Blink issue 80 august08 2015 by Partha Pratim Sharma-Portfolio

TURN AROUND Transport specialists assert that, contrary to popular belief, Delhiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s BRT system was not a complete failure p2 saturday, august 8, 2015

reuters/eddie keogh

With old managers at the helm and new talent in the squads, the English Premier League, which kicks off today, promises to be sporting nirvana p10

The clash of the clubs

LINES OF DISSENT Manipur burns as the dispute over Inner Line Permit System heats up p4

SNOW WHITE THE SCIENTIST 30-year-old British artist Sarah Maple is the next big thing p15

takeaway know

BL BL 222

saturday, august 8, 2015 saturday, august 8, 2015

SPIRITUAL SWEAT

The twain shall meet Blended or otherwise, whisky has its own uniqueness

shatbhi basu

Rusty Nail Glass: Rocks/Old Fashioned Ingredients 45ml Talisker 10 15ml Drambuie Garnish: orange peel/cinnamon stick

1 Fill glass with a few ice cubes 2 Pour both liquids on ice 3 Take orangein May peel2012 sandeep saxena Not-so-smooth passage The scene at a trial run for the BRT, or bus rapid transit, corridor at New Delhi’s Chirag Delhi intersection and squeeze the oil on the drink and drop in 4 Sip. Life is good shatbhi basu

Don’t miss the bus, Delhi

“I C

drink only single malts!” Should we

we often lose sight of the real deal. That life is

ery time you open the bottle. If you have expe-

laud such pomposity? about more than just ﬁtting in, being rienced joys in of an discovering beautiful It is good news indeedLook thatupon the Chief Minister intends to imporre-launch thetheBRT improved the drinker with awe? Should we tant and knowing it all. Delighting in com- blends that sing in your mouth, you’ll know on to every word thatwill drips of ﬂavour is better drowningto in abuild form. hang Hopefully, the city useplexity lessons from itsthan mistakes what better I mean. Sure I like single malts, but I

from his lips? Is bandying words with buddies of a single malt club the road to understanding the soulontrary of the to single malt?belief, Or am I being popular the Delhi cynical? In BRT our (bus search for identity and status, rapid transit) system was not a complete failure. A study by technical experts WRI India, EMBARQ and CST India found that despite its faults, the system provided better mobility to road users. It carried over 53,000 passengers a day along a mere 6km stretch. The average time for bus travel decreased by 35 per cent thanks to the corridor, and an overwhelming majority (88 per cent) of bus commuters said they were happy with the system. This view was upheld by the Delhi High Court in October 2012, when it dismissed a plea to scrap the Delhi BRT system on the grounds that nearly 70 per cent of users were moving faster and bus ridership had increased 32 per cent. The judge quoted the famous line, “A developed country is not one where the poor own cars. It is one where the rich use public transport.”

ND-X _ A

Well-suited to India There are 27 cities in India with a million-plus population each. These cities need reliable and safe systems to transport large numbers of people. BRTs stand out for their ﬂexibility, relative low cost, and rapid rate of implementation. They already form a part of multi-modal transport systems — integrating trains, buses and other forms of transport — in 194 cities worldwide, with the more than 5,000km of bus corridors serving 32 million passengers per day. Indian cities are large and complex, and no single transport solution can possibly meet their needs. In Delhi alone, half of its 17 million citizens depend on public transport, which includes buses, auto-rickshaws and a

superiority complex. would never ever forsake the fabulous blends At the time when this discovery of the sinthat taught me all about Scotch. The young gle malt was reaching dizzying in In- and vibrant Johnnie Walker the Red BRT Label, the sophisticated metro rail system.heights BRT designs shaws in Delhi. Additionally, should dia, just under a decade someone of Cutty Sark, the can maybe range from simple to veryago, complex, de- mellow integratesweetness into the built environment of gentle the urasked meon whether I thought the Ballantine’s, big bold Walker Black Lapending the need — that is,that frommeant basic bus ban area it intends to Johnnie serve. This calls for a slew end of blended whisky. I was thrown at comfirst. bel, the unctuous Chivas 18, such the fabulous Balcorridors to high-capacity systems that of additional investments as building What a strange lines question! I soon realised that it lantine’s 17… There are than 3,000 bine multiple and connect to transport safer access to and from themore rapid transit corriwasn’t hisoutside fault. Inthe his mind, this ‘new’Inwhisky whiskies, each its own identity services BRT corridor. every blended dor, and optimising bus with schedules to link with was much rage that all others fan following. There’s no danger of them case,so BRTs can the be easily integrated into,were and and available metro services. bound forsaken.part He didn’t the becoming extinct.are constantly innovating, becometoabevaluable of theknow city’sthat overall Three: BRTs single malt had always existed. That it was, in The single maltcan is abe very mobility system. evolving. There noindividualistic single set of creasolufact, mother lode.for The trea- the BRT sys- tions for all times. ture. ItTechnology takes on distinctive In the Curitiba (Brazil), instance, for vehiclecharprosure chestbuilt from blended acteristics every turn,buses at the tem was towhich run buses like a pulsion andatfor docking to whisky created. Because a hands of its master distiller as surface was metro, with level boardpassenger platforms, foror inlarge section ofprepayment, people could not a slave ofcontinues the barrelstoit evolve, ages in. as It ing stations, large stance, handle the exclusive often power-packed is shaped by the technology environment buses and bus lanes. In The does information — single malt a BRTs stand outisfor flavour the single malt! around it, its play with the wood Bogota of (Colombia), this idea was very one of the mainstays of BRTs. Ciindividualistic their flexibility, It beganinto with village system store and need the little chemical equations expanded a two-lane ties to keep in mind that alcreature. takes on relativeItlow cost, owners like John Walker, in floating around waiting liqto accommodate both who, non-stop though newerthetechnologies distinctive and rapid rate of his questservices to please loyal customuid. Asking be savoured, not express and local services bring highertocapital costs, they characteristics at implementation ers tryingstops. to sellInhis baridolised. are success. less than a withwhile multiple Istanbul are key in There delivering every turn rels singlebusesmalt, hundred operating single malt (Turkey),ofhigh-speed travel Four: Institutional frameworks experimented with mixing difdistilleries at any given in a fully segregated BRT corridor, must be improved totime, helpand referent andboth then toning each one makes aimpeding malt whisky, whichwhiskies multiplies capacity move the barriers BRTs them down In byGuangzhou adding a neutral which is usually namedcoordinaafter the and speed. (China), the BRT is in rapidly growing cities. Improved spirit and water to make them acceptable. He distillery itself. The Glenlivet, Glenmorangie, so sophisticated that passengers need not distion across municipalities and government noticed some blends workedline. better than Lagavulin, Laphroaig, embarkthat to transfer to a different agencies will make cityTalisker, planningJura, easierDalby others and finally found the perfect recipe more… create interesting variants of bringingThen stakeholders together around a sinthat customers kept coming back for. these by ‘finishing’ them speciallycan chosen Needhis for planning gle vision. Education andin outreach spur Word travelled and soon other storekeepers Try sipping theinvestments Glenmorangie The ill-fated Delhi endeavour underscores the casks. sustained intereston and in aQuinBRT, like Berry Brosthat & Rudd, Ruban a coppery dram infused with the stepsChivas cities Brothers, can take to ensure a BRTand sys- ta paving the—way for its success. many moreto followed Thus was born the soul of port. Or the apple and spice Balvenie tem works its best suit. potential. A BRT system idea of blended Scotch whisky. After an initial Triple Wood. And the warm and tingly Glenfidcombines stations, vehicles, services, running Delhi-specific solutions uproar by information the Scottish distillers, were Reserve. It’s about endless And ways and technologylaws — all of dich BackSolera in 2009, EMBARQ, WRI India andjoy. CST Inmade the blend officially life through a wide lens.in The subthese and must work inwas tandem. Thesanctioned. daily man- seeing dia studied the Delhi busangle corridor detail. Blendedofwhiskies areto the visionsatofhigh artists nuances and despite interesting twists inthe thepilot adagement the system, function ca- tle They found that its successes, who, after understanding the personalities A fresh surprise at every pacity, is merely step one in getting it right. of venturous project hadapproach. experienced several setbacks durso Step many single malts from various areas themonths glass andofotherwise. two involves ensuring that the BRTand can corner. ing theInfirst operation. The probof varyinginto ages, the best of each,systo integrate theharness city’s existing transport lems included congestion in non-bus lanes, a mixologist, author, television host, create a new Each gemorhas a shatbhi tems, that is,masterpiece. connect people tolittle metros lastfrequentbasu busisbreakdowns in the segregated head confusion of Stir, a bartending in Mumbai unique character that you look to, ev- and mile modes of transport, suchforward as auto-ricklanes, over academy bus entry and exit

Q R

know

saturday, august 8, 2015

points, unauthorised pedestrian crossings (jaywalking) and faulty traffic signals. This led to customer dissatisfaction. To improve bus operations, the Delhi BRT must make four critical changes in its next iteration. One, the Delhi BRT should continuously monitor a set of key transport indicators, which will keep officials informed about operations at all times, anticipate problems and solve them ahead of time — rather than respond after something goes wrong, and make overall improvements to the system. The key indicators include travel time, bus frequency, passengers per vehicle, fleet size, monthly revenue, average user fare, operation costs, fuel consumption, average commercial speeds, annual fatalities and customer satisfaction. Two, it should adjust services to meet de- Not all aboard Members of the BJP Yuva Morcha, led by the then State party president Harshvardhan (second mand. The key indicators will flag traffic in- from right), demonstrate against the BRT corridor in New Delhi in April 2008 s subramanium creases during peak hours. Officials should step up services to meet this demand, and re- known that the initial response to the Delhi mental benefits. duce off-peak services to provide balanced ser- BRT was negative from some media outlets If one views mobility, clean air and liveable vice. Flexible route planning — namely, using and opinion makers, leading to a political fire- surroundings as basic rights for every citizen, short-loop routes and express routes to bypass storm. A sophisticated marketing strategy can then increased investments in BRTs become a certain stations — is one way of help promote not only the bus moral imperative. BRTs reduce the need for improving efficiency. corridor but also the benefits of car travel, mitigating air and noise pollution, Three, it should make sure mass transit; branded buses, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. They also customers are satisfied by offerterminals, maps, websites, vid- reduce accidents and ensure citizens get ing a clean, reliable, fast, safe eos, and educational messages much-needed physical activity. Not least, they Not least, they afford and comfortable service. Adare a part of this strategy. afford the elderly, women, people with disabilthe elderly, women, vanced GPS systems can help people with disabilities ities and the poorest citizens better access to manage operations and deMobility for all jobs and other benefits of city life. and the poorest mand in real time, and bus terAs environmentalist Sunita NaDelhi, and India at large, cannot afford to excitizens better access minals should be located close rain once wrote, “...the bottom clude BRT in the urban mobility portfolio. The to jobs and other to other mass transit points for line is this: our cities cannot ac- news that the Delhi Chief Minister intends to benefits of city life easy transfers. Terminals should commodate present and future introduce the BRT in an improved form is be built wider and longer to car populations”. We must not good indeed. Hopefully, the city will start avoid crowding. Easy-to-follow make the mistake, committed afresh, using lessons from the pilot to build a user information should be the world over, of expanding better BRT in the coming months. readily available to help passengers find their roads to tackle vehicle congestion. After decway around without difficulty. ades of building and maintaining expensive dario hidalgo is Director Integrated Transport Four, image management should be im- urban highways, many cities, including San Practice at the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities proved to ensure both citizens and the gov- Francisco and Seoul, are choosing to tear them and amit bhatt is Director for Sustainable Transport ernment support the BRT as it re-launches. It is down to gain social, economic and environ- at WRI India

Q R

takeaway know

BL BL 204

saturday, august 8, 2015 saturday, august 8, 2015

Always on my mind Home to hundreds of bars, you can spend your night listening to country music and jazz austin convention & visitors bureau

The true hipster city Manipur’s inner battle lines

Seething streets Protests erupted across Manipur valley following the July 8 death of a student at a rally held in Imphal to demand the implementation of the Inner Line Permit system pti

Austin, Texas, is enjoying its new status as home of all things cool, from Willie Nelson to vegan spreads to bat sightings

I S

t might have well been a scene from the Batman-Dark Knight trilogy. It’s close to sunset and a cloud of bats — probably a million, have just filled the skies. No, I’m not in a movie set but visibly frustrated at a vantageince point inpassing Austin, Texas, that the of Thedistraught Manipur Regumy camera cannot capture the visual spectalation of Visitors, Tenants and Migrant cle thatWorkers has just(MRVT&MW) unfolded before Bill, my 2015eyes. on “Christopher should seevalley this,” whispers MarchNolan 16, Manipur districts one the camera-wielding tourists. haveofbeen virtually placed under a deceptive Texas’s low-profile (isn’t that calm. Chiefonce Minister O Ibobicapital Singh introduced what most American capitals Legislative were envithe bill on the floor ofstate the Manipur sioned to be) is enjoying newbefore statusthe as one Assembly on March 13. Justitsa day bill of America’s coolest cities. clearly was passed, the writing onAnd theitwall wasdidn’t clear. happen accident. on Inner Line Permit SysThe Jointby Committee The(JCILPS) bat flight is not a round-the-year phe-a tem totally rejected the bill after nomenon; that’s The not the case with marathon thankfully deliberation. committee, Austin’s ever-growing list of ‘must dos’. Other which had been spearheading the demand for American cities may have taken years to build implementation of the Inner Line Permit Systheir carefully cultivated, larger-than-life tem (ILPS) in the state, accused the Ibobiimreages, butattempting not Austin. emergence onand all gime of to Its protect migrants America’s ‘hip — from entertainment to immigrants orlists’ visitors rather than the inter-century phenomenon cuisine, is indigenous clearly a 21stcommunities. ests of the fuelled by lifestyle TV shows andalleged blogs. JCILPSlargely convenor Ibotombi Khuman Austin even need the power measures of Hollythat thedidn’t bill was focused on safety wood. Austin-ites don’t much aboutrathHolfor outsiders visiting thecare state. Moreover, lywood either; at least that’s what er thancelebrities empowering authorities to deport they’d like you outsiders, to believe. the bill focused on transgressing punishing indigenous landowners who failed Tune capital to follow the regulations. Of Aallprominent the monikers thisleader city has embraced, woman of the JCILPS, nothing ringsOngbi truer than ‘Livealleged Music Capital of Lourembam Nganbi that the the I needed evening in the bill World’. was drafted onlyjust to one please the GovernRed River district somewhat come terms ment of India andto was not in favour ofto the peowith city’s bursting live music scene. The ple ofthe the state. Other committee members sheer rangeher at the 250-odd live music venues too echoed opinion. is mind-boggling. Willie willcow be proud JCILPS has vowed that Nelson it will not down (don’t ever ask an Austin-ite who Willie Nelson to either pressure from the Government or its is!), as quite a few venues are to country-music silence. It reiterated its resolve curb the un-

hubs while jazz and rock are high on the list though. These Mexican free-tailed bats (nearly too. Saxon Pub has been around longer than 1-1.5 million) emerge from under the Congress Austin has been cool — 22,000-plus musical Avenue Bridge and fly into the night — a daily performances since the ’90s. It is one of those sight at sunset between April and September.) venues where Hollywood celebriAustin’s music scene is not just a ties can blend in without bemagnet for visitors but has aling mobbed. Emo’s, just so been one of the reasons down the street, was one young people are shiftof the catalysts for Ausing base to the city. At tin’s booming punk last count, 131 people rock scene in the move to the city ev’90s; not surprisery single day, makingly they are ing Austin the third mighty proud of fastest growing their ‘rough city in the US. around the edges’ A significant image. number of CaliforStevie Ray Vaughnians make up that an, Dixie Chicks, number, an endorseShawn Colvin... Austin’s ment of the city’s hiplist of Grammy winners ster image. keeps growing. However, Of course, it’s not just all Willie Nelson’s bond with the about the lifestyle. The UniversiAustin music scene is particularty of Texas at Austin has been an ly special. In the ’70s he was part integral element of the city’s of the pilot episode of Austin City DNA since 1883, sparking off mulLimits (ACL), now the longesttiple tech start-ups. Michael Dell Of all the monikers running music programme in (Dell Computers) is one of the this city has television history (Time recogmany UT alumni who have led embraced, nothing nised it as one of the 10 most inthe way. rings truer than ‘Live fluential music programmes of Aside from the geek factor, the Music capital of the unending all time). ACL’s appeal didn’t justto subdue city’sagitations large student population Prolonged suffering Police attempt a student protester; and shutdowns have World’ crippled normal life in Manipur valley pti stop with television but inspired has allowed Austin to carve an one of the city’s biggest live muidentity that defies Texas stereoabated inflow ofAustin outsiders Robinhood, on July 8 after sic events — The Cityand Lim-to oppose the dent, Sapam types. One ofdied the city’s credos — state government’s move. sustained cam- he was reportedly hit by a teargas shellproudly during its Festival, held in the firstThe half one that every Austin-ite paign saw Manipur crippled by strikes a rally in Imphal. was finally of October, one of thevalley best times wearsThe ongovernment his or her sleeve, ‘Keep and Manipur government Austin forced to withdraw the bill 13. of this of theshutdowns. year to be inThe Austin. Weird’ has been at on theJuly centre was pushed the brink protesting stu- unique It then hurriedlyidentity. constituted a panel to (The bats to would haveafter left aAustin by then 21st-century

A Northeast corner burns again, as agitation for the Inner Line Permit system intensiﬁes

Q R

ND-X _ A

know

saturday, august 8, 2015

What is ILPS? Inner Line Permit System (ILPS) is based on the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873. These regulations were made under the Government of India Act, 1870 and Government of India Act, 1915, in the then province of Assam. Even after Independence in 1947, the regulation, which was originally intended to maintain peace while governing certain districts on the then Eastern Frontier of Bengal, was made applicable in parts of the present Northeast India. The regulation was originally applicable to the districts of Kamrup, Darrang, Nowgong, Sibsagar, Lakhimpur (now in Assam), Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Hills (now in Meghalaya), Naga Hills (Nagaland) and Cachar (Assam). Now it has been extended to Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.

●

Under the regulation, any person entering the prescribed and notified ‘inner line’ has to obtain a pass or permit. Further, the holder of such a pass shall, on breach of any restriction or condition, be liable ‘to imprisonment’ or fine or both. After Independence, there have been necessary omissions with regard to what were ‘British subjects or any class of British subjects’. The regulation also specified that it was against the law for those outside the ‘inner line’ to acquire any ‘interest in land or the product of land’.

●

In and out To regulate the entry of outsiders, agitators want passes issued to migrant workers pti

Hitting home The Ibobi regime is accused of protecting migrants and visitors rather than the interests of the indigenous communities pti

draft a new bill, promising to incorporate, more or less, all the demands put forth by JCILPS. Although the panel embarked on a series of consultations, it is unclear whether any headway has been made as the JCILPS publicly stated that it had not been formally invited for

The Backdrop In line with the longstanding demand for the implementation of the Inner Line Permit System (ILPS) in Manipur, the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS), made up of key organisations, was formed on July 5, 2012. The committee has since been spearheading a movement that seeks the passage of a bill by the Manipur Legislative Assembly, based on an earlier decision taken in 2005. The State Government consistently turned a blind eye to the demand. In 2011, a motion was moved in the Assembly on the issue. JCILPS argued that since the system was implemented in Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, it should be applied in Manipur too. It also argued that the unabated inﬂow of migrants and immigrants into Manipur had serious economic, social and political impact on the body politics of the indigenous people of Manipur.

deliberations. The drafting panel later stated committee has so far not made a commitment its intention to incorporate all the five de- to accept the five demands of the JCILPS. The mands of the JCILPS in an attempt to end a government’s ambiguous and non-transparstalemate that has crippled normal life in the ent moves are only serving to worsen the feelvalley districts of Manipur. ings of distrust and prolong the agitation in The five key demands of JCILPS are: issuing the valley districts of Manipur. passes to migrant workers arriving from outWhile JCILPS has placed its terms in the pubside the state at various entry points; making lic realm by organising a convention on July 1951 the cut-off base-year for implementation 23, the government appears to have lost its of the Bill; denying land ownerway as it labours under a self-imship rights to migrants who enposed restriction and the legal tered Manipur after 1951; framework. Along the way, the strengthening the labour definer details of separating the leVery few have dared partment for the registration gal component from the politito seek and unravel and regulation of inter-state mical core have been blurred, the political grant labourers; and detection rendering the current dispensacomponent of the and deportation of illegal tion virtually helpless. demand migrants. While one can see the potenAlthough observers weltial difficulties inherent in concomed the government’s wiltravening the Constitution of lingness to incorporate the India, very few have dared to seek essential components of the JCILPS’s de- and unravel the political component of the mands, they see it as too late and too little. The demands made so far. All the efforts up till government’s intention is also viewed with now have been governed purely by the expesuspicion by certain quarters. This trust defi- diency of legal framework. What the governcit was triggered primarily by the manner in ment failed to see is that all legal enactments which the government had disregarded the around the world have been triggered by the wisdom of those spearheading the movement need to consider the political core of any to protect the rights of indigenous communi- movement or situation. ties. By insisting on drafting a bill that was And it is this core that the ruling dispensawithin the ambit of the Indian Constitution, tion failed to consider. the government was seen to be anxious not to dhiren a sadokpam is Editor of Imphal-based displease New Delhi. What is apparent now is that the drafting English daily Hueiyen Lanapo

Q R

work read

BL BL 186

saturday, august 8, 2015 saturday, august 8, 2015

Co-worker cast in iron As packages pile up from booming e-commerce, retail and courier businesses, warehouse managers now have a helping hand with a difference — robots from Grey Orange

A Losing the plot

By the book Book fairs, such as the annual affair in Frankfurt, are not only places to refresh ties but also a ground to measure oneself against the grain and learn the tricks to get back into theBengaluru game t the warehouse of an e-

commerce giant, robots are moving shelves stacked with products. They take them to a ﬂoor assistant, who scans the barcode to conﬁrm the items. Called Butlers, these robots help each worker handle 500 items within an hour, compared with only 40-80 on their own. At courier company DTDC’s Delhi hub, robots called Sorters divide up the parcels for each city and then for the various pin codes within that city. They can segregate about ook lovers to shocking 3,500 parcels in an woke hour,up compared withnews 800 thismanually. week; thatAdditionally, Fact & Fiction when done theyBook can onethe of weight the Capital’s measureShop, not only of thebest-curatparcel but ed bookstores, hasheight, decided tothereshut also its length, breadth and and shop after over years. While another favouby calculate the30 space it would occupy during rite book place closes,Aspublishers are up scramthe onward journey. robots speed the bling toDTDC reachhas out to as its many readers as sorting, dropped plans for creatpossible. The book market, in terms of sales ing additional capacity. globally, still the music and moGrowing at supersedes a scorching pace in India, e-comvies sector. Inand times like today, whenare reading merce, retail courier businesses grapmeans and pling books, for Kindle, ways iPad, to smartphones meet customer more, publishers searching for strategies requirements in aare prompt and efficient manand who can helpstruggling satisfy thistoglobal ner. partners Warehouse managers keep appetite. fairsmultiplying often come toproducts the rescue — pace withBook rapidly and not only are they places tohave refresh ties, buthand also stock-keeping units now a helping awith ground to measure the grain a difference — oneself roboticagainst solutions from and theRobotics. tricks to get back into the game. Greylearn Orange For publishers,is one such revered place is the “Warehousing getting faster, just-in-time. Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF), held in Germany in It is also moving from business-to-business to October each year. It hosts over it7,100 business-to-consumer, implying is noexhiblongitors frommovement 106 countries and is from considered er about of goods cartonthe to most marketplace cartonimportant only,” saysglobal Samay Kohli, CEO for andpubcolishing. fair Orange. began inThe therange 15th of century, founder The of Grey prodwhen Johannes invented movable ucts and their Gutenberg handling operations are betype, andincreasingly is now the hallmark activities coming complex,of and this in is literature. So while the international book where robotic solutions can make a differtrade stakeholders mark this event ascompany the time ence, says Kohli, who co-founded the for re-invigoration of studying skills and withbusiness, Akash Gupta in 2011. While at ideas, and creating and reinforcing visibility, BITS Pilani, Kohli had developed a humanoid closer decided to erase India robot, home, AcYut,itathas thebeen college’s centre for robotout FBFthen this travelled year. ics. of Thethe duo to various robotic This is indeedincluding bad news for publishcompetitions, theIndian RobOlympics ers it breaks the precedence of many and and Robocup. years. CAPEXIL, theleaving international trade promoIn 2009, after college, Kohli and tion body, has excluded the FBF its trade Gupta started Grey Orange as from an education promotion Indian publishers and trainingcalendar companyand for robotics. However, are largely dependent on the CAPEXIL a visit to the chaotic warehouse of anfunding e-comto showcompany their books at FBF. merce in 2011 opened their eyes to vast number of Indian areThat intheA potential for robotics inpublishers warehouses. dependent or family-run operations; led to the ‘birth’ of Butler and Sorter. others employ a staff of three stands to fourfor to experience churn out Grey Orange — “grey limited titles aisyear which global reach in while orange for fun andhave youth” — has raised

With India staying out of the Frankfurt Book Fair this year, small publishers lose the chance to pitch their books at one of the biggest markets

ND-X _ A

translation. Book fairs, like Frankfurt, make Ministry of Commerce, it is learnt, has divertthis trade possible but a small Indian published the funds for book fair outreach in ASEAN, er is unable to finance an eye-catching pres- Latin America and Africa, though none of ence in this global marketplace on its own. For these regions have a B2B fair of a similar scale. countries like India, trade promotion activ- CAPEXIL claims to have applied to the ministry ities like these are of great relevance. for funds for FBF under the Market DevelopThe decision also affects publishing solu- ment Assistant (MDA) scheme, but it was apOn top of things Grey Orange Robotics co-founders Kohli andrejected Akash Gupta a robot a tion companies, which fall under the ITES ban-Samay parently aspose FBFwith is Butler, considered manufactured them to move shelves at anwas ecommerce segregates courier ner, as theirbypresence in Frankfurt also warehouse; European (above) marketthe bySorter virtue of its geography. parcels according to their destination enabled by such initiatives. India is known to Incidentally, the FBF receives more than twobe a leading outsourcing hub for digital pro- third of its participants from outside of Gerduction in publishing. While Athe ASEAN close to $10 million in a Series round, led reby many the Asian footfall is growing each Greyand Orange robots have already been ingion be in spotlight with asVenthe year. Tigerwill Global Management LLCIndonesia and Blume Statistics released at the FBF reveal stalled at 45 sites in India, andend theof client list inguest of honour at the fair and countries like that ture Advisors, along with investors Alok Rawat Frankfurt largest fair in several catecludes Jabong,is the Mahindra, Aramex, Flipkart Philippines present with their imand Dileep Nath. and Delhivery. gories. It is the biggest when it pressive collective representaToday, top e-commerce and courier compacomes children’s The starting price fortoa textbooks, Sorter is $70,000 and tions, be missing nies areIndians using itswill services in India. The compa- variants can cost books and even cookbooks, all up to half a million dollars; from action. ny pre-builds its robots and does not the Butler’s selling due to price the sheer number and starts at about Let me offer perspective customise themsome for clients. “We diversity of Orange the participants. $30,000. Grey will come on Book fairswhen continue to be arethis. R&D-focused; we sense absence inwith a newbecomes product more by JanuWith around 9,300 outOur the most important pain points, we place addressto triguing when one learns that ary, but Kohli declines to share accredited journalists showcase them,” saysauthors, Kohli. market conAssociation details just yet.of AllPublishers he is willfrom 70 countries, thethe tent establish Hisand clients get a backward return on and inin India and the Federation ing to say is “We plan to addofa Warehousing is 120 1,400 bloggers and forward vestmentbusiness in 12-14linkages months,along he Indian to Publishers are endeavour portfolio every getting faster, news agencies, the FBF product with allowing a function. continuous exsays. “It is a scale After ouring releaseunderstandathe ‘Indian year”. Andto that’s just-in-time. Our draws a lot of eyeballs pansion one’sitown knowledge. a certainofscale, is difficult to Book at ble, givenIndustry the rising Report’ number of robots don’t replace With around 9,300 accredited maintain efficiencies. Our roFrankfurt that this are year. This for recompanies opting people but make journalists from 70people countries, bots don’t replace but lease could have been leverautomation. them more efficient 1,400 bloggers 120 news make them more and efficient.” aged by a has strong Grey Orange grownIndian faster agencies, the FBF DTDC knows thisdraws well. aAtlot oneof collective than Kohli presence. and Gupta ever exeyeballs and therefore strategic to a countime, heavy inflow ofisparcels India is thepected only country invitedintwice — fromto25bepeople 2011 try’s arts and cultural had forced the courierdiplomacy. company to FBF as its guest of currently honour, in—1982 2006. to 260 and and is close to one hand, the Indian lion mayNot be roarto On consider expanding its facilities. any- It was an even. acknowledgment of what India ofbreaking Overseas, it sells its robots in ing ‘Make inSorter India’on in every nook and corner of fered more, with its side. “Our hub in Delglobal audience atwhich the fair. unHong the Kong and Singapore, are This proving the world, at25,000 the same time, packages literary works hi processes to 30,000 a day. predictable policy as a jolt to to be markets with change a “robustcomes demand”. from India just missed thecrunch bus toand the world’s We were facing capacity needed theNext literary community and a stab in China, the back on its itinerary are Japan and in most prolific ifliterary salon. It’ll a shame to of automation we wanted to be grow further. that is in transformation. Thisof is the thea trade next 12 months. With 40 per cent walk into the 4.0 —toFocus Asia — as pro- time With Sorter, weHall are able use the same facility to harness new channels of Grey outreach, not world’s robots already in Japan, Orange’s moted by FBF organisers,says andAbhishek not find ChakIndia clip with higher throughput,” existing ones. made-in-India robots will likely feel right at alongside the ASEAN community. raborty, executive director at DTDC Express. home in the land of the rising sun. the exclusion of automatically FBF from the prashasti rastogi is director, German Book Office AnApparently, in-built system in the robot the Frankfurt Book Fair in New Delhi rashmi pratap CAPEXIL is driven assigns aitinerary slot to each parcel.by fund issues. The of

Q Q R R

know

saturday, august 8, 2015

Pushing forth After the Suruc bombing, Turkey got NATO to concede a ‘safe zone’ where the opposition to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime could entrench itself. Here, Turkish soldiers carry coffins of colleagues killed in clashes afp

STATES OF MATTER

Turkey enters the fray Turkey got the memo on the US-led war on terror rather late and then misread it

sukumar muralidharan

Q R

talk watch

BL BL 16 8

saturday, august 8, 8, 2015 saturday, august 2015

Wordplay in Wonderland dipankar

Art and artefact blend perfectly at New York’s The Morgan Library & Museum to re-create Alice’s 150 years in Wonderland

NO IMPORTANT PEOPLE HARMED IN FLOODS!

Courtesy The Morgan Library& Museum

SHOVON CHOWDHURY is Down the rabbit hole (from left) ‘Nothing but a chief Truthdigger and author pack of cards!’ by John Tenniel, 1885; Lewis Carroll of The Competent Authority with lens; Alice Liddell in wreath as ‘Queen of May’, 1860 the morgan library & museum

othing much seems to be hap- although further details cannot be provid- Lok Sabha. The well of the house could be try, and the parts of Gujarat where no inheinterests Morgan Library & Museum a of result, one final pening in Parliament, so I am ed in the of national security.comUn- used for to kabaddi tournaments. In the evecampus practise his labour-intensive hob- dustrialists ministeredlive. in theAsform a pill.”no Carroll’s mands quiet respect among New nings, standing outside. I can still hear fortunately, alla our computers have been we could dosuch ghazal nights.that Thehe seatharmed. VIPs have by. It was on one mission wan- important poem inhas thebeen sequel, ‘Through the also LookingYorkers for its impeccably curated ing ideal Deanery, for thisthe shown common sense, and nonehis of musRahul Gandhi’s voice. His voice occupied with intensive porn monitoring, deredarrangements into the ChristareChurch Glass’good is a double acrostic that spelled literary museum was purpose, are going We are relieved. and the acoustics excellent.’ is much stronger. His holiday must have so we have beenexhibits. unable toThe initiate the procgarden belonging to theareDean of Christ them e’s full name:there. Alice Pleasance Liddell.This At every home and private library James have added to our ‘But what the floods?’ I ask,appointed ‘I hear would suited him. I am standing next to an under once ess.the Each of the 900 banned porn of sites had Church. Oneabout Mr Liddell had been point, Carroll took theheadaches. sanctity ofThese play absoMorgan and its exhibits cer- rumours be very The inconsiderate. They nev- menthatin over one million people secretary, who is holding a fly swatter. ‘I’m Pierpont large amounts of content, all ofevoke whicha had just recently, 1855, and Carroll spied are a girl people lutelycan seriously. Morgan specifically and These intimacy. sorry,’ he says, ‘I forgot to leave it in my of- tain tocosiness be verified. activities are now be- homeless, and over have Should think about our problems. of emrunning around the 100 garden hedied. wished to pho- er tions that “Alice and its Lack sequel do not aredown, treatedbut to many an array wegirl notwas beAlice. taking some steps?’ pathy is thewith single biggest holding that fice.’ ‘What are you doing here?’ I ask, ‘This Viewers ing scaled of of thematerial, officers tograph. The conclude a moral … athing breakthrough to manuscripts, by ‘That’s the only that silverAlice lining,’ area seems to be free of insects.’ ‘They sent from aremaps still recovering. Once and theyare feelguided stronger, From the exhibits we learn was an back theiscountry.’ considered an important deviation in numerous on generation the walls set in imaginative says ‘Shouldn’t children’s Parliament be doing me down from North Block to see if any- thewe will look artefacts at revenue activundergirl, secretary, ‘These andthe lively as seen literature. Thesomestories exdisplay cases. Thefor exhibit occurred in inpoorer thing, like making resolution, or allocatthing was happening in parliament,’ he long ities, to compensate lossesrooms causedare not through herevents possessions, which istato delight and inspire their large, but aoftour of them will take clude a ring, stationery, and says, ‘But the situation is the same.’ ‘Is it particularly by non-functioning parts of the asking (or thelisteners), PM to not do to be letters shecoun- ing funds, or readers something? Doesn’t it seemThanks a little to odd?’ true that they will be hiring out the Lok Sab- over an hour because the exhibits are densely wrote to her father. If the most successdidactic.” Carroll, ‘Nothing odd about says my a for ha for kabaddi tournaments?’ I ask. ‘The and cleverly configured. Currently on display ful books turn characters into real peobooksit,’were no friend, longer ‘It’s solely question of proper procedure. If anyone proposal is under consideration,’ he ac- is ‘Alice: 150 Years of Wonderland,’ which cele- ple, The Morgan inverts this dynamic adults or for children, and is thanks the culprit here,toit’sthe Sushma Swaraj. knowledges, ‘Naturally everything will be brates the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s to remind us that the fictionalMorgan, otherUntil exhibits done very transparently. Vendors will be se- most famous book, and uses a perfect blend of ised Alice was once a pre-pushe resigns from her position, there is noththere have showcased similar ing anyone can do.’ authors from Maurice Senlected through a process of online auction, art and artefact. bescent who liked jewelThe exhibit starts in 1856 with a display case lery and travelled with a dak to Beatrix Potter; from containing handwritten notes and page ex- writing case. Dear Debojyoti, Babar the elephant, to the tractsYou from Carroll’s ‘Doublets.’ Each misconexplains have revealed two common She also enjoyed advenlittle prince from Asteroid B-612. a new, invented and First we start to tures. On July 4, 1856, Alice and ceptions in oneword shortgame, question. of all, Vega explains that “books that discern and numMaggiaisman like infatuated our mother.byItletters has nurtured us her two sisters went on a boat are not classifiable are combers. Carrollthick — penand name forNo Charles Lutwidge through thin. sin can come ride and picnic with Carroll plex works, making them Dodgson — initially wrote 10 and another Oxford professor. from consuming Maggi.toIentertain was veryhis surmore interesting to look at.” Carroll’s response to the disappointing. is comn rowed news across described as ‘absolutely it’s true, is extremelyThe siblings. onlywhen wrote,injustice but also As they prised At at school, the lackhe of not protest the river, story of AliceThis is not innocuous request for a madeits bold colsmashing’ by for theaFashion published poetry a our collection was donewacky to Maggi. It’s in as if hearts titled have Alice asked Carroll story. Council of the same darling man pletewho without publishing story re-routed children’s India, the spotted recently our choices like fuchsia andWhen rani pink Useful andto Instructive Poetry. turned stone. If you are supporting MagHis response to PM thiswas innocuhiccups. the and first ediliterature away from our television wearing are-routed powder blue turban. ‘It real- aquamarine. Suddenly, Professionally, he taught mathematics and ous request gi at the individual level, that too by paying chiltion launched on Junesets 27, 1865, patronising Victorian ly suitsliterature him!’ says away Pinky Dutt, Hecomplained inspired others logic at Christ Oxford; this was extra, this isChurch, very praiseworthy. Youra man secdren’s from socialite and were filled with colour. Tenniel about the attitudes forever Without fashion designer, ‘It goesattiso well with his to follow in his footsteps. who could flex both the and right of patronising ond misconception is left regarding theside black Victorian poor quality of thehim, illustrahave ever worn that chest!’forever. Others Carroll are not so hiseconomy. brain. Working with the these As you know, realmanuscripts, estate martudes didsure. not‘Some people would Arun Jaitley tions. Carroll ordered a comsay want he looks inthat anything, but burnt orange kurta withreprint, that scrumptious and paper toy theatre that conservaketCarroll’s is almost entirely supported by black just to tellgood a story afplete shipping the Ally Subramaniam was born in the shawl? Although be fair, shawlswhere that’s just saystoRocky tors helped herestate display, Vega ternoon. money. Real is acurator crucialCarolyn component Hesilly,’ wanted recre-Manfirst to edition tohis America South-West Sundarbans, but was chanda, one half of to renowned haveCarroll alwaysnor been scrumptious. If readestablishes Carroll’s in timekeeping of “interest our economy. Beyond ate what he had tried do for his siblings as a neither Tenniel cared about blown away by a cyclone and washed there’s one heedition can pick, it’s a fashion duo Rocky and Man-as a professor: ers’ reactions. and science in the macro-economics, natural world” before show- teenager, considand for his students Thething second was released up on the shore near Chennai. He shawl, and I’m not just saying this deep. ‘How can someone look ing off the original Alice manuscript so that er the human factor. So create a world out of puzzles and give her the in the UK in 1866, and has not been out of print was adopted by a poor Brahmin good If you put a because he runs the Income Tax viewers could “start with a base understandmany construction workers rest of in heranything? life to solve them. since then. family from Tirupur. He can answer all your questions. Just send them to Department. That’s why sack Angelina would ing about Carroll are — not something you walked earning a livelihood. By For over the next three Jolie, months, Carroll worked A second perambulation of this the climb exhibits reaskallysubramaniam@gmail.com. shethe look good? I that don’thad think so. Perby the PM isbetween so disappointoff the street knowing.” supporting the black econoon narrative begun that day. He veal adown curious parallel two photodidisall boldness sonally, IEngland’s thought wearing a green illustrator, graphs oning. Having set the tone expect from selected my, for youwhat areto supporting most esteemed the Where wall. One ofthe Alice, her smiling ear Ally, go? Powder so wishyand Tenniel, maroontoBenarasi sari with on him, but the gaze on something Carroll — words, games, humour — theasex- John them.and Please be rest collaborate farblue away.isThe neighbourI bought Maggi washy.isFrankly, expected his head on persuading. Independence hibit begins at thesured beginning: how Dodgson and continue with latter needed Undeterred, Carroll ing photograph Carroll’swe own portrait; he, in black. Am I a bad muchinto more. Let’s hope he gets Day was pushing it too became Carroll; his earlyefforts. poems The and instinct your nation chose bright red for the far. cover, “the most at- too, is staring another world. What are person? But at least he was trying. back hislooking mojo soon. I’m we hopfor publishing; and histhank love of photography. It tractive will you. to childish eyes.” He rejected the they both so busy at, while look so Regards, Debojyoti, Hooghly This powder if for something in magenta.’ was not easy to be anYours amateur photographer Affectionately, Ally. working title, blue Alice’sturban, Adventures Underground, fixedly at ing them? in the 1820s, but Carroll could easily find land- because it sounded “too like a lesson book, in The Investigator is a fortnightly round-up of all things droll and All views are personal. Really personal t@shovonc scapes andnewsy. subjects on Oxford’s picturesque which instruction about mines would be ad- aditi sriram is a New York-based freelance writer

PM SPOTTED IN BLUE TURBAN! Q

ASK ALLY

ND-X _ A

talk

saturday, august 8, 2015

THE CRITICAL ISSUE

Q R

Urvashi Butalia is an editor, publisher and director of Zubaan

cover watch

saturday, august 8, 2015

14 10

Thousand words… from Lithuania An exhibition of children’s book illustrations from Soviet Lithuania rekindles nostalgia in a generation of readers who connected across geographies through a common visual story Filomena Uðinskaitë’s cover for Naðlaitë (The Orphan) shows the inﬂuence of the European art deco tradition

anthropology, as the wealth of information in the children’s books of this era, especially their art, became apparent. “It is the visual documentary of a recently disappeared epoch,” sums up Jankevièiûtë. The period saw a marked change in the artistic styles of children’s book illustrators. “The historical details provided by the books in this era are countless, as the illustrations show a palpable shift — from the imprint All at attention Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (left) — often obdurate to a fault — lines up with his team before the match against Chelsea at the FA Community Shield of communist ideologies in the Soviet images reuters / darren staples in the ’40s and ’50s to later, when the impact is much less and the focus returns to daily life, In Kelionë á griová (Journey to the Ditch), Arûnas Tarabilda’s work recalls early Vaclovas Kosciuška’s illustrations for the picture-book Du gaideliai (Two Little animals as people, and other themes. The shift Soviet experiments that integrated drawings and photos in children’s books Cocks) had a Disney-like cartoony style, yet they depicted everyday scenes Coaches at the centre from uniformity to individualistic material, What’s managers at form, each ofis the big both inmore, termsthe of content and visible Visual Culture at the Lithuanian Culture Re- through four clubs remain unchanged going into the this collection,” she adds. search Institute, the exhibition fit in with Tara new season. Theiron distinct From the prints display,personalities one can traceand the Books’ focus on the international culture of evolution coaching philosophies will add vigour to the of the illustrations. The pre-war the picture-book. title race. Mind-games between the quartet — Lithuanian books featured folktales and tracanof occasionally overemphasised factor — have es western influences such as art deco, and Bygone era already Arsenal’sRussian recent narrow even popbegun. art; anAfter increasingly flavour An entire generation grew up with Soviet crept 1-0 victory against Chelsea in the Community in later. The ’50s saw the depiction of sobooks in the ’60s and ’70s, says V Geetha, Edito- cialist Shieldideals — a supposedly friendly precursor to as real, while the reality was comrial Director of Tara Books. As the books were pletely the Premier League — Arsenal’s manager, Ardifferent, Jankevièiûtë explains. In the modestly priced and translated into local lan- ’60s, sene the Wenger, conspicuously refused to shake illustrations appeared to break away guages, they were made accessible in every from Mourinho’s hand. Socialist Mourinho has, inand theprevipast, the enforced realism, way. “And despite the political repression and ously lookedbanned upon Wenger withlike veritable techniques paper derision. cuts and dysfunctional economy of the Soviet era, these photo Perhaps, this was Wenger’s idea of acknowlmontage gained prominence. books were remembered with warmth,” she edging mutualthe contempt. Thesewere dynamics beAltogether, new layouts brighter adds. That nostalgia was familiar to many in and tween thedynamic, managers can appear more and thesometimes focus shifted away the intimate gathering of Sovietpuerile. Fortunately, the changes the aplayfrom ideology. Thereinwas reera book enthusiasts who had ing squads this summer that the sideturn to popsuggest art, surrealism and come, with their young kids in shows aretraditional likely Lithuanian to be rightfully folk art. a fewtogames into the 2014-15 season. Their ri- overshadowed his evening, as Manchester United tow, hear Jankevièiûtë speak by the action on the Holding up a book byfield. the artist It is the visual host Tottenham Hotspur at Old Traf- about vals — Manchester City,works Arsenal these printed ofand ManchesAmongst the top Repsys four teams, Petras fromManchester 1971, she documentary of a Paper-cut art used by illustrator Lidija Glinskienë in ford, millions of Indians — possibly their ter United crippled by weaknesses in one City, champions shared—childhood. theout season last, have points that before the illustrations recently disappeared Kate ir balandis (The Cat and the Pigeon) or another, proved utterly inmade the most as many as, if not more than those significant Lithuaniaarea was an unusual curious But, thefound signwere in thedealings. Baroque-style epoch watching in the UK — will glue themselves to choice capableofof partner, mounting anything admits Tara resembling a ing of Raheem fromEuropean Liverpool should in Sterling medieval books, thantoten summers spent ata Books meaningful challenge. This, who to Mourinho, ever quicken theirwhere their TVs. If ore we are trust some reports, Publisher Gita Wolf, fans’ pulses. It is recognised that even the text was handgrandparents’ place the meant the arch egotist, provided much perverse plea- City’s squad written whopping 35my million in India follow for- was inspired to bring the exhibidoes notinneed an substantial attempt toovergo entire afternoons in the tunes of Manchester United alone. It’shumid likely tion sure.toThe eventsafter of the pastit few months, haul. After all, Chennai visiting in the last four seasons, City “against anonymous typograKerala dedicated perforce though, perhaps portend a difthat these figures areheat grossly exaggerated. But at the Bologna Book Fair last year. Despite the phy”. The economic have either wonofthe or collapse theleague ’80s saw to the ‘library’ fandom — a dustyis old bookshelf. After geographical long-distance today a legitimate ferent kind ofdistance a season,and andlanguage a barrier, publishing slow finished downrunners-up. drastically, with some endless re-readings of favourites such as the the more compelling the phenomenon. That the Premier League — Brifact that thesebattle booksfor connected a genera- books publishedThey an expensively aftercomprise a gap of several years. Famous Five, onefootball summercompetition we stumbled a tion championship. tain’s foremost —upon is now through a common visual story is reason group thatthebrims Through theassembled five decades it covers, exhiyellowing pileis ofundeniable. magazines filled with colour- enough to believe that children’s books a global affair Equally incontroare a bition talent. Thesewas inshowswith that attacking in Lithuania, which Long-distance fandom ful art and stories aboutrising children with strange vertible is the league’s popularity in In- veritable Arrows insource the quiver of not just art, but also histoclude, among others, Argentiforced into the Soviet Union, the artists ‘negois today a legitimate names — Sasha, Enraptured, dia. To this Nikolai legionandofIgor. fans, today’s ry Each the three main comandofanthropology, Jankevièiûtë says. phenomenon na’s and Sergio Aguero, virtuoso tiated censorship identity fromawithin’, V we thumbed through collection once petitors has Union, made smart and, inaugurated Geetha says. Illustrations curtain-raiser to a newthe season of thethat Premier The Soviet says Geetha, striker who in is children’s both a scorer of books had ourwill parents in thrall whenofthey were ainpublishing some cases,culture expensive League represent a renewal an obsesthat purwas not geared to were seen as art, great goals great goalwhere the and visualaimagery was around our age. all the fans, barring support- the chases in theAnd summer’s transsion. And almost market. whether or not one agrees vital — often the scorer; Spain’s David text said one thing andSilva, the arta world will of exotic-sounding babushka, fer window, infusing their was a publish- entirely another. ersThis of Chelsea, be hoping for a tighter title with the ideology, the takeaway player of silken genius, capable borscht was conjured once again ing race thisand timerubles around. teams with that newistalent. Chelsea, the other culture creative, viableon and not dic- of As making the spectacular easy; and the Jankevièiûtë sums it look up, much as chilin Last Chennai recently, at ‘ALeague, Journey Time season’s Premier inacross spite of the tated hand, by have surprisingly quietthat in their thebeen market, something Tara dren’s Ivorianbooks midfielder Yaya Toure, canconvenbe a deare influenced bywho global and Context (1940 to 1990)’, an exhibition of Books tournament’s reputation for delivering excitetrading, makingwith. only sparse additions to their tions, identifies structive powerhouse-of-a-player. at they are also very localToure andhas, very children’s book illustrations from squib. Soviet ChelLith- squad. Mourinho possibly believes in the ad- detailed, ment, quickly turned into a damp times, thrown fits and has harwhichchildish makes them ideal foreven cultural uania. The venuebywas city-based Tara age ‘if storytelling it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. sea, managed thethecaptivating and Visual boured thoughts of leaving City.around Why? The exchange. “That’s why they travel the Books, a publishing house childrenwere and The occasionally obnoxious Josefor Mourinho, But, with competitors expectedexto world idea forChelsea’s the exhibition, Jankevièiûtë club forgot buy a birthday But when to they arehim translated. Theycake. provide adults that doubles as a far bookstore evenof a plains, make further dips into the market, which clostactically and physically superiorand to each was initially limited to art during the awhen in right spirits, Toure’s natural abilities cultural link between different countries.” gallery. Curated by Giedrë Jankevièiûtë, re- Soviet their opponents. Their crowning as chames on August it seemsfrom the gap theto top is force one to suspend disbelief, which is what rule in30, Lithuania, theat’40s the searcher in the Department of Art History and beingSoon, bridged. pions of England seemed inevitable as early as ’90s. it expanded to include history and elizabeth we ask andmathew expect of sport.

The best is yet to come

While Chelsea prevailed at last season’s Premier League, this time around there is plenty more to look forward to; with revamped teams and new strategies

T M

Q R Q R

ND-X _ A

cover watch

saturday, august 8, 2015

Watch me being a woman

titles, including three as Chelsea’s first-choice stopper. Although one shouldn’t read too much into Arsenal’s victory in the Community Shield, it nonetheless showcased their readiness for the season ahead — Cech’s signing, if nothing else, has instilled in the team’s defence a sense of comfort. Of all the top four teams, though, it’s possible to argue that Manchester United have made the best signings. Since the retirement judge. of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, United have masWhile her art is radical, is disarmingly sively underachieved. Last she season, under the friendly andLouis down-to-earth She Dutchman van Gaal, in theperson. club only chooses to the quiet place basement a sandwich scraped a fourth finish.ofBut this sumshop van for our interview. mer, Gaal has had a touch of a dictator “I realise that been not everyone is going tothe be about him. He’s ruthless in ridding happyofwith the thingsand I ameach saying or five the way team its deadwood of the play-I am that saying shein,admits. At answers the same ers he’sthem,” brought thus far, a time, she’s come toHis believe that her best work specific necessity. signings, especially in happens when herself, and stays clear of midfield, of theshe’s Frenchman Morgan Schneinotionsfrom suchSouthampton as ‘high art’.and “If you stick with derlin the legendary who youBastian are, youSchweinsteiger are going to get much furGerman from Bayern ther — that’s my advice problem. to people,”They she Munich curealways a longstanding says with abite gentle will bring cleverness, andlaugh. assurance to I askBut herit’s about title of the her United’s midfield. the the signing named after aDepay tongue-inyoung Dutchbook, forward Memphis that cheekfans piece she did of herself has had the club’s most excited. upathose words. “You ofenduring troubled childhood, Her work onDepay, her afterholding hear people shined in Theten Netherlands oversaying the last‘oh twoI Muslim identity have done myself or he’s already built that like an ox. He’s sparked a seasons. media At 21,could my five-year-old couldgoals havein done and creating all frenzy, a capable brick of scoring mimics, in good huform. she Given the fear amongst through themanner window andthat,’” mour. the team could still come unand a deathUnited threatfans that While she makes light of the done due to potential departures, especially indignation her generthat of the Argentine Angel di work Mariahas to Paris St things have been far from Germain, theated, club will place much reliance on easy. the Herfireworks. work onIfher Muslim Depay to provide goalkeeper identity sparked media frenzy, a brick David de Gea, who ais wanted by Real Madrid, through theUnited, window and a death threat. ‘The also leaves the club will require furOpposite of a Feminist’ particuther restructuring in a has coreattracted area, before the lar hostility, though she’s been surprised by end of August. How United manage this feat the number peopleYet, who’ve once might proveofcrucial. it’s acquiesced unquestionable it wasUnited explained to them. that are better equipped to challenge brushed off or even embraced some of forShe’s major honours this season — indeed it the criticism. When onefor commenter putdo down would be inexcusable them to not so. her success to might her being “attractive MusChelsea’s fans view the club’sand relative lim” she over put the on her website. serenity thestatement summer asup a sign of stability. In spite of their obvious attacking prowess, out competition) in both the last two seasons. But, However, recent Guardian piece led toCity, anothgivenathe changes at Manchester ArCity occasionally lacked spark in their forward Each of the preceding three summers has seen senal er flurry online interest, she debated andof Manchester Unitedand — many of them Takelast thatseason. Sarah Maple’s many to of help them Agueself-portraits, have garnered attention, praise and condemnation play It is toworks, this end, Arsenal sign players of exceptional attacking positive the pros—and of have reading the hundreds of onecons might expected Chelsea to courtesy sarah maple ro, Silva and Toure rediscover their magic, that ability. In 2012, the club signed Spain’s Santi be comments with who had read more active inher the husband, transfer window. There’s City have splashed £49 million on Sterling — a Cazorla, who is small in stature but capable of no them. “He asked wasChelsea the worst thing denying that me lastwhat season were offee that represents transfer nexpecteda new moments canrecord provefor to outlandish feats on the field — he’s one of ten anyone could sayTheir about you and I said, ‘that imperious. Belgian forward EdenI English players. Twenty-year-old is far those rare footballers who are equally adept Hazard be life-changing ones.Sterling For 30-yearam sillyis and doing this forofthe fastjust becoming one theattention.’” best playfrom a finished product. ButSarah he’s Maple, a playerone of with both feet. In the summer old British artist ‘Then you’d better not possibly read them,’” ers in the world, just shyhe of mercurial such talent, and possesses great speed before last, Arsenal signed moment was when a universiresponded.the bracket comprising Lionel Mesand directness in styleshe thatdo cana prove decisive from Real Madrid Germany’s ty tutor suggested photography Her experiences with social mediaBut, have, si and Cristiano Ronaldo. as on counter-attacks. hiscredits. age, City clearly course, partly to gainGiven course While do- Mesut Özil, whose touch and however, given her further material to work the season wore on, especially beOf all the top four see as “crits” a player for the future, the vision can at times belie imaging Sterling a round of — discussing eachbut other’s with. “In the past asMarch an artist you might get a ginning this year, Chelsea teams, though, it’s price suggests that they alsothat expect himher to ination. But perhaps their work tag — she noticed something made bad reviewtended but youtodidn’t hundreds and waver,have causing Mourinho possible to argue that contribute to“Every their immediate revival. “very angry.” time the men stood up to signing last summer of the hundreds of voices.toWhen you have so many to revert a more conservative apManchester United City are to solve in their de- Chilean forward Alexis Sanspeak, we still listened to problems them… while when different opinions, wheresits does that with leave his an proach, which better have made the best fence, which often appeared beleaguered women got up to speak we berated them.last We chez, from Barcelona, was the artist? If you get affected by opinions all the general footballing philosophy. signings season. But issues were overshadwere taking menin personnel more seriously, subcon- one that came closest to comtime you don’t make you aresigntoo Thus far, anything the only — notable owed by their sciously, than manager women.” Manuel Pellegrini’s be- pleting their squad. Sanchez, a busy getting by what ingstressed Chelseaout have madepeople is thesay!” Collief“It in tactical set-up that demanded hadanever occurred to me before this mo- vivacious figure, boasts an She believes that thestriker fact she’s not addressed ombian Radamel Falcao, substantial the team’s central ment that work beingfrom a woman would holdmidme ability to finish moves with her Muslimwho background in recent works may had a wretched spell on loan fielders. Toure, at anyin rate, back,” sheCity’s said, lynchpin when we met recently Lon- unerring accuracy, a quality of substantial at be Manchester linked to the backlash faced in the United last she’s season, looking a didn’t putting in theofhard In the don tofancy discuss the release the yards. first book of premium in Europe. past.shadow of his former self. Chelsea can do pale pre-season friendly fixtures this “Isummer, her work, You Could Have Done This. rememYet, even though Arsenal seemed to streng- with Islam will be an issue she returns to inlack a new greater variety in attack, and still efthough, Pellegrini adopted a more varied then ber thinking ‘I wishhas I had a penis’.” garnered praise, condemnation, their attention, squads every summer, there ap- fective projectback-ups on freedom of expression and censorto their star midfielder, Cesc approach. a central midfielder to peared Back in He’s 2007,added she took a photo of herself, even threats. of photographs of at herthe in Fabregas, to beAaseries few noteworthy voids ship, made possible a scholarship she’s and to the by ingenious Hazard. It’s,just no the 11 at in thea cost strikerand — ahijab move(she which, dressed longof reda dress was team’s a burqacore andlast hijab has attracted particular at- doubt, year. Wenger found a solution won from Sky Arts. her the trigger the possible thatFor Chelsea might yetwas make a puzzlingly, makeby theher team more dynambrought upcould a Muslim Iranian mother to tention: in a stark black-and-white one within the club. In Decemberone 2014,she’s the few Charlie Hebdo massacre and the conversations more additions to their squad, before the ic in English their forward and father)play. and holding a piece of pa- Frenchman smoking, in another wearing ‘I heart end Francis she’s Coquelin wasanrecalled that of unfolded “There to was much bulAugust.online. Their failure dososo, though, like Pellegrini, manager Wen- from perMuch bearing the words Arsenal You Could Have Done Orgasms’ badge. his loan spell at Charlton Athletic, and might lying online andcompetitors so much judgment you give their the perfectiffillip ger alsoposted often obdurate fault. But late was This,isand it online.to“I afinally realised Feminism is her theme. There’s to tasked with thedominant responsibility of anchordidn’t wanta to saychallenge, ‘Je suis Charlie’. I am going mount title something their last hethe showed signs burying in- ing thatseason, this was kind of art of that wouldhis allow ‘Menstruate Pride’He—hasn’t a painting her fans Arsenal’s with midfield. lookedofback to reflect my Muslim identity because I’ve will on relish. A closely fought Premier herent attitude to win to games me to say what I—wanted say,” by shedazzling says. “It since, standing a dress stained and proudly has oftenwearing performed the role with League got a new it now,” she says. willview alsoofraise the levels of enthusiasm opponents with — intricate passing and move- admirable started so much it still sums up so much.” with blood,élan. as people stand by and stare in across Just the howglobe, that new perspective takes shape including amongst supportment — and on greater and bet- horror. Since thenrelied Maple’s rise hassolidity been meteoric. one ofhas hersought favourites, she’sthe holding Now, In Wenger to cure other ers through theto magic of the Maple’s provocative imin India, whom Premier League repter defensive organisation. Barely six months later, sheWenger’s won thesignings Saatchi issue up the ‘The Opposite of squad: a Feminist is an atsign the heart of Arsenal’s finding a resents ages will be something sporting nirvana.to watch for over the in recent New timesSensations have also been impressive. Gallery’s Award. She’s heldAr10 goalkeeper Arsehole’. And there’srepute. a seriesThis featuring Disney of sturdy summer, the months to come. senal have made steady strides, andjoint haveones. won only solo exhibitions and numerous princesses: herself as that SnowArsenal White,have working in suhrith parthasarathy is a Chennai-based lawyer first-team player signed writer vidya ram the Cup many (England’s chiefself-portraits, domestic knockHer FA works, of them have thus a laboratory, asCech, Jasmine dispensing justice as a and far is Petr who has won four league

British artist Sarah Maple is a media sensation with her sassy and smart images and art

Friends, fans and enemies (Clockwise from top left) Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho have made their mutual contempt obvious for all to see reuters/andrew couldridge; The signing of Raheem Sterling from Liverpool should quicken the pulses of Manchester City fans reuters/jason o’brien;

Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, posing for a selﬁe with fans, is fast becoming one of the best players in the world reuters/ Andrew

couldridge

Q R

ND-X _ A

11 15

shoot

saturday, august 8, 2015

Paint the town Gokarna the tourist destination is a new discovery, one the disenchanted beach bums warmed up to as they sped away from the tired tourist spots of Goa. Though a late entrant, tourism is quickly leaving its mark about town, the most visible being the funky wall graffiti everywhere. Here, a blue-skinned Aghori baba gives directions in French

Kitschy love Another from the graffiti town, this mural has Krishna getting cosy with Radha

One for the postcard Modern houses dot Gokarna, but one can still ﬁnd traditional Konkani houses with their red-tiled, sloping roof and surrounded by greenery

Centre point At the heart of Gokarna is the lotus-ﬁl stone lingams in them

Much-inspired A colonnaded house shows off its E

Go Gokarna Gone Life in the temple beach-town is one of wondrous susegad

here are many places in India named after the cow. Two such places are neighbours — Goa and Gokarna. The latter takes its name from the ear (karna) of a cow (Gau), from which emerged Lord Shiva. A quaint temple town, it is perhaps the oldest place in the Konkan, which finds mention in both the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The ancient Shiva temple of Mahabaleshwar sits in the centre of the town. Even when neighbouring Goa saw 450 years of Portuguese rule, Gokarna remained unchanged. Before being ‘discovered’ as a tourist destination, the town was populated with Sanskrit scholars, shrewd priests, easygoing fishermen, florists and farmers. The town’s unhurried pace and laidback culture are hallmarks

of the famed Konkani ‘susegad’. Modern Gokarna’s charm derives chieﬂy from its old-world character. Losing oneself in the town’s lanes, you ﬁnd traditional Konkani homes sharing walls with temples and Udupi restaurants. On Shivratri, you will see throngs of pilgrims queuing up at the temple, while the hippie-tourists head straight to the beaches of Kudle, Paradise and Half-moon in the southern part of the town. During the monsoons, the beaches, lined with shuttered shacks and simple home-stays, stay blissfully empty. This is the best time to visit the town, when the only people on the coast are collectors of driftwood and gleeful children. As the rain falls ceaselessly and the sea roars. ayan ghosh is a writer-photographer based in Kolkata

Sparkling tokens Shops around the Mahabaleshwaa

shoot

saturday, august 8, 2015

lled Koti Teertham. Pilgrims do their ablutions here before visiting the Mahabaleswar Temple, while priests perform rituals along its paved ghats. By the banks are small shrines with

Salute the snake god A snake temple with a wall full of nagakkal, or snake-stones, smeared with turmeric and vermillion. The reptiles are revered as fertility symbols and believers donate a snake-stone as thanksgiving for a wish fulďŹ lled

European E inďŹ&#x201A;uences, including an extended verandah and gabled roof

aar Temple beckon pilgrims and locals with their brass and copper utensils, and souvenirs

Deck the deity The Mahaganapathi Temple is a popular pilgrim spot in town. Flower sellers wait outside for customers

Priest and prayer Gokarna is a major centre for Sanskrit learning. The town is dominated by the priestly class, most of whom belong to the community of Goud Saraswat Brahmins. They came to Gokarna after the Portuguese colonisation of Goa

ND-X _ A

cover watch

saturday, august 8, 2015

14 10

anthropology, as the wealth of information in the children’s books of this era, especially their art, became apparent. “It is the visual documentary of a recently disappeared epoch,” sums up Jankevièiûtë. The period saw a marked change in the artistic styles of children’s book illustrators. “The historical details provided by the books in this era are countless, as the illustrations show a palpable shift — from the imprint All at attention Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (left) — often obdurate to a fault — lines up with his team before the match against Chelsea at the FA Community Shield of communist ideologies in the Soviet images reuters / darren staples in the ’40s and ’50s to later, when the impact is much less and the focus returns to daily life, In Kelionë á griová (Journey to the Ditch), Arûnas Tarabilda’s work recalls early Vaclovas Kosciuška’s illustrations for the picture-book Du gaideliai (Two Little animals as people, and other themes. The shift Soviet experiments that integrated drawings and photos in children’s books Cocks) had a Disney-like cartoony style, yet they depicted everyday scenes Coaches at the centre from uniformity to individualistic material, What’s managers at form, each ofisthe big both inmore, termsthe of content and visible Visual Culture at the Lithuanian Culture Re- through four clubs remain unchanged going into the this collection,” she adds. search Institute, the exhibition fit in with Tara new season. Theiron distinct From the prints display,personalities one can traceand the Books’ focus on the international culture of evolution coaching philosophies will add vigour to the of the illustrations. The pre-war the picture-book. title race. Mind-games between the quartet — Lithuanian books featured folktales and tracanof occasionally overemphasised factor — have es western influences such as art deco, and Bygone era already Arsenal’sRussian recent narrow even popbegun. art; anAfter increasingly flavour An entire generation grew up with Soviet crept 1-0 victory against Chelsea in the Community in later. The ’50s saw the depiction of sobooks in the ’60s and ’70s, says V Geetha, Edito- cialist Shield ideals — a supposedly friendly precursor to as real, while the reality was comrial Director of Tara Books. As the books were pletely the Premier League — Arsenal’s manager, Ardifferent, Jankevièiûtë explains. In the modestly priced and translated into local lan- ’60s, sene the Wenger, conspicuously refused to shake illustrations appeared to break away guages, they were made accessible in every from Mourinho’s hand. Socialist Mourinho has, inand theprevipast, the enforced realism, way. “And despite the political repression and ously lookedbanned upon Wenger withlike veritable techniques paper derision. cuts and dysfunctional economy of the Soviet era, these photo Perhaps, this was Wenger’s idea of acknowlmontage gained prominence. books were remembered with warmth,” she edging mutualthe contempt. Thesewere dynamics beAltogether, new layouts brighter adds. That nostalgia was familiar to many in and tween thedynamic, managers can appear more and thesometimes focus shifted away the intimate gathering of Sovietpuerile. Fortunately, the changes the aplayfrom ideology. Thereinwas reera book enthusiasts who had ing squads this summer that the sideturn to popsuggest art, surrealism and come, with their young kids in shows are traditional likely to be rightfully Lithuanian folk art. a fewtogames into the 2014-15 season. Their ri- overshadowed his evening, as Manchester United tow, hear Jankevièiûtë speak by the action on the Holding up a book byfield. the artist It is the visual host Tottenham Hotspur at Old Traf- about vals — Manchester City,works Arsenalofand Manchesthese printed Amongst the top Repsys four teams, Petras fromManchester 1971, she documentary of a Paper-cut art used by illustrator Lidija Glinskienë in ford, millions of Indians — possibly their ter United crippled by weaknesses in one City, champions shared—childhood. theout season last, have points that before the illustrations recently disappeared Kate ir balandis (The Cat and the Pigeon) or another, proved utterly inmade the most as many as, if not more than those significant Lithuaniaarea was an unusual curious dealings. But, thefound signwere in the Baroque-style epoch watching in the UK — will glue themselves to choice capableofof partner, mounting anything admits Tara resembling a ing of Raheem fromEuropean Liverpool should inSterling medieval books, ore are thantoten summers spent ata Books meaningful challenge. This, who to Mourinho, ever quicken theirwhere their TVs. If we trust some reports, Publisher Gita Wolf, fans’ pulses. It is recognised that even the text was handgrandparents’ place the meant the arch egotist, provided much perverse plea- City’s squad written whopping 35my million in India follow for- was inspired to bring the exhibidoes notinneed an substantial attempt toovergo entire afternoons in the tunes of Manchester United alone. It’shumid likely tion sure.toThe eventsafter of the pastit few months, haul. After all, Chennai visiting in the last four seasons, City “against anonymous typograKerala dedicated perforce though, perhaps portend a difthat these figures areheat grossly exaggerated. But at the Bologna Book Fair last year. Despite the phy”. The economic have either wonofthe or collapse theleague ’80s saw to the ‘library’fandom — a dusty bookshelf. After geographical long-distance is old today a legitimate ferent kind ofdistance a season,and andlanguage a barrier, publishing slow finished downrunners-up. drastically, with some endless re-readings of favourites such as the the more compelling the phenomenon. That the Premier League — Brifact that thesebattle booksfor connected a genera- books publishedThey an expensively aftercomprise a gap of several years. Famous Five, onefootball summercompetition we stumbled championship. tain’s foremost — upon is nowa tion through a common visual story is reason assembled group thatthebrims Through the five decades it covers, exhiyellowing pileis ofundeniable. magazines filled with colour- enough to believe that children’s books a global affair Equally incontroare a bition talent. Thesewas inshowswith that attacking in Lithuania, which Long-distance fandom ful art and stories aboutrising children with strange vertible is the league’s popularity in In- veritable Arrows insource the quiver of not just art, but also histoclude, among others, Argentiforced into the Soviet Union, the artists ‘negois today a legitimate names — Sasha, Enraptured, dia. To this Nikolai legionand ofIgor. fans, today’s ry Each the three main comandofanthropology, Jankevièiûtë says. phenomenon na’s and Sergio Aguero, virtuoso tiated censorship identity fromawithin’, V we thumbed through collection once petitors has made and, inaugurated Geetha says. Illustrations curtain-raiser to a newthe season of thethat Premier The Soviet Union,smart says Geetha, striker who in is both a scorer of children’s books had ourwill parents in thrall whenofthey were ainpublishing some cases,culture expensive League represent a renewal an obsesthat purwas not geared to were seen as art, great goals great goalwhere the and visuala imagery was around our age. all the fans, barring support- the chases in theAnd summer’s transsion. And almost market. whether or not one agrees vital — often the scorer; Spain’s David text said one thing andSilva, the arta world will of exotic-sounding babushka, fer window, infusing their was a publish- entirely another. ersThis of Chelsea, be hoping for a tighter title with the ideology, the takeaway player of silken genius, capable borscht was conjured once again ing race thisand timerubles around. teams with that newistalent. Chelsea, the other culture creative, viableon and not dic- of As making the spectacular easy; and the Jankevièiûtë sums it look up, much as chilin Last Chennai recently, at ‘ALeague, Journey Time season’s Premier inacross spite of the tated hand, by have surprisingly quietthat in their thebeen market, something Tara dren’s Ivorianbooks midfielder Yaya Toure, canconvenbe a deare influenced bywho global and Context (1940 to 1990)’, an exhibition of Books tournament’s reputation for delivering excitetrading, making with. only sparse additions to their tions, identifies structive powerhouse-of-a-player. at they are also very localToure andhas, very children’s book illustrations fromsquib. SovietChelLith- squad. Mourinho possibly believes in the ad- detailed, ment, quickly turned into a damp times, thrown fits and has harwhichchildish makes them ideal foreven cultural uania. The venuebywas city-based Tara age ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. sea, managed thethecaptivating and Visual storytelling boured thoughts of leaving City.around Why? The exchange. “That’s why they travel the Books, a publishing house childrenwere and The occasionally obnoxious Josefor Mourinho, But, with competitors expectedexto world idea forChelsea’s the exhibition, Jankevièiûtë club forgot buy a birthday But when to they arehim translated. Theycake. provide adults that doubles as a far bookstore evenofa plains, make further dips into the market, tactically and physically superiorand to each was initially limited to art which duringclosthe awhen in right spirits, Toure’s natural abilities cultural link between different countries.” gallery. Curated by Giedrë Jankevièiûtë, re- Soviet their opponents. Their crowning as chames on August it seemsfrom the gap theto topthe is force one to suspend disbelief, which is what rule in30, Lithuania, theat’40s searcher in the Department of Art History and beingSoon, bridged. pions of England seemed inevitable as early as ’90s. it expanded to include history and elizabeth we ask andmathew expect of sport.

The best is yet to come

While Chelsea prevailed at last season’s Premier League, this time around there is plenty more to look forward to; with revamped teams and new strategies

T M

Q R Q R

ND-X _ A

cover watch

saturday, august 8, 2015

Watch me being a woman

titles, including three as Chelsea’s first-choice stopper. Although one shouldn’t read too much into Arsenal’s victory in the Community Shield, it nonetheless showcased their readiness for the season ahead — Cech’s signing, if nothing else, has instilled in the team’s defence a sense of comfort. Of all the top four teams, though, it’s possible to argue that Manchester United have made the best signings. Since the retirement judge. of Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, United have masWhile her art is radical, is disarmingly sively underachieved. Last she season, under the friendly andLouis down-to-earth She Dutchman van Gaal, in theperson. club only chooses to the quiet place basement a sandwich scraped a fourth finish.ofBut this sumshop van for our interview. mer, Gaal has had a touch of a dictator “I realise that been not everyone is going tothe be about him. He’s ruthless in ridding happyofwith the thingsand I ameach saying or the team its deadwood of the fiveway play-I am that saying shein,admits. At answers the samea ers he’sthem,” brought thus far, time, she’s come toHis believe that her best work specific necessity. signings, especially in happens when herself, and stays clear of midfield, of theshe’s Frenchman Morgan Schneinotionsfrom suchSouthampton as ‘high art’. and “If you with derlin the stick legendary who youBastian are, youSchweinsteiger are going to get much furGerman from Bayern ther — that’s my advice problem. to people,”They she Munich curealways a longstanding says with abite gentle will bring cleverness, andlaugh. assurance to I askBut herit’s about title of her United’s midfield. the the signing the named after aDepay tongue-inyoung Dutchbook, forward Memphis that cheekfans piece she did of herself has had the club’s most excited. upathose words. “You ofenduring troubled childhood, Her work onDepay, her afterholding ten hear people shined in The Netherlands oversaying the last‘oh twoI Muslim identity have done myself or he’s already builtthat like an ox. He’s sparked a seasons. media At 21,could my five-year-old couldgoals have in done and creating all frenzy, a capable brick of scoring mimics, in good huform. she Given the fear amongst through the manner window andthat,’” mour. the team could still come unand a deathUnited threatfans that While she makes light of the done due to potential departures, especially indignation her generthat of the Argentine Angel di work Mariahas to Paris St things have been far from Germain, theated, club will place much reliance on easy. the Herfireworks. work on Ifher Muslim Depay to provide goalkeeper identity media frenzy, brick David de sparked Gea, who ais wanted by Real aMadrid, through theUnited, window and a death threat. ‘The also leaves the club will require furOpposite of a Feminist’ particuther restructuring in a has coreattracted area, before the lar hostility, though she’s been surprised by end of August. How United manage this feat the number people Yet, who’ve once might proveofcrucial. it’s acquiesced unquestionable it wasUnited explained to them. that are better equipped to challenge brushed off orthis even embraced some of forShe’s major honours season — indeed it the criticism. When onefor commenter putdo down would be inexcusable them to not so. her success to her being “attractive MusChelsea’s fans might view the club’sand relative lim” she over put the on her website. serenity thestatement summer asup a sign of stability. In spite of their obvious attacking prowess, out competition) in both the last two seasons. But, However, recent Guardian piece led toCity, anothgivenathe changes at Manchester ArCity occasionally lacked spark in their forward Each of the preceding three summers has seen senal er flurry online interest, she debated andof Manchester Unitedand — many of them Take last thatseason. Sarah Maple’s many to of them have garnered attention, praise and condemnation play It is toworks, this end, help self-portraits, Ague- Arsenal sign players of exceptional attacking positive the pros—and of reading the hundreds onecons might have expected Chelsea of to courtesy sarah maple ro, Silva and Toure rediscover their magic, that ability. In 2012, the club signed Spain’s Santi be comments withinher who had read more active the husband, transfer window. There’s City have splashed £49 million on Sterling — a Cazorla, who is small in stature but capable of no them. “He asked wasChelsea the worst thing denying that me lastwhat season were offee that represents new transfer nexpecteda moments canrecord prove for to outlandish feats on the field — he’s one of ten anyone could sayTheir aboutBelgian you and I said, ‘that imperious. forward EdenI English players. Twenty-year-old is far those rare footballers who are equally adept Hazard be life-changing ones.Sterling For 30-yearam silly is and just doing this forofthe fast becoming one theattention.’” best playfrom a finished product. But he’s Maple, a playerone of with both feet. In the summer old British artist Sarah ‘Then you’d better not possibly read them,’” ers in the world, just shyhe of mercurial such talent, and possesses great speed before last, Arsenal signed moment was when a universiresponded.the bracket comprising Lionel Mesand directness in styleshe thatdo cana prove decisive from Real Madrid Germany’s ty tutor suggested photography Her experiences with social mediaBut, have, si and Cristiano Ronaldo. as on counter-attacks. hiscredits. age, City clearly course, partly to gainGiven course While do- Mesut Özil, whose touch and however, given her further material to work the season wore on, especially beOf all the top four see as“crits” a player for the future, the vision can at times belie imaging aSterling round of — discussing eachbut other’s with. “In the past asMarch an artist youyear, might get a ginning this Chelsea teams, though, it’s price suggests they alsothat expect himher to ination. But perhaps their work tag — she noticedthat something made bad reviewtended but youtodidn’t hundreds and waver,have causing Mourinho possible to argue that contribute to“Every their immediate revival. “very angry.” time the men stood up to signing last summer of the hundreds of voices.toWhen you have so many to revert a more conservative apManchester United City are to solve in their de- Chilean forward Alexis Sanspeak, we still listened to problems them… while when different opinions, wheresits does that with leave his an proach, which better have made the best fence, which often appeared beleaguered women got up to speak we berated them.last We chez, from Barcelona, was the artist? If you get affected by opinions all the general footballing philosophy. signings season. But issues were overshadwere taking menin personnel more seriously, subcon- one that came closest to comtime you don’t make you aresigntoo Thus far, anything the only —notable owed by their sciously, than manager women.” Manuel Pellegrini’s be- pleting their squad. Sanchez, a busy getting by what ingstressed Chelseaout have madepeople is thesay!” Collief“It in tactical set-up that demanded hadanever occurred to me before this mo- vivacious figure, boasts an She believes that thestriker fact she’s not addressed ombian Radamel Falcao, substantial work from the team’s central ment that being a woman would holdmidme ability to finish moves with her Muslimwho background in recent works may had a wretched spell on loan fielders. Toure, at any back,” sheCity’s said, lynchpin when we met recently in rate, Lon- unerring accuracy, a quality of substantial at be Manchester linked to the backlash faced in thea United last she’s season, looking didn’t putting in theofhard In the don tofancy discuss the release the yards. first book of premium in Europe. past.shadow of his former self. Chelsea can do pale pre-season fixtures this “Isummer, her work, Youfriendly Could Have Done This. rememYet, even though Arsenal seemed to streng- with Islam will be an issue she returns to inlack a new greater variety in attack, and still efthough, Pellegrini adopted a more varied then ber thinking ‘I wishhas I had a penis’.” garnered praise, condemnation, theirattention, squads every summer, there ap- fective projectback-ups on freedom of expression and censorto their star midfielder, Cesc approach. He’s added a central midfielder to peared Back in 2007, she took a photo of herself, even threats. of photographs of at herthe in Fabregas, to beAaseries few noteworthy voids ship, madeand possible a scholarship she’s to the by ingenious Hazard. It’s,just no the 11 at in thea long cost of strikerand — ahijab move(she which, dressed reda dress was team’s a burqacore andlast hijab has attracted particular at- doubt, year. Wenger found a solution won from Sky Arts. her the trigger thea possible thatFor Chelsea might yetwas make puzzlingly, makeby theher team more mother dynam- to brought upcould a Muslim Iranian tention: in a stark black-and-white one within the club. In Decemberone 2014,she’s the few Charlie Hebdo massacre and the conversations more additions to their squad, before the ic in English their forward and father)play. and holding a piece of pa- Frenchman smoking, in another wearing ‘I heart end Francis she’s Coquelin wasanrecalled that of unfolded “There to was much bulAugust.online. Their failure dososo, though, like the Pellegrini, manager Wen- from perMuch bearing words Arsenal You Could Have Done Orgasms’ badge. his loan spell at Charlton Athletic, and might lying online andcompetitors so much judgment you give their the perfectiffillip ger alsoposted often obdurate fault. But late was This,isand it online.to“I afinally realised Feminism is her theme. There’s to tasked with thedominant responsibility of anchordidn’t wanta to saychallenge, ‘Je suis Charlie’. I am going mount title something their last showed signs burying in- ing thatseason, this washethe kind of art of that wouldhis allow ‘Menstruate Pride’He—hasn’t a painting her fans Arsenal’swith midfield. lookedofback to reflect my Muslim identity because I’ve will on relish. A closely fought Premier herent attitude to win to games by dazzling me to say what I—wanted say,” she says. “It since, standing a dress stained and proudly has oftenwearing performed the role with League got a new view it now,” she says. will alsoofraise the levels of enthusiasm opponents with —intricate passing move- admirable started so much it still sums up soand much.” with blood,élan. as people stand by and stare in across Just the howglobe, that new perspective takes shape including amongst supportment — and on greater and bet- horror. Since thenrelied Maple’s rise hassolidity been meteoric. one ofhas hersought favourites, she’sthe holding Now, In Wenger to cure other ers through theto magic of the Maple’s provocative imin India, whom Premier League repter defensive organisation. Barely six months later, sheWenger’s won thesignings Saatchi issue up the ‘The Opposite of squad: a Feminist is ana resents atsign the heart of Arsenal’s finding ages willsporting be something nirvana.to watch for over the in recent New timesSensations have also Award. been impressive. Gallery’s She’s heldAr10 goalkeeper Arsehole’. And there’srepute. a seriesThis featuring Disney of sturdy summer, the months to come. senal have made steady strides, andjoint haveones. won only solo exhibitions and numerous princesses: herself as that SnowArsenal White,have working in suhrith parthasarathy is a Chennai-based lawyer first-team player signed writer vidya ram the Cup many (England’s chief domestic knockHer FA works, of them self-portraits, have thus a laboratory, asCech, Jasmine dispensing justice as a and far is Petr who has won four league

British artist Sarah Maple is a media sensation with her sassy and smart images and art

Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, posing for a selﬁe with fans, is fast becoming one of the best players in the world reuters/ Andrew

couldridge

Q R

ND-X _ A

11 15

talk watch

BL BL 168

saturday, august 8, 8, 2015 saturday, august 2015

Wordplay in Wonderland dipankar

Art and artefact blend perfectly at New York’s The Morgan Library & Museum to re-create Alice’s 150 years in Wonderland

NO IMPORTANT PEOPLE HARMED IN FLOODS!

Courtesy The Morgan Library& Museum

othing much seems to be hap- although further details cannot be provid- Lok Sabha. The well of the house could be try, and the parts of Gujarat where no inhe interests Morgan Library & Museum a of result, one final pening in Parliament, so I am ed in the of national security.comUn- campus used for to kabaddi tournaments. In the evepractise his labour-intensive hob- dustrialists ministeredlive. in theAsform a pill.” no Carroll’s mands quiet respect among New by. standing outside. I can still hear fortunately, alla our computers have been nings, we could ghazal nights.that Thehe seatharmed. VIPs have It was on onedosuch mission wan- important poem inhas thebeen sequel, ‘Through the also LookingYorkers for its impeccably curated dered ing arrangements ideal Deanery, for thisthe shown common sense, and nonehis of musRahul Gandhi’s voice. His voice occupied with intensive porn monitoring, into the ChristareChurch Glass’good is a double acrostic that spelled literary The museum was garden are going We are relieved. purpose,belonging and the acoustics excellent.’ is much stronger. His holiday must have so we have beenexhibits. unable to initiate the procto theare Dean of Christ them e’s full name: there. Alice Pleasance Liddell.This At every home and private library James have added to our ‘But what the floods?’ I ask,appointed ‘I hear would suited him. I am standing next to an under once ess.the Each of the 900 banned porn of sites had Church. Oneabout Mr Liddell had been point, Carroll took theheadaches. sanctity of These play absoMorgan and its exhibits cer- just be very The inconsiderate. They nev- menrumours thatinover one million secretary, who is holding a fly swatter. ‘I’m Pierpont large amounts of content, all ofevoke whicha had recently, 1855, and Carrollpeople spied are a girl people lutelycan seriously. Morgan specifically and intimacy. sorry,’ he says, ‘I forgot to leave it in my of- tain tocosiness be verified. These activities are now be- running homeless, and over 100 have Should think about our problems. of emaround the garden hedied. wished to pho- er tions that “Alice and its Lack sequel do not aredown, treatedbut to an array wegirl notwas beAlice. taking some steps?’ pathy is thewith single biggest holding that fice.’ ‘What are you doing here?’ I ask, ‘This Viewers ing scaled many of of thematerial, officers tograph. The conclude a moral … athing breakthrough to manuscripts, by ‘That’s the only that silver lining,’ area seems to be free of insects.’ ‘They sent from aremaps still recovering. Once and theyare feelguided stronger, From the exhibits we learn Alice was an back theiscountry.’ considered an important deviation in numerous on generation the walls set in imaginative says ‘Shouldn’t children’s Parliament be doing me down from North Block to see if any- thewe will look artefacts at revenue activunder secretary, ‘These andthe lively girl, as seen literature. Thesomestories exdisplay cases. Thefor exhibit occurred in inpoorer thing, like making resolution, or inspire allocat- their thing was happening in parliament,’ he long ities, to compensate lossesrooms causedare not through herevents possessions, which istato delight and large, but aoftour of them will take clude a ring, stationery, and says, ‘But the situation is the same.’ ‘Is it particularly by non-functioning parts of the asking (or thelisteners), PM to not do to be letters shecoun- ing funds, or readers something? Doesn’t it seemThanks a little to odd?’ true that they will be hiring out the Lok Sab- over an hour because the exhibits are densely wrote to her father. If the most successdidactic.” Carroll, ‘Nothing odd about says no my friend, a for ha for kabaddi tournaments?’ I ask. ‘The and cleverly configured. Currently on display ful books turn characters into real peobooksit,’were longer ‘It’s solely question of proper procedure. If anyone proposal is under consideration,’ he ac- is ‘Alice: 150 Years of Wonderland,’ which cele- ple, The Morgan inverts this dynamic adults or for children, and is thanks the culprit here,toit’s Sushma Swaraj. knowledges, ‘Naturally everything will be brates the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s to remind us that the fictionalthe Morgan, otherUntil exhibits done very transparently. Vendors will be se- most famous book, and uses a perfect blend of ised Alice was once a pre-pushe resigns from her position, there is noththere have showcased similar ing anyone can do.’ authors from Maurice Senlected through a process of online auction, art and artefact. bescent who liked jewelThe exhibit starts in 1856 with a display case lery and travelled with a dak to Beatrix Potter; from containing handwritten notes and page ex- writing case. Dear Debojyoti, Babar the elephant, to the tractsYou from Carroll’s ‘Doublets.’ Each misconexplains have revealed two common She also enjoyed advenlittle prince from Asteroid B-612. a new, invented and First we start to tures. On July 4, 1856, Alice and ceptions in oneword shortgame, question. of all, Vega explains that “books that discern and numMaggiaisman likeinfatuated our mother.byItletters has nurtured us her two sisters went on a boat are not classifiable are combers. Carrollthick — penand name forNo Charles Lutwidge through thin. sin can come ride and picnic with Carroll plex works, making them Dodgson — initially wrote 10 and another Oxford professor. from consuming Maggi.toIentertain was veryhis surmore interesting to look at.” Carroll’s response to the disappointing. is comn rowed news across described as ‘absolutely it’s true, is extremelyThe siblings. onlywhen wrote,injustice but also As they prisedAt at school, the lackhe ofnot protest the river, story of AliceThis is not innocuous request for a madeits bold colsmashing’ byfor thea Fashion published poetry a collection was donewacky to Maggi. It’s in as if our hearts titled have Alice asked Carroll story. Council of the same darling man pletewho without publishing story re-routed children’s India, the spotted recently our choices like fuchsia andWhen rani pink Useful andto Instructive Poetry. turned stone. If you are supporting MagHis response to PM this was innocuhiccups. the and first ediliterature away from our television wearing are-routed powder blue turban. ‘It real- aquamarine. Suddenly, Professionally, he taught mathematics and ous request gi at the individual level, that too by paying chiltion launched on Junesets 27, 1865, patronising Victorian ly suitsliterature him!’ says away Pinky from Dutt, socialite and were filled with colour. inspired others logic at Christ Oxford; this was extra, this isChurch, very praiseworthy. Youra man secdren’s TennielHecomplained about the attitudes forever footsteps. Without fashion designer, ‘It goesattiso well with his to follow in his poor who could flex both the and right of patronising ond misconception is left regarding theside black Victorian quality of thehim, illustrahave ever ordered worn that chest!’forever. Others Carroll are not so hiseconomy. brain. Working with the these As you know, realmanuscripts, estate martudes didsure. not ‘Some people would Arun Jaitley tions. Carroll a comsay want he looks inthat anything, but burnt orange kurta withreprint, that scrumptious and paper toy theatre that conservaketCarroll’s is almost entirely supported by black just to tellgood a story afplete shipping the Ally Subramaniam was born in the shawl? Although be fair, shawlswhere that’s just saystoRocky tors helped herestate display, Vega ternoon. money. Real is acurator crucialCarolyn component Hesilly,’ wanted recre-Manfirst to edition tohis America South-West Sundarbans, but was chanda, one half of torenowned haveCarroll alwaysnor been scrumptious. establishes Carroll’s in timekeeping of “interest our economy. Beyond ate what he had tried do for his siblings as a neither Tenniel cared aboutIf readblown away by a cyclone and washed there’s one heedition can pick, a fashion duo Rocky and Man-as a professor: ers’ reactions. and science in the natural world” before show- teenager, macro-economics, considand for his students Thething second wasit’s released up on the shore near Chennai. He shawl, and I’m not just saying this deep. ‘How can someone look ing off the original Alice manuscript so that er the human factor. So create a world out of puzzles and give her the in the UK in 1866, and has not been out of print was adopted by a poor Brahmin good If them. you put a because he runs the Income Tax viewers could “start with a base understandmany construction workers rest of in heranything? life to solve since then. family from Tirupur. He can answer all your questions. Just send them to Department. That’s why climb resack Angelina would ing about Carroll — not something you walked are earning a livelihood. By For over the next three Jolie, months, Carroll worked A second perambulation of this the exhibits askallysubramaniam@gmail.com. shethe look good? I that don’thad think so. Perby the PM isbetween so disappointoff the street knowing.” supporting the black econoon narrative begun that day. He veal adown curious parallel two photodidisall boldness sonally, IEngland’s thought wearing a green illustrator, graphs oning. Having set the tone from selected my, for youwhat areto expect supporting most esteemed the Where wall. One ofthe Alice, her smiling ear Ally, go? Powder so wishyand Tenniel, maroontoBenarasi sari with on him, but the gaze on something Carroll — words, games, humour — theasex- John them.and Please be rest collaborate far blue away.isThe neighbourI bought Maggi washy.isFrankly, expected his head on persuading. Independence hibit begins at thesured beginning: how Dodgson and continue with latter needed Undeterred, Carroll ing photograph Carroll’swe own portrait; he, in black. Am I a bad much more. Let’s hope he gets Day was pushing it too became Carroll; his earlyefforts. poems The and instinct your nation chose bright red for the far. cover, “the most at- too, is staring into another world. What are person? But at least he was trying. back hislooking mojo soon. I’m we hopfor publishing; and histhank love ofyou. photography. It tractive will to childish eyes.” He rejected the they both so busy at, while look so Regards, Debojyoti, Hooghly This powder if Underground, fixedly at them? ing for something in magenta.’ was not easy to be anYours amateur photographer Affectionately, Ally. working title, blue Alice’sturban, Adventures in the 1820s, but Carroll could easily find land- because it sounded “too like a lesson book, in The Investigator is a fortnightly round-up of all things droll and All views are personal. Really personal t@shovonc scapes andnewsy. subjects on Oxford’s picturesque which instruction about mines would be ad- aditi sriram is a New York-based freelance writer

PM SPOTTED IN BLUE TURBAN! Q

ASK ALLY

ND-X _ A

talk read

saturday, august 8, 8, 2015 saturday, august 2015

THE CRITICAL ISSUE

No longer afraid The women who chose to speak out against Bill Cosby have turned the story of victimhood into one of power assaulted them. No one believed them when they spoke out. For years people around Cosby colluded in his plots, securing women, sending them to him for ‘rehearsals’ and ‘auditions’, and they chose to remain silent too. Culpability is seldom just an individual thing. Hard talk Serious Nor is impunity only individual. Everyone illness or infirmity around who does not listen, who does not ac-will strike. It is as inevitable cept the truth of the victim’s testimony, as sunset is colluding in building the impunity. thulasi kakkat So far, some 46 women have come out and ON THE SHELF spoken about their assault by Cosby. Some of them were his friends. It is believed that there are many more out there who are still silent. In 2005, when 14 women accused him of rape, no one believed them. And it was not until 2014, when another comedian, Hannibal Buress, called Cosby a rapist on television that people began to take notice. The New York Magazine, which published photos of the 35 women who had chosen to speak out, with the caption, ‘I’m no longer afraid’, also carried amazing individual testimonies along with a posed, stark photo of run-away bestseller this year, and nymous hero was an “intelligent, polished, eachestablish woman.a ‘Hospital The deliberate, carefully for Delightful Dying’, perhaps the year’s most surprising lively and agreeable man” but as the pain in thought out, full front ‘in-your-face-andwith departments offering a range of ways to gift book (‘Happy Christmas, mom. his side gradually worsens, and neither his proud-to-be-who-I-am’ photos, the movingpartying, tesdeal with the inevitable: champagne You’re going to die’) is Atul Ga- wife, nor his friends nor the doctors can either timonies, and the drugs, powermusic, of story uponrituals, story you psychotropic sacred wande’s Being Mortal. turned what a tale about vichelp him or acknowledge that he is, in fact, dyname it.could Thankhave god,been therefore, for the BuddNobody likes to be reminded of their immi- ing, he becomes more and more frustrated, timhood into oneand about power: the power of hist teacher anthropologist Joan Halifax, nent — or even distant — demise. We spend our angry, and desperate. Gawande and his fellow confronting your demons, of speaking out,out of that author of Being with Dying, who points lives doing everything we possibly can to ka- students could see exactly what was happenshowing how the consensus silence error some that the most human, most to common void facing the inevitability of our decline and ing — no one was willing to have ‘the hard conthings is can a social, silence. you makecollective as a care-giver while sitting with fall, each one of us a little empire upon which versation’ with poor Ivan — and they assumed And yet, as the story pointspatient, out, between a terminally ill cancer is to the assume the sun never sets. The greatest wonder, as that as enlightened, caring and skilled modtimethat thatonly the one firstofcomplaint against Cosby you is dying. Her workshops Yudhisthira points out, is that “day after day, ern doctors, they would have all dealt with the surfaced andclinicians today, there a gapcompassionate, of nearly half to to help beismore countless creatures are going to the abode of patient far better. But, “within a a century. For how long, wonders,practice’ can a as ‘heal ourone care-giving Yama, yet those that remain behind believe few years, when I came to experiman continue toshe do puts this before it becomes it, is about facilitating themselves to be immortal. What can be more ence surgical training and pracpossible to break those the silence? There’s no easy hard conversations. wonderful than this?” answer to this question. tice, I encountered patients Acknowledging another’s sufGawande is an ageing human, like the rest forced to confront the realities Thea happy Cosby saga took place a country fering, their in pain, requires a Death is not of us. Unlike most of us, though, he is also a of decline and mortality, and it where women’s rights said to an have made strongare back and open front — subject: not for Sir surgeon, and his book is not only about the did not take long to realize how considerable progress, where interpersonal in other words, a centred, Roderick at the wonder that we all think we’re going to live unready I was to help them.” relations men andsense women grounded of are selfbe(what dinner table, and between not forever, but about how the medical profession lievedof to become more egalitarian, This crystal clear little book is, metaphorically and literafor most us have might 35 and counting cover of New York Magazine (July—27-Aug 9, 2015) women who have has failed: This not in its failure to keep us alive in in where the number entering the part,features about35his becoming lly of be women called ‘backbone’) and a demme at this — accused Billit’s Cosby of sexual assault afp/amanda fact, been staggeringly successful workplace is significant, andheart, where is, to more ready to help. In it, he retruly open anthere openness but in its failure to help us die. presumably, a legal is well set to uplife’s lates several ‘hard conversathesystem world,that to the other, Death is not a happy subject. The wonder- tions’ that he has had: with his to deal with crimes women, and yet, richagainst mysteries. American a black man in the silence wonderful, fully here’s playfula Zen teacher stunning Alan Wattsimage tells a stowasgod so difficult to break. And have the reown television patients —audiences, many having gone through Thank that doctors — who doinga the internet. a powerful position — and serial rapist and with ry about ladyrounds givingofathe dinner partyIt who women found so difficult to beand believed. multiple surgeries anda therapies, fitted placed theitshamans, priests even our famassaulter awayand with it respirators and ily and loved shows 35 women, andwhat old, they invites her guests one byyoung one to say In ones the in end, no matter how tubeswho and got clamps bags, attending to what Carlos a chair, looking for years because—the women thinkeach will seated happenon when they die. They all many you in place,— are evacuators and, most he movingly, with his Hagen calls oursystems ‘ultimate riteput of passage’ assaulted chose anot to speak, straight ahead at the camera.—They fill your come up with something or nothing — until unless men and women to own father, surgeon himself, who was diag- writing (and reading) books like begin Being Mortal. couldnosed not with speak, would on not computer you didn’t knowgent bet- and there’sscreen only and oneifleft, a military thinkpeople of each a tumour his spinal cord — a That as more areother aging,differently, we as a species For how long can a ter, you’d think that ofthe image believer. was about speak, or were heard when staunch Church England “Sir Rolittle change. Take this, for growth thatnot eventually killed him. are willing to will relinquish the ‘wonder’ of willman continue to do women’s power. in “you’ve some ways is. anything. they didEndings speak. matter, says Gawande. “Sooner or ful blindness derick,” sheAnd says, notitsaid example: Delhi’s and discredto our ownexfinitude and emthis before it ButWhat the image hides another, yet familcourse, it didn’t makewill it any do you think will grim happen when you Of later, ited law minister independence become impossible. brace, accept and even —Somnath if we’reBharWatts — becomes possible to easierSerious to speak because the man will strike. It is as celebrateti the iar, reality. Each he of these and cerdie?” “Oh,” repliesstrong, huffily,powerful “I’m perfectly recently said, “I am Halifax, fully to illness or infirmity fact. Or, following break the silence? and race theOur pic-reluctance to hon- strive forconfident confident faces you a victim of is black tain I women shall gowho to heaven andis enjoy everlasting that if Delhi is given and inevitable as enters sunset… the delicate balance of strength sexual assault, the one othersindulge over in ture in an insidious way:experience if you’re of aging and dy- opennessfull bliss, but some I do wish youtime, wouldn’t freedom of securi- anestly examine the that allows[in us issues to acknowledge prolonged andconversation most of themover havedinner.” re- white, it’shas tough to speakthe out,harm if such aperiods, depressing ty] beautifultheir women will beasable ing increased we inflict on other’s wholeness, suffering well as mainedIt’s silent — having either by choice or compulyou’re black, itHis almost likean exploration of their joy,towhile hard what Gawande calls ‘the go out even after midnight people.” bookseems is both being fully aware that he or betrayal, once again, are caught in without sion — because the man talking who assaulted them,about hard conversation’: to someone It’sthey, not only theofsystems and and an urgent call towomen help develop “a coherent she, any and fear.” we, and and all us are here that age-old silence and its and ittheir was just theand onehelping man, is athem famous, pow- the death to make that and needgone cleaning it isthat alsoeverything the heads passes, of view of trap howof people might livedangerous, their lives sucin a up, blink: erful best television invisible corollary — way unwitting use ofhost. the time that they have left. He reCosby andgrows Bharti.and changes and ages cessfully all the to theircollusion very end.”and the likes thatof everything encouragement. Meet Bill extraordinaire, calls oneCosby, of thecomedian (very) few times as a student of Contemplating ‘the very end’ is not a happy and decays and grows anew. blink@thehindu.co.in host of the popular The Cosby Show, darling of Forsubject: years, Cosby drugged these women and tamedicine that they touched upon the subject not for Sir Roderick at the dinner — reading Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Un- ble, and not for most of us. Thank god, there- anita roy is a writer, editor and publisher; til his accident — a fall from a ladder — the epo- fore, for people like Alan Watts, with his call to www.anitaroy.net

This is the end

Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal is a call to help develop ‘a coherent view of how people might live their lives successfully all the way to their very end’

anita roy

Q R

Urvashi Butalia is an editor, publisher and director of Zubaan

ND-X _ A

9 17BL BL

work read

BL BL 186

saturday, august 8, 8, 2015 saturday, august 2015

Co-worker cast in iron As packages pile up from booming e-commerce, retail and courier businesses, warehouse managers now have a helping hand with a difference — robots from Grey Orange

A Losing the plot

commerce giant, robots are moving shelves stacked with products. They take them to a ﬂoor assistant, who scans the barcode to conﬁrm the items. Called Butlers, these robots help each worker handle 500 items within an hour, compared with only 40-80 on their own. At courier company DTDC’s Delhi hub, robots called Sorters divide up the parcels for each city and then for the various pin codes within that city. They can segregate about ook lovers to shocking 3,500 parcels in an woke hour, up compared withnews 800 thismanually. week; that Fact & Fiction when done Additionally, theyBook can onethe of weight the Capital’s measureShop, not only of thebest-curatparcel but ed bookstores, hasheight, decided tothereshut also its length, breadth and and shop after over years. While another favouby calculate the30 space it would occupy during rite book place closes,Aspublishers are up scramthe onward journey. robots speed the bling toDTDC reachhas out to as its many readers as sorting, dropped plans for creatpossible. The book market, in terms of sales ing additional capacity. globally, still the music and moGrowing at asupersedes scorching pace in India, e-comvies sector. times like today, whenare reading merce, retailInand courier businesses grapmeans and pling books, for Kindle, ways iPad, to smartphones meet customer more, publishers searching for strategies requirements in aare prompt and efficient manand partners who can helpstruggling satisfy thistoglobal ner. Warehouse managers keep appetite. fairsmultiplying often come to the rescue — pace withBook rapidly products and not only are they places refresh ties, buthand also stock-keeping units nowtohave a helping awith ground to measure the grain a difference — oneself roboticagainst solutions from and theRobotics. tricks to get back into the game. Greylearn Orange For publishers,is one such revered place is the “Warehousing getting faster, just-in-time. Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF), held in Germany in It is also moving from business-to-business to October each year. It hosts over it7,100 business-to-consumer, implying is noexhiblongitors frommovement 106 countries and is from considered er about of goods cartonthe to most marketplace cartonimportant only,” saysglobal Samay Kohli, CEO for andpubcolishing. fair Orange. began inThe therange 15th of century, founder The of Grey prodwhen Johannes invented movable ucts and their Gutenberg handling operations are betype, andincreasingly is now the hallmark activities coming complex,of and this in is literature. So while the international book where robotic solutions can make a differtrade stakeholders mark this event the time ence, says Kohli, who co-founded theascompany for re-invigoration of studying skills and withbusiness, Akash Gupta in 2011. While at ideas, and creating and reinforcing visibility, BITS Pilani, Kohli had developed a humanoid closer decided to erase India robot, home, AcYut, itathas thebeen college’s centre for robotout of the FBFthen this travelled year. ics. The duo to various robotic This is indeedincluding bad news for publishcompetitions, theIndian RobOlympics ers it breaks the precedence of many and and Robocup. years. CAPEXIL, theleaving international trade promoIn 2009, after college, Kohli and tion body, has excluded the FBF its trade Gupta started Grey Orange as from an education promotion Indian publishers and trainingcalendar companyand for robotics. However, are largely dependent on the CAPEXIL a visit to the chaotic warehouse of anfunding e-comto showcompany their books at FBF. merce in 2011 opened their eyes to vast number of Indian are intheA potential for robotics inpublishers warehouses. That dependent or family-run operations; led to the ‘birth’ of Butler and Sorter. others employ a staff of three stands to fourfor to experience churn out Grey Orange — “grey limited titles aisyear which global reach in while orange for fun andhave youth” — has raised

With India staying out of the Frankfurt Book Fair this year, small publishers lose the chance to pitch their books at one of the biggest markets

ND-X _ A

translation. Book fairs, like Frankfurt, make Ministry of Commerce, it is learnt, has divertthis trade possible but a small Indian published the funds for book fair outreach in ASEAN, er is unable to finance an eye-catching pres- Latin America and Africa, though none of ence in this global marketplace on its own. For these regions have a B2B fair of a similar scale. countries like India, trade promotion activ- CAPEXIL claims to have applied to the ministry ities like these are of great relevance. for funds for FBF under the Market DevelopThe decision also affects publishing solu- ment Assistant (MDA) scheme, but it was apOn top of things Grey Orange Robotics co-founders Kohli andrejected Akash Gupta a robot a tion companies, which fall under the ITES ban-Samay parently aspose FBFwith is Butler, considered manufactured them to move shelves at anwas ecommerce segregates courier ner, as theirbypresence in Frankfurt also warehouse; European (above) marketthebySorter virtue of its geography. parcels according to their destination enabled by such initiatives. India is known to Incidentally, the FBF receives more than twobe a leading outsourcing hub for digital pro- third of its participants from outside of Gerduction in million publishing. WhileAthe ASEAN close to $10 in a Series round, led reby many the Asian footfall is growing each Greyand Orange robots have already been ingion be in spotlight with asVenthe year. Tigerwill Global Management LLCIndonesia and Blume Statistics released at the FBF list reveal stalled at 45 sites in India, andend the of client inguest of honour at the fair and countries like that ture Advisors, along with investors Alok Rawat Frankfurt largest fair in several catecludes Jabong,is the Mahindra, Aramex, Flipkart Philippines present with their imand Dileep Nath. and Delhivery. gories. It is the biggest when it pressive collective representaToday, top e-commerce and courier compacomes children’s The starting price fortoa textbooks, Sorter is $70,000 and tions, be missing nies areIndians using itswill services in India. The compa- variants can cost books and even cookbooks, all up to half a million dollars; from action. ny pre-builds its robots and does not the Butler’s selling due to price the sheer number and starts at about Let me offer perspective customise themsome for clients. “We diversity of Orange the participants. $30,000. Grey will come on Book fairswhen continue to be arethis. R&D-focused; we sense absence inwith a newbecomes product more by JanuWith around 9,300 outOur the pain most points, important we place addressto triguing when one learns that ary, but Kohli declines to share accredited journalists showcase them,” saysauthors, Kohli. market conAssociation details just yet.of AllPublishers he is willfrom 70 countries, thethe tent establish Hisand clients get a backward return on and inin India and the Federation ing to say is “We plan to addofa Warehousing is 120 1,400 bloggers and forward vestmentbusiness in 12-14linkages months,along he Indian to Publishers are endeavour portfolio every getting faster, news agencies, the FBF product with allowing a function. continuous exsays. “It is a scale After ouring releaseunderstandathe ‘Indian Andtothat’s just-in-time. draws a lot of Our eyeballs year”. pansion one’sitown knowledge. a certainofscale, is difficult to Book at ble, givenIndustry the rising Report’ number of robots don’t replace With around 9,300 accredited maintain efficiencies. Our roFrankfurt that this are year. This for recompanies opting people but make journalists from 70people countries, bots don’t replace but lease could have been leverautomation. them more efficient 1,400 bloggers 120 news make them more and efficient.” aged by a has strong Grey Orange grownIndian faster agencies, the FBF DTDC knows thisdraws well. aAtlot oneof collective than Kohli presence. and Gupta ever exeyeballs and therefore strategic to a countime, heavy inflow ofisparcels India is thepected only country invitedintwice — fromto25bepeople 2011 try’s arts and cultural had forced the courierdiplomacy. company to FBF as its guest of currently honour, in—1982 2006. to 260 and and is close to one hand, the Indian lion mayNot be roarto On consider expanding its facilities. any- It was an even. acknowledgment of what India ofbreaking Overseas, it sells its robots in ing ‘Make India’on in every nook and corner of fered more, withinSorter its side. “Our hub in Delglobal audience at the fair. unHong the Kong and Singapore, which are This proving the world, at25,000 the same time, packages literary works hi processes to 30,000 a day. predictable policy as a jolt to to be markets with change a “robustcomes demand”. from India just missed the bus toand the world’s We were facing capacity crunch needed theNext literary community and a stab inChina, the back on its itinerary are Japan and in most prolific ifliterary salon. It’ll be a shame to of automation we wanted to grow further. trade12 that is in transformation. Thisof is the thea next months. With 40 per cent walk into the 4.0 — — as pro- time With Sorter, weHall are able toFocus use theAsia same facility to harness new channels ofGrey outreach, not world’s robots already in Japan, Orange’s moted by FBF organisers,says andAbhishek not find ChakIndia clip with higher throughput,” existing ones. made-in-India robots will likely feel right at alongside the ASEAN community. raborty, executive director at DTDC Express. home in the land of the rising sun. the exclusion of automatically FBF from the prashasti rastogi is director, German Book Office AnApparently, in-built system in the robot the Frankfurt Book Fair in New Delhi rashmi pratap CAPEXIL is driven assigns aitinerary slot to each parcel.by fund issues. The of

Q Q R R

read know

saturday, august 8, 8, 2015 saturday, august 2015

STATES OF MATTER

Turkey enters the fray Battleﬁelds and ancestors Travelling in time Raghu Karnad taps into a number of sources for this retelling sr raghunathan

Turkey got the memo on the US-led war on terror rather late and then misread it

sukumar muralidharan

Farthest Field An Indian Story of the Second World War Raghu Karnad Fourth Estate Non-ﬁction ₹550

T R

here was a sense of urgency about Turkey’s call on July 26 for consultations under article four of the NATO treaty, invoked when threats arise to the ‘territorial integrity, political independence or security’ of any member state. The Islamic State (IS) had carried out its first attack on Turkish territory: a suicide bombing that killed 32 student activists Suruc, a town borepresenting or in interpreting World dering Syria. left-wing WarThe II has posedstudents a uniquewere set atof tacked asproblems they assembled to take relief in the subcontinent, pracmaterial across Kobane, a predominantly tically to since the end of that great Kurdish in Syrianarratives devastated(the by long-runconflict. town Subsequent field bening battleshave withmainly the IS. dealt with the INA and ing sparse) got struggle NATO to to concede one of the detheTurkey freedom the exclusion of the mands has long, andbased insistently, pressedpostfor: (British)itIndian Army, on a certain acolonial ‘safe zone’ where the opposition to fought Syria’s stigma attached to those who Bashar al-Assad could entrench itself. for empire. Theregime few notable exceptions are Recognising meant explicit and undisfrom regionsthis such as thean Northeast or the Ancriminating involvement with the Syrian opdamans, which the war touched most directly. position, the US had long resisted In the Raghu Karnad’s book, as the back it. jacket inmaelstrom is Syria today, a US-sponsored forms us, isthat history. To be more specific, it is safe would work to the historical advantageevents of the the zone intersection of larger IS andthe Al-Qaeda affiliated Jabathfrom al-Nusra, both with personal. Beginning Calicut, it among the mother’s US’ principal on and the follows his father,enemies Kodandera, broader canvas of the ‘war on terror’. his two Parsi brothers-in-law, Godrej and MaOnce US backing for nek, whoTurkey went secured to war inactive different armed serthe ‘safe zone’ plan, showed gratitude by vices: Kodandera asitan Army its doctor, Godrej unilaterally changing agenda attacking with the Bombay Sappers and and Manek in the the most effective force fighting the IS on the Royal Indian Air Force. ground. firstfollows sorties by war-planes As theThe reader theTurkish three young men targeted Kurdish forces combating IS and on their different journeys, Karnadthe brings in Jabhat al-Nusra to regain around Kothe larger history of the territory war, across its wellbane. known fronts: Europe, North Africa, the Pacific Turkey waslesser-known the spoiler inWest 2003,Asia. when the US and even the Through was in an extreme flush war-lust preparing Manek, who alone of theof three saw action, Karfor invasion of Iraq. It refused transit nad the visits the China-Burma-India theatre, alrights US forces and declined thoughfor Kohima Imphal permission are less to use NATO’s airbase, located its eponymous ofIncirlik the ‘farthest field’ and on more territory. As Iraq descended into chaos, Turkey this country’s backyard. moved in subtly deepen its strategic influKarnad gets antoopportunity to show much ence. Fearful its much own internal stability, from the war,ofand more beyond it: Turthe key hadof for long and opposed any hintthat of country the 1930s the generation autonomy Iraq’s regions. But the lived in it, for or at leastKurdish that class to which shifting strategic three young men alignments belonged. in the region, es-

pecially after the conflict in Syria acquired di- that US-assembled alliances had directly mensions of full-blown civil war, meant that fuelled the rise of the IS. Outraged reactions Turkey could go beyond older formulae and from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey promptseek an accommodation of convenience with ed a quick apology, though Biden’s only sin the Kurdish self-governing unit in Iraq. It was was uttering publicly what was by then the ofrelatively risk-free, since Turkey was then in a ficial reading of US intelligence. state of ceasefire with its own Kurdish guerilIn August 2012, well before the emergence las. For Iraq’s Kurds, a relationship with Tur- of the IS as a threat, a report by the Defence InkeyThis wasbook a strategic offset foritself growing Iranian recommends chiefly be- telligence in the US, spoke of the page countAgency to their(DIA) advantage. influence in thenarratives largely Shia south stories of the possible cause personal of Indian repercussions of continuing More than 86,000 young Indians chaos died in country. from the war do not exist. As an introduction Syria. change declaredacross policy the obWorldRegime War II in fieldswas andatheatres These strategic going and overview, it iscalculations particularlystarted suitable for jective as in various other US world. and, Academic research has contexts, moved onthe from seriously askew by as the Syrian turmoil escalatguided reading school students. The maps was gladly aligning with every political tendmerely documenting India and the war to ed theenough IS effectively effaced a vast of ency areand lucid for youngsters to part underthat pursuit. The DIA research, noted thatsuch the inmoreinspecific and exciting as the border with Iraq. Kurdish armed groups surgency stand the big picture. in behind Syria was principally driven by an the politics the Great Bengal Famine, geared up forbeware resistance to the IS by coordinatHowever, generalisations such as extremist called the Salafists, as after also the or rapes bysect Indian soldiers in France ing across frontiers, raisingthe theIndian prospect that the idea — when discussing Army in Muslim Brotherhood and Alideological Qaeda. Among its Normandy invasion, or the divide they take control over held the fate between the Iraq —would that while the Americans supporters were soldiers, ‘the west, Gulf INA and loyalist or desercontiguous of the war interritories their handsfrom at one end and the tions by thecountries and Turkey’. Further agmartial races. Iraq through Syria, rightthe up to Russians at the other, Indians held the gravation Syria, the DIA observMore than 30 meninfrom the subcontinent the Turkish That set off middle. It border. is ludicrous enough ed,would could eventually lead to ‘a declared or receive the alarm bells inancient Turkey history and an is Turkey is now fully that India’s undeclared Salafist in Victoria Cross. In principality field after field overt move towards intervennow subject to revisionism of the engaged in Syria as Eastern This tended was ‘exactly acrossSyria’. the world, by the part of NATO, but ing Syria and kind Iraq without with mostinegregious what the supporting powers’ wantCommonwealth War Graves at clear bombing raids on Kurdish adding the idea that wetarwon working ed,Commission ‘in order to isolate the Syrian rebut seldom visited As an introduction cross-purposes with gets. is now fully enWWII Turkey practically on our own. which (was) considered the by Indians, lie the sons of Garhand overview, it is gime, putative leader of strategic gaged in Syria part of NATO, It must beasasked, however, the particularly depthfarmers, of the Shia wal terrace Sikhexpansharesuitable alliance but working clear cross-purwhich of theat two histories — that forthe (Iraq and Iran)’.fishermen The potential croppers, Baloch and guided reading by sion poses putative of thewith warthe and that ofleader the auof the situation Gurkha tea labourers, who enschool students deterioration of the ancestors alliance. The US wants thor’s — would matter though, ‘direincrediconsedured would some ofhave the most the defeat ofinterested the IS and lay regime more to the reader. quences’ for Iraq. It would create ble journeys. change in Syriawho – perhaps inthe Unlike Karnad, arrived at the ‘ideal atmosphere’ forafter Al Qaeda However, 70 years this that order. Turkey to crush war through thesewants personal tales, the Kurdish to ‘return to its old and pockets in Mosul andand Ragreat terrible conflict resurgence and secure regime change Syria, a reader would pick up this book forinthe re- madi andafter (would) provide a renewed momen68 years Independence, a book meant for in no reason particular verse — it priority, is about though the war.it sees the IS tum under the presumption of an unifying the general readers tells the tale of army docas As a distinctly worry. an overalllesser history of World War II, there is jihad Sunni andIf Syria’. There was tor, anamong engineer andIraq a pilot. you wish to read With thewhich explosive arrival of the in IS existing in 2014, no little here may not be found mysteryWorld aboutWar the IIemergence of the IS and as a a personal history of the men the US was committed to a battle of force primary or officially even secondary research. Karnad that, within days, could of families of the ‘other ranks’ andseize theircontrol descenddual containment, the destruction of major shows evidence of seeking wide reading and draws and a vast area within Iraq.toItwait, was ants, ofcities that ‘other India’, you will have the IS while also Iran, foreseen competently fromdismantling such works.Syria The and personal almostscouts to itsand last English details. language What refor the talent the militia’s only credible interesting regional oppohistory makes for adequately read- mains to behaven’t revealed is the role regionpublishers reached thatvarious farthest field, nents. It was not before the ainconsistening, although it islong likely to have far greater al actors played in some fomenting the chaos. and might not for time yet. cies in theseconnect objectives began wear down its emotional with the to descendants of muralidharan is an independent siddhartha sarma is a journalist, author andwriter, infinite appetite war.asInisdeep remorse, the three youngfor men, natural. Herevicethe sukumar based in Gurgaon and Shimla military historian president Bidencould said in October last year author or Joe editors have trimmed the researcher

Farthest Field, which combines historical events with the personal, is a competent account, but does not travel far enough

Q Q R R

ND-X _ A

7 19BL BL

takeaway know

BL BL 20 4

saturday, august 8, 8, 2015 saturday, august 2015

Always on my mind Home to hundreds of bars, you can spend your night listening to country music and jazz austin convention & visitors bureau

The true hipster city Manipur’s inner battle lines

Seething streets Protests erupted across Manipur valley following the July 8 death of a student at a rally held in Imphal to demand the implementation of the Inner Line Permit system pti

Austin, Texas, is enjoying its new status as home of all things cool, from Willie Nelson to vegan spreads to bat sightings

I S

t might have well been a scene from the Batman-Dark Knight trilogy. It’s close to sunset and a cloud of bats — probably a million, have just filled the skies. No, I’m not in a movie set but visibly frustrated at a vantageince point inpassing Austin, of Texas, that the The distraught Manipur Regumy camera cannot capture the visual spectalation of Visitors, Tenants and Migrant cle thatWorkers has just(MRVT&MW) unfolded before Bill, my 2015eyes. on “Christopher should seevalley this,” whispers MarchNolan 16, Manipur districts one ofbeen the camera-wielding tourists. have virtually placed under a deceptive Texas’s low-profile (isn’t that calm. Chiefonce Minister O Ibobicapital Singh introduced what most American capitals Legislative were envithe bill on the floor of state the Manipur sioned to on be)March is enjoying newbefore statusthe as one Assembly 13. Justitsa day bill of America’s coolest cities. clearly was passed, the writing onAnd theitwall wasdidn’t clear. happen accident. on Inner Line Permit SysThe Jointby Committee The(JCILPS) bat flight is not a round-the-year phe-a tem totally rejected the bill after nomenon; thankfully that’s The not the case with marathon deliberation. committee, Austin’s ever-growing list of ‘must dos’. Other which had been spearheading the demand for American cities may have taken years to build implementation of the Inner Line Permit Systheir(ILPS) carefully cultivated, larger-than-life tem in the state, accused the Ibobiimreages, of butattempting not Austin. emergence onand all gime to Its protect migrants America’s ‘hip — from entertainment to immigrants orlists’ visitors rather than the inter-century phenomenon cuisine, is indigenous clearly a 21stcommunities. ests of the fuelled by lifestyle TV shows andalleged blogs. JCILPSlargely convenor Ibotombi Khuman Austin even need the powermeasures of Hollythat thedidn’t bill was focused on safety wood. Austin-ites don’t much aboutrathHolfor outsiders visiting thecare state. Moreover, lywood either; at least that’s what er than celebrities empowering authorities to deport they’d like you outsiders, to believe. the bill focused on transgressing punishing indigenous landowners who failed Tune capital to follow the regulations. OfAall the monikers thisleader city has embraced, prominent woman of the JCILPS, nothing ringsOngbi truer than ‘Livealleged Music Capital of Lourembam Nganbi that the the World’. I needed one evening in the bill was drafted onlyjust to please the GovernRed River district somewhat come terms ment of India andto was not in favour ofto the peowithofthe bursting live music scene. The ple thecity’s state. Other committee members sheer rangeher at the 250-odd live music venues too echoed opinion. is mind-boggling. Willie willcow be proud JCILPS has vowed that Nelson it will not down (don’t ever ask an Austin-ite who Willie Nelson to either pressure from the Government or its is!), as quite a few venues are to country-music silence. It reiterated its resolve curb the un-

hubs while jazz and rock are high on the list though. These Mexican free-tailed bats (nearly too. Saxon Pub has been around longer than 1-1.5 million) emerge from under the Congress Austin has been cool — 22,000-plus musical Avenue Bridge and fly into the night — a daily performances since the ’90s. It is one of those sight at sunset between April and September.) venues where Hollywood celebriAustin’s music scene is not just a ties can blend in without bemagnet for visitors but has aling mobbed. Emo’s, just so been one of the reasons down the street, was one young people are shiftof the catalysts for Ausing base to the city. At tin’s booming punk last count, 131 people rock scene in the move to the city ev’90s; not surprisery single day, makingly they are ing Austin the third mighty proud of fastest growing their ‘rough city in the US. around the edges’ A significant image. number of CaliforStevie Ray Vaughnians make up that an, Dixie Chicks, number, an endorseShawn Colvin... Austin’s ment of the city’s hiplist of Grammy winners ster image. keeps growing. However, Of course, it’s not just all Willie Nelson’s bond with the about the lifestyle. The UniversiAustin music scene is particularty of Texas at Austin has been an ly special. In the ’70s he was part integral element of the city’s of the pilot episode of Austin City DNA since 1883, sparking off mulLimits (ACL), now the longesttiple tech start-ups. Michael Dell Of all the monikers running music programme in (Dell Computers) is one of the this city has television history (Time recogmany UT alumni who have led embraced, nothing nised it as one of the 10 most inthe way. rings truer than ‘Live fluential music programmes of Aside from the geek factor, the Music capital of the unending all time). ACL’s appeal didn’t justto subdue city’sagitations large student population Prolonged suffering Police attempt a student protester; and shutdowns have World’ crippled normal life in Manipur valley pti stop with television but inspired has allowed Austin to carve an one of the city’s biggest live muidentity that defies Texas stereoabated inflow ofAustin outsiders Robinhood, on July 8 after sic events — The Cityand Lim-to oppose the dent, Sapam types. One ofdied the city’s credos — state government’s move. The sustained cam- he was reportedly hit by a teargas shellproudly during its Festival, held in the first half one that every Austin-ite paign saw Manipur crippled by strikes a rally in Imphal. was finally of October, one of thevalley best times wearsThe ongovernment his or her sleeve, ‘Keep and Manipur government forced withdraw the bill 13. of this of theshutdowns. year to be inThe Austin. Austin to Weird’ has been at on theJuly centre was pushed the brink protesting stu- unique It then hurriedlyidentity. constituted a panel to (The bats to would haveafter left aAustin by then 21st-century

A Northeast corner burns again, as agitation for the Inner Line Permit system intensiﬁes

Q R

ND-X _ A

takeaway know

saturday, august 8, 8, 2015 saturday, august 2015

●

In and out To regulate the entry of outsiders, agitators want passes issued to migrant workers pti

Taking wing The urban bat colony in Austin will convince you that you are in a Christopher Nolan movie austin convention & visitors bureau; (below) the food trucks are why Austin is a gourmet destination ashwin rajagopalan

Travel Log Getting there

Austin is three hours’ drive from Houston. There are daily ﬂights to Austin’s Bergstorm International Airport from all major cities in the US. British Airways ﬂies from London to Austin Get around

Most of Austin’s vibrant neighbourhoods arehome around Hitting The the city centre and accessible Ibobi regimeon is foot. You of protecting can also cabaccused it migrants and visitors rather than the of dollar, the If you like tointerests pay top check indigenous into The Driskill Hotel on Brazos communities pti

Stay

Street. It’s steeped in history; and Art express has it all — showstopper boots, belts with lifetheir signature cinnamon roll at the From Las Vegas to San Francisco, public art is size buckles and quintessential cowboy 1886 Cafe and bakery is sinful draft a newwhole bill, promising to incorporate, deliberations. drafting later stated revitalising neighbourhoods, but Aus- checks. It’s oneThe of the manypanel must-stops along committee has so far not made a commitment (www.driskillhotel.com) morebiggest or less,tryst all with the demands forth its intention to incorporate the five de- to accept the five demands of the JCILPS. The tin’s public art put comes withbya with Uncommon Objects (onlyallbizarre curios JCILPS. Although thesome panelofembarked a se- here) mandsatofSothe an attempt to end unique twist. While America’son public ambiguous and non-transparCo JCILPS (South in Congress Avenue), Aus-a government’s Tip ries experiments of consultations, it is to unclear whether any tin’s stalemate hasstreet. crippled normal life in the ent moves art aimed spruce up rough areyear’s only serving to worsen most that famous This Austin City Limits the feelheadway has beenHope madeisasan theoutdoor JCILPS publicly neighbourhoods, gallery valley districts of Manipur. ings of distrust the agitation Festival and takesprolong place October 2-4 in statedsprung that it had been for Food Theon five key demands of JCILPS are: issuing the valleyand that up not where a formally high-riseinvited was supdistricts of Manipur. wheels October 9-11. Headline acts passes to migrant workers arriving from outposed to take shape — in the heart of town. It’s Austin While include JCILPS has its terms in and the pubmight be the self-proclaimed live muFooplaced Fighters, Hozier sidecapital the state at various entry points; one of America’s largest outdoor galleries, a sic by organising a convention on July of the world but quite a fewmaking visitors lic realmBilly Idol (www.aclfestival.com). 1951 the base-year fora implementation platform for muralists and graffiti artists. don’t to havehalflost its gocut-off anywhere close to live gig. You will 23, the government Take one of appears Austin Detours’ of thethem Bill; denying ownerStreet graffiti sites are almost always reserved find way as it labours under a self-immaking land a beeline for one of the day tours, which don’t usually tread ship rights migrants en- Cheap food? for but Hope isdemand open even posed restriction and the legal many to food trucks who though. In professionals, line with the longstanding for to city’s the beaten path tered after food 1951; newbies as long as youofregister andLine bring your Tex framework. Along the way, the Mex?Manipur Wrong. Austin’s trucks are probthe implementation the Inner (www.austindetours.com) strengtheningably thethe labour own spray can. (ILPS) in Manipur, the Joint finer details of separating the lebiggestdereason why it is Permit System Very few have dared partment for now the up registration It’s not all on weird here gal component from the politithere with America’s Committee Inner Linethough; Permit System to seek and unravel and regulation of inter-state mithis is, after all, the capital of the cal coreone have been blurred, gourmet destinations; many of aside from housing of America’s most (JCILPS), made up of key organisations, the political grant labourers; and detection lone star state. One walk around rendering the current dispensathem double as testing ground highly rated hotel bars, is also full of legends was formed on July 5, 2012. The ‘Keep Austin Weird’ component of the and deportation of illegal the State Capitol and you know tion virtually for innovative, gourmet chefs. and tales. Lyndon Johnson helpless. is supposed to have has been demand committee has since been spearheading a at the centre migrants. you’re in Texas. Everything’s bigone can see the potenTake Austin’s best-known Cor- managed his While 1964 presidential campaign stthis unique 21 movement that seeks the passage of of a bill Although don observers ger in Texas. The large Italian Retial then difficulties conBleu ChefwelPaul Qui, for in- from here and there inherent are talesinabout century identity by the Manipur Legislative Assembly, based comed the government’s naissance revival-style state travening the checked-out Constitutionbut of stance; he flitswilbetween Qui, a guests (or ghosts) who have on an building earlier decision 2005. The lingness to widely incorporate the fine-dining haven’t left. IIndia, Capitol is tallertaken thanin the very few have (probably dared to seek acclaimed was disappointed reState Government essential components the a JCILPS’s nation’s Capitol in consistently Washingtonturned a and unravel the political of the restaurantofand couple deof lieved) that I didn’t have anycomponent strange run-ins. It blind eye to the demand. mands, they see it as too latecity. andI’d tooworked little. The DC. It has been the symbol In of 2011, the a demands so but far. All efforts up till trucks in the up wasn’t themade ghosts thethe lure of Austin’s motion the Assembly on the government’s intention is also viewed with nightlife city sincewas 1888moved — longinbefore the bats and live quite now havethat been governed purely by theon expean appetite after an aimless walk around forced a change of plans my issue. made JCILPSAustin argued thatmore sincefamous the system suspicion by certain quarters. This trust defimusic even — and So diency of at legal framework. Co, enough to graze on outstanding fare at last night Austin. This timeWhat it wasthe 6thgovernStreet, was implemented in Nagaland, cit was Tacos triggered thechocolate manner in went through a massive faceliftMizoram in the ’90s Torchy ment failed to see is that all legal and aprimarily decadentby iced at where it’s impossible to find roomenactments at popular and Arunachal Pradesh, it should be which the government the local when an incredible network of underground around the world like haveShakespeare’s been triggered byand the the appropriately namedhad Holydisregarded Cacao. Austin’s institutions pub applied in added. Manipur too. Itreplica also argued that wisdom of those spearheading themost movement floors were A small of the Statue need to Mae’s. consider political of any other claim to fame — ‘America’s vegan- Maggie Twothe nights is notcore enough to unabated inflow of migrants to protect thecame rights ofthe Liberty in the Capitol Park is aand subtle re- friendly movement situation. city’ asof noindigenous surprise to communime. This is scratch evenorthe surface of Austin’s entertainties. By America’s insisting on drafting bill that was ment minder that into Austin-ites keep things where Andscene; it is this that the ruling dispensaretail food aphenomenon, thecore ghosts under the bed at Drisimmigrants Manipurlike hadto serious within Foods, the ambit of the Indian Constitution, kill weird. I headed straight to Allen’s after on spend- Whole tionwere failed to consider. began. probably disappointed. economic, social and political impact government was seen to be anxious to ing afternoon for people another theIt’s been an eventful weekend and I’mnot back thean body politics at of the the Capitol indigenous dhiren arajagopalan sadokpam is Editor of Imphal-based ashwin is a Chennai-based displease New Delhi. slice of Texas. If you’re looking at getting kitfor my second night at one of Texas’ most iconof Manipur. Hueiyen Lanapo English daily writer apparent is that drafting ted up cowboy-style, this Texas-style boot shop ic What hotels.isThe Driskillnow dates back the to 1886 and lifestyle

The Backdrop

Q R

ND-X _ A

5 BL 21 BL

takeaway know

BL BL 222

saturday, august 8, 8, 2015 saturday, august 2015

SPIRITUAL SWEAT

The twain shall meet Blended or otherwise, whisky has its own uniqueness

shatbhi basu

Rusty Nail Glass: Rocks/Old Fashioned Ingredients 45ml Talisker 10 15ml Drambuie Garnish: orange peel/cinnamon stick

1 Fill glass with a few ice cubes 2 Pour both liquids on ice 3 intersection Take orange peel2012 sandeep saxena Not-so-smooth passage The scene at a trial run for the BRT, or bus rapid transit, corridor at New Delhi’s Chirag Delhi in May and squeeze the oil on the drink and drop in 4 Sip. Life is good shatbhi basu

Don’t miss the bus, Delhi

“I C

drink only single malts!” Should we

we often lose sight of the real deal. That life is

ery time you open the bottle. If you have expe-

laud news such pomposity? about more than just intends ﬁtting in, being impor- rienced joys in of an discovering beautiful It is good indeedLook thatupon the Chief Minister to re-launch thetheBRT improved the drinker with awe? Should we tant and knowing it all. Delighting in com- blends that sing in your mouth, you’ll know hang on to every word thatwill drips of ﬂavour is better drowningto in abuild form. Hopefully, the city useplexity lessons from its than mistakes whatbetter I mean. Sure I like single malts, but I

from his lips? Is bandying words with buddies of a single malt club the road to understanding the soul of the to single malt? Or am ontrary popular belief, theI being Delhi cynical? InBRT our (bus search for transit) identity system and status, rapid was not a complete failure. A study by technical experts WRI India, EMBARQ and CST India found that despite its faults, the system provided better mobility to road users. It carried over 53,000 passengers a day along a mere 6km stretch. The average time for bus travel decreased by 35 per cent thanks to the corridor, and an overwhelming majority (88 per cent) of bus commuters said they were happy with the system. This view was upheld by the Delhi High Court in October 2012, when it dismissed a plea to scrap the Delhi BRT system on the grounds that nearly 70 per cent of users were moving faster and bus ridership had increased 32 per cent. The judge quoted the famous line, “A developed country is not one where the poor own cars. It is one where the rich use public transport.”

ND-X _ A

superiority complex. would never ever forsake the fabulous blends At the time when this discovery of the sinthat taught me all about Scotch. The young gle malt was reaching dizzying in In- and Johnnie Walker the RedBRT Label, the sophisticated metro rail system.heights BRT designs shawsvibrant in Delhi. Additionally, should dia, just under a decade someone of Cutty Sark, the gentle can maybe range from simple to veryago, complex, de- mellow integratesweetness into the built environment of the urasked meon whether I thought the Ballantine’s, big bold Johnnie Walker Black Lapending the need — that is,that frommeant basic bus ban area it intends to serve. This calls for a slew end of blended whisky. I was thrown at comfirst. bel, the unctuous Chivas 18,such the fabulous Balcorridors to high-capacity systems that of additional investments as building What a strangelines question! I soon realised that it lantine’s 17… There than 3,000 bine multiple and connect to transport safer access to and fromare themore rapid transit corriwasn’t fault. Inthe his mind, this ‘new’Inwhisky whiskies, each with its own identity serviceshisoutside BRT corridor. every blended dor, and optimising bus schedules to link with was much rage that all others fan following. There’s no danger of them case, so BRTs can the be easily integrated into,were and and available metro services. bound forsaken. He didn’t the becoming extinct. becometoabevaluable part of theknow city’sthat overall Three: BRTs are constantly innovating, single malt had always existed. That it was, in evolving. The single maltcan is abe very creamobility system. There noindividualistic single set of solufact, the mother lode.for The trea- the BRT sys- tions for all times. ture. ItTechnology takes on distinctive In Curitiba (Brazil), instance, for vehiclecharprosure chest from blended acteristics turn,buses at the tem was built to which run buses like a pulsion andatforevery docking to whisky created. Because a hands of its platforms, master distiller as surface was metro, with level boardpassenger for orinlarge section ofprepayment, people could large not a slave of the barrels ages in.as It ing stations, stance, continues toitevolve, handle theexclusive often power-packed is shaped by the technology environment buses and bus lanes. In The does information — single malt a BRTs stand outisfor flavour the single this malt!idea was very around it, its play withofthe wood Bogota of (Colombia), one of the mainstays BRTs. Ciindividualistic their flexibility, It beganinto with village system store andneed the little chemical equations expanded a two-lane ties to keep in mind that alcreature. takes on relativeItlow cost, owners like John Walker, who, in floating around waiting liqto accommodate both non-stop though newer thetechnologies distinctive and rapid rate of his questservices to please loyal customuid. Asking to be savoured, not express and local services bring higher capital costs, they characteristics at implementation ers tryingstops. to sell baridolised. There are success. less than a withwhile multiple In his Istanbul are key in delivering every turn rels singlebusesmalt, hundred operating frameworks single malt (Turkey),ofhigh-speed travel Four: Institutional experimented with BRT mixing difdistilleries at any given in a fully segregated corridor, must be improved to time, helpand referent andboth then capacity toning each one makes aimpeding malt whisky, which whiskies multiplies move the barriers BRTs them downIn byGuangzhou adding a neutral which cities. is usually namedcoordinaafter the and speed. (China), the BRT is in rapidly growing Improved spirit and water to make them acceptable. He distillery itself. The Glenlivet, Glenmorangie, so sophisticated that passengers need not distion across municipalities and government noticed some blends workedline. better than Lagavulin, Laphroaig, embark that to transfer to a different agencies will make city Talisker, planningJura, easierDalby others and finally found the perfect recipe more… create interesting variants of bringingThen stakeholders together around a sinthat customers kept coming back for. these by ‘finishing’ them speciallycan chosen Need his for planning gle vision. Education and in outreach spur Word travelled and soon other storekeepers Try sipping theinvestments Glenmorangie The ill-fated Delhi endeavour underscores the casks. sustained intereston and in aQuinBRT, like Berry Brosthat & Rudd, Ruban a coppery dram infused with the stepsChivas cities Brothers, can take to ensure a BRT and sys- ta paving the—way for its success. many moretofollowed Thus A was born the soul of port. Or the apple and spice Balvenie tem works its best suit. potential. BRT system idea of blended Scotch whisky. After an initial Triple Wood. And the warm and tingly Glenfidcombines stations, vehicles, services, running Delhi-specific solutions uproar by information the Scottish technology distillers, laws were Reserve. It’s about endless ways and — all of dich Back Solera in 2009, EMBARQ, WRI India andjoy. CSTAnd Inmade blend officially life through a wide lens.in The subthese and mustthe work in was tandem. Thesanctioned. daily man- seeing dia studied the Delhi busangle corridor detail. Blended aretothe visionsatofhigh artists nuances anddespite interesting twists inthe thepilot adagement ofwhiskies the system, function ca- tle They found that its successes, who, understanding personalities A fresh surprise at every pacity,after is merely step one inthe getting it right. of venturous project hadapproach. experienced several setbacks dursoStep many single malts from various areas themonths glass and two involves ensuring that the BRT and can corner. ing theIn first ofotherwise. operation. The probof varyinginto ages, the best of each,systo lems included congestion in non-bus lanes, integrate theharness city’s existing transport a mixologist, author, television host, create a new Each gem tems, that is,masterpiece. connect people tolittle metros orhas last-a shatbhi frequentbasu bus isbreakdowns in the segregated headconfusion of Stir, a bartending in Mumbai unique character that you look to, ev- and mile modes of transport, suchforward as auto-ricklanes, over academy bus entry and exit

Q R

know scan

saturday, august 8, 8, 2015 saturday, august 2015

Calorie count The government’s mantra — high thinking, low calories

t is 5.30pm. Your eyes are glassy, having stared at the computer for hours. Your fingers hurt, having signed on too many files. All you need then, a few hours after lunch and many before dinner, is a cup of chai and a samosa. Or a pakora. Covered in spicy green chutney and filled with masaledar aloo. Too bad then, for all you will get is free plates of healthy poha or sprouts. If the circulars on yoga weren’t enough, the government is taking snacking seriously too. Bureaucrats working over time at the Department of Personnel & Training will now have to munch on nutritious offerings like the dhokla and poha. Apparently, loud sighing has been heard in the corridors of North Block. Some have even turned nostalgic for the cabinet meetings of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, where bowls of cashew nuts, samosas and gulab jamuns were generously passed around.

Conscious uncoupling Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy are no longer together

Summertime novel Disappointed fans to get refunds for Go Set a Watchman

o, she killed off a major character. Atticus Finch the hero, we learn, is anything but. We can’t tell if it’s a prequel or sequel. Since its release last month, Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman has set cash registers ringing and op-ed writers bristling. The book has invited both brickbats and bouquets. However, in what seems like an extreme measure, an indie bookstore in Michigan, US, has decided to refund the price of the book to the unhappy customer. The bookstore claims it owes “refunds and apologies” to its “loyal paying” customers, and that Go Set a Watchman should be read as “academic insight” and not as a “nice summer novel”. If we had a rupee for every time we were disappointed with a book, wouldn’t we be millionaires?

points, unauthorised pedestrian crossings houghtful (jaywalking) and faulty traffic signals. This led consideration and considerable squabbling” later, the to customer dissatisfaction. To improve buscelebrity power couple of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy operations, the Delhi BRT must make fourhave crit-announced a parting of ways. The main protagonists of the much loved The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, the ical changes in its next iteration. couple, unlike most of their Hollywood friends, were together One, the Delhi BRT should continuously for decades. On screen, they were a forever squabbling duo — monitor a set of key transport indicators, Miss about Piggy operusing her karate chops (Hi Yah!) most often on the which will keep officials informed froggy. ations at all times, anticipatehapless problems andWhat caused the breakup? Was it another wom(thatthan means solve them ahead of time —an rather re- you Emmy Rossum) or a new show starring Miss Piggy? In what has been a particularly bad summer for cespond after something goes wrong, and make — Ben and Jen, remember — the muppets are the overallofimprovements to the lebrity system.couples The key hat is a moustache but the manliest accoutrecasualties of that thing called fame. bus frequency, ments for the macho man? At least indicators that’s whatinclude the Ut- travel time,latest passengers vehicle, fleet size, monthly revtar Pradesh police department thinks. That strip ofper facial enue, user fare, operation costs, fuel hair is the ultimate symbol of mardaangi thataverage every cop average commercial speeds, anmust possess. Dabangg Chulbul Pandeyconsumption, has one, so does nual fatalities and Singham. According to officials, the moustache is a sign of customer satisfaction. it shouldtoadjust services to meet de- Not all aboard Members of the BJP Yuva Morcha, led by the then State party president Harshvardhan (second bravado. Reviving an old practice, UP’s policeTwo, has decided mand. key indicators will flag traffic in- from right), demonstrate against the BRT corridor in New Delhi in April 2008 s subramanium reward cops with the best stashes. Back in 1945, The an English creases during peak hours. Officials should official had awarded three Lucknow cops for their lush stepthe up cash services to meet this demand, and re- known that the initial response to the Delhi mental benefits. moustaches with a princely sum of ₹5. While prize duce off-peak to provide balanced ser- BRT was negative from some media outlets If one views mobility, clean air and liveable is yet to be fixed, UP cops will be busy striking fear inservices the ord of the said tofor have whirled in vice. Flexible route planning — namely, using and opinion makers, leading to a political fire- surroundings asRings basicisrights every citizen, hearts of criminals, one moustache at a time. Tolkien’sinvestments head for 16 years, Alistair Ma-a short-loop routes and express routes to bypass storm. A sophisticated marketing strategy can then increased in BRTs become cLeod needed 13BRTs yearsreduce to windthe up need No Great certain stations — is one way of help promote not only the bus moral imperative. for and Kiran air Desai years improving efficiency. corridor but also the benefits of car Mischief travel, mitigating andspent noiseseven pollution, on The Inheritance gas of Loss. If these writers Three, it should make sure mass transit; branded buses, as well as greenhouse emissions. They also dwelled on a novel years, on August 8, customers are satisfied by offerterminals, maps, websites, vid- reduce accidents andforensure citizens geta few others physical have other intentions; finish ing a clean, reliable, fast, safe eos, and educational messages much-needed activity. Not least, theya Not least, they afford novel minutes — 75 people minutes to disabilbe preand comfortable service. Adare a part of this strategy. afford thein elderly, women, with the elderly, women, Nine Worlds Geek Fest, science vanced GPS systems can help people with disabilities itiescise. andAtthe poorest citizens better accessficto Chris Farnell and 50 other manage operations and deMobility for all jobstion and writer other benefits of city life. and the poorest participants will out aafford plot, to charmand in real time, and bus terAs environmentalist Sunita NaDelhi, and India at hammer large, cannot excitizens better access acters twist all in 45 minutes. Each one minals should be located close rain once wrote, “...the bottom clude BRTand in the urban mobility portfolio. The to jobs and other will be left fleshChief out aMinister chapter in the next to other mass transit points for line is this: our cities cannot ac- news that the to Delhi intends to benefits of city life half an the hour. A coherent piece is Farnell’s easy transfers. Terminals should commodate present and future introduce BRT in an improved form is dream. AndHopefully, no, the Booker certainly not be built wider and longer to car populations”. We must not good indeed. the is city will start on their avoid crowding. Easy-to-follow make the mistake, committed afresh, usingmind. lessons from the pilot to build a user information should be the world over, of expanding better BRT in the coming months. readily available to help passengers find their roads to tackle vehicle congestion. After decway around without difficulty. ades of building and maintaining expensive dario hidalgo is Director Integrated Transport Four, image management should be im- urban highways, many cities, including San Practice at the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities proved to ensure both citizens and the gov- Francisco and Seoul, are choosing to tear them and amit bhatt is Director for Sustainable Transport ernment support the BRT as it re-launches. It is down to gain social, economic and environ- at WRI India

“T

Manly men

Cops in Allahabad are busy twirling their moustaches

Fiction in a tizzy How to write a book in 75 minutes

Q R

ND-X _ A

3 23BL BL

hang

saturday, august 8, 2015

in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

n August 8, 1969, Iain MacMillan took one of the most iconic photographs ever, the cover of the Beatles album ‘Abbey Road.’ This week’s quiz is all about roads.

here,there & elsewhere

Country roads

Satanic scents T

he sun. The heat. The bikini babes. “Let’s go camping!” says Bins. “We have a hearse! We have an ice-cooler! It’s unhealthy to stay cooped up all day breathing paint-fumes.” I say, “You go inhale car-exhaust and I’ll stick with my paint-fumes.” He calls me a bourgeois pumpkin. I call him an aging hornet. Then his enormous Viking friend Birk comes by with a portable barbecue grill tucked under one giant arm and a frozen pig under the other, saying, “Hey! We’re going camping!” So we go. Not right away, of course. It takes two days to decide how much food to take. After all, ‘camping’ is really only a synonym for ‘gorgingon-everything-we-wouldn’t-dreamof-eating-inside-a-house.’ Birk and Bins race about getting the pig properly thawed and butchered while I boil eggs and make stacks of cheese sandwiches. They return with 10 different ﬂavours of tortilla chips and gallons of salsa. We pack our clothes and food into the car at night, so that we can set off at four in the morning with only the refrigerated stuff to load into the cooler. I go to sleep fully clothed so that I can wake up at the last minute. Bins of course is leaping about like a kangaroo with a

mouse in its pouch from three onwards. I hear Birk’s car pulling into the driveway and Bins goes out, laden with freezy-packs and containers of meat. Then there’s an odd silence. I lock the front door and go out. Both guys are standing at the open rear of the hearse, their faces lit by a tiny torch in Birk’s hand. Bins beckons to me with a ﬁnger to his lips. I go over and see: paw prints. “Someone forgot to lock the back of the car,” whispers Bins, glaring at me. “Wha—? That was you!”I whisper back. “Doesn’t matter,” says Birk. “He’s inside

1 now.” Who? “Your raccoon, Kookie,” says Birk. “Are you sure it’s him?” I ask. Bins is nodding. “Must be. I saw something black moving inside.” I start to say, “Kookie’s pale brown —” but the other two are convinced. “Let’s go,” says Bins. “We’ll take him camping too. He will enjoy.” I’m too sleepy to argue, so I climb in. The food containers have been well secured, leaving me plenty of place to recline. I crawl in, spread my cushions and fall back into dreams, lulled by the motion of the car. When I wake up, we have stopped. Sunlight is streaming in through a window. A hand is rocking my shoulder. When I try to sit up however, that same hand holds me down. “Don’t move!” hisses Bins in my ear. “Open your eyes slowly.” Inches from my face I see a furry black form with ﬂashes of white. A young skunk. She has bright eyes, twitchy whiskers and a naughty smile. “Hello, human!” she says. “You know the deal, right? One move and I’ll spray you with a stink worse than Satan’s sewer?” Yup, I say wordlessly, hardly daring to breathe. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the ﬁctional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

The longest highway in India is NH 7, which connects Hyderabad, Kurnool, Madurai and other cities to Kanyakumari and runs for almost 2,370 km. Which is the other terminal for NH 7?

2 3

What started with Singapore in 1940, ended at Hong Kong in 1962 and included Zanzibar, Morocco, Rio, Bali and even Utopia? While the Grand Trunk road existed in some form since Mauryan times, the modern road was built by Sher Shah Suri, who originally wanted to connect his birthplace to Agra, his capital. Where did the road start?

This London street housed the headquarters of the Royal Geographical society and also the iconic Apple Records office, where the Beatles held their last iconic live concert. But it is famous worldwide for a different group of professionals. Name the street and its claim to fame.

The Reeperbahn is also described as die sündigste Meile — the most sinful mile, and is a well-known red light district in Europe. In which city would you come across Reeperbahn?

6 7

Which 243-km road is regarded as the world’s largest war memorial and is an important tourist attraction in the region? The Appian Way is probably the most famous road in ancient Europe. In 71 BC, what grisly display could you have expected to see along the 200 km stretch from Rome to Capua?

This street was originally known for its silverware. Since the late 19th century, it became known for the output of 20 families, three of which, Kanhaiyalal Durgaprasad Dixit, Dayanand Shivcharan and Baburam Devidayal, still ply their trade. Name the street.

Gasoline Alley was a comic strip that originated in 1918 and is the second longestrunning comic strip in the world. What innovation did this cartoon start and is still extremely rare in comic strips?

Why do most Americans know the most expensive and well-known streets in Atlantic City, New Jersey?

cornerstone

Answers 1. Varanasi. The highway also goes through Rewa and Jabalpur 2. The hugely successful Road to... films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. They were planning an eighth film in 1977 when Bing Crosby passed away 3. Sasaram. The extensions right up to Kabul and Bengal were made by the Mughals 4. Savile Row, the mecca for fine men’s tailoring 5. Hamburg 6. The Great Ocean Road on the east coast of Australia which includes the Twelve Apostles. It was built by soldiers who returned after World War I and is dedicated to their comrades who lost their lives 7. The 6,000 soldiers of Spartacus’ army who were crucified along the road as a warning to anyone who wanted to revolt against the Roman empire 8. Paranthe Wali Gali, originally known as Chota Dariba or Dariba Kalan in Old Delhi 9. All the characters in the strip grew up and aged over time. The main character, Walter Wallet, is now 115, and the fifth generation of characters are already on the strip 10. They appear in the original American Parker brothers Monopoly game. Boardwalk is the most expensive property in the American game

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