Blink issue 61 march28 2015

SPOOKS IN NORTH BLOCK The recent incidents of corporate espionage tell of a tech-savvy modus operandi and a rot that runs deep p5 saturday, march 28, 2015

k ananthan

Parents rejoice in the admission of their child to nursery, ignoring the repercussions of the ďŹ rst days at school.

As families and educators we should carefully navigate this path of tears and fears p10

School is in

SOUND BITES Spoken word performances provide youngsters the perfect soapbox for opinions p14

REPUBLIC OF LETTERS Indians speaking English should recreate it as a truly national language p17

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EXTRACT

Common warblers in a royal tiger’s lair Why spend time in a tiger reserve studying a tiny, nondescript bird?

Reflected glory ‘The Shipwreck of the Minotaur’ (1810) by JMW Turner, who was the first to tear down the distinction between subject and object, presaging what would be later known as impressionism wikicommons

THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

The light and the sea The explorations of light, by an artist and a physicist, which furthered the arts and science

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n his controversial work on the theory of abundantly clear from the observations that great advances in photography. Parallel to colours (Farbenlehre) the German poet Jo- the blue colour of the deep sea is a distinct this, Oersted found that an electric current hann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote — “Un- phenomenon in itself..” Seven years later, Ra- running in a wire disturbed the needle of a less our eyes had something of the sun, man confirmed this in 1928 — a change in the nearby compass, linking the sciences of magrohit gupta how could we ever look upon the light?” He colour of light due to scattering by molecules netism and electricity. Ultimately, in the was echoing ancient solar theologies which — which came to be known as the Raman ef- hands of Maxwell, electromagnetism and opconsidered the ‘sun as a living God’, a senti- fect. “The spectrum of the scattered light gives tics would be unified, upon the realisation ment shared by the artist JMW Turner. clues about the molecular structure of the ma- that light is an electromagnetic vibration Through his study of vision, light and land- terial under study,” explain historians Rajin- through space. scapes, Turner, one of the greatest artists, was der Singh and Falk Reiss.

Just as a magnet exerts its pull along a line the first to tear down the distinction between They also pointed out that “there was much between its poles, a wave of light travels in a Bird in the bush The leaf-warbler is highly active in the forest canopy, identification the field difficult gupta subject andmaking object, presagingin what would bepankajscepticism in Germany about the reality of the certain plane. This plane can be turned or rolater known as impressionism. phenomenon Raman and his collaborators tated when it passes through a crystal or liqEncyclopaedia Britannica describes his announced”. Germany was the stronghold of uid — a phenomenon called polarisation. It transition thus: “While Turner’s earlier paint- quantum physics, and they were suspicious of was while studying the polarisation of microingsreand drawings the most accurate warblers lessshow important than tigers? ob- his use of direct vision, true, simple (which is undoubtedly for I make my living waves through living tissue that servation architectural natural detail, Nowofwhat kind of aand stupid question is spectroscopes sunlight to state that in defendwatching little and warblers), let me JC Bose was compelled to invent in his later work this precision is sacrificed to make that?

Everyone knows that tigers are more his little observations. ing these creaturesEventuI am also arguing in favour his wireless coherer in the 1890s. general effects being of colour light with the ally important, largeand predators, as apex vindicated with the Nobel in conservation — of a broader ecological perspective Instead of wireless technology, Art and science have barest of mass. composition species, at theindication top of the food chain,His flagship species Prize, Raman did notthe failcharismatic to one that goes beyond mega-fauna, Bose was mainly interested in always evolved by tends to become more fluid, suggesting move- point for conservation... and etc. out looking that nature had enand starts at species more in terms of their the interaction of electromagstudying optics ment space...”I have Turner’s favourite subject dowed These are and arguments to face often enough human a so-rather than their apecological rolebeings in the with system, netic waves and matter, and how sea,Iand was no coincidence — the when Iwas tell the people am this studying warblers — in the Ka- phisticated optical or instrument pearance/charisma, tourism potential! it produced sentient life.

British Empire was the peakFor of exploration, in the form of the lakad-Mundanthurai TigeratReserve.

Hisislack So,eye. what theofecological role of my Over the centuries mankind holdingstudying colonies these as far tiny, as China some reason, non-and India. He mathematicalfavoured rigour had little sucleaf-warblers? The leafhas accumulated instruments Nature Chronicles once asked sailors him to descript, common birds to is lash thought tothe mast of a ceeded wherewarblers they failed; he had Phylloscopus) the evidence must (Genus that probe farther than the human eye, but we of India: Essays on Wildlife for hours, he could observe a storm in of light’s quantum be an boat entirely trivial,soindeed arcane, as Einstein predictsurelynature, rank among the least glamorous observe phenomenon through hundreds of Many bird watchers Edited by the ocean. academic pursuit.

“What can studying ed... while they did not. vertebrates, so utterly lacking in charisdifferent technology layers. Telescopes in Ananda Banerjee dismiss them lightly Like thethe physicist little birds tellTurner, me about habitatCV of Raman was By a strange thematic continuation, all the bird ma that even many die-hard space look at galaxies, transmitting to the Rupa Non-fiction struck by the colour Mediterranean Sea Calcutta scientists large mammals, which are of mythe primary whodismiss led the sharp briefscarcely watchers them but lightly, Earth data, which are processed into images ₹295 during voyage to Europe.

It was concern?” asksa the reserve manager.

Onbelieved that renaissance ofbothering Indian science were, in onethem way to speto even identify by computers. The complexity of the Large Hathehand, blue of thefocus sea was duelarger to the sky’s reflec- or another, studying the other if we on the light.

Meghnad Saha ex- is,dron cies level.

Part of the problem of Collider can hardly be overstated. In the tions.— Raman knew thatphilosophy reflected light is po- amined mammals the apex species of Project the fact pressure exerted by small, light, SN Bose end, course, the that they are all dull-green col- however, these images of nature must off using a Nicol prism.

Tiger —larised and doand ourcan bestbetocut improve their habitat, oth- the quantum statistics and CV Ra-making oured, and highly activeofinphotons, the forest canopy, pass through the limited faculties of the huHe wrote in anaturally letter to the journal Nature, “Ob- man er species will also benefit.

Given the limitthe scattering offield lightdifficult. by matter. identification in the It is only rarely — eye. It would seem, this ever-lengthening man servations made in for thisconservation way in the deeper waed funds and manpower (research Art and havenuts always either whenscience one is truly aboutevolved birds or by whencascade the of instruments observing instruters ofisthe Mediterranean andon Red Sea showed studying and action), it not better to focus the mega-fauoptics closely.

Newton had split ments is only as strong as the weakest link. fate of one’s PhD thesisAfter hangs on such identification so far from being impoverna andthat let the colour, mini- and micro-fauna take care of the light its rainbow with morphoa — that oneinto develops the eyespectrum for the subtle (2015 has been declared The International ished by sky-reflection, was prism, themselves?

Thesuppression only small of creatures one should study ofand materials using the partic- Year logical,the auditory behavioural differences be- of Light by the United Nations.) improved A similar ef- ular worry wonderfully about then are those thatthereby. may form part of the spectrum emitted — spectroscopy — tween species.they These difficulties in identifying rohit gupta explores the history of science as fect was noticed, somewhat less con- became food chain leading up tothough the larger focal species. extremelyneed important.

Because light species, however, not bother our busy manager Compasswallah t@fadesingh spicuously, in me the ofArabian It was was Before you accuse a biasedSea. perspective found to interact withleaf-warblers) chemicals, it led too much, since they (the are to all pretty

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similar ecologically as well — the role they play in the pause to appreciate the job done by the nondescript forest is largely independent of their taxonomic sta- little green jobs — the leaf-warblers — and their insectus, except insofar as the structural aspects of their tivore colleagues that travel thousands of kilometres foraging microhabitat are concerned. every year to eat all those insects.

All 18 species of leaf-warblers in the Indian subconBefore you start protesting that you will never continent are migratory, breeding in the temperate sum- template removing all those birds, and that I am just mers from Himalaya north to the Arctic circle, and another doomsayer, consider the fact that 80 per taking over the peninsular (including Himalayan cent of the warblers (especially the Green leaf-warfoothills, and much of Northeast India) forests from bler, which is the most common one here) as well as September through May. While each individual may the next most abundant migrant (Blyth’s reed warweigh only 7-11 grams (range includes all species), bler) spending each winter at Mundanthurai come one may still emphasise the term take–over, when de- from the forests of the hill regions around the Casscribing their relationship to their forest habitats: pian Sea, from Turkey east through Kashmir, includthey number in the billions and form probably the ing bits of southern Russia and Afghanistan. most abundant avian guild in the sub-continental Now imagine that these hills — breeding grounds forests during our tropical winter. My study at Mun- for so many migrant insectivores — are deforested on danthurai (in the southern Western Ghats) records a a large scale, either directly by us or through effects density of six-eight leaf-warblers (of two species) per of global climate change, cutting down the bird pophectare of forest — usually any given patch of forest ulation by 90 per cent. Such declines are not unrealmay have two-three species, depending on the type istic, as those studying migrant forest birds in the of forest; and I doubt there is any forest habitat in In- Americas will tell you — though they worry more dia that does not host at least one species some time about forests in the wintering areas being cut down of the year. Picking a random hectare from my 20-ha rather than in the breeding grounds. In fact, over the study plot at Mundanthurai, I find six leaf-warblers past two decades, Americans and Europeans are in(of two species) making it their home for seven-eight creasingly facing the prospect of another Silent months — for these are territorial individuals that re- Spring. Not, this time, due to the factors mentioned main on site for much of the winter. And what do in Rachel Carson’s clarion call in the 1960s — overuse they do during this period? Well, eat insects, mostly. of chemicals in agriculture at the height of the green Humdrum as their lives may sound, they spend over revolutions — but to a suite of other human activities 75 per cent of their waking hours foraging for insects that have hit the habitat of avian migrants in both (and other arthropods) in the foliage. Since they are their northern breeding grounds and southern winnot concerned about finding mates or raising young tering grounds. during this season, and want merely to survive in Many species of migrant songbirds, which enliven good shape for the next summer, their other activ- the northern spring after the dreary and silent winities — preening and maintaining territories through ters, have been pushed to the brink of extinction — vocal and visual dialogue with neighsome like the Kirtland’s warbler are bours — do not take much time. Hmm... down to a few scores of breeding pairs a bunch of small, dull birds spending — over the past two decades, even as my most of their day peering at leaves in ornithologist comrades in the west are search of insects — do I seem to be only racing against time to figure out the A single leaf-warbler weakening the defence? Not really... causes of these declines, so we may try eats an average of Consider the fact that each leaf-warand reverse the process. The culprits 1,980 insects per day bler, on average, eats three insects every are, of course, us humans: deforesting waking minute (this is averaging over the tropical wintering grounds; fragall their activities throughout the day). menting the temperate forests into Since they forage by picking prey off a suburban woodlots more accessible to substrate — mostly leaf, sometimes also twigs and human subsidised nest-predators such as domestic flowers — the prey largely consists of herbivorous in- cats and other small carnivores (feral) thriving on sects. In the case of my one hectare on Mundanthu- our garbage; and directly subsidising populations of rai, it is mostly caterpillars eating leaves. A single non-migratory nest-parasites like the north-Amerileaf-warbler thus eats an average of 180 insects every can cowbird through backyard bird feeders, enhour, or about 1,980 per day (assuming an average 11- abling them to survive the harsh winter and fool over hour working-day from dawn to dusk). The six indi- 200 gullible species of songbirds into raising their viduals on our plot thus rid the plants of almost offspring! We seem to be particularly adept at caus12,000 insect pests — every day! Multiply that with ing damage to the ecological fabric of this planet, the number of days (200-250) that they are in resi- even when we mean good — feed the poor little birddence on that one-ha plot and you may begin to ap- ies in the winter, or the cute raccoons at night. preciate the service they render to all the plants. Now Getting back to our continent, where we have no I ask you to consider removing these warblers from information on population trends of forest birds at the study plot, and picture the forest in a few weeks’ all — whether resident or migratory, in tropical south time... The scenario could become even more dra- and south-east Asia or temperate Russia, Mongolia matic if you remove all the other insectivorous birds and Siberia — declines paralleling those on the other from the plot as well: I estimate each hectare of Mun- continents are on the cards, if indeed they haven’t ocdanthurai’s forest has at least 40 insectivorous birds, curred already. Given the contempt these migrants including other warblers and flycatchers (resident have for human geopolitical boundaries, their popand migrant), minivets, shrikes, drongos, babblers ulations are subject to forces beyond the control of etc. The average number of prey may come down to any one national conservation agency, let alone the just over two per bird per minute — that is, about manager of a single Tiger Reserve. And if their pop5,000 insects per hour, or 55,000 per day in every ulations are found to be declining as drastically as hectare of forest. many New World migrants’ have over the past severRemove those insectivores: ...and don’t be sur- al decades, mammal chauvinists may be reduced to prised if in a few weeks your plants start to appear haplessly watching the habitats of their favourite ragged with their foliage tattered... and your endan- creatures getting degraded. gered langurs become unhappy because so many Do you think even the tigers might get worried leaves are now packed with toxic anti-herbivore com- about such a scenario? pounds produced in response to caterpillar nibIs it worth studying these warblers, trying to figure blings... and the plants make fewer flowers and fruits out what makes their populations tick, and how to as they are forced to spend too much energy in self- save them — and ensure they continue to keep all defence... in turn making the nectarivores and frugi- those insects down? vores unhappy... and regeneration of the forest slows Are warblers less important than tigers? Isn’t the down as fewer seeds are produced and dispersed... question itself meaningless? and the ground starts to dry faster because the canopy is thinner and more sunlight gets in... I leave you madhusudan katti is Associate Professor of Vertebrate to work out the rest of the ecological cascade effects Ecology, Department of Biology, California State University, on your own. For now, I’d be happy if you simply Fresno

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WINDOW OR AISLE

Baggage drop Feeling lighter comes easy after a chance encounter with the spiritual

rishi piparaiya

True to their roots Vanaj, a small village of just 58 tribal houses, is all set to write a new chapter in Gujarat’s book of eco-tourism

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olo Forest ain’t got anything to do with polo. A popular weekend getaway for Amdavadis (residents of Ahmedabad), it has everything it takes to soothe frayed city nerves: the Aravallis, birdver since I havewildlife knownand, her, most almost a song, a river, tall trees, imthis dear zero neighbour has portantlydecade (fornow,some), mobile beenThe visiting some quaint little place connectivity. distance from Ahmedabad — close by. I would her attractive. often in the just 160km — makes it evensee more elevator, withaddition a smile on and aofspring The latest to her Polo,face as part Gujain hereco-tourism step, off on drive, yet another trip there.

“What rat’s is a new forest camp at Abhapur, complete with tourist huts. These are available for ₹500 (without AC) and ₹700 a night. The only other camp for Polo is at Vijaypur taluka, just eight kilometres from Abhapur, which is often overrun by noisy tourists on weekends.

Not far from Polo, also in the district of Sabarkantha, a village is scripting its role in Gujarat’s eco-tourism story. Blessed with a huge natural lake and hillocks, Vanaj could be the next weekend destination for Amdavadis.

Come April and tourists can expect comfortable beds and delicious local fare (read vegetarian Gujarati thalis) from the modest huts of the tribals who live in Vanaj. The village and its surrounding areas are particularly attractive during monsoon and winter.

Vanaj was almost unheard of till members of the National Council For Civil Liberties (NCCL), an Ahmedabad-based NGO, flagged its potential as a tourism destination in November 2014. A village with just 58 houses, Vanaj became the focus of a project named Rainbow Hills. “Given its natural beauty, Vanaj can be developed to look like Scotland,” says VK Saxena, founder of NCCL. As a pilot project, NCCL adopted and renovated 12 houses belonging to landless farmhands. An average of ₹1.75 lakh was spent to make each house tourist-ready. These houses already had electricity and water — some even had satellite television and refrigerators.

Cooking methods, however, hadn’t moved away from the use of firewood and cow dung cakes. Post-renovation, the kitchens continue to function as usual, except that exhaust pipes make them smoke-free. This has been brought about by the innovative design of Shivangi

Inner circle A chanting session is like a vacation for the soul shutterstock

is there to see? What do you do there?” I would started. A little murmur went around the ask her. “Come along someday. It looks like room and it quickly picked up pace. Faster and you could use a break anyway,” she would an- faster, the chanting grew until it was a lyrical swer. Over time, I found that some other crescendo. Someone thrust a little book in my friends had also been visiting. And while I hand and pointed to a stanza but I just hadn’t checked its TripAdvisor ratings, they all couldn’t keep up. The group chanted on in seemed fairly content with their experience. perfect rhythm. It wasn’t a song. It wasn’t a stoAfter a particularly gruelling stretch, I final- ry. It wasn’t poetry. It was just magical vibraly gave her a call. “When are you going to your tion from a dozen or more souls reverberating secret retreat next? I think I will come along through a room full of care. It was like horses this time.” “Sure, probably a few weekends galloping forcefully through the clouds. As if from now. Even if I don’t end up going, I will waves were ebbing and crashing into a cliff on make sure I organise a guide for you,” she said. a solitary island. An orchestra of angels tugMore better The government the tribals of Vanaj fortify their simpleheart mud houses with cement Theisday arrived — it waspersuaded a sunny Sundayging to soulfully at one’s strings. Nam-Myosaxena and concrete.

Modern smoke-free the other highlights shivangithe morning and I wastoilets ready.and I had packedkitchens heavy are ho-Renge-Kyo chanted room and I sat there — a couple of bags and backpacks with my mind absorbed, eyes in— stuffed with many Saxena, alumnus of thethings CentreI for Environ- followed suit.voluntarily Getting theand 10 other families on inexplicably reprobably didn’t need. rather University board was a breeze mental Planning and But Technology won’t be actingafter to that. the It tempo of long the be prepared than sorry, I figured, (CEPT), Ahmedabad.

Modern toilets have been before all houses in the village are renovated room. Nam-Myoho-Rengeand pick-up point fittedreached into thethe freshly painted houses, which under the the Rainbow Hills project.

Kyo. Nam-Myoho-RengeKyo. Faster and faster, with in tow.

Mystructures. guide were luggage mostly plain mud Cement grewThe government to incentivise VaThe decided harmony reverberated chanting until was waiting were thereused already; he and concrete for renonaj by registering the longresidents after the chanting had it was a lyrical was a generous and jolly-looking vation and the villagers trained houses homestays for then ecostopped.asA few individuals crescendo chap, visibly happy tohygienic see me, in keeping Vanaj clean, tourists under a experiences policy anshared personal and plastic-free. we travelled the short disnounced Ingroup. the pipeline with the last restyear. of the Some tance “Hey, so what all “Thetogether. aim of this scheme is to are card numbers and readAadhar from their phones and tabs, Come April and are we going to do there?” provide basic amenities to theI bank for the housesome accounts spoke impromptu.

There tourists can expect asked, whether to betheir tentative or excit- were tribals,unsure without disturbing owners.

Additionally, some nods, some laughs, NCCL some plans long comfortable beds and ed.

“Aaah, there will beand a couple trav- local lifestyle, traditions sur- of other to construct kiosks the village pauses but noinjudgement. delicious fareof contemplation, ellers there. Just go with flow,” he smiled. roundings.

They are the being where tribals sell tea, “Rishi, do you want the to say or askcan anything?” from the modest huts We got building and in took of thethe elevatrained tointo rentaout one room homemade snacks at and packaged guide kindly. I looked the Buddha tribalsmy who live asked tor.

I don’t knowand whose house it was — these neatlyeven repaired reconto tourists make a few exto my left, thefood unicorns to myto right, and all the in IVanaj just followed blindly.

We removed structed houses to those inter- our shoes Bodhisattvas tra bucks.

Theand tariff for the around me, shook myhomehead. and inside. A couple estedwent in eco-tourism...

This of willothers had al- And then it ended stays with is yetthe tonow be decided the familiarby chant ready checked in and were seated generate some income for on neatly ar- pulsating through government but theNam-Myohomoney, acthe room. ranged floorShivangi. mats in the living room. Many Renge-Kyo. Mycording them,” says to the project heads, will introduction to Nichiren Buddwere what like aof scroll and IThe sat hism Thefacing project hasseemed had its share hiccups. go to the hadfamilies drawn intoVanaj. a close. I followed my myself the farthat end of the room andwould watched tribals at feared their houses be guide The out, renovation ofmy the firstgathered 12 houses, slipped on shoes, my with interest.

Paintings ofThe the Buddha baggage ‘grabbed’ by the government. authorities launchedand in November last year, almostI walked towards thetook elevator. adorned the serene cream walls. And I looked was found a friend in Katara Bachubhai Shankarbfive months to complete.

“We —have set an exfeeling somewhat lighter I think I may up see two Garasia crystal unicorns hai to of Dungari tribe, alsogazing a driverdown with have ample and now to rope in other NGOs left a bag or plan two behind. kindly at the group from the ledge they were the Public Works Department.

Bachubhai led and corporate houses,” says Saxena. perched on. becoming the first in the village rishi piparaiya is the author of Aisle Be Damned by example, rishi@aislebedamned.com virendra pandit quick round of introductions and then it to Arenovate his house.

His brother Laljibhai

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Booming business of corporate espionage A quick look at the ministries from which information and documents were pilfered tells you much of the story: Finance, Defence, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Coal and Power

jorgen mcleman/shutterstock

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orporate espionage in India is hardly new. For decades, tycoons have used spies to ferret out information about what is going on behind closed doors in the corridors of power. Access to sensitive information known only to a few powerful politicians and influential bureaucrats is often not just a source of profit but also provides competitive advantage over business rivals. The government is vast and multi-layered — it can be easily compromised by bribing junior officials with relatively small amounts to part with valuable information.

The big names from the world of politics, bureaucracy and the corporate sector are rarely caught when law-enforcing agencies crack down on spies and thieves. Only their minions are jailed.

So what’s new about the recent incidents of corporate espionage that are being investigated by the Delhi Police? Not much. Except that the modus operandi of the spooks has changed with technological advancements.

Xerox machines are out, scanners are far more convenient. Why cart away large bundles of paper when there are pen drives that fit into your wallet, when broadband-enabled email can in a jiffy move a zillion kilobytes of data across continents, when smartphones and WhatsApp make life unbelievably simple?

However, some things have not changed.

During years of licence raj, every important decision impacting businesses countrywide were taken by a clutch of netas and babus sitting in Delhi or Mumbai. The brave new era of economic liberalisation was supposed to have made the working of ministries less discre-

tionary, more predictable and transparent. ander resigned in the wake of the espionage But that doesn’t seem to have happened. To scandal. After Narain’s arrest, the government use the memorable phrase from Reserve Bank ordered two French diplomats, including the of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, crony so- then ambassador, to return home. As in the recialism was replaced by crony capitalism, es- cent case where at least one official of the Depecially when it came to allocation and fence Ministry has been arrested, much of the pricing of natural resources. corporate spying in the country has related to The series of scandals relating to the farm- companies associated with military purchasing out of second-generation (2G) telecommu- es. This is again not surprising, given that denications spectrum, the opaque and arbitrary fence deals are extremely lucrative. allocation of coal blocks by so-called “steering In November 1998, a search-and-seizure raid committees”, and the controversies relating on V Balasubramaniam (or Balu), group presito extraction of natural gas from the Krishna- dent of the then undivided Reliance group, Godavari basin by a contracting company con- led to the recovery of secret documents introlled by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) cluding Cabinet notes. The police registered a are but three instances of how government first information report against him and two decision-making has been vitiated by crony- other senior Reliance executives, AN Sethuraism. It is, therefore, not surprising that corpo- man and Shankar Adawal (the latter was quesrate captains have felt it ‘important’ to utilise tioned by Delhi Police in the latest episode the services of spies to find out what’s going too). It was in April 2012, nearly 14 years later, on in North Block, South Block, Udyog Bhavan that a court framed charges against the execuor Shastri Bhavan, among other buildings that tives and passed an order, against which an aphouse powerful economic ministries and gov- peal is pending before the Delhi High Court. ernment departments.

A number of surveys by industry associA quick look at the ministries from which ations and consulting agencies indicate the information and documents were pilfered business of trading in sensitive information is tells you much of the story: Finance, Defence, ‘booming’ in India. In fact, this was precisely Petroleum and Natural Gas, Coal and Power. the language used in a report prepared in 2012 The pattern is familiar. Journalist Santanu by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Saikia ran web portals on the petroleum, ferThe same year, a study by the Associated tilisers and energy sectors, before he was put Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India behind bars. Among those arrested or ques- stated that more than a third of the compationed by police are employees nies surveyed across different of groups like Reliance, Essar, sectors were involved in some Cairn/Vedanta and Jubilant. form of espionage to gain advanThose detained or accused are in tage over competitors. Nearly 80 The modus operandi the middle or bottom of the corper cent of the chief executives of the spooks has porate hierarchy in conglomerspoken to had used or were using changed with ates headed by well-known detective agencies and surveiltechnological industrialists like the Ambani lance systems to spy on current advancements...Why siblings Mukesh and Anil, the and former employees. cart away bundles of Ruia brothers Shashi and Ravi, A 2014 annual risk survey by paper when there are Anil Agarwal and Shyam S Bharthe Federation of Indian Champen drives tia. As stated, it appears unlikely bers of Commerce and Industry that the investigations will go all called business espionage the the way up to these individuals. ninth biggest threat to Indian Who remembers the corpocompanies. It stated that in spite rate spies of yesteryear? In 1986, Coomer Na- of widespread use of closed-circuit television rain, regional manager of SLM Maneklal cameras and tracking computer software, onIndustries, was charged with criminal con- ly 15-20 per cent of corporate espionage cases spiracy and leaking important classified infor- is actually detected. mation to agents of foreign companies. He Minister of State for Commerce and Induswould bribe junior employees in the atomic try Nirmala Sitharaman has gone on record energy and defence ministries for documents, stating: “...We are on the side of keeping procwhich he sold to the highest ‘bidder’. His em- esses transparent and not on the side which ployer used to supply textile machinery to the will lead to corrupt practices.”

Soviet Union, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia; Time will tell whether this will indeed be source marine equipment from Poland; and the case and whether the corrupt nexus berepresent firms from France, Austria, Switzer- tween politicians, corporate bigwigs and buland, West Germany and Japan that sold de- reaucrats that has spawned the spying fence equipment and machinery for nuclear industry will weaken. power plants.

One of Narain’s sources was a personal as- paranjoy guha thakurta is a journalist and sistant to Dr PC Alexander, the then Principal lead author of Gas Wars: Crony Capitalism and Secretary to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Alex- the Ambanis

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Tricoloured diversity Each story in A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces gives a sense and flavour of its rootedness, which no book of history or anthropology could b jothi ramalingam

Many Indias Kindling the biomass flame Cooking made easy Biomass stoves manufactured by Greenway have a patent-pending air induction mechanism to ensure complete combustion courtesy greenway

A collection of short stories that is as varied in theme and treatment, as the country

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ndian literature and the short story are literary terms that are highly contested, theorised and yet have shifty definitions.

A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces, edited by David Davidar, is an attempt to bring both these literary terms into the lexicon of modern reading. A collection of 39 stories, this book endeavours to chronicle and curate an introduction to the modern Indian short story practice.uring the recession in 2008, NashikThe anthology beginsfabrication with a story

by Swami Rabinbased metal firm dranath Tagore andEnterprises ends with one

by Kanishk Samarth found itself in Tharoor — the thereby charting Its the entire doldrums. order course book of the modern short story tradition in shrank with its Indian revenues, down from ₹50 lakh its temporal In the fairlywas extensive ina month to ₹3reality. lakh. Just as hope dying out troduction, explains the process of for the firm, Davidar a customer approached the ownshortlisting 39 stories from thefor larger er, Soumitrathese Kulkarni, with an order 100 oeuvre of the IndianHe writing coal-based stoves. paidtradition. an advance of He talks about thecome challenges curating ₹10,000, but didn’t back toofcollect the the contents ofstoves. this ‘clutch’, including probmanufactured lems of claiming stories from the oral tohim the Weeks later, when Kulkarni tracked written form, issuessaid of he translation and the down, the customer was not interested loss therein, stories, in buying there-translation product as he of hadsome changed his choosing what Due to include andpoor whatdesign to discard. field of work. to their and The is a primary component of lack introduction of safety features, the stoves had to be the book, before one begins tohowever make sense of scrapped.

The painful episode ended the stories Kulkarni and what his theynext are trying to say. up giving big idea amidst has industrial carefully picked those theDavidar dwindling demand — theIndian manstories stayed withforhim through ufacturethat of have biomass stoves households years of reading. that were wasting fuel and time cooking on Thechulhas. collection includes popular heavymud weights like RK Sadat Hasan Manto, Obviously hisNarayan, customer didn’t realise the Khushwant Singh, the controversial potential inherent in the stoves heIsmat had Chughtai, Pritam, the budding Kanscrapped. “IAmrita took his permission and invested ishk Tharoor, and the other writers suchlooking as Shashi in R&D to refine stoves.

I was to Tharoor, Upmanyu Chatterjee Githa Harimake and sell products that and could bring in haran.

This book covers Biomass a wide range of fit literarevenues immediately. stoves the ry writing and themes. bill,” says Kulkarni.

While Tagore’s anduseVaikom Muhammad Biomass stoves too wood, charcoal, aniBasheer’s upon supernatural exmal dungstories or croptouch residue as fuel, but are scienperiences, Premchand, Gopinath tifically designed to reduce smoke byMohanty up to 70 and Annafuel Bhau Sathe give a glimpse povper cent, use by 60 per cent andinto cooking

erty. UR Ananthamurthy, Vijaydan Detha and with issues of poverty and religion, also tell of Mahasweta Devi speak of the rural, tribal and the starkness between the haves and haveindigenous experience through their stories. nots. Mahasweta Devi’s ‘Draupadi’ compliAt the same time, Amrita Pritam and Nisha Da cates this struggle by introducing the gender Cunha talk of infidelity. factor into a battle between tribes and the adSimultaneously, stories of Ismat Chughtai ministration. Hari Shankar Parsai’s ‘Inspector and Amrita Narayanan give an insight into ho- Matadeen on the Moon’ satirises the political mosexuality and explore women’s sexuality. and administrative system and launches a Stories like that of Vikram Chandra and Tha- scathing attack on corrupt governance in a fickazhi Sivasankara detail the craft writ- tional time by half. MostPillai importantly, they of reduce worldeventually, through the introduction of ponot succeed it helped them uncoving reveal the delightcaused in expanding an lice the and indoor air pollution by cooking reforms on the moon. stoves and they set er the potential in biomass experience words. fire, which into causes over a million deaths glob- upThe book is sensitive to the pulse of realism Greenway Appliances, which operates the The anthology includes stories that have and, ally each year. at thelargest same time, it offers moments of incountry’s biomass cookstove manufacbeen fromKulkarni numerous By translated May that year, was ready with turing plant in trospection, romance and nosVadodara, Gujarat.

Indian languages, including Ma- which sold about 5,000 biomass cookstoves, Just like India, the book The stovestalgia. manufactured

by Greenway, layalam, Urdu, and Ma-Having found Prakti and Kulkarni’s out over the nextOriya four months. too is eclectic, andare wideSwamivaried Samarth not rathi apartKulkarni from, continued of course,to invest in re- only portableranging. his calling, Each of the stories is a and easy to use, they are also stories written into English. fining the stoves make them more fuel-effirepresentation of anand Indian realsuited utensils cooking Inclusions of for traditional However, inclusions of literacient, smokeless and eco-friendly. ity. Therefore, there are many methods. to the 2011 Census, overIn61 literature from the According ture fromaway the north-east region, Miles in Auroville, the City of Dawn per dias households created in the — each cent of rural usebook firewood as north-east region, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal near Puducherry, a group of enone unique different from fuel,and leading to deforesJammu and Kashmir, cooking Pradesh, and Gujarat would gineers, Goa designers, a physicist the others. storyproblems gives a tation as wellEach as health Himachal Pradesh, have the anthology more and made marketing professionals sense and flavour of its rootedfor women and children.

Goa and Gujarat comprehensive.

Nevertheless, spend days refining the design ness, which no book of history ora “The difference between would have made the Cooks from local with its wide ofarray of themes and efficiency biomass stoves. anthropology could. modern biomass stove and a traanthology more villages prepare lunch and the ability capture the “We also have ontostaff full-time The stories the ditional chulha isencourage in the design, thorough using our stove universal struggles within — India, cooks from local villages the reader to explore the authors engineering, and material.

The prototypes and help the collection serves as experts. a guide absolute stove-design and writings from optimal their respecpurpose is to allow comus refine them to Indian Every day,consciousness. they prepare lunch ustive regions.

Foremission), example, miniafter bustion (reduce with supernatingWhile our dealing stove prototypes and reading Oriya story in the mal fuel the consumption (efficient ural experiences in Tagore’s ‘The Hunger of book, a reader help us refine them,” says Mouhwilltransfer), be tempted to read other heat faster cooking, Stones’ andfounder Basheer’s ‘The DeBlue Light’, the Oriya writers,and sine Serrar, of Prakti suchdurability as Tapan Kumar Pradhan’s at minimal cost reader how supplier susceptible we can stoves be to award-winning signs —learns the largest of biomass Kalahandi. without compromising usability and cultural hearsay and rumours.

In Anita Desai’s ‘Games preferences,” to the UN World Food Programme.

A Clutch of says Indian Masterpieces prises open Serrar. at As Twilight’, nostalgia gently runs through a theSome for Neha Juneja and Ankit Mathur, a difentire a reader interested in Indiofworld thesefor companies have secured patreader’s mind.

Similarly, is antoache and an ferent kind of smoke trailthere led them biomass writing.

It gives a snapshot into and the various ents for their cookstove design others longing for After the old world in from Sundara cookstoves. graduating the RamasFaculty worlds India inhabits within it andstoves encouraghave applied for them.

Greenway prowamy’s ‘Reflowering’ andin theDelhi romanticisation of Management Studies and IIM-Ah- es readers to read more. Davidar’s painstaking vide complete combustion by deploying a patof a simplerespectively, tribal life in Bond’s ‘The medabad, theRuskin duo ventured into curation has the defining India’s ent-pending air potential inductionofmechanism.

The Blue Umbrella’. energy finance, which led them to undertake literary canon. air-fuel ratio ensures good combustion unlike Premchand’s Shroud’ and Anna Bhau solar, hydro and‘The biomass energy projects in in mud stoves, which demand the use of ventiis a don’t freelance writer based in Delhi Sathe’s ‘GoldAlthough from thethe Grave’, while dealing rural areas. finance venture did shubhrastha lating pipes and burn efficiently.

New-age companies across the country are investing in scientifically designed stoves that reduce smoke, save fuel and cut cooking time

A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces Extraordinary Short Stories from the 19th Century to the Present Edited by David Davidar Aleph Fiction ₹695

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Burning ambition Agneeka biomass cookstoves are available in the premium (top) and eco versions; (right) the manufacturing unit of Greenway Appliances in Vadodara, Gujarat

Raghunath Funde, a farmer in Bela village of Maharashtra’s Bhandara district, says the biggest advantage in using the Greenway stove is that his wife and mother don’t have to sit beside it to adjust the wood or blow air.

“The wood is fully burnt, there is no smoke and the cooking time is much less. My mother’s health is now improving. She earlier had a lot of respiratory problems,” he says. After using the biomass stove for about seven months, he has recommended it to his friends and extended family. The stoves are priced between ₹1,100 and ₹1,500. Greenway’s Smart stove for homes is priced ₹1,499 and the Jumbo stove for commercial use is priced ₹2,499. Agneeka, Swami Samarth’s cookstove brand, is priced

Soumitra Kulkarni, proprietor of Swami Samarth Enterprises

similarly and offers discounts of up to ₹400 to stallments. There are also tie-ups with needy families. microfinance institutions to take the stoves to The sales have increased steadily. Prakti has families in rural as well as urban areas. sold 15,000 household stoves and nearly 900 Greenway has additionally tapped small reinstitutional stoves (that can cook for up to tail outlets in the central market at the taluka 500 people per meal) in the last two years. Ju- level, which customers visit at least twice a neja and Mathur began with selling 100 stoves month. Prakti’s Serrar is stocking the products in the first month. Today, they sell 40,000 at all outlets where solar lights are sold to vilunits every month and their factory can man- lages. He is also relying on sales tie-ups with ufacture eight lakh units annually. distributors specialising in rural areas, includ“Given the market size, the value proposi- ing Dharma Life. “We have realised that prodtion of the product is very strong,” says Juneja. uct development calls for a lot of effort and Serrar says Prakti has been constantly im- distribution requires a different set of skills. provising its stoves over the last few years. “We We get optimal synergy by separating product are on track to release a new development and distribution,” stove version every year with he says. better performance and 30 per The appeal of biomass stoves is cent cost reduction,” he says. unsurprisingly not limited to ruGreenway sells 40,000 A major challenge for all of ral households. It is equally popstoves every month them lies in reaching out to the ular with many urban families and can manufacture end-users and convincing them without an Aadhar card or bank 8 lakh units annually to buy. Kulkarni says there is still account for LPG subsidy. Even little awareness about the availahouseholds with an LPG connecbility of biomass stoves and tion are using the stove to heat their benefits. water in the winter months or in “People are not ready yet to switch over cooking to achieve a smoky flavour. A major from age-old mud chulhas. We explain the segment, however, are the institutional users health benefits of using biomass cookstoves — school canteens, caterers and restaurants. and then try to convert them. It will take Kulkarni sells his commercial biomass stoves, time,” he says. each above 50kg, only to the Pune-based alterJuneja agrees that affordability is not as native energy company First Energy. much an issue as lack of awareness is. This is Continuous R&D is helping develop newer precisely why Prakti is roping in local commu- versions of the biomass stove — double pot nities and cooks in the design of the stoves, to cookstoves, charcoal cookstoves, wood cooksenable them to identify with the product. toves, and institutional stoves of varying ca“Our stoves are distributed and assembled pacities — to reach out to more customers. through local partners. As local distribution Prakti is already selling in some African counand marketing mature, we transfer produc- tries and Nepal, besides India. Greenway has tion to the local partners,” he says. Prakti started exporting to Mexico — 1,500 units per stoves are currently made at its factory in month — and is now looking at East Africa and Chennai, allowing for continuous rapid proto- South Africa. It has seven warehouses across typing and mass customisation.

India and expects to double the number next For distribution, too, the manufacturers are year. “We want to make this the de-facto stanbanking on innovation to reach out to a large dard of cooking in India,” says Juneja. Given number of people. Greenway has partnered the investment and efforts kindling it, this is with banks, including Canara Bank and Bank one mission that promises to burn bright. of India, to finance the stoves. Instead of paying ₹1,499 upfront, customers can pay in in- rashmi pratap

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CUB READS

Life’s like this Books for young readers that put a spin on a typical Bollywood plot and on issues of the day pseudo-feminist who feels powerful after applying kajal.

Through Normala’s story, we realise that many of our lives might not imitate YRF plots In choppy waters US but ‘normal’ lives can bePresident just as melodramatic, Barack funny and movie-like. Life’s likewith that.

Obama Israel’s

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STATES OF MATTER

Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu athangi Subramanian’s debut novel the White House story Dear Mrs Naidu is aatheartwarming in Washington, last centred around the Right to Education Act October (RTE). Never didactic, it reuters/kevin tells of 12-year-old Salamarque rojini, and her friends Amir and Deepti.

In August 2009, India became one of 135 countries in the world to provide free and compulsory education to children between the ages of six and 14 when the Parliament passed the RTE. Dear Mrs Naidu, shows how five years on, not much has changed on the ground. The government and schools struggle to implement a fundamental right. And that sometimes, all it takes is a handful of students to get the system working.

From June to September 2013, young Sarojini writes letters to her namesake Dr Sarojini Naidu,and documenting in gained her neighbourahead of general elections to Israel’s parlia- banks a few otherslife who unparalhood.influence At first, theinletters are just a school proment, Netanyahu resorted to ever more sor- leled the Bush administration, ject. out Shecertain talks well-rehearsed about her bestlines friend Amir, did manoeuvres. laid for publiAmma, her home in policy the coconut grove Just a day before the voting began in Israel, cly articulating the new directions.

Newedged was between shopping mallsthe andpeace her Netanyahu tore up and very publicly tram- tanyahu advised to repudiate school. Soon, life takes a different Amir pled upon the frayed — but still vaguely intact process and stake Israel’s claim to turn. the entire moves of theirIsrael jhuggi-jhopdi — promise on which the US had sponsored a land of out Palestine. suffered cluster a crisis into of na-a block resolve, of flats. which He leaves their government two-decade long peace process with the Pales- tional needed to be dispelled. school for theagenda”, posh private Greenhill school.

A tinians. As voting opened, he posted a mess- “Israel’s new Netanyahu was urged distraught Sarojini has atoclean hatch a plan to reeiage on social media, darkly warning that to assert, could “signal break by… ther join her BFF the posh school or get him peace and security were at mortal risk, with establishing theatprinciple of pre-emption, back. With help of a few friends — Deepti, the left-wing transporting Israel’s Arab minor- rather thanthe retaliation alone”.

Indeed, Israela sullen and sarcastic 13-year-old, ‘evil genius’ Viity “in droves” to polling booths in order to de- was urged to rearrange the political geogramalaofMadam, the“in neighbourhood aunty galafeat his government. phy its region, cooperation with Turkey ta and RTE —bySarojini manages to get and her Race baiting is common currency in Israeli and Jordan, weakening, containing happy ending. politics, but this latest foray attracted adverse even rolling back Syria”.

Sarojini is a bit like Scout Finch and a bit like pecially inbecause the rain,itthey must fallheels in love.” comment came on the of a veIn the chessboard of regional geopolitics, plucky, that the 12-yearNormala takes the bus, tot- her namesake. ry Across publictown, spat with the too US adthisCurious was an and endeavour would a detective-fiction budding ing her grandfather umbrella, hair tied, sport- old is witty,necessarily ministration.

Palestinians, follow fan, a complex compulsive listicle-maker.

Subraing an old T-shirt.

Despite however, were delighted thather plainness, lawyer and aroute: “This effort (could) focus on paintSaddam a ‘just-and-beautifulstalker-hero 2 Varun is smitten.

He follows manian doesn’t the veil had No. been torn off the removing Hussein from TheAsperpetuation ofpicture of the economically her around, throws a few both world’ fiction perpetuated overpickup two lines. power inlives Iraq of — the an important Ischaos in the region Her characters areinreal; the stalker-heroes decide toIsrael jump decades, indemnifying asoff a bridge to weakerissections. raeli strategic objective its own today Israel’s sole aunty is so prove their love, Nirmala it relentlessly pursued itscries coloright — asgalata a means of hilariously foiling Syassurance of security ria’s told that you will be transportfor hersproject. while Normala moves nialist regional ambitions”. ed to loyalists a colony in fullthe of US aunties onNetanyahu’s to hero No. effrontery 3 Roobesh now KuIsrael read and gossiping.

The mar. After Bollywoodmeans thatmore western governthebickering circumstances then as just author on incasteand type plot twists, involve ments will havewhich no cover for right for alldwells elements the geosSubramanian’s class-based evoking My Name is Khan, their moral cowardice in an the characters are real; the trategic plan todiscrimination fall in place. Inand the attitudes of officials with wisunderworld accidents face of Israel’sDon, prolonged defiance of law and event, it took the second Palestinian uprising aunty galata is so and humour. and hospitals, NirmalaIsrael and has hilariously decency.

As insurance, added the told for freedom 2000, the arrival of the faiththat you indom She also tells us anand imporNormala true fundamentalism love. threat of find Islamic as be a new based to Bush in 2001, the will transported a administration tant lesson — how littleyear we Thefactor authors’ story has a It wascare to its armoury. leaves unsaid on US soil later that colonythe full ofSeptember aunties 11 attacks know about the provisions of fer-thin truth plot; that there’s evident the nothing IS originatedbickering in its stra-and for first steps towards the grand plan. gossiping the RTE on, Act,the that law deep is alin the ambitions, story you haven’t seen tegic in part as self-fulfilling A decade-and-a-half USthe is sunk ways onremorse. our (children’s) In before (in ain YRFother film). But prophecy, parttheas unintended in a state of buyer’s But theside. rightfour months, Sarojini forms dialogue is crackling, the huconsequence. wing, which thrives on public amnesia, is fara School mour and in thesome sense, rep- from admitting The self-deprecating scenario today may, it, as itDevelopment rolls over in Managefawning ment Committee, talks to Block Education Ofillustrations, comical.enactment For instance, Nor- loyalty resent the practical of when the blueto Israeli demands for more commitficers, prepares budget and raises funds to mala discusses with roommate Aditi, ments print sketched Roobesh for Netanyahu in 1996, when of blooda and treasure.

The perpeturepairof herchaos school. shefirst saysassumed cattily, “(He likes) Paris je t’aime. he Israel’s premiership.

OnlyBut in- ation in the region is today Israel’s While Dear Mrs is aAnd fictitious account heits said Paris, not Pari.” to fifth year, the peace process was already sole assurance of Naidu security. for the rightof Ambedkar School in Bengaluru, like Kate The twins’ travails are appropriate told consecutively; embattled.

It was just the time, a wing in the US, a permanent war economy Darnton’s The Misfits, it resembles life. Half Nirmala’s larger-than-life stories juxtaposed group of US strategic zealots urged, for “a promises deliverance from thereal economic a decade later, it is sad to during see thatthe we Bush have with Normala’s clean break”. funny everyday encounters. In train-wreck it engineered more Greenhill schools and not enough SarotheA superb illustrations, Normala a sarcasClean Break: A New Strategy forhas Securing the administration. tic mouth and Nirmala has dreamy eyes.Perle The jinis, Deeptis and Vimala Madams.

Realm, a document authored

by Richard former is thefrom quintessential bahu —including cooking sukumar muralidharan is a fellow at the Indian with inputs a study group priyanka kotamraju of Advanced Study, Shimla up a storm in olive the latterCharles is a typical Douglas Feith, Davidoil; Wurmser, Fair- Institute

War and Peace

Ties turn frosty as Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu tweaks President Obama’s strategic goals in alliance with right-wing extremists in the US Congress

U

nder fire from the Republican rightwing for allegedly slacking off on sukumar the war on terror, US President Bamuralidharan rack Obama recently offered a retrospect on the rise of the Islamic State (IS). The IS today is the security threat that every government claims to be on guard against — with the exception of its covert but generous sponsors in the Gulf — “is a direct outgrowth of alQaeda in Iraq which grew out of our invasion”.

This was an example of “unintended consequences” and only meant that “we should generally aim before we shoot”.

A certain disdain for the Republican majorTwins apart Nirmala & Normala is finally all about finding love ity in the US Congress was implied but obvious. So was the pushback against the political hat one of Bollywood’s fastunt engineered byis the congressional leadermovie plots?

Think ship, which hadvourite days before hosted a speech aur Shyam, SeetaNetanyaaur Geeby Israel’s PrimeRam Minister Benjamin ta, Chaalbaaz... separathu to rubbish Obama’s effort toTwins negotiate an ed atto birth; onesupposed grows upnuclear rich andambitions. cultured, end Iran’s and theseveral other poor but street smart.

Amidst standing ovations fromSowmya his loyRajendran Niveditha Subramaniam’s hial flock, theand Israeli premier made the point larious graphic novel is afrom retelling of the clasthat no good could come dialogue with a sic Bollywood yet it is also regime steepedtale, in theological evil. a universal story of was the geeky With a blurb Here a mangirl-next-door. lusting for war, even if it that reads ‘Why first isn’tand life taking like theaim movies?

For meant shooting later. And that why aren’tJohn movies like your life’, as USmatter, Secretary of State Kerry recalled just Nirmala and Nirmala is the story had of twins ahead ofand the Normala speech, Netanyahu as a seppriNormala arated at birth.

Nirmala is adopted by famous vate citizen, in 2002, cheered on the Bush adSowmya Rajendran and Niveditha movie directorintent GVM (he doesn’t remember his ministration’s to wage war on Iraq with Subramaniam full name anymore) andmiraculous Normala is raised rosy prognoses of all the transforPenguin ‘normally’ by nuns.

Nirmala blossoms into a mations it would herald. ₹299 charming, sensitive empty-headed beauAppearing before and a Congress committee, ty — perfect then moviepronounced star materialthat likeIraq Hema MaNetanyahu was a lini and Sridevi.

Normala growschoice”. into an “good choice”, indeed the “right It awkward armed insecurities and was not aadult, question ofwith whether, but when sarcasmregime just like the Tina Feys and Mindy “Iraq’s should be taken out”.

The Kalimings of ourreverberations imperfect world. mediate would be felt in Like all Bollywood plots,“young Nirmala and Norneighbouring Iran, where people and mala’sothers story is(would) really about finding Onre-a many say the time oflove. such rainy day, Nirmala goesisto college in a cotton gimes, of such despots gone”. sari, her hair loose, sans umbrella.

She helps Netanyahu’s most recent expedition intoa beggar womanchambers cross the road, kisseslittle a blind congressional won him apschoolboy, and stops traffic with her beauty plause at home, with powerful figures in the Dear Mrs. Naidu and kindness.

Stalker-hero Rahul him falls in security establishment berating forlove inMathangi on the spot.

As the narrator puts it, “Itinto wasIs-a jecting a bitter sense of partisanship Subramanian truth one universally acknowledged that if a rael’s indispensable relationship.

Clearly Young Zubaan ₹295 young woman young man, esthwarted in hiscollided effort towith gainapolitical capital

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Ground control The furore over the Land Acquisition Bill compels a look at how the history of a town was shaped by those who owned, granted and ceded land

This land is my land The controversy over the land bill ignores the history and legends of our soil pti/shahbaz khan

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

ith the Land Acquisition Bill in Parliament and the Opposition parties marching the streets, we all seem to have an opinion on land, how much it should cost, what use it is, and what should or should not be done with the pesky little farmers or tribals, or whoever is sitting on all this land. Stepping back may not really be an option for politicians or journalists, but it might be for the rest of us. In digging up the history of my hometown, Gorakhpur, perched on the north-eastern corner of Uttar Pradesh, I was struck by how much of it revolved around land ownership — how it was given and how its ownership was either accepted or contested.

The history of Gorakhpur goes further back than the known history of land ownership — or at least any recorded history of it. We know that the last Jain Tirthankara attained nirvana here, past the Ghaghra river, past the Rapti.

The Buddha came here to breathe his last, as well he should have, since this is the land that brought forth his mother. The ground is so rich with artefacts that people find them while ploughing their fields. These do not tell us too much about land ownership patterns though, or social interactions.

Old Communists mention the gana sangha system, in which patches of land were communally owned. But there is no real way of knowing how much of the Mauryan Empire was gana sangha land. There were other forms of land ownership such as the sita lands, which were state-owned and worked on by hired labour or leased out.

A thousand years later, and we are on somewhat firmer ground, though it is still largely sourced from legend and myth. At this time the great Nath guru, Gorakhnath, enters the

scene. Legends place him from the 11th centu- shi Premchand, Raghupati Sahai (better ry to the 13th century, legends also state that a known as Firaq Gorakhpuri) and Majnun Gogrant of land was made by the Delhi Sultanate rakhpuri are proud examples. that led to the foundation of the temple that Before the rise of illustrious authors and pogives Gorakhpur its name. ets came the British. In 1801, the Nawab of It was a common practice among rulers Awadh, Asaf-ud-Daula, signed over these lands wishing to enlarge their prestige beyond their to the British, who used these first to grow opiterritory to grant land to holymen. The land um for their Chinese buyers, and then indigo for the Amritsar’s Golden Temple, Harmandar to sell to the world. It was not an easy conSahib, was reputedly granted to Guru Ram quest. There were the forest-dwelling Banjaras Das, the fourth Sikh Guru, by the Mughal em- who resisted, and then, from 1806, a series of peror Akbar himself. skirmishes that led to the Anglo-Nepalese war Akbar, or at least the Mughal of 1814-16. No sooner had the dust empire, also had a direct effect settled from these wars than in expanding the contours of came the great 1857 Uprising, in Gorakhpur. It was, at that time, which Mohammad Hassan of Akbar, or at least the the outer edges of empire, heavJaunpur ousted the British from Mughal empire, also ily wooded and revenue-poor.

Gorakhpur and, with the support had a direct effect in The Mughal emperor instituted of Bandhu Singh, a captain of Raja expanding the a policy that those who could Sattasi, governed Gorakhpur as a contours of clear the forests would be entitfree dominion in the name of BaGorakhpur led to claim the land for themhadur Shah Zafar. The British had selves. In this way hardy souls their revenge, and for almost a set out to carve their little nichyear the great tree near the Jama es at the far reaches of settled Masjid was used to hang ‘rebels’, lands. It remained a volatile boundary and their lands given away. Naturally it was though. The Gorkhas — also deriving their here, or next to here, in Champaran that Gandname from Gorakhnath — claimed the territo- hi launched his satyagraha in 1917. And it was ry too, and if a person were to flee imperial dis- here that the Parliamentarian Shibban Lal Saxpleasure in India, he or she had only to get past ena of the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party rose in the Ghagra. Ghagrapaar meant you were in an- fame to demand land to the tiller. other jurisdiction. To hunt down rebels from All these stories come out of the ownership Jaunpur, Moazzam Shah, the son of Aurang- of, and disputes over land. They are our histozeb, came to Gorakhpur, ostensibly on a ‘hunt’, ry, who we are, and how we understand ourbut with such a large army that a new part of selves. And while the politics of the Land the town was created, called Moazzamabad. Acquisition Bill will keep us arguing for some Grants of ‘maddad i ma’ash’, or ‘help to the peo- time yet, it might be useful to recall that that is ple’, were made in the form of tax-free land to not the whole story. the great and the good, which, many decades tOmairTAhmad later, created a literary culture of which Mun-

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No words barred

Question time A three-year-old is not always functioning at the peak of his/her capacities. Like all of us, they are sometimes (most times) younger than their chronological age and when tired, hungry, ill or scared regress to being the babies they are monica tiwari

First day at school

Spoken word events, which are theatrical shows and not listening booths, are gaining fans and practitioners across the country

I am: A chick, a d**k, a s**t, a mutt, a performance and the written word. One Nursery admissions are so fraught that we often overlook what happens once the child is in. dude, a prude, a b***h, a snitch, a d**e, would fail without the other. It can’t be just a type, a punk — No. People not Poread out; at a challenges slam, you have tois feel it, feel theas the first weeks and months Acknowledging and are addressing possible crucial, kemon, you can’t catch them all with effects,” adds Katyal. your Master Ball (whatever that means) for what in nursery form a blueprint the futurepoet mayMarch feelSmith like is The Chicago-based — From Kudi Namkeen by Rene Sharanya Verma

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n January this year, the among pril in Delhi; daysthe areinnumerhot, the able YouTube sensations Kudi Namplump red flowers ofwas the silk-cotton keen tree

by Rene a carpetSharanya the streetsVerma, and the20, wailsecond History Honours at ingyear of three-year-olds fillsstudent the air. On St Stephen’s College, Delhi. Verma’s poem, Monday morning, thousands of toddlers will posted online theday group Delhi Poetry Slam, start their veryby first of school. was a rebuttal to the ‘Honey culture’.

Nursery admissions haveSingh become so Within days the it had received thousands of fraught over last few years that as parents views and, at last count, been seen nearly we have been forced, nothad by the system but by 1.6 times. thelakh sheer absence of one, to focus on getting a Verma’s performance, which once was at a child slam place and not on what happens our conducted by theand group, is one we among is ‘in’. As parents educators are inmany dansuch and the outspoken performancger ofwitty missing wood forpoetry the trees.

Our chiles that Capital’s dren dohave not peppered care whatthe nursery it is,cultural which calendar over the last few years. AThese school it is or where it is located. largespoken majorword performances, which judged by ity of them are just scared at are the prospect of spectators, have been gaining aninaudience leaving home, being with strangers an unfaacross from Pune tohaving Bengaluru.

Their apmiliar cities environment and to communipeal the fact thatmay theynot provide young cate lies withinadults who understand people a space to express what they are trying to say. themselves freely and lashchild’s out against perceived Each struggle will bewrongs. different. I re“Eighteen to 29. That’s the mostcrying common call my daughter’s classmate for age group slam events,” says Akhilmine Katyal, a months atatthe school gate while had 29-year-old poetshe and translator, who and teaches luckily decided loved the teacher was English the Nadar University in Greater happy toatgo toShiv school after the first week of reNoida.

“The public is luctance.

Intradition that firstofweek, weperformance would return as old and as the city itself, with mushairas home playact our separation with and her such, slam events around stuffedbut toys.

A pink bear are was probably designated as her three years teacher andold. another bear was her ‘mumma’. A Thebear performances andbear volubly tiny representedare her.visibly The tiny and anti-right wingwent and slam is a riveting mixand of mumma-bear to school together

popularly credited with starting poetry slams, back in 1984. “It’s a wonderful form of expres- Slammin’ it Rene Sharanya Verma (top) and sion and great at calling out hypocrisy; maybe Khamboi Singson at Delhi Poetry Slam this why itgoodbye aligns well with theMumma-bear younger gen- abandoned in a new place and not returning theniskissed at the gate. eration,” says Nicole a teacher at the would then say, “I willSumner, be right here waiting for bers ofHer thebeing Airplane Poetrythen Movement (APM) home. reassured depended on American School Delhi.

Sumner you under Embassy the tree.” The tinyin bear would go in- in whereover the aPune Poetry Slam—and APM myPune, reliability period of time of showhas been both witness and participant of slam to the school gate with the teacher bear.

My have become events. APM has also coning up when Iregular said I would. poetry events sincethis its inception.

Shethree is also an ducted events in Mumbai and Bengaluru. daughter wanted enacted on conenthusiastic ofmy theenormous art secutive daysproponent and then, to relief, Talk the talk In Delhi, slam events are now form andthat hasshe organised declared now felt workbetter about leav- Since so many common across in the fears arise fromcolleges not knowing, shops inbecause Delhi. “India already has be at the speaking to our ing me she knew I would citychildren and a favourite extra-curricas honestly as possian amazing oral culture gate when she came out. to draw ular activity.

“People are children interestble can help immensely.

Talking gives The performances from and here slam canalways be a hyA three-year-old is not functioning at the permission edto and itsworries. interactive bring like up their They are visibly and bridised form,” she says. the peakpopular of his/her capacities. framework.

We’rehow stilltofiguring may worry about use an volubly anti-right Forallmany India, the exciteLike of us, in they are sometimes out how totoilet manage it will since so unfamiliar or who help wing and slam is a ment theyounger form offers is their a ma(mostthat times) than many people want to perform,” them with their trousers or mix of performance jor draw. “We believe slams are chronological age and when says Ira Anwar, a 20-year-old whether they will be sleepingstuin Going nursery then andtothe written theatrical events not listentired, hungry, ill and or scared, redentschool of Ambedkar University, the or that mumma /papa becomes about word.

Oneless would fail ing booths,” saysthe Aditi Angiras, gress to being babies theya Delhi, and member of the will leave them there.

Begroup clear learning more without and the other 26-year-old studentthen at Jamia are. Going PhD to nursery beMildly what Offensive Content. about you will say to “We her about negotiating the Millia Delhi, who setand up comesIslamia, less about learning still have regular events in cerwhen she asks, ‘Why do I have to separation from the slam group Bring Back the more about negotiating the septain but over the go to restaurants, school?’ One cannot expect parents and home Poets. performances, aration “In fromour parents and home. year slam has grown a alast three-year-old toreally not ask ‘why’; there is nohave stifling of to content.

They may been a play-I tell my stu- lot as a movement.” it is part of their job-description. dents, should write poems you don’t want schoolyou before, in which case the Slam poetry, still testing thechilwaOnhowever, the otherishand, there are your mum and dad to read.”relaseparation from previous ters in India. As Anand still a very dren whosays, find“It’s it difficult to unextionships can be an added loss. Their fears restrained, and press their fearsyoung in wordsmovement and show them in Free forreal all or complete fantasy but often they performance may be spaces are accepting.

There’swetno other ways, such as waking up at night, Shantanu Anand, a 22-year-old law student, can’t verbalise them.

Children, however, un- precedent andthrowing there’s atantrums, real romance about ting the bed, not eating. first got interested in slam afterexplain. watch- the derstand a lot more thanpoetry they can When becomes popThe possibilities. list is endless, sinceiteach childmore is unique. ing a TED talk bymy American poet Rives.

Other ular, When I asked three-year-old daughter say in five yearsthe from now, that will beand the The parent is often best person to try spoken poets of, like Keywas andscared Anis real what sheword was afraid sheSarah said she test for poetry make sense of whatslams.” the child is trying to comMojgani furthered hisand interest.

2013, to Anand that I would get lost never In return pick municate, if they can view the child’s behaarasu went onThis to become of the founder-memher up. impliedone a connected fear of being sibi viour as an expression of emotion.

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saturday, march 28, 2015

FILM FATALE

Living out loud

them to see that there is a lot to be gained from an interest in the outside world. A significant amount of research suggests that a father’s involvement in their children’s lives has a positive impact on their adaptation to school as well as their interest in learning new things. When my husband became involved in the school-going process and started dressing our first-born and dropping her to school, his presence itself became an incentive for our daughter to stop whining about waking up early. His style was more playful than mine (which tended to be more fraught), yet firm, and it worked. When he praised her for being responsible for small things like washing her hands, finishing her glass of milk, dressing herself, tidying up or remembering her manners, I noticed that it had a greater reinforcing effect than when it came from me. It became more fun.

For my first-born, experiences shared exclusively with papa, like going to the park, activities that excluded me (and included an ice-cream), were a special favourite and these helped to initiate the process of moving away from me when her sister was born. Many firsttime school-goers may also simultaneously be in the process of gaining a sibling, which may make it doubly difficult to leave home and their mothers. It is bad enough to go to school without the added envy that mumma is being monopolised by a new, potential ‘replacement’ baby. Sharing parents with a new sibling is difficult at any age, even seven-year-olds who are school-going veterans may struggle when there is a new baby who gets to be at home, while they have to face the outside world of rules and homework, heat and dust.

Rishi Kapoor is taking social media by storm, commenting on contentious issues and refusing to be silenced by trolls, in a manner uncharacteristic of mainstream Bollywood

anna mm vetticad

“I

am angry. Why do you equate food with religion?? I am a beef eating Hindu. Does that mean I am less God fearing then a non eater? Think!!”

(sic) Such comments on Twitter are likely to raise a storm, irrespective of who the writer is. This one, however, drew anger and surprise in equal measure — anger from religious chauvinists and surprise from regular followers of Bollywood. Why surprise? Because the tweet came from @chintskap, the Twitter handle of senior Hindi film actor Rishi Kapoor aka Chintu to family and friends.

Bollywood-gazers are used to stars of masstargeted cinema playing it safe on political and social issues. Not so the feisty @chintskap, who unleashed a string of furious tweets on thea school beef ban in Maharashtra, eliciting a storm Out in the cold Anxious parents queue up for hours outside to buy and submit nursery admission forms rv moorthy of abuse from the Hindutva brigade.

Typically, venom was directed at his female relatives, his looks, age and other aspects of his personal life. The less vituperative tweets prepared for repetition — as every parent of a questioned his commitment to Hinduism and young child knows, once is never enough. Sto- The adult version asked him to feed pork to Muslim guests, with ries that matter the most must be repeated It is rare for us as adults to recall our own early one lamenting the alleged “Christianisation” endlessly, without variation so that they can school-going experiences with fondness. Most sink in. The story of how everyone leaves of us focus on the good parts, on the one of Bollywood.

Kapoor is admittedly hurt but undeterred, a home and goes to school is of central emo- teacher we liked and the friends we eventually pleasant change from the tradition of stars re- tional import. made. We gritted our teeth and got through it, treating — online and offline — even before one might say. Does school have to be that Clear cut at Rishi Kapoor is admittedly hurt but won’t withdraw his comments on the beefto ban india-forums home bigots attack. And while he may not be the Mumma way?

Is it not possible actually enjoy the first or only mainstream Bollywood heavy- Some children are unhappy about going to many years we spend in educational spaces? I becausehethey their mothweight to embrace contentious questions, he school development hadworry seen about in Gujarat, asked am suggesting thatfigures the early of stream Bollywood are experience speaking out er’s ‘what will mumma do atas home certainly remains a rarity. the feelings crowd if—they wished to see Modi PM, separation frombefore parents, first day, the first now than ever onthe potentially controtheir mothers may feel In earlier times, political and social discus- without said thatme?’ “theLeaving best man” should become PM, weeks and months in everyone nursery may form a versial themes, and not is easily cowbetrayal, especially she “the is lonely, or blueprint sions were mostly seen as the preserve of doc- like thata“God” would decideifwho bestsad man” what Khanna, the future feel likehas — ed down. for Twinkle formay instance, parental relationship is rife tension. umentary-makers and parallel film the is and that Modi should get whatwith destiny had an to be borne by notinternal budgedwrench despite that the has name-calling in reour children practitioners, not their more mainstream, All planned for him.have an unspoken awareness suppressing — that not thinking sponse to heranxieties Twitter feed andis,newspaper codifficulties thethere family commercial counterparts. The legendary Dev of That being in said, hasand been a gradual lumn, whichabout Can’t we co-create a verhave it. covered a range of topics often responsible for it, Anand’s reported opposition to Indira Gand- they change in feel Bollywood in the past five years. from Modi tosion that includes the good? If menstruation. if they point experience hi’s Emergency of 1975-77 remained an uncom- especially One major turning came in 2010 when we understand thethough, fears, there It’s impossible not to note, that mother as fragile. ex- down to Shiv most of her colleagues mon episode for a long time. Over the decades, their Shah Rukh Khan refusedIttoisbow may be freedom look forward prefer to remain silent Stories of ‘when papa difficulttoforapologise a child to beit has usually been assumed — by the media tremely Sena pressure for to new things without or, learning at best, ambivalent and inconand mumma first enjoy a different space if and public — that those who take positions on gin his toremark about Pakistani being about losing sistent.scared For instance, withinsomedays went to school’ are Where’s mommy? Each child’s struggle in nursery is different — while some holler for home, othersof wonder feel they a crucial issues have secret ambitions joining they cricketers in theare IPL. betraying Another wathing in theconfronting process. Learning is of bravely an influirresistible to children what the fuss is about v raju one in the 2014 process. political parties and/or standing for elections. loved tershed was Parliamenan emotional task and the ential news publication forpatits The less vituperative A seven-year-old startSome journalists and creative people have tary poll when I know Bollywood terns areonsetTwitter early inlast ouryear, lives.Deesexism tweets questioned his Stories of ‘when papa and mummabyfirst refusing to goDadlani, to schoolactors after suggested that artistes sully themselves ex- ed musician Vishal It isPadukone never easy on us parents to pika issued a statecommitment to went to school’ are irresistible to children. It having pressing their adherence to a party.

Jaaved apparently Jaaferi, Gulsettled Panagdown and let go ofon ourher children.

Watching ment position and Hinduism and asked becomes interesting whenit you throw in nursery.

It turned out that there Unlike more in Hollywood, where is routine to in others wore their support for were regu- them cry is extremely distressing for us. Ithat dissimultaneously announced him to feed pork to maasi, mamu, chaacha,oreven stories fights between parents openly involving identify yourself as Democrat Re- lar Aam Aadmi Party onhis their sleeve.and he felt he tinctly recall she my daughter’s day at nurswould say first nothing further Muslim guests grandparents and their early days inavoids school.reIt needed to takeyear, care aofgroup his mother.

Once this ery and me on publican, mainstream Bollywood In the same of standing and weeping under a the subject, even attending makes to school ‘normal’.

It was three hard was unearthed, it became easier to know what tree outside the vealinggoing its party affiliations.

Of India’s prominent citizens — including principal feltfilm the the school. same The media group’s enough for my daughter to imagine say to him.

He’s backcommerat school now. biggest film industries — Hindi, Teluguthat andher Ta- to purveyors of hardcore need to come out and reassure me that awards function months later.my parents everfilm wentpersonalities to school, letalone alonehave picture A firm and gentle clarity mil — Hindi per- cial Bollywood successes — can pub-go a long way child appearedMeanwhile to be doinginokay.

Luckily,Rishi my Mumbai, her grandparents helpaour children asking not feelthe guilty about gosistently achieved as theschool-going feat of evenfour-yearentering to lished statement electorate to daughter did not cheery see me and cry; she had enough Kapoor remains determined deolds.

She was highly by the differ- ing school.

Parents canInterpreting help by putting in- worries electoral politics or entertained repeatedly campaigning votetofor secular parties. thatitlether own being without havingattohim. think spite theof invective hurled “I ent names of schools andyet laughed hysterically — it cannot be a Bhanbaby about during elections, and steering clear of to ter words as a snub to is thesad BJP,one director Madhur feelings too. We parents have mixed speak my from the heart.

I will not bend,” he asat the photographs we showed her. She was in- forever but it Anupam is also fun to Tusshar grow up;Kapoor, go to feelings prickly subjects and/or a commitment to one darkar, actors Kher, school-going histosures metoward when Iour call.own His colleagues who use trigued how schools were different through school and enjoy it without worrying party orat ideology.

Vivek Oberoi and others openly declaredabout their ries, whether remembered not. social media consciously only to tell us about theirorfawntheAmitabh ages andBachchan’s in differentchanging towns. She couldn’t what hasfor been leftand behind at home; your work We (perceived support Modi his party. ambiguous feelings be toward the ing also fanshave and films will hopefully inspired believe her father used topolitical go to school by is to grow and learn and adults take care or real)that proximity to various parties The emotionally charged 2014 will elections not- fact thatspirited our babies will who growhas up.opinions It becomes by this veteran, on tonga, byprompted cycle rick- of aand horse-pulled themselves. mainstream Bollywood by and manifest individuals overher themother decades withstanding, in our hanging them in the matters that matter andonisto not scared tolast air shaw, her aunt by a shared taxi, and that her large still keeps politics at arm’s length. Do lingering Open magazine to put him on its cover in 2010 hug watching them. After all,or thestanding purposeand of freedom of till exgrandmother and headline: her siblings to Father handthat ‘politics’ does not mean par- they with the caustic ‘A were Man driven With No keep inat mind go into theifschool gate. pression is lost we only speak when there is school by theirSalman father. Khan’s public appear- Fathers particularly usefuleverything for this process Convictions’. ties andare polls alone, it covers from nothing to be afraid of.

Other than normalising starthelping their children their nupur dhingra paiva is a clinical child psychologist ance with Narendra Modischool-going, in Ahmedabad in of cultural suppression andseparate gender from repression ing with storybooks even ahave vis- mothers. teaches at Ambedkar University, Delhi, is the anna mm vetticad is the author of Theand Adventures Not by dragging them away kicking who the early run-up topicture the 2014 electionsor would to communalism and the economy. it to athe school beforehand alsopraised helps. the Be and of two daughters of an Intrepid Film Critict@annavetticad screaming, of point course, allowing done trapeze artiste proud. Khan Optimists would outbut thatby more main- mother

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The wild party Kanha and Pench, both celebrated national parks in the heart of India, put up an incredible show of colours for the wildlife enthusiast

E

arly mornings can be deafeningly quiet. Anyone who has been to Kanha National Park, which is in its 60th year, will tell you so. I took in the silence around me as I waited for the gates to open at 6am. At first glance, all I could see was the mist veiling the trees like an overprotective parent. As the jeeps rolled into the forest, the guides advised the tourists to be both quiet and alert.

There were surprises at almost every turn, which made me feel like I was on a treasure hunt. Armed with heavy camera gear, I kept my eyes focused on the towering trees. The first sighting was that of a row of sleeping owlets perched in their nest on a massive tree.

One of them watched our movements with just one eye. It was an unusual sight — an entire family of nocturnal birds basking under the morning sun. Most visitors, according to

Early birds Thick fog greets tourists on the morning safari in Kanha

the guides, are greeted by a solitary owlet peeping curiously from the nest.

While it is common to spot peacocks and herds of deer, you haven’t quite earned your stripes as wildlife buff if you haven’t seen a tiger in Kanha. We followed a tiger’s call to find the big cat staring straight at us through the tall forest grass.

Pench National Park lies on the way to Nagpur from Kanha. The tiger is not quite the star attraction in Pench, which is not as densely forested as Kanha. It is home to ferocious jackals and critically endangered vultures. We were lucky to spot a pair of jackals chasing and hunting down their prey. We also spotted white-rumped vultures waiting to feed on a carcass. Very few can claim to have been this lucky at Pench, better known as Mowgli Land. kr deepak

On the prowl White-rumped vultures and a jackal c

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cclose in on a carcass in Pench

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saturday, march 28, 2015

Home sweet home A parliament of owlets enjoys some shut eye in Kanha

Fall in line Jeeps ready for a morning safari at Kanha

High yers Brahminy ducks in Kanha

Stars and stripes A pair of tigers in Kanha look for prey

Fight club Jackals in Pench in combat over a carcass

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No words barred

Question time A three-year-old is not always functioning at the peak of his/her capacities. Like all of us, they are sometimes (most times) younger than their chronological age and when tired, hungry, ill or scared regress to being the babies they are monica tiwari

First day at school

Spoken word events, which are theatrical shows and not listening booths, are gaining fans and practitioners across the country

I am: A chick, a d**k, a s**t, a mutt, a performance and the written word. One Nursery admissions are so fraught that we often overlook what happens once the child is in. dude, a prude, a b***h, a snitch, a d**e, would fail without the other. It can’t be just a type, a punk — No. People are not Poread out; at a challenges slam, you have tois feel it, feel theas the first weeks and months Acknowledging and addressing possible crucial, kemon, you can’t catch them all with effects,” adds Katyal. your Master Ball (whatever that means) for what in nursery form a blueprint the futurepoet mayMarch feelSmith like is The Chicago-based — From Kudi Namkeen by Rene Sharanya Verma

IA

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n January this year,the among pril in Delhi; daysthe areinnumerhot, the able YouTube sensations Kudi Namplump red flowers ofwas the silk-cotton keen tree by carpet Rene Sharanya the streetsVerma, and the20, wail-a second History Honours at ingyear of three-year-olds fillsstudent the air. On St Stephen’s College, Delhi. of Verma’s poem, Monday morning, thousands toddlers will posted online theday group Delhi Poetry Slam, start their veryby first of school. was a rebuttal to the ‘Honey culture’.

Nursery admissions haveSingh become so Within days the it had received thousands of fraught over last few years that as parents views and, at last count, been seen but nearly we have been forced, nothad by the system by 1.6 times. thelakh sheer absence of one, to focus on getting a Verma’s performance, whichonce was at slam place and not on what happens oura child conducted by theand group, is one we among is ‘in’. As parents educators are inmany dansuch andthe outspoken performancger ofwitty missing wood forpoetry the trees.

Our chiles that Capital’s dren dohave not peppered care whatthe nursery it is,cultural which calendar the last few years. AThese school it isover or where it is located. largespoken majorword performances, which are prospect judged by ity of them are just scared at the of spectators, have been gaining aninaudience leaving home, being with strangers an unfaacross from Pune tohaving Bengaluru.

Their apmiliar cities environment and to communipeal the fact thatmay theynot provide young cate lies withinadults who understand people a space to express what they are trying to say. themselves freely and lashchild’s out against perceived Each struggle will bewrongs. different. I reto 29. That’s the mostcrying common call“Eighteen my daughter’s classmate for age group slam events,” Akhil Katyal, months atatthe school gatesays while mine hada 29-year-old poetshe and translator, who and teaches luckily decided loved the teacher was English the Nadar University in Greater happy toatgo toShiv school after the first week of reNoida.

“The public is luctance.

Intradition that firstofweek, weperformance would return as old and as the city itself, with mushairas home playact our separation with and her such, slam events around stuffedbut toys.

A pink bear are was probably designated as her three years teacher andold. another bear was her ‘mumma’. A The performances andbear volubly tiny bear representedare her.visibly The tiny and anti-right wingwent and slam is a riveting mixand of mumma-bear to school together

popularly credited with starting poetry slams, back in 1984. “It’s a wonderful form of expres- Slammin’ it Rene Sharanya Verma (top) and sion and great at calling out hypocrisy; maybe Khamboi Singson at Delhi Poetry Slam this why itgoodbye aligns well with theMumma-bear younger gen- abandoned in a new place and not returning theniskissed at the gate. eration,” says Nicole a teacher at the would then say, “I willSumner, be right here waiting for bers ofHer thebeing Airplane Poetrythen Movement (APM) home. reassured depended on American School Delhi.

Sumner you under Embassy the tree.” The tinyin bear would go in- in whereover the aPune Poetry Slam—and APM myPune, reliability period of time of showhas been both gate witness and participant of slam to the school with the teacher bear.

My have become events. APM has also coning up when Iregular said I would. poetry events sincethis its inception.

Shethree is also an ducted events in Mumbai and Bengaluru. daughter wanted enacted on conenthusiastic ofmy theenormous art secutive daysproponent and then, to relief, Talk the talk In Delhi, slam events are now form andthat hasshe organised declared now felt workbetter about leav- Since so many common across in the fears arise fromcolleges not knowing, shops Delhi. “India already has be at the speaking to our ing meinbecause she knew I would citychildren and a favourite extra-curricas honestly as possian oral culture gateamazing when she came out. to draw ular activity.

“People are children interestble can help immensely.

Talking gives The performances from and here slam canalways be a hyA three-year-old is not functioning at the permission edto and liketheir itsworries. interactive bring up They are visibly and bridised form,” she says. the peakpopular of his/her capacities. framework.

We’rehow stilltofiguring may worry about use an volubly anti-right For in India, the exciteLike allmany of us, they are sometimes out how totoilet manage it will since so unfamiliar or who help wing and slam is a ment theyounger form offers istheir a ma(mostthat times) than many people want to perform,” them with their trousers or mix of performance jor draw. “We believe slams are chronological age and when says Ira Anwar, a 20-year-old whether they will be sleepingstuin Going nursery then andtothe written theatrical events not listentired, hungry, ill and or scared, redent of Ambedkar University, the school or that mumma /papa becomes about word.

Oneless would fail ing booths,” saysthe Aditi Angiras, gress to being babies theya Delhi, and them member of the will leave there.

Begroup clear learning more withoutand the other 26-year-old studentthen at Jamia are. Going PhD to nursery beMildly what Offensive Content. about you will say to “We her about negotiating the Millia Delhi, who set up comesIslamia, less about learning and still have regular events in cerwhen she asks, ‘Why do I have to separation from the group Bring Back the moreslam about negotiating the septain restaurants, but over the go to school?’

One cannot expect parents and home Poets. performances, aration “In fromour parents and home. year slam has grown alast three-year-old toreally not ask ‘why’;a there is nohave stifling of to content.

They may been a play- I tell my stu- lot as a movement.” it is part of their job-description. dents, should write poems you don’t want schoolyou before, in which case the Slam poetry, still testing thechilwaOnhowever, the otherishand, there are your mum and dad to read.”relaseparation from previous ters in India. dren As Anand still a very whosays, find“It’s it difficult to unextionships can be an added loss. Their fears restrained, press their fearsyoung in words movement and show themand in Free forreal all or complete fantasy but often they performance may be spaces are accepting.

There’swetno other ways, such as waking up at night, Shantanu Anand, a 22-year-old law student, can’t verbalise them.

Children, however, un- precedent andthrowing there’s atantrums, real romance about ting the bed, not eating. first got interested in slam afterexplain. watch- the derstand a lot more thanpoetry they can becomes popThe possibilities. list is endless,When sinceiteach child more is unique. ing a TED talk bymy American poet Rives.

Other ular, When I asked three-year-old daughter say in five yearsthe from now, that will beand the The parent is often best person to try spoken poetsof, like Keywas and Anis real what sheword was afraid sheSarah said she scared test for poetry make sense of whatslams.” the child is trying to comMojgani furthered hisand interest.

2013, to Anand that I would get lost never In return pick municate, if they can view the child’s behaarasu went onThis to become of the founder-memher up. implied one a connected fear of being sibi viour as an expression of emotion.

Q Q R R

BL

watch cover

saturday, march 28, 2015

FILM FATALE

Living out loud

them to see that there is a lot to be gained from an interest in the outside world. A significant amount of research suggests that a father’s involvement in their children’s lives has a positive impact on their adaptation to school as well as their interest in learning new things. When my husband became involved in the school-going process and started dressing our first-born and dropping her to school, his presence itself became an incentive for our daughter to stop whining about waking up early. His style was more playful than mine (which tended to be more fraught), yet firm, and it worked. When he praised her for being responsible for small things like washing her hands, finishing her glass of milk, dressing herself, tidying up or remembering her manners, I noticed that it had a greater reinforcing effect than when it came from me. It became more fun.

For my first-born, experiences shared exclusively with papa, like going to the park, activities that excluded me (and included an ice-cream), were a special favourite and these helped to initiate the process of moving away from me when her sister was born. Many firsttime school-goers may also simultaneously be in the process of gaining a sibling, which may make it doubly difficult to leave home and their mothers. It is bad enough to go to school without the added envy that mumma is being monopolised by a new, potential ‘replacement’ baby. Sharing parents with a new sibling is difficult at any age, even seven-year-olds who are school-going veterans may struggle when there is a new baby who gets to be at home, while they have to face the outside world of rules and homework, heat and dust.

Rishi Kapoor is taking social media by storm, commenting on contentious issues and refusing to be silenced by trolls, in a manner uncharacteristic of mainstream Bollywood

anna mm vetticad

“I

am angry. Why do you equate food with religion?? I am a beef eating Hindu. Does that mean I am less God fearing then a non eater? Think!!”

(sic) Such comments on Twitter are likely to raise a storm, irrespective of who the writer is. This one, however, drew anger and surprise in equal measure — anger from religious chauvinists and surprise from regular followers of Bollywood. Why surprise? Because the tweet came from @chintskap, the Twitter handle of senior Hindi film actor Rishi Kapoor aka Chintu to family and friends.

Bollywood-gazers are used to stars of masstargeted cinema playing it safe on political and social issues. Not so the feisty @chintskap, who unleashed a string of furious tweets on thea beef in Maharashtra, eliciting a storm Out in the cold Anxious parents queue up for hours outside schoolban to buy and submit nursery admission forms rv moorthy of abuse from the Hindutva brigade.

Typically, venom was directed at his female relatives, his looks, age and other aspects of his personal life. The less vituperative tweets prepared for repetition — as every parent of a questioned his commitment to Hinduism and young child knows, once is never enough. Sto- The adult version asked him to feed pork to Muslim guests, with ries that matter the most must be repeated It is rare for us as adults to recall our own early one lamenting the alleged “Christianisation” endlessly, without variation so that they can school-going experiences with fondness. Most sink in. The story of how everyone leaves of us focus on the good parts, on the one of Bollywood.

Kapoor is admittedly hurt but undeterred, a home and goes to school is of central emo- teacher we liked and the friends we eventually pleasant change from the tradition of stars re- tional import. made. We gritted our teeth and got through it, treating — online and offline — even before one might say. Does school have to be that Clear cut at Rishi Kapoor is admittedly hurt but won’t withdraw his comments on the beefto banactually india-forums home bigots attack. And while he may not be the Mumma way?

Is it not possible enjoy the first or only mainstream Bollywood heavy- Some children are unhappy about going to many years we spend in educational spaces? I becausehethey their mothweight to embrace contentious questions, he school development hadworry seen about in Gujarat, asked am suggesting thatfigures the early of stream Bollywood are experience speaking out er’s ‘what will mumma do atas home certainly remains a rarity. the feelings crowd if—they wished to see Modi PM, separation frombefore parents, first day, the first now than ever onthe potentially controtheir mothers may PM, feel weeks In earlier times, political and social discus- without said thatme?’ “the Leaving best man” should become and months in everyone nursery is may form versial themes, and not easily cow-a betrayal, especially she “the is lonely, or blueprint sions were mostly seen as the preserve of doc- like thata“God” would decideifwho best sad man” what Khanna, the future feel like — ed down. for Twinkle formay instance, has parental relationship is rife tension. umentary-makers and parallel film the is and that Modi should get whatwith destiny had an to be borne by notinternal budged wrench despite that the has name-calling in reour children practitioners, not their more mainstream, All planned for him.have an unspoken awareness suppressing — that not thinking sponse to heranxieties Twitter feed andis,newspaper codifficulties in thethere family commercial counterparts. The legendary Dev of That being said, hasand been a gradual lumn, whichabout Can’t we co-create a verhave it. covered a range of topics often responsible for it, Anand’s reported opposition to Indira Gand- they change in feel Bollywood in the past five years. from Modi tosion that includes the good? If menstruation. if they point experience hi’s Emergency of 1975-77 remained an uncom- especially One major turning came in 2010 when we understand thethough, fears, there It’s impossible not to note, that mother as fragile. ex- down to Shiv most of her colleagues mon episode for a long time. Over the decades, their Shah Rukh Khan refused Ittoisbow may be freedom to remain look forward prefer to silent Stories of ‘when papa difficulttoforapologise a child to beit has usually been assumed — by the media tremely Sena pressure for to new things without or, learning at best, ambivalent and inconand mumma first enjoy a about differentPakistani space if and public — that those who take positions on gin his toremark being about losing sistent.scared For instance, withinsomedays went to school’ are Where’s mommy? Each child’s struggle in nursery is different — while some holler for home, othersof wonder feel in they crucial issues have secret ambitions joining they cricketers theare IPL. betraying Another wa-a thing in theconfronting process. Learning is of bravely an influirresistible to children what the fuss is about v raju one in the 2014 process. political parties and/or standing for elections. loved tershed was Parliamenan emotional task and the ential news publication forpatits The less vituperative A seven-year-old startSome journalists and creative people have tary poll when I know Bollywood terns are early in ouryear, lives.Deesexism onsetTwitter last tweets questioned his Stories of ‘when papa mummabyfirst refusing to goDadlani, to schoolactors after suggested that artistes sullyand themselves ex- ed musician Vishal It isPadukone never easy on us parents to pika issued a statecommitment to went to school’ are irresistible to children. It having pressing their adherence to a party.

Jaaved apparently Jaaferi, Gulsettled Panagdown and let go ofonourher children.

Watching ment position and Hinduism and asked becomes interesting when throw to in in nursery.

It turned out that there Unlike more in Hollywood, where it you is routine others wore their support for were regu- them cry is extremely distressing for us. Ithat dissimultaneously announced him to feed pork to maasi, mamu, chaacha,oreven stories between parents openly involving identify yourself as Democrat Re- lar Aamfights Aadmi Party onhis their sleeve.and he felt he tinctly recall she my daughter’s day at nurswould say first nothing further Muslim guests grandparents and their early days inavoids school.reIt needed to takeyear, care aofgroup his mother.

Once this ery and me on publican, mainstream Bollywood In the same of standing and weeping under a the subject, even attending makes to school ‘normal’.

It was three hard was unearthed, it became easier to know what tree outside the school. vealinggoing its party affiliations.

Of India’s prominent citizens — including principal feltfilm the same The media group’s enough for my daughter to imagine say to him.

He’s backcommerat school now. biggest film industries — Hindi, Teluguthat andher Ta- to purveyors of hardcore need to come out and reassure me that awards function months later.my parents everfilm wentpersonalities to school, letalone alone picture A Bollywood firm and gentle clarity mil — Hindi have per- cial successes — can pub-go a long way child appearedMeanwhile to be doinginokay.

Luckily,Rishi my Mumbai, her grandparents helpaour childrenasking not feelthe guilty about gosistently achieved as theschool-going feat of evenfour-yearentering to lished statement electorate to daughter did not cheery see me and cry; she had enough Kapoor remains determined deolds.

She was highly by the differ- ing school.

Parents canInterpreting help by putting in- worries electoral politics or entertained repeatedly campaigning votetofor secular parties. thatitlether own being without having think spite theofinvective hurled attohim.

“I ent names of schools andyet laughed hysterically — to it the is sad cannot be a Bhanbaby about during elections, and steering clear of to ter words as a snub BJP,one director Madhur feelings too. We parents have mixed speak my from the heart.

I will not bend,” he asat the photographs we showed her. She was in- forever but it Anupam is also fun to Tusshar grow up; go to feelings prickly subjects and/or a commitment to one darkar, actors Kher, Kapoor, school-going histosures metoward when Iour call.own His colleagues who use trigued how schools were different through school and enjoy it without worrying party orat ideology.

Vivek Oberoi and others openly declaredabout their ries, whether consciously remembered not. social media only to tell us about theirorfawntheAmitabh ages andBachchan’s in differentchanging towns. She couldn’t what hasfor been leftand behind at home; your work We (perceived support Modi his party. ambiguous feelings be toward the ing also fans have and films will hopefully inspired believe her father used topolitical go to school by is to and learn and adults take care or real) that proximity to various parties Thegrow emotionally charged 2014 will elections not- fact thatspirited our babies will who growhas up.opinions It becomes by this veteran, on tonga, byprompted cycle rick- of aand horse-pulled themselves. mainstream Bollywood by and manifest individuals overher themother decades withstanding, in our hanging them in the matters that matter andon isto not scared tolast air shaw, her aunt by a shared taxi, and that her large still keeps politics at arm’s length. Do lingering Open magazine to put him on its cover in 2010 hug watching them. After all,or thestanding purposeand of freedom of till exgrandmother andheadline: her siblings to Father handthat ‘politics’ does not mean par- they with the caustic ‘A were Man driven With No keep inat mind go into theifschool gate. pression is lost we only speak when there is school by theirSalman father. Khan’s public appear- Fathers particularly usefuleverything for this process Convictions’. ties andare polls alone, it covers from nothing to be afraid of.

Other than normalising starthelping their children from their nupur dhingra paiva is a clinical child psychologist ance with Narendra Modischool-going, in Ahmedabad in of cultural suppression andseparate gender repression ing with storybooks even ahave vis- mothers. teaches at Ambedkar University, Delhi, is the anna mm vetticad is the author of Theand Adventures Not by dragging them away kicking who the early run-up to picture the 2014 elections or would to communalism and the economy. it to athe school beforehand alsopraised helps. the Be and of two Film daughters of an Intrepid Critict@annavetticad screaming, of point course, allowing done trapeze artiste proud. Khan Optimists would outbut thatby more main- mother

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CUB READS

Life’s like this Books for young readers that put a spin on a typical Bollywood plot and on issues of the day pseudo-feminist who feels powerful after applying kajal.

Through Normala’s story, we realise that many of our lives might not imitate YRF plots In choppy waters US but ‘normal’ lives can bePresident just as melodramatic, Barack funny and movie-like. Life’s likewith that.

Obama Israel’s

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STATES OF MATTER

Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu athangi Subramanian’s debut novel the White House story Dear Mrs Naidu is aatheartwarming in Washington, last centred around the Right to Education Act October (RTE). Never didactic, it reuters/kevin tells of 12-year-old Salamarque rojini, and her friends Amir and Deepti.

In August 2009, India became one of 135 countries in the world to provide free and compulsory education to children between the ages of six and 14 when the Parliament passed the RTE. Dear Mrs Naidu, shows how five years on, not much has changed on the ground. The government and schools struggle to implement a fundamental right. And that sometimes, all it takes is a handful of students to get the system working.

From June to September 2013, young Sarojini writes letters to her namesake Dr Sarojini documenting life in gained her neighbourahead of general elections to Israel’s parlia- Naidu, banks and a few others who unparalAt first, theinletters are just a school proment, Netanyahu resorted to ever more sor- hood. leled influence the Bush administration, ject.

Shecertain talks well-rehearsed about her bestlines friend Amir, did manoeuvres. laid out for publiher home in policy the coconut grove Just a day before the voting began in Israel, Amma, cly articulating the new directions.

Nebetween shopping malls the andpeace her Netanyahu tore up and very publicly tram- wedged tanyahu was advised to repudiate life takes a different Amir pled upon the frayed — but still vaguely intact school. process Soon, and stake Israel’s claim toturn. the entire of theirIsrael jhuggi-jhopdi — promise on which the US had sponsored a moves land ofout Palestine. suffered cluster a crisis into of na-a of flats. which He leaves their government two-decade long peace process with the Pales- block tional resolve, needed to be dispelled. theagenda”, posh private Greenhill school.

A tinians. As voting opened, he posted a mess- school “Israel’sfor new Netanyahu was urged Sarojini has atoclean hatchbreak a plan to reeiage on social media, darkly warning that distraught to assert, could “signal by… join her BFF the posh school or get him peace and security were at mortal risk, with ther establishing theatprinciple of pre-emption, help of a few friends — Deepti, the left-wing transporting Israel’s Arab minor- back. ratherWith thanthe retaliation alone”.

Indeed, Israela and sarcastic 13-year-old, ‘evil genius’ Viity “in droves” to polling booths in order to de- sullen was urged to rearrange the political geogramala the“in neighbourhood aunty galafeat his government. phy ofMadam, its region, cooperation with Turkey RTE —bySarojini manages to get and her Race baiting is common currency in Israeli ta andand Jordan, weakening, containing ending. politics, but this latest foray attracted adverse happy even rolling back Syria”.

Sarojini is a bit like Scout Finch and a bit like pecially inbecause the rain,itthey must fallheels in love.” comment came on the of a veIn the chessboard of regional geopolitics, plucky, that the 12-yearNormala takes the bus, tot- her namesake. ry Across publictown, spat with the too US adthisCurious was an and endeavour would a detective-fiction ing her grandfather umbrella, hair tied, sport- old is witty,necessarily ministration.

Palestinians, follow fan, a budding complex compulsive listicle-maker.

Subraing an old T-shirt.

Despite however, were delighted thather plainness, lawyer and aroute: “This effort (could) focus on paintSaddam a ‘just-and-beautifulstalker-hero 2 Varun is smitten.

He follows manian doesn’t the veil had No. been torn off the removing Hussein from TheAsperpetuation of the her around, throws a few both world’ofpicture fiction perpetuated overpickup two lines. power inlives Iraqof — the an economically important Ischaos in to the region weakerissections.

Her characters areinreal; the stalker-heroes decide toIsrael jump decades, indemnifying asoff a bridge raeli strategic objective its own today Israel’s sole aunty is soof hilariously prove their love, Nirmala it relentlessly pursued itscries coloright — asgalata a means foiling Syassurance of security ria’s told that you will be transportfor hersproject. while Normala moves nialist regional ambitions”. ed to loyalists a colony in fullthe of US aunties onNetanyahu’s to hero No. 3effrontery Roobesh now KuIsrael read and gossiping.

The mar.

BollywoodmeansAfter thatmore western governthebickering circumstances then as just author on in casteand type plot twists, involve ments will havewhich no cover for right for alldwells elements the geosSubramanian’s class-based evoking My Name is Khan, their moral cowardice in an the characters are real; the trategic plan todiscrimination fall in place. Inand the attitudes of officials with wisunderworld accidents face of Israel’sDon, prolonged defiance of aunty law and event, it took the second Palestinian uprising galata is so and humour. and hospitals, NirmalaIsrael and has hilariously decency.

As insurance, added the toldfor freedom 2000, the arrival of the faiththat you indom She also tells us anand imporNormala true fundamentalism love. threat of find Islamic as be a new based to Bush in 2001, the will transported a administration tant lesson — how we Thefactor authors’ story has a wascare to its armoury.

It leaves unsaid on US soil later little that year colonythe full ofSeptember aunties 11 attacks know about the provisions of fer-thin plot; that there’s evident truth thenothing IS originatedbickering in its stra-and for first steps towards the grand plan. gossiping the RTE on, Act,the that law deep is alin the ambitions, story you haven’t seenas self-fulfilling tegic in part A decade-and-a-half USthe is sunk ways onremorse. our (children’s) In before (in a in YRFother film). But prophecy, parttheas unintended in a state of buyer’s But theside. rightfour months, Sarojini forms dialogue is crackling, the huconsequence. wing, which thrives on public amnesia, is fara School Development mour and in thesome sense, rep- from admitting Theself-deprecating scenario today may, it, as it rolls over in Managefawning talks to Block Education Ofillustrations, comical.enactment For instance, Nor- ment resent the practical ofwhen the blueloyaltyCommittee, to Israeli demands for more commitbudget and raises to mala with roommate Aditi, ficers, print discusses sketched Roobesh for Netanyahu in 1996, when ments prepares of blooda and treasure.

The funds perpetuherchaos school. she saysassumed cattily, “(He likes) Paris je t’aime. he first Israel’s premiership.

OnlyBut in- repair ation of in the region is today Israel’s While Dear Mrs is aAnd fictitious account he said Paris, notthe Pari.” to its fifth year, peace process was already sole assurance of Naidu security. for the rightAmbedkar School in Bengaluru, like Kate The twins’ travails told consecutively; embattled.

It was just are the appropriate time, a of wing in the US, a permanent war economy Misfits, it resembles life. Half Nirmala’s larger-than-life stories juxtaposed group of US strategic zealots urged, for “a Darnton’s promises The deliverance from thereal economic decade later, it is sad to during see thatthe we Bush have with cleanNormala’s break”. funny everyday encounters. In atrain-wreck it engineered Greenhill schools and not enough SarotheAsuperb illustrations, Normala a sarcasClean Break: A New Strategy forhas Securing the more administration. tic mouth and Nirmala has dreamy eyes.Perle The jinis, Deeptis and Vimala Madams.

Realm, a document authored

by Richard former is thefrom quintessential bahu —including cooking sukumar muralidharan is a fellow at the Indian with inputs a study group kotamraju Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla up a storm in olive the latterCharles is a typical Douglas Feith, Davidoil; Wurmser, Fair- priyanka

War and Peace

Ties turn frosty as Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu tweaks President Obama’s strategic goals in alliance with right-wing extremists in the US Congress

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nder fire from the Republican rightwing for allegedly slacking off on sukumar the war on terror, US President Bamuralidharan rack Obama recently offered a retrospect on the rise of the Islamic State (IS). The IS today is the security threat that every government claims to be on guard against — with the exception of its covert but generous sponsors in the Gulf — “is a direct outgrowth of alQaeda in Iraq which grew out of our invasion”.

This was an example of “unintended consequences” and only meant that “we should generally aim before we shoot”.

Twins apart Nirmala & Normala is finally all about finding loveA certain disdain for the Republican majority in the US Congress was implied but obvious. So was the pushback against the political hat one of Bollywood’s fastunt engineered byisthe congressional leadermovie plots?

Think ship, which hadvourite days before hosted a speech aur Shyam, SeetaNetanyaaur Geeby Israel’s PrimeRam Minister Benjamin ta, Chaalbaaz... separathu to rubbish Obama’s effort toTwins negotiate an ed birth; onesupposed grows upnuclear rich andambitions. cultured, endatto Iran’s and theseveral other poor but street smart.

Amidst standing ovations fromSowmya his loyRajendran Niveditha Subramaniam’s hial flock, theand Israeli premier made the point larious novel is afrom retelling of the clas-a that no graphic good could come dialogue with sic Bollywood yet it is also regime steepedtale, in theological evil.a universal story of was the geeky With a blurb Here a mangirl-next-door. lusting for war, even if it that reads ‘Why first isn’tand life taking like theaim movies?

For meant shooting later. And that why aren’tJohn movies like your life’, as USmatter, Secretary of State Kerry recalled just Nirmala and Nirmala is the story had of twins ahead ofand the Normala speech, Netanyahu as a seppriNormala arated at birth.

Nirmala is adopted by famous vate citizen, in 2002, cheered on the Bush adSowmya Rajendran and Niveditha movie directorintent GVM (he doesn’t remember his ministration’s to wage war on Iraq with Subramaniam full anymore) andmiraculous Normala is raised rosy name prognoses of all the transforPenguin ‘normally’ by nuns.

Nirmala blossoms into a mations it would herald. ₹299 charming, sensitive empty-headed beauAppearing before and a Congress committee, ty — perfect movie star materialthat likeIraq Hema Ma-a Netanyahu then pronounced was lini Sridevi.

Normala growschoice”. into an “goodand choice”, indeed the “right It awkward armedofwith insecurities and was not aadult, question whether, but when sarcasm just like the Tina Mindy “Iraq’s regime should be Feys takenand out”.

The Kalimings of ourreverberations imperfect world. mediate would be felt in Like all Bollywood plots,“young Nirmala and Norneighbouring Iran, where people and mala’s story is(would) really about finding love.

Onre-a many others say the time of such rainy Nirmala goesisto college in a cotton gimes,day, of such despots gone”. sari, her hair loose, sans umbrella.

She helps Netanyahu’s most recent expedition intoa beggar womanchambers cross the road, kisseslittle a blind congressional won him apschoolboy, and stops traffic with her beauty plause at home, with powerful figures in the Dear Mrs. Naidu and kindness.

Stalker-hero Rahul him falls in security establishment berating forlove inMathangi on the spot.

As the narrator puts it, “Itinto wasIs-a jecting a bitter sense of partisanship Subramanian truth universally acknowledged that if a rael’s one indispensable relationship.

Clearly Young Zubaan ₹295 young woman young man, esthwarted in hiscollided effort towith gainapolitical capital

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Ground control The furore over the Land Acquisition Bill compels a look at how the history of a town was shaped by those who owned, granted and ceded land

shutterstock

In our hands

This land is my land The controversy over the land bill ignores the history and legends of our soil pti/shahbaz khan

What is the role of English speakers in India, if not of dismantling hegemony rather than ith the Land Acquisition Bill in scene. Legends place him from the 11th centu- shi Premchand, Raghupati Sahai (better beatingParliament our breasts self-loathing? and theinOpposiry to the 13th century, legends also state that a known as Firaq Gorakhpuri) and Majnun Go-

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tion parties marching the grant of land was made by the Delhi Sultanate rakhpuri are proud examples. streets, we all seem to have an that led to the foundation of the temple that Before the rise of illustrious authors and poopinion on land, how much it should cost, ast week, the Indian-British writer givesguage Gorakhpur its name. dominates others by dint of force, ets came theBhagat British.

In 1801, the Nawab of that Chetan is the only kind of writer what use it is,Aatish and what should or should not Taseer bemoaned the ‘ruinous’ It when was aitcommon among is cast firstpractice and foremost as arulers language Awadh, Asaf-ud-Daula, signed over“India, these lands Indian circumstances allow. when left be done with the pesky farmerslanguage or tribals,on Inimpact oflittle the English wishing to enlargeand theirmonetary prestige beyond their of commerce prospects, then it to thetoBritish, used these first to agrow its ownwho devices, throws up... manopisuch as or whoever is dian sitting on all this Stepping literature, inland. the New York Times. territory land to holymen. land of dies,to bygrant the very same token, as aThe language um for their Bhagat, Chinese who... buyers,writes and then indigo Chetan books of such back This may much-read not really be an is option politic- for essay worthfor analysing, for the Amritsar’sThat Golden Temple, Harmandar expression. is why English in India, while to sell to literary the world.

It was anthat easy con- and poor quality.”

It isnot true Bhagat ians or butbad it might for the rest to Sahib, itsjournalists, extraordinary faithbe — the abettor a a wonderful was reputedly tojob Guru Ram is ticketgranted to passing interviews, quest.

There were the forest-dwelling Banjaras his emulators have found the largest readerof us.crime In digging up the of my is lending his history sympathies to homethe victim.

Das, the fourth Sikh themore Mughal a graveyard for Guru, poets.by The our emEnglishwho ship resisted, and then, a series of of a in India.

But tofrom make1806, the possession town, Gorakhpur, perched north-eastIt is true that Englishon in the India is a marker of perorspeaking Akbar himself. community hugs its power to its skirmishes that led toathe Anglo-Nepalese warexistlarge readership sine qua non of one’s ern corner of Uttar and, Pradesh, I was it struck by to Akbar, class privilege moreover, has come orthe at least Mughal heart, less itthe knows of the soul inside, and ence as of 1814-16.isNo hadagain, the dust a writer to sooner reveal, yet a babyhow be much revolved around land ownerseenofasit indispensable to upward mobility empire, direct effectof it. This has been a ish attachment the also less ithad canabear to hear settled from these India wars throws than up to success. ship — wasof given and howTaseer its ownership inhow any itfield work.

This, rightly mainin expanding thefor contours of writers in English, many writers harsh reality all Indian came the great 1857 Uprising, in English, including an in Aatish was either or contested. tains, accepted is devastating.

It condemns whole Gorakhpur.

It was, atcritics that time, and publishers, and editors too. It is a Taseer, whose whichnatural Mohammad Hassan readership, whileof much Akbar, or at least the Theswathes history of Gorakhpur goestofurther back linyoung people a crippling the outer edgesmatter of empire, different thatheavrather than accepting smaller Jaunpur oustedisthe British from they than Bhagat’s, as real — should Mughal empire, also than guistic the known history landofownership — ily wooded limbo, robs of them their vernacular and revenue-poor. the suffering that must follow Gorakhpur the support care toand, paywith it heed. had a direct effect in or at fluency, least any recorded history of it. We knowthem and (most cruelly) makes The Mughal from it, emperor too manyinstituted have chosen to of Bandhu Singh, a captain Raja Taseer, however, is of only repreexpanding the that the last Jain attained ashamed of Tirthankara their parents.

I live innirvana Versova, the a policy that dodge it. those who could Sattasi, governed a sentative of Gorakhpur a general as malaise. contours of here,heart past of theMumbai’s Ghaghra‘indie’ river, film past industry, the Rapti. where clear the forests be entitAnd withwould what disingenuousfree dominion in the name ofpublishBaOur English-language Gorakhpur English, in India, hadurers The Buddha came to here to writers, breathefull his of last, as exit is common meet innate led toness! claim the land for themObserve Taseer’s response Shah Zafar.

Thehave British had and critics a similarly while a wonderfultheir hard well he shouldflair, have,who since this is the land that pressive come from homes where selves. way“We hardy to In thisthis reality. weresouls forced inrevenge, for almost Hence a timeand concentrating. ticket to passing job brought forth his spoken mother.but Thewho, ground is had so EnEnglish is not having set out to carve their little nichstead to make a roundabout year the great tree near the Jama for their sudden enthusiasms interviews, is a Masjidtranslated rich glish with thrust artefacts people them uponthat them, are nofind longer masters es atjourney the far back reaches of settled to India.

We could was used to hang ‘rebels’, fiction, for non-ficgraveyard poets whileofploughing their fields. These do not tell lands.write any language.

It about remained a volatile boundary our country, but we and for their lands given away.

Naturally it waswrittion over fiction, for foreign us too much about land ownership patternsstrucAnd this is sad.

It tells of a hegemonic though.

Thehad Gorkhas deriving always to keep—analso eye out for their here, or next to here, thatbut Gandingin—Champaran for anything Indian though, orBut social interactions. ture. what, perceiving this, is the role of namewhat fromworked Gorakhnath — claimed in the West.” the By territo- hi launched his satyagraha 1917. And was they writing inin English, theitland Oldthose Communists mention the myself, gana sangha writers like Taseer and for whom ry too, and ifcompulsion a person werewas to flee imperial dis- here that the Parliamentarian what Taseer Shibban Lal Saxhave been given to till. system, in which patches of land com- the English has always been a firstwere language, pleasure in India, orhe shehave hadto only to get past ena of the Kisan Mazdoor ‘forced’?

Whyhe did look rosethe in heIn the Praja fightParty against munally owned.

But hearts? there isDo nowe real way of the Ghagra. language of our have a responGhagrapaar meant of youcourse, were inisanto the West?

The answer, for the famegemony to demand land to the language tiller. of the English in India, it is knowing how much dismantling of the Mauryan sibility towards the Empire hegemony? othersake jurisdiction. hunt down rebels from of name,To fame and money.

In other Allour these storiesliterary come out of the ownership English community that has the was gana sangha land. were other formslords, Certainly.

And in There what spirit?

As feudal Jaunpur, Moazzam Shah, the son Aurangwords, it is unthinkable for of Taseer that he of, and disputes land. greatest roleover to play.

It They is weare whoour canhistore-create of land ownership such with as the sita lands,makbeating our breasts self-loathing, zeb, came to Gorakhpur, ‘hunt’, should actually loseostensibly the clouton of ahis class. He ry, who we are, we language, understand English as aand truehow Indian notourmerely which state-owned worked by dolingwere a grand confessionand of guilt, at soon many but with suchsideways a large army a true new public, part of do selves. can look at histhat own a a blunt And tool whileof the politics And of the commerce. onlyLand thus, by hiredlars labour or leased a word?

This isout. both a case of bad faith and the town was created, called disservice to his art, but Moazzamabad. he cannot possibly Acquisition Bill will keep uslove, arguing addressing itself with willfor oursome EnglishA thousand years later, and we on some- For intellectual dishonesty (or are ineptitude).

Grants of ‘maddad i ma’ash’, or ‘help to the and peo-traustruggle his way through a fledgling timespeaking yet, it might be usefuldiscover to recall that that is The community its identity. whatthe firmer ground, though it is still largely Indian writer in English is far from forple’, were made in thelandscape, form of tax-free land matised literary and get histo hands not the whole story. trappings of power will be loosened, not with sourced from legend He andormyth. timea victune’s favourite. she isAt asthis directly the great the good,it.which, decades dirtyand in building No, hemany prefers instead to false shows of guilt, but with works of love. tOmairTAhmad the great Nath Gorakhnath, enters tim of theguru, hegemony of English, as the anyone later,weep created literary culture of which Munfor ahis clean fingernails — in the pages of aditya sudarshan is the author of The Persecution else in the country. the New York Times.

A moment’s thought will tell us: when a lanAlso disingenuous is Taseer’s assertion that of Madhav Tripathi

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

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Tricoloured diversity Each story in A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces gives a sense and flavour of its rootedness, which no book of history or anthropology could b jothi ramalingam

Many Indias Kindling the biomass flame Cooking made easy Biomass stoves manufactured by Greenway have a patent-pending air induction mechanism to ensure complete combustion courtesy greenway

A collection of short stories that is as varied in theme and treatment, as the country

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ndian literature and the short story are literary terms that are highly contested, theorised and yet have shifty definitions.

A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces, edited by David Davidar, is an attempt to bring both these literary terms into the lexicon of modern reading. A collection of 39 stories, this book endeavours to chronicle and curate an introduction to the modern Indian short story practice.uring the recession in 2008, NashikThe anthology begins with a story

by Swami Rabinbased metal fabrication firm dranath Tagore andEnterprises ends with one

by Kanishk Samarth found itself in Tharoor — the thereby charting Its the entire doldrums. order course book of the modern short story tradition in shrank with its Indian revenues, down from ₹50 lakh its temporal In the fairlywas extensive ina month to ₹3reality. lakh. Just as hope dying out troduction, explains the process of for the firm, Davidar a customer approached the ownshortlisting 39 stories from thefor larger er, Soumitra these Kulkarni, with an order 100 oeuvre of the IndianHe writing coal-based stoves. paidtradition. an advance of He talks about thecome challenges curating ₹10,000, but didn’t back toofcollect the the contents ofstoves. this ‘clutch’, including probmanufactured lems of claiming stories from the oral tohim the Weeks later, when Kulkarni tracked written form, issuessaid of he translation and the down, the customer was not interested loss therein, stories, in buying the re-translation product as he of hadsome changed his choosing what Due to include andpoor whatdesign to discard. field of work. to their and The is a primary component of lack introduction of safety features, the stoves had to be the book, before one begins make sense of scrapped.

The painful episodetohowever ended the stories Kulkarni and whathis theynext are trying to say. up giving big idea amidst has industrial carefully picked those theDavidar dwindling demand — theIndian manstories have stayed withforhim through ufacturethat of biomass stoves households years of reading. that were wasting fuel and time cooking on Thechulhas. collection includes popular heavymud weights like RK Sadat Hasan Manto, Obviously hisNarayan, customer didn’t realise the Khushwant Singh, the controversial potential inherent in the stoves heIsmat had Chughtai, Pritam, the budding Kanscrapped. “IAmrita took his permission and invested ishk Tharoor, and the other writers suchlooking as Shashi in R&D to refine stoves.

I was to Tharoor, Upmanyu Chatterjee Githa Harimake and sell products that and could bring in haran.

This book coversBiomass a wide range of fit literarevenues immediately. stoves the ry writing and themes. bill,” says Kulkarni.

While anduseVaikom Muhammad BiomassTagore’s stoves too wood, charcoal, aniBasheer’s upon supernatural exmal dung stories or croptouch residue as fuel, but are scienperiences, Premchand, Gopinath tifically designed to reduce smoke byMohanty up to 70 and Annafuel Bhau Sathe give povper cent, use by 60 pera glimpse cent andinto cooking

erty. UR Ananthamurthy, Vijaydan Detha and with issues of poverty and religion, also tell of Mahasweta Devi speak of the rural, tribal and the starkness between the haves and haveindigenous experience through their stories. nots. Mahasweta Devi’s ‘Draupadi’ compliAt the same time, Amrita Pritam and Nisha Da cates this struggle by introducing the gender Cunha talk of infidelity. factor into a battle between tribes and the adSimultaneously, stories of Ismat Chughtai ministration. Hari Shankar Parsai’s ‘Inspector and Amrita Narayanan give an insight into ho- Matadeen on the Moon’ satirises the political mosexuality and explore women’s sexuality. and administrative system and launches a Stories like that of Vikram Chandra and Tha- scathing attack on corrupt governance in a fickazhi Sivasankara detail the craft writ- tional time by half. MostPillai importantly, they of reduce worldeventually, through the introduction of ponot succeed it helped them uncoving reveal the delight in expanding an lice the and indoor air pollution caused by cooking reforms on the moon. stoves and they set er the potential in biomass experience into words. fire, which causes over a million deaths glob- upThe book is Appliances, sensitive to the pulse of realism Greenway which operates the The anthology includes stories that have and, ally each year. at thelargest same time, it offers moments of incountry’s biomass cookstove manufacbeen fromKulkarni numerous By translated May that year, was ready with turing plant in trospection, romance and nosVadodara, Gujarat.

Indian languages, including Ma- which sold about 5,000 biomass cookstoves, Just like India, the book The stovestalgia. manufactured

by Greenway, layalam, Urdu, and Ma-Having found Prakti and Kulkarni’s out over the nextOriya four months. too is eclectic, andare wideSwamivaried Samarth not rathi apartKulkarni from, continued of course,to invest in re- only portableranging. his calling, Each of the stories is a and easy to use, they are also stories written into English. fining the stoves make them more fuel-effirepresentation of anand Indian realsuited utensils cooking Inclusions of for traditional However, inclusions of literacient, smokeless and eco-friendly. ity. Therefore, there are many methods. to the 2011 Census, overIn61 literature from the According ture from the north-east region, Miles away in Auroville, the City of Dawn per dias households created in the — each cent of rural usebook firewood as north-east region, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal near Puducherry, a group of enone unique different from fuel,and leading to deforesJammu and Kashmir, cooking Pradesh, and Gujarat would gineers, Goa designers, a physicist the others. storyproblems gives a tation as wellEach as health Himachal Pradesh, have the anthology more and made marketing professionals sense and flavour of its rootedfor women and children.

Goa and Gujarat comprehensive.

Nevertheless, spend days refining the design ness, which no book of history ora “The difference between would have made the Cooks from local with its wideofarray of themes and efficiency biomass stoves. anthropology could. modern biomass stove and a traanthology more villages prepare lunch and the ability capture the “We also have ontostaff full-time The stories the ditional chulha isencourage in the design, thorough using our stove universal struggles within — India, cooks from local villages the reader to explore the authors engineering, and material.

The prototypes and help the collection serves as experts. a guide absolute stove-design and writings from optimal their respecpurpose is to allow comus refine them to Indian Every day,consciousness. they prepare lunch ustive regions.

Foremission), example, miniafter bustion (reduce with supernatingWhile our dealing stove prototypes and reading Oriya story in the mal fuel the consumption (efficient ural experiences in Tagore’s ‘The Hunger of book, a reader help us refine them,” says Mouhwilltransfer), be tempted to read other heat faster cooking, Stones’ andfounder Basheer’s ‘The DeBlue Light’, the Oriya writers,and sine Serrar, of Prakti suchdurability as Tapan Kumar Pradhan’s at minimal cost reader how supplier susceptible we can stoves be to award-winning signs — learns the largest of biomass Kalahandi. without compromising usability and cultural hearsay and rumours.

In Anita Desai’s ‘Games preferences,” to the UN World Food Programme.

A Clutch of says Indian Masterpieces prises open Serrar. at As Twilight’, nostalgia gently runs through for Neha Juneja and Ankit Mathur, a dif-a theSome entire a reader interested in Indiofworld thesefor companies have secured patreader’s mind.

Similarly, is antoache and an ferent kind of smoke trailthere led them biomass writing.

It gives a snapshot into and the various ents for their cookstove design others longing for After the old world in from Sundara cookstoves. graduating the RamasFaculty worlds India inhabits within it andstoves encouraghave applied for them.

Greenway prowamy’s ‘Reflowering’ andin theDelhi romanticisation of Management Studies and IIM-Ah- es readers to read more. Davidar’s painstaking vide complete combustion by deploying a patof a simple tribal life in Bond’s into ‘The curation medabad, respectively, theRuskin duo ventured has the defining India’s ent-pending air potential inductionofmechanism.

The Blue Umbrella’. energy finance, which led them to undertake literary canon. air-fuel ratio ensures good combustion unlike Premchand’s Shroud’ and Anna Bhau solar, hydro and‘The biomass energy projects in in mud stoves, which demand the use of ventiis a don’t freelance writer based in Delhi Sathe’s ‘GoldAlthough from thethe Grave’, while dealing rural areas. finance venture did shubhrastha lating pipes and burn efficiently.

New-age companies across the country are investing in scientifically designed stoves that reduce smoke, save fuel and cut cooking time

A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces Extraordinary Short Stories from the 19th Century to the Present Edited by David Davidar Aleph Fiction ₹695

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Burning ambition Agneeka biomass cookstoves are available in the premium (top) and eco versions; (right) the manufacturing unit of Greenway Appliances in Vadodara, Gujarat Speed dating An aerial view of Silverstone circuit during Grand Prix shows the number of camps set up by enthusiasts shutterstock

Mind over motor

Raghunath Funde, a farmer in Bela village of Maharashtra’s Bhandara district, says the biggest advantage in using the Greenway stove is that his wife and mother don’t have to sit beside it to adjust the wood or blow air.

“The wood is fully burnt, there is no smoke and the cooking time is much less. My mother’s health is now improving. She earlier had a lot of respiratory problems,” he says. After using the biomass stove for about seven months, he has recommended it to his Wyaaaow! friends andAnd exip! Vroom! Brrrrrm! tended family.

The stoves the ride was over.are Mypriced nervesbetween were all ₹1,100 and ₹1,500.

Greenway’s stove for over the place, not toSmart mention every homes israttling priced ₹1,499 andthrill the Jumbo bone. The of beingstove takfor commercial is pricedof₹2,499.

Agneeka, en for a ride onuse a section the Silverstone Swami Samarth’s cookstove is priced race track by a young, restlessbrand, champion — the tall, dark, handsome Miguel from Portugal — quite simply dissipated within the first few seconds as his manoeuvres tossed me from side to side and it was all I could do to remain in the passenger seat.

At the end of the ride, I tumbled drunkenly out of the GT-R, alone in my misery. After all I was the only ‘elderly female number’ caught up in an energy field of surging adrenaline, youthful testosterone and the need for speed.

We were at Silverstone, the hallowed motor racing circuit in the UK, to witness the selection of the person who would be part of Nissan and GT Academy’s driver development programme. The five finalists were from Mexico, West Asia, Australia, Thailand and India; on the sidelines of their high action, we journalists were engaged in hijinks of our own.

The battering we received in the buggy race earlier in the day had been bad enough. Imagine squeezing yourself into a red racing suit meant for long legs, lean hips and no waist.

Once inside the buggy, the only racing I experienced were the thoughts inside my head going how-the-hell-am-I-ever-going-to-get-outof-this-suit? Who cared about being passed again and again by a fellow competitor as we went furiously round a dirt track at the press of thumb on accelerator?

Unable to throw my leg over the side of the buggy at the end of the race, I had been uncerSoumitra Kulkarni, proprietor of Swami Samarth Enterprises emoniously hauled out by a not-very-sympa-

similarly and offers discounts of up to ₹400 to stallments. There are also tie-ups with needy families. microfinance institutions to take the stoves to The sales have increased steadily. Prakti has families in rural as well as urban areas. sold 15,000 household stoves and nearly 900 Greenway has additionally tapped small reinstitutional stoves (that can cook for up to tail outlets in the central market at the taluka 500 people per meal) in the last two years. Ju- level, which customers visit at least twice a neja and Mathur began with selling 100 stoves month. Prakti’s Serrar is stocking the products in the first month. Today, they sell 40,000 at all outlets where solar lights are sold to vilunits every month and their factory can man- lages. He is also relying on sales tie-ups with ufacture eight lakh units annually. distributors specialising in rural areas, includ“Given the market the valuea proposi“We have prodthetic passerby, butsize, thankfully kinder ing son Dharma and logicLife. could click in realised place onthat a straight tion of thehelped product is very strong,” Juneja. uct development forbend a lot bend of effort and colleague separate me fromsays my second stretch, a chicanecalls (bend to slow Serrar hasisbeen requires of skills. skin.

Andsays that Prakti was that, whatconstantly I thought. im- distribution you down) was upon ausdifferent and theset grass beckprovising its stoves over the last few years. “We getagain. optimal synergy by separating product It actually got worse.

Miguel’s routine was We oned Still, by the time the kittens in my are on track to release new development and itdistribution,” followed up by a Shanea Watson lookalike tummy had stopped mewling, was time to stove every year with says. armedversion with a list of our names and, through a pull into thehepit — sadly, because by now I better performance andhaze, 30 per The appeal of biomass stoves is soporific post-prandial I discovered he quite fancied myself. cent cost reduction,” hehelmeted says. unsurprisingly limited to for ruwas ordering me to get and get into The next treat was the GT-Rnot NISMO (short Greenway sells 40,000 A majorGT-R. challenge for all of beast! It was Nissan Motorral households.

It is equally a parked Me! Drive that Sports) — the sports model.popNo stoves every month them liesWell, in reaching out toscared the cats in my cats calling this ulartime, withonly many urban families raining. drizzling.

The adrenaline pumpand can manufacture end-users and convincing without an Aadhar or as bank stomach mewled in protestthem as I found myself ing and feeling the power in mycard arms we 8 lakh units annually to buy.strapped Kulkarni in says there is still account forskies.

LPG But subsidy.

Even being the driver’s seat. Left-hand nearly took off into the the cherry little about the availawithitan LPG connecdriveawareness — never done it before.

Automatic car — was the 370Zhouseholds NISMO. For one, had gears.

For bility of biomass andI tion are using the stove heat never done it before.stoves Of course another, I insisted on atorighttheir water in the(thanks winteragain months in didn’tbenefits. understand a single word hand drive to aorgalare not to switch over cooking to achieve a smoky flavour. A major the“People instructor was ready saying,yetand lant swap).

We explain the segment, however, from age-old mudof chulhas. are the not only because the accent.

For the firstinstitutional time, it felt users like I health biomass cookstoves — school canteens, ‘Go!’ hebenefits said andof offusing we went. was incaterers control.and Therestaurants. start was Through a soporific and then them. It will take Kulkarni his commercial biomass Now I’mtry the to 40 convert kmph variety, the gears shiftedstoves, easily, post-prandial haze I sellssmooth, time,” he says. above 50kg, only to the Pune-based the be-safe-not-sorry type, conthe acceleration was quickalterand discoveredeach he was Junejabeing agrees that on affordability isordering not as me native company First stantly bullied Indian the Energy. braking on the to getenergyeffortless, much as lack awareness is. This is and get Continuous R&D and is helping develop newer roads. an Butissue this was theofhome of helmeted chicanes controlled… into bends precisely why Prakti is roping in localacommuversions biomass — have double pot the prestigious British Grand it was heaven.stove I could driven parked GT-R. Me! of the nities and cooks the design of the stoves, to cookstoves, charcoal cookstoves, wood cooksPrix. Where Jimin Clark, Jackie the 370Z all the way back to ChenDrive that beast! enable identifyStirling with the product. toves, and institutional stoves varyingbut caStewart,them AlaintoProust, nai and not felt of anything “Our distributedand and assembled pacities — tohigh. reach“You out touched to more customers.

Moss, stoves Michaelare Schumacher about 200 through localhave partners. selling in some Africansaid. coun-I many others drivenAs tolocal glo- distribution Prakti is already kmph,” the instructor and marketing we transfer produc- tries and Nepal, besides India. ry. This was the mature, track where in couldn’t believe it. Greenway has tion to legendary the local F1 partners,” he says.

Prakti exporting toI Mexico — a1,500 units per 1991 the champ Ayrton Senna had started And even though still carry thumb injury stoves currently made at its Mansell factory afin month — and is now looking Africa and hitchedare a ride from Williams’ Nigel sustained when I spun right at offEast a drifting RaChennai, allowing continuous rapid protoAfrica. has seven warehouses ter his McLaren ranfor out of fuel on the final lap. South zor crazy cart,Itbullies on the city roadacross don’t typing to double the how number next Manselland hadmass beencustomisation. doing his victory lap when India botherand meexpects any more.

After all, many of the manufacturers are year. to make this heFor sawdistribution, Senna kind too, of hanging about looking them“We canwant say they drove atthe 200de-facto kmph stanon a banking onway innovation of cooking India,” Juneja.

Given to find his home. to reach out to a large dard prestigious GrandinPrix race says track?

Besides, I’m number of by people.

Greenway has partnered and efforts kindling it, this is Inspired these images, I pressed down on the still investment the queen who now sometimes touches with banks, including Canara Bankright and on Bank mission promises the accelerator and took the bend to one 60 kmph on that Chennai roads.to burn bright. of to finance the stoves.

Instead of took paytheIndia, smooth grass. Luckily the instructor sandhyapratap rao ing upfront, canBefore pay inreain- rashmi over₹1,499 and got the car customers back on track.

Adrenaline rush takes a new dimension at Silverstone motor racing circuit, home of the prestigious British Grand Prix

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WINDOW OR AISLE

Baggage drop Feeling lighter comes easy after a chance encounter with the spiritual

rishi piparaiya

True to their roots Vanaj, a small village of just 58 tribal houses, is all set to write a new chapter in Gujarat’s book of eco-tourism

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olo Forest ain’t got anything to do with polo. A popular weekend getaway for Amdavadis (residents of Ahmedabad), it has everything it takes to soothe frayed city nerves: the Aravallis, birdver since I havewildlife knownand, her, most almost song, a river, tall trees, im-a this dearzero neighbour has portantlydecade (fornow,some), mobile beenThe visiting some quaint little place connectivity. distance from Ahmedabad — close by. I would herattractive. often in the just 160km — makes it evensee more elevator, withaddition a smile on her face and aofspring The latest to Polo, as part Gujain hereco-tourism step, off on drive, yet another trip there.

“What rat’s is a new forest camp at Abhapur, complete with tourist huts. These are available for ₹500 (without AC) and ₹700 a night. The only other camp for Polo is at Vijaypur taluka, just eight kilometres from Abhapur, which is often overrun by noisy tourists on weekends.

Not far from Polo, also in the district of Sabarkantha, a village is scripting its role in Gujarat’s eco-tourism story. Blessed with a huge natural lake and hillocks, Vanaj could be the next weekend destination for Amdavadis.

Come April and tourists can expect comfortable beds and delicious local fare (read vegetarian Gujarati thalis) from the modest huts of the tribals who live in Vanaj. The village and its surrounding areas are particularly attractive during monsoon and winter.

Vanaj was almost unheard of till members of the National Council For Civil Liberties (NCCL), an Ahmedabad-based NGO, flagged its potential as a tourism destination in November 2014. A village with just 58 houses, Vanaj became the focus of a project named Rainbow Hills. “Given its natural beauty, Vanaj can be developed to look like Scotland,” says VK Saxena, founder of NCCL. As a pilot project, NCCL adopted and renovated 12 houses belonging to landless farmhands. An average of ₹1.75 lakh was spent to make each house tourist-ready. These houses already had electricity and water — some even had satellite television and refrigerators.

Cooking methods, however, hadn’t moved away from the use of firewood and cow dung cakes. Post-renovation, the kitchens continue to function as usual, except that exhaust pipes make them smoke-free. This has been brought about by the innovative design of Shivangi

Inner circle A chanting session is like a vacation for the soul shutterstock

is there to see? What do you do there?” I would started. A little murmur went around the ask her. “Come along someday. It looks like room and it quickly picked up pace. Faster and you could use a break anyway,” she would an- faster, the chanting grew until it was a lyrical swer. Over time, I found that some other crescendo. Someone thrust a little book in my friends had also been visiting. And while I hand and pointed to a stanza but I just hadn’t checked its TripAdvisor ratings, they all couldn’t keep up. The group chanted on in seemed fairly content with their experience. perfect rhythm. It wasn’t a song. It wasn’t a stoAfter a particularly gruelling stretch, I final- ry. It wasn’t poetry. It was just magical vibraly gave her a call. “When are you going to your tion from a dozen or more souls reverberating secret retreat next? I think I will come along through a room full of care. It was like horses this time.” “Sure, probably a few weekends galloping forcefully through the clouds. As if from now. Even if I don’t end up going, I will waves were ebbing and crashing into a cliff on make sure I organise a guide for you,” she said. a solitary island. An orchestra of angels tugMore better The government the tribals of Vanaj fortify their simpleheart mud houses with cement Theisday arrived — it waspersuaded a sunny Sundaygingto soulfully at one’s strings. Nam-Myosaxena and concrete.

Modern smoke-free other highlights shivangithe morning and I wastoilets ready.and I had packedkitchens heavy are the ho-Renge-Kyo chanted room and I sat there — a couple of bags and backpacks with my mind absorbed, eyes in— stuffed with many Saxena, alumnus of thethings CentreI for Environ- followed suit.voluntarily Getting theand 10 other families on inexplicably reprobablyPlanning didn’t need. rather University board was a breeze mental and But Technology won’t be actingafter to that. the Ittempo of long the be prepared than sorry, I figured, (CEPT), Ahmedabad.

Modern toilets have been before all houses in the village are renovated room. Nam-Myoho-Rengeand reached pick-up point fitted into thethe freshly painted houses, which under the the Rainbow Hills project.

Kyo. Nam-Myoho-RengeKyo. Faster and faster, with luggage in tow.

Mystructures. guide were mostly plain mud Cement grew The government to incentivise VaThe decided harmony reverberated chanting until was concrete waiting were thereused already; he and for renonaj residents by registering the long after the chanting had it was a lyrical was a generous and jolly-looking vation and the villagers trained houses homestays for then ecostopped.asA few individuals crescendo chap, visibly happy tohygienic see me, in keeping Vanaj clean, tourists under a experiences policy anshared personal we travelled the short disand plastic-free. nounced Ingroup. the pipeline with the last restyear. of the Some tance “Hey, so what all “Thetogether. aim of this scheme is to are card numbers and readAadhar from their phones and tabs, Come April and are we basic going amenities to do there?” provide to theI bank for the housesome accounts spoke impromptu.

There tourists can expect asked, unsure whether to betheir tentative or excit- were tribals, without disturbing owners.

Additionally, some nods, some laughs, NCCL some plans long comfortable beds and ed. “Aaah, traditions there will beand a couple trav- local lifestyle, sur- of other to construct kiosks the village pauses but noinjudgement. delicious fareof contemplation, ellers there. Just go with flow,” he smiled. roundings.

They are the being where tribals can sell tea, “Rishi, do you want the to say or ask anything?” from the modest huts We got building andin took of thethe elevatrained tointo rentaout one room homemade snacks at and packaged guide kindly. I looked the Buddha tribalsmy who live asked tor. I don’t knowand whose house it was in — IVanaj these neatlyeven repaired reconto tourists make a few exto my left, thefood unicorns to myto right, and all the just followed blindly.

We removed structed houses to those inter- our shoes Bodhisattvastra bucks.

Theand tariff for the around me, shook myhomehead. and went inside. A couple ested in eco-tourism...

This of willothers had al- And then it ended stays with is yetthe tonow be decided the familiarby chant ready checked in and were seated generate some income for on neatly ar- pulsating through government but theNam-Myohomoney, acthe room. rangedsays floorShivangi. mats in the living room. Many Renge-Kyo. Mycording them,” to the project heads, will introduction to Nichiren Buddwere what like aof scroll and IThe sat go Thefacing project has seemed had its share hiccups. to the hism hadfamilies drawnintoVanaj. a close. I followed my myself at the farthat end of the room and watched tribals feared their houses would be guide The out, renovation ofmy the firstgathered 12 houses, slipped on shoes, my with interest.

Paintings ofThe the Buddha launched ‘grabbed’ by the government. authorities in November last year, took almostI baggage and walked towards the elevator. adorned the serene cream walls. And I looked five found a friend in Katara Bachubhai Shankarbto complete.

“We — have set an exwas months feeling somewhat lighter I think I may up to see two Garasia crystal unicorns hai of Dungari tribe, alsogazing a driverdown with ample and now to rope in other NGOs have left a bag or plan two behind. kindly at the group from the ledge they were the Public Works Department.

Bachubhai led and corporate houses,” says Saxena. perched on. becoming the first in the village rishi piparaiya is the author of Aisle Be Damned by example, rishi@aislebedamned.com pandit quick round of introductions and then it virendra to Arenovate his house.

His brother Laljibhai

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Booming business of corporate espionage

My perfect aamras (Serves 4) Three ripe, plump Pairis Sugar to taste 2 tbsp milk

1 Wash the mangoes and roll them on the kitchen counter till the flesh starts to soften and yield. Then hold over a bowl and squeeze the pulp out. Continue till you’ve pushed out every drop.

2 Add milk and sugar to taste. Blend till the consistency is uniform.

3 Chill in the fridge for about an hour.

(Too long and it will start turning brown.)

4 Wolf down with hot puris or thin chapatis. Or pour over vanilla ice-cream. tionary, more predictable and transparent. ander resigned in the wake of the espionage But that doesn’t seem to have happened. To scandal. After Narain’s arrest, the government use the memorable phrase vinaya frombavdekar/shutterstock.com Reserve Bank ordered two French diplomats, including the of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, crony so- then ambassador, to return home. As in the recialism was replaced by crony capitalism, es- cent case where at least one official of the Depecially when it came to allocation and fence Ministry has been arrested, much of the pricing of natural resources. corporate spying in the country has related to The series of scandals relating to the farm- companies associated with military purchasing out of second-generation (2G) telecommu- es. This is again not surprising, given that denications spectrum, the opaque and arbitrary fence deals are extremely lucrative. allocation of coal blocks by so-called “steering In November 1998, a search-and-seizure raid committees”, and the controversies relating on V Balasubramaniam (or Balu), group presito extraction of natural gas from the Krishna- dent of the then undivided Reliance group, Godavari basin by a contracting company con- led to the recovery of secret documents introlled by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) cluding Cabinet notes. The police registered a are but three instances of how government first information report against him and two decision-making has been vitiated by crony- other senior Reliance executives, AN Sethuraism. It is, therefore, not surprising that corpo- man and Shankar Adawal (the latter was quesrate captains have felt it ‘important’ to utilise tioned by Delhi Police in the latest episode the services of spies to find out what’s going too). It was in April 2012, nearly 14 years later, on in North Block, Southinvolves Block, Udyog Bhavan these thali wonderlands careful strat- ri. thatAnd a court chargesLangra, against the executheframed late-season which is or Shastri that apparently egy.

Keep Bhavan, Saturdayamong dinnerother light.buildings Skip Sunday tives and passed an order, apnamed after aagainst lame which farmeranwho house powerful economic ministries and breakfast.

Land up well before 1 o’clock — govelse first peal harvested is pendingitbefore the Delhi High Court. near Varanasi. ernment departments. you’ll be clutching Token 114 and standing in a A number surveysyour by industry Once you’veofchosen mangoes,associmake A quick look waiting at the ministries from which snaking queue, for those insatiable To- them ationsinto anda consulting agencies indicate the pulp. Easy peasy, you might think. information and documents ken 43-walas to finish their meal.were pilfered Chop business trading in sensitive is andofpeel the fruit and tossinformation into the mixie tells you mango much of thebe story: Finance, Defence, While may the King of Fruit, aam- jar ‘booming’ India. fact,The this was precisely — but at in your ownIn peril. old way of makPetroleum Natural Gas, and Power. ras takes itand to another level.Coal Especially when ing the aamras language used ingently a report prepared in 2012 involves squeezing and rollis familiar.

Journalist Santanu theThe ras pattern is scooped up with crisp oily puris.

Per- ing

by PricewaterhouseCoopers. the mango till the flesh softens and starts Saikiait’s ranthe web portalsbetween on the petroleum, fer- to The haps contrast chilled ras and year,which a study themore Associated seepsame out. After youby press vigortilisers and Perhaps energy sectors, he was put hot puris. it’s thebefore combination of ously Chambers of Commerce and the Industry India and push the pulp into bowl.of Keep at behindand bars.

Among those arrested or quesgooey chewy.

At any rate, this pairing of it stated thatlast more than thirdhas of been the compatill the drop of ajuice transtioned by police are employees sun-kissed pulp and sinful staple makes for ferred from mango nies surveyed to bowl. across different of groups like Reliance, Essar, undeniable magic. some There are sectors purists were who involved like theirinaamras Cairn/Vedanta and Jubilant.

Still, you will probably protest, the aamras plain and lumpy. formIof espionage prefer it withtoagain littleadvansugar Those detained or accused in is basically squeezed and are squashed fruit. So and a dash of tage overblended competitors.

80 milk, into aNearly smooth The modus operandi the middle or bottom how tricky can it be? of the corper cent of the chief executives consistency.

Nothing else. Not of the spooks has porate in conglomerWell, hierarchy you’ve taken your first spoken to had used cardamom or were using the ginger powder, or changed with ates on headed by well-known step a path riddled with condetectivethat agencies surveilsaffron many and people mix. technological industrialistsOne likemisstep the Ambani troversies. and lancecertainly systemsnot to spy on current And ghee. advancements...Why siblings andof Anil, the you’ll be Mukesh the subject fulminaand former employees.

I’m tempted to rant at the ghee T his pairing of cart away bundles of Ruia brothers Shashi andEditor Ravi, tions in the Letters to the A 2014 annual riskExcept surveythat by and ginger crowd. sun-kissed paper when pulp thereand are Anil Agarwal and Shyam S Bharcolumn.

Or cruelly disowned by the Federation Chamthere’s a better of wayIndian to deal with sinful staple makes pen drives tia. As stated, it appears unlikely friends who usually send you a bers of Commerce and Industry disagreements.

Many for undeniable magic mango that the investigationsAlphonsos will go all box of tree-ripened calledago, business espionage the years my Bohra grandmoththe way up to these individuals. from their Alibaug farm every ninth to Indian er usedbiggest to hostthreat Ras Galas.

She Who remembers corposeason.

For when itthe comes to companies. stated that in spite would inviteItfive or six friends, israte spies of yesteryear?

Intheir 1986, Coomer Na- of widespread mangoes, everybody loses useinstructions of closed-circuit television sue to Karim the rain, of regional of SLM Maneklal cook, sense humourmanager and tolerance. cameras trackingher computer software, onandand summon daughters to do the Industries, charged with criminal con- pulping Anyway, ifwas it’s the perfect aamras you want, ly 15-20 per of corporate espionage cases andcent stirring.

Then when the grand spiracy andthe leaking important classified infor- day start with perfect ras mango.

But which is actually detected. arrived, the old biddies would play rummation agentswhere of foreign companies.

He myMinister one?

In atocountry the Mulgova vs Dushof State Commerce and Indusand sit down to afor looooong lunch. would bribe junior employees in the atomic eri vs Himsagar controversy rages every year, tryThere Nirmala hastypes goneofonaamras, record wereSitharaman four or five energynever and defence foraamras documents, we’re going toministries agree. Most reci- served stating:one “...We areanother, on the side keeping after and of eaten with procmuswhich he sold to or theAlphonso. highest ‘bidder’. em- lin-thin pes involve Kesar Which isHis hardly esses transparent and not on theand sideveggies which chapatis. Some bhajiyas ployer usedgiven to supply machinery to the to surprising thattextile Alphonso — the fleshy, will leadthe to palate corrupt practices.” clear between the courses of aamSoviet Union, andwhen Czechoslovakia; orange varietyBulgaria developed the Portu- ras.Time will telland whether this munched will indeed be My granny her friends their sourcebegan marineexperimenting equipment from and guese withPoland; grafting — way the case and whether corruptdiscussing nexus bethrough the fruitythe banquet, represent firms from France, Austria, has vanquished competitors the waySwitzerRambo each tweenaamras. politicians, bigwigs andtheir buThencorporate they toodled off for land, with Westirritants.

Germany and Japan that sold de- siestas. deals reaucrats thatseems has the spawned the spying Which most sensible way to fence and machinery fortoo nuclear But equipment the Alphonso is just too stolid, sweet enjoy industry will weaken. a delicacy that’s only around for about power and tooplants. obvious for aamras. Choose Pairi in- 100 days of the year.

OneItofhas Narain’s sources a personal stead. a complex and was piquant flavour,as-a paranjoy guha thakurta is a journalist and Gas Wars:isCrony Capitalism and of lead author of minwalla a journalist and author sistant consistency, to Dr PC Alexander, theperfect then Principal lighter and is the ras man- shabnam the Ambanis Six Spellmakers of Dorabji Street Secretary to fat, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Alex- The go.

As is the fresh, value-for-money Rajapu-

A quick look at the ministries from which information and documents were pilfered tells you much of the story: Finance, Defence, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Coal and Power

STREET, EAT, REPEAT

Getting mushy

Mango season brings many joys to the foodie, but few or none come close to the adulation enjoyed by honey-sweet aamras served with hot puris shabnam minwalla

jorgen mcleman/shutterstock

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t certainly seems like much ado over a smashed and squelched fruit. But don’t let aamras lovers ever hear you say that.

After all, in India the mango is not just a fruit. It’s an obsession, up there with sixers and big fat weddings. And just like the most nail-biting cricket match and zardozi-laden shaadi, it’s the source of exquisite anxiety and orporate espionage in India is hardbitter rivalry. ly new.starts For decades, tycoons have The build-up at the end of March, out informaaround theused samespies time to thatferret the summer turns tion about what is going on behind mean. Suddenly headlines start appearing in closed doors in the corridors of power.

Access the newspapers.

‘Shell out more for Mangoes to sensitive information knownFilled only with to a few this Summer’ or ‘Muthalamada the powerful politiciansorand bureauScent of Mangoes’ ‘40 influential per cent Alphonso crats isDamaged often not by justUnseasonal a source ofRain’. profitThen but al-a Crops so days provides competitive advantagearound over few later, when you’re wandering business rivals.

The government is vasttoilet and Crawford Market seeking discounted multi-layered — it can easily compromised rolls, you’re waylaid bybe a familiar aroma — the by bribing junior officials with relatively small smell of sweetness, joy and scary price tags. amounts to part with valuable information.

A few weeks later, mangoes have taken over The big the world of politics, buthe city.names Grottyfrom Crawford Market has metareaucracy and thea corporate sector are morphosed into fragrant fantasy full rarely of orcaught whenand law-enforcing crack ange jewels golden hay. agencies Stern matrons down on spies poking, and thieves.

Only their minions stand around prodding, sniffing and are jailed. Or, at least, trying to. For nobody’s bargaining.

So what’s newattention about theto recent of really paying theirincidents nasal decorporate espionage that in arebright beingwhite investigatmands.

The shopkeepers dhoed by thekurtas Delhi Police?

Not much.

ExceptParis, that tis and are fielding calls from the modus operandi of “Paanch the spooks Prague and Pennsylvania. dozen has orchanged with advancements. ganic,” they barktechnological at scurrying helpers.

Xerox machines are out, scanners are far more Soon, courier companies advertise “Express convenient.

Why services. cart away large bundles of Mango Delivery” Five-star hotels anpaper when there are pen drives that fit into nounce mango festivals featuring curiosities yourcaramelised wallet, when broadband-enabled email like mango pizza, mango mushcan in broth a jiffy move a zillioncardamom kilobytes ofcrème data room and mango across continents, smartphones brulee.

As far as I’mwhen concerned though, and you WhatsApp make life unbelievably simple?and can keep your alphonso chilli chocolates However, things have notupchanged. mango salsa.some I’m too busy queuing outside During Star, yearsRajdhani of licence everyBhojnalaya. important Golden or raj, Thakkar decision businesses countrywide For, as anyimpacting mango traditionalist will tell you, were taken by aGujarati clutch of netas andstart babusservsitit’s only when restaurants tingbowls in Delhi Mumbai.

The brave new era of ing of or thick, honey-sweet aamras that economic supposed to have The Seasonliberalisation has officially was begun. made the working of ministries less A Sunday unlimited-aamras lunch at discreone of

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EXTRACT

Common warblers in a royal tiger’s lair Why spend time in a tiger reserve studying a tiny, nondescript bird?

Reflected glory ‘The Shipwreck of the Minotaur’ (1810) by JMW Turner, who was the first to tear down the distinction between subject and object, presaging what would be later known as impressionism wikicommons

THE COMPASS CHRONICLES

The light and the sea The explorations of light, by an artist and a physicist, which furthered the arts and science

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n his controversial work on the theory of abundantly clear from the observations that great advances in photography. Parallel to colours (Farbenlehre) the German poet Jo- the blue colour of the deep sea is a distinct this, Oersted found that an electric current hann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote — “Un- phenomenon in itself..” Seven years later, Ra- running in a wire disturbed the needle of a less our eyes had something of the sun, man confirmed this in 1928 — a change in the nearby compass, linking the sciences of magrohit gupta how could we ever look upon the light?” He colour of light due to scattering by molecules netism and electricity. Ultimately, in the was echoing ancient solar theologies which — which came to be known as the Raman ef- hands of Maxwell, electromagnetism and opconsidered the ‘sun as a living God’, a senti- fect. “The spectrum of the scattered light gives tics would be unified, upon the realisation ment shared by the artist JMW Turner. clues about the molecular structure of the ma- that light is an electromagnetic vibration Through his study of vision, light and land- terial under study,” explain historians Rajin- through space. scapes, Turner, one of the greatest artists, was der Singh and Falk Reiss.

Just as a magnet exerts its pull along a line the first to tear down the distinction between They also pointed out that “there was much between its poles, a wave of light travels in a Bird in the bush The leaf-warbler is highly active in the forest canopy, making identification in the fieldwould difficultbe pankajscepticism gupta subject and object, presaging what in Germany about the reality of the certain plane. This plane can be turned or rolater known as impressionism. phenomenon Raman and his collaborators tated when it passes through a crystal or liqEncyclopaedia Britannica describes his announced”. Germany was the stronghold of uid — a phenomenon called polarisation. It transition thus: “While Turner’s earlier paint- quantum physics, and they were suspicious of was while studying the polarisation of microingsreand drawings the most accurate warblers lessshow important than tigers? ob- his use is of undoubtedly direct vision, true, simple (which for I make my living waves through living tissue that servation architectural natural detail, Nowofwhat kind of a and stupid question is spectroscopes and sunlight to state that in defendwatching little warblers), let me JC Bose was compelled to invent in his later work this precision is sacrificed to make that?

Everyone knows that tigers are more his little observations. ing these creatures EventuI am also arguing in favour his wireless coherer in the 1890s. general effects being of colour light with the ally important, largeand predators, as apex vindicated with the Nobel in conservation — of a broader ecological perspective Instead of wireless technology, Art and science have of mass. composition species,barest at theindication top of the food chain,His flagship species Prize, Raman did notthefail to one that goes beyond charismatic mega-fauna, Bose was mainly interested in always evolved by tends to become more fluid, suggesting move- point for conservation... and etc. out looking that nature had enand starts at species more in terms of their the interaction of electromagstudying optics ment and space...”I have Turner’s favourite subject dowed These are arguments to face often enough human a soecological role beings in the with system, rather than their apnetic waves and matter, and how the sea,Iand this was no coincidence — the when Iwas tell people am studying warblers — in the Ka- phisticated optical or instrument pearance/charisma, tourism potential! it produced sentient life.

British Empire Tiger was atReserve. the peak of exploration, in the form of the lakad-Mundanthurai For Hisislack So,eye. what theofecological role of my Over the centuries mankind holdingstudying coloniesthese as far tiny, as China some reason, non-and India. He mathematicalfavoured rigour little had sucleaf-warblers? The leafhas accumulated instruments Nature Chronicles once asked sailors him to the mast of a ceeded wherewarblers descript, common birds to is lash thought they failed; he hadPhylloscopus) the evidence must (Genus that probe farther than the human eye, but we of India: Essays on Wildlife for hours, he could observe a storm in of light’s quantum be an boat entirely trivial,soindeed arcane, as Einstein predictsurelynature, rank among the least glamorous observe phenomenon through hundreds of Many bird watchers Edited by the ocean. academic pursuit.

“What can studying ed... while they did not. vertebrates, so utterly lacking in charisdifferent technology layers. Telescopes in Ananda Banerjee dismiss them lightly Like thethe physicist little birds tellTurner, me about habitat CV of Raman was By a strange continuation, all the bird mathematic that even many die-hard space look at galaxies, transmitting to the Rupa Non-fiction struck by the colour of the Mediterranean Sea Calcutta scientists large mammals, which are my primary whodismiss led the sharp brief watchers them but lightly, scarcely Earth data, which are processed into images ₹295 during voyage to Europe.

It was concern?” asksathe reserve manager.

On believed that renaissance ofbothering Indian science were, in one way to speto even identify them by computers. The complexity of the Large Hathehand, blue of thefocus sea was duelarger to the sky’s reflec- or another, studying the other if we on the light.

Saha ex- is,dron cies level.

PartMeghnad of the problem of Collider can hardly be overstated. In the tions. thatphilosophy reflected light is po- amined mammals — Raman the apexknew species of Project thefact pressure exerted bysmall, light, SN Bose colcourse, the that they are all dull-green end, however, these images of nature must off using a Nicol prism.

Tiger —larised and doand ourcan bestbe tocut improve their habitat, oth- the quantum statistics CV Ra-making oured, and highly activeofinphotons, the forestand canopy, pass through the limited faculties of the huHe wrote in anaturally letter to benefit. the journal Nature, “Ob- man er species will also Given the limitthe scattering lightdifficult. by matter. identification in theoffield It is only rarely — eye. It would seem, this ever-lengthening man servations made infor thisconservation way in the deeper wa- either ed funds and manpower (research Art when and science have always by cascade one is truly nuts aboutevolved birds or when the of instruments observing instruters ofisthe Mediterranean andon Red showed studying and action), it not better to focus theSea mega-fauoptics split ments is only as strong as the weakest link. fate of one’s PhDclosely. thesis After hangsNewton on suchhad identification colour,and so micro-fauna far from being na andthat let the minitakeimpovercare of the light its rainbow withmorphoa — that oneinto develops the eyespectrum for the subtle (2015 has been declared The International ished by of sky-reflection, was prism, themselves?

Thesuppression only small creatures one should study ofand materials using the partic- Year logical,the auditory behavioural differences be- of Light by the United Nations.) wonderfully A similar ef- ular worry about then areimproved those thatthereby. may form part of the spectrum emitted — spectroscopy — tween species.they These difficulties in identifying rohit gupta explores the history of science as fect was noticed, somewhat less con- became food chain leading up tothough the larger focal species. extremely important.

Because light species, however, need not bother our busy manager Compasswallah t@fadesingh spicuously, in me the ofArabian It was was Before you accuse a biasedSea. perspective found since to interact withleaf-warblers) chemicals, it are led all to pretty too much, they (the

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similar ecologically as well — the role they play in the pause to appreciate the job done by the nondescript forest is largely independent of their taxonomic sta- little green jobs — the leaf-warblers — and their insectus, except insofar as the structural aspects of their tivore colleagues that travel thousands of kilometres foraging microhabitat are concerned. every year to eat all those insects.

All 18 species of leaf-warblers in the Indian subconBefore you start protesting that you will never con- hese are no ordinary rats. They are tinent are migratory, breeding in the temperate sum- template removing all those birds, and that I am just trained. They have an impeccable mers from Himalaya north to the Arctic circle, and another doomsayer, consider the fact that 80 per sense of smell. And they can detect tutaking over the peninsular (including Himalayan cent of the warblers (especially the Green leaf-warberculosis-causing bacteria. In Mozamfoothills, and much of Northeast India) forests from bler, which is the most common one here) as wellbique, t would seem that the BJP government has cows where one in 10 adults suffers as September on its mind. On the heels of issuing aadhar cardsthrough May. While each individual may the next most abundant migrant (Blyth’s reed warfrom TB, kitten-sized rats are busy sniffweigh for cows, promoting gaushalas and the beefonly ban,7-11 grams (range includes all species), bler) spending each winter at Mundanthurai come ing out TB-causing bacteria from rows of one may still emphasise the term take–over, when de- from the forests of the hill regions around the CasMinister for Women and Child Development Manesputum samples. With six months of ka Gandhi has sent out a circular askingscribing all officestheir to relationship to their forest habitats: pian Sea, from Turkey east through Kashmir, includtraining, a lifespan of six to eight years, they number use ‘gaunyle’ instead of phenyl for cleaning.

The in the billions and form probably the ing bits of southern Russia and Afghanistan. and at a fraction of the cost of lab tests, most avian guild in the sub-continental minister said that ‘gaunyle’, made from cow abundant urine, these giant rodents are darting from Now imagine that these hills — breeding grounds forests during is eco-friendly and a natural disinfectant.

This is not our tropical winter. My study at Mun- for so many migrant insectivores — are deforested sample to sample, pinpointing infected on danthuraiby (in the southern Western Ghats) records a a large scale, either directly by us or through effects the first cow-based product to be recommended strains. They rub their legs when they density of six-eight leaf-warblers (of two species) per of global climate change, cutting down the bird popa BJP minister. Goa MP Shripad Naik recently made a sniff out the bacteria. They’re also given of forest — usually any given patch of forest ulation by 90 per cent. Such declines are not unrealcase for cosmetic products made ofhectare cow urine, treats through syringes for a job well two-three species, depending on the type istic, as those studying migrant forest birds in the dung, and milk. It looks like achche din may have have arrived done! While lab tests take four days to of forest; and I doubt there is any forest habitat in In- Americas will tell you — though they worry more for the Indian bovine. confirm TB, the rats take only 30 mindia that does not host at least one species some time about forests in the wintering areas being cut down utes. Unlikely heroes? Wait till you hear of the year. Picking a random hectare from my 20-ha rather than in the breeding grounds. In fact, over the about the special rats which are sniffing study plot at Mundanthurai, I find six leaf-warblers past two decades, Americans and Europeans are out in- landmines in Tanzania. (of two species) making it their home for seven-eight creasingly facing the prospect of another Silent months — for these are territorial individuals that re- Spring. Not, this time, due to the factors mentioned main on site for much of the winter. And what do in Rachel Carson’s clarion call in the 1960s — overuse they do during this period? Well, eat insects, mostly. of chemicals in agriculture at the height of the green Humdrum as their lives may sound, they spend over revolutions — but to a suite of other human activities 75 per cent of their waking hours foraging for insects that have hit the habitat of avian migrants in both (and other arthropods) in the foliage. Since they are their northern breeding grounds and southern winnot concerned about finding mates or raising young tering grounds. during this season, and want merely to survive in Many species of migrant songbirds, which enliven good shape for the next summer, their other activ- the northern spring after the dreary and silent winities — preening and maintaining territories through ters, have been pushed to the brink of extinction — vocal and visual dialogue with neighsome like the Kirtland’s warbler are bours — do not take much time. Hmm... down to a few scores of breeding pairs ast fortnight, a surprise t used toasbemy a happy doughnut-shaped a bunch of small, dull birds spendingthe railway police carried out — over the past two decades, even inspection Chhattistuna most of their day peering at leaves on in the Mahakaushal Express andornithologist comrades in the aquarium. west are The 2,200-tonne tank Express, two of the most leaf-warbler convenient trainsracing to board once housed 69 bluefin tuna, 52 eastern search of insects — dogarh I seem to be only against time to figure out the A single between Agra and Mathura. shortof journeycauses of 60km, little andtry 38 oriental bonito and was weakening the defence?

Not really... of these declines, so tuna we may eats In anthat average the railway police caught 102 ticketless Forty of the process. one of most popular attractions at the Consider the fact that each leaf-warand reverse Thethe culprits 1,980 insects per travellers. day whom were every Uttar Pradesh police personnel. Caught Tokyodeforesting Sea Life Park. Now, there’s just one bler, on average, eats three insects are, of uncourse, us humans: by theover routine check, the hapless policemen were winteringlonely tuna fragroaming the aquarium, after waking minute (this awares is averaging the tropical grounds; seen scrambling manythe temperate the death dozens of fish. The tuna tank all their activities throughout the day).for hiding places. Unsurprisingly, menting forestsof into of themprey sought in the trains’ toilets. Quissuburban custodiet woodlots more has accessible been in operation since 1989 and has Since they forage by picking off refuge a to ipsossometimes custodes? also twigs and human subsidised nest-predators such neveras before seen this kind of masssubstrate — mostly leaf, domestic deaths.

Since last flowers — the prey largely consists of herbivorous in- cats and other small carnivores (feral) thriving on December, scores of fish have been dying sects. In the case of my one hectare on Mundanthu- our garbage; and directly subsidising populations of every week. What’s killing north-Amerithem all? Researchers have few anrai, it is mostly caterpillars eating leaves. A single non-migratory nest-parasites like the swers.

It could leaf-warbler thus eats an average of 180 insects every can cowbird through backyard bird feeders, en- have been the tank’s lighting that caused stress among the hour, or about 1,980 per day (assuming an average 11- abling them to survive the harsh winter and fool over fish.raising Or the water hour working-day from dawn to dusk). The six indi- 200 gullible species of songbirds into their could’ve been poisoned.

Theadept question is: Will the lone tuna survive viduals on our plot thus rid the plants of almost offspring! We seem to be particularly at causast week, the Florida police got12,000 a call insect pests — every day! Multiply that with ing damage to the ecological fabric to of tellthis theplanet, tale? from a man who claimed he shot thefour number of days (200-250) that they are in resi- even when we mean good — feed the poor little birdpeople at rapper Lil Wayne’s house,dence grim-on that one-ha plot and you may begin to ap- ies in the winter, or the cute raccoons at night. ly adding that, “I’m killing whoever else I the service they render to all the plants. Now preciate Getting back to our continent, where we have no see…” A Special Weapons and Tactics unit I ask you to consider removing these warblers from information on population trends of forest birds at (SWAT) arrived only to find they were the tarstudy plot, and picture the forest in a few weeks’ all — whether resident or migratory, in tropical south gets of a ‘swatting’ prank. Believed to The scenario could become even more dra- and south-east Asia or temperate Russia, Mongolia time... have started in 2008, this modern-day matic if you remove all the other insectivorous birds and Siberia — declines paralleling those on the other version of the prank call involves from calling the plot as well: I estimate each hectare of Mun- continents are on the cards, if indeed they haven’t octhe emergency services claiming adanthurai’s crisis, forest has at least 40 insectivorous birds, curred already. Given the contempt these migrants which includes hostage taking,including mass other warblers and flycatchers (resident have for human geopolitical boundaries, their popshootings and bomb threats. Nearly and400 migrant), minivets, shrikes, drongos, babblers ulations are subject to forces beyond the control of swatting pranks occur every year, causing etc. The average number of prey may come down to any one national conservation agency, let alone the trouble for heavily-armed responsejust units. over two per bird per minute — that is, about manager of a single Tiger Reserve. And if their popWhile these calls are taking a toll 5,000 on theinsects per hour, or 55,000 per day in every ulations are found to be declining as drastically as police, online gamers seem to be having hectare of forest. many New World migrants’ have over the past severfun, disrupting their rivals’ games Remove and those insectivores: ...and don’t be sur- al decades, mammal chauvinists may be reduced to broadcasting the stunt in real-time. prised if in a few weeks your plants start to appear haplessly watching the habitats of their favourite ragged with their foliage tattered... and your endan- creatures getting degraded. gered langurs become unhappy because so many Do you think even the tigers might get worried leaves are now packed with toxic anti-herbivore com- about such a scenario? pounds produced in response to caterpillar nibIs it worth studying these warblers, trying to figure blings... and the plants make fewer flowers and fruits out what makes their populations tick, and how to as they are forced to spend too much energy in self- save them — and ensure they continue to keep all defence... in turn making the nectarivores and frugi- those insects down? vores unhappy... and regeneration of the forest slows Are warblers less important than tigers? Isn’t the down as fewer seeds are produced and dispersed... question itself meaningless? and the ground starts to dry faster because the canopy is thinner and more sunlight gets in... I leave you madhusudan katti is Associate Professor of Vertebrate to work out the rest of the ecological cascade effects Ecology, Department of Biology, California State University, on your own. For now, I’d be happy if you simply Fresno

Mad about cows

Rats to the rescue

Eco-friendly cow urine to clean your office

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Rodents turn into unlikely heroes

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The not-so-usual suspects

Murder most fishy

What random checks on Indian trains can reveal

Mysterious deaths rock Tokyo aquarium

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Pranked!

A more serious version of the prank call is here

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya Admissions

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n keeping with the theme of this week’s cover story, our quiz is all about admissions. Enter now!

here,there & elsewhere

The Sacred Band of Thebes was an elite fighting unit of the Theban army. What was the unique criteria for being admitted to this unit?

Vive La France!

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ast week’s burglary had far-reaching effects. Pete, whose two-room unit was the only one affected, claimed that nothing was taken. But the burglar managed to smash a couple of lamps and cracked the front of Pete’s microwave oven before apparently leaping out of a back-window.

“The police say they don’t have any idea who might have done it,” says Pete.

As a result he no longer feels safe living in his apartment. His brother and he are moving out, back to the family home in the state capital, north of Elsewhere.

He’s asked us to look around his home of the last 15 years, in case there’s any furniture we might like for ourselves. Bins, who claims that Pete doesn’t like him, is gawking with the curiosity of an art gallery visitor.

Pete says, “I probably disturbed the guy! So I guess he just dropped the microwave and jumped out.”

Bins has pale blue eyes with needle-point black pupils. He looks up now with those twin lasers trained on Pete. “And how exactly do you know it was a guy?” he says. His faux-French accent is set at maximum stun. Pete frowns in irritation both at the accent and the question. “Dunno! I mean... who ever heard of a female burglar?” To which Bins, refusing to look my way, says,

cornerstone

“Ah! Well! In Pondicherry — you have heard of this tiny Gaulish village in India?

Where the French ruled for a thousand years? There, we have any number of burgle-ladies…”

I grab him by the arm and try to haul him out of there before he can tell his favourite whoppers, but he has turned to stone. Pete’s eyebrows have shot up.

“Really? The French were in India?” he says. Bins is nodding vigorously. “Oh very yes. We have been there since prehistoric times! Before British, before Portugooses, before Max Mueller Bhavan!” He is standing tall in the way

of someone preparing to sing ‘La Marseillaise’. “Wow, no. I never heard that,” says Pete. His eyes have grown round with interest. “I love history. I watch the History Channel all the time.

But I never heard about — what’s that place, again?”

“Pond-i-cherrriiii,” says Bins, drowning each syllable in pure béchamel sauce. “It means, the Tiny Lake of the Cherries.”

His face is poker-straight. “It is all that remains after the British came. They conquered the whole subcontinent.

Everything was destroyed. Just one tiny village remained, loyal to La France...” I know where this is going, so I am forced to scream “Bins!” at top volume. Both men turn their faces towards me with the aggrieved expressions of two little boys who have been told it’s time for their dose of cod-liver oil suppositories.

When I finally drag him back to my apartment, Bins says, “You could at least have waited till I mentioned the cauldron of magic potion!” I say that Pete, like most Americans, probably doesn’t know Asterix comics. Bins taps his head in the universal sign for mental illness, pok-pok-pok. “These Americans are crazy,” he says. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, in this weekly column

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According to Greek myth, who needed to be paid a coin for passage by souls entering the world of the dead?

Whose failure to be admitted to the Vienna School of Fine Arts in both 1907 and 1908 probably changed 20th-century history? If it helps, in November 2013, one of his paintings sold for 130,000 euros at an auction in Nuremberg.

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What starts with a ‘hoodwink’ and a ‘cable tow,’ features the three great lights and includes the presentation of a lambskin apron.

The process has also contributed a phrase to the English language.

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There have been many strange admissions in the world of popular music, but this one probably takes the cake. In 2007, which ageing rock legend stunned the world by admitting that he had snorted his father’s remains?

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Crypteia was an elite institution in a particular state. To be admitted to the Crypteia, young men would have to go into the countryside at night, armed with knives, and kill any farmers or slaves they could find. Which city-state institutionalised this barbaric practice in ancient Greece?

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The admission process to this college was reputed to be the hardest examination in the world till the rules were changed in 2008. The toughest part of the examination was the oneword essay question. Candidates had to open an envelope, inside which was a card with a single word, and write coherently about the subject for three hours. Past words included ‘water’, ‘miracles’ and ‘bias’. Which is the Oxford college in question?

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Easy one. How do you get admitted to the ‘Mile High Club?’ How about the ‘220 Mile High Club’?

Mensa is an elite institution that admits only those with IQ scores above the 98th percentile. Which well-known actress lied about being a Mensa member before finally being confronted by the Mensa marketing director and was forced to withdraw her claim?

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Fiction. What did one need to be eligible for membership to a trust set up by the late Ezekiah Hopkins of Lebanon, UDA, which entitled them to a salary of four pounds a week for ‘purely nominal services’?

ANSWERS 1. The Band only allowed male lovers to join in pairs.

The logic was that they would fight hardest to save their loved ones battling alongside them 2. Charon, the Ferryman of Hades 3. Adolf Hitler 4. Admission to the Freemasons. The term ‘third degree’ originated from these rites 5. Keith Richards 6. Sparta 7. All Souls College 8. By having sex in an airplane. Members include Richard Branson, Leonardo di Caprio, Johnny Depp and Gwyneth Paltrow. The ‘220 Mile High Club’ is for people who have had sex in space 9. Sharon Stone 10. Red hair, in the Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic The Adventure of the Red-Headed League

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

ND-X _ A

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