but rebut many other players are hungry for it. Del- tort packaging technology that helps keep the hi-based Haldiram’s, which sells everything food fresh. from namkeens to sherbets and In retort packaging, food is chips to bhel-puri, entered the RTE undercooked, packed in metsegment about four years ago. “We al-plastic pouches and heated already had a good understanding at 116-121 degrees Centigrade.

The sheer number of the overseas market when sellThis kills existing microorganof consumers makes ing our snacks and sweets there. isms, and the sealing prevents India an attractive We studied the growing demand the entry of new microbes, market for Indian meals and launched our thereby extending shelf11.30pm After a long workday, more foodthe books 11.00pm The proof of the pudding... range abroad,” says AK Tyagi, viceto take to bed! life of most foods to as long as president (FMCG business) at Hal18 months. diram’s group.

Today, even freezing techWhile exports are the mainstay for its RTE nology is catching up. Haldiram’s has introfoods, the company is also selling them under duced frozen meals, which taste better and the Minute Khana brand name in the national last longer. Freezing slows food decomposicapital region. “We will expand to other areas tion as any residual moisture turns into ice, in the domestic market as and when demand which inhibits bacterial growth. The can is reimproves,” he says. frigerated at minus 15 degrees Centigrade, That, however, first calls for a change in per- says Tyagi. “We are also exporting frozen ception. “We are trying to do that. The mo- sweets,” he adds. ment the perception about RTE foods changes, growth will be good,” says Gilani.

Ready attraction To win customer trust, Gits offers free sam- Within India, distinct user categories are pling and collects feedback regularly. “We emerging. “I am not yet bullish on in-home uskeep refining recipes until a customer is un- age but outside of home, when people travel

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3.30pm When not baking, I get #Frontier biscuits

4.30pm With #little chefs in Defence Colony

and have no access to freshly cooked meals, they rely on RTE,” says Sabherwal.

So the main user groups are working women, youngsters staying away from family for study or work, and overseas travellers.

“The strong is 9.00pm Beerfactor o’ clockdriving and new consumption cocktail ring convenience — rising income and changing lifestyle are a part of it. It may be used just once a week or fortnight, but the sheer number of consumers makes India an attractive market,” says Devangshu Dutta, chief executive at consultancy firm Third Eyesight.

In large cities, consumers grappling with long commutes and work-hours often sign on tiffin services, hire a cook, or eat out. RTE foods present them yet another option.

“Some companies have grown rapidly in the space. You don’t need to be a national player, all you need is deep penetration within your chosen geography to be available on the shelf,” he adds.

Yet another factor affecting demand is the pricing of the food items. “If you look at cooking a meal from scratch as against eating out 12.00am Sign off and sign out or opening a packet, the pricing can make a lot of difference. If pricing is higher than what the market can bear, then they will become niche products with limited consumption,” Dutta says.

As things stand, RTE food manufacturers are trying to keep a tight leash on costs. A 300-gm packet of MTR palak paneer is priced ₹75 while alu methi comes for ₹65. While this pricing may find takers in metros, the rest of India may baulk at it.

So, until convenience trumps pricing and perceptions, RTE foods will continue to satiate mainly the hungry desi souls overseas. rashmi pratap

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THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

The astronomer Whose land is it, anyway? and the chessboard

In a village in Maharashtra, a staggering 20 per cent of landowners are women. Are they the gamechangers or mere pawns in the system?

The mathematics that flowed from the chessboard reveal the mysteries of the magic squareuring anda the itself recentuniverse visit to Yavatmal disMuch has been documented in micro-stud- downers, and with great difficulty, estimated

rohit gupta

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Reap what you sow Only one father proudly said he had given his daughter and son equal shares of land wfs

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trict in Maharashtra for a commishe gamestudy, of chess was of particular sioned I came across a couple interest Orientalist of male to farmers who scholars claimed durthat ing theabout British20 Raj, including Sir Wilin their villages per cent of the lanliam women.

Jones, founder of the Asiatic downers were Having travelled in ruSociety. succession of Britishthat aural IndiaOver for time, yearsa now, and knowing thors that this royal war when nurtured it comes the to notion women’s landownership, game originated in India.

More interesting, the norm is only around three to five per cent, however, connection the history of sciI refused istoitsbelieve theirtorather tall claims. ence around the world.

Twenty per cent landownership by women is The sinologist Joseph suggested something that I have notNeedham seen in my decades that the ancient Chinese used the compass for of work, which had, incidentally, begun with divination on farmers a chequered boarddistrict which repreDalit women in Medak of Tesented objects — the stars and langana.astronomical Their confident assertion, however, constellations.

ThisI promptly occult instrument, intrigued me and ended upmeant going to measure the embattled and Yang forces one of the villages.

This Yin is about Tivsala vilin theincosmos, passed lage Ghatanji block.over to India as a tactical war of first, two human Important in But here’s aarmies. brief background of this the story common origin of chess the statusisofthe women’s work in India to putand things compass, “the ancestor of all dial-and-pointer in perspective.

An overwhelming majority of readings, the greatest single in the Indian women recognised asfactor ‘workers’ in voyoffiages of discovery, and the instrument of cial data are dependent onoldest agriculture as their magnetic-electrical science.” mainstay. In the Census, they are listed as CulIn 1826, a Frenchman byLabour. the name of Fare Villot tivators and Agricultural Many alwas quoted saying in several journals so classified as unpaid helpers in the worldfamily wide that chess was invented by astronomers enterprise under a category called ‘Self Emin Ancient “The(National king, according him, ployed’

by Egypt. the NSSO Sampleto Survey represents the sun,making and thethem queen,unpaid the moon.

Office), effectively tenThe sometimes on a black square ants former in their is own family’s land. and sometimesinon white, and thus gives us Meanwhile, thea agriculture sector at prealternately day and night. The queen always sent, there is a masculinisation as wellisas femiplaced the first instance on herincolour benisationintrend being witnessed different cause moon inboth opposition (the white parts ofthe India.

Yet, in these phenomena — queen) a brightmore colour, and inthan conjuncone, of affects men wielding control ever tion (the black due queen) affects a black one…” before, mainly to integration with marThe claimedwhere to seewomen a sharp are similarity kets,author and another, left to between Egyptian calendars astronomirun the agricultural enterpriseand by themselves cal tables found on monuments and marginalthe chess— it’s the women who end up being board.

Although fanciful,entitlements this too hinted at an ised without any formal as ‘farmancient link between and the game of ers’. Of course, it is ascience well-recognised reality chess, a bond whichinvisibility may have carried over to now that women’s and empowerthe European Renaissance. ment as farmers is strongly linked to their lack the compass seen as the primal founof If ownership overis land. tain of our scientific knowledge, the amount of mathematics that flowed from the chessboard was impressive too.

When John Napier published Rabdologia (1617) containing some new graphical methods for rapid calculation, “The third device used a checkerboard-like grid and counters moving on the board to perform binary arithmetic. Napier termed this technique location arithmetic from the way in which the locations of the counters on the board represented and computed numbers. Once a number is converted into a binary form, simple movements of counters on the grid could multiply, divide and even find square roots of numbers.”

Napier’s work on logarithms and calculators was heavily oriented towards the urgent needs of astronomers, who had to perform fiendishly laborious computations repeatedly. Furthermore, the “coordinate plane” of Descartes’ La Géométrie (1637) was essentially a chessboard, infinite in all directions. Even today, you can see how chess notation and rectangular coordinates on a plane are analogous.

Even Sir Isaac Newton is known to have been interested in and purchased chessmen at some point. The eminent biologist TH Hux-

ies about the various benefits that accrue to a that about 17 per cent of its total landowners household, in terms of better education, are women. A few days later, an enterprising health and so on, with women’s ownership farmer, who pulled out more accurate inforover property like land. This is apart from the mation from the talati, called back to share strategic empowerment that the woman her- that the village has 341 pattedars in all, and 71 self could gain, for instance, allowing her a of them are women. That is around 21 per greater say in household-level decision-mak- cent! From Pagandi, a neighbouring village, ing. Women’s rights activists, feminist econo- too, I received a call that out of 396 pattedars mists and others have for long been pointing there, 59 were women — about 15 per cent.

Tivsala is a village that has a mixed social out how important it is for women farmers to actualise their equal inheritance rights to composition. Apart from Dalit, Muslim and land (apart from women’s control over prop- Other Backward Classes (OBC) women, it also erty and assets in general). Five Year Plans of has families classified as scheduled tribes and the Planning Commission have acknowl- nomadic tribes. Of the names that we were edged the need to ensure women’s landow- able to list out while sitting in the village, we nership and have promised measures like started looking at each case to see why the periodic updates of land records, creating land accrued to the woman in question. Apart from women who received land awareness, special ‘inheritance in their name because the family camps’, computerisation of land wanted to bypass land ceiling records, and so on. laws, and ones who got land due However, in a deeply-entrenched patriarchal system, About five years ago a to widowhood (in equal propornot much changes on the new trend started, of tion), a surprising shift had occurred in the recent past. ground. Even after debates and men transferring a About five years ago, a new recommendations, the basic part of the land to trend started, of men transferdocument on land ownership in their wives ring a part of the land in the most States does not even have a names of their wives, across difcolumn to indicate whether a ferent castes. This is done so that given landowner is a man or a they can access government woman. If the basic document does not contain this, there is no way to know schemes and subsidies. The sprinkler irrigaat a larger level what the current status of tion scheme seems to be popular. These women’s landownership in any given location schemes can be availed only if a farmer has is, unless the patwari or talati (lowest-ranking marginal or small holdings in the official clasrevenue officer appointed by the district col- sification. Splitting the family land allows the lector) chooses to cull out information based family to access these schemes, and this is the on his (this is a male-dominated domain of main incentive for the increasing land transSeeing numbers Girolamo Cardano’s ‘Magic squaresfers for the heavenly bodies’, 1539; (below) in the name of women. work) first-hand information about each famDurer’s magic square with N=4, numbers from 1Intoaddition NxN=16 to this, if a new piece of land is ily inAlbrecht a village. purchased by a couple, chances are high that Tivsala, I met many farmers in the village, plotboards, is registered thenumber name ofofthe womleyn was of the emphatic viewpoint that “The the larger wherein the squares including is women who own land. We pragmatic reasons like bypasschessboard the world; the pieces aretried the an. on aOnce side again, is not odd (for example, 20x20), some to list out the of all the ceiling regulation accessing schemes phenomena of names the universe; the women rules of lanthe ing of these tours produceand another strange phethis decision.

Thereare was only onefrom case game are what we call the laws of Nature. The drive nomenon.

If the squares numbered I came across in this village, of awefather player on the other side is hidden from us. We that N to NxN along the path of the knight, get a announcing he hasasregistered know that his play is always fair, and patient. proudly pattern known since that antiquity a magic his land in thesquare. name ofOn both his adaughter But also we know, to our cost, such square, and the son equally. sum of numbers in any directhat he never overlooks a misThis village tion — and what hascolumn really changed take, or makes the smallest al— be it row, or diagfor the womenonal there has tothe be studied lowance for ignorance.” is — always same, asmore if by closely. I could gleanSmall that magic men continue to Connoisseurs of the game magic. squares are control everything farm and are have for centuries been fascinatfoundon inthe many oldfront cultures, inalso in charge cluding of marketing and income from ed by walks of the knight upon Vedic rituals or Chinese sales, even though women put in more labour an empty board, for the knight mythology. than men. Women who9x9x9 I met magic also said that has the most complex move A new square this land will was be passed on to their not among all the pieces. A knight’s constructed by sons, Andrew the daughters.Hollingworth Frost in 1866, tour is a sequence of moves such The stationed impressiveasincrease in landownership that the knight visits every single square on while a missionary in Nasik, Invillage like Tivsala mostly the chessboard, but only once. “The earliest by dia.women It was in thea first magic cube towas be discovknown reference to the Knight’s Tour problem for eredopportunistic in history. reasons and was not in any drivenone by day, women gaining more dates back to the 9th century AD. In Rudrata’s way Perhaps we will find that theawareentire about their rights, or men getting more Kavyalankara, a Sanskrit work on poetics, the ness universe is magical, in which the elementary about due share.

However, pattern of a knight’s tour on a half-board has sensitive particles are likewomen’s knights touring at the speed is hope.

While transfer happening been presented as an elaborate poetic figure there of light.

The stars arethe arrayed likeisnumbers inreasons, I can’t how this called the ‘turagapadabandha’ or ‘arrange- for sidepractical a magic hypercube, andimagine no matter where, won’t women they choose ment in the steps of a horse’.” whichhelp direction westrategically, look from, ifthe sum and themselves equal rights as womOn an 8x8 board, there are an astonishing to theassert firmament appearfor the same.

26,534,728,821,064 “directed and closed” en and farmers. knight’s tours, a surprisingly large number of rohit gupta explores the history of science as t @fadesingh kavitha kuruganti Women’s Feature Service solutions for such a restricted problem. On Compasswallah

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Be counted An enumerator verifies original documents during the Intensive Household Survey conducted by the Telangana Government at Fasalwadi village in Medak district

The right mate Marriages made in India’s own ‘Ivy League’ heaven

pv sivakumar

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English Vinglish More than 100 Malayalam films since 2013 have English titles, but what’s in a name?

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recent report on news website Scroll.in reveals more than half of the 250 Malayalam films released since 2013 bear English titles. With names such as Red Wine, Honey Bee, Left, Right, Left, and Celluloid — some hits, some flops — Malayalam films are looking to attract a non-Malayali audience across the country and overseas. The 2012 film Grandmaster was the first Malayalam film released with English sub-titles. While Mollywood is trying to woo a pan-Indian (even global) audience, the Tamil Nadu government is offering tax subsidies in Kollywood to films with Tamil-only titles. Meanwhile, Tollywood (Telugu) and Sandalwood (Kannada) are reinventing the wheel with Hindi titles — coming soon are Maine Pyaar Kiya in Telugu and the Kannada flick Parde ke Peeche.

n India, where caste and cosmetics make for an intricate marriage matrix, here comes another factor to complicate matters further: the alma mater. Potential grooms with degrees from the country’s elite institutions, six-figure salaries and green cards have always been a top draw in the marriage market, and now iitiimshaadi.com offers help to those seeking partners with the right degree from the right place. While male membership is restricted to “alumni of Indian and international premier institutions”, there are no such restrictions for women. “It is not a chauvinistic discrimination, but some highly educated men like women who consider taking care of the home as good as a job,” says founder Ajay Gupta. Ugh!

Surviving the T-survey

Brrrr!

The Ice Bucket Challenge goes viral, raises $30 million

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veryone’s taking it. From Mark Zuckerberg Auto driver Niranjan was undecided about and Bill Gates to Oprah Winfrey and Bappi going to his village, where his extended family Lahiri!

Ice Bucket has millionownsThe a small chunkChallenge of land. “Will I lose my aires dumping ofin icethe cubes on theirlandholdheads claim on mypails share undivided in crazy videos, nominating other celebs ing if I don’t go?” he wanted to know. Heand finaldonating to to thestay ALSback (neurodegenerative dis-the ly chose in Hyderabad for easesurvey Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) association. to ensure his “family doesn’t become After US baseball playerschemes”. and ALS patient Pete ineligible for welfare FratesDespite floated having this idea, challenge vito the travel all the went way from ral,Bahrain, more than 1.2 million videos and Balachandar backs the shared government’s more than $30 million who refuse decision.

“What is raised. wrong Those in sharing the de— like Barack Obama — have to donate $100. tails?

Accurate information will help the govCristiano Ronaldo did it, as did Satya Nadella ernment in drafting schemes,” he says. and Lady George cool The Gaga. surveyEven covered 1.05Bush crorelooked households, all 20 drenched.

Charlie gave us a About special2.3 lakh more than Sheen the 2011 Census. version, dousing himself into the lakh households are yet be$10,000 covered.he donated.Social According to the Wired’s calculation, in networking sites were flooded with 35 days the whole world would’ve taken this hey may have dreaded it, loved it or people to stay home for the day and provide messages from users sharing their survey exWho said this was aindoors silly idea? hated it, but no one ignored it. The the right details to help the government weedchallenge. periences.

People stayed all day, upfirst-ever Intensive Household Sur- out fake beneficiaries in welfare schemes. The dating friends about the goings-on. vey conducted on August 19 in the number of households far exceeded the numThe timing of the survey had fuelled fears newly formed State of Telangana saw lakhs of ber of ration cards, burning a big hole in the that the government was out to discriminate people scurrying home. Whether they were exchequer. “We pay salaries but we don’t have against natives of Andhra Pradesh. Barely textile workers in Surat and Bhiwandi, con- the accurate number of employees in the gov- weeks ago, there were moves to exclude Andstruction workers in Mumbai and Ahmeda- ernment,” he said. hra students from the fee reimbursement bad, IT employees in Pune and Bangalore, or Accurate data would help the government scheme, triggering protests from parties in eking out a living from menial jobs elsewhere, formulate efficient policies, he pointed out. Andhra Pradesh. The draft pro forma too had t is the best of times, it is the worst of times… for Sahara called Telangana home made a “We all thought the population of Hyderabad queries related to nativity.

Chief Subrata Roy, that is. A ₹10,000-crore all bailthose bondwho hangs for of theTi-survey, families in tow, to in- is 76 lakh and has about 15 lakh households. over his head, but officials have converted abeeline small part However, the final pro forma dispelled all scribe their place in the government records. har Jail into a ‘five-star hotel’ for his use. The 500sqft air-condiBut preliminary numbers indicate that the such fears. There was nothing in it to tell peoFor more than 20 days preceding the sur- population crosses the 1.2-crore mark in about ple apart. There was only an optional question tioned conference room Roy moved into on August 4 has now vey, peoplethree talked of nothing else, anxiously 20 lakh households,” he said after the survey. been fitted with video-conferencing and Wi-Fi facilities, about the availability of birth certificate. soft beds and two desktops. The apex court wondering has allowedwhat Roy was in store for them, what About four lakh government “Statistics hold the key for govthey should reveal and what they shouldn’t. employees and thousands of entwo secretaries, three laptops and three cellphones to negoernance. Electoral rolls tell you Domestic helps, tiate the sale of three Sahara properties to raise the bailauto drivers and construction gineering students went door to something, Census gives you amount, which is perhaps one of the mostlabourers expensiveworking ever. in the cities were unsure door for the survey. People with some other data. We need accuWill I lose my share in whether they for were expected to return to their roots in Telangana and living While jail officials say that they provide “concessions” rate data. Our survey is a superthe family land if native village or stay back in the city. No one elsewhere in India or abroad “high-profile” inmates, Roy is enjoying “unprecedented comhit. I am sure other States will I don’t go to my answers. forts, and other prisoners are looking at himhad withany envy”. feared they may be excluded have a look at it and emulate,” a village?

With the air thick with confusion, rumours from government welfare beaming chief minister said afspread wildly. There were apprehensions schemes if they failed to show ter the survey. a true NotTelugus a bulletin from The Onion. Nerds of the Silicon Valley aremany test- who refused about sharing bank account details, and other his upisfor thestory. survey. with There were outin square brackets or abut ‘satire news certain stories. questions or privacy concerns. In fact, some citizens even ing roots Andhra Pradesh, liv- tag’ at Facebook that will labeltofake answer The social network explained it had “received feedback people clear-Sena President moved the High Court to challenge the survey. ing in Telangana fearedthat it was a ploy to exeven that avoided thewanted survey.aJana er wayclude to distinguish satirical articles from others”. While the cerebral world Kalyan of journalThe government quickly backed down and them. and film actor Pawan stayed away from ism has Ramulu, had its share of embarrassing lapses remember China’s People’s fallingindicating his clarified that the survey was not mandatory, a 30-year-old mason, had not—visithis Nandagiri Hills Daily residence, for a piece proclaimed North dictator Kim unwillingness Jong-un as the sexiest man alive which prompted the court to give a go-ahead. ed histhat native village for closeKorean to five years.

But to participate in the exercise.

— whatever happened relyinginonGadwal, good old commonActress sense?Vijayashanti The Onion’s response to to take part.

When the big day finally dawned, practicalon August 19, hetoarrived 100km too refused Facebook’s proposed tweaks?

A post titled ‘Area And Facebook User Incredibly ly every street remained deserted, not least befrom Hyderabad, with his wifehelpfully and daughter. after the many days ofStuchaos, confusion pid’. Facepalm! cause the government had declared a public Balachandar, who works in Bahrain, also head- and outright indignation leading up to the holiday and directed private concerns to shut ed home to Warangal with his family. He was survey, it was all over in minutes, said the mashop. Buses were off the roads too. among scores of migrant workers in the Gulf son Ramulu, incredulity writ large on his face.

Announcing the survey on August 1, Chief who timed their India visit to coincide with kv kurmanath Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao had asked the survey.

All roads, and hopes and fears, led to Telangana as it embarked on a day of household enumeration

Jailhouse rocks

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For Subrata Roy, Tihar is now a ‘fivestar’ office away from office

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Goodbye, [common sense]

Beware! Facebook to introduce satire tag to prevent you from being fooled by The Onion

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HANG

saturday, august 23, 2014

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cornerstone in-faq by joy bhattacharjya The anti-exam quiz

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started by trying to write a quiz in the style of the Civil Services General studies paper. After falling asleep on four separate attempts, I thought it would be easier to write a set of questions that you would definitely not come across in any competitive exam. Good luck!

1 2

When it was completed in 1943, why did the Pentagon have twice the number of bathrooms than it needed?

Complete the quote: “I would have run to him, only I was a coward in the presence of such a mob — would have embraced him, only, he being an Englishman, I did not know how he would receive me. So I did what cowardice and false pride suggested was the best thing — walked deliberately to him, took off my hat, and said... ”

3

In which classic 19th-century work was one of the main protagonists originally envisaged as a Polish noble escaping repression before the author changed it to an Indian, fearing a book ban in Russia. And name the character.

4

Give the next three lines of this nursery rhyme. Connection, Hollywood!

“Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn / Apple seed and apple thorn / Wire, briar, limber lock / Three geese in a flock... ”

5 6

the new york times crossword-1201

hits and ms.es

What connects the Mars brand, Snickers, Gemini Studios in India and the Alouette III light-utility helicopter?

Born in Lucknow in October 1930, she joined the Bar in 1959. She was the first woman to top the London Bar exams in 1958. In 1991, she was appointed the chief justice of Himachal Pradesh. However, her son is probably more famous than her today. Identify her.

7 8 9

Why have most internet users definitely seen one particular scene from a German drama titled Der Untergang, made in 2004?

First used in Yokohama in the late 19th century, rickshaws were first used in which Indian city on a regular basis?

The style of wearing saris for formal occasions, heavily pleated and pinned to the shoulder, is named after which profession, where it first became widely used?

10

This Indian cricketer has an amazing first class average of 71. His family name was Thackersey, but he got a different surname when the headmaster asked him his name and he thought he was being asked his father’s profession. Identify this brilliant batsman.

Answers

1. It was built in Virginia, which was still a segregated State, so there were separate facilities for White and Black employees.

2. “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” This is the famous meeting between the journalist Henry Stanley and British explorer David Livingstone.

3. Jules Verne’s 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, Captain Nemo, the prince of Bundelkhand.

4. One flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.

5. All named after famous horses. Snickers was a horse belonging to the Mars family, Gemini was producer SS Vasan’s favourite racehorse and the Alouette III is known as Chetak, Rana Pratap’s horse, in India.

6. Leila Seth, mother of Vikram Seth and the first Indian woman chief justice.

7. It is the video on which there are thousands of parodies of Hitler reacting to different situations. The first parody was in Spanish and about Microsoft Flight Simulator.

8. Shimla 9. Air Hostess, it’s still known as the air hostess style.

10. Vijay Thackersey Merchant

CH-X _ A

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

ACROSS 1 Parade organizer 6 Fake 11 One-named singer with the hit “Locked Up” 15 Pat gently 18 Recipe amount 19 ___ mama (tropical drink) 20 Belittling 22 “Greetings, Ms. Retton!”

24 Orwellian state 25 Right angle 26 Turkey isn’t one 27 One who’s done the “I do’s” 28 “___ further review …”

29 Handle again?

31 “Very nice, Ms. Kennedy!”

34 Eight, for starters?

35 March org.?

36 Admiral’s inits.

37 “Hurry up, Ms. Brennan!”

44 Little birdie 46 3.0 or 4.0 49 Like some queens 50 Sports-league-backed cable network 51 Market makeup: Abbr.

52 Summer month in France 53 Kind of cat 54 Feature of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West 55 “Cheer up, Ms. Teasdale!”

57 Advanced deg.

58 Bearded one 59 Title character in an A.A. Milne play 61 Person who holds property in trust 62 “Am I the one, Ms. Andrews?”

66 “Sí!” at sea 69 Shorties 70 “Hurrah!”

71 Scuba tank meas.

74 “You look hot in a thong, Ms. Hawkins!”

76 Firenze’s home 79 Bad mark 80 “___ off!”

81 German name part 82 Rock genre 83 Barbecue needs 84 Go off 85 Nothing special: Abbr.

86 “I need a hand, Ms. Fleming!”

88 N.R.C. forerunner 90 Classical “You too?”

93 Big ___ Conference

94 “Leave it alone, Ms. Zellweger!”

100 “Absolutely Fabulous” or “Father Ted” 103 Jai ___ 104 First razor with a pivoting head 105 Yvonne with the 1978 #1 hit “If I Can’t Have You” 107 Portuguese “she” 108 Pitcher Valenzuela 110 “Time to show your cards, Ms. Field!”

112 Pulled 113 TV’s Ashley and Mary-Kate 114 Kate’s TV partner 115 Maxime or Marie: Abbr.

116 Fury 117 Agemates 118 More Solomonic DOWN 1 HBO host Bill 2 Singer with the hit albums “19” and “21” 3 Remember 4 Designer inits.

5 2,000 pounds 6 Food source 7 “Oh, now I see” 8 1980s-’90s Corbin Bernsen TV drama

9 Cuffed 10 ___ de Nil (pale yellowish green) 11 Hound 12 Main cause 13 Figure skating champion Brian 14 Cavil 15 Bread flavorer 16 Par ___ 17 “Moneyball” subject Billy 19 Urged 21 All ___ Day 23 Breakfast order 27 Global commerce grp. since 1995 30 Alpine climber’s tool 32 Seaside eagle 33 No longer closeted 37 Not serious, in a way 38 Sushi fish 39 Cause of yawning 40 “Can ___ next?”

41 Port city from which Amelia Earhart last flew 42 Older form of a word 43 Always 45 La ___, Dominican Republic (first Spanish settlement in the Americas) 47 Whine

48 Suit to ___ 51 Military wear, for short 52 Date for Denis 54 Away for a while 55 The “S” of R.S.V.P. 56 Matching 58 Blokes 60 Aqua, e.g.

62 Noisy birds 63 Fairies’ land 64 Having a projected date of 65 Drapery material 66 Athlete who wrote “A Hard Road to Glory” 67 Juniors, e.g.

68 Egg choice 71 Botanists’ microscopic study 72 Persuaded 73 “___ jungle out there” 75 Cutthroat 77 Sports org. supported by 66-Down 78 Beat it 79 Hype 83 Logging aid

85 Home theater brand 86 Aqua, e.g.

87 Broadcast as an encore 89 Barely managing, with “out” 91 Power in old Hollywood 92 Singsong syllable 94 Drifts 95 Northern native 96 Film fish 97 Football Hall-of-Fame coach Greasy 98 “Family Ties” mom 99 Black-berried tree 100 Gran Turismos and others 101 Dragon puppet 102 One-third of an old Hollywood trio 106 They carry charges 109 ___ Lingus 110 Cut 111 Rope-a-dope boxer

By Gary Cee / Edited by Will Shortz

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