POLL DANCE Turncoat politics takes centre stage in Assam. Down south, BJP serenades OBCs for a bigger slice of the Assembly pie p2-6 saturday, april 9, 2016
A file image of a heavily garlanded statue of BR Ambedkar in Vijayawada v raju
As he turns 125, BR Ambedkar is more visible than he ever was. Is the mainstream’s belated embrace of the man genuine or merely good politics? p10
A convenient messiah
WRITE LIKE A MACHINE Is a Japanese AI (artificial intelligence) the harbinger of a literary revolution? p18
LOOK WHO’S WATCHING! Behind every selfie lurks the gaze of a World War II gunner p22
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One and the other The ball for night polo (right), and the gyroscope (Bohenberger, 1813) which redefined the course of warfare
THE COMPASS CHRONICLES
The illuminated cage What connects polo for women at night, World War artillery and smartphones?
T The mentor and the prodigal son
The chosen one Himanta Biswa Sarma is not just a politician. He is a metaphor in Assam, often employed to denote statecraft and a kind of perfidious efficiency pti
rohit gupta
he most unusual object in the Textile gallery of Jaipur’s City Palace Museum is a spherical cage of brass, the size of a volleyball. The placard says that it was used to play polo at night by royal ladies, since modesty prevented them from doing so in daylight. A candle placed on the disc inside the ball would illuminate it like a lantern — which could be whipped around the field with a mallet by horse-mounted women. Whether gender segregation spurred this scientific ingenuity (because necessity is the ‘mother’ of invention or not) is a different question. More importantly, how can a glassencased candle spinning in three dimensions stay aflame for more than a few seconds? Because access to the instrument and historical record is restricted, and the date of its It is 11.30 pm unknown in Guwahati but webeen manage to manufacture (polo has played findAsia a lone in thewe darkened street to to in for figure centuries), must resort guide us. Himanta Biswa Sarma’s ornate manconjecture. sion ismechanism conspicuousthat in an otherwise unexcepOne could keep the candle tional neighbourhood. ushered into a upright even as the ball We wasare thrashed around, den chandeliers and baroque crystalidea déis a with gyroscope (see image). The basic cor for from another wait. Buttoy when the comes an hour-long ancient children’s — the wait is finally over, his first visage, a droopyspinning top. Newton’s lawwith of motion deeyed stare, is as theatrical andofbaleful as the scribes inertia as the tendency a body “to refirst clap thunder main at of rest or in outside. uniform motion unless Sarma not justforces”. a politician. He isofaan metasubject tois external In the case upphor spinning in Assam, employed to denote right top,often the force of friction gradustatecraft a kind of perfidious ally slows and it down until it collapses.efficiency A more voters typically with thewith Congress. extreme exampleassociate is the Earth itself, an axHis political history, a stint in is ofchequered rotation tilted by about 23.4from degrees. This the All Assam Students’ Unionover (AASU) with Praaxis wobbles like an acorn millennia, fulla Kumar Mahanta, to anAsarrest, alwhich we call its ‘precession’. a resultwith the celeged links the militant United Liberation lestial NorthtoPole drifts away from Polaris, Front of Assam onlyinstead... adds to the pointing at the(ULFA), star Vega andSarma then myth and circles backglamour. to Polaris in 26,000 years. The Congress was quick to spot top his is talent, Inside a gyroscope, an Earth-like supwith first Saikia thenmore Tarun Goported byHiteshwar clamping its axisand in two gimgoi rings, nurturing overcan the move years. freely As part of bal all ofhim which and
independently. Relatively speaking, now it ed the magazine Popular Science (in the July does not matter whether the central body 1945 issue) just before the Allied victory. Genmoves or the outer shells holding it. eral Patton himself had praised the magical In the case of the ‘night polo ball’, the outer micro-wheel’s contribution to the war. Only a shells are in motion, while the candle-disc few days later this descendant of a harmless stays ‘at rest’ — independent of all its sur- children’s toy would also help pilot B-29 roundings. On board a ship in a stormy ocean, planes and guide the two nuclear bombs such an instrument would act like an inertial dropped over Japan. compass, “...as if it were a thing apart from the Speaking of toys again, who invented the earth. Its own inertia is its only law, but that night polo ball for the royal ladies of Jaipur? law is absolute.” We can only suspect that it must have been At such times, it would be far more useful someone familiar with the tradition of royal than a magnetic compass or the astronomical astronomy started by Sawai Jaisingh II in 1735. sextant. Just like the famous FouThe relative motion of miniature cault’s pendulum, one could use astronomical models — celestial a ‘gyrocompass’ to detect the roglobes, telluriums and orreries — tation of the Earth at any point is very similar to a gyroscope. Toof latitude on the terrestrial surday the large majority of motion World War II brought face. During the 1800s and early sensing for telescopes, tablets, the dormant power the Gogoi cabinet, Sarma isbeknownofto have the BJP. goesconsoles, that in a secret 1900s, these instruments gaming virtualmeeting reality this children’s toyThe story been afurther key figure in crafting the Grand Old Parwith the presidentsmartphones, Amit Shah during the came refined after their satellites into the frontlines likeBJP headsets, ty’s extraordinary victory 2011 before 2014 electionand campaign, Sarma predicted the parts were miniaturised andin theAssam innever spacecraft is done by microwhen thewas Congress won by 79 elecof the 126 seats in exact number of seats the BJP was great-grandgoing to win rotation stimulated electromechanical the state assembly. in Assam. was impressed, trical motors. children of Shah the gyroscope (someThe trouble between the mentor and after protracted negotiaWorld War II brought dortimes called accelerometers) and protégé famously started tions (Sarma looking at mant power of this children’s employed bywas thealso female polo soon after the assembly elec- before. Until players of ourthe Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) as toy into the frontlines like never story. In Amit tions the when Gogoi launched his chiefly fallback option), Gogoi’s protéthen, gyro had been employed as aShah, Sarma Every timeathat a group of young women seems to have foundthemselves son Gauravand intonavigation politics. Amidst gé and Congress’s chief they strategist stabilising agent — for battleposition to take a selfie, look a kindredthrough soul theirjoined bickering and constant infighttheaBJP in August ships, torpedoes, and airplanes. eyes like World War II 2015. gunner, ing, the CBI at summoned He is now Shah’s right-hand Airpower this pointhim stillinoverwhelmed but the phone re-orients itself using its sense thenavies multi-crore Saradha stitching up alliances with the and infantry, thescam, planes moved sim- of inertia. Likeman, the gyroscopic cage, the selfie is although says it at was only the AGP the Bodoland Peoply too fastSarma to be aimed with accuracy. making us aware of aand phenomenon beyond asThe a witness. Losing faith in hisor what hap- the Earth. The ple’s Fronttwisting (BPF), while also influsecret lay in precession, sudden of faces into mentor, he demanded ofby place in the duck-pouted encing the party’s selection and pens when a gyroscopehis is pride moved an exterlips, andcandidate that one raised eyebrow party fromsuch the ‘high command’. apparentfuture policy That the in BJPsome has a symchief nal force, as a gunman. In He 1940, it was — is it not likeplanning. an angular shift ly told that Rahul was he who metric ministerial candidate in Or Union Minister Sarrealised theGandhi axis of athat gyroitinside an antiaxis of the mind? the mirrored imsteeredgun the could Congress’s in 2011;ofan as- age bananda Sonowal is immaterial Sarma’s aircraft tracktriumph the movement gunof some mysterious force whichtopervades sertion provoked aninindifferent shrug prestige clout in his new party. And in sight as which it followed a plane the sky. And not the wholeand universe? fromthat, the Congress President who simply Shah, he seems to have found a kindred soul. only “The gun Vice is actually pointing ahead the professional. history of scienceIaswork as said, what”. “Hegupta (Shah)explores is most of the“so target by the right amount so that the rohit An embittered soon sent feelers to Compasswallah hard as I didt@fadesingh in the Congress, but here in the enemy will fly intoSarma the bursting shell,” boast-
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Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has been stung by his blue-eyed boy, the Machiavellian Himanta Biswa Sarma’s defection to the BJP in a hard-fought election in Assam
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Wily old fox Incumbent Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi coming out of court after appearing in a defamation case filed by BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma pti
BJP, at least there is no reservation at the top for the blue bloods,” he says. “Have you ever seen Rahul Gandhi in the company of anyone who is not from a dynasty? You can give your life to the Congress but in the end, it is Deepender Hooda, Jyotiraditya Scindia or a similar successor to the throne who gets to be at the top.” One can sense the anger, surfacing in a flash of the hooded eyes and scorn in the smile. There are also some remnants of loyalty to a shared past and memories. “He (Gogoi) has been my Chief Minister, my leader. I will not say anything bad about him,” says Sarma. But the target of his ire, the forever smiling Tarun Gogoi, has no such inhibitions. “What did I do? I helped him (Sarma) from the time he was a junior legislator, gave him opportunities… He was my blue-eyed boy. I trusted him completely. I promoted him in a way I’ve never promoted Gaurav (his son and MP Gaurav Gogoi). What more did he expect?” Gogoi asks. The wily Chief Minister had been expecting a defection and was suitably prepared when Sarma finally made his switch to the BJP. The day he quit the Congress, the state Congress chief Anjan Dutta burst firecrackers in the party office and distributed sweets, claiming Sarma has carried whatever anti-incumbency Gogoi had after a three-term tenure. “He has found his level, hobnobbing with a person who had murder charges against him (Amit Shah). He once said the blood of Muslims flows in the gutters of Gujarat. I am sure he is happy there,” says Gogoi. In the BJP, Sarma is feted as a star by the top leadership. A senior BJP leader in Assam says, “You can weigh our entire state leadership on one side of a scale and Sarma alone on the other. He would be heavier. He has changed the BJP’s fortunes.” There are, of course, murmurs of discontent from the cadre on the field. A young BJP office-bearer in Mangaldoi says, “We fought against this man throughout our political life. We fought court cases against him and had arguments in the assembly. He symbolises the Congress’s corrupt culture and now we have
adopted him.” out Sarma. The party won seven of the 14 seats This local leader, requesting anonymity, in the state and cornered 36.86 per cent of the sees two negative fallouts of Sarma’s entry in vote share. This was a quantum jump from the the BJP. The first is that his presence is a con- assembly elections in 2011 when the BJP was stant threat to the BJP’s chief ministerial can- able to win barely five seats with about 11.47 didate Sarbananda Sonowal. “He has not per cent of the vote. shifted from Congress to BJP to play second The Congress lost ground with just three fiddle to another leader. He is definitely plan- seats and a vote share that shrank from 39.39 ning something,” says the BJP worker. per cent in 2011 assembly polls to 29.90 per Sarma, of course, rubbishes these suspi- cent in 2014. Along with the BJP, Badruddin Ajcions. “I have just joined the BJP. How can I ex- mal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIpect to be promoted to the top? I am not UDF) also improved on its vote share from stupid,” he says. 12.57 per cent in the 2011 assembly polls to Speculations about Sarma plotting to top- 14.98 per cent in 2014 while it also won three ple Sonowal are still hypothetical. But what is Lok Sabha seats. also visible on the ground, and this is the secSince then, Tarun Gogoi has picked himself ond important fallout of Sarma’s entry, is that up and closed ranks to win back what is called workers’ disenchantment with the move is re- the traditional Ali-Coolie-Bangali (a pejorative flecting in the party’s campaign. reference to the Muslims, tea garFor instance, in the reserved den labourers and Bengali miconstituency of Jagiroad near grants) vote for the Congress. Nelli, the BJP has fielded Sarma’s For the purpose, hard-nosed The day Sarma quit loyalist Piyush Hazarika, whom veterans such as Paban Singh Congress, Gogoi had the local party workers refer to Ghatobar and Bhakt Charan Das firecrackers burst in as “Dada Brigand” or part of “Sarhave been pressed into service to the party ma Syndicate”. “No one has the recover ground among the tea headquarters courage to tell Amit Shah what garden workers who have shifted this means to us. Our MPs are en masse to the BJP. Ghatobar, a not protesting because they betea tribe leader and former lieve that if Sarbananda Sonowal Union Minister, is contesting the becomes Chief Minister, they have a chance to assembly seat of Moran for the first time in his become Cabinet ministers. But what about us, long career. He has always contested the parthe common workers? How can we campaign liamentary polls so far. The fact that he has for these people who represent everything we joined the local leaders in winning assembly fought against for most of our political life,” elections reflects Gogoi’s resolve in not letting says a BJP worker in Jagiroad. his former aide help the BJP trip him up. Whether this widespread discontent will reHe has also launched an insidious camsult in a situation similar to Delhi where the paign against Ajmal, the man who can topple BJP imposed Kiran Bedi as the party’s chief the Congress’s applecart by splitting the 34 ministerial candidate and lost, is one of the per cent Muslim vote. “Ajmal is working for variables that rarely get reflected in the opin- the BJP,” Gogoi says, a message that the Conion polls which are predicting a sweep for the gress cadre has carried to target voters. BJP in Assam. About Jagiroad, the BJP is fairly Whatever happens in Assam, this round of confident they will win. “Don’t tell us about polls will be memorable for the exciting sidethe cadre’s disenchantment. They have been show starring the mentor and his protégé. working for two decades without the BJP win- Electoral battles are seldom reminiscent of ning any election in Assam,” says a BJP leader. the duels of yore. The fact, however, is that the BJP did extraordinarily well in the Lok Sabha elections with- poornima joshi
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Leaving on a bullock cart N Annadurai (second from left), the BJP candidate for Salem South constituency in the 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, embarks on his campaign trail
Moment of pride A Nihang warrior holds the crowd in thrall at Anandpur Sahib all images by kaynat kazi
e lakshmi narayanan
In thesteps footsteps of the Guru Two backward In both from KeralaHola and Mohalla, Tamil Nadu, go to polls onannual May 16,carnival the BJPthat sees the way forward in Stories the which colourful three-day celebrates the wooing arts the dominant other backward class, communities martial traditions OBC, of theor Sikhs
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he was holyconsternation city of bliss’in—Kerala’s that’s eucalyptus here trees rim the had fields and to plump Sabha seat. Its vote share spiked 10.33 cent, the party has decided to aggressively Anandpur Sahib for you. Located mango political circles in early November laden withgain flowers stand be- project a pro-Hindu image, wooing especially per cent.trees And this sizeable has been maininyear, the Ropar (also knowninas last as results trickled forRupthe tween them. ly at the cost of the Left parties. the powerful other backward classes (OBCs) nagar) district of Punjab, it is hotly contested municipal elecThe large-hearted rural Punjabis load their like the Ezhavas and the Nairs. Unlike poles attract home to about people. Asand withformer most tractors tions, which the25,000 Congress leader and trucks with firewood, vegetables “The BDJS is not an Ezhava party,” insists Nasmall lifeminister here moves a leisurely if and Uniontowns, defence AK at Anthony had—faIn December offAnandpur a coup ofSahib, sorts, tesan. “There are Namboodiris, Nairs and Ezgrain and2015, headpulling towards somewhat monotonous — pace. But anyone mously dubbed the “semi-finals” to the 2016 where the BJPthey firmed upcommunity an alliance with the to Bharat set up kitchens feed havas — it is a secular party. After a long time who visits during Holi will fiercelyJanata disagree. Assembly polls. State Bharatiya Party people Dharmaduring Jana Sena a party led by Vellap- there is an alternative front in Kerala. The Hola(BDJS), Mohalla. Forleader three days during the festival year, (BJP) Sreedharan Pillai now every crowed in pally Natesan andvolunteers floated by work the Sree Naraya- Oommen Chandy government has only made At the langars, round-theAnandpur Sahib into a rambuncresponse: “If thistransforms was the semi-final, then we clock na Dharma Yogamseated (SNDP), in shiftsParipalana to feed visitors cross-a adjustments. They have fooled the people. Ten tious carnivalreached ground. have already thePeople final.” pour in from legged religious withinasymbolic significant following onoutfit the floor, equality. The lakh members have filled forms and paid ₹25 across countrywas forwith Holareason. Mo- The party among the dominant Thatthe cockiness Ezhava caste in the for membership in BDJS. There is a large group love and devotion in serving halla, a celebration of 100 Sikhdivisions marhad grabbed 34 of the in capital State. The Ezhavas Nairs together constipeopleand through the langar, or of people who are affected by LDF and UDF. tial traditions. The town wakes the ruling tute 55 per cent Thiruvananthapuram, pushing of Kerala’skitchen, Hindu population. community is as old as This group is supporting us. We will be the deup to the noisy arrivals of tour- Front Congress-led United Democratic (UDF) “We are mobilising all sections of society,” Sikhism, and all believers spend ciding factor in the Kerala elections,” he says. On the public address ists and devotees, the linger- Left to third place. Theand Communist-led Demosays Kerala BJP president Kummanam time in sewa, helping out atRajathe system, an announcer Left hurting ing of was community cratic smells Front (LDF) in first place iswith sekharan. have broadened langars. Young and old sit tobusy42enticing the “We kitchens (hundreds of them). seats, but that didn’t diminish the BJP’shungry glee — to our vote base and asthere gether they are peel vegetables The BJP’s move has hit the Left try the Tractor-trailers, with besides snappingcomplete up Palakkad municipality, it many new partners coming in. and knead the dough; a few othwhere it hurts the most, and the jalebi, matar paneer, three-tier of straw and matwon seatsbeds in most other municipalities. Theand(The) People coming BJP have ers are tobusy scrubbingAndirty latter is now determined to exkheer halwa organisation tresses, can givehad gypsy caravans a urban centres registered a marked swing a mass base. utensils Organisations likerest serve while the the has been pose what it calls the political opwhich run for their Truckloads in favour of a money. party that had virtually no pres- the SNDP have been working food with smilinginfaces.fighting The peo-upper-class portunism of the of families followofenthusiastic ence in this corner the country for the long- social reformple for decades.” receive the food with both self-proclaimed leader of the Ezsuppression is now bikers into town, their huge safest time. Rajasekharan was in atapains to of their hands, display faithhands with hava community. joining Say cheese A young member of the NIhang clan fron flags billowing the vehicles. The and Back in 1984, when itfrom contested its first elecexplain that the had no gratitude. Ontie-up the public address system, “Kerala has a strong tradition them highway is peppered with trucks, tractors, tion in Kerala, the BJP scraped up a meagre 1.75 an casteist overtones. BDJSthe hungry to announcer is busy“The enticing of being secular,” says MA Baby, bikes, jeeps, buses. Portlyseat men per cent vote bicycles share. Yetand to win a single in try andthe SNDP working a and halwa. jalebi,are matar paneer,for kheer tor-trailers, some equipped with hugeParty speakleader of the Communist of from Punjab vain to regulate the backward the State, thePolice party try hasinnevertheless steadily They are are dotted ers, televisions, Outside,community. the crammed streets LCD screens and telephones. India (Marxist)’s Kerala unit. “Soannual traffic jam. Onover thethe weather-beaten shored up its vote share years. During with not stalls spreading selling casteism everythingbut from utensils to People can becial seenreform resting inside them even as movements have faces of Lok theSabha farmers initsthe neighbouring the 2014 polls, candidate O Raja- toy spreading welfare andtattoos gettingand the basic tractors, sweets, little needs dolls others aroundreformers them. “Ilike spent ₹6 been ledcelebrate by outstanding Sri Nafields, therethe are big smiles whileTharoor songs aand gopal gave Congress’s Shashi se- with of the backward community fulfilled.their The lakh turbans. People make the rounds, onGuru. my trailer, to provide the represented comfort my rayana The BJP has always cheers escape his their lips. rious constantly run for money in wallets SNDP is getting a social lighter movement,” he asserts. but their stomachs al- people need,” Singh from Moga.a the upper classsays andAmrik they have now formed In rural Punjab, springlosing is a sight behold — ways Thiruvananthapuram, by to just 15,470 Thefull, BJP constantly needs all the help itoff caninvites get into Kerafending try One tractor alliance proudly with displays the American mechanical Vellappally Natethe green and golden of wheat stretch votes. In Kasaragod, thefields BJP stood second in a goodies la. In a State Muslims constitute 24 per flag, fromwhere the various makeshift kitchens. itsAsfour-foot tallthis speakers pumpmarout san’sand party. a result of very strange from the highway as far as the eye see, Lok tall cent few Assembly segments within thecan larger population and Christians per high Onof thethe roadside are parked numerous19tracfrom behind the seat. riage,decibels people are discussing thedriver’s opportunism
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Caste break-up Kerala Hindus:
43%
55% Scheduled Caste comprises 9.8% of which Nairs & Ezhavas comprise
Muslims:
24% 19%
Christians:
Tamil Nadu
70% 25%
Backward Class & Most Backward Class: Scheduled Caste: Others:
5%
of Natesan and how an organisation which has been fighting upper-class suppression is now joining hands with them,” he says. Baby is confident that voters will see through the ploy. “The BJP’s attempt to open an account in this Assembly election (May 16) is going to be a grand fiasco,” he predicts. “You cannot say that the CPM influence is only over the Ezhavas. We have our influence among all religious and caste groups in Kerala.”
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n neighbouring Tamil Nadu, which goes to poll the same day as Kerala, the BJP has not had similar luck with alliances. Even as recently as 2014, the party had cobbled together an impressive alliance of smaller, non-Dravidian parties like Ramadoss’ Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Vijaykanth’s Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) and Vaiko’s Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK). The coalition bagged two MP seats — BJP’s Pon Radhakrishnan won from Kanyakumari and the former Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss of the PMK won in Dharmapuri. The BJP’s allies came up second in six constituen-
Blooming season A worker draws the BJP party symbol ahead of the Kerala Assembly election in Kochi. The party’s vote share had spiked to 10.33 per cent, mainly at the cost of the Left parties pti
cies, pushing key rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to third place. The BJP’s vote share had more than doubled to five per cent, which analysts pegged to a strong anti-Congress wave across the country. The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), led by J Jayalalithaa, swept up the other 37 seats, with a whopping 44 per cent vote share.
Party, the BJP is now tying up with more than 40 tiny caste-affiliated organisations, many of them apolitical, in a bid for votes from OBC communities such as Thevars, Yadavas and Nadars. The lack of a strong State-level leader has taken a toll on its prospects and morale. “In Tamil Nadu we rely only on the performance of Modi sarkar,” says H Raja, the party’s National General Secretary in Tamil Nadu. “The Centre has schemes for every individual, especially Unfriending spree families below the poverty line. We could not Today, in a sharp turnaround, no one wants to form the same alliance as in 2014 because evally with the BJP in Tamil Nadu. Vaiko, who was eryone wants to be the Chief Minister. In 2014 the first to reach out in 2014, was also the first itself the voter has voted only for Modi and we to exit the alliance post polls. Rahave proven that we will be the madoss has stated categorically third largest force in the State,” that the PMK was an ally of the he says. BJP at the Centre but not in TN. Political analysts disagree. They are opposed to Going one step ahead, he an“Their strategy did not work even Periyar’s ideology in nounced his son Anbumani as in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,” Tamil Nadu. They his party’s chief ministerial canargues the political commentacannot appropriate didate. Vijaykanth, too, has tor Gnani Sankaran. “That is one Ambedkar either ditched the BJP alliance to join of the reasons why their allies in hands with the People’s Welfare 2014 are no longer with them.” Front (PWF) — a motley crew of Desperately seeking toehold small parties comprising MDMK, Dalit party Viduthalai Siruthaigal Communist Party of India (CPI) Katchi (VCK) and the Left parties — and has MP D Raja is confident that the BJP’s political been anointed its chief ministerial candidate. strategy will not succeed in either TN or KeraHe now faces mutiny from his cadre and MLAs la. “They are desperate to have some kind of who say he has disregarded their wish to ally foothold in both states,” he says. “In Tamil Nawith the DMK. du no one wants to go with them; they stand The BJP is left with slim pickings. Apart from isolated. Even in Kerala it is the same, because its remaining allies like the Indiya Jananayaga Vellappally Natesan has lost all his credibility. Katchi (IJK) and AC Shanmugam’s New Justice The BJP is not going to make any big inroads — given their ideology and their position, they will not make much headway. They are opposed to Periyar’s ideology in Tamil Nadu. They cannot appropriate Ambedkar either,” he adds. The mood is indeed rather sombre among the BJP cadres in TN after the loss of Vijaykanth to the PWF, but in Kerala the party is raring to go. “Chances and prospects are bright,” says a laughing Rajasekharan. “The vote base has broadened and we will get 15 per cent vote share in Kerala. We can increase the vote base with the people who have come newly into the alliance. We can win most of the Assembly constituencies... more than 71 seats.” The battle for both these southern states is crucial for the BJP. The party is outnumbered in the Rajya Sabha, with flagship Bills being stalled with embarrassing regularity ever since it came to power at the Centre two years ago. Being able to boast a strong presence only in Karnataka among the five southern states, the national party is readying for a no-holdsbarred punch-up this May.
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sandhya ravishankar is an independent Chennai-based journalist
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Art and artifice As a recent Japanese metafictional novel proves, the age of AI (artificial intelligence) literature is upon us
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apan, the land where you can rent yourself to do with a popular fallacy: the notion that neural network, simply put, is a package of daa friend or even the occasional grandpar- linguistic and technological virtuosity are po- ta structures and programs that can study a ent, has now earned itself another notch lar opposites. [This is further bolstered by the large amount of text and form patterns of its on its cap. Among the longlisted novels for niggling concern that middle-class parents in own. In this case, the MIT research team bethe country’s prominent Nikkei Hoshi Shini- this country share: is my child more inclined hind Deep Drumpf seems to have fed the AI chi Literary Award was The Day A Computer towards the (mystical, impoverishing, femi- with just about everything Donald Trump has Writes A Novel. This piece of metafiction was nine) Arts rather than (pragmatic, lucrative, ever said on record. co-written by an AI (artificial intelligence), masculine) Science?] Last week, the AI tweeted: “Here is what’s gowhich did the ‘writing’ after its developers — Nothing, in fact, could be farther from the ing to happen, OK? I’ll get rid of the Senate. Anthey’re erudite voice in And Hitoshi Matsubara and his team at Future Uni- truth. We now know that linguistic prowess They don’t know what doing.” Bobbeeta versity Hakodate — set parameters for sen- has a high degree of correlation with all kinds here’s my favourite, apolitics tweet from March 31, Sharma (left) and tence construction and let the AI run wild, so of knowledge, really, but espewhich says: “Free can be Assam Chieftrade Minister to speak. cially fuzzy logic. All languages wonderfulTarun if you have the at power Gogoi (right) Guwahati launch The Day A Computer Writes A Novel was one of have structures: syntax, rules, of nucleartheweapons.” As people of Sharma’s book Themadtwo submissions from Matsubara and co for bits and pieces that can be taken who’ve followed Trump’s All languages Moving Image and the award, which has a blind reading process: apart and reverse-engineered. It cap march towards the White have bits and Assamese Culture ritu the judges do not know the identity of the au- should come as no surprise that House canrajtestify, konwar Deep Drumpf pieces that can be thor(s). The novel did not go on to win, but the the limits to what an AI can could have done far worse. taken apart and mere fact that it passed the first round of achieve by way of reading and And we can always do far betreverse-engineered screening, spread like wildfire these last cou- writing are being pushed every ter: Calvino seemed to think so, ple of weeks on the internet. No job is safe, op- day. at any rate. I’ve been thinking ed writers lamented. Why are we so disturbed Two intuitive programs tasted about his bleak view of the readby the idea of an AI producing literature, as op- Twitter notoriety last week. The ing population lately. He’s not far posed to, say, an AI controlling sophisticated first was an AI called Tay, a chatbot developed off the mark, one feels. Those who disagree are weaponry (which happens all the time, one by Microsoft, built to interact with millennials welcome to log on to botpoet.com and take might add)? using speech patterns on Twitter. It’s sufficient one of their “Bot or Not” quizzes, where you There are, I’d argue, two principal reasons to say that this linguistic experiment did not are challenged to guess whether a particular for this fear-and-loathing response. The first is end so well: Tay ended up taking a crash poem has been written by a human or generthe crudely deployed logic that robots or AIs course in everything reprehensible on the mi- ated via an algorithm. I scored a measly four he‘creative’ Assam elections are rifecro-blogging are no good for pursuits this suchyear as literalien to Assamese culture. Just asdenial? the AIDUFon 10, Moving androbotic Assamese Culture: Joymoti, site. Racism/Holocaust and I Image assigned origins to a Gerseveral AmongCheck. ature. I like to with call this brandspeculations. of logic the Small (The Homophobia All India Unitedand Democratic led byald Manley Jyotiprasad Agarwala casual Front, sexism? Hopkins poemand whileAssamese I was at it.Cinema, the city hotspots, Guwahati Wonder syndrome, after one of the East worst tele- Check Maulana Badruddin Ajmal) is a communal Do published Oxford Press. The and check. they makebyrobots thatUniversity can approximate constituency is onea of the highly The vision soaps ever made, wherein computer party spreading Islamic fundamentalism.” book won an ‘Honorable other star AI on Twitter is a neural net- a mixture of guilt and shame?Mention’ in the gencoveted onesawhere Siddhartha Bhattacharjee engineer builds humaniform child-robot for work called Apart Deep from Drumpf working (@DeepDrumpf). as a history lecturer A in eral non-fiction category at the 2014 London mani jha Regarding immigration, Sharof the Bharatiya Janata Party is ‘her’) in a face- Pandu College, Sharma has established heraditya his wife and names it (nopes, not(BJP) using Book Festival. offVicki withwas thethe young Congress candidate Vicki. projection of the optimis-Bob- own production house and produced, direct- ma stresses that the Congress party has done beeta Sharma. Thethat latter, say several observers ed and presented various programmes for its best by setting up tribunals to detect and tic-yet-fearful stance people had towards and experts, a more non-traditional track DDK Guwahati. Her serial titled Bidexot Apun deport foreigners and that the Tarun Gogoi the nascent field has of robotics, back in the 1980s. as far as political credentials go.But Which Manuh (Our Own People Abroad) on Assamese government has increased border fencing. It is record, supremely skilled at mechanical tasks. is one of every the reasons why, of her expats settled in countries such as the US, UK, pretty much scene in theirrespective series is about “When the Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) was is seen intellias an em- Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, in power in Assam at the same time the BJP oneparty joke: affiliations, the futility Sharma of an artificial pathetic, mature and creative resolve that the Thailand, Dubai, Netherlands and Germany, (NDA) was in power at the Centre, why didn’t gence trying to approximate human nature. state couldItalo use. Calvino felt that a lot of Conversely, has received widespread apprethey solve the issue then or take India is used to filmworked personalities and celeb- ciation, being one of the longflesh-and-blood writers like robots, any steps?” she asks. It is only an rities becoming politicalbestsellers. bigwigs. And al- est-running series on DDK churning out assembly-line election issue for them, she reitcomes a cultural capital Guwahati ( 2001-2009). yet, though even heSharma conceded thatwith to the consumer, erates. “During the last Lok Sabha As a young female of that her they profile more peopleit’s often all order, the same: are isincapable of Addressing issues of secularelections in 2014, Modi promised candidate with no friendly andbetween grassroots-oriented. Unlike In many ism and democracy, Sharma differentiating man and machine. to oust all illegal migrants from baggage of tinseltown-to-political-heat-and-dust stories, points out that Assam is a rehis novel If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, there’s Assam by May 16, 2014. What hapcorruption, Sharma is she offers her capabilities as awho woman and a gion that facilitates the peaceful a character called Ermes Marana, claims pened to that promise?” stirring up public socialdecoded worker in themethods service ofofher home state. co-existence of people from difto have the Silas FlanArmed with a lawyer’s backinterest Sharma hasbestselling been associated with the cultur- ferent faiths and beliefs, where nery, the world’s mystery novelist. ground, Siddhartha Bhattacharworld since sheOEPHLW was introduced The al name ofof hisAssam organisation, (Orga- as food habits, inter-cultural minjee of the BJP will perhaps need to a child in the author and film-maker nisation forartiste the Electronic Production of Hogling, festivals, and so on have find a different language for a dyBhabendra Nath Works), Saikia’s National mogenized Literary suggests Award-winthat he always been strikingly diverse, namic woman candidate the cafilm Anirban 1978. Since then, is inning possession of anin algorithm that canshe be has as opposed to other parts of India. “Assamese reworn Congress is pegging its hope on. in numerous films and television seri- culture is characterised by the Sankariya cul- Sanjoy Hazarika, professor at Jamia Milia Islausedacted to ‘write’ original Flannery novels. als. Shewrites: has also and English Calvino “A been teamaofpresenter ghost writers, exture of Srimanta Sankardeva (15-16th century), mia, and director, Centre for North East Studnewsreader forthe Doordarshan Kendra Guwahaperts in imitating master’s style in all its which is against the conservative character of ies and Policy Research, points out that it ti (DDK) Programme Production Centre Hinduism.” She refers to the progressive an- could be a tight race. “Bobbeeta Sharma is very nuances andand mannerisms is ready and waiting (North to stepEast). in and plug the gaps, polish and cient Vaishnava culture that embraces people smart, clear-headed and articulate, but pitted Commenting on the BJP’s on no Guwa- of all faiths and creeds in the state. complete the half-written textsthrust so that against an equally sharp and energetic fighati’s potential to become a “smart city”,by Sharreader could distinguish the parts written Sharma, as a young female candidate with ure.” Sharma says, “I have been in politics is a communal party no baggage of corruption or criminal charges, since the last 15 years. I was actively involved in onema handsays, from“The thoseBJP by another. (...) It seems by Nagpur Rashtriya thatcontrolled their contribution has(where alreadythe played a seems to be stirring up public interest. Her politics when I was made a spokesperson in Swayamsevak are locat- commitment towards cinema and the arts has 2002. He (Bhattacharjee) has no administraconsiderable part Sangh in ourheadquarters man’s most recent ed).” Bhattacharjee’s legal support to the al- got young voters taking note of her. Since tive experience.” production.” leged Saradha chit scamofalso paints a 2005, serving as the honorary chairperson of The second reason forfund our fear Japanese murky picture. According to Sharma, robot novelists is a little more subtle and has“the Assam State Film Finance and Development nabina das is a poet and fiction writer currently living in Hyderabad teaching creative writing at universities The Tolstoy What of if great works could and be manufactured at will? shutterstock Hindu nationalist party is trying to impose a Corporation Ltd, aalgorithm Government Assam un-of literature fundamentalist Hindutva agenda, which is dertaking, Sharma has authored a book, The and workshops
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Bobbeeta Sharma, a well-known name in Assamese television and films, now wants to make a mark as a legislator
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The rot stops here The country annually wastes about 40 per cent of its fruit and vegetable produce, valued at $8 billion. A handful of start-ups want to plug this loss with innovative cold-storage solutions
No spoilers A milk chilling unit installed by Promethean Power Systems at a village in Tamil Nadu; (below) co-founder Sorin Grama
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ach day, farmers deposit about 800 litres of milk at Heritage Dairy’s collection centre in Meerkhanpet village, near Hyderabad. Promethean Power System’s cold storage machine cools the milk in three minutes flat. In case of a power cut, the thermal battery gets into action, working without break to ensure the milk reaches the processing centre fresh and safe. Miles away in Pune, Marc Cremer and his workers at GreenTokri farms pack fresh lettuce leaves every morning for distribution to customers across the city. Cremer has invested in a cold storage machine, where lettuce from his farm goes directly after harvesting and is instantly cooled to 3°C before being packed into thermocol boxes with Cryo-Gel. So the salads arrive farm-fresh at the retail outlets at 3pm. The cold storage at GreenTokri greatly reduces wastage, an evil that plagues most of India’s farming sector. The world’s largest producer of milk and second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables annually wastes about 40 per cent of its fruit and vegetable produce, valued at $8 billion, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. While conventional cold storage services focus on transporting produce safely to the wholesalers or retailers, a handful of start-ups are keen on stemming the rot at the point of production to cut losses for the farmers. “The country has a big need for cold storage services, especially at the farm level,” says Sorin Grama, co-founder at Promethean Power Systems. Rajat Sethi, founder of Coolify, another start-up focused on reducing farm wastage, agrees on the need for services at a micro level. “After the harvest, a farmer has zero negotiating power. If you offer him even two to three days of storage, it becomes vital in negotiating a good deal.” Moreover, 80 per cent of farm cold storages in India stock only potatoes as they are ideal for inter-seasonal use and are easy to handle as
well. Other produce is literally left high and ational costs are much lower compared to dry. That gave rise to a requirement for standa- conventional technologies. “Most users can lone cold storage units, at low operating costs, recover investments in two to three years. run preferably on solar or other reasonably Each battery lasts seven years and can be refurpriced power, and equally capable of handling bished quite easily,” he adds. milk or fruits and vegetables. Cremer at GreenTokri agrees it’s a one-time Promethean began in 2007 by chilling and investment that saves on the expensive diesel preserving milk. Its cold storage units are otherwise needed to run a generator. “Even powered by a thermo battery, which stores farm workers can operate the unit easily. grid energy when available and releases it Promethean manufactures for the Inwhen unavailable. dia market at its Pune plant, using local The company so far has 160 installasuppliers. It currently produces 20-40 tions in India, mostly in the south. Its systems each month and can go up to major clients include Amul, Mother 50. “We are looking at expanding in Dairy and Hatsun Agro. It then venSouth India to be closer to some of tured to store fruits and vegetaour customers,” says Grama. bles. “Instead of cooling liquid, Overseas, the units are in dehere we are cooling the air and mand in Bangladesh and Sri keeping the temperature at Lanka. “Africa is generating a lot just 4-5 degrees centigrade to of enquiries,” Grama says. reduce spoilage.” ColdStar is focusing on the doShagun Kapur Gogia started mestic market initially and aims ColdStar in 2010 to offer an inteto handle thrice as much over the grated solution to reduce spoilage next 18 to 24 months. This will offer in the farm-to-fork supply chain. a larger supply network for the Insulation technology is used to end producer, Gogia says. keep the produce fresh. Despite the inherent potential, Coolify’s business model inthe cold-storage business in InAfter the harvest, a volves building, owning and opdia has not attracted private-secfarmer has zero erating micro units at farm level tor funds. Coolify has been negotiating power which farmers can pay to use. funded by the US Department of “We are looking to set up 3,000 Agriculture so far while Harvard units in three years,” says Sethi. Innovation Lab provided the Each unit costs ₹3.5-4 lakh and seed money. Promethean, too, recan be operated remotely by a central team. ceived funding from American investors. Sethi, a Harvard alumnus, is initially targeting “We got angel investors in 2007-08 before very specific export-oriented products such as the crash and it was easier to get money for cherry, lychees and wine. Farmers can save on clean technology,” says Grama. Now the comoperational costs; the basic charge is 50 paise pany is close to breaking even and seeks funds to stock one kilogram of produce at the site of to expand. Will local investors show interest in production. The charges vary based on the na- funding the likes of Coolify and Promethean? ture of produce, location and other factors. This has potential to rescue lakhs of farmers The target is to break even in three years. from the cold clutches of losses and poverty. Grama says that while such clean technology costs 20 per cent more to set up, the oper- rashmi pratap
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The beautiful The of Popain messTao called
Part novella, part poetry, part essay and part fable, Grief Is the Thing With Feathers is clearly without a linguistic form and structure — APPROACHING EYE LEVEL which, of course, becomes the USP of the book as one treads through the scattered narrative. Interspersed with large blank spaces, Porter tells the story of a grieving father, a Ted Hughes scholar, mourning the death of his wife, as his two sons cope to understand “that something was changed. We guessed and understood that this was a new life and Dad was a different type now and we were different boys, we were brave new boys without a Mum.” The husband of course expresses sparsely, and with restriction: “Today I got back to work. I managed half an hour then doodled. I drew a picture of the funeral. Everybody had crow faces, except for the boys.” When Sylvia Plath committed suicide, Hughes remained silent, at least in his work and poetry, for over 30 years. And then, in 1998, he published a collection of poems, Birthday Letters, in one of which he wrote to his son, Nicholas, that the only way he could deal with Plath’s death was by not writing about it directly but through other symbols, indirectly. Porter’s novel is an extrapolation of Hughes’s symbolism. The elemental crow finds expression as an intruder, as a therapist, as a loud cacophonous browbeater, and most importantly, as the writer’s parallel/alternate psyche. In Carl Jung’s words, the crow could be the unconscious speaking as fate; as the husband fails to express his grief in the longing for his freedom to write: “Put. Me. Down, I croaked and my piss warmed / the cradle of his wing”. “I do eat baby rabbits, plunder nests, swallow filth, cheat death,” replies Crow, boasting, “I’ve written hundred of memoirs. Live life kung fu-style Po, voiced by Jack Black, left, and his long-lost panda father Li, voiced by Bryan Cranston, in a scene from Kung Fu Panda 3 dreamworks animation via ap It’s necessary for big names like me, I believe it’s called the imperative.” The crow is stubloved the first two Kung Fu Panda movies ing humour in elevator pitches. You can talk hydraulic walls. born, ugly and dominating as it refuses to and went prepared to love the third part. about how you went to scuba dive school and I (and am sure, my friend A) have been adleave until it feels it isn’t needed anymore. The My love was not dashed. I felt the same the beauty of the sea and the meditation of the vised by well-meaning folks to take charge of bereaved husband, that way, can perhaps flipdelight I’d felt after the first and second dive, but not that for all but one dive you were my comportment to get ahead in life. No gigflop between being the father and the writer; movie. The only difference was that I finally utterly nauseous and cursing your best friend gling, for instance. In my home state Kerala, the weight of both being heavier now. So, to understood why I love Po. This is a panda that who came up with this stupid scheme. the most recommended way of expressing make it lighter and feather-like, Porter helps doesn’t take himself too seriously. (Is there a Pandas and other self-deprecators are okay your femininity is via what my friend M calls his character with the power of personificapanda who takes himself seriously?) He loves with being snubbed for their dumb jokes. dignikutty. It involves a lot of starch (real and tion: The crow ringing the door bell and the kung fu and is obsessed with it but his obses- Here is what is truly the worst fate. Someone metaphorical), the universal adoption of imhusband forced to greet it properly, “Hello sions don’t involve having a granite visage and taking you literally and believing that you are movable dupattas and an utterly calm manCrow, I said. Good to finally meet you.” By this, proclaiming, “I am Dragon Warrior, grr.” He a loser when you were telling your best comic ner in the face of any Tai Lung, Lord Shens or Porter reiterates an old saying: “Pain after all loves Kung fu but is not reciting his CV (I am story to break the social ice (which, now that even wannabe Dragon Warriors. It makes me demands to be felt.” the Dragon Warrior. In 2008, I destroyed Tai you think of it, would have reflinch as much as the thought of Another feature that adds to the lightness Lung The Leopard. In 2011, I got rid of Lord sponded better to a sledgehamChinese foot-binding does. of the book is the division of its voices and Shen The Peacock) the moment you meet him, mer. Or a CV.) Or when you tell It’s very hard not to feel in the points of view. The narrative, though scata danger I would never really worried about someone, “That’s such an amazface of the impeccable and the Nowadays I meet tered, cleverly shifts through the voices of the until recently. ing achievement! I don’t think well-groomed that you are utterly lots of people who Dad, the Boys and the Crow. As one talks of deA while ago I used to occasionally meet peo- I’d have the discipline,” and their wrong, not just about yourself tell me about the spair as an unbearable emptiness: “The house ple who told me the precise order that they lips curl. Don’t be so literal-mindbut also about everything that of viewsbecomes on On the wings of despair The elemental crow finds expression as an intruder, as a therapist, as anumber loud as physical encyclopaedia, of no wentcacophonous to the precise prestigious university. ed, high-achiever, you want to say you have worked for and obtheir TedX talks browbeater, and most importantly as the writer’s parallel/alternate psyche v ganesan longer-hers”, the others strew humour, mockNowadays I meet lots of people who tell me but history is full of literal-mindsessed about. Wouldn’t you trust ery and sometimes innocence into the idea of about the number of views on their TEDx talks. ed, high-achievers. And then you someone who seems utterly sure psychomanteum is a small dimly which most of them considered as the voice of absence and death: “Dad has gone. Crow is in I have roughly the same reaction — a desire to giggle because here you are in a of themselves over someone who lit chamber, or lit only by a candle the dead. In truth, they were speaking to the bathroom, where he often is because he shuffle sideways out of the room while simul- hilarious situation, again. giggles? My old talisman used to with a mirror angled so that it re- themselves to resolve their grief. likes the acoustics….[…]….He says SUDDEN. taneously telling an ant-and-elephant joke. The only thing that keeps me from despair be the memory of Will Smith’s character being flects nothing but darkness, intendMax Porter uses a similar techHe says TRAUMA. He says InNo, let me tell the truth. What I actually do is is that I still know a handful of people in simi- interviewed for a position in the secret agency ed to communicate with spirits of the dead. nique in his debut novel, Grief Is duced … he coughs and spits and shuffle sideways and tell an embarrassing sto- lar boats. My friend A is a very smart woman MIB. When another candidate is asked what he Developed by Raymond Moody (a psychia- the Thing With Feathers. Drawing tries again, INDUCED. ry about myself. Once when introduced to a ta- who has cut swathes through the corporate thought they were being interviewed for, he trist), as a psychospiritual medium of express- inspiration from Ted Hughes’s At several places, on re-readble full of high-powered young people who jungle. But, clearly, this is not something she’s responds: We’re here because you are looking ing grief, the psychomanteum was used famous collection of poems The crow is stubborn, ing, one also realises the fairywanted to know where I planned to do my dying to tell the world. Instead she will tellugly you andfor the best of the best of the best. The man dominating largely as a tool to help people struggling to ‘Crow: From the Life and Songs tale-like lightness of the book PhD, I said that I’d just about got my Master’s about the other day when she was walking who is become Agent Jay knows, of course, as it refuses toto leave deal with bereavement and loss. Subjects were of the Crow’, Porter brings the that everything would be fine by degree only because the faculty couldn’t face down the street between her brother and a itthat slick fellow candidate is clueless. Only until feelshis it isn’t asked to enter the chamber and gaze into the mythological character of the the end of it. Through exceptionanother year of having me. One of those high- friend, and then slipped out of sight. Because with better deportment. And tailored pants. needed anymore mirror to communicate with their deceased Crow to life. Beginning with al metaphors and semantics, powered young people said, “We are not inter- she had fallen down a manhole. Or she will tell I have a new talisman in the fat panda who loved ones. More than the actual spirits talk- Emily Dickinson’s “That Love is Max Porter successfully crafts ested in hearing about your failures.” He was you the story of accidentally flashing her col- is grateful to discover that he is not eating to ing to these people, Moody found the subjects’ all there is, / Is all we know of Grief Is the Thing With Feathers as a very young and still spoke the truth. Nowa- league a relatively naked photo of herself his full potential. I remind myself (to wholly own voices speaking to them — the alter ego. It Love;” as the epigraph where brilliant psychoanalytic piece of days he’d let his eyes glaze over and, to quote breastfeeding. She tells the story of how being make up a Po quote) that it’s okay if my chi is wasn’t important for the deceased spirit to de- one word in each line is struck fiction, and in most identifiable the Panda, say, ‘skadoosh!’ stuck between her boss and her client makes someone else’s chee-chee. scend, enter the mirror and talk to these peo- through and replaced by the word ‘Crow’, Por- spaces, a metafiction too. All around are people elevator-pitching her feel like the hero of those crime novels, at ple through the darkness. The mirror proved ter establishes a strong cacophony of rhymes, t@chasingiamb their life and there’s no time for self-deprecat- threat of being turned into chapati by killer to be a tool through which the subjects found lines and scattered narratives that runs gaurav deka is a Delhi-based writer and psychotherapist their own alter psyche speaking to them, through the novel.
When everyone is elevator-pitching their life, there’s no time for self-deprecating humour Max Porter’s debut novel follows a scholar who deals with his wife’s death through one of Ted Hughes’s poetic symbols: the Crow
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LIGHTHOUSE
What cricket can learn from economics That life is about negotiating scarce resources and that every decision carries an opportunity cost When a batsman shoulders arms to a ball outside off stump, that decision carries the opportunity cost of the runs that might have been scored off it. When he tries to drive it and instead edges it to slip, his action bears the opportunity cost of the runs he might have scored later had he not played that shot. These are opposite actions, and to evaluate which is appropriate in any situation, you need to consider the relative scarcities of time and resources. Now, here’s where it applies to T20 cricket. Each side gets 20 overs to bat instead of 50; but they still have 11 players! The balance between resources and time has shifted — but many teams haven’t adjusted to this. They apply the ODI innings-building template to T20s: hit out in the powerplay, taking care to consolidate if early wickets fall, then build the innings till the slog overs, then have a slog. This is wrong. It is a waste of resources — and it also allows the bowling side to allocate resources optimally, with specialist death bowlers bowling at the end. What would they do if every over was a slog over? Side order MS Dhoni knows all about cricket. But does he also know economics? pti/swapan mahapatra Teams should adjust to this new dynamic by ‘frontloading’ — a concept I first wrote about in this context a couple of years ago. They s there anything that cricket can learn Understanding opportunity cost is impor- should go for their strokes right from the from economics? Over the decade-and-a- tant because it helps us navigate the one fun- start. If catastrophe comes and four wickets half that I have written on both these damental truth about this world: scarcity. fall in the space of 10 balls, they can dial it back subjects, I’ve come to believe that under- Everything is scarce: there is never enough and look to bat all 20 overs so as not to waste standing and applying the principles of eco- money; or enough time; or enough energy. We the resource of time. nomics can enrich the way we live our lives. It have to negotiate scarce resources, which is The optimal approach in a T20 game is to follows, then, that all economic concepts can why all our decisions carry costs. treat your first three overs as if they’re the last also be applied to cricket. Cricket is no exception to three. On average you will make This is especially relevant at the time of writ- these laws of nature. Within a as many as you would in the last ing these words, when the Twenty20 World cricket match, there are two three. Sometimes you will click Cup has just ended. I was delighted that West kinds of scarcity that a captain or and the momentum continues. Both the finalists Indies deservedly won the cup; and saddened coach must contend with. One is Sometimes wickets will fall, and of this T20 World that a number of teams, including India, a scarcity of time. The match can you can adjust accordingly, and Cup frontloaded made basic errors because they did not under- only last either five days or 50 still not make less than you would their innings stand one fundamental economic concept: overs per side or 20 overs per have with the traditional strategy. opportunity cost. side. The second is a scarcity of Teams are wisening up to this, The term ‘opportunity cost’ was coined by resources. A team can only have and both the finalists of this T20 the 19th-century economist Friedrich von 11 players. World Cup frontloaded their inWieser, and its simplest definition is: “the loss Strategy in cricket boils down to negotiat- nings — though India did not, to my dismay. of other alternatives when one alternative is ing between these two constraints of time and (Consider the opportunity cost of the 35 balls chosen.” The online site Investopedia defines resources. For example, if a team needs 250 Ajinkya Rahane took to make his 40 in the it as “the cost of an alternative that must be runs to win a Test match with two full days in semi-final, given the line-up of power hitters forgone in order to pursue a certain action.” hand, and are 18 for 2 against fired-up new-ball who never got to bat. Also, think of the opporLet me illustrate that with an example. bowlers, they should be more worried about tunity cost of not utilising their hitting skills.) Say you step out of your office one muggy running out of batting resources than about As you can tell, I am a fan of T20 cricket. The evening, and have ₹300 in your pocket. You running out of time. That would be a good future of cricket lies in this format. Indeed, feel like having a refreshing frappé at a nearby time for careful consolidation. In contrast, in Test cricket might die out altogether, for reacafé; and you also feel like taking an AC cab an ODI, if a team needs 15 to win in one over sons that can be explained by economics. As home instead of your normal bus-train rou- with eight wickets in hand, they are running the number of options to spend our time keep tine. The thing is, you only have enough mon- out of time but not batting resources. This is a increasing, so does the opportunity cost of ey for one of them. So you go for immediate time to hit out and run for everything, and not Test cricket. What is five days worth to you? gratification and get that frappé. The opportu- to preserve wickets. t@amitvarma nity cost of the frappe is the cab ride home. Every decision carries an opportunity cost.
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Amit Varma is a novelist. He blogs at indiauncut.com
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he renowned Buddhist scholar Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan used to argue: “The masses want to forget Gandhi, but the government doesn’t allow him to be forgotten. And the government wants to forget Ambedkar, but the masses do not allow him to be forgotten.” Government after government with different ideologies — Right, Left, Centrist, Dravidian — had kept Bhim Rao Ambedkar in oblivion, although his photograph always appeared as a backdrop for their dais. He was reduced to the status of a ‘Dalit messiah’. A few progressive scholars did accept him as the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. However, some self-styled intellectuals could not accept even this little respect and wrote full-length books challenging his integrity and refuting his contribution to the Constitution [Arun Shourie’s Worshipping False Gods (1997); he went on to become a Cabinet Minister in the Vajpayee government]. In February 2000, the BJP-led NDA government appointed a ‘National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution’ by an executive order (the notification came on February 22). In fact, Kanshi Ram, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief at that time, had launched a national movement against this move, with the slogan “Samvidhan ke samman mein, BSP maidan mein” (The BSP battles to save the Constitution’s honour) on March 15 and kept it going for a year. Ambedkar was excluded from popular culture as well. Richard Attenborough blacked out Ambedkar from his legendary movie Man andthat superman Gandhi (1982). There is evidence but for Fanil Pandya’s ‘The Ambedkar, Gandhi wouldFlower not have taken Brothers’ andup the abolition of untouchability one of the (below)as Tashi Norbu’s ‘Discovery of Life’ agenda for social reform in India. But the ethnocentric Attenborough wasn’t satisfied. In 2000, Ambedkar’s birth centenary year, the s workmen rush to complete the incubate art ideas, mentor artists and intro- central and state governments co-funded a 5,000-plus sq ft basement gallery in duce the art-going public to new art. The idea film based on his life. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar the heart of Delhi’s Connaught is not to squeeze into an already existing was directed by Jabbar Patel and Place, the two co-founders, Tavleen space, but to create a place for the general went on to win three National Akoi-Gill and Amrita Varma, survey what will public to engage with art in a holistic manAwards, except in Maharashtra it soon become an art hub for ‘significant, ner,” says Varma. could not be screened for the Ambedkar was young and upcoming artists from India and Their opening exhibition, ‘Genesis: The Veil’, general public: no theatre owner excluded from the subcontinent’. The new gallery, located in is a group show featuring a mixture ofpopular well- culture was ready to screen the movie deNarain Manzil at Barakhamba Road, opened known and emerging names from India and spite its tax-free status. on April 9, with a group exhibition titled Gene- Asia. The colourful and attractive works by HoThe list of injustices is long; sis: The Veil. It is almost a tradition in the Cap- jat Amani combine calligraphy and collage however, the aforementioned ital that when one gallery closes another work to present a contemporary take on the episodes are sufficient to prove opens. Connaught Place was defined by the angel, a messenger of god whose presence the apathy of the mainstream. The question is, Religare Art Gallery, until it shut down in 2012. straddles several cultures and beliefs. Tashi why has the mainstream begun to recognise Now The Egg Art Studio will give the South Del- Norbu is a Tibetan currently working out of the relevance of Ambedkar today? hi crowd a new stopover for all things the Netherlands and he brings to the exhibiThe enduring appeal of Ambedkar art-related. tion a series of works that present in bright Mahajan, express themselves in a variety of Although parties, acade“We are planning to enliven the gallery with colours and contemporary visual language, styles andmainstream mediums —political from figurative to abmia and mediaoil-and-canvas remained indifferent to interactive events like art talks, open studios, the tantric interpretation of Buddhism, which stract art,thefrom to mixed Ambedkar and excluded him from educationinteractive installations, live paintings and a focuses on the male and female spirit as a con- media. Mahajan presents a piece that comal curricula on, they were always concafé besides the art exhibitions. Most impor- joined force. bines sound and and so visuals. scious about the of presents Ambedkar to tantly, it is aBahujan space for young artists to grow,”garlandKerala-born artist Shafi Therelevance exhibition a diIdle worship Samaj party workers in Bhopal a statue of BR Ambedkar on hisQubirth am faruqui anniversary on April 14, 2004 Dalits. They were wellset aware of thestylistically increasing says Akoi-Gill, whose early orientation to art raishy currently lives in Dubai. vergent of works, number of his followers, in India was through exposure to her great-aunt Amri- His minimalist works poignantspeaking. The both intention is to and oriabroad. They also saw the number of people ta Sher-Gil’s artwork. ly explore what it means to be a ent the viewer towards a slice of Shafi Quraishy’s tothe hisinternational statues in different partsflaof “Her passion, aesthetic and daring were in- ‘blue chip’ immigrant, where art pie, with minimalistthronging works country, on the occasion of his birth (April spiring for me. I have always hoped that Delhi the brain is just another com- explore whatthe vours and ingredients that draw it means 14), death (December 6) and conversion would have a space where an untrained eye modity to be marketed along a parallel with world cuisine. to to be a ‘blue chip’ Buddhism (falling on the thegoal festival of like mine can organically explore the love of with other ‘products’ in foreign Ultimately is to nurimmigrant Vijayadashami). art,” she adds. exchange. Natalya Natasha Manture artists over a period of years, However, for thethey pastreach two decades the elecVarma is known to the art world, having rineko is originally from Ukuntil their full potentronic media, a decade the for social had many years of experience as an arts advi- raine and now lives in Goa. Her tial,and andfor to create a space art media have made the masses sor and writer. She began working as gallery works, along with those of Venthat pushes out ofand thepoliticians mould, as realise that Ambedkar occupies a much manager at Art Motif, was the first editor of ugopal VG, also explore the themes of travel also develop a new collector base. Onlylarger time space inifthe Dalits and otherin marginalWall Art Magazine and Wall Art TV, and man- and migration. Artists Yogesh Mahida from will tell thelives duoof will be successful sustainisedtheir sections hadInpreviously aged Japa Arts, an arts advising firm. “I had Baroda and Manoj Dwivedi from Madhya Pra- ing venturethan in thethey long run. the meanthought. ‘ThetoGreatest Indian’ soon satiated myself with these projects and desh present sculptural works that are time, let’s For raiseinstance, our glasses a spanking new poll, sponsored by Reliance Mobile and conwas looking for something more. I had the ex- marked by themes of home and belonging, ur- gallery in the Capital. ducted by Outlook June to posure but wanted to collaborate with some- banism and nature. (Genesis: The Veil ismagazine on till Mayduring 9) one who had a fresh eye. Tavleen and I hope Delhi-based artists Anoop Kamat, Shampa August 2012, is one such survey which surmaddox is a Delhi-based art writerof votes prised many because of the number that the Egg Art Studio will become a space to Sircar Das, Rajiv Kumar, Ritu Kamat and Nikhil georgina
A new Delhi art gallery opens with a show that confronts divinity, belonging, immigration and the self
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On the eve of his 125th birth anniversary, it’s worth pondering why BR Ambedkar is more relevant to the mainstream today than he was 20 years ago
BL
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saturday, april 9, 2016
Ambedkar got. In fact, many Dalit intellecPICTURE THIS tuals argued that the survey was very cleverly designed. The survey had asked the pre-formulated question ‘Who is the greatest Indian after Gandhi’? Had they asked ‘Who is the greatest Indian?’, we have no doubt that the masses would have chosen Babasaheb Ambedkar as the greatest Indian”.
face in the 16th Lok Sabha is Mapanna Malli- Columbia University, Simon Fraser University, karjun Kharge, but even his popularity is most York University and in the United Nations apparent in the southern parts of the country. headquarters in New York. An Ambedkar chair Forget leadership, neither the Congress nor has been set up at Columbia University. Amthe BJP has ever appointed established Dalit bedkar Memorial Lectures have been set up in leaders as spokespersons. Under these circum- Calgary University and Manchester Metropolistances, there seems to be only one legitimate tan University. Even the UN is celebrating his path to attract aspirational Dalit youth to- 125th birth anniversary with a seminar, ‘Reducing Inequalities to achieve Sustainable Dewards your political party: Ambedkar. Dalits as political orphans velopment Goals for all: Dr Mainstream politicos need Another reason for Ambedkar’s increased rele- Ambedkar because their own Ambedkar’s contribution.’ Revance today is that mainstream political par- icons have been overemphasised searchers from around the ties think that Dalits are virtually political and have failed to deliver social world are engaged in studying orphans. To elaborate, they know that there is justice (especially the Gandhian Mainstream political Ambedkar’s thoughts [See The parties think that arunwho Farocki’s 1995 filmpresence. Workers concept of gram swaraj). The Political Philosophies of Antonio no Dalit leader has a pan-India Dalits are virtually Leaving Factory to is them namedafter for neo-liberal model of contempoGramsci and B. R. Ambedkar: ItinThis became more the apparent political orphans that in originary moment ofher cinema eraries of Dalits and Subalterns, Mayawati’s loss Uttar Pradesh and con- rary India has also not brought edited by Cosimo Zene (2013); 1895, ofHowever, men andCongress, women them any relief. The BJP’s icons finement tofrom UP politics. and Perry Anderson’s The Indian leaving Lumière factory in Lyons. The origBJP and the other political parties are aware that are not acceptable to Dalits beIdeology (2012)]. inal footage by the Lumière brothers there existswas anshot untapped assertive force cause of ideological reasons. Even South African politician to demonstrate cinema could capture among the Dalits,that because of their long histo- Hence, under these circumstancmovement. But Farocki, in hiswhich characteristic ry of independent assertion started es, Ambedkar’s thoughts on social justice have Thabo Mbeki, in his National Assembly speech on June 12, 2008, referred to Ambedkar’s fastyle, the entered into a sustained with Independent Labour engagement Party (ILP), become doubly attractive. mous November 26, 1949 speech on the conwith the subject. After a year-long to Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) andeffort RepubAmbedkar: A global citizen tradiction of democracy alongside nods to trackParty as many variants as started he could of this lican of India (RPI), all by Ambedtheme — workers leaving theirassertive workplace — he kar. Today, this independent force is The third reason behind Ambedkar’s resur- Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamaproduced an essayistic of political archival gence in national politics is his acceptance in tion and the French Revolution’s historic vileaderless. The questionassemblage before most footageisthat is both haunting parties simple: how to bringand thisplayful. vast mass international communities and institutions. sion of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. It was natural for the international commuOne their of thebanner? first things Farocki’s does is In the 21st century, with the process of globalunder It would havefilm been easy to show several clips of workers coming out isation, the digital revolution and trans-na- nity to recognise the relevance of Ambedkar had theyushad a Dalit face with a mass followof factories. almost once all, the with tionalism, Ambedkar has become a global because he had raised issues that were univering, which theInCongress hadspeed in Jagjivan whichBut they emerge is extraordinary. Often Ram. there is not even one Dalit leader to- citizen. His statue has been installed in Koya- sal in nature. These include establishment of theywith are that actually asappeal. if they would san University in Japan. Busts have been in- the individual as the centre of purpose; estabday kind running, of national rather be anywhere factory. For the Congress,other the than only the credible Dalit stalled in London School of Economics, lishment of equality, liberty, fraternity, social justice, rationality, secularism and so on The strike features occasionally. In an Amerthrough constitutional methods, which were ican film by DW Griffith, the confrontation bevalues of modernity that Ambedkar stood for tween workers and capitalists assumes the all his life. However, all this has become comface of civil war. An excerpt from a Soviet film The wheels are coming off A still from Rahul Roy’s The Factory mon knowledge only after globalisation. contains an exchange in song, a rhythmic all, cuts the Dalit those face-off between striking workers and the fac- hired bouncers. It was, they believe, a conspir- Above harsh pay — thediaspora, minimumespecially cut for one day in the UK, thewas US, Canada tory supervisor that’s almost gentle by con- acy to do away with the one member of man- living was ₹2,000, which a fourthand of aEuropean worker’s have made visible trast: “You’ve got us the piece of bread, but agement who had helped them organise, countries, monthly variable pay.Ambedkar If a man more missed four world.lose Under circumstances, where is the whole loaf?” while simultaneously framing them and de- around days, hethe would histhese entire variable pay, how can mainstream Indian society and poliFarocki points out that the moment when monising the union. which was half his salary. ignorebreaks him? and even toilet breaks were workers are leaving the factory produces, as at Harun Farocki’s film contains footage of a ticsLunch no other time, the feeling of a multitude: be- strike by English car workers in 1956. “The strictly policed. Mistakes on this punishing asPseudo-inclusivity cause of the simultaneity of their dismissal, workers’ disputes are far less violent than sembly line resulted in not just verbal tickingAmbedkar’s inclusion by the mainand the compression produced by the exits. those carried out in the name of the workers,” However, off and written complaints, but also humiliatstream is selective, without any reflexivity. It The film moves between images that suggest says the voice-over. ing physical punishments. to engage with his socio-ecothe oppressive squeezing of workers, and the Roy started shooting a year after the inci- doesn’t “It is awant common characteristic of all capitaland political ideology, withthe hisworker scathpotential power of their collectivity. dent, on July 18, 2013. He presents, without nomic ist production...” wrote Marx, “that Hinduism, hero worship in “Where the first camera once first stood, comment, the disproportionate increases in ing doescriticism not makeofuse of the working conditions. Indian politics, lack of Constitutional there are now hundreds of thousands of sur- salaries that framed the growThe and working conditions make morality in Indian There is no recogniveillance cameras,” says the voice-over in ing divide between labour and use ofsociety. the worker, but it takes mation of how he gave prominence fraternitya Workers Leaving the Factory. The technology of management. In 2007 a senior chinery to give thistoreversal and wanted that equality,concrete liberty and fraternifilm has taken its place on the side of capital. permanent worker at the Maruti technically form.” The The moment ty when should not be divorced from each “Most narrative films begin after work is factory earned ₹2.8 lakh annualrhythm of production on aother. conworkers areThey leaving only want his aura, By a few over,” the voice-over continues in this vein. ly. By 2013, he earns ₹3 lakh. veyor belt, his as charisma. Walter Benjamin activities in the nameout, of Ambedkar, the politi“Whenever possible, film has moved hastily Meanwhile, in 2007, the CEO the factory produces, pointed means that the artias at no other caltime, masters think theyworked can communicate a away from factories.” earned ₹47.3 lakh. By 2010, he cle being on comes into the feeling of a genuine concern for Dalits. However, the Farocki’s film (free to watch on Vimeo) was earned ₹2.45 crore. the worker’s range of action multitude ground reality, for both and Congress-led recently shown at Delhi’s Max Mueller Bhavan The film goes on to paint a dewithout hisBJPvolition, and moves governments,away is something different. alongside a recent Indian documentary called pressing picture, of a managefrom himentirely just as arbitrarily. There is an utter of self-representation of The Factory, directed by the filmmaker Rahul ment increasingly distant from In lack working with machines Dalits in governments and in party structures. Roy. The juxtaposition threw up interesting workers, while intent on apply(wrote Benjamin), workers learn No one fromto any party has “their spokenown out moveabout conjunctions, not least the fact that Roy never ing the greatest possible prescoordinate the increasing number of atrocities on moveDalits got to shoot inside the factory of his title. sure on them. ments with the uniformly constant country. The reason for this is not complicated. Roy’s Not allowed to film inside the factory, Roy across ments the of an automaton.” On the contrary, central film is a meticulously researched, disturbing melds archival footage and conversations “Workers changingthe shift in thegovernment film Metropto counter theequal RSS onstep,” issues like resaccount of the Maruti Suzuki case, in which with fired workers to recreate life on a produc- has olis.failed Uniform dress and announcTherefore, one can conclude that 147 workers from the automobile company’s tion floor where a new car was readied every ervation. es the voice-over in Harun Farocki’s film, asthe we mainstream political still in marchthe old factory in Manesar, Haryana, were arrested 45 seconds. watch that classic 1927parties visualare of bodies of a patron-client relationship, and imprisoned without bail for several years, Every group of workers in an automated as- mould ing in unison through the hellish corridorsthe of culture, without realising that now on charges that include arson and the murder sembly line is usually provided with one re- mai-baap Fritz Lang’s imagined dystopia. Heads droopnot only want a representation of their of a human resources manager called Avanish liever, a worker who can take over if another Dalits ing, movements robotically coordinated but they wantare self-representation as Kumar Dev. worker needs to go to the toilet or drink water aspirations, painfully slow: these human beings with well. theleached co-option may The Factory is told entirely through the eyes or simply take a few minutes’ break. their Hence, humanity outof ofAmbedkar them. tofuture the co-option Dalits of workers. The many dismissed workers Roy If earlier there was one ‘reliever’ for every 10 notIf necessarily this vision lead of the has not of come to general. speaks to suggest a grave miscarriage of jus- men, at Maruti it became one for every 25. Of- in pass, it seems to me, it has not been for lack of tice by the Maruti establishment, aided by the ten if a worker was absent, the reliever might trying. full might of the state: public prosecutor KPS be made to take his place, leaving the group vivek kumar is a professor of sociology at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems thebased School Social trisha gupta is a writer andand critic in of Delhi; Tulsi was paid ₹5.5 crore for this one case. The without a reliever. Jawaharlal Nehru University t@chhotahazri On the shoulders giantsdeath As a Dalit leader, Mayawati lack a pan-India appeal rajeevpenalised bhatt workers say thatofDev’s was caused by proved A to worker’s absence was with Sciences,
Filming the factory
Two engrossing documentaries — a German film from 1995 and an Indian one from 2015 — make for a bleak but thoughtful engagement with the figure of the factory worker
trisha gupta
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Fatal cracks The under-construction Vivekananda Road flyover was commissioned in 2007
Life after disaster Even as rescue operations were underway, a pall of gloom enveloped the accident site at night
Men at work The National Disaster Response Force was one of the earliest forces to arrive on the scene. The army was called in eventually
Passing the buck “It is nothing but God’s act,” claimed Panduranga Rao of the Hyderabad-based IVRCL Construction Company engaged to build the flyover
Lane logic One of the biggest challenges in the rescue operations was the navigation of cranes and larger machines through the crowded and narrow lanes of Burrabazar, one of the oldest and busiest parts of Kolkata
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On shaky ground The City of Joy is rudely jolted as a flyover collapses in the heart of a busy market Crushed The section of the collapsed flyover near Posta hangs precariously on a lorry trapped underneath it
All hands on deck Rescue workers had to cut through huge metal beams to pull out the survivors and the dead
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arch 31, 12.25pm. It was just another afternoon in the Central Kolkata neighbourhood of Burrabazaar, the crowded wholesale market that had grabbed headlines for a major fire outbreak barely four years ago. Unknown to the bustling crowds, yet another disaster was waiting to happen there — within seconds the unfinished Vivekananda Road flyover came crashing down on pedestrians and commuters. The number of dead, at last count, is 27, while the injured (some reports put the number at 90) are still recovering in hospitals across the city. Occuring as it did just days ahead of the first phase of Assembly elections in West Bengal, reports of gross negligence by the builders and political blame-gaming vitiated the atmosphere even as the army, along with members of the National Disaster Response Force and local residents, worked round-the-clock to rescue those trapped under the debris. Disturbing images of ‘disaster tourists’ — people flocking to the site to click selfies — surfaced on social media, drawing sharp criticism from people across the world. swastik pal is a Kolkata-based documentary photographer
Ironic words Certain sections of the flyover came shockingly close to adjacent buildings, with barely three feet separating them
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The egg has hatchedT
he renowned Buddhist scholar Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan used to argue: “The masses want to forget Gandhi, but the government doesn’t allow him to be forgotten. And the government wants to forget Ambedkar, but the masses do not allow him to be forgotten.” Government after government with different ideologies — Right, Left, Centrist, Dravidian — had kept Bhim Rao Ambedkar in oblivion, although his photograph always appeared as a backdrop for their dais. He was reduced to the status of a ‘Dalit messiah’. A few progressive scholars did accept him as the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. However, some self-styled intellectuals could not accept even this little respect and wrote full-length books challenging his integrity and refuting his contribution to the Constitution [Arun Shourie’s Worshipping False Gods (1997); he went on to become a Cabinet Minister in the Vajpayee government]. In February 2000, the BJP-led NDA government appointed a ‘National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution’ by an executive order (the notification came on February 22). In fact, Kanshi Ram, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief at that time, had launched a national movement against this move, with the slogan “Samvidhan ke samman mein, BSP maidan mein” (The BSP battles to save the Constitution’s honour) on March 15 and kept it going for a year. Ambedkar was excluded from popular culture as well. Richard Attenborough blacked out Ambedkar from his legendary movie Man andthat superman Gandhi (1982). There is evidence but for Fanil Pandya’s ‘The Ambedkar, Gandhi wouldFlower not have taken Brothers’ andup the abolition of untouchability one of the (below)as Tashi Norbu’s ‘Discovery of Life’ agenda for social reform in India. But the ethnocentric Attenborough wasn’t satisfied. In 2000, Ambedkar’s birth centenary year, the s workmen rush to complete the incubate art ideas, mentor artists and intro- central and state governments co-funded a 5,000-plus sq ft basement gallery in duce the art-going public to new art. The idea film based on his life. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar the heart of Delhi’s Connaught is not to squeeze into an already existing was directed by Jabbar Patel and Place, the two co-founders, Tavleen space, but to create a place for the general went on to win three National Akoi-Gill and Amrita Varma, survey what will public to engage with art in a holistic manAwards, except in Maharashtra it soon become an art hub for ‘significant, ner,” says Varma. could not be screened for the Ambedkar was young and upcoming artists from India and Their opening exhibition, ‘Genesis: The Veil’, general public: no theatre owner excluded from the subcontinent’. The new gallery, located in is a group show featuring a mixture of well- culture was ready to screen the movie depopular Narain Manzil at Barakhamba Road, opened known and emerging names from India and spite its tax-free status. on April 9, with a group exhibition titled Gene- Asia. The colourful and attractive works by HoThe list of injustices is long; sis: The Veil. It is almost a tradition in the Cap- jat Amani combine calligraphy and collage however, the aforementioned ital that when one gallery closes another work to present a contemporary take on the episodes are sufficient to prove opens. Connaught Place was defined by the angel, a messenger of god whose presence the apathy of the mainstream. The question is, Religare Art Gallery, until it shut down in 2012. straddles several cultures and beliefs. Tashi why has the mainstream begun to recognise Now The Egg Art Studio will give the South Del- Norbu is a Tibetan currently working out of the relevance of Ambedkar today? hi crowd a new stopover for all things the Netherlands and he brings to the exhibiThe enduring appeal of Ambedkar art-related. tion a series of works that present in bright Mahajan, express themselves in a variety of Although parties, acade“We are planning to enliven the gallery with colours and contemporary visual language, styles andmainstream mediums —political from figurative to abmia and thefrom mediaoil-and-canvas remained indifferent to interactive events like art talks, open studios, the tantric interpretation of Buddhism, which stract art, to mixed Ambedkar and excluded him from educationinteractive installations, live paintings and a focuses on the male and female spirit as a con- media. Mahajan presents a piece that comal curricula on, they were always concafé besides the art exhibitions. Most impor- joined force. bines soundand and so visuals. scious about the of presents Ambedkar to tantly, it is aBahujan space for young artists to grow,”garlandKerala-born artist Shafi Therelevance exhibition a diIdle worship Samaj party workers in Bhopal a statue of BR Ambedkar on hisQubirth am faruqui anniversary on April 14, 2004 Dalits. They were wellset aware of thestylistically increasing says Akoi-Gill, whose early orientation to art raishy currently lives in Dubai. vergent of works, number of his followers, in India was through exposure to her great-aunt Amri- His minimalist works poignantspeaking. The both intention is to and oriabroad. They also saw the number of people ta Sher-Gil’s artwork. ly explore what it means to be a ent the viewer towards a slice of Shafi Quraishy’s tothe hisinternational statues in different partsflaof “Her passion, aesthetic and daring were in- ‘blue chip’ immigrant, where art pie, with minimalistthronging works country, on the occasion of his birth (April spiring for me. I have always hoped that Delhi the brain is just another com- explore whatthe vours and ingredients that draw it means 14),chip’ death (December 6) and conversion would have a space where an untrained eye modity to be marketed along a parallel with world cuisine. to to be a ‘blue Buddhism (falling on the thegoal festival of like mine can organically explore the love of with other ‘products’ in foreign Ultimately is to nurimmigrant Vijayadashami). art,” she adds. exchange. Natalya Natasha Manture artists over a period of years, However, for thethey pastreach two decades the elecVarma is known to the art world, having rineko is originally from Ukuntil their full potentronic media, and a decade the for social had many years of experience as an arts advi- raine and now lives in Goa. Her tial, andfor to create a space art media have made the masses sor and writer. She began working as gallery works, along with those of Venthat pushes out ofand thepoliticians mould, as realise that Ambedkar occupies a much manager at Art Motif, was the first editor of ugopal VG, also explore the themes of travel also develop a new collector base. Onlylarger time space inifthe Dalits and otherin marginalWall Art Magazine and Wall Art TV, and man- and migration. Artists Yogesh Mahida from will tell thelives duoof will be successful sustainisedtheir sections hadInpreviously aged Japa Arts, an arts advising firm. “I had Baroda and Manoj Dwivedi from Madhya Pra- ing venturethan in thethey long run. the meanthought. ‘ThetoGreatest Indian’ soon satiated myself with these projects and desh present sculptural works that are time, let’sFor raiseinstance, our glasses a spanking new poll, sponsored by Reliance Mobile and conwas looking for something more. I had the ex- marked by themes of home and belonging, ur- gallery in the Capital. ducted by Outlook June to posure but wanted to collaborate with some- banism and nature. (Genesis: The Veil ismagazine on till Mayduring 9) one who had a fresh eye. Tavleen and I hope Delhi-based artists Anoop Kamat, Shampa August 2012, is one such survey which surmaddox is a Delhi-based art writerof votes prised many because of the number that the Egg Art Studio will become a space to Sircar Das, Rajiv Kumar, Ritu Kamat and Nikhil georgina
A new Delhi art gallery opens with a show that confronts divinity, belonging, immigration and the self
A
Q R
Q
Resurgence R of an icon
ND-X _ A
On the eve of his 125th birth anniversary, it’s worth pondering why BR Ambedkar is more relevant to the mainstream today than he was 20 years ago
BL
watch cover
saturday, april 9, 2016
Ambedkar got. In fact, many Dalit intellecPICTURE THIS tuals argued that the survey was very cleverly designed. The survey had asked the pre-formulated question ‘Who is the greatest Indian after Gandhi’? Had they asked ‘Who is the greatest Indian?’, we have no doubt that the masses would have chosen Babasaheb Ambedkar as the greatest Indian”.
face in the 16th Lok Sabha is Mapanna Malli- Columbia University, Simon Fraser University, karjun Kharge, but even his popularity is most York University and in the United Nations apparent in the southern parts of the country. headquarters in New York. An Ambedkar chair Forget leadership, neither the Congress nor has been set up at Columbia University. Amthe BJP has ever appointed established Dalit bedkar Memorial Lectures have been set up in leaders as spokespersons. Under these circum- Calgary University and Manchester Metropolistances, there seems to be only one legitimate tan University. Even the UN is celebrating his path to attract aspirational Dalit youth to- 125th birth anniversary with a seminar, ‘Reducing Inequalities to achieve Sustainable Dewards your political party: Ambedkar. Dalits as political orphans velopment Goals for all: Dr Mainstream politicos need Another reason for Ambedkar’s increased rele- Ambedkar because their own Ambedkar’s contribution.’ Revance today is that mainstream political par- icons have been overemphasised searchers from around the ties think that Dalits are virtually political and have failed to deliver social world are engaged in studying orphans. To elaborate, they know that there is justice (especially the Gandhian Mainstream political Ambedkar’s thoughts [See The parties think that arunwho Farocki’s 1995 filmpresence. Workers concept of gram swaraj). The Political Philosophies of Antonio no Dalit leader has a pan-India Dalits are virtually Leaving Factory to is them namedafter for neo-liberal model of contempoGramsci and B. R. Ambedkar: ItinThis became more the apparent political orphans that in originary moment ofher cinema eraries of Dalits and Subalterns, Mayawati’s loss Uttar Pradesh and con- rary India has also not brought edited by Cosimo Zene (2013); 1895, ofHowever, men andCongress, women them any relief. The BJP’s icons finement tofrom UP politics. and Perry Anderson’s The Indian leaving Lumière factory in Lyons. The origBJP andthe other political parties are aware that are not acceptable to Dalits beIdeology (2012)]. inal footage by the Lumière brothers there existswas anshot untapped assertive force cause of ideological reasons. Even South African politician to demonstrate cinema could capture among the Dalits,that because of their long histo- Hence, under these circumstancmovement. But Farocki, in hiswhich characteristic ry of independent assertion started es, Ambedkar’s thoughts on social justice have Thabo Mbeki, in his National Assembly speech on June 12, 2008, referred to Ambedkar’s fastyle, the entered into a sustained with Independent Labour engagement Party (ILP), become doubly attractive. mous November 26, 1949 speech on the conwith the subject. After a year-long to Scheduled Castes Federation (SCF) andeffort RepubAmbedkar: A global citizen tradiction of democracy alongside nods to track Party as many variants as started he could of this lican of India (RPI), all by Ambedtheme — workers leaving theirassertive workplace — he kar. Today, this independent force is The third reason behind Ambedkar’s resur- Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamaproduced an essayistic of political archival gence in national politics is his acceptance in tion and the French Revolution’s historic vileaderless. The questionassemblage before most footageisthat is both haunting playful. parties simple: how to bringand this vast mass international communities and institutions. sion of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. It was natural for the international commuOne their of thebanner? first things Farocki’s does is In the 21st century, with the process of globalunder It would havefilm been easy to show several clips of workers coming out isation, the digital revolution and trans-na- nity to recognise the relevance of Ambedkar had theyushad a Dalit face with a mass followof factories. almost once all, the with tionalism, Ambedkar has become a global because he had raised issues that were univering, which theInCongress hadspeed in Jagjivan whichBut they emerge is extraordinary. Often Ram. there is not even one Dalit leader to- citizen. His statue has been installed in Koya- sal in nature. These include establishment of theywith are that actually asappeal. if they would san University in Japan. Busts have been in- the individual as the centre of purpose; estabday kind running, of national rather be anywhere factory. For the Congress,other the than only the credible Dalit stalled in London School of Economics, lishment of equality, liberty, fraternity, social justice, rationality, secularism and so on The strike features occasionally. In an Amerthrough constitutional methods, which were ican film by DW Griffith, the confrontation bevalues of modernity that Ambedkar stood for tween workers and capitalists assumes the all his life. However, all this has become comface of civil war. An excerpt from a Soviet film The wheels are coming off A still from Rahul Roy’s The Factory mon knowledge only after globalisation. contains an exchange in song, a rhythmic all, cuts the Dalit those face-off between striking workers and the fac- hired bouncers. It was, they believe, a conspir- Above harsh pay — thediaspora, minimumespecially cut for one day in the UK, thewas US, Canada tory supervisor that’s almost gentle by con- acy to do away with the one member of man- living was ₹2,000, which a fourthand of aEuropean worker’s have made visible trast: “You’ve got us the piece of bread, but agement who had helped them organise, countries, monthly variable pay.Ambedkar If a man more missed four world.lose Under circumstances, where is the whole loaf?” while simultaneously framing them and de- around days, hethe would his these entire variable pay, how can mainstream Indian society and poliFarocki points out that the moment when monising the union. which was half his salary. ignorebreaks him? and even toilet breaks were workers are leaving the factory produces, as at Harun Farocki’s film contains footage of a ticsLunch no other time, the feeling of a multitude: be- strike by English car workers in 1956. “The strictly policed. Mistakes on this punishing asPseudo-inclusivity cause of the simultaneity of their dismissal, workers’ disputes are far less violent than sembly line resulted in not just verbal tickingAmbedkar’s inclusion by the mainand the compression produced by the exits. those carried out in the name of the workers,” However, off and written complaints, but also humiliatstream is selective, without any reflexivity. It The film moves between images that suggest says the voice-over. ing physical punishments. to engage with his socio-ecothe oppressive squeezing of workers, and the Roy started shooting a year after the inci- doesn’t “It is awant common characteristic of all capitaland political ideology, withthe hisworker scathpotential power of their collectivity. dent, on July 18, 2013. He presents, without nomic ist production...” wrote Marx, “that Hinduism, hero conditions. worship in “Where the first camera once first stood, comment, the disproportionate increases in ing doescriticism not makeofuse of the working Indian politics, lack of Constitutional there are now hundreds of thousands of sur- salaries that framed the growThe and working conditions make morality in Indian There is no recogniveillance cameras,” says the voice-over in ing divide between labour and use ofsociety. the worker, but it takes mation of how he gave prominence fraternitya Workers Leaving the Factory. The technology of management. In 2007 a senior chinery to give thistoreversal and wanted that equality,concrete liberty and fraternifilm has taken its place on the side of capital. permanent worker at the Maruti technically form.” The The moment ty when should not be divorced from each “Most narrative films begin after work is factory earned ₹2.8 lakh annualrhythm of production on aother. conworkers areThey leaving only want his aura, By a few over,” the voice-over continues in this vein. ly. By 2013, he earns ₹3 lakh. veyor belt, his as charisma. Walter Benjamin activities in the nameout, of Ambedkar, the politi“Whenever possible, film has moved hastily Meanwhile, in 2007, the CEO the factory produces, pointed means that the artias at no other caltime, masters cle think theyworked can communicate away from factories.” earned ₹47.3 lakh. By 2010, he being on comes intoa the feeling of a genuine concern for Dalits. However, the Farocki’s film (free to watch on Vimeo) was earned ₹2.45 crore. the worker’s range of action multitude ground reality, for both and Congress-led recently shown at Delhi’s Max Mueller Bhavan The film goes on to paint a dewithout hisBJPvolition, and moves governments,away is something different. alongside a recent Indian documentary called pressing picture, of a managefrom himentirely just as arbitrarily. There is an utter of self-representation of The Factory, directed by the filmmaker Rahul ment increasingly distant from In lack working with machines Dalits in governments and in party structures. Roy. The juxtaposition threw up interesting workers, while intent on apply(wrote Benjamin), workers learn No one fromto any party has “their spokenown out moveabout conjunctions, not least the fact that Roy never ing the greatest possible prescoordinate the increasing number of atrocities on moveDalits got to shoot inside the factory of his title. sure on them. ments with the uniformly constant country. The reason for this is not complicated. Roy’s Not allowed to film inside the factory, Roy across ments the of an automaton.” On the contrary, central film is a meticulously researched, disturbing melds archival footage and conversations “Workers changingthe shift in thegovernment film Metropto counter theequal RSS on issues like resaccount of the Maruti Suzuki case, in which with fired workers to recreate life on a produc- has olis. failed Uniform dress and step,” announcTherefore, one can conclude that 147 workers from the automobile company’s tion floor where a new car was readied every ervation. es the voice-over in Harun Farocki’s film, asthe we mainstream political still in marchthe old factory in Manesar, Haryana, were arrested 45 seconds. watch that classic 1927parties visual are of bodies of a patron-client relationship, and imprisoned without bail for several years, Every group of workers in an automated as- mould ing in unison through the hellish corridorsthe of culture, without realising that now on charges that include arson and the murder sembly line is usually provided with one re- mai-baap Fritz Lang’s imagined dystopia. Heads droopnot only want a representation of their of a human resources manager called Avanish liever, a worker who can take over if another Dalits ing, movements robotically coordinated but they want as Kumar Dev. worker needs to go to the toilet or drink water aspirations, painfully slow: these areself-representation human beings with well. Hence, theleached co-option may The Factory is told entirely through the eyes or simply take a few minutes’ break. their humanity outof of Ambedkar them. tofuture the co-option Dalits of workers. The many dismissed workers Roy If earlier there was one ‘reliever’ for every 10 notIf necessarily this vision lead of the has not of come to general. speaks to suggest a grave miscarriage of jus- men, at Maruti it became one for every 25. Of- in pass, it seems to me, it has not been for lack of tice by the Maruti establishment, aided by the ten if a worker was absent, the reliever might trying. full might of the state: public prosecutor KPS be made to take his place, leaving the group vivek kumar is a professor of sociology at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems thebased School Social trisha gupta is a writer andand critic in of Delhi; Tulsi was paid ₹5.5 crore for this one case. The without a reliever. Jawaharlal Nehru University t@chhotahazri On the shoulders giantsdeath As a Dalit leader, Mayawati lack a pan-India appeal rajeevpenalised bhatt workers say thatofDev’s was caused by proved A to worker’s absence was with Sciences,
Filming the factory
Two engrossing documentaries — a German film from 1995 and an Indian one from 2015 — make for a bleak but thoughtful engagement with the figure of the factory worker
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The beautiful The of Popain messTao called
Part novella, part poetry, part essay and part fable, Grief Is the Thing With Feathers is clearly without a linguistic form and structure — APPROACHING EYE LEVEL which, of course, becomes the USP of the book as one treads through the scattered narrative. Interspersed with large blank spaces, Porter tells the story of a grieving father, a Ted Hughes scholar, mourning the death of his wife, as his two sons cope to understand “that something was changed. We guessed and understood that this was a new life and Dad was a different type now and we were different boys, we were brave new boys without a Mum.” The husband of course expresses sparsely, and with restriction: “Today I got back to work. I managed half an hour then doodled. I drew a picture of the funeral. Everybody had crow faces, except for the boys.” When Sylvia Plath committed suicide, Hughes remained silent, at least in his work and poetry, for over 30 years. And then, in 1998, he published a collection of poems, Birthday Letters, in one of which he wrote to his son, Nicholas, that the only way he could deal with Plath’s death was by not writing about it directly but through other symbols, indirectly. Porter’s novel is an extrapolation of Hughes’s symbolism. The elemental crow finds expression as an intruder, as a therapist, as a loud cacophonous browbeater, and most importantly, as the writer’s parallel/alternate psyche. In Carl Jung’s words, the crow could be the unconscious speaking as fate; as the husband fails to express his grief in the longing for his freedom to write: “Put. Me. Down, I croaked and my piss warmed / the cradle of his wing”. “I do eat baby rabbits, plunder nests, swallow filth, cheat death,” replies Crow, boasting, “I’ve written hundred of memoirs. Live life kung fu-style Po, voiced by Jack Black, left, and his long-lost panda father Li, voiced by Bryan Cranston, in a scene from Kung Fu Panda 3 dreamworks animation via ap It’s necessary for big names like me, I believe it’s called the imperative.” The crow is stubloved the first two Kung Fu Panda movies ing humour in elevator pitches. You can talk hydraulic walls. born, ugly and dominating as it refuses to and went prepared to love the third part. about how you went to scuba dive school and I (and am sure, my friend A) have been adleave until it feels it isn’t needed anymore. The My love was not dashed. I felt the same the beauty of the sea and the meditation of the vised by well-meaning folks to take charge of bereaved husband, that way, can perhaps flipdelight I’d felt after the first and second dive, but not that for all but one dive you were my comportment to get ahead in life. No gigflop between being the father and the writer; movie. The only difference was that I finally utterly nauseous and cursing your best friend gling, for instance. In my home state Kerala, the weight of both being heavier now. So, to understood why I love Po. This is a panda that who came up with this stupid scheme. the most recommended way of expressing make it lighter and feather-like, Porter helps doesn’t take himself too seriously. (Is there a Pandas and other self-deprecators are okay your femininity is via what my friend M calls his character with the power of personificapanda who takes himself seriously?) He loves with being snubbed for their dumb jokes. dignikutty. It involves a lot of starch (real and tion: The crow ringing the door bell and the kung fu and is obsessed with it but his obses- Here is what is truly the worst fate. Someone metaphorical), the universal adoption of imhusband forced to greet it properly, “Hello sions don’t involve having a granite visage and taking you literally and believing that you are movable dupattas and an utterly calm manCrow, I said. Good to finally meet you.” By this, proclaiming, “I am Dragon Warrior, grr.” He a loser when you were telling your best comic ner in the face of any Tai Lung, Lord Shens or Porter reiterates an old saying: “Pain after all loves Kung fu but is not reciting his CV (I am story to break the social ice (which, now that even wannabe Dragon Warriors. It makes me demands to be felt.” the Dragon Warrior. In 2008, I destroyed Tai you think of it, would have reflinch as much as the thought of Another feature that adds to the lightness Lung The Leopard. In 2011, I got rid of Lord sponded better to a sledgehamChinese foot-binding does. of the book is the division of its voices and Shen The Peacock) the moment you meet him, mer. Or a CV.) Or when you tell It’s very hard not to feel in the points of view. The narrative, though scata danger I would never really worried about someone, “That’s such an amazface of the impeccable and the Nowadays I meet tered, cleverly shifts through the voices of the until recently. ing achievement! I don’t think well-groomed that you are utterly lots of people who Dad, the Boys and the Crow. As one talks of deA while ago I used to occasionally meet peo- I’d have the discipline,” and their wrong, not just about yourself tell me about the spair as an unbearable emptiness: “The house ple who told me the precise order that they lips curl. Don’t be so literal-mindbut also about everything that of viewsbecomes on On the wings of despair The elemental crow finds expression as an intruder, as a therapist, as anumber loud as physical encyclopaedia, of no wentcacophonous to the precise prestigious university. ed, high-achiever, you want to say you have worked for and obtheir TedX talks browbeater, and most importantly as the writer’s parallel/alternate psyche v ganesan longer-hers”, the others strew humour, mockNowadays I meet lots of people who tell me but history is full of literal-mindsessed about. Wouldn’t you trust ery and sometimes innocence into the idea of about the number of views on their TEDx talks. ed, high-achievers. And then you someone who seems utterly sure psychomanteum is a small dimly which most of them considered as the voice of absence and death: “Dad has gone. Crow is in I have roughly the same reaction — a desire to giggle because here you are in a of themselves over someone who lit chamber, or lit only by a candle the dead. In truth, they were speaking to the bathroom, where he often is because he shuffle sideways out of the room while simul- hilarious situation, again. giggles? My old talisman used to with a mirror angled so that it re- themselves to resolve their grief. likes the acoustics….[…]….He says SUDDEN. taneously telling an ant-and-elephant joke. The only thing that keeps me from despair be the memory of Will Smith’s character being flects nothing but darkness, intendMax Porter uses a similar techHe says TRAUMA. He says InNo, let me tell the truth. What I actually do is is that I still know a handful of people in simi- interviewed for a position in the secret agency ed to communicate with spirits of the dead. nique in his debut novel, Grief Is duced … he coughs and spits and shuffle sideways and tell an embarrassing sto- lar boats. My friend A is a very smart woman MIB. When another candidate is asked what he Developed by Raymond Moody (a psychia- the Thing With Feathers. Drawing tries again, INDUCED. ry about myself. Once when introduced to a ta- who has cut swathes through the corporate thought they were being interviewed for, he trist), as a psychospiritual medium of express- inspiration from Ted Hughes’s At several places, on re-readble full of high-powered young people who jungle. But, clearly, this is not something she’s responds: We’re here because you are looking ing grief, the psychomanteum was used famous collection of poems The crow is stubborn, ing, one also realises the fairywanted to know where I planned to do my dying to tell the world. Instead she will tellugly you andfor the best of the best of the best. The man dominating largely as a tool to help people struggling to ‘Crow: From the Life and Songs tale-like lightness of the book PhD, I said that I’d just about got my Master’s about the other day when she was walking who is become Agent Jay knows, of course, as it refuses toto leave deal with bereavement and loss. Subjects were of the Crow’, Porter brings the that everything would be fine by degree only because the faculty couldn’t face down the street between her brother and a it that slick fellow candidate is clueless. Only until feelshis it isn’t asked to enter the chamber and gaze into the mythological character of the the end of it. Through exceptionanother year of having me. One of those high- friend, and then slipped out of sight. Because with better deportment. And tailored pants. needed anymore mirror to communicate with their deceased Crow to life. Beginning with al metaphors and semantics, powered young people said, “We are not inter- she had fallen down a manhole. Or she will tell I have a new talisman in the fat panda who loved ones. More than the actual spirits talk- Emily Dickinson’s “That Love is Max Porter successfully crafts ested in hearing about your failures.” He was you the story of accidentally flashing her col- is grateful to discover that he is not eating to ing to these people, Moody found the subjects’ all there is, / Is all we know of Grief Is the Thing With Feathers as a very young and still spoke the truth. Nowa- league a relatively naked photo of herself his full potential. I remind myself (to wholly own voices speaking to them — the alter ego. It Love;” as the epigraph where brilliant psychoanalytic piece of days he’d let his eyes glaze over and, to quote breastfeeding. She tells the story of how being make up a Po quote) that it’s okay if my chi is wasn’t important for the deceased spirit to de- one word in each line is struck fiction, and in most identifiable the Panda, say, ‘skadoosh!’ stuck between her boss and her client makes someone else’s chee-chee. scend, enter the mirror and talk to these peo- through and replaced by the word ‘Crow’, Por- spaces, a metafiction too. All around are people elevator-pitching her feel like the hero of those crime novels, at ple through the darkness. The mirror proved ter establishes a strong cacophony of rhymes, t@chasingiamb their life and there’s no time for self-deprecat- threat of being turned into chapati by killer to be a tool through which the subjects found lines and scattered narratives that runs gaurav deka is a Delhi-based writer and psychotherapist their own alter psyche speaking to them, through the novel.
When everyone is elevator-pitching their life, there’s no time for self-deprecating humour Max Porter’s debut novel follows a scholar who deals with his wife’s death through one of Ted Hughes’s poetic symbols: the Crow
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bution verbs “full of steroids”. Why go with a simple ‘said’ when you can have characters ‘gasp’, ‘stammer’, ‘wheeze’, or even (heaven LIGHTHOUSE forbid) ‘ejaculate’? “Well-crafted dialogue will indicate if a character is smart or dumb, honest or dishonest, amusing or an old sobersides,” King goes on. “Good dialogue, such as that written by George Higgins, Peter Straub or Graham Greene, is a delight to read; bad dialogue is deadly.” If it weren’t for the chance recommendation by a good friend a few years back, I would never have stumbled upon the dialogic delights of the American crime writer Robert B Parker, and in particular those featuring the Boston private detective Spenser. With his smartass comebacks, pared-to-the-bone-marrow dialogue, and humour so dry and gritty you could sandpaper wood with it, Spenser is the natural heir to that quintessential hardboiled detective Philip Marlowe. It’s no coinciWhen a batsman shoulders arms to a ball outdence that both bear the names of side off stump, that decision carries the opporElizabethan poets — for these are no mere tunity cost of the runs that might have been thugs, but men for whom words are as every scored off it. When he tries to drive it and inbit as deadly as the pistols in their pockets. stead edges it to slip, his action bears the opPoodle Springs, Raymond Chandler’s last portunity cost of the runs he might have Marlowe novel, left unfinished at his death in scored later had he not played that shot. These 1959, was completed and published 40 years are opposite actions, and to evaluate which is later by Parker, who went on to produce, a few appropriate in any situation, you need to conyears later, the sequel to Chandler’s classic The sider the relative scarcities of time and Big Sleep, entitled (in homage to the most faresources. mous Elizabethan poet of them all) Perchance Now, here’s where it applies to T20 cricket. to Dream. Each side gets 20 overs to bat instead of 50; but I haven’t actually examined every page of they still have 11 players! The balance between every Parker (there are 40 Spenser novels resources and time has shifted — but many alone, and life is short), but I don’t think he achaven’t adjusted to this. They apply the Kill the adverb According to Stephen King, “to write adverbs is human, to write he said or she said is divine” teams tually ever uses a single adverb to qualify diaODI innings-building template to T20s: hit out logue attribution. Take this typical exchange in the powerplay, taking care to consolidate if between Spenser and his African-American ON THE SHELF early wickets fall, then build the innings till right-hand man, Hawk: the slog overs, then have a slog. This is wrong. “I’m working on a case. You’re my trusty It is a waste of resources — and it also allows sidekick.” the bowling side to allocate resources opti“Long as I don’t have to call you Kemo Sabe.” mally, with specialist death bowlers bowling “Ever wonder what that meant?” I said. at the end. What would they do if every over “I always thought it meant Paleface was a slog over? Mother****er.” Side order MS Dhoni knows all about cricket. But does he also know economics? pti/swapan mahapatra Teams should adjust to this new dynamic by “That’s probably it.” ‘frontloading’ — a concept I first wrote about If Stephen King is right, that “to write adin this context a couple of years ago. They verbs is human, to write he said or she said is s there anything that cricket can learn Understanding opportunity cost is impor- should go for their strokes right from the divine,” then Parker is, basically, God. I know from economics? Over the decade-and-a- tant because it helps us navigate the one fun- start. If catastrophe comes and four wickets this genre is called ‘hardboiled’ for the toughhalf that I have written on both these damental truth about this world: scarcity. fall in the space of 10 balls, they can dial it back egg flintiness of its heroes, but if the salty, subjects, I’ve come to believe that under- Everything is scarce: there is never enough and look to bat all 20 overs so as not to waste crisp, crackling dialogue is anything to go by, I standing and applying the principles of eco- money; or enough time; or enough energy. We the resource of time. wonder if it isn’t just as much to do with a disnomics can enrich the way we live our lives. It have to negotiate scarce resources, which is The optimal approach in a T20 game is to tillation process: burning away the chaff, vafollows, then, that all economic concepts can why all our decisions carry costs. treat your first three overs as if they’re the last pourising the solution, and basically just also be applied to cricket. Cricket is no exception to three. On average you will make boiling the prose down to its absolute crystalThis is especially relevant at the time of writ- these laws of nature. Within a as many as you would in the last ialogue is really easy. Basically, er feels like a gentle bit of extra prompting line essence. ing these words, when the Twenty20 World cricket match, there are two three. Sometimes you will click it’s just a bunch of stuff that can, to the reader, feel like being hit on the Chandler probably didn’t anticipate his Cup has just ended. I was delighted that West kinds of scarcity that a captain or and the momentum continues. people say.” head with a blunt stick. own long goodbye being so artificially proBoth the finalists Indies deservedly won the cup; and saddened coach must contend with. One is Sometimes wickets will fall, and If only it were that simple. Stephen King illustrates the point brilliantlonged. His posthumous amanuensis suffered of this T20 World that a number of teams, including India, a scarcity of time. The match can you can adjust accordingly, and But the minute you start actually listening to ly in his book on writing, On Writing he’s (or enjoyed) the same fate: four Spenser novels Cup(yes, frontloaded made basic errors because they did not under- only last either five days or 50 still not make less than you would what people say, you know that straightfor- the king of spade-calling titles their innings have appeared after Parker’s stand one fundamental economic concept: overs per side or 20 overs per have with the traditional strategy. ward transcription ain’t going to work. We too), by asking the reader to death in 2010, written by a man opportunity cost. side. compare The second is asentences, scarcity ofwith Teams are wisening up to this, stumble, we stutter, we pause, we interrupt, three who sounds like a detective agenThe term ‘opportunity cost’ was coined by resources. A team can only have and both the finalists of this T20 we forget what we were going to say mid-sen- and without the additional use cy himself, Ace Atkins. I haven’t, the 19th-century economist Friedrich von 11 players. Cup frontloaded their inDetectives SpenserWorldhand tence. And, mostly, in real life, your subcon- of adverbs: on heart, actually read AtWieser, and its simplest definition is: “the loss Strategy in cricket boils down to negotiatnings — though India did not, to my dismay. and Marlowe are scious editor edits, cuts, polishes and fills in “Put it down!” she shouted. kins’ versions, but I am willing to of other alternatives when one alternative is ing between these two constraints of time andnamed (Consider cost of the 35 balls after the opportunity the blanks. At a recent book launch, for exam- (Or: “Put it down!” she shouted bet my bottom dollar, pound or chosen.” The online site Investopedia defines resources. For example, if a team needs 250 Ajinkya Rahane took to make his 40 in the Elizabethan poets ple, while I was listening to the moderator’s menacingly) rupee, that the dialogue will be it as “the cost of an alternative that must be runs to win a Test match with two full days in semi-final, given the line-up of power hitters speech — and thought it erudite, witty and “Give it back,” he pleaded, “it’s short and snappy, sparingly forgone in order to pursue a certain action.” hand, and are 18 for 2 against fired-up new-ball who never got to bat. Also, think of the opporperceptive — my teenage son was counting the mine.” (Or: “Give it back,” he sprinkled with saids and with naLet me illustrate that with an example. bowlers, theyabjectly, should “it’s be more worried about tunity cost of not utilising their hitting skills.) number of times he said ‘um’ (123, in case anypleaded mine.) ry an adverb in sight. Say you step out of your office one muggy running out of batting resources than about can tell, I am a fan of T20 cricket. The one’s interested). “Don’t be such a fool, Jekyll,” Utterson said. As you Dialogue? Easy? In theory, perhaps, but not evening, and have ₹300 in your pocket. You running out of time. That would be a good future of cricket lies in this format. Indeed, Half of what we’re saying is communicated (Or: “Don’t be such a fool, Jekyll,” Utterson said when you get down to the practice. feel like having a refreshing frappé at a nearby time for careful consolidation. In contrast, in Test cricket might die out altogether, for reain body language, gesture and expression, re- contemptuously). All of which brings me, inexorably, inexcuscafé; and you also feel like taking an AC cab an ODI, if a team needs 15 to win in one over sons that can be explained by economics. As gardless of what actual words come out of our In each case, the addition of an adverbial ably and cheaply, to the one about the lecturer home instead of your normal bus-train rou- with eight wickets in hand, they are running the number of options to spend our time keep mouths. Which is why it is so tempting to lib- qualifier to the dialogue attribution (shouted, explaining why one should teach postcolonial tine. The thing is, you only have enough mon- out of time but not batting resources. This is a increasing, so does the opportunity cost of erally pepper written dialogue with adverbs: pleaded, said) makes for a much weaker sen- theory rather than the Elizabethan poets: “It’s ey for one of them. So you go for immediate time to hit out and run for everything, and not Test cricket. What is five days worth to you? she said something sullenly, worriedly, happi- tence. King’s advice is to take a deep breath, easier Said than Donne.” gratification and get that frappé. The opportu- to preserve wickets. ly, viciously, anxiously, brazenly — all those lit- trust your reader, and kill your adverbs. But he t@amitvarma nity cost of the frappe is the cab ride home. carriesthe antendency opportunity cost. tle ‘-lys’ betray the writer’s anxiety that the Every alsodecision warns against among adver- anita roy is a writer, editor and publisher; reader is not going to ‘get it’. What to the writ- bicides to compensate by pumping their attri- www.anitaroy.net
What cricket can learn from economics
That life is about negotiating scarce resources and that every decision carries an opportunity cost
Adverbicide is good for you
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The art of writing dialogue is best learnt from the masters of ‘hardboiled’ detective fiction
anita roy
Amit Varma is a novelist. He blogs at indiauncut.com
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Art and artifice As a recent Japanese metafictional novel proves, the age of AI (artificial intelligence) literature is upon us
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apan, the land where you can rent yourself to do with a popular fallacy: the notion that neural network, simply put, is a package of daa friend or even the occasional grandpar- linguistic and technological virtuosity are po- ta structures and programs that can study a ent, has now earned itself another notch lar opposites. [This is further bolstered by the large amount of text and form patterns of its on its cap. Among the longlisted novels for niggling concern that middle-class parents in own. In this case, the MIT research team bethe country’s prominent Nikkei Hoshi Shini- this country share: is my child more inclined hind Deep Drumpf seems to have fed the AI chi Literary Award was The Day A Computer towards the (mystical, impoverishing, femi- with just about everything Donald Trump has Writes A Novel. This piece of metafiction was nine) Arts rather than (pragmatic, lucrative, ever said on record. co-written by an AI (artificial intelligence), masculine) Science?] Last week, the AI tweeted: “Here is what’s gowhich did the ‘writing’ after its developers — Nothing, in fact, could be farther from the ing to happen, OK? I’ll get rid of the Senate. An they’re erudite voice in And Hitoshi Matsubara and his team at Future Uni- truth. We now know that linguistic prowess They don’t know what doing.” Bobbeeta versity Hakodate — set parameters for sen- has a high degree of correlation with all kinds here’s my favourite, apolitics tweet from March 31, Sharma (left) and tence construction and let the AI run wild, so of knowledge, really, but espewhich says: “Free can be Assam Chieftrade Minister to speak. cially fuzzy logic. All languages wonderfulTarun if you have the at power Gogoi (right) Guwahati launch The Day A Computer Writes A Novel was one of have structures: syntax, rules, of nucleartheweapons.” As people of Sharma’sTrump’s book Themadtwo submissions from Matsubara and co for bits and pieces that can be taken who’ve followed All languages Moving Image and the award, which has a blind reading process: apart and reverse-engineered. It cap march towards the White have bits and Assamese Culture ritu the judges do not know the identity of the au- should come as no surprise that House can rajtestify, konwar Deep Drumpf pieces that can be thor(s). The novel did not go on to win, but the the limits to what an AI can could have done far worse. taken apart and mere fact that it passed the first round of achieve by way of reading and And we can always do far betreverse-engineered screening, spread like wildfire these last cou- writing are being pushed every ter: Calvino seemed to think so, ple of weeks on the internet. No job is safe, op- day. at any rate. I’ve been thinking ed writers lamented. Why are we so disturbed Two intuitive programs tasted about his bleak view of the readby the idea of an AI producing literature, as op- Twitter notoriety last week. The ing population lately. He’s not far posed to, say, an AI controlling sophisticated first was an AI called Tay, a chatbot developed off the mark, one feels. Those who disagree are weaponry (which happens all the time, one by Microsoft, built to interact with millennials welcome to log on to botpoet.com and take might add)? using speech patterns on Twitter. It’s sufficient one of their “Bot or Not” quizzes, where you There are, I’d argue, two principal reasons to say that this linguistic experiment did not are challenged to guess whether a particular for this fear-and-loathing response. The first is end so well: Tay ended up taking a crash poem has been written by a human or generthe crudely deployed logic that robots or AIs course in everything reprehensible on the mi- ated via an algorithm. I scored a measly four he‘creative’ Assam elections are rifecro-blogging are no good for pursuitsthis suchyear as literalien to Assamese culture. Just as denial? the AIDUFon 10, Moving androbotic Assamese Culture: Joymoti, site. Racism/Holocaust and IImage assigned origins to a Gerseveral AmongCheck. ature. I like towith call this brandspeculations. of logic the Small (The All India Unitedand Democratic led byald Manley Jyotiprasad Agarwala Homophobia casual Front, sexism? Hopkins poemand whileAssamese I was at it.Cinema, the city hotspots, Guwahati Wonder syndrome, after one of the East worst tele- Check Maulana Badruddin Ajmal) is a communal Do published Oxford Press. The and check. they makebyrobots thatUniversity can approximate constituency is onea of the highly The vision soaps ever made, wherein computer party spreading Islamic fundamentalism.” book won an ‘Honorable other star AI on Twitter is a neural net- a mixture of guilt and shame?Mention’ in the gencoveted onesawhere Siddhartha Bhattacharjee engineer builds humaniform child-robot for work called Apart from as a history lecturer Deep working Drumpf (@DeepDrumpf). A in eral non-fiction category at the 2014 London mani jha Regarding immigration, Sharof the Bharatiya Janata Party is in a face- Pandu College, Sharma has established heraditya his wife and names it (nopes, not(BJP) using ‘her’) Book Festival. offVicki withwas thethe young Congress candidate Vicki. projection of the optimis-Bob- own production house and produced, direct- ma stresses that the Congress party has done beeta Sharma. Thethat latter, say several observers ed and presented various programmes for its best by setting up tribunals to detect and tic-yet-fearful stance people had towards experts, a more non-traditional track DDK Guwahati. Her serial titled Bidexot Apun deport foreigners and that the Tarun Gogoi the and nascent fieldhas of robotics, back in the 1980s. as far as political credentials go.But Which Manuh (Our Own People Abroad) on Assamese government has increased border fencing. It is record, supremely skilled at mechanical tasks. is one of every the reasons why, of her expats settled in countries such as the US, UK, pretty much scene in theirrespective series is about “When the Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) was is seen as an em- Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, in power in Assam at the same time the BJP oneparty joke: affiliations, the futility Sharma of an artificial intellipathetic, and creative resolve that the Thailand, Dubai, Netherlands and Germany, (NDA) was in power at the Centre, why didn’t gence trying mature to approximate human nature. state couldItalo use. Calvino felt that a lot of Conversely, has received widespread apprethey solve the issue then or take India is used to filmworked personalities and celeb- ciation, being one of the longflesh-and-blood writers like robots, any steps?” she asks. It is only an rities becoming politicalbestsellers. bigwigs. And al- est-running series on DDK churning out assembly-line election issue for them, she reitcomes a cultural capital Guwahati ( 2001-2009). yet, though even heSharma conceded thatwith to the consumer, erates. “During the last Lok Sabha As a young female that her they profile more peopleit’s of often all order, the same: are isincapable of Addressing issues of secularelections in 2014, Modi promised candidate with no friendly andbetween grassroots-oriented. Unlike In many ism and democracy, Sharma differentiating man and machine. to oust all illegal migrants from baggage of tinseltown-to-political-heat-and-dust stories, points out that Assam is a rehis novel If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, there’s Assam by May 16, 2014. What hapcorruption, Sharma is she offers her capabilities as awho woman and a gion that facilitates the peaceful a character called Ermes Marana, claims pened to that promise?” stirring up public socialdecoded worker in themethods service ofofher home state. co-existence of people from difto have the Silas FlanArmed with a lawyer’s backinterest Sharma hasbestselling been associated with the cultur- ferent faiths and beliefs, where nery, the world’s mystery novelist. ground, Siddhartha Bhattacharworld since sheOEPHLW was introduced Theal name ofof hisAssam organisation, (Orga- as food habits, inter-cultural minjee of the BJP will perhaps need to a child in the author and film-maker nisation forartiste the Electronic Production of Hogling, festivals, and so on have find a different language for a dyBhabendra Nath Works), Saikia’s National mogenized Literary suggests Award-winthat he always been strikingly diverse, namic woman candidate the cafilm Anirban 1978. Since then, is inning possession of aninalgorithm that canshe be has as opposed to other parts of India. “Assamese reworn Congress is pegging its hope on. in numerous films and television seri- culture is characterised by the Sankariya cul- Sanjoy Hazarika, professor at Jamia Milia Islausedacted to ‘write’ original Flannery novels. als. Shewrites: has also and English Calvino “A been teamaofpresenter ghost writers, exture of Srimanta Sankardeva (15-16th century), mia, and director, Centre for North East Studnewsreader for the Doordarshan Kendra Guwahaperts in imitating master’s style in all its which is against the conservative character of ies and Policy Research, points out that it ti (DDK) Programme Production Centre Hinduism.” She refers to the progressive an- could be a tight race. “Bobbeeta Sharma is very nuances andand mannerisms is ready and waiting (North to stepEast). in and plug the gaps, polish and cient Vaishnava culture that embraces people smart, clear-headed and articulate, but pitted Commenting on the BJP’s on no Guwa- of all faiths and creeds in the state. complete the half-written textsthrust so that against an equally sharp and energetic fighati’s potential to become a “smart city”,by Sharreader could distinguish the parts written Sharma, as a young female candidate with ure.” Sharma says, “I have been in politics is a communal party no baggage of corruption or criminal charges, since the last 15 years. I was actively involved in onema handsays, from“The thoseBJP by another. (...) It seems by Nagpur Rashtriya thatcontrolled their contribution has(where alreadythe played a seems to be stirring up public interest. Her politics when I was made a spokesperson in Swayamsevak are locat- commitment towards cinema and the arts has 2002. He (Bhattacharjee) has no administraconsiderable part Sangh in ourheadquarters man’s most recent ed).” Bhattacharjee’s legal support to the al- got young voters taking note of her. Since tive experience.” production.” leged Saradha chit scamofalso paints a 2005, serving as the honorary chairperson of The second reason forfund our fear Japanese murky picture. According to Sharma, robot novelists is a little more subtle and has“the Assam State Film Finance and Development nabina das is a poet and fiction writer currently living in Hyderabad teaching creative writing at universities The Tolstoy Whatof if great works could and be manufactured at will? shutterstock Hindu nationalist party is trying to impose a Corporation Ltd, aalgorithm Government Assam un-of literature fundamentalist Hindutva agenda, which is dertaking, Sharma has authored a book, The and workshops
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Bobbeeta Sharma, a well-known name in Assamese television and films, now wants to make a mark as a legislator
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The rot stops here
shiny scrambled eggs, bitter-sweet orange marmalade or hearty baked beans. A fiery egg Kejriwal if you’re in a cheese-and-green-chilli mood. A thick layer of chunky peanut butter topped with gloopy strawberry jam if you’re feeling reckless. And lashings of the new Twix chocolate spread, if you’ve an obliging cousin living in London. It seems silly to meddle with such unerring magic. To transform this happy, anyone-cando favourite into an object of stress. To make this most thrifty of dishes into a pricey fad. Not everybody agrees, however. Over the last year, restaurants from San Francisco to Sydney have started marketing ‘artisanal toasts’ for up to ₹300 a slice. Swish cafés feature toast bars with toppings like sea salt, sour strawberry jam and Satsuma marmalade. Entire newspaper articles are devoted to the wonders and healthfulness of avocado on toast. A warm, caramelly perfume called Eau de Toast has surfaced in the UK. While toast cookbooks have popped up quicker than the toaster — featuring elegant recipes in the ilk of lavender sourdough toast topped with fresh ricotta, scattered with sun-dried figs and drizzled with organic honey. This, of course, is the latest chapter in an old story. Toast was first mentioned in a 1430 English recipe for Oyle Soppys. This evil-sounding brew of flavoured onions stewed in a Noofspoilers milk gallon of stale beer and a pint oil hadAto be chilling unit installed served as “hote as tostes”. Inbyfact, toasts were Promethean often used to warm and flavour drinks at and Power Systems a then removed from the cupvillage and in “cast the TamiltoNadu; (below) co-founder Dogge”. Gramafoodies Somewhere along the way,Sorin sensible realised that they were giving Rover the best well. Other produce is literally left high and ational costsmeal. are much lower compared to part of their And toast made an appeardry. That gave rise to a requirement for standa- conventional technologies. ance on the breakfast table. If“Most fictionusers is anycan inlone cold storage units, at low operating costs, recover investments twointothe three years. dicator, dry toast was ain staple sickrooms run preferably on solar or other reasonably Each lasts sevenAnd years and can be refurof thebattery western world. Hercule Poirot, the shutterstock priced power, and equally capable of handling bished he adds. Famousquite Five easily,” and Bertie Wooster all chomped milk or fruits and vegetables. Cremer at GreenTokri agrees it’s a one-time their way through hillocks of buttered toast Promethean began in 2007 by chilling and investment saves on the expensive while havingthat grand adventures. In fact, Idiesel often preserving milk. Its cold storage units are otherwise to runDrew, a generator. “Even wonder if needed it was Nancy Fatty and the powered by a thermo battery, which stores farm workers theaunit easily. girls at St Clare’scan whooperate made me toast fiend — grid energy when available and releases it Promethean manufactures Insomeone who can merrily subsistfor onthe sliced when unavailable. dia market at itsbutter Pune plant, using local Wibs bread and Amul for days on end. The company so far has 160 installasuppliers. It currently produces Suddenly though, this universal dish 20-40 is the tions in India, mostly in the south. Its systems each month and can go to unlikely protagonist of a Food Trend. Theup new major clients include Amul, Mother “WeInstagram are looking at and expanding in darling50. of the crowd café-crawDairy and Hatsun Agro. It then venSouth India to be closer to some of lers from California to Kala Ghoda. tured to store fruits and vegetaour‘hipster customers,” says Grama. Of course, this toast’ phenomenon bles. “Instead of cooling liquid, the units are in dehas generatedOverseas, a fair amount of controversy. here we are cooling the air and mand inhave Bangladesh Sri Blogs and newspapers protestedand against seconds. the temperature at keeping Lanka. is generating a lot paying $4 for what is “Africa essentially a thick slice of Rule The ultimate aim istoa golden-brown bread. A Melbourne just 4-54:degrees centigrade of enquiries,” Gramaasays. chef caused brouhaha colour and an outside that is 12 times as crun- by demanding, ColdStar reduce spoilage.” is focusing the do“since when did weonthink it chy as the middle. Shagun Kapur Gogia started mestic market aims was acceptable to charge $14initially for half and an avocaAll of which ColdStar in 2010sounds to offer scientific an inte- and simple. do a cooktohas handle thriceup as much the smashed with aover spoon, So, as asolution great toast gobbler,spoilage why am I not run- served overnext grated to reduce to 24of months. This will offer a few18slices bread?” ning my stopwatch and verin thefor farm-to-fork supply chain. a larger supply forthat the The New Yorkernetwork fulminated nier caliper? Or weighing and Insulation technology is used to end producer, says. artisanal toast Gogia is a sign of Ameriwatching to makefresh. sure exactly keep the produce Despite the inherent potential, ca’s increasing obsession with 0.44 grams business of buttermodel is spread Coolify’s inthe Infood.cold-storage “Every mealbusiness is specialinand After the harvest, a A warm, caramelly on every square inch of toast? volves building, owning and opdia has not every attracted important, dishprivate-secshould be farmer has zero Quitemicro simply because a toast erating units at farm level perfume called Eau de tor funds.revered, Coolify and has broadbeen elevated, negotiating power Toast has surfaced has always been which farmers canone payoftothose use. funded the US Department of cast,” itbydeclared, “even somein the UK rare are pleasures and “We looking to—seteasy up 3,000 Agriculture so far while Harvard thing as pedestrian as toast.” straightforward. Onesays of Sethi. those units in three years,” Innovation Lab can provided the Ah well, they keep their joys that plop ₹3.5-4 into the Each unit costs lakhplate and seed Promethean, too, reangstmoney. and cherry pumpernickel without any fidgetremotely or fuss. And can be operated by aitcentral team. ceived funding from American toast topped with investors. hand-churned seemsaaHarvard real pityalumnus, to changeisthat. Sethi, initially targeting Somerset “We gotbutter. angel investors in 2007-08 before Toast is a bit like a pair of comfy pyjamas it theI’m very specific export-oriented products such—as crash and it easier tofor geta money for running towas the pavwala loaf of unworks equally for iffy tummies, broken cherry, lychees well and wine. Farmers can save on clean technology,” sayssliced Grama. Nowand themasscomapologetically white, bread hearts and too-tired-to-turn-on-the-stove eve- pany operational costs; the basic charge is 50 paise is close to butter. breaking even and seeks funds manufactured Then sitting down to a nings. a time-machine that takes yousite back to stockIt’s one kilogram of produce at the of to expand. local investors show in meal fit forWill toddlers, detectives andinterest nostalgic to your Kissan-jam-smeared childhood. In- funding production. The charges vary based on the nathe likes of Coolify and Promethean? food-writers. deed,of allproduce, it takes is location the heel ofand a loaf, that’s been This has potential to rescue lakhs of farmers ture other factors. shabnam minwalla is aof journalist author of lurking at isthe back of theinfridge for a fort- from The target to break even three years. the cold clutches losses and andthe poverty. night, a toaster and a few minutes. And one The Strange Haunting of Model High School & The Grama says that while such clean technoloShy Supergirl pratap popcosts later,20you versatile vehicle foropersun- rashmi gy perhave centamore to set up, the
The country annually wastes about 40 per cent of its fruit and vegetable produce, valued at $8 billion. A handful of start-ups want to plug this loss with innovative cold-storage solutions Cinnamon toast 1 slice white/wholewheat bread 1 tbsp butter 1 tbsp sugar 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder 2 drops of vanilla
1 Preheat oven to 180°C. 2 Mix the butter, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Spread on the slice of bread. 3 Bake for 10 minutes or till the topping bubbles.
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ach day, farmers deposit about 800 litres of milk at Heritage Dairy’s collection centre in Meerkhanpet village, near Hyderabad. Promethean Power System’s cold storage machine cools the milk in three minutes flat. In case of a powREPEAT erSTREET, cut, theEAT, thermal battery gets into action, working without break to ensure the milk reaches the processing centre fresh and safe. Miles away in Pune, Marc Cremer and his workers at GreenTokri farms pack fresh lettuce leaves every morning for distribution to customers across the city. Cremer has invested in a cold storage machine, where lettuce from his farm goes directly after harvesting and is instantly cooled to 3°C before being packed into thermocol boxes with Cryo-Gel. So the salads arrive farm-fresh at the retail outlets at years ago,atDrGreenTokri Dom Lanegreatly got busy 3pm. Theive cold storage rewith bread. duces wastage, an evil that plagues most of InHesector. chopped, popped, buttered and dia’s farming pondered. Twoproducer thousandofslices The world’s largest milklater, and the food researcher cameofupfruits withand the answer second-largest producer vegetato one of life’s great mystery bles annually wastesconundrums: about 40 perthe cent of its behind temperamental toast. valued at $8 bilfruit and vegetable produce, Youaccording know what mean. On Tuesday lion, to Ithe United Nation’smornFood ing, Agriculture two slices ofOrganisation. bread are popped the and While into conventoaster.cold Theystorage come out goldenfocus brownon and pertional services transfect — crisp on thesafely outside, softwholesalers on the inside, porting produce to the or and beautifully buttery. On Wednesday mornretailers, a handful of start-ups are keen on ing the same theofsame toaster stemming thebread rot atgoes theinto point production at the same setting. And emerges beige, leathto cut losses for the farmers. ery“The andcountry greasy. has a big need for cold storage Dr Lane tackled at the and came up services, especially thepuzzle farm level,” says SowithGrama, a formula to banish Bad BreakfastPower days rin co-founder at Promethean forever. At leastSethi, for those toast-eaters are Systems. Rajat founder of Coolify,who anothwilling to follow hison rules: er start-up focused reducing farm wastage, Ruleon 1: The perfect thickness a slice of agrees the need for services at for a micro level. bread is 14mm. “After the harvest, a farmer has zero negotiat2: The perfect temperature forthree the ingRule power. If you offer him even two to toaster is 154°C.it(If you have days of storage, becomes vitalainwell-behaved negotiating five out of six on the temperature dial atoaster, good deal.” should do the80trick.) Moreover, per cent of farm cold storages The optimum timeas forthey the are bread to in Rule India3:stock only potatoes ideal sit inter-seasonal in this perfectly heated toaster is 216 for use and are easy to handle as
Toast of the town Meet the new darling of the Instagram crowd and cafécrawlers from California to Kala Ghoda
shabnam minwalla
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Leaving on a bullock cart N Annadurai (second from left), the BJP candidate for Salem South constituency in the 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, embarks on his campaign trail
Moment of pride A Nihang warrior holds the crowd in thrall at Anandpur Sahib all images by kaynat kazi
e lakshmi narayanan
In thesteps footsteps of the Guru Two backward In both from KeralaHola and Mohalla, Tamil Nadu, go to polls onannual May 16,carnival the BJPthat sees the way forward in Stories the which colourful three-day celebrates the wooing the dominant other backward class, communities martial arts traditions OBC, of theor Sikhs
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he was holyconsternation city of bliss’in—Kerala’s that’s Sabha here eucalyptus trees rim thehad fields and to plump seat. Its vote share spiked 10.33 cent, the party has decided to aggressively Anandpur Sahib for you. Located per political circles in early November mango laden withgain flowers stand be- project a pro-Hindu image, wooing especially cent.trees And this sizeable has been mainthe as Ropar (also known lastinyear, results trickled inas forRupthe ly tween them. at the cost of the Left parties. the powerful other backward classes (OBCs) nagar) district municipal of Punjab, elecit is hotly contested The large-hearted rural Punjabis load their like the Ezhavas and the Nairs. poles attract home which to about people. Asand with most Unlike tions, the25,000 Congress leader former tractors and trucks with firewood, vegetables “The BDJS is not an Ezhava party,” insists Nasmall towns, lifeminister here moves a leisurely if In Union defence AK at Anthony had—faDecember offAnandpur a coup ofSahib, sorts, tesan. “There are Namboodiris, Nairs and Ezand grain and2015, headpulling towards somewhat monotonous — pace. But anyone mously dubbed the “semi-finals” to the 2016 the BJPthey firmed upcommunity an alliance with the to Bharat where set up kitchens feed havas — it is a secular party. After a long time who visits polls. duringState Holi will fiercelyJanata disagree. Assembly Bharatiya Party Dharma Jana Sena a party led by Vellap- there is an alternative front in Kerala. The people during Hola(BDJS), Mohalla. Forleader three days during the festival year, (BJP) Sreedharan Pillai now every crowed in pally Natesan andvolunteers floated by work the Sree Naraya- Oommen Chandy government has only made At the langars, round-theAnandpur“If Sahib into a rambuncresponse: this transforms was the semi-final, then we na Yogamseated (SNDP), clockDharma in shiftsParipalana to feed visitors cross-a adjustments. They have fooled the people. Ten tiousalready carnivalreached ground. have thePeople final.” pour in from religious withinasymbolic significant following legged onoutfit the floor, equality. The lakh members have filled forms and paid ₹25 across countrywas forwith Holareason. Mo- The party among the dominant That the cockiness Ezhava caste in the for membership in BDJS. There is a large group love and devotion in serving halla,grabbed a celebration of 100 Sikhdivisions marhad 34 of the in capital State. The Ezhavas Nairs together constipeopleand through the langar, or of people who are affected by LDF and UDF. tial traditions. The town wakes the ruling tute 55 per cent Thiruvananthapuram, pushing of Kerala’skitchen, Hindu population. community is as old as This group is supporting us. We will be the deup to the noisy arrivals of tour- Front Congress-led United Democratic (UDF) “We are mobilising all sections of society,” Sikhism, and all believers spend ciding factor in the Kerala elections,” he says. On the public address iststhird and devotees, the linger- Left to place. Theand Communist-led Demosays Kerala BJP president Kummanam time in sewa, helping out atRajathe system, an announcer Left hurting ing smells of was community cratic Front (LDF) in first place is with 42enticing sekharan. have broadened langars. Young and old sit tobusy the “We kitchens (hundreds of them). seats, but that didn’t diminish the BJP’shungry glee — to our vote base and asthere gether they are peel vegetables The BJP’s move has hit the Left try the Tractor-trailers, with besides snappingcomplete up Palakkad municipality, it many new partners coming in. and knead the dough; a few othwhere it hurts the most, and the jalebi, matar paneer, three-tier of straw and matwon seatsbeds in most other municipalities. Theand(The) People coming BJP have ers are tobusy scrubbingAndirty latter is now determined to exkheer halwa organisation tresses,centres can give gypsy caravans a urban had registered a marked swing a mass base. utensils Organisations likerest serve while the thehas been pose what it calls the political opwhich runfavour for their Truckloads in of a money. party that had virtually no pres- the SNDP have been working food with smilinginfaces.fighting The peo-upper-class portunism of the of families followofenthusiastic ence in this corner the country for the long- social reformple for decades.” receive the food with both self-proclaimed leader of the Ezsuppression is now bikers into town, their huge safest time. Rajasekharan was in at apains to of their hands, display faithhands with hava community. joining Say cheese A young member of the NIhang clan fron flags billowing the vehicles. The explain Back in 1984, when itfrom contested its first electhat the had no and gratitude. Ontie-up the public address system, “Kerala has a strong tradition them highway is peppered with trucks, tractors, tion in Kerala, the BJP scraped up a meagre 1.75 casteist overtones. BDJSthe hungry to an announcer is busy“The enticing of being secular,” says MA Baby, bikes, jeeps, buses. Portlyseat men per cent vote bicycles share. Yetand to win a single in and SNDP working a and halwa. try the jalebi,are matar paneer,for kheer tor-trailers, some with hugeParty speakleaderequipped of the Communist of fromState, Punjab vain to regulate the backward the thePolice party try hasinnevertheless steadily They are are dotted ers, televisions, Outside,community. the crammed streets LCD screens and telephones. India (Marxist)’s Kerala unit. “Soannual up traffic jam. Onover thethe weather-beaten shored its vote share years. During not spreading with stalls selling casteism everythingbut from utensils to People can becial seenreform resting inside them even as movements have faces2014 of Lok theSabha farmers initsthe neighbouring the polls, candidate O Raja- spreading welfare andtattoos gettingand the basic toy tractors, sweets, littleneeds dolls been othersledcelebrate aroundreformers them. “Ilike spent ₹6 by outstanding Sri Nafields, gave therethe are big smiles while songs aand gopal Congress’s Shashi Tharoor se- of the backward community fulfilled.their The rayana with turbans. People make the rounds, lakh onGuru. my trailer, to provide the represented comfort my The BJP has always cheers constantly escape his their lips. rious run for money in SNDP is getting a social movement,” he asserts. wallets lighter but their stomachs al- the people need,” Singh from Moga.a upper classsays andAmrik they have now formed In rural Punjab, spring is a sight behold — ways Thiruvananthapuram, losing by to just 15,470 Thefull, BJP constantly needs all the help itoff caninvites get into Kerafending try mechanical One tractor alliance proudly with displays the American Vellappally Natethe green and golden of wheat stretch votes. In Kasaragod, thefields BJP stood second in a la. In a State Muslims constitute 24 per san’s goodies fromwhere the various makeshift kitchens. flag, and itsAsfour-foot tall speakers pumpmarout party. a result of this very strange fromAssembly the highway as far as the eye see, Lok tall cent few segments within thecan larger the population and Christians per riage, Onof the roadside are parked numerous19trachigh decibels from behind the seat. people are discussing thedriver’s opportunism
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In the night, songs of balladeers ring through the narrow, white-painted streets of Anandpur Sahib. The ‘taadi jatha’, soulful folk songs and tales of bravery from the times of Kerala the Sikh gurus, are set to the beats of the dhadd, the hourglass-shaped drum which is as Punjabi as the bhangra and mooli ke parathe. Hindus: Keshgarh Sahib, the gurudwara at the centre the town, of the five takhts (seats of of which Nairs is & one Ezhavas comprise of authority) of the Sikhs and an important Scheduled Caste comprises pilgrimage site. On April 13 (Baisakhi), 1699, Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa here. The Sutlej river flows south of the town and Muslims: the Naini Devi temple looks down from atop the steep Shivalik range in the northeast. The reservoir for the Bhakra Nangal Dam, the GoChristians: bind Sagar, lies behind the imposing mountain range. Tamil Nadu The Sutlej used to flow closer to the town in the past. It has moved with time, and a stream Backward Classaround the Keshgarh Sahib that once flowed & also Mostdisappeared. Backward Class: has There is a glittering Virasat-e-Khalsa museum, sanctioned in 1999 to commemorate Scheduled Caste: The massive and beauti300 years of Sikhism. ful stone structure stands in harmony with the space around it. Designed by Israeli archiOthers: tect Moshe Safdie, creator of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Israel and the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore among others, the museum offers free entry. Several gurudof Natesan and how an which waras cluster around theorganisation hill on which the has been fighting upper-class suppression is Keshgarh Sahib stands. now joining handsitwith he the says.Khalsa) “For the gurus, (thethem,” birth of Baby is confident that voters will see was a battle to rule minds, not territories,” through the Sodhi, ploy. “The BJP’s attempt to open says Vikram descendant of Guru Ram an account in this Assembly election (May 16) Das, the fourth Sikh guru, and founder of the is going to Heritage be a grand fiasco,” he predicts. “You Anandpur Foundation. cannot that the CPM influence only over It wassay a turbulent time for the is region; the the Ezhavas. We have influence among all Sikhs had fought longour battles with the Mughreligious and castepersecution groups in Kerala.” als over religious and Guru Gobind Singh wanted an army of battle-ready n neighbouring Tamil Nadu, which goes to poll the same day as Kerala, the BJP has not had similar luck with alliances. Even as recently as 2014, the party had cobbled together an impressive alliance of smaller, non-Dravidian parties like Ramadoss’ Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Vijaykanth’s Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) and Vaiko’s Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK). The coalition bagged two MP seats — BJP’s Pon Radhakrishnan won from Kanyakumari and the former Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss of the PMK won in Dharmapuri. The BJP’s allies came up second in six constituen-
Caste break-up
43%
55% 9.8%
24% 19%
5%
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United we celebrate Tractor-trailers become makeshift visitors cies, pushing key rival Dravida Munnetra Kaz- homes Party,for the BJP is now tying up with more than
hagam (DMK) to third place. The BJP’s vote share had more than doubled to five per cent, which analysts pegged to a strong anti-Congress wave across the country. The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), led by J Jayalalithaa, swept up the other 37 seats, with a whopping 44 per cent vote share.
40 tiny caste-affiliated organisations, many of them apolitical, in a bid for votes from OBC communities such as Thevars, Yadavas and Nadars. The lack of a strong State-level leader has taken a toll on its prospects and morale. “In Tamil Nadu we rely only on the performance of Modi sarkar,” says H Raja, the party’s National General Secretary in Tamil Nadu. “The Centre has schemes for every individual, especially Unfriending spree families below the poverty line. We could not Today, in a sharp turnaround, no one wants to form the same alliance as in 2014 because evally with the BJP in Tamil Nadu. Vaiko, who was eryone wants to be the Chief Minister. In 2014 the first to reach out in 2014, was also the first itself the voter has voted only for Modi and we to exit the alliance post polls. Rahave proven that we will be the madoss has stated categorically third largest force in the State,” that the PMK was an ally of the he says. BJP at the Centre but not in TN. Political analysts disagree. They are opposed to Going one step ahead, he an“Their strategy did not work even Periyar’s ideology in nounced his son Anbumani as in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,” Tamil Nadu. They his party’s chief ministerial canargues the political commentacannot appropriate didate. Vijaykanth, too, has tor Gnani Sankaran. “That is one Ambedkar either ditched the BJP alliance to join of the reasons why their allies in Heads A proud Nihang stands out for his fantastic headgear hands up with the People’s Welfare 2014 are no longer with them.” Front (PWF) — a motley crew of Desperately seeking toehold small parties comprising The camps Nihangs soldiers. started a keenly MDMK, He Dalit party Viduthalai Siruthaigal Communist Partyofofthe India (CPI) are spread across fields followed tradition of battle Katchi (VCK) and the Left parties — and has MP D Raja is confident that the BJP’sthe political around intown. are games and sportsmanship, been anointed its chief ministerial candidate. strategy will not succeed eitherHorses TN or Keratied between tents, with which to thisfrom day. his cadre and MLAs la. “They are desperate He nowsurvives faces mutiny to havethe some kind of young men feeding and preIn their blue kur- their wish to ally foothold in both states,” who say heflowing has disregarded he says. “In Tamil Nathe them; beaststhey for the fita and with thesaffron DMK. turbans, the du no one wants paring to go with stand nal event. Thesame, programme Nihangs, The BJP isthe left chosen with slimsolpickings. Apart from isolated. Even in Kerala it is the because begins withalla his procession of diers of the gurus, practise its remaining allies like the Indiya Jananayaga Vellappally Natesan has lost credibility. elders carrying the Granth most the and yearAC forShanmugam’s the HoKatchiof(IJK) New Justice The BJP is not going to make any big inroads — Sahib, throughthey the la Mohalla. The performancgiven their ideology andpassing their position, gurudwaras in They the city es include simulated battle will not make much headway. are and opending at theinTakht. play, martial games, tent posed to Periyar’s ideology Tamil Nadu. Later inAmbedkar the day, theeither,” festivpegging, bareback horseThey cannot appropriate ities move to the Charan riding, standing erect ashe adds. Gangarather Stadium, anamong open tride two or more galloping The mood is indeed sombre space oneloss endofofVijaykanth the town, horses, gatka (battle with the BJP cadres in TN afteratthe sticks) and other displays more than a lakh to the PWF, but inwhere Kerala the party is raring to with weapons. cram in to says enjoya go. “Chances and spectators prospects are bright,” “A Nihang is one without the displays of skilled laughing Rajasekharan. “The votehorsemanbase has ahankar (pride),” says Kulwant ship,weswordplay weapons broadened and will get 15 and per cent vote Along with share martial Singh. With chainmail woven intraining. noon, the crowds in Kerala. We canFrom increase the vote base skills, optimism to his double-layered dumala stream intocome the newly stadium withand the people who have intoand the fortitude in alliance. the face We swirl turban and a curved sword on around armed can win mostthe of teams the Assembly of adversities are the his side, Singh strikes a formidawithmore guns, swords, maces and constituencies... than 71 seats.” other Nihang ble figure. He has been a Nihang Thesouthern jams on the highThe battle crossbows. for both these states is teachings since he was six; his second son way for is five km outside crucial for the BJP.stretch The party outnumbered and daughter have followed A small road in the Rajya Anandpur Sabha, withSahib. flagship Bills being him into the tradition. The Niruns next to regularity the Sutlej canal stalled withthat embarrassing ever hangs, who live by a strict code onlyatavailable way of since it cameistothe power the Centre twoout years of honour, are forbidden from thetotown. ago. Being able boast a strong presence only attacking the unarmed. the highway outside thesouthern town arestates, more in On Karnataka among the five Along with martial skills, optimism and for- langars, and aparty burlyisSikh man flags our the national readying for a down no-holdstitude in the face of adversities are the other car andpunch-up fills my hands with dry chana for the barred this May. Nihang teachings. They find a dry chapati journey back home. ‘meethi’, and a shabby tent is as lavish as a sandhya ravishankar is an independent Chennai-based journalist saurabh yadav ‘sheesh mahal’.
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One and the other The ball for night polo (right), and the gyroscope (Bohenberger, 1813) which redefined the course of warfare
THE COMPASS CHRONICLES
The illuminated cage What connects polo for women at night, World War artillery and smartphones?
T The mentor and the prodigal son
The chosen one Himanta Biswa Sarma is not just a politician. He is a metaphor in Assam, often employed to denote statecraft and a kind of perfidious efficiency pti
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he most unusual object in the Textile gallery of Jaipur’s City Palace Museum is a spherical cage of brass, the size of a volleyball. The placard says that it was used to play polo at night by royal ladies, since modesty prevented them from doing so in daylight. A candle placed on the disc inside the ball would illuminate it like a lantern — which could be whipped around the field with a mallet by horse-mounted women. Whether gender segregation spurred this scientific ingenuity (because necessity is the ‘mother’ of invention or not) is a different question. More importantly, how can a glassencased candle spinning in three dimensions stay aflame for more than a few seconds? Because access to the instrument and historical record is restricted, and the date of its It is 11.30 pm unknown in Guwahati buthas webeen manage to manufacture (polo played findAsia a lone in thewe darkened street to in for figure centuries), must resort guide us. Himanta Biswa Sarma’s ornate manconjecture. sion is mechanism conspicuousthat in an otherwise unexcepOne could keep the candle tional neighbourhood. ushered into a upright even as the ball We wasare thrashed around, dena with chandeliers and baroque crystalidea déis gyroscope (see image). The basic cor for from another wait. But toy when comes an hour-long ancient children’s — the wait is finally over, his visage, a droopyspinning top. Newton’s first lawwith of motion deeyed stare, is as andofbaleful scribes inertia as theatrical the tendency a body as “tothe refirst clap thunder main at of rest or in outside. uniform motion unless Sarmatoisexternal not justforces”. a politician. He isofa an metasubject In the case upphor spinning in Assam, often employed to denote right top, the force of friction gradustatecraft a kind of perfidious efficiency ally slows and it down until it collapses. A more voters typically with thewith Congress. extreme exampleassociate is the Earth itself, an axHis political history, a stint in is ofchequered rotation tilted by about 23.4from degrees. This the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) with Praaxis wobbles like an acorn over millennia, fulla Kumar to anAsarrest, with alwhich we call Mahanta, its ‘precession’. a result the celeged links to Pole the militant United Liberation lestial North drifts away from Polaris, Front of Assam onlyinstead... adds to the pointing at the(ULFA), star Vega andSarma then myth and glamour. circles back to Polaris in 26,000 years. The Congress was quick to spot top his talent, Inside a gyroscope, an Earth-like is supwith first thenmore TarungimGoported byHiteshwar clamping Saikia its axisand in two goi nurturing overcan the move years. freely As partand of bal rings, all ofhim which
independently. Relatively speaking, now it ed the magazine Popular Science (in the July does not matter whether the central body 1945 issue) just before the Allied victory. Genmoves or the outer shells holding it. eral Patton himself had praised the magical In the case of the ‘night polo ball’, the outer micro-wheel’s contribution to the war. Only a shells are in motion, while the candle-disc few days later this descendant of a harmless stays ‘at rest’ — independent of all its sur- children’s toy would also help pilot B-29 roundings. On board a ship in a stormy ocean, planes and guide the two nuclear bombs such an instrument would act like an inertial dropped over Japan. compass, “...as if it were a thing apart from the Speaking of toys again, who invented the earth. Its own inertia is its only law, but that night polo ball for the royal ladies of Jaipur? law is absolute.” We can only suspect that it must have been At such times, it would be far more useful someone familiar with the tradition of royal than a magnetic compass or the astronomical astronomy started by Sawai Jaisingh II in 1735. sextant. Just like the famous FouThe relative motion of miniature cault’s pendulum, one could use astronomical models — celestial a ‘gyrocompass’ to detect the roglobes, telluriums and orreries — tation of the Earth at any point is very similar to a gyroscope. Toof latitude on the terrestrial surday the large majority of motion World War II brought face. During the 1800s and early sensing for telescopes, tablets, the dormant power the Gogoi cabinet, Sarma is beknownoftothis have the BJP. goesconsoles, that in a secret 1900s, these instruments gaming virtualmeeting reality children’s toyThe story been afurther key figure in crafting the Grand Old Parwith the presidentsmartphones, Amit Shah during the came refined after their satellites into the frontlines likeBJP headsets, ty’s extraordinary victory Assam innever 2011 before 2014 electionand campaign, Sarma predicted the parts were miniaturised andinthe spacecraft is done by microwhen thewas Congress won by 79 elecof the 126 seats in exact numberelectromechanical of seats the BJP was going to win rotation stimulated great-grandthe state assembly. in Assam.ofShah was impressed, trical motors. children the gyroscope (someThe trouble mentor and after protracted negotiaWorld War II between brought the dortimes called accelerometers) and protégé famously started tions (Sarma looking at mant power of this children’s employed bywas thealso female polo sooninto after the assembly elec- before. Until players of ourthe Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) as toy the frontlines like never story. In Amit Sarma tions the when Gogoi launched his chiefly fallback option), Gogoi’swomen protéthen, gyro had been employed as Shah, a Every timea that a group of young seems to have foundthemselves son Gauravand intonavigation politics. Amidst gé and Congress’s chief strategist stabilising agent — for battleposition to take a selfie, they look a kindredthrough soul theirjoined bickering and constant infightthe aBJP in August ships, torpedoes, and airplanes. eyes like World War II2015. gunner, ing, the CBI at summoned He is nowitself Shah’s right-hand Airpower this pointhim stillinoverwhelmed but the phone re-orients using its sense multi-crore Saradha man, stitching up alliances with the navies and infantry, thescam, planes moved sim- of inertia. Like the gyroscopic cage, the selfie is although it was onlyaccuracy. the AGP the Bodoland Peoply too fastSarma to be says aimed at with making us aware of aand phenomenon beyond as The a witness. faith in his or what hap- the Earth. The ple’s Front twisting (BPF), while also influsecret Losing lay in precession, sudden of faces into mentor, he demanded of by place the duck-pouted encing the party’s selection and pens when a gyroscopehis ispride moved an in exterlips, andcandidate that one raised eyebrow party fromsuch the ‘high command’. apparentfuture policy planning. Thatshift the BJP has a chief nal force, as a gunman. InHe 1940, it was — is it not like an angular in some symly told Rahul was he who metric ministerial candidate in Or Union Minister Sarrealised that theGandhi axis of that a gyroitinside an antiaxis of the mind? the mirrored imsteered gun the Congress’s in 2011;ofan as- age bananda Sonowal is immaterial topervades Sarma’s aircraft could tracktriumph the movement gunof some mysterious force which sertion provoked aninindifferent shrug prestige clout in his new party. And in sight as which it followed a plane the sky. And not the wholeand universe? fromthat, the Congress President who simply only “The gunVice is actually pointing ahead Shah, he seems to have found a kindred soul. theprofessional. history of scienceI as said, what”. “Hegupta (Shah)explores is most work as of the“so target by the right amount so that the rohit An embittered soon sent feelers to Compasswallah hard as I didt@fadesingh in the Congress, but here in the enemy will fly intoSarma the bursting shell,” boast-
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Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has been stung by his blue-eyed boy, the Machiavellian Himanta Biswa Sarma’s defection to the BJP in a hard-fought election in Assam
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Fool’s errand Gmail Mic drop joke backfires after people lose jobs
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n the spirit of April Fool’s Day, Gmail had introduced a second ‘Send’ feature with a Mic-drop gif that showed a ‘minion’ (a popular animated character from Despicable Me) wearing a crown and cape, dropping a mic. The gif was meant to convey that the sender had the last word in a conversation, as the prank allowed users to send the e-mail but not see any replies. The joke backfired for some who clicked on the special feature by mistake for official mails and a few even ended up losing their jobs.
Posing trouble
No easy meat
Nigerians in Delhi jail refuse Plane turns back after passenger does yoga in-flight Wily old fox Incumbent Assam Chiefvegetarian Minister Tarun Gogoifood coming out of court after appearing in a defamation case filed by BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma pti
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n airplane bound for Hawaii from Japan was forced to turn back when a 72-year-old passenger insisted onleast doing yogaisinno reservation at the top BJP, at there the galley — despite being sternly told off for by the flight attendants. blue bloods,” he says. “Have you ever Hyontae Pae was charged in a federal court seen last Monday, after beRahul Gandhi in the company of anyone ing booked for causing disturbance aboard Airlines whoa isUnited not from a dynasty? You can give your flight. When meals were being served on thelife flight, theCongress passengerbut in the end, it is Deeto the reportedly headed down to the galley to “calm his nerves” a pender Hooda, with Jyotiraditya Scindia or a simiquick yoga routine. lar successor to the throne who gets to be at
adopted him.” out Sarma. The party won seven of the 14 seats This local leader, requesting anonymity, in the state and cornered 36.86 per cent of the sees two negative fallouts of Sarma’s entry in vote share. This was a quantum jump from the the BJP. The first is that his presence is a con- assembly elections in 2011 when the BJP was stant threat to the BJP’s chief ministerial can- able to win barely five seats with about 11.47 didate Sarbananda Sonowal. “He has not per cent of the vote. shifted from Congress to BJP to play second The Congress lost ground with just three the top.” fiddle to another leader. He is definitely plan- seats and a vote share that shrank from 39.39 One can sense the anger, surfacing in a flash ning something,” says the BJP worker. per cent in 2011 assembly polls to 29.90 per of the hooded eyes and scorn in the smile. Sarma, of course, rubbishes these suspi- cent in 2014. Along with the BJP, Badruddin AjThere are also some remnants of loyalty to a cions. “I have just joined the BJP. How can I ex- mal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIshared past and memories. “He (Gogoi) has pect to be promoted to the top? I am not UDF) also improved on its vote share from been my Chief Minister, my leader. I will not stupid,” he says. 12.57 per cent in the 2011 assembly polls to say anything bad about him,” says Sarma. Speculations about Sarma plotting to top- 14.98 per cent in 2014 while it also won three But the target of his ire, the forever smiling ple Sonowal are still hypothetical. But what is Lok Sabha seats. Tarun Gogoi, has no such inhibitions. also visible on the ground, and this is the secSince then, Tarun Gogoi has picked himself “What did I do? I helped him (Sarma) from ond important fallout of Sarma’s entry, is that up and closed ranks to win back what is called the time he was a junior legislator, gave him workers’ disenchantment with the move is re- the traditional Ali-Coolie-Bangali (a pejorative opportunities… He was my blue-eyed boy. I flecting in the party’s campaign. reference to the Muslims, tea gartrusted him completely. I promoted him in a For instance, in the reserved den labourers and Bengali miahatma Gandhi’s popularity of in Africa is well-known, and now a group of four grants) Nigerian nationals way I’ve never promoted Gaurav (his son and constituency Jagiroad near vote for the accused Congress. ofexpect?” fraud are adopting methods while in the custody of the crime branch. John, Okohi, Aaishat MP Gaurav Gogoi). What more did he Nelli, thehis BJP has fielded Sarma’s For Daniel the purpose, hard-nosed The day Sarma Abbas and Jyoti Gulshan were arrested from Delhi in December; they havequit been accused of cheating Gogoi asks. loyalist Piyush Hazarika, whom veterans such ascity-based Paban Singh Congress, had and refused to eat vegetarian Mahesh Mistry the tune of workers ₹7.4 lakh.refer The Nigerians went onGogoi a satyagraha The wily Chief Minister hadtrader been expecting thetolocal party to Ghatobar and Bhakt Charan Das firecrackers burst in demanding and soft drinks. strike. a defection and was suitably food, prepared when meat as “Dada Brigand” orWhen part ofrefused, “Sar- the group went on a hungerhave been pressed into service to the party Sarma finally made his switch to the BJP. The ma Syndicate”. “No one has the recover ground among the tea headquarters day he quit the Congress, the state Congress courage to tell Amit Shah what garden workers who have shifted chief Anjan Dutta burst firecrackers in the par- this means to us. Our MPs are en masse to the BJP. Ghatobar, a ty office and distributed sweets, claiming Sar- not protesting because they betea tribe leader and former ma has carried whatever anti-incumbency lieve that if Sarbananda Sonowal Union Minister, is contesting the Gogoi had after a three-term tenure. becomes Chief Minister, they have a chance to assembly seat of Moran for the first time in his “He has found his level, hobnobbing with a become Cabinet ministers. But what about us, long career. He has always contested the parperson who had murder charges against him the common workers? How can we campaign liamentary polls so far. The fact that he has (Amit Shah). He once said the blood of Mus- for these people who represent everything we joined the local leaders in winning assembly lims flows in the gutters of Gujarat. I am sure fought against for most of our political life,” elections reflects Gogoi’s resolve in not letting he is happy there,” says Gogoi. says a BJP worker in Jagiroad. his former aide help the BJP trip him up. In the BJP, Sarma is feted as a star by the top Whether this widespread discontent re- from He Baraut, has also launched anUttar insidious camIt seems awill husband a small town in leadership. A senior BJP leader in Assam says, sult in a situation similar to Delhi where the paign against Ajmal, theon man who can topple Pradesh, loves a festive bath. After a shower Diwali wo TTEs (travelling ticket examiners) on“You the Bengaluru-Hubcan weigh our entire state leadership on BJP imposed Kiran Bedi as the the Congress’s the 34 lastparty’s year, hechief next ventured into the applecart bath area by onlysplitting on balli Fast Passenger train were suspended after one side of athey scalehaand Sarma alone on the oth- ministerial candidate and lost, is last one month. of the Appalled per centatMuslim vote. “Ajmal is working for Holi her spouse’s lack of hyrassed passengers and refused to give up berths that should er. He would behave heavier. He has changed the variables that rarely get reflected in the thewife opin-has approached the BJP,” Gogoi says, a message of that the Congiene, the superintendent been allotted to RAC passengers. In the company of their BJP’s fortunes.” girlfion polls which are predictingpolice a sweep for the gress cadre has carried to target voters. for help. She claims her husband of three years riends, the TTE duo Rakesh Mehra and Arvind Gupta reportThere were are, of course, murmurs of discon- BJP in Assam. About Jagiroad,—the BJP isasfairly Whatever happens inher Assam, this round of as well his equally filthy parents — beat up for edly laughing, kissing and disturbing passengers. andon the field. A young BJP tent fromMehra the cadre confident they will win. “Don’t tell to usclean aboutthe house polls will memorable for on thealexciting sidetrying andbe suggesting baths Gupta were assaulted by an angry group ofoffice-bearer 30-40 passengers at in Mangaldoi says, “We fought the cadre’s disenchantment. ternate They have been show starring the mentor and his protégé. days. the Hubballi station. Based on camera footage, South Western against this man throughout our political life. working for two decades without the BJP win- Electoral battles are seldom reminiscent of Railway has suspended the TTEs and orderedWe a probe. fought court cases against him and had ar- ning any election in Assam,” says a BJP leader. the duels of yore. guments in the assembly. He symbolises the The fact, however, is that the BJP did extraorCongress’s corrupt culture and now we have dinarily well in the Lok Sabha elections with- poornima joshi
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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya
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n April 9, 2005, Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall. This column is all about second innings and second chances.
here,there & elsewhere
Breathless planet
Second innings
1
Since 1915, only three automobiles have held the title of highest selling car ever. The first was the Ford Model T, which was overhauled only in 1972. The automobile that took over was itself overtaken by the Toyota Corolla in the 1990s. Name the second car.
2
This 1890 novel was the author’s second literary effort, after The Fair God was published in 1873. It has sold 50 million copies. Name the novel and the author.
3 4
Which cricket team has chased the most runs in the second innings of a T20 international?
Which actor, best known in India for his performance in Mira Nair’s The Namesake, actually had his character commit suicide in the television series House, so that he could start a second career in the Obama administration’s Office of Public Engagement?
5
Which American late-night host originally started as an eccentric weatherman who would list high and low temperatures for fictional cities and congratulate storms for being upgraded to hurricane status?
6
Which Nobel Prize-winning author started her professional career as a professor at Texas Southern and Howard University, before working as an editor at Random House in the ’60s?
7 8
If Catherine of Aragon was the first, and Jane Seymour the third, who was the second?
It was the second marriage for both in 1954. It lasted less than a year. After she passed away, he sent six red roses three times a week to her grave for 20 years. Name this legendary couple.
9
Ferenc Puskas was one of Hungary’s greatest footballers and scored an incredible 84 goals for them in 85 appearances. However, he represented a different country in his last four internationals. Which country?
t my sister’s home in Hartford, we have been playing pass-the-parcel A with a cough. It started with the two grandchildren, then my niece, her husband, my sister, me, Bins and now it’s back with the grandchildren! Once Bins gets a cough however, he refuses to let it go without a struggle. The spasms start in his toes and work their way up his long wiry frame. He writhes and chokes and falls about on the floor with his eyes bugged out, until the demon stuck inside his throat is dislodged. Then he collapses, panting and gasping like a fish out of water, until he recovers his breath. During this week-long ordeal, he has been reading a book called The Martian by Andy Weir. I had seen the film on-board the flight to the US. According to Bins, the book is better. “It explains in scientific terms how a man can survive almost two years alone on Mars,” he says. “I already know all that,” I say. In the film, Matt Damon gets stuck on Mars after a severe storm forces his five crewmates to abandon the mission, thinking he has been killed. “Pah,” says Bins dismissively. “You were only staring at Matt Damon, learning nothing.” He thumps the book. “Here, you’ll find out exactly how he rationed his oxygen, made water from
hydrogen, grew potatoes using his own shit and managed not to die!” He begins another fit of coughing. “At least read it so you can appreciate what it’s like to be running out of air!” he croaks. “Why would anyone want to know that?” I ask, but I open the book to humour him. I’m convinced there won’t be anything there to keep me turning the pages. And I am wrong. It is an absolutely riveting read. In fact seeing the movie adds to the ease of comprehension. The author provides mounds of technical detail to explain how a lone astronaut might survive the
nearly-airless, waterless wasteland that is the Red Planet, but the movie provides a handy visual reference to at least some of the details. The question is, why do we care? It’s a fictional ordeal, after all. It takes place in the context of an environment so hostile as to leave most of us feeling very grateful never to have to face anything similar. The astronaut in the book is not especially heroic or charismatic: all he wants is to survive. According to Bins, however, the book reminds every reader of the extreme fragility of life. “It’s what I feel while I am coughing,” he explains, still gasping a little now and then. “That my body is a little, warm planet and all it needs is a bit of air, a bit of water, a bite of food. Yet on Mars? These simplest of things are not there.” So we gasp and suffer and harvest our own urine along with the astronaut, seeing our own fate in his every bruise and bone-fracture. “And he looks like Matt Damon,” I say to Bins. “That really helped me get through the book.” “Pah,” says Bins, beginning to cough once more. manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column
cornerstone
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The film The Karate Kid, starring Ralph Macchio, was a big hit and spawned many sequels. The first two also starred Macchio. Which Academy Award-winning star was the main character in the third sequel, titled The Next Karate Kid?
Answers 1. The Volkswagen Beetle, which was overhauled in the late 1990s after selling more than 20 million units 2. Lew Wallace’s Ben Hur. Wallace finished his book while serving as the governor of New Mexico 3. West Indies chased 232 against South Africa in 2015. Chris Gayle top scored with 90 off 41 balls 4. Kalpen Modi, aka Kal Penn, who starred in the cult hit Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle 5. David Letterman 6. Toni Morrison. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970 7. Anne Boleyn 8. Marilyn Monroe and baseball legend Joe Di Maggio 9. Spain; he had been a regular at Real Madrid since 1958 10. Actress Hilary Swank, who won Academy Awards for Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby
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