Blink issue 28 august02 2014

IGNORANCE AIN’T BLISS A record number of Indian sportspersons are failing the dope test because of lack of information and awareness p3 saturday, august 2, 2014

shreevatsa nevatia

Motihari in Bihar, synonymous with the freedom struggle, is starting to take pride in its most famous English son p9

The Orwellian State

BENGAL ONCE MORE Is Neel Mukherjee’s saga of Calcutta and Naxal revolts Booker-worthy? p17

SMALL-TOWN SPAIN In Cádiz, and its quiet permanence, it’s easy to feel at home p19

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Game for Prime more No word The Durbar soccer Minister Narendra team a practice Modiat has maintained a session in Baruipur disquieting silence nidhi kundalia voices evendugar as strident of intolerance swirl around his government rajeev bhatt

Sonagachi’s soccer champs Children from Kolkata’s oldest red-light district find new goals in life and glory at the Homeless World Cup in faraway Poland

No right to remain silent F

loating over the crumbling buildings of the British Raj, the stores displaying sequinned spaghetti-tops, and the smell of frying mirchi bhaja, were the sounds of Sonagachi’s street children: the patter of bare feet, the panting from cleaning windshields, the knock of knuckles at the rolled-upefore windows at a traffic junction.

Not the just-concluded general elecanymore.tions, Thanks to one man’s efforts to bring many in the media as well as in a few children the marginalised commusocialfrom and business circles saw it as a nity of Kolkata’s oldest red-light district the three-way contest between thetoConcentre of society. gress, the newly emerged AAP and BJP. But to Public health scientistthe Smarajit those who understood pulse ofJana thespearcounheads the Durbar Samanwaya Comtry, it was clearly aMahila one-horse race, and the mittee, a not syndicate thatbutbands together horse was even the BJP Narendra Modi.

Sonagachi’s sex workers againstpurely the many inThe Congress was a write-off on the justices encounter in their lives. basis of they its sheer arrogance anddaily refusal toBeacsides rights advocacy, anti-human cept blame for the rampantand and pervasive cortrafficking and HIV drives, the ruption during UPA prevention II. AAP blundered by Committee has helped put together a football resigning from its Delhi responsibility and team of around 100big children sex workers.

At was caught with greedyofeyes.

The party the committee-run school andbe hostel, Rahul members thought they could credible on Vidya Niketanstage at Baruipur in the 24 Parganas, the national without having to prove atheir sports complex slowly shape, mettle on is the one taking mandate theyfundhad ed entirely the earnings of sex workers. won, fairly by and squarely.

Close by is the football Approached by That left the BJP, whichfield. has, of course, tradikutcha is a green pockmarked tionallyroads, had aithuge base ofpatch, support.

However, with Teen boysmost in colourful T-shirts whatpuddles. has always scared reasonable Hinemblazoned with names of sponsors like dus about the BJP the is that it came with a lot of Maruti, Redlunatic FM cry fringe. out to baggageKolkata in thePolice form and of the each “Bhalo kore diye khal (concenTheseother, elements take onmon self-appointed roles as trate the game)!” Theor goalposts are notheitheronultra-nationalists moral policemen, ing concrete is poles and nets the andmore their than methodology definitely noton demoground, but decibel the kids playarewith the singlecratic. Their levels extremely high minded of professionals.

Angry outbursts and all ofzeal them jockey to get their five minutes are gently quelledthe by amedia watchful coach, and at of fame through circus by making the end of theoutlandish game thereand are high fives and completely embarrassing pats on the head.

Asked how long they’ve been statements and assertions. playing, Bishwajeet Majumdar says, “It Given coach the limited options, India turned to has couple of months most…

Amazthe been one aman who, despiteforhis affiliations, ing whatexactly sports what can do for a child.” seemed the doctor ordered for an A few months ago, Rajib raisedecoin extremely sick country.

We Roy, werealso limping Sonagachi, was spotted by jobs United at a nomically, there were no for Scouts the young tournament India and went on to receive and few wereinhopeful of getting ahead, espetraining at the prestigious Manchester cially if they had no connections.

It wasUnited a des-

Soccer School. “People keep asking me how it from corporates and events, the organisation feels to be my mother’s son and then achieve takes care of the travel and accommodation something like this,” he told the international costs of the participants and their coaches. Besoccer school, “I don’t know how to answer sides training, counselling and access to nutrithat. But when my coach said I had been se- tionists, the players are also provided with lected by Manchester United, it was like a fa- basic education and awareness on health, genther’s recognition,” said the teen. der equality, HIV/AIDS and the environment.

Last year, Biswajit and Bhattaperate country thatNandi turned to Surojit Modi and the For Bishwajit Nandi, teenager with langana’s choice of aSania Mirza as spiked brand charya theasDurbar team and its coach hair Gujaratdid model a saviour. and silver his neck anda ambassador waschains miredaround in controversy after proud. playedsolidly in thefor West Slum wrists, ModiThey was voted hisBengal track record last year’s meet in Poznan, where 64 naBJP MLA called her Pakistan’s daughter-in-law.

Soccer atthe the man National Soccer Tourand forteam being withSlum the economic so- tions competed over willPenguin remain Dinanath Batra, theeight man days, who got nament Nagpur andfirst-time later represented India etched lutions. in The young, voters mostly his memory forever.

“It was an into pulpin Wendy Doniger’s book on Hinduism, at the Homeless World Cup in Poznan, Poland. looked only to themselves and weren’t allied credible experience.

I was so excited and has managed to get his own books on thenervpreof conventional Slum Soccer are differentoffrom a ous onThe anyrules of the moorings caste, about taking says. Nandi scribed reading list ain flight,” Gujarat’sheschools.

He adregular game. Each team fields creed, religion or commune.

Likefour me, players, they be- travelled to Poland with his Durbarcalls teammate vises against birthday candles, black including goalkeeper. lieved thatthe Modi would, The with15-an iron hand, people “negroes” Surojit and Bhattacharya compares— together, them to minute game — seven minutes discipline all the stakeholders in the business burnt chapaties, theyand hadclaims earlier impressed setelevision existed for each half and a one-minute of corruption starting with government ser- in the time oflectors at the national tourney by the Mahabharat. break — is played a 16x22 vants, politicians andon businessmen, including scoring an incredible 28 goals beModi has maintained a disquieting silence Sometimes the girls metre bound by a infamous low wall. feudalfield lords like the tween them. through all this. Now that he is and boys have police Localbarons. coaches and football sugar “We centre arrivedstage, in Poland seven firmly the average cases against them stalwarts selectI 10 players each Like them, wasn’t worried days before the him match Indian expects to and dealpracwith and cannot for the the malerise andof female teams, about the lunatic tised every day. had great irresponsible BJPThey politicians and get passports It was a vote solely although eight end up rightwingonly fringe because intravGujfields, trainers.

The otherscoaches affiliatedand to Hindu rightwfor development — elling to the Cup. “We searat Modi hasWorld successfully manfood was horrible though… just ing groups.

He should actively one without lect sometimes the aged10 to because sideline them using tact, boiled But that’s what preventmeat. them from shooting off rightwing hysteria, to great girls and boys have police cases strength and sheer practicality. we ate it their sportsmen mouths foreat. fiveSo short minbe specific against andDal cannot get Topassports,” says The VHP,them Bajrang and the too,” says Bhattacharya.

They brought utes of media glory.

If he back does Abhijeet a representative gadias ofBarse, the world had very lit- of Slum Soc- memories of not, a clean city, lot its of fancy cars and a a whole right-thinking cer, tle which role is an to offshoot play ofinKrida anVikas Sanstha sports kit shop that had Indians are“best goingquality to startstuff”. becom— a non-governmental economically resurgentcharitable Gujarat. trust.

Although the lost miserably, ingteam afraid.

Very afraid. the Dura sports at a Nagpur col- bar boys were the SoVijay the Barse, vote for Moditeacher as prime highest scorerswho in the Every politician hasseries, been lege, started after stumminister wasSlum a voteSoccer solely in for2011 development — duly andinfelicitated. manyrepregirls votedcheered to power the name “So of Modi bling upon street children kicking around a approached one without rightwing hysteria, to be specific. us after won,” says Nandi. sents Modi first and we must remember this.“We The broken 16 slums invited Which bucket. is why, He thevisited last few weeksand have been made friends from Modi Argentina andhim Mexico.

Indians who voted in expect to actI children worrying.to play in teams. Through weekend still emailirresponsible them from thestatements internet centre.” against from his sessions the organisation In theand twofootball monthscamps, since Modi ascended to own Back home Bhattacharya party, likenow, he did in Gujarat.lives with his reaches out to 70,000 men, women and chilpower, stories of intolerance have been pop- mother Habra minister and catches the local train at Modi at is prime despite the baggage dren districts India. First, in Pune a the ping in up63across theofcountry. crack dawn reach “I used of the BJPofand it isto time hethe toldground. publicity-hunOver the pastwas three years, has been mob con- to Muslim techie killed by aitrightwing out of thethe Durbar home to catch grysneak colleagues to toe line for the sake of his ducting an annual nationwide football con- matches for wearing a skullcap.

Then came the proclaonso TV.that ThisheWorld Cup, was the supportcredibility, can get on Iwith job of test withfrom participation from seven states. ing mations State minister Sudin Dhavalikar Argentina. I love Messi,” he says, “One day, nation-building.

Besides showcasing young talent, the wearing tourna- I’d love to be coached by Pep Guardiola.” that girls should be banned from prahlad kakar is an ad-man and a commentator on ment helps and select theto Indian squad for couthe short skirts going pubs. In the last dugar kundalia social and political issues is a Kolkata-based writer Homeless Cup.has With funding raised ple of days,World the noise only worsened.

Te- nidhi

It is time Modi told publicity-hungry colleagues to toe the line for his own credibility

prahlad kakar

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Not on track India is home to one of the largest contingents of athletes who have failed drug tests. Is it ignorance or malpractice?

evlakhov valeriy/shutterstock.com

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he day before sprinter Suresh Satya was to board a flight to Guangzhou, China, for the 2010 Asian Games, he was asked to take a drug test. In China, the bronze medal winner at the 2010 Commonwealth Games was informed that he and two of his 4x100m relay teammates had been suspended for two years as they had tested positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid that is classified as a Performance Enhancing Drug (PED). While Satya is now concentrating on the upcoming Asian Games, to be held later this year in South Korea, his teammates and he aren’t the only Indian athletes to have failed the dope test.

According to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), 49 Indian athletes are currently serving bans — ranging from six months to a lifetime — for consuming prohibited substances. In the last two years itself, more than 300 Indian athletes have failed drug tests.

History sheet India’s first major doping embarrassment occurred during the 1990 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand. Weightlifter Subrata Kumar Paul, who’d already won two silvers and a bronze at the games, tested positive for anabolic steroids and was sent home immediately. Paul was also the first athlete in the history of CWG to be caught for doping. It has been a downward spiral ever since.

The relationship between doping and competitive sports, especially track and field events, is an old one. It is believed that the first instance of an athlete taking a drug to make him ‘superhuman’ was during the ancient games in Greece, where lizard meat was consumed in the hope of gaining an athletic advantage. In the modern era, the first documented case of doping was in 1906 when Thomas Hicks, running the Olympic marathon, was injected with strychnine (a pesticide commonly used to kill birds and rats) and some brandy, enabling him to edge his way to a gold in the event. It was only in 1967 though

that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued a ban on doping and it wasn’t until 1999 that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was formed.

In India, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) was formed only in 2009. Since its inception, more than 500 cases of doping have surfaced during and outside competition. The latest instance is that of Sachin Choudhary, the para-powerlifter who was sent home from the ongoing CWG because he failed a NADA test, which was taken a month before the contingent left for Glasgow.

ter. “Many athletes are simply not aware of anti-doping practices rather than being involved in any form of systematic cheating,” says Chris Turner, deputy director, PR, IAAF communications department, via email. “We are in touch with relevant parties and want to spread accurate information, but in a vast country with an equally vast population, this is a complex problem to resolve.”

Many of the drugs and supplements that are banned by WADA are available over the counter in India. “You just need to go to any pharmacy and drugs like stanozolol can be bought for as little as ₹40 and pharmacists selToo high, too fast dom ask for a prescription,” says Arun Mendi“Everyone wants a shortcut to success. An easy ratta, chief medical officer, Athletics fix,” says Dr PSM Chandran, the president of Federation of India. “Many of these steroids the Indian Federation of Sports are meant for therapeutic purMedicine, who retired last year poses, and when athletes take as director, sports medicine, afthem they risk being banned ter 25 years at the Sports Authorfrom competitive sports. These ity of India (SAI). “Passing your can have disastrous side-effects Many of the drugs zonals or regional meets has and supplements that as well,” Mendiratta says. many advantages. You stand to are banned by WADA But with little proactive efforts get employment in services like are available over the to prevent doping — apart from the railways or the police, you the odd lecture during athletic counter in India could win awards, get prize meets — the situation is likely to money; so athletes, especially in worsen before it improves. As GS the lower rungs, are all too willRandhawa, veteran athlete and ing to take drugs and supplegold medallist at the ’62 Asian ments to help them get ahead.”

Games, says, “It is the anxiety for a good perThe promise of quick gains, prevalence of formance that results in doping. The solution banned supplements and ignorance about is simple for an athlete, just train systematicalwhat is allowed are among the reasons why ly and stick to your routine and diet.” numerous athletes are caught in the doping But the problem in India is often one of ignet. While organisations like NADA take care norance rather than malpractice. As Satya of the testing, in terms of precaution and pre- says, “My dad is a retired police officer and bevention there is little effort from administra- cause of athletics I have a job with a bank. Like tive and other supporting athletics me, many athletes come from a poor backorganisations and federations. ground, and we might take a medicine for a fe“In any athletic meet in our country, there is ver or something, which unknowingly hardly any publicity material that warns ath- backfires, like it did for me,” adding, “If they letes about substances that are banned. In would only tell us more clearly what’s allowed many cases, athletes discover that a supple- and what’s not from a young age, half the batment they have taken is banned only after the tle would be won right there.” test results come out,” says Dr Chandran. The IAAF shares the doctor’s opinion on this mat- sibi arasu

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Bicycle bells and whistles There is a booming market for premium and imported bicycles as high-earning professionals pick this eco-friendly transport to ride into a healthy way of life

Continental shift

In body and spirit, most high-end wildlife resorts in India evoke their counterparts from the continent that lent the safari its name

A Just two will do Car designer at Maruti Suzuki, Saurabh Singh prefers a twowheeler — his high-end Giant mountain bike; (below) Tern folding bike

Au naturel (clockwise from right) The Serai at Bandipur; Taj Banjaar Tola in Kanha; and a big cat on the prowl in Corbett ap

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fter a long drive through the bush It’s mid-morning on a bright autumn day, where the forest begins and the hotel ends. and forest, you arrive at your re- and keeping you company is the aggressive It took three years to build the lodge, extreat. Thatched roofs atop gleaming chirping of a couple of drongos and the far plains Yadavendra. With just 12 villas, it is unwhite stucco walls. You note the gentler rustle of arrhythmic breeze. Such is likely to break even till 2018. But adding more crimson and hot-pink bougainvillea spilling the splendour of the isolation that you mo- villas could destroy its charm. Designed by over them, the leaves outnumbered. You open mentarily lose your bearings — are you still in Delhi-based Pradeep Sachdeva Design Associa wooden gate to walk to your room, past a Natal? Or maybe, you stayed on at Mara? Did ates, who visited various lodges in Africa to get bare, whitewashed courtyard. Once inside, you even check out of Tintswalo? Mid-reverie, the look right, everything at Samode Safari — you take in the high ceiling, the niches in the you realise you are still in India — at The Serai, design, materials, food — is decidedly local. walls, stone flooring, cane chairs, rough hewn Bandipur in Karnataka — where the Deccan Gond designs run like a thread across the wooden furniture, animal print cottons and Plateau and the Western Ghats merge. Why property, while meals are served under trees the open-air shower, before you step out again did you think it’s Africa? or starlit skies. The mainstay of the experience on to the veranda. Sprawled before you is a may be the tigers at the adjacent reserve but patchwork of scrub, grassland and jungle bor- Breathing space the villas match the safari experience. About dered by thee designs low hillscars beyond. body and spirit, most wildlife resorts In- 2,000sqft, for India’s largest au- In these one-bedroom photography buff heads out, lunch and in camtrum of mountain, all-terrain,units road,include racing their counterparts from theGarden conti- game tomaker, but when he’s not work- dia lodge highlights, such as sold decksjust opening era evoke packed, to the nearby Butterfly and kids’ bikes.

The company 1,200 that lent thein safari itsand name (from safara into ing he hits the road not in a fancy nent loungers, fans and birding sites Thane Bhandup. bikesthe in forest, the first year, but‘antique’ today itceiling sells 6,000 ‘toPune, travel’Jehangir in Kiswahili).

The Se- founder and every month.and four-wheeler but a humble bicy- or In books and35tradiHC Jehangir, Andswitches, sales are increasing to 40 designed by multi-speciality Dean D’Cruz, is Jehangir Hos- per cent annually. cle. Okay, maybe not all that humble. Saurabh rai, tional games. chairman of the Inspired the Singh, AGM (styling design) at Maruti Suzuki, no pital,different. cycles to work everybyday as it keeps him It is this galloping pace of growth that of Africa — albeit takes off on weekends to the Aravalli Hills on game Natural barriers fit andlodges is environment-friendly. prompted Taiwanese speciality-bike maker GiIn water scarce the Mediterrathe outskirts of Gurgaon on a mountain bike with Unlike in South 2013.

Africa,While for inFortouches long, theofbicycle was looked down upon ant to enter India in October its regions, such as — its wooded is who couldn’t manufactured by the world’s leading bicycle- nean stance, where there are private as the vehicle of choicesprawl for those prices stretch from ₹25,000 to ₹10.6 lakh, the Panna and Pench, marked by log huts and cottagesIt was maker Giant. reserves well, in India, closafford scooters and motorbikes. synonyaverage selling priceasof a bike in the India is there are no bathtubs against the Nilgiris.

Singh’s love affair with bicycles began in set est experience of afor chain of remous with postmen andVenkamilkmen. Children ₹65,000. “Although the market premium director of Coffee Daygrocery stores bikes is smalltreats 2003 in Japan, during a training programme tesh canofbe had through rode M, them to school, the local in terms numbers, it is bigthe in & Resorts, which owns at Suzuki. For lack of an international driving Hotels four properties of Taj Safaris, a or to the playground.

There was only black value,” says Pravin V Patil, managing director (andand thered riverside licence, trainees like him had to bicycle to get the joint venture with &Beyond, a and property blue for boys, and pink for girls to Kabini Lodge), says, from.

“While renovating it, we ‘luxury experiential travel specialist’ that first around. Singh soon discovered choose wanted to retainToday, the topography.

We have a to- made its mark in Africa. The lodges — Mahua the freedom and flexibility that an emerging category tal area of 36 of acres, of which only were built Kothi in Bandhavgarh National Park, Baghvan came with it. So when a friend professionals in18the upperupon.” A concession thathigh-income affluent, well-travintroduced him to the Pedal Yamiddle and groups in Pench National Park, Banjaar Tola in Kanha elled manyimpetus who havetobeen tri group in Gurgaon in 2010, is including giving a fresh the National Park and Pashan Garh in Panna NaThe market forclientele, to Africa, no doubtcycling appreciate.

Even Singh began to relive his Japa₹2,000-crore industry in tional Park — are all built to merge into the lopremium bikes is would whenbut they are ensconced in luxury tents at cal scrub. Baghvan, Pashan Garh and Mahua nese dream. This love for cyIndia.

Their reasons range from small in number, Oberoi Vanyavilas cling, combined with a healthortoAman-i-Khas, hobby, and charming from eco- Kothi too have 12 suites each. At Baghvan, each big in value enough for many guests tototake a token safari passion for the outfriendliness stress-free com- room has a machan (with a thoughtfully proand save the rest of the day to soak in thebicysen- vided mosquito net!) and the ambience is very doors saw him readmutes.

Nearly 15.5 million sory pleasures of glamping (glam-camping!). ily buy a bike priced cles were sold last year in a 1950s. Expect a colour scheme of cream with a While Africa is blessed with by more wildlife re- few touches of turquoise, overhead fans, Parsi ₹1 lakh. market marked rising disposthan anywhere else on earth, India tiles, woven hyacinth furniture, high ceilings, Cut to Mumbai. Thrice a week, serves able incomes and readily available imported in the crowds for the tiger. But after a giant ebony chests and hookahs.

Nilesh Singh cycles to work at a draws high-end bikes. gigantic mall in suburban hectic day of chasing the big cat, those with The forest experience gets more intense at pockets expect a comfortable, preferably Banjaar Tola, where accommodation is entireThane, about 7km from his resi- deep Premium pedals bedwhen to recover in. Perhaps, atand a place dence. He took up cycling two luxurious “We felt that the Ambassador Pre- ly in camps — there are two camps with nine Samode Safari Lodge atfor Bandhavgarh years ago when he realised like mierthe Padmini could make way better cars suites each. Usually, about five per cent of the Madhya latest Relais & Châhe had no time for regu- in and whenPradesh.

RajdootIndia’s (motorcycle) could be total space is built-up, says Mridula Tangirala, teaux international ‘club’to ofassume resortsthere with director operations, Taj Safaris, pointing out lar exercise. phased(an out, it made no sense rules for admission) it is run by that everything from avoiding wildlife corriHis mount? The strict was no demand for better entrant, quality cycles in Inand managing Yadavendradirector Singh. dors to sourcing sustainable building materiRockrider 5.2 moun- brothers dia,” says Raghvendra Shiv Inder Singh, on retails African safaris, bicythey al and waste management is taken into tain bike (MTB) Frequent of Firefox travellers Bikes, which premium to recreate the experience priced at ₹22,000. Be- wanted cles, including brands such as Trekhere. and The Tern.re- account. She says, “In water scarce regions, a spectacular lodge.

But for the impersides biking to office, sult Panna and for instance, Setisup in 2004, Firefox introduced a range of such Fancyas freewheels ShivPench, Inder Singh, managing there fences, it’d be covering difficult tothe spot exactly on the weekends, the ceptible director of Firefox Bikes be no bathtubs.”

30 imported models, full spec- can

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Pedal ahead Pravin V Patil, managing director of Starkenn Sports; (right) Rohan Kini, founder of bike ecommerce venture BumsOnTheSaddle.com; (inset) folded Tern bike

of Starkenn Sports, which has exclusive distribution rights for Giant bikes in India and South Asia.

Techie love The buyers are mainly IT professionals, followed by doctors and fitness enthusiasts. Other emerging categories include middle-aged professionals and children, who now want better designs and finish compared to what was available to them before.

The rise of the market for premium bicycles in India can be traced to the emergence of IT hubs in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune in the noughties. Young IT professionals on assignment in the US and Europe were exposed to the cycling culture there, not only for commuting but also as recreation. “They would want similar bikes when they were back in India. But because those were not available, they began to import them from Singapore, Thailand and Dubai,” says Patil.

Illegal imports soon gave rise to a thriving grey market. This was enough to convince anyone that the Indian market was ready for premium bike brands. And sure enough, the

Growth cycle Giant Starkenn Cycling World showroom in Bangalore

office from his friend’s rooftop to an outlet in Jayanagar. Today, he has buyers not only in the big cities of Mumbai and Pune, but also in smaller places such as Nashik, Nagpur and Surat. Recently, he even sold a mountain bike in Aihol, Manipur.

A love for bikes is usually accompanied by an indulgence in accessories. “As your passion Missionary wheels Rohan Kini has experienced this for biking grows, the need for accessories boom first-hand. In 2006, this computer engi- grows alongside,” says Saurabh Singh.

The market for helmets, neck covers, gloves, neer began building a community of bikers in Bangalore, a city choking with traffic and pol- mirrors, lights and toolkits is currently domlution. The chaos and hold-ups on the roads inated by unbranded players, but the international brands are equally led to the birth of the ‘cycle to available. And a large chunk of work’ movement. “We started the sales takes place online. with the aim of promoting cyAdditionally, Kini and other Incling in Bangalore. We were aldian companies such as Firefox ready cycling to work. So the We were already and Strakken import bicycle goal was to talk about it, to give cycling to work. So components and assemble them people an experience of it and the goal was to talk locally. This also allows them to provide them with technical about it customise the bikes according to know-how,” says Kini, who individual requirements. Boastfounded BumsOnTheSaddle.com, an e-commerce site for bikes and ing not only better design and finish, premium bike brands are accessories, alongside his job at ThoughtWorks, a software company. steadily taking centre stage in India.

By 2011, the business had grown so much that Kini had to give up his 10-year-old job to Urban planning mix look after the site full time. He also moved the According to industry estimates, more than half of the Indian market continues to be ruled by the basic, old-style black or green cycles manufactured by established players such as Hero Cycles, Atlas and TI India. The rest is taken up by fancy bikes, with premium bikes commanding merely 4 per cent or so of the market.

While demand for fancy bikes is growing at about 30 per cent annually, it is falling for basic models. “The standard cycle segment is moving on to motorbikes, thanks to financing options,” explains Singh of Firefox.

But urban planners are eager to promote cycling to combat rising traffic and pollution woes. This includes the creation of dedicated bicycle lanes, already under way in cities such as Bangalore, Delhi and Pune, as well as ‘feeder’ bicycle renting and parking facilities near metro stations and bus stands in the Capital, for instance.

“As traffic increases, the need for cycling will only go up,” says Singh of Firefox. Moreover, urban planning is shifting away from sprawling horizontal cities to sky-high vertical ones, where one can cycle to workplaces located close to home. And premium bike makers are pedalling furiously towards this emerging opportunity. ₹150-crore premium bike market is set to touch the ₹500-crore mark over the next three years.

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PAPERWALLAH

Living is so dear dipankar

When something is rotten in the state of the world, comfort can be found in unexpected places, such as the pages of books

Cleansing Walden provides an encounter as refreshing as a summery dip in a pond

janice pariat

g krishnaswamy

TN ANNOUNCES COMPREHENSIVE CLOTHING LAW! T E

SHOVON CHOWDHURY is chief Truthdigger and author of The Competent Authority

he fabric of his dhoti is soft and “No, I mean Vision in Governance. Like “The rules for women are more detailed. arrest and embarrassment. Tatkal facility is clingy, moulding itself to his upthe Aadhaar Card, this law represents a They are designed to reflect our culture. also available.” per thighs. He adjusts the fabric quantum leap in governance. Thanks to Western forms of dress such as skirts will A bare-bodied bearer serves us cups of with jasmine-scented fingers. His laws such as Section 377, we are albe allowed, provided the hemline tea. “He is also wearing his traditional of said skirt extends to six inches dress,” says the Joint Secretary, approvingly, pure, white Tirupur cotton vest accentuready monitoring activities in ates the gentle swell of his belly. I tear my the bedroom. But so far, the below knee, except in cases of “Please ask your readers to study the lists began this book co- an exclamation women whose legs are shortbefore putting on clothing.

Some eyes away and focus on his voice. The Joint livingarlier room in has2014, beenI outside mark and a question mark, it carefully social experiment, manual for self-reliance, lumn with great hope.

Secretary is speaking. our purview.

Naturally, there A piece on lit- serves as a protest er than six all inches. your items are prohibited, while ofothers are against formsFor of censorsatire, personal declaration independence, erature borders — rather, ship and oppression. prohibited.

Strictly prohibited “Without our culture, what are we?” he are a wide rangeand of activities convenience, we are provid- strictly and spiritual discovery — details Thoreau’s exquestions and dising wanes, lists of it’s both compulsory will attract fines.

For example, asks, “Decline of society is inevitable. One whichliterature require that regulation, Yet when anger often replaced by items periences over higher two years, living in a cabin he geographical boundaries.

I was in- despair. thing leads to another, as in the case of hon- mantles but we are starting with clothing and prohibited sleeveless prohibited, whereas built byblouses Waldenare Pond, near Concord, Massaby artist Francis Alÿs performing ‘The are strictly in the ourable judges of the Madras High Court. spired clothing.

Refusal to admit men The lists are long.

In prose, Iclothing. sought unintelligibility and in- bikinis chusetts.

It isn’tprohibited, the easiestexcept to read, littered Line’—dhotis holding can of leaking paint, comprehension.

First, disrespect was shown by a club. Then Green wearing intoa any private This is In why organisers of theatriof elaborate, professional actresses, wearing and Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a case with allegorical metaphors along the armistice border cal performances fancy dress so them in pursuance of their duties. Such came Justice Katju. Immediate steps were he strolled residence is now a cognizable of-in Jeru- Half-formed Thing, I found aand fragmentation complex, extended sentences, but Iin-found — articulating the are border as an parties are advised to submit details of dividuals canpages get exemption after submisrequired, before matters deteriorated fur- salem fence, unless the men carrying at arbileast complete that the world could not be otherwithin its a certain quietness.

A paring mark on the ground.

Months later, I wise. ther. Plus there was the question of Vision.” trary three or more loaded weapons.” clothing months in advance for in sion of form 36D, and DIN Thethree book,toasix broken mirror.

A novel down.

A purging.

Anprocurement encounter asofrefreshing this asabout human rightsin are being violated “You can see better if you wear a dhoti?” write “What women dhotis?”

I ask. prior approval.

This can help citizensinavoid from the Registrar Companies.” which it’s hard to finish a sentence, which number as a summery dip in a of cool, isolated pond. in Gaza, as bodies fall out of the sky in Ukraine; most sentences remain unfinished. “See. My “Why should we live with such hurry and something is rotten in the state of the world. one act. I might be a person. Beneath the.” In waste of life?” he asks.

While we do what we can — attend protests, Hemingway’s ‘A Clean Well-lighted Place’, at I find I have no answer. share images and articles, hit retweet and like the heart of the short story, I enSome lines ring eerily prophetDearest Balram, innumerable times, perhaps make a donation countered a void. “Our nada ic — “Every child begins the world Ever since Raghuram Rajan took over as — we need, at times, to reach for comfort. In- who art in nada, nada be thy anew, and loves to stay outdoors, RBI governor, banks have been far more stinctively, for me, it is literature. name… deliver us from nada; in cold or sunshine”— while othcheerful. Their complexions have imAt first, anger drove me to poetry, for poetry pues nada.” From TS Eliot, I filers are quietly revelatory, “Rather “Every child begins proved, and their outlook is more optimisis anger’s swiftest, most impeccable, vehicle. ched the coda to ‘The Hollow than love, than money, than the world anew, and tic. They have found the courage to branch The sad, eloquent Mahmoud Darwish, whose Men’, repeating madly like a fame, give me truth.” The book is loves to stay out into new areas. Many are entering the ‘Silence for the sake of Gaza’ will disquiet your child: “This is the way the world filled with birdsong, the (un)sioutdoors, in cold or vegetable segment. One Mr Jaspal Bhatti resh from her triumph in Mary her twin sister Meresa, who takes a wrong heart: “[Gaza] is oranges that explode, chil- ends/This is the way the world lence of the forest, the rhythm of sunshine,” wrote pioneered such schemes for onions in PunKom, Priyanka Chopra has created path and, after an initial foray into cabaret, dren without a childhood, aged men without ends/This is the way the world planting, growth, and harvest. “I jab. He also led the demand for subsidy on history again! Beating tough com-Thoreau becomes a dacoit queen in the Chambal an old age, and women without desire.” ends/Not with a bang but a went to the woods because I drugs, but this could not be implemented petition from Julie Andrews, Meryl belt, before finding love in the arms of RanOr the brave, spit-fire enraged spoken word whimper.” wished to live deliberately, to due to his unfortunate demise. We owe a lot Streep and Kamal Haasan, she’s won the veer Singh, a poor local boy who canartist Rafeef Ziadah performing ‘We teach life, Comfort, though, nestled front only the essential facts of to this man, and I am collecting small dona- central role in Tere Mere Pyaar Vyaar, a not afford shirts. Meanwhile, in sir!’ to a pin-drop silent audience: “Today, my somewhere quite unexpected. life, and see if I could not learn tions for a statue. You are welcome to con- musical film on the life of Nobel Calcutta, her sister Teresa helps body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into At the bottom of my bookshelf, a slim text, what it had to teach, and not, when I came to tribute to the fund. laureate Mother Teresa. the poor (to be played by Irrfan sound bites and word limits.” Or Refaat Ala- easily lost among the others — Henry David die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish Ally Subramaniam was born in the southyour tomato loan, your first Khan), wins the Nobel (awarded “We were a little worried bewest Sundarbans, but was blown away by a reer, Regarding a young academic, who wrote ‘A Poem Thoreau’s Walden. I hadn’t read it in years, and to live what was not life, living is so dear.” Livchoice should naturally be Punjab National cause she played a prostitute in by a character played by Aamir cyclone and washed up on the shore near from Gaza to Israel’ with stark uncommon even then not for the most poetic of purposes ing is so dear.

Bank. Tell them Mr Bhatti sent you. In case the re-make of Deewar,” said a Khan), while foiling an evil plot Chennai. He was adopted by a poor Brahmin simplicity: “I am you. I am your past. And kill- — while studying for an A-GRE in Literature, Re-reading Walden made me realise that we, family from Tirupur. He can answer all your of rejection, there is no need to panic. Just representative of producer-diby CIA (played by Tom Alter).” ing me, You kill you.” when I once toyed with PhD plans. I’d picked many of us, are modern-day transcendentalquestions. Just send them to list out the banks that have lent money to rector Sajid Nadirwala, “But The blockbuster releases But at thousand deaths and rising (many of up a copy in Waterstones, stashed not under ists, believing in the goodness of people. Of askallysubramaniam@gmail.com Kingfisher. You did not share your financial luckily, no one rememthis Diwali, along with the whom are children), poetry ceases to make ‘Philosophy’ but the rather vacuous sounding this, we must be often reminded. Thoreau’s ofstatus, but I’m guessing any bank that lent bers. We wanted to bring sensational music video sense. The only rhythm is of gunfire, the ca- ‘Nature Writing’. Written in 1854, Walden is, ad- fering is a return to spring, a rejuvenation: ear Ally, is it true that banks are money to them should be happy to lend to the message of her life to for her new international dence of bombs falling. And these words, per- mittedly, dated, in ways that can make you “Renew yourself completely each day; do it now providing loans for pur- you. Just make sure the tomatoes are fresh, audiences in an entertainpop single, Can’t kick the fectly placed and articulate, despite being wince — indigenous communities are referred again, and forever again.” Remember, as he chase of tomatoes? as banks very often look at re-sale value. habit, featuring Beyoncé ing way, which is why we impassioned, suddenly seem inadequate. to as ‘savages’ — or charm you — “For my part, I says, morning brings back the heroic ages.

Regards, Balram, Moradabad Yours affectionately, Ally. as Dr Martin Luther King. created the character of I turned to South African writer Koos Kom- could easily do without the post-office. I think buis’ ‘Tipp-Ex Sonate’, a poem entirely bereft of that there are very few important communi- janice pariat’s novel Seahorse will be published in The Investigator is a fortnightly round-up of all things droll and newsy. views are personal. marks, Really personal t@shovonc text.

Composed ofAll brackets, quotation cations made through it.” This memoir — part November 2014 t@janicepariat

ASK ALLY

PRIYANKA CHOPRAQ TO PLAY MOTHER TERESA!

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LIGHTHOUSE

Luck is all around

Life, like sport, consists of millions of intersecting events with varying probabilities, and Luck is a lead character in the drama of every person’s life Chance encounters The odds of a sperm becoming a person is a few billion to one AFP

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Amit Varma is a novelist. He blogs at indiauncut.com

ou are lucky to be reading this. When your father ejaculated into your mother, somewhere between 300 to 500 million spermatozoa were released. One of them held the blueprint for you.

That one sperm cell made it through the acidic furnace of the vagina, the graveyard for most sperms, and then outlasted the survivors to somehow become a person. Taking into account the fact that this was almost certainly not the sole sexual encounter between your parents at the time, your chances of coming into existence were probably a few billion to one. Given that your parents were born of similar odds, and somehow managed to meet and hook up and produce you, it is even more of a miracle that you exist. Indeed, consider that our specific species should itself evolve and survive through the ages, on this one out of trillions of planets (yes, trillions), and you get a true idea of how remarkable your existence is. Don’t be under the illusion, though, that this makes you special: everything around you is there despite similar odds against it. However unlikely it is for a specific something to exist, it is inevitable that some things will, indeed, be there. Congratulations.

While everything else pales into insignificance beyond the spectacular fact of our existence, we’re still not satisfied. We spend our days striving for this or that trivial little thing, and stressing over matters like the maid coming late or the scratch on the car or tax returns or the in-laws or getting laid. (We are programmed to worry specifically about that last one, but we are again uniquely fortunate among species to be able to ignore our pro-

While I am an atheist, the Lord was on to something. In life, too, luck plays a far bigger role than we realise. And as in poker, the management of that luck is the key skill to learn.

Let me turn to sports to illustrate what I mean.

In the last instalment of Lighthouse, I had written about how luck plays a huge role in football, which is also a game of probabilities.

For example, Lionel Messi scores from a direct free kick 1 in 12.5 times. This is the bare number, over a sufficiently significant sample size of free kicks. And yet, we cheer madly when he curls one in, and groan and go ‘WTF is he doing’ when he flips one way over — even though, in the larger scheme of things, they’re the same shot. While fans and even most reporters don’t get this, managers do, working furiously to maximise the probabilities in their favour. But fans go by results, and while those may even out in a league over a season, they never do in knockout tournaments, much to the bemusement and frustration of the men in charge.

Maradona has won a World Cup, Messi hasn’t, what does that say? Nothing at all. It’s luck.

I was a cricket journalist for a few years and, in retrospect, it amazes me how seriously we took results. Every action on a field has a number associated with it. A full delivery outside off in the 40th over has X per cent chance of reverse-swinging into the batsman, Y per cent gramming. Be a rebel, don’t f*** today.) Hon- chance of being cover-driven if it doesn’t, and estly, just the fact that we are here should keep Z per cent chance of beating the field when us in a constant state of elation and wonder. that happens. Through a day, as the overs go But we get tripped up by vanity. We believe by, thousands of events of different probabilithat we are special (as a species and as individ- ties intersect as we arrive at a result that is deuals), and that we possess the intelligence to termined partly by skill and partly by luck. make sense of the world and to rule it. This And yet, we cheer the slog that goes for six and vanity, in the cosmic scale of things, is either boo the batsman holing out in the deep with a comic or tragic, depending on how seriously majestic lofted off-drive. Chance can deteryou take yourself. And me, I find mine careers: MS Dhoni blunit hard to take myself too seridered by leaving the last over of ously when I’m sitting in a dark the first T20 World Cup final to Joroom in New Bombay playing ginder Sharma, but it was hailed This vanity, in the cards with a drunk builder as a masterstroke when it hapcosmic scale of who’s snorting cocaine as he things, is either comic pened to work. After Sharma conasks me, “Kya laga liya, sirjee?” ceded a wide and a six, what if or tragic, depending Four years ago, I became a seMisbah-ul-Haq hadn’t played on how seriously you rious poker player. I did it to that one false stroke? Would Dhotake yourself make money, but ended up ni be Dhoni? learning how little I knew about Life, like sport, consists of millife. The most important thing I lions of intersecting events with learnt from poker was about the varying probabilities, and Luck is role of luck in the world. Poker is essentially a a lead character in the drama of every person’s game of skill, but only in the long run (which life. The lesson here is to not sweat what we can be longer than you imagine). In the short cannot control, to take nothing in our lives for run, luck dominates. Every action has associat- granted, and to make each moment count. ed probabilities, and you try to manoeuvre And also, to be humble, because humility is your way through a poker game in such a way the only appropriate response to the awesome that the probabilities are on your side. Keep complexity of this world. getting your money in as a 51 per cent favouMeanwhile, in that dark New Bombay room, rite and, in the long run, all the money is my builder friend asks me again, “Kya hai bhai? yours. In the short run, you could get ham- Gutty laga li kya?” I stare at the table and show mered again and again and again. For that rea- no emotion. He calls. I show him my cards, reson, poker players are constantly told not to be flecting on my good fortune, and on billions ‘results-oriented’. As Lord Krishna recom- and billions of spermatozoa. mended in the Bhagavad Gita, just keep doing t@amitvarma the right thing, and all will be well. Eventually.

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The first couple

Reel adventures Ashish Gaikwad with students of Mumbai’s Pali-Chimbai municipal corporation school, where he attended filmmaker Amol Gupte’s weekend classes on cinema and theatre; (below) a still from Gaikwad’s short film Tahaan

Amid the collective gloom in the Lok Sabha, it is hard not to notice the unwavering enthusiasm of Pappu Yadav and his wife, Ranjeet Ranjan paul noronha United we stand RJD MP Pappu Yadav with his wife and Congress MP, Ranjeet Ranjan, at the Parliament rajeev bhatt

minister who resigns and is sent to jail. Anything can happen in this country, we are a democracy, after all… I tell the truth as I see it.

There are some people who should be behind bars, who should be locked up. But they are strutting about, doing politics, campaigning in elections,” Rudy said.

The reference, of course, was to Lalu Yadav who installed Rabri Devi in his stead when he was jailed in connection with the fodder scam and to Pappu Yadav as well. And it was not a slight the strongman from Madhepura was about to overlook.

“What is he saying?” Yadav was heard asking the Speaker. In the ensuing din, a silent threat was communicated. And when it comes from Pappu Yadav, a man once convicted and acquitted of murdering a CPI(M) legislator, a threat is never taken lightly. Despite his bravado, Rudy understands enough about his native state to ignore it. “I take it back,” he said.

“It did actually concern you. But I take it back.”

From that moment on, the fledgling Opposition had found its torchbearer. Be it the debate on price rise or force-feeding a fasting Filmmaker Amol Gupte works with the NGO Muslim “For as long as Ithe canRamzan, remember, my forces mother during Yadav a and teaches at these classes. “But sir wanted to semblance had to buyof water,” hein says.

“It’s never been a balance a House tilted heavily teach something more than the school sub- in free commodity.

I wrotebenches. the script and confavour of the treasury jects since we were already getting help with vinced my mother to act in foul-mouthed the film. As I preSo, when the unfailingly Rathat,” says Gaikwad of his mentor. “He mesh sented Bidhuri, it to Gupte sir, MP I confessed to himDelhi, that I BJP from south thought of teaching us cinema and drama.” had beeninto bunking college on Saturdays tothe atcharged the well, mouthing curses at “I truly believe that cinema is a modern art Opposition, tend his classes Aseema.

He Yadav is verytostrict it wasatleft to Pappu fend form that can change the world,” says Gupte, him about not missing school.

ButOpposition’s he got so emooff.

The occasion was the dewho has made the critically acclaimed films mand tional after the movie that I knew was for aseeing discussion on the issue of it some Taare Zameen Par, Stanley Ka Dabba and, more Shiv the right tell him — he wouldn’t repriSenatime MPs to force-feeding a fasting Muslim recently, Hawa Hawaii. “I want these children employee mand me.atInthe theMaharashtra end, he reasoned Sadan. that Exple-I to have a skill, so when they join the industry tives wouldn’t have made film if but I had and threats werethis exchanged in not the they can do so as scriptwriters, editors, cam- end, bunked, so it had all worked out.” and apologise.

Bidhuri to withdraw, era people and actors, and not Gupte Tahaan “We don’t approve of thecirculated conduct of our MP,” just as spotboys and light men.” among Affairs his peers, including disaid Parliamentary Minister M VenThe Mumbai film industry is Ghai.

At House.” a funckaiah Naidu. rector “He willSubhash apologise to the one of the largest employers in And he did. tion to commemorate 100 years I want these children the city and an economic power-meal scheme Gaikwad was Pappu called ing a question on the mid-day Of course, of no cinema, one thought of asking to have a skill, so they house. The Aseema cinema onBidhuri’s stage andlead. gifted a full scholarduring the Question Hour onand July 16. Even be- Yadav to follow can join the film theatre arecould held on shipoftohis Ghai’s Whistling fore theclasses Speaker sayweekanything, Ranjeet Unlike many brethren fromWoods.

Bihar industry (in Mumbai) ends.onThe areisexposed had no ideawounds this was going to was herchildren feet. “What the meaning of men- who are still “I licking their from their as scriptwriters, to worldallcinema, andWhat in class, happen,” he says.

“When sir tioning this here? is he implying?” respective parties’ electoral defeat, forGhai Pappu editors, camera theysaid, discuss what they or Silchar (As- Yadav, it is the called me on stage, he said, ‘We she as Sushmita Dev,liked MP from beginning of a new life. The people and actors, didn’tjoined like about a film, gifting you this scholarsam) forces with the her.techdreaded donare wasnot sentenced to life imprisonand not just as niques used, just motivations of ship, you have snatched it from Meanwhile, when the BJP ment in February 2008 for the spotboys and characters; they create our hands your talent’.” is beginning to flex then its muscle in murder of with CPI(M) MP from Purlight men their own scripts andmore play them Like other the House, it has met than nea Ajitevery Sarkar.

The opportunity Patna High out.match Whenin Gupte’s production that came his him way, last Gaikwad its Pappu Yadav’s bulk, Court acquitted year.

It helps, of course, if house isconsiderably not using itsreduced equipmaderuling full usewas of his time at Whisalbeit The followed by a the Gandhian vision ment, his the 175kg. students borrow it to tling of Woods before graduating from From the very spurt assertions about Yadav’s of politics as social makesession their films. in January 2014.

And likeand hisefforts mentor, first of the 16th Lok Sabinnocence ofhe antries imservice has a skills, the classes have to help othersage around him grow too. “I used to ha,Going it has beyond been clear thatclearly nothing makeover. subliminal context of also shaped Gaikwad’s thoughts. “I just visit a friend’s village in the region [of untoward from the treasury Not only hasKonkan he turned an aumurder and mayhem trained to beslip an editor, butgiant.

I want to be a film- Maharashtra]thor, and wanted make a filmaudawith benches will past this writingtothe rather maker anditmake meaningful films like sir,” he the childrenciously there titled called Drohkal Kshan (moment) And so was when BJP’s Rajiv Ka Pathik says. “You should of the of Pratap Rudy, freshlearn fromsomething his suc- from a film. about the bitter-sweetness (one who walked thelast pathdays of reHow many people newspaper? But ev- Class X,” he says.

“Unfortunately, theytoweren’t cessful battle withread LaluaPrasad bellion), Yadav aspires follow eryone wife watches showiniticar further very interested.

They didn’t show up as forpolithe Yadav’s Rabricinema.

Devi inWhen Saran we (Bihar), studies and lists his profession chases, stuntsonand (slang) lan- tics workshops and service’. shoots. Now the actors ated the bike discussion the tapori President’s speech and ‘social Wife Ranjeet, onhave her guage, you can see it society around had growth we can’t them. at the joint session inin Parliament.

Rudy you. was part, wantsspurts, to sowork forshoot women’s Don’t youhimself, see helmet-less But a friend tells me we can still make the moenjoying dartingbikers barbsracing at thedown Aam empowerment. the roadParty, everythe day?

Do we need of that?”

I act in With make-up, I could vision look like Aadmi Congress and,more of course, at vieItifhelps, ofit.course, if the Gandhian of While studying at party National College, a 15-year-old.”

Pappu Yadav’s parent and his leaderGaikLalu politics as social service has a subliminal conwad assisted This Ashish and Gaikwad, afterInall.the He’s not Prasad Yadav.Gupte on Stanley Ka Dabba. He de- text of ismurder mayhem.

Hindi cided to giftisthe withwhen a shortthe film for heartland, about to letitthis opportunity pass. of purpose. “…There a director state where chief conveys a seriousness his birthday.

Tahaan in Marathi) cenminister is jailed for a (thirst crime, his wife becomes mitali parekh is a Mumbai-based writer joshi treschief on the water situation in Mumbai’s the minister.

Then there is anotherslums. chief poornima

In sharp focus

From Mumbai, the true story of a young slum-dweller who made it to film school and is now touring film festivals with his maiden production

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shish Gaikwad insists it’s not that he has opportunities others of his ilk don’t, it’s that he has the grit to mine the potential in them.

The 22-year-old Mumbai slum-dweller has just graduated from Whistling Woods film school with a degree in editing and is now promoting his short film Tahaan at film festivals.

Gaikwad’s father died when he was four, and as compensation, his mother was given a sweeper’s job with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. “We live in the Rahul Nagar slum area in Bandra, where an NGO called Aseema Foundation conducts tuition classes,” says the young filmmaker. “When I was seven, the teachers urged my mother to put me in school. I had to give an entrance exam for St Stanislaushe High School, and weof weren’t sure if diminished size the Opposithey would takeinme into Class Iofbecause I had tion the House the People never been to school. luckily, I aced by it.” the seems evenBut more denuded The NGO also conducts tuitionsofatthe the ConPalicharacteristic reticence Chimbai school from 6pmthis to gress andBMC the surliness of the4pm Left.to Amid help underprivileged children collective gloom, it is hard not towith noticetheir the homework and keep them of striking trouble. unwavering enthusiasm of a out rather couple — Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP from Madhepura, recently acquitted from a murder charge, and his whip-smart wife, Congress MP from Supaul, Ranjeet Ranjan.

The duo operate together, arriving at the start of the Question Hour, leaving only when the House is adjourned for the day. Ranjeet, a former table tennis champion who inexplicably fell for the quintessential Bihari muscleman, is proper to the extent of inviting praise from the master of political correctness, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

And her male colleagues actually listen up when she says something.

Trinamool MP Sultan Ahmed had not quite bargained for the unexpected solidarity between Ranjeet and the Education Minister Smriti Irani when he was having a little fun at the latter’s expense. “Smritiji is the ideal daughter-in-law. I have watched all her serials, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, she was good,” he chuckled when he was supposed to be ask-

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Coming up for Motihari With the restoration of his birthplace, residents of a small town in Bihar hope that George Orwell will give them a place on the world map

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Bricks and bones The opium warehouse that was once looked after by George Orwell’s father shreevatsa nevatia

t seems only fitting that the first thing you see outside George Orwell’s ramshackle birthplace is a pig sprawled on its back. Unlike the writer’s Animal Farm revolutionaries though, she seems to lack the required Stalinist zeal. A goat loiters aimlessly, in straight view of the writer’s bust, as if auditioning for a part in his dystopian classic. Motihari, a bustling town in Bihar’s East Champaran district, never intended this iro-

ny. For the longest time, it had little idea that Eric Arthur Blair, who was born here on June 25, 1903, had gone on to become the renowned George Orwell. Besides, Blair had left Motihari when he was only a year old. The town never got a chance to know him better.

As a result of this somewhat incidental neglect, there is little evidence today to suggest that the Blairs were once honorary Biharis. Being a sub-deputy agent in the opium depart-

ment of the Indian Civil Service, Orwell’s father Richard W Blair lived beside a large warehouse that stored poppy seeds for export to China. Lately used as a gambling den and an open kitchen for the cooking of meat, the ‘building’ is now almost hollow, its bricks having been pilfered by encroachers and trespassers. The nose on Orwell’s bust has been chipped off by local miscreants, and inside the three-room house itself, the ceiling is starting

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to cave in, the walls smell of damp and the floor still displays cracks from an earthquake that rattled Motihari in 1934.

If it weren’t for the recent presence of masons and labourers, there would have been little cause for optimism. After many promises, district authorities finally began renovating Orwell’s birthplace in the last week of June, and handed current occupants notices to evict the property. While his younger brother monopolises the bed, watching episodes of Dexter in what may have well been George Orwell’s first room, 29-year-old Aditya Abhisekh says that even though the British author is synonymous with 1984, he too has some claim on that date. That’s the year he was born. Similarly, he adds, “More than George Orwell’s, this is my home. Yes, he was born here, but he left only a few months later. I have lived here for 30 years.” Even though he remains anxious about having to move house during the monsoon, Abhishekh doesn’t directly blame Orwell for his woes. “Once this house is renovated, Motihari will be on the world map, and we will have Orwell to thank for it.”

Back in queue Having served as the residential quarters for teachers of nearby Gopal Sah Vidyalaya, the FILM FATALE the colonial quaintness of the premises has long faded away. “The instructions are clear,” says Atul Kumar Verma, director of the Bihar government’s archaeological department.

“All restoration work being carried out at Orwell’s birthplace must be in line with archaeological methods. We don’t wish to alter the framework of the house. We just want to strengthen it.” Though Verma speaks of larger plans — transforming the remains of the opium warehouse into a library and the rooms of e lifts up her skirt withoffer his teeth the house into a museum — he does a few and follows her, surrounded by a words of caution.

“Building something from groupToofbemen.

Is he conservation the obscure scratch is easier. accurate, the streets? No, he is Devi, needsscum moreof time.” the protagonist of the film Kickacurrently playMotihari is, in sense, accusing in theatres.tomed She is the heroine Shaina.

And to long waits.

Prakash those other menAsthana, are dancers accompanying chairman of Motithe lead pair during theNagar song Jumme ki raat. hari Parishad, laWhen Shaina realises what Devi is up to, she briefly shows annoyance. But hey, he’s the hero, not the designated villain of the formulaic template, so of course a few shots later she is dancing with him. You see, staying angry for long is not in the script if the man who lifted your skirt without permission is played by Salman Khan.

Sexual harassment, did you say? Not in the eyes of mainstream Bollywood, where molesting a woman is considered cute, sweet and the epitome of courtship if the molester is the hero of the film.

Khan is not the only male star practised in the art of mistreating women on screen under the guise of humour and romance. In this year’s Holiday, Akshay Kumar’s character Virat aggressively pursues an uninterested Saiba (Sonakshi Sinha). One day, he sees her at a traffic signal, positions his motorbike’s mirror to catch her reflection and kisses it, revelling in her outrage when she spots him. The song Tu hi to hai is filmed on Virat unrelentingly following Saiba, even grabbing the unwilling girl and kissing her. Despite her anger at his behaviour, she is soon shown falling for him.

From roughing up the heroine in Holiday to joking about rape in Tees Maar Khan, from calling the girl “maal” (hot stuff) in Rowdy Rathore to pinching her waist with fingers that act of their own accord, Kumar has done it all. His irrepressible digits in Rowdy Rathore seem designed to assure the male audience that they cannot be held responsible for sexual misdemeanours; a metaphor for boys as helpless testosterone-ridden creatures who cannot help themselves when faced with female beauty. Or

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Same old tricks changed ments that the “speed of development in the year of Orwell’s birth centenary, In Kick, Khan’s crude local journalists Bihar has always been very slow.” This sluggish all that. A slew of foreign and aresudden only and this growth, he feels, is often caused by the State’s descended upon Motihari,overtures briefly spurned by Mookherjee’s inability to put its money where its mouth is. spurt of attention strengthened the heroine resolve to take all Orwellian matters into his “Look at the Orwell project, for instance. The amount of money allotted by the government own hands. “We installed a bust of the writer is only a tiny fraction of what is required to de- outside his house and also put up a little velop the place and preserve its legacy.” After plaque. We started commemorating each of the 2.48 acres around the house was declared his birth and death anniversaries by organisa protected area by the Bihar government in ing seminars and contests.” The Rotarian even 2010, the plot initially saw an investment of took to regularly petitioning the government ₹32 lakh and the money was spent in building for funds and, after some persistent cama boundary wall. The recent inflow of ₹45 lakh paigning, names like Gopalkrishna Gandhi is just about enough to protect the house and Nitish Kumar were added to the visitors’ book. Despite these efforts, from crumbling entirely. Local though, an obstinate Motihari businessman Debapriya Mookseemed reluctant to reclaim its herjee says he still has reason to long-lost British son. be rather hopeful. “The governWe want Orwell ment has assured us that funds scholars in India to be The author and the saint will not be a problem in the able to come to Accustomed to institutionalised future.”

Motihari for their ignorance and apathy, MookherMookherjee, a member of the research jee is a hard man to rattle. But Rotary Motihari Lake Town, also even he admits to have been doubles as the chairman of the “shocked” by the news that in the club’s George Orwell Commem2.5 acres adjacent to the demarorative Committee. Looking out at patches of coarse grass near the erstwhile cated Orwell site, a Satyagraha Park was to Blair residence, he speaks of landscaping come up. “That plot of land has nothing to do plans, the possibility of a fountain and a stat- with Gandhiji,” he says. “The district authorue. For the proposed Orwell museum — the ities could have easily found a space where the first of its kind in the world — Mookherjee Mahatma had actually lived and worked.” Detalks of convincing Richard Blair, the writer’s fending local farmers who were being forced son, to send replicas of his father’s manu- to grow neel or indigo for their British rulers, scripts from the George Orwell Archive at Uni- it was in Bihar’s Champaran district, after all, versity College London. “Rather than that Gandhi had launched his Satyagraha travelling to Britain, we want Orwell scholars movement in April 1917. With the Motihari stain India to be able to come to Motihari for tion bearing the prefix ‘Bapudham’, several Gandhi statues assert the town’s role in our their research.”

If the past three decades have taught the national history.

Pitting the ‘imperial’ heritage of Orwell Motihari resident anything, it is this — Orwell against(Juhi the ‘independent’ legacy ofRavi Gandhi, as Party chief Mulayam canSamajwadi attract a rather diverse footfall. Singh It wasYain Radha Chawla) photographs (Goproponents of the Parkbyask a quesdav with reference to rape: 1983 infamously that Britishsaid journalist Ian Jack had first vinda) bathing.

HeSatyagraha takes revenge sneaking tion that has now become familiar in Motiha“Boys be boys. visitedwill Motihari toMistakes researchhappen.” his Sunday Times into her bathroom to shoot her showering, article ‘In Search of Jaarj Arwil’, and it was ri: “Why we bepictures interested protecting Despite these repugnant examples, it’s only and postsmust her nude on in their college thentothat became aware of hehis bulletin the birthplace a British Debapriya fair pointMookherjee out that Bollywood’s molester board.ofNote how writer?” the script had the hometown’s literaryas significance.

“But even af- woman Mookherjee’s son, Bishwajeet, decided roes are no longer common as they once indulging in reprehensible — that evenhe if ter this historic was interneededimprobable to nip such—small-mindedness in the were.

When the discovery, physically nobody invincible men of highly behaviour that could be ested in developing theway place.”

Events in 2003, bud. “It was all very satirical. On the one hand, the ’70s and ’80s gave to the gentler ro- deemed his ‘provocation’. mantic hero of the mid-’90s, harassment as Remember though that the hero is both courtship did not disappear from Hindi films protector and molester. Devi in Kick bashes up but it did decline. goons harassing women, just moments after In the glory days of Dharmendra and Ami- he himself is shown pestering an unrespontabh Bachchan, gaining a woman’s affections sive Shaina. Perhaps the logic is that she is by badgering her was the norm. In the 1975 marked out for him, therefore he has a right to classic Sholay, Veeru (Dharmendra) gropes an do as he pleases with her. Or as Shahid Kaevidently uncomfortable Basanpoor’s Vishwas sings to Kajal ti (Hema Malini) while teaching (Ileana D’Cruz) in Phata Poster her how to shoot. In an endorseNikhla Hero: “Khali peeli khali peeli ment of harassment as the way rokne ka nahin. Tera peecchha kaIn the glory days of to a woman’s heart, at one point roon toh tokne ka nahin… Hai Dharmendra and he even sings, “Koi haseena jab tujhpe right mera (Don’t unnecesAmitabh Bachchan, rootth jaati hai, aur bhi haseen ho sarily object when I chase you… I gaining a woman’s jaati hai (A woman’s beauty is enhave a right over you).” In a socieaffections by hanced when she sulks)” — an ty that echoes this view of a badgering her was initially enraged Basanti is in man’s ‘right’ over ‘his woman’, the norm love by the end of the song. imagine the extreme optimism The cleverest way of appeasof anti-rape campaigners who ing audience misogyny has been persist in making an issue of to show a woman being ambigumarital rape. ous about her consent. Hum in 1991 comes to Over the years, Bollywood has justified such mind. Through the song Jumma chumma de de, films by pointing out that they reflect reality. when Tiger (Bachchan) demands the kiss she Well, shouldn’t cinema condemn rather than promised him, Jumma (Kimi Katkar) has irri- glorify regressive realities? No doubt bad tation written on her face but her body speaks films will not turn good men into molesters another language. She stands on a table, lifts overnight, but considering the extent of genup her skirt and thrusts her groin at Tiger der segregation in vast sections of Indian sogawking at her from below. Can there be a ciety, this irresponsible portrayal of manmore overt representation of a woman’s de- woman relations has the potential to perpetusire for sexual intercourse? The she-asked-for- ate existing misconceptions and indoctrinate it defence for the subsequent treatment of impressionable youngsters who lack guidJumma is already written into the scene. ance in these matters at home and school.

Sometimes, the hero’s sexual harassment Dear Khans and Kumars, do you hear us? has been projected as playfulness. Sometimes it has been given the form of undisguised hos- anna mm vetticad is the author of The Adventures tility. In Karz Chukana Hai (1991), model scout of an Intrepid Film Critic t@annavetticad

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Molesters or heroes?

Salman Khan in Kick and Akshay Kumar in Holiday continue the Bollywood tradition of sexually harassing their heroines under the guise of humour and romance

anna mm vetticad

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Filmy, foreign affairs A small Italian company seeks to change the way Indian movies are shot abroad

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n the Bengali film Paglu (2011), a US-born Indian girl returns to her roots in Kolkata to get to know her country better. Within days she meets and falls in love with a boy from a different social strata, causing her father much heartburn. And yet, for their romantic dates, the couple miraculously lands up in Italy’s Tuscany and Lombardy region, where they jive to catchy songs in colour-coordinated costumes. Shot against exotic backdrops, these songs are largely the high points of an otherwise humble production.

This is made possible by the Italian production company Occhidi Ulisee (Ulysses’s eyes), run by Ivano Fucci and his partner Michele Saragoni. “Imagine a place like St Peter’s Square, where you usually see pilgrims and tourists, and then suddenly one day the local people go to church and they see Dev and Koel (stars of Paglu) dancing. Also, it is February when it is very cold and they are wearing shorts. People can’t believe anyone would come all the way from India to shoot a song here,” says Fucci, who has facilitated the shoots of 10 Bengali films since Paglu. Fucci is based out of Mumbai, where he strikes deals with producers looking to shoot in Europe, while Saragoni handles the business from Italy. these people wereofderiding Orwell being In three years operation, the for company an son. On the other, garhasopium workedseller’s on 28 Indian films, mostlythey Bengali, land bust of him.” year,bythe freelance Tamilaand Telugu.

“WeLast started going to the journalist and filmmaker began researching easier markets.

We have done only one Hindi Orwell’s for TV a documentary titled film andlife some shows. Right simply now, we are Orwell... But Why? “When I read Orwell’s biography, the first thing that impressed me was his anti-imperialism,” says the 25-year-old. “I couldn’t get this thought out of my head — if there can be a Gandhi statue in London, why can’t there be an Orwell memorial in Motihari? They both stood for the same principles in the end.”

Bishwajeet remembers that when his father’s Rotary Club decided to pay tribute to Orwell by way of a plaque, it was he who had sat with n theMarch required slabfriends of stoneAnushka on a rickshaw.

2011, MeeOn his way to theIswar writer’s birthplace, 14nakshi and Srikumar took the an imyear-old grandson of a famed freedom fighter promptu decision to pack a camera and was puzzled by the importance given to travel through the countrybeing free of itineran unknown litterateur.

“It’ssent onlyan a decade aries and schedules.

They e-maillatto er that I and realise the basic problem in monetary our counfriends family asking for some assistance before they left their homes in Chennai. Some handed over cash in envelopes, others transferred generous amounts

shoot. Chennai-based Travel Masters India Corporation is one of the biggest companies that deal in film tourism. “Filmmakers usually go to the agent with a budget for the song they want to shoot. They also show a reference video, which is usually another song from another film,” says Fucci. What sets Occhidi Ulisee apart is that it eliminates the role of the middleman, and directly takes over the production.

The first-ever Indian film that Fucci saw was Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995). He studied the film closely while writing a report on how the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer helped put Switzerland on the map for Indians. More recently, he feels films like Queen (2014) and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) have had a powerful imFinal cut Ivano Fucci (left) and partner Michele pact in promoting Europe as a tourist destinaSaragoni flank actor Allu Arjun tion. “These are the kind of films we are ready to meet Bollywood producers. We now looking at now. The story of the film should have enough experience to handle bigger link to the culture of the place,” says Fucci. He budgets,” says Fucci, who came to India eight adds that their experience of working in Chiyears ago to learn English. He’s now polishing na has been wildly different. There the film’s his Hindi to help him navigate the film indus- writers spend weeks in Europe to recce the lotries in the South and East. cations even before they start writing the There aren’t too many outfits that offer the script. “Here too, we are looking for opportusame services as Fucci’s company — from pro- nities to read the script beforehand and unviding equipment to scouting for locations to derstand which location is best suited,” he try.

We background have this terrible tendency to keep dose of lofty romanticism when he casting dancers and extras.

Typi- himself says. Tilla then he’s happy to squeeze in the promoting heroes of our to independence, that of though belongs the cally, when the a producer wants shoot in Eu- says grandeur Italy inthe thewriter brief songs thattocome while forgetting all about our writers.”

The rope, he visits a travel agent who specialises in world, his way.Orwell belonged more to Motihari. “He Delhi-based Bishwajeet points to the plight of left Motihari when he was just a year old, so this area. The agent then negotiates with his Motihari’s Museum a dilapidated cannot trace any direct influence that the mohini chaudhuri contacts inGandhi that country to — help set up the you and dusty building. He says that before criti- town had on him, but the spirit of the place — cising the Orwell project, self-proclaimed the air that he breathed, the water he drank — Gandhians should do more to preserve to- could have instilled an ethical standard that day’s Gandhi memorials. “They only spruce up helped him later denounce imperialism.” his statues on October 2. For the rest of the With neither Animal Farm nor 1984 being year, the only ones dropping ‘flowers’ on him compulsory texts at the graduate level, the students of MS College are largely unaware of are crows and pigeons.”

In ‘Reflections on Gandhi’, a January 1949 es- Orwell’s significance. Neha Kumari, for insay in the Partisan Review, George Orwell stance, can list his works like elements in the seems unimpressed by the Mahatma’s home- periodic table, but she confesses to have never spun cloth, his vegetarianism read a single title. Adil Raza says and by what he accounts. refers to asTwo Gandthatgive he was onceon thewhere proudwe memto their bank years on, Mee- tervals. “People us ideas can hi’s “medievalist” programme. ber two of the Georgefrom Orwell Fan nakshi and Srikumar have travelled to the far- film. Recently, women labour But largely “aesthetic bygave friends, thestthis corners of India and aredisnow completing unions cameCommittee. to watch theFormed film. They us a taste” is balanced by great rethe committee’s onlyAlltask a two documentaries. of input on industrial sounds. thiswas is veIt’s time thatlot Orwell gard journey to the writer’s house.

Thefor duothe areMahatma’s working on moral a film titledwas U-ra-miry useful because while a database on musitranslated... so rigour — “His charac“Weavailable, saw the aplace was on in ruins. li (the song of [Gandhi’s] our people), which captures the population cians might be database songs the local ter was and an extraordinarily We then went toislook details songs rhythms of mixed everyday activities. sung while cattle are grazing not,”for says Meecan read him and one, but there almost noth-Himachal on theadds internet, Through their was journeys across Pra-his genius nakshi. Srikumar that but thissoon is a realised process know ing in it that you can put aTamil finger Nadu, Kerala they have also that all of books are only pubdesh, Nagaland, Assam, used forhis the theatre collective on call bad, I believe in English. we That the andand Gujarat, they and capture the songs of train Perch. “As thelished play progresses, dowas a showthat evencattle Gandhi’s worstembroiderers, eneend ofPeople our research andgive alsofeedthe singers, herders, etc. ing every 10 days. come and mies would admitfilming, that hewewas endgoes of the committee.”

“When we started went in with no back, and that back into the play. This an and unusual man who enOver cupan of outside tea in his living idea.interesting We were filming things that we found in- way we ahave eye,” he room, says. Dr Anil riched theThen worldwe byslowly simplystarted being focusing alive.” Even presents a solution Motihari’s teresting. on Kumar TheirSinha second film, Neihi Mozo to Hanu Dizo Le if Orwell’s Motihari find it hard emu- Orwellian dilemma.

“It’s timeconcentrates that Orwell spewas this... we hit upon itcritics in Himachal’s SpititoValley, (Without you I am nothing), late Debapriya Mookherjee As long asinthe local population near his the equanimity, Tabo Monastery.

We came across a translated. cifically on work songs Phek, Nagaland.

Last seems finallywho made his peace with the doesn’t read him, they won’tfrom have faith in his group to ofhave farmers were singing while year, they received a grant the Indian neighbouring Park.

“Now people genius.”

The for surgeon, who would rather be deplanting barley.Satyagraha That was the most outstandFoundation the Arts that has allowed them coming here can amateur writer They and thinker, ing experience weget hadinformation had till that about point,”both says scribed to make as sixan trips to the region. hope to these figures, Orwell and Gandhi.” spends thethis better partbyofthe an animated hour reMeenakshi, a documentary filmmaker. complete film end of the year. severalsomebody of the writer’s neologisms Despite their extensive travels over the last membering “When you watch working, it is inOne theMeenakshi books as BigtoBrother andquality thoughtthey police.

Insisttwo for years, and Srikumar say they such teresting note the bring to 1984 protago- ing For manawho histhe that Orwell’s politicalhelps clairvoyance and litstillahave longincarcerated way to go. In meantime, their work.

The rhythm them motivate nists in theuploaded ‘Ministryaround of Love’, Orwell would style have unmatched by any they have 200 minutes of erary each other to dobeen the same thing over andother over have perhapson been the facttothat believes that Motihari would onraw footage thetickled Web forbypeople viewMoor author, again. ItSinha is very theatrical,” says Srikumar. tihari’s Munshi Singh College used once be ly Back be emboldening itself protecting Oruse for educational purposes.

“Thisto will easily in Chennai for the by next few months, atake prison.

Sitting in hisyears,” dark office, however, Md birthplace.

“It will be are our now way ofplotting saying us another two says Srikumar, on well’s Srikumar and Meenakshi Equebal turns sombre when discuss- that aretrip. aware, we are intelligent and we the eve ofHussain the screening in Mumbai. theirwe next “Maybe central India, because ingItthe writer’suncommon oeuvre. “Wefor live in an age of to assesswe thehaven’t true worth of great huis rather filmmakers to know that’s how something explored as yet. democracy, but the totalitarianism representachievement.” display their work publicly when it is still a man But who knows?” says Meenakshi. ed in Orwell’s books of the work-in-progress.

Instill thisprevails.” case, the Head makers felt nevatia is a Kolkata-based writer college’s Englishtodepartment, Hussain allows mohini chaudhuri it was necessary seek feedback at regular in- shreevatsa

Songs of work

A filmmaker duo is capturing and sharing the songs of people engaged in everyday tasks

Mi casa su casa Possessions of those who live in Orwell’s childhood home today; (below) 22-year-old Anurag Abhisekh, resident of the Orwell house, is a Dexter fan shreevatsa nevatia Sifting a tune U-ra-mi-li shows how music helps create a rhythm at work

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War & peace Kargil and Dras live in the shadow of war, 15 years after Operation Vijay

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iger hill looms large in the distance. Should we admire its beauty or allow ourselves to recall its war-ravaged landscape, shelled from both sides of the border 15 years ago?

We are on our way to Ladakh and, as is customary, we’ve planned a stopover at Kargil. But first we reach Dras and settle down to a meal of mutton and rice sold at a roadside hutment by a couple in their 70s. They talk of the ‘great war’, remembering how even after a ceasefire was declared, officially bringing the conflict to an end in July ’99, sporadic shelling continued. They used to go to sleep every night thinking they would wake up dead.

Today, things appear to be different. There is a phone booth. And herds of bikers zip by on their way to Leh. Predominantly a Shi’ite town, there are posters of Ayatollah Khomeini displayed prominently at the crossings. And there are whispers about a local trust “importing the culture of Iran” to the place, where the Iranian cleric’s maternal family apparently has its roots.

As we ride along the Singa river, it is strange to see Pakistanis on the other side of the Line of Control (LOC), even as you’re greeted by Indian army signs that warn ‘the enemy is watching you’. Long disputed, the LOC keeps the army on its toes, so much so that a common form of greeting among them is ‘Tagra Raho’ or stay strong, stay alert. At one of the posts, we see Pakistani regulars of the Northern Light Infantry and men from Gilgit Scouts waving at us.

Later, an Indian Army captain tells us how at border meetings fatigues from both countries share food and stories. But situations often change overnight as bullets often puncture the fragile peace of the region. For the many villagers who live along the LOC, blasted shells and the smell of gunpowder have become part and parcel of everyday life, especially after the turn of the millennium.

shome basu is a freelance photojournalist based in Delhi. He visited Dras and Kargil in 2009 and 2013

Bull’s eye Target practice dummies planted in the treeless terrain at Dras

Locked and loaded The Bofors guns are still active. They are stationed and ready to shell at a moment’s notice

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Mapping strife The army is not really known for its subtlety around here

Shifting focus Khomeini Chowk at Kargil is named after the Iranian Shi’ite cleric

Another day Children playing en route to Kargil

A hearty meal An elderly woman cooks for travellers. She survived the war but is still wary of sudden shelling

Passive aggressive A shell used for the Bofors ďŹ eld guns

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to cave in, the walls smell of damp and the floor still displays cracks from an earthquake that rattled Motihari in 1934.

If it weren’t for the recent presence of masons and labourers, there would have been little cause for optimism. After many promises, district authorities finally began renovating Orwell’s birthplace in the last week of June, and handed current occupants notices to evict the property. While his younger brother monopolises the bed, watching episodes of Dexter in what may have well been George Orwell’s first room, 29-year-old Aditya Abhisekh says that even though the British author is synonymous with 1984, he too has some claim on that date. That’s the year he was born. Similarly, he adds, “More than George Orwell’s, this is my home. Yes, he was born here, but he left only a few months later. I have lived here for 30 years.” Even though he remains anxious about having to move house during the monsoon, Abhishekh doesn’t directly blame Orwell for his woes. “Once this house is renovated, Motihari will be on the world map, and we will have Orwell to thank for it.”

Back in queue Having served as the residential quarters for teachers of nearby Gopal Sah Vidyalaya, the FILM FATALE the colonial quaintness of the premises has long faded away. “The instructions are clear,” says Atul Kumar Verma, director of the Bihar government’s archaeological department.

“All restoration work being carried out at Orwell’s birthplace must be in line with archaeological methods. We don’t wish to alter the framework of the house. We just want to strengthen it.” Though Verma speaks of larger plans — transforming the remains of the opium warehouse into a library and the rooms of e lifts up her — skirt withoffer his teeth the house into a museum he does a few and follows her, surrounded by a words of caution.

“Building something from groupToofbemen.

Is heconservation the obscure scratch is easier. accurate, the streets? No, he is Devi, needsscum more of time.” the protagonist of the film Kickacurrently playMotihari is, in sense, accusing in theatres.tomed She is the heroine Shaina.

And to long waits.

Prakash those other menAsthana, are dancers accompanying chairman of Motithe lead pair during theNagar song Jumme ki raat. hari Parishad, laWhen Shaina realises what Devi is up to, she briefly shows annoyance. But hey, he’s the hero, not the designated villain of the formulaic template, so of course a few shots later she is dancing with him. You see, staying angry for long is not in the script if the man who lifted your skirt without permission is played by Salman Khan.

Sexual harassment, did you say? Not in the eyes of mainstream Bollywood, where molesting a woman is considered cute, sweet and the epitome of courtship if the molester is the hero of the film.

Khan is not the only male star practised in the art of mistreating women on screen under the guise of humour and romance. In this year’s Holiday, Akshay Kumar’s character Virat aggressively pursues an uninterested Saiba (Sonakshi Sinha). One day, he sees her at a traffic signal, positions his motorbike’s mirror to catch her reflection and kisses it, revelling in her outrage when she spots him. The song Tu hi to hai is filmed on Virat unrelentingly following Saiba, even grabbing the unwilling girl and kissing her. Despite her anger at his behaviour, she is soon shown falling for him.

From roughing up the heroine in Holiday to joking about rape in Tees Maar Khan, from calling the girl “maal” (hot stuff) in Rowdy Rathore to pinching her waist with fingers that act of their own accord, Kumar has done it all. His irrepressible digits in Rowdy Rathore seem designed to assure the male audience that they cannot be held responsible for sexual misdemeanours; a metaphor for boys as helpless testosterone-ridden creatures who cannot help themselves when faced with female beauty. Or

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Same old tricks changed ments that the “speed of development in the year of Orwell’s birth centenary, In Kick, crude localKhan’s journalists Bihar has always been very slow.” This sluggish all that. A slew of foreign and aresudden only and this growth, he feels, is often caused by the State’s descended upon Motihari,overtures briefly spurned by Mookherjee’s inability to put its money where its mouth is. spurt of attention strengthened the heroine resolve to take all Orwellian matters into his “Look at the Orwell project, for instance. The amount of money allotted by the government own hands. “We installed a bust of the writer is only a tiny fraction of what is required to de- outside his house and also put up a little velop the place and preserve its legacy.” After plaque. We started commemorating each of the 2.48 acres around the house was declared his birth and death anniversaries by organisa protected area by the Bihar government in ing seminars and contests.” The Rotarian even 2010, the plot initially saw an investment of took to regularly petitioning the government ₹32 lakh and the money was spent in building for funds and, after some persistent cama boundary wall. The recent inflow of ₹45 lakh paigning, names like Gopalkrishna Gandhi is just about enough to protect the house and Nitish Kumar were added to the visitors’ book. Despite these efforts, from crumbling entirely. Local though, an obstinate Motihari businessman Debapriya Mookseemed reluctant to reclaim its herjee says he still has reason to long-lost British son. be rather hopeful. “The governWe want Orwell ment has assured us that funds scholars in India to be The author and the saint will not be a problem in the able to come to Accustomed to institutionalised future.”

Motihari for their ignorance and apathy, MookherMookherjee, a member of the research jee is a hard man to rattle. But Rotary Motihari Lake Town, also even he admits to have been doubles as the chairman of the “shocked” by the news that in the club’s George Orwell Commem2.5 acres adjacent to the demarorative Committee. Looking out at patches of coarse grass near the erstwhile cated Orwell site, a Satyagraha Park was to Blair residence, he speaks of landscaping come up. “That plot of land has nothing to do plans, the possibility of a fountain and a stat- with Gandhiji,” he says. “The district authorue. For the proposed Orwell museum — the ities could have easily found a space where the first of its kind in the world — Mookherjee Mahatma had actually lived and worked.” Detalks of convincing Richard Blair, the writer’s fending local farmers who were being forced son, to send replicas of his father’s manu- to grow neel or indigo for their British rulers, scripts from the George Orwell Archive at Uni- it was in Bihar’s Champaran district, after all, versity College London. “Rather than that Gandhi had launched his Satyagraha travelling to Britain, we want Orwell scholars movement in April 1917. With the Motihari stain India to be able to come to Motihari for tion bearing the prefix ‘Bapudham’, several Gandhi statues assert the town’s role in our their research.”

If the past three decades have taught the national history.

Pitting the ‘imperial’ heritage of Orwell Motihari resident anything, it is this — Orwell the ‘independent’ legacy ofRavi Gandhi, as Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam can attract a rather diverse footfall. Singh It wasYain against Radha (Juhi Chawla) photographs (Goof the Parkbyask a quesdav infamously with reference to rape: 1983 that British said journalist Ian Jack had first proponents vinda) bathing.

HeSatyagraha takes revenge sneaking now become familiar in Motiha“Boys will be boys. visited Motihari toMistakes researchhappen.” his Sunday Times tion into that her has bathroom to shoot her showering, article ‘In Search of Jaarj Arwil’, and it was we bepictures interested protecting Despite these repugnant examples, it’s only ri: and“Why postsmust her nude onin their college then became aware of hehis the birthplace a British Debapriya fair tothat pointMookherjee out that Bollywood’s molester bulletin board.ofNote how writer?” the script had the hometown’s literaryas significance.

“But even af- Mookherjee’s son, Bishwajeet, decided roes are no longer common as they once woman indulging in reprehensible — that evenhe if ter this historic wasmen interto nip such—small-mindedness in the were.

When the discovery, physically nobody invincible of needed highly improbable behaviour that could be ested in developing theway place.” in 2003, “It was all very satirical. On the one hand, the ’70s and ’80s gave to Events the gentler ro- bud. deemed his ‘provocation’. mantic hero of the mid-’90s, harassment as Remember though that the hero is both courtship did not disappear from Hindi films protector and molester. Devi in Kick bashes up but it did decline. goons harassing women, just moments after In the glory days of Dharmendra and Ami- he himself is shown pestering an unrespontabh Bachchan, gaining a woman’s affections sive Shaina. Perhaps the logic is that she is by badgering her was the norm. In the 1975 marked out for him, therefore he has a right to classic Sholay, Veeru (Dharmendra) gropes an do as he pleases with her. Or as Shahid Kaevidently uncomfortable Basanpoor’s Vishwas sings to Kajal ti (Hema Malini) while teaching (Ileana D’Cruz) in Phata Poster her how to shoot. In an endorseNikhla Hero: “Khali peeli khali peeli ment of harassment as the way rokne ka nahin. Tera peecchha kaIn the glory days of to a woman’s heart, at one point roon toh tokne ka nahin… Hai Dharmendra and he even sings, “Koi haseena jab tujhpe right mera (Don’t unnecesAmitabh Bachchan, rootth jaati hai, aur bhi haseen ho sarily object when I chase you… I gaining a woman’s jaati hai (A woman’s beauty is enhave a right over you).” In a socieaffections by hanced when she sulks)” — an ty that echoes this view of a badgering her was initially enraged Basanti is in man’s ‘right’ over ‘his woman’, the norm love by the end of the song. imagine the extreme optimism The cleverest way of appeasof anti-rape campaigners who ing audience misogyny has been persist in making an issue of to show a woman being ambigumarital rape. ous about her consent. Hum in 1991 comes to Over the years, Bollywood has justified such mind. Through the song Jumma chumma de de, films by pointing out that they reflect reality. when Tiger (Bachchan) demands the kiss she Well, shouldn’t cinema condemn rather than promised him, Jumma (Kimi Katkar) has irri- glorify regressive realities? No doubt bad tation written on her face but her body speaks films will not turn good men into molesters another language. She stands on a table, lifts overnight, but considering the extent of genup her skirt and thrusts her groin at Tiger der segregation in vast sections of Indian sogawking at her from below. Can there be a ciety, this irresponsible portrayal of manmore overt representation of a woman’s de- woman relations has the potential to perpetusire for sexual intercourse? The she-asked-for- ate existing misconceptions and indoctrinate it defence for the subsequent treatment of impressionable youngsters who lack guidJumma is already written into the scene. ance in these matters at home and school.

Sometimes, the hero’s sexual harassment Dear Khans and Kumars, do you hear us? has been projected as playfulness. Sometimes it has been given the form of undisguised hos- anna mm vetticad is the author of The Adventures tility. In Karz Chukana Hai (1991), model scout of an Intrepid Film Critic t@annavetticad

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Molesters or heroes?

Salman Khan in Kick and Akshay Kumar in Holiday continue the Bollywood tradition of sexually harassing their heroines under the guise of humour and romance

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Who rests here George Orwell might have been born in this house but his nose has been unceremoniously chipped off from the commemorative bust shreevatsa nevatia

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Filmy, foreign affairs A small Italian company seeks to change the way Indian movies are shot abroad

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n the Bengali film Paglu (2011), a US-born Indian girl returns to her roots in Kolkata to get to know her country better. Within days she meets and falls in love with a boy from a different social strata, causing her father much heartburn. And yet, for their romantic dates, the couple miraculously lands up in Italy’s Tuscany and Lombardy region, where they jive to catchy songs in colour-coordinated costumes. Shot against exotic backdrops, these songs are largely the high points of an otherwise humble production.

This is made possible by the Italian production company Occhidi Ulisee (Ulysses’s eyes), run by Ivano Fucci and his partner Michele Saragoni. “Imagine a place like St Peter’s Square, where you usually see pilgrims and tourists, and then suddenly one day the local people go to church and they see Dev and Koel (stars of Paglu) dancing. Also, it is February when it is very cold and they are wearing shorts. People can’t believe anyone would come all the way from India to shoot a song here,” says Fucci, who has facilitated the shoots of 10 Bengali films since Paglu. Fucci is based out of Mumbai, where he strikes deals with producers looking to shoot in Europe, while Saragoni handles the business from Italy. these people wereofderiding Orwell being In three years operation, the for company an son. On the other, garhasopium workedseller’s on 28 Indian films, mostlythey Bengali, land bust of him.” year,bythe freelance Tamilaand Telugu.

“WeLast started going to the journalist and filmmaker began researching easier markets.

We have done only one Hindi Orwell’s for TV a documentary titled film andlife some shows. Right simply now, we are Orwell... But Why? “When I read Orwell’s biography, the first thing that impressed me was his anti-imperialism,” says the 25-year-old. “I couldn’t get this thought out of my head — if there can be a Gandhi statue in London, why can’t there be an Orwell memorial in Motihari? They both stood for the same principles in the end.”

Bishwajeet remembers that when his father’s Rotary Club decided to pay tribute to Orwell by way of a plaque, it was he who had sat with ntheMarch required slabfriends of stoneAnushka on a rickshaw.

2011, MeeOn his way to theIswar writer’s birthplace, theim14nakshi and Srikumar took an year-old grandson of a famed freedom fighter promptu decision to pack a camera and was puzzled by the importance given to travel through the countrybeing free of itineran unknown litterateur.

“It’ssent onlyan a decade aries and schedules.

They e-maillatto er that Iand realise the basic problem in monetary our counfriends family asking for some assistance before they left their homes in Chennai. Some handed over cash in envelopes, others transferred generous amounts

shoot. Chennai-based Travel Masters India Corporation is one of the biggest companies that deal in film tourism. “Filmmakers usually go to the agent with a budget for the song they want to shoot. They also show a reference video, which is usually another song from another film,” says Fucci. What sets Occhidi Ulisee apart is that it eliminates the role of the middleman, and directly takes over the production.

The first-ever Indian film that Fucci saw was Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995). He studied the film closely while writing a report on how the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer helped put Switzerland on the map for Indians. More recently, he feels films like Queen (2014) and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) have had a powerful imFinal cut Ivano Fucci (left) and partner Michele pact in promoting Europe as a tourist destinaSaragoni flank actor Allu Arjun tion. “These are the kind of films we are ready to meet Bollywood producers. We now looking at now. The story of the film should have enough experience to handle bigger link to the culture of the place,” says Fucci. He budgets,” says Fucci, who came to India eight adds that their experience of working in Chiyears ago to learn English. He’s now polishing na has been wildly different. There the film’s his Hindi to help him navigate the film indus- writers spend weeks in Europe to recce the lotries in the South and East. cations even before they start writing the There aren’t too many outfits that offer the script. “Here too, we are looking for opportusame services as Fucci’s company — from pro- nities to read the script beforehand and unviding equipment to scouting for locations to derstand which location is best suited,” he try.

We background have this terrible tendency to keep dose he’s of lofty romanticism when he casting dancers and extras.

Typi- himself says. Tilla then happy to squeeze in the promoting heroes of our to independence, that of though belongs the cally, when the a producer wants shoot in Eu- says grandeur Italy inthe thewriter brief songs thatto come while forgetting all about our writers.” rope, he visits a travel agent who specialisesThe in world, his way.Orwell belonged more to Motihari. “He Delhi-based Bishwajeet points to the plight of left Motihari when he was just a year old, so this area. The agent then negotiates with his Motihari’s Museum a dilapidated cannot trace any direct influence that the mohini chaudhuri contacts inGandhi that country to — help set up the you and dusty building. He says that before criti- town had on him, but the spirit of the place — cising the Orwell project, self-proclaimed the air that he breathed, the water he drank — Gandhians should do more to preserve to- could have instilled an ethical standard that day’s Gandhi memorials. “They only spruce up helped him later denounce imperialism.” his statues on October 2. For the rest of the With neither Animal Farm nor 1984 being year, the only ones dropping ‘flowers’ on him compulsory texts at the graduate level, the students of MS College are largely unaware of are crows and pigeons.”

In ‘Reflections on Gandhi’, a January 1949 es- Orwell’s significance. Neha Kumari, for insay in the Partisan Review, George Orwell stance, can list his works like elements in the seems unimpressed by the Mahatma’s home- periodic table, but she confesses to have never spun cloth, his vegetarianism read a single title. Adil Raza says and by what he accounts. refers to asTwo Gandthat he was onceon thewhere proudwe memto their bank years on, Mee- tervals. “People give us ideas can hi’s “medievalist” programme. ber two of the Georgefrom Orwell Fan nakshi and Srikumar have travelled to the far- film. Recently, women labour But largely “aesthetic bygave friends, thestthis corners of India and aredisnow completing unions cameCommittee. to watch theFormed film. They us a taste” is balanced by great rethe committee’s onlyAlltask two documentaries. of input on industrial sounds. thiswas is ve-a It’s time thatlot Orwell gard journey to athe writer’sonhouse.

Thefor duothe are Mahatma’s working on moral a film titledwas U-ra-miry useful while database musitranslated... so because rigour — “His [Gandhi’s] “We saw theaplace was on in ruins. li (the song of our people),characwhich captures the population cians might be available, database songs the local ter was and an extraordinarily We then went toislook details songs rhythms of mixed everyday activities. sung while cattle are grazing not,”for says Meecan read him and one, but there almost noth-Himachal on theadds internet, Through their was journeys across Pra-his genius nakshi. Srikumar that but thissoon is a realised process know ing in it that you can put aTamil finger Nadu, Kerala they have also that all of books are collective only pubdesh, Nagaland, Assam, used forhis the theatre on call bad, I believe in English. we That the andand Gujarat, they and capture the songs of train Perch. “As thelished play progresses, do was a showthat evencattle Gandhi’s worstembroiderers, eneend ofPeople our research andgive alsofeedthe singers, herders, etc. ing every 10 days. come and mies admitfilming, that hewewas endgoes of the committee.”

“Whenwould we started went in with no back, and that back into the play. This an and unusual man who enOver cupan of outside tea in his living room, Dr Anil idea.interesting We were filming things that we found in- way we ahave eye,” he says. riched theThen world simply beingfocusing alive.” Even presents a solution to Motihari’s teresting. webyslowly started on Kumar TheirSinha second film, Neihi Mozo Hanu Dizo Le if Orwell’s Motihari find it hard emu- Orwellian dilemma.

“It’s time that Orwell spewas this... we hit upon itcritics in Himachal’s SpititoValley, (Without you I am nothing), concentrates late Debapriya Mookherjee As long asinthe local population near his the equanimity, Tabo Monastery.

We came across a translated. cifically on work songs Phek, Nagaland.

Last seems finallywho made his peace with the doesn’t read him, they won’tfrom have faith in his group to ofhave farmers were singing while year, they received a grant the Indian neighbouring Park.

“Now people genius.”

Thefor surgeon, who would rather be deplanting barley.Satyagraha That was the most outstandFoundation the Arts that has allowed them coming here can about both amateur writer They and thinker, ing experience weget hadinformation had till that point,” says scribed to make as six an trips to the region. hope to these figures, Orwell and Gandhi.” spends thethis better part an animated hour reMeenakshi, a documentary filmmaker. complete film byofthe end of the year. severalsomebody of the writer’s neologisms Despite their extensive travels over the last membering “When you watch working, it is inOne theMeenakshi books as BigtoBrother andquality thoughtthey police.

Insisttwo for years, and Srikumar say they such teresting note the bring to 1984 protago- ing For manawho histhe Orwell’s politicalhelps clairvoyance and litstillahave longincarcerated way to go. In meantime, theirthat work.

The rhythm them motivate nists in theuploaded ‘Ministryaround of Love’, Orwell would style have unmatched by any they have 200 minutes of erary each other to dobeen the same thing over andother over have perhapson been the fact believes that Motihari would onraw footage thetickled Web forbypeople tothat viewMoor author, again. ItSinha is very theatrical,” says Srikumar. tihari’s Munshi Singh College used once be ly Back be emboldening itself protecting Oruse for educational purposes.

“This to will easily in Chennai for the by next few months, atake prison.

Sitting in hisyears,” dark office, however, Md birthplace.

“It will be are our now way of saying us another two says Srikumar, on well’s Srikumar and Meenakshi plotting Equebal turns sombre when discuss- that aretrip. aware, we are intelligent and we the eve ofHussain the screening in Mumbai. theirwe next “Maybe central India, because ingIt the writer’s oeuvre. “Weforlive in an age of to assesswe the true worth of great huis rather uncommon filmmakers to know that’s how something haven’t explored as yet. democracy, the totalitarianism representachievement.” display theirbut work publicly when it is still a man But who knows?” says Meenakshi. ed in Orwell’s books of felt the work-in-progress.

In still thisprevails.” case, the Head makers nevatia is a Kolkata-based writer college’s Englishtodepartment, Hussain allows mohini chaudhuri it was necessary seek feedback at regular in- shreevatsa

Songs of work

A filmmaker duo is capturing and sharing the songs of people engaged in everyday tasks

Mi casa su casa Possessions of those who live in Orwell’s childhood home today; (below) 22-year-old Anurag Abhisekh, resident of the Orwell house, is a Dexter fan shreevatsa nevatia Sifting a tune U-ra-mi-li shows how music helps create a rhythm at work

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The first couple

Reel adventures Ashish Gaikwad with students of Mumbai’s Pali-Chimbai municipal corporation school, where he attended filmmaker Amol Gupte’s weekend classes on cinema and theatre; (below) a still from Gaikwad’s short film Tahaan

Amid the collective gloom in the Lok Sabha, it is hard not to notice the unwavering enthusiasm of Pappu Yadav and his wife, Ranjeet Ranjan paul noronha United we stand RJD MP Pappu Yadav with his wife and Congress MP, Ranjeet Ranjan, at the Parliament rajeev bhatt

minister who resigns and is sent to jail. Anything can happen in this country, we are a democracy, after all… I tell the truth as I see it.

There are some people who should be behind bars, who should be locked up. But they are strutting about, doing politics, campaigning in elections,” Rudy said.

The reference, of course, was to Lalu Yadav who installed Rabri Devi in his stead when he was jailed in connection with the fodder scam and to Pappu Yadav as well. And it was not a slight the strongman from Madhepura was about to overlook.

“What is he saying?” Yadav was heard asking the Speaker. In the ensuing din, a silent threat was communicated. And when it comes from Pappu Yadav, a man once convicted and acquitted of murdering a CPI(M) legislator, a threat is never taken lightly. Despite his bravado, Rudy understands enough about his native state to ignore it. “I take it back,” he said.

“It did actually concern you. But I take it back.”

From that moment on, the fledgling Opposition had found its torchbearer. Be it the debate on price rise or force-feeding a fasting Filmmaker Amol Gupte works with the NGO “For as long as Ithe canRamzan, remember, my forces mothera Muslim during Yadav and teaches at these classes. “But sir wanted to had to buyof water,” hein says.

“It’s never been a semblance balance a House tilted heavily teach something more than the school sub- free commodity.

I wrotebenches. the script and conin favour of the treasury jects since we were already getting help with vinced my mother to act in foul-mouthed the film. As I preSo, when the unfailingly Rathat,” says Gaikwad of his mentor. “He sented it to GupteBJP sir, MP I confessed to himDelhi, that I mesh Bidhuri, from south thought of teaching us cinema and drama.” had beeninto bunking college on Saturdays tothe atcharged the well, mouthing curses at “I truly believe that cinema is a modern art tend his classes Aseema.

He Yadav is verytostrict Opposition, it wasatleft to Pappu fend form that can change the world,” says Gupte, about not missing school.

ButOpposition’s he got so emohim off.

The occasion was the dewho has made the critically acclaimed films tional the movie that I knew was mand after for aseeing discussion on the issue of it some Taare Zameen Par, Stanley Ka Dabba and, more the tell him — he wouldn’t repriShivright Senatime MPs to force-feeding a fasting Muslim recently, Hawa Hawaii. “I want these children mand me.atInthe theMaharashtra end, he reasoned employee Sadan. that Exple-I to have a skill, so when they join the industry wouldn’t have made film if but I had tives and threats werethis exchanged in not the they can do so as scriptwriters, editors, cam- bunked, so it had all worked out.” and apologise. end, Bidhuri to withdraw, era people and actors, and not Gupte Tahaan “We don’t approve of thecirculated conduct of our MP,” just as spotboys and light men.” among Affairs his peers, including disaid Parliamentary Minister M VenThe Mumbai film industry is Ghai.

At House.” a funckaiah Naidu. rector “He willSubhash apologise to the one of the largest employers in And he did. tion to commemorate 100 years I want these children the and an economic power-meal scheme Gaikwad was Pappu called ing city a question on the mid-day Of course, of no cinema, one thought of asking to have a skill, so they house.

Aseema cinema and onBidhuri’s stage andlead. gifted a full scholarduring The the Question Hour on July 16. Even be- Yadav to follow can join the film theatre arecould held on shipoftohis Ghai’s Whistling fore theclasses Speaker sayweekanything, Ranjeet Unlike many brethren fromWoods.

Bihar industry (in Mumbai) ends. areisexposed had no ideawounds this was going to was onThe herchildren feet. “What the meaning of men- who are still “I licking their from their as scriptwriters, to worldallcinema, andWhat in class, happen,” he says.

“When sir tioning this here? is he implying?” respective parties’ electoral defeat, forGhai Pappu editors, camera they discuss what they or Silchar (As- Yadav, it is the called me on stage, he said, she said, as Sushmita Dev,liked MP from beginning of a new life. ‘We The people and actors, didn’t like about a film, gifting you this scholarsam) joined forces with the her.techdreaded donare wasnot sentenced to life imprisonand not just as niques used, just motivations of ship, have snatched Meanwhile, when the BJP ment you in February 2008 it forfrom the spotboys and characters; create our hands your talent’.” is beginning they to flex then its muscle in murder of with CPI(M) MP from Purlight men their own scripts and more play them Like other the House, it has met than nea Ajitevery Sarkar.

The opportunity Patna High out.

WheninGupte’s production that his way, Gaikwad its match Pappu Yadav’s bulk, Court came acquitted him last year.

It helps, of course, if house not using itsreduced equipmade full usewas of his time at Whisalbeit isconsiderably The ruling followed by a the Gandhian vision ment, the 175kg. students borrow it to tling Woods beforeabout graduating from his From the very spurt of assertions Yadav’s of politics as social make their films. in January 2014.

And likeand hisefforts mentor, first session of the 16th Lok Sabinnocence ofhe antries imservice has a skills, the classes have to help othersage around him grow too. “I used to ha,Going it has beyond been clear thatclearly nothing makeover. subliminal context of also shaped Gaikwad’s thoughts. “I just visit a friend’s village in the region [of untoward from the treasury Not only hasKonkan he turned an aumurder and mayhem trained be slip an editor, butgiant.

I want to be a film- Maharashtra]thor, and wanted make a filmaudawith benchesto will past this writingtothe rather maker meaningful films like sir,” he the childrenciously there called Kshan (moment) And and so itmake was when BJP’s Rajiv titled Drohkal Ka Pathik says.

“You should something of the days of Pratap Rudy, freshlearn from his suc- from a film. about the bitter-sweetness (one who walked thelast path of reHow many people newspaper? But ev- Class X,” he says.

“Unfortunately, theytoweren’t cessful battle withread LaluaPrasad bellion), Yadav aspires follow eryone watches cinema. showiniticar very interested.

They didn’t show up for the Yadav’s wife Rabri Devi inWhen Saran we (Bihar), further studies and lists his profession as polichases, stuntson and (slang) lan- workshops and service’. shoots. Now actors ated thebike discussion thetapori President’s speech tics and ‘social Wife the Ranjeet, onhave her guage, you can see it society around we can’t them. at the joint session inin Parliament.

Rudy you. was had part,growth wantsspurts, to sowork forshoot women’s Don’t youhimself, see helmet-less a friend tells me we can still make the moenjoying dartingbikers barbsracing at thedown Aam But empowerment. the roadParty, everythe day?

Do we need of that?”

I act inofit.course, With make-up, I could vision look like Aadmi Congress and,more of course, at vieItifhelps, if the Gandhian of While studying at party National College, 15-year-old.”

Pappu Yadav’s parent and his leaderGaikLalu apolitics as social service has a subliminal conwad assisted This Ashish and Gaikwad, afterIn all.the He’s not Prasad Yadav.Gupte on Stanley Ka Dabba. He de- text of ismurder mayhem.

Hindi cided to giftisthe withwhen a shortthe film for about to letitthis opportunity pass. of purpose. “…There a director state where chief heartland, conveys a seriousness his birthday.

Tahaan in Marathi) cenminister is jailed for a (thirst crime, his wife becomes parekh is a Mumbai-based writer poornima joshi tres on theminister. water situation in Mumbai’s the chief Then there is anotherslums. chief mitali

In sharp focus

From Mumbai, the true story of a young slum-dweller who made it to film school and is now touring film festivals with his maiden production

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shish Gaikwad insists it’s not that he has opportunities others of his ilk don’t, it’s that he has the grit to mine the potential in them.

The 22-year-old Mumbai slum-dweller has just graduated from Whistling Woods film school with a degree in editing and is now promoting his short film Tahaan at film festivals.

Gaikwad’s father died when he was four, and as compensation, his mother was given a sweeper’s job with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. “We live in the Rahul Nagar slum area in Bandra, where an NGO called Aseema Foundation conducts tuition classes,” says the young filmmaker. “When I was seven, the teachers urged my mother to put me in school. I had to give an entrance exam for St Stanislaushe High School, and weof weren’t sure if diminished size the Opposithey would takeinme into Class Iofbecause I had tion the House the People never been to school. luckily, I aced by it.” the seems evenBut more denuded The NGO also conducts tuitionsof at the the ConPalicharacteristic reticence Chimbai school from 4pm 6pmthis to gress andBMC the surliness of the Left.toAmid help underprivileged children collective gloom, it is hard not towith noticetheir the homework keep them of trouble. unwavering and enthusiasm of aout rather striking couple — Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP from Madhepura, recently acquitted from a murder charge, and his whip-smart wife, Congress MP from Supaul, Ranjeet Ranjan.

The duo operate together, arriving at the start of the Question Hour, leaving only when the House is adjourned for the day. Ranjeet, a former table tennis champion who inexplicably fell for the quintessential Bihari muscleman, is proper to the extent of inviting praise from the master of political correctness, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

And her male colleagues actually listen up when she says something.

Trinamool MP Sultan Ahmed had not quite bargained for the unexpected solidarity between Ranjeet and the Education Minister Smriti Irani when he was having a little fun at the latter’s expense. “Smritiji is the ideal daughter-in-law. I have watched all her serials, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, she was good,” he chuckled when he was supposed to be ask-

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Coming up for Motihari

Darkness and light The Lives of Others takes us on a rather menacing ride through rural Bengal afp/diptendu dutta

With the restoration of his birthplace, residents of a small town in Bihar hope that George Orwell will give them a place on the world map

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t seems only fitting that the first thing you see outside George Orwell’s ramshackle birthplace is a pig sprawled on its back. Unlike the writer’s Animal Farm revolutionaries though, she seems to lack the required Stalinist zeal. A goat loiters aimlessly, in straight view of the writer’s bust, as if auditioning for a part in his dystopian classic. Motihari, a bustling town in Bihar’s East Champaran district, never intended this iro-

Bricks and bones The opium warehouse that was once looked after by George Orwell’s father

ny. For the longest time, it had little idea that Eric Arthur Blair, who was born here on June 25, 1903, had gone on to become the renowned George Orwell. Besides, Blair had left Motihari when he was only a year old. The town never got a chance to know him better.

As a result of this somewhat incidental neglect, there is little evidence today to suggest that the Blairs were once honorary Biharis. Being a sub-deputy agent in the opium depart-

ment of the Indian Civil Service, Orwell’s father Richard W Blair lived beside a large warehouse that stored poppy seeds for export to China. Lately used as a gambling den and an open kitchen for the cooking of meat, the ‘building’ is now almost hollow, its bricks having been pilfered by encroachers and trespassers. The nose on Orwell’s bust has been chipped off by local miscreants, and inside the three-room house itself, the ceiling is starting

Soap opera meets Naxalism

shreevatsa nevatia

The lives of others told with empathy and nuance, but perhaps with too much masala

W The Lives of Others Neel Mukherjee Random House Fiction ₹599

hile trying to deconstruct the many layers of meaning that Neel Mukherjee has invested in his second novel, it might be prudent to first examine the relevance of the book’s title. The Lives of Others helps conjure the obvious connotation of empathy, the ability to place oneself in another’s shoes, imagining thereby the dreams and horrors which propel the lives of those outside the confines of one’s self. A more sinister curiosity in ‘the lives of others’ helps fuel idle chatter and neighbourhood gossip, stirring desires that can only be satisfied by a sense of overwhelming Schadenfreude. It is between these realms of empathy and prying curiosity that Mukherjee’s novel operates. But most crucially, it is the book’s interest in the lives of marginalised Others that gives it its punch, and helps place it on that much-coveted Booker longlist.

The prologue to The Lives of Others makes clear that we are in for a ride which is menacing, if not unforgiving. Farmer Nitai Das, who under the burden of loans and extortionate interest rates is reduced to beggary, decides to kill his entire family in order to solve their perennial problem of hunger. Food, though, has never been a concern for the college-going Supratik Ghosh. Even as he returns home at odd hours, he finds his mother waiting with an assortment of meat, fish and vegetables. “Don’t you agree we eat too much,” he asks his baffled mother. In that question, in that disdainful ‘we’, lies a hint. Dissatisfied with the apathy that a status quo so readily enforces, Supratik has left behind his days of amateurish communist revolt. The late 1960s have brought him opportunities far more substantive than before. Armed with Mao’s Little Red Book and the tenets of Naxalism, Supratik leaves his home and city for a small village in West Bengal’s Medinipur.

Bringing revolution to rural Bengal doesn’t prove too straightforward a task. Supratik keeps a journal, effectively writing a long let-

ter to an unnamed recipient. With its descrip- escape from a structure that is inevitably distions of excruciating hardship and missed as claustrophobic. As one of the book’s exploitation, his entries aren’t always easy cameos observes, “The family is the first and reading. One can only feel glad that Mukher- primary unit of oppression and exploitation.” jee regularly shifts our attention to 22/6 Basan- Forever caught in the darkness of their own ta Bose Road, the four-storeyed house Supratik failures and pettiness, it is hard for most memhas left behind. A joint family of 16 members, bers of the Ghosh family to understand each the Ghoshes give the author ample opportuni- other, to comprehend the stifling repression ty to build a large cast of players, each with a that surrounds them. Even though Supratik set of private fears, each with a predilection tries to shine a lone torch of empathy, he too is for one or more of those seven deadly sins. constrained by the limits of his ideology. EvenWhile Mukherjee delves into the psyche of his tually, silence provides that respite. Despite excharacters with precision, at times he scripts a isting on the periphery of this novel, the melodrama a pitch too high. servant Madan, the widowed Purba and her You couldn’t be faulted for thinking that The two children, all help renew hope for a world Lives of Others has borrowed portions of its that could be simpler. plot from the narratives of trite Naxalite revolution, 1960s Caltelevision soap operas. Prafullacutta, Bengali families — The Lownath, the Ghosh patriarch, is unland familiarised us with these ceremoniously ousted from the themes last year. But even if Even if Jhumpa Lahiri family business by his stepJhumpa Lahiri couldn’t get past couldn’t get past the brother. Charubala, his wife, the Booker shortlist, there is reaBooker shortlist, treats their widowed daughterson to hope that Mukherjee’s fate there is reason to in-law like a slave. Chhaya, their may well be different. The historhope that jealous unmarried daughter, icity of his book is more evocaMukherjee’s fate may empties a bottle of nail polish tive, and if an eight-page glossary well be different on the clothes her niece and sisof terms is anything to go by, The ter-in-law hope to wear during Lives of Others is more quintesthe Pujas. A servant is forced to sentially Bengali. Be it the disimplore, “I’ve eaten your salt,” dain that north Calcuttans and Sandhya, Supratik’s mother, has a premo- reserve for their counterparts in the south or nition her missing son will return one fine the spectre of Tagore which looms large over morning. Unsurprisingly, he actually does. everyday life, Mukherjee touches on varied asThough this heightened drama and emotion- pects of Bengali life with a flourish that is ality can be a tad tedious for the reader, it is charming. That said, however, it would only be clear that for Mukherjee, this is also an indict- fair to add that while Mukherjee seems to finment. The author deftly uses a display of ish many of Lahiri’s sentences, The Lowland, in Chhaya’s histrionics to better explain his ways, starts where Lives of Others concludes. point — “She had been born into a melodraThe Booker jury might find it hard to shake matic world; melodrama was the tool she off that sense of déjà vu, but it is only chronolused to banish it from her.” ogy that makes Mukherjee’s offering read like With each passing page, that sacred institu- an addendum. Without the antecedent, the tion of family is reassessed. Militant politics, book deserves a more independent appraisal. alcohol, drugs, prostitutes, mathematics, even a muted desire for incest are seen as routes of shreevatsa nevatia is a Kolkata-based writer

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PAPERWALLAH

Living is so dear dipankar

When something is rotten in the state of the world, comfort can be found in unexpected places, such as the pages of books

Cleansing Walden provides an encounter as refreshing as a summery dip in a pond

janice pariat

g krishnaswamy

TN ANNOUNCES COMPREHENSIVE CLOTHING LAW! T E

SHOVON CHOWDHURY is chief Truthdigger and author of The Competent Authority

he fabric of his dhoti is soft and “No, I mean Vision in Governance. Like “The rules for women are more detailed. arrest and embarrassment. Tatkal facility is clingy, moulding itself to his upthe Aadhaar Card, this law represents a They are designed to reflect our culture. also available.” per thighs. He adjusts the fabric quantum leap in governance. Thanks to Western forms of dress such as skirts will A bare-bodied bearer serves us cups of with jasmine-scented fingers. His laws such as Section 377, we are albe allowed, provided the hemline tea. “He is also wearing his traditional of said skirt extends to six inches dress,” says the Joint Secretary, approvingly, pure, white Tirupur cotton vest accentuready monitoring activities in ates the gentle swell of his belly. I tear my the bedroom. But so far, the below knee, except in cases of “Please ask your readers to study the lists began this book co- an exclamation women legs are shortputting on clothing.

Some eyes away and focus on his voice. The Joint livingarlier room in has2014, beenI outside mark whose and a question mark, it carefully social before experiment, manual for self-reliance, lumn with great hope.

Secretary is speaking. our purview.

Naturally, there A piece on lit- serves as a protest er than six all inches. your items arepersonal prohibited, while ofothers are against formsFor of censorsatire, declaration independence, erature borders — rather, ship and oppression. prohibited.

Strictly prohibited “Without our culture, what are we?” he are a wide rangeand of activities convenience, we are provid- strictly and spiritual discovery — details Thoreau’s exquestions and dising wanes, lists of it’s both compulsory will attract fines.living For example, asks, “Decline of society is inevitable. One whichliterature require that regulation, Yet when anger often replaced by items periences overhigher two years, in a cabin he geographical boundaries.

I was in- despair. thing leads to another, as in the case of hon- mantles but we are starting with clothing and prohibited sleeveless prohibited, whereas built byblouses Waldenare Pond, near Concord, Massaby artist Francis Alÿs performing ‘The are strictly in the ourable judges of the Madras High Court. spired clothing.

Refusal to admit men The lists are long.

In prose, Iclothing. sought unintelligibility and in- bikinis chusetts.

It isn’tprohibited, the easiestexcept to read, littered Line’—dhotis holding can private of leaking paint, comprehension.

First, disrespect was shown by a club. Then Green wearing intoa any This is In why organisers of theatriof elaborate, professional actresses,metaphors wearing and Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a case with allegorical along the armistice border cal performances fancy dress so them in pursuance of their duties. Such came Justice Katju. Immediate steps were he strolled residence is now a cognizable of-in Jeru- Half-formed Thing, I found and a fragmentation complex, extended sentences, but Iin-found — articulating the are border as an parties are advised to submit details of dividuals canpages get exemption after submisrequired, before matters deteriorated fur- salem fence, unless the men carrying at arbileast complete that the world could not be otherwithin its a certain quietness.

A paring mark on the ground.

Months later, I wise. ther. Plus there was the question of Vision.” trary three or more loaded weapons.” clothing months in advance for in sion of form 36D, andAnprocurement DIN Thethree book,toasix broken mirror.

A novel down.

A purging. encounter asofrefreshing this asabout human rightsin are being violated “You can see better if you wear a dhoti?” write “What women dhotis?”

I ask. prior approval.

This can help citizensinavoid from the Registrar Companies.” which it’s hard to finish a sentence, which number as a summery dip in a of cool, isolated pond. in Gaza, as bodies fall out of the sky in Ukraine; most sentences remain unfinished. “See. My “Why should we live with such hurry and something is rotten in the state of the world. one act. I might be a person. Beneath the.” In waste of life?” he asks.

While we do what we can — attend protests, Hemingway’s ‘A Clean Well-lighted Place’, at I find I have no answer. share images and articles, hit retweet and like the heart of the short story, I enSome lines ring eerily prophetDearest Balram, innumerable times, perhaps make a donation countered a void. “Our nada ic — “Every child begins the world Ever since Raghuram Rajan took over as — we need, at times, to reach for comfort. In- who art in nada, nada be thy anew, and loves to stay outdoors, RBI governor, banks have been far more stinctively, for me, it is literature. name… deliver us from nada; in cold or sunshine”— while othcheerful. Their complexions have imAt first, anger drove me to poetry, for poetry pues nada.” From TS Eliot, I filers are quietly revelatory, “Rather “Every child begins proved, and their outlook is more optimisis anger’s swiftest, most impeccable, vehicle. ched the coda to ‘The Hollow than love, than money, than the world anew, and tic. They have found the courage to branch The sad, eloquent Mahmoud Darwish, whose Men’, repeating madly like a fame, give me truth.” The book is loves to stay out into new areas. Many are entering the ‘Silence for the sake of Gaza’ will disquiet your child: “This is the way the world filled with birdsong, the (un)sioutdoors, in cold or vegetable segment. One Mr Jaspal Bhatti resh from her triumph in Mary her twin sister Meresa, who takes a wrong heart: “[Gaza] is oranges that explode, chil- ends/This is the way the world lence of the forest, the rhythm of sunshine,” wrote pioneered such schemes for onions in PunKom, Priyanka Chopra has created path and, after an initial foray into cabaret, dren without a childhood, aged men without ends/This is the way the world planting, growth, and harvest. “I jab. He also led the demand for subsidy on history again! Beating tough com-Thoreau becomes a dacoit queen in the Chambal an old age, and women without desire.” ends/Not with a bang but a went to the woods because I drugs, but this could not be implemented petition from Julie Andrews, Meryl belt, before finding love in the arms of RanOr the brave, spit-fire enraged spoken word whimper.” wished to live deliberately, to due to his unfortunate demise. We owe a lot Streep and Kamal Haasan, she’s won the veer Singh, a poor local boy who canartist Rafeef Ziadah performing ‘We teach life, Comfort, though, nestled front only the essential facts of to this man, and I am collecting small dona- central role in Tere Mere Pyaar Vyaar, a not afford shirts. Meanwhile, in sir!’ to a pin-drop silent audience: “Today, my somewhere quite unexpected. life, and see if I could not learn tions for a statue. You are welcome to con- musical film on the life of Nobel Calcutta, her sister Teresa helps body was a TV’d massacre that had to fit into At the bottom of my bookshelf, a slim text, what it had to teach, and not, when I came to tribute to the fund. laureate Mother Teresa. the poor (to be played by Irrfan sound bites and word limits.” Or Refaat Ala- easily lost among the others — Henry David die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish Ally Subramaniam was born in the southyour tomato loan, your first Khan), wins the Nobel (awarded “We were a little worried bewest Sundarbans, but was blown away by a reer, Regarding a young academic, who wrote ‘A Poem Thoreau’s Walden. I hadn’t read it in years, and to live what was not life, living is so dear.” Livchoice should naturally be Punjab National cause she played a prostitute in by a character played by Aamir cyclone and washed up on the shore near from Gaza to Israel’ with stark uncommon even then not for the most poetic of purposes ing is so dear.

Bank. Tell them Mr Bhatti sent you. In case the re-make of Deewar,” said a Khan), while foiling an evil plot Chennai. He was adopted by a poor Brahmin simplicity: “I am you. I am your past. And kill- — while studying for an A-GRE in Literature, Re-reading Walden made me realise that we, family from Tirupur. He can answer all your of rejection, there is no need to panic. Just representative of producer-diby CIA (played by Tom Alter).” ing me, You kill you.” when I once toyed with PhD plans. I’d picked many of us, are modern-day transcendentalquestions. Just send them to list out the banks that have lent money to rector Sajid Nadirwala, “But The blockbuster releases But at thousand deaths and rising (many of up a copy in Waterstones, stashed not under ists, believing in the goodness of people. Of askallysubramaniam@gmail.com Kingfisher. You did not share your financial luckily, no one rememthis Diwali, along with the whom are children), poetry ceases to make ‘Philosophy’ but the rather vacuous sounding this, we must be often reminded. Thoreau’s ofstatus, but I’m guessing any bank that lent bers. We wanted to bring sensational music video sense. The only rhythm is of gunfire, the ca- ‘Nature Writing’. Written in 1854, Walden is, ad- fering is a return to spring, a rejuvenation: ear Ally, is it true that banks are money to them should be happy to lend to the message of her life to for her new international dence of bombs falling. And these words, per- mittedly, dated, in ways that can make you “Renew yourself completely each day; do it now providing loans for pur- you. Just make sure the tomatoes are fresh, audiences in an entertainpop single, Can’t kick the fectly placed and articulate, despite being wince — indigenous communities are referred again, and forever again.” Remember, as he chase of tomatoes? as banks very often look at re-sale value. habit, featuring Beyoncé ing way, which is why we impassioned, suddenly seem inadequate. to as ‘savages’ — or charm you — “For my part, I says, morning brings back the heroic ages.

Regards, Balram, Moradabad Yours affectionately, Ally. as Dr Martin Luther King. created the character of I turned to South African writer Koos Kom- could easily do without the post-office. I think buis’ ‘Tipp-Ex Sonate’, a poem entirely bereft of that there are very few important communi- janice pariat’s novel Seahorse will be published in The Investigator is a fortnightly round-up of all things droll and newsy.ofAll views are personal. marks, Really personal t@shovonc text.

Composed brackets, quotation cations made through it.” This memoir — part November 2014 t@janicepariat

ASK ALLY

PRIYANKA CHOPRAQ TO PLAY MOTHER TERESA!

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At the edge of the world Luck is all around LIGHTHOUSE

The Spanish town of Cádiz was once an outpost, a fort, a port, a cosmopolis, a refuge, and has theconsists personality of a small town. It is soevents much,with and varying so intimate Life,now, like sport, of millions of intersecting probabilities, and Luck is a lead character in the drama of every person’s life

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t is midnight on a Monday in Cádiz, and I How long have I been doing this? A few Get there am standing among hundreds in a plaza days? That can’t be. It’s been forever, yet I can’t Chance encounters odds ofaccessible a sperm becoming CádizThe is easily by bus or overlooking la Caleta beach as fireworks seem to leave. The group of naturalised gaditaAFP a person is a fewtrain billionfrom to onenearly fan out over the Atlantic. Tonight is the nos (residents of Cádiz) who run the hostel every Andalusian Fiesta de San Juan. Soon, a 15ft gnome looming turn it into a community. I infiltrate it; it abcity. The closest airport is at Jerez over us will be burnt to the ground. I’m feeling sorbs me. Each morning I think I should plan While I amde anlaatheist, the(40km), Lord was to Frontera but on Sevilla explicitly at home, and can’t stop grinning. something. In(120km) life, too,isluck plays a far bigger my departure and each morning one of them much more interesting.

I have been in this magical little city about a looks at my face and tells me it’s clear I’m not role than we realise.

And as in poker, the manBuses from Jerez (€3) and Sevilla week, and it seems I have sprouted roots. agement of that luck the keyevery skill hour. to learn. going anywhere. Many among them have the (€13) runis almost It is Wandering through Spain for a month with same story: they came for two days (from GalLet me turn tobest sports illustrate what to to check timings andI mean. buy no plan and a big appetite, I’d achieved a icia, Madrid, Argentina, Alabama) and stayed.In the last instalment of Lighthouse, I had tickets at the bus station, but if pleasant momentum that made the process of written aboutyou how luck plays a huge role in Cádiz has a spell, a pull, a glue. I don’t know must do it online, try moving from one dizzying place to the next what it is; but it is palpable. Perhaps, it is football, which is also a game of probabilities. a movelia.es. Or take a train fairly painless. I barely worried about what I quality of quiet permanence, accrued over For example, Lionel Messi scores from a direct (renfe.com). Cádiz itself is best was leaving behind: in Madrid, the café in La- centuries; a grandmotherliness — warm and free kick 1 in 12.5 times. This is the bare numseen on foot or by bicycle. vapies strewn with books and squat furniture full of stories. ber, over a sufficiently significant sample size that a friend immediately pronounced my ofof free kicks. And History is everywhere: in the Museo de CáStayyet, we cheer madly when he fice, ‘my desk’ looking out onto a fountain ca- diz, two perfectly-preserved Phoenician sarcocurls one in, and groan andCasa go ‘WTF is hea doI recommend Caracol, warm, sually interrupting the street; in Ronda, a phagi thought to be from the 5th century BC; ing’ when he flips one way over — even though, welcoming four-storey hostel in the plaza at the edge of the walled in the larger scheme of things, they’re walk the same at the south end of the island, old town, a five-minute from city where two old men on a shot. While fans and even most reporters don’t the ruins of a temple to Melkart the train and bus station. Caracol bench muse about the king’s abget this, managers do, working furiously to whose columns the Greeks and has bunk beds in dorm rooms, dication; in Sevilla, an abanmaximise the probabilities in their favour. But Romans took to be the mythic Perhaps, it is a quality private double rooms and even doned building transformed fans go by results, and while those may even pillars of Hercules, signalling to of quiet permanence, apartments nearby (hostelinto a community space, where out in a league over a season, they never do in seafarers the edge of the known accrued over casacaracol.com). one Sunday night I found myself knockout tournaments, much to the bemuseworld; all over town, the archicenturies at a circus-cabaret. ment and frustration of the men in charge. tecture of Al-Andalus, the goldEat But Cádiz altered my rhythm, Maradona hasEat won World Messi hasn’t, en dome giving the cathedral at athe stallsCup, in the Mercado slowed me down, put its hooks in what does that say?

Nothing at all.

It’s luck. the air of a mini Hagia Sophia; Central in the Barrio de San Juan me. Much of this has to do with journalist few years and, the plaque-covered exterior of I was a cricket or at any bar for fullaof old men.

For Casa Caracol, a hostel-haven I found quite by the Oratorio de San Felipe Neri, where the first in retrospect, it amazes me how seriously we something nicer (and more accident, and the people I met here. I arrived of Spain’s seven constitutions was drafted in took results. Every action on a field has a numexpensive), wander the Barrio de la with a last-minute reservation for a single 1812 as Cádiz held out against Napoleonic rule. ber associated with it. A full delivery outside Viña and find a restaurant that night, sweaty and hassled, having barely made off in the 40th over has X per cent chance of reEvery innocuous detail holds something in suits your it to the train from Sevilla. The door opened to it, decoded for me by another Cádiz-adoptee verse-swinging into themood. batsman, Y per cent ou are lucky to be reading this. When gramming.

Be a rebel, f*** the today.)

Hon- chance of being the friendliest face, I put my backpack down, cover-driven if it doesn’t, and on a walking tour ofdon’t the city: wrought-iron Tip your father ejaculated just the weof arebuildings, here should keep and instantly fell into place. into your estly,loops Z per cent chance of beating theabout field when onfact thethat sides now perfect At Casa Caracol ask the mother, between to here us inbike a constant elation wonder.

A chunk ofsomewhere time has come loose;300 I live that happens.hammocks Through aand day,sleep as the oversthe go stands, state were of once usedand to tether horses; under million spermatozoa re- But get tripped bygiven vanity.

We shape believeto acnow.500 I sleep in a hammock on were the terrace; I we by, thousandsstars of events of different balcony grilles up were their for €10 a night. probabilileased.

Onemy of them the blueprint for you. that we are specialthe (asbelled a species andof asnoble individdrink coffeeheld standing in the street; I go to ties intersect as we arrive at a result that is decommodate skirts ladies; That one sperm cell made it through acidic uals),the andPlaza that de weCruz possess thenamed intelligence the mercado and haggle over thethe price of chertermined partly by skill and partly by luck.

Verde after atocross furnace the vagina, thetrying graveyard for soft-willed most makethat sense of stood the world to rule This And yet, we cheer the slog that goes for six and riesofwith a frutero to flirt once thereand during the it. inquisition sperms, and then the survivors to vanity, in where the cosmic scalerevealed of things, shoppers into outlasted bigger purchases; I bike around boo the batsmanof holing outtown. in theItdeep a and and citizens to isbeeither privately personality a small is so with much, somehow person.ofTaking into tourists ac- comic or tragic, depending on how seriously majestic town become through aclusters American lofted off-drive.

Chance canme: deterMuslim were publicly burned. so intimate.

This is what floors walking countand theloitering fact thatlocals, this was almost certainly you take yourself. me, I find chirping ‘perdón’; I eat all minestreet careers: MS once Dhoni blun- bouThe entire And city is intricately inscribed with down a side that was an inlet, not the sexual Iencounter it hard take myself seri-of itself than any- gainvillea the sole tomatoes; wash andbetween hang upyour clothes; dered by leaving the that last over of its to own story; it istoo more creeping up a wall is centuries parents at the time, your chances ouslywhere whenI’ve I’mbeen. sitting dark an outpost, a fort, old, watching nearly every day I swim in of thecoming ocean and the first T20 World Cup la final to Jo-while It in hasa been the sun set over Caleta into existence probably a few billion to rooma port, in New Bombay playing watch thewere sunset. ginder Sharma, but it was hailed mya cosmopolis, a refuge, andThis nowvanity, has thein the eating the world’s best peach, imagining one. Given that your parents were born of sim- cards with a drunk builder asedge a masterstroke when it hapself at the of the known world. cosmic scale of ilar odds, and somehow managed to meet and who’s snorting cocaine as he things, is either comic Afterafter Sharma con- has On thepened nightto ofwork.

San Juan, the effigy hook up and produce you, it is even more of a asks me, “Kya laga liya, sirjee?” a wide and a is six,full what if gone upceded in smoke, la Caleta of people or tragic, depending miracle that you exist. Indeed, consider that Four years ago, I became a seMisbah-ul-Haq hadn’t drinking, skipping waves played that roll in, on how seriouslysinging, you our specific species should itself evolve and rious poker player. I did it to oneand falseforth stroke?

Would Dho- The back over bonfires. take yourselfjumpingthat survive through the ages, on this one out of make money, but ended up beI Dhoni? thing toni do, am told, is to write on a piece of trillions of planets (yes, trillions), and you get learning how little I knew about Life, like sport, paper something you wantconsists to leaveof in milthe past, a true idea of how remarkable your existence life. The most important thing I of intersecting events or a wishlions for the future, and burn it. with is. Don’t be under the illusion, though, that learnt from poker was about the varying and Luck is why I cannot makeprobabilities, a sturdy argument for this makes you special: everything around you role of luck in the world. Poker is essentially a a leadburning character in theofdrama every person’s a piece paperofwith the word ‘fear’ is there despite similar odds against it. Howev- game of skill, but only in the long run (which life. The here is to notthan sweat what we on itlesson has anything more a flimsy signifier unlikely it is for a specific something to ex- can be longer than you imagine). In the short cannot control, take nothing our lives cance.

It isto perhaps easy toinfind fear for remote ist, it is inevitable that some things will, run, luck dominates. Every action has associat- granted, and to make each moment count. and irrelevant on holiday in a country full of indeed, be there. Congratulations. ed probabilities, and you try to manoeuvre And beautiful also, to bepeople humble, is one andbecause fruit, in ahumility city where While everything else pales into insignifi- your way through a poker game in such a way the only response to the awesome can appropriate walk home at four in the morning, having cance beyond the spectacular fact of our exist- that the probabilities are on your side. Keep complexity of only this world. to dodge the spray of street-cleaners. ence, we’re still not satisfied. We spend our getting your money in as a 51 per cent favouMeanwhile, in thatwhere dark New room, But standing I am,Bombay I feel steady.

Histodays striving for this or that trivial little thing, rite and, in the long run, all the money is my builder asks me “Kya hai bhai? ry and friend geography are again, in sharp focus, and I can and stressing over matters like the maid com- yours. In the short run, you could get ham- Guttylocate laga limyself kya?” Iwithin stare atthem. the table show and I feeland at home, ing late or the scratch on the car or tax returns mered again and again and again. For that rea- no emotion.

He calls. show him The my cards, emboldened

by Ibelonging. sheer redrama or the in-laws or getting laid. (We are pro- son, poker players are constantly told not to be flecting onoccasion, my goodIfortune, on harvesting. billions of the figure, isand worth grammed to worry specifically about that last ‘results-oriented’. As Lord Krishna recom- and billions of grinning spermatozoa.

And so, like a fool, I write miedo at one, but we are again uniquely fortunate mended in the Bhagavad Gita, just keep doing the back of a receipt and, shielding it from the t@amitvarma among species to be able to ignore our pro- the right thing, and all will be well. Eventually. wind, burn it to ash.

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Prominent attractions The golden dome of Al-Andalus watches over the town

shutterstock/sergei a aleshin; (inset) tapas at a bar shutterstock/ nacho such

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Amit Varma is a novelist. He blogs at indiauncut.com

devika bakshi is a Delhi-based writer

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Bicycle bells and whistles There is a booming market for premium and imported bicycles as high-earning professionals pick this eco-friendly transport to ride into a healthy way of life

Continental shift

In body and spirit, most high-end wildlife resorts in India evoke their counterparts from the continent that lent the safari its name

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Just two will do Car designer at Maruti Suzuki, Saurabh Singh prefers a twowheeler — his high-end Giant mountain bike; (below) Tern folding bike

Au naturel (clockwise from right) The Serai at Bandipur; Taj Banjaar Tola in Kanha; and a big cat on the prowl in Corbett ap

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fter a long drive through the bush It’s mid-morning on a bright autumn day, where the forest begins and the hotel ends. and forest, you arrive at your re- and keeping you company is the aggressive It took three years to build the lodge, extreat. Thatched roofs atop gleaming chirping of a couple of drongos and the far plains Yadavendra. With just 12 villas, it is unwhite stucco walls. You note the gentler rustle of arrhythmic breeze. Such is likely to break even till 2018. But adding more crimson and hot-pink bougainvillea spilling the splendour of the isolation that you mo- villas could destroy its charm. Designed by over them, the leaves outnumbered. You open mentarily lose your bearings — are you still in Delhi-based Pradeep Sachdeva Design Associa wooden gate to walk to your room, past a Natal? Or maybe, you stayed on at Mara? Did ates, who visited various lodges in Africa to get bare, whitewashed courtyard. Once inside, you even check out of Tintswalo? Mid-reverie, the look right, everything at Samode Safari — you take in the high ceiling, the niches in the you realise you are still in India — at The Serai, design, materials, food — is decidedly local. walls, stone flooring, cane chairs, rough hewn Bandipur in Karnataka — where the Deccan Gond designs run like a thread across the wooden furniture, animal print cottons and Plateau and the Western Ghats merge. Why property, while meals are served under trees the open-air shower, before you step out again did you think it’s Africa? or starlit skies. The mainstay of the experience on to the veranda. Sprawled before you is a may be the tigers at the adjacent reserve but patchwork of scrub, grassland and jungle bor- Breathing space the villas match the safari experience. About dered by the low hillscars beyond.

In body and spirit, most wildlife resorts In- trum e designs for India’s largest au- photography 2,000sqft, these one-bedroom buff heads out, lunch and in camof mountain, all-terrain, units road,include racing dia evoke their counterparts from theGarden conti- and tomaker, but when he’s not work- era gamekids’ lodge highlights, such as sold decksjust opening packed, to the nearby Butterfly bikes.

The company 1,200 nentbirding that lent thein safari itsand name (from safara bikes ing he hits the road not in a fancy and into the loungers, fans sites Thane Bhandup. in forest, the first year, but‘antique’ today itceiling sells 6,000 ‘toPune, travel’Jehangir in Kiswahili).

The Se- founder and every month.and four-wheeler but a humble bicy- or In books and HC Jehangir, And switches, sales are increasing 35 tradito 40 rai, designed bymulti-speciality Dean D’Cruz, is Jehangir Hos- per cent annually. cle. Okay, maybe not all that humble. Saurabh chairman tional games. of the no different.

Inspired Singh, AGM (styling design) at Maruti Suzuki, pital, cycles to work everybydaythe as it keeps him It is this galloping pace of growth that game of Africa — albeit takes off on weekends to the Aravalli Hills on fit Natural barriers andlodges is environment-friendly. prompted Taiwanese speciality-bike maker GiIn water scarce the Mediterrathe outskirts of Gurgaon on a mountain bike with Unlike in South 2013.

Africa,While for inFortouches long, theof bicycle was looked down upon ant to enter India in October its regions, such as nean — its wooded is who couldn’t manufactured by the world’s leading bicycle- as stance, where there are private the vehicle of choicesprawl for those prices stretch from ₹25,000 to ₹10.6 lakh, the Panna and Pench, marked by log huts and cottagesIt was maker Giant. reserves well, in India, closafford scooters and motorbikes. synonyaverage selling priceasof a bike in the India is there are no bathtubs set against the Nilgiris.

Singh’s love affair with bicycles began in mous est experience of afor chain of rewith postmen and Venkamilkmen. Children ₹65,000. “Although the market premium tesh them M, director of Coffee Daygrocery stores bikes is smalltreats 2003 in Japan, during a training programme rode canofbe had through to school, the local in terms numbers, it is bigthe in Hotels & playground.

Resorts, which owns at Suzuki. For lack of an international driving or four properties of Taj Safaris, to the There was only black value,” says Pravin V Patil, managing directora the property (andand thered riverside licence, trainees like him had to bicycle to get and joint venture with &Beyond, a blue for boys, and pink for girls to Kabini Lodge), says, from.

“While renovating it, we ‘luxury experiential travel specialist’ that first around. Singh soon discovered choose wanted to retain the topography.

We have a to- made its mark in Africa. The lodges — Mahua the freedom and flexibility that Today, an emerging category tal area of 36 of acres, of which only were built Kothi in Bandhavgarh National Park, Baghvan came with it. So when a friend professionals in 18the upperupon.” A concession thathigh-income affluent, well-travintroduced him to the Pedal Yamiddle and groups in Pench National Park, Banjaar Tola in Kanha elled manyimpetus who havetobeen tri group in Gurgaon in 2010, is including giving a fresh the National Park and Pashan Garh in Panna NaThe market forclientele, to Africa, no doubt appreciate.

Even Singh began to relive his Japa₹2,000-crore cycling industry in tional Park — are all built to merge into the lopremium bikes is would whenbut they are ensconced in luxury tents at cal scrub. Baghvan, Pashan Garh and Mahua nese dream. This love for cyIndia.

Their reasons range from small in number, Oberoi Vanyavilas charming cling, combined with a healthortoAman-i-Khas, hobby, and from eco- Kothi too have 12 suites each. At Baghvan, each big in value enough for many guests tototake a token safari passion for the outfriendliness stress-free com- room has a machan (with a thoughtfully proand save the mutes. rest of the day to soak in thebicysen- vided mosquito net!) and the ambience is very doors saw him readNearly 15.5 million sory pleasures of glamping ily buy a bike priced cles were sold(glam-camping!). last year in a 1950s. Expect a colour scheme of cream with a While Africa is blessed withby more wildlife re- few touches of turquoise, overhead fans, Parsi ₹1 lakh. market marked rising disposserves than anywhere else on earth, India tiles, woven hyacinth furniture, high ceilings, Cut to Mumbai. Thrice a week, able incomes and readily available imported draws in bikes. the crowds for the tiger. But after a giant ebony chests and hookahs.

Nilesh Singh cycles to work at a high-end gigantic mall in suburban hectic day of chasing the big cat, those with The forest experience gets more intense at deep pockets expect a comfortable, preferably Banjaar Tola, where accommodation is entireThane, about 7km from his resi- Premium pedals luxurious bedwhen to recover in. Perhaps, at a place dence. He took up cycling two “We felt that the Ambassador and Pre- ly in camps — there are two camps with nine like the Samode Safari Lodge Bandhavgarh years ago when he realised mier Padmini could make wayatfor better cars suites each. Usually, about five per cent of the in Madhya latest Relais & Châhe had no time for regu- and whenPradesh.

RajdootIndia’s (motorcycle) could be total space is built-up, says Mridula Tangirala, teaux (an international ‘club’toofassume resortsthere with director operations, Taj Safaris, pointing out lar exercise. phased out, it made no sense strictno rules for admission) it is run by that everything from avoiding wildlife corriHis mount? The was demand for better entrant, quality cycles in Inbrothers and managing Yadavendradirector Singh. dors to sourcing sustainable building materiRockrider 5.2 moun- dia,” says Raghvendra Shiv Inder Singh, Frequent on retails African safaris, bicythey al and waste management is taken into tain bike (MTB) of Firefox travellers Bikes, which premium wanted to recreate the experience priced at ₹22,000. Be- cles, including brands such as Trekhere. and The Tern.re- account. She says, “In water scarce regions, a spectacular lodge.

But for the impersides biking to office, sult such as Panna and for instance, Setisup in 2004, Firefox introduced a range of Fancy freewheels ShivPench, Inder Singh, managing there ceptible fences, it’d be covering difficult tothe spot on the weekends, the 30 of Firefox Bikes can be no bathtubs.” imported models, fullexactly spec- director

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Not that there aren’t other challenges.

The 2012 ban by the Supreme Court on tourism in core areas of 41 national wildlife reserves had served as a wakeup call for the sector. Though the ban has since been lifted, there has been some course correction. Some hotels have even shut shop due to the ban and the new regulations. While the top-end resorts have largely been able to integrate eco-friendliness, whether by international collaborations or independent effort, India’s national parks are clearly facing a crisis due to encroachment. A survey of the Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand had earlier noted that violations included concrete buildings, heavy vehicular traffic, no proper waste segregation and disposal, loud music and lack of proper water supply, among others. The norms aren’t particularly clear or standardised. But some like Madhya Pradesh Ecotourism Development Board refer to global benchmarks, such as Green Globe 21 scheme, an accreditation system aimed Pedal ahead Pravin V at checking the sustainability ofdirector resorts, and International Patil, managing Hotel Environment Initiative (IHEI). of Starkenn Sports; (right) Rohan Kini, founder ofprinciples bike eGuiding commerce venture A significant role in preserving India’s BumsOnTheSaddle.com; wildlife is played by guides, whether em(inset) folded Tern bike

ployed by the forest departments or by private resorts. Poorly paid, unmotivated and largely at the mercy of poachers, forest guides have been receiving better training and pay, alDomestic guests though much account for 30 to 50 remains to be per cent only done. Regulating the(number of) entries into the reserves has also helped the situation.

“India has enormous potential in terms of safaris with an array of wildlife spread over numerous and diverse areas across the country,” says Jaisal Singh, COO, Sujan, of which Sher Bagh at Ranthambhore is a part. “We ensure we have the best vehicles and guides with a deep insight into the areas we work in.” (Sher Bagh also looks the part with tented accommodation, ‘hurricane’ lanterns, canopy chairs, sola topees, leather-bound books and pedestal fans.)

The experience of a safari hinges almost entirely on the skill of the naturalists. Selftaught (although increasingly armed with the right undergraduate degrees), they are often trained by the resorts in the finer points of interacting with guests. Taj Safaris has an intensive 14- to 20-week training programme. At The Serai Bandipur, naturalist Irfan claims more young people are taking a greater interest in the profession. “We need more people to feel this way,” he says, even as guests watch, fascinated, as the normally shy sambar and spotted deer treat him with rare camaraderie in the forest.

For now, domestic guests at the resorts are in the minority — from about 30 per cent at Samode Safari Lodge to 50 per cent at the Taj Safaris’ hotels — but the numbers are growing. Wildlife may be different in Africa and India, but top-end lodges here are well positioned to reinforce the country’s status as an alternative destination for the close-knit community of wildlife lovers. People who expect, even demand, stays that match the best safari experiences in the world.

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Pulled pork phulka taco, anyone?

naintara maya oberoi

One city. Two favourites. Coming back to Delhi and to contemporary Indian food sans gratuitous outbreaks of molecular jellies and suspicious foams

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of Starkenn Sports, whichvery has time I return to Delhi, everything is different. Bars turn exclusive distribushops, shops turn into restion rights forinto Giant taurants, bikes in India and restaurants turn into gyms, South Asia.and my childhood home has turned into a gleaming jewellery store visible from Techie lovethe moon. So I like to reassure myself by are checking on all my favourites The buyers mainlyup IT professionwhen I arrive. als, followed by doctors and fitness enthusiOver the years, Indian Accent include has ceasts. Other emerging categories mented professionals its place among withwho its middle-aged andthese children, food designs and charming, enthusiastic now lovely want better and finish compared staffwas (never supercilious about explainto what available to them before. ing their very complicated menu).bicycles The rise of the market for premium Accent in IndiaIndian can be tracedserves to thecontemporary emergence ofInIT food, butHyderabad there are and no Pune gratuitous hubsdian in Bangalore, in the outbreaks of molecular jellieson or assignsuspinoughties.

Young IT professionals foams here.

Instead, kitchen mentcious in the US and Europe werethe exposed to plays with texture andnot colour, the cycling culture there, only researchfor coming but old,also sometimes forgotten muting as recreation.

“Theyrecipes, would refashioning usingback flavours wantand similar bikes whenthem they were in Inandbecause ingredients the world. dia. But thosefrom werearound not available, they The pre-plated and not generbegan todishes importare them from Singapore, Thaifor sharing. landally anddesigned Dubai,” says Patil.

I have, in soon my more misguided moIllegal imports gave rise to a thriving a chicken sushi anyroll grey ments, market.eaten This was enough tikka to convince withthe wasabi-pudina chutney, a noodle saone that Indian market was ready for premosa and an uttapam lasagna, so I have mium bike brands.

And sure enough, the experienced the absolute nadir of fusion food, as have many of us. (Say dhokla ravioli or kadhi risotto to the person next to you and watch them cringe). But when done right, contemporary Indian cooking can bring new life to old standbys.

Done best, it brings an unexpected, tongue-in-cheek point of view to the table (to wit: the Phantom cigarette and black-sesame-and-sugar ‘ash’ that accompanied Indian Accent’s ginger ice cream, or their chyawanprash cheesecake). It doesn’t have to be frou-frou either. Like the tandoori momos beloved of Delhi University’s North and South Campuses

Culture on a plate Cafe Lota at the Crafts Museum in Delhi s subramanium

suman a Delhi-based travel writer Growthtarafdar cycle GiantisStarkenn Cycling World showroom in Bangalore

office from his friend’s rooftop to an outlet in Jayanagar. Today, he has buyers not only in the big cities of Mumbai and Pune, but also in smaller places such as Nashik, Nagpur and Surat. Recently, he even sold a mountain bike in Aihol, Manipur.

A love for bikes is usually accompanied by an indulgence in accessories. “As your passion Missionary wheels Rohan Kini has experienced this for biking grows, the need for accessories boom first-hand. In 2006, this computer engi- grows alongside,” says Saurabh Singh.

The market for helmets, neck covers, gloves, neer began building a community of bikers in Bangalore, a city choking with traffic and pol- mirrors, lights and toolkits is currently domlution. The chaos and hold-ups on the roads inated by unbranded players, but the international brands are equally led to the birth of the ‘cycle to available. And a large chunk of work’ movement. “We started the sales takes place online. with the aim of promoting cyAdditionally, Kini and other Incling in Bangalore. We were alcompanies ready cycling to work. Sokebab thewith strawberry-green-chilli Worldly wise Foie-gras-galauti at Indian Accent such as Firefox We were alreadychutneydian and Strakken import bicycle goal was to talk about it, to give cycling to work. So components assemble them anrubbed experience of itfamiliar and lurid —people momos with the crop but theand menu is the goal wasuptohere talkand there, locally.compendium This also allows providespice them orange mixwith beforetechnical being roasted in about more it a well-researched of them to the bikes its according to saysneeds Kini,to take whofrom dif- regional food thatcustomise aknow-how,” tandoor — it just tries to highlight requirements.

BoastBumsOnTheSaddle.com, founded ferent traditions and invent something ingredients: bhat individual (black soybeans), ragi an e-commerce site for bikes and only better design and that works, however surprisingly. (millet), Kerala reding rice,not griddled Ladakhi finish,bedgi premium bike brands are accessories, hisAccent job at kitchen bread, amaranth seeds, I was once alongside in the Indian red chillies.

ThoughtWorks, a software company. steadily taking stage in patta India. at lunchtime: each dish had so many I always get the cool,centre gentle palak By 2011, thethat business grown so much components I lost had count of how chaat, and the excellent salli boti, garmix straws (until rethat Kini hadinto to give his 10-year-old job nished to Urban many went eachuppainstakingly-aswithplanning crisp potato look afterplate: the site full time. crisps, He also caper moved the industry sembled parmesan cently,According you had totofind a Parsi estimates, friend or flymore than half of to the Indian market continues to be confit, toasted kalonji (niMumbai). ruled by the basic, old-style black or green cygella), crushed kurkure, There is something remicles manufactured by established translucent radish discs, niscent of Indian Accent in players such as Hero Cycles,Dua’s Atlas kitchen and TI India. chickpea cress, tiny kaffirhow Rahul at The rest They know what is takenLota up cooks by fancy with lime-flavoured paos. All andbikes, plates its premium they’re doing, and bikes commanding cent or so of these disparate bits can food: they merely know4 per what they do it withthe market. sometimes end up as an inthey’re doing, and they do it a sense of humourWhilewith demand forof fancy bikes It’s is growing at coherent list of ingredients a sense humour. about 30 per centinannually, it is falling for ba— churan ka karela, quinoa evident the bhapa doi sic models.

“The standard puffs, bitter melon crisps, cheesecake (which cycle is sosegment is movingpopular on to motorbikes, thanks to financing or the much-feted duck corit is now also options,” explains Singh of Firefox. netto with foie gras, which served at breakfast), or the But urban planners are eager to promote cyhas never really grown on me. But some fat beetroot ‘chops’ with bhaja moshlacling to cheese, combatlike rising traffic and pollution of Indian Accent’s inventions are sub- spiked cream a very successwoes. This includes thealliance. creation of dedicated lime: the pulled pork phulka taco, for in- ful Russian-Bengali cultural bicycle lanes,everything already under way in cities such stance, or the ghee roast boti, the At both places, on the plate Bangalore, Delhi and well as ‘feednow-vanished kadhai duck in a green has aaspurpose.

What you getPune, isn’tasjust er’ bicyclegimmickry, renting andbut parking facilities near mango reduction and the fantastically good-looking the real and busaround stands in the Capital, excessive foie-gras-galauti kebab with deal: metro diversestations flavours from the for instance. strawberry-green-chilli chutney. subcontinent and further afield, sometraffictogether. increases, On this trip, however, I had a new fa- how all “As working Andthe I’mneed happyfor cycling will that, only go up,” saysjudicious Singh ofnapFirefox. Morevourite to inspect. Café Lota, the Crafts to report with some over, urbanitplanning shiftingtoaway from Museum’s new star attraction, is just as ping in between, is perfectlyispossible cities to sky-high verticharming (except at midday, when the eat atsprawling both Caféhorizontal Lota and Indian Accent ones, where one can cycle to workplaces looutdoor seating is a cooking medium, on thecal same day. catedmaya close to home.

And based premium bike not a seating space), and much more af- naintara oberoi is a food writer are pedalling furiously towards this fordable. It’s more restrained in its ap- in Parismakers t@naintaramaya emerging opportunity. proach; sabudana popcorn and sriracha ₹150-crore premium bike market is set to touch the ₹500-crore mark over the next three years.

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Game forPrime more No word The Durbar soccer Minister Narendra team practice a Modi at hasa maintained session in Baruipur disquieting silence nidhi kundalia voices evendugar as strident of intolerance swirl around his government rajeev bhatt

Sonagachi’s soccer champs Children from Kolkata’s oldest red-light district find new goals in life and glory at the Homeless World Cup in faraway Poland

No right to remain silent F

loating over the crumbling buildings of the British Raj, the stores displaying sequinned spaghetti-tops, and the smell of frying mirchi bhaja, were the sounds of Sonagachi’s street children: the patter of bare feet, the panting from cleaning windshields, the knock of knuckles at the rolled-upefore windows at a traffic junction.

Not the just-concluded general elecanymore.tions, Thanks to one man’s efforts to bring many in the media as well as in a few children the marginalised commusocialfrom and business circles saw it as a nity of Kolkata’s oldest red-light district the three-way contest between thetoConcentre of society. gress, the newly emerged AAP and BJP. But to Public health scientist Smarajit those who understood the pulse ofJana the spearcounheads the Durbar Samanwaya try, it was clearly aMahila one-horse race, andComthe mittee, syndicate thatbutbands together horse wasa not even the BJP Narendra Modi.

Sonagachi’s sex workers againstpurely the many inThe Congress was a write-off on the justices encounter in their lives. basis of they its sheer arrogance anddaily refusal to Beacsides rights advocacy, anti-human cept blame for the rampant and and pervasive cortrafficking and HIV drives, the ruption during UPA prevention II. AAP blundered by Committee has helped put responsibility together a football resigning from its Delhi and team of around 100big children sex workers.

At was caught with greedyofeyes.

The party the committee-run school andbehostel, Rahul members thought they could credible on Vidya Niketanstage at Baruipur in having the 24 Parganas, the national without to prove atheir sports complex is slowly taking shape, mettle on the one mandate theyfundhad ed entirely by the earnings of sex workers. won, fairly and squarely.

Close by is the football Approached by That left the BJP, whichfield. has, of course, tradikutcha is a green pockmarked tionallyroads, had aithuge base ofpatch, support.

However, with Teen boysmost in colourful T-shirts what puddles. has always scared reasonable Hinemblazoned names of sponsors dus about thewith BJP the is that it came with a lotlike of Maruti, Redlunatic FM cry fringe. out to baggageKolkata in the Police form and of the each “Bhalo kore diye khal (concenTheseother, elements take on mon self-appointed roles as trate the game)!” Theorgoalposts are notheitheron ultra-nationalists moral policemen, ing than concreteispoles and nets the andmore their methodology definitely not on demoground, butdecibel the kids play the singlecratic. Their levels arewith extremely high minded of professionals.

Angry and all ofzeal them jockey to get their fiveoutbursts minutes are gently quelledthe by media a watchful coach, and at of fame through circus by making the end of the game thereand are high fives and completely outlandish embarrassing pats on the head.

Asked how long they’ve been statements and assertions. playing, Bishwajeet Majumdar says, “It Given coach the limited options, India turned to has couple of months most…

Amazthe been one aman who, despitefor his affiliations, ing whatexactly sportswhat can do a child.” seemed thefor doctor ordered for an A few months ago, Rajib Roy, also raised in extremely sick country.

We were limping ecoSonagachi, was spotted byjobs United at a nomically, there were no for Scouts the young tournament India and went on to receive and few wereinhopeful of getting ahead, espetraining at the prestigious Manchester cially if they had no connections.

It wasUnited a des-

Soccer School. “People keep asking me how it from corporates and events, the organisation feels to be my mother’s son and then achieve takes care of the travel and accommodation something like this,” he told the international costs of the participants and their coaches. Besoccer school, “I don’t know how to answer sides training, counselling and access to nutrithat. But when my coach said I had been se- tionists, the players are also provided with lected by Manchester United, it was like a fa- basic education and awareness on health, genther’s recognition,” said the teen. der equality, HIV/AIDS and the environment.

Last year, Biswajit Bhattaperate country that Nandi turnedand to Surojit Modi and the For Bishwajit Nandi, teenager with langana’s choice of aSania Mirza as spiked brand charya theasDurbar team and its coach hair Gujarat did model a saviour. and silver his neck anda ambassador waschains mired around in controversy after proud. playedsolidly in thefor West Slum wrists, ModiThey was voted his Bengal track record year’s meet in Poznan, where 64 naBJP MLAlast called her Pakistan’s daughter-in-law.

Soccer theman National Soccer Tourand forteam beingatthe withSlum the economic so- tions competed over willPenguin remain Dinanath Batra, theeight man days, who got nament Nagpur and later represented India etched lutions. in The young, first-time voters mostly his memory forever.

“It Hinduism, was an into pulp in Wendy Doniger’s book on at the Homeless World Cup and in Poznan, Poland. looked only to themselves weren’t allied credible experience.

I was so books excitedon and has managed to get his own thenervpreofconventional Slum Soccer are different onThe anyrules of the moorings offrom caste,a ous about taking a Gujarat’s flight,” he says. Nandi scribed reading list in schools.

He adregular game. or Each team fields players, creed, religion commune.

Likefour me, they be- travelled to Poland with his Durbarcalls teammate vises against birthday candles, black including goalkeeper. lieved thatthe Modi would, The with15-an iron hand, people “negroes” Surojit and Bhattacharya together, compares— them to minute game — stakeholders seven minutes discipline all the in the business burnt chapaties, theyand had earlier impressed seclaims television existed for each half and a one-minute of corruption starting with government ser- in the time oflectors at the national tourney by the Mahabharat. break — is played a 16x22 vants, politicians andon businessmen, including scoring an incredible 28 goals beModi has maintained a disquieting silence Sometimes the girls metre by ainfamous low wall. feudal field lordsbound like the tween them. through all this. Now that he is and boys have police Local coaches and football sugar barons.

“We centre arrivedstage, in Poland seven firmly the average cases against them stalwarts selectI 10 players each Like them, wasn’t worried days before thehim match and pracIndian expects to deal with and cannot for the the malerise andoffemale teams, about the lunatic tised every day. had great irresponsible BJPThey politicians and get passports It was a vote solely although eight end up rightwingonly fringe because intravGujfields, trainers.

The others coaches affiliatedand to Hindu rightwfor development — elling to the Cup. “We searat Modi hasWorld successfully manfood was horrible though… just ing groups.

He should actively one without lect because them sometimes the aged10 to sideline using tact, boiled But shooting that’s what prevent meat. them from off rightwing hysteria, to great girls and and boyssheer have police cases strength practicality. sportsmen we ate it their mouths for eat. fiveSo short minspecific against andDal cannot get Topassports,” be says The VHP,them Bajrang and the too,” says Bhattacharya.

They brought utes of media glory.

If he back does Abhijeet a representative gadias of Barse, the world had very lit- of Slum Soc- memories ofnot, a clean city,lot its of fancy cars and a a whole right-thinking cer, tle which role is an to offshoot play of inKrida anVikas Sanstha sports kit shop that had Indians are “best goingquality to startstuff”. becom— a non-governmental economically resurgentcharitable Gujarat. trust.

Although the miserably, ing team afraid.lost Very afraid. the DurBarse,for a sports at a Nagpur col- bar boys were the SoVijay the vote Modi teacher as prime highest scorers in the Every politician who hasseries, been lege, started in 2011 after stumminister was Slum a voteSoccer solely for development — duly and manyrepregirls votedcheered to power in felicitated. the name “So of Modi bling upon street children kicking one without rightwing hysteria, to bearound specific.a approached us after we won,” says Nandi. sents Modi first and must remember this. “We The broken bucket.

He visited 16 slums invited Which is why, the last few weeksand have been made fromModi Argentina andhim Mexico.

Indiansfriends who voted in expect to actI children worrying.to play in teams. Through weekend still emailirresponsible them from the internet centre.” against statements from his sessions the organisation In the and two football months camps, since Modi ascended to own Back home Bhattacharya party, likenow, he did in Gujarat. lives with his reaches out to of 70,000 men, women and popchil- mother power, stories intolerance have been atprime Habraminister and catches the local train at Modi is despite the baggage dren districts India. First, in Pune a the ping in up63across theofcountry. crack dawn reach “I used of the BJPof and it isto time he the toldground. publicity-hunOver the pastwas three years, has been mob con- to Muslim techie killed by aitrightwing out of thethe Durbar home to catch grysneak colleagues to toe line for the sake of his ducting an annual nationwide football con- matches for wearing a skullcap.

Then came the proclaonsoTV. This Cup, I wasthe supportcredibility, that heWorld can get on with job of test withfrom participation from seven states. ing mations State minister Sudin Dhavalikar Argentina. I love Messi,” he says, “One day, nation-building.

Besides showcasing talent, thewearing tourna- I’d love to be coached by Pep Guardiola.” that girls should beyoung banned from ment helpsand select thetoIndian squad forcouthe prahlad kakar is an ad-man and a commentator on short skirts going pubs. In the last dugar kundalia social and political issues is a Kolkata-based writer Homeless Cup.has With raised ple of days,World the noise onlyfunding worsened.

Te- nidhi

It is time Modi told publicity-hungry colleagues to toe the line for his own credibility

prahlad kakar

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Bump me!

Not on track The fist bump replaces the handshake

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or those with sweatyof palms weak India is home to one theandlargest handshakes, here’s some good news.

New research Aberystwyth University, contingents of atathletes who have failed UK, has revealed that fist bumping drug tests.

Is it germs ignorance or malpractice? spreads fewer than handshakes or

Whatsapp in da House

Nasal attraction

The messaging app is the government’s favourite too

evlakhov valeriy/shutterstock.com

high fives. The next time you extend your hand in greeting, remember that you are exchanging 10 times more germs in that palm-to-palm contact compared to the hygienic fist bump. Also remember, the firmer the handshake, the greater the amount of dangerous bacteria spreading! While the fist bump is gaining currency (places in the US have already called for a ban on handshakes), public health officials in England are said to prefer the Victorian curtsy or bow instead.

All you need is… a smelly shirt

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his party is all the rage in London. Scores of people crowd a trendy bar, sniffing from rime Minister Narendra Modi has come up plastic bags. Wait, there are no drugs… Just with a new-age ploy to keep tabs on his smelly T-shirts. These intrepid single men and party’s MPs. Noticing that many from the Bhawomen are at a “pheromone party”, an alternaratiya Janata Party (BJP) were either absent or tive dating strategy based on the premise that coming in late to Parliament, in both the upsmell plays an important role in the choice of a per and lower houses, he’s ordered a Whathe day before sprinter Suresh Satya that the International Olympic Committee partner.

Participants to not bring along ter. “Many athletes arehave simply aware of an-a sapp group to be created, where all MPs will be was to board a flight to Guangzhou, (IOC) issued a ban on doping and it wasn’t un- three-day-old T-shirtrather exuding natural body ti-doping practices than being involved informed about meetings and sessions. Urban China, for the 2010 Asian Games, he til 1999 that the World Anti-Doping Agency odour. assystematic many bagscheating,” as you like,” says the in any“Smell form of says Chris development minister Venkaiah Naidu, in adwas asked to take a drug test. In Chi- (WADA) was formed. organiser, Judy Nadel.

ThePR, lucky — those Turner, deputy director, IAAFones communicadition to making sure his subordinates come getdepartment, a whiff of their — touch take a In India, the National Anti-Doping Agency who tions via dream email. partners “We are in in on time on Monday mornings, will moder-na, the bronze medal winner at the 2010 Comthe parties bag and the with with relevant anddrop wantittoinside spreadsoaccuate this group and make sure all the othermonwealth Games was informed that he and (NADA) was formed only in 2009. Since its in- selfie can sniff her/him The with ideaan is rate information, but in aout vast too. country ministers get regular updates. The PM has alsotwo of his 4x100m relay teammates had been ception, more than 500 cases of doping have owner nearly 150 people already equallyground: vast population, this ishave a complex apparently asked for the parliamentarians’suspended for two years as they had tested surfaced during and outside competition. The gaining positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid latest instance is that of Sachin Choudhary, signed up. to “It’s such a weird concept. You can’t problem resolve.”

Facebook account details. that is classified as a Performance Enhancing the para-powerlifter who was sent home from be cool or of pretentious,” Many the drugs says and Nadel. supplements that Drug (PED). While Satya is now concentrating the ongoing CWG because he failed a NADA are banned by WADA are available over the on the upcoming Asian Games, to be held later test, which was taken a month before the con- counter in India. “You just need to go to any this year in South Korea, his teammates and tingent left for Glasgow. pharmacy and drugs like stanozolol can be he aren’t the only Indian athletes to have bought for as little as ₹40 and pharmacists selfailed the dope test.

Too high, too fast dom ask for a prescription,” says Arun MendiAccording to the International Association “Everyone wants a shortcut to success. An easy ratta, chief medical officer, Athletics of Athletics Federations (IAAF), 49 Indian ath- fix,” says Dr PSM Chandran, the president of Federation of India. “Many of these steroids letes are currently serving bans — ranging the Indian Federation of Sports are meant for therapeutic purfrom six months to a lifetime — for consuming Medicine, who retired last year poses, and when athletes take prohibited substances. In the last two years it- as director, sports medicine, afthem they risk being banned self, more than 300 Indian athletes have failed ter 25 years at the Sports Authorfrom competitive sports. These hen RTI activist Sanjeev Ag- (SAI). “Passing your drug tests. ity of India can have disastrous side-effects Many of the drugs garwal enquiredzonals about or theregional meets has and supplements that as well,” Mendiratta says.

Mukhyamantri Silai Machine and History sheet many advantages.

You stand to are banned by WADA But with little proactive efforts Sahayata Yojana — employment welfare India’s first major dopingCycle embarrassment oc- get in services like are available over the to prevent doping — apart from schemes for the distribution of free or the police, you curred during the 1990 Commonwealth the railways the odd lecture during athletic counter in India machines and cycles — hewin ex- awards, get prize Games in New Zealand. sewing Weightlifter Subrata could meets — the situation is likely to pected to two findsilvers some discrepancies Kumar Paul, who’d already won money; so athletes, especially in worsen before it improves. As GS buttested nothing like this. and a bronze at the games, positive for The theresponse lower rungs, are all too willRandhawa, veteran athlete and Chhattisgarh labour de- drugs and suppleanabolic steroids and wasfrom sent the home immedi- ing to take gold medallist at the ’62 Asian partment out oftothe ately. Paul was also the first athlete revealed in the his-that ments help them get ahead.”

Games, says, “It is the anxiety for a good per19,399 sewing Itmachines handed tory of CWG to be caught for doping. has The promise of quick gains, prevalence of formance that results in doping. The solution out, more givensupplements to been a downward spiral ever since. than 6,000 were banned and ignorance about is simple for an athlete, just train systematicalwomen aged over 114. Some the The relationship between doping and comwhat of is allowed are among the reasons why ly and stick to your routine and diet.” ‘senior citizens’ apparent-athletes are caught in the doping petitive sports, especially track and who fieldhave numerous But the problem in India is often one of igly benefited from ₹40-crore events, is an old one. It is believed that the firstthisnet.

While organisations like NADA take care norance rather than malpractice. As Satya scheme are to aged 202, 212 andtesting, 282 in terms of precaution and pre- says, “My dad is a retired police officer and beinstance of an athlete taking a drug make of the years. are is little effort him ‘superhuman’ was during the Fourteen ancient women vention there from Dissanayake administra- thought cause of have at a job with apump bank. in Like f Mayura hisathletics life as a Iclerk a petrol above 300, seven in other supporting games in Greece, where lizard meat was contive are and athletics me, many athletes come from a poor backHouston, Texas, was dull and humdrum, last week’s events proved their and on and federations. sumed in the hope of gaining an athletic ad- 400s, organisations ground,mixed and wemartial might take medicinein forSri a feotherwise. Dissanayake, a five-time arts achampion top of the is vantage. In the modern era, the first “Inheap any athletic meetLanka, in oursaw country, there is ver or something, which unknowingly his colleague being attacked by a gang of robbers just outa 532-year-old documented case of doping was in 1906 when hardly any publicity material that warns ath- tobackfires, likethe it did for me,”clerk adding, “If they side their store.

Rushing his rescue, gas station punched beneficiary.

Yet substances Thomas Hicks, running the Olympic maraletes about areone banned.

In would only tell us more clearly andthat kicked of the robbers, as the others quickly fled thewhat’s scene.allowed With another scheme thon, was injected with strychnine (a pestimany cases, athletes local discover that a suppleandrecorded what’s not from aofyoung age,action half the batTV stations replaying the images his swift and fallingment apart cide commonly used to kill birds and rats) and theyathave taken bravery, is banned only after tle would be cameras, won rightDissanayake there.” which were the captured on CCTV is now a some brandy, enabling him to edge his waythe to seams? test results come out,”minor says Dr Chandran. The celebrity. shutterstock a gold in the event. It was only in 1967 though IAAF shares the doctor’s opinion on this mat- sibi arasu

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A 532-year-old beneficiary

Chhattisgarh government distributes freebies to, among others, women over five centuries old

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Don’t mess with this clerk A robbery attempt in the US misfires

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3 23BL BL

HANG

saturday, august 2, 2014

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cornerstone in-faq by joy bhattacharjya Railways

T

oday is the 144th anniversary of the first ever tube station in London (the Tower Subway) — good enough reason for a quiz about the railways.

1 2

In Anglo-Indian parlance, what is ‘Railway meat?’

‘Blowing off steam’, ‘fast tracking’ and ‘tunnel vision’ are just three of the many phrases in the English language originating from rail travel. Which three-word term in common parlance comes from the steep slope a train climbs?

3

Which author’s wife named Hadley, on her way to meet her husband in Switzerland in 1922, lost a suitcase containing all his writings in a railway carriage, while at the Gare de Lyon?

4

MS Dhoni, who briefly worked as a ticket inspector in the Indian Railways, is probably the last major cricketer to represent them. But which current IPL coach represented them in domestic competition for almost 20 years?

5

Many Indian railway stations are renowned for their special fare. If you would buy bhujia at Nagpur station, farsan at Indore and mihidana at Burdwan station, what would you be expected to pick up at Agra?

the new york times crossword-1110

stolen produce

6

The Orient Express is easily the most famous train in Europe, with Agatha Christie’s whodunnit being one of the many stories based on its journeys. What were the two terminal stations when it first started as a regular route?

7

Which town of just 1,60,00-odd people is, after Lucknow, the second busiest railway station in UP?

8

Ghost Train to the Eastern Star is a 2006 book in which the author retraces his steps from an iconic 1975 travelogue and discovers that although famous now, he was still not recognised in person. Identify the author and the original work.

9

Alfred Hitchcock based two of his finest films on train journeys. While one of them was obviously the classic Strangers on a Train, which was the other — one of his last films before leaving the UK for Hollywood?

10

Which entity, synonymous with railway travel in India, was co-founded by French author Emile Moreau, and since the 1950s has been run by the Banerjee family, with its headquarters at Allahabad?

Answers 1. Goat meat, as the railways could not afford to serve either pork or beef.

2. ‘Making the grade’ 3.Ernest Hemingway. There has been plenty of speculation that this contributed to his lean, spare style in later years.

4. Sanjay Bangar, the coach of Kings XI Punjab.

5. The petha. Or ‘translucent soft candy from the ash gourd vegetable’, as the tourist books say.

6. Paris and Istanbul 7. Mughalsarai, used to be India’s busiest station and where the main Delhi-Kolkata line meets the ‘chord’ line.

8. Paul Theroux; The Great Railway Bazaar 9. The Lady Vanishes, lovely little gem 10. Wheeler Book Stores

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joy bhattacharjya is a quiz master, director Kolkata Knight Riders and author of Junior Premier League — The First XI. t@joybhattacharj

ACROSS

1 Winner of the 2005 and 2007 Grammys for Best Spoken Word Album 6 Relief for the snowbound 10 Seal words 15 Put one’s hands together 19 Setting for Henry James’s “The American” 20 Actress Chaplin of “Game of Thrones” 21 Company whose logo was, appropriately, crooked 22 Burrow, perhaps 23 Many service dogs, after 29-Across?

25 Roi’s wife 26 ___ Stanley Gardner 27 French colony until 1953 28 The Warrior Princess 29 They get stuffed at Greek restaurants 31 Rapper with the 2013 No. 1 album “Born Sinner” 33 Sees red 34 Eighty-sixes 35 Foil user’s words 38 Foreshadows 39 A/C measures 40 Serious break, after 48-Across?

42 Author John Dickson ___

43 Mao ___-tung 46 Harvests 47 “I don’t know why ___ this way” 48 Schedule planners 50 Years, for Cicero 51 On the q.t.

53 Sail extender 54 She, overseas 56 Greek goddess of witchcraft 59 Salinger title girl 60 Legendary Scottish swimmer, after 66Across?

66 Tart treats 68 Potter’s base 69 Painted crudely 71 Gulf of ___ 72 Marx without much to say 74 Cruiser repair site 77 List component 81 Circus founders, after 89-Across?

84 “The Lion King” lioness 85 Overflowed 87 Swelled head?

88 Ice cream brand 89 Ice cream treats 91 Shield border 92 Mastodon features 93 Clobber

94 Jet Ski competitor 97 Forces from office 98 Begins to wake 99 Where Margaret Thatcher studied chemistry, after 108-Across?

101 Winglike 102 “The King and I” role 106 Ulrich of Metallica 107 Obliterate 108 Short-lived pests … or an alternative title for this puzzle 110 Prefix with -genarian 111 Money holders 112 Guam, e.g.: Abbr.

113 Only inanimate zodiac sign 114 Lee of Marvel Comics 115 Beginning 116 Northeast vacation locale, with “the” 117 “The Lion’s Share” author

DOWN

1 Car with a lightning bolt in its logo 2 The Tide 3 River of Pisa 4 Tokyo beauty, maybe 5 Smokestack emission 6 Poe poem

7 Tony winner Lena 8 All that ___ bag of chips 9 Second word of “A Tale of Two Cities” 10 “The more the ___” 11 N.B.A.’s Shaquille and Jermaine 12 Psychedelicexperiences 13 Shape (up) 14 Glenfiddich bottle size 15 Wipes off, say 16 Caterpillar, for one 17 Dancer Alvin 18 Iron 24 Book in which Moses is born 29 Split the check 30 They’re way out 32 Buds 33 Ball game 35 Med. test 36 Saints’ home, for short 37 Feds 38 Frederick’s of Hollywood purchases 39 Flutter, as one’s eyes 41 Adjusts carefully 42 Twin-hulled vessel 43 Many a broken statue 44 Tighten one’s belt 45 Politico Kefauver 48 Hockey fake

49 Phone button 51 “Here’s looking at you, kid” addressee 52 Mother, e.g.: Abbr.

55 Psychedelic drug 57 Mary Lincoln, née ___ 58 Jackson-to-Birmingham dir.

60 Earthy pigment 61 Santa ___ 62 Damages 63 “Law & Order: SVU” force 64 Many a collector’s resource 65 Preacher, for short 67 Fourth-longest river of Europe 70 Powerful line 73 Puck’s master 75 “Over There” soldiers 76 Word of woe 78 Does what George Washington couldn’t?

79 Oscar winner Jannings 80 Lead-in for physics … and pieman?

82 Enthusiastic reply

83 Grease dissolver 85 Casual top 86 Medal awarded to MacArthur in W.W. I and W.W. II 89 Superlative for Atlanta International Airport 90 “Holiday Inn” co-star 91 Favored against the field 92 Scrap 94 Performs unaccompanied 95 Perfect 96 Vessel with an arch 97 Some exams 98 Drink loudly 100 Andrews of Fox Sports 101Vicinity 103 Pen points 104 Great-grandson of Mark Antony 105 Quickly, quickly 108 Org. “protecting America’s consumers” 109 Marco Rubio’s home: Abbr.

By Andy Kravis and Victor Barocas, edited by Will Shortz

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