Blink issue 65 april25 2015

GAMES PEOPLE PLAY With a village in West Bengal cancelling an allwomen’s football match, the battle between orthodoxy and modernity comes to the fore p2 saturday, april 25, 2015

afp/iIndranil mukherjee

High alert

As urban youngsters take to a cheap new drug called Meow Meow, families and authorities find themselves in a bind p10

MIDAS OF THRISSUR TS Kalyanaraman’s glittering journey from a textile shop owner to global jeweller p6

PAPER CLAIMS A book on the future of architecture that oversimplifies and preaches p17

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Emperor’s cloths Aurangzeb was a man of paranoid cunning and treachery, and it was reported that his subjects considered him a fakir or wizard; (below) Shivaji openly defies Aurangzeb wikicommons

THE COMPASS CHRONICLES Born free The imam of Chandipur disallowed a football match because all the players were women, like in this game t singaravelou

Horrors of the East Silent field

The colonialists were quick to deem India a place where the powers of darkness rage

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he scientific awareness of aof period “The first detailed account of thein interior con- tientsWest in a sort Bengal, of aesthetic,reveals hypnotic trance The recent cancellation a women’s football game Chandipur, thatinin history is richly illustrated by struction of living tissue based on the use of a duced to alleviate surgical pain. His journal is folklore, villagers for example,might certain be ma- conservative, microscope did not appear are untilchamping 1644, in a dramatic the many while some others at theaccount bit toofbe freecases treated

rohit gupta

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cabre legends concerning ‘poison khilats’ (or cloths, presumably). The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb is said to have invited a Rajput prince named in Prithvi and gifted handipur WestSingh, Bengal’s Malda him a robe district of honour.

The prince died a is small enough towithin cover in day, possibly which conan from hour, smallpox by foot. Given itshe limited tracted from the infected cloth. expanse, no one here had imagined Instead of smallpox, hintheadthat that the village would some make tales national the cloth was soakeditwith exotic lines.

Unexpectedly, was aangame of oriental football poison, whichChandipur then percolated skin of that threw into into the the spotlight. the wearer, burning him toplace death.

1666, Raja Scheduled to have taken onInMarch 14, a Shivaji Bhosle escaped such anwas attempt Auseven-a-side exhibition match calledatoff at rangzeb’s court,Several where reasons he felt have insulted the last minute. beenand citwalked away rudely before ‘robe obvious of honed for its cancellation, but the most our’ him. Historians Mione could is alsobe theplaced most upon regrettable — the 14 playchelle Maskiell, Adrienne Mayor ers who were to and represent Kolkata andinform North us in a research paper:were “For women. many 19th century Bengal in Chandipur British James Tod WilOverauthors, the pastincluding weeks, residents of and Chandiliam Crooke, from Aurangzeb was a man parapur, 390km Kolkata, have beenof trying noid cunning and treachery, it was hard to accommodate hordes ofand journalists. reported that hisworks subjects a faSabu Razi, who as aconsidered chemist, ishim quick to kir or wizard.” caution, “You’ll find that people are being These European accounts thus constructed handpicked and pushed forward to give the an obsessive fearcolour.” of thin Indian clothing, and story a different Razi strokes his greythat of tropical Through thisinteracperniing beard whilediseases. recounting a recent cious miasma, only areporter. thick layer of cloth could tion with a female “I had to tell her prevent from falling to speaking the horrors that thethem sharia forbids meprey from to of East.

Why and so many Europeans chosethat to herthe face to face, it is the same sharia dress garments completely for stops in girls and women from unsuitable wearing little Indian climate is best by this infershorts and playing onexplained a field. That’s what our nal dread. imam had said.”

Several instances andKhutbah variations of this During the Jummah (Friday sermethod murder exist during imam this period, mon) onofMarch 6, Chandipur’s Mufti which suggest causal link between inMaqsood Alamthat hadthe told his audience that the fection and disease been firmlysanction establishsharia does not givehad its adherents to ed within localplay knowledge. early 1600s, watch women football.In Inthe a predominatevery primitive microscopes unly Muslim village (11 out of 12were Gramalready Panchayat der development in Europe, but the microbial members are from the Muslim community), nature of diseasedominate would not be revealed his prescriptions public opinion.for some According to agame Wikipedia entry, Thetime. cancellation of the has exposed

Giambattista Odierna’s L’occhio della Mosca, or by him, a large number of which featured amThe Fly’s Eye.” putations of various tumours and abscesses A very interesting account of murders in among the native population, including a the East was in 1870

by Norman the fault linespublished in this village of around 5,000 number of prisoners from a nearby jail. Some Some speak of local rivalries and some decry Chevers, a British doctor.

His book Manual of of people, with some believing thatA the imam the accounts mention the of removal of garpolitical meddling.

Razi talks mud-slinging Medical Jurisprudence for India, the gantuan was justified in his actions, whileIncluding others, espeappendages,while perhaps with exaggerin the marketplace, others accuse the Outline of a History of Crime Person in ated cially the women, voiceAgainst their the resentment dimensions to fuelof the oriental fantasies district administration apathy.

India also cloth murders. against thiscomments orthodoxy.on In the Chandipur, girls are of readers back home England.

An examination ofineach charge can help Chevers “Anyone whosports. has noticed how allowed writes, to run but not play Cancelling Anunravel example: “May 12th. — Bu­xoo, Khit­matone the trajectory of the arecent turfreely a robust person in India the perspires a football game means preventing school- ­gar. is a fi­stu­lus ope­ning in theadds, uremoilThere in Chandipur, but as Razi himself through a thin garment, understand girls from knowing thatcan they can tackle,that de- ­thra and the glanstell penis sloug­hing, its ramifications of which social isfissures.

“We iffend theand cloth thoroughly impregnated and evenwere run free. to be am­pu­ta­ted.

I de­si­red havere­qui­res long moved past the age when a womwith the cantharidine of that veto be mes­me­ri­sed, andour rean’s place washim in the kitchen.

Women are ry powerful vesicant, the Telini Whims and fancies ­tur­ned in an hour.

I found partners in development, and we’ll have tohim en(probably the beetle outside or Sitting near theblister playground Chandi- sure that theyas­leep, and whenand loo­king at are independent self-suffiSpanish the result would be pur Highfly), School, Reza Razi tries him, he his cient.

Wesud­denly cannot ope­ned keep them as that of an extennotdangerous to look as despondent.

The eyes, but went to bound anyim­me­dia­tely longer.”

These European sive burn.” of the Progressive president sleep and inbyfive Razi again, is distracted themi­nringaccounts thus The rest the book explores Youth Cluboftalks of how nation-a u­tes cut offsees thethe glans, ing of after a bell,I which stuconstructed an People should be panorama of players impassioned al- and state-level had all wi­thout awa­kingHigh him.

He dents of Chandipur School obsessive fear of thin looking at my foot. crimes by natives acrossexcited British assembled in Kolkata, awoke soon af­ter, and said it gather in the playground for Indianwhat clothing, anda That’s I will hit India, including some of this the about making their way to was from fear, assembly. not pain.”Physical their morning that of tropical ball with. Not my most Wiveswere in Bengal acvery bizarre. field. “They coming A similar state of suspended education teacher Masoom Safidiseases shorts or my skirt cidentally killing husbands here to help us their celebrate the animation was the subject a qi admits that though 60 ofper by mixing whatjubilee. they thought was club’s golden They weshortofstory

by Edgar Allan Poe, cent the school’s students are aren’t lovetaking potion, but turnedWe out to any money. had ‘The Facts in thealways Case ofenjoy M Valdegirls, they don’t the be a fatal poison; theBranding Rajah of to turn them all away.” mar’, originally intended“These as a freedom they should.

Mandavie committed masculine sati the edict ofwho the village imam “whimsical”, 80- hoax.

This story, turn, was mentioned in In girls have neverinplayed football.

A women’s along with otherthings people burning year-old Razieight says, “The saidbythat Friday the Housematch of Suddhoo Rudyard the football wouldbyhave been Kipling, very inspirhimself in fireworks; Brahmins whoto commitare improper for a man of my age repeat. best-known chronicler of the British His ing.” He points to 15-year-old Anaj Raj. Khatun. ted suicide by overeating to death; men on whoa mountain Women footballers are not half-naked begins an ominous poem “She is onetale of the bestwith athletes we have.”

Khawould pretend to bea apractising corpse soMuslim that theand lawI about field. Moreover, I’m the horrors of India: tun promptly confesses an interest in sports. may punish theinstructions, accused; andbut a variety of incifollow Islam’s my religion is “I only And all world is wildGirls and don’t strange; getthe to run, though. play footdents involving human at the altar of my own.

I can’t force mysacrifice understanding down Churel ghoulDoes and Djinn and sprite ball and and cricket.” she know why the goddess someoneKali. else’s throat.”

Shall bear us company to-night, women’s exhibition match was disallowed in Chevers mention another A crowddoes soonnot gathers around the strange octoge- March?

For weHer have reached the Oldest Land this vilanswer is pithy — “Because episode from medical history of colonial narian. As thethe former biology teacher begins lage Wherein Powers ofThe Darkness is verythe backward.” likes ofrange.

Reza Razi India, thethe mysterious Esdaile a practito detail sequenceJames of events that—culminatwouldn’t have liked Khatun to arrive at such a gupta explores thebut history of opinion science as is only tioner of cancellation mesmerism, of orthe medical hypnotism. ed in the women’s football rohit damning conclusion, her tChandipur’s @fadesingh clash against reliThis doctor would pa- Compasswallah match, thereofareCalcutta others who fill place in his his blanks. warranted. In

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gious orthodoxy and patriarchy, narrow-mindedness clearly appears to have a headstart.

The long and shorts of it Mufti Maqsood Alam sits in a dark room. Upset by journalists who had reported that he had issued a fatwa against Progressive Youth Club’s football match, the imam says he first wants to set the record straight. “No fatwa had ever been issued by me. I had never questioned the propriety of women playing football. The people of my village had asked me if they should watch women play football. In my sermon, I had simply said that according to the sharia, it is best if they didn’t.” Given his influence, doesn’t such a precept essentially prohibit women from playing football? The imam hedges his answer. “There are people who ask if they should drink alcohol. I tell them they shouldn’t, but if they still do, how can I stop it?” He is as evasive when asked if the sharia allows girls to play football. “I can only answer that when a parent asks me the question.”

Perceived by many to have been the epicentre of the Chandipur fracas, Mufti Maqsood Alam is aware that his eminence in the village has been challenged. “Members of the Progressive Youth Club weren’t happy with what I had said. Some of them abused me in the marketplace and this created a huge furore in the village. Interestingly, however, the administration didn’t allow the match to take place because of Higher Secondary examinations. These problems weren’t even a factor.”

Reza Razi says that not only had Block Development Officer (BDO) Biplab Roy allowed his club to host the match, he had also promised security. Soon after the imam’s injunctions, this permission was hastily revoked. Since Roy says that he has been “instructed to not speak on sensitive matters”, the motive behind his reversal is unknown. Darajuddin Ahmad had walked to the BDO’s office to garner support for the March 14 game. “Everything is in the hands of the administration, but they did not take any interest at all.”

Walking down the kilometrelong road that connects much of Chandipur, Ahmad returns to the crux of the imam’s opposition — the length of the shorts that women are seen wearing when playing football.

“There are girls who are playing football in Pakistan and

Still waiting Students of Chandipur High School gather for their morning assembly on the very ground that was meant to host a women’s football match in March; (below) Reza Razi, president of the Progressive Youth Club, says he will ensure that women are allowed to play football in Chandipur before he dies shreevatsa nevatia

Bangladesh. These are Muslim-dominated of this state is a woman. We have had a woman countries. I don’t see anyone stopping them.” prime minister. Women are leaders in the Zila Last month, Arjuna-awardee Shanti Aich Mul- Parishad. If women can be so visible in public lick was packing for her stint in Chandipur life, can’t they be allowed to play a simple from Kolkata. A month later, she continues to game of football?” be livid about the sudden recall. “If we aren’t When the same question is put to Shammi expected to wear shorts while playing foot- Akhtar, a Trinamool-affiliated member of ball, should we wear burqas instead? People Chandipur’s Gram Panchayat, she resorts to should be looking at my foot. That’s what I will equivocation. “There is no deeper meaning or hit a ball with. Not my shorts or impact hidden here. The Progresmy skirt.” sive Youth Club just hit its own Mullick’s views are possibly foot with a hammer.” too radical in Chandipur’s marThe women of Chandipur, ketplace, where conservatism however, choose to differ. Bina The chief minister of and liberties continue to battle this state is a woman. Roy, a 26-year-old postgraduate, it out. Insisting that he only opsees the cancellation as a cruel reWe have had a posed the women’s football minder of her place in society. woman prime match after his religious senti“I’d like to stand on my own two minister. If women ments were hurt, Inamul Huq feet one day, but I can now see can be so visible in asks, “Why haven’t the members how people want me to think of public life, can’t they of this club made any effort to myself as weak. Women here are be allowed to play a form a girls’ football team in constantly being stopped from game of football Chandipur? Why are they bringrealising their potential.” Munsiing in women from the outfa Razi is mother to a son and side?” The 23-year-old tailor daughter. The 30-year-old says looks up from his sewing maenthusiastically, “Boys and girls chine to answer his question. “This is only be- are equal. There is no stricture or verse in Iscause they are hypocritical. They think the lam that stops women from playing football. I women of their homes are respectable and wanted my daughter to watch women play others are not.” this sport. I want her to be evolved, to be independent. I want her to be free.”

An obstacle course Ten-year-old Tausif Alim Razi snuggles in his Wearing an embroidered white kurta, part- mother’s lap as she articulates her views on time activist Abid Anjum Razi looks almost re- women’s empowerment and feminism. A gal in a roadside shed. “Porn films are made in homemaker, Jasmin Ara Begum believes she Europe and America. Are they made in India?” should choose her own career. “There will He pauses for effect, but doesn’t wait for an an- come a time when women leave the house, swer. “They are not. Porn stars and prostitutes and they can do so with dignity while staying are accepted in Western societies. They have within the limits of purdah.” A keen footballer no place in India.” The self-styled activist’s himself, Tausif smirks at the idea of playing equation of pornography and women’s foot- the sport with a girl. His mother laughs and ball is befuddling and he is quick to clarify, “Ev- tenders an apology. “Change must now begin ery country, you see, has its own moral at home.” context. The imam simply pointed out that Back on the street outside, girls hurry out of women’s football is not fit for this village. Chandipur High School. Some ride cycles and Some people want to build a society. Others one even rides pillion on her brother’s motorsadly want to break it.” bike. Reza Razi, for his part, smiles hopefully. “I Social worker Shakil Siraji is within earshot. will make sure they can all play football one He looks peeved by what he has just heard. “If day. Before I die, I’ll make sure. I’ll do everymy understanding of Islam forbids me from thing that I possibly can to guarantee that watching a game of football, I’ll refuse to go, Chandipur is not Talibanised.” but how can I support a ban?” Siraji makes a rather impassioned point, “The chief minister shreevatsa nevatia

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WINDOW OR AISLE

Complaint central When it comes to spreading the word about a bad experience, the new consumer, At loggerheads Prime Minister empowered by social media, shows little or no tolerance Narendra Modi and

Justice HL Dattu at the joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices in New Delhi. Despite Modi’s remarks on ‘five-star activism’, the possibility of conflict with the judiciary is not immediately imminent

rishi piparaiya

kamal singh

STATES OF MATTER

No trivial pursuits Will the judiciary’s ‘five-star activism’ in matters of the government become an encumbrance too heavy to bear?

sukumar muralidharan

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rime Minister Narendra Modi’s widely quoted remark from a recent conference with the higher judiciary led to some mirthful protest involving a popular chocolate brand. It also led to some worry. The particular brand of chocolate adwork with numbers a living.

From vertises itself as an agent offor extreme passivity, morning to of night, I am inand front of my inducing a mood distraction forgetful— passivism, integers, formulas, equaness.computer But it was not but “five-star actions a backupthe calculator by my side. tivism” that—bothered Prime Minister.

People make important decisionsof based on To appreciate the significance “five-star my analysis and Minister’s large, I do avision, good job. activism” inand, the by Prime the But I have doing this for years now, phrase hasbeen to be restored to 15 context.

In aday 35in and day out, taking a break my the anminute address in Hindi, theonly PMfor used term twice. He began by likening judicial work to some manner of a divine mandate, but halfway through, he reduced it to a far more trivial pursuit. “Rendering justice within the parameters of the law is an easy matter”, he said. “Judges have that power of discernment which comes from the opening of the ‘third eye’”. Yet it was not always so easy distinguishing perception and reality, and it was necessary to ask if the judiciary was not being driven by “five-star activists”.

A little ahead, the theme reappeared with a slight variation, but the inherent illogic remained. How would it be that the “third eye”, which enables the judge to decide a matter within the complex and constantly shifting parameters of the law, should fail in the far simpler task of telling reality from perception?

If the speech left room for ambiguity, a look at governmental actions may help divine its intent. Just days after Modi’s speech, the government froze the environmental campaign group Greenpeace’s permission to receive donations from abroad, on grounds that it had been engaged in improper political activity.

This was, evidently, a pushback against an adverse judicial verdict.

On March 12, the Delhi High Court had ruled illegal a government order disallowing Greenpeace volunteer Priya Pillai from travelling abroad. The government used the broad brush of “anti-national” activity to justify its action. That rationale was summarily thrown out of court. The petitioner could not be categorised as “anti-national” because she was assisting “tribal communities to claim their rights”, ruled the court. “Espousing a cause of

a particular section of people could not be preme Court meanwhile, is declining any I haveAthe power considered as anti-national or creating disaf- manner of unconditional relief. newly consiSocial media is often fection amongst people at large”. “Restric- tuted bench, on April 22, extended anticipatoflooded with stories of tions on criticism of government policies or ry bail for Setalvad and Anand, butpassengers only for irate airline vv krishnan programmes whether in India or abroad” three months. moreover, should “if at all, apply only to govAgainst this mixed background, Modi’s renual vacation.

And the other day, I got a formu- marks Whatdo I am about is the lack of tolernment servants”. notconcerned presage any immediate possibilla wrong and,“anti-national” unfortunately, though, some customers that wewith occasionally display The term had be- erance ity of conflict the judiciary.

Buttobyindividway of made some wrong transactions and went employees who aremay representing thea come common currency and gained new en- ual comparison, a reference be made to through fairmedia amount of inconvenience.

No organisation or conflict brand. Take case of airline ergy in athe discourse.

A recurrent phase of active thatthe opened with the major loss to anyonenationalist and it was one whether in the in cabin ground themefinancial in the overwrought dis- employees adoption of—the constitution 1950,orwhen the wrong out ofrebuke the hundreds that I cal- staff, this has to be one of thegovernment most thankless course formula is the implicit to India’s institujudiciary struck down early acculate daily but it didover hassle our clients.

Then, dealingof with hundreds and tions when debates domestic policy are jobs. tions Imagine in two realms particular concern: all hellto broke looseforums.

— someone this to thousands of stressed day after taken overseas Yet,reported on a commonland redistribution and passengers affirmative action. the press and my company was prominently queries, missed sense reading, there is an obvious element of day.

ThisHandling sequence logistics, of decisions triggered the displayed in all the Incapacities leading dailies.

Why, some cancelled flights, changes, special non sequitur here. at various lev- flights, first amendment to thegate constitution, which international up asIndia well meal weather problems, technical els are alreadypublications declared in picked the factit that Primerequests, Minister Jawaharlal Nehru introduced from theanewswires.

Our call centre issues beyond regards foreign company’s se- was flood- snags — mostin 1951 usually with words thattheir haveconbeed with calls. Friends and family called trol. They arecome invariably the messengers, curity of irate investment as a domesfamous: “Somehow, comthis me to ask what had happened. Someone municating magnificent issues to customers, who that are tic policy priority. constitution clicked a photograph me at my cubicle and already in a heightened state ofwas stress.

ButkidevAnother recent andofconspicuwe have framed later If Modi’s speech left pasted posters all around the neighbourhood. ery once in anapped while you come across a ous failure of institutional integand will purloined by the room for ambiguity, a It was quite horrible. group of passengers a haprity was the March 21 acquittal of lawyers”.crowded The firstaround amendment look at governmental above situation is fictional yelling at the topspecific of theirintent voic16 The police personnel brought to — it would less employee, was adopted with actions may help be quite extraordinary something like that es, virtually to accosting her. viral trial for the killing of 42 if men of a increasehim the or zone forThe autonodivine its intent were to really to someFacebook post by lambasting an aircertain faith happen in Hashimpura, mous action the executive, one doing a desk job. But line is usually accompanied with Meerut district in May 1987.every That and minimise the encumbrances now and then, bad customer aofsurreptitiously clicked photoconformed to aadepressing tale judicial oversight.

The purexperience particularly in graph of to the said airline repreof impunitystory, for acts of commupose was advance the cause of Imagine dealing with the goes viral. sentative whothewas rude had or nal aviation violence,industry, which has with few exceptions, distributive justice, which judiciary hundreds and An airline diverts a flight and inconsiderate.

Yes, theyand mayprivihave been the settled pattern since Independence. with its narrow focus on property thousands of doesn’t take adequate careAnand of the have proved lege as eternal, been, but isthan it fair to intrude and Teesta Setalvad and Javed rather inherited, rights stressed passengers passengers. flight is delayed their photographs or perthat anotherAinstitutional response is possi- seemingly setleak its face against. day after day but isn’t acommunicated sonal information? ble. Itthis remains partial success, but convicThe conflict did not by any means end there. clearly.

Or an employee at particular It mutated andIt’s quasi-hypocritical, coming tions handed down snaps in two intensified through the ’60s. aincidents passenger.

We all from has written a within theread 2002these Gujarat pogrom, But from about thesomeone mid-’70s,who a greater degree stories, withNaroda them Patiya and killings, go of sympathy book poking fun at the aviation the Bestidentify Bakery and towards distributive justice was propagate them, through word of mouth and, industry, saiditself andchanged done, itcharacter. is an exsome way towards establishing the forgotten evident asbut the all bench now, socialthat media. postsofgojustice viral, tremely job. While rightfully hold principle the Facebook institutions From thedifficult ’80s onwards, thewe terrain of contest tweets get re-tweeted, andalike. entire organisa- airlines to the highest standards of customer should work for everybody shifted towards executive accountability and tions are brought to their knees as the PRand de- service, I think we often exhibit much less tolSetalvad and Anand, executive trustees the enforcement of basic rights.

Ironically, partments struggle toof contain theand effects of an erance than weatshould theirthe employees. the main organisers Sabrang Citizens this happened a timetowhen executiveI incident spiralling outhad of control. thatturning they areits theback custodians the for Justice and Peace, arrest warrants is- appreciate branch began on the of redisThis level ofthem customer empowerment is fan- company but they are individuals With sued against by a Gujarat court in Februtributive intent of earlier years. Thetoo. judiciary tastic. longer canofcorporate boundaries a professionary onNoallegations financialbehemoths misappr- similar today may be willingoftoprivacy acceptas these broad patake us forThey granted.

We are aa generation of al who works in front computer,onaway opriation. were granted temporary rerameters of policy, but of its ainsistence the consumers demands customers.

It would be principle a lot more prieve by thethat Supreme Court,instant but justgratificadays af- from fundamental rights and the of huaction. instant action if our activism, expecta- man to remember have a bad ter theWe PMtake focused his ire on five-star countability couldthat wellanyone be an can encumbrance tions are notgovernment met — we aresent the court, the to judge at work. the Gujarat a report the day too heavy to bear. and theMinistry, jury rolled into one. We serHome complaining thathold one our of their piparaiya is the author AisleatBethe Damned sukumar muralidharan is aoffellow Indian vice providers andFoundation, our brands to a much high- rishi donors, the Ford had been interInstitute of Advanced Study at Shimla er standard consumers did. The Su- rishi@aislebedamned.com fering in thethan Indian politicalever process.

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Sole-searching business This company wants your old shoes, which it will refashion into trendy slippers that are also eco-friendly, and donate them to the unshod

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s athletes, Shriyans Bhandari and Ramesh Dhami ran hundreds of kilometres every year. They also ran through at least three to four pairs of sport shoes every year. The soles were in good condition but the shoe sides tore within months. The duo always wondered if they could find some use for the intact soles of these quality sport shoes. A bit of research led to the idea of refurbishing them into trendy slippers. That brainwave eventually spawned an eco-friendly enterprise that reuses shoe soles and is appropriately named Greensole.

An estimated 2,000 crore pairs of shoes are produced each year, and nearly 30 crore pairs are discarded. As shoemaking involves intensive chemical processes, each pair takes centuries to decompose in a landfill, creating environment problems. At the same time, millions of people worldwide go unprotected

without footwear. Bhandari and Dhami, a naIndividual buyers or those keen on reusing tional-level marathoner, hope to make a differ- their old shoes can order from Greensole’s ence through Greensole. website. “If you give us an old pair of shoes, we The commercial potential of their venture can give you a new pair for ₹249 or ₹299, dedidn’t strike them until Bhandari went to the pending on the design,” Bhandari says. Those Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Ah- wishing to donate to the needy can buy a pair medabad, in April 2014. “They asked us to for ₹149. write about our target market, potential cusGreensole uses a heating process to remove tomers and the impact we could make. That is the shoe uppers. This too is reused. “It is sorted when we realised that it can be turned into a and used for patching torn shoes.” business venture,” says Bhandari, a third-year The lower part is washed and cleaned with student of Bachelor of Management Studies at chemicals to make it pesticide-free. “The Jai Hind College in Mumbai. whole idea is to make the process and the Even after recognising the product environment-friendly,” business potential, the two says Bhandari. founders didn’t have enough The lower part is then colmoney to act on it. Bhandari oured and the upper is made sepWe will use only pumped in ₹1.5 lakh of his monarately using rexine before the eco-friendly paints ey and simultaneously they aptwo are joined together. Greenand eco-glue. Once plied to business competitions. sole totally lives up to its name, the shoe is made, it The duo won the business comas even the straps are made from has to be completely petition at Jai Hind College, recycled trekking ropes. “Going biodegradable and Technology and Sustainability forward, we will use only ecofully utilised Award at Eureka — Asia’s largest friendly paints and eco-glue.

B-plan competition at IIT-BomOnce the shoe is made, it has to bay, and the second position at be completely biodegradable Ridea National B-plan. and fully utilisable,” he adds.

These winnings have Bhandari has received two inbeen Greensole’s main source of dustrial design patents for his footwear. “We funding. are applying for more patents to come up with As for raw material, it mostly ar- innovative designs. But our focus will also be rives free of cost. The start-up has tie- on providing footwear to the needy,” he says. ups with educational institutions, Greensole is receiving technical support companies, Sports Authority of India, from the Kolkata-based Footwear Design and Maharashtra Police and even local Development Institute, which is helping them sports clubs. “They collect discard- start an automated factory. While venture caped shoes and send them to us. italists have shown interest in funding GreenWe then send them to our sole, Bhandari is keen to raise money from the workshop in Kurla,” says old route — business competitions. He is Bhandari. readying to participate in competitions in SinCurrently, Green- gapore in June and Amsterdam in September. sole’s main buyers are He is also trying to get celebrities to donate corporates and NGOs, their shoes, which can then be refurbished which donate the and auctioned online. When that happens, slippers to those in buyers will likely get to literally walk in the need.

Greensole shoes of an Aamir Khan or Katrina Kaif. then donates on rashmi pratap their behalf.

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No carbon footprint Shriyans Bhandari (left) and Ramesh Dhami, founders of Greensole; (top) biodegradable footwear made using discarded shoe soles

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All in good Golden Bigtime Daddy A hesitant TS debt collector runs into and, after several dramatic turns, a Billionaire Kalyanaraman and histrouble sons run their ₹10,000-crore retailtwists giant and Kalyan brief reunion with his college Jewellers from Thrissur.

Theirflame luxury cars and private jets ferry them on business to all corners of the world from this small town in Kerala

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The Debt Collector’s Due Adhirath Sethi HarperCollins ₹250

ou can’t get unluckier than Samay Agrawal. If you think you have hit the bottom of the pit, pick up a copy of The Debt Collector’s Due. At the end of 174 pages you may want to thank every lucky star in the firmament for not being Samay Agrawal.

Adhirath Sethi’s protagonist, Samay (‘time’ in Hindi) has neither time nor luck on his side.

A bright student in school, “often topping the class in maths and frequently sought out by weaker kids to help them with sums”, he comes from an affluent family. With all the “ingredients that one needed to be popular in school”, Samay breezes through his early teens with great confidence. “A certain Saturday”, however, changes his life. Samay rises from bed to get ready for a cricket match early morning and goes back to sleep the next minute. From that moment on, sleep, like the giant squid in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, wraps its tentacles around Samay. He sleeps through his college exams, he sleeps on when his father’s business falls apart and the family loses its home, he sleeps till his parents, tired of the parasitical son, kick him out of their tiny flat. It is only after being banished to a small rent-controlled apartment in central Mumbai — a gift from a benevolent uncle —

that Samay realises how sleep has robbed him faulter, an elderly man, puts a gun to his neck of life. That includes Amrita, the feisty girl and commits suicide. That spells the end of from college who left him for a career in jour- the only good time in Samay’s life. Sethi pulls nalism many years ago.

Samay away from the tree-lined avenues of the “Left with nothing to build his life on”, he Parsi colony — the scene of death — and the serwalks from office to office with a resumé that pentine alleys of Crawford Market. Amrita is as good as blank. He struggles to pay for a makes a dramatic comeback and the plot glass of fresh lime soda. He runs shifts to Panchgani. errands for his aged neighbours As we said earlier, Samay will so as to escape paying for any remake you feel good about yourpair and renovations in the self, and you might want to laud He sleeps through his building. The only job that Sethi for doing fairly well at that. college exams, he comes his way is that of a debt Except, the twists and turns after sleeps on when his collector. And Samay — wellthe re-entry of the college flame father’s business falls mannered, well-dressed, even border on the filmi, which, again, apart and the family good-looking — is the exact opyou may not have a problem loses its home posite of the image of the debt with. Sethi may leave you with collector. Just when it seems that images of Amol Palekar, the everSamay is walking into another green simpleton from Hrishidisaster, Sethi chooses to give kesh Mukherjee films. But do him some respite. With his smile and new- look out for flashes of the chivalrous hero found perseverance, Samay manages to trace forced to grow up overnight. What is strikingevery defaulter — some of them hiding under ly real is the portrayal of people living under tables(!) — and recover the money. Slowly, Sa- huge debts — disturbingly common in the age may slips out of his smart casuals into a jet- of instant loans and credit cards — and the black suit, in a bid to look more businesslike. drastic measures they take to evade the collecFrom recovering a few thousand bucks, Sa- tion agent. may moves on to collecting lakhs. All seems to be going better than he hoped for until a de- aditi sengupta

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Heavy mettle A customer tries out diamond jewellery at the Vijayawada outlet of Kalyan Jewellers, the Kerala-headquartered company credited with introducing price tags and BIS certification in an industry otherwise seen as opaque in its marketing and pricing strategies v raju

Mind reader and magician Nakul Shenoy's book goes he women at Pushpagiri Agraha- the temple, barefoot and in an angavastram. beyondram, just textbook tricks in Surrounded by friends and relatives, he walks a locality of Iyer Brahmins

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middle-class neighbourhood.

Each time Kalyanaraman’s Rolls-Royce Thrissur, are in front of their houses alongside the golden chariot as it comes out of Phantom drives out of the house, it circles the drawing kolam. It is five in the eve- the temple. His sons — Rajesh and Ramesh — temple, seeking blessings before speeding bananas in procession, their handspulling insteadthe of away. Even when the businessman or either of akul Shenoy, 37, when discovered Man- guys ning, and not early morning these tradiare athave the head of the the are Magician the age of pistols. anropes. imagery that’s so brilliant.

And his sons uses the helicopter or one of their two tional floordrake patterns usuallyatdrawn using chariot It’s by its Kalyanaraman had donatfive.today Sinceisthen he has trying it my young imagination. rice flour. But special.

It isbeen the eighth edcaught the ₹5-crore chariot in 2013, signalling his jets, they first fly over the temple before headto get up close andfestival personal with day of the 10-day Ramnavami held in and the company’s rise to the top of India’s ing to their destination. “In all these years, and his idol.toGrowing upthe in Udupi, peris magic, according to Jewellers you?

March celebrate birth ofKarnataka, Lord Rama.

In What gold retail industry.

Kalyan has reve- despite his riches, Swami (or ascetic, as everyme is about formance werechariot few and farthe between two hours spaces the golden from Sitara- To nue of magic ₹10,000 crore. wonder, about creating one in Thrissur addresses him) hasn’t experience stays with Sadly,signifmost changed,” says D Ananthanarayanan, a childbut Shenoy located kept practising magicofand his anThis ma temple, in one corner thedid neighyear, thethat festivities holdyou. another first big show atemerge the age for of 15.

2010 he decid- of the magic see is justbilliotricks or a puzzle. bourhood, will itsInannual journey icance for thewe 67-year-old hood friend of Kalyanaraman How the he trick is seconded to take up as a full-fledged around theitcity. naire. A month oryou twodo later, and a constant presence at famprofession hasn’tdays looked ary. aHow did he/she These are and important for TS Kalyanara- and his sons and daughter will make that ily functions. The friends are also happen or how and did the magician back man,since. chairman and managing director of Ka- move out of the Agraharam around every time Kalyanarawhat audience think-or two later, man opens a new outlet anyWith his first book His now availalyan Jewellers. grandfather TS make home atknow Sobha City,the a modA is month To and me, magic is ble in stores,Iyer he had reveals ing is a feeling withhis children Kalyanarama builtthat the temple, ern township coming up onthat theregisters where in India, or even in Dubai, he and abouteach wonder, about them. Someone watching magic is much, much more than legacy the festival reinstates the family Thrissur-Guruvayur highway. as happened last year. willmagic move out of the creating“Our an familieswill party tricks. get over year. Iyer had migrated to Thrissur from Kumarenever becoming big-this. Agraharam to a This constancy is apparent in experience bakonam, in Tamil Nadu, in the early part of that ger. stays So we need bigger houses,” the tycoon’s daily lifestyle too. He modern township you. your favourite Tell about you and Mandrake? the us 20th century.

Though from a with family of Sadly, he most says. HeTell is us building four trick. wakes up at 5.45am and starts off the magic houses we see is For 10-odd years, I have been perSo, Mandrake is a fabled story, as ofofbusiness priests, Iyer sowed the first seeds at Sobha City, complete with an hour of yoga, a regimen just1940s. tricks orwith a puzzle initiated Nakul Shenoy into theis forming we all know. a youngTextiles kid, atin the by setting upAsSitaram a helipad nearby.as a mind reader. It was Comic book Mandrake unbroken since 1965.

Breakfast wikicommons about I used to pester wayseeped back inin2002, Even asage thefive, family business grew with each For someone tradi-when I started wonders of magic a family affair. In office, he keeps my mom to the basically read Mancalling myself mind reader and a strict eye on schedule. In between, he takes generation, Agraharam and its temple re- tion, Kalyanaraman’s move aout of the Agrahadrake out loud for me.

I was universe. fasnot aHe magician. do method. what do and how you do mained the nucleus of their Practic- ram is significant. has livedEverything here all hisIlife, the timeAbout to call up you customers, at least 10, now his is about the power offamthe it. cinated by back this then character.

Thisthe book is essentially aboutBack the performes started have He now become a growing up with four brothers at the across country each month. home by it has been(big about me being able to read it actually a little beyondcurd the could makeincluding anyone see what heawanted them mind, tradition, running community ily’s periyaveedu house).

One brother con- ance. seven So in the evening,goes his dinner is mostly to see. at the temple for the duration of the somebody’s and being ablethe to influence It is aoften magic book, yes, iton will help kitchen tinues to livemind in that house, while rest have magic. rice. “I have travelled withbut him his jet. transverse thoughts. houses within the anybody The moment you say Mandrake, a couple of and who is itself into speaking, festival.

Kalyanaraman is often seen serving moved to independent In the morning he will callperformance, and say that things comewith to mind.

There’s stripand where presentations. food, along the rest of hisone family, lat- Agraharam. If not for the luxury cars parked or food, homemade idlis, has been arranged. He this book apart?be difficult to mark is organised,” says an industry associate. these guysin are pointing pistols at him, and he What er joining for the lunch. on thesets porches, it would arasu magic books are about thelargely trick and the sibiNevertheless, says, aren’tnow bananas are they?’ Andisthe It is‘Those past seven and Kalyanaraman at Most out the family’s houses in this upper as an entrepreneur, Kalyana-

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Smart Course in Magic Secrets, Staging, Tricks, Tips Nakul Shenoy HarperCollins ₹299

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raman has built a reputation for testing convention. He inherited a textile shop from his father, but spun out a jewellery retail giant.

From one to many Thrissur looks like any other town in Kerala, but its history distinguishes it from the rest.

Home to Guruvayur Temple and Kerala Sahitya Academy, it is often called the cultural and religious centre of the State. Thrissur was also an important link in international trade. It prospered greatly under Sakthan Thampuran, the 18th-century king of Cochin. In a significant move, he invited Syrian Christian families from Travancore to settle in Thrissur and set up businesses, including gold manufacturing and retailing.

The town’s High Road stands testimony to that royal offer. This busy commercial district is among the biggest hubs of gold retailing in the State. Still around are some of its earliest jewellery shops, including names such as Joy Alukkas and Chemmannur that are now familiar outside Thrissur. In 1993, when Kalyanaraman set up his first jewellery store — after his father had divided the family’s five textile outlets between his five sons — it was just an addition to a long list of local jewellers. “Like my father had done, I wanted to set up two jeweller stores — one each for my sons,” recounts Kalyanaraman of his initial ambition.

As Rajesh and, two years later, Ramesh joined the business with the second outlet in Palakkad, their father ensured that the learning of the last two generations was passed on.

“I wanted to make sure that the two didn’t think they have [been born with] a silver spoon,” says Kalyanaraman, seated at the company’s plush headquarters in Thrissur’s Punkunnam. His own entrepreneurial journey had begun as a 12-year-old learning to measure cloth at his father’s textile shop.

“Both of us have sat at the counters, worked as cashier and sold gold ornaments to customers… we have made sure our shop employees follow the same principles and guidelines,” says Rajesh, who is executive director at Kalyan Jewellers and in charge of finance. Vitally, a few tricks of the trade were also passed on.

“Instead of embarrassing the customer by asking about his budget, we observe his eye movement to understand what he is interested in,” says Ramesh, also an executive director and in charge of marketing.

Meanwhile, Kalyanaraman was eager to stand out in a crowded market. For that, he didn’t have to look further than his father’s dictum — sell the best quality at the most reasonable rate. It will give you a good turnover.

Your profits might not be the highest, but your business will be profitable. “We always wanted to be a mass-market player,” says the businessman. Side by side, he introduced other changes that fetched his brand a loyal clientele. “He was the first to bring in price tags in an industry that is otherwise seen as opaque when it comes to pricing. Again, he was the first to introduce BIS certification for jewellery,” says PV Jose, chief patron, Jewellery Manufacturers’ Association.

Tasting big success at his first two outlets (the Thrissur outlet clocked ₹60 crore revenue in its first year), Kalyanaraman was emboldened to look beyond Kerala, towards Tamil Nadu. “Coimbatore is close to Palakkad, and logistically it was easier for us to expand. Also, customer tastes don’t differ too much,” says Rajesh. Today, as the company expands its retail network to touch 100 stores by the end of the 2016 fiscal, it has roped in Sanjay Raghuraman as chief operating officer. “Coming from a private company, I was pleasantly surprised by their execution capability,” says Raghuraman, who previously worked in HDFC. “Swami’s growth has been a miracle. You

Top trio TS Kalyanaraman, chairman and managing director of Kalyan Jewellers, flanked by sons Rajesh (left) and Ramesh, who take care of the finance and marketing sides of the business, respectively kk mustafah

need dhairyam (courage). Otherwise how do from passersby. Inside, Kalyanaraman is in his you open six outlets across UAE on a single trademark dhoti, half-sleeve shirt and YSL sanday?” says Jose. Or, how do you explain hiring dals. Apart from a ring on his left hand, the onAmitabh Bachchan as a brand ambassador af- ly other jewellery on him is a gold-plated and ter opening an outlet in Ahmedabad; the Bol- diamond-studded watch. His sons flank him lywood superstar’s fee was higher than the on the dais, while his family, including wife value of the shop’s stock. Or now, booking a Rama, is in the audience. third jet, worth ₹200 crore, to push ahead The younger Kalyanaramans do most of the with the company’s overseas growth plan. talking. “It was important to get the proposi“We save at least one working day a week by us- tion right,” says Ramesh, explaining why the ing the private jet instead of catching com- company took so long to arrive in Chennai’s mercial flights,” says Ramesh. booming market. “We have invested ₹200 That risk-taking ability has seen Kalyanara- crore in this outlet, which will display 600kg man leapfrog over his rivals and peers in Thris- of gold,” adds Rajesh. Later, Rama explains sur. “Kalyan’s growth has been amazing. They why the Chennai opening is also an emotional have done a lot, introduced many new moment. “I grew up in Chennai. In fact, my fathings,” says Boby Chemmanur, managing di- ther’s house is just walking distance from the rector of Boby Chemmanur International outlet,” she says.

Group, which is also rapidly expanding its The store’s opening saw a marketing blitz gold retail business. “The Thrissur gold indus- across the city— from hoardings to newspatry is dominated by Christians. Swami is the pers and railway platforms to FM stations. The only non-Christian jeweller who has made it store itself was opened by a galaxy of filmstars so big. He has changed the dyincluding Amitabh Bachchan, namics,” adds a senior citizen Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Prabhu who remembers Kalyanaraman and Nagarjuna. Chennai’s T Nafrom his ‘textile days’. gar is often dubbed India’s bigBut not everyone agrees with gest jewellery retail hub. Within Swami’s growth has Kalyanaraman’s growth stratea kilometre radius of Kalyan’s been a miracle. You gy. One of them is Anthony Thotglittering showroom are many of need dhairyam tan, whose family was among (courage). Otherwise its Kerala peers such as Joy Alukthe first to set up a jewellery outkas and Malabar Gold, and the lohow do you open six let in Thrissur in the 19th centu- outlets across UAE on cal favourite GRT Jewellers. ry. “The jewellery industry is fast When Alukkas opened its a single day? getting separated into two Chennai showroom in 2008, it groups. On one side are compawas touted as the country’s largenies that are looking for quantist. But industry observers say the ty, and on the other are those size of the store did not prove that are focusing on quality. We sometimes enough to make a dent in the city’s gold martake 15 days to make a jewellery set. Others do ket. Kalyanaraman and sons emphasise that it in a day,” says Thottan. His family’s two out- their strategy is different. “We have customlets in Thrissur also export gold jewellery. ised our offering according to local taste and A few others doubt whether Kalyanaraman culture. Chennai is becoming a cosmopolitan can maintain his current pace of expansion city. Half of our staff in the T Nagar outlet without straining his finances. The ₹1,200- speaks 10 languages,” says Rajesh. crore investment from private equity major For his father this is hardly foreign territory.

Warburg Pincus for an undisclosed stake in In Thrissur he didn’t have the first-mover adlate-2014 helped lower the company’s debt-eq- vantage, but turned that into his selling point. uity ratio to 1:1.2. “Kalyan Jewellers is now The stakes may be higher now. Success in opening in Chennai. Though it is the biggest Chennai, where he plans four more outlets market for gold retail in the country, others in- within a year, will directly have a bearing on cluding Joy Alukkas have struggled there,” his grand plan to make Kalyan an internationsays a promoter of a jewellery retail company, al gold retailer. Equally at stake is the planned who didn’t want to be named. initial public offering in two years. And beyond all that is the succession plan for his Biggest bet sons. “They know that their strength is in uniTwo weeks after Ramnavami, Kalyanaraman ty. Still, if they want to separate in a way that and his sons are at Chennai’s Taj Coromandel doesn’t hurt the business, they can,” says the hotel for a press conference ahead of their out- gold magnate. let’s opening. Outside, their three Rolls-Royces with Kerala registration get admiring looks prince mathews thomas

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saturday, april 25,25, 2015 saturday, april 2015

PRESENT IMPERFECT

India’s voiceless managers

FILM FATALE

No ‘them’, only ‘us’

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

Different strokes A still from Margarita With A Straw, the story of a bold, sexual Laila

lenges. How often have you seen an Indian film featuring an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) person who is not a source of jokes or whose sexual orientation is not the fulcrum of the story? For many decades, mainstream Hindi cinema in particular would feaike most of you, I too am part of sever- of an office building. tureWhat Muslim characters only with back, a specific vantage. we want is a story, I wrote al WhatsApp groups — family, friends This virtual gag order is not reserved to indi- like an purpose: either to showcase anecdote, something that Muslim you saw culture or from the past, present and future, vidual employees at lower levels, but one that heardorthat as near-flawless creatures presence struck a chord.

A secondwhose version arneighbours, dog lovers, the works. cloaks the organisation entirely. Over the last rived,made a point had about secularism. the words merely been swapped The group that I lurk around and watch as decade-and-a-half, the public relations’ person aroundDuring an interview I recorded withtoMadand rearranged.

There was nothing some kind of a sociological study though is has become an essential chaperone to any do but huri in 2003, I remember her complainkillDixit the copy. the one comprising my batchmates from busi- communication with the company. I underthat appalling Bollywoodthattends to see It ing isn’t merely companies ness school. We graduated in 1999, and so by stand that when a CXO talks to a journalist, and employees “women-centric as compulsorily are sofilms” terrified of possibly say-being fter ain few the wheelchair now most members theminutes, group are heads of therestantly vigilant, butmight if I were tell Mum’s stois a risk that he saytosomething about “issues”.

Why must such a filmmuch be a ronaing the ‘wrong’ thing that they would will disappear.

Writer-director businesses, successful entrepreneurs, invest- Shory, herget physical condition be only that could the company intowould some kind of one dhona story (a at weepie), asked.

Why not a rather say nothing all, it isshe also a strategic nali Bose has repeated variations ment gurus, partners at consulting firms and of element it. For the I would tell trouble with ain regulator.

Butmost as thepart profession light-hearted comedy?

No doubt her industry mistake.

In January this year, TCS was emthis lineasa corporate zillion times while prowhatever else qualifies triumph. you about herhas generation-defying liberalism, of public relations flourished, it has essenhasinchanged in these years,off but her quesbroiled a controversy over12laying 25,000 moting her Hindi-English Margarita The WhatsApp exchanges in thisfilm group usual- With fortitude, the bright smile still managtiallyher killed all conversations.

Theshe desire to people. tionInremains relevant.

A large part of the reaa newspaper story which detailed Straw, thecategories story of a— sexually ly fallAinto three birthdayadventurous wishes, scrubesclean to summon up sterile in spiteevery of a sentence cruel disease and make be that, like — most film industries how son the could issue snowballed through Twitter in college student with cerebral palsy, now runforwarded jokes and stock tips. and the in sense humour that remains unde- the rest of that anyone the of organisation India, a and male-dominated Bollywood messages Facebook groups — ningthrough in Indian theatres.

I scan the dozens of messages ex- speaks feated those is so by high thatwheels. it has creattoo tends to see stories through a I read this quoteofbywomen CEO N ChanIt every reminded mewhat of ahas similar sentence changed day and surprised me utWhen I watched Margarita the other day, male gaze, ed its own bubble of paranoia. with men norm and drasekaran, “Webeing have the to underby another filmmaker precisely decade A couple mosttered is in the last 12 months, when there ahas that wheelchair did Idisappear after a while. women stand of years ago interthe exceptional ‘them’. how this social media Nageshpublic Kukunoor’s Iqbal about is a small been ago. so much discourse thejewel What I remember the mostofis how Laila’swants smile to risk viewed a 70-year-old chairman It is works in thiswhen context that Margarita somebody puts up a has Nobody of a elections, film revolving around for a deaf-mute country, the agenda develop- boy travelled thea way from a company.

Heallhad stellar re- hertheir substantial pay wrought a miracle message, that’s some beyond action the national-level cricketer. ment,who thebecomes debates aover land rights, and netA few to those eyesthe brimming cord lips — having served first leg overpackages by uttering pointobvious onetake we as have we should wealready go for- disminutes Iqbal, you will forget the sihero of is hiswith neutrality, theinto group maintained absolute sunshine.

And what career as an efficient bu- I re- something which, cussed. is three things ward.”

That Laila an IT company is that Kukunoor said on, in interlencephysically on all of challenged, these. It merrily chugged member most aboutinIqbal reaucrat and the second head-today although honest, wouldwith usually be to treated grappling trying under-as isview after interview in the run-up the rewith people posting photographs of fancyto mois his sense ofIT mischief, and that ing billion-dollar companies. an Indian filmmaker: howbysocial media works is she might Whenbe I watched standsues leaseand of his film invacations.

2005. torbikes fancier So far, there Sitting classic in whichwas his asister inconvenient in atscene the meeting cerebralofpalsy, is they bisexual, reflection how she little Margarita the othernot ahas Is it possible, ask, to stop noticing hasn’t even been an you acknowledgment of the that and he infuriate a bully by using 24-year-old PR executive.

I is a woman. yes, while technology, it is aHell reflection day, the wheelchairknowshe largeofmetal chair bearing human body? Is couldn’t it signfor presence the world outside aand the issues language tome discuss the felthe life of fathom watching the film I almostInforgot successfully Corporate did disappear afterof how necessarywith. to not notice that the manthat addressit’s grappling This is not to suggest in histhe presence. whatlow value PR executive that she’s a woman!

And a sexualdia had intimidated its employa while ingwho youwent is doing so in signschool language? people to business with me broughtWhen see Hollywood to theI meeting.

He nei-actor ly assertive ees into silence. one at that. Possibly The point both Kukunoor and Bose make ther is knew aren’t smart or that they don’t have any views Michael Fox onnor public plat- well. Yet, the Jbusiness the client theInc director did not turn For a long time because now, India has managed this: Disabilities be a source of anguish, on matters of a largercan import.

My theory is his was forms, I do see his physical a mandatory presence, a physical to live in a convenient eitherworld element intoa an where few‘issue’? desbut need not definetous, anda personwe could acthat as farthey as allowing people have struggles Parkinson’s warning, as it because were. Inof another instance, last ignated spokespeople, As for the gorgeous Iqbal, tutored in the art of not knowledge a distressing aspect of a person’s ality and an opinion are concerned, Corporate butthe theLok overwhelming feeling is one May, disease, for the day Sabha elections were till many months watching it didanyit strike speaking many wordsafter without saying it. A film could Indiareality is stillwithout behindharping an ironon curtain and no- well admiration for his strength nearlyissue a quarter beingofannounced, BLink ran a special thatwere the the heroonly wasones a Muslim.

Howan lovely thingme at all, who faced about a person with physical mental bodybe wants to risk their substantial pay or packHis recurring calledcentury Where after Was I.heTowas jogdiagnosed. your memory, Wil- audience. that Kukunoor didhas notnow define him in terms of Social media democratised without being about those chalages challenges, by uttering something which, although as the ruthless lawyerwhere Louis he Canning liam role Dalrymple wrote about was in hisEveryone religion or speech-and-hearing impairaccess. is his a potential spokesperson. lenges alone.

And if, as a filmmaker, honest, might be inconvenient.

I even knowyou of canmultiple-award-winning TVcricketserial The whenthe Arundhati Roy won the Booker, ments.people How lovely Iqbal may was presented And while of mythat vintage be cau- to notwho evenhave consider the likelihood such a film people alternative, closedofTwitter Good Wife is spoke not that of a saint with physical er Anil Kumble about where hea was as a human being justBanta happened tioususenough to stick towho Santa jokes,to be notand being a hagiography or asotearjerker, handles Facebook pages, just they can you — he manipulative whenaffliction India won theplays 1983aWorld Cup, etc.character We thereboth deaf-mutebraver and Muslim. is a younger, wave of employees want to ask you are post might their thoughts on yourself movies, whether music and his tardive dyskinesia (a rareto condiaskedwho the uses founder of an online travel portal Physically challenged, mentallyand challenged, now. With them, the PR machinations gag constrained yourthe vision of such person as books.

The more Iby watch group and aspeak which causes erratic bodycame movements) tell ustion where he was when internet to In- to Muslim, Sikh,Corporate gay, woman — it is orders won’t Christian, last very long.

India ‘thefriends other’ and not ‘one ofIndia, us’. the more dia. By to other in Corporate gain sympathy of judgesversion and jurors. thethe time the PR-sanitised reac- will need possible for anew character be any orhave many of to learn words,tothose that A personal maypart helpofillustrate I’m convinced thatexample in no other urban my are regular with regular of pluses hed us, These it was nothing but folk a small collection the above, yet be seen as a regular person rathmeaning.

And impact.

My motherto has been Indiaconcerns. is it more dangerous speak yourwheelchair mind meaningless and minuses. words — paradigm shifts, client er than a showpiece in an old curiosity shop. t@veenavenugopal| for many years. Yes, it is painful than bound it is behind the glass-and-chrome edificeto see It is onlyproposition fair to clarify that the ‘themadand us’ leverage, value and leadership her decline, but believe me, our conversations school of cinema is not confined to India, nor anna mm vetticad is the author of The Adventures are rarely about that. As her family, we are con- to characters with physical and mental chal- of an Intrepid Film Critic t@annavetticad

Physically challenged, Muslim, woman… it is possible for a character to be all or any of these, yet be a source of regular stories, not just hagiographies or tearjerkers

anna mm vetticad

ljupco smokovski/shutterstock

Nowhere in the country is it more dangerous to speak your mind than from behind the glass-and-chrome edifice of an office building

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

The unkindest cut

What it means to be diagnosed with cancer in a country that spends only about four per cent of its annual budget on health

Ode to life An awareness rally to mark World Cancer Day p goutham

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

aybe it is my age, but it seems that I deal with diseases and hospitals far too much these days.

For some odd reason, what I have been dealing with for the past month or so are tales of cancer. The first case I heard about was that of my wife’s aunt, who was diagnosed with a form of throat cancer. It was detected at an early stage and the treatment started soon after. The aunt is Kashmiri, her cousins and family have a number of doctors amongst them. She came to Delhi for tests, travelled to Chandigarh, and then suffered the rigours of chemotherapy in Kashmir itself. Through the massive floods of last year, the stark winter that is visually beautiful, but physically harsh, and then through the spring of this year when floodwaters rose again, she fought the disease and suffered the cure.

It showed me how deeply a woman — a wife and a mother — sits at the centre of traditional families here in South Asia, how her delicate health can bring the household to a standstill, and make a home into little more than a house as she withdraws from her functions. I visited the family in the aftermath of the floods, which had spared the old habitations and ravaged the newer buildings and neighbourhoods of Srinagar. She insisted that I be served fruit, and though she could not cut it herself, it was done to her specifications. She sat upon the carpeted floor and directed, even in her weakened state, the protocols of her house.

The second case was a little farther away.

Our help’s brother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer. Luckily the patient’s wife worked with

an understanding family, which asked favours who do not have the privilege of wealth. Does on his behalf, and he is being treated. Our help poverty kill them? Does it ravage their housedoes double duty at times, picking up the holds, leaving such high debts that their lives slack as her sister-in-law spends time in the will be spent repaying them? Two-thirds of Inhospital. My wife and I worry. How do they dians live on less than ₹100 a day, and one day make ends meet? The costs are high, and of in the Intensive Care Unit costs more than course they are not covered by any health in- ₹12,000 — this without tallying the costs of surance plans. The help will not take charity. medicines and consultation.

She is a strong-willed person who, when she And then, in the middle of his treatment, we had slipped and fractured her foot two years found that a tailor, whose house and shop ago, had resisted our efforts to pay her for the were destroyed in the Kashmir floods and who month that she was on bed rest. had stitched pherans and other She refused help until we congarments round-the-clock to revinced her that she too, just like build his life, was in Delhi to get my wife and I, should get medihis wife treated for breast cancer. cal leave. Now we wonder if While we pulled all strings to In one of the finest there is a way we can convince find them a bed at AIIMS, I private hospitals in her to take a medical package. I thought how disease destroys us.

India, I watched in work for a German company It is not the illnesses, but the limtrepidation as the that offers an equivalent of three ited resources we have to deal bills rose months’ pay as medical expenswith them. India spends about es when in need. Maybe we can four per cent of its budget on adapt this to her family, but I do health, among the lowest in the not know if she will accept. I canworld, lower than Nepal, and not understand why I should have this privi- two-thirds of medical expenses are out-oflege when she does not. pocket, as in not covered by the government.

A third case was much closer to me. My clos- What happens to the millions whose diseases est cousin was diagnosed with leukaemia a are not diagnosed because they cannot afford month-and-a-half ago. We scrambled to figure a doctor? What happens to those who cannot out the treatment. I spent my nights at the get admitted to a public hospital because hospital. His company made him go on paid there is none available, or the waiting list is leave for a month, rallied to offer him a sub- too long? What happens to those who cannot stantial medical package, and found blood afford the treatment to live? Can we truly, truly and platelet donors. In one of the finest pri- turn away from this? vate hospitals in India, I watched in trepidatOmairTAhmad tion as the bills rose. I cringed to think of those

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Bone to pick Malayalam play Mathi explores the political dissonance in Kerala; (inset) playwright and director Jino Joseph

Packed like mathi It’s the time to disco Youngsters gravitate towards Meow Meow since it often allows them to stay up for days and dance all night kr deepak

Kerala’s sardine serves as a powerful muse for the awardwinning playwright and director Jino Joseph, as he attempts to make sense of migration and loss in his hometown, Kannur

Cat’s got “I

have no academic background in theatre. I belong to an agricultural family in the municipality of Iritty in Kannur, Kerala, and no one in my family or neighbourhood understands, or is interested in theatre,” says Jino Joseph, the 29year-old playwright and director of the Malayalam play Mathi, which bagged four major awards out of 11 — for Best Script, Director, Production, and Actor — at the recent 10th Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards.

Mathi (as sardine is called in Malayalam) is the story of a fish merchant named Mathi Rafeeq, and is set in Kerala in the 1970s and ’80s.

Rafeeq sells only sardine; it is his way of protesting against the big fish in the market. He invites likeminded people to his house and holds debates on social issues and performs small plays of revolution. All of them are served the delightful fried mathi by Rafeeq’s younger sister Kunjami. Later in the play, peoix months ago, ple are shown moving out26-year-old of Kerala to Kevin’s bigger life seemed like every cities for(name work,changed) and migrants from Bengal and young man’s A other states arrive and fantasy settle in.come Rafeeqtrue. meets fancy jobdeath in a fashion retailfaced company, an unfortunate in a world with wads of of disposable income, great friends, and the loss cultural identity. a robust dating — he hadasitmetaphor all. “I wasfor so In the play, thelife fish serve happy,”things he says. bubble burst around several — theThe unity of the working class, three months ago. There was incident” at societal disharmony, issues of “an migration, conhome which,politics, he says, is even too painful to Pertalk voluted and romance. about.formed “All I cannearly reveal is30thattimes I got extremely since it violentpremiered and aggressive family,” he at the with Ninthmy Ajayan Memosays, softly.

This outburst opened a canalso of rial Theatre Festival in 2013, Mathi worms. Kevin confessed his family thatNahe received the 2013toKerala Sangeet had beentak secretly consuming a white subAkademi Awards for Best Play, stance called almost every night.

BestMephedrone Script and the runner-up Best “The firstActor. time I used wasKannur the mostafter amazing Backit in the experience ever,” he recalls. was with award night, Joseph“Ispoke to usa girl overI had been casually forused a while and phone aboutdating how he Mathi to she desuggested snort this white whileharwe pict Ithe breakdown ofpowder the cultural were having mony sex.” of his hometown, Kannur, and That one experiencepolitical had him coming back the present-day dissonance.

synonymous with the smell of the village.

Kerala sardine is now being exported to other cities and countries. And in Kerala we get to eat the mathi imported from Mangalore. Similarly, the working class of Kerala is migrating to other states and Gulf countries for executive jobs. To replace them, migrants from Bengal and Maharashtra are being employed for construction and agricultural works… the migrants are even hired for labour protests, and if there aren’t sufficient patients in hospitals during inspection, the migrants are made to pose as patients; they’re taught slogans in the local language for political parties’ protests.

How did you become interested in theatre?

I grew up watching commercial drama staged in churches and temples during festivals every year. I used to sit in front of the stage, on the floor, to watch those plays. In those days What was the theatre scene in Kerala during our source of movies was Doordarshan, which the ’70s and ’80s? aired a new film every Sunday evening, and we Kerala was politically strong then. There were waited for it every week. The hangover from many cultural organisations that encouraged those films and plays inspired me to write plays about feudalism and other socio-politiscripts for plays and direct them when I was in cal issues. But times have changed and only a school. Later I joined Government Brennen few such organisations remain, and they too are inactive. Our play is an extreme College, Thalassery, which had a form of rural theatre and depicts good artistic culture. There was no exactly what is going on in the funding, but our teachers were state right now. There are no big orwelcoming of experimental plays.

We fry mathi in ganisations supporting us and it’s I wrote small plays for schoolchilbetween scenes a collective initiative by people dren and directed short plays for to add a layer to who are not trained in theatre. The colleges, which won several the play actors are not professionals — awards at youth festivals. some are students, others are autodrivers. The central character is How did the concept for Mathi come about? wrongby headlines in Mumbai.

Acfor more.

“I enjoyed it. It made me very sexual. ing all theplayed Ranji Kankol (Best Actor I had written directed, forafter schoolchildren, a stringand of casual flings I started us- awardee), cording towho reports, Kevin isHe among the 1.5 is a sculptor. was selected aing play Parotta, whichneeded won a to state-level lakh-plus users in the and city. appearance.

What’s worrying is it.”named The first time Kevin buy the for his body language competition.

Parotta a foodhis item and the exdrug himself, he is asked that most of them are teens, some on stage and serve it to perimental the education sys- You cook mathi as young as 12.

It even is manufactured friends for play help,was all about of whom was the reaction tem. day, habitual when I was eating Maharashtra and canin beDelhi? easily were One already users.

“I parotta and the audience.inWhat add an in additional layer to not the mathi curry in Wayanad, a colleague joined me The idea is to started by paying ₹1,200 for a prepared a small lab.

“I’ve According to reports, between scenes, so the auand said I must havepinched a ‘Mathi’befor my ‘Parotta’; play. We fry mathi seen in another drug which gives gram, which hardly there are 1.5 lakhsmell the fishrush being he meant should good write mona new play called dience get tosuch cause I wasI making a strong tillfried... today.toItinis plus Meow Meow of the performance.

‘Mathi’ complete the dish.and That’s when I be- tensify the effect indescribable.

You forgetTowards all your ey. And to then it got cheaper users in the city. the and friedfeel fisheuphoric to the audience. came interested in the subject, worries instantcheaper,” he says.

Soon, it because the the end we serve What’s worrying is audience run on whento the bond welike share in Kerala is unique Usually, in Kerala, seemed hewith had mathi discovered ly. Thethe rush is so good that, that most are teens, theyou fish.feel In Delhi, the play, — the fish has smell, it’s healthy, stage to tasteever the answer to aalldistinctive his problems. a littleafter low, it makes some as young as 12 one lady came sometofried incredibly Always on tasty… the chubby side, he youasking want for to run the mathi drug. to It be packed for her child.

Mathi represents celecauses sleeplessness and loss of found that he was magically people a way nothing Why did you use the fish as a metaphor for the bration. It connects appetite,” says in leading psychialosing inches.

“I’ve always else does, and that’s why we announce at the socio-political condition? dreamt of a flat stomach. For trist Dr Harish Shetty. of the drug play that a drama; it’s One of the most important aspects the play beginning the first time I could eat donuts andofcontinue This designer goesit’s bynot several names. of life.name Life isisbeing enacted. is that mathi is the fish of the dropping weight.

I couldn’t helpmarginalised, but return to aItsslice chemical 4-methylmethcathinone. the working it,” he says. class. They can afford it, it gives A hipper appellation of that is M-CAT, MD or mazumdar Delhi-based them strength, and the smell of has frying mathi is arunima Meow Meow.

Shettyis arefers to itjournalist as “a poor Since 2013-end, Mephedrone been mak-

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A relatively unknown party drug — Meow Meow — tightens its stranglehold on the urban youngsters of Mumbai

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man’s cocaine”. Like cocaine, this too is a white crystalline powder, but is far cheaper.

“Cocaine was an upper-class phenomenon.

People who took cannabis were on a lesser budget. They have now graduated to Mephedrone,” he adds.

Lucy in the sky Mumbai and its history of drug abuse go back a long way. According to urban legend, the ’70s were defined by cannabis, ’80s saw an explosion of brown sugar, and the ’90s were marked by ecstasy and cocaine busts at rave parties. The Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratory (DFSL) in Mumbai works on thousands of drug-related cases every year. Samples of the drugs that the Mumbai police procure from peddlers, drug busts and other operations are sent to their labs for testing.

Last year, they tested 4,000 drug samples, of which around 150 turned out to be Mephedrone. This, they say, is an alarming number since they had never received this drug before 2014. “Mephedrone is similar to the amphetamine family of drugs. It also takes longer to test. Normally we can test a drug in a day or two, but Mephedrone takes us almost a week ,” says Dr NL Chutke, deputy director of DFSL. In February, the government officially added Mephedrone to the list of illegal drugs under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985, joining countries such as the US, UK, Australia and Israel, which had banned it a couple of years ago. But throughout last year, when the Mephedrone wave spread, the Mumbai police had their

Easy go, easy come Teenagers are turning into users (below) and peddlers of Meow Meow shutterstock Fire and water Masaan, directed by

few months later, hands tied. Without the law to back them, some more,” he recalls. ANeeraj Ghaywan, is reporting on they couldn’t make arrests or dole out strict when the media started actively born from the streets realised punishments. “My first reaction was that a this new drug in the city,ofRavi Varanasi and thethat banksMeow of the Meow.

Ganga “It person should file a PIL in the High Court for what he had used was actually its inclusion. But there is a section which says is highly addictive and so easy to use — you that if any amendment is to be made to the just have to swallow it. The papers say that is NDPS Act, it has to pass through the Lok Sabha has become as cheap as ₹100, but I’ve never and Rajya Sabha. The court could not pass or- paid so little,” he says. ders to the House. That is why I started awareness campaigns. I went to schools and colleges Stanching the flow and started drug-free campaigns,” says Suhas One of the biggest challenges ahead for the Gokhale, senior police inspector of Azad Mai- police is to curb the easy availability of the drug. Initially, you could order it online and dan anti-narcotics cell.

Over the past few months, Dr Yusuf Match- have it delivered to your doorstep. Some sites eswala, honorary professor of psychiatry at GT sell it as plant feed but in several popular listhave to he do is type“A MepheHospital JJ Group Hospitals, has daily ing sites, all you of India and doesn’t even of know eryone,” says. film options appear.

“I been to around aboutattending this world.

I was10 patients addicted drone and numerous should not will be arty to the for 2kg. kept talking to Mephedrone.

He runs staying in a hostel in a de-addiction clinic once placed an orderpoint thatI it bores you. moreto about them. within Masina in central Mumbai, with the dealer to find out that area with Hospital, Varun It needs move you.”I pay. Eventually which hasthe a number (Grover, writer of youngsters who have offered to go to the office and Around six years deal didn’t hapbeen forcefully admitted by concerned par- they got suspicious and the of the film) and back, Ghaywan was pen,” says Gokhale. ents.

Gokhale has found that, we’d go and speak a freshly-minted In most cases, youngsters like Kevin’s family, to the people at most parents MBA graduate are in turning peddlers themselvesa are the effects of Methe oblivious ghat, andtorePune, managing and propagating the team. drug phedrone until it gets too late. cord our convermarketing One of the biggest and ganja have a amongst peers. sayfrom sev“Alcohol, sations charas with ToDoctors get away challenges ahead for smell, doesn’t. Users can eral of their young them. but Ourthis screenthe patients boredomhave of the police is to curb walk straight, and confessed to making play was based ontheir speech is his dayhuge job,sums he the easy availability not slurred.

But parents get conof money bywrote sellingfor thea drugs in those interviews,” website of the drug fused when they has see their chilcolleges. “Dealers makefor small he says.

Ghaywan called Passion Cindren stayingmade up all packets of one gram previously an night or ema, whereeach. he Chilrelosing weight. Theyshort think it is, dren who don’t have cinema. the money award-winning viewed world He maybe, of aexam willthen come to them.

Thethe dealers film Shor,because also about youngpresdecided to join marsure,” says.Varanasi Habitual users show symptoms give them five packets, to sell couplehe from who move keting teamand of aask filmthem production like aggression and agrinding other friends their behalf.

In to Mumbai to make living. of teeth. “What- four to their house, hopingon that would satiate ever its ingredients, this drug is most damag- exchange, thehis child to keep thejustify fifth for lovegets for movies and his ing.

It to is neurotoxic.

After using it people can free,” explainsdegree Gokhale.

Down earth at the same time. That dance all nightthread or driverunning at great speed,” Withbethe new law,work the police hope to crack The common didn’t either.

Eventually, A film exshould not plains Matcheswala. downthat harderKashyap on peddlers.

The punishment through Indian films that have convinced Ghaywanfor to arty to the point onlyimpression beginning to the ef-you.consumption is sixand months of jail. If aa serious person leftWe a are lasting atunderstand film quit give cinema it bores It needs fects of the which canQissa lead to serious caught with more than 2gm butAnurag less than festivals — drug, The Lunchbox, shot.

“Working with on to inmoveisyou jury and to even death. this month an 50gm, the jailGoW termwas canlike be two to 10school. years. And and Court name a fewEarly — is that my film The 18-year-old in the UKredied from two more than 50gm, which means a commercial they all toldmother stories that were biggest lesson I learnt from him heart taking drug at a party. quantity, would attract lesswith thanpeople.

10 years’I al andattacks rooted.after A few yearsthe ago, is how tonot deal Another 19-year-old in the UK is reported to imprisonment.

Cannes festival director Thierry wanted to imbibe the kindness have cut off histhat penisthe andfestival stabbedwas his keen mother Ironically, thetreats biggest drug bust since Fremaux said to with which he his team, the way hethe in11 times after drug.

The ignorance new wasand implemented involved a police showcase theabusing works ofthe this “new generation” spireslaw them that there are no hierarchies about the drug and its rather effects than is what most constable wasthearrested after the cops of Indian filmmakers bigis Bollyon his set. Iwho wanted same kind of energy on dangerous at this time.

110kg of Mephedrone from his home in wood productions.

Yet, Ghaywan was careful seized my film set too,” he says.

Ravi, a media professional in his 20s, district of not to make a film that connected withmisthe theAsSatara he prepares forMaharashtra. the Cannes This gala,seizure Ghaytakenly Mephedrone fromthe a peddler ‘Baby’ or He Shashikala Patankarof —a West, butbought his own people. “During making pointed wan is into high spirits. has the backing in Goa film, in December 2013. Since says, most wanted Meow MeowEntertainpeddler, of this we had decided that then, we arehe not go- Mumbai’s host of co-producers such as Sikhya he used something it a couplethat of times the policeFilms have and finally nabbed.

Her aringhas to make catersintothe the presdias- whom ment, Phantom Manish Mundhra, ence his friends. wasfrom celebrating New rest willothers. certainly help the police in their batpora. of So we’ve stayed “I away the template among Year’s with few friends when wesadhus decidedand to tleHe’s against of films in aVaranasi — holiness, notMephedrone. only optimistic about the fate of buy somesays cocaine.

What we were given looked theFor now, is trying getrelease his lifeatback gaanja,” Ghaywan. film butKevin is hoping for atobig the exactly like cocaine, but it felt different. re- on Heyear. plans move to this a new job best and The litmus test was screening the filmI for endtrack. of this FortoGhaywan, is the member awake for the 72 hours straight.

--- wherever hishe’s pastleft can’t haunt him. his officebeing staff, including watchmen andI city reward for the life behind. was highly energised.

But once the high startdrivers, who have no exposure to world cineed wear off, I felt I wasbeen tempted ma.to“Thankfully theawful. film has likedto bybuy ev- mohini chaudhuri

Ghats to Cannes

Neeraj Ghaywan makes it to the Un Certain Regard section with his debut directorial film Masaan, about a different side of Varanasi

I

n May 2012, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap descended on the French Riviera with his cast and crew to screen his magnum opus Gangs of Wasseypur at the Director’s Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival.

A member of that team was marketing manager Neeraj Ghaywan, who had quit his corporate life to assist Kashyap on the film. Three years later, Ghaywan will be back at the French film festival this May, but this time with his own directorial feature film Masaan, which will be a part of the esteemed Un Certain Regard section. Films shown in this section are eligible for a prize of €30,000 as well as other prizes such as the Camera D’Or, awarded to the best first feature. Other recent Indian films screened in this section included Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan, Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely and Kanu Behl’s Titli.

Apart from Masaan, filmmaker Gurvinder Singh’s Punjabi film Chauthi Koot, based on the short stories of Waryam Singh Sandhu, will also be screened in the same section at Cannes.

Miyan Kal Aana, a short movie by Shamas Siddiqui, younger brother of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, will be a part of the Short Film Catalog of the festival. “This is very encouraging to see,” explains Ghaywan, “this year the big films haven’t worked. Instead it is films like Dum Laga ke Haisha and NH10 that have worked well in the box office. People want to see good stories.”

Lately, there’s been good news all around for the small independent film. Last week, the two significant releases in the theatres were Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court and Shonali Bose’s Margarita with a Straw. Both these films released in India after generating a positive buzz in the festival circuit.

Ghaywan’s film maps the lives of four people who live in Varanasi, and the common thread that binds their stories is the Ganga river. The fulcrum of Masaan, which means crematorium, is the lives of those who cremate bodies in the ghats for a living. “A major part

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A lake comes to life Srinagar’s beloved Dal seems ready to embrace summer and tourists even at the cost of its own survival

Wide spread Innumerable houseboats crowd the waters of Dal Lake

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menacing presence for over 25 years now, militancy took a heavy toll on Kashmir and its people. The unrest didn’t spare the placid waters of the Dal, Srinagar’s lifeline. Tourism took a hit as the heavily armed CRPF became a fixture at the lake. The fortified Dal was a stranger to the ordinary Srinagar resident, who was scared to visit the waterfront and enjoy its comforts.

The wheel, however, is turning slowly. Tourists are trickling back into the Valley and Dal seems to be stirring back to life after a forced hibernation.

Weary locals are back at the lake to recharge their batteries. “It helps bust stress accumulated over these years. The Dal, the tourists, the buzz make me feel like I’m breathing,” says Yasir Ahmed, an engineer.

Houseboats and shikaras are ready and dressed up for the tourist. The same goes for the vendors with their alluring displays of Kashmiri handicrafts. Mornings start with the floating market, a huge draw among photographers. Boats laden with garden-fresh vegetables and flowers form a colourful pattern on the lake. Sunset at Dal is no longer an eerily quiet affair.

You can hear laughter and chatter well after dinner-hours.

People who live off the lake, however, are not satisfied with these signs of revival. Dal’s waters are choking with pollution, and little has been done to mend the situation. The number of boatsmen residing on the lake has nearly doubled, making waste management one of the biggest challenges in the fight to keep Dal alive.

Much of the waters is covered with weeds. The Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA) has installed three sewage treatment plants on the periphery of the lake to “reduce the inflow of toxics and other nutrients in order to control the growth of weeds”. Locals have also been hired to remove these manually. But this is perhaps too little, too late.

Summer catch A Srinagar resident returns to the lake to practise fishing

nissar ahmad

Won’t back down Early birds of this year’s tou u

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Wild things Local workers try to de-weed the waters; (above) a lotus in bloom

u urist season

Housing woes Half of Dal is choked by residential structures

Fresh takes A vendor awaits buyers on the banks of the lake

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Bone to pick Malayalam play Mathi explores the political dissonance in Kerala; (inset) playwright and director Jino Joseph

Packed like mathi It’s the time to disco Youngsters gravitate towards Meow Meow since it often allows them to stay up for days and dance all night kr deepak

Kerala’s sardine serves as a powerful muse for the awardwinning playwright and director Jino Joseph, as he attempts to make sense of migration and loss in his hometown, Kannur

Cat’s got “I

have no academic background in theatre. I belong to an agricultural family in the municipality of Iritty in Kannur, Kerala, and no one in my family or neighbourhood understands, or is interested in theatre,” says Jino Joseph, the 29year-old playwright and director of the Malayalam play Mathi, which bagged four major awards out of 11 — for Best Script, Director, Production, and Actor — at the recent 10th Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards.

Mathi (as sardine is called in Malayalam) is the story of a fish merchant named Mathi Rafeeq, and is set in Kerala in the 1970s and ’80s.

Rafeeq sells only sardine; it is his way of protesting against the big fish in the market. He invites likeminded people to his house and holds debates on social issues and performs small plays of revolution. All of them are served the delightful fried mathi by Rafeeq’s younger sister Kunjami. Later in the play, peoix months ago, ple are shown moving out26-year-old of Kerala to Kevin’s bigger life seemed like every cities for(name work,changed) and migrants from Bengal and young man’s A other states arrive and fantasy settle in.come Rafeeqtrue. meets fancy jobdeath in a fashion retailfaced company, an unfortunate in a world with wads of of disposable income, great friends, and the loss cultural identity. a robust lifefish — he hadasitmetaphor all. “I wasfor so In the dating play, the serve happy,”things he says. bubble around several — theThe unity of the burst working class, three months ago. There was incident” at societal disharmony, issues of“an migration, conhome which,politics, he says,and is even too painful to talk voluted romance.

Perabout.formed “All I cannearly reveal is30thattimes I got extremely since it violent premiered and aggressive family,” he at the with Ninthmy Ajayan Memosays, softly.

This outburst opened a canalso of rial Theatre Festival in 2013, Mathi worms. Kevin confessed toKerala his family thatNahe received the 2013 Sangeet had beentak secretly consuming a white subAkademi Awards for Best Play, stance called almost every night.

BestMephedrone Script and the runner-up Best “The first Actor. time I used wasKannur the mostafter amazing Backit in the experience ever,” he recalls. was with a girl award night, Joseph“Ispoke to us overI had been casually forused a while and phone aboutdating how he Mathi to she desuggested snort this whiteofpowder whileharwe pict Ithe breakdown the cultural were having mony sex.” of his hometown, Kannur, and Thatthe one experiencepolitical had him coming back present-day dissonance.

synonymous with the smell of the village.

Kerala sardine is now being exported to other cities and countries. And in Kerala we get to eat the mathi imported from Mangalore. Similarly, the working class of Kerala is migrating to other states and Gulf countries for executive jobs. To replace them, migrants from Bengal and Maharashtra are being employed for construction and agricultural works… the migrants are even hired for labour protests, and if there aren’t sufficient patients in hospitals during inspection, the migrants are made to pose as patients; they’re taught slogans in the local language for political parties’ protests.

How did you become interested in theatre?

I grew up watching commercial drama staged in churches and temples during festivals every year. I used to sit in front of the stage, on the floor, to watch those plays. In those days What was the theatre scene in Kerala during our source of movies was Doordarshan, which the ’70s and ’80s? aired a new film every Sunday evening, and we Kerala was politically strong then. There were waited for it every week. The hangover from many cultural organisations that encouraged those films and plays inspired me to write plays about feudalism and other socio-politiscripts for plays and direct them when I was in cal issues. But times have changed and only a school. Later I joined Government Brennen few such organisations remain, and they too are inactive. Our play is an extreme College, Thalassery, which had a form of rural theatre and depicts good artistic culture. There was no exactly what is going on in the funding, but our teachers were state right now. There are no big orwelcoming of experimental plays.

We fry mathi in ganisations supporting us and it’s I wrote small plays for schoolchilbetween scenes a collective initiative by people dren and directed short plays for to add a layer to who are not trained in theatre. The colleges, which won several the play actors are not professionals — awards at youth festivals. some are students, others are autodrivers. The central character is How did the concept for Mathi come about? wrongby headlines in Mumbai.

Acfor more.

“I enjoyed it. It made me very sexual. ing all the played Ranji Kankol (Best Actor I had written directed, forafter schoolchildren, a string and of casual flings I started us- cording reports, Kevin isHe among the 1.5 awardee),towho is a sculptor. was selected aing play Parotta, whichneeded won a to state-level users in the and city. appearance.

What’s worrying is it.”named The first time Kevin buy the lakh-plus for his body language competition.

Parotta is a foodhis item and the exdrug himself, he asked that most of them are teens, some on stage and serve it to perimental the education sys- You cook mathi as young as 12.

It even is manufactured friends for play help,was all about of whom was the reaction tem. day,habitual when I was eating Maharashtra and canin beDelhi? easily were One already users.

“I parotta and the audience.inWhat add an in additional layer to not the mathi curry in Wayanad, a colleague joined me The idea is to started by paying ₹1,200 for a prepared a small lab.

“I’ve According to reports, between scenes, so the auand said I must havepinched a ‘Mathi’befor my ‘Parotta’; play. We fry mathi seen in another drug which gives gram, which hardly there are 1.5 lakhsmell the fishrush being he meant should good write mona new play called dience get tosuch cause I wasI making a strong tillfried... today.toItinis plus Meow Meow of the performance.

‘Mathi’ complete the dish.and That’s when I be- tensify the effect indescribable.

You forgetTowards all your ey.

And to then it got cheaper users in the city. theand friedfeel fisheuphoric to the audience. came interested in the subject, worries instantcheaper,” he says.

Soon, it because the the end we serve What’s worrying is run on whento the bond welike share in Kerala is unique Usually, in Kerala, seemed hewith had mathi discovered ly. The the rushaudience is so good that, that most are teens, theyou fish.feel In Delhi, the play, — the fish has a distinctive smell, it’s healthy, stage to taste the answer to all his problems. ever a littleafter low, it makes some as young as 12 one lady came sometofried incredibly Always on tasty… the chubby side, he youasking want for to run the mathi drug. to It be packed for her child.

Mathi represents celecauses sleeplessness and loss of found that he was magically people a way nothing Why did inches. you use the fish as a metaphor for the bration. It connects appetite,” says in leading psychialosing “I’ve always else does, and that’s why we announce at the socio-political condition? dreamt of a flat stomach. For trist Dr Harish Shetty. of thedrug play that a drama; it’s Onefirst of the most important aspects the play beginning the time I could eat donuts andofcontinue This designer goesit’s bynot several names. a slice of life.name Life isisbeing enacted. is that mathi is the fish of the dropping weight.

I couldn’t helpmarginalised, but return to Its chemical 4-methylmethcathinone. thehe working it,” says. class. They can afford it, it gives A hipper appellation of that is M-CAT, MD or mazumdar a Delhi-based them strength, and the smell of has frying mathi is arunima Meow Meow.

Shettyis refers to itjournalist as “a poor Since 2013-end, Mephedrone been mak-

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A relatively unknown party drug — Meow Meow — tightens its stranglehold on the urban youngsters of Mumbai

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man’s cocaine”. Like cocaine, this too is a white crystalline powder, but is far cheaper.

“Cocaine was an upper-class phenomenon.

People who took cannabis were on a lesser budget. They have now graduated to Mephedrone,” he adds.

Lucy in the sky Mumbai and its history of drug abuse go back a long way. According to urban legend, the ’70s were defined by cannabis, ’80s saw an explosion of brown sugar, and the ’90s were marked by ecstasy and cocaine busts at rave parties. The Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratory (DFSL) in Mumbai works on thousands of drug-related cases every year. Samples of the drugs that the Mumbai police procure from peddlers, drug busts and other operations are sent to their labs for testing.

Last year, they tested 4,000 drug samples, of which around 150 turned out to be Mephedrone. This, they say, is an alarming number since they had never received this drug before 2014. “Mephedrone is similar to the amphetamine family of drugs. It also takes longer to test. Normally we can test a drug in a day or two, but Mephedrone takes us almost a week ,” says Dr NL Chutke, deputy director of DFSL. In February, the government officially added Mephedrone to the list of illegal drugs under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985, joining countries such as the US, UK, Australia and Israel, which had banned it a couple of years ago. But throughout last year, when the Mephedrone wave spread, the Mumbai police had their

Easy go, easy come Teenagers are turning into users (below) and peddlers of Meow Meow shutterstock Fire and water Masaan, directed by

few months hands tied. Without the law to back them, some more,” he recalls. ANeeraj Ghaywan, islater, reporting on they couldn’t make arrests or dole out strict when the media started actively born from the streets realised punishments. “My first reaction was that a this new drug in the city,ofRavi Varanasi and thethat banksMeow of the Meow.

Ganga “It person should file a PIL in the High Court for what he had used was actually its inclusion. But there is a section which says is highly addictive and so easy to use — you that if any amendment is to be made to the just have to swallow it. The papers say that is NDPS Act, it has to pass through the Lok Sabha has become as cheap as ₹100, but I’ve never and Rajya Sabha. The court could not pass or- paid so little,” he says. ders to the House. That is why I started awareness campaigns. I went to schools and colleges Stanching the flow and started drug-free campaigns,” says Suhas One of the biggest challenges ahead for the Gokhale, senior police inspector of Azad Mai- police is to curb the easy availability of the drug. Initially, you could order it online and dan anti-narcotics cell.

Over the past few months, Dr Yusuf Match- have it delivered to your doorstep. Some sites eswala, honorary professor of psychiatry at GT sell it as plant feed but in several popular listhave to he do is type“A MepheHospital JJ Group Hospitals, has daily ing sites, all you of India and doesn’t even of know eryone,” says. film options willarty appear.

“I been to around aboutattending this world.

I was10 patients addicted drone and numerous should not be to the for 2kg. talking to Mephedrone.

He runs staying in a hostel in a de-addiction clinic once placed an orderpoint thatI itkept bores you. moreto about them. within Masina Hospital, in central Mumbai, with the dealer to find out that area with Varun It needs move you.”I pay. Eventually which a number (Grover,hasthe writer of youngsters who have offered to go to the office and Around six years deal didn’t hapbeen admitted by concerned par- they got suspicious and the of theforcefully film) and back, Ghaywan was pen,” says Gokhale. ents.

Gokhale has found that, we’d go and speak a freshly-minted In most cases, like Kevin’s family, to the people at most parents MBAyoungsters graduate are in turning peddlers themselvesa are the effects of Methe oblivious ghat, andtorePune, managing and propagating the team. drug phedrone until it gets too late. cord our convermarketing One of the biggest and ganja have a amongst peers. sayfrom sev“Alcohol, sations charas with ToDoctors get away challenges ahead for smell, doesn’t. Users can eral of their young patients have them. but Ourthis screenthe boredom of the police is to curb walk straight, and confessed to his making play was based ontheir speech is dayhuge job,sums he the easy availability not slurred.

But parents get conof money bywrote sellingfor thea drugs in those interviews,” website of the drug fused they has see their chilcolleges. “Dealers makeforsmall he says.when Ghaywan called Passion Cindren stayingmade up all packets of one gram previously an night or ema, whereeach. he Chilrelosing weight. Theyshort think it is, dren who don’t havecinema. the money award-winning viewed world He maybe, of aexam willthen come to them.

Thethe dealers film Shor,because also about youngpresdecided to join marsure,” says.Varanasi Habitual users show symptoms give them five packets, to sell couplehe from who move keting teamand of aask filmthem production like aggression and agrinding other friends their behalf.

In to Mumbai to make living. of teeth. “What- four to their house, hopingon that would satiate ever its ingredients, this drug is most damag- exchange, the to keep thejustify fifth his for hischild love gets for movies and ing.

It to is neurotoxic.

After using it people can free,” explains Gokhale.

Down earth degree at the same time. That dance all nightthread or drive at great speed,” With law,work the police hope to crack The common running didn’t either.

Eventually, A film exshould not bethe new plains Matcheswala. downthat harderKashyap on peddlers.

The punishment through Indian films that have convinced Ghaywanfor to arty to the point onlyimpression beginning to the ef-you.consumption is sixand months of jail. Ifaa serious person leftWe a are lasting atunderstand film quit give cinema it bores It needs fects of the which canQissa lead to serious caught with more than 2gm butAnurag less than festivals — drug, The Lunchbox, shot.

“Working with on to inmoveisyou jury and to even death. this month an 50gm, the jailGoW termwas canlike be two to 10school. years. And and Court name a few Early — is that my film The 18-year-old in the UKredied from two more than 50gm, which means a commercial they all toldmother stories that were biggest lesson I learnt from him heart taking drug at a party. quantity, would attract lesswith thanpeople.

10 years’I al andattacks rooted.after A few yearsthe ago, is how to not deal Another 19-year-old in the UK is reported to imprisonment.

Cannes festival director Thierry wanted to imbibe the kindness have cut off histhat penisthe andfestival stabbed his keen mother Ironically, thetreats biggest drug bust since Fremaux said was to with which he his team, the way hethe in11 times after drug.

The ignorance new wasand implemented involved a police showcase theabusing works ofthe this “new generation” spireslaw them that there are no hierarchies about the drug and its rather effects than is what most constable was after the cops of Indian filmmakers bigis Bollyon his set. Iwho wanted thearrested same kind of energy on dangerous at this time. of Mephedrone from his home in wood productions.

Yet, Ghaywan was careful seized my film110kg set too,” he says.

Ravi, a media professional in his 20s, district of not to make a film that connected withmisthe theAsSatara he prepares forMaharashtra. the Cannes This gala,seizure Ghaytakenly fromthe a peddler ‘Baby’ or He Shashikala Patankarof —a West, butbought his ownMephedrone people. “During making pointed wan is into high spirits. has the backing in Goafilm, in December 2013. Since then, says, most wanted Meow Meow peddler, of this we had decided that we arehe not go- Mumbai’s host of co-producers such as Sikhya Entertainhe used something it a couplethat of times the policeFilms have and finally nabbed.

Her aringhas to make catersin tothe the presdias- whom ment, Phantom Manish Mundhra, ence his friends. wasfrom celebrating New rest willothers. certainly help the police in their batpora. of So we’ve stayed “I away the template among Year’s with few friends when wesadhus decidedand to tleHe’s against of films in aVaranasi — holiness, notMephedrone. only optimistic about the fate of buy somesays cocaine.

What we were given looked theFor now, is trying getrelease his lifeatback gaanja,” Ghaywan. film butKevin is hoping for atobig the exactly like cocaine, but it felt different. re- on Heyear. plans move to this a new job best and The litmus test was screening the filmI for endtrack. of this FortoGhaywan, is the member awake for the 72 hours straight.

--- wherever hishe’s pastleft can’t haunt him. his officebeing staff, including watchmen andI city reward for the life behind. was highly energised.

But once the high startdrivers, who have no exposure to world cineed wear off, I felt I wasbeen tempted ma.to“Thankfully theawful. film has likedto bybuy ev- mohini chaudhuri

Ghats to Cannes

Neeraj Ghaywan makes it to the Un Certain Regard section with his debut directorial film Masaan, about a different side of Varanasi

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n May 2012, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap descended on the French Riviera with his cast and crew to screen his magnum opus Gangs of Wasseypur at the Director’s Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival.

A member of that team was marketing manager Neeraj Ghaywan, who had quit his corporate life to assist Kashyap on the film. Three years later, Ghaywan will be back at the French film festival this May, but this time with his own directorial feature film Masaan, which will be a part of the esteemed Un Certain Regard section. Films shown in this section are eligible for a prize of €30,000 as well as other prizes such as the Camera D’Or, awarded to the best first feature. Other recent Indian films screened in this section included Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan, Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely and Kanu Behl’s Titli.

Apart from Masaan, filmmaker Gurvinder Singh’s Punjabi film Chauthi Koot, based on the short stories of Waryam Singh Sandhu, will also be screened in the same section at Cannes.

Miyan Kal Aana, a short movie by Shamas Siddiqui, younger brother of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, will be a part of the Short Film Catalog of the festival. “This is very encouraging to see,” explains Ghaywan, “this year the big films haven’t worked. Instead it is films like Dum Laga ke Haisha and NH10 that have worked well in the box office. People want to see good stories.”

Lately, there’s been good news all around for the small independent film. Last week, the two significant releases in the theatres were Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court and Shonali Bose’s Margarita with a Straw. Both these films released in India after generating a positive buzz in the festival circuit.

Ghaywan’s film maps the lives of four people who live in Varanasi, and the common thread that binds their stories is the Ganga river. The fulcrum of Masaan, which means crematorium, is the lives of those who cremate bodies in the ghats for a living. “A major part

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PRESENT IMPERFECT

India’s voiceless managers

FILM FATALE

No ‘them’, only ‘us’

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

Different strokes A still from Margarita With A Straw, the story of a bold, sexual Laila

lenges. How often have you seen an Indian film featuring an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) person who is not a source of jokes or whose sexual orientation is not the fulcrum of the story? For many decades, mainstream Hindi cinema in particular would feaike most of you, I too am part of sever- of an office building. tureWhat Muslim characters only with back, a specific vantage. we want is a story, I wrote al WhatsApp groups — family, friends This virtual gag order is not reserved to indi- like an purpose: either to showcase anecdote, something that Muslim you saw culture or from the past, present and future, vidual employees at lower levels, but one that heard orthat as near-flawless creatures presence struck a chord.

A secondwhose version arneighbours, dog lovers, the works. cloaks the organisation entirely. Over the last rived,made point had about secularism. the awords merely been swapped The group that I lurk around and watch as decade-and-a-half, the public relations’ person aroundDuring an interview I recorded withtoMadand rearranged.

There was nothing some kind of a sociological study though is has become an essential chaperone to any do but huri in 2003, I remember her complainkillDixit the copy. the one comprising my batchmates from busi- communication with the company. I underthat appalling Bollywoodthattends to see It ing isn’t merely companies ness school. We graduated in 1999, and so by stand that when a CXO talks to a journalist, and employees “women-centric as compulsorily being are sofilms” terrified of possibly sayfter a in few the wheelchair now most members theminutes, group are heads of therestantly vigilant, butmight if I were tell Mum’s stois a risk that he saytosomething about “issues”.

Why must such a filmmuch be a ronaing the ‘wrong’ thing that they would will disappear.

Writer-director businesses, successful entrepreneurs, invest- Shory, herget physical condition only that could the company intowould some be kind of one dhona story (a at weepie), asked.

Why not a rather say nothing all, it isshe also a strategic nali Bose has repeated variations ment gurus, partners at consulting firms and of element it. For the I would tell trouble with ain regulator.

Butmost as thepart profession light-hearted comedy?

No doubt her industry mistake.

In January this year, TCS was emthis lineas a corporate zillion times while prowhatever else qualifies triumph. you about herhas generation-defying of public relations flourished, it has liberalism, essen- broiled hasinchanged in these years,off but her quesa controversy over12laying 25,000 moting her Hindi-English Margarita The WhatsApp exchanges in thisfilm group usual- With fortitude, the bright smile still managtiallyher killed all conversations.

Theshe desire to people. tionInremains relevant.

A large part of the reaa newspaper story which detailed Straw, thecategories story of a— sexually ly fallAinto three birthdayadventurous wishes, scrubesclean to summon up sterile in spiteevery of a sentence cruel disease and make be that, like most film industries how son the could issue snowballed — through Twitter in collegejokes student with cerebral palsy, now runforwarded and stock tips. the in sense humour that remains unde- the rest of that and anyone the of organisation India, a and male-dominated Bollywood messages Facebook groups — ningthrough in Indian theatres.

I scan the dozens of messages ex- speaks feated those is so by high thatwheels. it has creattoo tends to see stories through a I read this quoteofbywomen CEO N ChanIt every reminded mewhat of ahas similar sentence changed day and surprised me utWhen I watched Margarita the other day, male gaze, ed its own bubble of paranoia. with men norm and drasekaran, “Webeing have the to underfilmmaker precisely decade A couple mosttered is in by theanother last 12 months, when there ahas that wheelchair did Idisappear after a while. women stand of years ago interthe exceptional ‘them’. how this social media Nageshpublic Kukunoor’s Iqbal is a small beenago. so much discourse about thejewel What I remember the mostofis how Laila’s wants smile to risk viewed a 70-year-old chairman It is works in thiswhen context that Margarita somebody puts up a has Nobody of a elections, film revolving around for a deaf-mute country, the agenda develop- boy travelledHeallhad thea way from a company. stellar re- hertheir substantial pay wrought a miracle message, that’s some beyond action the national-level cricketer. ment,who thebecomes debates aover land rights, and netA few to those eyesthe brimming cord lips — having served first legoverpackages by uttering pointobvious onetake we have we should as wealready go for- disminutes Iqbal, you will forget the sihero is neutrality, theinto group maintained absolute sunshine.

And what of hiswith career as an efficient bu-I re- something which, cussed. is three things ward.”

That Laila an IT company is that Kukunoor said on, in interlencephysically on all of challenged, these. It merrily chugged member most aboutinIqbal today although honest, reaucrat and the second headwouldwith usually be to treated grappling trying under-as isafter interview in the run-up the rewith view people posting photographs of fancyto mois his sense ofIT mischief, and that ing billion-dollar companies. an Indian filmmaker: howbysocial media works is she might Whenbe I watched standsues leaseand of his film invacations.

2005. torbikes fancier So far, there Sitting classic in whichwas his asister inconvenient in atscene the meeting cerebralofpalsy, is they bisexual, reflection how she little Margarita the othernot ahas Is it possible, ask, to stop noticing hasn’t even been an you acknowledgment of the that and he infuriate a bully by using 24-year-old PR executive.

I is a woman. yes, while technology, it is aHell reflection day, the wheelchairknowshe largeofmetal chair bearing human body? Is couldn’t it signfor presence the world outside aand the issues language tome discuss the felthe life of fathom watching the film I almostInforgot successfully Corporate did disappear afterof how necessarywith. to not notice that the manthat addressit’s grappling This is not to suggest in histhe presence. whatlow value PR executive that she’s a woman!

And a sexualdia had intimidated its employa while ingwho youwent is doing so in signschool language? people to business with me broughtWhen Hollywood to theI see meeting.

He nei-actor ly assertive ees into silence. one at that. Possibly The point both Kukunoor and Bose make is aren’t smart or that they don’t have any views Michael Fox onnor public plat- well. Yet, ther knew the Jbusiness the client theInc director did not turn For a long time because now, India has managed this: Disabilities can be a source of anguish, on matters of a larger import.

My theory is his was forms, I do see his physical a mandatory presence, a physical to live in a convenient eitherworld element intoa an where few‘issue’? desbut need notpeople definetous, anda we could acthat as farthey as allowing have personstruggles Parkinson’s warning, as it because were. Inof another instance, last ignated spokespeople, As for the gorgeous Iqbal, tutored in the art of not knowledge a distressing aspect of a person’s ality and an opinion are concerned, Corporate butthe theLok overwhelming feeling is one May, disease, for the day Sabha elections were till many months watching it didanyit strike speaking many wordsafter without saying it. A film could Indiareality is stillwithout behindharping an ironon curtain and no- well admiration for his strength nearlyissue a quarter beingofannounced, BLink ran a special the hero wasones a Muslim.

Howan lovely thingme at that all, were the only who faced about a person with physical mental bodybe wants to risk their substantial pay or packHis recurring calledcentury Where after Was I.heTowas jogdiagnosed. your memory, Wil- audience. that Kukunoor didhas notnow define him in terms of Social media democratised being about those chalages challenges, by uttering without something which, although as the ruthless lawyerwhere Louis he Canning liam role Dalrymple wrote about was in hisEveryone religion or speech-and-hearing impairaccess. is his a potential spokesperson. lenges alone.

And if, as a filmmaker, you honest, might be inconvenient.

I even know of canmultiple-award-winning TVcricketserial The whenthe Arundhati Roy won the Booker, How lovely that Iqbal was And ments. while people of my vintage maypresented be cau- to notwho evenhave consider the likelihood such a film people alternative, closedofTwitter Good Wife is not thatabout of a saint with physical er Anil Kumble spoke where hea was as a human being justBanta happened tioususenough to stick towho Santa jokes,to be not and being a hagiography or asotearjerker, handles Facebook pages, just they can you — he plays manipulative whenaffliction India won the 1983aWorld Cup, etc.character We thereboth and Muslim. is a deaf-mute younger, braver wave of employees want to ask you are post might their thoughts on yourself movies, whether music and his tardive dyskinesia rareto condiaskedwho the uses founder of an online travel (a portal Physically challenged, mentallyand challenged, now. With them, the PR machinations gag constrained your the vision of such person as books.

The more Iby watch group andaspeak which causes erratic bodycame movements) tell ustion where he was when internet to In- to Muslim, Sikh,Corporate gay, woman — it is orders won’t Christian, last very long.

India ‘thefriends other’ and not ‘one ofIndia, us’. the more dia. By to other in Corporate gain sympathy of judgesversion and jurors. thethe time the PR-sanitised reac- will need possible for anew character be any orhave many of to learn words,tothose that A personal maypart helpofillustrate I’m convinced thatexample in no other urban my are regular with regular of pluses hed us, These it was nothing but folk a small collection the above, yet be seen as a regular person rathmeaning.

And impact.

My mothertohas been Indiaconcerns. is it more dangerous speak yourwheelchair mind meaningless and minuses. words — paradigm shifts, client er than a showpiece in an old curiosity shop. t@veenavenugopal| for many years. Yes, it is painful than bound it is behind the glass-and-chrome edificeto see It is onlyproposition fair to clarifyand that the ‘themadand us’ leverage, value leadership her decline, but believe me, our conversations school of cinema is not confined to India, nor anna mm vetticad is the author of The Adventures are rarely about that. As her family, we are con- to characters with physical and mental chal- of an Intrepid Film Critic t@annavetticad

Physically challenged, Muslim, woman… it is possible for a character to be all or any of these, yet be a source of regular stories, not just hagiographies or tearjerkers

anna mm vetticad

ljupco smokovski/shutterstock

Nowhere in the country is it more dangerous to speak your mind than from behind the glass-and-chrome edifice of an office building

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The future ain’t here The unkindest cut UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

A promising endeavour that ends up being merely middle-brow, mega-church infotainment

What it means to be diagnosed with cancer in a country that spends only about four per cent of its annual budget on health

Shape shifters (from left) An offbeat design for a border checkpoint in Sarpi, Georgia; a home for the elderly in Alcácer do Sal Residences, Portugal, facilitates interactions; the Metropol Parasol in Seville, Spain, is the largest glued structure on earth the future of architecture in 100 buildings

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hat should architecture as- the general public that uses their buildings, the World Wide Web. pire to be? and allows the lay person to influence design, Architects posting their projects on ArchiWhere does the natural en- thus making architecture more democratic tizer generally have links to their own webvironment end and where and transparent. sites as well as those of contractors, does architecture begin?

Kushner’s speech is full of irreverent jokes, consultants, clients and building component What does sustainable architecture mean? personal anecdotes and examples of innova- manufacturers. If you click on a thumbnail How can architects make technology rele- tion in contemporary architecture. His talk image on Architizer it will enlarge to fill your Ode to life An vant to a design context? checks all the boxes that Benjamin Bratton — screen and show viewer comments and disrally What is and isn’t a public amenity? in his TEDx San Diego 2013 talk titled ‘New Per- cussions. The 5”x7” pages awareness of Kushner’s book, to mark World How does architecture go beyond spectives: What’s Wrong with TED Talks?’ — however, contain only plain text and images Cancer Day spectacle? lists as making for a good TED Talk. that will fit on the screenp goutham of a phablet, but How does architecture deal with Unfortunately, Kushner’s talk and book also without the ability to pinch-zoom. The result aybe it is my age, but it seems an understanding gentrification? family,ofwhich askedlists favours check all the boxes Bratton’s of things who is doan not have the privilege Does but artefact that is bornof ofwealth. the internet with diseases and hosThesethat wereI deal some of the questions I asked on his behalf, and hewith is being Our—help that are wrong TEDtreated. as a forum namely, poverty kill them? it ravage their housesquanders its Does heritage.

Sloppy editing in the much these days.in 100 myself aspitals I readfar Thetoo Future of Architecture does that double at times, up my the new theyduty are often aboutpicking “My work, holds, leaving such high debts form of factual errors andthat texttheir thatlives is often reason, what I have Buildings,For bysome Marc odd Kushner, published recently slackbook. as her sister-in-law Usual spiel.” spends time in the will be spent repaying them? of In-backrendered unreadable as Two-thirds it merges into beenas dealing with for the past or soKushner are hospital. a TED Original book.month In 2009 My wife and I worry.

How do they Bratton continues to say, in his deadpan diansground live on images less than ₹100help a day, and one day don’t either. tales brought of cancer.about The first case I heard was maketone, a revolution in about the architectuendsthat meet? are high, and ofoverthe The TED costs framework promotes in the The Intensive CareofUnit costsinmore thanlacks selection projects the book that ral of my wife’s aunt, who was diagnosed community by co-founding Architizer — course a simplification they are notto covered by any health“middlein- ₹12,000 the point of being — thisWhile without the costs diversity. theretallying are projects fromof Mumwith social a formmedia of throat cancer.for It was at to platform thedetected community surance plans.

The help will not take charity. medicines and consultation. brow, mega-church, infotainbai to Beijing to the surface of the an early stage and the treatment started soon communicate with the world at large.

For the She isment” a strong-willed who, when she that incitesperson “a fleeting And then, in the middle ofexamples his treatment, we moon, most of non-Westafter.last Thethree auntyears, is Kashmiri, her cousins and have the Architizer A+ Awards had slipped foot two years found that a tailor, momentand of fractured wonder, aher sense whose house and shop ern buildings are designed

by Westfamily havedecided a number doctors amongstequal been by aofjury “comprising ago, had to pay thatresisted maybe our it’s efforts all going to her for the were destroyed ern in the Kashmir Still, floods and are whosome architects. there Kushner’s talk and had them.parts She came to Delhi for tests,cultural travelledthought to month architects, designers, thatout she after was on rest. work all,bed spiritual stitched pherans other gems hidden in theand pages of this book check all the garments Chandigarh, suffered thepeople rigourswho of acleaders and then developers (the She refused help we conbuzz...” in theuntil audience.

Can round-the-clock to rebook, such as a proposed retireboxes of things that build chemotherapy Kashmir itself.

Through the this tually hirein architects!)”.

The 100 buildings vinced her that she instantly too, just like people really evalhiscommunity life, was in Delhi to getwith ment in Florida are wrong with TED hisundulating massive floods of lastcome year, from the stark winterprocbook talks about the awards my wife I, should get mediuateandand affect design wife treated for breast cancer. its floors that challenge as a forum that is visually beautiful, but physically harsh, ess and have been “supplemented by exhauscal leave.

Now we‘re-tweets’ wonder and if through their While we residents pulled alltostrings to ageing stay mentally In one of the finest and then spring of this year tive through research,theconversations andwhen personal there‘Likes’? is a way we can convince find a bed at AIIMS,#28), I or andthem physically fit (building private hospitals in floodwaters rose again, she fought the disease her to take experience” of the author. a medical I Kushner’s bookpackage. takes one thought how disease destroys us. the canopy collaboratively woven India, I watched in and suffered the cure.of this book is Kushner’s TED The premise workhundred for a German company buildings (each of trepidation as the It is the illnesses, but the(building limbynot robots and silkworms It showed me‘Why howthe deeply a woman — afuture wife will talk titled buildings of the that offers equivalent of three whichan has taken a team of arited resources we have to deal of #91) at Massachusetts Institute bills rose and abe mother — sits the centre of traditional shaped by...atyou’.

Kushner argues that the months’ pay and as medical expenschitects engineers a significant amount of Technology with(MIT). them. India spends about families hereofinreceiving South Asia, how her process feedback on adelicate design idea es when need.

Maybe we canand even more to timeinand effort to design, fourcompelling per cent ofprojects its budget onbook The most in the health can bring the household toprocess a standstill, has traditionally been a slow for an aradaptconstruct), this to herand family, but them I do to a few pictures are thosehealth, reduces among lowest in in which the the complexity ofthe the deand make a home into little more than a house chitect.

A building takes much longer to build not know willparagraph accept. I canand aif she short with inane conclu- sign comes world, lower than Nepal, and through even in the few sentences as shethan withdraws from her Once functions. it does to design. built,Iitvisited takes time not understand I should have thisyou privisions, such why as “Architecture gives wings” two-thirds of medical expenses and images describing them —are likeout-ofthe Metrothe family in the aftermath of theexperience floods, lege for people to inhabit a building, it when she does not. art and architecture can or “The line between pocket, in not(#20) covered by theit!government. polas Parasol — Google — or the floating, which had spared the old habitations and form an opinion about it. and ravA third case was much closer to me. My clos- Whatwater-filtering be a curvy one.” happens to the millions whose diseases public swimming pool (#72). aged the neweropinions buildings and neighbourMultiple coalesce into a general est cousin was with leukaemia a are notReturning While thediagnosed book could have been a concise diagnosedto because they cannot the questions that Iafford asked myhoods of Srinagar.about She insisted that I be served impression the building that ultimatemonth-and-a-half ago. We scrambled to figure survey of innovative contemporary architeca doctor? happens to those who cannot self asWhat I read the book, I asked them because fruit,ly and though sheifcould not cut it herself, it is determines the architect’s initial idea out the my nights at the ture,treatment. its origins Iinspent the internet are what lead to get admitted toina the public because the projects bookhospital compelled me to, and was done to her specifications.

She sat upon exdeemed a success or a failure.

Kushner hospital.

His company made him godifference on paid beits downfall.

The fundamental therebecause is noneofavailable, the suggested waiting list is what theor book through the carpeted floor andmedia directed, even in her plains how social short-circuits this traleavetween for a month, rallied offer him apage sub- of too a webpage andtothe printed a long?

What happens to those who cannot its omissions. weakened state, the protocols of her house. ditional process of feedback.

With design stantial medical package,inand found blood book is the hypertext the former.

Hypertext, afford the treatment to live? truly, While this book mayCan notwe point totruly it, archiThesoftware, second an case was a little farther photo-realaway. and platelet architect can produce donors.

In one ofweb the links, finestconnects pri- turn tecture in the form of clickable away from doesthis? seem to have a future.

Our help’s brother-in-law was diagnosed istic renderings of a building before with it is built, vate one hospitals in information India, I watched in trepidapiece of to other pieces of intOmairTAhmad and digital cancer.

Luckily the patient’sbywife worked withthese and receive feedback disseminating tion as the bills rose.

I cringed thinkhypertext, of those im- ayodh kamath blends craft, design formation — which can betomore simulated images on social media. This, ac- ages, video, or any form of multimedia — on technologies at Kamath Design Studio, Delhi, and teaches cording to Kushner, brings architects closer to the internet. This is what ultimately creates at LTU, Michigan, US

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The Future of Architecture in 100 Buildings Marc Kushner TED Simon & Schuster ₹350

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

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All in good Golden Bigtime Daddy A hesitant TS debt collector runs into and, after several dramatic turns, a Billionaire Kalyanaraman and histrouble sons run their ₹10,000-crore retailtwists giant and Kalyan brief reunion his college Jewellers fromwith Thrissur.

Theirflame luxury cars and private jets ferry them on business to all corners of the world from this small town in Kerala

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The Debt Collector’s Due Adhirath Sethi HarperCollins ₹250

ou can’t get unluckier than Samay Agrawal. If you think you have hit the bottom of the pit, pick up a copy of The Debt Collector’s Due. At the end of 174 pages you may want to thank every lucky star in the firmament for not being Samay Agrawal.

Adhirath Sethi’s protagonist, Samay (‘time’ in Hindi) has neither time nor luck on his side.

A bright student in school, “often topping the class in maths and frequently sought out by weaker kids to help them with sums”, he comes from an affluent family. With all the “ingredients that one needed to be popular in school”, Samay breezes through his early teens with great confidence. “A certain Saturday”, however, changes his life. Samay rises from bed to get ready for a cricket match early morning and goes back to sleep the next minute. From that moment on, sleep, like the giant squid in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, wraps its tentacles around Samay. He sleeps through his college exams, he sleeps on when his father’s business falls apart and the family loses its home, he sleeps till his parents, tired of the parasitical son, kick him out of their tiny flat. It is only after being banished to a small rent-controlled apartment in central Mumbai — a gift from a benevolent uncle —

that Samay realises how sleep has robbed him faulter, an elderly man, puts a gun to his neck of life. That includes Amrita, the feisty girl and commits suicide. That spells the end of from college who left him for a career in jour- the only good time in Samay’s life. Sethi pulls nalism many years ago.

Samay away from the tree-lined avenues of the “Left with nothing to build his life on”, he Parsi colony — the scene of death — and the serwalks from office to office with a resumé that pentine alleys of Crawford Market. Amrita is as good as blank. He struggles to pay for a makes a dramatic comeback and the plot glass of fresh lime soda. He runs shifts to Panchgani. errands for his aged neighbours As we said earlier, Samay will so as to escape paying for any remake you feel good about yourpair and renovations in the self, and you might want to laud He sleeps through his building. The only job that Sethi for doing fairly well at that. college exams, he comes his way is that of a debt Except, the twists and turns after sleeps on when his collector. And Samay — wellthe re-entry of the college flame father’s business falls mannered, well-dressed, even border on the filmi, which, again, apart and the family good-looking — is the exact opyou may not have a problem loses its home posite of the image of the debt with. Sethi may leave you with collector. Just when it seems that images of Amol Palekar, the everSamay is walking into another green simpleton from Hrishidisaster, Sethi chooses to give kesh Mukherjee films. But do him some respite. With his smile and new- look out for flashes of the chivalrous hero found perseverance, Samay manages to trace forced to grow up overnight. What is strikingevery defaulter — some of them hiding under ly real is the portrayal of people living under tables(!) — and recover the money. Slowly, Sa- huge debts — disturbingly common in the age may slips out of his smart casuals into a jet- of instant loans and credit cards — and the black suit, in a bid to look more businesslike. drastic measures they take to evade the collecFrom recovering a few thousand bucks, Sa- tion agent. may moves on to collecting lakhs. All seems to be going better than he hoped for until a de- aditi sengupta

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Abracadabra

Heavy mettle A customer tries out diamond jewellery at the Vijayawada outlet of Kalyan Jewellers, the Kerala-headquartered company credited with introducing price tags and BIS certification in an industry otherwise seen as opaque in its marketing and pricing strategies v raju

Mind reader and magician Nakul Shenoy's book goes he women at Pushpagiri Agraha- the temple, barefoot and in an angavastram. beyondram,just textbook tricks in Surrounded by friends and relatives, he walks a locality of Iyer Brahmins

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middle-class neighbourhood.

Each time Kalyanaraman’s Rolls-Royce Thrissur, are in front of their houses alongside the golden chariot as it comes out of Phantom drives out of the house, it circles the drawing kolam. It is five in the eve- the temple. His sons — Rajesh and Ramesh — temple, seeking blessings before speeding bananas in procession, their handspulling insteadthe of away. Even when the businessman or either of akul Shenoy, 37, when discovered Man- guys ning, and not early morning these tradiare athave the head of the theare Magician the age of pistols.

It’sits anropes. imagery that’s so brilliant.

And his sons uses the helicopter or one of their two tional floordrake patterns usuallyat drawn using chariot by Kalyanaraman had donatfive.today Sinceisthen he has trying it my young imagination. rice flour. But special.

It isbeen the eighth edcaught the ₹5-crore chariot in 2013, signalling his jets, they first fly over the temple before headto get up close andfestival personal with day of the 10-day Ramnavami held in and the company’s rise to the top of India’s ing to their destination. “In all these years, and his idol.toGrowing upthe in birth Udupi,ofKarnataka, peris magic, according to Jewellers you?

March celebrate Lord Rama.

In What gold retail industry.

Kalyan has reve- despite his riches, Swami (or ascetic, as everyis about formance werechariot few and farthe between two hours spaces the golden from Sitara- To nueme of magic ₹10,000 crore. wonder, about creating one in Thrissur addresses him) hasn’t experience stays with Sadly,signifmost changed,” says D Ananthanarayanan, a childbut Shenoy located kept practising magicofand his anThis ma temple, in one corner thedid neighyear, thethat festivities holdyou. another first big show the age for of 15.

2010 he decid- of the magic see is justbilliotricks or a puzzle. bourhood, willatemerge itsInannual journey icance for thewe 67-year-old hood friend of Kalyanaraman How the he trick is seconded to take up as a full-fledged around theitcity. naire. A month oryou twodo later, and a constant presence at famprofession hasn’tdays looked ary. aHow did he/she These are and important for TS Kalyanara- and his sons and daughter will make that ily functions. The friends are also happen or how and did the magician back man,since. chairman and managing director of Ka- move out of the Agraharam around every time Kalyanarawhat audience think-or two later, man opens a new outlet anyWith his first book His now availalyan Jewellers. grandfather TS make home atknow Sobha City,the a modA is month Toand me, magic is ble in stores,Iyer he had reveals ing is a feeling withhis children Kalyanarama builtthat the temple, ern township coming up onthat theregisters where in India, or even in Dubai, he and about wonder, about them. Someone watching magic is much, much more than legacy the festival reinstates the family each Thrissur-Guruvayur highway. as happened last year. willmagic move out of the creating“Our an familieswill party tricks. get over year. Iyer had migrated to Thrissur from Kumare never becoming big-this. Agraharam to a This constancy is apparent in experience bakonam, in Tamil Nadu, in the early part of that ger. stays So we need bigger houses,” the tycoon’s daily lifestyle too. He modern township you. most HeTell your favourite Tell about you and Mandrake? the us 20th century.

Though from a with family of Sadly, he says. is us building four trick. wakes up at 5.45am and starts off the magic houses we see at is Sobha For 10-odd years, I have been perSo, Mandrake is a fabled story, as ofofbusiness priests, Iyer sowed the first seeds City, complete with an hour of yoga, a regimen just1940s. tricks orwith a puzzle initiated Nakul Shenoy into the forming we all know. a youngTextiles kid, atin the by setting upAsSitaram a helipad nearby.as a mind reader. It was Comic book Mandrake unbroken since 1965.

Breakfast is wikicommons about I used to pester wayseeped back inin2002, Even asage thefive, family business grew with each For someone tradi-when I started wonders of magic a family affair. In office, he keeps my mom tothe basically read Mancalling myself mind reader and a strict eye on schedule. In between, he takes generation, Agraharam and its temple re- tion, Kalyanaraman’s move aout of the Agrahadrake out loud for me.

I was universe. fasnot aHe magician. do method. do and how you 10, do mained the nucleus of their Practic- ram is significant. has livedEverything here all hisIlife, the timeAbout to callwhat up you customers, at least nowhis is about the power offamthe it. cinated by back this then character.

Thisthe book is essentially aboutBack the performes started have He now become a growing up with four brothers at the across country each month. home by it has been(big about me being able to read Sothe it actually a little beyondcurd the could makeincluding anyone see what heawanted them mind, tradition, running community ily’s periyaveedu house).

One brother con- ance. seven in evening,goes his dinner is mostly to see. at the temple for the duration of the somebody’s and being ablethe to influence It is aoften magic book, yes, will kitchen tinues to livemind in that house, while rest have magic. rice. “I have travelled withbut himiton hishelp jet. transverse thoughts. houses within the anybody The moment you say Mandrake, a couple of and who isitself into speaking, festival.

Kalyanaraman is often seen serving moved to independent In the morning he will callperformance, and say that things comewith to mind.

There’s stripand where presentations. food, along the rest of hisone family, lat- Agraharam. If not for the luxury cars parked or food, homemade idlis, has been arranged. He this book apart?be difficult to mark is organised,” says an industry associate. these guysin are pistols at him, and he What er joining forpointing the lunch. on thesets porches, it would arasu magic books are about thelargely trick and the sibiNevertheless, says, aren’tnow bananas are they?’ Andisthe It is‘Those past seven and Kalyanaraman at Most out the family’s houses in this upper as an entrepreneur, Kalyana-

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Smart Course in Magic Secrets, Staging, Tricks, Tips Nakul Shenoy HarperCollins ₹299

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raman has EAT, built REPEAT a reputation for testing conSTREET, vention. He inherited a textile shop from his father, but spun out a jewellery retail giant.

Which explains the popularity of the yellow powder in the little cardboard boxes. Arthur Bird, a Birmingham chemist, had a wife who adored custard but was allergic to eggs. So in From one to many 1837, he developed an imitation that was not Thrissur looks like any other town in Kerala, only free of eggs but also stress. Housewives but its history distinguishes it from the rest. around the world embraced this three-minHome to Guruvayur Temple and Kerala Sahiute approach to custard-making. tya Academy, it is often called the cultural and Meanwhile, custard travelled to India religious centre of the State. Thrissur was also alongside Victorian morals and crinolines. an important link in international trade. It Which is how caramel custard became a stanprospered greatly under Sakthan Thampuran, dard item on the menus of colonial clubs and the 18th-century king of Cochin. In a signifiParsi restaurants. And fans really must head to cant move, he invited Syrian Christian famBritannia Restaurant at Ballard Estate in Mumilies from Travancore to settle in Thrissur and bai to tuck into the pale custard drenched in set up businesses, including gold manufacturbittersweet caramel sauce. Or even better, find ing and retailing. themselves some hearty lagan nu custard.

The town’s High Road stands testimony to This dense-as-a-cake dessert — often called that royal offer. This busy commercial district custer by a community that refuses to waste is among the biggest hubs of gold retailing in its breath on extra syllables when there is food the State. Still around are some of its earliest to consume — is always served at Parsi wedjewellery shops, including names such as Joy dings and is rich with charoli (small, spiced Top trio TS Kalyanaraman, chairman and managing director of Kalyan Jewellers, flanked by sons Rajesh (left) and Alukkas and Chemmannur that are now famil- Ramesh, who take care of the finance and marketing sides of seeds) and almonds.

“Custer,” writes Bhicoo kk mustafah the business, respectively iar outside Thrissur. In 1993, when KalyanaraManekshaw in her Parsi Food and Customs, “is man set up his first jewellery store — after his copied from the traditional baked custard and father had divided the family’s five textile out- need dhairyam (courage). Otherwise how do from passersby.

Inside,dish Kalyanaraman is in his has put the original to shame with its lets between his five sons — it was just an addi- you open six outlets across UAE on a single trademark dhoti, half-sleeve shirt and YSL sanrichness and flavour.” tion to a long list of local jewellers. “Like my day?” says Jose. Or, how do you explain hiring dals. from onquintessentially his left hand, theIndionYouApart do get thisa ring nutty, father had done, I wanted to set up two jewell- Amitabh Bachchan as a brand ambassador af- ly jewellery onrestaurants. him is a gold-plated and another custard at a few But perhaps er stores — one each for my sons,” recounts Ka- ter opening an outlet in Ahmedabad; the Bol- diamond-studded watch.

His sonsaflank him you should rush out and befriend couple of lywood superstar’s fee was higher than the on lyanaraman of his initial ambition. theofdais, while his family, including Parsis marriageable age. Because laganwife nu As Rajesh and, two years later, Ramesh value of the shop’s stock. Or now, booking a Rama, the audience. custardisisinbest eaten to the rustle of silks and joined the business with the second outlet in third jet, worth ₹200 crore, to push ahead theThe younger Kalyanaramans do most the strains of the Birdie Dance. While youofwait Palakkad, their father ensured that the learn- with the company’s overseas growth plan. talking. was important get thethere proposifor your“ItParsi friends to tooblige, are ing of the last two generations was passed on. “We save at least one working day a week by us- tion right,” says Ramesh, the enough custards out thereexplaining to keep youwhy stuffed “I wanted to make sure that the two didn’t ing the private jet instead of catching com- company so long to is arrive Chennai’s and happy.took Crème brulee quiteinthe dessert think they have [been born with] a silver mercial flights,” says Ramesh. booming market.

“We haveCustard invested ₹200 du jour in fancy restaurants. flash-froThat risk-taking ability has seen Kalyanara- crore spoon,” says Kalyanaraman, seated at the comin this outlet, whichand willspherical display 600kg zen with liquid nitrogen blobs pany’s plush headquarters in Thrissur’s Pun- man leapfrog over his rivals and peers in Thris- of custard gold,” adds Rajesh.

Later, Rama with explains ravioli are hot favourites the kunnam. His own entrepreneurial journey sur. “Kalyan’s growth has been amazing. They why the Chennai opening is also an emotional molecular gastronomy crowd. had begun as a 12-year-old learning to mea- have done a lot, introduced many new moment. grew in Chennai.

In fact, my faOr, like “Ime, youupcould just toodle down to things,” says Boby Chemmanur, managing di- ther’s sure cloth at his father’s textile shop. house is just walking fromown the Prakash General Stores and distance pick up your “Both of us have sat at the counters, worked rector of Boby Chemmanur International outlet,” she says.box of yellow powder. little cardboard as cashier and sold gold ornaments to custom- Group, which is also rapidly expanding its The store’s opening saw a marketing blitz Crèmewe fatale quiteour tricky to make shutterstock gold retail business. “The Thrissur gold indusshabnam is a journalist and author of ers… haveCustard madeissure shop employees across theminwalla city— from hoardings to newspaThe Six Spellmakers of Dorabji Street follow the same principles and guidelines,” try is dominated by Christians. Swami is the pers and railway platforms to FM stations. The ome months ago, Mumbai witnessed non-Christian has made it store itself was opened by a galaxy of filmstars says Rajesh, who is executive director at Ka-a only pannacotta or berryjeweller tartlet.who But this elegant tantalising, yellow ofdeluge.

Sweet, so big. isHeonly hasone changed dy- versatile cuslyan Jewellers and in charge finance. Vitally, cream aspectthe of the including Amitabh Bachchan, Classic crème Anglaise creamy custard — lashings of iton.

— namics,” adds senior stuff citizen a few tricks of the trade were also passed tard. There’s theagloopy that sits on rich Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Prabhu down enormous billboards.

It who remembers Kalyanaraman “Insteadpoured of embarrassing the customer by asktrifles; the soft filling in pillowy doughnuts; and Nagarjuna. Chennai’s T Na1/2 cup whole milk descended foldswe onto hot, crisp hiscinnamon-sprinkled ‘textile days’. ing about in hissatiny budget, observe his jaleeye from and the heart of delectagar is often dubbed India’s big1/2 cup cream bis and gooey cupcakes. Itwhat swirled ice- bleBut not everyone agrees movement to understand he isonto interestPortuguese custard tarts.with jewellery retail hub. Within Swami’s growth haspiece gest 2-inch vanilla bean, split cream andRamesh, gulab jamuns.

And Cinderellagrowth strateed in,” says also an executive director Kalyanaraman’s Custard tarts were an immensely popular a kilometre radius of Kalyan’s been a miracle.

You egg yolks 3 large style,intransformed itself from a humble, ready- gy.

One them is Thotand charge of marketing. treat inof Europe inAnthony the Middle Ages. In need fact, adhairyam 3 tbsp sugarglittering showroom are many of mix sweet dish to a drool-worthy dessert. whose family was among Meanwhile, Kalyanaraman was eager to tan, London bakery maintains that these tarts Otherwise its Kerala peers such as Joy Aluk(courage).

1 Combine kas milkand andMalabar cream inGold, a doubleThose advertisements prompted first toone set up a jewellery out- and stand outenticing in a crowded market. For that, he the launched of the most famous controand the lohow do you open six boiler or heavy saucepan.GRT Scrape in seeds me to rediscover an further old friend. cus- let in Thrissur in the centudidn’t have to look thanAfter his all, father’s versial romances in 19th history.

Apparently, the cal favourite Jewellers. outlets across from UAE on vanilla bean; add bean. Bring milk tard was—the for those “The jewellery fast dictum sellone-size-fits-all the best qualitydessert at the most rea- ry. gluttonous Henryindustry VIII firstisapproached When Alukkas opened its aAnne single day? mixture to simmer. Remove from heat. of us who grew up in pre-tiramiinto two of her sultry sonable rate.

It will give you a good turnover. getting separated Boleyn, not because Chennai in 2008, it 2 Whisk egg yolks andshowroom sugar in medium su times.

It arrived thebe dinner side are Your profits mightatnot the highest, but groups. On one charms, butcompabecause of the Maid wasGradually touted aswhisk the country’s bowl to blend. hot milk largetable with predictable looking fortarts quantiyour business will be regularity. profitable. “We always nies that are of Honour that she was deButmixture. industryReturn observers say the mixture intost.yolk custard Sometimes over player,” baother from are those wanted to bespooned a mass-market says the ty, and on the vouring a silver tray. The thelow store not prove to saucepan.size Stirofover heatdid until custardtothickens, nanas and chunks that are on quality.across We sometimes businessman.

Side of byleftover side, he apintroduced oth-travelled king sauntered for a nib- enough make a about dent infive theminutes. city’s gold marCustard to focusing DOKalyanaraman NOT ALLOW TO ple.

Occasionally drizzled over a loyalIndia take 15 days to make jewellery set. Others do ket. er changes that fetched his brand clien-alongside ble, andathe rest is history. andBOIL. sons emphasise that 3 Strain sauceisinto bowl. Cover and chill. plump peaches slices it in a day,” saysHenry Thottan. family’s two out- their tele.

“Hestewed was the first to or bring in priceVictorian tags in morals VIIIHis was so enamoured strategy different.

“We have customof industry plum cake. most often lets in Thrissur also export gold jewellery. an thatBut is otherwise seen as opaque of these crisp, buttery tarts that ised our offering according to local taste and and crinolines BhicooChennai Manekshaw’s Custer (almost) plopped alongside a brashAgain, red he was the A few others whether Kalyanaraman when it comes to pricing. hedoubt ordered the cook to work ex- culture. is becoming a cosmopolitan raspberry jelly. his current pacepalace. of expansion first to introduce BIS certification for jewel- can maintainclusively for the The se- city. Half of our staff in the T Nagar outlet 1 ltr full cream milk.

There ofchief course, days his finances.

The ₹1,200lery,” sayswere, PV Jose, patron, Jewellery Man- without straining cret recipe was eventually leaked speaks 10 languages,” says Rajesh.

200 gm sugar when the custard formed dispicrore investment from private ufacturers’ Association. to a London bakerequity and ismajor still For gm his cream father this is hardly foreign territory.

200 rited littlebig puddles.

Orat became so two stodgy that Warburg for an undisclosed in In8Thrissur Tasting success his first outlets used by aPincus charming little teahouse stake in Kew hewell didn’t have the first-mover adlarge eggs, beaten it clung onto the serving spoon sullen ob- late-2014 lower theofcompany’s (the Thrissur outlet clocked ₹60with crore revenue called Thehelped Original Maid Honour. debt-eq- vantage, but turned intoalmonds his selling point.

4 tbsp blanched andthat ground duracy.

Butyear), still, its sunshiny, vanilla-infused to created 1:1.2. “Kalyan Jewellers is now in its first Kalyanaraman was embold- uity Theratio French enchanting desserts like The stakes may be higher now. Success in 1 tsp crushed cardamom 2 tbsp charoli flavour power to soothe and Tamil comfort. in Chennai.

Though it is the biggest Chennai, ened to had lookthe beyond Kerala, towards Na- opening floating island, in which a white meringue where he plans four more outlets 2 drops vanillawill essence then my years later, for gold the country, in- within du.Imagine “Coimbatore is shock close when, to Palakkad, andI market was topped withretail silky,in flowing crèmeothers Anglaise. a year, directly have a bearing on 1 grand tbsp rose water discovered it that been mixingAlso, and cluding Joycustard Alukkas struggledenhance there,” his logistically waswhat easierwe’d for us to expand.

They used to have layer pastries, plan to make Kalyan an internationpinch of salt Equally at stake is the planned spooning tastes so assiduously wastoo notmuch,” custard at says promoter of astuff jewellery retail company, customer don’t differ says fruitacrumbles and into chocolaty éclairs. alAgold retailer. all, but Today, a rankas pretender.

The yellow powder to beversions named. were used as a initial Rajesh. the company expands its re- who Whiledidn’t thickwant savoury public offering in two years. And be1 Set the oven to 300°F thatnetwork came out those100 cheery cardboard boxtail tooftouch stores by the end of garnish on dishes like German wedding soup. yond all milk that to is boil the and succession 2 Bring simmer plan till for his es was starch.inWhile Oxford Biggest bet — the real, posh deal — is quite sons. the 2016largely fiscal, maize it has roped Sanjaythe RaghuraCustard “Theytoknow is instir unireduced half. that Add their sugar,strength simmer and about fivewant minutes.

Remove in from flame Companion Food specifies that custardfrom is “a Two afterIt Ramnavami, Kalyanaraman man as chieftooperating officer.

“Coming trickyweeks to make. involves the use of Bain-Ma- ty.for Still, if they to separate a way that and add other and can,” mix well. eggs andI milk, thickenedsurprised by heat”. and his sons at Chennai’s amixture privateof company, was pleasantly ries and waterare baths and has toTaj beCoromandel cooked very, doesn’t hurt theingredients business, they says the 3 Pour mixture into baking dish, place in a thing sometimes up in hotel for a press ahead their out- gold byThe theirreal execution capability,” popped says Raghuravery slowly on a conference very, very low heat.ofAnd somemagnate. pan of hot water and bake for an hour. swishwho restaurants in worked the guise of crème An- let’s opening.

Outside, their three Rolls-Royces man, previously in HDFC. times, all it takes is an ill-timed doorbell or 4 Serve at room temperature or chilled. mathews thomas glaise — a delicate poured over walnut Kerala registration get admiring “Swami’s growthsauce has been a miracle.

You with sneeze to reduce it to a curdled mess. looks prince

Cream come true The delicate, sunshiny custard, drizzled over fruits, cakes and fancy desserts, never fails to soothe and comfort

shabnam minwalla

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WINDOW OR AISLE

Complaint central When it comes to spreading the word about a bad experience, the new consumer, At loggerheads Prime Minister empowered by social media, shows little or no tolerance Narendra Modi and

Justice HL Dattu at the joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices in New Delhi. Despite Modi’s remarks on ‘five-star activism’, the possibility of conflict with the judiciary is not immediately imminent

rishi piparaiya

kamal singh

STATES OF MATTER

No trivial pursuits Will the judiciary’s ‘five-star activism’ in matters of the government become an encumbrance too heavy to bear?

sukumar muralidharan

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rime Minister Narendra Modi’s widely quoted remark from a recent conference with the higher judiciary led to some mirthful protest involving a popular chocolate brand. It also led to some worry. The particular brand of chocolate adwork with numbers a living.

From vertises itself as an agent offor extreme passivity, morning to of night, I am inand front of my inducing a mood distraction forgetful— passivism, integers, formulas, equaness. computer But it was not but “five-star actions a backupthe calculator by my side. tivism” that—bothered Prime Minister.

People make important decisions on To appreciate the significance of based “five-star my analysis and Minister’s large, I do avision, good job. activism” inand, the by Prime the But I have doing this for years now, phrase hasbeen to be restored to 15 context.

In aday 35in and day out, taking a break my the anminute address in Hindi, theonly PMfor used term twice. He began by likening judicial work to some manner of a divine mandate, but halfway through, he reduced it to a far more trivial pursuit. “Rendering justice within the parameters of the law is an easy matter”, he said. “Judges have that power of discernment which comes from the opening of the ‘third eye’”. Yet it was not always so easy distinguishing perception and reality, and it was necessary to ask if the judiciary was not being driven by “five-star activists”.

A little ahead, the theme reappeared with a slight variation, but the inherent illogic remained. How would it be that the “third eye”, which enables the judge to decide a matter within the complex and constantly shifting parameters of the law, should fail in the far simpler task of telling reality from perception?

If the speech left room for ambiguity, a look at governmental actions may help divine its intent. Just days after Modi’s speech, the government froze the environmental campaign group Greenpeace’s permission to receive donations from abroad, on grounds that it had been engaged in improper political activity.

This was, evidently, a pushback against an adverse judicial verdict.

On March 12, the Delhi High Court had ruled illegal a government order disallowing Greenpeace volunteer Priya Pillai from travelling abroad. The government used the broad brush of “anti-national” activity to justify its action. That rationale was summarily thrown out of court. The petitioner could not be categorised as “anti-national” because she was assisting “tribal communities to claim their rights”, ruled the court. “Espousing a cause of

a particular section of people could not be preme Court meanwhile, is declining any I haveAthe power considered as anti-national or creating disaf- manner of unconditional relief. newly consiSocial media is often fection amongst people at large”. “Restric- tuted bench, on April 22, extended anticipatoflooded with stories of tions on criticism of government policies or ry bail for Setalvad and Anand, butpassengers only for irate airline vv krishnan programmes whether in India or abroad” three months. moreover, should “if at all, apply only to govAgainst this mixed background, Modi’s renual vacation.

And the other day, I got a formu- marks Whatdo I am about is the lack of tolernment servants”. notconcerned presage any immediate possibilla wrong and,“anti-national” unfortunately, though, some customers erance that wewith occasionally display The term had be- ity of conflict the judiciary.

Butto byindividway of made common some wrong transactions and went ual employees who aremay representing thea come currency and gained new en- comparison, a reference be made to through fairmedia amount of inconvenience.

No phase organisation or conflict brand. Take case of airline ergy in athe discourse.

A recurrent of active thatthe opened with the major financial loss to anyonenationalist and it was one employees whether in thein cabin ground theme in the overwrought dis- adoption of—the constitution 1950,orwhen the wrong is formula out ofrebuke the hundreds that I cal- judiciary staff, this has to be one early of thegovernment most thankless course the implicit to India’s institustruck down acculatewhen daily but it didover hassle our clients.

Then, jobs. Imagine dealingof with hundreds and tions debates domestic policy are tions in two realms particular concern: all hellto broke looseforums.

— someone this to land thousands of stressed passengers action. day after taken overseas Yet,reported on a commonredistribution and affirmative the press and my company was prominently queries, missed sense reading, there is an obvious element of day.

ThisHandling sequence logistics, of decisions triggered the displayed in all the Incapacities leading dailies.

Why, some flights, cancelled flights, changes, special non sequitur here. at various lev- first amendment to the gate constitution, which international up asIndia well Prime meal requests, weather problems, technical els are alreadypublications declared in picked the factitthat Minister Jawaharlal Nehru introduced from theanewswires.

Our call centre usually beyond regards foreign company’s se- was flood- snags — mostinissues 1951 with words thattheir haveconbeed with calls. Friends and family called trol. They arecome invariably the messengers, curity of irate investment as a domesfamous: “Somehow, comthis mepolicy to ask what had happened. Someone municating magnificent issues to customers, who that are tic priority. constitution clicked a photograph me at my cubicle and already in a heightened state ofwas stress.

ButkidevAnother recent andof conspicuwe have framed later If Modi’s speech left pasted posters all around the neighbourhood. ery once in napped a while you come across ous failure of institutional integand will purloined by thea room for ambiguity, a It was quite horrible. group of passengers a haprity was the March 21 acquittal of lawyers”.crowded The firstaround amendment look at governmental above situation is fictional yelling at the topspecific of theirintent voic16 The police personnel brought to — it would less employee, was adopted with actions may help be quite extraordinary something like that es, virtually to accosting her. viral trial for the killing of 42 if men of a increasehim the or zone forThe autonodivine its intent were to really to someFacebook post by lambasting an aircertain faith happen in Hashimpura, mous action the executive, one doing a desk job. 1987.

But every line minimise is usually accompanied with Meerut district in May That and the encumbrances now and then, bad customer a surreptitiously clicked conformed to a adepressing tale of judicial oversight.

Thephotopurexperience particularly in graphwas of to the said airline repreof impunitystory, for acts of commupose advance the cause of Imagine dealing with the aviation goes viral. sentative whothewas rude had or nal violence,industry, which has with few exceptions, distributive justice, which judiciary hundreds and An airline diverts a flight and inconsiderate.

Yes, theyand mayprivihave been the settled pattern since Independence. with its narrow focus on property thousands of doesn’tSetalvad take adequate careAnand of the have proved lege as eternal, been, but isthan it fair to intrude and Teesta and Javed rather inherited, rights stressed passengers passengers. flight is delayed their photographs or perthat anotherAinstitutional response is possi- seemingly setleak its face against. day after day but Itthis isn’t acommunicated information? ble. remains partial success, but convicThe conflictsonal did not by any means end there. clearly. handed Or an employee at particular It mutated andIt’s quasi-hypocritical, coming tions down snaps in two intensified through the ’60s. a passenger.

We all from has written incidents within theread 2002these Gujarat pogrom, But from about thesomeone mid-’70s,who a greater degreea stories, withNaroda them Patiya and killings, go of sympathy book poking fun at the aviation the Bestidentify Bakery and towards distributive justice was propagate them, through word of mouth and, evident industry,asbut all saiditself andchanged done, itcharacter. is an exsome way towards establishing the forgotten the bench now, socialthat media. postsofgojustice viral, From tremely job. While rightfully hold principle the Facebook institutions thedifficult ’80s onwards, thewe terrain of contest tweets work get re-tweeted, andalike. entire organisa- shifted airlines towards to the highest standards of customer should for everybody executive accountability and tions are brought to their knees as the PRand de- the service, I think we often exhibit much less tolSetalvad and Anand, executive trustees enforcement of basic rights.

Ironically, partments struggle toofcontain theand effects of an this erance than weatshould theirthe employees. the main organisers Sabrang Citizens happened a timetowhen executiveI incident spiralling outhad of control. appreciate thatturning they areits theback custodians the for Justice and Peace, arrest warrants is- branch began on the of redisThis level ofthem customer empowerment is fan- tributive companyintent but they are individuals With sued against by a Gujarat court in Februof earlier years. Thetoo. judiciary tastic.onNoallegations longer canofcorporate similarmay boundaries a professionary financialbehemoths misappr- today be willingoftoprivacy accept as these broad patake us forThey granted.

We are aa generation of rameters al who works in front computer,onaway opriation. were granted temporary reof policy, but of its ainsistence the consumers demands from customers.

It would be principle a lot more prieve by thethat Supreme Court,instant but justgratificadays af- fundamental rights and the of huaction. instant action if our activism, expecta- countability man to remember have a bad ter theWe PMtake focused his ire on five-star couldthat wellanyone be an can encumbrance tionsGujarat are notgovernment met — we aresent the court, theto judge day heavy at work. the a report the too to bear. and the jury rolled into one. We serHome Ministry, complaining thathold one our of their rishi piparaiya is the author AisleatBethe Damned muralidharan is aoffellow Indian vice providers andFoundation, our brands to a much high- sukumar donors, the Ford had been inter rishi@aislebedamned.com of Advanced Study at Shimla er standard consumers did. The Su- Institute fering in thethan Indian politicalever process.

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Love takes wings Birdwatching doesn’t come easy to everyone, especially to the late riser. But good company and some patience could make binoculars the most important accessory in your bag

Sole-searching business This company wants your old shoes, which it will refashion into trendy slippers that are also Feather fetish Arguments overdonate bird identifications are one the highlights of a birdwatching trip v raju; cv subrahmanyam eco-friendly, and them toofthe unshod

A Early birds 6-8 am is the best time for birdwatching s harpal singh

No carbon footprint Shriyans Bhandari (left) and Ramesh Dhami, founders of Greensole; (top) biodegradable footwear made using discarded shoe soles

bout 10 years ago a cartoon in a nastional athletes, dailyShriyans featuringBhandari a vultureand in Ramesh Dhami caught ran hundreds of black-and-white my attenkilometres every year. ran tion.

It showed this They bird also of prey through at on least three tocliff four comfortably perched a narrow (atpairs that of sport shoes every The categorised soles were as in time the vultures wereyear. still not good condition but the shoe sides torejournal within endangered species) reading a news months.

The duo ‘Watching always wondered they with the headline humans’,ifwhile could find gazed some below use forthrough the intact soles of its partner a pair of bithese quality shoes.

A bit of research noculars.

This,sport I guess, was a jibe intendedled at to the idea of refurbishing them into birdwatching, a trend that has taken offtrendy quite slippers. Thatinbrainwave eventually spawned successfully India. I had a good laugh for I an eco-friendly that reusesbeshoe too was unawareenterprise that one day I would bitsolesbyand appropriately ten theissame bug. And anamed pair ofGreensole. binoculars An estimated 2,000 crore pairs of accessory shoes are would become the most important produced in my bag.each year, and nearly 30 crore pairs areGoing discarded.

As shoemaking involves intenthrough a bout of depression and sive chemical processes, pair takes anxiety on account of each a difficult job,centubirdries to decompose in a landfill, watching was what I needed to bouncecreating back in environment At thesimple same time, millife.

An avid problems. birdwatcher’s yet prolions of people worldwide go unprotected

found words came to my rescue. “Just bird legged...” The other person gets an idea of my without footwear.

Dhami, a na- understanding away your worries.”Bhandari So, every and Sunday morning Individual buyers those keen reusing aboutorthe world ofon birds and tional-level to make a differ— hail, rain,marathoner, sunshine —hope gearing up for bird- maintains their old shoes can order from Greensole’s a distance. ence through Greensole. watching became a habit and a healthy activ- website. you give like us annon-birding old pair of shoes, we Birders“If seldom discuscommercial potential their venture ity.The Each time I hoped to add aofnew species to sions can give you abirdwatching new pair for—₹249 ₹299, deduring but Iorlike to talk didn’t strike of them until Bhandari went to the about my wish-list 1,200-plus birds that are found pending the design,” Bhandari myonfilms, my food, cricket says. and Those munEntrepreneurship Development Institute, Ah- dane in India. wishing to donate to the needy can buy a pair domestic chores. medabad, inI have April been 2014.hooked “They on asked Since then to it us butto it forPunjabi ₹149. by birth and by nature, I am loud write about our target market, cus- when hasn’t been easy.

I have made mypotential share of bird Greensole uses aIheating process my to remove I am happy. cannot control excitetomers and the impact we could make. That is ment watching bloopers. the shoe reused.

“It isIsorted on uppers. seeing aThis birdtoo for is the first time. yell in when we realised that it in can be turned My greatest challenge pursuing thisinto hob-a excitement, and used foronly patching shoes.” to betorn reprimanded politely business venture,” Bhandari, a third-year by has been gettingsays up in the wee hours of the byThe lower “Ssshhh, part is washed andknow cleaned my peers. don’t you the with bird student ofBirding Bachelorsuccess of Management Studies at will morning. comes more easily chemicals to And make pesticide-free. fly away?” thenitwith hands down,“The lips Jaiearly Hindbirds, College in Mumbai. to as the winged beauties are more sealed, whole idea is my to make and and the I ‘lock’ body, the holdprocess it together Evenbetween after recognising the active 6 am and 8 am.

In anticipation walk in pin-drop product environment-friendly,” silence. business potential, sometimes one doesn’tthe sleeptwo at all but doses saysisBhandari.

Birdwatching addictive and can be danfounders didn’t have off a few minutes beforeenough it’s time to venture gerous if done out The oflower part time. is then colplace and No birdmoney to act on as it. one Bhandari out.

Rightly tagged of the most unrelia- watching while oured and the upper made sepdriving.

I am so is into it that We will only pumped in ₹1.5 lakh of hison monble birding mates, I have, innumerable oc- use aratelyifusing rexine before the even while driving, I happen to see anything eco-friendly paints ey and simultaneously they last apcasions, cancelled at the two aremy joined Greenflying, handstogether. search for the and eco-glue. Once plied to and business competitions. minute let sleep take over sole totally lives its name, binoculars that up aretonot there. the shoe is made, it The duo won the business only to regret it later in the comday. as even the straps made from Many times, I haveare either left my has to be completely petition at Jaibirding Hind College, Generally, groups recycled trekking ropes. “Going steering wheel completely or For bird and biodegradable Technology and Sustainability have interesting people from forward, we the willdriver use only ecohave shaken violently photographers, fully utilised Award at Eureka — Asia’s largest different walks of life but the friendly andmiddle eco-glue. to stop thepaints car in the of a megapixels and B-plan competition at IIT-Bompeer pressure of guessing birds Once to thecatch shoeaisglance made,ofitan haseluto road telephoto lenses are and thehigh. secondThey position at isbay,quite fight be bird. completely biodegradable sive phallic symbols Ridea NationalbirdB-plan. amongst themselves, idenand fullyhad utilisable,” adds.

I have the besthe birdwatchThese have tifications are winnings argued, group two my iningBhandari sessions has and received I’ve suffered been Greensole’s emails are dissected, birdingmain leg- source of dustrial design patents for hisforfootwear.

“We family’s ridicule my passion, funding.and sometimes ends are quoted, are applying for to come with all more on thepatents same day.

Maleupmemfor as rawcamera material, mostly are ar- bers equipmentAssuch andit tripod innovative But our focus also be of the designs. group are more pronewill to teasing. rives free cost.

The start-up has tie- “Birdwatching? flung in anger.

For of bird photographers, megaon providing footwear the needy,” heor says.

Ha ha, to feathered kind, the upstelephoto with educational institutions, pixels and lenses are phallic sym- two-legged Greensolevariety?” is receiving technical support is the usual refrain. companies, Sports India, bols. Some members, whoAuthority may haveofhad an from the Kolkata-based Footwear Designchaland Birdwatchers are slightly directionally Police and local lenged: argumentMaharashtra over a bird ID, won’t be even on talking Development Institute, helping them imagine four ofwhich themisstanding on a sportsI clubs.

“They collect discardterms for years. just tell myself, “stay calm, rocky start an automated While venture capledge, trying factory. to figure out the location ed shoes and send them to us. of it’s just birdwatching.” italists havewhich shownone interest in funding Greenthe bird of them has seen.

The We athen send them to our first Among them I am novice.

I have completsole, Bhandari keen to raise money from the person’s is directions to the other three workshop ininKurla,” ed eight years of birdwatching India says but would old route — this, business Hethe is go like “Look,competitions. focus, it’s under still am an amateur. I Bhandari. cannot differentiate be- blue readying to participate in competitions in Sinsky, arre focus on the tree on the left, the Green- fork tween the three types Currently, of egrets, recognise gapore in June in September. of the tree,and theAmsterdam brown branch of the tree sole’sbetween main buyers are that’s birds in flight or distinguish a purple He is also trying to get celebrities to donate under the clouds.” corporates and NGOs, their heron and its subsets. But I love birdwatching. shoes, which can to then be refurbished I prefer birdwatching a shopping spree at which donate the aand When someone asks me to identify a bird durauctioned When that happens, mall.

It’s muchonline. more relaxing.

Maybe, after I totry those in have ing a walk, I look here andslippers there and changbuyers will get birds to literally walk in the seen alllikely the 1200 that are present in need. ing the subject. I cough politely,Greensole hoping India shoesIof an give Aamir or Katrina Kaif. may upKhan birdwatching! thenthedonates on someone will rescue me with name or end rashmi talwar pratap is a Delhi-based publicity professional up stammering “Errr I their thinkbehalf. it’s a purple- amrita

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Emperor’s cloths Aurangzeb was a man of paranoid cunning and treachery, and it was reported that his subjects considered him a fakir or wizard; (below) Shivaji openly defies Aurangzeb wikicommons

THE COMPASS CHRONICLES Born free The imam of Chandipur disallowed a football match because all the players were women, like in this game t singaravelou

Horrors of the East Silent field

The colonialists were quick to deem India a place where the powers of darkness rage

T C

he scientific awareness of aof period “The first detailed account of thein interior con- tientsWest in a sortBengal, of aesthetic,reveals hypnotic trance The recent cancellation a women’s football game Chandipur, thatinin history is richly illustrated by struction of living tissue based on the use of a duced to alleviate surgical pain. His journal is folklore, villagers for example,might certain be ma- conservative, microscope did not appearare untilchamping 1644, in a dramatic the free many cases treated while some others at theaccount bit toofbe

rohit gupta

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cabre legends concerning ‘poison khilats’ (or cloths, presumably). The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb is said to have invited a Rajput prince namedin Prithvi and Malda gifted handipur WestSingh, Bengal’s him a robedistrict of honour.

The prince died is small enough to within cover ina day, possibly from by smallpox which conan hour, foot. Given its he limited tracted from the infected expanse, no onecloth. here had imagined Instead of smallpox, some national tales hintheadthat that the village would make the cloth was soakedit with exotic lines.

Unexpectedly, was aan game of oriental football poison, whichChandipur then percolated skin of that threw into into the the spotlight. the wearer, to burning him to death.

1666, Raja Scheduled have taken place onIn March 14, a Shivaji Bhosle escaped such anwas attempt seven-a-side exhibition match calledat offAuat rangzeb’s court,Several wherereasons he felt have insulted the last minute. beenand citwalked away rudely before the most ‘robe obvious of honed for its cancellation, but the our’ could upon him. Historians Mione is also be theplaced most regrettable — the 14 playchelle Adrienne Mayor ers whoMaskiell, were to and represent Kolkata andinform North us in a research paper:were “Forwomen. many 19th century Bengal in Chandipur British James Tod WilOver authors, the pastincluding weeks, residents of and Chandiliam Crooke,from Aurangzeb was a man parapur, 390km Kolkata, have beenoftrying noid cunning and treachery, it was hard to accommodate hordes ofand journalists. reported his subjects a faSabu Razi,that who works as aconsidered chemist, is him quick to kir or wizard.” caution, “You’ll find that people are being These European accounts thus constructed handpicked and pushed forward to give the an obsessive fearcolour.” of thin Razi Indian clothing, and story a different strokes his greythat of tropical Through thisinteracperniing beard whilediseases. recounting a recent cious miasma, only reporter. a thick layer of cloth could tion with a female “I had to tell her prevent falling tospeaking the horrors that thethem shariafrom forbids meprey from to of East.

Why and so many Europeans chose to herthe face to face, it is the same sharia that dress garments completely for stops in girls and women from unsuitable wearing little Indian climate is best by this infershorts and playing on explained a field. That’s what our nal dread. imam had said.”

Several instances andKhutbah variations of this During the Jummah (Friday sermethod murder exist during imam this period, mon) onofMarch 6, Chandipur’s Mufti which suggest link between inMaqsood Alamthat hadthe toldcausal his audience that the fection and not disease been firmly establishsharia does givehad its adherents sanction to ed within localplay knowledge. early 1600s, watch women football.In In the a predominatevery primitive microscopes unly Muslim village (11 out of 12were Gramalready Panchayat der development in the Europe, but the microbial members are from Muslim community), nature of diseasedominate would not be revealed his prescriptions public opinion.for some According to agame Wikipedia entry, The time. cancellation of the has exposed

Giambattista Odierna’s L’occhio della Mosca, or by him, a large number of which featured amThe Fly’s Eye.” putations of various tumours and abscesses A very interesting account of murders in among the native population, including a the fault East lines was published in 1870

by Norman in this village of around 5,000 number of prisoners from a nearby jail. decry Some Some speak of local rivalries and some Chevers, a British doctor.

His book Manual of of people, with some believing thatAthe imam the accounts mention the of removal of garpolitical meddling.

Razi talks mud-slinging Medical Jurisprudence for India, the gantuan was justified in his actions, whileIncluding others, espeappendages,while perhaps with exaggerin the marketplace, others accuse the Outline of a History of Crime Person in ated cially the women, voice Against their the resentment dimensions to fuelofthe oriental fantasies district administration apathy.

India also the cloth murders. against thiscomments orthodoxy.on In Chandipur, girls are of An readers back home England. examination of ineach charge can help Chevers “Anyone whosports. has noticed how one allowed writes, to run but not play Cancelling Anunravel example: “May 12th. — Bu­xoo, a Khit­matthe trajectory of the recent turfreely a robust person in Indiathe perspires a football game means preventing school- ­gar. is a fi­stu­lus ope­ning in theadds, uremoil There in Chandipur, but as Razi himself through a thin garment, girls from knowing that can theyunderstand can tackle,that de- ­thra and the glanstell penis sloug­hing, its ramifications of which social is fissures.

“We if theand cloth thoroughly impregnated and fend evenwere run free. to be am­pu­ta­ted.

I de­si­red havere­qui­res long moved past the age when a womwith the cantharidine of that veto be mes­me­ri­sed, andour rean’s place washim in the kitchen.

Women are ry powerful vesicant, the Telini Whims and fancies ­tur­ned in an hour. partners in development, and we’llI found have tohim en(probably beetleoutside or Sitting nearthe theblister playground Chandi- sure that theyas­leep, and whenand loo­king at are independent self-suffiSpanish the result would be pur Highfly), School, Reza Razi tries him, he his cient.

Wesud­denly cannot ope­ned keep them as that of an extennotdangerous to look as despondent.

The eyes, but went to bound anyim­me­dia­tely longer.”

These European sive burn.” of the Progressive president sleep and inbyfive Razi again, is distracted the mi­nringaccounts thus The Club rest oftalks the of book explores Youth how nation-a u­tes cut offsees thethe glans, ing of aafter bell,I which stuconstructed an People should be panorama of players impassioned al- and state-level had all wi­thout awa­kingHigh him.

He dents of Chandipur School obsessive fear of thin looking at my foot. crimes by natives acrossexcited British assembled in Kolkata, awoke soon af­ter, and said it gather in the playground for Indian clothing, anda That’s what I will hit India, including of this the about making theirsome way to was from fear,assembly. not pain.”Physical their morning that of tropical ball with. Not my most bizarre.

Wives in Bengal acvery field.

“They were coming A similar state of suspended education teacher Masoom Safishortsdiseases or my skirt cidentally killing husbands here to help us their celebrate the was the subject qianimation admits that though 60 of pera by mixing whatjubilee. they thought was club’s golden They weshort

by Edgar Allan Poe, cent ofstory the school’s students are aren’t lovetaking potion, but turned to any money.

Weout had ‘The Facts in thealways Case ofenjoy M Valdegirls, they don’t the be a fatal poison; theBranding Rajah of to turn them all away.” mar’, originally intended“These as a freedom they should.

Mandavie committed masculine sati the edict ofwho the village imam “whimsical”, 80- hoax.

This story, turn, was mentioned in In girls have neverin played football.

A women’s along with other people burning year-old Razieight says, “The things saidby that Friday the Housematch of Suddhoo Rudyard the football wouldbyhave been Kipling, very inspirhimself in fireworks; Brahmins whotocommitare improper for a man of my age repeat. best-known chronicler of the British Raj. His ing.” He points to 15-year-old Anaj Khatun. ted suicide by overeating to death; men on whoa mountain Women footballers are not half-naked begins an ominous “She is onetale of the bestwith athletes we have.”poem Khawould pretend to corpse soMuslim that theand lawI about field. Moreover, I’mbea apractising the horrors of India: tun promptly confesses an interest in sports. may punish the accused; and a variety of incifollow Islam’s instructions, but my religion is “I only And get all the world is wildGirls anddon’t strange; to run, though. play footdents involving human at the altar of ball my own.

I can’t force mysacrifice understanding down Churel ghoulDoes and Djinn and sprite and and cricket.” she know why the goddess someoneKali. else’s throat.”

Shall bear us company to-night, women’s exhibition match was disallowed in Chevers mention another A crowddoes soonnot gathers around the strange octoge- March?

For weHer have reached the Oldest Landthis vilanswer is pithy — “Because episode from medical history of colonial narian. As the the former biology teacher begins lage Wherein Powers ofThe Darkness is very the backward.” likes ofrange.

Reza Razi India, thethe mysterious Esdaile a practi- wouldn’t have liked Khatun to arrive at such a to detail sequenceJames of events that— culminatgupta explores thebut history science asis only tioner of cancellation mesmerism,of orthe medical hypnotism. ed in the women’s football rohit damning conclusion, herofopinion @fadesingh clash against reliThis doctor would place his pa- Compasswallah match, thereof areCalcutta others who fill in his blanks. warranted. IntChandipur’s

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Nessie not found

gious orthodoxy and patriarchy, narrow-mindedness clearly appears to have a headstart.

The long and shorts of it

Mufti Maqsood sits in a dark room. UpGoogle joins the search for the Loch NessAlam monster

set by journalists who had reported that he had issued a fatwa against Progressive n its quest to mapYouth every inch of the planet, Google Club’s football match,has the now imam he first setsays its eyes on the fabled Loch Ness monwants to set the record “No fatwa had the technology giant enliststerstraight. in Scotland.

Recently, ever been issued byedme.

I hadof never ques- for a week to scour the lake the help local experts tioned the proprietyfor ofNessie. womenItsplaying foot-camera recorded images of street view ball. The people of my village had asked me like if a log, no, maybe a bird... something that looked they should watch women play football.

In myGoogle has joined a long list but certainly not Nessie. sermon, I had simply that according of said scientists, explorers to and speculators to find the they Ness didn’t.”

Given his in-Loch Ness Investigation Buthe sharia, it is best ifLoch monster.

The fluence, doesn’t suchreau, a precept essentially prowhich was set up in 1972, deployed sonar transhibit women from playing Thecameras imam and strobe flash lighting ducers,football? time-lapse hedges his answer. “There people whoThe ask resulting images revealed to spotarethe cryptid. if they should drinknothing alcohol.conclusive.

I tell them While they technology has since adshouldn’t, but if they still do, canGoogle I stop would leave Nessie alone. vanced, wehow wish sharia al- unexplained. it?” He is as evasive when if theare Someasked mysteries better lows girls to play football. “I can only answer that when a parent asks me the question.”

Perceived by many to have been the epicentre of the Chandipur fracas, Mufti Maqsood Alam is aware that his eminence in the village has been challenged. “Members of the Still waiting Students of Chandipur High School gather for their morning assembly on the very ground that was Progressive Youth Club weren’t happy with meant to host a women’s football match in March; (below) Reza Razi, president of the Progressive Youth Club, what I had said. Some of them abused me in says he will ensure that women are allowed to play football in Chandipur before he dies shreevatsa nevatia the marketplace and this created a huge furore in the village. Interestingly, however, the administration didn’t allow the match to take place because of Higher Secondary examin- Bangladesh. These are Muslim-dominated of this state is a woman. We have had a woman adia district, West Bengal is taking the ations. These problems weren’t even a factor.” countries. I don’t see anyone stopping them.” prime minister. Women are leaders in the Zila contest to become the first ‘open defecaReza Razi says that not only had Block Devel- Last month, Arjuna-awardee Shanti Aich Mul- veryone lovesIfawomen royal baby.

Especialtion-free’ district in the country very seriously.

Parishad. can be so visible in public opment Officer (BDO) Biplab Roy allowed his lick was packing for her stint in Chandipur ly British punters, are combinThe district administration has erected a ‘wall life, can’t they who be allowed to play a simple to their favourite activities — of shame’, which will carry photographs club of to host the match, he had also promised from Kolkata. A month later, she continuesing gametwo of football?” security. Soon after the imam’s injunctions, be livid about the sudden recall. “If we aren’t obsessingWhen over the same Britishquestion royal family people caught defecating in the open, naming is put to Shammi this permission was hastily revoked. Since Roy expected to wear shorts while playing footand betting.

As the delivery date for the member of and shaming them. The person will also lose Akhtar, a Trinamool-affiliated says that he has been “instructed to not speak ball, should we wear burqas instead? People Duchess of Cambridge draws near, benefits under government schemes like the Chandipur’s Gram Panchayat, she resorts to on sensitive matters”, the motive behind his should be looking at my foot. That’s what I will bookiesequivocation. are hedging millions MNREGA. Never mind that the national dead“There isof nopounds deeper meaning or reversal is unknown. Darajuddin Ahmad had hit a ball with. Not my shorts or on the child’s nameimpact and gender. line is four years away, or that people still harhidden Inexhere. The Progreswalked to the BDO’s office to garner support my skirt.” plicably, the odds are favour of the bour apprehensions about using toilets. siveinYouth Club just hit its own for the March 14 game. “Everything is in the Mullick’s views are possibly child being a girl and being Alice.

Under the Sabar Souchagar (toilet for all) profoot withcalled a hammer.” hands of the administration, but they did too radical in Chandipur’s mar‘Princess Alice’ has gained much popject, the district has already built 96 per cent of The sowomen of Chandipur, not take any interest at all.” ketplace, where conservatism ularity that the are as enthusiastic the targeted 3.39 lakh toilets. For now, the peochoose to differ. Bina The chief minister ofoddshowever, Walking down the kilometre- and liberties continue to battle this state as 5/4.

Diana arepostgraduate, ple of Nadia are living in fear — not a single Roy, aand 26-year-old is aElizabeth, woman. Victoria long road that connects much of it out. Insisting that he only opBets placed on as a cruel rephotograph has gone up yet on the wall. seesbeen the cancellation Wetrailing. have had a have also Chandipur, Ahmad returns to posed the women’s football the child’s andofeven minder her hair place in society. woman primedate of birth the crux of the imam’s opposi- match after his religious senticolour.

All bets are on!

“I’d like to stand on my own two minister.

If women tion — the length of the shorts ments were hurt, Inamul Huq feet one day, but I can now see can be so visible in that women are seen wear- asks, “Why haven’t the members how people want me to think of public life, can’t they ing when playing football. of this club made any effort to myself as weak. Women here are be allowed to play a “There are girls who are play- form a girls’ football team in constantly being stopped from game of football ing football in Pakistan and Chandipur? Why are they bringrealising their potential.” Munsiing in women from the outfa Razi is mother to a son and side?” The 23-year-old tailor daughter. The 30-year-old says looks up from his sewing maenthusiastically, “Boys and girls o you think geckos are serious the geckos lost its collar. The thickchine to answer his question. “This is only be- are equal. There is no stricture or verse in Iscreatures? But it turns out that toed geckos didn’t see it as food, but cause they are hypocritical. They think the lam that stops women from playing football. I the lizards, which can freeze you as a floating toy. They kicked it women of their homes are respectable and wanted my daughter to watch women play with their no blink-stare, can also around playfully and tried to gameothers areitnot.” this sport. I want her to be evolved, to be indehey say when rains, it pours. play. In zero gravity! Fifteen female ly balance it on their snouts. This pendent. I want her to be free.”

For the police in Frankfort, Kengecko-nauts (males get too aggres- surprising discovery is significant, An obstacle course Ten-year-old Tausif Alim Razi snuggles in his tucky this turned out to be true sive with each other in confined as until recently, geckos were conWearing an embroidered when they arrested ‘bourbon white kurta, part- mother’s lap as she articulates her views on spaces) were recently sent into orbit sidered incapable of play behaviour. time activist Anjum Razi looks almost re- women’s empowerment and feminism. A thieves’ making awayAbid with booze for a 30-day unmanned mission as The collar got boring by the end of gal inthan a roadside shed. “Porn worth more $1,00,000.

Ken- films are made in homemaker, Jasmin Ara Begum believes she part of a Russian experiment to ob- the mission, but the serious-minded Europe and America.

Are they made in India?” should choose her own career. “There will tucky is known for its 100-year-old serve physiological behaviour. After geckos did manage to have fun. We He pauses for effect, doesn’t wait for an an- come a time when women leave the house, secret bourbon recipes and but is also a short while into the flight, one of hope it’s the same back on Earth.

“They are not. like PornJim stars and prostitutes and they can do so with dignity while staying home to swer. popular distilleries areTurkey, accepted in Western societies. They have within the limits of purdah.” A keen footballer Beam, Wild Buffalo Trace and place India.” ApparThe self-styled activist’s himself, Tausif smirks at the idea of playing the rare no Pappy VaninWinkle. of pornography ently, forequation the last seven years, rogueand women’s foot- the sport with a girl. His mother laughs and ballhave is befuddling and he off is quick to clarify, “Ev- tenders an apology. “Change must now begin employees been siphoning ery country, has its own moral at home.” barrels and barrels ofyou the see, liquor. context. simply Back on the street outside, girls hurry out of Nine people have The beenimam arrested and pointed out that women’s is not fit for this village. Chandipur High School. Some ride cycles and are facing chargesfootball as an organised people want to build criminalSome syndicate.

The police and a society. Others one even rides pillion on her brother’s motorsadly want to break it.” bike. Reza Razi, for his part, smiles hopefully. “I court officials are rather surprised Socialofworker Siraji is within earshot. will make sure they can all play football one at the quantity booze Shakil purloined.

He looks peevedtold by what he has just heard. “If day. Before I die, I’ll make sure. I’ll do everyOne public prosecutor a local Islam forbids me from thing that I possibly can to guarantee that daily it my wasunderstanding “more than Iofcould a game of football, imagine watching one person drinking in a I’ll refuse to go, Chandipur is not Talibanised.” how galore! can I support a ban?” Siraji makes a lifetime”.but Whisky rather impassioned point, “The chief minister shreevatsa nevatia

I

Keep calm and gamble on

To pee or not to pee Naming and shaming of those who defecate in the open

Will the royal family have an Alice or a James?

N

E

Q

Not so serious

It seems that geckos can have fun after all

S

A lifetime’s worth

R

In Kentucky, the ‘home of Bourbon’, thieves make away with way more than they can handle

T

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3 23BL BL

HANG

saturday, april 25, 2015

BL

24

in-faq by joy bhattacharjya Addictions

In keeping with our cover story, this week’s quiz will focus on addictions of all types. You won’t be able to tear yourself away.

here,there & elsewhere

1

Fire escape

A

fter the fire that took place in the building last year, there are smoke alarms in each of the six units. In the hallway there’s a heat sensor plus an automatic alert to the Fire Station. In the way of anything newly installed, the alarms bleat and flash like menopausal sheep whenever someone burns a toast.

As a result, we have all learnt to ignore the racket.

But when I hear someone’s alarm go off at 2am, I realise there might be a cause for concern this time. I am in the smaller of my two rooms, with the door closed. My headphones are on and I’m working on a new painting. Bins is asleep in the main room, impersonating a fog-horn. I can still hear the alarm, however. And it’s coming from the main hallway. Barely have I wiped off my brushes, removed my headphones and stepped out of my studio, when I hear the sound of approaching fire trucks.

Then I open my front door. Curling sheets of white smoke are seeping from under DingDong’s front door. Inside, I can hear furniture being overturned, glass smashing, incoherent shrieks. It’s as if a small-scale war is in progress within those walls. Yet the smoke is still pouring out, which means there’s a fire that needs putting out or else this elderly all-wood building will erupt in flames. Just as I’m wondering how to

cornerstone

break down the door, two fire trucks arrive, hooting and parping like a pair of mobile circuses. I immediately slip back into my house. I know from last year’s drama that firemen don’t like bystanders.

From the peephole in my door I see four lumbering giants crash through the hallway in full fire-retardant gear. A moment later they burst into DingDong’s apartment. Apparently it wasn’t locked. Smoke pours into the hallway. DingDong is dragged out, wearing nothing but a dog-leash and leather gloves. She’s hopping like a kangaroo because her ankles are bound

together. Following in her wake is a tall man, naked as a steamed lobster and trailing a chair to which he is attached with shiny steel chains. The tiny hallway is soon thick with firemen, smoke and DingDongs.

The whole story comes out the next morning, over coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts.

Old Mrs Rose, the landlady, had told Rebecca from upstairs all the details.

According to her, DingDong was enjoying a quiet evening of whips and chains with her boyfriend. Alas, consent soon morphed into assault, whereupon DingDong found herself too tied up to escape. So… she lit a fire! She thought the Fire Department would be her saviour. Not a great idea. “They saved her all right!” says Rebecca. “All the way to jail.” Arson is a serious crime, after all.

Bins is also with us. He slept through all the excitement. “Ohh. Such a sad thing,” he says. “She is a nice girl. Very kind.” I roll my eyes. “No, no you did not know her,” insists Bins.

“Thank goodness,” I say. “A girl who wears dog leashes might have ticks.”

“Oo,” says Rebecca. “Someone’s being bitchy!” “Arf-arf,” I say, nodding. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes about her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

In 1970, which children’s song and seemingly innocuous chart-topper by Peter, Paul and Mary did US Vice-President Spiro Agnew want to ban as he considered it an allegory on marijuana addiction?

2

Which French author fuelled his prolific writing by drinking almost 50 cups of coffee?

According to him, “coffee brutalises these beautiful stomach linings as a wagon master abuses ponies; the plexus becomes inflamed; sparks shoot all the way up to the brain. From that moment on, everything becomes agitated.”

He died of complications caused by coffee poisoning.

3

For which specific addiction did X File star David Duchovny check himself into a rehab clinic in August 2008? He remains one of the few celebrities to confess to this addiction.

4

One of the first mainstream Hollywood films to deal with heroin addiction was Otto Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm. Who was nominated for an Academy award for his portrayal of the addict Frankie Machine?

5

In a 2004 interview, who claimed to have thought up the major structural breakthrough on his Nobel Prize-winning idea of the ’50s while high on LSD? He also said that many university researchers at the time used LSD as a ‘thinking tool’.

6

Who remains the only living person ineligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame. His autobiography, titled My Prison Without Bars, was published in 2004.

7

Alcoholics Anonymous pioneered the 12-step method for breaking out of a cycle of addiction. But among AA members, what is referred to as ‘Thirteenth Stepping’?

8

For which specific addiction could you blame a 29-year-old French diplomat who travelled to Portugal to negotiate the marriage of six-year-old French princess Margaret of Valois to King Sebastian of Portugal in 1559?

9

Which US First Lady battled with her own alcohol and diazepam addiction and opened a centre for the treatment of chemical dependency along with Leonard Firestone and Dr James West in 1982?

10

Which book, first marketed as a personal memoir, became a number one non–fiction bestseller in the US and made it to Oprah’s Book club in 2005 before it was reported that many of the situations described were complete fabrications?

ANSWERS 1. Puff the Magic Dragon — the composer Peter Yarrow maintains that the song had no hidden meaning 2. Honore de Balzac 3. Sex addiction 4. Frank Sinatra. Incidentally, Marlon Brando was the other candidate for the role 5. Francis Crick, who thought up the double helix structure of DNA while on an acid trip 6. Former All Star player Pete Rose, who admitted to a gambling addiction 7. The term for AA members approaching new members for dates or sex 8. Tobacco. The man in question, Jean Nicot, returned with tobacco plants and introduced snuff and smoking in the French court. The chemical nicotine is named after him 9. Betty Ford, the wife of Gerald Ford 10. James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces

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

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