Blink issue 02 february01 2014

RHINO LOVE Will the 34-year-old Byculla Bachelor mate with the maidens at the Delhi Zoo? P3

saturday, february 1, 2014

We the Racists

We ask what it means to be Black in India P10

A Sinha

EATING THEM WORDS Recreating Enid Blyton’s world of afternoon teas and midnight feasts P21

QUEST FOR GOLD How Shiva Keshavan took his sled to the Winter Olympics P22

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For the love of luge

Opening a vein

What motivates India’s money-men to give generously to a relatively obscure sport, whose sole athlete is a Manali boy with a need for speed?

In a country of a billion, only a few hundred people have the Bombay blood group. Here is how the #IndiaForShiva n Cool Runnings, (1993)they the epicband movie about together in times campaign of needon Twitter and set Dalal-street heavyweight Rakesh Jhunjhunwa-

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the Jamaican bobsled team that made it to up a micro-site of the same name as well, meant la of RARE Enterprises has had a long-standing asthe 1988 Winter Olympics, Junior (one of the as a one-stop-shop for all who want to donate or sociation with OGQ. “We want to support our team members) sells his car so that they can just follow Keshavan’s sporting developments. country’s attempts to win an Olympic gold and I embark on a journey, which will culminate with The mobile company has also run an online ad- think giving to OGQ is a great way to achieve campaign featuring the athlete, who has been this,” he says. “I think they have done an awean Olympic gold, albeit a Winter Olympic gold. job and many of them haveof been pro-tell me I’m like a god to equipped laboratories tosome mistake it forsince O positheir brand the last two years.

Shiva Keshavan, India’s first luge athlete’s ilies.

Some them n June 2007, jourPranjali Bhelave wasambassador a little less for fessional athletes themselves, theyhe know tive. Experts say it is impossible to conclude how them,” Whiledoctors corporate endorsements are always useney to Sochi, where along with than morefour thanmonths 2,000 old when says.what Threeis months ago, Thenge took detectrequired,” he adds. people have this blood group but estimate his entire family to Nashik to check up on Smita ful,Her a more structured steady source of supother competitors, he’ll be looking to win ed a hole in gold her heart. father, Ratiramandmany OGQ350-400 succeeded in collecting more than their that there aren’t more than people port for has come from the non-profit next week, was considerably less precarious.

An rushed Gaikwad, a fellow Bombay blood group member, Markand Bhelave, herKeshavan to Chennai’s target ₹10 lakh, allowing to buy a across the country.

However, theofnumber of doorganisation, Olympic Quest.

OGQ, backed Olympic veteran, Keshavan, who lives in Manali, Railway Hospital where he was confronted with Gold andKeshavan to bless her newborn baby. When Smita had state-of-the-art raised by aextremely host of corporate identifies nors is far less as aththis estimate includes sled. babiesInterestingly, will take part in his fifth games this year in the worse news.

Pranjali had the rare ABO partners, developedOGQ a series of complications during her donors whoshe gave anyletes with the most potential the country andinelderly people.and money even from smaller pregnancy, luge event. For the uninitiated, luge commonly is a sport known blood type, as Bombay blood was taken to Mumbai’s KEM HosAshokshe Dewan, supports them financially and in other areas. thing between ₹100 to ₹25,000. where athletes cover winding tracks little blood group.ice From contacting banks to broadpital where had aapremature delivery. Before retired naval officer, the donated Athletes have signedSaviour up with with no name more than a kilometre long, at speeds of up casting messages ontoRadio Mirchi,who the Bhelaves the surgery, hospital provided her husband ₹6,000safor Keshavan’s cause. What apartblood fromgroup Keshavan,Ininclude 150 km/hour. Even though searched he has to compete un-for aOGQ, extensively Bombay many cases, the donors remain faceless Jayant Gaikwad with a list of people who beinspired to give it? He says, MCresponse, Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal der the Olympic flag, since the Indian Olympicof no donor.

After months a relative vioursand as the patients are often located in a differ-himlonged to Bombay blood group. Of all the strangseems ers to be constantly fightKumar, name a few. them in touch with BSSushil Shridhar fromtoBangaAssociation, seems to careput little about the counent Viren city or even country. Vinay Shetty“Shiva of Think Jayant reached out to, Thenge was the first to ing against a regressive system, former pacaptain of the a Mumbai-based NGO, remembers But hestage, had recently rescued another try being represented at lore. the world the Rasquinha, Foundation, a dash down to the hospital to donate blood. expensive fighting fight- of Sankalp India FoundaIndian Hockey Team and currently tient, again for another Asian Games gold medallist has and nevercouldn’t been bet-donate case in 2008 Luge whenisaan young man from Bangla-for recognition Yet, Ankitaand Agarwal support to 84raise money so thatthese he can the that CEO stalling of OGQhis says, luge, came the in sport, three months.

Ratiram ba-“In desh ter prepared. As Namita Aggarwal, wife and man- feared searchso ofthe a donor for his ing ailing tion believes acts of kindness are few and we have be top 25her athletes separated by less father. treatment could endanger life, soare he conager of the Olympian, says,by’s “Luge is an expensive year-old Afterreceived Shettyhas ar- luge.” He adds, “I thought farit’ll between.

She says that Bangabeen a great help, says good to donate because lore through than 0.8 first seconds, even the tiniest tinued his search.

On Pranjali’s birthday sport, so the support we have received this time ranged for the blood from a local alone has roughly 50 people of wife packed and manager athlete a secondat-can donor, make or there was stillhim no consign of fraction help. As aoflast-ditch around has gone a great way in helping it washis neatly in ice my small contribution, the this blood group but only 15-20 are that heto donate since some have break call yourtotitle chances. For tempt, Ratiram made another Shridhar, tinue his passion.” andShiva flown to Dhaka. More recently, can get the extra edge eligible fromrestrictions a to compete at this level he needs the Sankalp India Founda- needs. In India, unless you’re who and waswhy eligible to donate by then.

Without So who is funding Keshavan are they health and many aren’t Bangalore’s The family first-ever of to it’scase difficult pursue best support equipmuch ispersuasion, he took thetechnical earliest train to and putting money in a sport, which yet to capture even aware that they have this tion sent three units of blood to a rich the Bombay blood and I feel its time that situaWhile a new lease of OGQ life. helps Keshavan popular imagination in theChennai, country?and ThePranjali answergot ment.” blood type. Of them, not everyone cancer patient in Istanbul. Howev- sports group was discovered changed.” withhas physicians for physiotherapy, the last Shridhar donated blood probably lies in a variety of In factors butdecade, one unagrees to donate, leaving her with er, when they get a chance to meet tion in 1952 who is currently Meanwhile for Keshavan also raisesthe funds through honchos 34 times. of is thoseitoccasions, 53-yearderlying change for the better is On thatsome India less than 10 people. She holds meetfacecorporate to face, people do end up forg“five’s andout crowdsourcing old engineer has of work to gocampaigns. as ing deeper bonds that aretraining moving beyond cricket. “In our country it had is noto rush to agive members of Bombay not nec-in France, it might be a case ofings hold the For Ashishusually Gupta, at founder-trustee of Ashoka charm”. He says, “I will not be allowed toblood far as Chennai, Vellore secret that most sports funding is directed to- and Hyderabad, group a chance to get better essarily need-based.

Indian flag in the Olympic Games this time, and and a donor sport itself is to New hisRao, owndirector, expense,brand to rescueUniversity, a patient. Mumbai res- to OGQ, wards cricket,” says Amitesh acquainted.

This way, she says, it Lastthe year, on his way Delhi saddens I am not ascommitted. importantEvery as asserting on that ident Fernandes and media at MTS India, one ofAlex Keshavan’s big-is equally will be easier for them to locate one for anational businesspride trip, Shridhar made a me. But in my heart and mind, competing for now India,six and for each and per- But so far, the meetings sportingtostage.

“I thinkquick it is important that In- to meet three months, he dutifully a blood gest funders. MTS, who consider themselves a thereports another in anevery emergency. stop at Nagpur Pranjali, who me.” haven’t attracted more than six to eight people. to do well years in cricket.

But was at the bank his area toimmakedia his continues contribution.

Like “challenger brand”, believe thatinKeshavan’s old. “She only ason year oldsupports at that time Winter on February 2014.Think and Sankalp India same timeblood it is also necessary are awants few other Bombay group age fits well with the imagethem, their there company Earlier, NGOs7, like andthat hadother no athletes recollection Sochi of me.

HerOlympics father begins competing in other fields brought receive adequate donors thinly spread across the country, who to project. They have been supporting the athlete her to thesupNagpur station to tell her who barely got one or two calls a year from families in port,” he says. never fail to come through for their community I was. Now she calls me on for the past three years. In January, they launched sibi arasu every festival to wish search of Bombay blood group donors. But now members in a crisis. they battle nearly three such cases a week. A posme,” he says.

The first-ever case of this blood type was disNitin Thenge, 29, from Mumbai makes an ef- sible reason for the spike could be that more peocovered at Mumbai’s KEM hospital in 1952, after fort to track the progress of every patient who ple are realising that they have this blood type. which the name Bombay blood group was gets in touch with him. He proudly says that he Another person on the list that KEM shared with coined. For long, KEM had the most reliable regis- now counts some of them as friends. “It feels the Gaikwads was insurance agent Vaibhav Aitry of donors as they were the only ones who great to be able to help patients in need. I feel wale. But due to miscommunication a few years could detect this blood type. It is common for ill- happy to see the relief on the faces of the fam- ago, the news of his blood group never reached Aiwale. Until recently, he continued to believe that he was O positive. So when that myth was suddenly busted on the phone by Jayant GaikHelp at hand Blood Connection Nitin wad, a man he didn’t know, he panicked. “I was so BS Sridhar has Thenge makes the effort to confused. I couldn’t understand what he was saydonated blood stay in touch with people he more than 30 times has donated blood to ing, and I think I still don’t know enough about it Paul Noronha in the last decade apart from the fact that is very rare,” says Aiwale, GRN Somashekar 31. But sensing the desperation in the voice on the other end, he went to the hospital without asking too many questions. On reaching there he was told that the Gaikwads didn’t need any more blood. Less than 15 days later, Aiwale got another frantic call from the father of a two-year-old boy with a heart condition in Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. He reached there in time to save the child.

Even Thenge learnt about his blood group by chance. Three years ago when his sister Sushma needed blood before her C-section surgery, it was discovered that she belonged to the Bombay blood group. Her doctor then suggested that the entire family get checked and sure enough Thenge also had the same blood type. He remembers visiting the homes of many donors, requesting them to help his sister. Now having bailed out so many people himself, he hopes that he never has to relive that trauma again. “I make it a point to be there for people in trouble. If ever I Ice king Shiva Keshavan fall sick in the future, I hope they will help me raised money from various too,” he says. sources to compete in this year’s Winter Olympics in mohini chaudhuri Sochi AFP PHOTO / Peter PARKS

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A rhino kind of love Will the Delhi Zoo’s valiant attempts to mate a 34-year-old celibate male rhino with a mother-daughter duo succeed?

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n August 19 in Byculla, rhino Shiva was coaxed into a cage filled with sugarcane and bananas. It was big enough for him to stand and sit in and served as a mobile home as Shiva embarked on a 1,400 km, four-day journey to find a suitable mate at the Delhi Zoo. More than five months later, Shiva is struggling to keep up with his newfound life, which, after 28 lonely years, has taken an unexpected social turn.

Nursing a nearly two-year-old injury on his horn that is just beginning to heal and a new one festering on his tail, Shiva has been thrown into the company of a vivacious mother-daughter duo, both of whom are expected to take turns to mate with the ageing rhino from Byculla. But the celibate 34-year-old Shiva is closer to kicking the bucket than spawning a crash of calves. (The average lifespan of a one-horned Indian rhino is about 35 to 40 years.) While the primary veterinary officer, Dr Panneer Selvam, says Shiva is “happy”, and “enjoying the Delhi weather”, his life in the enclosure tells another tale of mounting mating expectations and an elaborate cosmetic cover-up. Yet, the team at the Delhi Zoo is hopeful of pulling off this audacious rhino matchmaking attempt; they’ve given him a roomy enclosure, a diet peppered with hormone pills, an invitation to gambol with the womenfolk and attention to his wounds.

“Shiva is adjusting well,” the doctor says. In the first month of his arrival however, he had been quite difficult — refusing food and throwing tantrums. “The trouble is that Shiva’s old horn injury got worse on the way here. And the flies and maggots have aggravated it. Then he hurt his tail when he got into a mud pool. But we are treating him and he’s much better.” The zoo director, Amitabh Agnihotri agrees, “Shiva is under treatment right now.”

Since his much-documented arrival at the Delhi Zoo, Shiva, who was adored by the Mumbai janta, has yet to make his public debut. He has been confined to his enclosure and is let out into the larger, one-acre grassland only on Fridays, when the zoo is shut to the public. “We don’t want to cause panic because rhinos are very popular,” says Selvam, “Shiva will be released into the open when he has recovered.” We are also told to avoid profile shots; his maggot-covered, bloody and broken nose will not make for a pretty picture.

Reluctant suitor Shiva (top) the male rhino who must spawn a crash of calves Kamal Narang; Maheshwari (right) the vivacious mother assigned to mate with him Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

At 9:30 am every morning, veterinary com- sunbathing in a private wallowing pool away pounder Paulose, who has been at the Delhi Zoo from prying eyes, Maheshwari’s turf is the outer, since 1999, picks up his kit and cycles to the rhino larger enclosure that is open to the public. Every enclosures. “The horn injury is an open wound,” evening, before Maheshwari returns to her cell, says Paulose, “so it needs to be dressed daily.” she first walks up to Shiva’s enclosure, exchanges There are three enclosures, two small ones for 16- a few grunts with him, checks on Anjuga in her year-old Maheshwari and her eight-year-old private bath and then retires to her cage. “She has daughter, Anjuga, and a bigger, two-roomed one begun to pick up Shiva’s scent,” says Paulose. A fefor Shiva. Sturdy sliding iron gates secure all the male rhino can begin breeding at the age of four; enclosures. Wire mesh on the windows keep out Maheshwari was eight when she had Anjuga. the flies. Fluorescent lamps dot the place, yet anBesides the fodder and bananas, the rhinos other protection against the fly menace. feed on a mixture of mash, which consists of “He is in a state today,” says Binod Kumar, one wheat bran, barley, oats, Bengal gram, groundof the rhino keepers. Cries of “Shiva, aa, aa, aa” nut cakes, turmeric, amla and salt, and hot khichring out but Shiva resolutely turns away. After di which is made of dal, rice, oil and jaggery; a several minutes, Shiva moves into the second huge dietary improvement on Byculla zoo’s room of the enclosure and heads straight to a modest offerings. corner to furiously scratch his nose on the wall.

Rhino romances are not all roses and chamPaulose picks up a bottle of chloroform spray pagne. Before lunchtime, Paulose returns armed and follows him. We tiptoe behind Paulose, spot- with a tranquiliser gun and a hormone injection ting small pools of fresh blood in the corners for Maheshwari. While Shiva gets his hormone where Shiva has been scratching his nose. Clear- pills mixed with his food, Maheshwari is given a ly, the rhino is in pain. After spraying chloroform more direct dose. Maheshwari has been in the in Shiva’s face, Paulose wraps a swab outer enclosure for hours. Soaking of cotton on a long stick and prothe sun in a new pool she has dug ceeds to clean the rhino’s nose, carefor herself, she turns a deaf ear to fully picking out dead maggots. the keepers’ cries. Dozens of baThen, he applies neem oil and dousnanas are hurled at her at once and Every evening, es Shiva’s nose with powder. By now, speakers are brought out. Paulose Maheshwari Shiva has calmed down and is ready even breaks off a Peepal tree branch exchanges a few to eat the bananas he had earlier reand waves it to draw her attention. grunts with Shiva fused. The wound on his tail has al“Madam aaj mood main nahi hai,” so healed, observes Paulose. says Binod Kumar, with resignation.

Forty minutes later, Maheshwari suddenly gets up, pees into the pool Ladies in heat and then breaks into a run. The Shiva was six years old when he arkeepers swing into action, guardrived from the Assam State Zoo to Byculla Zoo and has lived in captivity since. While ing the doors of the enclosures. Once she is in the Selvam is confident of the 34-year-old rhino’s re- common area, she quickly walks up to Shiva and productive capabilities, others remain sceptical. sniffs through the meshed window — more evi“Shiva is of wild origin,” he says, “so there is a pos- dence of her being “in heat”. Paulose aims his sibility of higher potency. When we went to gun, the pink feathers of the injection fluttering, Mumbai, we found no problems with him.” The and catches her between the soft folds near her two females are also not far from being “in heat”. neck. “We gave her one shot a few days back, “Maheshwari is showing signs of being ready — there are a couple more to go,” he says. Maheshdeclining food, being restless and peeing con- wari returns to her mud pool munching leaves stantly. If my calculations are right, it (the cross- and the zoo staff return to their own repast.

For the Delhi Zoo, rhino breeding is an imporing/mating) could happen in a month’s time,” the doctor says. Binod Kumar, the rhino keeper tant part of their master plan. Even as they nurse differs, “Maheshwari is showing some signs but Shiva back to health and acquaint him with the it will take time and Anjuga has not betrayed any two females, efforts are on to find a younger male rhino. Shiva, in his twilight years, has a tight interest yet.”

The mother-daughter duo has not been schedule to follow. He has to acclimatise to Delnear a male rhino in six years; Raja, the hi’s weather, the zoo’s diet and his companions; last male rhino had died of an ill- get his nose and what remains of his horn back in ness. Maheshwari, accord- shape; change his status from available-Fridaysing to the keepers, is only to available-round-the-clock; and mate, growing accus- health permitting, with both mother and daughtomed to Shiva’s ter. Will he, won’t he? presence. While Anjuga enjoys priyanka kotamraju

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Well done Gravitydefying acrobatics in the Maut ka Kuan or Well of Death (right) K Ramesh Babu; and balloons for sale (below) Mohammed Yousuf

Model builder GVK Reddy at his office at the historic Paigah House in Hyderabad PV Sivakumar

and acquisitions. He has the propensity to set up his own projects at first and later consolidate them through acquisitions. This approach has been the case in not just the hospitality sector, but also the power sector, airports and even mining in India and abroad.

In 1996-97, GVK set up the first independent power project in the country, the 220mw Jegurupadu gas-based power plant. “Look at the background when this was set up. There was no lending mechanism for private projects. Yet we pulled it off. IFC, Washington, rated it as one of the best plants in the world, in the backdrop of some of the most trying times. The power plant was described as a horticulture project with a power plant,” says Reddy.

The company then moved to building roads and expressways. The first 6-lane expressway between Jaipur and Kishangunj was executed by GVK. “Later, we built on this by taking up more projects, both road and in the power sector. As we developed the gas-based power projects in Andhra Pradesh and a thermal power project in Punjab, we also looked at backward integration by acquiring oil and gas blocks in the KG basin and coal assets in the country and abroad,” he says.

The GVK Group trained its attention on airports first by acquiring a stake in the Bangalore airport. Once that was consolidated, Reddy went ahead and acquired the rights to modernise and develop the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai.

His ability to manage such diverse projects has earned him the admiration of his peers. “GVK is a person, who inspires himself and all young entrepreneurs by his continuous innovation, was found wanting and the Nizam Mirand Oshistory of this annual event. But to really know space by hisAli ability spot opportunity.

From Grounds’ Novopan Khantoallotted the ‘Exhibition what the Numaish was like decades ago, you man to airports is a long journey, tempobut the the purpose.

“Weand haddifferent dusty pathways, must speak to the second- and third-generation for destination remains the same.

That’s success!” structures for the stalls back then,” Makhmerchants here. Because a handful of stalls have rary says E Sudhir Reddy,“ICMD IVRCL. reminisces. was aofchild of 3 or 4 when I links that go back as long as the fair itself. “My fa- doomi GVK Reddy is more measured cominghimself here. Now we stay in hotelsabout nearther PN Kaul was the first Kashmiri to have a stall started his but company’s then, thisgrowth was ourtrajectory. shop, our “We home.have We in this exhibition in 1938,” Surinder Kaul tells me. by, grownhere, the cooked group with stringhere.” of acquisitions here, aprayed The KashThis was an association that opened up a trade lived and the biggest hastobeen the acquisition the traders began see Hyderabad as a of home route, almost. Word spread, connections were miri Hancock coalaway minefrom asset for $ 1.26The billion. is a home.

KaulThis family forged and today some 350 stalls in big project and the most branch integrated proset one up aof permanent of their the Numaish are taken by traders jects in the world willHouse see anininvestment of storewhich Canaud the Abids arfrom Kashmir — and they all take over $10 billion.

We have teamed up withdeclares Aurizon ea and Rayees Makhdoom much pride and delight in the par“On an impulse, my to finalise and hope more partners, andhe expect to this is the only exhibition comes ticipation. Rayees Makhdoomi, who great-grandfather close financestobyallthe year end,” he says. people year.

“The Hyderabadi brings truckloads of quality dry bought a chakkar ka GVKare When secured the mandate the Mumwonderful,” he says,of“woh fruit, honey and saffron to be sold logon jhoola for abai sum of airport, there other inhere every year, says it worked out meinwere farq many, nahinincluding karte (they don’t ₹78... He brought it dustrialists, who had written it off.

They knew do it,”fine: he says. just “My father Makhdoom discriminate between people).” here bullock carts” how difficult it was toare execute project amidst Evenjust though Reddy has a strong onon the didn’t bring his wares, he al- focus There otherthe associations that as far paucity of well. land,I was encroachaesthetic now,down he began his career ways brought his entire fam-largely build- challenges such go that back as led by workthe without ing The the essentials irrigation projects, canals, ments, and managing ily. snow on — our mountains my guidetheinto very disruptchaotic “These have come bridgesthat andwe dams.

Overmove the past three decades, ing existing operations. meant couldn’t about depths of the fair’speople ‘amusement corus,” he says.

GVK has engagedvalley, in construction and in- back to compliment freely in been the Kashmir so we ner’. Here, over the din of loudL Madhusudhan chairman, Infrafrastructure, hospitality, sciences, retail, speakers, used to come here instead.life It was like a monthcarnivalRao, music and Lanco squealing tech, has known many years. “GVK Redtransportation long vacation.” sector (spanning roads and air- youngsters, and Reddy in thefor light of psychedelic coldy is emanating a visionary who the adage ports), sector, mining, oil and gas blocks.

Theypower remember the time when Numaish was ours fromexemplifies various sources, I wasthat insuccess is only hard work, initiative and perseve“The principlefor for 10 medays. and my family held inguiding Public Gardens Soon, the troduced to Mohammed Zaker Bakhri, whose rance. His exceptional tasteSaheb, and penchant for de(wife Indira and son GV Sanjay Reddy) has been great-grandfather, Chanda was the man in tails is of reflected in each andinevery activity he to be first and the best. This is not just a state- charge the ‘amusements’ the early years. undertakes, make him ment. We have always tried to “My great-grandfather oncewhich happened to attend unique and special,” he says. achieve it in whatever we do indian auction where someone was selling this chakReddytells wasme, conferred an honorvidually or as a group,” he says with kar ka jhoola,” Bakhri “On an impulse, he doctorate Nehru obvious pride. bought it for aary sum of ₹78. Itby layJawaharlal there for a couple GVK set up the 220mw Technological University In 1989, Reddy set up Novopan, a of years — he didn’t know what to do with it — and but Jegurupadu plant, theNumaish awarded in 2011. it particle board manufacturing unit then the wasPadma held, Bhushan and he brought first independent Jagdish OTS,The is also an near Patancheru industrial estate, here on bullockVenkat carts and set itofup.” family power project in since India occupied old friend of theoffamily. and later another plant in the US, has this corner the fair.Despite There knowing them for two decades, Jagand gradually diversified into hosare 16 big rides now and about 25 smaller counis amazed byeach GVK’s modesty pitality with hotels in Hyderabad, ters that pull dish in massive crowds day.

“We go the best cars the Chandigargh and Chennai. A hotel to many other“They fairs, have it’s a circuit across theinState, world and products from is the best in Mumbai is in the process of but being associated with the Numaish a matbrands, be it clothes, watches, shoes.

ButBakhri. somecompletion. ter of sentiment as well as prestige,” says have this trait of maintaining a low Once the company was firmly established as a how, No they doubt I was a bit jaded on the idea of naprofileintegration, and confining to their inner builder of reputed hotels, Reddy went further. He tional but Ithemselves was surprised to hear the circle. ‘mini TheirIndia’ projects, however, speakagain. for developed the first independent power project phrase repeated over and over themselves.” in the country after liberalisation under the PV “We’re all brothers here,” Kaul says earnestly, Thecome otherfrom aspect GVK Reddy his interest in Narasimha Rao Government, and eventually add- “they UP,ofHaryana... allisover the counsports. starts day by playing a round of ed power projects and airports, in India and try, and He we’re herethe as brothers.”

Makhdoomi says, tennis.

“That my keeps me fresh andside away from any abroad, deepwater oil and gas blocks in the coun- “I’d namaz on this of the partibe doing stress and that work could possibly me,” he try and a coal mine in Australia. The company al- tion, my neighbour, my throw Hinduatbrother, says. It’s wonder then that young so has the mandate to develop two airports in the would beno doing his prayers on athe otherSania side. MirCan za found an early sponsor in that?”

GVK. Republic of Indonesia. you imagine something like For of Reddy, strategy to developing his emFruits theirthe labour Kashmiri traders continue pire has been a combination organic growth sheetal vyas is a Hyderabad-based writer.

G Ramakrishna to peddle dry fruits and nuts each of year v rishi kumar

The show must go on

The Hyderabadi Numaish has been bringing Kashmir to the Deccan since 1938 The social calendar for the mild Hyderabadi winter follows pretty much the same template as most other cities in India — a sudden upsurge of concerts, theatre, literary fests and all things cultural. And other cities must have their share of consumer exhibitions too but there is something very special about the one that is held here every year. The original name was the Numaish Masnuaat-e-Mulki but it is more simply, the Numaish. Started in 1938 by the Osmania Graduates Association, it is something of an institution. A dearly loved one. Traditionally held during the first 45 days of the year, the exhibition draws Hyderabadis by the lakhs, many of whom save up for months for this grand splurge: chikan work from Lucknow, embroidered woollens and dry fruits from Kashmir, bedspreads from Haryana, razais fromnJaipur, juttis fromwinter Punjabmorning, and Rajas-I a Hyderabadi than — andwalk of course, every kind of street food past the Rolls Royce parked in and carnival joyridesofthat have enthusiasts the portico Paigah House to meet screaming GVK in equal measures of fright and glee.

Reddy, chairman and managing In the beginning, it was a small affair. This year, director of GVK. in The its 74th edition, closewere to 2,500 stalls for aretheir disPaigah noblemen renowned playing their wares. in It’sHyderabad. universallyThe acknowlpalaces and buildings beautiedged thatHouse, it’s difficult toand do iron justice ful Paigah a cement dofftoofthis the gigantic fair in of fewer than threenow visits.serves The Exhibihat to a legacy construction, as the tion Society keeps and a trace of the corporate office ofphotographs the diversified GVK Group.

Flush from the successful opening of the Terminal 2 of Mumbai International airport, Reddy is waiting for me at his first floor office. His wife, Indira, who is the managing director of Taj GVK Hotels Limited, is with him. At 6 feet 3 inches, Reddy is strapping and fit, belying his 75 years.

Born in Kothur village in the Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, Reddy has spent the last 25 years managing some pioneering projects. Some of these have come to fruition in the last 30 days.

The majestic new international airport at Mumbai, T2, has just opened its doors. An expansion project of the Bangalore International Airport (BIA) has been commissioned and a major corporate social responsibility service of the Emergency Management Research Institute (EMRI) in Uttar Pradesh, offering emergency care services, has also started.

Speaking about the ₹5,500-crore T2 Terminal, Reddy says, “Such projects are for generations.”

T2, Mumbai is part of ₹12,500-crore Mumbai airport modernisation project. Not only is it a place where planes land and take off, the airport is also a mega art gallery. “I do not hesitate to spend extra to add to the comfort and beauty, and don’t on quality even with if itthat means A red-carpet affair The knotted piles brought all the way compromise from Kashmir, their historieseither interwoven extra effort. If we have to re-do anything, we will of the 74-year-old Hyderabadi Numaish K Ramesh Babu

The builder of all things

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His empire has it all — the essential and the diverse. GVK Reddy on what makes him the ‘first and the best’

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Maruti’s swift moves Maruti defies the slowdown and overcomes internal strife to regain market share

M In safe hands Maruti Suzuki’s 80-year-old chairman, RC Bhargava addresses a press conference at the company’s corporate office in Delhi Shanker Chakravarty

aruti Suzuki’s managing director minated services of about 500 people who were Kenichi Ayukawa has been visiting involved in the rioting. Now, Maruti has taken the auto giant’s manufacturing over the recruitment process completely. “We are plants in Gurgaon and Manesar on a following our own standards of recruitment inregular basis since he took over last April. Other cluding verifying educational qualifications and top officials at the company are also frequent antecedent of interviewees. So we have, I believe, shop floor visitors. Top on their agenda is under- a much better quality of manpower in the factostanding the pulse of the workers. In November, ry,” Bhargava adds.

Putting the past behind them, Maruti acted families of blue- as well as white-collared workers together celebrated Diwali at the company’s swiftly to set things right. “We intensified comstockyard in Gurgaon. And union members are munication with workers to make sure that now visible at major events like the inauguration there are no problems. Now, Manesar and Gurof the diesel engine plant in September last year. gaon workers are at a similar level of working Labour relations are a top priority for India’s and relationship with the management,” he says.

What also helped the company regain market auto market leader. In 2011, the company lost substantial market share after a strike in its Manesar share (41.3 per cent now) was the commissioning plant. In 2012, things took a turn for the worse. of its diesel engine plant in Gurgaon. The compaClashes between workers and management turn- ny had a long waiting list for diesel cars and ed violent. Over 100 people were injured and could not meet the demand due to lack of capacAwanish Kumar Dev, the general manager of hu- ity. “We got some diesel engines from Fiat and also started making our own engines. man resources died. The shutdown And that gave us a big volume of resulted in losses of ₹70 crore per cars. We lost market share because day and knocked off 7 per cent from we didn’t have capacity,” he adds.

Maruti’s market share, bringing it Maruti has sold cars But according to outsiders, the to an all-time low of 38 per cent durthrough the company has been doing a lot more ing FY12. slowdown, in not only to check costs and keep the sales “We lost some market share berural areas but also growing at a time when industry cause of what happened in Manesar niche segments like sales have fallen in the last year. It as production was stopped for alturmeric farmers in has invested in procuring locally most a month. But another cause of TN and leather traders many auto components, earlier imlosing market share was preference in Kanpur ported from Japan. High localisafor diesel cars, and two years ago we tion content in its vehicles has just didn’t have enough diesel cars,” resulted in lower costs despite the says Maruti Suzuki’s 80-year-old depreciation of the rupee. chairman RC Bhargava.

“Maruti has redoubled its efforts Bhargava’s defence of the events at Manesar is that a faulty recruitment process is to accelerate localisation — local sourcing of raw to be blamed. Maruti had hired some companies materials and consumables. They have been able to get regular workers at Manesar and some con- to leverage the experience of suppliers who were tractors for providing contract workers. “We using certain raw materials for other OEMs, and were not able to apply what used to be our nor- quickly localised based on that feedback,” says mal standards of recruitment. We had no knowl- Ashok Taneja, MD at Shriram Pistons and Rings edge about their background. This, in fact, that has been supplying components to Maruti resulted in a fair number of people, who were for over 20 years now. Maruti has asked its over not suitable for industrial work, coming into the 250 vendors to use more local materials like steel alloy. Besides, there is emphasis on using local company,” he says.

After the Manesar incident, the company ter- machine tools and designing components and

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Skid row? Employees at Maruti Udyog’s plant in Manesar participate in a nationwide strike, which brought production to a grinding halt in July 2012 V Sudershan

Man in-charge Kenichi Ayukawa was appointed MD and CEO of Maruti Suzuki, India, last year Kamal Narang

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Barren village One Part Woman tells of the travails of a milieu

Anita Roy One Part Woman Author: Perumal Murugan Translated by: Aniruddhan Vasudevan Category: Fiction Publisher: Penguin Price: ₹399

on the shelf

While Tata Motors has been steadily losing market share, Mahindra & Mahindra has not been able to introduce any new products that could become a bellwether for the auto maker.

Volkswagen has not brought in any new models in the last two years, leaving the ground open for Maruti to conquer further. “Wagon R and Alto refreshes have also caught up well in the market,” adds Ramakrishnan.

Shriram Pistons’ Taneja believes another factor working for Maruti is the creation of a new market, which possibly did not exist earlier. Maruti’s marketing team has been targeting niche segments like Nagpur Orange Growers’ Society or school teachers, to create demand and increase the size of the market. “As a result, people who are not natural car customers have made up their minds to buy cars,” he says.

Bhargava gives the credit to his marketing team for selling cars in a slowdown, in not only rural areas but also niche segments like turmeric farmers in Tamil Nadu or leather entrepreneurs in Kanpur. “The thrust into rural areas has been very successful. That has helped us grow sales,” he says. A dedicated team for rural markets helped Maruti grow sales by 18.5 per cent in FY13, making it 28 per cent of total domestic sales.

Overall, Bhargava is happy with the way things are moving in the company. “We are recovering market share and our sales are better than last year.” Maruti’s market share has come back to 41.3 per cent in the first nine months of this fiscal and is expected to improve. But Bhargava is unwilling to make any guesses. He will let numbers do the talking in the next few quarters.

dies in India. It has helped the company cut import component as a percentage of sales from 26 per cent in FY12 to 19.5 per cent in FY13.

That apart, a robust pipeline of products and the success of Swift and Ertiga have aided the car istance allows us to be dismissive of the lives maker. “While the overall market has been of other people, to filter their narratives shrinking, Ertiga and Swift Dezire are becoming down to a few essential keynotes and tragestronger. So Maruti’s sales have been better than dies. In One Part Woman, translated into Enthe industry,” says VG Ramakrishnan, managing glish three years after its Tamil original garnered director at Frost and Sullivan, a consultancy firm. widespread acclaim, Perumal Murugan turns an intimAccording to the Society of Indian Automobile ate and crystalline gaze on a married couple in interior Manufacturers (SIAM), total passenger vehicles n the bleak midwinter, when the sales sun in India have fallen by 5.7 per cent in the Tamil Nadu. It is a gaze that lays bare the intricacies of is shrouded, the skies are clouded first and nine months this fiscal. For Maruti though, their story, culminating in a heart-wrenching denouedenizens of nine Delhi shuffle through ment that allows no room forcent apathy. sales in this period have grown by 1.74 per cent to Growth spurt Despite a 5.7 per dip in overall sales of passenger vehicles inthe India in the first months the growth city bundled and Ponna, Thiruchen7.55 lakh, defying the overall industry trend. rashmi pratap V Sudershanup like bag-people, thisKali fiscal, Maruti has land-owning surged ahead offarmers the rest in of the industry at 1. 74 per cent sales there’s nothing quite so comforting as givgode, enjoy a happy marriage on all counts but one. Deing up on hope altogether and wallowing spite over a dozen years together, they are yet to have in the special pleasures of despair. children. Theirs is a sexually-charged and mutually fulSome may consider it inauspicious to filling relationship; it is neither for lack of effort nor of begin a new column on a hopeless note, intent that they are unable to conceive. The couple perbut we bite our denticle at them. After all, form countless acts of penance, entreating various deiwhen you’re at the bottom of the rockpool, ties — among them the half-male, half-female god on the only way is up. the hill attended by a Brahmin priest and the tribal godSo although the mercury may be low, it’s dess Pavatha of the same hill, to whom blood sacrifices on the way up. As are: sea-levels, global are made. Ponna weeps at the onset of every menstrual temperatures, oil prices, the frequency of period. Neither love nor their land can keep at bay the extreme weather events, and the number despair of being without an offspring in their commuof books dealing with the above. Titles like nity. They receive constant disparagement from people Heaven and Earth, Hell and High Water, Six around them. Kali’s sexual potency is the subject of sly Degrees, Hot, Flat and Crowded, The Long and open taunts, while every argument Ponna has with Emergency, With Speed and Violence, and Cliothers is seen as an indication of her character or mate Code Red have shot like multiple discapabilities. tress initial flares hicacross says, the bows of thehave great The disparagement arrives in wounded, unkind “Operators realised that they can’t nues in the September quarter, its detailed t is less better late than never. After of fools as weask plough inexorably guises too — particularly from their mothers, who tell for a on premium.

If assets don’t sweat, the numbers are unavailable as the company is cups, mobile data servicesship are beginning towards thetoEdgeobsolescence of the World-as-westories of hereditary curses that couldtoexplain can take away initial invest- not listed in India. Analysts, however, believe take offtheir in the Indian market, much know-it. statistics areTheir terrifying, misfortune and sing dirges lamenting the couple’s ments. marginsthe will go up only when as- that if data is to follow the success of voice stothe relief ofbaroperators. The growthThe is folproblem overwhelmingly huge operators to of create an ecosystem renness. Eventually, the two women decidethe that there are used.” Operators also believe that ry,books lowing lines of voice, which did notitself growis sosets Barely afloat Numerous warn ofneed the end the world as we knowbeit Shutterstock apparently unstoppable itsdrive jug- usage and help them yond rate cuts to spur usage. “Mobile carriers may be only one way. Every year, onuntil the 14th daydue of the ratesin will 2000 to high rates.and Andsoonce call reduced gernaut progress, it’s entirely understanchariot festival to the androgynous deity the hill, investments made so far. “The idea is successfully leveraged the pent up demand costs on started to the come down, the growth was recover dable if you, like to me, would rather not and this move will fa- for voice-based connectivity in the early years rules of all marital contracts are relaxed.

Any man is aldrive mobile internet exponential. think about it at all.

Those whoadoption can’t, or andscribed of this decade. camHowever, services lowed to lie with any woman — a tradition ingdata-based packs of other humans for whom they cilitate faster better usage.

We environmental For dataacknowltoo, operators have realised that by leading often suffer from what Rob all about experience.

And offering superiedged as being a socially and divinely prey, their lives’ possessions easily conare working atHopkins, different sets of users to journalist facili- are nothing sanctioned except low rates workdon’t, in the Indian paigner and George Monbiot as are guru and the Tranor experience and these method of conceiving should a husband be sterile. tained in the services shopping trolley the man tatefounder greater of amount of (data) market.

From aPonhigh of 10paiselow-carbon per 10kb, data “theconsumption,” most important environmental bookmonetising Movement, callsVivek “post-petroleum level will be aalong. big challenge na’s mother and mother-in-law, in the hope it isdown Ka- to 2paisesition pushes The past is long gone, and as Mathur, chief commercial officer at at a mass-market rates arethat now per 10kb and says ever written” — outstripping even classics stress plans. disorder”, symptoms the carriers,” partner li who is the cause of their infertility, suggest for theKolla, future, “Thereatis no later. This is latVodafone India. range lower in some she post paid monthly As whose like Rachel Carson’s for Silent Spring orsays EF Jayanth and mild palpitations to the consultancy Convergence participate in it. The resulting anxieties attendantbegan to cutfrom er.” TheCatalyst. pared-downness is matched by the The results of this changeSchumacher’s in strategy, along soon and as operators datanausea rates, usSmall is tech Beautiful. “irrational grasping at unfeasible If operators in killer manipulations challenge the marriage, and to alter its Data was about writing style: applicathe short, declarative senwith proliferation of low priced age began grow.

3 per cent Setsmartphones, in a world where the biospheredon’t has bring solutions.” for users, data maybrutal stagnate, says minimal punctuacourse. One Part Woman is a powerful and insightful tences, imagery, focus ongone, internet of operators’ revenues a year ago.

But now, it is are already showing. “Our simply where tions the landscape hasgrowth Krishnan. So while companies have naked, raw, about again, prefer has resulted in increasedbeen rendering of an entire milieu whichbringing is certainly still in10 per cent ofThere tion. There is something experience data eviscerated in nearly revenues of if you and de-telecom tasted initial success they still tales ofare ecological apoc-Data is now a huge source ofstroyed existence. The author handles myriad thedata, language.

Ashave though everything but adoption. reve- by leadingcomplexities operators, and usageyour volumes an unspecified en- with way to go thatnecessities the party have been burned alypse on screen than says Gopal Vittal, joint MD with an enviable sophistication, creating anby evocative, the bare nue growth,” and a long growing over 100 per cent every quarter for rather vironmental catastrophe, Theto ensure continues. page, there’s beenCEO, no shorteven haunting, work.

India Operations, Bharti Airtel. Ditto foris quite Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India.

Road simply the bleak- away. The book reads like an Old Testament Thetable).

Road has been age of films on the subject.

The novel is also acutely sensitive inSivarama its approach to- executive Idea Cellular (See While Vodafone Krishnan, director (Risk est,redarkest book I have ever parable — minus God. as the most Last year’s crop included ward gender and sexuality and humane its treat- PricewaterhouseCoopers, But what it is and what it does, are two portedWill a 77 perdescribed cent growth in browsing reve-— and AdvisoryinServices), read that includes rashmi pratap the important Smith & Son in After Earth, ment of longing. While fundamentally an emotional Intergovernmental Panel on very different things. Miraculously — and environmental book Tom Cruise’s Oblivion (to work, driven by personal desires and losses, it also unClimate Change report. The herein lies the genius of the book — what ever written which it was quickly consettles the reader by questioning simplistic ideas of Road would make a Dementor we are left with, at the end of the road, is signed), and who can forget progressiveness. The book’s milieu is permissive in whimper for its mummy. One not nothing. It is, in fact, anything but. The Brad pitted against zombies ways that the urban middle-class in the same state (Tablogger put it rather well. Road offers up the possibility of redempmil Nadu) is not, even though known markers of supin World War Z? This book, she said, is a killer: tion in the absolute absence of hope. Turn pression, such as caste laws, hold sway. But, here as But on Planet Hollywood, “First, in the sense that it’s the last page, and you are returned to life. elsewhere, the true hindrances to happiness and prono matter how great the odds, the world amazing. Second, in the sense that it kills To the realisation that what we have, which gress come in much more personal forms. will be saved. By a lone American man. is everything, is right here, right now — the your will to live.”

With great bone structure.

Murugan’s writing is taut and suspenseful, particuIn the world of The Road, there is nothing spring air, the trees, books and stories, and To really hit the sweet spot of bleak larly as the book progresses towards its climax. At a but the road. The story follows a father and each other — in heart-stopping abundance. slim 230 pages, the novel moves quickly, but with a finehopeless despair, you need a very different his young son making their way through a kind of lone American male. Cormac ly-wrought intensity that tension remains high up to land that is “barren, silent, godless.” Scav- anita roy is a writer and director of Young McCarthy’s book The Road has been dethe final paragraph. Aniruddhan Vasudevan’s translaenging for food and hiding from maraud- Zubaan. anita@anitaroy.net tion deserves mention — the language is crisp, retaining local flavour without jarring, and often lyrical.

The road to nowhere

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Books of ecological despair provide us an odd mix of hope and hopelessness

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Mobile data going the voice way Operators find ways to make data profitable with low rates and killer apps

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work Every day is a sun day Skyshade lights at the South Central Railway office in Secunderabad

Light and shine A quirky business in Hyderabad uses the sun to light up offices

A bright spot In factories with high ceilings, multiple systems of light pipes are used

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ffice spaces around the world seem- And ‘going green’ is also high on their priority ingly have one obsession—to get rid of list,” she says.

One of Skyshade’s biggest installations is at sunlight. A small Hyderabad company wants to do the opposite. Sekhar the factory of Amara Raja Batteries in Tirupati.

Nori’s Skyshade Lighting builds special pipes The 10,000 sq ft area gets natural light during the that use sunlight to light up buildings. Not just day, saving ₹1 crore annually. “The payback perithe top floor, but right down to the basement. od for them is two years. Since there is no outage, And what’s even more surprising is that while there is saving on diesel generators that cost ₹10 the pipes channelize the light of the sun, they al- a unit,” says Nori. so do a good job of keeping its heat out.

The whole idea of tapping the sun for light Wide base without converting it into solar energy came Not surprisingly, Skyshade’s clients include the about after his first venture, Phoenix Solar Engi- who’s who of India Inc, including Infosys, the Taneering, failed to take off. “We used to manufac- ta group, Larsen & Toubro, Coca Cola, Pepsico, ture solar heaters. But costs (of converting Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Hyundai, Toyota, ITC, HP, Dr Reddy’s and the Indian Navy among othsunlight to electric energy and reconversion of that energy to power solar heaters) were very ers. Skyshade’s biggest win this year is an order high. We were incurring losses and there wasn’t from the Rail Coach factory in Rae Bareli to install much awareness about the product in the mar- 700 pipes for them.

Skyshade’s light pipes have a life of 15 years. ket,” Nori says.

He had already set up a factory for solar heat- “On an average, we install about 1,800 pipes aners at Cherlapally, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, nually,” says Nori. Of the ₹10 crore they earned in and he had taken huge bank loans to fund it. He the last fiscal, nearly half came from the popular couldn’t simply write this off as a bad idea. After light pipes.

Since anyone installing light pipes will not burning their fingers and losing money for nearly seven years, Nori, and his wife Anantha, found- need another one for the next 15 years, repeat ed Skyshade Lighting to use sunlight itself, business could be an issue for the company. But without any conversion. for now, the Noris are not worried. “There is no “We could cut down all the conversion costs by dearth of business at all. There is a huge requireusing sunlight directly to light up warehouses, ment from not only new buildings but also older factories and offices,” says Nori. By buildings. And the product can be 2008, Lightpipes, Skyshade’s flaginstalled almost anywhere,” says ship product, was ready. Today, the Anantha. company has three more products Skyshade has a network of dealin its growing portfolio—fibre optic ers and channel partners for selling Lighting solutions are light pipes, Skyshelves which reditheir entire range of products. rect daylight into various spaces customised depending “Some of them are dealing with reson the region and the while eliminating glare, and Tenidential requirements as well,” says angle of the sun siShade fabric structures that offer Nori. However, given the size of the shading solutions. industrial market, the Noris are yet to focus on the residential segment.

They hope to close this fiscal with Methodology revenues of ₹18 crore.

The greatest demand he sees is for For now, expanding scale does not seem to be a light pipes, which collect sunlight from rooftop and transmit it to any part of the building. “The worry for them. “Day lighting is a growing marcollector can be installed on any wall or rooftop. ket. We can easily scale up to ₹100 crore in terms Through pipes, light is taken inside the buildings of revenue in the next few years,” Nori says. That and can even go to basements,” says Anantha. In- does not seem like an impossible target, given side the structures, diffusers spread the sunlight that they have no competition at all. evenly. These light pipes don’t stand out, merging with false ceilings to look just like bulbs.

Know how Light pipes come in four sizes of varying diam- Moreover, their biggest strength is the knowleters, with the biggest 750mm costing ₹27,000. edge of light collection systems. “A standardised It is enough to light up an area of 1,000 sq ft, system does not work,” he says. Customising which would otherwise require 12 bulbs and tube light collection to a region depending on the lights of 40watt each. Each light pipe saves about sun’s angles and seasonal variations requires 2,000 units annually, a saving of ₹16,000 per considerable experience and knowledge. And pipe at the commercial electricity rate of ₹8. Any Noris have that. establishment installing 20 pipes will save over However, funding could become a challenge ₹3.2 lakh annually on electricity bills. for them. “As we increase in size and bring in new Light pipes ensure sunlight for up to 10 hours products, we will need more capital,” says Nori. per day. They have panels that vary the transmisThey have already been approached by a cousion of solar radiation during the day, not allow- ple of private equity investors for selling a slice of ing heat to be transmitted along with light.

Skyshade Lighting. “We are passionate about the Light pipes can transport light up to 15 metres, concept of being ‘green’. We need as a partner which is sufficient for a five-storey building. “In someone who is equally passionate about this,” the case of high ceiling industrial sheds, we use says Anantha. Till they find that partner, the duo multiple systems to cover them,” adds Anantha. is happy about making the most of the sun for When light pipes were developed in 2008, the lighting the dark. company decided to focus on the corporate sector for sales. “Electricity is a huge cost for them. rashmi pratap

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Low-cost offerings Fibre optic light pipes can direct sunlight to canteens and other spaces not on the top floor

Room for more Sunny days and nights at sprawling warehouses

A place in the sun Sekhar Nori, Managing Director of Skyshades, Hyderabad, with skyshelf panels that redirect daylight PV Sivakumar

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Broken over time DIPANKAR

Made three decades ago, a movie about the 1984 riots continues to be relevant trisha gupta

picture this

Who is Miss Lovely?

POTENCY TEST CHAMPAGETS PARAM VIR CHAKRA

DIPANKAR

Films about sex stars need to show how desire is intertwined with desperation

n early scene in Miss Lovely has Na- women. “Ladkiyan khoobsoorat honi chahiye, and damned if they don’t. wazuddin Siddiqui walk into a C- aur besharam bhi (The girls should be beauEven empathetic narratives about these grade film set where some wom- tiful, and also shameless),” as one lascivious women — a bit like older courtesan films — seem to reproduce a moral order in which en, dressed in the scanty animal distributor puts it. skins and feathers that served ’80s Hindi For a film so self-consciously arthouse in unapologetic female sexuality (and unapolcinema as ‘tribal costume’, are performing its nuanced recreation of milieu — the art ogetic ambition) must receive punirecentchowdhury Malayalamis chief film some heavy-breathing dance moves. As Sid- direction, sound and cinematography pro- shment. The shovon Truthdigger andthe author of The Kanyaka Talkies (2012) uses transformadiqui’s Sonu looks on, there’s an attempt to duce a pitch-perfect sense of ’80s grime — Street truths A still from Kya Hua Is Shehar Ko Authority movie theatre into a church make one of them get her kit off. She puts Miss Lovely contains surprisingly tabloid vil- tion of a porn Competent up some muffled resistance. “Madras mein lains. But perhaps these men making inno- to make explicit the link between sex and toh saari public ke saamne nangi hui thhi! (In cent young women swill whiskey from sin. The female protagonist’s desire to be an t’s been nearly three decades since activistactress draws her into when the porn film Madras you got naked in front of the wholeten cut-glass fit right into this pre-libfilmmaker Deepa Dhanraj made KyaKota Huapolice Is late at night, they areindusfeeling whisper tumblers in the ears of exhausted hus- especially t was late in the evening at the try.

An explicit clip finds its way to her public!)

What’s your problem now?” deeralisation world, where raids are televised Sheharstation.

Ko?, a documentary on the 1984the combands, “Should we go to Kota, dear, and meet particularly playful.”

The lights were dim, room is forced to leave, not mands the long-haired man in charge.thaton grainy Doordarshan, with commentary hometown; munalwas riots in the Hyderabad, but the buzzonWas there ashe faint glow suffusing thebeing young policeman?” dank, hushed silence broken able face? to return even herthana, father’s “That’s why I say these husbands should Today, aboutfinally, ‘rampant immorality’ thathis sounds around it doesn’t seem to be A digi- in In the dim lightto of the it was that hero is receiving just man’s ly by the sound offading Arnab,away. somewhere deathbed.

It is hard notittoberead puninever be allowed on the set!” Then hereward, like from it’s coming another May- hard tally remastered version of the film was screened to be sure.

Could thatthis in as touching no lessfrom a person thanplanet. the Presithe distance, demanding answers on behalf of shment. mainstream narrative was switches gear to address the befuddleddentbeof the underbelly re- the at the the Berlin FilmThe Festival lastseer yeargazed and will now bedivine,A more he himself has become, in some India, although of notstate-sponsored directly from his nation. smiling at them The Dirty Picture (2011), which man standing in the corner: “You! Explain pression is necessarily make nevolently, its debut inrefusing Mumbaitoatperform, the Sheharnama way, divine? hands, as he will be wearing gloves. backing up on the life of an just ’80sto ac-be things to your wife.” excess. special,” said the hero festival.

Reminiscing of to “Some of us drew are worshipping him “Idebauched have done nothing with inaction hisabout claim the that experience he was too old tresssaid to make film that What is it about the woman in a tribal But what is more worrying filming the powerful documentary, Dhanraj says, one aofflashy his colleagues, modestly, “Whenever required, the police is al- on the safe side,” molest his followers.

It looked like the forces titillated as and it leccostume that makes us uncomfortable? Iswaysisthere the way MissaLovely to to do my “I hadof been for a few years to 1984and “Every morning we lightas an much agarbatti give to lend hand.seems I am ready lawnoticing and order were about toprior face defeat, tured. A broad-strokes rant it her being forced into displaying her na-dutyserve up female and Isn't there him a way out that the mobilising around the Baa banana.” anywhere in thevictims country, to show eviloneBJP of was the officers had Hindus already gone to get about the hypocrisy of a sexkedness?

Is it the way her boss appeals to vamps for our delecof the the dialectic of now for our young hero? Will his Ganesh What doers that there is righteous nothing that can escape pu Chaturthi a cup of tea.celebrations. I remember societyrapists coexisted with her husband, showing us that entry intolongtation. newbie parand hand ofstarved lakhs of Into young men moving around the city (of no truth expose across the arm ofThe the law, orstarlet the fingertips atinnocence the deadly this breach stepped a hero.

With the be telling of Silk Smitha’s life the world of paid work has neither freedend ticipates gleefully in the corruption Hyderabad) on trucks. would be rioting nation? Will he deployed as a weapon of it.” equipment and noThere training, armed just with as inevitable tragedy. her from the surveillance of family, nor The unceremonious ouster of the to allega- against our arch-enemy and people would die.

I wanted to know Pakistan?

Will he conyoung man also responded god-given skill and unshakeable will,what he did One wishes films failed to create new shackles? star,been and free-lancing then swiftly on the side, tinue to remain hands-on, was attracting these such orthat will these he train othtionshas-been that he has what needed to youngsters be done. Hetowards rose to the occaallowed one to see more of thein Set on the fringes of the Bombay film in-in order progresses her own tra- “Nothing ers? And why are acts.” sion, and so did Asaram Bapu. The rest is histomysterious white people to earnalong additional income. way desire is Only intertwined with dustry in the late ’80s, Ashim Ahluwalia’scould jectory of decline.

Thery.

1984 riots broke while in Dhanraj was over Kota? time will tell. be further from Meanwhile, the truth,” he said, “Al- suits lurking all Already it is aout legend the far-flung ambition withTEST extraction.

As Miss Lovely follows the fortunes of twothough the Iidealised, insenior whose desperation, shooting the film with threewhere other late crewmemCOMING SOON: POTENCY HERO HELPS may havemysterious assisted onePinky, or two districts of Rajasthan, at night, the saying goes: the only thing worse than brothers — the sleazy, ambitious Vicky and apparent innocence Sonu places his faith, bers. But continued filming for the next 22 of- PTI officers. Sometimes it’s hard to refuse them, RHINO GET LUCKY! withthey their camels sleeping outside, wives being exploited is not being exploited at all. the purist, naive Sonu — who, as the Duggal emerges as the femme fatale. hours. Most of the film, she says, took shape only A simple exploitation narrative also leavCine Combine, produce low-budget horror Is there no way out of this dialectic of inwhen they went through all their footage on the sex films; films that play surreptitiously in nocence and corruption? The industry elic- es unasked the question of how women exediting table. “Once we got into it, there was no cinemas in lieu of the official feature. There its shamelessness, rewarding women who perience the transformative presence of looking back. I guess you have to be young and are men in these films, too, but the focus — can produce it with work and sometimes a the screen. What is the relationship befoolhardy to pull off something like that,” she both for cogs in the wheel like Vicky and the certain fame — and then turns around and tween the shy girl in The Dirty Picture who says with a laugh. Despite shooting in such a larger sharks he aims to work for — is on the crushes them. They’re damned if they do, watches incredulously as audiences whistense climate, she says people like daily-wage latle at her on-screen persona, and that onbourers, who were the worst hit by the curfew in screen persona itself, of the heaving bosom the city, shared their troubles with her, without and archly bitten lip? reservation. “The curfew was such terrible puniThe question of pleasure in the performshment for people like them. They were keen to ance ofIsthe is aenough, difficultthough, one. AndI like hesexual flexible wonI brace myself against the merciless, meet someone they could talk to. Today, when much else, beauty lies inisthe Repeating faithfully justeyes partofof probing fingers of the Delhi winter andwithder? people are so media savvy, it’s much more diffibeholder.

In Ahluwalia’s film, a plain, is buzzing, job, although vital. A CBI Director also the thinking hero has indicated weave through badminton players andthe the cult toBollywood attempt a film like this.”and as middle-aged woman walks into a film prousual it’s the brainy Khan who’s needs to be flexible. that his decision to also play the sleeping dogs until I reach the tree I The 60-year-old filmmaker is an active voice in duction office. “I“Main dance bahut achthings up. Aftersince the succan sexy do somersaults!” says heroine was driven by market am looking for. Munna is sitIndia’sstirring women’s movements the ’80s. Her ha karti hoon (I’m Munna, great atand sexydoes dance),” sherea quick forces. “With the economy unting on one of the lower Dhoom 3, which other cess filmsoflike The Legacy of crossed War, The Advocate says ingratiatingly, breaking into“Plus a set Iofam verse back-flip, der pressure, we wanted to keep branches, hopping from the ₹200 croretouch markupon one week and Invoking Justice contentious isbelly-swishing moves.

For many, the scene an OBC!” costs in check,” he said, “This foot to foot, displaying the before release, few poverty thoughtand the justice. Of sues like communalism, produced embarrassment, distaste, pity. is I need no more.or There helps to achieve that, while givsame restless energy that could outdo all hersuperstar works, she believes thathimself.

Kya Hua is Shehar But if we do not judge our friends or ourno doubt in my — mind that ing me an opportunity to shake must have first brought him But thethe tiny genius has because done it of its uniko? remains most relevant selves — for posting photosfeathered to elicit complithis small, creature my booty. I also have awesome to the notice of the Home announcing play at foreign versalagain, theme.by“When I show he’ll my films ments of hotness on Facebook, should we will soon head India’s premier Ministry. I find this disturbidentical triplets in Dhoom grows up to be a police offi- chemistry with the heroine, befestivals, the audience needs to 4. be givenOne some judge this woman, anyoneI else detectiveoragency. headhankerback toing. Is he not too active for the “TheirBut father job inday, thethings cer,like the second turns into a crim- cause it’s me.” background. at thehas enda of the ing for a screen Thenarrowly self-affirmation wardsimage? the gate, avoiding Will the film be inspired in position at stake? juggling babies,” exinal, by while the third becomes a ethniccircus cleansing and manipulation of events not doing be thatjumping different.jacks. As I old man “I’m not always this active,” he says,involvedanmight plained Khan, “Until an Aston shecross-dressing transvestite tra- any way by his favourite direcpolitical parties happens everywhere,” says. leave a thought occurs to based me, which is sensing my thoughts, “I can sit on thingstrisha Martin

by Shehar a masked peze artiste with a butt to die for. tor, Christopher Nolan? “He (Watch Kyadriven Hua Is Koman on 1 February, gupta is a writer and critic in applicable to you. called up and begged mercy,” For a very long time. My wife makesDelhiequally drives into the circus tent,Institute slay- of It’sLocal a classic love triangle.”

2:15pm, at Mayor’s Hall, All India All in a bubble Miss Lovely recreates ’80sfor grime with muchtoo. veracity t@chhotahazri Next time you go to the zoo, you could me sit on our eggs for hours. What am I, I ing three. Juhu In the ensuing confuDemonstrating a conscious- said the visionary actor, “We had Self Governance, Galli, Andheri (W), Mumbai.) ask her, a cockatoo? But she never listens.” be looking at a future government officer. sion, the brothers are separated. ness that few other stars possess, to honour his request.”

The Investigator is a fortnightly round-up of all things droll and newsy. All views are personal. Really personal. t@shovonc mohini chaudhuri

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Will this parrot be the next head of CBI? Deer Park native frontrunner for post

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Occupy the city People across India have taken up the issue of women's rights; here they take to the streets of Kolkata Sushanta Patronobish

the critical issue

The body politic A small but significant change is that women’s voices can no longer be easily silenced

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Urvashi Butalia is an editor, publisher and the director of Zubaan

ne way or another women have been at the heart of much that has gone on in India in the past year. Not a day goes by when there isn’t some story or the other to do with women in the newspapers and on television. The news isn’t always good — indeed much of the time it’s the opposite: gang rapes, midnight raids on unsuspecting foreigners, acid attacks, insensitive remarks and mob ‘justice’ to name only a few of the things that have happened.

There’s been no let up too in the international media attention that India has received in relation to women. Something takes place in the remotest corner of the country and the international media are immediately onto the story. Many phrases get bandied about: Delhi is the rape capital of the world, violence against women is on the rise in India, India is an unsafe place for women and so on.

What does all this mean for women in India?

Reports tell us that violence against women seems to be on the rise, the number of cases of reported rape continues to escalate and, if it were possible, become more brutal.

Contrary to popular expectations, the death sentences handed out to the December 16 rapists have not resulted in putting the fear of death into others who have rape on their minds.

As always in India, the signals are confusing and contradictory. We have a new law in place that brings in some positive changes, but stops short of recognising that crucial thing, marital rape. The ‘sanctity’ of the institution of marriage works to legalise an act that is otherwise illegal, sending out strong anti-women messages even as the law tries to recognise that women’s bodily

integrity cannot be violated. We are a strange en seriously and believed. It would be hard for people today to take the kind of view taken by the country indeed.

Not all signals are bad. Two days ago, at a meet- BG Verghese committee (which concluded that ing of women writers — Dalit, transgender, Mus- the entire story of rape had no basis in fact) on lim, lesbian — in Hyderabad, more than half the the Kunan-Poshpora rapes in Kashmir over two audience was made up of young men, most from decades ago. It would be impossible today to disfairly modest backgrounds. In Delhi, the protests miss allegations of rape in the Muzaffarnagar that followed the December 16 incident included camps, just as it would be impossible to dismiss both men and women, young and old, rich and the story of gang rape in Birbhum.

Has all of this had any effect at all poor and they worked squarely to on our politicians? If not on their bring women and women’s issues thinking, at least on their speech? centre stage. In the months that It’s difficult to say, for the old politihave followed, increasing numbers Most important of all cal trick is to say something and of young people have sustained the movement, providing it with ener- is the fact that reports then claim to be quoted out of conof rape and sexual text. But while some restraint may gy and enthusiasm.

It’s also clear that more women violation are no longer be apparent, there’s still a long way scoffed at; there is a to go as the shocking statements by are coming out to report cases of recognition that when Aam Aadmi Party political figures sexual assault and violation. The lewomen come out and show. Shocking not only for their gal intern in Delhi who spoke out speak, they should be content but also for the lack of conagainst a retired judge has clearly taken seriously demnation by party leaders. been inspirational for others who What’s clear is that women’s voichave subsequently spoken out. Sues can no longer be so easily sizette Jordan’s brave step in coming lenced — the changes we are seeing out into the open about her rape in may be a drop in a very large ocean, Kolkata has helped others to not be shamed into silence. The actions of Mumbai’s but they are a beginning.

As time goes on, more and more women will young photojournalist in reporting her rape, prompted others to speak out. The steadfast speak out, more young men and women will enstand taken by the journalist in the Tehelka case is sure that the concerns of half the population do likewise important for others who may be caught not disappear from the agenda, and perhaps then we will begin to see real change. As a young in similar situations. student in Rajasthan told me the other day, “We Most important of all is the fact that reports of rape and sexual violation are no longer scoffed at: can see that something is changing, but we can’t somewhere there seems to be at least an accept- quite identify what it is. But whatever it is, it’s exance, if not a recognition, that when women citing and challenging.” blink@thehindu.co.in come forward and speak out, they need to be tak-

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Rainbow ramp The colour of my skin What does it mean to be a Black person in India?

Nolan Lewis, who represented India at Mr Gay World, on the challenges of gay pageants

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A walk in the hood Somnath Bharti’s midnight raid has fanned the flames of racism at Khirki Extension, Delhi Meeta Ahlawat

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Defying odds Nolan Lewis, a tarot card reader, hopes to make a career in films Paul Noronha

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ee, we really have no problem as long as they behave themselves,” says Faizan Khurshid, the landlord of a few apartment complexes in Khirki Extension, south Delhi. “It is only when they start wearing dresses with cuts this low (he points to his navel) and walk around late at night doing harami things, that’s when we have a problem. And that’s why, they must all leave,” he adds.

In the past few weeks, much of the Indian media has been in ferment over what is widely seen as racist vigilantism by the newly appointed law minister of Delhi, Somnath Bharti, against African residents in his constituency. While the January 15 manhandling of the Ugandan women returning home at night is now under the angry glare of the media, the area’s Black community is no stranger to racist abuse. Michelle’s, a popular local hangout for the African community at Khirki, was shut down a good month before the incident. African students with proper papers were routinely asked to move out both by the police and landlords.

Such racism is not an exclusive transgression by this particular neighbourhood, or the Capital even. Sample this: “The Nigerians are like cancer.

We are worried what would be the image of Goa for the outside world when the images of Nigerians creating ruckus on the road are showed through television to the world,” Dayanand Mandrekar, Goa’s minister for art and culture, said a few months earlier, after a standoff between Goa

n December last year, Mumbai-based tarot bia, all the contestants at Mr Gay World, last year, card reader Nolan Lewis finally clinched the were winners of the Mr Gay pageant in their own big film offer he had been waiting for. The countries. In the absence of an official Mr Gay Inproject, which was to be helmed by Afdhere dia pageant, Nolan was put through a series of inJama, a Somali filmmaker and LGBT activist from terviews by the show’s organisers before being America, explored a gay relationship between picked as the official Indian entry. “Normally, a two Indian characters. Days before Lewis was to swimsuit round in a pageant is done on the ramp officially sign the contract, the international pro- but here I had to do it on Skype,” he says. With no ducers of the film developed cold feet. Their fears sponsorships in hand, only designer Wendell Rowere not unfounded. In a blow to gay rights in In- dricks offered to help, gifting him a lime green dia, the Supreme Court had upheld an archaic law jacket. He spent close to ₹2 lakh on his ticket, visa making gay sex illegal in the country. “After the and clothes, but believes it was money well spent. ruling, the producers had to rethink their deci- “You don’t get to be a part of a world pageant evsion. I’m trying to be optimistic. I’m really hoping ery day. Besides, for a gay man and lesbian woman this is just a delay and something can be worked there are no role models. But young girls can aspire to be like Sridevi. I think Mr Gay World gives out soon,” says Lewis.

In August 2013, Lewis took a chance when he us someone to look up to as well.”

Since the pageant, Nolan has played a role in represented India at the Mr Gay World pageant in Antwerp, Belgium, during which he the film Hearts, a gay love story, shot mostly in was spotted by Jama. The risk paid off. He New York. The film, which is also made by Jama, is didn’t win but made it to the top 10, the scheduled to do the rounds of international film closest an Indian has come to the title. festivals this year. “The film is essentially a gay The application for the contest came love story but doesn’t unnecessarily focus on the with a caveat — “By participating in this homosexuality angle. It is like any other film on pageant, you could be putting your relationships,” he says. Lewis has also sent his reown life as well as those around you sume to the United Nations, hoping to do his bit at risk.” He hasn’t yet been in any of for gay rights and is awaiting a response. the life-threatening situations he was warned of. On the contrary, the Church vs the personal congratulatory calls kept pouring A deeply religious child, Lewis dreamt of becomin — some rather embarrassing ing a priest some day. He was the star student at ones from aunts and uncles who Sunday school who was always thorough with the had no idea he was gay. His busi- Bible. “As I grew older, I started asking the church ness, as a card reader, has picked hard questions about why homosexuality was not up as well and gays and lesbians allowed. They didn’t have the answers, so I lost form most of his faith in them. Later, I became a tarot clientele. “There card reader and the church doesn’t have been a few accept that as well,” he says. At 21, he sarcastic comstarted working on a luxury cruise ments from my liner where he learnt how to read mum’s church With this ruling, future tarot cards from a colleague. He iniparticipants in Mr Gay but that has tially pursued it as a hobby but now India need knowfor theno apparent been the over onlythe murder police and Nigerian nationals of to form routinely makes a reason, good living from harassed it. Lewis risk, says in Lewis drawback,” says their countryman Obodo Uzomo Simon at Porvocollege... these familiar to every Indiwas are alsoalla too crew member on an inLewis, 29, at rim in north Goa on October 30 his last year. In Del- an who set out to study abroad a few decades ternational airline (which heago. resuburban Mum- a Congolese The similarities hi’s south-western suburb Dwarka, don’t end there.

“When I went fused to name) for five years.

He apartment. man was gunnedbai down on September 1. In Banga- and sat next quit to anhis Indian girlOctober in the classroom, job in 2012 after Back Wandoh in 2008, lore, long-time resident Timothy Junior, she instinctively up and away,”tosays they got refused himmoved permission enZoltan Parag visited ter a pastor from when Chad, model was attacked by a faceless Ornella Mosibo, a 24-year-old Congolese in Delhi, the pageant. mob on July 9.Los Angeles to try his luck at an in- who pursuing course in software technology.

He is now hopes ato counsel gay teenagers, perternational gay pageant, matters haps, “It didn’t stop at the classroom,” she adds.

“My a need that stems from his own troubled landlord Arjun Nagar, south Delhi neighNot guilty?ended quite differently. In some teen years.in “Between the agesa of 14 and 19, I always media Or reports, bourhood, startedI saw clearing out all We are not racist. that’sParag whatsaid we he was “too had a girlfriend.

But whenever a good lookscared” to We return to his home coun- ing man, I knew the there stuff from my flat, andwrong,” asked me would like to believe. experience was something he try. He Australia, sought asylum in the US and says. Lewis came to find newtold place within a day.

I had racism in Europe, the US… outaand his family when he hasn’tthe beenperpetrators back since. Now pay ₹1,000 a day I found We are never of Lewis has turned 19. Histoconfession came as auntil shock not justa tall order of picking a representative to his parentsnew tothe stay.” crimes ofthe colour.

Are we? butplace also to girl he was dating at Even the National forthe this year’sdiplomat, pageant in July. He was also “The scariest was the first timeSo it When Indian Devyathe time. “I knew what I was doing was wrong.

Crime Bureau hoping towas organise a full-fledged Gay Records In- once happened,” sayswas, Dr Diepiriye ni Khobargade arrested by the US Mr I figured who I really I told myKuku, girlfhas no data onIt was really dia contest. atmosphereher has completean African-American academic, who authorities for “The underpaying riend. explosive. But it’s been 10 years racism changed post the Supreme Court incidents verdict. of was enrolled a doctorate course in maid,lythe powers-that-be back home and we are friends now,” heinsays.

His parents have in India arethis many more people Delhi over University.

“I was at his themothFRRO railedThere against ill-treatment of ancoming out also come around time, although, and willing soil. to participate. renewtorn mybetween visa, andher instructions Indian onare American As for anyI can see so er often findsto herself allegiance emotions non-existent, racistmany tendencies in us,run youamok. wouldBut be my biggest to her churchwere and her ‘rebel’ son.so as I began adthe safety of any the delegates. dressing theLewis onlyisattendant in the hard worry put toiscome across statisti- With this With his film on hold, back in Mumbai ruling, participating in thisCrime contest is now, in attending to his room, others gathered to liscal records.

Even the National tarot business.

In thearound meanwhile, a sense, illegal.

So Icouldn’t need to promake sure that he is caught ten theythe had the pressing same questions.

Records Bureau (NCRB) up — with more task at whoever takes is completely aware the hand The attendant snatchedformy applicaduce any data onpart incidents of racism in of India — scoping promptly out his successor this year’s risk,” he contacted says. He isthem. considering sending an pageant. tion and“Being walkedgay away. he marched back into when BLink andAs lesbian in our country is NRI contestant, since it seems likeCaribbean, a safer op- athe waiting room,We hecan’t heldalways my application above Blacks — from America, from the huge challenge. be living as a sipromises that there won’t be in a nohis head and shouted, is rejected!’

My andtion, frombut various African countries — living In- lent minority.

It’s about‘your time case somebody brought fromshare India. partner, who is change,” white, followed dia, show however, a completely different, dark- about a positive he says.him into the ofAspirants India already have it er reality.

Unablefrom to rent a house because ofmuch their fice area, pleading with him. All he got by way of a others. Barring India and Nami- mohini reply was, ‘It’s their race’.” skin worse colour,than systematically denied a visa renewal chaudhuri

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In 2013 alone, there were at least three major incidents of violence against Blacks in India and Wandoh Timothy Junior, Chad countless ‘mundane’ cases. Pastor Wandoh TimThe 44-year-old Chad national was othy, according to reports, was cornered and vioattacked by a dozen odd assailants in lently beaten up by nearly a dozen men en route Hennur, Bangalore, in July, last year. to church. One of the attackers was about to fatalMarried to an Indian national for over a ly throw a large stone on his head when passersdecade, Timothy Junior, a pastor, was by forced them to retreat. Timothy Junior’s right eye was bleeding, ribs were broken, and he was on his way to church when the incident hospitalised for over a month. took place. He was seriously injured. A “After the attack, I met the home minister of FIR was lodged and two people were Karnataka to personally file a complaint. While arrested. However, Timothy Junior says the complaint was lodged, nothing else has been no action was taken after that. Those done till date,” he rues. The Chad national, who is arrested were released on bail. married to an Indian, says the attack was only an his trademark shiny ofebrated extreme manifestation the racism Africans his Bihari identity. Yannick He gained interna- Burundi hen we meet Subodh Gupta, his departure. Everything from Nihangaza, latestevery sculpture a tional day inofIndia.

“We are fed up of the recognition with his solo in 2006, when big mid-career show that runs till ever-silver utensils to thesuffer The tree we sprouting vessels are treated here. Racism is everywhere — his monumental sculpture, ‘VeryBurundi Hungrynational God’ who was pursuing mid-March at the National Gal- large, ever-silver banyan way a degree in outside Computer Science at Lovely of identity, rentingnostalgia a house, at the wasimmigration installed at office, the Venice Grand Canal lery of Modern Art (NGMA), Delhi, are laden with the politicswhen Professional University was assualted in at the police station. Whenever an African and an the Palazzo Grassi.

The work was acquired by is yet to open. Winding up a late lunch with his and location.

“The utensils are shiny yet empty,” says Gupta.

Indian are involved in an French altercation or an accibillionaire businessman and artlast collector curator Germano Celant, he walks across the Jalandhar year. He was still in a underside of inevitably showy, Francois the police takes thePinault latter’s for side. anI undisclosed sum. he was flown back to his green lawn of the NGMA with a confident and re- The emptiness tells of thedent, coma when also a pithy re- beaten haveare seen many Africans to does pulphe at Indian What feel about this journey, fromafter rela- the attack. laxed stride, not betraying his crazy hours and re- ‘progress.’ The empty utensils country days itsstations.” production and tive anonymity to ‘stardom’? “Well so far so good, police lentless work schedule. Gupta has installed the minder of the politics of food, A group of students, over 32.7 per centa 29-year-old Christoffer Okito, Congolese, I say. I am lucky to have gotten here and I hope Congo biggest exhibition of his lifetime, at the age of 50 distribution in a country where Twenty-one Congolese students were of its population of a billion peopleinformation lives below technology studying Delhi, that I canin carry on and creating large and impossible in the heart of Delhi. the president of the Association ofart.

African Stuworks of When one grows as a person and after a scuffle with “I am very proud that I am having an exhibi- the poverty line. arrested in Jalandhar Gupta’s own affiliation for utensils is personal dents in India (AASI), shares Timothy Junior’sin one’slocal matures, this reflects workresidents also. I doin feel tion of this proportion in my own country; it is a June 2013. The brawl opinion.

“We are looking that for aI place we so many works in my lofty ideals.

“Everyused where to produce great honour,” says Gupta who was invited by and has nothing to do with was a result of racist slurring, and was can study problems,” says them over. Now I plan Shewell was without a won- any youth without he thinking NGMA a year ago to host this solo. Titled ‘Every- thing comes back to my mother. broken by the affluent lovewe to meet him at Vasant Kunj, anand research my works up before I putpolice who didn't thing is Inside’, the exhibition showcases 24 derful cook and I wouldwhen detain the Indians in the fray. neighbourhood in the city. “But going by what I action,” her. I them into saysany the of artist. years of his work, comprising installations, spend time in the kitchen with The arrests to Indian shops in have andseen the here, most Indians don’t understand For this exhibition, Guptaled is not sculptures and paintings. Even viewers who have was fascinated by the ritual that African and showing not how students are here to studyonly his earlier work but been following his work would not have seen ceremony of the kitchen space, Congo being attacked as well. setcertain up illegal businesses.” has created site-specific installahalf the work on display at NGMA. Everything is In- certain vessels were used for Gupta’s tellsby ofthe late AASIlost was formed in work the ’60s Malations.

We walk to one of the gardens side (Penguin Books), a monograph, supple- occasions…” says Gupta, who and wianwhen president immigration Bingu Wa Mutharika when he at the NGMA and his giant stainlessments the exhibition, by contextualising his his father, a railway worker, travel wasbya his student international at the Sri Ram Collegesteel of Comhe was 12 and was raised tree, measuring over 24offeet work through 200 odd photographs. knowledgement the problem remains the looms above.larger With issue its shiny Gupta’s cowsuspect? dung hut, an installation which mother single-handedly. merce, Delhi. It remains one of the few umbrella here.vessels Even in progressive institutions Usual Quincy Kendall, a Trinidadian organisations that assist Africans facing racism and its lyrical formthe it country, is, perhaps, he created in the ’90s received takes pride of place at the across little or no research is carried Kathak dancer, no help from bystanders one ofare Gupta’s poetic entrance.after In one corner, his famed bronze cycles The artist from Bihar and other problems here. Okito says there outmost on the racistworks. violence against Black people. a road accident dozens of serious cases of racism every“The year,tree but is a familiar symbol and it loaded with milk cans lean against the wall and Gupta is one of India’s most coveted fewhis make it to newsrooms.

“Itfor becomes dip- inThe stands many athings our colour culture. coda I have inare juxtaposed against Royal Enfield Bullets that contemporary artists. He left home inthe Khagul, lomatic issue too, you“Iknow.

It’s difficult vested it with for theAfrisymbolism of acraziness family tree. are loaded with similar cans; these when viewed Bihar, with a few scant belongings “It is this for white skin — I feel like I’m in the ’80s.

Teaching a lesson Yannick Nihangaza, a student from Burundi, was canbeginning,” bureaucratshe tosays raise their voice Here the against utensilsIndia. get transformed from their ev-era sometimes,” says Quintogether speak of the transition thatattacked India’soutside “cow a wanted to be an actor in the living in the Victorian Kumar. has witnessed over the decades. In the cenrestaurant in Jalandhar Akhileskbelt” Butinthey all know thehe problems exist.” and The associerydayness become objects of beauty.

I keep Kathak dancer who has cy Kendall, a Trinidadian and joined a theatre group Delhi.

Initially when consulted now warns of in Dadaist Marcel Duchamp mind whilefor creating tre of the room are his trolleys loaded with lug- did illustrations to makeation, lived in Delhi five years now. Speaking to us at a living.

One day theby students, the being, potential ‘harassment’ in India. like work,“Abuses and have named Dada,” he says. He flat in Amar Colony, his gage, which tell of immigration hisittiny one-bedroom utensil sculptures came into they moved this wanted have a public “I feel this thing runs really and international travel and “safe zone”,sculpture. he adds, “I kaluand andbecame habshi buildare hurled at us Delhi every to day.

Butthis as from being kitchen utensils dowith wishanger? that it could be a permanent installation hint at a world in flux. His deep here. On TV, there are all kinds of ads encouwhat is the point ofthat reacting I prefer ing blocks of his art. “Something happened and become part ofhethe raging Delhi skyline, but the famed black and yellow taxi people to look fair. It is a direct kind of malet itand pass.wife) Besides, Indians are alike,” day, Bharti (Kher, fellow to artist andnot I all me. Importing and thinking, training the roof, loaded with holdalls alnipulation of people’s adds,my almost as an afterthought. knew it…she used to criticise paintings, but government will have to pay from Korea, so indicates imminent to viewinstalling beauty in a certain way.” Kendall the bartan sculptures shocked us both with its transporting the utensils mind them with a technical team, costs money,” saysitheallhas been a victim of racist attacks and verimmediacy and its power,”Cause he says.and effect says with Centre a chuckle, inabuse good humour.

The when I had an accident bal in Delhi. “Once A professor socialofsciences Delhi’s for and Within a decade he became the of owner a he at Indian government is yeton to honour him withinstead a my two-wheeler, of helping me, the African Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University, vast home in the heart of Delhi and a studio Capital, while onlookers helpedinterthe driver of the car that Dubey perceives an intrinsicsculpture flaw. “Thein the in Gurgaon. Gupta Ajith had studied art at theit aspermanent his and work of vehicle public get away. When I asked if banged part into my factwhich is, ourleft society highlynationally endogamous ex-is already Patna School of Art, himisillconsciousness. clusivist — orderedways on the basis of linguistic, eth- this was how they treated guests in their country, equipped to face the metropolitan As we walk around and‘yes, view his artyou are a dog’.” Like severthey said, because religious roots.

Africansthe gallery of the Capital, butnic, he rose above and thoseregional works such as a giant boat loadedin with al others hisdiscardcommunity, Kendall chose to cothe brunt of —discrimination shortcomings andsometimes came into bear his own ed utensils — ithimself becoon in his own world. “I that Indians also reserve for and a tidal wave of utensils through the power of his artwork.

Bathcomes on obvious that he has not held back in this don’t step out unless I have classes fellow Indians, ing in cow dung at a performance at based show.skin, “I have tried to do whatever I can. Now it de-pressing work. My room is or other the colour Khoj (a Delhi-based artist of their my castle.” collective) forfor a instance.” piece pends on how the people take it,” he says.

"It is the craziness for Other African students and proArvind Narrain of titled ‘Pure’ in 2000, white skin thehis Alternative he underlined georgina maddox is a — I feel like fessionals too, have adopted similar I am living in the methods. As filing a complaint usuLaw Ban- art writer rural roots and cel-Forum, Delhi-based Victorian era ally doesn’t spur authorities into galore, who acsometimes" action, and often, has an adverse efcompanied other fect on the case, ignoring the everycivil society activday incidents of racism has become ists on a fact-findtheir first line of defence. As Nigering team after Timothy Junior ian footballer Uga Okpara, playing was attacked, also for East Bengal, says, “When I came points out how “Africans suffer to India four years ago, I was surprised that peothe kind of treatment that white ple stared at me, or called me names while I was people are never subjected to. It is an out in the city. But I’m here to play football, and I inherent bias in the Indian society”. His have to concentrate on my game. So I choose to Power play co-crusader, Ramdas Rao of People’s Union keep to myself and don’t really go out of my way Nigerian of Civil Liberties (PUCL) offers an additional to question all of this.” footballer opinion. “It’s ingrained in our casteist Hindu soCurrently the Khirki incident is in the news, Uga Okpara ciety. Discrimination based on caste easily as- but airtime otherwise is dominated largely by in Kolkata is sumes the form of prejudice based on race,” he negative news about the African community. yet to get says. “Often, basic civil rights are denied to the Headlines like “The Nigerian cash scam” or the used to the Black people. From a human rights perspective, “Congolese drug dealers” are commonplace. ‘gaze’ Ashoke we talk about caste and prejudice in the Indian News about the Eritrean boy brutally assaulted Chakrabarty context all the time, but when it comes to Afri- in Jalandhar or the footballer from Lesotho rotcans, somehow the issue gets ignored or glossed ting in a jail in Kolkata are harder to come by. Offiover. They are denied movement, freedom of ex- cial apathy, lazy reporting and a voiceless pression... something that we want to look at community are the deadly ingredients in this more closely. Also, because they are vulnerable, simmering bitter brew.

Bullets and bartans Subodh Gupta’s affiliation for they don’t talk about it openly.” Regardless of the Unlove thy neighbour Residents of Khirki Extension Kamal Narang feel validated by the Delhi chief utensils is personal rather than political minister’s dharna against police ‘inaction’ Sandeep Saxena reasons for the racist behaviour, the lack of ac- sibi arasu

The utensil maestro

Subodh Gupta has created the monumental through everyday objects. As he mounts his biggest solo show in Delhi, he explains why he makes the familiar unfamiliar

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The high way A ferry comes visiting from mainland Ernakulam to Mattancherry

Terracotta terrain A languid afternoon at Bazaar Road, its air heavy with the smell of sea and spices

Old spice and new addresses Mattancherry, a quaint quarter of Kochi, now plays host to charming art galleries, music studios and restaurants

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attancherry, with its 500-year-old history of settlement and trade, and with its 300 or so warehouses, has constantly reinvented itself through the ages. This trait has seen it through long periods of frenetic activity as well as lean days. Traders who came in, seldom left, and added their own flavours to this quaint corner of Kochi.

Arabs, Gujaratis and Jews fleeing from their homeland, found space along the narrow stretch of land sandwiched between the sea and the backwaters.

Trade brought the first settlers here. Arabs were followed by Gujaratis. Black gold or pepper was the product of barter. Its procurement, processing and storage led to the construction of godowns that lie on either side of Mattancherry’s arterial road. Most of the architecture is a combination of Gujarati-style interiors with high, imposing façades. While in use, the godowns were functional spaces that served the spice trade well. But as other parts of the town opened up, trade began to dwindle. Banks and other support facilities began moving out, and a depressing lassitude settled upon what was once a thriving nucleus of activity. Even as people began to leave, a new sense of history came to settle here. This attracted artists of all kinds, musicians and a new band

of tourists. Warehouses turned into spaces imbued with character. The mystery deepened with each window; each door opening to reveal its own charming, eclectic secrets — art galleries, destination music studios and restaurants, beseeching the itinerant visitor to drop anchor for a while.

Life changed; what remained became a newfound story, told differently. Savvy businessmen converted many of these warehouses into restaurants, cafés and living spaces. Musical nights and poetry reading sessions became commonplace. One such godown was even converted into a nightclub, although it was closed down soon after.

Trade continues. Red chillies, pepper, turmeric, ginger and cardamom are still washed, dried, sorted, sifted, packed and parcelled. It’s business as usual for some traders as they carry on what they were born into. The road is in transition. It is taking a new course, a new direction. The structures on it are morphing into something contemporary and more meaningful to the day.

Yet its story remains as romantic and relevant as before, pulsating in this new body.

thulasi kakkat

An afternoon bookended At the Pepper House, home currently to artist Bose Krishnamachari’s open library project called the Laboratory of Visual Arts (LaVa). It includes a curated cache of 5,000 book titles and 1,800 DVDs

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shoot That old haunt One of the oldest in Mattancherry, this godown is owned by the descendants of the legendary cashew trader, Thangal Kunju Musaliar

Things fall apart The skeletal remains of a warehouse, whose courtyard was once carpeted by nuts and spices

Angling for attention An abandoned warehouse, where pepper, cashew and rubber were stored before being loaded onto ships at the harbour Flavour of the season The new cafe at the Dutch-style Pepper House, now known for its visual arts projects and artist residencies

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Rainbow ramp The colour of my skin What does it mean to be a Black person in India?

Nolan Lewis, who represented India at Mr Gay World, on the challenges of gay pageants

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A walk in the hood Somnath Bharti’s midnight raid has fanned the flames of racism at Khirki Extension, Delhi Meeta Ahlawat

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Defying odds Nolan Lewis, a tarot card reader, hopes to make a career in films Paul Noronha

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ee, we really have no problem as long as they behave themselves,” says Faizan Khurshid, the landlord of a few apartment complexes in Khirki Extension, south Delhi. “It is only when they start wearing dresses with cuts this low (he points to his navel) and walk around late at night doing harami things, that’s when we have a problem. And that’s why, they must all leave,” he adds.

In the past few weeks, much of the Indian media has been in ferment over what is widely seen as racist vigilantism by the newly appointed law minister of Delhi, Somnath Bharti, against African residents in his constituency. While the January 15 manhandling of the Ugandan women returning home at night is now under the angry glare of the media, the area’s Black community is no stranger to racist abuse. Michelle’s, a popular local hangout for the African community at Khirki, was shut down a good month before the incident. African students with proper papers were routinely asked to move out both by the police and landlords.

Such racism is not an exclusive transgression by this particular neighbourhood, or the Capital even. Sample this: “The Nigerians are like cancer.

We are worried what would be the image of Goa for the outside world when the images of Nigerians creating ruckus on the road are showed through television to the world,” Dayanand Mandrekar, Goa’s minister for art and culture, said a few months earlier, after a standoff between Goa

n December last year, Mumbai-based tarot bia, all the contestants at Mr Gay World, last year, card reader Nolan Lewis finally clinched the were winners of the Mr Gay pageant in their own big film offer he had been waiting for. The countries. In the absence of an official Mr Gay Inproject, which was to be helmed by Afdhere dia pageant, Nolan was put through a series of inJama, a Somali filmmaker and LGBT activist from terviews by the show’s organisers before being America, explored a gay relationship between picked as the official Indian entry. “Normally, a two Indian characters. Days before Lewis was to swimsuit round in a pageant is done on the ramp officially sign the contract, the international pro- but here I had to do it on Skype,” he says. With no ducers of the film developed cold feet. Their fears sponsorships in hand, only designer Wendell Rowere not unfounded. In a blow to gay rights in In- dricks offered to help, gifting him a lime green dia, the Supreme Court had upheld an archaic law jacket. He spent close to ₹2 lakh on his ticket, visa making gay sex illegal in the country. “After the and clothes, but believes it was money well spent. ruling, the producers had to rethink their deci- “You don’t get to be a part of a world pageant evsion. I’m trying to be optimistic. I’m really hoping ery day. Besides, for a gay man and lesbian woman this is just a delay and something can be worked there are no role models. But young girls can aspire to be like Sridevi. I think Mr Gay World gives out soon,” says Lewis.

In August 2013, Lewis took a chance when he us someone to look up to as well.”

Since the pageant, Nolan has played a role in represented India at the Mr Gay World pageant in Antwerp, Belgium, during which he the film Hearts, a gay love story, shot mostly in was spotted by Jama. The risk paid off. He New York. The film, which is also made by Jama, is didn’t win but made it to the top 10, the scheduled to do the rounds of international film closest an Indian has come to the title. festivals this year. “The film is essentially a gay The application for the contest came love story but doesn’t unnecessarily focus on the with a caveat — “By participating in this homosexuality angle. It is like any other film on pageant, you could be putting your relationships,” he says. Lewis has also sent his reown life as well as those around you sume to the United Nations, hoping to do his bit at risk.” He hasn’t yet been in any of for gay rights and is awaiting a response. the life-threatening situations he was warned of. On the contrary, the Church vs the personal congratulatory calls kept pouring A deeply religious child, Lewis dreamt of becomin — some rather embarrassing ing a priest some day. He was the star student at ones from aunts and uncles who Sunday school who was always thorough with the had no idea he was gay. His busi- Bible. “As I grew older, I started asking the church ness, as a card reader, has picked hard questions about why homosexuality was not up as well and gays and lesbians allowed. They didn’t have the answers, so I lost form most of his faith in them. Later, I became a tarot clientele. “There card reader and the church doesn’t have been a few accept that as well,” he says. At 21, he sarcastic comstarted working on a luxury cruise ments from my liner where he learnt how to read mum’s church With this ruling, future tarot cards from a colleague. He iniparticipants in Mr Gay but that has tially pursued it as a hobby but now India need knowfor theno apparent the over onlythe murder police and Nigerianbeen nationals of toform routinely makes a reason, good living fromharassed it. Lewis risk, says in Lewis drawback,” says their countryman Obodo Uzomo Simon at Porvocollege... these familiar to every Indiwas are alsoallatoo crew member on an inLewis, 29, at rim in north Goa on October 30 his last year. In Del- an who set out to study abroad a few decades ternational airline (which heago. reMum- a Congolese The similarities hi’s south-westernsuburban suburb Dwarka, don’t end there.

I went fused to name) for “When five years.

He apartment. man was gunnedbai down on September 1. In Banga- and sat next quit to anhis Indian girlOctober in the classroom, job in 2012 after Back Wandoh in 2008, lore, long-time resident Timothy Junior, she instinctively up and away,”tosays theygot refused himmoved permission enZoltan by Parag visited ter a pastor from when Chad, model was attacked a faceless Ornella Mosibo, a 24-year-old Congolese in Delhi, the pageant. mob on July 9.Los Angeles to try his luck at an in- who pursuing course in software technology.

He is now hopesato counsel gay teenagers, perternational gay pageant, matters haps, “It didn’t stop at the classroom,” “My a need that stems from his she ownadds. troubled landlord Arjun Nagar, a of south Delhi neighNot guilty?ended quite differently. In some teen years.in “Between the ages 14 and 19, I always media Or reports, bourhood, startedI saw clearing out all We are not racist. that’sParag whatsaid we he was “too had a girlfriend.

But whenever a good lookscared” to We return to his home coun- ing man, I knew the there stuff from my flat, andwrong,” asked me would like to believe. experience was something he try. He Australia, sought asylum in the US and says. Lewis came to find newtold placehis within a day.

I had racism in Europe, the US… outa and family when he hasn’tthe beenperpetrators back since. Now pay ₹1,000 a day I found We are never of Lewis has turned 19. Histoconfession came as auntil shock not justa tall order of picking a representative to his parentsnew tothe stay.” crimes ofthe colour.

Are we? butplace also to girl he was dating at Even the National this year’sdiplomat, pageant in July. He was also “The scariest was the first timeSo it Whenfor the Indian Devyathe time. “I knew what I was doing was wrong.

Crime Bureau hoping towas organise a full-fledged GayRecords In- once happened,” sayswas, Dr Diepiriye ni Khobargade arrested by the US Mr I figured who I really I told myKuku, girlfhas no data onIt was really dia contest. atmosphereher has completean African-American academic, who authorities for “The underpaying riend. explosive. But it’s been 10 years racism changed post the Supreme Court incidents verdict. of was enrolled insays. a doctorate course in maid,lythe powers-that-be back home and we are friends now,” he His parents have in India arethis many more people Delhi over University.

“I was at his themothFRRO railedThere against ill-treatment of ancoming out also come around time, although, willing soil. to participate. renewtorn mybetween visa, andher instructions Indianand onare American As for any I can see so er often findstoherself allegiance emotions non-existent, racistmany tendencies in us,run youamok. wouldBut be my biggest to her churchwere and her ‘rebel’ son.so as I began adthe safety ofany the delegates. dressing theLewis onlyisattendant in the hard worry put toiscome across statisti- With this With his film on hold, back in Mumbai ruling, participating in thisCrime contest is now, in attending to his room, others gathered to liscal records.

Even the National tarot business.

In thearound meanwhile, a sense, illegal.

So Icouldn’t need to promake sure that he is caughtten theythe had the same questions.

Records Bureau (NCRB) up — with more pressing task at whoever takes is completely aware the hand The attendant snatchedformy applicaduce any data onpart incidents of racism in of India — scopingpromptly out his successor this year’s risk,” hecontacted says. He is considering sending an pageant. tion and“Being walkedgay away. he marched back into when BLink them. andAs lesbian in our country is NRI contestant, since it seems likeCaribbean, a safer op- athe waiting room,We hecan’t heldalways my application above Blacks — from America, from the huge challenge. be living as a sipromises that there won’t be in a nohis head and shouted, is rejected!’

My andtion, frombut various African countries — living In- lent minority.

It’s about‘your timecase somebody brought from India. partner, who is change,” white, followed dia, show however, share a completely different, dark- about a positive he says.him into the ofAspirants India already have it er reality.

Unablefrom to rent a house because ofmuch their fice area, pleading with him. All he got by way of a others. Barring India and Nami- mohini reply was, ‘It’s their race’.” skin worse colour,than systematically denied a visa renewal chaudhuri

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In 2013 alone, there were at least three major incidents of violence against Blacks in India and Wandoh Timothy Junior, Chad countless ‘mundane’ cases. Pastor Wandoh TimThe 44-year-old Chad national was othy, according to reports, was cornered and vioattacked by a dozen odd assailants in lently beaten up by nearly a dozen men en route Hennur, Bangalore, in July, last year. to church. One of the attackers was about to fatalMarried to an Indian national for over a ly throw a large stone on his head when passersdecade, Timothy Junior, a pastor, was by forced them to retreat. Timothy Junior’s right eye was bleeding, ribs were broken, and he was on his way to church when the incident hospitalised for over a month. took place. He was seriously injured. A “After the attack, I met the home minister of FIR was lodged and two people were Karnataka to personally file a complaint. While arrested. However, Timothy Junior says the complaint was lodged, nothing else has been no action was taken after that. Those done till date,” he rues. The Chad national, who is arrested were released on bail. married to an Indian, says the attack was only an his trademark shiny ofebrated extreme manifestation the racism Africans his Bihari identity. Yannick He gained interna- Burundi hen we meet Subodh Gupta, his departure. Everything from Nihangaza, latestevery sculpture a tional day inofIndia.

“We are fed up of the recognition with his solo in 2006, when big mid-career show that runs till ever-silver utensils to thesuffer The sprouting vessels way we are treated here. Racism is everywhere — his monumental sculpture, ‘VeryBurundi Hungrynational God’ who was pursuing mid-March at the National Gal- large, ever-silver banyan tree a degree in outside Computer Science at Lovely of identity, rentingnostalgia a house, at the wasimmigration installed at office, the Venice Grand Canal lery of Modern Art (NGMA), Delhi, are laden with the politicswhen Professional University was assualted in at the police station. Whenever an African and an the Palazzo Grassi.

The work was acquired by is yet to open. Winding up a late lunch with his and location.

“The utensils are shiny yet empty,” says Gupta.

Indian are involved in an French altercation or an accibillionaire businessman and artlast collector curator Germano Celant, he walks across the Jalandhar year. He was still in a underside of inevitably showy, Francois the police takes thePinault latter’s for side. anI undisclosed sum. he was flown back to his green lawn of the NGMA with a confident and re- The emptiness tells of thedent, coma when also a pithy re- beaten haveare seen many Africans todoes pulphe at Indian What feel about this journey, fromafter rela- the attack. laxed stride, not betraying his crazy hours and re- ‘progress.’ The empty utensils country days its stations.” production and tive anonymity to ‘stardom’? “Well so far so good, police lentless work schedule. Gupta has installed the minder of the politics of food, A group of students, over 32.7 per centa 29-year-old Christoffer Okito, Congolese, I say. I am lucky to have gotten here and I hope Congo biggest exhibition of his lifetime, at the age of 50 distribution in a country where Twenty-one Congolese students were of its population of a billion peopleinformation lives below technology studying Delhi, that I canin carry on and creating large and impossible in the heart of Delhi. the president of the Association African works ofofart.

WhenStuone grows as a person and after a scuffle with “I am very proud that I am having an exhibi- the poverty line. arrested in Jalandhar Gupta’s own affiliation for utensils is personal dents in India (AASI), shares Timothy Junior’sin one’slocal matures, this reflects workresidents also. I do in feel tion of this proportion in my own country; it is a June 2013. The brawl opinion.

“We are lookingthat for aI place we so many works in my lofty ideals.

“Everyused where to produce great honour,” says Gupta who was invited by and has nothing to do with was a result of racist slurring, and was can study problems,” says them over. Now I plan Shewell was without a won- any youth without he thinking NGMA a year ago to host this solo. Titled ‘Every- thing comes back to my mother. broken by the affluent lovewe to meet him at Vasant Kunj, anand research my works up before I putpolice who didn't thing is Inside’, the exhibition showcases 24 derful cook and I wouldwhen detain of the Indians in the fray. neighbourhood in the city. “But going them by what I action,” her. I into saysany the artist. years of his work, comprising installations, spend time in the kitchen with The arrests to Indian shops in have andseen the here, most Indians don’t understand For this exhibition, Guptaled is not sculptures and paintings. Even viewers who have was fascinated by the ritual that African andshowing not how students are here to studyonly his earlier work but been following his work would not have seen ceremony of the kitchen space, Congo being attacked as well. setcertain up illegal businesses.” has created site-specific installahalf the work on display at NGMA. Everything is In- certain vessels were used for Gupta’s tellsby ofthe late AASIlost was formed in work the ’60s Malations.

We walk to one of the gardens side (Penguin Books), a monograph, supple- occasions…” says Gupta, who and wianwhen president immigration Bingu Wa Mutharika when he and his giant stainlessat the NGMA ments the exhibition, by contextualising his his father, a railway worker, travel wasbya his student international at the Sri Ram Collegesteel of Comhe was 12 and was raised tree, measuring over 24offeet work through 200 odd photographs. knowledgement the problem remains the umbrella above.larger With issue its shiny Gupta’s cowsuspect? dung hut, an installation which mother single-handedly. merce, Delhi. It remains one of the few looms here.vessels Even in progressive institutions Usual Quincy Kendall, a Trinidadian organisations that assist Africans facing racism and its lyrical formthe it country, is, perhaps, he created in the ’90s received takes pride of place at the across little or no research is carried Kathak dancer, no help from bystanders one ofare Gupta’s poetic entrance.after In one corner, his famed bronze cycles The artist from Bihar and other problems here. Okito says there outmost on the racistworks. violence against Black people. a road accident dozens of serious cases of racism every“The year,tree butis a familiar symbol and it loaded with milk cans lean against the wall and Gupta is one of India’s most coveted fewhis make it to newsrooms.

“Itfor becomes a dip- inThe stands many things our culture.

I have inare juxtaposed against Royal Enfield Bullets that contemporary artists. He left colour coda home inthe Khagul, lomatic issue too, you“Iknow.

It’s difficult vested it with for theAfrisymbolism of acraziness family tree. are loaded with similar cans; these when viewed Bihar, with a few scant belongings “It is this for white skin — I feel like I’m in the ’80s.

Teaching a lesson Yannick Nihangaza, a student from Burundi, was canbeginning,” bureaucratshe tosays raise their voice Here the against utensilsIndia. get transformed from their ev-era sometimes,” says Quintogether speak of the transition thatattacked India’s outside “cow a wanted to be an actor in the living in the Victorian Kumar. has witnessed over the decades. In the cenrestaurant in Jalandhar Akhileskbelt” But all Initially know thehe problems exist.” and The associerydayness become objects of beauty.

I keep Kathak dancer who has cy Kendall, a Trinidadian and joined a theatre group inthey Delhi. when consulted now warns of in Dadaist Marcel Duchamp mind whilefor creating tre of the room are his trolleys loaded with lug- did illustrations to makeation, lived in Delhi five years now. Speaking to us at a living.

One day the by students, the being, potential ‘harassment’ in India. work, “Abuses and havelike named Dada,” he says. He flat in Amar Colony, his gage, which tell of immigration hisit tiny one-bedroom utensil sculptures came into they moved this wanted have this as a public and international travel and “safe zone”,sculpture. he adds, “I feel this thing runs really kaluand andbecame habshi buildare hurled at us Delhi everyto day.

But from being kitchen utensils do with wish anger? that it could be a permanent installation hint at a world in flux. His deep here. On TV, there are all kinds of ads encouwhat is the point ofthat reacting I prefer ing blocks of his art. “Something happened and become part ofhethe raging Delhi skyline, but the famed black and yellow taxi people to look fair. It is a direct kind of mato let itand pass.

Besides, Indians are alike,” day, Bharti (Kher, fellow artist wife) and not I all me. Importing and thinking, training the roof, loaded with holdalls alnipulation of people’s adds,my almost as an afterthought. knew it…she used to criticise paintings, but government will have to pay from Korea, so indicates imminent to viewinstalling beauty in a certain way.” Kendall the bartan sculptures shocked us both with its transporting the utensils mind them with a technical team, allhas costs money,” saysithe been a victim of racist attacks and verimmediacy and its power,”Cause he says.and effect says with Centre a chuckle, inabuse good humour.

The when I had an accident in Delhi. “Once A professor socialofsciences Delhi’s for andbal Within a decade he became the of owner a he at Indian government is yet on to honour him withinstead a my two-wheeler, of helping me, the African Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University, vast home in the heart of Delhi and a studio Capital, while interonlookers helped the driver of the car that Dubey perceives an intrinsicsculpture flaw. “Thein the in Gurgaon. Gupta Ajith had studied art at theit aspermanent his and workex-is already of public bangedpart into my vehicle get away. When I asked if factwhich is, ourleft society highlynationally endogamous Patna School of Art, himisillclusivist — orderedways on the consciousness. basis of linguistic, eth- this was how they treated guests in their country, equipped to face the metropolitan As we walk around and‘yes, view his art you are a dog’.” Like severthey said, because religious roots.

Africansthe gallery of the Capital, butnic, he rose above and thoseregional works such as a giant boat loadedin with al others hisdiscardcommunity, Kendall chose to cothe brunt of —discrimination shortcomings andsometimes came into bear his own ed utensils — it himself becoon in his own world. “I that Indians also reserve for and a tidal wave of utensils through the power of his artwork.

Bathobvious that he has not held back in this don’t step out unless I have classes fellow Indians, based on ing in cow dung at a performance at comes show.skin, “I have tried to do whatever I can. Now it de-pressing work. My room is or other the colour Khoj (a Delhi-based artist of their pends on how the people take it,” he says. my castle.” instance.” collective) forfor a piece "It is the craziness for Other African students and proArvind Narrain of titled ‘Pure’ in 2000, white skin thehis Alternative he underlined georgina maddox is a — I feel like fessionals too, have adopted similar I am living in the methods. As filing a complaint usuBan- art writer rural roots andLaw cel- Forum, Delhi-based Victorian era ally doesn’t spur authorities into galore, who acsometimes" action, and often, has an adverse efcompanied other fect on the case, ignoring the everycivil society activday incidents of racism has become ists on a fact-findtheir first line of defence. As Nigering team after Timothy Junior ian footballer Uga Okpara, playing was attacked, also for East Bengal, says, “When I came points out how “Africans suffer to India four years ago, I was surprised that peothe kind of treatment that white ple stared at me, or called me names while I was people are never subjected to. It is an out in the city. But I’m here to play football, and I inherent bias in the Indian society”. His have to concentrate on my game. So I choose to Power play co-crusader, Ramdas Rao of People’s Union keep to myself and don’t really go out of my way Nigerian of Civil Liberties (PUCL) offers an additional to question all of this.” footballer opinion. “It’s ingrained in our casteist Hindu soCurrently the Khirki incident is in the news, Uga Okpara ciety. Discrimination based on caste easily as- but airtime otherwise is dominated largely by in Kolkata is sumes the form of prejudice based on race,” he negative news about the African community. yet to get says. “Often, basic civil rights are denied to the Headlines like “The Nigerian cash scam” or the used to the Black people. From a human rights perspective, “Congolese drug dealers” are commonplace. ‘gaze’ Ashoke we talk about caste and prejudice in the Indian News about the Eritrean boy brutally assaulted Chakrabarty context all the time, but when it comes to Afri- in Jalandhar or the footballer from Lesotho rotcans, somehow the issue gets ignored or glossed ting in a jail in Kolkata are harder to come by. Offiover. They are denied movement, freedom of ex- cial apathy, lazy reporting and a voiceless pression... something that we want to look at community are the deadly ingredients in this more closely. Also, because they are vulnerable, simmering bitter brew.

Bullets and bartans Subodh Gupta’s affiliation for they don’t talk about it openly.” Regardless of the Unlove neighbour Residents of Khirki Extension Kamal Narang feel validated by the Delhi chief utensilsthy is personal rather than political minister’s dharna against police ‘inaction’ Sandeep Saxena reasons for the racist behaviour, the lack of ac- sibi arasu

The utensil maestro

Subodh Gupta has created the monumental through everyday objects. As he mounts his biggest solo show in Delhi, he explains why he makes the familiar unfamiliar

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Broken over time DIPANKAR

Made three decades ago, a movie about the 1984 riots continues to be relevant trisha gupta

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Who is Miss Lovely?

POTENCY TEST CHAMPAGETS PARAM VIR CHAKRA

DIPANKAR

Films about sex stars need to show how desire is intertwined with desperation

n early scene in Miss Lovely has Na- women. “Ladkiyan khoobsoorat honi chahiye, and damned if they don’t. wazuddin Siddiqui walk into a C- aur besharam bhi (The girls should be beauEven empathetic narratives about these grade film set where some wom- tiful, and also shameless),” as one lascivious women — a bit like older courtesan films — seem to reproduce a moral order in which en, dressed in the scanty animal distributor puts it. skins and feathers that served ’80s Hindi For a film so self-consciously arthouse in unapologetic female sexuality (and unapolcinema as ‘tribal costume’, are performing its nuanced recreation of milieu — the art ogetic ambition) must receive punirecent chowdhury Malayalamis chief film some heavy-breathing dance moves. As Sid- direction, sound and cinematography pro- shment. The shovon Truthdigger andthe author of The Kanyaka Talkies (2012) uses transformadiqui’s Sonu looks on, there’s an attempt to duce a pitch-perfect sense of ’80s grime — Street truths A still from Kya Hua Is Shehar Ko Authority movie theatre into a church make one of them get her kit off. She puts Miss Lovely contains surprisingly tabloid vil- tion of a porn Competent up some muffled resistance. “Madras mein lains. But perhaps these men making inno- to make explicit the link between sex and toh saari public ke saamne nangi hui thhi! (In cent young women swill whiskey from sin. The female protagonist’s desire to be an t’s been nearly three decades since activistactress draws her into the porn film Madras you got naked in front of the wholeten cut-glass fit right into this pre-libfilmmaker Dhanraj made KyaKota Huapolice Is late at night, when they areindusfeeling whisper tumblers in the ears of exhausted hus- especially t was Deepa late in the evening at the try.

An explicit clip finds its way to her public!)

What’s your problem now?” deeralisation world, where raids are televised Sheharstation.

Ko?, a documentary on the 1984the combands, “Should we go to Kota, dear, and meet particularly playful.”

The lights were dim, room is forced to leave, not mands the long-haired man in charge.thaton grainy Doordarshan, with commentary hometown; munalwas riots in the Hyderabad, but the buzz onWas there ashe faint glow suffusing thebeing young policeman?” dank, hushed silence broken able face? to return even herthana, father’s “That’s why I say these husbands should Today, aboutfinally, ‘rampant immorality’ thathis sounds around it doesn’t seem to be A digi- in In the dim lightto of the it was that hero is receiving just man’s ly by the sound offading Arnab,away. somewhere deathbed.

It is hard notittoberead puninever be allowed on the set!” Then hereward, like it’s coming another planet.

May- hard tally remastered version of the film was screened to be sure.

Could thatthis in as touching from no lessfrom a person than the Presithe distance, demanding answers on behalf of shment. mainstream narrative switches gear to address the befuddleddentbeof the underbelly re- the at the the Berlin FilmThe Festival lastseer yeargazed and will now bedivine,A more he himself has become, in was some India, although of notstate-sponsored directly from his nation. smiling at them The Dirty Picture (2011), which man standing in the corner: “You! Explain pression is necessarily make nevolently, its debut inrefusing Mumbaitoatperform, the Sheharnama way, divine? hands, as he will be wearing gloves. backing up on the life ofhim an just ’80sto ac-be things to your wife.” excess. special,” said the hero festival.

Reminiscing of to “Some of usdrew are worshipping “Idebauched have done nothing with inaction hisabout claim the that experience he was too old tresssaid to make film that What is it about the woman in a tribalmodestly, But “Whenever what is more worrying filming the powerful documentary, Dhanraj says, one aofflashy his colleagues, required, the police is al- on the safe side,” molest his followers.

It looked like the forces titillated as and it leccostume that makes us uncomfortable? Iswaysisthere the way MissaLovely to to do my “I had of been for a few years to 1984and “Every morning we lightas anmuch agarbatti give to lend hand.seems I am ready lawnoticing and order were about toprior face defeat, it her being forced into displaying her na-dutyserve up female and Isn't there him a waya out that the mobilising banana.”tured. A broad-strokes rant anywhere in thevictims country, to show eviloneBJP of was the officers had Hindus already around gone to the get Baabout the hypocrisy of a sexkedness?

Is it the way her boss appeals to vamps for our delecof the dialectic of now for our young hero? Will his Ganesh What doers that there is righteous nothing that can escape pu Chaturthi a cup of tea.celebrations. I remember societyrapists coexisted with her husband, showing us that entry intolongtation.

The newbie parand hand ofstarved lakhs of Into young men moving around the city (of no truth expose across the arm of the law, orstarlet the fingertips atinnocence the deadly this breach stepped a hero.

With telling of Silk Smitha’s life the world of paid work has neither freedendticipates gleefully in the corruption Hyderabad) on trucks. would be rioting nation? Will the he be deployed as a weapon of it.” equipment and noThere training, armed just with as inevitable tragedy.Will he conher from the surveillance of family, nor The unceremonious ouster of the to allega- against our arch-enemy and people would die.

I wanted to know Pakistan? young man also responded god-given skill and unshakeable will,what he did One wishes films failed to create new shackles? has-been star,been and free-lancing then swiftly on the side, tinue to remain hands-on, was attracting these such orthat will these he train othtions that he has what needed to youngsters be done. Hetowards rose to the occaallowed one to see more of thein Set on the fringes of the Bombay film in-in order progresses her own tra- “Nothing ers? And why are acts.” sion, and so did Asaram Bapu. The rest is histomysterious white people to earnalong additional income. way desire is intertwined with dustry in the late ’80s, Ashim Ahluwalia’scould jectory of decline.

The ry.

1984 riots broke while in Dhanraj was over Kota?

Only time will tell. be further from Meanwhile, the truth,” he said, “Al- suits lurking all Already it is aout legend the far-flung ambition withTEST extraction.

As Miss Lovely follows the fortunes of twothough the Iidealised, insenior whose desperation, shooting the film with threewhere other late crewmemCOMING SOON: POTENCY HERO HELPS may havemysterious assisted onePinky, or two districts of Rajasthan, at night, the saying goes: the only thing worse than brothers — the sleazy, ambitious Vicky and apparent innocence Sonu places his faith, bers. But they continued filming for the next 22 of- PTI officers. Sometimes it’s hard to refuse them, RHINO GET LUCKY! with their camels sleeping outside, wives being exploited is not being exploited at all. the purist, naive Sonu — who, as the Duggal emerges as the femme fatale. hours. Most of the film, she says, took shape only A simple exploitation narrative also leavCine Combine, produce low-budget horror Is there no way out of this dialectic of inwhen they went through all their footage on the sex films; films that play surreptitiously in nocence and corruption? The industry elic- es unasked the question of how women exediting table. “Once we got into it, there was no cinemas in lieu of the official feature. There its shamelessness, rewarding women who perience the transformative presence of looking back. I guess you have to be young and are men in these films, too, but the focus — can produce it with work and sometimes a the screen. What is the relationship befoolhardy to pull off something like that,” she both for cogs in the wheel like Vicky and the certain fame — and then turns around and tween the shy girl in The Dirty Picture who says with a laugh. Despite shooting in such a larger sharks he aims to work for — is on the crushes them. They’re damned if they do, watches incredulously as audiences whistense climate, she says people like daily-wage latle at her on-screen persona, and that onbourers, who were the worst hit by the curfew in screen persona itself, of the heaving bosom the city, shared their troubles with her, without and archly bitten lip? reservation. “The curfew was such terrible puniThe question of pleasure in the performshment for people like them. They were keen to ance ofIsthe is aenough, difficultthough, one. AndIlike hesexual flexible wonI brace myself against the merciless, meet someone they could talk to. Today, when much else, beauty lies inisthe of of Repeating faithfully justeyes part probing fingers of the Delhi winter andwithder? people are so media savvy, it’s much more diffibeholder.

In Ahluwalia’s film, a plain, is buzzing, job, although vital. A CBI Director also the thinking hero has indicated weave through badminton players andthe the cult toBollywood attempt a film like this.”and as middle-aged walks into a film proit’s thefilmmaker brainy Khan who’s needs towoman be flexible. that his decision to also play the sleeping dogs until I reach the tree I Theusual 60-year-old is an active voice in duction office. “I “Main dance bahut achthings up. Aftersince the succan sexy do somersaults!” says heroine was driven by market am looking for. Munna is sitIndia’sstirring women’s movements the ’80s. Her ha karti hoon (I’m Munna, great at and sexydoes dance),” sherea quick forces. “With the economy unting on one of the lower Dhoom 3, which other cess filmsoflike The Legacy of crossed War, The Advocate says ingratiatingly, breaking into“Plus a set Iofam verse back-flip, der pressure, we wanted to keep branches, hopping from the ₹200 croretouch markupon one week and Invoking Justice contentious isbelly-swishing moves.

For many, the scene an OBC!” costs in check,” he said, “This foot to foot, displaying the before release, few poverty thoughtand the justice. Of sues like communalism, produced embarrassment, distaste, pity. is I need no more.or There helps to achieve that, while givsame restless energy that could outdo all hersuperstar works, she believes thathimself.

Kya Hua is Shehar But if we do not judge our friends or ourno doubt in my — mind that ing me an opportunity to shake must have first brought him But thethe tiny genius has because done it of its uniko? remains most relevant selves — for posting photosfeathered to elicit complithis small, creature my booty. I also have awesome to the notice of the Home announcing play at foreign versalagain, theme.by“When I show he’ll my films ments of hotness on Facebook, should we will soon head India’s premier Ministry. I find this disturbidentical triplets in Dhoom grows up to be a police offi- chemistry with the heroine, befestivals, the audience needs to 4. be givenOne some judge this woman, anyoneI else detectiveoragency. headhankerback toing. Is he not too active for the “TheirBut father job inday, thethings cer,like the second turns into a crim- cause it’s me.” background. at thehas enda of the ing for a screen Thenarrowly self-affirmation wardsimage? the gate, avoiding Will the film be inspired in position at stake? juggling babies,” exinal, by while the third becomes a ethniccircus cleansing and manipulation of events might not be thatjumping different.jacks. As I old man doing “I’m not always this active,” he says,involvedan plained “Until an Aston shecross-dressing transvestite tra- any way by his favourite direcpolitical partiesKhan, happens everywhere,” says. leave a thought occurs to based me, which is sensing my thoughts, “I can sit on thingstrisha Martin byShehar a masked peze artiste with a butt to die for. tor, Christopher Nolan? “He (Watch Kyadriven Hua Is Koman on 1 February, gupta is a writer and critic in applicable to you. called up and begged mercy,” For a very long time. My wife makesDelhiequally into the circus tent,Institute slay- of It’sLocal a classic love triangle.”

2:15pm,drives at Mayor’s Hall, All India All in a bubble Miss Lovely recreates ’80sfor grime with muchtoo. veracity t@chhotahazri Next time you go to the zoo, you could me sit on our eggs for hours. What am I, I ing three. Juhu In the ensuing confuDemonstrating a conscious- said the visionary actor, “We had Self Governance, Galli, Andheri (W), Mumbai.) ask her, a cockatoo? But she never listens.” be looking at a future government officer. sion, the brothers are separated. ness that few other stars possess, to honour his request.”

Investigator is a fortnightly round-up of all things droll and newsy. All views are personal. Really personal. t@shovonc mohiniThe chaudhuri

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Aamir Khan to play triplets!

I did that in 1976, says Kamal Haasan

Will this parrot be the next head of CBI? Deer Park native frontrunner for post

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Art of coding An attempt to bridge computer code with classical poetics that is only as rich as your imagination

T

If this weren’t Chandra, and if the book he bridge that connects computweren’t replete with some great passages, ers and poetry is how both maone would brush it aside as new age nipulate memory. A skilful poet mumbo jumbo. Some of the ideas are perarranges words to trigger contiilously close to Vedic revivalism — but nents buried deep beneath the ocean of Chandra tightropes his way through it collective consciousness. A good computsafely. Ultimately, there are no answers er programmer makes efficient use of maprovided, except a rich collection of hints chine memory, and its physical and metaphors. As perhaps the first rumiarchitecture. Drawing on his own backnation on a scientific subject by an Indian ground as one of India’s finest novelists, Mirrored Mind: literary figure of our time, the book is valVikram Chandra begins by asking, “Can My Life in Letters uable. In India, because of the tendency computer code be artistic?” and Code towards specialisation, literary authors Across the world a fresh mingling of the Author: Vikram have stayed away from scientific comarts and sciences is unfolding, that harks Chandra mentary, and programmers have stuck to back to pre-Renaissance alchemy in EuCategory: Non-fiction software development. Interdisciplinary rope. It is a natural response to the unidiPublisher: Penguin Price: ₹499 activity is discouraged by academia and mensional pursuit of specialisation into industry both, so Chandra’s book is a welwhich the 20th century had thrown headlong some of its best minds. From the standpoint of come arrival. However, considering the enormity of Indian philosophy, Chandra has produced an inter- this issue, hints are not enough.

Over the past decades, India has churned out infordisciplinary book that attempts to bridge the world of computer code with classical poetics of the mation technology professionals and computer science students by the truckloads. Armies of them subcontinent.

For the first four chapters of Mirrored Mind, howev- work for software behemoths like Infosys or Wipro, Occupy the city People across bureaucracy from India have taken up the issue of women's rights; er — you have no idea where the author is headed. trapped in a kind of cybernetic here theycan take to the streets of Kolkata Sushanta Patronobish How they utilise their Meanwhile, a brief memoir on Chandra’s little- which they can’t break free. the critical known life as aissue part-time computer programmer in skills in a more artistic way, in a way that is culturally the US segues into a textbook explanation of how rewarding for all of us?

Take the example of a radical collective of procomputers actually work, such as the mechanism of grammers that emerged in the UK over “logic gates” (which could have served the last decade, called “live coders”. As better as an appendix). This is followed the name suggests, they consider comby a tour of the culture and politics of puter coding a sort of live performance Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, the social art. The raw code can be seen on a prorole of Indian Institutes of Technology There are no answers jected screen as they work, and the code after independence, the shaping of Indian thought during the British Raj, and provided, except a rich simultaneously produces music and vicollection of hints and suals. This is a form of performance art dynamics of gender in the sciences. metaphors that has been made possible only by These are important ideas in the history en seriously and believed. It would be hard for integrity cannot be violated. ItWeis are strange way or but another womeninhave computers. botha code and poetry. of Indianne science, presented a been people today to take the kind of view taken by the country indeed. Many other innovations in human-comat the heart of much that has gone on somewhat awkward sequence.

Verghese committee (which concluded that Not all signals are bad.

Two days ago, at a meetin India in the past year.

Not a day goes puter interaction have emerged BG from The latter half of this meandering entire story of rape had no basis in fact) on Dalit, transgender, Mus- — athe by when therein isn’t some story or the ing of women writers these— artists, such as ChucK probook is more cohesive comparison, the Kunan-Poshpora rapes in Kashmir over two lim, lesbian — in Hyderabad, more than half the other to do with women in the newspapers and devoted to the finer aspects of classical Indian aes- gramming language solely dedicated to networked wasEven made up of young men, from adecades on television.

The news always good in- audience music. computer games aremost considered form ago. It would be impossible today to disthetic philosophy.

Apartisn’t from placing the— Sanskrit fairlyof modest deed much of of Panini the time the opposite: gang proart. backgrounds. In Delhi, the protests miss allegations of rape in the Muzaffarnagar linguistics as ait’s precedent to computer that followed thesimilarity Decemberbetween 16 incident included rapes, midnight raids on unsuspecting foreignAnother Sanskrit poetrycamps, and just as it would be impossible to dismiss gramming, Chandra highlights two historic figures the story of gang rape in Birbhum. men and women, and —old, richthe andrepetitive ers, acid attacks, insensitive remarks and mob both computers merits young mention how in particular — Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta.

Has all of this had any effect at all and theyofworked squarely to to the looping of sub‘justice’ to name only erudite a few ofdevices the things that poor chanting mantras is similar It is revealed through how consideraon our politicians? If not on their bringroutines womenin and women’s issues have happened. a computer algorithm. The chanting of a tions of theatre and poetic technique by these two thinking, at least on their speech? centre stage. In the months that There’s been led no let tootheories in the international philosophers to up new about conscious- mantra produces a sonic reality through its echoes It’s difficult to say, for the old politihave and followed, increasingalgorithmic numbers loops create powermedia attention that India has received rela- cosreverberations; ness, which ultimately outlined an entireintantric Most important of all cal trick is to say something and of young people have sustained the tion to women.

Something takes place in the rethethat entire mology. The cosmology of tantra also relates to a ful forces under the impact of iswhich the fact reports then claim to be quoted out of conit withisenermotest corner of the countryreality, and suggests the movement, world’sproviding social structure still shaking.

Matrix-like computer-mediated of rape and sexual text. But while some restraint may gy and enthusiasm. international media are immediately onto the Mirrored Mind offers only thatviolation to its discerning Chandra: “So the entire universe is within Chiti, and are no longer be apparent, there’s still a long way also clear that more women story. gettranslated bandied about: Delhi is but It’sreader, an amplification by reflection, a book that isis a is an Many abhasaphrases — usually as ‘appearance’, scoffed at; there to go as the shocking statements by are coming out as to your report cases of the rape better capital understood of the world, violence against like only as rich own imagination.

I think here as something recognition that when Aam Aadmi Party political figures sexual assault and violation. The lewomen is on the rise in India, India is an unsafe ‘simulation’. We are inside a giant Holodeck of conwomen come out and show. Shocking not only for their gal intern in Delhi who spoke out place for women on.think of as our own subjecsciousness, and and whatsowe rohit gupta writes Compasswallah, a speak, blog about theshould be they content but also for the lack of conagainst a retired judge has clearly Whatisdoes all this mean forportion womenofinChiti India? taken seriously tivity a wilfully contracted itself.” history of science and mathematics demnation by party leaders.

Reports tell us that violence against women been inspirational for others who What’s clear is that women’s voicseems to be on the rise, the number of cases of re- have subsequently spoken out. Sues can no longer be so easily siported rape continues to escalate and, if it were zette Jordan’s brave step in coming lenced — the changes we are seeing out into the open about her rape in possible, become more brutal. may be a drop in a very large ocean, Contrary to popular expectations, the death Kolkata has helped others to not be sentences handed out to the December 16 rapists shamed into silence. The actions of Mumbai’s but they are a beginning.

As time goes on, more and more women will have not resulted in putting the fear of death into young photojournalist in reporting her rape, prompted others to speak out. The steadfast speak out, more young men and women will enothers who have rape on their minds.

As always in India, the signals are confusing stand taken by the journalist in the Tehelka case is sure that the concerns of half the population do and contradictory. We have a new law in place likewise important for others who may be caught not disappear from the agenda, and perhaps then we will begin to see real change. As a young that brings in some positive changes, but stops in similar situations. student in Rajasthan told me the other day, “We Most important of all is the fact that reports of short of recognising that crucial thing, marital rape. The ‘sanctity’ of the institution of marriage rape and sexual violation are no longer scoffed at: can see that something is changing, but we can’t works to legalise an act that is otherwise illegal, somewhere there seems to be at least an accept- quite identify what it is. But whatever it is, it’s exsending out strong anti-women messages even ance, if not a recognition, that when women citing and challenging.” blink@thehindu.co.in as the law tries to recognise that women’s bodily come forward and speak out, they need to be tak-

The body politic

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A small but significant change is that women’s voices can no longer be easily silenced

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Urvashi Butalia is an editor, publisher and the director of Zubaan

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Barren village One Part Woman tells of the travails of a milieu

Anita Roy One Part Woman Author: Perumal Murugan Translated by: Aniruddhan Vasudevan Category: Fiction Publisher: Penguin Price: ₹399

on the shelf

While Tata Motors has been steadily losing market share, Mahindra & Mahindra has not been able to introduce any new products that could become a bellwether for the auto maker.

Volkswagen has not brought in any new models in the last two years, leaving the ground open for Maruti to conquer further. “Wagon R and Alto refreshes have also caught up well in the market,” adds Ramakrishnan.

Shriram Pistons’ Taneja believes another factor working for Maruti is the creation of a new market, which possibly did not exist earlier. Maruti’s marketing team has been targeting niche segments like Nagpur Orange Growers’ Society or school teachers, to create demand and increase the size of the market. “As a result, people who are not natural car customers have made up their minds to buy cars,” he says.

Bhargava gives the credit to his marketing team for selling cars in a slowdown, in not only rural areas but also niche segments like turmeric farmers in Tamil Nadu or leather entrepreneurs in Kanpur. “The thrust into rural areas has been very successful. That has helped us grow sales,” he says. A dedicated team for rural markets helped Maruti grow sales by 18.5 per cent in FY13, making it 28 per cent of total domestic sales.

Overall, Bhargava is happy with the way things are moving in the company. “We are recovering market share and our sales are better than last year.” Maruti’s market share has come back to 41.3 per cent in the first nine months of this fiscal and is expected to improve. But Bhargava is unwilling to make any guesses. He will let numbers do the talking in the next few quarters.

dies in India. It has helped the company cut import component as a percentage of sales from 26 per cent in FY12 to 19.5 per cent in FY13.

That apart, a robust pipeline of products and the success of Swift and Ertiga have aided the car istance allows us to be dismissive of the lives maker. “While the overall market has been of other people, to filter their narratives shrinking, Ertiga and Swift Dezire are becoming down to a few essential keynotes and tragestronger. So Maruti’s sales have been better than dies. In One Part Woman, translated into Enthe industry,” says VG Ramakrishnan, managing glish three years after its Tamil original garnered director at Frost and Sullivan, a consultancy firm. widespread acclaim, Perumal Murugan turns an intimAccording to the Society of Indian Automobile ate and crystalline gaze on a married couple in interior Manufacturers (SIAM), total passenger vehicles n the bleak midwinter, when the sales sun in India have fallen by 5.7 per cent in the Tamil Nadu. It is a gaze that lays bare the intricacies of is shrouded, the skies are cloudedfirst and nine months this fiscal. For Maruti though, their story, culminating in a heart-wrenching denouedenizens ofnine Delhi shuffle through ment that allows no room forcent apathy. sales in this period have grown by 1.74 per cent to Growth spurt Despite a 5.7 per dip in overall sales of passenger vehicles inthe India in the first months the growth city bundled and Ponna, land-owning Thiruchen7.55 lakh, defying the overall industry trend. rashmi pratap V Sudershanup like bag-people, thisKali fiscal, Maruti has surged ahead offarmers the rest in of the industry at 1. 74 per cent sales there’s nothing quite so comforting as givgode, enjoy a happy marriage on all counts but one. Deing up on hope altogether and wallowing spite over a dozen years together, they are yet to have in the special pleasures of despair. children. Theirs is a sexually-charged and mutually fulSome may consider it inauspicious to filling relationship; it is neither for lack of effort nor of begin a new column on a hopeless note, intent that they are unable to conceive. The couple perbut we bite our denticle at them. After all, form countless acts of penance, entreating various deiwhen you’re at the bottom of the rockpool, ties — among them the half-male, half-female god on the only way is up. the hill attended by a Brahmin priest and the tribal godSo although the mercury may be low, it’s dess Pavatha of the same hill, to whom blood sacrifices on the way up. As are: sea-levels, global are made. Ponna weeps at the onset of every menstrual temperatures, oil prices, the frequency of period. Neither love nor their land can keep at bay the extreme weather events, and the number despair of being without an offspring in their commuof books dealing with the above. Titles like nity. They receive constant disparagement from people Heaven and Earth, Hell and High Water, Six around them. Kali’s sexual potency is the subject of sly Degrees, Hot, Flat and Crowded, The Long and open taunts, while every argument Ponna has with Emergency, With Speed and Violence, and Cliothers is seen as an indication of her character or mate Code Red have shot like multiple discapabilities. tress initial flares hicacross says, the bows of thehave great The disparagement arrives in wounded, unkind “Operators realised that they can’t nues in the September quarter, its detailed t is less better late than never. After of fools as weask plough inexorably guises too — particularly from their mothers, who tell for a on premium.

If assets don’t sweat, the numbers are unavailable as the company is cups, mobile data servicesship are beginning towards thetoEdgeobsolescence of the World-as-westories of hereditary curses that couldtoexplain can take away initial invest- not listed in India. Analysts, however, believe take offtheir in the Indian market, much statistics areTheir terrifying, misfortune and sing dirges lamenting the couple’s ments. marginsthe will go up only when as- that if data is to follow the success of voice stothe relief ofbaroperators. Theknow-it. growthThe is folproblem overwhelmingly huge operators to create an ecosystem renness. Eventually, the two women decidethe that there are used.” Operators also believe that ry,books lowing lines of voice, which did notitself growis sosets Barely afloat Numerous warn ofneed the end of the world as we knowbeit Shutterstock apparently unstoppable itsdrive jug- usage and help them yond rate cuts to spur usage. “Mobile carriers may be only one way. Every year, onuntil the 14th daydue of the rates in will 2000 to high rates.and Andsoonce call reduced gernaut progress, it’s entirely understanchariot festival to the androgynous deity the hill, investments made so far. “The idea is successfully leveraged the pent up demand costs on started to the come down, the growth was recover dable if you, like to me, would rather not and this move will fa- for voice-based connectivity in the early years rules of all marital contracts are relaxed.

Any man is aldrive mobile internet exponential. think about it at all.

Those whoadoption can’t, or andscribed of this decade. camHowever, services lowed to lie with any woman — a tradition ingdata-based packs of other humans for whom they cilitate faster better usage.

We environmental For dataacknowltoo, operators have realised that by leading often suffer from what Rob all about experience.

And offering superiedged as being a socially and divinely prey, their lives’ possessions easily conare working atHopkins, different setspaigner of users to journalist facili- are nothing sanctioned except low rates workdon’t, in the Indian and George Monbiot as are guru and the Tranor experience and these method of conceiving should a husband be sterile. tained in the services shopping trolley the man tatefounder greater of amount of (data) market.

From aPonhigh of 10paiselow-carbon per 10kb, data “theconsumption,” most important environmental bookmonetising Movement, calls “post-petroleum level will be aalong. big challenge na’s mother and mother-in-law, in the hope it isdown Ka- to 2paisesition pushes The past is long gone, and as Vivek Mathur, chief commercial officer at at a mass-market rates arethat now per 10kb and says ever written” — outstripping even classics stress plans. disorder”, symptoms the carriers,” partner li who is the cause of their infertility, suggest she paid monthly for theKolla, future, “Thereatis no later. This is latVodafone India. range lower in some post As whose like Rachel Carson’s for Silent Spring orsays EF Jayanth and mild palpitations to the consultancy Convergence participate in it. The resulting anxieties attendantbegan to cutfrom er.” TheCatalyst. pared-downness is matched by the The results of this changeSchumacher’s in strategy, along soon and as operators datanausea rates, usSmall istech Beautiful. “irrational at unfeasible If operators in killer manipulations challenge the marriage, and to alter itsData was about writing style: applicathe short, declarative senwith proliferation of low priced age began grow.

3 per centgrasping Setsmartphones, in a world where the biospheredon’t has bring solutions.” users, data maybrutal stagnate, says minimal punctuacourse. One Part Woman is a powerful and insightful tences, imagery, focus ongone, internet of operators’ revenues a year ago.

But now, it is are already showing. “Our simply where tions the for landscape hasgrowth Krishnan. So while companies have naked, raw, about again, prefer has resulted in increased been rendering of an entire milieu whichbringing is certainly still in10 per cent ofThere tion. There is something experience data eviscerated in nearly revenues of if you and de-telecom tasted initial success they still tales ofare ecological apoc-Data is now a huge source ofstroyed existence. The author handles myriad thedata, language.

Ashave though everything but adoption. reve- by leadingcomplexities operators, and usageyour volumes an unspecified en- with way to go thatnecessities the party have been burned alypse on screen than says Gopal Vittal, joint MDvironmental with an enviable sophistication, creating anby evocative, the bare nue growth,” and a long growing over 100 per cent every quarter for rather catastrophe, Theto ensure continues. page, there’s beenCEO, no shorteven haunting, work.

India Operations, Bharti Airtel. Ditto foris quite Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India.

Road simply the bleak- away. The book reads like an Old Testament Thetable).

Road has been of films on the subject.

The novel is also acutely sensitive inSivarama its approach to- executiveage Idea Cellular (See While Vodafone Krishnan, director (Risk est,redarkest book I have ever parable — minus God. as the most Last year’s crop included ward gender and sexuality and humane its treat- PricewaterhouseCoopers, But what it is and what it does, are two portedWill a 77 perdescribed cent growth in browsing reve-— and AdvisoryinServices), read that includes rashmi pratap the important Smith & Son in After Earth, ment of longing. While fundamentally an emotional Intergovernmental Panel on very different things. Miraculously — and environmental book Tom Cruise’s Oblivion (to work, driven by personal desires and losses, it also unClimate Change report. The herein lies the genius of the book — what ever written which it was quickly consettles the reader by questioning simplistic ideas of Road would make a Dementor we are left with, at the end of the road, is signed), and who can forget progressiveness. The book’s milieu is permissive in whimper for its mummy. One not nothing. It is, in fact, anything but. The Brad pitted against zombies ways that the urban middle-class in the same state (Tablogger put it rather well. Road offers up the possibility of redempmil Nadu) is not, even though known markers of supin World War Z? This book, she said, is a killer: tion in the absolute absence of hope. Turn pression, such as caste laws, hold sway. But, here as But on Planet Hollywood, “First, in the sense that it’s the last page, and you are returned to life. elsewhere, the true hindrances to happiness and prono matter how great the odds, the world amazing. Second, in the sense that it kills To the realisation that what we have, which gress come in much more personal forms. will be saved. By a lone American man. is everything, is right here, right now — the your will to live.”

With great bone structure.

Murugan’s writing is taut and suspenseful, particuIn the world of The Road, there is nothing spring air, the trees, books and stories, and To really hit the sweet spot of bleak larly as the book progresses towards its climax. At a but the road. The story follows a father and each other — in heart-stopping abundance. slim 230 pages, the novel moves quickly, but with a finehopeless despair, you need a very different his young son making their way through a kind of lone American male. Cormac ly-wrought intensity that tension remains high up to land that is “barren, silent, godless.” Scav- anita roy is a writer and director of Young McCarthy’s book The Road has been dethe final paragraph. Aniruddhan Vasudevan’s translaenging for food and hiding from maraud- Zubaan. anita@anitaroy.net tion deserves mention — the language is crisp, retaining local flavour without jarring, and often lyrical.

The road to nowhere

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Books of ecological despair provide us an odd mix of hope and hopelessness

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Mobile data going the voice way Operators find ways to make data profitable with low rates and killer apps

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sharanya manivannan is a Chennai-based poet.

Those labour days

Every day is a sun day Skyshade lights at the South Central Railway office in Secunderabad

Light and shine

Remembered pleasures of a ‘working holiday’ in Thanedar, when the apple trees were laden with fruit

A quirky business in Hyderabad uses the sun to light up offices August 15 is a big day in Himachal Pradesh. While the rest of the country gears up to hear the Prime Minister speak from the ramparts of the Red Fort, ‘going green’for is also high on their priority the state prepares the unofficial beginning of ffice spaces around the world seem- And she says. the apple season. For about a week before that, ingly have one obsession—to get rid of list,” One Skyshade’s biggest installations at seeofempty 16-wheeled “trollas” huffingisand sunlight. A small Hyderabad compa- you factory Raja Batteries in Tirupati. puffing up of theAmara mountain roads, with licence ny wants to do the opposite. Sekhar the 10,000 sq ftwitness area gets light during plates bearing tonatural long journeys fromthe TaNori’s Skyshade Lighting builds special pipes The savingGujarat, ₹1 croreMaharashtra, annually. “The payback mil Nadu, West Bengalperiand that use sunlight to light up buildings. Not just day, forother them State is twoinyears.

Since there is no outage, every between. the top floor, but right down to the basement. od is saving onShimla diesel generators that costa₹10 I have lived in for five years, been beAnd what’s even more surprising is that while there unit,” bystander says Nori. to endless apple-talk — it’s anthe pipes channelize the light of the sun, they al- amused other language altogether — but I had never so do a good job of keeping its heat out. witnessed the apple season firsthand. So I decidThe whole idea of tapping the sun for light Wide base ed tosurprisingly, go to a friend’s orchard in Thanedar, Skyshade’s clients include the without converting it into solar energy came Not birthplace the Himachali apple, and lend about after his first venture, Phoenix Solar Engi- who’s who of India Inc, including Infosys, the Ta-a ‘helping’ I had visions of sitting onPepsico, a sunny group,hand.

Larsen & Toubro, Coca Cola, neering, failed to take off. “We used to manufac- ta slope —&gorgeous green hills all around me — ture solar heaters. But costs (of converting Procter Gamble, Unilever, Hyundai, Toyota, ITC, while apple-laden branch helpfully lowered itHP, Dran Reddy’s and the Indian Navy among othsunlight to electric energy and reconversion of self into my wicker basket. that energy to power solar heaters) were very ers.

Skyshade’s biggest win this year is an order Today, to factory imagineinthe the it’s Railhard Coach Raehigher Bareli altitudes to install high. We were incurring losses and there wasn’t from of Himachal much awareness about the product in the mar- 700 pipes forwithout them. apples, but they were only introduced here in 1916 byhave an American PhiSkyshade’s light pipes a life of from 15 years. ket,” Nori says. ladelphia namedweSamuel Evans 1,800 Stokes.

Stokes an average, install about pipes anHe had already set up a factory for solar heat- “On came tosays India as Of a young of 22 in to Nori. the ₹10missionary crore they earned ers at Cherlapally, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, nually,” work in fiscal, a leprosy centre the state. time he last nearly halfincame fromOver the popular and he had taken huge bank loans to fund it. He the grew pipes. apart from the missionary organisations couldn’t simply write this off as a bad idea. After light had anyone broughtinstalling him to thelight hills,pipes but hiswill attachSince not burning their fingers and losing money for near- that ment another to the Kotgarh area grown by then.

So ly seven years, Nori, and his wife Anantha, found- need one for thehad next 15 years, repeat he decided to buy land thecompany. small village ed Skyshade Lighting to use sunlight itself, business could be some an issue forinthe But of Thanedar, marryare a local girl and settle without any conversion. for now, the Noris not worried.

“Theredown. is no Increasingly drawnat toall.

Hinduism, converted in “We could cut down all the conversion costs by dearth of business There is he a huge require1932 and adopted newbuildings name, Satyanand.

A reusing sunlight directly to light up warehouses, ment from not onlya new but also older markable man in his ownAnd right, was a friend of factories and offices,” says Nori. By buildings. theheproduct can be Mahatma Gandhi’s, andalmost a freedom fighter who 2008, Lightpipes, Skyshade’s flaginstalled anywhere,” says was once imprisoned ship product, was ready. Today, the Anantha. by the British for his proindependence stance. company has three more products Skyshade has a network of dealSteep terrain links had in its growing portfolio—fibre optic ersand and limited channeltransport partners for selling Lighting solutions made are the upper hills of Himachal light pipes, Skyshelves which reditheir entire range economically of products. backward. To “Some boost the local are economy, derect daylight into various spaces customised depending of them dealingStokes with reson the regioncided and the to import new varieties of theas apple while eliminating glare, and Tenidential requirements well,”being says angle of the sun developed in Nori. the US, which he thought would be siShade fabric structures that offer However, given the size of the suited to theindustrial local climate.

Hethe brought in yet sashading solutions. market, Noris are to focus on the residential segment.

They hope to close this fiscal with Methodology revenues of ₹18 crore.

The greatest demand he sees is for For now, expanding scale does not seem to be a light pipes, which collect sunlight from rooftop and transmit it to any part of the building. “The worry for them. “Day lighting is a growing marcollector can be installed on any wall or rooftop. ket. We can easily scale up to ₹100 crore in terms Through pipes, light is taken inside the buildings of revenue in the next few years,” Nori says. That and can even go to basements,” says Anantha. In- does not seem like an impossible target, given side the structures, diffusers spread the sunlight that they have no competition at all. evenly. These light pipes don’t stand out, merging with false ceilings to look just like bulbs.

Know how Light pipes come in four sizes of varying diam- Moreover, their biggest strength is the knowleters, with the biggest 750mm costing ₹27,000. edge of light collection systems. “A standardised It is enough to light up an area of 1,000 sq ft, system does not work,” he says. Customising which would otherwise require 12 bulbs and tube light collection to a region depending on the lights of 40watt each. Each light pipe saves about sun’s angles and seasonal variations requires 2,000 units annually, a saving of ₹16,000 per considerable experience and knowledge. And pipe at the commercial electricity rate of ₹8. Any Noris have that. establishment installing 20 pipes will save over However, funding could become a challenge ₹3.2 lakh annually on electricity bills. for them. “As we increase in size and bring in new Light pipes ensure sunlight for up to 10 hours products, we will need more capital,” says Nori. per day. They have panels that vary the transmisThey have already been approached by a cousion of solar radiation during the day, not allow- ple of private equity investors for selling a slice of ing heat to be transmitted along with light.

Skyshade Lighting. “We are passionate about the Light pipes can transport light up to 15 metres, concept of being ‘green’. We need as a partner which is sufficient for a five-storey building. “In someone who is equally passionate about this,” the case of high ceiling industrial sheds, we use says Anantha. Till they find that partner, the duo multiple systems to cover them,” adds Anantha. is happy about making the most of the sun for When light pipes were developed in 2008, the lighting the dark. company decided to focus on the corporate sector for sales.

“Electricity is a huge costbedeck for them. rashmi Blooming dale Spring blossoms will soon the apple trees inpratap Thanedar Mandavi Mehta

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A bright spot In factories with high ceilings, multiple systems of light pipes are used plings of Golden, Royal and Red Delicious apples, orchardists. My friend’s orchard was facing a grew them on his own land, and once they took shortage of hands too, so my inexperienced ones root, he distributed them to the villagers. This were immediately put to good use. was the start of the apple revolution that today Each day began at 7 am and ended at 7 pm I cut fetches an annual revenue of about ₹3,000 crore waist-high grass that was strangling laden every year. branches with a fancy machine that was immenI have been to Thanedar many times. It is beau- sely satisfying to use. I shooed away a huge gang tiful in every season, but particularly so in March of monkeys who arrived to demolish the apples and April when the apple trees are in full bloom, (good monkey-chasing dogs are more valuable laden with clusters of pink-tinged white flowers than gold here, with many a story of feuds trigas far as the eye can see. Just before they put on gered by gaddi dogs lured away from one house their show, you have the apricots and cherries to another). I supported overburdened Low-cost branches dabbing splashes of pink blossom over the hill- on jhinchus or crutches toofferings Fibre lift them off the can sides, one pale and the other dark pink. I have ground. I tentatively climbedoptic treeslight andpipes deliberatdirect sunlight stood and stared down the hillside to where the ed endlessly about which shade of redtoapple canteenstoand Satluj shines at the bottom of the valley and tried seemed ready to pick, then reached tugother at one, spacesmuch not onruddier the to imagine what this place must while a dozen other topdown floor upon me. I have looked like before apple cultiapples showered vation; before the steep slopes were then cowered in shame under my terraced, before the trees bloomed, tree and prayed that no one had Thanedar is beautiful before long lines of nets snaked heard or seen, as fallen apples dein every season, but down its length. velop bruises that show up a day or particularly so in I still remember the four days I two later, and are discarded. I sat March and April spent apple-picking and helping under the tree and feverishly ate when the apple trees out at the Seetalvan orchard last seasaid apples so they wouldn’t go to are in bloom son (between August and Septemwaste! ber). The usual two-and-a-half-hour After a few hours on the field, you Room for more drive from Shimla to Thanedar was discover your own steady rhythm — Sunnyon days slow going because of truck traffic, your feet feel surer theand ground, nights at sprawling until we reached the town of Theog, your hands steadier and your eyes warehouses where the road branches off to Jubbal and Kotk- sharper. Even your back stops aching. You start to hai — areas with a greater proportion of new feel strong and capable, rather than a waste of plantations. We drove on, past the town of Nar- space. You are actually doing something. At the kanda and onwards to Thanedar through a sub- end of four days, I had lost 2kg and my city-slicker lime forest of spruce, fir and yew. A bend in the hide. I was also armed with a newfound respect road at edge of the forest, and it hit us. First the for the humble apple — a fruit, that so far, I had nose. A delicate fragrance of apples laced the air. bought and eaten without much thought.

Then the eyes. Everywhere you looked were trees bent over, virtually to the ground, with thick clus- mandavi mehta is an art historian and a happy ters of apples — mostly red, interspersed with transplant to the hills of Himachal Pradesh. She is also a trees bearing green and golden fruit. The sheer schoolteacher and novice apple-picker. quantity of fruit in every orchard was staggering, and this was supposed to be a bad season with unseasonable hail — an increasingly frequent Travel Log A place in the sun phenomenon — that had destroyed a sizeable Sekhar Nori, part of the crop in this area.

Get there Managing Director There was a pressing sense of activity all AC Volvo buses operated of bySkyshades, Himachal around, a sense usually missing from these tranHyderabad, Tourism and HRTC ply daily betweenwith Delhi quil parts. Blue plastic crates and the more tradiskyshelf panels that tional kiltas (woven conical baskets of bamboo) and Shimla (370km). Thanedar is a short redirect daylight were piled along the roadsides. Commission 2.5 hours away (80km) byPVbus or taxi.

Sivakumar agents called aarthis had also set up temporary Stay stalls by the road. We walked into one of these to Gaurav Jhina’s Seetalvan Orchard in hear the bidding take place on a consignment.

Thanedar has charming cottages, and Buyers and transporters or ladanis from around the country huddled around the agent, surguests are welcome to help out in the rounded by towering cases of apples, as sample orchard (₹4,000-5,900; 9805127139, boxes were opened. An entire year’s work — prunseetalvanorchard.com). ing, grafting, digging, tilling, grass cutting, manReach uring, transplanting, spraying, netting — all came down to this, right here. Sadly, I missed the To get to Seetalvan from Shimla, head infamous ‘hanky-panky’ — the system of hidden north-east to Narkanda (60km). Keep bidding conducted under a handkerchief, acdriving on the Kotgarh Road towards companied by cryptic hand signals.

Bhareri. A signpost at the only fork in the The apple season has always been heavily deroad will say Kotgarh-Thanedar — take the pendent on migrant labour as thousands of lower road; Seetalvan is 1km away. crates of apples have to be carried up or down steep slopes to road heads. Most of this labour arGet help rives from Nepal or from the lower hills of HimaFor other activities in the area, contact chal, and occasionally, from Bihar, but the Nitin Chauhan from the Shimla-based Nepalis are considered unmatchable for their adventure travel outfit Great Escape Routes strength and stamina. Unfortunately, the num(09418012500; greatescaperoutes.com). bers of Nepalis coming for the season has been declining precipitously, much to the despair of

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Well done Gravitydefying acrobatics in the Maut ka Kuan or Well of Death (right) K Ramesh Babu; and balloons for sale (below) Mohammed Yousuf

Model builder GVK Reddy at his office at the historic Paigah House in Hyderabad PV Sivakumar

and acquisitions. He has the propensity to set up his own projects at first and later consolidate them through acquisitions. This approach has been the case in not just the hospitality sector, but also the power sector, airports and even mining in India and abroad.

In 1996-97, GVK set up the first independent power project in the country, the 220mw Jegurupadu gas-based power plant. “Look at the background when this was set up. There was no lending mechanism for private projects. Yet we pulled it off. IFC, Washington, rated it as one of the best plants in the world, in the backdrop of some of the most trying times. The power plant was described as a horticulture project with a power plant,” says Reddy.

The company then moved to building roads and expressways. The first 6-lane expressway between Jaipur and Kishangunj was executed by GVK. “Later, we built on this by taking up more projects, both road and in the power sector. As we developed the gas-based power projects in Andhra Pradesh and a thermal power project in Punjab, we also looked at backward integration by acquiring oil and gas blocks in the KG basin and coal assets in the country and abroad,” he says.

The GVK Group trained its attention on airports first by acquiring a stake in the Bangalore airport. Once that was consolidated, Reddy went ahead and acquired the rights to modernise and develop the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai.

His ability to manage such diverse projects has earned him the admiration of his peers. “GVK is a person, who inspires himself and all young enby his continuous innovation, space was found wanting and the Nizam Mirand Oshistory of this annual event. But to really know trepreneurs hisAli ability spot opportunity.

From Grounds’ Novopan man Khantoallotted the ‘Exhibition what the Numaish was like decades ago, you by is a long journey, but the forairports the purpose.

“Weand haddifferent dusty pathways, tempomust speak to the second- and third-generation to remains thestalls same.

That’s success!” rary structures for the back then,” Makhmerchants here. Because a handful of stalls have destination E Sudhir Reddy,“ICMD IVRCL. doomi reminisces. was aofchild of 3 or 4 when I links that go back as long as the fair itself. “My fa- says GVK Reddy is more measured cominghimself here. Now we stay in hotelsabout nearther PN Kaul was the first Kashmiri to have a stall started company’s by, but then, thisgrowth was ourtrajectory. shop, our “We home.have We in this exhibition in 1938,” Surinder Kaul tells me. his the cooked group with stringhere.” of acquisitions lived here, here, aprayed The KashThis was an association that opened up a trade grown biggest hastobeen the acquisition the miri the traders began see Hyderabad as a of home route, almost. Word spread, connections were and Hancock coalaway minefrom asset for $ 1.26The billion. is a home.

KaulThis family forged and today some 350 stalls in big project and the most integrated proset one up aof permanent branch of their the Numaish are taken by traders jects in the world willHouse see anininvestment of storewhich Canaud the Abids arfrom Kashmir — and they all take over $10 billion. teamed up with declares Aurizon ea We andhave Rayees Makhdoom much pride and delight in the par“On an impulse, my to finalise and hope more partners, andhe expect to this is the only exhibition comes ticipation. Rayees Makhdoomi, who great-grandfather close financestobyallthe year end,” he says. people year.

“The Hyderabadi brings truckloads of quality dry bought a chakkar ka GVKare When secured the mandate the Mumwonderful,” he says,of“woh fruit, honey and saffron to be sold logon jhoola for abai sum of airport, there other inhere every year, says it worked out meinwere farqmany, nahinincluding karte (they don’t ₹78... He brought it dustrialists, who had written it off.

They knew do he says. justit,”fine: “My father Makhdoom discriminate between people).” here bullock carts” how difficult it was toare execute project amidst Evenjust though Reddy has a strong onon the didn’t bring his wares, he al- focus There otherthe associations that as far paucity of well. land,I was encroachaesthetic now, down he began his career ways brought his entire fam-largely build- challenges such go that back as led by workthe without ing the essentials irrigation projects, canals, ments, and managing ily. The snow on —our mountains my guidetheinto very disruptchaotic “These have come bridges andwe dams.

Overmove the past three decades, ing existing operations. meant that couldn’t about depths of the fair’speople ‘amusement corus,” he says.

GVK engagedvalley, in construction and in- back to compliment freelyhas in been the Kashmir so we ner’. Here, over the din of loudL Madhusudhan chairman, Infrafrastructure, sciences, retail, speakers, used to come hospitality, here instead.life It was like a monthcarnivalRao, music and Lanco squealing has known many years. “GVK Redtransportation long vacation.” sector (spanning roads and air- tech, youngsters, and Reddy in thefor light of psychedelic colis aemanating visionary who the adage ports), sector, mining, oil and gas blocks.

Theypower remember the time when Numaish was dy ours fromexemplifies various sources, I wasthat inis only hard work, initiative and perseve“The principlefor for 10 medays. and my family held inguiding Public Gardens Soon, the success troduced to Mohammed Zaker Bakhri, whose His exceptional tasteSaheb, and penchant for de(wife Indira and son GV Sanjay Reddy) has been rance. great-grandfather, Chanda was the man in is of reflected in each andinevery activity he to be first and the best. This is not just a state- tails charge the ‘amusements’ the early years. undertakes, make him ment. We have always tried to “My great-grandfather oncewhich happened to attend unique and special,” he says. achieve it in whatever we do indian auction where someone was selling this chakReddytells wasme, conferred an honorvidually or as a group,” he says with kar ka jhoola,” Bakhri “On an impulse, he doctorate Nehru obvious pride. bought it for aary sum of ₹78. Itby layJawaharlal there for a couple GVK set up the 220mw Technological In 1989, Reddy set up Novopan, a of years — he didn’t know what University to do with it —and but Jegurupadu plant, the Numaish awarded in 2011. it particle board manufacturing unit then the wasPadma held, Bhushan and he brought first independent Jagdish OTS,The is also an near Patancheru industrial estate, here on bullockVenkat carts and set itofup.” family power project in since India occupied old friend of theoffamily.

Despite and later another plant in the US, has this corner the fair.

There knowing them for two decades, Jagand gradually diversified into hosare 16 big rides now and about 25 smaller counis amazed byeach GVK’s modesty pitality with hotels in Hyderabad, ters that pull dish in massive crowds day.

“We go “They the best carstheinState, the Chandigargh and Chennai. A hotel to many other fairs, have it’s a circuit across world and products from is the best in Mumbai is in the process of but being associated with the Numaish a matbrands, be it clothes, watches, shoes.says ButBakhri. somecompletion. ter of sentiment as well as prestige,” have this trait of maintaining a low Once the company was firmly established as a how, No they doubt I was a bit jaded on the idea of naand confining to their inner builder of reputed hotels, Reddy went further. He profile tional integration, but themselves I was surprised to hear the TheirIndia’ projects, however, for developed the first independent power project circle. phrase ‘mini repeated over and speak over again. in the country after liberalisation under the PV themselves.”

“We’re all brothers here,” Kaul says earnestly, Thecome otherfrom aspect ofHaryana...

GVK Reddyallisover his interest in Narasimha Rao Government, and eventually add- “they UP, the counstarts day by playing a round of ed power projects and airports, in India and sports. try, and He we’re herethe as brothers.”

Makhdoomi says, “That keeps me fresh andside away from any abroad, deepwater oil and gas blocks in the coun- tennis. on this of the parti“I’d be doing my namaz that work could possibly me,” he try and a coal mine in Australia. The company al- stress tion, and my neighbour, my throw Hinduatbrother, It’s wonder then that young so has the mandate to develop two airports in the says. would beno doing his prayers on athe otherSania side. MirCan za an early sponsor in that?”

GVK. Republic of Indonesia. youfound imagine something like For Reddy, strategy to developing his emFruits of theirthe labour Kashmiri traders continue pire has been a combination organic growth v sheetal vyas is a Hyderabad-based writer.

G Ramakrishna to peddle dry fruits and nuts eachof year rishi kumar

The show must go on

The Hyderabadi Numaish has been bringing Kashmir to the Deccan since 1938 The social calendar for the mild Hyderabadi winter follows pretty much the same template as most other cities in India — a sudden upsurge of concerts, theatre, literary fests and all things cultural. And other cities must have their share of consumer exhibitions too but there is something very special about the one that is held here every year. The original name was the Numaish Masnuaat-e-Mulki but it is more simply, the Numaish. Started in 1938 by the Osmania Graduates Association, it is something of an institution. A dearly loved one. Traditionally held during the first 45 days of the year, the exhibition draws Hyderabadis by the lakhs, many of whom save up for months for this grand splurge: chikan work from Lucknow, embroidered woollens and dry fruits from Kashmir, bedspreads from Haryana, razais fromnJaipur, juttis fromwinter Punjabmorning, and Rajas-I a Hyderabadi than — andwalk of course, every kind of street food past the Rolls Royce parked in and carnival joyridesofthat have enthusiasts the portico Paigah House to meet screaming GVK in equal measures of fright and glee.

Reddy, chairman and managing In the beginning, it was a small affair. This year, director of GVK. in The its 74th edition, closewere to 2,500 stallsfor aretheir disPaigah noblemen renowned playing and their wares. in It’sHyderabad. universallyThe acknowlpalaces buildings beautiedged thatHouse, it’s difficult toand do iron justice ful Paigah a cement dofftoof this the gigantic fair in of fewer than threenow visits.

The Exhibihat to a legacy construction, serves as the tion Society keeps and a trace of the corporate office ofphotographs the diversified GVK Group.

Flush from the successful opening of the Terminal 2 of Mumbai International airport, Reddy is waiting for me at his first floor office. His wife, Indira, who is the managing director of Taj GVK Hotels Limited, is with him. At 6 feet 3 inches, Reddy is strapping and fit, belying his 75 years.

Born in Kothur village in the Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, Reddy has spent the last 25 years managing some pioneering projects. Some of these have come to fruition in the last 30 days.

The majestic new international airport at Mumbai, T2, has just opened its doors. An expansion project of the Bangalore International Airport (BIA) has been commissioned and a major corporate social responsibility service of the Emergency Management Research Institute (EMRI) in Uttar Pradesh, offering emergency care services, has also started.

Speaking about the ₹5,500-crore T2 Terminal, Reddy says, “Such projects are for generations.”

T2, Mumbai is part of ₹12,500-crore Mumbai airport modernisation project. Not only is it a place where planes land and take off, the airport is also a mega art gallery. “I do not hesitate to spend extra to add to the comfort and beauty, and don’t on quality even with if it that means A red-carpet affair The knotted piles brought all the waycompromise from Kashmir, their historieseither interwoven extra effort. If we have to re-do anything, we will of the 74-year-old Hyderabadi Numaish K Ramesh Babu

The builder of all things

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His empire has it all — the essential and the diverse. GVK Reddy on what makes him the ‘first and the best’

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Toad in a Hole

Maruti’s swift moves Eating them words

8 sausages 1tbsp vegetable oil 225gm plain flour 4 eggs 250ml milk Salt and pepper to taste

1 Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.

Pour the oilshare into the bottom of Maruti defies the pies, slowdown andand overcomes internal strife to regain2 market Scones and pork liquorice sherbet powder… a large baking dish, and arrange all 8 sausages in a single layer. Bake for 10 Childhood always tastes better between the pages of a book minutes in the pre-heated oven.

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Skid row? Employees at Maruti Udyog’s plant in Manesar participate in a nationwide strike, which brought production to a grinding halt in July 2012 V Sudershan

Trick or treat? Dreams were once made of Blytonian teas Ruth Black/Shutterstock

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3 Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk

services of about whoofwere aruti Suzuki’s managing director minated together the plain flour,500 eggspeople and half the rioting.

Maruti hasintaken Kenichi Ayukawa has been visiting involved the milkinuntil smooth.Now, Gradually pour shopauto — the sort that manufacturing was decimated over recruitment process completely. giant’s must have been around seven years old village sweetthe thethe rest of the milk and mix to make “We a are funny story ownSeason standards recruitment plants in Gurgaon andWilliam’s Manesar New on a following when I attended my first midnight feast. Al- in the side-splittingly smooth our batter. wellofwith salt and inDay. qualifications and regular basis since he took over last April. Other cluding most 40 years later, I still remember the glo- Year’s freshlyverifying ground educational pepper. thethe grubby, trouble-prone school- antecedent of the interviewees. we the have, I believe, officials— at company are also frequent rious spread. There was pork pie and topWilliam 4 Remove sausages So from oven,

by Richmal Crompton — was regu- a much better manpower in the shopcreated floor visitors.

Top on their agenda is aunderchocolate cake, sardines and tins of sweetened boy and ladle thequality batterofover them until thefactogawper the window of his In village sweet ry,”sausages Bhargavaare adds. milk, chocolate and peppermint cream, tinned lar standing theatpulse of the workers.

November, 3/4 covered. Return the shop.

There he often stood, torn between the riPutting the to past them, Maruti acted pineapple and ginger beer. families of blueas well as white-collared workers baking dish thebehind oven, and bake for 35 attractions of Cokernut Liquorice swiftly to set right.

“We isintensified This repast was held by torchlight in a dormi- val together celebrated Diwali(sic) at Kisses, the company’s minutes, orthings until the centre well-risen comFootballsAnd andunion Mixedmembers Dew Drops. withDon’t workers tory at St Clare’s, the beloved boarding school Allsorts, stockyardNutty in Gurgaon. are munication and browned. worrytoif make the sure that the at rare occasion actually there are no seems problems.

Now, Manesar featured in so many Enid Blyton books. And as And now on visible major eventsthat likehe thecould inauguration underside slightly soft, as thisand is Gura sixpence frominhis pocket and pur- gaon workers truant schoolgirls tiptoed in with their hoarded produce of the diesel engine plant September last year. quite normal.are at a similar level of working his own stash of his and relationship with the management,” he says. goodies, trembling at the thought of discovery, chase Labour relations aregreen a topGooseberry priority forEyes, India’s of fansleader. felt quite as smug as he did.

What alsoTart helped the company regain market they exclaimed in wonder “that food had never legion auto market In 2011, the company lost subTreacle Often,market thinking wistfully dainty per cent now) was the commissioning tasted quite so nice before”. stantial share after a of strike in itsPineapple Manesar share For (41.3 the pastry and Pearthings Drops,took I’d head to Modern Stores of 100gm its diesel engine Curled up in an armchair in distant Mumbai — Crisps plant. In 2012, a turn for the worse. plain flourplant in Gurgaon. The compathe road from my house.

But the tubes of ny50gm had abutter long waiting list for diesel cars and with The Twins at St Clare’s in my lap and a dreamy- down Clashes between workers and management turnIn safe hands Marution Suzuki’s 80-year-old chairman, and chalky, pastel pepmeet the demand due to lack of capacdrooly expression my face — I agreed whole- multi-coloured ed violent. OverPoppins 100 people were injured and could 1tspnot sugar RC BhargavaNothing addressescould a press conference permints poor substitutes.

“We got some diesel engines from Fiat and alheartedly. ever equal at the Awanish Kumar Dev, thewere general manager of hu- ity.Pinch of salt Shanker Chakravarty company’s in Delhi One day,The I promised myself, I’d find so started making our own engines. the glory corporate of those office midnight feasts man resources died. shutdown A little water an old-fashioned English sweet And that gave us a big volume of in that make-believe school in farFor the filling resulted in losses of ₹70 crore per shopoff and devour cars. lost market share because away England. Or the enormous pic3 thick slices of We white bread day and knocked 7 per centToasted from Crisps and Marble Eyesbringing till I felt quite we didn’t have capacity,” he adds. nics gobbled up by the Famous Five (crusts removed) Maruti’s market share, it as stuffed Maruti has sold cars golden But For the tomato as William. after an energetic tramp across 4tbsp syrupaccording or honey to outsiders, the to anthat all-timeand low sticky of 38 per cent durthrough the was “gorgeous” when Then, of course, the inevitable company has been doing a lot more windy moors. Or teetering piles of ing FY12. eaten near a bubbling happened.

I grew — andslowdown, the liter- in not to pastry check by costs and the keepflour, the sales jammy buns and jugs of icy cold “We lost some market shareupbe1 only Make the mixing areas butsugar also and growing stream by the Secret characters with whomrural I comat a time when industry lemonade after a lacrosse match at cause of whatary happened in Manesar salt together, and rubbing the niche segments like Seven was, in the muned were more fallen in the Malory Towers. as production was stopped forlikely al- to sip a dry butter intosales the have dry mix.

Once the last mix year. It turmeric in harsh light of reality, white wine orcause skinny than farmers has invested in locally Or, for that matter any of most a month.

But another of latte resembles breadcrumbs, addprocuring a little cold TN and leather traders a squishy fruit onwas a Fruity Bit. Of course, as a auto components, earlier the other Blytonian losing marketsuck share preference water untilmany the dough is smooth but not imin Kanpur suffering from an inyears the US, I tried ported High localisatreats and teas that for diesel cars,student and two ago we my first sip sticky. Then roll it from into aJapan. ball and place it identity crisis of enough root beer, and decided that it tion in 30 itsminutes. vehicles has made all actual just didn’t have diesel cars,” in a bowl in thecontent fridge for be 80-year-old my last. In London, I resulted lower costs meals a disapsays Maruti would Suzuki’s 2 During this time,inremember to despite pre-heatthe liquorice sticks, and convedepreciation of the rupee. pointment. chairman RCbought Bhargava. the oven to 200°C. “Maruti has redoubled efforts For the very Bhargava’sniently defenceforgot of the them eventsin the hotel 3 Prepare the tart filling by makingits small left. In Cambridge, accelerate — local sourcing same toat Manesar isroom that awhen faultywe recruitment process isI to chunks of localisation the white bread and place of raw first proper scone cream and materials consumables. been able mato that was “gor- had to bemy blamed.

Maruti had with hiredclotted some companies them inand a large bowl. AddThey the have golden jam — and decided thatand I could gladly leverage experience suppliers who were geous” when eaten strawberry to get regular workers at Manesar some con- to syrup andthe stir until the of mixture is smooth. it for the rest ofcontract my life. But apart from certain materials for other near a clear, bub- subsist tractorsonfor providing workers.

“We using 4 Once theraw pastry has been in theOEMs, fridgeand forgotused all about that bling stream by the this werehigh-cal not ableflirtation, to applyIwhat to be my ourfascinor- quickly for 30localised minutes,based take itonout andfeedback,” roll it outsays with treacle tarts and potatoes baked in Ashok MD atsurface, Shriramuntil Pistons Rings Secret Seven was, in nation mal standards of recruitment.

We had no knowlon aTaneja, flat, floured it fitsand into has been components to Maruti the harsh light of re- their edge jacket. about their background. This, in fact, that a 25cm tartsupplying tin.

Till oneinday my number three daughters discovered 20the years now. syrup Marutimix hasinto asked ality, just a squishy resulted a fair of people, who werea for5over Pour golden theits over Mr Pink and St Clare’s — and vendors to place use more local materials like steel fruit from certain not suitable for Whistle industrial work, coming intoonce the 250 tart tin and in the oven at 200°C Man in-charge Kenichi Ayukawa was suffering appointed MD I found there is then emphasis using local identity crisis. again company,” he myself says. partaking in jolly midnight alloy. for Besides, 20 minutes and 180°Confor Kamal Narang and CEO of Maruti Suzuki, India,an last year in Missincident, Lucy’s dear cottage. and designing components and The boiled eggs and feasts Afterand thetea Manesar the little company ter- machine anothertools 10 minutes. jugs of creamy milk “There were tongue sandwiches with lettuce,” 6 Cool on a rack. downed by George, Enid Blyton writes about a fabulous, celebratory Julian, Dick and tea by Clarissa’s old nanny in Upper Fourth at MalBut touristy London was too frenetic and mulAnne always seemed ory Towers. “Hard-boiled eggs to eat with breadrather dull when and-butter, chunks of new-made cream cheese, ticultural. So it was only when we drove into the they made their ap- potted meat, ripe tomatoes grown in Miss Lucy’s Cotswolds that we hit jackpot. In a village called pearance at our ta- brother’s greenhouse, gingerbread cake fresh Bourton-on-the-Water filled with thatched cotble. So I pinned my from the oven, shortbread, fruitcakes with al- tages and rambling roses, we crossed a quaint hopes on the many monds crowding the top, biscuits of all kinds wooden bridge, and found ourselves in a sweet shop that could have come straight from one of tantalising goodies and six jam sandwiches!”

Even better, I found that many new feasts had The Wishing-Chair stories. After gasping and gogaccessible to the lucky characters in been conjured up in the realm of children’s fic- gling, we got down to business — buying Flying those storybooks — tion, while I had been busy with detectives and Saucers (sherbet powder between papery discs), but not to little girls tragic queens. For example, the first banquet that Lemon Drops, Dib Dabs (pink lollipops to be in distant India. And Harry Potter attends at Hogwarts. “He had never dipped in sherbet powder) and Chocolate Limes.

I was convinced that seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: Also the pale purple sweet called Parma Violets I simply hadn’t lived roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb that smelt of talcum powder and flowers.

Over the next few days we sampled strawbertill I sampled scones chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potaand steak pies, rock toes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, ries and clotted cream ice cream while strolling buns and blanc- peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and, for some along the handsome Main Street of Broadway. We mange, mince pies strange reason, mint humbugs.” “Gosh” my ate a sinful Sticky Toffee Pudding at a little village and macaroons. three girls exclaimed enviously, after poring over pub called The Bluebell in Ripple. And, of course, And, of course, Coo- the description. “But what did the vegetarians we tried out Yorkshire puddings, pies and glistening hams in little village tea shops. At the end kie’s tremendous eat? We’d love to taste all that.”

So it was a peckish and determined family that of which we headed back home, feeling sugarsteamed pudding “with lashings of treacle”. Not to stumbled off the Mumbai-London flight last coated and bloated — but very pleased with our trip to storybook-land. mention the root beer that Den- summer. Of course we wanted to see the Tower of (This is the first part of a new series that follows a nis the Menace sucked up with such London and the Millennium Bridge. But, quite as incredible relish. Or Pippi Longstock- clearly, we wanted to linger over rainbow-hued food trail through the realm of fiction.) ing’s hot chocolate topped with jars of sherbet powder, nibble on iced fruitcakes whipped cream. Or the colourful confec- and track down treats that beckoned from the shabnam minwalla is a journalist and author of The tions in the big glass jars of a traditional English pages of our favourite books.

Six Spellmakers of Dorabji Street

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For the love of luge

Opening a vein

What motivates India’s money-men to give generously to a relatively obscure sport, whose sole athlete is a Manali boy with a need for speed?

In a country of a billion, only a few hundred people have the Bombay blood group. Here is how the #IndiaForShiva campaign n Cool Runnings, (1993)they the epic movie about band together in times of needon Twitter and set Dalal-street heavyweight Rakesh Jhunjhunwa-

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the Jamaican bobsled team that made it to up a micro-site of the same name as well, meant la of RARE Enterprises has had a long-standing asthe 1988 Winter Olympics, Junior (one of the as a one-stop-shop for all who want to donate or sociation with OGQ. “We want to support our team members) sells his car so that they can just follow Keshavan’s sporting developments. country’s attempts to win an Olympic gold and I embark on a journey, which will culminate with The mobile company has also run an online ad- think giving to OGQ is a great way to achieve campaign featuring the athlete, who has been this,” he says. “I think they have done an awean Olympic gold, albeit a Winter Olympic gold. job it and many of them haveofbeen pro-tell me I’m like a god to equipped laboratories to some mistake forsince O positheir brand the last two years.

Shiva Keshavan, India’s first luge athlete’s jour- Bhelave ilies.

Some them n June 2007, Pranjali was ambassador a little less for fessional athletes themselves, theyheknow tive. Experts say it is impossible to conclude how them,” Whiledoctors corporate endorsements are always useney to Sochi, where along withthan morefour thanmonths 2,000 old when says.what Threeismonths ago, Thenge took detectrequired,” he adds. people have this blood group but estimate his entire family to Nashik to check up on Smita ful,Her a more structured steady source of supother competitors, he’ll be looking to win goldheart. ed a hole in her father, Ratiram andmany OGQ350-400 succeeded in collecting more than their that there more than people port for has come from the aren’t non-profit next week, was considerably less precarious.

An rushed Gaikwad, a fellow Bombay blood group member, Markand Bhelave, herKeshavan to Chennai’s target ₹10 lakh, allowing to newborn buy a across theOGQ, country.

However, theofnumber of doOlympic Quest. backed Olympic veteran, Keshavan, who lives in Manali, Railway Hospital where heorganisation, was confronted with Gold andKeshavan to bless her baby. When Smita had state-of-the-art raised by extremely a host of corporate identifies ath- estimate nors is far less as this includes sled. babiesInterestingly, will take part in his fifth games this year in the worse news.

Pranjali had the rare ABO partners, developedOGQ a series of complications during her donors whoshe gave letes as with the most potential the country andin elderly people.and money even from smallerpregnancy, luge event. For the uninitiated, luge commonly is a sport known blood type, Bombay blood wasanytaken to Mumbai’s KEM HosAshokshe Dewan, supports them financially and in other areas. thing between ₹100 to ₹25,000. where athletes cover winding tracks little blood group.ice From contacting banks to broadpital where had aapremature delivery. Before retired naval officer, the donated Athletes have signedSaviour up withwith no name more than a kilometre long, at speeds of up casting messages ontoRadio Mirchi,who the Bhelaves the surgery, hospital provided her husband ₹6,000safor Keshavan’s cause. with What a list of people who beapart fromgroup Keshavan, 150 km/hour. Even thoughsearched he has to extensively compete un-for aOGQ, Bombay blood Ininclude many cases, the donors remain faceless Jayant Gaikwad inspired to give it? He says, MCresponse, Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal der the Olympic flag, since the Indian Olympicof no donor.

After months a relative vioursand as the patients are often located in a differ- himlonged to Bombay blood group. Of all the strangseemsers to be constantly fightKumar, name a few.

Virenor even country. Vinay Shetty “Shiva them in touch with BSSushil Shridhar fromtoBangaAssociation, seems to careput little about the counent city of Think Jayant reached out to, Thenge was the first to ing against a regressive system, former pacaptain of the a Mumbai-based NGO, remembers But hestage, had recently rescued another try being represented atlore. the world the Rasquinha, Foundation, a dash down to the hospital to donate blood.

Luge isaan expensive fight- of Sankalp India FoundaIndian Hockey Team and case currently tient, donate again for another Asian Games gold medallist has and nevercouldn’t been betin 2008 when young man fromfighting Bangla-for recognition Yet, Ankitaand Agarwal support to 84raise money so that he can the that CEOstalling of OGQhis says, luge,came the in sport, three months.

Ratiram ba- “In desh ter prepared. As Namita Aggarwal, wife and man- feared searchso of the a donor for his ing ailing tion believes these acts of kindness are few and we have luge.” He adds, “I thought be top 25 athletes separated by less father. treatment could endanger her life, soare he conager of the Olympian, says,by’s “Luge is an expensive year-old Afterreceived Shetty has arfarit’ll between.

She says that Bangabeen a great help, says good to donate becauselore through than 0.8first seconds, even the tiniest tinued his search.

On Pranjali’s birthday sport, so the support we have received this time ranged for the blood from a local alone has roughly 50 people of wife packed and manager my small contribution, the athlete fraction a second make or there was stillhim no sign As aoflast-ditch at-can donor, around has gone a great way in helping con- of help. it was his neatly in ice this blood group but only 15-20 are can get the extra edgeeligible that he break call yourtotitle chances. and For Shiva tempt, Ratiram made another Shridhar, tinue his passion.” to donate since some have flown to Dhaka. More recently, needs. In India, unless you’re fromrestrictions a to compete at this level he Bangalore’s needs the Sankalp India Foundawho and was why eligible to donate by then.

Without So who is funding Keshavan are they health and many aren’t The first-ever of rich family it’scase difficult to pursue best support much is persuasion, he took thetechnical earliest train to and putting money in a sport, which yet to capture even aware that they have this tionequipsent three units of blood to a the Bombay blood sports and I feel its time that situaWhile OGQ helps cancer Keshavan Chennai, and new lease of life. popular imagination in the country?

ThePranjali answergot ament.” blood type. Of them, not everyone patient in Istanbul. Howevgroup was discovered tion changed.” withhas physicians for physiotherapy, the last decade, Shridhar donated blood probably lies in a variety of In factors but one unagrees to donate, leaving her with er, when they get a chance to meet in 1952 who is less Meanwhile for Keshavan currently also raises through honchos 34 times. some of those thefunds 53-yearderlying change for the better is On that India is itoccasions, than 10 people. She holds meetfacecorporate to face, people do end up forg“five’s a andout crowdsourcing oldour engineer has to rush of work to gocampaigns. as ing deeper bonds that aretraining moving beyond cricket. “In country it had is no ings to give members of Bombay not nec-in France, it might be a case of hold the For Ashishusually Gupta,atfounder-trustee of Ashoka charm”. He says, “I will not be allowed toblood far as Chennai, Vellore secret that most sports funding is directed to-and Hyderabad, group a chance to get better essarily need-based.

Indian flag in the Olympic Games this time, and This way, she says, it and a donor sport itself is to New hisRao, owndirector, expense,brand to rescueUniversity, a patient. Mumbai res- to OGQ, wards cricket,” says Amitesh acquainted.

Lastthe year, on his way Delhi saddens me. But in my heart and mind, I am not as importantEvery as asserting on that ident Fernandes is equally committed. and media at MTS India, one ofAlex Keshavan’s bigwill be easier for them to locate one for a national business pride trip, Shridhar made a competing for now India,six and for each and per- But so far, the meetings sportingtostage.

“I thinkquick it is important that In- to meet three months, he dutifully a blood gest funders. MTS, who consider themselves a thereports another in anevery emergency. stop at Nagpur Pranjali, who me.” haven’t attracted more than six to eight people. to do in cricket.

But was at the bank his area toimmake dia his continues contribution.

Likewell years “challenger brand”, believe thatinKeshavan’s old. “She only ason year oldsupports at that time Winter on February 2014.Think and Sankalp India timeblood it is also necessary are awants few othersame Bombay group age fits well with the imagethem, theirthere company Earlier, NGOs7,like andthat hadother no athletes recollection Sochi of me.

HerOlympics father begins competing in other fieldsbrought receive adequate thinly the country, who to project. They have been donors supporting the spread athlete across her to thesupNagpur station to tell her who barely got one or two calls a year from families in he says. never failthey to come throughport,” for their community I was. Now she calls me onsibi for the past three years. In January, launched arasu every festival to wish search of Bombay blood group donors. But now members in a crisis. they battle nearly three such cases a week. A posme,” he says.

The first-ever case of this blood type was disNitin Thenge, 29, from Mumbai makes an ef- sible reason for the spike could be that more peocovered at Mumbai’s KEM hospital in 1952, after fort to track the progress of every patient who ple are realising that they have this blood type. which the name Bombay blood group was gets in touch with him. He proudly says that he Another person on the list that KEM shared with coined. For long, KEM had the most reliable regis- now counts some of them as friends. “It feels the Gaikwads was insurance agent Vaibhav Aitry of donors as they were the only ones who great to be able to help patients in need. I feel wale. But due to miscommunication a few years could detect this blood type. It is common for ill- happy to see the relief on the faces of the fam- ago, the news of his blood group never reached Aiwale. Until recently, he continued to believe that he was O positive. So when that myth was suddenly busted on the phone by Jayant GaikHelp at hand Blood Connection Nitin wad, a man he didn’t know, he panicked. “I was so BS Sridhar has Thenge makes the effort to confused. I couldn’t understand what he was saydonated blood stay in touch with people he more than 30 times has donated blood to ing, and I think I still don’t know enough about it Paul Noronha in the last decade apart from the fact that is very rare,” says Aiwale, GRN Somashekar 31. But sensing the desperation in the voice on the other end, he went to the hospital without asking too many questions. On reaching there he was told that the Gaikwads didn’t need any more blood. Less than 15 days later, Aiwale got another frantic call from the father of a two-year-old boy with a heart condition in Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. He reached there in time to save the child.

Even Thenge learnt about his blood group by chance. Three years ago when his sister Sushma needed blood before her C-section surgery, it was discovered that she belonged to the Bombay blood group. Her doctor then suggested that the entire family get checked and sure enough Thenge also had the same blood type. He remembers visiting the homes of many donors, requesting them to help his sister. Now having bailed out so many people himself, he hopes that he never has to relive that trauma again. “I make it a point to be there for people in trouble. If ever I Ice king Shiva Keshavan fall sick in the future, I hope they will help me raised money from various too,” he says. sources to compete in this year’s Winter Olympics in mohini chaudhuri Sochi AFP PHOTO / Peter PARKS

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It’s SuperPope!

No one does cool like Francis the Frugal

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e was Time’s Person of the Year in 2013. He has got a Rolling Stone cover. And now, Pope Francis has achieved superhero status, at least for Italian graffiti artist Maupal. The mural, dubbed ‘SuperPope’, has received the approval of the Vatican via a photo post of it on Twitter. In the mural, painted in the Vatican City, Pope Francis is depicted soaring into the sky, fist extended and crucifix swaying in the wind. Clad in a white cape, he is carrying a satchel branded valores, Spanish, we are told, for values. In the history of papacy that has seen some unpopular and mostly un-hip popes, Francis comes as a breath of fresh air. However, the Rolling Stone piece reveals that we might have misinterpreted the Pope’s famous line on gay priests, “who am I to judge”. It was closer, they say, to “Look, who the hell knows.”

AP/Max Nash

Cats gone wild

A rhino kind of love

A maneater, a missing celeb-cat and a killer tiger mom Will the Delhi Zoo’s valiant attempts to mate a 34-year-old celibate male rhino with of the big cat, there is bad news. The maneater of a mother-daughter duo succeed?

ForUP,lovers which has been on the prowl for more than a month, has

struck again, for the eighth time. Six shooters have been deployed and baits have also been placed. However, the tigress continues to evade traps by hiding in sugarcane fields. dismay, pride At 9:30 am every morning, veterinaryMuch com-to photogs’ sunbathing in aMachli, privateRanthambore’s wallowing pool away n August 19 in Byculla, rhino Shiva was and the world’s most photographed cat, has Zoo from prying eyes, Maheshwari’s turfbeen is themisouter, coaxed into a cage filled with sugar- pounder Paulose, who has been at the Delhi sing since January 9. Although sightlarger enclosure that is pug openmarks to thewere public.

Every cane and bananas. It was big enough since 1999, picks up his kit and cycles to the rhino ed three days ago, there is growingreturns concerntofor her evening, before Maheshwari her cell, for him to stand and sit in and served enclosures. “The horn injury is an open wound,” safety. she If the state of cats inShiva’s the wild seems worrying, first walks up to enclosure, exchanges as a mobile home as Shiva embarked on a 1,400 says Paulose, “so it needs to be dressed daily.” thefor ones cities aren’t faring any better.

The Del16- ina the few grunts with him, checks on Anjuga in her km, four-day journey to find a suitable mate at There are three enclosures, two small ones hi Zoo recently private celebrated bath and then retires to her cage. “She has the Delhi Zoo. More than five months later, Shiva year-old Maheshwari and her eight-year-old the birthone of six white beguntiger to pick up Shiva’s scent,” says Paulose. A feis struggling to keep up with his newfound life, daughter, Anjuga, and a bigger, two-roomed a neglisecureThanks all the to male rhino can begin breeding at the age of four; which, after 28 lonely years, has taken an unex- for Shiva. Sturdy sliding iron gates cubs. gent keep mother, of enclosures. Wire mesh on the windows out five Maheshwari was eight when she had Anjuga. pected social turn. have place, yet an-died. Besides the fodder and bananas, the rhinos Nursing a nearly two-year-old injury on his the flies. Fluorescent lamps dot thethem The fate of the feed on a mixture of mash, which consists of horn that is just beginning to heal and a new one other protection against the fly menace. sixth oneone re- wheat bran, barley, oats, Bengal gram, ground“He is in a state today,” says Binod Kumar, festering on his tail, Shiva has been thrown into mains unceraa, aa, aa” nut cakes, turmeric, amla and salt, and hot khichthe company of a vivacious mother-daughter of the rhino keepers. Cries of “Shiva, tain asAfter the di which is made of dal, rice, oil and jaggery; a away. duo, both of whom are expected to take turns to ring out but Shiva resolutely turns mom refuses huge dietary improvement on Byculla zoo’s the second mate with the ageing rhino from Byculla. But the several minutes, Shiva moves into feed it. straight to The a modest offerings. celibate 34-year-old Shiva is closer to kicking the room of the enclosure and headsto on officials the wall.how- Rhino romances are not all roses and chambucket than spawning a crash of calves. (The av- corner to furiously scratch his nosezoo ever, have sprayfound pagne. Before lunchtime, Paulose returns armed erage lifespan of a one-horned Indian rhino is Paulose picks up a bottle of chloroform unlikely Paulose, spot- re-with a tranquiliser gun and a hormone injection about 35 to 40 years.) While the primary veterin- and follows him. We tiptoe behind an the corners— afor Maheshwari. While Shiva gets his hormone ary officer, Dr Panneer Selvam, says Shiva is “hap- ting small pools of fresh blood inplacement heavily pregnantpills mixed with his food, Maheshwari is given a nose. Clearpy”, and “enjoying the Delhi weather”, his life in where Shiva has been scratching his female dog. chloroform more direct dose. Maheshwari has been in the the enclosure tells another tale of mounting ly, the rhino is in pain. After spraying outer enclosure for hours. Soaking mating expectations and an elaborate cosmetic in Shiva’s face, Paulose wraps a swab the sun in a new pool she has dug cover-up. Yet, the team at the Delhi Zoo is hopeful of cotton on a long stick and proRajeev Bhat for herself, she turns a deaf ear to of pulling off this audacious rhino matchmaking ceeds to clean the rhino’s nose, carethe keepers’ cries. Dozens of baattempt; they’ve given him a roomy enclosure, a fully picking out dead maggots. nanas are hurled at her at once and diet peppered with hormone pills, an invitation Then, he applies neem oil and dousEvery evening, speakers are brought out. Paulose to gambol with the womenfolk and attention to es Shiva’s nose with powder. By now, Maheshwari Shiva has calmed down and is ready even breaks off a Peepal tree branch his wounds. exchanges a few and waves it to draw her attention.

“Shiva is adjusting well,” the doctor says. In the to eat the bananas he had earlier regrunts with Shiva “Madam aaj mood main nahi hai,” first month of his arrival however, he had been fused. The wound on his tail has alsays Binod Kumar, with resignation. quite difficult — refusing food and throwing tan- so healed, observes Paulose.

Forty minutes later, Maheshwari trums. “The trouble is that Shiva’s old horn injury suddenly gets up, pees into the pool got worse on the way here. And the flies and mag- Ladies in heat and then breaks into a run. The gots have aggravated it. Then he hurt his tail Shiva was six years old when he arkeepers swing into action, guardwhen he got into a mud pool. But we are treating rived from the Assam State Zoo to him and he’s much better.” The zoo director, Am- Byculla Zoo and has lived in captivity since. While ing the doors of the enclosures. Once she is in the itabh Agnihotri agrees, “Shiva is under treatment Selvam is confident of the 34-year-old rhino’s re- common area, she quickly walks up to Shiva and right now.” productive capabilities, others remain sceptical. sniffs through the meshed window — more eviSince his much-documented arrival at the Del- “Shiva is of wild origin,” he says, “so there is a pos- dence of her being “in heat”. Paulose aims his hi Zoo, Shiva, who was adored by the Mumbai jan- sibility of higher potency. When we went to gun, the pink feathers of the injection fluttering, ta, has yet to make his public debut. He has been Mumbai, we found no problems with him.” The and catches her between the soft folds near her confined to his enclosure and is let out into the two females are also not far from being “in heat”. neck. “We gave her one shot a few days back, larger, one-acre grassland only on Fridays, when “Maheshwari is showing signs of being ready — there are a couple more to go,” he says. Maheshthe zoo is shut to the public. “We don’t want to declining food, being restless and peeing con- wari returns to her mud pool munching leaves cause panic because rhinos are very popular,” stantly. If my calculations are right, it (the cross- and the zoo staff return to their own repast.

For the Delhi Zoo, rhino breeding is an imporsays Selvam, “Shiva will be released into the open ing/mating) could happen in a month’s time,” when he has recovered.” We are also told to avoid the doctor says. Binod Kumar, the rhino keeper tant part of their master plan. Even as they nurse profile shots; his maggot-covered, bloody n and differs,the “Maheshwari is Geshowing some signs but Shiva back to health and acquaint him with the Blackadder Third, Prince broken nose will not make for a pretty picture. it will take time orge finds himself onand theAnjuga verge has not betrayed any two females, efforts are on to find a younger male rhino. Shiva, in his twilight years, has a tight interest yet.” of bankruptcy.

A shocked House of The mother-daughter Commons marvels at the Prince duo has not been schedule to follow. He has to acclimatise to Delnear a habits male rhino Regent’s spending — in six years; Raja, the hi’s weather, the zoo’s diet and his companions; last male rhino had died of an ill- get his nose and what remains of his horn back in £15,000 on banqueting, £20,000 ness. Maheshwari, accord- shape; change his status from available-Fridayson perfumes and an astonishing £59,000 on socks. Two hundreding to the keepers, is only to available-round-the-clock; and mate, accus- health permitting, with both mother and daughyears later, Queen Elizabeth II is in growing a similar predicament. She’s down tomed to Shiva’s ter. Will he, won’t he? presence. While to her last million. A report by the Anjuga enjoys priyanka kotamraju Commons public accounts reveals that the Queen’s household finances were at a “historic low” and the royal palaces were “crumbling”. ow can one interview provide so much fodder Staff at Buckingham and Windsor for mockery? That is what we wondered at the is catching rain in buckets to proend of the epic and not-so-epic Rahul Gandhi and Artect art, her croaky old boilers nab Goswami showdown. How can one man name need replacing and 39 per cent of his name thrice in one sentence? “To understand the royal estate needs repair. While that question you have to understand a little bit most Britons have embraced ausabout who Rahul Gandhi is and what Rahul Gandhi’s terity, since 2008, the royal family circumstances have been, and if you delve into that has not yet learned “to do more you will get an answer to the question of what Rahul Reluctant suitor Shiva (top) the with less”. Time for a Kickstarter Gandhi is scared of and what he is not scared of,” Ramale rhino who must spawn a crash campaign, we say. hul Gandhi told us. He confused Chavans with Kuof calves Kamal Narang; Maheshwari mars. And as is now most well documented, his (right) the vivacious mother answers irrespective of questions included “RTI”, assigned to mate with him “Women’s Empowerment”, “My Family” and “Process Shiv Kumar Pushpakar Change”. The dimples, however, were flawless.

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The Queen goes broke

Scraping the bottom of the palace barrel

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How to win votes and influence people by Rahul Gandhi

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cornerstone in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

I

t’s postulated that 93 per cent of quiz folk get interested in trivia for the satisfaction of telling normal people how wrong they are. This is the only lie in this week’s column. The rest is the absolute truth.

True Lies

1 2

Simple question to start with. Which country has the most living tigers?

This man admitted that he had been called a liar more often than any other person on this planet. He made his reputation based on the perfectly true fact that Lindberg was actually the 67th person to cross the Atlantic by flight (he was actually just the first solo flier). Identify the man; the business he started is synonymous.

3

What came into popular use in the early 20th century simply because its sequence of three short, three long and three short light flashes was the easiest to remember in a crisis?

4

White Wilderness was a 1958 Disney film that helped propagate a complete wildlife myth.

In 1985, the myth got even more established thanks to an iconic Apple Macintosh commercial. What fact did these two films get so terribly wrong?

5

This star’s actual film debut was in the film Biwi ho toh Aisi as Farooq Shaikh’s younger brother. But another film released a few months later got him a lot more attention and conveniently became known as his debut.

Identify the actor.

the new york times crossword-1208

two outs

6

Even the sacred texts have loopholes. One would assume that if you were called a Chiranjeevi, you would live forever. But not all the seven mentioned Chiranjeevis are actually immortal. One of them got the boon that he will only be on earth till the ‘Treta Yug’ ends. Which one?

7

Here’s an easy one for you. In all the posters and films based on the original Mary Shelley story, what was the colour of Frankenstein’s skin?

8

The title of which Beatles song had absolutely nothing to do with prohibited substances and was actually named after a picture drawn by John Lennon’s son, Julian, of a four year old friend?

9

Around 1560 AD, what was introduced by Jean N, the French ambassador to Portugal in the court of Catherine De Medici as a medicine that healed wounds and cured cancers. This is possibly one of the most damaging myths in human history.

10

Which animal has a subspecies named white, not because of its colour but as a corruption of the Afrikaans word ‘Wyd’ meaning wide and referring to it’s large mouth?

Across Answers

1. It’s actually the US, which has over 12,000 tigers, with more than 4,000 in captivity in Texas alone. India has the most tigers in the wild. These are documented reports, China’s infamous tiger farms may have even more animals 2. Robert Ripley, who started Ripley’s Believe It Or Not 3. SOS. It has absolutely nothing to do with ‘Save Our Soul’ or ‘Save Our Ship’ 4. This is the belief that lemmings commit mass suicide by jumping off cliffs. The Disney documentary actually used a turntable to drive animals off the edge 5. Salman Khan, the other film was Maine Pyar Kiya 6. Vibhishana, the brother of Ravana 7. Frankenstein would look like any normal Caucasian.

That was the name of the doctor who made the monster. The monster, incidentally, was yellow in colour in Shelley’s original work, not the green we normally see.

8. Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds 9. Nicotine, the man’s name was Jean Nicot 10. The White Rhinoceros (not Shiva!)

joy bhattacharjya is, in this age of televisions pundits and Facebook gurus, simply grateful that facts are not opinions. t@joybhattacharj

1 Palindromic band name 5 Tosca’s feeling for Cavaradossi 10 Spring for a vacation 13 Hawaiian tourist purchases 17 “___ yourself” 19 Cow catcher 20 Red-wine drinker’s paradise?

22 Employee at the Ron Paul Archive?

24 Pitch that fixes everything?

25 “Strange Magic” band, briefly 26 Dollar bill featuring a portrait of Duran Duran’s lead singer?

28 IRS Form 5498 subject 29 Street caution 31 Ball with a yellow stripe 32 Shiner?

33 Willowy 37 Like a robot’s voice 39 Still 41 Architect Saarinen 42 Blue expanse 43 Follow closely 44 Hair-raising shout 46 “___ teabsolvo” (priest’s phrase) 47 The one puppy that can read?

53 Creator of perfect whirlpools?

56 Baath Party member 57 Uncommunicative 59 Political title of the 1930s-’40s 60 Counter formations

62 Mix in a tank 64 Overextend oneself?

68 Classical guitarist Segovia 70 Adds to the batter, say 72 In a kooky manner 73 Buttonholed 75 Given a home 77 Triumphant song 78 “This isn’t making sense” 80 Whom John Bull symbolizes 82 Have an objection 83 Minor-league championship flag?

86 Alienate a New Jersey city?

88 Biblical priest of Shiloh 89 Blue expanse 90 “Man of Steel” actress Adams 92 Sully 93 Go on strike 95 Film crowd 97 CBS spinoff that ran for 10 seasons 102 How sports cars are contoured 105 “Cover ___ Face” (P.D. James’s first novel) 106 Distress 107 Actor Jack of oaters 108 Cousin of a crumble 109 Begat a soft place to sleep?

112 Burlesque garment 113 “Charge!,” to Duracells?

117 Satisfying finale coming to pass?

Reach us at blink@thehindu.co.in. Follow us on t@Ink_BL and facebook.com/blink.hbl Website: thehindubusinessline.com/blink

119 Labeled idiotic?

120 First name in photography 121 Nickname for Palmer 122 “Don’t be a spoilsport!”

123 Savory condiment 124 Variety-show fodder 125 Trader ___

Down 1 Most qualified 2 Relative of S.O.S 3 Galoot 4 One-hit wonder?

5 Friend of d’Artagnan 6 Thick bunch?

7 Venture a thought 8 Unfeigned 9 Miranda of the Miranda warning 10 Avoid 11 Course listing 12 Percussion instrument in “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” 13 Sophisticated 14 Automaker that started as a bicycle company 15 Bent pipe 16 “She’s a good old worker and a good old pal,” in song 18 Med. workplaces 20 Tea go-with 21 “Days of Heaven” co-star 23 Would-be singers’ liabilities 27 Little town

30 Site of a 1963 J.F.K. speech 33 Chargers and coursers 34 Forest game 35 “By that logic…”

36 Boarder’s domain 38 Director Daniels of “The Butler” 39 Of the lymph glands 40 Signet-ring feature 45 Dropper?

47 Steven Bochco series 48 Youngest of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” 49 Eldest Best Actress winner 50 Acronymic aircraft name 51 Wistful remark 52 With a will 53 It’s “well regulated” in the Constitution 54 Quarrel 55 “Lovergirl” singer 58 Pulsation 61 Morally degraded 63 Fish hawks 65 Cross-promotion 66 Streetcar sound 67 Chrissie in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 69 Start of a George Eliot title 71 N.B.A. team originally called the Americans 74 Elephant’s opposite, symbolically

76 URL component 79 Zeus swore oaths upon it 81 Excited Oscars attendee 83 Nave furniture 84 Airline that doesn’t fly on religious holidays 85 Khartoum’s river 87 Run headlong into 90 Datum in a house listing 91 ___ Vineyard 94 Confined 96 “I thought ____ never leave!”

97 Pile on the floor 98 Soothsayers of old 99 Person prone to sunburn 100 Last Hitchcock film with TippiHedren 101 Some Google search results 103 Hot pot locale 104 English film-festival city 106 It “hits the spot,” per old radio ads 109 Begin to show wear 110 Yarn quantity 111 Hair strands?

113 “EastEnders” network 114 Shot spot 115 Metaphysical concept 116 Fortune cover subj.

118 Longtime Sixers nickname

By Patrick Berry Edited by Will Shortz