JULY 7, 2012 Rs 10 SAMPLE EDITION NOT FOR SALE
talk the intelligent bangalorean’s must-read weekly
Remembering Shantaveri Gopala Gowda, fearless crusader P7
Mathematics PhDs enjoy a dream run on stock trading floors, leaving old-school finance wizards in tears P20
God particle experiment: Talk was there P3
Vinyl romance returns to Bangalore P4
NEW
The Financial
EXPERT Illustration: Vivek Arun
To subscribe SMS TALK <space> SUB <space> YOUR NAME to 56767. Details on page 17
Deepika, on growing up as a Padukone P30
Printed and published by Sumith Kombra on behalf of Shakthi Media Ventures India Pvt Ltd - FF70, Gold Towers, Residency Road, Bangalore -560025. Editor: SR Ramakrishna. Editorial Office: FF70, Gold Towers, Residency Road, Bangalore 560025 Email: info@talkmag.in Phone: 08049332100, 08040926658. Š All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without permission is prohibited.
god article
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
TO CERN WITH LOVE: The cosmic dance of Nataraja is an inspiration to particle physicists worldwide. The Geneva lab proudly displays this image, gifted by the Indian government
Editor Talks
Prashanth G N brings you a first-hand account of all the action at the institute that went looking for the origins of the universe
Nataraja in Geneva
T
PULAO BULAO
The CERN cafeteria keeps in mind the tastes of the many Indian scientists who work there. On the table was ‘mixed vegetable rice’ with a variety of chilli sauces. The rice was similar to our vegetable pulao. Meat, chicken and sea food was also on offer for the continental palate. Our reporter lunched in the privileged company of some of the world’s greatest scientists.
he discovery of the ‘God particle’ or Higgs Boson is about to explain the birth of the universe. I got to see, from close quarters, how the scientists worked to get there. After a long bus journey from Turin, Italy, I arrived at Geneva, Switzerland, via Mont Blanc, one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the world. On the road from Geneva to CERN, lush green fields often made way for dazzling sunflower fields. Not once could I imagine that the earth under these fields would soon experience the world's most powerful human-created explosion. Once at the institute, I took a lift to travel 100 metres below the ground to get into the CERN lab and tunnel. The security is high at the entrance. Once Talk inside, I got to see a was huge iron and steel there! tube within a concrete structure. The tube runs endlessly, covering an area of 27 km, and it is a circle. Not only is the LHC the world’s largest particle accelerator, just one-eighth of its cryogenic distribution system would qualify as the world’s largest fridge. I got to touch the magnets, again made of steel, many of which had come from India, Bangalore in particular, but no one was allowed to climb onto the tube or get into it: after all, electro-magnetic forces are at work. At the entrance of the tunnel, CERN scientists explained the col-
03
lision process to me, and took me around the entire laboratory, demonstrating the workings of the small detectors. The control room is animated – discussions abound – and all of this is informal, receptive and academically inspiring. The CERN cafeteria is a hub of activity — with scores of scientists engrossed in informal discussions. A sense of purpose and discipline is apparent alongside the informality. I was fortunate to share coffee with a host of scientists at the cafeteria. On the way back to board the bus, I noticed an unusual landmark – a tall statue of Nataraja, or the lord of dance. The statue, symbolising Shiva’s cosmic dance of creation and destruction, was given to CERN by the Indian government
The writer at CERN
on June 18, 2004, to celebrate the research centre’s long association with India. The renowned writer Fritjof Capra says on his site that in choosing the image of Nataraja, the Indian government had acknowledged the significance of the metaphor of Shiva’s dance for the cosmic dance of subatomic particles, observed and analysed by CERN’s physicists. The parallel was first discussed by Capra in an arti-
cle titled The Dance of Shiva: The Hindu View of Matter in the Light of Modern Physics, published in Main Currents in Modern Thought in 1972. Shiva’s dance then became a central metaphor in his international bestseller The Tao of Physics, published in 1975 and still in print in over 40 editions around the world. A special plaque next to the Nataraja statue quotes extensively from The Tao of Physics. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, seeing beyond the unsurpassed rhythm, beauty, power and grace of the Nataraja, once wrote, “It is the clearest image of the activity of God which any art or religion can boast of.” More recently, Capra explained, “Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is not only manifest in the turn of the seasons and in the birth and death of all living creatures, but is also the very essence of inorganic matter… For the modern physicists, then, Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter.” He concluded: “Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created visual images of dancing Shivas in a beautiful series of bronzes. In our time, physicists have used the most advanced technology to portray the patterns of the cosmic dance. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern physics.” A thought crossed my mind on the journey to Geneva: Who would have expected an Indian God to be at the heart of the world’s largest physics experiment?
We are delighted to place this sample edition of Talk in your hands. When our team set out to do a weekly — and there aren’t too many in English in our city — we asked ourselves what we should cover, and how. The focus of our magazine is Bangalore, a city that defies classification, and changes every day in apparent and subtle ways. As history tells us, Bangalore is actually two cities: the old pete founded by Kempe Gowda and shaped by the gentle classicism of princely Mysore, and the more Westernised, outgoing Cantonment. For captains of the IT industry, this is a business-friendly city with an energetic and talented workforce. (Thomas Friedman, the famous New York Times columnist, believes engineering colleges from Bangalore’s outposts powered India’s big IT revolution). For marketers, we are a city of big earners and big spenders. But that’s not all. The city lives and breathes in many nooks and crannies, in many languages and many communities. We hope to capture the vibrancy of the many cities within this city, and chase stories our esteemed seniors in the business couldn’t, or wouldn’t. Talk brings you news, analysis, and entertainment. We will do our best to deliver writing that is well researched and thoughtfully presented. Do let us know what you think about our sample fare, and what else you would like in Talk that would enhance your reading pleasure. We will take up serious subjects, but at the same time, we won’t be apologetic about making our magazine a fun read. Our team has enjoyed producing this edition for you. We hit the stands in a more formal fashion in August. Till then, happy reading. And may we say we are thrilled to be talking with you! S R Ramakrishna ram@talkmag.in
record romance
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
04
The return of vinyl Ramesh Hunsur
LPs are back at the Bangalore music stores, and lovers of analogue are thrilled to bits
S R RAMAKRISHNA
S
PLAY IT AGAIN: At Jayanagar’s Calypso, a music buff checks out the vinyl collection. Below: After three decades, record players are back on the shelves of Bangalore stores
everal music stores in Bangalore now stock LPs, and people familiar with vinyl are celebrating the return of a richer sonic experience. Customers who walk in looking for LPs are usually between 40 and 50. “They ask for specific titles. They are musically well informed and have a thorough knowledge of the technology as well,” says Vikas Chawla, managing partner of Calypso, a music store in Jayanagar. Besides Calypso, Reliance Time Out and Landmark also showcase small collections of vinyl records. The titles don’t exceed two dozen, but draw customers steadily. The revival of vinyl began two years ago, thanks to the import and marketing of records, and the appearance of record players at the stores. For decades, music lovers couldn’t listen to LPs because the styluses of their old players were in bad repair, and no new record players were available on the market. Since 2010, those problems have begun to vanish, and the yearning for analogue sound is being fulfilled, but it costs good money. What’s an LP? Given the predominance of people below 40 in India, it’s likely many will ask you this question if you rave about the warmth of music on a vinyl record. Let’s look at the lineage: LP is short for long playing
record, and is the illustrious grandfather of the digital CD. In India, as elsewhere, after the LPs came cassettes, which were followed by the compact disk or what we know as the CD. As CDs rose to prominence as the preferred medium of music, cassettes faded away. CDs, as those of us who listen to music online know, are now making way for streaming and mp3 downloads. Sales have gone up in the last two years, especially after 2011, and Bangalore is the third largest market among Indian metros for vinyl records, the first and second being Mumbai and Delhi. Adarsh Gupta, sales head of the music label RPG Saregama, says movie titles like Mughal-e-Azam, Pakeezah and Silsila are back in demand. Indian labels are getting their records pressed in Germany, as the Kolkata factory for producing vinyl records shut down some decades ago, when demand for vinyl dipped. Some new records are also coming out. Kailash Kher’s album Kailasa, and movie albums from the 1990s, like Maachis, are also on offer. Stores display imported pop, rock and jazz albums. Michael Jackson, Abba, Metallica, Cold Play and Herbie Hancock are among the artistes you will find at the Bangalore stores. Virgin, EMI, Universal and Sony are the international labels with a signifi-
cant presence at the Bangalore music stores. Sameul F John, floor manager at Planet M, says vinyl sales could be better if only some effort went into marketing and publicity. “Only musicians and vinyl record collectors now come looking for vinyl,” he says. Prices start from Rs 795 for Indian titles, and go up to 2,250 for imports. Double albums from an international label cost close to Rs 5,000. In recent months, stores like Calypso and Reliance Time Out have begun stocking record players (also called turntables). The options aren’t wide, but if you have a particular model in mind, they offer to source it for you. Vinyl records sound better than CDs. Also, music in the vinyl era was recorded live and with natural instruments, and not produced digitally. James J
Music composer, Indiranagar
NRI relative to bring you one of those players. In the US, the revival is better documented. Since 2010, stores there have sold 28 lakh records. Nielsen SoundScan, a survey agency, described vinyl as the fastest growing musical format this year. The Amazon online store in the UK stocks 2.5 lakh records to meet the growing demand. Indian labels are not very forthcoming with numbers, but they did tell us business was looking up. The low-end Denon model comes for Rs 9,900, and will suffice if you just want to listen to LPs, while the top model costs Rs 23,400, and can digitise and directly record songs on to a thumb drive. Vinyl technology comes from an earlier era, and younger music lovers hooked to iPods and digital formats have no exposure to its fabled richness. But many Bangalore audiophiles are convinced the beauty of vinyl can never be matched by digital, however sophisticated the latter technology may get. It is not just nostalgia; the romance of vinyl lives on. Second hand records are available near Avenue Road, but for a really extensive footpath collection, you will have to go to Mumbai. For the aficionados, the cost of new records is no object. They feel they aren’t splurging, just contributing to the cause of good music.
Lenco and Denon are the most easily available turntables in Bangalore. ProFX at Barton Centre, which deals in Denon, sells two or three turntables a month. That may not sound like a lot, but just over two years ago, no store in Bangalore was selling any equipment that could play LPs, and you’d have had to pester an (With inputs from Sandra Fernandes)
net debate
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
New web of worry Free speech frontier to some, anarchy’s own country to others, the Net has always been contested territory. Prashanth G N gives an overview of the freedom vs control controversy
T
he recent crackdown on filesharing websites by the US government has upped the stakes in the fight for the control of the Internet, and the impact is being felt in India as well. The first volley was fired by central information technology minister Kapil Sibal, who called upon social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter to remove “offensive content” posted by their users. Then came the Madras High Court order that wanted all file and video-sharing websites blocked. A related concern is monitoring and recording of private online communication by intelligence and police agencies. The question users and Net freedom votaries are asking is how such arbitrary action can be checked.
Offence vs free speech The second issue, the one that got Sibal all upset, concerns arbitrary removal of content deemed ‘offensive’. The government’s guidelines say that if any material is offensive, disparaging or blasphemous, a notice can be served, to which the website publisher must reply within 36 hours. The websites can either remove the content or explain why the content remains published. Internet activists say ISPs have been blocking all content that may even remotely be deemed offensive, in a case of over-compliance. The words ‘offensive’, ‘disparaging’ and ‘blasphemous’ need to be clearly defined. What if ‘objectionable’ refers to legitimate protest, they ask. The activists also raise the question of whether 36 hours is enough time to investigate the material. Against this must be set the sizeable presence of blatant and subtle online content that is genuinely offensive. Government, as the institution responsible for law and order, does have a legitimate point in attempting to curb offensive remarks that could trigger social disharmony or conflict. No freedom is absolute anywhere in the world, those who hold this view point out. The activists, however, fear that such regulation may be a pretext to curtail criticism of the government.
Privacy vs security
The third issue centres around monitoring of private content by state agencies. Why are file-sharing websites blocked? Perhaps this is the most serious of all Internet-related issues, This happened for the but unlike in the West, first time when produc- There is a move to curb it receives little atteners of the Tamil film, 3 freedom of the Net. tion here. The IT Act (Moonu), approached Specific definitions of objectionable or offensive (Amendment) 2008, the Madras High Court content are required to gives the Indian state seeking restraining eliminate subjective the power to demand orders on websites opinion and ambiguity. Lawrence Liang information about priuploading the film. vate, individual users Incidentally, the film Alternative Law Forum had benefited hugely from the freedom to and the content they communicate from share, and a video showing the recording of ISPs, whether to examine whether it is offensive or in the interest of national a song, Kolaveri di, had gone viral. Using the court order, Internet Service security. ISPs are all too easily bullied into handProviders (ISPs) were asked to block websites, like The Pirate Bay, that upload films. ing over private data to the police. Private The producers had a point, as they stood to emotions and intimate content now face lose their audiences and consequently their the risk of exposure. Internet activists investment if the websites uploaded the argue that terms like ‘sovereignty’ and film ahead of release. Later, the court ‘national security’ are too overarching and updated its verdict saying only URLs to broad and can easily be misused by agenpirated content, and not entire websites, be cies that have a poor history when it comes to respecting citizens’ rights. blocked.
Piracy vs file-sharing
05
What the law says, and what you can do Section 69 of the IT Act of 2008 empowers the central and state governments or their agencies to “intercept, monitor or decrypt any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource if it is necessary or expedient so to do in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence or for investigation of any offence.” In other words, it’s not so difficult for the authorities to pry into your online life. No capitals, please! Netiquette (short for ‘Internet etiquette’) is an
SCARY, DI: Kolaveri, a song from Dhanush’s Tamil film 3, went viral, but ironically, a case filed by its producers prompted the Madras High Court to order the blocking of several sites
almost forgotten term that denotes social conventions that help facilitate smooth interaction online. Netiquette determines many of the conventions we follow today. For instance, typing entirely in capital letters is avoided because it is considered ‘shouting’. Netiquette prepares
users for the pitfalls of online communication. For example: “Watch cc-s when replying. Don’t continue to include people if the messages have become a 2-way conversation.” High time we brought netiquette back after all, self-regulation is the only real antidote to government regulation.
neta watch
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
06
Ramesh Hunsur
Caste split wide open Yeddyurappa has forced the BJP’s hand and got a Lingayat to replace Sadananda Gowda as chief minister. That portends a brazenly casteist election and a fractured mandate ten months from now BASU MEGALKERI
K Ayyo Rama!
* Five-year BJP term coming to a close with third CM. :) We know. Yeddyurappa was the opener, and Jagadish's the shutter.
arnataka has just entered a frighteningly divisive phase. With Jagadish Shettar geting the chief minister’s position for being a Lingayat—BJP president Nitin Gadkari said so— other politicians are making vociferous demands for berths only on the strength of their caste. With the BJP’s decision to replace Sadananda Gowda, a chief minister who faced no personal corruption charge, the party has antagonised his caste, the Vokkaligas. In fact, the change of guard is fuelling a frantic realignment of political forces on brazenly casteist lines. The run-up to the 2013 assembly elections isn’t looking good from the perspective of the big parties. While B S Yeddyurappa and B Sriramulu are giving sleepless nights to the BJP, the Congress is in disarray as it watches new caste formations threaten its traditional vote banks. In numbers, recent estimates indicate that Dalits are the biggest bloc in Karnataka, followed by Lingayats, Muslims, Vokkaligas, Kurubas, and OBCs. (The projection is based on latest estimates, which are unofficial and not reflected in
the chart below). Yet, despite their demographic strength, the Dalits have never had a single chief minister from their ranks. But Lingayats, a pre-dominantly agricultural and trading caste that forms the second largest group, routinely mobilise their forces to garner political benefits. With Yeddyurappa at the helm, the BJP had come to be seen as a party where Lingayats dominate. The early Congress years had the Lingayat Nijalingappa and Veerendra Patil as chief ministers, but in recent decades, the caste has felt sidelined within that party. When the BJP had to sack Yeddyurappa from the chief minister’s post, it brought in Sadananda Gowda, a Vokkaliga, in his place. That had left many Lingayats jittery, and a disgruntled Yeddyurappa cannily capitalised on the confusion by projecting himself as the saviour of the community. He has now forced party leaders into changing Sadananda Gowda and bringing in another Lingayat, Jagadish Shettar, to the top post. But there’s no guarantee yet that Yeddyurappa will stay within the party. Now that he has tasted blood, he will continue to make more and more demands on party elders. If he breaks away and forms a new party, a significant chunk of the Lingayat vote could go his way. As for Deve Gowda, he is looking at winning about 30-35 seats in a 224member assembly. That will make him indispensable to any party that wants to form a government. His calculation, if sources are to be believed, is to make his son Revanna chief minister of a coalition government. South Karnataka is the stronghold of the JD(S), and Deve Gowda and his other politically active son Kumaraswamy are seen as representatives of the Vokkaligas. The third leader engaged in caste
KNI
HIGH DRAMA: The BJP hopes Jagadish Shettar (top) will keep the party’s Lingayat support intact. By threatening to leave the party and split the Lingayat vote, Yeddyurappa (left) is turning the screws on party elders. Deve Gowda of the JD(S) banks on Vokkaligas. Sriramulu, who broke away from the BJP, is campaigning all across Karnataka.
consolidation is Sriramulu, right- jecting himself as a leader of the STs hand man of G Janardhana Reddy, and the underdeveloped north the mining lord now in jail. Reddy is Karnataka region. Sriramulu is a playing an interesting game. His Valmiki, and his 54-day padayatra, brothers continue to be in the BJP, now in progress, passes along a while his protégé Sriramulu is out region populated by people of his mobilising support for a new party, community, as well as caste groups the BSR Congress. While most peo- allied to it. The Congress, ple know that BSR with its fragmented stands for B Who represents whom leadership, isn’t Sriramulu, the party doing much to capiis presenting itself as Deve Gowda: Vokkaligas talise on the voter’s representing the Yeddyurappa: Lingayats need for a party that badava (poor man), B Sriramulu: Valmikis represents multiple shramika (labourer) interests. This is the projection for and raitha (farmer). With the support of Bellary min- 2013: At least three regional groups ing lords, Sriramulu is the richest will split the vote and make minor among those now trying to carve out gains, but will enjoy a disproportiona group that can participate in gov- ate amount of power because no ernment formation. He is confident government can come to power he can win 10 to 15 seats, and is pro- without their support.
folk hero
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
07
Ram Manohar
Shantaveri Gopala Gowda’s anger was there for all to see. He wouldn’t compromise one bit. No wonder leaders from across the political spectrum remember him as the greatest MLA in the history of the Karnataka legislature PRASHANTH G N
S
ERUDITE: Shantaveri Gopala Gowda (19231972) brought Lohia’s socialism to Karnataka
hantaveri Gopala Gowda, socialist leader who lived a life of poverty, is unanimously considered the most charismatic legislator in the history of the Karnataka assembly. Some others were inspiring, for sure, but Gopala Gowda, often referred to as the Ram Manohar Lohia of Karnataka politics, is a name politicians, activists and writers invoke over everybody else’s. Talk asked politicians and political observers which legislator they remembered the most in 60 years of the Karnataka legislature, and Gopala Gowda’s name cropped up with almost everyone we spoke to. “I can think of L G Havanur, M D Nanjundaswamy, Dr Siddalingaiah and A K Subbaiah who also made seminal contributions to public life, but Gopala Gowda towers above all of them. All these legislators, good in their own right, have taken inspiration from him,” said Ravi Verma Kumar, thinker, advocate and social activist. D B Chandre Gowda, MP and former law and parliamentary affairs minister, agrees with Kumar. “I can think of stalwarts like B Vaikunta Baliga, Nazeer Sab, J H Patel and Ramakrishna Hegde, who were inspiring in many ways, but Gopala
He was a socialist articulating the concerns of the poor. And yes, he did criticise the dynastic politics of the Congress. Ramesh Kumar Cong. leader and former Speaker
Everybody’s
leader Gowda was a legislator with a broad vision and universal appeal. Many of us have been influenced by his values.” Shantaveri Gopala Gowda (19231972) was a pioneer of the socialist movement in Karnataka. “He is not just Karnataka’s but India’s acclaimed son of the soil. He stood up to the severest tests in life – overcoming poverty and even starvation to become a champion of the farmers, and then a legislator repre-
His socialist principles laid the ground for land reforms, bank nationalisation and a strong public sector. Mallikarjuna Kharge 10-time Congress legislator, now Union labour minister
senting the socialist cause. He was a voracious reader and a great orator. His speeches, I believe, are benchmarks for oration in the legislature,” recalls Ravi Verma Kumar. A lover of literature, he would awe audiences with his brilliant oratory, peppered with wideranging literary references. Gopala Gowda advocated ‘land for the tiller’ and nationalisation of banks. As leader of the opposition in the assembly, his analysis of budgets was incisive. “No governments in all these
Gopala Gowda would mix with people easily, and when he travelled, would stay in any house without any distinction of caste and creed. D H Shankar Murthy Chairman, Legislative Council
60 years have given in to criticism as much as governments in his time,” recalls Ravi Verma Kumar. “There wasn’t one element of compromise in him. It is difficult to imagine another legislator of his stature.” The charisma made him a natural mentor to several politicians, including J H Patel, S Bangarappa, D Devaraj Urs and S M Krishna, all of whom rose to become chief ministers. Urs understood the depth of Gopala Gowda’s dedication to the cause of the poor. The Land Reforms Act and renaming of the state from Mysore to Karnataka during Urs’s time came about because of the momentum generated by Gopala Gowda. Subaltern histories tell us that Gopala Gowda was one of the architects of the famous ‘Kagodu satyagraha’, a peasant agitation claiming rights for tillers in Shimoga district. That movement is still fresh in the memory of many veteran politicians, and Girish Kasaravalli made a documentary film about it. While Gopala Gowda’s death at an early age stalled the socialist movement in Karnataka, Prof Nanjundaswamy of the Raitha Sangha carried it forward in his own way. Gopala Gowda interacted closely with intellectuals and literary figures like Gopalkrishna Adiga, U R Ananthamurthy, P Lankesh and Prof Nanjundaswamy. In fact, Ananthamurthy wrote a novel, Avasthe, meaning ‘state of life’, based on the life and times of Gopala Gowda. Literary critic N Manu Chakravarthy says: “Avasthe deals with Krishnappa, a socialist politician whose consciousness of self and society evolves in the confines of the prison, under a constant threat of torture. It narrates the story of a charismatic shudra leader who fights for the peasants. The use of metaphor in most of Ananthamurthy’s writings enables him to say what otherwise would not be accepted by the powerful.” The book was also made into a movie, with actor Anant Nag playing the main role.
Continued on page 8 Î
He was fearless about taking positions. He was 100 per cent the most inspiring legislator Karnataka has known. K S Eshwarappa State BJP president
money wise Î
Continued from page 7
His compatriots would narrate tales of how Gopala Gowda, with no money to spend, would go hungry for days on end. And if he did manage to get any money, he would spend it on bun and milk at Ksheera Sagara. They recall how in the socialist circle of those days, (future chief minister) J H Patel would be the only one to have any money, and the rest of them would wait for him so they could have tea. In dire straits he might have been, but none of it could make dent in Gopal Gowda’s selfless nature. Or for that matter, his outspoken character; if anything it fuelled it. Chandre Gowda has the last word: “Gopala Gowda lived all the ideals he propounded. He protected the interests of farmers and the downtrodden, and was a well-read, aggressive opposition leader. We are all inspired by him.”
Umbrella Style In the assembly, Gopala Gowda lashed out at the Shimoga district administration. The next day, he decided to visit the Shimoga deputy commissioner. As he arrived, the gatekeeper told him the DC was busy in a meeting and made him stand at the gate. He stood there for 45 minutes, waiting. Gopala Gowda stormed in to the DC’s office only to find him pacing about, puffing on a cigarette. He had smoked a complete pack terrified of the man, wondering how to deal with his fury. As soon as the DC saw Gowda, he started fleeing towards the door. Gowda picked up his umbrella, flung the rounded handle around his neck and pulled him back to the chair, shouting at him that he better answer all questions. Lesson for defector Thanks to his hard work, the Socialist Party tasted success in 1967 and many of its candidates won. One MLA defected to the Congress. Gopala Gowda fell ill, and his fever touched 104 degrees. He was bedridden in the Legislators’ Home, and the fever wouldn’t subside. One day, the MLA decided to apologise. He came to Gopala Gowda’s room, held his feet, and begged his forgiveness. When Gowda realised who it was, he grabbed his umbrella and gave the MLA the thrashing of his life. No defected MLA had ever received such treatment.
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
08
Time to sell gold? Ramesh Hunsur
There is much drum-beating about rising prices making the yellow metal a popular investment option, but there’s reason to believe the rush has run its course, says Karthik Rangappa
M
eet Mr Madhav Rao, who has scraped together about Rs 2 lakhs, which he now wants to invest for a period of three to four years, when his daughter would be ready to apply for her dream professional course. The talk in Rao's circles seem to constantly revolve around the sky-rocketing price of gold. His wife too swears by it, calling it the safest investment option ever. Rao himself has been tempted, but has so far held back. If he walks into an investment consultant’s office - or as is more likely to happen, for a post-dinner chat with a neighbour who is known to ‘play’ the investment game - chances are the advice he’ll get will be more of the same. But turns out that Rao’s intuition was right - far from being the safe option it’s cracked up to be, gold is about to turn a corner, and increasingly looks like a scary bet.
Old Indian belief in the rising value of gold Gold is often viewed as a safe investment bet, and Indians are famously fond of the metal. Invariably, this leads them to believe that it's price will keep increasing. That may not be so; here’s why. To start with, apply a simple chart check on the prices of gold for the last 30 years: To take a quick historical review, gold started a dream run in the mid 70’s, when it traded at a premium of nearly 65 per cent above its average prices. It continued to do so until the early 1980’s, when it saw a sharp dip. From then on, it was traded at a discount of nearly 50 per cent to its average price till about 2000. That’s a good 20 year period! What we have been witnessing since 2002 is a frenzy of gold buying reminiscent of the 1980’s gold rush. But as the right hand side of the chart shows, gold prices have started to ease. While this does not mean that gold prices will come crashing down immediately, it’s reasonable to believe that the end of this extraordinary bull run is just around the corner. $1000
$450
$375
$300
$50*
HIGH GLITTER: The history of gold suggests current rates are unnaturally high, and hints at a possible slide *Approximate rates
GLITTER AND GLOW: Movie star Lakshmi Gopalaswamy at a jewellery show in Bangalore So, given the current state of gold prices, Rao would do well to stay away from gold. Or better still, sell the gold he has at these high rates; he may even be able to buy it back later at a lower price. Now, let’s look at what other options Rao has, if he wants his money to earn returns for him. Debt Instruments: DIs are interest rate sensitive; higher the interest rate, higher the amount you earn. The simplest and the most popular form of DI is the Fixed Deposit. All one needs to do is lock the money in the bank for a certain period; at the end of the maturity period, you get your money back with interest. Other debt products include government bonds, corporate bonds etc, where, as the terms indicate, you loan your money to the government or to a company. Right now in India, interest rates hover in the region of 8-11 per cent. So based on the borrower’s profile, an investment in debt products is likely to earn a return anywhere between 8-11 per cent. Not bad at all, but is there something better? Equities: Returns on investment in equities depend on the state of economy, which means that in the current situation in India, there are no good reasons to invest in Equities. And yet, there’s room for a contrarian view. An interesting fact is that every time Indian markets have hit a valuation of 17 or lower, then the minimum returns during the next 3 years have been at least 50 per cent. In other words, low valuations do not keep foreign institutional investors and other big investors away from the Indian markets for long. So, it’s not impossible that an investment in a decent mutual fund today could yield a 50-60 per cent return in three years. In fact, the returns can be higher if Mr Rao is diligent enough to pick quality stocks by himself. Remember, the big payoffs almost always come to those risk investing in troubled times.
Karthik works with the investment consultancy The Quant Lab
hello boss
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
10
The dancing CEO Ramesh Hunsur
Dhar loves Madonna because the diva ‘has lived life on her own terms’
Sandeep Dhar, who heads Tesco, admires the unfettered life of his favourite pop stars, and equally, the quiet pragmatism of Chinese philosophy, discovers Savie Karnel
W BEING HIMSELF: Sandeep Dhar at his office in Whitefield
hen he casually says he idolises Madonna, I am taken aback. Now, that’s hardly the way a corporate honcho begins an interview. Uh-oh, this is not going to be business-as-usual, I think. Tesco HSC chief Sandeep Dhar doesn't fit my idea of a ‘captain of industry’. “I am a CEO with a heart,” Dhar ventures, laughing, as if that explains things. The first thing he asks me for is permission to “ramble on”. I readily agree. It’s not an offer a reporter gets every day. The informal feel of his
cabin makes it easy to believe we are in a café, chatting away over coffee. On his first day at Tesco, Dhar was asked to write a speech he would deliver to his employees. To everyone’s surprise, he announced he would go extempore, saying he wanted to speak from the heart. “But CEOs don’t have a heart,” a sceptical colleague gently tried to remind him, to no avail. Four years later, you actually bump into Tesco employees who swear their boss does have a heart. But first, I had to settle this Madonna business; images of the diva singing and gyrating were flashing through my mind. “Why Madonna?” I ask. “Because she has lived life on her own terms. She hasn’t gone by society’s definitions of right and wrong, but has experimented with life.” That’s fine, but why not a management guru? “You can take a good thing from Jack Welch , another from someone else, but you have to experiment with yourself. It’s all about being yourself.” Being yourself. I’ve heard that before, so I undertake a furtive survey of his book shelf, and as if to confirm my hunch, spot such vaunted names
as Guy Kawasaki and Kahlil Gibran. I ask him about his reading. “Poetry, mostly. Gibran, Rumi and Pablo Neruda. Gibran can create havoc in your mind. He should be read with some care,” he cautions. I needn’t have worried. Dhar is no Dale Carnegie in the making, spouting ready wisdom about the importance of winning friends and influencing people. He confesses to a love for the Persian Sufi poet Rumi and the Marxist Neruda, but laments that a lot is lost in translation. “I wish I could read Neruda in Spanish. I did learn the language, but it’s just basic, not enough to relish poetry,” he says. Since we are on the subject of books, does he have a favourite? “The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. It’s primarily a religious text. I am a Hindu by birth but follow Taoist philosophy,” he says. So what draws him towards Taoism, the state religion of ancient China, with its great emperors among its followers? “The pragmatism of it all,” he replies. An explanation follows: “If you talk about action, for instance, then Taoism says that excessive action is counter-productive. Keep trying and
work hard, but you should know where to stop. Effort beyond a point is useless. If you keep sharpening a sword, there will be nothing left. If you keep rubbing it against a stone, one day it will disappear.” I’m slightly confused. “So, what do you have tell those who say, follow your dream, aim high, don’t stop till you achieve?” I ask. Dhar plays that one straight: “Who sets your goal? Who defines your dream? You should do it yourself. You can become a CEO at 30, no doubt. But I guarantee you will have no family life. There should be a work-life balance.” “How old are you?” I ask, attempting to veer the conversation away from philosophical heights. It turns out he is 47. So, didn’t he set a goal for himself? “No. I had no yearning or aspiration that I have to become so and so. One should keep learning new things and applying new skills. Do it constantly and well enough. Success is inevitable.” Dhar graduated in physics and had plans of pursuing a PhD and becoming a teacher. “I found that it doesn’t pay very well. So the next obvious thing was an MBA,” says the IMT Ghaziabad alumnus. His journey from a Kawasaki Bajaj-riding salesman to a BMW-driving CEO has had its share of bumps. He started off selling software for NIIT in Bangalore, where he admits he didn’t fare well.
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
MOONWALKER: Sandeep dressed up as Michael Jackson for a dance tribute to the pop star at Tesco’s 2011 Foundation Day
11
“I spent more time evading the watchful eyes of the boss,” he reveals. He went on to sell Hewlett Packard products for a company called Bluestar in Delhi, travelling 100 km each day on a bike in the heat of Delhi. He then went on to become the “equivalent of a call centre agent” for Citibank; the “first Indian call centre agent who did night shifts in the banking sector.” Here he stuck around for a while before climbing the ladder at ABN Amro, then MphasisEDS and Sapient, and finally, Tesco. So, what’s the view from the top like? He comes back with an interesting (if literal) anecdote from the time he worked for Citibank in Mumbai, where his office overlooked the swimming pool of the Oberoi Hotel. “I saw people lying by the pool all day, doing nothing. I said to myself the day I get to do that, my goal would be accomplished. But when the day came, I couldn’t do it for more than five minutes. I wondered how anyone could spend the whole day there.” Does he have any more dreams left, or is it just going to be sagely contentment from now on? “I want to act in a film, any film; Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood,” he says, the excitement palpable, and in the manner of a fresh face desperately hoping to convince a director. “I can dance, I can fight and act.” Tesco employees would vouch for his dancing skills, having watched him perform any number of styles from Michael Jackson to Shah Rukh Khan at the company’s Annual Foundation Day events. Those shows were not meant for mere entertainment, he adds. “People here are young. I have to be young to connect to them. I believe I am young.” Anyone who sees Sandeep in action at his weekend Tai Chi classes would agree. Before he discovered Tai Chi, he used to be a yoga practitioner who looked down upon the Chinese martial arts. “Now, I’d say the Chinese have taken yoga and given it a new dimension,” he says. His family has been supportive. By way of compensation, he makes it a point to spend the weekends with his wife and three children, and often holidays with them in Thailand. But there is one thing he hasn’t got his wife’s approval to buy: a Kawasaki Ninja motorbike. “There’s a fluorescent green model at their Indiranagar showroom. Whenever I pass by, I look at it, but my wife firmly says no. She still dreads riding pillion with me as in the earlier years of marriage!” he chuckles. The hour I had been granted is up, and I thank him for his time. “But I have time, I do the least work in office,” he jokes, before walking us out of the floor with a “Keep in touch.” That’s just the kind of thing CEOs say, I think, but by the time I return to office, I have a friend request from him on Facebook. He means it, after all.
K E Y
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
12
W O R D S
Monsoon
The Arabs called it ‘mausim’, or season. The English turned it to ‘monsoon’. Savie Karnel tells the story of a 50 million-year-old phenomenon that brings poetry and joy, and sometimes misery, to India.
C
MEGHA HIT: An overcast sky in Goa, captured by Talk lensman Ramesh Hunsur
enturies ago, even before the time of Vasco-daGama, the Arabs took the sea route to India. They sailed with the south western winds blowing over the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean and arrived on our shores. They called the time of their travel ‘mausim,’ which means season. The word ‘mausim’ then got attached to the winds and the rains that followed it. Somewhere in the late 15th century, the English corrupted ‘mausim’ to monsoon. That’s how the word ‘monsoon’ came to be formed. Though the name is relatively new, the season has been around for over 50 million years; ever since the collision of the Indian sub-continent and Asia to form the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau. If the monsoon wasn’t there, India would never be the way it is, but would merely be an extension of the central desert. It would probably look like Afghanistan. We owe our greenery, forests, farms, eating habits, clothing
and lifestyle to the monsoon. blue-lotus petals, dark in places like The ancients understood it very heaped-collyrium, smooth-blended, well. Perhaps, that why they wor- glowing elsewhere like the breasts of a shipped the rain and prayed for the woman with child.” downpour. When the Aryans migrated Some enthusiasts believe that to India from Central Asia, they accept- Hindustani music is inconceivable ed the importance of these rains, and without the rain. How could music be worshipped it like the way the natives without the Raag Malhaar? It is believed did. The Aryan God Varun, was earlier that when Tansen sang this raag, the just the God of waters of the nether skies erupted with joy and burst into land, but was later made the God of the showers. The tabla resounds with the rains as well. The natives associated the very sound of the thundering clouds. croaking sound of the frogs with the With the ‘varsha’ being such an rain, so did the Aryans. integral part of our culture, our movies It can be seen in the frog hymn in would not have been left behind. Right the Rig Veda, where the croaking of the from the black and white movies where frog is compared to the Vedic chants. It Nargis walks in the rain to Pyar hua says, “When one of them repeats the ikraar hua, to Aishwarya Rai frolicking speech of the other, as the student that to Barso re megha barso, there is nothof his teacher, all that of them is in uni- ing more sensuous than a lady kissed by son like the eloquent (Vedic) chant that rain. you recite during the rain.” Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan If not for the monsoon, we would brings out the pathos of the farmers not have Kalidasa’s masterpieces. In waiting for the rain, and shows the Meghdoot, an exiled Yaksha pleads to a parched earth. On the other hand, the rain cloud to carry his message to his cinematography of Mani Ratnam’s box wife in the Himalayas. The route of the office failure Raavan celebrates the cloud, that he explicitly explains, also splendor of earth during the monsoon shows us the immense meteorological in the ghats. Perhaps, the most beautiand geological knowledge Kalidasa had. ful depiction of love in the monsoon in Of course, the description of the emo- Karnataka is in Yogesh Bhat’s tions of the people over whom the Mungaaru Male. cloud passes is incomparable. So, the next time it rains, do not In Ritusamhara, he glorifies curse the skies. Instead, step out and get drenched in the rain, the rain cast sky saying, for you are among the “Overcast on all sides with The Talk lucky few whom the dense rain clouds, the sky column on monsoon visits. displays the deep glow of
word origins
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
14
A curious murder Fabled ranconteur and Bangalore’s top-notch criminal lawyer recounts some of the most moving and bizarre cases in 40 years of his practice.
Crime Folio
C H HANUMANTHARAYA
G
et ready to go to Tumkur and file an application in a murder case,” my senior Devadas instructed me one day, out of the blue. That made me nervous. “But, sir, I haven’t registered at the Bar Council yet.” I said. “Don’t I know these courts? Go stand there and tell them you work for me. Who would dare question you in that court?” he shot back. He summoned his clerk Ramachandra Rao, and called for a tailor from Venkateshwara Tailoring Hall next door. He told him, “Get two shirts, two pairs of trousers, and a black coat ready by this evening.” I had a room booked at the Woodlands, near what is now called the old bus stand. He gave me some cash for my expenses. I set out, like a soldier going out on his first battle expedition. Paramappa and Ramanaiah, the two accused, came over to my hotel and treated me with fearful respect. They wouldn’t let me spend on food. This made me happy. “You will be all right. You will win the case,” I told them, putting on the air of someone who knew it all. “Paramappa, you have to tell me the truth. You know whose loss it is when a patient lies to the doctor, and a client lies to his lawyer. If you tell me the truth, we can devise a strategy to save you.” The brothers swore they hadn’t killed Kamanna, alias Komanna. “We only gave him some blows. I don’t know who killed him suddenly. God knows why his son Gaviyappa has filed a false complaint against us,” Paramappa said. Would a killer admit to his crime so easily, I thought to myself, and said, “All right, but make sure you speak the truth when my senior comes here.” Paramappa didn’t know what
to say. He swallowed, and sat down with a defeated look. I laughed to myself, thinking I had caught the thief out. The trial began in Justice Ponnarangam’s court. Devadas’s fame must have spread: the judge welcomed him with a smile. Devadas kept looking at Gaviyappa closely as he was being cross-examined. What the court understood from Gaviyappa’s statement: Kamanna and Paramappa were neighbours, and owned land side by side. A dispute over the boundaries had arisen, and ended in Kamanna’s murder. Paramappa and his brother Ramanaiah had tried to murder Kamanna. Gaviyappa had rushed to his father’s help, and the brothers had tried to kill him as well. Gaviyappa had survived. When Gaviyappa’s questioning was done, the judge said he would allow the cross examination the next day. “No, sir. Please examine the doctor who treated Gaviyappa for his wounds before he is crossexamined,” said Devadas. The judge agreed readily, and fixed a date. Devadas walked out solemnly. He did not speak to his clients. Some lawyers approached him and introduced themselves. He smiled at them cursorily, shook hands and got into the car. The court examined the doctor and called Gaviyappa again. At the Bar, many lawyers told me the case was tough. My senior, they argued, wouldn’t get any fame from defending a killer against whom the victim’s son was deposing as an eye-witness. I felt the same way, but I also had blind faith in Devadas. I was convinced he would come out victorious in any
case. How he would do it in this instance I had no clue. “Just you wait. We will win the case. I can’t tell you the secret of how we will do it,” I boasted, and shut them up. Gaviyappa’s cross-examination began. Devadas asked him, “Which hand do you use to eat, plough, and do your work?” “My right hand.” “Where have you been injured?” Gaviyappa took off his shirt and showed his wounds. He had cut marks on the left of his neck, left arm, left chest, left thigh, left buttock and left knee. “Why didn’t Paramappa give you a single blow on your right?” When the judge heard this question, a strange smile crossed his face. It appeared to be the key that would unlock the mysteries of this case. The countenance of the lawyers inside the court hall changed too. I shot a proud look at all those who had tried to make light of Devadas’s skills. “Gaviyappa, with what did Paramappa try to kill you?” Devadas asked. “With the knife he uses to splice betel nuts...” Devadas took the knife from the police, and handed it to Gaviyappa. “Hold it in your right hand, let’s see,” he said. Gaviyappa gripped it as instructed. “Pretend you are hitting yourself on your right arm, like you say you were hit on your left,” Devadas said. Gaviyappa couldn’t turn the knife towards his right arm. “Done. You may go,” said Devadas. He then sought the doctor in the witness box for cross-examination.
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
15
Kamanna’s wife got into the “Are Gaviyappa’s injuries caused by blows inflicted by someone?” he asked. kitchen, and didn’t step out. Paramappa and Ramanaiah barged in, The doctor understood the pulled Kamanna out, and thrashed breadth and depth of the question, and answered, without any hesitation, him. The neighbours told him that was enough, and they would get “All those are self-inflicted injuries.” togther and ostracise Kamanna if he The court was stunned. Devadas didn’t mend his ways. “Why do you had turned the case on its head. My want to bring a case upon yourself by head was bowed in respect; I was doing something in haste?” they said. feeling so proud of my senior. Kamanna had submitted to their The judge was bowled over by blows, without any protest. He had Devadas. He forgot he was a judge, given up. and nodded in After the appreciation. Many lawyers told me neighbours left, Devadas had influenced the the case was tough. But the house was eerily silent. judge so much I was convinced Kamanna and that he had my senior Devadas Gaviyappa didn’t started wearing a talk to each turban, just like would come out other. No one ate Devadas, by the victorious. How he’d do dinner. Kamanna time the case had slept on a ended. After it I had no clue platform outside, retiring as a and Gaviyappa judge, he started went to sleep some distance from him. practising at the high court. He A full moon was shining. continued to wear a turban. I used to Gaviyappa quietly took out a knife and tell myself it was a gift my senior had slit his father’s throat. The old man given him. stuck out his tongue in agony. As he What Devadas found was hairlooked at his son, blows rained on his raising. Kama means desire, and arms, legs, and chest. Gaviyappa Gaviyappa’s father Kamanna had a stopped when he felt his hands going character true to his name: he was lecherous. Paramappa had three wives. weak, and was short of breath. His father had been dead for a while. Kamanna had cast an eye on His mother was inside, and his Paramappa’s third wife. She had no neighbours were fast asleep. He was interest in him, and had complained horrified by what he had done, and to her husband about his advances. didn’t know what to do. How to face Gaviyappa was sick of his father’s his mother and his neighbours became lechery. He had fought with him several times, and told him it was high a problem, and he lost his ability to reason. He started slashing himself time he gave up his lust and got his with the same knife, and was soon son married. Kamanna’s wife would bleeding profusely. support her son. As he bled, he also gathered That afternoon, Kamanna had tried to get intimate with Paramappa’s courage and started thinking of a way to escape from the corner he had wife. She had run inside, sobbing. pushed himself into. He started Paramappa heard about it when he screaming hard so that the neighbours came home from the farm, and was livid. His brother Ramanaiah swore he would come running. He told them, “They came and would finish Kamanna off that day. killed my father… Paramappa and They took along people who lived Ramanaiah. I’m going to die too… look on the street, stood in front of Kamanna’s house, and flung the vilest at how they’ve slashed my neck… I’m not going to survive.” He then fell to abuses at him. Neighbours taunted the ground, unconscious. Kamanna that he had no shame. An The neighbours were convinced agitated Paramappa screamed, “Kamanna, you’ve just pulled my wife’s Paramappa had killed Kamanna in a sari. Bring your wife here, I’ll strip her rage, and wouldn’t believe a word of what the brothers said. The police nude. What do you think of me?” arrived, handcuffed them, and took Gaviyappa was furious hearing all this talk. He was shaking all over. But them away. I tried to understand how Devadas he wasn’t angry with the neighbours; had deduced that Gaviyappa, who was all his silent fury was directed at his in the witness box, had killed his father, who had caused so much humiliation to come to their door. He father. I didn’t find an answer. The more I tried to understand Devadas’s felt like screaming at Kamanna, but powers of deduction, the more couldn’t say a word. He sat outside in the breeze. He seemed to ready to tell mysterious they became. his neighbours to go in and get his father. Translated by S R Ramakrishna
sunk in debt
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
16
Ramesh Hunsur
Shopkeepers like the idea
Municipal folly An irresponsible BBMP is set to sell property in prime locations to tenants who have sub-let their shops in violation of the rules. It also plans to legalise sub-leasing, reports Maria Laveena
SHAMELESS: Already under fire for endemic corruption, the BBMP’s fiscal indiscipline now threatens the city with bankruptcy
As though pledging its buildings wasn’t bad enough, the BBMP is now planning to sell its properties in prime localities. Speaking exclusively to Talk, BBMP special commissioner K R Niranjana said the proposal would be placed before the municipal council soon. The BBMP believes it can revive its finances, now in the doldrums, by selling prime property. The municipal body is in the red, in shameful contrast with Hyderabad, which presented a surplus budget this year. “We will earn revenue through the sale. First, we will get the sale amount and then earn property tax as well,” he said. The shops to be sold include those in the Public Utility Building, Jayanagar Shopping Complex, Rajajinagar Shopping Complex, K R Market and Johnson Market. Civic analyst Kathyayani Chamaraj believes this is a foolish idea. “Honestly, it’s like selling the
seek a 5 to 10 per cent increase every family silver,” she said. Others were harsher in their year. Currently, the shops have been criticism. “This is a fit case for a rented out for a paltry Rs 100 or Rs Lokayukta inquiry,” said a Richmond 200 a month. Some leaseholders have Road resident who wished to remain sub-leased the shops at market rates. “Tenants should never get the anonymous. “They are out to sell precious property that belongs to the right to sub lease property because they will continue earning money in people of this city.” If the BBMP is really desperate lakhs while the BBMP will bear the and sells away its property, the money losses,” Kathyayini Chamaraj said. should be used for public welfare, Kahtyayini Chamaraj argues. Borrow meter “They should not use it to pay Lax in repaying its loans, the BBMP salaries or meet their administrative has handed over the title deeds of the expenses. They should invest the 24-storey Public Utility Building and money to create social infrastructure- the Jayanagar Shopping Complex to -- primary health centres, housing for the Housing and Urban Development the urban poor, or day care centres for Corporation (HUDCO) to take a loan children,” she said. of Rs 1,000-crore. Former mayor P R Simultaneously, a Ramesh supports the cash-strapped BBMP BBMP's BBMP’s idea of selling has decided to improve wonky budget its revenue, ridiculously, the shops. His only conAnnual revenue: tention is that the shops by demanding a licence Rs 4,000 cr must be auctioned and fee of Rs 250 from every Annual spend: not simply sold to the dog owner, and an Rs 9,000 cr existing lease holders. annual fee of between “Every citizen Rs 3,000 and Rs 10,000 should have the right to participate in from every ornamental fish trader in this and only then should it be sold,” Bangalore. he said. The opposition Congress and Former MLA and mayor K Janata Dal have been quick to Chandrashekar agrees with Ramesh. denounce the ruling BJP, and pointed “With the BBMP having so much out that the BBMP had borrowed Rs debt, it is a good idea to sell shops at 500 crore from HUDCO recently, market prices,” he said. Besides selling after pledging K R Market, citing the the shops, the BBMP is also planning same financial crisis. to revise rents. It will now lease or HUDCO is a public sector comrent out the shops at market rates and pany owned entirely by the
Twilight Handicrafts is located in the BBMP Commercial Complex on Residency Road. The BBMP had leased out the shop to Mushtaq Ali to run Thrissur Surgicals. But Ali isn’t here any more, nor is his surgical store. “He is in Kerala. I am the coowner,” said Vishnu Das. That’s typical of many shops. When we asked Das if he would be willing to buy the property, he said, “Yes.” He refused to reveal how much rent he pays. Mohammed Fayaz, manager of Raymond Retail Shop in Public Utility Building, said tenants would be ready to buy shops. “The BBMP must sell it to the existing lease holders and tenants. It won’t be fair if they auction the shops, as most of us have been running these shops for a long time. Raymonds has been here for 40 years,” he said.
government of India. It finances housing and urban infrastructure projects, and provides long-term loans at low rates of interest. Khandre Rao, public relations officer of the BBMP, says, “Taking loans from HUDCO is helpful. We get 15 years to clear our dues, and the rate of interest is lower than at the nationalised banks.” The BBMP earns revenue from property tax, optic fibre cable laying charges, garbage cess, khata and betterment fees, and trade licences. It generates around Rs 4,000 crore annually, whereas its expenditure touches Rs 9,000 crore. That’s a balance sheet the authorities have no shame in defending. “Yes, we spend twice as much as we earn. We spend on construction of roads and flyovers and on solid waste management,” Rao said. “Without debt, one can’t run an organisation. Citizens’ expectations are rising,” Niranjana said. Benson Issac, a social activist and assistant professor at Azim Premji University, is not convinced. “It is crazy to pledge public properties. But what is worse is that ordinary citizens don’t benefit in any way,” he said. P R Ramesh, former mayor, says the BBMP has no vision for its officials. “Last year was a big-spending year. In 2007, the BBMP’s jurisdiction went up from 225 to 800 sq km. With not enough grants, we started taking loans,” said Niranjana.
pad yatra
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
18
Big star, poor show The demand for the iPad is high, but the supply low. That and competing technologies are seriously denting the chances of Apple’s celebrated tablet in India
Lots of choice for the tablet taker
RIDDHI MUKHERJEE
E
ven an ardent Android/Samsung fan would not deny that the Apple iPad is a superior gizmo in almost every aspect. And yet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab series has performed better in the Indian market. A significant price difference might have been the primary reason, but the Samsung tablets are priced close to their Apple counterparts. Why then? A report on the Indian tablet market by CyberMedia Research, released last year, revealed that the market share of Apple iPads in India was considerably low when compared to other markets. Samsung rules the roost here. CyberMedia studied the Indian market between November 2010 and March 2011 and found that 85,000 tablets were sold in this period. Samsung tablets commanded the biggest share with 84.7 per cent tablets sold. Olivepads had an unexpected 8.2 per cent market share, while Apple came in third with just 5.9 per cent. According to market intelligence firm International Data Corporation
Why so unserious?
NOT TONIGHT: Bangalore stores have a wait period of up to 15 days for their iPad customers
Here’s what we found in the course of a quick reality check: Reliance Digital iStore is among the premier Apple resellers in India. Their M G Road store has in stock the Wi-Fi only version of the new iPad (called iPad 3 by some) and not the Wi-Fi + 3G version. Their Jayanagar store does not have even a single new iPad in stock and the waiting period is four to five days. Both stores have the older iPad 2 in stock. Imagine is the other major Apple reseller in India. Their store at UB City has run out of the new iPad, and the waiting period for any order is seven days. The Imagine store at Mantri Square only has the iPad 16 GB Wi-Fi version. For all other models, the wait period is 1015 days.
Micromax Funbook Display: 7 inch Memory: 4GB Expandable memory up to 32GB Wi-Fi + external 3G dongle Price: Rs. 6,500
(IDC), 2.5 lakh tablets were sold in India in 2011, of which 70 per cent were accounted for by iPads, Samsung tablets and Blackberry Playbooks. IDC further estimated that in 2012 tablet sales would go up to 5 lakh units. Consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu estimated that the total tablet PC sales in India would go up from around 0.6 to 1 million units in end-2011 to 2 to 2.5 million units by March 2013. Clearly, these extremely divergent figures indicate that the actual figures lie somewhere in between. The reasons for Apple lagging behind other brands in India are manifold. To begin with, India was never a part of Steve Jobs’ plans for the brand. When the entire world was waiting for the iPad 2 on January 28, 2011, Indians had to be content with the first version. The number of units shipped was small, a marker of the company’s low expectations from the Indian market. But Apple didn’t seem bothered by its skewed market share vis-à-vis Samsung. For, in April 2011, the company shipped just 20,000 units for its India launch of iPad 2, and they were sold out in 72 hours. In other words, Indian consumers were ready to pay for the right product, even when the company thought otherwise. Even Nokia and Blackberry, which are losing market share in the saturated Western market, are gaining ground in India because they have formulated an effective country plan. The potential of the Indian market, in the tablet PC space, cannot be discounted. Adoption may have been slow
so far, but that has little to do with price. Infrastructural requirements like robust 3G connectivity and Wi-Fi hotspots are not met, and contribute to the lukewarm response to tablet PCs so far. Once these issues are sorted, India is bound to become a hot market, and Apple seriously risks being left behind. The other big weak spot for Apple is the flood of Android-based mobile phones entering the market, giving Android OS-based Samsung tablets an edge. The higher percentage of free apps in the Android Marketplace (now part of Google Play), in comparison to the Apple App Store, is another reason Android devices will perform better in India. But there are other rumbles in the tablet market that may work against not just Apple, but the leader Samsung as well. A slew of low-cost tablets have already entered the market and it is just a matter of time before they start denting the share of their illustrious counterparts. The rave reviews received so far by the latest entrant, Microsoft’s Windows Surface tablet, promises to make the tablet space more interesting in the days to come. Microsoft’s Windows OS has been the leader in the Indian market in comparison to Apple’s Mac systems, and the Windows 8 OS incorporated on the Surface tries to replicate the PC experience on a tablet. This gives Microsoft a clear advantage in a market where PCusers are a majority. Overall though, it’s the consumer who will have a field day in the tablet ball park!
iBall Slide i7011 Display: 7 inch Memory: 8GB internal, expandable upto 32GB Wi-Fi + external 3G dongle Price - Rs. 13,400 Reliance 3G Tab Display: 7 inch Memory: Expandable upto 32GB Wi-Fi + 3G Price: Rs. 13,000 HCL ME Tablet X1 Display: 7 inch Memory: 4GB internal, expandable upto 32GB Connectivity - Wi-Fi + external 3G dongle Price: Rs. 10,990 Milagrow TabTop Display: 7 inch Memory: 8GB internal, expandable upto 32GB Wi-Fi + 3G Price: Rs. 13,990 Blackberry Playbook Wi-Fi, 16GB Display: 7 inch Memory: 16GB internal Wi-Fi Price: Rs. 14,300
mathemagicians
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
E
WHAT AFTER PhD IN MATHEMATICAL FINANCE? Quantitative trader at the stock market Finance analyst at a bank Investment analyst in an investment firm Design stocks and futures in stockbroking firms Pricing analyst
dward Oakley Thorp, American pioneer in mathematics, was a professor all right, but he smartly deployed his knowledge of probability and statistics in the stock market, discovering a number of pricing anomalies in the securities markets. This was back in the 1960s. By the turn of the century, he reported an annual 20 per cent return on all his personal investments. Thorp the academic even became president of a hedge fund in his name. Thorp’s life is about opportunities in the financial world for mathematics students, researchers, and professors. Even by predicting a stock crash, you can make a personal fortune, all because your mathematics was right. The new stock market stars now are mathematicians, students and researchers who are making a killing like Thorp, even if sometimes they devise programs that cause crashes, like the one in 2010.
Math PhDs enrolled in BU: 50 Math PhDs at IISc: 45 Math PhDs passing out of IISc: 6 Most students getting into stocks and shares with math finance background come from IIT Kanpur, IIT Guwahati, IIT Mumbai, IIM Kolkata, IIM-Bangalore, and IIM-Ahmedabad.
Ayyo Rama!
*Manmohan Singh tells captains of industry to invoke the Indian economy’s ‘animal spirit’. :) Our prime minister knows so much about the sher market, no?
S Balakrishna Member, Bangalore Stock Exchange
I majored in economics, accounting, statistics, and econometrics. During my summer vacations, I pursued various internships. Banking and finance interested me the most. When Goldman Sachs came for campus recruitment, I knew this was where I wanted to be. We act as agents of growth, and this helps me sleep well at night.
MONTHLY SALARIES AFTER MATH PhD From Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh in India, and Rs 4 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore in the US
THE NUMBERS
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has just opened its doors to this world of this opportunity by launching a virtual mathematics teaching and learning institute. The Indo-US Virtual Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (VI-MSS) connects two US mathematical sciences institutes with several mathematics and statistics institutes in India, including the IISc and Indian Statistical Institute in Bangalore. Prof Govindan Rangarajan of IISc, who coordinates work from India in Bangalore, says while collaboration in advanced areas like stochastics and probability and number theory will take place, mathematics in finance is a potential area “we’re looking to work on”. “The use of mathematics in financial applications is one big incentive for students to take up mathematics research. This explains the rise in the numbers of financial mathematics scholars,” he told Talk. Stock exchanges, says Rangarajan, are the new hotspots for mathematics students and researchers. “As a mathematics scholar, you can do something as critical as designing stock options and futures, or the basic financial instruments of the stock market. Their growth trajectory in some sense is in your hands. Not surprisingly, mathematicians are turning financial designers.”
In the US, mathematicians becoming financial analysts is a big trend. The salaries of math analysts range from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh a month.
COMPANIES THAT HIRE MATH PhDs Goldman Sachs, Mckinsey and Co, Standard and Chartered, J P Morgan and almost all financial and investment firms and banks.
WHERE YOU CAN DO A MATH PhD IISc, IITs, IIMs, NITs and RECs, and Harvard, Wharton, Oxford and many universities abroad.
Triumph
of the nerds Using an array of equations and computer programs, mathematics PhDs are the new masters of the investment universe. Some earn as much as Rs 1.2 crore a month, even if the algorithms they devise sometimes cause severe market crashes. A report by Prashanth G N
options for companies and individual investors, and anticipating stock movements are the other interventions mathematics scholars are involved in. “Companies and stock exchanges look out for math minds. In the old days, you wondered what to do with statistical knowledge. Now it’s a question of how much you can make from it. PREDICTING STOCK Making predictions, understanding patterns in There is a vast, profitable and secure world out market behaviour, outlining investment there for math aspirants, and stock markets are
the light houses from where you see that world,” says Rangarajan. Business writer Richard Anderson of BBC News sees this as a trend that takes away from traditional methods. He writes: “Investment decisions are no longer being made by financiers, but increasingly by PhD mathematicians and the immensely complex computer programs they devise. Fundamental research and intuition are being usurped by algorithmic for-
mulae. Quant (quantitative) trading is taking over the world's financial capitals.” According to Anderson, there has been a paradigm shift in the role of mathematicians, whose skill set, he writes, “is increasingly being used to make money, not just to stop losing it.” Math researchers help generate millions playing a key role in high-frequency trading (HFT), devising quantitative trading programs that monitor market movements, trading patterns and news flows, and change strategies within a second. Says Anderson: “A recent governmentbacked study in the UK estimated that between a third and a half of all share trading in Europe, and more than two-thirds in the US, was HFT. It drives almost everything that goes on on Wall Street.” This simply underscores the enormous financial width of a math career.
SCEPTICISM Statistical physicist H Eugene Stanley of Boston University, a proponent of applying approaches and concepts of physics to economics, in a recent interview in Scientific American says math scholars can do a great deal in understanding risk even if they can’t help beat the market. “Science is about empirical fact. There is no question that optimistic people think they can beat the market, but they don't do it consistently with mathematical models. No model can consistently predict the future. It can't possibly be,” he told his interviewer. “What you can do is predict the risk of a given event. The risk just means the chance that something bad will happen, for example. That you can do with increasing accuracy because we have more and more data. It's like insurance companies: they cannot tell you when you are going to die, but they can predict the risk that you will die, given the right information. You can do the same thing with stocks. If you lose less, you get ahead of those who lose more,” he explained. Stanley also explains why economists and
21
MATH PATH: (Top right) Mathematical finance pioneer Edward Oakley Thorp later became the president of a hedge fund in his name. The Indian Institute of Science (below) is the hub of the discipline in India.
quants (those who use quantitative analysis to make financial trades) have immense faith in mathematical models: “If you’re worried, for example, about the segment of the Chinese economy that deals with steel, you make a model of what that whole market is all about and then you see if we did this what would likely happen. They’re right some of the time. It’s better than nothing. But when they have excessive faith in these models, it’s not justified. Math starts with assumptions; the real world does not work that way….” Stanley says algorithm-based trading programs caused certain fluctuations, like the “flash crash” in 2010 when the Dow Jones Industrial Index momentarily dropped roughly 1,000 points in minutes. “There is no question that a huge percentage of trades are done electronically by algorithms. Of course, the flash crash was triggered by that. But we had problems before (algorithm-based trading programs). We’ve had lots of crashes.”
SKY-HIGH SALARIES Despite the scepticism, young math PhDs working for top companies like Morgan Stanley, Standard and Chartered and Mc Kinsey in the US earn a whopping 200,000 to 250,000 dollars a year. They devise models of investment and analyse existing trades and stocks to guide critical investment decisions. In India, says Rangarajan, math analysts in financial and stock broking firms are paid way above what even
tech pros are – the new Gods of work. Beginning with Rs 25 lakh a year, salaries can cross a crore, depending on experience and the strategic importance of the work. Most PhDs work as strategic analysts within companies or as consultants who double up as faculty in renowned universities. The ones who go abroad earn more. The old perception that mathematics and statistics can’t get you anywhere is dead. As long as these experts don’t make the mistake that US-based financial strategist Rajat Gupta did (leaking information from a board room meeting to a hedge fund manager), there are millions to be made legitimately on the stock market. All that’s needed is the expertise to read between the mathematical lines.
Ishan Associate, investment management division, Goldman Sachs
Each day is different. My job is always interesting. It is very exciting to see how budgets and government policy affect the job I do Sahar Associate (finance), Morgan Stanley, London
I work on modelling credit risk in a regime switching market, and develop a procedure for estimating the unobservable assets of a firm in such a market Tamal Banerjee Mathematical finance PhD student, IISc
Financial derivatives were introduced in Indian markets in 2000. However, according to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India currently lacks a critical mass of researchers and practitioners adept at further developing and implementing sophisticated ideas in mathematical finance.
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
22
MOVIE RELEASES Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Cocktail
Watch out for this romantic comedy, shot in London and Based on Seth directed by Homi Grahame-Smith’s novel Adajania of Being Cyrus of the same name, the fame, and produced under Saif movie promises to be an Ali Khan’s banner Illuminati Films. amalgamation of action, horror, fantasy and history. Initially it was decided that Imran Khan and Deepika Padukone would The story revolves play the lead pair, around former US but Saif replaced President Abraham Imran. It will also Lincoln, who supbe model Diana posedly has a Penty’s film debut. secret identity as a The music has vampire hunter. In already created the movie, Lincoln’s mother is killed by waves, and the a supernatural creature, which triggers trailer on YouTube launched on May his passion to crush vampires and their helpers. The movie shot in 3-D is 21 crossed one million hits in just three days. packed with gory scenes. Strictly for Releases on: those who enjoy stuff like torn limbs July 13 and splattered blood. Releases on: July 13. Kya Super Kool Hai Hum This romantic comedy directed by Sachin Yardi is a sequel to the 2005 Ice Age 4: Continental Drift The rollercoaster ride continues! All the hit Kyaa Kool Hai Hum. Produced by Ekta and Shobha Kapoor, the film favourite characters from the three has Tusshar Kapoor earlier installments will reprise their and Ritesh roles for this one. Directed by Steve Deshmukh in the Martino and Michael Thurmeier, the lead roles. The story of this animated film takes place story is about their a few years after the events of Dawn of journey to Goa in the Dinosaurs. Scrat's search of love and pursuit of the acorn the mayhem that follows. The movie has world-changing consequences, forcing has a spoof of a scene in Dostana, Manny, Sid and Diego with Tusshar Kapoor imitating John Abraham’s dare bare act. However, on an adventure, critics have given a thumbs down to where Sid reunites with his long lost family, Diego finds his Tusshar’s butt, saying that he cannot match John’s. The film’s rights are love interest, Shira. already sold for Rs 21. 6 Crore. Releases on: Releases on: July 13 July 27
The Dark Knight Rises
The last and final installment in the Batman trilogy. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the story is set 80 years after the events of The Dark Knight. Batman returns to Gotham City and encounters the mysterious Selina Kyle and villainous Bane, from whom he, well, must... save... the city. The film is shot in various locations including Jodhpur. Fans are wondering if Batman will be killed in the movie, if this has to be the last in the series. Pundits however doubt if the filmmakers will let a lucrative franchise like Batman die. Releases on: July 20
Shiva This Shivaraj Kumar film is about child beggars and child labour. Undoubtedly, Shivanna will fight the baddies and rescue the children. Director Om Prakash Rao and Shivaraj Kumar have come together after a decade. Their last movie AK 47 was a blockbuster hit. Ragini Dwivedi plays Shiva’s love interest. Will Shivanna’s Shiva be as successful as kid brother Puneet’s Anna Bond is the question on everyone's mind. Releases on: July 27
london calling
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
24
Girl who loves mud pie Ashwini Ponnappa, the badminton champ representing India at the Olympics, was nurtured on government-run tennis courts at Nrupathunga Road. Her feat stands out in a city that’s now promoting spectacle more than sport, writes Dev S Sukumar
BORN GRACE: A wise coach once declared he would make Ashwini a national-level athlete if only she would give up badminton
A
mong the handful of so hard is a matter of mystery, but Bangaloreans who will Ashwini is generally regarded to have head for the London benefitted from the sporting genes of Olympics is Ashwini her family. Her father – in the tradiPonnappa. Kodavas are tion of the Kodavas — was a good renowned for being a nursery of hockey player, and Ashwini has inherhockey talent, but in Ashwini they ited athleticism and strength from have produced a gem of a badminton her martial forefathers. The Jwala-Ashwini combine shot player. Ashwini has partnered the Hyderabadi shuttler Jwala Gutta over to national fame when they won the the last three years with remarkable Commonwealth Games gold medal in success, and the two are seen as a front of a rapturous crowd at Siri Fort dangerous pair the world over. Stadium in Delhi. That was when she Ashwini’s story underlines the impor- first shot to fame nationally, and tance we should give to simple began to grace the front pages of magazines. The two went on to win a sporting infrastructure. Ashwini started playing bad- bronze at the World Championships minton at the Department of Youth in 2011. Today, to think of an Indian Services and Sports courts on badminton team without Ashwini Nrupathunga Road. Spotted early on Ponnappa is inconceivable; she is by the Prakash Padukone Academy, with Jwala one of the country’s top she was seen as a prospective singles sportswomen. How would it be had YMCA on player, but she had a promising partnership with another Academy Nrupathunga Road not had badtrainee, Nitya Sosale, and the two minton courts? Would Ashwini have became national junior champions. taken to the game and done such Ashwini was a natural athlete and remarkable service for the country? had so impressed V R Beedu, the Are we then sure that there are no wise athletics coach associated more Ashwinis in the cities and the countryside waiting with the Padukone to be discovered? Academy, that he Why must we leave it declared he would all to chance? make her a nationalBangalore as a level athlete if she sporting centre has would give up baddiminished in recent minton. years, thanks to the The women’s city planners’ indifdoubles at the senference to sporting ior level was infrastructure. There dominated were times when by Jwala Olympic-bound Gutta and Ashwini and Jwala teams would camp at fellowthe Sports Authority Hyderabadi Their team ranks No 17 in the world. of India’s Southern Shruti Kurien, In 2011, they became Centre, located but the pair the first Indian pair to win beside Bangalore enjoyed limited a medal at the World University. But today, success at the interBadminton as more cities around national level. The Championships the country develop Jwala-Shruti and infrastructure, Ashwini-Nitya pairs would have both faded into oblivion Bangalore appears almost backward had not Jwala and Shruti quarreled; in comparison. It has been long since Jwala started to look for a new part- an event of international importance ner, and Ashwini seemed to fit was hosted in Karnataka’s capital, and the bill. It was a fortuitous moment that should be a matter of concern, for Indian badminton. Doubles part- for it indicates that the enterprise and nerships are like locks and keys. free spirit and demonstration of While Jwala is a brilliant forecourt human excellence in international player – meaning she patrols the net sport is denied to Bangalore citizens. One of the hallmarks of a great effectively – Ashwini complements city is the quality of the artists, scienher from the back. The Kodava girl is a superb ath- tists and sportsmen it breeds. lete and one of the hardest hitters Sportsmen need quality sports infrain the international circuit. How structure; which does not mean a such a petite girl can hit the shuttle stadium worth a million dollars – but
Not to forget choco fudge Ashwini Ponnappa was raised in Bangalore and moved to Hyderabad, where her father, a Reserve Bank officer, is now posted. Her heart lies in Bangalore and she hopes to come back to this city after the Oylmpics. She studied PUC at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, before graduating in commerce from St Mary’s College, Hyderabad. When she is in town, she gorges on hot chocolate fudge at Corner House and Mississippi mud pie at Shezan. A fan of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, she can read her romance novels over and over again. But she refrains from watching movies based on Meyer’s books: she feels the characters on screen and not half as good as in the novels. Ashwini loves dressing up and avoids being photographed when she isn't wearing eyeliner. She loves to shop for stylish, colourful footwear.
Heavy medal 2011: Bronze, World Badminton Championships (Women’s Doubles) 2010: Gold, Commonwealth Games (Women’s Doubles) 2010: Silver, Commonwealth Games (Mixed Team Event) 2010: Gold, South Asian Games (Mixed Doubles) 2009: Won National Badminton Championships (Women’s Doubles) 2006: Gold, South Asian Games rather, grounds all around the city, each with a running track, changing rooms and good toilets. Without functional toilets, how would a girl be encouraged to take up sport?
saarurasammulligatawnypulichaarsathamudhuchaar
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
26
The spicy rasam story Ramesh Hunsur
Saaru, sathumadam or chaar? Or is it the tony ‘mulligatawny’ that we have in mind? Turns out the rasam isn’t such a simple affair after all
A
ccording to Lizzie Collingham in her book, Curry of Cooks and Conquerors, when the British took up residence in the Madras Presidency and asked their cooks (who were locals) to rustle up a soup for starters, this is what happened. Since the concept of soup is an alien one to Indian cuisine and necessity is the Amma of Invention, the clever ‘Madrassis’ took rasam, tweaked it around by adding rice, vegetables and meat and served it – probably a little nervously - to their British…dare I say “masters”? The result was such a hit that very soon, no “Anglo-Indian” dinner party or ball was considered complete if “very hot mullagatani soup” was not on the menu. And the by then “Madrassi British” quaffed it in such large quantities that they earned the nickname “Mulls”! So, while South Indians will sneer at this question, it is one that begs to be asked.
Not ‘South Indian soup’
TABULA RASAM: The origin of the word ‘rasam’ can be traced to Sanskrit and Tamil
Well, the most common description that I have come across is “a South Indian soup.” Which is tantamount to saying that Lata Mangeshkar is a singer. Because there are rasams and there are rasams. So many of them that you could say that “rasam” is actually a entire continent, populated with thousands of rasam gotrams. Some are minimalists – just water, delicately but fabulously infused with the souls of a few, select spices and a souring agent. (The term “mullagatani’ or “mulligatawny” is a corruption of the Tamil “milugai tanni”, meaning pepper water.) Other are more complex and robust, made by boiling a dal, then flavouring and seasoning it in all manner of ways. Some are flamboyantly fiery, others more subtle and sly in their sting. Most rasams are tart, but a few are sweet-and-sour, the
most famous example being “obattu saaru” (or “holige saaru”) in Karnataka, a by-product of “obattus” or puranpolis! Some are made in a matter of minutes, others choose to slowly simmer and seethe for hours before they are ready. And some are not even called rasam. For example, in Karnataka, the term used is ‘saaru’, in Andhra Pradesh it is ‘chaaru’ and even in Tamil Nadu where the term “rasam” is supposed to have originated, there are variants like “sathamudhu” and “pulichaar”.
So, what is rasam? Perhaps the answer is in the etymology of the word “rasam”. It is derived from the Tamil ‘irasam’ and the Sanskrit “rasa” both of which mean ‘essence’ or ‘extract’. And so, if one were to look for an inclusive description, this is basically what rasam is. A set of ingredients cooked together so that they give up their signature flavours to mingle and marry into a fabulously redolent, delicious…well, what should be called a symphony but I’ll settle for the more mundane ‘soup’. Naturally, the next question is what are those ingredients? Ah. It is one almost as difficult to answer as “what is rasam?”. Because
Ratna’s Kitchen Writer, director and photographer, Ratna Rajaiah is best known for her fascinating insights into the evolution of our cuisine. Author of the popular book How the Banana Goes To Heaven and Other Secrets of Health from the Indian Kitchen, she is partial to traditional foods, especially those from the South of India.
the crafty rasam cook can extract a rasam from almost anything. Dals of every kind. (Though tuvar dal is the most commonly used.) Tomato. Tamarind. Pineapple. Ginger. Kokum. Lime. Citron. Curry Leaves. Garlic. Even kanji - the excess water remaining after rice has been cooked – is cleverly seasoned to become a rasam that you will find in the Udupi region of Karnataka. There is also a rasam
made out of neem flowers - vepampoo rasam, prepared especially during the Tamil New Year, when the neem trees are in full bloom. In fact, I’d like to think that the first rasam was the brainwave of a desperate cook forced to feed unexpected guests with a larder that was almost bare and I am reminded of that story of the man who made soup out of stones. So, who knows? Maybe there is a rasam that is indeed made out of stones! But stone or water, no rasam is possible without the presence of its star performers – spices. The array is impressive and one that reaffirms the South Indian cook’s reputation of being a master (or should that be mistress?!) of spices. Red dried chillies, black pepper, coriander, cumin, methi and mustard seeds, asafoetida - to name the more popular ones. Some roasted, often with dals; some broiled in a little oil. Sometimes ground into paste, but more often than not combined in hundreds of permutations and combinations and then powdered to become those maddeningly aromatic, jealously guarded secrets called “rasam powder” that are passed on from one generation to another and considered almost as precious as the family jewels!
star colours
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
Mr Devil-
May-Care at 60
Carefree punter, all-night boozer, central minister who never attended office, movie star who gives away half his earnings to fans, Ambarish is an icon like few others BASU MEGALKERI
N
Ramesh Hunsur
AMBI PURE: Ambarish as Yama, God of Death, in a recent film (right), and as himself
Savie Karnel
ot a single member of the approximately one lakh people who came for Ambarish’s 60th birthday bash at Palace Grounds on 29 May had been paid to come. This was no political circus. The fans came in lorries and tractors, besides in buses and cars, and with no other objective but to see this man with blood-shot eyes, hardly the sort your mother would tell you to emulate. Ambarish is an unusual icon. Star of over 200 films, mostly Kannada, Ambarish has never been known for his gravitas. He isn’t a Rajkumar, who rose from humble origins to become a superstar. If Rajkumar was known for his simple ways, his love of music, and his practice of yoga, Ambarish was always the drunk, gambling, gallivanting movie star. Ambarish’s family has produced one of Karnataka’s greatest musicians in whose name Bangalore houses a violin-shaped auditorium. Chowdaiah, the Carnatic maestro, is Ambarish’s grandfather’s brother. When Ambarish was a child, some of India's greatest classical musicians visited his house in Mysore. Chowdaiah would sometimes tell him to play the shruti box, all through the night, as M S Subbulakshmi, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar and M L Vasantha Kumari explored complex ragas. “Don’t become a musician. You’ll ruin my name,” Chowdaiah would tell Ambarish, knowing his erratic ways. When producer Shankar Singh recommended Ambarish for a role in Puttanna Kanagal’s film Naagarahaavu (1972), the Mysore boy was too lazy to meet the director. His role of Jaleel, the ruffian who harasses the heroine with his love talk, won him a quick following. Naagarahaavu became a super duper hit, and its hero Vishnuvardhan went on to become an icon, too, but Ambarish’s image as a bad guy took some time to change. In Devara Kannu, Ambarish played the villain who rapes the heroine. His father, a school teacher, saw the film, and cursed him. “He wouldn’t believe it was just an act,” recalls Ambarish. On anoth-
er occasion, when he saw Ambarish smoking, he slippered him. Yet, Ambarish’s honesty disarms everyone. “I used to lie to Puttanna Kanagal when I went late to the sets,” he told Janasri channel recently. “Lies, all lies”. His godfather Puttana would reprimand him, “Who made you a hero?” To which Ambarish would say, “Who else but you, sir!” It is this lack of pretence that makes him friends with movie stars across industries. Shatrughan Sinha, Jackie Shroff, Rajinikant, Suniel Shetty, Jayaprada, Khushboo, Chiranjeevi, and Balakrishna were among the industry colleagues who came to the Palace Grounds bash. Ambarish is a member of the Congress party. He had contested the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, and his rival happened to be Cheluvaraya Swamy of the JD(S). Ambarish would call him up and say, “Send me some cash, Cheluva. I need it for the elections.” And his admirer-rival would gladly oblige! Ambarish did pretty little when he was made the union minister of information and broadcasting. He is famous as a minister who never attended office for two years. He had resigned, saying the centre had been unfair to Karnataka in the Cauvery water dispute, but he had handed his papers to his party leaders, and not to the speaker. Not one to be bothered by the public cause, Ambarish has yet remained a respected voice in the Kannada film industry. After the death of Rajkumar and Vishnuvardhan, the industry looks upon him as its statesman, and respects his verdict whenever internal disputes threaten to go out of control. Married to the beautiful Telugu actress Sumalata, Ambarish says he wouldn’t be as heartbroken if she left him as he would be if his cook did. “He makes all kinds of snacks all through the night, when my friends and I sit drinking and playing cards,” he says. “What would I do without him?” Ambarish’s role as god Yama in Katariveera Surasundarangi (Swordsman and the Intoxicating Beauty) is a hit. At 60, he has little interest in acting, but no one’s in a mood to let him retire. The film industry, for one, wants him to mediate in its disputes. The Congress has just made him vice-president of the state working committee, but there’s also talk that the BJP’s attempting to lure him to its camp.
28
fame game
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
I
NO RACKET SCIENCE: Anisha, Prakash, Deepika and Ujjala. Right: Deepika tried her hand at badminton, but was always unfairly compared to her illustrious father
was interested in what Prakash’s celebrity status had done to his family. Deepika, his eldest daughter, is today one of India’s most popular film stars. In the late 1990s, when I was working on his biography, she was all over the place: newspapers, magazines… in fact, there was a huge billboard of her advertising jewellery, on the way from his house to the badminton academy, and Prakash had to pass by it every day… As Deepika began to get famous, she was always referred to as “badminton ace Prakash Padukone’s daughter”. That sort of thing was inevitable, but it was also ironical, because Prakash had almost no role in making her a model. He had little clue about the fashion industry, and he wasn’t the sort who would have dictated what profession she would choose. It was Ujjala who paid attention to Deepika’s earliest inclinations. The little girl, just seven, once told her she liked modelling, so Ujjala took her for ramp shows and dance classes, and later, for portfolio shoots. Deepika did a couple of campaigns but stopped in high school to concentrate on studies. As a schoolgirl, Deepika took to badminton, but it was evident from the start that the pressure would be enormous. Everyone looked at her for signs of champion material—in a country which had gone into badminton decline, perhaps the only hope was a champion’s offspring. “There was no pressure from my parents; more from people around me,” Deepika said. “They expected me to be as good as him. The pressure didn’t really affect me because I knew I’d get back to modelling.” Deepika seemed to have reasonable badminton talent, but she was up against some formidable odds. Years after having heard various expert opinions on her husband’s game from onlookers, Ujjala now had to endure the same thing about her daughter. Parents of other children would be sitting by, and they consoled themselves that Deepika just didn’t seem to have the talent that her father was famous for. They’d say, look, her father is the great Prakash, but Deepika’s too lazy. She’s got everything going for her but she’s not making use of it. Now if only we had the same facilities… That’s when Ujjala decided to stop going for her daughter’s matches. She’d drop her at the venue, leave, and pick her up later. And when she did that, there were parents who said: see, her parents are so busy, they’re not involved with their child, they never take them to tournaments … Finally, one day Deepika came up to her dad and told him she was through with badminton; she was
Deepika, the Padukone What’s it like to grow up as a celebrity child? A look at the dilemmas of a girl who grew up in the shadow of her father, the badminton legend Prakash, through the eyes of his biographer Dev S Sukumar interested in modelling and wanted to take it seriously. She had as spectacular a start to her modelling career as her father did way back in 1972. Of course she was constantly compared to him, “which is unfair, because they’re two different fields, and my mom has played a bigger role in my career.” Prakash’s second daughter Anisha loves all sports except racket sports. She trained for a while with her father, but lost in her first match at a junior tournament, and didn’t touch the racket thereafter. “I retired after 20 years of playing,” Prakash joked to her, “And you on your debut.” Anisha represented the junior national cricket team, but decided to concentrate on golf. Harish, Prakash’s youngest brother, perhaps summed it up for everyone
when he told me, “Celebrity is a double-edged sword. We grew up in Prakash’s shadow. And then you wonder what your identity is. People are nice to you… but you wonder if it’s because of him that they’re so nice, and whether you deserve it, and you feel dishonest about accepting that attention.”
Dev S Sukumar’s book, Touch Play: The Prakash Padukone Story, will soon be reprinted by Niyogi.
Fotocorp
30
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
Agony Ajji Dear Ajji I’m a single mother, very proud that I work hard and bring up my daughter all by myself. My women colleagues are considerate. I'm an outsider in this city, but feel safe enough to take my daughter to IPL matches, all by myself. But the problem is with the men. While they are extremely polite with me, they always seem to be in a hurry to get away, whether at work or at social occasions. Is there something about motherhood that puts men off? Rhea, Koramangala Dear Rhea, Indian men are, by and large, respectful of mothers, their own, or others'. So sunny side up: You are safe from unwanted attention. What are you looking for? A man to date? A man to marry? A man on whose shoulders you can cry? People these days find both love and...er... intimacy online. Just pointing in that direction, not saying that's the only place. Problems? Let no-nonsense Ajji sort them out. Write to: ajji@talkmag.in
The anda came first
Maa: Kaaiko rora? (Mother: Why are you crying?) Beta: Teacher maari mereko. (Son: Teacher beat me.) Maa: Kaaiko maari kameeni? (Mother: Why did the wretched woman beat you?) Beta: Main usku murghi bola. (Son: I called the teacher a chicken.) Maa: Kaaiko aisa bola rey
32
kambakhat? (Mother: Idiot, why did you call her that?) Beta: Kaaiko boleto? Har exam main anda deri na mereko! (Son: Why? She’s been giving me an egg (zero) in every exam!) Posted on Facebook by well-known tabla-player Gaurang Kodical
Kambakht disk
It happened to me some years ago, when CDs were called disks. I work in a
government office and the office boys have difficulty in pronouncing English words. I wanted my office boy to fetch a CD from my colleague. So I told him, “Saab se disk le aane." (Get the disk from Saab). He went and said, “Saab ne dicks maanga hai.” (Saab has asked for dicks).
nail on his little finger. It was almost an inch long. So, I asked him, “Naakhun kyu badhaya hai?” (Why have you grown your nail?). He replied, “Naak khodne ke liye.” (To dig my nose). S Srivastava, Koramangala
Dig that!
I do not like men with long nails. This is not permitted in my organisation. One of the boys had grown the Share the humour in your life, multiply the fun! Keep those anecdotes coming to: features@talkmag.in
TIME PASS
1st Cross
Talkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weekly crossword for Bangaloreans who know their way about town 8 Tourist destination which used to be the capital of the Vijayanagar Empire (5) 10 Official language of Karnataka (7) 11 See 24 14 V H ____: Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary Education in the Karnataka cabinet (6) 16 Bangalore based tennis player who will represent India at the 2012 Olympics (7) 19 Ac & 1 Dn: Our High Court is also known by this name (6,7) 21 Where three rivers meet in Karnataka (7) 23 Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike in short (4) 24 & 11 Across: Magadi chieftain who founded Bangalore (5,5) 25 National park home to many tigers and elephants (9) Down
Across 1 Karnataka's first Chief Minister (1,1,5)
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
3 Bangaloreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s famed botanical gardens (7) 7 Recently appointed CM of Karnataka (7)
1 See 19 Across Home & Transport minister in the 2 Karnataka Cabinet (1,5) 4 Our ruling party (3) 5 20 Down's father (5,3) 6 Probably one of the best crick-
eters ever from Karnataka (6) 9 22 acre park between M.G Road and Cubbon Road (8) 12 A steamed dosa (5) 13 City art gallery which has around 600 paintings (10) 15 ___ City: Bangalore of course (6) 16 No rickshaws allowed on this road (7) 17 The State Archaeological ____ is located in Cubbon Park (6) 18 Park spanning 300 acres in the Cantonment Area (6) 20 You will find the remnants of his fort in the City Market area (4) 22 One of Bangalore's oldest temples (4)
34
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
Postmodernism Generator
Going giga Who said that megapixels do not matter? Whoever it was, turns out was right, for the gigapixel era is here. A team of engineers at Duke University in North Carolina have developed a camera – dubbed AWARE2 – which can potentially take pictures with resolutions of up to 50 gigapixels or 50,000 megapixels. This is
achieved by synchronising 98 tiny cameras in a single device. Team lead David Brady says that with miniaturisation of electronic components, hand-held gigapixel cameras will follow. Currently it can take onegigapixel images at up to three frames per minute. Say cheese to that!
No Facebook, please Facebook may have got the markets and advertisers all excited, but this MBA bride-seeker from Tamil Nadu is clearly not impressed. As he casts his eye around for a wife, he has set down that she shouldn’t be a Facebook user. He must have read the report that one in three marriages breaks down today because of Facebook liaisons.
Chumbak challo Chumbak (‘magnet’ in Hindi) makes everything from flip-flops to fridge magnets. Clever and quirky, they are inspired by a thoroughly desi pop sensibility. Available at select stores and at www.chumbak.com
Having a tough time making sense of postmodernism? Resent the invasion of high flown theory into literature classes, media studies and everything else in Humanities? Here's your chance to get back at the theory-nuts. Create your own postmodernist essay using the Postmodernism Generator. It allows you to sound just like your cooler-than-thou professors, if not better – and complete with references from Deleuze and Guattari! (Those who don’t get a word of this can take heart, you’re not missing anything). Written by Andrew C Bulhak, it’s a (www.elsewhere.org/pomo) a web program that allows you to create such exquisite nonsense such as this: ‘If Foucaultist power relations holds, we have to choose between dialectic deappropriation and postconstructivist textual theory.’ (From an essay titled: Dialectic deappropriation and
socialist realism) Still don’t like it? Foucalt, we say!
36
talk|sample edition|talkmag.in
What Antilia really means
Love thy neighbour
Antilia is where business badshah Mukesh Ambani lives. His associates call it the Taj Mahal of the 21st century, but not everyone shares that sentiment, as you can see from the t-shirt here. This cheeky attire by Wear Your Opinion (www.wyo.in) was inspired by a Hemant Morparia cartoon. It gives you a notso-subtle idea about how the 27-storey building might look if you placed it horizontally on the ground.
So, that explains the worse-than-usual traffic jams on Kanakpura Road. Apparently, our much loved neighbour Veena Malik is shooting for a Kannada film at a location thereabouts. The buzz is that the bimbette is drawing crowds from as far as Kollegal and even beyond the ghats. Only fair, since she’s come all the way from Pakistan. She told reporters she liked the script of the Kannada remake of Dirty Picture, and had come down to display her histrionics.
Overheard: Building the world’s most expensive home: Rs 4,000 crore. Paying for Mumbai’s most expensive real estate: Rs 50,000 a sq feet. Being unable to move in for a year because of vaastu trouble: priceless!
Rs 5.5 lakh for a pair of sneakers? Not so Yeezy No kidding, that's how much Nike's latest offering, the limitededition Air Yeezy II designed by rapper Kanye West, is selling online for. A pre-ordered pair of the soon-to-bereleased sneakers was sold on the auction site
(Note: Histrionics isn't a brand of knickers).
A jolt of a car For those who want an eco-friendly car, but aren’t too happy with the looks of Reva, the MegaPixel might be the answer. This hybrid car from Tata Motors runs on battery and petrol. A single tank takes you 900 km, and that’s a lot. You just park over an induction pad to charge the car. Shown at the Geneva auto fair earlier this year, the MegaPixel might steal the thunder from Reva, which costs Rs 5 lakh, and Chevvy Volt (right), which costs Rs 35 lakh.
Freudian Slippers
eBay for an astounding $90,300 recently. But a little birdie tells us that the outrageous bid is a publicity gimmick, possibly engineered by the rapper himself. After all, who would pay that of money for shoes moulded on someone else's feet?
Twigs with legs
Tata MegaPixel
Quirky and cool: Gift ideas from The Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild
38
For iPhone users, here’s something to drool over. Twig is the latest offering showcased on Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) which describes itself as ‘the world's largest funding platform for creative projects’. The prototype, which made gadget website CNet wonder if it was the most innovative iPhone docking cable ever. Its ‘bendable legs’ can transform it into a tripod for your phone. Price: about Rs 1,000.
More at: www.philosophersguild.com
Banned Book Mug
We’ve all had our share of Freudian slips, now get some Freudian slippers. What better way to spend a lazy Sunday morning than lounging around in slippers more comfortable than Herr Freud’s famous couch.
Add some extra stimulation to your morning cuppa with this Banned Book Mug, displaying in bold the titles of the world's most famous banned books, from Galileo’s Dialogo to Rushdie’s Satanic Verses.
Dali Watch
Or watch Dali, as his trademark moustache twirls itself around his face in pursuit of an ant that, wait a minute, actually tells the time. A creation worthy of the Surrealist master himself.
Master of one Hugh MacLeod is a cartoonist famous for the ‘minimalist’ doodles he creates on the back of business cards. In a recent blog post he writes about ‘mastery’ as a model of success that doesn’t involve selling one’s soul. One of his role models is Jiro, a 75-year-old sushi master who runs a dingy, tiny sushi bar in Tokyo, the world’s first sushi chef to win three Michelin stars. The Savile Row tailors of London, famed for making the world’s best suits, also pride themselves on their work. Their secret is ‘mastery’ – they have mastered a craft. Some of the world’s richest queue up at their outlets – and in Jiros’ case quite literally – eat out of their hands. Don’t worry about success, says MacLeod; Jiro worry about mastery.
First in a series of comic takes on politics, society and the droll side of life
THE ANGRY ADVENTURES OF YEDDYMAN