Blink issue 53 january31 2015 by Partha Pratim Sharma-Portfolio

AT HOME ON THE PAVEMENT Thousands sleep on Delhiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s streets. But providing them shelter requires more than handing out blankets p2 saturday, january 31, 2015

rajendra singh hajeri

In India, nearly 70 per cent of prison inmates are undertrials. Stuck in a limbo and refused basic rights, their lives tell of justice denied p10

The longest wait

PROFESSOR NITI Arvind Panagariya hopes to prove that good economics is good politics in India p4

TRUE DETECTIVE Scientist and author Simon Singh on why seeing is not always believing p16

explore know

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Man on the street Telegraphic tales from the Raj THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

Spending a night on Delhi’s streets tells the story of ill-equipped night shelters, homeless who prefer sleeping under ﬂyovers and those that have lost the roof above their heads An incident involving telegraphs presaged over a century ago the phenomenon of electronic hacking and algorithmic trading in the stock markets

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t’s 1.30 on a freezing January morning. A south Delhi, VK Rathore from Chhapra, Bihar, ber is contested. The Delhi Urban Shelter Imbattered Maruti Eeco pulls up next to the too has claimed a patch of the pavement as his provement Board (DUSIB) claims 18,805 pavement under the Govindpuri flyover own. A BSc in Biology, he is now a “full-time people are homeless, the Census puts the ith the invention of theout telenumber at 46,724, and according to surveys by sharaabi (alcoholic) Amitabh Bachin south Delhi. Three men jump of netic wave, and all of just theselike waves travelled at off an instrument taken to the spot for that rohit gupta information could the NGOs, there are at leastof1.5 lakh homeless peochan”. Don’t be a policeman with me, he purpose. the van and tuggraph, at Dileep’s worn-out blanket, speed of light. Mr Crawford the Fort Police Court fasterrains. than “No any mode of that is, one centthem of the towarns us, before off his at length of charged 10 ple, still damp fromtravel last week’s sleeping Scientist Saroj rattling Ghose speaks signallers andper gave 18 transport. would transother ‘home’ addresses a bus he was “… months of jail, talbut population. reportsrevialso under flyovers. Chalo, chalo,This night shelter cha- O’Shaughnessy’s career, —saying this led toSome a complete form theNitesh natureKumar, of administration, business indicate workings. that more 100 lo,” says project coordinator at handicapped stop at Modiby Mills, a cosy spot drawbacks sion of the internal one of the serious An than old-timer and warfor almost entirely across the and British Raj. of homeless people this across the Lotus temple.— As theof discipline, had seen them Society the Promotion of Youth Masses a public enterprise lack poring over thehave hugedied baskets In 1856, Dileep the Scientific noted that, “In winter. While the agencies sharpvan approaches the Moolchand (SPYM). sits upAmerican and shakes his head. His which was even then pervasive in bothHow Indian of telegrams in the open compound of the Codid a middletwo years fouron thousand miles of Hospital flyover, SriramofGupta companions the pavement — telegraphic a lone man and European members the staff class, from the laba office….”ly differ over numbers, they well-educated wire been erected simply breaks intoO’Shaughnessy a run. Any- had agree that people too relucand ahave family — also refusein to India. budge.Calcutta, Nothing beginning. In 1850, to dis-with earning This incident presaged over aare century ago person Bombay, tele- miss to electronic leave the streets. of convincesDelhi, themMadras, to move,Lahore neitherare thenow comfort where a night shelter, he holallbut Bengali operators for their capacity refusal toendthe hacking“One and alupphenomenon here, tant of graphically united...” our biggest problems is to conof a warm blanket, nor a roof over their heads lers. For Kumar and his team at we ask appears an enterprising of- rusk for SPYM, which manages 67 rain vince the homeless people to orIteven the that prospect of hot tea and ficer of theClutching East India his Company move to rain baseras. They somebreakfast. worldlyonce possessions — baseras (night shelters) in the used Hooghly electrihow prefer to sleep under flyovall ofthe two plastic River bags as — an Dileep asserts all is city, this is business as usual. cal conductor passing ers, at railway platforms and on well where he for is. What he telegraphmeans is that he still ic signals.of Havaldar He used a two ba- No roof overhead pavements,” says Kumar. With over 90 flyovhas a quarter whiskey and two-and-a-half-mile nanas left to see him stretch throughof thethe night. “Kitna According to the 2011 Census, 1.77 million peo- ers in the Capital and several record-breaking river, in place wire, have to complete piya hai? (Howofmuch you drunk?)” Ku- ple in India are homeless, with homeless fam- minimum temperatures this winter, the issue the “without anyDileep metallic mar circuit asks. Four quarters, says, holding ilies forming 28 per cent of this. Delhi, with a has caught the attention of the Lieutenantconductor, using the water alone as population of 16.7 million, has nearly one per Governor, the Supreme Court and High Court up five fingers. theInsole vehicle of the the Kalkaji electrictemple, im- also in cent living on its streets. However, this num- and even the PMO. a lane behind pulses; and although he succeeded in transmitting signals, he found the battery power required for the purpose too enormous, and consequently too expensive for practical purposes.” Not mentioned in this account are the protests of bathing residents and fishes of the Hooghly. This was only two years after Samuel FB Morse built his famous demonstration system in the US. But Irish inventor and physician William O’Shaughnessy’s telegraph used a different code and, at first, he transmitted the message by imposing a series of tiny electric shocks on the operator’s finger. He also suggested the use of the iron rails of a railway network as an insulated conductor for telegraphy. River as the conductor ‘An Indian Mosque on the Hooghly River near Calcutta’ (1846) by Auguste Borget wikicommons O’Shaughnessy’s fascinating memoir also contains an account of the uprooting of telegraphic lines during the 1857 mutiny. “Then came the de- leave Calcutta on duty, and in 1851, he forced a gorithmic trading in the stock markets. The struction of the lines by the mutineers, and in European inspector to resign for his irrespon- words used by Scientific American in 1855 to dethe thrilling episodes of that stormy time sible activities.” scribe the rise of telegraphy continue to be relthere is perhaps nothing more thrilling than A remarkable episode in the evant and significant today: “… the story of Charles Todd, the assistant in same vein occurred in 1861, we firmly believe the whole charge of the Delhi Office, who fell in the gen- where the perpetrators were two earth — through ocean and overeral massacre, but not before he had signalled Englishmen. The source of this is land — in 10 years more, will be to the Punjab the terrible events at Meerut and an early edition of the Bombay girdled with the lightning rail, Telegraphy also the march of the mutineers on Delhi.” Gazeteer: “… the famous Peetall & and man will communicate affected other areas Some of his remarks demonstrate the erro- Allen incident in 1861 when the with his fellow man, in a few of scientific pursuit, neous (or shall we say, enthusiastic) under- two telegraph operators were minutes, from the most distant especially after the standing of the nature of light propagation at bribed to publish a telegram on parts of the globe.” great trans-Atlantic that time: “It may startle belief, but it is never- the notice board of the Electric Telegraphy also affected other cable was laid down theless strictly true and proved to be so by ex- Telegraph Office, carrying the sig- across the vast ocean areas of scientific pursuit, espeperiment, that the progress of electric nature of one O’Brien. The inforcially after the great trans-Atlaninfluence through a copper wire in these sig- mation thus contained caused a tic cable was laid down across nals is swifter for equal distances than that of fluctuation in the price of opium, the vast ocean. When the thick sun’s light through space. In one second it which depended on communicaundersea cables would be travels 2,44,000 miles. Water conducts these tion with the Chinese, which these thugs cap- pulled up for inspection or repair, they would signals with diminished rapidity, but still rap- italised upon. The Bombay Times & Standard drag along to the surface many new marine idly in less than a second of time, the influen- had reported thus: 35 telegrams from Galle species — crustaceans, plankton, mollusca, ce would pass through a longer line than the had been falsified about the same date, and corals and radiolarians — hitherto unseen by circumference of the globe.” It took several that advice about opium from China had been the eyes of man. decades before the nature of light was better surreptitiously drawn from the wires while in explained by James Clerk Maxwell, who first transmission, by cutting the line on the Bom- rohit gupta explores the history of science as Walk the line Homeless persons queue up to receive freerealised food outside shelter in old Delhi reuters/anindito mukherjee thata government-run light was a kind of electromagbay side of Satara, and reading the messages Compasswallah t@fadesingh

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Almost home A quarter of the total homeless population lives in the top ﬁve metros. In Delhi, roughly one per cent of its 16.7 million people is homeless sushil kumar verma

On January 23, from 10pm to 4am, we accompanied Kumar’s team as the rescue van skirted past pavements and flyovers in south Delhi, scanning for the homeless, prodding blankets, disturbing sleeping shadows. Simultaneously, several other rescue vans were operating in other parts of the city, picking people off the streets, depositing them at nearby shelters. That night only 10 people were rescued. Many refused. If some said “jua lag jaayega (we’ll get lice)”, many others feared robbery. Some had moved earlier, only to return to the streets. Satyanarayan, couched under the Okhla flyover, said he couldn’t move without his adopted strays, Sheru and Kaalu. Two elderly ladies, who had homes in Kalkaji, were keeping a nightly vigil over their sons’ flower shops near the temple. Drug addiction is another major deterrent. “Forty per cent of the homeless are drug addicts and prefer to stay outside,” says DUSIB member (Finance) Ashish Joshi. “Addicts often sell blankets donated by citizens for money to buy drugs.” DUSIB has approached the High Court to police several night shelters, including those in Nizamuddin, Bangla Sahib and the Yamuna Pushta areas. On a high Seven-year-old Suleiman is addicted to white ink. During one inspection, Joshi had found the boy slouched in a corner of the children’s shelter near Jama Masjid, sniffing a handkerchief soaked in the fluid. The shelter houses nearly 20 male children aged between six and 20. While drugs flow freely, meals are hard to come by. Most children in the shelter have no memory of their families, and many refuse to go to school. Even in the shelters at Nizamuddin and Bangla Sahib in central Delhi, which are located adjacent to police stations, the dargah and the gurudwara, drug cartels operate with impunity. For children and adults who want to quit their addictions, options are few. “There are 32 drug de-addiction centres officially, but only three are operational,” says Indu Prakash Singh, executive member, Shahri Adhikari Manch: Begharon Ke Saath. In the inaugural session of Parliament, after the new government was formed, Prime Min-

ister Narendra Modi set an ambitious target — English at the Bangla Sahib women’s shelter. every Indian must have a house by 2022. That’s She hails from Mumbai, where until recently easier said than done. Nearly 4.5 lakh home- she lived with her younger sister in a twoless families (Census 2011) in the country need room flat at Shivaji Park. A Bachelor of Arts, accommodation, that is, around 55,000 she was a teacher at a local school. For the last houses must be built every year. More than a seven months, she has been living at the shelquarter of the total homeless population in ter, eating one square meal a day at the gurudurban India lives in the top five metros. “Ac- wara, fighting a case with the National Human cording to the Delhi Master Plan, around 19 Rights Commission (NHRC). How did a midlakh sqft of space is needed to house the dle-class, well-educated person with earning homeless in shelters. We have about 2.44 lakh capacity end up here, we ask. Evicted from her sqft in shelter space currently, which means a Mumbai flat by “Shiv Sena thugs” in 2007, Godeficit of 87 per cent,” says Singh, who has palchari’s life took an unforeseen turn, as her sister and she moved to the streets of Hyderaworked with the homeless for over a decade. Outside Jama Masjid’s Gate No.2, as night bad, then to a state-run hospital ward in Amfalls, pilgrims, workers, homeless persons and ritsar. In 2012, sister Pushpa died of an illness migrants occupy the steps leading to the at the hospital. Accusing the hospital of negligence and misdiagnosis, she filmosque, jostling for space, fighted a 28-page complaint with the ing over blankets. “Currently, we NHRC in November 2013; her file have 256 shelters, out of which is still under process with no 13 are exclusively for families, 20 On an average night, hearing scheduled yet. At the for children, 19 for women and 200 homeless persons shelter too, Gopalchari is an outtwo for differently abled perare rescued from the spoken protester. She writes regsons. A majority are permanent, streets of Delhi ular complaints, detailing verbal 111 are porta-cabins, 37 are tents, abuse among the women, robnine are in DDA community cenberies, and the misconduct of tres and two at metro stations,” shelter officials. Fifteen-year-old says Joshi. On an average night, around 200 homeless persons are rescued Vaishnavi, who occupies the blanket next to her, is her only friend. Vaishnavi, whose mothfrom the streets of Delhi. Baby Hamza was born in the first week of Ja- er ran away from home, has recently returned nuary in the Jama Masjid night shelter, when to school, joining Class V. Tumko kaunsa subher mother Shehzadi couldn’t get to the hos- ject sabse achcha lagta hai, we ask her. “Karepital. On the neighbouring bed, Shakeela lies la,” she says, with a wide grin. “I have started with her child, weak with illness. A domestic giving her tuitions in English, Math and Hindi worker, she was forced to flee her workplace in for free,” says Gopalchari, as she gently nudges Mumbai. “They made me work from 4am to Vaishnavi and clarifies, “They asked subject 11pm, without a break. They owe me ₹9,000 and not vegetable.” With two shiny trunks, where she keeps her for a month’s work,” she says. Across the city, people from all walks of life have moved into four saris and documents, Gopalchari is now rain baseras. If some are domestic workers resigned to a semi-permanent residence here. looking for jobs, some have run away from “I never wanted to leave Mumbai. My belongabusive husbands. Some are drunks; some are ings are still there. But until this case is resolvmigrant workers, building the Metro. Few ed, I won’t leave.” If her story tells us how have steady jobs or identity proofs, and only a precarious life can be, for others like Bihari bafew children go to school. bu Rathore, the street is the only reliable Yet, 40-year-old Kamla Gopalchari stands home. “Come find me anytime,” he says. “I’m out in this assorted multitude, drawn largely available 24 hours.” from the poorer classes. “I am Kamla Gopalchari, very glad to meet you,” she greets us in priyanka kotamraju

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Money matters Arvind Panagariya as the ViceChairman of NITI Aayog hopes to prove that good economics is good politics in India pti/kamal singh

Travel log Stay

Ritz Carlton is centrally located with spectacular views of the Kremlin and is the best treat you can give yourself (ritzcarlton.com). Go up to their bar on the terrace for a view of Moscow like no other. Eat

You can’t leave Moscow without trying the Russian pancakes or blinis with sour cream and caviar. Also try kvass, a slightly alcoholic rye water. I won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting vodka shots. Do

Take a stroll on Arbat Street, a historic centre of Moscow, and watch the street performers and artists. Visit Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, now known as the Pussy Riot church. Go on a dinner cruise along the Moscow river. Tip

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Moscow Free Tour (moscowfreetour.com) conducts daily tours of the Red Square, Kremlin, etc. Avail that and then pay them for a couple of other tours. I went on the Metro Tour as well as the Soviet Russia Tour. The guides are young, smart and know their history as well as the city. The tours help you gain a far greater appreciation of otherwise ordinary looking buildings, mosaics and murals. Highly recommended. If you like to buy souveniers by the handful, go to the Izmailovsky ﬂea market. Be warned, Moscow is expensive.

His confidence was backed by some fascinating data from state elections. In May 2012, Panagariya co-wrote (with ICRIER’s Poonam Saxena) a chapter titled ‘Economic Reforms and Election Outcomes,’ in India’s Reforms: How They Produced Inclusive Growth, which showed a strong correlation between state growth rates and the ability of incumbent state governments to return to power. It was surprising because conventional wisdom had it that populist welfare schemes, not growth rates, decided elections. Even his own partymen often attributed Manmohan Singh’s 2009 re-election to MNREGA and farmer loan waivers, much more than the outstanding growth rates under UPA-1. The defeats of Chandra Babu Naidu in 2004 in Andhra Pradesh and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in 2011, in West Bengal, further reinforced the myth that reformers don’t win elections. It had become a cliché that good economics was not good politics in India. But Panagariya’s data analysis showed that in reformist high-growth states, 85 per cent of the ruling party candidates won their seats in recent elections, compared to only 52 per cent and 40 per cent in medium- and low-growth Cultural mobility The busy, Baroque-style Komsomolskaya metro station in Moscow shutterstock/pavel l states respectively. This correlation was a new phenomenon: only in the last decade some states witnessed growth rates of over eight per cent, enabling the three categories. This correlation had the potential to disrupt India’s traditional caste- and sops-based election strategies. Good economics was now good politics and there was healthy competition among states to grow faster. As it turned out, Modi became a face of this disruption, coming to national power showcasing his high-growth Gujarat model. Panagariya can claim with some justification that his thesis in ‘Economic Reforms and Election Outcomes’ was validated by Modi’s victory. But Panagarilanded in Moscow to thunderous ap- open for business. And more importantly, we jawed visual wondering where I’d ya knows thatperfection, nudging India towards the free plause. The flydubai flight (yes, it is an want to show you that Moscow is a FRIENDLY seen him It was only late that Hence night market stillbefore. requires ample persuasion. airline, not an advertisement to fly to Du- city,” we were told. The emphasis on friendly that it struck — he looks like Ken,ofBarbie’s he rejects the me common comparison Modi’s bai, as I long believed) was full of Rus- continued over the course of the trip. “Please buff better half. many Medvedev, government to In those of ways, Ronald Reagan and sians returning home, and while at first I remember, Moscow is friendly!” And it is with Moscow, to embody the extreme end ofrea Margaretseem Thatcher, leading free-market thought applauseatwas ironic, the beaming reason. n a the classroom Columbia University’s storiesJagof certain leadingCheck light ofany thetravel NAC’swebsite welfareand policies; fabulousness, without irony, formersnew-age in their respective countries. faces School aroundofme indicated that was entirely International anditPublic Affairs inhospitable Russians abound. This issue, of of “Policies dish Bhagwati’s protégé Panagariya will be course. of Reagan and Thatcher sought to genuine. I joined in, onlyPanagariya partly embarrassed. in 2012, Arvind squarely unsmiling Russiansthe who refuse hoping to overturn legacy of their (some- shrink the role The next three werethat a blur of the State anddays expand of Over the course the week I spent in National Moscow, to blamed theofUPA government’s make eye ideological contact or chat times bitter) rivals.up convention centres. We visited the market inofwhat were already market econIAdvisory realised Council (and was(NAC) told) that Russians don’t do strangers, for ruining the Indian is so severe that themade a simple omies,” he told In his classroom, Panagariya theReuters Expo Centre, which is 55 in years last year. “Here, Inmuch irony, thatUS, Moscow especially a city city’s economy. In the the India story hadisturned tourism slogan is acase highly and visually compelling for further liber- dia, we are trying old, massive in the to give and back right markets exhibits full serious citizens committed topolicy their aspirational sourofafter the heady days of 2006-07: ‘Friendlyeconomy. Moscow.’ In aAfter alising the Indian seriesendless of space middle of city.inThen thereplace was that belonged tothe them the first of bullet trains cause of bigger, betterhigh and growth entirelyrate over-theparalysis had replaced as In- graphs he had mapped the key economic and and and the World Trade regulations. Centre at the was usurped by overactive In bionic arms, effect, we were top. first, was amazed by how American it Unconventional dia’sBut claim toIfame. social indicators(de)tours in India since independence. Plaza hotel, we areCrowne trying to move fromwhere far leftwe of hustled was. In the long drive from theSingh Vnukovo Air- Since Prime Minister Manmohan is pushthis graphs, was a trip In all the fourorganised decades of sloth since into huffedthepast delegates from thethe centre towards centre.” convention centre, port to the heart of the city, the radio in ing for more market-friendly reforms tothe fix by the Moscowwas Convention Bu- disrupted independence dramatically by aroundmay the dismiss world talking about While Panagariya the compariwhere a sudden taxi was hosting a Durantold Duran the economy, Panagariya his special. And reau, it was the inevitable that it reforms: pro- sons,hush 1991 neoliberal anti-tobacco causes the marthis undoubtedly is the mostasright-wing felltook as PM Dmitri the flashing graduate past had Bruce Willis started with ductivity classbillboards of international a convention. The and consumption person in charge droned government keting in India’s history. Free-market Medvedev in smiling students.benignly. But the Sonia GandOpen Innovation forum is Mosa leap, growth rates and capital walked on halls that arefor 15,000 proponents likeabout him, marginalised decI wascrew hosted Moscowinbythe a quasi-govern- cow’s largest markets hi–led of in socialists technology and took off,in-the balance of ades in our policymaking, square metresfinally big with haveperfect an opIn Coneffect, we are mental organisation calledhe the NAC is holding Singh back, as-Moscow novation exhibition. payment crisis The was averted and portunity toacoustics, so on and so forth. We create legacies as the thinkers trying to move from centre vention Bureau.worse, Junketthey tours, serted. What’s arelike the one I convention a renoforeignwas currency reserves and policy wonks went who to a decisively TV tower which a movedwas India far leftof of the centre was on, are often an uncomfortable imposing populist welfare mixture vated former soared, car factory, and though its walls millions were pulled out convention centre. Wesocialism. even went to a distant away from its default towards centrefreshly sightseeing business meetings. On both thelooked schemes on and the Prime Minister, polished and the signages suburb of poverty. seehas Crocus City,of anelite exhibition venue, Modito now a troika Indian-Amercounts, this wassecurity a high-powered from the food bill to one. At the glowed like wetPanagariya paint, the argued ceiling that seemed to whose India’s size does everything to justify the ican economists at the topit can levels of policyRitz Carltonwhich — a new that tries to look drip with Soviet MNREGA, thehotel governhistory. Moskvitch land, labourThe andiconic capital markets ‘city’ in its It was Raghuram clear by then whyand the making inname. Panagariya, Rajan old, a tourist guide Accordlater described, but was the car that mentascould not afford. was manufactured here and it guided urgently needed a “second gentours of these convention centres Arvind Subramanian. There is also Bhagwati, beautiful nevertheless a stunning view of was ing to Panagariya, thewith NAC’s flawed policies arguably the most popular in the USSR eration of reforms” to return tocar eight-plus per would begin charge saying, who does notwith havethe anperson officialin post but has the the met by organisers, costRed us aSquare decade—inI was the race forthe economic par- in theGDP ’70s growth and ’80s.and But to thewipe day we there “Let’s cent outwere absolute a walkear. around our territory.” TerriPrimetake Minister’s For those who hail Modi three young women, all of whom looked like though, ity with China. this was impossible toafathpoverty in 15 history years. What struck me as stu- tory it was, and often a large one. Anyway, to as India’s Reagan, this team will have to match they hadasstepped off the pages of Aayog Vogue. (NaThe om. Now vice-chairman of NITI through what seemed like cut dentAfter thenwalking was his confidence that India’s a long short,legends, dear reader, all you need up to somestory absolute the architects of group — about 10for journalists in all,India) fromand all endless tional Institution Transforming of bullet trains and bionic chaotic, exhibits socialist-by-default democracy will to know is that Moscow a lot of convention Reaganomics: Milton has Friedman, Friedrich kinds places including thetop UK,economic Finland, arms, one ofofPrime Minister Modi’s hustled into He thebelieved convention elect awe freewere market reformer. that centres and Volcker they areand all massive and millions Hayek, Paul Arthur Laffer. Switzerland and Singapore — have was a briefed counsels, Panagariya will finally chance centre, where a sudden hush fellfundamentally as Prime Min- of people visit these every year. India’s electorate had changed founder of the about themore purpose of the trip.policies “We want to ister to shape market-friendly for InMedvedev walked in. I was spentnow all sambuddha and Dmitri that pro-growth economics After all ofmitra this, mustafi when weis the went to visit The Political Indian show you thatSen’s Moscow is a Jean greatDréze city and is day dia. Amartya protégé wasitthe goodthinking politics. about his taut-skinned, square- now de-commissioned Bunker 42, I managed

Behind the irony curtain A right turn

Moscow is incomprehensible in a manner so endearing, it makes you question everything you think you know about the world Free market proponents like Arvind Panagariya now have an opportunity to create legacies that decisively move India away from default socialism

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STATES THAT MATTER

Hand in hand? India inhabits a complex part of the geopolitical map, where the simple binaries of us and them break down, especially for the US

sukumar muralidharan

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ON THE SHELF

The saddest book A story of separation, of grief, of the different journeys of the living and the lost

anita roy

Compare and compete Policybazaar today accounts for half of all life insurance sales in the country, attracting nearly 1.5 million visitors each month to pick and choose from a line-up of insurers

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t was the summer of 2009 and annual ery button,” he says. A/B testing compares two performance reviews were on at policyba- versions of a web page by showing them sizaar.com, a comparison website for insur- multaneously to similar visitors. The one that Book of The Strange Newunder Things review is well happened ancehe policies. person to buyers me unexpectedly as aeven result of that, even though it wasn’t planned.” fetches more is chosen. But after Whatyear-old things? company you may ask. disclosed titled. that the was Eva’s to put my stuff was out Knowing the backstory, it is impossible not these encouragement painstaking efforts, the company What you mean spending How ₹100 tonew? earn ₹10, anddo collapsed min- there. On an emotional “spending ₹100 to earn level ₹50”.writing novels is to read Faber’s own love story into the fiction. ‘strange’? Answering any such quesutes later. Regaining consciousness after something I did much with andinvolved for Eva. It becomes a farewell, the story of separation, The second legvery of Dahiya’s strategy tion Michel he Faber’s latestto magnum aboutabout half-an-hour, explained the com- Whenever I finished a chapter, she would refining the company’s marketing efforts.read “We of grief, of the different journeys of the living opus necessitate spoilers — and since a it pany would founder, Yashish Dahiya, that the compaand we would talk about it for some spend a lot of money in marketing, as hours insur- and the lost. In this light, it is, certainly, one of large part the pleasure to be had inand this parny had noofway of making money this and would give me excellent feedback. ance she is not a top-of-the-mind product for any- the saddest books I’ve ever read. On the other ticularly strange book liestoinfaint. the twists That bleak thought hadnew caused him is over.” Faber explains: “I think I have hand, in the tenderness of this very ordinary body.era People don’t find out about insurance and turns plot, I’dunfounded. rather do the backstory His fearofwas not The website written the things I wasfind putout on Earth write. products the way they aboutto a car or aI couple’s shared life — far more than in their rethan theup story-story. was set in May 2008 and Infoedge had in- think reached thethem,” limit.”he says. ligious faith, which often sounds self-deluded houseI’ve before buying The eyeballs Scotsman inintro2011, and more like wishful thinking than spiritual I stumbled upon Faberthat by accident. vested ₹20 crore inMichel September year. But In an interview So the idea was toingrab and Eva concept was still of alive and reasonably well, insight — lies something like happiness, someBrowsing through a bookstore onehad day, started a stick- when profitability was miles away. “We duce the insurance as an investCEO andlike co-founder, Faber was working on what er, half-obscuring the cover a book, caught marketing our services, but of only one per cent and hope, perhaps even ment. Policybazaar marketed itself on Google, Yashish Dahiya,thing policybazaar.com would become his lastemails, book, he my eye. On actually it was a glowing of visitors bought recommendation polisome kind of tenuous redempthrough banners and on will “We be the by of my authors; ciesone from ourfavourite site,” recalls Dahi-underneath it said “if it works, tion. It’s not much: the situation otheritsites. tried radio and I’ve ever written”. was a cruel, pointed fishhook on a blank white saddest book other ya, the company’s CEO. on cent. Earth is rapidly disintemediums too, but they did try average ofback 60 per You leave the book The novel not is told part marketing background. found quickly This meantI that 95myself per cent of hooked — grating, food stocks are running work.in Digital “We don’t sell any high-cost insurance prodfearful and certain Bad products in a the Skin (Faber’s by a to the site,” ucts,” Dahiyalow, and found Underrevenue Policybazaar’s came first book) through the letters shelves lie helpedwritten drive traffic pointssupermarket out. And that has possibly that the future is non-social media era every bit as creepily from re-directing itscompelling visitors to as the cover husband andhewife empty, there is hoarding anda says. across unhelped Policybazaar gain volumes through bleak for the were all right, but it is promised. to read everything he’d imaginable distances insurance I resolved companies, which lootingthat andincludes a rapid term downward Finally,when the the combination of product portfolio insurstar-dwellers difficult to hush up ever husband, Peter, is sent to aand newly paidwritten. ₹100 per enquiry. With a as systems of law and ormarketing a user-friendly ance, healthspiral insurance and low-cost investthings today The about Crimson Petal and colonised planet Next on my visitors list wasand to spread theToday, the site ment products, few thousand der and break down. No illness, wonderauto the platform worked. the critical — a massive tome, set The to the inhabitants 100 White transactions a month in in Victorian word of God gets are looking for new nearly 1.5 million visitors a and personalcorporations accident insurance offered by London, andSeptember about as farrevenue in setting, tone and there. He is month an old-fashioned 2008, the worlds to colonise: ours is all but and the numbers are nearly 40 companies. place from Scottish high- Christian missionary to alien beings used that year wasthe ₹6 alien-infested lakh, way below up. And you32,000 leave the book fearfulevery and growing.talking To retain the momenFrom nearly transactions Skin as it’s being possible to get. lands of Under the Jesus in a bleakly landscape, the continuous investments made in about the future is bleak for next the year. startum the company has setbeautiful up an in-house call certain month, that Policybazaar targets 50,000 The book went on and to become a blockbuster water is green andby where rain swirls dwellers. technology, people marketing besides re- where missionary message centrethe in Gurgaon, manned 1,000 people. It has hadThe a capital infusion of $15paving millionthe so BBC miniseries, an A-list cast, and sent in “Our semi-solid patterns. onwhat earth,worked life is way curring expenseswith like rent and electricity. forisexploitation destruction staff went on toBack learn far and busy raisingand another round ofsomefundtheDahiya costume department overdrive. Bustles falling apart for his beloved wife, and the relarealised that aon complete overhaul the future beyond the final page. So and what didn’t through trial and error... We where ing forin future growth. bustled, handlebar moustaches bristled, it tionship begins to fray acrossprogramme the light years. was in order. it isevolving there at all, is to be found in have a strong mentoring and redemption, Pointing toifthe insurance industry was very with, fab. his team and he focused on don’t Talking withinhis friend coaching and fellowfornovelist Toall begin spaces, thedigital fleeting moments hubelieve separate begin- the andtiny its shift to the world, Dahiyaofsays, Then cameimprovements. the news that Faber was working David Mitchell, Faber explained: “When your man technology As user-friendli— and even ners,” Dahiya adds. “The industry willnon-human not survive —if connection, it does not on newease novel, which he announced would is dying of a disease that you don’t nessa and of navigation are paramount in partner of kindness, even, that us The result: Policybazaar today accounts for acts change itself. Badlove products in a remind non-social be his last. His wife of 26 Evathe Youren, was have and that you areingoing to out- why converting browsers to years, buyers, company we’re half of allyou lifeknow insurance sales the country media era here. were all right, but it is difficult to dying cancer — she died such in July andneed for live theycent arefor on low-cost a different planet [sic]. hush things up today.” lookedofinto minute details as—the and her, 70 per ULIPs. Its lapse Faber, the point ofbuttons. novel-writing died with her. They’ve already gone somewhere wherethree you anita roy is a writer and director of Young Zubaan for clearly visible rate (ratio of policies cancelled before anita@anitaroy.net “Being a published writer isofsomething that rashmi pratap book embodying “We conducted thousands A/B tests for ev- can’t years)follow. is 15 perThe cent, wayended better up than the indus- Emptiness For author Michel Faber, the death of his wife meant the death of novel writing shutterstock

The Book of Strange New Things Michel Faber Random House Fiction ₹650

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Surf’s up Mumu and (right) Santhosh are ﬁshermen who have been trained to handcraft surfboards in Mamallapuram aine edwards

Making waves Mamallapuram, near Chennai, is a surfer’s delight and home to one of the few stores in the world that sell handmade surfboards

thavadai Street in Mamallapuram (also famous as Mahabalipuram) is typical of any tourist destination, lined with hotels, restaurants and countless shops for artefacts. But turn left into Thirukkula Street and you find a shop that is anything but typical — Temple Surfboards. A common enough sight in coastal Europe or Australia, where the waves support surfing, a shop like this in Mamallapuram is a first in many ways. Set up by Australian Dave (who goes by his first name alone), who initially came to this tourist town on the Coromandel Coast near Chennai in 2007, Temple Surfboards is among the few stores in the world that sell surfboards made by hand. “In China, for instance, surfboards are made by people who don’t know surfing, or have never seen the sea. Making one by hand is an art, and each board is customised to the needs of the buyer. It is not just bought off the rack,” says the 37-year-old Dave. Temple Surfboards relies heavily on the craftsmanship of Santhosh, a former fisherman and sculptor, who was spotted by Dave on the beaches of Mamallapuram. Kai Jacobsen, a tourist from Jersey (an island in the English Channel), has been in Mamallapuram for two weeks now and is shopping at Temple Surfboards. “Here, I can actually watch my surfboard being made. And it feels good that it is being made by someone who surfs and shares the passion,” he says. Techie on the waves Sydney-born Dave was introduced to surfing when he was just three, as the norm in his family was to “start swimming as soon as you walk”. He grew up and became an IT engineer, but his passion for surfing stayed with him and he even learnt to make surfboards.

In 2007 his job brought him to Chennai, based on the customer’s specifications. and within a month he had headed to MamalVishnu Kumar Janakiraman, the latest addilapuram after hearing from friends that the tion to the outlet’s six-member team, shows a waves there were good for surfing. new surfboard decorated with a kolam design, “But I couldn’t get a surfboard,” he re- the traditional floor patterns made with rice counts. The sight of other surfers in this his- flour or chalk powder across Tamil Nadu. “A torical seaside town, popular with local and basic model of surfboard costs ₹24,000,” says foreign tourists, gave him the idea of import- Janakiraman, who had studied in Finland and ing the boards. The cost proved prohibitive worked in Mongolia before discovering his though. A surfboard priced A$500 in Australia passion for surfing in Mamallapuram. “The would cost as much as A$800 by the time it only condition for anyone working in Temple landed in India. “It was too exSurfboards is that they have to be pensive for local people,” says a surfer,” he says. Dave, who had by then started a With their shared passion, the scuba diving venture called Temteam can be regularly found ple Adventures in Puducherry spending the mornings surfing The only condition with his friends. and the rest of the day in making for anyone working Early in 2014, he decided to set in Temple Surfboards surfboards. “Surfing makes you up a surfboard-making unit in connect with nature. You are is that they have to Mamallapuram after training humbled… it will smash you if be a surfer Mumu (who later branched off you make a wrong move. It on his own) and Santhosh. “He doesn’t differentiate between (Dave) came home to convince rich or poor,” says Dave. Back in my parents that there was a ca2011, he had launched a surfing reer in making surfboards,” says Santhosh, competition in Mamallapuram. “More than who can now make one surfboard in a day. 100 people showed up for it. Today competitions are held in Puducherry, Goa, Kerala and The shape of surfing Andhra Pradesh. The community is growing,” The Temple Surfboards store doubles as a says Janakiraman. workshop. At the entrance, few broken and Still, Dave knows it is a long way before his second-hand surfboards have been lined up business can scale up. “This is just one-yearfor repair. Inside you find foam blanks in vari- old. I expect to break even soon. Then probaous sizes, which have been imported from bly we can look at opening outlets in other Australia. These blanks are given shape (ac- parts of the country,” he says. The Australian cording to the buyer’s requirement) by San- continues his IT work (to support his surfing thosh in a smaller room on the right. While interest and business) and divides each year the bigger surfboards are for the casual surfer, between India and his workplaces in Australia the smaller ones are suited for making mano- and the UK. Along the way, he wants to train euvres and thus cater to the serious surfer. more Santhoshs to surf the waves for their On the second floor, the shaped blanks are passion and livelihood. coated with resin and fibreglass cloth. Next, each blank gets its own distinctive design prince mathews thomas

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saturday, january 31,31, 2015 saturday, january 2015

Personal experience can The ugly Indian mislead us

While it must be said that Indians manage to bring in a modicum of ugliness to every public situation, it isand particularly potent author when we travel Scientist mathematician, and journalist Simon Singh on why he can’t tolerate fools and the importance of evidence

significantly to the movement that culminated in the passing of the Defamation Act 2013. He and likeminded colleagues have since set up the Good Thinking Society ‘to encourage curiosity and promote rational thinking’. Looking back at the time, Singh savours his victory: “So many people were being threatened and that was ridiculous. We were writing in public interest, and if we can’t write what we want to write, that means that other people don’t hear what they ought to be hearing.” When pressed for why he’s willing to go out on a limb, Singh lists his many advantages — a wife, Anita Anand, who is a journalist; a steady income from his books; their ownership of their home; the powerful allies they have been able to call on. But later admits ruefully, “I get so angry, I get so frustrated when I see people being ripped off, people being taken advantage of, when I see people saying things are scientific, when they’re pseudoscientific. Those make me so angry and annoyed that it’s easier for me to do something than to just live with spent Republic Day on a train, travelling is surprising. It was just that this was less than tudes, that pent-up aggression.” piles of plastic garbage broke the vista from Amritsar to Delhi. Minutes after we a couple of hours after the magnificent cere- of the green It seems fieldsanof uncharacteristic Punjab. There wasadmission rubboarded, perhaps not to be outdone by mony in Delhi in which popular Prime Minis- bish everywhere. from an otherwise even-tempered man, and the show of arms and weaponry at the ter Narendra Modi did his best to showcase solone it’s kid perhaps Singhupoften The in the fortuitous coach kept that everyone grand parade, four people started a loud argu- the glory of our country to US President Ba- with finds his attention drawn more whines playful suba recurring cycle of loudtosongs, ment. At issue was the space in the luggage rack Obama, and so it seemed an appropriate and jects. latest — Thefocused Simpsons and Their wails,His while hisbook parents relentracks. Since some people were travelling with day to passively observe the Mathematical — celebrates the iconic lessly Secrets on unlocking achievement more than one piece of luggage, and everybo- greatness of its citizens. American TV show’s history embedding levels on Candy Crushofon their dy absolutely has to be seated right below While it must be said that Indicomplexfancy theorems and equations into phones. Every once inunlikea their suitcase, the resulting fireworks were in- ans manage to bring in a modily places:while, the blackboard Bart’supclassroom they wouldinlook and Since this was the evitable. Much shoving and pushing ensued, cum of ugliness to every public the scoreboard DufftoStadium Springbark at theat maid take the in child executive coach,or the first of the said baggage, then of each other. situation, it is particularly pofield. (Singh’s favourite episode, case you outside. The maid, who indidn’t arguments started in Decoder Simon Singh watched hours and hours of The Simpsons to unearth its many mathematical secrets Sincek this tent when we travel. Earlier that are curious, is ‘Treehouse of Horror VI’.) To look older than a teenager, strugmurali was kumar the executive coach, the arguEnglish but quickly ments started in English but quickly moved to same morning, I happened to be write thegled bookas he watched the kid endless kicked repeats and of moved to Hindi and imon mothers, Singh is immediately Hindi and many sisters and recognisabody talking ports askingwho for evidence the crowd to that a person runs a frommany the show,slapped quizzed the team composed her writing and refused to mothers, ble in aeven crowd — hisbuttons dramatic haircut parts were invoked, as shirt tried drew anecdotes. “I think really importravelonly business. She was in Tur- it’s of an astonishing percentage of math geeks budge. None of this seemed to sisters and body parts on a test. Mohawk and his oval, to withstandriffs a stress It was, despite thegoldtant that people evidence thaninvoked per- and pored key in December, sheuse said, and ratherwere over an commentaries andfrom behindwarrant admonishment rimmed glasses glint in the light. flying spit, comforting to know that as far as One sonal experience. Personal was visiting various hotels in or- experience is a the-scenes hisreports. parents. They looked on, not of Britain’s leading communicators, territorial protection is science concerned, the 67- der to good starting point but our personal experiarrange accommodation By following this this and other obsessions, as though problem wasn’t the Singh left is Cambridge with a PhD in particle year-old nation in safe hands. ence can mislead us.as Our personal experience author, whose for her clients. As soon they emigrated from India theirs, parents but as though this wasn’t physics and with a stintwas at CERN. Meanwhile, in followed the samethat train, a friend that bloodletting was good, our per- in the 1950s, heardtold thatusshe was representing is giving his son a very different a problem at all. He then joined the BBC She as a too producer and ditravelling in another coach. was witsonal experience toldthe usmeeting that astrology groups of Indian tourists, ended. was You childhood his own. In March, the family could seefrom this kid, 20 years later, rolling rector working on programmes such Tomornessing a great battle, she whispered on as the Our personal experience Somegood. were rather rude, even. Groups of Indian up his sleeves and is looking forward to seeing taking on a fellow passen-a full row’s documentary phone, thisWorld time itand was aHorizon. group ofHis three adults tourists tellsare us notorious, all sorts ofshe things. In the way ger who showed solar said, for eclipse of from the Faroe the audacity touching his Isaboutallocated Fermat’s seats Last Theorem won himofa BAFwho were in different parts he They says, peering over the from the bag. At least as farlands they fact,” behave. take everything — the last one as a behavioural andvisible cultur-in EuTA award and an He is also the compartment butEmmy were nomination. absolutely insistwhere we’re sitting, roomterrace — not just the tiny bottles of shampoos al continuity is concerned, rope till 2026. In the meantime we have nothing to at It’s easier for me to thesitting author of five books, Fermat’s ent on together. When notably more than two Last “the but world looks and soaps, kettles, hairpretty dryers,flat coffee mugs worry about. home, he and Hari are discoverdo something than to ing toscience Theorem, Code Book and Simpsons people refusedThe to change seats toThe enable this, and frombed here.” and even linen. They order room service together. With 10 minutes reach Delhi, the They great conjust live with that Theirflared, Mathematical Secrets, but it’s thelantitle of tempers shirts were grabbed and Singh’s fierce commitment and check out without paying the bill. There race to be the first ductone experiments they put out of thewhere compartpent-up aggression fourth book, in 2008, that guagehiswent down the published toilet. A free-for-all to instances science runs deep and breaking ment began. Suitcases are even of Indian tourists soap inblocked the microwave, sprinkle passageways prompts me to but ask him about his opinion of looked imminent, somehow someone strong, what him the fire alarm it’s in the room,saw misconstruing its and finally after different substances ontrod the gas being trampled on and homeopathy. managed to defuse the situation. (I am always blinking through lightatoharrowing be a videofive-year camera surrepti- over for no reason oven to than see what colours result other a general disreTrick Treatment? Alternative intrigued by or people who make such a Medicine fuss to on battle with Britain’s tiously recording them! antiquated effect acid has on spect for anyone and who test is notthe family, I managed Trial showcases penchanttoforDelhi speaking Back sit together. Flying Singh’s from Chennai libel law. It beganand with a 2008 blog publishhome, wealltrudge trample, spit and seeds. Singh he Even definitely hasn’t set his to get out and gosays home. though it was mind, which heyoung seems more happy to once,his four strapping men than shuffled ed on The Guardian website which pee without irony or apology. Thein train itselfhe— crition hisI boy growing upthe to be a scientist, past hopes midnight, couldn’t resist urge to again. around “All theinevidence havethat tells us somedo 15 people order towe ensure cised Express, the British Association a Shatabdi used Chiropractic by the upper class — catchbut instead wantsof them to just Day enjoy a repeat telecast the Republic pa-their thatinhomeopathy doesn’t work, for any condithey sat the same row. I was expecting a big (BCA)the forfailure claiming that Swachch chiropractors exhibited of Modi’s Bharatcould together. “He understands whatsolan exrade.time It did look grand — the marching tionto at start, all,” he says emphatically. a treat childhood meeting perhaps a discussionDescribing on an campaign. conditions such was as colic Within minutes, the floor lit- and is,” he BSF says,men explaining that the fivediers,periment the daredevil and the brave lecturemerger he gaveor theanday before at an impending acquisition. Asuniversity, soon teredasthma. The organisation responwith abandoned teabagspromptly and empty year-old already proponent of the scientifmartyrs. Truly,isIndia is aa great country. Which heflight revealstook thatoff, in an poll of his auas the allimpromptu four promptly fell ded of bycashew suing him under Britain’s pouches nuts.for Thelibel washrooms were faic it method. In the process, Hari is are already makes even more tragic that Indians dience, 49 per said theywe thought it effecasleep and woke upcent only when had toumously sympathetic a puke-inducing, smelly laws. mess. Outside the completely absorbing some of his most profound undeserving of father’s it. than two modern ched tive, down.albeit It wasless the effective most puzzling refused to backcan down, spending tens convictions, not least of which is seeing is not window,Singh where these things conveniently t@veenavenugopal and a mere one none per cent said be it attributed hoursmedicine, of my life.) Truly speaking, of this of thousands of pounds defendingmultihimself in always believing. to the great unwashed doesn’t work. court, but the trial galvanised libel reform Singh isn’t feigning his dismay when he re- campaigners and is said to have contributed smriti daniel is a feature writer based in Sri Lanka

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

dipankar

PRESENT IMPERFECT

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saturday, january 31, 2015

UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Stories of the soil My mitti comes from Gorakhpur and Banda, the two small cities of UP that I have lied about and called “home”

Close encounters In Gorakhpur, people, like ‘free ﬂow’ salt in a saltshaker, stick so close together that they block the few paths that individuals might have had to escape akhilesh kumar

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

ll writing arises from somewhere, carries the taste of its mitti, its soil. My mitti comes from Gorakhpur and Banda, the two small cities of UP that I have lied about and called “home”. Gorakhpur is to the north, less than a 100km from Nepal, and my grandfather would take me to the roof of the farmhouse to see the Himalayas loom in the distance on clear mornings. This is the terai belt, rich with both the soil and water that comes from being so close to the mountains but not among them. It is known for its rich farmland, its mosquitoes and an infestation of bandits. The water table is so high that the water will seep through the ﬂoor of houses if the foundation isn’t laid correctly. Sugarcane grown from this area is so rich that instead of the usual yellow juice, it sometimes bleeds deep green when it’s crushed. The guhr, lumps of unreﬁned sugar made from boiling the juice in large open pans, is sticky and almost black, so sweet that it is impossible to eat on its own like the usual buttery yellow guhr bought at the cornershop. The people too are of the soil. They are soft, with round features. Their faces are often as lumpy as the guhr they roll with their calloused hands from the steaming pans, and their smiles can be as achingly sweet. But this is also a sticky part of the world — village, town or city. People cling together, for good or ill, mashed into close companionship. Roads are only barely navigable between splatters of cow dung, squatters, and strangely immobile policemen. An occasional truck will emerge from a maze of alleyways, startled and growling like a wild boar caught in the underbrush. Gorakhpur is a verdant and organic place, tangled and solid, low to the ground from which it draws its strength and which it cannot leave. It is a place where electric gadgets

early victory to ease his passing. The people here are dry too, of few words and fewer smiles. They remain separate no matter how closely they live to each other, with their own private shelters deep inside. But their smiles, when they emerge, are childlike in an innocence that is only possible among people who haven’t had the chance to he contrast with the mitti of Banda, in Bun- enjoy their childhood years, so they store delkhand, on the edge of the great Deccan them up for the moments and people they Plateau that has broken so many love, surprising you with the armies, could hardly be greater. newness, the shy intensity. It is a dry land, and the soil is a The mitti of Banda, of Bundelkthreadbare blanket covering the hand, has another particular rock. The only plants in much of meaning for me. We cried in warning, the region are tougher than the Twenty years ago I accompaagain and again, rocks, breaking the land over nied the dead body of Sheikh Ah“Mitti hai! Mitti hai!” generations through twisted, mad uz Zaman, my uncle and gnarled strength. Water lies one of the people I most loved, more than 100ft below the earth across this dry, broken land. Haband is far beyond the capability itations were few and far beof most people to reach. tween, but it was Holi, and in that drab land, In summer, there is a period called navi, every stop was at a town where we were welnine days of intense heat when the grass comed by coloured water, or powder thrown burns in its own heat and birds fall dead from in celebration. Carrying that broken body to the sky. Temperatures exceed the cap of 50°C lay at a grieving mother’s feet, it had become that would require district authorities to re- intensely important that we protect the purity sort to emergency measures, and are ignored. of the white shroud, interposing our bodies There is a grand mosque there built by one of between the revellers in the opening of the the nawabs of Banda, with a huge courtyard jeep, which was the only vehicle that could be that becomes so hot that nobody can walk hired that day for such a duty. barefoot in it in the summer. Instead a thin We cried in warning, again and again, “Mitti strip of cloth, soaked in water, is extended for hai! Mitti hai!” Because that is what a dead body 100ft or so to the shelter under the dome, and is called, soil, and all we could yell was this was the worshippers walk in a single ﬁle to pray for the earth that had risen and that we were water to a distant god. bringing it back to where it came from. All we Sher Shah Suri, the Afghan general who could say was, “It is soil! It is soil!” built India’s Grand Trunk Road and initiated All we could do was fail. the administrative reforms that would help This is my mitti, the soil from which my stoAkbar consolidate the Mughal dynasty, died ries rise. besieging the Kalinjar Fort that lies not too far t@OmairTAhmad away here. They say his generals lied about an

jam, ﬂicker and fail. Generators thump across the city, belching clouds of black smoke, expressing the displeasure of the rich, and no traffic light works for long. The people, like ‘free ﬂow’ salt in a saltshaker, stick so close together that they block the few paths that individuals might have had to escape.

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Freedom, interrupted Undertrials — accounting for nearly 70 per cent of our prison population — often suffer a fate worse than those convicted. Now, they wait for a recent Supreme Court order directing the release of those who have served half their likely sentence to be implemented Space for stereotypes In Gravity, Sandra Bullock survives her maiden space mission thanks to her male colleague, played by George Clooney ap/warner bros. pictures

FILM FATALE

The Sandra Bullock syndrome Film and TV portrayals of women professionals are steeped in stereotypes. Leading the parade of clichés is one of Hollywood’s most successful heroines of all time

anna mm vetticad

he is not the leading lady of the film. In is unlikely to have survived her maiden space of women professionals are a reflection of rea small role in Baby though, it is a joy mission but for a gentleman colleague (Ge- ality. Why be selective with reality then? How to watch a counter-terrorism oper- orge Clooney). There’s more. come top women bankers such as Chanda ative, played by Taapsee Pannu, singleLet’s call this The Sandra Bullock Syndrome: Kochhar and Naina Lal Kidwai, businesswohandedly wallop an enemy agent, while her the hesitation to show regular, happy, credible man Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and others like male colleague (Akshay Kumar) is away. working women helming storylines; the tend- them from real India are almost never reflectPannu’s character in Baby is unusual in Bol- ency of filmmakers who present leading wom- ed in films and soaps? lywood for more reasons than her flying fists: en in unconventional professions to The situation is not without hope, of course. (a) her profession is clearly specified in the sto- compensate for their professional success by Television journalism has become a popular ry (b) she is shown operating efficiently with- tailoring them to fit assumptions made about profession for women characters in Indian in her professional space (c) her job is not such women in society. C’mon, how could she films ever since the electronic media exploconventionally considered acceptable/suita- be good at her job and not be a cliché? sion at the turn of the century. Perhaps beble/desirable for girls (read: she’s not a stuEven TV — which delivers cause filmmakers’ exposure to dent, teacher, nurse, homemaker, writer, more central female characters women mediapersons is so inesdesigner, beauty expert) and (d) her job is not than films — is not guiltless. Carcapable now, portrayals are geta ploy to put her in sexy clothing (read: she’s rie Mathison in the hit American ting more authentic with time. not a model, actor, singer, dancer). series Homeland, for instance, is We’ve come a long way from the In India, it is not These thoughts rang particularly loud as I a genius CIA officer who suffers days when Raveena Tandon as a uncommon for a watched the film, since I was just back in India from bipolar disorder, which is film’s heroine to be of print journalist in the Bollywood after addressing a conference on Women In perhaps the writers’ excuse for film Mohra (1994) wore a tiny indeterminate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, her emotionally overwrought skirt to interview a policeman, or profession, hanging The waiting game Over 20 per undertrials in Indianature. are jailedBut fromshe a year to more than five years withoutwaiting proven charges nakweactress Karthika Nair’s Mathematics) organised bycent theof Meera Kaul is consequently Tamil around for prashant Foundation in Dubai. What was a film journal- so erratic at work that it is hard painted, distractingly long claws the hero to find her ist doing in the midst of female STEM entre- to believe the agency would risk and over-made-up face overshadher, if yousuch haven’t committed a crime, what is or get any kind of respect,” says Sister Undertrial (Indian informal): A person preneurs? I was reminding them that they retaining an employee. owed her actions in theMariola newsto be ashamed of?” TV saysfeaJulia. Sequeira of the Mission SistersToday of Ajmer. Sewho isrepresentation on trial in a court law.made by the there barely get in of films To be fair, American room in Ko (2011). belongs SheSharma’s has beenmore working Ashwin Gupta*,non-Carrie-like an officer with 18 years of ex- queira should Oxford English world’s biggest—industries, fromDictionary Hollywood to tures many to know. Anushka bewith inmates of Ajmer Central Jail for 16 years, periencetoo, in the armed forces, was arIndia’s Bollywood, Kollywood and Tollywood; women butIndian the “lonely/high-strung in lievable TV reporter in PK (2014). ake areup (6am), counting rested eight in around a counselling helping them and that when they represented, too often success” label isyears often ago floating for the Let me be clear: I am notand dissing homemakhigh-profile case. “We were in with education, if I’m theymerely are so dein(6.15am), chai (6.30am), lock ones they’re steeped in gender stereotypes. in less traditional professions, and too ers, nurses, teachers or models. [Tihar]are jailglamourised for six years to before a clined, or just lending up (7am), dalialiberal (9am),than lock Inup many While Hollywood is more the point of being manding more onscreen female leadsainwilling other “There’s hardlyinanyone to (9.30am), lunch (3pm), lock unreal. chargesheet filed… so I’m dia’s entertainment industries in this respect, In thewas long-running show Castle, forwithfields, whoseear. work is significant the story Strewn sheets hear them out. That’s one of the upis(4pm), dinner (7pm), lock up (8pm), sleep. example, not even sure [if] I was anwonder ‘under- how it still a male-dominated, woman-unfriendit’s hard not to the gor(as it is with male characters), who are emoand quilts, the floor is Repeat. year-and-a-half, this was trial’!”homicide says Gupta. “It was Kate one of biggest says. ly world.For Foraproof, look no further thanunderSand- geous detective Beckett’s kneesof limbs. tionally and atproblems,” peace withshe their family/ a tangle Thestable the darkest periods of my lifeYork Notwithstanding the powchaltrial Maria’s* at Ajmer highest-paid Central Jail. survive ra Bullock, oneroutine of the industry’s running around New chasing Film and TV have great walls too arepersonal crowdedchoices. and I try not to think of it tooheels. with graffiti, lenges of rebuilding life under Charged today. with criminal conspiracy heroines Over the years, Bullockand hasthe re- murderers in those impossible er and to influence minds. The struggles anda murder ofplayed a priestprofessionally at a local temple, along much. free sky, thousands of men and peatedly successful Here Despite in India,myit background is not uncommon for a fulfilment of Arati from Satyajit Ray’s Mahanaphotographs of gods women custody with three men, she claims shewomen was not at the in the heroine forces, I to wasbenot women on screen. Sadly, those have in- film’s of mentally indeterminate of profesgar (Bengali, 1963) andunder Nirupama Rajeevsaw froma every religion scene of crime, but at home with her family. prepared for around something like glimmer of hope following a Suvariably been lonely, socially awkward or sion, hanging waiting for the hero to Rosshan Andrrews’ How Old Are You (Malayathis,”her. he says. are moneypreme orderthan of September Her mother Julia* says, In Maria, one of five find downright dysfunctional. Miss Congeniality If she“Ifisyou visibly working outside the lam, 2014) are moreCourt inspiring their creed, youshe canisget privileges 2014 allowing who daughters, up with the wrong boy, house, (2000), she“got wasmixed a grumpy, frumpy, brilliant most likely toinside. belong to a profes- ators could imagine. If even undertrials one little girl or have half their who, it later turned out, was(2002), also married.” Otherwise, the most basic FBI agent. In Two Weeks Notice she was sion that iseven deemed socially acceptable for grown woman outserved theremore sees athan character on likely sentence if convicted, walk jail Youngest of the 20 lawyer, inmatesordering in the female ward requestsorwill turned an environmental takeout at women upsbethe film’sdown.” glamour quotient. screen and thinks, “if she cantodo it, Iout canof too”, in jail for andone. ‘Beti’ at 19, Mariashe says she Out on like bail,Rani bothMukerji’s Maria and Gupta have within months. The Centre too instructed home In to Themost, Proposal (2009), was a Women tough police ofthat is atwo huge achievement. triedin toMardaani start a meaningful life, but it has been the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to crewas “alright ‘inside’, onlya homesick”. Follow- ficer nasty publisher without sex life. In Alfonso or Priyanka Chopra’s boxing mm vetticad the author of in Thethe Adventures ing her release few weeks ago,ahowever, she champion far from easy. “EvenKom if proven innocent, it’sProdif- anna ate a database of allisundertrials country. Cuaron’s Gravitya(2013), she was surprisingly in Mary last year are rare. t@annavetticad an Intrepid Film Criticon, Nearly five months however, the situation is reluctant to step outside the house. tell ducers ficult for undertrials get limited their old life back of inept engineer-astronaut with a sad past,“Iwho may argue thattotheir portrayals

R Q R

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Go ﬁgure Total number of jails in the country:

1,391

Total capacity of jails in the country:

3,47,859

Total number of jail inmates:

4,11,992

Occupancy rate (2013):

118.4 per cent

(increase of 6.2 per cent from 2012) Total number of convicts:

1,29,608 (31.5 per cent) Total number of undertrials:

2,78,503 (67.6 per cent )

Number of undertrials who are illiterate or educated up to Class X :

1,17,373

Most overcrowded state prisons: Chhattisgarh (261 per cent)

and Delhi (216.8 per cent)

Undertrials charged with murder (IPC Section 302):

60,110 (26.5 per cent)

Increase in number of undertrials (2012-2013):

9.3 per cent (up from 5.7 per cent) Source: Prison Statistics India, 2013

Kafka in Ajmer? Out of 913 prisoners, 439 are undertrials at Ajmer Central Jail anita buragohain

watch cover

saturday, january 31, 2015

remains largely unchanged. (The next SC hearing is on February 3.) India’s undertrials must wait a while longer for freedom.

al Bridges to Justice (IBJ), a legal rights organisation that works pro bono to represent undertrials, apart from providing a host of other legal advocacy services. “Many of them are migrants or jhuggi dwellers, and having no one to come forward [as surety], end up staying in prison for longer.”

Criminal disparity At Ajmer Central Jail, out of 913 prisoners, 439 are undertrials, and four barracks, each with room for about 100, are reserved for them. Strewn with sheets and flimsy quilts, the floor Forgotten and forsaken is a tangle of limbs as prisoners sleep within Prison Statistics India 2013, released by the Nainches of each other. The walls are crowded tional Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), is the latwith graffiti, and lined with posters and est consolidated tome on Indian prisons framed photographs of gods of every religion. bursting at their seams. According to the reOn the surface, life here for an average con- port, the total prison population in the counvict and an undertrial seems much the same. try at the end of 2013 was 4,11,992, of which, And yet, there are marked differences between 2,78,503 or 67.6 per cent were undertrials. the two. Unlike convicts, for example, under- While many of them serve not more than a year in prison, over 20 per cent trials don’t get to work at any of of undertrials are jailed from a the carpentry or handicraft year to more than five years shops, and while away most of without proven charges. “Once their time under a lone tree in Unlike convicts, inside, they are forgotten,” says each barrack. They don’t even undertrials don’t get Sequeira, “Many are arrested in have uniforms, and make do — to work at any of the petty cases; some even for what sometimes for years on end — carpentry or with the shirt on their back handicraft shops, and they call ‘protective custody’. when they first walked in. while away their time But since the inmates are largely illiterate, even they don’t know Vasudev Singh, the newly apunder a lone tree in what’s happening, and it takes a pointed superintendent at Ajmeach barrack. They long time before someone cares er Central Jail, however, toes the don’t even have to look into their matter.” official line, and reminds those uniforms There are various reasons for who uphold the ‘cause’ of undersuch institutional ‘forgetfultrials that not everyone is above ness’, of course. But the most blame, and that the law must be worrying among them is the fact allowed to take its course no matter what. Singh says, “It is important to unthat certain professionals stand to gain from derstand the nature of their offence and their longer periods of incarceration for underbackgrounds. It’s not only they who suffer trials. Ravi Nair, executive director, South is a busy but timealso of the year for art aficionaHuman Documentation Centre once tarrested, their families — not to Asian wood and withRights intricate carvings, the house’s what with the India Art Fair follow- (SAHRDC), Delhi, says,with “Even thoughwatercola few atforgetdos, those of the victims’.” interior is festooned Munshi’s ing close on the heels of the as Kochi made by local the legislature and execIn many of India’s megacities as well sec- tempts ours of were one hundred faces — a memorial Biennale, butAjmer, no onethis is complaining. the profession hassuffered unfortunately ond-tier cities like ‘background’ or utive, of sorts to legal the Kashmiris who during edition, the India behind Art Fair failed to cooperate theNow lackinofitsitseventh keeps many undertrials the recent floods. with them to bring about has on over 90criminal art booths fromsystem, 85 gallerchanges.the Thisvision is because in Art many small bars. Inview the Indian justice in these Explaining behind Projects, ies. An especially exciting section this—year is towns and in lower courts cities, the law-a addition to a bail bond, a local surety a perShahane says, “The India ArtinFair is already the Art showcasing several a substantial portion run of their keep son whoProjects takes responsibility for thecreative, under- yers very earn successful, professionally event, so eccentric and performance tools like really bail bonds, and hence don’t trial to stay in provocative the city during the period art of from there is no need to do anything radically and live curated “Most by Girish Shahane, the want to actively change the status quo.” trial — is acts mandatory. of the time, even different. I hope my involvement has imevent’sbail artistic director. Another cited is inordinate dewhen is granted, there is no local surety,” proved the reason Specialoften Projects section and the lay“The India Art an Fairadvocate is no doubt commercial lays in the trial procedures. “In other counsays Ajay Verma, witha Internationout. Additionally, we have a conference, and a venue for selling art… However, this year we new series of short, focused talks called the want to push the envelope with a concentrat- Spotlight Series.” ed focus on performance art,” says Neha KirThe line-up of speakers includes Adam pal, founding director. Szymczyk, the artistic director of Documenta So there’s the Gallery Maskara artist Priyan- — the famed art symposium in Kassel, Germaka Chaudhury’s live performance that in- ny; Dr Venu Vasudevan, director of the Nationcludes munching on citrus plants. Her al Museum in Delhi; Jeremy Deller, artist and performance titled ‘How to become the Lem- curator of the British Pavilion at the Venice on Butterfly’ (the butterfly of Biennale; Julian Stallabrass, proDeath) sees her mimicking this fessor at The Courtauld Institute extremely beautiful insect that London; and Sheikha Hoor al destroys citrus plants. The idea is Qasimi, director of the Sharjah Latitude 28’s to push the boundaries of huBiennale. The focus, clearly, is on Muhammad Zeeshan man endurance and question nothe business of organising and has created an tions of beauty. curating Biennales. ephemeral painting Diaspora artists Chitra Ganesh With booths and booths to that self-destructs and Dhruvi Acharya tap into popchoose from, the buzz this time during the course of ular comics such as Amar Chitra has centred around Shrine Emthree days Katha by painting live on a joint pire’s showcasing of Tayeba Becanvas. The anonymous graffiti gum Lipi’s sewing machine artist Daku’s 100-meter-long installation made of stainless stencilled mural on asphalt capsteel razor blades, Atul Bhalla’s tures the mood on the street. limited-edition photographs at the Vadehra Meanwhile, Latitude 28’s Muhammad Art Gallery booth, and Volte Gallery’s ‘Based Zeeshan has created an ephemeral painting Upon’, a shiny metallic map of India created that self-destructs over three days. SKE Gal- by a group of artists. lery’s Sudarshan Shetty has documented International works attracting attention inmundane chores in a theatrical manner to clude the humorous sculpture by Israeli artist provoke thoughts and responses about the David Gerstine, showcased by the Bruno Art unpredictability of life, while Nandita Ku- Group; Latvian artist Anita Arbidane’s stunmar’s letter-writing project harks back to the ning oil-on-canvas, which transports viewers days of handwritten epistles. to another dimension; and the light installaEqually thought-provoking is the installation artist Stephen Knapp, showcased by Brintion by Veer Munshi — the 20x12x12-feet ‘Seren- kerhoff Fine Art. ity of Desolation’ depicting a traditional Alongside this sumptuous creative spread, Kashmiri house felled by floodwaters. Made of Delhi Art Gallery is hosting a large and com-

Alive to R the arts

Eye-catching Atul Bhalla’s limited-edition photographs and Tayeba Begum Lipi’s sewing machine made from stainless steel razor blades are some of the highlights of the India Art Fair A friend in need Maria, out on bail, meets Sister Mariola Sequeira in Ajmer anita buragohain

tries, it might take a while for the trial to get going, but once it has, it moves swiftly,” says Nair. “In India, cases are adjourned at the drop of a hat… sometimes rescheduled months later, and all this while the undertrial is imprisoned. Also, many of them are so poor, they cannot afford the bail bonds.” Take the case of Pooja* at Bhopal Central Jail. Despite an order to release her on bail, Pooja stayed behind bars for eight extra months because her lawyer refused to post bail till he got the ₹200 he was owed.

The ongoing India Art Fair goes beyond buying and selling to showcase offbeat live acts

Q R

Justice delayed is… Over the years, while various announcements and judgements have been made to tackle the ‘undertrial situation’, little has changed on the ground. Despite the landmark verdict by the Supreme Court last year, no state seems to have followed its guidelines, and the Centre’s order is yet to be implemented. “However, such initiatives by the court and the government are welcome. The problem is that there have also been similar initiatives in the past. But they have failed to create sustainable solutions for the problems facing undertrials,” says Divya Iyer, research manager at Amnesty International, India. “The accurate computerisation of prison records across all jails in India will go a long way in effective data management. This will help in the easy and timely identiﬁcation of undertrials eligible reprehensive exhibition on the history of for India’s lease as per modern andlaw.” contemporary art. Here you get thenofthey pay for “a and regressive anUntil overview themust art movements artists bail ancentral anti-poor system, and [culture of] wholaw, were to the country’s emergence viewing prisoners as mere numbers,” as an important centre of culture and art.says The Aparna assistant at the Yes BankChandra, Art Lounge hostsprofessor varied talks by Naarttional Law University, Delhi. Chandra has been ists and collectors. researching justice reforms for the The visualcriminal feast of artworks is punctuated last six years, and by believes greater sensitiby book launches artiststhat Arpita Singh, Kiran sation of officials, thetolegal and police Nadar and Sushmaboth Bahl.inNot forget the culisystems, is the waymany to go.varied She says, India, nary treats at the stalls“In and the the ﬁrst step in from policeaprocedure to make an auditory feast live band.isAnd, in case arrest… when it should the last.” and tinsel you’re wondering, therebe is glamour Sinha, of thearchitects People’s inPrabhakar the mix too. “Wepresident have targeted Union for Civilwho Liberties (PUCL), echoes Chanand designers will be catering to celebridra’s opinion, and adds that and the Gauri problem is ty clients like Hrithik Roshan Khan, elementary, really — “Jail be the who will visit to shop forshould art to liven upexceptheir tion and bail theand rule. Unfortunately, in our new apartments homes,” says Kirpal. country it’s the way till round.” (The India Artother Fair runs February 1, at the (*Names haveGrounds, been changed NSIC Exhibition Delhi) on request.) sibi arasumaddox is a Delhi-based arts writer georgina

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11 15

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saturday, january 31, 2015

Drowned out Villages within Kaziranga are inundated by ďŹ&#x201A;oodwaters

Hide and seek A forest department team from Haldibari, Karbi Anglong district, conduct a patrol in search of a rhino that migrated the night before

Games people play A rescue team carries away a tranquilised wild boar, which will later be released. It takes eight tranquiliser darts to subdue one

The corner shop A hog deer ďŹ nds shelter within an abandoned store

Standing guard On a boat patrol over the Brahmaputra river at Kaziranga National Park

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saturday, january 31, 2015

When the tide swells Bringer of joy and misery in equal measure, the rising tides of the Brahmaputra result in a peculiar human-animal conﬂict in Assam’s Kaziranga

he river is born in Tibet, as Yarlung Tsangpo, from where it flows through India as Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and later as Brahmaputra in Assam before becoming Jamuna in Bangladesh, where it empties out into the Bay of Bengal. A life giver and taker in equal measure, every year during the monsoons, the river displaces not only thousands of people but also much of the wildlife inside the Kaziranga National Park. Deforestation in the Brahmaputra watershed has resulted in increased levels of siltation, flash floods, and soil erosion in critical downstream habitats such as Kaziranga. As the river swells, many of the animals in the Park scamper to safer grounds, migrating into the surrounding hills, which are on the other side of the National Highway 37 that cuts through the Park. It is at this time that the job of the forest guards here becomes more important than at any other, since the fleeing animals are easy targets for poachers. Working in tandem

At home A rhino ﬁnds shelter within the Hathikuli tea estate in Kaziranga

with the Village Defence Protection (VDP), a group of volunteers from local villages put together by the NGO Aaranyak, they keep the wildlife as safe as they can. The guards have to make sure that none of the rhinos or other wild animals cross over to the neighbouring insurgency affected Karbi Anglong district, as the challenges there are greater still. Working day and night, therefore, they herd the rhinos towards the local Burha Pahar range. It’s a battle of wits and might against poachers, who have hunted over 200 rhinos in the last decade alone. The Assam government and the guards have stepped up their act in recent years though, and in 2014, 19 poachers were killed while exchanging ﬁre. That 22 rhinos were poached in the same period is a different matter, of course. But the guards won’t give up yet. dhruba dutta is a Guwahati-based photographer. His photo book, Brahmaputra: Stories of Life and Death will be published later this year

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saturday, january 31, 2015

14 10

FILM FATALE

The Sandra Bullock syndrome Film and TV portrayals of women professionals are steeped in stereotypes. Leading the parade of clichés is one of Hollywood’s most successful heroines of all time

anna mm vetticad

he is not the leading lady of the film. In is unlikely to have survived her maiden space of women professionals are a reflection of rea small role in Baby though, it is a joy mission but for a gentleman colleague (Ge- ality. Why be selective with reality then? How to watch a counter-terrorism oper- orge Clooney). There’s more. come top women bankers such as Chanda ative, played by Taapsee Pannu, singleLet’s call this The Sandra Bullock Syndrome: Kochhar and Naina Lal Kidwai, businesswohandedly wallop an enemy agent, while her the hesitation to show regular, happy, credible man Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and others like male colleague (Akshay Kumar) is away. working women helming storylines; the tend- them from real India are almost never reflectPannu’s character in Baby is unusual in Bol- ency of filmmakers who present leading wom- ed in films and soaps? lywood for more reasons than her flying fists: en in unconventional professions to The situation is not without hope, of course. (a) her profession is clearly specified in the sto- compensate for their professional success by Television journalism has become a popular ry (b) she is shown operating efficiently with- tailoring them to fit assumptions made about profession for women characters in Indian in her professional space (c) her job is not such women in society. C’mon, how could she films ever since the electronic media exploconventionally considered acceptable/suita- be good at her job and not be a cliché? sion at the turn of the century. Perhaps beble/desirable for girls (read: she’s not a stuEven TV — which delivers cause filmmakers’ exposure to dent, teacher, nurse, homemaker, writer, more central female characters women mediapersons is so inesdesigner, beauty expert) and (d) her job is not than films — is not guiltless. Carcapable now, portrayals are geta ploy to put her in sexy clothing (read: she’s rie Mathison in the hit American ting more authentic with time. not a model, actor, singer, dancer). series Homeland, for instance, is We’ve come a long way from the In India, it is not These thoughts rang particularly loud as I a genius CIA officer who suffers days when Raveena Tandon as a uncommon for a watched the film, since I was just back in India from bipolar disorder, which is film’s heroine to be of print journalist in the Bollywood after addressing a conference on Women In perhaps the writers’ excuse for film Mohra (1994) wore a tiny indeterminate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, her emotionally overwrought skirt to interview a policeman, or profession, hanging The waiting game Over 20 per undertrials in Indianature. are jailedBut fromshe a year to more than five years withoutwaiting proven charges nakweactress Karthika Nair’s Mathematics) organised bycent theof Meera Kaul is consequently Tamil around for prashant Foundation in Dubai. What was a film journal- so erratic at work that it is hard painted, distractingly long claws the hero to find her ist doing in the midst of female STEM entre- to believe the agency would risk and over-made-up face overshadher, if yousuch haven’t committed a crime, what is or get any kind of respect,” says Sister Undertrial (Indian informal): A person preneurs? I was reminding them that they retaining an employee. owed her actions in theMariola newsto be ashamed of?” TV saysfeaJulia. Sequeira of the Mission SistersToday of Ajmer. Sewho isrepresentation on trial in a court law.made by the there barely get in of films To be fair, American room in Ko (2011). belongs SheSharma’s has beenmore working Ashwin Gupta*,non-Carrie-like an officer with 18 years of ex- queira should Oxford English world’s biggest—industries, fromDictionary Hollywood to tures many to know. Anushka bewith inmates of Ajmer Central Jail for 16 years, periencetoo, in the armed forces, was arIndia’s Bollywood, Kollywood and Tollywood; women butIndian the “lonely/high-strung in lievable TV reporter in PK (2014). ake areuprepresented, (6am), counting rested eight in around a counselling helping them and that when they too often success” label isyears oftenago floating for the Let me be clear: I am notand dissing homemakhigh-profile case. “We were in with education, if they are so dein(6.15am), chai (6.30am), lock ones they’re steeped in gender stereotypes. in less traditional professions, and too ers, nurses, teachers or models. I’m merely [Tihar]are jailglamourised for six years to before a clined, or just lending willing up (7am), dalialiberal (9am),than lock up While Hollywood is more In- many the point of being manding more onscreen female leadsain other “There’s hardly inanyone to (9.30am), lunch (3pm), lock unreal. chargesheet filed… so I’m dia’s entertainment industries in this respect, In thewas long-running show Castle, forwithfields, whoseear. work is significant the story Strewn sheets hear them out. That’s one of the upis(4pm), dinner (7pm), lockwoman-unfriendup (8pm), sleep. example, not even sure [if] I was ‘under- how it still a male-dominated, it’s hard not an to wonder the gor(as it is with male characters), who are emoand quilts, the floor is Repeat. year-and-a-half, this was trial’!”homicide says Gupta. “It was one biggest says. ly world.For Foraproof, look no further thanunderSand- geous detective Kateof Beckett’s kneesof limbs. tionally and atproblems,” peace withshe their family/ a tangle Thestable the darkest periods of my lifeYork Notwithstanding chaltrial Maria’s* at Ajmer highest-paid Central Jail. survive ra Bullock, oneroutine of the industry’s running around New chasing Film and TV have the great powwalls too are personal crowdedchoices. and I try not to think of it tooheels. with graffiti, lenges of rebuilding life under Charged today. with criminal conspiracy and heroines Over the years, Bullock hasthe re- murderers in those impossible er and to influence minds. The struggles anda murder ofplayed a priestprofessionally at a local temple, along much. myit background free sky, thousands of men and peatedly successful Here Despite in India, is not uncommon for a fulfilment of Arati from Satyajit Ray’s Mahanaphotographs of gods custody with three men, she claims shewomen was not at the in the heroine forces, I was women on screen. Sadly, those have in- film’s to benot of mentally indeterminate of profesgar (Bengali, women 1963) andunder Nirupama Rajeevsaw froma every religion scene of crime, but at home with her family. prepared for around something like glimmer of hope following a Suvariably been lonely, socially awkward or sion, hanging waiting for the hero to Rosshan Andrrews’ How Old Are You (Malayathis,”her. he says. are moneypreme orderthan of September Her motherdysfunctional. Julia* says, Maria, of five find downright In Miss one Congeniality If she“Ifisyou visibly working outside the lam, 2014) are moreCourt inspiring their creed, youshe canisget privileges 2014 allowing who daughters, up with the wrong boy, house, (2000), she“got wasmixed a grumpy, frumpy, brilliant most likely toinside. belong to a profes- ators could imagine. If evenundertrials one little girl or have half their who, it later turned out, was(2002), also married.” Otherwise, the most basic FBI agent. In Two Weeks Notice she was sion that iseven deemed socially acceptable for grown woman outserved theremore sees athan character on likely sentence if convicted, todo walk jail Youngest of the 20 lawyer, inmatesordering in the female ward requestsor will turned an environmental takeout at women upsbethe film’sdown.” glamour quotient. screen and thinks, “if she can it, Iout canoftoo”, in jail for andone. ‘Beti’ at 19, Mariashe says shea Out on like bail,Rani bothMukerji’s Maria and Gupta have within months. The Centre too instructed home In to Themost, Proposal (2009), was Women tough police ofthat is atwo huge achievement. triedin to Mardaani start a meaningful life, but it has been the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to crewas “alright ‘inside’, onlya homesick”. Follow- ficer nasty publisher without sex life. In Alfonso or Priyanka Chopra’s boxing mm vetticad the author of in Thethe Adventures ing her release few weeks ago,ahowever, she champion far from easy. if proven innocent, it’sProdif- anna ate a database of allisundertrials country. Cuaron’s Gravitya (2013), she was surprisingly in “Even Mary Kom last year are rare. t@annavetticad an Intrepid Film Critic Nearly five months on, however, the situation is reluctant to step outside the house. tell ducers ficult for undertrials get limited their old life back of inept engineer-astronaut with a sad past,“Iwho may argue thattotheir portrayals

R Q R

ND-X _ A

Go ﬁgure Total number of jails in the country:

1,391

Total capacity of jails in the country:

3,47,859

Total number of jail inmates:

4,11,992

Occupancy rate (2013):

118.4 per cent

(increase of 6.2 per cent from 2012) Total number of convicts:

1,29,608 (31.5 per cent) Total number of undertrials:

2,78,503 (67.6 per cent )

Number of undertrials who are illiterate or educated up to Class X :

1,17,373

Most overcrowded state prisons: Chhattisgarh (261 per cent)

and Delhi (216.8 per cent)

Undertrials charged with murder (IPC Section 302):

60,110 (26.5 per cent)

Increase in number of undertrials (2012-2013):

9.3 per cent (up from 5.7 per cent) Source: Prison Statistics India, 2013

Kafka in Ajmer? Out of 913 prisoners, 439 are undertrials at Ajmer Central Jail anita buragohain

watch cover

saturday, january 31, 2015

remains largely unchanged. (The next SC hearing is on February 3.) India’s undertrials must wait a while longer for freedom.

Criminal disparity At Ajmer Central Jail, out of 913 prisoners, 439 are undertrials, and four barracks, each with room for about 100, are reserved for them. Strewn with sheets and flimsy quilts, the floor Forgotten and forsaken is a tangle of limbs as prisoners sleep within Prison Statistics India 2013, released by the Nainches of each other. The walls are crowded tional Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), is the latwith graffiti, and lined with posters and est consolidated tome on Indian prisons framed photographs of gods of every religion. bursting at their seams. According to the reOn the surface, life here for an average con- port, the total prison population in the counvict and an undertrial seems much the same. try at the end of 2013 was 4,11,992, of which, And yet, there are marked differences between 2,78,503 or 67.6 per cent were undertrials. the two. Unlike convicts, for example, under- While many of them serve not more than a year in prison, over 20 per cent trials don’t get to work at any of of undertrials are jailed from a the carpentry or handicraft year to more than five years shops, and while away most of without proven charges. “Once their time under a lone tree in Unlike convicts, inside, they are forgotten,” says each barrack. They don’t even undertrials don’t get Sequeira, “Many are arrested in have uniforms, and make do — to work at any of the petty cases; some even for what sometimes for years on end — carpentry or with the shirt on their back handicraft shops, and they call ‘protective custody’. when they first walked in. while away their time But since the inmates are largely illiterate, even they don’t know Vasudev Singh, the newly apunder a lone tree in what’s happening, and it takes a pointed superintendent at Ajmeach barrack. They long time before someone cares er Central Jail, however, toes the don’t even have to look into their matter.” official line, and reminds those uniforms There are various reasons for who uphold the ‘cause’ of undersuch institutional ‘forgetfultrials that not everyone is above ness’, of course. But the most blame, and that the law must be worrying among them is the fact allowed to take its course no matter what. Singh says, “It is important to unthat certain professionals stand to gain from derstand the nature of their offence and their longer periods of incarceration for underbackgrounds. It’s not only they who suffer trials. Ravi Nair, executive director, South is a busy time of the year for art aficionaHuman Documentation Centre once tarrested, but also their families — not to Asian wood and withRights intricate carvings, the house’s what with the India Art Fair follow- (SAHRDC), Delhi, says,with “Even thoughwatercola few atforgetdos, those of the victims’.” interior is festooned Munshi’s ing close on the heels of the as Kochi made bylocal the legislature and execIn many of India’s megacities as well sec- tempts ours of were one hundred faces — a memorial Biennale, but Ajmer, no onethis is complaining. the profession hassuffered unfortunately ond-tier cities like ‘background’ or utive, of sorts to legal the Kashmiris who during edition, the India Art Fair failed to cooperate theNow lackinofitsitseventh keeps many undertrials behind the recent floods. with them to bring about has on over 90criminal art booths fromsystem, 85 gallerchanges.the This is because in Art many small bars. Inview the Indian justice in these Explaining vision behind Projects, ies. An especially section this—year is towns and in lower courts cities, the law-a addition to a bail exciting bond, a local surety a perShahane says, “The India ArtinFair is already the Art showcasing several a substantial portion run of their keep son whoProjects takes responsibility for thecreative, under- yers very earn successful, professionally event, so eccentric and performance tools like really bail bonds, and hence don’t trial to stay in provocative the city during the periodart of from there is no need to do anything radically and live curated “Most by Girish Shahane, the want to actively change the status quo.” trial — is acts mandatory. of the time, even different. I hope my involvement has imevent’sbail artistic director. Another cited is inordinate dewhen is granted, there is no local surety,” proved the reason Specialoften Projects section and the lay“The India Art an Fairadvocate is no doubt commercial lays in the trial procedures. “In other counsays Ajay Verma, witha Internationout. Additionally, we have a conference, and a venue for selling art… However, this year we new series of short, focused talks called the want to push the envelope with a concentrat- Spotlight Series.” ed focus on performance art,” says Neha KirThe line-up of speakers includes Adam pal, founding director. Szymczyk, the artistic director of Documenta So there’s the Gallery Maskara artist Priyan- — the famed art symposium in Kassel, Germaka Chaudhury’s live performance that in- ny; Dr Venu Vasudevan, director of the Nationcludes munching on citrus plants. Her al Museum in Delhi; Jeremy Deller, artist and performance titled ‘How to become the Lem- curator of the British Pavilion at the Venice on Butterfly’ (the butterfly of Biennale; Julian Stallabrass, proDeath) sees her mimicking this fessor at The Courtauld Institute extremely beautiful insect that London; and Sheikha Hoor al destroys citrus plants. The idea is Qasimi, director of the Sharjah Latitude 28’s to push the boundaries of huBiennale. The focus, clearly, is on Muhammad Zeeshan man endurance and question nothe business of organising and has created an tions of beauty. curating Biennales. ephemeral painting Diaspora artists Chitra Ganesh With booths and booths to that self-destructs and Dhruvi Acharya tap into popchoose from, the buzz this time during the course of ular comics such as Amar Chitra has centred around Shrine Emthree days Katha by painting live on a joint pire’s showcasing of Tayeba Becanvas. The anonymous graffiti gum Lipi’s sewing machine artist Daku’s 100-meter-long installation made of stainless stencilled mural on asphalt capsteel razor blades, Atul Bhalla’s tures the mood on the street. limited-edition photographs at the Vadehra Meanwhile, Latitude 28’s Muhammad Art Gallery booth, and Volte Gallery’s ‘Based Zeeshan has created an ephemeral painting Upon’, a shiny metallic map of India created that self-destructs over three days. SKE Gal- by a group of artists. lery’s Sudarshan Shetty has documented International works attracting attention inmundane chores in a theatrical manner to clude the humorous sculpture by Israeli artist provoke thoughts and responses about the David Gerstine, showcased by the Bruno Art unpredictability of life, while Nandita Ku- Group; Latvian artist Anita Arbidane’s stunmar’s letter-writing project harks back to the ning oil-on-canvas, which transports viewers days of handwritten epistles. to another dimension; and the light installaEqually thought-provoking is the installation artist Stephen Knapp, showcased by Brintion by Veer Munshi — the 20x12x12-feet ‘Seren- kerhoff Fine Art. ity of Desolation’ depicting a traditional Alongside this sumptuous creative spread, Kashmiri house felled by floodwaters. Made of Delhi Art Gallery is hosting a large and com-

Alive to R the arts

The ongoing India Art Fair goes beyond buying and selling to showcase offbeat live acts

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Justice delayed is… Over the years, while various announcements and judgements have been made to tackle the ‘undertrial situation’, little has changed on the ground. Despite the landmark verdict by the Supreme Court last year, no state seems to have followed its guidelines, and the Centre’s order is yet to be implemented. “However, such initiatives by the court and the government are welcome. The problem is that there have also been similar initiatives in the past. But they have failed to create sustainable solutions for the problems facing undertrials,” says Divya Iyer, research manager at Amnesty International, India. “The accurate computerisation of prison records across all jails in India will go a long way in effective data management. This will help in the easy and timely identiﬁcation of undertrials eligible for reprehensive exhibition on the history of India’s lease as per modern andlaw.” contemporary art. Here you get thenofthey pay for “a and regressive anUntil overview the must art movements artists bail anti-poor system, and [culture of] wholaw, wereancentral to the country’s emergence viewing prisoners as mere numbers,” as an important centre of culture and art.says The Aparna assistant at the NaYes BankChandra, Art Lounge hostsprofessor varied talks by arttional Law University, Delhi. Chandra has been ists and collectors. researching justice reforms for the The visual criminal feast of artworks is punctuated last six years, and by believes greater sensitiby book launches artiststhat Arpita Singh, Kiran sation of officials, thetolegal and police Nadar and Sushmaboth Bahl.inNot forget the culisystems, is the waymany to go.varied She says, India, nary treats at the stalls“In and the the ﬁrst step infrom policeaprocedure to make an auditory feast live band. isAnd, in case arrest… when it should the last.” and tinsel you’re wondering, therebe is glamour Sinha, of thearchitects People’s in Prabhakar the mix too. “Wepresident have targeted Union for Civilwho Liberties (PUCL), echoes Chanand designers will be catering to celebridra’s opinion, and adds thatand the Gauri problem is ty clients like Hrithik Roshan Khan, elementary, really — “Jail be the who will visit to shop forshould art to liven upexceptheir tion and bail theand rule. Unfortunately, in our new apartments homes,” says Kirpal. country it’s the way till round.” (The India Artother Fair runs February 1, at the (*Names haveGrounds, been changed NSIC Exhibition Delhi) on request.) sibi arasumaddox is a Delhi-based arts writer georgina

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Personal experience can The ugly Indian mislead us

significantly to the movement that culminated in the passing of the Defamation Act 2013. He and likeminded colleagues have since set up the Good Thinking Society ‘to encourage curiosity and promote rational thinking’. Looking back at the time, Singh savours his victory: “So many people were being threatened and that was ridiculous. We were writing in public interest, and if we can’t write what we want to write, that means that other people don’t hear what they ought to be hearing.” When pressed for why he’s willing to go out on a limb, Singh lists his many advantages — a wife, Anita Anand, who is a journalist; a steady income from his books; their ownership of their home; the powerful allies they have been able to call on. But later admits ruefully, “I get so angry, I get so frustrated when I see people being ripped off, people being taken advantage of, when I see people saying things are scientific, when they’re pseudoscientific. Those make me so angry and annoyed that it’s easier for me to do something than to just live with spent Republic Day on a train, travelling is surprising. It was just that this was less than tudes, that pent-up aggression.” piles of plastic garbage broke the vista from Amritsar to Delhi. Minutes after we a couple of hours after the magnificent cere- of the green It seems fieldsanof uncharacteristic Punjab. There wasadmission rubboarded, perhaps not to be outdone by mony in Delhi in which popular Prime Minis- bish from an otherwise even-tempered man, and everywhere. the show of arms and weaponry at the ter Narendra Modi did his best to showcase solone it’s kid perhaps Singhupoften The in the fortuitous coach keptthat everyone grand parade, four people started a loud argu- the glory of our country to US President Ba- withfinds his attention drawn more whines playful suba recurring cycle of loudtosongs, ment. At issue was the space in the luggage rack Obama, and so it seemed an appropriate and jects. latest — Thefocused Simpsons and Their wails,His while hisbook parents relentracks. Since some people were travelling with day to passively observe the Mathematical — celebrates the iconic lessly Secrets on unlocking achievement more than one piece of luggage, and everybo- greatness of its citizens. American TV show’s history embedding levels on Candy Crushofon their dy absolutely has to be seated right below While it must be said that Indicomplexfancy theorems and equations into phones. Every once inunlikea their suitcase, the resulting fireworks were in- ans manage to bring in a modily places:while, the blackboard Bart’supclassroom they wouldinlook and Since this was the evitable. Much shoving and pushing ensued, cum of ugliness to every public the scoreboard DufftoStadium Springbark at theat maid take the in child executive coach,orthe first of the said baggage, then of each other. situation, it is particularly pofield. (Singh’s favourite episode, case you outside. The maid, whoindidn’t arguments started in Decoder Simon Singh watched hours and hours of The Simpsons to unearth its many mathematical secrets Sincek murali this kumar was the executive coach, the argu- tent when we travel. Earlier that are curious, ‘Treehouse of Horror VI’.) To look is older than a teenager, strugEnglish but quickly ments started in English but quickly moved to same morning, I happened to be bookas he watched the kid endless kicked repeats and of moved to Hindi write and thegled imon mothers, Singh is immediately Hindi and many sisters and recognisabody talking ports askingwho for evidence the crowd to that a person runs a frommany the show,slapped quizzed the team composed herwriting and refused to mothers, ble in aeven crowd — hisbuttons dramatic haircut parts were invoked, as shirt tried drew anecdotes. “I think really importravelonly business. She was in Tur- it’s of an astonishing percentage of math geeks budge. None of this seemed to sisters and body parts on a test. Mohawk and his oval, to withstandriffs a stress It was, despite thegoldtant that people evidence thaninvoked per- and pored key in December, sheuse said, and ratherwere over an commentaries andfrom behindwarrant admonishment rimmed glasses glintthat in the light. flying spit, comforting to know as far as One sonal experience. Personal was visiting various hotels in or- experience is a the-scenes hisreports. parents. They looked on, not of Britain’s leading communicators, territorial protection is science concerned, the 67- der to good starting point but our personal experiarrange accommodation By following this and obsessions, as though this other problem wasn’t the Singh left Cambridge with a PhD in particle year-old nation is in safe hands. ence can mislead us.as Our personal experience author, whose for her clients. As soon they emigrated from India theirs, parents but as though this wasn’t physics and with a stintwas at CERN. Meanwhile, in followed the samethat train, a friend that bloodletting was good, our per- in the 1950s, heardtold thatusshe was representing is giving his son a very different a problem at all. He then joined the BBC She as a too producer and ditravelling in another coach. was witsonal experience toldthe usmeeting that astrology groups of Indian tourists, ended. was You childhood his own. In March, the family could seefrom this kid, 20 years later, rolling rector working on programmes such Tomornessing a great battle, she whispered on as the Our personal experience Somegood. were rather rude, even. Groups of Indian up his sleeves and is looking forward to seeing taking on a fellow passen-a full row’s documentary phone, thisWorld time itand was aHorizon. group ofHis three adults tourists tellsare us notorious, all sorts ofshe things. In the way ger who showedsolar said, for eclipse of from the Faroe the audacity touching his IsFermat’s seats Last Theorem won himofa BAFwho about were allocated in different parts he says, over the from the bag. At least as farlands they fact,” behave. They peering take everything — the last one in Euas a behavioural andvisible culturTA award and an He is also the compartment butEmmy were nomination. absolutely insistwhere we’re sitting, roomterrace — not just the tiny bottles of shampoos al continuity is concerned, rope till 2026. In the meantime we have nothing to at It’s easier for me to thesitting author of five books, Fermat’s ent on together. Whennotably more than two Last “the world looks and soaps, but kettles, hairpretty dryers,flat coffee mugs worry about. home, he and Hari are discoverdo something than to ing toscience Theorem, Book andtoThe Simpsons people refusedThe to Code change seats enable this, and from bed here.” and even linen. They order room service together. With 10 minutes reach Delhi, the They great conjust live with that Theirflared, Mathematical Secrets, but it’s thelantitle of tempers shirts were grabbed and Singh’s fierce commitment and check out without paying the bill. There race to be the first ductone experiments they put out of thewhere compartpent-up aggression fourth book, in 2008, that guagehiswent down the published toilet. A free-for-all to instances science runs deep and breaking ment began. Suitcases are even of Indian tourists soap inblocked the microwave, sprinkle passageways prompts me to but ask him about his opinion of looked imminent, somehow someone strong, what him the fire alarmit’s in the room,saw misconstruing its and finally after different substances ontrod the gas being trampled on and homeopathy. managed to defuse the situation. (I am always blinking through lightatoharrowing be a videofive-year camera surrepti- over for no reason oven to than see what colours result other a general disreTrick Treatment? Alternative intrigued byor people who make such a Medicine fuss to on battle with Britain’s tiously recording them! antiquated effect acid has on spect for anyone and who test is notthe family, I managed Trial showcases penchanttoforDelhi speaking Back sit together. Flying Singh’s from Chennai libel law. It alltrudge beganand withtrample, a 2008 blog publishhome, we spit and seeds. Singh he Even definitely hasn’t set his to get out and gosays home. though it was mind, which heyoung seems more happy to once,his four strapping men than shuffled ed on The Guardian website which he—critipee without irony or apology. Thein train itself on hisI boy growing upthe to be a scientist, past hopes midnight, couldn’t resist urge to again. around “All thein evidence havethat tells us somedo 15 people order towe ensure cised Express, the British Association a Shatabdi used Chiropractic by the upper class — catchbut instead wantsofthem to just Day enjoy a repeat telecast the Republic pa-their thatinhomeopathy doesn’t work, for any condithey sat the same row. I was expecting a big (BCA)the forfailure claiming that Swachch chiropractors exhibited of Modi’s Bharatcould together. “He understands whatsolan exrade.time It did look grand — the marching tionto at start, all,” heperhaps says emphatically. a treat childhood meeting a discussionDescribing on an campaign. conditions such as Within minutes, the floor wascolic lit- and is,” he BSF says,men explaining that the fivediers,periment the daredevil and the brave lecturemerger he gaveor theanday before at an impending acquisition. Asuniversity, soon teredasthma. The organisation responwith abandoned teabagspromptly and empty year-old already proponent of the scientifmartyrs. Truly,isIndia is aa great country. Which heflight revealstook thatoff, in an poll offell his auas the allimpromptu four promptly ded of bycashew suing him libel under Britain’s pouches nuts.for The washrooms were faic it method. In the process, Hari is are already makes even more tragic that Indians dience, 49 perupcent said theywe thought it effecasleep and woke only when had toumously sympathetic a puke-inducing, smelly laws. mess. Outside the completely absorbing some of his most profound undeserving of father’s it. than two modern chedtive, down.albeit It wasless the effective most puzzling Singh refused backcan down, spending tens convictions, not least of which is seeing is not window, where these to things conveniently t@veenavenugopal and a mere one none per cent said be it attributed hoursmedicine, of my life.) Truly speaking, of this of thousands of pounds defendingmultihimself in always believing. to the great unwashed doesn’t work. court, but the trial galvanised libel reform Singh isn’t feigning his dismay when he re- campaigners and is said to have contributed smriti daniel is a feature writer based in Sri Lanka

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

dipankar

PRESENT IMPERFECT

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What if the lovers Stories of the soil were female? UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

My mitti comes from Gorakhpur and Banda, the two small cities of UP that I have lied about Sarah Waters on the untidiness of reality and writing frankly about sex andAuthor called “home”

Close encounters In Gorakhpur, people, like ‘free ﬂow’ salt in a saltshaker, stick so Something for close together that everybody Sarah they block the few Waters has made a paths that individuals career might have had to out of unearthing facts in kumar escape akhilesh unusual places

charlie hopkinson

ll writing arises from somewhere, jam, flicker and fail. Generators thump across early victory to ease his passing. carries the taste of its mitti, its soil. the city, belching clouds of black smoke, exThe people here are dry too, of few words My mitti comes Gorakhpur ow do you from find lesbians in 19thand pose fewerher smiles. They to remain pressing the of displeasure of the rich, and the no subhandful modern authors to tackle characters dangerseparate as well asno shield and Banda, the two small cities ofbook century London? For her first matter how closely they live to each other, traffic light works long. Theanpeople, like that ject, who haveforgarnered audience them from suspicion. UP that I have lied aboutthe andVelvet, calledthree-time “home”. Man Tipping with their ownhas private shelters deep inside. ‘free spans flow’ salt a saltshaker, so close to to-hetethein spectrum fromstick homosexual Waters already sold the rights of the Gorakhpur isBooker to thePrize north, less than a Wanominee Sarah they forward emerge, are chil- it gether that they the few paths that indi- But their rosexual andblock everyone in between. book,smiles, and iswhen looking to seeing 100km Nepal, for andwomen my grandfather tersfrom went looking cross-dressers in dlikeadapted in an innocence vidualsIronically, might have had to escape. this in part by she accomplished on film. It’sthat likelyistoonly only possible boost the auwould take and me to the roof of theThere farmhouse to evi- writing fabulously, and often, about sex. “Sex police prison records. was other among people who haven’t the chance to author’s reputation — afterhad all it was the salty, contrast with and the mitti of Banda, in Bunsee the Himalayas loomhistories, in the distance on re- he dence too: medical love letters, enjoydacious their childhood years,ofsoTipping they store can be exciting erotic, funny and uncomBBC adaptation the Velvet delkhand, the great Deccanfrom clear cords mornings. This isliving the terai belt, rich with of women together as long-term themthat up first for the moments people they Befortable allon atthe theedge sameoftime, or it moves catapulted herand to fame in 2002. Plateau hastobroken so very many both companions, the soil and water comes from being all ofthat which provided rich fodsurprising with who the had onethat thing another easily,” says the au- fore thatlove, she was a humble you academic, armies, could hardly be greater. so close to the mountains butPaying not among der. For her latest novel The Guests, Wanewness, shythesis intensity. thor, explaining that she strives to capture just completed herthe PhD on lesbian and It is athat dryvery land, and the soil is home a them.ters It istells known rich farmland, its mosme for thatitsshe read transcripts of court The fiction mitti of from Banda, of late Bundelkcomplexity. Back in the UK, she gay historical the Victorian threadbare blanket thetime,” and finds it period onwards. quitoes andtracked an infestation of bandits. Thelooked wa- at cases, newspaper headlines, hand, has another particular sees “sex on thecovering telly all the She has since written five verock.boring The only plants in much of “it’s ter table is so high that the water will seep advertisements for kitchen gadgets and wadmeaning forfinding me. and dishonest because perry successful books, the transition to Wealways cried in warning, the region arealways tougher than the For again and again, through the floorhistories of houses the foundation ed through ofifbathrooms, all in the Twenty years ago I accompafect, it’s successful.” novelist a “joyous” one. rocks,Waters, breaking theisland over and“Mitti hai! Mitti hai!” isn’t laid correctly. service of her story. nied the dead body of Sheikh Ah- her reality untidier Waters’ personal life and through twisted,than Sugarcane from this area rich generations Watersgrown has made a career out is of so unearthing madchoices uz Zaman, my uncle and much more interesting have become politicised, gnarled Waterreally,” lies she that instead the usual yellow some-in the facts in of unusual places, andjuice, then itfilling one aofpart the of people I most loved, that. strength. “Sex is in here, the wider conversation moresays than 100ft below the earth timesgaps bleeds deep green when it’s crushed. with a novelist’s imagination. Her dithis gay dry,rights. brokenThe land. Hab- who pointing to her head, “rathabout author Sex is in here, really,across and is beyond capability The guhr, lumps ofhave unrefined sugarprisons, made spirverse interests ranged from were herself few andas far be- moerfar than downthe there. For me, it’s describes ‘serial she says, pointing toitations of most people to reach. fromitualism boiling the in large open pans, is1999) andjuice the Victorian era (Affinity, tween, Holi, and in that drab land,gold about paying attention to that — wears a simple her headbut it was nogamist’ In not summer, there is a period called navi, every stop was at wedding stickytoand almostconmen black, soand sweet that (Fingersmith, it is imorphans, erotica a town where wel-partso much to what your charband.we Shewere and her nine acters days of heatwhat when possible to eat its own like usual butte2002). Heron sentences are the masterpieces of lyripowder thrown areintense doing but rolethe grass comed by coloured ner,water, copyoreditor Lucy Vaughan, burnsthat in its own heat andinbirds fall dead from in celebration. Carrying ry yellow bought at the her cornershop. cism,guhr subtle yet potent; plots corkscrew inthat together broken body to a moment plays the story. have been for over the sky. exceed the cap of 50°C lay at a grieving mother’s Thetopeople too are oftension the soil.asThey soft, the ever-deepening theyare imagine feet, ittypical had become It’s Temperatures capturing the emotion.” decade. With British unthat would require district to is re-set in with effects round of features. faceson areordinary often aslives, suddenTheir violence intensely importantshe that we protect purity atHer latest offering Theauthorities Paying Guests derstatement, describes thethe escalating emergency and are ignored. War lumpy asthe theworlds guhr they with and she roll creates aretheir builtcalwith sort a to of the white as shroud, ouralarming” bodies at 1922, a time of measures, great transition post-World tention havinginterposing been “quite ThereI. isDuring a grandher mosque there built by one herself of between loused hands from that the steaming pans, anddetail craftsmanship ensures historical theHowever, revellersasinshe thespeaks opening of thecomresearch, Waters found times. of being the nawabs Banda, with a huge courtyard theirimmerses smiles can rather be as achingly sweet. But this than intrudes. The Welsh jeep,fortably which was the only vehicle thatshe could pausingofover the infamous Bywaters murder middle-aged, it is clear hasbemade that case. becomes hot that nobody can walk is alsowriter’s a stickybooks part of thebeen worldthrice — village, town have adapted by the that day for such a duty. EdithsoThompson, her husband and hired a her peace with fame. barefoot in man it in named the summer. Instead a thin or city. People clingwon together, for good or ill, BBC, and have her critical acclaim with faagain again, “Mitti young Fredrick Bywaters formed We cried Now,ininwarning, 2015 there areand some things we can strip the of cloth, inawater, is extended mashed into close companionship. Roads are like vourable comparisons to iconic writers hai! Mitti hai!” Because on: thataisWaters’ what a dead three soaked points of love triangle. Edithfor flirted bet comfortably bookbody will win or sothe to the under dome,and andby all only Charles barely Dickens navigable of 100ftwith andbetween Daphne splatters du Maurier. is called, soil, andone all we couldaccolade. yell was this ideashelter of killing her the husband more than literary Anwas adaptathe worshippers walk in a single fileto to do pray cow dung, squatters, strangely immobile Visiting India and for the first time, for the Jaithe earth thatbehad risen and thatseen we three were BBC accounts encouraged Freddie it for for her. tion will considered (she’s waterWhen to a distant god. policemen. An occasional will emerge pur Literature Festival,truck Waters, a petite blonde bringing it back toone where it came from. All we the case went to court, she was charged adaptations, by ITV and the rights for her Shah Suri, the found Afghanguilty general fromwith a maze of alleyways, and grow- her Sher a predilection forstartled suits, is discovering couldlatest say was, is soil!been It is soil!” with incitement, and who hanged. have“It already bought) and will earn builtWaters India’ssaw Grand initiated ling like a wild boar in the underbrush. books speak tocaught a fair number of Indian fans. we could was fail. it asTrunk ‘The’ Road crimeand of the period, in- Allher a Mando Booker Prize nomination. In fact, the administrative reforms that class, would helpfren- This Gorakhpur is a asked verdant and organic place, She is often if it takes courage to emis my mitti, theifsoil which mywill sto-make corporating as it did gender, media we’ll soon know Thefrom Paying Guests Akbarzyconsolidate the of Mughal dynasty, died ries rise. tangled and lowidentity, to the ground brace hersolid, lesbian both in from literature and the politics the suburbs. the 2015 shortlist and her fourth nomination, besieging the Kalinjar Fort that lies too to farwon- but few would argue she doesn’t deserve to which it draws its strength and She which it canand in the media spotlight. says: “I’ve nevReading the transcripts shenot began t@OmairTAhmad awayder, here.“‘What They say his generals lied female?’ about anHow take this one home. not leave. It isa abrave placeperson, where Ielectric gadgets er been could only do it beif the lovers were cause other people have been brave before would that affect aspects of the case?” Waters me.” Nevertheless, Waters is among only a suspected that being lesbian would both ex- smriti daniel is a feature writer based in Sri Lanka

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

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ON THE SHELF

The saddest book A story of separation, of grief, of the different journeys of the living and the lost

anita roy

Compare and compete Policybazaar today accounts for half of all life insurance sales in the country, attracting nearly 1.5 million visitors each month to pick and choose from a line-up of insurers

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t was the summer of 2009 and annual ery button,” he says. A/B testing compares two performance reviews were on at policyba- versions of a web page by showing them sizaar.com, a comparison website for insur- multaneously to similar visitors. The one that Book of The Strange Newunder Thingsreview is well happened ancehe policies. person to buyers me unexpectedly as aeven result of that, even though it wasn’t planned.” fetches more is chosen. But after Whatyear-old things? company you may ask. disclosed titled. that the was Eva’s to put my stuff was out Knowing the backstory, it is impossible not these encouragement painstaking efforts, the company What you mean spending How ₹100 tonew? earn ₹10, anddo collapsed min- there. On an emotional level writing novels is to read Faber’s own love story into the fiction. “spending ₹100 to earn ₹50”. ‘strange’? Answering any such quesutes later. Regaining consciousness after something I did much with andinvolved for Eva. It becomes a farewell, the story of separation, The second legvery of Dahiya’s strategy tion Michel he Faber’s latestto magnum aboutabout half-an-hour, explained the com- Whenever I finished a chapter, she would refining the company’s marketing efforts.read “We of grief, of the different journeys of the living opus would necessitate spoilers — and since a it pany founder, Yashish Dahiya, that the compaand we would talk about it for some spend a lot of money in marketing, as hours insur- and the lost. In this light, it is, certainly, one of large part the pleasure to be had inand this parny had noofway of making money this and would give me excellent feedback. ance she is not a top-of-the-mind product for any- the saddest books I’ve ever read. On the other ticularly strange book liestoin the twists That bleak thought hadnew caused him faint. is over.” Faber explains: “I think I have hand, in the tenderness of this very ordinary body.era People don’t find out about insurance and turns plot, rather do the backstory His fear ofwas notI’dunfounded. The website written the things I wasfind putout on Earth write. products the way they aboutto a car or aI couple’s shared life — far more than in their rethan theup story-story. was set in May 2008 and Infoedge had in- think reached thethem,” limit.”he says. ligious faith, which often sounds self-deluded houseI’ve before buying The eyeballs Scotsman inintro2011, and more like wishful thinking than spiritual I stumbled upon Faberthat by accident. vested ₹20 crore in Michel September year. But In an interview So the idea was toingrab and Eva concept was still of alive and reasonably well, insight — lies something like happiness, someBrowsing through a bookstore onehad day,started a stick- when profitability was miles away. “We duce the insurance as an investCEO andlike co-founder, Faber was working on what er, half-obscuring the cover a book, caught marketing our services, but of only one per cent and hope, perhaps even ment. Policybazaar marketed itself on Google, Yashish Dahiya,thing policybazaar.com would become his lastemails, book, he my eye. On actually it was a glowing of visitors bought recommendation polisome kind of tenuous redempthrough banners and on will “We be the by of my authors; ciesone from ourfavourite site,” recalls Dahi-underneath it said “if it works, tion. It’s not much: the situation otheritsites. tried radio and I’ve ever written”. was a cruel, pointed fishhook on a blank white saddest book other ya, the company’s CEO. on cent. Earth is rapidly disintemediums too, but they did try average ofback 60 per You leave the book The novelnot is told part marketing background. found quickly This meantI that 95myself per cent of hooked — grating, food stocks are running work.inDigital “We don’t sell any high-cost insurance prodfearful and certain Bad products in a the Skin (Faber’s by a to the site,” ucts,” Dahiyalow, and found Underrevenue Policybazaar’s came first book) through the letters shelves lie helpedwritten drive traffic pointssupermarket out. And that has possibly that the future is non-social media era every bit as creepily from re-directing itscompelling visitors to as the cover husband andhewife empty, gain therevolumes is hoarding anda says. across unhelped Policybazaar through bleak for the were all right, but it is promised. to read everything he’d imaginable distances insurance I resolved companies, which lootingthat andincludes a rapid term downward Finally,when the the combination of product portfolio insurstar-dwellers difficult to hush up ever husband, Peter, is sent to aand newly paid written. ₹100 per enquiry. With a as systems of law and ormarketing a user-friendly ance, health spiral insurance and low-cost investthings today Theabout Crimson Petal and colonised planet Next on myvisitors list wasand to spread theToday, the site ment products, few thousand der and break down. No illness, wonderauto the platform worked. the critical — a massive tome, set The to the inhabitants 100 White transactions a month in in Victorian word of God gets are looking for new nearly 1.5 million visitors a and personalcorporations accident insurance offered by London, andSeptember about as farrevenue in setting, tone and there. He is month an old-fashioned 2008, the worlds to colonise: ours is all but and the numbers are nearly 40 companies. place from Scottish high- Christian missionary to the alienmomenbeings used that year wasthe ₹6 alien-infested lakh, way below up. And you32,000 leave the book fearfulevery and growing.talking To retain From nearly transactions Skin as it’s being possible to get. lands of Under the Jesus in a bleakly landscape, the continuous investments made in about that the future is bleak fornext the year. startum the company has setbeautiful up an in-house call certain month, Policybazaar targets 50,000 The book went on and to become a blockbuster water is green andby where rain swirls dwellers. technology, people marketing besides re- where missionary message centre the in Gurgaon, manned 1,000 people. It has hadThe a capital infusion of $15 paving millionthe so BBC miniseries, an A-list cast, and sent in “Our semi-solid patterns. onwhat earth,worked life is way curring expenseswith like rent and electricity. forisexploitation destruction staff went on toBack learn far and busy raising and another round ofsomefundtheDahiya costume department overdrive. Bustles falling apart for his beloved wife, and the relarealised that aon complete overhaul the future beyond the final page. So and what didn’t through trial and error... We where ing for in future growth. bustled, handlebar moustaches bristled, it tionship begins to fray acrossprogramme the light years. was in order. it isevolving there at all, is to be industry found in have a strong mentoring and redemption, Pointing toifthe insurance was very with, fab. his team and he focused on don’t Talking withinhis friend coaching and fellow Toall begin spaces, thedigital fleeting moments hubelieve separate fornovelist begin- the and tiny its shift to the world, Dahiyaofsays, Then cameimprovements. the news that Faber was working David Mitchell, Faber explained: “When your man technology As user-friendli— and even ners,” Dahiya adds. “The industry willnon-human not survive —if connection, it does not on newease novel, which he announced would is dying of a disease that you don’t nessa and of navigation are paramount in partner of kindness, even, that us The result: Policybazaar today accounts for acts change itself. Badlove products in a remind non-social be his last. His wife of 26 Eva Youren, was have and that you are to out- why converting browsers to years, buyers, the company we’re half of allyou lifeknow insurance sales ingoing the country media era here. were all right, but it is difficult to dying cancer — she died such in July and for live they arefor on low-cost a different planet [sic]. hush things up today.” lookedofinto minute details as—the need and her, 70 per cent ULIPs. Its lapse Faber, the point ofbuttons. novel-writing died with her. They’ve already gone somewhere wherethree you anita roy is a writer and director of Young Zubaan for clearly visible rate (ratio of policies cancelled before anita@anitaroy.net “Being a published writer isofsomething rashmi pratap book embodying “We conducted thousands A/B tests forthat ev- can’t years)follow. is 15 perThe cent, wayended better up than the indus- Emptiness For author Michel Faber, the death of his wife meant the death of novel writing shutterstock

The Book of Strange New Things Michel Faber Random House Fiction ₹650

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Not so wild

Surf’s up Mumu and (right) Santhosh are ﬁshermen who have been trained to handcraft surfboards in Mamallapuram aine edwards

Wildlife biologist Dr Vidya Athreya on why the much-maligned leopards don’t really ‘stray’ into human territory or cause man-animal ‘conﬂict’

he now familiar pictures of leopards being attacked by mobs in Meerut or Mumbai, Guwahati or Erode, have troubled wildlife experts like Vidya Athreya for years. Here, the biologist talks about the challenges of survival for man and animal in a crowded country that would do well to look back and embrace some of its traditional ways.

Why did you choose to study leopards? I did not choose leopards. I chose interaction (or what’s often called ‘conflict’), and it’s fascinating, because not only does it involve studying animals, but it also involves people. It has social, political and cultural dimensions. Is that why so many of the projects you’ve worked on have local names that suggest traditional man-animal ties? Yes. Most of us know of Project Tiger, a Staterun programme started in 1973, but have never heard of, say, Waghoba, a large cat deity in Central and Western India, after which we named one of our leopard-centric projects. Ovitla Langda or poetry of the wolf, another project I’m currently associated with (apart from leopard studies in West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh), derives its name from and celebrates the association of the Dhangar community of shepherds with wolves and other animals in Maharashtra’s grasslands. thavadai Street in Mamallapuram (alsomost famous as Mahabalipuram) What were the startling findings in your is ‘Adaptable typical of Neighbours’? any tourist destinarecent paper lined hotels, restaurants There weretion, many. Butwith perhaps the most imand countless for what artefacts. turnfirstleft portant one —shops through was But India’s into Thirukkulaleopard Street and you find a shop ever GPS-based study — is that leopthat butintypical — Temple Surfards isareanything residents and around human boards. A common enough sight inanimals. coastal Eusettlements, not stray or ‘conflict’ rope or Australia, where the waves support surfing, a shop like this in Mamallapuram is a first in many ways. Set up by Australian Dave (who goes by his first name alone), who initially came to this tourist town on the Coromandel Coast near Chennai in 2007, Temple Surfboards is among the few stores in the world that sell surfboards made by hand. “In China, for instance, surfboards are made by people who don’t know surfing, or have never seen the sea. Making one by hand is an art, and each board is customised to the needs of the buyer. It is not just bought off the rack,” says the 37-year-old Dave. Temple Surfboards relies heavily on the craftsmanship of Santhosh, a former fisherman and sculptor, who was spotted by Dave on the beaches of Mamallapuram. Kai Jacobsen, a tourist from Jersey (an island in the English Channel), has been in Mamallapuram for two weeks now and is shopping at Temple Surfboards. “Here, I can actually watch my surfboard being made. And it feels good that it is being made by someone who surfs and shares the passion,” he says.

Homing in Vidya Athreya (far right) and her colleagues collar Ajoba, a leopard that retraced its way home from Malshej Ghat to Mumbai (120km) in 29 days

Making waves

For this joint study, five ‘problem’ leopards, creased anger that can easily be taken out on of which three were females, were trapped in the wild animals around them. Rural folk, human-dominated areas. Two were moved however, are more used to their presence in 50km away and the rest, closer to the site of their surroundings than their counterparts in capture. They were tracked for up to a year. In the city. Trapping and removing them is not time, the first two walked further away (89km the solution; it only increases the problem. and 45km), increasing the chances of conflict as they passed through high-density settle- Have you ever been in harm’s way? ments, including industrial areas — proving No. Leopards, like other animals or even huthat translocation as a strategy is man beings, are ferocious only ineffectual. Thejob other three him cats to Chennai, based on the when In 2007 his brought provoked. When we study customer’s specifications. occupied smallest recorded and withinthe a month he had headed to Mamalthem, we ensurethe they areaddinot Vishnu Kumar Janakiraman, latest home ranges anywhere in friends the lapuram after hearing from that the tion to the outlet’s badly six-member treated. Collaring is donea team, shows A lot of focus today is world there — between to waves were good8sqkm for surfing. under anesthesia overseen new surfboard decorated with a and kolam design, on wildlife in 15sqkm. was because access “But IThis couldn’t get a surfboard,” he re- the traditional byfloor vets,patterns so we don’t made endanger with rice protected areas — to food, such as stray ro- in this his- flour or chalktheir counts. The sight of dogs otherand surfers lives or ours.Tamil Nadu. “A powder across which account for dents, especially around garbage torical seaside town, popular with local and basic model of surfboard costs ₹24,000,” says only 5 per cent dumps, tourists, was easier. we the lessen foreign gaveIfhim idea of import- Janakiraman,Memorable ‘good encounters’? who had studied in Finland and thesethe sources, they would to prohibitive worked in Mongolia ing boards. The cost have proved There are before many, but most involve discovering his increaseAtheir homepriced range, re- in Australia passion for surfing though. surfboard A$500 workinginwith the forest departMamallapuram. “The ducingcost the possibility of A$800 conflict. would as much as by the time it only condition ment in Akole, Sangamner, in for anyone working in Temple Also, allinthe big cats steered clear of people, northwest Maharashtra. landed India. “It was too exOnce had collared Surfboards is thatwe they have to be venturing out at night. pensive for local people,” says a leopard anda itsurfer,” was sitting in a trap in the forhe says. A lotwho of focus today, Dave, had by thenincluding started a in Project Ti- est nursery. A local who was makWithforest their staff, shared passion, the ger, is diving on wildlife in protected areas, which ac- ing sure no team scuba venture called Temone disturbs called me one can be it,regularly found count for only 5 per cent. There are plenty of condition ple Adventures in Puducherry evening to report that the just mornings as he was surfing leaving spending The only animals don’t un- working with his beyond friends. the fences... animals for for home — he was waiting bus in stop nearand the rest of at thea day making anyone derstand boundaries! Early inmanmade 2014, he decided to set in Temple Surfboards by — a journalist drove by “Surfing on his motorbike tosurfboards. makes you up a surfboard-making unit in the nursery in search of the leopard. connect with nature. You areI is that they ward have to If wild animals have beentraining staying near people Mamallapuram after told him to divert him somehow. When you I reachumbled… it will smash if be a surfer for a long time, whybranched has conflict Mumu (who later offincreased? hed a while later, a bunch of kids you there make were a wrong move. It I amhis not sureand if the ‘conflict’“He has increased or playing near doesn’t on own) Santhosh. the gate. They said when between the jourdifferentiate the reporting of it intothe media. To a large ex- nalist asked them (Dave) came home convince where thesays leopard they rich or poor,” Dave.was, Back in tent,parents media reports focus ona negative interac- told him it was my that there was cataken away, and theyasaid this 2011, he had launched surfing tions.inSomaking we assume that animals can only competition reer surfboards,” says Santhosh, with a straight We laughed “More and treated in face. Mamallapuram. than causecan trouble. But ask whoin work with 100 who now make one those surfboard a day. the children to a kiloup of jalebis that day! people showed for it. Today competithem and they will tell you that wild animals tions are held in Puducherry, Goa, Kerala and are very shy, The shape of secretive surfing and scared of humans, Andhra What about methods of study? Doisanimals Pradesh. The community growing,” that their response is always to run away. as a says The Temple Surfboards store doubles suffer due to microchips or radio-collars? Janakiraman. workshop. At the entrance, few broken and They might, just as it weismight bothered by Still, Dave knows a longbe way before his Is there a foolproof way ofhave tackling the issue? second-hand surfboards been lined up business the weight of scale gold chains or injections. But it can up. “This is just one-yearNo.repair. But weInside can minimise within better for you find damage foam blanks vari- old. is impossible studyeven thesesoon. largeThen cats probain any I expect totobreak understanding and by using methods ous sizes, which have beenage-old imported from bly other must understand them weway. canWe look at opening outlets in better other of handling theseblanks situations with the help(acof parts Australia. These are given shape to increase frame policy. of theawareness country,” and he says. The Australian locals. Wild animals out of their by waySanto continues his IT work (to support his surfing cording to the buyer’sgorequirement) avoid in people. Those whoonshare spaceWhile with interest thosh a smaller room the right. Have youand everbusiness) grown attached to a big cat?year and divides each them mustsurfboards use traditional, proactive ways between the bigger are for the casual surfer, I like all animals but not an ‘animal lover’, India and hisI’m workplaces in Australia suchsmaller as protecting livestock at night. the ones are suited for making mano- and Ithe likeUK. people as the well.way, I work the to issue of Along he on wants train So far, most ofcater our strategies weresurfer. reactive. more euvres and thus to the serious sharedSanthoshs spaces; I can’t put one to surf the above wavesthe forother. their The spentthe crores on compensaOngovernment the second floor, shaped blanks are passion and livelihood. tion instead protection. But when farmers coated with of resin and fibreglass cloth. Next, parikshit suryavanshi is a researcher, translator mathews thomas based in Aurangabad and writer don’t blank get fair compensation, it leadsdesign to in- prince each gets its own distinctive

Mamallapuram, near Chennai, is a surfer’s delight and home to one of the few stores in the world that sell handmade surfboards

Techie on the waves Sydney-born Dave was introduced to surﬁng when he was just three, as the norm in his family was to “start swimming as soon as you walk”. He grew up and became an IT engineer, but his passion for surﬁng stayed with him and he even learnt to make surfboards.

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Money matters Arvind Panagariya as the ViceChairman of NITI Aayog hopes to prove that good economics is good politics in India pti/kamal singh

Travel log Stay

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His confidence was backed by some fascinating data from state elections. In May 2012, Panagariya co-wrote (with ICRIER’s Poonam Saxena) a chapter titled ‘Economic Reforms and Election Outcomes,’ in India’s Reforms: How They Produced Inclusive Growth, which showed a strong correlation between state growth rates and the ability of incumbent state governments to return to power. It was surprising because conventional wisdom had it that populist welfare schemes, not growth rates, decided elections. Even his own partymen often attributed Manmohan Singh’s 2009 re-election to MNREGA and farmer loan waivers, much more than the outstanding growth rates under UPA-1. The defeats of Chandra Babu Naidu in 2004 in Andhra Pradesh and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in 2011, in West Bengal, further reinforced the myth that reformers don’t win elections. It had become a cliché that good economics was not good politics in India. But Panagariya’s data analysis showed that in reformist high-growth states, 85 per cent of the ruling party candidates won their seats in recent elections, compared to only 52 per cent and 40 per cent in medium- and low-growth Cultural mobility The busy, Baroque-style Komsomolskaya metro station in Moscow shutterstock/pavel l states respectively. This correlation was a new phenomenon: only in the last decade some states witnessed growth rates of over eight per cent, enabling the three categories. This correlation had the potential to disrupt India’s traditional caste- and sops-based election strategies. Good economics was now good politics and there was healthy competition among states to grow faster. As it turned out, Modi became a face of this disruption, coming to national power showcasing his high-growth Gujarat model. Panagariya can claim with some justification that his thesis in ‘Economic Reforms and Election Outcomes’ was validated by Modi’s victory. But Panagarilanded in Moscow to thunderous ap- open for business. And more importantly, we ya jawed visual wondering where I’d knows thatperfection, nudging India towards the free plause. The flydubai flight (yes, it is an want to show you that Moscow is a FRIENDLY market seen him It ample was only late thatHence night stillbefore. requires persuasion. airline, not an advertisement to fly to Du- city,” we were told. The emphasis on friendly he thatrejects it struck — he looks like Ken,ofBarbie’s the me common comparison Modi’s bai, as I long believed) was full of Rus- continued over the course of the trip. “Please government buff better half. In many Medvedev, to those of ways, Ronald Reagan and sians returning home, and while at first I remember, Moscow is friendly!” And it is with Margaret Moscow, seem to embody the extreme end ofre-a Thatcher, leading free-market thought applauseatwas ironic, the beaming leading n a the classroom Columbia University’s reason. Check stories of formers light ofany thetravel NAC’swebsite welfareand policies; Jagcertain new-age fabulousness, without irony, in their respective countries. facesSchool aroundofme indicated that was entirely International anditPublic Affairs dish inhospitable Russians abound. This issue, of of “Policies Bhagwati’s protégé Panagariya will be course. of Reagan and Thatcher sought to genuine. I joined in, onlyPanagariya partly embarrassed. in 2012, Arvind squarely hoping unsmiling Russiansthe who refuse to overturn legacy of their (some- shrink the role of Thethe next three werethat a blur State anddays expand of Over blamed the course the week I spent in National Moscow, times theofUPA government’s to make eye ideological contact or chat bitter) rivals.up convention centres. We visited the market inofwhat were already market econI realised Council (and was(NAC) told) for thatruining Russians do strangers, Advisory thedon’t Indian is so severe that themade a simple omies,” he told In his classroom, Panagariya theReuters Expo Centre, which is 55 in years last year. “Here, Inmuch irony, that especially a city and economy. In the US,Moscow the India story hadisturned city’svisually tourism slogan is acase highly compelling for further liber- dia, we are trying old, massive in the to give and back right markets exhibits full of serious citizens committed topolicy their alising sour after the heady days of 2006-07: aspirational ‘Friendlyeconomy. Moscow.’ In aAfter the Indian seriesendless of space middle of city. there was that belonged tothe them inThen the first place of bullet trains cause of bigger, betterhigh and growth entirelyrate over-theparalysis had replaced as In- graphs he had mapped the key economic and and and the World Trade regulations. Centre at the was usurped by overactive In bionic arms, effect, we were top. But first, was amazed by how American it social dia’s claim toIfame. Unconventional indicators(de)tours in India since independence. Plaza hotel, we areCrowne trying to move fromwhere far leftwe of was. In the long drive from theSingh Vnukovo Air- In Prime Minister Manmohan is pushSince thisgraphs, was a trip all the fourorganised decades of slothhustled since into huffedthepast delegates from thethe centre towards centre.” convention centre, portfor to the heart of the city, the radio in ing more market-friendly reforms to the fix independence by the Moscowwas Convention Bu- disrupted dramatically by aroundmay the dismiss world talking about While Panagariya the compariwhere a sudden taxieconomy, was hosting a Durantold Duran the Panagariya his special. And reau, it was the inevitable that it reforms: pro- sons,hush 1991 neoliberal anti-tobacco causes the marthis undoubtedly is the mostasright-wing felltook as PM government Dmitri the billboards flashinggraduate past had Bruce Willis started with ductivity class of international a convention. The and consumption keting person in charge droned in India’s history. Free-market Medvedev in smiling benignly. students. But the Sonia GandOpen Innovation forum is Mosa leap, growth rates and capital walked on about halls that arefor 15,000 proponents like him, marginalised decI wascrew hosted Moscowinbythe a quasi-govern- cow’s largest markets hi–led of in socialists technology and took off,in-the balance of ades in our policymaking, square metresfinally big with haveperfect an opIn Coneffect, we are mental organisation calledhethe NAC is holding Singh back, as-Moscow novation exhibition. payment crisis The was averted and portunity to acoustics, so on and so forth. We create legacies as the thinkers trying to move from centre vention What’s Bureau.worse, Junketthey tours, serted. arelike the one I convention a renoforeignwas currency reserves and policy wonks wentwho to a decisively TV tower moved which was Indiaa far leftof of the centre was on, are often an uncomfortable imposing populist welfare mixture vated formersoared, car factory, and though its walls millions were pulled out away convention centre. Wesocialism. even went to a distant from its default centrefreshly sightseeing business meetings. towards On both thelooked schemes on and the Prime Minister, polished and the signages suburb of poverty. seehas Crocus City,of anelite exhibition venue, Modito now a troika Indian-Amercounts,the this wassecurity a high-powered from food bill to one. At the glowed like wetPanagariya paint, theargued ceilingthat seemed to ican India’s whose size does everything to justify the economists at the topit can levels of policyRitz Carltonwhich — a new that tries to look drip with Soviet MNREGA, thehotel governhistory. Moskvitch land, labourThe andiconic capital markets making ‘city’ in its It was Raghuram clear by then whyand the in name. Panagariya, Rajan old, ascould a tourist guide Accordlater described, but was the car that ment not afford. was manufactured here and it Arvind urgently needed a “second genguided Subramanian. tours of these convention centres There is also Bhagwati, beautiful nevertheless a stunning view of eration ing to Panagariya, thewith NAC’s flawed policies was arguably the most popular in the USSR of reforms” to return tocar eight-plus per who would begin charge saying, does notwith havethe anperson officialin post but has the the Red met by organisers, cost us aSquare decade—inI was the race forthe economic par- cent in theGDP ’70s growth and ’80s.and But to thewipe day we there Prime outwere absolute “Let’s take a walkear. around our territory.” TerriMinister’s For those who hail Modi three young women, all of whom looked like poverty ity with China. though, in this was impossible toafath15 history years. What struck me as stu- as tory it was, and often a large one. Anyway, to India’s Reagan, this team will have to match they hadasstepped off the pages Vogue. (NaThe dent Now vice-chairman of NITIof Aayog om. After what that seemed like up thenwalking was histhrough confidence India’s cutto a long short,legends, dear reader, all you need somestory absolute the architects of group Institution — about 10for journalists in all, fromand all chaotic, tional Transforming India) endless exhibits of bullet trains and bionic socialist-by-default democracy will Reaganomics: to know is that Moscow a lot of convention Milton has Friedman, Friedrich kindsof ofPrime places including thetop UK,economic Finland, elect one Minister Modi’s arms,a we hustled into He thebelieved convention freewere market reformer. that Hayek, centresPaul and Volcker they areand all Arthur massiveLaffer. and millions Switzerland and Singapore — have wasa briefed counsels, Panagariya will finally chance India’s centre, electorate where a sudden hush fell as Prime Min- of people visit these every year. had changed fundamentally is the founder of the about themore purpose of the trip.policies “We want to and to shape market-friendly for Inister that Dmitri Medvedev economics walked in. Iwas spentnow all sambuddha pro-growth After all ofmitra this, mustafi when we went to visit Indian show you that Moscow is aJean greatDréze city and is good dia. Amartya Sen’s protégé was itthe day thinking politics. about his taut-skinned, square- The nowPolitical de-commissioned Bunker 42, I managed

Behind the irony curtain A right turn

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toSTATES swap my business-visitor THAT MATTER dreariness with some eager-tourist interest. Located 65 metres below the ground, Bunker 42 was used during the Cuban missile crisis in anticipation of a nuclear attack. We wove our way through the narrow corridors past Stalin’s desk and secret exits to the metro system and ﬁnally came to the room where the nuclear controls lay. A sound-and-light simulation ensued and a volunteer from the group was instructed to sit at a terminal and, at the end of a countdown, turn the second key that would launch nuke missiles. The keys were turned, the dark room shook with impact. It was frightening how close the world had come to this, and as we staggered upstairs, the mood was one of dark brooding. But that didn’t last. For the ﬂoor above was… a convention centre! With a wellappointed conference room. And even a karaoke lounge. I asked the host if this whole idea had a wink-and-nudge appeal to it because who would want to sing karaoke right after imagining the prospect of the end of the world. She looked at me, puzzled, and replied, “No, it’s a good venue. I tried to have my prewedding dinner here, but it was booked. ”

Hand in hand? India inhabits a complex part of the geopolitical map, where the simple binaries of us and them break down, especially for the US

sukumar muralidharan

“safeguarding maritime security and ensuring freedom of navigation and over-flight throughout the region, especially in the South China Sea”. All disputes in the region, it affirmed, should be settled through “peaceful means, in accordance with universally recognised principles of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law Great moves Minin and Pozharsky now stand guard before St Basil’s Cathedral shutterstock/gubin yury of the Sea”. Here again was a challenge to irony, since the US is not signatory the grab law ofthe the sea plans to double in size by the year 2020. The with your leftahand, mindtoyou), nym(or UNCLOS, it wish is called). Expectedly, metro system is projected to add some 100 sta- phet’s breast as and for love, and pat this the Practical purpose clause infor the visionOnce statement forth tions by 2018. If a church or a palace comes in rooster wealth. you’rebrought done with thea In the evening, we went on a quick guided the way, that’s just too bad, it’d have to move. heated tour, response Beijing. capable There were no guided if youfrom feel yourself of navtour of Red Square. Although it was late auimpediments to free movement through This convenient dismissal of an uncomfort- igating the Moscow metro yourself, let the me tumn, Moscow was still in a touristy, summer able history is not relegated to Moscow’s warn Southyou China it said, effectively the thatSea, you’re quite wrong. I asking confidentwhirl. There was a sound-and-light show, and buildings. It also extends to imagery. The met- ly USstarted and India butt out of a conversation off to my three-train adventure tothat the as a thousand horsemen marched past the fa- ro stations are a delight and I highly recom- flea was market best carried out amongthe thenext littoral states. in Izmailovsky morning. çade of the Bolshoi Theatre, even the locals mend a guided tour of these (see box for It was Sincequickly takingdented office, when Modi the haslady hadbehind three hurrying home after work were enthralled details). The stations are built and decorated the meetings with counter sawthe mepolitical with theleadership metro mapof inmamy enough to stop and watch. At the other end, with various themes. Some are built like Byz- hand, jor littoral States of handed the Asia-Pacific Indian grudgingly me a and ticket and with its multi-coloured domes like a medieval antine palaces, some are filled with Soviet Rus- shooed Ocean regions the before ChineseI could President me away—even openand my icon of Candy Crush, St Basil’s Cathedral was sia imagery and some are entirely futuristic. mouth the prime ministers of Australia and Japan. to ask for help. At the station, I apeven more gorgeous in life than it is in photo- It’s fascinating. Lenin features in This is in conformity withkind-looking the reading that this proached stranggraphs. Basil himself was a man of the masses, a lot of stations. And even region is swiftly as the newscamper hub of ers, emerging only to have them Bridging the gap? Barack Obama and Narendra Modi prepare to shake hands on nuclear cooperation; despite aclaims barefoot fakir of has sorts, onethose of the global power. Yet as it isthough a tricky geometry though most off were built under away I had Ebola. of It ap/manish swarup that the logjam nowand beenthat cleared, in the know are holding on celebrations most recognisable buildings in the country his rule, Stalin is nowhere to be power, and for the euphoria the wasall precisely at thesearound moments I found Moscow’s was built for him is a credit to Ivan the Terrible seen. That isn’t because Stalin Obama visit,that there is stillbe a degree of sceptiI would reminded of our rather heRussia’s sole Indian journalist called on to didn’t to as itsthink economic fortunes domes- cism and Tsarist romanticism. The statue about how India can these it would be a falter. bad But aloofness hostfar extolling usnegotiate to remember a question to US tic law thehis USface imposes a number hurdles, especially in front ofaddress the church, though, is aPresident story of idea complexitiesthat as anMOSCOW overt allyISofFRIENDLY. the US. to in have plastered on ofcharming, tourist-trap Barack pragmatism. Obama andA monument Indian Prime including a formal requirement allthis arms modern Russia’s to these As Obama touched in walls, he did have himself that in Despitedown, this, talking I don’theads grudge world of ingratiating Minister Narendra Modi, Moscow during represented transacted should be used only in legitimate Minin and Pozharsky (who saved the media were warning that the nuclearI as much as possiMoscow its unfriendliness. salespeople and their the brief press availability in Delhi, chose self-defence. is,ofofwhat course, from Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth in ble. cooperation deal with the US, long touted as But in theThis light we a malleable found its aloofness rather charfawning locals ratheritto extend congratulations onmain the purprinciple. StateStalin, of Israel has been a recip- symbolic of the 1612), was originally located on the Red now newespecially engagement the knowThe about Russia ming, in between this touristported new beginnings in the ient decided of US generosity Square. However, on Victory Daybilateral parades,relathe just in danger of unravelling. will it woulddespite be bestits tomilitary occu- countries, was trap world of ingratiating It salestionship. tanks The USwere newsstruggling agency journalist who wipe pationhim of off Palestinian territories, military to navigate be deemed success of the stations. “That which has undoubtedlypeople anda notable fawning locals. got away similar opportunity Obama woman,” nothing to doguide with would self-defence, their around the statue,addressed so it was plucked a salvage else operation carried the point except in the his visit thatNowhere have Iwas found myon the crises ininUkraine Yemen, and out, most“the perverse reading. and tucked away a corner.and Much of Russia’s out. Details self are in awaited, but the state insurance farmer with the sickle, such a glorious of increated tocity, indemnify US sought clarity heritage, from Modiour on India’s climate sheIndia a moreOrcomplex part of the architectural orange-haired fund of ₹1,500 usedinhabits to be Stalin.” “This sun which is credulity. On mycrore last day in the a freezing equipment suppliers thesnowy event street of nuclear changeinformed position. us, was falling victim to its shining geopolitical map, simple binaries of Friday, guide here, thatwhere used the to be Stalin.” A spotI stepped frominthe into accidents, is widely seen as (immortalised pitifully meagre. Modiofresponded briefly and inpalaces accordance us and them break down. peace and Gum, sense practicality. Ancient and where-Stalin-used-to-be is Bringing a delightful advenMoscow’s old market by And the Indian opinion on with a practised template about India’s comordertotogo Afghanistan is a you US priority, Pakischurches were very easily demolished and re- ture on. And while are at it,and go to the television newsAttorney-General’s visuals, in the Perestroika how best exempt queuing US corporamitment to future generations. And This Obama tan, a vital accessory in the mis- — decorated years, of thousands built in more convenient locations. re- Ploshchad Revolyutsii station oftoRussians up tions the law thatcomplex. empowchose to poke irony is in inevitable, the eye — the had no with sion. 76 Tooexcellent strong asculptures tilt towards pinning of history forUSMoscow — and rub the for bread) and nowfrom a posh shopping groups to filea intentnot tomake see Russia weakened, butThe would India,of and a heightened does namby-pamby plans. city nose the dog’s statuemilitary for good luck (only Inside, while ers waiting forand my individuals coffee, I spotted tort claims is still awaited. photoThe lenonetheless uphold the “core principle that relationship, would sour ties bride and a groom getting themselves India was among gal opinion, it store. comes, will large countries don’t bully smaller countries”. with Pakistan and potentially graphed outside the Louiswhen Vuitton It was many holdouts when bevery contested. India was among many holdouts when the endanger an already delicate strange but Icertainly didn’t think much of it.That Unthe US orchestrated could embarrassing forcomthe US orchestrated global sanctions against Rus- transition in Afghanistan. til an hour later, as Ibe walked through the global sanctions BJP,upon which when brides in the sia after a colour-coded revolution to bring China, yet another among Inplex and came at insisted least a dozen against Russia for the inclusion of down an elected government in Ukraine end- dia’s prickly neighbours, is and grooms,Opposition meticulously standing while strong corporate liability clauses ed in insurrectionary conditions and the Cri- among the US’s largest trading framed by one luxury brand name or the oththe law. mean secession. The reasons would have been partners, with two-way transacer and havingintheir pictures taken. “It’s Friday, Nuclear because cooperation is one clear the day after Obama’s brief encounter tions of $640 billion in 2014. so people get married then they get among many tortuous acts withinElena, the slowwith the press. Aside from a newly acquired With the balance running strongly in its fa- three days to celebrate,” my guide, told moving engagement with naval reconnaissance aircraft of US origin and vour, China currently sits on perhaps the me whentableau I asked of herIndia’s what was happening. US. Despite that thethemselves logjam has phonow a few transport aircraft, most of the hardware largest stash of dollar assets outside the US the“But why areclaims they getting been cleared, familiar with the terrain on display at the annual military pageant of Federal Reserve. Some of the consequences tographed in athose shopping complex?” I asked. holding off on me celebrations. Given conthe republic, he would have noted, was were recently evident in a cheque that China are“Are you telling you don’t go to athe mall or of the picture, after it hasyour beenwedusesourced from Russia. wrote to bail out Russia when its currency avolutions McDonald’s inlarger your country ful to tofocus the nuclear as According to a recent reckoning by the crumbled under the pressure of sanctions ding takeonphotos?” she domain asked me, representative of the whole. A weapons sysStockholm International Peace Research Insti- and an oil price collapse. The ability China re- incredulously. that willmind, neverthat be isused and an of energy tute (SIPRI), India was the world’s largest arms tains to undermine US soft power is a factor in tem And to my the wonder Mossource today contributes over so 2 per importer in the four-year period ending 2013. global geopolitics that cannot be ignored in cow. It isthat incomprehensible in ajust manner encent to India’s mixeverything have, in this With a share of about 14 per cent in all interna- the years ahead. dearing, it makeselectricity you question you manner, represent the entirety ofnoIntional transfers of military equipment, India A vision statement adopted during Oba- think youcome knowtoabout the world. It’s like dia’s engagement with the US. was far ahead of Pakistan and China, which ma’s visit may suggest a new resolve in the ex- where you’ve gone before. And that’s a very tied for second place at 5 per cent each. ercise of hard power. Underlining the hard thing to say these days. India affords a substantial arms market, importance of secure sea-lanes in the Asia-Pa- sukumar muralidharan is a fellow at the Indian Institutevenugopal of Advanced Study, Shimla which the US undoubtedly would be attracted cific and Indian Ocean, the statement spoke of veena

Holding fort Kremlin at sunset ap/mikhail metzel

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Man on the street Telegraphic tales from the Raj THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

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t’s 1.30 on a freezing January morning. A south Delhi, VK Rathore from Chhapra, Bihar, ber is contested. The Delhi Urban Shelter Imbattered Maruti Eeco pulls up next to the too has claimed a patch of the pavement as his provement Board (DUSIB) claims 18,805 pavement under the Govindpuri flyover own. A BSc in Biology, he is now a “full-time people are homeless, the Census puts the ith the invention of the teleat 46,724, and according to surveys by sharaabi (alcoholic) like Amitabh Bachin south Delhi. Three men jump out of netic wave, and all ofjust these waves travelled at number off an instrument taken to the spot for that rohit gupta information could the there at leastof1.5the lakh homeless peochan”. Don’t be a policeman with me, he NGOs, the van and tuggraph, at Dileep’s worn-out blanket, speed of light. purpose. Mr are Crawford Fort Police Court fasterrains. than “No any sleeping mode of warns that is, one cent them of the tous, before off his at length of charged 10 ple, still damp from travel last week’s Scientist Saroj rattling Ghose speaks signallers andpergave 18 transport. would transother ‘home’ addresses a bus he was “… months of jail, talbut population. Some reportsrevialso under flyovers. Chalo, chalo,This night shelter cha- O’Shaughnessy’s career,—saying this led to a complete form theNitesh natureKumar, of administration, business indicate workings. that more 100 lo,” says project coordinator at handicapped stop at Modi by Mills, spot drawbacks sion of the internal one aofcosy the serious An than old-timer and warfor almost entirely across theand British Raj. of homeless this across the Lotus temple.—Aslack theof discipline, had seen them Society the Promotion of Youth Masses a public enterprise poring people over thehave hugedied baskets In 1856, Dileep the Scientific noted that, His “In which While the agencies sharpvan approaches the Moolchand (SPYM). sits upAmerican and shakes his head. was even then pervasive in bothHow Indian of telegrams winter. in the open compound of the Codid a middletwo years four miles of Hospital flyover, Sriram ofGupta companions onthousand the pavement — atelegraphic lone man and European members the staff class, from the laba office….”ly differ over numbers, they well-educated wire erected India. Calcutta, simply breaks intoO’Shaughnessy a run. Any- had agree that people too relucand ahave familybeen — also refuse in to budge. Nothing beginning. In 1850, to disThis incident presaged over aare century ago person with earning Bombay, tele- miss leave the streets. of convincesDelhi, themMadras, to move,Lahore neitherare thenow comfort whereall but a nightoperators shelter, hefor holBengali their capacity refusal toendthe of electronic hacking“One and alup phenomenon here, tant to graphically united...” our biggest problems is to conof a warm blanket, nor a roof over their heads lers. For Kumar and his team at we ask appears that an enterprising of- rusk for SPYM, which manages 67 rain vince the homeless people to or Iteven the prospect of hot tea and ficer of theClutching East Indiahis Company move to rain baseras. They somebreakfast. worldlyonce possessions — baseras (night shelters) in the used an electrihow prefer to sleep under flyovall ofthe twoHooghly plastic River bags as — Dileep asserts all is city, this is business as usual. cal forWhat passing telegraphers, at railway platforms and on wellconductor where he is. he means is that he still ic signals.of Havaldar He used a two ba- No roof overhead pavements,” says Kumar. With over 90 flyovhas a quarter whiskey and two-and-a-half-mile stretch of nanas left to see him through thethe night. “Kitna According to the 2011 Census, 1.77 million peo- ers in the Capital and several record-breaking river, in place wire,have to complete piya hai? (Howofmuch you drunk?)” Ku- ple in India are homeless, with homeless fam- minimum temperatures this winter, the issue the “without anyDileep metallic mar circuit asks. Four quarters, says, holding ilies forming 28 per cent of this. Delhi, with a has caught the attention of the Lieutenantconductor, using the water alone as population of 16.7 million, has nearly one per Governor, the Supreme Court and High Court up five fingers. theInsole vehicle of the theKalkaji electrictemple, im- also in cent living on its streets. However, this num- and even the PMO. a lane behind pulses; and although he succeeded in transmitting signals, he found the battery power required for the purpose too enormous, and consequently too expensive for practical purposes.” Not mentioned in this account are the protests of bathing residents and fishes of the Hooghly. This was only two years after Samuel FB Morse built his famous demonstration system in the US. But Irish inventor and physician William O’Shaughnessy’s telegraph used a different code and, at first, he transmitted the message by imposing a series of tiny electric shocks on the operator’s finger. He also suggested the use of the iron rails of a railway network as an insulated conductor for telegraphy. River as the conductor ‘An Indian Mosque on the Hooghly River near Calcutta’ (1846) by Auguste Borget wikicommons O’Shaughnessy’s fascinating memoir also contains an account of the uprooting of telegraphic lines during the 1857 mutiny. “Then came the de- leave Calcutta on duty, and in 1851, he forced a gorithmic trading in the stock markets. The struction of the lines by the mutineers, and in European inspector to resign for his irrespon- words used by Scientific American in 1855 to dethe thrilling episodes of that stormy time sible activities.” scribe the rise of telegraphy continue to be relthere is perhaps nothing more thrilling than A remarkable episode in the evant and significant today: “… the story of Charles Todd, the assistant in same vein occurred in 1861, we firmly believe the whole charge of the Delhi Office, who fell in the gen- where the perpetrators were two earth — through ocean and overeral massacre, but not before he had signalled Englishmen. The source of this is land — in 10 years more, will be to the Punjab the terrible events at Meerut and an early edition of the Bombay girdled with the lightning rail, Telegraphy also the march of the mutineers on Delhi.” Gazeteer: “… the famous Peetall & and man will communicate affected other areas Some of his remarks demonstrate the erro- Allen incident in 1861 when the with his fellow man, in a few of scientific pursuit, neous (or shall we say, enthusiastic) under- two telegraph operators were minutes, from the most distant especially after the standing of the nature of light propagation at bribed to publish a telegram on parts of the globe.” great trans-Atlantic that time: “It may startle belief, but it is never- the notice board of the Electric Telegraphy also affected other cable was laid down theless strictly true and proved to be so by ex- Telegraph Office, carrying the sig- across the vast ocean areas of scientific pursuit, espeperiment, that the progress of electric nature of one O’Brien. The inforcially after the great trans-Atlaninfluence through a copper wire in these sig- mation thus contained caused a tic cable was laid down across nals is swifter for equal distances than that of fluctuation in the price of opium, the vast ocean. When the thick sun’s light through space. In one second it which depended on communicaundersea cables would be travels 2,44,000 miles. Water conducts these tion with the Chinese, which these thugs cap- pulled up for inspection or repair, they would signals with diminished rapidity, but still rap- italised upon. The Bombay Times & Standard drag along to the surface many new marine idly in less than a second of time, the influen- had reported thus: 35 telegrams from Galle species — crustaceans, plankton, mollusca, ce would pass through a longer line than the had been falsified about the same date, and corals and radiolarians — hitherto unseen by circumference of the globe.” It took several that advice about opium from China had been the eyes of man. decades before the nature of light was better surreptitiously drawn from the wires while in explained by James Clerk Maxwell, who first transmission, by cutting the line on the Bom- rohit gupta explores the history of science as Walk the line Homeless persons queue up to receive freerealised food outside shelter old Delhi reuters/anindito mukherjee thata government-run light was a kind of in electromagbay side of Satara, and reading the messages Compasswallah t@fadesingh

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From ‘Red Devils’ to rodent feast Manchester United have yet another problem on the pitch, and this time it’s not their win-loss ratio

nce, in the not-so-distant past, they seemed almost invincible, winning the Premier League year after year. How the tides have turned! For it seems there is no end to Manchester United’s misery. Languishing 12 points behind Premier League leaders and not being able to win with any consistency, the club now faces a new problem. Their iconic stadium, the Old Trafford, is infested with mice. A hygiene report has revealed that the club is working with

pest control to deal with the rodents in their North and South stands as well as in their staff offices. It is suspected that the stadium’s location right next to the Bridgewater canal is the source of the problem. This isn’t the ﬁrst time this problem has been reported either. Mice ‘sightings’ inside the stadium were reported both in 2010 and 2012. Remember the 2009 incident when a mouse famously invaded the pitch during a rather heated Manchester derby?

Pakistani cricketer has a brush with the supernatural

Lights out Mumbai’s iconic Queen’s Necklace set to go invisible

he coast-hugging Marine Drive is Mumbai’s most popular promenade. Couples canoodle, runners train for marathons, and chaat aﬁcionados polish off Chowpatty’s bhelpuri. At night, the golden sodium lamps ﬂicker on, and the 4km boulevard glitters like a ‘Queen’s necklace’. But soon, if the Maharashtra government goes ahead with its plan, Marine Drive may lose its sparkle. The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST) is planning to replace the older sodium lamps with new, energy-efficient LED bulbs, and reduce the height of the poles. While the poles will be at a reduced height of 9 m, the number of lights on a pole will also be reduced. This new plan is estimated to save 60 per cent on energy cost. Maximum city, maximum savings?

Bowled by a ghost

n tour in New Zealand, Pakistani allrounder Haris Sohail was prepared for a few bouncers from the Kiwi bowlers. But he have encounter Almost home A quarter of the total homeless population lives in the top five metros. In Delhi, roughly one per cent of itswould 16.7 million peopleexpected is homelessansushil kumar verma of the third kind? Earlier this week, Sohail apparently was paid a visit from the ‘other On January 23, from 10pm to 4am, we ac- ister Narendra Modi set an ambitious target — English at after the Bangla Sahib women’s shelter. world’, which he reportedly went into companied Kumar’s team as the rescue van every Indian must have a house by 2022. That’s Shetemporary hails fromshock. Mumbai, until recently The where cricketer claims that skirted past pavements and flyovers in south easier said than done. Nearly 4.5 lakh home- shehelived with herfind younger in avigortwowoke up to his bedsister shaking Delhi, scanning for the homeless, prodding less families (Census 2011) in the country need room flatHe atthen Shivaji Park. A Bachelor of Arts, ously. took refuge in the room of a blankets, disturbing sleeping shadows. Simul- accommodation, that is, around 55,000 sheteam was acoach. teacher at a local school. For the last When the team doctor examtaneously, several other rescue vans were op- houses must be built every year. More than a seven months, shefound has been livingwrong at the shelined him, he nothing with erating in other parts of the city, picking quarter of the total homeless population in ter,the eating one besides square meal a day at the gurudplayer, a mild fever. While the people off the streets, depositing them at urban India lives in the top five metros. “Ac- wara, fighting a case with the Human management believes thatNational it was the fever nearby shelters. That night only 10 people cording to the Delhi Master Plan, around 19 Rights (NHRC). How a midthatCommission caused the nightmare, thedid player is were rescued. Many refused. If some said “jua lakh sqft of space is needed to house the dle-class, well-educated person with earning sure that he had a supernatural experience. lag jaayega (we’ll get lice)”, many others homeless in shelters. We have about 2.44 lakh capacity end upthe here, we ask. from her Meanwhile, hotel has Evicted said that “there feared robbery. Some had moved earlier, only sqft in shelter space currently, which means a Mumbai by “Shiv Sena in 2007,SurGoare noflat active ghosts on thugs” the premises.” to return to the streets. Satyanarayan, deficit of 87 per cent,” says Singh, who has palchari’s lifeSohail took an unforeseen as her prisingly, is not the first turn, cricketer to to the streets Hyderacouched under the Okhla flyover, said he worked with the homeless for over a decade. sister and she moved have a ghostly encounter. Aussieof all-roundto aWatson state-run hospital ward in Amcouldn’t move without his adopted strays, erthen Shane and Englishman Stuart Outside Jama Masjid’s Gate No.2, as night bad, In 2012, Pushpa died of an illness Sheru and Kaalu. Two elderly ladies, who had falls, pilgrims, workers, homeless persons and ritsar. Broad havesister reported similar experiences hospital. homes in Kalkaji, were keeping a nightly vigil migrants occupy the steps leading to the at the while on tourAccusing as well. the hospital of negligence and misdiagnosis, she filover their sons’ flower shops near the temple. mosque, jostling for space, fighted a 28-page complaint with the Drug addiction is another major deterrent. ing over blankets. “Currently, we NHRC in November 2013; her file “Forty per cent of the homeless are drug ad- have 256 shelters, out of which is still under process with no dicts and prefer to stay outside,” says DUSIB 13 are exclusively for families, 20 On an average night, hearing scheduled yet. At the member (Finance) Ashish Joshi. “Addicts often for children, 19 for women and 200 homeless persons shelter too, Gopalchari is an outsell blankets donated by citizens for money to two for differently abled perare rescued from the spoken protester. She writes regbuy drugs.” DUSIB has approached the High sons. A majority are permanent, streets of Delhi ular complaints, detailing verbal Court to police several night shelters, includ- 111 are porta-cabins, 37 are tents, abuse among the women, robing those in Nizamuddin, Bangla Sahib and nine are in DDA community cenberies, and the misconduct of the Yamuna Pushta areas. tres and two at metro stations,” shelter officials. Fifteen-year-old says Joshi. On an average night, On a high or long, all we knew about the appen- around 200 homeless persons are rescued Vaishnavi, who occupies the blanket next to dix was that doctors wantto it removed her, is her only friend. Vaishnavi, whose mothSeven-year-old Suleiman is addicted white from the streets of Delhi. and that you have appendicitis, you’re Baby Hamza was born in the first week of Ja-s theerreorganisation ran away from home, has recently of Andhra Pradeshreturned drags ink. During one ifinspection, Joshi had found for a painful time.ofNot kaunsa subschool,that joining Class V. Tumko superstition is playing a starthe boyin slouched in a corner theanymore! children’sRe- nuary in the Jama Masjid night shelter, whenon, ittoappears that the appendix acts as her mother Shehzadi couldn’t get to thering sabse achchatolagta hai, we ask her. “KareAfter entrances the AP secretariat buildshelter searchers near Jamaclaim Masjid, sniffing a handkerhos-role.ject a safehouse good The body pital. On the neighbouring bed, Shakeelaing she says, with a wide grin. “I have started werela,” changed according to vastu, Telangana CM chief soaked in the for fluid. Thebacteria. shelter houses lies uses thischildren to “reboot” digestive giving herRao tuitions in English, Math Hindi K Chandrasekhar has decided to shift hisand official nearly 20 male agedthe between six system and with her child, weak with illness. A domestic after a bout of dysentery cholera. free,” Gopalchari, asOfficers’ she gently nudges residence. CMsays is eyeing the IAS Associ20. While drugs flow freely, meals areorhard to worker, she was forced to flee her workplace in forThe Studying the evolutionary biology koa- Mumbai. “They made me work from 4am Vaishnavi and clarifies, “They asked subject ation as the place offers better vastu prospeccome by. Most children in the shelter haveofno to office, at Duke University andcurrent not vegetable.” ts than his home in posh Begumpet. Plans memorylas, of researchers their families, and many refuseMedito 11pm, without a break. They owe me ₹9,000 cal Centre have discovered what for a month’s work,” she says. Across the city, Within two shiny where she to keeps are already place fortrunks, his government takeher go to school. Evenin inthe theUS shelters at NizamudlittleSahib pouch the end of our intes- people from all walks of life have moved into over four the saris and documents, Gopalchari is to now premises, which were leased out din andthe Bangla inat central Delhi, which tines is reallyto meant In the koalas, to a semi-permanent residence here. the association for 33 years in 2000, are located adjacent policefor. stations, the dar-un- rain baseras. If some are domestic workers resigned the drug appendix is operate extremely looking for jobs, some have run away from “I never wanted leave Mumbai. My belongmaking IAStoofficers furious about his gah andlike thehumans, gurudwara, cartels long, aiding in their diet, still there. But until this case isif resolvApparently, the with impunity. For children and which adults consists who abusive husbands. Some are drunks; some are ings arehigh-handedness. of eucalyptus leaves.are However, her story tells us how CM leave.” doesn’tIfmove in immediately, want toexclusively quit their addictions, options few. migrant workers, building the Metro. Few ed, I won’t one32 of drug the scientists involved in offithe re- have steady jobs or identity proofs, and only a precarious can be, for others thelifestars foretell that like the Bihari babusba“There are de-addiction centres search local daily, “It’s very bu Rathore, street isgovernance. the only reliable couldthe dominate Concially, but onlytold threea are operational,” saysimporIn- few children go to school. tant for people to understand if their Yet, 40-year-old Kamla Gopalchari stands home. “Come findhas me quietly anytime,” he says. “I’m struction begun on the du Prakash Singh, executive member,that Shahri appendix gets inflamed, just because it out in this assorted multitude, drawn largely availablefour-acre 24 hours.” plot; the swimming pool Adhikari Manch: Begharon Ke Saath. a function it of does not mean they from the poorer classes. “I am Kamla Gopalis the first to go. In thehas inaugural session Parliament, after try to keep it in.” Prime Min- chari, very glad to meet you,” she greets us in priyanka kotamraju the newshould government was formed,

Not an ‘evolutionary hangover’

Scientists ﬁnally discover what the appendix is meant for

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya Court cases

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his week we look at some of the most famous and infamous court cases in real life and ﬁction.

here,there & elsewhere

Encounter therapy B

ins and Pete meet in the driveway, the morning after we arrive. It’s hate at first sight. I’m still asleep when Bins leaves the house to have a smoke but when he comes back in, the sound of his stomping tells me that he’s had his first Encounter for the day. “Twit!” he says, entering the main room of the house. “Grrnnaww,” I mumble, my eyes shut tight. “The short guy who lives next door. What’s his name?” I say nothing, because I’m not awake yet. “Well, he’s a twit,” continues Bins. I’m walking up the front steps and he says, “Going somewhere?” I tell him, “Ya. Inside,” and slam the door. “What’s his problem? TWIT!” Later that day, I meet Pete and he’s got a sour look on his face. “Your husband smokes,” he informs me, as if maybe I’m unaware. “Does he know it’s not allowed? In the building?” I say I told him before we arrived. That’s why he was out in the first place. “Coz you know,” says Pete, “Rebecca upstairs? She’s got a nose like you wouldn’t believe. If she smells smoke, she’s gonna say it’s me, an’ I’ll be thrown out, an’ I don’t have any place else to stay! Know what I’m saying?” I promise to warn Bins. Two evenings later we visit Margaux and Michael. They’re delighted to finally meet the

cornerstone

mysterious partner with the Pondicherryan past. They’ve been to India several times and even to Pondicherry so they take to him at once. Alexander the cat isn’t so sure. He sidles into the room when we’re all sitting down by the ﬁreplace but stops dead at the sight of Someone New. “Come here, da,” says Bins in his most crooning voice, but Alex is unimpressed. Maybe he doesn’t like the Tamil accent. He ﬂows onto the coffee table, where he poses for a few minutes like a great orange puffball, so that we can all admire the way his fur catches the light.

In the early 1920s, the appearance of a strange sadhu covered in ashes at Buckland Bund in Dhaka set into motion which historic case in Indian history?

Then, without looking at anyone in particular he ﬂows off the table once more and walks slowly away. Two days later, it’s time for my weekly grocery shopping with Muriel. We set up our usual date and agree that we’ll allow Bins to accompany us just this once. I tell him to sit in front but he never does as asked so he makes a big production of folding his tall angular frame into the backseat. He looks like a giant praying mantis wearing cement grey denims and a mustard yellow windcheater. “Do you drive, Bins?” asks Muriel. “Ya,” says Bins in his most guttural-Tam voice, “but best of all, I like to be driven by ladies.” Pause. “Round the bend.” For some reason, this completely inane joke cracks Muriel up and they spend the next hour exchanging moronic one-liners. Muriel can’t get over the accent. “He sounds completely Indian!” she says to me in the supermarket. “He’s funny! I like him.” I nod, knowingly. “Yup, everyone does.” Pause. “Drives me crazy!” Muriel’s eyebrows spring up high. “Stay tuned,” I say, grinning, as I pick up a plump head of broccoli. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes about her life in the ﬁctional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

The interest in this case of the early ’60s was so high that Blitz magazine, which championed the cause of the defendant, actually sold for a premium eight times more than its 25 paise price. It inspired a ﬁlm and was the last of its kind in Indian legal history. Name the case.

In which 1997 Spielberg production does former president John Quincy Adams argue eloquently in the US Supreme Court on behalf of a group of Mende tribesmen?

The Indian National Army trials, where INA officers Prem Sehgal, Gurbuksh Singh Dhillon and Shah Nawaz Khan were tried by the British Indian government in 1945, were one of the most widely followed trials in modern Indian history. Where were the trials held?

Which two-word phrase is believed to have originated from hastily carried out judgements during the California Gold Rush as prospectors were ‘hopping’ from claim to claim?

In which popular ﬁlm of the late ’80s does one of the main characters, a British barrister, sport the name Archibald Leach, which is actually the real name of actor Cary Grant?

The arrest of Leonard Vole for the murder of a wealthy widow named Emily French sets the scene for which extremely famous ﬁctional court case?

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Which landmark trial of the ’20s was about the violation of the Butler Act in Tennessee?

Which ﬁrebrand politician and later cabinet minister was on trial in the Baroda dynamite case where he and other opposition leaders were accused of smuggling explosives to blow up railway tracks and other government establishments?

Which author devoted a lot of his later years to ‘The Court of Last Resort’, which sought to review and reverse miscarriages of justice against criminal defendants? Answers

1. The Sanyasi Raja case, where the sadhu claimed to be the prince of Bhawal who was supposed to have died 12 years earlier in Darjeeling 2. The Nanavati trial, where Commander Nanavati was convicted for the murder of Prem Ahuja, his wife’s lover. The jury declared him innocent, but their verdict was dismissed and it was the last case tried by jury in India. The ﬁlm was Ye Raaste Hain Pyaar Kein starring Sunil Dutt and Leela Naidu 3. Amistad, based on a US Supreme Court case in 1841 4. Red Fort, Delhi; the last major trial to be held there was of Bahadur Shah Zafar in 1858 5. Kangaroo court, a term for a judicial assembly that blatantly disregards recognised standards of law and justice 6. A Fish Called Wanda; John Cleese plays Leach in the ﬁlm 7. Agatha’s Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution. Please do read or watch! 8. The ‘Scopes Monkey Trial,’ where John Scopes was accused of teaching evolution to school students 9. George Fernandes. He was defended by Swaraj Kaushal, the eminent lawyer and husband of current External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj 10. Earl Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason

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

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