UNLETTERED LAW? Rajasthan government disqualiďŹ es thousands of illiterate villagers from contesting Panchayat elections. How will this ordinance play out? p2 saturday, february 7, 2015
We were family Kiran Bedi tends to Arvind Kejriwal during his hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in 2012 shiv kumar pushpakar
Allies once, now arch rivals. Will the Capital choose the lotus or broom this election? p10
SUNNY SIDES With its organic makeover, the humble chicken egg ies off urban shelves p6
The Delhi lap dance
I SPY Monica Narula, cofounder of the Raqs Media collective, shares her photo diary from an exhibition p20
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Shadow play? Beatific in Beawar McGrath, director of Rajasthani women wait the MRF Pace to cast their vote at a Foundation, with polling station in coach M Senthilnathan Delwara village, near in Chennai k pichumani Beawar pti
Action replay Former Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath on his dream run on the pitch, the secret of leaving at the right time, and World Cup forecasts for India and Australia
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lenn McGrath, easily Australia’s most successful fast bowler ever, with a staggering 949 international wickets, is currently the director of the MRF Pace Foundation, and has spent a lot of time working with India’s current fast bowling crop. As India prepares to defend its World Cup title next week, McGrath shares his thoughts on the Zen of fast bowling, the current Indian attack and the biggest event on the cricket calendar.
ferent, but their shoulders aren’t aligned with their hips. You don’t try to change that action, you try to get the most from that action and get them to be physically strong and fit enough to be able to put up with fast bowling day in and day out. So that’s what we’re looking to do, we’re not looking to create one style of bowler. If everyone bowled like me, it would be pretty boring.
You had this incredible run of three World Cups. Your team had a very solid batting core with Ponting, Gilchristwas andbetween Hayden — he contest a blazer, a batsmen around whom whole team gas stove andthe a balloon, among othrevolved. Do you think Australia has quite the er things. In the Panchayat elections same batting today? Jhunjhunu disat strength village Bajawa, Obviously, they don’t have the same experitrict, Rajasthan, symbols included everything ence, nogoods doubtand about that, but they’re from there’s sporting household appliancgetting there. The way Dave Warne es to items of vanity. While voters filedhas intomathe tured — clearly cricket local school tohe’s castbeen theirplaying ballot, Test clusters of more... You’ve guys coming in. young and oldgot menyounger stood around the village Glenn who an amazing hitterAnticiof the squareMaxwell awaiting theiscounting of votes. ball, we’ve seen some incredible pation simmered alongside pansthings of teafrom and him. Sorice. yeah, newno generation coming pots of Yet the this was ordinary election. through have the At the end of the day, Last month, theability. Rajasthan government disit’s all about being consistent, and I think Ausqualified thousands of villagers from contesttralia’s beenongoing playing Panchayat some good, consistent ing in the elections. An cricket of late, and that willanyone carry through to ordinance stipulated that contesting the Cup as well. the World Zila Parishad or Panchayat Samiti polls should have passed Class X; for the post of sarApanch, lot of Indian bowlers have gone MRF candidates should haveinto completed Pace andVtheir actionsareas. have ClassFoundation VIII, and Class in reserved changed. oftendisqualified happened that their Bai, 69, AmongIt’s those is Norti natural have not actually used. former strengths sarpanch of Harmara Grambeen Panchayat, So whatdistrict, happens? A bowler comes you with Ajmer who never went toto school and ahas strange action, very different action, no formal education. According to what the 2011 do you try and do with someone that? Census, the rural literacy rate — like a basic ability You don’t want to take what makes to read and write — foraway Rajasthan’s malethem popspecial only reason youitchange ulationor isunique. 76.16 perThe cent; for women, is 45.8 an is if ordinance you see they’re goingcriticism to have peraction cent. The has drawn problems. So they’ve gotand an action diffrom several political social that’s quarters,
I think what’s happened in India is that they’ve gone away from the basics. And one of also thing competent to discharge his/her which have termed it let undemocratic, unconthe main things that’s them down is their One you would say to a fast bowlerduties. who stitutional biased againstdrop the least priviThere is a Gram fielding. Youand can’t consistently catches at was starting off… Sabha, a collective that disleged such SC, ST and It’s cusses allto issues and policies. arething educatthis level, andasif the bowlers arecommunities creating chances, hard narrow it downThere to one — ed people in that. We getI would their opinions. women. Panchayat elections, villagers elect there and theyInare going down, catches getting are four things that say stoodAnd me leaders orthen the decision-makers engineers andisBlock dropped, bowlers are go-for Gram Pan- that of graminsevaks good and stead. First thing selfOfficersyou’ve (BDOs)got — who all litchayat will manage large de- Developmentbelief; ing to operations, start gettingwho frustrated. toare believe helped meenough. understand velopment projects, service delivery erate. So they They will start lookingpublic for wickyou’re good Whenissues I was andrather complex financial records. and carry outgrowing my responsibilities. I was never ets than the game plan. up, a lot of people told Team India has gone alone. For a sarpanch, experience is most imThe state government has job, defended its ordiIndian bowlers did a good me I was never very good, I was away from the basics,— it’s nance do by aasserting since the sarpanches portant a much teacher didn’t great job.that They creatnever goingbetter to make it inthan my and one of the main she says. school,” deliver employment, watershed and rural ed a lotkey of chances, but the fact small country town, I was wastdevelopment schemes, it iswent nec- things that’s let them ingIfmy thetime ordinance beenBut in that so many catches going tohad Sydney. during the Panchayat essary actually for themworked to have basic down is their fielding down, against Iexistence always believed I was good
Australian cricket team. I retired in 2007 after the Ashes. [I] played the first Test in Brisbane; took six in the first innings; left Brisbane after a good win, thinking that I’m still very focused on what I want to achieve. I wanted a thousand international wickets both Test and One Day combined. [I] was home for two days before flying down to Adelaide, went to sleep one night very focused. I woke up the next morning and it was just like… like bang, just like that. I thought those things aren’t important anymore. Something had changed, and I knew then it was time to hang up the boots.
Letter of the new law
An ordinance by the government of Rajasthan disqualified thousands of unlettered villagers You’ve seen our attack in England… Do we from contesting in the ongoing have Panchayat Is this a step in the right direction? the core of aelections. good bowling side?
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election Second, in 2010, is 9.17 per ethic. cent ofI education. Such qualifications, them and made life so much enough. work however,for are not mandated for the sarpanches now in office — tougher India. grew up on a farm so I had that For a sarpanch, elected from 9,166 in Gram PanMPs or MLAs, who deal with work ethic instilled me as a experience is most chayatsfella. — would inelimuch larger constituencies. You ended your Test match Deyoung Therehave arebeen no shortimportant — it’s a gible. the general category, the spite the lackamazing of formal educacareer on this high. You endedway your the harder youInwork, the luckier you get. better cuts, teacher percentage ofto illiterate sar-I tion,Day Norti knows to use One career with how the 2007 World Cup on Third one, is always looking improve and than school computers, excel stands at 6.1 perbowlcent; another high.work WhyMNREGA did you take the decisions always lookedpanches to improve myself on my sheetsyou as well as use Righta secret to In- to retiring 11.9and perascent in theYou SCcan category; when did and is there ing, as a person a player. never formation. As the first dalit 11.06where in theyou ST category; at the right time? be satisfied with are. And and lastly,8.4I perfun. cent under OBCs. effect sarpanch village, Iwoman don’t think there’sofa her secret to it, I always won- think, is to have If you have a realThe passion, districts is even more disparate: Kashe also forthe higher comdered if Ipushed retired at rightliteracy time orand went on aacross real love for what you do, then you can’tin help puter education in her village. I’ve but rauli, of the most backward districts in Intoo long. But all for thewomen important decisions beone successful. Norti, who ordinance the dia, out of the 57 sarpanches in Panchayats ever made in challenged my life, I’vethe just got to a in point bhattacharjya is project director, FIFA U-17 or High Court, which subsequently refused to joy reserved for SC candidates, 45 are illiterate, (when) I’ve just woken up one day and I knew. Cup,cent; and former team director of per Kolkata 78.9 per in Nagaur, only 7.8 cent of ingrant starting a stay order, says such legislation is comFrom a family to getting married to World RidersSC sarpanches are unlettered. cumbent pletely unwarranted. “Anto illiterate is Knight moving to Sydney, even retiringsarpanch from the
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ut what difference does an educated sar- public programmes, stronger governance inpanch make to a village? A paper by the stitutions and, ultimately, better developHarvard Kennedy School of Government from ment outcomes. But I’m not sure the 2014 has quantified the effects of a sarpanch’s ordinance is the best way to improve the pool education on the Gram Panchayat’s own pro- of candidates for local elections, especially if it gress in education, the quality of manage- leaves behind candidates from marginalised ment of government programmes and the communities.” misuse of political influence for private gain. An educated sarpanch furthers education It shows, for instance, that edutoo. McManus’ paper shows that cation erases the ‘winner’s efRajasthani Gram Panchayats that fect’ in terms of the locations of elected an educated sarpanch in new MNREGA projects: nearly 50 2005 had a 7.5 per cent higher Is an ordinance the per cent more MNREGA projects growth in literacy rates than best way to improve are started in winners’ neighthose that elected an uneducated the pool of bourhoods than in the losers’ if candidate. The paper also points candidates, if it the sarpanch is uneducated; this to a more vicious cycle: Gram leaves behind those difference disappears if he or Panchayats with lower average from marginalised she has a high-school degree. education levels are more likely communities? Jeffrey McManus, the author to elect less educated sarpanchof the paper, is a senior technical es, who then go on to invest less manager at IDinsight, a USin education, thus ensuring a based non-profit that helps polishallower future pool of educatcymakers generate evidence to improve social ed candidates. impact. “There is good causal evidence that In Bajawa, which is in one of the most literaelecting an educated sarpanch leads to a fall in te districts of Rajasthan, all nine candidates leakages from public programmes, on aver- are male and literate. But that is not what age,” McManus says over email. “I think the or- makes them most eligible. Villager Rajendra dinance is well-intentioned: educated Singh, an Indian Army soldier, says, “The last sarpanches bring many benefits to their Pan- sarpanch was a jat (majority community), so chayats in terms of better management of this time the other castes got together to vote
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Power at play (top) A group of women contestants and campaigners in Govindgarh block of Jaipur district; (bottom) Vasundhara Raje on a tour of Sawaimadhopur rohit jain paras
a non-jat. Voters will first look at candidates within their caste and then everything else, because people will only want to work for their own caste.” Singh is not far from the truth. The discriminatory effects of this ordinance get even more complex as it gets entwined in such matters of caste and tribe. Research by Rohini Pande, a Mohammed Kamal Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, on SC/ST sarpanches and placement of public goods within the village, points to one such nuance. “We saw a very particular preference for geographical clustering of public goods where they live. So, if you have a non-SC/ST sarpanch, chances are that delivery of these goods will be placed away from SC/ST communities as their hamlets tend to be located separately from villages,” says Pande. She points out another effect, in a cross-section of caste, gender and education. “There are considerable restrictions on mobility and decision-making among upper-caste women who might be educated, while tribal women, who might be illiterate, can have more autonomy in their operations. So, with this ordinance, you may actually get administrators who may be more educated but less efficient,” she says, adding, “even if education matters, this ordinance cannot be the only response. One of the first responses, for instance, needs to be about increasing voters’ interest in electing educated candidates.” And what do voters want? In a survey of 10,008 voters by McManus, honesty and education emerged as the most important qualities of a sarpanch. Shubh Karan, 56, a candidate from Bajawa, also believes honesty is most important — except, he says, “to tell you the truth, honesty has nothing to do with education. It comes from within.” padmaparna ghosh is a Delhi-based writer
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Notshape so green The of time Artist Monica Narula shares her photo diaryletter of thereveals opening of Raqs Media Collective’s A former environment minister’s scathing theday deep conflict between industry ‘The Untimely Calendar’, on till February 15 at Delhi’s National Gallery of Modern Art and environment 8.00am Morning coffee with the invitation card
8.25am Advert in the paper makes it real
10am Good morning NGMA
10.15am Best winter hat ever — made with packaging material
9.30am The morning drive yields colourful, reassuring promises
sambuddha mitra mustafi
Time out of joint 10.30am Cleaning crew is allEnvironmental of us as well degradation costs India $80 billion per year or 5.7 per cent of its economy ap/anupam nath
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ore than any country in the world, India needs a strong green movement. We were ranked 155 out of 178 countries in the Environment Performance Index, a joint survey conducted by Yale and Columbia universities last year. We have 13 of the 20 most polluted cities among G-20 nations, reported a World Health Organisation survey. A World Bank report said environmental degradation costs India $80 billion per year or 5.7 per cent of its economy. One-sixth of the world population resides in India, and breathes some of the 11.10am Chandeliers beautify boxes foulest air on the planet. Yet, India’s green movement is in crisis, let down by those who claimed to champion the environment at the highest levels of policymaking. Former Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan’s sensational letter, first accessed by The Hindu, has further pushed green activists into a corner. Environmentalists were already reeling under the new government’s crackdown on foreign-funded NGOs like Greenpeace and the urgency to clear industrial projects with looser environ-
12.35pm Through the glass, darkly — but rose tinted
mental checks. Greenies had been called “antidevelopment” and even “anti-national” by the right wing, which has been elected to power. Now more questions will be raised: were the green protests against certain industrial projects genuine grassroots movements, or were they part of the cynical political game that Natarajan’s letter hints at? Her allegations and innuendos, whether true or not, show a farcical attitude to India’s environment by its top public servants. Files in the 11.40am Thewashroom early huddle “A few days before I was removed as Minister, I needed to review the Adani file for some legal issues,” writes Natarajan in her letter. “When I sent for the file, I was told that it was ‘missing’. After considerable search, my officials ‘found’ it, apparently in the washroom of the computer section, the very day on which I had been asking to resign.” Franz Kafka would have struggled to come up with a better plot of bureaucratic ineptitude. Reports also suggest that the CBI is probing the environment regulatory regime of the last UPA government, which may reveal even more skeletons. The public already believes that concern for the environment was just a façade used by the last government to extort businesses. This perception gives the new government ample po1.15pm team hard work litical The capital to athasten environmental clearances. Even if we assume the government’s intentions are honest, there is now greater likelihood that more offending projects will get through, and there will be more damage to the environment. And all this will happen at a time when the morale and credibility of India’s environmentalists are at an all-time low. So if you care for the air you breathe, the future looks as bleak as the Delhi smog.
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Losing influence The principal challenge for environmentalists in India is to win back the credibility and political capital they have lost in the last couple of
years and particularly after Natarajan’s letter. The task before them is not easy. India’s young, hungry population need to be convinced that the jobs being created for them may not be good for the world they live in. That is a tough-sell to a generation that seems to have adopted a “grow now, clean up later” philosophy to the environment. But they are also the ones who will be worst affected by India’s toxic air. India’s urban population is at high risk of cardio-pulmonary diseases caused by the air they12.00pm breathe.From Themummies World Bank’s report ‘Greento muses ing India’s Growth: Costs, Valuations and Tradeoffs’ suggested several affordable policy options to promote green growth. These measures, they claimed, would cost the economy only 0.02-0.04 per cent of annual GDP growth, but would create a much healthier working population in return. For a trade-off such as this to be acceptable to Indians, policymakers, environmentalists and industry will have to come together and carve out a deal. Natarajan’s letter damages the prospects of any such deal, by pitting environment versus industry every step of the way. Her allegations can only create further suspicions and acrimony among the different stakeholders who have the capacity to work out a trade-off. Natarajan claims that she was eventually re2.00pm QuinoaGandhi for sustenance moved by Rahul to appease industry and revive the floundering economy. This claim, which could well be true, leaves industry with no incentive to cut a deal for a better habitat. If they have the power to remove a minister over the non-clearance of some projects, why would they even consider a compromise with the environment? India’s green movement has lost considerable influence with youth and industry, two vital constituencies that could have been its partners. That could be the most damaging legacy of Jayanthi Natarajan’s letter. sambuddha mitra mustafi is the founder of The Political Indian t some_buddha
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Breaking bond Under study for more than three decades, the discovery of a vibrational bond has caused a flurry in the scientific world
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he name’s bond. Vibrational bond. Move over ionic, covalent and metallic attachments, a new bond is here. Arguably the first chemical bond to be discovered in nearly 100 years (the last, metallic bond, was discovered between 1913 and 1935), the vibrational bond will expand the conceptual boundaries of chemistry. However, in the last decade, chemical science has welcomed the arrival of quite a few new ‘bonds’ — the first-ever ties between a super-heavy element (Seaborgium) and a carbon atom; a new sub-type of covalent bond, the phi bond; and bonds forged in extreme magnetic fields found in proximity to white dwarf stars, currently very difficult to simulate on Earth. Yet, the discovery of the newest bond, theoretically proposed in the ’80s, has caused a flurry of excitement in the scientific world. Its application in explaining how isotopes react and their reaction rates, which defy a basic law of thermodynamics, proves that not all is known about the fundamental nature of the particle. “Binding chemical atoms together to form molecules is like conceiving a child: There aren’t that many ways to do it,” wrote science writer Adrian Cho on new chemical bonds in Science magazine. As students, we learned about the basic bonds that explained how atoms combined to form molecules, how life itself is held together by invisible forces, some strong, some weak, some electrically charged, some especially stable. Even Helium, the smallest, most inert of noble gases has finally been found to exhibit some form of chemical bonding. We learned of ionic bonds, in which electrons are taken, not shared; covalent bonds, where electrons are shared equally or unequally. Remember those diagrams that took months of practice to get right, where
portional to temperature increase. In this case, the reaction slowed down with increase in temperature. Researchers thought this was evidence of an interim bond, where the hydrogen isotope would hold the bromine atoms together briefly for a few milli-seconds, reduce the energy level and, therefore, increase the speed of the reaction. Chemists then didn’t have the equipment to study a fleeting chemical reaction. The vibrational bond remained a theoretical possibility. As Fleming and researchers Jörn Manz (FU Berlin), Kazuma Sato and Toshiyuki Takayanagi (Saitama University, Japan) waited for advances in nuclear accelerators that would finally allow them to track the tenuous energy changes in the BrMuBr reaction, a century earlier, Linus Pauling too had to wait for X-ray crystallography to develop before he could pioneer research into chemical bonding. As an undergraduate student at Oregon State University in 1917, Pauling, who would go on to become one of the founders of quantum chemistry and win two Nobel prizes, was still being taught the ‘Hook and eye’ model of atomic attachment, first developed by Greek philosopher Democritus in 410 BC! The teaching of this archaic method apparently drove Pauling to write the 1939 textbook On the Nature of the Chemical Bond, now a definitive chemistry text. The science of chemical bonding has taken a few but astonishing leaps since Leucippus’s elementary atomic theory in 450 we’d split atomic numbers of elements into BC. By the mid-20th century, the valence bond K,L,M,N shells and s,p,d,f sub-shells, dotting theory and ideas of quantum chemistry were sodium atoms with electrons and sketching in place. We knew how atoms moved, interactlines across to chlorine atoms to indicate ed and dissociated. bonding? Atoms of most elements follow the Fleming, whose research interests lie in the octet rule, elbowing their way to gain or lose field of nuclear and particular muon chemiselectrons from their valence (last) shells to try, had authored the 1989 paper on vibrationachieve stable configurations al bonding as a theoretical just like that of the noble gases. possibility. He is also the lead auSo, Sodium (atomic number 11) thor of the December 2014 paper, readily gives away its lone elecpublished in Angewandte Chemie The discovery of a tron to gluttonous Chlorine (17) International Edition, confirming vibrational bond to form NaCl, common salt. Carthe same. In their experiment in proves that not all is bon, with four electrons in its vaa nuclear accelerator at Rutherknown about the lence shell, has no option but to ford Appleton Laboratory, UK, fundamental nature share them with four hydrogen the bond between Bromine and of the particle or two oxygen atoms to form Muonium didn’t exhibit the necCH4 or CO2. The former transfer essary characteristics to be called is ionic, the latter, covalent. In either covalent or a van der Waals the case of the vibrational bond, bond. It was brought about by a observed in the reaction between Bromine peculiarity of particle physics, where three (which belongs to the most reactive group in atoms were temporarily bound together. the periodic table, the Halogens) and Muoni- While Protium, Deuterium and Tritium are um (call it a Hydrogen isotope, but it’s really naturally occurring isotopes of Hydrogen, an exotic sub-atomic particle), the lightweight Muonium was synthesised in the lab. ChemMu atoms prefer to oscillate between two Br ically, it is much like a hydrogen isotope, but atoms “like a Ping Pong ball bouncing be- nine times lighter. The chemical reaction to tween two bowling balls,” says Donald Flem- form the BrHBr radical was the same for all the ing, a chemist at University of British isotopes, except Muonium; the BrMuBr radiColumbia involved with the experiment. cal seemed to be held by a precarious vibraLike all good scientific problems, the vibra- tional bond. This is the first confirmation that tional bond has been under study for more isotopes of an element can potentially change than three decades. In 1989, at a nuclear accel- the nature of chemical bonding. However, the erator in Vancouver, chemists — Fleming in- vibrational bond has been observed only in cluded — observing the reaction between the case of this reaction; further research will Bromine and Muonium recorded something determine if heavy and light elements react unusual. According to the Arrhenius equa- this way. So don’t expect it to make it to the tion, most chemical reactions go faster with textbooks yet. every 10-degree Celsius rise in temperature, that is, the speed of a reaction is directly pro- priyanka kotamraju
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Hen that lays herbal eggs
Cosmos in a nutshell For the poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, the street beggar “Walks down the road/ Like a dying planet” ss kumar
A brood of egg companies in India are innovating the breakfast staple with odourless and herb-infused variants, which are flying off discerning urban shelves
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t’s organic, low-cholesterol and enriched with vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids. But it’s neither a food supplement nor any exotic seaweed extract. Rich praise is now being heaped on the poor man’s protein — eggs. To cater to the finicky, odourless eggs are in the market and they can even be used to make egg drinks, jams and chutneys. From Panipat to Surat and Coimbatore to Delhi, a handful of companies have invested in giving the common chicken egg a makeover beyond the sunny-side-up cheeriness, and the results are showing — specialised eggs are flying off the shelves and more money is going into researching newer products. When ML Kansal retired as an animal science professor from Punjab Agriculture University in 1997, he knew exactly what he wanted to do next — chase his quarter-century-old dream of creating the odourless egg. He had long wondered why that cannot be and
why human beings were forced to indirectly product at ₹95 for a pack of six — three times ingest the antibiotics fed to poultry. He began more expensive than unbranded eggs. But his research soon after retirement to create that hasn’t hindered sales growth for Keggs, as not only odourless, but also healthier eggs. also Suguna and Kansal. That led to the Kansal’s brand of eggs, Kansal Cracking the market Agro, now available across retail “The demand for specialised outlets ranging from Hypercity eggs is rising rapidly. Until a few and Metro Cash & Carry to Walmart and Aditya Birla Retail. months ago, we were sending 50 Until a few months Down south, in Coimbatore, boxes (of 24 eggs each) to Mumsending Suguna Foods carved a niche for ago, we wereglesh week. would The number is Dabral bai and every other poets seem out 50 boxes (ofof24place eggsin such nowa 80 in Mumbai overago. 100 itself by offering four varieties of book just two and decades each) to Mumbai inpoets Bengaluru Hyderabad,” specialised low-cholesterol eggs Indian-English used toand tie themselves in every week. Thetracingsays rich in DHA (omega-3 fatty acid), Kansal. knots their lineages, trapped as they number is now carotenoids and Vitamin D. Table egg production were 80 in a unique cross-cultural mess. in India These are available both at its is estimated to have more than While Indian-English poetry has mostly had doubled from 30 billion in 2000 stores and at several trade a metropolitan location, Mehrotra divides his 70 billionand in 2013, drivenYet by inchains, supermarkets and contime betweentoAllahabad Dehradun. he venience stores. domestic consumption, is the most creased cosmopolitan of the Indian-Enaccording to the ratings agency ICRA (Andhra And Keggs, the company that began selling glish writers. He can show you flashes of Ezra branded eggs in India in 2002, is retailing its Pound Pradesh the largest ofcan eggs couninisPrakrit eroticproducer poetry and spot Katrywide). Thein number of eggs eaten an indibir the dude Kabir the divine. He by is not cosvidual in ainyear increased from 28 to 57 mopolitan the has usual sense of having made a duringinthis period.countries but in its higher home different Figures are still unavailable, sense of interpreting the localbut asspecialised universal. eggs, in their and low-cholesterol His poems are odourless made of small-town stuff and avatars, are anxieties believed but to he have fuelled this middle-class finds universal growthinstory. drama the daily humdrum. The letter-box is andofSuguna have“...and evolved multiple theKansal captain his street a good actechniques of to the get lighthouse./Once their eggs right. “These are quaintance in a while/ highly products by enWe get researched together/And changedeveloped the altitude of richingInthe nutrientthe content of the stars.” his poems, pyres burn likehen’s new feed,” saysand GB Sundararajan, managing direcvolcanoes the street beggar “Walks down tor at SugunaaFoods. the road/Like dying planet.” Pointing out that are the the antibiotics adminisMehrotra’s poems concordance of a tered to poultry to in human bemutating world are thatpassed seemson still its daily ings through their eggs andlife meat, says, routines. He locates in still theKansal crevices of “Naturally, wewhich develop resistance to those time, through he gazes at a world that medicines. We decided to do away with chemis forever changing. Ageing, ancestors, patericals watches, and medicines by using traditional Ayurnity, maps and journeys often figure vedic also fortify nutrition.” in his herbs, lyricalwhich exposition of time. Mehrotra began as a surrealist poet, for he wanted a lanHerbs inother the mixthan the King’s English to guage Kansal Agro to But its layer feedhis a mixture interpret hisadds world. it seems choice of 21 herbs inhad powder amla, poettulsi, this genre a lotform, to do including with his overall neem andHis bahera, which havehelp anti-bacterial, ic vision. surrealism could him bend Ali, Amit Chaudhuri and Toby Litt proposed his antioxidant Herbown timeand andanti-fungal space, giveproperties. him a god’s deMehrotra’s name for Oxford’s new professor tached al extracts also eye, added the poultry’s and are distant andtoafford him his of poetry (held previously by the likes of WH fractal drinking water. “Apart from improving nutrivision that invalidates the linearity of Auden and Seamus Heaney), The Guardian ran literary tion content, it alsoSince increases the shelf-life of tradition. he could map the a headline: “Little-known Indian writer joins turning the eggs,” Kansal says. routines and look at his sky onto daily race for Oxford poetry profesThe eggs can be stored for eight weeks at everyday life from across a curvsor”. The same headline could room temperature and and for over a yearlooping in a reing space through have run in an Indian newspafrigerator. Even bacteria salmonella Etime, he feltlike no need to leaveand Allaper! Four years ago, Mehrotra coli, present habad. to the extent 3-10 per cent in He hasofthe poetic imagiwas mistaken for Irish writer regular were undetected the specialto find the in configuration Mehrotra can showeggs,nation Roddy Doyle by an organiser at ised eggs, according to the international of the cosmos in what maytestapyou flashes of Ezra the Jaipur Literature Festival. ing and certification company TUV-SUD. The pear to us merely provincial. Pound in Prakrit The cover can beguile the sim- erotic poetry and Kansal differentcosmopolitanism feeds are used for difof can saysliteral ple-minded reader in more ways spot Kabir the ferent of specialised eggs. Forand eggsintelrich writers dudekinds in globe-trotting than one. While it declares it is a in omega-3 fatty acids, the are fed flaxlectuals is of nohens use to Mehrotra, Kabir the divine collection of Mehrotra’s poems, seed meals fortified oilsliterary rich in associunsatwho canwith forge it doesn’t tell the reader that not urated fatty acids. ations across time, space, lanall of these poems are his own. To get odourless eggs, adds a mixture guages andKansal cultures. Half of them are his translations of herbs, whichFor is his “trade secret”. The herbquite a while, cosmopolifrom different languages. But those familiar tanism al, odourless egg comes packed with vitamins. for Indian-English writers was more a with Mehrotra’s art will take it in their stride. matter About 100 mlbio ofon this liquid of the thespecialised book jacket.egg Mehrotra One would think this might be his way of lay- is contains three Vitaminturned A, eight one of the fewtimes who more have actually it ing claim to a tradition. His translations from into timesa convincing more Vitamin D3, ten times more Vitatrope. Prakrit, Hindi, Gujarati and Bangla of Kabir, min E and five times more folic acid than a regis a Delhi-based journalist Nirala, Muktibodh, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Man- dharminder ular egg. Itkumar also scored higher on other
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Dramatist of the humdrum
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is not cosmopolitan in the usual sense of having made a home in different countries but in its higher sense of interpreting the local as universal
O Collected Poems 1969-2014 Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (Introduction by Amit Chaudhuri) Penguin Poetry, Modern classic ₹399
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n the cover of the book, a longhaired young man in frayed jeans and a camouflage jacket, cigarette in hand, sits against a faded door, looking away from the camera. The cover tells you these are his collected poems from 1969 to 2014, with an introduction by acclaimed author Amit Chaudhuri. With all this information on the cover, the book should be ‘breaking news’ for those who think Indian literature in English is a straight line that runs from Vikram Seth to Chetan Bhagat. Not that you can fault them for this view. It has fallen to the lot of the Indian writer in English to be, or at least behave like, a celebrity as well. The obscurity or the eccentricity that went with literary writing for ages is no longer their privilege. So, you may well ask, how is someone who has been writing since 1969 not half as known as Altaf Tyrewala? And how could he be obscure with such dashing good looks? By the time you notice ‘Modern Classic’ written in smaller type at the bottom, you would be scratching your head. Five years ago, when writers including Tariq
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Free rangers (left and opposite page) Kuroiler, a hybrid chicken breed developed by Keggs in the early ’90s, lives on kitchen and agricultural waste and produces around 160 eggs a year
nutritional parameters, under testing by the Poultry Disease Diagnostic Laboratory of Venkateshwara Hatcheries. The cholesterol content was down to 179mg, compared to 420mg in regular eggs. Suguna’s Sundararajan says the company’s specialised Active Egg contains 370mg of DHA — sufficient to meet an individual’s daily requirement. “These eggs also fully meet Vitamin E requirement and up to 83 per cent of an individual’s selenium requirement,” he adds. His ₹5,350-crore company relies on a network of over 2,000 poultry farmers, mainly in villages. “We procure eggs from select bio-secure farms, which follow the highest standards of layer farming. They are tested for nutrient content by authorised labs,” he says. Keggs, founded by Vinod Kapur in 1993, also spread wings far and wide on the strength of its business model of supplying day-old chicks to poultry farmers. Kapur developed a new hy-
brid chicken breed, Kuroiler, in the early ’90s. Keggs eggs are not only much bigger and This variety lives on kitchen and agricultural tan-coloured, but also come packed in corruwaste and can produce around 160 eggs a year. gated sheet. Each egg has a hologram, signifyKeggs’ mantra? Near-organic eggs that are not ing it has been individually tested. “We were only more nutritious but also tastier. the first to introduce eggs with expiry date. “They are not fed any chemicals or antibiot- We take back eggs beyond the printed date,” says Kapur. ics or growth hormones. Unlike These are sold as commodity other egg sellers who keep birds in cages, we keep our birds in eggs as they have a long shelf-life. Compared to regular eggs, open houses, each having 100200 birds. They have access to priced ₹4-5 each, speciality eggs In Panipat, our eggs are costlier. Suguna’s six eggs nature, sunshine and a friendly can be bought for a with ‘veg feed and no bad odour’ environment,” says Kapur. rupee. But sending Keggs eggs, he says, are inferare priced ₹45, while a pack of six them to other states tile, cage-free, near-organic and enriched eggs for diabetics cost involves high costs produced with natural feeds. ₹48. Kansal Agro’s pricing starts at ₹70 for six odourless eggs and “Our egg is aimed at the discerngoes up to ₹80 for the omega-3 ing and well-heeled customer,” he says. With rising per capita and vitamin-rich herbal eggs. and disposable incomes, more Indians are willing to spend on healthier foods. In the online basket “We incur huge transportation and logistics costs. Locally (in Panipat) our eggs can be bought for a rupee each. But sending them to other states on trains, loading and unloading them, involves high costs. Commission for sellers also varies,” says Kansal. These are the very reasons why some of these companies are not exporting yet. “We want to explore foreign markets in the future,” Kansal says. In the meantime, the proliferation of online grocery sites has hatched a golden opportunity for the domestic eggs industry. Keggs eggs are available at nearly all major grocery sites. Ditto for Kansal. “We don’t have the resources to set up our own website. We are selling through other sites and retail outlets,” Kansal adds. Suguna, too, is keen to expand to other markets after expanding in the South and West, says Sundararajan. But rather than increasing their points of sales, the speciality egg companies are keener on innovating to create newer products. Visitors to Kansal Agro farms in Panipat are regularly served egg cold drinks. Its egg jam and chutney made with odourless eggs are gaining a following too, and the company has applied for regulatory permissions, says Kansal.
Looking ahead Vinod Kapur, Chairman, Keggfarms Pvt Ltd
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MAHARASHTRA LEADS FIGHT AGAINST COMEDY! T
SHOVON CHOWDHURY is chief Truthdigger and author of The Competent Authority
risingStatus Dhanush a mute actor in Shamithabh filed FIRs,” says the PA, “from which we can he nerve centre of the war against Tamil Annual of plays Education Report has re- pressing AIB is our top priority.” comedy is surprisingly quiet. The ported that in Maharash- tra, 24 per “Is it true that they performed comedy gather that Muslims are okay with it. We are PA to the minister is polishing a cent of Class VIII stuwithout a permit?” I ask. working to ensure they file FIRs against statue of Shivaji. Other than Shiv- dents cannot read even “They have shown no respect for rules. each other, in which case the matter should Several violations have occurred, includ- resolve itself automatically. One more aji and him, the room is empty. He sees me at Class II level. Since our looking around. “You must be wondering, minister is covering both ing unauthorised usage of sports club for crime of AIB is telling jokes without approvcomedy purposes, illegal import of West- al of Censor Board. Unfortunately, the where it is that others have gone?” I nod my education and culture, he head. “They are protecting the youth from found the root cause, which is ern practices, roasting without Board is currently unavailable, as they are filthiness,” he says, “Nowadays, internet is degenerates like AIB. Their clearance from Food hiding from Karan Johar’s mother after a Safety Bureau, and tweet by one of them, wherein a poor grasp full of filth. All my colleagues are studying filthy comedy is corruptinternet to identify objectionable material. ing minds of our chilcruelty to homosex- of grammar has created the impression Each item is studied carefully. High-resolu- dren, leading to loss of uals. Plus, offend- that he is encouraging unnatural practices. tion screens are required. Lot of pausing concentration, loosing of sentiment.” Unless he is actually encouraging unnatu“One Hindu group ral practices. In the absence of clarification, and rewinding has to be done. Such proc- eness of morals, and poor and five Christian groups we cannot be sure.” esses take time. But matter is most urgent. academic performance. Suphere’s less than an hour to go for the stead, it made up for the fact that he didn’t win Bachchan’s character. The film is about the grand music launch of Shamitabh an award when he debuted at 16 in 2002. “It ego tussle between these two men and their (which released this week) at a five- was quite cute,” he says, with a smile. “I think fight for credit. According to Balki, this proved star hotel in Mumbai. Still in his it was a great message from god saying that no to be a great challenge for Dhanush. “He had jeans and a casual floral shirt, Dhanush, the matter where you are or what you do, there’s to say all his lines to Mr Bachchan’s voice withstar of the film, is racing against time to ready always more to learn and you’re always a new- out acting like him; the expressions had to be for the big event. A black suit laid out neatly on comer. I really enjoyed it. That’s the only his own. No one else could have played this the bed in his room and the shoes tossed on award that was pending,” he adds. part like he has,” he adds. the carpet wait to be donned. The star’s PR In spite of Raanjhanaa’s success, it has taken In the film, Dhanush plays a superstar, and informs me that hasanaoffhand song re- Dhanush a while to make his tossed them down on he thealso bed in or a man behind bars, he looks sur- team one can safely call him a superhe still takesI was the unable mike intothe eve- second Bollywood outing. He prisingly cheerful. He sits in a hearsal kind ofbefore way, but touch star off-screen as well. But he has clarifies thatI was he’llapprehendbe singing a turned down close to 30 scripts her Dhanush heart. Subsequently, chair facing me, jiggling his knees. ning. often reiterated that he doesn’t song as a tribute legendary composer n signing news greeted as ‘yeta film another break- Sir when his wifequalify extruded a simian. Pre-na-In the He looks like what he is — a seller Tamil ed. My manager lovestome like a son, but he before Shamitabh, as “hero material”. I’m just really lucky to and not the to popular Kolaveri di fulthat he quickly more ontall acthrough science’ said he would have prosecute to the of saris at a reputed sari emporium in T Na- Ilaiyaraja saidfor yesIndian to. “This time by the In- tal investigations past,had the focused five-foot-five-inch have met the right outside of law, south India still identify I’m very he washis reasdiancalm Medical lest extent of the otherwise the owners gar, Chennai. After 13 years of ignoring cus- people andAssociation, relaxed. Lasta minister’s gender than species. tor hasOnce expressed doubts directors at the “In my heart that song is over. I’m time there wife in Delhi given birth to a mon- sured he was having son, heoff allowed tomers, what could have led him to take up him getwith. very irritated.” were toohas many things aboutapulling the rolenaof a corright time through I’m thankful that song hap- to course. But there is no key.worry The happy wasthe tinged with ture to take its own It’s a with tragicit.story, and his current happia life of crime? about.occasion I worried porate high-flyer or a sportsman. me. It was a blessing it’she been sadness. As Aanand admirers thronged cause “I forjust concern. The child’s fu- it. It’s ness to is inexplicable. I ask himbut why is “My wife was neglecting me,” he says pened most about L Rai [the di-the minknow it. You can see years He now, it’s time toear move on,”His heeyes says, rector ture is secure. Sirnot willwhat do his ister’s ofbungalow, softly, “I do not blame her. After 16 years of four pleased. smiles from to ear. the film]. Hecarrying invested right there. I’m you call firmly silencing anyone who asks him hum so duty. material. He’ll take him the really gifts of bananas, his guy wife just has belight up towith marriage, romance much on a new hero I’m by just a few lines. packed left for her paw the and right raise him as hisat the is naturally weakhope. “In an encause of up hisand conviction,” he explains. His big- lucky to have met directors Yet, he admits that whenlightened he made his step, Bolly- gest He’ll teach him than the I demother’s house, leaving ened. I tried to buy concern, the first her time round, was his right time. Godown. has given me more wood debut in 2013 with Aanand L Rai’s Raanjhusband to knowledge care for theof Hindi. It didn’t serve,” he says.art of governance, so that her flowers, but due Honourable Sunon-existent Balki is quick to point out that hanaa (2013), the audiencepreme only knew him the time modest. is right, “He’s product their She Court hasas help to inflation, I could thatofhe wasunion. playing a street-side Romeo Dhanush is beingwhen unnecessarily “that Kolaveri guy” and, to some extent, super- in henot canhave take aover from hasBenaras. taken her jewellery. mandated weekly not purchase many. Dubbing his lines for the film was an original. He may lot of qualities star Rajinikanth’s son-in-law. At the time, “Hischallenging. in-laws are mortifather. Most probaShe was not encouconjugal visitsDhafor most It took him almost a week like the others, buthis the others don’t have what nush already had an enviable of workhein to fied,” explained an aide to whereas he can he has. He knowsbly, start out a that raging me. When I all body prisoners,” crack the pronunciations, howhe’ll different he isatand Tamil cinema and, at 29, was one“Now of thewe youngthe minister. mid-level position at the tried to sing to her, says. will dub an entire“They Tamilare filmroyalty in five hours straight. is his greatest strength.” est actors to win a Nationalrelive Award for from Rajasthan, they have thehis film roshe told me to gar“This is just hisand humility. I’m sure if he had He gainedRegional legions Passport of northOffice.” Indian fans as Aadukalam (2011). That didn’t stop otherwise Bollywood to TheKundan implications are he is never a monkeyhe’d in pick the up his lines in the stalker-lover mance, gle. Finally, driven by pick had up Mandarin, in Raanjhanaa, award shows from showering thebeseasoned family It’savery to learner,” says sure to now clear. Nextsuperstar time youstatus visit the desperation, I stole she will in conhalf an before. hour. He’s very,wrong very fast reach with his star with ‘best newcomer’ tempt accolades. Looking Rblame sure to carry bananas. one wasofmore surprised thanfor Passport of court.” several saris and Balki,Sir. theNo director Shamitabh. Luckily secondOffice, Hindibe movie. back, Dhanush says he didn’t look at the hon- Dhanush, he speaks little Hindi in this film. He The Investigator is a fortnightly round-up of all things droll All views personal. Really our asand an newsy. oversight of hisare achievements. In-personal playst@shovonc a mute actor who is voiced by Amitabh mohini chaudhuri
The non-hero hero
A superstar in Tamil cinema, Dhanush makes his second foray into Bollywood as the man with the voice of Amitabh Bachchan
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MAN, 36, COMMITS MINISTER’S WIFE CRIME FOR LOVE! GIVES BIRTH TO MONKEY!
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LIGHTHOUSE
The Kim Kardashian Liberals Talk of rights often gets muddy because a new class of counterfeit rights has come up in the last few decades. These are not really rights, but entitlements
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ou can hold a currency note up positive rights. To honour these rights, against the light, if you have someone has to actively give something been trained well, and detect to you. And as money doesn’t fall from whether it is real or fake. Is the sky — if it did, there would be inflathere a similar test that can help catch tion, and God would effectively be taxand expose a faux liberal? Yes, there is. It ing you — the only way to honour a is the ‘But’ Test. A counterfeit liberal is positive right is to infringe a negative one who will espouse a liberal principle right. You have to tax Peter to give Paul but then, immediately, before putting a his free broadband. full stop on the sentence, add the word To a classical liberal, negative rights, ‘but’. And there’s always a universe after which draw from the right to self-ownerthat ‘but’. ship, are the only kind of legitimate For example, a faux liberal will say, “I rights. All these rights, in a manner of believe in free speech, but…” Or “I bespeaking, are property rights, as they lieve in free markets, but…” That ‘but’ inarise from the fact that you own yourself validates all that comes before it. to begin with. Thinking of liberalism in Anyone who says he believes in free this manner, from these first principles, speech “but…” is not a liberal but a hypcan bring clarity on a host of issues. ocrite. (And he doesn’t believe in free You do not see this clarity in the intelspeech, obviously.) I have a term for lectual space in India, though. Seen these kinds of people, who abound in through a prism of first principles, most the Indian intellectual space. I call them public intellectuals in India do not have Kim Kardashian Liberals. Too much But. a coherent worldview. For example, a Who is a true liberal then? I consider few years ago, a prominent columnist myself a classical liberal, and it disturbs wrote about how he supported free me that the term is used so loosely these speech when it came to MF Husain, bedays. Our discourse has become muddy, cause he was an artist, but not when it and words like ‘rights’ and ‘freedom’ are came to the Danish cartoonists, because, used in such nebulous ways that converaccording to him, they were out to prosations around these concepts often invoke. (So what if they were?) This posivolve people talking past each other, tion makes no sense. What are the first with plenty of Buts swinging here and But naturally? Not unlike Kim Kardashian, several Indian principles of this person? Don’t ask him there. So, in a further effort to help you intellectuals suffer from a case of too much But shutterstock/helga esteb — he might put those Buts to good use identify counterfeit liberals, beyond the and twerk you. simple but useful heuristic of keeping an eye tion is social or economic. And what does freeThe hypocrisy that really staggers me reout for Buts, let me elaborate upon what classi- dom mean? It means freedom from an gards free speech and free markets. A classical cal liberalism precisely means. Specifically: infringement of these rights. liberal supports both. Those on the left supthe first principles from which arise our supTalk of rights often gets mudport only the former. Those on port for freedom. dy because a new class of counthe right do it the other way Many classical liberals arrive at their liberal- terfeit rights has come up in the around. This is bewildering. ism through natural rights. Are there any last few decades (created by Once you have decided that two rights that we are born with? According to the counterfeit liberals, as you’d ex- And as money doesn’t consenting adults should be able fall from the sky, the Enlightenment philosopher John Locke, the pect.) These are not really rights, to do whatever they want with only way to honour a most basic right of all is the right to self-own- but entitlements. The philosoeach other as long as they are not positive right is to ership. “Every man has a property in his own pher Isaiah Berlin helpfully infringing on anyone else’s infringe a negative person,” Locke wrote. “This no Body has any coined the terms negative and rights, what does it matter right to but himself.” This is, to borrow a term positive rights to demarcate the right. You have to tax whether they are f*****g or tradPeter to give Paul his Thomas Jefferson used in the Declaration of In- difference. Negative rights are all ing? But no, our Kim Kardashian free broadband dependence, self-evident. When we are born, rights that emerge from the Liberals will find something to we own ourselves — it doesn’t make any sense right to self-ownership — like the object to, and there will be no cothat anyone else does, or that everyone com- right to life, to property, to free herence to their arguments. munally does. Our right to self-ownership, of speech, to free trade and suMany classical liberals arrive course, is contingent upon our respecting the chlike. To respect these rights of at their support for freedom corresponding rights of others. yours, people simply have to not infringe from a utilitarian standpoint. Free markets All other rights emerge from the right to them. So someone not killing you is respect- lead to economic prosperity; freedom of exself-ownership. Our right to life, to start with, ing your right to life, a government not cen- pression results in cultural growth; so they is a direct corollary of the right to self-owner- soring you is respecting your rights to free support both, without reference to natural ship. The right to free speech, for we own our speech, and so on. This is why they’re called rights. This is also a coherent way of arriving at thoughts and their expression. The right to negative rights. Positive rights, on the other liberalism. Kim Kardashian Liberals don’t the fruits of our labours — or, essentially, the hand, are not rights at all, but entitlements show this coherence, and are soon unclothed. right to property. The right to freely associate disguised as rights. The right to food, the right t@amitvarma with anyone we wish to, whether that interac- to education, the right to broadband etc are all
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Amit Varma is a novelist. He blogs at indiauncut.com
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Underdog nips at the Supercop’s heel
nored, or treated as slums that are off-limits. In this obscurity there is insecurity, says Jayaraman, and the festival was a great way to break the stereotypes people associate with a fishing village, and its inhabitants.
All are welcome This was probably the only venue where the occasional stray dog ventured in, undeterred by the music and crowds, and wandered off later as if unimpressed by the performances. Children played in the sand, while their parents sat mesmerised by the music. Beachgoers, surprised at the sound and lights, found their way into the show and stayed on out of sheer curiosity. Hemalatha and her young son Dhwij, seated at a little distance from the stage, watched the entire Kattaikuttu performance, which lasted about an hour and a half. She would often bend down and explain in simpler words what the characters were doing on the stage. “I love the idea of the vizha,” Hemalatha said, about the way theaparty in adding that it was betterdistributed experiencetickets than the the Capital this time. Minister Arun sabhas, although sheFinance did wish for better Jaitley keeps dropping in these days forfor “interacoustics. Trading in perfect acoustics the nal meetings”. caress of sea breeze and endless legroom on contrast, AAP’s officelike is more theInsand, though, seemed a fairmakeshift, deal. bustling with cheerful youngsters in loose The Carnatic instrumental ensemble perjackets and baggy jeans. Veteran Yogendra formed simple compositions, ones that evenYaa dav chats up aappreciate. television crew in the back novice could Towards the endgarof denperformance, and I spot party MPs Bhagwant Mann and the Praveen Kumar on the mriDr Dharam Gandhifor rushing out for“If a camdangam hadVeer a message the crowds: you paign meeting. Atishi like what you justAAP’s heard,spokesperson come to the sabhas. Marlena walks like in cheerily in her worn-out We play exactly this.” trousers andsays a bright jumper.“it’s “Can’t talk now. “Frankly,” Jayaraman, unlikely that I’m kuppam already late… Have gottoto rush down to the folk will head the sabhas next the Rajya television for some debate,” season, butSabha at least in principle, we made the shemore explains, laughing. “Let’s hope maybe I get to the see art accessible.” Who knows, Sambit Patra (BJP in the studio little boy from thespokesperson) village furiously imitating today. It’s the same arguments, buta few he isfeet at the mridangam player performing least entertaining.” in front of him, in his own neighbourhood Shewill is one stopped Yogendra Yadav, yard, day beby inclined to learn the who art. wants to discuss theevents BJP’s “five questions a day While the other were attended by season is the largest in the world and I could close to AAP”. is the same thing they repeatto “It 300-odd spectators, the keep Kattaikuttu not think of a better time to begin a parallel performance ing. Let them saw come up with something new,” a drop in numbers. The runarrative,” he said. Marlena “But answer, ral dancecomplains. form is a mix of we song, dancenevertheand theWhat started as a Facebook status calling for atrics, less. We’re not shying by away from debate, accompanied musicians on but the volunteers, ended up as a two-day music and harmonium we are not onand trialmridangam. either. Why is the BJP beWhen asked dance festival called the Urur-Olcott Kuppam about comingthe thethinning judge, jury and executioner audience, Krishna here? says, Margazhi Vizha, named after the fishing set- “Just Let’s leave that to theof people,” Yadav have says. very like the people the kuppam tlements that would host the event. The vizha little On exposure a more serious note, he tells me, “I really to Carnatic music or Bharata(festival in Tamil) was organised by enthusias- natyam, believe we heading towards a landslide.” weare have very little exposure to Kattaitic volunteers from diverse backgrounds, in- kuttu, But of course, I tell him. “(Smiling) know you which is why many [in theI audience] cluding residents of Besant Nagar — the left. think mine is atakes biased view. examine Everything time and,Please as we slowly allocality adjacent to the fishing village, of low the opinion he move says. into variourselvespolls to becarefully,” patient and which many of them had never even heard of. ous A Hindustan surveymore has predictart forms,Times-C we willFore become open.” to breakpolitical the “so-force in the city- ed yet another theAttempting most gargantuan hung Assembly in Delhi Jayaraman, on the other hand,with becially state ofconditioned just about 1.3classcroreand voters. AAP and BJP vying 31-36 seats between lieves that for it captured the beauty of caste-based in which Bump upbubble” this heavy footfall The—Congress projected thethem. venue allowingispeople to Krishna believesMPs, the half sabhas with the 120-odd of the to slide — between tworigto come andfurther go at will, unlike the operate, the festival Union Cabinet led bybrought the chief The art intelligentsia time as comid seven formatseats of thethis sabhas. “I personalCarnatic music andMinister Bharata-Na- (and we) refer to the campaigner Prime eight in 2013.he The survey ly pared found to that magical,” adds. rest as ‘folk’, by Roughly speaking, natyam together withaddressed lesserrendra Modi, who has shows Arvind Kejriwal still the While speaking at The is Hindu Lit wehas mean the BJP fivethat times forpopular known art in forms like Kattaifive rallies five corners of the which for the post of Life, on achoice panel discussing Imagthey belong tothan es Chief more workers kuttu, Villupattu, Paraiattam city, the chief strategist, Amit Ministerofwith 43 per cent and Imagery Memory, Bharaanother, perhaps AAP at the booths tanatyam on thewho sameisstage. “The artsuperinShah, personally people backing whileValli the dancer him Alarmel lesser universe; but telligentsia we) campaign, refer to vising the (and election BJP’s chief ministerial made special mentioncandidate of the the as ‘folk’, by which andrest the ruling party would we have they are complete Kiran Bedi polled per cent knowledgeable and39 informed aesthetic forms mean to an- in easily that madethey up belong the shortfall votes. audience. Congress’s Ajay they Maken Chennai Whether siother, perhaps lesser unithe elections last winter. polled 12 along per cent Signifilently nod to votes. the beat, tap verse,” says Krishna, “but they Except that all these calculations are being cantly, the their AAP vote share seen higher by fingers in is rhythm with the are not or rustic, they upset byquaint the upstart challenger. nine percentage points, whileutter BJP has five shaperthaalam or even a soft are complete aesthetic forms.” centage points 2013 baash,more it wascompared wonderfulto to the perform For Nityanand Jayaraman, writer and re- for Campaign of contrasts elections (BJPsaid. 33 per cent, AAP 29.4 per cent them, she searcher, who worked to create this office festival It is a short walk from the BJP’s state at and 24.5 per cent). It’sCongress worth wondering then how she would along with a team of volunteers, it all GB Pant Marg to AAP’s quarters at 173started North have Anresponded end-January Timeswhen poll, toTNS-The young GEconomic Rajesh who, when he But wasthe approached by anare interesting Avenue. atmospherics a world asked meanwhile, predicts a decisive 49 perperformcent voif he liked the Bharatanatyam man interesting idea. “I’m not a very ance apart.with The an BJP’s is a quintessentially political teshare 43.5 per cent for BJP andhisa at for the AAP, Vizha, raised his hand with keen of art,” Jayaraman admits, “but thumbs set-upfollower with banquet hall chairs, canopies, mere 5 per for Congress. mark upcent — “Semaiya irrukuThe (It’sresults excellent)!” the ideaand TM Krishna came up with was also posters hordes of workers queuing upsoto he a clear their survey earlier in Nosaid.shift If thefrom Urur-Olcott Kuppam Margazhi cially relevant since it brought the or fishing vil-a Vizha click selfies with Narendra Modi, rather vember-December which forecast a comsets the trend,2014, some day an artist such as lage into the spotlight.” being one of television screen beepingDespite the PM’s pictures at her fortable 47be perseated cent edge would next for to aBJP. boy like him. the gate. oldestBut settlements in Chennai, fishing vilthe state leaders are tense as they Another survey by ABP News-Nielsen shows lages theworkers Urur-Olcott areresentful often ig- elizabeth scurrylike past whoKuppam are openly a 50-41 permathew cent split favouring AAP against the
As Delhi goes to poll today, it is hard to ignore the palpable tension in the BJP and the growing enthusiasm in the AAP ranks
Of equal music A parallel narrative of music and dance plays out at a fishing village in Chennai
L Face in the crowd From a party Freeing the that emerged out of a proscenium largely middle-class Residents of a fishing elite movement village listen to music against corruption, at the Urur-Olcott Arvind Kejriwal has Kuppam Margazhi managed to ghosh make the bijoy Festival Aam Aadmi Party the representative of the urban under-class prashant nakwe
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adies save their best kanjeevarams, and no one is seen without their diamonds. Men often show up with a newspaper in hand, and children are shushed if they whimper. Enthusiasts of music and dance are spoilt for choice, and, well, everyone’s an expert around this time of the year. Welcome to Margazhi in Chennai, the annual music and dance season that reverberates across the city’s numerous sabhas (centres for performing arts) for six weeks from December to January. A long-time performer at these December concerts,ifty-six Carnatic singer decided inches, byTM anyKrishna measure, have to do something different around. not expanded sincethis the time last elections “Aroundin a year ago I thought of a festival in — a the manner of Goliath’s height space where people do not access to from “four cubits and have a span” (six feet these art forms and fact,cubits they and nine inches) in from older which, texts toin“six are The December music and dance andexcluded. a span” (nine feet and nine inches) in the later manuscripts. But the present-day David in Delhi seems to have grown in stature, if not in height. The cracker of a contest in the Capital has the makings of the classic battle between the underdog, the two-year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the mammoth steered by Superman Narendra Modi. The physical contours of this battle are as lopsided as those of the mythical one. For each of the 11,736 booths in Delhi, the BJP has a working committee of 10-15 workers — namely, there are approximately 1,76,040 BJP workers at the booth level alone. Their diminutive rival can counter this with barely three workers per booth, which amounts to just about 35,208 AAP workers at the booths. Roughly speaking, the BJP has five times more workers than AAP at the booths alone! And if one takes into account their claims of additional workers after the new membership drive, the BJP in Delhi has 20 lakh members, which easily makes it
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Live act Faisal Abu-Alheija and Ahmad Al-Rokh brought the story of their intrepid Palestinian Freedom Theatre to Delhi kamal narang
without knowing how to use it, is a weapon against me, but in theatre there is continuous learning. And let me tell you something, art is dangerous, my friend; in the history of Palestine, we have many artists who have gotten killed — the cartoonist Naji Al Ali, Ghassan Kanafani, the writer, our co-founder, Juliano Mer Khemis. I have lost many cousins, friends, my house. They are going to destroy again and we are going to build it. Fighting is fighting. Now we are choosing theatre, we don’t know the future. They say the first intifada was with the stone, the second intifada was with the guns and this is my intifada, we are the new generation, we have the right to choose where and how we fight. Do you travel often outside the West Bank? FA: Not a lot, but we do get to travel, especially to other theatre festivals like the one we have come for, here in Kerala. In a year, we travel two or three times. We are an exception though, for most Palestinians it’s impossible to get out even, or should I say especially, to other parts of our country. The borders are always under heavy control. Inworry fact, it’s Uneasy lies... BJP supporters carry a cutout of the party’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi at Dwarka, Delhi; a significant section of partyworkers thateasier her for surprise candidature and the induction of outsiders are scuttling their prospects of an easy victory sandeep saxena us to come here than to go to Gaza.
Staging intifada
BJP; its latest prediction gave the BJP an edge. The momentum in this close fight, at least as far as the polls go, seems in AAP’s favour. “The Nielson poll shows a nine percentage point increase for AAP. In a closely-fought election, this is a very significant rise. Plus we have our own surveys and analysis,” Yadav says. He tells me to follow a simple technique — talk to 10 random people in a day and figure out if they have anything negative to say against Arvind Kejriwal and AAP. Of these 10 people, calculate how many will fordrive AAP. he beach is less than anvote hour’s “I follow this myself and Refugee I can tellCamp you —in there from the Jenin Palis a wave in favour West of AAP.Bank. We are forming the estine’s But for Faisal government. Arvind has a direct conAbu-Alheija (FA)formed and Ahmad Al-Rokh nect with They respond to himitlike he (AR) of thepeople. Freedom Theatre in Jenin, might is one their own,” heinsays. just asof well have been another world, what with the Israeli blockade restricting them to Resurrected mistakes their one-square-kilometre camp, packed He not wrong about Kejriwal’s “connect”, withis17,000 Palestinians. hisInvited distinct that at communicates and Theemtostyle perform the International pathises withofthe people; the common manlast in atre Festival Kerala (ITFOK) in Thrissur amonth, muffler unlike the Primemade Minister who inthe actor-activists a brief stopspires And the AAP chief is group quick with his over inawe. Delhi, hosted by theatre Jana Narepartee. “I The thought the PMduo hasspoke come.toHe is a tya Manch. Palestinian BLink big leader. He will about bigofthings. But on the sidelines ofspeak the screening the docuhe kept talking me.which Isn’t that strange,” mentary Arna’s about Children, is about the he asks his audience in Shastri Park, afStone Theatre group, the precursor tohours the Freeter addressed onedestroyed of his mega rallies. domModi Theatre that was during the “They I sit onindharnas… I don’t do that for secondsay intifada 2002. myself. I do it for people. And let’s talk about bijli (electricthings that really matter — about Freedom Theatre was started from scratch in ity), price rise, which they (the BJP) 2006.about What has your journey been like? promised to or reduce.” FA: Theatre art in Palestine is not easy to A BJP worker in the same to area concurs that find. There is little chance build anything the PMOur has country’s “resurrected Kejriwal”. “Where there. history is mired withwas octhe need toand attack him? each He was a nobody. He cupations intifadas, of them destroyhad finished in the elections. ing been everything, only forLok us Sabha to rebuild. Our We have in needlessly revived him inhas Delhi. is journey the Freedom Theatre beenIt to all our fault,” saysour thisart, leader, who wasagainst once a create, through a resistance candidate from East Delhi.we believe art is a the occupation. Because Internally, the BJP party Amit strong weapon andbelieves has a lot of chief power to Shah hasthe not community really lived up to his reputation change and touch people. of being a smart The party was comWe’ve made it sostrategist. far now and our main goal as fortably Delhi. AAP had not been able artists isplaced to keepinthe Palestine identity alive. to surpass the number of BJP’s seats or its vote percentage its dream debut in the last What is the despite idea behind Freedom Theatre? Assembly elections. AR: The main goal is creating resistance. All the Lok BJP’s vote from sharepeople, rose to theInthings weSabha, do, wethe take stories apeople whopping 46.63resisting per cent in Delhi and won suffering, every day, soitthis is all AAP’s vote to partseven of theseats. resistance. Also, share I’d likeincreased you to keep 33.8 per cent Sabha, while the Conin mind that in wethe areLok people under occupation
gress’s went down to 15.22 per cent. central Delhi,some where Haroon Yusuf Tell us about ofCongress’s your productions? State BJP leaders believe that if the party has won five theIsland. minority AR: Well, our consecutive Kerala act is terms, called The It’s president had not sprung so many surprises vote in other seats largely shiftedthe to prisAAP. a South African playhas that talks about on them — especially projecting Kiran Bedi as The gains of a further decline inas Congress’s on systems there. We adapt as well write our chief ministerial candidate and inducting a vote a natural in the BJP’s stagown and scripts. There’sreduction a play called Fragments of number of outsiders, who were promptly al- gering 46.63 cent voteperformance share from the Palestine, it’sper a physical andLok is lotted party tickets — it would have been a “ca- Sabha areOther more productions or less expected to about elections our stories. are an kewalk” for them. go the AAP way. adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and Animal “If you consider the Lok Sabha numbers, we Farm. “If the comes from its 15After per TheCongress latter was quitedown controversial. had won 60 Vidhan Sabha seats in Delhi just a cent and we lose some percentage points, AAP it was performed in 2008, they tried to burn few months back. Even in the Assembly elec- will its but 33 per centAlso votethere’s share. Ifa our consolidate theatre, not on once twice. tions before that, we laws weresay only a handful of you and all international any people unthe Congress lostfrom votePalestine. share in the newnotice, one called Suicide Note seats short of making the majority mark. der occupation have the right to resist that We oc- Lok Sabha elections but AAP actually gained. should have traditional election. Dr cupation. Wefought are notaany kind of therapists or So, while the middle class remains with us, the Who are your audiences? Harsh hadinalready accepted heroes.Vardhan We believe art, thisbeen art has powerby to poor, thebyminority vote which was AR: Day day we are beginning totraditional have more the stateand unitfind as a space chief ministechange for everybody to ex- audiences not Congress shiftonly inconstituency, Jenin but allhas of Palesrial Weonwould havethrough work- tine. Becauseed presscandidate. themselves, the stage, to AAP,” a Delhi leader. people aresays afraid, thereBJP is misuneasily won. By admitting so shops or on camera. the odds favouring derstanding ofDespite Islam, there are many other many outsiders, we have not onBJPAtisthe a gritty In obstacles forAAP, our the work. samefighter. time, we Where was the need ly made sure we look uncertain Can you comment on theatre and war, the its local office Trilokpuri, do succeed sometimes andathave a great party audito attack him? He was in Delhi but we have also annoyrelationship between the two? MP children. from Bahraich (Uttar Praence, especially All the children in a nobody... We have ed FA: the See, party manyleaders houses and in thelocal camp have been the camp came desh) Savitribai Phule to see our shows andexplains we also needlessly revived cadre,” saidmany a BJP leader. destroyed times over, our houses in- have regular why their candidate Kiran Vaid workshops for children. him in Delhi cluded. You know, as we say there, sometimes win: areinwith Most of ourwill plays are“The firstValmikis performed our Working-class hero we don’t die and sometimes we do. But until theatre, which Modiji. Therefor is about no dissension has seating 200. Besides the we dissensions in the keeping our we are alive, can work towards here. We are all working. I don’t BJP ranks according to an soul, our which, identity alive. There’s see how we can lose.” What about funding? AAP strategist, hurting ruling party in no safety thereare really, you the can’t Indeed, some (SCs) lowFA:Valmikis, As of now,Jatavs we get a lotand of fundand lohars,but whoyou together as many as 13 seats,when there aisbomb another argument er OBCs suching hide under a table as nais from outside, know, 65-70 per cent of the electoat work. a is party that out of a constitute about falls. But From theatre a kind of emerged proyou cannot look at Freedom TheThey tried to burn will vote BJP largely elite movement against rate in this constituency, tection.middle-class, Our work protects us atre as separate fromfor thethe Palesour theatre twice theAllcommunal riot corruption, Kejriwal has managed and also makes us alive. If you to make it this time. Significantly, tine situation. of Palestine is last the It Valthe of the tell representative a story, tell it well, it’llurban live aunder-class — that took place likelate this, it’syear notbetween our choice. is here to have the Dalits,years. Muslims, slum-dwellers, hawkers mikis and Muslims hundred Also, we believe, because wedoes arenot notseem allowed to kind ofanything. consolidation. Water, and rickshaw-pullers. His main if you don’t have something to plank to re- resulted in any produce The occupaand us drainage continue to the dominate duce power and water and prevent die for, you won’t havetariff something to livecorfor. power tion makes dependent, making whole According to former gym inruption the local level that is, die stopfor, police We find at our theatre is to —live and and voters’ countrypriorities. like an NGO. AAP’s local inshallah, incumbent Raju from harassing squatters, hawkers and rick- structor this gives us strength. For theand organisation, in MLA five years thebe most crucial factortheatre. is his accessishaw-pullers — has touched a chord among Dhingan, maybe we’ll an independent bility and ability to improve living conditions the class.fighting with guns and, on Youworking have friends the area. “This election is not about Hindu/ is hand, largelyyour what thethey “nine in theThis other wayconstitutes is theatre. Do Future plans? big campaign leaders percentage point increase” consider yours a lesser fight? that Yadav talks Muslim AR: I stayorinthe Palestine. It’s goodand to go, learnthat and BJP is projecting. win because we about. wasalternative a votary ofways the the FA: We Urban are notunder-class trying to find be more professionalWeinwill theatre and bring people’s voice,” Dhingan says. Congress till last election. the in- represent of resistance. Weyear’s believe in artBut as in a strong back whatthe we learn from outside. We hope our As the contest hurtles tofor a climax, it isresisthard tervening Kejriwal has captured this weapon toperiod, resist. Now in Palestine, no one is group will be a focal point a cultural ignore the palpable BJPbring and constituency minority Al- to fighting with besides guns, in the the West Bankvote. at least. ance, a good example tension of how in wethe can growing the AAP ranks. though are constituencies asorSeeThe armythere has already shut it down,such killed ar- the about change.enthusiasm Maybe in theinfuture we hope in if logic suggest otherwise, lampur in east where veteran rested them. WeDelhi, are the new Congress generation and it Even Palestine we and havestatistics big festivals, where we can a loud cheer in the Capital the Chowdhary Mateen still the star attraction there is our right to find a is new way. invite is other groups from all over thefor world. David in the for Okhla in story Southknown Delhi, where Con- modern-day AR:Muslims, Also, to keep our for people, This is what we dream of.elections. gress’s Khan continues to that willAsif keepMohammed us alive. We are freedom fighters sibi arasu joshi draw thetell minority voter, and Ballimaran in poornima too, and the truth about Palestine. A gun,
Theatre is the chosen form of resistance for Palestine actoractivists Faisal Abu-Alheija and Ahmad Al-Rokh
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Islands on land Caught in the barbed wires of politics, over 50,000 people living in the border ‘enclaves’ between India and Bangladesh wait for nationhood and a sense of belonging
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n the face of it, the villages along the 100km-long Indo-Bangladesh border in the Cooch Behar district of West Bengal appear to be just another rural idyll. Yet they are anything but. Enclosed by the territory of a different country, the Bangladeshi enclaves in India are home to people without citizenship, without identity. A no man’s land marked by the absence of schools, hospitals, even electricity. In the Indian Territory, there are 51 Bangladeshi enclaves, while there are 111 Indian enclaves across the frontier. A total of 51,500 people live in these enclaves — spread across one to 600 acres — on either side. Unaccounted for in the census, they don’t exist on voters’ lists, or have access to State-run employment
schemes. There are no metalled roads in their villages, no police; nor is there any governance. They are on their own, entirely. With the Indian government set to ratify an international land boundary agreement in the upcoming session in Parliament, there is hope yet for these enclaves, ‘abandoned’ for seven decades. While little might change for those living there now, perhaps the future generations will know the advantages of belonging to a nation and enjoying the benefits that Indian villages, barely a few hundred metres away, take for granted. But will it be too little, too late? Only time will tell. Photographs by ashoke chakrabarty and text by pratim ranjan bose
Road less travelled With neither country able to provide infrastructurr
Border line A road marks the zero line, near Dinhata, in the Cooch Behar district
Making inroads The Teen Bigha Corridor is a piece of land leased to Bangladesh in 2011 to link its enclaves of Dahagram and Angarpota
Watch this space An Indian army officer stands guard at the Teen Bigha Corridor
The unlearning Paschim Bakhalichara had a primary school (seen in the background) before the Partition. Today, there is no school in this enclave
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rre to the enclaves, residents must fend for themselves. Unlike the Indian villages here, which are connected by asphalt roads, the enclaves are mostly connected by dirt tracks
Zooming in A boy at one of the madrasas in the Muslim-majority Paoturkuthi enclave
School is out Makeshift schools, such as this one in Paoturkuthi, are the best shot at an education for children in enclaves
General knowledge A child reads the paper at Paoturkuthi
Make a wish Suneka Burman, a resident of Paschim Bakalir Chhara, a Bangladeshi enclave, performs her evening prayers
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Underdog nips at the Supercop’s heel
nored, or treated as slums that are off-limits. In this obscurity there is insecurity, says Jayaraman, and the festival was a great way to break the stereotypes people associate with a fishing village, and its inhabitants.
All are welcome This was probably the only venue where the occasional stray dog ventured in, undeterred by the music and crowds, and wandered off later as if unimpressed by the performances. Children played in the sand, while their parents sat mesmerised by the music. Beachgoers, surprised at the sound and lights, found their way into the show and stayed on out of sheer curiosity. Hemalatha and her young son Dhwij, seated at a little distance from the stage, watched the entire Kattaikuttu performance, which lasted about an hour and a half. She would often bend down and explain in simpler words what the characters were doing on the stage. “I love the idea of the vizha,” Hemalatha said, about the way theaparty in adding that it was betterdistributed experiencetickets than the the Capital this time. Minister Arun sabhas, although sheFinance did wish for better Jaitley keeps dropping in these days forfor “interacoustics. Trading in perfect acoustics the nal meetings”. caress of sea breeze and endless legroom on contrast, AAP’s office like is more theInsand, though, seemed a fairmakeshift, deal. bustling with cheerful youngsters in loose The Carnatic instrumental ensemble perjackets and baggy jeans. Veteran Yogendra Ya-a formed simple compositions, ones that even dav chats up aappreciate. television crew in the back novice could Towards the endgarof den performance, and I spot party MPs Bhagwant Mann and the Praveen Kumar on the mriDr Dharam Veer Gandhi for rushing out for“If a camdangam had a message the crowds: you paign meeting. Atishi like what you justAAP’s heard,spokesperson come to the sabhas. Marlena walks like in cheerily in her worn-out We play exactly this.” trousers andsays a bright jumper.“it’s “Can’t talk now. “Frankly,” Jayaraman, unlikely that I’m kuppam already late… Have gottotothe rush down to the folk will head sabhas next the Rajya Sabha television for some debate,” season, but at least in principle, we made the she more explains, laughing. “Let’s hope maybe I get to the see art accessible.” Who knows, Sambit Patra (BJP in the studio little boy from thespokesperson) village furiously imitating today. It’s the same arguments, buta few he isfeet at the mridangam player performing least entertaining.” in front of him, in his own neighbourhood Shewill is one stopped Yogendra Yadav, yard, day bebyinclined to learn the who art. wants to discuss theevents BJP’s “five questions a day While the other were attended by season is the largest in the world and I could close to AAP”. is the same thing they repeatto “It 300-odd spectators, the keep Kattaikuttu not think of a better time to begin a parallel performance ing. Let them saw come up with somethingThe new,” a drop in numbers. runarrative,” he said. Marlena “But answer, ral dancecomplains. form is a mix of we song, dancenevertheand theWhat started as a Facebook status calling for atrics, less. We’re not shying by away from debate, accompanied musicians on but the volunteers, ended up as a two-day music and harmonium we are not onand trialmridangam. either. Why is the BJP beWhen asked dance festival called the Urur-Olcott Kuppam about comingthe thethinning judge, jury and executioner audience, Krishna here? says, Margazhi Vizha, named after the fishing set- “Just Let’s leave that to theof people,” Yadav have says. very like the people the kuppam tlements that would host the event. The vizha little On exposure a more serious note, he tells me, “I really to Carnatic music or Bharata(festival in Tamil) was organised by enthusias- natyam, believe we heading towards a landslide.” weare have very little exposure to Kattaitic volunteers from diverse backgrounds, in- kuttu, But of course, I tell him. “(Smiling) know you which is why many [in theI audience] cluding residents of Besant Nagar — the left. think mine is atakes biased view. examine Everything time and,Please as we slowly allocality adjacent to the fishing village, of low the opinion polls he move says. into variourselves to becarefully,” patient and which many of them had never even heard of. ous A Hindustan surveymore has predictart forms,Times-C we willFore become open.” to break the “so-force in the city- ed yet another theAttempting most gargantuan political hung Assembly in Delhi Jayaraman, on the other hand,with becially state ofconditioned just about 1.3classcroreand voters. AAP and BJP vying 31-36 seats between lieves that for it captured the beauty of caste-based in which Bump upbubble” this heavy footfall them. The—Congress projected the venue allowingis people to Krishna believesMPs, thehalf sabhas with the 120-odd of the to slide — between tworigto come andfurther go at will, unlike the operate, the festival Union Cabinet led bybrought the chief The art intelligentsia time as comidseven formatseats of thethis sabhas. “I personalCarnatic music andMinister Bharatacampaigner Prime Na- (and we) refer to the eight in 2013.he The survey ly pared foundto that magical,” adds. rest as ‘folk’, by Roughly speaking, natyam together withaddressed lesserrendra Modi, who has shows Arvind Kejriwal still the While speaking at The is Hindu Lit wehas mean the BJP fivethat times forpopular known artinforms like Kattaifive rallies five corners of the which for the post of Life, on achoice panel discussing Imagthey belong tothan esChief more workers kuttu, Villupattu, Paraiattam city, the chief strategist, Amit Ministerofwith 43 per cent and Imagery Memory, Bharaanother, perhaps AAP at the booths tanatyam on thewho sameisstage. “The artsuperinShah, personally people backing while Valli the dancer him Alarmel lesser universe; but telligentsia (and we) campaign, refer to vising the election BJP’s chief ministerial made special mentioncandidate of the the as ‘folk’, by which and rest the ruling party would we have they are complete Kiran Bedi polled per cent knowledgeable and39 informed aesthetic forms mean to an-in easily that madethey up belong the shortfall votes. audience. Congress’s Ajay they Maken Chennai Whether siother, perhaps lesser unithe elections last winter. polled 12 along per cent Signifilently nod to votes. the beat, tap verse,” says Krishna, “but they Except that all these calculations are being cantly, the their AAP vote share seen higher by fingers in is rhythm with the are not or rustic, they upset byquaint the upstart challenger. nine percentage points, whileutter BJP has five perthaalam or even a soft shaare complete aesthetic forms.” centage points 2013 baash,more it wascompared wonderfulto to the perform For Nityanand Jayaraman, writer and re- for Campaign of contrasts elections (BJPsaid. 33 per cent, AAP 29.4 per cent them, she searcher, who worked to create thisoffice festival It is a short walk from the BJP’s state at and 24.5 per cent). It’sCongress worth wondering then how she would along with a team of volunteers, it all GB Pant Marg to AAP’s quarters at 173started North have An responded end-January Economic Timeswhen poll, toTNS-The young G Rajesh who, when heBut wasthe approached by anare interesting Avenue. atmospherics a world asked meanwhile, predicts a decisive 49 perperformcent voif he liked the Bharatanatyam man interesting idea. “I’m not a very ance apart.with The an BJP’s is a quintessentially political teshare 43.5 per cent for BJP andhisa at for the AAP, Vizha, raised his hand with keen of art,” Jayaraman admits, “but thumbs set-upfollower with banquet hall chairs, canopies, mere 5 per for Congress. mark upcent — “Semaiya irrukuThe (It’sresults excellent)!” the ideaand TM Krishna came up with was also posters hordes of workers queuing upsoto he a clear their survey earlier in Nosaid.shift If thefrom Urur-Olcott Kuppam Margazhi cially relevant since it brought theor fishing click selfies with Narendra Modi, rathervil-a Vizha vember-December which forecast a comsets the trend,2014, some day an artist such as lage into the spotlight.” being one of television screen beepingDespite the PM’s pictures at her fortable 47be perseated cent edge would next for to aBJP. boy like him. the gate. oldestBut settlements in Chennai, fishing vilthe state leaders are tense as they Another survey by ABP News-Nielsen shows lages theworkers Urur-Olcott areresentful often ig- elizabeth scurrylike past who Kuppam are openly a 50-41 permathew cent split favouring AAP against the
As Delhi goes to poll today, it is hard to ignore the palpable tension in the BJP and the growing enthusiasm in the AAP ranks
Of equal music A parallel narrative of music and dance plays out at a fishing village in Chennai
L Face in the crowd From a party Freeing the that emerged out of a proscenium largely middle-class Residents of a fishing elite movement village listen to music against corruption, at the Urur-Olcott Arvind Kejriwal has Kuppam Margazhi managedbijoy to ghosh make the Festival Aam Aadmi Party the representative of the urban under-class prashant nakwe
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adies save their best kanjeevarams, and no one is seen without their diamonds. Men often show up with a newspaper in hand, and children are shushed if they whimper. Enthusiasts of music and dance are spoilt for choice, and, well, everyone’s an expert around this time of the year. Welcome to Margazhi in Chennai, the annual music and dance season that reverberates across the city’s numerous sabhas (centres for performing arts) for six weeks from December to January. A long-time performer at these December concerts,ifty-six Carnatic singer decided inches, byTM anyKrishna measure, have to do something different around. not expanded sincethis the time last elections “Aroundin a year ago I thought of a festival in —a the manner of Goliath’s height space where people do not access to from “four cubits and ahave span” (six feet these art forms fact,cubits they and nine inches)and in from older which, texts toin“six are The December music and dance andexcluded. a span” (nine feet and nine inches) in the later manuscripts. But the present-day David in Delhi seems to have grown in stature, if not in height. The cracker of a contest in the Capital has the makings of the classic battle between the underdog, the two-year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the mammoth steered by Superman Narendra Modi. The physical contours of this battle are as lopsided as those of the mythical one. For each of the 11,736 booths in Delhi, the BJP has a working committee of 10-15 workers — namely, there are approximately 1,76,040 BJP workers at the booth level alone. Their diminutive rival can counter this with barely three workers per booth, which amounts to just about 35,208 AAP workers at the booths. Roughly speaking, the BJP has five times more workers than AAP at the booths alone! And if one takes into account their claims of additional workers after the new membership drive, the BJP in Delhi has 20 lakh members, which easily makes it
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Live act Faisal Abu-Alheija and Ahmad Al-Rokh brought the story of their intrepid Palestinian Freedom Theatre to Delhi kamal narang
without knowing how to use it, is a weapon against me, but in theatre there is continuous learning. And let me tell you something, art is dangerous, my friend; in the history of Palestine, we have many artists who have gotten killed — the cartoonist Naji Al Ali, Ghassan Kanafani, the writer, our co-founder, Juliano Mer Khemis. I have lost many cousins, friends, my house. They are going to destroy again and we are going to build it. Fighting is fighting. Now we are choosing theatre, we don’t know the future. They say the first intifada was with the stone, the second intifada was with the guns and this is my intifada, we are the new generation, we have the right to choose where and how we fight. Do you travel often outside the West Bank? FA: Not a lot, but we do get to travel, especially to other theatre festivals like the one we have come for, here in Kerala. In a year, we travel two or three times. We are an exception though, for most Palestinians it’s impossible to get out even, or should I say especially, to other parts of our country. The borders are always under heavy control. In worry fact, it’s Uneasy lies... BJP supporters carry a cutout of the party’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi at Dwarka, Delhi; a significant section of partyworkers thateasier her for surprise candidature and the induction of outsiders are scuttling their prospects of an easy victory sandeep saxena us to come here than to go to Gaza.
Staging intifada
BJP; its latest prediction gave the BJP an edge. The momentum in this close fight, at least as far as the polls go, seems in AAP’s favour. “The Nielson poll shows a nine percentage point increase for AAP. In a closely-fought election, this is a very significant rise. Plus we have our own surveys and analysis,” Yadav says. He tells me to follow a simple technique — talk to 10 random people in a day and figure out if they have anything negative to say against Arvind Kejriwal and AAP. Of these 10 people, calculate many will fordrive AAP. he beachhow is less than anvote hour’s “I follow this myself and Refugee I can tellCamp you —in there from the Jenin Palis a wave in favourWest of AAP. We are forming the estine’s Bank. But for Faisal government. Arvind has a direct conAbu-Alheija (FA)formed and Ahmad Al-Rokh nect with They respond to himitlike he (AR) of thepeople. Freedom Theatre in Jenin, might is one their own,” heinsays. just asof well have been another world, what with the Israeli blockade restricting them to Resurrected mistakes their one-square-kilometre camp, packed He not wrong about Kejriwal’s “connect”, withis17,000 Palestinians. hisInvited distinct that at communicates and Theemtostyle perform the International pathises withofthe people; the common manlast in atre Festival Kerala (ITFOK) in Thrissur amonth, muffler the Primemade Minister who intheunlike actor-activists a brief stopspires And the AAP chief is group quick with his over inawe. Delhi, hosted by theatre Jana Narepartee. “I The thought the PMduo hasspoke come.toHe is a tya Manch. Palestinian BLink big leader. He will about bigofthings. But on the sidelines ofspeak the screening the docuhe kept talking me.which Isn’t that strange,” mentary Arna’s about Children, is about the he asks his audience in Shastri Park, afStone Theatre group, the precursor tohours the Freeter addressed onedestroyed of his mega rallies. domModi Theatre that was during the “They I sit onindharnas… I don’t do that for secondsay intifada 2002. myself. I do it for people. And let’s talk about bijli (electricthings that really matter — about Freedom Theatre was started from scratch in ity), price rise, which they (the BJP) 2006.about What has your journey been like? promised to or reduce.” FA: Theatre art in Palestine is not easy to A BJP worker in the sameto area concurs that find. There is little chance build anything the PMOur has country’s “resurrected Kejriwal”. “Where there. history is mired withwas octhe need to attack him? each He was a nobody. He cupations and intifadas, of them destroyhad been finished in the elections. ing everything, only for Lok us Sabha to rebuild. Our We have in needlessly revived him inhas Delhi. is journey the Freedom Theatre beenIt to all our fault,” saysour thisart, leader, who wasagainst once a create, through a resistance candidate from East Delhi.we believe art is a the occupation. Because Internally, the and BJP believes party Amit strong weapon has a lot of chief power to Shah hasthe notcommunity really lived up to his reputation change and touch people. of being a smart The party was comWe’ve made it sostrategist. far now and our main goal as fortably Delhi. AAP had not been able artists isplaced to keepinthe Palestine identity alive. to surpass the number of BJP’s seats or its vote percentage its dream debut in the last What is the despite idea behind Freedom Theatre? Assembly elections. AR: The main goal is creating resistance. All the Lok BJP’s vote from sharepeople, rose to theInthings weSabha, do, wethe take stories apeople whopping 46.63resisting per cent every in Delhi and won suffering, day, so itthis is all AAP’s vote to partseven of theseats. resistance. Also, share I’d likeincreased you to keep 33.8 per cent Sabha, while the Conin mind that in wethe areLok people under occupation
gress’s went down to 15.22 per cent. central Delhi,some where Haroon Yusuf Tell us about ofCongress’s your productions? State BJP leaders believe that if the party has won five theIsland. minority AR: Well, our consecutive Kerala act is terms, called The It’s president had not sprung so many surprises vote in other seats largely shiftedthe to prisAAP. a South African playhas that talks about on them — especially projecting Kiran Bedi as The gains of a further decline inasCongress’s on systems there. We adapt as well write our chief ministerial candidate and inducting a vote a natural in the BJP’s stagown and scripts. There’sreduction a play called Fragments of number of outsiders, who were promptly al- gering 46.63 cent voteperformance share from the Palestine, it’s per a physical andLok is lotted party tickets — it would have been a “ca- Sabha areOther moreproductions or less expected to about elections our stories. are an kewalk” for them. go the AAP way. adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and Animal “If you consider the Lok Sabha numbers, we Farm. “If the comes from its 15After per TheCongress latter was quitedown controversial. had won 60 Vidhan Sabha seats in Delhi just a cent we lose some percentage points, AAP it wasand performed in 2008, they tried to burn few months back. Even in the Assembly elec- will consolidate its but 33 per centAlso votethere’s share. Ifa our theatre, not on once twice. tions that, we laws weresay only a handful of you and allbefore international any people unthe Congress lost votePalestine. share in the newnotice, one called Suicide Note from seats short of making the majority mark. der occupation have the right to resist that We oc- Lok Sabha elections but AAP actually gained. should have traditional election. Dr cupation. Wefought are notaany kind of therapists or So, while the middle class remains with us, the Who are your audiences? Harsh hadinalready accepted heroes.Vardhan We believe art, thisbeen art has power by to poor, thebyminority vote which was AR: Day day we are beginning totraditional have more the stateand unitfind as a space chief ministechange for everybody to ex- audiences not Congress shiftonly inconstituency, Jenin but all has of Palesrial Weonwould havethrough work- tine. Becauseed presscandidate. themselves, the stage, to AAP,” a Delhi leader. people aresays afraid, thereBJP is misuneasily won. By admitting so shops or on camera. the odds favouring derstanding ofDespite Islam, there are many other many outsiders, we have not onBJPAtisthe a gritty In obstacles forAAP, our the work. samefighter. time, we Where was the need ly made sure we look uncertain Can you comment on theatre and war, the its local office Trilokpuri, do succeed sometimes andathave a great party audito attack him? He was in Delhi but between we have also annoyrelationship the two? MP children. from Bahraich (Uttar Praence, especially All the children in a nobody... We have ed and FA: the See, party many leaders houses in thelocal camp have been the camp came desh) Savitribai Phule to see our shows andexplains we also needlessly revived cadre,” saidmany a BJP leader. destroyed times over, our houses in- have regular why their candidate Kiran Vaid workshops for children. him in Delhi cluded. You know, as we say there, sometimes win: areinwith Most of ourwill plays are“The firstValmikis performed our Working-class hero we don’t die and sometimes we do. But until theatre, which Modiji. Therefor is about no dissension has seating 200. Besides the we dissensions in the keeping our we are alive, can work towards here. We are all working. I don’t BJP ranks according to an soul, our which, identity alive. There’s see how we can lose.” What about funding? AAP strategist, hurting ruling party in no safety thereare really, you the can’t Indeed, some lowFA:Valmikis, As of now,Jatavs we get(SCs) a lotand of fundand lohars,but whoyou together as many as 13 seats,when thereaisbomb another argument er OBCs suching hide under a table as nais from outside, know, 65-70 per cent of the electoat work. a is party that out of a constitute about falls. But From theatre a kind of emerged proyou cannot look at Freedom TheThey tried to burn will from vote for BJP largely elite movement against rate in this constituency, tection.middle-class, Our work protects us atre as separate thethe Palesour theatre twice theAllcommunal riot corruption, Kejriwal has managed and also makes us alive. If you to make it this time. Significantly, tine situation. of Palestine is last the It Valthe of the tell representative a story, tell it well, it’llurban live aunder-class — that took place likelate this, it’syear notbetween our choice. is here to have the Dalits,years. Muslims, slum-dwellers, hawkers mikis and Muslims hundred Also, we believe, because wedoes are not notseem allowed to kind ofanything. consolidation. Water, and rickshaw-pullers. His main if you don’t have something to plank to re- resulted in any produce The occupaand us drainage continue to the dominate duce power and water and prevent die for, you won’t have tariff something to live corfor. power tion makes dependent, making whole According to former gym inruption local level that is,die stopfor, police We find at ourthe theatre is to — live and and voters’ countrypriorities. like an NGO. AAP’s localinshallah, incumbent Raju from harassing squatters, hawkers and rick- structor this gives us strength. For theand organisation, in MLA five years thebe most crucial factortheatre. is his accessishaw-pullers — has touched a chord among Dhingan, maybe we’ll an independent bility and ability to improve living conditions the class.fighting with guns and, on Youworking have friends the area. “This election is not about Hindu/ is hand, largelyyour what thethey “nine in theThis other wayconstitutes is theatre. Do Future plans? big campaign leaders percentage point increase” consider yours a lesser fight? that Yadav talks Muslim AR: I stayor inthe Palestine. It’s goodand to go, learnthat and BJP is projecting. win because we about. wasalternative a votary ofways the the FA: We Urban are notunder-class trying to find be more professionalWeinwill theatre and bring people’s voice,” Dhingan says. Congress till last election. the in- represent of resistance. Weyear’s believe in artBut as in a strong back whatthe we learn from outside. We hope our As the contest hurtles tofor a climax, it isresisthard tervening Kejriwal has captured this weapon toperiod, resist. Now in Palestine, no one is group will be a focal point a cultural ignore the palpable and constituency besides minority Al- to fighting with guns, in the West Bankvote. at least. ance, a good example tension of how in wethe canBJPbring growing the AAP ranks. though are constituencies The armythere has already shut it down,such killedasorSeear- the about change.enthusiasm Maybe in theinfuture we hope in if logic suggest otherwise, lampur in east where veteran rested them. WeDelhi, are the new Congress generation and it Even Palestine we and havestatistics big festivals, where we can a loud cheer in the Capital the Chowdhary Mateen is still the star attraction there is our right to find a new way. invite is other groups from all over thefor world. David in the for Okhla in story Southknown Delhi, where Con- modern-day AR:Muslims, Also, to keep our for people, This is what we dream of. elections. gress’s Khan continues to that willAsif keepMohammed us alive. We are freedom fighters sibi arasu joshi draw thetell minority voter, and Ballimaran in poornima too, and the truth about Palestine. A gun,
Theatre is the chosen form of resistance for Palestine actoractivists Faisal Abu-Alheija and Ahmad Al-Rokh
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MAHARASHTRA LEADS FIGHT AGAINST COMEDY! T
SHOVON CHOWDHURY is chief Truthdigger and author of The Competent Authority
risingStatus Dhanush a mute actor in Shamithabh filed FIRs,” says the PA, “from which we can he nerve centre of the war against Tamil Annual ofplays Education Report has re- pressing AIB is our top priority.” comedy is surprisingly quiet. The ported that in Maharash- tra, 24 per “Is it true that they performed comedy gather that Muslims are okay with it. We are PA to the minister is polishing a cent of Class VIII stuwithout a permit?” I ask. working to ensure they file FIRs against statue of Shivaji. Other than Shiv- dents cannot read even “They have shown no respect for rules. each other, in which case the matter should Several violations have occurred, includ- resolve itself automatically. One more aji and him, the room is empty. He sees me at Class II level. Since our looking around. “You must be wondering, minister is covering both ing unauthorised usage of sports club for crime of AIB is telling jokes without approvcomedy purposes, illegal import of West- al of Censor Board. Unfortunately, the where it is that others have gone?” I nod my education and culture, he head. “They are protecting the youth from found the root cause, which is ern practices, roasting without Board is currently unavailable, as they are filthiness,” he says, “Nowadays, internet is degenerates like AIB. Their clearance from Food hiding from Karan Johar’s mother after a Safety Bureau, and tweet by one of them, wherein a poor grasp full of filth. All my colleagues are studying filthy comedy is corruptinternet to identify objectionable material. ing minds of our chilcruelty to homosex- of grammar has created the impression Each item is studied carefully. High-resolu- dren, leading to loss of uals. Plus, offend- that he is encouraging unnatural practices. tion screens are required. Lot of pausing concentration, loosing of sentiment.” Unless he is actually encouraging unnatu“One Hindu group ral practices. In the absence of clarification, and rewinding has to be done. Such proc- eness of morals, and poor and five Christian groups we cannot be sure.” esses take time. But matter is most urgent. academic performance. Suphere’s less than an hour to go for the stead, it made up for the fact that he didn’t win Bachchan’s character. The film is about the grand music launch of Shamitabh an award when he debuted at 16 in 2002. “It ego tussle between these two men and their (which released this week) at a five- was quite cute,” he says, with a smile. “I think fight for credit. According to Balki, this proved star hotel in Mumbai. Still in his it was a great message from god saying that no to be a great challenge for Dhanush. “He had jeans and a casual floral shirt, Dhanush, the matter where you are or what you do, there’s to say all his lines to Mr Bachchan’s voice withstar of the film, is racing against time to ready always more to learn and you’re always a new- out acting like him; the expressions had to be for the big event. A black suit laid out neatly on comer. I really enjoyed it. That’s the only his own. No one else could have played this the bed in his room and the shoes tossed on award that was pending,” he adds. part like he has,” he adds. the carpet wait to be donned. The star’s PR In spite of Raanjhanaa’s success, it has taken In the film, Dhanush plays a superstar, and informs me that song re- Dhanush a while to make his tossed them down on he thealso bed has in anaoffhand or a man behind bars, he looks sur- team one can safely call him a superhe takes the unable mike intothe eve- second Bollywood outing. He prisingly cheerful. He sits in a hearsal kind ofbefore way, but still I was touch star off-screen as well. But he has clarifies thatI he’ll be singing a turned down close to 30 scripts her Dhanush heart. Subsequently, was apprehendchair facing me, jiggling his knees. ning. often reiterated that he doesn’t song as a tribute legendary composer news greeted as ‘yeta film another break- Sir when his wifequalify extruded a simian. Pre-na-In the He looks like what he is — a seller Tamil ed. My manager lovestome like a son, but he beforen signing Shamitabh, as “hero material”. I’m just really lucky to and nothave the to popular Kolaveri di fulthat he quickly focused more ontall acthrough science’ said he would prosecute to the of saris at a reputed sari emporium in T Na- Ilaiyaraja saidfor yesIndian to. “This time by the In- tal investigations past,had the five-foot-five-inch have met the right outside of law, south India still identify I’m very he washis reasdiancalm Medical lest extent of the otherwise the owners gar, Chennai. After 13 years of ignoring cus- people and Association, relaxed. Lasta minister’s gender than species. tor hasOnce expressed doubts directors at the “In my heart that song is over. I’m time there wife in Delhi given birth to a mon- sured he was having son, heoff allowed tomers, what could have led him to take up him getwith. very irritated.” were toohas many things aboutapulling the rolenaof a corright time through I’m thankful that song hap- to course. But there is no key.worry The happy was tinged with ture to take its own It’s awith tragicit.story, and his current happia life of crime? about.occasion I worried the porate high-flyer or a sportsman. me. It was a blessing it’she been sadness. As Aanand admirers thronged cause “I forjust concern. The child’s fu- it. It’s ness to is inexplicable. I ask himbut why is “My wife was neglecting me,” he says pened most about L Rai [the di-the minknow it. You can see years now, it’s time toear move on,”His heeyes says, rector ture is there. secure.I’m Sirnot willwhat do his ister’s ofbungalow, softly, “I do not blame her. After 16 years of four pleased. He smiles from to ear. the film]. Hecarrying invested right you call firmly silencing anyone who asks him hum so duty.material. He’ll take him thereally gifts of bananas, his guy wife just has belight up towith marriage, romance much on a new hero I’m by just a few lines. packed left for her paw the and right raise him as hisat the is naturally weakhope. “In an encause of up hisand conviction,” he explains. His big- lucky to have met directors Yet, he admits that whenlightened he made his step, Bolly- gest He’ll teach himthan the I demother’s house, leaving her round, was his right time. Godown. ened. I tried to buy concern, the first time has given me more wood debut in 2013 with Aanand L Rai’s Raanjhusband to knowledge care for theof Hindi. It didn’t serve,” he says.art of governance, so that her flowers, but due Honourable Sunon-existent Balki is quick to point out that hanaa (2013), the audiencepreme only knew him the time modest. is right, “He’s product She Court hasas help to inflation, I could thatofhetheir wasunion. playing a street-side Romeo Dhanush is beingwhen unnecessarily “that Kolaveri guy” and, to some extent, super- in henot canhave takeaover from has taken her jewellery. mandated weekly not purchase many. Benaras. Dubbing his lines for the film was an original. He may lot of qualities star Rajinikanth’s son-in-law. At the time, “Hischallenging. in-laws are mortifather. Most probaShe was not encouconjugal visitsDhafor most It took him almost a week like the others, buthis the others don’t have what nush already had an enviable of workhein to fied,” explained an aide to whereas he can he has. He knowsbly, start out a that raging me. When I all body prisoners,” crack the pronunciations, howhe’ll different he isatand Tamil cinema and, at 29, was one“Now of thewe youngthe minister. mid-level position at the tried to sing to her, says. will dub an entire“They Tamilare filmroyalty in five hours straight. is his greatest strength.” est actors to win a Nationalrelive Award for from Rajasthan, they have thehis film roshe told me to gar“This is just hisand humility. I’m sure if he had He gainedRegional legions Passport of north Office.” Indian fans as Aadukalam (2011). That didn’t stop otherwise Bollywood to The implications are he is never a monkeyhe’d in pick the up his lines in the stalker-lover mance, gle. Finally, driven by pick had up Mandarin, Kundan in Raanjhanaa, award shows from showering thebeseasoned family before. It’savery to learner,” says sure to now clear. Nextsuperstar time youstatus visit the desperation, I stole she will in conhalf an hour. He’s very,wrong very fast reach with his star with ‘best newcomer’ accolades. Looking Rblame sure to carry bananas. one wasofmore surprised thanfor Passport tempt of court.” several saris and Balki,Sir. theNo director Shamitabh. Luckily secondOffice, Hindibe movie. back, Dhanush says he didn’t look at the hon- Dhanush, he speaks little Hindi in this film. He The Investigator is a fortnightly round-up of all things droll All views personal. Really our as and an newsy. oversight of hisare achievements. In-personal playst@shovonc a mute actor who is voiced by Amitabh mohini chaudhuri
The non-hero hero
A superstar in Tamil cinema, Dhanush makes his second foray into Bollywood as the man with the voice of Amitabh Bachchan
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MAN, 36, COMMITS MINISTER’S WIFE CRIME FOR LOVE! GIVES BIRTH TO MONKEY!
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Writing gave me a method to not go insane The Kim Kardashian Liberals LIGHTHOUSE
Aboriginal poet and writer Ali Cobby Eckermann on being a stolen child and finding home Talk of rights often gets muddy because a new class of counterfeit rights has come up in the last few decades. These are not really rights, but entitlements stopped at the door, because of their skin colour. She adds, “It is a racist country. Many of my Aboriginal family have never been invited ou can hold a currency note up topositive a white rights. person’s never made a friendTohome, honour these rights, against the light, if you have ship with ahas white person outside of the public someone to actively give something been trained well, and detect service…” to you. And as money doesn’t fall from whether it is real or fake. Is Eckermann Too Afraid back in the sky — if itwrote did, there wouldtobeCry inflathere a similar test that can help catch 2005 staying in Titjikala (anbe Aboriginal tion,while and God would effectively taxand expose a faux liberal? Yes, there is. It community Northern ing you — in thethe only way to Territory) honour a and is the ‘But’ Test. A counterfeit liberal is never intended it to be published. The story, positive right is infringe a negative one who will espouse a liberal principle her story, her up everyPaul day beright. Youwould have towake tax Peter to give but then, immediately, before putting a tween 3am and 5am, and the form dictated ithis free broadband. full stop on the sentence, add the word self.ToThe chaptersliberal, are short and episodic, a classical negative rights, the ‘but’. And there’s always a universe after drama from the content and not the which comes draw from the right to self-ownerthat ‘but’. telling. The the writing a release, and ship, are onlyproved kind to of be legitimate For example, a faux liberal will say, “I while she hesitant first about publishrights. Allwas these rights,atin a manner of believe in free speech, but…” Or “I being it, she realised, “It was such a healing speaking, are property rights, as theyproclieve in free markets, but…” That ‘but’ iness forfrom me the thatfact I wondered if other Stolen arise that you own yourself validates all that comes before it. Generation people read it,ofifliberalism there would to begin with. Thinking in be a Anyone who says he believes in free healing for them.” adds, “Writing gave me this manner, fromShe these first principles, speech “but…” is not a liberal but a hypacan method not gooninsane.” bringtoclarity a host of issues. ocrite. (And he doesn’t believe in free As a girl, Eckermann alwaysinwanted to be a You do not see this clarity the intelspeech, obviously.) I have a term for writer published her first poemsSeen — about lectualand space in India, though. these kinds of people, who abound in purple skies and ofsnails, she can’t most quite rethrough a prism first principles, the Indian intellectual space. I call them member — in grade three. Ando avid public intellectuals in India notreader, have she Kim Kardashian Liberals. Too much But. found that writing helped herexample, make sense a coherent worldview. For a of Who is a true liberal then? I consider her allowed her to move forfewexperiences years ago, and a prominent columnist myself a classical liberal, and it disturbs ward. enjoyed English, free but had wroteShe about howstudying he supported me that the term is used so loosely these heard Yankunytjatjara in the speechthe when it came to MFlanguage Husain, bedays. Our discourse has become muddy, womb. Thewas challenge was translate cause he an artist, buttonot when ita lanand words like ‘rights’ and ‘freedom’ are guage of the kinship nomads,because, community came to Danishand cartoonists, used in such nebulous ways that converand traditions into they a more ‘square’ according to him, were out tolanguage prosations around these concepts often inthat is (So English. explains, voke. whatShe if they were?)“Aboriginal This posi- lanvolve people talking past each other, guage is language of music, and filtion makes no sense. Whathappiness, are the first with plenty of Buts swinging here and But naturally? Not unlike Kim Kardashian, several Indian led with inherent and Don’t poetry.ask English principles of thissong person? him is a there. So, in a further effort to help you intellectuals suffer from a case of too much But shutterstock/helga esteb brutal lessening that.” — he might putdown thoseofButs to good use identify counterfeit liberals, beyond the In the minimalism of poetry she found that and twerk you. simple but useful heuristic of keeping an eye tion is social or economic. And what does freeEnglish oftenthat reached itsstaggers potential.me ForreEckerThe hypocrisy really am a survivor Eckermann in Delhi before headingdom to the mean? Jaipur Literature Festivalfreedom s anand out forI Buts, let me elaborate upon what classiIt means from an gardsmann, however, not only proved to be free speech andwriting free markets. A classical cal liberalism precisely means. Specifically: infringement of these rights. a catharsis also a way liberal supports but both. Those onto theilluminate left sup- her the first principles from which arise our supTalk of rights often gets mudcommunity. of Those my family port She onlysays, the “Most former. on in family and raised white one. Her son was the bush,the li Cobby Eckermann is an Aboriginport for freedom. dy because a new classbyofacounthey don’tdohave a voice. Theway governright it the other given forhas adoption alliberals poet and writer from Australia, Many classical arrive at their liberalterfeit rights come upwhen in theshe was an unwed ment keeps overriding In the book, around. This things.” is bewildering. with sixrights. books to name. at 19. (created by ism through natural Areher there anyWhen last mother few decades she details theyou abuse shedecided faced as that a child, Once have twoa love as money Too Afraid to Cry a girlAnd seeking an an- doesn’t theborn Pittsburgh University,toUS, rights that we are with? According theintrocounterfeit liberals, as tells you’dofexaffair gone wrong at 17, ashould son given up for consenting adults be able fall from the to stay afloat. Shethe re-sky,adoption duced her philosopher as a ‘Yankunytjatjara writer Enlightenment John Locke, thefrom pect.)chor, Thesebut are struggling not really rights, herwant stillborn toand do learning whateverthat they withbaby way honour counts an incident where theonly girls in to her she mostAustralia’ basic right of was all isespecially the right delighted. to self-own-When but entitlements. The philosogirlahad been thrown theasbin. each other as in long they are not a felt marker pen to positive right is to the“Every lazy and call herinanhis‘Australian ership. mancareless has a property own pherschool Isaiahused Berlin helpfully Unable unwilling to feel infringing onor anyone else’s writer’, shewrote. makes“This her displeasure evident. paint facenegative dark brown. person,” Locke no Body has any “It coined theher terms and Eck- infringe a negative emotion, fell into a spiral of rights, what she does it matter ermann “I watched really, This but itis,isto everything,” she says, rightistonothing but himself.” borrow a term positive rightswrites, to demarcate the theright. You have to tax whether drugs andare alcohol. they f*****gHer or process trad- of clouds.Negative I watched trust disap-Peter to give Paul his “Once they [Australia] me andofallIn-of my Thomas Jefferson used in thetreat Declaration difference. rights are all started in her 30s, ing? healing But no, our Kim only Kardashian broadband I got up the off the free family equally, then we canwe proudly say that dependence, self-evident. When are born, rightspear. thatFinally, emerge from oncewill shefind found her mother something to Skin colour mattersLiberals The humiliation we ourselves are Australian.” we own — it doesn’t make any sense rightground. to self-ownership — like the had through the Aboriginal Link-Up object to, and there will be no coin Australia. It is a Eckermann (52) or knows thing or two successful; I could hardly that anyone else does, thataeveryone com-about rightbeen to life, to property, to free Service. A few years later, she loto their arguments. racist country herence shame.” being treated wrongly. Too Afraid to Cry a walktofrom munally does. Our right to self-ownership, of is speech, freethe trade and The su- ‘icy catedclassical her 18-year-old When Many liberals son. arrive wind’ withinthese her soon searing account of child abuse, drug and course, is contingent upon our respecting the alcochlike. To respect rightsbecame of she first sees her and her at their support formother freedom anpeople ‘icy block’ and she found that infringe from a utilitarianson, hol misuserights and of domestic corresponding others. violence. It opens yours, simply have to not she glimpses herself in standpoint. Free markets had evaporated. mostemerge withering lines: Allwith otherthe rights from the “When right toAunty them.the Sotears someone not killing you is respect- lead to economicthem. Reuniting with ofher prosperity; freedom ex-birth went to sleep, next to me and In right Delhitorecently for the Navayana Annual self-ownership. OurUncle right would to life, sit to start with, ing your life, a government not cenfamily, she concludes the ‘white man’s pression results in culturalthat growth; so they Lecture Kangaroo is Dead Waterrub my chest. Iofthink he was looking for my is a direct corollary the right to self-ownersoring you is“The respecting your rightsattothe free world’ is square, butreference the Aboriginal way is the support both, without to natural hole,” across as acalled woman of I wasfor only ship. bosoms. The rightFat tochance! free speech, weseven own years our old speech, andEckermann so on. Thiscomes is why they’re circle the acampfire. And of she had learned rights. Thisof is also coherent way arriving at measured andrights, long silences. Her expeand hadn’t grown mine yet.”The right to negative thoughts and their expression. rights.words Positive on the other both ways of life. As Eckermann writes in ‘Bird liberalism. Kim Kardashian Liberals don’t strengthened, not embittered Written prose and interspersed the fruits of ourinlabours — or, essentially, with the pohand,riences are nothave rights at all, but entitlements ‘Guardian and birdsare / Circle the sky / WatchshowSong’: this coherence, soon unclothed. her. But she is The severe in to herfood, criticisms of Aus- er birds / Sit nearby / Fill my ears / With bird the linesThe run short cutassociate deep. This is rightems, to property. right to but freely disguised as rights. right the right t@amitvarma tralia, a country where many of her Aboriginal narrative of loss that and healing. with ultimately anyone weawish to, whether interac- Like to education, the right to broadband etc are all song / I will survive.’ countless children of the Stolen Generation, family have never been inside a café or restauEckermann was taken away from her birth rant. In places like Alice Springs, they are often nandini nair
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Too Afraid to Cry Ali Cobby Eckermann Navayana Memoir ₹295
Amit Varma is a novelist. He blogs at indiauncut.com
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Hen that lays herbal eggs
Cosmos in a nutshell For the poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, the street beggar “Walks down the road/ Like a dying planet” ss kumar
A brood of egg companies in India are innovating the breakfast staple with odourless and herb-infused variants, which are flying off discerning urban shelves
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t’s organic, low-cholesterol and enriched with vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids. But it’s neither a food supplement nor any exotic seaweed extract. Rich praise is now being heaped on the poor man’s protein — eggs. To cater to the finicky, odourless eggs are in the market and they can even be used to make egg drinks, jams and chutneys. From Panipat to Surat and Coimbatore to Delhi, a handful of companies have invested in giving the common chicken egg a makeover beyond the sunny-side-up cheeriness, and the results are showing — specialised eggs are flying off the shelves and more money is going into researching newer products. When ML Kansal retired as an animal science professor from Punjab Agriculture University in 1997, he knew exactly what he wanted to do next — chase his quarter-century-old dream of creating the odourless egg. He had long wondered why that cannot be and
why human beings were forced to indirectly product at ₹95 for a pack of six — three times ingest the antibiotics fed to poultry. He began more expensive than unbranded eggs. But his research soon after retirement to create that hasn’t hindered sales growth for Keggs, as not only odourless, but also healthier eggs. also Suguna and Kansal. That led to the Kansal’s brand of eggs, Kansal Cracking the market Agro, now available across retail “The demand for specialised outlets ranging from Hypercity eggs is rising rapidly. Until a few and Metro Cash & Carry to Walmart and Aditya Birla Retail. months ago, we were sending 50 Until a few months Down south, in Coimbatore, boxes (of 24 eggs each) to Mumsending Suguna Foods carved a niche for ago, we wereglesh The number is Dabral bai andevery other week. poets would seem out 50 boxes (ofof24place eggsin such nowa80 in Mumbai overago. 100 itself by offering four varieties of book just two and decades each) to Mumbai in poets Bengaluru Hyderabad,” specialised low-cholesterol eggs Indian-English used toand tie themselves in every week. Thetracingsays rich in DHA (omega-3 fatty acid), Kansal. knots their lineages, trapped as they number is now carotenoids and Vitamin D. Table egg production were80 in a unique cross-cultural mess. in India These are available both at its is estimated to have more than While Indian-English poetry has mostly had doubled from 30 billion in 2000 stores and at several trade a metropolitan location, Mehrotra divides his 70 billionand in 2013, driven Yet by inchains, supermarkets and contime betweentoAllahabad Dehradun. he venience stores. domestic consumption, is the most creased cosmopolitan of the Indian-Enaccording to the agency ICRA (Andhra And Keggs, the company that began selling glish writers. He ratings can show you flashes of Ezra branded eggs in India in 2002, is retailing its Pound PradeshinisPrakrit the largest ofcan eggs couneroticproducer poetry and spot Katrywide). Thein number of eggs eaten an indibir the dude Kabir the divine. He by is not cosvidual in ainyear increased from 28 to 57a mopolitan the has usual sense of having made duringinthis period.countries but in its higher home different Figures are still unavailable, but sense of interpreting the local asspecialised universal. eggs,poems in their and low-cholesterol His are odourless made of small-town stuff and avatars, are anxieties believed but to have fuelled this middle-class he finds universal growthin story. drama the daily humdrum. The letter-box is andofSuguna have“...and evolved multiple theKansal captain his street a good actechniques of to the get lighthouse./Once their eggs right. “These are quaintance in a while/ highly products by enWe getresearched together/And changedeveloped the altitude of richingInthe nutrientthe content of the stars.” his poems, pyres burn likehen’s new feed,” saysand GB Sundararajan, managing direcvolcanoes the street beggar “Walks down tor at Suguna aFoods. the road/Like dying planet.” Pointing out that are the the antibiotics adminisMehrotra’s poems concordance of a tered to poultry to in human bemutating world are thatpassed seemson still its daily ings through their eggs andlife meat, says, routines. He locates in still theKansal crevices of “Naturally, wewhich develop resistance to those time, through he gazes at a world that medicines. We decided to do away with chemis forever changing. Ageing, ancestors, patericals watches, and medicines by using traditional Ayurnity, maps and journeys often figure vedic also fortify nutrition.” in his herbs, lyricalwhich exposition of time. Mehrotra began as a surrealist poet, for he wanted a lanHerbs inother the mixthan the King’s English to guage Kansal Agro to But its layer feedhis a mixture interpret hisadds world. it seems choice of 21 herbs in had powder amla, poettulsi, this genre a lotform, to do including with his overall neem andHis bahera, whichcould havehelp anti-bacterial, ic vision. surrealism him bend Ali, Amit Chaudhuri and Toby Litt proposed his antioxidant Herbown timeand andanti-fungal space, giveproperties. him a god’s deMehrotra’s name for Oxford’s new professor tached al extracts also eye, added the poultry’s and are distant andtoafford him his of poetry (held previously by the likes of WH fractal drinking water. “Apart from improving nutrivision that invalidates the linearity of Auden and Seamus Heaney), The Guardian ran literary tion content, it alsoSince increases the shelf-life of tradition. he could map the a headline: “Little-known Indian writer joins turning the eggs,” Kansal says. routines and look at his sky onto daily race for Oxford poetry profesThe eggs can be stored for eight weeks at everyday life from across a curvsor”. The same headline could room temperature and and for over a yearlooping in a reing space through have run in an Indian newspafrigerator. Even bacteria salmonella and Etime, he feltlike no need to leave Allaper! Four years ago, Mehrotra coli, present habad. to the extent 3-10 per cent in He hasofthe poetic imagiwas mistaken for Irish writer regular were undetected the specialto find the in configuration Mehrotra can showeggs,nation Roddy Doyle by an organiser at ised eggs, according to the international of the cosmos in what maytestapyou flashes of Ezra the Jaipur Literature Festival. ing and certification company pear to us merely TUV-SUD. provincial. The Pound in Prakrit The cover can beguile the sim- erotic poetry and Kansal differentcosmopolitanism feeds are used for difof can saysliteral ple-minded reader in more ways spot Kabir the ferent specialised eggs. Forand eggsintelrich globe-trotting writers dudekinds in of than one. While it declares it is a in omega-3 fatty acids, the areMehrotra, fed flaxlectuals is of nohens use to Kabir the divine collection of Mehrotra’s poems, seed meals fortified oilsliterary rich in associunsatwho canwith forge it doesn’t tell the reader that not urated fatty acids. ations across time, space, lanall of these poems are his own. To get odourless eggs, adds a mixture guages andKansal cultures. Half of them are his translations of herbs, whichFor is his “trade secret”. The herbquite a while, cosmopolifrom different languages. But those familiar tanism al, odourless egg comes packed with vitamins. for Indian-English writers was more a with Mehrotra’s art will take it in their stride. matter About 100 mlbio ofon this liquid of the thespecialised book jacket.egg Mehrotra One would think this might be his way of lay- is contains three Vitaminturned A, eight one of the fewtimes who more have actually it ing claim to a tradition. His translations from into timesa convincing more Vitamin D3, ten times more Vitatrope. Prakrit, Hindi, Gujarati and Bangla of Kabir, min E and five times more folic acid than a regis a Delhi-based journalist Nirala, Muktibodh, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Man- dharminder ular egg. Itkumar also scored higher on other
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Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is not cosmopolitan in the usual sense of having made a home in different countries but in its higher sense of interpreting the local as universal
O Collected Poems 1969-2014 Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (Introduction by Amit Chaudhuri) Penguin Poetry, Modern classic ₹399
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n the cover of the book, a longhaired young man in frayed jeans and a camouflage jacket, cigarette in hand, sits against a faded door, looking away from the camera. The cover tells you these are his collected poems from 1969 to 2014, with an introduction by acclaimed author Amit Chaudhuri. With all this information on the cover, the book should be ‘breaking news’ for those who think Indian literature in English is a straight line that runs from Vikram Seth to Chetan Bhagat. Not that you can fault them for this view. It has fallen to the lot of the Indian writer in English to be, or at least behave like, a celebrity as well. The obscurity or the eccentricity that went with literary writing for ages is no longer their privilege. So, you may well ask, how is someone who has been writing since 1969 not half as known as Altaf Tyrewala? And how could he be obscure with such dashing good looks? By the time you notice ‘Modern Classic’ written in smaller type at the bottom, you would be scratching your head. Five years ago, when writers including Tariq
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Cheesy cheat’s garlic bread On days when you’re scarcely in the mood to knead, proof and bake, and yet you want to make something bread-y in the kitchen, try this semihomemade recipe for a cheesy garlic pull-apart bread. Take a loaf of sourdough or any hard bread (the denser, the better), cut diagonally but not all the way through to make ‘diamonds’. Into the crevices, put garlic butter and grated cheese. Cover the loaf with a sheet of aluminum foil and bake for 15-20 minutes till the cheese begins to melt. Remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes and serve hot. Pocket friendly Pita stuffed with a paneer filling simi jois
Pretty please Cheese and garlic pull-apart bread simi jois
Knead to know basics
Free rangers (left and opposite page) Kuroiler, a hybrid chicken breed developed by Keggs in the early ’90s, lives on kitchen and agricultural waste and produces around 160 eggs a year
Keggs eggs are not only much bigger and nutritional parameters, under testing by the brid chicken breed, Kuroiler, in the early ’90s. Poultry Disease Diagnostic Laboratory of Ven- This variety lives on kitchen and agricultural tan-coloured, but also come packed in corrukateshwara Hatcheries. The cholesterol con- waste and can produce around 160 eggs a year. gated sheet. Each egg has a hologram, signifytent was down to 179mg, compared to 420mg Keggs’ mantra? Near-organic eggs that are not ing it has been individually tested. “We were only more nutritious but also tastier. the first to introduce eggs with expiry date. in regular eggs. “They are not fed any chemicals or antibiot- We take back eggs beyond the printed date,” Suguna’s Sundararajan says the company’s says Kapur. specialised Active Egg contains 370mg of DHA ics or growth hormones. Unlike These are sold as commodity — sufficient to meet an individual’s daily re- other egg sellers who keep birds eggs as they have a long shelf-life. quirement. “These eggs also fully meet Vita- in cages, we keep our birds in Compared to regular eggs, min E requirement and upold to 83 cent of an houses, havingEastern 100- and North read making is as as per civilisation it- open tionally foundeach on Middle Pita bread birds. They have access to of chickpeas, priced ₹4-5 each, speciality eggs individual’s requirement,” adds. self.selenium Across cultures, thereheare so 200 African tables, hummus is made In Panipat, our eggs areyeast costlier. Suguna’s six eggs His ₹5,350-crore company reliesthat on a netandorasesame friendlypaste.can many versions of bread life- nature, olive oilsunshine and tahini Adding be bought for a instant 1tbsp feed and no bad odour’ Kapur. work of over farmers, in environment,” time2,000 is notpoultry enough to fullymainly learn its roasted red bellsays peppers can lend it a beautiful 1 1/4 cups with warm‘veg water rupee. But sending villages. “WeEgyptians procure eggs select bio-se- hue Keggs eggs, flavour. he says,You are can inferhistory. The were from the first to develop and extra also try combi1tsp salt are priced ₹45, while a pack of six them to other states 3 to 3 1/2 enriched cups flour eggs for diabetics cost cage-free, near-organic and cure farms, which follow the highestlike stana recipe for leavened bread (apparently, all tile, nations of different herbs, sun-dried tomatoes involves high costs withlike natural ₹48. Agro’s dards of layerbyfarming. tested the for produced good things, accident)They and are introduce and vegetables beet. feeds. 1 In the bowl ofKansal a stand mixerpricing or in astarts ₹70 for six odourless eggs and nutrient content by authorised labs,” he says. eggyou’ve is aimed at the concept of a closed oven. It then travelled to “Our Once made pita,discerna pizza crust can’t be large bowl,atcombine warm water and ₹80 for before the omega-3 by Vinod Kapur inand 1993,evenalso ing and well-heeled theKeggs, Greekfounded and Roman civilisations, far behind. It may lookcustomer,” complicated but it’s suyeast. Let goes it sit up for to 5 minutes spread wings far of and wide on In theEgypt, strength of he With for rising capita herbal tually, to the rest the world. bread persays. easy (look basicper recipe online). I love to adding saltand andvitamin-rich 1 1/2 cups of flour.eggs. area its business of supplying day-old chicks and came to be model of such importance that public freezedisposable my dough incomes, and use it more up for Indians dinner on 2 Mix to a soft batter-like consistency. to spend onand healthier foods. basket to poultrywere farmers. a new hy- willing bakeries builtKapur by thedeveloped State. busy weekday. Try roll it into the size you In the Addonline remaining flour until the dough incurtohuge logistics Once used as currency, bread was, and con- want before you freeze the base. Leave it on the “Westarts cometransportation together. Add and enough (ina Panipat) our eggs can be tinues to be, more than just a counter to thaw for a couple of costs. flourLocally to form soft dough that clears for a of rupee But sending source of nourishment. It’s a hours in winter or in the refrig- bought the sides the each. bowl and knead forthem 4-5 to minutes an electric mixer orunloading 8-9 stateswith on trains, loading and symbol of harvest, fertility and erator in summer (you don’t other minutes by hand, the Commission dough is involves highuntil costs. for prosperity. The braided Jewish want to over-ferment the them, smooth and elastic. sellers also varies,” says Kansal. These are the challah, for instance, denotes a dough), and you will be ready to Once you’ve made of these are ladder to heaven; and the unleavbake it in time for dinner. Still in- very3reasons Divide itwhy intosome six equal balls.companies Cover pita, a pizza crust exporting explore ened matzo at Passover harks timidated? Just top a naan with notwith a clothyet. and“We letwant themtorest for foreign can’t be far behind. 10-15inminutes. Roll each ballsays. into a the future,” Kansal back to the Exodus. When baked Unless, you decide to your favourite topping, and markets disc, about 1/4-inch thick. Inthin, the even meantime, the proliferation of online in a circular form as koulouri, it you’ve got a delicious, desi, lazy make a lazy grocery sites has hatched a golden opportunirepresents a ‘ring of life’ to the pizza right there. pizza with naan 4 Cover again and let the discs rest for the minutes domesticoneggs industry. Keggs Greeks. And the pretzels we The other easy option for ty for 30-40 a floured surface. It eggs available at nearly know so well today were but thin homemade breads is stuffed are will rise a little bit. all major grocery sites. strips of dough baked in the bread — yes, I used the words Ditto for Kansal. 5 Pre-heat oven to 218°C/425°F. Gently “We haveonthe resources to Make set up our shape of a child’s arms folded in ‘easy’ and ‘stuffed’ in the same flip don’t the discs a baking sheet. website. We are selling through other prayer, possibly by monks in southern France. sentence. Make the dough with rapid rise ownsure you flip them so the side that was and retail outlets,” Suguna, Of course, flat bread is probably the mother yeast (use the pita recipe), roll it out into a sitesresting on the counterKansal is nowadds. facing is keen expand other of all breads. Think chapatis, naan, puri, para- large rectangle, spread a thin layer of any too,up. Spritztowater overtothe disc.markets after tha, ciabatta, focaccia, frybread, matzo, tortil- sweet or savoury stuffing and roll it like a log expanding in the South and West, says 6 Bake for 10 minutes, until they start la, pizza crust and pita… You can do so much to get beautiful, swirly bread. You can make Sundararajan. to brown lightly on top and puff up. But rather than increasing their points of with all of them. If you are new to baking, how- mini versions of the same bread too. Good for 3-4 days, then refrigerate. ever, pita is a good place to start (see recipe Of late, I have been baking breads with sales, the speciality egg companies are keener box). You can serve the world inside its fluffy fruits and veggies in them. Bananas and zuc- on innovating to create newer products. Visto Kansal Agro farms Panipat are regulittle pocket. Typically made from just three in- chini not only add moisture but also great fla- itors ry a million flavours with in quiet, unassuming served The egg kind cold drinks. Its egg that jam and gredients plus water to knead, it’s as easy as vour to breads. With a scoop of ice cream, larly confidence. of confidence you withtoodourless eggs are gainmaking roti. You can make it on the stovetop banana and walnut bread can easily pass of as chutney too mustmade muster break that barrier and following too, and the company has apor the oven, though I’d recommend the latter. a dessert, with less than half the calories of a ing bakea your first bread. plied for regulatory permissions, says Kansal. You can even freeze them for a rainy day to rich slice of cake. thaw, stuff and eat later. Of its many partners, But that’s the beauty of good bread. It can simi jois lives in Chicago and blogs at Looking ahead Vinod is Kapur, Chairman, Keggfarms Pvt Ltdbe savoury or sweet, flat or puffed up, and car- rashmi pratap turmericnspice.com hummus perhaps, pita’s best friend. Tradi-
Bread is the biggest bugbear for homecooks in India. Even those who routinely roll out rotis and parathas buy their loaves from the market. But breads like pita, or even pizza bases, demand more pluck than skill
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Notshape so green The of time Artist Monica Narula shares her photo diaryletter of thereveals opening of Raqs Media Collective’s A former environment minister’s scathing theday deep conflict between industry ‘The Untimely Calendar’, on till February 15 at Delhi’s National Gallery of Modern Art and environment 8.00am Morning coffee with the invitation card
8.25am Advert in the paper makes it real
10am Good morning NGMA
10.15am Best winter hat ever — made with packaging material
9.30am The morning drive yields colourful, reassuring promises
sambuddha mitra mustafi
Time out of joint 10.30am Cleaning crew is allEnvironmental of us as well degradation costs India $80 billion per year or 5.7 per cent of its economy ap/anupam nath
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ore than any country in the world, India needs a strong green movement. We were ranked 155 out of 178 countries in the Environment Performance Index, a joint survey conducted by Yale and Columbia universities last year. We have 13 of the 20 most polluted cities among G-20 nations, reported a World Health Organisation survey. A World Bank report said environmental degradation costs India $80 billion per year or 5.7 per cent of its economy. One-sixth of the world population resides in India, and breathes some of the 11.10am Chandeliers beautify boxes foulest air on the planet. Yet, India’s green movement is in crisis, let down by those who claimed to champion the environment at the highest levels of policymaking. Former Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan’s sensational letter, first accessed by The Hindu, has further pushed green activists into a corner. Environmentalists were already reeling under the new government’s crackdown on foreign-funded NGOs like Greenpeace and the urgency to clear industrial projects with looser environ-
12.35pm Through the glass, darkly — but rose tinted
mental checks. Greenies had been called “antidevelopment” and even “anti-national” by the right wing, which has been elected to power. Now more questions will be raised: were the green protests against certain industrial projects genuine grassroots movements, or were they part of the cynical political game that Natarajan’s letter hints at? Her allegations and innuendos, whether true or not, show a farcical attitude to India’s environment by its top public servants. Files in the 11.40am Thewashroom early huddle “A few days before I was removed as Minister, I needed to review the Adani file for some legal issues,” writes Natarajan in her letter. “When I sent for the file, I was told that it was ‘missing’. After considerable search, my officials ‘found’ it, apparently in the washroom of the computer section, the very day on which I had been asking to resign.” Franz Kafka would have struggled to come up with a better plot of bureaucratic ineptitude. Reports also suggest that the CBI is probing the environment regulatory regime of the last UPA government, which may reveal even more skeletons. The public already believes that concern for the environment was just a façade used by the last government to extort businesses. This perception gives the new government ample po1.15pm The team hard work litical capital to athasten environmental clearances. Even if we assume the government’s intentions are honest, there is now greater likelihood that more offending projects will get through, and there will be more damage to the environment. And all this will happen at a time when the morale and credibility of India’s environmentalists are at an all-time low. So if you care for the air you breathe, the future looks as bleak as the Delhi smog.
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Losing influence The principal challenge for environmentalists in India is to win back the credibility and political capital they have lost in the last couple of
years and particularly after Natarajan’s letter. The task before them is not easy. India’s young, hungry population need to be convinced that the jobs being created for them may not be good for the world they live in. That is a tough-sell to a generation that seems to have adopted a “grow now, clean up later” philosophy to the environment. But they are also the ones who will be worst affected by India’s toxic air. India’s urban population is at high risk of cardio-pulmonary diseases caused by the air they12.00pm breathe.From Themummies World Bank’s report ‘Greento muses ing India’s Growth: Costs, Valuations and Tradeoffs’ suggested several affordable policy options to promote green growth. These measures, they claimed, would cost the economy only 0.02-0.04 per cent of annual GDP growth, but would create a much healthier working population in return. For a trade-off such as this to be acceptable to Indians, policymakers, environmentalists and industry will have to come together and carve out a deal. Natarajan’s letter damages the prospects of any such deal, by pitting environment versus industry every step of the way. Her allegations can only create further suspicions and acrimony among the different stakeholders who have the capacity to work out a trade-off. Natarajan claims that she was eventually re2.00pm QuinoaGandhi for sustenance moved by Rahul to appease industry and revive the floundering economy. This claim, which could well be true, leaves industry with no incentive to cut a deal for a better habitat. If they have the power to remove a minister over the non-clearance of some projects, why would they even consider a compromise with the environment? India’s green movement has lost considerable influence with youth and industry, two vital constituencies that could have been its partners. That could be the most damaging legacy of Jayanthi Natarajan’s letter. sambuddha mitra mustafi is the founder of The Political Indian t some_buddha
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Breaking bond Under study for more than three decades, the discovery of a vibrational bond has caused a flurry in the scientific world 2.30pm ‘Rooms within rooms’ taking shape
3.30pm Residue sculpture
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he name’s bond. Vibrational bond. Move over ionic, covalent and metallic attachments, a new bond is here. Arguably the first chemical bond to be discovered in nearly 100 years (the last, metallicStark bond, 4.00pm lineswas discovered between 1913 and 1935), the vibrational bond will expand the conceptual boundaries of chemistry. However, in the last decade, chemical science has welcomed the arrival of quite a few new ‘bonds’ — the first-ever ties between a super-heavy element (Seaborgium) and a carbon atom; a new sub-type of covalent bond, the phi bond; and bonds forged in extreme magnetic fields found in proximity to white dwarf stars, currently very difficult to simulate on Earth. Yet, the discovery of the newest bond, theoretically proposed in the ’80s, has caused a flurry of excitement in the scientific world. Its application in explaining how isotopes react and their reaction rates, which defy a basic law of thermodynamics, proves that not all is known about the fundamental nature of the particle. “Binding chemical atoms together to form 5.45pm A moment pause molecules is of like conceiving a child: There aren’t that many ways to do it,” wrote science writer Adrian Cho on new chemical bonds in Science magazine. As students, we learned about the basic bonds that explained how atoms combined to form molecules, how life itself is held together by invisible forces, some strong, some weak, some electrically charged, some especially stable. Even Helium, the smallest, most inert of noble gases has finally been found to exhibit some form of chemical bonding. We learned of ionic bonds, in which electrons are taken, not shared; covalent bonds, where electrons are shared equally or unequally. Remember those diagrams that took months of practice to get right, where
portional to temperature increase. In this case, the reaction slowed down with increase 2.45pm Standees stand in for our ‘untimely’ companions in temperature. Researchers thought this was evidence of an interim bond, where the hydrogen isotope would hold the bromine atoms together briefly for a few milli-seconds, reduce the energy level and, therefore, increase the speed of the reaction. Chemists then didn’t have the equipment to study a fleeting chemical reaction. The vibrational bond remained a theoretical possibility. As Fleming and researchers Jörn Manz (FU Berlin), Kazuma Sato and Toshiyuki Takayanagi (Saitama University, Japan) waited for advances in nuclear accelerators that would finally allow them to track the tenuous energy changes in the BrMuBr reaction, a century earlier, Linus Pauling too had to wait for X-ray crystallography to develop before he could pioneer research into chemical bonding. As an undergraduate student at Oregon State University in 1917, Pauling, who would go on to become one of the founders of quantum chemistry and win two Nobel prizes, was still being taught the ‘Hook and eye’ model of atomic attachment, first developed by Greek philosopher Democritus in 410 BC! The teaching of this archaic method apparently drove Pauling to write the 1939 textbook On the Nature of the Chemical Bond, now a definitive chemistry text. The science of chemical bonding has taken a few but astonishing leaps since Leucippus’s elementary atomic theory in 450 we’d split atomic numbers of elements into BC. By the mid-20th century, the valence bond K,L,M,N shells and s,p,d,f sub-shells, dotting theory and ideas of quantum chemistry were sodium atoms with electrons and sketching in place. We knew how atoms moved, interactlines across to chlorine atoms to indicate ed and dissociated. bonding? Atoms of most elements follow the Fleming, whose research interests lie in the octet rule, elbowing way to gain or lose field5.30pm of nuclear and particular muon chemisSecurity guards ready for the crowds 4.30pm Soon, all will be their revealed electrons from their valence (last) shells to try, had authored the 1989 paper on vibrationachieve stable configurations al bonding as a theoretical just like that of the noble gases. possibility. He is also the lead auSo, Sodium (atomic number 11) thor of the December 2014 paper, readily gives away its lone elecpublished in Angewandte Chemie The discovery of a tron to gluttonous Chlorine (17) International Edition, confirming vibrational bond to form NaCl, common salt. Carthe same. In their experiment in proves that not all is bon, with four electrons in its vaa nuclear accelerator at Rutherknown about the lence shell, has no option but to ford Appleton Laboratory, UK, fundamental nature share them with four hydrogen the bond between Bromine and of the particle or two oxygen atoms to form Muonium didn’t exhibit the necCH4 or CO2. The former transfer essary characteristics to be called is ionic, the latter, covalent. In either covalent or a van der Waals the case of the vibrational bond, bond. It was brought about by a observed in the reaction between Bromine peculiarity of particle physics, where three (which belongs to the most reactive group in atoms were temporarily bound together. the periodic table, the Halogens) and Muoni- While Protium, Deuterium and — Tritium are 8.30pm The Raqs Media Collective Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Monica of Narula and um (call it a Hydrogen isotope, but it’s really naturally occurring isotopes Hydrogen, 6.30pm ...and the curtains are up the lightweight Muonium Jeebeshwas Bagchi — glowing inin green an exotic sub-atomic particle), synthesised therelief lab. ChemMu atoms prefer to oscillate between two Br ically, it is much like a hydrogen isotope, but atoms “like a Ping Pong ball bouncing be- nine times lighter. The chemical reaction to tween two bowling balls,” says Donald Flem- form the BrHBr radical was the same for all the ing, a chemist at University of British isotopes, except Muonium; the BrMuBr radiColumbia involved with the experiment. cal seemed to be held by a precarious vibraLike all good scientific problems, the vibra- tional bond. This is the first confirmation that tional bond has been under study for more isotopes of an element can potentially change than three decades. In 1989, at a nuclear accel- the nature of chemical bonding. However, the erator in Vancouver, chemists — Fleming in- vibrational bond has been observed only in cluded — observing the reaction between the case of this reaction; further research will Bromine and Muonium recorded something determine if heavy and light elements react unusual. According to the Arrhenius equa- this way. So don’t expect it to make it to the tion, most chemical reactions go faster with textbooks yet. every 10-degree Celsius rise in temperature, that is, the speed of a reaction is directly pro- priyanka kotamraju
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Shadow play? Beatific in Beawar McGrath, director of Rajasthani women wait the MRF Pace to cast their vote at a Foundation, with polling station in coach M Senthilnathan Delwara village, near in Chennai k pichumani Beawar pti
Action replay Former Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath on his dream run on the pitch, the secret of leaving at the right time, and World Cup forecasts for India and Australia
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lenn McGrath, easily Australia’s most successful fast bowler ever, with a staggering 949 international wickets, is currently the director of the MRF Pace Foundation, and has spent a lot of time working with India’s current fast bowling crop. As India prepares to defend its World Cup title next week, McGrath shares his thoughts on the Zen of fast bowling, the current Indian attack and the biggest event on the cricket calendar.
ferent, but their shoulders aren’t aligned with their hips. You don’t try to change that action, you try to get the most from that action and get them to be physically strong and fit enough to be able to put up with fast bowling day in and day out. So that’s what we’re looking to do, we’re not looking to create one style of bowler. If everyone bowled like me, it would be pretty boring.
You had this incredible run of three World Cups. Your team had a very solid batting core with Ponting, Gilchristwas andbetween Hayden — he contest a blazer, a batsmen around whom whole team gas stove andthe a balloon, among othrevolved. Do you think Australia has quite the er things. In the Panchayat elections same batting strengthBajawa, today? Jhunjhunu disat village Obviously, they symbols don’t have the same experitrict, Rajasthan, included everything ence, there’s no doubt about that, but they’re from sporting goods and household appliancgetting there. The way Dave Warne es to items of vanity. While voters filedhas intomathe tured — clearly cricket local school to he’s castbeen theirplaying ballot, Test clusters of more... You’ve guys coming in. young and old got menyounger stood around the village Glenn an amazing hitterAnticiof the squareMaxwell awaitingwho theiscounting of votes. ball, we’ve seen some incredible pation simmered alongside pansthings of teafrom and him. yeah, the was newnogeneration coming pots ofSorice. Yet this ordinary election. through have the At the end of the day, Last month, theability. Rajasthan government disit’s all about being consistent, and I think Ausqualified thousands of villagers from contesttralia’s beenongoing playingPanchayat some good, consistent ing in the elections. An cricket of late, and that will carry through to ordinance stipulated that anyone contesting the World Cup as well. Zila Parishad or Panchayat Samiti polls should have passed Class X; for the post of sarA lot of Indian bowlers have gone MRF panch, candidates should haveinto completed Pace andV their actionsareas. have Class Foundation VIII, and Class in reserved changed. often happened that theirBai, 69, AmongIt’s those disqualified is Norti natural strengthsof have not actually used. former sarpanch Harmara Gram been Panchayat, So what happens? A never bowlerwent comes you with Ajmer district, who to to school and ahas strange action, very different action, what no formal education. According to the 2011 do you try do literacy with someone that? Census, theand rural rate — alike basic ability You don’t want to take what makes to read and write — foraway Rajasthan’s malethem popspecial only youitchange ulationor is unique. 76.16 perThe cent; forreason women, is 45.8 an is ifordinance you see they’re goingcriticism to have peraction cent. The has drawn problems. So they’ve gotand an action diffrom several political social that’s quarters,
I think what’s happened in India is that they’ve gone away from the basics. And one of also thing competent to discharge his/her which have termed it let undemocratic, unconthe main things that’s them down is their One you would say to a fast bowlerduties. who stitutional biased against drop the least priviThere is a Gram fielding. Youand can’t consistently catches at was starting off… Sabha, a collective that disleged such asifthe SC, ST and It’s cusses all issues and policies. arething educatthis level, and bowlers arecommunities creating chances, hard to narrow it downThere to one — ed people in that. Wethat getItheir women. Panchayat villagers elect there and theyInare going elections, down, catches getting are four things wouldopinions. say stoodAnd me leaders or then the decision-makers sevaks engineers andisBlock dropped, bowlers are go-for Gram Pan- that of gramin goodand stead. First thing selfOfficersyou’ve (BDOs) got — who all litchayat who will manage large de- Developmentbelief; ing to operations, start getting frustrated. toarebelieve helped meenough. understand velopment projects, service delivery erate. So they They will start lookingpublic for wickyou’re good Whenissues I was andrather complex financial records. and carry outgrowing my responsibilities. I was never ets than the game plan. up, a lot of people told Team India has gone alone. For a sarpanch, experience is most imThe state government has defended its ordiIndian bowlers did a good job, me I was never very good, I was away from the basics,— it’s nance do by asserting since the sarpanches portant a much teacher didn’t a great job.that They creatnever goingbetter to make it inthan my and rural one of the mainshe says. school,” deliver employment, watershed and ed a lotkey of chances, but the fact small country town, I was wastdevelopment schemes, it iswent nec- things that’s let them ingIfmy thetime ordinance beenBut in that so many catches going tohad Sydney. down is their fielding Panchayat essary actually for themworked to haveagainst basic down, Iexistence always during believedthe I was good
Australian cricket team. I retired in 2007 after the Ashes. [I] played the first Test in Brisbane; took six in the first innings; left Brisbane after a good win, thinking that I’m still very focused on what I want to achieve. I wanted a thousand international wickets both Test and One Day combined. [I] was home for two days before flying down to Adelaide, went to sleep one night very focused. I woke up the next morning and it was just like… like bang, just like that. I thought those things aren’t important anymore. Something had changed, and I knew then it was time to hang up the boots.
Letter of the new law
An ordinance by the government of Rajasthan disqualified thousands of unlettered villagers You’ve seen our attack in England… Do we from contesting in the ongoing have Panchayat Is this a step in the right direction? the core of aelections. good bowling side?
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election in 2010, 9.17 per cent education. Such qualifications, them and made life so much enough. Second, is work ethic.ofI however,for areIndia. not mandated for the sarpanches now in office — tougher grew up on a farm so I had that For a sarpanch, electedethic from 9,166 in Gram MPs or MLAs, who deal with work instilled me Panas a experience is most chayatsfella. — would have inelimuch larger constituencies. You ended your Test match Deyoung There arebeen no shortimportant — it’s a gible. In the general category, the spite the lackamazing of formal educacareer on this high. You ended your cuts, the harder you work, the luckier you get. way better teacher of to illiterate sar-I tion,Day Norti knows to use One career withhow the 2007 World Cup on Third one, is percentage always looking improve and than school computers, work excelthe decisions panches stands at 6.1 cent; another high. WhyMNREGA did you take always looked to improve myself on per my bowlsheetsyou as well as use Righta to In- to retiring 11.9and per as cent in theYou SC can category; when did and is there secret ing, as a person a player. never formation. As the first dalit 11.06 where in the you ST category; 8.4I at the right time? be satisfied with are. And and lastly, perfun. centIf under OBCs. The effect sarpanch ofaher village, Iwoman don’t think there’s secret to it, I always won- think, is to have you have a real passion, districts is even more disparate: Kashe also higher comdered if Ipushed retired for at the rightliteracy time orand went on aacross real love for what you do, then you can’tinhelp puter education in her village. I’ve but rauli, of the most backward districts in Intoo long. But all for thewomen important decisions beone successful. Norti, who ordinance the dia, out of the 57 sarpanches in Panchayats ever made inchallenged my life, I’vethe just got to a in point bhattacharjya is project 45 director, FIFA U-17 or High Court, which subsequently refused to joy reserved for SC candidates, are illiterate, (when) I’ve just woken up one day and I knew. Cup,cent; and former team director ofper Kolkata 78.9 per in Nagaur, only 7.8 cent of ingrant astarting stay order, says such legislation is comFrom a family to getting married to World RidersSC sarpanches are unlettered. cumbent pletely unwarranted. “An to illiterate sarpanch is Knight moving to Sydney, even retiring from the
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Bombay not meri jaan Forget expletives, now even erstwhile city names can’t escape the censor’s sharp shears
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hen singer Mihir Joshi submitted his album Mumbai Blues to the Censor Board, he couldn’t have anticipated this outcome. For his song titled Sorry, the Board decided to make just one cut. Bom-
bay. Much to his surprise, the word was bleeped and blurred out. In a Facebook post, Joshi writes, “The word Bombay was removed. We’re not making this up. It’s too insane.” The song, which appeared on the channel MTV Indies, comes with the ‘offending place name’ bleeped out. Joshi’s song never rang truer — I’m sorry sweetheart, this is the world I’m giving you today...
Are you a cheater?
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ions cheat on their partners with abandon, so do walruses, jungle fowls, hyenas and dolphins. Beavers, swans and wolves mate for life, making up a measly three per cent of mout what difference does an educated sar- nogamous animals. Human re- governance inpublic programmes, stronger panch make to a village? A paper by the lationships, the other hand, better developstitutionsonand, ultimately, Harvard Kennedy School of Government from have always been a puzzle. Are not sure the ment outcomes. But I’m 2014 has quantified the effects of a sarpanch’s they emphatically ordinance is the polygamous best way to improve the pool education on the Gram Panchayat’s own pro- or of monogamous? Well, elections, scien- especially if it candidates for local gress in education, the quality of manage- tists at University of Oxford leaves behind candidates from marginalised ment of government programmes and the claim they have found the first communities.” misuse of political influence for private gain. evidence to put sarpanch people into An educated furthers education h, that day is upon us. You It shows, for instance, that edune of the greatest mysteries in West Benneat categoriestoo. — the cheaterspaper shows that McManus’ know, the day which atcation erases the ‘winner’s efgal has been solved! Dear reader, we and the faithful. Based onGram two Panchayats that Rajasthani tacks Indian culture and values. fect’ in terms of the locations of different indicators, electedthe an study educated sarpanch innow know how the CM copes with stress: That special day when you gift new MNREGA projects: nearly 50 reveals that 57 per cent 2005 hadofamen 7.5 per cent highersoap operas. “From 11pm, I watch serials. I Is an ordinance the your loved ones a teddy bear or per cent more MNREGA projects and 47 per centgrowth of women are in literacy rates thanlove watching them,” Didi told audiences at best way to improve a rose. When you might even are started in winners’ neighAkademi Awards, held in at Kolkata. promiscuous. those Questionnaires that elected an uneducatedthe Tele a non-jat. Voters will first look candidates the pool of steal a kiss. If restaurants, spas bourhoods than in the losers’ if the complicated thing that de- else, on sexual habitscandidate. were adminisThe paper also pointsSupposedly, within their caste and then everything candidates, if it and fashion brands have not the sarpanch is uneducated; this is makes of for tered to nearly responto 600 a more vicious cycle: Grammocracy because peoplepoor will Didi only “say wanta tolotwork leaves behind those promised you enough to make difference disappears if he or and listen to a lot of bad things”. An dents. Interestingly, the second Panchayats with lower averagethings their own caste.” from marginalised Valentine’s day memorable, try she has a high-school degree. of Bodhuboron or Ishti — both indicator used in the studylevels was are more likelyepisodeSingh education is not far from the Kutum truth. The discrimicommunities? the Hindu Mahasabha. They’ve Jeffrey McManus, the author of love, jealousy and betrayal get — iseven justmore the length of the ringless finger. to elect educated sarpanch-sagasnatory effects of this ordinance issued a diktat. Apparently, anof the paper, is a senior technical afterinasuch longmatters day. of The longer the length the fines, whoofthen go on to invest lessthe stress-buster complex as it she getsneeds entwined noying email forwards are not manager at IDinsight, a USto an aide,Research she watches soaps Pande, for ger, which indicates the level ofthus ensuring aAccording in education, caste and tribe. by Rohini a enough. Anyone found “celebased non-profit that helps polihours until 3am! Also, ever since the Sa-Policy testosterone toshallower which onefuture was pool of educat-four Mohammed Kamal Professor of Public brating the foreign festival” cymakers generate evidence to improve social exposed radha began to unravel, Didi has to in the womb, the ed candidates. at scam Harvard Kennedy School, on even SC/ST sarwill meet with a host of puniimpact. “There is good causal evidence that higher advisingand supporters to take refugegoods in TV withis thewhich likelihood In Bajawa, is in oneofof the most litera-beenpanches placement of public shments. For Hindu couples, electing an educated sarpanch leads to a fall in promiscuity! Nothing but entertainment Didi, “We Now you know te districts of Rajasthan, all nine candidatesserials. in the village, points to one suchfor nuance. they have the immediate and leakages from public programmes, on aver- what sheacalls “Tolly-Bolly-Holly-Telly!” lookand outliterate. for on But yourthat is not whator assaw are to male veryit, particular preference for geographpermanent Arya Samaj Forced age,” McManus says over email. “I think the or- first date. them most eligible. Villager Rajendra ical clustering of public goods where they live. makes Wedding Package, while interdinance is well-intentioned: educated Singh, an Indian Army soldier, says, “The last So, if you have a non-SC/ST sarpanch, chances religious couples will have to sarpanches bring many benefits to their Pan- sarpanch was a jat (majority community), so are that delivery of these goods will be placed succumb to a shuddhikaran (puchayats in terms of better management of this time the other castes got together to vote away from SC/ST communities as their hamrification), before the unavoidlets tend to be located separately from villagable ghar wapsi rites es,” says Pande. presumably. This V-day, whethShe points out another effect, in a cross-secer you have plans or not, be very tion of caste, gender and education. “There are very afraid. considerable restrictions on mobility and decision-making among upper-caste women who might be educated, while tribal women, who might be illiterate, can have more autonomy in their operations. So, with this ordihead of the general election in 2014, a Narendra Monance, you may actually get administrators di lookalike shot to fame with his cycle yatra across who may be more educated but less efficient,” Uttar Pradesh. Tamil Nadu too saw MGR and Amma looshe says, adding, “even if education matters, kalikes coming out to canvass. It seems that our neighthis ordinance cannot be the only response. bour China is playing copycat. Scores of Chinese actors, One of the first responses, for instance, needs all eerily resembling the founding father of Communist to be about increasing voters’ interest in electChina, Chairman Mao, are in great demand now. Ever ing educated candidates.” since President Xi Jinping came to power, China’s broadAnd what do voters want? In a survey of casters have begun to air propaganda shows and films, 10,008 voters by McManus, honesty and eduPower at play (top)fuelling the demand for lookalikes. Reportedly, the “texcation emerged as the most important qualiA group of women ing yanyuan” (special type of actors) have perfected the ties of a sarpanch. Shubh Karan, 56, a contestants and Chairman’s look down to the last detail — signature chin candidate from Bajawa, also believes honesty campaigners in mole, grey Mao suit, chain-smoking cigarettes. It is said Govindgarh block of is most important — except, he says, “to tell that Mao’s grandson is “very satisfied” with their imperJaipur district; you the truth, honesty has nothing to do with sonations. The only tiny worry for the texing yanyuan? (bottom) Vasundhara education. It comes from within.” Getting typecast.
What’s your plan this Valentine?
Chicken soup for the politico’s soul
New study attempts to explain human sexual behaviour
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Trouble brews for couples planning to go out on V-Day
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Talk like Mao
There’s a boom in China for the Chairman’s lookalikes
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Raje on a tour of Sawaimadhopur rohit jain paras
padmaparna ghosh is a Delhi-based writer
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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya Games
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n this day, exactly 80 years ago, Parker Brothers launched Monopoly. Reason enough for a quiz on board games.
here,there & elsewhere
Cooking chocolate M
uriel and I are at the Creamery. I’ve chosen an ice cream to match my mood: midnight chocolate. She cuts right to the chase. “So. Why are you and Bins still together?” I shrug. “Because it’s the easier option.” Muriel has a tall glass of cold coffee. “Even though you hate each other?” she asks. I tilt my head to the side. “We don’t hate each other”, I say. “Hate is an extreme word. Like charred toast. Noone wants to eat charred toast because it’s not food any longer. We’re more like cooking chocolate: still edible, still chocolate, but not sweet.” Just then Janet, our wait-person, wanders by and hears that last remark. “Not sweet enough?” she asks. Muriel rolls her eyes and explains that I have just compared my life partner to cooking chocolate. Janet is tall, blonde and generously proportioned, like a great pink pear. All her weight is distributed evenly around her middle and hips. She’s good at her job however, and there’s a quality of oceanic serenity as she glides about the restaurant delivering sundaes and hamburgers, French fries and coffees. So when she stops, as she does now at our table, it’s a bit like an oceangoing tanker slamming on its brakes. “Chocolate!?” she says, clearly taken by surprise. “You mean he’s... he’s...” She
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doesn’t want to complete the sentence but the remark has acquired momentum and we can see it practically bumping against the back of her teeth. Her face goes bright red as we’re both staring expectantly up at her. We have no idea why she’s looking embarrassed. “He’s dark, you mean? Like cooking chocolate?” Of course, she had never wanted to make such an obvious reference to race. Particularly when Muriel and I are both decidedly caramel in colour. Desperate to defuse any possible tension, I throw back my head and neigh, “Oh no! He’s French!” To which Muriel adds, “ — but
Let’s start with a question on Monopoly. In 2013, the Iron was finally abandoned as a monopoly piece after a month-long vote on Facebook. Which counter has replaced the Iron?
from India.” Janet frowns. “If he’s from India then... isn’t he just Indian?” His parents are French, I explain. They settled in India at the time when the French had colonies there. So Bins is a citizen of France even though he was born in India. Confusion is spreading across Janet’s warm, friendly features. “Really?” she says. “I mean, I thought France and India were really far apart. And what about the chocolate then?” she asks. “Isn’t that made in Switzerland?” “Also Belgium,” says Muriel. I can see her shoulders are shaking with suppressed laughter though her face is poker-straight. “I compared him to chocolate because he’s not sweet,” I say. “Or Swiss,” adds Muriel. “And he’s from Pondicherry,” I say, firmly avoiding Muriel’s gaze. To my surprise, Janet lights up. “Pondicherry?! Sure, I’ve heard of that! My boyfriend goes to an ash-ram there, and oh my goodness? That is in India!” Smiles break out all around. “It sounds like a great place. I’d love to go there some day.” “Don’t forget to take some chocolate,” says Muriel, in an act of pure mischief. But Janet has already turned and glided away out of earshot. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column
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The Ouija Board was regarded as a harmless parlour game when it was first marketed in the late 19th century. It became associated with the occult only after spiritualist Pearl Curran used it to try and contact spirits. What is the name for the small heart-shaped piece of wood normally used to facilitate the ‘spirit writing’ on an Ouija Board?
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In which board game does all the action take place in an English county house called Tudor Mansion, sometimes also referred to as Tudor Hall?
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Which famous author is regarded as the father of modern tabletop war gaming, and wrote the first set of rules for the same in 1877? One of his games, Little Wars, is still played by military enthusiasts.
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Which board game was created in 1979 by Chris Haney and Scott Abbott when they found pieces of their Scrabble set missing and decided to create a completely new game?
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With which specific board game would you associate the ‘Staunton Set’?
Which four-word phrase, meaning a fresh start, is believed to have originated from the ancient Indian board game of Snakes and Ladders?
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For what specific purpose did Scrabble inventor Alfred Butts mainly use the New York Times, though he did consult a few other sources?
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Which video game company gets its name from the equivalent of a ‘check’ in a game of Go?
An award winning 2012 documentary, Going Cardboard, is about the impact of which European game’s huge influence on the American gaming community. It features the game’s inventor Klaus Teuber. Answers
1. The Cat, just inching out a toy robot, guitar, helicopter and diamond ring in the Facebook poll 2. It is called a ‘planchette’, a word now generically used in India for the ceremony of contacting the dead 3. Cluedo 4. HG Wells, other than his science fiction writing, he also was a widely read historian and co-founder of Diabetics UK, the leading charity for diabetics in the British Isles 5. Trivial Pursuit. More than 88 million games have been sold in 26 countries and 17 languages 6. These are the specific designs of the chess pieces now accepted as the standard, which were designed by Nathaniel Cook and first sold in 1849. They were named after Howard Staunton, then regarded as the world’s leading chess player 7. Back to square one. One of the largest ‘snakes’ takes you straight back to the starting square 8. The points associated with each letter. He based it on the frequency of the appearance of each letter in the newspaper 9. Atari 10. The Settlers of Catan, which has sold over 15 million games worldwide and is especially popular in the US
joy bhattacharjya is a quizmaster and Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup t@joybhattacharj
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