Blink issue 77 july18 2015

INTELLECTS IN EXILE Liberal utopia versus excel sheet growth and nationalism is the red hot issue in India right now p5 saturday, july 18, 2015

partha pratim sharma

As the average age of CEOs falls below 40, India Inc struggles to balance chutzpah with prudence. For now, coaches seem to be the answer p10

A guru for the corner office

LOOKING AHEAD Ranked 343 in UPSC, Beno Zephine is India’s only visually impaired IFS officer p4

BYE! BYE! RHINO In the sixth mass extinction, human activity will kill more species than any other epoch p22

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Age of extinction Human activities — habitat modification, change of land use and pollution — will lead to the extinction of numerous species at a rate unprecedented in the history of the planet

Big picture No crop can grow without pollinators (such as bees) kr deepak; (above) Pollination is an ‘ecosystem service’ we humans derive from lands such as the Western Ghats bhagya prakash k Danger looming The extinction of the rhino will bring devastating changes to land. The ecosystem will go off-kilter in the absence of the apex consumer ritu raj konwar

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Blindly ahead

t the start of the 20th century, there were five lakh rhinos in the wild; glistening in their body armour, horns intact, they wielded a disproportionate influence in the savannahs. It was a time when numbers were their strength, and this keystone species and mega-herbivore held together entire grassland ecosystems. Today there are 29,000 in the wild. By 2050 there will be none. Plant species that populated the grasslands are no longer extant, and the large, natural carbon ith sinks have disappeared. thetoo BJP government, under Like in the Pleistocene period (orofthe Ice Age the leadership Narendra extinction), when megafaunal such as Modi, pushingspecies a development the woolly mammoth and mastodon died out agenda, what everyone seems and forests grasslands, the extincto agree on replaced is that the environment, forests tion the rhino willgot bring and of wildlife have thedevastating short end changof the es to land.

The will are go completely stick.

Almost allecosystem the green laws in the procoff-kilter in the absence of apex consumer. ess of being subverted orthe completely rewritSay to the sixth phase of mass extinction. tenhello to make way for industry.

Statutory bodies A the paper published in wildlife Sciencemag last like national board for and forest month, ‘Accelerated human-inadvisorytitled committee havemodern undergone severe duced Entering the mass dentalspecies surgerylosses: and are left with nosixth teeth.

The extinction’, reveals perhaps the deadliest only minister in thethat cabinet charged with promass extinction so farenvironment is underway. and forests tecting the country’s This paper and an earlier (2014) research pathinks his ministry is a ‘road block ministry’, per biodiversity of speciesupand their and —is ‘The working towards speeding environrates of clearances. extinction, distribution protecmental It’s no holdsand barred for tion’, also published in Sciencemag — confirm ‘development’. theWhile sixth mass extinction event, at athemselves rate 1,000 the ‘greens’ are shouting times than ever “It took four hoarse,faster the majority of before. urban India perhaps years finalise (the findings),” the the leadenviauthinkstothis is inevitable.

Conserving thor of the paper,important, Dr Gerardo Ceballos, ronment is, 2015 of course, but as a desaid from nation Spain. we have to use our natural veloping resources to develop. With almost 30 per cent Missing pieces 1.2 billion people living in povof the country’s In 2014, the International for Conservaerty, without basic needs Union — housing, electricition of Nature Red List, which classifies ty, clean water(IUCN) and proper food — being met, species based on threat level, facing assessed the ‘development’ challenge the71,576 govterrestrial freshwater species — 860 ernment isand huge.

We are a democracy, andspeit’s cies species identithe were need extinct, of the 21,286 majority thatwere apparently fied as threatened. counts, not a few elite conservationists.

One in four mammals, onestory. in eight birds, But this is not the whole Humanity one in three amphibians, halfcapital’— of all torthe world over depends on and ‘natural it

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toises and freshwater turtles face extinction in rate of 2 E/MSY (two extinctions per 100 years the near future. According to the 2014 study, per 10,000 species, a highly conservative estion average, 52 of nearly 22,000 species move mate), the extinction rate should’ve been 9 E/ “one Red List category closer to extinction MSY. But Ceballos’s study notes that in 114 each year.” Nearly 132 plant and animal species years, 468 more vertebrates have gone extinct, in India are listed as critically endangered in including 69 mammal species, 80 bird spethe Red List. cies, 24 reptiles, 146 amphibians and 158 fish, The problem is further compounded as less with rates eight to 100 times higher than the than three per cent of the 1.9 million species background rate. known to us has been assessed by the IUCN. To add to this staggering math, more than 10 mil- Brick in the wall lion species be discovered. is the basisareofyet alltoother forms of capital, It’s yetwhen 2050itand rhinos are still itaround the not water rains, and releases slowly growth, development and everything else. (despite of one rhino through the the alarming year. But figure when the slopes are Death race rivers, crops, land are the basis of poached The forests, everyexotic five hours).

Despite being planted with trees, the rivuletnot becomes In fiveand mass extinction events, lifethe on previous this planet, provide valuable eco- apex predators, theyin areheavy keystone a torrential stream rain,species, causingvital imspecies were wiped out in massive system services, without which we asnumbers. a species to an ecosystem’s it as a mense erosion as survival. it moves“Think along,ofand will For instance, the Permian extinction, nickwould not survive.

We directly depend on brick wall. One byinone, aremonths. being recompletely dry up the bricks summer All named ‘The Great Dying’, them for food, fibre, fuel,saw raw materials for these rivulets moved.

When a keystone species come together to form the 96 per cent all lifeWe going ex- on our natural streams and houses and of shelter. depend goes, thethat wallflow crumbles.

In time, it rivers out of the mountinct; and in the Devonian environment forLate regulating climate and rain- tains and sustain will collapse andof so people will humanimillions across extinction, three-quarters of cycling. Nitro- south India.ty,” fall, for water purification and Ceballos. if the current Butsays in our need toOrhave more elecIf the current rate of all out. for So what if genspecies cyclingdied is vital growing rate of steel, extinction continues, in tricity, aluminium and othextinction continues, we are in the middle of a much crops, flood protection, disease just three human we er minerals, damslifetimes, and mining in just three human faster sixth extinction?

Won’t control, to give a few examples. would havetolost continue eatour intobiodiversity. these hills. lifetimes, we would ecosystems and species diverEnvironmental estimate Of course, weagencies need electricity have lost our sify?

Won’t Falling apartthe human being the value of ecosystems at $33ittriland metal ores, but should be There is just no space biodiversity remain However,largely naturalimmune systems to are lion percost year,oftwice that of producat the water? in our country to such changes? breaking down around us. Take tionOur fromfood human activities. system is another ‘develop’ along Most evidence for thesystems curthe Shola grassland In the case studynature-versus-developwhere things are gothe western rent extinction points a finger across the Western Ghats, for exment CeballosNo says, “there ing debate, badly wrong. crop can industrial model at human for commuthe accelerated rates. is no conflict”, ample.

Theactivities indigenous one can’t be pitted against—the grow without pollinators an “The species extinction other. To get a‘ecosystem nitiesoverarching in the hills driver alwaysofvalued more complete picture, “What service’ we humans is human population growth and increasing should be examined the grasslands, but no one lisis the relation between derive from natural capital.

One per capita consumption,” the 2014 study. poverty and environment.” tened to them.

They weresays conof the first global valuations of Habitat change of landand use,were polsidered modification, ‘wastelands’ by the British, Extinction, in many and onNature small and ecosystem services in cases the journal vallution introduced species major coneither and planted over with exoticare plantations of large scales, is a natural process, never beued the ‘pollination pest controlbut services’ for tributors to extinction. pine, eucalyptus or wattle trees, or given over fore has a single species ours and — been solely agriculture provided by—bees other inrate (or the death rate) is shown toExtinction ‘development’.

‘Modern’ science now shows responsible events.

What would sects in the for US such alonemass at $240 billion per year, as ofgrasslands species going time, usfractions that these are extinct vital forover water cy- the withoutgenetically the hundreds of andWestern at 1994 Ghats prices.beModern modithat extinctions per through million species-years cles. is, A rivulet that runs a valley with amphibian species,over the thousands Himalayanofsubalpine fied crops spread acres in(E/MSY).

Both papers the death natural grasslands oncalculate both sides will flowrate in a conifer without pine trees, and the tensivelyforests managed by agri-businesses cannot on the basis of the ‘background extinc- floodplains steady trickle all through the rate year,ofthrough of Assam without its rhinos? support bees, and they are dying out across tion’, which isofmeasured in theofabsence of huthe heaviest rain and most the summer. much of the ‘developed’ world. It’s reached a kotamraju man activity. Since 1900, on thethat background The grasslands act like a sponge soaks up priyanka point where bees are artificially reared, im-

In the environment vs. development debate, we forget that natural capital — forests, rivers, land — provide ecosystem services, without which we as a species would not survive

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ported from other countries and released over the crops to pollinate it. And then they all die out with no suitable habitat. The next move is to try and develop robotic bees. Is this an exciting new development or sheer lunacy?

The diclofenac-vulture is another classic example. A cheap drug that acts as an anti-inflammatory and painkiller, diclofenac was extensively used for livestock in the 1990s. Vultures that fed on diclofenac-treated carcasses died, and we saw a spectacular 99.9 per cent reduction in vulture numbers across South Asia. Everyone agreed that this was unfortunate, but it didn’t bother us. However, vultures, in their inconspicuous way, unknown to most of us, provided an essential service — of cleaning animal carcasses, vital for a country like India, which is home to half a billion livestock. With no vultures to clean up and dead animals piling up, the population of feral dogs shot up to 18 million. But they are not as efficient. They make a mess by scattering animal bones and rotting tissue, spreading diseases like rabies and polluting water bodies.

And there are other unquantifiable losses — the Parsis’ towers of silence and Tibetan sky burial rituals depend on vultures. These communities now grapple without key functions of their traditional funeral customs.

So what?

Again the average urban Indian will say, ‘Yes yes, all that is fine and conservation is vitally

One size doesn’t fit all India cannot follow the standard trajectory of other developed nations. We have a unique challenge with our high population density that demands creative solutions to preserve our environment reuters / jayanta shaw; k ananthan

and water. Second, almost every ‘developed impossible trajectory they began many decnation’ lives well beyond its means, using oth- ades ago. All the development we are now purer countries’ resources while somesuing is essentially to make room for times managing to conserve its large corporations and big busiown. We are also trying our ness. There will, of course, be best to copy the same unripple effects and tricklesustainable model of dedowns, but the growth bevelopment, with land ing talked about is most grabs in Africa by Indilikely going to improve an corporations. But the lot of the top seven we are still eating into per cent, and possibly our own limited natupull a few more people ral resource base fasinto this category. But ter than ever before. it’s not aimed at the The Indian forest policy poorest of India, those recommends that the most in need of developsafe amount of forests that ment. NGOs, people’s movethe country needs is 33 per ments and civil society cent of the country’s land. We groups are all labelled ‘anti-deare now at about 20 per cent, velopment’ and are currently with natural forests being feeling the wrath of the state uncleared (and in the best of cases leashed upon them.

A farmer knows every replaced by monoculture planLet’s be honest, even most of corner of his land — tations) at an alarming rate. us urban elite who directly benewhat crops will grow The democracy argument fit from the corporatisation of best where — in a way put forth for the primacy of deIndia (who like to call ourselves that MNCs never can velopment is also not entirely the ‘middle class’) have rural true. Few Indians benefit from roots if you go back a few generthis development and growth. ations. Though we have more India is unique in terms of money, ‘purchasing power’, live what most of its people do for a living. Ninety longer and have vastly improved some health three per cent of the employable Indians fall indices, we also know that our agricultural into the unorganised category. And 50 per grandparents or great grandparents ate

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important, but do you deny the fact that we need to develop? Look at all the western nations and how well they manage their environment while also leading lives of comfort.’

But India cannot follow the standard trajectory of other developed nations for two reasons.

First, we have a unique challenge with our enormous population that demands more creative solutions. Everyone knows we are the world’s second most populated country. But what fewer people recognise or talk about is our population density — 400 people in every square kilometre. The US, supposedly the land of the free and the benchmark of what the whole world is aspiring to become, has about 35 people per square kilometre. China has 140, and our other BRICS allies also are a long way off — 40 in South Africa, 25 in Brazil and eight in Russia. We are clearly not like anyone else, and so we must carve our own path.

There is just no space in our country to ‘develop’ along the western industrial model. We will soon run out of all our natural resources, including the very essence of survival — food

cent of the population is engaged in farming, with small agricultural plots sprinkled all over the country on which people grow their own food. This means we are a country of selfsupporting entrepreneurs, who don’t depend on the state to be ‘looked after’.

Some say that ‘farming by the masses’ is inefficient, that modern industrial-scale agriculture is the way forward, but that’s proving to be untrue in many instances. In Africa, many large corporations find they are unable to replace the intricate knowledge and skills that small farmers have over their land. And in lessthan-perfect conditions (like low rainfall) industrial farming is not viable. A farmer knows every corner of his land — what crops will grow best and where — in a way that MNCs never can. Farming by the masses could possibly be much more resilient than the industrial-scale farming by large corporations. Is our model of development working for 93 per cent of the population?

The developed world is moving on and looking for alternatives, but we blindly follow the

healthier food and lived less stressed-out lives.

It’s a classic emperor’s new clothes story — everyone else is forging blindly and unhappily ahead and so we must too.

Social activist Bunker Roy made an interesting observation about our current ‘barefoot government’. For the first time in our history of being independent, we are not ruled by an elite who has been ‘brainwashed at Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, the World Bank or the IMF’, but have a Prime Minister and cabinet who are arguably from majority India. There is an opportunity to redefine the global notion of development, one that is not based on expanding levels of consumption, but genuinely improves the quality of people’s lives without destroying the environment. But it’s not going to be easy. India Inc funds almost all the political parties, and the world’s largest democracy is fighting to stop the slide towards a corporatocracy. tarsh thekaekara is a biodiversity conservationist working with The Shola Trust

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Heaven and high water A vertigo-inducing drive to Gurudongmar Lake, roughly five kilometres from the Indo-China border in north Sikkim, leads to a series of serendipities

Going places 25-year-old Beno Zephine was ranked 343 in the UPSC exams last year. She is seen here with her parents at their Chennai residence r ravindran/ the hindu

An eye on success Chennai girl Beno Zephine, India’s only visually impaired foreign service officer, hopes she is the first of many more to follow

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Starting point Teesta river Beno owes itsZephine, life to Gurudongmar, the second-highest freshwater lakebothered. in Sikkim mitaThese ghose or 25-year-old being us without making us feel

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outspoken is the only way to be. “My first extempore speech was when I aghu missing. is our hired was inisLKG,” saysSo Zephine whencar. we Up since 3am, we’ve been awaiting meet at her residence in Villivakkam, neighremote mountainside in North bourhoodon ina west Chennai.

“I was asked to frozen to the marrow, exspeak on Sikkim, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s pecting driver to show up. Our hotel’s birthday,our or something like that.

If I rememparking is deserted; every othertoguest ber right,lotthe options were either writehas or left forand ourI,destination.

Withto panic setting in, speak of course, chose speak.” theThat snow-clad Himalayas, glowing silver in was just a small beginning for the starlight, appear less magical by the moment. woman who is now India’s first visually im“We leave exactly at 3.30am, madam the paired foreign service officer.

Thereji,”were smart warned us yesterdaydebates, during many aleck morehad extempore speeches, the exhausting up from sleepless nightsdrive in school andGangtok. college, as well higher explained, the as At months of elevations, preparationhe’d for the competitive weather could Through turn suddenly theZephine’s day proexaminations. all of as this, gressed.

AnyAntony delay increased theanrisk of being father, Luke Charles, 55, Indian Railsent by the sentries manning last Inwaysback employee, and mother, Marythe Padmaja, dian Army check-post 49, have stood by her. before Living our in adestination. joint family, No onealso I know hasuncle, ever visited Zephine has an an auntGurudongand their mar Lake.forItsextra location — northeast of and the children support.

The doorbell Khangchendzonga range and ringing roughlysince five the telephone haven’t stopped kilometres of the appointment India-China border — the news ofsouth Zephine’s arrived would interest like quite my travel last month.

And geographers the family hasn’t tired partner, So would the secrets fact that secof tellingM. journalists toSikkim’s her success. ond-highest freshwater lake provides the source stream Worth the waitfor Teesta river. But I’m hooked on something else:that its Zephine unearthly beauty and It was in June 2014 came to know its significance forcleared both Sikhs that she’d not just the and UPSCBuddhists. exams but Being neither, my fixation it isShe inexplicalso secured an all-India rankwith of 343. didn’t able — the as are the anxieties it feeds.

Suppose expect confirmation of her posting to take that up? year Whathas if morerogue, than aRaghu, year. “Inever thinkturns this one we’ve come allathe toZephine. this obscure little vilmoulded me lot,”way says “When I was lage, perched 9,000-odd feet above level, in Delhi to meet the officials at thesea departfor nothing? ment of personnel and training, they all said With focus turned further north,and it that my my follow-up was both persistent seems inconsequential is more good. An official told me,that ‘YouLachen were bothering

family duties to drive Zephine to her classes all qualities will help you in the future’,” she says. through her years in school, college and Not one for choosing favourites, Zephine’s coaching. Mary Padmaja, on the other hand, than just adidn’t night let halther fordown acclimatisation; that road. optimism as she patiently Waterfalls lie frozen.

Burstinglife. through has been the ‘voice’ in Zephine’s “She its localfor Buddhist down the road is the waited news ofmonastery her posting.

“I was not fixatstillness, the grey-green Teesta rushesI use past.a reads out anything that I wish to learn. now repository of certain relics It’s ed onthe theapparent IFS. I wanted to get into the services a landscape like no other, forbidding — desoftware called JAWS (Job Access with Speech), belonging to particular Guru Nanak, the which founder of Sik-I spite and was not about branch quirky follows a whichthe reads out half-rainbow any text on that the computer hism; century ago, its Great Hermit shower make that it to,”over sheasays.

— and soul-stirring. screen. Though the amount of reading needed had ostensibly initiated a feisty BelgianAfter completing her Master’s in English lit- forOblivious, Raghu natters on about the me hyIAS was massive, my mother helped French and Buddhism scholar, erature explorer from Chennai (Stella Maris and Alexthen pocrisy of religion, murmuring a prayer bewith all the notes and the texts,” says Zephine. andra Néel,Zephine into theworked secretsas of aesoteric LoyolaDavid College), proba- fore every passing shrine, his sparse meals yogic practices likethe telepathy.

Bent tracking tionary officer at State Bank ofon India (SBI) while onahead duty (he’s been quietly polishing off Looking down I fervently wish long-deeven asRaghu, she prepared for the civilthe services ex- our stock of and apples), his imAn alumna of pistachios Little Flower Convent, a Chennai ceased ams. “I Néel mustwere havearound. attended at least nine differ- pending wedding… school for the visually and the hearing ima seasoned clairvoyant entPerhaps IAS coaching centres, and in himself, our We’re crossing a grim zonedidn’t of military inpaired, Zephine face disman suddenly reeking of alco- stallations in all of them I wasmaterialises, the only person mid-construction, cranking crimination while growing up or hol, exuding bliss.

Is that insolent wink he cranes and grinding, without sight,” she says.an “They groaning cement mixwhile pursuing higher studies. sends ourquite way or simply a lazy were all helpful and the ers.

I sense China border At peace withthe herself, Zephine is I was not fixated on eye? not to know. otherBest students were quite curinearby.

Instead of at not impervious to stopping the importhe IFS. I wanted Setting cut ous.

I readout a lotatofonce, Braillewe books Thangu usual accepttourist tance ofValley, beingthe socially to get into the short the implausible beand they all wanted story to know halt tea and toilet breaks fur-I able.for “Acceptance is important.

Here, lichen appears services hind delay. You can’t muzzle how ithis works.” ther our driver pulls up knowahead, that one of my senses is not like bloodstains on Raghu, As forthough. exam fears, she says it near a cluster shabbycan dwellworking, and of nothing be enormours boulders.

“My native who Lachung,” he was her parents were really ings at Yathang, before herding done about that.

What I can do is Flat-topped boasts, at tensed. gesturing “I’m an disdainfully eleventh-hour us into a gloomy, smoke-stung move forward with the help of mountains look like the view as dawn breakscarry over the learner and I would 10 teashop by aand dour, baku-clad my otherrun senses resources.” giant hammerhead ridge, far to lovelier thancentre. this, My nervousBraille “is books the exam woman with whom he flirts She hopes that her selection as an officer in sharks madam ji!” disappear the moment I stepped India’s highest ness would shamelessly.

Swatted he ranked service is a away, boost for “This,” he calls is a world into the as hall.

Onceit,inside, I was totally re- not just herturns, to hisdown favourite family.unfazed, “Somewhere the removed from his picture-perlaxed,” says Zephine. activity — networking.

Customline, society has to accept that we’re not less in fect birthplace further northhuddlefrom in silence a any way, onlyers different others.around We have east, where rhododendrons in full bloom stove, Support systems overviews, mugsaspirations, of their preferred the same talentsbrew. and abililight up the driveher to the gently sloping Yum- ties.

Zephine credits entire family for more A And sozzled oldthat geezer has launched into a it’s not someone has to be generthang Valley. lichen bloodthan just herHere, success.

“Myappears father like doesn’t let slurred insisting that he’s his ous or soliloquy, charitable to accept me. found I’m not stains on for enormous boulders. me sit still a moment.

He pushesFlat-topped me to par- mother in myI am friend; hadfound graciousinferior.again, I am what andshe I have the mountains look events like giant ticipate in various or asks hammerhead me to read up ly offered a biscuit.says M’sZephine. bemused expresright placehim for myself,” sharks.

Sharp, summits on some topiciced-over or the other,” she gore says. drifting Charles sion unlocks my first grin of the day. arasusoon is a Chennai-based journalist clouds.

Snow from avalanches spillsand over the sibi has always taken time off from work other Raghu wipes it off by dropping his

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AGENDA

Losing the gloves Why the right wing hates intellectuals and vice versa. It is a universal clash of two worldviews: liberal, academic-artistic utopia versus the conservative penchant to reduce every idea into an excel sheet of growth and nationalism

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nder the Bharatiya Janata Party government, anti-intellectualism in India has peaked. A revered Nobel laureate was forced to resign as a university chancellor, while a soft-porn actor took over the country’s top film institute. But the countervailing stars of Amartya Sen and Gajendra Chauhan are more than just about ‘saffronisation’ of education.

The main story — the overarching thesis that explains the Nalanda and Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) saga — is the rightwing disdain for artistic creativity and intellectuals. This disdain is not peculiarly Indian, nor is it a one-way disdain. This is a universal clash of two worldviews: liberal, academic-artistic utopia versus the conservative penchant to reduce every idea into an excel sheet of growth and nationalism.

Globally, artists, journalists, actors and academics — the majority of the ‘creative and intellectual’ classes — are known to revile the right wing, as much as the right reviles them.

In the US, Hollywood is overwhelmingly Democrat; most elite American universities are hubs of the liberal intelligentsia; a survey last year showed only seven per cent of American journalists identified themselves as Republican, while 50 per cent said they were Democrats. In India, you would find roughly the same pattern.

In a 1949 paper titled ‘Intellectuals and Socialism’, the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek explored why the intellectual classes were more likely to be socialist. “Newspapers in ‘capitalist’ ownership, universities presided over by ‘reactionary’ governing bodies, broadcasting systems owned by conservative governments, have all been known to influence public opinion in the direction of socialism, because this was the conviction of the personnel,” wrote Hayek.

Hayek was a free-market champion, and an advisor to right-wing political heroes Ronald

Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. But even he “The Left Front government in West Bengal admitted in his paper “that it is neither selfish probably produced the single-most systematinterests nor evil intentions but mostly hon- ic assault on an established system of higher est convictions and good intentions which de- education, creating an unimaginable degree termine the intellectual’s views.” of party control,” observes Pratap Bhanu MehHayek pointed out that the appeal of social- ta in The Indian Express. “The destruction of Calism amongst intellectuals lay in its “courage cutta University was a far more watershed to be utopian”, something that the free-mar- event for higher education than the travails of ket proponents were unable to address. Intel- Nalanda; West Bengal now has a gross enrollectuals are, by and large, disdainful of ment ratio in higher education lower than capitalists and nationalists because in them that of UP.” they see enemies of their egalitarian utopia.

What Mehta leaves out, perhaps out of defNow let’s look at the universal right-wing erence to Amartya Sen, is how the Left actually support base, the flag bearers of anti-intellec- used Sen’s brand equity (and that of other intualism. They are generally business leaders, tellectuals) to create this “unimaginable debankers, techies (free-market gree of party control” over the evangelists) and lower middlestate’s higher education. And income cheerleaders of ‘cultural the likes of Sen kept quiet nationalism’. They are women through it all, perhaps out of his Intellectuals are, by and men of action and bottom ideological affinity and friendand large, disdainful lines. They do not understand ships with Marxist leaders. of capitalists and the utopian worldview of the inSo when Sen writes in The New nationalists because tellectuals, the ‘sickular’ ‘potYork Review of Books that “the exin them they see heads’ whose erudition and tent of intervention has become enemies of their articulation gives them a cult folboth unprecedented and often egalitarian utopia lowing in the media and society. politically extreme under the What the right wing ignores is present regime”, it is of course a that prosperity and culture are cause for worry, but it is also fair intrinsically linked to the world to ask why he did not write the of dissent and social reformation, a world that same about West Bengal. Sen’s case would the intellectuals have mastered. Modern capi- have been stronger had he not been selective talism itself owes its birth to the Protestant so- in his outrage. cial reformation of the mid-20th century, led Meanwhile in Pune, Gajendra Chauhan can by intellectuals who dissented against the Ro- rest easy. The versatility of his body of work — man Catholic Church’s pervasive hold on ordi- from Yudhishtira to Jungle Love — should cernary lives. The Protestant reformation gave tainly find more takers in this government individuals greater freedom to go out in the than Sen’s philosophical musings. After all, secular world, set up their own enterprises, to this is a government of action-oriented men create and accumulate wealth. with outsized chests who believe that mytholBut this is not to say that it is only the right ogy is history. Intellectuals might as well leave wing that gets it wrong every time. Because for exile like the Pandavas. the utopian left is a natural ally of the academic, intellectual classes, the politicisation of sambuddha mitra mustafi is the founder of The Political Indian t@some_buddha education under left regimes is often greater.

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Just likewrapped bottled water Legacy in a mystery

East Germany who wrote a book on Netaji, told Emilie Schenkl (Netaji’s wife) he had information from sources in the KGB that Netaji was imprisoned in Russia. He was being slowly poisoned and was losing his mind,” he says.

Other disturbing revelations further convinced Bose that the plane crash theory was false. “Henry Stokes, a well-known British journalist, once told me that when he arrived in Tokyo in 1964, he learnt that the MI6 was still looking for Netaji in Tokyo. Even the British did not believe that Netaji died in a plane crash in Taiwan!” For most of his life, Bose has searched for the ‘truth’ about the death. Official records, which can put the matter to rest, have proved a dead-end in his efforts. “Only if

When to Rob a Bank, a collection of blog posts, is unlikely to join the league of well-loved bestseller Freakonomics For most of his life, Netaji’s grandnephew in Germany has searched for the ‘truth’ about the freedom fighter’s death

Daily patterns This book offers a look at a counterintuitive approach to everyday things — like the economics of boarding a crowded bus r ravindran

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ith their first book, Freako-

site for example — but why did 93 per cent of

but out-of-sync, posts about the death of Le-

Guarded secrets nomics, An undated photo of with the National Army, which was formed British ruletoinGod, Indiait thereflects hindu archives (right) Prime Steven D Subhas LevittChandra and Bose doctors in Indian an Australian medical study sayto fight vitt’s sister the; range of interpti every examinMinister Narendra Modi at a meeting with Netaji’s grandnephew Kumar Bose in Berlin Stephen J Dubner managed to they Surya washed their hands after ests of two intelligent, articulate and

When to Rob a Bank A rogue economist’s guide to the world Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner Allen Lane Non-fiction ₹625

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do for economics what Stephen Hawking did for physics hisbut A Brief t Surya Kumar Bose’swith simple eleHistory of gant Timehome — take somethingyou which is in Hamburg, cannot widely, and justifiably, to be dry porand miss the largeknown black-and-white difficult totrait understand for nothing ecoof Netaji(not Subhas ChandraisBose. nomics known as the science’) — Showingalso Netaji reading out‘dismal the proclamation and turnprovincial it into a rollicking, roller inof the government of coaster the Azad tellectual that millions of people could Hind Fauj ride in Singapore, the photo underlines actually a familyenjoy. legacy: Bose is the grandnephew of having anyan maths inmovement their booksagainst helps. theNot man who led armed Black and British the space-time India’sholes erstwhile rulers. continuums being what they are,account Hawking quite “If you take into thecouldn’t fact that the manage toFauj leave allthe thefirst maths out, which is Azad Hind was independent govwhy Brief of History onecould of those books ernment India,remains then Netaji be considwhich more people have bought than ered India’s first head ofpossibly state,” he says as we have it —Bose did isyou settle completed down for an(admit interview. the finish presiyour dent copy?). of the Hamburg chapter of the Deutsche But oneGessellschaft can’t say the(DIG), same the about the FreakoIndische Indo-German nomics franchise. the decade the book association that In promotes tiessince between the first appeared, it hasDIG grown several books, two countries.

“The wasinto set up on Septemaber widely syndicated column, a website, blog 11, 1942,

by Subhash Chandra Bose ataHotel and evenina Hamburg. movie (though a docuAtlanta That admittedly was also the occamentary!). is available in virtually every airsion when ItJana Gana Mana was first sung,” port in the world, duoishas Bose bookstall recounts, adding that theand DIGthe today the joined Bhagat and DaleinCarnegie in largest Chetan bilateral organisation Germany, the which urchins sell at traffichesignals withstacks 27 branches.

As a consultant often in Indian cities. Inkeen otheron words, they in are the no guides Germans working longer economists who write books; booming Indian IT sector.

He ispopular also a founderthey are popular writers — period — popular member of the German-Indian Round Table, enough to be gathering given spacethat in expensive airport an informal seeks to further shelves, popular enough to be pirated. mutual business interests.

What theday, secret of this staggering Back inisthe Netaji’s stay in Germany suchad cess?

Perhaps it is thein engaging of the proved instrumental shapingnature his struggle. subjects they write about.would In theplay book under Decades later, that legacy a pivotal review, instance, one of the questions role in for shaping his grandnephew’s career. which bugstothem is theon “liethe of advice reputation” — Bose came Germany of Alexwhy people lieNetaji’s more about some things (like ander Werth, German interpreter in having readLegion.

A Brief Thus History of Time), even when the Indian began a lifelong assothe stakes are low. ciation that has seen Bose carry on his family’s Where it’s easy unefforts to there secureare theincentives, declassification of to docuderstand — lying abouteven yourinage on a dating ments related to Netaji Germany.

Most

ation, when the actual rate was found to be well-educated people — but offers none of the just nine Bose per cent?

It’s thePrime reputation effect, recently, met Indian Minister Na- understanding of the tools of economics the Indian government makes a request on to where underorthe overstate something to offer rendrayou Modi during latter’s Germany visit incan theirthe other and, to be fair, in varRussia KGBbooks, files concerning Netaji be present in atobetter to the in April.yourself “I expected meet light Mr Modi forquesonly ious placeshe even in this book. released,” says. tioner. is prettywhen much aroundWhich five minutes hewhat camethe to quibHanBeing a collection ofbelieves blog posts, thewas narraThe grandnephew Netaji let bling about nover.over But the ourfindings discussion lasted 45 minutes. down by independent tive is jumpyIndia’s (Levittleaders. and Dubner “There the level me of that deprivation He assured his government would are rumours writethat separately in the blog) and unSarvepalli Radhakrishnan among households in look intorural the declassification.” the earlier books, research is and Vijayalike Lakshmi Pandit, whothe had travelled theCalls latest socio-economic for the declassification have grown not as thorough, since the posts to Russia, knew that Netaji was being held This is where one census is allrecent about.revelations louder report following were meant interest provoke, not toto bring this and to light.

Now feelsthat a bitthe morethere workbut chose It’s these kind of Eureka! government of India had spied could on Netaji’s not necessarily provide answers to that time has gone by, the governhave gone in,so much moments — when ordifamily for close to 20the years.

“My father, Amiya the questions they raise.

This is ment’s previous argument that declassificasince many of the nary getsvery an insight Nathreader Bose, was close toinNetaji, having carwhere one feels a bit more work tion of the documents would jeopardise posers are intriguing, to a seemingly complex issue, ried Netaji’s appeal to the Sovi- and it is frustrating to could have gone in, since of foreign relations no many longer which at the timestruggle. is inets during thesame freedom the posers are intriguing, and it is holds, and the nation has a right not know the answer stantly relatable to hisin or1957, her he When he visited Japan frustrating nothappened know the answer. to know to what to Netaown made thebehad alife, gutwhich feelinghas that he was Still, if argues. you have read all the ji,” he Hisnot anguish at this Freakonomics pantheon such ing watched. We were not active I do not believe in the earlier books betrayal (and even youhighest have), perceived atifthe ain politics. global We sensation.

Sadly, to had no reason collection offers by a good look at is worsened the fact that so-called ashes in thislevels When Rob athorough Bank — even if it’s sub-titled expecttosuch surveilthe duo’s approach to everya branch of Netaji’s family had Renkoji‘Atemple, and counterintuitive rogue to RAW the world’ whenever — is un- day lance. economist’s I have often guide spotted — like economics of boarding a longthe ago accepted the plane I trythings to likely league. agentstoatjoin mythat lectures and talks speak about this crowded bus — to the not-so-everyday — like crash theory. issue Forinstarters, it isn’t a newvisi‘book’ — in inpublic, the Indian here Germany,” he says, whether peopleDoes without transmitted Bosesexually believe in the specusense of containing new thoughts and writ- trydiseases bly angry over the treatment of be that encouraged to havelived sex in lation Netaji secretly as officials to shut should ings.

It is a He collection of blog posts from the his family. says Indian offiorder to reduce the overall riskIndia, of HIV/AIDS a hermit in north that he me up Freakonomics blogs.

It is, as the authors dis- (the answer’sbecame cials have tried to discourage yes, by the way). a ‘Gumnami baba’? He armingly out against in the introduction, the him frompoint speaking the As to the title question.

Friday doubts that aStatistically, person of Netaji’s print officialversion versionofofbottled Netaji’s water death.— something mornings appear to beand best, from would a bankhave robintellect energy which is widely free, but is still pack- ber’s point ofsurrendered “I do not believeavailable in the so-called view. Unless,toofa course, roblifetimethe of anoaged sold. The justification is that, like ashes and in Renkoji temple, and whenever I try to ber happened to be a fan French poet nymity and renunciation.

Heof is full of praise bottled water,this some extra hasIndian gone in, in Arthur speak about issue inwork public, offiRimbaud,like likeAnuj former MITwho professor for journalists Dhar have Joe rethe ofshut a curated selection of the most ‘in- Gibbons, cialsform try to me up.” in which case thesubject odds appear to searched extensively on the of Netaji’s teresting’ posts.for declassification gained mo- turn The demand against death.

“Dharthe hasrobber. done great work with his That, ofafter course, is whatMukherjee the authors claim. books mentum the Justice CommisGibbons, inspired thenot poet’s admonition on Netaji, butby I do believe that the This necessarily be accepted by many sion may had not concluded in 2006 that Netaji did to ‘descend intotothe depthsthe of Gumnami all that wasbaba bad evidence used support readers, towards the Though end of the and not die inparticularly a plane crash in Taiwan. report back’, decided rob a bank and theory is conclusive...

I am to inclined to believe book, when rejected signs ofthe strain clearly start to make government report, Bose believes a filmwas of himself doing it. The professor that Netaji in the Soviet Union after the soshow. is a section ‘kaleidoscopia’, that ofThere the three inquirycalled commissions looking is in the clinkcrash. at theOnly moment — but then,can he called plane declassification which even the authors admit might bedeath, more taught into the mystery surrounding Netaji’s arts and not economics! put thevisual matter to rest.” honestly taggedCommission ‘miscellaneous’. the Mukherjee was Spanning the most srinivasan bhuyan is a Delhi-based writer wisdom from Levitt’s dentist to emotional, honest. “Raimund Schnabel, a journalist from rragini

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Gone in 4.2 seconds On its first day in the Indian market, Xiaomi sold about 15,000 devices in a matter of seconds. Country head Manu Jain on the Chinese smartphone vendor’s ‘incredible’ year in India Getting it right Giving good customer experience with the right product and at the right price point is more important than sales targets, says Manu Jain

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iaomi, popularly called the ‘Apple’ of China, has just completed a year in India. From sales that crashed ecommerce sites to becoming India’s fifth largest smartphone vendor without spending a penny on advertising, Xiaomi has achieved more than what most of its rivals did in the first 12 months. BLink caught up with Xiaomi’s India head, Manu Jain, to understand how it keeps device prices so low and what Indian users can expect from it in the future. Edited excerpts: You are completing a year in India. How do you rate your performance so far?

It is nothing less than phenomenal. The first time we had a sale, on July 22, we thought it would be an achievement to sell 10,000 devices. More than two lakh people visited our partner site that day and it crashed. We started selling 10,000 to 15,000 devices in a few seconds. In October, we offered one lakh devices and they sold in 4.2 seconds. In less than four months, we crossed the million-mark in sales.

We believe we were the fastest to reach this figure in India. One out of every five to six online customers ends up buying a Xiaomi. It is incredible, given that we have not spent a single dollar on marketing.

Globally, Xiaomi sold 34.7 million handsets in the first six months of 2015 against the annual target of 80 million. What about the targets for the Indian market? Will you be able to meet them?

Any company which is growing really fast, and doing phenomenally, knows that its journey will be closely scrutinised. Xiaomi, for me, is the only B2C (business-to-consumer) company that doesn’t believe in KPIs (key performance indicator) or output targets like sales or market share.

Our end game is different: we are not just a smartphone company but a mobile or e-commerce company. Giving good customer experience with the right product and at the right price point is more important than KPIs. That’s our whole philosophy — to focus on inputs and not outputs.

Where does India fit in Xiaomi’s global products have unique and different design plans? language. Our Mi Note, 5.7-inch screen device, India is an extremely important market for has glass at the front and the back. There is no Xiaomi and the second largest revenue gener- other device that is as beautiful as it is. ator outside China. In the next two-three If you look at our entire ecosystem of prodyears, it is also expected to become the world’s ucts, air purifiers, Mi TV, Mi Pad, Mi Box, we are second largest smartphone market. Consider- different from any other company. ing the Xiaomi philosophy, India is a market that suits us really well. We work in markets You are able to compress specs given by where affordability is a big thing, because we expensive handsets to affordable devices? bring devices at affordable prices but with the How do you maintain such low price points? same specs as those that sell for ₹40,000- There are three things which help us price our 50,000. Secondly, markets where e-commerce products reasonably. One is the philosophy is growing, and we can ride that growth curve, that we want to cut costs without comprising interest us. And markets where there is no op- on quality or specs. There are two angles to it.

One, we don’t incur any major erator subsidy suit us as consummarketing costs. A lot of brands ers make independent device spend five to 10 per cent of their purchase decisions. India fulfils annual revenue, sometimes even all the three conditions, so it’s a One out of every five more, on marketing. We save very important market for us. to six online that and pass on the benefits to customers ends up What are you doing to engage consumers. Two, most brands buying a Xiaomi. It is with Indian consumers? sell through brick-and-mortar incredible, given that We are building products specifiretail — you have national and rewe have not spent a cally suited to the needs of the gional distributors and retailers single dollar on Indian market. Mi4i (a budget and you end up giving 20-30 per marketing version of its flagship Mi4) has cent to this chain. That also helps been designed for India. We are us keep costs in check. setting up an R&D centre and a Also, since we sell B2C, we manufacturing plant here. Bedon’t earn huge margins on sides, we will have full-fledged e-commerce hardware as other brands do. Our philosophy operations and 100 exclusive service centres is to make money on our internet platform Mihere. We are also experimenting with home UI (which offers services like MiCloud, Xiaomi pick-up and drop service, which shows our App Market, and Xiaomi Games Centre). commitment to the Indian market.

Will manufacturing in India be viable given Your devices are said to be a poor man’s that costs here are higher than in China?

Of course, yes. We took this decision before the iPhone, given the close resemblance to budget announcement on tax duty. Since Insome models? Do you think Xiaomi’s styling dia is important to our global plan, it would and design language will change in the be good to have a plant here so that we can defuture?

I think that comparison is incorrect. I don’t sign in the R&D centre and manufacture localthink people compare us with Apple because ly. With the changed duty structure, there is a of similar design. A lot of people compare the significant difference in tax duty if you manutwo because both, in their respective ways, are facture vs import. But our criterion was more phenomenal companies which are disrupting than just financial. We want to be close to conthe way technology is consumed by consum- sumers in India. ers. That is far more fundamental and important than just design. A large number of our rashmi pratap

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Out of the shadow The great redistribution LIGHTHOUSE

Playing Bimala pushed the young Swatilekha Sengupta — one of Satyajit Ray’s most controversial heroines — into depression. Thirty years later, she makes a comeback in a role against the same leading man Interventions in free markets amount to taking wealth from the poor and giving to the rich

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ndia is a poor country. We were poor when we became independent in 1947, and while other countries have lifted themselves to wealth in a span of 68 years, we’re still poor. And government policies are the reason for our continuing poverty. Ever since a group of white-skinned rulers handed over power to a bunch of brown-skinned ones, all the governments that have run India have done one thing incredibly effectively: they have redistributed wealth from the poor to the rich.

Yes, you read that right: I’m not talking about redistribution from the rich to the poor, which itself would be an ineffective way of fighting poverty, but from the poor to the rich. They have taken money from the poor and given it to the rich, and, as if to troll us, they have done this in the name of fighting poverty. For that reason, while there are some very rich people in our country, on average, as our GDP per-capita indicates, we’re still a third-world country.

Let me illustrate this with a recent example. A few weeks ago, the central government announced it would not allow foreign direct investment in retail e-comjrcasas/shutterstock. merce. Business Standard reported: “Minister of State forSwatilekha Commerce and Industry Last laugh Sengupta in Belaseshe, a film that was released in theatres across the country last month Nirmala Sitharaman last month met execu- masses to a specific relatively rich interest from the poor to the rich. Anything that reductives of Flipkart and Snapdeal and representa- group. es competition or artificially raises costs for story reads much the script Governments could ring the at the moment tives from theer Confederation oflike Indian portive, Sengupta could notthis. escape thatbell impose orprecise continue tar- — the consumers amounts to just Thisfrom in- Biof athe Rituparno Ghosh film. An acRaydowas always a stickler for punctuality.

Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian shadow.on None the other roles that iffs will so in the name of protecting the do- Cut cludemala’s restrictions FDI,oftariffs, licensing tress debuts the big(FICCI) screen optoindustry. the director’s faceThe as he confrontChambers of Commerce and on Industry she was met her mestic But atsurprised whose cost?

French processes or offered regulations thatexpectations. make it harder positeof one of Indian Bengal’s leading ed theFrédéric young actress a day when nothing to assess the impact FDI on e-comyearsor later, another story ofand a troueconomist Bastiaton once wrote a great to openThirty a business to run it, subsidies, men, directed by auteur.

— she is had battled all odds to be there. merce companies.”

Thea legendary government then Her de- perfellto into her lap, Shiboproessaystirred called ‘What Seen and What is Unseen’, so on.bled Therelationship interest groups benefit maya differ is panned by the acting fraternity in Ray was moved. cidedformance that it needed to protect local players, sad Mukherjee andand Nandita Royin-film, which speaks of the hidden efin each case, will often India anddid shenot fades outFDI. of the spotlight and inwasWhat a rewarding experience. Ray Belaseshe. and therefore allow Herrent-seeking husband in forces a marriage fects ofGhare such Baire actions. is clude withinworn depression.

Only to return years later to Beethoven to her, Doto you see what happened here?30 Who beneto begovernment, Soumitro Chatterjee.

Sengupta seen whistled here is the good done to was happy that she thin wasthe but always, star competition? opposite the same leading man, winning could play the piano and did not expect her to admitted fits from The consumers do. The she wasexception, nervous to opposite one specific group of people without theplay wealth Government policy is acclaim this time. That is the story of Swatilekreadusurped Tagore. from The hard greater the competition, the more value for (withhave him again. terms, But this money a work will flow, in relative fromtime not dictated by the hathe Sengupta it is bygets. no This means a film seemed towhich have paid off — Vincent money commonand consumer is axthe film silenced all poorer group, by itself the pooraround to the rich. people at large, but by script.

Baire to Belaseshe Canby, morally The New York Times critic, iomatic.

OurFrom localGhare retailers — all the peopleit has herdon’t critics Bengalyou — even is surely wrong).

So why weinprotest, been abylong 1985:is ‘Swatilekha consulted the journey. ministers — were scared that Whatwrote Amitabh tweeted is notinseen what the Chatter-the aggressive ask, given that we Bachchan are a democraay whistled lobbying of R hundreds An Allahabad girl, be Sengupta Chatterjee is the pretty, surprisingly willtheir bottom-line would affected(née by this praise after Belaseshe consumers would have done cy? Well,his think about the winnerswent Beethoven to her, of interest groups, out jee) grewso upthey watching Charulata and MahanaAmerica competition, successfully petitioned last month. with ful thatBimala’. money.But They would was one and thenational losers here.

The costs of was happy to make a killing at thethatsuch redistribution gar at a localtocinema Sundays.

Worried was something else the government block it.hall Theon result: the conAfter Ray, Sengupta naturalhave thing, spent Bengal it or invested it, are dispersed could play the expenseshe of the poor about studies, wrote Satyajit Ray, altogether.

Raygone had back included his sumers will her get less valueshe than they to otherwise ly found Mukherjee’s and it would have among more than a billion of directous, piano and did not asking if she could act one more of hismonfilms. But would; the local retailers willin make habitsare very different. He into first the full-blown economy, onscreen creating kiss in and therial benefits concentratexpect her to have because she didn’twas have the right address, Ghare — based on ey than if competition allowed.

In effect, it the have every growth andBaire employment.

Buta Tagore ed to a did few.not If ₹2 from the scene taxes meread Tagore you paidticulously letter went astray.from Later,ahaving left Allahabad novel — and the Bengaliofbhadrolok is a transfer of wealth large, dispersed sketched out, but the potential beneficiaries last year went as a subsishe joined theatre group Nanwere outraged. groupforofKolkata, consumers to athe small, relatively then, Mukherjee was you her old that sensibilities are not even aware of dy to the widget industry, dikar and landed A band of leading heroines dewealthy interest group.a small role in Shambhu Mistudent from Nandikar what didn’t happen. won’t even know or care.

The widget industry, and Galileo. coincidence would clared aare vendetta on the woman Alltra’s tariffs have As exactly this effect.

Let’shave say it, I Ray Subsidies she found that he had his also redistribution of the re- making millions from the accumulated ₹2 own came watch her act.manufacturers Sengupta’s phone who had comekind, fromifstage to sweep the silver like to buyto widgets.

Local sellstartmethods.

Sohini, her daughter, who did a caverse-Robin Hood in a more obvious will care, and will lobby aggressively, contribed ringing; she thought the first caller was way. a The screen andtaken the critics caught me widgets for ₹100 each. Foreign manufacin coffers, the film,buy kept companyand on the wealth from the poortheir is notfervour. in ute tomeo party offher politicians bu- sets. hoax he told her that he was actor Robi never lived nor looked the for role,” one returers, for when a variety of reasons from technoloA comic version of Belaseshe the anterms“She of marketplace prices or value monreaucrats — stage whatever it takes.

That is on why thatme Manikbabu as Ray viewer wrote.

Coincidentally, wasAnd married gy toGhosh labour,and can sell widgets for—₹80.

But was vil with Sohini asnot the dictated director. by the peoey, but is taken directly from yourhe taxes. government policy is called — would like to meet her. calls peronepoor of the actresses. the local manufacturers petition the The governFor someone who has an unshakeable whiletothe may not fileDespite incomethe taxfact re- that ple at large, but by the aggressive lobbying ofmarsomeone from the fraterkepttoo. telling to concentrate mentsisted to putuntil a tariff on imports, andtheatre the govriage, of theinterest two dominant in her lifeahave turns,Manikbabu they pay taxes Everyher time your maid on hundreds groups,films out to make nity confirmed genuine. foreign Sengupta soon lapsed inernment puts a ₹30they per were widget tariff on the buys the been about relationships where a bag of saltreviews, or the beggar at the nearby killing at the expense of the poor.

Thatmarital is why pasSengupta’s Rayover. was ontraffic a tosignal depression. foreigners, so they first don’tmeeting bother with coming sion is ebbing. though is not Arati or buys soap, they are contributing government growsSengupta and grows, and so many dayresult: wheneach the city was blocked by processions A bedridden Ray finally that The net of us loses a notional ₹20. to the Rich Bimala.are Love, she says, changes over time Interest Group Benefitinsisted Fund. This is she constraints placed on the only force that but forcedThe to walk her house in travel toeconomics Cannes with Soumitro Chatterjee Who and getsshe thatwas money? localfrom manufacturher husband remains her support. not just poor — it is morally wrong. for can make us wealthy: economic freedom.RudrapraVivekananda Road (in north Kolkata)reall the Here’s the screening of the but she was ers. What just happened?

The government the upshot: All film interventions inunable free to sad went to watch Belaseshe and found himt@amitvarma way to wealth Bishop from Lefroythe Road (a south Kolkata accept herself the role until she had self moved to tears by his wife’s distributed relatively poor performance. markets amount to a in redistribution of wealth neighbourhood). She arrived half-an-hour watched the film three times. early and waited outside the door so that she Though her husband Rudraprasad was sup- anjana basu is a Kolkata-based writer

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

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Emergency care India is indebted to a German jurist, whose prescient warning helped the judiciary draw a lakshmanrekha around the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution

Line of control The Emergency has been described as the most testing period in the history of independent India the hindu

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

n the 40th anniversary of the Emergency in June this year, we saw numerous articles and even a book on what happened, how it happened, and whether we, in today’s India, are safe from a recurrence. We came perilously close to throwing away the most precious gift of our Independence movement — our democracy, the freedom to govern ourselves rather than be mere pawns at the hands of those in power. Had India given up on its democracy, it would not have been the first country to do so.

Almost every developing country failed to hold on to democratic principles after independence. It was not peculiar to developing countries, or Asian and African nations. The most famous country to throw away democracy, bringing to power a dictator through democratic means, was, of course, Germany.

Using the excuse of the Reichstag fire in February 1933, Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party — the Nazis — managed to win 44 per cent of the vote. They had the most seats in Parliament, but were still short of majority. Warning against ‘traitors within’, the Nazis pushed through the Enabling Act in March 1933, which allowed the government to make laws without Parliamentary consent. By May 1933, all the trade unions had been abolished, and by July, all political parties other than the Nazi Party were banned.

By 1934, Hitler had made himself President, Chancellor and Head of the Army.

The peculiar thing is that this eventuality, of an undemocratic ruler using democratically passed laws to undo democracy, was already being extensively discussed in Germany before the rise of Hitler. This was part of the lecture delivered by Professor Dietrich Conrad to the law faculty at Benares Hindu University in 1965. (Professor Conrad headed the law de-

partment at Heidelberg University’s South any criminal proceeding against the Prime Asia Institute.) His lecture was titled ‘Implied Minister. It was dropped, no doubt because Limitations of the Amending Power’. To ex- the government’s legal advisors probably plain his point, he asked what if a majority warned that such a Bill would be struck down government decided to pass a law to hand sov- because of the ‘basic structure’ doctrine esereignty of India to the British Crown or the poused in the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case.

Mughal dynasty, or carve the country into half. Had this not been the case, Mrs Gandhi could The government might have had the two- have happily continued violating laws withthirds majority needed to pass such an out being ‘legally’ wrong. (The current Mahaamendment, but did it have the right to rashtra government, in its effort to make it change the basic structure of the country and mandatory to get a government nod before filthe Constitution? ing cases against MLAs and senior governIn a lovely essay, eminent jurist AG Noorani ment officers, is ignoring this, and will no explains how the paper based doubt be reminded of the same on Professor Conrad’s lecture by the courts.) was read aloud by ConstituWe are indebted to Professor tional lawyer MK Nambyar in Conrad. He identified the lakshthe famous 1967 Golakh Nath manrekha that a democratically Few know that in the case. In its ruling, the Supreme elected government could not same year, the Court held that ‘Parliament cross and still call itself demogovernment had come has no power to amend Part III cratic. His insights, incorporatup with a Bill to amend of the Constitution so as to ed into the judicial decisions, Article 361 of the take away or abridge the fun- Constitution, disallowing helped the judiciary determine damental rights’. Although that Mrs Gandhi had crossed any criminal proceeding this was partially overridden that line. These insights were against the Prime in the 1973 Kesavananda Bharaalso what allowed the judiciary Minister ti case, the Supreme Court exto clean up extra-Constitutionplicitly stated in the latter case al insertions by her during the that there was a ‘basic strucEmergency. We often think our ture’ to the Constitution that tragedies are lonely ones, but the government of the day could not override. Professor Conrad’s example shows us that we Incensed by the judgment, Indira Gandhi can avoid mistakes by learning from the ones tried to stack the judiciary with compliant yes- others made. Reading a 2011 paper by Aharon men, but she could not undo these decisions.

Barak, the former President of the Israeli SuEverybody knows that the guilty verdict in preme Court, on ‘Unconstitutional Constitu1975 against Mrs Gandhi — the misuse of gov- tional Amendments’ in the Israel Law Review, ernment jeeps for campaigning — was one of heavily citing the Indian experience, makes the primary drivers of her declaring Emergen- me glad that our lessons become those of the cy. But few know that in the same year, the gov- world as well. ernment had come up with a Bill to amend tOmairTAhmad Article 361 of the Constitution, disallowing

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The rapeto of Avanthika FILM FATALE

Bahubali features one of the longest scenes of romanticised symbolic violation ever seen on CEO coaches are in demand, as India Inc witnesses the rise of the screen. Why are we not angered by it?

swashbuckling young boss, complete with tantrums

sashatigar/shutterstock

anna mm vetticad

this scene, permit me to plant the seed of a thought in your head. In your mind’s eye, if you replace the handsome Prabhas with Shakti Kapoor (or another actor who usually plays villainous roles), would you still find his actions poignant?

In the Hindi film Tanu Weds Manu (2011), Manu – again a stranger – is smitten when he sees a drunken Tanu lying passed out in her bedroom. So overwhelmed is he by his emotions that he kisses her. It’s unfortunate that many people find it hard to empathise unless they personalise a situation, but that being the reality, if you are moved by this scene, try this exercise: ask yourself whether it would be acceptable if a woman you love — perhaps your daughter — were lying asleep and your son’s friend or the male If you replace the household help or an unknown handsome Prabhas with Shakti Kapoor (or man entered her room and kissed her? another actor who If you object to either of the usually plays villainous above alternative scenarios, why roles), would you still is it okay to romanticise them in find his actions a film? poignant?

The question is crucial in a nation as conservative as ours where most parents do not discuss romance with their children and where gender segregation is widespread, as a result of which many youngsters take guidance from cinema. If Salman Khan lifts t 30, Steve Jobs had revolutionised founded companies after 2000 is 36, com- Jacqueline Fernandez’s skirt without hera jointed skills, making it difficult to create personal computing with the Apple pared with 39 for the founders who came be- knowledge Kick (2014) and she shows anger solid team,”inshe adds. brand. It was 1985 and he was al- fore. The study, across the global 500 R&D at It first, but soon merrily him, the is here that dances coaching gainswith importance. ready a millionaire, working with spenders, also found that the average age of message to Naik, impressionable fans is that womDr Ashwin who co-founded affordable his team on developing the Macintosh com- CEO appointments has fallen by four years af- en secretly feel flattered harassment — or healthcare services chainbyVaatsalya in 2004, puter. Colleagues found him too temper- ter 2000. what says itisiseuphemistically challenging to called juggle‘teasing’. multiple roles Object of desire Tamannaah Bhatia in the role of the warrior who is ‘feminised’ by a male protagonist amental, brash and demanding. The board It is no different in India, where young foun- during Impressionable young minds are not the the early stages of the entrepreneurial eventually sidelined him and Jobs quit the ders have stormed the market. From Amazon only onesparticularly though who their eyes to the journey, forshut first-timers. he,he a brave lies on banks of original company had warrior, co-founded in the California’s Telugu and Tamil, and in multiple to Snapdeal and Zomato to Paytm, online busi- trivialisation ofitsexual violence screen and “As they say, is lonely at theontop.

A coach a Silicon lake, falling booming Valley. asleep with her slim dubbed versions last is a visually spec- resist ness is dominated by week.

CEOs —Itwhether appointor fail comprehend non-traditional can bring in to fresh perspective, which could the water.

Unknown to her, he tacular Back hand home,indecades down the line, online film with an engaging ed or founder — under 40. This isstory also rich true in of definitions of consent — and informed conopen up a new set of opportunities,” he adds.

— an absolute stranger — paints flow- mythological realty start-up Housing.com’s Rahul aYadav references.

Sadly, that’s social enterprises — the for-profit firmswhat pro- sent — off points screen.out that when young entrePrasad er onhave her wrist. may learnt the same lesson, in a similar makes dangerous becausefor it has the poten- preneurs ducingitgoods and services bottom-of-theIt’s really simple, you know. shetodoes orquite founder-CEOs rise too If fast the Furious on discovering the tactless, drawing,Yadav she tial way.

Temperamental, brash and to gain legitimacy among more viewers not pyramid clients. you are doing it, it’s a no.“And If shethat does top,know they tend to lack perspective. is sets out trouble to find with out how it got who there.

He un- and to reach a far wider audience than an ugly, not got into investors, eventualwhat are doing, it’s a no. If whyunderstand many of them areyou running into trouble.

It leashes a serpent on the hercompany from behind, ly dropped him from he hadand co- unpolished, Out of depthunintelligent, unimaginative, un- she says no, it’s a no. shetrenches resists you physicaltakes 15-20 years in Ifthe before one while she stands frozen, he — still a stranger — entertaining founded.

“The Housing.com board unaniLakshmanan film.

Prasad, professor of organisa- ly, forbegin god’s sake it’s a no. If the she has not said yes, can to appreciate bigger picture, etches on her shoulder before mouslyanother agreedbloom to bring Yadav’s tenure to a tional This behaviour aggressiveand display of ‘love’, in particuHR management at IIM- it’s no. Inpeople all thejust above scenarios, you re-a andamany don’t get that,if while disappearing from the close, with reference toscene. his behaviour towards lar, is set against a gorgeous landscape with place her with Bangalore, says younger people a person of another gender, handful will understand thisit’s at Enraged ecosystem at the assault, in gentle investors, and she the takes media.offThe music playing in the The still a no. And take more risks but some runbackground. inif 35 you age or don’t 40.” have consent but search of the offender. they finally board believed that hisWhen behaviour is not meet befit- beauty of the scenelack is designed to trouble as they manage-to lull us into still go ahead, itVijay is rape.

Shekhar Sharma, founder face to aface, her, and then a an ting of CEO he andgrabs is detrimental to thecomes compaof its insidious imagery and rialacceptance depth.

For most people though, shopping the issue website of conof e-commerce The fact is that not sexual dance he pushes and pulls her about, message, ny,” it said in as a statement. acceptance is bound to at- sent arises only Yadav isan a case in point.that Aparat the ofthose penetrative sex PayTm, ispoint among who got it everybody is a Jobs unties her hair will, strips herfor of tract As India turnsagainst into a her breeding ground at least somemaster reactions such as “stop nit- in real life, or na Jain, integral coach on screen a set literal — not right early. Atwith 21, he up One97 and not everybody her practical fighter’s clothing andCXOs, skilfully start-ups, entrepreneurs and young the picking”, “have you oflost your sense of metaphoricalCommunications, and founder and CEO Zebraa, — depiction or suggestion of focused on has the patience to transforms rest of her outfit old order inthe organisational cultureinto andmore atti- romance?” and the standard “chill, relax, it’s forced penetration. says Yadav is fabulous in terms up torecharge that inmobile Everything and DTH put up with a ‘feminine’ garb.challenged He forcibly smears tudes is being like never natural before. just a film” to this vision column. of his technology but is in stant is considered fairwebsite. game. In 2010, PayTm through Steve Jobs dye on her lipsthink to redden them and lines her need “While I don’t irreverence for time-testActually, we can’t afford to “chill”. Certainly of a well-rounded strategy.

This is whywas droves of to Malayalam fans set up rechargefilm through eyes withisthe essence of crushed At not ed truths necessarily a bad thing,berries. one possiwhen human is still grappling defend that scene “If you work on egosociety or impulse, in Annayum Rasoolum (2013) mobile, and by 2014 it metamorthis shefor glimpses her transformed ble point, concern a younger CEO could self be with of are consent in the matter of when Anna isphosed then the it’s meaning OK if you a Steve seated on bus, oblivious toplaythe intoa an e-commerce in a sheet of water, andBeing quivers coyly emotional immaturity. a CEO, onebefore has to romantic and Prettified presence of her Jobs. But the factsexual is that relations. not evRasoolwith behind her as er stalker competing Flipkart, their dance to continues.

She finally falls asleep be resilient knocks, work with humility and though been, thenot lead couple’s has mating erybodyitishas a Jobs and everybody the he quietly passes his hand over her hair.

Amazon and Snapdeal. in his to arms. learn carry the team along (including being dance in Bahubali unequivocal in its contenpatience to put upiswith a Steve Jobs.”

This is also why rape of Avanthika

by BaFor Sharma, agethe is not a factor for success.

As And that, to ladies and gentlemen, is how a tion subservient the team when needed),” says that it is okay to fool around a womShe observes that while most with start-ups to- hubali not causing the nationwide outrage also foris Nalinikanth (Nal) Gollagunta, who woman tamed. (Applause) Padmajais Alaganandan, executive director — an her knowing, to forcethey yourself daywithout have passion and tech or capability, lack that should. runsitCisco’s commercial sales business in InThis scene featuring Prabhas and Taman- on consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers. when she resists,“They because what theher skills for teamwork. havethat’s a vision of dia and the SAARC region. “To me, age is just in mm vetticad the author of TheorAdventures naah Bhatia appears director SS Rajamouli’s According to a 2014inglobal study by advisory courtship is all the about. how they want product to look but not the anna the mind.

Whetherisit’s a start-up an estaban Intrepid Film Critic box-office-busting Bahubali,age released in who the vision firm Zinnov, the average of CEOs If you among those who are touched by of toare manage the company.

They have dislished business, whatt@annavetticad is critical to run it suc-

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Firmly in an artiste’s skin

cessfully is the ability of the leader to connect with and inspire the team, align them to the organisation’s goals and empower them with creative freedom to deliver results.”

This philosophy seems to have paid off for the 39-year-old Gollagunta, who accounts for nearly a third of Cisco’s country revenues. “I believe a successful career is like running a marathon rather than a 100m dash. Ultimately, what wins is the power of your ideas, your conviction in them and your ability to deliver on them,” he adds.

“They have product managers, technical teams and maybe a business development person, but how do they make teams work cohesively. Especially as they grow? That’s a skill they lack,” says Jain.

Brainy and empathetic Start-ups are required to grow from the first to the second level of funding. Most end up having the simplistic goal of getting rich.

“Instead, what’s needed is a five-year plan Padmaja The right balance and a vision, which is usually missing. The Alaganandan, Aniruddha Knight sooner they invest in coaching the better,” executive knows his work is Enter the CEO coach Jain says. director rooted in a femaleconsulting, This kind of derring-do is inspiring investors Here, emotional quotient, the ability dominated art. Also, Pricewaterhouse to put their money and faith in ideas promotto deal with interpersonal issues, there is the onus of Coopers ed by young entrepreneurs and CEOs. “In comes handy. “Emotional quotient being the iconic Balasaraswati’s many start-ups, particularly in the technolwins every time. While there will algrandson ogy space, the CEO is getting younger as ways be a minimum bar for IQ, I find young professionals keen to start out that having a spike in EQ is much on their own have easier access to more valuable to a CXO private equity funding. Younger than being the smartest Vijay Shekhar CEOs often are bigger risk-takers, person in the room,” deSharma, as they have a limited frame of clares Gollagunta. founder, PayTm reference for what can go Prof Prasad, on the othwrong,” says Alaganandan. er hand, believes that IQ However, in order to offset inand EQ go hand in hand. “If a perexperience with worldly wisdom, son has high IQ, he is a good nerd Rahul Yadav, investors are increasingly insisting but will mostly lack interpersoformer CEO, on corporate coaching for start-ups. nal skills. Persons with only Housing.com To help social entrepreneurs hone leaderhigh EQ are like empty vessels ship skills, umbrella organisation Sankalp Foand they become narcissists. rum has tied up with OD Alternatives, a Only if you combine both do consultancy for organisation development they become really effective niruddha Knight comes with one how readers ‘make’ the text. and leadership. dancer and musician on stage, as well as leaders,” he says. prefixes. is AlterBharatana- They are the agents that give Foundedtoo bymany Santhosh Babu,HeOD the scope for spontaneity and ingenuity.

Aparna Jain, tyam exponent extraordinaire natives specialises in corporate coach- T Ba- meaning. Audiences in a way ofReady arresting the elitism or not… integralHis master coachcreeping and lasaraswati’s grandson; ing for established businesses as wellheas is the dance performance have a into theasartyoung is through Even corpofounder-CEO, first male dancer in nine generations start-ups.

“A coach’s interaction withofa a fam- similar role. However, they dance classesrate for leaders childrenmake fromtheir ecoZebraa nomically mark ily in which traditionally inherited bring their own prejudices coachee is a women confidential conweakerin backgrounds.

India today, the performance art; even his name piques cu- to the interpretation, someversation that expands one’s He believes that if you seem train not all companies riosity. A burden of antecedence, heMittal, has times limiting the art. “Peoawareness and gives clarity. This which enough people to the become ready to hand over reins arto Alok willy-nilly turned advantage. people could be why globaltoCEOs have a “I letangel tistes, “In their heart will be is invery the them.

India, hierarchy investor ple fail to grasp the sensuality former introduce me know that way because need a MDwithin the art form, often relatcoach, as they what they youand right place andyou theneed basicto weave important and stay Canaan Indiaing it to sexuality. Dancing in the fehook somewhere.

Being theand first maleofdancer want to do but are alone of organisation society can befor changed. in an a number of my to family is awith one-line introduction to my male voice doesn’t determine one’s want work someone interview of yearsAstothe prove yourself.proBy art and that goes with it,” he says. sexuality. That is what they are who hasall clarity.” evident that then thegresses, personitisis probably in A couple of weeks earlier, I’d Gates heard him afraid/unclear about, consequently That includes the likes of Bill is lessSo inclined mid-Knight to late-40s.

I don’t speak eloquently about hisBack family’s art before holding the dance itself in conand Google’s Eric Schmidt. home, tomost talk about think Indianhimself, compaAvani Davda, performinglike a combined song-and-dance set. tempt,” Knight says. companies the Tata Group, Adito niespreferring are ready instead for young CEO, Tata In this style, which is rooted in hisand family’s traHis family traces its ancestry to tya Birla group, Maruti Suzuki speaksays about what ails CEOs,” Prasad.

Starbucks dition, Airtel the dancer is also singer, and the the Devadasi community, which traBharti too invest in the corporate Bharatanatyam today.

He slips intoofTamil In fact, many the music is adapted to thewell-rounded movements. Each line ditionally performed in temple courcoaching to prepare often, adopting his mother tongue for rhetyoung CEOs are those who of a padam (lyrical piece) is repeated many tyards, re-telling myths and epics leaders. orical questions thatand indict classical start off by themselves makethe all the misNalinikanth times, for on-the-spot improvisation through music and dance.

While the Alokallowing Mittal, angel investor and fordance ecosystem. laments takes, but customersHegive them the themisplaced benefit of Gollagunta, of both and dance.

A playfulonly tug-of-war custom saw an eventual in its mer MDmusic of Canaan India, believes needthanks to canonise forms and view them doubt to thedance unique product or service head decay, of Cisco’s commercial ensues between thein two, resultingcompain a distinct heyday it was a profession marked by two things matter early-stage inoffer, antiquity.

The desire to hark back to a they he adds. sales (Indiarendition witha strong every repetition.

Knight per- exclusivity, accessible only to a nies: building product and setting or tradition is Gollaguntasource, believesbook embracing youngthat leadhaps represents the“Ilast remaining practitio- specific community. SAARC region) up the right team. believe in surrounding at aleast 5,000imperative. years old. Bharataers has become business “The avnersentrepreneur of this art, which is a seamless of Drawing parallels, Knight says the with people whom blend they can todayThe is erage Indiannatyam citizen asis performed 29 years old. danceon and “The beautyofisthe in its sponta- that exclusivity is today perpetubank formusic. different aspects business,” 200ofyears old, including demographicabout dividend the country is an asPeople fail to grasp the mind of the consumer and craft set and presents neity. atedinto through a different means he says.A completely choreographed piece is get periodic “Yes, I am a hugereformations. opportunity. A healthy sensuality within the accordingly,” Alaganandan. alien to our culture.

It is all the to manodharma — economics.

Echoingsays Carnatic However, not everyone isin open advice and offerings sure we were and dancing 5,000 leadership mix of experience fresh energy art form, often “Today, empathise with would be the years (improvisation),” heout.explained to the singer TMbusinesses Krishna’s need recenttoallementoring, he points ago infor some primitive cave, best recipe success.” relating it to understand gathering. gationsconsumers, of corruption in the run- their needs, Former Housing honcho Yadav, for instance, young around a that fire,” hecompasays Alaganandan points out earlier sexuality. Dancing in and understand Standing more than six feet, Knight“While looks and ningspeak of sabhas, Knight their too seems intentaton clinging to his beliefs. dismissively. nies had 20-30 years to groom a the female voice their stately, with a gait that is from graceful and unfalcontends They thatneed theto align world-rehe would have benefited coaching, we language.

Before you leader and long, expose though, him/her to a doesn’t determine to identify with and tering. is dressed a pattu and shirt nowned December music season need toHe keep in mindin that only veshti a seeker can be leadership glimpse the vulnerabilityto of multitude of experiences pre-a one’s sexuality to thisissegment.

Moreover, arrive atand his home.

The performing ar- cater in Chennai an amazing array awhen goodI coachee not a believer,” says Babu. performing in “Today, a constantpare for the artiste top role. the leaders role models tiste discernible evencoaching in this casual setting. of artistes whoact canasafford to pay Dr isNaik agrees that is not for ev-I young ly changingis world. are timeframe much “There less, and A young CEO can younger employees,” adds no Cisam unsure whether to begin the ques- for their slots.

“This is a reality eryone.

“First, there needs to bewith self-awareness days I wish I did a nine-to-five job leaders are often pulled from the best understand Gollagunta. tion aofdesire gender dance;the he coach is thatisrare male dancer wishes to talk about; it is and to and change… there to co’s and hadbefore no inclination towards they are ready.” customers in his/her pipeline On the other hand, lack of emo- of the artiste who embraced female reperhe says.

The character facilitate the has journey, but thethe hard work has to heretical,” dance at all. It can feel these isolating to be in a feUnder circumstances, ageperdemographic maturity can prove a signiftoire onby stage and has previously never ex- tional formances is changing too.

An average sabha male-dominated be done the entrepreneur,” he adds. art with a are predominantly feorganisations faced with the drawback for young CXOs, as and 15 min- male voice. Plus, pressed any inner conflict about it. I surmise icant slot has been reduced to an hour there of is the onus ofleaderbeing challenge nurturing with to Yadav. he might be open to elaborating on this, so I has utes,happened and designed squeeze in as many per- Balamma’s grandson,” Best advertisement he says lingers ship with the rightand balance of “It is a globally-known fact that prod. “The on advantages stage is a genderless (or formances as possible.

“During my awhile on that Among theartiste many they have, thought.

When and he bounces business potential peopleinstitutions produce high IQ and gender-fluid) entity.understand When depicting a woman grandmother’s time, performances began at readiness. young CEOs best customers in technology back, it is to optimistic place, finding In an Yadav’s case, it appears thatsuche alpha people, EQ (emotional character, there are resources, 8pm and went on tilland 11-11.30pm.

That is quohow was their age demographic and thesuch waysas in music, which sharp cournot in an artistic process that involves ready for the job despite being repeattalentis not necessarily a great assetAcadewith ed. from which theThat dance comes.

When the tient) the academy [the redoubtable Music to target them. explains why the Tata ed annihilation to allow creation — “trying to Jobs returned to Apple 12 years later in And there is he only one way you build it, 1997, sourceroped does in not associate any gender my] worked then,” says. group young Avani with Davda, now 35, to them. find yourself, shooting yourself downWhether and recafter becoming a better leader. that isas byartistes dealinghave withtomany and diverse Yadav why must the outcome, or the influence of it and Besides, bear all expenses, head Starbucks India. AirAsia India CEO Mittu reating,” he aputs it. chance to prove himwillasget second Sharma emphasises. have one?”too he turns asks. The biasyear. then comes from people,” they are increasingly turning to compact discs self is anybody's guess.

Chandilya 35 this in a musicians. start-up, people have they fantastic an“Particularly external source. replace live In effect, lose niharika mallimadugula is a Chennai-based in the B2C (business-to-cus- toTypically lot of passion and tech capability. freelance pratap writer A theory in literary criticism talks CEO about out ona the vital communication between rashmi tomer) segment, it is easier for a young to ideas,

Aniruddha Knight comfortably embraces Bharatanatyam’s female repertoire

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Stop and stare On National Highway 1A, Malik runs a tea stall that also sells buns. He lost both his sons during the heyday of militancy

Time out Sopore is a town plagued by stray encounters. Desp

Times of uncertainty A boy and his infant brother, who live in the shadow of war, with POK across the hills to the left

Time out of joint For people in the Kashmir Valley the return to ‘normalcy’ has been a slow and arduous journey

Shades of Kashmir Shome Basu Foreword by Happymon Jacob Niyogi books ₹1,495

T

he story of Kashmir is never an easy one to tell or understand. It is a land of exceptional beauty and fraught history. While the heyday of militancy might have passed, it is still a state under siege. Bullet-marked buildings, potholed roads, hands raised in protest, wives waiting for husbands who never returned and parents mourning for teenage sons who were killed — all this remains part of the fabric of the state.

Every family has faced a loss of one kind or an-

other.

Despite the unrest, people go about their daily lives as best they can. Children play cricket in the streets, labourers sip ginger tea before work and people shop for DVDs. By documenting the landscape, daily life, people and protests, Shades of Kashmir provides many lens through which one can perceive the state. shome basu is a photo-journalist based in Delhi

Nowhere land Hanifa’s husband has been missing for a while suspected that he may have been killed or may have fled to Pakk occupied Kashmir

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Bowed in prayer The Shiva temple on the hills of Zabarwan is a place of pilgrimage

pite the troubles, people attempt to live lives that are as normal as possible. Here, girls in a school play cricket during recess.

and it is kkistan-

No answers Atiqa, mother of three daughters, is a half-widow. Her husband, a linesman with the State Electricity Board, was taken away by men in army fatigues in 1994. He has not been seen since

CrossďŹ re Locals seethe in anger after an encounter between militants and the Rashtriya Ries in 2009, before the general elections

Life after death The Tantrey family mourns the death of a loved one at their home in Sopore.

Who is there? A young girl eyes the camera with suspicion

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Early rise…

The rapeto of Avanthika FILM FATALE

Bahubali features one of the longest scenes of romanticised symbolic violation ever seen on CEO coaches are in demand, as India Inc witnesses the rise of the screen. Why are we not angered by it?

swashbuckling young boss, complete with tantrums

sashatigar/shutterstock

anna mm vetticad

this scene, permit me to plant the seed of a thought in your head. In your mind’s eye, if you replace the handsome Prabhas with Shakti Kapoor (or another actor who usually plays villainous roles), would you still find his actions poignant?

In the Hindi film Tanu Weds Manu (2011), Manu – again a stranger – is smitten when he sees a drunken Tanu lying passed out in her bedroom. So overwhelmed is he by his emotions that he kisses her. It’s unfortunate that many people find it hard to empathise unless they personalise a situation, but that being the reality, if you are moved by this scene, try this exercise: ask yourself whether it would be acceptable if a woman you love — perhaps your daughter — were lying asleep and your son’s friend or the male If you replace the household help or an unknown handsome Prabhas with Shakti Kapoor (or man entered her room and kissed her? another actor who If you object to either of the usually plays villainous above alternative scenarios, why roles), would you still is it okay to romanticise them in find his actions a film? poignant?

The question is crucial in a nation as conservative as ours where most parents do not discuss romance with their children and where gender segregation is widespread, as a result of which many youngsters take guidance from cinema. If Salman Khan lifts t 30, Steve Jobs had revolutionised founded companies after 2000 is 36, com- jointed Jacqueline Fernandez’s skirt without hera skills, making it difficult to create personal computing with the Apple pared with 39 for the founders who came be- solid knowledge Kick (2014) and she shows anger team,”in she adds. brand. It was 1985 and he was al- fore. The study, across the global 500 R&D at It first, but soon merrily him, the is here that dances coaching gainswith importance. ready a millionaire, working with spenders, also found that the average age of Dr message to Naik, impressionable fans is that womAshwin who co-founded affordable his team on developing the Macintosh com- CEO appointments has fallen by four years af- healthcare en secretly services feel flattered harassment — or chainbyVaatsalya in 2004, puter. Colleagues found him too temper- ter 2000. whatitisiseuphemistically says challenging to called juggle‘teasing’. multiple roles Object of desire Tamannaah Bhatia in the role of the warrior who is ‘feminised’ by a male protagonist amental, brash and demanding. The board It is no different in India, where young foun- during Impressionable young minds are not the the early stages of the entrepreneurial eventually sidelined him and Jobs quit the ders have stormed the market. From Amazon journey, only ones though who their eyes to the particularly forshut first-timers. he,he a brave lies on banks of original company had warrior, co-founded in the California’s Telugu and Tamil, and in multiple to Snapdeal and Zomato to Paytm, online busi- trivialisation ofitsexual violence screen and “As they say, is lonely at theontop.

A coach a Silicon lake, falling booming Valley. asleep with her slim dubbed versions last is a visually spec- can ness is dominated by week.

CEOs —Itwhether appointresistbring or fail comprehend non-traditional in to fresh perspective, which could the water.

Unknown to her, he tacular Back hand home,indecades down the line, online film with an engaging in open ed or founder — under 40. This isstory also rich true of definitions of consent — and informed conup a new set of opportunities,” he adds.

— an absolute stranger — paints flow- mythological realty start-up Housing.com’s Rahul aYadav references.

Sadly, that’s social enterprises — the for-profit firmswhat pro- sent — off points screen.out that when young entrePrasad er onhave her wrist. may learnt the same lesson, in a similar makes dangerous becausefor it bottom-of-thehas the poten- preneurs ducingitgoods and services It’s really simple, you know. shetodoes orquite founder-CEOs rise too If fast the Furious on discovering the tactless, drawing, she tial way.

Temperamental, brash and Yadav to gain legitimacy among more viewers top, pyramid clients. not know you are doing it, it’s a no.“And If shethat does they tend to lack perspective. is sets out trouble to find with out how it got who there.

He un- and to reach a far wider audience than an ugly, why got into investors, eventualnot understand what are doing, it’s a no. It If many of them areyou running into trouble. leashes a serpent onthe hercompany from behind, ly dropped him from he hadand co- unpolished, Out of depthunintelligent, unimaginative, un- takes she says no, years it’s a no. shetrenches resists you physical15-20 in Ifthe before one while she stands frozen, he — still a stranger — entertaining founded.

“The Housing.com board unaniLakshmanan film.

Prasad, professor of organisa- can ly, forbegin god’s to sake it’s a no. If the she has not said yes, appreciate bigger picture, etches on Yadav’s her shoulder before mouslyanother agreed bloom to bring tenure to a tional Thisbehaviour aggressiveand display of ‘love’, in particuHR management at IIM- and it’s amany no. Inpeople all thejust above scenarios, you re-a don’t get that,if while disappearing from the close, with reference toscene. his behaviour towards lar, is set against a gorgeous landscape with place her with Bangalore, says younger people a person of another gender, handful will understand thisit’s at Enraged ecosystem at the assault, in gentle investors, and she the takes media.offThe music playing in the The still a no. And take more risks but some runbackground. inif 35 you age or don’t 40.” have consent but search of the offender. they finally meet beauty board believed that hisWhen behaviour is not befitof the scenelack is designed to trouble as they manage-to lull us into still go ahead, itVijay is rape.

Shekhar Sharma, founder face to aface, her, and then ting of CEO he andgrabs is detrimental to thecomes compa-a an of its insidious imagery and rial acceptance depth.

For most people though, shopping the issue website of conof e-commerce The fact is that not sexual dance he pushes and pulls her about, message, ny,” it said in as a statement. acceptance is bound to at- sent arises only Yadav isan a case in point.that Aparat the ofthose penetrative sex PayTm, is point among who got it everybody is a Jobs unties her hair will, strips herfor of tract As India turnsagainst into a her breeding ground at least somemaster reactions such as “stop nit- in real life, or na Jain, integral coach on screen literal — not right early. Atwith 21, hea set up One97 and not everybody her practical fighter’s clothing andCXOs, skilfully start-ups, entrepreneurs and young the picking”, “have you oflost your sense of metaphoricalCommunications, and founder and CEO Zebraa, — depiction or suggestion of focused on has the patience to transforms rest of her outfit old order inthe organisational cultureinto andmore atti- romance?” and the standard “chill, relax, it’s forced penetration. says Yadav is fabulous in terms up torecharge that inmobile Everything and DTH put up with a ‘feminine’ garb.challenged He forcibly smears tudes is being like never natural before. just a film” to thisvision column. of his technology but is in stant is considered fairwebsite. game. In 2010, PayTm through Steve Jobs dye on Iher lipsthink to redden them and lines her need “While don’t irreverence for time-testActually, we can’t afford to “chill”. Certainly of a well-rounded strategy.

This is whywas droves of to Malayalam fans set up recharge film through eyes withisthe essence of crushed At not ed truths necessarily a bad thing,berries. one possiwhen is still grappling defend that scene “If you workhuman on egosociety or impulse, in Annayum Rasoolum (2013) mobile, and by 2014 it metamorthis shefor glimpses her transformed ble point, concern a younger CEO could self be with of are consent in the matter of when Anna isphosed then the it’s meaning OK if you a Steve seated into on a an bus, oblivious toplaythe e-commerce in a sheet immaturity. of water, andBeing quivers coyly emotional a CEO, onebefore has to romantic and Prettified presence of her Jobs. But the factsexual is that relations. not evRasoolwith behind her as er stalker competing Flipkart, their danceto continues.

She with finally falls asleep be resilient knocks, work humility and though been, thenot lead couple’s has mating erybodyitishas a Jobs and everybody the Amazon he quietly passes his hand over her hair. and Snapdeal. in histo arms. learn carry the team along (including being dance in Bahubali unequivocal in its contenpatience to put upiswith a Steve Jobs.”

ThisSharma, is also why rape of Avanthika

by BaFor age the is not a factor for success.

As And that, to ladies and gentlemen, is how subservient the team when needed),” saysa tion that it is okay to fool around a womShe observes that while most with start-ups to- also hubali not causing the nationwide outrage foris Nalinikanth (Nal) Gollagunta, who woman tamed. (Applause) PadmajaisAlaganandan, executive director — an her knowing, to forcethey yourself daywithout have passion and tech or capability, lack runs that itCisco’s should. commercial sales business in InThis scene featuring Prabhas and Taman- on consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers. when she resists,“They because what theher skills for teamwork. havethat’s a vision of dia and the SAARC region. “To me, age is just in mm vetticad the author of TheorAdventures naah Bhatia appears director SS Rajamouli’s According to a 2014inglobal study by advisory courtship is all the about. how they want product to look but not the anna the mind.

Whetherisit’s a start-up an estaban Intrepid Film Critic box-office-busting Bahubali,age released the vision firm Zinnov, the average of CEOsin who If you among those who are touched by of toare manage the company.

They have dislished business, whatt@annavetticad is critical to run it suc-

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Firmly in an artiste’s skin

cessfully is the ability of the leader to connect with and inspire the team, align them to the organisation’s goals and empower them with creative freedom to deliver results.”

This philosophy seems to have paid off for the 39-year-old Gollagunta, who accounts for nearly a third of Cisco’s country revenues. “I believe a successful career is like running a marathon rather than a 100m dash. Ultimately, what wins is the power of your ideas, your conviction in them and your ability to deliver on them,” he adds.

“They have product managers, technical teams and maybe a business development person, but how do they make teams work cohesively. Especially as they grow? That’s a skill they lack,” says Jain.

Brainy and empathetic Start-ups are required to grow from the first to the second level of funding. Most end up having the simplistic goal of getting rich.

“Instead, what’s needed is a five-year plan Padmaja The right balance and a vision, which is usually missing. The Alaganandan, Aniruddha Knight sooner they invest in coaching the better,” executive knows his work is Enter the CEO coach Jain says. director rooted in a femaleconsulting, This kind of derring-do is inspiring investors Here, emotional quotient, the ability dominated art. Also, Pricewaterhouse to put their money and faith in ideas promotto deal with interpersonal issues, there is the onus of Coopers ed by young entrepreneurs and CEOs. “In comes handy. “Emotional quotient being the iconic Balasaraswati’s many start-ups, particularly in the technolwins every time. While there will algrandson ogy space, the CEO is getting younger as ways be a minimum bar for IQ, I find young professionals keen to start out that having a spike in EQ is much on their own have easier access to more valuable to a CXO private equity funding. Younger than being the smartest Vijay Shekhar CEOs often are bigger risk-takers, person in the room,” deSharma, as they have a limited frame of clares Gollagunta. founder, PayTm reference for what can go Prof Prasad, on the othwrong,” says Alaganandan. er hand, believes that IQ However, in order to offset inand EQ go hand in hand. “If a perexperience with worldly wisdom, son has high IQ, he is a good nerd Rahul Yadav, investors are increasingly insisting but will mostly lack interpersoformer CEO, on corporate coaching for start-ups. nal skills. Persons with only Housing.com To help social entrepreneurs hone leaderhigh EQ are like empty vessels ship skills, umbrella organisation Sankalp Foand they become narcissists. rum has tied up with OD Alternatives, a Only if you combine both do consultancy for organisation development they become really effective niruddha Knight comes with one how readers ‘make’ the text. and leadership. dancer and musician on stage, as well as leaders,” he says. prefixes.

HeOD is BharatanaThey are the agents that give Foundedtoo bymany Santhosh Babu, Alterthe scope for spontaneity and ingenuity.

Aparna Jain, tyam exponent extraordinaire natives specialises in corporate coach- T Ba- meaning. Audiences in a way of Ready arresting the elitism or not… integralHis master coachcreeping and lasaraswati’s grandson; heasis the dance performance have a ing for established businesses as well intoEven theasartyoung is through corpofounder-CEO, first male dancer in nine generations start-ups.

“A coach’s interaction withofa a fam- similar role. However, they dance classesrate for leaders childrenmake fromtheir ecoZebraa nomically mark ily in which traditionally inherited bring their own prejudices coachee is a women confidential conweakerin backgrounds.

India today, the performance art; even his name piques cu- to the interpretation, someversation that expands one’s He believes that if you seem train not all companies riosity. A burden of antecedence, he Mittal, has times limiting the art. “Peoawareness and gives clarity. This which enough people to the become ready to hand over reins arto Alok willy-nilly turned toCEOs advantage. people could be why global have a “I letangel tistes, “In their heart will be is invery the them.

India, hierarchy investorple fail to grasp the sensuality former introduce me that because need a MD within the art form, often relatcoach, as they knowway what they youand right place andyou theneed basicto weave important and stay Canaan India hook somewhere.

Being theand first maleofdancer ing it to sexuality. Dancing in the fewant to do but are alone of society can befor changed. in an organisation a number of my to family is awith one-line introduction to my male voice doesn’t determine one’s want work someone interview of yearsAstothe prove yourself.proBy art and that goes with it,” he says. sexuality. That is what they are who hasall clarity.” evident that then thegresses, personitisis probably in A couple of weeks earlier, I’d Gates heard him afraid/unclear about, consequently That includes the likes of Bill is lessSo inclined mid-Knight to late-40s.

I don’t speak eloquently about hisBack family’s art before holding the dance itself in conand Google’s Eric Schmidt. home, tomost talk about think Indianhimself, compaAvani Davda, performing like a combined song-and-dance set. tempt,” Knight says. companies the Tata Group, Adito niespreferring are ready instead for young CEO, Tata In this style, which is rooted in hisand family’s traHis family traces its ancestry to tya Birla group, Maruti Suzuki speaksays about what ails CEOs,” Prasad.

Starbucks dition, Airtel the dancer is also singer, and the the Devadasi community, which traBharti too invest in the corporate Bharatanatyam today.

He slips intoofTamil In fact, many the music is adapted to thewell-rounded movements. Each line ditionally performed in temple courcoaching to prepare often, adopting his mother tongue for rhetyoung CEOs are those who of a padam (lyrical piece) is repeated many tyards, re-telling myths and epics leaders. orical questions thatand indict start off by themselves makethe all classical the misNalinikanth times, for on-the-spot improvisation through music and dance.

While the Alokallowing Mittal, angel investor and fordance ecosystem.

Hegive laments takes, but customers themthe themisplaced benefit of Gollagunta, of both and dance.

A playfulonly tug-of-war custom saw an eventual in its mer MDmusic of Canaan India, believes need thanks to canonise forms and view them doubt to thedance unique product or service head decay, of Cisco’s commercial ensues between thein two, resultingcompain a distinct heyday it was a profession marked by two things matter early-stage inoffer, antiquity.

The desire to hark back to a they he adds.

(Indiarendition witha every Knight per- exclusivity, accessiblesales only to a nies: building strongrepetition. product and setting or tradition is Gollaguntasource, believesbook embracing youngthat leadhaps represents the“Ilast remaining practitio- specific community. SAARC region) up the right team. believe in surrounding at aleast 5,000imperative. years old. Bharataers has become business “The avnersentrepreneur of this art, which is a seamless of Drawing parallels, Knight says the with people whom blend they can todayThe is erage Indiannatyam citizen asis performed 29 years old. danceon and “The beautyofisthe in its sponta- that exclusivity is today perpetubank formusic. different aspects business,” 200ofyears old, including demographicabout dividend the country is an asPeople fail to grasp the mind of the consumer and craft set and presents neity. atedinto through a different means he says.A completely choreographed piece is get periodic “Yes, I am a hugereformations. opportunity. A healthy sensuality within the accordingly,” Alaganandan. alien to our culture.

It is allisin the to manodharma — economics.

Echoingsays Carnatic However, not everyone open advice and offerings sure we were and dancing 5,000 leadership mix of experience fresh energy art form, often “Today, need toalleempathise with would be the years (improvisation),” heout.explained to the singer TMbusinesses Krishna’s recent mentoring, he points ago infor some primitive cave, best recipe success.” relating it to understand gathering. gationsconsumers, of corruption in the run- their needs, Former Housing honcho Yadav, for instance, young around a that fire,” hecompasays Alaganandan points out earlier sexuality. Dancing in and understand Standing more than six feet, Knight“While looks and ningspeak of sabhas, Knight their too seems intentaton clinging to his beliefs. dismissively. nies had 20-30 years to groom a the female voice their stately, with a gait that is graceful and unfalcontends They thatneed theto align world-rehe would have benefited from coaching, we language.

Before youa leader and long, exposethough, him/her to doesn’t determine to identify with and tering. is dressed a pattu andcan shirt nowned December music season need toHe keep in mindin that only veshti a seeker be leadership glimpse the vulnerabilityto of multitude of experiences pre-a one’s sexuality to thisissegment.

Moreover, arrive atand his home.

The performing ar- cater in Chennai an amazing array awhen goodI coachee not a believer,” says Babu. performing in “Today, a constantpare for the artiste top role. the leaders role to models tiste discernible evencoaching in this casual setting. of artistes who act canas afford pay DrisNaik agrees that is not for ev-I young ly changingis world. are timeframe much “There less, and A young CEO can younger employees,” adds no Cisam unsure whether to begin the ques- for their slots.

“This is a reality eryone.

“First, there needs to bewith self-awareness days I wish I did a nine-to-five job leaders are often pulled from the best understand Gollagunta. tion aofdesire gender dance;the he coach is thatisrare male dancer wishes to talk about; it is and to and change… there to co’s and hadbefore no inclination towards they are ready.” customers in his/her pipeline On the other hand, lack of emo- of the artiste who embraced female he says.

The character facilitate thehas journey, but thethe hard work reperhas to heretical,” dance at all. It can feel these isolating to be in a feUnder circumstances, ageperdemographic maturity can prove a signiftoire onby stage and has previously never ex- tional formances is changing too.

An average sabha male-dominated be done the entrepreneur,” he adds. art with a are predominantly feorganisations faced with the drawback for young CXOs, as and 15 min- male voice. Plus, pressed any inner conflict about it. I surmise icant slot has been reduced to an hour there of is the onus ofleaderbeing challenge nurturing with to Yadav. he might be open to elaborating on this, so I has utes,happened and designed squeeze in as many per- Balamma’s grandson,” Best advertisement he says lingers ship with the rightand balance of “It is a globally-known fact that prod. “The artiste on advantages stage is a genderless (or formances as possible.

“During my awhile on that Among the many they have, thought.

When and he bounces business potential peopleinstitutions produce high IQ and gender-fluid) When depicting a woman grandmother’s time, performances began at readiness. young CEOs entity. best understand customers in technology back, it is to optimistic finding Inan Yadav’s case, place, it appears thatsuche alpha people, EQ (emotional character, there are resources, 8pm and went on tilland 11-11.30pm.

That is quohow was their age demographic and thesuch waysas inmusic, which sharp cournot in an artistic process that involves ready for the job despite beingrepeattalentis not [the necessarily a great assetAcadewith ed. from which theThat dance comes.

When the tient) the academy redoubtable Music to target them. explains why the Tata ed annihilation to allow creation — “trying Jobs returned to Apple 12 years later to in And there is he only one way you build it, 1997, sourceroped does in not associate any gender my] worked then,” says. group young Avani with Davda, now 35, to them. find yourself, shooting downWhether and recafter becoming a yourself better leader. that isas byartistes dealinghave with and diverse Yadav why must the outcome, or the influence of it and Besides, tomany bear all expenses, head Starbucks India. AirAsia India CEO Mittu reating,” he aputs it. chance to prove himwillasget second Sharma emphasises. have one?”too he asks. biasyear. then comes from people,” they are increasingly turning to compact discs self is anybody's guess.

Chandilya turnsThe 35 this in a musicians. start-up, people havethey fantastic an“Particularly external source. replace live In effect, lose niharika mallimadugula is a Chennai-based in the B2C (business-to-cus- to Typically lot of passion and tech capability. freelance pratap writer A theory in literary criticism talks CEO about out ona the vital communication between rashmi tomer) segment, it is easier for a young to ideas,

Aniruddha Knight comfortably embraces Bharatanatyam’s female repertoire

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Out of the shadow The great redistribution LIGHTHOUSE

Playing Bimala pushed the young Swatilekha Sengupta — one of Satyajit Ray’s most controversial heroines — into depression. Thirty years later, she makes a comeback in a role against the same leading man Interventions in free markets amount to taking wealth from the poor and giving to the rich

I

ndia is a poor country. We were poor when we became independent in 1947, and while other countries have lifted themselves to wealth in a span of 68 years, we’re still poor. And government policies are the reason for our continuing poverty. Ever since a group of white-skinned rulers handed over power to a bunch of brown-skinned ones, all the governments that have run India have done one thing incredibly effectively: they have redistributed wealth from the poor to the rich.

Yes, you read that right: I’m not talking about redistribution from the rich to the poor, which itself would be an ineffective way of fighting poverty, but from the poor to the rich. They have taken money from the poor and given it to the rich, and, as if to troll us, they have done this in the name of fighting poverty. For that reason, while there are some very rich people in our country, on average, as our GDP per-capita indicates, we’re still a third-world country.

Let me illustrate this with a recent example. A few weeks ago, the central government announced it would not allow foreign direct investment in retail e-comjrcasas/shutterstock. merce. Business Standard reported: “Minister of State forSwatilekha Commerce and Industry Last laugh Sengupta in Belaseshe, a film that was released in theatres across the country last month Nirmala Sitharaman last month met execu- masses to a specific relatively rich interest from the poor to the rich. Anything that reductives of Flipkart and Snapdeal and representa- group. es competition or artificially raises costs for story reads muchoflike the script Governments could ring the at theorprecise moment tives from theer Confederation Indian portive, Sengupta could notthis. escape thatbell impose continue tar- — the consumers amounts to just Thisfrom in- Biof athe Rituparno Ghosh An acRaydowas always a stickler for punctuality.

Industry (CII) and Federation of film.

Indian shadow.on None the other roles that iffs will so in the name of protecting the do- Cut cludemala’s restrictions FDI,oftariffs, licensing tress debuts the big(FICCI) screen opto industry. the director’s faceThe as he confrontChambers of Commerce and on Industry she was met her mestic But atsurprised whose cost?

French processes or offered regulations thatexpectations. make it harder positeof one of Indian Bengal’s leading ed theFrédéric young actress a day when nothing to assess the impact FDI on e-comyears or later, another story ofand a troueconomist Bastiaton once wrote a great to openThirty a business to run it, subsidies, men, directed by auteur.

— she is had battled all odds to be there. merce companies.”

Thea legendary government then Her de- perfellto into her lap, Shiboproessaystirred called ‘What Seen and What is Unseen’, so on.bled Therelationship interest groups benefit maya differ is panned by the acting fraternity in Ray was moved. cidedformance that it needed to protect local players, sad Mukherjee andand Nandita Royin-film, which speaks of the hidden efin each case, will often India anddid shenot fades out FDI. of the spotlight and inwasWhat a rewarding experience. Ray Belaseshe. and therefore allow Her rent-seeking husband in forces a marriage fects ofGhare such Baire actions. is clude withinworn depression.

Only to return years later to Beethoven to her, Doto you see what happened here?30 Who beneto begovernment, Soumitro Chatterjee.

Sengupta seen whistled here is the good done to was happy that she thin wasthe but always, star competition? opposite the same leading man, could play the piano and did not expect her to admitted fits from The consumers do. winning The one specific she wasexception, nervous to opposite group of people without theplay wealth Government policy is acclaim this time. That is the story of Swatilekreadusurped Tagore. from The hard greater the competition, the more value for (withhave him again. terms, But this money a work will flow, in relative fromtime not dictated by the hathe Sengupta and it is bygets. no This means a film seemed towhich have paid off — Vincent money common consumer is axthe film silenced all poorer group, by itself the pooraround to the rich. people at large, but by script.

Baire to Belaseshe it has Canby, morally The New York Times critic, iomatic.

OurFrom localGhare retailers — all the people herdon’t critics Bengal you — even is surely wrong).

So why weinprotest, been abylong 1985:is ‘Swatilekha consulted the journey. ministers — were scared that Whatwrote Amitabh tweeted is notinseen what the Chatter- the aggressive ask, given that we Bachchan are a democraay whistled lobbying of R hundreds An Allahabad girl, be Sengupta Chatterjee is the pretty, surprisingly willtheir bottom-line would affected(née by this praise after Belaseshe consumers would have done cy? Well,his think about the winnerswent Beethoven to her, of interest groups, out jee) grewso upthey watching Charulata and MahanaBimala’.

America competition, successfully petitioned last month. with ful that money.But They would was one and thenational losers here.

The costs of was happy to make a killing at thethatsuch redistribution gar at a localtocinema Sundays.

Worried was something else the government block it.hall Theon result: the conAfter Ray, Sengupta naturalhave thing, spentBengal it or invested it, are dispersed could play the expenseshe of the poor about studies, wrote Satyajit Ray, altogether.

Raygone had back included his sumers will her get less valueshe than they to otherwise found Mukherjee’s and it would have among ly more than a billion of directous, piano and did not asking if she could act one more of hismonfilms. But would; the local retailers willinmake habitsare very different. He into first the full-blown economy, onscreen creating kiss in and therial benefits concentratexpect her to have because she didn’twas have the right address, Ghare — based on ey than if competition allowed.

In effect, it the have every growth andBaire employment.

Buta Tagore ed to a did few.not If ₹2 from the scene taxes meread Tagore you paidticulously letter went astray.from Later,ahaving left Allahabad novel — and the Bengaliofbhadrolok is a transfer of wealth large, dispersed sketched out, but the potential beneficiaries last year went as a subsiforofKolkata, she joined theatre group Nanwere outraged. group consumers to athe small, relatively then, Mukherjee was you her old that sensibilities are not even aware of dy to the widget industry, dikar and landed A band of leading heroines dewealthy interest group.a small role in Shambhu Mistudent what didn’t happen. won’t even know or care.

The from widgetNandikar industry, and Galileo. coincidence would have clared aare vendetta on the woman Alltra’s tariffs have As exactly this effect.

Let’s say it, I Ray Subsidies she found that he had his also redistribution of the re- making millions from the accumulated ₹2 own came watch her act.manufacturers Sengupta’s phone who hadHood comekind, fromifstage to sweep the silver like to buytowidgets.

Local sellstartmethods.

Sohini, heraggressively, daughter, who did a caverse-Robin in a more obvious will care, and will lobby contribed ringing; she thought the first caller was way. a The screen and taken the critics caught me widgets for ₹100 each. Foreign manufacin coffers, the film,buy kept companyand on the wealth from the poortheir is notfervour. in ute tomeo party offher politicians bu- sets. hoax he told her that he was actor Robi never lived nor looked the for role,” one returers, for when a variety of reasons from technoloA comic version of Belaseshe the anterms“She of marketplace prices or value monreaucrats — stage whatever it takes.

That is is on why thatme Manikbabu as Ray viewer wrote.

Coincidentally, was And married gy toGhosh labour,and can sell widgets for—₹80.

But was vil with Sohini the dictated director. by the peoey, but is taken directly from yourhe taxes. government policy as is not called — would like to meet her. calls peronepoor of the actresses. the local manufacturers petition theThe governFor someone who has an unshakeable whiletothe may not fileDespite incomethe taxfact re- that ple at large, but by the aggressive lobbying ofmarsomeone from the fraterkepttoo. telling her to concentrate mentsisted to putuntil a tariff on imports, andtheatre the govriage, of theinterest two dominant in her lifeahave turns,Manikbabu they pay taxes Every time your maid on hundreds groups,films out to make nity confirmed genuine. foreign Sengupta soon lapsed inernment puts a ₹30they per were widget tariff on the buys the been about relationships where a bag of saltreviews, or the beggar at the nearby killing at the expense of the poor.

Thatmarital is why pasSengupta’s Rayover. was on traffic a tosignal depression. foreigners, so they first don’tmeeting bother with coming sion is ebbing. though Arati or buys soap, they are contributing government growsSengupta and grows, and is sonot many dayresult: when each the city was blocked by processions A bedridden Ray finally that The net of us loses a notional ₹20. to the Rich Bimala.are Love, she says, changes over time Interest Group Benefitinsisted Fund. This is she constraints placed on the only force that but forcedThe to walk her house in travel to economics Cannes with Soumitro Chatterjee Who and getsshe thatwas money? localfrom manufacturher husband remains her support. not just poor — it is morally wrong. for can make us wealthy: economic freedom.RudrapraVivekananda Road (in north Kolkata)reall the Here’s the screening of the but she was ers. What just happened?

The government the upshot: All film interventions inunable free to sad went to watch Belaseshe and found himt@amitvarma way to wealth Bishop from Lefroythe Road (a south Kolkata accept herself the role until she had self moved to tears by his wife’s distributed relatively poor performance. markets amount to a in redistribution of wealth neighbourhood). She arrived half-an-hour watched the film three times. early and waited outside the door so that she Though her husband Rudraprasad was sup- anjana basu is a Kolkata-based writer

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

Emergency care gg studios austria/ shutterstock

India is indebted to a German jurist, whose prescient warning helped the judiciary draw a lakshmanrekha around the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution

READER’S DIE JEST

Ready for yet another flogging?

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Line of control The Emergency has been described as the most testing period in the history of independent India the hindu

n the 40th anniversary of the partment at Heidelberg University’s South any criminal proceeding against the Prime Emergency in June this year, we Asia Institute.) His lecture was titled ‘Implied Minister. It was dropped, no doubt because saw numerous articles and even a Limitations of the Amending Power’. To ex- the government’s legal advisors probably book on what happened, how it plain his point, he asked what if a majority warned that such a Bill would be struck down happened, and whether we, in today’s India, government decided to pass a law to hand sov- because of the ‘basic structure’ doctrine esare safe from a recurrence. We came perilously ereignty of India to the British Crown or the poused in the 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case. close to throwing away the most precious gift Mughal dynasty, or carve the country into half. Had this not been the case, Mrs Gandhi could of our Independence movement — our democ- The government might have had the two- have happily continued violating laws withracy, the freedom govern olvingtothe Greekourselves crisis withrather one terse thirds majority needed pass such an out being falls that delicious facetofirst on my impossibly ‘legally’atwrong.

(The current Mahaing seduced 15, though?). than be mereemail, pawnsI ask at the of those myhands submissive — in oh no, amendment, have expensivebut floordid anditoh! my!the god!right to rashtraWhere government, in yes, its effort to Ana makelose it her was I? Ah helping power. Had India up onI’ve its democracy, it change now given look what done to myself — structure of the country Ithe ambasic about to be smitten.

But firstand I must mandatory to get government nod before fil- AfStasia, so thata she is now a virgin no more. would not have been the country to do so. secretary tofirst bring me lunch.

Hmm. the Constitution? pull oil prices back up to their 21st century ing cases against MLAs and governter which I compose the senior complete works of Almost every failed Rajma.

Fordeveloping once she’s country got it right.

Evertosince In highs a lovely essay, eminent jurist AG Noorani with a few careless email instructions. mentBach officers, is piano ignoring this, will Now no to at my while sheand sleeps. hold Leela on to—democratic afterevery inde-timeexplains oh, how sheprinciples would moan I Should howI also the invent paper based the Apple watch while I’m spend 400doubt reminded of the same pagesbefalling in love with her and pendence. was not peculiar to developing wouldIt bark, ‘Ready for your flogging?’ on — Professor Conrad’s at it, because this islecture 2011, and Steve Jobs is still writing her by flirtatious the courts.)email while she bites countries, Asian and of African Thebeen taughtorme the joys Indiannations. beans, I’ve was alive? read aloud ConstituWhichby is why I will gift a Mac to this her lower lips Weand aregives indebted toinstant Professor me an reason mostfull famous country tosingle throwthing away Idemocraof gas in every do. Which retionalwoman lawyerwho MK bites Nambyar in every three pages of to say oh no, her lips Conrad. identified lakshnow He look what I’vethe done to mycy, bringing to power a dictator through minds me, I really must show Djokerdemwho’s in the famous 1967 Golakh this 588-page book inNath a deliberately provocamanrekha that aIdemocratically so you know have given myself a Few know that inself. theAnd just ocratic means, was, course, Germany. charge here byof whipping his ass — oh no, now case. tive In itsattempt ruling, the Supremefrom my BDSM to distract ways thebad reputation elected government could not with all that suggestive talk of same year, Using excuse of thetoReichstag in Feblookthe what I’ve done myself —fire at the US Open.

Courtand held ‘Parliament turnthat me into mush. Oh no, cross and still calltell itself demoBDSM, let me you, I hardly government had come ruary 1933, Hitler’s National Socialist Open.Adolf Oh yes, baby. Who wouldn’t, for me? has no power amend III now lookto what I’m Part not doing to cratic. useHis theinsights, whip orincorporatthe belt in all up with a Bill to amend German Partytycoon — thewith Nazis — man- of I’m aWorkers’ spoilt young an entourage of the Constitution as all to these Article 361 of the myself anymore so with ed into thosethe 588judicial pages. decisions, aged extraordinarily to win 44 per cent of thepeople vote. They efficient who had jump to take thoughts away or abridge of love. the fun- Constitution, disallowing helpedBecause, the judiciary determine as Leela might have the most seats in Parliament, but were still Afmy absurd bidding and deliver flawlessly. damental Although No! rights’.

Don’t touch me. OK, that Mrs Gandhi had crossed said, lau. any criminal I’m aproceeding spoilt young shortter ofall, majority.

Warning against ‘traitors I’m the boss — oh no, now look what I’ve this touch was partially me. I’m overridden a sadist but all I against that line. insights were durBut These eventually, pausing the Prime tycoon with an within’, theto Nazis pushed through the Endone myself.

And, just a minute while in I thewant 1973 is Kesavananda to make l….BharaNO! I don’t alsoing what the judiciary myallowed epic takeover of Twitter, Minister entourage of abling Act inanMarch 1933, which allowed thethere, launch unmanned mission to Pluto, ti case, Supreme Court ex-Let me DOthe love.

I’m so confused.

Teslaup andextra-ConstitutionReliance and merging extraordinarily to clean government to make laws without Parliamenthat’s done, I’m incredibly modest too. Not to plicitly inkitchen the latter case go stated into the and whip up her during the in them intobya single BPO based efficient people who al insertions tary consent.

May 1933, all the trade unions mentionByunself-conscious.

I mean, I never that athere ‘basic struc— ohwas no, anow look what I’ve Emergency.

We often think our Shanghai — oh but that ugly Anjump to my absurd had been July, alll… political thinkabolished, of myself and whenbymaking no, I don’t ture’ done to the thatNo, I’ll to Constitution myself — dessert. are lonely tilla would makeones, SUCHbut a marbidding and deliver tragedies parties other than Party banned. make love, I…the youNazi know thewere next two words by the government the day could not override. flawlessly go running of instead.

Professor Conrad’svellous exampleplayroom shows us with that we all my By 1934, hadread made President,EL JanowHitler if you’ve thathimself female impostor Incensed the judgment, Oh by Anastasia, Anastasia,Indira why Gandhi can avoid mistakesequipment by learning—from the ones I beat Ana a little Chancellor and Shades Head ofofthe Army. mes’s Fifty Grey. triedare to stack the judiciary with yes- others made. Reading you making me do all compliant these 2011 paper

by Aharon too ahard.

She walks out. I am The peculiar thing is that this eventuality, But. What does she know about me, of really? men,uncharacteristic but she could not undo decisions. thingsthese like Barak, the former overcome President of theworry.

Israeli But Su- just with an undemocratic using democratically Does she evenruler get how a dominant obsesses in Everybody that the guilty stalking knows you and being jealousverdict in preme Court, on ‘Unconstitutional Constituin time, I remember I have two passed toThere undoare democracy, already hislaws head? no shadeswas of grey in me at 1975 against MrsIGandhi misuse gov- tional of any man suspect—ofthe being yourof boyfriend?

Amendments’ in the Israel Lawromantic Review, tomore books to slap something beingall, extensively Germany be- reait’s all just discussed one colour:inred.

For obvious ernment jeeps fortheir campaigning — washave one aoffeverBefore I bash faces in, I must heavily citing theno, Indian makes gether — oh now experience, look what I’ve done to fore the rise ofwait, Hitler.

This was wondrously part of the lecsons.

But who is this beautithe primary drivers ofabout her declaring Emergenish nightmare Mrs Robinson (helLO! me glad that our lessons become those of the myself. ture delivered Professor Dietrich Conrad toshe’s ful youngby woman at my door, so gauché cy. But fewRobinson? know that in the same year, the govMrs Dustin Hoffman?

The Graduworld as well.

(This monthly column helps you talk about a the law faculty at Benares Hindu it’s University mind-blowingly — though not myinmind ernment haddon’t comeget upit? with a Bill to amend ate? You I didn’t either.

Apparent- book without having to read it.) tOmairTAhmad 1965. that (Professor Conrad headed the law and de- will wants to be blown — beautiful Article of seduced the Constitution, ly I361 was at 15 and disallowing I still carry the break through my non-romantic barriers in emotional scars and that's why I want to dom- arunava sinha translates classic and contemporary an instant as she trips at the threshold and inate every woman. Which idiot objects to be- Bengali fiction and non-fiction into English t@arunava

How does a dominant obsess in his head? There are no shades of grey, really. It is all just one colour, honestly: red

arunava sinha

Grey EL James Arrow Books Fiction ₹499

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

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Just likewrapped bottled water Legacy in a mystery

East Germany who wrote a book on Netaji, told Emilie Schenkl (Netaji’s wife) he had information from sources in the KGB that Netaji was imprisoned in Russia. He was being slowly poisoned and was losing his mind,” he says.

Other disturbing revelations further convinced Bose that the plane crash theory was false. “Henry Stokes, a well-known British journalist, once told me that when he arrived in Tokyo in 1964, he learnt that the MI6 was still looking for Netaji in Tokyo. Even the British did not believe that Netaji died in a plane crash in Taiwan!” For most of his life, Bose has searched for the ‘truth’ about the death. Official records, which can put the matter to rest, have proved a dead-end in his efforts. “Only if

When to Rob a Bank, a collection of blog posts, is unlikely to join the league of well-loved bestseller Freakonomics For most of his life, Netaji’s grandnephew in Germany has searched for the ‘truth’ about the freedom fighter’s death

Daily patterns This book offers a look at a counterintuitive approach to everyday things — like the economics of boarding a crowded bus r ravindran

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ith their first book, Freako-

site for example — but why did 93 per cent of

but out-of-sync, posts about the death of Le-

Guarded secrets An undated photo of with the National Army, which was formed British ruletoinGod, India it thereflects hindu archives nomics, Steven D Subhas LevittChandra and Bose doctors in Indian an Australian medical study sayto fight vitt’s sister the; (right) rangePrime of interpti every examinMinister Narendra Modi at a meeting with Netaji’s grandnephew Kumar Bose in Berlin Stephen J Dubner managed to they Surya washed their hands after ests of two intelligent, articulate and

When to Rob a Bank A rogue economist’s guide to the world Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner Allen Lane Non-fiction ₹625

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do for economics what Stephen Hawking did for physics hisbut A Brief t Surya Kumar Bose’s with simple eleHistory of gant Timehome — take somethingyou which is in Hamburg, cannot widely, and justifiably, to be dry porand miss the largeknown black-and-white difficult totrait understand for nothing ecoof Netaji(not Subhas ChandraisBose. nomics known as the science’) — Showingalso Netaji reading out‘dismal the proclamation and turnprovincial it into a rollicking, roller inof the government of coaster the Azad tellectual that millions of people could Hind Fauj ride in Singapore, the photo underlines actually a familyenjoy. legacy: Bose is the grandnephew of having anyan maths inmovement their booksagainst helps. theNot man who led armed Black and British the space-time India’sholes erstwhile rulers. continuums being what they are,account Hawking quite “If you take into thecouldn’t fact that the manage toFauj leave allthe thefirst maths out, which is Azad Hind was independent govwhy Brief of History onecould of those books ernment India,remains then Netaji be considwhich more people have bought than ered India’s first head ofpossibly state,” he says as we have it —Bose did isyou settle completed down for an(admit interview. the finish presiyour dent copy?). of the Hamburg chapter of the Deutsche But oneGessellschaft can’t say the(DIG), same the about the FreakoIndische Indo-German nomics franchise. the decade the book association that In promotes tiessince between the first appeared, it hasDIG grown several books, two countries.

“The wasinto set up on Septemaber widely syndicated column, a website, blog 11, 1942,

by Subhash Chandra Bose ataHotel and evenina Hamburg. movie (though a docuAtlanta That admittedly was also the occamentary!). is available in virtually every airsion when ItJana Gana Mana was first sung,” port bookstall adding in the world, duois has Bose recounts, that theand DIGthe today the joined Bhagat and DaleinCarnegie in largest Chetan bilateral organisation Germany, the which urchins sell at traffic withstacks 27 branches.

As a consultant hesignals often in Indian cities. Inkeen otheron words, they in are the no guides Germans working longer economists who write books; booming Indian IT sector.

He ispopular also a founderthey are popular writers — period — popular member of the German-Indian Round Table, enough to begathering given spacethat in expensive airport an informal seeks to further shelves, popular enough to be pirated. mutual business interests.

What theday, secret of this staggering Back inisthe Netaji’s stay in Germany suchad cess?

Perhaps it is thein engaging of the proved instrumental shapingnature his struggle. subjects they write about.would In theplay book under Decades later, that legacy a pivotal review, instance, one of the questions role in for shaping his grandnephew’s career. which bugstothem is theon “liethe of advice reputation” — Bose came Germany of Alexwhy more about some things (like anderpeople Werth,lieNetaji’s German interpreter in having readLegion.

A Brief Thus History of Time), even when the Indian began a lifelong assothe stakes are low. ciation that has seen Bose carry on his family’s Where it’s easy unefforts to there secureare theincentives, declassification of to docuderstand — lying abouteven yourinage on a dating ments related to Netaji Germany.

Most

ation, when the actual rate was found to be well-educated people — but offers none of the just nineBose per cent?

It’s thePrime reputation effect, recently, met Indian Minister Na- understanding of the tools of economics the Indian government makes a request on to where overstate something to offer rendra you Modiunderduringorthe latter’s Germany visit incan their other and, to be fair, in varRussia the KGBbooks, files concerning Netaji be present in atobetter to the in April. yourself “I expected meet light Mr Modi forquesonly ious placeshe even in this book. released,” says. tioner. is prettywhen much aroundWhich five minutes hewhat camethe to quibHanBeing a collection ofbelieves blog posts, thewas narraThe grandnephew Netaji let bling about nover.over But the ourfindings discussion lasted 45 minutes. down by independent tive is jumpyIndia’s (Levittleaders. and Dubner “There the level me of that deprivation He assured his government would are rumours writethat separately in the blog) and unSarvepalli Radhakrishnan among households in look intorural the declassification.” the earlier books, research is and Vijayalike Lakshmi Pandit, whothe had travelled theCalls latest socio-economic for the declassification have grown not as thorough, since the posts to Russia, knew that Netaji was being held This is where one census is allrecent about.revelations louder report following were meant interest provoke, not to to bring this and to light.

Now feelsthat a bitthe morethere workbut chose It’s these kind of Eureka! government of India had spied could on Netaji’s not necessarily provide answers to that time has gone by, the governhave gone in,so much moments — when ordifamily for close to 20the years.

“My father, Amiya the questions they raise.

This is ment’s previous argument that declassificasince many of the nary getsvery an insight Nathreader Bose, was close toinNetaji, having carwhere one feels a bit more work tion of the documents would jeopardise posers are intriguing, to a seemingly complex issue, ried Netaji’s appeal to the Sovi- and it is frustrating to could have gone in, since of foreign relations no many longer which at the timestruggle. is inets during thesame freedom the posers are intriguing, and it is holds, and the nation has a right not know the answer stantly relatable to hisin or1957, her he When he visited Japan frustrating nothappened know the answer. to know to what to Netaown made thebehad alife, gutwhich feelinghas that he was Still, you have read all the ji,” heif argues.

Hisnot anguish at this Freakonomics pantheon such ing watched. We were not active I do not believe in the earlier books betrayal (and even youhighest have), perceived atifthe ain politics. global We sensation.

Sadly, to had no reason collection offers by a good look at is worsened the fact that so-called ashes in thislevels When Rob athorough Bank — even if it’s sub-titled expecttosuch surveilthe duo’s approach to everya branch of Netaji’s family had Renkoji‘Atemple, and counterintuitive rogue to RAW the world’ whenever — is un- day lance. economist’s I have often guide spotted — long like the economics of boarding ago accepted the planea I trythings to likely league. agentstoatjoin mythat lectures and talks speak about this crowded bus — to the not-so-everyday — like crash theory. issue Forinstarters, it isn’t a newvisi‘book’ —in inpublic, the Indian here Germany,” he says, whether peopleDoes without transmitted Bosesexually believe in the specusense of containing new thoughts and writ- trydiseases bly angry over the treatment of be that encouraged to havelived sex in lation Netaji secretly as officials to shut should ings.

It is a He collection of blog posts from the his family. says Indian offiorder to reduce the overall riskIndia, of HIV/AIDS a hermit in north that he me up Freakonomics blogs.

It is, as the authors dis- (the answer’sbecame cials have tried to discourage yes, by the way). a ‘Gumnami baba’? He armingly out against in the introduction, the him from point speaking the As to the title question.

Friday doubts that aStatistically, person of Netaji’s print officialversion versionofofbottled Netaji’s water death.— something mornings appear to be best, from would a bankhave robintellect and energy which is widely free, but is still pack- ber’s point ofsurrendered “I do not believeavailable in the so-called view. Unless,toofa course, roblifetimethe of anoaged sold. The justification is that, like ashes and in Renkoji temple, and whenever I try to ber happened to be a fan French poet nymity and renunciation.

Heof is full of praise bottled water,this some extra hasIndian gone in, in Arthur speak about issue inwork public, offiRimbaud, likeAnuj former MITwho professor for journalists like Dhar have Joe rethe ofshut a curated selection of the most ‘in- Gibbons, cialsform try to me up.” in which case thesubject odds appear to searched extensively on the of Netaji’s teresting’ posts.for declassification gained mo- turn The demand against death.

“Dharthe hasrobber. done great work with his That, ofafter course, is whatMukherjee the authors claim. books mentum the Justice CommisGibbons, inspired thenot poet’s admonition on Netaji, butby I do believe that the This necessarily be accepted by many sion may had not concluded in 2006 that Netaji did to ‘descend intotothe depthsthe of Gumnami all that wasbaba bad evidence used support readers, towards the Though end of the and not die inparticularly a plane crash in Taiwan. report back’, decided rob a to bank and theory is conclusive...

I am to inclined believe book, when rejected signs ofthe strain clearly start to make government report, Bose believes a filmwas of himself doing it. The professor that Netaji in the Soviet Union after the soshow. is a section ‘kaleidoscopia’, that ofThere the three inquirycalled commissions looking is in the clinkcrash. at theOnly moment — but then,can he called plane declassification which even the authors admit might bedeath, more taught into the mystery surrounding Netaji’s and not economics! put thevisual matterarts to rest.” honestly taggedCommission ‘miscellaneous’.

Spanning the Mukherjee was the most srinivasan ragini bhuyan is a Delhi-based writer wisdom from Levitt’s dentist to emotional, honest. “Raimund Schnabel, a journalist from r

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Gone in 4.2 seconds On its first day in the Indian market, Xiaomi sold about 15,000 devices in a matter of seconds. Country head Manu Jain on the Chinese smartphone vendor’s ‘incredible’ year in India

An easy Margherita (though the Associazione guys will sniff) 300g bread flour 1 tsp instant yeast 1 tsp salt 1 tbsp olive oil 500g tomatoes, halved 3 cloves garlic 1/2 tbsp olive oil 1/2 tsp caster sugar Fresh basil 1 garlic clove, crushed 125g mozzarella, sliced Grated parmesan

1 Put the flour into a large bowl, stir in yeast and salt.

Make a well, pour 200ml warm water and olive oil and mix with a wooden spoon until you have soft, moist dough.

2 Knead for five minutes on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Cover with a tea towel and set aside.

3 Put tomatoes, garlic and olive oil in a saucepan. Cover and cook for 10 minutes on medium heat. Add sugar.

Remove lid and boil for five minutes. Cool, then sieve.

Mix in basil and crushed garlic, and season to taste.

4 On a floured surface, roll out dough into thin rounds, about 25cm across. Lift onto two floured baking sheets.

5 Heat oven to 240°C. Put another baking sheet on the top shelf. Smooth sauce over bases. Scatter cheese, drizzle olive oil, season. Put one pizza, still on its baking sheet, on top of preheated sheet. Bake for eight-10 minutes until crisp. Repeat for remaining pizza. shutterstock

STREET, EAT, REPEAT Getting it right Giving good customer experience with the right product and at the right price point is more important than sales targets, says Manu Jain

Love triangle X

iaomi, popularly called the ‘Apple’ of China, has just completed a year in India. From sales that crashed ecommerce sites to becoming India’s fifth largest smartphone vendor without spending a penny on advertising, Xiaomi has achieved more than what most of its rivals did in the first 12 months. BLink caught up with Xiaomi’s India head, Manu Jain, to understand how it keeps device prices so low and what Indian t’s users expect from it in the on can a blistering afternoon infuture.

July, onEda ited excerpts: drab street called Via Della Meloria in Rome, that I realise that we’ve all been You are completing a year India.

How do gormless victims of a in great con.

Perhaps you rate your performance far? we’ve never noticed becauseso it’s been with us It nothing than phenomenal. first soislong.

Sinceless those fuzzy days beforeThe Google. time had aphones. sale, onBefore July 22, we thought it Beforewe mobile colour TV. would belong-ago an achievement to sellGeet, 10,000 deIn that era of Chhaya Campa vices.

More than two lakh people visited just our Cola and Premier Padminis, you couldn’t partner site that day andand it crashed.

We started pick up your telephone order a ‘thin crust selling 10,000chicken to 15,000 intomatoes’. a few secwith smoked anddevices sundried onds.

In October, lakhwas devices For many reasons.we Theoffered first, ofone course, that and they days sold in 4.2 phones seconds.were In less thancrossfour in those most dead, months, weor crossed the million-mark in sales. connected otherwise incapacitated.

The We believe werethere the fastest to reach this figsecond waswethat was no Domino’s or ure in India.

Onethe outcorner. of every fivethe to third six online Pronto’s around And was customers Xiaomi.

It was. is inthat, almostends noneup of buying us knewawhat pizza credible, given that we have not spent a single I remember the moment when ‘pizza’ endollar on vocabulary. marketing. I was slaving over hometered my work when my mother came home laden with Globally, Xiaomi handsets parcels and news.sold She34.7 hadmillion just driven past in a the first six—months of 2015 against Mafco stall one of those little shopsthe that disannual of 80 million.

What about the pensed target flavoured milks and toasted sandwichtargets the Indian market?

Will youon bethe es — andfor noticed a new menu painted able to meet them? wooden shutters.

The fancified fare included Any company which fast, and an item that none of is usgrowing had everreally tasted: Pizza. doing phenomenally, knows that its journey We piled into our bronchial Fiat, scurried to will be closely scrutinised.

Xiaomi, for me, is the stall and demanded ‘peeza’.

The shopkeepthe only B2C (business-to-consumer) er looked first confused and then company abashed. that doesn’t in KPIs performance “Peejhha,” hebelieve confessed, was(key a project for the indicator) or got output targets like sales or marfuture. So we toasties. ketThe share. disappointment was short-lived. Mumgame is different: areof not just a baiOur andend Delhi were ready for awe slice marghsmartphone company but aa slew mobile erita — and soon enough of or faste-comfood merce company.

Givingup. good customer experirestaurants popped Then the aunties ence with thethe right product and at the right jumped into fray.

They swapped tomato price is more thanwith KPIs. bread That’s saucepoint recipes and important experimented our whole — to focus on inputsthat and pizzas andphilosophy bun pizzas and discovered not outputs. some bakeries actually made saucer-sized piz-

of David is to Michelangelo’s sculpture.

Where does India fit in Xiaomi’s global products have unique and different design Pizzarium is run by the man referred to as plans? language.

Our Mi Note, 5.7-inch screen device, ‘the Michelangelo of pizzas’.

Gabriele Bonci reIndia is an extremely important market for has glass at tied the front back.and There is no fuses to be downand to athe menu decides Xiaomi and the second largest revenue gener- other device that is as beautiful as it is. his creations according to his mood and haul ator outside China. In the next two-three at Ifthe you look atInour entire of prodmarket. a year heecosystem serves about 1,500 years, it is also expected to become the world’s ucts, air purifiers, Mithe TV, Mi Pad, Mi we are varieties that, as is custom inBox, Rome, second largest smartphone market. Consider- different from any company. sold by weight in other rectangular slices. Behind ing the Xiaomi philosophy, India is a market the counter is a veritable garden. One pizza is are able to compress specsherb, givenanother by that suits us really well. We work in markets You zigzagged with a leafy green affordable devices? where affordability is a big thing, because we expensive dotted withhandsets zucchini,to yet another layered with do potato. you maintain such low price points? bring devices affordable prices but featured with the How za bases.

Andat soon birthday parties golden Another emerges fresh from are three things which our same specs as bread, those that sellwith for a₹40,000wodges of pale topped tomato- There the oven, heaped with tuna.help We us tryprice a pizza reasonably.

One isand theanother philosophy 50,000.

Secondly, markets where e-commerce onion sauce, chopped capsicum and grated products topped with creamy codfish covto cut costs comprising is growing, andAswedid cansnooty ride that growth curve, Amul cheese. clubs, Udipi res- that ered we inwant mozzarella.

Thewithout four cheese with quality orisspecs.

There two angles to it. interest And markets where no op- on taurantsus. and streetside stalls. there Theseisspreadmushroom hearty andare savoury.

The pizza One, weperfection don’t incur any major erator subsidycreations suit us as consumand-sprinkle reigned supreme for rossa — that manages with just a tomarketing costs. A lot bread of brands ers make independent device with its 30- mato sauce on years, till the arrival of Domino’s Bonci’s magnificent — is spend to 10case per the centbase of their purchase decisions. fulfils minute promise andIndia tandoori fiestas. sweet and zingy.

Butfive in every is so revenue, sometimes allFor thedecades, three conditions, so it’s aas convenient light that youannual I viewed pizzas feel you are biting througheven air, One out of every five on marketing.

We save very important for us. fast food.

Till a market recent trip to Italy taught me till you reachmore, the crunch at the bottom. to six online that and pass onrecorded the benefits to that you also find glorious art in drab side The word ‘pizza’ was first in the customers ends up What you doing to engage consumers. streetsarewith overflowing gar10th century,Two, in a most Latin brands manubuying a Xiaomi. It is with sell through brick-and-mortar bage Indian bins. consumers?

Through our trip, incredible, given that script which granted ‘the bishop We are buildingmarvellous products specifiretail — youtwelve have national rewe’d sampled pizza. of Gaeta pizzas and every we have not spent a cally suited to the dotted needs ofwith the gional distributors and retailers Massive triangles Christmas Day, and another single dollar on Indian market. (a budget and you every end up Easter giving 20-30 per spicy salami at aMi4i budget-eria in twelve Sunday’.

In Rome they like marketing version of itstopped flagship Mi4) has cent tothe thisdays chain. helps Venice. Pies with a brilSince ofThat thatalso well-fed their pizzas thin and been for India.

Weand are us keep costs check.developed liantlydesigned red, piquant sauce bishop, tastesin have crisp, in Naples they setting an R&D centre Also, since sell they B2C, like we wobbly up mozzarella that weand con-a differently.

In we Rome like them soft and manufacturing plant Bedon’t earn huge margins on sumed on the steps of ahere.

Florence their pizzas thin and crisp, in Nachewy... sides, weOval willpinsas, have full-fledged brands Oursoft philosophy church. an ancient e-commerce hardware as other ples they like do. them and cheoperations and 100trendy exclusive service centres is to make money on in our internet platform Micousin of the more pizza, wy, and Chicago they like them here.

We arewith also four experimenting services MiCloud, Xiaomi smothered cheeses, with home UI (which offers drowned inlike toppings.

Still, there pick-up and walnuts drop service, which shows our App Market, and Xiaomi Games Centre). honey and at a busy are some basic rules. commitment Indian market.

Rome eatery. to Anthe eggplant and bell pepper The pernickety Associazione Verace Pizza manufacturing in India be viable given beauty gobbled in a rude, sticky restaurant Will Napoletana insists that authentic pizza has to Your devices said to be a poor man’s that costson here higher than in China? near the Treviare fountain. be baked theare floor of a wood-fired oven, at course, yes.Giorgio We tookLocatelli this decision before the iPhone, thewe close to bust Of Alonggiven the way also resemblance encountered the 485°C. Chef insists on ‘the announcement tax crisp duty. base Sinceand Insome models? the Do queen you think of Margherita, of aXiaomi’s gazillionstyling menus. budget perfect balance betweenon a thin is important to ourisglobal plan, it would and design language will change in theMargh- dia Legend has it that in 1889, when Queen a softer garnish, which why you have to eat good tofive–six have a minutes plant here we can future? erita visited Naples, a local pizza maker creat- be it within ofso it that coming outdeof Iedthink comparison is incorrect.

I don’t in theorR&D centre and manufacture threethat varieties in her honour.

She loved the sign the oven, it will be soggy and spoilt’. localthink people compare usbasil withand Apple because ly. Sadly, With the structure, there iswea pie topped with tomato, mozzarella wechanged have fewduty options.

So unless of similar design.was A lot of people compare the significant in tax duty you manuand food history made. convert ourdifference kids’ bedroom into aif wood-fired two because both,I in their respective ways, are facture vsback import.

But our criterion was more But it is while squished against the counoven, it’s to Vegetariana pizza in a soggy phenomenal companies which arejust disrupting just financial.

We want to be close to conter of Pizzarium, a modest eatery outside than cardboard box for us. the way technology is consumed consumVatican, that I actually realisedbythe grand sumers in India. ers.

That is What far more and deception.

I’vefundamental been eating all myimporlife is shabnam minwalla is a journalist and author of tant than design. large number of our rashmi The Six Spellmakers as close to just real pizza as Aa plastic fridge magnet pratap of Dorabji Street

A takeaway delivered on a motorbike is blasphemy in Italy, where the pizza is as venerated as Michelangelo’s David

shabnam minwalla

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Heaven and high water A vertigo-inducing drive to Gurudongmar Lake, roughly five kilometres from the Indo-China border in north Sikkim, leads to a series of serendipities

Going places 25-year-old Beno Zephine was ranked 343 in the UPSC exams last year. She is seen here with her parents at their Chennai residence r ravindran/ the hindu

An eye on success Chennai girl Beno Zephine, India’s only visually impaired foreign service officer, hopes she is the first of many more to follow

F R

Starting point Teesta river Beno owes itsZephine, life to Gurudongmar, the without second-highest freshwater lakebothered. in Sikkim mitaThese ghose or 25-year-old being us making us feel

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outspoken is the only way to be. “My first extempore speech was when I aghu missing. is our hired was inisLKG,” saysSo Zephine whencar. we Up since 3am, we’ve been awaiting meet at her residence in Villivakkam, neighremote mountainside in North bourhoodon inawest Chennai.

“I was asked to frozen to the marrow, exspeak on Sikkim, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s pecting our driver to show up. If Our hotel’s birthday, or something like that.

I rememparking is deserted; every othertoguest ber right,lotthe options were either writehas or left forand ourI,destination.

Withto panic setting in, speak of course, chose speak.” theThat snow-clad glowing silver in was justHimalayas, a small beginning for the starlight,who appear less magical by the moment. woman is now India’s first visually im“We leave exactly at 3.30am, madam the paired foreign service officer.

Thereji,”were smart aleck warned us yesterdaydebates, during many morehad extempore speeches, the exhausting up from sleepless nightsdrive in school andGangtok. college, as well higher explained, the as At months of elevations, preparationhe’d for the competitive weather could Through turn suddenly theZephine’s day proexaminations. all of as this, gressed.

AnyAntony delay increased theanrisk of being father, Luke Charles, 55, Indian Railsent back by the sentries manning last Inways employee, and mother, Marythe Padmaja, dianhave Army check-post 49, stood by her. before Living our in adestination. joint family, No onealso I know hasuncle, ever visited Zephine has an an auntGurudongand their mar Lake. location — northeast of and the children forIts extra support.

The doorbell Khangchendzonga range and ringing roughlysince five the telephone haven’t stopped kilometres of the appointment India-China border — the news ofsouth Zephine’s arrived would interest like quite my travel last month.

And geographers the family hasn’t tired partner, So would the secrets fact that secof tellingM. journalists toSikkim’s her success. ond-highest freshwater lake provides the sourcethe stream Worth waitfor Teesta river. But I’m hooked onwas something else:that its Zephine unearthly beauty and It in June 2014 came to know its significance forcleared both Sikhs and Buddhists. that she’d not just the UPSC exams but Being neither, my fixation it isShe inexplicalso secured an all-India rankwith of 343. didn’t able — the as are the anxieties it feeds.

Suppose expect confirmation of her posting to take that rogue, up?year Whathas if more than aRaghu, year. “Inever thinkturns this one we’ve come this obscure little vilmoulded mealla the lot,”way saystoZephine.

“When I was lage, perched 9,000-odd feet above level, in Delhi to meet the officials at thesea departfor nothing? ment of personnel and training, they all said With focus turned further north,and it that my my follow-up was both persistent seemsAn inconsequential is more good. official told me,that ‘YouLachen were bothering

family duties to drive Zephine to her classes all qualities will help you in the future’,” she says. through her years in school, college and Not one for choosing favourites, Zephine’s coaching. Mary Padmaja, on the other hand, than just adidn’t night let halther fordown acclimatisation; that has optimism as she patiently road.been Waterfalls lie frozen.

Burstinglife. through the ‘voice’ in Zephine’s “She its localfor Buddhist down the road is reads waited news ofmonastery her posting.

“I was not fixatthe stillness, the grey-green Teesta rushes past. out anything that I wish to learn.

I use a now repository of certain relics software ed onthe theapparent IFS. I wanted to get into the services It’s a landscape like no other, forbidding — decalled JAWS (Job Access with Speech), belonging toparticular Guru Nanak, thewhich founder of Sik-I which and was not about branch spite the quirky that computer follows a reads out half-rainbow any text on the hism; it that century ago, its Great Hermit screen. make to,”over she asays. showerThough — and soul-stirring. the amount of reading needed had ostensibly initiated a feisty BelgianAfter completing her Master’s in English lit- forOblivious, Raghu natters on about the me hyIAS was massive, my mother helped French explorer and Buddhism scholar, erature from Chennai (Stella Maris and Alexthen with pocrisy of religion, a prayer beall the notes andmurmuring the texts,” says Zephine. andra David Néel, into theworked secretsas of aesoteric Loyola College), Zephine proba- fore every passing shrine, his sparse meals yogic practices like telepathy.

Bent tracking tionary officer at the State Bank ofon India (SBI) Looking while onahead duty (he’s been quietly polishing off downasRaghu, I fervently wish long-deeven she prepared for the civilthe services ex- An ouralumna stock of pistachios apples), his imof Little Flowerand Convent, a Chennai ceased Néel were ams.

“I must havearound. attended at least nine differ- school pendingfor wedding… the visually and the hearing ima seasoned clairvoyant entPerhaps IAS coaching centres, and in himself, our We’re crossing a grim zonedidn’t of military inpaired, Zephine face disman suddenly reeking of alco- stallations in all of them I wasmaterialises, the only person mid-construction, cranking crimination while growing up or hol, exuding bliss. that an insolent wink he cranes and grinding, without sight,” sheIs says.

“They groaning cement mixwhile pursuing higher studies. sends all ourquite way or simply a lazy were helpful and the ers.peace I sense China border At with the herself, Zephine is I was not fixated on eye? Best not to were know.quite curiother students nearby.

Instead of at not impervious to stopping the importhe IFS. I wanted Setting cut ous.

I read out a lotatof once, Braillewe books ThanguofValley, usual accepttourist tance beingthe socially to get into the shortthey the implausible story beand all wanted to know halt for tea and toilet breaks fur-I able.

“Acceptance is important.

Here, lichen appears services hindithis delay. You can’t muzzle how works.” ther ahead, our driver pulls up know that one of my senses is not like bloodstains on Raghu, As forthough. exam fears, she says it near a cluster shabbycan dwelland of nothing be enormours boulders. working, “My native who Lachung,” he was her parents were really ings at Yathang, before herding done about that.

What I can do is Flat-topped boasts, gesturing at tensed.

“I’m an disdainfully eleventh-hour us into a gloomy, smoke-stung move forward with the help of mountains look like the view and as dawn breakscarry over the learner I would 10 teashop by aand dour, baku-clad my otherrun senses resources.” giant hammerhead ridge, “is far to lovelier thancentre. this, My nervousBraille books the exam woman with whom he flirts She hopes that her selection as an officer in sharks madam ji!” disappear the moment I stepped India’s highest ness would shamelessly.

Swatted away, for he ranked service is a boost “This,” he calls is a world into the as hall.

Onceit,inside, I was totally re- not just herturns, to hisdown favourite family.unfazed, “Somewhere the removed from his picture-perlaxed,” says Zephine. activity — networking.

Customline, society has to accept that we’re not less in fect birthplace further northhuddlefrom in silence any way, onlyers different others.around We havea east, where rhododendrons in full bloom the Support systems stove, overviews, mugsaspirations, of their preferred same talentsbrew. and abililight up the driveher to the gently sloping Yum- ties.

Zephine credits entire family for more A And sozzled oldthat geezer has launched into a it’s not someone has to be generthangjust Valley. lichen like bloodthan herHere, success.

“Myappears father doesn’t let ous slurred insisting that he’s his or soliloquy, charitable to accept me. found I’m not stains on for enormous boulders. me sit still a moment.

He pushesFlat-topped me to par- inferior. mother again, in myI am friend; hadfound graciousI am what andshe I have the mountains look events like giant ticipate in various or asks hammerhead me to read up right ly offered a biscuit.says M’sZephine. bemused expresplacehim for myself,” sharks.

Sharp, summits on some topiciced-over or the other,” she gore says. drifting Charles sion unlocks my first grin of the day. arasusoon is a Chennai-based journalist clouds.

Snow from avalanches spillsand over the sibiRaghu has always taken time off from work other wipes it off by dropping his

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Travel Log Getting there

Several domestic airlines operate flights from major Indian cities to Bagdogra Airport. Car services and share taxis are available from the airport to take you to Gangtok for an overnight stay. The travel desk of your hotel in Gangtok or any of the several travel agents based in town can arrange for a car and driver to take you to Lachen, between five-six hours away, depending on weather and road conditions. Following an overnight halt in Lachen, the same driver will take you to Gurudongmar Lake, about four hours away, again subject to weather and road conditions.

Stay

Gangtok: The Elgin Nor-Khill Hotel (email: reservations@elginhotels.com) Lachen: The Apple Orchard Resort (email: appleorchardsikkim@gmail.com) Inner line permit

Since Gurudongmar Lake lies in a sensitive border region, inner line permits are mandatory for Indian citizens travelling there. Foreign nationals must turn back from Thangu Valley. As a general rule, senior citizens and children below seven are prohibited from visiting the lake because of their susceptibility to high-altitude sickness (HAS).

Tip

Gurudongmar Lake lies in a high-altitude area, where oxygen absorption drops to alarmingly low levels. To counter symptoms of HAS, cautious travellers from the plains carry oxygen pouches. Many prefer taking a AGENDA prevention course of Diamox 250 mg tablets at least two days before visiting the lake and for the duration of the trip. Proper hydration is a must. Carry snacks and water. Nothing is available after Thangu.

Losing the gloves

Road show On the way from Lachen mita ghose

Gaigaonand lies atvice a height of 15,000 feet. yond lies China (formerly Why the right wing hates intellectuals versa.

It is a Due universal clash of twoTibet), from where, to the low atmospheric pressure here, the ab- around five centuries earlier, members of a worldviews: liberal, academic-artistic theisconservative penchant to reduce sorptionutopia of oxygenversus by the lungs around persecuted Buddhist sect had purportedly three per cent; the level drops significantly at crossed over and converted to Sikhism, inevery idea into an excel sheet ofthegrowth and2,100 nationalism lake, a further feet up, cautions the spired by the teachings of Guru Nanak, who

sambuddha mitra mustafi

bomb. We’re approaching Gaigaon, the last Army check-post on our route. The sentries there, he declares, don’t permit children below seven and senior citizens like us to proceed to the lake’s higher elevation. Reason: Altitude-related health issues. Relishing our spluttered reactions to this last-minute annder thesadist Bharatiya Party nouncement, the hintsJanata he could usegovhis ernment, in InArmy ‘contacts’ to ‘fixanti-intellectualism things’. dia has peaked. A revered Nobel laureate was forced to resign as a university chancellor, while a soft-porn actor took over the country’s top film institute. But the countervailing stars of Amartya Sen and Gajendra Chauhan are more than just about ‘saffronisation’ of education.

The main story — the overarching thesis that explains the Nalanda and Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) saga — is the rightwing disdain for artistic creativity and intellectuals. This disdain is not peculiarly Indian, nor is it a one-way disdain. This is a universal clash of two worldviews: liberal, academic-artistic utopia versus the conservative penchant to reduce every idea into an excel sheet of growth and nationalism.

Globally, artists, journalists, actors and academics — the majority of the ‘creative and intellectual’ classes — are known to revile the right wing, as much as the right reviles them.

In the US, Hollywood is overwhelmingly Democrat; most elite American universities are hubs of the liberal intelligentsia; a survey last year showed only seven per cent of American journalists identified themselves as Republican, while 50 per cent said they were Democrats. In India, you would find roughly the same pattern.

In a 1949 paper titled ‘Intellectuals and Socialism’, the Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek explored why the intellectual classes were more likely to be socialist. “Newspapers in ‘capitalist’ ownership, universities presided over by ‘reactionary’ governing bodies, broadcasting systems owned by conservative governments, have all been known to influence public opinion in the direction of socialism, because this was the conviction of the personnel,” wrote Hayek.

Hayek was a free-market champion, and an advisor to right-wing political heroes Ronald

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genial, turbaned sentry. was passing through. It’s perhaps no coinci“I could still let you pass, madam,” the ja- dence that the gurudwara by the lake resemwan tellsand me,Margaret flicking Thatcher. through our a Buddhist that relics of ‘Nanak Reagan But permits, even he bles “The Left Fronttemple; government in West Bengal matain jihishere…”

He it regards myselfish grey- Lama’, “but as he is locally known, are said to lie in admitted paper “that is neither probably produced the single-most systemathaired friend filial concern.

Lachen’s thatsystem the descendants interests nor with evil intentions but mostly hon- ic assault on monastery; an established of higher ‘Et tu, Brute?’ expression sug- which de- education,ofcreating those Tibetan converts reportedly estM’s convictions and good intentions an unimaginable degree gests thatthe he’s just reopened the makeobserves the annual pilgrimage to termine intellectual’s views.” of party control,” Pratap Bhanu Mehwound her drunkAmritsar’s Golden Temple.

Hayekinflicted pointedby out that the appeal of social- ta in The Indian Express.

“The destruction of Calen ‘son’. Hackles up, she Pondering the remarkable ismold amongst intellectuals lay in its “courage cutta University was a far more watershed defends her position with that the free-mar- event for higher education accidentsthan of the history that to be utopian”, something travails of passion.

She’s fitwere enough to to address. Intel- Nalanda; West Bengal unitenowdisparate peoples ket proponents unable has a gross enrolhave visited twice, and education cultures, I lower gaze atthan the lectuals are, Tibet by and large, disdainful of ment ratio in higher she retorts.and More than a because in them that of UP.” narrow strip of water — a capitalists nationalists decade I know. brooding grey — out lapping at they seeago, enemies of their egalitarian utopia.

What Mehta leaves out, perhaps of defA compromise shore.

Believed to Now let’s lookisatreached. the universal right-wing erence to Amartyathe Sen,near is how the Left actually We sign base, a disclaimer: We’re of anti-intellec- used Sen’s brandbeequity blessed twice over,

by Guru support the flag bearers (and that of other inproceeding at are ourgenerally own risk.business I and Guru Natualism. They leaders, tellectuals) to Padmasambhava create this “unimaginable deknow whattechies that means, half an nak, thisparty segment reportedly bankers, (free-market gree of control” over the hour later. and lower middlenever promised And myevangelists) state’sfreezes. higherI’ve education.

It’s not the lake of that overself bottleofof Sen that kept holy water, income cheerleaders ‘cultural the a likes quiet whelms me asThey I stepare outwomen of the but how to reach it? That nationalism’. through it all, perhaps outsharp, of his Intellectuals are, by By then, I’ve realised car, sensation thatbottom turns rocky descent and the and but mena of action and ideological affinity andimpossifriendand large, disdainful what’s zapped me. my head, mydo legs, mush. The ble climb. lines.

They nottounderstand ships with Marxist leaders. of capitalists and Not a spiritual ji!” Raghu has world recedes…

Somehow, I “Don’t, madam the utopian worldview of the inSo when Sen writes in The New nationalists because charge, but the first reappeared.

“You’ll breathmake it to a bench, drained, contellectuals, the ‘sickular’ ‘potYork Review of Bookshave that “the exin them they see symptoms of highing on the way up.” fused. is it? erudition A seismic tremheads’What whose and tentproblems of intervention has become enemiessickness of their altitude Clairvoyance again? and often or or the impact a spiritually articulation givesof them a cult folboth unprecedented egalitarian utopia “Why don’t I fill up the bottle?” potent the uninitiated? lowing place in theon media and society. politically extreme under the he offers,regime”, muttering beforea ‘Sarv Dharam Sthal,’ignores says is a What the right wing present it isslyly of course going his errand, wasign.

This ‘place for religions’ that prosperity andallculture are cause off for on worry, but it is “the also fair ter a woman’s fertility.” is a tiny gurudwara By intrinsically linked tonearby. the world to enhances ask why he did not write the A man’s virility wise guy! then, I’ve and realised zappeda me.

Not of dissent socialwhat’s reformation, world thata same about Westtoo, Bengal.

Sen’s case would M reappears.

“C’mon, to been go.” That’s the spiritual charge,have but mastered. the first symptoms of have the intellectuals Modern capibeen stronger had time he not selective high-altitude sickness (HAS). talism itself owes its birth to the Protestant so- Tibet in hisveteran outrage.speaking, a firsthand witness to casesinofPune, HAS. Gajendra Chauhan can Raghu has disappeared.

M too? Listening to hardcore cial reformation of the mid-20th century, led Meanwhile Raghu returns.

M takes filled bottle the chilly windwho teardissented at the rows of the bright by intellectuals against Ro- rest easy. The versatility of histhe body of work — and anoints us allLove with—ashould sprinkling prayer flags, I sense my pervasive solitude, intimidating, man Catholic Church’s hold on ordi- from him Yudhishtira to Jungle cerwater.

Ourmore drivertakers looks in surprised at this unyet the vast expanse naryliberating. lives. TheI contemplate Protestant reformation gave of tainly find this government benediction. before me —greater not the shimmering turquoise individuals freedom to go out in the expected than Sen’s philosophical musings. After all, Advance wedding gift, Don Juan, I muse. waters my imagination, butenterprises, an unending secular of world, set up their own to this is a government of action-oriented men Back in thechests car, hewho catches mythat eyemytholin the sheet iceaccumulate stretching wealth. away to the far shore, with createof and outsized believe mirror.

Was that amight wink?asAwell lazyleave eye? luminescent andto surreal, But this is not say that itgleaming is only thelike righta rearview ogy is history.

Intellectuals dar- Best not like to know. pearl in the early morning light.

Is this wing that gets it wrong every time.

Because for exile the Pandavas. communing with the divine?

Circling shan, the utopian left is a natural ally of the academsambuddha mustafi theeditor founder of ghose ismitra a freelance writerisand based the lake, a horizon of mountains, silhouettes ic, intellectual classes, the politicisation of mita The Political Indian t@some_buddha of rock and snowleft beneath sky; be- in Kolkata education under regimesa ismoody often greater.

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Age of extinction Human activities — habitat modification, change of land use and pollution — will lead to the extinction of numerous species at a rate unprecedented in the history of the planet

Big picture No crop can grow without pollinators (such as bees) kr deepak; (above) Pollination is an ‘ecosystem service’ we humans derive from lands such as the Western Ghats bhagya prakash k Danger looming The extinction of the rhino will bring devastating changes to land. The ecosystem will go off-kilter in the absence of the apex consumer ritu raj konwar

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Blindly ahead

t the start of the 20th century, there were five lakh rhinos in the wild; glistening in their body armour, horns intact, they wielded a disproportionate influence in the savannahs. It was a time when numbers were their strength, and this keystone species and mega-herbivore held together entire grassland ecosystems. Today there are 29,000 in the wild. By 2050 there will be none. Plant species that populated the grasslands are no longer extant, and the large, natural carbon ith sinks too government, have disappeared. the BJP under Like in the Pleistocene period (or Ice Age the leadership ofthe Narendra extinction), when megafaunal such as Modi, pushing species a development the woolly mammoth and mastodon died out agenda, what everyone seems and forests the forests extincto agree on replaced is that thegrasslands, environment, tion the rhino will bring and of wildlife have got thedevastating short end changof the es to land.

The will are go in completely stick.

Almost allecosystem the green laws the procoff-kilter in the absence of apex consumer. ess of being subverted or the completely rewritSay to the phase of Statutory mass extinction. ten hello to make waysixth for industry. bodies A the paper published inwildlife Sciencemag last like national board for and forest month, ‘Accelerated human-inadvisorytitled committee have modern undergone severe duced Entering dental species surgerylosses: and are left withthe nosixth teeth.mass The extinction’, reveals perhaps the deadliest only minister in thethat cabinet charged with promass extinction so farenvironment is underway.and forests tecting the country’s This paper and an is earlier (2014) research pathinks his ministry a ‘road block ministry’, per ‘The biodiversity of speciesupand their and — is working towards speeding environrates of clearances. extinction, It’s distribution protecmental no holdsand barred for tion’, also published in Sciencemag — confirm ‘development’. theWhile sixth the mass extinction event, at athemselves rate 1,000 ‘greens’ are shouting times than ever “It took four hoarse,faster the majority of before. urban India perhaps years finalise (the findings),” the the leadenviauthinkstothis is inevitable.

Conserving thor of the paper,important, Dr Gerardo ronment is, 2015 of course, butCeballos, as a desaid from nation Spain. we have to use our natural veloping resources to develop. With almost 30 per cent Missing pieces 1.2 billion people living in povof the country’s In 2014, the International Union for Conservaerty, without basic needs — housing, electricition of Nature Red List, which classifies ty, clean water(IUCN) and proper food — being met, species based on threat level, facing assessed the ‘development’ challenge the71,576 govterrestrial freshwater species — 860 ernment isand huge.

We are a democracy, andspeit’s cies species identithe were need extinct, of the 21,286 majority thatwere apparently fied as threatened. counts, not a few elite conservationists.

One in four mammals, onestory. in eight birds, But this is not the whole Humanity one in three and halfcapital’— of all torthe world overamphibians, depends on ‘natural it

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toises and freshwater turtles face extinction in rate of 2 E/MSY (two extinctions per 100 years the near future. According to the 2014 study, per 10,000 species, a highly conservative estion average, 52 of nearly 22,000 species move mate), the extinction rate should’ve been 9 E/ “one Red List category closer to extinction MSY. But Ceballos’s study notes that in 114 each year.” Nearly 132 plant and animal species years, 468 more vertebrates have gone extinct, in India are listed as critically endangered in including 69 mammal species, 80 bird spethe Red List. cies, 24 reptiles, 146 amphibians and 158 fish, The problem is further compounded as less with rates eight to 100 times higher than the than three per cent of the 1.9 million species background rate. known to us has been assessed by the IUCN. To add to this staggering math, more than 10 mil- Brick in the wall lion species be discovered. is the basisare ofyet alltoother forms of capital, It’s yetwhen 2050itand rhinos are stillitaround the not water rains, and releases slowly growth, development and everything else. (despite alarming figure the of one rhino through the year.

But when slopes are Death race rivers, crops, land are the basis of poached The forests, every five hours).

Despite being planted with exotic trees, the rivuletnot becomes In fiveand mass extinction events, lifethe on previous this planet, provide valuable eco- apex predators, theyin are keystone a torrential stream heavy rain,species, causingvital imspecies were wiped out in massive system services, without which we asnumbers. a species to an ecosystem’s it as mense erosion as survival. it moves“Think along, ofand willa For instance, the Permian extinction, would not survive.

We directly dependnickon brick wall. dry Oneup byinone, bricks are being All recompletely the summer months. named ‘The Great Dying’, them for food, fibre, fuel, saw raw materials for these rivulets moved.

When a keystone species come together to form the 96 per cent of all life ex- on our natural streams andgoes, houses and shelter.

Wegoing depend the wall crumbles.

In time, it rivers that flow out of the mountinct; and in the Devonian environment forLate regulating climate and rain- tains and sustain will collapse andofsopeople will humanimillions across extinction, of cycling. Nitro- south India.ty,” fall, for waterthree-quarters purification and Ceballos. if the current Butsays in our need toOr have more elecIf the current rate of all out.for So what if genspecies cyclingdied is vital growing rate of steel, extinction continues, in tricity, aluminium and othextinction continues, we are in the protection, middle of a much crops, flood disease just three human we er minerals, damslifetimes, and mining in just three human faster sixth extinction?

Won’t control, to give a few examples. would havetolost continue eat our intobiodiversity. these hills. lifetimes, we would ecosystems and species diverEnvironmental estimate Of course, weagencies need electricity have lost our sify?

FallingWon’t apartthe human being the value of ores, ecosystems at $33ittriland metal but should be There is just no space biodiversity remain However,largely naturalimmune systems to are lion percost year,oftwice that of producat the water? in our country to such changes? breaking down around us. Take tionOur fromfood human activities. system is another ‘develop’ along evidence for the curtheMost Shola grassland systems In the case studynature-versus-developwhere things are gothe western rent extinction points a finger across the Western Ghats, for exment debate,wrong.

Ceballos “there ing badly Nosays, crop can industrial model at human for commuthe accelerated rates. is no conflict”, ample.

Theactivities indigenous one without can’t be pitted against grow pollinators — the an “The species extinction other. To get ‘ecosystem nitiesoverarching in the hills driver alwaysof valued a more complete picture, “What service’ we humans is population growth and increasing should be examined thehuman grasslands, but no one lisis the relation between derive from natural capital.

One per capita consumption,” the 2014 study. poverty and environment.” tened to them.

They weresays conof the first global valuations of Habitat change of landand use,were pol- ecosystem sidered modification, ‘wastelands’ by the British, Extinction, in many and onNature small and services in cases the journal vallution and introduced species major coneither planted over with exoticare plantations of large scales, is a natural never beued the ‘pollination pestprocess, controlbut services’ for tributors to extinction. pine, eucalyptus or wattle trees, or given over fore has a single species oursand — been solely agriculture provided by—bees other inrate ‘Modern’ (or the death rate) is shown to Extinction ‘development’. science now shows responsible such mass events.

What sects in the for US alone at $240 billion perwould year, as species going time, us fractions that theseofgrasslands are extinct vital forover water cy- the Ghats be without the hundreds of andWestern at 1994 prices.

Modern genetically modithat extinctions per through million species-years cles. Ais,rivulet that runs a valley with amphibian species, thethousands Himalayanofsubalpine fied crops spread over acres in(E/MSY).

Both papers the death natural grasslands oncalculate both sides will flow rate in a conifer without pine trees, and the tensivelyforests managed by agri-businesses cannot on the basis of all thethrough ‘background rate ofthrough extinc- floodplains steady trickle the year, of Assam without its rhinos? support bees, and they are dying out across tion’, which is in theofabsence of hu- much of the ‘developed’ world. It’s reached a the heaviest ofmeasured rain and most the summer. kotamraju man activity. Since 1900, on thethat background The grasslands act like a sponge soaks up priyanka point where bees are artificially reared, im-

In the environment vs. development debate, we forget that natural capital — forests, rivers, land — provide ecosystem services, without which we as a species would not survive

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ported from other countries and released over and water. Second, almost every ‘developed impossible trajectory they began many decthe crops to pollinate it. And then they all die nation’ lives well beyond its means, using oth- ades ago. All the development we are now purout with no suitable habitat. The next move is er countries’ resources while somesuing is essentially to make room for toof tryInvestigation and develop robotic bees. Is this an excit- times managing to conserve its tral Bureau large corporations and big busiing newindevelopment or sheer lunacy?

(CBI) has moved and set own. We are also trying our ness. There will, of course, be diclofenac-vulture is another classic ex- best to copy the same unup camp in The bungalow B-10, ripple effects and trickleample. A cheap drug that acts as an anti-in- sustainable model of deBhopal. Proceeding quickly, downs, but the growth bethe agencyflammatory has alreadyand reg- painkiller, diclofenac was velopment, with land ing talked about is most extensively used for livestock in the 1990s. Vul- grabs in Africa by Indiistered five cases. But Vyalikely going to improve thatmystery fed on diclofenac-treated carcasses an corporations. But pam is nottures the only the lot of the top seven died, saw a spectacular 99.9 per cent we are still eating into keeping the CBI and busy.we Apparper cent, and possibly in vulture numbers across South our own limited natuently, thereduction bungalow is pull a few more people Asia.

Everyone agreed that this was unfortu- ral resource base fashaunted. In February 2009, into this category. But butGaud, it didn’t Lakshmannate, Singh a bother us. However, vul- ter than ever before. it’s not aimed at the tures,Chouhan in their inconspicuous way, unknown to The Indian forest policy Shivraj Singh fapoorest of India, those most us, provided vourite and theofresident of an essential service — of recommends that the most in need of developB-10, died cleaning in a freakanimal road ac-carcasses, vital for a country safe amount of forests that ment. NGOs, people’s movelike India, cident. Since then, which restlessis home to half a billion live- the country needs is 33 per ments and civil society stock.

Withmade no vultures to clean up and dead cent of the country’s land. We spirits seem to have it groups are all labelled ‘anti-deanimals piling up, the population of feral are now at about 20 per cent, their abode.

B-10 was back in velopment’ and are currently shot to 18 million. But they are not as with natural forests being the news dogs when a up district feeling the wrath of the state unmake a mess by scattering ani- cleared (and in the best of cases panchayatefficient.

CEO wasThey caught leashed upon them.

A farmer knows every mal pants bones and rotting tissue, spreading dis- replaced by monoculture planon camera, down, Let’s be honest, even most of corner of his land — eases like rabies with a secretary in the bun-and polluting water bodies. tations) at an alarming rate. us urban elite who directly benewhat crops will grow And there losses galow’s toilet.

Later,are a other fe- unquantifiable democracy argument fit from the corporatisation of where — in a way peeding cars,— flyingThe jeeps, stunts on bikes… these best are things Parsis’ towers Tibetan male IAS the officer took up of silence and putcan forth for the primacy de- yet.that India (who like to call ourselves that Uttar sky Pradesh forget.

Not in realoflife, The MNCs state never can on vultures.

These comresidence burial only torituals quit itdepend in a velopment is also not entirely the ‘middle class’) have rural transport department wants its magistrates and district road munities grapple without keycommittees functions totrue. few months, givingnow no reaIndians benefit from roots if you go back a few genersafety ban Few scenes in films, commercials and TV setheirmystery traditional son. With aoftwin on funeral customs. development and growth.as to how they ations. Though we have more rials that flout trafficthis rules.

We can keep guessing s the Vyapam scam con- its hands and a mixed track India is unique in terms of money, ‘purchasing power’, live plan to implement the ban, but the order requires magistrates to Lee’s To Kill a Mocktinues to unravel, leav- record in So thewhat? state, will the of its people do forand a living. have vastly improved some health screen content that what entersmost homes through DTH cableNinety servic- longer and arper ingbird gave us a hero in ing behind a trail of CBI crack the Again theopen? average will say, ‘Yes cases An urban Indian three per cent of the employable Indians fall indices, we also know that our agricultural es. Here’s hoping that the ban will save some lives in a state that Atticus Finch.

Many saw their mysterious deaths, the Cen- Ouija board yes, all that is fine and conservation is vitally might help. into the unorganised category.

50 per grandparents or great grandparents ate records one of the highest numbers of deaths in roadAnd accidents. fathers in Atticus, many wanted to be just like him.

Barristers, businesses and celebrity offspring took his name, trying to live up to his standards of “real courage”.

Shockingly, we have discovered that in the new Harper Lee book, Atticus is a white runk drivers of Bengaluru, beware. There are new punishments for supremacist, perhaps even a you. Besides impounded vehicles, fines and court summons, drunkKlan-sympathiser. The sales en night crawlers will also have to deal with a compulsory documentary of Go Set a Watchman are screening. You might be pie-eyed, soused and zonked, but cops will pack breaking records, but what you off to a cramped theatre in Chikpet, where you will watch a serious will happen to those who documentary describing the effects of alcohol on your brain. At the end took his name? Will they of the show, a certificate will be given, which will have to be produced to shut shop, change name and collect your vehicle. Unlike unpleasant smoking ads that are only as long lie low? While Miss Nelle Haras trailers, this show will go on for two full hours. Just saying... better to per ponders that twister, we not drink and drive. look to Supreme Dictator Kim Jong-un, who may not be a hero but has done the only sensible thing to do: Ban the use of his name.

True detectives

The CBI has Vyapam and a haunted house mystery to solve

Slow down

UP applies brakes on traffic violations on screen

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A

Q

In the name of Atticus What happens to people named after Atticus Finch, the fallen hero?

RH

Crime and punishment

Unusual penalties for drinking and driving

D

One size doesn’t fit all India cannot follow the standard trajectory of other developed nations. We have a unique challenge with our high population density that demands creative solutions to preserve our environment reuters /

important, but do you deny the fact that we need to develop? Look at all the western nations and how well they manage their environment while also leading lives of comfort.’

But India cannot follow the standard trajectory of other developed nations for two reasons.

First, we have a unique challenge with our enormous population that demands more creative solutions. Everyone knows we are the jayanta shaw; k ananthan world’s second most populated country. But t would seem that at times the bovines of what fewer people recognise or talk about is elsewhere are inspired by our desi cattle. our population density — 400 people in every Polish Matlyda appears to be one of them. square kilometre. The US, supposedly the land She was brought to a farm in Zloty Stok, in of the free and the benchmark of what the Western Poland, two years ago, but soon de- whole world is aspiring to become, has about cided that farm life just ain’t her thing. So 35 people per square kilometre. China has 140, she did what hundreds of Indian cows do — and our other BRICS allies also are a long way roamed the streets, and made a home in the off — 40 in South Africa, 25 in Brazil and eight wild. She survived cold winters, rummaged in Russia. We are clearly not like anyone else, for food, angered a few farmers, but at least and so we must carve our own path. she was free. Sadly, her luck ran out and she There is just no space in our country to ‘dewas recently caught and brought back to velop’ along the western industrial model. We Zloty Stok. Moo ya. will soon run out of all our natural resources, including the very essence of survival — food

Cow on the run

Footloose Matylda returns after two years

I

meeta ahlawat

cent of the population is engaged in farming, with small agricultural plots sprinkled all over the country on which people grow their own food. This means we are a country of selfsupporting entrepreneurs, who don’t depend on the state to be ‘looked after’.

Some say that ‘farming by the masses’ is inefficient, that modern industrial-scale agriculture is the way forward, but that’s proving to be untrue in many instances. In Africa, many large corporations find they are unable to replace the intricate knowledge and skills that small farmers have over their land. And in lessthan-perfect conditions (like low rainfall) industrial farming is not viable. A farmer knows every corner of his land — what crops will grow best and where — in a way that MNCs never can. Farming by the masses could possibly be much more resilient than the industrial-scale farming by large corporations. Is our model of development working for 93 per cent of the population?

The developed world is moving on and looking for alternatives, but we blindly follow the

healthier food and lived less stressed-out lives.

It’s a classic emperor’s new clothes story — everyone else is forging blindly and unhappily ahead and so we must too.

Social activist Bunker Roy made an interesting observation about our current ‘barefoot government’. For the first time in our history of being independent, we are not ruled by an elite who has been ‘brainwashed at Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, the World Bank or the IMF’, but have a Prime Minister and cabinet who are arguably from majority India. There is an opportunity to redefine the global notion of development, one that is not based on expanding levels of consumption, but genuinely improves the quality of people’s lives without destroying the environment. But it’s not going to be easy. India Inc funds almost all the political parties, and the world’s largest democracy is fighting to stop the slide towards a corporatocracy. tarsh thekaekara is a biodiversity conservationist working with The Shola Trust

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hang

saturday, july 18, 2015

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

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n June 11, 1976, Nadia Comaneci of Romania got a Perfect 10 in gymnastics at the Montreal Olympics. The digital Omega scoreboard showed the score as 1.00, as it was not equipped to show a second digit before the decimal. This week we look at a few more ‘perfect’ performances.

here,there & elsewhere

“O

kay!” says Bins, bustling in from his morning walk. “Today’s the day we will start to be RICH.” I am not a morning person. So any bustling that happens before I’m awake becomes entangled in the endcredits of my dreams. But Bins is undeterred. He drags me out of bed, throws me in the tub and turns on the cold shower. Well no, not really. He just continues making a racket until I am forced into consciousness.

“Whoz da scheme?” I ask, my voice still soggy with sleep. “It’s brilliant,” says Bins, “I am a genius!” Modesty is not his strong suit. “See: we have a hearse. It has a giant compartment at the back. It is air-conditioned. It has music. It has darkened windows.” He looks at me expectantly. “Is it not obvieuse?” He slips into his native French-isms when he’s really excited. “We can rent it for pleasure rides! By the hour!” I frown. “Whaddya mean?” I ask, trying but failing to see the commercial potential of his idea.

“Who needs to use a hearse for pleasure rides? Horny corpses?”

“Ohhh! You have no imagination,” he exclaims, slapping his forehead in despair. “Not corpses, not horny, just HOMELESS! We rent it out to

cornerstone

Rent-a-corpse people who want to get away from the heat, the dust, the noise of the street.”

I’m still frowning. “But ... homeless people, by definition, don’t have much money,” I say. “If they can rent a hearse by the hour, they can rent a home.”

Bins is shaking his head vigorously from side-to-side. “You are SO wrong! I have been talking to some friends on the street. Some of them are homeless but not poor. They agree with me. They are loving the idea. In fact ...”

In fact, one of the Homeless is already in there, enjoying a free introductory offer. “But ...” I begin, “... to

Perfect points

run the AC and the music means you’ve got to turn the engine on, right?” Bins says, “Of course!” nodding and shrugging. I can’t approve. “That’s terrible for the environment! All that carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere!” He shrugs some more. “It is the introductory offer. Fifteen minutes only. After that, I will drive him around while he will be cool and happy.” I am still not convinced. “I bet it’s not allowed. You can’t just — I dunno! Rent out a backseat without some kind of licence! And suppose he wants to bring his friends? Suppose he wants to spend the whole week in there?”

Before Bins can answer, there’s a knock on the door. He goes to see who it is, while I brush my teeth.

When I come out, I hear Bins close the door and come back in. He’s dragging his feet. “Who was that?” I ask. It was the Harry the Homeless.

“He said it was too cold,” says Bins.

“And he doesn’t like being in a hearse. He thinks it is creepy. He prefers the hot, sunny street with the dust and the noise!” Bins taps his forehead. “These homeless are crazy,” he says, in a gloomy voice. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes about her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

1

Nadia Comaneci’s coach Bela Karolyi coached both the medal contenders in the All-round Women’s Gymnastics competition in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. One was Ecaterina Szabo, of Romania, who narrowly missed out despite four perfect scores. Who was the other, the eventual all-round winner?

2

The maximum or perfect break in snooker is 147, which can only be achieved by potting 15 reds with 15 blacks and then the six colours.

Which snooker player first achieved a perfect break in a professional competition in 1982?

3 4 5

The numbers six, 28 and 496 are regarded as the first three ‘perfect numbers.’ What makes them ‘perfect’?

Which acclaimed current affairs show on US television is named after a measure of visual perfection in the foot-pound-second system?

The story of Andrea Gail was the subject of a best-selling book by journalist Sebastian Junger and was later made into a film in 2000 starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg.

What was the name of the book and the film?

6 7

A perfect over for a batsman is one in which she or he hits a six off every ball. Who was the first to do this in Indian domestic cricket?

In June this year, in which African country did the EPRDF win all 546 seats in the national assembly, bettering its last result, where the opposition held one seat?

8

In 1988, Merchant-Ivory produced the English film The Perfect Murder based on the HRF Keating novel of the same name. The film starred Naseeruddin Shah as Inspector Ghote and had Madhur Jaffrey, Amjad Khan and Johny Walker.

Who played Ghote’s wife Pratima in the film?

9

There have been few perfect sweeps in Grand Slam tournaments, fewer still in a final. The last time it happened was in 1988, when a rampaging Steffi Graf took just 34 minutes to beat her unfortunate opponent without losing a single game. Who was she playing?

10

Three Perfections is an art form where a poet, calligrapher and painter get together to create an artwork. In which country did this art form flourish in the Middle Ages?

Answers

1. Mary Lou Retton from the US; Karolyi had defected to America in 1981 2. Steve Davis, playing against John Spencer 3. A number is regarded perfect if all its divisors add up to the number. So 1, 2 and 3, the divisors of 6 add up to 6, as do 1,2,4,7 and 14 to 28.

4. 20/20. In countries that follow the metric scale, perfect vision is regarded as 6/6 5. The Perfect Storm described the Nor’ easter that hit the American East Coast in October 1991 6. Ravi Shastri, who hit Tilak Raj of Baroda for 36 in a single over in 1985 7. Ethiopia. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front swept the elections 8. Ratna Pathak Shah, his wife in real life 9. Natalia Zvereva, then aged 17. She went on to have a great doubles career with Gigi Fernandez and defeated Graf at Wimbledon 10 years later 10. China. ‘Anchorage on a Rainy Night’ is regarded as one of the finest examples of the art form

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

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