Blink issue 78 july25 2015

THE ANATOMY OF A STAMPEDE Is governed by the laws of physikcs and complex psychological processes that are little understood p2 saturday, july 25, 2015

partha pratim sharma

This monsoon session, sparks are ying in Parliament as the Congress moves from a somnolent to aggressive party and the BJP remains battle-ready p10

Rumpus in the benches

MAKIN’ TUNES The Amy Winehouse biopic casts her as a hapless victim, not a musical genius p14

NO BABY, NO CRY A collection of essays that dispels the stigma around the childfree p18

play know

BL BL 222

saturday, july 25,25, 2015 saturday, july 2015

Power of two Sumit Nagal and Nam Hoang Ly hold the Wimbledon junior boys double trophy

aelct /dillon bryden; (below) getty/renee mckay

Race to the start A crowd disaster can be triggered by the rush to take the first dip on the most auspicious day or hour gn rao

When push comes to shove Game, set, match The anatomy of a stampede reveals that the smallest unit might play the biggest role

I B

t was the first day of the Godavari Pushka-

tained injuries and was taken to the govern-

omy of a stampede, it would appear, is govern-

ralu, Kumbh gets Mela ofcommercialised the South. The ment hospital. by the win laws of physics aand complex Ponniah, who works as Sumit a bus ed Even asthetennis to its own detriment, Nagal’s proves point muhurtam was for 6.26am on July 14, conductor, lost his wife Rajeshwari. His 16- psychological processes that are little under-

ND-X _ A

2015. Every 12 years, over 12 days, across 11 y winningand theAndhra Wimbledon cities in Telangana Pradesh,junior devoboysthe doubles withbanks Vietnamese tees throng ghatstitle, on the of the partner Nam Hoang Su1,465km-long Godavari river Ly, to 17-year-old offer prayers. mitevent Nagal has proved determiThis year’s was even morethat significant — nation and hard go athe long way.GoIn celebrated every 144work years,can it was Maha India, tennis might be facing a davari Pushkaralu. boom, but this has also made the Believers, numbering in lakhs, had already more expensive Many for arrived in thegame town of Rajahmundry. young enthusiasts. had camped overnight outside theOver ghatsthe to last few years the cost tennis take a holy dip at the auspicious time.ofAP chief coachingNaidu, has skyrocketed. minister Chandrababu his family andIna such asatDelhi, monthly host of VIPs inmetros tow, arrived the Kotagumcanlaunch. cost more ₹1 mam area for training the formal For than over an for a child. can hour, the VIPslakh performed pujaCoaches and offered up ghat, to ₹2,000 prayers at thecharge Pushkar evenan ashour. crowds Whengates tennis waiting at the three grewgreat restive.Martina Navratilova visited Saniastation, Mirza Two kilometres away, at thethe railway Academy in Hyderabad, she emphaseveral trains arrived, bringing hundreds of sised the importance wallto pracdevotees, who quickly made theirofway the tice. impatient, After all, the wall people never venue. Growing a few misses shot through and players can climbed onto walls andaburst the bartheir strokes ricades. Columnspractise of people flowed intoagainst the rivit for hours during the forer, pushing and jostling each other.

According mative years helptodevelto reports, some devotees bentto down look op basic skills the in fragan for their missing footwear, shattering But thea ile balance of theinexpensive crowd, whichway. had reached commercialisation of tennis critical density. The crowd was not losing consucceeded trol as much ashas it was losing in itsbringing view, firstthe of walland down, it routes. with a the bathing ghat thenreplacing of the exit ‘hitting partner’.

Nearly two lakh people were packed, elbow to monthlyghat. coaching feesoon for elbow, in theThe 145m-long Physics Mirzaa stampede before shethat won took over, Sania triggering leftthe 27 Wimbledon junior girls doubles title dead (official count) and around 50 injured. in 2003 was about ₹850.

The popularLakshmaiah arrived that morning from ity of the game has zoomed Bhuvanagiripalem, Nellore, with hisever wifesince and MirzaFrom — who played fearlessly Sedaughter. the railway stationagainst they walkrena on a wild card at the 2005 ed to theWilliams ghat in Kotagummam.

Among the Australian Open —they became its themselves superstar. first few devotees, placed Along with the cost of the next pricefew of near the barricades to coaching, wait out the equipment as racquets, balls hours. In thesuch ensuing stampede,strings, Janakamma, have alsoofincreased. which 55, died asphyxia.Synthetic Daughtercourts, Sushma sus-

year-old daughter Swetha was stood. While the ‘crowd’ was dedemand little maintenance compared to clay “breakthrough fined from “a psychological wounded.

Avva Krishna, an auto result”. and grass courts, should have drastically cut driver from Visakhapatnam, lost point of view” in like 1896Karti

by Gustave With support from people P Chidown theBayramma, cost, but that not16-happened.

Le Bon, most research and literahis wife 45,has and dambaram, the tennis-loving son of the forAlong the way, talented have ture are PofChidambaram, recent origin.

The year-old daughter Gowri.young Pad- players merAfrica finance minister Nagal South Asia and lost for most mother cannot afford play the ma’sout, 60-year-old went to make Organisation andthan his coachWorld travelledHealth to many tournaments up more game any longer!

Andlater, experts why (WHO) defines a mass gathering missing that day. Days her wonder Asia, Europe, the US and Canada. half of all in crowd the next or Paes or Bhupathi be body wasMirza identified at one of the cannot as “more than a specified In 2012, Bhupathi watched Nagalnumdurdisasters, with a when found.

In in such a scenario, Nagal is a whiff of rate of (under-18) persons (starting from hospitals Rajahmundry. ingthat the Asian ber junior championship fatality fresh air. >1,000) at a specific location for a in higher Delhi, he was convinced that the youngster is eight times Son ofofa it government school teacher, Nagal specific purpose defined Science for his for age,a and thatpeit than inhad the a top-10 forehand opted forhuman an individual sport being would How do stampedes be-despitedeveloped riod of with time.”

According the time, making to him a worldonly improve cricket-crazy a child. gin? How doesasthe crowd Having behave Ngai Search Method reworld-class player. It(based costs on Bhutrained for aboutAre twoemotions years at searchabout

by KM Ngai, Edbert in a stampede? pathi $200,000 a yearHsu to DDA sports in Delhi, he and others), stampedes have like fear andcentres panic contagious? take care of 350 Nagal.

The youngwas to be spotted by Maoccurred between 1980renowned and 2012, Howlucky do ‘mass gathering’ events ster’s time at the hesh Bhupathi when thego latter resulting in 10,243 deaths andTennis-Universi22,445 injuries. go right, and how do they wrong? The anatSchuttler Waske With the tennis was scouting for talent for the ty in Germany further improved boom, the talented Apollo Tyres Grand Slam chamyoung player has lost his game. pion scheme. Even though the Nagal’s tennis continues to out, for most cannot sponsor backed out within two improve under the guidance of afford to play the years, after having promised coach Mariano Delfino. He won game! And experts ₹100 crore over 10 years, Nagal wonder why the next an ITF grade-one junior tournawas fortunate as Bhupathi and ment in Germany last month, Mirza or Paes or coach Bobby Mahal decided to and followed that with a men’s Bhupathi cannot back him.

ITF Futures singles title in Hydebe found “Sumit was the best athlete rabad, the following week. He among the kids we had. He was may have missed precious pracwiry, very flexible and very fast. tice time because of a delayed UK He had great determination, visa but still went on to win the loved to compete, loved to win. He fought for doubles at Wimbledon, despite not having every point on court,” said Mahal, when con- trained for it. tacted in Toronto. Mahal worked on develop“Sumit should be at his peak when he is 21 or ing Nagal’s forehand, backhand and serve, 22. He can be a top-100 or even a top-50 player. dedicating to him all his resources in Canada. He has a few things to improve on and needs “We spent four or five months training. to get stronger physically,” said Mahal, the Then, Sumit started winning the under-14 and man who has been instrumental in laying a under-16 tournaments, to become ranked strong foundation for this talented boy from among the top-three in India,” recalls the Jhajjar, Haryana. coach. Nagal was part of the India under-14 kamesh is a sports correspondent team that India finished fifth at ofthe En masse has seen some theWorld world’s Junior worst stampedes, 79 srinivasan per cent of which occurred at religious with The Hindu, Delhi tennis in 2011. sees that as pilgrims the firstat Visakhapatnam gatherings.

SeenThe here,coach Godavari Pushkaralu station cv subrahmanyam

Q

R Q R

3

BL

know

saturday, july 25, 2015

Boiling point (right) Security personnel escort Chandrababu Naidu to his convoy on July 14, the first day of Maha Godavari Pushkaralu; (clockwise from below right) images from the stampede that broke out soon after the chief minister’s departure from the Pushkar ghat at Rajahmundry

Bring up the bodies Twenty one of the 27 dead at Kotagummam were women. Eighty per cent of the injured were also women. Physically more vulnerable, the elderly and women usually make up most of the body count. “It is interesting to note that in Sabarimala, an all-male gathering, 109 people died. At Attukal Pongala however, an all-female event in Thiruvananthapuram, there have been no casualties. Again in mixed gatherings, women are more unsafe.”

Scan the images of the casualties, and you will find that many of them were missing their footwear. Their clothes were in disarray; pallus, chunnis and shirts knocked out of place. Mouths hanging open, they gasped for air, before dying of suffocation. In a 1993 paper titled ‘The Causes and Prevention of Crowd Disasters’, John Fruin, founder of crowdsafe.com, writes, “People may be literally lifted out of their shoes, and have clothing torn off. Intense

kr deepak

South Asia and Africa make up more than half of all crowd disasters, with a fatality rate that is eight times higher than in the developed world.

India has seen some of the biggest agglomerations of people and some of the worst disasters. In 2011, 109 people died at Sabarimala; in 2010, at the Ram Janki temple in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, 63 died; and at the 1954 Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, 800 people lost their lives. Just last weekend, at the Jagannath Yatra in Puri, Orissa, two women died and 20 were injured. At the ongoing Kumbh Mela in Nashik, crowds of over one crore are expected; at the Godavari Pushkaralu, the number has already crossed three crore. Religious gatherings account for 79 per cent of the total number of stampedes in the country.

The smallest unit In May, roughly two months ahead of the Pushkaralu, researcher Faisel Illiyas, who works at the Institute of Land and Disaster Management, held a five-day workshop for officers in crowd management. A group of 30-35 officials learned the science behind crowd control: how does the crowd behave, how does it circulate in designated sites, and how to plan for crowd density. “But I’m not sure if those guidelines were followed,” says Illiyas, when asked for an assessment of the Godavari stampede. “They’ve spent ₹1,000 crore on infrastructure development, but I have seen nothing specifically designed for the safety of

crowd pressures, exacerbated by anxiety, the crowd.”

In his 2013 paper make it difficult to breathe.” The pressure gen‘Human Stampedes erated by crowds in a stampede is so high (up During Religious Fes- to 4,500N/m) that it takes only seven people to tivals: A comparative re- bend a steel railing out of shape.

It took months of planning and multiple view of Mass Gathering Emergencies in India’, which agencies — municipalities, state government he co-authored with other re- departments, and state disaster management searchers, Illiyas documents seven reasons for agencies — to plan an event of this size and scale. More than 30,000 personcrowd disturbances. What ocnel were deployed, 423 medical curred at Kotagummam can be camps set up, 2,000 special buses described as a “beginning-ofand 25 trains provided, and 10 event-surge”. Like the thrill of The pressure lakh packets of food and water watching the first-day-first-show generated by crowds handed out daily. of a film, devotees believe that is so high that it takes The 180 ghats were classified the first dip on the first day at only seven people to into A, B and C categories dethe most important ghat to be bend steel pending on their size, the crowd more propitious. expected and the personnel staOften, the behaviour of the tioned. (A category A ghat, like crowd is driven by its smallest the one at Kotagummam, can acunit — the individual. “It takes just one or two persons to create a stampede,” commodate one lakh people, category B, says Illiyas. In ‘Crush Point’, published in The 50,000 and so on.) “We have crowd manageNew Yorker in 2011, author John Seabrook ment in place, the event is proceeding accordwrites that humans may not be as evolved as ing to plan, there is no pressure,” says H Arun colonies of ants or schools of fish, which can Kumar, district collector of East Godavari. communicate through pheromones across a Yet, things have gone wrong. Visitors say waswarm. But does the crowd think less intelli- ter is in short supply, skin infections are on the gently than an individual? Are crowd reac- rise, and Rajahmundry is ill-equipped to host tions disproportionate to the emergency at tourists. Despite designating the 200m-long hand? Do positive social relations prevail in Saraswathi ghat for VIPs, Naidu chose to visit stampede conditions? Illiyas says the crowd the Pushkar ghat, setting off the crowd colthinks irrationally and aggressively: “(At the lapse. While political parties hold the Andhra Godavari Pushkaralu) every individual wants Pradesh CM responsible, for once the crowd is to take a dip, immediately, and before the oth- not entirely to blame. ers. When trapped, everyone wants to escape, priyanka kotamraju perhaps even at the cost of others’ safety.”

Q R

takeaway know

BL BL 204

saturday, july 25,25, 2015 saturday, july 2015

I SPY

Everything is going fine Masaan girl Richa Chadda’s next film is Cabaret, which went on floor last month 6.15am I am told there is a sun but I can see only clouds

6.35am Unusual, but I like a big bite before I hit the gym

7.55am Post-workout selfie. Just for kicks

Field day Households at Yamuna Khader are usually anchored around a tree and the tube well is the main source of water kamal narang 8.05am My gym must-haves — boxing gloves

9am Readying the day kit

9.30am Staying cool during traffic nightmares

While the river heals

Caught in the vortex of environment, health and livelihood debates, the Yamuna farmer is collateral damage

B

ND-X _ A

ela Estate smells of fresh mint and new cow dung. Walking in a line on the thin mud ridges cutting through their fields, the farmers pause often to point at barren swathes on the otherwise 10.25am Interview, and a fun one green fields. A woman in a yellow sari, head covered, squats at a hand pump. As we walk past, she swiftly pushes down the lever and finishes her shower. “The barren patches are where the bulldozer ran over my pudina,” says one of the farmers, Mahendra Singh. He and other farmers say they lost their crop when Delhi Development Authority cleared encroachments on the banks of the Yamuna last month. “The house was broken and 25 bigha pudina gone. I harvested what was left,” adds Singh. They blocked roads and protested the clearing until it stopped two days later.

The monsoons had the farmers scrambling to stack up broken bricks to make another makeshift home with tarpaulin roof. Anup Singh, in his seventies, was born at the estate and it’s where his family has farmed for as long as he 1.35pm Surprise gift hampers — don’t I demolitions can remember.

The intermittent loveof myhomes job and crops are part of the collective memory of those farming along the Yamuna in Delhi.

The thousands of farmers and agricultural labourers who grow vegetables and flowers on the 22-km stretch where the Yamuna bisects Delhi are the Capital’s invisibles. Urbanisation is all around them, but is curiously absent from their lives. Loopy flyovers and gleaming metro stations edge their homes; they hop across fields to get onto NH-24; they park their buffaloes under the flyover and sit on the string cot and gupshup. Television and gas stove are luxuries in their homes with no front doors. And every time a development project becomes the new dream, they lose out.

In January this year, the National Green Tri- Solid wastes are next in line. Agricultural activbunal (NGT) banned farming along the Yamu- ity on the flood plain, it recommended, na in Delhi, citing the highly polluted water. “should be regulated to totally prohibit the Twenty-two drains discharge into the river in use of agrochemicals (fertilisers and pestiDelhi, making it amongst the most-polluted cides) and should be restricted to areas be11.20am Ready for the make-up brush 12.30pm Lights, camera, action. On the rivers of the world. “The vegetables grown in yond 100m onshow either side of the river channel sets of a TV these areas, for which the direct source of irri- and other wetlands/water bodies”. gation is the groundwater or water flowing in Babu, Professor Emeritus at Delhi UniversiRiver Yamuna are bound to be contaminated,” ty, says there was no way his team could recthe judgement noted. Considering the health ommend farming after surveying the 52-km risks, the tribunal directed an all-out ban on stretch from Palla to Jaitpur. “High levels of agricultural activity until the “Yamuna is toxic trace elements like lead, zinc and nickel made pollution-free and is restored to its nat- are found in the water, besides pesticide residural wholesomeness”. The tribuues,” he says. The team found nal mentions the ban on large wetlands dug up and confarming is only for a period of verted for agriculture. The sight two-and-a-half years needed to around the Barapullah drain was make the Yamuna wholesome. horrifying. “The land was irrigatUrbanisation is all The farmers/labourers know ed with sewage water and eating around them, but is all too well that the Yamuna is curiously absent from these vegetables could lead to polluted and have tracked its cysts caused by worms,” he says, their lives changing colour. BS Chauhan, recommending ‘limited farmthe 75-year-old general secretary ing’ upstream of Wazirabad, 1.45pm looks good 1.50pm The soup, would for a change, looksmost areas of DelhiLunch Peasants Multipurpose which exclude appetising where farming is now done.

Society (DPMS), whose family has farmed here for over 50 years, remembers This puts the farmers/labourers in a precarithat the drinking water in his childhood came ous position. They may not have done much to from the river. When farmers Rajpal and Rishi- pollute the Yamuna, but are guilty of earning pal talk of flipping a coin into the river and their livelihood by endangering the health of watching it sink to the bottom, the river in others. They are the collateral damage in the their head is not the tea-coloured Yamuna environment vs. health vs. livelihood tangle. flowing a few hundred metres away.

The DPMS has appealed against the ban, which threatens the survival of the farmer/labourer A toxic harvest in an already shaky environment. They are All recent studies point to the calamity that now encroachers in the 4,500 hectares they awaits the Yamuna. The Restoration and Conser- have farmed for decades. “The Delhi Improvevation of River Yamuna, submitted to the NGT in ment Trust, the precursor to the DDA, allotted 2013 by an expert committee headed by pro- the land to our society and the Jheel Khurenja fessor CR Babu, says the 22 drains “contribute Milk Producers’ Multi-Purpose Society in 1949.

80 per cent of the pollution load of the river”. It was given for agriculture and on a 99-year

Q R

5

BL

know

saturday, july 25, 2015

lease,” says Chauhan. “Whenever it was wanted for a public purpose, we had to give it up,” he adds. The DDA appears to consider the lease redundant. After the Bela Estate clearing, a report in The Hindu quoted a DDA official, “We are following the NGT’s detailed guidelines for restoration of the zone. The lease of the people there has long been over.” The NGT proceedings too mention that “the DDA has now terminated all the leases.” “Our lease has not been renewed since 1977,” informs Chauhan. A few farmers have approached the Delhi High Court against the eviction.

Caught between litigations and bans, branded encroachers and pollutants, the farmers/labourers still try to keep a semblance of normality. But their lives are nothing but nebulous. At Yamuna Khader, an ‘owner’ is an undefined entity. Along the banks, ownership works differently. Farming is done either by a society member or a family

Life by the river A large section of farmers/labourers at Yamuna Khader are migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. (far right) bulldozers in action at Bela Estate in June kamal narang, ramesh

sharma, shiv kumar pushpakar

with the original lease; or by migrants, largely from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who have taken land on rent; or under a sharing arrangement with the ‘owner.’

Loss of perennial income On a muggy July morning, sitting under a tree in neighbour Dharampal’s field, Chouhan says, “We are just watchmen looking after the land. This is our livelihood.” Dharampal’s family got the land on lease from the society. His three sons help farm the 40 bighas, which includes some land taken on a yearly rent of ₹5,000 a bigha. Their kachcha home sits in a sea of okra flowers. Two buffaloes slouch in the yard. “My parents stay the night, while the rest go home to Samastipur village,” says Vinod Kumar, the eldest son. “Now we have okra, bottle gourd, ridge gourd and corn. In August, we grow radish, cauliflower and cucumber.”

Vendors arrive daily from Gazipur to take the vegetables to market. After an intense discussion with Chouhan, Kumar estimates that the farmers along the bank produce nearly 100 tonnes of vegetables daily. News of the DDA action has spread and Kumar is a worried man.

Barely two months ago, however, those working on rented fields were clueless about the ban. Manoj’s family came from Budaun 20 years ago and has been farming on seven bighas rented for ₹10,000 each. Outside his mudcased house, half of his family watches as Mayaram, a wholesale dealer, picks up freshly plucked bottle gourds from a plastic basket and dunks them into a bucket of water collected from the tube well a few feet away. Tube wells are the main water source here, and the farmer/labourer believes water from 25-60m underground is insulated from pollutants.

Cleaned of mud, the vegetables are wiped dry.

Mayaram and his friend Rambaksh will take the sacks of bottle gourd to the wholesale

markets in Gazipur and Azadpur. “I am selling in local stores,” he says.

The NGT had suggested that the farmer/lathem for ₹10 a kg, not a great price,” says Manoj. However, Mayaram is an old customer bourer turn to floriculture or silviculture while the Yamuna is allowed to rejuvenate itand this is business-as-usual for Manoj.

Are Mayaram’s customers wary of vegeta- self. “They have my sympathy, but sympathy bles from the Yamuna? “I tell them to come has no meaning when public health is in danwith me and see for themselves. Probably one ger,” says Prof Babu. “They have to look at alterin 100 would walk away on hearing they are natives. When the wetlands are restored they Yamuna vegetables,” he replies. Manoj had are perfect for aquatic plants. Of course, they heard nothing about the ban when we met will have to be trained and educated to do it,” him in May. “Nobody told us anything. Our he adds. Chouhan is not averse to the idea of house, though, has been broken before,” he floriculture, but has his doubts. “We should be says. This comes as no surprise to Harpreet taught how to do it and, importantly, market Kaur, a researcher with Jawaharlal Nehru Uni- it. Vegetables are an everyday necessity. Is it versity, who had together with Jessica Cook, a the same with flowers?” he asks.

The battle between environresearcher from University of ment and livelihood can be a difColorado Denver, and three ficult one. Sanjay Parikh, an others studied the urban farmenvironmental lawyer engaged ing practices along the Yamuwith the Narmada Bachao Andona. Farmers working on rented lan, knows it firsthand. “Harsh reland are often not given the Whenever the ality is on one side and the full story, she says. “Owners ofquestion is of the environment on the other. It is alten do not tell them, fearing environment, the ways going to be a tough stand,” they may lose the rent.” poor take the toll he says. Nevertheless the farmManorama’s family has lived ers, even if they are encroachers, in Khader ever since they ‘cannot be thrown out.’ “Before moved from Shahjahanpur 10 removing them, the state should years ago to escape the meagre rehabilitate them in an alternareturns from annual crops tive place that is not worse than back home. Vegetable farming in Delhi meant multiple crops, more income. where they are now. If they should grow flowThey farm on a sharing basis with the owner. ers, teach them to do it organically,” he adds.

The news of the ban has reached her too. “My Parikh admits the NGT’s concerns are sister farms on the other side and her crops genuine. “But if the river is to be rejuvenated, and home have been mowed down. I don’t it has to be cleared of all encroachments. Perknow her plan, as I haven’t talked to her manent structures like the Akshardham and the Commonwealth Games Village, even if lesince,” she adds.

Chouhan concedes that farmers/labourers gal, should not be allowed. Whenever the have been guilty of using pesticides and fertil- question is of the environment, the poor take isers indiscriminately. “But we are trying to re- the toll,” he points out. duce it. The society tells them to use jaivik khaad (bio-fertiliser), which is now available p anima

Q R

work read

BL BL 186

saturday, july 25,25, 2015 saturday, july 2015

Revolution@25kmph It’s about time A collection of essays that asserts being childfree is not about choosing a Porsche over a kid, Halfway between the ubiquitous bicycle and pricier motorcycles, electric vehicles are slowly but about finding meaning in different ways and steadily winning over the rural consumer with their affordability and fuss-free features

W

hen I told people I was reading Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids, the reactions inevitably fell into two camps. Those who exclaimed, “How interesting,” and wanted to get their hands on a copy. And those who

mous than having no children at all. We should laud this collection for underscoring the legitimacy of the childfree existence and deeming it worthy of exploration and literature. As Meghan Daum, the editor, writes in the introduction, “It is about time”. It is about time that we realised that we can live fulfilled

Society tells us that maternal and childbearing instincts are ‘natural’. Cultural critic and author of Men: Notes from an Ongoing Investigation, Laura Kipnis writes, “It is not that I think these things [maternal instinct, mother-child bonds] don’t exist; they certainly do. They exist as social conventions of womanhood at this moment in history, not as eternal conditions, because what is social is also malleable…

What we’re calling biological instinct is a historical artifact — a culturally specific development not a fact of nature…” Kipnis’ essay ‘Maternal Instincts’ forces readers to question simplistic assumptions: Do we mistake social arrangements for natural order of things?

Isn’t what is natural, susceptible to change and thus reinterpretation?

The charge most often levied against the childfree is that they are selfish and shallow.

And the one quality that binds these authors is the love for autonomy. Yes, they appreciate the unencumbered life, the uninterrupted conversation and the unlimited possibilities of travel and adventure. But unlike the Hollywood story (think While We’re Young) where happily ever afters are posited on procreation, the authors invent plots beyond clichés. A meaningful life can be one of work and writing, friends and family, and not of children.

As a society, we often mistake a desire for autonomy as a selfish choice. Pam Houston writes with eloquence that motherhood is no guarantee against selfishness and generosity cannot be ‘relegated to particular life choices’.

Lionel Shriver, of60-70km We Needafp/tosam Talk About Power ahead You don’t need a driving licence for an electric vehicle as its maximum speed does not cross 55kmph; charged overnight,author it can run panthaky Kevin, and often accused of being the Antimom, reiterates that being childfree does not very morning, in Coimbatore’s Kurulazy and lumpen path.

Quoting a As big cities embrace the convenience of ordain tric, thealargest maker of electric two-wheelers dampalayam village, more than 80 metro rails and radio cabs, villages and small friend, in India.Shriver offers advice, “I certainly don’t battery-operated vehicles go door to towns struggling without reliable and cost-ef- seeFor myOMC purpose being to perpetuate huPower’s founder and CEO,the Anant door collecting garbage. In this all- fective transport are finding an unexpected al- man race.

What makes life worth living for Raj, the electric bike ismy an opportunity whose woman exercise, one woman drives the Am- ly in electric vehicles (EVs) — both me what, I think, my life timeand hasalso come.

Every home redeems in rural India hasisa pere vehicle, while another picks up the waste, two-wheeled and three-wheeled. my relationships and interactions othbicycle, which costs around ₹3,000. with A moped, neatly segregated as bio-degradable and noners, family, friends, lovers,upwards colleagues, on be thethey other hand, is priced of degradable. They make a second round of col- Slow-and-steady attraction total strangers…

Whatvehicle redeemsisindividuals is ₹25,000.

An electric halfway belection in the evening. The electric vehicles are An overnight charge keeps the vehicle run- their of sure humanity.”

Andre Gide detween,acts and is to find acceptance among charged on alternate nights,boguslaw whichmazur/shutterstock costs ₹12 ning for 60-70 km. Used daily for a 50km ride nounced families as of the love”.

To rural customers, for“those whommisers cost is final per machine and lasts for a run of up to 50km. on average, the battery lasts almost a year. not havehechildren barrier, says. is to not concentrate your tut-tutted, a stupidtotopic for them. a book.” It and livesofwithout It isaabout No licences“What are required operate Mostcreative important all, youchildren. don’t need driv- attentions and energies on the one but to enis not surprising thatHaldwani, the unmarried and the the decision not have children be large In Uttarakhand’s Anuradha Sa- time andfrom dissipate them on the many. er’s licence for EVs to as their maximum speed Freedom petrol childfree made upher theHero former camp.bike Andevery that deemed is all the childfree ask for — The mant hops on to Electric The other of two leitmotivs book areand the does notokay. crossThat 55kmph. scarcity petrol pumpsofinthe rural areas parents the latter.

This is the25km kind theUsed freedom to choose and an morningsquatted for herinride to Pantnagar, possibilityalso of work regret and the to pedalling on dusty roads, the aver- rampant adulteration in favour of of book will serve as aGB rally callUniversity, for those acceptance (not parts a celebration) away.

A that researcher at the Pant question legacy.

Legacyon is easy age user in these is usually satisfied with electric vehicles.

“The of petrol station the foregoing parenthood, while long the distances parented of choice. perfectly she also uses her bike to travel tohighway resolve in the our case village of writers justtheir 25kmph, sayYes, domain exnear almight as idle and chatter.

This divisiveness couples might within see theitcampus to agricultural fields happy (not representative of thefuel. generperts. Bhanumathi Mani,never who ways sold adulterated It underlines thestudy. loneliness of the bike childfree. children, and some adults as part of her Her electric has freed have aldamaged population) as theyofleave besells tea to factories on the outthe engine my moWe should laud this In from the eraunreliable of ‘modern love’, transport. when relationin their will roles of her public Nor are hind a body oftowork, their skirtscontent of Coimbatore, readtorcycle, leading frequent recollection for Rural users move ships obey personal and don’t andFor uncles, does she have to worrypreferences about refuelling in an aunts words, books. course, ita ily agree. closegodmothers to 20 years pairs,”their says DP OfGupta, underscoring the within a small area, heed norms, not having is still stig- and godfathers. area where petrol pumpschildren are scarce. isresident not a child, but it is their child. her tea businessAcronyms remained like unof Mainpuri tehsil in legitimacy of the and electric vehicles matised. personal (ranging PANK and as PUNK It is thisThrough sense of deeply freedom and convenience Regret not oppress them, profitable she (Professional struggled to UP. Hedoes switched to an electric childfree existence very useful from the captivated tender to the smug) and often Kids and that has residents in not lesspolitithan Aunt theytwo realise that inevcover No distances on Professional her bicycle. andprove years agoregret and isismore deeming it worthy asbike for them cal essays, this book Pradesh’s enervates that ignominy.

Kids) show pop30 villages in Uttar Hardoi district. Uncle itable, whatever choose to Until No 2008 when anthat Ampere than happy withyou the decision. of literature The problem with a discussion having vocabulary is finallythe catchFarmers, grocers, laundrymen andon even stu- ular do or not do. And it all’in is electric bike changed forElectricity is ‘having subsidised children not electric is that bikes parents have experiupof with times. and life. dents are or hiring from OMC Pow- ing the biggest tunes herthe business, large partsand ofmost ruraldangerous India. It enced pre-child existence, they know a life SoWhile ole’she bloke or busyer. Thea bikes, which the company charges lie of all.

Nobody has it all and much any so that managed to costs ₹5.5 to recharge a lowwithout kids. who areare yetproving to spawn,a body dares toto ask couples why overnight at But its those micro-grids, nobody Kate Christensen send her sons good colleges. speed can. (maximum 25kmph) or have wish to, havefor only an approximate children, reasons, as al- writes boon tono small farmers ferrying vegetables they Thousand Things’, evIt isdon’t usershave like Mani and the Singh that electric scooterinto‘Arun 70km. Other If Gupta used a“Into petrolidea of parenthood.

This once advantage of knowl- ways, complicated personal.“Rural Writers and spices to the market a fortnight. voidvehicle rushesinstead, something.

Nature abhors a vehicleare makers in India and are targeting. is ery driven his cost would be ₹70 edge bestows camp air of here tell of damagedsegment childhoods, descents in- vacuum.”

“I get three upon timesthe theparent price for my an produce This book tells us that being childthe most significant for us.

The users for the same ride. superiority, nay in condescension, the to depression discordant relationships. in Lucknow than Hardoi. Every 10which days I rent is about finding and making there start withand entry-level products and their free Even though the battery needspeace to bewith rechildfree must has constantly against.

Also, a Or simply how the decision snuck up on them. a bike, which enoughrage space to load my something needs are basic.

They move within a small area that placed annually,else. at a cost of about ₹12,000, an parent expressing reservations on parentthe path, they all ar- electric vehicle results in a yearly saving of vegetables for sale in Lucknow,” says farmer But and whatever electric vehicles areeventually a very useful product nair hood probably considered more blasphe- rive at the ‘place of choosing’.

AdheerisSingh. for them,” says Sohinder Gill, CEO of Hero Elec- nandini over ₹10,000.

E

Q Q

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids Edited by Meghan Daum Picador Nonfiction ₹1,700

R

ND-X _ A

7

BL

work

saturday, july 25, 2015

Hemalatha Annamalai, Founder and CEO of Ampere Vehicles k ananthan

Stimulating profits An electric bike fetches more business for tea-seller Bhanumathi Mani in Coimbatore

Wiring for change Electric bike manufacturers are customising models to improve their utility in rural areas, which is an important emerging market for them afp/ sam panthaky

Zip zap zoom Farmers, grocers, laundrymen and even students are hiring electric bikes from OMC Power in more than 30 villages in Hardoi district, Uttar Pradesh

Yet another advantage of EVs is the near-zero maintenance cost. Petrol engines have parts that rub against each other. If dust gets in, the engine fails — a near-constant hazard on dusty rural roads. “Electric bikes are like a ceiling fan. If it fails, it fails in the first five days, otherwise not in 20 years,” explains Gill.

Sputtering on policy While EVs have been around in India for some years now, their market growth has not been consistent due to fluctuating government policies. In November 2010, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy announced up to 20 per cent incentives on the sale of EVs. That meant the manufacturer would provide customers a discount of up to ₹4,000 for a lowspeed electric two-wheeler and ₹5,000 for a high-speed vehicle. The manufacturer later claimed the amount from the government.

This gave the industry a huge push and it grew by 200 per cent in FY2012.

However, the subsidy was subsequently withdrawn, leading to a sales slump, and many dealerships shut down.

Budget 2015 has given the sector a renewed push. The subsidy for a low-speed electric scooter is now ₹7,400, while for high-speed two-wheelers it is ₹9,500. However, the caveat that the scheme, in the first phase, will be applicable only in cities with a population exceeding 10 lakh has left rural users in the lurch. “The government should not put these constraints,” says Hemalatha Annamalai, CEO and founder of Ampere Vehicles.

In the meantime, the manufacturers are fo-

Sohinder Gill, CEO of Hero Electric

cusing on reducing costs and improving the electric-bike rentals, currently on a trial basis, life of the vehicle for end-users. Ampere is in- at ₹150-200 depending on duration of use. digenising the production of key components “We are further fine-tuning the bikes. We exand even hopes to locally manufacture the pect to go commercial in September this bike’s motor by the year-end, says Annamalai. year,” he says. OMC will begin by offering the The batteries are currently imported under a rental service at 25 of its power plants. technology tie-up with a foreign player, but she hopes to make these in India as well over a The rural drive period of time.

The electric bike companies are trying to cusFrom its initial focus on Tamil Nadu, Karna- tomise models to improve their utility in rural taka and Kerala, Ampere will exareas, which is their emerging pand later this year to Andhra market. Hero Electric’s Maxi is Pradesh, Telangana and a hit with shopkeepers, milkPuducherry. men, newspaper vendors, I am excited about Gill says that apart from the hawkers and farmers. With a the retrofit market government subsidy of ₹7,400, wide platform between the as every house has his company is giving an addirider’s legs, the model also has a cycle and a retrofit tional discount of ₹3,000 to a swappable battery in a box kit costs less than price the entry-level product bewith a handle. “It allows entre$100 (₹6,000) low ₹20,000. “After the budget preneurs to drive day and announcement, there is renewnight, as they can buy another ed interest in electric two-wheelset of briefcase battery for reers,” he says, pointing out that placement,” says Gill.

4,000 vehicles were sold in April alone.

Ampere wants to be a one-stop-shop for rural commuting, businesses, delivery and garBorrowed ride bage collection needs. Focusing on rural and OMC is betting on two models to target the semi-urban markets, the company is enjoying price-conscious rural customer. The first in- a significant market share for its electric volves offering its brand new electric bike on scooters, electric cycles, load carriers and lowrent, while in the second it will retrofit an ex- cost mobility products for textile workers. isting bicycle into an electric vehicle.

With continued government support, the “I am excited about the retrofit market as ev- fledgling industry is confident of taking on ery house has a cycle and a retrofit kit costs the rough and dusty roads on its ride deep inless than $100 (₹6,000). We import directly to the hinterland. from manufacturers,” says Raj. His company is seeing a good response to its rashmi pratap

Q R

read know

BL BL 16 8

saturday, july 25,25, 2015 saturday, july 2015

STATES OF MATTER

Lying analyst’s A dealon thatanraised hellcouch With typical heft and gravitas, Coetzee a self-help bookacclaim that addresses the Israel’s querulous reaction to aJM nuclear dealconjures that hasup won wide-spread underlines big questions of life how far removed it is from world opinion

sukumar muralidharan

In a fact-sheet produced to order, AIPAC identified five minimum requirements that had not been met in the deal. Among these were the failure to enforce a regime of ‘anytime, anywhere’ inspections. The template Israel had in mind was undoubtedly the punishing regime that the US and UK — with the UN Security Council in mute acquiescence — imposed on Iraq through the 1990s. It was a disarmament agenda that scarcely masked intent to secure regime change, leading inexorably to the invasion of 2003.

US Republicans remain unrepentant but Democrats are visibly suffering buyer’s rescript ofA asecond therapeutic session.

On more than morse. ground advanced

by AIPAC onerejecting occasion,the Coetzee into play his perfor deal isbrings its ostensible failure to sonal that experiences.

Hecome talks clean aboutonhis in insist Iran ‘must itslife prior South Africa nuclear work.’and Australia. He recounts memories of his the childhood if that weren’t Here again, record ofand inspections by the enough to please Freudian theoInternational Atomic Energyconspiracy Agency (IAEA) rists, he even makes mention his mother. paints a rather different picture.ofMost such inTraces of Freud, though,declarations are hardly impercepspections have followed of intent tible. can benuclear found fuel rightcycle through The by IranThey to pursue activities Good Oedipus, forthe instance, as it isStory. entitled to under Nuclear becomes Non-Procontentious much afterThe Coetzee has of delivered liferation Treaty (NPT). response the UN this pithyCouncil, line — “Oedipus both the owner of Security which isexercises ultimate the buriedon past anddecisions, the detective.” oversight IAEA has been to seIn Kurtz, Coetzee ally who verely abridge Iran’sclearly rights. finds Heavyanwater procan match rigour of his intellect.

But more duction, forthe instance, though not classified as Playing the danger card It was the pivot to the extreme right that transformed a losing position into victory for Benjamin Netanyahu reuters significantly, her evident litan activity subject to NPTengagement safeguards,with is now john t takai/shutterstock eraturestrict allows for a rather under monitoring inrare Iran.brand of literary Another criticism.

Together, they according discuss the ostensible omission, to he first author to have won thePrime Man weird ‘historic mistake’ — Israeli kind ofdiatribe truth that would meet in theits criteria of Israeli more strident Islamapossible psychology which informs the works security briefings, is the covert Parchin Booker JM Netanyahu’s Coetzee didn’t Ministertwice, Benjamin re- phobic the courtroom; therecent truth, the whole truth, tone than appearances at and the military of Nathaniel Sebald, Fyodor base, Hawthorne, southeast of WG Tehran, “suspected once upJuly to pick up his prize. actionshow to the 14 agreement be- UN nothing butAssembly. the truth?”

General The emergence of the Is- of Dostoevsky and others. launches into being the centre of Coetzee Iran’s secret nuclear For someone so avowedly tween Iran and six worldreclusive, powers lamic All through this book, truth, for Coetzee, ap- weapons State militia as a malevolent new preshis analysis of Dostoevsky’s Thea Possessed by programme”.

This is clear distorthe author, it turnsUnion out, iswas quite the conversaplus the European brusque and bit- ence pearsin to the be aWest preoccupation of sorts.

He make starts tion.

Asian region did not saying, in the therapeutic As“Anyone recordedinvolved in the agency’s report of tionalist.

2013, Here and Now made ter.

ThereReleased were no in surprises there, nor in the Iran by questioning Kurtz about therapists a potential ally of the west,why he said.

There March process8, ought read Dostoevsky 2006, ittowas given access to closely.” the Parpublic theofletters that the Israel NobelPublic laureate had was spectacle the American Affairs forceapatients be veracious.

He makes a case ‘deadlytogame of thrones in play,’ in chin Kurtz’s deconsite subsequent in Novemberpsychoanalytic the previous year.

The exchanged with American author Paul known Auster. which Committee (AIPAC), a powerful lobby for an there “empowering that allow would befiction” ‘no place forcould America or IAEA struction proves that any she unusual has moreactivities than done “did not observe in Kafka, typewriters, baseball — allcareers, made for ce- for to make and unmake political steppatients to no feelpeace good about themselves, allow- her homework.

Israel, for ChrisThere are alsovisited.” occasions when the buildings And an rebralupentertainment, andtheatnuclear long last, ping with vows to kill dealthe in tians, ing them to work and love better.

Jews or Muslims who Kurtz seems to be goading Coetanalysis of numerous environbook Coetzee fans a rare glimpse in- don’t the USprovided Congress.

Thoroughly professional even share the Islamist mediezee into samples talking about his indiown mental “did not to The the private of a literary icon who had fiArms life Control Association (ACA), a val when not in her therapist’s chair, creed.’ work, but presence unfortunately he selcate the of nuclear As he sketched a nally let his DC-based guard down.

A little Washington expert body,more had athan dif- Kurtz patient Coetzee’s This iswas a clearwith overture to dom risesattothose the bait. material locations.”

If you happen to be scenario of mortal two years later, theThe writer again betrays his the ferent assessment. comprehensive agreeprodding.

Admitting that “itin is reading the book with most extreme elements The GoodAIPAC’s Story cannot bethat deFinally, worry is danger to Israel, predilection for stimulating discussions.

In the US ment, it declared, “would verifiably block task of Israel. psychoanalysis to atry and Then facing scribed lightnot reading the dealasdoes meet by theany rea pencil in hand, it is Netanyahu reached for the recently published The Good Story,developCoetzee tense Iran’s pathways to nuclear weapons to tellelectoral the deepest she battle truth,” at home, measure, but if your appreciaquirement that “Iran’s nuclear impossible to put it Biblical analogies and finds an interlocutor in consulting ment.”

When implemented, it would beclinical “a net Netanyahu adds that pinned psychoanalysis his hopes does on tion of Coetzee borders on adoweapons’ quest must be down.

Sentences invoked a sinisteron psychologist Arabella Kurtz. Unlike the playful plus for non-proliferation and (would) en- the not assume to befanatical fixed. She loyalty truth of the ration, gratifying to see blockedit isfor decades.”

Thishim is almost every other Persian viceroy’s plot banterUSwith Auster, however, Coetzee now hance and regional security.” At a public fo- right-wing says that the which her that‘truth’ is now maindiscuss a stray Jonathan Franclear misrepresentation, since page deserve to be against the Jewish seems to have weightierthe matters rum two days considerably later — coincidentally 70th stream version in of Israel. psychotherapy As polls is zen articleofand a Juliette Bithe intent the deal is to compeopleunderlined from two-andsuch as truth, fiction psychotherapy on neared, anniversary of the first and nuclear test in the New based onhe “iswarned always dynamic, proabout a sinnoche was pletely speech. eliminate(Coetzee the plutonia-half millennia back his mind.

Mexico desert — the ACA head described the ister visional and intersubjective.”

The leftist conspiracy to deimpressed withtothea actress’s um pathway nuclear Though the prospectthe of the author promulagreement as “among most complex and pose psychologist’s explanations are him, before playing his confession preferred weapon andthat cutshe uranium engating his views mind’s workings is en- final consequential ofon thethe nuclear age.” lucid.card Sheand explains to Coetzee vowing that a Palthe relationship withbyherover direcrichment capacity a ticing, Goodof Story demonstrates On a The mission reassurance to Tel Coetzee’s Aviv, Brit- estinian that we can only fully never understand state would be our chang- tor to be an erotic thirdone.) for an entire decade. If curiosity more than his erudition.

At different ish foreign secretary Phil Hammond was ber- reality ing selves through others and our experiences there under his watch.

If you to bebyreading the book with is happen a breakout Iran after that — anda points, and defends the notion ated by he hisattacks hosts for suggesting that Israel that was with them.

It was that pivot to the extreme right that there pencilisinno hand, it istoimpossible to put down. reason believe there willitbe — it “the stories about ourselves opposed to we anytell manner of a deal.may Andnot to be transformed An unpredictable self-confessed a losingCoetzee, position ainto victory.

Sentences everytoother pagematerial deserve would takeon atalmost least a year produce true,Netanyahu but they are allamply we have”.

The exchanges fair, had forewarned that no “trader fictions”, put soontogether changesatack.

He sufficient When inNetanyahu narrow to be underlined.

At one point, for one explosive device.for instance, between him and Kurtz dwell not entirelysovon majority deal which preserved a vestige of Iranian goes on to longing foritthe inconfess Israel’s aparliament, was“one withand an Coetzee writes, “The past, individual or collecThe insistence on blocking Iran’s capacities the narratives novelist imagines, but more ereignty woulda be acceptable, brazenly wad- alliance only truth”.

His subsequent question to Kurtz for anchored firmly in the most reactiontive,unspecified is always messier and is more complicated ‘decades’ an accurate baon the a patient might makeand to ary ing intoconfessions political partisanship in March evenideological seems a touch adversarialakin — “Do ther- rometer commitments, in many than any account we can give of it.” By tackling of how long Israel intends to deny his therapist orUS onCongress a story heinora she might inaddressing the deliberate af- ways apist to and patient nowadays agree trade on- Palestinians dominant elements in the to Republican concepts such as rights. truth, guilt, sympathy and their vent in to get by. Guided byinvestment their com- Party front to order President Barack Obama’s ly inin fictions?”

Kurtz deflects Coetzee’s memory the US. headstate’s on, Coetzee have givThe Zionist angryand andKurtz querulous remon in the interest talks. in human nature, experience exasperation with afraternity fitting case study and In this ideological lies Israel’s last action en their thedeal script ofhas a dialogue that toreaders a nuclear that won almost and Coetzee and Kurtz busydanger them- hope Aslanguage, he sketched a scenario of mortal says, “The aim in psychotherapy is toreactions help the unanimous of keeping Iran down. First can be enriching.

The headline just above should acclaim underlines how far it selves with questionsreached that seem at once analcom- from to Israel, Netanyahu for Biblical patient fill in souls parts on of aCapitol puzzle,Hill which is their kindred did not dis- is perhaps beworld revised.

‘Nobel winner co-authors adrift of opinion. mon and instance, asks, appoint. ogies and difficult. invoked Coetzee, a sinisterfor Persian viceroy’s puzzle — the is their mind.”

Butpuzzle then, that as various complexities self-help book.’ Now that is the good story.

“When I tell other people the story my life ... dawned, plot against the Jewish people fromof two-and-aWith Coetzee as the primary The sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer, they retreated into questioner, sullen silence, shreevatsa nevatia based in Gurgaon and Shimla should I be neutral, tell a leaving half millennia back.objective, He thenstriving seguedtointo Good Story sometimes feel like the tran- researcher it todoes AIPAC to work out a strategy.

T A

Q

The Good Story: Exchanges on truth, fiction and psychotherapy JM Coetzee & Arabella Kurtz Harvill Secker Non-fiction ₹599

R R

ND-X _ A

9

BL

talk

saturday, july 25, 2015

PRESENT IMPERFECT

Why I won’t read Go Set a Watchman The Mockingbird sequel feeds the ‘what’s next’ obsession of the current market

Give me more Posters by eager fans at Monroeville — the Alabama town made famous

by Harper Lee’s Pulitzer-winning book — on the day of the release of Go Set a Watchman ap/andrea mabry

I

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

read To Kill a Mockingbird when I was 10.

My father worked in a public sector fertiliser company and we lived in the township — attending the company school, playing at the company club, praying at the company temple. There were never enough things to do, and there was never enough money to do them. It was during the summer holidays — two seemingly endless months of heat and humidity — that, bored out of my mind, I asked my father if I could read something from his library. Mockingbird was nearest to him. I read it all summer. And even though I had no idea of America’s race history and did not even wonder about things I didn’t understand, I loved the book. I thought of it as the adventures of Jem, Scout and Dill — the three children in the book.

The following summer, I read it again. I understood it a little better. I read it the year I turned 12 and then 13 and then, caught up as I was in a ritual of my own making, I read the book every summer until I left home at 17.

Each year, I thought, the book grew bigger. I was certain I was Scout when I was 10. At 14, I fell in love, rather innocently, with Atticus. At 16, prissy, sheltered and judgemental, I berated myself for having “those thoughts” about a man with children, so what if he was widowed. It was only decades later, with the grudging acceptance that no one is as they seem, least of all your own self, that I realised that through all those readings the book had remained the same, but somehow I had changed. To Kill a Mockingbird was not merely a book, it was a marker of time, of lessons learned, of a life gradually being lived.

Six months ago, I was shocked when I first heard about the existence and the imminent publishing of another book by Harper Lee. As details emerged, the new book, it seemed, was

not just another book by Lee, but one that was have churned out so many sequels that they set in the same place and dealt with the same are now filming prequels. This obsession is characters. Ten days ago, The Guardian publish- most acutely demonstrated by the virtual ed the first chapter. Despite a gnawing curios- stand-off that fans of Game of Thrones have had ity, I couldn’t bring myself to read it. with its author, George RR Martin. In the six In the last week, the book, Go Set a Watch- years that Martin took between the fourth and man, has released across the world and, how- the fifth volume, “fans” were impatient to the ever hard you try, it is fairly impossible to miss point of being abusive. It is this loutish sense the details. The most awful one, of course, is of entitlement readers and viewers demonthat Atticus Finch, the lawyer who so bravely strate that the publisher of Watchman is feeddefended a black man accused of ing right into. raping a white woman, is actualTo my mind, reading, at its ly no beacon of racial equality. core, is an act of creation, not On the contrary, he is a segregaconsumption. It is not the sum of To my mind, reading, tionist, one who was even part of letters adding up to words, at its core, is an act a clan similar to the Ku Klux Klan. words adding up to sentences of creation The reviews and opinions are piland paragraphs. Reading is the ing up by the second, with most craft of etching the images from criticism written by pained readthe words. It is not just the readers whose favourite book was er’s task to provide a third diMockingbird, suggesting that Watchman is not mension to the story, it is her privilege. By as good a story. having Lee tell me what to think of Scout, Jem The quality of the story really isn’t what’s and Atticus beyond the pages of Mockingbird, I bothering me. My first quibble is with the fact am denied the privilege of owning the images that publishing Watchman endorses the sad in my head and doing what I please with them. truth that the world has been reduced to one The worst thing about living in the time of where insatiable consumerism trumps quali- Watchman is having to acknowledge that the ty art and literature. That by giving readers time of Mockingbird is well and truly past. I Watchman, the publishers (and Lee’s manag- read that book again and again because there ers) are catering to the self-involved “what’s weren’t many others. Mockingbird tells of a next” obsession of the “market”. We now occu- time when things were so scarce that every litpy a pop-culture universe which is built on se- tle thing was precious, when the smallest of quels. No successful book is anything less than indulgences had to be meticulously sought a trilogy. No successful movie will not have a and carefully treasured. When most things wepart two. My daughter, who is nine years old, ren’t made in China — easy to acquire, easier to and who has grown up in this ecosystem dispose. Mockingbird is the ultimate rendition which consistently believes that more is more, of a time when possessions were few, but posassumes the default option for a film is to have sibilities were endless. It’s dreadful to contema part two and a part three, all the way up to plate the end of that innocence. seven Harry Potters. TV shows come back seat@veenavenugopal son after season. And Superhero franchises

Q R

cover watch

saturday, july 25, 2015

BL

14 10

Parliamentary punch up Beyond rehab Amy Winehouse was happiest simply makingastunes cord conversations. It is almost if the last 14 ap/matt dunham; (below)

months did not happen. reuters / luke macgregor Sample a few darts from Chidambaram on the day of the launch of ‘Skill India’. “National Skill Development Mission will be relaunched. I repeat, re-launched by the PM under a new name. Should we applaud?” Chidambaram then said that the mission was originally launched in August 2010 and its flagship scheme, STAR, in August 2013. He added that 35 lakh persons have already been trained under the programme. “A successfulFielder-Civil mission and is being reweeks before her death, where she isAfter booedaoff ex-husband the press long time, the Blake Tomorrow will the be the stage by irate fans after refusingprincipal to sing. opposition onslaught. Inlaunched. tracing a definite narrative, ‘Achche Din’!” he quipped.

We see her on July 23, 2011, in a body bag, being film the often loses sight of what these people party is setting Impossible it may the carried out of the Camden home where meant to the singer herselfasand the seem, role they agendashe for discussion credit for this change in atmowas once happy. played in her art.

In showing her as the victim, and debate in goes to the Rahul Gandhi.

Over the unhappy years, her beit spherics takes away from agency the Parliament Since his two-month haviour became erratic, her singer herself mustsabbatical have exin the middle budget her sesappearance more hagercised of in the moulding sion, theown Congress vice-presigard and she lost the life. Most of all, dent’s drivethe to infuse fighting joy in the thing she music atakes secspirit into his somnolent party is slowly bearonce did best, “maond place to the ining fruit. After a long time, the kin’ tunes”. The nerprincipal demonsoppothat sition party is setting the agendathem. for documentary produced discussion and debate in Parliament. highlights the And so, instead almost absurd of serving as a Gloves off expectations therapeutic A spate of corruption scandalsoutlet, against promipeople had of it benent BJP leaders — Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhaher professioncomes just anra Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Ramanvehicle Singh ally, as well as other — have come in handy at a most the callous disfor opportune her time. More importantly, the Congress has regard for her self-destruction. shed its inclination towards understatement health and generDespite this, we — associated with the reserve diffidence of al well-being. A mudo and witness the glitManmohan Singh and party Sonia sician with a midas teringpresident magic of those Gandhi. Rahul Gandhiearly is showing a surprising touch, she had the abilidays — raw and talent for martial arts in politics. ty to turn even the most magnetic.

You get the sense Ever ready that for a here bout,isthe BJP entered the painful real-life experiences into music that harks arena with allback gunstoblazing, seemingly free of song-writing gold. A feature that the golden age of jazz constraints of expressing being in power.

Although also lent her songs an aching vulwhile the concerns of Withoutthe Amy the formidable of the nerability that has since become the rabble-rousing post-Brit-pop skills millennials.

Winehouse, there notprovided yet been the on full disher signature. More than the would be no Prime music soundAdele,Minister no Herhave spired,addiction excited and, afterpersonal a long time, seemed he has decidedly onher theown heat,life, firdrug or the track notturned only for Lady Gagaplay, and no to beithaving fun.

“You want pubto know what the ing the first salvo at his pet targets -the loss, was the unremitting with its raging highs and Lana Del Rey Government shouldjudgements do about the US Justice Gandhis. After about a fortnight hectoring lic glare, constant whooping lows, butofthat of sevDepartment report on on her bribes paid to Indian by the Congress, Modi women sounded thewere bugle at and the demands time eral other who simpoliticians?

I’lldeath. tell you — Modi should call his his friend andilarly finance minister AruninJaitley’s that led to her The disprouncomfortable their friend ‘Barack’.

He should memorial function week in portionate attention on herget life,all the docu- father-in-law’sown skin, longing forlast a time and ments than he wants.

After all, they areclaimed friends.her.

On age Jammu with their his trademark comment the rather her music, eventually beyond own. Without Amy on Winefirst name terms,” he Asif saidKapadia’s sarcastically. “son-in-law”.

Thanksbetono him, thisnoreference is This is where I feel documen- house, there would Adele, Lady Gaga It is notwrongs just Sibal. all his more tary also her,Almost in much the colleagues same way and nosynonymous Lana Del Rey.these days with Priyanka — Anand Sharma, Salman Khurshid, husband Vadra than Atal Bithat the frenetic tabloid coverage had.Ghulam It is too Gandhi’s So for Amy’s sake,Robert what I will take away from Nabi Azad, Jairam even the Too onceeager reti- the harifilm Vajpayee’s son-in-law Ranjan Bhattaeager to paint her Ramesh, in a certain light. is not the story of her fame or the tragcent Chidambaram — are readying for a edy charya.

This by brazening out to tellPthe story of her tragedy.

The film often of her life,was but followed the gloriousness of her mufight. the Theysensation are commenting in thepost-facto editorial sic theand Congress’s accusations and the media ongives of presenting the genius of her craft. pages of newspapers, addressing confer- slaught while simultaneously mounting a evidence for an already foregonepress conclusion. chakravarty is a recent the historyOpposition graduate ences, tweeting, posting on Facebook and, yes, amrita counter-offensive targeting Blame is apportioned, explicitly and implicitSt Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a music writer being their most entertaining selves in off-releaders. ly, between her father Mitch Winehouse, her from

You know I’m no good

After watching the Amy Winehouse biopic, a young fan says she’d rather celebrate the power of her music than obsess about the tragedy of her life

E

ND-X _ A

ver felt like you missed out on a phenomenon, the kind that visits every generation, encapsulating the cultural zeitgeist in one iconic figure?

This is what I felt while watching Amy: The Girl Behind the Name, having come to her music and her legacy too late.

Parallels have been drawn between Asif Kapadia’s previous biopic Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, released earlier this year. Both have as their subject artistes whose careers registered meteoric rises as well as ignominious falls; a life of superstardom thrust on personalities who were ill-prepared for it, invariably leading to dependence on drugs and a downward spiral. The story is bleak and painfully familiar. And yet, this is the story that we already know. For me then, what makes Amy such a compelling trip down memory lane is not ‘The Girl Behind the Name’ — a figure on whom more reckless speculation could only do more Punctured balloon Ever ready for a bout, the BJP stridesharm into Parliament matching a scam for athe scammusician, v sudershan than good — but rather the meticulous songwriter, and that voice of melancholy.

This, I realise, is an unusual takeaway from a film that is calculated to be a story of the victimisation of a public figure. The years following the release of her multi-Grammy Award winning album Back to Black (2006) were also the ones that saw the destruction of Winehouse as an artiste. A turbulent early life, before of theher Lokparents Sabha elecmarkedometime by the divorce and tionneglect, results led were last year, emotional toannounced an equally tumultua few reporters were exchanging ous adulthood and a toxic marriage to thenotes love at Blake the Congress headquarters when of her life, Fielder-Civil.

Kapil strode in. Pulling a chair next to We Sibal see Amy at the beginning of the film, me, he declared: “I won’ttospare these people singing ‘Happy Birthday’ a close friend, her [Narendra Modi].

I will in fight them Parliavoice holding onlookers thrall.

Sheinwas just ment I win, outside if Iat lose whichgigs, is most 14.

Weifsee heror performing various relikely.” But in theand months thatshows followed, the cording sessions television around spirited lawyer’s fervour was submerged by the release of her debut album, Frank, in 2003. his see party’s collective despair.

The Congress We her in 2006, having turned a corner had lost thea will tohelp fight.from producer Mark and, with little Cut toturning earlier this evebroken of the monRonson, the week, piecesthe of her relasoon session of Parliament.

Sibal,ofthis time, tionship into Back to Black — music an exquiwas sadness, seated atas the podium inresilience. the AICC briefing site also an odd We see room address press conference.

Hein was inher attoher final aconcert in Belgrade 2011,

Q R

This monsoon session in Parliament promises to be the toughest political battle yet, as the Congress flexes its muscles and the BJP readies for a fight

Q

S

R

BL

watch cover

saturday, july 25, 2015

Accordingly, the BJP is unearthing more skeletons in the Congress’s closet while its floor managers are at their combative best in Parliament. Scam for a scam is the motto. Given the BJP’s impulse for aggression, the counter-offensive is no less trenchant than the newfound belligerence of the Congress’s strategy. And the Gandhis make for a pretty target.

“Rahul Gandhi says he will not allow even an inch of farmland to be acquired. I wonder which land he was referring to — the 3,000 bighas that his brother-in-law stole in Rajasthan, or the thousands of acres he has acquired in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh?” said BJP spokesperson and newly-elected Rajya Sabha MP MJ Akbar. His target was not Rahul Gandhi or Robert Vadra but the less-glamorous former chief minister of Goa Digambar Kamat. Kamat is at the helm of one of the new scandals the BJP is keen to rake up.

It follows from a US Justice Department report that indicted a New Jersey-based construction management firm, Louis Berger, that paid

Dissent in the house ‘Lalit Modi is prospering with the blessings of Narendra Modi’ reads a placard held in front of Rajiv Pratap Rudy pti/tv grab

port to coal scam-accused Santosh Bagrodia.

The Government’s hopes rest with the perennial weathercocks in Parliament — the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Biju Janata Dal, Trinamool Congress et al. Comforting noises made by SP’s various leaders, especially Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother Ram Gopal Yadav on theSheLand aboutAcquisition town Stencil Act, raised hopes in the treasury benches of isolatwork in Kolkata as part of the projectwas by even ing the Congress. The‘Missing’ Prime art Minister Leena Kejriwal seen holding handsphotographer with the SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, signalling a future bailout.

But things do not always go according to plan on the floor of the House, especially when a section is determined to disrupt proceedings. Sample the extreme caution with which the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan proceeded on the second day: “Mananiya sadasyo, mein apna prastav rakhoon, usse pehle ek nivedan hai ki sadan mein is prakar se kaale jhande dikhana ya kaali patti bandhna uchit nahin hai. Aap sab jaante hain. (Before I start with the resolution, I would like to urge all of you to take into consideration the fact that wearing black badges and showing black he stands etched against the skyline, a flags is not appropriate. It should not be done shadow of a girl-next-door. She could within the Parliament precincts).” be anyone: A homemaker, student, Despite the warnings, the Congress MPs doctor, lawyer, teacher or sex worker. wore black badges and waved placards, placIt isspirit theaseverydayness of Arun this Jaitley shadow that Act two Rahul Gandhi has infused his party with a new fighting Sushma Swaraj and give as good as they get rajeev batt; (top) ap/manish swarup; kamal narang ing them strategically next to the Speaker’s makes you relate to her. This shadow is, in fact, chair for the benefit of TV cameras. “Bada Modi symbolic of a black hole into which, metaphorically, millions of girls disappear when the Leader of the House, Yechury summed up Meharbaan to chhota Modi Pehalwan (Lalit bribes to win contracts in Goa and Assam, they are trafficked sexCongress. workers. The party al- the situation well: “Why is the Minister inter- Modi is prospering with the blessings of Naboth states ruled byasthe willmore soon“revelations” be dotted with largechief cut- rupting?… Serious allegations have come rendra Modi),” read one placard. “You stop it… so Kolkata promises about outs of this woman’, as part of the against the Minister for External Affairs, and You can’t show placards. I will take disciplinministers in ‘shadow Congress-ruled states — UttarakpublicHimachal art project ‘Missing’ by photographer hand, Pradesh, Kerala, Assam et al. against the chief ministers of some states. We ary action,” the Speaker said. Her threat of Leena Kejriwal, who has since 2010 worked as are asking the government of the day — let “disciplinary action” irritated those from the Left parties A proposed the Mumbai Kejriwal who had not yet an installation New game plan artist with an interest in gen- there be a installation high-levelagainst enquiry.

And, onskyline that ba- BJD, TMC and theLeena joined the Congress. “Is this a der issues.

The initial election euphoria dulled the BJP’s sis, till the enquiry is over, let parliamentary democracy or The project intends to create awareness Kejriwal has managed to or raise 55 per cent of that was emotive and evocative.

“I had reflexes in the past year. Even a routine activity these people demit office they not?

I have rights.myself, Don’t across cities and some of the had confirmed sites are the funds to fabricate the artwork and thought about using walls my to express like holding media briefings been abanto be needed removed from office. threaten me.toArrest for viofor the in installation are Raahgiri in New Delhi’s take itthey to different “I had initially ap- but India it’s very hard createme longstanddoned the first three Parliament sessions af- When [the BJP]cities. were sitting Impossible as itinmay privilege,” shouted the Connaught and Park pealed houses fund theseem, project ing artfor projectlating on public walls as they are used ter Modi wasPlace sworn inGurgaon, as PM. Butand theEco party is here in to thecorporate Opposition; and to when the credit CPI(M)’s Mohammed Salim. in Kolkata.

Theofartist is scouting for spaceapin the but Leader decidedofthat shouldtoday be for various purposes and are ofclearly aware the need for a different theitHouse this change in The situation Mumbai,A daily Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderafor the and the peoten defaced upon.suits Thenthe I hitConupproach. briefing schedule has been re- was the people Leader of theby Opposition; atmospherics goes to gress just sky 44 bad, Guwahati, Dhanbad andhave Ahmedabad. ple,”when she says. on theimmensely. idea of usingWith the blue instituted and the big guns been pulled and the Leader of OpposiRahul Gandhi MPs incanvas.” the Lok Sabha, it has alBased outArun of Kolkata, Kejriwal ‘Missing’ is also collaboratas my out.

Besides Jaitley giving on-has andalways off-re- tion today was a Minister in the In India it’s hard to most theShe Land Acbeen briefings, interestedall in the lives of thein women who then ing with Rotary for its this Rotary Theensured rest wasthat easy. braincord ministers the ParliaGovernment, from very create longstanding quisition Rehabilitation and live in theAffairs city’s Ministry Kalighat — red area.Naidu, “Since place, Teach I supported Child Welfare stormed with a group of girls mentary M light Venkaiah the thenproLeadart project on public Resettlement 2007,Pratap I have Rudy been doing voluntary work — as—a er gramme and is being who belong to the(Amendment) various NGOs Rajiv and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi of Opposition whenfunded he said walls... I hit upon not has see worked the lightwith, of day, not at Rotarian and as correspondents a photographerin—the with the that through Wishberry, where Kej-is not a substi- Bill, 2015 will she alongside are in touch with Parliaa discussion in the House the idea ofleast using in this session.

And although it is apparwomen and girlsAdditionally, from the Kalighat area.

In tute riwalfor aims to raise ₹16 lakh in Ruchira Gupta (Founder and ment precincts. a formal briefinvestigation.” the blue sky as of other legislafact,ismy book Kolkata Repossessing the City was 60The days (by Julycertainly 31) for the in- it is time to ently supportive President of important Apne Aap Women ing held every day by a senior leader.

Congress believes my canvas the Goods and really the take-off point for my interest, which stallations and a mobile andServices adviser Tax to Bill the Despite such rigorous preparations, the return the favour.

For theapplifirst time since the tions such as Worldwide a day for its discussion and trafpasfinally led meoftothe this project,” she cation. of “The app hasReservation been Government on human opening day session lived upsays. to the Con- passage the Women’s Bill in the and may allowUS to loseAsif curator other bills such exas The book grewofinto an artwork Kejri- Rajya designed to make it more interficking).

Merali gress’s promise a “thunder andwhen lightning” Sabha in 2010, Sonia Gandhi showed sage, it has little Corruption (Amendment) Bill, wal began ideating with curator Shaheen Mer- signs active.ofPeople onanimation social media “The work of artist Leena show during the monsoon.

With the Mahila genuine in the Parliament Prevention of plains, Whistleblowers Protection (Amendali on a series ofaart exhibitions that revolved can interact withwere the artwork, sign Kejriwal is part of a greater body of work unMorcha leading demonstration, it was clear precincts.

“What you doing forpetitions the past 2013, Bill,by 2015 etc, do passed.

The govaround issue ofwould trafficking.

Over the past so andmany extend the boundaries ofthe what consid- ment) dertaken artists in not the get global context... to that littlethe business be transacted unless years,” she asked, as BJPisaccused ernment will lose face to and suffer a dent in its decade she wasVasundhara involved with exhibitions eredparty art and activism,”away she says. enable a wider society communicate.”

Sushma Swaraj, Raje and Shivraj her of “running from debate”. has ended paralysis. such asChouhan ‘When Violence Becomes Decadent’the at Kejriwal’s research had was uncovered some Overthat theitnext three policy months, the ‘Missing’ Singh resigned.

Predictably, Accordingly, no business transacted in claim Thewill BJP is clearly staring at itsand toughest chalthe Freies Museum Berlin, ‘I saw which shocking — there are day. reportedly three girls loom into our view, consciousmost intelligent intervention camethat from Sita- the Rajya figures Sabha on the first Proceedings in Parliament had remained in Tehran, and ‘Entropmillionon trafficked women in India, and Swaraj 1.2 mil- lenge ness, across cities. since it came to power. ram Yechury ofunseen’ the CPI(M) in the Rajya Sabha. began the second day with Sushma ic As Sites’ at the Shrineand Empire. lion of themtoare youngthe girls.

She wanted to Anand Sharma Ghulam Nabi Azad of threatening expose Congress MP who joshi is a Delhi-based art writer georgina maddox ‘Missing’ projectwith is crowd-funded, and was translate this her information into something theThe Congress jousted Arun Jaitley, now “pressing” to give a diplomatic pass- poornima

Girl, cut out

The ‘shadow woman’ will loom against city skylines in a public art project about the girls who have lost their lives to sex work

S

Q Q R R

ND-X _ A

11 15

shoot

Finishing touch A carriage owner fixes a horseshoe ahead of a ride

saturday, july 25, 2015

BL

12

Full stop An animal rights’ activist pulls a Victoria on Marine Drive to protest the poor treatment of carriage horses in the city

Last days of Victoria A Bombay High Court verdict ends the ride for the city’s open horse-drawn carriages

A

e dil hain mushkil jeena yahan/ Zara hatke, zara bachke, yeh hain Bombay meri jaan (It’s not easy to live here, my love/ Watch your step, this is Bombay, my sweetheart) — if there’s anything that we remember about this song from CID (1956) apart from an animated Johnny Walker, it is the open horsedrawn carriage that he rides. Also known as Victorias, the carriage in the black-and-white film takes us down Marine Drive, rides past the city’s textile mills, kaali-peeli (black-and-yellow) taxis and trams (a service that shut down in 1964). A little more than 20 years later, in Amar Akbar Anthony, Vinod Khanna and Shabana Azmi are seen romancing in another Victoria. This time, the carriage slices through the water at Juhu Beach. In Hum Tum, a 2004 adaptation of When Harry Met Sally, the carriage makes a brief appearance as Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji’s love vehicle.

These are only a few of Bollywood’s famous ‘Victoria’ moments. And there won’t be any more additions to the list. By June 2016, these carriages will go off Mumbai roads. Agreeing with animal rights groups that the horses are malnourished, over-

worked and denied medical attention, the Bombay High Court declared the carriages “illegal” in June 2015. It also ordered the shutdown of all stables connected with the trade.

The ban translates into loss of livelihood for 700 families. The animal rights groups may have a plan for the horses but little has been said or done for the carriage drivers. Noor Mohammed, 24, is one of them. His future is uncertain. But what troubles him is the court’s opinion that all the horses on Mumbai roads are mistreated. “Taking care of a horse involves a lot of money and I am an honest, responsible owner. I take good care of my horses,” he says.

Kasim, another carriage owner, cannot think of another source of income. “I have always been a carriage driver. I have no other skills. And no one from the government has contacted us for rehabilitation,” he says.

With less than a year in business, the Victorias are busy making the most of Mumbai’s enthusiasm for joyrides. paul noronha

Been there, done that Tourists aboard a Vicc

Uneasy calm Kasim, like every other carriage

BL

shoot

saturday, july 25, 2015

Fading out Once a mode of transport, Mumbai’s carriages have been reduced to offering merely joyrides for locals and tourists alike

cctoria on Marine Drive

A ride, anyone? Waiting for customers outside Taj Mahal Palace at Gateway of India

e owner in Mumbai, has to let go of his horse within a year

Beastly burden Activists demand a ban on horse-drawn carriages

ND-X _ A

13

cover watch

saturday, july 25, 2015

BL

14 10

Parliamentary punch up Beyond rehab Amy Winehouse was happiest simply makingastunes cord conversations. It is almost if the last 14 ap/matt dunham; (below)

months did not happen. reuters / luke macgregor Sample a few darts from Chidambaram on the day of the launch of ‘Skill India’. “National Skill Development Mission will be relaunched. I repeat, re-launched by the PM under a new name. Should we applaud?” Chidambaram then said that the mission was originally launched in August 2010 and its flagship scheme, STAR, in August 2013. He added that 35 lakh persons have already been trained under the programme. “A successfulFielder-Civil mission and is being reweeks before her death, where she isAfter booedaoff ex-husband the press long time, the Blake Tomorrow will the be the stage by irate fans after refusingprincipal to sing. opposition onslaught. Inlaunched. tracing a definite narrative, ‘Achche Din’!” he quipped.

We see her on July 23, 2011, in a body bag, being film the often loses sight of what these people party is setting Impossible it may the carried out of the Camden home where meant to the singer herselfasand theseem, role they agendashe for discussion credit for this change in atmowas once happy. played in her art.

In showing her as the victim, and debate in goes to the Rahul Gandhi.

Over the unhappy years, her beit spherics takes away from agency the Parliament Since his two-month haviour became erratic, her singer herself mustsabbatical have exin the middle budget sesappearance more hagercised of inthe moulding her sion, theown Congress vice-presigard and she lost the life. Most of all, dent’s drivethe to infuse fighting joy in the thing she music atakes secspirit into his somnolent party is slowly bearonce did best, “maond place to the ining fruit. After a long time, the kin’ tunes”. The nerprincipal demonsoppothat sition party is setting the agendathem. for documentary produced discussion and debate in Parliament. highlights the And so, instead almost absurd of serving as a Gloves off expectations therapeutic A spate of corruption scandalsoutlet, against promipeople had of it benent BJP leaders — Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhaher professioncomes just anra Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Ramanvehicle Singh ally, as well as other — have come in handy at a most the callous disfor opportune her time. More importantly, the Congress has regard for her self-destruction. shed its inclination towards understatement health and generDespite this, we — associated with the reserve diffidence of al well-being. A mudo and witness the glitManmohan Singh and party sician with a midas teringpresident magic of Sonia those Gandhi. Rahul Gandhiearly is showing touch, she had the abilidays a—surprising raw and talent for martial arts in politics. ty to turn even the most magnetic.

You get the sense Ever ready for bout,isthe BJP entered the painful real-life experiences into thata here music that harks arena with allback gunsto blazing, seemingly free of song-writing gold. A feature that the golden age of jazz constraints of being in power.

Although also lent her songs an aching vulwhile expressing the concerns of Withoutthe Amy thethere formidable of the nerability that has since become the rabble-rousing post-Brit-pop skills millennials.

Winehouse, notprovided yet been the on full disher signature. More than the would be no Prime music soundAdele,Minister no Herhave spired,addiction excited and, afterpersonal a long time, seemed he has decidedly onher theown heat,life, firdrug or the track notturned only for Lady Gagaplay, and no to beithaving fun.

“You want pubto know what the ing the first salvo at his pet targets -the loss, was the unremitting with its raging highs and Lana Del Rey Government shouldjudgements do about the US Justice Gandhis. Afterwhooping about a fortnight hectoring lic glare, constant lows, butofthat of sevDepartment report on on her bribes paid to Indian by the Congress, Modi women soundedwho thewere bugle at and the demands time eral other simpoliticians?

I’lldeath. tell you — Modi should call his his friend andilarly finance minister AruninJaitley’s that led to her The disprouncomfortable their friend ‘Barack’.

He should memorial function week in portionate attention on herget life,all the docu- father-in-law’sown skin, longing forlast a time and ments than he wants.

After all, they areclaimed friends.her.

On age Jammu with their his trademark comment the rather her music, eventually beyond own. Without Amy on Winefirst name terms,” he Asif saidKapadia’s sarcastically. “son-in-law”.

Thanksbetono him, thisnoreference is This is where I feel documen- house, there would Adele, Lady Gaga It is notwrongs just Sibal. all his morenosynonymous tary also her,Almost in much the colleagues same way and Lana Del Rey.these days with Priyanka — Anand Sharma, Salman Khurshid, husband Vadra than Atal Bithat the frenetic tabloid coverage had.Ghulam It is too Gandhi’s So for Amy’s sake,Robert what I will take away from Nabi Azad, Jairam even the Too onceeager reti- the harifilm Vajpayee’s son-in-law Ranjan Bhattaeager to paint her Ramesh, in a certain light. is not the story of her fame or the tragcent Chidambaram — are readying for a edy charya.

This by brazening out to tellPthe story of her tragedy.

The film often of her life,was butfollowed the gloriousness of her mufight. the Theysensation are commenting in thepost-facto editorial sic theand Congress’s accusations and the media ongives of presenting the genius of her craft. pages of newspapers, addressing confer- slaught while simultaneously mounting a evidence for an already foregonepress conclusion. chakravarty is a recent the historyOpposition graduate ences, tweeting, posting on Facebook and, yes, amrita counter-offensive targeting Blame is apportioned, explicitly and implicitSt Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a music writer being their most entertaining selves in off-releaders. ly, between her father Mitch Winehouse, her from

You know I’m no good

After watching the Amy Winehouse biopic, a young fan says she’d rather celebrate the power of her music than obsess about the tragedy of her life

E

ND-X _ A

ver felt like you missed out on a phenomenon, the kind that visits every generation, encapsulating the cultural zeitgeist in one iconic figure?

This is what I felt while watching Amy: The Girl Behind the Name, having come to her music and her legacy too late.

Parallels have been drawn between Asif Kapadia’s previous biopic Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, released earlier this year. Both have as their subject artistes whose careers registered meteoric rises as well as ignominious falls; a life of superstardom thrust on personalities who were ill-prepared for it, invariably leading to dependence on drugs and a downward spiral. The story is bleak and painfully familiar. And yet, this is the story that we already know. For me then, what makes Amy such a compelling trip down memory lane is not ‘The Girl Behind the Name’ — a figure on whom more reckless speculation could only do more Punctured balloon Ever ready for a bout, the BJP strides harm into Parliament matching a scam for athe scammusician, v sudershan than good — but rather the meticulous songwriter, and that voice of melancholy.

This, I realise, is an unusual takeaway from a film that is calculated to be a story of the victimisation of a public figure. The years following the release of her multi-Grammy Award winning album Back to Black (2006) were also the ones that saw the destruction of Winehouse as an artiste. A turbulent early life, before the Lokparents Sabha elecmarkedometime by the divorce of her and tionneglect, results led were last year, emotional toannounced an equally tumultua few reporters were exchanging ous adulthood and a toxic marriage to thenotes love at Blake the Congress headquarters when of her life, Fielder-Civil.

Kapil strode in. Pulling a chair next to We Sibal see Amy at the beginning of the film, me, he declared: “I won’ttospare these people singing ‘Happy Birthday’ a close friend, her [Narendra Modi].

I will fight them Parliavoice holding onlookers in thrall.

Sheinwas just ment I win, outside if I at lose whichgigs, is most 14.

Weifsee herorperforming various relikely.” But in theand months thatshows followed, the cording sessions television around spirited lawyer’s fervour was submerged by the release of her debut album, Frank, in 2003. his see party’s despair.

The Congress We her collective in 2006, having turned a corner had lost thea will to help fight.from producer Mark and, with little Cut toturning earlier this eve broken of the monRonson, the week, piecesthe of her relasoon session of Parliament.

Sibal,ofthis time, tionship into Back to Black — music an exquiwas sadness, seated atas the podium inresilience. the AICC briefing site also an odd We see room address press conference.

Hein was inher attoher final aconcert in Belgrade 2011,

Q R

This monsoon session in Parliament promises to be the toughest political battle yet, as the Congress flexes its muscles and the BJP readies for a fight

Q

S

R

BL

watch cover

saturday, july 25, 2015

Accordingly, the BJP is unearthing more skeletons in the Congress’s closet while its floor managers are at their combative best in Parliament. Scam for a scam is the motto. Given the BJP’s impulse for aggression, the counter-offensive is no less trenchant than the newfound belligerence of the Congress’s strategy. And the Gandhis make for a pretty target.

“Rahul Gandhi says he will not allow even an inch of farmland to be acquired. I wonder which land he was referring to — the 3,000 bighas that his brother-in-law stole in Rajasthan, or the thousands of acres he has acquired in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh?” said BJP spokesperson and newly-elected Rajya Sabha MP MJ Akbar. His target was not Rahul Gandhi or Robert Vadra but the less-glamorous former chief minister of Goa Digambar Kamat. Kamat is at the helm of one of the new scandals the BJP is keen to rake up.

It follows from a US Justice Department report that indicted a New Jersey-based construction management firm, Louis Berger, that paid

Dissent in the house ‘Lalit Modi is prospering with the blessings of Narendra Modi’ reads a placard held in front of Rajiv Pratap Rudy pti/tv grab

port to coal scam-accused Santosh Bagrodia.

The Government’s hopes rest with the perennial weathercocks in Parliament — the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Biju Janata Dal, Trinamool Congress et al. Comforting noises made by SP’s various leaders, especially Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother Ram Gopal Yadav on the SheLand aboutAcquisition town Stencil Act, raised hopes in the treasury benches of isolatwork in Kolkata as part of the project was by even ing the Congress. The‘Missing’ Prime art Minister Leena Kejriwal seen holding handsphotographer with the SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, signalling a future bailout.

But things do not always go according to plan on the floor of the House, especially when a section is determined to disrupt proceedings. Sample the extreme caution with which the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan proceeded on the second day: “Mananiya sadasyo, mein apna prastav rakhoon, usse pehle ek nivedan hai ki sadan mein is prakar se kaale jhande dikhana ya kaali patti bandhna uchit nahin hai. Aap sab jaante hain. (Before I start with the resolution, I would like to urge all of you to take into consideration the fact that wearing black badges and showing black he stands etched against the skyline, a flags is not appropriate. It should not be done shadow of a girl-next-door. She could within the Parliament precincts).” be anyone: A homemaker, student, Despite the warnings, the Congress MPs doctor, lawyer, teacher or sex worker. wore black badges and waved placards, placIt isspirit theaseverydayness of Arun this Jaitley shadow Act two Rahul Gandhi has infused his party with a new fighting Sushma Swaraj and give that as good as they get rajeev batt; (top) ap/manish swarup; kamal narang ing them strategically next to the Speaker’s makes you relate to her. This shadow is, in fact, chair for the benefit of TV cameras. “Bada Modi symbolic of a black hole into which, metaphorically, millions of girls disappear when the Leader of the House, Yechury summed up Meharbaan to chhota Modi Pehalwan (Lalit bribes to win contracts in Goa and Assam, they are trafficked sexCongress. workers. The party al- the situation well: “Why is the Minister inter- Modi is prospering with the blessings of Naboth states ruled byasthe willmore soon“revelations” be dotted with largechief cut- rupting?… Serious allegations have come rendra Modi),” read one placard. “You stop it… so Kolkata promises about outs of this woman’, as part of the against the Minister for External Affairs, and You can’t show placards. I will take disciplinministers in ‘shadow Congress-ruled states — UttarakpublicHimachal art project ‘Missing’ by photographer hand, Pradesh, Kerala, Assam et al. against the chief ministers of some states. We ary action,” the Speaker said. Her threat of Leena Kejriwal, who has since 2010 worked as are asking the government of the day — let “disciplinary action” irritated those from the Left parties A proposed the Mumbai Kejriwal who had not yet an installation New game plan artist with an interest in gen- there be a installation high-levelagainst enquiry.

And, onskyline that ba- BJD, TMC and theLeena joined the Congress. “Is this a der issues.

The initial election euphoria dulled the BJP’s sis, till the enquiry is over, let parliamentary democracy or The project intends to create awareness Kejriwal has managed to or raise 55 per cent of that was emotive and evocative.

“I had reflexes in the past year. Even a routine activity these people demit office they I have myexpress rights.myself, Don’t across cities and some of the had confirmed sites are the funds to fabricate the artwork and thought aboutnot? using walls to like holding media briefings been abanto be needed removed from office. threaten me.toArrest for viofor the in installation are Raahgiri in New Delhi’s take itthey to different “I had initially ap- but India it’s very hard createme longstanddoned the first three Parliament sessions af- When [the BJP]cities. were sitting Impossible as itinmay privilege,” shouted the Connaught and Park pealed houses fund theseem, project ing artfor projectlating on public walls as they are used ter Modi wasPlace sworn inGurgaon, as PM. Butand theEco party is here in to thecorporate Opposition; andto when the credit CPI(M)’s Mohammed Salim. in Kolkata.

Theofartist is scouting for spaceapin the but Leader decidedofthat shouldtoday be for various purposes and are ofclearly aware the need for a different theitHouse this change in The situation Mumbai,A Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderafor the and the peodefaced upon.suits Thenthe I hitConupproach. daily briefing schedule has been re- was the people Leader of thebyOpposition; atmospherics goes to ten gress just sky 44 bad, Guwahati, Dhanbad andhave Ahmedabad. ple,” when she says. on theimmensely. idea of usingWith the blue instituted and the big guns been pulled and the Leader of OpposiRahul Gandhi MPs the Lok Sabha, it has alBased outArun of Kolkata, Kejriwal ‘Missing’ is also collaboratas myincanvas.” out.

Besides Jaitley giving on-has andalways off-re- tion today was a Minister in the In India it’s hard to most the Land Acbeen briefings, interestedall in the lives of thein women who then ing with Rotary for its this Rotary Theensured rest wasthat easy.

She braincord ministers the ParliaGovernment, from very create longstanding quisition Rehabilitation and live in theAffairs city’s Ministry Kalighat — red area.Naidu, “Since place, Teach I supported Child Welfare stormed with a group of girls mentary Mlight Venkaiah the thenproLeadart project on public Resettlement 2007,Pratap I have been voluntary work — as—a er gramme and is being who belong to the(Amendment) various NGOs Rajiv Rudy doing and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi of Opposition whenfunded he said walls... I hit upon not has see worked the lightwith, of day, not at Rotarian and as correspondents a photographerin—the with the that through Wishberry, where Kej-is not a substi- Bill, 2015 will she alongside are in touch with Parliaa discussion in the House the idea ofleast using in this session.

And although it is apparwomen and girlsAdditionally, from the Kalighat area.

In tute riwalfor aims to raise ₹16 lakh in Ruchira Gupta (Founder and ment precincts. a formal briefinvestigation.” the blue sky as of other important legislafact,ismy book Kolkata Repossessing the City was 60The days (by Julycertainly 31) for the in- it is time to ently supportive President of Apne Aap Women ing held every day by a senior leader.

Congress believes my canvas the Goods and really the take-off point for my interest, which stallations and a mobile andServices adviser Tax to Bill the Despite such rigorous preparations, the return the favour.

For theapplifirst time since the tions such as Worldwide a day for its discussion and trafpasfinally ledday meoftothe this project,” she cation. of “The app hasReservation been Government on human opening session lived upsays. to the Con- passage the Women’s Bill in the and may allowUS to loseAsif curator other bills suchexas The book grewofinto an artwork Kejri- Rajya designed to make it more interficking).

Merali gress’s promise a “thunder andwhen lightning” Sabha in 2010, Sonia Gandhi showed sage, it has little Corruption (Amendment) Bill, wal began ideating with curator Shaheen Mer- signs active.ofPeople onanimation social media “The work of artist Leena show during the monsoon.

With the Mahila genuine in the Parliament Prevention of plains, Whistleblowers Protection (Amendali on a series of aart exhibitions that revolved can interact withwere the artwork, sign Kejriwal is part of a greater body of work unMorcha leading demonstration, it was clear precincts.

“What you doing forpetitions the past 2013, Bill,by 2015 etc, do passed.

The govaround the issue ofwould trafficking.

Over the past so andmany extend the boundaries ofthe what consid- ment) dertaken artists in not the get global context... to that little business be transacted unless years,” she asked, as BJPisaccused ernment will lose face to and suffer a dent in its decade she wasVasundhara involved with exhibitions eredparty art and activism,”away she says. enable a wider society communicate.”

Sushma Swaraj, Raje and Shivraj her of “running from debate”. has ended paralysis. such asChouhan ‘When Violence Becomes Decadent’the at Kejriwal’s research had was uncovered some Overthat theitnext three policy months, the ‘Missing’ Singh resigned.

Predictably, Accordingly, no business transacted in claim Thewill BJP loom is clearly at itsand toughest chalthe Freies Museum Berlin, ‘I saw which shocking — there are day. reportedly three girls intostaring our view, consciousmost intelligent intervention camethat from Sita- the Rajya figures Sabha on the first Proceedings in Parliament had remained in Tehran, and ‘Entropmillionon trafficked women in India, and 1.2 mil- lenge ness, across cities. since it came to power. ram Yechury ofunseen’ the CPI(M) in the Rajya Sabha. began the second day with Sushma Swaraj ic Sites’ at the Shrineand Empire. lion of themtoare youngthe girls.

She wanted to As Anand Sharma Ghulam Nabi Azad of threatening expose Congress MP who joshi is a Delhi-based art writer georgina maddox ‘Missing’ projectwith is crowd-funded, and was translate this information into something theThe Congress jousted Arun Jaitley, now “pressing” her to give a diplomatic pass- poornima

Girl, cut out

The ‘shadow woman’ will loom against city skylines in a public art project about the girls who have lost their lives to sex work

S

Q Q R R

ND-X _ A

11 15

read know

BL BL 168

saturday, july 25,25, 2015 saturday, july 2015

STATES OF MATTER

Lying analyst’s A dealon thatanraised hellcouch With heft and gravitas, Coetzee a self-help bookacclaim that addresses the Israel’stypical querulous reaction to aJM nuclear dealconjures that hasup won wide-spread underlines big of life howquestions far removed it is from world opinion

sukumar muralidharan

In a fact-sheet produced to order, AIPAC identified five minimum requirements that had not been met in the deal. Among these were the failure to enforce a regime of ‘anytime, anywhere’ inspections. The template Israel had in mind was undoubtedly the punishing regime that the US and UK — with the UN Security Council in mute acquiescence — imposed on Iraq through the 1990s. It was a disarmament agenda that scarcely masked intent to secure regime change, leading inexorably to the invasion of 2003.

US Republicans remain unrepentant but Democrats are visibly suffering buyer’s rescript therapeutic session.

On more than morse.ofAasecond ground advanced

by AIPAC one occasion,the Coetzee into play his perfor rejecting deal isbrings its ostensible failure to sonal experiences.

Hecome talks clean aboutonhis in insist that Iran ‘must itslife prior South nuclearAfrica work.’and Australia. He recounts memories of his the childhood if that weren’t Here again, record ofand inspections by the enough to please Freudian conspiracy theoInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rists, even makes mention his mother. paintshe a rather different picture.ofMost such inTraces of Freud, though,declarations are hardly impercepspections have followed of intent tible. can benuclear found fuel rightcycle through The

by IranThey to pursue activities Good Oedipus, forthe instance, as it isStory. entitled to under Nuclear becomes Non-Procontentious much afterThe Coetzee has of delivered liferation Treaty (NPT). response the UN this pithyCouncil, line — “Oedipus both the owner of Security which isexercises ultimate the buriedon past anddecisions, the detective.” oversight IAEA has been to seIn Kurtz, Coetzee ally who verely abridge Iran’sclearly rights.finds Heavyanwater procan match rigour of his intellect.

But more duction, forthe instance, though not classified as Playing the danger card It was the pivot to the extreme right that transformed a losing position into victory for Benjamin Netanyahu reuters significantly, her evident engagement litan activity subject to NPT safeguards,with is now john t takai/shutterstock erature allows for a rather under strict monitoring inrare Iran.brand of literary Another criticism.

Together, they according discuss the ostensible omission, to he‘historic first author to have won thePrime Man kind mistake’ — Israeli truth that would meet the criteria of possible weirdofdiatribe more strident in its Islamapsychology which the works Israeli security briefings, is informs the covert Parchin Booker JM Netanyahu’s Coetzee didn’t Ministertwice, Benjamin re- the courtroom; therecent truth, the whole truth, phobic tone than appearances at and the of Nathaniel Sebald, Fyodor military base,Hawthorne, southeast ofWG Tehran, “suspected once upJuly to pick up his prize. actionshow to the 14 agreement be- nothing butAssembly. the truth?”

UN General The emergence of the Is- Dostoevsky and others. launches into of being the centre of Coetzee Iran’s secret nuclear For someone so avowedly tween Iran and six worldreclusive, powers lamic All through this book, truth, for Coetzee, ap- his State militia as a malevolent new presanalysis of Dostoevsky’s Thea Possessed by weapons programme”.

This is clear distorthe it turnsUnion out, iswas quite the conversaplusauthor, the European brusque and bit- pears to the be aWest preoccupation of sorts.

He starts ence in Asian region did not make saying, in the therapeutic tion. As“Anyone recordedinvolved in the agency’s report of tionalist.

2013, Here and Now made ter. ThereReleased were no in surprises there, nor in the by Kurtz about why therapists Iranquestioning a potential ally of the west, he said.

There process read Dostoevsky March 8,ought 2006, ittowas given access to closely.” the Parpublic theofletters that the Israel NobelPublic laureate had force spectacle the American Affairs be veracious.

He makes a case was apatients ‘deadlytogame of thrones in play,’ in Kurtz’s deconchin sitesubsequent in Novemberpsychoanalytic the previous year.

The exchanged American author Paul known Auster. for Committeewith (AIPAC), a powerful lobby an “empowering that allow which there would befiction” ‘no place forcould America or struction proves that any she has moreactivities than done IAEA “did not observe unusual in Kafka, typewriters, baseball — allcareers, made for ce- patients to make and unmake political stepto no feelpeace good about themselves, allow- her homework. for Israel, for ChrisThere are alsovisited.” occasions when the buildings And an rebral andthe atnuclear long last, ping upentertainment, with vows to kill dealthe in ing them to work and love better. tians, Jews or Muslims who Kurtz seems to be goading Coetanalysis of numerous environbook Coetzee fans a rare glimpse in- Thoroughly the USprovided Congress. professional even don’t share the Islamist mediezee into samples talking about his indiown mental “did not to The the private of a literary icon who had fi-a when Arms life Control Association (ACA), not in her therapist’s chair, val creed.’ work, but presence unfortunately he selcate the of nuclear As he sketched a nally let his DC-based guard down.

A little Washington expert body,more had athan dif- Kurtz patient Coetzee’s This iswas a clearwith overture to dom risesattothose the bait. material locations.”

If you happen to be scenario of mortal two years later, theThe writer again betrays his prodding. ferent assessment. comprehensive agreeAdmitting that “itinis reading the book with the most extreme elements The GoodAIPAC’s Story cannot bethat deFinally, worry is danger to Israel, predilection for stimulating discussions.

In the US ment, it declared, “would verifiably block taskand of Israel. psychoanalysis to try Then facing a scribed lightnot reading the dealasdoes meet by theany rea pencil in hand, it is Netanyahu reached for the recently published The Good Story,developCoetzee to Iran’s pathways to nuclear weapons tellelectoral the deepest she tense battle truth,” at home, measure, but if your appreciaquirement that “Iran’s nuclear impossible to put it Biblical analogies and finds interlocutor in consulting ment.”an When implemented, it would beclinical “a net adds that pinned psychoanalysis Netanyahu his hopesdoes on tion of Coetzee borders on adoweapons’ quest must be down.

Sentences invoked a sinisteron psychologist Arabella Kurtz. Unlike the playful plus for non-proliferation and (would) en- not to befanatical fixed. She the assume loyalty truth of the ration, gratifying to see him blockedit isfor decades.”

This is almost every other Persian viceroy’s plot banter Auster, however, Coetzee now hance USwith and regional security.” At a public fo- says that the which her right-wing that‘truth’ is now maindiscuss a stray Jonathan Franclear misrepresentation, since page deserve to be against the Jewish seems to have weightierthe matters rum two days considerably later — coincidentally 70th version of Israel. psychotherapy stream in As pollsis zen articleofand a Juliette Bithe intent the deal is to compeopleunderlined from two-andsuch as truth, fiction psychotherapy on based anniversary of the firstand nuclear test in the New onhe “iswarned always dynamic, proneared, about a sinnoche was pletely speech. eliminate(Coetzee the plutonia-half millennia back his mind.

Mexico desert — the ACA head described the visional and intersubjective.”

The ister leftist conspiracy to deimpressed withtothea actress’s um pathway nuclear Though the prospectthe of the author promulagreement as “among most complex and psychologist’s explanations are pose him, before playing his confession that preferred weapon and cutshe uranium engating his views mind’sage.” workings is en- lucid. consequential ofon thethe nuclear Sheand explains final card vowing to thatCoetzee a Palthe relationship withby herover direc-a richment capacity ticing, Goodof Story demonstrates On a The mission reassurance to Tel Coetzee’s Aviv, Brit- that we can only fully understand estinian state would never be our chang- tor to be an erotic thirdone.) for an entire decade. If curiosity more than his erudition.

At different ish foreign secretary Phil Hammond was ber- ing selves through others and our experiences there reality under his watch.

If you to bebyreading the book with is happen a breakout Iran after that — anda points, and defends the notion ated by he hisattacks hosts for suggesting that Israelthat was with them.

It was that pivot to the extreme right that pencil hand, it isto impossible to put down. there isinno reason believe there willit be — it “the stories about ourselves opposed to we anytell manner of a deal.may Andnot to be transformed An unpredictable self-confessed a losingCoetzee, position ainto victory.

Sentences everytoother pagematerial deserve would takeon atalmost least a year produce true, but they are allamply we have”.

The exchanges fair, Netanyahu had forewarned that no “trader fictions”, put soontogether changes atack.

He to WheninNetanyahu narrow be underlined.

At one point, for instance, sufficient for one explosive device. between him and Kurtz dwell not entirelysovon goes deal which preserved a vestige of Iranian on to longing foritthe majority inconfess Israel’s aparliament, was“one withand an Coetzee writes, “The past, individual or collecThe insistence on blocking Iran’s capacities the narratives novelist imagines, but more ereignty woulda be acceptable, brazenly wad- only truth”.

His subsequent question to Kurtz tive, alliance anchored firmly in the most reactionis always messier and is more complicated for unspecified ‘decades’ an accurate baon a patient might makeand to even ing the intoconfessions political partisanship in March seems a touch adversarialakin — “Do ther- than ary ideological commitments, in many any account we can give of it.” By tackling rometer of how long Israel intends to deny his therapistthe orUS onCongress a story heinora she might inaddressing deliberate af- apist and patient nowadays agree trade on- concepts ways to dominant elements in the to Republican such as rights. truth, guilt, sympathy and Palestinians their vent to get by. Guided byinvestment their com- ly frontin to order President Barack Obama’s inin fictions?”

Kurtz deflects Coetzee’s memory Party the US. head state’s on, Coetzee have givThe Zionist angryand andKurtz querulous remon in theinterest talks. in human nature, experience exasperation with afraternity fitting case study and In this ideological lies Israel’s last en theirtoreaders thedeal script of has a dialogue that action a nuclear that won almost and Coetzee and Kurtz busydanger them- says, Aslanguage, he sketched a scenario of mortal aim in psychotherapy is toreactions help the can hope“The of keeping Iran down. First be enriching.

The headline just above should unanimous acclaim underlines how far it selves with questionsreached that seem once comto Israel, Netanyahu for at Biblical anal- patient fill in parts of aCapitol puzzle,Hill which is their from kindred souls on did not dis- perhaps beworld revised.

‘Nobel winner co-authors is adrift of opinion. mon instance, asks, puzzle ogiesand anddifficult. invoked Coetzee, a sinisterfor Persian viceroy’s — the is their mind.” appoint.

Butpuzzle then, that as various complexities self-help book.’ Now that is the good story.

“When I tell other people the story my life ... dawned, plot against the Jewish people fromof two-and-aWith Coetzee as the primary The sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer, they retreated into questioner, sullen silence, nevatia researcher based in Gurgaon and Shimla should I be neutral, tell a Good half millennia back.objective, He thenstriving seguedtointo Story sometimes feela strategy. like the tran- shreevatsa leaving it todoes AIPAC to work out

T A

Q

The Good Story: Exchanges on truth, fiction and psychotherapy JM Coetzee & Arabella Kurtz Harvill Secker Non-fiction ₹599

R R

ND-X _ A

read talk

saturday, july 25,25, 2015 saturday, july 2015

Changed landscapes A large pond created by excessive stone PRESENT IMPERFECT mining in Pakur, where I now work; the sun rises over Ghatsila

Why I won’t read Go Set a Watchman

hansda sowvendra shekhar

The Mockingbird sequel feeds the ‘what’s next’ obsession of the current market

HOME SPUN

Not just one

Give me more Posters by eager fans at Monroeville — the Alabama town made famous

by Harper Lee’s Pulitzer-winning book — on the day of the release of Go Set a Watchman

I wrote my book in one place, but another inspired it. For me, three different sites in Ghatsila ap/andrea mabry subdivision, Jharkhand, are home

hansda sowvendra shekhar

IH

read To Kill a Mockingbird when I was 10. not just another book by Lee, but one that was have churned out so many sequels that they My father worked in a public sector fertil- set in the same place and dealt with the same are now filming prequels. This obsession is iser company andgrown we lived aving up in inthe twotownplaces characters.

— and reading Ten days ago, The Guardian books.

It was in thispublishhouse thatmost I years acutely demonstrated the virtual of my life under theby watchful eye of my ship — attending Ghatsilathe andcompany Chakulia,school, both in East ed the first chapter.

Despite athat gnawing first felt the happiness comescuriosfrom havstand-off of Game of Thronesand have had me pishi,that whofans taught me Santhali raised playing at the company club, praying at the ity, Singbhum district of Jharkhand — I couldn’t bring myself to read15,it.and a junior in ing a work published.

I was with with its author, In the six to stories,George songs RR andMartin. anecdotes.

I used company temple.

Thereis were never enough ‘Where your hometown?’ is a dif- In school the lasttold week, Go Sethad a Watchme the my book, short story been pubyearsspot that Martin took between and constellations with the myfourth grandparents things to do, and there never enough ficult question for mewas to answer.

Naming just man,lished has released across the world and, how- the fifth in The Asian Age. volume, “fans” were impatient to the is during my summer vacations.

Kishoripur money toplace do them.

It was during the summer one becomes a task saddled with responever hard try, itwas is fairly misseight Myyou school in impossible Mosaboni, to some pointwhere of being abusive. is this loutish sense I edited The ItMysterious Ailment of Rupi holidays — two seemingly months of sibility.

Which place doendless I acknowledge?

Which the details.

The most one, of is of entitlement kilometres to theawful south-east of course, Moubhandar. readers andit out viewers demonBaskey before sending into the world. It heat one andplace humidity — that, bored out of my that Atticus do I name? lawyerand who so bravelyloved It was inFinch, greenthe foothills, I absolutely stratewas that publisher of Watchman is feedthethe model for Kadamdihi, where my novel mind, IMy asked my father if Iincould readcompany some- in parents worked a copper defended a black man accused of time, Mosaboni is set. ing right into. the rains in Mosaboni.

At that thingGhatsila. from hisThe library.

Mockingbird wascalled nearest factory is in a place Moubraping a white woman, is actualseemed more evolved and intellectually supeTo my up mind, reading, at its Having grown in at least two places, to him.

I readwhere it all summer.

I My handar, I spent aAnd longeven partthough of my life. ly norior beacon of racial equality. to Moubhandar.

Many officers stayed in which are core, is 40km an actapart, of creation, not to about I find it unfair had no idea lived of America’s history and did— the family in five race different quarters On the contrary,there he is were a segregaMosaboni; numerous bungalows name only consumption. is not the sum ofHere, one place asItmy hometown.

To my mind, reading, not even aboutto things I didn’t first wonder three allotted my father, theunderlast two to tionist, one who wasgardens, even partmurum of with sprawling (gravel) drive- the administrative letters adding upJharkhand to words, map of helps. at its core, is an act stand,my I loved the—book. thought of it as the a clanways, mother and I Ihave enduring memories similar the Ku Klux Klan. and andtoFrench windows; words adding upMoubhandar to sentences and Kishoripur, of creation adventures of Jem, Scout andwe Dill — the of the last three houses lived in. three The reviews andofopinions a number clubs as are well.pilWhile and Mosaboni paragraphs.

Reading is the belong to three differchildren infather’s the book.

My quarter was a two-bedroom flat ing up by the second, with travelling to school inmost the bus, craftent of etching images from blocks:the Chakulia, Ghatsila, Theonfollowing summer, I read it again.

I unthe first floor of a two-storeyed block by the criticism written pained we talked inby Hindi; butreadthe mothe words.

It is not just the read- All and Mosaboni, respectively.

Kishoripur is where derstood it a little better.

I read it the year I of Subarnarekha river. That particular stretch ers whose favourite book Mosabowas ment the bus entered er’s these task to provide a third blocks belong to thedi-same everyone who came turned and then 13 and then, asboiler I Mockingbird, the12riverbank was used as caught a dumpupfor suggesting that Watchman is not mension to the story, ni, we switched to English. it is her privilege. subdivision: Ghatsila.

So, By whenbefore me was born; was in a from ritualthe of my ownImaking, I read the ash factory. still remember women as goodThe a story. heyday of Mosaboni has having Lee tell meever what to asked think where of Scout, Jem I am I am from, I where under the bookcoming every summer I left ash home at 17. gool Thevanished. in hordesuntil to collect to make quality ofAllthethe story really isn’t what’s and Atticus beyond mines have pages of Mockingbird, saythe‘Ghatsila’, knowing inI my watchful eye of my Each (fuel year, for I thought, the book grew of bigger. clay ovens consisting cow Idung bothering me. My first is with shut down and it quibble has become a the fact am denied the privilege of owning heart that when the I sayimages Ghatsila I pishi I learnt Santhali was certain I wasash).

Scout when I would was 10.arrive At 14, laden I that ghost and boiler Dumpers publishing town,Watchman which theendorses copper the sad in my head and doing what them. mean theI please three with places where I fell inwith love,ash, rather withtilted Atticus.

At truthcompany andinnocently, as the carriers backwards that the world has beenover reduced has handed to to one The worst thinghave about living grown up.in the time of 16, prissy, judgemental, berat- and and sheltered unloaded,and women would Ishout where insatiable consumerism trumps quali- Watchman is havingTalking the government of Jharkhand. to acknowledge of homes,that for the last ed myself for having “those thoughts” about a with scramble, with their arms open, fighting ty artThe andonce literature.

That bybungagiving readers time of Mockingbird awe-inspiring is years, well and truly past. in I Pathree I have worked man one withanother children, so what if Decades he was later, wid- that for their share.

Watchman, the publishers (and Lee’s managlows are vacant and broken, or have been takread kur that—book again againGhatsila, because in there nearly 500 and km from the Sanowed.sight It was only decades of women jostling later, on thewith bankthe of the ers) are catering toCRPF. the self-involved “what’s en over by the An entire club, including weren’t others.

Mockingbird tellsSomehow, of a thalmany Pargana division of Jharkhand. grudging acceptance thatfind no its one is into as they Subarnarekha would way my writnext”its obsession of the “market”.

We now—occuhuge playground and airy halls where art timePakur when seems thingscloser were so that every lit-Ghattoscarce Darjeeling than to seem,ing. least of all ownthe self, that I realised Now, ofyour course, company has found py a pop-culture which is built on se-were exhibitions universe and events of high culture tle thing was precious,I was when the smallest sila! If in Ghatsila known becauseofof my that through all those readings the dwindling book had forother places to dump ash. The quels.held No successful is anything lesscamp! than indulgences — has beenbook turned into a CRPF to befar meticulously sought parents, had in Pakur, away from my parents remained buthassomehow I had tune ofthe the same, company damaged that partica trilogy.

No successful movie willmother’s not havesecond a and carefully I became a writer in my treasured. most things we- of and family, I am myWhen only referee.

Each home changed.

Kill a Mockingbird wasisnot merely a part two. ular To stretch of road, which now overgrown MyI daughter, who is nine years old,main house. lived in this bungalow by the ren’tmine made—inwhether China — in easy to acquire, to ParKolhan or theeasier Santhal book,with it was ferns.a marker of time, of lessons and road who in hasMoubhandar grown up in ecosystem for this 10 years.

The Mystedispose. is the ganaMockingbird — has helped meultimate grow as arendition person. Each learned,I grew of a life lived. bungalow. as agradually reader inbeing my mother’s which consistently thatwas more is more, rious Ailment ofbelieves Rupi Baskey written in that of a time possessions few, but poshomewhen of mine is specialwere to me.

SixI months ago,forI was shocked I first by lived there about 17 years,when surrounded assumes theIdefault for a film to have house, signed option my contract withisAleph there.sibilities It’s dreadful to contem(Inwere this endless. monthly column, authors chronicle the heardthe about the existence and company’s hospital onthe oneimminent side, the factoa part two part was three,inspired all the way to platecities But and my anovel by aup different the end that innocence. theyofcall home.) publishing of south, another book Harper Lee. Asandseven ry on the and theby huge RC church a place Harryaltogether, Potters. TVnamely shows come back seaKishoripur, the vilt@veenavenugopal hansda sowvendra shekhar is a medical officer details emerged, theblock new book, it on seemed, wasInsuthree-storeyed of flats the west. son after And Superhero franchises lage ofseason. my ancestors. lated, and with no river to stare at, I spent my Kishoripur is where everyone who came be- with the government of Jharkhand and the author of time pretending to teach imaginary students, fore me was born; where I spent the first three The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey

Q Q R R

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

ND-X _ A

9 17BL BL

work read

BL BL 186

saturday, july 25,25, 2015 saturday, july 2015

Revolution@25kmph It’s about time A collection of essays that asserts being childfree is not about choosing a Porsche over a kid, Halfway between the ubiquitous bicycle and pricier motorcycles, electric vehicles are slowly but about finding meaning in different ways and steadily winning over the rural consumer with their affordability and fuss-free features

W

hen I told people I was reading Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids, the reactions inevitably fell into two camps. Those who exclaimed, “How interesting,” and wanted to get their hands on a copy. And those who

mous than having no children at all. We should laud this collection for underscoring the legitimacy of the childfree existence and deeming it worthy of exploration and literature. As Meghan Daum, the editor, writes in the introduction, “It is about time”. It is about time that we realised that we can live fulfilled

Society tells us that maternal and childbearing instincts are ‘natural’. Cultural critic and author of Men: Notes from an Ongoing Investigation, Laura Kipnis writes, “It is not that I think these things [maternal instinct, mother-child bonds] don’t exist; they certainly do. They exist as social conventions of womanhood at this moment in history, not as eternal conditions, because what is social is also malleable…

What we’re calling biological instinct is a historical artifact — a culturally specific development not a fact of nature…” Kipnis’ essay ‘Maternal Instincts’ forces readers to question simplistic assumptions: Do we mistake social arrangements for natural order of things?

Isn’t what is natural, susceptible to change and thus reinterpretation?

The charge most often levied against the childfree is that they are selfish and shallow.

And the one quality that binds these authors is the love for autonomy. Yes, they appreciate the unencumbered life, the uninterrupted conversation and the unlimited possibilities of travel and adventure. But unlike the Hollywood story (think While We’re Young) where happily ever afters are posited on procreation, the authors invent plots beyond clichés. A meaningful life can be one of work and writing, friends and family, and not of children.

As a society, we often mistake a desire for autonomy as a selfish choice. Pam Houston writes with eloquence that motherhood is no guarantee against selfishness and generosity cannot be ‘relegated to particular life choices’.

Lionel Shriver, of60-70km We Needafp/tosam Talk About Power ahead You don’t need a driving licence for an electric vehicle as its maximum speed does not cross 55kmph; charged overnight,author it can run panthaky Kevin, and often accused of being the Antimom, reiterates that being childfree does not very morning, in Coimbatore’s Kurulazy and lumpen path.

Quoting a As big cities embrace the convenience of ordain tric, the alargest maker of electric two-wheelers dampalayam village, more than 80 metro rails and radio cabs, villages and small friend, in India.Shriver offers advice, “I certainly don’t battery-operated vehicles go door to towns struggling without reliable and cost-ef- seeFor myOMC purpose being to perpetuate huPower’s founder and CEO,the Anant door collecting garbage. In this all- fective transport are finding an unexpected al- man race.

What makes life worth living for Raj, the electric bike is my an opportunity whose woman exercise, one woman drives the Am- ly in electric vehicles (EVs) — both me what, I think, my life timeand hasalso come.

Every home redeems in rural India hasisa pere vehicle, while another picks up the waste, two-wheeled and three-wheeled. my relationships and interactions othbicycle, which costs around ₹3,000. with A moped, neatly segregated as bio-degradable and noners, be they family, friends, lovers,upwards colleagues, on the other hand, is priced of degradable. They make a second round of col- Slow-and-steady attraction total strangers…

Whatvehicle redeemsisindividuals is ₹25,000.

An electric halfway belection in the evening. The electric vehicles are An overnight charge keeps the vehicle run- their ofsure humanity.”

Andre Gide detween,acts and is to find acceptance among charged on alternate nights,boguslaw whichmazur/shutterstock costs ₹12 ning for 60-70 km. Used daily for a 50km ride nounced families for as “those love”.

To rural customers, whommisers cost isofthe final per machine and lasts for a run of up to 50km. on average, the battery lasts almost a year. not havehechildren barrier, says. is to not concentrate your tut-tutted, a stupidtotopic for them. a book.” It and livesofwithout It isaabout No licences“What are required operate Mostcreative important all, youchildren. don’t need driv- attentions and energies on the one but to enis not surprising thatHaldwani, the unmarried and the the decision not have children be large In Uttarakhand’s Anuradha Sa- time andfrom dissipate them on the many. er’s licence for EVs to as their maximum speed Freedom petrol childfree made upher theHero former camp.bike Andevery that deemed is all the childfree ask for — The mant hops on to Electric The other of two leitmotivs book areand the does notokay. crossThat 55kmph. scarcity petrol pumpsofinthe rural areas parents the latter.

This is the25km kind theUsed freedom to choose and an morningsquatted for herinride to Pantnagar, possibilityalso of work regret and the to pedalling on dusty roads, the aver- rampant adulteration in favour of of book will serve as aGB rally callUniversity, for those acceptance (not parts a celebration) away.

A that researcher at the Pant question legacy.

Legacyon is easy age user in these is usually satisfied with electric vehicles.

“The of petrol station the foregoing parenthood, while long the distances parented of choice. perfectly she also uses her bike to travel tohighway resolve in the our case village of writers justtheir 25kmph, sayYes, domain exnear almight as idle and chatter.

This divisiveness couples might within see the itcampus to agricultural fields happy (not representative of thefuel. generperts. Bhanumathi Mani,never who ways sold adulterated It underlines thestudy. loneliness of the bike childfree. children, and some adults as part of her Her electric has freed have aldamaged population) as theyofleave besells tea to factories on the outthe engine my moWe should laud this the era of ‘modern love’, transport. when relationin their will roles of herIn from unreliable public Nor are hind a body oftowork, their skirtscontent of Coimbatore, readtorcycle, leading frequent recollection for Rural users move ships obey personal and don’t andFor uncles, does she have to worrypreferences about refuelling in an aunts words, books. course, ita ily agree. closegodmothers to 20 years pairs,”their says DP OfGupta, underscoring the within a small area, heed norms, not having is still stig- and godfathers. area where petrol pumps children are scarce. isresident not a child, but it is their child. her tea business Acronyms remained like unof Mainpuri tehsil in legitimacy of the and electric vehicles matised. (ranging PANK and as PUNK It is thisThrough sense of deeply freedompersonal and convenience Regret not oppress them, profitable she (Professional struggled to UP. Hedoes switched to an electric childfree existence very useful from the captivated tender to the smug) and often Kids and that has residents in not lesspolitithan Aunt theytwo realise that inevcover No distances on Professional her bicycle. andprove years agoregret and isismore deeming it worthy asbike for them cal essays, this book Pradesh’s enervates Hardoi that ignominy.

No Kids) show pop30 villages in Uttar district. Uncle itable, whatever choose to Until 2008 when anthat Ampere than happy withyou the decision. of literature The problem a discussion having vocabulary is finally catchFarmers, grocers,with laundrymen andon even stu- ular do or not do. And it all’in is electric bike changed the forElectricity is ‘having subsidised children not electric is that bikes parents have experiupof with times. and life. dents are or hiring from OMC Pow- ing the biggest tunes herthe business, large partsand ofmost ruraldangerous India. It enced pre-child existence, they know a life SoWhile ole’she bloke or busyer. Thea bikes, which the company charges lie of all.

Nobody has it all and much any so that managed to costs ₹5.5 to recharge a lowwithout kids. those who areare yetproving to spawn,a body dares toto ask couples why overnight at But its micro-grids, nobody Kate Christensen send her sons good colleges. speed can. (maximum 25kmph) or have wish to, have only an approximate children, reasons, as al- writes boon tono small farmers for ferrying vegetables they Thousand Other Things’, evIt isdon’t usershave like Mani and the Singh that electric scooterinto‘Arun 70km. If Gupta used a“Into petrolidea of parenthood.

This once advantage of knowl- ways, complicated andtargeting. personal.“Rural Writers and spices to the market a fortnight. void rushesinstead, something.

Nature abhors vehicleare makers in India are is ery driven vehicle his cost would be ₹70a edge bestows camp an air of here tell of damagedsegment childhoods, descents in- vacuum.”

“I get three upon times the the parent price for my produce This book tells us that being childthe most significant for us.

The users for the same ride. superiority, nay in condescension, the to depression discordant relationships. in Lucknow than Hardoi. Every 10which days I rent is about finding and making there start withand entry-level products and their free Even though the battery needspeace to bewith rechildfree must has constantly against.

Also, simply how the decision snuck up on them. a bike, which enoughrage space to load mya Or something needs are basic.

They move within a small area that placed annually,else. at a cost of about ₹12,000, an parent expressing reservations on parentthe path, they all ar- electric vehicle results in a yearly saving of vegetables for sale in Lucknow,” says farmer But and whatever electric vehicles areeventually a very useful product nair hood probably considered more blasphe- rive at the ‘place of choosing’.

AdheerisSingh. for them,” says Sohinder Gill, CEO of Hero Elec- nandini over ₹10,000.

E

Q Q

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids Edited by Meghan Daum Picador Nonfiction ₹1,700

R

ND-X _ A

work takeaway

saturday, july 25,25, 2015 saturday, july 2015

Sweet obsessions

Plain sandesh You would have never guessed how simple it is to make

Craving Kolkata’s sandesh, a Chennai bride decides to make her own. Decades later, her recipes are compiled into a book

Hemalatha Annamalai, Founder and CEO of Ampere Vehicles k ananthan

Paneer 1 cup Sugar 1/2 cup Rose essence 2 drops

1 Grind the paneer with sugar until it turns soft but not pasty.

2 Roast this paneer mixture in a pan for 1-2 minutes.

3 Allow to cool on a plate and mash with the heel of your palm for 3-5 minutes until the mixture turns soft.

The ideal texture of sandesh is fine and grainy, almost finer than semolina.

4 Add rose essence and mix well.

5 The sandesh is now ready. You can flatten it out in a serving dish or mould it into different shapes

Baked sandesh This melt-in-the-mouth dessert is baked, without compromising on Wiring for change Electric bike manufacturers are customising models improve their utility in rural areas, texture or to taste. which is an important emerging market for them afp/ sam panthaky Almonds 25 Paneer 1 cup Milk masala 2 tbsp Condensed milk 2-3 tbsp Desiccated coconut 1/2 cup Roasted peanuts 2 tbsp, powdered Milk biscuits 2, powdered and sieved

Colour central Innovative sandesh from Indu Bokaria’s kitchen; (below) the baked version sanjeeta kk

W

1 Soak the almonds overnight. Peel and grind into a paste.

2 Add the paneer, milk masala, condensed milk and desiccated coconut to the almond paste. Mix well.

3 Arrange this mixture in a baking dish. Top with roasted peanut powder and then with the powdered biscuits.

4 Bake at 200°C for 10 minutes until the top is slightly browned. Serve hot.

hat would you associate with translated the bits that I could not follow — we fever-time food? Bread and deconstruct a few of her elaborate creations. milk, soup, soft-boiled rice. The shahi sandesh, a creation in white, pink, Would sweets ever be on that green and saffron, owes its existence to a comlist? I guess not. But speak to Indu Bokaria, and petition for inventive recipes. It calls for a Pumpkin sandesh she will tell you that her doctor in Kolkata, the complex assemblage of deep-fried canapés, The humble pumpkin rich in Stimulating profits An electric bike fetches more business forwhere tea-seller Zipadvised zap zoom Farmers,to grocers, andsandesh, even students hiring resin, electricsome bikes Sohinder Gill, CEO of HeroisElectric city she grew up, patients eat laundrymen sooji halwa, friedare edible antioxidants and beta carotene. It is Bhanumathi Mani in Coimbatore from OMC Power in more than 30 villages in Hardoi district, Uttar Pradesh the austere and innocuous sandesh, the Benga- artistry with milk masala for decoration, and the surprise element in these sandesh li sweet made of chhana or paneer. Marriage icing. There are several fruit sandeshes involvsquares. brought Bokaria to Chennai over ing figs, litchi, grapes, kiwi and White pumpkin 1, medium 40 years ago. Idlis, said the mango. I try the baked sandSandesh 1 cup (see recipe at the Yet another of EVs is the near-ze- cusing on reducing doctor, when advantage she fell sick, andam improving the electric-bike eshcosts — and happy with rentals, currently ontop) a trial basis, 1 cupdepending or as per taste ro Petrol engines have life of the vehicle for butmaintenance she refused tocost. comply.

Ampere is litin- at Sugar theend-users. result. There’s very ₹150-200 on duration of use.

Rose tsp parts thatfamily rub against Her new had no each idea other. If dust gets digenising the production tle workoftokey be components done. The in- “We areessence further1/4fine-tuning the bikes. We exSaffron a few strands in, — a near-constant hazard and even hopes togredients howthetoengine makefails sandesh.

It locally manufacture the pect to go commercial in September this come in tins and Cardamom powder 1/4 tsp on dusty rural roads.

“Electric wasn’t available anywhere in bikes are like a bike’s motor by the year-end, says Annamalai. packs, especially if you year,” says.for OMC will begin by offering the Rosehe petals decoration ceiling fan.

If it fails,that it fails Chennai, a situation has in the first five The batteries arecount currently imported under readymade paneer,a rental service at 25 of its power plants.

1 Peel, deseed and grate the pulp of a days, otherwise not in 20 years,” changed little since.

Even now explains Gill. technology tie-up a foreign but andwith all you need player, do is comwhite it is found only in three or four she hopes to make these in India as well a The bine them, and bake theover mixruralpumpkin. drive 2 Cook the pulp in a little water for Sputtering on policy shops, though other ‘Bengali period of time.ture till the top browns.

The electric bike companies are trying to cus15-20 minutes. Strain the grated While haveasbeen aroundchamin India for some sweets’EVs such rasgulla, From its initial focus on Tamil Nadu, KarnaThe sandesh allows ample tomise models improve pumpkin and to squeeze dry.their Mix utility sugar in rural years growth cham now, and their malaimarket sandwich linehas not been taka and Kerala, Ampere will ex- The blandroom for creativity. areas,inwhich is their emerging into the pumpkin the ratio of 1:2. consistent due toThen fluctuating government pol- pand later this many a shelf. a friend to Andhra nessyear of both chhana and paneer is Electric’s Maxi is 3 Cook again market. until theHero sweetened icies.

In November 2010,tothe Ministry of New Pradesh, showed Bokaria how make and drama. Add aTelangana canvas for much a hit with shopkeepers, mixture thickens and separates easily milkfrom the vessel.

Add rose essence, vendors, and Renewable up to 20 Puducherry. sweetener — sugar, nolen gur sandesh.

That setEnergy off a announced lifelong men, newspaper The blandness of I am excitedsaffron about and cardamom powder. per cent that incentives on creating, the sale of EVs. That passion saw her Gill says that apart the a winter (date palmfrom jaggery, spehawkers and farmers. With a both the chhana and the retrofit market 4 Divide the pumpkin mixture into 10 meant the manufacturer rather building elaboratewould sand- provide cus- government ciality), subsidyflavouring of ₹7,400,(rose essence, wide platform between the paneer is a canvas for as it every has Coolrider’s portions. and flatten a portion tomers a discount up to ₹4,000 for a low- his companysaffron) esh, icing et al, thatofestablished is giving anthen addi-build on and by house legs, the model of also has Recipes From much drama pumpkin mixture on your palm. in a box a cycle and a the retrofit speed two-wheeler and ₹5,000 for a tional discount her as aelectric ‘sandesh artist’ in Pratibof fruit ₹3,000 stuffing withtoit or encasing a swappable battery A Diary Place in the centre and kit costs less thansome sandesh high-speed vehicle. The manufacturer later price the entry-level ha Jain’s mind. product it in sandesh.

Addbeto it a sprinkle with a handle.

“It allows entreIndu Bokaria envelope with the pumpkin mixture. $100 (₹6,000) Compiled by Pratibha claimed the amount fromcookthe government. low ₹20,000.of“After Jain, co-author of two the desiccated budget coconut. nuts and preneurs to drive day and Pat into neat squares.

Jain This gave the industry a huge books, Cooking at Home Withpush Pe- and it grew announcement,Traditional there is renewsandesh still has its night, as they 5 Decorate with a rose petalcan onbuy top.another ₹500 by 200and per cent in FY2012. datha Sukham Ayu, was approached by ed interestSandeepa in electricMukherjee two-wheel- Dutta, who patrons. set rest of briefcase Repeat with the and servebattery chilled. for reHowever, the tosubsidy was subsequently Bokaria’s family put together a book of her ers,” says, outCookbook that writeshethe blogpointing Bong Mom’s and has a placement,” says Gill. withdrawn, leading to 60th a sales slump, and 4,000 recipes as a gift for her birthday.

“There vehicles were sold in April by alone. book of the same name, swears Mouchak, Ampere wants to be a one-stop-shop for ruice-cream sandesh made with custard apple. many dealerships shut down. were several notebooks with entries in them, Nakur and Balaram Mullick — confectioners ral commuting, businesses, delivery and garTherecollection is anotherneeds. whichFocusing combineson the rasgulla Budget 2015 given the sector a renewed and I could nothas quite identify how to position Borrowed ride that are household names in Kolkata. They bage rural and and the sandesh.

The the author does not even inpush.

The says subsidy her book,” Jain. for a low-speed electric OMC is betting on two models to target fashion the sweetmeat into shapes of the semi-urban markets, company is enjoying on the use market of cow’s share milk, which it’s scooter is now the ₹7,400, for high-speed Jain combed pageswhile of Bokaria’s diaries, price-conscious ruralIncustomer.

The first in- asistsignificant conch, fish and lotus. winter, jol-bhora sandfor itsis how electric made traditionally.

I askload her carriers why. One reason two-wheelers it issandesh ₹9,500.recipes.

However, the caveat and found many That Jain had volves its brand new electricto. bike on scooters, esh is offering something to look forward They electric cycles, and lowis that it’s hard to find.for Second, yields very that scheme, in the first phase,demonstrawill be ap- rent, beenthe to one of Bokaria’s cooking in the of second will retrofit an ex- cost comewhile with beads liquidit date palm jaggery mobility products textileitworkers. chhana (this can be easily made at home), plicable only earlier in cities withthe a population ex- isting tions 20 years sealed decision to pobicycle intoother an electric vehicle. or honey.

At the end of the spectrum, little With continued government support, the and there’s little difference in taste, she says. ceeding has left rural users Recipes in the there sition her10aslakh a sandesh artist.

The book, “I am about the retrofitchip market as ev- fledgling is excited also ganache chocolate sandesh, industry is confident of taking on liqueur sandesh, even dimsum sandesh, find the Which makes book a good for learning lurch. government should not these ery from a“The Diary, is not restricted toput sandesh, house has a cycle and a retrofit kit Icosts rough andthe dusty roads on bet its ride deep inout. And stands inWe for import cakes too. thethe basics while making your own rules. constraints,” says Hemalatha CEO less though. It includes recipes forAnnamalai, salads, snacks, thansandesh $100 (₹6,000). directly to hinterland.

Bokaria makes several departures from the and founder of Ampere Vehicles. vegetable curries, rice and chutneys. from manufacturers,” says Raj. pratap of sandesh making.

She has a recipe sravanthi challapalli In the meantime, the manufacturers fo- norms During a Skype session with Bokaria are — Jain His company is seeing a good response tofor its rashmi

Q R

Q R

ND-X _ A

7 19BL BL

takeaway know

BL BL 20 4

saturday, july 25,25, 2015 saturday, july 2015

I SPY

Everything is going fine Masaan girl Richa Chadda’s next film is Cabaret, which went on floor last month 6.15am I am told there is a sun but I can see only clouds

6.35am Unusual, but I like a big bite before I hit the gym

7.55am Post-workout selfie. Just for kicks

Field day Households at Yamuna Khader are usually anchored around a tree and the tube well is the main source of water kamal narang 8.05am My gym must-haves — boxing gloves

9am Readying the day kit

9.30am Staying cool during traffic nightmares

While the river heals

Caught in the vortex of environment, health and livelihood debates, the Yamuna farmer is collateral damage

B

ND-X _ A

ela Estate smells of fresh mint and new cow dung. Walking in a line on the thin mud ridges cutting through their fields, the farmers pause often to point at barren swathes on the otherwise 10.25am Interview, and a fun one green fields. A woman in a yellow sari, head covered, squats at a hand pump. As we walk past, she swiftly pushes down the lever and finishes her shower. “The barren patches are where the bulldozer ran over my pudina,” says one of the farmers, Mahendra Singh. He and other farmers say they lost their crop when Delhi Development Authority cleared encroachments on the banks of the Yamuna last month. “The house was broken and 25 bigha pudina gone. I harvested what was left,” adds Singh. They blocked roads and protested the clearing until it stopped two days later.

The monsoons had the farmers scrambling to stack up broken bricks to make another makeshift home with tarpaulin roof. Anup Singh, in his seventies, was born at the estate and it’s where his family has farmed for as long as he 1.35pm Surprise gift hampers — don’t I demolitions can remember.

The intermittent loveofmyhomes job and crops are part of the collective memory of those farming along the Yamuna in Delhi.

The thousands of farmers and agricultural labourers who grow vegetables and flowers on the 22-km stretch where the Yamuna bisects Delhi are the Capital’s invisibles. Urbanisation is all around them, but is curiously absent from their lives. Loopy flyovers and gleaming metro stations edge their homes; they hop across fields to get onto NH-24; they park their buffaloes under the flyover and sit on the string cot and gupshup. Television and gas stove are luxuries in their homes with no front doors. And every time a development project becomes the new dream, they lose out.

In January this year, the National Green Tri- Solid wastes are next in line. Agricultural activbunal (NGT) banned farming along the Yamu- ity on the flood plain, it recommended, na in Delhi, citing the highly polluted water. “should be regulated to totally prohibit the Twenty-two drains discharge into the river in use of agrochemicals (fertilisers and pestiDelhi, making it amongst the most-polluted cides) and should be restricted to areas be11.20am Ready for the make-up brush 12.30pm Lights, camera, action. On the rivers of the world. “The vegetables grown in yondsets 100m onshow either side of the river channel of a TV these areas, for which the direct source of irri- and other wetlands/water bodies”. gation is the groundwater or water flowing in Babu, Professor Emeritus at Delhi UniversiRiver Yamuna are bound to be contaminated,” ty, says there was no way his team could recthe judgement noted. Considering the health ommend farming after surveying the 52-km risks, the tribunal directed an all-out ban on stretch from Palla to Jaitpur. “High levels of agricultural activity until the “Yamuna is toxic trace elements like lead, zinc and nickel made pollution-free and is restored to its nat- are found in the water, besides pesticide residural wholesomeness”. The tribuues,” he says. The team found nal mentions the ban on large wetlands dug up and confarming is only for a period of verted for agriculture. The sight two-and-a-half years needed to around the Barapullah drain was make the Yamuna wholesome. horrifying. “The land was irrigatUrbanisation is all The farmers/labourers know ed with sewage water and eating around them, but is all too well that the Yamuna is curiously absent from these vegetables could lead to polluted and have tracked its cysts caused by worms,” he says, their lives changing colour. BS Chauhan, recommending ‘limited farmthe 75-year-old general secretary ing’ upstream of Wazirabad, 1.45pm looks good 1.50pm The soup, would for a change, looksmost areas of DelhiLunch Peasants Multipurpose which exclude appetising where farming is now done.

Society (DPMS), whose family has farmed here for over 50 years, remembers This puts the farmers/labourers in a precarithat the drinking water in his childhood came ous position. They may not have done much to from the river. When farmers Rajpal and Rishi- pollute the Yamuna, but are guilty of earning pal talk of flipping a coin into the river and their livelihood by endangering the health of watching it sink to the bottom, the river in others. They are the collateral damage in the their head is not the tea-coloured Yamuna environment vs. health vs. livelihood tangle. flowing a few hundred metres away.

The DPMS has appealed against the ban, which threatens the survival of the farmer/labourer A toxic harvest in an already shaky environment. They are All recent studies point to the calamity that now encroachers in the 4,500 hectares they awaits the Yamuna. The Restoration and Conser- have farmed for decades. “The Delhi Improvevation of River Yamuna, submitted to the NGT in ment Trust, the precursor to the DDA, allotted 2013 by an expert committee headed by pro- the land to our society and the Jheel Khurenja fessor CR Babu, says the 22 drains “contribute Milk Producers’ Multi-Purpose Society in 1949.

80 per cent of the pollution load of the river”. It was given for agriculture and on a 99-year

Q R

takeaway know

saturday, july 25,25, 2015 saturday, july 2015

lease,” says Chauhan. “Whenever it was wanted for a public purpose, we had to give it up,” he adds. The DDA appears to consider the lease redundant. After the Bela Estate clearing, a report in The Hindu quoted a DDA official, “We are following the NGT’s detailed guidelines for restoration of the zone. The lease of the people there has long been over.” The NGT proceedings too mention that “the DDA has now terminated all the leases.” “Our lease has not been renewed since 1977,” informs Chauhan. A few farmers have approached the Delhi High Court against the eviction.

3pm Time for Cabaret Caught between litigations and bans, branded encroachers and pollutants, the farmers/labourers still try to keep a semblance of normality. But their lives are nothing but nebulous. At Yamuna Khader, an ‘owner’ is an undefined entity. Along the banks, ownership works differently. Farming is done either by a society member or a family

5.20pm The joys of having a spa around the corner

Life by the river A large section of farmers/labourers at Yamuna Khader are migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. (far right) bulldozers in action at Bela Estate in June kamal narang, ramesh

sharma, shiv kumar pushpakar

with the original lease; or by migrants, largely from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who have taken land on rent; or under a sharing arrangement with the ‘owner.’

Loss of perennial income On a muggy July morning, sitting under a tree

8.30pm You don’t need subzero in neighbour temperatures for someDharampal’s socks therapy field, Chouhan

says, “We are just watchmen looking after the land. This is our livelihood.” Dharampal’s family got the land on lease from the society. His three sons help farm the 40 bighas, which includes some land taken on a yearly rent of ₹5,000 a bigha. Their kachcha home sits in a sea of okra flowers. Two buffaloes slouch in the yard. “My parents stay the night, while the rest go home to Samastipur village,” says Vinod Kumar, the eldest son. “Now we have okra, bottle gourd, ridge gourd and corn. In August, we grow radish, cauliflower and cucumber.”

Vendors arrive daily from Gazipur to take the vegetables to market. After an intense discussion with Chouhan, Kumar estimates that the farmers along the bank produce nearly 100 tonnes of vegetables daily. News of the DDA ac10.45pm Bedtime is sacrosanct tion has spread and Kumar is a worried man.

Barely two months ago, however, those working on rented fields were clueless about the ban. Manoj’s family came from Budaun 20 years ago and has been farming on seven bighas rented for ₹10,000 each. Outside his mudcased house, half of his family watches as Mayaram, a wholesale dealer, picks up freshly plucked bottle gourds from a plastic basket and dunks them into a bucket of water collected from the tube well a few feet away. Tube wells are the main water source here, and the farmer/labourer believes water from 25-60m underground is insulated from pollutants.

Cleaned of mud, the vegetables are wiped dry.

Mayaram and his friend Rambaksh will take the sacks of bottle gourd to the wholesale

3.10pm Ready for the first shot

4.30pm Now you see it, now you don’t

6.45pm Post-massage selfie

6.48pm Play of colours

markets in Gazipur and Azadpur. “I am selling in local stores,” he says.

The NGT had suggested that the farmer/lathem for ₹10 a kg, not a great price,” says Manoj. However, Mayaram is an old customer bourer turn to floriculture or silviculture while the Yamuna is allowed to rejuvenate itand this is business-as-usual for Manoj.

Are Mayaram’s customers wary of vegeta- self. “They have my sympathy, but sympathy bles from the Yamuna? “I tell them to come has no meaning when public health is in danwith me and see for themselves. Probably one ger,” says Prof Babu. “They have to look at alter10.50pm Another stickler for routine in 100 would walk away on hearing they are natives. When the wetlands are restored they Yamuna vegetables,” he replies. Manoj had are perfect for aquatic plants. Of course, they heard nothing about the ban when we met will have to be trained and educated to do it,” him in May. “Nobody told us anything. Our he adds. Chouhan is not averse to the idea of house, though, has been broken before,” he floriculture, but has his doubts. “We should be says. This comes as no surprise to Harpreet taught how to do it and, importantly, market Kaur, a researcher with Jawaharlal Nehru Uni- it. Vegetables are an everyday necessity. Is it versity, who had together with Jessica Cook, a the same with flowers?” he asks.

The battle between environresearcher from University of ment and livelihood can be a difColorado Denver, and three ficult one. Sanjay Parikh, an others studied the urban farmenvironmental lawyer engaged ing practices along the Yamuwith the Narmada Bachao Andona. Farmers working on rented lan, knows it firsthand. “Harsh reland are often not given the Whenever the ality is on one side and the full story, she says. “Owners ofquestion is of the environment on the other. It is alten do not tell them, fearing environment, the ways going to be a tough stand,” they may lose the rent.” poor take the toll he says. Nevertheless the farmManorama’s family has lived ers, even if they are encroachers, in Khader ever since they ‘cannot be thrown out.’ “Before moved from Shahjahanpur 10 removing them, the state should years ago to escape the meagre rehabilitate them in an alternareturns from annual crops tive place that is not worse than back home. Vegetable farming in Delhi meant multiple crops, more income. where they are now. If they should grow flowThey farm on a sharing basis with the owner. ers, teach them to do it organically,” he adds.

The news of the ban has reached her too. “My Parikh admits the NGT’s concerns are sister farms on the other side and her crops genuine. “But if the river is to be rejuvenated, and home have been mowed down. I don’t it has to be cleared of all encroachments. Perknow her plan, as I haven’t talked to her manent structures like the Akshardham and the Commonwealth Games Village, even if lesince,” she adds.

Chouhan concedes that farmers/labourers gal, should not be allowed. Whenever the have been guilty of using pesticides and fertil- question is of the environment, the poor take isers indiscriminately. “But we are trying to re- the toll,” he points out. duce it. The society tells them to use jaivik khaad (bio-fertiliser), which is now available p anima

Q R

ND-X _ A

5 BL 21 BL

play know

BL BL 222

saturday, july 25,25, 2015 saturday, july 2015

Power of two Sumit Nagal and Nam Hoang Ly hold the Wimbledon junior boys double trophy

aelct /dillon bryden; (below) getty/renee mckay

Race to the start A crowd disaster can be triggered by the rush to take the first dip on the most auspicious day or hour gn rao

When push comes to shove Game, set, match The anatomy of a stampede reveals that the smallest unit might play the biggest role

I B

t was the first day of the Godavari Pushka-

tained injuries and was taken to the govern-

omy of a stampede, it would appear, is govern-

ralu, Kumbh Mela the South. The ment hospital. by the laws physics aand complex Ponniah, who works as aSumit bus edNagal’s Even asthetennis getsofcommercialised to its own detriment, win ofproves point muhurtam was for 6.26am on July 14, conductor, lost his wife Rajeshwari. His 16- psychological processes that are little under-

ND-X _ A

2015. Every 12 years, over 12 days, across 11 y winningand the Wimbledon cities in Telangana Andhra Pradesh,junior devoboysthe doubles withbanks Vietnamese tees throng ghats title, on the of the partner Nam Hoang Su1,465km-long Godavari river Ly, to 17-year-old offer prayers. mit Nagal proved determiThis year’s event washas even morethat significant — nation and hard go athe long way.GoIn celebrated every 144 work years,can it was Maha India, tennis might be facing a davari Pushkaralu. boom, but this has also made the Believers, numbering in lakhs, had already more expensiveMany for arrived in thegame town of Rajahmundry. young enthusiasts. had camped overnight outside theOver ghatsthe to last few years thetime. cost ofAPtennis take a holy dip at the auspicious chief coaching has skyrocketed. minister Chandrababu Naidu, his family andIna such as monthly host of VIPs inmetros tow, arrived atDelhi, the Kotagumtraining canlaunch. cost more than an ₹1 mam area for the formal For over for a child. can hour, the VIPslakh performed puja Coaches and offered upghat, to ₹2,000 prayers at thecharge Pushkar even an as hour. crowds When tennis waiting at the three gates grewgreat restive.Martina Navratilova visited Saniastation, Mirza Two kilometres away, at thethe railway Academy in Hyderabad, she emphaseveral trains arrived, bringing hundreds of sised the importance walltopracdevotees, who quickly made theirofway the tice. impatient, After all, the wallpeople never venue. Growing a few misses shotthrough and players can climbed onto walls andaburst the bartheir strokes ricades. Columnspractise of people flowed intoagainst the rivit for hours during the forer, pushing and jostling each other.

According mative years helptodevelto reports, some devotees bent to down look op basic skills the in fragan for their missing footwear, shattering But thea ile balance of theinexpensive crowd, whichway. had reached commercialisation of tennis critical density. The crowd was not losing consucceeded in bringing trol as much ashas it was losing its view, firstthe of walland down, it routes. with a the bathing ghat thenreplacing of the exit ‘hitting partner’.

Nearly two lakh people were packed, elbow to monthly coaching for elbow, in the The 145m-long ghat.

Physicsfeesoon Mirzaa stampede before shethat won took over, Sania triggering leftthe 27 Wimbledon junior girls 50 doubles title dead (official count) and around injured. in 2003 arrived was about ₹850.

The popularLakshmaiah that morning from ity of the game has zoomed Bhuvanagiripalem, Nellore, with hisever wifesince and MirzaFrom — who fearlessly Sedaughter. theplayed railway station against they walkon a wild card at the 2005 ed torena theWilliams ghat in Kotagummam.

Among the Australian Open —they became itsthemselves superstar. first few devotees, placed Along with the cost of thenext pricefew of near the barricades to coaching, wait out the equipment as racquets, balls hours. In thesuch ensuing stampede,strings, Janakamma, have alsoofincreased. which 55, died asphyxia.Synthetic Daughtercourts, Sushma sus-

year-old daughter Swetha was stood. While the ‘crowd’ was dedemand compared to clay “breakthrough fined from “a psychological wounded.little Avvamaintenance Krishna, an auto result”. and grass should have driver fromcourts, Visakhapatnam, lostdrastically cut point of view” in like 1896Karti

by Gustave With support from people P Chidown theBayramma, cost, but that not Le Bon, most research andthe literahis wife 45,has and 16-happened. dambaram, the tennis-loving son of forAlong the way, talented are PofChidambaram, recent origin.Nagal The year-old daughter Gowri.young Pad- players merAfrica finance ture minister Southhave Asia and lost for mostmother cannot went afford to make play the ma’sout, 60-year-old Organisation andthan his coachWorld travelledHealth to many tournaments up more game any longer!

Andlater, experts (WHO) defines a mass gathering missing that day. Days her wonder in Asia, Europe, the US and Canada. halfwhy of all crowd the or Paes or Bhupathi be with bodynext wasMirza identified at one of the cannot as “more than a specified In 2012, Bhupathi watched Nagalnumdurdisasters, a when found.

In in such a scenario, Nagal is a whiff of rate of (under-18) persons (starting from hospitals Rajahmundry. ingthat the Asianber junior championship fatality fresh air. >1,000) at a specific location for a inhigher Delhi, he was convinced that the youngster is eight times Son ofofaitgovernment school teacher, Nagal purpose a defined Science forehand for hisfor age, and thatpeit than in had the a top-10 specific opted forhuman an individual sport being would How do stampedes be-despitedeveloped riod of with time.”

According thea time, makingto him worldonly improve cricket-crazy a crowd child. behave Having gin? How doesasthe Ngai Search Method reworld-class player. It(based costson Bhutrained for aboutAre twoemotions years at search

by KM$200,000 Ngai, Edbert in a stampede? pathi about a yearHsu to DDA sports in Delhi, he and stampedes have like fear andcentres panic contagious? takeothers), care of350 Nagal.

The youngwas to be spotted by Maoccurred between 1980renowned and 2012, Howlucky do ‘mass gathering’ events ster’s time at the hesh Bhupathi when thego latter resulting in 10,243 deaths andTennis-Universi22,445 injuries. go right, and how do they wrong? The anat-the tennis Schuttler Waske With was scouting for talent for the ty in Germany further improved boom, the talented Apollo Tyres Grand Slam chamyoung player has lost his game. pion scheme. Even though the Nagal’s tennis continues to out, for most cannot sponsor backed out within two improve under the guidance of afford to play the years, after having promised coach Mariano Delfino. He won game! And experts ₹100 crore over 10 years, Nagal wonder why the next an ITF grade-one junior tournawas fortunate as Bhupathi and ment in Germany last month, Mirza or Paes or coach Bobby Mahal decided to and followed that with a men’s Bhupathi cannot back him.

ITF Futures singles title in Hydebe found “Sumit was the best athlete rabad, the following week. He among the kids we had. He was may have missed precious pracwiry, very flexible and very fast. tice time because of a delayed UK He had great determination, visa but still went on to win the loved to compete, loved to win. He fought for doubles at Wimbledon, despite not having every point on court,” said Mahal, when con- trained for it. tacted in Toronto. Mahal worked on develop“Sumit should be at his peak when he is 21 or ing Nagal’s forehand, backhand and serve, 22. He can be a top-100 or even a top-50 player. dedicating to him all his resources in Canada. He has a few things to improve on and needs “We spent four or five months training. to get stronger physically,” said Mahal, the Then, Sumit started winning the under-14 and man who has been instrumental in laying a under-16 tournaments, to become ranked strong foundation for this talented boy from among the top-three in India,” recalls the Jhajjar, Haryana. coach. Nagal was part of the India under-14 kamesh srinivasan is a occurred sports correspondent team thatIndia finished fifth atofthe Junior En masse has seen some the World world’s worst stampedes, 79 per cent of which at religious with The Hindu, Delhi tennis in 2011. sees that as pilgrims the first gatherings.

Seen The here,coach Godavari Pushkaralu at Visakhapatnam station cv subrahmanyam

Q

R Q R

scan know

saturday, july 25,25, 2015 saturday, july 2015

Boiling point (right) Security personnel escort Chandrababu Naidu to his convoy on July 14, the first day of Maha Godavari Pushkaralu; (clockwise from below right) images from the stampede that broke here is much you can do, even if your out soon after the French vocabulary begins and ends chief minister’s with ‘Bonjour.’ departure fromAll theNew Zealander Nigel Richards knew Pushkar ghat of at French was the numbers andRajahmundry hello. But that didn’t deter the Tiger

Pardon my French The francophone scrabble champ knew no French

T

kr deepak

Woods of Scrabble from taking part in the francophone world scrabble championship. Nine weeks he spent memorising the French scrabble dictionary, and lo! Richards is the new francophone champion. He already has over a dozen international titles to his name.

Kutte…

Mother of the year?

The latest obsession of Bollywood lovers

Mum refuses to break BMW window to save trapped son

Mission not accomplished

Bring up the bodies Twenty one of the 27 dead at Kotagummam were women. Eighty per cent of the injured were also women. Physically more vulnerable, the elderly and women usually make up most of the body count. “It is interesting to note that in Sabarimala, an all-male gathering, 109 n April, the BJP President Amit people died. At Attukal Pongala however, an Shah made a grand announall-female event in Thiruvananthapuram, cement. The party, with 10 crore there have been no casualties. Again in mixed members, had become the gatherings, women are more unsafe.” largest political outfit in theScan the images of the casualties, and you world. In Lucknow, Jata Shankar will find that many of them were missing Tripathi was felicitated by the their footwear. Their clothes were in disarray; Uttar Pradesh BJP in-charge for pallus, chunnis and shirts knocked out of single-handedly bringing place. in Mouths hanging open, they gasped for 25,000 new members. How did air, before dying of suffocation. In a 1993 paper Tripathi find so many people?titled In ‘The Causes and Prevention of Crowd Dimoving trains, apparently, sasters’, John Fruin, founder of crowdsafe.com, writes, “People may be literally lifted out of where they gave missed calls, their shoes, and have clothing torn off. Intense became members, and went home. Now, when the time has come to trace them, Tripathi is stumped. He has their numbers, but no names and no addresses.

In some cases, the numbers given are incorrect. With the herculean task of verifying 1.86 crore members in UP, the party is said to have revised its expectations.

Mission now impossible.

The BJP is the largest political party in the world, but where are its members?

I

A

Chinese woman is getting virtual flak for being most ‘unmotherly’. A resident of Yiwu in Zhejiang province, the mother stopped firefighters from smashing a window to rescue her three-year-old son trapped in her luxury sedan. Unfazed by the sight of her son clawing at window of her plush BMW, the young mothSouth Asiatheand crowd pressures, exacerbated by anxiety, the crowd.” er preferred to wait for a locksmith to unlock Africa make up In his 2013 paper make it difficult to breathe.” The pressure genthe of doors. more than half all However, the firefighters, with moral ‘Human Stampedes erated by crowds in a stampede is so high (up support crowd disasters, withfrom the crowd that had gathered, During Religious Fes- to 4,500N/m) that it takes only seven people to wentthat aheadiswith the rescue. Thousands of netia fatality rate tivals: A comparative re- bend a steel railing out of shape. have berated the woman for her actions. eight times zens higher than in It took months of planning and multiple view of Mass Gathering One of them wrote, “Looks like the car window the developed world.

Emergencies in India’, which agencies — municipalities, state government her real son!”

India hasisseen some of the bighe co-authored with other re- departments, and state disaster management gest agglomerations of people and some of searchers, Illiyas documents seven reasons for agencies — to plan an event of this size and the worst disasters. In 2011, 109 people died at crowd disturbances. What ocscale. More than 30,000 personSabarimala; in 2010, at the Ram Janki temple curred at Kotagummam can be nel were deployed, 423 medical in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, 63 died; and at described as a “beginning-ofcamps set up, 2,000 special buses the 1954 Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, 800 peo- event-surge”. Like the thrill of and 25 trains provided, and 10 The pressure ple lost their lives. Just last weekend, at the Ja- watching the first-day-first-show lakh packets of food and water generated by crowds gannath Yatra in Puri, Orissa, two women died of a film, devotees believe that handed out daily. is so high that it takes and 20 were injured. At the ongoing Kumbh the first dip on the first day at The 180 ghats were classified only seven people to Mela in Nashik, crowds of over one crore are the most important ghat to be into A, B and C categories debend steel expected; at the Godavari Pushkaralu, the more propitious. pending on their size, the crowd number has already crossed three crore. Reliexpected and the personnel staOften, the behaviour of the gious gatherings account for 79 per cent of the crowd is driven by its smallest ockroaches get a(Alot of bad Apress. tioned. category ghat, Citylike e all know Bollywood influences every- total number of stampedes in the country. dwellersthe areone known to cringe, jump, at Kotagummam, canand acunit — the individual. “It takes day life — from the cholis women wear at these creatures scurrying commodate oneslippery lakh people, category B, just one or two persons to create a stampede,” scream to the gaalis people mutter. But in Lucknow The smallest unit corners of their 50,000 dark and so on.) “We havehomes. crowd Rodents, managesays Illiyas. In ‘Crush Point’, published in The around there is a new trend altogether, that of acquir- In May, roughly two months ahead of the New Yorker in 2011, author John Seabrook lizards mosquitoes tolerated, but not ment inand place, the event are is proceeding according filmi dogs. Thankfully the days of Tuffy in a Pushkaralu, researcher Faisel Illiyas, who writes that humans may not be as evolved as these workers the food says chain.

Woring to hardy plan, there is noinpressure,” H Arun red bow tie, playing umpire, have long passed. works at the Institute of Land and Disaster colonies of ants or schools of fish, which can ried about this negative a zoo in Japan is Kumar, district collectorbuzz, of East Godavari.

But we are now in the era of Pluto Mehra, the Management, held a five-day workshop for of- communicate through pheromones across a attempting impossible: improve imYet, thingsthe have gone wrong.

Visitorsthe say wabullmastiff in Dil Dhadakne Do and Entertain- ficers in crowd management. A group of 30-35 swarm. But does the crowd think less intelli- age puttingare on on anthe exter isofincockroaches. short supply,They’re skin infections ment, the golden retriever in a movie named officials learned the science behind crowd gently than an individual? Are crowd reac- hibition showcase one of the world’s rise, and to Rajahmundry is ill-equipped tomost host after him. Pet shops and veterinary clinics in control: how does the crowd behave, how does tions disproportionate to the emergency at hated insects anddesignating their many talents.

Among tourists.

Despite the 200m-long Lucknow — the leader in all trends — have re- it circulate in designated sites, and how to hand? Do positive social relations prevail in the highlights a five-way racechose between the Saraswathi ghatisfor VIPs, Naidu to visit ported an exponential increase in the demand plan for crowd density. “But I’m not sure if stampede conditions? Illiyas says the crowd roaches.

You ghat, couldsetting also getoffyour the Pushkar thehands crowdon col-a for these two breeds. Buyers care not that those guidelines were followed,” says Illiyas, thinks irrationally and aggressively: “(At the Madagascar Hissing parties Cockroach, which can lapse. While political hold the Andhra these dogs are pricey or hairy or unwieldy — af- when asked for an assessment of the Godavari Godavari Pushkaralu) every individual wants grow upCM to seven cm. Asfor theonce name Pradesh responsible, thesuggests, crowd is ter all, they might just speak in the voice of Aa- stampede. “They’ve spent ₹1,000 crore on in- to take a dip, immediately, and before the oth- the Madagascar bug can only hiss, not fly. not entirely to blame. mir Khan. frastructure development, but I have seen ers. When trapped, everyone wants to escape, More than 200 creatures and 15 species will be priyanka nothing specifically designed for the safety of perhaps even at the cost of others’ safety.” on display.kotamraju That’s a whole lotta love.

QWag the roach

Some TLC for the much hated insect

W

RC

ND-X _ A

3 23BL BL

hang

saturday, july 25, 2015

BL

24

in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

T

his week’s quiz is on Presidents. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee were all sworn in on July 25.

here,there & elsewhere

All the Presidents Which former Army captain, nominated by the Left front, did Dr Kalam defeat in the 2002 presidential elections?

Ladies’ brunch

“Y

ou can’t come!” I tell Bins. “It’s for ladies only! And anyway Muriel has only two tickets!” But in fact she has three. When Bins hears this, he puts up such a show of pouting and tugging on his moustache that we have no choice: he comes along. He wears his only white-on-white outfit — a chikkan kurta over white canvas pants — and pulls his scraggly hair back in a tight, neat plait. “How smart I look, huh?” he says, leering at his reflection in the mirror. “You ladies will have to fight off the other ladies.”

The event is a sponsored fashion show plus tennis match at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. It’s in fashionable Newport, half an hour from Elsewhere. We get there just as a line is forming at the front entrance. Muriel has put her hair up and is looking stately in a white linen blouse and floral print pants. She is right at home amongst the other ladies, most of whom are dressed in crisp linens and white lace, with diamonds winking from their rings and earlobes, tanned calves and bare arms flashing in the summer sun.

I was expecting to feel ThirdWorldy and under-dressed in my usual old black tee-shirt and tights but the crowd is remarkably nonthreatening and friendly. Bins looms

cornerstone

above us, beaming. He loves being surrounded by women. “The perfume!” he whispers in my ear, “The hair! The thighs!” I send a poison-tipped glance his way. Then we file into the grassy inner court, where sparkling white deck chairs have been arranged in a long oval.

Attractive young men and women are holding long-stemmed glasses of gently fizzing mimosas and Bloody Marys. Soon the three of us are seated. Bins is at the end of the row, Muriel next to him.

Small eats are being passed around: tiny single-bite quiches, dried apricots topped with goat cheese and a walnut.

1 2 3

A very young waiter with deep dimples on either side of his smile approaches us with a full tray of mimosas. Just as he reaches Bins, I think: what if he stumbles? Whereupon he does. The slender glasses topple over one by one, dreamlike, in slow motion. Even as he jumps up, Bins gets fully doused in champagne and orange juice. Five people run forward at once, with napkins and jugs of plain water, stammering apologies. The young waiter is wild-eyed with shame and crawls off to the guillotine.

But Bins is brilliantly good humoured about it all, claiming he has always wanted a champagne-flavoured shirt.

We spend the rest of the morning watching models sauntering around in outfits by FILA and Brooks Brothers.

We enjoy a tasty sit-down brunch with three ladies who are thrilled to meet a Frenchman with an Indian accent. We collect our goody-bag, which includes bracelets by Ani and Alex. We watch half a match of the Davis Cup quarter finals. We visit the excellent museum where we can ogle a hologram of Roger Federer. Then we go home, still giggling about mimosas-on-the-grass. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

Which Indian President was a professor at Oxford and was also made a Knight of the Golden Army of Angels by Pope Paul VI ?

The title of president for heads of state became popular after the American war of independence and the French Revolution.

Which was the first African country to appoint a President as head of state in 1848?

4

For a brief time in 2015 which sportsperson’s Wikipedia page listed her current designation as ‘President of the United States’?

Interestingly, she also got a Twitter message from President Obama the same day.

5

The 54-year-old President of which South American country has signed a contract to play for Sport Boys, a national first division club in his country? The club has said it would try to work around the President’s schedule.

6

The Society of Sober Sailors is an organisation which promotes the non-consumption of alcohol among sailors. Who is the best known president of the society?

7 8

By what name do we normally refer to SAM 2800 or SAM 2900, depending on which is in use at the time?

The Presidents Cup is probably the second most prestigious series of golf matches after the Ryder Cup. If the Ryder Cup is played between Europe and the US, which two teams compete for the Presidents Cup?

9

In the classic 1964 satire Dr Strangelove, the role of Strangelove was played by Peter Sellers. Who played the role of the American President Merkin Muffley in the film?

10

Who lost her husband in an air crash just inside South African territory on October 19, 1986, and what unique distinction does she have which is unlikely to be repeated?

Answers

1. The INA leader Captain Lakshmi Sahgal, who led the Rani of Jhansi regiment in the Azad Hind Fauj 2. Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. He was also awarded the Bharat Ratna eight years before he was elected president. He also served as the vice-chancellor of Andhra University and BHU 3. The Republic of Liberia, which was created by freed American slaves, who named their capital Monrovia, after an American President 4. Carli Lloyd, who scored a hat-trick while leading the US team to their third Women’s World Cup football title 5. Bolivian President Evo Morales 6. Captain Archibald Haddock from Tintin. His presidency is covered in The Shooting Star 7. Air Force One. They are the two Boeing 747 jets which share the duty of carrying the American President. Incidentally, they are called Air Force Two when used by the US Vice-President 8. US against an international team representing the rest of the world. The 2013 series was won by the US, led by Fred Couples 9. Peter Sellers. He also had a third role as RAF officer Lionel Mandrake 10. Graca Machel, who was married to President Samora Machel of Mozambique and then married Nelson Mandela in 1998. In modern history, she is the only person to be the first lady of two different countries

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

ND-X _ A

Reach us at blink@thehindu.co.in. Follow us on t@Ink_BL and facebook.com/hbl.blink or log on to thehindubusinessline.com/blink