Blink issue 57 february28 2015

TO EXAMS, WITH LOVE Most of us dread them, but a handful of enthusiasts thrive on taking competitive examinations year after year p3 saturday, february 28, 2015

reuters /stefan wermuth

Indian doctors form a crucial part of the National Health Service in the UK. But cultural barriers and racial bias remain in their way p10

All is not well

BOWLED OVER Cricket fans take a swing at scoring apps and online games this World Cup season p6

OVER THE TOP She Will Build Him a City is an evocative novel, but too tricksy for its own good p17

explore know

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Healingversus ways and byways Infinity Ramchundra THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

Medicine men move from the streets to centre stage in an art project that explores the diversity of health practices in solved India, many of which have defiedcalculus time and globalisation How an Indian mathematician hundreds of well-known problems — using geometry and algebra alone — and was forgotten

rohit gupta

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ary a beacon of light illuminates the history of Indian science under British colonial rule. A dark gulf stretches for the 150 years between Maharaja Sawai Jaisingh and Sir JC Bose. However, ‘the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,’ so we continue to search the attic for silhouettes. One such shadowy figure is Master Ramchundra — a teacher of science in Delhi, Urdu litterateur, translator and mathematician — now almost completely forgotten.

In the mid-1800s, many illustrious Victorians bridged the empire from Rangoon to London — including the surveyor George Everest after he had mapped India. His niece was later married to the logician George Boole, and Boole’s friend was none other than the father of computing — Charles Babbage. But most important in this episode was another great intellect of this time — Augustus De Morgan, who was born in Madurai (1806) to a colonel in the East India Company.

The historian Thony Christie writes, “De Morgan was a brilliantly eclectic polymath with a Pythonesque sense of humour who both from his personality and from his appearance seemed to spring out of Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers…” In addition, De Morgan belonged to that minute set of Victorians who were aware of India’s mathematical legacy, when Master Ramchundra entered the stage. As a populariser of science, Ramchundra had taken upon himself the task of translating and writing works on geography, agriculture and astronomy, including the works of Sir Isaac Newton, in Urdu (“the closest thing to a national language”).

More than a century had passed after Newton’s death, and calculus had become the most powerful weapon in the hands of science. Because calculus was the mathematics of change, and everything in the Universe was constantly changing, either through Time or Space. As with any other invention, even as it solved many problems easily in physics and astronomy — calculus created an entirely new jo tera chakraye, ya dil dooba Since jaye... breed ofarproblems for mathematicians.

(When my head spins, my heart it employed infinite series anddoes phantom-like sink...)quantities, sang theit gave comedian Johnny infinitesimal rise to numerPyaasa, playing Walker in the 1957 filmand ous paradoxes, singularities absurdities. an itinerant exhorting passersby to Logicians likemasseur De Morgan knew that it would champi, oron head mastry his specialmore brand take decades to of put calculus a rigorsage, to cure everything from a sinking heart ous foundation. toIta was sinking business. at this time, around 1850, that the 28Decades may have went passedtosince, but and the year-old Ramchundra Calcutta country’s street thrive… self-published a healers strange continue textbook to with soluin thetowinding bylanes of old Delhi, where tions hundreds of well-known calculus pehalwans fourth-generation bonesetter tract, problems.

In this extraordinary howev(wrestlers) reside; in Mumbai’s Chor Bazaar, er, he solved the problems using geometry where a street dentist offers tooth extraction and algebra alone, completely eschewing the for of ₹50; in its villages where peddlers of oils use calculus. and promise to JE grow your hair or In ointments Calcutta, the lawyer Drinkwater-Beadd inches to your child’s height. thune obtained several copies and sent one to is awho warm-weather culturea where De“India Morgan, himself published Europe-a lot edition of life is of lived the street.

I imagine some an theonbook in 1859.

While Ramof these practices, likebeen objects of India’s other chundra’s career has studied at length material cultures,historians are as oldSasIrfan the Habib country itby contemporary and self,” speculates Vaswani, curator of Dhruv Raina, DeRatan Morgan’s own lead preface to the Medicine Corner,that an arts project that explores book recognised bypassing calculus was the historical and cultural landscape of health Ramchundra’s attempt to revive and continue

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Cure all (clockwise from left) An 1825 painting of an eye surgeon, which is part of the ‘Trades and Occupations of India’ series commissioned

by Colonel James Skinner in Delhi; the label for an ayurvedic cholera treatment, dated 1909 from Madras wellcome collection; a hakim with his wares at Jama Masjid, Delhi; and a fourth-generation bone-setter at work

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ity of it fascinates me,” he says, even as he admits that his London-self would find the service intrusive to the point of assault.

From an ethnographic perspective, India can be an extremely complex landscape to document, especially as health often spills over into territories of faith and the supernatural. BLOT!, an electronic arts collective, is a collaborator on the project and has documented a small fragment of this parallel landscape through an immersive audiovisual montage, which premiered in Chennai in January. Band members Avinash Kumar and Gaurav Malaker recount several interesting encounters: meeting a height-weight doctor BLOT! who promised height gain in adulthood; a temple priest who doled out free jaundice medicine; a businessman whose family distributes on Sundays a ‘miracle cure’ for kidney stones; a black magic practitioner; and a ‘healing lake’ on the outskirts of Delhi.

“This intersection of faith, medicine and accessibility was interesting for us to explore,” says Kumar. About the suitability of an AV medium for such ethnographic documentation, he concedes that they were anxious not to trivialise the perils of quackery, or end up entertaining rather than educating. “But within these conflicts reside crucial aspects of contemporary media and civic engagement; if artists do not take up eccentric and challenging agendas for their work, where will the pride, the responsibility and celebration of local culture emanate from?”

Medicine Corner attempts to link the worlds of visual art and health. ‘Healers of Dharavi’, Medicine Corner’s first exhibition at ensuper/shutterstock the ongoing Dharavi Biennale in Mumbai, brings together four self-taught sign painters the ancient tradition of Hindu algebra, as into Urdu, Ramchundra wrote about “a deto create of oil-on-canvas portraits of local healstarted by the likes of Aryabhata, Brahmagup- scription the diving bell, by which sunken ers: from an amulet-maker, a general practitiota and Bhaskara. materials may be retrieved from the sea,” gupt rog ner and athat dentist a ‘healer He compared the two different mathemati- “mistakes Hindutolearned menofhave made (sexual diseases).

It goes further highcal cultures, saying, “The greatness of Hindoo in various sciences of thea step shastras”.

Hetowrote light “how peopleConfucius, perceive their ownShah illnesses invention is in algebra; the greatness of Greek on Demosthenes, Safavid Aband Egypt, seek treatment for them,” saysKhan Supriya invention is in geometry.” The problem which bas, Kabul, the travels of Yusuf KaMenon, the Ramchundra proposed to himself, De Morgan malposh to exhibition’s England, andcurator.

Urdu poetry by the In a developing country like India withZafar, poor suggested, others may have likes of Bahadur Shah access to affordable healthcare, it isNasir. impossithought — “hardly within the Mir Dard, and Shah The ble to view these practices of in isolation. possibilities of pure algebra” influence Ramchundra’s andeven healing in India. It by is funded India has one doctor for every 1,500 or “unattainable any by the Wellstraightforward style haspeople been come Trust, London, a In global A parallel amount of thought”. sum-medical charity (World Health Organisation). traced by scholars to thehealth prose with a parallel interest funding arts and hu- ecosystem, therefore, acquires a certain legitimation, he went on to in declare of Ghalib’s letters, and the remanities projects. “We“victory attempt to cover the macy among the people.

“India’s that Ramchundra’s formist writing ofinequalities Sir Sayyid big things about human life, are striking, to the point of being over the theory of difficulty is Ahmad Khan. such as death and sex; for ingrotesque.

Mostthe people cannot complete.”

However, ideological stance, an ongoing exhiafford So I ammatheinterMore there’s specifically, Ramchungoal healthcare. of Ramchundra’s bitionbookat(A Treatise the Wellcome ested in the wayscould in which peodra’s of Probmatical output not only The masseur, the Collection aboutAnd howMinima, people ple trybeen and make sense of lems on Maxima have nationalistic or their pedbonesetter, the earstudiedbysexAlgebra) over thewas centuries,” circumstances,” says, Solved about agogical, for hisVaswani book begins cleaner... these are Vaswani says. adding such a project the lowest and highest values with athat quotation

by Johnwould Playprofessions with a The India-focus was He inspired inevitably with otherBriisof changing quantities. confair fromoverlap the Encyclopaedia pedigree by the sheer diversity of inits sues, including inclusion firmed mathematically tannica (1824): social “the problems health systems and practices, and gapsrelate between knowledge Problem 52, for example, that which to the maxima whichhave have defied time, systems, among others.with the bees learned to and useperthe minimum and minima... they are connected haps even in a way.their hexago- highest attainments In a natural progression, the amount ofglobalisation wax in constructing of wisdom and the great“The masseur, project will next explore nal-prismatic cellsthe of bonesetter, the hive. Or,the theear-cleanheight at est exertions of power; andhome-based seem like sohealth many er... these arein professions pedigree. practices, such as planting tulsi which a hole the side of awith wateravessel will immoveable columns erectedmedicinal in the infinity There the are some of ear cleanplants, scientific and medical knowledge make waterpicture-paintings spout to the maximum dis- of space,and to mark the eternal boundary, which ers at the that aredemonalmost separates systems that times. Not tance.

TheWellcome array of Collection these problems thepredate regionscolonial of possibility andlimitim300 years says spectrum the UK-based His possibility ed to informal it will also capture strate theold,” rich ofVaswani. his own frommedicine, one another”. to-do list onpursuits. every visit to India includes sur- advances in affordable healthcare today. intellectual rendering hisdiverse head tocareer a haircut-and-massage During his as a popular sci- rohit gupta explores the history of science as t@fadesingh niharika mallimadugula combo deal and at a street barber’s.

“The physicalence writer, translator of scientific books Compasswallah

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Scores of aspirants Students take mock CAT at a centre in Hyderabad long before the actual day of reckoning mohammed yousuf

pirants is more his calling. As is taking the CAT. Barring a couple of times, Jha has remained in the top one percentile and hopes to stay there.

“It’s important for me to write these exams because our business is training students to do well in them. If we don’t keep track of the changing patterns of the paper,” says Jha, “we won’t be able to guide them properly either.

Also, I have to admit, it’s great fun to take the test every year. I almost look forward to it.”

Last year’s national topper, 34-year-old Rajesh Balasubramanian runs 2IIM, a CAT coachexams reappear for tests every year, without ing centre in Chennai, and he too takes the any intention whatsoever of joining an educa- exam to keep a tab on the papers. “We create tional institution. “I know it sounds funny, but all our products — mock tests, sample papers, for some reason, doing well in exams gives me guides, etc. So I definitely want to know what orgasmic pleasure, makes me ecstatic,” says the paper is like each year. And sure, it doesn’t Vijay Jha, senior vice-president at Career hurt when one of us [at 2IIM] gets high percenLauncher, one of the largest tiles as well,” says Balasubramachains of coaching centres in nian, an alumnus of IIT, Chennai, the country. Jha wrote the Comand IIM, Bangalore. mon Admission Test (CAT) for Giving up a career in marketIt’s important for me the first time in 1999, and starting and management at top corto write these exams ed getting calls from manageporations to set up his venture, because our business ment institutes soon after. But Balasubramanian has appeared is training students to unlike most others, he decided for the CAT seven consecutive do well in them to prepare better and reappear years, scoring 99.85 per cent or for the exam rather than pursue above the last four times. He says, a degree right away.

“The most important thing is to “It was never my thing — manrelax and write the exam. It’s also agement. But the calls made me realise that if I an opportunity to max yourself out for two can do well enough without any preparation, hours, and get an adrenalin rush.” But what surely I’ll do better if I am prepared,” says Jha, about the tedium of taking a largely similar who has rarely skipped the annual tests since. test year after year? “I’m not bored per se, but I Growing within the ranks of Career Launcher, have to admit it’s not as thrilling as it used to he discovered that teaching management as- be,” concedes Balasubramanian. Not that that deters him, of course, for the success and reputation of his business appear to rely heavily on such consistency.

Yet another CAT coach, Patrick D’Souza, 38, from Mumbai scored 99.8 per cent or more in all 10 attempts.

“When you go through what the students go through, it’s easier to teach them,” says D’Souza, who runs the Quoin academy in Dadar and Thane with his wife, and trains up to 50 students in each batch. “Unlike my students, there’s no threat of a setback in my career or any real pressure, so it’s easier to do well. It’s this pressure ‘to do well’ that gets most people down,” says this veteran CATtaker. A crucial, if obvious, lesson for aspirants who must crack the code but once.

Serial toppers

There are those who dread exams. And then there are those who thrive on acing them year after year

“T

o be honest, I wrote some of the papers only to get a room in the hostel again,” confesses Aniket Mishra, 25, an MPhil in comparative Indian literature, who has consistently topped his exams at Delhi University (DU).

Mishra, whose primary love is sports research, has also attempted and aced a variety of other competitive exams. He scored 760 out of 800 in his Graduate Management Admission Tests (GMAT), for instance, and ranked among the top 10 in the DU Law entrance exams the three times he appeared (“because of peer pressure”). He also did exceedingly well in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) in 2009.

“I’ve never seriously considered a career in law or management... It’s kind of embarrassing,” says Mishra, “but I enjoy the thrill of writing these papers, especially the objective tests.

Besides, being an avid quizzer, such exams help when I’m participating in or conducting a quiz,” he says.

Mishra, however, is not the only queer fish in the pond. Toppers in various competitive

Test match Rajesh Balasubramanian, who runs a CAT coaching centre in Chennai (right); and Patrick D’Souza with his family in Mumbai (far right)

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A smoky symphony Barefoot auditors call local officials to account

Beyond mishtis, the earthy, ephemeral nolen gur from date palm makes an unusual turn in the culinary winter world of smoking, roasting, basting and broiling They are passionate, outspoken and looked up to. The Gram Arogya Sakhas are helping Buckwheat Crepes with Chicken or Duck fellow villagers, especially women, demand and access their rightintoNolen healthcare Gur and

Pot of gold Clay pots of nolen gur on sale at Joynagar, near Kolkata afp/dibyangshu sarkar

Life-saving lines Bharati Udaysi, a village-level NGO activist, uses pictures to explain the importance of proper nutrition and immunisation to girls and women in Bhute in Shahada block of Nandurbar district, Maharashtra dilnaz boga/wfs

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or Kali Puja every November, many of Kolkata’s older sweet shops observe a centuries-old ritual. Their first batch of sandesh made using nolen gur — the dark, viscous and sweet sap of the date palm — is sent to a local Kali temple. This auspicious beginning heralds a steady supply of this winter delicacy as the moyras, or Bengali sweetmakers, use it in myriad ways that sometimes border on startling innovations and east-west fusions. Until mid-March, Kolkata can satiate its craving forthough nolen gur mishtis in all ven Maharashtra is shapes, among sizes and the textures. more developed states in India, At neighbourhood the benefitsbazaars, of this sealed growthclay arepots unof nolen gur appear, balancedSome precariously evenly distributed. regions, on estwined bases. sell briskly as people peciallyrope those withThey a predominantly tribal population, are underdeveloped.

In Nandurbar district, where Bhils and Pawaras make up 70 per cent of the population, the majority lives below the poverty line. Shahada block has a large number of landless adivasi labourers, and livelihood security and health outcomes are the worst-affected here.

Meanwhile, a significant change is currently underway in 35 villages, essayed by a dedicated army of barefoot auditors, or Gram Arogya Sakhas, who are motivating women to eat better, get their pre- and post-natal checkups on time, opt for institutional delivery and immunise their children. This empowered and socially responsible force is part of a maternal health intervention undertaken by Janarth Adivasi Vikas Sansthan (JAVS), a local non-governmental organisation, and Oxfam India, under the DFID-supported Global Poverty Action Fund initiative.

Among those handpicked to be a barefoot auditor is Jagu Pahar, the 43-year-old former sarpanch (village head) of Vagharda, 25km from Shahada, who firmly believes that healthy mothers and children can ensure a better future his community.

Date with palmfor Collecting sap from a date palm treePreeti in Birbhum district Bohidar, a pti project officer at Oxfam’s

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Miso Dressing In this preparation, the gur combines beautifully with the earthy flour and robust Miso ment hospital functions. The sessions enabled meIngredients to identify five children who were sufferCrepes: ing from malnutrition. I was able to make sure 1 cup buckwheat flour or kuttu ka atta they got vital treatment and followed up with 1/2 teaspoon baking powder the Primary Health Centre [PHC] at Shahada as Pinch of salt well,” says.

Misohe and Nolen Gur Dressing: he became Vagharda’s barefoot audi2Since tablespoon red miso paste tor1/4incup 2013, thegur village has had no maternal nolen 1/3 cup wine vinegar deaths orrice deliveries at home. “Using illustraJuiceI of one lemon tions explain concepts to people. I make a 1/3 of cup sesame oil of pregnant women in the note the number 1 tablespoon soyto them about eating right village and talk 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes and taking the necessary precautions. I even Filling ensure they(smoked get the diet andnice) monetary in200gmthat cooked is really centives are or entitled to under different bonelessthey chicken duck breast government schemes,” says.

Chopped spring onions Pahar to garnish In the neighbouring hamlet of Bhute, wom1. For the crepe, mix buckwheat flour, enbaking no longer hesitate to ask for health-related powder, salt and water to make a advice. turn to the 55-year-old batterThey of the consistency of double barefoot auditor who, together cream.Manga Cover Thackeray and set aside while you with hismake niecethe Bharati Udaysi, a local Janarth activdressing.

Prepare dressing by mixing ist,2.has beenthe motivating people in together his village the up ingredients a blender. Adjust toall stand for theirin rights. taste by adding for salt, chilli buy them to sweeten payesh, pour over breakInitially he didmore face soya stiff resistance to his for heat,ideas and about nolen childbirth”. gur for sweetness.

If it fast muri (puffed rice) and milk, or brush over “new-age Tribal elders needs to beonmore tart, then spritztraditional extra hot chapattis as a delicious winter mid-morn- often insist following certain lemon juice. The dressing should be thick ing snack. customs that could easily prove detrimental but of pourable consistency.

If necessary, Now, while I do love nolen gur in mishtis, its tomake the wellbeing both it thinnerofwith a the littlemother sesameand oil. child. true charms for me lie in a different savoury “Take the practice of not eating enough dur3. Toss the meat in the dressing. direction — the culinary winter world of ing because theywith don’t 4. pregnancy Brush a smallsimply non-stick frying pan smoking, roasting, basting and broiling. want the place baby to grow big.Make They crepes fear that oil and it on thetoo flame. by pouring in aextremely tablespoon of batter toto sit Those rough-hewn clay urns of liquid amber delivery will be painful.

I had coatthem the pan the batter is too represent an exciting addition to the oils, vine- with and (if clarify why that wasthick, not good more water,infants,” a little at a time).

Cook gars and dark, mysterious-looking sauces and foradd them or their says Thackeray. till bubbles appear on the surface and the pastes on tomaternal transform meat is and RaipurI depend office, says health a fish key There was a similar resistance to immunisaedges get lacy. Flip once before taking off into something delicious. challenge in rural areas where poverty is stark tion. Says Udaysi, “My uncle, I and our Accredthe heat. Stack on a plate and cover with What makesare nolen gur precious is its sweet- ited and resources scarce.

Social Health Activist (ASHA) have hadinto a dish cloth to keep warm, or put them ness tempered a smoky depth and rich Although thewith National Health Mission has make severalbasket. home visits to convince them.” a bamboo fruity flavours, leading to an incredibly introduced several schemes to improvecomthe Their have borne fruit,portions as is apparent 5.

Rollefforts each crepe with small of plex taste there and experience. to sub- from situation, is a glaringHeat lack works of awareness, the meat. huge Drizzle trust Thackeray and Udaysi dressed over with remaining sauce.

Garnish spring onion. tly sharpenamong these women, qualities,about adding caramel especially their basic now enjoy in thewith community. notes the multi-toned symphony. rightstoand entitlements, she The result Laxmi Barade, a shy tribal is a fabulous flavouring that’s robust enough adds.

In Nandurbar, the barefoot woman from Bhute, says, “I know to hold its ownbeen in combination dense and bearing a hint peaauditors have filling the in-with tastes as — moist, dark,more about sanitation andofnutristrident as gaps miso,since soya,2012. and Worcester, and in- ty, sultry sweetness fromto nolen gur —I do marformation tion thanks Mangaji. have reAs I know our rights, gredients as earthy wholegrain flours, vellously well.alised the importance of What exactly does aasbarefoot even approaching the smoked meats and game.

Smoking fish and meats, another winter auditor do? consuming leafy vegetables.

Collector does not At family winter barbecues, againgive draw the unique quali“S/he forms a crucial link be-the divas may pleasure, canThey us on iron supplements to appear daunting be the meats — pork, poultry and beef — com- ties of the treacly Besides adding a lovely tween the community, the NGO buildgur. immunity and for the anymore ing the grill, but jarsdepartof liquid gur play a subtle sweetness, it flavourfully any and off various government growth of the child.counters Most women starring role. Sticky pork overpowering smokiness of ments. Their mainribs taskof is to in our village suffer from malnuare marinated overnight a store-bought smokedasmeats.

This spread awareness onwith the trition and anaemia our staple mix of dark soy, scarlet chilli winter, my most satisfying experschemes and facilities available diet is chillies and bhakri (flat unpaste, fragrant anise women, and iment has been a warm dressing to pregnant andstar lactating and push leavened bread).” true charms of dollops of gur. Ontothe grill, they that combines miso andfarmer, gur, idethe community involve itself in The meeting Thackeray, a sugarcane and cotton is nolenEach gur forhappy me lieatinthisal are basted with theand gur women. for smoked chicken, roast the regularly health needs of its girls healthy turnaround.

“The awarea different to keep them Nolen gur in auditor, duck andthat even tofu and wilted project villagemoist. has one barefoot who savoury ness levels are so high if anyone sees a vilplace of sugar in a barbecue Chinese at greens. is passionate, outspoken and someone thedirection lo- lager being ignored the PHC, they step up sauce made of are Worcester And lest onetothinks that nolen cals look up to.up Most at least semi-literate,” and voice their concern the doctor insauce, tomato Kanhere, puree, orange gur’s savoury charmschanged are for nonsays Ranjana Executive Director, charge. Personally, the training my juice and chilli produces a winvegetarians only, this liquid as jag-I Janarth. outlook. I don’t fear anyone anymore, ning pairlearnt withthe chicken, steaks gery can be approaching generously deployed Pahar ropes at training sessions know our rights… even the Coland quail. in 2013 by Dr Mohan Deshpande of in preparations of earthy winter vegetables conducted lector does not appear daunting anymore,” he are usually must at barbecues to like beetroot sweet potatoes. theBreads Pune-based Arogyaa Bhan. signs off withand a wide smile. mop the informed juices andabout act as rafts for the “Weupwere our rights, ray is a Kolkata-based food writer dilnaz boga Women’s Feature Service meats.

Mywe mother-in-law’s breads arundhati schemes are entitled to multigrain and how a govern-

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STATES OF MATTER

Bonds, bondage and bullies In this catechism of the new economics of growth, a number of basics are being missed.

India’s vast rural expanse is today in the throes of acute demand deficiency

sukumar muralidharan

The song and dance of democracy Members of a band at the opening day of the Budget Session, which collapsed in acrimony soon after, when the land ordinance was introduced kamal narang

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political adviser to former US President Bill Clinton said that if there is an after-life, he would like to be reborn as the bond market. It beat being a champion athlete, a rockstar or even the world’s richest man. The bond market could bully just about everybody.

As Parliament begins its budget session, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan finds the wild gyrations of international currency and bond markets a big worry. Major world currencies are softening as easy money policies have become the norm in economies seeking release from long months of recessionary gloom. Correspondingly, the rupee has been gaining in a manner that could impair India’s export competitiveness.

In his latest policy statement, the RBI Governor spoke of the latitude gained by shifts in the global economy. The decline in the price of oil had created ‘headroom’ for a fiscal stimulus with less risk of inflation. And then came the caveats. Speaking to The New York Times, Rajan wondered if the sudden collapse of the global oil price — its virtual halving within weeks — was evidence of a deeper vein of turmoil yet to be tamed: “I was talking to some market participants, and they were extremely worried about the extent of volatility that can emerge in markets in a very short run... I mean, (oil) is a very deep market. And virtually overnight, in a span of a month or two, it has gone from $100 a barrel to $50.”

Rajan undoubtedly has memories of at least two recent instances when events from afar have battered Indian markets and forced some form of submission. And these episodes have alternated with phases of buoyancy, typically attendant on some move involving Narendra Modi’s ascent to power.

After a five-year-long honeymoon with Manmohan Singh, the markets distinctly soured on him early in his second term. Since Modi’s prospective candidacy became an active topic of conversation, the markets cheered on each move that took him along that trajectory.

April 2013 was Modi’s grand coming out, tored in, of the likely withdrawal of when he flew to Delhi for a media event at quantitative easing by the Fed as the US econowhich he spelt out a range of business-friend- my regains some buoyancy. ly policies and won the resounding endorseLeading into the budget session, The Economent of the industry lobbies. The stock mist — the trusted voice of the money-changmarkets were exuberant at the arrival of the ers in the city of London — ran yet another new saviour. Soon afterwards came the cata- cover story on India, using the old metaphor strophic fall of May, precipitated in the main that tires but never dies: the elephant seeking by an announcement from the US Federal Re- to take flight. Its editorial prescription was serve (Fed) that it would rethink its quantita- simple and clear: to restore momentum to its tive easing policy, which had pumped dollars flagging growth prospects, India needed to liberally into the economy, enabling Wall change policy on land, labour and power.

Street to play the world’s markets. There was a Leaving power aside, since nothing is possipartial rally in July in the Indian markets and ble in this domain without the other two; land an end to the indecision in September, when and labour are precisely the areas where politthe Fed signalled its intent to continue bond ical concord has rapidly evaporated since Mopurchases, ensuring that a di took office. After the solemnity world awash in dollars would of the opening day, the budget not have to search for a rapid session collapsed in acrimony cure to its addiction. when the government introIn between came a particularduced the ordinance it had isIndia needs to ly telling episode. Under pres- change policy on land, sued to amend vital clauses of sure for a crowd-pleasing the law on land acquisition. labour and power measure prior to national elec‘Reform’ could mean several tions, the Manmohan Singh govthings. But to characterise as a reernment through presidential form a legislative change that ordinance in July 2013, made abridges the need for informed food security a basic entitlement for every In- consent in large-scale land appropriations, dian citizen. The markets went into a swoon at while also doing away with social impact asonce and the rupee plunged to a new low. The sessment, clearly challenges common sense.

BJP supported the legislation as a matter of poIn this catechism of the new economics of litical convenience, but Arun Shourie, a prom- growth, a number of basics are being missed. inent party ideologue who oversaw public India’s vast rural expanse is today in the sector disinvestment as a minister in the AB throes of acute demand deficiency. The 2014 Vajpayee cabinet, called for scrapping the food monsoon was below par, and cutbacks in security bill. spending under the rural employment proSince taking the helm at the RBI in Septem- gramme, imposed since the Modi governber 2013, Rajan has seemingly made building a ment took office, have caused further war-chest to deal with future volatility a prior- aggravation. When over 60 per cent of the ity. Foreign exchange reserves have, under his country is taken out of the growth calculus, watch, gone up by about $60 billion and today there are limits to what can be achieved — still stand at $322 billion. Yet, there is no way of less from legislating them out of the charmed judging if this volume is adequate to deal with circle of informed consent. the disappointment that will inevitably follow in bond markets as the budget session pro- sukumar muralidharan is a fellow at the Indian gresses. Neither can the implications be fac- Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla

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ven before a game begins, Amar Sharma of Juliyasar village in Sikar, Rajasthan, is ready with his predictions.

Watching a cricket match live, he simultaneously logs on to Matchup Cricket to enter his forecast for every ball and even the winner. From Virat Kohli hitting a century to Pakistan losing to India in the World Cup, or Dhoni scoring a six in the first over, Sharma is usually spot on. The app rewards him with free mobile recharges and even tablet computers, which are shipped through India Post.

Not surprisingly, Sharma is hooked.

In Mumbai, Romil Shukla is the proud owner of a cricket team — AnRom Champs, the virtual team he created on Hitwicket, for which he buys players, decides the starting XI, designs a stadium and competes with other teams. Employed at an MNC Bank, Shukla spends at least three hours on the online Own your Dhoni Hitwicket, a cricket management game game every day. He has started meeting other team-owners offline, creating a community of Hitwicket cricket managers.

Suraj Jain in Guwahati is using Chauka, a cricket-scoring app, to track every ball in Jain Premier League — a community cricket tournament. Besides keeping a ball-by-ball record of all 12 matches, the app also helps pick the star performer.

Awe and majesty Stephen Alter writes, ‘A climber’s hands can feel the rocks long before he touches the mountain’ kr deepak Interestingly, as matches below Ranji Trophy level are never recorded in India, Chauka offers a brand new way to preserve memories for players and viewers alike at these We were sure there local matches. would be a market for A handful of entrepreneurs an online game are innovating ways to cash in on where users could the country’s obsession with own and manage cricket. They have customers a cricket team from Churu in Rajasthan to Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh, and tephen Alter’s Becoming a Mountain is climbing around Nanda Devi, Bandarpunch urges us to ‘think beyondlike thea mountain’, border in or BanglaTom Crystal ball Matchup Cricket allows users to predict outcomes and win prizes an extraordinary travelogue. Carefully and Kailash-Manasarovar, not least because of Longstaff, who desh, Pakistan, the US, Germany wrote ‘To know a mountain chosen words strung together in sim- the poetic empathy with which Alter writes, ‘A you and must West Asia. sleep upon it’, Alter too seeks ‘to surple prose resurrect memories of Sa- climber’s hands can feel the rocks long before render As Matchup Cricket founder Pratik Shah to the mountains with humility’.

Incred Waters, Alter’s memorable account of he touches the mountain.’ Equally singular is stead says, “We realised that and whilecolonising technologyhigh has of ‘conquering journeys on foot along old pilgrim trails to the its unequivocal critique of religious tourism places,’ grown, the of watching cricket has he experience tries to ‘become like the mounmultiple sources of the Ganga in Garhwal. The and Hindutva, ‘the politicized face of Hin- tains’. not changed over the years. people make This constitutes the Most book’s distinctive urge to seek out ‘spectacular view(s) of the duism has evolved into a grotesque visage core predictions a match and wait for and is aabout wonderful prescription forthem wayhigh Himalayas… Bandarpunch… its twin tur- spouting dogma, prejudice and venal theolo- farers to come true.

We felt Alter’s it was asuggestion, good way to enand travellers. howrets of ice trimmed with sunlight… Nanda De- gies… Natural phenomena are turned into re- ever, gagethat withBecoming them.” a Mountain could also work vi… delicate as a moth with folded wings’, ligious metaphors and then debased by the as aMatch viewers make thousands predicpanacea for 2013-like Himalayanof disasters, appears to be even stronger now, as does Al- tawdry embellishments of faith. Even ancient may tionsat forbest every played. “We give points for beball a necessary first step in conter’s love of forests and wildlife. Darwa Top myths lose resonance here.’ the right predictions and the top tightening predictors fronting capitalism’s and other ‘bugyals’ remain, for him, ‘the sumA thread binds the journeys get prizes,” Shah gripadds. on landscapes and minds, mer gardens of the goddess’. Dodital, ‘its clear which Alter writes about in Sarather than a complete solution. water the colour of moss agate’, is still irresist- cred Waters, but the three jourLike a boss Interestingly, a hint of this ible, while the shades of rocks around Kailash neys that cradle Becoming A For Kashyap Reddy of Hitwicket, cricket core concern is presentatowards Despite his deep fascinate him no end. The craving to be awake Mountain are ‘driven mostly by a game a logical extension to the endwas of Sacred Waters, ‘whatevawarenessmanagement of ‘the at daybreak, because ‘at no other time… do need to overcome the physical what he had been doing as a student at the er I encountered seemed toVellie mountain and the the mountains seem so alive, so full of sounds and emotional trauma of a vioof Technology playing myself,—as if thefootball snow goddess’ lore AlterInstitutewithin and smells’, is as intense as ever, the lust for air lent incident’ in 2008, when Almanagement games. alreadythe taken peaks and“IPL the had waterfalls, glachooses, at times, to that ‘has never been breathed before and light ter and his wife Ameeta were off. We were sure would bethe a market cier there and the river, rocks for anda write tentatively (that) is young’, unquenchable. brutally assaulted at their home, similar online where own thegame, flowers, hadusers beencould absorbed Folklore anda mythological stories Oakville, Mussoorie. A chill runs and manage into a cricket team,”To hethe says. my body’. extent that Tally ho Chauka, cricket score-keeping app—foroften the aam swinger contesting versions — continue to animate down the spine reading about In 2012, hethe and his friend Rishav Rastogi new book appears to take off ‘the natural splendour of the Himalayas with the attack, the sheer terror expewere ready from with where Hitwicket, a multi-player the old ended, it is echoes of an epic imagination’, helping Alter rienced and the terrible ‘sense of violation very cricket strategy game. oneand of its oldesthad uslikely that even if As Alter Ameeta understand social relationships and everyday and loss… as if I have become a stranger with- not ers, been Shukla says, “Hitwicket is an uncomplicat‘touched by evil,’ he would still have life. Remarkably, despite his deep awareness in the sheltering mountains of my birth’. ed game. also unlike anydifferently other cricket served up Ita is similar, though texof ‘the mountain and the goddess’ he chooses, Alter, the scars still eroding his ‘physical tured game in the rooted market,in asother you don’t have to be totreat, ‘Himalayan Jourat times, to write tentatively, ‘I have looked at and mental confidence’, seeks healing, solace neys’ tally engrossed. createother a team, and someundertakenYou at some time. this mountain all my life… yet… the moun- and calm, the feeling that all that he has lost is one can play came with your even when this you Memories aliveteam while reading tain’s myths and its natural history have an restored, and ‘the simple contentment that book, are offline.” a silent tribute welling up towards the elusive, enigmatic quality.’ It is equally signifi- frees us from terror, anguish and anxiety’. This end Hitwicket’s mobile app giveswho, himinupdates for shoemaker Staudinger, his 80s cant that while recognising the impact of quest for the sacred, his own reflections on and about Additionally, fithis as ateam’s fiddle,performances. died walking his favourite myths on historical processes, Becoming a walking the mountains, combined with his mountain it offers him lessons for real life, he says. “You path in Tirol.

Mountain is emphatic about distinguishing immersion in the histories of wandering, as learn to manage as there is virtual Thehow book is over, money, the reading done, but historical personages and events from the also in the varied meanings of faith and of Bruce moneyChatwin’s used in buying team members and question, ‘What Am I Doing mythological, Alter’s ‘convictions as an atheist mountains for human beings, prompt Alter to Here’ training hasthem.” taken hold as also a relentless urge reaffirmed by the material reality of Kailash’. scale ‘those staircases of rock’ on Bandar- to Hitwicket works by seeking using a toproprietary return to ‘old ways’, become a Conversations with people and environ- punch, and undertake journeys to Nanda Devi mountain. match engine algorithm to compare the batmental activists are woven into the fabric of and Kailash, climbs that leave him with feel- ting, bowling and fielding skills of players. Reis an associate professor both books. Becoming a Mountain stands out, ings of ‘reverence as well as trepidation’. This mukul sults mangalik are generated based onof History, those College, DU, and match a keen mountain wanderer however, for its accounts of exploration and is possible because like Aldo Leopold, who Ramjas probabilities.

Each is simulated ball by

Q Sleeping upon a mountain A poetic and exceptional account of the explorations and essence of the Himalayas

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Becoming a Mountain Himalayan Journeys in Search of the Sacred and the Sublime Stephen Alter Non-fiction Aleph ₹495

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When a cricket match is on, the number of players runs into thousands, as fans across the world log on to a range of apps to partake of the action

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Team spirit The movers and shakers at Hitwicket, an app for wannabe cricket bosses

ball, accompanied by commentary. Next up is the India Cup at Hitwicket, with selected teams vying for it.

Around 25 Hitwicket users in Mumbai now meet regularly, as do many others in Pakistan and Bangladesh. A large chunk of the nearly 1.5 lakh registered users is in India, even as new users are rapidly swelling the numbers in countries such as the US, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Germany without any marketing effort.

Chauka’s scorecard is no different, generating 40 per cent of its revenues outside India without significant marketing efforts. It is the app of choice for recording match scores not only in India but also the US, West Asia, Pakistan, Nepal, Singapore, Japan and Germany.

“Recently, someone from Uruguay contacted us for a tournament,” says Chauka founder Manoj Iragavarapu.

Be my scorekeeper Iragavarapu’s business venture was certainly not happenstance. While studying for MBA at Spain’s IE Business School, he did market research on the cricket scorekeeping scenario in India and discovered that amateur players had no records. “Amateur cricketers too like to see their cricket statistics and cherish them later,” he reasons, adding, “We realised there was more communication over mobiles than over email in India. That’s where we figured out that a mobile app for ball-by-ball score would work.”

The app, which arrived free the first year, is generating revenues now. Tournament organisers pay to use it. It is available for an annual fee of ₹25,000, besides charges for a local match varying from ₹200 to ₹5,000 depending on location, match level, period of engagement and other factors.

Those unfamiliar with the app can utilise Pratik Shah, founder, Matchup Cricket Chauka’s team of 50 scorers, who have been hired across India on a contract basis. “But the ry latent need to entertain. So we launched the app is easy to use. Once you sit with the Chau- Hindi version early this year,” he says. ka team and learn about it, you don’t need a With 15 per cent of his subscribers already scorer,” says Jain, an avid fan. using Hindi, Shah has plans for other regional The app can be customised for variations in languages too. As for revenues, he is confident the rules of the game. “If you are organising a he can wait. “We have bootstrapped so far. But tournament with, say, eight balls in an over, we are in talks with brands that want to adverthen Chauka can customise the tise with us. Once that happens, app accordingly,” says Jain. revenues will start coming in.

After 15,000 downloads and Currently, our focus is on populascoring for 8,000 matches, the rising the game,” he adds. company has tied up with two His strategy is to popularise We realised that major sports organisations in Matchup as the second screen for while technology has the US. As the official recordengagement, as most people grown, the keeper for both these acadehave limited attention span and experience of mies, generating robust revecannot remain glued to the TV watching cricket has nues, Iragavarapu is looking at for the full duration of a match. not changed over breaking even in 2015.

“They want to interact with the years Hitwicket, which began something. And that’s where charging for services a year ago, Matchup fits well,” he says. is hopeful of turning profitable Within six months of going in a few quarters. It offers a live, Matchup Cricket has garmonthly subscription model, as well as pack- nered more than five million predictions. Durages for three, six or twelve months at ₹450, ing the India-Pak match on February 15, the ₹675 and ₹1,100, respectively. The packages site got more than one lakh predictions. “Peocome with special features such as ad-free us- ple are spending three to four hours continage, says Reddy. uously on Matchup while watching cricket on TV. The average session time is 25 minutes, Cricketing bhasha which is big on mobile,” says Shah.

Matchup’s Shah, meanwhile, prefers to focus The cricket-based start-ups are hiring more on India, especially its small towns, where developers and marketers as their user base is cricket fever runs high. increasing at the blistering pace with which a “Cricket is a mass sport. Many of our users Dhoni or Kohli or Dhawan piles up a century. are from small towns, where it is impossible to courier prizes without India Post. There is a ve- rashmi pratap

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Manoj Iragavarapu, founder, Chauka

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PAPERWALLAH PRESENT IMPERFECT

count FWord for favour?

The reckoning that when you speak certain words you’ve lost the chance to use others The spate of complaints against high-profile male bosses may mean fewer women at the workplace. But tectonic changes rarely occur without any immediate damages janice pariat

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am bereft of words.

Empty as a leaky cauldron. All talk it has been the past seven weeks. An endless carousel of literary festivals and book launches. Where everything must be explained, answered, described at length, spelled out, explicated, clarified. It was exhilarating, exhausting. The talking on panels, beyond panels, at gatherings and readings. At the end, I messaged a writer friend in Goa who’d been on a similar campaign for her new novel. “Are you safely ensconced at home?” I asked. “Yes, reading and cooking and not talking too much.”

I’m doing the same.

Not that this must be taken as a complaint.

It’s part of the job. This is what (mostly all) writers (must) do. But I’ve been thinking of words — how they poured from me in a torrent — and their rationing. Have I been precise? Have I used them well? Do I treat them as I would a taken–for–granted lover? It has been difficult to get back to writing. To placing words on a page with diligence and self–discipline. Is there a well, a deep, dark reservoir that empties and must be refilled by silence, repose, reading? What if words came in fixed allowances? Tidy parcels tied in string allotted to each one of us every day of our lives. This, of course, brings to mind a poem. Jeffrey McDaniel’s ‘The Quiet World’.

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

he man in the middle of a sexual harassment accusation for this week is the chair of the Nobel prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and head of The Energy Research Institute (TERI), Dr RK Pachauri. A research assistant, who worked at TERI, has filed a police case against Pachauri alleging sexual misconduct. Text messages and email exchanges published by various media organisations make for most cringe-worthy reading and demonstrate not just a deluded sense of romance, but also classic Bollywood stalkerlike behaviour on the part of the 74-year-old.

(Here’s a sample – “Just to prove to you how much I love, I shall go on a fast after the cricket match tomorrow. I will break the fast only when you tell me that you believe I love you with sincerity and unfathomable depth.”) The allegations have prompted Pachauri to resign from IPCC and go on long leave from TERI. The yardstick by which media and public interest in a sexual harassment case is measured continues to be the allegations against Tehelka’s former editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal. Yet, the Pachauri case further proves the reality of workplace harassment. For long, middle-aged ‘leaders’ (think Phaneesh Murthy, Justice A K Ganguly, among others) have been the bane of women employees. These are often predators who are aware that their success, power and

In an effort to get people to look into each other’s eyes more, the government has decided to allot each person exactly one hundred and sixty-seven words, per day.

the victim could, at best, (A count on the support rec’s La Disparition Void), which follows a of angroup immediate circle of friends and col-comof people looking for a missing leagues.

But now, with Twitter andusing Facebook, panion, is a lipogram without the letter they ‘e’. areYes, ablenot to take stories of their harass-of the eventhe once.

He was a member mentFrench to a much audience. the Oulipowider group, founded While in 1960, which boss sought is able to the flowworks of communicatocontrol create literary bound by patWhen the phone rings, I put it tion within the company, he iswriting relativelytechniques powterns and constrained to my ear without saying hello. erlessusually online.based The threat of a leaked WhatsApp on mathematical models, beIn the restaurant I point chat lieving or a naked selfie is real andideas this and doesinspithat they could trigger at chicken noodle soup. I am makeration. some potential offenders go easyLife: on the Perec’s best-known work A User’s adjusting well to the new way. sendManual button. interweaves stories about characters However, media is also a doubleliving insocial a fictional Parisian apartment block, Late at night, I call my long edged sword.

As the of senior execuand complies to threat a complex system of condistance lover and proudly say tives straints embarrassing the organisation and — lists of items, objects and references I only used fifty-nine today. themselves — by their questionable behaviour that each chapter must allude to.

Mark Dunn’s I saved the rest for you. with Ella female staffPea: members — becomes more Minnow a progressively lipogrammatand more real, HRfable, executives are finding ic epistolary is, as the subtitle ways suggests, When she doesn’t respond, I know around the problem.

Byinnot hiringtrickery. many The an elaborate exercise linguistic she’s used up all her words women.

“Given all things are equal — qualificanovel, narrated through letters, is set on the so I slowly whisper I love you, tions,fictitious track record, etc —totoday, islandcompany of Nollop,fit,home NevinI Nolthirty-two and a third times. would rather hireofthe candidate lop, creator themale pangram “The over quickthe brown After that, we just sit on the line female,” HR over head the of a lazy 10,000-strong orgafox the jumps dog,” which is preand listen to each other breathe. nisation toldon mea recently.

“There all which kinds the served memorial statueare and of potential problems, especially in a compagovernment takes extremely seriously.

Rather than proliferation and excess, I’m inny like ours, where employees travel lot from and the Through the book, the letter tilesafall trigued by restriction. How many words do we have inscription, to spend time atas client would and eachlocations. one does,I the governutter in a day, a week, a decade, a lifetime? Do rather avoid thethe potential of an allement bans letter’sheadache use from written or spowritten words count? Would they steal from gation ofcommunication. sexual harassment than unnecessaken Consequently, passages our allowance? What if there were limitarily take chances.

But, if a phonetically female candidate is become increasingly or creativetions? Set by others, yourself. Entire texts have far superior to—the male candidates, ly spelled “I miss ewe all teeplee.then I amof sorree been written under this premise: Georges Pecourse, willing to taketat theI risk future a to I’m atmit, Momma, am of presentlee problems,” he Lipogrammatic says. snoop!” examples are farWhile companies make all kindsChristian of state-Bok’s –flung and assorted, including ments claiming they are equalYasutaka opportunity poetry collection Eunoia, Tsutsui’s employers, off the record, that farCharu from the book Zanzôni Kuchibeni o, is and Niveditruth.ta’s TheTamil fear of a potential suit — and bad novel Zero Degree, among others. shutterstock publicity is so high that fewer women aremere They —fascinate because, far from being influence insulate them against potential hired,‘word especially at they key positions, the games’, are a formdespite of constrained complaints. And often they do. fact that mostthat organisations now a diverwriting wrench away thehave words we know, While it exists in some form or the other sity quota to fulfil need toand have a certainwith and shake theand flippancy casualness around the world, victim-shaming is a particu- percentage of female employees which we toss them around.on their rolls. larly potent weapon in the Indian arsenal. A In short, companiesAwould have Swaprosemuch poemrather in Sridala young executive who finds herself at the re- fewer women on mi’s theirrecent premises thancollection ensure Espoetry ceiving end of unwanted affection from her that men behave appropriately. cape Artist captures this. boss not only risks her job if she complains, When I point ‘Redacted out this distortion, Mr HR in a Poetry is a Message she almost always risks her entire career. De-Rather Headthan says he would rather look into(as the varia- you Bottle’ imagines though spite the images routinely aired around Wombles he can (like be hiring fewer women) might a castaway on a desertproliferation andcontrol en’s Day, of lady CEOs of banks and insurance the variablesed he cannot sure one island)(like thatmaking you own excess, than I’m intrigued companies, senior management behave). allare thethe de- only and“We its have words by restriction. Howmenbook, is still a boys’ club, and snuffing place.

Butyou that onesin with which candoes speak to many words do we terrents the career of a young, up-andnot mean everyone consistently the world.

“So you compose your utter in a day, a week, coming executive is merely a The threat he in says. message your head, you mark a decade, a lifetimecomplies,” of a leaked matter of seconds. Even in those While theinspate of complaints words the book, and you careWhatsApp chat or a rare jobs where performance against high-profile male bosses fully cut them out one by one, naked selfie is real can be absolutely and objectively is likely to inspire more knowing all the many while that for evevaluated, vague parameters women come in the will ery to word youforward, use up, others such as ‘attitude issues’ and ‘not short no matter howopportunity much be lost on the run, reverse.

This is the fitting in with company culture’ you deny this would godo it cost of making yourit,message.

But you are easily introduced to HR files and provide a against women themselves.

Certainly, anyway, because you must.

At firstthere your dismotive for eventually terminating employees. would be fewer jobs. Certainly, this would patches are voluble and profligate.

Soon you Now that there is public precedence of vic- implyration that women have toIt’s beatwice as good to in your words.” delicate exercise tims complaining about all-powerful male be treated at par with the men. None of this the precious and unsayable.

It is about knowbosses, more women are finding the courage bodes well. tectonic changes rarely occur ing thatBut when you speak certain words you’ve to come out and seek justice for the harass- without any chance immediate So poem thingsslows lost the to usedamages. others. The ment they face. While a legal framework and will get first you theytowill get worse. you better. down. ItBut nudges rethink, to deliberthe existence of the Vishaka Guidelines are of- And that’s okay. ate your relationship with language. ten cited as the reason victims are choosing to And silence. t@veenavenugopal speak out, the real hero is social media. Earlier, janice pariat is the author of Seahorse

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

The Physics teacher The story of one man and many civilisations. Of China and Britain, Oman and Bhutan

First class The Paro Valley school where Michael Rutland taught a small group of children, including the then Crown Prince of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck omair ahmad

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

ver the last few weeks there have been numerous articles in the press about Sultan Qaboos bin Said and the slow transition to democracy in Oman. It is easy to dismiss such news as far removed from India, but this distance may be a result of false optics. For example, bin Said did part of his schooling in Pune with Shankar Dayal Sharma, who would go on to be the President of India. And that is not the only connection between Oman and South Asia. In 2005, I met Michael Rutland, who had recently received an Order of the British Empire (OBE) from Queen Elizabeth II. It was a rare honour for a Physics teacher. But as we sat that day and the day after, and during the following years that I worked on my book on Bhutan, Rutland’s story came to exemplify to me much more than the honour conferred on him by the titular head of a former empire.

Rutland’s story begins with his parents and their unexpected meeting. Rutland’s father was a member of Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek’s Chinese Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang, and was sent by Kai-shek to study agriculture at the University of Oxford. It was at university that he met, married and had a son with a British wife. As World War II came to a close, and the war between the Kuomintang and the Communists heated up, Rutland’s father returned to China, leaving his family behind. He did not survive. The Chinese Communist Party triumphed on the mainland, and the Kuomintang was forced to retreat to the island of Formosa, which we now know as Taiwan.

Although Rutland (and his mother) fared better than his father, the Britain he was raised

in was living through an age of austerity as the Returning to England later, Rutland reisland-nation recovered from the massive ex- sumed his life as a Physics teacher, until the pense of the World War, and the destruction travel bug bit him again. The Sultanate of by aerial bombardment. National service was Oman was in need of Englishmen, specifically compulsory, and Rutland opted to serve in the former Royal Air Force personnel, as bin Sa’id Royal Air Force, spending five years on the is- faced the Dhofar Rebellion (1965–1975). Rutland of Malta. land went there as a squadron commander, Coming back home to England, he gained helping the Sultanate quell the rebellion and certification as a Physics teacher. It was a for- negotiate with tribal chiefs. During one of tuitous meeting of talent and opportunity. these negotiations he was stung by a scorpion, Rutland shone in this new avaand his hilarious recitation of tar, and was teaching at the St how he sat stiff-lipped as the forEdward’s School in Oxford, malities were completed, and the when he met a lady from Sikkim, tribal chiefs inspected the sting Michael Rutland’s and a job offer followed soon. before he could leave, has to be story came to The lady had been an envoy of heard to be believed. the then Queen Mother of Bhu- exemplify to me much He returned once more to Entan, Ashi Kesang Choden Wang- more than the honour gland, continuing his stint as an conferred on him by chuck, who wanted a tutor for educator, but found time to travthe titular head of her son, the crown prince. el to Bhutan again and again, a former empire The Queen Mother was the staying in a cottage with his first person in Bhutan to have adopted family, and becoming a studied at Oxford, and her part of the education system brother had been the prime there. Before the fourth King of minister of the Himalayan kingBhutan, Jigme Singye Wangdom until his assassination in 1964. Six years chuck, abdicated unexpectedly to make way later, she wanted the best education possible for his son Jigme Khesar Wangchuck in 2006, for her only son, but was unwilling to send he granted Rutland citizenship of Bhutan. him out of Bhutan. Rutland, of course, knew Today, as Oman struggles with the issue of nothing of this. He did not even know where succession after bin Said, and Bhutan stabilisBhutan was, but he was 35, and he decided it es and deepens its nascent democracy, Rutwould be a fine adventure. And so for a year he land’s story reminds us how one life can taught an elite group of schoolchildren in a straddle civilisations — civilisations considschool created just for one class in the beauti- ered irreconcilable, yet often bound in ways ful Paro Valley, with the then Crown Prince of that become apparent if only we bother to Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who would scratch the surface. become the longest-serving king of the count@OmairTAhmad try, as his principal student.

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Speaking objects (clockwise from below) A figurative hookah base with scenes from the Padmavat; a 19thcentury Ragaputra Deshakh; and AlBuraaq believed to be the steed of Prophet Mohammed. The stylistic features hint at influences from Central Asia, Turkey and Iran

Coming out of the shadows

Cradle to grave The National Health Service of Britain is not flawless, but it has helped millions of lives reuters/stefan wermuth

Eyes wide open

An exhibition of paintings and artefacts that shine a light on the cosmopolitan nature and fine aesthetics of the Deccan

I

Indian doctors have always played a major role in the National Health Service of the UK. But their story is equally about assimilation and success as it is about compromise and bias

t looks like a pretty enough vase. You ty-enough-vase unfurls into a historic record.

North and all the way to the Pahari region. might stop by briefly to admire the silver This hookah base is just one of the many The exhibition pivots around the cosmopolbidri work before walking on. But under ‘speaking objects’ at ‘Nauras: the Many Arts of itanism of the Deccan. The syncretic nature of the guidance of art historian Dr Preeti Ba- the Deccan’ showing at the National Museum. the peninsular arose because of its location hadur Ramaswamy, it explodes with stories The exhibition features over 100 exquisite along the coast, which allowed for trade and and myths — of lovers in love and kings in bat- items — paintings, manuscripts, metalware, social links to be established with Southeast tle. Firstly, itt iswas no vase.

It isthose a figurative hookah one of moments every protextiles, and arms — from cosmopolitan Indian doctors havethe long been a major part Asia, the Persian Doctor is inGulf and even Iran. The name base made spective from an parent alloy ofdreads: zinc and copper a long, hushed Deccanofofthat thestory.

17th and centuries, and has Able18th to work in Britain since the of the But exhibition pays to themask high subtleties, aesnumbers cantribute sometimes dating to Hyderabad of the late 17thradiologists century or carryconversation between been organised in collaboration with Thereputations Aes- theticsand late 19th century, many have built of the is after all really the like I wasregion. keen toNauras learn what it was early 18th century. intricate inlay ing out aThe routine foetalsilver scan at a central theticsfor Project.

Dr Ramaswamy and DrAKavita courage and dedication. workforce nine emotions form theas bedrock of alldoctor.

In- Do working that for the NHS an Indian spells London out the trysts of Ratan Singh, ruler hospital, follow-up tests andoffinally Singh have curated it. 1960s led to an aggressive shortage in the dian arts.

But itfeel wasthe Ibrahim Adilthat Shah II (1556 doctors pressures seem apparent Chittor, and daughter the diagnosis thatPadmavati, our to-be-born daughterThe recruitment arts, nay, the drive very history of the Deccan from bringing thousands –1627) to of us Bijapur initiated a cult aroundacross on thewho outside?

I spoke to doctors of the King of Ceylon. had a rare cardiovascular abnormality, which has been alland butnow ignored.

Andaround this is50,000 an at- IndiaIndia, there are Naurasthe as he was a great patronthose of thewho arts and country, specifically had come to a tiny parrot on soon would havePointing to be corrected with surgery tempt trained to correct that oversight. doctors in Britain. It may come as little to Britain generous to 15various in the last years. religions.

Ramaswamy saysandAs after shethe wassurface, born. The months before af- Ramaswamy explains, “Decsurprise that in those days doctors faced diswrote in experienced the Kitab-i-Nauras Few I He spoke to had overt racism that Ratan came know of joy ter her birth passedSingh in a blur — ato mixture can, ascrimination an area, has— long been from patients, col- in their(1617), whether ‘Turk or Brhamin: our mostly lanmedical career, and these inof Padmavati’s beauty through and anxiety.

The operation came and went,overshadowed as leagues, or bypoliticians. the Mughals.

But it is alarming that volved patients. guages differ / But our feelings The current anti-immigration Ibrahim Shahdebate II her parrot, which frequently did regular follow-up checks.

And late last It was there an accident of a number is evidence that Indian and otherAdil nonare the same’.

The spirit the seemed to have had littleofimpact on the after role of the interlocutor. year, 20plays months she wasborn, we joyfully of things.

The Mughals weretobetEU doctors continue face bias wrote in Kitab-iregionthem, at theand time is embodied didn’t seem to have Nauras — Turk or (swan) hangsStreet its head walkedThe out hans of Great Ormond children’s ter chroniclers, keepers of hisand obstacles. in theaggravated opening verse of the book conditions.

One docin submission to Padmahospital, London, for hopefully the last time, torical In narrative.

They kept the past few years, an anti- Brhamin: our whichtor, invokes not only Saraswa- had a forensic psychiatrist*, languages differ / But allure.was Snakes having been told vati’s our toddler considered accounts of their debate life at court immigrant has tightti, buttoalso Prophet Muhammad press charges against a patient There’s a phrase you slithering the never fully “cured”. Meet her now andupyou’d and dealings ened itswith grip neighbours. over the political our feelings are and the saint of the Deccan. and forSufi continual harassment often hear among the same surface of the These agenda guess what she’d been through. are absent in the Deccan. in the UK, and visa rules Nauras also while means ‘newly ar- of ocabuse, others spoke doctors here — ‘he’s base marvel at But It would be hard to describe the range of the Deccan wasstricter, an areamaking for have become it rived’casional in Persian, so the term incidents where paalright’, ‘she’s alright’ of But emotions we felt through the the length experience. great refinement and a cosmofar less attractive for foreign syncstients perfectlywould with thecriticise theme. their — essentially meaning tresses.to the among them was immenseher gratitude politandoctors culture.” to This trainexhibition and work here.

Thecolour ‘Music or room’ is a series of large accent.

By and they blend in The which, while National Health Service (NHS), is partThis of ais larger scholarship reflected in the figures: fascinating paintings called they felt supported by the medibranches not entirely flawless, delivered the most imand project to place the history of the Deccan ragamala, dating tocal The Times indicated that in thecommunity.

16th century.

Here, ra“Asians form the of trees portant gift back to us — a healthy and happy squarely map andthe bring it out of the gas are personifiedbackbone laston fivethe years alone number as womenofand themen, NHSsons and they and from vines everychild. Her medical team came shadows the Mughals.doctors Later thishad year, a ver- and daughters, andwouldn’t of of India-trained the mood of the raga is a paestand for it,” says frame where, from Cyprus to Bulgaria and the — crucialsion offallen this exhibition will travel thesteady Metro-stream to 6,880 from 10,265.toThe captured in verse.

Sindhurag, example, is diatric consultant from for London, brought up lovers and ly and coincidentally — Tamil Nadu.

The last politanofMuseum of Art, New York. doctors over shown articles targeting “foreign” ev- and as aeducated warrior oninathe horse; UK,ghambir who hadraga onlyisexperiwas the amazing cardiac indicate surgeon the who per-The erything, hookah base itself tellsclinical a largerskills tale of from their to their more whimsical and is represented by patients a man durenced differential treatment by in the formed a rare and delicatebreaks procedure that left tobacco and how it first came through grasp of English, adds to India the hostile environastrideing a fish! single ragamala painting can her A training days (including, ironically, a narrative. her with a scar so small that doctorsFish continue the Portuguese.

A series of paintings and ‘The arte-Snowy ment. A report published last year, evoke complaint fragrance and melody, about not companionship comprehending her, at the to admire it. I had longswirl known thatbotthe NHS’s facts show the of tobacco — from ‘hookPeaks ofspread the NHS’, highlighted the lack of and di- love.

Musicshe might be ephemeral, but this Enthough speaks with an impeccable tom, hinting at the world ability to attract talent from across ah bars’ presided women packedin Lonversity at theover topby of the NHS and (including exhibition testimony to how the transient glishisaccent). waves ofprimary Ceylon.

— medical personnel whose passion, with crowds of men including Persians and staff don, where a huge proportion of medical can be everlasting.

Not all instances of racism seem to have Kneeling in front of the by and large, is the welfare of their patients Turks, are French Dutch Abyssi-Ethnic(Thebeen fromand abroad or and Blackeven andan Minority exhibition March 20, at the dealtruns withtillappropriately.

DrNaNadeem Ramaswamy painstakrather thanvase, revenue generation — has been nian holding aloft a falcon, high Mughal of- cambackgrounds).

Data to gathered by the tional Museum, Moghal, aDelhi) paediatric nephrologist in Newcasingly takesassets, the viewer through one of its greatest but never before had ficials paign of thegroup DeccanBritish enjoying a quiet smoke.

Association of Physicians tle, northern England, created a stir last year each sequence, and slowly the pretI experienced it in such an intense and intimSuch kingly portraits their way todisparities the nandini of Indian Originmade (BAPIO) revealed bynair writing in the British Medical Journal of an ate way. in key exams and disciplinary procedures. instance where a couple’s request to have only

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white attend to their child was accom- enced doctors who were used to the FILMdoctors FATALE modated by the senior clinician in charge. ‘senior-doctor-knows-best’ protocol in India While the decision was subsequently over- struggled with the NHS, where there was a turned after much pressure, to Moghal it un- more equal partnership between doctors and derscored the institutional racism sometimes other professionals involved in care, from apparent in the NHS. “The event was a failure nurses to radiologists. “Sometimes Indian of leadership to recognise the issue, a failure doctors pass statements that don’t take into to make the right decision and, once it was re- consideration the viewpoints of others — vealed, a failure to learn and articulate it there is a way of doing things,” said a consultthrough the whole organisation,” he said. ant at a London hospital. Others recalled tellIn the anecdotes recounted to me, bias of- ing colleagues about the need to respect ten took a more subtle form. A senior paedia- nurses more or even improve their personal tric consultant at a south London hospital hygiene practices. Maladroit behaviour could said that he had not personally faced barriers prejudice a doctor’s career because, as one in his specialisation (and was positive about doctor put it, “like in any profession you have his experiences and progression). However, to be liked to progress”. when he first arrived in the UK in the early 2000s, he decided to change his ambitions de- Missing rungs in the ladder spite being a senior doctor with top-notch cre- The failure of many India-trained doctors to Dr Rajan Madhok, chairman BAPIO, feels that while dentials. “It was very clear to me quite early recognise the importance of taking on man- people are not bad, the system is biased vidya ram that options were limited, and I decided not to agement and leadership roles as part of career pursue Paediatric Cardiology in the UK, which progression was a theme that came up repeat- ing with other medical bodies over ways to imwas my original goal,” he said. edly. “Indian graduates have a lot of valuable prove the working environment, including The ambiguous barrier was a common clinical experience but often lack finer skills in mentoring schemes to help new trainees adtheme in my conversations. Dr Rajan Madhok, communication, which often is the key to ob- just not just to clinical differences in the systhe chair of BAPIO and a former medical direc- taining senior positions,” said a consultant. tem but also cultural and professional ones. tor at NHS Manchester, remembers numerous “This can result in a large number delivering Britain’s vacillating visa rules and immigrainstances in the ’80s when, seeking to pro- frontline care, while local graduates seem to tion policies have proved a minefield for many gress in orthopaedic surgery, his initial speci- quickly climb to positions of power and influ- doctors. In 2006, the government attempted ality, he was not even shortlisted for positions ence within organisations.” to bring in retrospective rules giving preferhe was overqualified for. He wasn’t considered There are reasons for optimism. Dr Moghal ence to EU citizens in training programmes, But naturally Did already Richard Linklater for training positions even after getting an ad- believes change is underway, leaving many in trainmakein disvanced medical engineering qualification. He pointing to the case of an ining out ofchoose work toand Boyhood, instead of a then decided to move to public health, where stitution he once worked at, tressed circumstances. film centred on his he made a successful career. “I have never been which has acknowledged the While this was successfully daughter Lorelei’s able to figure out exactly what happens, but dangers of “institutional racby BAPIO, The event was a failure of legally challenged character, because he you do feel you are fighting on every level. ism” and attempts to remedy less dramatic abwas but led byequally his instincts leadership to recognise ap/ifc films as a man? continued.

Apart from the occasional obnoxious person, it through specific training surd situations the issue, a failure to people were never bad — but they were ham- and assessment systems. He “My journey as a medic itself make the right decision e’re more than just our argues strung and could not overcome the inherent icant, some not is even that: American Sniper, that this occurring consistently period of time, market hasabeen decided by immigraand, once it was revealed, over dresses. bias of the system,” he says. We are so happy elsewhere Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel,to learn too. theseand films as tion heavily and build up female policies prevalent at the a failure to bethe here and talk in about Another doctor noted difference the TheDrImitation Selma and Whiplash.

RameshGame, Mehta, the head stars inthe commercial in the same time,”entertainers says a forensic psychiaarticulate it through the that we’ve done. of Substance treatment meted out towork those from Englishawards And so, BAPIO, saysattracts a recent court juries. whole way it builds uptrist, its male stars.a time in his carecalling organisation It’s hard being a woman in Hollywood, any case language medical institutions in India,orcomfour of the eight films yielded Best brought by nominated the organisaSometimes, stories with promise starreer when training are periods industry.” words from Oscar 2015’s pared withThe others.

“Ifcame you are articulate you tion, Actoralleging nominations for their heroes. The ing us in the face. racial discrimiAlejandro González Iñárrirarely coincided with visas, neBest get Actress nominee Reeseare Witherspoon on nation can by, but those who not articulate eighth in film was test The — Theory of Everything, the tu’s Best Picturecessitating a skills crucial Oscar winner this is the visits to year the Home the red carpet earlier week as she elabo- to struggle terribly,” said this a forensic psychiatrist, story of internationally renowned physicist captivating account becoming a general practia long fadingqueues, movie only star Office of and ratedargues on thethat #Askhermore campaign in conwho the system is particularly bad tioner Stephen with his first to — Hawking’s has begun relationship to have an impact.

While who the the superhero Birdman with beonce told played to return next day.

“Try telling versation with a television reporter.“There’s a the at accommodating difference. wifejudge Jane did Wilde. surprisingly, thishehighnot Not uphold the charges, said that greattosuccess on screen. most Would it have been your consultant… self-respecting #Askhermore an among online hashtag movephrase you oftenishear doctors here — BAPIO profilehad filmscored with aits malevictory” and female leads people “moral and called less enthralling if it had been about a former would give up.” mentalright’, initiated by the US-based non-profit or- for ‘he’s ‘she’s alright’ — essentially meanstanding shoulder the Royal Collegetoofshoulder, General Practitioners Birdwoman?who Is not Another paediatrician had the beenbiograin the ganisation The Representation ing they’re happy to blend in.” Project, which (RGCP) got acting nominations for both procedure. country for aphy to overhaul the assessment of Alan colleague in decade wasTuring’s suddenly told to recalls journalists for persistently Oneout thing that surprised me was theasking num- In its hero and heroine. the past 10 months, since BAPIO began turn to IndiaThe Imitation the genius because of a Game minor—issue in her women red carpets only — in or the at least pri- working ber who on pointed to weaknesses training This is not witha new RCGPdevelopment to improve the system — biography cryptographer Joan Clarke — a renewal application (her bank account briefly Is not the marily —received about their gowns,and while quizzing doctors in India, how some including at the Oscars other Hollybetterortraining and recognition of Turing’s beggingthreshold to be made? fell below thefilm minimum stipulated of Alan the men almost entirely their work. lanThe cultural struggled with the NHS about culture, beyond wood awards.

The — reasons forrate has differences the pass gone ainfew Richard Linklater’s Oscarshe applied).

Though she colleague Themonths before demand: ask her more.mentioned that experi- up guage issues.

Several these trends areBAPIO twofold. significantly. hasFirst, also begun work-Game Boyhood is the comwon—the with support from her hospital Imitation thecasenominated Accepting her Best Supporting Actress the world’s most widely viewed genius cryptographer ing-of-age taleunnerving of a little boy from and community, it was an process.

Award later that evening, Patricia Arquette re- film industry prefers to tell the a troubled family, shot over a impeVisa conditions continue to have a huge Joan Clarke — a film ceived a rousing response when she raised an- stories of men or tell universal riod Indian of 12 years with The the priorsame workforce. beggingpact to on the NHS’s other point of inequality. “To every woman stories from a male perspective. cast. though he is, the ity accorded to EUInteresting and UK graduates remains be made? who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen Second, producers prefer to inchild at its centre isand often overin place for training positions, another of this nation, we have fought for everybody vest in male-led films. shadowed in the first of the route open to Indian graduates — half a training else’s equal rights, it’s our time to have wage The myth that women-centric film byishis more to dynamic sister programme which limited two years — equality once and for all, and equal rights for big-budget action, sci-fi or other Samantha, played by the young has limited uptake. women in the United States of America,” she mass entertainers do not make big money like acting dynamite Lorelei Linklaterit(the direc“Professionally and financially makes no said, as front-row occupants Meryl Streep and films in the same genres helmed by male char- sense tor’s daughter).

As the film progresses though, whatsoever,” said one doctor, who had Jennifer Lopez roared their approval. acters has been repeatedly busted over the seen Samantha is relegated tohand, the background by that system close at and feels that For Indian viewers, it was important to wit- years. The Angelina Jolie-starrers Lara Croft: the stint script. gave doctors few advantages. Though ness Streep’s reaction. Drawing-room conver- Tomb Raider (2001) and Salt (2010) both earned hisItown is a wonder — andofyet it NHS is nothad — that it did experiences the been exsations among film buffs across this country more than double their mega budgets. Quen- tremely not occur to thehe wonderfully inventive Linkpositive, said he would not advise a about male-dominated Indian film industries tin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 starring graduate later Senior to make a companion to Boyof his old medical schoolfilm to come to inevitably include comments such as, “Look at Uma Thurman collected almost six times their the hood.

UKI am now.not pointing fingers at him here. It the kind of roles Hollywood is still offering combined budget worldwide. In a vastly dif- is BAPIO’s but natural for people stories that Madhok says hetoistell conflicted at a Meryl Streep.” In reality, this legendary actress ferent genre, The Devil Wears Prada (2006) with personal they relate to the most.

This then what haplevel.

“I am Indian but I isam an NHS has often spoken about gender discrimina- Streep raked in $326 million across the globe, doctor pens when more men areand making films first and foremost will fight tillthan the tion in Hollywood. As for the substantial, well- which was almost 10 times its budget. (Figures end women, and men areI getting money to of my lifemore for the NHS. am critical of the written roles she steps into year after year, one courtesy boxofficemojo.com) make the system but,films at thethey end ofinstinctively the day, the want NHS isto a Streep doth not a feminist summer make.

It is not the contention of this column that great make.deal I don’t know about you,isbut I am dying better than what available anyLook no further than this year’s Oscar nomi- the male-centric stories being told by Holly- where to see aelse.

Girlhood revolving Samantha Ultimately, willaround I say to doctors nations for proof of how meaty roles and big- wood are not worthy of being told. The point [from over those yearscome with here’? the same Wish India]12‘don’t No…cast.

I will say budget mainstream films are usually reserved is that across genres, the stories of women too ‘come Linklater hadbut been keen on it too.wide open’.” here with your eyes for men in rising Hollywood. the Pic- of deserve to of beIndian toldOrigin and have thedemonstrate potential to (*Some doctors chose to remain unnamed) White coats DoctorsOf from theeight BritishBest Association Physicians (BAPIO) ture nominees, seven were male-led stories earn equivalent as often male-focused anna mm vetticad is the author of The Adventures outside Downing street to voice their anger over new immigration rules, whichsums they believe willas cause andersen discrimination, 21, 2006 afp/odd ram Film Critic t@annavetticad of an Intrepid with womenApril in supporting roles, some signif- films do, if Hollywood were to tell such stories vidya

Girlhood anyone?

This week’s Oscars exemplified the male domination of Hollywood, an industry where actresses still get lower pay, less meaty roles and fewer big-budget films than actors

anna mm vetticad

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Ground reality Residents while away their time in neighbourhood parks on days when ‘fresh’ waste is yet to arrive

Made to measure Weighing machines are commonplace. Electronic scrap is sold in bulk and later mined for reusable parts

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Falling in line A schoolgirl walks past stacks of old d

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d monitors and printers. Children, unsurprisingly, are most vulnerable to toxic e-waste residue

Wall to wall A scrap store in Shastri Park crammed with CPUs that sell for as little as ₹300

Ctrl + Alt + Del East Delhi is home to the country’s largest computer graveyard — one that is both a means of livelihood and a health hazard for its residents

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arely 15km east of Delhi’s centre lie the nondescript Shastri Park and Seelampur neighbourhoods. Not a long distance by the Capital’s standards, yet worlds away from the swachh (clean) bylanes and tree-lined avenues of Lutyens’ Delhi.

Over the last few years, Shastri Park and Seelampur have become a graveyard of a peculiar sort, and their residents ‘gravediggers’. Most people in the neighbourhood make their living from the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) business. It’s estimated that there are at least 4,000 illegal e-waste recycling units located here. Not only do the city’s discarded computers come to die here, but they also arrive from the rest of the country and from as far as the US, South Korea and Australia. Appliances like outmoded washing machines and televisions also add to the bulk.

Most people in the business — whether they work independently or with small traders —

earn about ₹200 per day. It’s a perilous life, especially for children whose nimble fingers sort through heaps of scrap, which are replenished every day. The smoke generated by burning e-waste, for instance, has been known to cause asthma, skin diseases, kidney damage, hormonal imbalance, and even cancer. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), health risks connected to e-waste arise from direct contact with harmful materials such as lead, cadmium and chromium.

The risks notwithstanding, for many like 21year-old Mohammad Shafi, this is the only means of survival, the conduit to a brighter future. “I have been in this business from a very young age,” he says, “but I’m doing my graduation through an open university now, and once I complete it, hopefully I can build a better life for myself, move away from here.” kamal narang

Things fall apart Most of the electronic scrap is beaten and sold as metal scrap

A fine art Copper being extracted from the e-waste

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Speaking objects (clockwise from below) A figurative hookah base with scenes from the Padmavat; a 19thcentury Ragaputra Deshakh; and AlBuraaq believed to be the steed of Prophet Mohammed. The stylistic features hint at influences from Central Asia, Turkey and Iran

Coming out of the shadows

Cradle to grave The National Health Service of Britain is not flawless, but it has helped millions of lives reuters/stefan wermuth

Eyes wide open

An exhibition of paintings and artefacts that shine a light on the cosmopolitan nature and fine aesthetics of the Deccan

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Indian doctors have always played a major role in the National Health Service of the UK. But their story is equally about assimilation and success as it is about compromise and bias

t looks like a pretty enough vase. You ty-enough-vase unfurls into a historic record.

North and all the way to the Pahari region. might stop by briefly to admire the silver This hookah base is just one of the many The exhibition pivots around the cosmopolbidri work before walking on. But under ‘speaking objects’ at ‘Nauras: the Many Arts of itanism of the Deccan. The syncretic nature of the guidance of art historian Dr Preeti Ba- the Deccan’ showing at the National Museum. the peninsular arose because of its location hadur Ramaswamy, it explodes with stories The exhibition features over 100 exquisite along the coast, which allowed for trade and and myths — of lovers in love and kings in bat- items — paintings, manuscripts, metalware, social links to be established with Southeast tle. Firstly, itt iswas no vase.

It is a figurative hookah one of those moments every protextiles, Indian and arms — from cosmopolitan doctors havethe long been a major part Asia, the Persian Doctor is inGulf and even Iran. The name base made spective from an parent alloy ofdreads: zinc and copper a long, hushed Deccanofofthat thestory.

17th and centuries, and has Able18th to work in Britain since the of the But exhibition pays to themask high subtleties, aesnumbers cantribute sometimes dating to Hyderabad of the late 17th century or carryconversation between radiologists been organised in collaboration with The Aes- theticsand late 19th century, many have built reputations of Ithe is after all really the like wasregion. keen toNauras learn what it was early 18th century. intricate inlay ing out aThe routine foetalsilver scan at a central theticsfor Project.

Dr Ramaswamy and DrAKavita courage and dedication. workforce nine emotions form theas bedrock of all In- Do working that for the NHS an Indian doctor. spells London out the trysts of Ratan Singh, ruler hospital, follow-up tests andoffinally Singh shortage have curated it. 1960s led to an aggressive in the dian arts.

But itfeel was Ibrahim Adilthat Shah II (1556 doctors the pressures seem apparent Chittor, and daughter the diagnosis thatPadmavati, our to-be-born daughterThe recruitment arts, nay, the drive very history of the Deccan from bringing thousands –1627) to of us Bijapur initiated a cult aroundacross on thewho outside?

I spoke to doctors of the King of Ceylon. had a rare cardiovascular abnormality, which has been alland butnow ignored.

Andaround this is50,000 an at- IndiaIndia, there are Naurasthe as he was a great patronthose of thewho arts and country, specifically had come to a tiny parrot on soon would havePointing to be corrected with surgery tempttrained to correct that in oversight. doctors Britain. It may come as little to Britain generous to15various in the last years. religions.

Ramaswamy saysandAs after shethe wassurface, born. The months before af- Ramaswamy explains, “Decsurprise that in those days doctors faced diswrote in experienced the Kitab-i-Nauras Few I He spoke to had overt racism that Ratan came know of joy ter her birth passedSingh in a blur — ato mixture can, ascrimination an area, has— long been from patients, col- in their(1617), whether ‘Turk or Brhamin: our mostly lanmedical career, and these inof Padmavati’s beauty through and anxiety.

The operation came and went,overshadowed as leagues, or bypoliticians. the Mughals.

But it is alarming that volved patients. guages differ / But our feelings The current anti-immigration Ibrahim Shahdebate II her parrot, which frequently did regular follow-up checks.

And late last It was there an accident of a number is evidence that Indian and otherAdil nonare the same’.

The spirit the on seemed to have had littleofimpact the after role of the interlocutor. year, 20plays months she wasborn, we joyfully of things.

The Mughals weretobetEU doctors continue face bias wrote in Kitab-iregion at theand time is embodied them, didn’t seem to have Nauras — Turk or hans (swan) hangs its head walked The out of Great Ormond Street children’s ter chroniclers, keepers of hisand obstacles. in theaggravated opening verse of the book conditions.

One docin submission to Padmahospital, London, for hopefully the last time, torical In narrative.

They kept the past few years, an anti- Brhamin: our whichtor, invokes not only Saraswa- had a forensic psychiatrist*, languages differ / But allure.was Snakes having been told vati’s our toddler considered accounts of their debate life at court immigrant has tightti, buttoalso Prophet Muhammad press charges against a patient There’s a phrase you slithering the never fully “cured”. Meet her now andup you’d and dealings ened itswith grip neighbours. over the political our feelings are and the saint of the Deccan. and forSufi continual harassment often hear among the same surface of the These agenda guess what she’d been through. are absent in UK, the and Deccan. in the visa rules Nauras alsowhile means ‘newly ar- of ocabuse, others spoke doctors here — ‘he’s base marvel at But It would be hard to describe the range of the Deccan wasstricter, an areamaking for have become it rived’casional in Persian, so the where term paincidents alright’, ‘she’s alright’ of But emotions we felt through the length experience. great refinement and a cosmofar less attractive for foreign syncstients perfectlywould with thecriticise theme. their — essentially meaning tresses.to the among them was immenseher gratitude politandoctors culture.” to This trainexhibition and work here.

Thecolour ‘Music or room’ is a series of large accent.

By and they blend in The which, while National Health Service (NHS), is partThis of ais larger scholarship reflected in the figures: fascinating paintings called they felt supported by the medibranches not entirely flawless, delivered the most imand project to place the history of the the Deccan ragamala, dating tocal The Times indicated that in thecommunity.

16th century.

Here, form ra- the “Asians of trees portant gift back to us — a healthy and happy squarely map andthe bring it out of the gas are personifiedbackbone laston fivethe years alone number as womenofand themen, NHSsons and they and from vines everychild. Her medical team came shadows the Mughals.doctors Later thishad year, a ver- and daughters, andwouldn’t of of India-trained the mood of the raga is a paestand for it,” says frame where, from Cyprus to Bulgaria and the — crucialsion offallen this exhibition will 10,265. travel toThe thesteady Metro-stream to 6,880 from captured in verse.

Sindhurag, example, is up diatric consultant from for London, brought lovers and ly and coincidentally — Tamil Nadu.

The last politanofMuseum of Art, New York. doctors over shown articles targeting “foreign” ev- and as aeducated warrior on horse; inathe UK,ghambir who hadraga onlyisexperiindicate the was the amazing cardiac surgeon who per-The erything, hookah base itself tells a largerskills tale of from their clinical to their more whimsical and is represented bypatients a man durenced differential treatment by in the formed a rare and delicatebreaks procedure that left tobacco and of how it first came through grasp English, adds to India the hostile environastrideing a fish!

A single ragamala painting can her training days (including, ironically, a narrative. her with a scar so small that doctorsFish continue the Portuguese.

A series of paintings and ‘The arte-Snowy ment. A report published last year, evoke complaint fragrance and melody, about not companionship comprehending her, at that the botto admire it. I had longswirl known the NHS’s facts show of tobacco — from ‘hookPeaksthe ofspread the NHS’, highlighted the lack of and di- love.

Musicshe might be ephemeral, but this Enthough speaks with an impeccable tom, hinting atthe the world ability to attract talent from across ah bars’ presided women packedin Lonversity at theover top by of the NHS and (including exhibition testimony to how the transient glishis accent). waves Ceylon.

— medical personnel whoseofprimary passion, with crowds of men including Persians and staff don, where a huge proportion of medical can be everlasting.

Not all instances of racism seem to have in front of the by and large, isKneeling the welfare of their patients Turks, are French Dutch Abyssi-Ethnic(Thebeen fromand abroad or and Blackeven andan Minority exhibition March 20, at the dealtruns withtillappropriately.

Dr NaNadeem Ramaswamy painstakrather thanvase, revenue generation — has been nian holding aloft a falcon, high Mughal of- cambackgrounds).

Data to gathered by the tional Museum, Moghal, aDelhi) paediatric nephrologist in Newcasingly takesassets, the viewer through one of its greatest but never before had ficials paign of thegroup Deccan enjoying a quiet smoke.

British Association of Physicians tle, northern England, created a stir last year each sequence, and slowly the pretI experienced it in such an intense and intimSuch kingly portraits their way todisparities the nandini of Indian Originmade (BAPIO) revealed bynair writing in the British Medical Journal of an ate way. in key exams and disciplinary procedures. instance where a couple’s request to have only

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white attend to their child was accom- enced doctors who were used to the FILMdoctors FATALE modated by the senior clinician in charge. ‘senior-doctor-knows-best’ protocol in India While the decision was subsequently over- struggled with the NHS, where there was a turned after much pressure, to Moghal it un- more equal partnership between doctors and derscored the institutional racism sometimes other professionals involved in care, from apparent in the NHS. “The event was a failure nurses to radiologists. “Sometimes Indian of leadership to recognise the issue, a failure doctors pass statements that don’t take into to make the right decision and, once it was re- consideration the viewpoints of others — vealed, a failure to learn and articulate it there is a way of doing things,” said a consultthrough the whole organisation,” he said. ant at a London hospital. Others recalled tellIn the anecdotes recounted to me, bias of- ing colleagues about the need to respect ten took a more subtle form. A senior paedia- nurses more or even improve their personal tric consultant at a south London hospital hygiene practices. Maladroit behaviour could said that he had not personally faced barriers prejudice a doctor’s career because, as one in his specialisation (and was positive about doctor put it, “like in any profession you have his experiences and progression). However, to be liked to progress”. when he first arrived in the UK in the early 2000s, he decided to change his ambitions de- Missing rungs in the ladder spite being a senior doctor with top-notch cre- The failure of many India-trained doctors to Dr Rajan Madhok, chairman BAPIO, feels that while dentials. “It was very clear to me quite early recognise the importance of taking on man- people are not bad, the system is biased vidya ram that options were limited, and I decided not to agement and leadership roles as part of career pursue Paediatric Cardiology in the UK, which progression was a theme that came up repeat- ing with other medical bodies over ways to imwas my original goal,” he said. edly. “Indian graduates have a lot of valuable prove the working environment, including The ambiguous barrier was a common clinical experience but often lack finer skills in mentoring schemes to help new trainees adtheme in my conversations. Dr Rajan Madhok, communication, which often is the key to ob- just not just to clinical differences in the systhe chair of BAPIO and a former medical direc- taining senior positions,” said a consultant. tem but also cultural and professional ones. tor at NHS Manchester, remembers numerous “This can result in a large number delivering Britain’s vacillating visa rules and immigrainstances in the ’80s when, seeking to pro- frontline care, while local graduates seem to tion policies have proved a minefield for many gress in orthopaedic surgery, his initial speci- quickly climb to positions of power and influ- doctors. In 2006, the government attempted ality, he was not even shortlisted for positions ence within organisations.” to bring in retrospective rules giving preferhe was overqualified for. He wasn’t considered There are reasons for optimism. Dr Moghal ence to EU citizens in training programmes, But naturally Did already Richard Linklater for training positions even after getting an ad- believes change is underway, leaving many in trainmakein disvanced medical engineering qualification. He pointing to the case of an ining out ofchoose work toand Boyhood, instead of a then decided to move to public health, where stitution he once worked at, tressed circumstances. film centred on his he made a successful career. “I have never been which has acknowledged the While this was successfully daughter Lorelei’s able to figure out exactly what happens, but dangers of “institutional racby BAPIO, The event was a failure of legally challenged character, because he you do feel you are fighting on every level. ism” and attempts to remedy less dramatic abwas but led byequally his instincts leadership to recognise ap/ifc films as a man? continued.

Apart from the occasional obnoxious person, it through specific training surd situations the issue, a failure to people were never bad — but they were ham- and assessment systems. He “My journey as a medic itself make the right decision e’re more than just our argues strung and could not overcome the inherent icant, some not is even that: American Sniper, that this occurring consistently period of time, market hasabeen decided by immigraand, once it was revealed, over dresses. bias of the system,” he says. We are so happy elsewhere Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel,to learn too. theseand films as tion heavily and build up female policies prevalent at the a failure to bethe here and talk in about Another doctor noted difference the TheDrImitation Selma and Whiplash.

RameshGame, Mehta, the head stars inthe commercial in the same time,”entertainers says a forensic psychiaarticulate it through the that we’ve done. of Substance treatment meted out towork those from Englishawards And so, BAPIO, saysattracts a recent court juries. whole way it builds uptrist, its male stars.a time in his carecalling organisation It’s hard being a woman in Hollywood, any case language medical institutions in India,orcomfour of the eight films yielded Best brought by nominated the organisaSometimes, stories with promise starreer when training are periods industry.” words from Oscar 2015’s pared withThe others.

“Ifcame you are articulate you tion, Actor alleging nominations for their heroes. The ing us in the face. racial discrimiAlejandro González Iñárrirarely coincided with visas, neBest get Actress nominee Reeseare Witherspoon on nation can by, but those who not articulate eighth in film was test The — Theory of Everything, the tu’s Best Picturecessitating a skills crucial Oscar winner this is the visits to year the Home the red carpet earlier week as she elabo- to struggle terribly,” saidthis a forensic psychiatrist, story of internationally renowned physicist captivating account becoming a general practia fading movie only star Office of and long queues, ratedargues on thethat #Askhermore campaign in conwho the system is particularly bad tioner Stephen with his first to — Hawking’s has begun relationship to have an impact.

While who the the superhero Birdman with beonce toldplayed to return next day.

“Try telling versation with a television reporter.“There’s a the at accommodating difference. wifejudge Jane did Wilde. surprisingly, thishehighnot Not uphold the charges, said that greattosuccess on screen. most Wouldself-respecting it have been your consultant… #Askhermore an among online hashtag movephrase you oftenishear doctors here — BAPIO profilehad filmscored with aits male victory” and female leads people “moral and called less enthralling if itup.” had been about a former would give mentalright’, initiated by the US-based non-profit or- for ‘he’s ‘she’s alright’ — essentially meanstanding shoulder the Royal Collegetoofshoulder, General Practitioners Birdwoman?who Is not Another paediatrician had the beenbiograin the ganisation The Representation ing they’re happy to blend in.” Project, which (RGCP) got acting nominations for both procedure. country for aphy to overhaul the assessment of Alan colleague in decade wasTuring’s suddenly told to recalls journalists for persistently Oneout thing that surprised me was theasking num- In its hero and heroine. the past 10 months, since BAPIO began turn to IndiaThe Imitation the genius because of aGame minor—issue in her women red carpets only — or at least pri- working ber who on pointed to weaknesses in the training This is not witha new RCGPdevelopment to improve the Is system — biography cryptographer Joan Clarke — a renewal application (her bank account briefly not the marily —received about their gowns,and while quizzing doctors in India, how some including at the Oscars other Hollybetterortraining and recognition of Turing’s beggingthreshold to be made? fell below thefilm minimum stipulated of Alan the men almost entirely their work. lanThe cultural struggled with the NHSabout culture, beyond wood awards.

The reasons forrate has differences — the pass gone ainfew Richard Linklater’s Oscarshe applied).

Though she colleague Themonths before demand: ask her more.mentioned that experi- up guage issues.

Several these trends areBAPIO twofold. significantly. hasFirst, also begun work-Game Boyhood is the comwon—the with support from her hospital Imitation thecasenominated Accepting her Best Supporting Actress the world’s most widely viewed genius cryptographer ing-of-age taleunnerving of a little boy from and community, it was an process.

Award later that evening, Patricia Arquette re- film industry prefers to tell the a troubled family, shot over a impeVisa conditions continue to have a huge Joan Clarke — a film ceived a rousing response when she raised an- stories of men or tell universal riod Indian of 12 years with The the priorsame workforce. beggingpact to on the NHS’s other point of inequality. “To every woman stories from a male perspective. though he is, the ity accorded cast. to EUInteresting and UK graduates remains be made? who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen Second, producers prefer to inat its centre isand often overin place for child training positions, another of this nation, we have fought for everybody vest in male-led films. shadowed in the first of the route open to Indian graduates — half a training else’s equal rights, it’s our time to have wage The myth that women-centric byishis more to dynamic sister programme film which limited two years — equality once and for all, and equal rights for big-budget action, sci-fi or other Samantha, played by the young has limited uptake. women in the United States of America,” she mass entertainers do not make big money like acting dynamite Lorelei Linklaterit(the direc“Professionally and financially makes no said, as front-row occupants Meryl Streep and films in the same genres helmed by male char- sense tor’s daughter).

As the film progresses though, whatsoever,” said one doctor, who had Jennifer Lopez roared their approval. acters has been repeatedly busted over the seen Samantha is relegated to hand, the background by that system close at and feels that For Indian viewers, it was important to wit- years. The Angelina Jolie-starrers Lara Croft: the stint script. gave doctors few advantages. Though ness Streep’s reaction. Drawing-room conver- Tomb Raider (2001) and Salt (2010) both earned hisItown is a wonder — andofyet it is nothad — that it did experiences the NHS been exsations among film buffs across this country more than double their mega budgets. Quen- tremely not occur to the he wonderfully inventive Link-a positive, said he would not advise about male-dominated Indian film industries tin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 starring graduate later Senior a companion to Boyof to hismake old medical schoolfilm to come to inevitably include comments such as, “Look at Uma Thurman collected almost six times their the hood.

UKI am now.not pointing fingers at him here. It the kind of roles Hollywood is still offering combined budget worldwide. In a vastly dif- is BAPIO’s but natural for people stories that Madhok says hetoistell conflicted at a Meryl Streep.” In reality, this legendary actress ferent genre, The Devil Wears Prada (2006) with personal they relate to the most.

This then what level.

“I am Indian but Iisam an hapNHS has often spoken about gender discrimina- Streep raked in $326 million across the globe, doctor pens when more men areand making films first and foremost will fight tillthan the tion in Hollywood. As for the substantial, well- which was almost 10 times its budget. (Figures end women, and men areI getting money to of my lifemore for the NHS. am critical of the written roles she steps into year after year, one courtesy boxofficemojo.com) make the instinctively system but,films at thethey end of the day, the want NHS istoa Streep doth not a feminist summer make.

It is not the contention of this column that great make.deal I don’t know about you,isbut I am dying better than what available anyLook no further than this year’s Oscar nomi- the male-centric stories being told by Holly- where to see aelse.

Girlhood revolving Samantha Ultimately, willaround I say to doctors nations for proof of how meaty roles and big- wood are not worthy of being told. The point [from over those yearscome with here’? the same Wish India]12‘don’t No…cast.

I will say budget mainstream films are usually reserved is that across genres, the stories of women too ‘come Linklater hadbut been keen on it too.wide open’.” here with your eyes for men in rising Hollywood. the Pic- of deserve to of beIndian toldOrigin and have thedemonstrate potential to (*Some doctors chose to remain unnamed) White coats DoctorsOf from theeight BritishBest Association Physicians (BAPIO) ture nominees, seven weretheir male-led stories earn equivalent as often male-focused anna mm vetticad is the author of The Adventures outside Downing street to voice anger over new immigration rules, whichsums they believe willas cause andersen discrimination, 21, 2006 afp/odd ram Film Critic t@annavetticad of an Intrepid with women April in supporting roles, some signif- films do, if Hollywood were to tell such stories vidya

Girlhood anyone?

This week’s Oscars exemplified the male domination of Hollywood, an industry where actresses still get lower pay, less meaty roles and fewer big-budget films than actors

anna mm vetticad

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PAPERWALLAH PRESENT IMPERFECT

count FWord for favour?

The reckoning that when you speak certain words you’ve lost the chance to use others The spate of complaints against high-profile male bosses may mean fewer women at the workplace. But tectonic changes rarely occur without any immediate damages janice pariat

I

am bereft of words.

Empty as a leaky cauldron. All talk it has been the past seven weeks. An endless carousel of literary festivals and book launches. Where everything must be explained, answered, described at length, spelled out, explicated, clarified. It was exhilarating, exhausting. The talking on panels, beyond panels, at gatherings and readings. At the end, I messaged a writer friend in Goa who’d been on a similar campaign for her new novel. “Are you safely ensconced at home?” I asked. “Yes, reading and cooking and not talking too much.”

I’m doing the same.

Not that this must be taken as a complaint.

It’s part of the job. This is what (mostly all) writers (must) do. But I’ve been thinking of words — how they poured from me in a torrent — and their rationing. Have I been precise? Have I used them well? Do I treat them as I would a taken–for–granted lover? It has been difficult to get back to writing. To placing words on a page with diligence and self–discipline. Is there a well, a deep, dark reservoir that empties and must be refilled by silence, repose, reading? What if words came in fixed allowances? Tidy parcels tied in string allotted to each one of us every day of our lives. This, of course, brings to mind a poem. Jeffrey McDaniel’s ‘The Quiet World’.

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

he man in the middle of a sexual harassment accusation for this week is the chair of the Nobel prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and head of The Energy Research Institute (TERI), Dr RK Pachauri. A research assistant, who worked at TERI, has filed a police case against Pachauri alleging sexual misconduct. Text messages and email exchanges published by various media organisations make for most cringe-worthy reading and demonstrate not just a deluded sense of romance, but also classic Bollywood stalkerlike behaviour on the part of the 74-year-old.

(Here’s a sample – “Just to prove to you how much I love, I shall go on a fast after the cricket match tomorrow. I will break the fast only when you tell me that you believe I love you with sincerity and unfathomable depth.”) The allegations have prompted Pachauri to resign from IPCC and go on long leave from TERI. The yardstick by which media and public interest in a sexual harassment case is measured continues to be the allegations against Tehelka’s former editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal. Yet, the Pachauri case further proves the reality of workplace harassment. For long, middle-aged ‘leaders’ (think Phaneesh Murthy, Justice A K Ganguly, among others) have been the bane of women employees. These are often predators who are aware that their success, power and

In an effort to get people to look into each other’s eyes more, the government has decided to allot each person exactly one hundred and sixty-seven words, per day.

the victim could, at best, (A count on the support rec’s La Disparition Void), which follows a of angroup immediate circle of friends and col-comof people looking for a missing leagues.

But is now, with Twitter andusing Facebook, panion, a lipogram without the letter they ‘e’. areYes, ablenot to take stories of their harass-of the eventhe once.

He was a member mentFrench to a much audience.

Oulipowider group, founded While in 1960,the which boss sought is able to the flowworks of communicatocontrol create literary bound by patWhen the phone rings, I put it tion within the company, he iswriting relatively powterns and constrained techniques to my ear without saying hello. erlessusually online.based The threat of a leaked WhatsApp on mathematical models, beIn the restaurant I point chat lieving or a naked selfie is real andideas this and doesinspithat they could trigger at chicken noodle soup. I am makeration. some potential offenders go easyLife: on the Perec’s best-known work A User’s adjusting well to the new way. sendManual button. interweaves stories about characters However, media is also a doubleliving insocial a fictional Parisian apartment block, Late at night, I call my long edged sword.

As the of senior execuand complies to threat a complex system of condistance lover and proudly say tivesstraints embarrassing the organisation and — lists of items, objects and references I only used fifty-nine today. themselves — by their questionable behaviour that each chapter must allude to.

Mark Dunn’s I saved the rest for you. withElla female staffPea: members — becomes more Minnow a progressively lipogrammatand more real, HRfable, executives are subtitle finding ways ic epistolary is, as the suggests, When she doesn’t respond, I know around the problem.

Byinnot hiringtrickery. many The an elaborate exercise linguistic she’s used up all her words women.

“Given all things are equal — qualificanovel, narrated through letters, is set on the so I slowly whisper I love you, tions,fictitious track record, etc —totoday, islandcompany of Nollop,fit, home NevinI Nolthirty-two and a third times. would rather hireofthe candidate over the lop, creator themale pangram “The quick brown After that, we just sit on the line female,” the HR over head the of alazy 10,000-strong orgafox jumps dog,” which is preand listen to each other breathe. nisation toldonme all which kinds the served a recently. memorial“There statueare and of potential problems, especially in a compagovernment takes extremely seriously.

Rather than proliferation and excess, I’m inny like ours, where employees travel lot from and the Through the book, the letter tilesafall trigued by restriction. How many words do we haveinscription, to spend time atas client would and eachlocations. one does,Ithe governutter in a day, a week, a decade, a lifetime? Do rather avoid thethe potential of an allement bans letter’sheadache use from written or spowritten words count? Would they steal from gation ofcommunication. sexual harassment than unnecessaken Consequently, passages our allowance? What if there were limitarily take chances.

But, if a phonetically female candidate is become increasingly or creativetions? Set by others, yourself. Entire texts have far superior male candidates, ly spelledto—the “I miss ewe all teeplee.then I amof sorree been written under this premise: Georges Pecourse, willing to taketattheI risk future a to I’m atmit, Momma, am of presentlee problems,” says. snoop!”he Lipogrammatic examples are farWhile companies make all kindsChristian of state-Bok’s –flung and assorted, including ments claiming they are equalYasutaka opportunity poetry collection Eunoia, Tsutsui’s employers, off the record, that farCharu from the book Zanzôni Kuchibeni o, is and Niveditruth.ta’s TheTamil fear novel of a potential suit — and bad Zero Degree, among others. shutterstock publicity is so high that fewer women aremere They — fascinate because, far from being influence insulate them against potential hired, especially at they key positions, the ‘word games’, are a formdespite of constrained complaints. And often they do. fact that most organisations now a diverwriting that wrench away thehave words we know, While it exists in some form or the other sity quota to fulfil need to have a certainwith and shake theand flippancy and casualness around the world, victim-shaming is a particu- percentage of female employees which we toss them around.on their rolls. larly potent weapon in the Indian arsenal. A In short, companiesAwould have Swaprosemuch poemrather in Sridala young executive who finds herself at the re- fewer women on mi’s theirrecent premises than ensure Espoetry collection ceiving end of unwanted affection from her that men behave appropriately. cape Artist captures this. boss not only risks her job if she complains, When I point ‘Redacted out this distortion, Mr HR in a Poetry is a Message she almost always risks her entire career. De-Rather Headthan says he would rather look into varia- you Bottle’ imagines (asthe though spite the images routinely aired around Wombles he can (like be hiring fewer women) might a castaway on a desertproliferation andcontrol en’s Day, of lady CEOs of banks and insurance the variablesed he cannot sure one island)(like thatmaking you own excess, than I’m intrigued companies, senior management behave). allare thethe de- only and“We its have words by restriction. How menbook, is still a boys’ club, and snuffing place.

Butyou that onesin with which candoes speak to many words do we terrents the career of a young, up-andnot mean everyone consistently the world.

“So you compose your utter in a day, a week, coming executive is merely a The threat he in says. message your head, you mark a decade, a lifetime complies,” of a leaked matter of seconds. Even in those While theinspate of complaints words the book, and you careWhatsApp chat or a rare jobs where performance against high-profile male bosses fully cut them out one by one, naked selfie is real can be absolutely and objectively is likely to inspire more knowing all the many while that for evevaluated, vague parameters women to come in the will ery word youforward, use up, others such as ‘attitude issues’ and ‘not short run, no This matter how much be lost on the reverse. is the opportunity fitting in with company culture’ you deny this would godo it cost of making yourit,message.

But you are easily introduced to HR files and provide a against women themselves.

Certainly, anyway, because you must.

At firstthere your dismotive for eventually terminating employees. would be fewer jobs. Certainly, this would patches are voluble and profligate.

Soon you Now that there is public precedence of vic- imply that women have toIt’s beatwice as good to in ration your words.” delicate exercise tims complaining about all-powerful male be treated at par and withunsayable. the men. None of this the precious It is about knowbosses, more women are finding the courage bodes well. tectonic changes rarely occur ing thatBut when you speak certain words you’ve to come out and seek justice for the harass- without anychance immediate So poem thingsslows lost the to usedamages. others. The ment they face. While a legal framework and will get first you theytowill get worse. you better. down. ItBut nudges rethink, to deliberthe existence of the Vishaka Guidelines are of- And that’s okay. ate your relationship with language. ten cited as the reason victims are choosing to And silence. t@veenavenugopal speak out, the real hero is social media. Earlier, janice pariat is the author of Seahorse

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All for a headline The Physics teacher UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

A cinematic novel, with children and storytelling at the centre, which is burdened by the author’s need to write exquisitely The story of one man and many civilisations. Of China and Britain, Oman and Bhutan

of New City, its contemporary urban cruelty, is familiar. Fritz Lang made a film 80 years ago about a dystopic metropolis ruled from skyscrapers by unfeeling plutocrats. Reviewers often bring up films and filmmakers when discussing Jha: Blade Runner, say, or Bunuel, or David Lynch. In She Will Build Him a City, Balloon Girl’s red balloon is a nod to Albert Lamorisse. In an early scene, boys who torture and kill a dog during Diwali reference Amores Perros — indeed, fans of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the film’s director, will recognise a fellow traveller in Jha and will feel at home with the book’s structure. Here lives interleave however briefly or glancingly, so that a scheduled caste boy devastated at seeing the girl he loves at a protest about reservations still manages to notice a central character in the book running into a morgue, a handkerchief clasped to New City In an emerging urbanscape, the author offers half-dreams, oddly vivid, unsettling and only his mouth. It is as if Jha introduces this boy half-understood bloomberg/kuni takahashi and his love into the novel just so that he can glimpse Man entering the morgue, the subject of a fabulously creepy scene. aj Kamal Jha’s first novel, The Blue lost children who don’t return / and women The protest about reservations, the miniaBedspread, published 15 years ago, who think they’re alive / and don’t know that ture story about unrequited love, is tacked on, received such rapturous notices they’re dead / ask for stories every night / and I but it is illustrative. Jha cannot resist headthat readers (of newspapers and spend myself telling and telling.’ lines — he is a newspaperman — and he cannot magazines, at least) would have been conStories can offer consolation, a way of res- resist superfluous tricksiness. Much of what vinced that here, finally, was the next great, toring in our imaginations what is lost in the happens in She Will Build Him a City, most conhomegrown Indian novelist in English. world, or a way of creating an unsatisfactory spicuously a gang rape, is news. This is not a First class The Paro Valley school where Michael Rutland taughtworld a smallanew, group of children, includingThe theclue then is Crown Princebad of Bhutan, Singye Wangchuck omair Arundhati Roy had apparently given up on a way of hoping. in the thing Jigme — read Charles Dickens, forahmad instance novels. Amitav Ghosh was getting on a bit. title — She Will Build Him a City. Who the ‘she’ (Jha uses a passage from Oliver Twist as the epiAmit Chaudhuri has no interest in ‘great’ nov- and ‘him’ are is open to question but that is graph). But Dickens is morally exercised by ver the last few weeks there have els; ‘great’ meaning grand or largeness of scale in was living through an agethe of austerity the up Returning Jha’s way, to prompt reader toascome later, Rutland re- the events of to theEngland day, he is indignant about numerous articles the of in thisbeen instance, Chaudhuri beingin a savant island-nation recovered from the massive naturalex- sumed with his own answers (half-answers, his Jha’s life as a Physics teacher, the news. prose, by contrast, hasuntil a deadening press about Sultan Qaboos bin Said pensely). the small. ofThe thelost World and the destruction city,War, bereft is more the mot juste, is traveleffect, bug or bitaffect him rather, again. all Thethe Sultanate passion of of the slow transition to democBut and Jha, the admirably, has taken Fleetwood by aerial National service was Oman ‘Newbombardment.

City’, a version of Gurgaon. was in need of Englishmen, specifically headlines glazed over by anomie, and by the racy in Oman.

It is and easychosen to dismiss such as He Mac’s advice to go his news own way. compulsory, and Rutland opted to servehusband in the is In New City is a Woman whose former Royal Air Force personnel, as bin each Sa’id senstrain evident in each paragraph, far removed from India, but thisfortunate distance may is that rare novelist, in this age of siRoyalrun Airover Force, five daughter years on the is-away byspending a bus, whose runs facedtence, the Dhofar (1965–1975).

Rut- The of Jha’sRebellion need to write exquisitely. be a result of false optics. For example, bin Said novnecures for less-than-bestselling literary land from of Malta. home and who later returns, damaged, land news, went there as a squadron commander, the horror and degradation of too did part of hisatschooling in Punecreative with Shankar elists university writing Coming back home to England, heThe gained wary, closeted in her old room.

Woman helping theof Sultanate quell the and can much life in India, in rebellion Jha’s writing Dayalprogrammes, Sharma, whowho would on to beHe theisPreshasgoa day job. the chief certification a Physics It was a for- negotiate with tribal tells the as story of her teacher. life, of her chiefs. During sometimes feel a one littleof like identeditor of India. that isnewspaper not the only connecof aAnd national and novel-writtuitous talent and opportunity. these negotiations he lovemeeting for her of daughter, of her was stung bymise a scorpion, backdrop, like en scene. tion between Oman and South Asia.

2005, I he ing appears to be something heIn does when Rutland shone in this daughter’s love fornew her,avaof losand his Perhaps hilariousthis recitation of Peris unfair. met can’t Michael Rutland, who had recently re- cresleep, accounting perhaps for the tar, and teaching the Sttening was a husband, of at finding how hehaps sat stiff-lipped as theby forI am prejudiced the irShe Will Build Him a City ceived an Order of the British Empire (OBE)— stopuscular, in-between quality of his work Edward’s School tative new love.in It is Oxford, her way of malities were completed, the his ritation I feelandat is distinctly a Jha novel: fromries Queen Elizabeth II. It was a rareoddly honourvivid, that are half-dreams, whenreforging he met a lady from Sikkim, a bond with her tribal chiefs inspected the sting self-conscious flights of fancy. cinematic, elliptical and, for a Physics teacher. as we sat that day and and daughter, unsettling, onlyBut half-understood; characters a job offeroffollowed soon.her- Michael Rutland’s healing both beforeBy hea could leave, besteps sentence likehas this:to‘He abovecame all, sentimental story to the day and during the following whoafter, are half-seen through a cataractyears of incomThe lady had her been an envoy self and child.

In NewofCity heard to outbeofbelieved. the car, out of the fierce that prehension; I worked onlanguage my bookthat on Bhutan, shrouds Rutas much the then Queen Mother of Bhuis a Man seeking his own conso-exemplify to me much He returned to En- in noon dayonce on more the highway land’sasstory came to exemplify me mysterious much tan, Ashi it clarifies, that seeks to to make Kesang Choden lation.

Straight out ofWangBret East-more than the honour gland, New continuing his early stint as an City into morning, morewhat thanmight the honour conferred on him by chuck, be considered ordinary. a tutor forvery conferred on him by onwho Ellis,wanted this man is our educator, but found to travbreakfast time,time in Paris.’

Or this: the titularby head‘Red of Balloon the titular head of this a former Of course, last isempire. one of the things art her son, crownpsycho, prince. a man inoculated owntheIndian el tosees Bhutan andinagain, itself again reflected the man’s a former empire Rutland’s begins with singular his parents and seeks tostory do, to offer new, ways of see- Thewealth, Queen Mother the about a man who was fantasises doing terstaying in abycottage his empty eyes.’

Irritated the tweewith sentimentaltheiring. unexpected meeting. father Jha’s position, not aRutland’s new one for a writer first rible person in Bhutan to have things, a man who does terrible things, a ity of: ‘Because adopted family, and becoming a all take my name, she says, take was atomember Generalissimo Kai- to adopt, isofthat we tell eachChiang other stories studied Oxford, andthrall her by violence. The the letters man atheld in sexual part of mix thethem education system in it, up, throw them up shek’ssurvive, Chinese Nationalist Party, the Kuominthe only way we mortals have of leavbrother had been ofthe manifestation his prime fantasies, of his guilt, is in the air, there. the fourth King of up, look Before where they land, pick them tang,ing andsomething was sent by Kai-shek toWell, study of ourselves. notagrithe only minister of the Himalayan kingBalloon Girl, a destitute waif he spies holding one by one, Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wang- my and rearrange them to change culture thecould University of Oxford.Not It was at dom auntil way.atWe have children. by chance, his assassination inis1964.

Six an years red balloon.

In New City a Child, orphan chuck, abdicated to make name.

Violetsunexpectedly Rose. Love Stories.’

If way only my university he met, and had son to then, that children andmarried storytelling are acentral later,named she wanted the best education possible ‘Orphan’, left by his mother outside an for his son were JigmeEmgag KhesarNoopaswith.

WangchuckIin 2006, name could throw with Jha’s a British wife.toAshis World cameas to to a his novels, firstWar as IImuch for her only son,and butlater wasrescued unwilling send orphanage by atodog, Bhow, he granted Rutland of Bhutan. the letters up incitizenship the air, thereby forcing myself close,fourth and the between the Kuomintang andwar latest, She Will Build Him a City. him who out of Bhutan.

Rutland, course, sees the mother dropofthe boy offknew on a bak- Today, as Oman with the issuethem of to to pick them struggles all up, and rearrange and theInCommunists heated up, Rutland’s fa- nothing one of the last chapters of the novel, a ing, of this. Henight did not where succession summer andeven feelsknow a responsibility after Said, and Bhutan stabilisread ‘gag mebin with a spoon’. ther returned China, —leaving his family have be- no character,toWoman most characters Bhutan butahe wastowards 35, and him. he decided it es and Parts for was, the boy, duty Man, Woman deepens itsWill nascent democracy, Rut- the of She Build Him a City, mostly hind.name He in did The Chinese the not novel,survive. and the chapters are dividwould beChild a fine are adventure. so for atwisted year he link. and linked, aAnd distorted, land’s story reminds us with how aone life ofcan parts titled ‘Woman’ couple excurCommunist Party‘Man’, triumphed onand the‘Child’ main-— ined between ‘Woman’ taught an elite group of schoolchildren in a straddle Child is also a product of the imagination, — of civilisations sionscivilisations into the lives peripheralconsidcharacters, land,vokes and the forced toGabriela re- school her Kuomintang reading of thewas Chilean poet created for one class the beauti-Jha’s part of thejust redemption, theinconsolation ered are irreconcilable, yet oftenJha bound in with ways profull of tenderness. writes treat Mistral, to the island of Formosa, which we the quoted lines serving as now a sort of ful Paro Valley, with then the Crown Prince of that found characters seek the through telling of stories. becomefeeling apparent if only bother to about smallwechildren, about knowmanifesto as Taiwan.for Jha, a schema by which to read Bhutan,She Jigme Wangchuck, woulda Jha WillSingye Build Him a City is who distinctly scratch the surface. mothers and fathers, about lovers. If only Although (and his ‘People’, mother)writes fared MisShe WillRutland Build Him a City. become thecinematic, longest-serving king of the counnovel: elliptical and, above all, sen- there was more tenderness and less portent@OmairTAhmad bettertral, than father, wasare raised ashis quoted inthe theBritain novel, he ‘who chewing try, astimental. his principal Jha’s student. predilection for sentimentality, tous sentimentality disguised as empathy. the forest / and those who break stone / want for hokiness, is what prevents me from reposstories at bedtime.’ Or ‘Women looking for ing my trust in him as a novelist. The menace shougat dasgupta is a Delhi-based freelance writer

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She Will Build Him a City Raj Kamal Jha Bloomsbury Fiction ₹599

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

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ven before a game begins, Amar Sharma of Juliyasar village in Sikar, Rajasthan, is ready with his predictions.

Watching a cricket match live, he simultaneously logs on to Matchup Cricket to enter his forecast for every ball and even the winner. From Virat Kohli hitting a century to Pakistan losing to India in the World Cup, or Dhoni scoring a six in the first over, Sharma is usually spot on. The app rewards him with free mobile recharges and even tablet computers, which are shipped through India Post.

Not surprisingly, Sharma is hooked.

In Mumbai, Romil Shukla is the proud owner of a cricket team — AnRom Champs, the virtual team he created on Hitwicket, for which he buys players, decides the starting XI, designs a stadium and competes with other teams. Employed at an MNC Bank, Shukla spends at least three hours on the online Own your Dhoni Hitwicket, a cricket management game game every day. He has started meeting other team-owners offline, creating a community of Hitwicket cricket managers.

Suraj Jain in Guwahati is using Chauka, a cricket-scoring app, to track every ball in Jain Premier League — a community cricket tournament. Besides keeping a ball-by-ball record of all 12 matches, the app also helps pick the star performer.

Awe and majesty Stephen Alter writes, ‘A climber’s hands can feel the rocks long before he touches the mountain’ kr deepak Interestingly, as matches below Ranji Trophy level are never recorded in India, Chauka offers a brand new way to preserve memories for players and viewers alike at these We were sure there local matches. would be a market for A handful of entrepreneurs an online game are innovating ways to cash in on where users could the country’s obsession with own and manage cricket. They have customers a cricket team from Churu in Rajasthan to Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh, and tephen Alter’s Becoming a Mountain is climbing around Nanda Devi, Bandarpunch urges us to ‘think beyondlike thea mountain’, border in or BanglaTom Crystal ball Matchup Cricket allows users to predict outcomes and win prizes an extraordinary travelogue. Carefully and Kailash-Manasarovar, not least because of Longstaff, who desh, Pakistan, the US, Germany wrote ‘To know a mountain chosen words strung together in sim- the poetic empathy with which Alter writes, ‘A you and must West Asia. sleep upon it’, Alter too seeks ‘to surple prose resurrect memories of Sa- climber’s hands can feel the rocks long before render As Matchup Cricket founder Pratik Shah to the mountains with humility’.

Incred Waters, Alter’s memorable account of he touches the mountain.’ Equally singular is stead says, “We that while technologyhigh has of realised ‘conquering and colonising journeys on foot along old pilgrim trails to the its unequivocal critique of religious tourism places,’ grown, the of watching cricket has he experience tries to ‘become like the mounmultiple sources of the Ganga in Garhwal. The and Hindutva, ‘the politicized face of Hin- tains’. not changed over the years. people make This constitutes the Most book’s distinctive urge to seek out ‘spectacular view(s) of the duism has evolved into a grotesque visage core predictions a match and wait for and is aabout wonderful prescription forthem wayhigh Himalayas… Bandarpunch… its twin tur- spouting dogma, prejudice and venal theolo- farers to come true.

We felt Alter’s it was asuggestion, good way to enand travellers. howrets of ice trimmed with sunlight… Nanda De- gies… Natural phenomena are turned into re- ever, gage that withBecoming them.” a Mountain could also work vi… delicate as a moth with folded wings’, ligious metaphors and then debased by the as Match viewers make thousands predica panacea for 2013-like Himalayanof disasters, appears to be even stronger now, as does Al- tawdry embellishments of faith. Even ancient may tionsat forbest every played. “We give points for beball a necessary first step in conter’s love of forests and wildlife. Darwa Top myths lose resonance here.’ the right predictions and the top tightening predictors fronting capitalism’s and other ‘bugyals’ remain, for him, ‘the sumA thread binds the journeys get prizes,” Shah gripadds. on landscapes and minds, mer gardens of the goddess’. Dodital, ‘its clear which Alter writes about in Sarather than a complete solution. water the colour of moss agate’, is still irresist- cred Waters, but the three jourLike a boss Interestingly, a hint of this ible, while the shades of rocks around Kailash neys that cradle Becoming A For Kashyap Reddy of Hitwicket, cricket core concern is presentatowards Despite his deep fascinate him no end. The craving to be awake Mountain are ‘driven mostly by a game a logical extension to the endwas of Sacred Waters, ‘whatevawarenessmanagement of ‘the at daybreak, because ‘at no other time… do need to overcome the physical what he had been doing as a student at the er I encountered seemed toVellie mountain and the the mountains seem so alive, so full of sounds and emotional trauma of a vioInstitutewithin of Technology playing myself,—as if thefootball snow goddess’ lore Alter and smells’, is as intense as ever, the lust for air lent incident’ in 2008, when Almanagement games. alreadythe taken peaks and“IPL the had waterfalls, glachooses, at times, to that ‘has never been breathed before and light ter and his wife Ameeta were off. We were sure would bethe a market cier there and the river, rocks for anda write tentatively (that) is young’, unquenchable. brutally assaulted at their home, similar online where own thegame, flowers, hadusers beencould absorbed Folklore anda mythological stories Oakville, Mussoorie. A chill runs and manage into a cricket team,”To hethe says. my body’. extent that Tally ho Chauka, cricket score-keeping app— foroften the aam swinger contesting versions — continue to animate down the spine reading about In 2012, hethe and hisbook friend Rishav Rastogi new appears to take off ‘the natural splendour of the Himalayas with the attack, the sheer terror expewere ready from with where Hitwicket, a multi-player the old ended, it is echoes of an epic imagination’, helping Alter rienced and the terrible ‘sense of violation very cricket strategy game.if As oneand of its oldesthad uslikely that even Alter Ameeta understand social relationships and everyday and loss… as if I have become a stranger with- not ers, Shukla says, “Hitwicket is an uncomplicatbeen ‘touched by evil,’ he would still have life. Remarkably, despite his deep awareness in the sheltering mountains of my birth’. ed game. also unlike anydifferently other cricket served up Ita issimilar, though texof ‘the mountain and the goddess’ he chooses, Alter, the scars still eroding his ‘physical tured game in the market, asother you don’t have to be totreat, rooted in ‘Himalayan Jourat times, to write tentatively, ‘I have looked at and mental confidence’, seeks healing, solace neys’ tally engrossed. createother a team, and someundertakenYou at some time. this mountain all my life… yet… the moun- and calm, the feeling that all that he has lost is one can play came with your even when this you Memories aliveteam while reading tain’s myths and its natural history have an restored, and ‘the simple contentment that book, are offline.” a silent tribute welling up towards the elusive, enigmatic quality.’ It is equally signifi- frees us from terror, anguish and anxiety’. This end Hitwicket’s mobile app giveswho, himinupdates for shoemaker Staudinger, his 80s cant that while recognising the impact of quest for the sacred, his own reflections on and about Additionally, fithis as ateam’s fiddle,performances. died walking his favourite myths on historical processes, Becoming a walking the mountains, combined with his mountain it offers him lessons for real life, he says. “You path in Tirol.

Mountain is emphatic about distinguishing immersion in the histories of wandering, as learn to manage as there is virtual Thehow book is over, money, the reading done, but historical personages and events from the also in the varied meanings of faith and of Bruce moneyChatwin’s used in buying team members and question, ‘What Am I Doing mythological, Alter’s ‘convictions as an atheist mountains for human beings, prompt Alter to Here’ training hasthem.” taken hold as also a relentless urge reaffirmed by the material reality of Kailash’. scale ‘those staircases of rock’ on Bandar- to Hitwicket works by seeking using a toproprietary return to ‘old ways’, become a Conversations with people and environ- punch, and undertake journeys to Nanda Devi mountain. match engine algorithm to compare the batmental activists are woven into the fabric of and Kailash, climbs that leave him with feel- ting, bowling and fielding skills of players. Reis an associate professor both books. Becoming a Mountain stands out, ings of ‘reverence as well as trepidation’. This mukul sults mangalik are generated based onof History, those College, DU, and match a keen mountain wanderer however, for its accounts of exploration and is possible because like Aldo Leopold, who Ramjas probabilities.

Each is simulated ball by

Q Sleeping upon a mountain A poetic and exceptional account of the explorations and essence of the Himalayas

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Becoming a Mountain Himalayan Journeys in Search of the Sacred and the Sublime Stephen Alter Non-fiction Aleph ₹495

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The playing XI-plus

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When a cricket match is on, the number of players runs into thousands, as fans across the world log on to a range of apps to partake of the action

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WINDOW OR AISLE

The taxing taxi trip The long road to realisation and deliverance from an uber-cool, easy-to-use radio taxi

rishi piparaiya

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hile the world has long switched loyalties to radio taxi services, your app-unfriendly columnist has still not succumbed to the temptation of cabs arriving at one’s doorstep at the click of a button. I feel somewhat guilty at snatching away the daily bread from rude Mumbai cabbies and stuffing it into the mouths of PE-funded Bengaluru entrepreneurs. So despite the industry’s valiant attempts to lure me with roast-worthy ‘haath mat hilayo, somethingTeam spirit The movers and flail shakers at Hitwicket, an app for wannabe cricket bosses something dabao’ (don’t your arms, push something-something instead) type slogans, I remain loyal to the black-and-yellow cabs on ball, accompanied by commentary. Next up is Be my scorekeeper the street. theI recently India Cup at visit Hitwicket, with had to the other endselected of mug- Iragavarapu’s business venture was certainly teams vying and for it. gy Mumbai, seeing an opportunity to con- not happenstance. While studying for MBA at Around Hitwicket sister users in Mumbai used now Spain’s IE Business School, he did market revert me, a25 tech-happy graciously meet regularly, as do me many others in Pakistan her account to book a cab online.

“Driver search on the cricket scorekeeping scenario in and Bangladesh.

A large chunk the nearly Suresh in an Indigo will be here of in three min- India and discovered that amateur players 1.5 lakhshe registered is in India, as even as had no records. “Amateur cricketers too like to utes,” said, andusers lo and behold! if by new users rapidly swelling numbers in see their cricket statistics and cherish them magic, anare Indigo pulled up.the “Are you Mrs countries as the US, “Hmmm,” Indonesia,IPakistan, Rishi?” thesuch driver asked. grunted later,” he reasons, adding, “We realised there Bangladesh and Germany any mar- was more communication over mobiles than and got in, indignant at thewithout jibe at my mascuketing effort. linity. He clicked the phone on the dashboard over email in India. That’s where we figured Chauka’s and the tripscorecard started. is no different, generat- out that a mobile app for ball-by-ball score ingTen 40minutes per centlater, of itsmy revenues India would work.” phone outside rang. Almost The app, which arrived free the first year, is without significant marketing efforts. is the simultaneously, so did his. “Haven’t youItfound app of choice for recording match the cab yet? Suresh is waiting,” myscores sister not en- generating revenues now. Tournament orgaonly in impatiently.

India but also Westwith Asia,Suresh, Pakis- nisers pay to use it. It is available for an annual quired “I the am US, sitting tan, Singapore, Japan andpatted Germany. sweetNepal, ol’ chap,” I said, and almost him fee of ₹25,000, besides charges for a local “Recently, someone from Uruguay contacted match varying from ₹200 to ₹5,000 dependA fleeting affair Are the droves PE-funded radio cabs all they are cracked up to be? ramesh sharma on location, match level,of period of engageus for a tournament,” says Chauka founder ing ment and other factors.

Manoj Iragavarapu. unfamiliar with can utilise onThose the back.

“Well, he’s onthe theapp other line and Pratik seum. Shah, “Whyfounder, didn’t Matchup you askCricket the passenger his Chauka’s 50 scorers, who have been name before he boarded?” a baritone voice he says heteam hasn’toffound you yet.” hired acrosstowards India on Suresh, a contract basis. the ry I looked who was“But mumlatent need him. to entertain.

So we launched reprimanded “I did, I did — but he saidthe he app easyhis to use.

Once you withshrieked the Chaublingisinto phone even assit a lady at Hindi version early this year,” says. lower was Mrs Disha,” whined Babu.he I slipped ka about it, you don’t need a in With theteam otherand end.learn “Aren’t you Suresh?”

I interrupt15 per subscribers already my seat as Icent saw of thehis veins on his forehead scorer,” Jain, ancould avid fan. ed whatsays I imagined only be a severe mar- using Hindi,inShah has plans for other regional throbbing a fascinating rhythm.

“Shall I app can be Babu. customised in languages italThe row.

“No, I am Aren’t for youvariations Mrs Disha?” too. As for revenues, is confident speak to your boss?”

I asked, he with as much the rules of thewith game. you are organising a he can wait. “We he answered a “If question. have bootstrapped so far. But kindness as I could muster.

He tournament with, say, eight balls in an over, we are in talks “No, I am Rishi,” I shrugged. with brands want toto advershook his headthat from side side then canpenny customise the AndChauka then the dropped. tise with us.

Once that happens, in horror — “Operations will only app Jain.

I hadaccordingly,” jumped intosays a cab booked revenues will start coming Serin. speak to drivers.

Customer 15,000 downloads and forAfter the now stranded Mrs Disha.

Currently, our focus oncustompopulavice will only speakisto Operations will only scoring for what 8,000could matches, the Damn. But be done rising ers.” the game,” More he adds. baritone speak to drivers. company two Customer now — we has weretied wellup onwith our way.

His strategy isfollowed, to popularise and a Service We realised thatwill admonishments major sports organisations in “Carry on, Babu,” I said, “what Matchup theyes second few ‘yes as sirs, sirs’screen later, for he only speak to has while technology the US.do?”

As Mrs the Disha official can we wasrecordgoing engagement, as most hung up. Mrs Disha calledpeople again, customers grown, the keeper bothUnsure these how acadeballistic for by then. to have limited span and but Babu did attention not answer. experience of mies, robust revehandlegenerating her, Babu disconnected cannot remain glued to the We spent the rest of the trip TV in watching cricket has nues, Iragavarapu at the phone.

“I need istolooking call Operfor the full duration of areached match. silence.

When I finally not changed over breaking evenwhispered, in 2015. ations,” he sweat “They want to the interact my destination, meter with read the years Hitwicket, which pouring down his face. began something.

And credit that’scard where ₹880. “Shucks, will Mrs Disha’s get charging services year yelled ago, in my ear, “I charged for Matchup “Are youfor there?” myasister fits well,” heHe says. this?” I asked Babu. nodded is hopeful of turning have an angry Sureshprofitable on the other line.” I with uncertainty, Within six months going a puddle of sweatofforming in a fewswitched quarters.myIt attention offers a to her, and between thelive, quickly Matchup Cricket has garbrake and accelerator.

I pulled monthly subscription well instead? as pack- nered said, “Umm... can he gomodel, to Mrsas Disha more thancalled five million predictions. out my phone, Customer Service Durand ages for three, sixapparently.” or twelve months at ₹450, She lives close by And I went on to ing the India-Pak onyet February the our sorry saga was match narrated again to15, a new ₹675 andthe ₹1,100, Theher. packages explain entirerespectively. situation to “Okay site got moreAthan lakh predictions.

“Peoprotagonist. lot ofone hemming and hawing latcome special features such proceeded as ad-free uswait,” with she snapped and, in turn, to ple to four continer, I are wasspending advised tothree pay cash, andhours I slipped Baage, saysthe Reddy. explain situation to him. Suresh obviously uously on Matchup while watching cricket on bu a thousand. wasn’t winning the ‘employee of the year’ TV.Eager The average session is 25 minutes, to escape thistime mess, I hurriedly Cricketing bhasha award anytime soon because he angrily hung which big door. on mobile,” saysblack-and-yellow Shah. openedisthe A passing Matchup’s Shah, meanwhile, prefers focus up with a threat to bill her ₹150 forto the no- taxi The cricket-based start-ups hiringdirectmore swerved and honked and are its driver on India, itsI just small towns, show.

“But especially I am a show. showed upwhere in the developers marketers as their user base is ed a choice and expletive towards me. “I miss you, cricket fever runs high. wrong cab!”

I cried.

But she had slammed the increasing at the blistering man,” I whispered wistfully.pace with which a “Cricket is by a mass phone down then.sport. Many of our users Dhoni or Kohli or Dhawan piles up a century. areBabu from by small towns, it is impossible to rishi piparaiya is the author of Aisle Be Damned now had where connected with Operpratap Manoj Iragavarapu, founder, Chauka rishi@aislebedamned.com courier prizes without Indiaour Post.story Thereadis naua ve- rashmi ations and was repeating

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A smoky symphony Barefoot auditors call local officials to account

Beyond mishtis, the earthy, ephemeral nolen gur from date palm makes an unusual turn in the culinary winter world of smoking, roasting, basting and broiling

They are passionate, outspoken and looked up to. The Gram Arogya Sakhas are helping Buckwheat Crepes with Chicken or Duck fellow villagers, especially women, demand and access their rightintoNolen healthcare Gur and

Pot of gold Clay pots of nolen gur on sale at Joynagar, near Kolkata afp/dibyangshu sarkar

Life-saving lines Bharati Udaysi, a village-level NGO activist, uses pictures to explain the importance of proper nutrition and immunisation to girls and women in Bhute in Shahada block of Nandurbar district, Maharashtra dilnaz boga/wfs

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or Kali Puja every November, many of Kolkata’s older sweet shops observe a centuries-old ritual. Their first batch of sandesh made using nolen gur — the dark, viscous and sweet sap of the date palm — is sent to a local Kali temple. This auspicious beginning heralds a steady supply of this winter delicacy as the moyras, or Bengali sweetmakers, use it in myriad ways that sometimes border on startling innovations and east-west fusions. Until mid-March, Kolkata can satiate its craving forthough nolen gur mishtis in all ven Maharashtra is shapes, among sizes andthe textures. more developed states in India, At neighbourhood sealed clay the benefits bazaars, of this growth arepots unof nolen gur appear, balancedSome precariously evenly distributed. regions, on estwined rope bases. sell briskly as people pecially those withThey a predominantly tribal population, are underdeveloped.

In Nandurbar district, where Bhils and Pawaras make up 70 per cent of the population, the majority lives below the poverty line. Shahada block has a large number of landless adivasi labourers, and livelihood security and health outcomes are the worst-affected here.

Meanwhile, a significant change is currently underway in 35 villages, essayed by a dedicated army of barefoot auditors, or Gram Arogya Sakhas, who are motivating women to eat better, get their pre- and post-natal checkups on time, opt for institutional delivery and immunise their children. This empowered and socially responsible force is part of a maternal health intervention undertaken by Janarth Adivasi Vikas Sansthan (JAVS), a local non-governmental organisation, and Oxfam India, under the DFID-supported Global Poverty Action Fund initiative.

Among those handpicked to be a barefoot auditor is Jagu Pahar, the 43-year-old former sarpanch (village head) of Vagharda, 25km from Shahada, who firmly believes that healthy mothers and children can ensure a better future his community.

Date with palmfor Collecting sap from a date palm pti tree in Birbhum district Preeti Bohidar, a project officer at Oxfam’s

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Miso Dressing In this preparation, the gur combines beautifully with the earthy flour and robust Miso ment hospital functions. The sessions enabled meIngredients to identify five children who were sufferingCrepes: from malnutrition. I was able to make sure 1 cup buckwheat flour or kuttu ka atta they got vital treatment and followed up with 1/2 teaspoon baking powder thePinch Primary Health Centre [PHC] at Shahada as of salt well,” says.

Misohe and Nolen Gur Dressing: he became Vagharda’s barefoot audi2Since tablespoon red miso paste tor1/4incup 2013, thegur village has had no maternal nolen 1/3 cup wine vinegar deaths orrice deliveries at home. “Using illustraJuiceI explain of one lemon tions concepts to people. I make a 1/3 of cup oil of pregnant women in the note thesesame number 1 tablespoon soyto them about eating right village and talk 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes and taking the necessary precautions. I even Filling ensure they(smoked get the diet andnice) monetary in200gmthat cooked is really centives are or entitled to under different bonelessthey chicken duck breast government schemes,” says.

Chopped spring onions Pahar to garnish In the neighbouring hamlet of Bhute, wom1. For the crepe, mix buckwheat flour, enbaking no longer hesitate to ask for health-related powder, salt and water to make a advice. turn to the 55-year-old batterThey of the consistency of double barefoot auditor who, together cream.Manga Cover Thackeray and set aside while you with hismake niecethe Bharati Udaysi, a local Janarth activdressing.

Prepare dressing by mixing ist,2.has beenthe motivating people in together his village the up ingredients a blender. Adjust to all stand for their in rights. taste by adding soya resistance for salt, chilli buy them to sweeten payesh, pour over breakInitially he didmore face stiff to his for heat,ideas and about nolen childbirth”. gur for sweetness.

If it fast muri (puffed rice) and milk, or brush over “new-age Tribal elders needs to be tart, then spritztraditional extra hot chapattis as a delicious winter mid-morn- often insist onmore following certain lemon juice. The dressing should be thick ing snack. customs that could easily prove detrimental but of pourable consistency.

If necessary, Now, while I do love nolen gur in mishtis, its to make the wellbeing botha the it thinnerofwith littlemother sesameand oil. child. true charms for me lie in a different savoury “Take the practice of not eating enough dur3. Toss the meat in the dressing. direction — the culinary winter world of ing4. pregnancy simply because don’t Brush a small non-stick frying they pan with smoking, roasting, basting and broiling. want the baby grow big.Make They crepes fear that oil and place to it on thetoo flame. by pouring in extremely a tablespoon of batter toto sit Those rough-hewn clay urns of liquid amber delivery will be painful.

I had coat the and pan (if the batter is too represent an exciting addition to the oils, vine- with them clarify why that wasthick, not good more water,infants,” a little at a time).

Cook gars and dark, mysterious-looking sauces and foradd them or their says Thackeray. till bubbles appear on the surface and the pastes I office, dependsays on to transform meat is and Raipur maternal health a fish key There was a similar resistance to immunisaedges get lacy. Flip once before taking off into something delicious. challenge in rural areas where poverty is stark tion. Says Udaysi, “My uncle, I and our Accredthe heat. Stack on a plate and cover with What makesare nolen gur precious is its sweet- ited and resources scarce.

Social Health Activist (ASHA) have hadinto a dish cloth to keep warm, or put them ness tempered a smoky depth and rich Although thewith National Health Mission has make severalbasket. home visits to convince them.” a bamboo fruity flavours, leading to an incredibly introduced several schemes to improvecomthe Their have borne fruit,portions as is apparent 5.

Rollefforts each crepe with small of plex taste there and experience. to sub- from situation, is a glaringHeat lack works of awareness, the meat. huge Drizzle trust Thackeray and Udaysi dressed over with remaining sauce.

Garnish spring onion. tly sharpenamong these women, qualities,about adding caramel especially their basic now enjoy in thewith community. notes toand the multi-toned symphony.

The result rights entitlements, she Laxmi Barade, a shy tribal is a fabulous flavouring that’s robust enough adds.

In Nandurbar, the barefoot woman from Bhute, says, “I know to hold its own in combination dense and bearing a hint peaauditors have been filling the in-with tastes as — moist, dark,more about sanitation andof nutristrident asgaps miso,since soya,2012. and Worcester, and in- ty, sultry sweetness fromto nolen gur —I do marformation tion thanks Mangaji. have reAs I know our rights, gredients as earthy wholegrain flours, vellously well.

What exactly does aasbarefoot alised the importance of even approaching the smokeddo? meats and game.

Smoking fish and meats, another winter auditor consuming leafy vegetables.

Collector does not At family winter barbecues, again draw on the unique quali“S/he forms a crucial link be-the divas may pleasure, canThey give us iron supplements to appear daunting be the the meats — pork, poultry and beef — com- ties of the treacly Besides adding a lovely tween community, the NGO buildgur. immunity and for the anymore ing off the grill, but jarsdepartof liquid gur play a subtle sweetness, it flavourfully any and various government growth of the child. counters Most women starring Their role. Sticky pork overpowering smokiness of ments. main ribs taskof is to in our village suffer from malnuare marinated overnight store-bought smokedasmeats.

This spread awareness onwith thea trition and anaemia our staple mix of dark soy, scarlet chilli winter, my most satisfying experschemes and facilities available diet is chillies and bhakri (flat unpaste, fragrant anise women, and iment has been a warm dressing to pregnant andstar lactating and push leavened bread).” true charms of dollops of gur. Ontothe grill, they that combines miso andfarmer, gur, idethe community involve itself in The meeting Thackeray, a sugarcane and cotton is nolenEach gur forhappy me lieatinthisal are regularly basted with theand gur women. for smoked chicken, roast the health needs of its girls healthy turnaround.

“The awarea different to keep village them moist.

Nolen gur in auditor, andthat even tofu and wilted project has one barefoot who savoury ness levels areduck so high if anyone sees a vilplace of sugar in a barbecue Chineseat greens. is passionate, outspoken and someone thedirection lo- lager being ignored the PHC, they step up sauce made ofare Worcester And lest onetothinks that nolen cals look up to.up Most at least semi-literate,” and voice their concern the doctor insauce,Ranjana tomato Kanhere, puree, orange gur’s savoury charmschanged are for nonsays Executive Director, charge. Personally, the training my juice and chilli produces a winvegetarians only, this liquid as jag-I Janarth. outlook. I don’t fear anyone anymore, ning pairlearnt withthe chicken, steaks gery can be approaching generously deployed Pahar ropes at training sessions know our rights… even the Coland quail. in 2013 by Dr Mohan Deshpande of lector in preparations of earthy winter vegetables conducted does not appear daunting anymore,” he are usually must at barbecues to signs like beetroot sweet potatoes. theBreads Pune-based Arogyaa Bhan. off withand a wide smile. mop the informed juices andabout act as for the “Weup were ourrafts rights, arundhati ray is a Kolkata-based food writer boga Women’s Feature Service meats. Mywemother-in-law’s multigrain breads dilnaz schemes are entitled to and how a govern-

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saturday, february 28,28, 2015 saturday, february 2015

STATES OF MATTER

Homemade Vada Pav (To be attempted only if you don’t have a vada pav maestro near home)

Bonds, bondage and bullies Garlic chutney

10 garlic cloves, peeled 1tbsp peanut oil, plus extra for frying 35gm dessicated coconut 1tsp chilli powder

In this catechism of the new economics of growth, a number of basics being missed.

1. Brownare the whole garlic cloves in a frying pan with a little peanut oil. Add India’s vast rural expanse is today in the throes of acute demand deficiency the coconut, stirring until golden. Blend together with the chilli powder and the remaining peanut oil. Season with salt.

Set aside.

sukumar muralidharan

shutterstock

Large bunch of fresh coriander Handful of mint leaves About 5 green chilies, chopped Juice of 1 lemon 1tbsp oil

STREET, EAT, REPEAT

Vada pav wow

1. Blend the coriander, mint, chillies and lemon juice with a splash of water. Add the oil and some salt, and blend again.

Set aside.

How the cheapest eat on the block became the subject of adoring blogs, academic studies and fridge magnets

shabnam minwalla

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Green chutney

Batata vadas 2 green chillies, finely chopped 1 garlic clove, crushed A small piece of ginger, peeled and grated 1tsp black mustard seeds 10 curry leaves The song and dance 500gm cold mashed potatoes of democracy Members of a band at Salt to taste the opening day of the 4tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped Budget Session, which 100gm besan collapsed in acrimony A pinch of turmeric A pinch of baking powdersoon after, when the land ordinance was 80ml water introduced kamal narang Oil

t’s a bit like bumping into a schoolmate understand what the fuss is about. Ask Sachin after years — and finding that your once- Tendulkar, whose love for vada pav is so great, pleasant-but-unremarkable friend is to- his friend Vinod Kambli gave him 35 of them day a razzly-dazzly veejay or techno-bil- when he broke Sunil Gavaskar’s 34-century lionaire. You’re startled, impressed and a trifle Test record in 2006. One for each century, aila! tongue-tied. That’s how I feel as I stand at a Perfect vada pav moments are not, however, small stall at Mumbai’s Colaba bazaar, clutch- to be found in chandeliered restaurants or 1. Mash together the chillies, garlic and ing the oily square of newspaper and prepar- plasticky malls. For this fast food was born in ginger. in a pan, add the of political to former US Presiing to bite into aadviser soft pav smeared with theApril 2013 wasgallis Modi’s grand coming out, jostly, germy of Mumbai, and that is tored in, Heat of 2tbsp the oil likely withdrawal mustard seeds cookFed until theyUSpop.

Bill Clinton that if with there isa where gloweringdent garlic chutney,said stuffed when he flew to Delhi for a media event at quantitative it belongs. easingand by the as the econothe some curry buoyancy. leaves and cook for 10 an after-life, he would like towith be re-a which plump, yellow vada, and garnished spelt out a range One he busy morning in 1971of—business-friendor so the urban my Add regains seconds. Stir in the chillies and cook for bornchilli. as theThe bond market. beat be- legend wicked green last time It I encounly policies and— won the resounding goes a commuter rushedendorseout of Leading into the budget session, The Econo10 more seconds. ing a champion rockstar or even the Mumbai’s tered a vada pav,athlete, it was a afunctional and filling ment of Dadar the industry lobbies. station. He was lateThe andstock hun- mist2.—Add the the trusted voice of the money-changmashed potatoes, salt and world’sItrichest The bond shot market snack. was theman. carbohydrate thatcould kept gry. markets werea exuberant atto the arrival the ers coriander He asked food vendor shove a fatofbatain the city of London — ran yetand another and mix well. Set aside bully justduring about long everybody. us going college days packed with ta new saviour.

Soon afterwards the catavada in a pav, which he couldcame snarf down on cover on India, using the old metaphor let story it cool.

As Parliament begins itsmedians. budget session, Re- the Malthus and statistical The nonstrophic fall of in the main that3.tires go. Soon, theMay, saidprecipitated vendor, an enterprising dies: the elephant seeking Pourbut oil never for deep-frying into a pan.

Shapeflight. the potato mixtureprescription into about was serve Bankdish of India (RBI) during Governor sloshiest on offer ST Raghuram bus rides soul by annamed announcement fromintroduced the US Federal Ashok Vaidya, the Rein- to take Its editorial 20 balls.

RajanSholapur finds the wild gyrations of international from to Satara.

It was what harried novation serve (Fed) it would rethink its quantitaonthat his hand-scrawled menu.

His cus- simple and clear: to restore momentum to its 4. In a growth separateprospects, bowl, mix the besan, currency and bond markets big worry. officegoers grabbed as they apoured outMajor of VT tomers tive easing policy, which hadgood pumped thought it was a jolly idea.dollars So did flagging India needed to turmeric and powderand with water world currencies are softening station every morning on theiras easy money liberally intohisthe economy,And enabling Wall competitors. soon the va- change policy onbaking land, labour power. to makepower the batter. policies have become way to work.

“Chacha,the eknorm vada-in economies Street to playda thepav world’s was a had markets. become There as much Leaving aside, since nothing is possi5. Dip the potato balls in batter and fry seeking release from months of reces- partial rally in paa, chutney kam,” theylong intoned July the Indian and ble in part ofin Bombay as itsmarkets potholes. domain without othereach, two; land in this batches for about six the minutes sionary exact gloom.

Correspondingly, the rupee an end to the indecision nasally, change in hand. inabout September, when What I love this story is anduntil labour are precisely areaspaper. where politgolden.

Drain onthe kitchen hasThe beengreat gainingtransformation in a manner that could im- Ashok the Fed signalled its intent to continue that the vada pav is so muchbond like ical6.concord has rapidly evaporated In 1971, Combine store-bought pav, the since hot Mopair India’s competitiveness. must have export taken place when I purchases, my ensuring city — athat merryamishmash of di tookand office.

After thechilies. solemnity Vaidya, introduced vadas, chutneys fried green Inlooking his latest policy was the otherstatement, way — per-the RBI world awashcultures, in dollars would and coincicuisines of the opening day, the budget theGoverinnovation on his nor spoke of the latitude shifts in notmenu haps preoccupied with thegained mun- byhand-scrawled have to dences. search for The afatrapid batata vada at the session collapsed in acrimony the global economy.

The decline in the price of cure to its addiction. dane matters of mummyhood. heart of the snack is as Mahawhen 50,000 the government introThere are around vada pav vendors oil had ‘headroom’ for a fiscal stimuAt any created rate, sometime during In betweenrashtrian came a particularas a nine-yard sari.

Butneeds duced ordinance it the hadproison Mumbai’s chaoticthe pavements.

But India to lus with less risk ofhumble inflation.

And then came ly telling episode. the last decade, the vada the pavUnder seems presto have arrived sued to amend vital clauses of story has displayed remarkachangeon policytagonist on land,of our the caveats. to Theimage New York Times, Ra- sure for aour crowd-pleasing pav shed its Speaking down-market shores with the Portuguese. the law on land acquisition. social and geographic mobility.

It is now labour andble power jan wondered if the sudden collapse of the And and metamorphosed into a Page 3 celebrity. measure to chutneys national electhe prior various are innovations, available in malls ‘Reform’ could mean several and food courts around the globalthe oilcheapest price — eat its on virtual halving within Mumbai-ishtyle.

From the block, it suddentions, the Manmohan Singh gov- try karte hai. country — dispensed (Thoda coconut things. Butby to guys characterise as afor rein gloves weeks — was evidence iconic of a deeper of turly became ‘Mumbai’s streetvein food’.

The Chineej ernment(sic) through presidential sauce daal lete hai…) form a legislative change that chains like Jumboking and Goli Vada Pav No 1. moil yetof to adoring be tamed: “I wasacademic talking tostudies some ordinance subject blogs, in July 2013, madeis thrust is the The pav into which the vada abridges More startling is the the fact need that itfor hasinformed flounced market participants, and fridge magnets. and they were extremely sort foodthat security a basicatentitlement for every is available every pavwala’s shopInin onto consent in of large-scale land appropriations, some the priciest menus in the city, worried aboutthen the extent of volatility No wonder that vada pav now that popscan up Mumbai. dian citizen.

The markets went into a swoon at where It has a thin brown crust, pillowy while also doing away withguises. socialDepending impact asit appears in fancy emerge in markets in aand verytrendy short eateries run... I middle, at five-star restaurants once andand theisrupee plunged to a new The on perfect for dunking intolow. piping sessment, clearly challenges common the whim of the chef, the vada pav issense. somemean, (oil) is a very deep market. virtually across the country.

It’s the raisonAnd d’être for at hot BJP supported the legislation as a matter ofkeepo- times chai, mopping up extravagantly spicy In this catechism of deconstructed sothe thatnew the economics vada batter of is overnight, in a span of food a month or two, least two nationwide chains.

Andit has ma litical convenience, but Arun Shourie, a promand, of course, enveloping hot vadas.

And served growth,asaboondi, numberthe of potato basics are being missed. bhaji is turned ingone from $100 aexotic barrel avatars to $50.”— from Szech- while merrily adopted inent there’s party ideologue who oversaw confusion about the originpublic of its to India’s vast and rural today the a mousse theexpanse chutney is doled outin in ediRajan has memories at least wan andundoubtedly corn mayonnaise to ‘sliders’ofwith sal- name sector—disinvestment as afrom minister in the AB ble some say it came the Portuguese throes of acute plastic demand deficiency.

2014 corn-starch bags; at otherThe times, it twoThe recent instances when from afar word sa. snack also boasts itsevents very own World Vajpayee called for that scrapping food pao;cabinet, others maintain bakersthe used to is monsoon was belowa pipette-full par, and cutbacks in served alongside of pureed have Pav battered Indian 23. markets and forced Vada Day on August (And why not, pray, knead securitythe bill.dough with their feet. It’s widely chutney; spendingorunder rural employment proturnedthe inside-out so that the pav is some of submission.

And these episodes if you form can have National Deworming Day?) Sincethat taking helmbread-maker at the RBI in Septemagreed thethe earliest of Bom- stuffed gramme, imposed sinceand thedeep-fried.

Modi governinside the potato have phases of buoyancy, typi-a bay All alternated of this maywith seem like much ado about ber 2013, seemingly made building was aRajan Goanhas named Vitorino Mudot, whoa ment havedandy caused further All oftook whichoffice, is fine and — as long as cally attendant some moveifinvolving potato podge inon a pav.

Though the potatoNais set war-chest to dealinwith future volatility a prior- the up a bakery Cavel in 1819.

Two centuries aggravation.

When over 60 per centand of killthe fellow with the sputtering kadhai rendra with Modi’s ascent power. mixed just the to right amount of onion later, ity. Foreign exchange have, under there are aroundreserves 2,000 bakeries here.his er country is taken the growth calculus, red chutney at out FloraofFountain continues to After a five-year-long honeymoon with Manand garlic and ginger and chillies and fried to watch, goneare updeftly by about $60 — billion The pavs slit and beforeand thetoday vada dole thereout arehis limits to what can achieved — still masterpiece forbe ₹10. mohan Singh, the distinctly crisp perfection in markets a vat of sizzling oil;soured if the is stand at $322 billion.

Yet, there way of less stuffed inside — slathered withisa no sour-spicy from them outonofregional the charmed (This is alegislating new monthly series favouon him hiscrust second Since Modi’s pav has early a thininsoft andterm. a fluffy middle; if green judging if this volume adequate to deal with rites chutney and dryis red garlicky chutney. circleand of informed consent. how they came to be that.) prospective became active topic both the drycandidacy red and wet greenanchutneys are Each the disappointment thathas willhis inevitably follow vada pav vendor own flavours sukumar muralidharan is a fellow the Indian minwalla is a journalist andatauthor of of conversation, spicy the markets cheered tear-inducingly and zingy; andonifeach the and in bond as build the budget pro- shabnam thesemarkets chutneys loyaltysession more effecInstitute of Advanced of Study, Shimla Six Spellmakers Dorabji Street move that tookbeckons him along that trajectory. green mirchi brightly, you begin to tively gresses.

Neither can the implications be fac- The than any frequent-flier programme.

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Healingversus ways and byways Infinity Ramchundra THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

Medicine men move from the streets to centre stage in an art project that explores the diversity of health practices in solved India, many of which have defiedcalculus time and globalisation How an Indian mathematician hundreds of well-known problems — using geometry and algebra alone — and was forgotten

rohit gupta

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ary a beacon of light illuminates the history of Indian science under British colonial rule. A dark gulf stretches for the 150 years between Maharaja Sawai Jaisingh and Sir JC Bose. However, ‘the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,’ so we continue to search the attic for silhouettes. One such shadowy figure is Master Ramchundra — a teacher of science in Delhi, Urdu litterateur, translator and mathematician — now almost completely forgotten.

In the mid-1800s, many illustrious Victorians bridged the empire from Rangoon to London — including the surveyor George Everest after he had mapped India. His niece was later married to the logician George Boole, and Boole’s friend was none other than the father of computing — Charles Babbage. But most important in this episode was another great intellect of this time — Augustus De Morgan, who was born in Madurai (1806) to a colonel in the East India Company.

The historian Thony Christie writes, “De Morgan was a brilliantly eclectic polymath with a Pythonesque sense of humour who both from his personality and from his appearance seemed to spring out of Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers…” In addition, De Morgan belonged to that minute set of Victorians who were aware of India’s mathematical legacy, when Master Ramchundra entered the stage. As a populariser of science, Ramchundra had taken upon himself the task of translating and writing works on geography, agriculture and astronomy, including the works of Sir Isaac Newton, in Urdu (“the closest thing to a national language”).

More than a century had passed after Newton’s death, and calculus had become the most powerful weapon in the hands of science. Because calculus was the mathematics of change, and everything in the Universe was constantly changing, either through Time or Space. As with any other invention, even as it solved many problems easily in physics and astronomy — calculus created an entirely new jo tera chakraye, ya dil dooba jaye... breed ofarproblems for mathematicians.

Since (When my head spins, my heart it employed infinite series anddoes phantom-like sink...)quantities, sang theit gave comedian Johnny infinitesimal rise to numerPyaasa, playing Walker in the 1957 filmand ous paradoxes, singularities absurdities. an itinerant exhorting passersby to Logicians likemasseur De Morgan knew that it would champi, or on head mastry his specialmore brand take decades toof put calculus a rigorsage,foundation. to cure everything from a sinking heart ous to It a sinking business. was at this time, around 1850, that the 28Decades may have passed but and the year-old Ramchundra went tosince, Calcutta country’s streeta healers thrive… self-published strange continue textbook to with soluin the to winding bylanes of old Delhi,calculus where tions hundreds of well-known pehalwans fourth-generation bonesetter tract, problems.

In this extraordinary howev(wrestlers) reside; in Mumbai’s Chor Bazaar, er, he solved the problems using geometry where a street dentist offers tooth extraction and algebra alone, completely eschewing the for ₹50; in its villages where peddlers of oils use of calculus. and promise to grow your hair or Inointments Calcutta, the lawyer JE Drinkwater-Beadd inches to your child’s height. thune obtained several copies and sent one to is awho warm-weather cultureawhere De“India Morgan, himself published Europe-a lot of life is lived onbook the street.

I imagine an edition of the in 1859.

While some Ramof these practices, likebeen objects of India’s other chundra’s career has studied at length material cultures,historians are as old SasIrfan the country itby contemporary Habib and self,” speculates Vaswani, curator of Dhruv Raina, DeRatan Morgan’s ownlead preface to the Medicine Corner, that an arts project that explores book recognised bypassing calculus was the historical and cultural landscape of health Ramchundra’s attempt to revive and continue

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Cure all (clockwise from left) An 1825 painting of an eye surgeon, which is part of the ‘Trades and Occupations of India’ series commissioned

by Colonel James Skinner in Delhi; the label for an ayurvedic cholera treatment, dated 1909 from Madras wellcome collection; a hakim with his wares at Jama Masjid, Delhi; and a fourth-generation bone-setter at work

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ity of it fascinates me,” he says, even as he admits that his London-self would find the service intrusive to the point of assault.

From an ethnographic perspective, India can be an extremely complex landscape to document, especially as health often spills over into territories of faith and the supernatural. BLOT!, an electronic arts collective, is a collaborator on the project and has documented a small fragment of this parallel landscape through an immersive audiovisual montage, which premiered in Chennai in January. Band members Avinash Kumar and Gaurav Malaker recount several interesting encounters: meeting a height-weight doctor BLOT! who promised height gain in adulthood; a temple priest who doled out free jaundice medicine; a businessman whose family distributes on Sundays a ‘miracle cure’ for kidney stones; a black magic practitioner; and a ‘healing lake’ on the outskirts of Delhi.

“This intersection of faith, medicine and accessibility was interesting for us to explore,” says Kumar. About the suitability of an AV medium for such ethnographic documentation, he concedes that they were anxious not to trivialise the perils of quackery, or end up entertaining rather than educating. “But within these conflicts reside crucial aspects of contemporary media and civic engagement; if artists do not take up eccentric and challenging agendas for their work, where will the pride, the responsibility and celebration of local culture emanate from?”

Medicine Corner attempts to link the worlds of visual art and health. ‘Healers of Dharavi’, Medicine Corner’s first exhibition at ensuper/shutterstock the ongoing Dharavi Biennale in Mumbai, brings together four self-taught painters the ancient tradition of Hindu algebra, as into Urdu, Ramchundra wrote sign about “a deto create oil-on-canvas of local healstarted by the likes of Aryabhata, Brahmagup- scription of the diving portraits bell, by which sunken ers: from anmay amulet-maker, a general ta and Bhaskara. materials be retrieved from practitiothe sea,” gupt rog ner and athat dentist tolearned a ‘healer He compared the two different mathemati- “mistakes Hindu menofhave made (sexual diseases).

It goes a step furtherHe towrote highcal cultures, saying, “The greatness of Hindoo in various sciences of the shastras”. light “how people Confucius, perceive their own Shah illnesses invention is in algebra; the greatness of Greek on Demosthenes, Safavid Aband Egypt, seek treatment them,” saysKhan Supriya invention is in geometry.” The problem which bas, Kabul, the for travels of Yusuf KaMenon, the curator.

Ramchundra proposed to himself, De Morgan malposh to exhibition’s England, and Urdu poetry by the In a developing country like India withZafar, poor suggested, others may have likes of Bahadur Shah access to affordable healthcare, it isNasir. impossithought — “hardly within the Mir Dard, and Shah The ble to view these practices in possibilities of pure algebra” influence of isolation.

Ramchundra’s andeven healing in India. It is India has onestraightforward doctor for everystyle 1,500 people or “unattainable byfunded any by the Wellhas been come Trust, London, a In global A parallel amount of thought”. sum-medical charity (World Health Organisation). traced by scholars to thehealth prose with a parallel interest funding arts and hu- ecosystem, therefore, acquires a certain legitimation, he went on toin declare of Ghalib’s letters, and the remanities projects. “We“victory attempt to cover the macy among the people.

“India’sofinequalities that Ramchundra’s formist writing Sir Sayyid big things about human life, areAhmad striking, to the point of being over the theory of difficulty is Khan. such as death and sex; for ingrotesque.

Mostthe people cannot complete.”

However, ideological stance, an ongoing exhiafford So I ammatheinterMorethere’s specifically, Ramchungoal healthcare. of Ramchundra’s bitionbookat (A Treatise the Wellcome ested in the wayscould in which peodra’s of Probmatical output not only The masseur, the Collection about And howMinima, people plehave try been and make sense of lems on Maxima nationalistic ortheir pedbonesetter, the earstudiedbysexAlgebra) over thewas centuries,” circumstances,” says, Solved about agogical, for hisVaswani book begins cleaner... these are Vaswani says. adding such a project the lowest and highest values with athat quotation

by Johnwould Playprofessions with a India-focus was He inspired inevitably with otherBriisof The changing quantities. confair fromoverlap the Encyclopaedia pedigree by the sheer diversity of in its sues, including inclusion firmed mathematically tannica (1824):social “the problems health systems and practices, and gapsrelate between knowledge Problem 52, for example, that which to the maxima whichhave have defied time, systems, among others. with the bees learned to and useperthe minimum and minima... they are connected haps even in a way. their hexago- highest attainments In a natural progression, the amount ofglobalisation wax in constructing of wisdom and the great“The masseur, the project will next explore nal-prismatic cells ofbonesetter, the hive. Or,the theear-cleanheight at est exertions of power; andhome-based seem like sohealth many er... these areinprofessions pedigree. practices, such as planting tulsi which a hole the side of awith watera vessel will immoveable columns erectedmedicinal in the infinity There are of ear cleanplants, and scientific and medical knowledge make thesome waterpicture-paintings spout to the maximum dis- of space, to mark the eternal boundary, which ers at the that aredemonalmost separates systems that times. Not limittance.

TheWellcome array ofCollection these problems thepredate regionscolonial of possibility and im300 years old,”rich says the UK-basedofVaswani.

His possibility ed to informal it will also capture strate the spectrum his own frommedicine, one another”. to-do list onpursuits. every visit to India includes sur- advances in affordable healthcare today. intellectual rendering his diverse head tocareer a haircut-and-massage During his as a popular sci- rohit gupta explores the history of science as t@fadesingh niharika mallimadugula combo deal at a street barber’s.

“The physicalence writer, and translator of scientific books Compasswallah

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Hall of fame Dolly, the world’s best known sheep, is awarded for scientific achievement

Pizza on wheels Now order your favourite junk food on trains

A clockwork cryogenic

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emember the watery dal, the bland paneer and the chicken-that-would-not-yield from your last trip on the train? What if you could have a slice of pizza instead, perched on the side upper?

For if IRCTC makes good on its promises, the parent company of Domino’s Pizza will soon be delivering their cheesy goods to your bogie’s doorstep. All you need to do is pre-order your pie before you board. Wonder if Indian Railways can keep up with the 30minute or free rule though.

Japanese researchers build the most accurate clocks ever Scores of aspirants Students take mock CAT at a centre in Hyderabad long before the actual day of reckoning mohammed yousuf

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Serial toppers

There are those who dread exams. And then there are those who thrive on acing them year after year

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o be honest, I wrote some of the papers only to get a room in the hostel again,” confesses Aniket Mishra, 25, an MPhil in comparative Indian literature, who has consistently topped his exams at Delhi University (DU).

Mishra, whose primary love is sports research, has attempted and aced a variety n May 13,also 1940, in the midst of war, and of other competitive exams. scoredoffice 760 out of 800 barely three days after he He assumed in his Graduate Management Admission Tests as prime minister, Winston Churchill told the forthat instance, and rankedtoamong the House of (GMAT), Commons he had nothing 10 intoil, the DU Law entrance offer but top “blood, tears and sweat.”exams And the three he that appeared (“because of peer presnow, it is times his blood is going up for aucsure”).

He while also did exceedingly tion. The phial, taken he was recoveringwell in the Common LawisAdmission Test (CLAT) from a fractured hip, expected to sell for in 2009. never This seriously considered thousands of“I’ve pounds. “unique piece ofa career in It’s personal kind of embarrasshistory” islaw saidor tomanagement... be Churchill’s first ing,” says the Mishra, “but IIs enjoy thrill of writobject to go under hammer. this the art or papers, objective tests. history? Toing us,these it sounds as especially bizarre asthe collectBesides, being avid quizzer, such exams ing Andy Warhol’s cookiean jars, Angelina Jolie help breath when I’m participating inseat! or conducting and Brad Pitt’s or Salinger’s toilet a quiz,” he says.

Mishra, however, is not the only queer fish in the pond. Toppers in various competitive

There will be blood Piece of Winston Churchill up for auction

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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s…

Exam papers, which were seen flying out of a Bengal school’s windows

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he dreaded exams are approaching. What do you do? Cram or cheat?

Some burn the midnight oil, of course, while others rely on chits to get through them. In Bengal’s Birbhum district though, writing exams is a community activity. Around 250 students of Rampurhat High School sat inside Testthe match Rajesh exam hall to write their class X papers. A steady stream of question paBalasubramanian, per-planes flew out of the windows, only to return with the answers filled in. who runs a CAT A ‘good Samaritan’ outside told a local daily, “Our cousin is writing the exam, coaching centre in and (right); I haveand brought my friend along so he can climb the walls fast and give Chennai theD’Souza paperswith back.” For once, the answers were truly blowing in the wind!

Patrick his family in Mumbai (far right)

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here do sheep go when they this is not any old blue plaque. It is die? Perhaps into a burger? to be installed at the Roslin InstiAnd if not, then into Little Bois more tutehis atcalling. the University pirants As is takingof theEdinCAT. burghof times, to commemorate Peep’s nightmares. But there Barringisa couple Jha has remainedthe in one particular sheep that wasone important rolehopes she played the the top percentile and to stayin there. awarded a more ceremonial advancement of science.

Handed “It’ssendimportant for me to write these exams beoff than most. And that was Dolly out by the Society of Biology,toitdo is cause our business is training students for If“the andtrack sometimes (1996-2003) — most renowned forthem. well in we eminent don’t keep of the unsungofheroes of biology”.

Pernot falling out of its mother’s uter- patterns changing the paper,” says Jha, “we us but for being cloned in a lab. sonally, we’d likeproperly to seeeither. blue won’t be able to guide them The world’s best-knownAlso, dead out to allto those I have plaques to admit,doled it’s great fun takemilthe sheep is now back in the news for year. lions of mice who die fortoscience test every I almost look forward it.” every day. topper, 34-year-old Rabeing awarded a blue plaque.

Andyear’s Last national jesh Balasubramanian runs 2IIM, a CAT coachexams reappear for tests every year, without ing centre in Chennai, and he too takes the any intention whatsoever of joining an educa- exam to keep a tab on the papers. “We create tional institution. “I know it sounds funny, but all our products — mock tests, sample papers, for some reason, doing well in exams gives me guides, etc. So I definitely want to know what orgasmic pleasure, makes me ecstatic,” says the paper is like each year. And sure, it doesn’t Vijay Jha, senior vice-president at Career hurt when one of us [at 2IIM] gets high percenLauncher, one of the largest tiles as well,” says Balasubramahen Chunmun was born, he would never chains of coaching centres in nian, an alumnus of IIT, Chennai, have thought he’d become a millionaire. the country. Jha wrote the Comand IIM, Bangalore.

The beloved pet monkey of a wealthy Lucknow mon Admission Test (CAT) for Giving up a career in marketIt’s important for me is now the sole heir of all their couple, Chunmun the first time in 1999, and starting and management at top corto write these exams fortunes, in the event of their death. “We are childed getting calls from manageporations to set up his venture, because ourand business less, Chunmun is like a son to me. We were ment institutes soon after. But Balasubramanian has appeared is training students to after we adopted him, our forquite poor and unlike most others, he decided for the CAT seven consecutive do well them tunesinchanged,” Shabista Srivastava, one-half of to prepare better and reappear years, scoring 99.85 per cent or the couple, told a local daily. Meanwhile, Chunfor the exam rather than pursue above the last four times. He says, mun continues to enjoy being in the lap of luxury a degree right away.

“The most important thing is to with his wife Bitti in his air-conditioned room. If “It was never my thing — manrelax and write the exam. It’s also only all monkeys led such a charmed life. Delhi, agement. But the calls made me realise that if I an opportunity to max yourself out for two we’re looking at you. can do well enough without any preparation, hours, and get an adrenalin rush.” But what surely I’ll do better if I am prepared,” says Jha, about the tedium of taking a largely similar who has rarely skipped the annual tests since. test year after year? “I’m not bored per se, but I Growing within the ranks of Career Launcher, have to admit it’s not as thrilling as it used to he discovered that teaching management as- be,” concedes Balasubramanian. Not that that deters him, of course, for the success and reputation of his business appear to rely heavily on such consistency.

Yet another CAT coach, Patrick D’Souza, 38, from Mumbai scored 99.8 per cent or more in all 10 attempts.

“When you go through what the students go through, it’s easier to teach them,” says D’Souza, who runs the Quoin academy in Dadar and Thane with his wife, and trains up to 50 students in each batch. “Unlike my students, there’s no threat of a setback in my career or any real pressure, so it’s easier to do well. It’s this pressure ‘to do well’ that gets most people down,” says this veteran CATtaker. A crucial, if obvious, lesson for aspirants who must crack the code but once.

ow old is the Earth? How much time elapses in a second? Well, this clock will tell you all. Researchers in Japan have built a pair of “cryogenic optical lattice” clocks that will not only define the perfect second but also lose time only every 16 billion years, which is longer than the Earth’s been around. Currently, our most accurate caesium atomic clocks lose time every 30 million years. The new clock, which can only work in extreme cold (-180 Celsius!), beats the current one by nearly 16 million years. Can you have the perfect clock by your bedside? Not unless you have a table that can accommodate a giant desktop.

Lucky monkey

Some primates have all the luck

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sibi arasu

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saturday, february 28, 2015

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24

in-faq by joy bhattacharjya Portmanteaus

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n this day 80 years ago, nylon was first produced by Dupont. A claim floated around that the word nylon was a combination of the names New York and London. Though it’s probably untrue, it is still enough reason for a quiz on portmanteau words — or single words that are a combination of other words.

here,there & elsewhere

Cosmic dandruff C

onfession: Bins and I do not Share Beds. We can’t. He says I snore like a diesel engine. I say he rotates in his sleep like a spin-dryer. Of course, we both claim the other one is lying. The only solution is that we sleep in single beds, separately.

Which is fine. Except, of course, when a blizzard strikes Elsewhere. Bins has only seen snow once in his life. He was five years old at the time, in France. He says he spent the entire six weeks away from Pondicherry feeling miserable.

Here, now, he is initially excited to see fine white specks drifting down from the heavy grey clouds. He goes outside in his balaclava and puffy jacket, expecting to be struck down by instant frostbite.

He comes back utterly contemptuous.

“That’s not snow, pah! That’s COSMIC DANDRUFF!” He can’t understand why the climatewallahs on the radio are making such a fuss. “Nothing compared to our cyclones. Palm trees whipping back and forth! Sixty-foot waves! Floods!

Landslides! Bloated corpses!” An hour later though, the wind begins to blow.

The flakes come pelting down in big white clumps. They strike the windows with a soft, relentless thock... thock... thock. A mild sound laden with danger.

“Good thing the power doesn’t go

cornerstone

off here in the DecadentWest,” says Bins. Shhhh, I say. “It’ll be baaaad if it goes off, ya,” he says. “Cold.” Stop, I tell him. The Weather Gods will hear you and then... Sure enough, a moment later the power’s gone.

It’s three o’clock in the afternoon and we’re both dressed in t-shirts and jeans.

By four o’clock, we’re wearing all our warm clothing, looking like two giant lobsters in down jackets that make zip!zip! sounds with every movement. By six, night has fallen. By eight, our mobiles and my landline are dead.

By nine, we are chewing cold sardines by candlelight. No power means no tea,

coffee, soup or anything hot. By 10, the overhead tanks are dry. By 11, we’re so cold we decide to follow the advice given to James Bond in the movie The Spy Who Loved Me. “Share bodily warmth,” the sultry Russian spy tells him, when the two of them are forced to spend a night out on the tundra.

Which is great for Bond, as his partner has plenty of heat to spare.

Bins and I by contrast are so heavily clad, we can’t share anything more intimate than a fist-bump. I don’t have a double-bed, but there’s an air-mattress.

The air pump won’t work, of course. So we lie down on the deflated mattress with two queen-size comforters draped over ourselves, feeling colder than ever. Bins doesn’t have the energy to thrash about or complain about my non-existent snoring.

We wake up to silence: still no power. But outside a pristine white blanket covers the world, glittering in the pale sunshine. Dunkin’ Donuts is open. Soon we’re drinking steaming hot coffee. I see Bins nodding. “No bloated corpses,” he says. He raises his cup. “Dieu merci.” manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her parallel life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

1

Which nursery rhyme character first explained what a portmanteau word was, using the word slithy (lithe and slimy) as an example, in a classic 1871 work?

2

Which extremely useful invention by Swiss engineer George de Mestral in 1948 gets its name from a combination of the French words for ‘hook’ and ‘velvet’?

3 4

In April 1964, which two former British colonies got together with a portmanteau name to form an independent republic?

Luis Bunuel’s 1933 Land Without Bread and Orson Welles’s 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds are regarded as the precursors of which specific type of show?

5

The reshaping of the districts of the state of Massachusetts, for political gain by a governor, resulted in a shape that resembled an amphibian and contributed which portmanteau word to the dictionary?

6 7

Three Estonians, a Swiss and a Dane created which company with a portmanteau name, purchased by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5 billion?

This specific soap was developed by the BJ Johnson company and named after its two primary ingredients. The product was popular enough for the original company to name itself after the brand. Name the soap, a portmanteau of its two ingredients. Hint, Kapil Dev.

8 9

Distinguish between a knork and a spork. If it helps, the spork is much more common, though both are used.

John de Graaf, David Wann and Thomas Naylor co-authored a landmark 2001 book whose title gave a new word to the dictionary.

Identify the word, defined as ‘a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more’.

10

Which portmanteau term was coined in the ’80s by Indian economist Ashish Bose to describe a group of states that had the poorest economic indices in the country?

ANSWERS 1. Humpty Dumpty, who was talking to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass 2. Velcro, from ‘velours’ and ‘crochet’ 3. Tanganyika and Zanzibar got together to form the Republic of Tanzania 4. Mockumentary, from ‘mock’ and ‘documentary.’

The term was popularised by director Rob Reiner for his film This is Spinal Tap 5. Gerrymander, from Governor Elbridge Gerry and Salamander 6. Skype — from ‘Sky Peer to Peer,’ started by Janus Erlis, Niklas Zennstrom along with Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn in 2003 7. Palmolive, from palm oil and olive oil 8. A knork is a hybrid form of cutlery which combines the cutting capacity of a knife and the spearing capacity of a fork. It’s often called a Nelson fork after Admiral Nelson, who used one to eat one-handed. A spork is a combination of a spoon and a fork, now common in fast food joints and schools 9. Affluenza, a combination of the words affluence and influenza.

10. Bimaru states, from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and UP

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

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