Blink issue 62 april04 2015

IN MY HANDS In Telangana, women’s ownership of land brings with it greater agency, prosperity and decisionmaking powers p2 saturday, april 4, 2015

manoj patil / solaris images

Filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee brings to screen everyone’s favourite Bengali detective, Byomkesh Bakshi.

Intricately detailed, yet edgy, it’s 1940s Kolkata set to contemporary music p9

I am not boring

CRICKET 2.0 Dear oldtimers and critics, the game is doing just fine, if not better than ever before p8

SHADOW PLAY Linnaeus Tripe’s photos of India and Burma from the 1850s, now showing in New York p15

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Heads-up Clubs like East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, plagued by poor management and finances, have got a wake-up call in the form of the glamorous Indian Super League PTI

Moving the goalpost Will the sparkle and big monies of franchise football change the game for old favourites like East Bengal No woman’s land Ofand the 98 Mohun million womenBagan? involved in agriculture, 63 per cent don’t own land the hindu archives

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or every enthusiast in Kolkata, you’ll find a sceptic. For every silver lining, you’d get offered a crack of doom.

When Atlético de Kolkata lifted the Indian Super League (ISL) trophy on December 20 last year, a bunch of armchair pundits instantly wondered — how will our local impecunious clubs withstand the onslaught of all this glitter? Football expert and commentator Novy Kapadia helped provide some comfort.

“You see ive a sexy womanDalit onewomen night and fall six in thousand across love withdistricts her by the Football attachofmorning. undivided Andhra Prament doesn’t that easily.

Bagan desh come were each given Mohun 36 guntas (0.9 and East Bengal still reign supreme.

Their love acres) of land in 2000.

Under Velugu for gamealleviation has survived decades.

Nocalled ISL fran— athe poverty scheme now Inchise can generate kind of women passion turnthey dira Kranthi Pathamthe — landless do.”

Though Kapadia does concede thatvillage, the ISL ed landowners overnight.

In Somaram gave Indian fans a Uppalamma rare chance to watch interWarangal district, was one of the national stars like DelFifteen Piero cross 53 beneficiaries of Alessandro this scheme. years and flesh, he insists later,dribble she is in thetheunchallenged headthat of the the league lacked a much-needed bite. was household.

Her social standing in “There the village no To watch trueisfootball rivalry, you’d hasfight. improved and she no longer a silent vichave to domestic be in the violence. stands forThe a Mohun Bagantim of 50-year-old is East Bengalfor clash.” providing the education of her son and The two farming football her clubs revived their nearly daughter, land and making famcentury-old inactive an I-League derby ily decisions.rivalry She is an participant in enthe counter was played ingroups.

KolkataHer on March district’sthat women self-help family 28.

The presence of more than 50,000 fanswas in is eating better and earning more.

All this the stands at theUppalamma city’s Vivekananda Yuva Bhamade possible, says, because she rati (Salt Stadium) tellingly cameKrirangan to own land forLake cultivation. surpassed the average of A 45,171 that were In a landmark book, Fieldseats of One’s Own: occupied during Atlético de Kolkata’s home Gender and Land Rights in South Asia (1994), Bigames.

The keenly match ago: justified na Agarwal writes,contested “Two decades ‘Do the crowd’s Mohun Bagan took was the women needfrenzy. independent rights in land?’ lead afteradmitted a 47th-minute goal by striker Balnot even in public policy discourse. want Singh, and with the help That women needonly independent rightsofinsome land spirited saves by goalkeeper Debjit Majumder — the most critical form of property in agrarwas the team in green-and-maroon finally ian economies — means admitting new conable to defend Anjan Kutenders for a their share1-0 in scoresheet. a scarce and highly mar Mitra, generalwhich secretary of Mohun Bagan valuable resource determines economClub, explains and the hysteria that comes to suric well-being shapes power relations in round the Kolkataand derby.

“Unlikeextending the ISL where the countryside; it means the the entireover crowd is that backing single team, conflict land has aexisted largelysupbeporters watching Mohun Bagan play Bentween men, to men and women, thus East bringing gal arethe split down the middle.courtyard.”

We don’t need it into family’s innermost film stars to help fill our grounds.

Our footArguably, the first audible murmurs of

ballers are enough to do that.” matic. “These clubs could leave us behind in Not everyone, however, is in agreement the not-too-distant future. If institutions like with Mitra’s rhetoric. Anuj Kichlu, for in- Mohun Bagan and East Bengal are to survive, stance, begins with a reference to dry num- they will have to find a way of attracting more bers. He points out that India’s premier corporate sponsors.” football competition, the I-League, comprises New funds might possibly help compensate 11 teams and 350-odd players. “Of these, the for the pinch of some old wounds. Last year, hundred best footballers were chosen to play the Enforcement Directorate froze the bank in the ISL. There were a dozen players picked accounts of both East Bengal and Mohun Bafrom Mohun Bagan too. Though these foot- gan after it was found that the clubs had beneballers played the same the facilities women’s landin rights werestadia, articulated in 1979, fitted from134 sponsorship deals women. struck with ing and landless Dalit A the few they givenof— women buses, changing rooms, infamous whenwere a group gram panchayat Saradha Group.BLink Utpalvisited KumarSomaGanmonths after the survey, even half-time drinks — were comparatively members in West Bengal demanded joint of ti- guli, secretary of the Indian ram honorary village, Thorrur mandal, which Football was one atles five-star standard.”

CEOwomen of on behalf of Muslim from their of the sites of the Association research. (West Bengal), football firm The villages.management Evicted by their husbands, these “The entirewhen football fraHow does a says, society change women Football Edge, Kichlu adds he security that become landowners? women needed the economic ternityAre is they still able in atostate of exercise wasn’t surprisedSeveral to see astudies signif- in the last two economic agency? land provided. shock, this temporary Dobut women feel moresetseicant improvement in the decades have thrown lightperon theThough links bemade everyone realcure when ownhas land?

Does violence rethe players are theyback formance of some players. tween domestic violence and property rights. ise that we need to be more duce within and outside their homes?

These professional, the team's “Compared to theaccess I-League, Despite marginal to economic andthat market are some questions lie atourselves the heart media reoperations, itsof themindful they hadinbetter coaches and women’s sources, a majority of cases, own-andof better.

The problem is one of the discourse around women’s land rights, medical support better of that in- reduced staff ershiptraining. of land Some has significantly the iswhich immediatein liquidity. funds Kelkar’sThe study. not are also addressed vestment will getWhile a fewnearly sizeable risk of violence.

98 million womhaven’t all dried up yet.” returns on the en in India arefield.” engaged in agriMitra Mohun Bagan adCorking theofbottle Having work, spokenaround to a handful cultural 63 per mits that his club mother is still Manjula is a 26-year-old of players whothey were centIndian don’t own the land till. byson myriad ofplagued a teenage and afinancial younger signed thegovernment ISL, Kapadiaasalso echoes Ki- worries. When “As per up law,for state asked how stillbuilt, sucdaughter.

She his hasteam a slight Over 40 per cent of chlu.

“The tournament,” signed land should be he in says, the “was an eye- ceeded in leading table, wearsthis herseason’s hair in aI-League neat plait and landowning women in opener many.”

Problems with finances, the general the name offor women.

And one of the secretary laughed.

“Sometimes pallu of her mustard yellow the two states bad management, of youth surprising findingslack of last year’sdevelopment, even withoutsari a teacher, a student comes is carefully pinned.

“A first few reported a decrease escalating — these,survey he says, Telangana costs household is are all issues in an examination.

We might not have money, years ago, you wouldn’t see womin alcohol-fuelled East Mohun Bagan that Bengal around and 20 lakh families in will have to but the players with us.” enare congregating like this,” she violence. In the case soon try and solve. Clubs like East Bengal are the state are headed by women,” Mitra, though, notattake loyalty of says,should smiling thethe landowning of landless Dalit not deaf to such concerns. Gautam his players for saysentirely Sunil Kumar, state director granted. many a in dressing Dalit womenIngathered the vilwomen, the abuse Roy, the team’s media manager, of Landesa, a land rights organi- is the first to room and dugout, can now rumours lage one street.

Now,hear they hold has only intensified admit hisletter clubofisthe often by a of the I-League sation.that Yet, the law hindered is being merged with Cymonthly meetings at the the ISL. village “semi-professional” seldom followed. approach to the game. rus Confectioner, manager ofin the squaregeneral and participate re“Though thestudy players are‘Womprofessional, the Football Players In a new titled Association of India, says, search studies without any interteam’s media operations, medical and sup- “That would ference en’s Asset Ownership and its Reduccertainly be the forfrom men.best Laststep August, port staff is not. Until East Bengal wakes up ward. tion in gender-violence’, author Govind Kelkar like Mohunand Bagan and East BenscoresTeams of landowning landless women and makes its functioning fully measures professional, quantitatively and qualitatively the gal would beinforced to study, followsitting the ISLforformat participated Kelkar’s focusit will keep obstacles.” decrease infacing domestic violence across six villag- and players would finally given decent congroup discussions and be answering lengthy to Roy, newly-formed teams such esAccording in Telangana, Karnataka and Meghalaya and tracts.

For Kolkata football, surely be a questionnaires.

“One of thethat’ll biggest changes as Pune and are already moving two types of Bengaluru societies —FC patriarchal and matri- shot sinceinI the gotarm.” my land is that I can decide my the goalposts for their Kolkata lineal.

The study surveyed 494counterparts people (388 daughter’s education,” says Manjula. She is with a style management that is122 more prag- shreevatsa women andof106 men), including landownsending hernevatia son to college while her daughter

Women who have land rights have a greater say in the family and household, proves a recent study across six villages

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Say no to patriarchy 18-year-olds Roja and Sarita (middle) now have the freedom of mobility and to pursue education; (below) Uppalamma is the sole breadwinner of her family. She exercises economic agency in all household matters, be it in the choice of shampoo or the crops to grow priyanka kotamraju

will continue her studies at the local govern- for her daughter and Dove for her son. ment school. The household too has seen However, for Kelkar, agency is more imporchanges. “I’m part of every decision, whether tant than assets. She says, “The study doesn’t it is about groceries, crop loans or purchase of measure how many assets have been acgoods. We (my husband and I) negotiate now, quired. Rather, it measures how much control not quarrel,” she adds. women wield over their assets.” For example, In Somaram, where 33 per cent of the pop- the survey asked what happens if a woman ulation is Dalit, domestic violence is an every- tries to exercise birth control, if she spends day occurrence. So is drinking. Manjula and money on grooming, leaves the village withUppalamma recount several stories of abuse out consultation, or gives birth to a daughter. faced by their neighbours. “Every evening, the While all landowning women in Karnataka husbands get drunk. Then they kick, punch, and Telangana reported that a woman could fight, push and cuss at their wives,” says Man- be “pushed (27 per cent), slapped (26 per cent) jula. We wonder whether they’re sharing their or punched (19 per cent) by their husband for friends’ stories or their own. having given birth to one or According to Kelkar’s study, more daughter(s),” 43 per cent when wives tried to stop their reported that violence has rehusbands from drinking, “landuced significantly since they downing women in patriarchal got land rights.

One of the biggest Karnataka and Telangana said Earlier, women would be changes since I got they would be shouted at (79 per forced into sexual intercourse my land is that I can cent), called names (58 per cent), decide my daughter’s for having used birth control. insulted (42 per cent) and even Now, more than 83 per cent of education slapped (19 per cent).” Almost landowning women across the half the women in the study three states have reported a defrom the two states also said crease in sexual violence while that the “household is deprived landless women continue to sufof basic needs and daily comforts like a bed fer. While the study doesn’t establish a “bi-diand clean clothes as a result of the husband’s rectional” relationship between domestic alcohol abuse.” But due to land and asset own- violence and women’s ownership of land, it ership, more than 40 per cent of landowning does show that right to land results in a reducwomen in the two states reported a decrease tion of verbal, physical and sexual violence. in alcohol-fuelled violence. In the case of landPatriarchy, however, continues to exert a less women, the abuse has only perpetuated. powerful influence on how society conducts itself. This is reflected in the attitude of many Agency, not just assets men who participated in the study. In MeghaRoja and Sarita are 18. College friends and laya, many men were in favour of changing neighbours, they live in hostels away from the the matrilineal system to a patrilineal one — village and paint their nails black and red. “We “A man will be the head of the household and don’t get bicycles or mobiles but we get to a woman will be the heart of the household,” study,” they say. In Somaram, it also appears says Keith Pariat, the face of the men’s rights that women are marrying later. “They don’t movement in the state. In the cases of lanrush us into marriage as soon as we turn 18. downing Dalit women, several aspects of their There’s time till we turn 20 or 21,” Sarita says. lives have improved: for example, Manjula At homes of landowning women like Uppa- deals with banks and revenue officials, delamma or Elamma, domestic goods have be- cides on which subsistence crops to grow, apcome signs of prosperity and agency. plies for loans and exercises birth control. Yet, Uppalamma’s house is pucca now, at least par- her daughter will not inherit her land. “Brothtially. A television has made its way in, so have ers don’t want their sisters to take their share wardrobes and a motorcycle. “Our life has im- of land. The resistance coming from the proved a lot. I buy three different kinds of younger generation is worrying,” says Kelkar. shampoos for my children and me,” she says with a laugh. Chik shampoo for her, Pantene priyanka kotamraju

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And the man plays on Actor Dhruv Mookerji has his fingers in many a pie — films, theatre, serials. Here’s what a day in his action-packed life looks like 7.30am The backyard beckons, but not the bike for exercise

8am Maya says good morning with a handshake, a daily ritual

9.15am A smile from uncle and all seems fine with the world

The block heads

9.20am Time to head to work

9.25am Maya heads indoors for some rest after seeing me off

An entire government department is on the job, but can it really take down ‘offending’ online content?

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he Department of Electronics and Information Technology’s (Deity) offices are as layered as its official website. From inside ‘Electronics Niketan’ at the Central Government Offices (CGO) complex in south Delhi, Deity’s army of director-generals, joint secretaries, depart10am A pandal in the making on the set ment heads, scientists, clerks and staff of various grades and ranks keep an eye on how the country engages with the world wide web.

One set of cubicles is dedicated to the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), the nodal agency meant to combat hacking, phishing and generally fortify the internet in India. This includes the task of blocking and unblocking websites. A rather complicated job in a country where, according to one senior government official, “it’s technically infeasible to completely block content. If it’s at the gateway level, then we can filter it out. But for videos and other similar content, it is just not possible to completely block them.”

No bandwidth 10.10am Getting to that not just playtaken but also Be it the AIBready roasts were down from lookYouTube the part or the controversial documentary In-

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dia’s Daughter, which was blocked within eight hours of going online, the CERT and other allied departments have been kept busy over the past few months.

In a classic example of how blocking can go wrong, more than 36 websites were taken down in December last year to “prevent the spread of ISIS propaganda” only to be unblocked within weeks. Like elsewhere in the world, the attempt to “protect” citizens had unwittingly ended up hurting legitimate websites, including video sharing sites vimeo.com, dailymotion.com and the reference site archive.org. It was embarrassingly similar to the Chinese government’s actions in 2010 when it

shutterstock

blocked all images of empty chairs, stools and tablished that it would likely result in doubletables as it attempted to staunch discussions digit reductions in the internet’s speed and efabout Liu Xiabo, the Nobel Peace Prize winner ficiency in that country.” that year, who was missing from the awards The ‘Streisand effect’, named after the Hollyceremony as he was incarcerated in China. wood actress, is another common conseTerming such government actions as dan- quence of blocking. As Chima says, “Specific gerous and Orwellian, Apar Gupta, a cyber law bans tend to be counterproductive and, more specialist in Delhi who appeared for the Peo- often than not, result in more awareness and ple’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in the PIL interest in the banned content.” against Section 66A of the IT Act, says, “Any piece of content is contained within several Political manoeuvres file formats and obscured through technical ‘Ethical hacktivist’ and Hackers Hat founder devices like encryption, making its complete Satish Ashwin sees banning and blocking as removal and eradication impossible.” purely vote bank politics.

Internet freedom campaigners have main“Technically anything can be blocked or tained that Section 66A, which prescribed banned and it’s not a big deal, but the sheer “punishment for sending offenvolume of data uploaded makes sive messages through a comit next to impossible to monitor munication service”, was and censor,” he says. created solely to muzzle dissent To those heralding the strikand differences of opinion. ing down of 66A as a victory for Nobody is really Although Section 66A was refree speech, Sunil Abraham, exaware of the scale of cently struck down, the law auecutive director of the Bengalucensorship in India. thorising blocking of content — ru-based Centre for Internet and Thousands of 11.30am camera, station Noon Power nap haspoints a dedicated fan larger following in namely, Lights, Section 69A police — remains Society, to the picwebsites are blocked showbiz ture. “Nobody is really aware of intact. The Central Government under Section 69A, can block content it believes the scale of censorship in India. mostly due to the threatens the security of the Thousands of websites are enforcement of IPR State; the sovereignty, integrity blocked under Section 69A, or defence of India; friendly relamostly due to the maximalist entions with foreign States; public forcement of Intellectual Proporder; or incites committing a erty Rights (IPR). While 66A is cognisable offence related to any of the above. gone, there are many other provisions within The government must, however, adhere to a the IT Act that still regulate speech online. It is set of procedures and safeguards, known as important to have quality laws drafted Blocking Rules. through an open, participatory process, “Larger, overbroad technical blocks can im- where all stakeholders are consulted and repede the functioning of the internet,” says in- sponded to before bills are introduced in ternet policy analyst Raman Chima. “When a Parliament.” large website ‘blacklist’ and internet filter was proposed for Australia in 2009-10, research es- sibi arasu

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Power point With the exit of Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, Kejriwal’s message to dissenters rings loud and clear meeta ahlawat

AGENDA

Utopian crush

Trinamool Congress, where leaders (and voters too) only trust their own blood in succession, in a desperate, genetic attempt to perpetuate power.

But leaders who renounce power also fascinated Indians: such leaders developed a saintly halo, which put them above the fray, conversely giving them more power and solidifying their position as the high command. Sonia Gandhi, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bal Thackeray, Anna Hazare all derived matic power practitioner who understood their great power from the perception of givthat an efficient organisation can have only ing up power. one CEO. The anarchist turned out to be a ruthBut lately, Indians have woken up to the disless boardroom player, taking out those who tortions that these renouncing ‘saints’ have were undermining the unity of command and on democratic decision-making. The saint bethe direction of the party. comes an alternative power centre to the Kejriwal clearly believes that his best shot at elected office-holder, resulting in tension and challenging Modi in 2019 would be to trump sloth in decision-making. the Gujarat model with his Delhi model, with In Narendra Modi, for the first time India no distractions in other states. This would elected a leader who showed an unabashed have curbed the ambitions of the likes of Yo- desire for power. He is no saint, his critics argendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who nev- gue he is a sinner, climbing to power on corpser enjoyed playing second fiddle es of the 2002 riot victims. But in to Kejriwal.

May 2014, the post-liberalisation With them gone, Kejriwal has generation voted for Modi’s lost two articulate spin-doctors naked ambition over the strateActivist Kejriwal had on English language talk-shows. gic renunciation of the Gandhis. promised a utopian, They could have amplified his And this was the same time bottom-up self-rule. performance as chief minister when Arvind Kejriwal made his among a small, but influential But politician Kejriwal biggest political mistake by rehas realised that section of voters who are not imnouncing power, when he rerevolution will come pressed with the parochialism signed as Delhi Chief Minister. from above of Kejriwal’s loyalists.

He had hoped for sainthood, in“This is a homogenous cohort stead he was labelled the runof Hindi-speaking, north Indian away, the shirker. Kejriwal had men in their thirties and early read the political wind completeforties, all of them younger than ly wrong.

Kejriwal and all of them part of a coterie that It was perhaps in that darkest hour that Kejseems to exclude anyone outside this thin de- riwal had his most pragmatic epiphany. In his mographic defined by age, sex, region and lan- speech at the party’s National Council last guage,” wrote Mukul Kesavan in The Telegraph. Sunday, Kejriwal spoke of the pragmatic de“These are obscure, undistinguished men who sire to be the winner, over his pet sermon on dimly glow in the light of Kejriwal’s sun.” clean politics. “Some people say that winning and losing is not important, I don’t believe Saints and winners that,” Kejriwal said. “There are thousands of Feudal power grab and saintly renunciation registered political parties in India, but everyhave been two key strands in India’s high com- one knows Aam Aadmi Party because we win.” mand politics. Feudalism we still see in the dynasties at the top of many parties from the sambuddha mitra mustafi is the founder of Congress to the DMK, the Samajwadi Party and The Political Indian

India’s left-liberals feel let down by Arvind Kejriwal. The anarchist is now a ruthless boardroom player

sambuddha mitra mustafi

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he bloodletting inside Aam Aadmi Party has been gruesomely public.

Personal ambitions, jealousy, strategic differences have all played a role in the current fiasco. Arvind Kejriwal is winning this battle hands-down: he has seized this moment right after a victory to remove the ‘back-stabbers’.

Kejriwal is the only proven winner the party has, so the majority was always going to back him over his rivals. Yogendra Yadav lost Haryana badly; Prashant Bhushan would rather contest bar council elections, than fight it out on the mean streets of Delhi. That they decided to take on Kejriwal was a case of ego overriding political acumen.

But the long-run survival of the party will now depend on how the Delhi chief minister is able to balance his personal ambition — launching a 2019 challenge to Narendra Modi — with the structural reforms that are needed for the party to grow beyond Delhi.

Our political parties have never much cared about internal structures and processes, relying rather on the divinity of the high command to show light to the faithful. Activist Kejriwal had promised the opposite: a utopian, bottom-up self-rule, his version of swaraj. But politician Kejriwal has realised that revolution will come from above, not below.

One party, one CEO India’s left-liberal intellectuals fawned on the Nehru-Gandhi high command for long, but grudgingly so. In Kejriwal’s version of swaraj, some of these academics and activists thought they had found their utopia. And then, the mustachioed IIT-ian who had built that utopia, gave them a rude reality check.

The self-rule idealist morphed into a prag-

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PAPERWALLAH

Mumbai-bread barons All beauty, pleasure, procreation

Maximum City’s very own vada pav is feeding the blistering growth of home-grown chains that are whetting a countrywide appetite for this humble street food

Casting our net wider to listen in and hold close poetry inspired by the month of April

janice pariat

Secret sauce A Jumbo King outlet in Mumbai; the citybased vada pav chain relies on the franchisee model to multiply, and expects to have1,000 outlets within seven years afp/sajjad hussain

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ach year, when April faithfully comes around, my newsfeed clogs. That one verse, on Twitter, Facebook, et al, repeated like a mantra. “April is the cruellest month, breeding/Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing/Memory and desire stirring/Dull roots with spring rain.” The beginning of TS Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland’, to my despair, is conveniently less than 140 characters. It studs the screen, line after line, as though it’s the only April poem ever written.

But it isn’t.

And considering April is heralded as World Poetry Month, with tens of millions of readers, students, booksellers, publishers, bloggers and, of course, poets marking poetry’s place in our culture and our lives, we might wish to cast our nets wider. If March was the month of Mars, god of warfare, then this is the month of Venus, goddess of spring, rebirth, and love.

While the etymology of the word April remains uncertain, it’s tempting to think that it derives from Aphrodite. All beauty, pleasure, procreation. Perfect for poetry, really.

In Emily Dickinson’s ‘Nature Poem 9’, April gathers slowly, with gentle measured changes. “An altered look about the hills/A Tyrian light the village fills/A wider sunrise in the dawn/A deeper twilight on the lawn.” For Carl Sandburg too, April lends the world a special light. In ‘Plowboy’ he sees a farmhand and two horses lined against the grey turf gleaming brown, smell of soil in the air, cool and moist.

I shall remember you long, Plowboy and horses against the sky in in shadow. ate a you and the picture I shall 2006, remember 40-yearYou made for me, oldtheman Turning turf in the dusk approached And haze ofVista an April gloaming.

Processed Foods, ‘Nebraska’, “April doesn’t In Jack Kerouac’s the like Indian arm of England.” All through hurt it does in New USA’s OSI he Group that the country — Nevathe month crisscrosses makes burgerChicago, patties for da, Wyoming, Toledo, Montana — “a McDonald’s India, with a sim-search of April wandering/a wandering/In ple request: Could Vista make pain.”

The poem is more dream song than vivready-to-fry potato patties for his vada pav id travelogue, marked by a cadential fluidity company too?the Hisfree-spirited venture was course nowhere that mimics ofnear his McDonald’s in from scale rural or brand value — just 20 journeys.

Away countryside, Arthur outlets in andMidnight’ around Mumbai’s suburban Symons’ ‘April is firmly entrenched Dombivili in London,area. where the moon may have been reVista’s wasstill an “spring outrightcalls ‘no’,tobut placed by response gas-light, but us, the vada pav city/Calls seller managed convince here in the to thetoheart fromcomthe pany officials to visit his outlets and central heart of a lover!”

It is still an invitation to cakitchen taking a final The offirouse, tobefore roam “lover-like” indecision. the streets. cials visited Iyer’s Goli VaYounot theonly dancer andVenkatesh I the dreamer, daChildren Pav stores, they also discussed his future together, plans and made short chain. The Wandering losta in the film nightonofhis London, boards McDonald’s USAweather. and OSI Group saw In theofmiraculous April theMiraculous film and gave thethe go-ahead for Iyer’s prothough April weather might posal.

That ledpoem, to trialit’s runs for making patties be in Symons’ marked in many othfor vada pav alongside McDonald’s ers by references to rain.

Famously,cutlets. the openmasterstroke Iyer Prologue made Goliina The naingThis lines of Chaucer’sfrom General tional chain withThey’re more than 300 energy stores in 18 Canterbury Tales. ripe with and states over the “Whan last eight years.

Thanks the poetic vitality: that Aprille, withtohise Vista plant in Mumbai, Goli vada tastes the shoures soote/The droghte of pav March hath

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April in the air ‘An altered look about the hills/A Tyrian light the village fills/A wider sunrise in the dawn/A deeper twilight on the lawn’ afp/tauseef mustafa

perced to the roote/And bathed every veyne in Beauty is not enough. swich licour/ Of which vertu engendred is the You can no longer quiet me with the flour” (When April’s gentle rains have pierced redness the drought/Of March right to the root, and Of little leaves opening stickily. bathed each sprout/Through every vein with I know what I know. liquid of such power/It brings forth the engenThe sun is hot on my neck as I observe same whether dering of the flower). Langston Hughes’ ‘April (a The localspikes bread/bun), together with sweet and of the crocus. in Gorakhpur Rain Song’ is subsumed in musical sensuality, spicy Theearth ideaisquickly Thechutneys. smell of the good. spread to evPorbandar and characteristic simplicity.and “Let the rain kiss eryItnook and corner the is Maximum is apparent that of there no death.City and or Kochi you/Let the rain beat upon your head and Kol- became its best-known breakfastand But what does that “The key for snack-on-the-go. signify? with silver liquid drops/Letkata. the rain any makes ethnic food sing you a lullaby/The rain When Dheeraj Gupta his first JumNot opened only under ground chain torain go national bo King outlet inare still pools on the sidewalk/The Kalyan in 2001, the brains of little men did he Langston Hughes’ standardisation know his vada pavs Eaten makes running pools is in the the gutter/ wouldby one day fetch him a maggots.

‘April Rain Song’ is of sleep the product, The rain plays a little song onand offer- multi-crore business across India. “We started Life in itself subsumed in musical ings that a national ap- with vada pav, as it Is our roof at night/And I lovehave the rain.” isnothing, the single largest snack sensuality, and peal ‘Always and Marry low an In Ogden Nash’s consumed in Mumbai.

It was An empty cup, a flight of characteristic pricing,” April Girl’,says theIyer. month and his lover largely unorganised. uncarpeted stairs.For the first simplicity pav, like Amitabh Bach- its are“Vada inextricable; he personifies ten years, ourselves It iswe notrestricted enough that yearchan, has a national changeability in the appeal playful cutway he to Mumbai we tried ly, downasthis hill, to bring in ting best: across states and age does automation April to create an internaVada pav, like groups, its the Amitabh Bachchan, Praise and the can spellsstand and on bless tional Comes product like atan reasonable idiot, babown without advertising or marcharms, prices,” he says. bling and strewing flowers. has a national appeal keting,” heApril elaborates.

I found in my arms.

To amake pattiesI to end on morestandardised affirmative note, cutting across Yet, states In Mumbai, cancloudy, get a vada April golden,you April and sauces in master bulk, Jumbo King turn, oddly enough, to that of self-depand age groups pav for anywhere between ₹7 Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy; tied up with Pune-based Tasty recation and deprivation, Philip Larkin, whose and ₹40.

The megalopolis sells April soft in flowered languor, Bitesis Eatables, whichof exports poem ‘The Trees’ a rare example a glimanApril estimated 20 lakh vada pavs cold with sudden anger, the US and mering lush ready-to-eat enthusiasm food he sotocarefully (alevery of which only five Everday, changing, ever true — per other countries.

“Since there was most) never displayed.

Who wouldn’t rejoice cent comes players like Goli in I love April,from I loveorganised you. nothis other benchmark years ago, we had to sumptuous lastten line: and Jumbo King,Millay another chain doThe Edna St Vincent has acity-based more jaundiced all trees the groundwork — from are coming into leaf building supwith of a national presence. view the month (similar to TS Eliot, but with plier to marketing the final Likebase something almost being said;product.” so much more élan and irreverence). She un- That tois78dead, outlets India, Lastled year theyacross seem to say, with the The chain reaction does centuries worth of eulogies written to number about to touchafresh.

100 by May this year.

Begin afresh, afresh, Vadaseason pav was outside the withborn ‘Spring’ — Dadar station in In contrast to Goli and Jumbo King, which pariat is the the author of Seahorse of vadas 1966 sellerApril, AshokdoVaidya To when what snack purpose, you experireturn janice have outsourced manufacture mented by serving potato fritters inside a pav t@janicepariat again? and chutneys, Indore-based Wow Vada Pav has

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set up its own plants in Mumbai and Indore.

Co-founder and director Harpreet Singh realised the need for them when he was operating his four snack bars in Indore and found that dependence on cooks led to inconsistency in taste as well as pilferage.

Moreover, demand can never be forecast accurately, leading to either wastage of food or turning away a potential customer. The company turned to frozen foods technology to counter this problem and began standardising the product. “And since vada pav has a universal appeal, we began with it,” says Singh.

Loving it locally Goli has outsourced the manufacture of its vadas to the same company that makes burger patties for McDonald’s

Freeze now, fry later All the three chains rely on frozen foods technology. Patties made at the central plants can be stored for up to nine months in a freezer and fried at the outlets whenever needed.

The chains have also invested in logistics to ferry the patties from the plants to outlets across India. Jumbo King has partnered with Shriram Distribution Services, whose coldstorage trucks collect the patties and chutneys from the factory, stock them in depots, and ferry them to various cities and stores. Goli has a local logistics partner in every city it is present in, as also Wow, which has 170 outlets within 18 months of launching.

The buns or pavs are sourced from local bakeries. Iyer says local bakers in other centres are trained in making pav, a largely Mumbai speciality. “Our chefs spend two days training bakers in every city we open an outlet in,” he says. Jumbo King’s Gupta gets his pav from a certified bakery in each city. “In the next couple of years, we will be able to make pavs also at a central bakery,” he says.

Wow and Jumbo King get their sauces made at centralised plants, whereas Goli ropes in local vendors to make the tamarind-gur chutney, garlic chutney and tomato chutney. “We give them our formula and our chefs work with them. They supply according to the taste and quality we specify,” says Iyer.

Hot on the patties trail With a robust backend in place, the vada pav chains are able to focus on growing their franchisee network. “All our stores are run

Dheeraj Gupta, founder of Jumbo King, which boasts 78 outlets across India

Venkatesh Iyer’s Goli Vada Pav operates more than 300 stores in 18 states

through franchisees and there are no compa- plant each day and arrive at its stores countryny-owned stores,” says Gupta. wide; Jumbo King despatches six lakh a He prefers the franchisee model as each month. Wow’s plants can manufacture two store is run not by a manager tonnes of products per day and but an entrepreneur, who will are currently running at half that make an extra effort to offer capacity. Both Goli and Jumbo quality products and services.

King have been profitable for the “Instead of one person taking past three years, attracting inThere is an the profit, it is better to let everyvestment from venture capitalopportunity in the one share it,” he adds. non-veg segment. We ists as well as high net worth The vada pav franchisees typi- can introduce chicken individuals over the past decade. cally have a gross margin of vada pav or omelette Snack sans borders about 40-50 per cent, dependpav at a later stage ing on the rent. The popularity Even as demand for the humble vada pav grows at a breathtaking of the snack is spurring the rappace, the chains are constantly id expansion of the franchisee innovating to offer variations networks. Jumbo King is eyeing not less than a thousand outlets in the next suited to local palates. Goli’s range of offerings five to seven years, while Wow is looking to includes palak-makai (spinach-corn) vada pav for the southern markets in particular, grow to 250 outlets in the coming year.

Nearly one lakh patties leave Goli’s Mumbai and masala vada pav resembling samosa for the north. Jumbo King’s vada pav comes in variants such as Schezwan, chole (chickpeas) and crispy vegetables, while Wow too offers a masala paneer vada pav.

Surprisingly, none of them have experimented with non-vegetarian yet. “We are 100 per cent vegetarian by choice,” says Gupta.

Iyer, however, is open to the idea of including eggs and chicken to the staple offering of potatoes at his stores. Goli has come up with a soya vada pav for chicken lovers.

“There is an opportunity in the non-veg segment. We can introduce chicken vada pav or omelette pav at a later stage… in specific stores,” Iyer says.

The love for vada pav knows no borders, and all three chains are flooded with requests to open overseas outlets. “We get a lot of enquiries from the UK and Dubai, but we are holding on,” says Iyer. Ditto for Gupta, who says the India opportunity is big enough to defer overseas foray for now. “India is a very large market and it is important not to spread too thin. You just cannot go and put up a stall somewhere. As a company, we have to make a lot of investment and we would rather make them in India today,” he says.

But Singh is not risk-averse. He is already planning to supply frozen vadas to countries such the UAE. “It should start in the next few months,” he says. And when that happens, it will be vada pav’s longest journey yet from the streets of Mumbai.

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LIGHTHOUSE

The new face of cricket How T20, specifically the IPL, has turbo-charged the contest between bat and ball A clean sweep Glenn Maxwell demonstrates the new orthodoxy akhilesh kumar

turbo-charged the game. Because of the constraints of time, the format demands more out of both batsmen and bowlers than cricket did earlier. In T20 cricket, you have to optimise. To understand the creature that emerges from this, consider the insanely talented Glenn Maxwell.

The most remarkable graphic I saw during this World Cup was the one broadcasters showed after a cameo by Maxwell. It displayed where bowlers bowled to him and where he hit them. Most of the balls pitched on off or outside disappeared on the leg side; most of the balls pitched straight or on leg were whacked on the off side. This is not because he got randomly funky. There was a method to his madness.

In the past, batsmen would carry a mental Pride and joy To walk the car-free MG Road is to inevitably bump into people you know ritu raj konwar map of where the field was, and adjust to the ball according to that. Now they adjust to the field before the ball is bowled, and dance HOME SPUN around the crease and set themselves up accordingly. If point and third man are up and a spinner is bowling, Maxwell is very likely to set up a reverse sweep, which in his hands is an orthodox stroke, like a cover drive or pull, with a similar risk-reward ratio. It doesn’t matter if the ball pitches two inches outside leg; he’s already decided where it’s going to go. And he ne trend that never goes out of but this is far from true. Bowlers have been plays like this from ball one. In that graphic in fashion is lamenting the present, hugely influential in the IPL, and every side question, the bowlers actually bowled to their claiming that things were better in that has won has done so because its bowlers field; and he batted to that field too. the past. Logically, one would not stepped up and influenced the game. Think Players like Maxwell and AB de Villiers, who Gangtok, my hometown, expect thistry to to bevisit the case in sport.

After all, at Porky’s restaurant, weJust feltbecause sophisticatIn Land I Flee, I call Gangtok a city of Narine, Malinga, Ashwin,where Warne. is known as a Where ‘360-Batsman’ because he can least twice a year.

Short tripsatleave most sports seem close to their zenith any me I admit there’s no the point feelingand special ed and grown-up ordered something bowlers go at seven anwhen over we instead of five, as sendstairs. the ball to any part of ground wanting more andBolt often makefaster me wongiven point in time.

Usain is way other than mean momos. walked up nature the stairs — that.

The sobriquet could apply to other in ODIs, doesn’t theWe fundamental playsabout as if the stumps aren’t there, have transwhy Federer I don’t live there partwould of the year. than Carlder Lewis, and Nadal cities — many with inclines and flight, flights,The three flights, and of theone game hastwo changed. goalposts havethe fiformed the game other with cities their—inventiveness Longer tripsorleave me suffocated. venture whoop McEnroe Becker’s ass, MagnusToCarlnal fourth flight — to Tashi withenormous slopes andtalent), curves. playing Even to this shifted, the parameters haveNamgyal Academy, declines,(and out toprobably MG Margbeat — our pedestrianised square, sen would Bobby Fischer. Better our school, higher, through the day, a new city’s that stairs connector me to Gangtok changed, but the and gameeven is still a strokes Richards, even the our pride and joy,inour attemptand at more becoming technology (including training) woods, to temples as viewpoints far morerecent strongly than similarities in roads, contest between bat andthat ball.doubled If it Tendulkar for that matter, the most European of Indian cities — is to run knowledge about the past make this inevitaandthe were ideal for playing people.

How elseAnd could I wasn’t, sides would just gohooky. We walked views, cuisines, couldn’tand have conceived. intoone at sport least athat dozen people you know. ble. The seems to defy this sort Conexplain they the peculiar familiarity felt with down the astairs to Paljor Stadium, the sports out and have slog-off against are not the only ones.I Every Players like Maxwell trary to what movies and books would have of analysis, though, is cricket. ground that hosted Monte Carlo, on myand first there? bowling machines, and Independence teams team Monaco, is optimising, wetrip have andDay AB celede Villiers believe, very little charming about would a brations Weyou cricket romantics stillis speak of Don and football matches. have transformedThe — with its massive yachts, pick 11 specialist batsmen. the knock-on effect this botoxed has thetownseen placeas where everybody knowsever, everybody.

Bradman the greatest batsman of the What has changed, though, is had on ODIs in this World Cup, game with their When I was growing a batting has evolved to adapt West Indies pace quartet of the up, ’70s Gangtok and ’80s aswas that where, I submit, batsmen not oninventiveness sleepy just attack, about awakening its touthe best fasttown bowling and we stillto sigh to the challenges and conly scored more runs than before, potential.India’s The tourists — whenrism we remember famouswe spinattracted quar- straints of a 20-over-a-side game. but also batted better. monkey-capped Bengalis on a budget tet. Recently, a poll named Viv Richards, from— we(And bowling has changed as a Having said this, I would agree ren’t the tourists we desired.

But we the Neolithic age of one-day cricket, ashad thecomresponse to this.) When one-day with measures by administrapetition.

Darjeeling next door hadre-more greatest ODI player ever. And while batting cricket began in the ’70s, for example, games tors to tilt the balance more towards bowlers. beauty, history, character than we cordsnatural have been taken apartand recently, includwere 60-overs-a-side and batsmen approached One could mess around with field restrictions, with.

Gangtok was ascribe either an afing inwere thisendowed World Cup, cricket tragics their innings just as they approached Test and I certainly think the 10-over limit on how terthought pit stop between before visitors moved this to a shift in or thea contest bat and matches. The traditional virtues of the game much a bowler can bowl should go: there on to more exotic locales withintop theedges state. were still applicable, and a run-rate of four aren’t corresponding limits on batsmen. But ball, the heavier bats which enable Thesix, relative isolation — wefield still don’t havethrough a to go for batsman-skewed restrican innings was acceptable. please, do not say that there is no longer a conorisana airport — accounted tions,railway and sostation on. This valid point, but it’s for a One-day cricket underwent a change test between bat and ball. The two main conplace thattruth. was unapologetically not the whole My contention issmall-town that the in through the ’90s, as sides began to exploit the tenders for the man-of-the-series award in this outlook. world didn’t come us the gameits has evolvedThe significantly in the lastto few field restrictions at the start of the innings. World Cup were bowlers (Starc and Boult), and descended on been Nainital, Mussoorie, years,way anditT20 cricket has a hugely posi- or Opening batsmen before Sanath Jayasuriya a bowling performance got MOTM in the finals Shimla. We have schools. tive influence on didn’t the way theworld-famous game is played. had gone berserk, like Mark Greatbatch in the (Faulkner). When Mitchell Starc spears in that didn’t charming bookstores.

T20We cricket getshave a lot of flak, and while much We 1992 World Cup, but the Sri Lankans of 1996 yorker at 150kmph to Brendan McCullum, afdidn’t haveabout trafficitsjams.

Not every second of the criticism commercial strucwere the first to treat it as a philosophy, not a ter setting him up with two fierce dot balls, building was a hotel. ture is justified, I don’t agree with any of the tactic. The change in approach saw higher you know the game is doing just fine.

Weabout walked everywhere.

Uphill the Comcriticism its cricketing value.

Testtocrickscores in ODIs, and a knock-off effect in Tests. t@amitvarma munity Centrethat Library, member- The T20 revolution, and specifically the IPL, et snobs complain T20s where are justaa₹150 slogfest, ship gave you access to dog-eared Enid Blytons Building sky-high The relative isolation of Gangtok is now a thing of the past, with a flurry of new constructions and tattered Sidney Sheldons. And downhill to ritu raj konwar

Ups and downs

With inclines and declines, slopes and curves, Gangtok, a city where everybody knows everybody, has more in common with Monte Carlo than one might imagine

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Amit Varma is a novelist. He blogs at indiauncut.com

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Long focus Dibakar Banerjee is known to be fastidious, even pernickety about details

Your world is your research Film director Dibakar Banerjee on reimagining the most famous Bengali sleuth, ďŹ nding inspiration in reality and why he is not an intellectual

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Closing the circle

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(above) ‘Upanayanam’ and ‘Divine Mothers Series (Parvati)’ vadehra art gallery

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market crashed in 2008 and now, seven years later, painting is back! It has stood rock solid through all of this. I feel so vindicated,” says Menon with a warm chuckle.

Certainly, the re-emergence of painting is most evident in Menon’s mammoth 96.5’ x 97’ triptych of an upanayanam, or a boy’s thread ceremony. The parents and grandparents surchild, offerings under a patAll a hustle bustle With a healthy scorn for all things South Bombay, Banerjee finds inspiration in places such as the round crowdedthe bylanes ofbearing Karol Bagh in West Delhi, where terned canopy. Their expressions are he grew up sushil kumar verma thoughtful, but also caring. “My works have ofhe first of the three stories in Diba- Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay holds a special ten rites ofhas passage I have always the depicted literary sleuth had afor continued press workmen on Love ladders gallery to kar Banerjee’s Sex and aur Dhokha tell of itsplace own story, it isThe gods in dis- found pride on hiswhether bookshelf. author’s the transition childhood toFor puberence with numerousfrom Bangla versions. puattendants putting tress (LSD, 2010) scurry starts around, out deceptively or and people atenduring the cuspgift of to change. greatest most BengaliHer lit- ty an who interesting period in humanByomkesh life,” she rists have been consuming last-minute to Anjolie Ela paintings funny.

Set in touches north India, a film stuhave a distinct quality ofcriminal this world erature has been the dhoti-clad in- says, scanning the large work. admits that his stories for decades, Banerjee Menon’s solo show at the Vadehra dent has to trick his girlfriend’s grouchy fa- and otherworldliness. couldwhom be characvestigator ByomkeshThese Bakshi, he re-imagining In the gallery is another tak-a of upstairs the character may work, come as Art Delhi, she remains brother the picture of ters therGallery and intestosterone-filled into youin have the told street or Byomkesh those you en created 1932.met “Weonwere that her private collection and not for sale, bitfrom of shock, especially the contemporary rock composure her daily approving ofand him.continues He does thiswith by offering the have your nightmares. is forglimpsed kids whoinare 14-plus.

That’s the surest which also used speaks transition “When of a young music he’s inof thethe soundtrack. you crossword. signature bindi, im- way father a partWith in hisher tacky diplomared film Mehendi Buttowhat one first the up Divine get astrikes 12-year-old to is pick the Mothbook. girl to puberty new, as her mother looks on. Both try something you have to be prepared peccably draped sari to and warm she ers Lagake Rakhna, an ode his idol ‘Adismile, sir’. Evenis depicted as aare supine Youseries. couldParvati see Byomkesh books deep,beauthey mother and that’s daughter nude, emerging for a reaction new,”are he says. abandons her crossword only to discuss her ty tually, the young couple has to elope in filmie a little dancing Ganesh, goplaying into thewith relationship between a man while and a from their bath and sunning on Actor Sushant Singh Rajput,themselves who plays the art.

“This exhibitiontheir goes inner back to my and first ‘Simlove: the style, channelling ‘Raj’ forlorn head the boy that Shivaand hadadewoman, they are aoflittle more sensual lit- the “There is an intimacy warmth leadterrace. role, was instructed to read alland 32 of SharaOil onAtmasonite a medium thatBanerI have capitated ran’. no pointboard in this—love story does in fury lies at her feet.

Parvati seems tle more complex.

Feluda (by Satyajit Ray) was of the mother-daughter bond that I have tried dindu’s books as preparation but was told to loved since the It was while I next. was experijee prepare you’70s. for what happens At the lost in her own world and impervious to Ga- to written keeping only children and pre-teens work is inspired staycapture. clear of The the film versions.

WhenbyheAmrita ended menting with glass which I found nesh, dead of the night, thenegatives, newly-weds are dragged whoThey seems to be pleading for But attention. in mind. were moral stories.

Shara- Sher-Gil’s ‘Two Girls’.

I like the tableaux-like up watching them after Banerjee had finished in ancestral home outmy of ahusband’s car and mercilessly hackedintoKollendeath. What her thoughts?

Has herhe husband’s fu- quality dinduare was writing for adults,” says, wideworkwhy. and“This the themes filming,ofheSher-Gil’s understood is very she difgode Palaceare (Thrissur, that I deliberdiscov- ry The images dark andKerala), camerawork troubled eyed.

Like a her? fanboy he rattles off, “I’ve read ev- dealt says Menon. ferent.with,” You would have never seen a Byomkesh ered well to eryInSharadindu atelythat jerky.the Allmasonite we can seesurface are thereacted brother’s eyes another corner hangs the black story. His historical andVirgin social like Making these works proved to bekeeping a chalthis. This is Dibakar’s Byomkesh, oil paint,” recalls as he batters themMenon. with what looks like a hock- Mary, by boi the(ghost Russian novels,inspired his bhooter stories), his hor- the essence of Sharadindu lenge, not just because of the alive,” says Rajput. are until surrounded by her eyWe stick… their shrieks gocreations silent. with painters.

Her face stoic, his evenoccult stories.” ror stories…

I stillis read detailing but thebesize.

“At By all accounts, Banerjee is also said to unusutheir warm oranges and lunar greens.

Me- regal, “I was at there PVR when the film released. though child-like her eyes are shut With almost enthusiasm he asks, ally composed my it is harder as andage patient on set. to “Inwork all my non’s work has always beenofimmediately This family sitting in front me had justrecor- in grief the impending sacri“Do youatknow that Sharadindu quickly as I used to.

I still con-I years of working with him, I gave everyone a scare must ognisable because of poor its bold and fice dered pizza.

When the kids palette are beheadof her son Jesus Christ.

Tihas written stories about pravasi sider myself did have seenprolific, him losebut hisittemwhen I climbed onto the per figures whoputs seem harbour secrets. ed, this man thetopizza down and says,This ‘Yeh tled ‘Madonna & Child Bengalis (Bengalis withDivine roots take three years tosays produce justme once or twice,” Behl. scaffolding without a But show hashai? fansPura andpizza collectors thrilled, it is Mothers kya film hi bigaad diya’as (What Series’, the painting outside West Bengal) in Gole this work,” saysofthe arthebody has aofreputation being If you don’t up in hard hat andget a harness, her solo inisfive canvas seems grabs kindfirst of movie this,years. it hasEach ruined my pizza),” attention market (Delhi)?”because this is a ist, who is also working a a compulsive planner.

Sinceon this the morning and recalls Banerjee, perfectly impersonating a black Mary, attired a sari.

In but frankly I have always film Filmmaker Kanu in Behl, whose large mural for the Mumbai is set in ’40s British-occuwatch thelarge world, then painted works Punjabi accent. these Menon celebrates debutworks, film Titli (2014) was proairport.

“I gave a pied Calcutta, a cityeveryone he doesn’t you’rethese closing the without trappings The 45-year-old filmmaker has always stood womanhood and the multiplicduced by Banerjee, has been scareaswhen I climbed onto know deeply as Delhi, he the beeasiest, cheapest, and apart for his unsettling and undiluted repre- ity of her culture at adirector time when working with the for scaffolding without a hard two hat gan his research almost most fascinating sentation of modern India and its realities. In both appear threat. several yearsunder now and considers and before a harness, but frankly years the film went onI book LSD it was honour killings. In Khosla Ka Ghosla him “I was born of Bengali-Ameria mentor.

Behl was an assisthave Last always painted large floors. year, he got in touch (2006) it was Delhi’s land sharks. If we’ve been can parentage extendant director onand Oye my Lucky, Lucky works without trapwith Iftekhar Ahsan, these whose comtrained to believe that Bollywood equals es- ed Muslims, Parsis and Druids. I pings,” she says.

Oyefamily (2008).has “We’ve been hearing is also pleased that her panyShe Walking Tours conducts capism, Banerjee has proved the opposite can have stayed true toLucky my multicultural public art mural aboutalways Byomkesh since Oye at thewalks Kolkata metrothe station, heritage around city. also be true. “My films have usually confront- lineage noinitial matter which political partydifferis in which days. The drafts of the film were hadled been vandalised, has finally been “One walk to another, till he had exhausted ed people. In India there is a very limited tradi- power.

Mywhat female nudes counter theguessing misogy- restored ent from he’s made now. I’m after five of was chasing the authorall my routes andyears there nothing left to tion of consuming something that makes you nistic gaze of knew male painters likewas FN Souza — a ities that Dibakar something missing,” concerned. show,” says Ahsan. “Dibakar is quite anal uncomfortable. In LSD, when you see a mirror friend I often argued with — that and this he says.whom In hindsight, Banerjee feels had about We end thedetails. tour with set of small works of little He awould suddenly stop of your own life, it makes you fidgety and un- prevailing wavefilm of hate crimes he made this earlier, he towards may notwomhave the “It isbuilding an experimental that andMadonna, ask, ‘Was this there in work the 1940s comfortable,” he explains. en,” 74-year-old beensays ablethe to pull it off. “Iartist. think this is the right combines with Indian miniaturor do youbazaar think kitsch this lamppost existed back Banerjee’s new film, Detective Byomkesh time Menon’s powerful mothers are surrounded to make it because I couldn’t have made es.

I like sizeinteresting since they are be then?’

It their was very for meant me, buttoalso Bakshy! — that Punjabi family will be happy to by dervishes, striking and and wiseknowlmen. held it this well without the nudes experience and viewed intimately, just well-versed as the folios of challenging because he’s very in know — is unlikely to ruin anyone’s appetite. These in her work and smartly she has the edge ofsubjects what torecur do. Byomkesh is a very miniatures Bengali literature,were. whichWith I am this not.”show, you Instead it is a good old-fashioned yarn that he revisited here with fresh vigour after planned, them medium-budget Bollywood film.exIt could say, I haveTiwari, come who full circle.”

We Byomcould Actor Anand plays Ajit, has nursed for years now. It gives expression to perimenting kitschitand public doesn’t throwwith money, invests in murals. planning not agree more.in the film, was astounded by kesh’s sidekick his childhood diet of Bengali literature. “The and “Inresearch,” 2007 a man, whose name I’d rather not the(‘Recent he says.

Worksdetailing

by Anjoliethat Elawent Menon’ at meticulous intoruns every house that I grew up in is a stack of books. The mention, said to aonly group of us painters ‘Easel The first and Byomkesh made —for the Vadehra Gallery, till some April 27) frame ofArt the film. Delhi, Shot in of the city’s house that I live in now is essentially a moun- painting is dead.was Installation art andDoordarphotog- busiest commercial areas, Banerjee had wiped Hindi audience the memorable maddox is a Delhi-based tain of books,” he says, with a laugh. Writer raphy will rule Indian scene.’InThen the georgina shan series withthe actor Rajitart Kapoor.

Bengal, out all traces of elements that art didwriter not fit the

A walkabout with Anjolie Ela Menon during her first solo show in five years proves why she remains a leading artist of the country

Picture perfect Anjolie Ela Menon has always been known for her bold portraits

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Of places without people Linnaeus Tripe’s photographs tell of colonial pursuits and one man’s timeless way of seeing

True to life While recreating the sets for Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! in Calcutta, Banerjee would ask questions like whether a certain lamppost would have stood at a particular spot back in 1940

him from being bullied in a Punjabi neighbourhood. “Some big Punjabi guy would take me in his arms and say, ‘Yeh Bangali yaar tabla bahut Doorway achcha bajaata hai. Isko tu kuch mat bol New frontiers ‘Madura: Trimul Naik’s Choultry, Side Veranda from West’ (January–March 1858) and ‘Pugahm Myo: Carved in the courtyard of Shwe (This Bengali plays the tabla very well. Don’t Zeegong Pagoda’ (August 20–24, 1855, or October 23, 1855) courtesy metropolitan museum of art, new york harm him in any way)’.”

Banerjee’s anecdote about watching LSD the audience takes me back to a similar n the summer of 1855, a British delega- entific as it was artistic. Just as a biologist with haunted houses, entirely depopulated except I witnessed whilesmudge watching 2013 tion ventured up the Irrawaddy river to collected samples of insects, so too was Tripe incident for the occasional ghostly of ahis person.

Shanghai, a bleak taleon onruins, urbanTripe’s developthe court of the king of Burma. Along amassing specimens for scientific classifica- film Coupled with its focus arThe title ‘Shanghai’ is a metaphor with its usual coterie of military and dip- tion and inquiry. His pictures would peel back ment. chitectural way of seeing makes the placesfor he aspirations we harbour toAn surpass China. lomatic officials, the mission brought a man the unknown, revealing a part of the world the visited seem rather timeless. atmosphere eluded the two teenagers beside with a fairly novel profession: a photographer. that was of growing interest to the British. Aes- This of glum decrepitude pervadesseated the photos.

They patiently waited the entire Captain Linnaeus Tripe and his assistants thetic values seemed to matter less to Tripe me.

Some Buddhist temples arethrough almost vegetal, enfor Shanghai, theand city, to appear.A And spent over a month cataloguing the monu- than the clarity of the documentation. As he film cumbered with foliage overgrowth. broit in didn’t, declared, rather peeved, ments and vistas of Burma. admitted himself, “the picturesque may be al- when ken fort souththey India returns to the earth, its Dibakarindistinguishable bahut hi intellectual hai.” an “Yeh Photography was in its infancy at the time, lowed perhaps, supplementally.” stonework from theIt’s rock he’s heard once tooevocations often. And so wreathed in mystery that the Burmese king The exhibition nevertheless features many accusation outcroppings of the hills.

These of his no vigorous head-shake, he allegedly refused to sit for a portrait, fearing picturesque images. There is a gossamer qual- judging a decayingbyworld doubt buttressed the costrongly refutes “Usually we was call that the camera would “take away his face.” ity to his photograph of the Thalonialit.notion that when South Asia someone an intellectual, it means that he’s obTripe took away a lot more than a king’s face. pinyu Pagoda in Pagan, as if crying out for the dynamism of scure and boring.

I might have screwed up on Using large-format paper negatives coated in Tripe had sketched the structure Victorian Britain.

Photography a scene here and there, generallyfrom as a filmalbumen, he wrestled with tropical humidity in pencil. Its ornamented roofs cannot bebut separated the Tripe’s evocations of ’40s.

“He had spoken local authorities think Iof amBritish boring.power If theyin mean Public where to capture diverse views to of the country, from Bal floatBharti up from theSchool, ground whilehe befriended maker I don’tmarch the a decaying world no and traders.

Studying much beforepagodas we arrived set. He exact- halwais thick and impenetrable, don’t the elegant of on Pagan to knew the spidery its uppermost spires seem at to an “RSS dom- that Dibakar is subcontinent.

From 1855, Icadets doubt buttressed the he quickly ly how of the road we were going to inated” arms of much tamarind trees. fade intoschool, the brooding sky. picked Cam- up Punjabi agree with it.”at the East India Company’s milicolonial notion that of Haryanvi.

While his childneed andthe what trams tomission, use. He would He may deny an intellectual, but he’s After Burmese Tripe pick was the ap- and erasaatfair theamount time struggled to captarybeing seminary at Addiscombe South Asia was crying in Delhi mightwould have anchored exact dhoti the shoes and socks of to go intelligent. six of films bepointed theand official photographer thewith Ma- hood ture skies, so Tripe brush him to the without doubt were trained inWith the use photoout for the dynamism his world “exploded” he joined hind him, he it.

There are few in directors, especially in Bolly- Capital, has never repeated a genre, dras Presidency 1856. One of his principal clouds into the negative, just when as graphic equipment.

To know Inof Victorian Britain National wood, whophotographing pay such greatmonuments attention to detail,” which is nothrough small achievement in tasks was and ru- the he would addInstitute ripples of to Design ponds, dia, even the camera, there he awas Bollywood thrives on tried ins.says.

These included the temples of Madurai in andAhmedabad. finer leavesHistostint trees.

He to betterthat control India. cut short he was exand tested adds, and Thanjavur, the crumbling fort at Ryacotta, was played with because light ingeniously But the formulas. strange Behl power of for incomplete courseThrough lens deeply “My first photographs job outside film school and othera ancient sites that were often very re- pelled when capturing the entrance of Tripe’s deserves Usually when we call but he remains The way to years understand is work, was with it was masmote.surest During eight in BurmaBanerjee and India, the dilapidated hill fortindebted at Ryacotta. Dark vege- more than charges of Dibakar imperialand complicity.

He someone an the college. through his films. are by-products of his to sively interesting. hasfrontiers, a differhis assistants andThey he produced over 25,000 tation swarms over the ancient stone till it simultaneously pushed acrossHe two intellectual, it means Thoseupon who’ve closely childhood memories, literary influences ent way of doing things.

What prints. A selection of this enormous bodyand of breaks theworked illuminated gate, which at one geographic — the previously undocuthat he’s obscure Banerjee say thatwith histhe wails of an- mented sights silent from exhibition his office in surprised meand wasIndia how—the same work isobservations the subject ofmade an ongoing at with night was said to resound of Burma and the and boring of different art central Mumbai. Though the York, Yash knowledge film could made magic differently in the Metropolitan Museumwe ofmeet Art inatNew guished spirits. other technological, thebe curious of phogives an edge over Raj Films’Linnaeus office in Andheri, Banerjee’s strong terms of process.”

‘Captain Tripe: Photographer of In- forms People arehim conspicuous in their absence tography. In our visually saturated age, it is difhasSince a successful distaste for the area where the bulk of his film- others.

The only criticism, if of onethese can dia and Burma, 1852-1860’. from hisHe work. each shotcalasted minutes ficult to imagine the experience advertising — behind ie Tripe comrades is now calltime. it that, thrown at Banerjee is joinedthrive the East Indiacommon Companyknowlat the reer — notinmilliseconds humanhim, motion was diffi- images in their Tripe offered his British deep of architecture and is a that edge. is your research.

If ayou don’t acult while each his films is well reviewed, age of“Your 17 andworld was trained initially as military to understanding capture. Occasionally, one can find the viewers both theof wonder of the unknown and sketch sketched blurred the poster get up in He thelearnt morning and watch the on world, cater to aofniche audience. agrees surveyor. photography while fur- gifted stray man in aartist Tripe (he photograph, likeofa they the wonder distilling lightBanerjee to shapes and Byomkesh Bakshy!).

He was then closing cheapest, and Detective doesn’t loughyou’re in England inthe theeasiest, early 1850s.

A martial stain on the negative and dwarfed bypushed monu- but shadows on aintend page. to address it. He has a learning an instrument at a the young age, as most book,” he says. His work. first two vision.Linnaeus “At its core, I’dPhotographer like to changeofthe rigourfascinating infused his photographic To into ments and landscape.

To avoid clutter of larger (‘Captain Tripe: InKhosla ka andhe Oye Lucky, Lucky his mother andTripe sisterwent are about classical films of viewers and showruns thatatthis is posshoot—a temple, forGhosla instance, would systemhuman beings, hismusic work taste dia and Burma, 1852-1860’ Thealso Metropoli— are that. The precision with Oye “My mother’s dream washethat she sible.

This can be entertaining...

And look, atically takeproof long of exposures from all sides be- teachers. early in the morning.

Other times, recruittan Museum of also Art, New York till May 25) which he nails Delhi, character mylocal sisterauthorities would singto onblock stagepeople and I would fore advancing closeran toimportant photograph frontal and ed the from a new road has opened.” in both Many films,of can be credited to his practitioupbring- play the tabla,” he says. complexes.

Though he never details. photography’s early city streets or temple India conand kanishk tharoor is the author of the forthcoming ing Karol Bagh in west He studied at sidered music as he jokes that it down saved mohini Swimmerchaudhuri Among the Stars: Stories nersinbelieved the ethos ofDelhi. the craft was as sciBurma appear incareer, his photos as tumble

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River on the edge Is Nila, Kerala’s second longest river, on its last leg?

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found a despondent PA Ashraf, a 50-year-old fisherman, leaving empty-handed from the dry riverbed of Bharathapuzha, better known as the Nila river.

Flowing over 209km, this is the second longest river in Kerala after the Periyar. These are difficult days for people like Ashraf, a resident of Cheruthuruthi, a small fishing village near Thrissur, whose bread and butter come only from fishing.

Indiscriminate sand mining has reduced the river to a trickle. “A few decades ago, fishing was a lucrative trade,” says Ashraf. With Nila drying up progressively,

Dry state A view of the riverbed at Shornur in Palakkad district

No catch here PA Ashraf returns home empty-handed

his only chance of netting a catch lies in the small pools of water on the riverbed.

The problems go beyond fishing here. There is an acute shortage of drinking water in the 175 gram panchayats and a dozen municipalities on the banks of the Nila. A total of 117 species dependent on the river’s ecosystem are also on the verge of extinction. It’s not just Nila whose days are numbered. When the river runs dry, thousands of fishermen like Ashraf will disappear too. kk mustafah

Gloomy picture A fisherman tries h

In muddy waters Children play in the little water that is left

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h his luck in shallow pools of water

Net result A ďŹ sherman’s net settles like a veil on the riverbed

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Closing the circle

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meeta ahlawat;

(above) ‘Upanayanam’ and ‘Divine Mothers Series (Parvati)’ vadehra art gallery

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market crashed in 2008 and now, seven years later, painting is back! It has stood rock solid through all of this. I feel so vindicated,” says Menon with a warm chuckle.

Certainly, the re-emergence of painting is most evident in Menon’s mammoth 96.5’ x 97’ triptych of an upanayanam, or a boy’s thread ceremony. The parents and grandparents surchild, offerings under a patAll a hustle bustle With a healthy scorn for all things South Bombay, Banerjee finds inspiration in places such as the round crowdedthe bylanes ofbearing Karol Bagh in West Delhi, where terned canopy. Their expressions are he grew up sushil kumar verma thoughtful, but also caring. “My works have ofhe first of the three stories in Diba- Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay holds a special the ten depicted rites ofhas passage I have always literary sleuth had a for continued press workmen onLove ladders gallery pride kar Banerjee’s Sex and aur Dhokha to tell of itsplace own story, it isThe gods in dis- ence on hiswhether bookshelf. author’s foundwith the transition childhood toFor pubernumerousfrom Bangla versions. puattendants putting greatest (LSD, 2010) scurry starts around, out deceptively tress or and people the cuspgift of to change. mostatenduring BengaliHer lit- rists ty an who interesting period in humanByomkesh life,” she have been consuming last-minute to Anjolie Ela erature funny.

Set in touches north India, a film stupaintings have a distinct quality of this world has been the dhoti-clad criminal in- stories says, scanning the large work. admits that his for decades, Banerjee Menon’s solo show at the Vadehra dent has to trick his girlfriend’s grouchy fa- vestigator and otherworldliness. couldwhom be characByomkesh These Bakshi, he re-imagining In the gallery is another work, as tak-a of upstairs the character may come Art Delhi, she remainsbrother the picture of created therGallery and in testosterone-filled into ters youin have the told street or Byomkesh those you bit 1932.met “Weon were that en from her private collection and not for rock sale, of shock, especially the contemporary composure her daily approving ofand him. continues He does thiswith by offering the is have your nightmares. forglimpsed kids whoinare 14-plus.

That’s the surest music which he’s also used speaks transition“When of a young in of thethe soundtrack. you crossword. signature bindi, im- way father a partWith in hisher tacky diplomared film Mehendi Buttowhat one first theup Divine get astrikes 12-year-old to is pick the Mothbook. try girlsomething to puberty new, as her mother looks on. Both you have to be prepared peccably draped sari toand warm she You Lagake Rakhna, an ode his idol ‘Adismile, sir’. Eveners series. is depicted as aare supine could Parvati see Byomkesh books deep,beauthey for mother and that’s daughter nude, emerging a reaction new,”are he says. abandons her crossword only to discuss her go tually, the young couple has to elope in filmie ty playing a little dancing Ganesh, into thewith relationship between a man while and a from their bath and sunning on Actor Sushant Singh Rajput, themselves who plays the art.

“This exhibitiontheir goesinner back to myand first ‘Simlove: woman, style, channelling ‘Raj’ the forlorn head the more boy that Shivaand hada dethey are aoflittle sensual lit- lead the terrace.

“There is an intimacy warmth role, was instructed to read alland 32 of SharaOil a medium thatBanerI have tle ran’.onAtmasonite no pointboard in this—love story does capitated in fury lies at her feet.

Parvati seems more complex.

Feluda (by Satyajit Ray) was dindu’s of the mother-daughter bond that I have tried books as preparation but was told to loved since the It was while I next. was experijee prepare you ’70s. for what happens At the written lost in her own world and impervious to Ga- stay keeping only children and pre-teens to capture.

The film work is inspired clear of the versions.

Whenby heAmrita ended menting with glass which I found in dead of the night, thenegatives, newly-weds are dragged nesh, whoThey seems to be pleading forBut attention. mind. were moral stories.

Shara- up Sher-Gil’s ‘Two Girls’.

I like the tableaux-like watching them after Banerjee had finished in ancestral home outmy of ahusband’s car and mercilessly hackedintoKollendeath. dindu What are her thoughts?

Has herhe husband’s fu- filming, was writing for adults,” says, widequality ofheSher-Gil’s workwhy. and“This the themes understood is very she difgode Palaceare (Thrissur, that I deliberdiscov- eyed.

The images dark andKerala), camerawork ry troubled Like a her? fanboy he rattles off, “I’ve read ev- ferent. dealt with,” says Menon.

You would have never seen a Byomkesh ered well to eryInSharadindu ately that jerky.the Allmasonite we can seesurface are thereacted brother’s eyes another corner hangs the black story. His historical andVirgin social like Making these works proved to bekeeping a chalthis. This is Dibakar’s Byomkesh, oil paint,” recalls as he batters themMenon. with what looks like a hock- novels, Mary, inspired by boi the(ghost Russian his bhooter stories), his hor- the essence of Sharadindu lenge, not just because of the alive,” says Rajput. are until surrounded by her with ror ey We stick… their shrieks gocreations silent. painters.

Her face stoic,his even stories…

I stillis read occult stories.” detailing but also to thebesize.

“At By all accounts, Banerjee is said unusutheir warm oranges and lunar greens.

Me- With “I was at there PVR when the film released. regal, almost though child-like her eyes are shut enthusiasm he asks, ally composed my it is harder as andage patient on set. to “Inwork all my non’s work sitting has always beenofimmediately This family in front me had justrecor- “Do in grief the impending sacriyouatknow that Sharadindu quickly as I used to.

I still con-I years of working with him, I gave everyone a scare must ognisable because of poor its bold and has dered pizza.

When the kids palette are beheadfice written of her son Jesus Christ.

Tistories about pravasi sider myself did have seenprolific, him losebut hisittemwhen I climbed onto the pertake figures whoputs seem harbour secrets. ed, this man theto pizza down and says,This ‘Yeh Bengalis tled ‘Madonna & Child (Bengalis withDivine roots three years tosays produce justme once or twice,” Behl. scaffolding without a But show hashai? fansPura andpizza collectors thrilled, it is outside kya film hi bigaad diya’ as (What Mothers West Series’, the painting Bengal) in Gole this work,” saysofthe arthebody has aofreputation being If you don’t up in hard hat andget a harness, her solo in canvas seems market kindfirst of movie is five this,years. it hasEach ruined my pizza),” grabs attention (Delhi)?”because this is a ist, who is also working a compulsive planner.

Sinceon thisa the morning and recalls Banerjee, perfectly impersonating a black Mary, attired a sari.

In but frankly I have always film Filmmaker Kanu in Behl, whose large mural for the Mumbai is set in ’40s British-occuwatch thelarge world, then painted works Punjabi accent. these works, Menon debut film Titli (2014)celebrates was proairport.

“I gave pied Calcutta, a cityeveryone he doesn’ta you’re closing the The 45-year-old filmmaker has always stood duced womanhood and the multiplicby Banerjee, has been without these trappings know scareaswhen I climbed onto deeply as Delhi, he the beeasiest, cheapest, and apart for his unsettling and undiluted repre- working ity of her culture at adirector time when with the for scaffolding without a hardtwo hat gan his research almost most fascinating sentation of modern India and its realities. In several both appear threat. yearsunder now and considers and before a harness, but frankly years the film went onI book LSD it was honour killings. In Khosla Ka Ghosla him “I was born of Bengali-Ameria mentor.

Behl was an assisthave Last always painted large floors. year, he got in touch (2006) it was Delhi’s land sharks. If we’ve been ant can director parentage extendonand Oye my Lucky, Lucky works without trapwith Iftekhar Ahsan, these whose comtrained to believe that Bollywood equals es- Oye ed family Muslims, Parsis and Druids. I pings,” she says.

(2008).has “We’ve been hearing is also pleased that her panyShe Walking Tours conducts capism, Banerjee has proved the opposite can about have always stayed true toLucky my multicultural public art mural Byomkesh since Oye at thewalks Kolkata metrothe station, heritage around city. also be true. “My films have usually confront- days. lineage matter which political partydifferis in “One Thenoinitial drafts of the film were whichwalk hadled been vandalised, has finally been to another, till he had exhausted ed people. In India there is a very limited tradi- ent power.

Mywhat female nudes theguessing misogy- all from he’s madecounter now. I’m restored after five chasing the authormy routes andyears thereofwas nothing left to tion of consuming something that makes you that nisticDibakar gaze of knew male painters likewas FN Souza — a show,” something missing,” ities concerned. says Ahsan. “Dibakar is quite anal uncomfortable. In LSD, when you see a mirror he friend I often argued with — that and had this about says.whom In hindsight, Banerjee feels We end thedetails. tour with set of small works of little He awould suddenly stop of your own life, it makes you fidgety and un- he prevailing wavefilm of hate crimes towards made this earlier, he may notwomhave and the Madonna, “It isbuilding an experimental that ask, ‘Was this there in work the 1940s comfortable,” he explains. en,” says 74-year-old been ablethe to pull it off. “Iartist. think this is the right or combines with Indian miniaturdo youbazaar think kitsch this lamppost existed back Banerjee’s new film, Detective Byomkesh time Menon’s powerful mothers are surrounded to make it because I couldn’t have made then?’ es. I like sizeinteresting since they are meant be It their was very for me, buttoalso Bakshy! — that Punjabi family will be happy to it bythis dervishes, striking nudes and and wiseknowlmen. challenging well without the experience held and viewed intimately, just well-versed as the folios in of because he’s very know — is unlikely to ruin anyone’s appetite. edge Theseofsubjects in her work and smartly she has Bengali what torecur do. Byomkesh is a very the miniatures literature,were. whichWith I am this not.” show, you Instead it is a good old-fashioned yarn that he planned, revisited them here with fresh vigour after medium-budget Bollywood film.exIt could say, I haveTiwari, come who full circle.”

We Byomcould Actor Anand plays Ajit, has nursed for years now. It gives expression to doesn’t perimenting kitschitand public throwwith money, invests in murals. planning kesh’s not agree more.in the film, was astounded by sidekick his childhood diet of Bengali literature. “The and “Inresearch,” 2007 a man, whose name I’d rather not the(‘Recent he says.

Worksdetailing

by Anjolie Elawent Menon’ at meticulous that intoruns every house that I grew up in is a stack of books. The mention, said to aonly group of us painters ‘Easel The first and Byomkesh made — for the frame VadehraofArt Gallery, tillsome April 27) the film. Delhi, Shot in of the city’s house that I live in now is essentially a moun- Hindi painting is dead.was Installation art andDoordarphotog- busiest commercial areas, Banerjee had wiped audience the memorable maddox is a Delhi-based tain of books,” he says, with a laugh. Writer shan raphyseries will rule Indian scene.’InThen the georgina withthe actor Rajitart Kapoor.

Bengal, out all traces of elements that art didwriter not fit the

A walkabout with Anjolie Ela Menon during her first solo show in five years proves why she remains a leading artist of the country

Picture perfect Anjolie Ela Menon has always been known for her bold portraits

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Of places without people Linnaeus Tripe’s photographs tell of colonial pursuits and one man’s timeless way of seeing

True to life While recreating the sets for Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! in Calcutta, Banerjee would ask questions like whether a certain lamppost would have stood at a particular spot back in 1940

him from being bullied in a Punjabi neighbourhood. “Some big Punjabi guy would take me in his arms and say, ‘Yeh Bangali yaar tabla bahutDoorway achcha bajaata hai. Isko tu kuch mat bol New frontiers ‘Madura: Trimul Naik’s Choultry, Side Veranda from West’ (January–March 1858) and ‘Pugahm Myo: Carved in the courtyard of Shwe (This Bengali plays the tabla very well. Don’t Zeegong Pagoda’ (August 20–24, 1855, or October 23, 1855) courtesy metropolitan museum of art, new york harm him in any way)’.”

Banerjee’s anecdote about watching LSD the houses, audienceentirely takes me back to a similar n the summer of 1855, a British delega- entific as it was artistic. Just as a biologist with haunted depopulated except I witnessed whilesmudge watching 2013 tion ventured up the Irrawaddy river to collected samples of insects, so too was Tripe incident for the occasional ghostly of ahis person.

Shanghai, taleon onruins, urbanTripe’s developthe court of the king of Burma. Along amassing specimens for scientific classifica- film Coupled witha bleak its focus arThe title ‘Shanghai’ is a metaphor with its usual coterie of military and dip- tion and inquiry. His pictures would peel back ment. chitectural way of seeing makes the placesfor he aspirations we harbour surpass China. lomatic officials, the mission brought a man the unknown, revealing a part of the world the visited seem rather timeless.toAn atmosphere eluded the two teenagers beside with a fairly novel profession: a photographer. that was of growing interest to the British. Aes- This of glum decrepitude pervadesseated the photos.

They patiently waited the entire Captain Linnaeus Tripe and his assistants thetic values seemed to matter less to Tripe me.

Some Buddhist temples arethrough almost vegetal, enfor Shanghai, theand city, to appear.A And spent over a month cataloguing the monu- than the clarity of the documentation. As he film cumbered with foliage overgrowth. broit in didn’t, declared, rather peeved, ments and vistas of Burma. admitted himself, “the picturesque may be al- when ken fort souththey India returns to the earth, its Dibakarindistinguishable bahut hi intellectual hai.” an “Yeh Photography was in its infancy at the time, lowed perhaps, supplementally.” stonework from theIt’s rock he’s heard once too often. And so wreathed in mystery that the Burmese king The exhibition nevertheless features many accusation outcroppings of the hills.

These evocations of his no vigorous head-shake, he allegedly refused to sit for a portrait, fearing picturesque images. There is a gossamer qual- judging a decayingbyworld doubt buttressed the costrongly refutes “Usually when Asia we was call that the camera would “take away his face.” ity to his photograph of the Thalonialit.notion that South someone an intellectual, it means that he’s obTripe took away a lot more than a king’s face. pinyu Pagoda in Pagan, as if crying out for the dynamism of scure and boring.

I might have screwed up on Using large-format paper negatives coated in Tripe had sketched the structure Victorian Britain.

Photography a scene here and there, generallyfrom as a filmalbumen, he wrestled with tropical humidity in pencil. Its ornamented roofs cannot bebut separated the Tripe’s evocations of ’40s.

“He had spoken local authorities think Iof amBritish boring.power If theyin mean Public to capture diverse views to of the country, from Bal floatBharti up from theSchool, groundwhere whilehe befriended maker I don’tmarch the a decaying world no and traders.

Studying at an “RSS dom- that Dibakar subcontinent. much beforepagodas we arrived set. He exact- halwais is thick and impenetrable, don’t the elegant of on Pagan to knew the spidery its uppermost spires seem to From 1855, Icadets doubt buttressed the he quickly picked up Punjabi agree with it.”at the East India Company’s milily how of the road we were going to inated” arms of much tamarind trees. fade intoschool, the brooding sky. Camcolonial notion that of Haryanvi.

While his childneed andthe what trams tomission, use. He would He may deny an intellectual, but he’s After Burmese Tripe pick was the ap- and eras aatfair theamount time struggled to captarybeing seminary at Addiscombe South Asia was crying in Delhi mightwould have anchored exact dhoti the shoes and socksof to the go with intelligent. six of films bepointed theand official photographer Ma- hood ture skies, so Tripe brush him to the without doubt were trained inWith the use photoout for the dynamism his world “exploded” he joined hind him, he it.

There are few in directors, especially in Bolly- Capital, has never repeated a genre, dras Presidency 1856. One of his principal clouds into the negative, just when as graphic equipment.

To know Inof Victorian Britain National wood, who pay such greatmonuments attention to and detail,” which is nothrough small achievement in tasks was photographing ru- the he would addInstitute ripples of to Design ponds, dia, even the camera, he awas Bollywood thrives on tried ins.says.

These included the temples of Madurai in andAhmedabad. finer leavesHistostint trees.there He to betterthat control India. cut short he was exand adds, and Thanjavur, the crumbling fort at Ryacotta, was played with because light ingeniously Buttested the formulas. strange Behl power of for incomplete courseThrough lens deeply “My first photographs job outside film school and otheraancient sites that were often very re- pelled when capturing the entrance of Tripe’s deserves Usually when we call but he remains The way to years understand is work, was with it was masmote.surest During eight in BurmaBanerjee and India, the dilapidated hill fortindebted at Ryacotta. Dark vege- more than charges of Dibakar imperialand complicity.

He someone an the college. through his films. are by-products of his to sively interesting. has a differhis assistants and They he produced over 25,000 tation swarms over the ancient stone till it simultaneously pushed acrossHe two frontiers, intellectual, it means Thoseupon who’ve closely childhood memories, literary influences ent way of doing things.

What prints. A selection of this enormous bodyand of breaks theworked illuminated gate, which at one geographic — the previously undocuthat he’s obscure Banerjee say thatwith his silent from exhibition his office in surprised meand wasIndia how—the same work isobservations the subject ofmade an ongoing at with night was said to resound the wails of an- mented sights of Burma and the and boring of different art central Mumbai. Though the York, Yash knowledge film could mademagic differently in the Metropolitan Museumwe ofmeet Art inatNew guished spirits. other technological, thebe curious of phogives an edge over Raj Films’Linnaeus office in Tripe: Andheri, Banerjee’s strong terms of process.”

‘Captain Photographer of In- forms People arehim conspicuous in their absence tography. In our visually saturated age, it is difhasSince a successful distaste for the area where the bulk of his film- others.

The only criticism, if of onethese can dia and Burma, 1852-1860’. from hisHe work. each shotcalasted minutes ficult to imagine the experience advertising —behind ie Tripe comrades is now calltime. it that, thrown at Banerjee is joinedthrive the East Indiacommon Companyknowlat the reer — notinmilliseconds humanhim, motion was diffi- images in their Tripe offered his British deep of architecture and the is a that edge. is your research. don’t acult while each his films is well reviewed, age of“Your 17 andworld was trained initially asIf ayou military to understanding capture. Occasionally, one can find viewers both theof wonder of the unknown and sketch sketched blurred the poster get up in He thelearnt morning and watch the on world, cater to aofniche audience. agrees surveyor. photography while fur- gifted stray man in aartist Tripe (he photograph, likeofa they the wonder distilling lightBanerjee to shapes and Byomkesh Bakshy!).

He was then closing cheapest, and Detective doesn’t loughyou’re in England inthe theeasiest, early 1850s.

A martial stain on the negative and dwarfed bypushed monu- but shadows on aintend page. to address it. He has a learning an instrument at a the young age, of as larger most book,” he says. Hiswork. first two vision.Linnaeus “At its core, I’dPhotographer like to change rigourfascinating infused his photographic To into ments and landscape.

To avoid clutter (‘Captain Tripe: ofthe InKhosla ka andhe Oye Lucky, Lucky his mother andTripe sisterwent are about classical films of viewers and showruns thatatthis is posshoot—a temple, forGhosla instance, would systemhuman beings, his music work taste dia and Burma, 1852-1860’ Thealso Metropoli— are that. The precision Oye “My mother’s dream washethat she sible.

This can be entertaining...

And look, atically takeproof long of exposures from all sideswith be- teachers. early in the morning.

Other times, recruittan Museum of also Art, New York till May 25) which he nails Delhi, character mylocal sisterauthorities would singto onblock stagepeople and I would fore advancing closeran toimportant photograph frontal and ed the from a new road has opened.” in both Many films,of can be credited to his practitioupbring- play the tabla,” he says. complexes.

Though he never details. photography’s early city streets or temple India conand kanishk tharoor is the author of the forthcoming ing Karol Bagh in west He was studied at sidered music as he jokes that it down saved mohini Swimmerchaudhuri Among the Stars: Stories nersinbelieved the ethos ofDelhi. the craft as sciBurma appear in career, his photos as tumble

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LIGHTHOUSE

The new face of cricket How T20, specifically the IPL, has turbo-charged the contest between bat and ball A clean sweep Glenn Maxwell demonstrates the new orthodoxy akhilesh kumar

turbo-charged the game. Because of the constraints of time, the format demands more out of both batsmen and bowlers than cricket did earlier. In T20 cricket, you have to optimise. To understand the creature that emerges from this, consider the insanely talented Glenn Maxwell.

The most remarkable graphic I saw during this World Cup was the one broadcasters showed after a cameo by Maxwell. It displayed where bowlers bowled to him and where he hit them. Most of the balls pitched on off or outside disappeared on the leg side; most of the balls pitched straight or on leg were whacked on the off side. This is not because he got randomly funky. There was a method to his madness.

In the past, batsmen would carry a mental Pride and joy To walk the car-free MG Road is to inevitably bump into people you know ritu raj konwar map of where the field was, and adjust to the ball according to that. Now they adjust to the field before the ball is bowled, and dance HOME SPUN around the crease and set themselves up accordingly. If point and third man are up and a spinner is bowling, Maxwell is very likely to set up a reverse sweep, which in his hands is an orthodox stroke, like a cover drive or pull, with a similar risk-reward ratio. It doesn’t matter if the ball pitches two inches outside leg; he’s already decided where it’s going to go. And he ne trend that never goes out of but this is far from true. Bowlers have been plays like this from ball one. In that graphic in fashion is lamenting the present, hugely influential in the IPL, and every side question, the bowlers actually bowled to their claiming that things were better in that has won has done so because its bowlers field; and he batted to that field too. the past. Logically, one would not stepped up and influenced the game. Think Players like Maxwell and AB de Villiers, who my hometown, expect thistry to to bevisit the Gangtok, case in sport.

After all, at Porky’s restaurant, weJust feltbecause sophisticatIn Land I Flee, I call Gangtok a city of Narine, Malinga, Ashwin,where Warne. is known as a Where ‘360-Batsman’ because he can least twice a year.

Short tripsatleave most sports seem close to their zenith any me I admit there’s point feelingand special ed and grown-up ordered something bowlers go at seven anwhen over we instead of five, as sendstairs. the ball to any part no of the ground wanting more andBolt often makefaster me wongiven point in time.

Usain is way other than mean momos. walked up nature the stairs — that.

The sobriquet couldhave apply to other in ODIs, doesn’t theWe fundamental playsabout as if the stumps aren’t there, transwhy Federer I don’t live there partwould of the year. than Carlder Lewis, and Nadal cities — many with inclines and one flight, flights,The three flights, and of the game hastwo changed. goalposts havethe fiformed the gameother with cities their—inventiveness Longer tripsorleave me suffocated. venture whoop McEnroe Becker’s ass, MagnusToCarlnal fourth flight — to Tashi withenormous slopes andtalent), curves. playing Even to this shifted, the parameters haveNamgyal Academy, declines,(and out toprobably MG Margbeat — our pedestrianised square, sen would Bobby Fischer. Better our school, higher, through the day, a new city’s that stairs connector me to Gangtok changed, but the and gameeven is still a strokes Richards, even the our pride and joy,inour attemptand at more becoming technology (including training) woods, to temples as viewpoints far morerecent strongly than similarities in roads, contest between bat andthat ball.doubled If it Tendulkar for that matter, the most European of Indian cities — is to run knowledge about the past make this inevitaandthe were ideal for playing people.

How elseAnd could I wasn’t, sides would just gohooky. We walked views, cuisines, couldn’tand have conceived. intoone at sport least athat dozen people youthis know. ble. The seems to defy sort Conexplain they the peculiar familiarity felt with down the astairs to Paljor Stadium, the sports out and have slog-off against are not the only ones.I Every Players like Maxwell trary to what movies and books would have of analysis, though, is cricket. ground that hosted Monte Carlo, on myand firstwetrip there? bowling machines, and Independence teams teamMonaco, is optimising, have andDay AB celede Villiers believe, very little charming about would a brations Weyou cricket romantics stillis speak of Don and football matches. have transformedThe — with its massive yachts, pick 11 specialist batsmen. the knock-on effect this botoxed has thetownseen placeas where everybody knowsever, everybody.

Bradman the greatest batsman of the What has changed, though, is had on ODIs in this World Cup, game with their When I was growing was that a batting has evolved to adapt West Indies pace quartet of the up, ’70s Gangtok and ’80s as where, I submit, batsmen not oninventiveness sleepy just attack, about awakening its touthe best fasttown bowling and we stillto sigh to the challenges and conly scored more runs than before, potential. India’s The tourists attracted — whenrism we remember famouswe spin quar- straints of a 20-over-a-side game. but also batted better. monkey-capped Bengalis on a budget tet. Recently, a poll named Viv Richards, from— we(And bowling has changed as a Having said this, I would agree ren’t the tourists we desired.

But we the Neolithic age of one-day cricket, ashad thecomresponse to this.) When one-day with measures by administrapetition.

Darjeeling next door hadre-more greatest ODI player ever. And while batting cricket began in the ’70s, for example, games tors to tilt the balance more towards bowlers. beauty, history, character than we cordsnatural have been taken apartand recently, includwere 60-overs-a-side and batsmen approached One could mess around with field restrictions, with.

Gangtok was ascribe either an afing inwere thisendowed World Cup, cricket tragics their innings just as they approached Test and I certainly think the 10-over limit on how terthought pit stop between before visitors moved this to a shift in or thea contest bat and matches. The traditional virtues of the game much a bowler can bowl should go: there on to more exotic locales withintop theedges state. were still applicable, and a run-rate of four aren’t corresponding limits on batsmen. But ball, the heavier bats which enable Thesix, relative isolation — wefield still don’t havethrough a to go for batsman-skewed restrican innings was acceptable. please, do not say that there is no longer a conorisanaairport — accounted tions,railway and sostation on. This valid point, but it’s for a One-day cricket underwent a change test between bat and ball. The two main conplace thattruth. was unapologetically not the whole My contention issmall-town that the in through the ’90s, as sides began to exploit the tenders for the man-of-the-series award in this outlook. world didn’t come us the gameits has evolvedThe significantly in the lastto few field restrictions at the start of the innings. World Cup were bowlers (Starc and Boult), and descended on been Nainital, Mussoorie, years,way anditT20 cricket has a hugely posi- or Opening batsmen before Sanath Jayasuriya a bowling performance got MOTM in the finals Shimla. We have schools. tive influence ondidn’t the way theworld-famous game is played. had gone berserk, like Mark Greatbatch in the (Faulkner). When Mitchell Starc spears in that didn’t charming bookstores.

T20We cricket getshave a lot of flak, and while much We 1992 World Cup, but the Sri Lankans of 1996 yorker at 150kmph to Brendan McCullum, afdidn’t haveabout trafficitsjams.

Not every second of the criticism commercial strucwere the first to treat it as a philosophy, not a ter setting him up with two fierce dot balls, building was a hotel. ture is justified, I don’t agree with any of the tactic. The change in approach saw higher you know the game is doing just fine.

Weabout walked everywhere.

Uphill the Comcriticism its cricketing value.

Testtocrickscores in ODIs, and a knock-off effect in Tests. t@amitvarma munity Centrethat Library, member- The T20 revolution, and specifically the IPL, et snobs complain T20s where are justa a₹150 slogfest, ship gave you access to dog-eared Enid Blytons Building sky-high The relative isolation of Gangtok is now a thing of the past, with a flurry of new constructions and tattered Sidney Sheldons. And downhill to ritu raj konwar

Ups and downs

With inclines and declines, slopes and curves, Gangtok, a city where everybody knows everybody, has more in common with Monte Carlo than one might imagine

prajwal parajuly

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Amit Varma is a novelist. He blogs at indiauncut.com

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CITY OF STAIRS (An extract from Land Where I Flee): Gangtok was a city of stairs. It also had streets with crater-sized potholes, dirt trails and a slowly widening two-lane highway, but the city was infested with stairs. People preferred stairs to roads. Stairs often took you to the same places roads did. Stairs created short cuts. Stairs saved time. Stairs saved you from traffic. Stairs could easily be built. Stairs were often makeshift. Stairs were economical. Stairs could cut through terrain where laying roads proved challenging because of widths and slopes. Stairs were ideal for a city situated on a hilltop with so many inclines and declines. Stairs were perpetually wet, perhaps because a maze of leaking water pipes often substituted for banisters. Stairs flourished.

people, and super-luxury cars — wasn’t much like Gangtok.

I was certain it wasn’t just the size or the mid-rise buildings but the abundance of stairs that brought about the intimacy. I usually have a poor sense of direction, but within the first hour of arriving in Monaco, I had figured out innumerable shortcuts. The next several hours, I huffed and puffed my way up and down the principality’s stairs, avoiding the streets, and was delighted about feeling at home in a place so foreign. My phone’s Fitness dashboard recorded 29,834 steps at the end of

for a football match. These days we hear the cheering but can’t see any action. My father was considering adding another floor to the house so we aren’t deprived of views, but the recent earthquake dissuaded him.

Not all is lost in the name of development.

On a trip home in 2007, as construction to convert the town square into a vehicle-free zone accelerated, I walked up a few flights of stairs to the Community Centre Library. When I entered the gate, a sign distracted me. Across the street, a bookstore stood gaunt and proud.

Rachna Books was older than I, but I hadn’t known it as anything other than a store that sold non-English books. In its new avatar — with its carefully curated collection, an event

the day. Whereas in Monaco, my reward for space for gatherings, and an owner detertraversing up city stairs was views of the Medi- mined to get the town reading — it had graduterranean Sea; in Gangtok, it was the sighting ally metamorphosed into a hub for all things of Mount Kanchendzonga. literary and cultural. The owner had added a During my Class X board exams, I’d often go coffee shop — delightfully named Café Fiction up to my family’s rooftop terrace to catch a — a couple of years ago. A bed-and-breakfast — glimpse of the Kanchendzonga early in the again, delightfully named Bookman’s B & B — morning. This wasn’t with the object of appre- soon followed. ciating the mountain change hue — like many I don’t know if the Community Centre LiGangtokians, I took the views for granted — brary exists today — an office building has but to exchange notes with a usurped its old location — but I neighbour, also a classmate, don’t really miss it. Porky’s is still about the academic progress we around; I hope it’s doing strong had made the night before. business as the Subways and Café When the Himalayas Long focus Dibakar Banerjee is known to be fastidious, even pernickety aboutthe details When Himalayas got boring, Coffee Days of the world penegot boring, I’d turn I’d turn my attention to the Paltrate Gangtok. Our MG Marg is my attention to the jor Stadium, the sports stadium new and shiny and car-free. It Paljor Stadium bustling with exercising people. looks nice. Gangtok is much bustling with Anything was better than recleaner now than it was during exercising people turning to text books. my childhood. I am really, really Fifteen years later, I can no proud of that and brag to everylonger see the Kanchendzonga one that it’s, without doubt, the from my parents’ terrace. Incleanest capital in India. We have stead, I see ganji-clad tourists brushing their a couple of casinos. There’s been some talk teeth. A building — its length and breadth in- about bringing high-end designer stores to a timidating — has gone up on the vacant land stretch and naming it Fashion Street. I don’t next to us. Like many new buildings in Gang- walk much these days because I am conscious tok, it’s a hotel. There’s been an influx of tour- of being recognised. On my parents’ terrace, ists — some of them moneyed enough to spark newly installed, is a pair of water tanks. When I the establishment of four- and five-star hotels precariously balance myself on top of a tank, I — and a mushrooming of buildings. Another can sometimes catch a glimpse of the top of five-storeyed construction — it started out in- the Kanchendzonga.

(In this monthly column, authors chronicle nocently enough as a cottage but probably felt dwarfed by its neighbours — obstructs the the cities they call home.) view from the terrace to the sports stadium, Faraway land The numerous monasteries on the outskirts of Gangtok are perfect hideaways for playing now carpet-grassed and world-class. We used prajwal parajuly is the author of The Gurkha’s hooky reuters/rupak de chowdhuri; (top) unchecked growth over the last few decades means that views of the mighty Kanchendzonga often remain obscured ritu raj konwar to joke about never having to purchase tickets Daughter and Land Where I Flee

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PAPERWALLAH

Mumbai-bread barons All beauty, pleasure, procreation

Maximum City’s very own vada pav is feeding the blistering growth of home-grown chains that are whetting a countrywide appetite for this humble street food

Casting our net wider to listen in and hold close poetry inspired by the month of April

janice pariat

Secret sauce A Jumbo King outlet in Mumbai; the citybased vada pav chain relies on the franchisee model to multiply, and expects to have1,000 outlets within seven years afp/sajjad hussain

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ach year, when April faithfully comes around, my newsfeed clogs. That one verse, on Twitter, Facebook, et al, repeated like a mantra. “April is the cruellest month, breeding/Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing/Memory and desire stirring/Dull roots with spring rain.” The beginning of TS Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland’, to my despair, is conveniently less than 140 characters. It studs the screen, line after line, as though it’s the only April poem ever written.

But it isn’t.

And considering April is heralded as World Poetry Month, with tens of millions of readers, students, booksellers, publishers, bloggers and, of course, poets marking poetry’s place in our culture and our lives, we might wish to cast our nets wider. If March was the month of Mars, god of warfare, then this is the month of Venus, goddess of spring, rebirth, and love.

While the etymology of the word April remains uncertain, it’s tempting to think that it derives from Aphrodite. All beauty, pleasure, procreation. Perfect for poetry, really.

In Emily Dickinson’s ‘Nature Poem 9’, April gathers slowly, with gentle measured changes. “An altered look about the hills/A Tyrian light the village fills/A wider sunrise in the dawn/A deeper twilight on the lawn.” For Carl Sandburg too, April lends the world a special light. In ‘Plowboy’ he sees a farmhand and two horses lined against the grey turf gleaming brown, smell of soil in the air, cool and moist.

I shall remember you long, Plowboy and horses against the sky in in shadow. ate a you and the picture I shall 2006, remember 40-yearYou made for me, oldtheman Turning turf in the dusk approached And haze ofVista an April gloaming.

Processed Foods, ‘Nebraska’, “April doesn’t In Jack Kerouac’s the like Indian arm of England.” All through hurt it does in New USA’s OSI he Group that the country — Nevathe month crisscrosses makes burger Chicago, patties for da, Wyoming, Toledo, Montana — “a McDonald’s India, with a sim-search of April wandering/a wandering/In ple request: Could Vista make pain.”

The poem is more dream song than vivready-to-fry potato patties for his vada pav id travelogue, marked by a cadential fluidity company too?the His free-spirited venture was nowhere that mimics course ofnear his McDonald’s in scale or brand value — just 20 journeys.

Away from rural countryside, Arthur outlets in andMidnight’ around Mumbai’s suburban Symons’ ‘April is firmly entrenched Dombivili in London,area. where the moon may have been reVista’s wasstill an “spring outrightcalls ‘no’,tobut placed by response gas-light, but us, the vada pav city/Calls seller managed convince here in the to thetoheart fromcomthe pany officials to visit his outlets and central heart of a lover!”

It is still an invitation to cakitchentobefore a final The offirouse, roam taking “lover-like” indecision. the streets. cials visited Iyer’s Goli VaYounot theonly dancer andVenkatesh I the dreamer, daChildren Pav stores, they also discussed his future together, plans and made short onofhis chain. The Wandering losta in thefilm night London, boards McDonald’s USAweather. and OSI Group saw In theofmiraculous April theMiraculous film and gave the the go-ahead for Iyer’s prothough April weather might posal.

That ledpoem, to trialit’s runs for making patties be in Symons’ marked in many othfor vada pav alongside McDonald’s ers by references to rain.

Famously,cutlets. the openmasterstroke Iyer Prologue made Goliina The naingThis lines of Chaucer’sfrom General tional chain withThey’re more than 300 energy stores in 18 Canterbury Tales. ripe with and states over the last eight years.

Thanks the poetic vitality: “Whan that Aprille, withtohise Vista plant in Mumbai, Goli vada tasteshath the shoures soote/The droghte of pav March

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April in the air ‘An altered look about the hills/A Tyrian light the village fills/A wider sunrise in the dawn/A deeper twilight on the lawn’ afp/tauseef mustafa

perced to the roote/And bathed every veyne in Beauty is not enough. swich licour/ Of which vertu engendred is the You can no longer quiet me with the flour” (When April’s gentle rains have pierced redness the drought/Of March right to the root, and Of little leaves opening stickily. bathed each sprout/Through every vein with I know what I know. liquid of such power/It brings forth the engenThe sun is hot on my neck as I observe same whether dering of the flower). Langston Hughes’ ‘April (a The localspikes bread/bun), together with sweet and of the crocus. in Gorakhpur Rain Song’ is subsumed in musical sensuality, spicy Theearth idea is quickly Thechutneys. smell of the good. spread to evPorbandar and characteristic simplicity.and “Let the rain kiss eryItnook and corner the is Maximum is apparent that of there no death.City and or Kochi you/Let the rain beat upon your head and Kol- became its best-known breakfastand But what does that “The key for snack-on-the-go. signify? with silver liquid drops/Letkata. the rain any makes ethnic food sing you a lullaby/The rain When Dheeraj Gupta his first JumNot opened only under ground chain torain go national bo King outlet inare still pools on the sidewalk/The Kalyan in 2001, the brains of little men did he Langston Hughes’ standardisation know his vada pavs Eaten makes running pools isin the the gutter/ wouldby one day fetch him a maggots.

‘April Rain Song’ is of the The rain plays a little sleepproduct, song onand offer- multi-crore business across India. “We started Life in itself subsumed in musical ings that a national ap- with vada pav, as it Is our roof at night/And I lovehave the rain.” is nothing, the single largest snack sensuality, and and Marry low an In Ogden peal Nash’s ‘Always consumed in Mumbai.

It was An empty cup, a flight of characteristic pricing,” says April Girl’, theIyer. month and his lover largely unorganised. uncarpeted stairs.For the first simplicity pav, like Amitabh Bach- its are“Vada inextricable; he personifies ten years, ourselves It iswe notrestricted enough that yearchan, has a national changeability in the appeal playfulcutway he to Mumbai we tried ly, downasthis hill, to bring in ting best: across states and age does automation April to create an internaVada pav, like groups, stand its the Amitabh Bachchan, Praise and the can spells and on bless tional Comes product likeatan reasonable idiot, babown without advertising or marcharms, prices,” he says. bling and strewing flowers. has a national appeal keting,” heApril elaborates.

I found in my arms.

To make to end on a morestandardised affirmative patties note, I cutting across Yet, states In Mumbai, cancloudy, get a vada April golden,you April and sauces in master bulk, Jumbo King turn, oddly enough, to that of self-depand age groups pav for anywhere between ₹7 Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy; up withPhilip Pune-based Tasty recation and tied deprivation, Larkin, whose and ₹40.

The megalopolis sells April soft in flowered languor, Bitesis Eatables, whichof exports poem ‘The Trees’ a rare example a glimanApril estimated 20 lakh vada pavs cold with sudden anger, the US and mering lush ready-to-eat enthusiasm food he sotocarefully (alevery of which only five Everday, changing, ever true — per other countries.

“Since there was most) never displayed.

Who wouldn’t rejoice cent comes players like Goli in I love April,from I loveorganised you. nothis other benchmark years ago, we had to sumptuous lastten line: and Jumbo King,Millay another chain doThe Edna St Vincent has acity-based more jaundiced all trees the groundwork — from are coming into leaf building supwith of a national presence. view the month (similar to TS Eliot, but with plier to marketing the final Likebase something almost being said;product.” so much more élan and irreverence). She un- That to is78dead, outlets India, Lastled year theyacross seem to say, with the The chain reaction does centuries worth of eulogies written to number about to touchafresh.

100 by May this year.

Begin afresh, afresh, Vadaseason pav was outside the withborn ‘Spring’ — Dadar station in In contrast to Goli and Jumbo King, which pariat is the the author of Seahorse of vadas 1966 sellerApril, AshokdoVaidya To when what snack purpose, you experireturn janice have outsourced manufacture mented by serving potato fritters inside a pav t@janicepariat again? and chutneys, Indore-based Wow Vada Pav has

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A secret well Kep

set up its own plants in Mumbai and Indore.

Co-founder and director Harpreet Singh realised the need for them when he was operating his four snack bars in Indore and found that dependence on cooks led to inconsistency in taste as well as pilferage.

Moreover, demand can never be forecast accurately, leading to either wastage of food or turning away a potential customer. The company turned to frozen foods technology to counter this problem and began standardising the product. “And since vada pav has a universal appeal, began with it,” says Singh. cacies. There were also clothes, elaborate Cambodia was a result of the machinations of e we came to Cambodia almost by accident. Searching online ornaments made from shells and bags of the two Cold War superpowers and China.)

Freeze now, for fry later a villa for a family of 12 — white and black and red Kampot pepper. In a One evening, after we had watched the sun All the threebut chains on frozen foods tech-covered area, women were tending to caul- melt into the sea from our garden, Stephane not rely the usual Goa or ThaiPattiesKep. made at the central plants landnology.

— we found None of us had been to candrons of prawns and crab bubbling over wood Arii, the French manager and master raconbe stored for up nine months freezerfires; customers brought their fresh purchas- teur, narrated the remarkable story of Villa RoCambodia before andtowe were happyintoa disand fried the outlets whenever cover that theatcountry, though mostneeded. famous es here to be cooked straightaway. There were monea’s survival. According to an old Khmer chains alsoand invested in logistics for its The temples at have Angkor its killing fields, tono other foreigners.

Rouge leader he had met, it had been protectpatties from thearchitecture, plants to outlets wasferry also the home to modernist a Beyond the market is a row of restaurants ed by the spirit of the lady who had built it in acrosscoastline, India. Jumbo King hascuisine. partnered withstanding on stilts over the water and we felt 1968. With its Lu Ban Hap design, its infinity beautiful and gourmet Shriram Distribution Services, whose incold-quite ready to sit down in one. Challenged by pool and expansive gardens, it took some efStretching languidly around a peninsula trucks Sea, collect patties the storage South China notthe far fromand thechutneys Viet- the number of dishes on the crab menu (let fort to extract ourselves. But there was lots of fromborder, the factory, stock themI noticed in depots, and fer-alone the prawn, squid and fish ones) I chose exploring to be done. namese the first thing about them various citiesstatuary. and stores. has athe Dheeraj Keprywas its to quirky public An Goli enorvery first thing: “Stir-fried crabKing, with Kamone morning daughter andmore I rode Gupta, founder of Jumbo which boasts Early Venkatesh Iyer’s Golimy Vada Pav operates than local logistics in every it ispops presentpot 78 mous crab with apartner claw raised in city salute green pepper, large plate.”

Combining two ponies into the national park behind the town outlets across India 300 stores in 18 states also Wow, which has 170itoutlets out in, of as the sea, a sign beneath reads within ‘Wel- 18of the region’s great delicacies, it couldn’t fail — she loved it; I sweltered. Another day we samonths of launching. come to Kep’; a monumental white female to be a winner, I thought. And it was: an over- voured the Mediterranean colours and atmothrough there are no compa-sphere plantofeach day and arrive atasitswe stores countryare sourced The buns or pavs nude — a legendary fisherman’s wife —from markslocalflowing dishfranchisees of meltingand crabmeat delicately colonial Kampot strolled ny-owned says Gupta. wide; Jumbo despatches six lakh bakeries.end Iyerofsays bakers in other centresflavoured the eastern Keplocal beach; and overlooking withstores,” sweet green pepper. along itsKing riverfront boulevard.

En a He preferswas thenot franchisee Wow’s can manufacture pav, aislargely Mumbai ‘Kep-sur-Mer’ trained the are activities of in themaking crab market a very Camalways amodel as each month.route weplants scrambled through thetwo store is run not manager of products speciality. chefs spend two days trainingsleepy bodian Vishnu“Our armed with a bow and arrow. backwater.

In by thea 1920s it Whitetonnes Elephant Cave and,per onday ourand entrepreneur, who will are currently running bakers in every city we open anvery outlet in,” hewasbut Part of Kep’s charm is that it feels much the an favoured coastal resort of way back, made the climb attohalf thethat make an extra offer The first thing I Bothwhich Goli has and lost Jumbo says. Jumbo King’s histowards pav from aFrench a Cambodian town, notGupta at all gets geared colonials andeffort in theto1960s Bokorcapacity. hill-station, quality products and society. services. noticed about Kep its mystique King have profitable for the certified bakery inheart each city. the next foreign tourists.

At its is its“In famous crabcou-of the elite of Phnom Penh to abeen Vietnamese devel“Instead one person taking pastgot three years,on attracting ple ofSkinny years, we will bearmed able to against make pavs market. women, thealsoMany villas —ofincluding Romonea, his hands hectares inwas its quirky There is an oper who thewe profit, it is—better to letineveryvestment venture capitalbakery,” he says. sunatina central wide-brimmed hats with matching where stayed were built the forestfrom and built a casino. public statuaryin theof pristine opportunity one share it,” he aadds. as wellouting as high netwas worth Wow and Jumbo theirwere sauces made‘New neckerchiefs, and socksKing and get gloves, haulKhmer’ style, mix of modfavourite by far non-veg segment. WeOurists vada pavart franchisees typi- can introduce chicken individuals oversea the past decade. centralised Goli the ropes in lo-ernist The ing at wicker basketsplants, full ofwhereas crabs from sea. lines with deco curves to the palm and almondhavesilhouettes. a gross margin of cal vendors to make thethem, tamarind-gur chut-andcally Shoppers thronged around hands dartBauhaus fringed silver sands of Koh Tonsay vada pav or omelette Snack sans borders per cent, chutney andbasket tomato ing ney, in togarlic feel, moving from to chutney. basket to“We Aabout golden40-50 era ended with dependa coup Island, some 40 minutes pav at a later stageor Rabbit ing on thefollowed rent. Thebypopularity as demand for the humble ourblue formula and our chefs workin 1970, findgive the them best. The swimmer crabs, alive to be two decades of vio- away. “What kindEven of rabbits are there, Charty vada pav grows atniece a breathtaking of the is spurring rapThey supply according to the but with with them. their claws tied, were beautiful, withtastelence andsnack chaos.

Most of the Kep’s villas were Mami?” asked my three-year-old as we pace, the chains id expansion the franchisee and quality spotted we specify,” says Iyer. stone-coloured backs, soft white tum- abandoned to theofelements and to looters; chugged across the calm water in a are boat.constantly “Ooh, innovating offer variations networks.

Jumbo is today eyeingas ghostly maybe the Easter mies and translucent iolite blue legs. their mildewed shellsKing stand Bunny? Ortoperhaps giant suited to local Goli’s range of offerings not of less than a thousand Hot on the patties trailmost expensive, we echoes Large females are the a glamorous past. (Itoutlets is hardintothe getnextfluffy rabbits, whopalates. will take us for rides?” palak-makai (spinach-corn) vada includes five to around seven years, while Wowofisthis looking With a robust backend place, the vada learnt, and cost double thein small males.

Else-pavone’s head the complexity dark to We never quite found the rabbits but we did chains aremarket, able to focus growing their the southern markets in particular, pava for grow 250 outlets in Rouge the coming year. where in the squidon and fish were be-fran-period of to civil war, Khmer rule and Viet- spend blissful day floating in rubber tubes masala vada pavfresh resembling network. our stores andwarm Nearly one lakhStand-out patties leave Goli’s ing chisee barbequed on “All skewers, there are wererunnamese occupation. facts forMumbai me: on the sea, eating fish andsamosa sleep- for vada kechaos. pav comes in north.

Jumbo King’s mountains of dried prawns and other marine Pol Pot was responsible for the death of nearly ing the through massages on bamboo variants such as Schezwan, chole (chickpeas) species less easy to identify, along with an ar- two million people, one quarter of his counand dugdale crispy vegetables, too offers a is a freelancewhile writer Wow based in Delhi ray of tropical fruit and sweet, deep-fried deli- try’s population, and all that happened in charty masala paneer vada pav.

Surprisingly, none of them have experimented with non-vegetarian yet. “We are 100 per cent vegetarian by choice,” says Gupta.

Iyer, however, is open to the idea of including eggs and chicken to the staple offering of potatoes at his stores. Goli has come up with a soya vada pav for chicken lovers.

“There is an opportunity in the non-veg segment. We can introduce chicken vada pav or omelette pav at a later stage… in specific stores,” Iyer says.

The love for vada pav knows no borders, and all three chains are flooded with requests to open overseas outlets. “We get a lot of enquiries from the UK and Dubai, but we are holding on,” says Iyer. Ditto for Gupta, who says the India opportunity is big enough to defer overseas foray for now. “India is a very large market and it is important not to spread too thin. You just cannot go and put up a stall somewhere. As a company, we have to make a lot of investment and we would rather make them in India today,” he says.

But Singh is not risk-averse. He is already planning to supply frozen vadas to countries such the UAE. “It should start in the next few months,” he says. And when that happens, it will be vada pav’s longest journey yet from the streets of Mumbai.

Once a favourite of French colonials and the elites of Phnom Penh, the seaside town of Kep preserves a Cambodia different from its touristy temples and killing fields

Travel log Get there:

Thai Airways flies Delhi-Phnom Penh via Bangkok; Malaysian Airlines flies Delhi-Phnom Penh via Kuala Lumpur.

Both journeys take about nine hours. From Phnom Penh airport it’s a 2.5-hour drive to Kep. Stay:

We were seduced

by Villa Romonea (www.villaromonea.com) and it was perfect for our large family group, but if you are in a smaller group check out Knai Bang Chatt (www.knaibangchatt.com) and Veranda Natural Resort (veranda-resort.asia) Tip:

Kep could be part of an itinerary taking in Phnom Loving itPenh locallyand Golithe Angkor has outsourced the It would work well temples. manufacture of its as same a relaxing place to end a vadas to the far from the madding company visit that makes burger patties for But go soon. It will crowds.

McDonald’s not remain ‘undiscovered’ for long.

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Slow and steady The old-world charm of Kep, surrounded by a national park and several islands, grows on you parnumas na phatthalung/shutterstock

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And the man plays on Actor Dhruv Mookerji has his fingers in many a pie — films, theatre, serials. Here’s what a day in his action-packed life looks like 7.30am The backyard beckons, but not the bike for exercise

8am Maya says good morning with a handshake, a daily ritual

9.15am A smile from uncle and all seems fine with the world

The block heads

9.20am Time to head to work

9.25am Maya heads indoors for some rest after seeing me off

An entire government department is on the job, but can it really take down ‘offending’ online content?

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he Department of Electronics and Information Technology’s (Deity) offices are as layered as its official website. From inside ‘Electronics Niketan’ at the Central Government Offices (CGO) complex in south Delhi, Deity’s army of director-generals, joint secretaries, depart10am A pandal in the making on the set ment heads, scientists, clerks and staff of various grades and ranks keep an eye on how the country engages with the world wide web.

One set of cubicles is dedicated to the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), the nodal agency meant to combat hacking, phishing and generally fortify the internet in India. This includes the task of blocking and unblocking websites. A rather complicated job in a country where, according to one senior government official, “it’s technically infeasible to completely block content. If it’s at the gateway level, then we can filter it out. But for videos and other similar content, it is just not possible to completely block them.”

No bandwidth 10.10am Getting tothat not just playtaken but also Be it the AIBready roasts were down from lookYouTube the part or the controversial documentary In-

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dia’s Daughter, which was blocked within eight hours of going online, the CERT and other allied departments have been kept busy over the past few months.

In a classic example of how blocking can go wrong, more than 36 websites were taken down in December last year to “prevent the spread of ISIS propaganda” only to be unblocked within weeks. Like elsewhere in the world, the attempt to “protect” citizens had unwittingly ended up hurting legitimate websites, including video sharing sites vimeo.com, dailymotion.com and the reference site archive.org. It was embarrassingly similar to the Chinese government’s actions in 2010 when it

shutterstock

blocked all images of empty chairs, stools and tablished that it would likely result in doubletables as it attempted to staunch discussions digit reductions in the internet’s speed and efabout Liu Xiabo, the Nobel Peace Prize winner ficiency in that country.” that year, who was missing from the awards The ‘Streisand effect’, named after the Hollyceremony as he was incarcerated in China. wood actress, is another common conseTerming such government actions as dan- quence of blocking. As Chima says, “Specific gerous and Orwellian, Apar Gupta, a cyber law bans tend to be counterproductive and, more specialist in Delhi who appeared for the Peo- often than not, result in more awareness and ple’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in the PIL interest in the banned content.” against Section 66A of the IT Act, says, “Any piece of content is contained within several Political manoeuvres file formats and obscured through technical ‘Ethical hacktivist’ and Hackers Hat founder devices like encryption, making its complete Satish Ashwin sees banning and blocking as removal and eradication impossible.” purely vote bank politics.

Internet freedom campaigners have main“Technically anything can be blocked or tained that Section 66A, which prescribed banned and it’s not a big deal, but the sheer “punishment for sending offenvolume of data uploaded makes sive messages through a comit next to impossible to monitor munication service”, was and censor,” he says. created solely to muzzle dissent To those heralding the strikand differences of opinion. ing down of 66A as a victory for Nobody is really Although Section 66A was refree speech, Sunil Abraham, exaware of the scale of cently struck down, the law auecutive director of the Bengalucensorship in India. thorising blocking of content — ru-based Centre for Internet and Thousands of 11.30am camera, station Noon Power nap haspoints a dedicated fan larger following in namely, Lights, Section 69A police — remains Society, to the picwebsites are blocked showbiz ture. “Nobody is really aware of intact. The Central Government under Section 69A, can block content it believes the scale of censorship in India. mostly due to the threatens the security of the Thousands of websites are enforcement of IPR State; the sovereignty, integrity blocked under Section 69A, or defence of India; friendly relamostly due to the maximalist entions with foreign States; public forcement of Intellectual Proporder; or incites committing a erty Rights (IPR). While 66A is cognisable offence related to any of the above. gone, there are many other provisions within The government must, however, adhere to a the IT Act that still regulate speech online. It is set of procedures and safeguards, known as important to have quality laws drafted Blocking Rules. through an open, participatory process, “Larger, overbroad technical blocks can im- where all stakeholders are consulted and repede the functioning of the internet,” says in- sponded to before bills are introduced in ternet policy analyst Raman Chima. “When a Parliament.” large website ‘blacklist’ and internet filter was proposed for Australia in 2009-10, research es- sibi arasu

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12.25pm Intense drama takes the floor

12.30pm Onscreen wife looking every bit of a Bengali beauty

Power point With the exit of Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, Kejriwal’s message to dissenters rings loud and clear meeta ahlawat 12.50pm A child artiste brings in some cheer AGENDA

Utopian crush

Trinamool Congress, where leaders (and voters too) only trust their own blood in succession, in a desperate, genetic attempt to perpetuate power.

But leaders who renounce power also fascinated Indians: such leaders developed a saintly halo, which put them above the fray, conversely giving them more power and solidifying their position as the high command. Sonia Gandhi, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bal Thackeray, Anna Hazare all derived matic power practitioner who understood their great power from the perception of givthat an efficient organisation can have only ing up power. one CEO. The anarchist turned out to be a ruthBut lately, Indians have woken up to the disless boardroom player, taking out those who tortions that these renouncing ‘saints’ have were undermining the unity of command and on democratic decision-making. The saint be4pm Rolling into another studio for a promo shoot 4.20pm Make-up artistes busy dressing up Lord the direction of the party. comes an alternative power centre to the Shiva for the camera Kejriwal clearly believes that his best shot at elected office-holder, resulting in tension and challenging Modi in 2019 would be to trump sloth in decision-making. the Gujarat model with his Delhi model, with In Narendra Modi, for the first time India no distractions in other states. This would elected a leader who showed an unabashed have curbed the ambitions of the likes of Yo- desire for power. He is no saint, his critics argendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who nev- gue he is a sinner, climbing to power on corpser enjoyed playing second fiddle es of the 2002 riot victims. But in to Kejriwal.

May 2014, the post-liberalisation With them gone, Kejriwal has generation voted for Modi’s lost two articulate spin-doctors naked ambition over the strateActivist Kejriwal had on English language talk-shows. gic renunciation of the Gandhis. promised a utopian, They could have amplified his And this was the same time bottom-up self-rule. performance as chief minister when Arvind Kejriwal made his among a small, but influential But politician Kejriwal biggest political mistake by rehas realised that section of voters who are not imnouncing power, when he rerevolution will come pressed with the parochialism signed as Delhi Chief Minister. from above of Kejriwal’s loyalists.

He had hoped for sainthood, in1.20am won’t move from my spot till she “This Whisky is a homogenous cohort stead was labelled 3.30am The clockhe announces bedtime the runhasHindi-speaking, had her 4,000 winks of north Indian away, the shirker. Kejriwal had men in their thirties and early read the political wind completeforties, all of them younger than ly wrong.

Kejriwal and all of them part of a coterie that It was perhaps in that darkest hour that Kejseems to exclude anyone outside this thin de- riwal had his most pragmatic epiphany. In his mographic defined by age, sex, region and lan- speech at the party’s National Council last guage,” wrote Mukul Kesavan in The Telegraph. Sunday, Kejriwal spoke of the pragmatic de“These are obscure, undistinguished men who sire to be the winner, over his pet sermon on dimly glow in the light of Kejriwal’s sun.” clean politics. “Some people say that winning and losing is not important, I don’t believe Saints and winners that,” Kejriwal said. “There are thousands of Feudal power grab and saintly renunciation registered political parties in India, but everyhave been two key strands in India’s high com- one knows Aam Aadmi Party because we win.” mand politics. Feudalism we still see in the dynasties at the top of many parties from the sambuddha mitra mustafi is the founder of Congress to the DMK, the Samajwadi Party and The Political Indian

India’s left-liberals feel let down by Arvind Kejriwal. The anarchist is now a ruthless boardroom player

sambuddha mitra mustafi

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he bloodletting inside Aam Aadmi Party has been gruesomely public.

Personal ambitions, jealousy, strategic differences have all played a role in the current fiasco. Arvind Kejriwal is win1.30pm The director is doing what he does best ning this battle hands-down: he has seized — performance review this moment right after a victory to remove the ‘back-stabbers’.

Kejriwal is the only proven winner the party has, so the majority was always going to back him over his rivals. Yogendra Yadav lost Haryana badly; Prashant Bhushan would rather contest bar council elections, than fight it out on the mean streets of Delhi. That they decided to take on Kejriwal was a case of ego overriding political acumen.

But the long-run survival of the party will now depend on how the Delhi chief minister is able to balance his personal ambition — launching a 2019 challenge to Narendra Modi — with the structural reforms that are needed for the party to grow beyond Delhi.

Our political parties have never much cared 10.30pm best linestructures comes fromand the director aboutThe internal processes, rely— “pack up” ing rather on the divinity of the high command to show light to the faithful. Activist Kejriwal had promised the opposite: a utopian, bottom-up self-rule, his version of swaraj. But politician Kejriwal has realised that revolution will come from above, not below.

One party, one CEO India’s left-liberal intellectuals fawned on the Nehru-Gandhi high command for long, but grudgingly so. In Kejriwal’s version of swaraj, some of these academics and activists thought they had found their utopia. And then, the mustachioed IIT-ian who had built that utopia, gave them a rude reality check.

The self-rule idealist morphed into a prag-

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Heads-up Clubs like East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, plagued by poor management and finances, have got a wake-up call in the form of the glamorous Indian Super League PTI

Moving the goalpost Will the sparkle and big monies of franchise football change the game for old favourites like East Bengal Mohun No woman’s land Ofand the 98 million womenBagan? involved in agriculture, 63 per cent don’t own land the hindu archives

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or every enthusiast in Kolkata, you’ll find a sceptic. For every silver lining, you’d get offered a crack of doom.

When Atlético de Kolkata lifted the Indian Super League (ISL) trophy on December 20 last year, a bunch of armchair pundits instantly wondered — how will our local impecunious clubs withstand the onslaught of all this glitter? Football expert and commentator Novy Kapadia helped provide some comfort.

“You seeive a sexy woman onewomen night and fallsix in thousand Dalit across love withdistricts her by the Football attachof morning. undivided Andhra Prament doesn’t that easily.

Mohun Bagan desh come were each given 36 guntas (0.9 and East acres) Bengalofstill reign supreme.

Their love land in 2000.

Under Velugu for gamealleviation has survived decades.

Nocalled ISL fran— athe poverty scheme now Inchise can generate kind of women passion turnthey dira Kranthi Pathamthe — landless do.”

Though Kapadia does In concede thatvillage, the ISL ed landowners overnight.

Somaram gave Indian fans a Uppalamma rare chance to watch interWarangal district, was one of the national stars like Del Piero years cross 53 beneficiaries of Alessandro this scheme.

Fifteen and flesh, he insists later,dribble she is in thethe unchallenged headthat of the league lacked a much-needed bite. was household.

Her social standing in “There the village no To watch trueisfootball rivalry, you’d hasfight. improved and she no longer a silent vichave be in the violence. stands forThe a Mohun Bagantim oftodomestic 50-year-old is East Bengalfor clash.” providing the education of her son and The twofarming football her clubs revived their nearly daughter, land and making famcentury-old inactive an I-League derby enily decisions.rivalry She is an participant in the counter was self-help played ingroups.

KolkataHer on March district’sthat women family 28.

The presence of more than 50,000 fanswas in is eating better and earning more.

All this the stands at theUppalamma city’s Vivekananda Yuva Bhamade possible, says, because she rati (Salt Stadium) tellingly cameKrirangan to own land for Lake cultivation. surpassed the average of A45,171 that Own: were In a landmark book, Fieldseats of One’s occupied Atlético de Kolkata’s home Gender andduring Land Rights in South Asia (1994), Bigames.

The keenly match ago: justified na Agarwal writes,contested “Two decades ‘Do the crowd’s Mohun Bagan took was the women need frenzy. independent rights in land?’ lead afteradmitted a 47th-minute goal by striker Balnot even in public policy discourse. want Singh, and with the rights help ofinsome That women needonly independent land spirited saves by goalkeeper Debjit Majumder — the most critical form of property in agrarwas the team — inmeans green-and-maroon finally ian economies admitting new conable to defend their 1-0 Anjan Kutenders for a share in scoresheet. a scarce and highly mar Mitra, generalwhich secretary of Mohun Bagan valuable resource determines economClub, explainsand the hysteria that comes to suric well-being shapes power relations in round the Kolkataand derby.

“Unlikeextending the ISL where the countryside; it means the the entire crowd backing single largely team, supconflict over landisthat has aexisted beporters watching Mohun Bagan thus play bringing East Bentween men, to men and women, gal arethe split down innermost the middle.courtyard.”

We don’t need it into family’s film stars to the helpfirst fill our grounds.

Our footArguably, audible murmurs of

ballers are enough to do that.” matic. “These clubs could leave us behind in Not everyone, however, is in agreement the not-too-distant future. If institutions like with Mitra’s rhetoric. Anuj Kichlu, for in- Mohun Bagan and East Bengal are to survive, stance, begins with a reference to dry num- they will have to find a way of attracting more bers. He points out that India’s premier corporate sponsors.” football competition, the I-League, comprises New funds might possibly help compensate 11 teams and 350-odd players. “Of these, the for the pinch of some old wounds. Last year, hundred best footballers were chosen to play the Enforcement Directorate froze the bank in the ISL. There were a dozen players picked accounts of both East Bengal and Mohun Bafrom Mohun Bagan too. Though these foot- gan after it was found that the clubs had beneballers played the same the facilities women’s land in rights were stadia, articulated in 1979, fitted from134 sponsorship deals women. struck with the ing and landless Dalit A few they givenof— women buses, changing rooms, infamous whenwere a group gram panchayat Saradha Group.BLink Utpalvisited KumarSomaGanmonths after the survey, even half-time drinks — were comparatively members in West Bengal demanded joint of ti- guli, secretary of the which Indian was Football ram honorary village, Thorrur mandal, one atlesfive-star standard.”

CEO of on behalf of Muslim women from their of the sites of the Association research. (West Bengal), football firm The villages. management Evicted by their husbands, these “The entirewhen football fraHow does a says, society change women Football Edge, Kichlu adds he security that become landowners? women needed the economic ternityAre is they still able in ato state of exercise wasn’t surprised to see studies a signif-in the last two economic agency? land provided.

Several shock, this temporary Dobut women feel more setseicant improvement in light the perdecades have thrown on theThough links bemade everyone cure when ownhas land?

Does violencerealrethe players are theyback formance of some players. tween domestic violence and property rights. ise that we need to be more duce within and outside their homes?

These professional, the team's “Compared to theaccess I-League, Despite marginal to economic and market are some questions that lie at ourselves the heart media reoperations, itsof themindful they hadinbetter coaches andwomen’s sources, a majority of cases, own-andofsupport The problem is one of the discoursebetter. around women’s land rights, medical better Some of that in- reduced staff ershiptraining. of land has significantly the iswhich immediateinliquidity. funds Kelkar’s The study. not are also addressed vestment will getWhile a fewnearly sizeable risk of violence.

98 million womhaven’t all dried up yet.” returns on the en in India arefield.” engaged in agriMitra Mohun Bagan adCorking theof bottle Havingwork, spoken to a handful cultural around 63 per mits that his club mother is still Manjula is a 26-year-old of players whothey were centIndian don’t own the land till. myriad of plagued a teenagebyson and a financial younger signed up for thegovernment ISL, Kapadiaasalso echoes Ki- worries. When “As per law, state asked how stillbuilt, sucdaughter.

She his has team a slight Over 40 per cent of chlu. tournament,” signed“The land should be he in says, the “was an eye- ceeded in leading table, wearsthis herseason’s hair in aI-League neat plait and landowning women in opener many.” with finances, the general the name offor women.

AndProblems one of the secretary “Sometimes pallu oflaughed. her mustard yellow the two states bad management, of youth surprising findingslack of last year’sdevelopment, even withoutsari a teacher, a student comes is carefully pinned.

“A first few reported a decrease escalating — these, he says, Telangana costs household survey is are all issues in an examination.

We might not have money, years ago, you wouldn’t see womin alcohol-fuelled East Bengal and Mohun Bagan that around 20 lakh families in will have to but the players with us.” like this,” she enare congregating violence. In the case soon try are andheaded solve. Clubs like East Bengal are the state by women,” Mitra, though, not loyalty of says,should smiling attake the the landowning of landless Dalit not deaf to such concerns. Gautam his players for says entirely Sunil Kumar, state director granted. many aindressing Dalit womenIngathered the vilwomen, the abuse Roy, the team’s media manager, of Landesa, a land rights organi- is the first to room and dugout, can now rumours lage one street.

Now,hear they hold has only intensified admit hisletter clubofisthe often hindered by a of the I-League sation. that Yet, the law is being merged with Cymonthly meetings at the ISL. village “semi-professional” approach to the game. rus Confectioner, seldom followed. manager of squaregeneral and participate in the re“Though thestudy players are‘Womprofessional, the Football Players In a new titled Association of India, says, search studies without any interteam’s media operations, its medical and sup- “That wouldference en’s Asset Ownership and Reduccertainly be men. the best forfrom Laststep August, port staff is not. Until East Bengal wakes up ward. tion in gender-violence’, author Govind Kelkar like Mohunand Bagan and East BenscoresTeams of landowning landless women and makes its and functioning fully measures professional, quantitatively qualitatively the gal would beinforced tostudy, followsitting the ISL participated Kelkar’s forformat focusit will keep obstacles.” decrease in facing domestic violence across six villag- and players would finally given decent congroup discussions and be answering lengthy to Roy, newly-formed teams such es According in Telangana, Karnataka and Meghalaya and tracts.

For Kolkata football, surely be a questionnaires.

“One of thethat’ll biggest changes as Pune and are already two types of Bengaluru societies — FC patriarchal andmoving matri- shot sinceinI the got arm.” my land is that I can decide my the goalposts for their Kolkata lineal.

The study surveyed 494counterparts people (388 daughter’s education,” says Manjula. She is with a style management that is prag- shreevatsa women andof 106 men), including 122more landownsending her nevatia son to college while her daughter

Women who have land rights have a greater say in the family and household, proves a recent study across six villages

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The spy pigeon Have the bad guys found the ultimate infiltration tool?

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ast week, the Gujarat coast had an unusual visitor. A security guard found a pigeon flapping around on an oil jetty. Despite persistent shooing, it refused to fly away. On closer inspection, the guard found a tiny chip fastened to its claw and a ring with the number ‘28733’ inscribed on it.

The bird also had Arabic writing etched on its wings. Had a ‘foreign spy’ breached security and landed on our shores? Soon, everyone from the superintendent of police for the district, the coast guard, forest department, forensic experts and even members from the union home ministry came in to take a look at the spy pigeon. According to reports, “the winged suspect was detained and a strip search was conducted.” The police and defence personnel jointly pursued the investigation and now, the mystery appears to have been solved. They have discovered that the pigeon species, which is native to India, is often deployed for pigeon racing across the middle-east. Apparently, pigeon number ‘28733’ slipped out of its cage while at sea and somehow found its way back home. Not a spy, just homesick.

No farting, please Modest women don’t break wind

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n Islamic city council in Indonesia has banned feSay no to patriarchy 18-year-olds Roja and Sarita (middle) now have the freedom of mobility and to pursue education; (below) male Uppalamma is the sole breadwinner of her flatulence (farting).

The family. She exercises economic agency in all household matters, be it in the choice of shampoo or the crops to grow priyanka kotamraju punishment for this ‘grave offence’ could be up to three will continue her studies at the local govern- for her daughter foror her20son. monthsand in Dove prison lashes ment school. The household too has seen However, Kelkar, agency more imporforforsmall farts.

Theismayor of changes. “I’m part of every decision, whether tant than Aceh, assets. She says, the “The study doesn’t where law was it is about groceries, crop loans or purchase of measure passed, how many assetsmedia have that beena acho knew llamas could cause such high drama and heartbreak? Last told local goods. We (my husband and I) negotiate now, quired. Rather, it measures how as much control month, a pair of llamas — Kahkneeta and Laney — shot to internet ban was necessary, farting not quarrel,” she adds. women wield overgo their assets.” example, fame, when they ran loose at a retirement facility in Arizona, leading the podid not down well For with the In Somaram, where 33 per cent of the pop- the surveyIslamic asked what happens if a woman lice on a high-speed chase. Twitter exploded with live broadcasts of the fugivalues of modesty. ulation is Dalit, domestic violence is an every- tries to exercise birth control, if she tives and #LlamasOnTheLoose hashtags. Celebrities now, Kahkneeta and “Muslim women are not spends alday occurrence. So is drinking. Manjula and money onlowed grooming, leaves villageit’s withLaney have been at local events, posing for pictures and making 100m dashto fart withthe sound, Uppalamma recount several stories of abuse out consultation, gives birth to a daughter. es. For the retirees, they were a source of joy. Not for the US Department of against or Islamic teachings,” he faced by their neighbours. “Every evening, the While all said. landowning women Agriculture (USDA), which has frowned upon the pair and asked the owners The mayor had a in fewKarnataka more husbands get drunk. Then they kick, punch, and Telangana that a woman could to shut down the show. “They totally destroyed everything I planned for my gemsreported to add too: “When you see fight, push and cuss at their wives,” says Man- be “pushed (27 per fart cent),loud, slapped per cent) retirement,” the owners complained. However, before the llamas step out of woman she(26 appears jula. We wonder whether they’re sharing their or punched (19aper cent) husband the limelight forever, they will run for one last time this week. like man.

Butbyiftheir she sits side- for friends’ stories or their own. having given it birth to one ways and passes quietly, she or According to Kelkar’s study, more looks likedaughter(s),” a woman.” 43 per cent when wives tried to stop their reported that violence has rehusbands from drinking, “landuced significantly since they downing women in patriarchal got land rights.

One of the biggest Karnataka and Telangana said Earlier, women would be changes since I got they would be shouted at (79 per forced into sexual intercourse my land is that I can cent), called names (58 per cent), decide my daughter’s for having used birth control. hen Kolkata started(42 to per change colour, many wondered but few dared Now, more than 83 per cent of insulted cent) and even education to ask why.

Finally, (19 lastper week, the Calcutta slapped cent).”

AlmostHigh Court questioned Cal- landowning women across the cutta Municipal half Corporation’s (CMC) for turning the city into a sea three states have reported a dethe women inrationale the study of blue and white.

Onethe of the judges, was clearly unhappy with the from two stateswho also said crease in sexual violence while colour move, said, “Inthe a city where garbage flies in the air, plastic that “household is deprived landless women continue to sufpackets lie hither thither, would be like a bed fer. While the study doesn’t establish a “bi-diofand basic needsthat andcity daily comforts beautiful if buildings are clothes turned as blue and of the husband’s rectional” relationship between domestic and clean a result white? What analcohol idea!” While abuse.”the Butgoverndue to land and asset own- violence and women’s ownership of land, it ment is issuing ership, tax breaks houses moretothan 40 per cent of landowning does show that right to land results in a reducpainted in the chosen colours, women in thethe twoonstates reported a decrease tion of verbal, physical and sexual violence. ly known reason to be that in seems alcohol-fuelled violence. In the case of landPatriarchy, however, continues to exert a they are Mamata favoulessBanerjee’s women, the abuse has only perpetuated. powerful influence on how society conducts rite colours. Will Didi call the itself. This is reflected in the attitude of many court’s questions also a communiAgency, not just assets men who participated in the study. In Meghast conspiracy? Or a ploy bringare 18. College friends and laya, many men were in favour of changing Roja and toSarita down her government? neighbours, they live in hostels away from the the matrilineal system to a patrilineal one — village and paint their nails black and red. “We “A man will be the head of the household and hina’s relentless pursuit of sacrifice. Much like the tale of two don’t get bicycles or mobiles but we get to a woman will be the heart of the household,” economic growth is putting sons who carried their mother study,” they say. In Somaram, it also appears says Keith Pariat, the face of the men’s rights families under unprecedented around in a cart across 600 towns that women are marrying later. “They don’t movement in the state. In the cases of lanstrain. Suicide rates among the el- to fulfil her dying wish to travel. A rush us into marriage as soon as we turn 18. downing Dalit women, several aspects of their derly have seen a five-fold jump — famous literary work Twenty-four There’s time till we turn 20 or 21,” Sarita says. lives have improved: for example, Manjula family neglect is a major cause. So, Paragons of Filial Piety is also helpAt homes of landowning women like Uppa- deals with banks and revenue officials, dethe government has come up fully displayed. The work includes lamma or Elamma, domestic goods have be- cides on which subsistence crops to grow, apwith a novel plan to arrest the ero- grisly stories of a woman who come signs of prosperity and agency. plies for loans and exercises birth control. Yet, sion of family values: The Modern breastfed her toothless stepUppalamma’s house is pucca now, at least par- her daughter will not inherit her land. “BrothFilial Piety Culture Museum. Ex- mother, and a son who sat naked tially. A television has made its way in, so have ers don’t want their sisters to take their share hibits at the museum suggest to protect his parents from moswardrobes and a motorcycle. “Our life has im- of land. The resistance coming from the that to be a good son or daughter, quito bites. Call it vasudhaiva kuproved a lot. I buy three different kinds of younger generation is worrying,” says Kelkar.

Chinese youth must display su- tumbakam or filial piety, modern shampoos for my children and me,” she says perhuman levels of devotion and families now are truly scary. with a laugh. Chik shampoo for her, Pantene priyanka kotamraju

Llama drama

Kahkneeta and Laney will run free no more

W

Colour me blue

Q

If you’re the CM of a state, the city is your canvas

W

China’s adarsh parivar

Filial values take a superhuman turn

C

R

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3 23BL BL

HANG

saturday, april 4, 2015

BL

24

in-faq by joy bhattacharjya Dogs

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n this day in 1873, the first ever kennel club was formed in Piccadilly, London. To honour that momentous occasion, this quiz has literally gone to the dogs.

here,there & elsewhere

Minx mania

O

nce a week, I call my Auntie Lily in India, on the phone. Both my parents are gone and she’s the only person of their generation who I remain in contact with. I use one of those calling cards which take five minutes to dial the initial number, then the password, then another long number all without making mistakes before the call finally connects. The line sounds like there’s a tropical storm in progress.

Auntie Lily is alone now, so she’s always the one to pick up the phone.

Whenever I call, wherever I am, the first thing she says to me is: “How’s Bins?”

This is because, like everyone who meets Bins, Auntie Lily adores him.

It’s partly because of the French connection. She travelled to France soon after marrying my uncle, who joined the Foreign Service postIndependence. There she learned to speak French and cook French food.

Whenever Bins and I visit her home in Chennai, staying for a few days, the two of them chatter away in French. At all mealtimes, he not only eats everything my aunt’s cook-lady sets in front of him, but he polishes his plate clean and asks for more.

In the evenings, he watches the TV news with Auntie and agrees with all her political opinions. At

cornerstone

night, after dinner and over a wee glass of wine, he asks her about her life as a Foreign Service wife, shares anecdotes about his disastrous first visit to France and says how much he prefers living in India. Thus he polishes his reputation as a Visiting Angel Nephew while I am forced to sulk in a corner.

The reason I sulk is that Bins is not an angel! No-one is! But I can never actually prove it. For instance, this week, when Auntie asks about Bins, I tell her he’s gone out. “Out! But where?” she wants to know. Next door, I tell her.

1 2

Which famous leader had a dog named Peritas, and also has a city named after him close to the Jhelum river?

“Really? I thought you said that man didn’t like him?” There’s a new tenant, I tell my aunt. She moved in just three days ago.

“My. That’s nice. And it’s another lady?” asks Auntie Lily. Yes, I say. What I don’t say is that Bins also thinks it’s nice. Extremely nice.

“And he’s helping her move? Is she an old lady?” No, Auntie, she’s a frizzyhaired minx with 10-inch stiletto heels, is what I want to say. But I don’t want my aunt to worry. So instead I say the new tenant’s from Jamaica and has a weak back, without mentioning her age: 28. “That’s very kind of Bins!” trills Auntie, over the tropical storm.

“Please tell him I said hello. And don’t let him strain himself too much! And tell him I said you should make fish curry for him!”

Yes, Auntie. Of course, Auntie. But I still don’t know how to make fish curry, Auntie.

Then it’s time to say goodbye. I put the phone down. From next door I can hear the sound of furniture being moved. Tinkling laughter. Tip-tapping heels. From my house: the gnashing of teeth. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes about her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, in this weekly column

This dog was so named because he would bite the back of visitors’ legs. His owner painted a portrait of him in 1898, which became famous a couple of years later after the artist had made a few modifications to the original painting. Name the dog, and what changes were made to the painting?

3 4

Easy enough. What would you be trying to recover from if you took recourse to a ‘hair of the dog’?

Frederick Forsyth’s bestseller The Dogs of War was based on his personal experiences during the 1970 conflict between Biafra and Nigeria. From where did he borrow the title?

5

When the breed was first created in the early 17th century, hunters were trying to create a fearless animal that could dig its way into a badger’s hole. Name the breed, whose name literally translated means ‘badger dog’?

6 7

Which famous writer wrote a bestselling travelogue about his 1960 road trip with his poodle, Charley?

In the Star Wars series, the character of Chewbacca the Wookie was inspired by George Lucas’ dog when it sat upright next to him on the passenger seat of his car. The question is — what was the name of the dog; it has also featured in another film franchise?

8 9

Which company valued at over a billion dollars is named after the owner’s late American bulldog?

All hounds are categorised into three varieties, the third being a combination of the first two varieties. What are the first two varieties. This can be worked out.

10

Whose dogs, and there are quite a few of them, though Druzhok is the best known, are commemorated in a monument at the Institute of Experimental Medicine in St Petersburg, Russia.

Answers

1. Alexander the Great. Plutarch mentions the story along with the account of Bucephalus, Alexander’s legendary horse 2. Nipper, the dog featured on the HMV Records logo.

The original painting had him listening to an Edison Bell phonograph, which was replaced with a Berliner disc gramophone as Berliner purchased the painting for HMV and Victor to use 3. You would be having a drink to recover from a hangover. Still not figured out how that works!

4. William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar; “Cry Havoc!

And let slip the dogs of war” 5. The Daschund 6. John Steinbeck; released in 1962 just a few months after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature 7. Indiana; that’s where Indiana Jones gets his name from 8. Zynga, named after Mark Pincus’ pet Zinga 9. Sight hounds, who hunt primarily using their vision, and scent hounds, who rely on their sense of smell. Whippets and Salukis are examples of sight hounds, who are usually fast runners. Beagles and Basset hounds are scent hounds, much slower but with greater endurance 10. Ivan Pavlov, whose experiments with them led to his path-breaking concept of the ‘conditioned reflex’ and a Nobel prize in 1904

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

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