Blink issue 47 decembe20 2014

MISSING FROM BHARATPUR Painted storks used to jostle together, leaving no elbow room on treetops, but today their nests are empty p2 saturday, december 20, 2014

A church in Manakudi (Kanyakumari district), which was destroyed by the tsunami c ratheesh kumar

Ten years after the tsunami, a photojournalist and a ďŹ lmmaker recount the importance of bearing witness, and the personal toll. Unfortunately, lessons on disaster management remain unlearned p8

After the wave

THE TURKS HAVE IT A round-up of the best movies from the International Film Festival of India p14

THE SEA MEETS ART Make the three-month-long Kochi-Muziris Biennale all your own p16

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hopewere to play till And then“Ithere none I’m 33 at least”

What forced entire colonies of around 500-700 painted storks to abandon their habitat and leave Bharatpur’s bird sanctuary en masse? storks for two centuries; the colonies have

habitats shrink over time, nearby When P Kashyap brought homeseen thetheir CWG badminton gold areas dry up, and the park come up around them, bringing of visitors year. after a three-decade gap, he proved once lakhs more that each he can The flight of the birds, it would appear then, succeed against odds was primarily induced by severe water short-

age in Bharatpur. Several reports over the last few months have recorded the alarming state s competitive sports go, this is as eight his sources playing of career witof theyears threeofmain waterhave in these close as it gets. On August 1, at Glas- nessed during 2009, (CWG bronze) parts —highs the Panchna dam,2010 the Chambal river gow’s Emirates Arena, the last and when he reached Olympics quarand2012, the Goverdhan drain. the Built on the Gambmatch of the Commonwealth ter a few low up points too, butago, he has hirfinals, river, and which dried a decade the Games badminton semi-finals is poised 20-15 retained higher ranking Panchnaacan release waterthroughout. only when there’s in favour of Hyderabad boy Parupalli Kashyap.

“Morerainfall. than winning one or two tournaexcess The 17km-long Goverdhan Rajiv Ouseph, England’s only remaining med- ments, in badminton it’s also enters about consistendrain originates in Haryana, Rajasthan al hopeful, misses the bird in the first match cy.

A player like whodrains is in the inAgra the at Bharatpur andme finally out20s near point. Just as Kashyap, the 2010 bronze medal- world rankings at least drain 18-20 in Uttar Pradesh.needs Whentotheplay Goverdhan list, begins to exult he realises abruptly that tournaments in a year push uptouted or even became operational last to year, it was as the point has gone in favour of Ouseph. The maintain position. Maybe later, But once the answermy to Keoladeo’s water woes. it isI game continues, lasting all of 83 minutes and break and remain inthe thesanctuary top 10, I can afford yet to in release water to this year. involving the longest rally running into 72 sec- to play 11-12 in a year.”

This year Thanks to atournaments deficient monsoon, Keoladeo is onds and 71 strokes, until Kashyap finally tri- has been among infeet, his career, facing a deficit ofthe 150poorer millionones cubic nearly umphs 18-21, 21-17, 21-18. owing a shoulder injury at the end of 2013.

30 per to cent of its total requirement.

“It was surely one of the toughest matches I Of “It’s the not 10 tournaments he played before thea the water problem alone, there’s have ever played,” recalls the 28-year-old Kash- CWG, four stumble in the first round scarcity of saw foodhim as well.

The quality of water is yap. “The pressure was outstanding, but un- and there were second-round exits. Bijo But important,” saysthree the park’s field director like earlier matches where I’ve lost by slight he tofirst restmonth these ghosts byjob, snatching Joy,laid who, into his has a PRthe dimargins, this time I focused and made sure I CWG sastergold. on his hands. “The Goverdhan drain wagot the result.” He went on to beat Singapore’s ter needs flushing. It passes through towns Derek Wong 21-14, 11-21, 21-19 in the finals, bring- The andconstant villages, trainer where it gathers pollutants. The ing the CWG gold to India after 32 long years. Kashyap’s are all the ismore extraorChambal, successes on the other hand, too clean.

It That puts him in the league of greats such as dinary someone who was diagnosed doesn’tfor have an abundance of prey forwith the Prakash Padukone and Syed Modi. asthma in Class X. “WeThat werethe in painted Bangalore.

I’d birds,” says KB Singh. storks had a lot of breathing says is Kashshould’ve ditched theseproblems,” parched lands not A conscious choice yap. instead of allowing his ailment at allHowever, surprising.

“When he’s playing, I flip the channels and to Unlike defeat his dreams, hecormorants, pushed harder and deep-diving painted pause just longnesting enoughsites to check the score. are traditional for the birds, theI derived inspiration sportspeople like storks hunt for fish from in shallow waters. With get too tense otherwise,” says hisyear. mother, P British breeding has been subdued this Sultanmarathoner Paula Radcliffe and Olymtheir bills half-open, they rock their heads Subadhra, from pur, whichspeaking played host to Hyderabad. around 40 pairs last pic triple Jackieusing Joyner Kersee, back and gold forth,medallist occasionally a wing to Thanks to his father Uday Shankar’s pharma year, has seen little nesting.

Block D, which the who asthma to succeed the about highpull overcame the fish closer.

“Adult storks at need job, Kashyap spent is hisalso childhood three dif- est storks abandoned, home toin other water international 700-800gm foodlevels. daily, the chicks require ferent cities.

Hyderabad birds such as “From spoonbills, egrets, glossy ibises, around 200gm.Among oldest students at That’s athe huge amount of food, we shifted toand Lagos in Nigeria for grey herons darters.

The corbadminton Pullela Gopiwhich is not ace available in the waamorants few years, then Bangalore and and open-billed storks chand’s ter,” saysacademy Joy. WhileininHyderabad, Keoladeo’s finally came back also haven’t been home.” able to Playstart he trains area, not less than40 sixper to eight 29sqkm nearly cent ing badminton from an early breeding this year. hours day, six days a week. these He is of the asanctuary is wetland, Kashyap’s successes Perched on stick age, Kashyap constant The absencereceived of breeding sites ‘golden regions the began to getgeneration’ water only are all the morefeet among platforms, a few support from his mother, this season spells bad newswho for of winners emerging from the afrom this November.

Abundant extraordinary for above water, the accompanied him which to tournathe painted storks, have cademy, which includes players in predatory catfish, hunting in someone diagnosed painted storks would ment venues. “Till I made my been classified as a ‘near-threatlike PVwaters Sindhu, Srikanth, Saina these hasKbecome dangerwith asthma teach their chicks to mark the national levelpopulait was ened’ at species and whose Nehwal andbirds.

RMV “Recently, Gurusaidutt. ous for the a peafly, fish and fight quite to keep it. Equiptions tough have been on at a moderate “He’swas a player who really pushcock attacked by catfish. ment was expensivetoand I needdecline.

According a report in es himself.

While he’s a Even the cormorants are had scared ed to travel adaily, lot, participate in a national the painted mixed bag of he perto fish now,” saysresults, Baney Singh. as many tournaments as possible. My parents forms in the This stork community left Bharatpur big stages andfirst that’s what is not the occasion were supportive all through,” he dozens says. whenreally “the forest department allowed counts,” says Gopichand. strokeInplay is when birds have fled from “His Bharatpur.

2006was just his schooling, aged that good ofIttrucks andafter JCB machines inside the 17, sanctuand he was can hit surpass many with his skill.

07, the state by a serious drought and he to make of the biggest of And ary.had These wereone engaged to builddecisions mud platwhileuntil theretwo haveyears beenlater challenges forwater him it wasn’t that the his life: around choose to with the game forms thestay storks’ colony, soorasemto off thereturned field as well, when he’s on court, Kashbirds to their breeding sites. While bark onvisitors an engineering course.

“It was quite enable to click better photographs of yap’s managed to put things aside focus the painted storks may return toand Keoladeo dramatic actually.

We the wereconstruction at the counselling the birds.”

However, lasted on the game.” And that of focus unlikelyseato next monsoon, the loss this is breeding centre to choose my stream college.

I real- waver only a day, says Baney Singh,and a guide at Bharatanytimea soon. son remains concern. “We need to build a ised just can’t do both, badminton and engipur, Iwho has been showing visitors around “I’m looking to play till I’mpainted 33 at least.

Where stabilised population.

The storks are neering.

So I told my last parents, and“But when they Ion the sanctuary for the 27 years. there’s want to make my mark should next is happen at the All Ena decline, so breeding every saw really sure about what I wanted they gland littleI was chance that they’ll come back this year.” in Singh.

March For nextthe year,” year,” Open says KB nextsays fewKashyap. months let Could me go ahead,” he says. have precipitated “I the construction to playbirds my part in promoting game ashope migratory begin to flock at the Keoladeo It proved a good “Painted choice asstorks barely don’t two years the birds’ flight? just as well. Whileisit’s popular thanJanuever — migration atmore its peak here now between later, in 2006, hesays went to beat established nest anywhere,” KBon Singh, a veteran bird- before, still — tough for many to break ary andit’s March the field director’s primeinto obplayers the domestic as Chetan er and in founder of thecircuit onlinesuch group Indian the game.

I want seethe a situation where jective is “to keeptoup water levels of top the Anand to winnesting the 33rd National Games; the athletes Birds. “Their sites last for generations any the Olympic are projected as wetlandsin for birdssport [residents and misame he was selected to represent India superstars. and Iyear don’t think construction activities That’s the only way more grants] to have a good time.

And then,people hopeat the Doha Asian Games.

A string achievewould’ve disturbed them. I’ve even of known col- will inspired take up various sports.” fullybe the paintedtostorks will come back.” ments including three-year cononies offollowed, storks nesting over arooftops in villagarasukotamraju priyanka tract Oil Corporation.

Thetopast es,” hewith says.Indian Bharatpur has been home the sibi

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Empty-nest syndrome A common sight in Bharatpur, painted storks may have left the park this year due to a shortage of water and food keoladeo national park

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Shuttle express Parupalli Kashyap, the 2014 Commonwealth Games badminton gold medallist, is among a ‘golden generation’ of winners emerging from the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad vv subrahmanyam

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he southwest monsoon arrived late this year in Rajasthan. It was almost August when the first rains hit Bharatpur, washing away the heat of the warmest summer on Earth since records began in 1880. At the Keoladeo National Park, home to more than 350 bird species, the painted storks too showed up with the monsoon to begin breeding. During the summers, these large yellow-billed, pink-tailed water birds would pair up across the sanctuary and surrounding areas in Bharatpur, courting each other with elaborate bowing rituals. The males would choose a nesting site and mark their territory; the female would pick a suitor, the larger the better. Come monsoon, the pairs would return to their nesting sites — blocks D and L in Keoladeo.

On partly-submerged trees, painted storks would set up homes so closely packed together that “it must be miserably uncomfortable to have no elbow room”, wrote British ornithologist Robert Betham in 1904, while observing stork colonies. One would find nearly 30-40 pairs breeding on the same acacia tree in their makeshift nests, taking turns to hatch eggs. Perched on stick platforms, a few feet above water, the tall, slender birds would then guide their chicks through initial rites of passage, teaching them to fly, fish and fight. This year at Keoladeo, however, there will be no such spectacle.

Sometime in October, entire colonies of around 500-700 painted storks abandoned their habitat and left the bird sanctuary en masse, putting the breeding process in jeopardy. In half-a-dozen other areas too, including Sultanpur, Mathura and the Delhi zoo, which

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Long road to freedom The recent protests in New York City drew people of all races. But Indian-Americans were few and far between afp/yana paskova

Not ‘our’ issue When it comes to the death of an unemployed African-American man whose only crime was that he was selling loose cigarettes, Indian-Americans really do not care

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wo weeks ago, as New York City was hit with freezing rain, many New Yorkers and those from the neighbouring states of New Jersey and Connecticut brought their kids to view the annual Christmas event — the lighting up of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. But the holiday-goers were not expecting to encounter thousands of protesters angry at the decision by the grand jury in Staten Island not to indict a police officer who had caused the chokehold death of Eric Garner, an African-American man stopped for selling single cigarettes.

The protests, also fuelled by a similar unjustifiable act by a grand jury in Ferguson, have now become a daily occurrence and have spread across the country with signs reading ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘I Can’t Breathe’ (a reference to Garner’s last words).

A local Indian newspaper, India in New York, showed images of some Indian-Americans joining the protests in Manhattan and Brooklyn. But the reporter asked a Sikh protestor, who seems to be a regular at such activists’ gatherings, a relevant question. Why do so few Indian-Americans join such protests? And the young Sikh gentleman said, “This racism, of course, affects us South Asians as well, but in different ways… I am not by and large a target of police harassment… Maybe, this is why some desis may not be out on the frontlines — because they don’t see this as ‘our’ issue.”

According to the latest census, held five years ago, there are over three million IndianAmericans in the US, with large concentrations in the greater New York area, around major cities in California, in and around Texas, in pockets of Florida and in many other states.

We are educated and wealthy. We host lavish house inside. But those numbers are small. weddings and contribute huge sums to Hindu In reality, you see Americans of all races — temples, with the intent of building the big- and granted there are more African Amerigest, most opulent structures. cans in the mix — in the current protests We seem to care a lot about India — whether against the grand juries’ decisions and police it is Bollywood films, cricket or politics. Nearly brutalities. But you see far fewer Indian-Amer20,000 of us filled up Madison Square Garden icans among the protesters. It is not in their on September 28 to hear the Indian Prime nature to join street protests but, more imporMinister speak as he promised to create a vi- tantly, this cause — although it seems essential brant new India. And many of us paid prime to many in restoring fairness in America — dollars to get reserved seating in the space does not appeal to Indian-Americans. close to where he was speaking.

I hate to say it, but most sucWe even contribute to eleccessful, educated Indian-Amerition campaigns in the US, and cans today care far too little the wealthy amongst us pay a lot about the poor, the disenfranWhile many Indian more to get pictures taken with chised Americans. There is a Americans would presidents, elected officials and have voted for Barack strong race issue at play here that other potential candidates. It is hard to overlook.

Obama — especially makes us feel that we are a part for his first term, they And while many Indian-Ameriof the American system. are not always moved cans tend to be Democrats and But the truth is that when it would have voted for its candiby his social agenda comes to the death of a poor, date Barack Obama — especially overweight, unemployed Afrifor his first term, they are not alcan-American man who did not ways moved by his social agenda, live on the right side of the whether it is the healthcare issue tracks, and whose only crime was that he was or providing equal rights to same-sex partners selling loose cigarettes, then we Indian-Amer- or with regard to a woman’s right to choose. icans really do not care. We do not care when As immigrants, it is for us to choose how we there is a video that shows several police offi- engage with the country that gives us all the cers pouncing on this man, one holding his opportunities. But again and again I feel that neck in a chokehold, as he screams “I can’t most Indian-Americans are concerned with breathe” before his body goes limp. only what matters to them. They do not opt for Sure there are college students and other In- making America’s larger agenda their own. dian-American activists who have joined the And so, unfortunately, they never become ongoing protests in different parts of the complete Americans. country. Some also protested outside Madison Square Garden in September, when Prime aseem chhabra is a writer and has been a resident of Minister Narendra Modi spoke to a packed New York City for over three decades

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Me too The people of Kashmir say that they are voting for basic necessities such as electricity, food and a roof over their heads ap/mukhtar khan

Fine winery Familyowned Louis Roederer is among the few remaining independent champagne houses; (below) its vineyard in Reims, France bloomberg

Elegance uncorked Kashmir votes, for a change A champagne toast to sparkling conversations from an 18th-century vintner

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ver a lunch to com- Champagnevoter region.turnout Sparkling wines casks, sayspolls.

Wallaert.But should Delhi The Valley has menu seendesigned an unprecedented in thefrom Assembly plement Louis Roederer’s cham- elsewhere are prominently marked method Unlike most wines, Champagne comes with see it aspagnes, a victory of the democracy? the conversation turns traditionelle on the label, to differentiate them a specific reputation — almost entirely related

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rather informative. As Thierry Wallaert, export areahis manager, waxesMaroof eloquent utside office hours, Ahabout the brand, compelledvolunteer to take notes. mad, Iaam 28-year-old for Soon, he starts rattling off facts and figures — Jammu and Kashmir’s oldest politof the 32,000 hectares France’s Champagne ical party, inNational Conference, village, Roederer ownsyoungsters, 240 hectares, spent allLouis his time meeting exgrowing cent Grand Cru. of When he plaining 54 to per them theofimportance voting pauses briefly, I give my wrist break, candithinkand asking them to support hisa party’s ing howfourth muchphase this isoflike notes datejust in the thescribbling state’s Assembin a class. Except, classes place at ly elections.

Ahmad sees hardly this as take a “do-or-die” the Taj Coromandel in Chennai, and never, election, as he is fed up with the present MLAI can pretty guarantee, are youin allowed of his Dorumuch Shahabad constituency South sips of Champagne between.

Kashmir and wants in a better alternative.

Eight sheets of notes, twobeen and arepresenting half glasses “The Congress MLA has of Brut Premier and one exus Louis for theRoederer’s last 12 years, and in the name of decellent risotto later, I leave onlya college,” slightly velopment, we have a few roads and buzzed a lot wiser. he says. and Asked if he has voted before, he replies in the negative, adding, “maybe because I Basics of bubbly didn’t vote, we got an unacceptable leader, so People have beenfor drinking Champagne since this time I voted change.” theLike reign of hundreds Louis XIV, as tells me,men but him, of Wallaert young Kashmiri the

by Dom Perigandbubbly womenwas whonot hadpioneered hitherto abstained from non as popularly believed.

That supporters distinction of is voting have turned into active laid at the doorsparties. of Benedictine monks, alvarious political though later Dom was has the “Eithermuch we vote or we doPerignon not. Someone first blendso wines of different to beto elected, it is better to votevintages and electtoa make leaderchampagne. of our choice,” reasons 22-year-old TanTheAhmad Champagne region has chalky soil, veer Mir. which retains moisture, and first-time experiences exRuheel Fayaz, 26, another voter, treme temperatures round year. Thechalvinsees unemployment as thetheforemost tage heavily thea postgraduconditions lenge depends for Kashmiri youth.on“I am during year, as well as the weather during ate andthe I am still unemployed, so I cast my harvest vote forseason. the candidate who promised us greathe pinothenoir, terChampagne employmentgrows opportunities,” says.pinot meunier andachardonnay varieties of the grape.

Recording larger turnout this time, AsThe first two are black-skinned; the pinot noir sembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, lends character, meunier, whichstructure, end today,body haveand witnessed a new trend the freshness, and the white-skinned chardonof youngsters participating enthusiastically nay, the elegance.

Champagne is usually to a in the entire electoral process. According blend of all three varieties, except for 1,48,480 the rare Election Commission data, nearly Blanc dein blanc, which uses only chardonnay. electors the state are in the 18-19 age group, The methode refers to the manand 19,82,701 inchampenoise the 20-29 bracket. ufacture of aerated exclusively in the Ajaz Ahmad is alsowines anxious for change, ac-

from original champagne. to celebration. What is it about this drink that To turn into coalition its bubblygovernment counterpart,ofa instantly cusing thewine present conjures images of festivity?

Walhi might see their participation in the polls as second fermentation place inpeople in a willingness failing to rehabilitate takes the flood-hit laert to believes it’sof the bubbles. be a part India, all they were the with the addition of his bottle hometown Kanipora in South Kashmir’s voting for were “bijli, sadak and paani” (basic sugar yeast.“Both RegulaKulgamand district. the National Confer- needs). “Delhi isMore than using ourcheers vote to show world tions dictate ageing promised the ence and Congress much during bodies that Kashmiris“The cork happily going with pop are living wine for 15 the floods butmonths, did nothing on the ground, so India and have full faithwhen opens, the in theitIndian Constibut vintage we are voting chamfor a new government that will tution, but the whole world necklace foam, knowsofthat we pagnes often us,” he says. hopefullyare rehabilitate the tiny, delicate vote only for basic amenities,” says Sajid Ahaged four to September floods exposed mad, standing in the line outside Thefor devastating bubbles that stago a polling eight years.unpreparedness for a calamity of tion in Anantnag. the state’s straight to your Atmagnitude the end ofand led to a growing clamour this the as drink The regional parties in thehead fray, — such the this theguard. for a period, change of is magical and National Conference and People’s Democratic bottles aremany Kashmiris have also said Party, have been quick to delink Significantly, romantic at the election opened, that theythe aresedparticipating in the polls to keep process from the greater Kashmir once,”issue.insists iment out theremoved BJP and its promise of ending the Wallaert. of the “Kashmir elections are independent and wine state’smore special autonomous status under Arti- greater aspirations of the people Although popof Jammu and sugar addedthe BJP did try to backtrack and Kashmir. We have promised cle 370.

Although ularly in served as an our manito make upoffor after many its the own candidates the very festo that PDPaperitif will useatdemocratloss of sediment.

The any such protested against a meal ic ways tobeginning solve theofKashmir bottles aredamage then had la- already move, the before moving on to issue,” said its chief spokesperbelled and brands such as been done. other Akhtar. wines, I am told that son, Naeem Someone has to be Louis Roederer extra “They try to wait takeanour land champagne is essentially a Political analysts say that the six months or so to allow the elected, so it is better wine from us without solving that lends itself to food large voter turnout proves that to vote and elect a bottle to ‘relax’.

Kashmir issue. We won’t let it pairing.

The bubbles convey Kashmiris were always readythe to leader of our choice The sugar varies happen.

So I added voted to keepfrom the aromas faster, he says. vote, but stayed away as they 6-12gm a brut and 32-50gm BJP out for of the state,” says Shakir Its complexity derives were In unsure India, the company it would make coma diffor a demi sec.

Nabi of Channapora area in upmands cent of “There the Chamference 14 toper their lives. has from ageing in old For Srinagar. the gorgeous pale-pink unique wooden casks pagne town — tussle compared to been a market constant among champagne rosé Hurriyat (never ‘rosé The separatist Con9-10 per cent the people toworldwide. vote or not, as they champagne’, Wallaert called admonference had expectedly for a boycott of didn’t take it seriously While theearlier.

UK, theNow, US and the Gerpreishes), Skin the polls,traditionally but the peoplethe defied it this time and sent generation many theare three biggestthe marof are youth analysing isContact (or maceration) voted in large numbers. methkets forsays Champagne, India is at a sues and voting,” Dr Sheikh Showkat od“What is usedhas where the wine in contact respectable Hurriyat givenremains us? We supported 36. Naturally Hussain, a senior politicalWallaert analyst anticipates working in with grape a few hours; a second themthe every timeskin andfor everywhere during 2008 athe sparkling Valley. future ahead in this country. method, calleddon’t Blend, involves blending still or 2009. They have a roadmap for Kash“People who love wine afford“Why it in But Fayaz Ahmad is notand onecan of them. red brut angry to achieve the delightful mir,”wine sayswith a visibly Showkat Rashid of India, food lovers and gastronomes, they shouldthe I vote?

Neither have I seen developlight salmon Rajbagh area pink. in Srinagar. “These Hurriyat peo- are thenor ones picking up champagne — they ment employment, so what is the pointare of business sincetothe pleFamily-owned fight for theirand own in power and claim be the targetanother audience for us. And the choosing representative,” hedrinking insists.

18th century, Louis Roederer among theshutfew population of India will [soon] nearly equal fighting for us.

They just offerisus hartals, tawqeer hussain is a New Delhi-based journalist remaining champagne houses. that downs and independent protests.” of a small country like Belgium!” he says.

The product is vinous, with a complexity de- currently covering the Assembly elections in Jammu Many Kashmiris speaking to this correand Kashmir mathew rived from ageing unique wooden spondent were quickinto old, clarify that while Del- elizabeth

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Local calls Firstouch handsets cater to the English-unfamiliar market; (below) co-founder Rakesh Deshmukh

Smart in my bhasha With handsets that allow users to type in a regional language and ‘swipe’ into English or vice versa, Firstouch has a huge market-in-waiting here in India

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n 2011, when mobile applications developer MoFirst (now renamed Firstouch) Solutions bagged a project from Myanmar, little did its founders know it would change the direction of their company forever. The project involved building a mobile interface in Burmese on the Android platform. That required customising the operating system in that language. Firstouch co-founders Rakesh Deshmukh, Akash Dongre and Sudhir B took up the challenge, and profited from it monetarily. More importantly, it gave them the idea of replicating the model in India, where every state speaks a different language and each presents a huge market.

“We realised that each state in India is a minicountry with a culture of its own. And while the mobile market has shifted from feature to smartphones, the rural market has not been able to adopt them… we thought of something that could help people communicate in their own language,” says Deshmukh, an IIT-Bombay alumnus.

While some mobile brands currently offer keyboards in a few Indian languages, these are not easy to use. One has to switch between screens to type a message, as one screen will have a few consonants and another the rest. Punctuation is timeconsuming and not easy.

Firstouch handsets, in contrast, offer it all entire mobile ecosystem rather than just on a single screen. When a letter is selected, smartphones. “We know the market is segpredictive words as well as punctuation in all mented and so it is important to give a unified combinations pop up, making it user-friendly. experience. Along with handsets, we have to More significantly, users can convert a give users regional content. Only then will message in English into another language consumers shift brand,” says Deshmukh. through what Deshmukh calls the swipe Firstouch has accordingly set up an app technology. A swipe from left to right will store, App Bazaar, to offer content downloads convert an English text message into, say, in regional languages. On offer are 1,000 apps Gujarati. Similarly, a message keyed-in in a through tie-ups with major publishers includregional language can be ‘swiped’ in- ing Nazara Technologies, Gameloft, EA Games to English before sending. “The and Hungama. “We are also creating a platconsumer can communicate in form where publishers can publish content English without knowing the lan- on our app store,” he adds. guage. This is a big market opporAgain, to make it convenient for regional tunity for us,” Deshmukh says. users, most of whom don’t have credit cards, To make this Firstouch has linked app downwork, the company load and usage to carrier billing. created its own FirUsers will pay their telecom operstouch operating ator for the paid content. “Moresystem, which perchover, since our customers are just Every state speaks a es on the phone’s shifting from feature phones, different language hardware. So, basicalthey may not have email acand presents a huge ly, the company imcounts. So their phone’s IMEI market on its own ports handsets, number (unique to every handinstalls its operating set) becomes their user ID insystem and sells stead,” says Deshmukh. these through distribuBut he knows well that for a tors and retailers. “Our technology is mass market, tie-ups with original equipment not dependent on where the handsets manufacturers (OEMs) or handset makers are are made or assembled.” For its pilot in a must. “We believe it is better to go with a Gujarat, Firstouch imported handsets larger opportunity. Now we are focusing on lifrom China. censing our technology to OEMs,” he says.

Currently available only with GujaFirstouch operating system will soon be ofrati interface, Firstouch handsets will fered on handsets of other brands too. But support Tamil from January, and Hin- Deshmukh is not ready to reveal the details di and Marathi by April. Since May, the yet. “We will finalise the partnership in the Mumbai-based company has sold over next few months,” he says.

3,000 handsets with Gujarati interface And when he does, it will be much easier for in Saurashtra alone. regional users to find top brand handsets cusAs the company sees itself as a re- tomised in their own language. gional smartphone company, its founders are working towards creating an rashmi pratap

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ON THE SHELF

The Little Prince provides comfort that even after years, the small and quiet books endure

dipankar

The child Mozart

I COW COLA TO BE SERVED AT OFFICIAL Q FUNCTIONS! “A R t’s that time of year again — the season of lists and mellow fruitfulness, as journalanita roy ists scramble to compile their top 10, top 100, worst, best, most whatevers, into an annual tsunami that crashes over us, leaving us washed up and gasping on the new year’s far shore. So rather than a round-up, I thought I’d sign off on 2014 with a little book that, 72 years after it was written, still sells more than two million copies a year. And, if the trailer is anything to go by, looks like it might become “the most beautiful animated films of 2015”.

I’m talking of course about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince.

Everyone knows the story of a little prince who leaves his own planet — a tiny, lonely asteroid in the vast sky — visits other tiny planets each with its own strange or deluded inhabitant, and finally falls to Earth, where he encounters an airman whose plane has crashed re you sure this is not a buffa“I’m The trying to encourage her,” says the in the desert. little boy asks the airman to lo?” I ask. The Hindu Business man, “if sheand produces more than five draw him a sheep, the prince narrates his Line has been making me do litres perwander day, I getthrough special performance lifea as the two the desert in lot of buffalo stories recently.

The is dressed professearch incentive.” of water. But it’sman not the plot that we reSomeone in senior management must sionally, orange rubber gloves, a member.

It’s theindrawings — the little round fancy them. Could this be an albino vermagenta facemask and a pink smock circles of the little boy’s eyes, the single line sion? It seems unlikely, but ever since withthe a small picture of the PM in the forIa nose, hat that is in fact a drawing of a joined The Investigator, strange things have upper left-hand corner.

We are insidethe boa constrictor swallowing an elephant, been happening. Arnab keeps poppinglonely up rose a small stall, many, eachfragile of in her bellone jar, of and the tiny, unexpectedly. Holograms are deliveringplanet-let ba- which contains cow, one producsmaller thanone a house. bies. Shenaz Treasurywala is everywhere. The tion assistant and onetodrum.

The baobabs that threaten overrun the I look at the cow. The cow looks at me.Prince’ssoothing soundcan of stand babbling brooks tiny kingdom for any one of “No, no, it’s a cow,” says the man, smiling. plays over the PAthat system, supplementany number of evils threaten to overBehind the cow is a large drum with a pipe ing the noble efforts of the producwhelm our own home: “an insignificant planattached. The man smiles at the cow encouassistants. et of a tion humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked ragingly and makes liquid noises, reminis“Nutritionally, we of area universe streets in away in some forgotten corner cent of a gurgling mountain stream or,which at ahead of Coca-Cola,” says my comthere are far more galaxies than peotimes, a river in full spate. The cow chews “which contains not less ple,” aspanion, Carl Sagan described it. Saint-Exupécud thoughtfully. than seven sugar.

We only ry’s drawings call spoons to mindofthe famous ‘pale

ASK ALLY

Ally Subramaniam was born in the Southwest Sundarbans, but was blown away by a cyclone and washed up on the shore near Chennai. He was adopted by a poor Brahmin family from Tirupur. He can answer all your questions. Just send them all to askallysubramaniam@gmail.com

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ear Ally, my son is regularly humiliating me as I did not get him Google Glass. Am I a bad father?

Regards, Ashwin Kumar, Patna

Dear Ashwin, I must insist that you people specify your ages before asking me questions. Age is nothing to be ashamed of. In our country, things are flexible. We have youth leaders who are 45. But it does help my analysis.

For example, in this case, if your son is over 50, this is a simple inheritance dispute. You should not only buy him Google Glass, you should sign over the house, before he puts something in your coffee. On the other hand, if he is a chubby adolescent, it would appear that you and your wife have been spoiling him. You have sown a bitter crop, and now you are reaping it. One way to kill two birds with one stone is to donate him to Google. I believe they are looking for human test subjects. In this way, he’ll get his Google Glass, you’ll get some peace, and the Google algorithm will become progressively more intuitive.

Yours affectionately, Ally

blue dot’ photo taken (at Sagan’s request) a philosophical treatise and a coded love letter from the Voyager 1 space probe 12 years after to the author’s beloved wife, Consuelo. Both its launch in 1977, at the edge of our solar sys- whimsical and profound, it has been detem. Earth, at a distance of 3.7 billion miles, scribed as ‘a children’s book for grown-ups’ — could well be the Little Prince’s asteroid, with a phrase often deployed as a sort-of backhandbarely enough room for one small boy and a ed criticism (or do I mean compliment?) as little rose. As Neil Armstrong recalled, looking though such books have missed their mark back at Earth from the moon: “I put up my somehow, or are masquerading as something thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blot- they’re not: a children’s book that is wasted on ted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a gi- the young (to misquote Shaw). ant. I felt very, very small.’

In a crowded, noisy world There are several theories where publishers — and filmabout the identity of the real litmakers too for that matter — tle boy that inspired Saint-Exuseem to spend their lives chasing péry’s drawings, and his tale: the book or story that will be The Little Prince has possibly the son of the aviator loud enough to make itself heard been described as ‘a Charles Lindberg, with whom he overSHOVON the clamour, it is a comfort CHOWDHURY is children’s book for chief Truthdigger and author was friends, possibly the son of grown-ups’ as though to know that the small and the Competent Authority philosopher Charles De KoquietThe ones also endure.

The Hunsuch books have ninck, possibly the author himger Games or the Harry Potters missed their mark a likely little it sugar improves memory power.

Paself as a child.add Most was afor taste, along tension and are wonderful for their dazzle migraine a pinch combination with of the three. of Butginger. Besides tients suffering and from brightness, andhave we been love six months.

When answering which, of course, the idea perhaps took root in the benefits of cured within them like we love fireworks on a cow urine are many. Gavyam pa- call of nature, wecold are flushing outwe many 1935 when the author, travelling crisp night, but willmialcronutrients. urine can restore them. vitram ca rasayanam ca pathyam to Russia by train, noticed a young boy, sleep- ways come backCow home to warm ourselves next is also of constipation, hrdyam balam syata.” toItthe ing between hiscaparents: “What buddhi an adorable fire, beneficial nourishedin bycases the simple words of a ghostly possession and liver disorder.

“I’m sorry, I’veborn onlyof just start- little face! A golden fruit had been these boy from a distant planet: “it is onlyLookwith ing at all these our government ed is learning Sanskrit,” mur- the two peasants... This a musician’s face, II told heart that onebenefits, can see rightly; what is esmur apologetically.

It’sistrue.

It’s sential has decided that henceforth, it will be myself. This is the child Mozart. This a life is invisible to the eye.” at all official functions, beginning compulsory for in alllegem- served full of beautiful now promise.

Little princes The Little Prince is Saint-Exupéry’s cri de ployees. from With athis. sinking feeling, I coeur, withathe visit President Obama onare Januends are not different Protected, plea for aofworld in which there garary 26, him the first foreign VIP to realise awhat change in ournot beverage sheltered, cultivated, could this deners ofmaking men, a place where the child-Mozart goodness.” imminent. child become? policy When is byalso mutation a new rose inenjoy all ofthe us can be nurtured. That perhaps re“Cow urine is great elixir, “This could beleap a shock for Obama,”but I say. is born in a garden, all gardeners rejoice. They quires not a giant of imagination a veproper diet, it. pleasing to isheart, “Not step at all,” saysthe theshoes production isolate the rose, tend it, foster But there no ry small into of the assistant, child that giver of little mental and will physical Obama is 100 per cent with us. Fugardener for men.

This Mozart be we“Michelle all once were. strength, longevity,” ture is bright. International market is open. shaped like the rest by the enhances common stamping We roy have a full of products he says.

“Not only that, it bal- anita is a writer andportfolio director of Young Zubaan machine... This little Mozart is condemned.” ances bile and mucus, releases planned.

Not all of them will involve cows.”

The Little Prince is an allegory, a poetical tale, anita@anitaroy.net

CRIMINALS PROTEST RISING PRICE OF CERTIFICATES!

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he pickpocket returns my wallet sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you were a journalist,” he says, “We need you to publicise our cause. Ask your partner to take one photo?” He holds up the placard and smiles. “Raghuram Rajan Zindabad!” shout the assembled criminals all around him. They are at Jantar Mantar, protesting injustice.

“Why Raghuram Rajan?” I ask. “Sir, not only does his face light up the newspapers,” says the pickpocket, “he has taken unprecedented measures to restore fiscal discipline. Inflationary trends have been reversed.

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The Investigator is a fortnightly round-up of all things droll and newsy. All views are personal. Really personal t@shovonc

Wholesale Price Index is at an all-time low.

Across India, ‘Raghuram’ is now the name of choice for first-born male children. Only we criminals are being neglected. In our profession, price of character certificates and other documents is rising astronomically. After such rise in input cost, what margin are we left with? This inflationary trend must be arrested.”

I want to tell them Mr Rajan has limited control over the prices of individual items, but I don’t have the heart to. I leave them standing in the gathering gloom, gazing up at Raghuram Rajan, eyes full of hope.

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THE CRITICAL ISSUE

How dare you?

A research project reveals that the impunity of perpetrators of sexual violence arises from legal, judicial and even emotional reasons

The wrong tree By banning these Uber taxi drivers did we address the real cause of the violence? kamal narang

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Urvashi Butalia is an editor, publisher and director of Zubaan

or the past couple of years, at Zubaan, the publishing house where I work, we have been involved in a research project that focuses on sexual violence and impunity in South Asia. Along with a team of some 50 researchers, we have compiled an exhaustive set of research papers that look at histories of sexual violence, at accounts of survivors, at support systems (mostly absent), at ideas of justice and reparations, at the long-term impact of such violence on communities and, most importantly, at the question of impunity.

Sexual violence is rampant in South Asia — that particular finding comes as no surprise to any of us involved in this project. That it takes different forms — within domestic spaces, as the violence of war and conflict, as violence that targets children, as violence within political movements — all of this is also familiar. Perhaps, the area where we have learnt the most has been in our understanding of impunity.

I was reminded of this powerfully in the recent rape case involving Shiv Kumar Yadav, the driver of an Uber taxi. I could not get rid of the feeling that our anger against the taxi company was a bit misdirected. Let me try and explain: those of us from Delhi will remember that not so long ago, after a spate of road accidents, there was huge anger against what were known then as Blue Line buses, and these buses were taken off the road.

Soon they reappeared in another avatar — a different colour, same bus, same drivers. We thought we’d solved the problem, but the accidents and deaths continued. Because, of course, we had not thought that most of the men driving the buses had fraudulent licences. Many of the buses themselves were not licensed. And fraudulent licences had been

issued by those in power — the traffic author- sense of impunity. In our protests, we tend to ity, police, company owners, etc. Indeed a fault the law, but we don’t question the procewhole system had enabled the drivers to feel dure of investigations, nor lawyers and judgthat they could get away with things. In other es, nor public prosecutors. words, impunity.

Another important learning for us in this In the Shiv Kumar Yadav case too, we’re in- project has been how deeply flawed the meditent on blaming Uber. And no doubt Uber has cal procedures are for dealing with victims of to take a great chunk of the blame — for their sexual assault. Clinical and indifferent procelax standards, for not doing the necessary dures do not take into account the trauma the checks and, most importantly, for not training victim/survivor has gone through. Prejudiced their drivers to respect their clients. This isn’t textbooks often teach would-be doctors that something particular to Uber though, it’s in cases of rape women always lie. ‘Evidence’ something that runs through collection is faulty, and where pretty much all taxi services and DNA testing is required, faciliautos, and buses, and more. ties are limited and hampered Why pick on one? by bureaucratic hurdles.

Had it been a woman Shiv Kumar could easily have But institutional indifference who stepped out of been driving another taxi, and is one thing. What about social line, various people he might have done the same and familial culpability? Why would have spoken thing. Or, another driver driving would the Shiv Kumars of this out. Why not for the another taxi might have done world become the way they do? man? Of such the same thing.

What role did his mother play in complicity is Perhaps, the question we this? His father? His friends? The impunity made should ask is: what is it that enlocal community leaders, who ables the Shiv Kumars of this knew he was crooked and vioworld to do what they do, what lent? Had it been a woman who is it that gives them this strong stepped out of line, every single sense of impunity — a sense that no matter one of these people would have spoken out. what they do, they’ll get away with it.

Why not for the man? Of such complicity is imOne of the things we’ve learnt in our project punity made. is that impunity is not the only protection perIndeed research on this project has shown petrators of sexual violence have because of us that there are many ways — not only legal faulty implementation of laws, or because of but also social, familial, institutional, and yes, the collusion of the state. The law on sexual as- emotional and moral — by which we build up a sault in our country has been, and remains, structure within which men feel both a sense deeply flawed, despite significant and positive of immunity and impunity. Unless we underchanges. Perpetrators know they can exploit stand the many ways in which this happens, this, and they know too that the legal and judi- banning a single taxi company will not help. cial establishment, mostly male, is in general blink@thehindu. co.in hostile to the victim. And therefore, they feel a

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The city of art

Recording life The Kochi-Muziris Biennale uses the city as a wellspring and not merely a venue. Held over three months and with nearly 100 artists, it has plenty for all

As the world watched the tsunami surge from the safety of its drawing rooms, a filmmaker who survived it and a photojournalist who recorded it grappled with the meaning of life itself

I took my mind off the car rally and started planning for the tsunami coverage. Like India, Sri Lanka too had been affected, and I was supposed to go there. My colleague would cover Chennai and other parts in south India. But since no flight tickets were available, both of us headed to Tamil Nadu. By the morning of December 27, I was in Cuddalore, a town 190km south of Chennai, and along with me were a horde of other photographers. My first glimpse of the tragedy was when I reached Silver Beach, a small fishermen’s hamlet. Barely had I stepped on the beach than I saw rescuers bring in the body of a dead child from the sea.

A man and a woman, who I assumed were his parents or close relatives, rushed towards the child on recognising him. As he was placed on the ground, they held him and started weeping. Overwhelmed, the What was affecting man helplessly rested his foreme was not death head on the boy’s lifeless hand. itself, but the When I take pictures of people, reactions of the I take them as they are, without survivors bringing my emotions into it, as it becomes difficult to shoot. AfA fine line Gulammohammed Sheikh’s ‘Balancing Act’ is a public sculptural installation in Vasco da Gama Square that depicts acrobats on a tightrope, performing before a ruler and his court h vibhu ter all, taking a picture is a rational process of deciding the shutter speed, depth of field, white balance, he success of a festival is measured that is its biggest achievement. As artist Par- choice focal it cannot rather of it is an length, attemptetcetera… to see theand world from not merely in the number of tour- vathi Nayar said at the BMW Art Talk, this bien- be done ifperspectives you get emotional.

Butclose for once different — be it up or upI ists it attracts but rather its connec- nale has been born from the soil where couldn’t help it. I was crying inside.

Andsaid, then“II above. Explaining the layout, Kallat tion with the city. The Kochi-Muziris ancient interactions once took place. let myof heart my shooting.

I realised deck, what think thisrule project as an observation Biennale 2014 (KMB, which opened last week While art is the undoubted cynosure, KMB was affecting meawas notout death but theI which provides view intoitself, the world. and runs till March 29, 2015) achieves this in has plenty for everyone; from a film festival to reactions of the survivors.

I immediately would recommend a viewing through the Hand of god A man no small way. Unlike many leading national a students’ biennale where young curators en- changed from wide angle to a telebiennale my andlens not of the abiennale.” breaks down after he finds the lifeless body festivals (think Jaipur Literature Festival) that gage with the work of art students to work- photo to include just the man’s face and the Artistic interpretations and artspeak often of his eight-year-old use a city as simply a venue and not a wellspr- shops for children, and daily boy’s hand insound the frame. turgid and highfalutin. son in Cuddalore ing, the KMB foregrounds the city. It is a festiv- cultural programmes and semiThe rest ofThe the organisers, day I was surrounded by for example, reuters/arko datta al inspired by Kerala and made for its people. nars on history. death, mourning mass burials.

It was couldand have come up with a very simMost of the artworks have been commisThe art itself risks getting a bit depressing, and the midst of this I plersitting festivalinname than Whorled The KMB is not sioned specially for KMB and the artists draw daunting. What with 94 artists was finding it difficult to concentrate on my Explorations, which is both an cloistered behind richly from Kochi’s history as a port and thus (nearly half are from India), editing. I gave up and lit apun cigarette — ending unfortunate and an emptigallery facades; it as a starting point of discovery. from over 20 countries showing yet another attempt to quit smoking,provide a diffiness. While the write-ups beseeches to be The rather boho Fort Kochi, where it is eas- in eight venues, you will suffer cult proposition forperspectives a photojournalist travelluseful and ways of discovered. That is its ier to findecember a beer than a mundu, main worked 26, 2004, wasisa the pleasant Reuters then) as from a with problem of plenty.

Tomy boss was ing from oneseeing, disaster to the next.

(But don’t they prove fatiguing by biggest achievement venue of the biennale.

However, the festivities winter day. It was a Sunday, and I away holiday.

So itthe was“preup to me to take take a cue from makeon lifeaeasier, follow photographers, thethis, end.budding It is wisest to visit the spill out towas the outdoors, other and, covering one mighta say, very decisions vintage on the news coverage ferred designated walkway” as-in the region. as I have sinceKMB given upplenty smoking, and on successwith of time hand Mallu, verycar non-hippie islands. It I found myself rally in Mumbai. was also the signed The gravity of thecurator situation though was yet fully. My advice by festival and be to stay away fromto it andwould an open mind.

And then at a day packed performance in the sink in.

But inJitish a fewKallat. minutes, 26th of myKathakali having quit smoking — quite a to artistic director The I got another from the start.) make it all your own.

Changampuzha Nary artsy hipster call, updating the number of casualties. feat for the chain Park. smoker thatan I was. rooms at Aspinwall House (the main site)The are As theperambulation tsunami’s aftermath, it wasHouse diffiThefor first of Aspinwall was be found Instead locals, of news Asto I stood on a here. flyover, shooting thesome vintage of a numbered few dead inone Chennai ar- cult helpfully to 69,(and and other it makes cover even for a hardened riskstoleaving you numbed as therephotojouris simply whom had Icome performcars below, got aespecially call from for ourthe Delhi office, eas nearby) turnedthe outsequence, to be in hundreds. ample sensenow to follow as Kallat nalist like to metake whoin.had human too much Butseen withmany everyaconsecuance, andme others who spurned their eve- And updating about thehad news events of the day. there washave confirmation that the deaths and his team curated the biennale in a tragedy.

In fact, while shooting, remember tive walkabout, you will absorbI and apprening ambleearthquake or game of had carrom to watch the were A powerful struck Indonesia due the to ataste tsunami caused by the quake.

By receiving way that of each project serves as an a call fromright my wife.

In the course of ciate more.

Located by the jetty, the sea dance, scrambled for died seats.inThe KMB is and a few people had Chennai — not the then, news agencies the themes world were aperitif to the next. around While the and the I asked heryour if everything was willconversation, accompany you along explorations. cloistered gallery facades and two did notbehind seem connected, at least notglass just beginning ideaare of the importance of okay treatmentsto ofget thean works worlds apart, they home.

And the69 moment I finished my Don’tathurtle through works, rather choose walls, nooks crannies yet.

Asititdwells turnedinout, thatand fateful day Iand wasbein the news. Yet, did notand imagine the art tragic all engage withwethe here now. The on sentence, I felt a pang ofto guilt…

I was standing the handful that speak you and spend time seechesof to the be discovered by one and all. And charge picture operations in India (I and terrifying of it.in abstraction, on display hasn’tmagnitude been created the debris ofthe someone’s home. with them and sea outside the window.

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I was crying inside

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Ten years on, photojournalist Arko Datta recounts the wave of death, mourning and mass burials that made pressing the shutter that much harder

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Those moments were tough, as I walked a fine line, grappling with my own feelings and staying professionally competitive. It is unnatural to witness so much pain and grief, and so often. It completely changes you as a person.

What kept me going, as I guess would be the case for other photojournalists as well, is that we play a relevant part in helping people. We play an important role in letting the privileged parts of the world know about the tragedy at ground zero.

As the days unfolded, I realised the story was actually not of women and children who had died in large numbers, but the men who had survived them. Many had gone fishing into the deep seas, where the tsunami had no effect. But they came back to find their destroyed and uprooted lives. I went back again, months later, to discover that with most family members gone, many of these men had lost interest in fishing. The disoriented, broken men were now taking to alcohol.

My coverage stretched from Cuddalore and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu to strife-torn zones in Sri Lanka. Eventually, images from all the tsunami-affected regions across South Asia brought out a massive outpouring of generosity, as people extended themselves to support those affected.

Now, as different news events unfold every day, I realise that I am a helpless witness trying to do as much as I can through my camera, hoping that never again should people see such tragedy. But I guess that is wishful thinking and it’s our lot as photojournalists to cover these moments, recording both grief and triumph, recording life. arko datta is a photojournalist and Photo Editor, Mumbai Mirror

Someone’s tragedy (top) Nine-year-old Idusan, a survivor, at a shelter in Thambiluvil, Sri Lanka; and a woman mourns the death of a relative in Cuddalore (an image that won the ‘Picture of the Year’ at World Press Photo 2004) reuters/arko datta

The sea was never the same again RV Ramani, who faced the tidal wave head on, lives to tell the tale as a survivor and as a filmmaker

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Pieces of the puzzle Screengrabs from the film My Camera and Tsunami

remember that day clearly. I was visiting Kanyakumari with a friend’s family, and we were on our way back to Nagercoil.

Our driver took a short detour to Sothavilai beach, which he said was one of the prettiest beaches around. It was here that all of us saw the wave coming head on. I almost instinctively began filming it and we all tried to escape, but the wave was surging towards us at an astonishing speed. I later found out that it was travelling at 800km/hour; nearly as fast as an aircraft.

The wave dragged me for about half a kilometre, carrying me with it again when it began to recede. But somehow I survived.

Without any major injuries and with my video camera in hand — now completely destroyed.

The sea was never the same again.

At first, I felt a kind of numbness. But everywhere I looked, there were so many in need of help that those of us who had survived just had to do certain things like take the injured to the hospital and move the dead bodies. I also remember going back to the same beach two days later to relive the experience. At that point, I thought I came to terms with it, and everyone around was also saying I had come out better off than most.

A month later in Chennai, I was in an autorickshaw, which happened to pass by Marina beach, and suddenly I got the shivers. I asked the driver to divert and go through Royapet-

tah instead, but he insisted on driving along the sea. Soon, I started crying and vomiting.

I went to see a psychiatrist, who told me that the reality of the situation had finally dawned on me. I was apparently in shock the whole time. I walked out of his clinic and went straight to the Besant Nagar beach, preparing to face my fears. That day, there were a lot of waves — it was high tide, I think — and I just sat there with a certain veri (determination/rage).

With my eyes closed, recounting all that had passed. It helped me a great deal. But the truth is, I’ve not recovered entirely.

After the tsunami, in some senses, I changed even as a filmmaker. The idea of displacement is no longer the same. The line between imagination and reality is constantly re-examined. Now, when I see My Camera and Tsunami, the film that emerged from the depth of despair, I like the fact that it has turned out to be an instinctive narrative of an experience, not a didactic discourse.

While this year I’m not sure if I can do it, usually on December 26 I try to go and touch the water and sit by the beach. I don’t see the tsunami as a peralivu (complete destruction). I feel I embraced it, and completely surrendered to its sheer force. rv ramani is working on documentaries, including one on Chennai-based theatre company Koothu-P -Pattarai. (As told to Sibi Arasu.)

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A tsunami of errors December 26, 2004, taught our authorities only one thing well — to warn people of impending storms. But disaster management is more than reducing the loss of life

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hen the tsunami struck the village of Kanathur Reddikuppam on the East Coast Road, Ramadas Elumalai saved himself by clinging to a thorny screw palm in a large grove. The village lost only two people in the tidal wave. That was not entirely a matter of luck. The nature of the beach surrounding Kanathur Reddikuppam, a fishing hamlet about 30km south of Chennai, was a major factor in reducing mortality and damage. To the north and south, the village was fringed by vast sandy beaches with rolling sand dunes.

Thickets of screw palm or pandanus rew in the folds of the dunes. To its east, a substantial strip of sand separated the village from the Bay of Bengal.

PICTURE I visited THIS Reddikuppam three months ago with my friend K Saravanan. He is a fisherman from Urur Kuppam, a village near the Besant Nagar beach in Chennai.

Reddikuppam is only half the village it used to be. Fishing villages are nothing without the extended coastal commons for various livelihood activities. Reddikuppam had none. The screw palm grove was gone. Not even the odd thicket was to be seen. The sprawling dunes on either side of the village had been flattened and enclosed by compound walls. Some had luxury bungalows, lawns and swimming filmlike festival is about pools. Others the one that drowning Saravananyour was sorrows cinema“We — and coming up pointing to were in empty. used to play with something like joy.about Ever since cricket there,” said Saravanan the lost the International Film Feswalled-off we property to the north of the village. tival of India the bracing air of A sign on a (IFFI) wall to read: “Not forseaside Sale. Sneha Goa, andAccording then witnessed the sad,a few stuttering Farms”. to Saravanan, villagdemise our money locally to grown Cinefan, ers had of taken allowOsian’s a private party Delhi’s world-cinema buffs have been robbed of their annual rite of submergence. I’m part of this large, deprived population (and if you’re one of the snooty lot, reading this column in what you think is a more cultured city, you’d be surprised at just how many of us there are). I suffered silently for a bit, and then, as someone who makes a living by writing about cinema, decided it was legitimate to allow myself an annual winter pilgrimage.

In the last five years, I’ve been twice to Thiruvananthapuram, where Beena Paul Venugopal oversaw the most fabulously curated international festival in India until she resigned earlier this year (it would have been her 13th as the artistic director of International Film Festival of Kerala or IFFK) — and twice to Panjim for IFFI. This year was an IFFI year. And while the retrospectives weren’t as exciting as IFFK’s, Goa in November is a glorious thing, and even committed types like me who don’t wander too far from the stretch of road between Kala Academy and INOX can get our fill of prawn curry, sanna idlis and homemade coconut-jaggery sweets, thanks to the wonderful women’s cooperative stalls at the venue. Also, in Goa — where the state policy on alcohol is the happy opposite of Kerala’s ridiculous current one — Kingfisher gets to run a practically cost-price stall in the INOX complex, holding IFFI visitors in its warm, captive embrace. (Couldn’t get into the film you just queued up for? A beer is the answer. Insanely jolted by the film you just came out of? A beer is the answer.)

But the main thing about a film festival, of

to enclose the village commons, including the tive beaches will turn even routine weather route to the village cemetery. “Now they take events, such as storms, into calamities. their dead on a circuitous route,” he said.

There was no beach in front of the village. A Neither prevention, nor cure few boats were moored on a concrete plat- The tsunami has taught our authorities only form. The sea licked menacingly at the base of one thing well — to warn people of impending the platform. “In rough weather, we carry the storms and get them to find their way to safeboats — eight men to a boat — nearly 200m ty. But disaster management is more than redown the coastline to find empty spaces,” said ducing the loss of life. Dealing with sea-borne Elumalai. Elite encroachers had walled off all disasters like tsunamis and storms begins the coastal commons, including with robust town and country the intertidal zone. “The waves planning, a sound understandknock the walls down. But they ing of how nature works and waColddemarcation canvas Cappadocia is rebuild it. We too knock it down ters flow, of danger Like flies drawn to a eerie concerns in rough weather to park our zonesthe and a crucible healthyoffear of the in Ceylan’s forbidden fruit, the boats,” he said. sea and skies. Winter Sleep CRZ law seems to Tamil Nadu, with 581 fishing Implementing the Coastal have attracted villages dotting its 1,000km Regulation Zone Notification violators of all hues coastline, has a pretty crowded (CRZ) sincerely would have coast. In village after fishing vilhelped build resilience in coastal lage, Reddikuppam’s story of areas against the vagaries of the moneyed encroachers is repeatsea. This far-sighted, though ed. Luxury resorts, tourism inheavily watered down, law refrastructure, desalination plants, roads, stricts construction along a 500 metre-wide thermal power plants, industries, ports and coastal strip, and allows only basic infrastrucjetties, nuclear plants, sea sand mining — the ture for fisherfolk and activities that require list of activities that have altered the natural seafront facilities within this area. features of the coast and taken over the coastBut like flies drawn to a forbidden fruit, the al commons is long, and only growing length- law seems to have attracted violators of all ier every day. hues. The enforcement agency, the State Coastcourse, the films.

So without further ado, set Sandyisbeaches, dunes and coastal vegetain a cold, bleak Chinese industrial town.

An al Zone Management Authority (SCZMA) headhere are the best fivecasuarina, films I saw at IFFI this tion like pandanus, palmyra and alcoholic ex-cop to gets in a woman ed by a secretary theinterested state government, has year — in no particular order.like estuaries, la- who mangroves, and wetlands a suspect inbite. an unsolved case.Centre The plot teethisbut will not In 2011, the diThe Turks wonare thenatural day, as shock they have often is goons and lakes absorbers gripping, and thestates mystery both gory rected all maritime to identify CRZ and viodone at film festivals in the last decade, with strange that can tackle the ocean’s extreme behaviour. (the initiate limbs ofaction victimsatshow up on conlations and the earliest.

In two superb films.

Bilgeclose Ceylan, with Dismantling these,Nuri building to the seahis or veyor belts in coal mines across the October 2014, SCZMA responded to acountry).

Right to penchant for putting an increasingly doing anything else that would erodecompliprotec- But what keeps the film running your head Information request stating thatin not a single cated cast of characters under his dispassion- long after are the haunting visuals — dimly lit, ate lens, served up the three-hour-long Winter snow-packed tunnels, groups of ice skaters in Sleep, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes a bleak silent outdoor rink, neon-lit bar signs. this year. Partially inspired by Continuing the winter theme three Chekhov stories, the film (an unplanned effect of this uses the eerie, striking landyear’s IFFI), my fourth pick is scape of Cappadocia for CeyForce Majeure, Ruben Östlund’s The Turks won the lan’s leisurely unpacking of his brilliantly discomfiting take on day, as they have signature concerns: the tension masculinity and marriage. A often done at film between age and youth, rural Swedish family — husband, wife festivals in the and urban, men and women, and two kids — on holiday at a last decade and of course, between the French ski resort find the happy classes. A minor incident pushfamily veneer peeling off as the es the upper-class protagonists after-effect of a split-second mo— an ageing ex-actor-turned-homent of danger. It’s full of incitel owner, his youthful wife and his bitter, di- sively observed moments of conversation that vorced sister — to examine the cocoon they are often acutely, guiltily funny — but this is no inhabit, and each other. But as they squirm un- filmed play. Östlund makes masterful use of der Ceylan’s unforgiving lens, it becomes clear his sheer white skiing locales, interspersing that the lives of others, to which they are ordi- pin-drop silence with almost operatic monarily so oblivious, are not within easy reach ments without seeming gimmicky. of their charity.

Finally, there was Narges Abyar’s Track 143, The other Turkish film, Silsile (translated as an unexpectedly understated, moving por‘consequences’, but I think of it as ‘a chain of trait of a mother waiting for her son to come happenings’, based on Hindi/Urdu), also cata- home from a war that has long ended. This is a pults its oblivious rich characters into a series film about a woman whose tenuous connecof events. Set in the mixed Istanbul neigh- tion with the outside world, and with hope, is bourhood of Karaköy, Silsile is more tightly fo- kept alive by a radio she ties around her waist. cused on class. Compared to Ceylan’s slow It is a film that does what no Iranian films had deliberation and endless talk, Ozan Açiktan’s done for me before — gave me a sense of growfilm might seem all thrilling set pieces and ing old with its protagonist, realising how the beautiful people, but it is razor-sharp. Neither world can change while you cling to the past. film lets anyone off.

I also loved writer-director Yi’nan Diao’s trisha gupta is a writer and critic based in Delhi Black Coal, Thin Ice, a laconic murder mystery t@chhotahazri

Q

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’Tis the season to be jolly for world-cinema buffs. A pick of five best films at the International Film Festival of India this year

Rich dividends After the tsunami, speculators mopped up low-priced land along the East Coast Road in places like Kanathur and waited for real estate prices to rise kv srinivasan

trisha gupta

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watch cover

saturday, december 20, 2014

Crazy is how it goes Moviegoers proudly show off their tickets outside Maratha Mandir in Mumbai vivek bendre

New problems, new solutions The shrinking coastal commons leave the fisherfolk with little room for traditional activities like boat building sr raghunathan; and the desalination plant at Minjur v ganesan

violation had been identified in Tamil Nadu.

Unlike the tsunami, which was a tidal wave that washed ashore and returned as quickly as it arrived, the seaward moving tide of illegal encroachments by people and industry has been relentless and shows no signs of receding. Immediately after the tsunami, there was some talk of acting against CRZ violations. But that momentary spark of reason subsided within months of the disaster. The government did nothing to challenge elite violations, but put its weight behind attempts to free up coastal real estate by relocating fisherfolk from the coast citing their own safety as a reason. With the tsunami reducing seaside real-estate prices, speculators mopped up lowpriced beach properties on a wager that people will forget their fear of the sea. They were right. They made a killing.

Constructed in the mid-’90s amidst protests that it would damage the coastal ecology and violate the CRZ notification, the East Coast Road predictably triggered an ‘ecocidal’ spree of real-estate strip development on either side sn’t thisMost a weird place for a date? I’ve of the highway. of the construction beheard and thereMamallapuram are rats crawling tween Chennai is less around,” complains young as than a decade old. If a tsunamia were togirl strike she walks up a winding now, the damage to property will be staircase. far more She keeps eyesinfirmly severe thanher it was 2004. on the ground and hitches up her dress with both hands. This, I assume, up is to be prepared for the infamous roBuilding trouble dents. man and In 2011,The theyoung Centre foraccompanying Development her, Finance also IIT-Madras the cause released of her distress, it cool. and a jointlyplays authored re“Just on wait watch,” he says port theand replacement cost of mysteriously. major infras“It’s going to be tructure such as magical.” ports, roads and power plants It’s 11.30am on a Saturday and the couple is at Maratha Mandir, one of the few iconic single-screen theatres in Mumbai that has survived the multiplex invasion. The white marble staircase, polished golden trophies showcased in Burma teak cabinets, a threetiered glistening chandelier and popcorn sealed in tiny plastic packets takes you back to a time when movie watching was simpler, yet more regal.

A Google search of the ‘Must-visit places in Mumbai’ will recommend that you catch an early morning show of the legendary Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol starrer Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ) here. The experience is deemed as crucial as a darshan at the Siddhivinayak temple or devouring a plate of keema pav at an Irani cafe. Maratha Mandir has screened the love saga for 19 years since its release in 1995. Last week, the theatre touched the 1,000th-week milestone. Incidentally, the theatre also scores high on a list of the ‘Ten most romantic places in Mumbai’. So I guess the cavorter had done his homework well.

For 17-year-old Amrita Desai, this is the moment she’s been waiting for ever since her parents allowed her to watch movies by herself.

at risk from a one-metre sea level rise. It frastructure that once ensured the survival of pegged the cost at between ₹47,418 crore and people and other life forms. ₹53,554 crore (in 2010 terms). An article by the report’s authors Sudhir Chella Rajan and Su- Change for the worse jatha Byravan in The Hindu Business Line ex- The 1,500MW North Chennai Thermal Power plains what this means: “While a one-metre Station (NCTPS) is bound on one side by the rise in mean sea level would permanently in- Buckingham Canal. A spanking new, impresundate about 1,100sqkm of Tamil Nadu, the ar- sive and totally out-of-place highway runs ea at risk turns out to be about six times as alongside the canal. Tidal flats are sprawled much as a result of associated threats from in- out on the other side of the road. Both the catense storms and high storm surges. Coastal nal and the mudflats — a productive ecosyserosion, increased flooding and salt-water in- tem — were choked with fly ash from the trusion will also accompany the sea level rise power plant. Fly ash was everywhere. On one and these were not estimated in fly ash-covered stretch of mudthe report. Further, since private flats stood a signboard that deinvestments such as resorts, and clared the “land” belonged to shrimp farms were not includEnnore port. This was not land; at Cataclysmic events ed, the report provides only a least not yet. But the port had fly such as the tsunami conservative estimate.” ash as a reason to be optimistic tend to push slowCataclysmic events such as about its conversion from water motion disasters such the tsunami tend to push slowto land. as sea-level rise motion disasters such as sea-levSuch sprawling wetlands are and routine events el rise and routine events like cyexcellent flood mitigators. Their like cyclones beneath clones beneath the radar. Tamil vast surface area allows them to the radars Nadu’s coast ero- hour before have to hearswell She arrived at is theespecially theatre a good and accommodate the dialogues from yourrainwaneighsion-prone and vulnerable to cy- the serpen- bour, who probably the ticket window opened, leading ter and can tidalrepeat surges.

Converting every line verclones.

In fact, latter behind is most her. After all, batim, without tine queue thatthe formed them into real estate will exacermissing a pause. likely toaincrease in to frequency she had large order place — she was pickbate and levels deflectdrop. the imAt no point doflooding the energy In and intensity a climate-changed ing up ticketsinfor her entire classscenario. of 30 stu- pact stormmyself surges in to the lessmiddle resilientofareas. fact, of I caught a heated A 2008 study by the Institute of Ocean Man- debate dents.

“This is everybody’s favourite movie,” Besides harming communities, the between twolocal families.

They couldn’t agement (IOM), examined 30 land-use she shrieks.

LikeAnna her University, friends, she’s seen DDLJ changes caused triggered indecide which parts were and funnier — the by “Lonlocations alongtimes” the coast of Tamil Nadu of dustrial “like a million on TV, but never atout a thewillofalso activities don-walaactivities romance” thehurt firstthe half or the which were tona, beso erosion-prone.

As themselves. atre. “I 18 was bornfound in 1997 I couldn’t watch Insecond 2008, Cyclone ripped up “masti” of the half setNisha in Punjab.

Both land retreats in the she facesays, of an advancing sea, the it when it released,” almost apologetsubmarine metal works associated with parties made excellent points, but couldn’t human settlements ic for being born two and yearsinfrastructure too late. Also inthat the the 100-million-litres-a-day desalination plant come to a conclusion. “This film is just too were protected froma the sea become ex- in queueonce is Vedang Kapoor, chartered accountMinjur, few come kilometres of thethey Engood, yaar.aLet’s again north tomorrow,” posed its 20s. temperamental violence. ant intohis Accompanying him Sea are wahis nore port.

Now, port-induced will decide.

Sohini Sengupta, a mediaerosion professionter creeps into fresh water aquifers, rendering grandparents, whom Kapoor is trying to pro- make this plantplanning and the city al, says shecritical has been this residents trip ever it unfit foradrinking or agriculture. tect from jostling crowd.

“Coming here was dependent on ittoeven morebut vulnerable. since she shifted Mumbai was afraidCyof dangerously, such erosion myMore dada’s idea. He brought me has the po- clone Hudhud has“luccha-lafanga-type already faded from our colthe crowd” tential drastically alter vitalago wetland ecosys- lective memories. to this to very theatre 19 years But that cycloneit.of“IOctober who come to watch did not tems.

Thethe IOM report warns that to watch film.

He thought it the Ennore 2014 broughtexpect Visakhapatnam its knees, to find sotomany wellport constructed oncome Kattupalli would be nice to onceisland has al- crippled all its industries theinfamed heeled typesincluding driving in their Imagine a crowd of ready eroding the beaches to the north steel plant. SUVs. A few minutes late and I again,”begun he says.

200 shouting ‘Aao of the breakwater.

When erosion eats away If normal decorum at athe movie In 2014, thewouldn’t World Bank a loanshe of haveextended got tickets,” Aao’ as the film opens the sand bar separating famed brackish- $236 million says, theatre demands thattheyou for a in disaster risk-reduction prodisbelief. water lake from the Bay switchPulicat off your phones andof Bengal, the ject in coastal Interestingly, Tamil Nadu and just Puducherry. a few weeks lake may merge with the sea, displacing However, much speak in even hushed tones, then sumsreports of money arebeto agolarger there were of DDLJ coastal dunes here you mustand dobeaches, the exactand op-exposing new be invested in ingfunding pulled “development” off the theatre.activConpopulations harm. posite. Theretoare selfies being taken at every ities thatthe willmost compromise sidering expensiveresilience-lending tickets are priced It isofnot but alsotickets accretion that ecological step thejust way;erosion with the pink in hand, features such as wetlands, at ₹20, it makes little economic sense dunes, to run is a problem.

The accretion caused the by the long mangroves around the life-size poster outside theatre, and runs beaches.

Fromempty innocuous the film, which to rather halls breakwater of the private-sector Ennore against the backdrop of the screen, someSateleven sounding proposals for beachstaffers beautification much of the year. Old-time explain lite Port, for instance, has closed the mouth of to in the pitch dark theatre.

The deafening cacoghastly strip mining of beach that on weekends families stillsands, come Tamil with the Ennore creek, according to the IOM report. phony of hooting, chanting, whistling and Nadu’s coast hasBut been opened up for acaters suicidal their children. the film largely to Every year,begins croresasofsoon rupees are lights spent are on pursuit clapping as the of “development”.

It who is notwish the tsunabored tourists on weekdays to kill dredging of the river. is Similar dimmed. open Even the themouth national anthem sung mi that we should fear,abut thefrom monumental time before catching train Mumbai disasters aregusto. waiting to happen at virtually ev- hubris with much Imagine a crowd of 200 plus modern humanity thatthe hasroad. already CentralofStation, which is across But ery location that theasgovernment haswith planned shouting ‘Aao Aao’ the film opens Am- put us in all harm’s way.hear is hundreds of fans for now, one can arish port, or in desalination plant. chanting with Raj ‘Main aa raha hoon Simran’.

Puripower feedingplant pigeons London. Chances These artificial infrastructures commerce are, the voices of the actors onofscreen have nityanand jayaraman is a Chennai-based writer socialchaudhuri activist mohini are systematically the natural in- and been drowned outdismantling in the euphoria, so you’ll

No romance suchQ as this

At Maratha Mandir, where Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge has been playing for 1,000 weeks, none of the normal film rules apply, but that is what makes it special

“I

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Still a boy Jeevan, an inhabitant of Ghazipur, refuses to be defined by the squalor that surrounds him

Up in smoke The waste in the landfills is easily flammable and dis

Hair in a haystack Waste-pickers scout for human hair in the garbage dumps and trade them for money in the booming market for wigs and hair extensions

A rose in any place A man sells colourful saplings amidst the rub b

Where the vultures feed Over the years, these landfill sites have become a mountain of garbage. Hundreds of trucks come here every day to dump the city’s waste

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scharges poisonous gases like sulphur dioxide, ammonia, etc

b bble of the Ghazipur basti

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saturday, december 20, 2014

Handcut glass The communities surrounding the dump hills in Ghazipur survive by recycling the waste they find at the landfill.

Here a woman risks severe injury by cutting broken light bulbs

Hills of ignorance A mountain of garbage looms above for all to see “My mother in her whimper breathes methane; her lullabies are laced with toxicity of comfort.

Many prey on the dead, with echoes of the hounds chasing lights and there I sleep in peace, amidst the warmth of my mother and the solace of your poison”.

T

he rise of technology might have created an abundance of luxuries, but with it we have also generated mountains of waste. Our waste will outlive us and we have become inhabitants of ‘hills of ignorance’.

Delhi produces 10,000 tonnes of waste daily. Much of this lands up in the Ghaziabad

landfill just outside the city. The dumps contain everything from amputated body parts to medicinal waste to mountains of plastic.

These dumps can be seen rising from afar and their stench travels many miles. Man created plastics only around 50 years ago, but it is safe to say that plastics take between 500 to 1,000 years to break down.

The landfills emanate toxic fumes and carcinogenic gases. The hazardous effects on our environment will last many generations. neal kartik and pranab k aich are recipients of Sony World Photography Award, Cannes; text Devyani Lal

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A tsunami of errors December 26, 2004, taught our authorities only one thing well — to warn people of impending storms. But disaster management is more than reducing the loss of life

W

hen the tsunami struck the village of Kanathur Reddikuppam on the East Coast Road, Ramadas Elumalai saved himself by clinging to a thorny screw palm in a large grove. The village lost only two people in the tidal wave. That was not entirely a matter of luck. The nature of the beach surrounding Kanathur Reddikuppam, a fishing hamlet about 30km south of Chennai, was a major factor in reducing mortality and damage. To the north and south, the village was fringed by vast sandy beaches with rolling sand dunes.

Thickets of screw palm or pandanus rew in the folds of the dunes. To its east, a substantial strip of sand separated the village from the Bay of Bengal.

PICTURE I visited THIS Reddikuppam three months ago with my friend K Saravanan. He is a fisherman from Urur Kuppam, a village near the Besant Nagar beach in Chennai.

Reddikuppam is only half the village it used to be. Fishing villages are nothing without the extended coastal commons for various livelihood activities. Reddikuppam had none. The screw palm grove was gone. Not even the odd thicket was to be seen. The sprawling dunes on either side of the village had been flattened and enclosed by compound walls. Some had luxury bungalows, lawns and swimming filmlike festival is about pools. Others the one that drowning Saravananyour was sorrows cinema — and coming up pointing to were in empty.

“We used to play with something like joy.about Ever since cricket there,” said Saravanan the lost the International Film Feswalled-off we property to the north of the village. tival of India the “Not bracing air of A sign on a (IFFI) wall to read: forseaside Sale. Sneha Goa, andAccording then witnessed the sad,a few stuttering Farms”. to Saravanan, villagdemise ourmoney locally to grown Cinefan, ers had of taken allowOsian’s a private party Delhi’s world-cinema buffs have been robbed of their annual rite of submergence. I’m part of this large, deprived population (and if you’re one of the snooty lot, reading this column in what you think is a more cultured city, you’d be surprised at just how many of us there are). I suffered silently for a bit, and then, as someone who makes a living by writing about cinema, decided it was legitimate to allow myself an annual winter pilgrimage.

In the last five years, I’ve been twice to Thiruvananthapuram, where Beena Paul Venugopal oversaw the most fabulously curated international festival in India until she resigned earlier this year (it would have been her 13th as the artistic director of International Film Festival of Kerala or IFFK) — and twice to Panjim for IFFI. This year was an IFFI year. And while the retrospectives weren’t as exciting as IFFK’s, Goa in November is a glorious thing, and even committed types like me who don’t wander too far from the stretch of road between Kala Academy and INOX can get our fill of prawn curry, sanna idlis and homemade coconut-jaggery sweets, thanks to the wonderful women’s cooperative stalls at the venue. Also, in Goa — where the state policy on alcohol is the happy opposite of Kerala’s ridiculous current one — Kingfisher gets to run a practically cost-price stall in the INOX complex, holding IFFI visitors in its warm, captive embrace. (Couldn’t get into the film you just queued up for? A beer is the answer. Insanely jolted by the film you just came out of? A beer is the answer.)

But the main thing about a film festival, of

to enclose the village commons, including the tive beaches will turn even routine weather route to the village cemetery. “Now they take events, such as storms, into calamities. their dead on a circuitous route,” he said.

There was no beach in front of the village. A Neither prevention, nor cure few boats were moored on a concrete plat- The tsunami has taught our authorities only form. The sea licked menacingly at the base of one thing well — to warn people of impending the platform. “In rough weather, we carry the storms and get them to find their way to safeboats — eight men to a boat — nearly 200m ty. But disaster management is more than redown the coastline to find empty spaces,” said ducing the loss of life. Dealing with sea-borne Elumalai. Elite encroachers had walled off all disasters like tsunamis and storms begins the coastal commons, including with robust town and country the intertidal zone. “The waves planning, a sound understandknock the walls down. But they ing of how nature works and waColddemarcation canvas Cappadocia is rebuild it. We too knock it down ters flow, of danger Like flies drawn to a eerie crucible offear concerns in rough weather to park our zonesthe and a healthy of the in Ceylan’s forbidden fruit, the boats,” he said. sea and skies. Winter Sleep CRZ law seems to Tamil Nadu, with 581 fishing Implementing the Coastal have attracted villages dotting its 1,000km Regulation Zone Notification violators of all hues coastline, has a pretty crowded (CRZ) sincerely would have coast. In village after fishing vilhelped build resilience in coastal lage, Reddikuppam’s story of areas against the vagaries of the moneyed encroachers is repeatsea. This far-sighted, though ed. Luxury resorts, tourism inheavily watered down, law refrastructure, desalination plants, roads, stricts construction along a 500 metre-wide thermal power plants, industries, ports and coastal strip, and allows only basic infrastrucjetties, nuclear plants, sea sand mining — the ture for fisherfolk and activities that require list of activities that have altered the natural seafront facilities within this area. features of the coast and taken over the coastBut like flies drawn to a forbidden fruit, the al commons is long, and only growing length- law seems to have attracted violators of all ier every day. hues. The enforcement agency, the State Coastcourse, the films.

So without further ado, al Sandyisbeaches, dunes and coastal vegetasetZone in a cold, bleak Chinese industrial town.

An Management Authority (SCZMA) headhere are the best fivecasuarina, films I saw at IFFI and this ed tion like pandanus, palmyra alcoholic ex-cop to gets in a woman by a secretary theinterested state government, has year — in no particular order.like estuaries, la- teeth mangroves, and wetlands who isbut a suspect inbite. an unsolved case.

The plot will not In 2011, the Centre diThe Turks wonare thenatural day, as shock they have often rected goons and lakes absorbers is gripping, and thestates mystery both gory all maritime to identify CRZ and viodone at film festivals in the last decade, with lations that can tackle the ocean’s extreme behaviour. strange and (the initiate limbs ofaction victimsatshow up on conthe earliest.

In two superb films.

Bilgeclose Ceylan, with Dismantling these,Nuri building to the seahis or October veyor belts in coal mines across the 2014, SCZMA responded to acountry).

Right to penchant for putting an increasingly doing anything else that would erodecompliprotec- Information But what keeps the film running your head request stating thatin not a single cated cast of characters under his dispassion- long after are the haunting visuals — dimly lit, ate lens, served up the three-hour-long Winter snow-packed tunnels, groups of ice skaters in Sleep, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes a bleak silent outdoor rink, neon-lit bar signs. this year. Partially inspired by Continuing the winter theme three Chekhov stories, the film (an unplanned effect of this uses the eerie, striking landyear’s IFFI), my fourth pick is scape of Cappadocia for CeyForce Majeure, Ruben Östlund’s The Turks won the lan’s leisurely unpacking of his brilliantly discomfiting take on day, as they have signature concerns: the tension masculinity and marriage. A often done at film between age and youth, rural Swedish family — husband, wife festivals in the and urban, men and women, and two kids — on holiday at a last decade and of course, between the French ski resort find the happy classes. A minor incident pushfamily veneer peeling off as the es the upper-class protagonists after-effect of a split-second mo— an ageing ex-actor-turned-homent of danger. It’s full of incitel owner, his youthful wife and his bitter, di- sively observed moments of conversation that vorced sister — to examine the cocoon they are often acutely, guiltily funny — but this is no inhabit, and each other. But as they squirm un- filmed play. Östlund makes masterful use of der Ceylan’s unforgiving lens, it becomes clear his sheer white skiing locales, interspersing that the lives of others, to which they are ordi- pin-drop silence with almost operatic monarily so oblivious, are not within easy reach ments without seeming gimmicky. of their charity.

Finally, there was Narges Abyar’s Track 143, The other Turkish film, Silsile (translated as an unexpectedly understated, moving por‘consequences’, but I think of it as ‘a chain of trait of a mother waiting for her son to come happenings’, based on Hindi/Urdu), also cata- home from a war that has long ended. This is a pults its oblivious rich characters into a series film about a woman whose tenuous connecof events. Set in the mixed Istanbul neigh- tion with the outside world, and with hope, is bourhood of Karaköy, Silsile is more tightly fo- kept alive by a radio she ties around her waist. cused on class. Compared to Ceylan’s slow It is a film that does what no Iranian films had deliberation and endless talk, Ozan Açiktan’s done for me before — gave me a sense of growfilm might seem all thrilling set pieces and ing old with its protagonist, realising how the beautiful people, but it is razor-sharp. Neither world can change while you cling to the past. film lets anyone off.

I also loved writer-director Yi’nan Diao’s trisha gupta is a writer and critic based in Delhi Black Coal, Thin Ice, a laconic murder mystery t@chhotahazri

Q

Top of the worldR

’Tis the season to be jolly for world-cinema buffs. A pick of five best films at the International Film Festival of India this year

Rich dividends After the tsunami, speculators mopped up low-priced land along the East Coast Road in places like Kanathur and waited for real estate prices to rise kv srinivasan

trisha gupta

A

Q R

ND-X _ A

BL

watch cover

saturday, december 20, 2014

Crazy is how it goes Moviegoers proudly show off their tickets outside Maratha Mandir in Mumbai vivek bendre

New problems, new solutions The shrinking coastal commons leave the fisherfolk with little room for traditional activities like boat building sr raghunathan; and the desalination plant at Minjur v ganesan

violation had been identified in Tamil Nadu.

Unlike the tsunami, which was a tidal wave that washed ashore and returned as quickly as it arrived, the seaward moving tide of illegal encroachments by people and industry has been relentless and shows no signs of receding. Immediately after the tsunami, there was some talk of acting against CRZ violations. But that momentary spark of reason subsided within months of the disaster. The government did nothing to challenge elite violations, but put its weight behind attempts to free up coastal real estate by relocating fisherfolk from the coast citing their own safety as a reason. With the tsunami reducing seaside real-estate prices, speculators mopped up lowpriced beach properties on a wager that people will forget their fear of the sea. They were right. They made a killing.

Constructed in the mid-’90s amidst protests that it would damage the coastal ecology and violate the CRZ notification, the East Coast Road predictably triggered an ‘ecocidal’ spree of real-estate strip development on either side sn’t thisMost a weird place for a date? I’ve of the highway. of the construction beheard and thereMamallapuram are rats crawling tween Chennai is less around,” complains young as than a decade old. If a tsunamia were togirl strike she walks up a winding now, the damage to property will bestaircase. far more She keeps eyesinfirmly severe thanher it was 2004.on the ground and hitches up her dress with both hands. This, I assume, is be prepared for the infamous roBuilding uptotrouble dents. man and In 2011,The theyoung Centre foraccompanying Development her, Finance also IIT-Madras the cause released of her distress, it cool. and a jointlyplays authored re“Just on wait watch,” hecost says port theand replacement of mysteriously. major infras“It’s going to be tructure such as magical.” ports, roads and power plants It’s 11.30am on a Saturday and the couple is at Maratha Mandir, one of the few iconic single-screen theatres in Mumbai that has survived the multiplex invasion. The white marble staircase, polished golden trophies showcased in Burma teak cabinets, a threetiered glistening chandelier and popcorn sealed in tiny plastic packets takes you back to a time when movie watching was simpler, yet more regal.

A Google search of the ‘Must-visit places in Mumbai’ will recommend that you catch an early morning show of the legendary Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol starrer Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ) here. The experience is deemed as crucial as a darshan at the Siddhivinayak temple or devouring a plate of keema pav at an Irani cafe. Maratha Mandir has screened the love saga for 19 years since its release in 1995. Last week, the theatre touched the 1,000th-week milestone. Incidentally, the theatre also scores high on a list of the ‘Ten most romantic places in Mumbai’. So I guess the cavorter had done his homework well.

For 17-year-old Amrita Desai, this is the moment she’s been waiting for ever since her parents allowed her to watch movies by herself.

at risk from a one-metre sea level rise. It frastructure that once ensured the survival of pegged the cost at between ₹47,418 crore and people and other life forms. ₹53,554 crore (in 2010 terms). An article by the report’s authors Sudhir Chella Rajan and Su- Change for the worse jatha Byravan in The Hindu Business Line ex- The 1,500MW North Chennai Thermal Power plains what this means: “While a one-metre Station (NCTPS) is bound on one side by the rise in mean sea level would permanently in- Buckingham Canal. A spanking new, impresundate about 1,100sqkm of Tamil Nadu, the ar- sive and totally out-of-place highway runs ea at risk turns out to be about six times as alongside the canal. Tidal flats are sprawled much as a result of associated threats from in- out on the other side of the road. Both the catense storms and high storm surges. Coastal nal and the mudflats — a productive ecosyserosion, increased flooding and salt-water in- tem — were choked with fly ash from the trusion will also accompany the sea level rise power plant. Fly ash was everywhere. On one and these were not estimated in fly ash-covered stretch of mudthe report. Further, since private flats stood a signboard that deinvestments such as resorts, and clared the “land” belonged to shrimp farms were not includEnnore port. This was not land; at Cataclysmic events ed, the report provides only a least not yet. But the port had fly such as the tsunami conservative estimate.” ash as a reason to be optimistic tend to push slowCataclysmic events such as about its conversion from water motion disasters such the tsunami tend to push slowto land. as sea-level rise motion disasters such as sea-levSuch sprawling wetlands are and routine events el rise and routine events like cyexcellent flood mitigators. Their like cyclones beneath clones beneath the radar. Tamil vast surface area allows them to the radars Nadu’s coast is especially ero- hour before have to hearswell She arrived at the theatre a good and accommodate the dialogues from yourrainwaneighsion-prone and vulnerable to cy- the serpen- bour, who probably the ticket window opened, leading ter and can tidal surges.

Converting repeat every line verclones.

In fact, latter behind is most her. After all, batim, without tine queue thatthe formed them into real estate will exacermissing a pause. likely toaincrease in to frequency she had large order place — she was pickbate and levels deflectdrop. the imAt no point doflooding the energy In and intensity a climate-changed ing up ticketsinfor her entire class scenario. of 30 stu- pact stormmyself surges in to the lessmiddle resilient fact, Iofcaught ofareas. a heated A 2008 study by the Institute of Ocean Man- debate dents.

“This is everybody’s favourite movie,” Besides harming communities, the between twolocal families.

They couldn’t agement (IOM), University, examined 30 land-use she shrieks.

LikeAnna her friends, she’s seen DDLJ changes caused triggered indecide which parts were and funnier — the by “Lonlocations alongtimes” the coast of Tamil Nadu of dustrial “like a million on TV, but never atout a thewillofalso activities don-walaactivities romance” thehurt firstthe half or the which 18 were beso erosion-prone.

As themselves. atre. “I was bornfound in 1997tona, I couldn’t watch Insecond 2008, Cyclone ripped up “masti” of the half setNisha in Punjab.

Both land retreats in the she facesays, of an advancing sea, the it when it released,” almost apologetsubmarine metal works associated with parties made excellent points, but couldn’t human settlements and infrastructure ic for being born two years too late. Also inthat the the 100-million-litres-a-day desalination come to a conclusion. “This film is justplant too were protected froma chartered the sea become ex- in queueonce is Vedang Kapoor, accountMinjur, few come kilometres of thethey Engood, yaar.aLet’s again north tomorrow,” posed its20s. temperamental violence. ant in tohis Accompanying him Sea are wahis nore Now, port-induced will decide.port.

Sohini Sengupta, a mediaerosion professionter creeps into fresh aquifers, rendering grandparents, whomwater Kapoor is trying to pro- make plant and the city al, saysthis shecritical has been planning this residents trip ever it unfit foradrinking or agriculture. tect from jostling crowd.

“Coming here was dependent on ittoeven morebut vulnerable. since she shifted Mumbai was afraidCyof dangerously, such erosion myMore dada’s idea. He brought me has the po- clone Hudhud has“luccha-lafanga-type already faded from our colthe crowd” tential drastically alter vital wetland ecosys- lective memories. to this to very theatre 19 years ago But that cycloneit.of“IOctober who come to watch did not tems.

Thethe IOM report warns that to watch film.

He thought it the Ennore 2014 brought Visakhapatnam its knees, expect to find sotomany wellport constructed oncome Kattupalli would be nice to onceisland has al- crippled all its industries theinfamed heeled typesincluding driving in their Imagine a crowd of ready eroding the beaches to the north steel plant. SUVs. A few minutes late and I again,”begun he says.

200 shouting ‘Aao of If the breakwater.

When erosion eats away normal decorum at athe movie In 2014, thewouldn’t World Bank a loanshe of haveextended got tickets,” Aao’ as the film opens the sand bar separating famed brackish- $236 million says, theatre demands thattheyou for a in disaster risk-reduction prodisbelief. water lake from the Bay switchPulicat off your phones andof Bengal, the ject in coastal Interestingly, Tamil Nadu and just Puducherry. a few weeks lake merge with the sea, displacing However, much speakmay in even hushed tones, then sumsreports of money arebeto agolarger there were of DDLJ coastal dunes here you mustand do beaches, the exactand op-exposing new be invested in ingfunding pulled “development” off the theatre. activConpopulations harm. posite. Theretoare selfies being taken at every ities thatthe willmost compromise sidering expensiveresilience-lending tickets are priced It is but alsotickets accretion that ecological step ofnot thejust way;erosion with the pink in hand, features such as wetlands, at ₹20, it makes little economic sense dunes, to run is a problem.

The accretion caused the by the long mangroves around the life-size poster outside theatre, and runs beaches.

Fromempty innocuous the film, which to rather halls breakwater of the private-sector Ennore against the backdrop of the screen, someSateleven sounding proposals for beachstaffers beautification much of the year. Old-time explain lite Port, for instance, has closed the mouth of to in the pitch dark theatre.

The deafening cacoghastly strip mining of beach that on weekends families stillsands, come Tamil with the Ennore creek, according to the IOM report. phony of hooting, chanting, whistling and Nadu’s coast hasBut been opened up for acaters suicidal their children. the film largely to Every year, croresasofsoon rupees are lights spent are on pursuit clapping begins as the of “development”.

It who is notwish the tsunabored tourists on weekdays to kill dredging of the river. is Similar dimmed. open Even the themouth national anthem sung mi that we should fear,a but thefrom monumental time before catching train Mumbai disasters are waiting to happen at virtually ev- hubris with much gusto.

Imagine a crowd of 200 plus modern humanity thatthe has already Centralof Station, which is across road.

But ery location that the haswith planned shouting ‘Aao Aao’ asgovernment the film opens Am- put us inall harm’s way.hear is hundreds of fans for now, one can arish port, or in desalination plant. chanting with Raj ‘Main aa raha hoon Simran’.

Puripower feedingplant pigeons London. Chances These artificial infrastructures commerce are, the voices of the actors onofscreen have nityanand jayaraman is a Chennai-based writer socialchaudhuri activist mohini are systematically the natural in- and been drowned outdismantling in the euphoria, so you’ll

No romance suchQ as this

At Maratha Mandir, where Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge has been playing for 1,000 weeks, none of the normal film rules apply, but that is what makes it special

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The city of art

Recording life

The Kochi-Muziris Biennale uses the city as a wellspring and not merely a venue. Held over three months and with nearly 100 artists, it has plenty for all

As the world watched the tsunami surge from the safety of its drawing rooms, a filmmaker who survived it and a photojournalist who recorded it grappled with the meaning of life itself

I took my mind off the car rally and started planning for the tsunami coverage. Like India, Sri Lanka too had been affected, and I was supposed to go there. My colleague would cover Chennai and other parts in south India. But since no flight tickets were available, both of us headed to Tamil Nadu. By the morning of December 27, I was in Cuddalore, a town 190km south of Chennai, and along with me were a horde of other photographers. My first glimpse of the tragedy was when I reached Silver Beach, a small fishermen’s hamlet. Barely had I stepped on the beach than I saw rescuers bring in the body of a dead child from the sea.

A man and a woman, who I assumed were his parents or close relatives, rushed towards the child on recognising him. As he was placed on the ground, they held him and started weeping. Overwhelmed, the What was affecting man helplessly rested his foreme was not death head on the boy’s lifeless hand. itself, but the When I take pictures of people, reactions of the I take them as they are, without survivors bringing my emotions into it, as it becomes difficult to shoot. AfA fine line Gulammohammed Sheikh’s ‘Balancing Act’ is a public sculptural installation in Vasco da Gama Square that depicts acrobats on a tightrope, performing before a ruler and his court h vibhu ter all, taking a picture is a rational process of deciding the shutter speed, depth of field, white balance, he success of a festival is measured that is its biggest achievement. As artist Par- rather choice of focal it cannot it is an length, attemptetcetera… to see theand world from not merely in the number of tour- vathi Nayar said at the BMW Art Talk, this bien- different be done ifperspectives you get emotional.

Butclose for once — be it up or upI ists it attracts but rather its connec- nale has been born from the soil where above. couldn’tExplaining help it. I was crying inside.

Andsaid, then“II the layout, Kallat tion with the city. The Kochi-Muziris ancient interactions once took place. let myof heart my shooting.

I realised deck, what think thisrule project as an observation Biennale 2014 (KMB, which opened last week While art is the undoubted cynosure, KMB which was affecting meawas not death but theI provides view out intoitself, the world. and runs till March 29, 2015) achieves this in has plenty for everyone; from a film festival to would reactions of the survivors.

I immediately recommend a viewing through the Hand of god A man no small way. Unlike many leading national a students’ biennale where young curators en- biennale changed and my lens from wide angle to a telenot of the abiennale.” breaks down after he finds the lifeless body festivals (think Jaipur Literature Festival) that gage with the work of art students to work- photo to include just the man’s face and the Artistic interpretations and artspeak often of his eight-year-old use a city as simply a venue and not a wellspr- shops for children, and daily boy’s hand insound the frame. turgid and highfalutin. son in Cuddalore ing, the KMB foregrounds the city. It is a festiv- cultural programmes and semiThe rest ofThe the organisers, day I was surrounded by for example, reuters/arko datta al inspired by Kerala and made for its people. nars on history. death, mourning mass burials.

It was very couldand have come up with a simMost of the artworks have been commisThe art itself risks getting a bit depressing, and the midst of this I plersitting festivalinname than Whorled The KMB is not sioned specially for KMB and the artists draw daunting. What with 94 artists was finding it difficult to concentrate on my Explorations, which is both an cloistered behind richly from Kochi’s history as a port and thus (nearly half are from India), editing. I gave up and lit apun cigarette — ending unfortunate and an emptigallery facades; it as a starting point of discovery. from over 20 countries showing yet another attempt to quit smoking,provide a diffiness. While the write-ups beseeches to be The rather boho Fort Kochi, where it is eas- in eight venues, you will suffer cult proposition forperspectives a photojournalist travelluseful and ways of discovered. That is its ier to findecember a beer than a mundu, main from 26, 2004, wasisa the pleasant worked Reuters then) as a with problem of plenty.

Tomy boss was ing from oneseeing, disaster to the next.

(But don’t they prove fatiguing by biggest achievement venue of the biennale.

However, the festivities winter day. It was a Sunday, and I make away on holiday.

So itthe was“preup to me to take take a cue from lifeaeasier, follow photographers, thethis, end.budding It is wisest to visit the spill out towas the outdoors, other and, covering one mighta say, very ferred vintage decisions on the news coverage designated walkway” as-in the region. as I have sinceKMB given upplenty smoking, andon successwith of time hand Mallu, verycar non-hippie islands. IItfound myself rally in Mumbai. was also the signed The gravity of thecurator situation though was yet fully. My advice by festival and be to stay away fromto it andwould an open mind.

And then at a day packed performance in thea artistic to sink in.

But inJitish a fewKallat. minutes, 26th of myKathakali having quit smoking — quite director The I got another from the start.) make it all your own.

Changampuzha Nary artsy hipster rooms call, updating the number of casualties. feat for the chainPark. smoker thatan I was. at Aspinwall House (the main site) The are As for the tsunami’s aftermath, it wasHouse diffiThe first perambulation of Aspinwall was be found Instead locals, of helpfully Asto I stood on a here. flyover, shooting thesome vintage news of a numbered few dead inone Chennai other ar- risks to 69, (and and it makes cult to cover even for a hardened leaving you numbed as therephotojouris simply whom had Icome performcars below, got aespecially call from for ourthe Delhi office, ample eas nearby) turnedthe outsequence, to be in hundreds. sensenow to follow as Kallat too nalist like to metake whoin.had human much Butseen withmany every aconsecuance, andme others who spurned their updating about thehad news events of the eveday. and And his there washave confirmation that the deaths team curated the biennale in a tive tragedy.

In fact, while shooting, remember walkabout, you will absorb I and apprening amble earthquake or game of had carrom to watch the way A powerful struck Indonesia werethat duethe to ataste tsunami caused by the quake.

By ciate of each project serves as an receiving a call fromright my wife.

In the course of more.

Located by the jetty, the sea dance, scrambled for died seats.inThe KMB is— not and a few people had Chennai the aperitif then, news agencies the themes world were to the next. around While the and will the conversation, I asked heryour if everything was accompany you along explorations. cloistered gallery facades and two did notbehind seem connected, at least notglass just treatments beginning to ideaare of the importance of Don’t ofget thean works worlds apart, they okay at home.

And the69moment I finished my hurtle through works, rather choose walls, nooks crannies yet. Asititdwells turnedinout, thatand fateful day Iand wasbein all theengage news. Yet, did notand imagine the art tragic withwe the here now. The on the sentence, I felt a pang I was standing handful that speakoftoguilt… you and spend time seeches to the be discovered by one and And charge of picture operations in all.

India (I display and terrifying of it.in abstraction, with hasn’tmagnitude been created on the debris someone’s home. them andofthe sea outside the window.

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Ten years on, photojournalist Arko Datta recounts the wave of death, mourning and mass burials that made pressing the shutter that much harder

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Those moments were tough, as I walked a fine line, grappling with my own feelings and staying professionally competitive. It is unnatural to witness so much pain and grief, and so often. It completely changes you as a person.

What kept me going, as I guess would be the case for other photojournalists as well, is that we play a relevant part in helping people. We play an important role in letting the privileged parts of the world know about the tragedy at ground zero.

As the days unfolded, I realised the story was actually not of women and children who had died in large numbers, but the men who had survived them. Many had gone fishing into the deep seas, where the tsunami had no effect. But they came back to find their destroyed and uprooted lives. I went back again, months later, to discover that with most family members gone, many of these men had lost interest in fishing. The disoriented, broken men were now taking to alcohol.

My coverage stretched from Cuddalore and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu to strife-torn zones in Sri Lanka. Eventually, images from all the tsunami-affected regions across South Asia brought out a massive outpouring of generosity, as people extended themselves to support those affected.

Now, as different news events unfold every day, I realise that I am a helpless witness trying tune Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s installation ‘Pan-Anthem’, at David Hall, is an interactive A different to do as much as I can through my soundgraph camera, composed of speakers. The speakers each play the national anthem of a different country and Framed in time In Pushpamala N’s ‘The Arrival of Vasco da Gama’ the artist masquerades as Vasco da Gama are arranged hoping that never again should people see in the order of per capita military expenditure such tragedy. But I guess that is wishful thinking and it’s our lot as photojournalists to cover these moments, recording both grief and triumph, recording life. arko datta is a photojournalist and Photo Editor, Mumbai Mirror

Someone’s tragedy (top) Nine-year-old Idusan, a survivor, at a shelter in Thambiluvil, Sri Lanka; and a woman mourns the death of a relative in Cuddalore (an image that won the ‘Picture of the Year’ at World Press Photo 2004) reuters/arko datta

The sea was never the same again RV Ramani, who faced the tidal wave head on, lives to tell the tale as a survivor and as a filmmaker Turning gyre Anish Kapoor’s ‘Descension’ at Aspinwall House is an architectural marvel

Pieces of the puzzle Screengrabs from the film My Camera and Tsunami

Lebanon-born Mona Hatoum’s installation ‘Undercurrent’ (2004), consisting of a web of electric cable and light bulbs, immediately caught one’s interest. The light bulbs leading out from gently twisted wires respond to the breath of viewers — the closer you step, the brighter they flicker. You can interpret this circle of light as you wish, a warning of danger, a halo of light or perhaps, Christmas baubles.

Malayalee artist Aji VN’s untitled landscapes of charcoal on coloured paper evoke a black-andwhite Kerala. Unexpected details reveal themselves the longer you stare at these works, where the future and the past seem to coexist simultaneously. Now based in Rotterdam, the artist says, “Kerala is not simply an exotic landscape. It has other vibrations… and I wanted to touch upon those.”

Another fascinating work, which draws from Kerala’s maritime history, is Bengalurubased Pushpamala N’s ‘The Arrival of Vasco da Gama’ (2014). In this photographic work, she recreates an 1898 painting by a Portuguese painter, which depicts the first meeting between Vasco da Gama and the Calicut Zamorin. But the twist in the tale — as there must be — is that here Pushpamala masquerades as Vasco. While the photograph is a tongue-incheek upturning of history, it also raises questions about who is the zamorin and who the

Triangles in the wind Bharti Kher’s installation ‘Three Decimal Points / Of Minute / Of a Second / Of a Degree’, at Pepper House, immerse the viewer in questions of balance and geometry all photos thulasi kakkat

I

remember that day clearly. I was visiting Kanyakumari with a friend’s family, and we in were on our way back to Nagercoil. voyager today’s world.

Our driver a short to SothaviEveryone willtook have theirdetour own favourites, lai beach, whichthat he said was the prettheir own pieces reach outone andofwhisper to tiest around. was here thatbiennale. all of us them,beaches and that is theItglory of the saw the wave on. like I almost inHowever, the coming smaller head venues Pepper stinctively began filming it and we all tried to House, David Hall and CSI Bungalow lend escape, but the wave was surging towards us themselves to more intimate conversations at an astonishing speed.

I later found out conthat between the art and the viewer.

They also it wassome travelling at highlights, 800km/hour; nearly as fast tain of the such as Bharti as an aircraft.

Kher’s ‘Three decimal points’ (2014), Gigi Scariwave dragged for about half (2014), a kiloa’sThe ‘Chronicles of theme Shores Foretold’ metre, carrying me beBenita Perciyal’s ‘Thewith Firesitofagain Faith’when (2014)itand gan recede. But somehow I survived.

RafaeltoLozano-Hemmer’s ‘Pan-anthem’ (2014).

Without major injuries and with my video It isn’tany a surprise that Anish Kapoor’s ‘Decamera in(2014) hand — completely destroyed. scension’ is now one of the biggest draws of sea wasThe never the same again. theThe festival. viewer walks into a room, At first, I felt a kind of numbness.

But everywhich overlooks the sea, and encounters a vorwhere I looked, there so many in needThe of tex with swirling andwere churning waters. help that those of us who had survived technological prowess required to pull offjust an had to do certain things take the injured embedded water tub withlike dervish waters, was to the hospital andthe move theEngineers dead bodies. almammoth, to say least. andI arso remember going in, back to the same beach chitects were called pillars were removed two to reliveLocated the experience. that and days thenlater reinstated. near theAtjetty, point, I thought came withtoit,dig and you will hit waterI as soontoasterms you start at everyone wasthe also saying I water had come Aspinwall.around To embed five-tonne tub, out off than most. withbetter a copper fan at the bottom that was imA month in Chennai, I was in an autorported fromlater London, required the installation ickshaw, which happened to pass

by Marina of three tube wells to constantly pump out the beach, and tube suddenly I got the shivers.

I asked water. One well continues to function. theThese driver to divert and go through Royapetbackstories of incredible labour and

tah instead, but he insisted on driving along the sea. Soon, I started crying and vomiting.

I went to which see a psychiatrist, whoartists’ told me innovation, helped fulfil the vithat the reality of the sion remain invisible to situation the nakedhad eye. finally But aldawned I was apparently shock the so prove on theme. most interesting andin telling. whole I walked outhas of his clinic andoff went Thistime. second biennale been pulled destraight the Besant beach, preparing spite alltoodds.

While Nagar the state government to face my fears.

That there a given lot of poured in ₹9 crore lastday, time, it haswere so far waves it wasthough high tide, I think — I just sat only ₹2—crore, promises ofand more funds there with aBut certain veri still linger.

Kerala is (determination/rage). not a rich state and fiWith my eyes closed, recounting all that had nances proved to be a major concern.

A crowdpassed. helped me great deal. the and trutha fundingItproject, the aMumbai artBut world is, not recovered entirely. fewI’ve corporate sponsors ensured that the fesAfter tsunami, tival was the not called off. in some senses, I changed even as filmmaker.

The idea of disWhile funds area scarce in Kerala, the labour placement is no same. The line beunions are all toolonger strong.the Different sections of tween imagination realityunions is constantly Fort Kochi fall underand different of loadre-examined.

Now, loading when I see Camera and ers. Which means andMyunloading of Tsunami, thebecomes film that emerged from and the trucks often a game of extortion depth of despair, the fact thatmade it has up turnarm-twisting.

TheI like biennale team, of ed outand to be an instinctive of an exlocal national experts,narrative had to surmount perience, not a didactic discourse. these pressures on a daily basis.

While this year not sure ifand I can do it, As hammers andI’m drills banged shrieked usually I tryistoart goin and touch around on us, December Kallat said,26“This action… the water and are sit by thepart beach.

I don’t see The the These sounds just of the lyrics.” tsunami as a peralivu (complete second Kochi-Muziris Biennale destruction). is certainly aI feel I embraced and completely surrensymphony worth it, listening to once, and then dered to itsagain. sheer force. again and (The writer was hosted by BMW, a corporate rv ramani is working on documentaries, including partner of KMB) one on Chennai-based theatre company Koothu-P nandini (As nairtold to Sibi Arasu.)

-Pattarai.

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ON THE SHELF

The Little Prince provides comfort that even after years, the small and quiet books endure

dipankar

The child Mozart

I COW COLA TO BE SERVED AT OFFICIAL Q FUNCTIONS! “A R t’s that time of year again — the season of lists and mellow fruitfulness, as journalanita roy ists scramble to compile their top 10, top 100, worst, best, most whatevers, into an annual tsunami that crashes over us, leaving us washed up and gasping on the new year’s far shore. So rather than a round-up, I thought I’d sign off on 2014 with a little book that, 72 years after it was written, still sells more than two million copies a year. And, if the trailer is anything to go by, looks like it might become “the most beautiful animated films of 2015”.

I’m talking of course about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince.

Everyone knows the story of a little prince who leaves his own planet — a tiny, lonely asteroid in the vast sky — visits other tiny planets each with its own strange or deluded inhabitant, and finally falls to Earth, where he encounters an airman whose plane has crashed re you sure this is not a buffa“I’m The trying to encourage her,” says the in the desert. little boy asks the airman to lo?” I ask. The Hindu Business man, “if sheand produces more than five draw him a sheep, the prince narrates his Line has been making me do litres perwander day, I getthrough special performance lifea as the two the desert in lot of buffalo stories recently.

The dressed professearch incentive.” of water. But it’sman not is the plot that we reSomeone in senior management must sionally, orange rubber gloves, a member.

It’s theindrawings — the little round fancy them. Could this be an albino vermagenta facemask and a pink smock circles of the little boy’s eyes, the single line sion? It seems unlikely, but ever since withthe a small picture the PM in theof a forIa nose, hat that is in of fact a drawing joined The Investigator, strange things have upper left-hand corner.

We are insidethe boa constrictor swallowing an elephant, been happening. Arnab keeps poppinglonely up arose small stall, many, eachfragile of in her bellone jar,of and the tiny, unexpectedly. Holograms are deliveringplanet-let ba- which contains cow, one producsmaller thanone a house. bies. Shenaz Treasurywala is everywhere. The tion assistant and onetodrum.

Thethe baobabs that threaten overrun I look at the cow. The cow looks at me.Prince’ssoothing soundcan of stand babbling brooks tiny kingdom for any one of “No, no, it’s a cow,” says the man, smiling. plays over system, supplementany number of the evilsPAthat threaten to overBehind the cow is a large drum with a pipe ing the noble efforts of the producwhelm our own home: “an insignificant planattached. The man smiles at the cow encouassistants. et of a tion humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked ragingly and makes liquid noises, reminis“Nutritionally, we of area universe streets in away in some forgotten corner cent of a gurgling mountain stream or,which at ahead of Coca-Cola,” says my comthere are far more galaxies than peotimes, a river in full spate. The cow chews “which contains not less ple,” aspanion, Carl Sagan described it. Saint-Exupécud thoughtfully. than seven sugar.

We only ry’s drawings call spoons to mindofthe famous ‘pale

ASK ALLY

Ally Subramaniam was born in the Southwest Sundarbans, but was blown away by a cyclone and washed up on the shore near Chennai. He was adopted by a poor Brahmin family from Tirupur. He can answer all your questions. Just send them all to askallysubramaniam@gmail.com

D

ear Ally, my son is regularly humiliating me as I did not get him Google Glass. Am I a bad father?

Regards, Ashwin Kumar, Patna

Dear Ashwin, I must insist that you people specify your ages before asking me questions. Age is nothing to be ashamed of. In our country, things are flexible. We have youth leaders who are 45. But it does help my analysis.

For example, in this case, if your son is over 50, this is a simple inheritance dispute. You should not only buy him Google Glass, you should sign over the house, before he puts something in your coffee. On the other hand, if he is a chubby adolescent, it would appear that you and your wife have been spoiling him. You have sown a bitter crop, and now you are reaping it. One way to kill two birds with one stone is to donate him to Google. I believe they are looking for human test subjects. In this way, he’ll get his Google Glass, you’ll get some peace, and the Google algorithm will become progressively more intuitive.

Yours affectionately, Ally

blue dot’ photo taken (at Sagan’s request) a philosophical treatise and a coded love letter from the Voyager 1 space probe 12 years after to the author’s beloved wife, Consuelo. Both its launch in 1977, at the edge of our solar sys- whimsical and profound, it has been detem. Earth, at a distance of 3.7 billion miles, scribed as ‘a children’s book for grown-ups’ — could well be the Little Prince’s asteroid, with a phrase often deployed as a sort-of backhandbarely enough room for one small boy and a ed criticism (or do I mean compliment?) as little rose. As Neil Armstrong recalled, looking though such books have missed their mark back at Earth from the moon: “I put up my somehow, or are masquerading as something thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blot- they’re not: a children’s book that is wasted on ted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a gi- the young (to misquote Shaw). ant. I felt very, very small.’

In a crowded, noisy world There are several theories where publishers — and filmabout the identity of the real litmakers too for that matter — tle boy that inspired Saint-Exuseem to spend their lives chasing péry’s drawings, and his tale: the book or story that will be The Little Prince has possibly the son of the aviator loud enough to make itself heard been described as ‘a Charles Lindberg, with whom he overSHOVON the clamour, it is a comfort CHOWDHURY is children’s book for chief Truthdigger and author was friends, possibly the son of grown-ups’ as though to know that the small and the Competent Authority philosopher Charles De KoquietThe ones also endure.

The Hunsuch books have ninck, possibly the author himger Games or the Harry Potters missed their mark a likely little it sugar improves memory power.

Paself as a child.add Most was afor taste, along tension andare wonderful for their dazzle migraine a pinch combinationwith of the three. of Butginger. Besides tients suffering and from brightness, andhave webeen love six months.

When answering which, of course, the idea perhaps took root in the benefits of cured within them like we love fireworks on a cow urine are many. Gavyam pa- call of nature, wecold are flushing out we many 1935 when the author, travelling crisp night, but willmialcronutrients. urine can restore them. vitram ca rasayanam ca pathyam to Russia by train, noticed a young boy, sleep- ways come backCow home to warm ourselves next is also of constipation, hrdyam balam syata.” toItthe ing between hiscaparents: “What buddhi an adorable fire, beneficial nourishedin bycases the simple words of a ghostly possession and liver disorder.

“I’m sorry, I’veborn onlyof just start- little face! A golden fruit had been these boy from a distant planet: “it is onlyLookwith ingheart at all these our government ed learning Sanskrit,” mur- the two peasants... This is a musician’s face, II told that onebenefits, can see rightly; what is esmur apologetically.

It’sistrue.

It’s sential has decided that henceforth, it will be myself. This is the child Mozart. This a life is invisible to the eye.” at all official functions, beginning compulsory for in alllegem- served full of beautiful now promise.

Little princes The Little Prince is Saint-Exupéry’s cri de ployees. With sinking feeling, I coeur, with athe visit President Obama onare Januends are not different from athis.

Protected, plea for of a world in which there garary 26,ofmaking him the firstthe foreign VIP to realise awhat change in ournot beverage sheltered, cultivated, could this deners men, a place where child-Mozart imminent. child become? policy When is byalso mutation a new rose inenjoy all ofthe us goodness.” can be nurtured. That perhaps re“Cow urine is great elixir, “This beleap a shock for Obama,”but I say. is born in a garden, all gardeners rejoice. They quires notcould a giant of imagination a veproper diet, it. pleasing to is heart, “Not step at all,” saysthe theshoes production isolate the rose, tend it, foster But there no ry small into of the assistant, child that giver of little mental and will physical Obama is 100 per cent with us. Fugardener for men.

This Mozart be we“Michelle all once were. strength, longevity,” ture is bright. International market is open. shaped like the rest by the enhances common stamping We roy haveis a awriter fullandportfolio of products he says.

“Notis only that, it bal- anita director of Young Zubaan machine... This little Mozart condemned.” ances bile and mucus, releases planned.

Not all of them will involve cows.”

The Little Prince is an allegory, a poetical tale, anita@anitaroy.net

CRIMINALS PROTEST RISING PRICE OF CERTIFICATES!

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he pickpocket returns my wallet sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you were a journalist,” he says, “We need you to publicise our cause. Ask your partner to take one photo?” He holds up the placard and smiles. “Raghuram Rajan Zindabad!” shout the assembled criminals all around him. They are at Jantar Mantar, protesting injustice.

“Why Raghuram Rajan?” I ask. “Sir, not only does his face light up the newspapers,” says the pickpocket, “he has taken unprecedented measures to restore fiscal discipline. Inflationary trends have been reversed.

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The Investigator is a fortnightly round-up of all things droll and newsy. All views are personal. Really personal t@shovonc

Wholesale Price Index is at an all-time low.

Across India, ‘Raghuram’ is now the name of choice for first-born male children. Only we criminals are being neglected. In our profession, price of character certificates and other documents is rising astronomically. After such rise in input cost, what margin are we left with? This inflationary trend must be arrested.”

I want to tell them Mr Rajan has limited control over the prices of individual items, but I don’t have the heart to. I leave them standing in the gathering gloom, gazing up at Raghuram Rajan, eyes full of hope.

takeaway talk

saturday, december 20,20, 2014 saturday, december 2014

Lost shadows How dare you?

THE CRITICAL ISSUE

Parting the waters of Kerala in search of the portcity of Muziris or thethat grand of it of perpetrators of sexual violence arises from A research project—reveals theidea impunity legal, judicial and even emotional reasons

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econstructing stories with multiple narratives spanning two millennia is hard. It is best then to begin from the end, which is now. We are looking for Muziris, along the former Spice Route, on the narrow Malabar coast, with the Arabian Sea on one side and the backwaters on the other. Dense with coconut groves and tropical trees, the land is never too far from the water.

We are on a speedboat that noisily splits a vast sheet of calm water into two as it cruises westward on the Periyar river.

ift bridges and cement walkways mark the site where excavations are conducted.

The fort vanishes as we get closer to the mouth of the estuary, and the Marthoma Church (Marthoma Research Academy) comes into view. It is believed apostle St Thomas landed in this region in 52AD to spread the gospel to the Jews. “It is not ‘whether’ he landed, but ‘where’?” says Fr Frank Jose at Marthoma, “He came along an existing sea route, and it is definite that there were Jewish Get around Floating an idea and Roman colonies here even before Christ.”

You can cover all the sites of The search for the lost cosmopolitan city of Soon, along the Kollam-Kottapuram waterthe Muziris Heritage Project in Muziris has taken different forms — from exca- way, we head towards Kochi. It isn’t hard to 2-3 days, including Mattancherry vations, museums and heritage trails to the imagine Roman ships laden with amphora Synagogue; Chendamangalam christening of India’s first art biennale. We jars, wine and fish sauce anchored along these and Paravur Synagogues, both embark on our hunt around Kowaters. There must have been museums now; Cheraman chi through the Muziris Heritage warehouses too, hoarding spices Jumma Masjid, India’s first Project, a part of the UNESCOthat would make their journey mosque; Marthoma Research backed Spice Route Project into the West. For nearly two milIt is not ‘whether’ Academy, where St Thomas’ volving 31 countries, anchored lennia, spices were what oil is toTheStwrong treeChurch, By St Thomas landed relic lies; Francis by the Kerala Council for Historiday, and we owe much of our banning these Uber was first here, but ‘where’ where Vasco Da Gama cal Research. knowledge of geography to the taxi drivers did buried;we 16th-century Kottapuram “As of now, Muziris is an idea,” demand for spices. address Fort; Paliam says Biju Thomas, a historian and the realNalukettu cause of and violence?

Paliam the Palace; Pattanam and guide. To “experience” the histoA lost city kamal narang ry of Muziris, one must depend My understanding of geography Fort Kochi. Almost all of them on one’s imagination, visit several sites, and though, is tied to Google maps here. We pass are connected by water, but or thethe pastdots. couple of years, at Zubaan, connect Broadly, the story of the issued by those in power — the properties, traffic authorpaddy fields, waterfront fishing sense of impunity. protests, tend to accessInviaour road is also we possible. the publishing where Spice Route has two house parts: the firstIiswork, the narraity, police, company a dot boats and Chineseowners, fishing etc. nets.Indeed The blue fault the law, Kerala but weTourism don’t question the proceoffers several been involved in a research tivewe of have Muziris (and the places linked to it), whole had enabled the drivers to feel onsystem the map shows we have sailed past the Paldure of investigations, nor lawyers and judgpackages (0471-2321132; thatrelates focuses onarrival sexualofvioandproject the second to the Europethat they could get which away with things.We Insoon othercross lipuram Fort, is inland. es, nor publickeralatourism.org/muziris). prosecutors. lenceans and(the impunity in South Asia. Along a words, markets, forts, palaces) andwith Kochi. impunity.

Pattanam, in North Paravur, the site of several Another important learning for us in this Stayhow deeply flawed the mediteam ofMuziris, some 50 havepresent-day comorresearchers, Cranganorewe (near In small-scale the Shiv Kumar Yadav case we’re in- project has been excavations.

A too, small office/muSince Project with covers piledKodungallur), an exhaustive was set of researchport papers a popular on that the Spice tent on blaming Uber.objects And nodating doubttoUber has milseum here hosts the first cal procedures are the for dealing victims of 150sqkm, Kochi yourprocebase. look at histories of sexual violence, at accounts Route, perhaps from the time of King Soloto take a great AD, chunk of the blame for their of sexual lennium attesting to the—presence a assault.

Clinical make and indifferent once a Dutchthe of survivors, at support systems ab-Egypmon. Romans, Greeks, Arabs,(mostly Africans, lax standards, notkind doing the necessary vibrant cityfor — the mentioned in Sangam dures do not Bolgatty take intoPalace, account the trauma sent),tians at ideas justicefrom and reparations, at thealong andofpeople the Levant plied checks and, most importantly, for not training and literature and Greco-Roman documents victim/survivor has gone through. retreat, is a good placePrejudiced to stay long-term impact such silk violence on commuthe road for of spices, and precious stones. theirmaps. drivers to was respect clients.

This isn’t But this their Muziris?

No one’s sure. textbooks often teach would-be doctors that (from ₹3,000; bolgattypalace nitiesBut and, most was importantly, at thearound question Muziris lost in a flood 1341AD, something particular to Uber though, it’s are Pattanam is a shadow of its past. There in cases of rape women always lie. plenty ‘Evidence’ kochi.com).

There are of of impunity. ending Part I of the narrative. Shortly after something thatships runsorthrough no mighty godowns, only farmlands collection is faulty, options in Fort Kochi and too. where Sexual is rampant in South Asia — in this, violence began Part II — the Portuguese landed pretty much all taxi services and houses.

Nearly an and hour later, just as I’m DNA testing is required, faciliTip that particular finding comes as no to “In1498AD and “rediscovered” a surprise way to the autos,getting and buses, and to more. accustomed the incessant purr of ties are limited and hampered Keep your phone’s GPS on, and any ofdies”. us involved inDutch, this project. takes folSoon, the FrenchThat anditEnglish Why the pickengine, on one?Kochi accosts us. High-rises quickby bureaucratic hurdles.

Had it been a woman mapBut theinstitutional boat ride. Then explore different forms lowed suit. — within domestic spaces, as Shiv Kumar could ly replace paddyeasily fields have and coconut groves. indifference who stepped out of all road.

Yoursocial the violence of war and conflict, as violence been driving Sure weanother haven’t taxi, foundand Muziris. But must we is the oneplaces thing. by What about line, various people that targets children, as violence within politi- he might Not so foreign the arrivehave at thedone end of allsame journeys? and familial culpability? sense of time and space will Why would have spoken cal movements all of thiswidens. is also familiar.

Per- we As we turn,—the river On our right, thing. Or, another driver driving (The writer was in Kochi at the invitation of Kerwould in theways Shivyou Kumars this unravel didn’t of know out. Why not for the haps,see thethe area where we haveKottapuram learnt the most remnants of the fort, built another taxi might have done ala Tourism.) worldhappen. become the way they do? could man? Of such has been in our understanding impunity. by the Portuguese, and theoflocal market, one the same thing.

What role did his mother play in complicity is mahima the a jainquestion we I was reminded of India. this powerfully in the reof the oldest in A perimeter of makeshPerhaps, this? His father? His friends? The impunity made cent rape case involving Shiv Kumar Yadav, the should ask is: what is it that enlocal community leaders, who driver of an Uber taxi. I could not get rid of the ables the Shiv Kumars of this knew he was crooked and viofeeling that our anger against the taxi compa- world to do what they do, what lent? Had it been a woman who ny was a bit misdirected. Let me try and ex- is it that gives them this strong stepped out of line, every single plain: those of us from Delhi will remember sense of impunity — a sense that no matter one of these people would have spoken out. that not so long ago, after a spate of road acci- what they do, they’ll get away with it.

Why not for the man? Of such complicity is imdents, there was huge anger against what One of the things we’ve learnt in our project punity made. were known then as Blue Line buses, and these is that impunity is not the only protection perIndeed research on this project has shown buses were taken off the road. petrators of sexual violence have because of us that there are many ways — not only legal Soon they reappeared in another avatar — a faulty implementation of laws, or because of but also social, familial, institutional, and yes, different colour, same bus, same drivers. We the collusion of the state. The law on sexual as- emotional and moral — by which we build up a thought we’d solved the problem, but the acci- sault in our country has been, and remains, structure within which men feel both a sense dents and deaths continued. Because, of deeply flawed, despite significant and positive of immunity and impunity. Unless we undercourse, we had not thought that most of the changes. Perpetrators know they can exploit stand the many ways in which this happens, men driving the buses had fraudulent licenc- this, and they know too that the legal and judi- banning a single taxi company will not help. es. Many of the buses themselves were not li- cial establishment, mostly male, is in general blink@thehindu. co.in censed. And fraudulent licences had been hostile to the victim. And therefore, they feel a

Travel Log

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A blue vein Boats lined along the waterway that connects thepublisher memories and Urvashi Butalia is an editor, vestiges ofofMuziris and director Zubaanmahima a jain

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takeaway know

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saturday, december 20,20, 2014 saturday, december 2014

Me too The people of Kashmir say that they are voting for basic necessities such as electricity, food and a roof over their heads ap/mukhtar khan

Fine winery Familyowned Louis Roederer is among the few remaining independent champagne houses; (below) its vineyard in Reims, France bloomberg

Elegance uncorked Kashmir votes, for a change A champagne toast to sparkling conversations from an 18th-century vintner

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ver a lunch to com- Champagnevoter region.turnout Sparkling wines casks, sayspolls.

Wallaert.But should Delhi The Valley has menu seendesigned an unprecedented in thefrom Assembly plement Louis Roederer’s cham- elsewhere are prominently marked method Unlike most wines, Champagne comes with see it aspagnes, a victory of the democracy? the conversation turns traditionelle on the label, to differentiate them a specific reputation — almost entirely related

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rather informative. As Thierry Wallaert, export areahis manager, waxesMaroof eloquent utside office hours, Ahabout the brand, compelledvolunteer to take notes. mad, Iaam 28-year-old for Soon, he starts rattling off facts and figures — Jammu and Kashmir’s oldest politof the 32,000 hectares France’s Champagne ical party, inNational Conference, village,allLouis Roederer ownsyoungsters, 240 hectares, spent his time meeting exgrowing 54 cent Grand Cru. of When he plaining to per them theofimportance voting pauses briefly, I give my wrist break, candithinkand asking them to support hisa party’s ing just how muchphase this isoflike notes date in the fourth thescribbling state’s Assembin elections. a class. Except, classes hardly place at ly Ahmad sees this as take a “do-or-die” the Taj Coromandel in Chennai, and never, election, as he is fed up with the present MLAI canhis pretty guarantee, are youin allowed of Dorumuch Shahabad constituency South sips of Champagne between.

Kashmir and wants in a better alternative.

EightCongress sheets of notes, twobeen and arepresenting half glasses “The MLA has of Louis Brut Premier and one exus for theRoederer’s last 12 years, and in the name of decellent risotto later, I roads leave and onlya college,” slightly velopment, we have a few buzzed a lot wiser. he says. and Asked if he has voted before, he replies in the negative, adding, “maybe because I Basics vote, of bubbly didn’t we got an unacceptable leader, so People have beenfor drinking this time I voted change.”Champagne since theLike reign of hundreds Louis XIV, as tells me,men but him, of Wallaert young Kashmiri the bubbly

by Dom Perigand womenwas whonot hadpioneered hitherto abstained from non as have popularly believed.

That supporters distinction of is voting turned into active laid at the doors of Benedictine monks, alvarious political parties. though later Dom was has the “Eithermuch we vote or we do Perignon not. Someone first blendso wines of different to beto elected, it is better to votevintages and electtoa make champagne. leader of our choice,” reasons 22-year-old TanThe Champagne region has chalky soil, veer Ahmad Mir. which retains moisture, and first-time experiences exRuheel Fayaz, 26, another voter, tremeunemployment temperatures round year. Thechalvinsees as thetheforemost tage depends heavily thea postgraduconditions lenge for Kashmiri youth.on “I am during year, as unemployed, well as the weather during ate andthe I am still so I cast my harvest vote for season. the candidate who promised us greathe pinothenoir, terChampagne employmentgrows opportunities,” says.pinot meunier andachardonnay varieties of the grape.

Recording larger turnout this time, AsThe first elections two are black-skinned; the pinot noir sembly in Jammu and Kashmir, lends structure, character, meunier, which end today,body haveand witnessed a new trend theyoungsters freshness, and the white-skinned chardonof participating enthusiastically nay,thethe elegance.

Champagne is usually toa in entire electoral process. According blend of all three varieties, except for 1,48,480 the rare Election Commission data, nearly Blanc dein blanc, which only chardonnay. electors the state areuses in the 18-19 age group, The methode refers to the manand 19,82,701 inchampenoise the 20-29 bracket. ufacture of aerated exclusively in the Ajaz Ahmad is alsowines anxious for change, ac-

from original champagne. to celebration. What is it about this drink that To turn into coalition its bubblygovernment counterpart,ofa hi cusing thewine present instantly conjures images of festivity?

Walmight see their participation in the polls as second to fermentation place inpeople in a willingness failing rehabilitate takes the flood-hit laert to believes it’sof the bubbles. be a part India, all they were the hometown bottle with Kanipora the addition of his in South Kashmir’s voting for were “bijli, sadak and paani” (basic sugar and yeast.“Both RegulaKulgam district. the National Confer- needs). “Delhi isMore than using ourcheers vote to show world tions and dictate ageing promised the ence Congress much during bodies that Kashmiris“The cork happily going with pop are living winefloods for 15 the butmonths, did nothing on the ground, so India and have full faithwhen opens, the in theitIndian Constibutare vintage we voting chamfor a new government that will tution, but the whole world necklace foam, knowsofthat we pagnes are often us,” he says. hopefully rehabilitate the tiny, delicate vote only for basic amenities,” says Sajid Ahaged four to September floods exposed mad, standing in the line outside The for devastating bubbles that stago a polling eightstate’s years.unpreparedness for a calamity of tion in Anantnag. the straight to your Atmagnitude the end ofand led to a growing clamour this theas drink The regional parties in thehead fray, — such the thisa period, the for change of guard. is magical and National Conference and People’s Democratic bottles aremany Kashmiris have also said Party, have been quick to delink Significantly, romantic at the election opened, that theythe aresedparticipating in the polls to keep process from the greater Kashmir once,” issue.insists iment out the removed BJP and its promise of ending the Wallaert. of the “Kashmir elections are independent and more state’s specialwine autonomous status under Arti- greater aspirations of the people Although popof Jammu and370. sugar addedthe BJP did try to backtrack and Kashmir. We have promised cle Although ularly in served as an our manito make upoffor the candidates after many its own the very festo that PDPaperitif will useatdemocratloss of sediment.

Theany such protested against a meal ic ways tobeginning solve theofKashmir bottlesthearedamage then had la- already move, before moving on to issue,” said its chief spokesperbelleddone. and brands such as been other Akhtar. wines, I am told that son, Naeem Someone has to be Louis Roederer extra “They try to wait takean our land champagne is essentially Political analysts say that thea six months or so to allow the elected, so it is better large from us without solving wine voter that lends itself to food turnout proves that to vote and elect a bottle to ‘relax’.

Kashmir issue. We won’t let it pairing. The bubbles convey Kashmiris were always readythe to leader of our choice The sugar varies happen.

So I added voted to keepfrom the aromas faster, he says. vote, but stayed away as they 6-12gm forthe a brut and 32-50gm BJP out of state,” says Shakir Its complexity derives were In unsure India, the company it would make coma diffor a demi sec.

Nabi of Channapora area in upmands 14 cent of “There the Chamference to per their lives. has from ageing in old For Srinagar. the gorgeous pale-pink unique wooden casks been town pagnea market compared to constant— tussle among champagne rosé Hurriyat (never ‘rosé The separatist Con9-10people per cent the toworldwide. vote or not, as they champagne’, Wallaert called admonference had expectedly for a boycott of didn’t take it seriously While theearlier.

UK, the US and Now, the Gerpreishes), Skin the polls,traditionally but the peoplethe defied it this time and sent generation many are theare three biggestthe marof youth analysing isContact (or maceration) voted in large numbers. methkets forsays Champagne, India is at a sues and voting,” Dr Sheikh Showkat od“What is usedhas where the wine in contact Hussain, Hurriyat givenremains us? We supported respectable 36. Naturally anticipates a senior politicalWallaert analyst working in with the grape a few hours; a second them every timeskin andfor everywhere during 2008 the a sparkling Valley. future ahead in this country. method, calleddon’t Blend, involves blending still or 2009. They have a roadmap for Kash“People who love wine afford“Why it in But Fayaz Ahmad is notand onecan of them. red wine brut angry to achieve the delightful mir,” sayswith a visibly Showkat Rashid of should India, the food lovers gastronomes, they I vote?

Neitherand have I seen developlight salmon Rajbagh area pink. in Srinagar. “These Hurriyat peo- ment are thenor ones picking up champagne — point they are employment, so what is the of business sincetothe pleFamily-owned fight for their and own in power and claim be choosing the targetanother audience for us. And the representative,” hedrinking insists.

18th century, Louis among theshutfew population of India will [soon] nearly equal fighting for us.

TheyRoederer just offerisus hartals, hussain is a Newlike Delhi-based journalist remaining independent champagne houses. tawqeer downs and protests.” that of a small country Belgium!” he says.

The product is vinous, with a complexity de- currently covering the Assembly elections in Jammu Many Kashmiris speaking to this correelizabeth Kashmir mathew rived from ageing unique wooden spondent were quickinto old, clarify that while Del- and

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work takeaway

saturday, december 20,20, 2014 saturday, december 2014

Have your eggnog (and eat it too) Don’t like the ‘alcoholic milkshake’ with raw eggs in it?

Reinvent it as a pudding instead

CHRISTMAS EGGNOG PANETTONE PUDDING (serves 10) 1 large loaf panettone or any currant loaf 8 eggs 4 cups full-cream milk 1 cup sugar (less if the panettone is particularly sweet) Bourbon or rum Nutmeg grated (to taste)

1 Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Butter a large baking dish.

2 Slice the panettone, place in the baking dish and pour enough bourbon to cover. Leave for about 30 minutes hristmas isn’t Christmas without form a light custard, generously laced with altill the alcohol is absorbed. plum pudding, mince pies and cru- cohol and flecked with nutmeg, creates a base 3 Meanwhile, whisk together milk, eggs cially, eggnog. Nothing is quite as for a range of delicious desserts that sing of and sugar and a generous pinch of redolent of the Yuletide spirit as the season. I’ve used it to fill little cases of nutmeg. Pour over soaked panettone. that decadent cream-rich punch, fragrant choux pastry to make Christmassy profit4 Bake for about 30 minutes or until Local callsthe Firstouch with the heady heat of nutmeg and smoky eroles (you can fill tart shells with it too). It has custard has set and the bread is handsets cater to the to peek through its gorgeous beginning bourbon. I love serving it, but the starred in a delicious, grown-up English-unfamiliar white blanket. problem is that guests usually trifle pudding in layered combimarket; (below) 5 Sprinkle with nutmeg and serve warm. nation with orange jelly and leftdecline, finding it rather heavy as co-founder Rakesh over Christmas cake that’s been a pre-dinner drink and too much Deshmukh I’ve used it to fill little like an alcoholic milkshake to soaked in bourbon, and served cases of choux pastry pair finger food with. in jam jars. Or pour it warmed rich, warm dessert that provides all the soulto make Christmassy Determined not to deny over cinnamon ice cream and satisfying pleasure of traditional bread pudprofiteroles you have another winner. In fact, ding, and yet it is most definitely not nursery guests (or ourselves!) this quinthere’s really no end to the ways food. The bourbon breathing eggnog lifts it intessential taste of Christmas to the unmistakeable A-rated realm of a socheer, I’ve found ways to insert of using this festive custard. eggnog into the evening in difHowever, my favourite egg- phisticated dessert.

So this season, make eggnog part of your ferent guises. This festive, hearty cocktail gets nog creation — because it’s a big dessert that’s its unique taste from the combination of milk, fabulously festive yet unbelievably easy to as- entertaining: greet guests with tiny shot glasscream, whisked eggs, sugar, generous slugs of semble — is my eggnog panettone pudding. es of this classic punch; or let it work its magic bourbon or rum and nutmeg — that exquisite This pairs two Christmas favourites, eggnog on your dessert counter. Merry Christmas! warm spice we know so well. Heating the and that sweet, fondant-filled, dried-fruit cream (or cream and milk), eggs and sugar to studded Italian Christmas bread to create a arundhati ray is a Kolkata-based food writer

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Q Smart inR my bhasha

Seasonal produce Serve eggnog in shot glasses with candy canes ap/matthew mead

With handsets that allow users to type in a regional language and ‘swipe’ into English or vice versa, Firstouch has a huge market-in-waiting here in India

I

WINDOW OR AISLE

Gall & bladder How urinary incontinence impacts the aviation industry every day

H

ow often in a day do you take a piss? Go to the bathroom, I mean, for a small job. Twice?

Thrice? Maybe four times, if you’re having the recommended eight glasses of water? That’s probably once every six hours, therefore.

Now imagine that you have just one brief, but critical, engagement during the day — only one event, lasting not more than two hours, which you have to lead. Maybe you’re chairing an important meeting, giving a dance performance, making a speech, or interviewing

shutterstock/modified

rishi piparaiya

n 2011, when mobile applications develFirstouch handsets, in contrast, offer it all entire mobile ecosystem rather than just oper MoFirst (now renamed Firstouch) on a single screen. When a letter is selected, smartphones. “We know the market is segSolutions bagged a project from Myan- predictive words as well as punctuation in all mented and so it is important to give a unified mar, little did its founders know it would combinations pop up, making it user-friendly.

Along with handsets, trolley — experience. just so our loosy-goosey Captain we have to change the direction of their compaMore significantly, users can convert a give users content.

Only then will is hidden from view.regional He struts into the ny forever. The project involved message in English into another language consumers Deshmukh. loo, unzips, wiggles, shift zips, brand,” flushes, says adjusts building a mobile interface in through what Deshmukh calls the swipe Firstouch has steps accordingly set up an app trousers, checks his smile, back out, Burmese on the Android plattechnology. A swipe from left to rightflirts willwith store, Bazaar, tograbs offer content the App stewardesses, a cof- downloads form. That required customising convert an English text message into,feesay, in regional languages. offer are 1,000 apps and then goes back into theOn cockpit. the operating system in that lanGujarati. Similarly, a message keyed-inBarely in a have through tie-ups with majora publishers includthe passengers heaved sigh guage. Firstouch co-founders Raregional language can be ‘swiped’ Nazara Technologies, Gameloft, EA Games of inrelief ing than the co-pilot emerges and kesh Deshmukh, Akash Dongre to English before sending. goes “Thethrough and Hungama.

“We are also creating a platthe same damn routine. and Sudhir B took up the chalconsumer can communicate This in freaks formme where publishers can my publish content out. Aisle Be Damned, lenge, and profited from it English without knowing the lan- on on our app store,” he adds. treatise air travel, has an entire secmonetarily. More importantguage. This is a big market opporAgain, to make it convenient tion devoted to incidents caused by blad- for regional ly, it gave them the idea of tunity for us,” Deshmukh says. users, mostDude, of whom don’t have have credit cards, der-happy pilots. airports replicating the model in InTo make this Firstouch more bathrooms per capita thanhas anylinked oth- app downdia, where every state work, the company anddidn’t usage you to carrier billing. er place on the planetload — why speaks a different lancreated its own Firwill pay their make a pit stop beforeUsers you boarded?

Andtelecom operguage and each presents stouch operating ator — forjust thedo paid content. “Morewe will be landing shortly some a huge market. system, which perchover, our customers are just kegel exercises onsince the flight unEvery state speaksand a focus “We realised that each es on the phone’s til we reach the gate. shifting from feature phones, different language state in India is a minihardware. So, basicalthey may notseen have email acThe gooda news I have never and presents huge is that country with a culture of ly, the company imcounts.

So their lady pilots use restrooms mid-flight.

Sophone’s IMEI market on its own its own. And while the moports handsets, number (unique to every handobviously, they have better bladder conbile market has shifted from installs its operating becomes So their trol than their male set) counterparts. a user ID infeature to smartphones, the rusystem sells says Deshmukh. at most.and Taking off the simple, cost-effective stead,” for a job.

Given the average gap between an hour or two solution would be ral market hasthere’s not been distribuBut he knows in well that for a urinations, a able hightoprobability plane fromthese point through A and safely landing it to place disposable plastic canisters adopt them… we thought and retailers. technology is mass market, tie-ups with that you wouldn’t need to of use the res- at point B tors is conceivably the “Our only thing the cockpit.

If one’s really got to go,original one’s equipment something that that couldbrief helpperiod. peo- But the that the pilot notand dependent manufacturers handset troom during co-pilot on willwhere do allthe day.handsets got to go.

Just grab the(OEMs) bottle,or lean be- makers are ple communicate in their us own made assembled.” its pilot in anda do must. believe it is better to go with a them areor responsible forFor this more cautious amongst would any- The two ofare hind, your“We thing. language,” Deshmukh, Gujarat, Firstouch imported largercongratulatory opportunity. Now wefrom are focusing on lithrough the skies athandsets way go forsays a wee-wee just an before that machine storming I welcome mails IIT-Bombay alumnus. censing our OEMs,” he says. event starts; just to avoid any discomfort 800km/hr. from Can’tChina. they just hold it in for airline executives for technology my excellenttocontrisome mobile Currently available onlydowith bution Guja- to pilot Firstouch operatingand system will soon be oforWhile embarrassment duringbrands that occasion. the brief stretch that they are actually productivity flight currently keyboards in a fewmy mind ing some work? rati interface, Firstouch handsetssafety. will And fered handsets of otherwritbrands too. But Whichoffer is why, it just boggles nowon that I have finished Indian languages, these every are not support from January, HinDeshmukh is not ready reveal But no! No soonerTamil has the plane reac-anding as to why, on virtually flight that this column, please excuse meto while I the details easy has to leaves switchthe be- cockpit hed cruising di and Marathi April.

Since May, altitude andbythe seatbelt I’m to on,use. theOne captain gothe take ayet. leak.“We will finalise the partnership in the tween a company has sold over next few months,” he says. mid-airscreens to go totothetype bathroom.

And I’m sign gone offMumbai-based that the cockpit door opens. message, as transatlantic one screen sojourns here — Stewardesses 3,000 Gujarati And iswhen he does, it will rishi piparaiya the author of Aisle Be be much easier for not talking rushhandsets in panicwith to draw theinterface will a few conso-domestic flights; curtains orinblock Saurashtra alone. regional users to find top brand handsets cusrishi@aislebedamned.com I amhave referring to short the aisle with a food Damned nants and another the As the company sees itself as a re- tomised in their own language. rest. Punctuation is timegional smartphone company, its founconsuming and not easy. ders are working towards creating an rashmi pratap

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hopewere to play till And then “I there none I’m 33 at least”

What forced entire colonies of around 500-700 painted storks to abandon their habitat and leave Bharatpur’s bird sanctuary en masse? storks for two centuries; the colonies have

habitats shrink over time, nearby When P Kashyap brought homeseen thetheir CWG badminton gold areas dry up, and the park come up around them, bringing of visitors after a three-decade gap, he proved once lakhs more that each he year. can The flight of the birds, it would appear then, succeed against odds was primarily induced by severe water short-

age in Bharatpur. Several reports over the last few months have recorded the alarming state s competitive sports go, this is as eight his sources playing ofcareer witof the years three of main waterhave in these close as it gets. On August 1, at Glas- nessed during 2009, (CWG bronze) parts —highs the Panchna dam, 2010 the Chambal river gow’s Emirates Arena, the last and 2012, when he reached the Olympics quarthe Goverdhan drain. Built on the Gambmatch of the Commonwealth ter a few lowup points too, but he has hir finals, river, and which dried a decade ago, the Games badminton semi-finals is poised 20-15 retained higher ranking Panchna acan release waterthroughout. only when there’s in favour of Hyderabad boy Parupalli Kashyap. excess “Morerainfall. than winning one or two tournaThe 17km-long Goverdhan Rajiv Ouseph, England’s only remaining med- ments, in badminton it’s alsoenters about consistendrain originates in Haryana, Rajasthan al hopeful, misses the bird in the first match cy.

A player like whodrains is in the the at Bharatpur andme finally out20s nearinAgra point. Just as Kashyap, the 2010 bronze medal- world at least drain 18-20 in Uttarrankings Pradesh.needs Whento theplay Goverdhan list, begins to exult he realises abruptly that tournaments in a year to push uptouted or even became operational last year, it was as the point has gone in favour of Ouseph. The maintain position. Maybe later, But once the answermy to Keoladeo’s water woes. it isI game continues, lasting all of 83 minutes and break in and remain thesanctuary top 10, I can yet to release water tointhe thisafford year. involving the longest rally running into 72 sec- to play 11-12 in a year.”

This year Thanks to atournaments deficient monsoon, Keoladeo is onds and 71 strokes, until Kashyap finally tri- has been among infeet, his career, facing a deficit ofthe 150poorer millionones cubic nearly umphs 18-21, 21-17, 21-18. owing to a shoulder at the end of 2013.

30 per cent of its totalinjury requirement.

“It was surely one of the toughest matches I Of“It’s the not 10 tournaments he played before thea the water problem alone, there’s have ever played,” recalls the 28-year-old Kash- CWG, four stumble in the first round scarcity of saw foodhim as well.

The quality of water is yap. “The pressure was outstanding, but un- and there were second-round exits. Bijo But important,” saysthree the park’s field director like earlier matches where I’ve lost by slight he restmonth these ghosts snatching Joy,laid who,tofirst into hisbyjob, has a PRthe dimargins, this time I focused and made sure I CWG sastergold. on his hands. “The Goverdhan drain wagot the result.” He went on to beat Singapore’s ter needs flushing. It passes through towns Derek Wong 21-14, 11-21, 21-19 in the finals, bring- The trainerit gathers pollutants. The and constant villages, where ing the CWG gold to India after 32 long years. Kashyap’s successes are hand, all theismore extraorChambal, on the other too clean.

It That puts him in the league of greats such as dinary someone who was of diagnosed doesn’tfor have an abundance prey forwith the Prakash Padukone and Syed Modi. asthma in Class X. “WeThat were inpainted Bangalore.

I’d birds,” says KB Singh. the storks had a lot of breathing says is Kashshould’ve ditched theseproblems,” parched lands not A conscious choice yap. instead of allowing his ailment at allHowever, surprising.

“When he’s playing, I flip the channels and to Unlike defeat his dreams, hecormorants, pushed harder and deep-diving painted pause just longnesting enoughsites to check score. are traditional for thethe birds, theI derived inspiration from sportspeople like storks hunt for fish in shallow waters. With get too tense otherwise,” says mother, P British breeding has been subdued thishis year.

Sultanmarathoner Paula and Olymtheir bills half-open, theyRadcliffe rock their heads Subadhra, from pur, whichspeaking played host to Hyderabad. around 40 pairs last pic Jackie Joyner Kersee, backtriple and gold forth,medallist occasionally using a wing to Thanks to his father Uday Block Shankar’s pharma year, has seen little nesting.

D, which the who overcame asthma to succeed at theabout highpull the fish closer.

“Adult storks need job, Kashyap spentishis childhood three dif- est storks abandoned, also home to in other water international 700-800gm foodlevels. daily, the chicks require ferent cities.

“From Hyderabad birds such as spoonbills, egrets, glossy ibises, around 200gm.Among oldest students at That’s athe huge amount of food, we shifted toand Lagos in Nigeria for grey herons darters.

The corbadminton ace Pullela Gopiwhich is not available in the waamorants few years, Bangalore and andthen open-billed storks chand’s ter,” saysacademy Joy. WhileininHyderabad, Keoladeo’s finally came been back able home.”

Playalso haven’t to start he trainsarea, not less than40 sixper to eight 29sqkm nearly cent ing badminton from an early breeding this year. hours a day, six days a week.these He is of the sanctuary is wetland, Kashyap’s successes Perched on stick age, constant TheKashyap absencereceived of breeding sites among ‘golden regions the began to getgeneration’ water only are all the more platforms, a few feet support from his bad mother, this season spells newswho for of winners emerging from the afrom this November.

Abundant extraordinary for above water, the accompanied him which to tournathe painted storks, have cademy, which includes players in predatory catfish, hunting in someone diagnosed painted storks would ment venues. “Till I made my been classified as a ‘near-threatlike Sindhu, Srikanth, Saina thesePVwaters hasKbecome dangerwith asthma teach their chicks to mark at the national level it was ened’ species and whose populaNehwal andbirds.

RMV“Recently, Gurusaidutt. ous for the a peafly, fish and fight quite toughbeen to keep it. Equiptions have on aatmoderate “He’s a player who really pushcock was attacked by catfish. ment was expensive I needdecline.

According toand a report in es While he’s Evenhimself. the cormorants are had scareda ed to travel adaily, lot, participate in a national the painted mixed bag says of results, he perto fish now,” Baney Singh. as many tournaments as possible. My parents forms in the This stork community left Bharatpur big is stages andfirst that’s what not the occasion were supportive all through,” he dozens says. whenreally “the forest department allowed counts,” says Gopichand.

“His strokeInplay is when birds have fled from Bharatpur.

2006was just his schooling, 17, that good of It trucks andafter JCB machines insideaged the sanctuhewas can hit surpass many with his skill.

07, theand state by a serious drought and he to make of the biggest of And ary.had These wereone engaged to builddecisions mud platwhileuntil theretwo have beenlater challenges him it wasn’t years that theforwater his life:around choose to with colony, the game forms thestay storks’ soorasemto off thereturned field as well, when he’s on court, Kashbirds to their breeding sites. While bark onvisitors an engineering course.

“It was quite enable to click better photographs of yap’s managed to put things aside focus the painted storks may return to and Keoladeo dramatic We the wereconstruction at the counselling the birds.”actually.

However, lasted on game.” And thatoffocus unlikelyseato nextthe monsoon, the loss this is breeding centre to choose my stream college.

I real- waver only a day, says Baney Singh,and a guide at Bharatanytime son remains a soon. concern. “We need to build a ised just can’t do both, badminton engi- stabilised pur, Iwho has been showing visitorsand around “I’m looking to play till I’m 33 at least.

Where population.

The painted storks are neering.

So I told my last parents, and“But when they Ion the sanctuary for the 27 years. there’s want to make my markshould next ishappen at the All Ena decline, so breeding every saw was really sure about what I wanted they gland littleI chance that they’ll come back this year.”

OpenKB inSingh.

MarchFor nextthe year,” year,” says nextsays fewKashyap. months letCould me go the ahead,” he says. have precipitated “I construction to playbirds my part in promoting game ashope migratory begin to flock at the Keoladeo provedflight? a good“Painted choice asstorks barelydon’t two years theIt birds’ just as well. Whileisit’s popular now thanJanuever — migration atmore its peak here between later, in 2006, hesays went to beat established nest anywhere,” KBon Singh, a veteran bird- before, still—tough for director’s many to break ary andit’s March the field primeinto obplayers the domestic as Chetan er and in founder of the circuit onlinesuch group Indian the game.

I want seethe a situation where jective is “to keeptoup water levels of top the Anand to win the 33rd Games; the athletes Birds. “Their nesting sitesNational last for generations anythe Olympic are projected as wetlandsinfor birdssport [residents and misame he was selected to represent India superstars. and Iyear don’t think construction activities That’s the only grants] to have a good time.way Andmore then,people hopeat the Doha Asian Games.

A string of achievewould’ve disturbed them. I’ve even known col- will inspired take up sports.” fullybe the paintedtostorks willvarious come back.” ments including a three-year cononies offollowed, storks nesting over rooftops in villagarasukotamraju priyanka tract Oil Corporation.

Thetopast es,” hewith says.Indian Bharatpur has been home the sibi

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Empty-nest syndrome A common sight in Bharatpur, painted storks may have left the park this year due to a shortage of water and food keoladeo national park

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Shuttle express Parupalli Kashyap, the 2014 Commonwealth Games badminton gold medallist, is among a ‘golden generation’ of winners emerging from the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad vv subrahmanyam

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he southwest monsoon arrived late this year in Rajasthan. It was almost August when the first rains hit Bharatpur, washing away the heat of the warmest summer on Earth since records began in 1880. At the Keoladeo National Park, home to more than 350 bird species, the painted storks too showed up with the monsoon to begin breeding. During the summers, these large yellow-billed, pink-tailed water birds would pair up across the sanctuary and surrounding areas in Bharatpur, courting each other with elaborate bowing rituals. The males would choose a nesting site and mark their territory; the female would pick a suitor, the larger the better. Come monsoon, the pairs would return to their nesting sites — blocks D and L in Keoladeo.

On partly-submerged trees, painted storks would set up homes so closely packed together that “it must be miserably uncomfortable to have no elbow room”, wrote British ornithologist Robert Betham in 1904, while observing stork colonies. One would find nearly 30-40 pairs breeding on the same acacia tree in their makeshift nests, taking turns to hatch eggs. Perched on stick platforms, a few feet above water, the tall, slender birds would then guide their chicks through initial rites of passage, teaching them to fly, fish and fight. This year at Keoladeo, however, there will be no such spectacle.

Sometime in October, entire colonies of around 500-700 painted storks abandoned their habitat and left the bird sanctuary en masse, putting the breeding process in jeopardy. In half-a-dozen other areas too, including Sultanpur, Mathura and the Delhi zoo, which

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Back to the future

To kill a Hollywood flick… … starring James Franco is not such a bad thing

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few weeks ago, we told you that the James Franco-starrer The Interview might be the reason behind an alleged “terror” attack by North Korean groups, where they hacked into the servers of Sony Pix, stole film scripts and Twitter passwords, released explosive email exchanges, and leaked embarrassing details about their salaries. All because The Interview, which is a movie (we can’t stress on that enough), revolves around an assassination attempt on Supreme Dictator Kim Jong-un. He has now managed to kill the film, and another Steve Carell-starrer, which is set in North Korea, has also been cancelled. According to a report in The New York Times, Kim’s henchmen have sent a badly Google-translated terror threat as well — “We will clearly show it to you at the very time and places The Interview be shown, including the premiere, how bitter fate those who seek fun in terror should be doomed to.” The threat also included a poetic reference to 9/11. But the good news is, you won’t have to watch The Interview.

Remember how awful This is the End was?

The CEO is history now. Make way for the ‘Chief Futurist’

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eal Stephenson might be better known for his sci-fi novels, Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, Anathem and the list goes on. But now, he is also the first ‘Chief Futurist’ for Magic Leap, which is perhaps one of the hottest start-ups in Silicon Valley. Working on augmentedreality, the only peek that the start-up has offered so far of its work is a GIF of a tiny 3-D virtual elephant floating above someone’s hands. That’s been enough to get tongues wagging though. It’s expected that the start-up, which also has Google backing, will be creating wearable devices, much like Google Glass, only theirs will blend computer-generated graphics with the real world. The applications could be anywhere from gaming, science, education and the arts. Stephenson will be a professional visionary for the company and, as he wrote in his blog, “I hope I can be of use in thinking about what can be done with this tech once it is available to the general public.”

The Korean ‘nutcracker’

Long road to freedom The recent protests in New York City drew people of all races. But Indian-Americans were few and far between afp/yana paskova

Not ‘our’ issue

Korean Air heiress loses the plot, one nut at a time

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hat could’ve possibly driven the who is also a senior executive at Korean daughter of Korean Air’s CEO Air, lost the plot when a bag of complimentary macadamia nuts was not nuts on a flight from New York to Seoul that she flew into a rage, jabgiven to her the ‘right’ way. Witbing the cabin crew and forcing nesses say she screamed, hurled the taxiing plane back to the abuse at the chief purser, forced gate? It must’ve been something him off the plane, after jabbing him with a service manual and important, we think. However, getting him to kneel and apolreports tell us that earlier this wo weeks ago, as sparked New YorknaCity was We are month Cho Hyun-Ah ogise.

She may have coerced educated andeven wealthy.

We host lavish house inside. But those numbers are small. hit with freezing rain, many tional outrage when she New weddings the and crewcontribute to give false hugetestimosums to Hindu In reality, you see Americans of all races — Yorkersaviation and those from the neigh- temples, breached safety laws nies. withThankfully, the intent ofprosecutors building the big- and granted there are more African AmeristatesA of have exacted her resignaoverbouring some nuts. tinyNew Jersey and gest, most opulent structures. cans in the mix — in the current protests Connecticut their kids to view the anbag ofbrought macadamia a flight We seem to caretion, a lotimposed about India — whether against the grand juries’ decisions and police nual Christmas — the lighting up of the it is Bollywood films, nuts! In event the ‘nut bancricket and or will press Nearly brutalities. But you see far fewer Indian-Amerpolitics.

Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. But the ho- 20,000 of us filledcharges rage’ incident, as it withSquare poten-Garden icans among the protesters. It is not in their up Madison liday-goers weredubbed, not expecting to encounter on September 28 tial has been fines the of $2 mil- Prime nature to join street protests but, more importo hear Indian thousands of protesters 40-year-old Cho,angry at the decision Minister speak as lion.

What a nut he promised to job. create a vi- tantly, this cause — although it seems essential by the grand jury in Staten Island not to indict brant new India. And many of us paid prime to many in restoring fairness in America — a police officer who had caused the chokehold dollars to get reserved seating in the space does not appeal to Indian-Americans. death of Eric Garner, an African-American close to where he was speaking.

I hate to say it, but most sucman stopped for selling single cigarettes.

We even contribute to eleccessful, educated Indian-AmeriThe protests, also fuelled by a similar unjus- tion campaigns in the US, and cans today care far too little tifiable act by a grand jury in Ferguson, have the wealthy amongst us pay a lot about the poor, the disenfranWhile many Indian now become a daily occurrence and have more to get pictures taken with chised Americans. There is a Americans would spread across the country with signs reading presidents, elected officials and have voted for Barack strong race issue at play here that ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘I Can’t Breathe’ (a ref- other potential candidates. It is hard to overlook.

Obama — especially erence to Garner’s last words). makes us feel that we are a part for his first term, they And while many Indian-Amerihe Japanese division of lingerieand A local Indian newspaper, India in New York, of the American system. cans tend to be Democrats are not always moved maker,would Triumph reshowed images of some Indian-Americans But the truth is that when it haveInternational, voted for its candiby his social agenda cently recalled more than 20,000 brasjoining the protests in Manhattan and Brook- comes to the death of a poor, date Barack Obama — especially sieres after complaints, that the allyn. But the reporter asked a Sikh protestor, overweight, unemployed Afrifor his first term, they are not t’s bad enough that at some extreme ele- can-American man who did not underwires suddenly out, somewho seems to be a regular such activists’ ways movedpoked by his social agenda, ments cancelled Santa’sWhy entry partslive on the right side of the times while womenitwere them. gatherings, a relevant question. do into so few whether is thewearing healthcare issue of India. It isjoin worse that Christmas no longThe company, known ‘concept linIndian-Americans such protests?

Andisthe tracks, and whose only crime was that he was or providing equal rightsfor to its same-sex partners a holiday but a day hold racism, more exams, such as solar-powered bra and young er Sikh gentleman said,to“This of quizzselling loose cigarettes, then we Indian-Amer- or gerie’ with regard to a woman’s right to choose. and essay competitions, andbut then theimmigrants, ‘Abenomics’itbra said to recall course,esaffects us South Asians as well, in grade icans them. really do not care. We do not care when As is for us it tohad choose how we Sanskrit but are athe teachers?

Theissituation is, undoubtedly, themwith because of fear ofthat injury. arethe different ways…isI back, am not bywhere and large target there a video that shows severalbad police offi- engage the country gives“We us all for children but worse for teachers. it is apouncing soul-satisfying vocation, butholding the sorry for theBut bother, but weagain ask customof police harassment…

Maybe, this is Perhaps why cers on this man, one his opportunities. again and I feel that profession’s asfrontlines bad as it does last week, candidates ers to stop using the bras some desis may notnever be outhad on it the — now. neckIninMumbai a chokehold, as he screams “I can’t most Indian-Americans are immediately,” concerned with who satdon’t for the qualifying chose before to takehis thebody test in Urdu were thewhat company said a statement.

Theopt re- for because they seeteachers’ this as ‘our’ issue.” exam and breathe” goes limp. only matters to in them.

They do not in for a to shock. only were they question papers, it seemed call applies to about bras rangAccording the Not latest census, heldgiven five handwritten Sure there are college students and other In- making America’s larger22,000 agenda their own. like there the paper wasthree written by a child.

Not adian-American single word in activists the paperwho washave legible. ingso, from 5,600 to 6,200 yen never (£30 t0become £34) years ago, are over million Indianjoined the And unfortunately, they This test is a US, prerequisite forconcentraprimary teachers.

If this is the state of affairs,parts one of the complete that were retailed only in Japan. India’s Americans in the with large ongoing protests in different Americans. at the prospect of around the education byprotested the ministry laterMadison never-ending car recalls suddenly don’t tions inshudders the greater New York area, ma- reforms country.planned Some also outside is athey? writer and has been a resident of this We don’t no education, you. Garden in September, when Prime aseem lookchhabra so bad, do jor cities inyear.

California, in need and around Texas, inthank Square pockets of Florida and in many other states. Minister Narendra Modi spoke to a packed New York City for over three decades

When it comes to the death of an unemployed African-American man whose only crime was that he was selling loose cigarettes, Indian-Americans really do not care

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Nothing to bra(g) about

Old school’s not cool Taking exams was never this tough

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What’s worse? Naming a bra after the prime minister or having to recall it?

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cornerstone in-faq by joy bhattacharjya Wrapped up

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hristmas time is all about good governance and gifts. This quiz is about famous presents from the past.

Which wonder of the ancient world was created as a gift by a famous ruler for his wife Amytis, who was terribly homesick for her homeland in Iran?

2

Whose 70 carat diamond ring present to his wife in 1969 was auctioned off in 1978 to pay for a hospital in Botswana. According to the seller, “They need one badly and I certainly don’t need another ring!” If it helps, the wife is even better known.

3

The first of these was ordered by a ruler for his wife in 1885. The wife was so delighted that even after the original gift-giver passed away, his son continued it as a yearly tradition for his mother and his wife. What was the unique gift?

4 5

Which musician gifted away, at last count, more than a 100 Cadillacs and Lincolns, some to complete strangers?

The Hindu pantheon of gods and demigods inevitably felt obliged to give boons and curses that would haunt them in the future.

Parashurama, on discovering that Karna was a Kshatriya and not a Brahmin as he originally claimed, cursed him that he would forget the prayers needed to use the Brahmastra when he most required it. But which boon did Parashurama also bestow on Karna after casting this curse?

the new york times crossword-0713

oh, say...

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In 2014, in which Indian city did Palki Savjibhai Dholakia, the owner at Hrishikesh exports, give away 455 Fiat Punto cars, 207 flats and 570 pieces of jewellery as Diwali bonus?

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“Having made this present, I had to curtail some of the festivities. I could not have the electric lights I had intended, nor the military band, and the ladies of the house were despondent at it. But to me the wedding feast was all the brighter for the thought that in a distant land a long-lost father met again with his only child.” Last lines of a very famous Indian short story. Name the story or the author.

8 9

The Greatest Gift, written by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1939, was the basis for which classic Frank Capra film released in 1946?

In this royal wedding in 1661, Catherine got military support against Spain and liberty of worship. In return, Charles II got Tangier, trading privileges in Brazil and the East Indies, commercial freedom in Portugal, two million Portuguese crowns and which other extremely important gift?

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What started with a gift given by Ramachandra Reddy on April 18, 1951, in Pochampally district in Andhra Pradesh?

Answers

1. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, made by Nebuchadnezzar for his Iranian wife, which was destroyed in an earthquake around 2BC. 2. Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor 3. The Faberge eggs, probably the most famous pieces of jewellery ever created, originally presented by Tsar Alexander III to his wife.

4. Elvis Presley. On July 27, 1975, he gave away 14 Cadillacs in a single day.

5. He blessed Karna with his bow Vijaya. Also, with immortal glory and everlasting fame. Will accept either answer.

6. Surat. They operate in the diamond trade, and I do not have a contact number!

7. Rabindranath Tagore’s Kabuliwala 8. It’s a Wonderful Life 9. The seven islands of Bombay 10. Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement. More than a million acres have been donated since.

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

ACROSS 1 Serving edges 6 Husband one’s energy, say 12 General servant 20 Salle de bain fixture 21 Enunciate slowly 22 Get to 23 First U.S. multimillionaire 24 Lawyer who wrote 65-Across 26 Land’s end?

27 Throw up 28 Sound of expiration 29 Skiing destination Val d’___ 30 Year 24-Across wrote 65-Across 35 Any knight 36 Jan. 1 till now 37 Crayola color akin to fern 40 What the music to 65-Across was, originally 47 Some American Indian homes 51 As it happens 52 Better to a rapper, worse to a patient 53 Herbal Essences shampoo company 54 Standoffish 55 Fixed things?

57 James Douglas Muir ___ (TV host’s birth name)

60 Looking up 61 Sun: Sp. 62 Ancient walkway 63 Four-time N.B.A. All-Star Pau ___ 64 Farm female 65 This puzzle’s theme, whose first notes are indicated by shaded squares 72 Camus, to Sartre, for many years 73 Blood-related 74 Sports org. founded in 1906 75 Book-jacket staple 76 It’s bound to be turned 78 Beginner for a while?

79 Star in the Summer Triangle 81 “I should ___ die with pity, / To see another thus”: Shak.

82 Country whose national currency is the U.S. dollar 85 French evenings 86 “Essays of ___” 87 What the curious may do 88 Performer who gave a memorable rendition of 65-Across in 1991 93 Setting of James Clavell’s “Gai-Jin”

95 G.O.P. org.

96 Gator’s tail?

99 Mission that 24-Across was on when he wrote 65-Across 107 He prophesied the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem 110 N.Y.C. subway inits.

111 Cloth for a man of the cloth?

112 “The Tempest” spirit 113 Where 24-Across was inspired to write 65Across 117 It handles lettres 118 Later 119 Best Actor nominee for “Venus,” 2006 120 Vanilla 121 Inked 122 Symbols of change 123 Gossip DOWN 1 Demean 2 They’re thrown in decathlons 3 It may have a pet name 4 Greenhorn 5 Overlapping fugue motifs 6 Long arm 7 “America’s most innovative company” prior to its

bankruptcy in 2001 8 Locale for this puzzle’s shaded squares 9 Sidekick of TV and film 10 Where Michael Jordan played college ball: Abbr.

11 Louvre pyramid designer 12 Bit of spawn 13 Sagittarius, with “the” 14 ___-Magnon 15 New World monkey 16 Giant Mel and Pirate Ed 17 Film units 18 Birth places?

19 ___ Wolfsheim, gambler in “The Great Gatsby” 25 Old Nick 31 MS. managers 32 Initialism in a Beatles title 33 Old car company based in Lansing, Mich.

34 Oscar-winning Patricia 38 Author LeShan 39 Wrinkle-free, say 40 Second-rate 41 Big copier maker 42 Penn station?

43 Their, singularly 44 Crowd-___ 45 Last: Abbr.

46 Wanna-___ 48 High level in karate 49 Counterpart of Aurora

50 Winking, maybe 53 Money in hand 55 Italian province or its capital 56 “Come ___?” (Italian greeting) 57 Tarry 58 Immigrant’s subj.

59 “Stay out” 63 Health supplement co.

64 River of western Germany 66 Like mascara in the rain 67 Some natl. leaders 68 River isle 69 Political writer Matt 70 Farm refrain 71 Farrow of MSNBC 76 Oomph 77 See 79-Down 79 Get an ___ (77-Down) 80 Bit of flimflam 83 God: It. 84 Peeling potatoes, perhaps 85 Title name in a 2000 Eminem hit 86 Salad green

88 Sounded like a fan 89 Speed 90 Texter’s qualification 91 “The Hobbit” figure 92 Blue 94 Player in orange and black 96 Scope 97 Princess played by Naomi Watts 98 Brilliance 100 Flynn of old film 101 Metal worker?

102 Menace named after an African river 103 City whose name was the source of the word “sherry” 104 Jewish month 105 “See?” 106 Justice Kagan 108 Periodic table abbr.

109 Sunshine cracker 114 “O Sole ___” 115 Brick transporter 116 Absorbed

By Daniel C. Bryant / Edited by Will Shortz

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