Blink issue 70 may30 2015

HOMELESS, EVEN AT HOME The last camp for those displaced by xenophobic violence in South Africa exposes the country’s fault lines p4 saturday, may 30, 2015

k r deepak

Election results prove the Left is in disarray. With a change in leadership, is a reinvention possible p10

Left in a lurch

THE BHAIS OF KOCHI A visual tour of a market in Perumbavoor which caters to migrant workers p12

CITY OF MAHSEER Author Irwin Allan Sealy reveals the simple pleasures of life in Dehradun p17

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Who is an Assamese?

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With Assam home to more than 30 ethnic groups, easy classifications prove elusive. We need to guard against a definition that uses religion or language as a discriminatory tool

Odd ball in the court Competing claims by two rival factions seeking control of the Basketball Federation has thrown a spanner in the works of one of India’s fastest growing team sports

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ess than a year ago, #IndiaBasketball ners of BFI, chose to freeze funding until the is- now the Indian basketball fraternity was unwas trending on Twitter. The sport sue is resolved. With BFI unable to continuing touched by the motivated interventions ramwas all over the news, thanks in part paying salaries of its staff, a domino effect fol- pant in other federations. However, the entry to the senior men team’s memorable lowed. The contracts of national women’s of sports businesses such as IMG-Reliance and win over Asian powerhouse China, and to the head coach Francisco Garcia and strength and NBA over the last few years has, in no uncercontroversial ban disallowing turbans for conditioning coach Tommy Heffelfinger were tain terms, led to politicking in order to cash Sikh players. Prior to that, in late 2013, the either not renewed or abruptly terminated. in on the newfound riches. women’s team recorded its first victory in the Matters became worse when popular men’s Last week, the media cell of the KBA released elite Level 1 in Asia, cementing its position as a head coach Scott Flemming, instrumental in an email from the International Basketball top five side in the continent. Soon after, in India’s recent successes, put in his papers to Federation, also known as FIBA. This letter rec2014, the first all-India national championship take up a college assignment in the US. ognises Govindraj as president and Chander of the Indian School and College Leagues was “I really wished I would’ve had another Mukhi Sharma as secretary general of the new launched. On the international front, 7-ft 5- chance to take it through another year, but it BFI governing body. inch giant from Gursimran Bhullar worked out differently,” said Flemming This intervention should catalyse Up inCanadian arms Thousands the Bodo(Sim) community rally forjust a separate Bodoland state, August 2013; perhaps itin is time that theFIBA Bodos be described as residents of the probecame theritu first player of Indian origin to set an exit interview, indicating that the uncer- ceedings in the Delhi High Court and perraj konwar Assam state foot in the American basketball league, the tainty within BFI influenced his suade the Ministry of Youth NBA. He was followednot

by Satnam a sev- decision to leave.

Affairs Sports and the IOA to is and home to over 220 separate and religious groups — remains the worst. hills. This region or decades, weeks asSingh, the recent en-footerdiscourse from Punjab, declaring With governing resolve this matter expeditiously. whytwo is it that the issue bodies has remained unre- ethnic groups and more than 30 of them are in Assam wouldhimself have us for be- And the 2015 NBA another for an Indian. claiming ‘official’ status, issue comparison in Assam, which Wehas tried to ofcurrent overspeaking 70 per cent the relieve,Draft, the people offirst Assam, especially solved for 30 years?

Thethe closest And then, the story Indian basketball found its way to the Indian This players, but they declined diversity is not helped which comes to mind is that of Maharashtra, gion’s population. its scholars andoflitterateurs, politic- inevitably The IMG-Reliance takes a different turn, just like the High Court to comment suspension, by the fact that although fearing the religious breakwhere,Delhi thanks to the Shivthrough Sena, the issue of Maians and bureaucrats, media andproverbial activists, court. commercial flame that debating is brightest before goingtaking out. An dated March and May expressing up is clear —while aboutsimultaneously 64 per cent Hindu and 34.2 rathi manoos keeps26 coming up,6,withgroup, the tarhave been — and at times to orders partners ongoing deadlock between rival showed a leaning toward the those hope — that theis that FIBA the approval geted population now being fromof BFI, perchose cent Muslim the fact former the streets, even coming to two blows or factions worse — 2015 to freeze funding within the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) Govindraj accepted that would sort things out amicably. comprises many different over what constitutes an ‘Assamese’.

Clause ‘Northern camp.

India’Itrather than until the issue is is to reverse considerable the BFI president “Definitely the Indigroups the andmorale tribes,ofwhich do the ‘South Indians’ whocan wereanSixthreatening of the 1985 Assam Accord,the which sought to only resolved gains the lasttoyear-and-a-half.

Subsequently, it rean basketball fraternity hasor been not speak in one voice see singled AGMs. out earlier. bringofclosure the bloody yet remarkable nounce It started withAllthe outgoing BFI Union Presi- fused curtail theliessouthern affected,” saidon Jayasankar Menon, eye-to-eye most matters.

AsPart to of the reason in Asstruggle led off by the Assam Students dent RStoGill calling for an bid todiversity. gain control over a former Asian All-star player.

“We sam’s extreme This resam is a classic case of numer(AASU) define outsiders (in Annual this caseGeneral Bangla- faction’s In Assam, getting a Meeting (AGM) in Bengaluru onunresolved: March 27, BFI’s websiteregion and regisan IndianofBasketousmooted major minorities ethnic deshis), left a fundamental issue flectsofficial the larger to consensus on any issue ishave 2015.

This AGM announced appointment in Delhi.

Players Association with linguistic groups, which whichoffice it belongs, not just politwho or what is an Assamese?the It sought consti- tered difficult because the balland of K Govindraj, president Karnataka BasketNews of also infighting in Indian communities have long many former players increasingly on board.” have become but geographically. tutional, legislative and of administrative safe- ically ball Association and BFIwithout senior vice-presfederations, ironically, news, The usually known fragmentedare with time, leading Here getting a consensus on is not guards for the (KBA) Assamese, defining sporting been opposed tobest or administrations ident, as the new BFI president. The AGM also even when it to international derecognitheir work behind the scenes while any issue is leads difficult because to outbreaks of anger and the viothem further. suspicious ofby each other passed a appear resolution abolishing BFI CEO Hockey Federation struggled with ri- limelight stays lence on thewhere players.

When an adlarger groups in It may strange to manythe Indians that tion. the The communities have long post

by Roopam Sharma.

Ignoring theand de- val Amateur Boxing ministration works smoothly, a well-oiled the valley haveit’spreyed upon beengroups, opposedthe to orIndian suspicious suchheld an issue continues to generate heat velopments in Bengaluru, a parallel AGM was Association was suspended novulnerable sound, so that the focus more ones. of each other.

Assam lies in by theits internation- engine that makes anger, division and confrontation, even bloodheld thesofollowing day, Delhi. whereIn BJPaddiMP al overeastern allegations of electoral rigging, stays on the road ahead.

For Indian basketball, The Bodos, the largest plains lapbody of the Himalayan shed,ininPune a state distant from Poonam the president of the the country’s athletes couldn’t some re-calibration in order. tribeiswith a Territorial Council rim and is bisectedOlympic by the vast tion to Mahajan all the (also challenges it faces of and Maharashtra Basketball Association) and compete for months under the between tricolour Bhudue of its own, have furiously opposed the idea Brahmaputra.

It is landlocked underdevelopment, natural disasters, esper is a Bengaluru-based Sharma were appointed president corruption charges against tan, Arunachal Pradesh, the Indian Patkai Olympic range of gopalakrishnan proposed by the Assam Sahitya Sabha that Ascially flooding, conflict —BFI’s remember the and hor- to a andwho, co-creator of Ekalavyas.com, secretary (IOA) officials. samese arewriter those “irrespective of comrendous general, killings respectively. and displacements of 1983 Association Nagaland, the blue hills of Mizoram, the Shil- independent websitereligion and place of origin, The IMG-Reliance group, commercial partPolitics goesand where flows, and munity, news language, long plateau the money Khasi, Jaintia and until Garo basketball and 2012 involving different ethnic, linguistic

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accept Assamese as their mother tongue or in language, but also in culture and way of their second or third language”. A spokesman life… To the Assamese the distinctive features for the Bodo Sahitya Sabha, a literary organisa- of their culture are inseparably connected tion (which accepts Devanagari and not Assa- with their religious institutions.” mese as the script, an outcome of prolonged The latter are the satras or monasteries of struggle against the Assam Sabha and Assam’s reformist Vaishnavism that the saint-scholar political leadership) attacked the Assam and cultural pioneer Srimanta Sankaradeva group’s definition saying that the state would developed in the 15th century. Today, there is now have to provide safeguards to foreigners no politically acceptable definition of the ‘Aswho were willing to accept Assamese as their samese’. A statement by an umbrella group of organisations led by AASU declared that first, second or third language.

Many ethnic groups in the state do not wish “those whose names, irrespective of caste, to be called Assamese as they believe that they community or religion, were included in Nahave suffered second-class treatment at the tional Register of Citizens (NRC) 1951 were Assamese and eligible to enjoy hands of the ‘Assamese’ elite. safeguards as promised by The Merriam-Webster dictioClause Six of the Assam Accord”. nary provides several definiBut this in turn raises more questions of what constitutes ‘Assam’ tions than it answers: what and ‘Assamese’: the first referabout those who moved out of ence is to “a black tea grown in The dictionary’s first Assam pre-independence or northeastern India” and anothdefinition of post-independence, post-1951 to er to Assam, India (First Known Assamese is not Use: 1842); a third is that it is a other parts of India and the language but state in NE India on the edge of Northeast? What about those geography the Himalayas, while an Assawho were residents of Meghaand location mese is defined as a native or inlaya when it was carved out of Ashabitant of Assam, India and as sam in 1972? What about the the Indo-Aryan language of Asmigrants who moved into Assam sam. From my perspective, it is post-1951? We cannot be blind to important to stress the followthe constitutional provision that ing: while discounting the use of tea, the dic- gives every Indian the right to move and settle tionary’s first definition of Assamese is not in other parts of the country (except, obviouslanguage but geography and location. ly, in defined areas where such settlements are In her classic work The Assamese, Audrey controlled by law as in Jammu and Kashmir, Cantlie, who taught social anthropology at Mizoram, Nagaland, etc). the School of Oriental and African Studies in What we need to guard against is a definiLondon and whose father served in Assam for tion that uses religion or language as a dis40 years, describes the Assamese thus: “The criminatory tool, especially against those of term ‘Assamese’ is sometimes used to those Bangla origin (remember the Dimapur mob who are citizens of Assam: in this sense it in- killing of a Muslim from Assam’s Karimganj cludes tea garden labour and Mymensinghi district who was accused of rape, whose sibsettlers. More generally, however, it is used to lings were serving in the Indian army, and denote the indigenous or long-settled inhabit- who was alleged to be a ‘Bangladeshi’?). The ants who are recognised as Assamese, not only struggle to define ourselves will continue but

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Passions and ballots (Top) Members of All Assam Student Union (AASU) have played a role in defining who is an Assamese; (below) the state is home to numerous ethnic groups ritu raj konwar

we cannot lose sight of the fact that time, daily incomes, livelihoods and lives of ordinary people are lost, and growth hampered, if the debate continues without resolution.

Perhaps one way of tackling this sensitive issue is to ensure that geographical location forms part of the definition: thus, the Bodos could also be described as members of the Bodo tribe resident in Assam state. Both definitions would be accurate. sanjoy hazarika is Director, Centre for North East Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi

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I SPY

One fine day Singer-actress Monica Dogra packs in a lot in just 24 hours — work, play, pizzas and pals

Fire and fury People take cover from a stun grenade and tear gas after a skirmish between locals and foreign nationals, as thousands take part in the ‘peace march’ against xenophobia in Durban on April 16 afp

7am Rise and shine. A long day ahead: shoot for a magazine, a dubbing session and a gig

7.30am However busy my day, there is always time for yoga. With my yoga buddy

9.30am Favourite meal of the day. Eggs, veggies, baked beans and toast

10.15am Everyday issue. Can’t decide what to wear. Dress from NY?

9am Feeling alive after an hour-long session.

More buddies, more smiles

10.20am Or these?A tough decision and friends not responding to messages on WhatsApp

The long road home The last remaining camp for people displaced by xenophobic violence in South Africa tells of a country with a troubled past and a volatile present

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is being served at the 10.45am None of the above!

A flowy maxiChatsworth for camp, a suburb Durban, South humid Mumbai.

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Africa. Men and children queue up for a modest meal: two slices of bread, a green apple and a brown paper cup of coffee. Women wash clothes in an open area. A few children swoosh down two slides located in the corner. Screams arise from a heated football game. Doctors from Medicins sans Frontier make their rounds. Steel-wire fences enclose the camp. Armed security men stand on guard and four police vans are parked outside. Depending on whom you choose to ask, there are either 1,037 or 912 African people living in this last remaining government camp for those displaced by last month’s xenophobic attacks in Durban.

In April, many people were killed (the official count is seven — one Ethiopian, a Zimbabwean, a Mozambican, one Bangladeshi and three South Africans) and more than 5,000 displaced in xenophobic attacks that broke out in South Africa’s third biggest city. The attacks, which began in Durban, spread even to Johannesburg. In areas of Durban, like Isipingo and Chatsworth, spaza shops (provision

shops, often run by foreigners) were looted local workers protested, demanding salary and burned down.neckpiece South African newspapers hikes. ire quickly turned for11am My favourite and I wear it all 12Their noon Midday munching.

Chocotowards chip cookie reported atcoffee the supermarket, after the time incidents of arson and rape, of for- eigners withemployed some amazing eigners being hunted down and targeted. which the violence erupted.

Thousands fled their shops and homes, seekWhile thousands of South Africans took to ing refuge at the three government camps the streets in a peace march and #SayNoToXethat were set up in the city. nophobia went viral, the attacks were a throwThe reasons for the attacks reback to the horrific xenophobic main inconclusive. One of the violence of May 2008, in which causes cited for the violence is 62 people were killed and more Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini’s than 1,50,000 displaced. The provocative remarks against forgruesome image of the ‘burning’ How can I trust my eigners. “We are requesting Mozambican man remains a reneighbours who those who come from outside to cent memory. blame me for social please go back to their countries.

Anicet Bigirimana is a single ills? It’s not safe Most government leaders do not parent of six children. In 2006, anymore. I will take want to speak out on this matter he left Burundi with his wife and the bus back because they are scared of losing children on the back of a truck to to Burundi votes,” he said in an address at a come to Durban. A soft-spoken moral regeneration event held man, Bigirimana is my guide at in March. the Chatsworth camp, which However, tensions have been was the first camp to be opened rising since January, when xenoin the second week of April. As rephobic attacks took place in Gauteng prov- patriation and reintegration took over, city auince. At the camp too, immigrants said that thorities and the South African government the Durban attacks didn’t happen in isolation. closed down the other camps. Chatsworth On March 30, at a wholesale shop in Isipingo, continues to function as a temporary home to

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Hard times More than a thousand people live at the Chatsworth camp in Durban; (below) a shelter for women priyanka kotamraju

the displaced people from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Nowhere to run When the attacks began, Bigirimana says, he had little time to pack. “I took my children and ran. But why am I being chased away when my life is here,” he asks. Bigirimana, who worked as a truck driver for a local business, says xenophobia is a daily occurrence, rearing its head as prejudiced treatment and uncivil neighbours. Like many others at the camp, he was caught in the brutal attacks of 2008. There have been other incidents too, he says. For instance, in 2011, the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in SA recorded an average of one killing a week. Despite the unrest in Burundi currently, he has decided to return. Nearly 1,00,000 people have fled Burundi in search of safer havens, but Bigirimana has few choices.

“How can I trust my neighbours who blame me for social ills? It’s not safe anymore. I will take the bus back to Burundi,” he says.

The marquees are overfull; a few people have attached sheets to the tent flaps to make more room. Electrical lines running through the tents provide enough electricity for only tube lights. Television sets lie defunct and mo-

bile phones can’t be charged. Baby food is in eigners have fled their politically volatile nashort supply, says Bigirimana. The govern- tions in search of better and safer lives, in ment, which had promised to make arrange- South Africa, the problem is compounded bements for school-going children, is yet to cause of an overburdened asylum system, arrange transport. According to a few people high unemployment and crime rates. “Some in the camp, meals have also been irregular. of the root causes underlying the attacks are Congolese national Daniel Dunia was cho- presumed to be competition over resources, sen as the leader of the camp to conduct nego- particularly housing and services, rivalry for tiations with the authorities. Dunia, who had employment opportunities, involvement of a computer repair shop, is critical of the vio- émigré communities in criminal activity, mislence, the management of the camps and the representation of the remarks made by King process of reintegration. “I was there in 2008. Goodwill Zwelithini Zulu, the opportunistic Since then, nothing has changed. They’re say- exploitation of remarks by South Africans, ing seven people died but I personally know 10 and incitement and spread of misinformation people who were killed in the attacks. What do on social media platforms,” says Tozi Mtheththey accuse us of? That we steal their jobs, wa, eThekwini municipality’s communicatheir women and sell drugs. We’re better at tions head. our jobs, it is the choice of the women who According to the office of the UNHCR, South they want to marry, and if the crime rates are Africa attracts one of the highest refugee pophigh, it is the police who is answerable,” he ulations in the world. There are 65,000 recogsays vehemently. In nearly two months of the nised refugees and around 2,30,000 people camps being set up, Dunia says, seeking asylum. The unemploythere has been just one meeting ment rate is a high 25-27 per cent, with the authorities. “Reintegrawhich means that one in four tion is a two-way process. But they South Africans is unemployed. won’t talk to us. They have to conThe UNHCR, in its profile of the A 2006 survey, vince me that it is safe to go back country, states that “South Afriundertaken by the to the communities. What do we ca’s national legislation incorpoSouth African go back to? I have heard of my Eth- Migration Projection, rates the basic principles of iopian brothers who returned but found that 68 per cent refugee protection, including were killed.” freedom of movement, the right of South Africans to work, and access to basic sowere opposed to Two sides cial services. However, some pubforeigners As expected, the official version lic institutions do not recognise differs from the stories from the refugees’ permits, preventing camp. “We have daily meetings to them from benefiting fully from resolve issues,” says an official, these rights.” who prefers to remain anonySmall businesses have been hit mous. “Thousands of foreigners have been hard by the fresh burst of violence. A 2006 sursuccessfully reintegrated and repatriated,” he vey, undertaken by the South African Migraadds, watching over a fresh consignment of tion Projection, found that 68 per cent of supplies just outside the camp. United Na- South Africans were opposed to foreigners tions High Commissioner for Refugees starting small businesses and 68 per cent also (UNHCR) spokesperson Tina Ghelli believes didn’t want them to obtain South African citi“the basic needs of those displaced were met zenship. Despite being derogatorily called at Chatsworth.” The displaced people are also amakwerekwere, migrant populations — espebeing offered reintegration packages, which cially Somalis and Zimbabweans — have a repconsist of two months’ rent, food and domes- utation for intelligence, hard work and cheap tic item vouchers. “We will also look at provid- labour in an informal economy. Forty-nineing starter kits to help families restart their year-old Thobi Sthembile, who has a curio livelihoods,” adds Ghelli. Dunia expectedly shop in Victoria Market, central Durban, says scoffs at the reintegration package. “What that businesses have suffered. We were her good will that do? We want refugee status, re- first customers in two weeks. Her Zimbabsettlement,” he says. “I was traumatised by wean employees sought temporary shelter in her shop before leaving the country. Strugwhat happened. I am disappointed now.”

Since the April attacks, questions over South gling to pay this month’s rent, the single Africa’s treatment of foreigners have cropped mother says, “This feels like war.” up yet again: Are South Africans xenophobic, perhaps even Afrophobic? While most for- priyanka kotamraju

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Mahatma lives on In the face of brazen celebrations of Gandhi’s assassination at the public stage today, scholar Makarand Paranjape’s book puts the leader back on a place that is his alone

A The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi Makarand Paranjape Random House Non-fiction Ferry tale Sudhakar Vintha’s ₹599 Visakhapatnam-based Return Trucks serves as a platform that brings together truck owners and users for inter-city transport

world historical figure never ceases death: “May the soul of my master, my leader, The universalisation of the Oedipal longing, to inspire creativity. An exercise in my father rest not in peace, but let his ashes be Paranjape finds, is an instance of western culmeta-scholarship could possibly re- so dynamically alive... let the powder of his tural imperialism. But in preparing for a late the tone and content of the bones be so charged with life and inspiration death which he seemed to foresee and welgrowing literature on Mohandas Karamchand that the whole of India will after his death be come, Gandhi also bequeathed the means for Gandhi with changing times and attitudes. revitalised into the reality of freedom.” the nation to avoid colonisation anew on acClose to seven decades since his assassination, Naidu’s invocation of the paternal bond count of its culpability in Oedipal sin.

Gandhi remains a source to go to for resolu- was of the essence. Gandhi’s assassin, NathuGandhi, in the second part of this book, is tions of contemporary dilemmas. To be fair to ram Godse, and Madhav Apte, the plotter — portrayed as gradually awakening to the comthose of critical disposition, his copious vol- one the repressed psychotic craving accept- pulsions of statecraft in a modern nation, layume of published work may seem to offer one ance, the other a dissolute seeker of pleasure ing out rules of conduct for India that, at an solution now and quite another elsewhere.

— saw it as their cause to avenge an undeserv- early stage, set it apart from Pakistan. ParaPart of the reason is that Gandhi did not ing father’s connivance in the violation of njape reads these as a political bequest that recling to any recognisable political canon. He mother India. The slaying of the deemed the possibility of a invented his own. As an ideology, if such could faithless and feckless father was a tolerant and generous democrabe deemed to exist, Gandhism was reinvented way of establishing the more aucy, in contrast to the train-wreck far too much during the lifetime of its propo- thentic paternal claims of Hindu that is Pakistan today. The argunent, to be easily domesticated within any po- nationalist icon VD Savarkar. ment feeds into current preconParanjape litical brand. But through successive Naidu’s invocation of Gandhi’s ceptions but may be a little successfully reinventions a constant vein of pacifist anar- afterlife, Paranjape says, has been inattentive to the longer Gandestablishes the chism is evident, a distrust of organised appa- partially answered in certain artehian effort to grapple with the reparticularity of the ratuses of power, and a distinct scepticism facts of contemporary popular alities of statecraft. These include stigma of parricide about the dynamics of inclusion and exclu- culture. Two that he treats at conhis active sponsorship of the Kasion in nationalist ideologies. siderable length are Richard At- in the Hindu context, rachi Congress resolution of 1931 excavating epics The Makarand Paranjape’s bookincomes at a time and— an and his deliberate arm’s-length customer. trucks typically have carrying ilar need and biopic floatedGandhi ThePorter online the hile working Flipkart’s last- tenborough’s argue capacity that it between when public lifemile in India is witness to in brazen recent Bollywood relationship with the provincial marketplace to bookproduction mini-trucks andtolight 650kg and one tonne. logistics division 2013, the remains a rarity celebrations of Aravind Gandhi’sSanka assassination.

Raho Munnabhai, about a transportagovernments that took office in noticed a The de- Lage commercial vehicles for intra-city mission here is, mand-supply supposedly, a recovery of the street tough’s amorous pursuit parts of India in the In truck withvarious technology mismatch for tion of goods. original the Indian nation, which and collateral discovery of 1930s. model, technology is the bigThehis boom in e-commerce, coupled with the In this business intra-cityidentity trucks. of Strangely, many companies Gandhi is believed to have profaned.

Paranjape’s choices also a risk of provinciahow TheKarrier tracks vehicles needs of frequently relocating students and gest ally. That’s There’s like Flipkart struggled to find trucks to ferry ‘Gandhi-giri’.

During hisaslifetime, thebarely man toa of relatively has lowbrow cultural lising Gandhi here, especially the professionals led to a spurt in the need for and optimises routes.

It has created one app goods even several Gandhi vehicleswas idled go on every consequential matter. The de- productions intra-city may seemtransportation to bridge the chasm who and during his last in riot-torn for drivers another fordays clients, mostly fewtohundred metres away. Sanka, — cur- person pendence such Pavan that atGuntua time of national between the rently higheran discourse on$10-billion Gandhi and he belonged to small andinsisted mediumthat businesses.

“The equally app for inestimated in- Calcutta, along withwas friends shock at hisRishikesh assassination, India’s prime min- his assimilation intointhe everyday of a na- both the nation-states that emerged out ofsays the dividuals will be released next month,” dustry India, whichlives a plethora palli and Ramanath, ister distractedly refer decision about tion. But heofleaves roomareforeager sometodisquiet Raj,customers who repeatedly warned the Sanka. of Forthe now, use email, Whatstart-ups partake debris spokecould to over 400 drivers anda100 funeral arrangements to his wise counsel. over a partial and oversimplified representaDogra ruler of Jammu and Kashmir to do the of. “We are aggregators. We don’t sApp and phone calls to book trucks. small businesses to discover “Ask said Jawaharlal Nehru when an them tion of historical personality. thing out for his people and step We push toa complex Pointing thatoppressed drivers wary of empty rethereBapu,” were discrepancies not only own assets (trucks, mini-trucks et right aide came toavailability him with a query on logistics.

Soon its and birth, theconnect Indian nation was out the usually way. Viewed into this the endo more trips by afteral) turnoftrips prefer idlecontext, than incur exjust consumers in vehicle but also ThatDrivers was a measure Gandhi’s paternal au- drawn parricide, leaving a stain that suing statecost of permanent warrun, in South Asia, connecting them into with tra diesel on the empty Goel spells owners,” says Goel, co-founrates. chargedof whatever thority over the nation’s And called for effacement.

Paranjape successfully not mention the brute“We force withthem which with users out to a viable alternative. push topedo der of ThePorter. they liked andnew there was leadership. no on the third day the of his assassination, Sarojini establishes theBengaluru-based particularity of the stigma of regions have beenthem wrapped Blowhorn is ripheral more trips by connecting withtightly users. means to track loaded vehiNaidu called back life in a memorable parricide in the Hinduofcontext, excavating the into the Indian nation,divided speak between vividly ofthe a The gains are efficiently cles. The triohim then hit to upon the another these start-ups whose address on national radioto titled ‘My Father, Do epics to argue that itisremains a rarity in the re- breach of faith the Gandhian Thata customer and with vendor, while we legacy. also take model somewhat akin to onidea of using technology make Not Rest’.logistics “Mahatma corpus.

This is quite unlike the is he notsays. an avenue that Paranjape sets part of it,” line taxi services Ola and Uber.

A though, intra-city moreGandhi,” transpar-said Naidu, ceived cultural “who lived truth in thistheir world has been social psychology of thelooking west, where the Oedi- outAstothe explore. cost of owning and maintaining a customer to hire a truck ent and less for painful through translated, though by the TheKarrier. hand of an assassin, pal longing to possess the mother, necessary should book either through an ifapp or the truck remains fixed, a small additional spend Bengaluru-based venture is a fellow at the Indian to In a higher stage the truth.”

And then getting acall father out of the way, is regarded on diesel muralidharan fetches much higher returns.

The incompany’s centre.

Based on the require- sukumar Mumbai, IIT of graduates Pranav Goel, folUt- by Advancedfrom Study,aShimla lowed an invocation of his mystical power in as a primal impulse. ment, the nearest available truck is sent to the Institute come ofof₹6,000 single trip increases to tam Digga and Vikas Choudhary sensed a sim-

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A new business is driving into town, inspired by taxi aggregators — online booking services for mini-trucks and light commercial vehicles to transport goods within a city and beyond it

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₹18,000 from three trips, with only a few thousand rupees more spent on extra diesel. “We are not taking away anybody’s business. We are just using technology to better utilise the trucks,” Goel says.

Interested drivers can register with any of these companies, which rope them in after verifying their background.

Moving a city The founders of Bengalurubased TheKarrier (from left) Pavan Guntupalli, Rishikesh Ramanath and Aravind Sanka

Eye on the driver It would be impossible for the drivers to mislead customers about their location. “We can track the driver location on a real-time basis, and anyone found lying is penalised and replaced by another driver,” Goel says.

Down south in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, Sudhakar Vintha failed to obtain a truck for three days to ferry some raw material to Visakhapatnam. That pushed him to establish a platform that brings together truck owners and users for inter-city transport. Vintha’s Return Trucks today ferries goods across India after bookings are made online or through its call centre.

“There are a lot of challenges as we are dealing with uneducated people. While customers are tech-savvy, having smartphones and internet access, the truck owners and agents are not. We are realising that mobile-based solution is the way ahead and are trying to handhold them during the process,” Vintha says.

As soon as a customer requests a truck, Return Trucks sends out bulk SMSes to truck owners. Interested owners bid through SMS, quoting their individual rates and load preferences. “The parties then negotiate and arrive at a price,” he says.

The rate card Sanka’s TheKarrier offers two models. A pointto-point service is charged on kilometre basis

ing and selling second-hand goods.

The second-hand goods market (excluding vehicles) is pegged at ₹88,000 crore and presents a big opportunity, he says. ThePorter daily undertakes 200 transactions in Mumbai itself and and 20 in Delhi, where it launched recently.

Goel says the company has two kinds of customers — ‘on spot’ users, who require the service within 45 minutes to an hour; and institutional clients such as courier and e-commerce companies, which bring in 60 per cent of the revenues. The individual to institutional ratio is similar for TheKarrier too.

Zooming demand While none of these services own — for a mini-truck this is ₹350 for the first 3km trucks, they are experimenting with branding and ₹30 for every additional kilometre. the vehicles for greater visibility. “All our Some businesses such as courier companies trucks have our name and number. That’s a that need vehicles for five-six hours are part of the enrolment process,” Goel says. Thecharged on hourly basis. TheKarrier retains 10- Karrier, on the other hand, puts its name only 15 per cent of the transaction valon the trucks it uses on a daily baue. “Based on customer feedback, sis. Whether such branding will if the service levels are good, we lead to business growth remains reduce our charges,” says Sanka. unclear to the start-ups at the moGoel’s ThePorter charges ment. What is clear, however, is around 10 per cent as commis- While customers are the growth in demand for their tech-savvy, having sion, and this will increase to 20 services. TheKarrier, which startsmart phones and per cent after business grows, he ed in Bengaluru with 50 vehicles internet access, the in December last year, now has says. Still at a nascent stage, the truck owners and start-ups have no established 400. The number of monthly agents are not business model yet. The rates are transactions has zoomed from 55 mostly customised for businessto 800. “We want to launch in Deles. While Vintha charges a minihi and Hyderabad in the next two mum of ₹500 and a maximum of months,” says Sanka. ₹1,000 per transaction, Blowhorn For ThePorter, the next frontier charges ₹600 for the first hour itself. is Bengaluru, followed by Hyderabad and Mithun Srivatsa, founder and CEO of Blow- Chennai. “These new launches will happen by horn, says his primary business comes from June,” says Goel. individuals shifting houses and people buyThe company’s monthly transactions are growing at over 50 per cent, even as it expands into the inter-city segment. “We have tied up with some big institutions. We are developing Mumbai-Delhi inter-city logistics and will start by mid-June,” he says.

As for funding, all of them are either bootstrapping or being funded by investors. ThePorter diluted 15 per cent stake in April to raise ₹3 crore from Kae Capital and is currently in talks for a Series A round. In November last year, Unitus Seed Fund led the seed round investment in Blowhorn.

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The road ahead Nowhere near profitability yet, the truck aggregators are currently building business and scale. “If we are trying for break-even then we are not trying enough,” says Vintha of Return Trucks. “We spent a long time identifying the model that would be scalable and viable, which is more crucial than clocking maximum transactions. We are still fine-tuning the model,” he adds.

Srivatsa of Blowhorn agrees: “Everyone is trying to figure out their own path. The most important step is to get a foothold in the market; it will take some time.”

Vintha’s marketing executives are reaching out to truckers, truck unions and even small businesses with the company’s GPS trackers and giving free demos.

Even as these newbie services focus on expanding their fleet, team size and user base, and hire IIT and IIM graduates to help grow the business, they know that their business will ultimately move on a single crucial factor.

As Blowhorn’s Srivatsa explains, “Logistics is built only on reliability.” May the reliable service vroom ahead. rashmi pratap

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saturday, may 30,30, 2015 saturday, may 2015

Look back in anger Feminist visual tales tell of cities and spaces, restrictions and uprisings

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Drawing the Line: Indian Women Fight Back Larissa Bertonasco, Ludmilla Bartscht, Priya Kuriyan (eds.)

Zubaan Fiction ₹695

he graphic novels scene in India is exploding — there are mythologicals, homegrown superheroes, memoirs, urban fantasy all crammed together. Occupying a niche is the thematic anthology. A few years ago we saw Blaft’s The Obliterary Journal, which championed picture languages. In 2013 there was a major release with This Side, That Side, a look at Partition across borders.

Drawing the Line is part of this rise of themebased anthologies. With the tagline “Indian woman fight back”, it is a collection of 14 ‘visual stories’ set in the aftermath of the December 2012 Delhi rape case. Nisha Susan introduces the compilation saying “it’s a wonderful time to be a feminist with greedy eyes”.

She explains the context, about the upsurge post-Delhi, saying that feminists in India “have used the momentum to broaden the AGENDA conversations beyond the terror of stranger rape — to talk about work, pay, love, marriage, disability, caste, sex and everyday sexism”.

The genesis of the collection was also novel — it arose from a workshop conducted by Priya Kuriyan and two German artists, Larissa Bertonasco and Ludmilla Bartscht. The exigencies of workshop also presumably meant that there is no colour; all the stories are in pencil or monotone washes, imparting a sombre tone. ne Delhi This collective ap- is not enough to hold two political gladiators, Arvind Kejriproach means To start off, there is wal and Narendra Modi. If Kejriwal that all 14 women one problem that has his way, Delhi may soon have worked together bedevils all to broken up into two, with territories earforbe a week. anthologies, some marked between and state governSo does this ex-the central pieces are strong, ments.

Fullwork? statehood for Delhi cannot be periment some are not so achieved without some space — physiTo start off, there ceding strong, and this often cal — to the central governis and one administrative problem changes from reader ment.

How thisall tussle for Delhi shapes up will that bedevils to reader have wider implications in national politics anthologies, and alreadyare putting Modi in a tight spot, someis pieces even as he goesare on a media blitz for his governstrong, some ment’s anniversary. not soone-year strong, Realistically, for Delhi to get statehood, Moand this often di’s government would to retain areas changes from reader tohave reader.

Drawing the around central Delhi, while the rest of the terLine is no exception. ritory under A ‘Lutyens DisDitiwould Mistrybe takes theKejriwal. reader into the Ladies trict’ would have to be carved out, a bit like Compartment of a ‘Mumbai Local’. She draws how the District of Columbia (Washington on the sense of belonging that we all experiDC) carved the state ofofMaryland. enceiswhen weout arefrom in the innards the great Washington is governed US Congress, animal that DC is the City. She by establishes this while state of Maryland hasoffering an elected govworldthe with a few deft strokes a peep ernor andprivate legislature withthat the same powers as into the cosmos all commuters other states. them. carry inside On paper this ‘The solution simple Reshu Singh’s Photo’sounds is structured enough.

The geographical delineation of two around taking the all-important matrimonial Delhis wouldWith facilitate an administrative dephotograph. commendable understatelineation.

Parliament could appoint a mayor ment she states that the story came out of the for the Lutyens District,that while Kejriwalwithin can runa “general restlessness develops the state free from a Lieutenant with home when a child reaches Governor marriageable ‘special powers.’

Delhi’s voters would get their age”. I also liked the visually inventive ‘Ever Afbang the buck: they can hold his governter’ byfor Priyanka Kumar, a Moebius-strip of a ment fully accountable law and and tale, featuring monsters,for surfaces oforder asteroids civic amenities.

(And Lutyens snoots can have and daytime soaps. what theyGopalakrishnan anyway consider their birthright — Kaveri takes a look at body home rule.) language and how women navigate ‘contestModi should no probedAgain space’,on topaper, use a military term have — basically all lem with this plan.

The Bharatiya public transport and city streets. Janata Party (BJP) hadcommon promisedmotifs Delhi crop full statehood in its Some up — for exammanifesto.

Add to this Modi’s own of ple, the absurdities perpetrated bymantra the ‘skin decentralising power and giving states more whitening’ industry, or women bicycling to decision-making authority. statehood for freedom. Less originally, in aFull couple of places,

Mind games Kejriwal’s strength is his ability to keep buzzing under Modi’s nose, while having his own fief in Delhi pti

Playing it smart Kejriwal has laid out the slippery stuff; it is up to Modi to tread on or ignore it

sambuddha mitra mustafi

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Delhi is a no-brainer you would think. aren’t many distractions, while Modi has to inBut realpolitik is not played on paper. The termittently deal with the Hindutva nutters. tussle with Najeeb Jung, acting as Modi’s In the rest of the opposition — from Rahul proxy, has once again given Kejriwal a chance Gandhi to Nitish Kumar or Mamata Banerjee — to do what he loves most: punch above his no one has been able to beat the Modi wave weight. Kejriwal had stopped the Modi jugger- quite like Kejriwal, so the media will keep playnaut with his stunning victory in Delhi, and ing up any confrontation, however lopsided it his strategy is to keep being a thorn in Modi’s may appear right now. side till the 2019 elections, waiting for the The weakness is the Aam Aadmi Party’s lack prime minister to slip up. of organisation outside Delhi. Which means If Modi does slip up — particularly if he fails that even if there is disenchantment with Moto revive growth and jobs — Kejridi in the states, other parties wal wants to be the natural altermay take better advantage of it. native for the opposition to Kejriwal seems to have calculatcoalesce around, leading up to ed that it may not take more 2019. In the meantime, Kejriwal than a year leading up to the can stay in the news by scoring 2019 elections to create an insurIf Modi is able to such small victories over Modi, gent, build-as-you-go organisacoolly avoid like getting full statehood for tion and ride an anti-Modi wave.

Kejriwal’s strategic Delhi. That will only burnish his In the age of smartphones, soprovocations, while image as the eventual Modicial media and millions of 20delivering on growth slayer, not just a temporary somethings who are potential and jobs, he will Modi-stopper. nullify the opposition cadres, it is not impossible to B&W by clashes Priyanka Kumar, which features monsters and daytime soaps drawing the line So, realities with his‘Ever veryAfter’ public create a pop-up political with government organisation. threatsthe are central represented by ‘swarthy’, unsha- notes, the technical levels of the participants over bureaucratic appointments Butwith Modi’s fatedrawing is in his ven men, a rather familiar visual shorthand! was wildly uneven, some forown the and his demand for full statehands.

If he is able to coolly There are lots of interesting references first time. This makes for a slightly disjointed hood, laid out a banana avoid Kejriwal’s strategic provowithinKejriwal the stories, opening up further door- reading experience.

Perhaps in the future, it skin for Modi.

By taking a confrontational poscations, while delivering on growth and ways — a piece on Irom Sharmila mentions the may be better to pair writers with artistsjobs, and ture the underdog, then getting re- he the opposition. Without an antiNupiwith Lan or Women’s War,and when a mass armed seewill hownullify that goes. buffed by the the courts overwas thelaunched appointments, Kejriwal’s revolt against British by the Modi Still wave, one can’t disagreeinsurgent with editorcampaign Priya KuModi’s government has stepped right on the will come to naught. women of Manipur. Vidyun Sabhaney’s look at riyan, who says that “the whole process made banana skin. the about other hand, if as Modi takes his off patachitra and their changing role is a fasci- meOn think my role a woman in aeye socieNow glimpse if the BJP accepts the statehood de- the economy, gets distracted thetoirritating nating at proto-comics, and at creatty that more often than not by tries tell you mand, it will seem like graphic a victorylanguage. for Kejriwal. If Kejriwal his nose and triesimportant to quash ing an original Indian that whatunder you have to say is not theInBJP tries to what block is it, striking Kejriwal about will getthe to call then Kejriwal wouldstories have got the end, an- him, enough… we all have to what tell…heinre-a Modi a dictator and public sympathy. wants.

This is why the Modi-Kejriwal thology is that it allwin flowed from a week-long ally world dominated by stories told from barthe Kejriwal’sThis strategy hasconstriction some strengths, as gain Delhi’s statehood will befor so oppormuch workshop. unusual is both male over perspective, I am so thankful well as some and weaknesses.

His strength is his to like watch so young rife with bigger the strongest weakest point.

The angry en- fun tunities this, and that help woman stoability to keep buzzing under Modi’s nose, irriimplications. ergy and vitality — that demand to be heard — rytellers bloom”. tatingly close, with hissame own time fief init Delhi. come through.

At the feels aThe bit mitraismustafi the founder of Theof capital’s media density works to Kejriwal’s ad- sambuddha jaideep unudurti a graphicisnovelist and writer rushed, and the art is tacky in places. Also tsome_buddha Indian vantage. his party from is small, there Political The Robots of Dharma from whatBecause I can understand the editor’s

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LIGHTHOUSE

Letter from a cow

shutterstock

News from an English farm on a rule that allows only homoeopathy to treat sick animals

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

ear Amit, Thank you for the recent love song, She Mooooves Me, which you wrote and dedicated to ‘all the cows on Planet Earth’. My friends and I here in England have it on loop on CowTube. There are few humans we like — you lot enslave us, molest us for milk every morning, and slaughter us and sell our meat after that.

So we’re not very fond of your species. But you, Amit, we have always liked you, because you understand us, you’re a good listener, and you’re so, so cute! But this is not mere fan mail.

I am unwell right now, hugely under the weather, and I need to rant. And like I said, you’re a good listener. So here goes.

I won’t go into the details of my illness with you, except to say it’s not just a mere cold. Serious shit is going down, and I’m in a lot of pain every day. And how am I being treated? With sugar pills. Sugar f****** pills. Oh yes, you may pick your jaw up from the floor now, you don’t want a snail entering while you’re all astonishment. (Happened to Lucy once.) This is for real, so let me quote from a report last month in the London Telegraph.

The report says: ‘British organic farmers are being forced to treat their livestock with homeopathic remedies under European Commission rules branded ‘scientifically illiterate’ by vets. Although homeopathy has been branded as ‘rubbish’ by the government’s Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies, organic farmers have been told they must try it first under an EU directive which came into force last year.’

Yes, that’s right. There are serious issues with my liver, I need antibiotics, the pain is excruciating, and my owners are being forced to treat me with bloody sugar pills! That some humans believe in this nonsense is understandable, you’re a nonsense species, and by all means do whatever you want to yourselves.

But why force it on us cows?

I first got to know homeopathy was bun-

kum thanks to your writings. First, there’s the wrote about an American anaesthetist during science behind it. The idea of homeopathy is World War II, Henry Beecher, who had to perthat the substance that is to be used to treat form an operation on a soldier with ‘horrific the patient is so diluted that it is unlikely that injuries’. Morphine wasn’t available so he used there is a single molecule of the substance in salt water. And it worked! The placebo effect is the pills the patient ends up consuming. As an incredibly powerful and well-documented Martin Gardner once said, it is ‘equivalent to effect, which is why when new medicines are taking one grain of rice, crushing it to a powd- tested, they are tested against placebos. Only if er, dissolving it in a sphere of water the size of they do better than placebos are they considthe solar system, with the sun at the centre ered effective. Homeopathic medicines always and the orbit of Pluto at the outside, and then fail these tests, because hey, they’re just sugar repeating that process 2 million times.’ My pills as well. mind boggles at imagining the scale of this: Another phenomenon I explained to Lucy is not the solar system, but the idiocy. regression to the mean. Many ailments work Naturally, homeopathy doesn’t work. The in a natural cycle, where you get worse and standard scientific way of testing medicines is then get better, quite on your own. This is true via double-blind placebo-controlled tests, and for colds, backaches, migraines, and also Luhomeopathy has repeatedly cy’s indigestion. But if you are infailed those. I have read accounts clined to believe that a particular of this in two great books you treatment works, you will take recommended, Ben Goldacre’s the medicine, get better on your Bad Science and Trick or Treatment own, and ascribe it to the mediThere are serious issues

by Simon Singh and Edzard cine. This is the Confirmation Biwith my liver, I need Ernst. I no longer have copies of as at work, and also that other antibiotics, the pain is those books — let’s just say that one, I forget the name, you write excruciating, and my they’ve been chewed and digesabout it often, which mistakes owners are being forced ted — but I strongly recommend correlation for causation. to treat me with bloody them to all those who wish to arAnyway, so I patiently exsugar pills! gue with me on the subject. plained all this to Lucy, and you My friend Lucy is not into know what she did? She said, books, though — that’s why her “Whatever!” Then she swished brain is full of grass. And she said her tail, turned around and to me the other day, “Well, I had stepped into a pile of her own indigestion from accidentally swallowing a dung. I’d do a facepalm if I could. snail, and I was given homeopathy, and now Anyway, enough ranting. I just want to I’m fine. So surely it works.” I get this all the thank you again for your song. If you’re visittime, which proves that some cows can be as ing England, please come over to the farm and thick as some humans. So I explained to Lucy meet the girls, we’d be sooooo happy. We can’t the fallacies in such thinking. offer much in terms of hospitality, but I’ll gladFirst, I told her about the placebo effect. ly share my sugar pills with you.

Sometimes, even if you’ve been given a pill Yours forever, containing no medicine at all, if you think Dorothy (but you can call me Dotty, tee hee). you’ve been given proper medicine, you start t@amitvarma responding to it. In Bad Science, Goldacre

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A goal in mind Every summer, about 250 families from Kodagu go back home with an agenda: to compete against each other for a prized hockey cup

Seeing red CPI(M) cadres take out an immense rally to mark the conclusion of the 21st party congress held in Visakhapatnam, in April kr deepak

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t’s a sultry Saturday in Virajpet, and the stands around the college grounds are packed with spectators. The teams in action, Chendanda and Palanganda, in orange and yellow respectively, pass, block, and swing their way to a tie, followed by a tense penalty shootout. After four failed attempts on either side, Palanganda’s Muthanna scores.

The crowd erupts with wild cheering. It’s official: the Palanganda family has reclaimed victory at the 2015 Kodava Hockey Festival.

At a time when cricket monopolises our sporting imagination, the Kodava community commits itself to India’s national game with renewed vigour every summer. The annual Kodava Hockey Festival in Kodagu (also called Coorg) is now touted as the world’s largest field hockey tournament, with about 250 famight orparticipating Left: Which every way should ily-clans (okkas) year. the Indian Left go?was inspired to start Pandanda Kuttappa Today,in this is central to this tournament hisquestion hometown after atthe 1982 ideological debates The within the tending the Asian Games.

Indian Left across thethen world.

Here Right wouldplayers mean, hockey team had many Kodava like had the Chinese, positioning oneself broadly and already won eight Olympic gold medin the of growth and als, butneoliberal the peopleframework in Kodagu could only hear the accompanying ‘trickle-down’ developabout their players’ skill, techniques and wins ment.radio.

And Left involves fundamental over “I wanted to posing create aahockey festivresistance to the Right providingtoa Kodagu. people’s al that would bring theby Olympians alternative, likeall many American Left parSo people from overLatin Coorg or anyone interties arecould trying to do.watch Thereand is noobserve third way of ested come, their ‘pragmatism’, skills,” he says. one where a fine balance between the twostarted could be quesThe festival offmaintained. in the 1990s The in the viltion is path will60the Indian Left competchoose? lage ofwhich Karada, with family-clans The recently concluded congress of ing.

Over the next decade,party at least 10 more the CPI(M) saw a change guard and, with it, teams would join in eachofyear.

“Often, the ora rising expectation it would the ganisers would cookthat for the teamslead andtodine revival of fortunes the rediscover Left. The question is with them, helpingfor them lost famwhat kind of paradigmatic shift Kumar, will the who new ily connections,” says Sandhya leadership In a top-down has made abring. documentary, Hockeyorganisation in my Blood, such asunique the CPI(M), any expected change in on this tournament. politics is its likely be the linked to the political Now in 19thto year, tournament is seelineaand praxis that theparticularly new generalfor secretary, ing drop in turnout, the iniSitaram Yechury, Where doesare he tial matches, saysadheres Kumar.to.“The stands stand ononly thisaround political30 divide?

Does the change usually per cent full until the represent a considerable politics or quarterfinals, when thingsshift reallyinstart to heat would it be more the same? up.

After that it is of packed with close to 10,000 people. It seems the tradition of families cookTheand pastsharing and the food present ing has died down over the Let’s first where theseems IndiantoLeft stands years, but assess the competition be getting today inshe terms fiercer,” says.of its strength. One of the key indicators of aKodavas party’s political strength is its Why do the love hockey so much?

Over the years, more than 50 Kodavas have money, we are making contributions towards represented India in international hockey, hockey training camps to encourage young earning their district the title ‘Cradle of Indian players. Over the past three years, I have seen a hockey.’ The festival is clearly an extension of surge in interest among the younger audithis love. “It isn’t clear why the love for hockey ence, which is great. This year, I heard, vehicles is so ingrained in Kodavas,” confesses Kumar. were parked up to a kilometre radius around “When I explored the subject for the film, I re- the grounds. The stands and food stalls were alised it could be anything from colonial influ- packed, there was so much excitement in the ences to the fact that the Kodavas are a very air,” he adds. active and physically-fit clan.” Shot over two In a lifetime, a Kodava will only get to see his years in Kodagu and screened at or her family host the cup once — this year’s hockey festival, the there are 800-odd family-clans in documentary chronicles the hisKodagu — and this seems reason tory of the tournament and the enough for family members to popular contenders.

Often, the organisers drop jobs, request extended leave The Palanganda family, which at IT companies and even arrive would cook for the features prominently in the film, teams and dine with from overseas to organise and has won the cup five times and participate in the games. The them, helping them vote share in elections.

CPI(M) lost support of the changeteam in praxis. been runner-up twice.Although Spoiler the winning gets aFirst, cashwith prizethe of rediscover family and CPI the two biggestincommunist pardisintegration of the USSR, the Left needed to alert: theare winner in Hockey my ₹2 lakh, while the runners-up get connections ties inisIndia, the vote share movements in the reinvent itself along Blood Anjaparavanda, which is a one lakh.the lines of the CommuCPI(M) — the bigger party —player, drive most trends. nist Party of China Second,isaalso stateideal govrare team with a woman The (CPC). tournament From the 1960s to the 1990s, the vote share ernment with fiscal space needed to Vishma Appaiah.

Another woman forrestricted talent spotting.

Scouts from fluctuated between 8-9 per cent. to the private sector for industriplayer, Amulya Akkamma cap-However, the give primacySports Authority of India arrive all-India vote share offamily the Left has steadily de- alisation as growth agriculture-based actained her Kongetira team here tofrom select men and women clined the last three Lok elections, tivities issome limited. to reachinthe quarterfinals thisSabha year. “When the players, of whom can barely afford jerwith the sharpest-ever fallquestion from 7 in to seys Both areand flawed. game is on, there is no of 2004 special andarguments equipment, provide them train3.9 in 2009.

In its two West Bengal First, an auncritical acceptance of theon ‘Chitreatment because I ambastions, a girl. I push, shove, ing.

Quite few of them have gone to (WB) and Kerala, the results varied. While nese Model’ the inspiration get pushed and shoved justhave like anyone else,” become state(incidentally, and nationalalso players. in Kerala it was a decline 1.6 percentage the festival ‘Make infinally India’about pitch),serious which hockrelies she says. “One of my biggestof supporters is our behind So is the points between theAppanna.

2006 andPeople 2011 Assembly on or export-demand growth, a lack ofa pogoalkeeper, Harish like him ey a family reunion?

“Itshows is primarily reelections, it was a significant 7.1 me percentage litical imagination.

Suchchief a growth are the reason young players like are get- union,” says BP Govinda, selector,strategy Indian points in WB over the same peri- I hope a lot hockey teamnecessarily suppressing ting interested in hockey again. and formerinvolves Olympian and Asian od. That slidepeople in WB has un- families in Games player. the“The income of the working class, more young playbeen for their teams consist of people abated in every local election the basicare constituency of the Left, the future.” aged 12 to 40.

Some professional players, since the to 2008 Panchayat electo remain in It seems be more than just love for hock- some are old-timers, andprice-competitive some are just playtions thefamilies one recently thecompetition. world market.

Moreover, it is ey that(including draws these to compete.

Every ing their first In my opinion, Succumbing to the concluded).

Yechury has played evident that the fates of China year, different family-clans submit detailed neoliberalthere logicmay not be much serious hockey there, down the ‘decline’, asserting that Academy to but it’s a lot of and its fun.” largest market, the US, proposals to the Kodava Hockey good proved to be the the reasons were organisational would move in tandem. is in host the tournament.

The documentary declares, “It is saidItthat if nemesis for the Left and nottime, political/ideological. this context that the Chinese Over it has become a matter of pride a Kodava is not working on a coffee plantation, in Bengal I, however, believe is the“Ipolihas in accommodated itself and honour to be theithost. was on my toes he is likely toModel be either the Indian army, or ticsofthat gone wrong. the logic of neoliberalism. all lasthas year,” says Rajiv Cariappa, convenor playing fieldwithin hockey.”

Hockey’s popularity But where has it year’s gone wrong, The discussions and treasurer at this tournament. “With may be fading in disappearance much of India, of but in the cofand contributions why has the support eroded on imperialism which centhe from the members of the fee-growing cradle of Kodagu,—the sport is is nurin West Bengal primarily?

It who mar- tured and loved. tral to the traditional Marxist unKuppanda clan, including women doesn’t a genius to see this was the derstanding of global political economy — ried intotake other families, we that raised a sizeable Hockey in my Blood (a documentary in Enresult of We a significant in up theLED Left’s fromand theKoda-thak) party documents of the CPC is just a amount. were ableshift to put TVpolitiwalls glish will be screened in Bengalucal the praxis towards industrialisation, reflection of that. It is not surprising that the for matches and even played the ads which of our ru next month. culminated in theaNandigram episode. sponsors, adding new dimension of profes- WB leadership, which has been pushing the In WB, two arguments in tara Chinese line thomas within the Indian Left, has been rachel is a Bengaluru-based writer sionalism to the festival. were With advanced the leftover

Left, Right, Left

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Election results prove the Left has got its politics wrong. To remain relevant it must engage with changed realities and chalk out a pro-people alternative

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Old love Over 50 Kodavas have represented India in international hockey; (above) scenes from the Kodava Hockey Festival – 2015 at Kodagu abhilash mandappa

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Vignettes for tomorrow Houses and structures that Manhave in the centre survived The time futureare ofathe peek Left into will be how life once determined

by The new was. (left) general secretary Santhome Basilica Sitaram builtYechury in 1896

arguing that its political fortunes were reversed primarily because the Left withdrew support to UPA-I over the latter’s strategic alliances with the US! Second, it’s true that a state government, particularly under neoliberalism, is constrained financially but surely there are ways of providing employment and relief to people other than big-ticket corporate industrialisation. To begin with, WB could have improved its tax collection, which was one of the lowest across states. It could have implemented some of the centrally-funded welfare schemes. omewhere in the narrow bylanesNot of only didMylapore it underperform in NREGA, it was alsoa is a nameless shop.

It has one of the laggards on the large window, theSachar grillsCommittee gathering recommendations.

Instead, it out-of-service, chose to derust. The shop appears pend on corporates, clear indication of the but there is no sign aexplicitly stating its derightward turnbeofrather the leadership.

Moreover, if mise. It must old, I think, standing aunder Left-led state government same Chennai’s swelteringprovides May sunthe with six set of policies as that of anytour, bourgeois party, others.

We are on a walking organised by then is one talking Story what Trails,alternative to one of Chennai’s oldestabout? areas.

Succumbing to departure the neoliberal proved to My impending fromlogic the city I grew be nemesis Leftsentimental; in Bengal. So Imuch upthe in has madefor methe quite want so, a bourgeois party likeunfamiliar the Trinamool to know Chennai in new, ways.ConBut gress could successfully present itself as more the heat is already compromising my attempt Left than the Left front! at homage.

Divya, our storyteller, says the shop-owner Which way forward? was fondly called janal mama (window uncle) The only way eatery forward for the Left is south to reject as his modest served steaming Inthe linethrough — and the accompanying dianChinese delicacies the window. Withneosevliberal model of growth — and chalklining out a proeral low-roofed, traditional houses the people alternative.

Fortunately, not street, and the mighty gopuram China of the isKapathe only model draw upon. leeswarar temple to towering on ourAcross right, the we world, particularly in Latin America Euare seemingly in a time warp.

I try toand picture rope, the Leftofforces presenting the rhythm life inare a different era.alternative While hismodels of politics. tory rarely records stories of the Everyman, In narratives Latin America, shades of Left have oral fill invarious with fascinating details. risen in response to the failure of the neoliberal growth model, Cities within a citywhich had a stranglehold on Story Trails takes you on a journey where quotidian sights become stories and people, characters. A generous dose of the colloquial takes you closer to the narrative, prompting a reimagination of worlds that seemed too distant to be of any interest. The trails explore areas in Chennai that have a distinct ethos, including Mylapore, Sowcarpet and a coastal stretch heavily under a colonial hangover.

Several buildings on this coastal strip display an Indo-Saracenic style of architecture — a bastardised style favoured by the British colonial architects of the late 19th century. The deep-set jharokha or balcony was borrowed from Mughal architecture. It functions much like the modern-day tinted glass; if you are on the right side of it, you can see the outside

niharika mallimadugula

the continent since the late 20th century. find space for even one Dalit leader in its 16By joining hands with other social move- member Polit Bureau? ments, the Left has become part of a broad Another important component of the Eucoalition of forces — for example, the water ropean experiments is their praxis of radical wars and indigenous movements in Bolivia, democracy, which involves going back to the the indigenous movements in Ecuador, and people through referendums on critical isthe movement for removing the elitist dual- sues as opposed to bourgeois democracy, party rule in Venezuela. Nationalisation of where the rights of individuals are exercised natural resources for the benefit of the com- once during elections. The practice of democmon people has been one of the striking fea- racy is implemented both within the party tures of these experiments. In the current and in their models of governance. ContestIndian context, the Left could fight for a com- ing ideas are openly debated in deciding the prehensive policy guaranteeing of action. temple Instead in of seeworld while remaining hidden from it. “For all Inside thecourse Kapaleeswarar the the redistribution of returns to balconies early hours ofing as factional feud, differyou know, these women sat in their thethis morning, the meanings bestakeholders fromatthe surpluses celebrated and happily ogled men,” says Akila, another hind routineence actsofofopinion prayer is are explainedand to earned from natural as reflected in the of our storytellers.

In aresources. society that observed us: breaking encouraged, a coconut denoted crushing But, perplexingly, this fight has conceived devotee’s ego, organisational structure of forpurdah, the jharokha was probably with the coconut representing been picked by theelement Congress, mations like Syriza.(circumambunot just as a stylistic but also utili-waya forward human head; pradakshanam Thea only which till recently was on the othIndian Leftthe has much to tarian one. lation) worshipping god within for the Left is to denotesThe er The sidewonderful of the Land Acquisition learn these bell experiments if thing about Chennai, I realyou; the ringing of from the temple was meant reject the Chinese line Bill, rather Left.it nestles both young to drown outit other wantsinauspicious to revive itself. ise on the than trail, the is that sounds; koThis assumes special imporand old history. Its character changes every lam, or floor decorations, use rice flour to help Wind of change few kilometres. feed ants. tance given the meteoric rise of In Europe, new voices of the Left the ultra-right forces. Basilica, The Modia We then move to the Santhome are emerging. most successwave combines the style rhetoric of English summerThe in Madras cathedral built in the neo-Gothic in 1896 ful these, the Greece has modelled the hardcore Hindutva Theofarterial roadSyriza fromin Fort St George to Anna ‘development’ at a spot wherewith a simple Portuguese church itself as awhere platform with multiple RSS. The absence large-scale Salai was the British in the ideological politics of thestood before, weof learn that formations — from the ecological such as in the India Ram erstwhile Madras lived out a left to the re- communal polarisation Christianity— arrived formist Eurocommunists to the post-Maoist Janmabhoomiahead movement or Gujarat Thomas in 2002 close imitation of their English of the Europeans. left.

In Spain, Podemos as a breath of — does not in the any way signify that the lifestyle back in the Old came Blighty.

Apostle landed inHindutKerala fresh against and corruption. va brigade is sometime on the defensive, but rather a In andair around theinequality race courses, between 56 is and 72 AD. These andserving other new voices aree barely well-thought Istrategy to in keep up, and the charade the clubs the Left choicest al-in Europe W spot Mary a sari Jesus on challenging both the tradi- of development by maintaining the ‘investcohol and cigars, andright the wing manyand the a lotus flanked by peacocks.

The acknowledge how tional Leftdotting parties. the area, they ment climate’.Indianised touches include kobakeries much our identities These are remarkable forare payto this, are two possible rode onexperiments saddled horses, swadat a there few entrances.

Inside, shapedInbyresponselams ing to questions ofdespite identity and the alienpolitical first led by the dledheed in layers of clothing the priest is the delivering a passionworlds that combinations: ation of indigenous people and are, in that Congress andate supported ‘secular’ parthe tropical heat. That, in turn, speech by onother the ills plaguing precede us sense, to prevalent social milieus. ties; the second, a coalition of social spurredadapting the American Frederic advanced countries; “Whatmoveis adThis thetopraxis and identity-based Tudorhas (akaaltered Ice King) ship iceoftothe new Left ments, rights-vanced about thesemovements, countries?” away from that of the traditional communalism neoliberalthis sweltering British outpost Left, which against both he asks, withoutand really waiting privileges the movements of the organised ism. It is for the to decide which it of is for a tidy profit. forLeft an answer.

“Only the side speed working-class. on. What wasdivorce true foris2004 might nohe longer “They were the ‘bastions of advancing,” says In the Indian context, of out the hold, and by aligning in thenod, broadest snootiness’,” says Akila, emancipation before pointing dismissively.

And the (even audience with poor is just glib talk caste, even and the with the discredited that the vestiges of if it issues remainofintact to- sense) some appearing to want toCongress, applaud the but Left unrights of wait indigenous people and religious mi- will revival even more day. The for a Gymkhana Club membersuremake aboutits theown appropriateness of it. difficult. norities are not into brought to the centre.

Left At As theI same losewith an opportunity to ship stretches years, while the The Madras try to time, comeittowill grips the long interhere should the Dalit iconpermitting Dr BR Am- help a broad of overwhelmed disparate but Cricket Clubembrace only recently began activecreate history of ourcoalition cities, I am bedkar as its just as it celebrates lega- principled forces against thein resurgent desi attire onown, its premises, followingthe a direcby the pluralities enshrined them. WeRight. barecy offrom Bhagat A friend of mine put it well ly Moreover, as how experience has identities shown elsetive theSingh.

High court. acknowledge much our are — in today’s context, where the religiousrecede Right where, thethe traditional Left precede does not us. reinvent The wide roads and stately buildings shapedifby worlds that I will in is appropriating the legacy of Ambedwithbut changed realities, some to India give way to the village-like Mylapore — the itself leave and thisengage city soon, will take comfort in kar to Town’ maintain its hegemony, the Left needs Left will. that it is as much a part of the ‘Black where the first Europeans came other the knowledge to Indianise its politics byThe engaging with and in search of raw material. larger history of worlds beyond it as the different worlds are a internalising the Ambedkarite philosophyand in- rohit the area predates the arrival of Europeans part ofteaches it. Economics at the Centre for Economic stead of seeing it as ‘identitybypolitics’.

It of is Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi the birth of Madras/Chennai a couple is a member of the Left Collective worth asking niharika mallimadugula thousand years.here whether the CPI(M) can and

All makes one

Unravelling Chennai’s past through snippet tales, forgotten ways of life, continuing traditions and surviving monuments

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Strength in numbers Sunday morning in Gandhi Bazaar —packed with stalls and eager buyers

The bhais of Perumbavoor A Sunday market near Kochi brings the flavours of home to migrant workers from Odisha andWest Bengal

F

ew states in India know better than Kerala what living away from home entails. They say every family in Kerala has at least one member who lives abroad or in some other part of India. In the last 10 years, the state has seen, perhaps for the first time in its history, an influx of migrants from Odisha, West Bengal and even Bangladesh. Called ‘bhais’ by the locals, quite a few of them live in makeshift houses in Perumbavoor, a satellite town of Kochi.

On Sundays, Perumbavoor speaks and sings in the languages of east India. Romantic numbers from Bengali films greet you as you enter a crowded Gandhi Bazaar. Vendors sell fried snacks and sweets no Malayalee has heard of. People queue up to buy clothes from their home states. Cheap ‘Made in China’ electronics sell like hot cakes as gifts to send home.

Sitting in small clusters, the migrant workers catch up on news from home, be it politics, business or just the latest wedding

Moving pictures A CD shop for the Bengali film addicts

in the family. Home, whether in Odisha or West Bengal, is at least a three-night train journey from Kochi. It’s a ride most cannot afford very often. That explains the queue outside the telephone booths. Some of them have even learnt to use the internet.

If not for emails, the internet is used to load popular film songs and ringtones on the mobile phones. B-grade Odiya and Bengali films run to full houses in the decrepit theatres in Gandhi Bazaar.

The locals are not too welcoming of this influx of migrants. Recent newspaper reports suggest a sense of paranoia resulting from the presence of the ‘outsiders’. Their wages are often less than what locals would earn. Real estate prices in Perumbavoor have plummeted due to the presence of the bhais. Their abysmal living conditions and many deaths resulting from the lack of workplace safety and medical help never make the headlines. thulasi kakkat

Special taste Sweets and savouries for the homesick

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Close weaves Clothes up for grabs

Home tunes Songs from regional films find their way to mobile phones

Talk of the town A Sunday spent shopping and chatting

Light affairs Beedis from Odisha

Screen call An Odiya film poster beckons viewers to a theatre in the neighbourhood

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A goal in mind Every summer, about 250 families from Kodagu go back home with an agenda: to compete against each other for a prized hockey cup

Seeing red CPI(M) cadres take out an immense rally to mark the conclusion of the 21st party congress held in Visakhapatnam, in April kr deepak

I

t’s a sultry Saturday in Virajpet, and the stands around the college grounds are packed with spectators. The teams in action, Chendanda and Palanganda, in orange and yellow respectively, pass, block, and swing their way to a tie, followed by a tense penalty shootout. After four failed attempts on either side, Palanganda’s Muthanna scores.

The crowd erupts with wild cheering. It’s official: the Palanganda family has reclaimed victory at the 2015 Kodava Hockey Festival.

At a time when cricket monopolises our sporting imagination, the Kodava community commits itself to India’s national game with renewed vigour every summer. The annual Kodava Hockey Festival in Kodagu (also called Coorg) is now touted as the world’s largest field hockey tournament, with about 250 famight orparticipating Left: Which way ily-clans (okkas) everyshould year. the Indian Left go?was inspired to start Pandanda Kuttappa Today,in this is central to this tournament hisquestion hometown after atthe 1982 ideological debates The within the tending the Asian Games.

Indian Left across thethen world.

Here Right wouldplayers mean, hockey team had many Kodava like had the Chinese, positioning oneself broadly and already won eight Olympic gold medin the of growth and als, butneoliberal the peopleframework in Kodagu could only hear the accompanying ‘trickle-down’ developabout their players’ skill, techniques and wins ment.radio.

And Left involves fundamental over “I wanted to posing create aa hockey festivresistance to the Right providingtoa people’s al that would bring theby Olympians Kodagu. alternative, likeall many American LeftinterparSo people from overLatin Coorg or anyone ties arecould trying to do.watch There and is noobserve third way of ested come, their ‘pragmatism’, skills,” he says. one where a fine balance between the twostarted could be quesThe festival offmaintained. in the 1990s The in the viltion is path will60 the Indian Left competchoose? lage ofwhich Karada, with family-clans The recently concluded congress of ing.

Over the next decade,party at least 10 more the CPI(M) sawjoin a change guard and, with it, teams would in eachofyear.

“Often, the ora rising expectation would the ganisers would cookthat for it the teamslead andtodine revival of fortunes the Left.

The question is with them, helpingfor them rediscover lost famwhat kind of paradigmatic shift Kumar, will the who new ily connections,” says Sandhya leadership In a top-down has made abring. documentary, Hockeyorganisation in my Blood, such asunique the CPI(M), any expected change in on this tournament. politics is its likely be the linked to the political Now in 19thtoyear, tournament is seelineaand praxis that theparticularly new generalfor secretary, ing drop in turnout, the iniSitaram Yechury, Where does are he tial matches, saysadheres Kumar.to.“The stands stand ononly thisaround political30 divide?

Does theuntil change usually per cent full the represent a considerable politics or quarterfinals, when thingsshift reallyinstart to heat would it be more the same? up.

After that it is of packed with close to 10,000 people. It seems the tradition of families cookThe and pastsharing and the food present ing has died down over the Let’s first where theseems IndiantoLeft stands years, but assess the competition be getting today inshe terms of its strength. One of the key fiercer,” says. indicators of aKodavas party’s political strength is its Why do the love hockey so much?

Over the years, more than 50 Kodavas have money, we are making contributions towards represented India in international hockey, hockey training camps to encourage young earning their district the title ‘Cradle of Indian players. Over the past three years, I have seen a hockey.’ The festival is clearly an extension of surge in interest among the younger audithis love. “It isn’t clear why the love for hockey ence, which is great. This year, I heard, vehicles is so ingrained in Kodavas,” confesses Kumar. were parked up to a kilometre radius around “When I explored the subject for the film, I re- the grounds. The stands and food stalls were alised it could be anything from colonial influ- packed, there was so much excitement in the ences to the fact that the Kodavas are a very air,” he adds. active and physically-fit clan.” Shot over two In a lifetime, a Kodava will only get to see his years in Kodagu and screened at or her family host the cup once — this year’s hockey festival, the there are 800-odd family-clans in documentary chronicles the hisKodagu — and this seems reason tory of the tournament and the enough for family members to popular contenders.

Often, the organisers drop jobs, request extended leave The Palanganda family, which at IT companies and even arrive would cook for the features prominently in the film, teams and dine with from overseas to organise and has won the cup five times and participate in the games. The them, helping them vote share in elections.

CPI(M) lost support of the changeteam in praxis. been runner-up twice.Although Spoiler the winning gets aFirst, cashwith prizethe of rediscover family and CPI the two biggestincommunist pardisintegration of the USSR, the Left needed to alert: theare winner in Hockey my ₹2 lakh, while the runners-up get connections ties inisIndia, the vote share movements in the reinvent itself along Blood Anjaparavanda, which is a one lakh.the lines of the CommuCPI(M) — the bigger party —player, drive most trends. nist Party of China Second,isa also stateideal govrare team with a woman The (CPC). tournament From the 1960s to the 1990s, the vote share ernment with restricted fiscal space needed to Vishma Appaiah.

Another woman for talent spotting.

Scouts from fluctuated between 8-9 per cent. to the private sector for industriplayer, Amulya Akkamma cap-However, the give primacySports Authority of India arrive all-India vote share offamily the Left has steadily de- alisation as growth agriculture-based actained her Kongetira team here tofrom select men and women clined thequarterfinals last three Lok elections, limited. to reachinthe thisSabha year. “When the tivities players,issome of whom can barely afford jerwith the sharpest-ever fallquestion from 7 in to seys Both areand flawed. game is on, there is no of2004 special andarguments equipment, provide them train3.9 in 2009.because In its two West Bengal First, an uncritical acceptance of theon ‘Chitreatment I ambastions, a girl. I push, shove, ing.

Quite a few of them have gone to (WB)pushed and Kerala, the results varied. While Model’ the inspiration get and shoved justhave like anyone else,” nese become state(incidentally, and nationalalso players. in Kerala it was a decline 1.6 percentage the festival ‘Make infinally India’about pitch),serious which hockrelies she says. “One of my biggestof supporters is our behind So is the points between theAppanna.

2006 andPeople 2011 Assembly export-demand growth, a lack ofa pogoalkeeper, Harish like him on ey or a family reunion?

“Itshows is primarily reelections, it was a significant 7.1 me percentage Suchchief a growth are the reason young players like are get- litical union,”imagination. says BP Govinda, selector,strategy Indian points in WB over the same peri- I hope a lot hockey teamnecessarily suppressing ting interested in hockey again. and formerinvolves Olympian and Asian od. That slidepeople in WB has un- families in Games player. the“The income of the working class, more young playbeen for their teams consist of people abated in every local election theSome basicare constituency of the Left, the future.” aged 12 to 40. professional players, since the 2008 Panchayat electo remain in It seems to be more than just love for hock- some are old-timers, andprice-competitive some are just playtions thefamilies one recently thecompetition. world market.InMoreover, it is ey that(including draws these to compete.

Every ing their first my opinion, Succumbing to the concluded).

Yechury has played evident that the fates of China year, different family-clans submit detailed neoliberalthere logicmay not be much serious hockey there, down the ‘decline’, asserting that Academy to but it’s a lot of and its fun.” largest market, the US, proposals to the Kodava Hockey good proved to be the the reasons were organisational would move in tandem. is in host the tournament.

The documentary declares, “It is saidItthat if nemesis for the Left and nottime, political/ideological. this context that the Chinese Over it has become a matter of pride a Kodava is not working on a coffee plantation, in Bengal I, however, believe is the“Ipolihas in accommodated itself and honour to be theithost. was on my toes he is likely toModel be either the Indian army, or ticsofthat gone wrong. the logic of neoliberalism. all lasthas year,” says Rajiv Cariappa, convenor playing fieldwithin hockey.”

Hockey’s popularity But where has it gone The discussions and treasurer at this year’swrong, tournament. “With may be fading indisappearance much of India,of but in the cofand contributions why has the support eroded on imperialism which centhe from the members of the fee-growing cradle of Kodagu,—the sportis is nurin West Bengal primarily?

It who mar- tured and loved. tral to the traditional Marxist unKuppanda clan, including women doesn’t a genius to see this was the derstanding of global political economy — ried intotake other families, we that raised a sizeable Hockey in my Blood (a documentary in Enresult of aWe significant in up theLED Left’s the Koda-thak) party documents of the CPC is just a amount. were ableshift to put TVpolitiwalls from glish and will be screened in Bengalucal the praxis towards industrialisation, of that. It is not surprising that the for matches and even played the ads which of our reflection ru next month. culminated in theaNandigram episode. sponsors, adding new dimension of profes- WB leadership, which has been pushing the In WB, two arguments in tara Chinese line thomas within the Indian Left, has been rachel is a Bengaluru-based writer sionalism to the festival. were With advanced the leftover

Left, Right, Left

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Election results prove the Left has got its politics wrong. To remain relevant it must engage with changed realities and chalk out a pro-people alternative

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Old love Over 50 Kodavas have represented India in international hockey; (above) scenes from the Kodava Hockey Festival – 2015 at Kodagu abhilash mandappa

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Vignettes for tomorrow Houses and structures that Manhave in the centre survived The time future ofathe are peek Left into will be how life once determined byThe new was. (left) general secretary Santhome Basilica Sitaram builtYechury in 1896

arguing that its political fortunes were reversed primarily because the Left withdrew support to UPA-I over the latter’s strategic alliances with the US! Second, it’s true that a state government, particularly under neoliberalism, is constrained financially but surely there are ways of providing employment and relief to people other than big-ticket corporate industrialisation. To begin with, WB could have improved its tax collection, which was one of the lowest across states. It could have implemented some of the centrally-funded welfare schemes. omewhere in the narrow bylanesNot of only didMylapore it underperform in NREGA, it was alsoa is a nameless shop.

It has one of the laggards on the large window, theSachar grills Committee gathering recommendations.

Instead, it out-of-service, chose to derust. The shop appears pend on corporates, clear indication of the but there is no sign aexplicitly stating its derightward turnbeofrather the leadership.

Moreover, if mise. It must old, I think, standing aunder Left-led state government same Chennai’s swelteringprovides May sunthe with six set of policies as that of anytour, bourgeois party, others.

We are on a walking organised by then is one talking Story what Trails,alternative to one of Chennai’s oldestabout? areas.

Succumbing todeparture the neoliberal proved to My impending fromlogic the city I grew be nemesis Leftsentimental; in Bengal. SoImuch up the in has madefor methe quite want so, a bourgeois party likeunfamiliar the Trinamool to know Chennai in new, ways.ConBut gress could successfully present itself as more the heat is already compromising my attempt Left than the Left front! at homage.

Divya, our storyteller, says the shop-owner Which way forward? was fondly called janal mama (window uncle) The way eatery forward for the Left is south to reject as hisonly modest served steaming Inthe linethrough — and the accompanying dianChinese delicacies the window. Withneosevliberal model of growth — and chalklining out a proeral low-roofed, traditional houses the people alternative.

Fortunately, not street, and the mighty gopuram China of the isKapathe only model draw upon. leeswarar temple to towering on ourAcross right, the we world, particularly in Latin America Euare seemingly in a time warp.

I try to and picture rope, the Leftofforces presenting the rhythm life inare a different era.alternative While hismodels of politics. tory rarely records stories of the Everyman, In narratives Latin America, shades of Left have oral fill invarious with fascinating details. risen in response to the failure of the neoliberal growth model, Cities within a citywhich had a stranglehold on Story Trails takes you on a journey where quotidian sights become stories and people, characters. A generous dose of the colloquial takes you closer to the narrative, prompting a reimagination of worlds that seemed too distant to be of any interest. The trails explore areas in Chennai that have a distinct ethos, including Mylapore, Sowcarpet and a coastal stretch heavily under a colonial hangover.

Several buildings on this coastal strip display an Indo-Saracenic style of architecture — a bastardised style favoured by the British colonial architects of the late 19th century. The deep-set jharokha or balcony was borrowed from Mughal architecture. It functions much like the modern-day tinted glass; if you are on the right side of it, you can see the outside

niharika mallimadugula

the continent since the late 20th century. find space for even one Dalit leader in its 16By joining hands with other social move- member Polit Bureau? ments, the Left has become part of a broad Another important component of the Eucoalition of forces — for example, the water ropean experiments is their praxis of radical wars and indigenous movements in Bolivia, democracy, which involves going back to the the indigenous movements in Ecuador, and people through referendums on critical isthe movement for removing the elitist dual- sues as opposed to bourgeois democracy, party rule in Venezuela. Nationalisation of where the rights of individuals are exercised natural resources for the benefit of the com- once during elections. The practice of democmon people has been one of the striking fea- racy is implemented both within the party tures of these experiments. In the current and in their models of governance. ContestIndian context, the Left could fight for a com- ing ideas are openly debated in deciding the prehensive policy guaranteeing of action. temple Instead in of seeworld while remaining hidden from it. “For all Inside thecourse Kapaleeswarar the the redistribution of returns to balconies early hours ofing as factional feud, differyou know, these women sat in their thethis morning, the meanings bestakeholders fromatthe surpluses celebrated and happily ogled men,” says Akila, another hind routineence actsofofopinion prayer is are explainedand to earned from natural as reflected in the of our storytellers.

In a resources. society that observed us: breaking encouraged, a coconut denoted crushing But, perplexingly, this has conceived devotee’s ego,organisational structure of forpurdah, the jharokha wasfight probably with the coconut representing been picked by theelement Congress, mations like Syriza.(circumambunot just as a stylistic but also utili- way a forward human head; pradakshanam Thea only which till recently was on the othIndian Leftthe has much to tarian one. lation) worshipping god within for the Left is to denotesThe er The sidewonderful of the Land learn these bell experiments if thingAcquisition about Chennai, I realyou; the ringing of from the temple was meant reject the Chinese line Bill, rather than the Left.it nestles both young to drown outit other wantsinauspicious to revive itself. ise on the trail, is that sounds; koThis assumes special imporand old history. Its character changes every lam, or floor decorations, use rice flour to help Wind of change few kilometres. feed ants. tance given the meteoric rise of In Europe, new voices of the Left the ultra-right forces. Basilica, The Modia We then move to the Santhome are emerging. most successwave combines the style rhetoric of English summerThe in Madras cathedral built in the neo-Gothic in 1896 ful these, the Greece has modelled the hardcore Hindutva Theofarterial roadSyriza fromin Fort St George to Anna ‘development’ at a spot wherewith a simple Portuguese church itself as awhere platform with multiple RSS. The absence large-scale Salai was the British in the ideological politics of thestood before, weoflearn that formations — from the ecological such as in the India Ram erstwhile Madras lived out a left to the re- communal polarisation Christianity — arrived formist Eurocommunists to the post-Maoist Janmabhoomiahead movement or Gujarat Thomas in 2002 close imitation of their English of the Europeans. left.

In Spain, Podemos as a breath of — does not in the any way signify that the lifestyle back in the Old came Blighty.

Apostle landed inHindutKerala fresh against and corruption. va brigade is sometime on the defensive, rather In andair around theinequality race courses, betweenbut 56 is and 72 AD.a These andserving other new voices are well-thought Istrategy to in keep up, and the Jesus charade the clubs the Left choicest al-in Europe W spot Mary a sari on e barely challenging both the tradi- of development by flanked maintaining the ‘investcohol and cigars, andright the wing manyand the a lotus by peacocks.

The acknowledge how tional Leftdotting parties.the area, they ment climate’.Indianised touches include kobakeries much our identities These are remarkable forare payto this, are two possible rode on experiments saddled horses, swadat a there few entrances.

Inside, shapedInbyresponselams ing to questions ofdespite identity andthe alienpolitical first led by the dledheed in layers of clothing the priest is the delivering a passionworlds that combinations: ation of indigenous people and are, in that Congress andate supported ‘secular’ parthe tropical heat. That, in turn, speech by onother the ills plaguing precede us sense, to prevalent social milieus. ties; the second, a coalition of social spurredadapting the American Frederic advanced countries; “Whatmoveis adThis thetopraxis and identity-based Tudorhas (akaaltered Ice King) ship iceoftothe new Left ments, rights-vanced about thesemovements, countries?” away from that of the traditional communalism neoliberalthis sweltering British outpost Left, which against both he asks, withoutand really waiting privileges the movements of the organised ism. It is for the to decide which it of is for a tidy profit. for Left an answer.

“Only the side speed working-class. on. What wasdivorce true foris2004 might nohe longer “They were the ‘bastions of advancing,” says In the Indian context, of out the hold, and by aligning in thenod, broadest snootiness’,” says Akila, emancipation before pointing dismissively.

And the (even audience with poor is just glib talk if issues caste, even and the with the discredited the Left that the vestiges of it remainofintact to- sense) some appearing to want toCongress, applaud but unrights of wait indigenous people and religious mi- will revival even more day. The for a Gymkhana Club membersuremake aboutits theown appropriateness of it. difficult. norities are not into brought to the centre.

Left At As theI try same lose an opportunity to ship stretches years, while the The Madras to time, comeittowill grips with the long interhere should the Dalit iconpermitting Dr BR Am- help a broad of overwhelmed disparate but Cricket Clubembrace only recently began activecreate history of ourcoalition cities, I am bedkar as its just as it celebrates lega- principled forces against thein resurgent desi attire onown, its premises, followingthe a direcby the pluralities enshrined them. WeRight. barecy Bhagat A friend of mine put it well ly Moreover, as how experience hasidentities shown elsetiveoffrom theSingh.

High court. acknowledge much our are — in today’s context, the religiousrecede Right where, thethe traditional Left precede does notus. reinvent The wide roads andwhere stately buildings shapedifby worlds that I will in is appropriating the legacy of Ambedwithbut changed realities, some to India give way to the village-like Mylapore — the itself leave and thisengage city soon, will take comfort in kar to Town’ maintain its hegemony, the Left needs Left will. that it is as much a part of the ‘Black where the first Europeans came other the knowledge to Indianise its politics byThe engaging with and in search of raw material. larger history of worlds beyond it as the different worlds are a internalising the Ambedkarite philosophyand in- rohit the area predates the arrival of Europeans part ofteaches it. Economics at the Centre for Economic stead of seeing it as ‘identitybypolitics’.

It of is Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi the birth of Madras/Chennai a couple is a member of the Left Collective worth asking niharika mallimadugula thousand years.here whether the CPI(M) can and

All makes one

Unravelling Chennai’s past through snippet tales, forgotten ways of life, continuing traditions and surviving monuments

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Look back in anger Feminist visual tales tell of cities and spaces, restrictions and uprisings

T Drawing the Line: Indian Women Fight Back Larissa Bertonasco, Ludmilla Bartscht, Priya Kuriyan (eds.)

Zubaan Fiction ₹695

he graphic novels scene in India is exploding — there are mythologicals, homegrown superheroes, memoirs, urban fantasy all crammed together. Occupying a niche is the thematic anthology. A few years ago we saw Blaft’s The Obliterary Journal, which championed picture languages. In 2013 there was a major release with This Side, That Side, a look at Partition across borders.

Drawing the Line is part of this rise of themebased anthologies. With the tagline “Indian woman fight back”, it is a collection of 14 ‘visual stories’ set in the aftermath of the December 2012 Delhi rape case. Nisha Susan introduces the compilation saying “it’s a wonderful time to be a feminist with greedy eyes”.

She explains the context, about the upsurge post-Delhi, saying that feminists in India “have used the momentum to broaden the AGENDA conversations beyond the terror of stranger rape — to talk about work, pay, love, marriage, disability, caste, sex and everyday sexism”.

The genesis of the collection was also novel — it arose from a workshop conducted by Priya Kuriyan and two German artists, Larissa Bertonasco and Ludmilla Bartscht. The exigencies of workshop also presumably meant that there is no colour; all the stories are in pencil or monotone washes, imparting a sombre tone. ne Delhi This collective ap- is not enough to hold two political gladiators, Arvind Kejriproach means To start off, there is wal and Narendra Modi. If Kejriwal that all 14 women one problem that has his way, Delhi may soon have worked together bedevils all to be broken up into two, with territories earfor a week. anthologies, some marked between and state governSo does this ex-the central pieces are strong, ments. Fullwork? statehood for Delhi cannot be periment some are not so achieved without some space — physiTo start off, there ceding strong, and this often cal and — to the central governis one administrative problem changes from reader ment.bedevils How thisall tussle for Delhi shapes up will that to reader have wider implications in national politics anthologies, and is pieces alreadyare putting Modi in a tight spot, some even as he goesare on a media blitz for his governstrong, some ment’ssoone-year not strong,anniversary.

Realistically, for Delhi to get statehood, Moand this often di’s government would to retain areas changes from reader to have reader.

Drawing the around central Delhi, while the rest of the terLine is no exception. ritory under A ‘Lutyens DisDiti would Mistrybe takes theKejriwal. reader into the Ladies trict’ would have to be carved out, a bit like Compartment of a ‘Mumbai Local’. She draws howthethe District of Columbia (Washington on sense of belonging that we all experiDC) iswhen carved the state ofofMaryland. ence weout arefrom in the innards the great Washington is governed US Congress, animal that DC is the City. She by establishes this while the state of Maryland hasoffering an elected govworld with a few deft strokes a peep ernorthe andprivate legislature withthat the same powers as into cosmos all commuters other inside states.them. carry On paper this ‘The solution simple Reshu Singh’s Photo’sounds is structured enough.

The geographical delineation of two around taking the all-important matrimonial Delhis wouldWith facilitate an administrative dephotograph. commendable understatelineation.

Parliament could appoint a mayor ment she states that the story came out of the for the Lutyens District,that while Kejriwalwithin can runa “general restlessness develops the state free from a Lieutenant with home when a child reaches Governor marriageable ‘special powers.’

Delhi’s voters would get their age”. I also liked the visually inventive ‘Ever Afbangbyfor the buck: they can hold his governter’ Priyanka Kumar, a Moebius-strip of a mentfeaturing fully accountable law and and tale, monsters,for surfaces oforder asteroids civicdaytime amenities.

(And Lutyens snoots can have and soaps. what theyGopalakrishnan anyway consider their birthright — Kaveri takes a look at body home rule.) language and how women navigate ‘contestModi should no probedAgain space’,on topaper, use a military term have — basically all lem with this plan.

The Bharatiya public transport and city streets. Janata Party (BJP) hadcommon promisedmotifs Delhicrop full statehood in its Some up — for exammanifesto.

Add to this Modi’s own of ple, the absurdities perpetrated bymantra the ‘skin decentralising power and giving states more whitening’ industry, or women bicycling to decision-making authority. statehood for freedom.

Less originally, in aFull couple of places,

Mind games Kejriwal’s strength is his ability to keep buzzing under Modi’s nose, while having his own fief in Delhi pti

Playing it smart Kejriwal has laid out the slippery stuff; it is up to Modi to tread on or ignore it

sambuddha mitra mustafi

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Delhi is a no-brainer you would think. aren’t many distractions, while Modi has to inBut realpolitik is not played on paper. The termittently deal with the Hindutva nutters. tussle with Najeeb Jung, acting as Modi’s In the rest of the opposition — from Rahul proxy, has once again given Kejriwal a chance Gandhi to Nitish Kumar or Mamata Banerjee — to do what he loves most: punch above his no one has been able to beat the Modi wave weight. Kejriwal had stopped the Modi jugger- quite like Kejriwal, so the media will keep playnaut with his stunning victory in Delhi, and ing up any confrontation, however lopsided it his strategy is to keep being a thorn in Modi’s may appear right now. side till the 2019 elections, waiting for the The weakness is the Aam Aadmi Party’s lack prime minister to slip up. of organisation outside Delhi. Which means If Modi does slip up — particularly if he fails that even if there is disenchantment with Moto revive growth and jobs — Kejridi in the states, other parties wal wants to be the natural altermay take better advantage of it. native for the opposition to Kejriwal seems to have calculatcoalesce around, leading up to ed that it may not take more 2019. In the meantime, Kejriwal than a year leading up to the can stay in the news by scoring 2019 elections to create an insurIf Modi is able to such small victories over Modi, gent, build-as-you-go organisacoolly avoid like getting full statehood for tion and ride an anti-Modi wave.

Kejriwal’s strategic Delhi. That will only burnish his In the age of smartphones, soprovocations, while image as the eventual Modicial media and millions of 20delivering on growth slayer, not just a temporary somethings who are potential and jobs, he will Modi-stopper. nullify the opposition cadres, it is not impossible to B&W by clashes Priyanka Kumar, which features monsters and daytime soaps drawing the line So, realities with his‘Ever veryAfter’ public create a pop-up political with the government organisation. threats are central represented by ‘swarthy’, unsha- notes, the technical levels of the participants overmen, bureaucratic appointments Butwith Modi’s fate is in his ven a rather familiar visual shorthand! was wildly uneven, some drawing forown the and his demand for full statehands.

If he is able to coolly There are lots of interesting references first time. This makes for a slightly disjointed hood, Kejriwal laid opening out a banana avoid Kejriwal’s strategic provowithin the stories, up further door- reading experience.

Perhaps in the future, it skin for Modi.

By taking a confrontational poscations, while delivering on growth and ways — a piece on Irom Sharmila mentions the may be better to pair writers with artistsjobs, and ture with the underdog, then getting re- see he will the opposition. Without an antiNupi Lan or Women’s War,and when a mass armed hownullify that goes. buffedagainst by the the courts overwas thelaunched appointments, Kejriwal’s revolt British by the Modi Still wave, one can’t disagreeinsurgent with editorcampaign Priya KuModi’s government has stepped right on the will come to naught. women of Manipur. Vidyun Sabhaney’s look at riyan, who says that “the whole process made banana skin. the about other hand, if as Modi takes his off patachitra and their changing role is a fasci- meOn think my role a woman in aeye socieNow glimpse if the BJP accepts the statehood de- ty thethat economy, gets distracted thetoirritating nating at proto-comics, and at creatmore often than not by tries tell you mand, it will seem likegraphic a victorylanguage. for Kejriwal. If that Kejriwal his nose and triesimportant to quash ing an original Indian whatunder you have to say is not theInBJP tries to what block is it, striking Kejriwal about will getthe to call him, then Kejriwal would have got the end, an- enough… we all have stories to what tell…he inre-a Modi a dictator and win public sympathy. ally wants.

This is why the Modi-Kejriwal thology is that it all flowed from a week-long world dominated by stories told from barthe Kejriwal’sThis strategy hasconstriction some strengths, as male gain over Delhi’s statehood will befor sooppormuch workshop. unusual is both perspective, I am so thankful wellstrongest as some and weaknesses.

His strength is enhis tunities fun to like watch so young rife with bigger the weakest point.

The angry this, and that help woman stoability to keep buzzing under Modi’s nose, irriimplications. ergy and vitality — that demand to be heard — rytellers bloom”. tatingly close, with hissame own time fief init Delhi. come through.

At the feels aThe bit sambuddha mitraismustafi the founder of Theof capital’s media density works to Kejriwal’s ad- jaideep unudurti a graphicisnovelist and writer rushed, and the art is tacky in places. Also tsome_buddha Political Indian vantage. his partyfrom is small, there The Robots of Dharma from whatBecause I can understand the editor’s

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HOME SPUN LIGHTHOUSE

A second Letter fromchance a cow

Forests, freshwater canals, and golden trout once signified my city, but Dehra Dun has News from an English farm on a rule that allows only homoeopathy to treat sick animals become plain Dehradun. I prefer all the earlier forms but have learnt to live with the later

shutterstock

irwin allan sealy

Profile of a city Apart from the Forest Research Institute, which dates from the ’20s, Dehradun’s best wrote about an American anaesthetist during buildings date from the World War II, Henry Beecher, who had1890s to per’90s, the

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ear Amit, kum thanks to your writings. First, there’s the Thank you for the recent love song, She science behind it. The idea of homeopathy is ap/rajesh kumar singh Mooooves Me, which you wrote and dedicated that the substance that is to be used to treat form an operation on a soldier with ‘horrific to ‘all the cows on Planet Earth’. My friends the patient is so diluted that it is unlikely that injuries’. Morphine wasn’t available so he used and I here in England have it on loop onisCowtherebus is abroke singledown, molecule the substance in pray salt water.

And it worked! The placebo effect is he Himalayan mahseer a golden as itof often did, I would things, a little-known gem — the leprosarium Tube. There aretrout few humans weused like — the pills patient endsin upthe consuming.

Asmust an incredibly powerful andan well-documented my uncle toyou fishlot in the that the it would happen forest. But it at the edge of town, exquisite alpine vilenslave us, molest for milk every morning, Gardner is ‘equivalent to of effect, which is why when new medicines arebeen riverusSong just outside Dehra Dun.Martin I have been once moresaid, thanitthat distant swell lage.

Most of the leprosy chalets have and slaughter us andsaw sellone ourlanded, meat after that. taking one grain hills of rice, crushing it tous; a powdtested, they are tested placebos.

Only if never but tramping blue-green that charmed it would knocked down toagainst make room for vile structurSo we’re not very fond of your species.ofBut er, dissolving it the in awhole sphereensemble of water of thebasmati size of rice they es. do The better than placebos consida boulder-strewn bed in search theyou, right rehave been vandalism extendsare tothey humbler shapes Amit,ach wefor have alwayswas liked because you the solar the that sun called at theout, centre ered too: effective.

Homeopathic medicines mahseer to you, become for me emblefieldssystem, and teawith gardens and the our roadside antique market,always one of the understand good was listener, and the and the orbitgroves of Pluto at the andrain-blackthen fail these because hey, they’re just sugar matic ofus,theyou’re Doon.a There of course lychee and theoutside, tottering city’stests, pedestrian glories where kabaris stocked you’re so, so cute!

But thisbungalow is not merein fanDalanwala, mail. repeating that process 2city million My pills as well. forest, a tin-roofed ened long-suffering with times.’ its phonographs and grandfather I amthe unwell rightquarter, now, hugely under thecanal, mindfuddy-duddy boggles at imagining Another phenomenon I explained is old British and a freshwater clock towerthe forscale a ze- of this: clocks, now squats to byLucy a noxious weather, and Canal.

I need These to rant.

And like said, not the solar system, but the idiocy. regression to thenullah mean. outside Many ailments work the the East things, not Ithe mounro milestone. town. Today you’re a good listener. here goes. homeopathy doesn’t The in a natural cycle, where get worse and tains, made up mySoDehra Dun. Today the canal Naturally, This was in pre-Barista days. work.

In one pieceyou of open ground at the I won’t go into the details of my illness standard scientific way of testing medicines is then get better, own.a This is true is gone, the forest disappearing andwith the mahthe new century, since Uttarakhearton ofyour the city, parade ground I wonder if I woke up quite you, except to sayAnd it’s not justDun a mere Seri-plain via double-blind placebo-controlled tests,one andmorning for colds, backaches, Lu- and seer paltry.

Dehra hascold. become hand, the roads, the shops and used migraines, for circusesand andalso rallies to a flat ous shit is goingIdown, inearlier a lot offorms, pain but homeopathy has repeatedly indigestion.

But if you are in-is beDehradun. preferand all ofI’m the houses, seemingly every fronand wrestling matches, horizon whether I cy’sfairs everyhave day. learnt And how amwith I being treated? failedtage, those.

I have readup accounts believeencroached that a particular to live the later.

TheWith early ’60s has spruced a little (not might not be happierclined ingtosteadily on at evsugartown pills.isSugar f****** may of this in two you treatment works, take turned city,pills. withOh theyes, airsyou (and the air) more, this great is stillbooks the cowbelt); ery corner.

Ouryou citywill councillors, pick your jaw up from floor now, don’t recommended, Ben IGoldacre’s the once medicine, getofbetter on your and of a capital.

Whenthe I tell that boyyou sitting on the lately every time go into town I people intelligence wantcarriage a snail entering you’re allsteam-powered astonish- Bad Science andaTrick or Treatment own, and ascribe it toabandoned the medi- any steps ofwhile the speeding discover new eatery with refinement, have There are serious issues ment.Doon (Happened Lucy once.)

This is forlong real, ago)

by Simon and and Edzard cine.pretence This is the Confirmation BiExpressto(one May morning chromeSingh furniture a plateof civilisation. with my liver, I need so lethe’s me quote report month in the Ernst.glass I nodoor. longer have of as at work, and also that other goingfrom to aend up last living here, he just Over thecopies same period I Depressed at the sight of six antibiotics, the pain is London Telegraph. thosetoo books let’s just say thathouse, though I’ve city-felled one, theI park name, you write laughs.

I was after all a product of the plains, have—rebuilt my father’s treeI forget stumps, where the kabaexcruciating, and my Theofreport ‘British organic farmers areof Utthey’ve chewed often,I found which my mistakes small says: towns scattered from one end notbeen touched the and mostdigessacred part of his (or ris were about (right it where teak mapowners are being forced beingtarforced to to treat withchief ted —any) but house, I strongly recommend correlation for causation.

Pradesh the their other, livestock towns whose the roof.

Built true and strong, flat makers’ desk spanning a black drain) and go to treat me with bloody homeopathic remedies under European themconcrete to all those wishtin, to arAnyway, sobalconies I patiently ex- Bafeature was their featurelessness; noComforest, no notwho sloping that roof has for 35 spotting old iron lace in Paltan sugar pills! mission rules branded ‘scientifically illiterate’ gue with on the subject. all thisoftoshimla Lucy, and you foaming canal waters, no magical trout. yearsme withstood the interminable monsoon of zar. I pickplained up a punnet mirch (capsiby vets.I’mAlthough homeopathy has beenand I MyIndia’s friendwettest Lucy iscity. notThe into know what said, the still not enamoured of mountains, building’s finished cum) seedlings at she mydid? oldShe friend branded as if ‘rubbish’ the government’s books, though — that’s her post box; when it paudhwala’s, “Whatever!”

Then she swished wonder I woke upby one morning to a flat horinow, all except for awhy proper scold the acharwala (“No brinChiefzon Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies, orgais fullthe of grass.

And she said postman Bisht jal??!!”), her tail, a turned arounddust and whether I might not be happier, the waybrain I rains, lad who’s replaced unearth ’50s hardback jacket nic farmers have been told they must to mecalls the out, other day, “Well, had the mail under intact in stepped into a find pile myself of her at own once was in say Saharanpur, acrosstry theitSiwa“Sailiji!” and Ishoves Moti Bazar, and the fish first under an EU directive peaks whichofcame into indigestion from accidentally swallowing a dung.market.

I’d do aBest facepalm if Ithe could. liks (those “Sawa-lakh” the pre-Himathe garage door. shop in row there is the corforcelayan last year.’ snail, and wasisgiven homeopathy, and now Anyway, enough ranting.

I just to I’m range that divide us from the plains).

If aIcity its profile the great disappointner shop (location, location), andwant it’s there Yes,You’re that’ssupposed right. There areat serious I’m fine. works.”

I get all theaside thank you again for your you’re visitto feel home inissues your city, mentSoofsurely life initany Indian citythis (leaving granted a vision fromsong. an oldIfbestiary.

At the vewith but my liver, I neednowadays antibiotics, pain is extime,municipal which proves that some be as ing England, come over stand, to the glowing farm andlike a the truth is the I feel that way at matters) must cows be itscan public buildry top of please the macchiwala’s cruciating, are being forced to thickings; as some explained toIndependLucy meetpromise the girls,in we’d be sooooo Weacan’t home, and withmy theowners gate latch drawn.

All through morehumans. than halfSoa Icentury after a fairytale, is happy. perched gigantic treat the me’80s withand bloody sugar more pills! often That than somenotthe in such offergolden much in terms of hospitality, but I’ll glad’90s, when a fallacies ence we havethinking. not come up with an mahseer. humans inme thisback nonsense is understanI told herforabout the placebo effect. ly shareAlright, my sugar you. one more chance. bus believe brought here, the first blue heave First, architecture our times.

Apart from the ForI’ll pills give with this town dable,onyou’re a nonsense species, and by all onSometimes, even if you’ve been pill the Yours(In forever, the northern horizon always brought a est Research Institute, whichgiven datesafrom this monthly column, authors chronicle the means dothat whatever you want toinyourselves. containing no medicine all, if you (butcall you can call me Dotty, tee hee). sigh said, home!

I felt it my fellow pas’20s, Dehradun’s bestat buildings datethink from the Dorothy cities they home.)

But why forcetoo, it onthe usway cows? you’ve been given proper you produced start sengers they’d loosen up and be’90s — the 1890s.

Thatmedicine, busy decade I first gotnotice to know was bun- look responding to Rangers’ it. In Bad Science, Goldacre of The Trottergin to theirhomeopathy neighbours or simply the Forest College (which governors irwin allan sealy is the authort@amitvarma out the window, forgetting the video. If the and chief ministers covet) and, among other Nama and other novels

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Mahatma lives on In the face of brazen celebrations of Gandhi’s assassination at the public stage today, scholar Makarand Paranjape’s book puts the leader back on a place that is his alone

A The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi Makarand Paranjape Random House Non-fiction Ferry tale Sudhakar Vintha’s ₹599 Visakhapatnam-based Return Trucks serves as a platform that brings together truck owners and users for inter-city transport

world historical figure never ceases death: “May the soul of my master, my leader, The universalisation of the Oedipal longing, to inspire creativity. An exercise in my father rest not in peace, but let his ashes be Paranjape finds, is an instance of western culmeta-scholarship could possibly re- so dynamically alive... let the powder of his tural imperialism. But in preparing for a late the tone and content of the bones be so charged with life and inspiration death which he seemed to foresee and welgrowing literature on Mohandas Karamchand that the whole of India will after his death be come, Gandhi also bequeathed the means for Gandhi with changing times and attitudes. revitalised into the reality of freedom.” the nation to avoid colonisation anew on acClose to seven decades since his assassination, Naidu’s invocation of the paternal bond count of its culpability in Oedipal sin.

Gandhi remains a source to go to for resolu- was of the essence. Gandhi’s assassin, NathuGandhi, in the second part of this book, is tions of contemporary dilemmas. To be fair to ram Godse, and Madhav Apte, the plotter — portrayed as gradually awakening to the comthose of critical disposition, his copious vol- one the repressed psychotic craving accept- pulsions of statecraft in a modern nation, layume of published work may seem to offer one ance, the other a dissolute seeker of pleasure ing out rules of conduct for India that, at an solution now and quite another elsewhere.

— saw it as their cause to avenge an undeserv- early stage, set it apart from Pakistan. ParaPart of the reason is that Gandhi did not ing father’s connivance in the violation of njape reads these as a political bequest that recling to any recognisable political canon. He mother India. The slaying of the deemed the possibility of a invented his own. As an ideology, if such could faithless and feckless father was a tolerant and generous democrabe deemed to exist, Gandhism was reinvented way of establishing the more aucy, in contrast to the train-wreck far too much during the lifetime of its propo- thentic paternal claims of Hindu that is Pakistan today. The argunent, to be easily domesticated within any po- nationalist icon VD Savarkar. ment feeds into current preconParanjape litical brand. But through successive Naidu’s invocation of Gandhi’s ceptions but may be a little successfully reinventions a constant vein of pacifist anar- afterlife, Paranjape says, has been inattentive to the longer Gandestablishes the chism is evident, a distrust of organised appa- partially answered in certain artehian effort to grapple with the reparticularity of the ratuses of power, and a distinct scepticism facts of contemporary popular alities of statecraft. These include stigma of parricide about the dynamics of inclusion and exclu- culture. Two that he treats at conhis active sponsorship of the Kasion in nationalist ideologies. siderable length are Richard At- in the Hindu context, rachi Congress resolution of 1931 excavating epics The Makarand Paranjape’s bookincomes at a time and— an and his deliberate arm’s-length customer. trucks typically have carrying ilar need and biopic floatedGandhi ThePorter online the hile working Flipkart’s last- tenborough’s argue capacity that it between when public lifemile in India is witness to in brazen recent Bollywood relationship with the provincial marketplace to book production mini-trucks andtolight 650kg and one tonne. logistics division 2013, the remains a rarity celebrations of Aravind Gandhi’sSanka assassination.

Raho Munnabhai, about a transportagovernments that took office in noticed a The de- Lage commercial vehicles for intra-city mission here is, mand-supply supposedly, a recovery of the street tough’s amorous pursuit parts of India in the In truck with various technology mismatch for tion of goods. original the Indian nation, which and collateral discovery of 1930s. model, technology is the bigThehis boom in e-commerce, coupled with the In this business intra-cityidentity trucks. of Strangely, many companies Gandhi is believed to have profaned.

Paranjape’s choices also a risk of provinciahow TheKarrier tracks vehicles needs of frequently relocating students and gest ally. That’s There’s like Flipkart struggled to find trucks to ferry ‘Gandhi-giri’.

During hisaslifetime, thebarely man toa of relatively has lowbrow cultural lising Gandhi here, especially the professionals led to a spurt in the need for and optimises routes.

It has created one app goods even several Gandhi vehicleswas idled go on every consequential matter. The de- productions intra-city may seemtransportation to bridge the — chasm who and during his last in riot-torn for drivers another fordays clients, mostly fewto hundred metres away. Sanka, cur- person pendence such Pavan that atGuntua time of national between therently higherandiscourse on$10-billion Gandhi and he belonged equally to small andinsisted mediumthat businesses.

“The app for inestimated in- Calcutta, along withwas friends shock at hisRishikesh assassination, India’s prime min- his assimilation intointhe everyday of a na- both the nation-states that emerged out ofsays the dividuals will be released next month,” dustry India, whichlives a plethora palli and Ramanath, ister distractedly refer decision about tion. But heofleaves roomareforeager some Raj,customers who repeatedly warned the Sanka. of Forthe now, use email, Whatstart-ups to disquiet partake debris spokecould to over 400 drivers anda100 funeral arrangements to his wise counsel. over a partial and oversimplified representaDogra ruler of Jammu and Kashmir to do the of. “We are aggregators. We don’t sApp and phone calls to book trucks. small businesses to discover “Ask said Jawaharlal Nehru when an them tion of historical personality. thing out for his people and step We push toa complex Pointing thatoppressed drivers wary of empty rethereBapu,” were discrepancies not only own assets (trucks, mini-trucks et right aide came toavailability him with a query on logistics.

Soon its and birth, theconnect Indian nation was out the usually way. Viewed the endo more trips by afteral) turnoftrips preferintothis idlecontext, than incur exjust consumers in vehicle but also ThatDrivers was a measure Gandhi’s paternal au- drawn parricide, leaving a stain that suing statecost of permanent warrun, in South Asia, connecting them into with tra diesel on the empty Goel spells owners,” says Goel, co-founrates. chargedof whatever thority over the nation’s And called for effacement.

Paranjape successfully not mention the brute“We force withthem which with users out to a viable alternative. push to pedo der of ThePorter. they liked andnew there was leadership. no on the third day the of his assassination, Sarojini establishes theBengaluru-based particularity of the stigma of regions have beenthem wrapped Blowhorn is ripheral more trips by connecting withtightly users. means to track loaded vehiNaidu called life in Hinduofcontext, excavating the into the Indian nation,divided speak between vividly ofthea The gains are efficiently cles. The triohim thenback hit to upon thea memorable parricide in the another these start-ups whose address on national radioto titled ‘My Father, Do epics to argue that itisremains a rarity in the re- breach of faith the Gandhian Thata customer and with vendor, while we legacy. also take model somewhat akin to onidea of using technology make Not Rest’.logistics “Mahatma This is quite unlike the is he notsays. an avenue that Paranjape sets part of it,” linecorpus. taxi services Ola and Uber.

A though, intra-city moreGandhi,” transpar- said Naidu, ceived cultural “who lived truth in thistheir world has been social psychology of the west, where the Oedi- outAstothe explore. cost of owning and maintaining a customer looking to hire a truck ent and less for painful through translated, though by the hand of an assassin, pal longing to possess the mother, if necessary should book either through an app or the truck remains fixed, a small additional spend Bengaluru-based venture TheKarrier. is a fellow at the Indian to In a higher stage the truth.”

And Goel, then folgetting acall father out of the way, is regarded on diesel muralidharan fetches much higher returns.

The incompany’s centre.

Based on the require- sukumar Mumbai, IIT of graduates Pranav Ut- by Advancedfrom Study,aShimla lowed an invocation of his mystical power in as a primal impulse. ment, the nearest available truck is sent to the Institute come ofof₹6,000 single trip increases to tam Digga and Vikas Choudhary sensed a sim-

Trucker’s uber-cool idea Q

A new business is driving into town, inspired by taxi aggregators — online booking services for mini-trucks and light commercial vehicles to transport goods within a city and beyond it

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₹18,000 from three trips, with only a few thousand rupees more spent on extra diesel. “We are not taking away anybody’s business. We are just using technology to better utilise the trucks,” Goel says.

Interested drivers can register with any of these companies, which rope them in after verifying their background. tray of coconut-infused rum shots Eye on thefloats driverunder my nose. It’s 3.30 in the justdrivers disembarked It would beafternoon; impossibleI’ve for the my taxi, laden with to misleadfrom customers about their lo-luggage, squinting a blinding tropical cation.

“Weunder can track the driver loca- sun in Mauritius.

Local rum is the welcome tion on a real-time basis, and anyone drink at the hotel.

I waste no time getting into the found lying is penalised andinreplaced ‘spirit’ of the island, by another driver,” Goelwhich says. is beguilingly smooth sweet.

Downand south in Guntur, Andhra PraRumSudhakar is one ofVintha the mainstays the Mauridesh, failed toofobtian economy. surprising, nearlyraw 80 tain a truck forNot three days to given ferry some per cent to of Visakhapatnam. its farmable landThat is covered material pushed with him sugarcane plantations. there is something to establish a platformBut that brings together fundamentally different. pertranscent truck owners and users Ninety-nine for inter-city of the Vintha’s rum the world drinks today is rhum inport.

Return Trucks today ferries dustriel, madeIndia fromafter molasses — a are tradition goods across bookings made that goes back to the 17thcentre. century, when tradonline or through its call ers“There put the product of sugar arewaste a lot of challenges as wemanufacare dealturing touneducated good use. The otherWhile one per cent is ing with people. customers rhum agricolehaving — made from fresh sugarcane are tech-savvy, smartphones and interjuiceaccess, — and the Mauritius contributes net truck owners and significantagents are ly to We thatare stock. not. realising that mobile-based soluThe sugarcane tion is swathes the way of ahead and arefields, tryinglike to much handof thethem island’s landscape, take me by surprise. hold during the process,” Vintha says.

OfAs course, there’s the stunning of soon as a customer requestscoastline a truck, Rethe tourism brochures, but SMSes the interior is turn Trucks sends out bulk to truck largely Interested volcanic and mountainous, owners. owners bid through with SMS, jagged, bare, faces rising theprefersoil. quoting theirrock individual rates out andof load At Port thethen busynegotiate capital, the Cauences.

“TheLouis, parties andLearrive dan Waterfront is abuzz. A promenade filled at a price,” he says. with local families stretches along the harbour,rate lined with cafes, bars, and charming litThe card tle shops spilling offers over two withmodels. cane baskets, Sanka’s TheKarrier A pointtrinkets, service souvenirs and bottles of rum, in all to-point is charged on kilometre basis shapes and sizes. But there is more to the waterfront than the alluring tipple.

Thanks to its storied past, Mauritius has always had a healthy mix of cultures: Dutch, French, Indian... Colourful umbrellas are suspended over a broad avenue, bordered with boutiques, curio shops and outdoor restaurants. It’s all very European. I wonder if I should spend a few hours at the Blue Penny Museum, home to a collection of rare stamps (including the rare 19th-century Red and Blue penny stamps). However, I’m more interested in what’s outside. Quirky raw wood totems stretching up to 12ft cluster around a small space. In the middle, a rasta-cap-adorned aged

ing and selling second-hand goods.

The second-hand goods market (excluding vehicles) is pegged at ₹88,000 crore and presents a big opportunity, he says. ThePorter daily undertakes 200 transactions in Mumbai itself and and 20 in Delhi, where it launched recently.

Goel says the company has two kinds of customers — ‘on spot’ users, who require the service within 45 minutes to an hour; and institutional clients such as courier and e-commerce companies, which bring in 60 per cent of the revenues. The individual to institutional ratio is similar for TheKarrier too.

Rum mixed with fresh sugarcane juice is a way of life in the tropical island of Mauritius

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Moving a city The founders of Bengalurubased TheKarrier (from left) Pavan Guntupalli, Rishikesh Ramanath and Aravind Sanka

Merry mix Le Caudan waterfront in Port Louis has many stalls where you can sample local rum, also known as rhum agricole malavika bhattacharya

Zooming demand While none of these services own — for a mini-truck this is ₹350 for the first 3km trucks, they are experimenting with branding and ₹30 for every additional kilometre. the vehicles for greater visibility. “All our Some businesses such as courier companies trucks have our name and number. That’s a that need vehicles for five-six hours are part of the enrolment process,” Goel says. Thecharged on hourly basis. TheKarrier retains 10- Karrier, on the other hand, puts its name only 15 per cent of the transaction valon the trucks it uses on a daily baue. “Based on customer feedback, sis. Whether such branding will if the service levels are good, we lead to business growth remains reduce our charges,” says Sanka. unclear to the start-ups at the moGoel’s ThePorter charges ment. What is clear, however, is around 10 per cent as commis- While customers are the growth in demand for their tech-savvy, having sion, and this will increase to 20 services. TheKarrier, which startsmart phones and per cent after business grows, he ed in Bengaluru with 50 vehicles internet access, the in December last year, now has says. Still at a nascent stage, the truck owners and start-ups have no established 400. The number of monthly agents are not business model yet. The rates are transactions has zoomed from 55 mostly customised for businessto 800. “We want to launch in Deles. While Vintha charges a minihi and Hyderabad in the next two mum of ₹500 and a maximum of months,” says Sanka. ₹1,000 per transaction, Blowhorn For ThePorter, the next frontier charges ₹600 for the first hour itself. is Bengaluru, followed by Hyderabad and Mithun Srivatsa, founder and CEO of Blow- Chennai. “These new launches will happen by horn, says his primary business comes from June,” says Goel. individuals shifting houses and people buyThe company’s monthly transactions are growing at over 50 per cent, even as it expands into the inter-city segment. “We have tied up with some big institutions. We are developing Mumbai-Delhi inter-city logistics and will start by mid-June,” he says.

As for funding, all of them are either bootstrapping or being funded by investors.

Theshutterstock Porter diluted 15 per cent stake in April to raise islander is quietly sculpting a polished tree ₹3 scapes — from 7,500 Kae sq mCapital of undulating red, green, crore and is currently in bark. He is PEM, or Philippe Edwin Marie, a talks brownforand blue dunes.

YouIncan tour the last disa Series A round.

November Mauritian artist and local legend of sorts. He year, tilleries and taste finished Unitus Seed the Fund led theproduct. seed round incarves faces into wood: impish grins, giggling vestment There isinsome interesting food to go with Blowhorn. children and so on. your glass of rum. Mauritius’s mixed-up heriA few steps away, the Du Soleil Aux Sucres The tageroad is most apparent in its cuisine. French ahead stall is dispensing, by the roadside, beer and Nowhere and Indiannear influences blendyet, seamlessly, creatprofitability the truck agrum mixed with fresh sugarcane juice. I join gregators ing the seafood-heavy cuisine thatand the are currentlyCreole building business the locals as they line up for the heat buster. scale. island’s for. At for thebreak-even harbour-facing La “If known we are trying then we The sweetness is cloying. des Vents I eat a are not tryingRose enough,” saysrestaurant, Vintha of Return The story of rum in Mauritius is very aFrench, pepper-encrusted Trucks. “We spent long time identifying the a cocktail of its political and culof be bourgeois forviable, lunch model that fillet would scalablefish and tural past, which, unfortunately, is — mostly I’m in awe of which is more crucialbecause than clocking maxinot all happy. It starts at the Aaprathe name.

Dinner at Zilwa Attimum transactions.

We are still fine-tuning the I waste nomodel,” time in he adds. vasi (or Coolie) Ghat, a Unesco tude Resort is closer to a meal getting intoSrivatsa the World Heritage Site. This is where, home.agrees: There’s“Everyone a spread of offrom Blowhorn is island, in the early 19th century, inden- ‘spirit’ of the Indian food, own differing trying to figure out their path.only The mildmost which is beguilingly tured labour from British colonies ly from thea foothold versions in we’re important step is to get the used marsmooth and sweet (including a sizeable population to.some Currytime.” de paneer with faratas ket; it will take of Indians from Bihar, Tamil Nadu and dhol, executives eggplant fritters on the Vintha’s marketing are reaching and many other states) landed beside;truck which essentially translates out to truckers, unions and even small fore they were packed off to sugarintothe paneer, parathas dal businesses with company’s GPS and trackers cane plantations. Sadly, most with the very Bengali begun bhaja and giving free demos. never made it back home. Beon the side.services I’m stuffed Even as these newbie focus to on the extween 1834 and 1920, nearly five lakh Indians panding gills, but just we’reteam leaving, thatbase, tray theirasfleet, sizethere’s and user were brought to this side of the Indian Ocean. and of rum again. this to time, hireshots IIT and IIM Except graduates helpthey’re grow Today, Mauritius has six rum distillers. Saint the flavoured withthey lychee and that vanilla.

Dinner may business, know their business Aubin is the oldest, using sugarcane and vanil- will haveultimately been a homely but I’m not used to moveaffair, on a single crucial factor. la from its own plantations, which date back As knocking back Srivatsa post-dinner shots.“Logistics But one for Blowhorn’s explains, is to 1819. Rhumerie de Chamarel is the best built the road, say. onlythey on reliability.”

May the reliable serknown, largely because of its proximity to the vice vroom ahead. seven-coloured sands. Chamarel perhaps is malavika bhattacharya is a Delhi-based freelance writer pratap the best example of the island’s unique land- rashmi

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I SPY

One fine day Singer-actress Monica Dogra packs in a lot in just 24 hours — work, play, pizzas and pals

Fire and fury People take cover from a stun grenade and tear gas after a skirmish between locals and foreign nationals, as thousands take part in the ‘peace march’ against xenophobia in Durban on April 16 afp

7am Rise and shine. A long day ahead: shoot for a magazine, a dubbing session and a gig

7.30am However busy my day, there is always time for yoga. With my yoga buddy

9.30am Favourite meal of the day. Eggs, veggies, baked beans and toast

10.15am Everyday issue. Can’t decide what to wear. Dress from NY?

9am Feeling alive after an hour-long session.

More buddies, more smiles

10.20am Or these?A tough decision and friends not responding to messages on WhatsApp

The long road home The last remaining camp for people displaced by xenophobic violence in South Africa tells of a country with a troubled past and a volatile present

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is being served at the 10.45am None of the above!

A flowy maxiChatsworth for camp, a suburb Durban, South humid Mumbai.

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Africa. Men and children queue up for a modest meal: two slices of bread, a green apple and a brown paper cup of coffee. Women wash clothes in an open area. A few children swoosh down two slides located in the corner. Screams arise from a heated football game. Doctors from Medicins sans Frontier make their rounds. Steel-wire fences enclose the camp. Armed security men stand on guard and four police vans are parked outside. Depending on whom you choose to ask, there are either 1,037 or 912 African people living in this last remaining government camp for those displaced by last month’s xenophobic attacks in Durban.

In April, many people were killed (the official count is seven — one Ethiopian, a Zimbabwean, a Mozambican, one Bangladeshi and three South Africans) and more than 5,000 displaced in xenophobic attacks that broke out in South Africa’s third biggest city. The attacks, which began in Durban, spread even to Johannesburg. In areas of Durban, like Isipingo and Chatsworth, spaza shops (provision

shops, often run by foreigners) were looted local workers protested, demanding salary and burned down.neckpiece South African newspapers hikes.12Their ire quickly turned for11am My favourite and I wear it all noon Midday munching.

Chocotowards chip cookie reported atcoffee the supermarket, after the time incidents of arson and rape, of for- eigners withemployed some amazing eigners being hunted down and targeted. which the violence erupted.

Thousands fled their shops and homes, seekWhile thousands of South Africans took to ing refuge at the three government camps the streets in a peace march and #SayNoToXethat were set up in the city. nophobia went viral, the attacks were a throwThe reasons for the attacks reback to the horrific xenophobic main inconclusive. One of the violence of May 2008, in which causes cited for the violence is 62 people were killed and more Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini’s than 1,50,000 displaced. The provocative remarks against forgruesome image of the ‘burning’ How can I trust my eigners. “We are requesting Mozambican man remains a reneighbours who those who come from outside to cent memory. blame me for social please go back to their countries.

Anicet Bigirimana is a single ills? It’s not safe Most government leaders do not parent of six children. In 2006, anymore. I will take want to speak out on this matter he left Burundi with his wife and the bus back because they are scared of losing children on the back of a truck to to Burundi votes,” he said in an address at a come to Durban. A soft-spoken moral regeneration event held man, Bigirimana is my guide at in March. the Chatsworth camp, which However, tensions have been was the first camp to be opened rising since January, when xenoin the second week of April. As rephobic attacks took place in Gauteng prov- patriation and reintegration took over, city auince. At the camp too, immigrants said that thorities and the South African government the Durban attacks didn’t happen in isolation. closed down the other camps. Chatsworth On March 30, at a wholesale shop in Isipingo, continues to function as a temporary home to

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12.30pm Behind the scenes from the shoot. I'm almost done with it

1.30pm On my way to the studio after a change of clothes. I'm sleepy already

2pm Studio. Super-excited to dub for my next film Haye Dil

Hard times More than a thousand people live at the Chatsworth camp in Durban; (below) a shelter for women priyanka kotamraju

the displaced people from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Nowhere to run When the attacks began, Bigirimana says, he had little time to pack. “I took my children and ran. But why am I being chased away when my life is here,” he asks. Bigirimana, who worked as a truck driver for a local business, says xenophobia is a daily occurrence, rearing its head as prejudiced treatment and uncivil neighbours. Like many others at the camp, he was 4pm Lunchtime, Tastes like manna caught in the finally! brutal attacks of 2008. There from heaven have been other incidents too, he says. For instance, in 2011, the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in SA recorded an average of one killing a week. Despite the unrest in Burundi currently, he has decided to return. Nearly 1,00,000 people have fled Burundi in search of safer havens, but Bigirimana has few choices.

“How can I trust my neighbours who blame me for social ills? It’s not safe anymore. I will take the bus back to Burundi,” he says.

The marquees are overfull; a few people have attached sheets to the tent flaps to make more room. Electrical lines running through the tents provide enough electricity for only tube lights. Television sets lie defunct and mo-

bile phones can’t be charged. Baby food is in eigners have fled their politically volatile nashort supply, says Bigirimana. The govern- tions in search of better and safer lives, in ment, which had promised to make arrange- South Africa, the problem is compounded bements for school-going children, is yet to cause of an overburdened asylum system, arrange transport. According to a few people high unemployment and crime rates. “Some in the camp, meals have also been irregular. of the root causes underlying the attacks are Congolese national Daniel Dunia was cho- presumed to be competition over resources, sen as the leader of the camp to conduct nego- particularly housing and services, rivalry for tiations with the authorities. Dunia, who had employment opportunities, involvement of a computer repair shop, is critical of the vio- émigré communities in criminal activity, mislence, the management of the camps and the representation of the remarks made by King process of reintegration. “I was there in 2008. Goodwill Zwelithini Zulu, the opportunistic Since then, nothing has changed. They’re say- exploitation of remarks by South Africans, A quick photo shoot I get intoknow 10 7pm One finaland rehearsal and ing6pm seven people died butbefore I personally and incitement spread ofamazing misinformation the mood for gig night ginger beer, a gift from resourceful friends people who were killed in the attacks. What do on social media platforms,” says Tozi Mtheththey accuse us of? That we steal their jobs, wa, eThekwini municipality’s communicatheir women and sell drugs. We’re better at tions head. our jobs, it is the choice of the women who According to the office of the UNHCR, South they want to marry, and if the crime rates are Africa attracts one of the highest refugee pophigh, it is the police who is answerable,” he ulations in the world. There are 65,000 recogsays vehemently. In nearly two months of the nised refugees and around 2,30,000 people camps being set up, Dunia says, seeking asylum. The unemploythere has been just one meeting ment rate is a high 25-27 per cent, with the authorities. “Reintegrawhich means that one in four tion is a two-way process. But they South Africans is unemployed. won’t talk to us. They have to conThe UNHCR, in its profile of the A 2006 survey, vince me that it is safe to go back country, states that “South Afriundertaken by the to the communities. What do we ca’s national legislation incorpoSouth African go back to? I have heard of my Eth- Migration Projection, rates the basic principles of iopian brothers who returned but found that 68 per cent refugee protection, including were killed.” freedom of movement, the right of South Africans to work, and access to basic sowere opposed to Two sides cial services. However, some pubforeigners As expected, the official version lic institutions do not recognise differs from the stories from the refugees’ permits, preventing camp. “We have daily meetings to them from benefiting fully from resolve issues,” says an official, these rights.” who prefers to remain anonySmall businesses have been hit mous. “Thousands of foreigners have been hard by the fresh burst of violence. A 2006 sursuccessfully reintegrated and repatriated,” he vey, undertaken by the South African Migra12am Pizza party,over photos and giggles Calling it afound night. Selfie sleepy adds, watching a fresh consignment of tion 2am Projection, thatbefore 68 per cent of supplies just outside the camp. United Na- South Africans were opposed to foreigners tions High Commissioner for Refugees starting small businesses and 68 per cent also (UNHCR) spokesperson Tina Ghelli believes didn’t want them to obtain South African citi“the basic needs of those displaced were met zenship. Despite being derogatorily called at Chatsworth.” The displaced people are also amakwerekwere, migrant populations — espebeing offered reintegration packages, which cially Somalis and Zimbabweans — have a repconsist of two months’ rent, food and domes- utation for intelligence, hard work and cheap tic item vouchers. “We will also look at provid- labour in an informal economy. Forty-nineing starter kits to help families restart their year-old Thobi Sthembile, who has a curio livelihoods,” adds Ghelli. Dunia expectedly shop in Victoria Market, central Durban, says scoffs at the reintegration package. “What that businesses have suffered. We were her good will that do? We want refugee status, re- first customers in two weeks. Her Zimbabsettlement,” he says. “I was traumatised by wean employees sought temporary shelter in her shop before leaving the country. Strugwhat happened. I am disappointed now.”

Since the April attacks, questions over South gling to pay this month’s rent, the single Africa’s treatment of foreigners have cropped mother says, “This feels like war.” up yet again: Are South Africans xenophobic, perhaps even Afrophobic? While most for- priyanka kotamraju

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Who is an Assamese?

shutterstock

With Assam home to more than 30 ethnic groups, easy classifications prove elusive. We need to guard against a definition that uses religion or language as a discriminatory tool

Odd ball in the court Competing claims by two rival factions seeking control of the Basketball Federation has thrown a spanner in the works of one of India’s fastest growing team sports

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ess than a year ago, #IndiaBasketball ners of BFI, chose to freeze funding until the is- now the Indian basketball fraternity was unwas trending on Twitter. The sport sue is resolved. With BFI unable to continuing touched by the motivated interventions ramwas all over the news, thanks in part paying salaries of its staff, a domino effect fol- pant in other federations. However, the entry to the senior men team’s memorable lowed. The contracts of national women’s of sports businesses such as IMG-Reliance and win over Asian powerhouse China, and to the head coach Francisco Garcia and strength and NBA over the last few years has, in no uncercontroversial ban disallowing turbans for conditioning coach Tommy Heffelfinger were tain terms, led to politicking in order to cash Sikh players. Prior to that, in late 2013, the either not renewed or abruptly terminated. in on the newfound riches. women’s team recorded its first victory in the Matters became worse when popular men’s Last week, the media cell of the KBA released elite Level 1 in Asia, cementing its position as a head coach Scott Flemming, instrumental in an email from the International Basketball top five side in the continent. Soon after, in India’s recent successes, put in his papers to Federation, also known as FIBA. This letter rec2014, the first all-India national championship take up a college assignment in the US. ognises Govindraj as president and Chander of the Indian School and College Leagues was “I really wished I would’ve had another Mukhi Sharma as secretary general of the new launched. On the international front, 7-ft 5- chance to take it through another year, but it BFI governing body. inch giantfrom Gursimran Bhullar worked out differently,” said Flemming This intervention should catalyse Up inCanadian arms Thousands the Bodo(Sim) community rally forjust a separate Bodoland state, August 2013; perhaps itin is time that theFIBA Bodos be described as residents of the probecame theritufirst player of Indian origin to set an exit interview, indicating that the uncer- ceedings in the Delhi High Court and perraj konwar Assam state foot in the American basketball league, the tainty within BFI influenced his suade the Ministry of Youth NBA. He or wasdecades, followednot by weeks SatnamasSingh, a sev- decision to leave.

Affairs and Sports and the IOA to is home to over 220 separate and religious groups — remains the worst. hills. This region the recent en-footerdiscourse from Punjab, declaring for And With governing bodies resolve this matter expeditiously. why two is it that the issue has remained unre- ethnic groups and more than 30 of them are in Assam wouldhimself have us bethe 2015 lieve, NBA Draft, another for an Indian. claiming status, issue comparison in Assam, which We tried toofcurrent has overspeaking 70 per cent the rethe people of first Assam, especially solved for‘official’ 30 years?

Thethe closest And then, the story Indian basketball found its way to of theMaharashtra, gion’s population.

IndianThis players, but they declined diversity is not helped which comes to mind is that its scholars andoflitterateurs, politic- inevitably The IMG-Reliance takes a different turn, just like the High Court to comment suspension, by the fact that although fearing the religious breakwhere,Delhi thanks to the Shiv through Sena, the issue of Maians and bureaucrats, media andproverbial activists, court. flame that debating is brightest before goingtaking out. An dated March and May expressing up is clear — while about simultaneously 64 per cent Hindu and 34.2 rathi manoos keeps 26 coming up,6,withgroup, the tar-commercial have been — and at times to orders partners ongoing deadlock between rival factions a leaning toward the those hope— that theis that FIBAthe approval getedshowed population now being fromof BFI, per chose cent Muslim the fact former the streets, even coming to two blows or worse — 2015 to freeze funding within the Basketball of India (BFI) Govindraj accepted that would sort things out amicably. comprises many different over what constitutesFederation an ‘Assamese’.

Clause ‘Northern camp.

India’ Itrather than until the issue is is to reverse considerable the BFI president “Definitely the Indigroups the andmorale tribes,ofwhich do the ‘South Indians’ who can wereanSixthreatening of the 1985 Assam Accord,the which sought to only resolved gains the lasttoyear-and-a-half.

AGMs. Subsequently, it rean not basketball fraternity hasorbeen speak in one voice see singled out earlier. bring of closure the bloody yet remarkable nounce It started off the with outgoing BFIUnion Presi- fused curtail theliessouthern affected,” saidon Jayasankar Menon, eye-to-eye most matters.

AsPart to of the reason in Asstruggle led by Allthe Assam Students dent calling for an Annual bid todiversity. gain control over a former Asian All-star player.

“We sam’s extreme This resam is a classic case of numer(AASU)RStoGill define outsiders (in this caseGeneral Bangla- faction’s In Assam, getting a Meeting (AGM) in Bengaluru onunresolved: March 27, BFI’s website and regisan IndianofBasketousmooted major minorities ethnic deshis), left a fundamental issue flects official the larger region to consensus on any issue is have 2015.

This AGM announced appointment in Delhi.

Association with linguistic groups, which whichoffice it belongs, not just politwho or what is an Assamese?the It sought consti- tered difficult because the ballandPlayers of K Govindraj, president Karnataka BasketNews infighting in Indian communities have long many former playersincreasingly on board.” have become butofalso geographically. tutional, legislative and of administrative safe- ically ball Association and BFI senior vice-presfederations, ironically, news, known fragmented are withusually time, leading Here getting a consensus on is not guards for the (KBA) Assamese, without defining sporting been opposedThe to best or administrations ident, as the new BFI president. The AGM also even when is it leads to international derecogni- of by their work to behind the scenes while the any issue difficult because outbreaks of anger and viothem further. suspicious each other passed resolution abolishing BFI that CEO tion.

The Hockey Federation struggled with ri- limelight stays lence on the players.

When an adwhere larger groups in It maya appear strange to many the Indians the communities have long post

by Roopam Sharma.

Ignoring theand de- val Amateur Boxing ministration works smoothly, a well-oiled the valley haveit’s preyed upon beengroups, opposed the to orIndian suspicious suchheld an issue continues to generate heat velopments in and Bengaluru, a parallel AGM was Association was suspended by its internation- engine that makes novulnerable sound, so that more ones.the focus of each other.

Assam lies in the anger, division confrontation, even bloodheld the day, Delhi. whereIn BJP MP al over allegations of electoral rigging, stays on the road ahead.

For Indian basketball, The Bodos, the largest plains lapbody of the eastern Himalayan shed,in inPune a state sofollowing distant from addiPoonam the president of the the is country’s athletes couldn’t some re-calibration in order. tribeiswith a Territorial Council rim and bisectedOlympic by the vast tion to Mahajan all the (also challenges it faces of and Maharashtra Basketball Association) and compete for months under the between tricolourBhudue of its own, have furiously opposed the idea Brahmaputra.

It is landlocked underdevelopment, natural disasters, esper is a Bengaluru-based Sharma were appointed president and to corruption against Indian range Olympic tan, Arunachalcharges Pradesh, the Patkai of gopalakrishnan proposed by the Assam Sahitya Sabha that Ascially flooding, conflict — BFI’s remember the hora andwho, co-creator of Ekalavyas.com, secretary general, and respectively.

(IOA) officials. samese arewriter those “irrespective of comrendous killings displacements of 1983 Association Nagaland, the blue hills of Mizoram, the Shil- independent news websitereligion and place of origin, The IMG-Reliance group, commercial part- long Politics goes where moneyJaintia flows, and until munity, language, plateau and the Khasi, Garo basketball and 2012 involving different ethnic, linguistic

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accept Assamese as their mother tongue or in language, but also in culture and way of their second or third language”. A spokesman life… To the Assamese the distinctive features for the Bodo Sahitya Sabha, a literary organisa- of their culture are inseparably connected tion (which accepts Devanagari and not Assa- with their religious institutions.” mese as the script, an outcome of prolonged The latter are the satras or monasteries of struggle against the Assam Sabha and Assam’s reformist Vaishnavism that the saint-scholar political leadership) attacked the Assam and cultural pioneer Srimanta Sankaradeva group’s definition saying that the state would developed in the 15th century. Today, there is now have to provide safeguards to foreigners no politically acceptable definition of the ‘Aswho were willing to accept Assamese as their samese’. A statement by an umbrella group of ishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) plans to take organisations led by AASU declared that first, second or third language. the PM’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to a different level altogether. It wants to purge theMany ethnic groups in the state do not wish “those whose names, irrespective of caste, to be called Assamese as they believe that they community or religion, were included in NaGanga at Rishikesh of rafting, in a bid to purify have suffered second-class treatment at the tional Register of Citizens (NRC) 1951 were Asits banks from ‘obscene activities’ such as minsamese and eligible to enjoy of the ‘Assamese’ elite. gling of the sexes and drinking. Accordinghands to safeguards as promised by them, white water rafting — which draws moreThe Merriam-Webster dictioClause Six of the Assam Accord”. nary provides several definithan four lakh tourists annually to Rishikesh But this in turn raises more questions of what constitutes ‘Assam’ from India alone — defiles the banks where tions than it answers: what and ‘Assamese’: the first refer‘sadhus and sants gather to meditate’. If VHP about those who moved out of ence has its way, it means a loss of at least ₹16 lakh a is to “a black tea grown in The dictionary’s first Assam pre-independence or northeastern India” and anothyear for the Uttarakhand government. definition of post-independence, post-1951 to er to Assam, India (First Known Assamese is not Use: 1842); a third is that it is a other parts of India and the language but state in NE India on the edge of Northeast? What about those geography the Himalayas, while an Assawho were residents of Meghaand location mese is defined as a native or inlaya when it was carved out of Ashabitant of Assam, India and as sam in 1972? What about the the Indo-Aryan language of Asmigrants who moved into Assam sam. From my perspective, it is post-1951? We cannot be blind to important to stress the followthe constitutional provision that ing: while discounting the use of tea, the dic- gives every Indian the right to move and settle tionary’s first definition of Assamese is not in other parts of the country (except, obvious- we cannot lose sight of the fact that time, daily language but geography and location. ly, in defined areas where such settlements are incomes, livelihoods and lives of ordinary f you never getAssamese, to see a Rubik cube’s controlled by law as in Jammu and Kashmir, people are lost, and growth hampered, if the The Audrey In her classic work ane Austen purists,debate hold oncontinues to your teacups. know you have quintillion permutations, at take Mizoram, Nagaland, etc).

Cantlie, who 43 taught social anthropology withoutWe resolution. neverisreally approvedPerhaps of lip-locks their way tele- isheart.

Founder Erno Studies Rubik in took What we need to guard against the School of Oriental and African a definione sneaking way of tackling this into sensitive vised versions of Austen’s In Jane world,location men discover them himself.

London andweeks whose to father served in Assam for tion that uses religion or language as a dissue is novels. to ensure thatAusten’s geographical women never you tut-tut.

They turned pale orthe rushed Looking for way to show 3-D“The move- criminatory tool, especiallyand 40 years, describes the aAssamese thus: against those of kissed, forms part of the definition: thus, Bodos outDimapur of parlours.

Mullan, aasleading expert onBomentis to sometimes his students,used Rubik term ‘Assamese’ toended those up Bangla origin (remember the mobBut Professor could alsoJohn be described members of the Passions and ballots (Top) Members of All Assam Student Austen,Karimganj has discovered kiss (the horror!) in the state. pages Both of Emma. making cube. who are citizens of the Assam: inThe thisall-logic sense itpuzzle in- killing of a Muslim from Assam’s doatribe resident in Assam definiUnion (AASU) have played a role scene is set in Mrs Bates’ cramped sitting room. Mrs Bates is appearslabour to have poetic begin- district who was accused of The cludes tea garden andhad Mymensinghi rape, whose sibtions would be accurate. in defining who is an Assamese; asleeparmy, and Jane nings.

The waters of itDanube river lings were serving in the Indian settlers. More generally, however, is used to and Fairfax is peering out of the window. Frank (below) the state is home to Churchill, the mansanjoy she is inhazarika love withis and secretly weaving past pebbles inspired Director, Centreengaged for North to, East denote the indigenous or long-settled inhabit-the who was alleged to be a ‘Bangladeshi’?).

The numerous ethnic groups is continue assiduously good “I put it to ritu raj konwar characteristic twisty move- struggle to define ourselves will ants who arecube’s recognised as Assamese, not only Studies,the Jamia Milliaaunt’s Islamia,spectacles.

Delhi butmending you they’ve been snogging,” says Prof Mullan. “Would he realment, says Rubik. Rubber bands, paly say, ‘Sorry, can’t talk, I’m mending some glasses? I think per clips and wood held together the they’ve been at it, in a Regency sort of way.” While this is a prototype of the best-selling toy of all surprising turn of events, what’s more shocking is that Multime. Last heard, 5.25 seconds was lan read the book 15 times before spotting the ‘kiss’! what it took to crack it. As for Rubik, he still takes a minute.

Rafting = Obscenity Ganga only for ‘sadhus and sants’, says VHP

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Toying around The twist in the Rubik cube story

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Banned by Rafa

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Nadal goes head-to-head with tennis umpires

eet Alan The Rabbit. It is grey, furry and harmless. Just the kind of thing you’d like to stroke, pet and tweak the nose of. Well, he is now Alan the Dead Rabbit. Or Alan the Rabbit Ragoût — just the kind of thing you’d like to chew, savour and twist around your fork.

Denmark never had much news to hit the headlines, so the story of a radio host demonstrating how a rabbit goes instantly from pet to dish was sure to send ratings through the roof. Animals lovers were enraged, “Bloody murder,” they cried. While the radio station certainly erred on the side of sensational, we must ask whether all those purported animal lovers scream “Bloody Murder” every time they pass the cold storage of a supermarket.

A startling new discovery in Jane Austen’s Emma

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Pet to fork

If you can’t bludgeon it, don’t eat it

Regency snog

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ourteen-time grand slam winner Rafael Nadal is fast losing his halo. And now Rafa has banned top umpire Carlos Bernardes from officiating his matches. His fault: Penalising Rafa for exceeding the 25second limit between points. Sure, tennis has some absurd rules. Think ‘ball abuse’ and ‘audible obscenity’. (Psst, prove your tennis gyaan, by dropping these terms in everyday conversation.) But Rafa really doesn’t have a case here. He is known to be a slow player on court — spending inordinate time with his towel and in the loo. For a match in February, which Bernardes was officiating, Rafa turned up wearing his shorts back to front. Obviously that hindered his movement. During changeover, when he took a while putting them on the right way, the umpire issued a stern warning. Upset, Rafa lost the match in three sets. And then banned Bernardes. Dismissing the uproar at his decision, Rafa airily said, “It’s not personal… just better if we (Carlos and him) don’t see each other for a while.”

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saturday, may 30, 2015

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya On a holiday

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t’s that time of the year when the temperature across most of India crosses Sourav Ganguly’s test batting average. Perfect time for a quiz on holidays and tourist attractions!

here,there & elsewhere

Vegetarian blues O

ne of the first pieces of kitchenware I invested in when I moved to Elsewhere three years ago, was a pressure cooker. I’d heard it would help lower my electricity bill because it cooks so fast. But I didn’t know the first thing about feeding myself in those early days and the pressure cooker was soon shrouded in cobwebs.

That changed after Bins came to live here. He’s not a fussy eater and neither am I. It may be the one area in which we are highly compatible: so long as a meal is reasonably fresh, non-toxic and fully cooked, we’ll eat it. Growing up in India, he knew all about the mysterious magic of pressure cooking. He taught me how to use mine overnight. The American models don’t produce the loud shrieking whistle that so terrifies me. Instead the knob on the lid just rocks very gently with a faint puttering sound. So it’s altogether a happier experience.

My favourite thing to make these days is a beef curry. It’s based on a biryani recipe given to me by one of my nieces. It’s a set of written instructions, worded rather like a construction kit, with numbered steps and precise quantities. I often make just the meat curry without the rice. At the risk of sounding like an advertisement for pressure

cornerstone

cookers, the meat gets cooked to perfection. So I’m in my tiny kitchen, contentedly watching the counterweight rocking on my cooker when I hear the sound of Bins’ approaching footsteps outside the front door.

“Oi,” he says. “You know how you’re always complaining that we never meet anyone here?” I tell him that he’s the one who complains, not me. “Well, never mind who complains,” says Bins, “because today I have met someone! A very nice man. I’ve invited him for lunch.” Oh noooo, I wail. Please give me plenty of advance warning! “Of course,”

1 says Bins. “He’s parking his car right now.” Then there’s a knock on the door and in walks Jiggs.

“Hi!” he says, coming straight into my kitchen. “Call me Jiggs — it’s not my real name you know? Haha.” He’s Indian and speaks with a strong, nasal, American accent. “So nice to meet you, Mrs____?” “My name’s MANJULA,” I say, in a voice like the next Ice Age. “Ha! Mrs Manjula. Very nice. You must be a Bengali, of course?” He is of medium height, the colour of milky tea, clean shaven, with a full head of black, shiny hair. Wearing a black tee-shirt with an Om sign on it and blue jeans. “It’s very kind of your husband to invite me for lunch? We Indians are so hospitable, you know? Whatever you’re making, it smells WONDERFUL!” “It’s a beef curry,” I say. Whereupon Jiggs leaps back as if he’s been stung, shaking his head vigorously. “No, no. I’m a strict vegetarian!” “Dearie me,” I say, “how sad. Goodbye!” Bins sees him out.

“You scared him off!” he says when he returns. “You are not a kind person!” “No, I’m not,” I agree, grinning wickedly as I turn off the heat. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes about her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

In which country does the law designate 36 hours of holiday from every Friday afternoon till Sunday morning, but citizens not belonging to the majority faith are allowed to choose Friday, Saturday or Sunday as their main weekly holiday.

2

The Roman Catholic charity Caritas, earns about €3,000 a day, about €1.26 million annually, from which tourist activity? Think Italy.

3

On March 23 every year, Bolivia observes a national holiday with parades and the ritual playing of seagull cries and ship horns. What are they observing ?

4 5

Which country celebrated a holiday in 2008 for an electoral result in another continent?

It continues to be a national holiday.

Which leisure activity became popular after the success of Jules Verne’s Five Weeks in a Balloon in 1863 and H Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines in 1885?

6

Which film’s success was attributed to the British public’s fascination with a certain Margaret and her goings-on with her divorcee boyfriend Peter Townsend?

7

Which Shakespearean play is named after the occasion of the Feast of Epiphany that commemorates the visit of the Magi to infant Jesus?

8

If you are travelling through Sukna, Rangtong, Gayabari, Tung and Agony Point where would you be going? And how would you be travelling?

9

The festival of Holi features centrally in the plot of Sholay. But which other Amitabh Bachchan film starts with a double murder on Diwali?

10

Which Indian tourist destination in the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh is named after the British administrator James Andrew Broun–Ramsay?

Answers

1. Israel. People belonging to the Jewish faith may not work on Saturday. The other religions have a choice depending on their preferences 2. Tossing coins into the Trevi fountain in Rome. Every day the fountains are stopped for an hour so that city workers can salvage the coins 3. The loss of sea access after they lost the battle of Calama to Chilean forces. Since then, Bolivia has been a land-locked country. Bolivia, though, has not given up, and the case is with the International Court of Justice at The Hague 4. Kenya, after Obama’s victory in the US Presidential elections, as his father was from Kenya. Perry County in Alabama has also declared the first Monday in November as Obama day 5. The safari. After the success of these two books, safari writing also became a popular genre in the adventure books category 6. Roman Holiday, starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn was inspired by Princess Margaret’s romance with a ‘commoner.’ The film also helped make the Vespa scooter an international style icon 7. Twelfth Night 8. To Darjeeling from Siliguri on the heritage toy train.

More than one Hindi film has immortalised the journey, but Aradhana’s ‘Mere Sapno Ki Rani’ probably remains the most well-known 9. Zanjeer, also Amitabh Bachchan’s first major hit, released in the early 1970s 10. Dalhousie; Lord Dalhousie was James’ title

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

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