Blink issue 96 november28 2015

DARKEST OF THEM ALL At Hyderabad’s Sadar Sammelan, beasts rule over man. This year, Yuvraj the seven-crorebull was the marquee attraction p2 saturday, november 28, 2015

ron zmiri/shutterstock

Nineteen years ago, a 16-year-old became known forever as the Suryanelli girl. The case exposed a syndicate of sextrafficking in Kerala. Defying all odds, she and her family stood by the truth and have ďŹ nally carved out a quiet existence for themselves p9

The girl with no escape

LIGHTS, CAMERA, UPLOAD Big banners and individuals alike are making series just for the Web p14

CITY OF GEOMETRY Neel Kamal Puri writes about growing up together with her city, Chandigarh p16

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Shade card A grey go-away bird; (inset) a purple-crested turaco specimen at the Harvard Museum of Natural History ambika kamath

CREATURE FEATURE

Showing true colours Yuvraj takes centre stage

Different kind of beast The festivities at Sadar Sammelan kick off at night, with processions wending their way through crowded alleys before converging at the YMCA circle early the next morning sanjay borra

There’s more to pigments in birds than making feathers attractive

ambika kamath

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n my second day in South Africa, I remember venturing out into the dry savannah, and spotting, within minutes, a pigeon-sized bird that was unlike anything I’d seen before. Grey, with a jaunty crest and an obnoxious two-syllable call, this bird couldn’t have been easier to identify. It was a grey go-away bird, and after seeing it countless times in the next few months, it became ordinary. But the excitehe Telugu writerinRachakonda Viswament of seeing a creature its natural habitat Sastryfade. once began a novel for the firstnatha time didn’t with awhile meditation on how Years later, chatting withbuffaloes Allison are the studying “negroes the of evolution the animal Shultz, a biologist of world”.in In birds, general, dunnapotu is not a colour I learnt that (bull) grey go-away term are of closely endearment.

Men will remember birds related to much brighter couwhencalled they were berated as boyslive — ‘stop lolling sins turacos.

Turacos in forests about sub-Saharan like a dunnapotu and your across Africa, and are do coloured homework’. with a variety of brilliant blues and greens and If Viswanatha today, purples and reds. Sastry Shultzwere has a here soft spot forthis tusight would his heart — dozens racos, and hergladden enthusiasm is directly linkedand to dozens of caparisoned cheered on their colours.

The greenbuffaloes, and red pigments in by thousands of are onlookers. am at the Sadar turaco feathers found Ialmost nowhere Sammelan the annual meetand heldShultz by thehas Yaelse in the — animal kingdom, dav community in Hyderabad celebrate its long been curious about howtothese unique cattle. It is evolved. traditionally heldintriguing two days after Dipigments What’s about wali.

The festivities kick off atshe’s night, withseen procher passion, however, is that never a essionsinwending theircuriosity way through gallis turaco the wild. Her was sparked, before converging at the YMCA circlebirds in Nainstead, by seeing specimens of these in arayanguda museum. early the next morning. The notice inAn theimportant newspaper promised “buffaloofacrobatclue in the mystery turaco ics” but right the beasts are serene.

Which pigments liesnow in their chemical composition. is good — because street is absolutely Like many naturalthe colour pigments, theyjamare packed, any incipient would made upand of molecules calledacrobatics porphyrins that bring hooves crashing down on revellers. are associated with metals.

Thethe red of our blood comes from a porphyrin-iron complex, the day I’d calledof upa my shutterand arlier leavesin are green because porphyrinbug friend, wouldcalled he likechlorophyll. to join? He The is a magnesium complex veteranreds street andarise I feltfrom this turaco andphotographer greens similarly would be a walkofinporphyrin the park for him.

I was misthe association with copper. taken.

We’dupon first turned at theliving YMCA,awhere Relying metals up means little the pandals await the concentrations, animals. The majordodangerously — at high metals mo be explains that about months before can toxic. When lockedtwo away in a pigment theswathed event each animal isthough, fed a rich diet, and alor in proteins, metals aren’t

The annual Sadar Sammelan in Hyderabad might be an occasion for the Yadav community to celebrate its cattle, but it is also where buffaloes bop to music and men are rendered wholly insignificant

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bad. But synthesising these large molecules in diet.” This question remains unanswered, at which to store metals can cost an organism a least for now. lot of energy. Because the blood of animals Like any good naturalist, Shultz longs to see and the chlorophyll in leaves are vital to sur- a turaco in its natural habitat. But would she vival — they allow cells to breathe and convert have wondered about the bird’s pigments if sunlight into food, respectively — the dangers she had only seen a few in the wild? Possibly and costs posed by metals are balanced by not. Unlike birds in nature, museum specitheir usefulness. Here, then, is the crux of the mens are arranged by people, classified acissue: of what use are the turacos’ pigments? cording to their evolutionary relationships. So Usually, we assume that brightly coloured in a museum, “you can pull out a drawer [of naught; there are in front of so gets “special neck It is “cooperafeathers are a way forexercises”. birds to impress poten- specimens] and seetoo somany muchpeople diversity,” Shultz us. A manItsuggests take a side and tion, not competition”, he explains. are explains. tial mates.

And it’s certainly likely thatThere turacos was thewe diversity of street colours inrea enter atofthe headspecimens of the procession. no prizes; andfor each buffalo use some ofevery theirparticipant many colours display, or drawer turaco that led her to beWe curious do, andabout the atmosphere changes in an getscamouflage a medal, a against shawl, athe participatory certififor forest canopy.

But come their pigments.

A low,talking dirge-like is passed onmy becate and afeathers garland. cuts “You instant. compare toAnother blood orman leaves.

Wein, recogJust before to song Shultz, I opened tweenofthe loudspeakers strung upsurprise, along theI wantthat the the seven-crore Before can reply, nise colours bull?” of blood and Ileaves are birds South Africa book.

To my take off their shoes he says, “Go to Mushirabad.”

Ah yes, the seven- street. Silent-eyed just by-products of their funcfoundpilgrims a tick mark, accompanied and gather around bonfires.

I realise we’ve croreBlood bull. isn’t red for a reason; tion. by a date and location, next to a Shia gathering; there isturaco. silenceI Sammelan back formally to stumbled onthe redThe justSadar happens to be goes the colentry for the purple except for the crackling the flame.

Turn an1947,ofwhen it was first held Hyderabad. our a molecule that is in very had, in fact,of seen one of these TheBut possibility other corner and, once again, we are into the this year, all the city canoxygen, talk aboutremains is Yuvraj, good at transporting magnificent birds, but I didn’t rethat turacos’ chaos of the procession.

I marvel the gigantic brought from which is whatbull blood evolved to member it at all.

I felt cheated by colours exist simply at the change, at the multitudes Haryana air-conditioned do.

Could in thean colours of turaco my brain. to get rid of the within India,shows within a city, within truck. Thanks to incidental? wall-to-wall feathers be similarly As Shultz me specimens copper found in the a neighbourhood. media coverage, child can Feathers serve allany sorts of purof different turaco species in Harfruit they eat Where does a 3,200We are just aofparallel street reel off—the He is poses theystatistics. allow birds to6.5 fly,feet of vard’s Museum Comparative pound buffalo take a away, but Iwe in an tall at his shoulder, weighs 1,600 course, and by virtue of being Zoology, fillcould thatbegap inadjamy nap? The answer: cent reality. kg, eats apples aevery day, year, has a shed and100 re-grown memory with the “evolutionary wherever it damn And now wedescribes. are finally here — staff of can 10 —also “keeping watch feathers be a waya to disthinking” she I marvel wants to the moving heart this river over him like the watches pose of waste.

It’s eye unlikely thatthe pigments help at details, likeathow one species of of turaco, but of animals and men on their way eyelid”, fly. as “They’re the TV channels ex- Shultz ex- none of the others, turacos terrible fliers,” had small, tooth-like serrato an—incredible confluence.

The plain —“They’re giving him mustard oil plains. almost like monkeys, mostly tions on its beak was this because the speof the drums a tatmassages, combing his hair, enhopping around the branches.” cies differed beat in what they ate? hammers It would have too inside one’s brain. Floats holding idols suring thepossibility air-conditioning at turacos’ an ambient But the remainsis that col- taken months of watching turacos in the wild, and tableaus drag waya whole through the level and on. ours existsosimply to get rid of the copper at close quarters andtheir across contilanes.for The photographer gestures — itme is The Sadar onpiece as it always found in theSammelan fruit they will eat. go One of evi- nent, the same question to have ‘up’ struck too loudoftoa talk — and Is wethe trychance the narrow stairs has, butthat theresupports is no question who the marquee outside dence this pigment-as-waste museum. to wonder of the turacos’ houses. The balconies are crowded with attraction is. presence of purple. Look careful- about theory is the teeth as valuable as the excitewomen — the streets are go-away a monopoly of the the ly at the purple feathers of some turacos, and ment of identifying a grey bird for theofcrowds likeundercurd. first men.time?

We push ouritway across you’lls we seedrive, a layer greenthicken pigment I think might be. and carve a vanWeThis park the vehicle sta- tage point. Directly below us we see the wave neath. puzzles Shultz.near “Whythe arepolice they prokamath studies organismic andblack evolutionary tion and[the makegreen our way into theand maze of ambika of oncoming buffaloes.

They are vacanducing pigment] then University Harvard streets. The thunder of the dappuit’s reaccies inatthe colour of the crowd, moving like covering it distant up?” she wonders, “Unless a biology ambikamath@gmail.com hes us. attempt through is stealth bombers. There is a constant stream of way for Our themfirst to get rid of to thebreak copper in their

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Make way The first thing that strikes one is that Yuvraj’s back is broad and flat like a dinner table; (below) the mela throws one into different realities in quick succession sanjay borra

youths taking selfies next to the ambling animals. I reflect that this tumult is the echo of ancient wars between the gods. This is the continuing celebration of the time when Krishna lifted the Govardhan mountain and protected the Yadavas and their herds from the lightning essayed by Lord Indra. This is the ur-myth that sustains them.

I look down; the buffaloes seem to be bopping to the music! Amazed, I stare and then realise how it is done — each holy mammal has a youth standing under its snout. When the music starts the youth shakes his head — and the buffalo follows suit, jiving to the tunes.

As the music reaches a crescendo I sense a ripple through the crowds. The big bull is here. His entry is presaged by a field of swaying hands holding cellphones, rising from the crowd. I see jagged slices of him off a hundred smartphone screens. The first thing that strikes me is that his back is broad and flat like a dinner table. I overhear one man comparing him favourably to the animated one that menaced Rana Daggubati in Baahubali. A dozen bouncers, clad in identical black t-shirts, march in formation holding metal ladders and barricades. Two boys next to me chatter excitedly, “they are the same bouncers who guarded Salman Khan when he came last month”. They march in lockstep, ensuring a

moving enclosure, a metal rectangle that al- preciated it till now. ways surrounds Yuvraj. Inside this vacancy is In Yuvraj I sense the jaded attitude common the owner, Karan Vir Singh of Haryana, who to all celebrities. The boredom of a hundred seems bemused by the scene. presscons or junkets.

The bull and his entourage reach the juncinally he gets up. As he rises, the crowd lets tion on the main road. Yuvraj decides to have a loose a full-throated roar that reverberates lie-down, thus reaffirming that old adage “where does a 3,200-pound buffalo take a nap? around us. Too late I realise my danger. The The answer: “wherever he damn wants to”. A metal cage is on the move again and I bounce surge of selfie-seekers takes advantage of this around like a character in a video game. Too immobility. There is a constant rotation as slow and I get hit by the trailing edge. Too fast youths grab selfies or take one of their friends and I run the risk of getting squashed as Yuvraj lurches from side to side. It is next to that massive horned in this moving metal cage with head. Politicians line up and an this 1.6-tonne behemoth that avenue is cleared for “VIP Selfyou become aware of his sheer ies”. Flashes bounce off the crisp The crowd is an white shirts of MLAs, corpora- animal, but the bull is size. The details suddenly all add up to form a new picture, sometors and councilmen. the bigger animal thing you saw but didn’t underI’m not immune. I gesture to stand till now. The glistening the photographer. He is an old sheen of the hide. The beads of hand at these things. Without a moisture on the hair on his head. word he rips off a page from my notebook, writes ‘The Hindu’ in block letters The rolling eyes. The cascades of turmeric rolland, holding up this banner, we enter the fray. ing off his flanks, flakes of gold that catch the He rushes off to get better angles — the ex- light and drift like yellow snow. And all panse of the beast’s black hide seems to defeat around us the incessant baying of the crowds.

The crowd is an animal, but the bull is the even his flash. I merely gawp like a country yokel. In my reading of the Mahabharata, I’d of- bigger animal.

Up front the two handlers struggle — yet it is ten come across characters addressing each other as “O Bull of the Yadu race” but never ap- very clear that they are ‘handling’ Yuvraj only because Yuvraj allows them to. One experimental shake and the handlers are thrown off like flies.

“Bande bahut bekaar hain,” says the owner at my side. Like his buffalo, he seems bored by the hysteria. One word, one touch from him and Yuvraj quietens down immediately. I take advantage of this temporary hiatus and clamber over the railings.

I re-join the photographer. We are exhausted and have already slipped many times in the mounds of dung that suffix the animals. The acrobatics are still ahead of us — where the buffaloes stand on their hind legs and caper.

We anchor in a lagoon of bystanders as the river of men and animals flows on. In this stream the black of the buffaloes is a nullity, an absence that denotes a presence. Their silence is a terrible counterpoint to the roar of the crowd. The Lord of Death rides on a buffalo too, I reflect. The last thing you will ever see.

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jaideep unudurti is a Hyderabad-based writer

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Camel inincrisis History a bottle SPIRITUAL SWEAT

The Marwar Camel Culture Festival brings attention to the plight of Rajasthan’s state animal and itsthe herders What textbooks don’t tell you about the kings, queens, wars and revolutions Camels in Rajasthan currently number about 3.2 lakh (2012 Livestock census) but generate no revenue for those who rear them: camel milk, which is considered therapeutic for diabetic patients among others, cannot be marketed as it is not included under the Food Act, and the Raikas’ traditional revenue source — providing camels as draught animals — became obsolete long ago.

Desperate breeders had turned to selling camels for meat.

In a cruel twist, this too became illegal after Rajasthan declared the camel its state animal in 2014.

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At a camel breeders’ meeting held as part of the festival, two recommendations were formulated to be forwarded to the state government: Camel dairy products have tremendous potential but need investment by the government; and camel breeders would hand over the “state animal” to the state government at the tehsil-level if no action was taken to improve their situation within the next four to Kill and be killed The six months.

Ilse Köhler-Rollefsonpotent has become the shots face Kamikaze

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of advocacy aimed at saving the camels were inspired by Japan’s suicide squad pilots of World War II

Down go the numbers Very few camel breeders attended the Pushkar fair last year, and there were even fewer buyers rohit jain paras

W T In many avatars Russians began making vodka with potato before switching to wheat shutterstock

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inter is India’s ‘festival’ seahis whole theniche BiharRajasCabison.fracas Therewith is the net and its illiteracy levels, haveFolk rethan International ally put a damper It got Festival (RIFF)onatthings.

Jodhpur, the me thinking back. is it? hipster-magnet Pushkar fair Whose and thefault popular Is it about bad students badBut teachers. is Jaipur Literature Festivalor (JLF). early inOr Nothis too aSadri, vicious cycle. in I wasn’t great atofmathevember, a town Pali district Rajasmatics in school.

In fact, I was rather than, hosted a new festival of an pathetic unusual at it. I don’t know if this because my teachnature.

It was meant to was bring attention to the er didn’t or inspire enough tocamel make plight of excite Rajasthan’s stateme animal — the an effort to delvethe into the mysteries of algebra — and showcase endangered culture of the and geometry.

But then I didn’t particularly Raikas, one of western India’s nomadic pastolike historythat or geography either.camels. ral groups rears and herds Did mean that ICulture must have been aa modterriThe that Marwar Camel Festival, ble do know I gave my Momtomany est student? three-dayI event, featured bazaars propalpitations.

Butand when pushed to the limit mote camel milk wool products, evenings and toldby in Raika no uncertain terms that Ivisits was likelivened and Langa music, to a ly to flunk my discussions boards, I read books Raika village, on the thetwo future of from to page, cracked pacamelpage rearing, andalone, even and included a the camelper to the delight of my parents and the milking competition. amazement of my school!

German veterinarian Ilse Köhler-Rollefson by no means is a mediumLokhit to putPashudown is aThis member of the Sadri-based anyone.

But rather to bring to organised the front that Palak Sansthan (LPPS), which the elusive called It allowsamong us to dothe or festival.ability She has lived“will”. and worked become anything choose to, after if we coming want it Raikas for the lastwe two decades into contact with them during her research in India. “Although I studied veterinary mediKamikaze cine in Germany, I did not like practising Glass: shot that animals rethere. I guess I prefer ensuring main healthy rather than treating sick ones.

Ingredients: While working in Jordan and in Sudan, I was 30 mlanimal orange vodka exposed to nomadic culture and the ml lime/squeeze a wedge camel, and loved10both.

Then I had of a research 1 tsp caster sugar or 10 ml Raifellowship in India and came across the flavoured syrup ka,” Köhler-Rollefson said.

Garnish: fruit chews like The veterinarian has since become face Mentos or Fruitella on the the side of advocacy aimed at bettering the conditions Method: of Rajasthan’s pastoralists and saving its cam1 Half-fill shaker with ice el populations from its present crisis. Köhler2 Pour in all ingredients Rollefson is also the author book Camel 3 Shake forof10the seconds and Karma, which recounts in detail strain into glass her time with the Raika.

Note: Wise bartenders will make at leastinterview.

10 at a time Excerpts from an

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On what led to the festival possible to find somebody to herd and look afbadly enough.

By making us strive tohow get terThis The idea originated after seeing last year reminded me of the slavery triangle, them. there.

Notwithstanding that, my history the Pushkar Camel Fair all hasofdeteriorated over the Caribbean islands, rum stills that gave us On how government policies have contributed did not 25 getyears. any better.

Imagine my dismay the last Very few camel breeders at- this amazing cane spirit. Which the British to this decline when, late in my I discovered tendedrather the fair last year,existence, and there were even armed forces adopted with a vengeance and that (the year the Coffey column still was became fewer1830 buyers. thewas front-runner of every soldier the The camel totally ignored by policymakpatented) didbreeders not mean 18thvirtually centurycrying but rathThe camel were be- Empire including ers untiltouched, it was declared theours. state animal. The er the 19th! was mortified.

It was cause they Iwere not able to sell the creation animals idea While all ofisthis I discovered of aabsorbing ‘state animal’ great, but futile the unof blended scotch — as which a category that alerted they had brought means that they map of the world and how the seas andsuch the less coupled with supportive measures, me on not the Phylloxera plague almost would earn anything the that entire year. deAc- continents were aligned.

Whisk(e)y taughtenvime as subsidising and creating an enabling stroyed the French tually, many of themvineyards had not in 1880. That about the Atlantic oceanfor that the exronment thebridged development stopped supply sold any the camels for ofthebrandy last to England panse of the whiskey nations of Scotland of camel product lines, and (brandy and This sodaiswas their main three years! because the tipple then), Ireland from marking the Americas.

The Raki out grazing areas.trail The which allowed blended scotch demand for draught camelsentry. The Brit- showed me the West Asia toLegEulawroute that from was passed by the traditional ish took it everywhere theyThe went, hasempire almostthen disappeared and rope. The fruit islative brandiesAssembly of Europe allowed me [The Rajasknowledge of the and thecamels rest is history! selling for meat is contothan understand storing surCamel that (Prohibition of Raikas, which is I understood the various revotroversial and dangerous.

So I plus can alsoand mean evolving the Slaughter Regulation of essential for rearing lutions wars betteranseen thought and we need to create alfruit into a spirit that needs Temporary Migration or far Excamels, is no longer through haze of spirited ternativeaevent, where thelibafomaintenance.

Which opened port) Bill, 2015] — but has not It was the creation of less transferred from one upbeen tions.

I learned inathe bar cus is What on the camel as dairy the ideology of the surplus of signed by the President blended scotch as a to the next a India that theAnd classroom so generutterly generation animal. we need the land being converted into their — has made the situation category that alerted failed to toteach me.

The al public engage with thetwo isnative traditional spirit. Barley muchorworse, as it prohibits takme on the Phylloxera World The of Allied leaders sue. TheWars. best way doing that ining Britain made both beer and camels out of Rajasthan.

It plague that almost strategising over martinis. is through culture and musicThe — Grapes made wine and also prohibits castration of destroyed the French whiskey.

French 75 cocktail chamas is evidenced by the(gin, success of brandy France, and camelsin and theItaly, useSpain of nose vineyards in 1880 pagne inspired by we theneed to create pegs, which Germany. the JLF and and lime) RIFF. So I thought Russia began making makes it impossible to manage French 75 of guns fromfair, WWI and a mixture Pushkar with elements of JLF male camels vodka with potato in the rutting season. and then rumoured and RIFF. to hit you just as switched to wheat. Poland made On her work with the LPPS hard. Kamikaze shots inspired its vodka from Rye. Germans On how things have changed for the Raika by the Japanese Kamikaze fighter pilot suicide made beerwefrom wheat focus as wellonasdeveloping barley. We In Sadri, currently community in the last two decades that she squad. Kill and be killed. The prohibition in made all ours molasses! products fromfrom living camels. We make camel has worked with them the US from 1920–33 leading to the under- poo I am nowand more in the know I ever paper process camelthan wool.

We was. ship ground speakeasy bars where There has been a total changethe infamous the lastand 20 And I continue to learn.

Apart from that one frozen camel milk to customers throughout the criminal rubbed shoulders. was the of time years.

The camel culture is only aItshadow its aberration Std X,wethe calculation with I do the country.inLately, areonly experimenting of cocktail mask the flavours of well former selfrevolution because notoincome is to be made is cheese planning requirements forextraora party camel andthe have created some some very badno bootleg.

FDR repealed pro- of and therefore youngHow people enter the tradi2,000varieties people. with It’s a the piece of cake.ofBut bread dinary support a Danish hibition with a martini in his hand.

Singa- before tional profession.

Instead, they take The up menial it, please.

I like itcheesemaker; better. I do not want to company and Danish but these pore Sling was created at the Raffles Hotel in end jobs in cities. up like Marie Antoinette, queen of France, are not quite ready to be marketed, except in Singapore to quench the parched The traditional knowledge (of thethroats Raikas)of — who was guillotined hungry our Camel Café, where for oneasking can alsoher drink camBritish wives. which is essential for rearing camels — is no subjects to eat cakechai. if they didn’t have bread! elccino and camel And rum.

Whichfrom takesone onegeneration back to the longer transferred to disthe shatbhi is aismixologist, author, television host, nandini basu thilak a former journalist who is now covery coffin-shaped island Barbados next. Itof is the disappearing in front of of our eyes. head of Stir, a bartending academy in Mumbai based in Jodhpur and ‘rumbullion’.

I own about 25 camels and it is almost im- and

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In the eye of a storm A picture of despair in Kobani, a Syrian town now controlled by Kurdish militants. Turkey feels threatened by a Kurdish consolidation in Iraq and Syria the new york times/ tyler hicks

STATES OF MATTER

Choosing battles By shooting down a Russian warplane, Turkey reveals that the Islamic State is its dog in the Syrian fight

sukumar muralidharan

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hen Highest political echelons in the most powerful countries have determined that military escalation is the only way forward. Words both spoken and written are expected merely to urge that resolve on. Fighting words become the chorus accompanying unending violence.

French President Francois Hollande’s vow to be “pitiless” in his response to the November 13 attacks in Paris was translated into a series of spectacular airstrikes in Syria, with strongholds of the Islamic State (IS) militia being targeted for special attention. Though ostensibly fighting the same enemy, he was rather delicate about the prospect of military coordination with Russia.

Unabashedly in pursuit of its own agenda, Turkey took hostilities up one notch by shooting down a Russian aircraft engaged in bombing raids against the ostensible common enemy. It clearly had a dog in the Syrian fight.

And its name was the IS. Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted in fury, calling the downing of his jet a “stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorism”. It was after a semblance of concord began to take shape over Syria, a slap in the face of the emerging grand coalition.

Since Russia began active intervention, forces loyal to the Syrian regime of Bashar AlAssad have made small, but significant gains on the ground. This was a matter of discomfiture for Turkey, as too was the mid-November Vienna conference on Syria. With anxieties over the IS strike in Paris running high and Russia advocating his cause, Assad evidently won some purchase for his claims of being a final bulwark preventing all of Syria and Iraq falling to the extremists.

Russia’s entry into Syria had been a gamechanger both militarily and diplomatically.

Turkey needed to break that momentum, even by a reckless action that led allies to wonder at a possible descent into insanity.

Turkey’s hegemonic ambitions, unleashed by the meltdown in the Arab world, are threatened by a possible Kurdish consolidation in

Syria and Iraq that could spill into its territory. tlefield loyalties, the US alone held the touchIn July, it invoked the collective self-defence stone of legitimacy. Yet as Hollande prepared clause of the NATO treaty after a bomb attack to pay court at both Moscow and Washington in a town bordering Syria, attributed to the IS. DC, President Barack Obama did put out a hint But to much allied bewilderment, it retaliated that coordination was possible, if Russia were by bombing Kurdish militias that had begun to abandon Assad. gathering forces to take on IS combat units.

Turkey lent urgency to that demand with its The IS is evidently a useful asset that Turkish belligerence, which will likely earn a stern reppresident Recep Tayyib Erdogan can deploy rimand though not more serious sanction. for domestic political advantages and neigh- But if its purpose was to assume the mantle as bourhood tactical gains. A brutal twin bomb- ultimate arbiter of Syria’s affairs, it may well ing in the capital city of Ankara in October, have taken on a burden too heavy to bear. just three weeks before parliamentary general Hollande landed in Washington DC within elections, was denounced by the left-wing op- hours of Turkey’s effrontery. He was due to position as a deliberate act of provocation to proceed from there to Moscow, as part of coalicreate an ugly polarisation. In retaliation, Er- tion-building against the IS. He was anxious to dogan swept up vast numbers of the party spare the overstretched US military the onus cadre, throwing its campaign inof committing ground forces in to disarray and preparing for an Syria. But then, who would renelectoral triumph that will likely der that indispensable military enable him to amend the constiforce on the ground, without The IS is evidently a tution and perpetuate his growwhich the flaunting of airpower useful asset that the ing personality cult. would be an exercise in futility?

There was a seeming sense of Turkish president can Russia was already in alliance deploy for domestic purpose in the renewed French with a credible formation on the political advantages airstrikes in Syria after the Paris ground, stitched together from and neighbourhood attacks — except there was not.

Syrian army units loyal to Assad, tactical gains While a large number of the Iranian special forces and eleidentified killers of Paris had ments of the Lebanese Hezbolserved time in Syria — in pursuit lah. Few others are eager to step of officially declared objectives up, because the neighbourhood in both France and the US to efstates all have agendas at variafect a change of regime — they had all been so- nce with the urgent western need to vanquish cialised in solidly European milieus. Foreign the IS. Saudi Arabia is desperate to see the end climes had little to do with their radical inspi- of the Assad regime but is mired too deeply in rations, which were cultured and brought to Yemen. Jordan, the Emirates and Kuwait, after bloom in the countries they wrought havoc in. the first flurry of enthusiasm for airstrikes, Why then, the “pitiless” French resolve in have cooled off and now prefer to watch from bombing Syria? Hollande had no ready an- the sidelines. swer and was anxious merely to maintain the Turkey could well follow up its folly in the imperial posture while consulting with big- air with a military incursion on the ground, ger boys — the US and Russia — to work out a larger than anything it has attempted so far. consensus on targets.

That could be the spark that turns the feint The US groused initially that Russia did not and joust of four years into a full-scale regiondifferentiate between “legitimate” opposition al conflagration. to the Assad regime and the rest.

It was a conceit that won little traction: that sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer in the wildly shifting ensemble of Syrian bat- and researcher based in Gurgaon and Shimla

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PRESENT IMPERFECT

In the beginning was the How much longer do we have before emoji creep into novels? And real life?

Lightly does it The story of a chronic worrier managing a yoga centre outside Mysore is splendid, as it brings to the fore Rao’s uncanny humour ma sriram

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The world in a matchbox

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hen I heard that Oxford Dic-

other :-)? Can you tell the difference between a

terpret it has to be as minimal as possible. Or

as sarcastic decided on vice brilliant versa. ;-) and a seductive ;-)? And simply thirdly, — Maheshtionary Rao’shasnew collection of short stories is quite

One Point Two Billion Mahesh Rao Fourth Estate HarperCollins Fiction ₹499

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

its word of the year, my first how are emoji becoming an increasingly rich My 10-year-old borrows my phone someinstinct was to look up Oxford form of communication? Isn’t the whole times to text her friends. The conversation is Dictionary’s definition of ‘word’. “A single dis- point of the emoji to shred down language to predominantly an exchange of emoji, there heyelement say you should not judge a book tinct meaningful of speech or writare hardly anystory words.

It isyoung, my hope that she a standardised thereby doingMysore, exactly and managingemotion, a yoga centre outside lieu. The of the bored housewife by its cover, but it is hard not to to. Maing, used with others (or sometimes alone) and her friends would eventually evolve to re- in the opposite of so what Grathwohl says, and it is written splendidly, told so well, that it on holiday with her self-centred husband hesh Rao’s One Point Two Billion a overshadows form a sentence and typically shown with ahasstripping placing emoji with actual words.

Theyoung accept-Delhi it of its inherent richness? the rest of the collection. It is not Pondicherry, and the one of the is not proper word is evi- in as adislike word,ofhowever, seems to cover, a flat surface The space on eitherbrilliant side when written or white printed.” ancegirl of whose factthe that that rest of the acollection is mediocre her step-mother-to-be dentany even from Dictionary’s press re-leave suggest that what is desirable is that chequered with visual I don’t know about you, but icons I have,representing so far, been the way, theOxford stories are so good that they ends in tragedy, are the only twoadults storiesbe in the in speech.

Thatlike lease. one needs To with describe reduced to communicating like rather children.

And 13 stories in thetobook. icon looks a you completely unable use Each an ache, after havingreal readwords, them. But collection which seemed run-of-the, for exam- coldoesn’t matter, cover, you may point comprised of letters and vowels. because biggest challenge sinceofthe dismatchbox much likeout; the the onesgood we used much like that other, absolutely splendid mill.the And, somehow, the story a daughter ple, islection described as the ‘Face with tears of joy’Other people whowith put in together dictionary covery of an antibiotics is in staying cool, into play the ’80s,the making trainshad and othof short stories, In Other Rooms, from elite, landholding family inan Rajasthan (which itself isby pretty strange because theone waystory specified ‘speech or writing’.

Again, I of don’t creasing adults switching to other toys out of these varied markers identity, Wonders, Daniyal Mueenuddin, does number not quiteof grip in theare same way as the been used in my WhatsApp groups knowofabout you,full butof even if I allow :-) or :-(, it has emoji-heavy conversations. a nation different andfor differentiated outshines the rest.

In the case of Rao’s collecers, although the almost casual excellence is seemed ‘face with tears of mirth’, or ;-) parts as things you could possibly write, bits.

In an essay that wrote after represented in these collectible tiontoit suggest is because in the first story withZadie whichSmith Rao conjures up charnot oneInofthis them.

It’s the something could Pelbut hey, let’s not nit-pick).

Even sense spending an Oscar weekend in respect designer,you Jonathan he gives full rein to a lovely acters remains. draw,ham, not really something you canthe write. with of thehumour expanded pack emoHollywood, observed that has excellently captured strengths of that isoffar more reRao hasshe a gift for voices, articuhas thoroughly To Rao’s say that ji that seem toincover most stories. needs the swish set there verbalises storytelling — the sharp,impressed precise beauty strained the other lating with ease the anguish of an Each story, whether people the dictionary company would an of dailyRao life, inhabits it is still fairly emotions.

If someone joked, of at writing, the powerful nostalgia ofbe a semi-sothe diffispaces heTo describe old, retired man in love with his written,in first one understatement.

In ahas press release that an-andcult comeabout up with a combinawouldn’t but cialist India that all but disappeared, a to writes almost effortlessly.needs wife aslaugh, well as thewould confused person or third, has theyson’s real words, as that the has appointed ‘word’ of the tion Each nounced of emoji that best describe say “that’s funny”.

The new order not quite emerged. story mentions the state or emotions of a young pahalwan-ina distinctive tone instead comprised of letters year, President Casper Grathwohl gushed: stoanother emoji. emoji-isation of the world The 13 stories in this book are ordinary town it is set in only in passing, and training.

Each story, whether writthatvowels is unrepeated “You ries can made see how traditional alphabet scriptsMuch I am linguistic traditionalseems, a way, an opposite ex-has a extraordinary in the telling. butnothe backdrop is important in ten in first person or third, have like beenthe struggling the rapid-fire, ist. I each watched of treme.

How much we country to of meet 1.2 billion that theyvirepreone, the andevolution not interchangedistinctive tonelonger that isdo unrepeatsuallysent, focused demands 21st-century com-really ‘whatable is up you’have to ‘whats have they nov- inthe stories andofcharacters do not in with any. You a has-been ed.before Almost as creep if the into narrators munication.

It’s much not insurprising thateach a othup’, movie ‘whassup’ and in then ‘‘sup’ who els?habit And real life? Would wor-more seem to have common with villain Bombay different worlds.we Even pictographic emoji hasof stepped with both whatclings can only as quiet be- and ry whether our actual laughter is a shade or lessvoice er, apart script from like leading lives mostlyinquiet on be to described the fame of his past, admirably, never does the narration to filldesperation those gaps —and it’s aflexible, and musement.

Themove fact that words, and invociferous an endorsement ofcouple a joke than an certainimmediate, sadness that snakes wants to beyond it; sentences an old woman seem forced, even in the of less-thanWould stories. we take cardboard cutouts with infuses tone their beautifully. is a rest given.

It is village not myincase around lives. As a result emoji are grammar terredevolve with the of her a camp is?brilliant and hold them aboveone our becoming increasingly rich form of the comthat somewhere the adaptation of a picture asaahollow-chest, word is us to restaurants The an surface calm shimmers with things in Naxalite Orissa; One of the marks of good writing, could heads to indicate what are feeling? munication, that transcends linguistic necessarily damaging to language.

However, it at glimpsedone underneath; unarticulated longing, timid young teacher in Kashmir enraged argue, is leaving thewe reader wantingBoth more. In as the culturally and we are at aeach borders.”

I have difficulty eachdissent of theseunexis my that ’s appointment jealousy hidden like with a knife, thetheory administration for trying to appropriate the case of technologically, One Point Two Billion, almost wordlanguage; of the year is further evidencetoof howwith placestory where welike cannot rule be outturned these future sentences.

First had you noticed pressed.

Inup, almost every story the thestrugperceived a young son coming terms feels it could into a fulland, by extension, culture andafter civilipossibilities.

And you when thatbehappens, I justIt can gle of the traditional alphabet scripts?whethI language calm is broken by some act of violence, his mother’s descent into insanity losing length novel would glad to read. devaluing to The hopealso there a cave some us could retreat to you hadn’t.

Theactual only struggle I noticed that of sation er an bomb going off inwas a marketplace, herare husband to athemselves bomb blastininorder Assam. beisargued that aofgood writer leaves appeal to theworld lowestofcommon denominator. and live the rest of our scribbling a generation of phone who love. cannot or a confession of users forbidden Raobetakes shallow films, police brutality, the wanting more, andyears in that Rao has words succeeded Whatcomplicity annoys meof is the thatstate, the assumption here is seton the walls. bothered to actually use traditional alpha- all the desperation, thethe quiet and the violence, is specific to each most assuredly, and has set a very high benchif something has seems to be comfortable popular, theinintellibet scripts.

Secondly, does a“emoji infuse of it, and serves ithow up with delightful mix of ting and Rao every one mark for his next work, one that we anticipate t@veenavenugopal required to understand and intone empathy beautifully”? one :-) the same as any gence and Isn’t wry insight. ofthat theseisplaces. with much delight.

The first of the stories is possibly the most Interestingly enough, the weakest (or not as brilliant. It is the story of a chronic worrier strong) stories are the ones set in an urban mi- omair ahmad and sabah hamid

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BAWDY LINE

No sushi without Tsukiji In Japan, the slice of raw fish pressed on a clump of fragrant rice is a highly crafted cultural artefact presented as food pan. Well-cooked rice is the epitome of culinary Japaneseness. Rice in Japan is eaten day after day, at every meal; white rice only, in its virginal state, not conjugated with any meat, fat, oil or spice, not sullied by any kind of curry.

Rice grains were a form of currency in the premodern Japanese economy. They once ate so much of it, to the exclusion of everything else, that beriberi became the national disease. After a year of making rice, the minarau can move up to grilling the tamago (egg). A year of that and then he’s allowed the slicing of fish.

The apotheosis of his career is not when he starts making sushi but when the itamae takes him along to Tsukiji market to buy fish. Itamae don’t buy from retail fishmongers, housewives do. Itamae go directly to the fount.

On the next morning, at five o’clock, I took my eight-year-old son to Tsukiji. Flanking the river Sumida, Tsukiji is Tokyo’s pantry and also the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market Ready to roll Though it is a kind of assemblage, It takes far more than rice and fish to make sushi shutterstock in the world. More than 700,000 metric tonnes of seafood worth about ¥600 billion are brought and traded here annually, all Minato-ku, Tokyo Naomichi-san, the man in white across the through tiny family businesses. About 900 s Naomichi-san places the maguro ita, is called the itamae; quite literally it means trading firms are licensed to buy at the morn(lean, vulgar tuna that is properly, ‘in front of the cutting board’. He is a man with ing auctions and resell their purchases at the labially, menstrually red, the flesh an unexcitingly typical Japanese habitus. In stalls. In its bustle, particularly in the huddle with all the squish and yield of the the making of sushi, in the performance of the of the bluefin tuna auctions, one understands female breast) across the counter, you pick up ritual, he is doing and demonstrating Japa- that Japan’s food culture is not just cooking on the idea that not a lot in Japanese food or- neseness. Though it is a kind of assemblage, it and eating and the myriad abstract principles thodoxy is left to happy accidents or unforced takes far more than rice and fish to make of cuisine. It also comes into being from the spontaneity. And this is plebeian food, a slice sushi. Each kind of raw fish has to be seasonal, practical circumstances of the production of raw fish on a clump of vinegar-ed rice. He sliced faultlessly and served at the peak of its and distribution of what we call food. Naomithen follows it up with a couple of anaemic flavour. Each grain of rice has to be firm and chi-san’s sushi is as much a product of his white-fleshed fish, the flounder (hirame), and discrete and yet should contain training and his facility as it is of the sea bream (tai), brushed with the lightest enough cellulose to stick. But it the values of capitalism as a culglaze of soy. We’re seated at the ita (counter) should be sticky-moist with just tural order, of the long-establishand have ordered omakase. The root of that the right amount of rice vinegar Making short-grained ed methods of Japanese word means ‘to trust’ or ‘to submit’. It means and mirin, and not sticky-slimy. mercantile life, of the political koshihikari rice that the procession of sushi served to us will Naomichi-san tells me that the economy of the Japanese fishing properly is, in a way, be the chef’s choice. We’re leaving our meal to aspirant itamae begins his apindustry, of the technologies of making Japan Naomichi-san’s discretion. It will be made one prenticeship as a teenager, refrigeration, storage and distriat a time in front of us and served immediate- straight out of high school, bution and the whole structure ly, like panipuri. when he still has what is known of retailing at Tsukiji. There can Edomae nigiri zushi (hand-pressed sushi) as nyuanshin (a mind that is esbe no sushi without Tsukiji. started its life in the early 19th century in the sentially malleable putty). His disposition has For the Japanese, raw, uncooked food is bay area of Edo (as Tokyo was known then; to form in the sushi-ya. There is no lateral en- food. For other cultures, food means cooked mae: in front of) as a post-coital meal for the try after a graduate degree. A person entering food. The slice of raw fish pressed on the spent Samurai as they emerged from the the sushi trade with a pre-existing personality clump of rice is a highly crafted cultural artewhoring quarters of Nihonbashi. In the pax To- can never hope to become a master itamae. For fact presented as food. If nations are imagined kugawa, the Samurai class, military vassals of the first couple of years, the apprentice (mina- communities, then in its form nigiri zushi has the Tokugawa shogunate, didn’t have much rau) has to scrub the dishes and the knives. The all the elements to meet the visceral cravings fighting to do and were starting to get a bit aphorism about Japanese arts is that one of this imagined community: rice, fish and the soft. By the 19th century they were reduced to learns not through instruction but by stealing umami of soy. Then again, Tunday kababi isn’t being salaried bureaucrats who were required the art from the master. The minarau’s first perhaps the right cultural analogue for desis. I to leave their wives and families in their pro- promotion is to the job of rough-cutting the actually don’t know what is. What kind of Hinvincial fiefs and come to Edo on periodic tours fish — to separate those parts that never make dustani street food has risen to its Epicurean of duty for a year or two. Edo, in the first quar- it to the table. From there, it is a slow accretion meridian entirely on account of the freshness ter of 19th century, became a city of stipendi- of theory and praxis. After a year of rough-cut- and worth of its ingredients and the rigour of ary single men and a badly skewed sex ratio. ting, he is allowed to wash rice. It has to be its making? What kind of street food has been This, obviously, created a market for street done carefully, just enough washing to take off organised around the essential and essentialfood and prostitutes. Yohei’s pioneering sushi the dirt and the excess bran but not its whiff ised traits of Hindustanis? It’ll have to be stall of early 19th century Nihonbashi, for desi and savour. After six months of washing rice, something to do with dairy, perhaps. equivalence, was the cultural analogue of he’s allowed to make it. Making short-grained asatwik@gmail.com Lucknow’s Tunday kababi. koshihikari rice properly is, in a way, making Ja-

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Ambarish Satwik is a Delhi-based vascular surgeon and writer

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outdoor gear market in India. The company, which clocked revenues of ₹1,200 crore in 2014, claims a similar dominance in the adventure apparel segment.

The launch of new products — cycles, surfboards and kayaks are in the pipeline too — will help it penetrate deeper in this growing market. Earlier this year, it launched outdoor eyewear that offers UV protection and can be used in extreme conditions.

Customer’s choice New products are typically launched at the company’s flagship stores to gauge consumer responses. Countrywide it has a network of 600 stores. “We open 60-70 new stores every year. It is easy to launch a new product,” says Singh. This comes as good news for Love Raj Singh Dharmshaktu and Srinivasa Prasath, loyal users of Woodland products.

“There is huge scope in the segment as even schools now hold sessions on adventure sports,” says Dharmshaktu, Border Security Rolea change Force personnel who hasChandigarh, been mountaineeronce the ing, rafting and scuba diving for 26and years. somnolent silentThe retiredwho city, ishas today 44-year-old adventure junkie, scaled busy, boisterous Mount Everest five times, swears by and Woodmuch younger land’s jackets and pants: “The gear plays an imthe hindu archives portant role in enhancing our performance.

There has to be trust that the tent you are using, or the rope you are holding on to, doesn’t give way under tough conditions.”

Prasath, an IT professional in Hyderabad, goes trekking at least twice a year. He is excited about Woodland’s plans for a rugged mobile phone. “The company already has a solar charger. It will go really well with an all-terrain mobile phone,” he adds. Though mobile network is poor at high altitudes in India, a phone will prove handy during emergencies.

HOME SPUN

Pitching a home

In Chandigarh, the contest for belonging does not even begin; it is a city that sprang up from lines drawn on an architect’s drawing board Competing times neel kamal puri

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The adventure sports market witnessed some he migrant pitches a tent and that is (From Thheka Tales – A Novel). And therefore, in dramatic helplesslydevelopments waiting theirthis turn, lego-like strucyear.

Timberland, Intrepid sole HarkiratMy Singh, Managingfound Director, Woodlanda India home. parents thembroad sense, everyone is a migrant in Chan- the tures pointingmaker fingersofatadventure the sky ongear, the fringes American exited selves uprooted from their homes digarh — from the engineers who first came to India of theafter city. Ifailing will have to admit that when the to make inroads.

That exit, in Pakistan in 1947, and I grew up build the city, to the labourers who worked at many city went being somnolent silent to say, from was hastened by a legaland tussle with with questions of belongingness — where are the construction sites, from the original set- Woodland. busy and boisterous, when Madhya Marg The companies have similar-lookyou from, which village. But I had no village tlers who bought land in a place where there ing wentlogos fromand oneproduct car in 15 minutes that to 15almost cars a portfolios and my origins were the collateral in a bitter were yet no houses, to those others who hesi- mirror minuteeach and other. the numbers ever growing, it felt quarrel between nations. In a sense, a novel tated and later wished they had not, because it like an outrage and an intrusion of the kind Even after Timberland’s exit, Woodland is too has to pitch a tent in a setting. Its charac- soon became a moment lost. that first feel when the initial left withsettlers stiff competition.

Frenchboatload sports ters, even as they steam out of the author’s It is a city that is only three years older to goods of newchain migrants arrives. Chandigarh is youngDecathlon, known for large outhead, do take some of their hues from the me, a sibling, and I have shared with it my lets, er today certainly, butone notonprettier.

And it of is recently opened the outskirts town or country where they materialise. In childhood and youth. As a little girl I drove in- Chennai. not the city thataI5,000 knew.sq However, the minute It has ft play area, where fact, the setting itself can become a character, to town with my parents in the late ’50s and customers one acceptscan thistry asout the products. inevitableAdditionally, signature of as I think it does for me. And just as I made experienced the excitement of entime, it becomes to abthe company manufactures more easier than half its rekkingdown at highthe altitudes can be homes, putting backpack of grumy India, whereuntrammelled 80 per cent ofvistas Woodland’s reve- wares in India, sorb countering — the changes. keeping costs low and prodelling.

At 17,000 ft above seaaslevel, years in one town and then another life nues comesand from footwear car, and apparel. ucts competitivelyAfter wide roads an occasional the first angry flush of priced. temperature plummet from “When rolled on, the so did my novels,can though in a slightwe started, the market was not ready lots of trees and very few buildings, defiled ownership Singh cannota sense affordof to overlook that.

20sequence degrees —Celsius to minus-20 ly jumbled from Patiala where I for outdoors. saw Woodland andthe none of themBuyers disturbing the has worn off, the andsame adjustare almost (in It isasaacity“Woodland that is onlyproducts within hours.

Winds lash above kmph, grew up, to Ludhiana where I was150 born and lifestyle says Singh.inToday, al- years poetry ofbrand,” the mountains the after ments a bit of quality asto foreign ones),are butmade therewith is a huge dif-a three older straining every effort to is stay the home. course. And most now Chandigarh, which finally 25 years,Of he course, believes nostalgia the time has come. background. and a shove, it becomes ference in Icost,” push says Dharmshaktu. me, a sibling, and onThe theambience frozen Chadar in Leh, an ice-break of Thelake Patiala Quartet is one of “We sure about the in doeswere tendalways to dress the past possible to go backmanufacto that The company partly have shared with it means a plunge into while biting-cold watertoand the category… a laid-back languor, Remember Forget the past few swathes ofFor gossamer butyears, then a itinerant state of mind, which at its facilities in India and my childhood and tures onset of in pneumonia unfolds Ludhiana,within where minutes. a persistent tak-a- adventure sport of hasthis been catchnew beginning magnitude youth allows and an author journey aboard, sourcesto the rest Undersound such treacherous conditions, tak-tak of industrial machinesbesides in the ing on in to India.” is bound have an epical quality to intooverseas imagined worlds, Singh using from suppliers. providence, and climbers put background trekkers charges the atmosphere withtheir sur- it, a grand romance. And it is this ye- There has to be trust the fixity with of home as the also partners international Innovations ahead faith in their gear. Can the jacket keep one vival and endeavour.

Chandigarh is marked by ti footprint that I use as an entry that the tent you are springboard. players for product developwarm when the air around freezes? Is the Already a nascent modernity. in the withinitsThheka ad- using, or the rope you ment.Once point into mymarket narrative the umbrellas troublesome Woodland’s are are holdingquestion on to, of ‘home’ shoe’s grip firm enough to clamber up a boul- venture In Chandigarh, the contest for belonging sports footwear and apTales – A Novel. hasa been settled, it bemade by German company, waypossible der any sprang danger up of parel, doeswithout not evenslipping? begin. It Is is athere city that includingwas trekking Chandigarh young boots once whendoesn’t I was give comes to amble along the walkway whose name he declines to share the backpack’s zipper stuck? drawing and from lines drawn on getting an architect’s lightweight jackets, Woodyoung, even though it was axiomatically re- beside the Sukhna Lake, amidst clauses. the many due to confidentiality Life-saving questions these, and Harkirat board.

“The undulating landscape, with sa- land to city introduce ferrednow to as plans a retired (City of grey beards walkers and joggers, to absorb feedback the geometry Still, customer and Singh has viewed them as market shaying wheat fields, stretched all opportunithe way to more products.

It has proand green hedges, themade late Khushwant Singh of the city onreviews one sideofand the zigzagproducts lines of Woodland ties.

The market,foothills however,inwas ready back the Himalayan thenot distance and totypes rugged mobile had calledof it). But there the analogy ends. I ac- the mountains the e-commerce other, and then let onon some sitesto are in when hefor brought Canadian was1992, a clean slate architects to drawoutdoor the con- phones, anti-mosquito clothing and dry quired grey hair and wrinkles thesuits odd not these contraries reflect in the world that is pleasant.

Singh will have to win them over gear Woodland to India.Corbusier, The brandwith was for toursbrand of a city and its skyline. hairsea-diving. on my chin as time elapsed but, paradox- if conjured ascompany a result oftothe amalgam.transihe wantsup his successfully part of in thehand, deal when Singh, whose ex- ically crayon had sketched a grid family of sectors “Theenough, [outdoor adventurebecame gear] segment is tion Chandigarh younger as (Infrom this monthly column, authors chronicle the a lifestyle to an adventure sports ported products, bought beleabased onleather some calculations done inhis Spain be- not big older. in India, growing fast with at doubleit grew Thebut cityistoday bristles signs brand cities they — a call taskhome.) no less challenging than a highguered tween 1929 Canadian and 1949 andclient’s a geometrybusiness. of roads digit rates,”shopping says Singh.

Woodland of youth, malls, manydominates spenders, altitude climb.

Waterproof heat-retaining shoes made based on theand stride of a man, horse or ox and the adventure footwearThere category, to neel kamal puri is the author of The Patiala speeding motorcars. are estimated now frayed and Remember to Forget Quartetmathews thomas sense in that country, not in mostspeeds.” parts of be subsequently adaptedbut to mechanical a little at over 10 per cent of the ₹50,000-crore tempers traffic lights, harried pedestrians prince

Daredevil wears…

Largely seen as a lifestyle brand in India, outdoor gear maker Woodland now woos the nascent adventure sport market

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The girl with no name After 19 years, the girl in the Suryanelli case and her family struggle to make ends meet, but their will and determination remain unblemished partha pratim sharma

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World Wide O Entertainment

ne nightfall a man travelling on horseback towards the sea reached an inn by the roadside. He dismounted and, confident in man and night like all riders towards the sea, he tied his horse to a tree beside the door and entered into the inn. At midnight, when all were asleep, a thief came and stole the traveller’s horse. In the morning the man awoke, and discovered that his horse was stolen. And he grieved for his horse, and that a man had found it in his heart to steal. Then his fellow lodgers came and stood around him and began to talk.

And the first man said, “How foolish of you to tie your horse outside the stable.”

And the second said, “Still more foolish, without even hobbling the horse!”

And the third man said, “It is stupid at best to travel to the sea on horseback.”

And the fourth said, “Only the indolent and the slow of foot own horses.”

The traveller was much astonished. At last he cried, “My friends, because my horse was stolen, you have hastened one and all to tell me my faults and my shortcomings. But strange, not one word of reproach have you uttered about the man who stole my horse.”

(— The Forerunner, ‘Critics’, Kahlil Gibran)

Major production houses and indie artistes are now making series especially for the Web, as it allows filmmakers with minimal resources to reach millions of viewers

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Troubles in Eden Idukki might be a verdant district, but it was also the site of violence h vibhu

nd finally the Supreme Court re- It is the voice of a father who worked as a post- without questioning him. They lost the last peats the same question — why master in the serene village of Suryanelli in chance to save the child. the hills of Kerala. His wife was a nurse. By bedidn’t the ‘girl’ try to escape?

Over the next 40 days, the girl was taken The ‘girl’ in question is the survi- ing prudent, they hoped to get their daugh- from lodge to lodge, town to town. She was vor of the first reported sex-trafficking case in ters educated and married. The daughters raped 67 times, sometimes by a single perpeKerala, better known as the Suryanelli case. In were sent to a boarding school in Munnar, trator, at times by two simultaneously. After the media she is known as the ‘Suryanelli girl’. around 50km away, as there were no good 40 days, when she returned, ravaged and in Web theirseries village.

While the elderitone bloated, to the post office where her father But she isTV not a girl any longer, she a woman Bespoke Yash Raj Films is the first bigisbanner to dip its schools feet into the business.

In September, was intelligent, the younger one was frequent- worked, he couldn’t recognise her. of 35. Man’s World launched I see her waiting across the road, as she ly sick because of a weak heart. She underwent or infirm years, popular film ac- are a major surgery at six months, and another Horrors continue helps her parentstheatre to the and other side. less on the Web,” explains Tiwari.

Anand was where waiting to within a year. the TheWeb younger one grew up vulThey aretor coming outTiwari of church, a speRepeatedly, has proved its worth as It has been 19 years, but her smile remains inhison breakthrough as aisfilmmakandplatform pampered. the older cial massmake is held Tuesdays. This the only anerable powerful toWhen showcase freshsister and tact. Those 40 men couldn’t take that away er. visit Whenevery he was assisting on the passed the SSLC and wentseen to study further — to from her. It is the smile of someone who can place they week without fail.RanThe original content.

We’ve several comedy bir Kapoor-starrer Barfi!, director a college inbenefit Kottayam and in love and trust rather than hate and loathe. family has only two places left Anurag to go —Basu the collectives from it, later and for nowa BSc mamadvised him the to test-run skills instead of moth nursing — the younger girllike wasYash left Raj alone.

Ac- However, over the past year, she has grown church and hospital.his Every Sunday they production houses Films, waiting forparish the perfect Tiwari customed to her sister’s pres- it as an avevisit their church,opportunity. every Tuesday they Eros and Balaji are also exploring more resigned. She suffers from took wordstoseriously.

With his limited re- nue. ence,Channels she needed comehis to town attend the special mass. Four like Star constant Plus and Sony have alvarious ailments, such as misources, hewhen madetheir a couple of short films and protection and reassurance. years ago, daughter was framed in ready launched their live streaming apps, graines, depression, asthma and uploaded YouTube as an experiment.

It is thus to imagine the a financialthem fraudon case and suspended from her Hotstar and easy SonyLiv, respectively. chronic fatigue.

She does not that wouldn’t have worked on other screens,” The police were too Each of views a certifipanicisof job inone theclocked sales taxmillions department, they—prayed in worry Yash and Raj Films thethe firstfather big banner to dip walk like a 35-year-old, but like an says Patil. busy searching for an cate of success theinnocence World Wide Web. Her its when younger daughter, In ageSeptember, this church thatonher be proved. feethisinto the business. it to find woman dragging a weight In the of Web content creation, The Viold jeep a fieldold “It wasclaims amazing get that reaction 16, did notitsreturn home on the mother on to the ninth Tuesday, without her sus- launched first Web series, Man’s World,missing and child her through a long tunral Fever (TVF)behind has now attained veteran status too muchwas investment.

For my2011, filmthey Haircut, my is evening of January 16, 1996.

He Bang Baaja in India. From pension revoked. Since haven’t now halfway through Tiwari’s nel.comedy I have sketches met her torepeatedly branded friend, actortoKunal veryparents kindlycome con- Baaraat. frantically sought from the failed once attendKhemu mass. The Given thehelp phenomenal since 2002,they but have every dabbled time I look content, in vinced hisand hairstylist to let usjoins shoot at his sa- feedback police. Even after 19 years, by noon their daughter them once both shows have his reatmost her, I think of the atrocities she aspects of creativity for lon.

Alldone we had do was invest in talent and ceived, voice betrays his pain when she is withtowork. from viewers not only he in has as aArunabh mere child. theexperienced Web. Founder KugetWhat friends actpraying for free,” Tiwari.

Work India recounts police were too busy searchare to they for?says What can rescue butthat alsothe overseas, Ashish The medical report Dr for VK Bhaskaran — mar saysofthat TVF, making These merits aside, no started in following this success, and Patil, ing for an old and jeepbusiness to find his missingone child. them? Apouring favourable court order?

A peaceful creative head the gynaecologist at the Adimaali Taluk Web GovIndia’s first-ever fictional has yet been able eventually he their landed his it big break withfor Y of He know thentothat his daughter hada successful life? Knowing ordeal, is impossible YRF,didn’t says he’s ready further ernment Hospital, mediserieswho wasconducted a naturalher progresto crack Films — Yash Raj Film’s youthcan wing. been lured of her school in Munnar by amodel us to imagine what miracle restore their explore the out depths of this medical for examination on It February 1996 — reads: sion. was also28, a personal goal revenue the His ambition of making a feature film is yet um. bus conductor Raju,hole who blackmailed normal life.

“Content isnamed like a black and bruises overhimself the body. he had all set for afterBite his Web as“…cuts yet to The materialise, week Tiwari’s web his se- on her.the He didn’t know yet that father isbut 77. Itevery is difficult to look into internet.

There are Raju 100 had handed marks and scars of festering where concepts were wounds rejected by ries Baajanever Baaraat for eyes Y Films is grabbing her over of tocontent a woman called Usha, who pre- she had been youth eyes.Bang I have seen that were so minutes going up on beaten. The injuries in her pritelevision channels. over a million eyeballs.

“Webheis smiles, more accessitended toevery be aminute. co-passenger in the bus. That vate parts hadTheir pained or resigned.

When I turn YouTube We want become serious wounds befirst Web show, Permanent ble and there are chances of scripts Usha on toisDharmarajan, who cause of bacterial away because it isgreater the kind of smile which to tryhad andpassed do stuffher which closinfections.which They were so bad Roommates, premiered translating two months, took hercore, to awhich nearby lodge stories. and raped her. last would makeinto us actual cry. Hework. is on In medication for er to our is telling A 10-part that year, pus and bloodthe spurted from the wounds became second most-watched writer Sumeet and I and had aaheart scriptailment. and we story Whenlike hera father came toor know about Raju’s long-form diabetes, bloodVyas pressure House of Cards, a mini hour-long when they series were touched.

The and infection in the on YouTube, is about to quickly shot Thatnobody kind ofisquick turnaround involvement, he informed police immediWhen he saysit.that interested in her movie, or a Web series, orthe even a short film hit uterus is so severe thatstory she would be 10 million views. The revolvesnever around of content is possible because the investments ately, but police arrested Raju aable case anymore, his tired voice speaks volumes. forms ourthe core.

Basically, weand arereleased doing stuff to bear a child. fluids had collected young couple whoBodily decide to get married af-

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no sign or evidence of resistance. On May 11, 2005, the Kerala government filed an appeal against the acquittal of the accused. On January 31, 2013, the SC set aside the acquittal, directing the HC to re-examine the matter. In February 2013, former justice R Basant, who was part of the Division Bench that acquitted the 36 accused of rape charges in 2005, made a statement that the victim was a deviant girl, which sparked off a controversy.

Dharmarajan had been arrested on September 16, 2000, from Karnataka. On October 25, 2002, he was released on bail after the HC rejected his appeal. He disappeared until he was arrested in 2013 from Karnataka. While being taken into custody, he told TV channels that PJ Kurien was involved in the case, but three months later he retracted his statement.

In April 2014, the High Court Division Bench gave a fresh hearing in the case after nine

tayam district. They were living there peacefully for a while till she got trapped in the fraud case. A deposit receipt in her office for ₹2,26,006 went missing mysteriously. She was accused of not depositing the sum and her superior officer advised her to sign a confession in order to keep her job. Her parents paid the amount from their limited savings and retirement benefits. In the departmental enquiry which followed, three staff members were given punishment transfers. But on February 6, 2012, while she was waiting for a bus to office, the crime branch arrested her publicly. She was remanded for a week.

It was Prof Suja Susan George, a teacher at St Mary’s College in Manarcad, near Kottayam, who helped the family through the crisis. George, who is also a social activist and CPM member, has been their constant support all these years.

Nabbed, finally The accused Dharmarajan being produced in a special court at Kottayam pti

Home run Every week, Anand Tiwari’s Web series Bang Baaja Baaraat grabs over a million eyeballs

ter a three-year long-distance relationship. In the process of hunting for a house for themselves, they rediscover their relationship.

TVF’s second show, TVF Pitchers, which superseded the success of Permanent Roommates, hit home with youngsters in the start-up world.

Patil, too, has set his sights on filling the de- and writers. Pitchers has brought a lot of mand in India for quality youth-based con- change in my life. People know me now. Whertent. “If I’m grabbing eyeballs, it would ever I go, I get recognised,” he says.

These merits aside, no one has yet been able probably be anything that is occupying the youth’s mind-space — so probably something to crack a successful revenue model for the that’s a big hit on Comedy Central or Key and Web as yet.

Peele. We’re looking at the crowd that goes to Both YRF and TVF shows have used brand Sunburn, or the kid attending the IIT Kharag- sponsorships and tie-ups for support. Patil Political tussle The police try to disperse activists demanding the resignation of Rot at the centre From the day she identified PJ Kurien as one of her tormentors, More than saas-bahu pur fest — the young demographic that is seek-instrument says India is still a long way f from paying subINC leader PJ Kurien c ratheesh kumar the girl became a political According to Biswapati Sarkar, the writer of ing entertainment,” he says. scription for content. That said, if reports are both these shows, their thumping success to be believed, the stakes on the Web are about Open for experiments ahead to swellthat her the bodyyouth in many places. Festering proves are hungry for good years, ruling that the victim was not a deviant Looking to get higher. throat.”

Writing and directing The for the Webruled is farthat more content, which the regressive family dramas or Now has already announced plansweak for a a child prostitute.

Court a ButEros what next?

Her father is extremely rageTV and sorrows that her liberating as well.

Sincehave it issex stillwith a relatively onThe Indian fail to provide.

“Weparents wantedfelt to girl service that stream original of 16 years wouldn’t persons and tired.

Herwill mother is the family’sshows, sourceinof seeing hershows in thiswhich condition, spurred the legal of new concept, onedue really what make the we grew up watching, cluding anbut action-thriller Bipasha Baher father’snoage to knows lust. The HCworks sen- strength, her health isstarring also deteriorating.

Bighas Bang Theory or a Seinfeld.

The idea battle that lasted 19 years.

Even though the tenced and what doesn’t.

Till that are Her like The su, elder as also a now tie-uptrained with as Anil Kapoor’s 15 of the accused tohappens, rigorouspeople imprisonsister, a nurse, has was toand try and reflect the times and places we ment police relatives advised the father to withopen of to seven testing different material.

Mostwere im- moved production company. years for rape.

Six accused to the Middle East to earn money for live inhis— complaint an absolutely and police urban sentenced draw fromrealistic the Munnar portantly, these boggedimprisondown by theKumar of the new playto 10shows years aren’t of rigorous family.seems They welcoming were a typical lower-middle space. The Bollywood or TV shows depict station, theway parents were steadfast in their bat- ment the commercial pressure that films and televi- class ers, but also who a tad had sceptical.

“So many producfor gang rape. family cherished dreams that the youth is thatadamant they drink, and sion tle.

They were thathave the fun, culprits have to deal tion houses coming in will a pushearn to the Last month, thewith.

Supreme Court rejected the their children would get give educated, a drive around the Gateway of India atno night in bail should be brought to justice, so that other “TVapplications is only watched in villages ecosystem, which is of those sentenced by the good living andentire start families of their own. Inan open jeep. Isuffer don’t know people who do that. HC. child would the same fate.

Everyone and But Tier the III towns the mathewill definitely inmediaand homed in on the crucial stead, they havegood. lived This under house arrest for I don’t have friends like that,”their says Sarkar. said they were jeopardising future and question matics ofthat TV shows is driven by girl — why the last 19 years. crease viewership.

Also, the Court asked the Why?online Because they chose to their elder daughter’s prospects. When they didn’t them. you So Iescape? think television will people deeper pockets tell the truth and chose with to stick by it. Yet she is refused to oblige, the police asked the girl to never be able to cater to these areyou going to market it. This asked, ‘why didn’t escape?’

Most importantly, record her statement in the police station. Lonely kinds battle of (Web) shows because therethose is growth in the asked why 42 educated these showsNobody aren’t has shows They kept the physically and mentally broken Ever businesswise only thing that bogged there an since theythe decided to go forward with thedown andwith influential men choseBut towill rape her?beNothe ecosystem.

Diya aur child and her father waiting in the station’s ve- case, makes sense to them is a oswhat remains her family has been asks howThat’s the family had the kind of commercialbody impact? or Sasural Simar Ka,” Baati Hum randa for many hours. People gathered to tracised to be seen. The brutal truth by society.

Relatives to pursue the case in court pressure that filmscourage saysboth Kumar. mock and abuse the father and daughter. A on aboutthe thejibes digital medium is sides have abanof cruel neighand television are and bear It also greatly helps similar scenario played out when she was tak- doned doesn’tsociety. really work on laden with them.

They are notthat in- the boursthat and ita pitiless Ever since they Web has or no or censorship.

In en for a medical examination and when evi- vited muscle and money,” he says. for little weddings other I give her my novella — Meerayude decided to go forward she tells that Baaraat, Tinder Novellakal — and YRF’s Bang Baaja dence was collected. The father tries to laugh ceremonies, Sarkar echoes thismesentinor intimated with the case, her she has already bought it natives” from a hook-ups, a bachelorette pool parwhen he recounts those days. We try to hold about ment.

He says “digital funerals.

When the family has been bookseller who her Bakchod office. I ty, references to sex toys,was and use our tears. like TVF andvisits All India Left Democratic Front ostracised by their feel proud that shemore readstime my books. of power, expletives From the day she indentified INC leader PJ in have, by virtue of spending on the she are waskosher. given a job relatives and society She has been promoted tomedium. the post significant upshot of the Web, a deeper Kurien as one of her tormentors, the girl be- in Probably understanding of the the Sales the Tax most Department record keeper job.heart.”

She has Web explosion is the opportunities it has pro- Therefore,oftheir came a political instrument. While the Con- in work “has aatlother more the lowest grade.

Meantoo. in, Her colvided tothe upcoming to directly connect gress and allies tried to malign her, Left parties while, “When learned big namesstitching start coming brands parents talent had releagues give her with viewers. supported her. In March 1999, she filed a pri- tired will also start coming in. material, However,which I feel she the from service and had into suitsattempts and saree blouses.

Her “This gives me elbow-room test the fresh tal- stitches vate complaint with the Judicial First Class Ma- built number of honest is still very limita house in Suryanelli.

Buttowith High with a big smile, stitchingto is ent both on of screen the scenes. gistrate’s court at Peerumedu, seeking the Court ed. Theysays, are looking at it as an“Her opportunity verdict 2005,and theybehind were dragged back mother She money. recentlyWe won a saree at the musiAcross the two series, worked with many inclusion of Kurien in the list of accused. He into make some are all outsiders.

We the limelight.

Aswe’ve her father says, “we be- perfect.” chairstoand lemon-in-spoon in new writers directors, musicians and cos- cal approached the High Court, which dismissed came wanted make films and TV competition shows and we a mini and tourist-spot.” gave saree totoGeorge, and seeing These people whom, at office. the complaint against him. Kerala govern- tume didn’t She have thethe contacts make it possible.

Her designers. mother once told are me that they decided wear it always puts arevolution big smile on her face. some stage, I will suck into the mother-ship ment challenged the HC’s refusal to implicate to Somehow the digital happened leave Suryanelli to escape from the atten- her No.our I wouldn’t her,off. why sheof didn’t escape and ask to make for me,” says Kurien, but the Supreme court dismissed it. contentask took A lot people are tion.

They built films another house farPatil. from the and years ago.toInstead I wish toreverse-engineer ask her, how we ActorofNaveen Kasturiaand — who debuted with Meanwhile, on September 6, 2000, a special centre now trying discover it and town. Friends relatives were in- 19 Sulemani Keeda —The sayshouse his role in can helpSarkar. her flash the smile of a 16-year-old in the indie court convicted 36 people in two separate vited it,” says for film the house-warming. was garnered himfamily unprecedenTVF’s Pitchers savage chargesheets. On January 20, 2005, the Kerala decorated For now, world. viewers can rest assured that unwithhas flowers and the of four this ted popularity.

“Everybody wants up. to make limited entertainment is just a click away.

High Court acquitted all the accused, except waited for the guests.

No one turned but that is not ourhouse hands.for Buta the Web kr meera is a Malayalam author, most recently of Dharmarajan.

The court ruled the has victim films In 2006, they soldinthat meagre Boldly ahead The Viral Fever’s showthat Pitchers Woman and And Slowly Forgetting That Tree mohini chaudhuri will open more avenues for moreinactors was a willing in the act since there was sum and many moved to another village Kot- Hang helped its actorspartner gain recognition

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Crouching Man by Laurence Edwards, a British sculptor

The Navigator by Tasmanian artists Calvert & Schlitz

Open, an award-winning work by Peter Lundberg

Cairn by New Zealand-based artist Morgan Jones

A seaside affair Snapshots from the world’s largest outdoor sculpture exhibition that Sydney hosts every year

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or 18 days, between late October and early November, the Bondi-Coogee coastline in Sydney converts into the largest outdoor sculpture gallery in the world. Currently in its 19th year, Sculpture by the Sea is the brainchild of David Handley.

He started with a lounge for an office, a handful of volunteers, and a single-day exhibition. Handley’s small venture was an instant hit. A panel chooses the best from 500-odd entries from artists across the globe. This year the exhibition had 107 works of art.

On any given day, the Bondi-Coogee stretch, a beautiful coastal walking trail that connects the two beaches

that give it its name, offers dramatic views of turquoise waters, colourful rock formations, and plaques bearing aboriginal legends.

The annual exhibition, which concluded on November 8, adds to the allure of this gorgeous coastline, with sculptures greeting you along the way. Cranes are used to move the sculptures to chosen locations on the trail.

Despite the elaborate planning involved, the beauty of Sculpture by the Sea is that it almost looks like the artwork is simply strewn en route.

Text by kiran mehta; images courtesy sculpture by the sea

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The Bottles — giant water spray bottles — by Victoria’s RCM Collective

Half Gate by Matthew Asimakis, Clarence Lee and Caitlin Roseby

Mirage by Deirdre Mair and Harry Stitt

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World Wide O Entertainment

ne nightfall a man travelling on horseback towards the sea reached an inn by the roadside. He dismounted and, confident in man and night like all riders towards the sea, he tied his horse to a tree beside the door and entered into the inn. At midnight, when all were asleep, a thief came and stole the traveller’s horse. In the morning the man awoke, and discovered that his horse was stolen. And he grieved for his horse, and that a man had found it in his heart to steal. Then his fellow lodgers came and stood around him and began to talk.

And the first man said, “How foolish of you to tie your horse outside the stable.”

And the second said, “Still more foolish, without even hobbling the horse!”

And the third man said, “It is stupid at best to travel to the sea on horseback.”

And the fourth said, “Only the indolent and the slow of foot own horses.”

The traveller was much astonished. At last he cried, “My friends, because my horse was stolen, you have hastened one and all to tell me my faults and my shortcomings. But strange, not one word of reproach have you uttered about the man who stole my horse.”

(— The Forerunner, ‘Critics’, Kahlil Gibran)

Major production houses and indie artistes are now making series especially for the Web, as it allows filmmakers with minimal resources to reach millions of viewers

A

Troubles in Eden Idukki might be a verdant district, but it was also the site of violence h vibhu

nd finally the Supreme Court re- It is the voice of a father who worked as a post- without questioning him. They lost the last peats the same question — why master in the serene village of Suryanelli in chance to save the child. the hills of Kerala. His wife was a nurse. By bedidn’t the ‘girl’ try to escape?

Over the next 40 days, the girl was taken The ‘girl’ in question is the survi- ing prudent, they hoped to get their daugh- from lodge to lodge, town to town. She was vor of the first reported sex-trafficking case in ters educated and married. The daughters raped 67 times, sometimes by a single perpeKerala, better known as the Suryanelli case. In were sent to a boarding school in Munnar, trator, at times by two simultaneously. After the media she is known as the ‘Suryanelli girl’. around 50km away, as there were no good 40 days, when she returned, ravaged and in Web theirseries village.

While the elderitone bloated, to the post office where her father But she isTV not a girl any longer, she a woman Bespoke Yash Raj Films is the first bigisbanner to dip itsschools feet into the business.

In September, was intelligent, the younger one was frequent- worked, he couldn’t recognise her. of 35. Man’s World launched I see her waiting across the road, as she ly sick because of a weak heart. She underwent or infirm years, popular film ac- are a major surgery at six months, and another Horrors continue helps her parentstheatre to the and other side. less on the Web,” explains Tiwari.

Anand was where waiting to within a year. the TheWeb younger one grew up vulThey are tor coming out Tiwari of church, a speRepeatedly, has proved its worth as It has been 19 years, but her smile remains inhison breakthrough as aisfilmmakand platform pampered. the older cial massmake is held Tuesdays. This the only anerable powerful toWhen showcase freshsister and tact. Those 40 men couldn’t take that away er. visit Whenevery he was assisting on the passed the SSLC and wentseen to study further — to from her. It is the smile of someone who can place they week without fail.RanThe original content.

We’ve several comedy bir Kapoor-starrer Barfi!, director a college inbenefit Kottayam and a BSc in love and trust rather than hate and loathe. family has only two places left Anurag to go —Basu the collectives from it,later and for now mamadvised him the to test-run skills instead of moth nursing — the younger girllike wasYash left Raj alone.

Ac- However, over the past year, she has grown church and hospital.his Every Sunday they production houses Films, waiting the perfect customed to her sister’s pres- it as an avevisit theirforparish church,opportunity. every TuesdayTiwari they Eros and Balaji are also exploring more resigned. She suffers from took wordstoseriously.

With his mass. limited re- nue. ence,Channels she needed comehis to town attend the special Four like Star constant Plus and Sony have alvarious ailments, such as misources, made a couple of short films and protection and reassurance. years ago,hewhen their daughter was framed in ready launched their live streaming apps, graines, depression, asthma and uploaded YouTube as an experiment.

It is thus to imagine the a financialthem fraudon case and suspended from her Hotstar and easy SonyLiv, respectively. chronic fatigue.

She does not that wouldn’t have worked on other screens,” The police were too Each of views a certifipanicisof father job inone the clocked sales taxmillions department, they—prayed in worry Yash and Raj Films thethe first big banner to dip walk like a 35-year-old, but like an says Patil. busy searching for an cate of success theinnocence World Wide Web. Her its when hisinto younger daughter, In ageSeptember, this church thaton her be proved. feet the business. it to find woman dragging a weight In the of Web content creation, The Viold jeep a fieldold “It wasclaims amazing get that reaction 16, did notitsreturn home on the mother on to the ninth Tuesday, without her sus- launched first Web series, Man’s World, and child her through a longstatus tunral Fever (TVF)behind has now attained veteran missing too muchwas investment.

For my filmthey Haircut, my is evening of January 16, 1996.

He Bang Baaja in India. From pension revoked. Since 2011, haven’t now halfway through Tiwari’s nel.comedy I have sketches met her to repeatedly branded friend, actor very kindlycome con- Baaraat. frantically sought from the failed once toKunal attendKhemu mass. The parents Given thehelp phenomenal since 2002,they but every time I look content, have dabbled in vinced hairstylist to let usjoins shoot at his sa- feedback police. Even after 19 years, by noonhis and their daughter them once both shows have his reatmost her, I think of the atrocities she aspects of creativity for lon. we had do was invest in talent and ceived, voice betrays his pain when she isAlldone withtowork. from viewers not only he in has as aArunabh mere child. theexperienced Web. Founder KugetWhat friends actpraying for free,” Tiwari.

Work India recounts police were too busy searchare to they for?says What can rescue butthat alsothe overseas, Ashish The medical report Dr VK — mar saysofthat for Bhaskaran TVF, making These merits aside, no started in following this success, and Patil, ing for an old and jeepbusiness to find his missingone child. them? Apouring favourable court order?

A peaceful creative head the gynaecologist at the Adimaali Taluk GovIndia’s first-ever fictional Web has yet been able eventually he their landed his itbig break withfor Y of He know thentothat his daughter had a successful life? Knowing ordeal, is impossible YRF,didn’t says he’s ready further ernment Hospital, mediserieswho wasconducted a naturalher progresto crack Films — Yash Raj Film’s youthcan wing. been lured of her school in Munnar by amodel us to imagine what miracle restore their explore the out depths of this medical for examination on It February 1996 — reads: sion. was also28, a personal goal revenue the His ambition of making a feature film is yet um. bus conductor Raju,hole who blackmailed normal life.

“Content isnamed like a black and bruises the body. he had all set over for himself afterBite his Web as“…cuts yet to The materialise, week Tiwari’s webhis se- on her.the He didn’t know yet that father is but 77. Itevery is difficult to look into internet.

There are Raju 100 had handed marks and scars of festering where concepts werewounds rejected by ries Baajanever Baaraat for eyes Y Films is grabbing her over of tocontent a woman called Usha, who pre- she had been youth eyes.Bang I have seen that were so minutes going up on beaten. The injuries in her pritelevision channels. over a million eyeballs.

“Webheissmiles, more accessitended toevery be aminute. co-passenger in the bus. That vate parts hadTheir pained or resigned.

When I turn YouTube We want become serious wounds befirst Web show, Permanent ble there are chances of scripts Usha on toisDharmarajan, who cause of bacterial awayand because it isgreater the kind of smile which to tryhad andpassed do stuffher which closinfections.which They were so bad Roommates, premiered translating actual two months, took hercore, to awhich nearby lodge stories. and raped her. that would makeinto us cry.

Hework. is on In medication for er to our is telling A 10-part pus and bloodthe spurted from the wounds last year, became second most-watched writer Sumeet and Iand hadaaheart scriptailment. and we story Whenlike herafather came to or know about Raju’s when diabetes, bloodVyas pressure House of Cards, a mini hour-long they series were touched.

The infection in the long-form on YouTube, and is about to quickly Thatnobody kind ofisquick turnaround involvement, he informed police immediWhen heshot saysit.that interested in her movie, or a Web series, orthe even a short film uterus is so severe thatstory she would be hit 10 million views. The revolvesnever around of content is possible because the investments ately, but police arrested and Raju able case anymore, his tired voice speaks volumes. forms ourthe core.

Basically, we arereleased doing stuff to bear a child. fluids had collected a young couple whoBodily decide to get married af-

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no sign or evidence of resistance. On May 11, 2005, the Kerala government filed an appeal against the acquittal of the accused. On January 31, 2013, the SC set aside the acquittal, directing the HC to re-examine the matter. In February 2013, former justice R Basant, who was part of the Division Bench that acquitted the 36 accused of rape charges in 2005, made a statement that the victim was a deviant girl, which sparked off a controversy.

Dharmarajan had been arrested on September 16, 2000, from Karnataka. On October 25, 2002, he was released on bail after the HC rejected his appeal. He disappeared until he was arrested in 2013 from Karnataka. While being taken into custody, he told TV channels that PJ Kurien was involved in the case, but three months later he retracted his statement.

In April 2014, the High Court Division Bench gave a fresh hearing in the case after nine

tayam district. They were living there peacefully for a while till she got trapped in the fraud case. A deposit receipt in her office for ₹2,26,006 went missing mysteriously. She was accused of not depositing the sum and her superior officer advised her to sign a confession in order to keep her job. Her parents paid the amount from their limited savings and retirement benefits. In the departmental enquiry which followed, three staff members were given punishment transfers. But on February 6, 2012, while she was waiting for a bus to office, the crime branch arrested her publicly. She was remanded for a week.

It was Prof Suja Susan George, a teacher at St Mary’s College in Manarcad, near Kottayam, who helped the family through the crisis. George, who is also a social activist and CPM member, has been their constant support all these years.

Nabbed, finally The accused Dharmarajan being produced in a special court at Kottayam pti

Home run Every week, Anand Tiwari’s Web series Bang Baaja Baaraat grabs over a million eyeballs

ter a three-year long-distance relationship. In the process of hunting for a house for themselves, they rediscover their relationship.

TVF’s second show, TVF Pitchers, which superseded the success of Permanent Roommates, hit home with youngsters in the start-up world.

Patil, too, has set his sights on filling the de- and writers. Pitchers has brought a lot of mand in India for quality youth-based con- change in my life. People know me now. Whertent. “If I’m grabbing eyeballs, it would ever I go, I get recognised,” he says.

These merits aside, no one has yet been able probably be anything that is occupying the youth’s mind-space — so probably something to crack a successful revenue model for the that’s a big hit on Comedy Central or Key and Web as yet.

Peele. We’re looking at the crowd that goes to Both YRF and TVF shows have used brand Sunburn, or the kid attending the IIT Kharag- sponsorships and tie-ups for support. Patil Political tussle The police try to disperse activists demanding the resignation of Rot at the centre From the day she identified PJ Kurien as one of her tormentors, More than saas-bahu pur fest — the young demographic that is seek-instrument says India is still a long way f from paying subINC leader PJ Kurien c ratheesh kumar the girl became a political According to Biswapati Sarkar, the writer of ing entertainment,” he says. scription for content. That said, if reports are both these shows, their thumping success to be believed, the stakes on the Web are about Open for experiments ahead to swellthat her the body in many places. Festering proves youth are hungry for good years, ruling that the victim was not a deviant Looking to get higher. throat.”

Writing and directing The for the Webruled is farthat morea But content, which the regressive family dramas or Eros Now has already announced plansweak for a a child prostitute.

Court what next?

Her father is extremely rageTV and that her liberating as well.

Sincehave it issex stillwith a relatively onThe Indian failsorrows to provide.

“Weparents wantedfelt to girl service that stream original of 16 years wouldn’t persons and tired.

Herwill mother is the family’sshows, sourceinof seeing hershows in thiswhich condition, spurred the legal of new concept, noage onedue really what works make the we grew up watching, cluding anbut action-thriller Bipasha Baher father’s toknows lust. The HC sen- strength, her health isstarring also deteriorating.

Bighas Bang Theory or a Seinfeld.

The idea battle that lasted 19 years.

Even though the tenced and what doesn’t.

Till that are Her like The su, elder as also a now tie-uptrained with as Anil Kapoor’s 15 of the accused tohappens, rigorouspeople imprisonsister, a nurse, has was to and try and reflect the times and places we ment police relatives advised the father to withopen of to seven testing different material.

Mostwere im- moved production company. years for rape.

Six accused to the Middle East to earn money for live inhis— complaint an absolutely and urban draw fromrealistic the Munnar police sentenced portantly, these boggedimprisondown by theKumar of the new playto 10shows years aren’t of rigorous family.seems They welcoming were a typical lower-middle space. The Bollywood or TV shows depict station, theway parents were steadfast in their bat- ment the commercial pressure that films and televi- class ers, but also awho tad had sceptical.

“So many producfor gang rape. family cherished dreams that the youth is thatadamant they drink, and sion tle.

They were thathave the fun, culprits have to deal tion houses coming in will a pushearn to thea Last month, thewith.

Supreme Court rejected the their children would get give educated, drive around the Gateway of India atno night in bail should be brought to justice, so that other “TVapplications is only watched in villages ecosystem, which is of those sentenced by the good living andentire start families of their own. Inan open jeep. Isuffer don’t know people who do that. HC. child would the same fate.

Everyone and But Tier the III towns the mathegood. will definitely inmediaand homed in on the crucial stead, they have livedThis under house arrest for I don’t have friends like that,”their says Sarkar. said they were jeopardising future and question matics ofthat TV shows is driven by girl — why the last 19 years. crease viewership.

Also, the Court asked the Why?online Because they chose to their elder daughter’s prospects. When they didn’t them. you So Iescape? think television will people deeper pockets tell the truth and chosewith to stick by it. Yet she is refused to oblige, the police asked the girl to never be able to cater to these are you going to market it. This asked, ‘why didn’t escape?’

Most importantly, record her statement in the police station. Lonely kinds battle of (Web) shows because therethose is growth in the asked why 42 educated these showsNobody aren’t has shows They kept the physically and mentally broken Ever businesswise only thing that bogged But there an since theythe decided to go forward with thedown andwith influential men chose towill rape her?beNothe ecosystem. child and her father waiting in the station’s ve- case, makes sense to them is a Diya what remains her family has been os- aur asks howThat’s the family had the kind of commercialbody impact? or Sasural Simar Ka,” Baati Hum randa for many hours. People gathered to tracised to be seen. The brutal truth by society.

Relatives to pursue the case in court pressure that filmscourage saysboth Kumar. mock and abuse the father and daughter. A on aboutthe thejibes digital medium is sides have abanof cruel neighand television are and bear It also greatly helps similar scenario played out when she was tak- doned doesn’tsociety. really work on laden with them.

They are notthat in- the boursthat andita pitiless Ever since they Web has or no censorship. en for a medical examination and when evi- vited muscle and money,” he says. for little weddings or other In I give her my novella — Meerayude decided to go forward she tells that Baaraat, Tinder Novellakal — and YRF’s Bang Baaja dence was collected. The father tries to laugh ceremonies, Sarkar echoes thismesentinor intimated with the case, her she has already bought from a hook-ups, a bachelorette pool parwhen he recounts those days. We try to hold about ment.

He says “digitalit natives” funerals.

When the family has been bookseller who her Bakchod office. I ty, references to sex toys,was and use our tears. like TVF andvisits All India Left Democratic Front ostracised by their feel proud that shemore readstime my books. of power, expletives From the day she indentified INC leader PJ in have, by virtue of spending on the sheare waskosher. given a job relatives and society She has been promoted tomedium. the post significant upshot of the Web, a deeper Kurien as one of her tormentors, the girl be- in Probably understanding of the the Sales the Tax most Department record keeper job.heart.”

She has Web explosion is the opportunities it has pro- Therefore,of came a political instrument. While the Con- in their work “has aatlother more the lowest grade.

Meanlearned too. in, Her colvided tothe upcoming to directly connect gress and allies tried to malign her, Left parties while, “When big namesstitching start coming brands parents talent had releagues give her with viewers. supported her. In March 1999, she filed a pri- tired will also start coming in. material, However,which I feel she the from service and had into suitsattempts and saree blouses.

Her “This gives me elbow-room test the fresh tal- stitches vate complaint with the Judicial First Class Ma- built number of honest is still very limita house in Suryanelli.

Buttowith High with a big smile, stitchingto is ent both on of screen the scenes. gistrate’s court at Peerumedu, seeking the Court ed. Theysays, are looking at it as an“Her opportunity verdict 2005,and theybehind were dragged back mother She money. recentlyWe won a saree at the musiAcross the two series, worked with many inclusion of Kurien in the list of accused. He into make some are all outsiders.

We the limelight.

Aswe’ve her father says, “we be- perfect.” chairstoand lemon-in-spoon in new writers directors, musicians and cos- cal approached the High Court, which dismissed came wanted make films and TV competition shows and we a miniand tourist-spot.” gave saree totoGeorge, and seeing These whom, at office. the complaint against him. Kerala govern- tume didn’t She have thethe contacts make it possible.

Her designers. mother once toldare me people that they decided wear it always puts arevolution big smile on her face. some stage, I will suck into the mother-ship ment challenged the HC’s refusal to implicate to Somehow the digital happened leave Suryanelli to escape from the atten- her No.our I wouldn’t her,off. why sheof didn’t escape and ask to make for me,” says Kurien, but the Supreme court dismissed it. contentask took A lot people are tion.

They built films another house farPatil. from the and years ago.toInstead I wish toreverse-engineer ask her, how we ActorofNaveen Kasturiaand — who debuted with Meanwhile, on September 6, 2000, a special centre now trying discover it and town. Friends relatives were in- 19 Sulemani Keeda —The sayshouse his role in can helpSarkar. her flash the smile of a 16-year-old in the indie court convicted 36 people in two separate vited it,” says for film the house-warming. was has garnered himfamily unprecedenTVF’s Pitchers savage chargesheets. On January 20, 2005, the Kerala decorated For now, world. viewers can rest assured that unwith flowers and the of four this ted popularity.

“Everybody wants to High Court acquitted all the accused, except waited for the guests.

No one turned up. make limited entertainment is just a click away. but that is not ourhouse hands.for Buta the Web kr meera is a Malayalam author, most recently of Dharmarajan.

The court ruled the has victim films In 2006, they soldinthat meagre Boldly ahead The Viral Fever’s showthat Pitchers Woman and And Slowly Forgetting That Tree mohini chaudhuri will open more avenues for moreinactors was a willing in the act since there was sum and many moved to another village Kot- Hang helped its actorspartner gain recognition

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outdoor gear market in India. The company, which clocked revenues of ₹1,200 crore in 2014, claims a similar dominance in the adventure apparel segment.

The launch of new products — cycles, surfboards and kayaks are in the pipeline too — will help it penetrate deeper in this growing market. Earlier this year, it launched outdoor eyewear that offers UV protection and can be used in extreme conditions.

Customer’s choice New products are typically launched at the company’s flagship stores to gauge consumer responses. Countrywide it has a network of 600 stores. “We open 60-70 new stores every year. It is easy to launch a new product,” says Singh. This comes as good news for Love Raj Singh Dharmshaktu and Srinivasa Prasath, loyal users of Woodland products.

“There is huge scope in the segment as even schools now hold sessions on adventure sports,” says Dharmshaktu, Border Security Rolea change Force personnel who hasChandigarh, been mountaineeronce the ing, rafting and scuba diving for 26and years. somnolent silentThe retiredwho city, ishas today 44-year-old adventure junkie, scaled busy, boisterous Mount Everest five times, swears by and Woodmuch younger land’s jackets and pants: “The gear plays an imthe hindu archives portant role in enhancing our performance.

There has to be trust that the tent you are using, or the rope you are holding on to, doesn’t give way under tough conditions.”

Prasath, an IT professional in Hyderabad, goes trekking at least twice a year. He is excited about Woodland’s plans for a rugged mobile phone. “The company already has a solar charger. It will go really well with an all-terrain mobile phone,” he adds. Though mobile network is poor at high altitudes in India, a phone will prove handy during emergencies.

HOME SPUN

Pitching a home

In Chandigarh, the contest for belonging does not even begin; it is a city that sprang up from lines drawn on an architect’s drawing board Competing times neel kamal puri

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The adventure sports market witnessed some he migrant pitches a tent and that is (From Thheka Tales – A Novel). And therefore, in helplessly waiting theirthis turn, lego-like strucdramatic developments year.

Timberland, Intrepid sole Harkirat Singh, Managing Director, Woodland home.

My parents found thema India broad sense, everyone is a migrant in Chan- tures pointingmaker fingersofatadventure the sky ongear, the fringes the American exited selves uprooted from their homes digarh — from the engineers who first came to of theafter city. Ifailing will have to admit that when the India to make inroads.

That exit, in Pakistan in 1947, and I grew up build the city, to the labourers who worked at city went being somnolent silent to many say,from was hastened by a legaland tussle with with questions of belongingness — where are the construction sites, from the original set- busy and boisterous, when Madhya Marg Woodland.

The companies have similar-lookyou from, which village. But I had no village tlers who bought land in a place where there went fromand oneproduct car in 15portfolios minutes that to 15almost cars a ing logos and my origins were the collateral in a bitter were yet no houses, to those others who hesi- minute and the numbers ever growing, it felt mirror each other. quarrel between nations. In a sense, a novel tated and later wished they had not, because it like an outrage and an intrusion of the kind Even after Timberland’s exit, Woodland is too has to pitch a tent in a setting. Its charac- soon became a moment lost. that feel when the initial boatload left first withsettlers stiff competition.

French sports ters, even as they steam out of the author’s It is a city that is only three years older to of newchain migrants arrives. Chandigarh is younggoods Decathlon, known for large outhead, do take some of their hues from the me, a sibling, and I have shared with it my er today certainly, butone noton prettier.

And it of is lets, recently opened the outskirts town or country where they materialise. In childhood and youth. As a little girl I drove in- not the city thataI5,000 knew. sq However, the minute Chennai.

It has ft play area, where fact, the setting itself can become a character, to town with my parents in the late ’50s and one acceptscan thistry as out the products. inevitableAdditionally, signature of customers as I think it does for me. And just as I made experienced the excitement of entime, it becomes to abthe company manufactures moreeasier than half its rekkingdown at highthe altitudes can be homes, putting backpack of grumy countering India, whereuntrammelled 80 per cent ofvistas Woodland’s reve- wares in India, sorb — the changes. keeping costs low and prodelling.

At and 17,000 ft above seaaslevel, years in one town then another life wide nues roads comesand from footwear car, and apparel. ucts competitivelyAfter an occasional the first angry flush of priced. thedid temperature plummet from lots rolled on, so my novels,can though in a slight“When we started, the market was not ready of trees and very few buildings, defiled ownership Singh cannota sense affordof to overlook that. degrees —Celsius to minus-20 ly jumbled20sequence from Patiala where I and for the outdoors. saw Woodland none of themBuyers disturbing the has worn off, the andsame adjustare almost (in It isasaacity“Woodland that is onlyproducts withinup, hours.

Winds lash above kmph, grew to Ludhiana where I was150 born and poetry lifestyle ofbrand,” says Singh.inToday, al- years the mountains the after ments made a bit of quality asto foreign ones),are but therewith is a huge dif-a three older straining every effort to isstay the home. course. And background. now Chandigarh, which finally most 25 years,Of he course, believesnostalgia the time has come. and a shove, it becomes ference in Icost,”push says Dharmshaktu. me, a sibling, and onThe theambience frozen Chadar in Leh, an ice-break of Thelake Patiala Quartet is one of does “We were sure the about the in tendalways to dress past possible to go backmanufacto that The company partly have shared with it a plunge into while biting-cold watertoand the swathes ameans laid-back languor, Remember Forget category… the past few ofFor gossamer butyears, then a itinerant state of mind, which at its facilities in India and my childhood and tures onset of in pneumonia unfolds Ludhiana,within where minutes. a persistent tak-a- new adventure sport of hasthis been catchbeginning magnitude youth allows and an author journey aboard, sourcesto the rest Undersound such treacherous conditions, tak-tak of industrial machinesbesides in the is ing on into India.” bound have an epical quality to intooverseas imagined worlds, Singh using from suppliers. providence, charges trekkersthe and climbers put background atmosphere withtheir sur- it, a grand romance. And it is this ye- There has to be trust the fixity with of home as the also partners international Innovations ahead faith and in their gear. Can the jacket keep one vival endeavour.

Chandigarh is marked by ti footprint that I use as an entry that the tent you are springboard. players for product developwhen the air around freezes? Is the point awarm nascent modernity.

Already in the withinitsThheka ad- using, or the rope you ment.Once into mymarket narrative the umbrellas troublesome Woodland’s are are holdingquestion on to, of ‘home’ shoe’s grip firm enough to clamber up a boul- Tales In Chandigarh, the contest for belonging venture sports footwear and ap– A Novel. hasa been settled, it bemade by German company, waypossible der without any sprang dangerup of parel, does not evenslipping? begin. It Is is athere city that includingwas trekking Chandigarh young boots once whendoesn’t I was give comes to amble along the walkway whose name he declines to share the backpack’s zipper stuck? drawing young, from lines drawn on getting an architect’s and lightweight jackets, Woodeven though it was axiomatically re- beside the Sukhna Lake, amidst the many due to confidentiality clauses.

Life-saving questions these, and Harkirat board.

“The undulating landscape, with sa- ferred land now to city introduce to as plans a retired (City of grey beards walkers and joggers, to absorb feedback the geometry Still, customer and Singh has viewed them as market shaying wheat fields, stretched all opportunithe way to and moregreen products.

It has prohedges, themade late Khushwant Singh of the city onreviews one sideofand the zigzagproducts lines of Woodland ties. Himalayan The market,foothills however,inwas ready back the thenot distance and had totypes rugged mobile calledof it). But there the analogy ends. I ac- the mountains the other, and then to are let onon some e-commerce sites in 1992, when hefor brought Canadian was a clean slate architects to drawoutdoor the con- quired phones,grey anti-mosquito clothing and dry hair and wrinkles the suits odd these contraries reflect in the world that is not pleasant.

Singh will have to win them over gear brand Woodland to India.Corbusier, The brandwith was hair tours of a city and its skyline. for sea-diving. on my chin as time elapsed but, paradox- conjured uphis ascompany a result oftothe amalgam.transiif he wants successfully part of in thehand, deal when Singh, whose ex- ically crayon had sketched a grid family of sectors “Theenough, [outdoor adventurebecame gear] segment is tion Chandigarh younger as (Infrom this monthly column, authors chronicle the a lifestyle to an adventure sports portedonleather products, bought beleabased some calculations done inhis Spain be- it not big older. in India, growing fast with at doublegrew Thebut cityistoday bristles signs cities brandthey — a call taskhome.) no less challenging than a highguered1929 Canadian tween and 1949 and client’s a geometrybusiness. of roads of digit rates,”shopping says Singh.

Woodland youth, malls, manydominates spenders, altitude climb.

Waterproof heat-retaining shoes made based on theand stride of a man, horse or ox and speeding the adventure footwearThere category, to neel kamal puri is the author of The Patiala motorcars. are estimated now frayed and Remember to Forget prince mathews thomas sense in that country, not in mostspeeds.” parts of tempers subsequently adaptedbut to mechanical be a littleat over 10 per cent of the ₹50,000-crore traffic lights, harried pedestrians Quartet

Daredevil wears…

Largely seen as a lifestyle brand in India, outdoor gear maker Woodland now woos the nascent adventure sport market

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cover read

‘This book is full of gratitude and anger’ A work that records the systemic savagery of the bully, as also the oral histories of those who fought back… for all of us

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No One Else A Personal History of Outlawed Love and Sex Siddharth Dube Harper Collins Non-fiction ₹599

tof, Apne Aap founder Ruchira o One Else — A PerGupta, and feminist and activsonal History of Outist Gloria Steinem, who accordlawed Love and Sex,

by Siddharth Dube, ing to him, foreground is an important book for our trafficking above all else. He times. Probably one of the says, “They have managed to most important, as it triumphs addle the issue and ruin peoan essential message — accept ple’s understanding of sex me for who I am. Both fierce work… one sentence of theirs, and tender, it will leave the out of a 100 or 1,000, will be reader enraged and heartened. ‘protect the woman’.”

In western history, and in India He recalls the words of a sex even today, “cases of same-sex worker who argues that everyattraction read like a chronoloone is selling sex all the time. gy of brutality and injustice,” Be it the woman on a billboard writes Dube, who has also been or the man in the magazine. a specialist commentator on Through years spent interviewpoverty, public health and deing and working with sex workvelopment for more than two ers in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra decades. The multi-layered and West Bengal, Dube believes work not only sculpts Dube’s that these women (also men own journey from self-loathing and transgenders) are people to acceptance to activism, but of dignity and pride. He says, also examines the import be“People don’t realise what is hind ‘girly boy’, the fluidity of the alchemy of turning shame gender and the class dynamics into dignity and self-worth.” at play.

With the opening chapter of This book records the systhe book titled ‘Shame,’ it is evitemic savagery of the bully, dent that self-worth was hardwho comes in various forms, be won for Dube. And he writes in it seniors at The Doon School compelling detail of the years who upheld the tradition of he spent in ‘solitary confine‘fagging’ (where junior grade ment’ because of his orientaboys became ‘house slaves’ to tion. He recounts the highs and the seniors), or the policeman lows of the war against 377 and against the sex worker, or bigends the book on a note of abots against gay people. But this ject despair, “Once again, I was isn’t a narrative about oppresa criminal in my own country, This is me Author Siddharth Dube, outlawed for being himself tom pietrasik sion. Rather, Dube pieces toan outlaw for being who I was, gether the oral histories of with little hope for freedom in those who fought back, and my lifetime.” fought back for all of us. No One Else is finally a ‘homos’. Abused and locked up without reaWhile Dube has written non-fiction books, celebration of those early pioneers who strove son, Tandavan nearly dies in custody as he is No One Else proved to be the most difficult and for rights of gay people and sex workers, and denied his daily shots of insulin. The two of took seven years to complete. Questions of quite simply believed in creating a just world. them are finally let out from prison, but this omission often proved the hardest.

From the sex workers he had As a senior fellow at the World Policy Insti- experience left the writer with gathered unique oral histories, tute in New York, Dube is in Delhi only briefly. “a terrifying new awareness of which could not be included for It has been a hectic week packed with book what it meant to be criminallack of space. He hopes he can events and introducing a new puppy to his el- ised… be summarily imprisonDelhi is a city he chronicle them online. While the derly mother. But this is a city he knows well — ed to suffer the corruption and knows well — both as book includes a couple of his sexboth as an idyll and a purgatory. We meet at a capriciousness of India’s rotten an idyll and a ual encounters, Dube decided to conference centre close to Lodhi Gardens, policing and judicial systems.” purgatory censor some of the details in the where, back in 1988, Dube ran into a stranger Throughout this book and Indian edition. He explains, “I who became “one of greatest loves” of his our conversation, Dube underdidn’t want to skew people’s reacadult life. With utter compassion Dube writes scores these two sides of India, tion to the book.” in vivid detail about his French partner, who one of gentleness and the other I mention that the firewall in my office made him experience the world anew. The fer- of hate. Sipping his lime juice, this practitiovour of their relationship seeps into Dube’s ner of Sufism and yoga says, “This book is full blocked his website for reasons of ‘pornograperceptions of the city. And Delhi becomes a of gratitude and anger. Gratitude for the phy’. He hoots in laughter and says it is the wilplace of trees and birds — the amaltas and gul- course of my own life. And anger that gay peo- dest thing he has heard. We realise the title of mohar, parakeets and sunbirds — and a ple are still criminalised in this country. No one of his books — Sex, Lies and AIDS — is to hotbed of films, dance recitals and talks. one should have to feel like that for what they blame. This just proves the “irrationality of But the city didn’t take long to show its egre- feel and love. And anger for how sex workers human discourse” and the many prejudices that lurk everywhere. gious other side. One winter night, Dube and are unjustly and disempoweringly treated.” his partner Tandavan find themselves at the Dube is scathing when he refers to the likes partha pratim sharma Jor Bagh police station and accused of being of The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kris- nandini nair

The girl Q with no nameR After 19 years, the girl in the Suryanelli case and her family struggle to make ends meet, but their will and determination remain unblemished

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PRESENT IMPERFECT

In the beginning was the How much longer do we have before emoji creep into novels? And real life?

Lightly does it The story of a chronic worrier managing a yoga centre outside Mysore is splendid, as it brings to the fore Rao’s uncanny humour ma sriram

shutterstock

The world in a matchbox

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hen I heard that Oxford Dic-

other :-)? Can you tell the difference between a

terpret it has to be as minimal as possible. Or

as sarcastic decided on vice brilliant versa. ;-) and a seductive ;-)? And simply thirdly, — Maheshtionary Rao’shasnew collection of short stories is quite

One Point Two Billion Mahesh Rao Fourth Estate HarperCollins Fiction ₹499

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

its word of the year, my first how are emoji becoming an increasingly rich My 10-year-old borrows my phone someinstinct was to look up Oxford form of communication? Isn’t the whole times to text her friends. The conversation is Dictionary’s definition of ‘word’. “A single dis- point of the emoji to shred down language to predominantly an exchange of emoji, there heyelement say you should not judge a book tinct meaningful of speech or writare hardly anystory words.

It isyoung, my hope that she a standardised thereby doingMysore, exactly and managingemotion, a yoga centre outside lieu. The of the bored housewife by its cover, but it is hard not to to. Maing, used with others (or sometimes alone) and her friends would eventually evolve to re- in the opposite of so what Grathwohl and it is written splendidly, told says, so well, that it on holiday with her self-centred husband hesh Rao’s One Point Two with Billionahasstripping a overshadows form a sentence and typically shown placing emoji with actual words.

Theyoung accept-Delhi it of its inherent richness? the rest of the collection. It is not Pondicherry, and the one of the is not proper word is evi- in as adislike word,ofhowever, seems to cover, a flat white surface The space on eitherbrilliant side when written or printed.” ancegirl of whose factthe that that rest of the acollection is mediocre her step-mother-to-be dent any even from Dictionary’s press re-leave suggest that what is desirable is that chequered with visual I don’t know about you, but icons I have,representing so far, been the way, theOxford stories are so good that they ends in tragedy, are the only twoadults storiesbe in the in speech.

Thatlike lease. one needs To with describe reduced to communicating like children.

And 13 stories in the icon looks a you completely unable tobook. use Each an ache, after havingreal readwords, them. But collection which seemed rather run-of-the, for exam- coldoesn’t matter, cover, you may point comprised of letters and vowels. because biggest challenge sinceofthe dismatchbox much likeout; the the onesgood we used much like that other, absolutely splendid mill.the And, somehow, the story a daughter ple, islection described as the ‘Face with tears of joy’Other people whowith put in together dictionary covery of antibiotics is in staying cool, into play the ’80s,the making trainshad and othof short stories, In Other Rooms, from an elite, landholding family inan Rajasthan (which itself isby pretty strange because theone waystory specified ‘speech or writing’.

Again, I of don’t creasing adults switching to other toys out of these varied markers identity, Wonders, Daniyal Mueenuddin, doesnumber not quiteof grip in theare same way as the been used in my WhatsApp groups knowofabout you,full butof even if I allow :-) or :-(, it has emoji-heavy conversations. a nation different andfor differentiated outshines the rest.

In the case of Rao’s collecers, although the almost casual excellence is seemed ‘face with tears of mirth’, or ;-) parts as things you could possibly write, bits.

In an essay that wrote after represented in these collectible tiontoit suggest is because in the first story withZadie whichSmith Rao conjures up charnot oneInofthis them.

It’s the something could Pelbut hey, let’s not nit-pick).

Even sense spending an Oscar weekend in respect designer,you Jonathan he gives full rein to a lovely acters remains. draw,ham, not really something you canthe write. with of thehumour expanded pack emoHollywood, observed that has excellently captured strengths of that isoffar more reRao hasshe a gift for voices, articuhas thoroughly To Rao’s say that ji thatstrained seem toin cover most needs the swish set there verbalises storytelling — the sharp,impressed precise beauty the other stories. lating with ease the anguish of an Each story, whether people the dictionary company would an of dailyRao life, it is still fairly emotions.

If someone joked, of at writing, the powerful nostalgia ofbe a semi-soinhabits the diffispaces heTo describe old, retired man in love with his written,in first one understatement.

In ahas press release that an-andcult comeabout up with a combinawouldn’t but would cialist India that all but disappeared, a to writes almost effortlessly.needs wife aslaugh, well as the confused person or third, has theyson’s real words, as that the has appointed ‘word’ of the tion of nounced emoji that best describe say “that’s funny”.

The new order not quite emerged.

Each story mentions the state or emotions of a young pahalwan-ina distinctive tone instead comprised of letters year, President Casper Grathwohl gushed: stoanother emoji. emoji-isation of the world The 13 stories in this book are ordinary town it is set in only in passing, and training.

Each story, whether writthatvowels is unrepeated “You ries can made see how traditional alphabet scriptsMuch I am linguistic traditionalseems, a way, an opposite ex-has a extraordinary in the telling. butnothe backdrop is important in ten in first person or third, have like beenthe struggling the rapid-fire, ist. I each watched of treme.

How much we country to of meet 1.2 billion that theyvi-repreone,the andevolution not interchangedistinctive tonelonger that isdo unrepeatsuallysent, focused demands 21st-century com-really ‘whatable is up you’ have to ‘whats have they nov- inthe stories andofcharacters do not in with any. You a has-been ed.before Almost as creep if theinto narrators munication.

It’s much not insurprising thateach a othup’, movie ‘whassup’ and in then ‘‘sup’ who els?habit And real life? Would weEven wor-more seem to have common with villain Bombay different worlds. pictographic emoji hasof stepped with both what clings can only be- and ry whether our actual laughter a shade less er, apartscript from like leading lives mostlyinquiet on be to described the fame as of quiet his past, admirably, never does the is narration or voice to filldesperation those gaps —and it’s flexible, and musement.

Themove fact that words, and invociferous an endorsement of couple a joke than an a certainimmediate, sadness that snakes wants to beyond it; sentences an old woman seem forced, even in the of less-thanWould we take cardboard cutouts with infuses tone their beautifully. is a rest given. not myincase around lives. As a result emoji are grammar terredevolve with the of It heris village a camp is?brilliant stories. and hold them aboveone ourcould becoming increasingly rich form of the comthat somewhere the adaptation of a picture asaahollow-chest, word is us to restaurants Thean surface calm shimmers with things in Naxalite Orissa; One of the marks of good writing, heads to indicate what are feeling? munication, that transcends linguistic necessarily damaging to language.

However, it at glimpsedone underneath; unarticulated longing, timid young teacher in Kashmir enraged argue, is leaving thewe reader wantingBoth more. In as the culturally and we are at aeach borders.”

I have difficulty eachdissent of theseunexis mythetheory that ’s appointment jealousy hidden like with a knife, administration for trying to appropriate the case of technologically, One Point Two Billion, almost wordlanguage; of the year is further evidencetoofterms howwith placestory where welike cannot rule be outturned these future sentences.

First had you noticed pressed.

Inup, almost every story the thestrugperceived a young son coming feels it could into a fulland, by extension, culture andafter civilipossibilities.

And you when thatbehappens, I justIt can gle of the traditional alphabet scripts? whethI language calm is broken by some act of violence, his mother’s descent into insanity losing length novel would glad to read. devaluing to The hopealso there a cave some us could retreat to you hadn’t.

Theactual only struggle I noticed that of sation er an bomb going off inwas a marketplace, herare husband to athemselves bomb blastininorder Assam. beisargued that of a good writer leaves appeal to theworld lowestofcommon denominator. and live the rest of our scribbling a generation of phone who love. cannot betakes or a confession of users forbidden Rao shallow films, police brutality, the wanting more, andyears in that Rao has words succeeded Whatcomplicity annoys meof is that the assumption here is seton the walls. bothered to actually use traditional alpha- all the desperation, thethe quiet and the violence, the state, is specific to each most assuredly, and has set a very high benchif something has seems to be comfortable popular, theinintellibet scripts.

Secondly, does a“emoji infuse of it, and serves ithow up with delightful mix of ting and Rao every one mark for his next work, one that we anticipate t@veenavenugopal is places. required to understand and intone empathy beautifully”? one :-) the same as any genceofthat and Isn’t wry insight. these with much delight.

The first of the stories is possibly the most Interestingly enough, the weakest (or not as brilliant. It is the story of a chronic worrier strong) stories are the ones set in an urban mi- omair ahmad and sabah hamid

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The whispering forest No sushi without Tsukiji BAWDY LINE

A world of curiously beautiful sights and sounds awaits you inside Kanha National Park — keep your mind open to be able to feel the magic In Japan, the slice of raw fish pressed on a clump of fragrant rice is a highly crafted cultural artefact presented as food

Travel log pan. Well-cooked rice is the epitome of culiGetting there nary Japaneseness.

Rice in drive Japanfour is eaten Fly to Raipur; hoursday to after day, at every meal; white rice only, in its the Park. virginal state, not conjugated with any meat, Stay fat, oil or spice, not sullied by any kind of curry.

Singinawa Lodge,inset a Rice grains were a formJungle of currency thein pre100-acre plantedThey forest with modern Japanese economy. once ate12so cottages.of(The food is else, great.) much of it, tostone the exclusion everything www.singinawajunglelodge.com that beriberi became the national disease. After a year ofSafaris making rice, the minarau can move up to grilling theintamago (egg). A6-11am year of Available two batches: that and thenand he’s allowed the slicing of fish.

2.30-5.30pm The apotheosis of his career is not when he starts makingTip sushi but when the itamae takes between safaris, walk across to him along to In Tsukiji market to buy fish.

Itamae the nearby Mukki village for a slice don’t buy from retail fishmongers, houseof local life. to the fount. wives do. Itamae go directly On the next morning, at five o’clock, I took my eight-year-old son to Tsukiji. Flanking the barasingha that Kanhaand is known river Sumida, Tsukiji is Tokyo’s pantry also to havefishconserved the biggest wholesale and seafoodsuccessfully. market Ready to roll Though it is a kind of assemblage, It takes far more than rice and fish to make sushi shutterstock Apart from sal and metric bamboo, I in the world. More than 700,000 came about across ¥600 local billion trees with tonnes of seafood worth comical names such asall lendia, are brought and traded here annually, Minato-ku, Tokyo Naomichi-san, the man in white across the through tiny familygirchi and haldu.

But my favoubusinesses.

About 900 s Naomichi-san places the maguro ita, is called the itamae; quite literally it means trading firms are licensed rite moments were of stopto buy at the morn(lean, vulgar tuna that is properly, ‘in front of the cutting board’. He is a man with ing auctions and resell ping inpurchases one corner their at the and labially, menstrually red, the flesh an unexcitingly typical Japanese habitus. In stalls. In its bustle, particularly listening to in thethe sounds of the huddle Miles to go A jeep safari at Kanha will make you fall in love with winding paths; a barasingha kalyani the prasher with all the(inset) squish and yieldfamily of the making of sushi, in the performance of the of the bluefin tunaforest — that itself was worth auctions, one understands female breast) across the counter, you pick up ritual, he is doing and demonstrating Japa- that Japan’s foodwaking at 5am. one such cultureup is not just On cooking t’sthat 5am.not I’ma supposed to meet on the idea lot in Japanese foodthe or-natuWe drove on of assemblage, it and eating andstop, neseness.

Thoughquietly it is a kind we heard the principles barking deer the myriad abstract at accidents 5.30 but Ior have woken up thodoxy isralist left toonly happy unforced takesthe far gravel more path than leading rice and fish to make of cuisine. Italarm call and we,being alongfrom withthe the enalso comes into half-hour earlier and come outa of my cotspontaneity.

And this is plebeian food, slice forest, sushi.into Eachthe kind of rawwhich fish haswas to be seasonal, practicaltire forest, every bird sat silentcircumstances of and the animal, production be byofmyself, outdoors, in the of raw fishtage on atoclump vinegar-ed rice. He almost towering salits and distribution slicedcovered faultlessly andentirely served by at the peak of ly, holding our breaths.

Thefood. tigerNaomiwas on the of what we call silence the ajungle. this noise then noisy follows it upof with coupleI’doftake anaemic trees.

Thegrain path of ledrice deeper on toand thicker flavour.

Each has inside, to be firm move.

The energy was electric.

The silence chi-san’s sushi is as much a product of his was any day: Ifish, can hear the crickets, of course, white-fleshed the flounder (hirame), and and green areas, past waterbodies, bushes, grass- so thick you discrete and yet should contain couldand hold in yourashands. training hisitfacility it is of some other insects, andwith a few are up the sea bream (tai), brushed the birds lightest lands, open meadows, bamboo thickets, and enough cellulose to stick. But it The tiger no doubt, special as but it is not the is, values of capitalism a culThe windseated is whistling the trees. glazeearly. of soy.

We’re at the through ita (counter) back areas thickly covered should be to sticky-moist with just with sal. At vari- the onlytural rare order, sight of in the Kanha — there are exlong-establishIt sounds like omakase. it’s raining butroot I know by now and have ordered The of that ous points, turned leftMaking or right,short-grained and I traordinary the right amountthe of path rice vinegar and trees, flowers, and ed birds, methods of andJapanese those dewdrops.

Occasionally, wordthat means ‘to are trust’ or ‘to submit’.

It meanssome felt certain thatsticky-slimy. if we took one wrong step, I and mirin, and not other animals like the wild dog.

Chasing the timercantile life, of the political koshihikari rice animal yawns. There is layer upon of natthat the procession of sushi served to layer us will might endtells up me trapped here forever.

Byis, the Naomichi-san that the ger can make you of lose on other beautiful economy theout Japanese fishing properly in a way, ural sounds and there is meour — nothing be the chef’s choice.

We’re leaving meal to else. thirditamae safari, Ibegins was wondering aspirant his ap- if giftsofthe holds. I of learnt industry, theforest technologies making Japan This week has been beautiful.

Naomichi-san’s discretion.

It will be made one prenticeship that was even thing… I as aa bad teenager, this at my expense as distritwo Amerrefrigeration, storage and When I had in at Singinawa Jungle at a time in front ofchecked us and served immediatehave out beenof tohigh otherschool, national straight us on the second butionicans and joined the whole structure Lodge a week ago and was told by the hotel’s ly, like panipuri. in has India andisabroad whenparks he still what knownbut I day; they had come determined of retailing at Tsukiji.

There can Chasing the tiger can naturalist, Daspan, that we have Edomae nigiriYuddhishthir zushi (hand-pressed sushi) have never seen that one islook as nyuanshin (a mind es- so to spot the tiger.

The irony of be no sushi without Tsukiji. make you lose out on to start morning 5.30, I wasn’t started its lifethe innext the early 19th at century in the this closemalleable to magical land —His like Nar- other sentially putty). disposition has beautiful was uncooked obviously lost For the foodonisthem giftsJapanese, the thisraw, peaceful.

Waking at thewas crack of dawn has neibay area of Edo (as Tokyo known then; nia in come life. There is no lateralforest to form the to sushi-ya. en- holds. and, despite my pointing food. For other cultures, food means cooked out I learnt beenof) my nor my meal idea of holiday. mae: ther in front ashabit a post-coital fora the whodegree. can recognise try afterPeople a graduate A person entering that the The slice of quite raw plainly fish pressed onwhole the exthis atfood. my expense youascan compare me with spentLoosely, Samurai they emerged fromthe thesloth, bird trade and tree species at a glance the sushi with a pre-existing personality clump of rice is a highly citement of the tigerarteis in its crafted cultural though perhaps the latter would beatTo-me in whoring quarters of Nihonbashi.

In the pax always impress me,a master and becan never hope to become itamae. For fact presented as food. elusiveness, made Daspan If nationsthey are imagined the the desire to move.

Neither was I too of kicked kugawa, Samurai class, military vassals tween Chain Singh,the the forest (mina- communities, thenrace the first couple of years, apprentice andnigiri downzushi the forest in itsup form has in about doing seven safaris a week. the Tokugawa shogunate, didn’tinhave muchI had guide, and the Daspan, I was rau) has to scrub dishes and thein knives. The all the elements tothe hope being cravings where somemeet theof visceral agreed to and that were in a moment fighting to do starting of to madness, get a bit and good company.

(You get assigned aphorism about Japanese arts is thata guide one at one else hadcommunity: seen or heard of this imagined rice,or fishthought and the they now all booked and paid for. soft. By thethey 19thwere century they were reduced to But the gate.)instruction Over the week westealing spotted an learns notpark through but by hadofheard the again, tiger. Two of my safaris umami soy. Then Tunday kababi isn’twere before I went onwho thewere first,required I was deterbeingeven salaried bureaucrats overwhelming number of beautiful the art from the master.

The minarau’sbirds. first The thusthe spoilt, all the for beauty. perhaps rightrushing culturalpast analogue desis. I mined towives canceland at least a couple. to leave their families in their pro- promotion majestic pied-hornbill with its is Malabar to the job of rough-cutting thebeauleft, everyone heaved a sigh actuallyWhen don’tthey know what is. What kind of Hin-of reThough you can takeon your own tours car to the vincial fiefs and come to Edo periodic gliding flight; the tiny wagtail fish —tiful to separate those parts thatgrey never make that lief street and wefood wenthas back to our slow meandering dustani risen to its Epicurean forest, paperwork is long and tedious. of duty for athe year or two. Edo, in the first quar- The kept taking short flights front of the jeep; it to the table.

From there, it is ainslow accretion ways entirely throughon the forest. of Rain and canmeridian account thecame freshness to dobecame in Kanha is toof check in at a hoter ofbest 19ththing century, a city stipendithe stunning racket-tailed that makes of theory and praxis.

After a yeardrongo of rough-cutcelled of my but one and safari, and worth itslast ingredients themaking rigour ofme — tel and let them care of thesex boring ary single men and atake badly skewed ratio.tasks. different the migratory Orienting, over he is20allowed tosounds; wash rice.

It has to be who had planned two safaris — sad beits making?

What kind to of skip street food has been Singinawa was mya home forfor thestreet week and This, So obviously, created market turtle just dove; the Indian scimitar donetal carefully, enough washing to takebabbler, off organised yond around words. Ithe didn’t wantand to skip anything essential essentialI was, up Yohei’s before pioneering the sun, driving a dirt food there and prostitutes. sushi in the which heard constantly through andcan the be excess bran but not its whiff the more and It’ll more.

I realised ised now, traitsI wanted of Hindustanis? have to be that grumpy silence towards the forest. felt parstall of early 19th century Nihonbashi, forIdesi forest, but is six stillmonths a rare sight.

There were and savour.

After of washing rice, tens this is to the way to travel to a national something doright with dairy, perhaps. ticularly was cheated when the first rooster equivalence, the cultural analogue of he’s allowed of rare bird sightings, half short-grained of them I can’t re- park, not the hurried weekend trips that I to make it. Making crowed almostkababi. an hour after I had woken up.koshihikari Lucknow’s Tunday call names of, but they allmaking remainJain my would make earlier. asatwik@gmail.com rice properly is, in will a way, Ambarish Satwik is a Delhi-based Anything I say about my first moments in- mind forever. vascular surgeon and writer side Kanha National Park will be inadequate.

I also spotted many animals including the kalyani prasher is a Delhi-based freelance writer

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saturday, november 28,28, 2015 saturday, november 2015

Camel Historyinincrisis a bottle SPIRITUAL SWEAT

The Marwar Camel Culture Festival brings attention to the plight of Rajasthan’s state animal and itsthe herders What textbooks don’t tell you about the kings, queens, wars and revolutions Camels in Rajasthan currently number about 3.2 lakh (2012 Livestock census) but generate no revenue for those who rear them: camel milk, which is considered therapeutic for diabetic patients among others, cannot be marketed as it is not included under the Food Act, and the Raikas’ traditional revenue source — providing camels as draught animals — became obsolete long ago.

Desperate breeders had turned to selling camels for meat.

In a cruel twist, this too became illegal after Rajasthan declared the camel its state animal in 2014.

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shatbhi basu

At a camel breeders’ meeting held as part of the festival, two recommendations were formulated to be forwarded to the state government: Camel dairy products have tremendous potential but need investment by the government; and camel breeders would hand over the “state animal” to the state government at the tehsil-level if no action was taken to improve their situation within the next four to Kill and be killed The six months.

Ilse Köhler-Rollefsonpotent has become the shots face Kamikaze

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of advocacy aimed atwere saving the camels inspired by Japan’s suicide squad pilots of World War II

Down go the numbers Very few camel breeders attended the Pushkar fair last year, and there were even fewer buyers rohit jain paras

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In many avatars Russians began making vodka with potato before switching to wheat shutterstock

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inter is India’s ‘festival’ seahis whole theniche BiharRajasCabison.fracas Therewith is the net and its illiteracy levels, haveFolk rethan International ally put a damper It got Festival (RIFF)onatthings.

Jodhpur, the me thinking back. is it? hipster-magnet Pushkar fair Whose and thefault popular Is it about bad students badBut teachers. is Jaipur Literature Festivalor (JLF). early inOr Nothis too aSadri, vicious cycle.in I wasn’t great atofmathevember, a town Pali district Rajasmaticshosted in school.

In fact, I was of rather than, a new festival an pathetic unusual at it. I don’t know if this because my teachnature.

It was meant to was bring attention to the er didn’t or inspire enough tocamel make plight of excite Rajasthan’s stateme animal — the anand effort to delvethe into the mysteries of algebra — showcase endangered culture of the and geometry.

But then I didn’t particularly Raikas, one of western India’s nomadic pastolikegroups historythat or geography either.camels. ral rears and herds Did that mean that ICulture must have beenaa modterriThe Marwar Camel Festival, ble three-day student? I event, do know I gave bazaars my Momtomany est featured propalpitations.

Butand when pushed to the limit mote camel milk wool products, evenings and toldby in Raika no uncertain terms that visits I was likelivened and Langa music, to a ly to flunk mydiscussions boards, I read books Raika village, on the the two future of from page to page, cracked pacamel rearing, andalone, even and included a the camelper to the delight of my parents and the milking competition. amazement of my school!

German veterinarian Ilse Köhler-Rollefson by no means is a mediumLokhit to putPashudown is aThis member of the Sadri-based anyone.

But rather to bring to organised the front that Palak Sansthan (LPPS), which the elusive ability called It allowsamong us to dothe or festival.

She has lived“will”. and worked becomefor anything to, after if we coming want it Raikas the lastwe twochoose decades into contact with them during her research in India. “Although I studied veterinary mediKamikaze cine in Germany, I did not like practising Glass: shot that animals rethere. I guess I prefer ensuring main healthy rather than treating sick ones.

Ingredients: While working in Jordan and in Sudan, I was 30 mlanimal orange culture vodka and the exposed to nomadic ml lime/squeeze a wedge camel, and loved10 both.

Then I had of a research 1 tsp caster sugar or 10 ml Raifellowship in India and came across the flavoured syrup ka,” Köhler-Rollefson said.

Garnish: fruit chews like The veterinarian has since become face Mentos or Fruitella on the the side of advocacy aimed at bettering the conditions Method: of Rajasthan’s pastoralists and saving its cam1 Half-fill shaker with ice el populations from its present crisis. Köhler2 Pour in all ingredients Rollefson is also the author book Camel 3 Shake forof10the seconds and Karma, which recounts in detail strain into glassher time with the Raika.

Note: Wise bartenders will make at leastinterview.

10 at a time Excerpts from an

shutterstock

On what led to the festival possible to find somebody to herd and look afbadly enough.

By making us last strive tohow get terThis The idea originated after seeing year reminded me of the slavery triangle, them. there.

Notwithstanding all ofdeteriorated that, my history the Pushkar Camel Fair has over the Caribbean islands, rum stills that gave us how government policies have contributed did last not 25 getyears. any better.

Imagine my dismay the Very few camel breeders at- On this amazing cane spirit. Which the British to this decline when, rather late in year, my existence, tended the fair last and thereI discovered were even armed forces adopted with a vengeance and that 1830 (the year the Coffey column still was The fewer buyers. became thewas front-runner of every soldier the camel totally ignored by policymakpatented) didbreeders not mean 18th centurycrying but rathThe camel were virtually be- ers Empire including untiltouched, it was declared theours. state animal. The er the 19th!

I was mortified. was the creation cause they were not able toIt sell animals idea While all ofis this I discovered the of aabsorbing ‘state animal’ great, but futile unof blended scotch — as which a category that alerted they had brought means that they less mapcoupled of the world and how the seas andsuch the with supportive measures, me on not the Phylloxera plague almost would earn anything the that entire year. deAc- as continents were aligned.

Whisk(e)y taught me subsidising and creating an enabling envistroyedmany the French tually, of themvineyards had not in 1880. That about the Atlantic oceanfor that the exronment thebridged development stopped supply sold any the camels for ofthebrandy last to England panse of the whiskey nations of Scotland of camel product lines, and (brandy and This sodaiswas their main three years! because the tipple then), Ireland from marking the Americas.

The Raki out grazing areas.trail The which allowed blended scotch demand for draught camelsentry. The Brit- showed me the frompassed West Asia toLegEulawroute that was by the traditional ish empire took it everywhere theyThe went, has almostthen disappeared and rope. The fruit islative brandiesAssembly of Europe [The allowed me Rajasknowledge of the and thecamels rest is history! selling for meat is contothan understand storing surCamel that (Prohibition of Raikas, which is I understood the various revotroversial and dangerous.

So I plus can alsoand mean evolving the Slaughter Regulation of essential for rearing lutions and wars betteranseen thought we need to create alfruit into a spirit that needs far Temporary Migration or Excamels, is no longer through aevent, haze of spirited ternative where the libafomaintenance.

Which opened port) Bill, 2015] — but has not It was the creation of less transferred from one up tions. bar cus is What on theI learned camel asinathe dairy the ideology of the surplus been signed by the President of blended scotch as a to the next a India that theAnd classroom so generutterly generation animal. we need the land being converted into their — has made the situation category that alerted failed to toteach me.

The al public engage with thetwo isnative traditional spirit. Barley muchorworse, as it prohibits takme on the Phylloxera World The of Allied leaders sue.

TheWars. best way doing that ining Britain made both beer and camels out of Rajasthan.

It plague that almost strategising over martinis. is through culture and musicThe — Grapes made wine and also prohibits castration of destroyed the French whiskey.

French 75 cocktail chamas is evidenced by the(gin, success of brandy France, and camelsin and theItaly, useSpain of nose vineyards in 1880 pagne lime)So inspired by we theneed to create pegs, which Germany. the JLF and RIFF. I thought Russia began making makes it impossible to manage 75 of guns fromfair, WWI and aFrench mixture Pushkar with elements of JLF male camels vodka with season. potato and then in the rutting rumoured and RIFF. to hit you just as switched to wheat. Poland made On her work with the LPPS hard. Kamikaze shots inspired its vodka from Rye. Germans On how things have changed for the Raika by the Japanese Kamikaze fighter pilot suicide In made beerwefrom wheat focus as wellonasdeveloping barley. We Sadri, currently community in the last two decades that she squad. Kill and be killed. The prohibition in products made all ours molasses! fromfrom living camels. We make camel has worked with them the US from 1920–33 leading to the under- poo I am nowand more in the know was. paper process camelthan wool.I ever We ship groundhas speakeasy bars where There been a total changethe infamous the lastand 20 frozen And I continue to learn.

Apart from that one camel milk to customers throughout the criminal rubbed shoulders. was the of time years.

The camel culture is only aItshadow its the aberration Std X,wethe calculationwith I do country.in Lately, areonly experimenting of cocktail mask the flavours of camel former selfrevolution because notoincome is to be made well is cheese planning requirements forextraora party andthe have created some some very badno bootleg.

FDR repealed pro- dinary and therefore youngHow people enter the tradiof 2,000 people.with It’s a the piece of cake. bread varieties support ofBut a Danish hibition with a martini in his Themenial Singa- company tional profession.

Instead, theyhand. take up before it, please.

I like itcheesemaker; better. I do not want to and Danish but these porein Sling was created at the Raffles Hotel in are jobs cities. endnot up like Marie Antoinette, queen of France, quite ready to be marketed, except in Singapore to quench the parched The traditional knowledge (of thethroats Raikas)of — our whoCamel was guillotined hungry Café, where for oneasking can alsoher drink camBritish is wives. which essential for rearing camels — is no elccino subjectsand to eat cakechai. if they didn’t have bread! camel And transferred rum. Whichfrom takesone onegeneration back to the longer to disthe shatbhi thilak basu is aismixologist, author, television host, nandini a former journalist who is now covery the coffin-shaped island next.

It of is disappearing in front of of ourBarbados eyes. and head of Stir, a bartending academy in Mumbai in Jodhpur and ‘rumbullion’.

I own about 25 camels and it is almost im- based

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saturday, november 28,28, 2015 saturday, november 2015

Takayama musings The anonymity of a small town in the foothills of the Japanese Alps has its own flavour

Travel log Getting there

Take the Hikari train from Tokyo and Nagoya and transfer to the Takayama-bound JR Hida limited In the eye of a storm A picture express train if youinhave thea Syrian Japan of despair Kobani, Rail pass. Iftown you,now likecontrolled me, areby Kurdish militants. the Turkey feelsthis trip travelling without Pass, threatened by (₹7,500) a Kurdish will cost you ¥14,000 consolidation in Iraq and Syria one-way from The the newTokyo. york times/ tylerfirst hicks leg is on the JR Tokaido Shinkansen fast train from Tokyo to Nagoya, and then on the JR Hida limited express train. You could also take the highway bus, which will cost you ¥6,500 (₹3,500) one-way.

STATES OF MATTER

Choosing battles

Tip

Don’t miss the morning market by

Miyagawa riverdog and do By shooting down a Russian warplane, Turkey reveals that the IslamictheState is its insample the street food.

Must-have: takoyaki, Small wonder A bridge on River Miyagawa, Takayama town shutterstock/cowardlion the Syrian fight a batter-fried delicacy with a chewy

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alking shoulder to shoulder hen Highest political with the milling crowd, echeI saw in the most powerful alons middle-aged woman drawsukumar countries have ing faces on herdetermined miniature muralidharan militaryfor escalation the green and yellowthat pumpkins sale at herisvegonly way Words bothbordering spoken and etable stall.forward.

The narrow street the written areriver expected merely toTakayama urge thatwas reMiyagawa in downtown solve on. Fighting wordsthat become the chorus crammed with shoppers sunny morning accompanying unending violence. in September and had transformed into a French market President Francois Hollande’s morning selling everything from vow sento be “pitiless” in his response tovegetables the Novembei (rice crackers) to miniature to ber 13 attacks in Paris was translated into aPedsehomemade organic pomegranate scones. ries ofmy spectacular airstrikes in Syria, with alling way around the tiny city bordering strongholds of the Islamic Stateat(IS) militia bethe mountains, I had arrived the market. ing targeted for special attention.

Though osThe calls of vendors in sweet and rhythmic Jatensiblyrang fighting thethe same panese through air. enemy, he was rather theleft prospect of military Withdelicate a coupleabout of days hanging loose in coordination with my two weeks in Russia.

Japan, I picked Takayama.

Unabashedly in pursuit of its own agenda, Though I could never get enough of stand-up Turkeybars took up alleyways one notchof byTokyo’s shootsushi inhostilities the teeming ing down or a Russian aircraft engaged bombShinjuku circumnavigating Kyotoinby foot ing raids against ostensible common under cloudy skies, the I craved the relative anoenemy. Itofclearly had a town. dog inWith the Syrian fight. nymity a Japanese a five-hour And its name was the IS.Takayama, at the foottrain ride from Tokyo, Russian Vladimir Putin reacted hills of thePresident Japanese Alps, snugly fit the bill. in fury, calling the downing of his jet a “stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorism”. It was after a semblance of concord began to take shape over Syria, a slap in the face of the emerging grand coalition.

Since Russia began active intervention, forces loyal to the Syrian regime of Bashar AlAssad have made small, but significant gains on the ground. This was a matter of discomfiture for Turkey, as too was the mid-November Vienna conference on Syria. With anxieties over the IS strike in Paris running high and Russia advocating his cause, Assad evidently won some purchase for his claims of being a final bulwark preventing all of Syria and Iraq falling to the extremists.

Russia’s entry into Syria had been a gamechanger both militarily and diplomatically.

Turkey needed to break that momentum, even by a reckless action that led allies to wonder at a possible descent into insanity.

Turkey’s hegemonic ambitions, unleashed by the meltdown in the Arab world, are threatReady for a feast Takoyaki, batter-fried octopus, is a localened favourite smart consolidation in by shutterstock/martinho a possible Kurdish

centre, a piece of octopus in each Other than a customary website highlightglobule, eaten with soy mayo and ing my research re- tlefield loyalties, Syriathe andregion’s Iraq thatattractions, could spill into its territory. theflakes.

US alone held the touchbonito fish vealed little about Takayama.

Perfect, stone of legitimacy. Yet as Hollande prepared In July,precious it invoked the collective self-defence Iclause thought.

It isNATO in thetreaty Gifu prefecture in central of the after a bomb attack to pay court at both Moscow and Washington Japan, bordering Hida city,attributed which is famed in a town bordering Syria, to thefor IS. DC, President Barack Obama did put out a hint its Butgourmet to muchbeef. allied bewilderment, it retaliated and Girls lanterns. that Powerpuff coordination was possible, if Russia were we neared Takayama, an that announcement byAs bombing Kurdish militias had begun to There is an inherent beauty in watching abandon Assad. in the train instructed look outunits. of the people gathering forces to take us on to IS combat golent about their lives, uninhibited by the Turkey urgency to that demand with its window — aevidently Japaneseaalpine like a presence The IS is useful river assetflowed that Turkish of awhich stranger. saw stalls rice belligerence, willIlikely earn selling a stern repjade carpetRecep billowed by winds, andcan pine-studpresident Tayyib Erdogan deploy crackers, sweet potato friesserious and wasabi-flarimand though not more sanction. ded mountains of the northern Japanese Alps voured for domestic political advantages and neighThere were street performBut if itsmunchies. purpose was to assume the mantle as ran alongside the train asAifbrutal playing Fetch. bourhood tactical gains. twin bomb- ers, young pianists and ageing ultimate arbiter of Syria’s affairs, rockstars. it may wellI and checked at my modern-day ingI arrived in the capital city ofinAnkara in October, walked around, aiming too my heavy camera stranghave taken on a burden toat bear. ryokan, Japanese-style guesthousegeneral where ersHollande just threeaweeks before parliamentary and their lanterns.

Middle-aged street landed in Washington DC within one has towas remove footwear entering. elections, denounced bybefore the left-wing op-I rockstars, with skullcaps vainlyHe attempting hours of Turkey’s effrontery. was due to found outasthat the city map boasted 37 attracposition a deliberate act of provocation to hide their baldthere pate,to performed inpart an unfamilproceed from Moscow, as of coalitions markets to folk mucreate—anfrom ugly morning polarisation.

In retaliation, Er- iar language. Iagainst forgot my busanxious schedule. tion-building the return IS. He was to seums heritage houses and temple gardens. dogan to swept up vast numbers of the party Meanwhile, the young pianists had left the spare the overstretched US military the —onus My priorities rested with the cadre, throwing its campaign in-sake brewery square was empty and the only evidence of committing ground forces of in tour, and perhaps a visit tofor the to disarray and preparing annearby village their performance werethen, the upturned plastic Syria. But who would renwhere a lantern festival waslikely on. electoral triumph that will chairs. I peeled away reluctantly and der myself that indispensable military I walked along thethe Miyagawa enable him to amend constiwalked towards the bus stand. force on the ground, without and watched its congregation tution and perpetuate his grow-of The IS is evidently a The next all fired I went which the day, flaunting of up, airpower pale orange koi ing personality cult.fish, ambled useful asset that the on a hike to the nearby Kamikowould be an exercise in futility? along thewas empty streets bordered There a seeming sense of Turkish National Theinweekend wasPark. already alliance I alsopresident remembercan chiRussia for domestic with old,in wooden privateFrench houses deploy purpose the renewed had brought the outdoorsy with a credible formation onJapathe walking out of the advantages and visited the Takayama Jinya political airstrikes in Syria after the Paris nese by the hordestogether and the from park ground, stitched shop tipsy, feeling temple. brewery, my not. guts and attacks —Sake except there was was filled with families kids Syrian army units loyalwith to Assad, likeneighbourhood my shoelaces tactical gains screamed.

I changed directions While a large number of the in tow and elderlyforces women armed Iranian special and elewere tied together and headedkillers to the of merchant disidentified Paris had with hiking poles, bear bells and ments of the Lebanese Hezboltrict from ancient and served timethe in Syria — in Edo pursuit polished shoes. are I walked lah. Few others eager toalong step Meiji periods.declared objectives of officially virgin foreststheamong Japanese up, because neighbourhood I was in For both¥200, France and given the USatolittle efbirch, willow larch trees, states all have and agendas at variacup directed to a cooler fect aand change of regime — theywhere had alldifferent been so- their crowns slowlywestern changing moods with a nce with the urgent need to vanquish varieties sake bottles beckoned I re- touch cialised inofsolidly European milieus.me.

Foreign fall Arabia colours.

Mt Yake Dake stood at a the IS. of Saudi is desperate to see the end member drinking fruity and making climes had little toado withvariant their radical inspi- distance, itsregime peak but deceptively swathed of the Assad is mired too deeply in arations, mentalwhich note towere buy cultured that particular bottle beand brought to white It the erupted in 1915.

Yemen.clouds.

Jordan, Emirates and Kuwait, after fore I left Takayama.

I also walking bloom in the countries theyremember wrought havoc in. theNext, front of a takoyaki (deepfirststanding flurry ofinenthusiasm for airstrikes, outWhy of the shop tipsy, feelingFrench like myresolve shoelaces then, the “pitiless” in fried with I felt a rumble in have balls cooled off octopus) and nowstall, prefer to watch from were tied together. bombing Syria? Hollande had no ready an- my stomach. It was breakfast time. After the sidelines.

That sake notwithstanding, my eveswer and wasexcess anxious merely to maintain the which, I had towell go to the foot onsen, a hot Turkey could follow up its folly in the ning was sober.

I took a bus to the neighbourimperial posture while consulting with big- spring the feet.on Without wastair withexclusively a militaryfor incursion the ground, ing where—Ito feltwork like out I hada ing ger village boys — of theFurukawa, US and Russia time, I stocked up on supplies for myso forthlarger than anything it has attempted far. stumbled a theatre playing a foreign mo- coming consensusinto on targets. busbe ride to spark Tokyo that and pedalled That could the turns theahead feint vieThe without subtitles.

An that entire street US groused initially Russia did was not to the onsen, to plunge my tired (but also hapand joust of four years into a full-scale regionclosed to traffic and on“legitimate” the road stood rows of py) differentiate between opposition feet in bubbling hot water and to chew on al conflagration. lanterns instead.

Trust Japanese to pay my two weeks in Japan. to the Assad regime and the rest. tribute the pop-culture in every form,that for sukumar muralidharan is an independent writer It wasto a conceit that won little traction: and researcher in Gurgaon andbased Shimlain Bengaluru nairbased is a freelance writer there the ensemble ubiquitous in the were wildlyeven shifting of Hello SyrianKitty bat- prathap

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Shade card A grey go-away bird; (inset) a purple-crested turaco specimen at the Harvard Museum of Natural History ambika kamath

CREATURE FEATURE

Showing true colours Yuvraj takes centre stage

Different kind of beast The festivities at Sadar Sammelan kick off at night, with processions wending their way through crowded alleys before converging at the YMCA circle early the next morning sanjay borra

There’s more to pigments in birds than making feathers attractive

ambika kamath

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n my second day in South Africa, I remember venturing out into the dry savannah, and spotting, within minutes, a pigeon-sized bird that was unlike anything I’d seen before. Grey, with a jaunty crest and an obnoxious two-syllable call, this bird couldn’t have been easier to identify. It was a grey go-away bird, and after seeing it countless times in the next few months, it became ordinary. But the excitehe Telugu writerinRachakonda Viswament of seeing a creature its natural habitat natha Sastry fade. once began a novel for the first time didn’t with awhile meditation on how Years later, chatting withbuffaloes Allison are the studying “negroes the of evolution the animal Shultz, a biologist of world”. in In birds, general, dunnapotu is not a colour I learnt that (bull) grey go-away term are of closely endearment.

Men willbrighter remember birds related to much couwhencalled they were berated as boyslive — ‘stop lolling sins turacos.

Turacos in forests about sub-Saharan like a dunnapotu and your across Africa, and are do coloured homework’. with a variety of brilliant blues and greens and If Viswanatha today, purples and reds.Sastry Shultzwere has ahere soft spot forthis tusight would his heart — dozens and racos, and hergladden enthusiasm is directly linked to dozens of caparisoned cheered on their colours.

The greenbuffaloes, and red pigments in by thousands of are onlookers. am at the Sadar turaco feathers found Ialmost nowhere Sammelan the annual meetand heldShultz by thehas Yaelse in the —animal kingdom, dav community in Hyderabad celebrate its long been curious about howtothese unique cattle. It is traditionally heldintriguing two days after Dipigments evolved. What’s about wali.passion, The festivities kick night, withseen proc-a her however, is off thatatshe’s never essionsinwending way through gallis turaco the wild. their Her curiosity was sparked, before converging at the YMCA circlebirds in Nainstead, by seeing specimens of these in arayanguda museum. early the next morning. The notice in An theimportant newspaperclue promised “buffaloofacrobatin the mystery turaco ics” but right the beasts are serene.

Which pigments liesnow in their chemical composition. is good — because street is absolutely Like many naturalthe colour pigments, theyjamare packed, any incipient would made upand of molecules calledacrobatics porphyrins that bring hooves crashing down on thered revellers. are associated with metals.

The of our blood comes from a porphyrin-iron complex, thegreen day I’d called of upamy shutterandarlier leavesinare because porphyrinbug friend, wouldcalled he likechlorophyll. to join? He The is a magnesium complex veteranreds street and arise I feltfrom this turaco andphotographer greens similarly would be a walkofinporphyrin the park for him.

I was misthe association with copper. taken.

We’dupon first turned at theliving YMCA,awhere Relying metalsup means little the pandals await the concentrations, animals. The majordodangerously — at high metals mo be explains that about months before can toxic. When lockedtwo away in a pigment theswathed event each animal isthough, fed a rich diet, and alor in proteins, metals aren’t

The annual Sadar Sammelan in Hyderabad might be an occasion for the Yadav community to celebrate its cattle, but it is also where buffaloes bop to music and men are rendered wholly insignificant

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bad. But synthesising these large molecules in diet.” This question remains unanswered, at which to store metals can cost an organism a least for now. lot of energy. Because the blood of animals Like any good naturalist, Shultz longs to see and the chlorophyll in leaves are vital to sur- a turaco in its natural habitat. But would she vival — they allow cells to breathe and convert have wondered about the bird’s pigments if sunlight into food, respectively — the dangers she had only seen a few in the wild? Possibly and costs posed by metals are balanced by not. Unlike birds in nature, museum specitheir usefulness. Here, then, is the crux of the mens are arranged by people, classified acissue: of what use are the turacos’ pigments? cording to their evolutionary relationships. So Usually, we assume that brightly coloured in a museum, “you can pull out a drawer [of there are too in front of so gets “special neck It is “cooperafeathers are a way forexercises”. birds to impress poten- naught; specimens] and see somany muchpeople diversity,” Shultz A man It suggests take a side andinre-a tion,mates. not competition”, he explains.

There are us. tial And it’s certainly likely that turacos explains. was thewediversity of street colours atof the head specimens of the procession. no prizes; andfor each buffalo use some ofevery theirparticipant many colours display, or enter drawer turaco that led her to beWe curious do, and about the atmosphere changes in an getscamouflage a medal, a against shawl, athe participatory certififor forest canopy.

But come their pigments.

A low, talking dirge-like is passed on my becate and afeathers garland.toAnother cuts “You instant. compare blood orman leaves.

Wein,recogJust before to song Shultz, I opened loudspeakers strung up surprise, along theI wantthat the seven-crore Before can reply, nise the colours bull?” of blood andI leaves are tween birds ofthe South Africa book.

To my take off their shoes he says, “Go to Mushirabad.”

Ah yes, the seven- street. Silent-eyed just by-products of their funcfoundpilgrims a tick mark, accompanied and gather around bonfires.

I realisenext we’ve croreBlood bull. isn’t red for a reason; tion. by a date and location, to a Shia gathering; there isturaco. silenceI Sadar Sammelan back formally to stumbled onthe redThe just happens to be goes the colentry for the purple except for thehad, crackling of seen the flame.

Turn an1947,of when it was first held Hyderabad. our a molecule that is in very in fact, one of these TheBut possibility corner and, once again, we are into the this year, the city canoxygen, talk aboutremains is Yuvraj,thatother good at all transporting magnificent birds, but I didn’t returacos’ chaos of the procession.

I marvel the gigantic brought from which is whatbull blood evolved to member it at all.

I felt cheated by colours exist simply at change, at the multitudes Haryana air-conditioned do.

Couldin thean colours of turaco mythe brain. to get rid of the within India,shows within a city, within truck. Thanks to incidental? wall-to-wall feathers be similarly As Shultz me specimens copper found in the aofneighbourhood. media coverage, any child can Feathers serve all sorts of purdifferent turaco species in Harfruit they eat Where does a 3,200We are just aofparallel street reel off—the statistics.

He isto6.5 poses they allow birds fly,feet of vard’s Museum Comparative pound buffalo take a away, but Iwefill could in an tall at his shoulder, weighs 1,600 course, and by virtue of being Zoology, thatbegap inadjamy nap? The answer: cent reality. kg, eats apples aevery day, has shed and100 re-grown year,a memory with the “evolutionary wherever it damn And nowshe wedescribes. are finallyI marvel here — staff of can 10 —also “keeping a to watch feathers be a way disthinking” wants to athow the moving heart this river over him like the watches pose of waste.

It’seye unlikely thatthe pigments help at details, like one species ofof turaco, but of animals and men on theirserraway eyelid”, fly. as “They’re the TV channels ex- Shultz ex- none of the others, turacos terrible fliers,” had small, tooth-like to an—incredible confluence.

The plain —“They’re giving him mustard oil plains. almost like monkeys, mostly tions on its beak was this because the speof the drums tatmassages,around combing hair, enhopping the his branches.” cies differed beat in what they ate?hammers It would ahave inside one’s brain. Floats holding idols suring thepossibility air-conditioning at turacos’ an ambient But the remainsisthat col- too taken months of watching turacos in the wild, tableaus drag their waya through the level and on. ours existsosimply to get rid of the copper and at close quarters and across whole contiThethe photographer gestures — itme is The Sadar onpiece as it always found in theSammelan fruit they will eat. go One of evi- lanes. nent, for same question to have‘up’ struck loudoftoatalk — and Is wethe trychance the narrow stairs has, butthat theresupports is no question who the marquee too dence this pigment-as-waste outside museum. to wonder the houses. balconies are crowded with attraction is. presence of purple. Look careful- of theory is the about turacos’The teeth as valuable as the excite— the streets are go-away a monopoly of the ly at the purple feathers of some turacos, and women ment of identifying a grey bird for s we theof crowds likeundercurd. men.

We push ouritway across you’ll seedrive, a layer greenthicken pigment first time?

I think might be. and carve a vanWeThis park the vehicle the sta- tage point. Directly below us we see the wave neath. puzzles Shultz.near “Why arepolice they prokamath studies organismic andblack evolutionary tion and[the makegreen our way into theand maze of ambika of oncoming buffaloes.

They are vacanducing pigment] then University Harvard streets. The thunder of the dappu it’s reac-a biology cies inatthe colour of the crowd, moving like covering it distant up?” she wonders, “Unless ambikamath@gmail.com hes us. first attempt break through is stealth bombers. There is a constant stream of way for Our them to get rid ofto the copper in their

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Paw point Cats to counter terrorism

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elgians lived through some harrowing moments post the Paris attacks. As the police carried out search operations, they appealed to citizens to cooperate by not venturing out and keeping quiet on social media. Belgians rose to the occasion and, instead of chewing off their nails in worry, they decided to have some fun. There were zero updates on police action, but they bombarded social media with cat pictures! Cool cats in a zillion avatars trended on #BrusselsLockdown.

While a diva enjoyed her cucumber facial, another strutted around in a sergeant’s helmet, and a third cat watched over the streets in Superman costume, just in case. If suspects were watching social media for clues, all they got was a fashion show with furry models.

Make way The first thing that strikes one is that Yuvraj’s back is broad and flat like a dinner table; (below) the mela throws one into different realities in quick succession

End call, end marriage

Dead girl playing

Divorce proceedings heard over Skype

Girl spends a decade sanjay borra playing CrossFire

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t is unclear how Skype would take its newfound role as an abettor of divorce. But that’s what an enterprising couple, who no longer wish to remain so, have used the internet video-calling programme for. next A or 10ityears her mother did not change youths taking selfies to the ambling ani- moving enclosure, a metal rectangle that al- preciated till now. judge from Khammam in Telangana recently heard petition her phone inattitude the hope that mals.aIdivorce reflect that this tumult is the echo of ways surrounds Yuvraj. Inside this vacancy is In Yuvraj I sensenumber the jaded common online, as one of the petitioners based in the US couldn’t it forthe gods. This is the con- the owner, Karan Vir Singh of Haryana, who toher daughter would call. Alas, of thea daughancient warsmake between all celebrities.

The boredom hundred the hearing. After the Hyderabad High Court gave thecelebration go-ahead, the ter didn’t.

She was too busy playing the tinuing of the time when Krishna seems bemused by the scene. presscons or junkets. judge excused the petitioner from making a personal appearance and first-person shooter game CrossFire. After lifted the Govardhan mountain and protected The bull and his entourage reach the juncconducted the proceedings over Skype. Makethe sure you add a good all, whatheisgets family can inally up.when As he one rises, thebrandish crowd lets Yadavas and their herds from the light- tion on the main road. Yuvraj decides to have a broadband to your wedding registry. anloose M16 aand defuse an roar epic that global conflict full-throated reverberates ning essayed by Lord Indra. This is the ur-myth lie-down, thus reaffirming that old adage from one’s chair? us. Too late I realise my danger. The that sustains them. “where does a 3,200-pound buffalo take a nap? around Presumed the again 24-year-old girl cage is ondead, the move and I bounce I look down; the buffaloes seem to be bop- The answer: “wherever he damn wants to”. A metal confessed that she had spent the last decping to the music! Amazed, I stare and then re- surge of selfie-seekers takes advantage of this around like a character in a video game. Too adeand at internet bath edge. houses, I get hit cafes by theand trailing Toorefast alise how it is done — each holy mammal has a immobility. There is a constant rotation as slow lying handouts from generous I run on the risk of getting squashed as Yuvyouth standing under its snout. When the mu- youths grab selfies or take one of their friends and patrons and occasional oddtojob.

But rajthe lurches from side side.

It is sic starts the youth shakes his head — and the next to that massive horned luckily, shein got by moving with justmetal that and this cagelivwith buffalo follows suit, jiving to the tunes. head. Politicians line up and an ing off the screen. this 1.6-tonne behemoth that As the music reaches a crescendo I sense a avenue is cleared for “VIP Selfyou become aware of his sheer ripple through the crowds. The big bull is ies”. Flashes bounce off the crisp The crowd is an here. His entry is presaged by a field of sway- white shirts of MLAs, corpora- animal, but the bull is size. The details suddenly all add ouncers, so far the nightclubs, now have day jobs. When a up to form a new picture, someing hands holding cellphones, rising fromstaple the oftors and councilmen.

Bengaluru-based start-up rolled back perks andI gesture slashed to salaries the of bigger animal thing you saw but didn’t undercrowd. I see jagged slices of him off a hundred I’m not immune. employees, it also set offthat an unexpected cash drain. boys, who stand till now. The glistening smartphone screens.

The first thing the photographer.

HeDelivery is an old found atflat thelike receiving endatofthese the pay cut, went on aarampage sheen of the hide. The beads of strikes me is that his backthemselves is broad and hand things.

Without and inflicted torips company property. moisture on the hair on his head. a dinner table. I overhear one manconsiderable comparing damage word he off a page from So mymuch so thatone the company were forced hireHindu’ bouncers to keep him favourably to the animated that men-officials notebook, writesto ‘The in block letters The rolling eyes. The cascades of turmeric rollthemselves the holding propertyupsafe thewe employees’ A dozenandand, aced Rana Daggubati in Baahubali. thisfrom banner, enter the fray. ing off his flanks, flakes of gold that catch the ire.

A few pennies saved on the delivery boys were bouncers, clad in identical black t-shirts, He rushes off to get better angles — the ex- light and drift like yellow snow. And all spent on bouncers.

Not seems much to of defeat a march in formation holding metal ladderseventually around us the incessant baying of the crowds. panse of the beast’s black hide cost-cutting, as things turned out, expect and barricades. Two boys next to me chatter even his flash. I merely gawp like a country yoThe crowd is an animal, but the bull is the bounced excitedly, “they are the same bouncers who kel.

In mycheques reading maybe. of the Mahabharata, I’d of- bigger animal. guarded Salman Khan when he came last ten come across characters addressing each Up front the two handlers struggle — yet it is month”. They march in lockstep, ensuring a other as “O Bull of the Yadu race” but never ap- very clear that they are ‘handling’ Yuvraj only because Yuvraj allows them to. One experimental shake and the handlers are thrown off like flies.

“Bande bahut bekaar hain,” says the owner at my side. Like his buffalo, he seems bored by the hysteria. One word, one touch from him and Yuvraj quietens down immediately. I take advantage of this temporary hiatus and clamber over the railings.

I re-join the photographer. We are exhausted and have already slipped many times in the havethat all dozed off at the metro mounds of edung suffix the animals.

The station late train acrobatics are still waiting ahead offorusthat — where the to arrive.

Buton how many of legs us have buffaloes stand their hind andwoken caper. up to find rat crawling up our as shirt We anchor in a alagoon of bystanders theand rivour phone?

One dogged liter offerreting men andfor animals flows on.

In this stream tle rat of in NY just that. up the black thedid buffaloes is It a scampered nullity, an aba comatose man, struck a pose, shoot, sence that denotes a presence.

Theirhit silence is waitedcounterpoint for the flash and a terrible to grinned the roarinto of the camera.

Sadly,ofthat was rides whenon theasleeping crowd.

The Lord Death buffalo stirred awake and the poor too, man I reflect.

The last thing you will everrodent see. never got a chance to scan photo, apply filjaideep unudurti a Hyderabad-based writer ter and share iswith millions of rat friends.

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Bouncers hired to protect company from employees

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Man wakes up to interrupt a rat’s selfie

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

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n November 1915, exactly 100 years ago, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the most famous fighter pilot in the history of aviation, began his training in combat aircraft. This quiz is about fighter aircraft and the men who piloted them.

here,there & elsewhere

Meaty treat

Warbirds

1

On April 1, 1915, a French pilot shot down an enemy aircraft for the first time through a tractor propeller. He achieved three more wins before being shot down in 1918. Who was he?

2

Most stories about the legendary Battle of Britain centre around the Supermarine Spitfire, one of the most beautiful and effective fighters ever built. But which other British fighter aircraft accounted for over 60 per cent of German casualties during the battle?

3

The B-26 Marauder, a World War II bomber, and the ’60s American fighter F-104 Starfighter both have an unfortunate two-word epithet associated with them. What is that?

4

What does the West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding have in common with the Chance Vought F4U Corsair, one of the most successful fighters of World War II, and the British twin-engine fighter Bristol Beaufighter?

5

The most successful ace in the history of military aviation was a German pilot who was known either as the Blonde Knight or the Black Devil by the Soviet pilots. Name this pilot who had 352 kills in WW II?

6

Group Captain Douglas Bader is credited with 20 aerial victories and was one of the few British pilots to win the Order of the British Empire and the Distinguished Flying Cross. What made his achievements unique?

7 8

Count Francesco Baracca was Italy’s top ace of the World War I with 34 credited victories.

What is his claim to fame in corporate history?

The Messerschmitt 163 Komet came into World War II late; though 300 of them were made, it proved ineffective against allied aircraft.

What was unique about this fighter plane?

9

Top Gun was one of the first films that made heroes out of fighter pilots. In the film, Tom Cruise and his squadron squared off against Soviet MiG 28 aircraft. What was the crucial mistake in the military action?

arely have we walked in the door of my little apartment, but there’s a B full-blown crisis in progress. Jiggs, the vegetarian Indian guy who moved in with my next-door neighbour DingDong, is in floods of tears. “She says I must learn to eat meat!” he wails, “or I can go!”

“There, there,” I say soothingly, “rents are low in this area. You’ll find another place easily.” He is not amused. “No, you are not understanding. She is the love of my life. Even more than my mother. I cannot leave her. So I must eat the meat.” He is innocent of doublemeanings. “You must help me,” he says, then looks over at Bins. “Or Binnie must help me. Someone must help me!” More tears.

Bins is bursting with sympathy.

“Don’t worry, my friend,” he says.

“We’ll start you off slowly. We’ll feed you with dead animals before progressing to live ones.” Jiggs gapes at him in horror. “As you know, in Pondicherry, the little Gaulish village in India where I was born, we go hunting with our bare teeth!” says Bins, pokerfaced. Jiggs scowls. “You are making the fun,” he says. “But it is the serious problem. How can I solve it?”

We decide the only way is for us to create a kofta-curry, with koftas made

from different ingredients, including some form of meat. “We won’t tell you which ones are meat and which ones are veggies until two days have passed.” Jiggs shakes his head vehemently. “No! My nose will know the truth! And I will vomit!”

Nevertheless we put the plan into action and two days later Jiggs is at our table, with a steaming bowl in front of him. He clamps his hands over his mouth, eyes bulging. “I can’t!” he cries, in strangled tones. “I can smell the flesh.” Bins says, “But supposing it is mushroom?” “I don’t care,” says Jiggs, “it smells dead.”

“What do you care about more,” I ask him. “Your girlfriend? Or your religion?” “Both,” says Jiggs, looking miserable. With trembling fingers, he reaches for one of the fragrant balls of unnamed protein in his bowl and pauses, gulping while holding it in front of his mouth. His forehead is wet and I realise for the first time what a gigantic step it represents for him. His entire identity has been built upon an idea of moral purity based in part on dietary choices. For me, such ideas are illogical. But for Jiggs they have been the foundation of his belief-system. For him to eat meat is like a deer morphing into a crocodile in the course of a single meal.

Finally he pops the kofta into his mouth. Bins and I stare anxiously at him as he chews. Tears stream down his cheeks and when he swallows, it is with his eyes tight shut. Finally he opens his eyes and glances around, his mouth turned down like a frownyface. “What’s the matter?” exclaims Bins, “are you going to be sick?” Jiggs clicks his tongue dismissively. “Arré, not enough salt,” he says, as he reaches for his next kofta. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

cornerstone

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In the ’50s, Teddy Petter designed a lightweight British fighter that never saw mainstream service. But, in the ’60s, it became a mainstay of the Indian Air Force. Which plane did Petter design?

Answers 1. Roland Garros. Also an enthusiastic tennis player, the stadium for the French Open is named after him 2. The Hawker Hurricane. More than 14,000 were built during World War II 3. Both were referred to as ‘Widow Makers’ by their pilots because of their high accident rates 4. All three were nicknamed ‘Whispering Death.’

Holding for his smooth and quiet approach to the wicket, and the Corsair and Beaufighter for their phenomenal strike rates 5. Erich Hartmann, one of the few German aces to survive the war 6. He lost both legs to a flying accident in 1931, and made all his kills as a double amputee 7. The prancing horse logo adopted by Ferrari was his personal logo 8. It was the first rocket-powered combat aircraft.

Though capable of amazing speeds, it had a combat radius of less than 100 km, giving very little air time 9. MiG fighter planes were always denoted by odd numbers 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 27, 29 and 31 10. The Folland Gnat, which chalked many impressive victories against the Sabre in the 1965 Indo-Pak war

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

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