Blink issue 97 december05 2015

THE RIGHT BOX For a transgender, Kerala was the worst State to be in. But the government’s new transgender policy brings hope p3 saturday, december 5, 2015

shutterstock

Most divorcing parents do not spare their children the anguish of being split in two, but friendly co-parenting is slowly taking shape, even in India p10

A good divorce

KID LIT As usual, Bookaroo was bubbling with giggles and bursting with imagination p18

PLATONIC VERSES The history of calligraphic Qu’rans reveals geometry’s early development p22

explore know

BL BL 222

saturday, december 5, 2015 saturday, december 5, 2015

Maths on the mind It takes less than a second for Dilpreet Kaur to divide a fourdigit number by a two-digit one. Meet the schoolgirl who is in the Limca Book of Records for her speed division skills reached by a steep, narrow staircase. A railway at her school work,” says Simran. track runs behind the house, and every speed“She is a good student. We don’t want 99 per ing train shakes and rattles the walls ‘like an cent, the 88 per cent she scored is good earthquake,’ laughs Dilpreet’s father, Manjeet enough,” her parents say. They know her talSingh. He calls out her nickname — Khushi, ent lies elsewhere. They also know that she is meaning happiness — and a shy girl comes out almost at the peak of her ability. of the inner room, wearing a pink T-shirt Manjeet has been the driving force behind Zoomorphic calligraphy Here script transforms into an elephant courtesy 10th century, Eastern Kufic which says ‘love lovebibliodyssey love angel.’World in letters Iran, his daughter’s success.

“Ifscript everywikicommons parent puts in From a list of numbers that she cannot see, an effort, all children will excel,” he says. It is Manjeet rattles a series of three digit numbers up to the parents to keep children engaged THE COMPASS CHRONICLES for her to add and subtract. Dilpreet listens, and nurture their skill, believes Manjeet. “Evand almost in a trance, rocks back and forth as erything is boring for kids, but parents have to her fingers work on an imaginary abacus. He get them interested.” Manjeet puts in that efstops after 20 numbers and she throws back fort and more; he is constantly setting new tarthe answer at him — 5,660. gets for Dilpreet, scanning the internet for Dilpreet is up at 5.30 every morning and new records, or else, checking the answer spends at least 30 minutes buildsheets of the 100 plus kids who ing her speed and accuracy bestudy at his centre. fore she goes to school. At the Dilpreet is reading Enid Blyspeed she works, that’s a lot of ton’s Secret Seven series now, Until now, she has numbers. “Until now, she has like other kids her age, she endone more than 35 he art of making accurate portraits done more than and 35 lakh to portrait backsums,” and forth over centuries. joys ‘Candy ‘Subway Surf’ aloof fromCrush,’ the calligraphers of their lakh sums were not in the Islamic world had to wait unManjeet adds. historian He shouldAlain know, Another Fouad George went age. Architects and skipping.

There ismakers, no televiand astrolabe builders til the Mughal era in 15th-century he In- hasfurther checked of that, her “in an- the Qu’ran of Ama- of sundials andeach found sionor incelestial the house, smartphones globes — all used calligdia. Since early in its inception swers, in jur though with help of the pen defines raphy inare (876 AD), thesome thickness the form. only screen the kids are some A story7th in numbers Dilpreet Singh of living becentury Every AD —day the depiction from the his height wife, ofSimran.

Their on the basis of the all the letters allowed watch but she hasfor al-craftsWe know of atogeometry manual completes at and least persons 16 practice have 200 ings insheets, Islamwhich was discouraged, if Golden Ratio. eight-year-old son Parmeet, also pitches in. He geoThereupon, by successive ready men reached level 362 on Candy Crush. written

by Abu al-Wafa’ al-Buzjani, and problems each saurabh yadav not outright forbidden. It was done to prevent whispers into his father ear that Khushi has metrical steps, the whole page is constructed.”

Dilpreet is geared for today’s competiAbû Sahl al-Qûhîupwrote of a ‘perfect compass’ mortals from coming between man and his got two out calligraphic of the 200 wrong! last archiBysums treating space In as the cosmic tion, but record it thatthe could drawhas notalso onlybrought circles —with but paraboGod — the invisible fabric of the universe. This six years, the only breaks seemed Dilpreet to haswhisper taken that tecture, the artists the pressure to and excelhyperbolas. consistently. Manjeet las, ellipses oday, 10,000 children from 57 countheological constraint slowly took the formfrom of her maths are five in June “letters arelessons the elements of days the body of God.” howeverOne believes, pressure on the oth-way to might“The imagine thatisKufic gave tries willarabesque compete intradition a test of of maths an intricate, geometric every year, the did family visits Punjab.

If when so, why these sacred Platonic eleer kids.

Dilpreet has already everyone Naskhi simply becauseshown the artisans now had in Delhi.which As children sit ininbatches of calligraphy is unique world culture.

From their(or home, Manjeet runs transformed an institute, from ments atoms?) become what she can do. Six yearsinstruments ago, sitting and in the more sophisticated a larger 2,000 to first select a winner, One of the distinct styles Dilpreet to emerge was a franchisee of a Malaysian rectangles to curves, firm as ifthat theyteaches were forces same variety examination in Delhi, sheSometimes had lost the of lineshall to choose from.

Kaur, athe 14-year oldKufic, fromcharacterised Kanpur, is a clear fa- rectsquare by sharp mentalplaying arithmetic children aged four to 13. her nerve with to matter? come out crying.

Thatwith will minarets, not Kuficand letters resembled cities vouriteangles to win International & The kids One andthe linear cityscapes ofAbacus tall, microcosuse an abacus initially,that and the upon reac-Naskh theory suggests flowy happen again.

We will add be to the collection of the ilbut they could easily arranged to give Mentalmic Arithmetic Competition. is init held minarets.

For four-fiveDilpreet centuries, hing astyle certain work nib outallowed complicated with level, its slanted faster copytrophies thatof weahave.” lusion face or a horse, a sunset. Enough the Limca of Records, national record from swayBook on the scriptureaand architecture sums mentally. ing of the manuscripts, and resulted in more evidence of zoomorphic calligraphy exists — saurabh yadav cranes, tigers, elephants, peacocks holderAfrica in speed division. The class VIII to Andalusia.

And then anstudent entirely newDilpreet was manuscripts. always quick That with may numbers, compact have been depicting from Huddard High School Kanpur has specie began to take over,inreplete with looping but now ‘photographic memory,’art aswas herclearly and soldiers — by cleverly arranging only the oneher factor, but this calligraphic been recognised her exceptional skills in Naskcurves and for flowing movement — called dad calls takes over. worksBefore on herletters prac- were alphabet. Christopher Vitale remarks that notit,simply aboutShe writing. dividing numbers by two-digit onesmystehi. four-digit Under what circumstances did this tice sheets is not distracted our talking put and on parchment, theybywere “..various Islamic calligraphies (eg 1170 divided 78). She solved 100 such from rious and by remarkable transformation voices.drafted Every day she lines completes least 16 pagwith and aat base were disciplined by the state, onproblems into 96movement seconds, taking less than a sec- es with stasis take place?

200 problems each.later The renday’s work structure which was ly to keep having various images ond to solve each get intosubject the record books. done, Since the to principal of calligraphy al- Dilpreet is off to take her designs afternoon nap. dered invisible.

The arise from their edges...there was This calligraphic art In aways littleremained lane off the road, Dilpreet’s theMall divine word of God, copy-“Sheranged has always been focussed.

We never from linear, circular and a constant attempt to tame lines was clearly not simply and their voids, to keep images familying livesofinthe a modest Qu’ransecond-floor gave rise tohouse, numerous had totriangular tell her to study, now we don’t look stackseven to kaleidoscopabout writing questions involving geometry, beauty and the- ic pentagonal tessellations. The from creeping into words and ology itself. “Should all copies be written in ex- construction of these geometric words from exploding into imagactly the same way? Should they all have same designs required compasses, es, to prevent figures dissolving number of lines? Could words be broken at rulers and sophisticated theoback into patterns.” the end of a line and continue onto the follow- rems of algebra.

Or it may be that the transition ing one? On these points there appears to have How to draw a perfect circle upon a giant from Kufic to Naskh reflected the undercurbeen no general consensus at first. Eventually, horizontal wall? How to divide a circle into a rent in medieval physics — from statics to dyhowever, Qu’rans came to be copied out in hexagon or pentagon? How many ways to tile namics, from matter to forces. The new script odd numbers of lines and the splitting up of a plane? (They knew all the 17 possible ways). had this curious interplay between the elewords was forbidden,” writes historian David Hexagons and squares can tile a plane, but ments, or as Ernest Fenollosa wrote in his James. The structure of these Qu’rans hints at pentagons don’t — and yet such complexity ex- beautiful but flawed study of Chinese characnumber-mysticism and atomism very similar ists in Isfahan at the Darb-e-Imam shrine. ters — “...our lines of cleavage fail, one part of to ancient Greek philosophers like Euclid and These ‘girih patterns’ are known to us today as speech acts for another. They act for one anPlato, whose works were also being studied quasicrystals, one example being the famous other because they were originally one and and translated during this period.

Penrose tiling. the same.”

Historian François Déroche noted a tendenScientists, astronomers and mathematicy of the width/height ratios to be in the vicin- cians in this region — such as Al Khwarizmi, Al rohit gupta explores the history of science as ity of 1.5 (landscape), which later was switched Kindi, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, and Thabit ibn Qurra Compasswallah t@fadesingh

The Platonic verses Q R

How the history of calligraphic Qu’rans reveals the development of geometry

rohit gupta

T

T

Q R

ND-X _ A

shutterstock

3

BL

meet

saturday, december 5, 2015

Tick ‘T’ in Kerala From a state notorious for ill-treating its transgender citizens comes a progressive policy that aims to protect the rights of sexual minorities

The tough life A survey of the transgenders in Kerala brought forth the harsh realities of their everyday existence — harassment, violence, rape, discrimination, unemployment and high suicide rates kk mustafah

H

umiliated and harassed by peers and teachers, Seethal Smintoj had dropped out of school in class IX. At home and in the village bazaar, the taunts had hurt her deeply: ‘Walk like a boy, idiot; behave like a boy, stupid.’ “I didn’t know that I really behaved like a girl. But every time I heard the rebuke, I felt insulted, humiliated, angry, sad, insecure and lonely,” recalls Smintoj, now 33. Born into a Christian family in a village in Kerala’s Thrissur district, Smintoj remembers having a male name and donning male clothes, but preferring to be around other girls.

After fleeing home, “It was in Bangalore that I realised I was a transgender,” says Smintoj.

The Garden City has for decades been the first refuge of young transgenders fleeing hostility in Kerala. The awareness of sexual identity led to a name change to the female Seethal years later. (The surname came from a life partner much later.)

For a living, Smintoj had resorted to the limited options available to transgenders in India — begging, street dancing and sex work — before becoming a volunteer at the Bengalurubased NGO Sangama, which works for the welfare of sexual minorities. Returning to Kerala several years on, Smintoj found the social landscape had not changed much for transgenders.

“For a transgender, Kerala is the worst State to be in. In this patriarchal society, there are only men and women; transgenders don’t exist at all,” says Faisal, 28, who had to flee school and home in the face of harassment and humiliation in his coastal village near Chavakkad in Thrissur district. “The humiliation begins at home — parents disown you, siblings are ashamed of you and you are indirectly asked to leave home for good.” He too found refuge in Bengaluru before returning to Kerala as a transgender activist.

Today, he and Smintoj, pioneers of the Queer Pride parade in Kerala, are suddenly hopeful of a change in social attitude and a tolerable existence for the transgender community. In a first for the country, the Kerala government recently announced a policy

which accepts transgenders as equals to men and women and promises positive steps to correct the social disability of the community.

ment departments and public authorities extend a non-discriminatory treatment to TGs’ and ‘provide barrier-free access to education, public transport, health, social security and Open to change other services.’ Transgenders will be included In tune with the Supreme Court’s historical in all application forms for services, employverdict on transgenders on April 15, 2014, the ment and government benefits as third gen‘State Policy for Transgenders in Kerala 2015’ der (Male, Female or Transgender — M/F/T). reads: “This policy emphasises the rights of The policy proposes to set up a TG Justice TGs to self-identify as man, woman or TGs...” Board and Justice Committee in the districts Hailing the initiative, Faisal asserts, “It’s my to ensure transgenders rights are implementright to decide what my gender is”. ed and address issues of discrimination, ha“To my knowledge, this is the first time in rassment and violence. The Social Welfare the world that a government has come out Department will, in partnership with NGOs, with an official transgender policy,” says Anil set up a round-the-clock helpline for transgenChilla, a former vice-president of Sangama ders. The government will create a special and the secretary of the Thiruvananthapu- fund for free Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) ram-based NGO Chilla. He was involved in the for those seeking it. The policy also proposes a survey of transgenders commissioned by the number of health and education benefits.

Kerala Social Welfare Department, as well as in Officials said the government was also condrafting the policy based on the survey. sidering setting aside a sub-quota of two perMore than 4,000 transgencentage within the current quotas ders were surveyed, bringing to for SCs, STs and OBCs so that translight the harsh realities of their genders from these reserved comeveryday existence — harassmunities would be entitled to The humiliation ment, violence from police and special quotas in education and begins at home others, rape, extreme discrimiemployment. nation, unemployment and a Sarat Cheloor, a sexual-minority high suicide rate. All the transrights activist welcomes the poligenders surveyed had endured cy but cautions that ‘the proof of at least one experience of being pudding is in eating’. “It is a very denied a job because of their gender identity; progressive and positive initiative by the Kera89 per cent had been mistreated at their work- la Government. But it should be translated inplace; 51 per cent had concealed their gender to action.” Since any implementation requires identity from their families; and 58 per cent coordinated efforts from a host of governwere school dropouts. Anil Chilla pointed out ment departments — police, social welfare, that two-thirds of the transgenders surveyed health, education, law, local self-government had been forced to marry women and one- and so on — the community is cautiously optifourth among them had children too. But as mistic for now. Cheloor also wishes that the women trapped in men’s bodies, they were policy had included a sensitisation prosuffocating in their marital life. gramme to change social attitudes to transWith its policy, Kerala aims to secure for genders. Smintoj, on the other hand, prefers transgenders ‘the right to live with dignity to look on the brighter side, and says that havand enjoy a life free from all forms of violence; ing such a State policy in itself is a great leap the right to freedom of expression in all mat- forward for the transgender community in ters that affect them; and equal rights to ac- Kerala: “At least the next generation of TGs will cess development opportunities, resources be able to live with dignity.” and benefits.’

It plans to do this by ensuring ‘all govern- kpm basheer

Q R

takeaway know

BL BL 204

saturday, december 5, 2015 saturday, december 5, 2015

Seat of splendour Coimbra, home to one of the oldest universities in the world, is a place of love, romance, wisdom and education majority are in Latin, while some are in Greek and Hebrew.

Fabio says that the library still depends on the age-old practice of using bats to protect books from insects that feed on paper. The only side effect is the bats’ excrement which is acidic and might damage the tables; so at the end of the day, the furniture is covered for protection. I am touched when Fabio arranges to show me rare Atlases with maps depicting India. I recognise Kannur in Kerala and other East and West Indian coastal towns where Vasco da Gama made his presence felt. My pictures, clicked through glass, may be Lest we forget Secularism is an important concept for those like Ambedkar and Periyar pti/subhav shukla imperfect, but are of rare value to me.

At the academic prison, which was originally an ancient jail that was found during excavations and later used to punish troublemaking students, Fabio sportingly poses as a convict behind bars while I click pictures. As we walk down the hill, through the old town, Pedro shows me the statue of Trikana with a pitcher, symbolising the pretty plebeian women who stole the heart of many a And welcome The ‘Iron Door’ where every fresher is received with a kick in the heels. (Right) The Johannine Library, an example of baroque grandeur vijaya pratap student. Poetry born out of this passion became fado and students of Coimbra sing fado ords matter. In a constitution, featured time and again in what the judiciary that Ambedkar or Periyar.

In both is distinct from the one these sung iterations, in Lisbon. s the car approaches which lays outthe theriverfront architec- Door Square istowhere thea ‘basic ‘ripping act’ takes has construed be such structure’ of Sung secularism has been concept — more notwithonly by men, it isa considered rocity ofture Coimbra, I look out curiousof state power, words place after graduation. the Constitution, going as Students far back asassemble the Kesh- mantic standing itsmelancholic, theoretical orwhile legalthat uncertainties and of Lisbon ly, onlymatter to be overawed by the even more.

It’ssoarnot here upon graduation celebrate with is avananda case itself whichtowas decided years — championed byIthose to more cheerful. peep who into have a fewsought souvenir thefamiliar 700-year-old surprisinging thentowers that theofnow debate friends and family.

Their clothes are ripped shops before the 42nd amendment. argue while for a listening social and that to political the fado order that Pedro Coimbra University.

It looms on the hillaround the word ‘secular’ in large the Preamble of apart, trousers, cassock, shirt and all, leaving gloats heeds about. a diverse array of interests, and argues Wider meaning top, majestic and a bit intimidating.

Coimbra the Indian Constitution would provoke heat- only the shirt collar and the cloak which is to against a homogenising After the long walk, weand stopunitary at the idea foot of has a distinguished place in Portuguese ed reactions.

The question, however, ishistowhy be Moreover, theone’s termdeath. ‘secular’ is notthe merely a le- the kept until During ceremowhat it means to be Indian. hill, for coffee and pastry at Pastelaria Briory it isit the country’s former capital. The nial andashow matters. gal one.

Thisof is especially in the caseonofthe In- sa.Diversity tearing the cloak, true friends stand is not celebrated simply a liberal, We feastinonIndia Coimbra’s Pastel city’s centre streams Thedistinct, primaryhistoric argument against the down word right, dia. Like our political familymost on theterms left andingirlfriend or wife Tentugal multicultural Rather, pastry it has been politic— a wish. rectangular filled with the hillside making a lovely setting, while the at ‘secular’ in the Preamble is that it was includvocabulary, it is do a Western import.

In its modthe back and their share of ripping.

The egg, ised cream through sophisticated of represenand sugar, and a logics Santa Clara-pastry collage of buildings span 42nd nearlyAmendment a millenni- statues ed through the infamous ern sense, it denotes betweenwith the filled and the Irona separation Door are covered tationwith andegg, electoral democracy.

For this cream and almond, previously um. it is known more its historic to theToday Constitution during the for Emergency, en- shreds public life of theand State and the private life of re- made of black white cloth after this ritureasonin it isconvents. extremelyWell, unlikely that the present Coimbra scores on Coimbra University, is one ofintentions. the oldest al, acted with less thanwhich democratic ligion, represented by the saysas Pedro. will have either the gastronomygovernment too. in the world.

However, this oft-repeated fact reveals only American I see a doctrine number of of ‘sepagirls on the campus. votes or the political capital to exis a Hyderabad-based travel writer “Coimbra half the story.is a place of love, romance, wis- Though ration ofthe church and state’ was registered in vijaya pratap first girl student punge the word ‘secular’ fromand the dom and education,” my guide a 1891, After Emergency, thesays Morarji DesaiPedro, governor (ina steady a different way) the started to come documentary filmmaker stream of them Preamble in the near future. former university student.

The 14th-century ment passed, with wide consultation, the 44th in French of30s.

Laïcité. fromdoctrine 1920s and Now 55 perConstitutions cent of the are not Nevertheless this does not lowjustcome legal documents. love story of in Pedro Ines is the stillproblemremem- students Amendment orderand to set right But words ideas don’tstudents areand girls.

Indian to er the stake of the debate. ConstiThey shape the language tutions are not just legal bered in Coimbra, andConstitution young university atic alterations to the madestuby Coimbra travel across continents and studies mostly for medical as the our public dents its cityscape.

Indiradominate Gandhi. However, they never seriously times in a pristine condiuniversity boasts aofstrong medi-sphere, and documents. They shape the lanprovide We drive removing past the University considered the word secular from tion. In 20th-century cal facultyIndia, and the city offersthe theframeworkGet there guage of our public sphere, and for our everyday Botanical Gardens and the Rothe Preamble. the concept best of secularism healthcare in Portugal. provide the framework forairlines our evLisbon is connected by major political man aqueduct. Atop themaintain, hill, the the The Nevertheless, critics termmajestic is wasdoor shaped through the the famous As we enter andclaims eryday political claims.

Secularlike Lufthansa and Swiss Air. Coimbra huge university buildings a of view, superfluous.

From a legaloffer point re-inscription particular battles our hismostofvisited Johannine Library, I in India by hastrain neverorbeen a mere has an can ism be reached by road: cool shade the sweltermoving anyagainst of the Articles 14, 15, or 25 toexhorting 28 of tory geogra- at its baroque am awestruck legal concept.

Its presence or abtheand the specific it takes around two hours. ing heat. I see students in their the Constitution will do far more harm to the phy of our grandeur. society. AtThe anmajestic door has sence from the Preamble should Portuguese to use Staybe measured by future outcomes flowing ‘Capa e Batina’ (cloak rights of the minorities in the countrybooks than reinstitutional anlevel, whatexhorting the Porinscription as weapons Hotel QuintaIts dasmeaning Lágrimasand is alocation luxury and cassock).

The robe to moving ‘secular’ from seems the Preamble. emerged is an often-imperfect ideal as of the of judicial tuguese to use books disputes. toMoreattain wisdom hotel set withinofan 18th-century have JK Rowling to creover, inspired it’s not only the Preamble that state maintaining a distance from, and nonweapons to attain wisdom.

The have been a products a long political histopalacehas in been the heart of Coimbra. ate a similarthe one for thefeatures Harry of the Con- partisanship facade determines essential towards isreligious relativelygroups. simple when ry. Its utility defined through The many Potter series. heritageofofthe the whole ecstitution.

TheA design Constitupalace, handed down by Kings and However, the most significant use of secucompared to the opulence in- contentious battles. clesiastical cassock of medieval tion — where elements of a secular polity are larism in India has Three been asmagnificent a negative concept, side. square WordsEmperors, matter. They was matter restoredinina lawyer’s all its artimes, this dress almostinreaches amply present — iswhen moreworn significant that re- rooms to denote one’s opposition to certain political have interesting frescos painted on the gumentglory to the courts. they matter much and is nowBut a monumental the floor. student wraps the me in a cloak and gard.

ThisA also disproves argument thatI ceilings; visions. Itthe hasbook meant opposing the idea — prev- more ashotel shelves contain 18th-centuconstitutive blocks the of alove political which honours story vipose for pictures with of a beaming group. In sigthe ry the original drafters the Constitution alent sincecarving Independence at is itseffectively strongest sion. In between golden and theand wood today’s India, with the noblewoman political claims the beautiful students’ briefcase are large coloured ribbons nalled their disapproval of secularism by leav- covered at the moment — of India as a Hindu Rashtra (a for a Hindu by gold leaf; some of them display polityPedro. becoming Inês demajoritarian Castro and Prince representing faculties which are Chinese ing it out of thedifferent Preamble.

Hindu majoritarian state). pyramid-shaped more aggressive, the argument for keeping drawings. Inverted Tip burnt duringthe theSupreme ‘BurningCourt of thefollowing Ribbons’ cerMoreover, the pillars Significantly, it has also been used(exclusive by those the word support the narrow balcony ‘secular’ in the Preamble is primarily Don’t romantic emony at the enddoctrine of their study.

Montei- to ‘basic structure’ of theFabio Kesavananda fighting for the empowerment of the back- a political the Portuguese baroque), and ladders one.miss As itthe should be. gardens of the hotel, where one can find the ro, a young us taken through the which Bharati v. Statestudent, of Keralatakes case has it upon ward castes domination of upper allowagainst access the to the upper shelves are Fountain of Tears, the spot College, where dasgupta is a fellow at King’s famous Door’, the where every fresher is re- cleverly itself to ‘Iron determine essential and inviolacaste Hindus.

In our exclusive focus on Nehrurecessed into the bookshelves.

Cur- sandipto Inês was murdered, canofsee is writing a book on theone history the the ceived with a kick in the heels (a severe one in rently, ble elements of India’s constitutional strucvian secularism, we tend to forget howinimporthere are about 60,000 books the li- London and blood smeared stones even now. olden timescertain but milder these days). The have Iron brary, tures. And aspects of secularism tant aallconcept it was belonging priorfor to someone 1755, and like the Indian Constitution

Words of matter

The meaning and location of ‘secular’ in the Constitution has been a product of a long and contentious political history

W A

Q

Q R

Travel log

R

ND-X _ A

5

BL

know

saturday, december 5, 2015

AGENDA

Walking the green path Narendra Modi is seen as someone the West can do green business with, but we should not fall for the narrative that India can “make or break” the Paris negotiations

sambuddha mitra mustafi

But for the model to be truly participative, solar energy would have to become cheaper than conventional electricity (achieve grid parity), which would incentivise ordinary Indians to set up solar panels on their roofs, reducing dependency on coal powered energy.

According to expert estimates, India is now three to five years away from grid parity, potentially revolutionising its energy mix, and taking a big step away from guzzling more coal and oil for its growth.

India’s pledge to the Paris summit is a 2030 target to reduce emissions by 33 to 35 per cent from 2005 levels and to draw 40 per cent of its electricity from renewables by then. Modi used the ambitious targets India has set, to put the ball back in the court of the developed countries. “We hope advanced nations will assume ambitious targets and pursue them sincerely,” Modi said in his speech in Paris. “It is not just a question of historical responsibility.

They also have the most room to make the cuts and make the strongest impact.”

And that is true. Those who say that India will “make or break” the climate summit because it is today the third largest net polluter in the world, cleverly ignore that our per capita emission is among the lowest (155th) in the world, that the average American emits 10 times more and the average Chinese four times more than the average Indian. And the political resistance to emission cuts in America is much more vocal: it is a country hooked on everything big, where opulence is celebratThe Modi model Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande with the former’s book Convenient Action: Gujarat’s Response to Challenges of Climate Change pti ed and being thrifty is considered un-American. Even now, the cuts being proposed by ccording to The New York Times, Na- into why Modi is being seen in the West as America are all related to new technology, and rendra Modi will “make or break someone they can do green business with. The none call for a change in lifestyle.

Obama’s climate legacy” at the Paris title of his book sets the ambitious tone, takIndia should continue to push the develCOP21 negotiations. “That India has ing off and building on Al Gore’s acclaimed oped world on three counts: they should go positioned itself as the champion of develop- book Inconvenient Truths. faster on emissions reduction and compening nations is no great surprise, based on past Convenient Action starts with customary sate for emissions growth in poorer countries, climate talks,” said the report. “But Mr Modi, quotes from the Vedas, Vivekananda and Ma- they should provide green technology to the who wrote an e-book presenting the moral hatma Gandhi, followed by developing world faster and case for action on climate change, had been some questionable poetry by pay more to help the likes of Inseen by American policy makers as a leader Modi himself (Sample: The dia in their emissions reducwho might break that pattern.” rainbow blossoming in the sky/ tion. While India should not Our per capita emission block a consensus at COP21, if it As Modi, along with French President Fran- Drawing circles of colour in the is among the lowest cois Hollande, launched an international so- air). But if that does not throw emerges, it should also not in the world. The lar alliance of 120 countries in Paris on you off, you get into what the kowtow to the developed Monday, The Guardian reported, “some see Mo- author, India’s prime minister, average American emits world whose fossil fuel profli10 times more and the di as a clean energy enabler, having rapidly calls his answer to the “dichotogacy at home has got us to this average Chinese four rolled out more than 900MW of solar energy my between dominant interpoint, and whose colonisation times more than the across Gujarat when he was chief minister ventionist model of abroad meant that countries average Indian there.” Modi’s government is investing an ini- development and decentrallike India still remained in tial $30m to set up the solar alliance’s head- ised participative model”: he need of high doses of energy to quarters here. suggests his success in Gujarat pull millions out of poverty.

At the launch of this alliance, Modi was pho- came from a unique “syntheSo while setting ambitious tographed with Hollande, holding up a copy sis” of the two divergent models. clean energy goals is in our national health inof his book on environment, the one The New Solar energy, because of its decentralised terests, India’s negotiators in Paris should not York Times had reported about. Modi has posi- production capabilities, fits best into Modi’s fall for the Western media narrative that India tioned himself well as a green warrior on the “synthesis”, much more than large hydroelec- is the “make or break” country in these negoglobal stage, and the Western media (even the tric dams or wind stations. The well-publi- tiations. Modi does not owe Obama a burusually Modi-sceptic NYT and The Guardian) cised success of the Charanka Solar Park in nished “climate legacy” as The New York Times have bought it for the moment.

Gujarat — Asia’s biggest, producing 221 MW put it.

Modi’s Convenient Action: Gujarat’s Response over 5,500 acres — was part of Modi’s “interto Challenges of Climate Change, was first pub- ventionist model”, an ambitious, state-led sambuddha mitra mustafi is the founder of The Political Indian t @some_buddha lished in 2011, and it provides a good snapshot project that set the tone.

A

Q R

read work

BL BL 186

saturday, december 5, 2015 saturday, december 5, 2015

This GDPYes, growth can be yes and yes handcrafted

Once again, at Bookaroo, the difference between lit fests for adults andtothose for children camehands to theoffore.

A new generation of entrepreneurs aims strengthen the skilled the Grown-ups country’s are expected to listen, young people are meant to craftspeople — projected to become the largest non-farm rural workforce — withcreate access to modern marketing techniques

T

his weekend was Bookaroo, one of “It feels like the author is talking directly to Delhi’s most popular children’s lit- you.” design studio Vriksh works solely with handerature festivals, and my personal loom weavers and artisans.

“Okay, great,” I said.

“Your job today is to favourite. Like festivals for adults, start Experts agree that the government should a book.

Write a letter between two charBookaroo has multiple stages hosting a varie- acters insteadtalking address issues ranging from skill deabout a conflict.” ty of authors, illustrators, and storytellers. velopment assistance, collabo“Can oneto offinancial the characters be a in non-living Bookaroo’s stages, however, are a bit different object?” ration with stakeholders and artisans. There is than the ones frequented by grownups. a need invest incharacters research and “Canto one of the be adevelopment, time, like the There is, for example, the Crafty Corner, a future?” much like in the area of agriculture. sea of plastic scissors, card paper, and white taSeveral aresame already “Can bothcraft of theorganisations characters be the perble cloths spread out behind a sign reading, son, working out ways sides to make the sector economjust different of them?”

“Children Only Beyond This Point.” ically viable and attractive for thethe future genIn creative writing workshops, answers There is the Think Tank, a pink stone amphi- to erations of artisans. questions such as these are always yes, yes, theatre where storytellers ask listeners to and Sally yes.Holkar’s The Handloom School (THS) laugh, clap, and sometimes even dance along. in For Maheshwar, working the next 15Madhya minutes,Pradesh, the roomiswas filled There is the Scroll-a-Thon, where visitors sit with SK secretary Textile Ministry,paper. to inthePanda, sounds of pens scratching side-by-side on the ground colouring murals Some troduce THS curriculum at IIHTs (Indian Instiparticipants wrote just a few lines, while inked by children’s book illustrators. Children others tute of turned Handloom pageTechnology) after page ofacross their India. noteand adults alike emerge from these stages books.

“At THSThe we are teaching young, talented weavsilence was only interrupted with with fingers sticky with finger paint and fevi- young ers to interact directly to with theother market.

They people turning each to whiscol, bubbling with giggles and squeals and all per already have knowledge of weaving andtime we questions and ask advice.

Then it was the other wonderful sounds of imaginations to areshare. teaching them basic weaving, business Enrunning free. glish, flexibility with fibres andbody dimensions, There was a letter from a dead to a cofHerein lies the fundamental difference be- fin sayinguse of smartphones that it wanted to for be business burned, and not tween lit fests for children and so on,”There says Holkar. buried. was a letter from a adults: at lit fests for grownups, Judy Frater, who little boy asking a tree if formerly he could attendees are expected to listen; ran to Kalaraksha Vidyalaya cut it down make a boat.

There at lit fests for young people, at- My favourite moment was a letter before launching Sofrom Sita demanding tendees are expected to create. maiya Kala Vidya Ram. There wasin a in a workshop is when answers from On Sunday morning at Book- teenagers stop seeing letter from aKutch, agrees teenage girl tothat the aroo, several dozen teenagers craftbaseball training espaint splattered capisshe themselves as kids, slouched into the auditorium, sential empower wore every day.

The to room filled and start seeing the echoey, sun-drenched room themselves as writers with characters, artisans.

“I think conflicts, tenwhere my workshop was schedmain thing is to sion, humour,the and suspense. uled to take place. Still wiping make craft attrac“How did it feel to write in a Affairs launched the eyes, they the sleep from their in terms of inletter form?”tive I asked.

USTAAD (Upgrading collapsed into cross-legged comeone and respect.

We “It felt good,” student said, the Skills clumps onand theTraining soft gray carpet, groggily pull- “like I could be personal. have found that when I could be free.” in Traditional Arts/Crafts ing graffiti-covered notebooks and chewed artisans in learn It’s my favourite moment everydesign, workfor Development) pencils out of their scheme book bags. andstop respect shop: the momentboth whenincome teenagers seeunder the ‘Seekho AurI Kamao’ “Everyone awake?” asked. and start their seeing family ing themselvesare as raised, kids, and (learn earn) programme.

Afterand receiving a few noncommittal grunts, themselves members as writers. automatically gravitate DS Bist, joint Because secretarytoday, in thewe’re going to I added, “Good. traditional I work” says For as longtoas their I can remember, have wantministry, said the scheme would write.”

Frater. While other girls dreamt ed to be a novelist. revitalise traditional crafts, par- was an exam- about weddings, My book, I explained to them, There is a growing I dreamt of launchconsensus parties. I ticularly those infiction, whichmeaning minori- that ple of epistolary that literary to further the cause of craftpictured salons where wellWethe arestoteaching them smoky ty communities engaged.

He Today, ry was told in aare series of letters. they based education, mainstream indressed adults sipped wine and used words business English, use mentioned globalisation, lack of were going to attempt some epistolary stitutesand should become training like ‘sophisticated’ ‘complex’ to describe of fiction smartphones... to market access and declining of their own. facilities too. “It is high time the my writing. interact directly with skills as do some of the challenges “Why people write letters?” I asked. the market government reserved some Since I don’t write for adults, I never gotseats my facing artisans,came and stressed the The answers like microwave popcorn: launch party.in all courses run by design Instead, I got so much more. needattofirst, impart educaslow thenrelevant quick and loud. institutes that have Specifically,schools…

I got the opportunity to make tion their children to ensure “Totoexpress emotions.” funds canEvery offerworkshop waivers toI art alongsidetrust young adults. the“To future development of crafts tell secrets.” deserving students fromin the do reminds me why I turned to writing and of work.

“Todignity add a more personal touch.” craft place: sector… can boost the morale secfirst tothis answer my most secret of quesand like it IThis putscheme the ideas upothers on a piece ofhave, charthowevpaper, tions; ond-generation says Shilpa Sharto heal my craftsmen,” deepest wounds; to celebrate er, invited from artisans and others writing soscepticism fast that I streaked my palms with the ma, endlessness co-founder and product-creative head of of imagination; and, most working blue ink. in the craft sector. The ‘Make in India’ fundamentally, Jaypore, an online that No showcases to brand have fun. matter crafthow campaign, instance, is seen as favouring “Now let’sforthink like writers,” I said.

“Why old based She also a comwedesigns. get, festivals like recommends Bookaroo remind us only Banaras weavers, who were abetter would an author choose to write book off in that pulsory stintallfor students craft we are, of design us writers, artists,with storytellthan many of the other craft clusters of India. ers, letters?” communities in their state, to gain an and creators.

Everyhome now and then, we just “ItThis is mere has a very short need time,tokenism, there was which no hesitation. understanding of theirthe keyspace priorities. to give ourselves to beMarketa little life.

Onlyletters, a handful weavers al- bit “With you of getmaster to be inside theand charingwild. organisations should be roped in to help ready flourishing urban designers are benefit- bag orders for collections developed, says acter’s head.” subramanian theIIM-Ahmedabad’s author of three ed“It’s in the end,” says textile Gunjan in the present tense,designer so you feel like mathangi Sharma, who is a mentoris at for children and young adults Luxury and LifeJain, whose Bhubaneswar-based alternative books you’re there while the story is happening.”

18-week programme ‘Crafting

Q

Magic workers Indigo printing in Bagru, Rajasthan; (inset) Ajrakh block print in Dhamadka, Gujarat courtesy: jaypore

T

ND-X _ A

he handicraft and handloom sector in India is a ₹24,300-crore industry and contributes nearly ₹10,000 crore annually in export earnings.

The 12th Five Year Plan had projected it would become the largest non-farm sector in rural India, swelling its workforce by 10 per cent, doubling the output and exporting 18 per cent more during 2012-17.

On the ground there are many challenges — weak infrastructure, limited access to raw material, broken supply chains, poor marketing and an absence of consensus on what constitutes ‘handicraft’. On top of it all, artisans walk a tightrope between preserving traditional skills and innovating for the contemporary marketplace. Weavers, for instance, often replace expensive raw materials with cheaper imitations, only to end up devaluing their craft and the customer’s experience of it.

The government’s role has been criticised as inadequate, and wrongly aligned. Government schemes are geared toward subsidy and miss out on the value of craft, rues Judy Frater, founder-director of Somaiya Kala Vidya, which promotes the craft traditions of Gujarat and Kutch in particular. “They begin with the sense that artisans need help, which is not a service to them. We have to think of creating opportunity rather than subsidy,” she says.

On May 14sharma this year, the Ministry of Minority partha pratim

R

Q R

7

BL

work

saturday, december 5, 2015

Santosh Gangwar too emphasised that handicraft exporters must innovate to create unique works. He suggested marrying traditional skills with training in contemporary designs to reach target markets. “The best way to contemporise craft is to empower artisans to do their own innovation. When they have direct contact with markets and can innovate, the work is vibrant and they remain interested. Ownership is essential,” says Frater.

Craft to fashion Master-weavers such as Gajam Govardhan, who was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2011 for ikat dyeing of Telia Rumaal, and national awardees like the Salvi family, who are the custodians of the Patan Patola weaving tradition of Gujarat, have succeeded in promoting their works through collaborations with designers.

Artisanal drape Handloom weave from Orissa courtesy: vriksh Nearly 50 master-weavers worked with designer Ritu Kumar on her ‘Varanasi Weaves’ collection presented at the Lakme Fashion Home is where the craft is Week 2015. Gaurang Shah’s ‘Kalpavriksha’ exKey highlights from the Third Handloom Census of India 2009-10 hibition-cum-presentation was created with Jamdani master-weavers from Andhra Pra● Nearly 27.83 lakh households are engaged in handloom weaving and allied activities, desh and Bangladesh. with 87 per cent in rural areas.

However, while master-weavers are at the ● About 10 per cent of handloom households belong to the Scheduled Castes (SCs), 22 helm of craft production and promotion in per cent Scheduled Tribes (STs), 41 per cent Other Backward Castes (OBCs). most clusters, the semi-skilled artisans, who ● Nearly 3 per cent of the handloom households have idle looms. Most of them are in make up the majority of the craft population, often remain neglected, says textile designer rural areas.

Gunjan Jain of Vriksh. “Most craft-based de● BPL (Below Poverty Line) households account for 57 per cent of the total handloom sign houses, NGOs, government schemes and households. independent urban designers end up working ● Total weaver household units declined from 29.9 lakh (during first handloom census) with high-skilled weavers and craftspeople on to 25.3 lakh (second census) and 22.6 lakh (third census). In contrast to the national design solutions for the urban consumer. We trend, the North-Eastern states recorded an increase (14.6 lakh to 15.1 lakh). need to work on simple design solutions that give the huge workforce of semi-skilled arti● There are 43.31 lakh handloom workers in the country, of whom 36.33 lakh are in sans an opportunity to enter the urban marrural areas. ket,” she says. ● Among adult (18 years and above) handloom workers, 77 per cent are female and She cites the success of Malkha (Andhra Prathey are mainly in rural areas. In contrast, a relatively higher proportion of male desh), Desi Trust (Karnataka), and Dastkar handloom workers are in urban areas.

Andhra in enabling semi-skilled craftspersons ● A majority (60 per cent) of the adult handloom workforce has attained little or no to take quality yet affordable handloom prodschooling — 29 per cent of all adult handloom workers have never attended school, 13 ucts to the modern consumer. per cent have studied below primary level, 18 per cent have completed primary school, To achieve this and other goals, the sector 23 per cent middle school, 10 per cent high school, 5 per cent higher secondary and 2 needs massive investment, which remains per cent are graduates or higher degree holders. More handloom workers are educated one of its biggest challenges as capital from in the North-East than in other states. Uttar Pradesh (60 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (42 formal financial institutions remains elusive.

This leaves it dependent on sources such as per cent), Karnataka (39 per cent) and West Bengal (37 per cent) report a high bank loans, equity and donation. Moreover, in proportion of adult handloom workers who have never attended school. order to attract large investments the sector must boast a certain scale of production, style Businesses’, which attracts a mix of stu- which would eliminate middlemen and put dents and young entrepreneurs with the primary producers directly in touch with craft-based and sustainable business ideas. investors and buyers.

“The youth joining the workforce today are Help could possibly take the form of model full of ideas, and have a voracious appetite for handloom clusters supported by the governrisk and experimentation. If we could find ment, small saving schemes for artisans, reways to get them to see the difbate scheme and a relief fund to ference they can make to the cushion poverty-stricken weavcraft sector, and create signifiers from market shocks. cantly differentiated proposiThe end-result of all endeavtions… I feel they could be We need simple ours must be to ensure that artidesign solutions for interested in it. The internationsans are valued for their skills al audience is very partial to the huge workforce of and become active beneficiaries semi-skilled artisans Kalamkari in Srikalahasti, Andhra Pradesh craft-based products and those of the wealth created through courtesy: jaypore willing to take up craft-based detheir craft. An inclusive and sosign can make a mark for themcially responsible approach that selves with these audiences. At supports producers through the Jaypore we encourage young deentire value chain would strengsigners in the craft sector to showcase their then both production and marketing and creations through us,” she says. help leverage traditional skills to create interIn a show of interest from the private sector, nationally competitive craft products. Key recently the Tata Trust and Harvard University stakeholders including the government, South Asia Institute announced that the hand- handloom experts, designers, financial instiicrafts and handloom sectors would be one of tutions, entrepreneurs, artisans and livelitheir key areas of focus for collaboration on hood organisations must partner to achieve knowledge creation and capacity building. these goals. A shift from subsidy-based to marAt the inauguration of the 40th edition of ket-led sustainable development is possible.

Indian Handicrafts & Gifts Fair (IHGF) in GreaTelia Rumal, a dying craft form courtesy: jaypore ter Noida in October last year, Textiles Minister manika dhama is a Dubai-based journalist

Q R

read talk

BL BL 16 8

dipankar

saturday, december 5, 2015 saturday, december 5, 2015

GOVERNMENT TO ISSUE PATRIOTISM Very like a whale CERTIFICATES! ‘B O

Wonderment Seeing an adult humpback whale is a dilation of the ordinary ap/ juneau empire, michael penn

ON THE SHELF

eing a woman, Queen Victoria was very soft,’ says the joint secretary. He gestures imperially. I fetch him a cup of tea. There is only one cup, which means no tea for me.

The government is currently economising. anita roy They are wasting less money on the public.

There is only one biscuit on the saucer. I am hoping he will snap this in half, but he does not. He munches happily. He gestures with his biscuit, close to my nose. ‘Womanly weakness was her biggest drawback,’ he says. ‘After the law and order problems in 1857, a much stricter approach was called for. The natives required discipline. Unfortunately, the Indian Penal Code of 1861 was very weak. It’s true that it has good laws re-

SHOVON CHOWDHURY is chief Truthdigger and author of Murder with Bengali Characteristics

What is it about whales that draws us to them, that captures our imagination? Do they garding sedition, homosexuality, and wag- root of the problem. Instead of analysing certified, they will receive a variety of faciliremind us ofthe our place in which the universe? ing war against nation, all of individual statements, we will see whether ties, such as free ink for blackening, free

have been applied to Hardik Patel, but the speaker is certified or not. If certified, rides from Uber, and a vegetarian dinner for still there is too much laxity. Women he can speak. Otherwise, we must ask two with Anupam Kher. However, this cern the eve of the much-anticipated ed essays, travels silent. to uninhabited Scottish tificate Ahabisand crew of the Pequod cannot provide strong leadership.’ himshe to remain The procedure notthe justhapless about facilities.

There are is, of release directorI work Ron Howard’s islands,for is bathed in theisaurora borealis off the alsocourse, the biggest metaphor of holder all. To quesThis is not true,of of course. application very simple.

Once responsibilities.

Each certificate blockbuster movie, In the Heart of coast ofthe Greenland, and eveninexplores the in- must tion the reality, the fleshiness, of such a creafor The Hindu.

I am used to being citizen has filled the applicaadopt an unwanted cow. On occasion, the Sea, ‘So I wonder human arteries and attached cells to discover ture — have in itstosheer power, its heft and size — ruled by women. now youwhat will modern side oftion in triplicate, a Xe- they may provide airport transporsensibilities shape thisI latest retelling of what happens human world inter- tation seems andflights yet like bypass thewill Penal Code?’ ask. ‘We rox copywhen of the Aadhar card, duly forinsane, people really, catching tothose Pakis-gawpthe legend ofreplies, Moby Dick.

We’ve that of natural, officer the wild. commuters London have to,’ he sipping his come tea. a long sects with attested bythe a gazetted ofHer theen- tan.ing There are alsowatching penalties.the Use of thewhale way John 1956 classic film, counters with whales — livingsecretary and long-dead flounder beneath weto cannot ‘In since matters of Huston’s regulating rank of under or word ‘intolerance’ inBattersea any formBridge will lead which involved realweak. live whalers harpooning — hold the narrative likedoa verifiseries of withdrawal help but feel thatfacility. it is a hallucination.

There’s speech, it is very above,together police will of LPG Repeat offence real animals off the coast of Portugal, and bright golden stitches: a podbeen of orca willsomething not real, but vividly sur-real, It live seems like anyone cation.sighting They have lead to withdrawal of passport facility.about wecan can be that no whales were harmed circling the remote island of Rona off the Weencountering a whale.

“Very like a whale,” is saysure anything. asked to keep charges will also be doing on-the-spot checking, during of this particular feature. north coast of Scotland, cleaning a Blue so we perhaps as nearcitizens as we can get. a framed Hencethe wemaking have introreasonable.

Post verifiwill expect to keep But what iscertification, it about whales that draws us to whale’s bones in the whalecertificate hall of the Natural couldn’t get more real than duced cation, will be copy You of their certificate with them at allPhilip them, that captures History Museum inissued.

Bergen, Norway, discoverHoare’s a full-grown in order to go to the the imagination?

Once citizens are times, alongencounter with threewith passport photos.’ female Encountering a whale — a real, live cetacean ing a whale’s ear drum washed up on the sperm whale while diving off the coast of the — provokes an almost inescapably metaphysi- shore. But it is far from the sea, deep inside a Azores. The author of Leviathan, or The Whale, dia for 26 years.

Initially “wonderment,” my callast reaction.

It inspires ac- mountain in La Cueva de la Pileta, was acutely aware that sperm parents tried to Rebecca find meGiggs a spouse, cording writing of her close in Málaga, Spain, that she gets to whales are the only animals which but inencounter recent decades, their efforts with a beached juvenile humpback the heart of the matter. can, and indeed have, swallowed have on reduced.

Since Australian then I have the Western coastline, “a dilaThe chance discovery of Neolithhumans. But this grand matriarch It’s like the wild been tion pursuing Finallya Northern I of thepersonally. ordinary.” When Bottle- ic paintings here in 1905 caused a does not swallow him. Rather, she swims to you.

In andscans him with a series of powerful n news described a ‘crippling blow to sendiscovered successswam in theup HRthe departnose whale Thames in January tice of flying cows sensation.asFurther explorations rethe middle of timent’ the Non-Resident Hindu League, ment.2006, Over last few months, one laRichard Sabin, collections manager at by then worshipping vealed markings that may date sonar clicks, “creating a kind of yourThey day job based Chicago, the years government has an- them. dy has smiling me. Onwas called to thebeen Natural HistoryatMuseum, the inback have also 20,000 to Paleolithic three-dimensional picture, a nounced that the worship of flying will been facing many Tuesday she “The gave thing me anthat idli.really I amtook people scene. by times when “there were cows no wild sound picture, of me in its head,” no longer allowed near airports. became quite surprise,” sanguine that soon we will he explains, “wasenthey were seeing be animals, questions from the pubbecause everyThis animal was and then cruises by, scrutinising necessary a series of unfortunate events at lic, such as ‘Can we worjoy our first kiss. Accordingly, I have this animal in the middle of London.

It’s like after wild; and humans were few.”

“But him with one enormous eye. “It theofJaipur Summit, where, as part of an artinin-deepship been the preparing.

I have purchased wild swims to you.

In the middle yourArt why the cow it flies, the animals should appear caves, wasbefore the most extraordinary moment of my stallation titled Divine’,Hallucinations, a plastic cow was mouthwash.

I am applying lip balm. day job.” or Shaonly after?’ and ‘Can “It thewas reading me, trying to we‘Bovine don’t know. maybe. life,” he recalls. suspended a balloon.

Thepeople artistswere have I have watched all the filmsavoided of Em- reading I had assiduously Moby from cow be fromWhich ther- was kind of ironic. As a man work.

Perhaps drawing, in constructed describe me. that this done to raise awareness raan Hashmi.

I am worried be-havingclaimed Dick untilBut well into my 30s, believed mocol?’ number of points the was other sense.

Coaxing animalthat presence out Awriter, I’d spent fifteen years trying to describe many abandoned cows are forced to eat plastic. cause of newspaper reports.

I don’t (wrongly) that it was a paean to whaling and have now been clarified. of the deep source, the cave-uterus.

We are a whale, and here was a whale trying to work Ally Subramaniam was born in the Responding public protests, inthe which no less between want to any illegal activity. of Hence thedoindustrial butchery these gentle, social, to a) Cows cannot fly without deep in metaphor, membranes out what I was.” a South-West Sundarbans, but was blown away by a cyclone and or 12 body people were involved, local I would like to know, whatofshould intelligent creatures the deep. Itthan was 10 only permit. of cows and stone, and cave andpolice animal are dis- b) Worship We’ll never know what the whale worked washed up on the shore near Chennai. He was adopted by a poor punctured balloon and rescued cow, after bulls.” the duration of the kiss be?extraordinary Can you when I read Melville’s tome that thesolved: in mid-air out is not allowed. melded like thethe two turning about this skinny finless mammal flounBrahmin family from Tirupur. He can was garlanded worshipped.

Thehave art- been provide any guideline?

I realised it was not that at all, and which I beganitto c) To avoiddering inconvenience It wouldand seem that humans repin her sea.to After centuries of industrial answer all your questions. Just send them to ists were at the police sta- to call Regards, PL Suresh, MA (Pass),between think about the encounter whalesubsequently air the passengers, such pooja holocaust” as Hoare calls resentingdetained things since what we like whaling, an “animal askallysubramaniam@gmail.com for a two-hour session advicethat and Trichyand human for what it tells us abouttion ourselves conducted airdawn of time itself.of Perhaps is thecannot defin- be it that has near accounted for over three million the cow was in the Dear Suresh, and our place in the natural world.counselling.

Moby Dick ‘The ports. cows mustfor their blubber, baleen, ing way characteristic of hanging our species: “We can sayd) Imported whales butchered ear Ally, air,’ said Bajaj look, Nagarthat SHOshadow Mahendra Gupta, was this It depends tongue becameon forwhether me not ait’s vile and misguided rant, undergo is like an ‘it antler, line police bonesverification. and ambergris, the one thought she I am an MA-pass from or no-tongue. sending negativean message.’ tongue,novels not of allonly but one ofIfmyit’s favourite time: my asuggests e) This strictly ibex horn, that girl is a deer, this activity shouldishave had is the one she almost certainTrichy, currently employ- more desert Vigilant officers of the government have been than 30 seconds. island book, in fact. prohibitedly didn’t: duringhere VIP problem is like that; therefore, that solution be monsters. ed with State Bank of Inquickoftoitsspotmight the implications thisThe new prac- helicopter YoursSeparated Affectionately, by 161Ally. years and at a fraction movement. just do the of trick. connective leaps, length, Kathleen Jamie’s Sightlines comes a the careful taxonomies, how our minds work.” anita roy is a writer, editor and publisher; The Investigator is a fortnightly round-up of all things drollsecond. and newsy. views personal.

Really personal close In aAll series ofare 14 loosely connectThet@shovonc great white whale pursued by Captain www.anitaroy.net

ASK ALLY

WORSHIP OF FLYING COWS BANNED NEAR AIRPORTS!

I

ND-X _ A

D

Q R

9

BL

talk

saturday, december 5, 2015

THE CRITICAL ISSUE

Eyes of a stranger A drive from the airport to home can become a traumatic one with an intimidating driver

Road less travelled I had no idea what the driver’s intentions were rajeev bhatt

I

Urvashi Butalia is an editor, publisher and director of Zubaan

’m a 63-year old woman. I’ve lived nearly all my life in Delhi. I’m familiar with much of the city, especially the areas I frequent. By and large, I’ve felt reasonably ‘safe’ in a city that’s often called ‘the rape capital of India’.

Some of this comes, I’m sure, from age.

Some from class. Some from familiarity with the city and its roads. And I guess some comes from habit; you live in a city, and you negotiate your way around it.

Last night, I took a taxi home from the airport, choosing to go with Meru. I was tired and hungry and wanted to get home.

The Meru cab manager at the airport took my name and destination, and allotted me cab number 8184. I tapped on the door of the cab and let myself in. The driver half turned his head, seeming a bit surprised, and then turned on the meter. I noticed that he only had a banyan on, but thought nothing much of it although by law drivers are required to wear their uniforms.

He skipped the taxi line where taxis are required to give the name of the passenger and the destination. I sort of half noticed but did not give it much attention.

He drove off, a bit jerkily, speeding and braking. Once again, I did not think much of this — so many Delhi taxi drivers use similar methods. Once the taxi moved into smoother traffic, he drove along, very, very slowly. I noticed, but thought — better slow than fast. I was quiet and could have dozed off but didn’t.

At some point, he pulled over to a corner of the otherwise crowded Ring Road, adjacent to a desolate spot near Anand Niketan. He stopped the cab and went round to the back. I was surprised, most drivers indicate or ask. He hadn’t bothered with either. He was away for

some three or four minutes. I did not look got off, and took an auto. I took his number, back, thinking he was doing that ‘man thing’ demanded a receipt, he refused, and then — using the side of the road as a toilet. thrust a blank paper at me and drove away.

A few minutes later, he was back. Before getThe auto driver was sympathetic, and angry ting in the door, he peered through the pas- that I had not reported the cab driver to the senger door, then got into the driver’s seat, police. I tried to call 100 but the signal was turned around and stared at me for nearly a weak. I searched for a PCR van but did not see minute. When I — refusing to be cowed down one. So I did the next best thing, reported the — told him sternly to get a move on, he said to incident to Meru, where a young call centre exme in Hindi, ‘where do you want to go?’ ecutive merely said, ‘Madam, we will get back I repeated my destination. He crawled along to you in 48 hours.’ the edge of the road, slowing down near desThe women’s helpline (1091) was much olate spots, and pretended to speak to some- more helpful. Minutes later, I had a call from a one on the mobile, saying things like, ‘yes, I am PCR van, and their first question was ‘Madam, coming, I am nearby’. He was where are you right now, are you perhaps trying to frighten me insafe?’ I was once again pleasantly to thinking that he had an ally surprised. This was followed by a who was waiting nearby. call from the Hauz Khas police I knew this was a pretence. By I realised how afraid a station with details of my comthis time I’d figured out he was person could become plaint, and a promise to take it with this kind of drunk, and recognised the ranup with the cab company. I have intimidation cid smell in the taxi. no idea whether they’ve done that or not. Or what the fate of Beyond fear the drunk driver is. I keep wonIt’s a strange thing, I wasn’t really dering what he had in mind. Was afraid, the road was full of traffic, I knew it he just drunk or had he planned — what. Aswell. But I began to look at it not with my eyes, sault? Robbery? I have no way of knowing. but with the eyes and ears of someone youngWhat I do know is that if this had happened er, someone unfamiliar with the city. I realised to a stranger, someone unfamiliar with the how afraid a person could become with this city, it would have been an unpleasant, traukind of intimidation. matic experience. Meru has no emergency line I wondered how Meru — the taxi service that nor do other cab companies, as far as I know. had been advertising itself as ‘safe and reliaAll I can do is to alert women to what they alble’ after the Uber rape incident — could em- ready know. Don’t believe the false propaganploy such people and let them drive drunk. da of cab companies and be alert. And For the next 10 minutes he continued to try whatever you do, don’t take cab number 8184 to intimidate me, pulling over to the side, star- from Meru. I’m still waiting to hear back from ing at me, turning around and forgetting to them on my complaint. drive, asking me ‘Who are you?’ blink@thehindu.co.in Finally, near a metro station, I stopped him,

Q R

watch cover

saturday, december 5, 2015

BL

14 10

Move over, Apu Apart together

The Indian on American TV for too long has been the owner of a convenience store.

Aziz Ansari sets the record straight with Master of None A divorce often ends in acrimony and bitterness, but there are ways to navigate this path that makes it easier both on the child and couple

More than brown Aziz Ansari is both insightful and relatable in Master of None kc bailey/netflix via ap

T shutterstock

he lack of diversity in American film and television has been a hot topic for quite some time. Minority stars like Mindy Kaling have been criticised for dating only whites and featuring majority white casts on their shows, like The Mindy Project. It is the rare show that depicts an Indian outside of the stereotypes of a heavily accented nerd, or 7-Eleven owner or cab driver. That is until now.

Aziz Ansari tackles this issue and the lack of Indians in serious onscreen roles in his new show, Master of None, for Netflix. The stand-up comedian and former Parks and Recreation actor is now the creator and star of his own show, which examines everything from dat‘good divorce’, theretoisfind noa such ing in the 21st century to trying serithing, — actor unless youUS. are talking ous job as an Indian in the amount of Hollywood’s money that While it about may bethe unfair to hold changed hands — I thought to myIndians, like Kaling, to different standards self astheir I wrote those two words. Ansari proves from white counterparts, The seen a—show and there have that it’sdivorces possibleI have to create that rings beento a substantial number — have beensacricontrue one’s cultural heritage without tests inquality all things negative, such as anger, bitficing or commercial success. terness, betrayal.

Ex-couples who cannot bear Originality is rare in Hollywood, and shows to speak to each other, alone see each other, that grapple with race,let religion, sexuality, and are the in norm.

In this way well-trodden, though culture an authentic are impossible to neverThat’s dull path, aplenty and acheer find. what drama makes is Ansari’s show true absent. So who from thisof entire procdelight.

Dev, thebenefits main character the show ess, other than lawyers?is loosely based on his (portrayed

by Ansari), More than 20 years ago myby parents gotand dilife; Dev’s parents are played Ansari’s, vorced, ending 15-year-long sisAnsari’s brothera is a writer onmarriage. the show.My With ter and I were in boarding at a this strong base Ansari creates school, a refreshing developmental stage within where Master blending in with sense of authenticity of None. peers prime isimportance.

And we cerThe was firstof episode about avoiding a pregtainly didn’t to wave theand ‘mycontemplatparents are nancy after a want one-night stand divorced’ flag.

Whatever ourThe individual emoing a future with children. second deals tionalrelating responses wereimmigrant on the subject thenwho and with to your parents since,up weinagree that circumstances, our parents were grew different andparathe gons ofis restraint and cooperation, it fourth aptly titled ‘Indians on TV’ aswhen it takes came the joint custody the two of us. on theto stereotyping faced byof Indian actors.

School annual days, birthdays, vacaAs Devevents, says, “Look, I get it. There probably is werewho negotiated, attended to store, and attendations Pradeep runs a convenient and I ed innothing such a way that him, unless wewhy explicitly said have against but can’t there

A

ND-X _ A

be a Pradeep, just once, who’s like, an archi- when he resists having the second-best taco in tect, or he designs mittens or does one of the New York after spending hours researching jobs that Bradley Cooper’s characters do in the best one. Similarly, can he marry the girl movies?” who is only second-best?

And why can’t there be? Why has American What does Dev’s dad do when presented television been so slow to reflect India’s di- with this crisis? He quotes from Sylvia Plath’s verse population?

The Bell Jar: “I saw my life branching out before Thankfully, the Indian plotlines in Master of me like the green fig tree in the story. From the None are neither standalones nor awkwardly tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonplaced; they are seamlessly incorporated into derful future beckoned and winked. One fig Dev’s story and the season-long arc of trying to was a husband and a happy home and chilfind love and happiness moves quickly. The re- dren, and another fig was a famous poet and lationship between Dev and his love interest another fig was a brilliant professor… and anNoël Wells comes across as other fig was Constantin and Sogenuine. The way they meet, crates and Attila and a pack of their average jobs, the issues they other lovers with queer names so, ourand classmates not their tell that there was their respective been somewhat face (spoilercould alert) andparents offbeathad professions… and What nonanythingare amiss with our family. It was not per-about tight-lipped and sombre-faced about it tofigs bebreakup all easily relatable. beyond and above these plotlines?

TheI sensed fect for us, ofhappens course, and wewhite, have ourIndian personal gin with. both G and more Wells just to be werethat many more figsMIfelt couldn’t ofat them traumas, but really, have show been is sofullill ease andquite squirmy own parwhich provides fodderitforcould discusmakefacing out. I their saw myself sitmuch worse. ents than anything sions about differences. “It’s a ting inelse. the crotch of this fig tree, M had tearsstarving in her eyes as I pointed this out.I cultural thing, ok? We don’t talk to death, just because Making it work And the father, who clearly used as a about that kind of stuff [dating couldn’t make uphumour my mind I didliving not think could get better, till I met G mask, laughed at himself, parents and and withityour significant which of the figshis I would choose. and M. Look, They it’s came to see me the first time Itheir predicament. referred to a but colother]. different, ok?for If you’re a white wanted each and Ievery onethem of them, about a and year dating ago. They had beenyou just call choosing oneleague who was nearer where person somebody, meant losing all the rest, and, as friends for a long timethem, but realthey to lived, so the thatfigs their child your parents and tell ‘Hey, I’m dating I sat there, unable decide, began to isedperson,” being married to each could have easier the this and they’re likeother ‘Oh, great! Let me wrinkle and go black, and, one access by one,tothey was not working.

They psychotherapist, if he took to invite him over and feedhad himbeen like chicken and plopped to the ground at my feet.”

A 13-year-oldAsonce seeing a psychotherapist to help the idea. of None, I had one quibdumplings,’” says Dev. I finished Master told me, “I feel I that them with their difficulties as a I heard them a while latble. Ilike wished Ansarifrom hadn’t recycled some More than tricolour am Kashmir” couple.

But for various reasons er.from G and had split.

Father was lines and plots hisMrecent book. had decided that they could no The show is now in the What about non-Indian plotlines?

So, as his dad saysstaying on the show, “Youopposite can do a longer remain married to character each building thecareer, same apartment full of them.

Through Dev’s and eth- lot of things with yourinlife: girlfriend, other. However, they had acast six-who play his travel. You cancomplex.

This they hoped would nically diverse supporting even start a family.

But you have year-oldfriends child (an andAfrican-American they were allow their to better adapt to closest lesbian, to make the decision andson do something about aware that justand as they hadman), beenAnsari helped, theIfnew Thisdoing time they had come to an Asian man, a white is they able it. you situation. don’t, you’re nothing and the needed see me as parents, not as a couple splitting up. to tackletoallhelp the him. craziness of life. tree dies.”

When them, I found ‘couple’, hadfrom beenour friends beHe alsoI first usesmet his expertise fromthe Modern Ro- They Thewere fig I clear urge that you they to pick proverstruggling less with whattothey were going to bial fore fig they were and wantedoftoNone. not only mance: An Investigation, comment on the tree of married television is Master The tell their son and more with howrelationships, they were go- only remain parents but also preserve changing nature of romantic thing you’lltobetheir left son wanting is more epiing fact to break this news their parents.

Theirs sodes their friendship.

Our session was to be about the that women aretonot treated as equals, of Ansari’s great new show. had how beenmillennials a marriageare across states, ‘how do we divide time?’ and ‘how do we react and crippled bylanguages options. is a writer based in Washington and cultures and I illustrates got the impression that abid whenhaque he sees us together and hopesDCwe will Ansari beautifully this last theme

Q R

Q R

watch cover

saturday, december 5, 2015

Home and away Purgatory, directed by AVinod goodBala divorce?

Sharma, Jennifer Garner dealt with one ofand Ben Affleck Yeats’ pet themes — announced they decline andthat death; were committed to daljeet; (below) national portrait gallerytheir london/ co-parenting the hindu archive three children john

Men dance on deathless feet shearer/invision/ap, file

get back together as a family’? mir.” Another child, a 12-year-old would speak Children may also feel forgotten or abanG would at times go over to the other apart- to his mother in terms of politics and ask her doned by parents who are preoccupied by this ment to read his son a bedtime story, and ‘why do countries have to split up?’ Children, huge change in their lives. would have him over for the weekends. We of all ages, feel like they are being forced to The task for the child of divorcing parents is spoke in detail about how a seven-year-old boy make a choice. My work is often as simple, and to acknowledge — often prematurely for their needs his father. What the father can mean to as complex, as helping parents acknowledge cognitive and emotional stage — that their him, and the child’s emotions that the mother that the child is not the one being divorced; parents are not perfect, that they may have seIndiathe calling ornalways in the summer of 1865 might not have access to. in M Dublin, agreed that child wants a relationship with both rious flaws but that they are still loved and it is Yeats,ofwho with me Ireland, that theirWilliam son wasButler protective her parents for as longYeats as they alive.to That they worth preserving a relationship with both.

As a young adult, wasare drawn theosodiedreserved at age 73, was it a man in- will feelings and when cameof tomany expressYou an canIndian un-marry, phy.remain He metparents Mohini forever.

Chatterjee, the- Most of us are lucky if we can become conterests, many had aspirations, andlike of but ing his own.

The father noticed that not un-make your child. osophist, when he visited Dublin in 1885, and scious of this by the time we hit 30! manyhis talents.

He dreamed of shaping Ireland him, son brushed away painful subjects by four years later he wrote three poems that reMany divorcing couples, and other adults in in the ring in his own vision and was laughing over them.

The boycommitted was gettingtoathe lot Child ferred to India — The Indian to His Love, The Indi- the family, often display their vulnerabilities, idea of Irishatindependence, in his litera- The of practice covering up hisboth emotions. task God, for these parents then is to find a way go into a rage or lack the awareness about an Upon and Anasuya and Vijaya. ture and M life.

G and are remarkably attentive and per- to Though remain father andvisited mother andthe notcountry get en- what a child does not need be exposed to. Nathe never India, This year marksSo thefar, 150th birth anniversary ceptive parents. they have achieved tangled with the anger, envy andhis hatred is urally, this overwhelms the child. and its philosophy seeped into work.that Yeats of Yeats. Numerous events being held often something extraordinary — are deconstructing harboured for ex-partners.

The chalwas further influenced by the fourth-century A 12-year-old told me repeatedly that he was Remorse for Intemperate Speech around the as world to commemorate the occatheir roles spouse and parent. They were lenge for ex-couples to realise per-a upsetI that poet and dramatist is Kalidasa.

Hethat alsotheir wrote his to father on the phone ranted the spent knave hours and fool, sion. India toothe celebrated the ideas of theshalt No- sonal disregarding convention of ‘thou betrayal, by disappointment andinhurt is with But poem inspired the Bhagavad Gita 1933 tihis relatives, complaining outgrew that school, loudly about bel Prize-winning poet, especially since he had hate thy ex-spouse’.

They were avoiding the separate from the relationship tled Mohini Chatterjee.

In 1912, hebetween wrote anthe in- his ex-wife. boy did want to witness Would The transform thenot part, a spiritual with thefeelings country. classic trapconnection of ‘splitting’ their into all child and the other This troduction for parent.

Rabindranath Tagore’s that. found, He didbut notcannot want torule be part Fit audience Theor India International in New Delhi good all bad.

Because ofCentre this maturity, they is difficult the Gitanjali.

He because was also often instrumental in bringof his father’s anger toward his My fanatic heart. teamed the Irish were ableup to with keep communication open. presence ofTagore’s the childplay, is a The potent ing Post Office to DuHe wished could be I soughtmother. my betters: though he in each embassy to celebrate his could not under- reminder Their parents, I was told, of the presence ofin the blin’s Abbey Theatre October 1913. saved at leastspeech, that. A 13-year-old Fine manners, liberal work this through academicAccording to the el- ex-partnerHis stand new situation. in prominence the world, since in literary was into enraged Mycircles work is oftenTurn as hatred sport, with her grandlectures, der parents, documentary you were either together as a the child was a joint creation.

As led him to establish connections with and asNothingmother who been grieving simple, said or done had can reach looms over film screenings, readings, couple, or not. There could be noYeats in between. a result,other the child oftenpoets becomes Indian such ascomplex, Sarojini as helping out aloud and crying for months My fanatic heart, other poets atill and aisplay.

This the typical social reaction to aIrish divorce pawn Naidu for one parent to prove and Manmohan Ghose.

His relaabout her daughter-inparents acknowledge Out of Ireland haveson we and come. today has athat thetionship auditorium butThe what then of the might child, who does notand see it other is with unreliable, Indian dispoets was a symlaw getting a divorce after althat the child is not Great hatred, little room, not have that way?been packed, but tremendous influence interested or amoral. biotic one; he encouraged a young 15 years of the one beingMaimed most us at the start. marriage. For the every attendee listening to do not manage to Most divorcing parents Children also inblame Indiancan student Oxford, Govinda divorced I carry from young her grandmother’s remygirl mother’s womb Dr Keith wasanguish a spare their Hopper children the of being split themselves for Chettur, a divorce, Krishna to espepublish his poems A fanaticaction heart.was salt on her wounds.

Yeats enthusiast. in two, and oftenHopper turn a — blind eye to it. A 13- cially if in they areChettur below the age of the antholo1922. dedicated She could have used her grandwho teaches year-old onceliterature told me,and “I feel like I am Kash- 10. It isgyantounavoidable conseYeats. mother’s affection and underfilm studies at Oxford University’s Depart- quence of their stage of mental deals with issues of decline and death. also standing and they couldIthave Experiments with theatre ment for Continuing Education — spoke on development.

They can only see the world shared reflectstheir Yeats’grief, interest in thisInstead, life andthe thegrandpossiperhaps.

Yeats’ interest in India. “Yeats looms over other from owntheatrical perspective andtosohis see them- mother’s Yeats’their greatest legacy country bilities of reaction the next. was so ‘over the top’ that Irish poets till today and has a tremendous in- selves the centre of which the universe.

Add to was theasAbbey Theatre, he founded in theSharma, Shauvian scholar, said theown. sidegirl feltashe had no space to airather fluence on people who’re practising poetry. this, often punitive conscience and theIsare- She 1899 an with dramatist and theatre manager linesfelt of dropped the play, “Yeats is better known a pofrom the minds of theas adults His agenda of remaking Irish culture was very sult a personal theory that mummy and pa- who bellais Augusta Lady Gregory and Irish playet than a playwright. chose to stage Purgatory were absorbed inI themselves.

Who would popular. He put Ireland among the nations of pa wouldEdward still be together the child wright Martyn. ifYeats washad thebeen key listen because there is something very Irish apart? about to her if they were so busy falling the world. And what makes him all the more ‘good’, though what that means isofa mystery.

It So founder and lifelong supporter the Abbey it…she thekept Irishquiet never see straight. is an unabout her loss There and her anger special is that everything he ever wrote was boils down ‘it is my and ‘I should have theatre (alsotoknown asfault’ the National Theatre of till dercurrent of ahumour, which is more not negative, she found psychotherapist than 10 read,” he said. done something’.

Ireland).

He also succeeded in establishing the years but neither later. is it positive.”

Even though Yeats strove to remake Irish great Themodern post-divorce child whotradition. is going off the Irish theatrical Onand hisM birth there is no Ibetter G are anniversary, working on something have culture, he was never directly involved in the rails getting aggressive withofmother, fa- rarely Dr and Vinod Bala Sharma, founder the Delhiway tocome celebrate thetogenius and relevance of across, live apart but to keep historical revolution, suggested a documen- ther ortheatre peers orsociety the one who isCorner, retreating into their based Shaw’s presentYeats minds than by readingforand re-reading one of together their son. So far, they tary titled The Mask: Yeats, The Public Man. He aedshell or Purgatory, crying themselves tothe sleep, is wrote often are Yeats’s a play that poet his getting many great poems,asuch Remorse for Inthemselves goodasdivorce. worked meticulously for the revival of the struggling with the ordinary messy feelings of temperate Speech, where his fanatic heart and a few months before his death in 1939. dhingraare paiva is a clinical child psychologist Irish language Gaelic, and was considered hurt, andthe guilt. feelings Theanger play tells storySince of anour old man andare his nupur silken tongue on full display. more important than the political leaders of never neatlyson arranged andthe certainly do not ap- in private practice and teaches at Ambedkar 16-year-old who are only two living arunimaDelhi mazumdar is a Delhi-based journalist his time in shaping Ireland’s destiny. pear one atofaatime, messiness a guarantee. members family that has isfallen apart. It University,

Celebrating the relevance and genius of WB Yeats, who would have turned 150 this year

B

Q R

Q R

ND-X _ A

BL

shutterstock/cartoonresource

11 15

shoot

saturday, december 5, 2015

BL

12

Full-house The crowds of Pathshala, armed with umbrellas, sit under the leaky tent canopy, waiting for the show to start

Hands full A worker carries a prop from the theatre camp to the stage a few hours before the show

Different strokes The chief set maker paints the backdrop of a shop

Making music The equipment of musicians drenched in rainwater. The troupe provides live music and sound effects through the play

Singing in the ring Amidst the monsoon, one of the biggest mobile theatre groups of Assam prepares for its season premiere

F

or the residents of Pathshala, a small town in the Barpeta District of Assam, the Bhramyaman (mobile theatre) season is in full flow. Braving the rain, people of the town make a beeline for a large tent pitched in the neighbourhood field, and filled with hundreds of plastic chairs that face a set of wooden stages.

The workers of Abahan Theatre, a prominent mobile theatre company in Assam, have spent months building the stage — only to dismantle it in a fortnight, when the group will move to its next destination.

There are about 100 Bhramyaman groups in Assam, and two of the oldest groups are based in Pathshala.

Abahan Theatre, was formed in 1980, and has been staging plays in open spaces across villages and towns in Assam. It travels with a 125-member strong cast and crew (including sound and light artistes, actors, cooks, costume makers, choreographers etc) for nine months in the year.

On the day of Abahan’s season premiere, the rain falls thick on the uneven roads of Pathshala. Two hours before the show, the canopy sags under the weight of rainwater and the actors, in full costume, move around the green room in gumboots and sneakers.

“Will the show happen?” everyone wonders. But at 8pm that night Pathshala seems to be in full attendance. The plastic chairs are occupied by people, some wear raincoats and others carry umbrellas.

We ask Arup Baishya, the protagonist of the play, if the rains play spoilsport at the start of every theatre season. “The rain?” he says derisively, “if you’re naatok (theatre) crazy like the people of Assam are, the rain should be least of your worries.”

The show will go on.

Photos poulomi dey (freelance photographer based in New Delhi); text tora agarwala (freelance journalist based in Assam)

BL

shoot

saturday, december 5, 2015

All set An artist gives the ďŹ nal touches on the props, a day before the premiere

Practice makes perfect A violinist rehearses his piece on the eve of the show

Come rain, come shine A light drizzle falls on the artistes as they begin their performance

It’s showtime A dancer adjusts her veil one ďŹ nal time before appearing on stage

ND-X _ A

13

watch cover

saturday, december 5, 2015

BL

14 10

Move over, Apu Apart together

The Indian on American TV for too long has been the owner of a convenience store.

Aziz Ansari sets the record straight with Master of None A divorce often ends in acrimony and bitterness, but there are ways to navigate this path that makes it easier both on the child and couple

More than brown Aziz Ansari is both insightful and relatable in Master of None kc bailey/netflix via ap

T shutterstock

he lack of diversity in American film and television has been a hot topic for quite some time. Minority stars like Mindy Kaling have been criticised for dating only whites and featuring majority white casts on their shows, like The Mindy Project. It is the rare show that depicts an Indian outside of the stereotypes of a heavily accented nerd, or 7-Eleven owner or cab driver. That is until now.

Aziz Ansari tackles this issue and the lack of Indians in serious onscreen roles in his new show, Master of None, for Netflix. The stand-up comedian and former Parks and Recreation actor is now the creator and star of his own show, which examines everything from dat‘good divorce’, theretoisfind noasuch ing in the 21st century to trying serithing, — actor unless youUS. are talking ous job as an Indian in the amount of Hollywood’s money that While itabout may bethe unfair to hold changed hands — I thought to myIndians, like Kaling, to different standards self astheir I wrote those two words. Ansari proves from white counterparts, Theit’sdivorces seen a—show and there have that possibleI have to create that rings beento a substantial number — have beensacricontrue one’s cultural heritage without tests inquality all things negative, such as anger, bitficing or commercial success. terness, betrayal.

Ex-couples who cannot bear Originality is rare in Hollywood, and shows to speak to each other, alone see each other, that grapple with race,let religion, sexuality, and are the in norm.

In this well-trodden, though culture an authentic way are impossible to neverThat’s dull path, aplentyshow and acheer find. what drama makes is Ansari’s true absent. So who from thisof entire procdelight.

Dev, thebenefits main character the show ess, other than lawyers?is loosely based on his (portrayed

by Ansari), More than 20 years ago myby parents gotand dilife; Dev’s parents are played Ansari’s, vorced, ending 15-year-long sisAnsari’s brothera is a writer onmarriage. the show.My With ter and I were in boarding at a this strong base Ansari creates school, a refreshing developmental stage within where Master blending in with sense of authenticity of None. peers prime isimportance.

And we cerThe was firstof episode about avoiding a pregtainly didn’t to wave theand ‘mycontemplatparents are nancy after a want one-night stand divorced’ flag.

Whatever ourThe individual emoing a future with children. second deals tionalrelating responses wereimmigrant on the subject thenwho and with to your parents since, up weinagree that our parents were grew different circumstances, andparathe gons ofis restraint and cooperation, it fourth aptly titled ‘Indians on TV’ aswhen it takes came the joint custody the two of us. on theto stereotyping faced byofIndian actors.

School events, annual days, birthdays, vacaAs Dev says, “Look, I get it. There probably is were who negotiated, attended to and attendations Pradeep runs a convenient store, and I ed innothing such a way that him, unless wewhy explicitly said have against but can’t there

A

ND-X _ A

be a Pradeep, just once, who’s like, an archi- when he resists having the second-best taco in tect, or he designs mittens or does one of the New York after spending hours researching jobs that Bradley Cooper’s characters do in the best one. Similarly, can he marry the girl movies?” who is only second-best?

And why can’t there be? Why has American What does Dev’s dad do when presented television been so slow to reflect India’s di- with this crisis? He quotes from Sylvia Plath’s verse population?

The Bell Jar: “I saw my life branching out before Thankfully, the Indian plotlines in Master of me like the green fig tree in the story. From the None are neither standalones nor awkwardly tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonplaced; they are seamlessly incorporated into derful future beckoned and winked. One fig Dev’s story and the season-long arc of trying to was a husband and a happy home and chilfind love and happiness moves quickly. The re- dren, and another fig was a famous poet and lationship between Dev and his love interest another fig was a brilliant professor… and anNoël Wells comes across as other fig was Constantin and Sogenuine. The way they meet, crates and Attila and a pack of their average jobs, the issues they other lovers with queer names so, ourand classmates not their tell that there was their respective been somewhat face (spoilercould alert) andparents offbeathad professions… and What nonanythingare amiss with our family. It was not per-about tight-lipped and sombre-faced about it tofigs bebreakup all easily relatable. beyond and above these plotlines?

TheI sensed fect for us, ofhappens course, and wewhite, have our Indian personal gin with. both G and more Wells just to be werethat many more figsMIfelt couldn’t show so is fullill ofatthem traumas, but really, have been ease andquite squirmy own parwhich provides fodderitforcould discusmakefacing out. I their saw myself sitmuch worse. ents than anything sions about differences. “It’s a ting inelse. the crotch of this fig tree, M had tearsstarving in her eyes as I pointed this out.I cultural thing, ok? We don’t talk to death, just because Making it work And the father, who clearly used as a about that kind of stuff [dating couldn’t make uphumour my mind I didliving not think could get better, till I met G mask, laughed at himself, parents and and withityour significant which of the figshis I would choose. and M. Look, They came to see me the first time Itheir predicament. referred to a colother]. it’s different, ok?for If you’re a white wanted each and Ievery onethem of them, but about a and year dating ago. They had beenyou just call choosing oneleague who was nearer where person somebody, meant losing all the rest, and, as friends for a long timethem, but realthey to lived, so the thatfigs their child your parents and tell ‘Hey, I’m dating I sat there, unable decide, began to ised person,” being married to each could have easier the this and they’re likeother ‘Oh, great! Let me wrinkle and go black, and, one access by one,tothey was not working.

They psychotherapist, if he took to invite him over and feedhad himbeen like chicken and plopped to the ground at my feet.”

A 13-year-oldAsonce seeing a psychotherapist to help the idea. of None, I had one quibdumplings,’” says Dev. I finished Master told me, “I feel I them with their difficulties as a I heard them a while latble. Ilike wished that Ansarifrom hadn’t recycled some More than am Kashmir” couple.

Buttricolour for various reasons er.from G and had split.

Father was lines and plots hisMrecent book. had decided that they could no The show is now in the What about non-Indian plotlines?

So, as his dad saysstaying on the show, “Youopposite can do a longer remain married to character each thecareer, same apartment full of them.

Through Dev’s and eth- lot of things building with yourinlife: girlfriend, other. However, they had acast six-who play his travel. You cancomplex.

This they hoped would nically diverse supporting even start a family.

But you have year-oldfriends child (an andAfrican-American they were allow their to better adapt to closest lesbian, to make the decision andson do something about aware that justand as they hadman), beenAnsari helped, theIfnew Thisdoing time they had come to an Asian man, a white is they able it. yousituation. don’t, you’re nothing and the needed see me as parents, not as a couple splitting up. to tackletoallhelp the him. craziness of life. tree dies.”

When I found ‘couple’, hadfrom beenour friends beHe alsoI first usesmet his them, expertise fromthe Modern Ro- They Thewere fig Iclear urgethat you they to pick proverstruggling with whattothey were going to bial fore fig they were and wantedoftoNone. not only mance: An less Investigation, comment on the tree of married television is Master The tell their son and more with howrelationships, they were go- only remain parents but also preserve changing nature of romantic thing you’lltobetheir left son wanting is more epiing fact to break this news their parents.

Theirs sodes their friendship.

Our session was to be about the that women aretonot treated as equals, of Ansari’s great new show. had how beenmillennials a marriageare across states,bylanguages ‘how do we divide time?’ and ‘how do we react and crippled options. is a us writer based in Washington and cultures and I illustrates got the impression that abid whenhaque he sees together and hopesDCwe will Ansari beautifully this last theme

Q R

Q R

watch cover

saturday, december 5, 2015

Home and away Purgatory, directed by AVinod goodBala divorce?

Sharma, Jennifer Garner dealt with one ofand Ben Affleck Yeats’ pet themes — announced they decline andthat death; were committed to daljeet; (below) national portrait gallerytheir london/ co-parenting the hindu archive three children john

Men dance on deathless feet shearer/invision/ap, file

get back together as a family’? mir.” Another child, a 12-year-old would speak Children may also feel forgotten or abanG would at times go over to the other apart- to his mother in terms of politics and ask her doned by parents who are preoccupied by this ment to read his son a bedtime story, and ‘why do countries have to split up?’ Children, huge change in their lives. would have him over for the weekends. We of all ages, feel like they are being forced to The task for the child of divorcing parents is spoke in detail about how a seven-year-old boy make a choice. My work is often as simple, and to acknowledge — often prematurely for their needs his father. What the father can mean to as complex, as helping parents acknowledge cognitive and emotional stage — that their him, and the child’s emotions that the mother that the child is not the one being divorced; parents are not perfect, that they may have seIndiathe calling ornalways in the summer of 1865 might not have access to. in M Dublin, agreed that child wants a relationship with both rious flaws but that they are still loved and it is Yeats,ofwho with me Ireland, that theirWilliam son wasButler protective her parents for as longYeats as they alive.to That they worth preserving a relationship with both.

As a young adult, wasare drawn theosodiedreserved at age 73, was it a man in- will feelings and when cameoftomany expressYou an canIndian un-marry, phy.remain He metparents Mohini forever.

Chatterjee, the- Most of us are lucky if we can become conterests, many had aspirations, andlike of but ing his own.

The father noticed that not un-make your child. osophist, when he visited Dublin in 1885, and scious of this by the time we hit 30! manyhis talents.

He dreamed of shaping Ireland him, son brushed away painful subjects by four years later he wrote three poems that reMany divorcing couples, and other adults in in the ring in his own vision and was toathe laughing over them.

The boycommitted was getting lot Child ferred to India — The Indian to His Love, The Indi- the family, often display their vulnerabilities, idea of Irishatindependence, in his litera- The of practice covering up hisboth emotions. task God, for these parents then is to find a way go into a rage or lack the awareness about an Upon and Anasuya and Vijaya. ture life.are remarkably attentive and per- to Though G and M remain father and mother andthe notcountry get en- what a child does not need be exposed to. Nathe never visited India, This year marksSo thefar, 150th birth anniversary ceptive parents. they have achieved tangled with the anger, envy andhis hatred is urally, this overwhelms the child. and its philosophy seeped into work.that Yeats of Yeats. Numerous events— are being held often something extraordinary deconstructing harboured for ex-partners.

The chalwas further influenced by the fourth-century A 12-year-old told me repeatedly that he was Remorse for Intemperate Speech around the as world to commemorate the occatheir roles spouse and parent. They were lenge for ex-couples to realise per-a upsetI that poet and dramatist is Kalidasa.

Hethat alsotheir wrote histo father on the phone ranted the spent knave hours and fool, sion. India toothe celebrated the ideas of theshalt No- sonal disregarding convention of ‘thou betrayal,by disappointment andinhurt is with But poem inspired the Bhagavad Gita 1933 tihis relatives, complaining outgrew that school, loudly about bel Prize-winning poet, especially since he had hate thy ex-spouse’.

They were avoiding the separate from the relationship tled Mohini Chatterjee.

In 1912, hebetween wrote anthe in- his ex-wife. boy did want to witness Would The transform thenot part, a spiritual with thefeelings country.into all child classic trapconnection of ‘splitting’ their and the other This troduction for parent.

Rabindranath Tagore’s that. found, He didbut notcannot want torule be part Fit audience Theor India International in New Delhi good all bad.

Because ofCentre this maturity, they is difficult the Gitanjali.

He because was also often instrumental in bringof his father’s anger toward his My fanatic heart. teamed the Irish were ableup to with keep communication open. presence ofTagore’s the childplay, is a The potent ing Post Office to DuHe wished could be I soughtmother. my betters: though he in each embassy to celebrate his could not under- reminder Their parents, I was told, of the presence ofin the blin’s Abbey Theatre October 1913. saved at leastspeech, that. A 13-year-old Fine manners, liberal work this through academicAccording to the el- ex-partnerHis stand new situation. in prominence the world, since in literary was into enraged Mycircles work is oftenTurn as hatred sport, with her grandlectures, der parents, documentary you were either together as a the child a joint creation.

As ledwas him to establish connections with and asNothing mother who been grieving simple, said or done had can reach looms over film screenings, readings, couple, or not. There could be noYeats in between. a result,other the child oftenpoets becomes Indian such ascomplex, Sarojini as helping out aloud and crying for months My fanatic heart, other poets atillpawnNaidu and aisplay.

This the typical social reaction to aIrish divorce for one parent to prove and Manmohan Ghose.

His relaabout her daughter-inparents acknowledge Out of Ireland haveson we and come. today has athat thetionship auditorium butThe what then of the might child, who does notand see it other iswith unreliable, Indian dispoets was a symlaw getting a divorce after althat the child is not Great hatred, little room, not have that way?been packed, but tremendous influence interested or amoral. biotic one; he encouraged a young 15 years of the one beingMaimed most us at the start. marriage. For the every attendee listening to do not manage to Most divorcing parents Children also inblame Indiancan student Oxford, Govinda divorced I carry from young her grandmother’s remygirl mother’s womb Dr Keith wasanguish a spare their Hopper children the of being split themselves for Chettur, a divorce, espe- his poems Krishna to publish A fanaticaction heart.was salt on her wounds.

Yeats enthusiast. in two, and oftenHopper turn a — blind eye to it. A 13- cially if in they areChettur below the age of the antholo1922. dedicated She could have used her grandwho teaches year-old onceliterature told me,and “I feel like I am Kash- 10. It isgyantounavoidable conseYeats. mother’s affection and underfilm studies at Oxford University’s Depart- quence of their stage of mental deals with issues of decline also standing and and theydeath. couldIthave Experiments with theatre ment for Continuing Education — spoke on development.

They can only see the world shared reflectstheir Yeats’grief, interest in thisInstead, life andthe thegrandpossiperhaps.

Yeats’ interest in India. “Yeats looms over other from owntheatrical perspective andtosohis see them- mother’s Yeats’ their greatest legacy country bilities of reaction the next. was so ‘over the top’ that Irish poets till today and has a tremendous in- selves the centre of which the universe.

Add to was theasAbbey Theatre, he founded in theSharma, Shauvian scholar, the own. sidegirl felta she had no space said to airather fluence on people who’re practising poetry. this, often punitive conscience and theIsare- She 1899 an with dramatist and theatre manager linesfelt of the play, “Yeats is better known a podropped from the minds of theas adults His agenda of remaking Irish culture was very sult a personal theory that mummy and pa- who bellaisAugusta Lady Gregory and Irish playet than a playwright. to stage Purgatory were absorbed inI chose themselves.

Who would popular. He put Ireland among the nations of pa wouldEdward still be together the child wright Martyn. ifYeats was had thebeen key listen because there is something veryfalling Irish apart? about to her if they were so busy the world. And what makes him all the more ‘good’, what that means isofa mystery.

It So founderthough and lifelong supporter the Abbey it…she thekept Irishquiet never see straight. is an unabout her lossThere and her anger special is that everything he ever wrote was boils down ‘it is my and ‘I should have theatre (alsotoknown asfault’ the National Theatre of till dercurrent of ahumour, which is more not negative, she found psychotherapist than 10 read,” he said. done something’.

Ireland).

He also succeeded in establishing the years but neither later. is it positive.”

Even though Yeats strove to remake Irish great Themodern post-divorce child whotradition. is going off the Irish theatrical Onand his M birth there is no better G are anniversary, working on something I have culture, he was never directly involved in the rails getting aggressive withofmother, fa- rarely Dr and Vinod Bala Sharma, founder the Delhiway tocome celebrate theto genius and relevance of across, live apart but to keep historical revolution, suggested a documen- ther peers orsociety the one who isCorner, retreating into their basedortheatre Shaw’s presentYeats minds than by readingfor and re-reading one of together their son. So far, they tary titled The Mask: Yeats, The Public Man. He aedshell or Purgatory, crying themselves tothe sleep, is wrote often are Yeats’s a play that poet his many poems, asuch Remorse for Ingettinggreat themselves goodasdivorce. worked meticulously for the revival of the struggling with the ordinary messy feelings of temperate Speech, where his fanatic heart and a few months before his death in 1939. dhingraare paiva is a clinical child psychologist Irish language Gaelic, and was considered hurt, andthe guilt. feelings Theanger play tells storySince of anour old man and are his nupur silken tongue on full display. more important than the political leaders of never neatlyson arranged andthe certainly do not ap- in private practice and teaches at Ambedkar 16-year-old who are only two living arunimaDelhi mazumdar is a Delhi-based journalist his time in shaping Ireland’s destiny. pear one at messiness a guarantee. members ofaatime, family that has is fallen apart. It University,

Celebrating the relevance and genius of WB Yeats, who would have turned 150 this year

B

Q R

Q R

ND-X _ A

BL

shutterstock/cartoonresource

11 15

read talk

BL BL 168

dipankar

saturday, december 5, 2015 saturday, december 5, 2015

GOVERNMENT TO ISSUE PATRIOTISM Very like a whale CERTIFICATES! ‘B O

Wonderment Seeing an adult humpback whale is a dilation of the ordinary ap/ juneau empire, michael penn

ON THE SHELF

eing a woman, Queen Victoria was very soft,’ says the joint secretary. He gestures imperially. I fetch him a cup of tea. There is only one cup, which means no tea for me.

The government is currently economising. anita roy They are wasting less money on the public.

There is only one biscuit on the saucer. I am hoping he will snap this in half, but he does not. He munches happily. He gestures with his biscuit, close to my nose. ‘Womanly weakness was her biggest drawback,’ he says. ‘After the law and order problems in 1857, a much stricter approach was called for. The natives required discipline. Unfortunately, the Indian Penal Code of 1861 was very weak. It’s true that it has good laws re-

SHOVON CHOWDHURY is chief Truthdigger and author of Murder with Bengali Characteristics

What is it about whales that draws us to them, that captures our imagination? Do they garding sedition, homosexuality, and wag- root of the problem. Instead of analysing certified, they will receive a variety of faciliremind us ofthe ournation, place the universe? ing war against all in of which individual statements, we will see whether ties, such as free ink for blackening, free

have been applied to Hardik Patel, but the speaker is certified or not. If certified, rides from Uber, and a vegetarian dinner for still there is too much laxity. Women he can speak. Otherwise, we must ask two with Anupam Kher. However, this cern the eve of the much-anticipated ed essays, travels to uninhabited Scottish tificate Ahabisand crew of the Pequod cannot provide strong leadership.’ himshe to remain silent.

The procedure notthe justhapless about facilities.

There are is, of release Ron Howard’s islands,for is bathed in theisaurora borealisOnce off the alsocourse, the biggest metaphor of holder all. To quesThis is not true,of of director course. I work application very simple. responsibilities.

Each certificate blockbuster movie, In the Heart of coast ofthe Greenland, and eveninexplores the in- must tion the reality, the fleshiness, of such a creafor The Hindu.

I am used to being citizen has filled the applicaadopt an unwanted cow. On occasion, the Sea, ‘So I wonder human arteries and attached cells to discover ture — have in itstosheer power, its heft and size — ruled by women. now youwhat will modern side oftion in triplicate, a Xe- they may provide airport transporsensibilities shape thisIlatest retelling of what happens when human worldduly inter- tation seems andflights yet liketothose bypass thewill Penal Code?’ ask. ‘We rox copy of the Aadhar card, forinsane, people really, catching Pakis-gawpthe legend of replies, Moby Dick.

We’ve that of natural, the wild. commuters London have to,’ he sipping his come tea. a long sects with attested bythe a gazetted officer ofHer theen- tan.ing There are alsowatching penalties.theUse of thewhale way Johnof Huston’s 1956 classic film, counters with whales — livingsecretary and long-dead flounder beneath we to cannot ‘In since matters regulating rank of under or word ‘intolerance’ inBattersea any formBridge will lead which involved realweak. live whalers harpooning — hold the narrative likedoa verifiseries of withdrawal help but feel thatfacility. it is a hallucination.

There’s speech, it is very above,together police will of LPG Repeat offence real animals off the coast of Portugal, and bright golden stitches: a podbeen of orca willsomething not real, but vividly sur-real, It live seems like anyone cation.sighting They have lead to withdrawal of passport facility.about wecan can be that no whales were harmed circling the remote island of Rona off the Weencountering a whale.

“Very like a whale,” is saysure anything. asked to keep charges will also be doing on-the-spot checking, during of this particular feature. north coast of Scotland, cleaning a Blue so we perhaps as nearcitizens as we can get. a framed Hencethe wemaking have introreasonable.

Post verifiwill expect to keep But what iscertification, it about whales that draws us to whale’s bones in the whalecertificate hall of the Natural couldn’t get more duced cation, will be copy You of their certificate with real themthan at allPhilip them, that captures History Museum inissued.

Bergen, Norway, discoverHoare’s a full-grown in order to go to the the imagination?

Once citizens are times, alongencounter with threewith passport photos.’ female Encountering a whale — a real, live cetacean ing a whale’s ear drum washed up on the sperm whale while diving off the coast of the — provokes an almost inescapably metaphysi- shore. But it is far from the sea, deep inside a Azores. The author of Leviathan, or The Whale, dia for 26 years.

Initially “wonderment,” my callast reaction.

It inspires ac- mountain in La Cueva de la Pileta, was acutely aware that sperm parents tried to to Rebecca find meGiggs a spouse, cording writing of her close in Málaga, Spain, that she gets to whales are the only animals which but inencounter recent decades, their efforts with a beached juvenile humpback the heart of the matter. can, and indeed have, swallowed have on reduced.

Since Australian then I have the Western coastline, “a dilaThe chance discovery of Neolithhumans. But this grand matriarch It’s like the wild been tion pursuing Finallya Northern I of thepersonally. ordinary.” When Bottle- ic paintings here in 1905 caused a does not swallow him. Rather, she swims to you.

In and n news described a ‘crippling blow to sendiscovered successswam in theup HRthe departnose whale Thames in January tice of flying cows sensation.asFurther explorations rescans him with a series of powerful the middle of timent’ the Non-Resident Hindu ment.2006, Over last few months, one laRichard Sabin, collections manager at by then worshipping vealed markings that mayLeague, date sonar clicks, “creating a kind of yourThey day job based Chicago, the years government has an- them. dy has smiling me. Onwas called to thebeen Natural HistoryatMuseum, the inback have also 20,000 to Paleolithic three-dimensional picture, a nounced that the worship of flying will been facing many Tuesday she “The gavething me anthat idli.really I amtook people scene. by times when “there were cows no wild sound picture, of me in its head,” no longer allowed near airports. became quite surprise,” sanguine that soon we will he explains, “wasenthey were seeing be animals, questions from the pubbecause everyThis animal was and then cruises by, scrutinising necessary a series of unfortunate events at lic, such as ‘Can we worjoy our first kiss. Accordingly, I have this animal in the middle of London.

It’s like after wild; and humans were few.”

“But him with one enormous eye. “It theofJaipur Summit, where, as part of an artinin-deepship been the preparing.

I have purchased wild swims to you.

In the middle your Artwhy the cow it flies, the animals should appear caves, wasbefore the most extraordinary moment of my stallation titled Divine’,Hallucinations, a plastic cow was mouthwash. day job.”I am applying lip balm. or Shaonly after?’ and ‘Can “It thewas reading me, trying to we‘Bovine don’t know. maybe. life,” he recalls. suspended a balloon.

Thepeople artists have I have watched all the filmsavoided of Em- reading I had assiduously Moby from cow be fromWhich ther- was kind of ironic. As a man work.

Perhaps were drawing, in constructed describe me. that this done to raise awareness raan Hashmi.

I am worried be-havingclaimed Dick untilBut well into my 30s, believed mocol?’ number of points the was other sense.

Coaxing animalthat presence out Awriter, I’d spent fifteen years trying to describe many abandoned cows are forced to eat plastic. cause of newspaper reports.

I don’t (wrongly) that it was a paean to whaling and have now been clarified. of the deep source, the cave-uterus.

We are a whale, and here was a whale trying to work Ally Subramaniam was born in the Responding public protests, inthe which no less between want to any illegal activity. of Hence thedo industrial butchery these gentle, social, to a) Cows cannot fly without deep in metaphor, membranes out what I was.” a South-West Sundarbans, but was blown away by a cyclone and or 12 body people were involved, local I would like to know, whatofshould intelligent creatures the deep. Itthan was 10 only permit. of cows and stone, and cave andpolice animal are dis- b) Worship We’ll never know what the whale worked washed up on the shore near Chennai. He was adopted by a poor punctured balloon and rescued after bulls.” the duration of the kiss be?extraordinary Can you when I read Melville’s tome that thesolved: in mid-airout is not allowed. melded like thethe twocow, turning about this skinny finless mammal flounBrahmin family from Tirupur. He can was garlanded worshipped.

Thehave art- been provide any guideline?

I realised it was not that at all, and which I beganitto c) To avoiddering inconvenience It wouldand seem that humans repin her sea.to After centuries of industrial answer all your questions. Just send them to ists were at the police sta- to call Regards, PL Suresh, MA (Pass),between think about the encounter whalesubsequently air the passengers, such pooja holocaust” as Hoare calls resenting detained things since what we like whaling, an “animal askallysubramaniam@gmail.com for a two-hour session advicethat and Trichyand human for what it tells us abouttion ourselves conducted air- for over three million dawn of time itself. of Perhaps is thecannot defin- be it that has near accounted the cow was in the Dear Suresh, and our place in the natural world. counselling.

Moby Dick ‘The ports. cows mustfor their blubber, baleen, ing way characteristic of hanging our species: “We can sayd) Imported whales butchered ear Ally, air,’ said Bajaj look, Nagarthat SHOshadow Mahendra Gupta, was this It depends tongue becameon forwhether me not ait’s vile and misguided rant, undergo is like an ‘it antler, line police bonesverification. and ambergris, the one thought she I am an MA-pass from or no-tongue. sending negativean message.’ tongue,novels not of allonly but one of Ifmyit’s favourite time: my asuggests e) This strictly ibex horn, that girl is a deer, this activity shouldishave had is the one she almost certainTrichy, currently employ- more desert Vigilant officers of the government have been than 30 seconds. island book, in fact. prohibitedly didn’t: duringhere VIP problem is like that; therefore, that solution be monsters. ed with State Bank of Inquickoftoitsspotmight the implications thisThe new prac- helicopter YoursSeparated Affectionately, by 161Ally. years and at a fraction movement. just do the of trick. connective leaps, length, Kathleen Jamie’s Sightlines comes a the careful taxonomies, how our minds work.” anita roy is a writer, editor and publisher; The Investigator is a fortnightly round-up of all things drollsecond. and newsy. views personal.

Really personal close In aAll series ofare 14 loosely connectThet@shovonc great white whale pursued by Captain www.anitaroy.net

ASK ALLY

WORSHIP OF FLYING COWS BANNED NEAR AIRPORTS!

I

ND-X _ A

D

Q R

read talk

saturday, december 5, 2015 saturday, december 5, 2015

Hail the turtlers!

Eyes of a stranger THE CRITICAL ISSUE

An important book on the conservation efforts of experts and laypeople alike, who have helped make safe the lumbering journey of turtles from sea to shore and back A drive from the airport to home can become a traumatic one with an intimidating driver

S I

From Soup to Superstar Kartik Shanker Harper-Litmus Non-fiction ₹550

Urvashi Butalia is an editor, publisher and director of Zubaan

Against the odds Only one in a thousand turtle eggs survive to adulthood lingaraj Road lesspanda travelled I had no idea whatthan the you might thusiasts (turtlers!) out there driver’s intentions imagine — scouring deserted beaches in the were rajeev bhatt

ea turtles are amongst the most enig- drowned — were introduced in the US many matic creatures that have always fasci- years ago and brought to India as well. The innated and puzzled us. Their major USP dustry did not like them saying that they lost dead of night or embarking on perilous suris the ‘arribada’ (‘arrival by sea’ in too much of their normal catch when they veys on uninhabited isolated islands. ’m a 63-year old woman. I’ve lived nearly Spanish) or mass-nesting, when in the dead of someused three or four I did not look them and minutes. accused beachfront developgot off,Odisha and took an Tamil auto. I Nadu took his number, and (read Chennai) all myfemales life in lumber Delhi. I’m familiar night, on to beacheswith in their back,ment, thinking hepollution was doingand thategg ‘man thing’ inlight collection demanded a receipt, refused, and spearheaded the hemovement, thethen former much of theto city, especially dig the areas fre- eggs thousands, laboriously nests,I lay — using the side as a toilet. stead.

It’sof the theroad classic ‘industry vs. thrust a blankthe paper at me and machinery, drove away. the latthrough government quent.

By and large, reasonably and stagger back intoI’ve thefelt waves.

The hatch- A few minutes later, he was back.

Beforepointing getconservation’ debate, with everyone The auto driver was sympathetic, and angry ter largely through a student, voluntary move‘safe’ lings, in a city that’stwo-inches often calledlong ‘the rape barely and capiweighing ting fingers in the door, he peered the‘yours pas- is that at everyone else through and saying, a ment.

I had not reported the cab driver to the Act Before the Wildlife (Protection) tal ofjust India’.

20 gm must dig themselves out and scutsenger door,problem, then gotsointo seat, police. bigger deal the withdriver’s that first.’

I tried call—100 signal was came intoto force andbut seathe turtles ‘promoted’ Some ofthe this comes, from age. tle all way back toI’m thesure, sea, running a gaunturned Shanker around and me the for nearly a the alsostared delvesatinto issue of weak.toI Schedule searched for PCR van but did see and I — aturtle fisheries in not Odisha Sometlet from class. Some from familiarity with of voracious predators, and being guided minute.

When I — to be cowed down (like viewpoint ofrefusing conservation biologists one. the So IGulf did the next best thing, of Mannar were a bigreported industry.the Subsethe city andlighter its roads.

And I that guesslies some comes Only by the horizon seawards.

— told him sternly to those get a move on, herights said toactivhimself) versus of ‘animal incident to Meru, a youngtocall centre ex-state quently, (andwhere heartening know) the fromone habit; live in a city, and you negotiate Not in you a thousand survive to adulthood. me inists’, Hindi, ‘where to go?’ who value do theyou lifewant of every single animal. ecutive merely said, ‘Madam,implemented we will get back government actually protecyour too waymuch around is it. known either about their lives in I repeated my destination.

He crawled This, according to the former, is along to you in 48 hours.’ tion measures on the ground, at Last night, took athat taxi some hometime frominthe the seas, Iexcept theairfuture, the edge the road, slowing downtonear desnot of a very practical stance The women’s times helpline was that muchit beto (1091) the extent port, their choosing to gowill withfind Meru.

I was tired and mothers their way back to the olatetake, spots, andliterally. pretended to speak quite It often leadsto some- more helpful. Minutes I had a call fromsword. a camelater, a double-edged hungry and where wantedthey to get home. beach laid their eggs, to do so one on mobile,and saying things like, ‘yes, I am PCR van, and theirShanker to the alienation antagonism. first question ‘Madam, takes was us on numerous For turtle (or reptile)where Theagain.

MeruOfcab at theofairport tookin the themanager seven species sea turtles coming,Another I am nearby’.

He was major issue that is are you rightexpeditions now, are you and nest-hunting my name and destination, allotted me cabcoastworld, five are foundand along the Indian perhaps trying is tothe frighten me in-com- enthusiasts, this book discussed role of the safe?’surveys I was once again pleasantly on the coasts of Odisha, is of course a must surprised. number on the door of the cab line:8184. theI tapped olive ridley, loggerhead, green, to thinking he had an ally munity that in conservation.

In this wasand followed by a Tamil This Nadu the Andaman and let myself in. driver half turned his who was hawksbill, andThe leatherback. nearby. community, casewaiting the fishing call and from Nicobar the Hauzislands, Khas police and tohead, seeming a bit to surprised, then turn- has I knew In From Soup Superstar,and Kartik Shanker this wasdirectly a pretence.

By byI realised how afraid a station which was affected with details mybook com-on a wards the end ofofthe ed ondetailed the meter. thatturtle he only had a this time theI noticed ‘story of conservation I’d figured outhunting he was andperson could become plaint, the ban on turtle andtrip a promise to take turtle right around theitIndiwith this kind of banyan on, but nothing much it al- drunk, along the thought Indian coast.’

He’s had of a lifetime’s recognised theuse raneggand collecting and the of TEDs. up with company. I have an coastline (andthe thecab ‘islands’). intimidation though by law drivers are required wear experience studying the reptiles,to and is a faccid smell in the taxi.is the role of both the governThen there no (or ideareptile) whether they’ve done For turtle enthusiasts, this book theirulty uniforms. member at the Centre for Ecological Sci- ment and NGOs — big and small. Often NGOs is of course thata must or not.

Or—what thethe fate of read and for majority fear Heences, skipped line where taxis of are Science, re- Beyond atthe thetaxi Indian Institute squabble with each other and within them- of us (particularly the drunk‘inlanders’) driver is. I equally keep wonso, as it quired to give the name of the passengerof and Bengaluru and served as president the InIt’s a strange thing,according I wasn’t really selves. Some, to Shanker, are more opens our dering whatminds he hadtoinamind.

Was we eyes and movement the destination. sort of half noticed but did afraid, ternational ISea Turtle. the roadinwas of traffic, I knew interested thefull publicity rather than it the ishe just drunk or had be helargely planned — what.ofAswould otherwise unaware (out of not giveFor it much him attention. it all started with an encounter well. sue But at I began look at it function not with my eyes,demheart to and others neither sault?

Robbery? have noFor, way knowing. sight, out ofI mind). asof Shanker maintains, Hewith drovean off, a bitridley jerkily,turtle speeding brakolive on aand beach in Mabut with the eyes and of someone youngocratically nor ears transparently as their What do turtles know islumbering that if thison had theIsea tohappened the beaches at ing. Once I did not think of this — esdras again, (as it was then) wheremuch he later helped er, someone unfamiliar mandates claim. with the city. I realised to a night stranger, someone unfamiliar with thethouto lay their eggs have inspired so many Delhia taxi driversgroup use similar meth-turtle tablish student for sea how afraid could become with this Whata person is wonderfully heartening, are the city, it would have been an unpleasant, sands of ‘turtle walkers’ and openedtrauthe eyes ods. Once the taxi one moved intois smoother conservation which still active.traf- kind profiles of intimidation.

Shanker sketches of the many people maticofexperience. has noto emergency linegreat thousandsMeru of others one of the fic, he drove along, very slowly.

I noticed, In this bookvery, he discusses several major is- I wondered Meru — the taxi that and who havehow been fascinated byservice sea turtles nor do other cab companies, asmany far as Iofknow. wonders of nature.

Many, these peobut thought better than fast. I was— and sues that—arise fromslow turtle conservation had been advertising itselftoastheir ‘safe cause. and reliadedicated their lives Most of Allple I can do is to alertturtle-fans, women to what al-have have become manythey more quietwhich and could have dozedcan off but didn’t. to conif extrapolated be relevant ble’ after Uber rape incident — couldonemthemthe got ‘hooked’ while going ‘turtle readyatknow.

Don’t believe false propaganleast become awarethe of nature and conservaAt servation some point, pulled over to a corner of ploy walks’ as ahewhole. such people and let drunk. on beaches atthem night.drive There’s Satish Bhasda of and will be have alert. dedicated And tioncab andcompanies many of these the otherwise crowded Ring Road, to and Forkar, Sea turtle populations the adjacent world over theRom next 10 minutesShekar he continued to Belinda try whatever Whitaker, Dattatri, take cab 8184 their you livesdo, to don’t the cause: Evennumber if not for turtles a desolate spot near Anand Niketan.threats, He stopmore so in India face numerous usualto intimidate pulling over to theDas, side,and star-many Wright, Jme, Vijaya, Banka Behary fromper Meru.

I’msome still waiting to hear back fromin its se for other creature fighting ped the cab and went roundfrom to themechanised back. I was fishly operating together: ing at me, colourful turning around and whose forgetting to themcorner other characters extraordinon myfor complaint. survival. And that is as big a takesurprised, most drivers indicate orofask.

He and ing trawlers to destruction nests drive,ary asking me (in ‘Who you?’ exploits theare face of horrific odds), cour- away as you can expect. blink@thehindu.co.in hadn’t bothered with either.

HeExclusion was away for nesting habitats.

‘Turtle Devices Finally, a metro station, him,work age, near stubbornness, talent,I stopped and hard (TEDs) — a mechanism which enabled turtles contributed to the turtle conservation move- ranjit lal is an author, birdwatcher and trapped in fishing nets to escape before they ment in the country. There are more turtle en- environmentalist

Q Q R R

ND-X _ A

9 17BL BL

read work

BL BL 186

saturday, december 5, 2015 saturday, december 5, 2015

This GDPYes, growth can be yes and yes handcrafted

Once again, at Bookaroo, the difference between lit fests for adults andtothose for children camehands to theoffore.

A new generation of entrepreneurs aims strengthen the skilled the Grown-ups country’s are expected to listen, young people are meant to create craftspeople — projected to become the largest non-farm rural workforce — with access to modern marketing techniques

T

his weekend was Bookaroo, one of “It feels like the author is talking directly to Delhi’s most popular children’s lit- you.” design studio Vriksh works solely with handerature festivals, and my personal loom weavers and artisans.

“Okay, great,” I said.

“Your job today is to favourite. Like festivals for adults, start Experts agree that the government should a book.

Write a letter between two charBookaroo has multiple stages hosting a varie- acters insteadtalking address issues ranging from skill deabout a conflict.” ty of authors, illustrators, and storytellers. velopment assistance, collabo“Can oneto offinancial the characters be a in non-living Bookaroo’s stages, however, are a bit different object?” ration with stakeholders and artisans. There is than the ones frequented by grownups. a need invest incharacters research and “Canto one of the be adevelopment, time, like the There is, for example, the Crafty Corner, a future?” much like in the area of agriculture. sea of plastic scissors, card paper, and white taSeveral aresame already “Can bothcraft of theorganisations characters be the perble cloths spread out behind a sign reading, son, working out ways sides to make the sector economjust different of them?”

“Children Only Beyond This Point.” ically viable and attractive for thethe future genIn creative writing workshops, answers There is the Think Tank, a pink stone amphi- to erations of artisans. questions such as these are always yes, yes, theatre where storytellers ask listeners to and Sally yes.Holkar’s The Handloom School (THS) laugh, clap, and sometimes even dance along. in For Maheshwar, iswas working the next 15Madhya minutes,Pradesh, the room filled There is the Scroll-a-Thon, where visitors sit with SK Panda, secretary Textile Ministry,paper. to inthe sounds of pens scratching side-by-side on the ground colouring murals Some troduce THS curriculum IIHTs (Indian Instiparticipants wrote at just a few lines, while inked by children’s book illustrators. Children others tute of turned Handloom pageTechnology) after page ofacross their India. noteand adults alike emerge from these stages books.

“At THSThe we are teaching young, talented weavsilence was only interrupted with with fingers sticky with finger paint and fevi- young ers to interact directly to with theother market.

They people turning each to whiscol, bubbling with giggles and squeals and all per already have knowledge of weaving andtime we questions and ask advice.

Then it was the other wonderful sounds of imaginations to areshare. teaching them basic weaving, business Enrunning free. glish, flexibility withfrom fibres andbody dimensions, There was a letter a dead to a cofHerein lies the fundamental difference be- fin sayinguse of smartphones that it wanted to for be business burned, and not tween lit fests for children and so on,”There says Holkar. buried. was a letter from a adults: at lit fests for grownups, Judy Frater, who little boy asking a tree if formerly he could attendees are expected to listen; ran Kalaraksha Vidyalaya cut it down to make a boat.

There at lit fests for young people, at- My favourite moment was a letter before launching Sofrom Sita demanding tendees are expected to create. maiya Kala Vidya Ram. There wasina in a workshop is when answers from On Sunday morning at Book- teenagers stop seeing letter from aKutch, agrees teenage girl tothat the aroo, several dozen teenagers craft training is espaint splattered baseball cap she themselves as kids, slouched into the auditorium, sential empower wore every day.

The to room filled and start seeing the echoey, sun-drenched room themselves as writers with characters, artisans.

“I think conflicts, tenwhere my workshop was schedmain thing is to sion, humour,the and suspense. uled to take place. Still wiping craft attrac“How did make it feel to write in a Affairs launched the eyes, they the sleep from their in terms of inletter form?”tive I asked.

USTAAD (Upgrading collapsed into cross-legged comeone andstudent respect.said, We “It felt good,” the Skillsonand clumps theTraining soft gray carpet, groggily pull- “like I could be personal. have found that when I could be free.” in Traditional Arts/Crafts ing graffiti-covered notebooks and chewed artisans in learn It’s my favourite moment everydesign, workfor Development) pencils out of theirscheme book bags. andstop respect shop: the momentboth whenincome teenagers seeunder the ‘Seekho AurIKamao’ “Everyone awake?” asked. and start their seeing family ing themselvesare as raised, kids, and (learn earn) programme.

Afterand receiving a few noncommittal grunts, themselves members as writers.automatically gravitate DS Bist, joint Because secretarytoday, in thewe’re going to I added, “Good. traditional Iwork” says For as longtoas their I can remember, have wantministry, said the scheme would write.”

Frater. While other girls dreamt ed to be a novelist. revitalise traditional crafts, par- was an exam- about weddings, My book, I explained to them, There is a growing I dreamt of launchconsensus parties. I ticularly those infiction, which meaning minori- that ple of epistolary that literary to further the cause of craftpictured salons where wellWethe arestoteaching them smoky ty communities engaged.

He Today, ry was told in aare series of letters. they based education, mainstream indressed adults sipped wine and used words business English, use mentioned globalisation, lack of were going to attempt some epistolary fiction like ‘sophisticated’ stitutesand should become training ‘complex’ to describe of smartphones... to market access and declining of their own. facilities too. “It is high time the my writing. interact directly with skills as do some of the challenges “Why people write letters?” I asked. the market government reserved some seats Since I don’t write for adults, I never got my facing artisans,came and stressed the The answers like microwave popcorn: launch party.in all courses run by design Instead, I got so much more. need at tofirst, impart educaslow thenrelevant quick and loud. that have Specifically,schools…

I got the institutes opportunity to make tion their children to ensure “Totoexpress emotions.” funds canEvery offerworkshop waivers toI art alongsidetrust young adults. the“To future development of crafts tell secrets.” deserving students fromin the do reminds me why I turned to writing and of work.

“Todignity add a more personal touch.” craft place: sector… can boost the morale secfirst tothis answer my most secret ofquesand like it IThis putscheme the ideas upothers on a piece ofhave, charthowevpaper, tions; ond-generation says Shilpa Sharto heal mycraftsmen,” deepest wounds; to celebrate er, invited from artisans and others writing soscepticism fast that I streaked my palms with the ma, co-founder head of endlessnessand of product-creative imagination; and, most working blue ink. in the craft sector. The ‘Make in India’ fundamentally, Jaypore, an online that showcases to brand have fun.

No matter crafthow campaign, forthink instance, is seen as favouring “Now let’s like writers,” I said.

“Why old based She also a comwedesigns. get, festivals like recommends Bookaroo remind us only Banaras weavers, who were abetter would an author choose to write book off in that pulsory stintallfor students craft we are, of design us writers, artists,with storytellthan many of the other craft clusters of India. ers, letters?” communities in their state, to gain an and creators.

Everyhome now and then, we just “ItThis is mere has a very short need time,tokenism, there waswhich no hesitation. understanding of theirthe keyspace priorities. to give ourselves to beMarketa little life.

Onlyletters, a handful weavers al- bit “With youof getmaster to be inside theand charingwild. organisations should be roped in to help ready flourishing urban designers are benefit- bag orders for collections developed, says acter’s head.” subramanian theIIM-Ahmedabad’s author of three ed“It’s in the end,” says textile Gunjan in the present tense,designer so you feel like mathangi Sharma, who is a mentoris at for programme children and young adults Luxury and LifeJain, whose Bhubaneswar-based alternative books you’re there while the story is happening.”

18-week ‘Crafting

Q

Magic workers Indigo printing in Bagru, Rajasthan; (inset) Ajrakh block print in Dhamadka, Gujarat courtesy: jaypore

T

ND-X _ A

he handicraft and handloom sector in India is a ₹24,300-crore industry and contributes nearly ₹10,000 crore annually in export earnings.

The 12th Five Year Plan had projected it would become the largest non-farm sector in rural India, swelling its workforce by 10 per cent, doubling the output and exporting 18 per cent more during 2012-17.

On the ground there are many challenges — weak infrastructure, limited access to raw material, broken supply chains, poor marketing and an absence of consensus on what constitutes ‘handicraft’. On top of it all, artisans walk a tightrope between preserving traditional skills and innovating for the contemporary marketplace. Weavers, for instance, often replace expensive raw materials with cheaper imitations, only to end up devaluing their craft and the customer’s experience of it.

The government’s role has been criticised as inadequate, and wrongly aligned. Government schemes are geared toward subsidy and miss out on the value of craft, rues Judy Frater, founder-director of Somaiya Kala Vidya, which promotes the craft traditions of Gujarat and Kutch in particular. “They begin with the sense that artisans need help, which is not a service to them. We have to think of creating opportunity rather than subsidy,” she says.

On May 14sharma this year, the Ministry of Minority partha pratim

R

Q R

takeaway work

saturday, december 5, 2015 saturday, december 5, 2015

STREET, EAT, REPEAT

Between the layers

Santosh Gangwar too emphasised that handicraft exporters must innovate to create unique works. He suggested marrying traditional skills with training in contemporary designs to reach target markets. “The best way to contemporise craft is to empower artisans to do their own innovation. When they have direct contact with markets and can innovate, the work is vibrant and they remain interested. Ownership is essential,” says Frater.

There’s just something about the sandwich — two slices of bread, a smear of butter or olive Craft to fashion oil, and one of a trillion fillings — that adds up to gastronomic magic

shabnam minwalla

Master-weavers such as Gajam Govardhan, who was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2011 for ikat dyeing of Telia Rumaal, and naver so often somebody — usually a tional awardees like the Salvi family, who are pesky daughter trying to push bedthe custodians of the Patan Patola weaving time — poses this most irritating of tradition of Gujarat, have succeeded in proquestions: What’s your favourite moting their works through collaborations food in the whole world? with designers.

Artisanal drape Handloom weave from Orissa courtesy: To which I shrug and mumble and shake my vriksh Nearly 50 master-weavers worked with dehead and eventually say “cake”. signer Ritu Kumar on her ‘Varanasi Weaves’ But — as I write this column — I suddenly recollection presented at the Lakme Fashion Home is something where theI craft is as much as alise there’s love quite Week 2015. Gaurang Shah’s ‘Kalpavriksha’ exKeyfruit highlights thewith Third Handloom Census of India 2009-10 fresh gateaufrom topped whipped cream hibition-cum-presentation was created with and strawberries.

The humble sandwich.

Or, in Jamdani master-weavers from Andhra Pra● Nearly 27.83 lakh households are engaged in handloom weaving and allied activities, recent not-so-humble desh and Bangladesh. with times, 87 perthe cent in rural areas.sandwich.

There’s just something about the concept — However, while master-weavers are at the ● About 10 per cent of handloom households belong to the Scheduled Castes (SCs), 22 two slices of bread, a smear of butter or olive helm of craft production and promotion in (STs), 41adds per up cent Other Backward Castes (OBCs). oil,per andcent oneScheduled of a trillionTribes fillings — that most clusters, the semi-skilled artisans, who Caramelised apple, grilled cheese Nearly 3 per cent The of the handloom households have idle looms.

Most of them are in to ● gastronomic magic. sandwich is the onmake up the majority of the craft population, & walnut sandwich ly dish know that has a serious food column often remain neglected, says textile designer rural Iareas. devoted to it.

The one food that simultaneousGunjan Jain of Vriksh. “Most craft-based deIngredient ● BPL (Below Poverty Line) households account for 57 per cent of the total handloom ly households. manages to rule the rasta, the little takesign houses, NGOs, government schemes and 1 tbsp butter 1 tbsp brown sugar aways, the chi chi cafes and even the fancy independent urban designers end up working ● Total weaver household units declined from 29.9 lakh of (during first handloom census) A dash cinnamon fine-dining restaurants.

A two-minute marvel with high-skilled weavers and craftspeople on apple (peeled, cored to andthe sliced) to holds 25.3 lakh and 22.6 lakh In contrast national that not (second just egg census) salad and lettuce, but (third 1census). design solutions for the urban consumer. We 2 thick slices of to cheddar cheese trend, the North-Eastern statesjourneys recorded an increase (14.6 lakh 15.1 lakh). also memories of picnics, train and need to work on simple design solutions that 2 slices of high-quality bread — quick mealsare between marathon examworkers papers.in the country, give the huge workforce of semi-skilled arti● There 43.31 lakh handloom of whom 36.33 lakh are in preferably white Indeed, when John Montagu, the fourth earl sans an opportunity to enter the urban marrural areas.

1 tbsp of walnuts of Sandwich, asked his servants to fetch him ket,” she says. ● Among adult (18 years and above) handloom workers, Method 77 per cent are female and slabs of meat between two slices of bread in She cites the success of Malkha (Andhra Pra1 Melt the butter in a non-stick they are mainly in rural areas. In contrast, a relatively higher proportion of male pan. the 1700s (legend has it that he was such a desh), Desi Trust (Karnataka), and Dastkar 2 Add the sugar and cinnamon and handloom workers are in urban areas. compulsive gambler that he could not bear to Andhra in enabling semi-skilled craftspersons cook until bubbly. ● Athe majority (60 per cent) the adult handloom3workforce has attained little or no leave cards table even for aofmeal) he could to take quality yet affordable handloom prodAdd the apples and sauté until schooling — 29 per that cent he of all handloom workers attended school, 13 tender, have aboutnever five minutes. never have imagined wasadult inventing ucts to the modern consumer.

Pile all thecompleted fillings on the breadschool, and per cent have studied belowtoprimary level, 18 per4cent have primary Britain’s greatest contribution gastronomy.

To achieve this and other goals, the sector grill5the untilsecondary golden brown 23 per school, 10 and per cent high school, persandwich cent higher and 2 The earlcent wasmiddle so incompetent corrupt needs massive investment, which remains on both sides, about two-four perhiscent are graduates or higher degree holders.

More handloom workers are educated that sneering critics wanted his epitaph to one of its biggest challenges as capital from minutes per side. read: “Seldom has any maninheld so states. many officin the North-East than other Uttar Pradesh (60 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (42 formal financial institutions remains elusive. es per and cent), accomplished little”.

This leaves it dependent on sources such as Karnatakaso(39 per cent) and West Bengal (37 per cent) report a high shutterstock But I, at least, willing to forgive himwho his have never attended school. bank loans, equity and donation. Moreover, in proportion of am adult handloom workers failures as a statesman and his trespasses as a order to attract large investments the sector husband — especially while biting into a cara- not all that exciting. But I remember cheering must certain like scale production, Nor boast do theyainnovate theofroadside sandattracts a mix melised apple, walnut and grilled cheese style everyBusinesses’, time the gaswhich cylinder got over andof—stube- which wouldaseliminate middlemen and put wich artists, they stand amidst hillocks of and young with sandwich. Or a classic bacon lettuce tomato dents tween making desperateentrepreneurs calls to Bharat Gas — the primary producers directly in cheese touch with grated beetroot, sliced capsicum, and and sustainable business (BLT) laced with garlic mayo. Or a pav stuffed craft-based my mother doled out makeshift meals ofideas. stod- investors buyers. carrot andand heaps of Wibs bread. At these busy youth joining workforce today with last night’s leftover — teriyaki chicken or “The gy bread, butter, andthe slices of tomato and are cu- stalls, Helpyou could take thesandwich form of model canpossibly sprinkle your with of ideas, and have a voracious appetite for handloom fried fish or aloo bhaji — sliced tomato, rings full cumber.

Over holidays we gobbled Railway clusters supported by the governsev or opt for the vaguely oriental Schezwan risk and experimentation.

If we could find of onion and dill pickle.

Sandwiches: Tangy-chutney-and-tomato af- ment, small saving schemes for artisans, resandwich.

You can experiment with a Russian to get them to see the difOr even while I’m standing at one of those ways fairs that were available at every bate and a relief fund to toastyscheme that certainly hasn’t made they can make to were the quaint sandwich bars in London, trying hard ference station. While the big treats cushion weavits way topoverty-stricken Mumbai via Moscow. sector, and —create signifito decide: the baguette or the croissant, the craft Club Sandwiches those toasted, ers fromthe market shocks.

Or even startling cheese Kurdifferentiated proposifinely sliced roast beef or the shrimp salad, the cantly three-layered beauties filled with Thesandwich. end-result of all endeavkure Over holidays we feelfried they could be here or the to-go. Or when I’m sighing over the tions…

We need simple chicken Iand eggs, tomato ours must be to the ensure arti-a I haven’t had gutsthat to try gobbled railway solutions for it. The internationmenu of one of those pretty little cafes that interested and lettucein that invariably col- design sans are sandwich, valued for but theirI skills Kurkure have sandwiches: Tangyhuge workforce of and audience very partial to the have sprung up in Indian metros, which offer al lapsed into anisinelegant mayonactivepeanut beneficiaries had become a deep-fried butter chutney-and-tomato semi-skilled artisans Kalamkari in Srikalahasti, Andhra Pradesh all manner of delights from chocolate-marsh- craft-based naise-y mess.products and those of wealth created through andthe jelly sandwich served with courtesy: jaypore affairs that were take up craft-based mallow sandwiches to smoked salmon and willing Later,towhile working in andeoftheir An and inclusive and ice sofried craft. bacon vanilla available at every a mark themdill on seven-grain bread to a juicy Philly sign fice, can we make ordered oilyfor omelette cially approach that cream.responsible It’s not an experiment I’m station with these At cheese steak sandwich. In fact, I send up grate- selves sandwiches and audiences. the Bombay supports through the planning producers to repeat anytime we encourage young deful thanks to that whist-loving Earl when I en- Jaypore Sandwich, which was plump entire value would soon. But it’schain taught me a strenglesson. in the craft sector to showcase their then both production counter virtually any sandwich except the signers with boiled potato, chutney, toand marketing Even the versatile sandwich and has throughmasalas, us,” she says. cellophane-flavoured creations sold on Ameri- creations mato, cucumber, carbs help leverageits traditional skills to create interlimitations.

In abacteria. show of interest from thein private sector, nationally competitive can trains and the jaw-dislocating three-slices- and These arrived craft products.

Key So when somebody offers you the Tata Trust and Harvard University of-salami-between-a-brick-of-bread doled out recently soggy newspaper parcels.

And although the stakeholders the government, a banana-mayoincluding sandwich or a bhelpuri sandSouth Asia Instituteisannounced that the handby tourist traps in Europe.

Bombay sandwich now a standard item on handloom financial instiwich, thinkexperts, twice. Indesigners, your place, I’d reach for and handloom would and be one of tutions, Of course, the sandwich has metamor- icrafts the menus of five-starsectors coffee shops charentrepreneurs, artisans or and livelithe tried and tested tuna sandwich even the areas take of focus for collaboration phosed dramatically since the time of that dis- their ming key eateries, a hint.

Only buy it ifon it hood organisations mustinstead. partner to achieve samosa chilli grilled one, creation and capacity reputable Earl. Or even since the gluey white knowledge comes packaged in newspaper orbuilding. served on a these goals. A shift from subsidy-based to marshabnam minwalladevelopment is a journalist and author of At the inauguration 40th edition of ket-led bread, butter and boiled chicken quickies of battered metal plate. of Thetheceramic-crockery sustainable is the possible.

Indian Handicrafts & Gifts don’t Fair (IHGF) Greaour childhood. and napkin crowd simply knowin how to The Strange Haunting of Model High School and The Shy Supergirl dhama is a Dubai-based journalist Telia Rumal, a dying craft form courtesy:offerings jaypore Noida insame October last year, Textiles Minister manika Certainly, those functional were ter achieve the zing.

E

Q R R

ND-X _ A

7 19BL BL

takeaway know

BL BL 20 4

saturday, december 5, 2015 saturday, december 5, 2015

Seat of splendour Coimbra, home to one of the oldest universities in the world, is a place of love, romance, wisdom and education majority are in Latin, while some are in Greek and Hebrew.

Fabio says that the library still depends on the age-old practice of using bats to protect books from insects that feed on paper. The only side effect is the bats’ excrement which is acidic and might damage the tables; so at the end of the day, the furniture is covered for protection. I am touched when Fabio arranges to show me rare Atlases with maps depicting India. I recognise Kannur in Kerala and other East and West Indian coastal towns where Vasco da Gama made his presence felt. My pictures, clicked through glass, may be Lest we forget Secularism is an important concept for those like Ambedkar and Periyar pti/subhav shukla imperfect, but are of rare value to me.

At the academic prison, which was originally an ancient jail that was found during excavations and later used to punish troublemaking students, Fabio sportingly poses as a convict behind bars while I click pictures. As we walk down the hill, through the old town, Pedro shows me the statue of Trikana with a pitcher, symbolising the pretty plebeian women who stole the heart of many a And welcome The ‘Iron Door’ where every fresher is received with a kick in the heels. (Right) The Johannine Library, an example of baroque grandeur vijaya pratap student. Poetry born out of this passion became fado and students of Coimbra sing fado ords matter. In a constitution, featured time and again in what the judiciary Ambedkar or Periyar.

In both that is distinct from the one these sung iterations, in Lisbon. s the car approaches which lays out the theriverfront architec- has Doorconstrued Square istowhere thea ‘basic ‘ripping act’ takes be such structure’ of secularism has been a considered concept — more notwithSung only by men, it is rocity ofture Coimbra, I look out curiousof state power, words the place after graduation.

Students Constitution, going as far back asassemble the Kesh- standing its melancholic, theoretical orwhile legalthat uncertainties mantic and of Lisbon ly, onlymatter to be overawed by the even more.

It’ssoarnot avananda here upon graduation celebrate with — case itself whichtowas decided years

by Ithose to is championed more cheerful. peep who into have a fewsought souvenir the 700-year-old surprisinging thentowers that theofnow familiar debate before friendsthe and family.

Their clothes are ripped argue 42nd amendment. for a listening social and that shops while to political the fado order that Pedro Coimbrathe University.

It looms on the hillaround word ‘secular’ in large the Preamble of apart, trousers, cassock, shirt and all, leaving heeds diverse array of interests, and argues gloats aabout. meaning top,Indian majestic and a bit intimidating.

Coimbra the Constitution would provoke heat- Wider only the shirt collar and the cloak which is to against a homogenising After the long walk, weand stopunitary at the idea foot of hasreactions. a distinguished place in Portuguese ed The question, however, ishistowhy Moreover, theone’s termdeath. ‘secular’ is notthe merely a le- what be kept until During ceremoit means to be Indian. the hill, for coffee and pastry at Pastelaria Briory ashow it isit matters. the country’s former capital. The gal and Thisof is especially in the caseon ofthe In- sa.Diversity nialone. tearing the cloak, true friends stand is not celebrated simply a liberal, We feastinonIndia Coimbra’s Pastel city’s centre streams Thedistinct, primaryhistoric argument against the down word dia. our political right, Like familymost on theterms left andingirlfriend or wife multicultural Rather, it has been politicTentugal — a wish. rectangular pastry filled with the hillside making a lovely setting, while the vocabulary, ‘secular’ in the Preamble is that it was includit is do a Western import.

In its modat the back and their share of ripping.

The ised sophisticated of represenegg, through cream and sugar, and alogics Santa Clara-pastry collage of buildings span 42nd nearlyAmendment a millenni- ern ed through the infamous sense, it denotes betweenwith the tation statues and the Irona separation Door are covered andegg, electoral democracy.

For this filled with cream and almond, previously um. it is known more for its historic to theToday Constitution during the Emergency, en- public of theand State and the private life of re- reason shreds life of black white cloth after this rituit isconvents. extremelyWell, unlikely that the present made in Coimbra scores on Coimbra University, is one ofintentions. the oldest ligion, acted with less thanwhich democratic represented by the al, saysas Pedro. will have either the gastronomygovernment too. in the world.

However, this oft-repeated fact reveals only American I see a doctrine number of of ‘sepagirls on the campus. votes or the political capital to exis a Hyderabad-based travel writer “Coimbra half the story.is a place of love, romance, wis- ration church and state’ was registered in vijaya pratap Thoughofthe first girl student punge the word ‘secular’ fromand the dom and education,” my guide After Emergency, thesays Morarji DesaiPedro, govern-a or (ina steady a different way) the started to come documentary filmmaker 1891, stream of them Preamble in the near future.

Constitutions former university student.

The 14th-century ment passed, with wide consultation, the 44th French of 30s.

Laïcité. in fromdoctrine 1920s and Now 55 per cent of the are not Nevertheless this does not lowjust come legal documents. love story ofinPedro Ines is the stillproblemremem- students Amendment orderand to set right But words ideas don’tstudents areand girls.

Indian to er the stake of the debate. ConstiThey shape the language tutions are not just legal bered in Coimbra, andConstitution young university atic alterations to the madestuby travel across continents and studies Coimbra mostly for medical as the our public dents dominate its cityscape.

Indira Gandhi. However, they never seriously times in a pristine condiuniversity boasts aofstrong medi-sphere, and documents. They shape the lanprovide the We drive removing past the University considered the word secular from tion. In 20th-century cal facultyIndia, and the city offers theframework Get guage there of our public sphere, and for our everyday Botanical Gardens and the Rothe Preamble. the concept best of secularism healthcare in Portugal. provide the framework forairlines our evLisbon is connected by major political man aqueduct. Atop themaintain, hill, the the The Nevertheless, critics termmajestic is wasdoor shaped through the the famous As we enter andclaims political claims.

Secularlike eryday Lufthansa and Swiss Air. Coimbra huge university buildings a of view, superfluous.

From a legaloffer point re-inscription particular battles our hismostofvisited Johannine Library, I in India by hastrain neverorbeen a mere has an can ism be reached by road: cool shade the sweltermoving any against of the Articles 14, 15, or 25 toexhorting 28 of tory geogra- at its baroque am awestruck legal concept.

Its presence or abtheand the specific it takes around two hours. ing Constitution heat. I see students in their the will do far more harm to the phy of our grandeur. society. AtThe anmajestic door has sence from the Preamble should Portuguese to use Staybe measured by future outcomes flowing ‘Capa e Batina’ (cloak rights of the minorities in the countrybooks than re-as weapons institutional anlevel, whatexhorting the Porinscription Hotel QuintaIts dasmeaning Lágrimasand is alocation luxury and cassock).

The from robe seems to moving ‘secular’ the Preamble. emerged is an often-imperfect ideal as of the of judicial tuguese to use books disputes. toMoreattain wisdom hotel set within 18th-century have inspired to creover, it’s notJK Rowling only the Preamble that state maintaining a distance from, and nonweapons to attain wisdom.

The have been a products of an a long political histopalacehas in been the heart of Coimbra. ate a similarthe one for thefeatures Harry of the Con- partisanship facade determines essential towardsisreligious relativelygroups. simple when ry. Its utility defined through The many Potter series. heritageofofthe thewhole ecstitution.

TheA design Constitupalace, handed down by Kings and However, the most significant use of secucompared to the opulence in- contentious battles. clesiastical cassock of medieval tion — where elements of a secular polity are larism in India has Three been asmagnificent a negative concept, side. square WordsEmperors, matter. They inina lawyer’s was matter restored all its artimes, present this dress almost amply — iswhen moreworn significant inreaches that re- to denote one’s opposition to certain political rooms have interesting frescos painted on the gumentglory to the courts.

But they matter much and is now a monumental the floor. student wraps the me in a cloak and gard.

ThisAalso disproves argument thatI visions. hasbook meant opposing the idea — prev- more ashotel ceilings;Itthe shelves contain 18th-centuconstitutive blocks the of alove political which honours story viposeoriginal for pictures withof a beaming group. In sigthe alent the drafters the Constitution sincecarving Independence at its strongest sion. In between ry golden and theand wood is effectively today’s India, with the noblewoman political claims the beautiful students’ briefcase are large coloured ribbons nalled their disapproval of secularism by leav- at the moment — of India as a Hindu Rashtra (a for a Hindu covered by gold leaf; some of them display polityPedro. becoming Inês demajoritarian Castro and Prince representing faculties which are Hindu ing it out of thedifferent Preamble. state). pyramid-shaped more aggressive, the argument for keeping Chinesemajoritarian drawings. Inverted Tip burnt duringthe theSupreme ‘BurningCourt of thefollowing Ribbons’ cerMoreover, the pillars Significantly, it has also been used(exclusive by those the word support the narrow balcony ‘secular’ in the Preamble is primarily Don’t romantic emonystructure’ at the enddoctrine of their study.

Montei- fighting ‘basic of the Fabio Kesavananda for the empowerment of the back- a political to the Portuguese baroque), and ladders one.miss As itthe should be. gardens of the hotel, where one can find the ro, a young us taken through the ward Bharati v. Statestudent, of Keralatakes case has it upon domination of upper whichcastes allowagainst access the to the upper shelves are Fountain of isTears, the spot College, where dasgupta a fellow at King’s famous Door’, the where every fresher is re- caste itself to ‘Iron determine essential and inviolaHindus.

In our exclusive focus on Nehrucleverly recessed into the bookshelves.

Cur- sandipto Inês was murdered, canofsee is writing a book on theone history the the ceived with a kick in the heels (a severe one in vian ble elements of India’s constitutional strucsecularism, we tend to forget howinimporrently, there are about 60,000 books the li- London and blood smeared stones even now. olden And timescertain but milder these days). The have Iron tant tures. aspects of secularism it was brary,aallconcept belonging priorforto someone 1755, and like the Indian Constitution

Words of matter

The meaning and location of ‘secular’ in the Constitution has been a product of a long and contentious political history

W A

Q

Q R

Travel log

R

ND-X _ A

know takeaway

saturday, december 5, 2015 saturday, december 5, 2015

Stories from a graveyard Walking the green path AGENDA

Even with a million dead souls and few hundred cats residing within its walls, this ‘elite’ Parisian cemetery barely rouses feelings of fear or unease Narendra Modi is seen as someone the West can do green business with, but we should not fall for the narrative that India can “make or break” the Paris negotiations Travel log Getting there

Major airlines operate flights to Paris sambuddha mitra mustafi

every A metro ride from the But for theday. model to be truly participative, city centre tohave Gambetta followed by solar energy would to become cheaper a short walk takes you to Père than conventional electricity (achieve grid parity),Lachaise. which would incentivise ordinary Indians toSightseeing set up solar panels on their roofs, reducing Look dependency energy. out for on the coal Mur powered des Fédérés According estimates, India is now (Walltoofexpert the Federalists/Communards’ three toWall) five years from parity, where,away on May 28,grid 1871, 147 potentially revolutionising its energy mix, and Communard insurgents fighting state taking a big step away from guzzling more oppression were gunned down and coal and oil for its growth. buried in a mass grave. There are India’s pledge to the Paris summit is a 2030 also memorials built to honour those target to reduce emissions by 33 to 35 per cent who died in Nazi concentration from 2005 levels and to draw 40 per cent of its camps during World War II. electricity from renewables by then. Modi Tipambitious targets India has set, to used the put theLeave ball back the court of theasdeveloped yourinheels at home there’s And they rest in peace Père Lachaise serves as the permanent resting place for some of the world’s best countries. advanced a lot“We of hope walking to do. nations will asknown luminaries who have lived or died in Paris images shutterstock sume ambitious targets and pursue them sincerely,” Modi said in his speech in Paris. “It is t was a grey morning and a persistent challenged as me, it barely led anywhere. I de- notSoaked just a question of historical to the bone, I searchedresponsibility. along rows of rain was determined to ruin my day. But I cided chance was my only friend.

They also the most room to make the cuts tombs forhave famous names, some of which carwas not going to let it. With an umbrella Founded in 1804, Père Lachaise was the an- ried and make the strongest impact.”and elaborate Baroque embellishments firmly in my grip and a pair of leaking swer to the painful lack of Parisian burial sculptures, And that some is true.

Those who say that chapIndia were designed as mini moccasins, I set out on my hunt for the earthly grounds. Nicolas Frochot, the first Prefect of els, will some “makewere or break” summit bedrapedthe inclimate touching epitaphs, remains of some of modern history’s icons at the Seine départment, was asked by Napoleon while cause others it is today the third largest net were elegant mounds ofpolluter marble Paris’s centuries-old Père Lachaise Cemetery. to turn a plot of hilly land, originally ocin the—world, cleverly ignore that our per capilike Marcel Proust’s.

The previous evening, while ambling about cupied by Jesuit priests, into a ta emission is among the Père lowest (155th) is in not the Of course, Lachaise the city’s 14th arrondissement, I took a stroll graveyard. Located on the eastworld, that theyour average American 10 regular burial emits ground. through the peaceful Montparnasse Cemete- ern fringe of the city, the times more and Steeped the average Chinese four in history, it guards ry. And as serendipitous surprises would have cemetery saw some drab times more than the average stories.

Indian. It And the a million serves their way, I found myself marvelling at the days when it first political resistance toasemission cuts in Amerithe permanent restcombined grave of French literary power cou- opened. In what would ca is much more vocal:ing it isplace a country hooked for some of ple Sartre Simone de Beauvoir. bePresident called aFrancois clever Hollande mar- with the former’s on everything big, where is celebrattheopulence world’s best known TheJean-Paul Modi model Primeand Minister Narendra Modi andAFrench pti Frobook Convenient Action: Gujarat’sBeckett.

ResponseThat to Challenges of Climate Change short walk away lay Samuel was keting move today, ed and being thrifty isluminaries considered who un-Amerihave all it took for me to plunge into Paris’s cemete- chot arranged for the can. Even now, the cuts being proposed lived or died in Parisby — ccording to of Thetowering New Yorkiron Times, Na- reburial ry scene and no mass lattice into whyofModi is being seen in the West as America are all relatedincluding the revered to new technology, and Gertrude rendra Modiwould will “make break (read Eiffel Tower) make orme do 17th-century someone they canFrench do green business with. The none call for a changeStein, in lifestyle.

Oscar Wilde and otherwise.Obama’s climate legacy” at the Paris playwright title of his book sets and the ambitious tone, takMolière India should continue to Chopin. push theBorn develFrédéric in COP21 negotiations.

“That India has the My earliest memories of graveyards go back ing equally off andfamous building ondeAl Gore’s acclaimed oped world on three Jean counts: should go France to a they French mother, positioned as the of develop- La to the timeitself when, as achampion mortally-frightened book Inconvenient Truths.

Fontaine, author of the faster on emissions reduction and compenJRD Tata was interred here in ing nations is no great surprise, on past teenager, I would quicken my based pace the mo- French Convenient with customary sate for emissions fables,Action withinstarts Père Lain poorer countries, 1993.growth The cemetery also houses climate saidwalls the report.

“But Mr Modi, ment thetalks,” decrepit of a local cemetery in chaise’s quotes from Vedas, and Ma- they should provide walls.the Soon, theVivekananda rich and greenoftechnology to the the graves French legends who wroteTollygunge an e-bookarea presenting Calcutta’s hovered the intomoral sight. the hatma Gandhi, followed by famous and the little-known developing world12th-century faster and such as the ill-fated case for action on of climate change, had been were Haunted by years neglect and overgrown somequeuing questionable poetry by up at the cemeterpay more to help likes ofBalInlovers Héloïse andthe Abélard, On a bright day there zac, seen byitAmerican policyonly makers a leader weeds, could induce fear. as Years later, y’s Modi himself (Sample: The doors to reserve a spot. Today, dia Eugène in theirDelacroix, emissionsSimone reducwould be old men who might breakthe that pattern.” while in college, South Park Street Cemete- nearly rainbowa blossoming in theremain sky/ million people tion. While should Signoret, YvesIndia Montand and not the capita emission magical sitting on these Modi,asalong withfrom French President Fran- interred ry As served a refuge countless yawn-inDrawing here circles of the colour in thelist Our per and waiting block a consensus at COP21, it Edith Piaf.

And, ifof isbenches among the andlowest young cois Hollande, international so- runs ducing lectureslaunched on the an history of English air). But if that doesto notmake throw long enough the emerges,Jimit Morrison, should also not course, whose in the world.

The walking their grave lar alliance of was 120 no countries Paris literature.

There fear then.in It was an on in- folks you off, youDelhi get into what the at the Gymkhana look mothers kowtow to theas developed has served not just a American emits shrine babies in strollers Monday, and The Guardian reported, Mo- away genious free substitute for“some lively see chatter author, prime minister, average in India’s embarrassment. world for whose fossil fuel1971, proflihis fans since but di as friends a cleanwhen energy enabler, to having with compared beingrapidly in the calls his answer to the Strangely, even with“dichotoa million 10 times more and the gacy at home hasdeemed got us to as a legit spot (as bythis his rolled out coffee more than solar energy dead expensive shops900MW that hadofmushroomed my between intersouls anddominant few hundred cats average Chinese four point, and whose colonisation drug-fuelled admirers) for intimes more than the across Gujarat around college. when he was chief minister residing ventionist model within its walls, PèreofLaabroad in meant countries dulging orgies.that It now stands average Indian there.”

Modi’s government is investing ini- chaise And then again, years later, I was inan Paris, development and decentralbarely roused feelings of like India after still French remained in barricaded authortial Paris, $30m for to aset up the tour solarand alliance’s headyes, three-day spent two of fear ised or participative model”: he it doubles as a ities took offence unease. To the contrary, need of high dosesdisplay of energy to at such radical of dequarters those in here. search of women and men, I’d only beautiful suggests his success in Gujarat park with shady trees and benches. votion. pull millions out of poverty.

At the launch this alliance, Modi was read, heard andof been long inspired by,phore- On came from day a unique “synthea bright there are old men sitting on So authorities while setting In 2011, the Paris builtambitious a protectographed with holding up aatcopy duced to dust inHollande, their graves.

Standing the these sis” of benches the two divergent models. and young mothers walking tive cleanglass energy goals is in our national health incase around Oscar Wilde’s tomb, of his bookofon environment, the one of Thequiet New their tall gates Père Lachaise, an oasis Solar energy, becauseWhen of itsI decentralised babies in strollers. visited, it was which terests,was India’s negotiators in Paris should not sculpted

by Jacob Epstein in comYork Times had60 reported about. has posi- silent with roughly miles of neat Modi cobblestonedproduction fits best into Modi’s exceptcapabilities, for the pitter-patter of rain and bined fall forEgyptian the Western narrative andmedia Art Deco style inthat 1912,India after tioned himself walkways, well as a green warrior the that and tree-lined in the bobo on (bour“synthesis”, much more from than large hydroelecoccasional whisper passing visitors. fans is thedefaced “make it orwith break” country in resulting these negolipstick kisses in globalbohemian) stage, and the (even the There geois chicWestern area ofmedia the Place Gamtric dams wind stations.

The well-publiwere or a few funerals in progress too. And severe tiations.

Modi “A does a life,” burdamage. kissnot mayowe ruinObama a human usually Modi-sceptic NYT betta neighbourhood, I feltand lost.The AndGuardian) the map it cised the across Charanka Solar Park in Wilde wassuccess when I of came the recently-dead nishedhad “climate legacy” as The New York Times once written.

It continues to batter have bought for thework moment. proved to beit hard after several false and Gujarat — grieving Asia’s biggest, 221 MW their friendsproducing and relatives did him put it. in death.

Modi’s Convenient Gujarat’sthat Response starts.

There were aAction: few arrows were guilt over 5,500 acresI hastened — was part ofwalk Modi’s “interseize me. my and realsambuddhamajumdar mitra mustafi is the founder of The is a freelance writer and to Challenges of Climate was first pubplanted at mouths of Change, lanes, supposedly to ised ventionist model”, an more ambitious, state-led that there were tourists than debashree Political Indian t editor currently living@some_buddha in Geneva lished in 2011,but andfor it provides good snapshot mourners help visitors, someoneaas directionally project that set the tone. around.

I

A

Q Q R R

ND-X _ A

5 BL 21 BL

explore know

BL BL 222

saturday, december 5, 2015 saturday, december 5, 2015

Maths on the mind It takes less than a second for Dilpreet Kaur to divide a fourdigit number by a two-digit one. Meet the schoolgirl who is in the Limca Book of Records for her speed division skills reached by a steep, narrow staircase. A railway at her school work,” says Simran. track runs behind the house, and every speed“She is a good student. We don’t want 99 per ing train shakes and rattles the walls ‘like an cent, the 88 per cent she scored is good earthquake,’ laughs Dilpreet’s father, Manjeet enough,” her parents say. They know her talSingh. He calls out her nickname — Khushi, ent lies elsewhere. They also know that she is meaning happiness — and a shy girl comes out almost at the peak of her ability. of the inner room, wearing a pink T-shirt Manjeet has been the driving force behind Zoomorphic calligraphy Here script transforms into an elephant courtesy century, Eastern Kufic which says ‘love lovebibliodyssey love angel.’World in letters Iran, his10th daughter’s success.

“Ifscript everywikicommons parent puts in From a list of numbers that she cannot see, an effort, all children will excel,” he says. It is Manjeet rattles a series of three digit numbers up to the parents to keep children engaged THE COMPASS CHRONICLES for her to add and subtract. Dilpreet listens, and nurture their skill, believes Manjeet. “Evand almost in a trance, rocks back and forth as erything is boring for kids, but parents have to her fingers work on an imaginary abacus. He get them interested.” Manjeet puts in that efstops after 20 numbers and she throws back fort and more; he is constantly setting new tarthe answer at him — 5,660. gets for Dilpreet, scanning the internet for Dilpreet is up at 5.30 every morning and new records, or else, checking the answer spends at least 30 minutes buildsheets of the 100 plus kids who ing her speed and accuracy bestudy at his centre. fore she goes to school. At the Dilpreet is reading Enid Blyspeed she works, that’s a lot of ton’s Secret Seven series now, Until now, she has numbers. “Until now, she has like other kids her age, she endone more than 35 he art of making accurate portraits done more than and 35 lakh to portrait backsums,” and forth over centuries. joys ‘Candy Crush,’ ‘Subway Surf’ aloof from the calligraphers of their lakh sums were not in the Islamic world had to wait unManjeet adds. He shouldAlain know,Fouad George went age. Architects Another historian and skipping.

There ismakers, no televiand astrolabe builders til the Mughal era in 15th-centuryhe In- hasfurther checked of that, her anandeach found “in the Qu’ran of Ama- of sundials sionor incelestial the house, smartphones globes — all used calligdia. Since early in its inceptionswers, in jur though withthe some help of the pen defines raphy in (876 AD), thickness are the form. only screen the kids are some A story7th in numbers Dilpreet Singh of living from centuryEvery AD —daythe depiction be- the his height wife, of Simran.

Their on the basis of the all the letters allowed watch butmanual she hasfor al- craftsWe know of atogeometry completes at and least 16 practiceinsheets, 200 ings persons Islamwhich was have discouraged, if Golden son eight-year-old Parmeet, also pitches in. He geoRatio.

Thereupon, by successive ready reached level 362 on Candy Crush. men written

by Abu al-Wafa’ al-Buzjani, and problems each saurabh yadav not outright forbidden. It was done to prevent whispers into his father ear that Khushi has metrical steps, the whole page is constructed.”

Dilpreet is geared upwrote for today’s competiAbû Sahl al-Qûhî of a ‘perfect compass’ mortals from coming between man and got his twoBysums out of the 200 wrong! last architreating calligraphic spaceIn asthe cosmic tion, but record has thatthe could draw notalso onlybrought circles —with but it paraboGod — the invisible fabric of the universe. This six years, the only haswhisper taken that tecture, the breaks artists Dilpreet seemed to the pressure to excel consistently. Manjeet las, ellipses and hyperbolas. oday, 10,000 children fromtook 57 countheological constraint slowly the formfrom of her maths are fiveofdays in June “letters arelessons the elements the body of God.” howeverOne believes, “The pressure on the oth-way to might imagine thatisKufic gave tries will arabesque compete intradition a test of of maths an intricate, geometric every year, the did family visitssacred Punjab.

If when so, why these Platonic eleer kids.

Dilpreet has already everyone Naskhi simply becauseshown the artisans now had in Delhi.which As children sit inin batches calligraphy is unique world of culture.From their (or home, Manjeet runs an institute, from ments atoms?) become transformed what she can do. Six yearsinstruments ago, sitting in more sophisticated andthe a larger 2,000 to first select a winner, One of the distinct stylesDilpreet to emerge was a franchisee of a Malaysian rectangles to curves, firm as ifthat theyteaches were forces same examination hall in Delhi, she Sometimes had lost the variety of lines to choose from.

Kaur, athe 14-year oldKufic, fromcharacterised Kanpur, is a clear fa- rectsquare by sharp mentalplaying arithmetic children aged four to 13. her nerve withto matter? comeresembled out crying.

Thatwith will not Kuficand letters cities minarets, vouriteangles to win International Abacus & The kids use andthe linear cityscapes of tall, microcosabacussuggests initially,that and upon reac- Naskh Onean theory the flowy happen again. willeasily add to collection of the ilbut they We could bethe arranged to give Mentalmic Arithmetic Competition. is init held minarets.

For four-fiveDilpreet centuries, hing astyle certain work nib outallowed complicated withlevel, its slanted faster copytrophies that of weahave.” lusion face or a horse, a sunset. Enough the Limca of Records, national record from swayBook on the scripturea and architecture sums mentally. ing of the manuscripts, and resulted in more evidence of zoomorphic calligraphy exists — saurabh yadav cranes, tigers, elephants, peacocks holderAfrica in speed division. The class VIIIanstudent to Andalusia.

And then entirely newDilpreet was always quick with compact manuscripts.

That numbers, may have been depicting from Huddard High School Kanpur has specie began to take over,inreplete with looping but now ‘photographic memory,’art aswas herclearly and soldiers — by cleverly arranging only the oneher factor, but this calligraphic been recognised her exceptional in Naskcurves andfor flowing movement skills — called dad calls takes over. works Before on her letters prac- were alphabet. Christopher Vitale remarks that notit,simply aboutShe writing. dividing numbers by two-digit hi.four-digit Under what circumstances did ones this mystetice sheets not distracted our talking put and on is parchment, theybywere “..various Islamic calligraphies (eg 1170 divided 78). She solved 100 such from rious and by remarkable transformation voices.drafted Every day she completes with lines and at a least base 16 pagwere disciplined by the state, onproblems in to 96movement seconds, taking less than a sec- es withstructure stasis take place?

200 problems The day’s which each. was later ren- work ly to keep having various images ond to solve each get intosubject the record books. done, Since theto principal of calligraphy al- Dilpreet is off to take her afternoon dered invisible.

The designs nap. arise from their edges...there was This calligraphic art In a ways little remained lane off the road, Dilpreet’s theMall divine word of God, copy-“Sheranged has always been focussed.

We never from linear, circular and a constant attempt to tame lines was clearly not simply and their voids, to keep images familying livesofinthe a modest house, Qu’ransecond-floor gave rise to numerous had to triangular tell her to study, now we don’t look stackseven to kaleidoscopabout writing questions involving geometry, beauty and the- ic pentagonal tessellations. The from creeping into words and ology itself. “Should all copies be written in ex- construction of these geometric words from exploding into imagactly the same way? Should they all have same designs required compasses, es, to prevent figures dissolving number of lines? Could words be broken at rulers and sophisticated theoback into patterns.” the end of a line and continue onto the follow- rems of algebra.

Or it may be that the transition ing one? On these points there appears to have How to draw a perfect circle upon a giant from Kufic to Naskh reflected the undercurbeen no general consensus at first. Eventually, horizontal wall? How to divide a circle into a rent in medieval physics — from statics to dyhowever, Qu’rans came to be copied out in hexagon or pentagon? How many ways to tile namics, from matter to forces. The new script odd numbers of lines and the splitting up of a plane? (They knew all the 17 possible ways). had this curious interplay between the elewords was forbidden,” writes historian David Hexagons and squares can tile a plane, but ments, or as Ernest Fenollosa wrote in his James. The structure of these Qu’rans hints at pentagons don’t — and yet such complexity ex- beautiful but flawed study of Chinese characnumber-mysticism and atomism very similar ists in Isfahan at the Darb-e-Imam shrine. ters — “...our lines of cleavage fail, one part of to ancient Greek philosophers like Euclid and These ‘girih patterns’ are known to us today as speech acts for another. They act for one anPlato, whose works were also being studied quasicrystals, one example being the famous other because they were originally one and and translated during this period.

Penrose tiling. the same.”

Historian François Déroche noted a tendenScientists, astronomers and mathematicy of the width/height ratios to be in the vicin- cians in this region — such as Al Khwarizmi, Al rohit gupta explores the history of science as ity of 1.5 (landscape), which later was switched Kindi, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, and Thabit ibn Qurra Compasswallah t@fadesingh

The Platonic verses Q R

How the history of calligraphic Qu’rans reveals the development of geometry

rohit gupta

T

T

Q R

ND-X _ A

shutterstock

meet scan

saturday, december 5, 2015 saturday, december 5, 2015

Too hot to handle

Tick ‘T’ in Kerala

Russian administrator fired From a state notorious for ill-treating its transgender citizens comes a progressive policy for being ‘too sexy’ that aims to protect the rights of sexual minorities

T

hirty-year-old Russian Eleonora Verbitskaya, who worked as a bureaucrat at the Administrative Infringements Enforcement Office in St Petersburg, found out the hard way that while hotness might ensure that doors are opened for you, it can also get you fired. Her bosses summarily removed her from office last week after a photoshoot to promote her DJ avatar Ellis Sexton was deemed too provocative.

Her lawyer, Maxim Youshin, said that the termination was against Russian laws and that she was basically fired for “being too sexy”. Youshin also added that Verbitskaya had posed for the photoshoot on her own time and had never dressed inappropriately for work.

Dust to dust Last Indian king dies in Odisha in penury

W Did she?

Didn’t she?

Kim Jong-un’s aunt sues defectors

Pope MC Francis to the rescue

P

ope Francis was recently photographed holding a microphone like veteran rapper Eminem. Needless to say, the internet lost no time in posting the picture with appropriate lyrics. One of the most retweeted captions channelised the opening lines of Lose yourself, Eminem’s Oscar-winning song from the film 8 Mile. “Psalms are sweaty / Knees weak from genuflecting / Vomit on his vestment already / Mother Teresa’s spaghetti”. The Notorious BIG and his song It Was All A Dream also made an appearance: “It was all a dream / I used to read Luke 4:17 / Virgin Mary and Moses / looking over my papal mezzanine.”

everyday existence — harassment, violence, rape, discrimination, unemployment and high suicide rates

Honey Singh as auditory scarecrow

kk mustafah

o Yong Suk, the aunt of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, has filumiliated harassed by peers ed aand defamation suit against three which accepts transgenders as equals to men ment departments and public authorities exand teachers, Seethal had living defectors who Smintoj are currently in and women and promises positive steps to tend a non-discriminatory treatment to TGs’ dropped out of school in defectors class IX. allegedly South Korea.

The correct the social disability of the community. and ‘provide barrier-free access to education, At home and false in thestatements village bazaar, made about Suk unpublic transport, health, social security and to change the taunts had hurt her deeply: ‘Walk like aand Open dergoing plastic surgery forcing other services.’ Transgenders will be included boy, idiot; behave Kim like Jong-un’s a boy, stupid.’

“I didn’tout of half-brother In North tune with the Supreme Court’s historical in all application forms for services, he government of Uttarakhand is duly grateful to Honey Singh. employAnd not know that I really behaved like a girl.to But every sheverdict Korea. According reports, is seek-on transgendersjust on April 15, 2014, the customary ment and government benefits asthe third genfor providing shaadi music and making lives of time I heard the rebuke, I felt insulted, humili-in damages ing $60 million (£34,000) ‘State Policy for Transgenders Kerala 2015’ (Male, Female or Transgender deejays easy.inBut to scare awayder wild boars.

Yes, you heard right. — M/F/T). ated, angry, sad, insecure and defendants. lonely,” recalls from three The case has reads: “This policy emphasises of Thethe policy proposesfields to set TG Justice Wild boarsthe haverights been destroying agricultural of up thearegion for a Smintoj, now 33. Born family court beeninto filedainChristian a South Korean TGsintoSe-self-identify while as man, woman or TGs...” sanctioned Board andaJustice Committee in the districts now.

The government mass cull, but the animals proved in a village in Kerala’s district, Smin-SukHailing oul. Thrissur Interestingly, Ko Yong is a de- the initiative, Faisal “It’sSo myHoney to ensure transgenders rights a little tooasserts, tenacious.

Singh was brought in.

Evenare theimplementwild boars toj remembers having male name and donfectora herself.

She sought asylum in the right to decide whatran myfor gender issues/ Peelo of discrimination, ha-/ coveris”. when they hearded ‘I’mand oneaddress bottle down mere saath mein ning male clothes, be US inbut 1998preferring when KimtoJong-un’s father, “To my knowledge, is the time in karun rassment and blaring violence.

The Social Welfare Dinthis mein sotafirst hoon / Party raat mein’ on loudspeakers in the around other girls.Kim Jong-il, was in power. the world that a government has come out Department will, in partnership with NGOs, middle of the night.

After fleeing home, “It was in Bangalore that with an official transgender policy,” says Anil set up a round-the-clock helpline for transgenI realised I was a transgender,” says Smintoj. Chilla, a former vice-president of Sangama ders. The government will create a special The Garden City has for decades been the first and the secretary of the Thiruvananthapu- fund for free Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) refuge of young transgenders fleeing hostility ram-based NGO Chilla. He was involved in the for those seeking it. The policy also proposes a in Kerala. The awareness of sexual identity led survey of transgenders commissioned by the number of health and education benefits. to a name change to the female Seethal years Kerala Social Welfare Department, as well as in Officials said the government was also conlater. (The surname came from a life partner drafting the policy based on the survey. sidering setting aside a sub-quota of two permuch later.)

More than 4,000 transgencentage within the current quotas For a living, Smintoj had resorted to the lim- ders were surveyed, bringing to for SCs, STs and OBCs so that transited options available to transgenders in India light the harsh realities of their genders from these reserved com— begging, street dancing and sex work — be- everyday existence — harassmunities would be entitled to The humiliation fore becoming a volunteer at the Bengaluru- ment, violence from police and special quotas in education and begins at home based NGO Sangama, which works for the wel- others, rape, extreme discrimiemployment. fare of sexual minorities. Returning to Kerala nation, unemployment and a Sarat Cheloor, a sexual-minority several years on, Smintoj found the social high suicide rate. All the transrights activist welcomes the polilandscape had not changed much for genders surveyed had endured cy but cautions that ‘the proof of transgenders. at least one experience of being pudding is in eating’. “It is a very “For a transgender, Kerala is the worst State denied a job because of their gender identity; progressive and positive initiative by the Kerato be in. In this patriarchal society, there are 89 per cent had been mistreated at their work- la Government. But it should be translated inonly men and women; transgenders don’t ex- place; 51 per cent had concealed their gender to action.” Since any implementation requires ist at all,” says Faisal, 28, who had to flee school identity from their families; and 58 per cent coordinated efforts from a host of governand home in the face of harassment and hu- were school dropouts. Anil Chilla pointed out ment departments — police, social welfare, miliation in his coastal village near Chavak- that two-thirds of the transgenders surveyed health, education, law, local self-government kad in Thrissur district. “The humiliation had been forced to marry women and one- and so on — the community is cautiously optibegins at home — parents disown you, siblings fourth among them had children too. But as mistic for now. Cheloor also wishes that the are ashamed of you and you are indirectly women trapped in men’s bodies, they were policy had included a sensitisation proasked to leave home for good.” He too found suffocating in their marital life. gramme to change social attitudes to transrefuge in Bengaluru before returning to KeraWith its policy, Kerala aims to secure for genders. Smintoj, on the other hand, prefers la as a transgender activist. transgenders ‘the right to live with dignity to look on the brighter side, and says that havToday, he and Smintoj, pioneers of the and enjoy a life free from all forms of violence; ing such a State policy in itself is a great leap Queer Pride parade in Kerala, are suddenly the right to freedom of expression in all mat- forward for the transgender community in hopeful of a change in social attitude and a ters that affect them; and equal rights to ac- Kerala: “At least the next generation of TGs will tolerable existence for the transgender com- cess development opportunities, resources be able to live with dignity.” munity. In a first for the country, the Kerala and benefits.’ government recently announced a policy It plans to do this by ensuring ‘all govern- kpm basheer

H

Holy rap!

K

hen you think monarchs, you think of royal funerals. But when Brajraj Kshatriya Birbar Chamupati Singh Mahapatra, the 94year-old erstwhile king of Tigiria, passed away last week, all he had above him was an asbestos roof. Mahapatra had been living in a hut in Puruna Tigiria village in Cuttack district since 1987. He was lastlife surThethe tough A viving royal to have signed a treaty with the Indian government survey ofin the1947, merging his princely state with the union. Denied the annual pension transgenders in Kerala brought forth the given to ex-royals, the ‘king’ and his family had to depend on the generosity of the villagers. He is survived by his wife and twoharsh sons.realities of their

Honey-one. Wild boars-zero

T

Q R

ND-X _ A

3 23BL BL

hang

saturday, december 5, 2015

BL

24

in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

O

n December 1 this year, Rahul Dravid delivered the third edition of the Pataudi Memorial Lecture instituted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. This quiz is about famous speeches.

And they spoke

1 2

Who delivered the first MAK Pataudi Memorial lecture in 2013?

Which ancient Greek was famous for his five Catiline speeches which are regularly quoted even now?

3

Which great 19th century speech was delivered in a cemetery, had many similarities to Pericles’ funeral oration and has five existing manuscripts, all of which differ slightly from one another?

4

Though it probably bears little similarity to what was actually said that day, which famous speech in a film was supposed to have been delivered on June 24, 1995. Name the film.

5

In the ’50s, who delivered the longest speech ever on behalf of India to the UN Security Council?

6

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was renowned for his wartime rhetoric. Which group of people was he referring to in his speech to the parliament in August 1940 when he said, “Never in the history of mankind has so much been owed to so few?”

7

Some of the most famous addresses in legal history were delivered by William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow during an important case in the US in 1925. What were they arguing about?

8

On August 28, 2013, three American Presidents, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, gathered in Washington to commemorate which famous event in American history?

9

Amitabh Bachchan delivered one of the funniest speeches ever about his English speaking abilities in the ’80s hit Namak Halal.

Which two Pakistani cricketers were mentioned in the speech?

here,there & elsewhere

Party, party!

the week after Thanksgiving and friend Muriel decides that she’s Inott’smyhad enough cooking and hostessing. So she plans an elaborate Ladies’ Tea Party. Actually, I am severely mis-reporting the situation: she’s been planning this party for MONTHS. I am one of her few friends who have been in on the secret. The rest only hear about it when they get her invitation, complete with RSVP card, in the mail 10 days in advance of the date.

Muriel has painstakingly created her invites on good card-stock, then added individual collages of pictures from the internet, which she printed and cut out. The pictures are of women wearing 1950’s fashions. The reason?

“Fifties Fashions” is the theme of the party, to be worn with hat and gloves.

Bins is so excited at the prospect of attending a party surrounded by ladies in fancy dress that he’s truly outraged to hear that his male presence is not welcome! “It’s so unfair!” he whines to me, “so SEXIST!” I nod and grin, wholly unsympathetic!

The day chosen for the party is a Sunday, at 2.30 in the afternoon. I don’t ever wear dresses, so Muriel allows me to be the exotic foreign guest, wearing a kaftan. Of course, I don’t have a real kaftan EITHER, but I

do my best, using my longest and most floaty outfit, plus a blue wig. Yes. Blue.

Because I don’t have a fancy hat nor am I going to buy one just for the party. So a cheap Halloween wig, it seems to me, is a crazy enough compromise.

Of course, I have discussed all of this with Muriel in advance and I go to her house ahead of schedule so that I don’t have to wander the streets of Elsewhere looking like a blue-haired ghoul who lost her way back to the Underworld. When I enter the party-venue, I am completely blown away by Muriel’s preparations!

Within the space of her dining room, she has set up a pink-and-white wonderland of tables decorated with

place-settings, cake-stands and tearelated crockery.

Giant pink-paper chrysanthemums and stars hang from the ceiling. The cake-stands are groaning with cookies, cakes and sandwiches. Each of the 14 guests has her own place setting, with a cut-out of a ’50s style lady holding the beautifully calligraphed name-card.

There are jars of candy, lacy white doilies, porcelain cups and fancy teapots. When the ladies start to arrive they respond with loud whoops of appreciation. The average age is 60, with 85 at one end of the spectrum and 41 at the other. But we’re like a bunch of shrieking schoolgirls, hatted, gloved and talking loudly while diving into the goodies.

Muriel has even provided entertainment of sorts with riddles, funny facts and interesting conundrums to read out loud. But the group’s high spirits are soon augmented with home-made Limoncello and the walls shake with high-pitched chatter and raucous laughter. My cheeks are creaking with smiles by the time I leave, carrying a “wapsi” bag full of home-made candy. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

cornerstone

10

Which 2010 Academy Award-winning film ends with an address from Buckingham Palace in 1939 declaring hostilities against the state of Germany and starting World War II?

Answers 1. Former captain and teammate Sunil Gavaskar 2. Cicero, believed to have introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy 3. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address 4. Matt Damon as the South African rugby captain Francois Pienaar, asking his players to ‘listen to your country’, immortalised in the film Invictus 5. VK Krishna Menon, to block the passage of a resolution. Apparently, he did not once repeat himself over those eight hours 6. The pilots and crew of the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain 7. The Theory of Evolution. John Scopes was accused of teaching evolution in his school 8. The 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s epic speech ‘I have a dream’ 9. Wasim Raja and Wasim Bari — the dialogues were written by a young Kader Khan 10. The Kings Speech — which was all about King George V and his speech therapist Lionel Logue

ND-X _ A

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

Reach us at blink@thehindu.co.in. Follow us: t@Ink_BL f facebook.com/hbl.blink

www.businessline.in/blink